Six degrees of separation

I was on a photoshoot with legendary TV duo Richard and Judy (name drop!) yesterday and due to some strange co-incidences realised that we are all only a short step away from everyone. It turned out that two of the other participants in said photoshoot actually worked at the same place (at a different time) and had the same manager. Bearing in mind we were all picked randomly to be at the shoot, it was really quite freaky!

So I was interested to take part in a social media experiment being run by Yahoo! In their Small World Experiment they are hoping to find how closely connected we are by using the ultimate social tool, Facebook. As the blurb says "The Small World Experiment is designed to test the hypothesis that anyone in the world can get a message to anyone else in just "six degrees of separation" by passing it from friend to friend. Now, using Facebook we finally have the technology to put the hypothesis to a proper scientific test."

I immediately signed up and was given my person to track down via Facebook. The idea is you are located a random person and then through your contacts you have to try and connect with them in six steps.

I was all excited until I was told to locate Seunghee Jung from Korea... WTF?! I don't know anyone who lives there or has contacts there. It gets even more difficult as you can only choose one Facebook contact to carry on the chain, so the success of your hunt depends on whether they want to participate in this piece of detective work or if they have something better to do.

I've now also signed up to be a target (I hope it doesn't literally mean someone is going to take a hit out on me?!) so it will be interesting to see if I get found. Ooo, it's just like playing Peekaboo with my little boy...

Let me know if you've signed up and whether you've managed to track down your target. I can't wait to see the results. In the meantime, I'm off to find another target - perhaps I'll get Kevin Bacon this time?

Facebook launches new privacy settings... again!

Is it just me or does it seem that Facebook like to change their privacy controls every so often. The cynical part of me thinks it makes good publicity, but the other part likes to think they really have listened to their users and given them what they want.

This time, the main change is centred around tagging. From now on, if you tag someone in a post or a photo, they will have to approve the said tag. Apparently users have asked for more control over this and I can see their point. While it's fine to be tagged in a photo looking OK (like the one below), it's another thing to be tagged in a photo with your knickers on show while you puke in a bush - especially if your boss is one of your friends on Facebook!

Insiders say this move, along with more other more transparent privacy controls of limiting who can see individual posts and images, was probably brought on by the fast-growing service by Google +.

So has Facebook lost it's edge? Is it now going to be playing catch-up with Google +? We'll see how this social media showdown plays out - who knows maybe the next big Oscar movie will be have Google in the title?

The app that will make your baby sleep*

When I got my iPhone towards the end of my pregnancy, I thought it would be useful to keep in touch with all my mates while I was ensconced in the house with newborn babba on my hipo. What I didn’t realise is that it would be a total life-saver once said baby had arrived.

I thought that apps could allow me do my banking while on the move, amuse me in those early hours of the morning while feeding baby, help me keep connected with my friends. I didn’t realise that there were such a wealth of baby-related apps out there.

Anyone who has had a baby knows that those early months are hell – mainly because you don’t get much sleep. Babies have gone from being cocooned in the comfort of the womb to being in this noisy, foreign place and that makes it difficult for them to sleep.

We struggled endlessly with our little man. It didn’t help that he had reflux, a condtion, which meant he didn’t like lying on his back, but we just couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t sleep. That’s when I stumbled across the Baby Sleeping Wonder app - or Einschlafwunder in its native German (ooo, it trips off the tongue...)

It’s a really simple app, which basically allows you to choose various white noises to help your baby to sleep. Whether you choose a hairdryer or waves, the background noise supposedly soothes baby to sleep. It must work as Wayne Rooney still likes to sleep with the hoover on – unless that is of course some other deep-seated festish he has. You can also add in a heartbeat, which makes the baby feel like it’s back in the womb. 

You could go out and buy a white noise CD but the bonus with this app is that it has a timer and at the end of the allotted time, it fades out and stops on its own, gradually reducing the noise until there is total quiet.

It might not work for every baby but it certainly helped ours get some sleep – and both myself and my husband found the noise quite soothing as well!

Verdict: It’s simple to use and it may well help your baby sleep, which is worth its weight in gold. The fact that it’s on your iPhone means you can also use it when you’re out and about or on holiday, which is definitely a bonus over those white noise CDs. Download the Baby Sleeping Wonder app for free now and hopefully you’ll get some much-needed sleep.*

*Well, probably

Fancy having your own personal stylist?

Well thanks to fairly-new fashion website, Stylist Pick, you can have access to some of the top fashion and celebrity stylists for just £39.95 a month!

The premise of the site is that top fashion gurus such as Britain’s Next Top Model’s Grace Woodward pick a selection of stylish goodies for you to buy. When you sign up, you take a little fashion quiz and these answers determine what will appear in your showroom each month. 

Being a HUGE fashion lover, I was sold straight away. The idea that you have items picked for you by such renowned stylists was a big draw. I love Alexa Chung’s style and her stylist, Steph Stevens, is one of the chosen selectors as well as Louise Roe and Arabella Greenhill, fashion journalists with a very stylish CV. With this wealth of fashion knowledge, I was so excited to get that very first email alerting me to my personalised first pick...

