Tribute to Blake Edwards

Sad day for me today with the news my cinematic directing idol, Blake Edwards, has passed away. Many of his films have shaped my appreciation and interest in producing comedic visual content, and although a blog entry does not amount to much, I just wanted to share my sense of loss.

On the social media side, I'll be interested to see if digital sales in some of his films receive a spike from this news (much like Michael Jackson's catalogue soared to popularity again following his equally tragic death earlier this year). I think they will.

If you want to help my prediction out I recommend you all grab a copy of Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961), The Great Race (1965) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975)

.

Quantity Vs Quality in the Micro-blogging-sphere

I was recently down in Melbourne giving a keynote on the future of social media for Open Connections. In the much-anticipated networking drinks I was asked a question I've heard several times before - "How do I get more followers on Twitter?"

This type of thinking usually shows a misunderstanding as to what Twitter is all about, but there are two solutions to this simple problem:

1) Pay for them.

2) Talk to them.

There are plenty of services out there that will spill 1000's of followers onto your account for a fee. Why anyone would want to do this is beyond me, unless your customers are lifeless server racks somewhere off the coast of Sri Lanka.

Twitter is a tool for connection and conversation. And conversation is part talking, part listening. Spam is not a form of communication, so don't treat Twitter like a soapbox for shouting. Find the niche your brand already fits into, listen in to the conversations taking place, then start offering unique, useful and genuine solutions/comments/ideas. This is no place to force-feed the company line, which is why many brands feel hesitant to engage with customers on Twitter.

You want quality followers, not a mass quantity of followers. It's better to have one follower who might buy your products than a million followers who never will.

Today, this "Quantity Vs Quality" concept has been rewritten for the social media landscape as "Popularity Vs Influence". Where you stand in regards to influencing people's opinions and habits is much more powerful than how many people you're connected to. Being a key influencer is really the goal of every social media manager in any organisation.

So if you're worried you're not performing on Twitter due to a lack of followers, do not be disheartened. So long as you've built a following through engaging and responsive conversation with customers you're in a far more influential space than those who have paid for pointless popularity.

Weather Stations Vs Swarm Intelligence

It happens every weekend for me. I wake up, check the weather on my phone, dress appropriately, then find myself sweating or freezing to death outside when the real weather is often the complete opposite of the cute icons on my online weather service.

It always perplexes me how we can spend billions of dollars on satellites, weather stations, pressure sensors, tide monitors and weather balloons only to be so completely off the mark day-in, day-out.

Last weekend I was at Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach. The weather had been sunny, but was about to storm. I checked my phone to get some indication of how much sunshine I had left, but neither Yahoo, Weatherzone or the official government Bureau of Meterology had any reference to a storm occurring...

A panicked thought went through me: Could the internet be wrong?

Suddenly I had a thought:

If we got everyone on the beach to guess the temperature, and guess what the weather would do based on their own experiences, would we get a more truthful result than empirical scientific apparatus and algorithms?

Tie this in with a service that is geo-location specific, maybe current photos of the skyline, opinions and polls, and perhaps we use our collective, non-specialist predictions to provide a better weather service to humanity?

It would be both a beautiful experiment and a wonderful idea.

Salad With Ren & Stimpy

I achieved a boyish brush with fame today when I was able to visit Jim Ballantine at his Sydney-based Flying Bark studios.

For those of you wondering what I'm talking about, this is the guy who made Ren and Stimpy a reality and changed the course of my tweenage years (not to mention my definition of what "funny" is).

As we sat over salads and sparkling water I was interested to hear Jim speak of the early days of Ren and Stimpy, when the network only had six episodes. These episodes would be repeated on rotation for 18 months. Each week, more and more people began watching the show and the network finally twigged that more content was needed.

This was back in the early 90's, which although is nearly 20 years ago now is essentially an analogue version of how YouTube success can be created. I saw many similarities between this and the Beached Az content I've been involved in over at The Handsomity Institute.

Jim was quick to point out the cruel impact of the digital social world on this method of building an audience; "I don't think this model would work now," Jim says.

Nonetheless I am always captivated when my eyes are opened up to moments that show me online content isn't the new and scary territory many paint it out to be. It is merely an extension of what we've been doing since not only 20 years ago, but since the birth of communication itself...

