On Tuesday, Google’s Matt Cutts announced several major platform updates, including a new version of Penguin, which promises to be smarter and more impactful than the first iteration. The update is aimed at producing less spammy and more diverse search results by cutting several “techniques” webmasters use to artificially boost their rankings.

So what’s the big deal for social media PR agencies, and why might SEO practitioners have to re-focus?

It comes down to the nature of the Penguin algorithm, which is designed to decrease search rankings of sites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines - you know; underhand keyword stuffing, cloaking, link schemes, churnalism et al. I dare any PR who hasn’t seen any of the above to leave a comment below?

The impact of this on social media PR  should be very positive, as it lets us play to our strengths. Quality content and the long-tail is where Google’s at, so that means rewards reaped from cool, relevant stuff and a laser focus.

That’s essentially Cutts’s message. And hurrah! There’s nothing quite like SEO keyword stuff to compromise the narrative flow of  PR content.

Here’s some of the other specifics on the updates Cutts outlined:

• Google will now be chasing down websites using advertorials to artificially inflate their link profile
• No more spam- Google will be targeting any queries spammy in nature (think adult rated content and money scams)
• Link analysis will become more sophisticated and linking back to sites with more clout will continue to improve search
• Helping those hurt by Panda- a lot of sites saw SEO crumble when Panda landed on the scene. Google’s acknowledged this and is looking to “soften” the damage
• Sites with specific “authority” (electronics, cooking, auto, etc.) in a particular industry will be given a ranking boost- a good thing for users and those with strong content.

Rightfully so, public relations can lead the rethink on SEO. Simply put – Google is refusing to be gamed and public relations agencies are ideally placed to capitalise on this change.

However, there are lots of SEO agencies with darn good PR and content teams, so the question is, can / will the more traditional SEO agencies adapt?

The post Why all PRs should hug Matt Cutts – what Penguin 2.0 means for public relations (and SEO) appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.

(1) Coming this summer…Facebook video advertising

You know those video ads that always stand in the way of you and the pleasure of viewing your favourite Super Cats video? Well now they’re coming to Facebook! Except this time you won’t have the option to skip the ad after 5 seconds. Facebook will be dropping video ads into users’ newsfeeds that will start automatically and last up to 15 seconds, but without sound. Activating the audio will automatically restart the video.

This could mean one of two things…some really great content marketing opportunities or another flood of #FacebookHateRant tweets. My expectation is the former, assuming there’s LOL Catz involved in these ads. Ad execs, you’ve been told.

(2) Leaving that bank salary behind: UK Tech Start-Ups see 22% job growth

Tech City…it’s where all the cool kids are going (re: our new London office).  A recent survey from SiliconMilkRoundabout found that tech start-ups in England are hiring for 3,229 positions, a 22% increase since 2012. And jobseekers are taking notice. 67% of survey respondents said they could be “easily persuaded” to join a startup company and 25% said they were “only considering a startup” for their next job, even if that meant taking a lower salary from a traditional corporate job.

(3) Bill Clinton has arrived to the Twittersphere

About time, Bill. He is currently following only eight accounts, of which only two are humans…his daughter, Chelsea, and Stephen Colbert. Not sure what this says, but there’s a line in there somewhere.

(4) Vine: Ryan Gosling won’t eat his cereal

The reason I love Vine. Not much more description needed.

(5) Kids add an unauthorised £30 million to UK monthly app bills

Parents, keep those iPads away from your kids! If not because they do super terrible things to your child’s brain development, do it because they’re costing you money.

According to a recent study conducted by Windows Phone, app purchases made by kids without parents’ consent have added more than £30m to UK smartphone and tablet bills. So keep them away. Because children should be stealing parents’ money to buy penny sweets and silly string, not Angry Birds.

(6) Fergie’s quit! Alex Ferguson’s retirement tweeted 6m times.

