What was hot on the web this week? Get up to speed on the latest trends, news and services with some of our favorite new stories.

Google+ For Android Update Makes Shared Media Look Better, Adds Support For Mobile Hangouts

Two weeks after releasing a redesign on iOS, a brand new version of Google+ is now available on Android. The update offers a fresher, sleeker look and heaps of additional features. Most notably, Android users can now start a hangout on the go and edit posts inline.

Just like Google+ for iOS, the update features crisper fonts, larger profile pictures and a friendlier home screen. Google seems particularly proud of the stream, and made it easier to scan and easier on the eyes.

Additional improvements include a navigation ribbon that slides in and out, providing quick access to just about everything; the ability to download photos directly from Google+ and turn them into wallpaper; and the chance to edit posts inline, in case you make any mistakes on-the-go.

Read more here.

Facebook Launches Facebook Camera – An Instagram-Style Photo Filtering, Sharing, Viewing iOS App

Facebook has begun rolling out Facebook Camera for iOS, a standalone photos app where you can shoot, filter and share single or sets of photos and scroll through a feed of photos uploaded to Facebook by your friends.

Developed by Facebook’s photos team with help from Instagram because the acquisition deal hasn’t closed yet, Facebook Camera is designed for quicker publishing than Facebook’s multi-featured primary mobile app.

While its 14 filters, batch uploads and streamlined interface are a big step up from Facebook for iOS, the design isn’t as beautiful as Instagram and neither are the photos you’ll see in it.

Read more here.

Microsoft Launches So.Cl, A Social Network That Combines Web Search With Social Sharing

Last weekend, Microsoft quietly unwrapped its own fledgling social network, So.Cl, aimed at making searching the web and research in general a bit more social (does this sound familiar?). The network claims to target students who want to search together, but anyone can sign up, add interests to his/her feed, and try it out.

You need to log in with your Facebook or Windows Live account to get started. Once logged in, you can add various interests so people searching for topics in those areas will appear in your activity feed, and you can follow any of your Facebook friends already using So.Cl.

From there, you can browse additional interests, add them manually, and build out your feed. If you find someone searching for something you’re also interested in, you can follow their searches, and they can follow you.

Read more here.

Olympic Athletes Pepper Foursquare With Special Tips And A New Badge

Building up to the summer games in London, the Olympics has partnered with Foursquare to bring fans and athletes closer together, almost literally.

The partnership means that fans will start to see a new badge connected to Olympic venues, as well as tips from Olympic athletes.

Visiting these venues – which include Olympic stadiums of the past, present and future, as well as sports venues and training facilities – will net users the new “Get Fit for Olympic Day” badge. The International Olympics Committee will be giving one badge-holding Foursquare user a trip to see the games in London this summer.

Read more here.

Despite working in marketing for the last 10 years or so, I hate to admit it was my first time at the event, but it lived up to expectations. Highlights included having the honour of presenting an award to the winners of our sponsor category. The ‘Media’ finalists included paramount Picture, Warner Brothers and the Daily Mail Group. Channel4.com/food  grabbed the winning place with an impressive digital campaign called the Big Fish Fight, which drove engagement around the debate of sustainable fishing. In fact it helped encourage discussion so much amongst influencers in politics that policies were changed across the EU as a consequence.

I’m sorry to report we didn’t win in the PR category on this occasion (a nod to the well-deserving Brewdog crew at Manifest who did) but it was great to be recognised for our work with Autoglass nonetheless.

And my final congratulations go to the BBC who scooped the ultimate ‘Brand of the Year’. Ruth Mortimer explains why the Beeb ticked the boxes for the judges this year.

You can view a all the winners and finalists in the 2012 round-up eBook here.

But creativity is misunderstood. It’s not simply an innate quality but a process; and a delicate one at that. Thankfully our understanding of creativity is evolving, as those who have been reading Jonah Lehrer’s recent articles and book Imagine – How Creativity Works can attest.

So what are the New Rules of Creativity?

