Anyone who has clicked a mouse and entered the world of the internet appreciates that there are a significant number of anonymous online people who are out to judge, criticise, bully and do harm. These ‘trolls’, as we have come to know them, can cause serious damage. Nevertheless, it has been incredible to watch on and see how the public have reacted to the death of Claire Squires, after the London marathon, and how people took to the internet to provide a lasting legacy for one incredible lady.

It was heart rendering to hear that Claire, a 30 year old woman, collapsed during the final mile of the London Marathon and consequently died. Claire had raised over £500 herself in order to support the good work of the Samaritans who offered professional help and support to her family when her brother died. It was humbling to see that within hours of the sad news breaking, Claire’s name was globally trending on Twitter with a link to her donations page encouraging people to give in her memory. Before the first day of promotion was over £60,000+ was added to the total. A day later the media broke the story and less than seven days after Claire sadly died the total figure stands at an incredible £1million. At one point a staggering £1,500 per minute was being donated!

What an incredibly positive story demonstrating the true power of social media. It was the thousands of people across social media that decided to launch a campaign to raise as much money as possible – no newspaper, radio station or magazine, but people. Naturally, the next day the story was picked up by Sky News and in every leading National media outlet which further fanned the flames of the campaign. However, if it was not for social media and the public’s quest to raise as much money as possible, the media would not have a public campaign story to tell. The goodness of people and the viral nature of social media did this.

Of course you get idiots online. But the potential of people coming together online with the goal of doing something incredibly, outrageously positive has huge potential. It was fantastic to see how this campaign was launched and spread virally and, although it is not the first of it’s kind, it does represent an increasing move towards a discovery of how the internet can be used positively for social causes, causes that are not initiated by the government, the press or other bodies but, quite simply from the people. I love it!

After 25 years of the Oprah Winfrey show it seemed to many that ending the show to start her OWN TV station was a bad idea. Nevertheless, Oprah Winfrey has dramatically turned it all around and in doing so has provided a model that every brand can learn from.

When Oprah Winfrey launched her OWN TV show, ratings were plummeting and there was cause for concern at Oprah Winfrey HQ. Furthermore, between January and July of 2011 the audience to Oprah Winfrey’s own website dropped by over half, from 5.1million unique users to 2.4million. Nevertheless, appreciating the power of social media Oprah sat down with her team, sought advice of Facebook and Twitter Execs and launched season two of her Lifeclass roadshow making Oprah Winfrey Queen of the social media limelight.

Oprah Winfrey has traveled the length and breadth of the USA with her Lifeclass, which is a live TV show that is simultaneously broadcast on her website, encouraging live interaction on both Facebook and Twitter. Viewers can even Skype into the show to ask questions.

If you have not had the opportunity to watch Oprah’s Lifeclass, you really should. It is incredible to see Oprah bring together respected leaders including the likes of Life Coach, Tony Robbins and Bishop TD to share words of wisdom encouraging the audience to ‘live their best life’.

With the whole stage being social media driven, with tweets and Facebook messages appearing in the background and Oprah and her ‘gurus’ commenting on messages as they happen, this truly is a social TV phenomenon. The lifeclass buzz on social networking sites is thriving and the Oprah Team stated that in the first week of April 2012 alone there were 414,780 mentions on Facebook, 3,026 answers posted to the Lifeclass wall on Oprah.com and over 29,000 views to the wall. Meanwhile, the web cast brought in a staggering 2.7 million viewer minutes from 149 countries.

Granted, not every brand has the Oprah Winfrey budget, nevertheless, the idea is as important as the figures. Oprah Winfrey’s Lifeclass hits it hard in simultaneous locations – The live show, TV, Facebook, Twitter, Orpah.com for a concentrated amount of time once a week, with the brand benefits rolling out from their on in.

Imagine a live TV commercial airing that also promotes a hashtag and immediate engagement on their Facebook wall, perhaps for the chance to win an awesome prize. Imagine a brand rolling out the fact that they were going to make a major product announcement live online at a certain time and date with carefully selected methods of promotion on Facebook. Or quite simply imagine TV shows taking their social media engagement to the next level as the presenters sit in front of a backdrop of tweets and Facebook messages enabling the public to interview celebrities in real time.

Oprah Winfrey is revolutionising social TV by brining all the elements together at once. This is the ultimate lifeclass lesson for brands. Think about your brand and your business, what could you do via social media, your website and other media avenues in order to see your brand stand out from the crowd?