Telling stories.

Bring On Micropayments

For a while I've been frustrated at how hard it is to sdhare money around the web. Those of you who have endured one of my "light-on-the-facts-high-on-the-fizz" keynotes will know one of my visions for the future of the web is a payment system that allows us to share our money as easily as we currently share photos, text and video.

Sadly, that day isn't here yet, and we're still at the mercy of clumsy credit card systems, iTunes gated spaces and the profit-destroying PayPal options.

However, I was interested in the recent move by Facebook to sell Facebook Credits at Walmart and Target in the USA.

The current targeting of social gamers is validation of the power and growth of that area of online networking. If Facebook are exploring the territory aggressively, you know there must be some value to be found.

What I like most about this move by Facebook is that it has the potential to be applied across multiple platforms and perhaps become the web currency that we've been waiting for. Facebook has a quorum of users to give the scheme momentum, as well as an established marketplace and quite liberal anti-protectionist positioning. This small step of using Facebook Credits in the social gaming sphere with hopefully be used as a test case to iron out problems and collect consumer feedback.

I'm hoping in the coming months Facebook Credits will become a monetary extension of Facebook Connect, allowing anyone and everyone across the net to embed payment systems on their blogs, apps, websites, forums and pages. This will certainly spell out the beginning of a financial revolution as an online economy is born and raising revenue is a simpler task without being at the mercy of closed shops or expensive alternatives.

Bringing Advertising To Social Gaming

In the late 1800's, Jules Verne was approached by shipping operators to include references of their companies in his 1874 classic Around the World In Eighty Days. With these simple requests the age of product placement was born, and is a tool that still permeates our cinema, television, sporting and radio experiences.

136 years later, the new battlefield for brands is in the social media spaces, and no area is more ready to pop than social gaming.

In a report from Nielson analysing online habits of Americans between July 2009 and June 2010, it was shown that social gaming had surpassed personal email as the second most popular activity on the web (over 56 million Americans play online social games).

This (no doubt) will come as a shock to a lot of brands and businesses that still think the world of gaming is restricted to a youth/teen market. The ubiquitous assimilation of smartphones and social networking has presented society with a way to connect beyond the realm of status updates and political-career-ending party photos.

Our leisure time is now under assault from advertisers keen to find new markets and engage consumers in unique and interesting ways.

I think it's important to note here that brands must be willing to bend their brand image to suit the narrative of the social games they seek to interact with. Much like putting a video on YouTube and expecting it to go "viral" is a fallacy, expecting to stick your brand name in any social game will also miss the mark. Being creative in integration is just as important as being integrated when it comes to social gaming.

Personal case study: I always remember playing GoldenEye 64 in the late 1990's, and one of the tasks for me (AKA James Bond) was to recover a top secret video recording from a Russian bunker. When I discovered that recording was actually a VHS of the GoldenEye movie (complete with cover art) I literally got a little excited. I can only thank the lord in-app purchasing wasn't available in those days or I would have spent a lot of money.

So how can we integrate? How can brands get on board this social gaming wagon?

Currently the social gaming experience is dominated by brands and businesses offering retail goods, subscription services, surveys and branded videos. Engaging with these businesses online usually results in some form of virtual credit or currency.

Personally I like the idea of branded goods within the game as an easy first-step for brands. I find it has wider scope for creativity than the Hit Wall and less costly than building your own branded game. Have a look around the online space at some of the more popular games out there, and think about what virtual rewards or goods you might be able to offer players (read: "your consumers").

As always, think outside the box and keep it creative/radical. We play games to escape reality, so don't try and drag what you do in other media campaigns back through the digital door unchanged and expect results.

Photography From Radical Love's Anthony MacFarlane

I thought the social media world should be aware that the talents of Anthony MacFarlane are not limited to his handsome good looks nor his boyish charm.

It turns out the man takes a mean still image to compliment his broad talents in the realm of motion pictures.

For those that don't subscribe to his weekly blog updates over at rival blog community web.me.com I'm going to try and convince the man that art has a place in this space, and get him to post some of his finest here.

To start things moving I've chosen one of my favourites above, entitled "Madonna". This is possibly because of the very American legs on display, or possibly it was the soundtrack to the photoshoot...

Or maybe there's a religious element to all this I'm missing.