Here are six new findings about creativity:

1. Brainstorming is broken – The uncritical process of producing many ideas in short order doesn’t actually lead to better ideas. It leads to more, worse ideas. In fact, the whole ‘green hat’ approach while much gentler on the ego, doesn’t necessarily yield sharp ideas. A critiquing process where weak ideas are quickly rejected and better ideas are refined generates better outputs. Creativity thrives in conflict. It does introduce confrontational dynamics to a meeting which need to be handled maturely, but as long as it’s not personal, the cost is worth the uplift in quality.

2. Individuals should brainstorm on their own – and in fact, are likely to come up with more ideas than a group can. Further, those ideas are likely to be better and more feasible. This suggests that brainstorming should not start and stop when the meeting ends. In fact, people should bring ideas to the meeting, then also allocate time to develop further ideas after. There should be an expectation of the pre- and post-creativity, and a way to capture the results.

3. The team has to include strangers – but not too many. This was the finding of sociologist, Brian Uzzi, who studied the creativity of Broadway plays. He found that the best plays were developed by teams consisting of just the right mix of people who work closely together and others who were only loosely connected. He called the measurement of this connectedness ‘Q’. Complete strangers have no common framework on which to collaborate (low Q). Close friends have too many similar ideas (high Q). A creative team has a mid-range of Q, so there is a sense of cohesion but not over-familiarity.

4. The team needs to be in close proximity – If you’ve ever tried a brainstorm over the phone, you’ll know it often doesn’t work. Group creativity demands proximity. The non-verbal communication intrinsic to a creative session cannot be replicated by phone or videoconference. You need to be on the same wavelength, accessing right-brained connections which is a hard state to achieve unless the team is personally present.

5. Chance encounters spark creativity – Good ideas are born from unusual connections. These connections often take the form of lessons learned in one industry or function, which are then applied to an unrelated, but similar, challenge. To stimulate those types of connections, you need chance encounters within the organization. Departments, teams and projects need to be mixed up under the same roof. Central resources, like cafeterias and restrooms, need to be centralized to encourage such accidental conversations. Pixar is a good example of a company which is using the fabric of its building to encourage this behavior, sparking creativity.

6. The best ideas don’t always happen in the office – but in the rather less glamorous car/shower/toilet. We all know that. But few organizations take their creative team out of the office for a walk. The change in perspective creates new connections and the physical activity provides creative energy.

There are lots of tactical tips to help us become more creative (from consuming more Omega 3s to painting the walls blue). Those may nor may not work for you. The trends above have been scientifically researched to increase creativity. Those are the new rules – until you go out and break them.

Please feel free to follow me on Twitter at @morganm or subscribe to this blog here.

The world’s population has grown from five billion to seven billion in the space of a single generation, and is expected to surpass eight billion by 2017.

The discussion around this daunting topic was kicked off with an introductory video and opening comments from Dr Gerry Power, UK MD of Intermedia, referencing some his latest research around communicating about aid. These highlighted how higher life expectancies, mass migrations, climate change, food shortages, healthcare and a host of other challenges are facing us in the years to come. By 2050 we’ll need 70 per cent more food than it does today and 70 per cent of us will live in urban areas and it’s clear that the international development community faces a historic challenge with millions if not billions of people lacking the basic needs to underpin their struggle out of poverty.

When we decided to start the Think Tank we were aiming to bring together a group of impassioned and informed individuals who could contribute different opinions and viewpoints – they did not disappoint. The discussion was wide ranging, from the diversity of interests (particularly between the northern and southern hemisphere) and the role of politics, faith and technology, through to the need for community, communication and education to help inform and empower, as well as listen. Innovation and technology were highlighted as key enablers to help solve some of these issues, and with more than three trillion dollars locked up in private equity, the question quickly moved on to how best to unlock that money through projects and innovations that are pragmatic and sustainable.

Everyone came at the topic from a different standpoint and all provided tremendous insight and food for thought. After nearly two hours of discussion, it was clear that we could have continued for another two hours and still have plenty to talk about. But despite the broad topic and the varied discussion points, a few core messages evolved from the evening’s discussion.

