Have we lost a sense of decency in content creation?

As an ex-hack, I know the pressure of having to fill a weekly printed newspaper so the never-ending demands of supplying content for rolling-news channels and online editions must be enormous, not to mention the pressure of achieving the right metrics. Yet, in the last week, following the terrorist attack in Tunisia and even the disappearance of ex-Blue Peter presenter John Noakes in Majorca who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, I have been shocked by the extent that journalists will go to get a headline, increase clicks or fill a slot.

Is it necessary to show...

• John Noakes, who was missing for hours in hot sunshine and was clearly in a poorly state, being strapped to a stretcher;
• A woman in pain and distress following the Tunisian attacks in her hospital bed;
• Mobile phone footage of the attacks actually taking place;
• The injured being removed from the beach in swimwear who may be identifiable to family and friends who were not even aware their loved one had been injured;
• Painful interviews with survivors who are clearly in shock and who probably require medical help or counselling to recover;
• And finally, journalists (many at the BBC) who have been trained at the Ministry of Silly Questions...

I am a firm believer in a free press and the rise of the mobile phone has given everyone the potential to be a reporter on the ground, but there has to be a balance between good journalism and gratuitous headline grabbing. Victims should be allowed to keep their dignity. If they cannot give their consent to filming, is it ethical to show them on a live news broadcast? Is it right to upset their family and friends in that way? Journalism is under pressure. It's hard to make a return on investment when so much news is now free, immediate and reported by multiple agencies instantaneously regardless of time zones.

Content is king, however just because more content is required, doesn't mean standards and ethics should slip. 

3 ways HE lecturers can use social media as a learning tool

Using social media as a learning tool has being a running theme for me this semester. As a marketer and market researcher, I find Twitter to be a valuable depository of links to white papers, conference papers, research findings and best practice guidance. LinkedIn helps me to build contacts and relationships as I grow my network as well as highlighting useful collateral I may have missed on Twitter. And of course, there are many other social media platforms that have value to the marketer too. I was guilty of assuming that the digital natives I teach are tuned into social media in the same way, but I was wrong; certainly, social media for social purposes but that professional angle wasn't as clear to them.

There is a clear rationale for using social media with business students - employability is of course key to that but I've found that they are often so focused on using text books and journal articles as references in their assignments that they forget that professional practice is just as important to business people as the founding principles.

Here are 3 ways I've used social media as a learning tool this term:

1. Students were asked to create a student-led creative campaign to promote the business school to potential undergraduates or postgraduates using social media with the message that 'learning has never been so much fun'. Key learning outcomes were for them to understand the importance of a creative idea, how promotional tools and media need to be integrated to work effectively, and the importance of marketing metrics. This was a quick and dirty one week activity but students developed a range of great ideas including a Facebook page with mini-blogs from international students; a fun set of images adopting the 'keep calm and carry on' theme; and a video for sharing featuring student life in the style of a cartoon strip. This learning by doing exercise gave students the chance to understand the limitations of their approach and the challenge of developing good content that is shareable and genuinely 'fun'.
2. Getting students to set up a Twitter profile and find 25 people or companies to follow in their field of interest. Concentrating their efforts to select useful contacts was a challenge but this helped them to understand how they could build an effective network and start to see relevant content.
3. Free blogging tools such as WordPress, Google Blogger or Weebly were used to set up an e-portfolio. Students were asked to select a marketing topic of their choice and challenged to discover 'what is best professional practice in this area?' by using social media. This taught them how to critically evaluate the quality of professional sources, how to search for the right kinds of material and how to direct their information search by setting clear objectives. This was an activity that took place over the semester partly in-class and also through self-directed learning. It required motivation, dedication, and a curiosity in the marketing topic to succeed. The jury is still out on the results but formative feedback told me that this was an activity and an alternative assessment method that they really enjoyed.

Student-centred learning and applying the theory to practice work really well for me when helping students to understand the value of social media to the marketer and to every business. What has worked for you?

