Category: Social

Man reading book in living room smiling
Internet Marketing

Novel way to understand your online customers

The Archbishop of Canterbury has added his voice to a growing campaign which is urging the Government to alter its plans on welfare reform. Behind their argument is the notion that the Government simply does not understand the plight of the millions of people trapped in relative poverty. We’ve heard

Frequent updates lead to social network success

Coronation Street actor, Antony Cotton could well be the “King of the Jungle” in this year’s “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here…!” Not only does he have millions of adoring fans who watch him on the box each week, he is also a popular “Tweeter”. And while he is

Facebook and Google Page Headings
Future

Is Google having a panic attack…?

Google is a fine company – let’s get that straight at the beginning. They provide you and me with plenty of useful services. Even if you only use their search engine, can you imagine life without? We all depend on Google to a smaller or larger extent. And as a

Woman's Weekly provides lessons for online business
Future

Online businesses can learn from Woman’s Weekly

This week, Woman’s Weekly magazine is 100 years old. Happy Birthday, old gal. And in spite of the magazine market exploding since the introduction of the 1d (one old penny) magazine, it remains the best performing magazine in the sector, with sales slightly up in a market that has seen

Being social online leads to risky decisions

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou took a risk this week when he announced a referendum on the EU finance deal, which the rest of Europe thought was done and dusted. Greece and financial matters do not appear to be happy bedfellows at the moment. Indeed, a seemingly happy-go-lucky attitude to

Simon Cowell shows how to get traffic
Internet Marketing

How to get millions of visitors to your website without paying a dime

X-Factor supremo Simon Cowell is fuming. Viewing figures for the prime-time show are down significantly compared with last year. But I suspect after making his views known via the front page of The Sun, the number of people watching will be back up this weekend. Millions of people who previously

Shopping is social
Internet Marketing

Target the truly social people and you will make more money on the internet

Here’s a simple psychology project you can do yourself this weekend in your local High Street. Sit yourself down in the café or restaurant of your nearest department store and do a bit of “people watching“. All you have to do is count the number of shopping bags each person

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Psychology

Facebook reveals your brain’s structure

How many friends do you have on Facebook? Whatever the answer, I can tell how much grey matter you have in your “amygdala” – a small, almond shaped area deep within your brain. The amygdala plays a central role in emotion and in memory – probably helping us remember things

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Psychology

Are you as popular as Katie Price online?

The former topless model, turned pop star, turned reality TV star, turned business woman, turned novelist Katie Price (aka Jordan)  is now about to become a lecturer at Oxford University. Well, OK it is only a one-off lecture, but nonetheless she is going to speak at the Oxford Union –

Google Plus not so popular now
Social

Three psychological reasons why Google Plus is not working as well as it could

Google is full of engineers – computer geeks, code-writers and mathematicians all live happily inside the Google buildings around the world. To them, some of the aspects of using Google that we find complex, they think are really easy. I sometimes wonder if they think people around the world are

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Online Business

Your website relies on social pressure

Teenagers simply “have to” get involved in sending “sext” messages – the mobile phone messages that reveal their sexual activity and which also may include nude imagery. A new study shows that if they don’t “sext” they feel left out. In other words, they do it because “everyone” is doing

Troy Davis
Psychology

Social influence is not all it is cracked up to be

Troy Davis was executed yesterday for a crime he denied committing. Amnesty International had a petition of over 1m signatures protesting against the unsafe conviction. Even the Pope weighed in with a plea to prevent the killing. There was a massive international campaign protesting this man’s innocence – even the

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Social

Are you ready for tomorrow’s Facebook?

Facebook users are going to get a surprise tomorrow; the social networking site that they love so much is trying to make them love it even more. On average we each spend 15 minutes every day using Facebook, creating three new pieces of content every day on the site. But

Links do not last long online
Internet Marketing

It does not really matter where you place your links online

Colonel Gaddafi probably isn’t top of your mind at the moment. Yet he is in the news. Equally, Keira Knightley probably isn’t your hot topic of the moment, yet she too is making headlines today. And while we’re at it, spare a thought for George Osborne; he’s been getting a

Facebook Makes You Happy
Psychology

Are you in the mood for Facebook?

All over England today mums (and some dads) have a tear in their eye; it’s the start of the school year. Some rather small almost 5-year-olds will be off to Year R, whilst 11-year-olds start “Big School” today. Proud mums and dads will have waved off their youngsters outwardly smiling,

Social media does not rule
Internet Marketing

Businesses might not benefit from social media

You can’t move for advice – some of it on this website – about using social media in your business. But two new pieces of research published co-incidentally suggest that many businesses need to revisit the mad rush for being social. The first study is about mobile advertising. It was

Riots in London
Psychology

Don’t blame Twitter or Facebook for London riots

Apparently, as I return from holiday, “mindless thugs” have overtaken London, setting fire to large parts of Croydon, rioting in Tottenham, upturning Ealing and running amok in Enfield. That’s to say nothing of the violence in Bristol, Birmingham and Liverpool overnight. The police seem helpless, politicians are rushing back from