Clinton Speaks, the world tweets. 22,000 a minute beating Romneys paltry 14,000. But behind Michelle Obama. Social Media measurability!

We talk about the impact of Social Media on brands and customer engagement but just to show how measurable it is, I think you'll find this interesting...and thanks to Mashable for the analysis.

Bill Clinton, speaking at The Democratic National Convention last night, had the most tweets. He beat Mitt Romney tweets at The Republican Convention, last week.

But he didn't beat Michelle Obama.

Clinton spoke for 50 minutes and the number of relevant, related tweets was a staggering 22,087 a minute! Romney's last week was 14,289, so a little over half. Michelle Obama was 28,003 meaning Clinton wasn't a mile off.

But measurability of Social Media can go further. We know, for example, that Clinton's tweets peaked when he talked about jobs and Obamas job record - so suspect that will be included majorly in Obamas speech.

Next biggest topic was his appeal to vote; then his "we're all in this together" soundbite; next when he was talking about Mrs. Clinton; and lastly his "takes some brass" piece.

So the measurability of this will actually help formulate future speeches and issues. It's a real, relevant use of Social.

5.5 million tweets were sent during the night.

I'll show off a bit and tell you I've met Bill twice including a lunch and trust me, you've never met a more absorbing, charismatic guy. In particular, he knows how to read a room - he knows what needs to be said and how to say it.

The Republicans brought on Clint Eastwood who didn't do a good job and the Democrats used Bill. Bill won on tweets but more than that, he won on engagement.

We'll see what happens to Social Media after Obama does his bit.
But I guarantee you, they've taken notice of Clinton's twitter and they'll adjust Obama's speech.

My money is on the fact that he'll emphasise jobs and do it early.

Because you ignore Twitter in politics, at your peril.

And you ignore it as a Brand, and you're dead.

Wikipedia. 12% of global internet traffic a month. Highest search refer. 6th biggest site. And we forget about it?

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia created by users, is running the world's largest photo competition.

Called "loves monuments" it's asking people to photograph monuments of historical and cultural interest. Clearly, Britain's Nick Clegg comes to mind but what they're trying to do, is to create a more visual site.

Wikipedia is the highest result on Google so a lot of brands, companies, people don't realise that they can and should be, on the site. Although there are rules governing what's acceptable, it's still a good place to spread information.

Launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, it currently has about 23 million articles. It's talked about as being the world's 6th most visited site and isn't monetised. No ads, just donations, run largely by volunteers online which gives it an amateur feel. After all, who else would run a photo competition on monuments? A little bit of the 'village fete' about it.

It's also "sticky" with "high dwell times" because it takes time to find and to read the information. A holy grail for website owners.

One is reminded of Microsoft's Encarta which was launched in 1993 but Wikipedia has really overtaken all contenders. Wikipedia has also shut down twice in protest on censorship so it's very much a non-commercial site.

The consequence of that non-commerciality, is that it's both visually unappealing and frankly, difficult to edit, post, search, although it did launch its first visual editor late in 2011. Hence a strive to get more photos.

That being said, it has heritage which gives its content, credibility. And as we all know too well, content is king.

Whilst Wikipedia would never wish to be seen as something to be used in marketing, the fact is that such a substantial site, which such good search results, should not be ignored by marketeers. A word of warning, its editors are always referred to as "grumpy" so the content does need accuracy.

And of course the content needs interest and relevance but a presence on Wikipedia brings traffic and possibly more importantly, kudos. We do forget about it in some ways whilst it happily generates about 12% of the worldwide Internet traffic every month.

We will see if the "loves monuments" project improves the look of the site.
But we should not forget its power.
Nor should we forget to use that power.

India + Turkey start to ban Social Media. Thicks.

The great democracy, India, has now banned a series of websites and Social Media. Clearly, they have issues around freedom of speech and especially when they've seen the role of Social Media in revolution across the globe. They think by banning Twitter, they'll maintain their control. Uh huh, wrong answer.

(Turkish protests against internet censorship)

Turkey has now followed their lead with temporary bans on Facebook and Twitter. Temporary because they're watching to see the reaction. 

Turkey's Minister of Communications said that "Social Media can cause good things to happen" but went on to say "but it could be also used to provoke great masses and provoke them". Of course it could. Let's not provoke and misguide the masses.

So these two great bastions of democracy, have decided that a ban on the freedoms of their citizens is the way to protect them. 

India's ban prompted the misguided masses to revolt, leading to some restoration of service. Turkey's constant battle with the PPK, was one reason given for their ban, that seemingly Social Media "exaggerated PPK claims of military success". Those PPK chancers.

