Amid the huge media attention this week around Microsoft's major launch of its XBox One, (and Sony's hints at the imminent PS4), an announcement from Twitter appears to have gone rather under the radar, despite it being a massively important move for consumers in social media spaces.

The announcement was Twitter launching its Lead Generation Cards, a functionality that could see it truly own the customer for brands online and off.

The Cards will act as single-click ways for consumers to register an interest in a product, special offer or service either pre, during, or post launch and is a great example of thinking backward from the consumer experience to app functionality.

Instead of coming up with a solution which works best for the brands, Twitter has created a simple process which works best for the punter, (and for businesses alike - it is so simple it could be translated to the b2b space easily).

Lead Generation Cards also demonstrate the importance of synchronising different portals and steps in the lead-gen world; tweets with special offers or sign-up options will have an expandable button the user can click on, and then register an interest for, with Twitter taking care of all personal (email, name) details by using those registered to the account.

If you compare this to trying to convert Facebook 'likes', (themselves not necessarily a confirmed interest in buying a product), into a direct sales lead, it's incredibly simple for both the brand and the consumer.

The Cards could - and no doubt will - take off, and provide a great route for brands to turn engagement into sales online, a true holy grail.

It also demonstrates how Twitter might finally have worked out how to monetise its popularity - and may even see it extend its phenomenal reach further, by signing up consumers keen to get bespoke promotions from brands rather than engagement, Twitter's current basis. A cunning development indeed.

@wonky_donky

Once again, Twitter is in the news, and this time, it's because of hacking. Both Burger King and Jeep have seen their accounts targeted in the last couple of days, with hackers claiming the brands have been bought out by respective rivals McDonalds and Cadillac. A social media disaster in many ways, but there has been a bright side - Burger King gained 30,000 followers as a result.

We can only assume that this is what MTV had in mind when they decided to fake a hacking last night. Their Marketing Director tweeted "Everyone watch @mtv right now... #MTVHACK" four minutes before the first "hacked" @MTV post. Putting aside how ridiculous this is - if my client got hacked, I certainly wouldn't be directing people to it, I'd be sorting it out - it's just not a good idea, on any level. Brands who successfully interact with consumers through social media do so because they are bright, engaging, interesting and, crucially, because they have integrity. No-one likes to feel that they've been duped.

My overwhelming thought on this is that it's just very naїve. You don't need to have been working in PR for even a decade to remember the ruckus around "astroturfing", where brands were faking grassroots PR online by posting reviews and blog comments under pseudonyms.  This is exactly the same, just using a different channel. The internet is no longer a new and mysterious channel, and we all know consumers are getting increasingly savvy - there's no getting away with this type of behaviour. I'd have hoped that as an industry, we'd have all grown up a bit.

If you want to read more, it's also worth checking out Forbes' views for a slightly different take on the situation.

@rebeccataylorpr

As soon as something newsworthy (or not in some cases) takes place, Twitter will have covered it. One of its 200 million users will have tweeted about it. And then it begins. The retweets, the unanswered questions, the conversations, the hash tags and the arguments over opinion. It doesn't take long before the item is trending. But just as quickly as it all started, the trend can be gone. New events will have taken place and something else will be the topic for discussion.

Where am I going with this you might ask?

Well, Twitter recently announced improvements to its search capabilities that could have a huge impact on breaking news. Twitter knows what terms and topics are popular but it hasn't previously known what they mean - this is something its algorithms alone can't answer and so Twitter has come up with a solution. It's built in a 'real-time human computation' engine to help identify search queries as soon as they're trending and make sense of them.

Twitter firstly monitors what search queries are currently most popular. This could be anything - we've all seen the ridiculous things that can trend on Twitter (NO JOKE: Justin Bieber is trending as I type. Give me strength). Then when a new popular search query is identified it is sent to Twitter's human evaluators who are asked a number of questions about the query - their job is to make the trending topic more relevant to readers. After an evaluator responds to the query with additional insight, information is pushed out so that the next time a user searches the query this information is utilised with relevant ads, tweets and topical news. This will help piece the query together and provide a more relevant and up-to-date story of the trending subject.

What does this mean?

It means that Twitter could potentially have the upper hand on breaking news stories. I am increasingly turning to Twitter to find out the latest on celebrity gossip. The items that appear from a Google search can be outdated; whereas I know I'll find the most up to date information on Twitter. The only issue I have with Twitter is if the insight is trustworthy. I know if I read an article on The Times or The Telegraph I can take the information and know that it's come from a trustworthy source. However, Twitter's new search capabilities will make search queries more relevant and easier to determine how truthful the information is.

What are your thoughts? Do you turn to Twitter to search for news?

@beccakennett

It shouldn't *really* be a surprise that people tweeting ad infinitum about social media techniques and tips should describe themselves as 'social media gurus', but the report from What's Next Blog shows how ridiculous this self-aggrandising chest thumping has got.

Over 180 thousand twitter users describe themselves as 'social media gurus' in some shape or form, with some of the worst perpetrators being those who modestly dub themselves 'warriors', 'mavens', and (strangely, given the industry's relatively nascency) 'veterans'.

