Let me introduce myself. I’m Jack, and I’ve been an intern at Spring for three years.

I started with a work experience placement at school, and since then, the lure of the fresh sea air and bubbly design team have dragged me back once again. I’ve never quite grasped what entices me about design; whether it’s the ability to produce something stunning simply from an idea or the thought of seeing your work placed in the public eye, but some of the finished results I’ve seen from Spring confirmed to me that this is the industry I want to be in.

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More people have bought smartphones in the past year than PCs and laptops put together. Each of those individuals now has the capability of visiting your website wherever they are. So it should go without saying that you want your visitors to have the best experience possible, no matter how they are viewing your digital presence. This means thinking outside the box (or should we say, thinking inside the box… a very, very small box).

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A digital precipice is being reached for clients and agencies. We no longer need to be persuaded about the need to move into digital, it’s already part of our culture whether we like it or not. We can see that great leaps have been made into the digital realm, but now many are worrying that they have jumped without sufficient preparation. We have seen clients and agencies express the fear that some of the necessary core skills in training are missing… the skills that separate mediocre management from magnificent management such as syntax and decision-making. And now, we can see a lot of those agencies, who may or may not be new to digital, are rethinking their strategies (or finally creating one!)

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Is this the end of Paypal? Facebook has announced recently that they will begin offering Facebook Credits this September for its users to be used on ‘real-world’ items, much the same way as eBay’s chief online payment firm PayPal.

Currently in testing, Facebook plans on integrating its credit system initially with games, then if successful, to be branched out to real-world items in a shop environment. Credit accounts will allow topping up with a number of credit cards and merchants will be charged 30% commission from their sales.

It seems that Facebook is taking cautious steps with this new feature, as its success would mean a real boom to the social media platform’s infrastructure.

Using real currency to buy ‘virtual goods’ has already a long lineage, and according to a study this year by the virtual economy services provider Live Gamer and games industry analyst service DFC Intelligence, 60% of all gamers have purchased virtual goods, defined by the study as “an in-game good that was not a complete game.” Among gamers surveyed 88% had purchased digital content before.

There can be little doubt that, given Facebook’s already brilliant track record in gaining credibility, very soon we may not only be conversing with our friends on Facebook, we may also be shopping with them.

What is the difference between spam and ham?

Well, if you have a blog or a social media platform of almost any variety, you are sure to be familiar with comments such as “I’ve been trying to lose weight for years, but I finally accomplished it using fat-buster” or “This was very interesting to read. You will also find my website interesting.” These comments are spam, and they can damage your digital presence because they can dilute the quality of comments from your real audience.

Real, user generated comments are the ham, or the meat of genuine dialogue. This is what you are trying to achieve, but how can you tell the difference between the spam and the ham?

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