1. Twitter followers stats
2. Facebook fans stats
3. Social Media growth rate
4. Most active tweeter
5. Best social media campaign of the month
6. Klout scores
7. Latest trends and advice for clubs adopting social media

Without further ado, here’s the infographic for May. Don’t worry – we’ve got some more exciting infographics and news over the summer so keep your eyes peeled!

In recent years the phone has radically changed. The standard smartphone is quickly making items like the camcorder, camera, laptop, handheld game console, SatNav, diary, phone book and even the credit card, redundant. In this case, Socialcam is the next evolution of the camcorder with all the right ingredients for the social media world.

So what makes Socialcam so successful? Here are our top 5 reasons why we expect Socialcam to continue growing at an exponential rate:

1. Adapt & Evolve the right idea

Socialcam is a more popular choice than the usual video recording app in that it has adapted to its audience. No doubt 2012 is the year of Instagram – the photo sharing app that allows users to improve the aesthetics of their photography with very easy to use filters and photo retouching tools. Socialcam has seen that 50 million active users clearly like this feature and that there’s a gap in the market for something similar but with video. As such, the focal unique selling point of Socialcam is that users can very quickly record a video with a choice of 9 different filters. Socialcam have taken the core ingredients of Instagram’s success and applied it to a new medium – copying or just evolution?

2. Be pushy on Social Media

Like Instagram, Socialcam relies heavily on its users sharing their content across social media channels. Unlike most apps, Socialcam is very pushy in terms of encouraging users to share on the likes of Twitter and Facebook. With integration with Facebook’s OpenGraph and multiple pop up’s prompting users to “Send to Facebook” nearly everywhere you look, Socialcam actually makes it hard to resist sharing. OpenGraph is key to Socialcam’s overnight success as everytime someone publishes a new video to Facebook this is spread across hundreds of newsfeeds. Socialcam is popular because it isn’t afraid to push social media interaction on every level, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, SMS, Posterous, Tumblr or Dropbox! Yes, it’s pushy but it seems to be working…

3. Design for simplicity

Socialcam is very easy on the eye and simple to use. The user interface is clean, tidy and compact – therefore users can quickly get recording and sharing their video without having to navigate a multitude of sub-menus or glitchy features. A fine example of Socialcam’s aesthetically pleasing design is the ‘Popular’ tab within the app. Firstly, the very fact that the app offers insight into what’s being shared in realtime is a huge positive and should be a given for any website, network or app entering the social media space. Secondly, the trending videos are laid out in a very similar “jigsaw pattern” to that of another hugely popular social network – Pinterest – demonstrating the Frankenstein nature of the app.

4. Funding from the right people

Even if Socialcam were a mediocre app it would probably still have a few minutes in the spotlight because of the people backing it. As a graduate of arguably the worlds trendiest tech seed fund – Y-Combinator (which has funded the likes of DropBox, Disqus, Reddit and Posterous) – Socialcam has the stamp of approval AND funding of some hugely influential techies. Sure, funding doesn’t mean long term success but having the right people and financial security behind a start-up does wonders for brand promotion and reputation. It also helps that Socialcam will benefit from the Justin.TV experience and that they already understand their audience and the role of video in the social media world.

5. Form a community

The core concept of social media many app developers and brands still tend to ignore is community. The most popular examples of good social media are ones where community is the focus of all activity. Registering on the app is a no-nonsense process where users can signup via their Facebook or Twitter accounts. The inclusion of a popular content hub and trending hashtags shows what the community is talking about and creates a platform for content discovery. Features such as the ever present “Like” button offer a form of social capital for users to interact with. Socialcam isn’t just an app to record and share video content, it’s a community where users can like, comment and discover content and forge relationships around user generated video content.

Death by Infamy!

Whilst Pirate bay is unashamedly infamous for providing access to grotesque amounts of film, music and games, almost all of which violate numerous copyright laws, its basic premise hasn’t changed. Fundamentally they still provide nothing more than a simple peer to peer file sharing/torrent service.

The real problem resides in the way we, as users of the internet, exploit this type of service. It seems that as it gets easier and easier to access copyright protected content we feel less and less responsible for what amounts to basic theft.

What’s the problem?

So why is it not a cut and dry fact that Pirate bay is evil and how come there’s any counter argument at all?

The problem is two-fold. Firstly, there are thousands of very reputable sites providing access to content that infringes copyright. I recently hosted an ‘un-downloadable’ version of my first album on Soundcloud.com to give a select group of people a preview before its release. Literally within minutes one of my associates had utilised a ‘Soundcloud downloader’ to access and copy the music. The same types of program are available for almost all content hosting sites including Myspace, ReverbNation and YouTube (which despite its proclamations still hosts plenty of copyright infringing content).