Either way, Macca himself says:

This is a composition of sea water taken at Bronte pool and a rough sandstone wall in the back of Waverley. The angles of the legs were to replicate the lines in the stonework.

Just awesome.

Virgin Blue Social Media Content

Big thanks to all the good eggs at Virgin Blue (especially Sir Richard Branson and John Borghetti) for letting us run a-muck in Melbourne during your 10th Birthday Celebration.

It was "unique" to spend four consecutive days within 50m of an airport, and unless we have our own volcanic action in the coming years, an event unlikely to be repeated in the history of my life.

Great people. Great times. Thanks!

Politics & Social Media? Boring? Wait For 2030!

And so finally today Australia has a government (according to my Twitter feed anyways)! After a long election campaign that bored half the nation to sleep, followed by secret talks that scraped in on the lowest rung of news-worthiness, we can now get on with tweeting and posting disgruntled comments about our newly-appointed representatives.

Looking back over the 2010 election there seemed to be a dissatisfied taste in a lot of people's (read: "nerd's") mouths about the limited application of social media in this campaign. The Gillard/Abbott camps seemed to apply social media as an afterthought, without any real sense of influence or excitement about the medium.

It seems politicians are yet to wake up to the digital tools they have at their disposal...

But that's about to change.

Last month when I was speaking in Melbourne at XMediaLab we began discussing convergence in social media, and what the landscape might look like in 2030. Wonderful technologies like facial recognition, predictive search, video tagging and geo-location tracking were all bandied about in a beautiful dream-like conversation. The future seemed so exciting and transparent with all forms of history on a global and hyper-local level at our fingertips.

But transparency and history are the enemy of politicians, who week after week are forced to resign as uncovered truths from the past or present are splashed across ever-widening social networks at ever increasing speeds.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt even came out last month and said:

"perhaps people should change their names upon reaching adulthood to eradicate the potentially reputation-damaging search records Google keeps"

Interesting tactic, but I think it is a realistic vision of the future.

In the election race of 2030, all the teenagers and twenty-somethings blindly posting and passing on their personal history will be around 40-50 years old - prime politician age! And oh how that will come back to haunt them. Any photo you're in (from any point in history) will be automatically tagged by powerful facial recognition software. Even if your face is in a mask, in the shadows, side-on, you're not safe from the computing power of 2030 (which will be on average 64 times faster than 2010). It will analyse a database of locations that match the interior of the room and give the image or video a location. We can then search the corners of the web for blogs, posts, comments or any byte of information that connects to that time and place, and suddenly the world can be pieced together through the countless insignificant comments of a generation.

Essentially the vast pile of decades of tagged social media will provide the public with the drama it has sought in its election campaigns. A Stephanie Rice-esque tweet that may have gone unnoticed in 2010 will be there for all to see and judge when it's scooped up by smarter, more accurate search engines of the future.

The internet never forgets, and the hazy parts of its memory will only be focused and clarified as time and technology march on. This is certain to revolutionise our expectations of political figures, as well as provide some much-needed scandal and drama for the voting public in the years ahead.

Nano App Store?

With the release of the new touchscreen iPod Nano last week, it got me thinking if Apple has its sights on another app store (to compliment the iPad/iPhone stores) with Nano-specific apps?

It would make sense, given that the screen and shape are specific to the Nano, and the sort of apps would probably be more fitness-orientated than the bigger Apple products.

Apple has it in their interests to expand the reach of the app store as far as possible to capture more developer interests and to ensure no corner of the music market isn't left open to penetration by small companies.

I was interested to read the Nano doesn't run iOS, preferring a lighter, more simplified version of the multi-touch software specific for the device. I'll be interested to see how developers respond to this.

It's an interesting time for Apple as the competition begins to catch up on some of their flagship products. The need for innovation has never been greater, but I think this is a smart move by the company to expand their market for touch products, potentially opening up a new market for Nano-specific apps and solidifying their dominance in the music player market.

Old Spice - Funny & Smart

What a great week for social media! A real red-letter week that has changed the shape (and hopefully standard) of the social media landscape forever.

For those who chose to spend last week in Outback Chad, I'm talking about my good friends at Wieden + Kennedy and the success of their "Old Spice" campaign.

