Facebook, wordpress and twitter can make you RICH!

It wasn’t until our most recent lecture that the true  power of social media was explained to  me.

After listening to Adam Tinworth (of RBI) and Mark Ramskill (of Subhub), I think i’ve created an: Equation for businesses who want to make through premium content on the internet. Here it is:

The Equation of the Future:

Good Marketing Strategy  +  Social Media  and  Blogging  +/-  B*llsh*t

=

More Customers Paying For Premium Content

 The national papers are still on top of the money tree in the print world. B2B business magazines are second in front  of consumer mags, then at the bottom are the local papers.  One of the reasons that the B2B are doing so well is because of their internet activity. Tinworth changing with the times has paid off for RBI. His job title, Head of blogging, shows how important consumer interaction with their business’ are.

Open enough to show us their turnover from magazines vs their internet turnover, RBI’s money is increasing from web activity whilst (probably quite obviously) the magazine turnover is reducing. But the more important reason for RBI’s success was not just down to their number of blogs and social media usage, but the way they used they used them i.e. the use of forums so people can voice opinions on the blogs thus attracting more to view blogs and the attractiveness of uber niche blogs. It’s the uber niche blogs that attracted the most loyal viewers and consumers viewing and posting on theses blogs make the company money. Their imput makes them part of the group and thus implements them to buy the premium content.

This new vortex of money-making through the internet is where journalists want to get in. Print have tried, but it hasn’t worked thus far. Consumer magazines will have to try harder. And the BBC obviously don’t want to charge, as they believe that people pay for the TV service already. But if jobs are being cut, and more are being hired in the web areas of the BBC, somethings got to give soon as the other networks are seiriously struggling.

Wales team analysis vs All Blacks

Gatland has made some bold decisions. He’s picked an experienced prop, an inexperienced full-back, same world-class centre partnership, a beefy backrow and no flyhalf on the bench. It seem’s he’s gone for an old-school flying back three in the backs to go with the rest of the team which offers sheer bulk. All selections seem to be reasonable ones, but some are worth a more in-depth mention.

Tighthead Prop

Paul James’ only game for Wales was against Romania 6 years ago. Although this says a lot about the depth Wales has in the prop department, it does show that Adam Jones has being play so well that no-one else has had a go. However,  playing such a player with limited experience against the second best team in the world is a gamble. Gatland has gone with a prop who can play both sides of the scrum so as not upset the balance that Gethin Jenkins gives to the pack. His loose play is outstanding for a prop, and his weakness is playing tighthead in the scrum, so playing James is the best decision in the circumstances. Eifion Lewis at Sale may feel slightly disheartened, but he is still behind fitness wise this year.

Full-Back

You have to find a place for James Hook in the team. He was outstanding in the Lions, and should have started the last two tests. He has been in top form this year for the ospreys. It’s a shame (not a shame but you know what I mean) that we have two of the best fly-halfs in the business in Hook and Stephen Jones. The other option would have been to play Hook at 12 and move Jamie Roberts to 13. Roberts hasn’t played 13 professionally, so that would have been a gamble, and Hook has struggled internationally at 12 even though he’s been playing very well at the Ospreys at 12. But, with two such talented players, I’m sure it would have worked. Full-back it is for now, for the utility back who needs to secure his rugby position before he walks from the Ospreys.

Center

Same as the 6 nations. Both Tom Shanklin and the Lions player of the tour need to offer some more dummy lines and creativity to out wit the Blacks  to go complement the smash they play so well.

Backrow

Martin Williams and Ryan Jones are almost automatic choices. Chosing Andy Powell at 6 I think says a lot about how Gatland wants Wales to play. He’s put Jones at 8 because the Welsh captain is twice the player he is than when he operates from blind side. Powell at 6 is simply for power. Powell will smash and crash and let the rest of the team clean up; this could quite turn-out to be a masterstroke. The dynamic back row of Richie McCaw, Rodney So’oialo and Kaino will need to use all their cheating tricks to outmuscle the Welsh back row.

The Bench

With Hook at full-back its obvious why there’s no fly half on the bench – if Stephen gets injured Hook can switch. However the problem might come if Hook is having a bad game, then he’s going to have to gamble and play Leigh Halfpenny full-back, who hasn’t played their professionally for over a year and never internationally. Dafydd Jones gets the nod to cover back row in-front of Sam Warbuton – this is down to experience most likely, although Jones has been having a fine season so far for the Scarlets. I’m sure the back-row for the Samoa game maybe slightly more experimental with Powell at 8 and Warbuton and Dafydd Jones around him. Whoever is the better that game will be on the bench for the last two games in the series. With no other alternative, Martin Roberts makes the bench at 9 with inform center Jonathan Davies in line to come on to get his 3rd cap.

A bullish-ly strong first XV and bench. If Stephen Jones and James Hook can make some magic happen in the backs, the centers should be able to create the platform needed to give the Blacks a run for their money.

