American Airlines has rolled out a new perk for social media users, access to their Admirals Club lounges, regardless whether you are flying with them or not.

To gain a one-day pass for the club, you need to have a Klout score of 55. What does this mean? Klout is a tool that measures your usage and engagement on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

The perk includes almost 40 lounges across the world including airports in San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and London.

With others already signed up to Klout Perks including Sony, Nike, Microsoft, Disney, Audi and Gilt, this is a major push by the social measurement tool.

A clever development, but one can't help thinking that social influencers may see through it, regardless of whether they take advantage of it or not.

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B2B Marketing has produced an infographic on The State of B2B Social Media 2013, built from the data included in their 2013 B2B Marketing Social Media Benchmarking Report.

From the infographic we can see that Twitter is the most popular platform for B2B businesses, however there seems to be an increase in the prevalence of Google+ in the B2B market.

We also see that a lot of companies don't calculate the ROI from social media.

Click on the image to see the full Infographic, or click here.

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Twitter has relaunched its specialist business and marketing platform; Twitter for Business.

The relaunch includes best practice guides and case studies from companies such as Porsche and Hubspot. The site has been redesigned to make it easier for anyone to use; either a seasoned marketer or a small business owner.

Encouraging businesses to utilise Twitter is pretty simple, getting them to advertise and spend is more difficult and the relaunch of this platform lends itself to the idea that Twitter wants to be a bigger advertising medium than before.

Twitter has also released the video below outlining some quick tips to enhance your Twitter usage.

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With the growing number of people using Twitter  it's no wonder that Gerry Morgan, of US-based blog Marketing Think, produced this great little infographic on how to write the perfect tweet.

The blueprint covers all the basic content - links, hashtags and mentions, in terms of both the ideal placement within a tweet and their uses. Some of the more relevant tips to take away from this could be leaving 20 characters at the end of your tweet for people to comment when they retweet, the importance of formatting, like using headlines or calls to action, and finally passing the "perfect tweet filter".

This a great piece for anyone who uses twitter but the post was targeted at marketers, advertisers and PR professionals, talking about engaging and informing audiences.

So regardless of what you use twitter for, have a read, take some notes and let us know if there is anything you feel he missed.

Read more about the perfect tweet here.

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Recently Google gave developers the chance to get their hands on a pair of Google glasses, called Glass, but more importantly, access to the API which allows apps to interact with them. 

They also set up an opportunity for "creative individuals" to trial the glasses via a campaign on Twitter and Google+, called Project Glass.

Using the hashtag #ifihadglass they are looking for people to give a reason why they should be the first to get their hands on the glasses in 50 words or less, however the winners will still have to fork out $1,500+tax for the privilege.

To encourage people to enter Google has released a video on YouTube which shows how Glass can be used, inclduing the voice operation, which uses the line "OK glass" to begin a command; i.e. "OK glass take a picture"

The video also highlights the sort of tasks you can perform with Glass, from text messaging and video calling to searching Google and finding a location on a map. There is also an automatic-picture-taking mode, which takes pictures at preset intervals.

The glasses are the next step in wearable technology, allowing the user to record everything they do, as well as interacting with others via video, although the headset doesn't actually have lenses in front of your eyes, just a small screen (viewable via a mirrored glass block) above and to the right of the wearer's right eye. Whilst not the only wearable technology in development (other companies including Microsoft has been developing their own version of Glass), the Google Glass is the one closest to completion, having first been announced last year, and featured in our blog last April.

Find out more at the Glass Website and watch the video below.

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In the first of a series of Social Marketing pieces, we are going to discuss how to optimise Twitter, for either personal or business use.
Below is a list of 10 tips that will help you with your account.

1:  Your password
If you created your account many moons ago there is a good chance that your password has not been updated and is not as secure as it should be. Standard tips are to include numbers, special characters, and a capital letter. You can use http://howsecureismypassword.net to test how “strong” your password is.  

