Anyone who predicted December to be a quieter month due to the winding down period before the holidays couldn’t have been more mistaken. After much anticipation and speculation, this month saw major changes rolled out across the four biggest social networking platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube. Hopefully this end-of-year timing will give users and developers some time to adjust before all launching headfirst into continuing our exciting work in the New Year.

Twitter

This month Twitter launched a big change to their user interface called the ‘Let’s Fly’ design, now readily available for the web app, mobile (Android and iPhone) and launching for iPad apps soon. This new design helps users ‘Discover’ new content and interests, and offers a shiny new lay out for brands, which is a first for Twitter. A few great add-ons included in this new layout are the ‘jump to the top’ function (no more endless scrolling!) and ‘tweet details’. Tweet details allows users to tap a tweet and immediately find out more information such as the full page, shared multimedia, linked web pages and the number of retweets and favorites the particular tweet has received.

To find out more information on the new mobile design, follow @Twittermobile with offers tips and updates from the team. To see how the button layout has changed into the five new and easy to use functions (Me, Home, Connect, Discover and Tweet) watch this video brought by Twitter here.

December Updates:

• 8^th December: Twitter Launches Brand Pages; The ‘Fly’ Design
• 16^th December: Twitter Launches TweetDeck as Web App
• 21^st December: Twitter available in four new languages: Finnish, Danish, Norwegian and Polish

Facebook

The much anticipated Facebook Timeline was rolled out to users this month. This big change was first rolled out New Zealand and is now available for users across the globe. Currently, users must opt-in via the official Facebook link to swap their layout from the old version. The biggest addition is of course the cover photo which is the most eye-catching feature of the page and thus important for users to choose wisely – especially once it is rolled out to brands.

Posts made by you are now called Your Stories this is because the content you share on your page now comes in different formats. You might share what you are currently listening to on Spotify which groups together, the Places, Events’ and Pages you like/attend/visit will also be grouped together, making your profile easier to manage and control. One of the biggest changes I noticed is that there is a distinct lack of the ‘Wall’ which used to be the biggest feature for many users. Posts are dotted around the Timeline which make up a week based on time, rather than just one wall than you continuously scroll through. It’s kind of like a very personal RSS feed.

Once you have Timeline, you have seven days in which you are able to check it out, move things around and test your preferences before you click Publish. Once published,  your Timeline is live to all your friends and you cannot go back to the old version. You are able to delete, hide or add anything you wish to your Timeline. The Timeline homepage you can see how many of your friends have currently implemented Timeline, and check out their pages for inspiration!

December Updates:

• 6^th December – Timeline is rolled out in New Zealand
• 15^th December – Timeline rolled out Worldwide

Timeline rolled out for brand pages yet to be determined

Google+

It’s a month on from the launch of Google+ brand pages (November 7) and a lot has happened since then. Notable events include Britney Spears becoming the first Google+ page to top 1 million users and the release of the 2011 Google Zeitgeist list (of which the elusive iPhone 5 is listed). On December 19, Google+ added three new improvements to its platform to primarily aid the management of brand pages. The finer detail of publishing content has been improved dramatically in which page admins are able to ‘graphic-equalize’ the publisher stream. This means that you can manage your streams down to the minute detail (in order to create the most optimized stream for your brand and its audience). A slider tool allows you to choose how you wish to filter you posts into the main content stream to increase visibility/impressions.

The next update is the improvement made to page management. Along with Buddy Media who was been selected last month as official launch partner, it looks like Google+ pages are finally taking off in terms of content management. You can now have up to 50 admins on your brand page by ‘Adding a Manager’ via the page settings. This new feature also allows you to ‘Transfer Ownership’ which you can pass on admin rights from yourself to a new user. This is useful for when a community manager is stepping down from the page and needs to pass on all relevant information. The limitation of 50 admins per page also means more security control over the page. The other feature that makes the page management easier is the new notification flow that allows managers to communicate and keep abreast of all page activity at all times.