How did you hear about Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement? I saw it on BBC news. That was also the day I found out who Alex Ferguson was. Blame it on me being American. Suffice to say that social media has been awash at the news that Sir Alex will be stepping down from nearly thirty years at the helm of arguably the world’s most successful sports teams (which he kinda made that successful!). Sounds like he needs a well-earned break.

The post Friday social media round-up: Tech triumphs, Clinton tweets & Fergie quits appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.

As you’d expect with the general negative chatter on social surrounding any changes the platform makes, the news went down like a lead balloon with regular Facebook users (with many threatening to boycott the site!) but the move was generally welcomed by marketers.

The news comes against the backdrop of recent reports that Facebook is haemorrhaging active users in its major western markets.

Those stats have now been debunked by analytics firm Quintly which claims those reports were based on Facebook ad data and not on official figures. Quintly cautions that the ad data is based on estimates that could be up to 46m users adrift in terms of monthly active users. In fact, Facebook may have lost as little as 1% of MAUs in Germany and the UK.

So, stories of Facebook’s death are greatly exaggerated and with yesterday’s news that the social network will become an even more powerful channel for marketers, its no.1 revenue stream, then Facebook looks set to still be the front runner in social for quite some time.

The post Reports Facebook losing users debunked, platform launches video ads regardless appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.

Over on Google+ the same article was read by many with a smug expression. Why? Because (and I’m told at this point I should add the words ‘in my own opinion’), Google+ is a far superior social network.

It’s easy to use, friendly, has great app integration, allows you to dictate what appears in your wall, helps with SEO and most importantly it is ad free.

So, in a bid to let you discover the network for yourself, I thought I would draw your attention to the following five Google plus experts whom you should add to your circles.

These are a must for anyone in the social media space wanting to learn more about the world’s second largest social network.

The Bible – Google Plus Daily

http://www.googleplusdaily.com/
In 11,654 circles 

 The Don of Google+ – Mark Traphagen

http://www.virante.org/blog/author/mtraphagen/
In 39,583 circles

The SEO Expert – AJ Kohn

http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/
In 36,304 circles

The British genius comedian – Martin Shervington

http://www.martinshervington.com/
In 96,642 circles

The relatively unknown – Max Minzer

http://www.maxminzer.com/
In 2,367 circles

You could also add me to your circles. I’m G+ obsessed so I’m always happy to discuss the latest updates and assist in any way I can.

You can find my G+ page here (so far my follower bragging rights include the brother [actual relation] of the meme Nice Guy Greg).

The common misconception of Google+ is that nobody is on it. So I’ll leave you with this; if you think Google+ is a ghost town, then you’re just not using it properly. Get involved.

The post Five great Google Plus experts you should add to your circles appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.

Would you give your boss your Facebook password?

Soon U.S. employers may be able to request the login details of employee’s social media accounts. This comes after a last-minute amendment to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which would have outlawed such behavior, was blocked by the US House of Representatives.

This may once again open up the debate about who has ownership of your social media channel?

You may remember in 2010 PhoneDog attempted to sue former employee Noah Kravitz for his 23,000 followers. The case was settled after a year and a half of legal mediation, but if employers start logging into your account and posting on your behalf would that entitle them to a partial share?

Either way I’m sure the ethical question of your boss posting updates on your behalf is enough to keep you up at night.

Google+ comments on Blogger and WordPress

Google+ last week announced it’s integration with the comments on Blogger. Simply put this means, if someone is discussing your post on G+ the comments will appear alongside your regular Blogger comments. Originally only released for Blogger the WordPress integration is only a few weeks behind.

This simple integration not only seems to highlight Google’s intent to use Google+ as a passport for the internet, but will also help you to keep track of the conversations occurring on in the social sphere.

Would Tyrion Lannister download Game of Thrones?

This week the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, Jeffrey L. Bleich, opened up a rather interesting debate. Not on the morals of illegal downloading but weather or not Tyrion Lannister (The Game of Thrones character know as ‘The Imp’) would thank us if we stopped downloading the HBO series?

