Following last week’s annual Communication Report from Ofcom, I pulled aside Mo Elnadi, The Reptile Group’s Head of Digital, to talk about the impact of the report and the position of PR and social media agencies in the digital age. Mo is currently completing an MBA on the impact of social media on digital marketing and PR.

Here’s what he thought …

With regards to the report that was published last week, do you feel this information is important to you as Head of Digital?

Absolutely, we still need to further investigate the UK figures that have been given, because in some examples the results are lower than may be expected. I think further analysis and research in to how the survey was conducted will be crucial in helping us to better understand the findings. The results are different to those that we have seen in previous US studies, but this may be due to the technique used to obtain them and how they are measured.

In your opinion, are social media platforms still developing? Does more need to be done by PR companies?

This evolving landscape is constantly developing and social media platforms are now the fastest growing online sector. This is just the beginning, so it is vital that PR agencies follow this trend and embrace new forms of communication channels, after assessing the commercial potential and risk.

What challenges does social media pose to PR companies in comparison to more traditional techniques?

An important aspect of PR is creating dialogue that adds value with the right audience at the right time, in the right tone – so problems that may arise with these new technologies include:

-The real time factor – we have to ensure that we are always on top of the hottest topics that interest the target market in order to engage effectively with our audiences. More importantly, we must understand the dynamics of this new era and adapt our strategies accordingly, which is a challenge to many traditional agencies that are not familiar with those trends.

- Tracking and Monitoring conversations- It is imperative that you are able to keep an eye on what is being said about you or your clients. We use the latest monitoring tools which are able to search the web in real time for any relevant conversations about our cilent’s brands and also to identify key influencers per sector and channel.

- You can’t undo feedback that is written – With the democratisation of information there is far less control for brand image. Therefore in order to turn around any negative feedback you need to be transparent, address the issue and then leverage the opportunity to turn the situation into a positive discussion. One of the interesting facts about social media is how a strong base of fans and followers can jump to defend their favorite brand, or provide support for others on your behalf for low or no cost.

Are all PR operations ensuring they use social media techniques effectively?

While some are ahead of others, when it comes to taking part in this revolution the majority are already aware of the need to adapt to the new “Connective Tissue of the Web”. The problem though is whether they have the right digital strategy, resources and skill level to achieve desired results and to the right quality level.

If you are looking for a job in PR it’s rough out there.  As we pass by the announcement of an annual cornucopia of A grade A level passes – and the ensuing arguments about whether students are getting smarter or the exams are getting easier – it’s been followed by constant reference in the media to graduate unemployment.

But the hard facts are that graduate unemployment is nothing new.  It’s cyclical.  Thousands before have graduated into stagnant job markets and still found employment.  Even now there are jobs available; we are expanding and have filled four posts in the last couple of months. Yet the cry from employers that there is not enough skills and talent available is still heard regularly.

So assuming you are a graduate that’s got their heart set on a career in PR, or lucky enough to be in a job already, what are the things you can do to enhance your chances of regular and better pay cheques?

For most graduates entering PR the first job is with an agency, so you need to consider what sort of PR you want to do – there is still demand for those who specialise in technology or medical disciplines whilst those wanting to work in the celebrity or financial sector are finding things more difficult.

If you live in the regions, to increase your chances you’ll need to be prepared to move to London as – with the demise of massive public sector spending on communications – most regional agencies will be contracting if not disappearing altogether.

When you are applying for any job whether it’s work experience, internship or a salaried post consider why a firm should hire you and don’t be backward in coming forward.  No one likes a show-off but you’ll need to make yourself stand out from the crowd. Don’t take your cues from X Factor, but do ‘Auto-Tune’ your skills and experience to demonstrate you can add value to the company you want to join.

Make sure it’s you that’s applying too; having you parents applying on your behalf is about as embarrassing as your dad dancing at the disco and says everything about your level of maturity and personal motivation.

Should you get an interview, act like you want the job. In fact look like you have already got it. That means finding out as much as you can about the company and the people that are interviewing you, the clients the firm works with and so on. The web makes this easier than ever, so this is now a basic requirement not a brownie point. Think about the questions you may be asked and prepare your answers. And remember there is no pre-defined starting salary – the market dictates what you can and will be paid.  Your priority is to get experience.

Before meeting a potential employer spend some time on your appearance – invest in a haircut, get a decent suit, clean and repair your shoes or buy a new pair. Go easy on the jewellery and makeup.  Make an effort. Be tidy. If you look like you’ve just got out of bed it says you can’t be bothered, so why should the person that’s interviewing care about you?

If you are already in a job much of the above applies but the key issue for this employer, at a minimum, understanding and articulating what your clients do, why they matter and being able to explain the competitive and regulatory environment in which they operate.  It would seem like PR 101 and the reasons clients hire agencies but you’d be surprised how many candidates, even at a senior level, are unable to do this. 