It is clear that there is a real sense of disillusionment, amongst the attendees and the wider population, and an overwhelming feeling that the status quo simply isn’t enough to meet even the current challenges, and certainly not those of the future. Many felt that most of us are passive consumers of international aid. Even in the midst of global economic upheaval, most of us in developed countries live a very privileged lifestyle. We assuage our guilt by throwing money at the problem, with very little understanding of where that money goes, or even the challenges that need to be overcome.

That said, there was a general consensus, that it’s the small things, but not necessarily the simple things, that make a difference. Much like voting, when looked at in isolation each contribution is relatively insignificant, but when considered with a sense of collective responsibility then each of those small actions quickly start to deliver real behavioural change and sustainable benefit.

Communications is a great leveller. When restricted and closed it can be used to distort and control, but when it is ubiquitous and open it can bring people and communities together, linking eight billion minds together to solve some of our biggest issues.

We may not have solved the world’s problems, but I think every one of the Think Tank members who attended left the evening with a greater sense of the world around us and how we as individuals can make a difference, even a small one.

Visit our PR resources page to read the award-winning ebook or to receive a printed copy of The Changing Face of Communications: 12 Digital Techniques for Modern PR.

What was hot on the web this week? Get up to speed on the latest trends, news and services with some of our favorite new stories.

Your Mom Is So Social, She’s On Facebook And Pinterest Right Now

According to a Nielsen study, Facebook ranks as the number one social network for U.S. moms, with three out of four moms (or 27.9 million) visiting the site in March 2012.

Fifty percent of moms are using social networks through their mobile phones, compared to only 37 percent of women in general.

In March, 4.9 million moms visited Pinterest. Mothers are also 64 percent more likely to visit Pinterest than the average American.

Read more here.

Facebook Announces Its Own App Store

In a move that should surprise no one but make many developers happy, Facebook announced a marketplace for finding apps called the App Center.

The new App Center will organize apps by user ratings, an important change from the current “like” system, which can favor apps with huge marketing budgets. App makers will also get a dashboard for tracking how people are rating their apps.

Until now, Facebook apps have been free—but paid apps are also on the way. The new App Center will feature all apps that meet its guidelines, and developers can sign up for the beta test program from the announcement page.

Read more here.

Happy Mother’s Day: Punchbowl Partners With Amazon For Digital Gift Cards 

When party-planning service Punchbowl expanded into digital greeting cards last fall, it emphasized creating a beautiful experience, just as it did with party invitations. But it was still missing something.

That’s where the company’s new integration with Amazon.com comes in. Punchbowl is now an authorized reseller of Amazon Gift Cards, so you can include a digital gift card of between $25 and $500 (without an expiration date) along with your digital greeting. So if you’re looking for a last-minute Mother’s Day gift, this could be the right option.

When you receive a Punchbowl/Amazon combo, the greeting opens up to reveal the gift card within, almost as if you’d slipped a physical gift card inside a physical greeting. Plus, the gift and greeting card designs match.

Read more here.

Bing To Duel Google With Facebook-Friendly Format

Microsoft’s Bing search engine is heading in a new direction as it drills deeper into Facebook’s social network and Twitter’s messaging service to showcase information unlikely to be found on Google.

The changes, unveiled Thursday, will reshape how Bing displays its search results. This is the most dramatic shift in Internet search that Microsoft has made since it introduced Bing as a “decision engine” nearly three years ago.

The company hopes the new format will draw attention away from Google as the go-to search engine. Microsoft also hopes to turn a profit in its online division, which has lost more than $6.3 billion since Bing’s debut in June 2009.

Read more here.

With our US headquarters in San Francisco, we are now the 8^th largest agency in the West region, which includes Mountain, Southwest and Pacific states. On that list we have the highest percentage of revenue growth from 2010 to 2011 at 56%.

Thanks of course go to our great roster of clients, and fantastic team for our continued rise up the ranks. This is an impressive list of agencies, and we’re honored to be included.

