Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Webmongs, I won’t lie to you – I am having what fat, sweaty policemen from 1970s detective shows would legitimately refer to as ‘a rough one’ (quite possibly whilst mopping their sweaty forehead with a gingham handkerchief – repeated attempts to find an image to accompany this phrase have proved fruitless, but I can now safely say that I do not recommend Googling “fat sweaty police chief” with Safe Search turned off).

Despite this, my dedication to bringing you the very best some stuff I found online this week continues unwavering. Not least because this post marks the 10th anniversary of this (in)glorious experiment in exactly how much rubbish one can get away with churning out in the name of ‘work’. That’s right – you’ve now had 10 weeks of this crap. It probably feels like longer.

To celebrate this momentous milestone, I would like to run a competition. That’s right, YOU CAN WIN A PRIZE. Just leave a comment at the bottom of this post, telling me something interesting. The person who posts the thing which I like best will win…a book. One of my books, to be precise (I’ll try and make an appropriate choice depending on who it is). I might even throw in some other stuff too, depending on what I’ve got knocking around at home.

I’ve just reread that – effectively what I’m offering you is a random choice of second-hand novel and possibly some other miscellaneous, used tat. This is a rubbish competition. Sorry.To make up for this, here’s some links and words:

Electionwatch:

• There was another Leader’s debate last night. Opinion’s divided over who won, but there were one or two questions raised about YouGov’s impartiality or otherwise following their immediate post-debate polling for Sky and The Sun which suggested that Cameron had walked it. Online commentators were quick to point out that the YouGov CEO is in fact a Conservative PPC for Stratford-upon-Avon, who stepped down from the job when the election was called. You would of course be a fool and a communist to infer any links between Mr Zahawi’s candidacy and YouGov’s polling.
• The best writeup of last night’s debate comes from Marina Hyde. Read it and realise that she is simply better at writing than you (and me, obviously).
• You can still, if you so desire, submit questions to the party leaders through the UK Election Youtube / Facebook collaboration. Video answers to the top questions, as voted by YOU, will be posted next week. Democracy in action, people, democracy in action.
• What’s worth noting this week is that, despite the fact that this is the DIGITAL ELECTION, the real game-changer in terms of public interest and buzz has been that old media staple of television. Yes, there’s lots of chatter on Twitter around the Leaders’ debates, but that wouldn’t be happening unless they were on TV in the first place (if you see what I mean). Whisper it, but perhaps traditional media still actually matters. Which is basically what this rather good post on Media Week says.
• Oh, and this is my favourite election-related blog of the week.

This is a not inaccurate representation of how I am feeling today:

HEAR MY SILENT SCREAMS OF TORMENT

Facebook Basically Owns The Internet – This week was Facebook’s F8 conference in San Francisco. Lots of people had speculated that they were going to use this platform to announce location-based services. They didn’t. Instead, their big announcement was basically a statement of intent to run the internet (slight hyperbole, I concede) – this Guardian piece tells you pretty much everything you need to know. For those of you too pathetically lazy to click on that link and read the article, Facebook can now effectively allow other websites to embed Facebook functionality (ie the ability to ‘Like’, and therefore promote it through your newsfeed stream to all your friends). This has lots of interesting potential applications, including the ability to make your Facebook page a lot more like a Tumblr, but more than that is significant in terms of vocabulary and semantics – Facebook are fast moving towards a postion whereby they set the terms of reference for the manner in which we interact with content online. They effectively own ‘like’, for example. Which is pretty huge when you come to think of it. As ever, though, with Facebook, there are privacy concerns…

LinkedIn and YouTube have also boosted their social functionality this week. But noone got so excited about that. Poor the LinkedIn and YouTube

Truth:

Nothing more to say

A couple of useful presentations:

• A huge amount of recent web-usage trend data from Morgan Stanley
• A really nice set of slides about interpreting a brief in the ‘post-Digital’ age, by @Garethk

Oh, and following on from that last set, a great post which, both despite and because of my job, I fully endorse: Why ‘Digital’ is a fundamentally silly word.

A great YouTube channel, showcasing best practice examples of using it for brand / marketing purposes

The Man’s Guide to Love – Men giving advice to other men on love. This feels like it ought to be owned by a brand, but doesn’t appear to be. Who says that we’re all testosterone-fuelled, emotionally stunted meatheads? Apart from me, obviously. I’m metro as they come.

But then I go and post something a bit sexist, so maybe not:

Who says Germans don't have a sense of humour? (NB - note to German readers; NOT ME)

All the sound effects your workplace could ever need, in one place

This week’s obligatory ‘intellectual’ link – How historians of the future will use Twitter to learn about past societies. More interesting if you replace ‘Twitter’ with ’social media’ or indeed ‘the internet’, this is basically an overview of why millions of people sharing what they had for breakfast can still have some validity of relevance.

And now, withour further ado, videogeddon!:

1) My favourite thing this week – The Muppets do Ben E King’s Stand By Me. Rabbit lovers may want to skip this one:

2) A very cool video for a very cool song – the band’s called Effi Briest, I think, but the name of the track eludes me:

3) A brilliant, short little car chase animated on Google Maps:

4) I’m not an Apple fanboy, and am unexcited by the iPad, but this video of classical musician Lang Lang playing with one at his San Francisco concert this week is legitimately cool:

5) I probably shouldn’t post this here, but it made me laugh so sod it. A parody version of Pulp’s Common People, lampooning the Conservative party for being posh. I know, I know, the posh Tories thing is old and boring – the song is very well done, though, and full of bile and fire. Erm, this blog in no way reflects the political views of my employer, etc etc:

REMEMBER – POST INTERESTING STUFF BELOW AND WIN…LESS INTERESTING STUFF!!!!!