Twitter And The NHS (#welovetheNHS)

I've read countless articles and listened to numerous people insist that Twitter is nothing more then a fad and, more importantly, that it has no real value to offer. As a Twitterer myself I am fairly aware of exactly what place Twitter holds and exactly how it can be effectively used by public and commercial endevours. In the past week Graham Linehan, writer and creater of Father Ted and The IT Crowd, may have done more than any other person to prove exactly what Twitter is capable of, and how one person can use it to really achieve something.

At the beginning of the week the 'We love the NHS' campaign burst onto Twitter. Linehan created the movement as a stand against recent claims about the NHS made by right wing supporters in the US, such as Glenn Beck of Fox News, hoping to stall and hinder Barack Obama's healthcare plans. The campaign has already attracted tens of thousands of users to pledge their support for the British health system, and received individual acknowledgement and support from Gordon Brown.

Brown tweeted "[the] NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death".

Sarah Brown, his wife, and a host of prolific Twitter users such as Stephen Fry and Dara O'Briain has also given their own support, reinforcing the place that national healthcare systems have. Linehan himself said "[that] One of the benefits of the internet in general and Twitter specifically is that, for the first time in history, humanity is able to have a global conversation. People like Beck used to be able to spout lies about other countries without any fear of people outside the USA listening in and correcting him. But everything's different now, and I thought that if we got ‘We love the NHS’ to become a trending topic, it might act as a counterweight against the lies of the American right, who are being particularly obnoxious at the moment."

Having said all this, what Linehan did was not without risk. Linehan said "I was a little bit worried that, because no health care system on earth is absolutely perfect, the trend might fill up with lots of negative stories. But to my amazement, the response was almost 100 per cent positive. There were, of course, people who weren't happy with their experiences, but there were so few that I was able to reply to those people and remind them that I wasn't saying the NHS was perfect, just that it was better than the US system."

The whole campaign was kick started with a pretty simple tweet: "http://bit.ly/5AP9P #welovetheNHS". The link he posted sent his followers to an article that attempted to link Stephen Hawking to the failings of the NHS. The article #FAILED hugely when Hawking himself responded: "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS". Linehan followed up with another simple tweet, a request to "Please retweet all your NHS love using the hashtag #welovetheNHS".

As the campaign grew and grew, Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan went on Glenn Beck's Fox News show to giving his support to Glen's attack on the NHS. Linehan retorted, saying "People in the UK are fiercely proud and protective of the NHS, and however much they moan and gripe about it, you attack it at your peril. I have a feeling that Daniel Hannan is about to find this out the hard way."

He followed this up, telling Channel 4 News, "The healthcare debate in the America has been hi-jacked by some very loud and obnoxious people who have a financial interest in keeping the status quo. They are being helped by some of the worst blow-hards you can imagine – Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly. There are raising the temperature of the debate to a dangerous level. Glenn Beck thinks he can spread lies and no-one will notice but it is a very connected world now. I think this show of support can provide ammunition for those people who are fighting back against the scare stories in America. Everyone has a story about the NHS helping them in some way. It's important to us, we may slag it off a lot but it's ours. The lesson for any future government who might want to mess with things is to step carefully – attack the NHS at your peril. If the American Right had not used such ridiculous arguments to get their point across it wouldn't have taken off like it did – but by saying things like Stephen Hawking wouldn't have lived under the NHS…it's like if you criticise your parents. You can do it – but if someone else does it you will murder them. There are a lot more shades to this subject than Fox News would have you believe. The most important thing to remember about the Right in America is that they hate Obama more than anything, the idea that he could be successful on his healthcare plans is not acceptable to them."

So where has all this led? What exactly has been achieved?