As somewhat shaky market conditions remain, there is one highlight from this year’s ranking that stands out. The US GDP grew at 1.7% from 2010 to 2011. Of the top 50 agencies this year, revenue growth came in around 10% and staff increased at 8%. A good time to be in PR? You bet!

This is an exciting time for the communications industry, as agencies expand services beyond traditional media relations into integrated digital communications, and move from regional geographies to the global marketplace.

Of course, great work is not about financials or rankings or growth – every agency has good and bad years on those metrics. But I like to think that our continued rise is a reflection of the work we’re doing. That’s why entering the Top 50 is a milestone.

Please feel free to follow me on Twitter at @morganm or subscribe to this blog here.

What was hot on the web this week? Get up to speed on the latest trends, news and services with some of our favorite new stories.

LinkedIn To Acquire SlideShare For $119M Cash And Stock

Professional social network LinkedIn announced Wednesday that it will acquire presentation-sharing startup SlideShare for $118.75 million in cash and stock.

The acquisition makes sense for LinkedIn, which is by far the largest business-oriented social network, with 161 million members worldwide. In addition to connecting with business folks, finding new hires and reading professional-focused news and content, LinkedIn users will now be able to share presentations across the web via the social network.

The acquisition is expected to close during the second quarter of 2012.

Read more here.

Prismatic Wants To Be The Newspaper For A Digital Age

The supply of information we have available to us is almost never-ending, but we still need an easy and efficient way to filter it, find what is interesting, and share it with others. The field is filled with players who think they can solve that problem, including News.me, Flipboard and Zite. One of the newest is San Francisco-based startup Prismatic.

What Prismatic does it analyze as much as it can about you when you connect to it with your Twitter account (co-founder Bradford Cross says support for Facebook and other networks will be coming, as will a mobile app – for now it’s desktop only) and then start recommending things to you based on what it thinks your interests are.

So what makes Prismatic special? Cross says it is the data analysis and algorithms and other processes that it is able to apply to that massive stream of content that flows through a user’s social graph – and hence, the quality of the suggestions that it can make about topics or stories of interest.

Read more here.

Facebook Messenger Apps Get More Life-Like, Now Show If Someone’s Read Your Message

Facebook thinks mobile messaging should feel like you’re having a face-to-face conversation, so it has updated its Messenger for iOS and Android apps with the ability to see if someone’s read your message, and easier ways to tell if someone’s typing and where they’re messaging from.

The updates are “mobile first”. They’ll start by appearing in the standalone Messenger apps, and slowly roll out to Facebook’s primary mobile apps and the web interface.

These updates underline Facebook’s goal of a smooth transition away from being a web-focused company.

Read more here.

Pinstagram! How Two Friends Merged Pinterest And Instagram In Two Days

Friends Pek Pongpaet and Brandon Leonardo were discussing how many startups are pitched to VC firms with phrases such as “We’re an X for Y.” The two realized a “Pinterest for Instagram” would be the most extreme example, and thus, Pinstagram was born.

After connecting your Instagram account, you view your photo stream in the waterfall layout Pinterest is known for. You can like and comment on photos, as in the Instagram app. At the same time, you can pin photos to your Pinterest pinboards.

In addition to desktop browsing, Pinstagram improves Instagram’s search feature, adding a search tab in the top left corner.

Read more here.

However, while in the UK we wait for parts of the spectrum to be freed up through the digital switchover and then bands auctioned off to the mobile providers, several other significant hurdles remain to the widespread adoption of this technology globally.

Some of these challenges are as follows:

• Not only will operators have to pay for the spectrum that is being auctioned off, but many governments are enforcing certain guarantees regarding coverage and availability. In the UK these are still being ironed out, but the general idea seems to be that at least two operators will have to provide >98 per cent coverage across the UK as part of the spectrum allocation contracts.

• Implementing LTE also requires significant hardware upgrades to the cell towers, not to mention the network backhaul infrastructure that will need to be enhanced to cope with the inevitable increase in data traffic.

