On the one hand we’re pretty good at using the social site to spread news such as the political pressure in Egypt, the devastation of Japan’s earthquake and Bin Laden’s raid. However, it seems we still play into the hands of the celebrity culture, preferring to spread news of Beyonce’s baby bump, Rebecca Black’s musical genius and Justin Bieber’s latest hairstyle.

What does that say about us? I guess it says quite a lot about not only the way we share and what we like to talk about, but also the user base of Twitter. It’s easy to think that Twitter seems much more mature and ‘grown up’ in comparison to Facebook, but Twitter still has a large amount of active young users, both below 18 and in the 18-25 demographic. And evidently, they’re pretty good at sharing news. (Yes, other demographics no doubt shared news about celebrities too, but it’s pretty likely that many of Justin Bieber’s biggest fans sit pretty closely to the younger Twitter demographic.)

So, do the results below surprise you? Do you feel like more of the people you follow talk Tsunami or world news?
(Click read more to view infographic)

Source: http://frugaldad.com

(Edit: As depicus pointed out via Twitter, the results are skewed by event vs. personality, i.e we will spend all year discussing a personality but only a limited amount of time discussing an event).

5. Gears of War 3

Anyone who’s played the GOW series will know just how special this final game was; sending off our Delta squad heroes – whom have been with us through gore, bro-mance and some pretty emotion scenes – into the distopian sunset. The GOW is a particularly interesting series, a trilogy that started with little social activity leading to the final episode that made the most of online tools to ensure it’s success.

Gears of War 3 gave its online fans much to keep themselves occupied and engaged in the run up to the COG last stand, from an online led campaign to decide the fate of our final recruit from the Carmine family, to fans getting a say in which maps made the final cut in the multiplayer maps and beta codes being released online to those lucky enough to gets their hands on them (like me!). The final game was hyped and promoted well online and the final product didn’t disappoint – I’m sure there weren’t many dry eyes from hardcore fans by the end of this game!

4. Minecraft

2011 has undoubtedly been the year of Minecraft. The beta of the game was released at the end of 2010 and since has sold over 4 million copies on PC. Minecraft also debuted on Android with the Xperia PLAY, as well as being released on other Android devices and iOS. There’s also an XBOX 360 edition lined up for 2012, though don’t expect those block-style graphics to change!

The game has always had a huge amount of online social support. The Mojang team lists six official online sources for news and updates, such as Notch’s (the Minecraft creator) blog and Twitter feed, a wiki, forums, Facebook and a feedback community. There’s also a huge amount on non-official fan sites and blogs, including the UK’s hugely popular Yogscast, who usually make up the entire top 10 most watched list on YouTube.

To celebrate their super-keen fan community, Mojang hosted MineCon in Las Vegas this year, complete with online streaming of the entire event via the recently launched website. All in all, a fantastic year for the whole Mojang team for a sterling social effort!

3. Mass Effect 3

Technically a bit of a cheat title as it won’t be released until early 2012, but still worthy of a mention in my view. Mass Effect has already kicked off its social activity in full swing, from releasing an epic trailer on YouTube, to releasing hints and tips online on how the final showdown against the Reapers will go down, to letting us know just how our actions from the first two games might affect the ending for Commander Shepard and his/her team in the final space showdown. There was also online viral marketing with the BioWare Pulse channel, posting weekly videos.

However, the most memorable social activity so far has to be the fan created female hero character of the series, the so-called ‘Fem-shep’. As a huge fan of the series, I’ve kept my female Shepard character from the start of the series, shameless self-stylised, and have always been grateful both for the inclusion of a female lead and the fantastic voice acting of Jennifer Hale which has made played the female role both an exciting and rewarding experience. So hearing that BioWare were planning on creating a female Shepard to be used in the promotion for the final game was pretty awesome. Admittedly it was a little late coming and the look of the character was a little bit ‘over-sexed’ as the guys at The Mary Sue have pointed out, it was still pretty amazing to vote on each characteristic via the BioWare Facebook page (unfortunately my own appearance votes didn’t make the final cut!) and even more impressive to see the female character used as the lead marketing asset at my local GAME store. So nice one, BioWare!

2. GTAV

It may be a tried and tested tactic, but nothing really beats an old fashioned countdown for excitement and buzz around a launch. Another technically cheating title, GTAV might not be in stores until next year, but the launch of the trailer certainly got tongues wagging and key tapping online.

The big draw of a GTAV title comes from not only the story and the characters, but from the setting in which the game takes place. In the open ended, free-roaming nature of a GTA game, the location is everything; from the landscape you’ll have chance to explore, to the freeways you’ll be leading cop chases down and the entire feeling and atmosphere you’ll get from the game. Knowing just how important this fact was, Rockstar ensured it was also its most closely guarded secret, offering no reassurance or confirmation on the many rumours floating around – and so ensuring all eyes were on the trailer when it was launched on 2nd November. I made sure I had my countdown timer for the trailer release ticking away in the background and eagerly tweeted throughout, but I was still surprised at just how many people were discussing the trailer online. The location isn’t actually mentioned in the trailer, nor are the sory or key characters given away, so many of the tweets were rife with people guessing just where the location could be, from car license plates to landmarks, and suggestions of which charcters could be making a come back.