Wales’s future 7

Martin Williams has made a remarkable comeback from injury thanks to the Cardiff Blues medical staff and conditioning coaches. His Position as Wales’s 7 is guaranteed. However, at 34, we must start looking towards the future in such a key position at international level. This is Wales’s last opportunity to try out new options at open side before the 6 nations.

The Main Options

Sam Warbuton has played most of this season as Cardiff’s no. 7. We must begin to look to youth. Captain of the u-19s, Wales’s newest flanker talent has bags of potential. Last week he proved he had the muscle against Sale in a Blindside role. As long as he keeps growing, he could play anywhere across the back three of the scrum; although with his athleticism for his height his best position is 7. Lets hope he gets the game time to prove himself.  

There’s also a shout for Dafydd Jones.

Jones has had a lot of career threatening injuries, but has managed extremely well with these, and is after a hapless last season it seems he’s back to his best. Expect him to be right up there with a shout at taking over nuggets role. However, for the time being, he may have to settle for the blindside flanker role because of Williams’ unexpected return from injury, which would mean that the ginger flanker would be straight back into the Welsh mix.

Outside chances

An outside chance would be Lydiate. Although blindside by trade, he his young at 21 and has great potential for the future. Gavin Thomas, Lydiate’s fellow flanker, who is open side by trade, maybe in with a chance, but arguably, his time may have come and gone, and he is merely a good club player now.

Robin Sowden-Taylor is always going to be there or thereabouts (although he’s injured at time of publishing), but if the next big thing (i.e. possibly Warbuton) comes around Taylor could be in the same boat as Gavin Thomas. A shame as he’s been waiting in the wings for years.

Summary

Nugget will start against the Aussie’s and the All Blacks, but for the Argentina and Soman matches, it would be a good idea to try Jones or Warbuton at 7. 34 is tender age for rugby player. And we must have someone ready to fill the huge gap that Martin Williams will leave in the international team in the next two years.

Twitter+bbc=normality?

OK, I’ve been swayed by the bigtimes at BBC online, Twitter is useful for a journalist. But, I’m not that convinced its Gods greatest gift to the modern generation.

Dr Claire Wardle’s main points about ‘following the right people’, ‘making it work for you’ and using other twitter related sites such as Twitterfall, Twittertool and Twittearth - were very useful for an upcoming journo like myself.  However, I find the whole thing slightly overwhelming.

As journalists, we should know the basics of the internet. I think therefore it ends at Twitter. Do we really need all these excessive add-on sites? I can’t say that we really do, for me, they’re just making the whole thing more complicated, i.e. as I catch up with how to use twitter, I should know about Twitterfall and … e.t.c

The world is changing into a digital age. And with it, people are using the internet more and more. Granted. But there will always be a group of people ahead of the curve using sites and programs that the average internet user really won’t need or ever use.

BBC online’s drive to push twitter has even angered some of their audience. As I am slightly sitting on the fence, I would tend to agree with this particular case in point. Did the BBC’s F1 team really need to promote Twitter? Well possibly. But they’re pushing the ‘service’ of Twitter to quite a length now. Every region is now linked to Twitter, as are all the major programs on the BBC.

Interestingly, ITV believe they are behind the curve with the Twitterers. And they are..compared to the BBC. The number of the UK using twitter is still quite low; granted this study was done in January, and it probably maybe doubled since then, but it would still be in the 0.00s% of people from Uk using the internet on Twitter.

I’m not quite sure what i’m trying to make out here. It confuses me that we should need more sites to use one site better. And I think this goes back to an earlier point in that if that is the case, it usually for those ‘elite’ of us who use the internet in a different way to the average user.

Trafigura – Come on, if you’d just thought about it judge…

Waaw, this is a complex one. Law hasn’t been my strong point and this is at the height of complex-ion-ness. 

But, from what I can gather, it is outrageous. I don’t want to delve into the main points of the (what I would like to call, not in a Law sense btw) ‘scandal’, I want to talk about the ridiculousness of the whole thing. complicated stories like this confuse me.

So, I read the oct/16/trafigura-carter-ruck-the-guardian”>child’s version.

I think the main thing we should all take into account is the environmental issue this causes. I know not everyone tries the hardest to save our planet, however, the most of us with any common sense to tend to do the most we can e.g. turn off electrics at the plug; recycle e.t.c . The fact that any Judge could pass an injunction (or superduperinjunction) on something which is going to or has caused serious environmental issues to the Ivory Coast (and probably have knock-on effects to the rest of Africa and our amazing weather in the UK) is….criminal? Well, not really criminal, but it kinda should be. Letting oil just spill into the sea, and stop people from knowing about it!? Something must have been going through the Judge’s mind like “hm..is this unholy/lawful/good for the enviroment/going to get me to lunch quicker/a joke”.

