Google yesterday announced its latest assault on the world of social and more specifically, Facebook. With Facebook’s massive user base and seemingly relentless desire to bring the entire internet inside Facebook, Google has for some time been looking for a way to address the threat to its bottom line.

The Google+ project, revealed yesterday with little fanfare via a blog post by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President, Engineering, is what Google hopes will be the answer to Facebook’s social dominance.

At the centre of Google’s premise is that “not all relationships are created equal” and therefore you might not want to share everything with everyone. As our online social networks have developed and we’ve become more switched on regarding what we’re sharing and with whom, we’ve increasingly become more selective about sharing. With Google+, Google is betting that we’d prefer to be selective within a single social platform rather than managing multiple social networks for different types of people e.g. LinkedIn for business, Facebook for friends and family.

Google is currently limiting who can access Google+ via a ‘closed beta’ so that it can quickly and easily react to user feedback. However, Google is hoping its range of new features will be too compelling to ignore:

+Circles – share different content with different social circles
+Sparks – find the content you (and others) love via an online sharing engine
+Hangouts – ‘hang out’ online, face-to-face with your friends (essentially an instant messaging/video calling application – watch out Skype!)
+Mobile – easily share pictures, experiences, your location etc wherever you are

As this is still day one and limited people have access to it, there’s no way of knowing if Google+ will be a success, let alone make even a small dent in Facebook’s dominant position. One of the key barriers to take up will be prising people away from Facebook and on to a new platform.

As for the impact on brands, well the jury is most certainly out. We’ll definitely be keeping a keen eye on developments though and advising clients as and when opportunities arise.

New research released today reveals major disparities in the online reputation of UK household brands. The Kaizo Advocacy Index, a bi-annual audit of online reputation, has analysed digital news and social media outlets to rank UK household names including supermarkets, mobile operators, airlines, breakfast cereals and computer manufacturers[i].

Waitrose (48%) remains the highest scoring brand, followed by Weetabix (37%), Lenovo (32%) and Virgin Atlantic (31%). Airlines and mobiles performed the worst, with Ryanair (-51%) last followed by BA (-20%), BMI (-16%), Orange (-11%) and T-Mobile (-11%).

Rhodri Harries, managing director, Kaizo, commented: “Waitrose continued to perform well thanks to news of growth and new jobs, by dealing with issues swiftly, and by introducing ways for customers to engage online, for instance its Christmas Facebook app featuring Heston Blumenthal”.

“Virgin’s bounce back is proof that a strong creative can cut through in social media as well as above the line. While the cereal brands scores showed that amid doom and gloom a little creative thinking can go a long way in spreading the word, with Sainsbury’s Valentine’s Day heart shaped cucumber and Kellogg’s branding individual Corn Flakes good examples of this.”

Jon Harding, General Manager, International and Distribution at Virgin Atlantic remarked, “Virgin Atlantic is delighted once again to be the number one airline brand according to the Kaizo Advocacy Index. Kaizo’s index is an important barometer of brand and reputational strength and these results are a credit to the airline, its staff and its customers”.

Waitrose continues to lead the supermarkets whilst Tesco falters as fears are raised over market monopoly

Waitrose won the hotly fought battle for Christmas sales according to lots of reports which, together with news that 3,000 jobs will be created through new store openings in 2011 and its first ever Facebook app featuring celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, helped the brand retain first place. In February, Waitrose managed to avoid a potential PR disaster after shocking video footage came to light showing one of its duck suppliers treating animals cruelly. Taking all the right steps, Waitrose was quick to suspend all ties with the supplier, thus neutralising the majority of stories.

Consumers concerned about Tesco’s market monopolisation are airing their views on blogs and forums as the brand continues to move into new industries, including spa treatments and car dealerships. Tescopoly.org, which has been set up to educate and raise public awareness on the ‘market-distorting power of the major supermarkets’, is one of the first results shown up in a Google search for Tesco.

For Sainsbury’s a Valentine’s Day cucumber in the shape of a heart provided a light hearted story.

Scores: Waitrose (48%), Sainsbury’s (28%), Morrisons (23%) and Asda (11%), Tesco (-8%).

Launches and exclusivity raise the bar for mobiles while T-Mobile and Orange are plagued with customer service issues

Innovative product launches and exclusive deals were the main source of positive comments in a sector littered with technical information. For sector winner Vodafone, its launch of Webbox, an affordable device that brings the internet to consumers’ existing television sets, coupled with an exclusive launch deal with the Samsung Galaxy Tablet, helped steer conversations away from widely reported accusations of tax dodging.

