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!

local social network streetlife.com

You’re rather special. Yes, there’s your five years of expertise in consumer PR, a proven track-record in winning and retaining big brands, managing a client portfolio and motivating a team. You also thrive in designing and delivering campaigns that make a real impact, you may even have a few awards already glittering on your mantelpiece….all that’s taken as read.  What makes you different is your passion for innovation, excitement at the possibilities of digital and your ambition to build a big future.

As a consultancy, we’re pretty special too.  Since launching in 2008 Diffusion has been at the forefront of delivering campaigns that integrate the best in traditional media relations, social media and search to create campaigns that really connect.  Our approach has attracted clients including British retail icons, national charities, multiple UK government departments and one of the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty groups.  We’ve grown into a 12-strong agency in just 18-months and our success and impact has been recognised in being named as PR Week’s New Consultancy of the Year.  However, that was just the beginning of the story.

If you would like to write the next chapter, we’d love to hear your ideas.

To apply and for further information, please send your CV to daljit.bhurji@diffusionpr.com
For more information on our Talent Management approach and benefits packages click here.

Closing date: 31 March 2010: No recruitment agencies please.

You really need a fresh challenge. With over three years as a PR professional you have strong personal contacts with key consumer, business and technology writers across both mainstream and social media channels.  You have a real interest in how brands are using the web to engage with customers and a real desire to represent the companies who are pushing the boundaries of integrated communication. As an account manager you have demonstrated you can build relationships with senior decision makers based on trust, honesty and confident and considered client counsel.

Now you’re asking yourself – what next? As a Campaign Manager at Diffusion we promise you three things: innovation, responsibility and real job satisfaction. By working with established brands in our Consumer and Media practices, you will be given the opportunity to help shape and implement innovative, award-winning  campaigns. These will use your skills and love of media relations integrated with the latest Social Media and Search techniques.  By joining PR Week’s New Consultancy of the Year, you will be in a great place to build a career in the one of Europe’s most exciting and talked about agencies.

You will be given the responsibility to manage and grow your own team and portfolio of clients through extensive involvement in new business development. You’ll not only get job satisfaction from doing brilliant work with great colleagues for fantastic clients, though we think that always helps. Through our commitment to Talent Management we offer fast-track career development to the brightest and you’ll be rewarded with a progressive salary and benefits package.

Is this the challenge you’re looking for?

To apply and for further information, please send your CV to daljit.bhurji@diffusionpr.com
For more information on our Talent Management approach and benefits packages click here.

Closing date: 31 March 2010: No recruitment agencies please.

With a new year ahead of you it’s perfectly natural to be contemplating whether you are in the right job.  Are you working for clients you love, in a culture that is constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of PR? Is your career where you want to it to be and can you see a clear path to promotion ahead of you? Is your employer investing in you to make sure you have the integrated communication skills which are essential for effective PR today?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, perhaps now’s the time to see what fresh opportunities are out there? Here at Diffusion, we are looking for a talented Senior Campaign Executive to join our 12-strong team in early 2010.  You will work across our consumer and digital technology practices with an exciting mixture of global superbrands and innovative start-ups.  After 18-months in PR, you will have an iPhone bursting with contacts across a broad range of national consumer media from print, broadcast to online as well as relationships with prominent consumer blogs, sites and forums.

At Diffusion, you’ll not only get job satisfaction from doing brilliant work with great colleagues for fantastic clients, though we think that always helps. Through our commitment to Talent Management we offer fast-track career development to the brightest and a tailored training programme. And it goes without saying that your hard work and commitment will be rewarded with a market leading salary and benefits package. So if you want to spend 2010 and beyond working for PR Week’s New Consultancy of the Year, we’d love to hear from you!

To apply and for further information, please send your CV to daljit.bhurji@diffusionpr.com. For more information on our Talent Management approach and benefits packages click here.

Closing date: 31 March 2010: No recruitment agencies please.

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.

As reported by PR Week, Diffusion has been appointed by the Royal Institution of Great Britain to develop and implement an integrated digital campaign to promote the annual Christmas Lectures.

The Christmas lectures have been held since 1825 when Michael Faraday (pictured above) delivered the very first one, and since then have become an iconic fixture of the festive TV schedule. This year we’re working with the Royal Institution to take advantage of digital platforms to deliver an interactive audience experience.

The lectures this year are titled ‘The 300 million years war’ and have a strong environmental theme, examining the complex relationship between plant and animal life. We will be using digital and traditional media channels to reach out to young people, teachers and parents to drive viewers to the lectures which will be broadcast on More 4 between 21-25 December.

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.

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!

At the end of September Diffusion Mobile hosted its first ever Mobile Knowledge Seminar, chaired by The Daily Telegraph’s technology editor Claudine Beaumont and with panellists from the GSMA, IAB and Juniper Research, discussing future opportunities for mobile media in a post-App Store world. With attendees from across the mobile industry, the event tackled opportunities and challenges for companies in a number of areas of mobile, including operators, advertisers, content developers and media owners.

One of the main points raised from those taking part was that without proper mobile internet strategies in place, businesses will lose out regardless of the attention they pay to apps and app stores. Future adoption of feature rich and value added services will centre on mobile users’ internet experiences, not just applications. In many cases, apps are already an easy one click portal to a mobile internet service, and indicative of the way access to and experience of such services are likely to go.

Alongside the seminar Diffusion Mobile has launched a whitepaper studying future opportunities for mobile media, conducted by Juniper Research. In the whitepaper, it is suggested that revenues for application downloads are expected to reach $11.3bn by 2014, represented by a total of almost 20 billion downloads per year. Most interestingly, the study indicates that mobile games will no longer be the dominant driver of app downloads. Gaming’s share of app downloads is expected to fall from current levels of 86 per cent to 50 per cent within five years, as apps geared for general entertainment, multimedia, education and social networking steadily gain market share.

If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of the whitepaper, please visit our whitepapers page and click the link to submit your details. One of the Diffusion Mobile team will then drop you a complimentary copy over. Essential reading for anyone covering the apps and mobile internet spaces!