I once spoke to a cast member of the Showtime series ‘The Borgias’ who confessed that she downloaded the series because Showtime refused to give her a free copy. She also hinted that this was common practice unless you were Jeremy Irons. So we can assume on this premise that Peter Dinklage (the actor playing Tyrion) doesn’t mind.

Also if we look at Tyrion’s character in the series he is a cheeky, intelligent, spoilt, slightly selfish little man who is obsessed with influence and would only object to illegal downloading if it were to his detriment. As the illegal download figures (around 4,280,000 times through public BitTorrent trackers in 2012) would suggest that it is only helping to make his name synonymous around the world.

So either way you look at it I think Tyrion would say, ‘let the peasants carry on, what do I care?’

Lets hear that tune ‘One more time’

Finally ‘One More Time’, were the thoughts of many a Daft Punk fan this week. The French duo broke the Spotify record for the most streamed track in a single day for their new single ‘Get Lucky’. Spotify have yet to release the actual figures but you can bet its an astronomical figure.

That’s all from us this week but if you want to discuss any of these topics… or any topic for that matter come find me on Google+.

The post Friday round-up: Who’s got your logins?, Blogs enable G+ comments and the opinions of Tyrion Lannister on illegal downloading appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.

We’ve been there too; sitting in front of a potential new client, talking about how the shift in consumer behaviour around media consumption has fundamentally altered the landscape for PR teams, looking up from some scientific–looking presentation, only to notice a pair of glazed eyes staring back. Bullshit induced, sudden-onset cataracts.

The problem is, that in its mad rush to re-invent itself, the PR industry started to ask the wrong questions. Instead of saying “how does this set of changes affect what we do?” the industry started saying “what can we do to take advantage of this?” And in doing so, we started trying to do new things rather than trying to do what we were already good at, differently.

“We’re talking about PR, but with more & better insight going in, more flexible (and consequently better) delivery coming out, and with much much better measurement available on a fraction of the budget that it used to cost.”

Being a social media PR agency, or at least using that phrase to differentiate what you do from other agencies, should not mean moving away from traditional PR expertise. The challenge for agencies who want to describe themselves as “social” is to demonstrate what that means, without trying to be something that they’re not.

At Wolfstar we define “social media” as any media experience where a consumer’s social network plays a significant role in framing that experience. Crucially, this is a definition that does not pull us away from the expertise that is at the core of PR practice; helping brands to better interact with the media and build a narrative that resonates with the right consumers. At every stage along this process, social media plays a crucial role, but the process itself has not changed. Insight & analysis – creative interpretation – content – measurement, rinse and repeat

Ten years ago (when I started out in PR), this process might have started with some demographic information, customer surveys and a forward view of company priorities over the time period in question. This would have lead to a strategic overview of how the consultants think the proposition should be framed, how the messaging might work and how this could be made real through some form of content (news stories, stunts, thought leadership etc.). The measurable effects of the programme would then be collated (theoretically) and fed back into the insight phase, things would be adjusted and the process would begin again.

Today, that process is not so very different. In fact, the only differences are the number and availability of “insight sources,” (including social and search data) the number and availability of delivery channels (influencers are far more diverse) and the number and availability of tools for measurement. The bit in the middle, the expertise & the value is identical. This is fundamentally important.

When we talk about social media PR, we’re not talking about some hybrid digital dark art. We’re talking about PR, but with more & better insight going in, more flexible (and consequently better) delivery coming out, and with much much better measurement available on a fraction of the budget that it used to cost.

This is an immensely powerful offer, and, if the industry would just realise it, it’s the reason why those who have been predicting the death of the industry for the last few years are just plain wrong.

The post What is social media PR? appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.

A look into my Facebook reveals friends who update their relationship status every week, post about their son’s recent graduation every hour, and have ‘liked’ things I wouldn’t admit to liking even in an offline social sphere.

