Completing the Internet
http://www.nesn.com/2011/05/nhl-forces-vancouver-green-men-to-stop-touching-glass-doing-handstands-in-effort-to-remove-all-fun-f.html →
NHL playoff time. If you thought football fans were bad, check these guys out…
Twitter isn't very social: study | Econsultancy →
It doesn’t really surprise me that twitter is only used by a small number of people - most of my friends not in the digital industry simply do not get twitter. If I dare mention it in the pub, it had better be about a footballer or eyes will roll. Its seen as a ‘look at me’ medium. And to be honest I tend to agree. How many conversations have you actually had on twitter? I have made passing comments, read a lot, shared a lot, but actually having a conversation? The most interesting points are usually made by celebs or agency’s who are really unlikely to reply to you; they get hundreds of responses. For me twitter is a great news distribution tool. Its great for identifying buzz, fining out hot topics, and finding out what Stephen Fry is having for breakfast. Other than that, it doesn’t have the reach that Facebook does outside of a very niche group of people - namely tech savvy industry/media types and teens.
Sony Ericsson Open gets the Foursquare treatment - Brand Republic News →
Quality little campaign. So simple and means that SOny don’t actually have to do anything - let people check in and battle it out. The winner is automated by foursquare, all that happens then is they have to get in touch and sort out all the security etc, but one lucky person gets to flip the coin for the Miami open final. Let the swarming commence…
Social media campaign diagram « David j Carr | →
Lovely diagram on how to start a social campaign
Does your brand even need a website anymore? →
Short and sweet article that raises some interesting points. From an individual/personal perspective, I think that not having a seperate website/blog would be potentially damaging to your various social networks. People use social networks differently, and each channel has its own particular strength. For example I use twitter completely differently to how I use Facebook because I talk to different groups of friends on each. Its almost like two parts of my persona.
From a business perspective, this is less important because the messaging and ‘persona’ should always be the same on all the different social networks. However it is still important to have a website as the ‘Hub’; social networks will come and go. You’re website is you’re own piece of digital real estate, do not lose it just because Facebook is flavour of the month.
Lacta Chocolate: Facebook Campaigns Example
A wonderful Facebook app by Greek chocolate company Lacta shows how simple ideas are often the best – and also how some ideas can be sourced straight from your own customers.
Lacta noticed there was a growing theme on their Facebook page, a meme where people were comparing their loved ones to Lacta chocolate, using the page wall to get their message across. Lacta caught on to this and created a simple app that allowed people to write their message, create a custom bar of chocolate with their friends name on it, and post it on their wall.
The app went viral, with 135,000 users sending over 30,000 messages in the first week. It also saw their overall page ‘Likes’ jump from 87,000 to 250,000 in 2 months. There was also an unforeseen side effect where users placed their custom named chocolate bars as their profile pictures, helping to spread the app and the Lacta name further.
This simple idea was harnessed quickly and brilliantly by Lacta. They identified a buzz and created something to facilitate it before it died down. The idea was simple: express and share – and the outcome has been a vastly increased audience for Lacta to reach in the future, as well as the untold branding effects the project will have had.
Lacta Page (Facebook) http://www.facebook.com/Lacta?v=app_4949752878
Video(Link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd5pFwmYabI
Wikileaks - Afterthoughts
Now that the hubbub around wikileaks has died down I thought I’d quickly jot down some thoughts on it. The idea behind wikileaks is pretty admirable, a light of truth in a world that is far murkier than anyone with power was willing to admit. Simple name and shame tactics have created huge implications for those involved…although we are probably Never likely to fond out those implications as they will be even more secretly guarded for fear that someone will leak them to wikileaks.
The media, initially focussing on the leaked cables and documents themselves soon showed their true colours and focussed instead on the sensational aspect of the man behind wikileaks and his conveniently timed arrest warrant (nb\ I take allegations of rape hugely seriously, but one cannot deny the convenience of these allegations coming to light as wikileaks became seriously dangerous. It has been known for certain super powerful use smear campaigns and allegations of sexual assault on political enemies, see Castro, Fidel).
The story was less about the global atrocities, moments of madness and secrets being covered and hidden and buried by the powers that be, and more about the man who wanted us to know about them. typical of the British media circus, ‘celebrity’ wins out over actual news every time.
Another interesting point was the idea of transparency. Wikileaks is campaigning for a transparent world where governments and corporations can’t hide these things from us. They were backed by the online collective (ironically) named Anonymous. For me this was the real crux of the story, and how the story and perhaps our world will run into the future. Do we want a world where information of all types is open and free and accessible? Think about it. Do you really want that? It’s fine to think about it at a government level or corporate level, but if we think about it at a personal or individual level it becomes far less appealing and far more disturbing and Orwellian in nature. When does wikileaks run out of leaks from the government and end up just posting personal data on there? Soon that risky picture you took for that special virtual someone could end up on some sort of wikileaks site. Or that pic of you drink you really didn’t want the boss to see.
Obviously this is the extreme, but in a world that wikileaks wants - open, fair, transparent, truthful - privacy would not exist. This is not just something wikileaks wants either, but people like Zuckerberg (I.e. Facebook) also see this as the way things should be.
I think what Assange and wikileaks et al did was a pretty brave, a bold statement and a real step forward for campaigners for truth and transparency, I just feel that we may have started a journey that not everyone will want. A truthful world has all sorts of implications, not all of them necessarily good.
Please feel free to comment, I find this all really interesting and would love to get a debate going.