2: Your design
Like most social media platforms, you can customise how your profile looks, from background image to “header” image; you can add in your own images or use a site like Kuvva to get access to artistic images. Header images are important for when people look at your profile on a mobile, but need to fit in with your background. Your profile picture may need updating too, especially if again, it hasn’t been changed since you set it up.  

3: Your profile info
What do you put here? It can vary in terms of what is best, but generally it is best to talk about yourself in the way you use Twitter; What do you tweet about? Why should people follow you? If it’s a professional account talk about your services, and make sure you have a link to your website. If it’s a personal account, make sure if you mention your job to specify that views are your own.  

4: Following / Followers
Just because Twitter suggests you follow someone doesn’t mean you have to, likewise if some-one follows you be sure to consider if what they tweet about is the sort of thing you want to read. if you wish to build and keep a good number of followers be sure to make your tweets informative and interesting, especially if you are representing a brand. There is a free online tool to help clear up which accounts you follow – Manage Flitter, it will tell you who doesn’t follow you back, who isn’t active, and if they may be a spam account.

5:  Apps
If you want to become a “pro” user, then use of apps is important. Check your profile to see what is connected to your account, anything that you don’t use get rid of, then try to use something like TweetDeck, a great way to monitor your Twitter feed and more without having to click through. Hootsuite is similar, and can provide analytics, but the free version has limitations. There are also some great paid for tools if you wish to go down that route, but read reviews and take trials, make sure it is right for how you want to use Twitter. Mobile apps are great for being on the move; Twitter obviously has a mobile app as do most web apps.  

6: Links
Whilst Twitter shortens links for you, using bitly or even tinyURL will allow you to put more content in as it shortens links to 20-26 characters as standard, and with bitly, you can track clicks, and it’s free.  

7: Getting people to follow you
Whilst a lot of people will follow you back if you follow them, having too big a ratio of who you follow to who follows you can make you look like a spammer, even if you have a fully complete profile. Gain authentic follows by promoting your Twitter account; put it in your email signature, on your Facebook, on your blog and even on your business cards. Never buy followers, you won't gain anything as they will not engage with you like authentic followers.  

8: Messages
Keep an eye on when people message you, remember they can only message you if you follow them and vice versa, so if you work in customer service for a brand, follow people who have an issue and get them to send you a message. At the same time, delete old messages, including sent, and avoid clicking on links in messages from people who claim there are dodgy photos of you online or that someone is saying bad things about you, these are viruses/spam.  

9: Engaging
Twitter is not just about tweeting your own thoughts, retweeting shows you value others thoughts and gives them credit for content.  
Using @handles is good practise too for when you are talking about other people, brands or products, likewise for #tags, these allow for people who don't follow you to see your tweets. Always reply to people when they mention you or favourite your tweets. Following back is also good, but again, be wary, it can be just a way for them to gain followers.  

10: Notifications
Getting emails from Twitter left, right and centre? Phone going off every time someone mentions or follows you? That’s fine if it doesn’t happen often, but if you are using Twitter a lot you will see all of this, so do you really need emails? Change your settings to avoid this, but be sure that you keep on top of your feed and interactions.

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The Think Tank recently took part in a series of seminars, talking about issues surrounding the use of social media in the workplace and the impact that it can have upon brand and reputation.

These have been very well attended and judging by two recent Twitter abuses in the United States it is becoming a very important factor for businesses, both internally and externally.

Last week a disgruntled employee at a company called Stub Hub sent out a tweet riddled with profanity, which the company subsequently had to apologise for and issue a withdrawal. We have added an image of this below but it does use quite strong language - you have been warned!

Another business, Kitchen Aid, mistakenly retweeted an offensive joke about President Obama's grandmother - possibly as a result of social media automation. Again, this is below but the content may be deemed as offensive.

These types of social media interactions may be mistakes or they may be on purpose but the problem is the same; Social Media poses new challenges to businesses as to how they and their employees interact online and the increasing possibility of damage to brand and reputation.

