middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

Well said Faris. I’m just a little bit biased but there we go. Go here for a truly awesome round up of what happened this year from the nice people over at Contagious magazine.

This looks really interesting. I’m right in the middle of lots of stuff right now so have only had a quick poke around. First stab at the holy grail . . . how to rate and rank people’s digital presences

“Be seen how you want to be seen
Up until now there has been no way to measure digital presence, to see where you fit in to the online world. At Garlik, we’ve analysed the digital profiles of the nation and have made available a QDOS score for every UK adult . Your QDOS score is made up of 4 different components:
Popularity
Who you know and the extent of your online network.
Impact
How much people listen to what you say online.
Activity
What you do online e.g. shop, chat, blog.
Individuality
How easy you are to find online according to your name, your age etc
Put simply, the more you are out there surfing, buying, selling and socialising online, the higher your QDOS score.
To find your QDOS simply enter your name and postcode in to the site - it’s as simple as that. Once you’ve found your QDOS you can also claim it, and from there you can tell us a little more about you that will help us refine your QDOS score and make it even more reflective of you. Your QDOS will also change over time according to what you do online. Take control of your online status with QDOS.”

Please read this if you work in PR. Will, great post. Sure it will stir up some debate. Once I’ve read and digested thoroughly I’ll most likely comment direct. It’s great to hear someone laying it down as thy see it.

Can’t wait until these things are connected live to the web, which I don’t think they are already - BUT THEY SHOULD BE. Much fun and interaction to be had. Especially if you go down the same lines of the laser grafitti - about which I blogged earlier. Also - maybe that would mean that brands could do up to the second relevant advertising. Bring it on.

[Via]

BBC is reporting that the website MyFootballClub, set up to buy a stake in Ebbsfleet United and help run it, has been given the go ahead and a deal struck. Great idea that I’m sure you’ve heard about already. This is surely the start of a lot more exciting things like this. Maybe we could all have a say in how our country is ran? With advances in technology and the rise of the mobile, it’s now technically possible. Bring it on.

The 20,000 MyFootballClub members have each paid £35 to provide a £700,000 takeover pot and they will all own an equal share in the club. Members will have a vote on transfers as well as player selection and all major decisions.

So, IAB Engage 2007 was on Wednesday last week. I was there with Bite client Facebook and got to sit on some of the morning presentations. I hashed out some notes on my phone and have just got round to beaming them, doing a bit of formatting and adding in the links. Some really useful stuff - quote of the day goes to Richard Eyre, Chairman of the IAB who gave a great presentation, mainly about the state of the industry and the need for talent and a step change in quality:

“OK is the enemy of billiant. Today only utterly brilliant will do”

If you want to watch all of the presentations then go here where they are all handily available. Judging by the buzz on the day and a bit of eavesdropping, I’d say that the very last session of the day (which I missed) should be your first point of call. I’m going to watch it now, even if it is late.

[Josh Spear / Undercurrent]
eHelio
Loopt
Iminlikewithyou
Etsy
Blyk
Threadless
Play by their rules
Redefine advertising
Redfining communication - 2 way is required
Seeking out is bad, the discovery process is good
Create something that I want to find
What happens if you ignore all of this ? P Diddy effect.
Lisa nova does P Diddy in response to appauling attempt by BK and P Diddy to do “social media”
You can’t pay to be seen
Operate within the rules of the universe
Think of how to turn an interruption into a service
Think of how your brand can make a site a better place - provide function not awareness
Push your clients
Push your agency
Theres still a big gorilla in the room
Its not that they’re not listening we just haven’t given them anything to listen to
Embrace and engage

