Bits and Bytes

Did you all have a good Christmas? Some of these victims of Christmas autocorrects didn’t (possibly NSFW).

At special request – a look at the best PR examples and campaigns from 2012 proved more difficult than I thought. Mainly because the Internet seems to like PR fails/disasters much more than PR wins. I did come across these lists from Maud Davis and My News Desk but it’d be interesting to hear from you lot what you thought were the best PR wins from 2012?

Looking ahead at what’s in store for PRs in 2013: a shift in outcomes and tactics. In a nutshell, the future will be about enhancing reputation, increasing share of mind and generating leads and website traffic through content PR and image led communication. Must read.

A gift from the comedy gods this week that shows how little people understand about Facebook privacy settings. Randi Zuckerberg, ex-marketing director at Facebook and older sister of the sandaled CEO, this week posted a photo of the Zucks testing the new Poke app at Christmas. Unbeknownst to Randi, the photo was tweeted by a friend of a friend and went viral. Randi took offence, attacking the rogue tweeter for her lack of ‘human decency’. A delicious case of the pot calling the kettle black (which didn’t go down at all well on t’Interwebs) and spectacular proof that even the people who built Facebook don’t have a clue how the social network actually works.

The oxymoron that is ‘Facebook privacy’ is at the heart of this comical bit of ‘reporting’ of the Randi Zuckerberg story by The Today Show in the US. Not only don’t they have the slightest clue about what it is that happened, they seem to be proud of their total ignorance.

But that wasn’t the only story of social media incompetence from people who should know better. The Sale Sharks have sacked their social media bod who branded a section of the club’s supporters as “absolute f***wits” on her personal Facebook page. Ouch.

Moving on from this Facebook fail to some inspiring online ads – only that the best online ads in 2012 weren’t ads. “It’s the content that makes up the best native advertising, mostly on social channels; the non-ad, non-paid advertising that tells great stories, engages us and compels us to share these experiences with our networks.”

Slightly left field, but very interesting in terms of gaining insight on people’s behaviours through social media. A small start-up called Sickweather used data from Twitter and Facebook to declare an early start to this year’s U.S. flu season, six weeks before the Centers for Disease Control.

And finally, The Guardian has done a marvellous job in pulling together the viral videos of the year in a 5 minute clip. Warning: contains Gangnam Style.

Have a happy new year everyone – see you in 2013.