2008 was the year social media met print media and FT.com led the charge globally on corporate, commercial and editorial fronts. The FT developed a digital campaign to increase FT.com's readership, market share and subscriptions using innovative new technologies - from Twitter to blogs to Facebook - to capitalise on opportunities by reaching out into the consumer’s real world. The campaign took FT.com to the heart of the global digital community, engaging with key online influencers by inventing a new form of social media PR.

Following the campaign, key results include:- FT.com has an audience reach of 98.2 million on Twitter (March 2008 – February 2009) and over 10,000 followers on FT feeds- FT.com is now linked to on average 2,500 times each week from blogs.- In 2008, FT.com attracted an average of 7.2m unique users generating 49.2m page views (up 68% on year) - FT.com registered users exceeded 1.2 million in March 2009 after the launch of the new subscription model.- There are over 12,000 users of the free FT Facebook application.

- Global industry wide recognition of the success of the FT.com business model as an example of a publisher able to monetise the web

News pipeline:The PR timeline for 2008 was set with three news peaks used to usher in a new era of innovation from FT.com. Each gained substantial coverage in the media press and across social media communities.1. Establish credibility for new FT.com access model 2. FT.com website redesign 3. Launch of The Long Room, a new FT.com social media site Digital activity:- FT.com was the first UK-based business media organisation to harness Twitter as a news channel - Promoting the launch of the FT Facebook application FT.com conducted outreach to global MBA groups on Facebook to encourage take-up and create viral spread.- FT.com editorial content was monitored daily and hot stories were seeded to influential bloggers to drive industry debate and site traffic- Key bloggers were given roundtable briefings with FT.com’s editor, a news room tour and briefings with FT journalists in Tokyo, London and New York

- FT.com registered users exceeded 1.2 million in March 2009 - FT.com is linked to on average 2,500 times each week from blogs. In August 2008, FT.com blog traffic overtook The Independent for the first time and overtook Times Online in 2009- Audience reach of 98.2 million for FT.com on Twitter (March 2008 – February 2009) - Media and blogger audit confirmed success of changing perceptions of FT.com as a truly digital organisation- “FT.com has led the charge into the new digital media era” - Gareth Jones, Marketing Magazine (now at Revolution) - “FT.com… the epitome of openness and transparency” - Neville Hobson, media blogger- Dimitry Medvedev blog seeding campaign generated over 2,000 articles virally throughout the blogosphere - Over 2,000 students use the FT.com Facebook application.- FT Long Room has attracted 3,000 members since its launch (only approved applicants are allowed membership to the site).