For those of you still studying the outlook will be tough for a few years yet, so get your heads down and come out with a 2.1 or better and consider a Master’s degree – if you are numerate graduate, get a literate Masters; if you are good at telling stories learn to count.

Failing that, get a job, any job, and succeed in it so that your potential employers know you are a grafter who is mercifully free of the Generation Y belief that the world rotates around you.  Learn a new language or polish up what you have, PR is increasingly a global game. Understand the digital world extends further than your page on Facebook and be careful what you post online – your potential employer will be looking and, like tattoos, what might have seemed like a good idea at the time may not look so good later.  You don’t have to do all the work yourself, find a good recruitment consultant who’ll understand your strengths and work hard on your behalf.

If this all sounds a bit grim there is some good news.  PR and communications whether – online or offline – will be a career that will challenge you afresh every day of your working life and constantly test your stamina, creativity, management capabilities and many other skills.

If you really want it you can go very far very quickly; that’s something worth fighting for.

Looking at the breakdown of this time spent, television is the dominant media outlet although this drops in the younger demographic with half of the total media time spent on computers, mobile phones and handheld devices.

Of the total time consumers spend on a computer, two fifths is communicating with other people, largely through social networking. This number further increases between the ages of 16 – 24 where it reaches over 50%. Combining this with the fact that 27% of mobile devices are now smartphones - allowing for constant access through mobile internet use - the research highlights the growth of social networking tools as an established form of communication.

With so many different social media platforms available, however, it is imperative that these digital channels are all projecting the same message. The evidence from this report shows that people are using all forms of media, at times simultaneously. That in itself makes the case for an integrated commitment across all channels to ensure that the message that people are receiving is consistent. This report gives further reasoning as to why PR companies must fully embrace the social media outlets as a way of reaching the target audiences, and not only use them in a half hearted manner in order to keep up with the digital age.

Yesterday, Twitter launched its new ‘Twitter Tales’ campaign, with its aim being to highlight Twitter stories from ‘creative individuals and businesses from all corners of the world.’ The project encourages Twitter users to send in their personal stories and Twitter experiences to create a potential tool of inspiration for other ‘Tweeters’. In theory this is a lovely concept that perhaps may inspire me to use my tweets for greater good and to share with the world my pearls of wisdom and life mottos (not that I’m exactly sure what they would be…), but there is a niggling part of me that suspects that this is Twitter’s way of proving the cynics wrong.

Twitter has often been criticized by skeptics as being nothing more than an outlet for society to once again share too much information and as we have often seen it used, a tool for celebrities to shamelessly promote their every movement. Admittedly, it is these sorts of incidents where celebrities use Twitter to tell us that they have been to the gym and are yet again on a celery soup diet, which has stopped many people joining the social networking site. Who does want to listen to these types of pointless and not to mention depressing tales – I don’t want to be told they have to work hard for their washboard stomachs; I’m much happier believing it’s a case of genetics and that life’s just unfair…

Through ‘Twitter Tales’ it is clear that the website is attempting to publicize the value of Twitter and no doubt the heavily emotive angle to many of the published stories will help the campaign in securing the public’s attention. So the question is, will the campaign work? It could be that Twitter manages to convert the cynics and demonstrate through others’ examples its worth and importance in the ever-developing business and consumer world. But then it could be that people see the stories as over hyped adverts in disguise. Whatever the result of the campaign, there is no denying that Twitter has launched its attack on demonstrating its use and purpose in all aspects of society and it will be interesting to see if the Twittersphere adopts it.

According to a recent report on the BBC, Hacker Samy Kamkar has found a way to discover a person’s location – right down to a few metres – and all it takes is for an unsuspecting computer user to be tricked into visiting a bogus website.

So how does it work? In short, the attack uses the bogus website to gain a key identification number from your router and then interrogates a Google database created when Google carried out surveys for the street view service to find your exact location.

The report goes into a lot more detail on the process, but what becomes apparent is that there is a loop hole that could endanger computer users to targeted attacks. The fact that databases like Google streetview’s Mac-to-Location database can be used in these attacks just underlines how much responsibility companies that collect such data have to safeguard it correctly.

The news has come in the same week that personal details of 100m facebook users have been collected and published on the net by a security consultant. In a statement to BBC News, facebook said that the information in the list was already freely available online.

With the amount of personal information we have online, be it for shopping accounts or social networking websites, it is the duty now of the online companies to make sure security is tightened up and bogus websites eradicated. Otherwise the number of people willing to shop, network or even search online will start to fall.

Research carried out at the MIT Media Lab  last year led to the development of the ‘SixthSense’ device, that binds together basic items such as a camera, a small projector and a Smartphone to essentially turn any surface into an interactive screen.  If, for example, the user picks up a can of fizzy drink, the ‘SixthSense’ device can project onto the can information regarding the product’s price, ingredients competitor prices and even reviews.

iPhone 3GS users will be no stranger to AR technology. And the popular ‘Nearest Tube’ app uses AR technology to provide information on local tube stations in London. It uses real-time video and GPS to show the user directions to the nearest tube station, how far away it is, and what underground lines run through it.