After then reading oct/16/carter-ruck-abandon-minton-injunction “>another side to the story, you realise that this really is a big issue for not only the world, but a wake up call for the G20/8/6 to help Africa more. This just would never have happened in Europe, us journo’s would have been over it like a rash, and people would be losing their jobs faster than the bankers lost our cash.

Although, I think people will lose their job, reputation and hopefully go to jail over this whole inhumane ordeal.

Reference Video

Here’s a link to an interesting program that ‘week in week out’ (Welsh current affairs program) did on the use of Steroids in South wales. The numbers are truly shocking:

http://pumpthatiron.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/week-in-week-out-steroids-documantary/

Watch it, be baffled.

Cheating vs chilling

In the real world, the law on drugs are miles apart between anabolic steroids and recreational drugs.

The law on the possession of anabolic steroids is a slight grey area, claiming that you can have as much as you want on you however, if you have an intent to sell its illegal (www.talktofrank.com/drugs.aspx?id=170).

 What? If, for example, I was casually walking down the street with a bag full of anabolic steroids, and a police officer stops me, how is he going to determine if I have an intent to sell them? They could simply be my monthly supply, even if they weren’t, I’d have to be in a bizarre frame of mind to tell the officer that I intend to sell and make myself a billionaire.

The law on hgh states that it is illegal without prescription, however, as it is still in testing and new types are being used aid growth all the time, testing is proving more costly and more time consuming. I’m still not 100% sure about the legalities of hgh, but I am 100% sure that it is illegal in all professional sport.

In terms of recreational drugs we all know that cocaine, heroin, lsd e.t.c are all illegal, and the penalties are much worse than those given to the penalties given to illegal performance enhancing drugs.  

After talking to people who do take recreational drugs and then some who don’t, both sets of people agree that it is unfair that those caught using recreational drugs are banned for the same amount of time as those taking performance enhancing drugs.

You could argue that professional in sport are role models, and those caught taking any type of drugs should serve the same ban. However this seems to be a fairly weak argument. Cheating in sport has been around for decades, drugs which are illegal should come with more or less life-time bans if a professional gets tested positive for them. 

Another problem is that tests for recreational drugs are easier, less time consuming and cost less, therefore the sports bodies can easily see when a player has been ’smacking’ up; where as the hgh test is costly and very time consuming.

Often, the players know when tests for doping are coming up and because of this factor, they therefore have ample time to get ‘clean’ or be off sick. Getting hardcore evidence could be tricky though…

Internet manifesto vs Alison Gow

I think I’d would have to say that I agree mostly with Alison Gow’s approach to new journalism that the manifesto;  she more or less just expands on the manifesto. In some respects, Alison Gow is simply telling us how the journalism should embrace this new exiting world of online journalism. She references the fact that many newsrooms disregard the internet as a valid source of news, and goes on in her 5 points to state that it should be a new vibrant collaboration of the different forms of journalism that we already have :

“If you supplement your text with still and moving images, a podcast, an interactive Q&A, or a liveblog, how much more dynamic and memorable will your complete package be?” (http://headlinesanddedlines.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-phrases-to-outlaw-in-newsrooms.html).

I would have to say that I have somewhat been in the frame of mind that Gow calls “  ‘ I don’t know how to use/make that…. it’s only a website’ “, after delving more into blogs and the numbers that create, share, read and review them is beginning to change my mind.

In terms of the manifesto, I also agree with most of it.  However the 7th point where the German states that links must be made between sites and bloggers e.t.c. is very similar to the one discussed by Peter Horrocks, where as he is stating that the BBC must help all, the manifesto is claiming that we should all now work together in internet journalism. I also agree with the 9th point that politics will eventually get a better turn out on election days by allowing the media to post news promoting parties on the internet.

However, my largest concern with the manifesto is that fact that we as journalists have chosen what is in the public interest, and the majority of the time it (we) have been correct. Why should we now change our ways so that we should listen to any individual who has a key interest in any matter? It’s not that it is unfair, but we strive to make it out living, while most bloggers are doing it to pass time (section 10, 11 and 14).

Drugs in rugby

Many sports have been waylaid by drug problems in the past. The most infamous is athletics. Every season, every event, the best are always targeted, i.e. the latest being Usain Bolt, who seems to find it quite funny that people are doubting his credentials as being ‘all natural’ .

Football also had its fair share of problems, however, most of these have the use of recreational drugs by the professionals, as a pose to the performance enhancing ones that I want to discuss.

Its suprising that the most resent claims of misuse of drugs in professional rugby, was that of the England International Matt Stevens in January 2009, who tested positive for cocaine, and is now in the process of a two-year ban.

However, rugby is the youngest of Britain’s three most professional popular sports (the other two of course being football and cricket), and there may be evidence of loopholes in the testing system that allow the use of performance enhancement drugs that professional rugby players take to give them into ‘super-human’ physical attributes.

In my next blog i’ll talk about the two major culprits in the performance enhancing field, and then the ‘fairness’ of bans between recreational drugs and performance enhancing drugs.