It is in my strictest, sternest and possibly controversial view that advertising online is dead.

Once upon a time it did flourish and at the same time the internet was known as a commercial trap for users. I remember in the early 1990s it was almost impossible to visit a website without a pop-up advert greeting you. Sometimes you would be unfortunate enough to stumble upon a hoard of multi-pop-up adverts which would force your browser to take you to all sorts of corners of the internet.

I can hardly say that advertising isn’t used on the internet. This would be untrue and in the past I have had deals with companies to host their advertising on my blog for a fee. It just so happens that such companies are growing in numbers on the internet. Ideally a website owner would want to avoid banner ads and these new online advertising companies are offering text links.

Why though? Why would a company ask for text links to be placed at the bottom of each page of another’s website? It would be very unlikely for a user to actually click on them, especially if the site in question featured a mass of content. There is only one possible answer and that would be search engine optimisation. If your company’s hyperlink can be found on the bottom of many website pages then searches would yield a crop of hyperlinks directed to the advertised site. There is something sly and accidental about such influence on individual’s searches though.

Advertising relies upon a passive audience. This is an audience that is subjected to a message which they are to take as granted. Hypodermic Needle theory explains this well as there is only a single line of communication. It is this single line of communication that does not exist on the internet anymore. Social media shows how internet users are engaging with each other on a two way communication model.

A few days ago I heard an Ex-Journalist talk about(…)

Goodbye teenage years. It was nice meeting you but I could have done without the spots, grease, tantrums, fluff on the upper lip and identity confusion.

There has been a rumour going around that today is actually my 50^th birthday. This is but a mere proposed mental age though. I have gone through life with people commenting that I act much older than I am. Not entirely sure if it is a ‘maturity thing’, more a side-effect caused by my introverted character that extravagantly extraverts itself online as if trying to find some plausible reason to why-I-think-the-way-I-do.

So far my life has stretched beyond several decades and after each year passes the next is to be presumed. For I am at that age when the body is young, mind remains sharp and it is easy to mistake yourself as invincible. Everything always moves too slowly. The moments in life take millennia to pass but should be savoured as a vintage wine.

It is the speed of youth that misses the colours of moments. Some people spend their whole lives missing the casual reasons and spend their life just as content as me who desires to know why life dealt a particular card.

At the turn of the millennium I honestly looked ahead 10 years I doubted I would make it. I was only 10 years old at the time but to live another 10 years, another lifetime, seemed utterly impossible. Yet, I have made it. Presuming no accident or illness occurs I can expect at least another 50 years. How scared that makes me feel. To think that my dreams must be accomplished before it is too late. That I have already lived 20 years and how I have changed during that time.

Whilst I think it is a giant leap to escape the teens and enter the eeeeees, at University I am one of the younger ones. People were forever bursting out in laughter when they learnt that I was a mere 19(…)

It is a story so very familiar when a trade union is dedicated to protect its members through the form of a strike. The only problem is that strikes cause disruption and for this I have no desire to support the UCU (University and College Union) ballot.

There is no doubt that higher education is in a little bit of a muddle. Just look at what happens when students decide not to vote. The government is able to withdraw their support for us through funding cuts. Add that to the financial mess the University of Gloucestershire have got themselves in.

It is in my absolute confidence that the University’s management is to blame. Fair enough, the world has a recession and Gordon Brown has not provided medicine for the UK. This recession goes beyond the academic’s hairline though. The University of Gloucestershire is in big trouble. Lots of Universities have debts but I go to a small University with a huge debt. Last time I heard it was over £36 million, an amount which must have been building before the recession.

I would be lying if I said that the University are being completely closed about what is going on. After pressure by the SU (Student’s Union), last semester, they lightened up a little. Still, there is no complete honesty and most details I learn are through word of mouth. Be honest University management; be open about your mistakes. It isn’t difficult, this blog has taken but a few minutes to write and will reach a couple of hundred readers.

I do feel sorry for staff members. During my first year at University I made good friends with the cleaning staff who have seen over half their colleagues lose their jobs. It is heart breaking when anybody loses their job but I feel angry when you hear about management being on vast salaries but at the same time wielding the weapon.

Even though I am sympathetic towards staff members losing their jobs, this is sympathy(…)

“The Shorty Awards are a worldwide effort to engage hundreds of thousands of Twitter users to identify the best people and organizations on Twitter.”