And I did find something I loved – some studded ankle boots, chosen for me by Grace Woodward. However, since then I’ve been a tad disappointed in the selection chosen for me. They either look a bit cheap (and for nearly £40, I want something that doesn’t look like it has come straight of Primark’s shelf) or they’re not just quite right style-wise.

That said I do love the concept of the site and I think it can only get better. It started off as just shoes, and now bags and jewellery have been added. I think if they can start offering a few clothing picks as well, I’ll be sorted. However, it does also show that no-one knows your style like yourself. I am my best stylist and I cost absolutely nothing!

AT A GLANCE: Stylist Pick

PROS: Great concept and a reasonable price point. It’s also great that, as long as you skip your pick by a certain date, you’re not tied into buying anything, which is great for those leaner months!
CONS: Not the best – or most stylish – selection of shoes and accessories I’ve ever seen, plus the choices can be hit or miss for your own style. It would also be great if they could extend the range to include some clothing.
RATING: 7/10

Facebook wants your baby!

Ah, you've got to love Facebook haven't you? Not determined with having 750 million of the world's population on their social media platform, they're now targetting the unborn.

A new feature launched this summer allows parents-to-be the chance to list on their profile page that they are with child. Previously, users have been able to add family members to their profiles but they can now select an 'expected child' field and include information about the due date and possible baby name.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Having had a baby just last year, I found that telling people was actually one of the highlights of being pregnant. Seeing someone's face light up at the announcement sure made up for the morning-noon-and-night sickness and the inability to go for more than one hour without peeing! Yes, there were some friends who found out via Facebook, but to be honest, they weren't really friends, merely acquaintances.

My biggest worry however about adding an expected date to my profile would be how I would deal with the loss of a baby in such a public arena. News spreads so quickly on Facebook and it would be heartbreaking to be receiving congratulations from people when something so tragic has happened.

As much as I love social media, sometimes there is no substitute for a conversation over the phone or in person.

And while I'm here talking about children and Facebook, can we please just address my absolute pet hate? People who use pictures of their children as their profile pics. I don't want to see dear little Billy as your profile pic, I want to see you. I don't mind if your children are in the picture with you, but this is your page. Billy can have his own page when he's old enough. I'm friends with you, not him. Ok, rant over!

Kerpow! Jayne saves the world with her latest App

I've already waxed lyrical about my favourite App at the mo, Instagram, but this week I’ve been having mucho fun with a new photo app, Halftone. I came across this when it was app of the week and people started murmuring about it online.

For just 69p, it’s great fun, enabling you to transform ordinary photos into super-doopa comic book style images, as seen by my effort (left).

Verdict:  Really easy to use with step-by-step guides – it took me about 1 minute to create my comic book artwork. 

Great fun, but I’ll probably get bored with it quite quickly, although could be a good way to make personalised birthday cards – as long as the recipient likes comic books! Download it now for just 69p. If you download it this weekend though, it’s free – get Halftone now!

Loving... the Belkin CushDesk

For years, I've sat with my laptop on my lap... well, as the name implies, that's what you're supposed to do, right? And until now, it's suited me fine. Since I've started my freelance work however, and have been working on my laptop for longer periods, I've had to deal with burning and overheating - and that was just my legs!

It got so bad, that I started putting my laptop on a tray, which is when I decided it was time to purchae something to help with this burning issue. And that's when I came across the Belkin Laptop CushDesk. 

I'd found lots of lap desks that had holes for drinks and lamps and fans, all of which seemed too complex after all, I have a side-table next to me and believe it or not, quite a few lights in my house.

Then I spied the CushDesk and knew it had to be mine - it was simple, chic and pink. Perfection. It's surprised me how something so simple has had such an affect. The cushion base is really comfortable on my legs and the slight slant it gives me means I can now type quicker, plus it raises the screen up that little bit so I'm not looking down so much. I can now also work without getting flustered or without sorching my legs for hours at a time, and what's more, it was only £11.99 on offer from Amazon. You could say in fact, that it's well cush-ty (see what I did there? No, perhaps it's time to go...)

Did you hear about that riot in London?

Alongside pretty much everyone in London, I was glued to my TV last night, watching the riots unfold. In changing situations like this, TV news is still the one to watch, especially as most news channel were beaming live footage from helicopters showing the violence spreading.

However, Twitter also comes into its own during real-time news situations. I was trying to find out if there was trouble in my local area and even though I'd had some texts confirming there was, the news didn't show anything.

After a quick search on Twitter, not only did I have confirmation that a riot was indeed happening in that specific area, I also had first-had photos and videos of the damage. Twitter is a powerful tool for relaying news stories. I found out about Alexander McQueen's death via Twitter, the same for Amy Winehouse, however, I would warn against jumping on a news bandwagon too quickly.