What would be interesting would be to assess the *actual* guru-ness of these people. In my experience, accounts who boast such a title are often the worst culprits for spamming linkbait blogs repeating the same old nonsense - let's be honest, there is a genuinely finite amount you can write about how to run a good social media programme or engaging twitter account. It doesn't need a dozen posts a day to explain it. Furthermore, they often have tens of thousands of followers, but rarely a RT - they're not practising what they preach by means of engagement.

What really annoys me though is that these accounts follow people, then, within 24 hours, unfollow if they're not followed back, or unfollow you the moment you do so to them (when you get bored of being spammed crap blogs).

Twitter isn't about reciprocal follows, it's about following people you find interesting, funny, or informative; 'follow me if I follow you' is the wrong approach, yet so many self-styled 'social media gurus' do just that - harvesting followers to increase their perceived popularity.

We're all, individually and as an industry, constantly learning about the opportunities social media brings and finding new (and not always perfect) ways of using platforms in the best way possible. However, calling yourself a guru is perhaps arrogant at best and when you fail to grasp the basics, downright annoying.

At the beginning of this year, Disruptive Analysis founder Dean Bubley set out on a novel approach to monetising his opinions and research via twitter by establishing @DAPremium, a paid for subscription model for his insight into the mobile industry. This sits alongside his standard (free) feed @disruptivedean, where he publishes other findings which will, he hopes, drive traffic to the premium service.

To access the premium feed, users have to pay online and then get accepted by Dean to follow him - it's a simple development of the "Protected Tweets" privacy setting.

It's such a brilliant model; I'm amazed more people / organisations aren't doing it, (a Swedish charity, Stockholms Stadsmission, which looks to address homelessness in the capital, successfully trialled such a premium service last year also).

I spoke to Dean about his approach and he explained that he puts more company-specific material behind the paywall as well as some elements of his research, and for the subscription price ($100/quarter or $300/year), his premium followers have access to pithier insight than on the free platform. Dean also uses the platform to add value to people buying consulting services or coming to his/Martin Geddes' workshops, and he protects the premium tweets through terms and conditions banning any RTing or forwarding, and also (where feasible) promises subscriber replies to questions posed on the DAPremium feed.

Dean says the operation can be "clunky" to run and administer so such a model would not work for those with thousands of followers, (he takes the payments himself through PayPal, so authorisations and ensuring the right people have access to the feed can be time consuming).

However, with over 50 people already signed up, even if they're paying by the quarter, Dean is generating a healthy dollar return per year in subscriptions. This is certainly nothing to be sniffed at, given the reasons behind DAPremium being set up; (to quote Dean from his blog) "Twitter is like tax - as an analyst, you have to grit your teeth and do it, painful, time-consuming and distasteful as it is. I end up spending time on Twitter that could be more profitably spent writing posts on this blog, advising clients or taking briefings. It adds cost, but brings little in the way of value or revenue".

So what next for the feed? Dean says he'd like to turn it into a community, although is mindful of the time that might take to manage, but he's hopeful of it becoming more a forum than 'newsletter-esque' platform.

I think it's a great way of protecting - and monetising - his IP as an analyst, and is already proving successful. Despite a few people speculating on the idea for a couple of years, no-one other than Dean, from what I can see, has put it into practice, and it's good to see it a success.

Others may want to sit up and take notice - this could catch on.

Chris Owen / @wonky_donky

This time last week I was at home, recovering from the Isle of Wight Festival and basking at the sheer joy of being home, and clean, and on a proper bed, and clean, and having had more than three hours sleep, and importantly…being clean.

The idea to go the Festival was first seeded over a bottle of wine, when I asked my friend whether being the tender age of 32 and 13 months made me too old to go to a festival. A gentle 'No babe' was given in reply and a plan was hatched. Yes it might rain a bit, yes it would involve camping and I'd be cold, but we'd have each other and booze, which would make it all okay, right?

Wrong.

Our plan first seemed at risk when the weather report in the week ahead looked shoddy at best. 'No fear', I said. 'I have a Kagool and Jack Daniels, it will be ace.' The closer it got to the event, the more it rained and the more nervous I became about it being a mud-fest. So, I put my hope into modern communications to aide me. After all, knowledge is power.

I became obsessed with weather reports and following anyone vaguely useful on Twitter, from official festival organisers and ferry operators through to anyone tweeting about their journey. Come Thursday afternoon, day 1 of the festival, tales of woe were literally flooding in and there was a Twitter frenzy with people complaining of being trapped in their cars and on ferries in the Solent.  No one could get into the festival site due to mud and social media was awash with panic. Rumours were spreading that thousands were trapped, the main stage was sinking and the whole thing had been called off.

People wanted answers. What they got were two tweets. One at 2pm in the afternoon saying that there were some difficulties getting people on site. The next one six hours later saying 'Cerys Matthews is opening the Big Top' which was understandably met with a torrent of expletives from people who were still stuck on the road and hadn't moved in eight hours.