• As LTE networks start to become available, so mobile device manufacturers will start having to provide handsets, dongles and other equipment to utilise it – and consumers will have to be educated on the benefits of this technology and encouraged to buy it, either as an upgrade or an outright new purchase.

• Mobile developers will also start developing applications and services that make the most of the benefits that LTE brings. The promise of faster, more reliable and wide spread connectivity can allow fundamental step-changes in location-based services, mobile commerce and marketing, remote access, cloud-based applications, media streaming and social networking – to name but a few.

• As well as the impact on infrastructure, another technical change will be the switch to digital only voice. Current mobile platforms still separate voice as an analogue transmission and data as a digital one. LTE is digital only, so all voice calls will be done as VoIP connections (much the same as if you use Skype rather the normal phone function). While this won’t have direct impact on users (who almost certainly won’t know any differently), this will impact those who provide voice services, including unified communications, security, recording and so on.

All of this has the potential to deliver a significant impact for many organisations, from different perspectives. The direct impact is on those companies that operate in the telecoms industry and will need to adapt accordingly, but even those outside of this will be affected through the changing way we work and the acceleration of the consumerisation of IT that this could bring.

It is clear that 4G will be able to provide a landscape that offers a host of opportunities to consumers and businesses alike. There are some challenges that need to be addressed, but these are not dissimilar to the challenges that came about when 3G was being introduced, and are far from insurmountable.

If the UK is to look for a silver lining to the cloud of being laggards in the rollout of 4G, it is that we can watch and learn from the inevitable hiccups that beset the introduction of any new technology.

Marketing professionals were asked to name the most important trends in 2012. It is hardly surprising that, in line with similar international research, ‘social media’ was mentioned most often (by nearly half of the respondents). But the other two important trends made my day: ’putting  clients first’ and ‘authenticity’. These are three elements that go together perfectly and serve as a basis for a successful online engagement strategy.

1. Social media

Nevertheless, most marketing managers still perceive social media merely as a broadcasting tool. Respondents mainly use social media for promotion or sales purposes, spreading content, and reaching specific target groups. At the same time, the Dutch marketing industry seems to be aware that a shift towards listening and client engagement is necessary, but they are hesitant to open the windows and share business information with their audience. What is holding them back? The unexpected outcomes of online engagement. It seems that Dutch marketeers like to be in control at all times, which is not what social media is about…

2. Putting the client first

Increasingly the Dutch marketing industry is seeing the relevance of direct contact with clients. Not just for customer service, but also to use their input when developing new concepts or products. Although respondents realise that social media offers them a great tool to be in direct contact with clients and centralising their needs in the marketing efforts, offline contact is still important too. Although high-level management has access to more customer data than ever, they realise that this information is filtered as it passes through the organisation. Inviting customers to the boardroom is seen as the best method to receive direct, valuable and reliable feedback and input from clients.

3. Authenticity

With an increasing amount of brands that implement a social media strategy to increase awareness, it is harder for marketeers to stand out from the crowd. Authenticity is seen as one of the most important challenges for marketing in 2012: what makes your brand unique, compared to competitors? How can you tell a compelling story and, just as important, make sure that every member of the organisation supports this message and acts accordingly? The Dutch respondents believe that strong visionary leadership is the most important requirement for corporate authenticity. If the CEO does not act according to the vision of the company, how can you expect employees to do so?

The three dominating marketing trends of 2012 can be seen as one challenge: standing out from the crowd by telling a unique story, that fits the personalised needs of your target audience. Online engagement is central to this challenge: it helps marketing departments to listen to what clients find important and directly engage with them, not only as a sales method or an extra service channel, but also to use their input and feedback in improving concepts and products.

Other trends that were mentioned frequently were: mobile marketing, marketing innovation, accountability (measuring and reporting the effects of marketing campaigns), Corporate Social Responsibility and relevance.

What do you see as the biggest trend so far for 2012? Are your challenges the same as those found in the Dutch research?