We share too much, too often, with the majority of content mirroring the fluff or marshmallows. This isn’t compelling news. Our awkward, wasteful, and inappropriate social media tendencies have become a pub small talk staple.

But a new app is changing that, all by providing the answer to a single question: what kinds of things would we share online if we could do so anonymously? Meet Whisper. For those of you familiar with the popular mail-in postcard art project, PostSecret, it’s a very similar idea, but designed for the app world. Users post secrets, usually around 3-5 sentences, which they submit anonymously.

“The whole idea around whisper is that the social web has become this place where people have a lot of superficial interactions,” says co-founder Michael Heyward. “I was compelled to create a place for people to be able to have authentic dialogue and express themselves in a uniquely genuine way.”

Essentially, Heyward’s argument is that the content posted in Whisper is the kind of stuff worth sharing – albeit anonymously. It’s a provoking thought, and perhaps a comment on how the mode of human dialogue is constantly evolving. We expect to hear more about Whisper in the future. But here’s five things you should know for now:

1.  It’s only available for the app world. While currently only available to iOS users, it plans to expand the app for Android sometime later this year.

2.  It’s interactive. Users are able to “ME2!” others’ posts (the equivalent of “liking” on Facebook), and can reply to posts, creating threads. The app also let’s you tag your location, giving you the option to personalise your secret if it has a regional specificity. You then have the option of seeing posts exclusively within a one mile radius of your area. Which means…

3.  It’s taking university gossip to a whole new dangerous level. Already a favourite across college campuses, the “nearby” feature is creating specific community-based secrets. As universities are already known as a sinkhole for gossip, Whisper has the potential to take it to a whole new level. The professor having an affair with one of his or her students, the geology major who has been selling old tests to peers…the list could go on. And already is.

4.  The app recently received $3 million in investment from venture capitalists. Lightspeed Venture Partners, which has backed more than 200 companies over the past 20 years, and others have contributed some serious cash toward the start up. With more than 8 million secrets already posted, they understand the potential of the new app– with some users even saying they prefer Whisper to Facebook.

5.  Whisper is teaching us a lot about the human condition. Traditional social networking sites are known as places to only post the positives. “People use social networking to show others a perfect version of themselves,” says Heyward. And it’s true. But the content on Whisper – some of it lighthearted, some of it deeper confessions about failures, fears, and dreams – is authentic. And it’s fascinating to find a forum containing thousands of capsules (and growing) of such authenticity, all in one space.

The post Whisper and the rise of social anonymity appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.

LinkedIn buys Pulse Newsreader

LinkedIn has bought Pulse for a whopping $90 million, in a 90% stock and 10% cash combo. I think it’s clear what LinkedIn is doing, it wants to be the social publishing platform and become more of a media port-of-call (which makes sense, given the user-base). Don’t be surprised if it snaps up a personal blogging platform soon…

Facebook gets totes emosh

Facebook is making it possible to include formal emoticons in statuses. It looks a bit gimmicky at first glance, but it’s pretty interesting from a data perspective. Social research shows people only tend to socially share “unhappy” feelings if there’s a formal option to do so, rather than manually stating in a status. I’m keen to see what Facebook does with this and what experiences they wrap around the new data – Zuck’s now going to know when you’re watching The Sopranos, but also when you’re feeling down, angry, lost or lonely.

*inserts creeped out emoji here*

First test footage with Flex 4K camera

4K is the next biggie in digital imaging and home entertainment – it makes HD look anything but, and we’re quite excited about working on some 4K products for one of our clients. Director Brendan Bellomo and cinematographer Greg Wilson were asked by Vision Research and Abel CineTech to shoot the first test footage with the yet to be announced Phantom Flex 4K Digital Cinema Camera. This baby shoots at an incredible 1,000 frames per second at a resolution of 4096 x 2160.