I am currently trying to get some votes in The Shorty Awards in the unofficial category of #publicrelations. Although feel free to nominate me for anything as The Shorty Awards are partly about how people view you on Twitter. Even getting one vote in The Shorty Awards would brighten up my day!

You can vote for me here

Or by posting on Twitter: I nominate @michaelwhite1 for a Shorty Award in #publicrelations because… (you need to provide a reason otherwise the vote won’t be counted.)

Any unofficial #categories you make will still be included and have the possibility of becoming official if there are enough votes.

If you don’t want to vote for me then you can always vote for me in the #egocentric category… which means I still get a vote!

I am really good at Scrabble. Seriously, I’m not joking. I even roughly know how many points each of the letters are worth. Instead of instinctively typing I can look at the keyboard and even within ‘qwerty’ can spot words such as; type, try, wet, re, et, ye. I don’t even need any human interaction. I can just sit with my iPhone and play… constantly.

Why? Why on Earth?! Why word fence with myself like this. It isn’t doing me any good. I keep confusing reality with the virtual reality and look for points in all the words I write. This mental break down makes perfect sense though. It does!

Since trying to give up smoking this is what has happened to me. Strange thing is I am absolutely helpless in the wake of this habit. It is so very strong, giving up recently has equated to a four day streak. Just four days? Just useless Michael, how useless you really are. The primary reason for my lack of will-power is that I LOVE smoking.

Oh yes, the smooth smell of tobacco. Even the fresh smell of cigarettes in the morning. Perhaps with a cup of coffee just before lectures. Nothing beats it. I would much rather be a smoker than an alcoholic. Let’s face it. With my addictive personality I could swing both ways (this is a joke…).

Scrabble offers me the protection from my busy head that demands to light up. Consequently trying to relax is hellish. One of the peculiar factors about smoking is that cigarette just before bed. Almost all smokers have it. A stimulant just as you are about to sleep. Curiously it is this last cigarette of the day which is hardest to beat. It demands attention and without it you can be guaranteed a night just thinking about it.

What is this utter nonsense which I am typing about though? Surely the cravings of this leaf show how pathetic I have become as a human. To demand this(…)

Will provide part 2 of this muse within the next few days.

On my Public Relations course whenever a campaign has been planned there is always one word which is used in abundance. The conception of a plan that will spread ‘awareness’. Perhaps defaulted by principle as awareness avoids connotations of unethical propositions. How wrong it would be to implement a campaign that would compel individuals into actually purchasing a product. Would that really be unethical?

Just because a scale of influence has been used to persuade an individual to purchase doesn’t make it wrong. They haven’t been told to purchase a particular product or support a cause; they have still made a choice. No matter the level of influence involved they made a subjective choice.

For the past couple of days most of my attention has been diverted to completing an essay for my Ethics module at University. The essay concerned determinism, freewill and the ethical outcome. Although there is no denying a similarity, if only academic in nature, that Public Relations should be concerned about. Determinism focuses on why we make the choices we do, how our choices are determined by prior causes.

David Hume, one of my favourite philosophers, divulged into how the whole scheme of nature works through necessity. Cause and effect is how every object is brought into the world, this simple principle explains the functionality of our bodies but also the decisions we make. I won’t spend this muse pondering upon the existence of determinism, compatabilism or indeterminism.

Instead I want you to take for granted, for this small fraction of time, these three principles:

1. We do indeed live in a world that can only be explained through the mechanics of determinism.

2. Freewill is necessary for liberty to exist.

3. But freewill is littered with impediments that personally limit our choices but does not keep our hands tied.

Quite a big proposal but if we are to take these three principles to heart then influence is not a question of ethics.(…)

Although I enjoy lots of different subjects at heart I am a fully fledged, Doctor Who sock wearing, geek. So I hope you all have a great 2010 and I leave you with my website statistics for 2009. Not entirely accurate since several months were not counted due to a technical error but on the whole they are quite interesting. Especially several of the most popular search terms!

