Eyjafjallajokull, 16 characters of mayhem!

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Dan Ring

I was in the UK last week for a PR summit, which was originally planned for April (postponed due to Eyjafjallajokull, or as I like to call it, E-kull, since I cannot correctly pronounce Eyjafjallajokull)

There were very few surprises that came out of the discussions: we know that the vast concept/channel/initiative that is known as “Social” is a huge driver. Promoting brands via social is still nascent (with new apps being developed constantly)—no news flash there.

What I thought was interesting was how the PR people ranked those social media apps that they consider to be the most important for PR. The aforementioned PR people came from Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the US.   Here’s a quick snapshot of THEIR rankings:

  • Twitter (1), Facebook (2), and LinkedIn (3)  all received top rankings and are by far considered the most important in terms of creating awareness
  • Vimeo (video sharing app, regarded as better quality than YouTube) was consistently ranked 5th (not too far behind YouTube)
  • Slideshare (sharing presos, etc) ranked largely 6th or 7th
  • Apps such as Digg, Redit, and StumbleUpon had little to no recognition among the European PR people…and an app that I’ve only seen in passing, Xing (similar to LinkedIn), is growing in popularity in Germany

We, like pretty much every other company, have embarked on an “evolving” social strategy; among other benefits, it’s a great way to increase brand awareness, certainly when your company plays in regional markets; one of the challenges is ensuring that we’re regularly creating interesting–and per the collective suggestions of PR people–multi-media content.

And even though I speak with PR people regularly, I look forward to formally connecting with them in 6 or so months, pending another volcanic eruption, to see where the previously mentioned (and soon-to-be-prevalent) social apps rank among the pantheon of an ever-growing world of Social.

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  • http://www.unica.com Akin

    Will be interesting to see how far Foursquare comes as well. While being one of the newest and hippest kids on the block, I was surprised actually how few of my Facebook contacts were using it. Yay, I am an early adopter for once!

    But kudos to Foursquare for already having an advertising / revenue model. They are going to be around by the time of the next e-kull eruption.
    Akin

  • http://www.unica.com Mirza Causevic

    @Dan,

    I find it surprising that StumbleUpon has not attracted a bigger following. It has completely redefined the way I use (see:enjoy) the Internet!

    As someone who practically lives and breathes the www, one of my most common tasks is sharing links. I used to rely heavily on doing this via email but over the past two years I’ve grown to enjoy and compliment how SU allows its users to share (and message/chat) links.

    StumbleUpon’s toolbar is easily the only toolbar I want attached to Firefox. Aside from the given, its a tool that can most certainly help drive traffic to your website and increase awareness in a whole new way. Did I mention how fun it can be? Its literally Google from another universe.

    —–

    @Akin,

    I’ve been testing out Foursquare, GoWalla and Bright Kite for the past few months. I’m also a bit surprised how few of my contacts utilize these geo-tagging tools considering the hype behind some of them. Although my test phase with these tools has been fairly short, I can safely say that Foursquare at the moment has the best working mobile app for this type of activity. GoWalla has a much nicer interface than Foursquare while Foursquare seems to work a bit better. It will be interesting to see which one improves the most by the end of the year.

    Cheers!
    miz