December Updates:

• 12^th December – Further integration between Gmail and Google+
• 14^th December – Google+ expands ‘on-air’ Hangouts
• 19^th December – Multi-admin control
• 19^th December – Adjustments for Volume Control to ‘Circle’s feature
• 21^st December – Google+ Pages showing as primary search result

YouTube

For a big part of this year the questions on many people’s lips has been what the heck is Cosmic Panda? This month, it appears that YouTube has now unveiled this radical new look this month for its more than 800 billion users worldwide. Shishir Mehotra, the VP of product development for YouTube, highlighted the reasons for these changes:

“We’re trying to take what we see as the best of TV and the best of online and bring it together”.  This makes sense considering the way in which users are now consuming videos online more than ever and the ever rising social integration with TV.”

The first thing I noticed when logging on is the stream in the middle of my homepage. I can now ‘subscribe’ to other channels which will feature in my feed as well as already getting updates from my Google+ circles. My YouTube and Gmail account are also even more closely aligned.

Channel pages have also changed and are now much slicker, with the addition of larger video screens, several new layout templates (creator, blogger, broadcaster, everything – screenshot below) and customization options. The ‘Video Manager’ allows you to edit your videos with text, audio, transitions, annotations and a cutting tool. You can also personalize your homepage with the video suggestions with the ‘Recommended For You’ lists. It seems that this updated focus on social integration might be YouTube’s aim to make the website a place users spend longer periods of time by networking rather than a short-lived hotspot for watching a five minute videos.

There are also new additions to the Analytics toolkit, where the reporting facility has been made easier for users. YouTube have now included a ‘data filter’ in which you can now categorize by content, location and time. The graph facility has also improved, the data granularity is more focused; you can now pin point data daily, weekly or monthly in a specific date range. You can also compare your data by charting Viewers directly next to Unique Viewers. For even more information on ‘What’s new’ in YouTube Analytics click here.

December Updates:

• December 1^st – YouTube takes web remake live

A Focus on Integration

In conclusion, it appears that these huge networks are looking for ways to improve user-friendliness and add integration options. Twitter’s focal points are on shareability (with newly embeddable Tweets), extending their focus to brands and also strengthening their ‘discover’ functionality, continuing to cement Twitter as the ‘news source’ in the social media landscape. Facebook is focusing more on the visual nature of pages, shareability, third-party integration and the bringing together of old and new data. Facebook is also concentrating on making the platform all-inclusive. Google and YouTube are further integrating their services and will continue, it appears, to incorporating the results in enhanced search functions more than anything else.

Image credit: Luxuryluke

The public relations profession is built on a foundation of two-way communication. Whether it’s working with the media, writing a tweet or building a website, communications professionals are tasked with raising awareness of their employers’ or clients’ work and perspectives -– and learning from and responding to the conversation.

Video sharing sites like YouTube are an excellent way to break the ice because nothing online is as personal and human as video. And right now, few activities online are more popular. In February there were 139.2 million unique online video viewers in the U.S. who spent an average of nearly 4 and a half hours watching video on computers at work and at home. Not surprisingly, YouTube was the leading online brand for video, followed by VEVO and Facebook.

With such a huge opportunity, how can PR pros tap into the power of sites like YouTube? It’s certainly a challenge — for every viral video, hordes more go unseen. Below, we highlight a few ways you can use online video to execute your communications programs.

Read more on Mashable…

Image credit: korosirego

View Social Media Milestones image in full-size.

It’s been a year since former Edelman Digital president Rick Murray introduced this property to the community announcing that “it takes a village” to not only launch—but sustain initiatives like what you see here on EdelmanDigital.com. Looking back, we hope that we’ve provided value in the form of insights and information which helps move your business forward. We’ve had well over a hundred Edelman employees contributing here and we produce unique content nearly every day. Moving forward, we’ll continue to keep the content coming, and you can expect to see another version of this property emerge—one which offers an improved user experience and is aligned with the high bar we set for ourselves here. Have feedback on what that experience should be? We’d love to talk to you on Twitter. Use the #edeldig3.0 hash tag.

