Did your website experience problems this weekend, or did you have issues browsing big-name sites such as Reddit or Foursquare? If so, then you were a victim of the combination of severe bad weather and – wait for it – a Leap Second. </p> <p>Storm and Leap Second hit across globe</p> <p>Firstly, a massive lightning storm on the East Coast of America cut the power to millions of homes, and also disrupted a major cloud data storage centre in Virginia. Affected companies included Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram, as the building houses Amazon Web Services, which provides cloud computing data storage for them as well as many others. So if you couldn’t share that classic Instagram pic this weekend, that’s why!</p> <p>The other wrinkle in the weekend was the extra second that needed adding to the world clock - a Leap Second, which is added to compensate for the irregularities in how the earth rotates over a long period of time. This June 30th was decreed by the wonderfully named “International Earth Rotation & Reference Systems” to be one second longer than normal.</p> <p>One second pushes systems out of sync</p> <p>This doesn’t sound like much, but in the complex world of computer systems, it can cause chaos by pushing synchronised data systems out of; well, sync. Companies hit included Reddit, Foursquare, Gawker and LinkedIn, whilst in Australia Qantas flights were delayed by around an hour because of a glitch with the international Amadeus booking system. Systems were all reported to be back in operation within a few hours though. </p> <p>So, what did you do with your extra second?<br />

With mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets now ubiquitous, it makes sense that marketing campaigns would integrate these devices as a matter of course. However, according to new research, this isn’t happening most of the time.</p> <p>Over half are not integrating yet</p> <p>The research, from Econsultancy’s Cross-Channel Marketing Report 2012 carried out with Responsys, suggests that less than half of companies (49 per cent) actually have a defined strategy for integrating mobile content and applications into their overall campaigns. Around a third of companies interviewed (35 per cent) do, but say integration is still very basic, with the other 14 per cent claiming that integration was “very much” in place. </p> <p>Mobile search most popular type of mobile marketing</p> <p>When it comes to the type of advertising companies are engaged in, 35 per cent said they were doing mobile search marketing, with 27 per cent using push notifications and 25 per cent investing in mobile display advertising. Just over a fifth (22 per cent) are already advertising within apps, although some 35 per cent have created their own app.</p> <p>QR codes show a curiously high take up for a technology that consumers have shown a lack of interest in, with 50 per cent of companies using them, despite just 29 per cent having a mobile commerce site. Only 29 per cent of companies optimise their emails for mobile devices right now. </p> <p>Given the explosion in ownership and the usage of mobile devices, one has to wonder just what it will take for marketers to take the next step and actually start using the opportunities that these personal devices offer them.<br />

The question of what content the BBC is allowed to exploit for its commercial gain has always been a tricky subject. Given the BBC’s licence fee public funding base, the very existence of the commercial arm always has some commentators frothing at the mouth, although most have now accepted that the revenues brought in from selling the rights to hit shows such as Top Gear around the world, cannot be sniffed at. </p> <p>Commercial activity extends beyond programming</p> <p>However, over the last few years, this commercial activity has expanded to include, for example, buying a majority of the Lonely Planet travel business in 2007, as well as investments in gaming technology and a crowdsourced video subtitle businesses. None of these could be argued to be particularly core to the BBC operations. As a result, the regulator for the BBC (The BBC Trust) is said to be seriously considering reining in the corporations’ commercial aspirations and then push them towards “focusing on commercial activity on BBC commissioned intellectual property” rather than on tangential investments or developing new external IP. </p> <p>Publishers struggle to compete</p> <p>Many online publishers would be happy to see the BBC’s commercial tentacles chopped back a little; at present, BBC Worldwide’s digital ventures are losing millions a year, something that many shareholder-driven content businesses just couldn’t sustain. Creators of online content have enough challenges, without having to compete against a business that can buy its way to dominance across new platforms.<br />