As Creative Director Iain Tait said:

We just brought a character to life using the social channels we all use every day. But we’ve also taken a loved character and created new episodic content in real time.

This amazing holistic media campaign shows that creating characters that people like, then providing opportunities for them to be immersed in their world is the way forward.

The power of the idea is still king. It's something we build our whole business on here at Radical Love, and it's wonderful to see it validated (even if it is by the competition) in well-thought, well-executed campaigns like this.

And that's what I think is so amazing about Old Spice. It's a fresh idea that doesn't play to the normal (and popular) social media stereotypes. There's no shocking moment to hook people in. There's no reference to old faithful memes like Starwars Kid or Tron Guy. This is a beautiful union of well-written, well-produced content that connected with people for its honesty, reality and transparency.

So well done Old Spice... and please know the certain influx of cheap ripoff campaigns won't spoil this wonderful moment in cyber-history.

Social Media - A Definition

One of the questions I get asked constantly when meeting with clients for the first time is for a concise definition of what exactly "social media" is, especially in the context of a marketing tool. Most people I bounce this question off at conferences or workshops fumble around between the academic "democritisation of information" and the schoolyard "Twitter and shit".

Personally, it's a question I'm still looking for answers on.

One of the better answers I've heard comes from a keynote given earlier this year by Shiv Singh, VP of Razorfish. He took self-described "social ecologist" Peter Drucker's classic business definition of "The purpose of a business is to create customers" and gave it a social media slant:

The purpose of a business is to create customers who create customers.

I really like the simple and effective imagery this quote gives to the purpose of social media from a brand or business standpoint. Although possibly over-simplistic from a business theory angle, the sentiment is right.

Thinking about it further, and in my deep desire to achieve a perfect definition on this, I think I've stumbled upon a new definition for business in the Information/Attention Age:

The purpose of a business is to create a community.

Brands can no longer look to satisfy or please the individual, and can no longer present themselves as a single, unified voice. Connecting with customers today involves being transparent and open to the people you're selling to and letting the consumer dictate the brand image.

To the old folk entrenched in the Old Media world it's a scary proposition, where brands were the core to which communities flocked. The future is the inverse, where brands must come to communities and earn their trust, respect, loyalty and advocacy through unique and engaging concepts.

In summary - it's an exciting time to be a consumer.

Goverment 2.0

It's always baffled me why governments and government agencies, the institutions that are meant to lead us and guide us, are always so far behind the curve when it comes to implementing social technology. Now, I'm not going to try and push any political agenda with this article, but I suppose I should just point out I'm usually surprised and scared of any person in a public political office that doesn't understand Twitter, Facebook, or blogging.

The thing that stops me tweeting my lament into despair at this point is that it's clear our governments want to embrace social media, they just need some guidance from the people below.

I was overjoyed a few months ago to hear the NSW Government had begun an initiative to push towards what American policy makers would call "Open Government" - creating a digital environment that is characterised by transparency, citizen participation, and collaboration.

A wonderful example of this is the State of Delaware (check out their website HERE). Their transition from treating government websites as a policy-preaching soapbox and converting it into a digital round table for conversation is a positive step in the right direction. Facebook, Twitter, RSS, YouTube... all the big players are there, ready to be consumed, shared and conversed about.

For me, this is the role of government embodied in a digital space and has implications and applications that are tangible, imminent, and indicate a paradigm shift for the way our local, state, and federal governments can connect with their voters using the internet.

The speed and spread of information possible today is invaluable to governments and residents alike. Beyond gimmick benefits like alerts on your mobile for when the Premier is in your suburb or an email when new health announcements are made, the power of clear and communal comment/feedback loops on government policy can only allow for better decision making and a more informed and engaged voting public.

One Small Film For A Man. One Giant Leap For Crowdsourcing.

The good people down at YouTube are on the road of pioneering social media once again, this time with a vision to make a complete UGC feature film.

The company has pulled in the big guns of Ridley Scott and Kevin MacDonald to turn the humble day of July 24th into the most visually documented day in the history of humanity. The project, titled Life In The Day, will premiere at Sundance next year and stream simultaneously on YouTube.

"I hope it will be something that will open people's eyes to the possibilities of user-generated film," Macdonald said. "Of course, it's a risk. It could be that I won't get anything interesting back. But I don't think that will be the case. I'm sure there will be some real gems, some real magic, which is what I'm looking for."