More importantly, we wanted to celebrate our own milestone in social media by producing something of value for you. The social media milestones poster puts together some key events that have happened in social media over the years. Some are company related and others, purely societal. We couldn’t fit everything we would have liked—but these are some significant ones. The asset is for you—to put on your office wall, share with friends or enhance your presentations. It’s our way of saying thank you—and also our acknowledgment that this thing we all refer to as “social” is here to stay and has fundamentally shifted how we communicate, connect and create. Special thanks to Edelmanite Heather Grice who helped design the milestones artifact as well as every Edelman contributor. And thank YOU for your participation this past year. Here’s to many more…

Earlier this summer, we took a look at a few different ways that hospitals have been using social media – or even what new networks could mean for future patient outreach. There are some hospitals and health centers that are ahead the pack, and the best example may be the Mayo Clinic.

The Mayo Clinic raised the bar in the past month, not only further committing resources to digital and social media efforts, but also by creating a first-of-the-field Center for Social Media. As Valeria Maltoni reported at Conversation Agent, the effort is designed to “accelerate effective application of social media tools throughout Mayo Clinic and to spur broader and deeper engagement in social media by hospitals, medical professionals and patients to improve health globally.”

As a case study on textbook engagement in the healthcare space, here are a few different ways the Mayo is using online channels – and what it could mean for the future of patient communication.

The Mayo Blog Network

At the tip of the iceberg is solid, original content, and Mayo lays its social media center on that foundation. There are few places that are as well respected when it comes to healthcare leadership as the Mayo Clinic, and by creating a blog network with these experts on topics like nutrition, pregnancy and dealing with depression, Mayo can ensure it always has quality information to share.

Cases in Social

As we have learned, the lessons from general consumer PR do not always apply to health communication, especially online. For a healthcare facility like the Mayo Clinic, there aren’t many examples to look toward while determining a new program. To help fill that gap, one section of the Center focuses on case studies of what organizations have successfully done in the space.

Centralizing Existing Networks

Across the big three social networks, few healthcare facilities are even in the neighborhood of the Mayo Clinic’s audience: 67,000 strong on Twitter, another 23,000 Facebook fans and more than 2.4 million total views of 800-plus YouTube videos uploaded. Not too shabby. But by building a central home, it brings all of these networks and conversations into one – making both monitoring and engagement less of a challenge.

Sharing Mayo Clinic

Up to this point, everything discussed has generally been content created by the organization (or at least conversations moderated by it). One additional component of the center, though, is Sharing Mayo Clinic, a blog dedicated to the stories of patients and families, as well as Mayo Clinic staff. With the number of people who touch Mayo, it’s easy to gather these stories, and promoting them online helps to get those interactions out to people looking for someone going through what they are. It’s further worth noting how simple this was to create: a free WordPress blog, a small annual fee to move it to the mayoclinic.org domain and minimal design. Complexity doesn’t make things interesting; this is excellent proof that compelling content matters much more.

But Why?

Katherine Hobson of WSJ Health Blog got a chance to interview Lee Aase, one of the managers of Mayo’s center. Hobson asked Aase what the goals of the new effort were, and Aase’s straight forward response is worth ending on, “[What’s the goal?] To help patients. Sometimes that means providing information directly to them, and sometimes it means disseminating information more rapidly to the medical community.”

@EarlyBird to offer Twitter users “promoted deals”

Bargain hounds on Twitter are now able to follow the official @EarlyBird handle for relevant, timely offers and deals from Twitter’s advertisers. Twitter will partner with select advertisers to give followers of the account the inside scoop on limited-time or –quantity offers. It remains to be seen whether branded accounts that rely on offering last-minute deals (like JetBlue’s Cheeps, for instance) will be affected, since offering deals not available elsewhere is a key component of many branded Twitter strategies.

