Drew B's take on tech PR

The top PR and digital types in the new Media Guardian 100 rankings

He's on telly a bit more, but Max Clifford couldn't beat Matthew Freud in the Media Guardian 100 which came out today. The top spot goes to Google's Larry Page, number two goes to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, and third place is Lord Patten. Brunswick's founder Alan Parker is at 63 and Portland's Tim Allan is at 86. 

Some other interesting figures in the rankings: 

• Blogger Paul Staines / Guido Fawkes at 72
• Ariana Huffington of the Huffington Post at 80
• Michael Acton Smith of Moshi Monsters at 44
• Sir Martin Sorrell at 8
• Sir Jonny Ive at 5

The full list is here and the editorial here. 

Reinventing super log off: my leanings from some weenings

I wrote a post a couple of years ago about social media security trends emerging that allow users to take privacy into their own hands. These included whitewalling and super log off. 

I've just come back from a wek's holiday abroad with almost zero mobile signal - the first time I've done this in two years. I put myself through a form of super log off I suppose.

I noticed something different though in how I weened myself off the social web and weened byself back on, so thought I'd share (my habits must have changed a lot in the last two years as it wasn't like this last time). 

Weening off

• Email took a day to ween off (the day between leaving work and getting on the plane)
• Twitter also took a day to ween off
• I didn't ween off Facebook really. I checked in every now and then as it's a nice and tidy list of friends and not too noisy

Weening on

• This is what surprised me - Twitter looked horribly messy and took me several days to get back into. Too many random noisy conversations and it inspired me to delete a lot of followers 
• The email mountain was huge and difficult to erode. I spend my days in meetings and with clients, and found it difficult to spend the time needed to work through about 3,000 emails (you know what it's like)
• Foursquare is interesting agein
• Facebook remains the tidy friend group
• Our company social network was a great way of bropwsing company updates

Anyone else finding this? Email mountains, Facebook tidiness and Twitter noise? 

Three new social sites for you to try: Lift, Medium and Branch #quantifiedself #socialmedia #foundersoftwitter

In the last few weeks the people behind certain social network called Twitter have been busy. Obvious Corp, the people behind Twitter, have launched three new social networks. Very few people are using them so far, as they seem all to be invite-only or in beta mode. But this much innovation rarely comes so fast from one organisation, so I thought I'd do a little review of what's going on. 

Lift

What's it like? Like Foursquare for habits.

This is an app for your smart phone. You browse things you want to do, like run, clear your inbox, take vitamins or eat fruit. You then add it to your list, and check off that item each time you do it. Sounds simple, but it's fiendishly addictive. It gives you a similar kind of motivation as having a training buddy or peer pressure. Each 'habit' is social, so you can see what other people are doing. And checking it off is really simple - just a big TICK and a graph showing you how you've done. 

I'm really liking Lift already. It's quantified self meets Foursquare to-do list. 

Branch

What's it like? Like Google Plus Circles meets permission-based forum threads meets Quora. 

I'm not yet fully into this one. But structurally, the way Branch works, is that threads or circles as we know them are called branches. You can freely subscribe to or share a branch, but you have to ask to be invited. It adds a different dimension to online discussion, with its use of public content but protected list of participants. 

Medium

What's it like? Like a blogging platform, like Tumblr meets Wordpress.

The newest of the bunch, Medium was only revealed last night. The Next Web says that Obvious Cor decided to take on the construction of Medium because “we believe publishing—and media, more broadly—is important. So, we’re re-imagining publishing in an attempt to make an evolutionary leap, based on everything we’ve learned in the last 13 years and the needs of today’s world.” Sounds very nice! Waiting for my beta version to come through for this one :)

Hopefully you get a chance to try these things out soon too. 

Some UK digital health blogs to follow

I have a new blog, it's very much a work in progress, but it is inspired by the fact that I have at least two colleagues who are also blogging about the same topic, digital health, Quantified Self, self-tracking, body data, and whatever else it gets called. 

