Urban’s latest musings

• The Big Debate: Opening Up: Urban MD Kevin Johnson reflects on The Big Debate and suggests Birmingham chances of being seen as a creative capital will increase if we open up a little.
• A Tale for Two Cities: Urban director Tim shares his views following a recent visit to Birmingham’s so called  rival city, Manchester.
• Who should have the hand on the purse strings: Urban director Tim shares his thoughts on why many schools in the UK are experiencing financial woes.

Identifying Influential Influencers

The Guardian and The Observer have published research exploring ‘Word of Mouth’ and how to distinguish the influentials from the not so influentials. As a result of this research, a quick checklist – ACTIVE – has been created with which researchers suggest an individual’s potential buzz factor can be predicted.

• Ahead in Adoption does not necessarily mean being at the edge of discovery, but ahead of the mainstream.
• Connected means having lots of connections, but important that there is a range of them.
• Traveller means having more frequent contact with other countries, their people and most importantly their ideas and perspectives.
• Information hungry people who always want to learn more, constantly seeking out and exchanging new facts and ideas.
• Being Vocal does not necessarily mean loud and dominant; but keen to discuss thoughts and share information and experiences.
• Exposed to Media refers to people who are voracious consumers of mass media, particularly print or the internet.

Applying this concept to the online landscape, this checklist could help in the process of identifying the influencers and thought leaders in the blogosphere and twitterverse.

Social Media Counter

We have found a counter that brings social media stats alive.  Gary Hayes of Personalized Media has managed to create a flash application that demonstrates just how active the Social Web is.

The Big Debate: Opening Up

I’m a little slower to post my thoughts after the Big Debate than the excellent analysis and follow ups from the likes of Dave Harte and Paul Bradshaw or the instant (and spot on) post from Andrew Brightwell. That’s what comes of being a corporate comms type, wanting to have your thoughts structured and every dot and comma in their perfect place.