I think this is an interesting moment in the evolution of social media as the professional pantheon of Hollywood opens its doors to the idea that quality content can come from the untrained, unskilled everyday person. It's certainly a form of affirmation that the barriers to entry for filmmakers are nearly all but gone. To think you can get a credit on a Sundance-premiering Kevin MacDonald film for simply filming your morning breakfast is a concept inconceivable only five years ago.

The power of the social marketplace is starting to rumble the foundations of the big media players, and it's wonderful to see some people embracing the movement rather than fighting it in courtrooms.

Keynote at Sydney Film Festival

A quick thank you to all the kind folk at the Sydney Film Festival and Screen Australia for inviting me to speak at their recent Industry Conference Day in Sydney.

It was great to be part of a line up including the legendary Thomas Mai and his wonderful insights into the future of film distribution. The need for connectivity and ease of sharing that Thomas spoke about certainly resonated with my own experiences and I was humbled to hear his opinions on crowd-sourcing, database development and hyper-distribution.

On top of his clearly well thought strategies, he is also a disturbingly nice guy.

Also thanks to Alex Fleetwood whom I had an engaging conversation with about the technological cultures of Australia versus the UK (and who inspired me to spend $20 on a Sherlock Holmes DVD).

So thanks to all and I look forward to many more presentations on social media in the coming months.

Licensing Songs For YouTube

It's been the curse of every guerrilla filmmaker with ambitions of social stardom on YouTube - making a kick-ass video only to have the soundtrack ripped from its infant heart by the all-hearing cyber watchdog that monitors the site for copyright infringement. What's left is a modern throwback to silent movies and a certainty viewership won't peak beyond your mum and immediate friends.

For a while there's been talk of building a financial model into YouTube that allows filmmakers access to popular music whilst also remunerating artist for their performances and recordings. It made some bold steps with the introduction of "Click-To-Buy" last year that directs viewers to iTunes or Amazon instead of enforcing strict censorship of the sound. It also had a major victory last week against Viacom which paves the way for a more liberal application of copyright law.

With this in mind there's great news coming out of Portland that a company called Friendly Music will begin allowing filmmakers the opportunity to buy music rights for as little as $3 for movies on YouTube. The license is for non-commercial use, but I think it's an amazing step forward in removing the ambiguity that filmmakers face between "fair use" and "criminal" when it comes to online distribution.

Hopefully the format will take off and provide an additional revenue stream for artists whilst helping to lift the quality of the content posted to YouTube.

Well, in theory anyway. (I'm sure there's still many more "Funny Cat Playing Piano" videos to come).

Check out Friendly Music HERE.

Beached Az App Number One

Just a little bit of self-promotion to say our Beached Az app for iPod/iPad/iPhone came in at #1 on the App Store for entertainment programs.

Macca and I nearly killed ourselves with the hours of design work, wire-frame models, and game-testing that went down to make the app work. It's been extremely rewarding to see it outshine the thousands of other apps and make the front page of iTunes as well as Top 5 in a few categories on the App Store.

So this is just a thank you message to all the fans for downloading the app and giving such great feedback.

The Art of Social Media Competitions

So you want to tether your brand to the social media landscape. You want to engage the millions of people that access and interact through social media every hour with your message. You want the metrics to reflect an infiltrating, low-cost campaign.

But what to do?

The art of social media competitions posses the same headaches for brands and businesses as it did in the pre-digital age. The advent of consumer technologies means film competitions are no longer limited to art school graduates and offspring of "old money" (heck, I can shoot, edit and post HD video on my mobile phone these days). Digital photography is now an everyday activity whilst every second primary school student is a radio broadcaster (read: "podcaster") or newspaper columnist (read: "blogger").

So... What to do?

It all starts with knowing your marketing goals. Any competition needs a clear and measurable marketing objective to guide the social media strategy underneath it. These goals need not be overly specific (raising awareness, driving traffic to company social media sites, collecting customer interest and buying habits, building new customer relationships) but they do need to set the end game objective and justify using a competition as the driving force to achieve it.

From here you can outline your competition objective, which is the most important (and most creatively fun) part. What is the competition? What do people have to do to be a part of it? And what are they rewarded with for engaging?

