Econsultancy’s Social Media and Online PR report is out now and makes interesting reading.

It suggests that in-house PR teams in particular are guilty of ignoring the importance of online reputation monitoring.  Nearly half of respondents to the survey (of 1,100 client-side marketers, PR professionals and digital agencies) said they did not use reputation or buzz monitoring tools to understand what was being said about their brand on the web – and only 17 per cent were using technology to analyse sentiment.

At OnVisible we are big fans of reputation monitoring, utilising a mix of free tools, bought in technology and bespoke solutions.  After all, online reputation building and engagement is all about conversations – and it gets a bit one sided if you aren’t listening to what everyone else is saying.

posted by gemmaT

My daily technology essentials include my mobile, laptop, digital camera and ipod.  And I’ve got my eye on a kindle type e-reader and an iphone to add to that list.  So how long is it likely to be before someone manages to combine all of them into something that is a) affordable, b) reliable, c) user friendly and d) with a long battery life and brilliant connectivity?

Perhaps the rumoured Apple tablet might fit the bill?

But a palm sized device isn’t going to be enough – in order to stay productive, I’ll need the option of some kind of flexible, rollup keyboard and a decent sized screen.  So I’ll still be lugging a fair amount of technology around with me in my handbag.

And is all this take-your-life-with-you convenience going to come at a cost?  Do I really want to be able to read that enormous powerpoint report at the weekend?  Who will own this (probably pricey) technology – your employer or yourself?  Having your entire digital life on one piece of company owned technology could make changing jobs problematic as all your personal data would have to be transferred over - or relinquished with the machine.

Also, can you imagine the stress if I lose it or it gets stolen?!?

posted by gemmaT

The world is moving incredibly fast.  Technological development is galloping forwards at unprecedented speed.  It seems like every week there’s a killer new iphone app, a must have latest mobile device or whatever is going to be the-next-twitter launched.

Buts its OK if you aren’t at the cutting edge of all this.  After all, according to the technology adoption curve, the ‘early majority’ and ‘late majority’ of adopters of innovations make up over two thirds of everyone who will eventually use it, while the groundbreaking ‘innovators’ and ‘early adopters’ total only 16%.

Coming to something a little late can actually have real benefits as the product or service is likely to be out of ‘beta’ and working properly.  Economies of sale and declining must-have status mean that it will probably have come down in price or be easier to access too.  And as a bonus, you can leave it up to the coolerati to test everything new and find out which ones actually work in real life – and which don’t, saving you precious time and money.

So let’s hear it for the not-quite-so-hipsters, the critical-massers and the going-to-wait-and-sees.  After all, some data suggests that only 9% of UK internet users are already on twitter, even though it received more UK press coverage in June 09 than google…

posted by gemmaT