Beyonce’s pregnancy has set a new Tweets Per Second (TPS) record.

The singer revealed her pregnancy on 28 August at MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMA) by arriving on the red carpet and unveiling her surprise bump to the world.

By 22:35 that evening (Eastern Time, USA), the Twittersphere had gone crazy with tweets about the singer’s expectant state.

In an announcement on its @twitterglobalpr account, Twitter said: “Last night at 10:35pm ET, Beyonce’s big MTV #VMA moment gave Twitter a record bump: 8,868 Tweets per second.”

The previous TPS record was reached a few months ago in July 2011 during the Woman’s World Cup. During two matches – Japan-USA and Paraguay-Brazil – a mass of football-related hashtags and names set a record of 7,196 TPS. Those hashtags included #WWC and #worldcupfinal whilst repeated mentions of the footballers’ names also set the TPS sky-high.

Before that, TPS records had levelled out at around the 5,000 marks, including just after Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.

This means that there were also more tweets per second about Beyonce’s pregnancy than there were about the death of Bin Laden, the recent tragedies in Norway and the birth of the Beckhams’ daughter.

The news confirms Twitter’s status as the social network of choice for spreading news in a matter of seconds.

Tim Godwin, Scotland Yard’s acting commissioner, has revealed that he and his senior management team discussed shutting town Twitter as riots spread across the UK at the beginning of August.

Godwin discovered that his force did not have the legal power to shut down the social networking site and subsequently raised the subject with the government.

Mr Godwin told MPs at the home affairs select committee: “I contemplated seeking the authority to switch it off. The legality of that is very questionable. We did not request that it was turned off but it is something we are pursuing as part of our investigative strategy.”

Many of those taking part in the violence organised themselves on Twittter as well as BBM. BBM cannot be monitored by police as easily as Twitter can.

In fact, many of the discussions on Twitter helped police to stop further trouble: they secured the Olympic site in Stratford, east London, after talk on the site suggested that it was going to be targeted.

Keith Vaz, chair of the home affairs select committee, said that he did not realise that the police had even considered shutting down social networks but that this option should be examined because Twitter and its counterparts had “allowed people to turn up at very short notice to demonstrate and riot”.

He said “We should look at whether we should give power to the police to order social media sites to behave in a certain way.”

Social media has been front page news this week, yet it’s hard to believe some people are unsure of its potential for their business.

A recent poll of US SMEs by insurer Hiscox found only 12% considered social media essential to promotion, with 50% not using social media in a business context at all.

Among the remaining 50%, there is probably uncertainty about how social media positively impacts ROI, and that it is a ‘fad’ and ‘something big brands do.’

Whether on Twitter, Facebook or Google+, the concept of starting a conversation with your customers, a more direct and instant one than ever before, is here to stay.

The key is to remain focused about your overall business objectives. If you sell shoes, then you need to interact with your customers on social media where they are likely to want to engage with your content and offers.

In the non-virtual world, this is like ensuring your shoe shop is on the high street where people do their shopping, or placing an ad in women’s fashion magazine.

Social media is no different. What you do, say, offer and discuss needs to be relevant, timely and engaging.

It is true that not all your potential customers are glued to Facebook and Twitter twenty-four-seven, so you need to consider social media as part of your marketing mix and get the right strategy in place.

Knowledge is power. And arming yourself with the know-how about what works in social media and what doesn’t is the first step to getting it right.

Doctors have been advised not to connect with their patients on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has made the recommendation because it fears that in befriending their patients doctors may risk breaching confidentiality.

It advises medical staff and students to decline friend and follow requests by patients current or past in order to maintain the clear boundaries needed in the doctor-patient relationship.

The BMA guidance, which was published earlier this month, also warns medical professionals against posting “informal, personal or derogatory comments” about their patients on social media sites.

The advice follows a series of mistakes that have got doctors into trouble on Facebook.

According to Tony Calland, chairman of the BMA’s medical ethics committee, most doctors already refuse to accept Facebook friend requests from patients, although a small percentage would think about befriending them.

He told the Guardian: “Accepting Facebook friends presents doctors with difficult ethical issues. For example, doctors could become aware of information about their patients that has not been disclosed as part of a clinical consultation.

“It would also be wholly inappropriate for doctors to disclose information about their patients online.”

The Nursing and Midwifery Council also published similar guidelines this week, asking nurses and midwifes to refrain from posting photos of patients, discussing work and publishing sensitive information onto their social networks as well as not befriending their patients.

Broadcasters in France have been banned from mentioning social media sites Twitter and Facebook in promotional tags on air.

