Given my line of work, it will hardly come as a surprise that I’m absolutely obsessed with how we consume our news. I’ll take it however it comes, whether it’s via print, digital or social media. My daily diet kicks off within minutes of my alarm with a quick check of my favourite news feeds on Twitter, then it’s off to work with the radio on, another Twitter check and a cover-to-cover read of a newspaper − and so it continues throughout the day.

News is already fast and ever-breaking, so I was quite surprised to read that people are fed up with the ‘old’ way of breaking and reporting news and are now looking for a transformation in how news is delivered. Really?

It was the founder of the ‘I Can Haz Cheezburger’ network who expressed this view and he’s looking at ways to combat the ‘problem’. It seems that plans were afoot to come up with software that combines the best bits of the Huffington Post, WordPress and I Can Haz Cheezburger.

The software was set up to allow anyone to report breaking news, pulling together different sources and opinions. In my view, Twitter and blogging are already doing this job pretty well, but I’ll keep an open mind. Even when I pick up breaking news on social media, I look to traditional news sites to qualify the information.

Following some initial criticism, the latest plan of action is to scrap the software in favour of bringing together a group of 50 specialists who’ll brainstorm the problem on 29 July. Watch this space…

Yesterday was the official deadline for completing the 2011 census.

Filling out my form was quite a nostalgic experience. It took me back to my 18-year-old self, proudly completing my very first census and declaring myself to be a Jedi (shhh – don’t tell).

This time around, it took me approximately 10 minutes to fill in and left me feeling distinctly underwhelmed. The Government has hinted this might be the last survey of its kind and it’s easy to see why. Ten years ago, I had just set up my first Hotmail account and was lumbering a phone of brick-like proportions around with me. The speed of change in the last decade has been anything but linear – instead, technology has hurtled forward unabated and transformed almost every aspect of our daily lives.

For this reason, questions about qualifications, job titles and travel-to-work methods were relevant but hardly revolutionary. Kudos then to Comet’s PR team for releasing a ‘technology census’ at the weekend. The results of this particular study showed that for a whopping 81 per cent of respondents, email is their favourite way to communicate, whilst a third of people stated that the web had supplanted the once mighty TV.

In the UK census, a couple of questions on changing habits of internet use might have been more enlightening than the questions which were being rolled out fifty years ago. I look forward to the glut of press articles dissecting the results of the census and debating what this means for the country. However, shying away from the questions that could reveal the fastest change in society feels like a trick missed. And considering this could be the last of its kind, that’s nothing short of a shame.

Today sees the launch of the 2011 London Fashion Week. As levels of hysteria amongst the fashion posse hit new heights, it’s interesting to look at how LFW has raised its profile on the digital front. 

In 2009, the British Fashion Council launched its digital innovation strategy. Designed to position London as a global leader in fashion, this embraces technology to stream catwalk shows online, making them available to a worldwide audience. 

Following two years of digital development, 2011’s LFW will now be accessible to a much larger, more diverse audience. Daily video highlights on screens in underground stations – and at Somerset House – will mean that you don’t have to be Anna Wintour to see the latest from the shows. 

LFW’s twitter (@LondonFashionWk) already has over 40,000 followers and is trending along nicely as expected. Any brand that has affiliations with LFW will certainly increase its exposure significantly thanks to the Fashion Council’s digital strategy.

Speaking of brands, Burberry’s snapped up another digital first for its show, which will be streamed live on the landmark 32m digital screen at Piccadilly Circus on Monday 21 February. Topshop will also be streaming nine shows live online, to over 150 countries, from its official venue.

As one of those who can only ever daydream about being on the front row at any of these catwalk premieres, I think it’s fantastic to see LFW taking full advantage of this digital strategy. It breaks down the barriers of exclusivity and allows people a peek into an industry that is notoriously selective – all I need now is an unlimited overdraft!

The robotic hand of science fiction crawled its way into reality a long time ago. With massive advances in technology being made each day, I can’t help wondering just how far ‘the machines’ are going to infiltrate our lives.

My train of thought was prompted by Google’s announcement on Monday that it had launched an updated version of ‘Goggles’, a visual recognition app that was originally introduced to help smartphone users search for objects on the internet by taking pictures of them.

Some of the features really are impressive. It allows you to solve Sudoku puzzles in seconds (but where’s the fun in that?) and can even recognise print adverts in most major publications, allowing consumers to access information on both brand and product in seconds.

Need to know what that tall thing is in the middle of Trafalgar Square? Goggles can tell you. The app can recognise landmarks, as well as logos. Perhaps one of its main advantages – from a PR perspective anyway – is the application’s ability to upload contact information directly from business cards. When you attend as many events as Peppermint does, this can be a real saviour.

As a PR exec, I know how precious time is for everyone in the office and it’s often those pesky ‘little’ jobs that take the longest. With technology like this available, perhaps some of those jobs can now be performed more efficiently? Google 1.3 offers companies the chance to upload data and conduct basic research on a faster scale – although whether the technology offers quality solutions, only time will tell. As for the machines taking over completely, I doubt it. I know that the Peppermints, at least, will never give up on the personal touch.

Coca-Cola released the ‘Happiness Machine’ in the UK yesterday – a new viral which was filmed candidly and unscripted at a London university.

The viral made its first outing in the US earlier this year, notching-up an impressive one million hits in the first week of its release. In little under 24 hours, the British version has now been seen over 40,000 times.  

Filmed at Imperial College London, the vending machine deposits standard cans of Coke before a helpful hand appears to dispatch strawberries and cream, a game of Twister and a whole tray of cupcakes, much to the delight of the student crowd that are gathered around it.