As it turns out the desire of the British public to defend the NHS against politically motivated criticism from the US is very strong. Tens of thousands of supportive tweets later, the full implication of what Linehan started have reached well beyond cyberspace. Tory leader David Cameron and the shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley have openly and publically criticised Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan. Cameron has called Hannan an "eccentric" whose views do not hold true with the party as a whole. Timothy Kirkhope, the leader of the Conservative group in Europe and Hannan's boss, has said that he would like to see Hannan disciplined for his comments of the NHS. Kirkhope confirmed that the chief whip in Brussels would give Hannan a "stern talking-to".

Ultimately Linehan has summed up the whole experience best, saying "[I think] Twitter is a useful tool for this kind of action. I very much enjoy debunking the opinions of Luddite broadsheet columnists such as Jackie Ashley [who attacked Twitter in the Guardian] who see fit to disparage the service even though they obviously have absolutely no idea what it is. Though I can sympathise with people like Jackie - it must be terrifying to see the world changing so quickly and have no idea what exactly those changes mean, especially when it's supposedly your job to be on top of things!"

He added: "With Twitter everyone is a broadcaster, in terms of their own life. A lot of people have criticised it for being superficial, but the more interesting the people on Twitter are, the more interesting the service is. Twitter stepped up to the plate over the NHS. Like in Iran, where it provided a human face for the protests there. I have been getting annoyed by think pieces in newspapers who criticised the service but don't really know how it works – they use their laptops predominantly as a light."

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Facebook To Become Twitter

A number of high profile campaigns, including the recent Tory Election App, have made clever use of Facebook Status Updates by asking supporters to 'donate' them to the cause. By joining the campaign in question or installing their application, users would allow the campaign to insert its own message into their Status Update. However, it seems now that this loophole in Facebook's usage policy which allows users effectively donate or sell their status updates to brands, will be shut down.

The proposed changes to Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, will ban users from any sort of commercial gain through their status updates or profiles. This will see the banning of a number of pyramid schemes that have started up, denial of service attacks that have become more common, and ultimately all users will now be made directly responsible for the content that is published through their profile.

This will be a major differentiator between Facebook and Twitter, who allow users to use their account in basically anyway they like. Already there are a number of third-party applications that exist to allow users to make money from their Tweets. But this change in Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities probably isn't as big a change as it actually seems. Two really interesting things have happened with Facebook in the last couple of weeks; first there was Facebook's acquisition of FriendFeed and the launch of its beefed up search function, and, secondly there have also been a number of reports of users being sent invitations to beta test Facebook's new 'Lite' service, which appears to be a direct stab to Twitter. (the URL - http://lite.facebook.com/ - already pops up in Google but redirects back to regular Facebook)

Facebook released a statement saying "We are currently testing a simplified alternative to Facebook.com that loads a specific set of features quickly and efficiently similar to the Facebook experience you get on your mobile phones. Facebook 'Lite' is a fast-loading, simplified version of Facebook that enables people to make comments, accept Friend requests, write on people's Walls, and look at photos and Status updates."

A screengrab of Facebook 'Lite' that is doing the rounds shows huge similarities with Twitter, with a stream down the centre and options to post pictures or videos on the right. Beyond this there is also one prominent theme coming through in Facebook 'Lite' - it will be a completely real-time application. This will demonstrate yet another subtle change made by Facebook to its service, to move it more towards a fully real-time service, which is exactly what Twitter currently represents. The most notable changes were those made to the Facebook homepage in March. The new hybrid page works almost exactly like a cross between Twitter and FriendFeed.



Following the March changes, Facebook also opened up to allow third party developers to create applications directly utilising its news feed, which is exactly what has helped drive Twitter growth with clients like Tweetdeck. Then June saw further changes with users being granted full control over their privacy options. This has allowed Facebook Status Updates to be broadcast out of Facebook and into the larger web, again directly emulating Twitter. Finally we have this weeks new change to Facebook - the new search function. This allows users to now search Facebook exactly as do with Twitter, being able to view trending topics as they happen.

