You've left us really enthused about the whole digital dimension and we're looking forward to developing our plan with your support. Simon Beardow - Deputy Director, British Council, Vietnam
This recent map from Vincenso Cosenza graphically shows the dominance of Facebook in the social media world. Facebook is ranked #1in 127 countries out of a total 136 listed.
Equally interesting is how this landscape has changed in the past three years.
Note how Twitter and LinkedIn are contesting for second place.
Vincenzo Cosenza has also mapped the the connections between Italy’s blogs and their Influence. His aim is to understand the bloggers relationship and how blogosphere is evolving into a complex information ecosystem.
Many of us use Google's Blogger platform and the company has just launched a series of 5 dynamic views, using HTML5.
This blog uses the platform and below are three example of the new views which you might choose to link to, in preference to your normal site views. Your site address remains the same with the addition of /view at the end of the URL. For example http://thedigitalconsultant.blogspot.com/view.
Flipcard View
Mosaic View
Snapshot View
In your Blogger Settings go to Formatting and you will see that dynamic views have been set up as default.
Blogs are meant to be pure streams of consciousness, unsullied by the taint of commercialism - right?
When you are reading a blog you are getting personal opinion free from the undue influence of third parties is a commonly held belief.
Unfortunately this is increasingly not the case. The reality is somewhat different, with a growing legion of "professional bloggers"
Blog-vertising (a terrible term) is increasingly becoming part of the mainstream as companies scrabble for market share inthe brave new world of social media.
As Steve Green reports "As an advertising channel, the blogosphere makes total sense. Certain blogs not only boast a valuable and rich list of subscribers, but have also developed a highly evolved authority, making bloggers a sought after commodity for advertisers "
The recently launched ebuzzing matches bloggers with advertisers and bloggers only survive if their content remains relevant to the audience that they serve.
The company's stated ain is to "be a platform for bringing bloggers and advertisers together. It is based on a simple principle: Like. Recommend. Earn.
It allows bloggers to monetise their blog, earning money by creating posts about things they genuinely like and want to recommend, whilst advertisers can create buzz for themselves in the communities that are most likely to be interested in them."
The strength of blog-vertising is that it is a highly targeted channel providing a greater return on investment. Advertisers need to be where their market is and companies such as the Euro-centric ebuzzing are building "the buzz", which is so essential to build online reputation and drive sales.
There is an increasing vehemence in the manner that traditional media are pursuing blog owners who reproduce their content.
Take the recently reported case of the Las Vegas Review-Journal which is in litigious mood and according to an LA Times article is taking some 30 websites and blogs to court.
It raises the very important question - what is fair use?
Plagiarising large blogs of content from a third party site or publication is certainly not fair use. If however one draws attention to the original; reviewing and rewriting certain elements in the process, then this would appear to be deemed acceptable.
The advice in the article is that a publisher should:
never republish more than three paragraphs
always name your source
always link to the original
Chris Crum of WebProNews quotes attorney John Burton "I strongly recommend receiving written authorization from the copyright holder prior to redistributing their work or link, especially if there is a commercial interest in why you are using the work"
The other side of this media argument is how frequently traditional media quote from online blogs, in many cases without prior permission being given by the content owner of an attribution made. One example of this practice is given by Danny Sullivan in his blog Daggle
What all of the above really proves is just how threatened traditional media are by the rise of citizen journalism in the digital age.
It is quite appropriate that mainstream media who pay for, or commission, content should expect a financial return through its use. This after all is their core business.
However it is very much a case of trying to close the gate after the horse has bolted as many of the global and local news stories now break through citizen journalism sources rather than traditional media. Nothing is going to change this as it is now an established societal norm.
Perhaps the final word should be this video which has been viewed some 10 million times on YouTube.
Right from the early days of the web building engagement with a brand has been one of the most important things to strive for.
The sites of a decade ago used simple but effective devices to capture and hold users; competitions and web cams to name but two.
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. In the 1950' when organised dances were still the rage there used to a competition called the Lucky Spot . When the music stopped the couple nearest to a predefined marking on the dance floor won a prize.
We once used the same principle with a web cam to run online competitions and to build a membership database.
With the development of the semantic web users now have far more sophisticated expectations, although the quantum change is that they expect the web information to come to them, rather than the old way of having to make repeat visits to a site to glean information and stay informed.
Companies that persist with the old idea of "build a site and they will come" do so at their peril. The new reality is that users may come once and if they see content they like, they expect to be able to subscribe to its news feed or embed it in their own sites or blog.
From this moment forward they stay engaged with your brand from afar, only returning to a site when an item captures their interest.
The importance of RSS: No web site should be released unless it has RSS subscription options for each page or content topic. This RSS can then be used to push content virally to multiple channels simultaneously.
Digital strategy demands a sophisticated approach to user engagement. Companies must embrace the idea of having as much brand presence on other (third party sites) as as on their own.
To truly engage you need to be where the market is and to be using the tools that the target segment employs.
Engagement also needs to occur in other digital dimensions. Leading brand conversations through blogs, driving traffic from social media platforms to your content, to name but two.
Ultimately though your brand proposition and online worth depends on content. The old adage of "if you don't have something good to say, don't say it", still applies.
Just being online because the opposition is there is entirely counter productive. To build engagement your communications and digital channel strategy must be carefully thought through. Resource needs to be allocated and not just for the build phase of the project.
Having an online presence is just the beginning; it is not an end in itself. Engagement will only build if you have quality content and provide the tools to interact.
Forrester Interactive's Sean Corcoran defines earned, paid and owned media in his latest blog post. The definition for paid media is the easy one but not many people have come to grips with the concept of "owned media".
This is arguably the most exciting, as it is where your customers become your channel. Word of mouth maybe the most credible but it is also an approach that requires the most monitoring, as it is outside the direct control of the company or organisation
Monitoring the Buzz need to be built into any digital strategy and while there are many online tools that can assist, there needs to be an equal investment in staff resource. Listening to the conservations is not enough; people with the right skills need to be trained to sense opportunities as they emerge and feed these immediately to the business owners.
I would advise caution about jumping straight in to a paid media strategy. Many of the agency promises simply don't translate into business growth and response rates are declining.
Ask yourself this question, when was the last time you clicked through on a Facebook or Google Ad.word? I suspect the answer will reinforce the above observation.
Sean recommends treating paid media as a catalyst to drive increased engagement over a specified campaign period. Don't hang your digital hat on it as a long term solution though.
Image by Mexicanwave via Flickr
The company's stated ain is to "be a platform for bringing bloggers and advertisers together. It is based on a simple principle: Like. Recommend. Earn. 
There is an increasing vehemence in the manner that traditional media are pursuing blog owners who reproduce their content.
Image via Wikipedia
Right from the early days of the web building engagement with a brand has been one of the most important things to strive for.
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This is arguably the most exciting, as it is where your customers become your channel. Word of mouth maybe the most credible but it is also an approach that requires the most monitoring, as it is outside the direct control of the company or organisation
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