04-21-09

Social Media Conspiracy Theory #1

People just want to be recognised online – using any means necessary to get links, followers, respect, love, admiration, fame etc.

Brands just want to sell people stuff online – using any means necessary to get people talking about their stuff and selling more of it.

People and brands do a merry jig with each other working out how they can use each other to get what they want.

People exchange a little bit of their soul in exchange for the opportunity to get a little bit more of whatever they are looking for to make them feel all nice inside.

So brands just need to work out the best exchange rate.

I think I should go to bed now . . .

PS – I’m not saying this applies to everything, is fact and should be taken as any kind of I believe this to be 100% true statement. It’s just a thought.

04-15-09

Examples of ‘Human’

I’ve blogged before about being human, have been mentioning it a lot on Twitter, have a heap of bookmarks saved under ‘human’ on Delicous and use the (beta) strapline for what I do as ‘web participation for human brands and beings. You could say it was something very close to my heart.

So, on a similar vein to my previous post which seemed to go down pretty well, I’d like to share some examples of ‘human’ from over the past few weeks/months that have caught my attention. It’s all those things, big or small, mostly online, that brands (and people!) do that makes the web a more human place. Little reminders of who we are that help us to engage with each other. And make stuff better. More human. And just nicer to interact with. Oh and just plain funny too.

Elliot Kember > Lovely little disclaimer (and awesome twitter-app-disguised-as-a-spreadsheet idea too)

Hype Machine > Disclaimer and general site copy, including the thank-you section

Twitter > Sign telling people where the new office is (Obligatory Twitter mention in a blog post? Complete)

Field Notes > general web site copy, especially the contact us page

“Peace, Love, Unity, Respect” receipt > from somewhere in New York

Starbucks > Sara (no h)

Digg community > Bohemian Rhapsody, in Digg comments!

Forum banter > Forum members have fun with photoshop (not sure this really fits in with the theme but I reckon it’s very funny – click through for the whole thread)

Any more examples? Let me know in the comments or @me. And in the meantime, remember that behind those screens isn’t just a pair of eyeballs . . . we’re all human beings.

03-27-09

Digital meets analogue, online meets offline

As the offline/analogue and online/digital worlds start to blend even more, I thought I’d share some favourite stuff I’ve been tagging over the past few months. I love this stuff and am really excited about the web weaving its way into more and more stuff.

Google Earth meets a 60ft Phallus.

Blogging meets a blackboard and goes fully analogue.

FAIL gets turned into stickers and gets stuck everywhere.

Two years of someone’s tweets get turned into a book.

Hacking hits the car park.

Hashtags enter the real world.

Second Life inspired flying helicopter penis used by griefers to attack Gary Kasparov.

iPhone icons get turned into a coaster set.

DOS directories get turned into cushions.

Tweets get turned into bubbles.

02-03-09

Just be “human” (and be nice)

Think of people you like. What characteristics to they have? I bet they are kind, considerate, funny, sharing, trustworthy, respectful, appreciative, honest, caring, genuine, warm, friendly, approachable etc. They listen to you. They speak to you when you speak to them. They respond to feedback. They don’t shout at you. They respect your time. They aren’t pushy. They arrive on time. They say nice things about you. They are honest with you. You get the idea.

Now think about the people you don’t like. What characteristics do they have. I bet they are stingy, thoughtless, boring, untrustworthy, ungrateful, dishonest, fake, cold, unapproachable etc. They don’t listen to you. They talk over you or interrupt you. They have their own agenda. They don’t always respond to you. They shout at you. They ram things down your throat. They are late for stuff. They say nasty things about you behind your back. They don’t always tell you the truth. Again you get the idea.

So, what I’m trying to say is that this whole social media thing is simple. Just be human. Brands need to behave exactly the same way as real human beings. In fact, what are brands anyway? They are things created by human beings. Companies are collections of human beings. The walls of companies are being pulled down by social media. Quite literally, people are emerging from the shadows of companies and creating our perception of companies and brands, rather than their marketing.

To me, Rax is Splendid. James is Spinvox. JP is O2. Mike is Techcrunch. Will is NixonMcinnes. Wadds is Rainier. Steve is 3W. Iain is Poke. Again, you get the idea.

