The last week has seen a deluge of articles flooding news sites and social network talking about the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) bills currently being proposed by the House of Representatives. I wouldn’t recommend trying to read the documents unless you have some serious insomnia issues but they’re there if you want to check them out. Major brands and noted media figureheads have spoken openly either in support or condemning the bills which are designed... [Read more]

There’s been a lot of noise this week about the fact that Facebook’s new subscribe feature has been made available for websites. Some of the headlines announced the new feature was to rival Twitter and replicated the user’s ability to ‘follow’ individuals. It all sounded very exciting until I spent a good half an hour head scratching over the not insignificant number of posts about this new tool just to come to the realisation that this is a bit of a non story. The subscribe button for a brand page does exactly... [Read more]

Editor:  As most of you may already now, I’ve had an unhealthy obsession with Klout over the past few months. They may in part have been because my score was so high Its not anymore. It dropped by over 10 points overnight. Klout is clearly trying to improve their algorithm and rightly so. However there really are some clear flaws in the new algorithm (which I’m sure they’ll iron out). However, if I have more followers, likes, and connections, I am more active and get re-tweeted more, it would make... [Read more]

Google update means rewards for good quality content Google are working hard to improve the quality of its search results with a recent algorithmic update that aims to improve the search ranking for sites that contain good quality content and downgrades “link farms”. The update has only been launched in the US so far and has been met with mixed feedback from some sites now finding that they have dropped in the rankings. Google is encouraging feedback but it does state that as this is an algorithmic update there... [Read more]

I was lucky enough to be  invited to speak at the annual conference for the Health and Beauty Association this week on the topic of using Social Media in Practice. You can see my slides  below. Thanks for all the feedback and for those that attended – it was a great session and I got some great insights. Health and Beauty Association Social Media View more presentations from Daniel Rowles.  Read More →