Coca-Cola’s marketing has always been built on transforming what is essentially a sickly brown drink into a lifestyle choice and the new viral scores big in this respect, creating an emotional connection with the right audience and in the desired space.

Not content with teaching the world to sing, it appears Coca-Cola is committed to cornering the happiness market with a resounding digital presence. CMO Joseph Tripodi has made it clear that dramatic changes in consumer engagement have led to an aggressive digital strategy underpinned by content management – and it’s a strategy that is most definitely working.

Earlier this year ‘Happiness Ambassadors’ were recruited to visit each of the 206 countries where Coca-Cola is sold to record their journey and blog about what makes people happy, whilst the latest viral ticks all the boxes for an online sensation.

I don’t even like the stuff but I’m hankering for a can. And note to Coca-Cola HQ – if you want to distribute any more of this happiness – the Peppermint team will gladly look after a ‘machine’ for you.

I received my Google Wave preview invite over two weeks ago and wanted to write my initial impressions on this well publicised ‘technical revolution’ – a mixture of MSN Messenger and email.

As soon as I opened the application I received 12 invites to send out to friends and colleagues. As I found out straight away, it’s not much fun having no-one to Wave at! When I sent out a tweet asking if anyone else wanted to join me, I got a sudden surge in Twitter followers so I could tell I wasn’t on my own in looking forward to trying out this application.

However, my initial impression was somewhat mixed. As a regular user of MSN Messenger I was attracted to the idea of communicating with my colleagues in real time.  The problem was that I couldn’t see who was logged in and ready for me to Wave at. I think the realtime communication element would be great if you could see who was online at the same time as you.  There has been a number of times when I’ve left a Wave for someone along the lines of ‘Are you there?’ only to return a while later to find a reply saying ‘Yes I am, where are you?’ I’ve since found out that you can install a Wave notifier extension for Firefox to resolve this issue.

The interface was also quite confusing.  When trawling through long Waves with lots of threads, it’s difficult to see which ones you haven’t read.  This was odd, considering it’s supposed to be used to facilitate long conversations between many people.

Having tried Wave on a variety of screens, I found it really difficult to use at low resolutions.  1024 x 768 was extremely cluttered and it was difficult to follow the flow of Waves between lots of people. It’s also going to be interesting to see whether it’s used in office environments, where most users have quite small, flat screen monitors.

I realise it’s early days and there aren’t many gadgets out there to enhance communication, plus I did enjoy playing with the Google Maps and voting gadgets.  Also the ability to insert video will be very useful.  I can see it becoming a great tool to communicate ideas and concepts to clients without a face-to-face meeting.  I’ll be watching with interest to see how developers utilise the Google Wave API.

From this preview, I don’t think Google Wave will replace email, as it’s been touted by some experts. I think it would be too big a leap for some, as email is already so ingrained in our business practices. However, I do think that it’s a great way for individuals to come together and share ideas.  I’ve got two spare invites if anyone would like to join in. Tweet me (grahamjrobinson) if you’d like one!

The clear advantage is that digital services can be benchmarked.  They can be monitored and reported on, enabling success to be measured against expenditure.

Clients can be more selective about who they choose to carry out these services.  As a result, pricing needs to be sharper and digital agencies must go the extra mile to ensure they win new business.

A recent poll on TopRank placed SEO as the number one web marketing technique. Quite simply, it’s a relatively cheap form of advertising (if you find the right agency!) and the results can have a direct impact on your bottom line.  Also, all results can be tracked and every bit of traffic can be followed through to conversion.  We’ve certainly seen an increase in the number of clients requesting an SEO campaign over the past month.

For this reason, I’m convinced that Google Adsense will become increasingly popular compared to other web marketing strategies, such as affiliate marketing.  Pay-per-click campaigns can be immediately adjusted and near real-time reporting allows for instantaneous ROI data.

Blogging also emerged high up on TopRank’s poll.  This is a great way for a company to interact directly with its clients and other businesses.  It’s also an integral part of an SEO campaign.  A successful blog will drive traffic to a company website and should result in improved organic listings. Setting up a company blog is also relatively cheap.  Most blogging platforms are free and easy to set up – the challenge is ensuring your staff buy into its importance and recognise the potential ROI.

Online PR is another service directly associated with search engine optimisation.  All well-rounded website promotion campaigns should include an element of this, especially when the competition for top spots in result pages is so fierce.  A company website should no longer be seen as the only place where the public can find out about the latest news from an organisation. Directories and news feeds should also be utilised to create an online buzz around a company. Again, this will have a direct impact on the number of visitors going to your site and hopefully result in an increase in sales or enquiries.

What the current economic climate should do is bring about the death of banner ad campaigns.  The scourge of internet web browsing is an expensive form of advertising that many users find extremely irritating. Unfortunately I can’t see global brands, such as Nike, cutting back on this form of advertising.
On the other hand, email marketing should fare well against other digital advertising services in the economic downturn.  When compared to offline direct marketing campaigns, email marketing is cheaper and offers better reporting.  Businesses can track ‘open’ and ‘click-through’ rates and see a direct response to their campaign.

Social networking can also be a great way for companies to generate new ideas internally, engage with customers directly and act as a forum for people with similar interests.  In this climate, expect to see smaller companies continue to take advantage of the free services offered by Facebook and Bebo.  I was really interested to read Julaine’s blog post yesterday about how Orange has developed its own in-house social networking solution. I agree that if the budget is there, this is a great way for a company to allow its staff to interact with one another within a controlled corporate environment.

The door is now wide open for digital services to make their mark – it’s just whether people decide to walk through it!