Kit Kat saw this as an opportunity to give people a break. Instead of offering Free WiFi like every other brand, they created a Free No-WiFi Zone.

A big sign with a small WiFi jammer that blocked all the signals within a five meter radius. So people could escape e-mails, updates, tags and even likes. Encouraging people to read a good old newspaper, a real book or have a genuine conversation. Whilst eating a Kit Kat.

Their stunt started a conversation about the need for places where people can disconnect, which was just the sort of attention they were looking for.

Do you think there is a need for places where people can disconnect? We would love to hear your thoughts.

The tweet did not go viral; they did not gain a significant number of new followers and their Instagram following was not propelled to new found heights. This we thought created the perfect opportunity to discuss how to create a viral tweet. Everyone wants more Facebook traffic, more YouTube views, more YouTube subscribers, more Twitter and Pinterest followers and more social influence.  Why, because if you can get something to go viral on the web, you can get a lot of exposure in a small amount of time.

Here are 4 ways to increase the probability your tweet will receive ReTweets:

A CALL TO ACTION
Every tweet should be done for a specific reason and should include a call to action. Every time you tweet, you want followers to ReTweet – every time your content is ReTweeted it expands to another network of twitter users.

TIMING
You need to experiment to see when you get the best responses from your followers. When you get a ReTweet track it in a spreadsheet and note the day, time and content of the tweet.

LINKS
As a general rule tweets with links have a higher ReTweet rate, researcher suggest 70% of tweets that include links get ReTweeted.

ADD VALUE TO YOUR COMMUNITY
The more you give, the more you receive.  Tweet useful content such as ‘How to’ information, breaking news, technology warnings and competitions and/or discounts.

This was just a few suggestions, we would love to hear what works for you.

Coined as The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign, shelves across the country have been stocked with 150 of the most popular names, from Aaron to Zoe – it’s intention to capture the nation’s imagination this summer and drive growth for retailers.

Starbucks launched a similar campaign last year and awarded customers with personalised name inscriptions, but did you ever find yourself unwittingly annoyed at the misspelling of your name?

Yeah, us too.

Coca-Cola have overcome this hitch by giving customers whose names are not available on pack, the chance to create their own virtual can online.

Be sure to Tweet us pictures of your personalised bottle and in the meantime, Happy Sharing.

They had recognised that one of the biggest requirements to improve the match day experience was daft, such as; player statistics, team statistics, etc. To try and combat this, the live game commentary was fed through twitter along with all major incidences and occasional sports stats. The real-time trial received tremendous positive feedback, the clubs twitter reach increased by 45%, in-game messaging increased by 20%, and picture based content soared to a staggering 67%.

Times are changing. As sport becomes more tightly integrated with technologies more pressure is put on clubs to find more innovative ways to engage fans and enhance live sporting experiences. Edward Griffiths, CEO of Saracens commented on the new initiative, “not every rugby supporter will appreciate ‘second screen’ activity, but we are pushing the boundaries… and our fans are having fun.” For Saracens this is only the beginning, they will be further looking to drive additional revenue to the bars and restaurants through effective community management.

With the future of social media in sport in mind, here are 5 trends to watch out for:

BRAND MARKETING – Currently most clubs use social media to market the brand, for example products, merchandise and adverts. Similar to Saracens, most clubs will start focusing on game day experience – the statistics, the atmosphere, the music, the pre match rituals, etc.  Instead of telling what the fans what they should aspire to want, marketers will start absorbing the emotions and stories fans experience throughout the game.

SOCIAL MEDIA HUBS – European clubs will start taking note of this brilliant invention on the other side of the pond. Social Media Hubs are allocated areas within the stadium on game day where pre-selected fans (social media savvy and influential in the digital space) can take control of the clubs social media presence. Who knows what the fans want better than the fans themselves?

TWITTER PARTIES – American clubs recognise how powerful and influential their social fans can be and one way of rewarding them is a “Fan night” in which fans are invited to come to the stadium to meet their fellow tweeters and put faces to twitter handles. An excellent way to bring clubs most influential social media followers closer to the clubs.

FAN  BASED CONTENT – Some Clubs have already started to include fans in their official content but we predict this to rise. Whether it is getting a fan to write a match report in the programme or create a YouTube interview with a player. Fan based content is more a whole lot more engaging.

PINTEREST – Pinterest seems to have been neglected at current but it is an obvious tool for clubs to use to promote their online shops. But boards can also be used as a platform for fans to share their favourite moments, players, amongst others.

Here in the PHA Digital team we are excited to see the evolution of Social Media in Sport and furthermore, how effective UK Sports Clubs are at utilizing their own Social Media Marketing Strategies.

Snapchat, often described as the next Instagram, allows users to send self-destructing photos and videos to friends. Photos, videos, drawings and text are sent back and forth like MMS, and then deleted from the recipient device and company servers in under 10 seconds.

The Stamford students who launched Snapchat believe that fleeting messages have an allure. With photo-sharing on Snapchat having increased threefold in just four months, many obviously agree. Snapchat Founder and CEO Evan Spiegal has stated that his primary users, 13-25 year olds, have a fear of lasting ramifications of online communication, which has “taken the fun out of communicating”. Snapchat is a way to share moments with friends and not just a pretty picture.

After raising $13.5 million in early February, Snapchat launched the Android version of its photo-sharing app, which has taken off crazily on iOS. Snapchat became immensely popular late last year, even prompting Facebook to create a mobile app called Poke that mimics Snapchats disappearing images and videos. Needless to say, Facebook Poke never caught on and hasn’t done much to stop the wildly impressive growth of Snapchat. Users are now sending more than 150 million photos on the service everyday, which is huge when you consider that mega-popular photo-sharing service Instagram sees 40 million images taken a day.