The trailer release was well planned from the Rockstar team, and subsequent announcments and releases will ensure conversation, both online and offline, continues right up until the release, which will no doubt be just as successful.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

A little bit of a given or ‘easy call’ perhaps, but you can’t really fault the consistently flawless execution of the Call of Duty titles. From MW2′s red carpet celeb filled ‘Hollywood style’ launch to Black Ops’ Facebook tab streamed live launch, the guys at Activision really know how to get it right. MW3 was no exception and really laid it heavy with social interaction – much to the delight of fans everywhere.

For the UK launch, Twitter fans were invited to enter a competition to attend the official launch at XXX. For those not lucky enough to win a ticket (read: me) then all hope was not launch as the star studded bash, hosted by avid gamer, Assasins Creed’s nerd and writer Danny Wallace, was all streamed live on YouTube. Not only could fans watch the action online, but they could also submit questions that would be asked live at the event and were also encouraged to use hashtags and join in the conversation from those at the event as images and news were posted online as the announcements were made. The trailers used both online and on TV adverts, Vet vs Noob, were also fun and shareable, adding to the buzz both in the leadup to the release and the weeks afterwards, helping to keep the title in number one position.

Well, those are the campaigns I really liked, mainly for their fantastic social engagement tactics that keep fans involved and active. If you have any to add, let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear them!

Ben Cotton produced a fantastic post this month on the 2012 PR graduate schemes. So if you’re looking for a job after graduating this year, why not check out the list collated by Ben below and be sure to check out his blog and recommended posts below for more information and tips.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been researching and speaking to industry colleagues in order to create this years list of 2012 PR Graduate Schemes.

Despite growth stalling in the wider economy, it’s great to see the PR industry in rude health (judging by the number of grad schemes that is). The list is broadly the same size as previous years and as we’ve come to expect, it is predominantly made up of the larger, international agencies with London offices.

This years list makes one thing abundantly clear. Whilst final year students will be acclimatising to their most important year at university and thinking about dissertations, the race for a graduate PR job has already begun.

On a personal note, I’ve received some amazing comments over the years thanks to the grad scheme lists and it’s always fantastic to meet somebody who landed a position having read about in on Social Web Thing. I hope this years list proves just as useful for the class of 2012.

I’ve also linked to some posts at the bottom which discuss online reputation management, Personal SEO and employability that students may find useful.

One final thing, feel free to publish the list elsewhere online. But if you do, please can you link back to this page with the anchor text ‘PR Graduate Schemes’. This is for SEO purposes as people are searching for that phrase and it’ll help drive some more traffic to the blog.

2012 PR Graduate Schemes

Blue Rubicon
Open
Closes: 22 January 2012

Burson-Marseller
Does not run a PR graduate scheme, but is open for internships all year round, many of which lead to permanent positions.

Chime Comms
Open: November
Closes:

Diffusion  
Open
Closes: 31 January 2012

Edelman 
Open: 1 December 2011
Closes:

Fishburn Hedges
Open
Closes: The deadline for the April 2012 intake is 12 December 2011 and the deadline for the September 2012 intake is 3 February 2012.

Fleishman-Hillard
Open
Operates a six month training scheme all year round. On completion of the Graduate Scheme the candidates performance will be reviewed and, if satisfactory, graduates will be considered for a permanent position.

Four Comms 
Open: TBC

Hill & Knowlton 
Closed: 28 October 2011

Hotwire Group (encompassing Hotwire and Skywrite)
Open: TBC

Ketchum Pleon
Open
Closes: 30 March 2012

Lexis PR 
Open: December 2011

Speed Comms
Open: 30 November 2011
Closes: 19 January 2012

The following posts may also come in useful when applying for a PR Graduate Scheme:

• So You Want to Work in PR? Here’s My Top 10 Tips
• 10 Tips to Boost Your Personal SEO
• 5 Tips to Pitch Yourself to a Potential Employer Using Social Media
• 10 LinkedIn Apps Every Student Should Know About
• 5 Basic Things You Should Be Doing to Manage Your Online Reputation

Related posts:

1. 2011 PR Grad Schemes
2. 2010 PR Grad Schemes
3. Edelman Grad Scheme Closing Shortly
4. Q&A with Fishburn Hedges Graduate
5. Gradu8 Recruitment Fair

Turning games into live action mini-movies seems to be all the rage at the moment, from the incredible fan-made Operation Kingfish to PlayStation’s “Michael“. Now Bethesda Software have released their own for the upcoming RPG epic, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

I’ve played a few RPGs before, but never the ‘The Elder Scrolls’ series, mainly because RPGs have the tendency of sucking away too many hours of one’s life. However, a certain HBO title may have changed that for me, and perhaps many others too.

