Hammerkit Blog

Last week we hosted our second webinar: ‘How to think like PR people but measure like Mad Men’ as part of the on-going webinar series: ‘The 4 Big Trends in Digital PR in 2013’. Thank you to everyone who attended! We hope you found it useful and interesting.

In last week's webinar we predicted the growing dominance of social media as a medium of communication in 2013. We also pointed out how social media is more measurable than other forms of media. Measuring the results of used tactics has always been hard for the PR industry. However, the new metrics that social media enables, such as the amount of 'likes' on Facebook, give PR professionals the chance to prove to clients and board members that Public Relations is a vital part of business.

Overall our webinar ran smoothly and we got positive feedback from our attendees. This week's webinar is: ‘How to grow your digital revenue without growing your overheads’ If you would like to register or to find out more about this upcoming webinar please see the event page.

Following the masterclasses from this summer we are in the midst of preparing a new webinar series ‘The Four Big Trends of Digital PR in 2013’. In these four consecutive 10 minute long webinars we will highlight and discuss the importance of digital for the PR Industry in the upcoming year. 2013 will indeed be very critical for PR agencies to start capitalising on the full potential of digital. 

The webinars are free to attend and you’ll discover how to confidently pitch digital solutions as part of
an integrated PR campaign. The topics and dates for the webinars are as follows:

1. How to turn one great idea into digital gold
2. Social media: How to think like PR people but measure like Mad Men
3. How to grow your digital revenue without growing your overheads
4. How PR must engage the mobile future

Join David Duffy, our VP of Sales, for the first webinar on Thursday November 22^nd at 3PM (GMT)

More info and registration here.

 

 

We are honored to receive recognition as one of world’s best e-Content solutions having been selected a winner in the 2011 World Summit Awards e-business and commerce category. The bi-annual competition is part of United Nation’s global initiative to select and promote the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications.

The WSA Grand Jury selected the 40 WSA Winners from over 460 digital projects and 105 countries on the basis of content depth and creative and valuable technology for users.

We were invited to join the winners and members of the Grand Jury in Cairo Egypt at the end of April, where the winner’s events including the award gala took place alongside with the Cairo ICT 2012 international trade fair.

Post revolution Egypt is a very exciting place to be. The fairground was buzzing with energy, enthusiasm and drive as young Egyptians were showcasing their talent, engaging in discussions and envisioning the future. 

Among the winners were such innovative digital services as social media tool HootSuite, environmental awareness platform Verdeate, e-tendering solution Monaqasat, agriculture wiki Wikigoviya, Digital ID service DigId as well as other exciting entries. 

We congratulate all winners and thank the WSA organisation for a great event!

Facebook has taken a step towards safer browsing by making an SSL certificate mandatory for all external provider’s apps. With an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) data is encrypted online making it less fragile for potential misuse. App sources that do not hold the certificate will not be accessible on HTTPS mode.

So far we are used to secured browsing in data sensitive applications such as banking and e-commerce. However, since many Facebook apps also store user information (like it or not) this seems like a reasonable step in positioning Facebook as a more data secure platform. You can read more about this on Facebook’s Developer Blog.

The HTTPS support for all Facebook apps (page tab and canvas) has been mandatory from October on. HammerKit has taken the necessary steps to comply with this requirement to make sure that our customers’ apps keep providing the best possible user experience.

Being (in)famous of their dynamic nature, the next rather big change is mapped for early January 2012. Facebook will then drop the support of FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for new apps. Existing FBML apps will only work until June 1st. HTML/CSS/Javascript are to be used instead, which is good news for external developers (such as us) who use iframe embedding for FB pages.

I took a little look at how companies are utilizing Facebook applications. Most of them engage the public by different competitions, polls and all kinds of ad hoc information. Everyone seems to be out there crying for likes, but it is baffling to notice that in most cases a real call for action remains forgotten.

A large portion of all web browsing already takes place in the social networks with Facebook dominating that scene. So my question is why are companies not bringing their money making process to where people spend time, talk, share and compare?

For example, a charity organisation can for sure raise a lot of discussion over its cause. But why not include a simple app that asks people to go donate right there and then?

I did find some cases where the opportunities seem to have been grasped.

Check out the examples below:

1) Integrating an online store interface on Facebook
Shnajder Shop was set up in Facebook for promoting the work of Macedonian designers. The best T-shirt designs could be purchased directly from an embedded e-commerce application with an integrated payment system on Facebook. And in this case this was the only point of purchase. The result was an increase both in fan base as well as T-shirt sales.

2) Creating awareness and collecting supporters
Following the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 a group of women came together to start a viral campaign for drawing attention to the region’s coastal erosion. The goal was to gather signatures to a petition in support of funding and implementation of a plan for a protected and restored Gulf Coast. A Facebook page was set up with the petition and an online toolkit for users to go sign it directly without having to navigate off the page.

3) Connecting with job seekers
HR managers are among the ones most likely to hugely benefit from social media. And the international recruitment agency Adecco taps right into it by utilizing Facebook in their recruitment campaigns where job offers can be browsed directly within the app. Job seekers may also apply directly from the page if a suitable offer pops up.

Now ask yourself: How is your business using social media? Is it enough to be liked, or could I add another money making channel? Are you providing that genuine interaction and essentially a call for action?

It was a dark and gloomy night in Ireland, home of many transnational corporations. Thunder was in the air, ready to burst into a symphony of lightnings and roar. At the Amazon Data Centre the night shift had just begun and the loyal server wards were patrolling the narrow corridors on their usual rounds.

The Irish hounds were howling in the distance. The approaching thunder made everyone restless. A stable humming was echoing from the EC2 servers’ chambers. Suddenly, without a warning, a loud bang shook the building and the humming came to a halt.

A lightning struck an electric transformer. This paralyzed a large number of servers, sadly also those handling most HammerKit sites. Despite of our efforts in restoring the sites asap, the downtime lasted several hours. Everything is however now fixed and sites are working normally.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. This incident revealed weaknesses in our server setup. It is a valuable learning experience that we will take into account when restructuring the setup to better fit the requirements of our customers.