As well as liking, @replying and tumbling, we can now ‘pin’.

And of all the social media platforms, Pinterest is one of the most useful.

Simple concept: see an image, pin it to a virtual board. It’s an indexable, shareable way of recording memories and inspiration, of virtually pinning interesting images to a cloud-based memory board in the sky.

Think an Evernote for pictures and a public timeline. Brilliant.

It was always a pretty wacky world really (real life is always weirder than fiction of course). But lately everything just seems more surreal than normal.

For instance, NASA have been given jurisdiction over the Scottish Premier League television rights.

NASA?!

Not to mention the news has broken that Status Quo no longer exist but instead are zombies made from the breath of puffins.

What?!

And apparently Beverley Knight and Darren Day are due to star in a new TV show as a detective duo solving crimes through music

(The sad thing is people might actually watch that…)

Of course, it’s not real life, but the random pseudo-life coach / Mighty Boosh-esque warblings of Bet Fair Poker and their comedy road show twitter feed.

Adopting a completely non-corporate feel to their brand communications, Bet Fair Poker’s tweetings are a stream of Crazy Man Michael musings to give Noel Fielding a run for his money (“Interesting Fact: LL Cool J once tried to eat an entire ostrich from top to bottom, but only managed to get as far as the beak..”

The stream of consciousness often lingers over several hours or days in recurring themes (such as a love affair with Victoria Principal from Dallas) that blur enough reality with nonsense to cause most people to stop dead what they’re doing and scroll down through the reams and reams of craziness that make up a day in the Bet Fair offices.

Genius game-changing social media strategy or a business heading for disaster? (and litigation?!)

For the sake of the world and common sense, I hope Status Quo et al see the funny side of it…

Click to see the full version (and thanks Happy Place!)

Where's the circle for "People, possibly famous, who I'd never admit to caring about but actually I'm quite keen on stalking anonymously." Not that I do that...

Schools desks might still be littered with compass etched expletives about Carly Butterfield or Daniel Drinkwater, but nowadays they’re more likely to be transcribed onto a new wall, a digital one. Nowadays it’s more likely that school yard slander will manifest itself as status updates on Facebook than engravings eked out whilst teacher is scribbling unintelligible physics equations on the blackboard.

The Wall, these days found on Facebook rather than an alleyway

Not forgetting the stupidity of nipping to the loo leaving your phone logged into Twitter in the presence of mischievous mates, or the high profile cases of serious victimisation through online channels, I’ve been wondering if social media has given new life to the darker side of our connected society. Is it too easy to shout and scream abuse at other individuals via a social network, a blog comment or a forum thread?

It would seem it’s not just school kids who don’t know any better.

Take PHD Worldwide, who probably deserved a little stick for their predictions of the future of digital, but you might agree that some commentators went a little bit OTT with their response.

Take Darron Gibson, Manchester United and Irish international footballer, who this week quit Twitter just hours after he signed up. Whatever your opinion of his abilities (and I rest assured that he would tear me apart on a five a side pitch) does a Premier League footballer really deserve to be served up such a smorgasbord of rants, criticisms and swear words from people who really should know much better?

One of the less vitriolic examples of Twitter abuse that Gibson received

Perhaps I’m idealistic, or plain soft, but is it really fair that anyone should be victim to this sort of behaviour? It was hardly constructive criticism or wink-and-smile humour. Would you scream these things at Gibson if you saw him in the street?

Perhaps in this example those in the limelight should know better, perhaps they should avoid putting themselves in that situation, but that’s somewhat missing the point.

We all know that shouts of frustration leave the mouths on the football terraces. We all know that Kerry Katona isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and that most blokes pretend to hate Ant & Dec for no reason other than they’re a smidgeon jealous. Let’s face it, swearing and moaning about others is part of everyday life . If it wasn’t Frankie Boyle would be out of a career…

And this opens up a whole other can of worms. What is acceptable to say in public? What should you leave for the save confines of the pub or living room?

It seems that social media has become such a personal thing that people are as comfortable talking to the world as they are talking in their own home and that with this comfort people have no trouble in making public their spontaneous outbursts of vitriol. Do some people have no shame? Is it ok to do this? Are certain people fair game? Am I kidding myself that some of these people don’t deserve it?

Social media has enhanced my life, I’ve shared and learned and met friends for life, and I’ve seen it used for many a good deed. But as with everything, it can be used for other means. There’s a dirty, nasty side to the ability to post whatever you’re thinking and have it re-tweeted around the world.

I doubt we can ever expect to have our pie and only lick the cream from the top, but is there a real danger that the power of social media is increasingly acting as a bike shed wall for our school yard hate mail?

If you blinked and missed Darron Gibson’s brief stint on Twitter then some of the tweets are recorded here. Whether you think it’s all blown out of proportion or genuinely unacceptable behaviour, let me know what you think.