The problem with Twitter is ultimately she is the local village gossip, spreading rumours like wildfire and not necessarily substantiating any of them. After a minute on searching for riot information last night, I was worried to find that apparently rioters were literally on my doorstep. What? Home alone with a small baby, I was just about ready to flee! However, after doing a bit more investigation, including texting someone who lived in the middle of supposed riot battleground, I could confirm the rumours were just that...

Just as you might enjoy a touch of salacious gossip from the village tittle-tattle, but not whole-heartedly believe it, this is the way to take most news on Twitter – just think of all those celebrities suddenly trending because their death has been announced.

Equally, let's not forget the good Twitter can do. This morning, #riotcleanup started trending – an operation to get everyone to pitch in and clean up the capital. Amidst the bleakness, it created a small sense of hope, igniting that good ole Blitz spirit – and proved that sometimes the village gossip can actually have a heart of gold.

The Ten Social Media Commandments

I’ve been working online for the past 11 years (yes, I really can’t believe it either) and active within social media for work and fun for the last 4 years, so I thought I’d share some of my learnings along the way. First up, The Ten Social Media Commandments...

1. Thou shalt find the right social media network
Different social media platforms suit different customers. I’ve worked with brands who a presence across all social media however, you need to tailor campaigns to suit the audience. Plus, social media, even though it’s pretty cheap to run, is resource heavy so it’s better to participate fully in a couple of platforms, rather than across the board.

2. Thou shalt listen
Monitor what people are saying about you and /or your brand. Whether it’s Google Alerts or searches on Twitter and Facebook, ensure you know what people out there are saying about your brand. If it’s good, great, if it’s bad, listen and see what you could change.

3. Thou shalt engage
Social media is a two way conversation – if people are talking to you, you need to respond in a timely manner, otherwise they’ll think you’re ignoring them. This goes for Facebook, Twitter and for comments on blogs or your You Tube videos. You don’t want to be rude after all!

4. Thou shalt promote
Don’t expect people to just stumble upon your social media offering – promote elsewhere online and offline.

5. Thou shalt update regularly
Social media is 24/7 so if you only update once a week, you’ll lose that engagement. This will mean updating out of office hours and having some strategy in place to deal with comments outside of the 9-5. Social media never sleeps. The thing that annoys me about some brands who have Facebook/Twitter pages is that on Friday afternoon, they say ‘bye, have a nice weekend’ but the social media user is probably more active at weekends and evenings due to a lot of offices banning social media sites.

6. Thou shalt recruit advocates
Make friends with users, get talking to bloggers – these people can spread the word. Invite key tweeters to events, give bloggers an exclusive – make them your friend and they will reward you with a positive response. 

Savvy fashion houses understand this well – Burberry for example invited bloggers to their Autumn/Winter show earlier last year. They weren’t necessarily the most glamorous blogs, but they were influential and well read. It gave them lots of free positive publicity.

7. Thou shalt not ignore negative criticism
Deal with it quickly and without attitude. Sometimes the criticism can actually be useful and help you fine tune your customer service or whatever your particular brand offering is.

8. Thou shalt be active within social media
The more you participate in it, the more you’ll understand it. I’m always surprised when people who update social media profiles for businesses, don’t participate personally! How can you understand the mediums unless you use them regularly? 

9. Thou shalt create engaging content
Give people a reason to visit you social media offering. Create bespoke video and run it on You Tube and Facebook, create exciting interactive competitions. They don’t have to be fancy, sometimes the simple things work best.  I once ran a tagging competition on some photos uploaded for an event – we had over 25,000 tags in just 2 days. Simple, but effective.

10. Thou shalt admit their mistakes
It’s OK to muck up, as long as you admit to them and apologise – I’ve found that consumers of social media are very forgiving people! Hold your hands up, apologise and move on – and always apologise publicly. People are a lot more forgiving when you admit to your mistakes rather than deny any wrongdoing.

Any more social media tips? Share them in the comment box below!

An App a day...

...keeps the doctor away. Well , I wish it would because with the amount of apps I’ve downloaded, I’d be the healthiest person alive! 

With over 300,000 apps available to download and use, it’s easy to get lost out there. I’ve used the good, the bad, and the downright ugly so to help you navigate your way through the world of apps, I’ll be highlighting the best ones around at the moment.

First up, It’s all about apps that change images. Instagram has been around just 10 months, but has become a huge success, with 7 million users and most recently, they had their 150 millionth uploaded photo. I can attest that I’ve contributed to that last mighty stat, uploading random image after image.

It’s the mark of a good app that you want to carry on using it and has a use – it makes bog standard iPhone images look really quite cool and professional. Take my images below – even the one of my son’s toy dog looks slightly creative.  You can choose from various finishes – including a really retro ‘70s look, which takes me back to my childhood photos – plus if you want to share your artwork, it’s easy to add it to Facebook and Twitter with a touch of a button.

Verdict: It’s genius, easy to use and gets my full marks. Download the Instagram app today – if you haven’t done already –and I guarantee all your photos in future will look so much better, and what’s more, it’s free!