Facebook and Twitter battle for control of connected TV

As Google and Yahoo launch their social television platforms (Google TV and Yahoo Connected TV, respectively) designed to connect your TV to your friends’ Facebook and Twitter are shoring up resources to tap into the social TV ad market. The two social media giants are vying to be the leader in key areas of the new technology, including “socially-targeted TV advertising, pay-TV content recommendation, TV show marketing, next-generation EPGs and interactive viewing.” Perhaps the most interesting point to ponder is the assertion that the dominant position will go to the platform that “is able to establish themselves as the primary way to connect with friends and exchange information” because those are two very distinct strengths, and one could argue that Facebook excels at the former while Twitter dominates the latter.

The NBA takes the plunge with Twitter’s new ‘promoted trends’ by sponsoring “LeBron James”

In an effort to harness some of the tremendous buzz around the free agency of hoops superstar LeBron James, the National Basketball Association took advantage of Twitter’s new promoted trends to bump the topic “LeBron James” to onto the list of trending topics. While it may seem like James’ name might already be a trending topic, the NBA hopes that sponsoring the term will drive users the league’s website instead of outside news sites. James also joined Twitter this week (@kingjames), gaining more than 150,000 followers in his first seven hours as a member.

Twitter Search volume up 33% since April

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced at the Aspen Ideas Festival this week that Twitter Search is handling 800 million queries per day, up from the 600 million per day he reported at the Chirp developers’ conference in April. While Twitter’s growth in user base is a major contributing factor, the value of the Search function’s ability to give insight into conversation trends and real-time information is driving major traffic for Twitter. This will likely have a huge impact on the site’s ability to generate revenue through its new ad platform.

YouTube, major film directors want to know what your day looks like

Renowned film directors Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald are partnering with YouTube to create a wholly user-generated documentary film about life on all over the world over the course of one day. Participants are being asked to film part of their day on July 24, 2010 for possible inclusion in the doc, which will debut at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The project is interesting because it’s an extremely high-profile example of crowd sourcing content for repurposing as mainstream entertainment. Though this has been done numerous times (and with varying degrees of success) by brands in the past, YouTube’s project relies not on a prize or reward but on the public’s desire to share the intimate, mundane details of their personal lives. Sounds a bit like social media in general, doesn’t it?

Social CRM is a new frontier of digital marketing that has recently been getting a lot of attention.

To paraphrase Paul Greenberg, author of CRM at the Speed of Light, social CRM is a business strategy designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation and provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. Basically, it’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.

Consumers continue to adopt social technologies at a blinding speed – and often organizations are unable to keep up. Why? Rapid adoption of social networking enables users to connect with individuals and communities who share mutual interests, increasingly leaving organizations out of the conversation.

As digital PR practitioners, it’s our job to ensure that our clients are able to keep pace with the warp speed by which social media is evolving. Social CRM is a prime example.

If there is a reputational crisis, are we equipped to speak to our stakeholders on the platforms where they are engaging most? Can we help our clients increase the accuracy of their target marketing while at the same time slash their direct marketing costs? The answer is yes, and the reasons lie in Social CRM.

To help understand the importance of Social CRM, considering the following facts:

• According to a study conducted by the Society for New Communications Research, 59% of customers use social media to “vent” about a customer care experience.
• By far the most popular social media platform is Facebook. It’s hard to overestimate just how quickly it’s growing; from Jun 2009 to Jan 2010, the average number of hours spent on Facebook doubled from 3.5 to 7. The second most popular website (in terms of time spent) averages 2 hours per month. It’s popularity, combined with some key benefits described below, make it one of the most important Social CRM tools.

Leasing vs. Owning Data

For decades, marketing departments have spent untold time, money and energy in building and maintaining sets of complex customer databases. These databases were the engines of their direct marketing campaigns, smart management of the data was a distinct competitive advantage. In the past few years, this paradigm has been turned on its head. Rather than owning data – which includes mining, organizing, maintaining, etc., companies can now lease data directly from social media platforms, namely Facebook. This removes the onus and the responsibility of owning data that is continually becoming outdated, and provides companies with a new-found nimbleness. They can focus on building the relationship with their stakeholders, rather than running after their new contact details.