So, be a decent human being. Be all the things that people like about the people they like. And if you look deep into yourself (as a brand, a company or as a person) and don’t like what you see, then change it. Social media is an amplifier. All the bad stuff gets worse. All the good stuff gets better.

James is onto this. As are other people. It’s not something new. It’s not something that clever, or complicated. The hard part is when you do look inwards and find some of those nasty characteristics are a lot closer to home than they should be.

And that’s it – my thought for today. Just be human. And if you can’t be a decent one, you need to change – as in a world where technology adoption is growing at an ever-increasing rate, it’s becoming even more important.

Photo from a great collection of slides from Will Lion

Top image from Jared Donovan

Update – some people (quite rightly so) have likened this to Jimbob’s “Be Nice” post. One that I most definitely read at the time and agreed with – I even left ‘be human’ in the comments. So, as a nice person would, I just wanted to make sure that you guys know that and in honour of that have amended the title. Jimbob is a top bloke, a genuinely nice human being!

As is Faris, who also thinks we should be nice. And admits too to probably stealing the idea off Jimbob . . . .

01-27-09

50 people, one question

I’ve been busy again and as a result the blog has taken a back seat again, but I’m trying desperately not to worry about it and just do what comes naturally. Indeed, I’m spending most of my time on Twitter and feeding delicious – so am very much still active online, I just haven’t taken the time out to post. Like a lot of people recently I think.

Also – I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about stuff. What I want to be doing this year, where I’m taking my work, which of the growing number of personal projects I’m going to focus on and make happen. Who I’d like to be working with. What it’s going to be like being a dad. That sort of thing. And in the meantime, I’ve been cracking on with a number of great things.

Bobbie just shared this and it was enough of a motivator to share. It just struck a chord with me. All very human – a word and a theme that you’re going to here a lot about from me this year.

Fifty People, One Question: London from Crush + Lovely on Vimeo.

Fifty People, One Question: Brooklyn from Crush + Lovely on Vimeo.

Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush + Lovely on Vimeo.

01-06-09

It’s all about the data

Hello and Happy New Year. I am now back online after a nice refreshing break from the interwebz. Well almost, kind of in an iPhone kind of way. Anyway, like everyone else, I have a gazillion of things that I’d love to do this year, lots of thoughts on what might be in store for us netizens, loads of ideas about the future of the web and how it’s all about being human, lots of questions to ask and people to talk to.

But for the time being, whilst I play catch up and get my head back into everything after playing way too much Guitar Hero and spending too much money on geeky stuff, here’s a simply awesome data visualisation of a year’s worth of edits on OpenStreetMap.org.

OSM 2008: A Year of Edits from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

Data is the future. Of advertising, of the web, of everything. (Yes, I watched the Kevin Kelly 5000 days TED talk again recently!)

12-16-08

Bush shoe throwing hijacks

UPDATE: the meme has gone really big, as kind of expected. Sock and Awe has had over 46 million shoes thrown too . . .

After watching the news report of a journalist throwing his shoes at George Bush this morning, I waited for the inevitable response from the web. Usually it’s from individuals able to move quicker and smarter than your average brand which most likely wouldn’t be up for doing anything Bush related and therefore politcal/risky in the first place or would just take days if not weeks to sign something off. However, today I’ve seen three Bush/Shoe related things pop up in my Twitter stream from PopJam, Lewis PR and Zappos.

First up we have my favourite and by far the best – Sock and Awe from PopJam founder Alew Tew (he of milliondollarhomepage fame).

This feels completely right, has an awesome name/domain and does a nice job of subtly bringing in a link back to Popjam and a fairly discreet email entry box.

Nicely done. I certainly had a few goes and signed up for more info on PopJam. Job done.

Secondly, we have the Bash a Bush ‘viral’ from Lewis PR.

To be honest, the fact it was referred to as a viral in the URL string automatically put me off it. It’s digital content that is hoped to go viral, blah blah blah . . . Anyway, having got over the ‘viral’ thing the gameplay is itself pretty straightforward and pretty slickly done, as much as can be for a tried and tested (and therefore more tired ) basic ‘bash the rat’ type of format. But, again – at least they did it and moved petty quickly.