Meanwhile T Mobile’s score fell from the last report and the brand is now languishing at the bottom of the sector alongside Orange, with whom it recently merged. With customer complaints about poor service, and a number of these blaming the merger, both brands need to address this issue.

Scores: Vodafone (7%), O2 (5%), 3 Mobile (5%), Orange (-11%) and T Mobile (-11%).

Virgin Atlantic flies ahead with a glamorous new image whilst British Airways’ online reputation nose-dives

Virgin Atlantic took the lead once again in a sector mired by delays, strike threats and customer service issues. Having seen its score decline recently, the airline has returned to form thanks to its advertising campaign, ‘You’re airline’s either got it or it hasn’t’. With a dedicated social media team providing videos that are easy to share and promotional spin offs, the airline has generated lots of positive buzz across blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

News that British Airways is still embroiled in disputes with unions and that further strikes may be set for the Easter break have been greeted with dismay. The ease and speed in which frustrated customers can vent online and spread gloomy news means the airline needs to be careful that its image is not damaged for good.

Elsewhere, anger over ‘hidden costs’ continues to rumble for Ryanair. The forced removal of 100 protesting Belgian students from a flight did nothing to help the airline, which seems entrenched at the bottom of the sector.

Scores: Virgin Atlantic (31%), easyJet (4%), BMI (-16%), British Airways (-20%), Ryanair (-51%).

Talking pets and knitting grandmas energise healthy cereal brands

Cereal brands scored highly, with entertaining advertising campaigns helping to create buzz online. Positive chatter about a comical ad featuring talking pets for Chocolate Weetabix helped the brand lead the sector. Elsewhere, an integrated campaign for Shreddies’ Knitting Nanas, which involved recruiting a real life grandma, helped to lift the lowest scoring brand in the sector.

Kellogg’s hi-tech method of branding individual Corn Flakes with the company logo was a popular story, showing the power of bringing to life an innovative, creative idea.

A breakfast cereal that is nutritional and provides the morning’s energy is an important factor for consumers, according to their comments online. Weetabix in particular was championed on social networks for providing the energy for the day ahead. Meanwhile, Shredded Wheat’s fundraising activities with organisations such as the British Heart Foundation helped promote its healthy image.

Scores: Weetabix (31%), Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (29%), Shredded Wheat (26%), Special K (16%) and Shreddies (13%).

PC brands ride the wave of tablet enthusiasm

In a high scoring and closely fought sector, tablet launches generated positive news, reviews and chatter on media sites, blogs and forums. Lenovo’s latest Thinkpad was described as ‘evolutionary’, whilst Dell and Acer both benefited from the launch of Android’s Honeycomb 3.0 operating system.

In the new sector of tablet PCs, people are listening to the advice and experience of others when choosing which tablet to invest in. Whilst good product news and reviews go a long way to help purchasing decisions, it is those brands that are talked about positively by other consumers that will see their bottom line grow.

Scores: Lenovo (32%), HP (27%), Acer (26%), Dell (23%) and Asus (20%).

Ends

In the past 10 minutes alone I’ve counted hundreds of (negative) comments posted to the magazine’s Facebook page (a page that only has 387 fans!). So what, I hear you ask, has Cooks Source Magazine done to warrant such attention?

It all boils down to the magazine publishing a writer’s article without her consent. “Big deal” I suppose some might say, “It happens all the time right?”. Perhaps, but what makes it worse is the response from the magazine’s editor. The writer contacted the magazine to find out how they had got hold of her article and ask for an apology/compensation. The editor’s response beggars belief:

“Yes Monica, I have been doing this for 3 decades, having been an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine. I do know about copyright laws. It was “my bad” indeed, and, as the magazine is put together in long sessions, tired eyes and minds somethings forget to do these things.
But honestly Monica, the web is considered “public domain” and you should be happy we just didn’t “lift” your whole article and put someone else’s name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me… ALWAYS for free!”

Yes you did read that correctly, the editor said the writer should PAY the magazine for editing the article! The writer has blogged about her experience on Live Journal. The story has since made it on to the front page of Reddit and as a result the Cooks Source Magazine is facing a bit of a social media storm.