 #learning #digitallearning #edtech

Waitrose, don't you know people are laughing at you?

Yet again, Waitrose is the butt of online jokes and viral posts about their extremely middle to upper class take on an 'Essentials' range. And it's hardly surprising when a basketful of Essential range items in this supermarket could include tinned artichoke hearts, bumper packs of avocadoes and rosemary and sea salt focaccia. It's like every night is dinner at Downton Abbey.

It's hardly the first time the joke has been on Waitrose. The Facebook page 'Overheard in Waitrose' posts amusing quotes such as this one heard in the Harborne branch: "this is disgusting, they've run out of fresh lemongrass and dried lemongrass is just the worse." With 342,693 likes (14/10/2014) and press representation, and probably a high level of shares, this is another example of how the word of mouth buzz about Waitrose is that of amusement.

In 2012, Waitrose's twitter campaign, 'Why I shop at Waitrose...' was hijacked by jokers who instead of talking about the quality of the food wrote quips such as "I shop at Waitrose because Clarissa's pony just will not eat ASDA value straw." Waitrose's management did respond to the tweets with:

Waitrose @waitrose: "Thanks for all the genuine and funny waitrosereasons tweets.We always like to hear what you think and enjoyed reading most of them."

They can take a joke (just about) but who wants to be the brand that is always mocked? And why put yourself in the firing lane repeatedly? Brands need to know who their target market is and how they should be positioning themselves, but sister organisation John Lewis manages to promote itself effectively without its campaigns being hijacked or its product ranges ridiculed.

This is not about whispering in the playground. Social media is accessible to read by customers, competitors and brands themselves. There is no excuse not to know what the buzz is about you. Social media monitoring and environmental scanning is time consuming but an essential part of the marketing planning process. Addictomatic is just one free tool that shows you the buzz about any brand online: http://addictomatic.com/topic/waitrose. You can examine instantly what customers think about you or your competitors and if you're not getting it right, you can adjust the tone or approach to your communications or your use of the marketing mix.

Be proud of what your brand values are Waitrose, and laugh at yourself if you wish - it is a British trait after all, but don't be a running joke if you have no control over the punchline.

We can neither confirm nor deny that we are writing about the CIA!

A strange thing happened this morning... I took a screenshot of the CIA's now notorious first (quite amusing) Tweet, saved it onto my computer as CIA.jpg - then I couldn't find it anywhere despite the previous history saying I'd created it! When I resaved it as Cimage.jpg - it was there... Strange huh? Conspiracy? Probably not!

The CIA has embraced the Twittersphere in the spirit of openness and transparency - they tell us that they will share their #unclassified content with us. Fabulous said 615,000+ followers and the estimated 250,000+ according to The Guardian who retweeted the first tweet. However, this fills me with as much disappointment as when I realised that MI5 were publically advertising career opportunities... no more will I wander around Cambridge waiting for that tap on my shoulder to ask if I've ever thought about working for my Country. "Yes, count me in, although I don't like flying, hot countries, spiders, volcanoes or danger." Although we can still merrily engage in conspiracy chatter about the #unclassified content the CIA is not sharing with us, I do feel they've spoilt the mystique!

So should all organisations have a social media presence? Well these days the answer is probably yes, if they can keep it current, relevant, useful, on target with objectives and the mission of the organisation. Even the British Monarchy is following an integrated social media strategy with regular updates of what the royals are up to, photos from events, information on celebrations and so on... They've sent out over 18,000 tweets and have 668,000 followers - probably from a younger generation. When you consider how unpopular the British Royals were after Diana's death, and the current unpopularity of the Spanish Royals, social media is clearly a great channel for them to reach new global fans from this generation of digital natives.

Equally, despite my disappointment in state secrets being slightly less shrouded in mystery, there is a case for security services to be using social media to communicate what they do to protect citizens and to explain their strategic mission - however don't expect the SAS to be posting selfies of themselves "going through the window right now" anytime soon.