BBC using social media for its teenager brand...

Once upon a time the BBC made programmes, put them on the TV at a specified time and we watched it if we felt so inclined.

BBC Switch is the corporation's teenager wing. I imagine it to be a section of their television studios with a disco in one corner, Kevin the teenager sulking in another and Hoodies (thats what teenagers wear isn't it?) having board meetings.

So what the BBC are doing now is going multi platform. They're flirting with the New Media furore and it's great! Research done by the BBC themselves shows that the young are far more likely to use the internet for entertainment.

So what has Auntie been doing then? Well they are creating a new show for teenagers called 'Proper Messy'. this will be delivered in short, 90 second episodes and be shown on BBC 2, the BBC switch site and kids favourite, Bebo (Blog Early Blog Often). The BBC is also hoping that 5000 of it's target audience will sign up to receive mobile SMS text featuring real time messages from the soap's characters. Future storylines will then be affected by audience participation.

A bold and welcome step by the BBC and if it works, they could capture a large proportion of the hoodie market.

Just as my predictions for 2009 suggested...

See this NMA story on Ad Funded content

Failure to commit Facebook suicide

The walls are closing in, the pressure's getting too much...Get me out of here! Facebook's just a website, right? I've closed down e-mail addresses and changed my phone number before so how hard can it be to unregister from a social networking site.

IMPOSSIBLE! Thats what it is. Just like my send phobia (constant reading emails over and over again before sending), I couldn't bring myself to do it. The only people I have any real contact with on Facebook are my 'real life' friends anyway so who cares about the others. It's more than that through. It is a name that has become so intrinsically linked to daily life that to not have a Facebook account would be like not having a head. Well not quite but you get the idea.

We go and watch a band and where do we look and laugh at the photos the next day? Facebook. Arranging a Stag Do? Send the invites out on Facebook. Without Facebook I would not be able to air my innermost thoughts and feelings concerning what I had for dinner via my status page.

Verdict: I will keep my Facebook to continue it's use as a social tool and calendar but I willl try to avoid plunging in to the deep depths of Facebookism that involves staring for hours at photos of people you don't know doing things you'd never do with people that you only vaguely know.

Right i'm off to check my Facebook.....doh!