It’s not just software that can cause these issues. With a simple line of code Google itself can be turned into a platform for interrogating the less secure sites online to access any video, music, literature or film they may host, manipulating it into providing similar functionality as Pirate bay itself (ok, it’s not peer to peer or torrent based but it’s still free online access to stuff you don’t own!).

The second argument is that peer to peer services themselves are (believe it or not) actually still used by many people for legitimate purposes, namely file sharing.

String ‘em up!

It seems these knee jerk court rulings are the result of desperate pressure from the entertainment industry to stem the loss of revenues suffered as a result of online piracy. In my opinion it’s drastic, unenforceable and a waste of legislative time and money. It’s the equivalent of banning car thieves from using bricks to break car windows. They’ll just find something else to break the windows with.

So what is the answer? To be honest I have no idea! I just know that banning access to one of thousands of similar sites isn’t the right way to go. All this achieves is to set a precedent for more subversive censoring of sites in the future. Maybe it’s more of a moral education issue or perhaps in the worst case scenario it’s a change we need to make in ourselves. The one thing that seems fairly likely is that if we don’t do something we may all begin to witness the slow decline in the quality and frequency of good entertainment as the industry crumbles under the weight of its own need for ever growing profit.

With the release of The Avengers movie on the 26^th April (today!), superheroes are en vogue. The publicity whirlwind seems to have caught our comparison between superheroes and social media platforms – if only indirectly – and we’ve seen it shared in some unexpected places.

The infographic has turned up on the University of North Carolina website, InTheCapital.com , irishmediawatch.com as well as numerous other blogs and forums.

Take a look below to see what all the fuss is about.

Thanks to all those sharing and let’s see if we can’t get it out there again when The Dark Knight Rises on 20^th July.

If anyone has spotted it anywhere else, we’d love to know.

In April, EPL clubs collected a combined total of 357,822 Twitter followers (the largest increase yet) and 1.9 million new Facebook Likes. Fans of the beautiful game are flocking to Social Media channels to bypass the traditional media and get the very latest information about clubs and players straight from the official club press desk. The best clubs are using Social Media not just provide fans with an endless stream of news, but levy the powerful relationship between sports fan and clubs and use their online presence as an entertainment channel (Something Manchester City digital boss Richard Ayers recently advocated).

To view all of our Premier League Social Media infographics – take a look at Freestyle Interactive Pinterest board.

Hooray!

We’ve recently been awarded a 2-star – Outstanding rating from the organisation ‘Best Companies to work for’. Although it’s slightly unbecoming of us to admit it, we’re pretty proud of ourselves right now. The plaque is now resting resplendent in reception and we’re taking stock of the amazing insight we’ve gained as a business.

Working for our staff

We’ve always thought of ourselves as employee-centric. We’ve worked hard to make Freestyle Interactive a great place to work and this prestigious award is an amazing vindication of our employment policies. Benefits our employees enjoy include duvet-days, regular subsidised massages and summer and Christmas company parties. We offer paid-for training, the ability to work from home and the opportunity to pursue personal development projects in-house. Getting confirmation from our staff (and Best Companies) that all this makes a difference and we’re on the right track is invaluable.

This impressive ‘Outstanding’ status is the culmination of years listening to the people who make Freestyle great. All our hard work seems to have paid off as we were 1 of just 104 small-businesses to achieve the 2-star status with only 80 businesses nationwide being awarded a 3-star rating. The 2012 Top 100 Best Companies to work for is wholly made up of 2 and 3-star companies, with the rating judged across a range of topics and a companywide survey.

Onwards and Upwards

So where do we go from here? Well, we’ll be spending the next couple of weeks going through all the results provided for us by Best Companies. Based on these insights – as well as feedback and involvement from our staff – we can see where we can make improvements and plan for the future. Hopefully we can use all this to make Freestyle Interactive an even better place to work.

Find out more about working for Freestyle Interactive by viewing our current vacancies.

What are the benefits of social media editorial calendars:

Tools that will help:

A recent Forrester report suggests that the answer is ‘no’. Even with the increase in social software sales, only 8% of workers provided with enterprise social collaboration tools use them once a week.

More thought, less haste

I’ve noticed a pattern in client’s eagerness to focus on the technology component of a project ahead of the thinking and planning which should precede this type of decision.  A typical briefing session might start with a statement such as ‘We want a Facebook page’ or ‘It’s time for an app’ rather than the question: Is this the right move given audience needs, preferences, motivations and broader business objectives?

This cart-before-the-horse mentality reflects a similar buying model in the personal computer market. In the PC market, hardware is sold on the basis of a specification i.e. processing speeds, RAM, CPU processor speed, rather than selling based on meeting the needs of the end-user.  This approach is flawed from a customer value perspective given the reality that the majority of end-users only require the ability to browse the web, email and write documents. When this mentality is taken into the corporate environment – in the context of social business – decisions are made without due consideration for what happens following tech deployment.  It’s no surprise greater adoption levels aren’t achieved following all the overblown promises of instant social nirvana made by the software company in order to secure a deal.