The results are utterly incredible, check out the video above.

How EA built a virtual newsroom

Many businesses are content richer than they think or know, but the challenge is often managing the information flow; repurposing where necessary and putting content into the right places at the right time. EA outputs content through its “virtual newsroom” and has reaped the rewards in engaging with fans and media.

They say 2013 is the year where content marketing will “come of age” – hard to argue against that when so many brand social newsrooms and blogs are similar in traffic, reach and influence to relevant tier one media outlets…

Phil Jones’ face

Someone once said to me that Phil Jones looks like the kind of guy you could bottle at a bar, and he wouldn’t even notice. Indeed, Phil’s known for his unusual, grimacing and downright terrifying in-action facial expressions during football games. He became an internet sensation this week after the Manchester Derby – enjoy.

Have a good one!

A

The post Wolfstar Friday round-up: LinkedIn on the Pulse, Zuck gets emosh… and a 4K fire appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.

There are approx. 7.1 billion people on this planet and 1.35 billion of those people are living in China. Approx. 22 percent of this population is on Sina Weibo, making this Chinese social media channel the second largest social networking site in the world (at the start of 2013, Facebook passed 1.06 billion active monthly users. In December 2012, Twitter had over 200 million active monthly users, meaning Weibo has almost 100 million more users than Twitter).

Then again, if you want to speak in terms of active users, we end up with a slightly lower figure. According to a recent Chinese study, approximately 57 per cent of the Sina Weibo accounts have empty timelines. This would indicate either Zombie or inactive users. The study further indicated that there is a literate minority who dominate discussions on the site.

Last year, during the London Olympics, Wolfstar managed a research project for the University of Leeds, monitoring Chinese athlete’s social media accounts (primarily Weibo) for mentions of the University during their stay in the University’s facilities. We were taken aback by just how popular Weibo is, with many lesser known Chinese athletes enjoying Weibo followings in there many millions.

So what exactly is this social networking giant? And, more importantly, how can you use it?

Let me just clear some things up before I start. The direct translation of ‘Weibo’ is ‘new-wave microblog’ (so it’s similar to us Westerners using a general term, such as, ‘blog’).  This is why there is more than one ‘weibo’ in China – the two main ones being Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo.

Sina Weibo is often referred to as a ‘Chinese Twitter’ or ‘Facebook and Twitter hybrid’ (however, I say that it’s more like a hybrid of Google+ and Pheed in terms of layout and functions). This weibo is also the bigger out of the two weibos in terms of users, however, because Tencent owns a few different social networking sites (i.e., Tencent Weibo and Pengyou), these together amount for a larger user base than Sina Weibo. I think that’s enough clarification for now (we don’t want this post to turn into a PhD thesis). So let’s talk about Sina Weibo (which I will refer to as Weibo from now on).

You can post messages in English, as in the case of Tom Cruise’s official Weibo account (with over 4.2 million followers!), or you can stick to the native language and post in Mandarin, like Pizza Hut has managed to do.

I’ll give you a brief bullet-pointed breakdown of how it works:

-  Posts have a 140-character limit like Twitter, so you have to be brief (however if you use Chinese characters which can represent multiple words you can obviously fit longer sentences).

- In terms of following, it works similar to Twitter’s policy; you can follow people and they can follow you back, but you can also set your account as private.

- Mention or talk to people in the form of @mentions.

-  Re-posting of content is done with //@UserName instead of RT @UserName.

-  Follow other people to receive his/her updates in your timeline (which looks a bit like a Pheed or Facebook timeline with images showing in full).

-  Favourite a post by putting it into your favourite list, but you can also ‘like’ a post.

-  URLs are automatically shortened.

-  GIF’s frequently occur in posts or comments.

-  You can insert images, videos, music streams and links into your posts (however, if you want the video to appear in full in the feed, you will have to use Youku, Tudou and other Chinese versions of YouTube).