November’s Edge issue made a very valid point in their Skyrim feature; HBO’s Game of Thrones has opened up the mythical world of fantasy to a much larger audience. ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ may have once been the ‘geek bible’, but now that the action packed, sexy HBO adaptation has burst onto our screens, the book series has been catapulted on to the best selling charts. As a result, fantasy has become more socially acceptable, from the violent, horrible White Walkers, to birth of fire-breathing dragons and the brave Sers that fight them.

So a game like Skyrim gives players the chance to experience a whole new level of these fantasy worlds usually confined to books and TV shows, allowing them to living their very own fantasy story. The Bethesda stands at both Gamescom and Paris Games Show seemed full of gamers doing just that, but how about the more casual gamers, not shelling out to attend games shows?

I suppose only the sales figures will tell, but they certainly have one customer right here, eagarly awaiting the release thanks to the hunger for adventure that the talented George R. R Martin has created.

Ben cotton works at Edelman and blogs at the fantastic Social Web Thing, a must RSS subscribe for any PR student or young practitioner who wants tips on getting into the industry and advice from professionals. Here, Ben shares more insider knowledge on how to use social media tools to get that dream job.

In previous generations, a small number of people would hear about and apply for jobs, but the web has revolutionised the employability process, and now anyone with Internet access is a potential rival. The Internet has made the job market more competitive, but social media offers the greatest opportunities to showcase creativity, stand-out and land a job.

However, most people submit a CV consisting of two pieces of paper when applying for a job, rather than taking a risk. Convention should not stop people turning a document that is functional, rather than engaging into something truly memorable.

This post looks at practical tips and innovative examples of people who have used social media to land their dream job.

Have an interesting CV
The two-page CV is unlikely to be replaced anytime soon, but there are better ways to document skills and experience. Infographic CVs have been discussed by those who feel constrained at the traditional CV’s structure. But, too often, Infographic CVs fail to convey basic information; defeating the object of an Infographic.

Growing numbers of people are turning to YouTube to launch their careers. Justin Bieber, Graeme Anthony and Feross Aboukhadijeh are fantastic examples. Each created very different videos that had three things in common; industry understanding, natural talent and genuine creativity. This combination enhanced their Personal SEO and helped land a job.

Network
‘It’s not what you know, but who you know’ is a proverb explaining the importance of networks. Whilst, networking has always been important when looking for a job, Twitter has opened up a world of opportunities. One of Twitter’s main benefits is unparalleled access to people and what they are doing, reading and thinking. This access means users can bypass gatekeepers and engage directly with influencers.

Given the high level of altruistic behaviour the Twitter community displays, it comes as no surprise to hear that Matthew Watson used Twitter to network and a land a job at Speed Communications after catching the attention of MD, Stephen Waddington. The ability network is a vital skill, and Twitter offers people the chance to hone, demonstrate and utitilse it.

Have a POV
Having a point of view in business is essential and acts as an important differentiator. The same is true of people and whilst many show a herd mentality online, a blog is the perfect platform to transform from follower to opinion-former. Whether it be media, business or culture, your world view is unique.

I speak from personal experience when I say blogs are an effective way to spark conversations, network and enhance online reputation. There are offline benefits too; employers recognise that it takes planning, creativity and commitment to maintain a blog. Lastly, blogs offer potential employers an insight into candidates and can put them at a real advantage before the interview begins.

Display creativity
‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ and with the growth of photo-sharing via Facebook, Flickr and Picasa, brands have been quick to use these tools. People are beginning to apply the same principles when marketing themselves. Brandon Kleinmann is one such example. He created a dynamic resume via a Facebook album detailing his skills and experience in a compelling way to land a job at TBWA/Chiat/Day.

Brandon’s not the first person to use Facebook to land a job. Jed Hallam, made an acclaimed Facebook group explaining why Wolfstar should offer him a role. These are two instances of people showing an in-depth understanding of social tools with a mix of innovation, strategy and execution; three traits employers prize in recruits.

Demonstrate thought leadership
We live in a knowledge economy and there is no better platform to display specialist knowledge than Quora. Yahoo Answers, Answers.com and recently, Formspring dominated the online Q&A space, but Quora looks set to become the source for authoritative information.

Professionals across industries are using this knowledge market to position themselves as thought leaders and land jobs. Chris Leithe has detailed how his company Redeemio can generate leads on Quora and the same steps of starting slow can be applied to individuals.

What tips or stories do you have of people that have used social media to land their dream job?