Worryingly there has been lots of warnings about the potential dangers of Snapchat when it comes to sharing private or personal pictures and messages, particularly among minors. After all iOS users can easily take a screen shot in order to save any image before it self-destructs. Snapchat has incorporated functionality wherein a user will be alerted when an image recipient takes a screen shot. That, of course, wont do anything to delete the photo in question but it seems to be an effective deterrent against users trying to save photos meant to disappear.

The question now is whether or not CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel will be able to monetize the popularity. At last weeks AllThingsD’s mobile conference earlier this week Spiegel hinted at the possibility of adds in the photo-sharing app stating that they had been playing around with some prototypes.

The app is currently free on iPhone and Android, download it here.

On Monday, Glamour magazine launched a month-long series of Hangouts featuring publication staff, online personalities, and products. Between April 10 and May 8 Glamour will roll out nine Hangouts that will include a total of eight advertising partners whose products will be placed in central spots encouraging users to interact with the brands. For example, a L’Oréal sponsored hangout with Glamour stylist Annabel Tollman will teach viewers how to wear ombré using L’Oréal products. Other sponsors include Unilever, L’Oréal, Pantene and SlimFast.

Bill Wackermann, vice president and publishing director at Condé Nast (who manages the sales, brand strategy and marketing for Glamour), told Mashable “[the collaboration is] a way to put advertisers’ products in front of Glamour‘s 1.5 million Google+ followers in a format that’s both compelling (in an editorial sense) and makes those products part of a story”.

The Hangout series includes content that ranges from beauty how-tos and shopping inspiration to live music and insider tips. The Hangouts will be uploaded to Glamour’s YouTube channel, as well as the advertisers’ websites and social media outlets. Some of the Hangouts are live, enabling readers to log on and participate using the hashtag #GLAMOURHangouts, while others will be pre-recorded, allowing readers to watch and comment via Google+.

“A lot of our advertisers were asking for custom content-things they could use across their websites and socially,” says Jenny Bowman, executive creative services director for the publisher. “This is part of their commitment for running in the May issue. We produce the Hangouts, bring in talent and film it-it’s something that we’re doing as added value.”

Here in the PHA Digital Team we are excited to see the results – for both Glamour and the participating advertiser partners – if successful it could be a great case study that will surely be replicated by others.

The concept of Bitcoin is a lot simpler than it appears. It is defined as an alternative currency and many sites online use it as their preferred currency, including Reddit. As opposed to ‘normal’ currency, there is no central banking.  On the face of it, Bitcoins are no different to the Pound or the Euro. All currencies have a value so long as it is traded. If people were to stop trading Bitcoins, the value would reduce to zero, much as the Pound or Euro would.

Whether or not Bitcoin will become a prominent part of our lives is yet to be seen. Though interest is undoubtedly sky-high at the moment, people see it merely as the ‘Harlem Shake of money’; a fad that will disappear from our minds as quickly as it arrived.

There is also a sinister side to the currency. As it is untaxed and pretty untraceable, there are certainly criminal undertones that can be very easily exploited by those who want to. Either way, given the ever-present uncertainty of today’s financial system,-which every week seems to be reaching new lows-Bitcoin’s big secret is out. But is it a bubble that is about to burst?

Since 2008, LinkedIn has become integral for business executives and due to the increasing importance of your digital footprint… others such as Facebook and Twitter are in close pursuit. It is possible for a whole recruitment process to be done and dusted online and many recruiters are now forgoing traditional methods of sourcing candidates. In addition, Research shows that over 90 per cent of hiring managers will look at your LinkedIn profile, so it is increasingly important that you have a near perfect profile. Twitter is also a great resource for both candidates and employers; due to its real time nature it is vital for freelance/last-minute vacancies and ‘spreading the word’.

Your LinkedIn profile should be an extension of your CV, including a professional profile picture and all the extra information that wont fit on your CV. Although securing recommendations and endorsements are important, the key words you select to include in your profile are critical. If you have created a great profile and used the right SEO keywords you will rank higher on general Internet searches (the easiest way to determine which keywords get the largest number of hits is by using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool – focusing on skill words with numbers in the midrange). Also look at how others in your industry are marketing themselves, especially the words they are using to highlight their skill-set. Your profile photo is also an immensely important feature, make sure you are dressed as though you are going to a job interview and that your personality shows through your smile. Be proactive… constantly make connections and upload/comment on key industry articles.

Social media channels are a fantastic way to shout about your presence, showcase your talents, show the world what you look like, and share your thoughts. But make sure you are always monitoring your digital footprint. If your Twitter profile (or any alternative Social Profile) is easily found ensure that you are happy for your tweets to be seen by a potential employer – candidates may be rejected because of the content on their personal pages.

Here at PHA Media we always post job openings on Twitter and LinkedIn so make sure you are following us!

The changes bring a choice of feeds so users can streamline the content they want to see, whichwill be available on desktop and mobile devices:

All Friends feed – see every post from every friend in chronological order to make sure nothing ismissed.

Music feed – what your favourite musicians are posting, what your friends are listening too, gigs,album news, etc.

Photos feed – shows every single photo that friends and Pages are posting.

Following feed – to see posts from the Pages and public figures that you like.

Close Friends feed – see everything from your close friends.

Games feed – updates on the latest games on Facebook.

Posts and life events will now be positioned to the right side of the timeline and content Apps will be given more prominence with a separate section in the left column of the timeline on the About tab.

The update also means people can add direct to the timelinefrom other sites including Pinterest and Instagram and connect Apps like Spotify and Netflix.

For brands and businesses, content is still king but images will rule the page.  They’ll need to make sure that wall posts are supported by high quality relevant imagery or video, to ensure users remain loyal.

Let us know what you make of the changes!