competition

OnePlus One Invite! Competition!

I am pleased to announce that I have a OnePlus One invite to purchase a 64GB Sandstone Black model.

The competition is fairly simple: to enter all you have to do is follow me on Twitter and retweet my tweet embedded below. Once you have shared the tweet you must paste the link to your retweet as a comment on this blog post. Tomorrow, Wednesday October 1st at 7pm BST, I will randomly choose a comment on this post, verify the entry and then contact the winner and provide them with the OnePlus invite.

Get retweeting people!

Social Networks Change Faster Due To Competition

Google Plus is now in Beta, which means anyone can sign up and start using Google's social network. Just go to Google.com and you should see the Doodle promoting Google Plus.
The Google doodle promoting Google Plus Beta



Once you are on Google Plus you get all the excellent features the new social network offers.
Google Plus Homepage
Facebook has just revamped and reorganised its homepage and layout. Many commentators on the interwebs claim that this is a knee-jerk reaction to Google Plus. This concept is pretty plausible and I'm inclined to go with it considering how many new "features" Facebook has rolled out since Google Plus's launch into field trial status. (excuse the pun, it was just too easy!)
The New Facebook Homepage
Identi.ca and StatusNet have had a major upgrade since the weekend too! There were massive changes to the UI, to the APIs and social network. As well as updating your status, you can now post bookmarks, events, polls or questions. It's pretty sleek and an impressive step forward. Well done to Evan Prodromu and everyone involved in the upgrade.
The New Identica Homepage
Twitter hasn't changed much in the last few months. Twitter's users are still getting used to all the "new" fancy UI and features so it may be a while before they change anything.
Twitter's "New" Hompepage
Meanwhile more and more interweb users have never heard of or have forgotten about Myspace, Bebo and Friendster. I believe that Apple's social network is some sort of secret society that even Apple Fanboys and Fangirls have never heard of. Ping?!
Ping. It's a bit like a Secret Society.
As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below. If you "liked" this blog post, why not "+1" it? (yes I do find it funny)

"Like" for Murrayburn On Facebook Please!

Here's a clever marketing scheme that actually gives out something useful to a community: Ronseal UK's Project Playground. On Facebook, Ronseal UK is running a competition for schools. Whichever school playground in their photos gets more Facebook "Likes" wins a £30000 playground makeover.


Here's the official speil from Ronseal UK:
"We have teamed up with the market leader in play equipment manufacturing, Timberline, to give one lucky primary school or nursery in the UK the ultimate playground makeover. If you don’t currently have an outdoor play area or think your play equipment is in need of attention, we want to hear from you. With hundreds of schools suffering as a result of Government spending cuts your current playground may be affected. Whether it is tired and outdated or there simply isn’t enough to keep everyone occupied at playtime, whatever the problem Ronseal, in partnership with Timberline, is here to help."


This is, in my view, a very opportunistic, clever and low cost marketing scheme. Parents, children and entire communities have been very involved in getting it to go viral on both Facebook and the rest of the web. 


Usually I discourage people from using Facebook's "Like" button, for various reasons. In this case I encourage you to do so because I am personally supporting one of my local schools: Murrayburn Primary School, Edinburgh.
If you are a Facebook user and would like to help Murrayburn Primary School, please go to the Ronseal UK Facebook page and "Like" it. Once you've done that, please also "Like" the picture of how Murrayburn Primary School's playground currently looks. (It's the third image in the album) This counts as a vote.


Please place your vote for Murrayburn Primary School as soon as you can, the voting closes on July 15th 2011 at midnight in the UK. Thanks in advance!


As usual, feel free to post comments/questions and Google +1 this article...