While devices that use AR technology are currently handheld, eventually displays will look like a regular pair of glasses, with information being fed directly into the user’s line of vision. Imagine finding out historical information about a building by simply walking down the high street and looking at it. With image recognition software, AR could allow us to point our device at a person in the street and instantly access information from their Facebook or Twitter profile pages. The possibilities are endless.

While it will be some time before the ‘SixthSense’ or ‘AR Information Glasses’ will be available to purchase, companies have already begun to introduce the technology into their systems. The makeup company L’Oreal has teamed up with Boots to introduce EZFace – a “virtual mirror’ which shows how products would look on the user. The British firm C-InStore has used the technology to develop the ‘Magic Mirror’, where you can select outfits on a screen and then see a still image of yourself in your desired clothes. It can even tell you what size to buy! We recently blogged on another example of Tissot working with Holition to create an interactive experience at London’s selfridges.

The future for AR technology is well and truly bright. While possible integration with facial recognition technology may raise security concerns for some, the benefits AR can bring are overwhelming. AR technology could well change the face of the consumer experience, especially in the shopping space, forever.

Training it up and down the UK’s M4 corridor (not quite such as sexy a moniker as “Silicon Valley”), you can’t help but get attached to places. Slough train station holds special affection, especially the platform 5; the one back to London. It’s not just the platform cafe that makes the platform vending machine seem like a Gordon Ramsey restaurant, it’s Station Jim.

Slough, a place so bad that it didn’t even quite top a survey of the UK’s most crap towns, has on its train station platform back to London a dead dog. A dead dog, stuffed in a glass box. That’s entertainment in Slough.

There’s a plaque that recalls Jim’s life, in a very Slough type way. Highlights include:

“The first trick taught him was to get over the stairs of the footbridge.”

“He started his duties as Canine Collector for the Great Western Railway Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund when he was about four months old but, because he was in bad health, he was only actually collecting about two years or so.”

“Yet he managed to place about £40 to the account of the Fund.”

“He only once had a piece of gold put in his box — a half sovereign.”

“There were only about five pieces of silver.”

“The majority of the coins he collected were pennies and halfpennies.”

“After a time he was taught to bark whenever he received a coin.”

“His railway journeys were few in number.”

“On one occasion he went to Leamington; that was his longest ride.”

Now perhaps it’s the Slough of Despond that the station inflicts on its commuters, but it seems that Station Jim was a dog that collected very little money during just two years of working, the majority of which was in small denominations, and he once went on a train to Leamington. Some of his main achievements included walking across a footbridge and barking which, for a dog, is not really a USP.

The final paragraph of Station Jim’s entry in Wikipedia reads:

The story of the Slough “Station Jim” is mentioned in the historical background feature accompanying the BBC movie Station Jim (2001). Although the movie involves an orphanage, the movie dog and storyline are not based on the true story, and the movie is not set in Slough.

So, Station Jim isn’t even the Station Jim in Station Jim. The orphanage made it in, put the eponymous dog didn’t. And nor did Slough.

Slough.

The Dog & Duck in Soho was the venue for last night’s Wobbly Wednesday, the second month running that the real ale pub has played host. It’s not just the location, the range of beers, the function room, the staff and the outdoor space that makes it so scrumptious; it’s the deep fried food. There is a thing or two BP could learn from the Dog & Duck’s deep, deep, deep oil frying…

The cream of the UK tech and marketing journo scene had largely gone home by the time it seemed like a good idea to carry on elsewhere after the pub had closed.

The Crobar is very loud. The floor is sticky. Odours such as honest toil and Indian ink hang in the air. A strong magnet would pull the vast majority of punters across the mosh pit. There’s a dedication to black clothing of which Henry Ford would be proud. In short, it’s fabulous. At least, it is after a night of beer topped off with a few Jägerbombs.

Last Chameleon standing? Richard; respect.

ITPro’s Jennifer Scott offers CBR’s Steve Evans a piggyback to the Crobar

The appointment, which came as little surprise in the City, is only one example of a modern trend of businesses promoting CIOs to the role of chief executive officer. As companies become more reliant on technology to revamp their business, CIOs now have unprecedented visibility over the running of the company, giving them the platform needed for promotion. Indeed, dozens of former CIOs now fill the top corporate job as head of operations, including Peter McCann at Fidelity and Reliance Industries’ Ashish Chauhan, who will be familiar to cricket lovers as CEO of the Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians.

We are now in a world where the best CIOs do not stay as CIOs. As technology plays an ever-more important role in the development of business, expect the position of CEO to be filled by individuals coming from a CIO background. Philip Clarke is not the first to make the leap, and he certainly won’t be the last. The old joke that CIO stands for ‘Career Is Over’, simply no longer applies to modern business.