It seems sheep throwing, tending to online aquariums and taking the Addicted to Friends quiz is simply not entertaining Facebook users anymore. A new application, Lexicon, is similar to Google trends and it allows users to create a trend graph for different words and (two-word) phrases found on Facebook Walls. People can then see the buzz topics being discussed on Facebook.

Roddy Lindsay, a Facebook Engineer, says: ‘Lexicon pulls from the wealth of data on Facebook without collecting any personal information in order to respect everyone's privacy.’

This is good news following all the recent problems Facebook have had with privacy issues. I assume this application will be used in a fun manner (I can’t imagine too many political debates take place on Facebook walls), but it could be a valuable tool for companies to see if, and to what extent, its product or brand is being discussed on the social networking sites.

However, as Hannah mentioned in a previous blog, Facebook is losing its core audience of young people, possible due to brand devaluation caused by the increasing popularity of the site with businesses and politicians.

If organisations increasingly use Facebook and Facebook continues to add applications that appeal mainly to organisations, its popularity with its core audience will only decrease.

If you know your Wimax from your dongle then you are probably fluent in Nerdic, the fastest-growing language to hit Europe.

The technological terminology, researched by PIXmania.com, is associated with modern gadgetry and has the three core elements required to define a new language: words, phrases and pronunciation. Nerdic is growing faster than the English language with 100 new words added each year, three times the amount of new words that appear in the Oxford English Dictionary.

So, can this really take off as a new language or will it flop like Esperanto? Well Pixmania's researchers say it can be understood the world over and that it might "be more widely spoken than any other European dialect."

Technology is so widely used now and with advances happening on an almost daily basis, I can see why these buzz words may catch on and slip into our everyday lingo.

However, I can’t quite see myself saying something along the lines of: “Hopefully my fuel-cell will hold out so I can upload some UGC, check my emails and pray that I haven’t been RickRolled.”

Since Matt is ‘Geek Boy’ in our office, I wonder how long it will be before we can’t understand what he is saying?

Ofcom have released a classification system identifying types of social networking users. Read about the five different types of users below:

Alpha Socialisers mainly consists of young males who make short but frequent forays into the social networking world to scout for new contacts, usually attractive females.

Attention Seekers are apparently needy females who crave attention and interaction, mainly by posting photographs of themselves in provocative poses (yes, I'm sure we all have friends like this on Facebook).

Followers mainly use social networking sites to find out what their friends are up to. Followers tend to lose interest after having initial intense interest in social networking sites.

The Faithful social networking users do not tend to crave comments or extensive friends lists as they have high self esteem. Faithful users are more interested in finding old friends than making new ones.

Lastly, Ofcom identified Functionals. Functionals tend to use social networking sites for more definite purposes, such as finding music on MySpace or promoting their own bands.

So, which one are you?

 

There is no escaping Wayne Rooney and his fiancée Coleen McLoughlin in the media these days. The young couple, often nicknamed ‘Wayleen’, have hit the headlines again after it emerged that Coleen would like two parties for their summer wedding; one for the A-listers in Italy and the other for Rooney’s family in Liverpool.

I can’t say I blame her. Coleen’s 18th was disrupted by a brawl between her family and the Rooneys. Wayne’s cousins have also caused quite a stir in the past, most recently at Coleen’s 21st when 18 year old Natalie Rooney, an aspiring glamour model, flashed the paparazzi and offered to strip entirely at the nuptials...how lovely!

Coleen is keen to make sure ‘Brand Rooney’ is kept as classy as possible as they would like to break into America as the hot new soccer couple (where have we heard that story before?)

However, I’m not too sure if Brand Rooney exists. Unlike the Beckhams (an indisputable global brand) this couple seems different. Rarely do we see them out together in matching outfits, promoting matching fashion lines or his 'n' her perfume. They seem to focus on their own lives and seem to be doing it successfully. Rooney seems focused on his football and Coleen has turned herself from a schoolgirl into a celebrity in her own right, doing a lot of charity work in between netting herself her own £5.5 million fortune before the age of 18 (from books, magazine columns, TV presenting and advertising). Of course, to begin with, Coleen was in the limelight because of Rooney, but now I think ‘Brand Coleen’ would be around even without the Rooney element.

After a morning of not knowing whether or not to believe anything I have read in the papers or online, I began to realise that April Fool’s Day provides a huge marketing and PR opportunity for organisations.

The BBC has successfully directed traffic to its new iPlayer facility by showing a (pretty spectacular) video of penguins flying to the Amazon Rainforest in search of warmer weather. At first the video is so beautiful and professional-looking that you can’t help but think it’s real, until the up-close shot of the penguins flying past a toucan makes you doubt the authenticity! The Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph both ran stories and links to the video on its websites. Great marketing for all involved!

BMW joined up with the Metro for its April Fool’s marketing stunt. The entire of page three was dedicated to unveiling the latest gadget in the BMW, a system that sends 200 volts through the body of a dog if it ‘goes to the toilet’ on the wheels of the new BMW. Mind you, stranger things have happened: click here to read Kevin’s blog about the electrocution of an unfortunate dog in Dundee.