So, it’s been a while since I have blogged and some time since I have tweeted and I have enjoyed every minute of it and now, my hiatus is over and indeed, many things I have learn’t.

For the last 3 months the only tweets I have sent have been on behalf of businesses and brands whose social media accounts I manage. All personal social media engagement has been on ‘pause’. This social media hiatus was actually inspired by a friend of mine who took 6 months of social media and I felt that it was time to do the same.

In all honesty no tweeting and no blogging has been extremely challenging. As an individual who works in social media, if you stop tweeting and blogging you have this sudden fear that work will dry up and your position in the social media hierarchy will start to slip. Surely, someone who is passionate about social media should be tweeting 24/7 right? – Tweeting what they are watching, uploading Instagram pictures of beautiful sunsets and being seen to be in the social media ‘know’ and ‘on trend’.

Now, let me tell you something. I absolutely love social media, I love it’s power and potential. I love the way that customers have the power to engage, empower  and own brands rather than simply buy their products. However, there is also a lot of cr*p out there. I have been to numerous networking events where the majority of people in the room are ‘social media experts’ and when probed further their own definition of a ‘social media expert’ is an individual who sets up Twitter accounts and Facebook pages.  The majority of people in the social media world are doing a lot of rubbish, but, thank God, there are a small few who are creating something powerful in the socialsphere.

During the last 3 months I have spent a lot of time watching, learning, seeing what others are doing, seeing what is working and what is not working. And, there is so much to learn. Over the coming months I will share, via this blog, exactly what I have learn’t.

Now, to answer the question on your lips – no I am not arrogant enough to state that I am a social media expert. During my ‘time off’, I have been a social media student and I will continue to be. The biggest thing that I have learn’t is that social media is fluid, it changes, twists and turns. One brand can produce a viral master piece which another company may have previously tried and failed.

Social Media is like a wild beast. As soon as we think we have learn’t to tame the beast it run’s furiously into a different direction and we are left trying to keep up.

If you have some social media wisdom, please feel free to contact me. I am absolutely loving learning about all things social media right now.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” [The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993] Steve Jobs.

What an absolute legend! Steve Jobs was successful, not because he chased money, or a big business, he did not chase either fame nor money. Steve Jobs was hotly in pursuit of fulfilling his life potential. What happened as a result of that has impacted every household on the face on the planet.

More qualified people will write historical, accurate, detailed and inspiring blogs about Steve Jobs and I don’t feel a need to replicate them neither do I want to not do Steve Jobs justice. All I want to say is that Steve Jobs died at the age of 56 with the knowledge that his presence on earth contributed something powerful.

This is something that should inspire us all – we life life, once.

R.I.P Steve Jobs.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Steve Jobs 1995

I have recently come across crowdcube.com, a UK based company that enables the public to invest in new businesses. Entrepreneurs upload their pitch on the platform explaining their business idea , how much money they need and what they are prepared to offer in return.  The public can then look at the investments available and decide whether they want to invest.

There are a heap of US versions of these ideas that have been around for awhile, the most famous being Kickstarter. I really do think these sites are really positive for entrepreneurs for the following reason:

1) Secure necessary funding. Ok, so it’s an obvious one! But, I have been in the situation where I require funding for an idea. I have sought investment from friends and I have also been on an accelerator programme that has enabled me to pitch to very wealthy investors. Nevertheless, in today’s financial age, investment is a struggle and further potential options to secure funding could be seriously fruitful. What’s more, small amounts of investment by a large number of people helps investment to become more feasible and possible as it is spread.

2) Develop a committed group of supporters. Shouting about your business idea to anyone who will listen, is vital, the more people who hear about your idea then the more you have a chance of people following you and supporting your idea. If a business can gain a number of ‘champions’ who will shout about the business on your behalf, before launch then this helps increase the chance of business success.

3) Reach potential ‘helpers’. Sharing your business through the likes of crowdcube really helps you to find like minded people who not only share your vision but who also have the vital skills that you need in order to make the business happen.

4) Provides a secure testing environment. I have had business ideas that I should not have launched. At the time I thought they were the best ideas in the world, naively and with the best of intentions. However, retrospectively, these ideas where not so good. If I had placed these ideas on the likes of crowdcube.com it would have enabled me to gauge feedback and wisdom from my potential customers and develop the business idea accordingly. This all important insight may have resulted in me not launching these businesses which could have saved a lot of pain, heartache and finances.