Conventional wisdom would suggest that if a consumer is also browsing the internet whilst watching TV, they are paying less attention to the television. However, according to new research, individuals that watch television whilst using a web device, such as a smartphone or tablet, are actually more likely to be exposed to television ads than people who are not multi-screening.</p> <p>Connected consumers more likely to stay put</p> <p>The study, conducted by Thinkbox for COG Research, suggested that 81 per cent of consumers who were using an internet device whilst watching television are more likely to stay in the room when advertisements are showing and not change the channel during the ads. The research looked at over 700 hours of TV viewing via self-reporting from 23 UK homes, as well as insights from 2,000 online consumers. </p> <p>The research suggests that the multi-tasking behaviour involved in using an internet device as well as watching television does not reduce consumers advertising recognition, implying that most consumers are perfectly capable of paying attention to both a web device and television content at the same time. </p> <p>Social media use prevalent</p> <p>This is probably because a lot of the content being consumed on the smartphone or tablet is short-form; for example, interacting on social media websites. For example, 31 per cent of television viewers (56 per cent of 16-24 year olds) who had access to the internet whilst watching have chatted about TV shows or ads via their tablet or phone. Around a fifth of users had used SMS, 18 per cent had used social media such as Facebook or Twitter, and a tenth had used other mobile messaging services while also watching the television. </p> <p>

With British libraries under constant threat from cost reductions, some have suggested that widening their wares into e-books and other electronic types of content is a solution. However, US research released from both the American Libraries Association and the Pew Internet and American Life Project, suggests that transitioning from paper to electronic format content is an uphill struggle.</p> <p>Readers don’t know e-books are available</p> <p>With three quarters of US libraries now offering e-books and 39% even lending out the e-readers themselves, one might think that the evolution was well on its way. However, 62% of US adults and just under half of e-reader owners (Kindles and Nooks) didn’t know whether their library actually lent e-books. </p> <p>The reports suggest that the implied lack of marketing of the facility is often deliberate; librarians, already struggling with funding cuts, are “anxious” about figuring out how to use the new technologies, with little training being available. Availability of titles at a price the library can pay is another big stumbling block, as well as the lack of user-friendliness of the browsing technologies (often a system called OverDrive, also frequently used in libraries in the UK)</p> <p>Libraries in danger both sides of the pond</p> <p>Around 69% of Americans say the library is important to them and their families, but as in the UK, this moral support seems rarely to translate into actual usage. With more and more of us accessing free content online, the future of the real-life library has never been in more doubt.<br />

According to a new study from the performance marketer iProspect, the most heavily engaged-with brand amongst Facebook fan users in the UK is a page that’s not actually an official brand page. </p> <p>Rolex fan page tops index</p> <p>According to the second update to the quarterly iProspect Engagement Index, a fan page about the luxury watch brand Rolex actually achieves the highest “engagement” with its UK Facebook fans. To measure engagement, iProspect looks at the number of “likes” that a page has, and combines this with Facebook’s own “people talking about this” metric, which looks at the number of ongoing conversations about that brand or page owner. </p> <p>In the first wave of results from February, the beverage company PG Tips topped the tables, with an engagement score of 16.3%, which fell to 7.7% in May; iProspect attribute this to a Valentine’s Day campaign which was followed by a more fallow period of content creation. Topping the index in May was a page about Rolex watches, with a score of 10.8% - even though the page is run by a US importer and a distributor of the brand and has nothing to do with the brand officially. </p> <p>Known brands populate rest of top 10</p> <p>The score would apparently suggest that around 10% of the pages’ fans had interacted with the page in the past week by doing something proactive, such as liking a post or posting their own comments.</p> <p>More obvious brands such as Thomas Cook, Bosch, Audi and Bentley appear in the rest of the top ten. Over time, the brands that succeed in creating an ongoing engagement pattern will be those who manage to drive a constant stream of high quality content and activities to their Facebook pages.<br />

According to a new worldwide study of journalists, conducted by Brands2Life with Oriella PR Network, more than half of them source and check their news stories using online sources.</p> <p>Worldwide survey reveals variety of news sources</p> <p>The survey, which spoke to 600 journalists across 16 countries, reveals that more than three quarters of UK journalists find and verify news stories using known sources across a multitude of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Weibo (a Chinese microblogging) site, while over half of journalists worldwide also did. </p> <p>Trusted sources become more vital</p> <p>The growing need for content to be fresh, reliable and interesting contributes to one of the main changes over the last year, which has been in the usage of unknown social media sources. In 2011, apparently 43% of respondents would source news from blogs they did not know and 30% would use known sources, but now in 2012, just 22% rely on unknown blogs, with 44% using ones they knew and trusted. Around a half will use microblog updates from trusted sources (for example Twitter reports on breaking news), with just 26% relying on “unfamiliar” sources. </p> <p>When it comes to the social media use of their own publications, just over half (52%) of respondents said they had Facebook pages, with just under half (46%) of the publications having their own Twitter accounts. In the UK, those percentages were considerably higher, with 76% of titles having a Facebook page and 82% using Twitter, with 63% of publications having their own app.<br />

