Marmite and the BNP...an unhappy tale of love and hate

Recently, I published a blog on Marmite and their spoof election. Since then, there have been some public relations developments and disasters, so here is my video discussing them!

Twitter and Grease (a delightful combination)

This blog is about Twitter (more than it is about Grease)! I know I have already written a blog on this topic but I feel it is time for an update on my thoughts on the subject. My last blog was less about my personal feelings and more about the productiveness of people using it so this one will be more about the former.

In my last blog I claimed to be merrily using Twitter on a fairly regular basis and this was true. Now, however, I realise I haven’t logged in for an age, nor have I noticed the lack of its presence in my life. This situation emerged because a few weeks ago I did not have internet in my flat and so I stopped being on Twitter all the time. When my internet reappeared, it transpired my enthusiasm of Twitter did not.

I am not sure if this is a recurring trend among people (perhaps you could tell me?) but it feels like it could be. You sign up for something and use it heavily, and then the novelty wears off. This is what happened with me and Twitter. I logged on, I even joined Hootsuite (‘The Professional Twitter Client’) to better manage my account, and I followed lots of people, many of whom I now have forgotten why I did so. I was never much of a tweeter, apart from informing my fellow classmates about my blog being up. I do not appear to be so coy on my Facebook page, where I frequently tell my friends things they do not need to know. I think my shyness on Twitter is more because it felt like it was a ‘work’ thing rather than a personal outlet of my deepest darkest feelings. We have had a lecture on our ‘personal brand’, and it really got me thinking about how we use social media for work and play and how difficult it can be to separate them.

I have been thinking about my short affair with Twitter and I have come to the conclusion that is much like a summer romance (bear with me...). There’s the initial butterfly stage (creating a new account and personalising it), then there is the getting to know one another (that is the following of many people because you think they are interesting). Things go well for a while; there is much chatting (tweeting) and holding of hands (em...don’t have a Twitter equivalent). But then, as the classic song goes, “It turned colder, that’s where is ends, So I told her, we’d still be friends” and things fizzle out. In Twitter terms, this means you start getting irritated by other people’s tweets, you wonder why you decided to follow some silly celebrity, and on the whole it feels like it is too much bother.



I do see the potential of Twitter as a useful tool, and I know that many people are whole-hearted tweeters and so I am not suggesting it is not something which should be considered for PR campaigns. I am just saying that for me and Twitter, the summer nights are over and it’s back to the wet September. I can envisage my enthusiasm increasing when I have to start on my dissertation, as one good thing I can say for Twitter is that is very good for up-to-the-minute academic papers, and so, who knows? Maybe Twitter and I will be reunited and I can wear a cat suit and sing ‘You’re the one that I want’. Don’t panic, I’ll do it in private.

Google Analytics

What can I say? It turns out I am not that popular...in the blogosphere, anyway. I logged on to see my Google Analytics report with some excitement, ready to see that thousands of people have read my blog, loved it, and told all their friends. Alas, it was not so. Though, as my title indicates, the past few weeks have included a lot of ranting, so who am I to blame the masses for not getting on board? Sorry, enough of my fishing for compliments from my avid readers. I have actually done OK, with 485 visitors registered on my blog, and Google Analytics coming up with 179. So, let us get on with the analysing.

I was particularly excited about the map- what strange and wonderful countries will turn up? ‘Not many’, appears to be the answer. Just over 80% of my traffic was from the UK. This is not very surprising considering Predominantly Ranting was written in the UK, in English, about things pertaining to the UK. Still, I am a tad disappointed Timbuktu did not register.

Though the throng of countries did not materialise, something I did find interesting was what website the traffic came from. It seems like my informing my friends on Facebook that my new blog was up has drummed up significant support. However, Twitter acquired very little visits, even though I had tweeted every time I uploaded a blog. Apparently, I garnered 41 visits from Facebook, while Twitter only gave me 5 (though perhaps I should include the 3 from Hootsuite, which would have also been from my tweets).

Overall, my Google Analytics was not hugely interesting for anyone but me. This is only because this blog is fairly small and pretty internalised among our classmates. However, I definitely see the potential value of Google Analytics for larger websites or blogs particularly for PR campaigns and the like. It is a good way of highlighting your current publics and then using them as a base to expand on or deciding to focus in on a particular section of your existing publics. Also, for evaluation purposes I can see how this is an incredibly useful tool. To be able to monitor where, when and for how long someone was on your website is brilliant. It can only add more brilliance by being free!