Check out the magazine’s Facebook page if you don’t believe me… Be interesting to see how or if the magazine responds… Watch this space.

My advice would be to have the editor make an unreserved apology to the writer via the Facebook page and the comments section of the writer’s blog post. This needs to be nipped in the bud now before it spirals out of control.

Note: This author has handed thecopyright of this blog post over to his employer…

News spread on Tuesday that a bug similar to Y2K sunk its teeth into Sony’s older ‘fat’ (or if we’re being PC, ‘horizontally challenged’) Playstation 3. As owners prepared themselves for the prospect of losing their saved games and being unable to play online, I couldn’t help but snigger.

Many couldn’t even play in offline mode, leaving frustrated gamers wondering what was causing the baffling ‘8001050F’ error.

The bug, dubbed the ApocolyPS3, occurred when the PS3’s internal clock switched to February 29, evidently causing the system much confusion as that date doesn’t exist this year.

The latest fiasco will have left the powers that be at Sony with faces redder than the gamers who couldn’t get their fix and whose hours of hard work (OK, play) might have gone to waste.

In a statement, Sony said: “If you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.”

Frustrated by the whole affair, gamers turned to social media to vent their anger. One comment on CVG said: “I cannot play any games, cannot log on to PSN. Your silence is doing nothing to help the situation. Looks like there is going to be millions of dead PS3′s all over the world with no fix in sight. Sony, you have just screwed up big time.” A video on YouTube called ‘How to fix PS3 error 8001050F’ showed an owner simply unplugging his PS3 and transferring the cables to an Xbox 360, whilst members of Facebook groups such as ‘I’m a victim of the PS3 Y2K bug’ offered more sensible advice.

Gamers were later left wondering why Sony failed to explain how they resolved the issue during an apology. It was later revealed that it fixed itself without any intervention from Sony. This sounds to me like a company that hasn’t got full control over and knowledge of its own hardware.

As the PS3 community flocked to forums for guidance in the wake of the crisis, it became apparent that saved games and ‘Trophies’ (an achievement tracking system) could be restored – no doubt accompanied by many sighs of relief.

Of course, the cynic in me wonders whether the whole episode was just an attempt by Sony to get everyone to upgrade to the newer, slimmer version of the PS3.

Many people have reacted with dismay to the closure of 6Music, including celebrities such as Phil Jupitus who has described the potential axing of 6 Music as “an act of cultural vandalism”.

Apparently one of the reasons for the closure (spokesperson on the radio) is that 6Music never attracted a big enough user base. Digital radios though still seem to be fairly few and far between. We don’t have one in the Kaizo office, relying on the good old internet to get our daily fix.

A weekly audience of 620,000 listeners may not match the heady heights of The Today Programme or Chris Moyles, but the BBC seems to be missing the point. The beauty of a digital station is that you can cater for a specific audience. We’ve already witnessed the speed in which the iPlayer has taken off and in the next couple of years the way in which we access digital content will evolve again. Before the BBC knows it, those 620,000 weekly listeners could have doubled due to the station becoming more accessible to a wider audience via mobile devices or set top boxes. And in any case, if the BBC can churn out turgid shows like ‘Cash in the Attic’, I expect my tastes to be catered for as well!

In recent years, the BBC has come under increasing fire to justify its license fee against commercial organisations. I for one have always defended it due to the leadership the BBC has demonstrated in cultural and media innovation. Today, that argument is all that much harder to defend. There are dozens of radio stations out there with chart driven play lists. 6Music provides a strong alternative that has personality. Will we see an improvement in Radio1 away from all of the chart music, with wider appeal that integrates new and alternative music? Unfortunately I fear not. I also don’t believe Radio2 will be able to diversify its range of music and ‘audience’ to fill the big, 6Music-shaped hole that will be left.

The hashtag #save6Music is currently the top trending topic on Twitter and 6Music has been the subject of an online campaign to save it, with the Facebook group attracting over 84,000 supporters. For the moment, this seems to have all been in vain. The one ray of light is that the station will remain open until the end of 2011 and the decision still needs to be upheld by the BBC Trust. Labour MP Tom Watson has also taken up the fight, tabling a motion in the House of Commons for “the Government to encourage the BBC to continue its support for the station for many years to come.”

So the fight isn’t over just yet. Save our 6Music!

(image source: http://www.bustedtees.com/keepthedreamalive)