The future.

How do you pre-empt the next big thing? How do you calculate how people will behave beyond iPads? How do you know where humanity will go in ten years, in twenty years, in a hundred years?

An agency called PHD Worldwide this week tried to predict the future of digital marketing. Suffice to say they’re not likely to influence reality TV shows in half a century like George did. Not with their effort, a promotional video entitled “We are the future“.

The video has received almost unanimous criticism from the marketing industry on a number of levels. It’s fair to say the criticism has bordered on the vitriolic and that in some ways I feel sorry for PHD and quite ashamed of elements of the reaction (surely neither the video and the comments have had a positive effect on the digital marketing industry?).

I think PHD dropped a bollock, but I’m not prepared to run them into the ground because of it. (Make your own mind up by watching for yourself).

Countless broadcasters and publishers have had a pop at pre-empting the technological breakthroughs of the future with limited success, whilst literary works have sometimes been capable of warning whole societies of the dangers awaiting them, with a varied amount of success.

Perhaps PHD’s problem was that they focused on what people are doing now and not what they will be doing. The video is nothing more than a buzzword filled brain dump of things that on the verge of becoming mainstream. And quite frankly the comments on brand blocking stinks of a lack of real thought behind what drives human beings in their online behaviour.

It seems to me that the best predictions of the future focus less on what technology we might be able to make use of, but how people might continue to treat each other (and themselves) in the advent of technological advances. Orwell not only identified the cyclical nature of politics in Animal Farm but also recognised the role that technology might play in freedom in the future (see 1984).

And there are the works that didn’t intend to predict the future but, whether inadvertently or not, detailed the inner workings of the hunman psyche.

Books like The Picture of Dorian Gray should make us reflect on the consequences of today’s image led society; songs like Lives in the Balance by Jackson Browne might be firmly rooted in the Reagan policies towards Central America in the 80s but the words (“When a government lies to a people/And a country is drifting to war”) resonate deeply with conflicts in the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan; whilst the stories of Gabriel Chevalier might reflect on rural French life in the 1950s, but they may as well mimic the celebrity and sex fuelled culture that we see all around us on a daily basis.

And that’s not to mention the two-steps-back evolution of humanity in H.G. Wells The Time Machine or Kubrick’s surreal vision for 2001: A Space Odyssey where the relationship between man and machine is blurred.

I wonder if PHD had focused a little more on how humans might interact with each other, rather than overlaying buzz words on a bunch of under-age actors, maybe the digital world would be discussing what the future holds rather than why some agency fucked up a viral campaign in the past.

But despite the weird and patronising execution - come on, using kids to say words they don’t understand is not insightful nor clever – fair play to PHD for having a go. It’s a real shame that agency folk from around the world have been so quick and eager to condemn their competitor and kick them, repeatedly, whilst they’re down. Is it any wonder they delete comments that spouted politically charged abuse from a blog that they are liable for the content on, free speech or not?

The future is an enigma and it always will be. Very few people can predict if with any accuracy.

But evidence suggests that the best way to predict the future is not to jump on the next bandwagon but to get under the skin of what makes human beings tick, what makes our humanity that bit different to the rest of live on earth.

The internet might give us the tools to do amazing things, but it’s our underlying nature that drives what we do with any technology.

I’d be delighted to know what you think on the situation. On first view I wondered what the fuss was about; on second view I told myself this was a bit shit; on third view I realised I’d witnessed an epic #fail by a company who claims to understand their sector and had managed to offend their peers rather than call them to arms. But I take with me some words from Larner Caleb, a wiser man than many. People make mistakes, ok? Less vitriol, more debate methinks. To paraphrase another wise man who I work with, “No-one died, get over it”.

Well, sort of. They’ve robbed me of my interests. The labels of things I want to be associated with, the tags that say who I am without delving into my inner psyche.

It all started with a stupid little pop up…

“Mark, please link your profile to a load of crap based on some dubious contextual analysis.”

Um, no thanks Facebook, if it’s all the same to you I’m a bit busy and just want to crack on.

“Well, that’s  not a problem Mr Fletcher, but in that case we’ll have to delete all your interests”.

Um, if it’s all the same to you I’d rather you didn’t do that please Facebook, they are my interests after all.

“Well link to these lovely suggested ‘activities’, ‘interests’ and ‘likes’ then please. Look ‘five a side’, you like that don’t you?”.

Er, well yeah I do, but then it looks like I’m linking to some global community of five a side lovers and weirdos that I’ve not even joined, and I’m quite alright for meeting any more weirdos thanks. I’ll just hit the back button…

[FACEBOOK ERROR SCREEN]: Contact form submission error…blah blah blah…

Bollocks. [TYPES: www.facebo....CLICKS: http://www.facebook.com/...]