Lines such as “follow us on Twitter” or “find us on Facebook” must not be used in broadcasts, according to French regulatory body the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSV).

Mentioning the social networking sites in a promotional context constitutes a violation of the country’s ban on secret advertising.

In a ruling at the end of last month, the CSV stated that broadcast networks could direct viewers or listeners to their sites and pages on general social media but could not mention specific sites by name.

By contrast, Facebook and Twitter can only be mentioned when a specific reference about either site is really necessary.

The ruling has proved unpopular with French bloggers, who have accused the government of being inflexible in the face of changing technology and communication.

The decision was made soon after Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, joined other internet entrepreneurs for a conference on online regulation, hosted by Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France. Sarkozy also has his own Facebook page.

The CSA is responsible for ensuring fairness on French audiovisual communication, such as protecting children from watching unsuitable programming and making sure that political candidates are allotted equal airtime.

Twitter is to bring in two major changes to its site over the next few weeks: a photosharing feature and an improved search mechanism.

The social media site’s photosharing feature will allow its members to upload a photo and attach it to their tweet directly from Twitter’s own website. The functionality will be added to Twitter’s mobile apps soon afterwards. Twitter has paired up with photo storage site Photobucket to offer this function.

Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, made the announcement at the recent All Things D conference, where he also demonstrated how the site’s photosharing service would look and work in reality.

Arnaud Meunier, a member of Twitter’s platform product team, made the following comments on the Twitter Development Talk page: “Uploading photos to Twitter is currently available on the twitter.com desktop 
version, and its access is initially limited to a very small number of users.

“In the next couple of weeks, as we progressively ramp up the number 
of users who have access to the feature, we’ll provide you with more details 
about how you can use the ‘Tweet-with-photo’ API.”

Twitter has also changed and updated its search in a bid to make search results more relevant. Users who perform a search on the social networking site will now be shown more relevant tweets as well as related photos and videos. These results will apply whether users are searching for a keyword or clicking on a trending topic.

Twitter has finally acquired the social media app TweetDeck after months of negotiations.

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, although it is rumoured that Twitter acquired the app for around £25m to £35m.

TweetDeck enables its users to read, write and organise its tweets whilst also managing their other social media accounts, including Facebook and LinkedIn.

It began in 2008 as a one-man operation and now has a team of fifteen based at its London HQ. More than 20 million people have downloaded the application since its creator, software programmer Ian Dodsworth, invented it as a way to organise his tweets when he was unemployed.

Blogging on the TweetDeck website, Dodsworth said: “We’ve grown from one team member and a single user, to a team of fifteen and a user-base of millions. The reason for this growth is simple – our unwavering focus on providing high-quality tools and services for the Twitter-centric power-user. This has always been our core audience – the most active, influential and valuable users of Twitter and social media in general. Quality over quantity.

“It is precisely for this reason that Twitter has acquired TweetDeck. The mainstream Twitter user-base is well catered for by twitter.com and the official mobile clients. And by becoming part of the official platform, TweetDeck will now fill that role for brands, influencers, the highly active and anyone that just needs ‘more power’.”

The power and content of social media has gained further validation this week as a new study shows that more and more journalists are using it to source their stories.

According to the Digital Journalism Study, more and more journalists are using social media as a serious tool for newsgathering and story verification.

A total of 478 journalists from 15 countries were polled in the study. Exactly 47% of them used Twitter as a news source: a dramatic rise from last year’s figure of 33%. The use of Facebook as a news source also rose dramatically, from last year’s 25% to this year’s 35%.
The report also revealed that a third of those polled used Twitter for verification whilst a quarter used Facebook for verification.

The importance of Twitter as a mechanism for publicising and sharing stories was also underlined in the report.

The news comes after last week’s shock “uncovering” of a number of celebrity superinjunctions on Twitter. Whilst some of the celebrities who were named have denied any allegations, what the incident does show is social media’s increasing dominance in the news arena.

Kate Day, social media and engagement editor for the Telegraph Media Group, told one news site: “There is no doubt that social media has become a vital tool for journalists of all types – as a source of information; as a way of getting their stories out there; and as a way of building digital audiences.”

I celebrated 3 years on Twitter last week.

I say “celebrated”. What I mean is I kept it to myself apart from a brief self congratulatory moment of “wow, has it really been that long!” and “wasn’t I smart getting into it before so many other people.” That’s why I’m @colinkelly and not @gothereLateandMissedNameiWanted which would have been my second choice.

On the one hand my 3 year Twitter anniversary seemed like a milestone, on the other I knew I’d receive a withering response from my wife if I made an issue of it.

ME: “It’s my 3 year Twitter anniversary today”.

EMMA: “God, you’re sad”.

