Lady Gaga’s social media strategy has been huge success. She was involved in all aspects, and decided to handle her Twitter account by herself, without outsourcing it to a PR agency. By August 2010, she had 5.7m followers, more than Britney Spears.

Many of her music videos are customised for online audiences. They are about nine minutes long, rather than the typical four minute clips for TV and radio.

During concerts she tweets messages to her audience so wherever you are standing, you feel you are actually interacting with her.

Lady Gaga also announces her new singles and albums directly to her fans through social media platorms. Before the press is notified.

OK, she is a massive celebrity. However her techniques are powerful, and could be applied by others in completely different markets.

Burberry’s CEO Angela Ahrendts wants her customers to be able to touch the brand everywhere. The reality is her customers are social. So she wants her entire business to be social.

Here is a video talking about the development of Burberry’s Social Enterprise. It is introduced in trademark style by Marc Benioff, CEO of SalesForce.

Burberry is combining monitoring, employee and product social networks and mobile apps with social dimensions to reach their mobile audiences.

Many companies are going to be re-born social. Some will choose. Others will have it imposed upon them. Here at ItsOpen, and at the Social Media Leadership Forum, we are helping companies along this path by providing guidance, sharing experiences and hearing from the world’s leading internet thinkers like Don Tapscott and Jeff Jarvis, who are all speaking with members this year.

Essentially this business model/concept is for those companies who want their products and services to be ‘liked’. They want to be the enterprise that has lots of ‘friends’. They want their news to be ‘retweeted’ for positive reasons. They want to leverage social networks internally for greater productivity and better collaboration, and to stimulate innovation and more efficient ideas sharing. They want to understand what their customers like, as expressed freely through social networks, and want to be in a position to meet their needs in totally different ways.

Your progress towards becoming a social enterprise will I believe define your success as a business in the years ahead.

Burberry’s practices will eventually be the norm. For now, it is an innovative leader. The revolution, driven by the pervasive nature of new technologies, the powerful global web platform, and grown up digital users entering the marketplace, is gathering pace. CEOs will love it. Bottom-up staff will enjoy it. Middle managers will have some issues adjusting, as information is openly shared freely vertically and horizontally across the enterprise.

Have you seen FT editor Lionel Barber’s lecture on the future of news and newspapers in the digital revolution?

Good overview on the challenges and interesting points about people requiring news at different paces at different times.

Thanks to Emily Gibbs from the FT for sharing this (@EmilyJG).

And thanks Emily for your great talk at the Social Media Leadership Forum event yesterday!

Been reading a lot of media comment about the future of BBC TV’s Newsnight.

The problems that Newsnight is facing are common to many TV news programmes. I used to be a regular viewer of Newsnight. I loved it when I was younger – but no more.

Why? First of all, news is a commodity thanks to the internet. I get my news when I like, whenever I like. Sometimes via the BBC web site, Google news, the radio or newspapers. So why should I have to sit down in front of the TV at an allotted time to watch Newsnight? What will it give me that I cannot get online?

But wait. I don’t want to knock Newsnight. I think it has potential. I imagine that Newsnight would like me as a regular viewer, so what would they have to do to get me back? Here are some suggestions:

1 Change the title. The idea that news is delivered at night is a complete anachronism. It might have been relevant when, at the end of the day, people wanted to catch up on their news. But in a global economy, when many people are still up, I don’t think so. This is not cosmetic. A new name would change how Newsnight is perceived. So how about: News Comment; or News Thoughts; or News Analysis; or News Alert; News Opinion, or News Briefing?

2 Newsnight needs to reach out to its viewers and ask them how they would change the programme. They need to partner with viewers to create a show which is relevant to the audience. Maybe more of a focus on local themes.
Local food providers versus supermarkets etc.

3 They need to accept that news is a commodity and focus instead on comment and analysis. They need to help us make sense of the news. They need to address key themes. Less arguments with politicians.

4 They need a 24-hour relationship with their viewers. They need to define what Newsnight stands for, and deliver during the day.

5 One aspect of Newsnight I used to enjoy was the early sight of the first editions. Whey not get the editors in to give their views and opinions?

6 Why not get bloggers in to give their views on the news?

7 Why not have a section on the Twitter trends of the day?

8 Why not get all the editors of BBC news shows in, or some of them, and discuss what news stories have appealed to them and why?

9 Focus on themes: West V Islam, for example

10  How about specials on the future of energy or the future of food or the future of politics?

11 I have read about critics saying they cannot get cabinet ministers on the show. So what?! Go broader than Westminster. Why not speak to people who send in online petitions to Westminster?

12 Newsnight, or whatever it calls itself, needs to be rejuvenated, it needs to reconnect with its audience in different ways. Get Paxman talking to bloggers. Why not have Guido Fawkes on, etc…?

13 How about guest editors?

These are just a few thoughts at 8.13pm on a Sunday night after a few glasses of wine.

I like Newsnight and think it is time for it to be reinvented. Are you listening, Newsnight?!!