Cue blank Facebook profile of a poor monkey with no hobbies or interests

So now I feel like a fool for shouting “I’m not bloody linking to all this crap”. This bloomin’ pop up seemed intent on making me sign up to these global communities or sacrifice my identity! Through sheer ignorance I’ve avoided selling my soul, but for my sins I’ve now ended up a culturally impotent sloth (according to my empty Facebook page anyway) with nothing to do with my long, pointless days then whittle them away thinking up not-very-witty status updates on my social spaces.

Their are no prisoners in Zuckerberg’s quest to take over the world with Facebook, only losers like me who are left identity-less.

• Creative types are more liberal and idealistic (and I think this applies to social media and digital geeks too)
• Business leaders have lost confidence in New Labour and will turn to David Cameron
• The lower down the food chain the worker is the higher the propensity to vote for Labour

There’s a few things that the poll suggests which seem to make sense in the current economic climate:

• Small and very large businesses are more likely to vote Tory

And there’s one major factor that I think may have already decided the outcome of the 2010 General Election this year, and that’s is:

• Age!

Younger people have the power to keep David Cameron out of power – but have they all registered to vote?

LinkedIn Election Poll - UK General Election May 2010

Lots has been said and written about the impact of social media on politics. Barack Obama surged to power on the back of a Facebook campaign; Stephen Fry brought the strife of Iranian voters to the attention of millions; whilst Westminster has been opened up with tools such as Tweetminster , They Work For You and Vote For Policies.

Tweetminster has helped bring Westminster to the online community (or vice versa?!)

The 2010 UK general election may be the first time the political scene in Britain has been able to fully immerse itself in online communications on a grand scale (although some would argue it’s been a missed opportunity). YouGov polls are making way for blogging polls (I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve ‘voted’ already on various different websites). David Cameron became the most defaced man in Britain as the Tories offline media buy turned viral via a quickly fashioned spoof website. Unlike his Tory counterpart Gordon Brown has avoided sending personal emails to voters, opting instead to focus on the viral effect of accusing people of bigotry, whilst Nick Clegg has been expertly backed up in the live TV debates by the Liberal Democrats twitter feed, who posted Lib Dem policies in real-time as they were discussed on the telly.

Countless blogs and articles will no doubt analyse the social media prowess of the political parties (we shouldn’t forget that the Green Party have also made great use of Twitter and even the BNP have embraced 140-character updates). But it’s not all glamourous activities such as tweets, viral and status updates…

More traditional forms of offline and online media have also deployed and the success of will be equally as difficult to measure as social media. It also seems that the main parties preferences have been to pay for offline media whilst utilise ‘free’ (although time consuming) online channels. You haven’t left the house in the last month if you’ve not seen Gordon Brown or David Cameron’s face on 92.6% of billboards in urban areas, but I’ve not seen a single leaderboard or skyscraper placement for either leader.

Labour however haven’t been avoiding paid online media. The incumbent majority have been quietly plugging their anti-Cameron campaign with good old fashioned search marketing. And to top it off they’ve been using the Google Content Network. Here’s an advertiser who really does benefit from those free contextual impressions, every one potentially another slither of doubt in floating voters minds.

Don't Risk The Tories: Labour's contextual PPC campaign the day before the UK general election

It all seems a bit underhand compared to integrated social media feeds and interactive manifestos. But it’s (potentially) a very cost effective way to add to the overall effect of electioneering.  I’d be interested to know if they have a negative keyword/site exclusion strategy. It’s a subtle approach and clever, but will it really do much more than create a few headlines on a handful of geeky blogs?

And as I type some news just in: I’ve just heard that the Conservatives have block booked YouTube tomorrow (polling day). The homepage placement (I’m told reliably by Google) is only available on a daily takeover basis and what a day to select! Potentially impeccable timing from the Tory marketing machine. OPn top of that this week has seen my inbox littered with personalised emails from a variety of Tory MPs which mean there’s no hope of avoiding the fact it’s election week (I’d love to know how they got my email address too, care to explain Mr Cameron?). On the face of it, their strategy looks much more influential than Labour’s adoption of content ads. I guess time will tell.

In case you missed it there...!

Funny how two buses come at once. In the process of writing about Labour’s use of paid search I stumbled across Google Chrome following Ann Summers onto the election bandwagon. Piggybacking politics is a bit of a minefield but both brands have done a decent job here. Probably better than the politicians have…

I’ve compiled a list of a few apps that have significantly changed the way I do things online, whether at work, blogging or browsing. Whether I’m searching for information, referencing media or managing my workload these little applications have completely changed the way I go about a particular task or project:

Screenjelly

Screenjelly revolutionised the way I could share online ads

So I see an online ad that inspires me to write on this blog or show to a colleague or client. But of course you can’t save a flash ad from the page easily in a format that shows you it’s full capability. Screenjelly lets you record what’s happening on your screen quickly and easily, allowing me to record ads (particularly useful for showcasing expandable and video formats) but crucially also record a click, the landing page and the journey beyond.