Micro-targeting

One of Facebook’s most significant benefits has always been its ability to micro-target messages directly to target audiences. For some time we’ve been able to target based on sex, geography, and interests. Now, Facebook also allows marketers to target based on user searches, what ads they click on, and keywords in their status updates. This is a Holy Grail for those of us in the healthcare industry – we can now send ads directly to users who we know, through their actions, have very strong ties to a condition such as diabetes, cancer, or chronic back pain.

Crisis

Every company must be ready to react in the face of a reputational crisis. Social CRM is a crucial tool when dealing in crisis management. By establishing a presence in social media, whether it be on Twitter, YouTube or Facebook, a company has a pre-existing two-way medium by which it can communicate its messages to the public. Ideally, it will have already developed a fan base of customers, shareholders, policy experts, etc. who will be able to pose questions and receive answers directly from company spokespeople. To not have an established presence online gives power to others to tell your story in their words, and can be a major liability.

Causes

Sponsoring a cause is an excellent way for a healthcare brand to gain traction in the Social CRM arena. This is especially true if the product is not very sexy. By attaching a brand to a larger movement, we attract a different, potentially very passionate following, and we can gain a great deal of positive exposure by supporting the cause. For example, Huggies (client) launched the Every Little Bottom program to help struggling families in need of diapers.

Mobile

Along with building on the loyalties of customers, social CRM programs can also have more direct cost saving affects. Kaiser Permanente launched a program that sent appointment reminders via mobile phone to its patients. The program resulted in a significant decrease in no-shows, and during the one-month pilot, Kaiser saved over $275,000 in no-show costs at a single clinic.

Privacy in Social CRM

Across all social media, and in particular in healthcare, privacy is a major issue and something we need to keep a very close eye on. A group of U.S. Senators recently sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, stating their concerns with micro-targeting and how it may infringe on the public’s privacy. Facebook has since increased the privacy of its default settings. Before launching any Social CRM programs, we must always consider the risks of the perception that our stakeholders’ privacy is being invaded, and be ready to manage these risks.

How do you think Social CRM can play a role in health engagement?

Edelman Digital Brazil has been working for the Grand Hyatt São Paulo since 2009, when the team created official profiles on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to establish relationships with users and engage with bloggers.

Edelman develops tips and trivia about where to hang out in São Paulo, concerts, movies, and encourages conversations about all the subjects related to the Hotel like its restaurants, the spa, the pub and the wine festivals. We want to position Hyatt as a credible source for wine and food.

Hyatt prefers to work with Facebook as it has a high-end audience – in Brazil they tend to be more on Facebook than Orkut. Several cultural contests were promoted on Facebook and Twitter and the winners could experience one of the Hotel’s services.

We also engage with bloggers that talk about Entertainment, Tourism and Beauty.  We invited blogger Liliane Ferrari to stay at the hotel for a weekend to support the International Women’s Day. As a result of this relationship the blogger, who is a great influencer, became an ambassadress for Hyatt.

Edelman is now expanding the project with Hyatt and developing a portal that will be launched in the second half of 2010 to bring information about Traveling, Beauty, Wellness, Wine, Cooking, Music, celebrities that stayed at Hyatt and other interesting subjects.

Success was proved in the first quarter of 2010 when the @GrandHyatt_SP gained 26% more followers and the interaction with the profile through replies, messages and re-tweets increased 213%. The number of people who “like” Hyatt’s Fan Page on Facebook grew 74% and the number of interactions also increased 37%. Tourism is the fastest growing online niche in Brazil and there’s an enormous potential to leverage Hyatt.

Hyatt Digital team is led by Annia Vuolo with the support of Thais Silva and the coordination of Thiane Loureiro.

Last January, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a policy address about Internet freedom at the Newseum in D.C. In the address, Sec. Clinton argued that the rise of the Internet and information networks is creating a “new nervous system for our planet”.

The Internet, social networks and the resulting immediacy and reach of information define 21st century statecraft. Understanding this reality and the revolutionary power of these new tools, the State Department is launching initiatives that promote Internet freedom and use new media to connect people and build civic participation.

