The online study, commissioned by Diffusion,  reveals that the sites that received the most media attention during the campaign – such as YouTube and Twitter – were not those wielding the greatest influence… Read More

Digital channels including Facebook, blogs and political websites had the greatest impact on traditionally apathetic young voters aged 18 to 24. Almost a third said online content had significantly influenced their voting decision… Read More

The CIPR has called together a group of social media experts to create a panel to advise the trade body on its policy guidance, education and training. The panel includes Diffusion MD Daljit Bhurji… Read More

The first of the Election TV debates is just hours away and as reported today by PR Week, the post debate spin operation will be on a mammoth scale.  However, despite the army of official spin doctors attempting to convince the media that their man was the victor, journalists will also being playing close attention to the vast online spin room known as Twitter.

From Prime Minister’s Questions to Glee, Twitter has become the official social media TV ‘back channel’ with thousands of viewers using the platform to comment in real-time about the programmes they are watching.  The first of the leader debates is likely to see this trend taken to a new level.  Now, that’s not to say that the reactions on twitter will automatically be more authentic and representative of the viewing audience – every party’s activists and supporters will be furiously tweeting up the performance of their candidates. But before having to negotiate ‘spin alley’ the banks of journalists watching the debate from the press room will be able to tap into twitter and get an immediate feeling for the exchanges and strange behavioural tics that have got people watching talking.

It would be naive to presume that those reactions on twitter won’t make any impact on the way specific journalists chose to report tonight’s events. For those of you wanting to follow the debate while watching DIY SOS I understand the official twitter hashtag will be #LeadersDebate

Today sees the publication of a landmark study, the Digital Integration Report, conducted jointly by Diffusion and PR Week. We surveyed almost 130 clients, drawn from across in-house comms, marketing and digital departments, in an attempt to reveal exactly how organisations are grappling with the challenge of integrating digital into their communication strategies.

Digital is one of the defining issues for the PR industry and PR professionals today and we wanted to look beyond the social media industry echo chamber and listen to the views of real brand owners. How important really is digital and search? How much budget are brands devoting to social media? How are clients measuring results and looking to evaluate return on investment? Where does responsbility for digital sit within organisations and how well is it being integrated? Are PR agencies providing the digital experise that brands require?

The revealing and thought-provoking answers to these questions and many others can be found in the  report published by PR Week here and you can also watch a special video podcast we’ve recorded discussing some of the highlights from the report, below.  The research collected a wealth of data and we will be publishing further insights next week on PRWeek.com and on this blog.  Required reading for anyone involved in communication. You can also download a pdf of the report here.

This morning saw the launch of the Diffusion Facebook & Politics research report, with the results of one of the most comprehensive assesments of how the Conservatives, Labour Party and Liberal Democrats are using the platform. We examined the profiles of over 169 MPs on Facebook, 564 prospective parliamentary candidates and the official Facebook presence of the three main political parties.

Why did we go to all that effort you may ask? Well, one of the most powerful criticisms of the social media industry is its propensity to jump on the latest bandwagon, often aided and abetted by a media eager to write about the next big thing. Recent coverage on the use of social media in the forthcoming general election has been an interesting case in point.

From the acres of press coverage devoted to it over the last 12-months, it would be easy to assume that Twitter is the only show in town. While few would argue that Twitter has provided a vibrant new platform for political discourse, we believe its significance is being over-stated.

It’s worth taking a moment to step back from the hype and look at the cold hard facts. Facebook remains the big beast of the social media world, with four in ten people in the UK (24m) active users of the platform. 18 million of those are estimated to be aged 18 and over.  Analysis from Hitwise for February 2010 shows that Facebook now accounts for over half (51%) of all visits to social networking sites. This compares to just 2% of all such visits to Twitter.

Social media and social networking sites specifically, have the potential to play a key role in the online campaigns of all political parties in the forthcoming general election. However, scale, reach, functionality and engagement will be critical success factors. This is why we believe that Facebook, not Twitter is likely to be the most significant platform employed to energise and organise party activists on the ground and influence undecided voters.

Some of the key findings from our research have been reported today in the Guardian and Metro, causing quite a stir in political circles. Our headline findings show that the Conservatives are, to date, clearly winning the Facebook election battle.  We will be releasing more detailed findings from the report over the next few days, so watch this space!

The arrival of Google’s Nexus One mobile phone has kick-started what will be another exciting year for mobile.  PR Week asked Diffusion Mobile’s David Ross-Tomlin for his expert views on the significance of the Nexus One and the likely impact on BlackBerry, the iPhone and the wider mobile ecosystem. You can watch the video podcast below.

Diffusion’s 2010 PR Graduate Scheme is now open and we’re looking for the brightest and the best to join PR Week’s New Consultancy of the Year in September ’10.  For more information about our scheme, what we’re looking for in new recruits and to download an application form, please visit our Graduate Careers page here. Remember, the closing date is 8 February 2010.

Daljit Bhurji, the managing director of PR firm Diffusion, said: “PR traditionally acted as the voice of clients. Now PR is a content generator. Read more

So it’s official! Diffusion has been named as PR Week’s New Consultancy of the Year 2009 and we’re absolutely ecstatic! After months of waiting the PR Week Awards finally took place on Tuesday night, at the suitably glamorous Grosvenor House with over 1,200 leading members of the PR industry in attendance. We were is a very tough category, with some amazing agencies we all admire short-listed, so the award judges must have had an agonising time choosing a winner. Perhaps wisely given the audience, we weren’t allowed to give acceptance speeches, so I hope you won’t mind if Ivan and I say a few thank yous now.

Quite a few people thought we were mad to launch a new agency in the middle of a recession, especially one pioneering a new model of PR with digital at its heart and operating on a 100% payment-by-results basis. They were probably right.  Ivan and I were confident though, that despite banks collapsing around our ears, the pace at which the media and online worlds were evolving was not going to slow, and PR as an industry could not afford to waste any more time or cede any more ground to other disciplines. So a big thank you goes to friends, family and colleagues who back in 2007 said ‘”Go for it!” and to our financial, legal and business advisers who helped make our launch on 4 April 2008 a reality.  Special thanks goes to Sukhi and John at 383 Project for designing the Diffusion brand and building this amazing website.

Our success has of course been most dependent on the trust that all of our amazing clients have placed in us. Whether you’ve been with us from day one or have only recently started working with us, we’d like to say a big and very heartfelt thank you. We’ve been very lucky to be given such intellectually challenging briefs to implement and to work with people who share our vision for pioneering new PR approaches and constantly pushing the boundaries of what communication means today.

Ivan and I have been especially touched by the faith shown by Barney, Tom, Alasdair and Claire in joining an agency which was then only a few months old. In the 18-months since, not a week has gone by when we’ve not been amazed in some way, by the results secured by what has now grown into a 12-strong team of some the brightest and nicest PR professionals in the UK.

Chapter 1 of the Diffusion story has come to a close, but we remain very excited by what is still to come.  Watch this space!