The popularity of social networking websites has seen an increase in breaches of guidelines against unplanned contact with hundreds of adopted children unexpectedly hearing from their natural families.

Read the report here

Note:

Social media is here to stay so maybe the real lesson to be learned from this story is the need to  inform children, at the earliest opportunity, that they are adopted so that the experience becomes a ‘norm’ and a common and  natural feature of many families, which it is, that is both acceptable and accepted.

Read the full story here

Lobbying firms spent thousands of pounds accrediting interns to “bum-sit” on the best seats in conference hotels for meetings between executives and MPs. Young staffers were accredited for party conferences just to reserve seating in hotel lobbies.

The disclosure will fuel calls for the party conference season to be scrapped as it has been overtaken by private companies and lobbyists. Some 7,000 out of the 11,000 passes sent out for the Tory conference were for journalists or lobbyists.

Last Sunday, a joint party held by the backbench 1922 Committee and the influential ConservativeHome website was sponsored by Peugeot. Party-goers had to listen to a 10-minute speech by a director of the car manufacturer before Defence Secretary Liam Fox addressed guests.

Tim Montgomerie, the editor of ConservativeHome, has calculated that ordinary party activists are priced out of attending. He said: “It costs the average person £722 to attend Tory conference. When we went to places like Blackpool people could stay in B&Bs for £20 a night, but Manchester is twice, three, four times the amount and that is not affordable for the average member.”

The famous Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward believes that “real journalism still depends on carefully planned and doggedly performed legwork“.

However it would appear that journalists may now be under pressure to produce and frame stories based on page views.

Computer software gauges the stories that are “trending” so if your stories aren’t figuring then – depending on the editorial culture – you may eventually feel the heat of managerial disapproval.

And this is all a product of the same technology that drives online advertising by giving advertisers instant feedback on which messages are working.

John Naughton of the Observer reports

In truth, its all part of an overall IMC package where cost-effective digital is providing new channels of access.

Interestingly,  the ESB’s online customers receive an electronic magazine (ezine) every two  months which is measured to see which articles are clicked on the most allowing editorial content to mirror customer’s interests and needs.

Red C Research – De-Coding Digital Trends Ireland 2011

Findings include increased ‘desire’ to be connected at all times, increased use of mobile devices (smartphones) to access online and increased geo-availability with social media driving time spent online with Facebook dominating.

Another report looks at the Top Ten Internet Mobile Trends with a So Lo Mo trend identified, that is, Social Media, Local Advertising and Mobile.

IMF Leader, and likely ‘Socialist’ presidential candidate in next year’s elections, Dominique Strauss-Kahn,  did himself no favours when he and his millionaire wife  were photographed stepping into a black Porsche Panamera S outside their apartment on the 17th century Place des Vosges.

DSK’s defence is that he does not own the car and had merely borrowed it from his PR adviser!

Champagne Socialist - Dominique Strauss-Kahn steps into the Porsche Panamera S

Le Canard enchaine - an outspoken newspaper that carries no advertising yet outsells Le Monde

The French weekly ‘Le Canard’ Enchaine’ (The Chained Duck) carries no photographs or advertising, its articles are unsigned and the newspaper shuns the web (http://www.lecanardenchaine.fr/)

With about 600,000 copies bought each week – considerably more than dailies such as Le Monde and Le Figaro – the paper turns a healthy profit and has a cushion of 100 million euro in the bank.

So just how do they do it?   Interesting article here

For example, recently PR director and RTE broadcaster Bill O’Herlihy very blatantly plugged one of his clients, Betpack.com during a World Cup broadcast.

Examining the fallout from the Hunky Dory campaign