[Antony Mayfield / Spannerworks]
Everyone feels like they are behind
We have to write a manual
The web isn’t a channel, it’s an open network
Questions we need to ask:
What does success look like?
Where are our networks?
How can I attract attention from our networks? Earn it.
How can I be useful to those networks?
Speed of communication
Scale of available content is vast
Geography does not define audiences. Interest does.
Interaction with content and authors
Longevity of content
Old advertising campaigns follow you around
Complexity has replaced stability
Look in new places for inspiration
What would Google do?
Search engines how do they look at the web
Dell laptops catching fire eg blog with best reputation
Google is a reputation management system. Brand scoreboard
Human network. Not spam network
Daily Telegraph newsroom - live attention market
Global attention market
Evolution . . .
Best things tried out. Fail fast.
Need to know how people are using the web and what’s important to them
Impact horizon - consumers move on very quick
Look at how networks make sense of themselves.
Understand our networks
Be useful to our networks
Be live in our networks
What is social media? ebook from Spannerworks

[Matt Britten / Google UK]
Powerful drivers of further change:
Access
Storage
Production
Devices
Kyslers law
Cloud computing
Skyblog
UK is the new frontier
Between 50 and 100 per cent more than US spend per head on the UK
Target by interest not demographic
We don’t have an answer were just people having a go
Be found, be always on, every market, full coverage
Follow consumers
Integrate on and offline activity
Engage, listen and respond
Manage actively based on data
25 per cent of search queries lead to purchase
Consumers face tyranny of choice
Back to basics approach to marketing
Be found wherever you are relevant
Be found where customers research and browse
52 per cent of car purchases start online
Over 40 percent of those looking for a car found new makes and models online
Number of people coming into showrooms is lower but percentage that buy are higher
Before making a holiday purchase -
12 travel searches
22 sites
29 days
(On average)
Show up all the way through that process
65 percent of shopping carts abandoned at checkout
Wide variety in online converion rates:
3% high st
11% online retailers
19% catalogue retailers
Need to improve conversion process
If they don’t find it on your site 50% presume it’s not in store
Speak with one voice across all media
Blendtec
650 percent traffic after video series launched
In one weekend, sold more than in a best month before
Screwfix Forum
Bring back the Wispa
Every action can be a valuable data point, need to be selective
Convergence not of devices but information
Universal search coming over next few months
+ Smarter searching around language
+ More personalisation - iGoogle
+ Google mobile - Android
Just try stuff and get feedback on it
Its never completed. Always in beta

[Randy Falco / AOL]
Didn’t take many notes as I found this presentation really dull and not very informative, but other people may have appreciated the stats and the money banter. I just kept on thinking about JR in Dallas ad the importance of the people representing a brand
Online advertising growth is diversifying, away from search

[Richard Eyre / IAB]
Fragmentation of media supply
Personalisation of media demand
Access to talent is massive problem
Disruptive intrusive change
Analysis is key
Deeply held belief in precedent
So, so, yesterday
Flexible open and connected
Fast second mover - epidemic approach today
Freethinkers
Pioneers
Inquisitve
Entrepeneurs
Carving out a clearpath
Need innovation with wit and originality
Ok is the enemy of billiant. Today only utterly brilliant will do

An SD card blended with wi-fi to get your photos direct from your camera/phone onto the web. Bet you can’t buy them in the UK yet though. Via Wired.

Chris Anderson blocks email from PR people and lists their email addresses online. There’s someone from Bite on there too, which is nice. Could this be the first signs of a new trend?

Well it’s not that bad really is it? But, I do think this is worth reading. Found via the good people at neoco, it might be old (really not sure) but definitely still makes you think. Was 1.0 the creation of it, 2.0 the realisation and quick-fix of it and 3.0 will be the creation of something completely different? I don’t know. But I do know that the internet isn’t all that sh*t right now and in the future (say, inside 5 years), think it’s gonna do stuff we haven’t even thought of.

Amidst all the rugby fever and wax statues of JW appearing in Trafalgar square, Bite client Blinkx has created a special rugby wall which pulls in the latest commentary, pre-match interviews and random user generated rugby content. Looks great and I think that we’ll be seeing a lot more visually-led interfaces like this about town in the future.

PS - show your support on Facebook (another Bite client) today by changing your profile picture to the one below. Just grab it and upload it.