Louis Halpern's View

With the final live debate days away, Labour is leading the race when it comes to celebrity endorsements on Twitter. With a combined reach of 1,760,608 users, Labour has harnessed by far the most celebrity endorsement influence on Twitter. With only 27m voting in 2005, this influence is likely to give the party a significant boost when the country goes to the polls on 6 May.

The Liberal Democrats came a distant second to Labour with a celebrity reach of 74,121 Twitter-users, followed by the Green Party on 18,366, and the Conservatives on 11,138. Political campaigner and stand-up comedian Mark Thomas, who is using his Twitter feed to support Bristol independent Danny Kushlick, for whom he has written/compiled a manifesto, has 12,244…

At lunch time today at The Body Holiday (the amazing St Lucia Spa Fitness & Wellness Vacation / Holiday destination) Andrew, Craig and I witnessed a High Sun Parhelic circle alternatively known as a Circular Halo

According to wikipedia it is formed by the refraction of sunlight through cloud suspended ice crystals rather than raindrops. I had my doubts about the ice crystals as the air temperature was in the 90s today and there was a distinct lack of wind, but thanks to the internet I have found a similar example from La Silla astronomical observatory in Chile on 27 January 1990.

Apparently, only arc sections are usually visible so there are very few pictures of the full circle. So we were very…

Manchester United banned its players from Twitter. The accounts of Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, and Darren Fletcher have already been removed as the club attempts to control the flow of news from the locker room and prevent players speaking out of turn. In September 2009, striker Wayne Rooney ranked as one of the football’s most prolific twitter-users, with 22,200 followers….

My thoughts on this personal and brand reputation management issue on this are….

While Manchester United’s decision to ban its players from Twitter will prevent leaking sensitive information and reduce the risk to its reputation from ill-considered player tweets, simply banning everyone from the platform is a myopic, draconian measure.

What Sir Alex Ferguson has failed to realise is the positive impact that…

We are ‘living’ more and more in the online world. Businesses are now aware that for them to truly interact with their target audiences they must build and maintain an online presence through social media, rather than just via online advertising. This applies to large, blue chip multinationals and ‘local’ SMEs alike, and has been addressed by many companies with varying degrees of success.

With a massive upside for businesses that successfully use social media, it is perhaps surprising that many employers are wary of getting involved. This may be attributable to a lack of appreciation of that potential or due to the fact that these employers do not fully understand how to use the social media tools available.

Ignorance is…

In an age where young people are connecting with their friends online every day, access to the internet and online communications services is no longer a privilege for the few that can afford it; it is now part of every young person’s daily life.

As CEO of a digital agency, and a parent myself, I’ve always been vocal about the need to educate not just our children, but also parents, and how youngsters can safely and sensibly make the most of the online world that is available to them.

Where adults have tended to be in the dark about what their kids do online, seeing it as risky and to some extent unproductive, young people have always been highly motivated…