SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act bill. If the bill is passed, the US government will be able to go after any foreign site hosting unauthorized copyrighted material. This could include asking ISP (internet service providers), credit card companies and online advertisers to cut all ties with the sites.

The bill would cause problems for file sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay but may also cause problems for social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. Any website which links to sites containing copyrighted material could be asked to remove all links to that site.

Several sites are taking part in a 24-hour Internet blackout today (Wednesday 18th January 2012) in protest. Sites taking part include Reddit, Wikipedia, BoingBoing, Mozilla, WordPress, TwitPic, and the ICanHasCheezBurger network.

Other sites have taken a different approach, Google has blacked out its logo and Flickr has given users the option to black out their photos.

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Google Buzz, the awkward offspring of Google inc. was put to rest on October 14^th at 10:03am EST.

The site was an attempt at combining social media interaction with emails yet it never caught the public’s full attention. Throughout its short lived life Buzz was criticised for being too open and it always lived in the shadows of its more popular acquaintances, Twitter and Facebook. The loving parent Google inc. declared it has learnt a lot from Buzz. Although looking at newer Google networks we believe some of Google’s other offspring may be following a similar root to the grave.

We can’t state that Buzz will be missed but we believe someone, somewhere will have shed a tear at the announcement.

No closing ceremony has been announced but we believe it won’t be long before all traces of buzz will be removed from your inboxes and your thoughts.

StumbleUpon is one of the internet’s most used bookmarking services and according to their latest figures it has become even more popular.

Users can bookmark their favourite pages using the websites toolbar and then click the stumble button and find other similar pages that they may like. It is a great tool that allows users who are interested in your service or product to find your website and contact details.

StumbleUpon users are now bookmarking more than 1 billion web pages per month and with increases in visitors to the site, the bookmarking company has become a great place for companies to interact. If you would like to market your service through online sites such as StumbleUpon, Facebook and Twitter take a look at our social media marketing services page on our website and find out how you could gain customers online.

Social Media Ltd wanted to give back and so we decided to use our expertise in digital marketing to help one lucky charity.

We will choose a company from our entries and will offer the charity a marketing service that suits them. Our winning organisation will receive 1 year of our service for free, which will help you to increase your online exposure and allow you to gain more donations. You could gain a full marketing service and it won’t cost you or your company a penny.

Don’t think we are just interested in large charities! Even if you are a small charitable organisation with a newly built website we could help you spread the word. If you are interested in improving your company’s brand awareness online fill in our simple form here; http://social-media.co.uk/contact-us.php and include the word “pro bono” in the comment section. We have already received several entries and will be picking our winner on June 22^nd so make sure you contact us today.

GQ Magazine (Gentleman’s Quarterly) is one of Britain’s oldest and most famous men’s magazines. The multinational publication was established in 1988 and currently has a total UK circulation of 240,000 copies per annum.

Social Media LTD were kindly asked by GQ to give our expert thoughts on how politicians are interacting through social media.
The magazine wanted to know how the political leaders (or their PR teams) performed on Twitter and what we would suggest for them to change. The article was included within the October issue of the publication, which focuses on the new Prime Minister David Cameron.

Our Head of Social media marketing, Robert Custons and Social Media Ltd Managing Director Kostas Alekoglu gave views on David Cameron, Barack Obama, Hugo Chavez and other heads of state. Rating the leaders on how well they interacted, the quality of their tweets and their overall grasp of the network.

The full article can be found on page 62 under the title “Follow the Leaders” in the October issue of GQ, available now.

In case you are too, hooked to the micro-blogging service of Twitter you can now find us posting our findings and thoughts on social media and online marketing on a regular basis. No, this is not the type of ‘going for lunch’, ‘back at the office’ twitter posting. We are going to be sharing facts, thoughts and experiences of results driven direct marketing campaigns on the web, as well as more specific items about social media and search engines.

Follow us
http://twitter.com/social_media_uk

Check out our new Twitter marketing services page.

Surprising news from Nielsen, with recent research showing that people prefer to use their social media inbox, profile and tweeter messages to communicate and interact. Difficult to think that shifting through endless spam, which none email provider has eliminated, is more fun than posting pictures on Flickr and profile updates on Facebook or Twitter.

It should not be surprising then that the mood shifts to a more ‘protected’ environment, where spam is less spread. A cleaner and more fun space, social media networking.

With that, marketing should follow. Social media is a central meeting place, a square, where billboards are projected whilst people consume thoughts, ideas, products and services.

Word of mouth and viral marketing take a different meaning and new networks are empowered in months. Trends spead lightining fast. Can you keep up?

The recent economic downturn is changing the way we think about our personal and corporate spending. But how can you keep your marketing budget in a credit crisis and get more out of your ad spend?

Surely a look at the basic principles of marketing won’t hurt:

1. Forget about market share. ROI is king when calculating the effect of your efforts. Refocus your campaigns around this concept and cash flow is bound to improve. Read more

I have just received a notification to a Google Webinar in full Dutch. Although I pride myself in speaking 4 languages, Dutch is not amongst them. This is not a dig at Google AdWords, we all get it wrong guys. It is simply a shout out to every search and email marketeer, who has messed up big time, somewhere along his professional career and felt like hiding under the table. Come out friend, you are not alone.
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Microsoft’s past has shown the creation of monopolies in the software market and Google is now afraid, Bill Gates and company will try to do the same online. Senior Google vice-president David Drummond has reminded the world of Microsoft’s illegal attempts to monopolise trade and using it’s affluence now to infect other markets.

Valid argument or not, this is the most serious effort by Microsoft to compete in the space Read more