+ simple to use, you can log in with your twitter account

- quality not great for recording fast moving video or flash, java app can be slow

Twhirl

Probably nothing new to many but Twhirl is the best Twitter client I’ve found for me. Most of that is down to it catering expertly for multiple accounts, vital as I have my personal twitter account plus I manage most of the tweeting for the blog me and 2 mates run, Real-Ale-Reviews.com.

The ability to keep tweets separate in two windows and the easy to use buttons for the various sections of Twitter: @replies, DMs, search, followers etc make Twhirl great to use. It lacks the ability to sort your incoming tweets by custom filters as TweetDeck does, but that’s no great loss for me personally.

+ multiple accounts easy; small, attractive interface; not just Twitter either

- no complaints from me; no list compatibility…yet

Charles

I’ve no experience of another debugging tool, but Charles is a beauty. Officially it’s a web debugging or HTTP proxy – it allows you to view what’s happening in the background when you view and interact with a web page, helping developers find errors and get them sorted.

Charles HTTP proxy lets you see behind the rendering of a website page

It has other practical uses though. We recently saw some of our clients’ ads on a site we didn’t expect to see them. With Charles installed we clicked on the ads, recorded all the page interactions and browser requests and identified firstly, our ad sever, then the publishers ad server and the ad servers of our network partners. Some quick deduction and the culprit was spotted and the ads swiftly removed (with a ticking off!). Charles saved hours of wrangling with media partners over who had served it (they were all run of network blind buys so if no-one had owned up we had trouble).

It’s hugely useful for understanding how the internet actually works each time you load a page. It regularly amazes me how many people who work in online media roles fundamentally don’t understand what the internet is and how it renders information.

+ easy to save sessions and turn recording on and off

- licensed, not free

Readefine

Readefine makes browsing regular blogs easy - but doesn't detract from actually going there to comment

Whilst I can’t say I prefer using Readefine to reading posts on the actual blogs, Readefine does help me not miss new blog posts. It’s billed as an Adobe AIR application which makes it easier to read blogs. This isn’t it’s strongpoint for me though, I revel in the ability to login via Google Reader and easily check out the latest posts from blogs I love to read. I follow quite a few, which makes trawling them all a ridiculous task.

Using Readefine I can scan the latest articles and select the ones that I want to visit and perhaps comment on. Readefine doesn’t stop me visiting blogs that I would have visited, it enhances my ability to see more blogs and actually increase the amount of blogs that I comment on as I find posts I would have otherwise missed.

Whilst Google Reader and RSS may be being overtaken somewhat by social media as a source of news, Readefine has given me a reason to use RSS and I’m looking forward to a long relationship with it by my side.

+ free, saves lots of time trawling blogs

- slightly odd navigation, lack of filtering options

Four apps, not all new, but ones that make a genuine difference whilst at work and play.  Some honourable mentions should go to DropBox for file storage (which I’ve been recommend so many times and started using this week), Minitask (simple as hell ‘To Do’ list app for your desktop, but rightly so) and MoTweets, the only twitter client worth bothering with if you have a Windows Mobile phone (the only negative of my HTC HD2 being the scantily populated Windows Marketplace app store).

If you have other suggestions please comment and let me know about them!

This post was 100% inspired by James Poulters “5 Web Apps I would never be without in 2010“, well worth a read (I’ve been trying Focus Booster today!)

Just over a week ago I attended the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner in London and put faces to the names of many bloggers and beery folk I’ve met through the internet over the last 6 months, spending a day rambling around London with some great people and seeing some new friends pick up well deserved awards.

At work we scooped a DMA award for the Best Online Display Advertising for our campaign for Republic, fighting off competition from some really fantastic campaigns, brands and agencies (you can see the best online display ads here on the link above)

Rick Harrison who works with me at AWA also scooped the top prize in the National Trust and Sunday Times photo competition for his shot of a walker descending a steep path in the Lake District. I’m deeply jealous of his new Nikon D90 but my claim to fame is that the winning shot was actually taken on my camera (albeit by Rick before he sold it to me!)

Golden Twit Award commendations for Real Ale Reviews: I'm a commended social media practitioner now I guess!

And to top it all off, I recently found out that my beer reviews blog, Real Ale Reviews, had won two commendations from the inaugural Golden Twit Awards organised by The Drum magazine.

The award makes the Real Ale Reviews team particularly proud because of the categories it is in: ‘Writing’ and ‘Information Service’. These nicely describe two of the pillars that the blog was built on – to help add to the great beer blogging and writing that is out there, but to also make beer reviews accessible to a wide audience and to provide useful information.

I’m hoping that the next few weeks and months will be just as exciting, although there’s a lot to live up to now!