Of course both countries have shamefully poor records on human rights anyway, with Turkey, a Muslim state, getting the most flak. You'll know of some of their abuses with The Kurds and indeed, clean-up attempts as part of a process to join the EU. They have already been fined this year by The European Court of Human Rights for breaches of, human rights. In the ECHR annual report, it ranked Turkey number one abuser of rights from a list of 47 countries who signed the European Convention on Human Rights.

Only this week, there have been calls for India to abide by the UN resolution to repeal their 'Armed Forces Special Powers Act' which goes without the need for explanation. They have a history of execution and an army of "disappeared".

Their bans on Social Media is further proof of their desire to stifle protest and objection. It will also bring the concept to other states such as Iran, that great beacon of tolerance, whom undoubtedly will want to follow suit.

It is a measure of their oppression and one which we should all be aware of. We should tweet it, post it, blog it because at least, they can be embarrased by it and possibly, recant.

Unlikely perhaps but it's owed to the citizens of India and Turkey who wish to remain online and share their lives. At least you know about it now. And at least, you can tell someone else.

Social Media is a danger.
It can bring down a regime.

Myvouchercodes. An App that gives you geo-located vouchers and now allows restaurant bookings. Smart.

Forgive me but this is one of those things which I think is clever and always generates the reaction, "hasn't that been done?". Seemingly not.

Myvouchercode claim it to be a UK first.
Founded by Mark Pearson (you might have seen him on Secret Millionaire), he's funded the business on its own, without external funding and retained 100% of the equity.

It has just added a restaurant booking ability within its GPS location based, voucher saving, smartphone app. So now where you're out and about, you get vouchers that are directly relevant to where you are and the ability to book.
Location based vouchers AND location based restaurant booking.

It gives their 500 restaurant customers more business and their app users, better relevant content. So say you're in town (or a town you don't know very well), you look at the local restaurants, see a voucher and you book one there and then. Nevermind just availing of the vouchers as normal. Their clients include Gap, Warehouse, Yo!Sushi and Argos. This will help drive that client base.

Easy to use, easy to book and it's getting about 5,000 downloads a day. I'm not surprised. 

I blogged before about 'Deal Fatigue' here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/08/groupon-pioneer-of-coupons-online.html

To me this isn't in that category and in fact, brings the whole deals business a step along the way. Furthermore, it's one useful geo-location based App which people won't resent. Whilst we don't like people to know where we are at any given time, this one makes sense and will be more acceptable.

It shows the power of innovation.
A good App is hard to find. 
Here's one.

Television broadcasting takes another hit at The Republican Convention. Google Hangouts are another nail in the broadcaster coffin.

Another nail arrives in the coffin of Television news broadcasting.
It's called Google hangouts.

What once was the exclusive domain of the Television networks, is now fully open to citizens and with encouragement from Google, they used it at length from The Republican Party Convention. Without the need to call "lights, action, make up", a whole new breed of citizens reported back live about the convention.

No trucks, no cables and no, media types.

Standing in front of small cameras or smartphones they did their report, their piece to camera, just in the style of Sky News, Fox or CBS. Some perhaps were a little unpolished - but that will come in time and some broadcasts were a bit, well, "fuzzy" but so too will that be corrected.

We are so used to Skype and dodgy cameraphone pics, that perhaps there is an honesty about this type of broadcasting. The fact that it's not manufactured, means it's real.

However, in return, what we got was honest news from honest attendees and the start of a technical revolution where "ordinary" people will become adapt at sending pictures back live via streaming networks. And easy it is.

Indeed. Google I suppose, is now a TV network in its own right with video "journalists" literally in every street, every home. Whilst the quality might not just be up to standard yet, it will be and one wonders how traditional TV stations are going to compete with this?

The answer is they can't unless they got involved in creating their own citizen network which they haven't and they won't. They see the intenet as a threat and so they pooh-pooh it and run away whilst their newspaper competitors embrace it and jump onboard. It is newspapers that will be the new TV.

Whilst Google isn't a "content company" (like Streamabout), it is a network that facilitates the distribution of content and although not quite "there yet" it's well on the way. The Huffington Post Live is one of the great early adopters of this type of hangout news.  And I blogged here about that recently http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/08/tv-broadcasters-watch-out-newspapers.html

See what you think and then ponder the future for TV news.
Then think about Netflix and the future of TV entertainment.
Then think about Apple TV and the future of TV companies.
And wonder how they let it all get past them.