Keeping up a constant flow of interesting, original and readable articles suitable for content marketing can sometimes be a challenge, especially if you are new to writing web (and search engine) friendly content. A new post over on the Econsultancy blog offers some suggestions that can help when the inspiration just won’t come. </p> <p>Ready made sources of ideas</p> <p>The article suggests several sources of article ideas that every company should have access to. </p> <p>Firstly, look at your emails and their responses. If you are regularly sending out email replies to questions or as help for a product, then some of them could probably be turned into an informative blog post, or perhaps make an interesting series of articles. This would have the double benefit of providing good content and also hopefully cut down on the number of customer service emails. </p> <p>Similarly, think about your real life conversations – again, if you have had an interesting conversation with customers, sales or support teams about an issue or product consider whether the subject would make a good blog article. Get sales and support teams themselves to feed you ideas, from the conversations they have - if a question comes up repeatedly, it’s a safe bet that customers would be interested in an online article about the subject. Also, if you conduct internal training about something, think about whether that subject would interest customers too.</p> <p>The final suggestion is “the party invitation”; what do you say about your business when you first meet people? What questions do people ask? Covering that content should also give you some great ideas for inspiring content marketing articles.<br />

Everyone involved in PPC or SEO knows that Google constantly iterate their search algorithm in a never-ending quest for the perfect search result. Now, they have introduced something they call the “Knowledge Graph”, that it is hoped will generate more relevant results. </p> <p>The idea is to produce a better result for users by trying to figure out what they are likely to mean when they initiate a search, rather than simply matching the keywords they type. For example, if a user types the word “Paris”, do they mean the French capital, the city in Texas, the Las Vegas Casino, or even socialite Paris Hilton? The new search should appreciate this ambiguity, and let you narrow your results quickly just to the one thing you are looking for. The Knowledge Graph will then present you with a summary of the most relevant content around that topic, including key facts, for example for a name search - births, deaths, major milestones and other main events. </p> <p>The facts included in results will be determined by the search engine mining Google’s data about the information individuals usually look for on a particular topic. Which plays of Shakespeare’s are the most searched for, for example? </p> <p>Finally, the Knowledge Graph should help users explore a topic further by offering other new but relevant information. For example, if you search for someone who has won a Nobel Prize, you might be linked in the results to other people that have won the same prize.<br /> The Knowledge Graph is being rolled out slowly to US English users right now and should then go to other markets, so keep an eye out for its introduction here over the next few months.<br />

It has been reported that the government is unlikely to meet the deadline for new regulations regarding website cookies, highlighting the important need for all website owners to get on top of the issue immediately. From May 26th, new regulations will come into force requiring all websites to ask consumers if they can install cookies, rather than simply going ahead and using them anyway. However, the BBC has reported that the “majority” of official government sites will not be ready in time.</p> <p>Cookies are used by websites to track the personal data of consumers, and can be a great way of gaining traffic in addition to providing news feeds, good content and informative articles. Under the new regulations, consent for their use must be gained from consumers who visit the website.</p> <p>A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said: “As in the private sector, where it is estimated that very few websites will be compliant by the 26th May, so it is true of the government estate. The majority of department websites will not be compliant with the legislation by that date.” However, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) revealed that no action would be taken over the missed deadline so long as government websites showed their ongoing commitment to ensure that regulations would be met in time.</p> <p>For other website owners, it is vital to ensure that investing into cookie authorising schemes is made, sooner than later. Whilst it is expected for the ICO to take little action on those who have not managed to meet the May 26th deadline, the regulations will still need to be met eventually to provide consumers with more protection over their personal data.<br />