So what does all of this mean? Well, for one it strengthens Facebook's position as being the progressive and dynamic Social Media service. Twitter on the other hand may still be struggling to generate a basic revenue model. This is just a basic overview though, in reality all these changes may do little more then add additional levels of usage to Facebook that many users will simply fail to uptake. Twitter offers a service that is unique in its simplicity and range. Twitter should not try to become Facebook, and, similarly, Facebook shouldn't try to become Twitter. In my opinion Facebook would be better served trying to improve its current offering, speed up its overall service, and allow developers/marketers more freedom to enhance their use of Facebook.

Guinness 250 Years Celebrations: Update

I posted about the Guinness 250 Years Celebrations back in July. The celebrations take place on September 24th and mark 'Arthur’s Day', the annual celebration of the founding of Guinness. The main thrust of the day's celebrations will revolve around gigs at 4 venues and 28 pubs, who are playing host to a host of international superstars.

Today, however, Guinness have confirmed that the days celebrations will be pinnacled with performances from Sir Tom Jones, Kasabian and Estelle at Guinness's own Hopstore 13, at St James’s Gate Brewery. Hopstore 13 will be transformed into a live music venue to allow more than 2,000 visitors to enjoy this remarkable milestone in the legacy of Arthur Guinness.

Tickets for the Hopstore 13 gig will be available through Guinness consumer promotions.

What's In Your Handbag? (or Manbag!)

The styles may vary but it doesn't matter if you're a girl with a Gucci or a dude with a record bag, the benefits of having a bag to dump all you gear into are unquestionable. It may surprise you, however, to find out that if the right person has a look in your bag of choice, they could tell you all about yourself. Debbie Percy is just such a person. Following an extensive career in corporate HR, Debbie has spent the last four years developing a technique to introduce her clients to the concept of personal change and life coaching, through, what she calls, Handbag Therapy.

I was lucky enough to speak with Debbie yesterday evening for the launch of the Kildare Village Outlet Shopping ‘What’s in your handbag?’ digital campaign. Debbie had the opportunity to go through my 'manbag' and give her analysis of who I am and what I'm all about. Here's the funny thing - she was 100% right on everything she said. Seriously, I can't even begin to explain the detail that she went into but totally correct in everything she told me.

The 'manbag' in question

So what exactly is all this about? Well, as I said, yesterday was the launch of the Kildare Village Outlet Shopping ‘What’s in your handbag?’ digital campaign. Through the dedicated campaign microsite, users are invited to register and upload a photo of their handbag and its contents. For one lucky winner there is a €1,000 shopping spree up for grabs at Kildare Village, as well as a similar handbag therapy analysis.

What makes the campaign really interesting is that there is a public vote on all photos uploaded (check out the current uploads here). The top five handbags with the most votes then go through into the final and go head-to-head against eachother under the expert review of the Kildare Village panel. From there an ultimate winner is chosen. Of course, that's where the campaign also jumps in to benefit the voters. Everyone who registers (both those uploading pictures and voting) will be given a VIP Day Card that gets you 10%-off for your next trip to Kildare Village Outlet Shopping. Pretty cool, especially considering the current economic climate. I for one am always on the look-out to save a few quid and still treat myself to a few nice things ;)

The competition closes on 6 September 2009 so don't waste any time. Get yourself over to the site and upload your handbag/manbag, and ask your mates to vote! You can also become a fan of Kildare Village on Facebook.



For those of you who haven't popped out to Kildare Village, I recommend a trip for sure. Similar to Woodbury Common in New York or The Outlet up in Banbridge, Kildare Village offers over 55 designer brands, offering last seasons’ ranges at up to 60% off.

Impromtu Public Singing

I was watching Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog again at lunch and I remembered that someone had done a musical/singing viral recently but I couldn't for the life of me remember who. So a little bit of Googling later and I remembered that it was a LastMinute.com viral from last year for their 50%-Off theatre ticket campaign.

I absolutely love this, and even though it's over a year old, I thought it was worth a re-share...



RubberRepublic were tasked with seeding out the campaign on behalf of Steel London.