Last month I was lucky enough to attend Gamescom 2011 along with the rest of the Sony Ericsson Xperia^TM PLAY team, to help out on the Xperia^TM PLAY booth (which looked awesome!).
Being the resident Wolfstar geek (every company needs one!) means I’ve had the chance to work on the PLAY account from the start. It’s more then I ever could have hoped for on my internship year, with it being an amazingly fast paced and exciting account and totally focused around one of my own interests; the video games industry.

Still a man’s world?

Whenever the topic arises in conversation, I usually get a funny look when I say I’m into gaming, People assume I must mean on the Wii playing fitness games (which admittedly I do) or on a more female orientated game like The Sims (again, guilty), so they are yet again surprised when I explain it’s more the action and shooter games that I put my hours into.

It’s a stereotype that I thought was perhaps starting to fade a little. Stats show female gamers are on the rise and plenty of girls I know either play games or know a fair amount about different titles. However, my time at Gamescom confirmed that this is still a hugely male dominated industry, both in the people behind the biggest titles and the fans buying them and crowding to conventions and exhibitions.

If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say the ratio of men to women at Gamescom was around 150:1, and that’s being conservative at best. It’s not hard to see why the event draws in a huge number of male fans. Getting a first look and play on titles like Battlefield, Modern Warfare and Mass Effect is a huge attraction in itself and the scantly clad girls on some of the stands probably also helps. Walking through one the halls I saw a group excitedly hurrying over to join a large crowd gathering around a stand. I thought that they were perhaps giving away some freebies or demoing new content. But no, upon closer inspection it was in fact a group of dancers in bikinis and fishnets that seemed to have pulled in the throngs.

Now I’m not naïve enough to think that this approach doesn’t work. Sex sells, it a proven tactic that works no better than in an industry hugely dominated by a young, male audience. However, it also alienates that smaller but growing segment of the market that are actually just there to see what titles they’ll be spending their money on next year.

Speaking to a fellow female gaming fan on site, she summed it up perfectly with, “If people hear you like gaming, they either assume you’re a fat, girl gamer or a bimbo just pretending to like games for attention – there is no in-between for them.”

It seems such a shame that this is still the outlook on the industry, however, all is not lost and I didn’t set out to write such a miserable post! I did see a fair few female fans on site that fit neither category and were just as excited to be there as I was. I think there’ll be more next year too, with recent researching showing an increase in female gamer – 42% of US gamers are now XX gene owners (source and well worth reading – the ESA 2011 video gaming stats).

Breaking stereotypes

The ‘stereotypical gamer’ often ridiculed on and offline (think World of Warcraft in South Park) also seems well and truly dead. True there were a lot of the more ‘traditional’ gamers checking out the vast selection on MMORPG titles on show, but there were also families bringing young gamers along, packs of teenage boys that would look just as much at home in TopMan, groups of indie-looking boys and girls sitting in line waiting to try out Assassins Creed, and a huge number of young ‘new media’ types who were live blogging and tweeting from the event. None any better or more social acceptable than the other; just a great mix of keen gamers.

From speaking with some of the more famous YouTube bloggers at the show, it’s clear to see there is a real shift in the look for the more ‘hard-core gamer’. These more exposed gamers are on the front line to break the stereotype and stigma that still lingers around the industry to outsiders and help mould the way the industry changes as it continues to grow.

Bigger than ever

Anyone doubting the power and fan base of the video gaming industry would have to reconsider the way they think with the incredible turnout at Gamescom. On Saturday, there were a rumoured 80,000 extra people than expected to show up, leaving thousands outside unable to get entry as the colossal 10 halls at the Koelnmesse were still not enough to contain the incredible turnout.

This is why I find the video games sector of PR more exciting and fast paced than any other. Where else can you work on campaigns for the biggest selling entertainment launch of all time (Call of Duty: Black Ops – source) or think of strategy behind a product that will break records for becoming the best selling tech product, such as the XBOX Kinect (source).

The industry is huge, growing at an incredible rate and constantly evolving in terms of innovation, audience and trends. Gamescom was a fantastic way to see this idea ‘in the flesh’. Whether it be the contrast between a break dancing show for Lets Dance on PlayStation Move right next to a crowd watching men in a glass both on PC’s with headsets D.O.T.A 2. Or the way technology is bringing a whole experience to gaming, from the creative ways people are using the XBOX Kinect to get players moving or how Gears of War 3 will take advantage of the UnReal engine to ensure the trilogy finishes on a high.

One things for sure, there will be a lot more to come during the next year in the video games industry in terms of innovation, excitement and, of course, revenue. I’m looking forward to every minute of it.

I managed to get hold of a Gears 3 Beta code when it was still up, though I was seriously rusty from spending too much time on other shooters like COD. However, it looks like it’s set to be an amazing online game and hopefully we’ll see an epic finish to the trilogy - I can’t wait!