The nature of my first business, Tribewanted.com, was essentially crowd funded. Members of the public paid for their time on the island up front and it was this cash that was used in order to propel the business forward. We received a lot of criticism for this which left people wondering whether the whole thing was a scam. At the time, if Crowdcube existed I would have sought investors on such a platform. I remember, at the time, looking for a UK equivalent.

Crowdcube creates a safe environment for potential investors, it provides the credibility required to bring about the trust in order to invest and, if the full amount of investment is not raised then no money is taken from the investors accounts. Perfect.

One business has already secure 100% of their £75,000 required investment and you can read more about Bubble & Balm here. The only negative is that there are not a heap of businesses who are using the site yet but I am watching and waiting and when the right business comes along I shall invest, I shall become a ‘champion’ of the idea, I will offer my skills to help and I will tell you all about it right on this blog!

So, go take a look at crowdcube.com and if you invest in a business idea – let me know!

Yesterday I mentioned that I frequently put up #startup on Twitter with a call for anyone working on a startup to contact me, purely because I love to see what is going on. Well, after that blog went up I was contacted by entrepreneur Tom Packer. Tom is someone who I have known for awhile, a creative web programmer who has come up with some great ideas, some that have been great ideas but have struggled to take off. However, Tom let me know about an idea he launched and created at the weekend, bktrack.com which I love!

Bktrack is a website that enables you to see images of key moments in the world, in whatever year you choose to want to see. You may look at the year you were born, the year you got married, the year your parents met – whatever tear you choose. Bktrack is a crowd sourced idea meaning that it is calling up on the public to upload images of key moments of throughout the years.

I really like the idea, it is a sort of cross between instagr.am and wiki that has huge potential. There are many ways to monetize this site and, indeed, Tom has let me in on a few of these ideas. Some ideas that I could imagine include – brand sponsorship of brands key moments, advertising, merchandise around specific years and timelines such as T-shirts and posters and stuff. There are endless possibilities for development here from launching personal timelines, group timelines, being able to post your images on your blog and website etc. It is just a really  cool idea.

Of course, the success of this business depends on the public uploading images so, head over to bktrack.com and get involved!

Like Bktrack? Hate it? Thinking of ways it could be improved? Post your comments I would love to hear!

Congratulations to Tom, cannot wait to see where this goes!

Recently I have started to throw out the following question on Twitter: Who is working on a #startup today? I would love to hear about it!. It’s awesome – people search for the #startup and so I get some pretty cool responses from people all over the world who are working on the ‘next big thing’. So, I decided to write a blog about the one’s that particularly catch my attention.

First up we have, payumi.com. It’s amazingly simple, this is a website for people who need to collect money from groups of people. I remember at Uni, in a shared house and whenever the time came to pay the bills it was always a pain to get money off housemates as individuals wrestled to keep as much beer money as possible! Of course the same situation occurs with the likes of mother groups, children’s activities like dance or football, holidays, for example. The list is endless.

All you have to do is set up an account, send payment reminders and the money will come straight into your paypal account.

I think it is an absolutely genius idea and has heaps of potential. The only question swirling through my mind is what the difference is between this site and simply using your paypal account in order to make a payment request? If there is absolutely no difference it almost makes the site redundant. I cannot even begin to describe how much I want there to be a massive difference. I will ask the payumi team directly on their twitter account @payumicom and let you know what they say. I will post an update as soon as I have one!

Watch this very powerful talk by Steve Jobs on ‘How to live before you die’ – this is an incredibly powerful piece of footage. Get inspired.

As many of you know I am all giveaway crazy at the moment because of the launch of my new start up Big American Giveaway. Whilst researching today I came across a couple who are giving away an ipad in order to help raise money to adopt a child. The ipad bit is irrelevant, but the story, the journey and the passion is quite exciting.

The Tucker family, a white, middle-class, Christian all American family have launched a website Subtracting by Adding in order to raise money to help adopt a child from Taiwan. The introduction that I have just given could sound quite negative, the Tucker family already have two biological children and it could easily sound like ‘White middle class Christian super-hero couple save the day’. But, you know what, that is exactly what it is and I would love to see more couples think about adoption.

One of the comments that the family have put on their website is a comment that I wholeheartedly believe in – they have two biological children and, there are heaps of children around the world without a family so why not provide a loving family for one of them. What a great sentiment!