It comes down to this. If you have a Twitter presence, use it. If people have questions, answer them. If you have nothing to say or update people on, tell them. Just keep in touch. The organisers said that they were busy helping people get on site which is why they were unable to talk to media or put updates on Twitter. This sounds noble enough but just doesn't cut it in an age where everyone is online. Knowledge is power but if you opt for radio silence, you lose that power and the online world will make up their own reality.

In the end, after purchasing an extra groundsheet and an extra bottle of Jack Daniels to see me though, we had a surprisingly easy journey to the festival. Yes we renamed it 'Mudfest 2012', yes the mud will haunt me for years to come and yes it was a brilliant weekend in the end, but poor social media management meant that we could have called it off altogether.

So, my two 'take-aways' from the weekend are as follows. Silence isn't always golden, and white isn't always a sensible choice for festival attire - evidence below.

Helen @fablett

I have a love / hate relationship with Twitter. Once an avid fan, regular Tweeter (borderline overshare at times), I embraced making friends, sharing news, and following celebrity gossip for a good couple of years. But lately, that special bond between me and Twitter has gone. I question my Tweets, "is this relevant?" "is this boring" "who cares?", but mainly I'm finding that Twitter has got a bit of a superiority complex.

Recently everyone has an opinion, and what was once a place for 'did you hear…" it has become a jury of know-it-alls, everyone has an opinion. Take for example the Argyll and Bute Council story today about them preventing a young girl taking photos in the school canteen for her blog because it was attracting too much attention. An OTT reaction on their part? Perhaps. Worthy of a torrent of Tweets from anyone and everyone, continually offering opinions, advice, criticism? Not really. I've even seen a petition doing the rounds. I think it's all about a little perspective.

Once a playground for raising awareness in a good way, remember Alice's Bucket List? Where we managed to get #alicebucketlist trending, and grant wishes to a young girl suffering from terminal cancer. That's when Twitter comes into its own and moves from a sounding board, to having a real point and making a real difference.

Twitter is brilliant for creating opportunities for everyone. From meeting new people, sharing ideas, asking for advice, there always seems to be someone 'there'. I think at the moment it just seems to have lost its way.

Siobhan @Siobhan_83

Driving to work this week enjoying the sunshine with my window down and music turned up I was not best pleased when a stone bounced off of a passing lorry straight towards my windscreen.  I closed my eyes but knew from the sound of the stone hitting the glass that it had chipped.  I decided to take the mature route of cursing at the chip and at the lorry which had now long gone and continued my drive to work. What a crap start to the day.

When I got to work I vented my frustration on Twitter as most people do (we all know that's what it's really for).

Within an hour I was surprised to see a reply from @Autoglass - especially since I hadn't tweeted them directly or hash tagged them. My first reaction was that it'd be a sales punt that would've caused my frustration and annoyance to spiral. But I was pleased and shocked to see it was a charming, friendly personal note. It cheered me up.

I replied, thanking them for the tweet, and said that I'd speak to my insurers and give them a call if I needed any further help. Turns out my insurers work with Autoglass anyway. So I gave them a call, booked an appointment and they repaired it. Simple.

But what makes this even more remarkable is that it has very little value for Autoglass (it only cost me £10 to have it fixed). I was so impressed with how personal and effective they had been that I've been telling everyone about it (as will this blog!). My experience shows that using Twitter correctly can really help to engage customers and help shape brand perceptions.

I later found out that Autoglass are using Radian6 which is how they came across my tweet.  They simply monitor tweets that contain words like 'chip' and 'cracked' together with 'windscreen' and 'car'.  Specific searches are set up so that irrelevant tweets such as those that include the words 'chip' and 'fish' are ignored. People tweeting about their dinner obviously won't need to be contacted.

I think this is a fantastic example of a brand engaging with consumers through Twitter successfully. Autoglass listened and understood my tweet before responding, were helpful without being pushy and made an effort.

Becca @beccakennett

Nowadays you can find just about any brand on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as so many have jumped on the social media bandwagon to engage and communicate with their customers. However, how many of those embracing social CRM actually have a successful strategy in place?

Up until last week, I had been having so many problems with my mobile network provider Vodafone and had been resorting to the old fashioned call centre for first hand advice and help. However, having been put on hold for hours on end and being transferred to different call centres all over the world I officially gave up and as per usual took to Twitter to let off some steam.

Now I'm a huge fan of Twitter, I use it as a platform to share my views, catch up on news and gossip, and have the odd rant here and there. Many a time, I even mention brands within my tweets, for example @Selfridges when I complain about their miserable staff and @NationalRail for leaving me stranded at the train station for hours. However, not once have any of these brands ever responded to me or acknowledged my tweet.  I was therefore taken by surprise last week when @VodafoneUK decided to reply to my tweet within seconds, after having complained about their call centre customer service.

Within an hour of me complaining, Vodafone had responded to my tweet, sent me a link to email their web team about my issue and acknowledged receipt of my complaint! I then received an email within 24 hours with an apology and resolution to my problem.

Never did I think a simple tweet would be the answer to my problems having spent hours on the phone to eight different call centre advisors, neither of which had helped me. It just goes to show, with a strategy in place and a web team responding to your tweets in real time, any brand can win over their customer... hats off to you @VodafoneUK! 

Shereene