Finally, we have a video from the guys at Zappos. Very quickly turned around, but all in all not that funny or posted on their blog. Still, top marks for trying and having the balls to just put it out. Oh and for tagging it with Bush, Irag etc !

So, yet again another reminder that brands (and agencies) need to move at lightning speed these days in order to ride on the waves of excitement that follow an event like a journalist throwing a shoe at George Bush, a BNP list going astray or something else that’s just around the corner. And – that competition really is fierce for people’s attention. You’re quite literally up against the world.

More here and here.

12-04-08

Meme Non-Response Guilt (MNRG)

I’m feeling guilty because I haven’t taken part in a meme thingy that Ged started – listing out the top not-very-technical things that every PR person should know. Then the other Jed has retagged me and reminded me in his follow up – expanding the list out to 50 things! Oh and in the meantime, Becky has delivered the goods too and I feel bad, but OK for the time being because Jonny, Stephen, Paul, Stuart and Wadds are yet to get involved.

There’s some really good thinking here that I reckon could be repurposed into a more use friendly format and used for lots of things. A bit of a cop-out maybe, but how about a wiki? That feels more suited to the task at hand which is essentially creating a big list of useful stuff. And then by taking part you’ve already ticked off ‘editing a wiki’ too.

11-14-08

Cats or Dogs: Which is the most popular on the web?

After Jemima Kiss pointed us in the direction of some live puppies yesterday, so began a quick conversation about cats and dogs and their respective popularity on the web.

Bobbie Johnson quickly stepped in proclaiming that cats are for nerds and making sure we’d seen i has a HOTDOG and FailDogs. Robin reminded us of Upside Down Dogs too and Jimbob was quick to defend the dog faith and come up with a cunning theory that somehow Cats = Mac and Dogs = PC, after my claim that there was a direct correlation between a love of cats and a love of technology.

Katy even went on to question the relative ‘social media worth’ of other animals like parrots and Iguanas, then Grant threw a random one in the mix reminding us of Oolong the rabbit – a former internet phenomenon that’s now in a heaven-like hutch looking down on all this nonsense.

Anyway, I suggested that the ultimate Cats V Dogs Web-Off should take place to settle this once and for all and have spent a bit of downtime this evening listening to this rather good Kitsune mix (Nice one Phil) and deploying some crude research tactics to get the ball rolling – What’s the most popular on the web? Dogs or Cats?

Well in all honesty I thought cats would win it hands down, given the HUGE popularity of things like LOLcats, ICHC, StuffOnMyCat etc. But I was wrong. After checking Google, Flickr, Twitter, Delicious and Technorati – it looks like in terms of sheer volume of mentions – the dogs have it with 6 to 1 wins.

Or do they? Every time dogs seem to beat cats, apart from when you get to the ultimate test of all – pure unfiltered Google results. As this is surely a measure of the whole web and everything on it (sort of) – I’m declaring cats as being the winners. Not that I’m *cough* biased or anything.

Here are the results, blow by blow.

(Oh and today there’s even been some anti-cat propaganda being floated around the web, in a bid to skew the real results)

Google Trends (Search Volume, all years): Dogs 1 : Cats 0

Twitter (Twist, last 30 days): Dogs 2: Cats 0

Technorati (Any authority, all mentions): Dogs 3 : Cats 0

Flickr Results (Keyword search): Dogs 4 : Cats 0

YouTube Results (Keyword search): Dogs 5 : Cats 0

Delicious Results (Tag search): Dogs 6 : Cats 0

Google Results (Total hits): Dogs 6 : Cats 1

10-22-08

“My Goodness. This is insane!”

Said Ste on Twitter just now. So I had to take a look. And there is was, a creative agency called lisapmaxwell using its website as a ‘live case study in viral marketing’. Insane it may well be right now, but in the very near future I think it will be the norm to be able to video chat with anyone anywhere. It will be expected.

PS – I didn’t notice the request for a name first on starting a chat window, hence I’m called ‘yo dude’!

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