Speaking at a breakfast earlier this month, Jared Cohen, a member of the State Department’s policy and planning staff, maintained that social media and the “connection technologies” we now use every day are more revolutionary than radio or television when they were introduced. Why? Because, today, the platform is the intermediary. These new technology platforms are game changers. They empower people by connecting them directly to information, other individuals and resources.

Mobile Technology: Eliminating Communication Boundaries

Whether used by Iranian teenagers trying to find the coolest parties or by terrorists from prison cells, mobile technology is an irrefutable connective force in today’s world. In the United States, people are increasingly opting out of landlines in favor of a mobile-only existence. In Afghanistan, police officers in remote or high-risk areas receive automated text notifications on their cell phones when their paychecks are deposited, allowing for a more transparent payroll process.

Social Media: Unleashing the Power of Personal Networks

Social media has incredible potential for mass organization because it allows information to spread organically to individuals’ personal networks. In Egypt, young people are using Facebook to stand up for their political rights and organize strikes nationwide. In Colombia, an unemployed engineer started a Facebook group that eventually put 12 million people on the streets to protest against the FARC, a 40-year old terrorist organization.

Personal Perspectives: Sharing Ideas with the World

Websites like YouTube and Flickr, as well as personal blogs, help share individual perspectives across the world. A cell phone video of Neda Soltani’s murder during Iran protests in June 2009 was uploaded to YouTube by an amateur videographer. The footage made it in front of heads of state within hours of being posted and their rhetoric about the Iranian protests changed as a result.

Access: Providing Information, Even to the Oppressed

Cohen argued that connective technologies make today’s walls porous. Information shared on social networks or through mobile technologies help break down government-imposed barriers. Even in some of the most oppressive situations, Cohen maintained that the current generation of youth has unprecedented tools of empowerment to spread information, organize and get around censorship.

The Aid Process: Increasing Transparency and Collaboration

Twenty-first century statecraft is also unique because the Internet allows individuals to track aid funding and advocate for other people to get involved with a cause. Today’s digital age permits unparalleled opportunities for networking and collaboration between remote individuals and groups.

Every day a new technology is developed but, on the other hand, consumers haven’t had time yet to analyze and understand all the differences. The rapid evolution of the electronic industry has demanded more savvy users and although there are lots of articles and tutorials available online consumers continue to be confused about how to take advantage of all the features offered nowadays.

In order to helping consumers better understand the differences between DVD and Blu-ray, Edelman created a campaign for Samsung called “Movies at Home”. We chose five influential bloggers from several segments and life styles (moms , gadgets, tech, entertainment, etc.) and promoted cinema sessions at their houses.

Most of the sessions happened on Saturdays. We went to the bloggers’ houses and installed a LED TV, Blu-ray player and Home Theatre. A Samsung expert accompanied the installation and the sessions to explain the features and clarify doubts. Bloggers could invite five friends and Samsung offered soda, popcorn and candy to complete the movie viewing experience.

After the sessions we recorded an interview with each blogger to learn their perception and opinion about the products. Five videos were posted on Samsung’s YouTube channel and blog. The videos received more than 4,000 views. Bloggers also tweeted the action and complimented Samsung for providing real experience, reaching more than 11,000 followers.

It is important to emphasize that not only numbers were great but the content we develop was an amazing result. With “Movies at Home” we could reinforce the quality of the products and value the technology solution as a whole. The videos are now being used to answer doubts on all Samsung’s official channels. The campaign was so great that the same format is being applied to other areas of Samsung to promote several products.

Article on Geekchic with links to YouTube and Flickr

Topic created on Samsung’s community on Orkut, inviting members to suggest a film to be exhibited to the bloggers who were participating in the action.

127 photos on Samsung’s Flickr with 3,472 views

The Edelman- Samsung Digital Team is led by Fábio Siqueira, with the support of Cássia Alves and the coordination of Thiane Loureiro. Samsung’s online marketing department is formed by Rodrigo Moretz and Sylvia Ferrari.