Unique Website Hits: Greater than 11,412
Number of Visits: 37,079
Number of Page Views: 178,633
Bandwidth Transfer: 106.91GB

Top 3 Web Browsers

-          Firefox
-          Google Chrome
-          MS Internet Explorer

Top 3 Countries

-          Great Britain
-          United States
-          Germany

Top 3 Referrers

-          Twitter
-          Facebook
-          Stumbleupon

Top 10 Search Terms

-          mikewhite
-          mike white
-          94u
-          pittville campus
-          sex2008
-          paul bowler gloucestershire
-          pittville campus closure
-          pittville campus closing
-          leaf jokes
-          Stephen fry itunes festival

Before a company can implement a successful social media strategy it is critical for them to analyse how they are to manage their own reputation. To represent your client online requires you to wear the mask of your client. Due to this you must accept full responsibility to act on the part of your client on the side of promotion.

Social networks are no longer a question of the scripting languages being used but instead concerned purely upon the relationships between individuals. Each social network is different as the medium changes the message. Sometimes a particularly social networking site may not be suitable for the class of client you are attempting to promote. If anything the reputation of that client might be harmed because you implemented a strategy involving the wrong mediums of social media.

Individuals online change. This is one of the most important overlooked facts which can lead to reputation errors. When communicating online we have the option to change who we are. Our writing style conveys the formality of who we are and semiotics can speak a thousand words.

Do not forget that we are talking about “SOCIAL” networks. The idea is to be social on the internet. Don’t implement a pathetic viral strategy aimed on catching people out otherwise your reputation will plummet. Work to the rules of the social networking site you have chosen, communicate with the community.

Apart from the misguided companies social networks are largely used to be social. Being social usually involves a form of casual conversation and nothing is worse than a company ruining the party by avoiding those personal pronouns.

Remember that I said each social networking site is different? The same goes for the individuals who reside within each of those networks. It is not possible to tarnish each social network with the same brush. Each network acts individually and the users within those networks are different too. They all share one thing in common though. They are on that network to be social.(…)

There is so much worry which is inflicted upon a young person’s mind. From those early years at school when you are required to read and write efficiently but also learn basic maths. Basic maths? Does such a mathematical arena really exist? The problem with schooling is that every pupil is classified into individual categories. Ranging from those who struggle, to the pupils who have brains like sponges. Something that is always forgotten about sponges though is that they are porous and full of holes. Those who are observant will evaluate that the majority of those ‘so called’ fast learners at school just stored all that knowledge into their short term memory.

The category system at school is simply misunderstood. Those in the lowest group were not dull, dim or disinterested but instead slower learners. The brain needs some extra time to grasp a comprehensive understanding but then would retain that learnt knowledge. What I am trying to get at is that those categories at primary schools stick in the subconscious. The good old British class system even extends into our Primary Schools teaching children from an early age that we are not all equal.

It will be of no surprise to you that we are not equal which would suggest the class system to hold some validity but let’s approach life as if we are all equal. There is no harm in that. So what if somebody answered a question incorrectly? At least they had thought about the question before providing their answer. That is the only important skill which schooling requires of us. It is to think independently. To walk through life as if we are the only focus and to maintain a public image unafraid of being open and honest.

It is amazing about how many details about our childhood may influence our older years. For this I am thankful for. I have had a good childhood, although I was not fully aware of it at the time. Of course(…)

Apparently there are 15,740 social media experts on Twitter of who take the forms of gurus, consultants, stars, experts and ninjas. I am not entirely surprised and as Mashable observed this self-accredited title is just hot air. Surely the only way somebody can be truly convinced of your worth is through the voice of another?

Notice how on my Twitter profile I have avoided cliché terminology. There is nothing worse than those who big themselves up on Twitter without any experience or content to prove their worth. Just because you Re-Tweet social media posts doesn’t make you an expert; it makes you a regurgitator.

I am not an expert but instead a ‘web 2.0 enthusiast’. Even though I am only a student I have been surfing the internet since the age of five and have built similar social media websites which have received  so much hype today. I am an enthusiast, passionate about the subject and can see potential as well as flaws.

So forgive me as I walk the controversial path into what could be considered short sighted and simply wrong. Social media is experiencing a frenzy of attention at the moment. Rather than personal attributes people are being viewed by how many followers they have on Twitter and the amount of websites they have heard of. I am getting fed up with this hype.

In one breath I can name over a dozen different websites which will help share content from your website. Methods to spread a company’s word into the different sections of the heterogeneous audience in which social networking has created. I did a presentation to a client at the beginning of this month and they were more interested in a social media strategy surrounding Facebook than considering ‘old fashioned pr’.

It is in my opinion that the world has gone crazy. Of course there is value to using social media but let’s all calm down about this. Just because a PR firm has offered social media in their pitch doesn’t(…)