I have seen, first hand, the sadness of children living without families in orphanages. Many orphanages do an incredible job and fair play to them. Nevertheless, children were built to be loved, to have the loving support of a family and they were created to bloom in such an environment. I will never forget time that I have spent in Kenya. I was in a boys orphanage talking to the children about how they are unique, they are individual, they exist for a very special purpose and, even without natural families they are very much loved. As I ended my talk the children came forward, they wanted to be hugged! As a small 5 year old boy wrapped his arms around my legs, he would not let go. This little boy could not speak a word of English and I have never been fluent in Swahili, but, nevertheless, we had shared an incredible moment. Not only was this orphaned boy loved, but, so was I. Needless to say, I was in tears!

The Tuckers’ goal of adopting a child, ‘Cambell’ from Taiwan is a powerful example of how many other couples could reach out and change lives of young children around the world. I remember reading a book on the work of Tearfund, a Christian organisation and one of the titles of the chapters seriously stood out, “They can’t eat prayer”.

Whether we are of a religious background or not, the sentiment is the same. We can look on in despair at those who are less fortunate, who need help, who struggle to survive or who need a little bit of love and we wish them all the best, “they can’t eat wishes”.

Well done and congratulations to the Tucker family, we are right behind you. May your example be a shining one, to many.

I had a conversation with a friends Mum this weekend, and, don’t get me wrong, I am not going all ‘religious’ on you, but I think that it is a great shame that the UK has moved away from it’s Christian foundations. Please allow me to explain why.

We live in a greed obsessed society. We want what we cannot afford to have and, as we have seen, those who cannot afford their ‘wants’ resort to other means to ensure that they get them. We loot, whether it is young people on the streets or MP’s who go against the rules that they created in order to make more money. Our marketing is highly consumerised (my spell check tells me that no such word exists but please go with it). If we are not happy with our partner we trade them in for another model, or many have their cake and eat it. Family values have been exchanged for gang alliance. The religion that we worship is the football team that we support. Our nation is fame hungry. We update our Twitter and Facebook status’ in the belief that ‘my story’ is the only story that needs to be heard.

Let’s face it, in many ways, collectively, we have become immoral. Not only are we becoming immoral but our collective moral conscience is slowly being worn down.

Of course, I am not perfect, I am by no means a saint. It would be easy to read this post and agree that ‘they’ are like that. However, I am a firm believer that, wrongly, our morals are flexible when it comes to our own self interests.

So, back to religion. I am not saying that in an age before ours, when the accepted behavior was that families attended Church, was a perfect world. It wasn’t. But there is something about being reminded of good Christian values that reminds us as individuals that we are part of a whole, that the world does not revolve around ‘me’ and our outlook on life changes.

Basic Christian values can be exchanged for a ‘good’ moral code. Gluttony, greed, selfish ambition, pride, jealousy, envy are all common traits in today’s society. However, at least hearing about Christian values, being reminded of them by family, at Church, at school provides our minds with a moral ‘check’, a simple reminder of the way that we should live our lives.

We do not have to subscribe to the whole package. The whole Christian story is not one that we have to believe in, however, at a very basic level, whether purely as a man who existed or as a character in a book, the person of Jesus maintained a life-style that we would all benefit to follow both personally and as a collective.

I have spent some time in some poor countries, Kenya and Fiji, whose residents still remind each other of basic Christian values and, in all honesty, they are seriously humble places to live. I have met people who have nothing, but what they have they would not hesitate to share. I have been involved in business deals (with Tribewanted) where an individuals word is the basis of an agreed contract. I have seen, first hand, communities where they consider each of their children as their own. There is no selfish attitude, only an attitude of greatfulness and otherness.

I know reading this post, people will comment – why does it have to be Christian and not other religious beliefs. I know that there are many perceived flaws in what I am saying because, as individuals, we now have an in-built intolerance to anything relating to ‘God’.

I don’t have all the answers and, in no way, am I suggesting that we should all be going to church on a Sunday morning. I just merely believe that or moral framework has suffered in direct correlation towards a decline in our attitude towards the church and our engagement with anything ‘christian’.

Something has to change, for the sake of individuals, communities and generations to come. If our moral code only reduces, where do we end up?

Please do feel free to comment, add your thoughts, agree, disagree in the comment section below. It would be great to hear, listen, learn!