If you would like to discuss any of these topics and how they could impact upon your business then please get in touch.

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What would you do if an employee (or even a manager) made disparaging remarks on Facebook about your organisation, employees or key contacts?

In conjunction with The Think Tank, one of our legal associates is holding a seminar which looks at the 'Misuse of Social Media in the Workplace.

They comment, 'Almost every organisation will face the "Social Media test" at some point. That is, an employee - possibly thinking that they are talking only to 'friends' by way of Facebook, Twitter etc - will make comments which are highly damaging to its interests or the reputations and rights of key stakeholders.

Whilst there appears to be no binding legal authorities from the higher courts there are a number of Employment Tribunal decisions, and we have carefully pulled together some of the key issues and guidance from Employment Judges.'

The briefing is organised by GT Employment Lawyers on 21st June between 2pm and 4pm at Liverpool Street, London, EC2M and will cover the following topics:

Investigating misuse 

How to reconcile human rights issues such as 'freedom of expression' and 'privacy' with those of your organisation.

Handy tips from an IT specialist on how to monitor this kind of problem at work or even stop it altogether.

Delegates will be given a checklist to audit their systems and a specimen policy as well as detailed user-friendly notes and contacts in related fields.

The cost is £35 plus vat per delegate or £55 plus vat for 2 places. Places are limited and allocated in order of payment.

To find out more or book a place (or if you would like the presentation at your organisation on a more private basis) please contact Gordon Turner via his PA Sandra at email address sandra@gtelaw.co.uk

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Taking the engagement of their customers on Twitter very seriously, the Sainsbury's PR team this week posted an interesting response to a complaint by U.K. blogger October Jones.

He complained that the chicken sandwich that he had bought "tastes like it was beaten to death by Hulk Hogan."

The response? - "Really sorry it wasn't up to scratch. We will replace Mr. Hogan with Ultimate Warrior on our production line immediately."

Another Sainsbury's account replied by providing a phone number for Jones to call and said the company sincerely regrets that "you had to wrestle your way through the sandwich."

These are great responses but are they really appropriate when dealing with customer complaints? Made us smile though.

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The Think Tank PR team has been discussing ‘Earned’, ‘Owned’ and ‘Paid for’ media.  This came about as we saw a quote in PR Week from Freud Communications’ chairman, Matthew Freud, saying that: “The basic model for media and marketing is broken”.  

While media fragmentation has long been talked about we thought it was interesting that it is the interactive marketing space which is helping use define new universes.  

Although full definitions may vary, the basic premise is that ‘Owned’ media is the channel you control such as your website, or partially-owned, your company Facebook page or Twitter account.  

‘Earned’ media covers press coverage, however the term has evolved to cover the word-of-mouth that is being created through social media channels.  

‘Paid for’ media does what is says on the tin, and covers advertising in its many formats online and in print, and extends into paid search for example.  

Categorising your media in this way helps to identify the roles they can play in delivering your communications; understanding their benefits and challenges can be a critical next step, and of course that they work best together.  

But of course the real test is what you say, not just how you are delivering your message, and increasingly how you are then listening, engaging and responding is key in this new ‘networked’ age.

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Twitter has announced that it is launching 'Brand Pages' to meet the growing demand from advertisers to be able to promote their products more prominently than at present.

The pages have two key elements, both of which are free. Ad Age tells us 'They can be customized with large header images that advertisers can use to display their logo and tagline more prominently than under the standard format, where branded elements of the page design are often partially covered by the time line of tweets. Brands can also choose to keep a particular tweet at the top of their time line, and that top tweet also auto-expands to reveal an embedded photo or video from Flickr, YouTube or other sources, without requiring the user to take action.'

Ad Age interviewed Twitter's Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain to find out more about their plans. The launch will initially include brand pages for 21 marketers including American Express, Best Buy, Bing, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Dell , Disney, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and McDonald's who are all deemed strategic partners.

To read the full article please click here or to find out more about how to enhance your page click here.

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