My new blog is at BodyData.co.uk

My colleague Stephen Davies is at Bionic.ly

And my colleague David Clare is at OneMoreLifeHack.com

If there are any more out there, I'd love to see them. Let me know in the comments. 

# Update

Thanks Sam Lynas from Kifit who pointed me in the direction of the KiLife blog

Fostering innovation in PR, side projects and early social

I've just had an article published in the Huffington Post titled: How innovation inside starts outside. It's a bit of a story of my last 5yrs at work, my approach to innovation and side projects, and I thought I'd share it here too in case you don't read the Huffington Post already. 

Here's an excerpt: 

Five years ago I joined the company whose UK operation I now run, with a special mission. To take the side project that I had been cultivating and bring it front and centre. The PR agency Hotwire thought I could bring some benefit to the company, our clients and people, by innovating from the inside - by setting up a startup within an established international company...

Thanks for reading!

Assembling a comms types basketball team. Join in!

Needed: two more people to join a band of three who are keen to start playing some basketball, inspired by Voldesport / Olympicmania / team USA. 

Requirements: 

1. Able to play basketball
2. Must work in comms
3. Must be on Twitter 
4. Probably going to be a London / UK thing!

Not necessary:

1. You don't need to be dead good, or any particular age
2. No need for people who say it 'toneesha'
3. No specific positions sought

We'll find a court to suit us all, and then competitors, then a league (then domination of all of the above). How to apply: @reply me or DM me on Twitter - I'm @drewb. Thanks!

Rolling out a new company quantified self programme

With plenty of inspiration from some super-fit colleagues, I launched a new initiative last week at work. It's Quantified Self for digital health time here at Hotwire and 33 Digital. We'll be giving all staff access to some of the easiest to use and flexible body data technology, subsidising it then doing some cool stuff with what we find. My company blog post is here, and some media feedback so far here and here. 

I've personally spent time and money figuring out how to get the most out of self-tracking technology, and there's a ton of enthusiam around the office, both for the digital innovation and for the health kicks. Watch this space for how it all comes along. 

The real reason you should love new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer: my blog from 2007

I have never met Marissa Mayer, but when I read late last night that she has announced her departure from Google to take on the role of CEO at Yahoo, I felt compelled to write about her one more time. 

I am a productivity geek, and love reading about executives' working styles. I devour the Andrew Davidson Interview on weekends and have pretty much every GTD-themed book going. Which is why, when I first read about Marissa Mayer's tendencies in 2007 I felt compelled to write about her (four times I have just realised!). 

This blog post that I wrote back in 2007 sums up how she works, taken from a Forbes profile of her. Big focus on task lists, email and digital management, and batching. Happy reading: 

Planning, management and sport psychology: my fascination with Marissa Mayer

Red Bull-sponsored Ryan Doyle freeruns the seven wonders

There's a new thing we're working on over at 33 Digital, with the culture and the sport teams at Red Bull on some of the cool content they're creating for the interwebs. The newest to come out we love for a whole tonne of reasons. Here it is: Ryan Doyle freerunning the seven wonders of the world. Ryan is sponsored by Red Bull. He is one of the founders of the World Freerunning and Parkour Federation, he's trained in the Korean martial art of Kuk Sool Won and he's a world champ. Happy viewing. 

A look at the Kifit and Fitbit selftracking systems: my #dataporn test

[update 10th August 2012: I have added Nike Fuelband as a third system to compare]

An evolution in digital that I've been following is the selftracking movement, otherwise known as body data, quantified self or life hacking. It's the application of the kind of analytics you'd get on your blog or social network to your day to day life. It started with progressive apps, like Nike + and Runkeeper, and more recently has spawned accessories like Withings, Nike Fuelband and countless more. 

I've been spending the last few weeks testing a range of these products. Things help you learn from your exercise, movements and your routine. I'm using them for a few reasons. Some work projects are involving this area of healthtech / body data. There are also close links with social media and location based social networks. And I'm also trying to stay healthy. 

