Fantastic 5 from March

Spring is now here and people are returning from their Easter holidays. March brought us a lot of news, some good and some bad. This is what we read about at KMP Digitata in March.

During the month of March there was one event that could not be avoided. After months of anticipation SXSW 2010 finally happened and was a massive success. KMP Digitata was invited to join Digital Mission and head over to Texas to attend the event and represent the UK Digital Industry.

Read our blog from SXSW 2010

It wasn’t all smiles and happiness surrounding Social Media in March.

At the start of the month we were all shocked by the news that Ashleigh Hall, murdered back in October, met her murderer on Facebook. By posing as a 19 year old on the social media site Chapman was able to get close to his victim. This opened up the whole issue of the security of children and their online activities.

Ashleigh Hall’s murderer met her through Facebook

Social Media marketing is becoming a mainstream activity for many big name companies. With more and more companies engaging in the medium, more mistakes are being made. Although social media can be hugely effective it can also create PR nightmares if done wrong. In February we spoke about Vodafone sending vulgar tweets, this month it was Nestle angering people on their Facebook Fan page by trying to control what was being said following news from Greenpeace about Nestle getting it’s ingredients from unsustainable sources.

Nestle: How not to run your Facebook page

Nestle’s Facebook Page

Facebook redeemed itself later by allowing Italian Police to find enough information to track down and capture of one of the country’s most wanted Mafia members, Pasquale Manfredi. Accused of being one of the top figures in the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, the 33-year-old, now faces charges of murder, mafia association and drugs trafficking, and was traced via his network of Facebook contacts.

Italian Police use Facebook to track down Mafia members

Microsoft has launched a multimillion-pound TV advert campaign to try and persuade searchers to switch from using Google to Bing. The campaign promotes Bing as a “decision engine” that simplifies the information overload that accompanies the results of many other search engines.

Microsoft launch Bing TV advert campaign

Enjoy the spring everyone