It seems that there is a large amount of optimism around about social media ROI this year. However, I remember a colleague of mine saying that there is not, nor ever will be, a holy grail for social media evaluation. I agree that while attempts will be made, it's unlikely we'll ever find a figure that equates to the inaccurate AVE value that was adopted by PR industry to measure editorial coverage.

a variety of free tools for publishers and online information consumers to discover the best blogs, news, and articles by topic; to perform comparisons of engagement performance among a group of sites by topic; or to analyze their own site’s content for audience engagement in real-time and over time.  

I've just returned from another trip to St Petersburg which, as always, was simply fantastic. I've seen many of the typical tourist sites now with the help of a Lonely Planet guide on my original trip but I'm now finding it more appealing to visit local cafes or bars and experience the places that the residents enjoy. Here in the UK, I could take a look at Foursquare for tips or even use Yelp's augmented reality app, Monocle, to guide me to the best places. However, I'm too scared to turn on the web on my iPhone. I've been stung by O2 before as I've accessed data oversees only to be greeted by a huge telephone bill on my return.

While hype around augmented reality or AR has grown over the last year thanks to the innovative work of companies such as Total Immersion, I don't believe that the true potential of this technology for exploring new locations will ever be realised until we can freely access the information overseas. 

The two killer apps I remember seeing a couple of years ago as AR began to appear were location-based guidance or tour guides that directed you to attractions while providing you further information and language translation. Both of these are only really of use in foreign countries and I can only imagine how expensive it would be to download the wealth of data needed by an AR app.

Of course, they'll be other applications for this technology, some will be marketing led while others will prove genuinely useful. Sadly we're going to have to wait for the mobile phone operators to get their act together on reducing overseas data costs before we can travel and use this innovative technology on our mobile devices without fear.

Let me start by saying that I'm a huge fan of Tweetie. It's a superb app for using Twitter on my iPhone and I soon migrated across from Tweetdeck to the Mac desktop version thanks to it's simple, yet beautiful interface. The news that Tweetie is launching version 2.0 is very exciting especially considering the introduction of features such as draft manager or synching with the iPhone address book.

But here's the flip side. Tweetie 2.0 will cost £1.79. Now that's not a huge amount but we have to consider that the majority of Tweetie users have already paid to download the original application. Surely it's our right, as original users, to qualify for a free upgrade to the latest software isn't it? Well if that's our perception, Apple has a lot to answer for.

Apple has, for the past two years, allowed iPhone users to upgrade to subsequent versions of their iPhone software for no extra cost (iPod Touch owners have to pay for the upgrade). The chief reason for this has to be related to the perceived value of what is an incredibly expensive phone. Traditionally phone software was clunky and anything but a pleasure to use but the iPhone changed all that. By updating the software at no cost, they are able to add new features to the expensive hardware, extending the life of the product. Effectively this gives users a brand new phone every year - 2.0 introduced apps (can you believe how much love we gave the phone when all we could do was go online, via edge if you were lucky!) while 3.0 added the long awaited basic functions of cut & paste and MMS. Only when the software is limited by the hardware (eg. no video recording, slow internet connection) do users feel the necessity upgrade.

In terms of software development, this goes completely against the grain, especially in a world where new operating systems are released every couple of years by Microsoft or Apple. At least that software is discounted for upgraders. No such luck for Tweetie users.

Intially I shared the sentiments of PatrickJ as I was outraged at the thought of parting with more cash for what is 'just another Twitter app' especially considering other quality apps such as Twitterific are available for free. But then Tweetie 2.0 is being built from the ground up. And it's packed full of new features. And if Loren Brichter really is working so hard, he deserves my cash for what is, quite simply, a delighful product and a joy to use.

UPDATE: I conceded after plenty of debate and bought Tweetie 2. It's worth every penny.

I'm delighted that Robert Scoble didn't back up his blog. If it wasn't for him, I never would have realised that Google Reader is one of the greatest archives ever created. As previously posted, I lost all my posts that originally appeared on the PR Media Blog. Thankfully Google Reader has preserved my words of wisdom dating back to March 2008.

I'm looking forward to reading those again, comparing my thoughts to how the world has moved on and  posting them here for all to see. Hope you enjoy reading them (again if you read them first time around). 

Hope you can join me in a retrospective look back which will indicate how social media has moved on and look forward to hearing your comments.

If you're looking to understand what makes a video go viral, I recommend studying this video which is 4 minutes of either nostalgia or questioning exactly what you just saw. How many of these YouTube greatest hits do you recognise?