-  You can make up circles of people as with Google+ so that some posts will only be seen by people in these circles.

Weibo is always updating functions and features in order to cater to its audiences and keep up with the traditional social media channels, such as Twitter, Facebook, Pheed, Google+, etc.

Although there’s an American version of the site, this site is only useful if you speak Mandarin. That’s where third-party sites, such as, Transfluent come in. With Transfluent, you can post to Weibo with the help of ‘always-available professional language translators.’ Your posts are translated in an average of 15 minutes, translated messages are published for you, and comments on posts are translated and flagged up to you. Should you wish to respond, you type up your response and Transfluent translates it. To date, this appears to be the best approach for companies and people who want to use Weibo to reach the Chinese demographics as your posts will appear in a native language. There are, however, a number of apps that will allow you to post to the site using your Facebook posts or tweets. Tom Cruise appears to be using this tactic, while 30 Seconds to Mars are known spokespersons for Transfluent.

So far so good. But what about censorship?

According to independent studies that have been conducted, the censorship process does not appear to be 100 per cent automated, as the time it takes for censoring of posts range between five minutes up to 24 hours.

It appears Sina has people working 24/7 monitoring content and automated tools that identify certain keywords are also used. When a post is censored, it is taken offline and you will receive a message saying, ‘your post has been taken off due to [whatever reason].’ Zombie accounts are frequently taken off the site, and if you post controversial content, you may even be kicked off the site temporarily, or even permanently. We’re well aware that, having presented to Chinese web activists in February, our own social media networks are not free from censorship themselves.

So is it worth all the hassle?

Sina Weibo was launched as late as April, 2010; it already has approximately 300 million users. Not only does mainland China use Weibo, but also Hongkong and Taiwan, which is not very common among Chinese social networking sites.

The future of Sina Weibo is indeed looking bright. Will you be using it? Let us know in the comments.

The post Is it time for Westerners to Weibo? appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.

Now, just because I share the same first name as someone who sings a certain song about this special day, does not mean I’ll be blessing you with the dulcet tune. Although I do enjoy listening to the Colbert version from time to time.

I digress.

Without further ado, here’s what caught our eye this week:

Facebook phone unveiled

More news from Palo Alto. Mark Zuckerberg announced the release of “Home” yesterday, Facebook’s new software available on any Android phone beginning 12 April. The new product will bring content and allows users to share updates directly from their home screens (hence the name) rather than having to log into various apps. It’s set to be a home run (no, the bad puns don’t ever end with us) for both Facebook and mobile advertisers.

Rohan Silva announces departure from 10 Downing

Just as Wolfstar London moves into Tech City, Rohan Silva announces he’ll be moving out– from the public side of things, anyway. Silva, a senior policy adviser to David Cameron known as the architect of Tech City, announced this week that he will be leaving No. 10 in June. But this won’t be Silva’s departure from the London tech scene. London based venture-capital firm Index Ventures recently confirmed Silva will be joining them as an entrepreneur in residence.

Introducing the “Tweezer Trailer,” Wolverine Style

The tweaser. vine.co/v/bDExaiMjJ1F

— James Mangold (@mang0ld) March 25, 2013

Wolverine officially became the first film to use Vine to promote an upcoming full-feature trailer, to be released later this week. Expect to see more of these 6-second “trailer trailers” in the future.

Film critic Robert Ebert, 70, remembered for his words

His 11-year battle with cancer cost Rogert Ebert his ability to speak. But his power for words, and deceptively simple prose stayed with him until yesterday, when Mr. Ebert succombed to cancer at 70. If you don’t have time for much else today, read Esquire’s 2010 profile on the dedicated critic. I promise it gets two thumbs up.

That’s everything for now. Have a great weekend.

Rebecca.

The post Wolfstar Friday round-up: Silva leaves, Facebook comes Home, and remembering Ebert appeared first on Social Media PR & Online PR agency, Wolfstar Consultancy.