That’s probably how it would have gone.

The truth is, Twitter, and social media in general, has been good to me.

I’ve had fun, made friends, discovered great content for my radio shows, raised my profile, had some exchanges with celebrities (including a row with Paul Daniels which made the Daily Record) and I’ve even generated some business and ultimately made money out of it.

Having started my own business in the last 3 months getting a concrete return from social media has become more important and maybe the reason it’s working out for me is because my intentions were pure at the beginning.

It was something new and I was just trying it out. Selling or promoting myself on it wasn’t on my radar so I was honestly able to engage with people in a friendly way and build things up. I encountered the protocol and etiquette as they were being created and learnt from mistakes – either my own or other users.

The end result of all this is that myself and Gary Ennis from @nsdesign (who was one of my first followers by the way) have amassed a huge amount of knowledge and experience we can share.

And we’re doing that in a series of workshops called The Social Media Masterclass.

If your business isn’t using Twitter, Facebook and the rest you might feel a bit daunted about joining in now. But there’s great news. 95% of social media users think businesses should have a presence there too. And 85% want them to go further and instead of just being there, want them to actively engage and interact.
Isn’t that incredible. Your customers, potential customers, and next generation of staff actually want you to be part of it. And they accept that SOME of what you do will involve promoting your services.

What an incredible opportunity.

And with the power of Facebook increasing all the time (do you know about Groups, and Events and how to use targeted ads?) and so many clever and creative uses for it I think it’s worth investing a little money and time in developing skills to get the most from social media.

What we’ve done is create a series of 3 fully interactive workshops. They’ll take you from beginner level all the way until you form a social media strategy for your business.

Read the course descriptions to find out more. You can choose the master class you want or sign up for all 3 and get the biggest discounts.

I’m involved in Master class 1: “It’s All About The Conversation” where you’ll discover what Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and the rest can do for your business. There’ll be group work, discussions, video clips, and bang up to date, relevant case studies. Maybe you “kind of understand it” or you’ve “dipped your toe in”. We’ll work together to help you decide how you’re going to use social media for your business and by the end of this workshop, it’ll all make sense.

Master class 2 “Getting Hands On With Twitter and Facebook” is a practical session led by NS Design’s main man Gary Ennis. He’ll help put those ideas into practice and get to grips with the nuts and bolts of Facebook and Twitter. How to set them up, bespoke customisation, how to build a following, find sales leads and other tips and tricks. Wi-fi enabled laptops are welcome – as someone who “learnt as they went along” take it from me that attending this master class could save you HOURS down the line.

Employment lawyer David Hoey from law firm BTO is on board for Master class 3: “Building The Social Strategy”. David will examine social media from an employment law perspective. What are the legal issues? To what extent can (or should) employers control employee use of such sites? How can your Disciplinary and Grievance Policy help? Gary Ennis will help you incorporate all this into a wider social media strategy, tailored to your business and explain how to monitor and evaluate it so you get the greatest return possible.

I’m really excited to be involved in this. I attended one of Gary’s original “Embrace The Space” presentations a few months ago and went in thinking I pretty much knew it all. I came out amazed at how much I’d learned. I’m certain these master classes will be just as useful for you.

Click to find out more and for booking information. Or why not come and talk to us about it at New Start Scotland. Drop by the NS Design stand (D17) on Friday 18th March or Saturday 19th March. It’s at Royal Highland Showground, Ingliston and admission is free.

Twitter is an integral part of social media marketing and, for those looking to boost their online presence and profile, the digital marketing portal Econsultancy has published ten pointers that can be used to boost the chance of retweets.

For example, marketers should consider at what time they post on Twitter. According to author Chris Lake, tweets are more likely to be retweeted later in the evening since users are more likely to be at home, and going on Twitter later in the day overlaps with good browsing times in America. At NSDesign, we take a slightly different view, in that when tweets are aimed at a business readership, it’s best to schedule the activity within working hours. However, it’s indisputable that the chances of a retweet are greater when the majority of your target audience is online.

A call to action is also cited as a good way to attract retweets. A request to check something out, labelling a link as a ‘must-read’ or stressing followers to watch a YouTube video creates an urgency and piques general interest, which other Twitter users generally respond to.

The article makes for interesting reading and certainly provides some helpful pointers with your Twitter strategy but, ultimately, good content– tweets that have perceived worth, value and resonance – will get retweeted.

A Twitter feed with consistent, good material attracts similarly-minded individuals who are more likely to follow an account long-term, forming a core from which to gain consistent retweets. Such a set of followers is more likely to flock as a result of a natural, unforced Twitter approach with a personable style or unique voice.