Here is a review of two products I've been using the most that seem to be near the top in the market, Kifit and Fitbit, with a focus on the digital bits they churn out: the data porn. 

KiFit

Kifit offer a range of devices and data packages. I had the Kifit Armband Monitor and Online Activity Manager. The claims to capture 5,000 data points per minute. You strap it to your bicep and leave it there all day, then plug into your computer to get the readouts. Here's a snapshot of what my body data looks like from the Kifit system:

Benefits of Kifit

• Amazing data which is exportable and dynamic
• Accurate. Measures more than Fitbit

Down sides of Kifit

• I couldn't wear it evey day. It needs to be strapped to your bicep so is impracitcal for my day to day life
• More expensive that Fitbit
• No east to use readout which you get with the in-your-pocket Fitbit. You can buy that feature as an optional display for £60

Fitbit

Fitbit is a system including apps and gadgets. I am using the Fitbit Ultra Wireless Tracker, a small, USB stick-sized gadget that is essentially a stepometer with a basic display that shows your steps, calories, flight of stairs and other bits and pieces. You keep it in your pocket or clip it to your clothes and it tracks your steps. Here is the data I get from my Fitbit: 

Benefits of Fitbit

• Easy to use. You keep it in your pocket. 
• Rough numbers give you incentive to keep up the steps or calories
• Growing app ecosystem
• Appears to have a good following and I can see further enhancement in the future
• Less expensive than Kifit

Down sides of Fitbit

• Inaccurate. It counts driving in a car as walking / jogging, and I use the car every day (approx 1,000 false steps are counted every day)
• Data is not very rich compared to Kifit
• Service was poor when ordering. Fitbit boasts next day delivery. Even after chasing them by phone daily, it took them a week to deliver (and their PR agency had to intervene)

Consensus: The Kifit is better, more accurate, but less practical and quite pricey. Fitbit doesn't tell you much, and what it does tell you isn't too accurate, but if you want something easy to carry around and the data is still pretty interesting, it could be for you.

Disclaimer, both KiFit and Fitbit sent me these products for trial, although I had already purchased a Fitbit with my own money also.

Update 12th August 2012: O2 invited me to a joint event organised by them and Nike, and whilst I couldn't attent, my colleague Stephen did and he was given a Fuelband. He has since loaned it to me, so I thought I would post below my experiences of using the Fuelband compared to Kifit and Fitbit. 

I first read about the Nike Fuelband prior to its launch, through this video that launched it (love the video by the way!). I went to the Nike Town store in London on 1st May ready to part with the £129 it costs. However, trying it out, I realised the functionality was inferior to other alternatives right now and the price being higher, so I decided not to shell out. I also was more in favour of discrete self-tracking, or in other words, a device in my pocket rather than on my wrist. I bought the Fitbit online that evening when I got home. 

Since thenI've managed to get my hands on a Fuelband, so here are my thoughts on it versus the Kifit and Fitbit. First of all, here's how the data looks: 

Upsides of the Nike Fuelband: 

• Easy to see your points / calories / steps at a glance
• Doubles up as a watch
• Seems more accurate than the Fitbit (but less accurate than the Kifit)
• Integrates with Nike+ app (however I don't use this app)
• Syncs with your iPhone over bluetooth at the press of a button. This is good for giving you extra data on the move

Downsides of the Nike Fuelband:

• Pricey consideing the device itself is just a stepometer (£129 vs the more Fitbit which is both a stepometer and altitudometer at £89)
• You wear it on your wrist (a downside for me, but that's subjective)
• Does not track sleep
• Data is not anywhere near as powerful or exportable / manageable as Kifit or even Fitbit

How it compares in a nutshell: It's somewhere inbetween the Fitbit and the Kifit on price. Will appeal to the person who is less into the data. For me, it comes bottom of the three products sadly, but I do love it and have been wearing it out of choice for two weeks now. So it's not all that bad. 

Thanks for reading!