Should we get Social?

The phrase “build it and they will come” certainly springs to mind, although in this case it typifies what not to do.   During a recent Social Business workshop hosted by Freestyle, this disappointment was echoed by Internal Communications leaders. Having initially sought and provisioned a technology solution, they were struggling to drive effective adoption. The uptake issue seemed to be due to the lack of a long-term roll-out strategy that considered the people and processes required to make adoption successful.

This oversight made it a costly exercise which lacked impact and was due to assumptions made around key elements required ahead of a selecting a suitable technology. Questions that should be asked at the outset include:

• What is our current level of social adoption?
• Where do you we want to be as a business?
• What technologies might we already have in place that could help us achieve this before we look at a new enterprise solution?
• Do we have Senior Management buy-in for social?
• Are they going to get involved and help champion uptake?
• What opportunities are there for social to enhance the day-to-day working practices within our organisation?

This list of considerations isn’t exhaustive, but provides a useful warning checklist against being distracted by the latest shiny technology.

What is our advice for businesses looking to utilise social? Ask the above questions and take a holistic view across the people, processes and technology needed to leverage the true benefits of a socially-powered organisation.

That said if you talk to a copywriter for any length of time then you’ll get around to the subject of consistency. A website that uses a multitude of different tones of voice, a variety of fonts and can’t choose between capitals and lower case runs the risk of looking messy and disparate.

So if you run a large website and have a number of different audiences how do you speak to each of their needs and interests without compromising on consistency?

I’m not sure there’s a simple answer.

There are, however simple things you can do to make it less of an issue, for example make sure you do choose one way or the other when there are grammatical and spelling grey areas, and stick to it. But even this can lead to problems.

Suppose your customer base is international. Do you use color or colour, authorise or authorize? Here it might be worth having a chat with your designer. Ask them if the audience types you are talking to respond differently to different design styles depending on the nationality, and if so which are they using for this site? Chances are there won’t be a clear cut yes or no, but talking to them will at least make sure your content and your design work in harmony.

Ask yourself some searching questions about who you are really trying to impress most. You cannot appeal to everyone at all times; to try and do so is to write erratically and end up with nothing worth using. Discipline yourself. Work out who the ideal customer is and write for them. Yes, if you use a different spelling some readers will notice, and yes you will turn some readers off. But this is very different from losing the confidence of your target.

Be brave. Dare to let go of the ones you don’t need, or even want.

#pastytax/#pastygate/#greggs & #pieshakespeare

‘Hot for the rich, cold for the poor’ reads one Cornish woman’s pasty-shop sign (excellent protest-marketing!).

It seems the ConDems have raised some hackles with their tax policy. I must admit, it’s a little confusing. From what I can gather through trawling Twitter, if a pasty is hot, then it is taxable. If it’s cold, it’s not. The discussion itself has spawned a couple of hashtags and after Ed Miliband was photographed outside a Greggs while talking on the subject (what a coincidence!), ‘Greggs’ itself began trending. Kudos is due to the Greggs social team for spotting the opportunity and capitalising on the free PR.  By coincidence (an actual one, I think) Greggs launched the #pieshakespeare hashtag today, asking people to glorify their favourite pastry snacks in prose form.

#FMC (Facebook Marketing Conference)

We’ve all seen them -‘Amazing talk from (insert name of brand) #FMC’. They just about let us know that one of our fellow agency brothers and sisters are attending some conference somewhere and have loved some talk or other. I’m all for live-tweeting, but it’d be nice if more people actually said something when they were doing it. Anyway, now my spleen is sufficiently vented I can get on to my actual point: Hashtag spammers.

Spammers hijacked the #FMC hashtag within moments of it reaching the top three. There were more ‘Hey Joe, have you seen this’ and ‘Hi Mike, thought you’d like this’ tweets than you could shake a stick at. And no sooner had it become flooded with fake scantily-clad teen profile pictures, people clearly stopped using the hashtag and the trend dropped out of the top 10. Much like a virus killing its host, the spam had finally felled the ailing trend.

What I’d like to know is this: why isn’t the #pastygate hashtag so suffuse with lies and links to porn? What makes the Facebook Marketing Conference such an easy target? Answers on a tweet please…

#WaitroseAndThe Wicker Man

Now it’s true, I’ve ignored a couple of #replace(x)with(y) hashtags and one Belieber themed daily (why do they all use his face as their profile pictures?), but I really wanted to go straight to this piece of hashtag-gold.

My love of thedailymash.com makes me biased; I’ll admit it. But their piece today on the newest festival to hit the scene gave me a true belly laugh (warning: link is NSFW or kids). Apparently a lot of other people had a similar reaction. So much so in fact, a line from the article (‘a hybrid of Waitrose and The Wicker Man’) has spawned the above hashtag.

Brilliant!