Brilliant IKEA Facebook Campaign

Absolutely loved the simplicity and effectiveness of IKEA's new Facebook campaign which uses one of the key features of Facebook - tagging photos.

For the opening of its new store in Malmo IKEA decided to reach their audience via Facebook.

An account was created for the IKEA store manager and showroom images were uploaded to his Facebook photo album. Using the free tagging feature in Facebook, customers were able to find items in the pictures and put their names on them. The first person to 'tag' an object got to win it.

The word spread through facebook and users started embedding links and images in their own profiles and across news feeds. Hugely succcessful campaign for IKEA with thousands of people willingling promoting the new store.

This simple video explains how it was achieved:

Simple tool to measure Twitter success

In case you hadn't seen it already, we're using this fantastic feature in Tweetdeck that let's you easily see how many people have clicked on a shortened link contained in a Tweet.

It's really useful for tracking the popularity of the links you send out on Twitter and is helping us report back to clients on the success of their messaging.

Just go to 'General' in your Tweetdeck settings and tick the box next to: Show Preview Information for Shortened URLs.

You can then just click on any link (in all tweets, not just yours) to immediately see how many other people have clicked on the link.

Here's the full explanation (with visuals to make it even easier) from Bit.ly

Wonderful new Twinings Tea Advert

It's always a real pleasure to watch clever TV adverts, and I love the new Twinings tea's TV advert which includes the work of live animation artist Ilana Yahav, similar to the work of Kseniya Simonova who won Ukraine's Got Talent this year.

Well done to the agency behind the advert - Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO Ltd - and the creative team of Charlotte Horton and Bonnie Doman.

Discover The Art of ..
Watch the ad...

Google Chrome Explained

I really loved this simple video that explains all about Google Chrome.

8 reasons why we love Twitter

I must admit to being a little shocked in recent weeks to hear a couple of our sector's leading publishers disregarding Twitter as merely a place where celebrities talk about what they have eaten for breakfast.

On both occasions I did my best to explain that Twitter is superb place to access information in a way that has never been possible before.

For those still not convinced, here are 8 things we've got from Twitter in the past month...

1. New business leads - a number of companies have approached us about new business having followed us on Twitter

2. Media relations - we've found opportunities for our clients by following journalists and broadcasters and building relationships

3. News - we hear the news as it happens and can share this with others via Twitter or in person

4. Events - We've attended a events and training that we wouldn't have known about if we hadn't been following on Twitter

5. Coverage - we've shared news about our clients and the media have contacted us to get more details and publish content

6. Images and video - we've been able to share images and video amongst the team and our clients when we're out at events

7. Web traffic - we've driven people to our website and blogs (and we can measure the numbers via Google Analytics and Bit.ly)

and finally and most importantly...

8. Knowledge - We have learnt SO MUCH from Twitter. By following some of the world's leading experts in social media we hear about new developments as they happen. We're also learning by following news agencies, national governing bodies of sport, politicians, government agencies, leisure attractions, fitness experts and trade associations (and of course a few celebs too!)

Women in Leisure - network launched

After many years of discussing it, we've finally established a network for women working in the leisure sector. Our first step has been to create a group called Women in Leisure on LinkedIn, and we already have almost 100 members and some discussions and sharing of news has started.

Hoping this will progress further in the future, with a charity lunch planned for early in 2010.

Using Doodle For Making Arrangements

Discovered this great free tool for arranging meetings and taking polls. It's called Doodle and we've been using it for arranging meetings internally. You get to ask a question (what's the best date to meet for the family celebration at Christmas would be just one example I'll be using soon), invite participants by adding their emails and then sit back and see which dates they choose.

Simple and professional, gets a bit thumbs up from Promote!