There are some classic competition structures that are tried and true:

• Make a new commercial for our brand.
• Make a short film about your experiences with our brand.
• Make a print campaign based on our brand.
• Write your favourite experience in 50 words.
• Invent something new for us and be rewarded.

The trick in all these approaches is treading the line between creative freedom and creative challenge. The technical bar must be low enough so that everyone can jump over it, but in the interest of not attracting rubbish you need a level of quality assurance that attracts talented and creative people. It's why Tropfest charges $50 for each entry... You need to be invested in your idea!

Once you have a clear understanding (or brief) for your public netizens, it's time to sppread the word and bring in the crowd. Cross-platform promotion is the best way to go in my opinion as no single platform on the web or in the media can give you the reach achievable from a well-thought social media strategy. Connecting through Facebook and Twitter is great, but you need to drive interest and get people engaging in your competition by seeding and searching for the communities that are most likely to fit your original marketing objective. Couple this to other email, print, mass media and in-store promotional tools to ensure your distribution and awareness is maximised.

If you're going to host the page yourself, ensure the site is easy to share. Embed tools like Facebook Connect, RSS, Twitter feeds, etc, to make it as easy as possible for a community to grow. These channels of communication are also great for informing your entrants where to go, what to do, how much time is left, and other updates/promotions throughout the contest.

It's also crucial to give the competition a timeframe and stick to it. Extensions to the deadline are usually an indicator of poor integration with social networks or your target market, and also is annoying/offensive to those loyal fans that played by the rules.

Stick to your competition dates, and keep engaging your community even whilst judging. Keep the suspense and give participants a reason to keep spreading your brand. Ensure you announce winners clearly and boldly. Make a song and dance about them to ensure a sense of reward. Everyone loves grabbing a few minutes of fame, so ensure winner announcements are also easily passed onto grandparents and loved ones.

Always, ALWAYS, offer the opportunity to sign up to a newsletter. Databases are the future!

Finally, the all-important measuring and evaluation. Consult your metrics and compare them to your objectives from the start. Check the tangibles like sales, web-traffic, Facebook likes, twitter followers, subscriptions, blog mentions, etc and assess what could be done better, lessons learned and any other observations for next time.

Like anything drawing on human interaction, there is an art-form to doing it right and getting ideal results. Starting with a strong and clear marketing objective should guide your actions all the way through. Be open and engaging with your community and you can't go wrong.

Are Smartphones Making Us Dumber?

In January Vint Cerf (AKA "The Father Of The Internet") answered some questions from the Californian folk who watched his keynote.

One of the questions raised (and the mantra of most tech un-savvy parents) is the idea that "Smartphones and the internet are actually making people dumber". It's a compelling argument that having a 3 billion page encyclopedia at our fingertips means we no longer have to store any facts in our head, and subsequently, pub trivia is now a dying experience.

(That said, if hard drive space has taught us anything these last ten years, it's that we can always fill empty space with something).

Vint's answer was the need to teach more critical thinking, and on this point I think we all agree. People who blindly follow Google Map directions onto footpath-free expressways or charge into the wilderness with an iPhone for navigation are the horror stories of the information age (THIS is what I'm talking about).

If the spamming culture of social media has taught us anything it's that critical thinking is a prerequisite to avoid failing Natural Selection 101. We will always have people who like the easy path of being told what to do. All the rest of us can do is highlight these mistakes to enlighten those people about to repeat them, and to also provide a good giggle for those who put critical thinking in the realm of "common sense".

I think the generations of the future will be aware, even more so than those today, that it doesn't matter if you have every answer at your fingertips, you still need to be able to ask the right questions.

You can see an extract of the Vint Cerf's presentation HERE or find the whole interview at www.fora.tv.

What Makes A "Social Media Expert"?

Interesting article in today's SMH on the topic of Social Media Experts (Read it HERE).

As brands and businesses start to see the amazing power of social media (or more correctly, "social markets") the role for a Social Media expert to slip in between HR and Accounting seems like a likely future for companies keen to please their shareholders who probably engage in social media daily. Having a dedicated social media department might become th competitive advantage some businesses need to get an edge over the competition.

But how do you find a social media expert? What is it that gives someone the right to hold that title?

With Facebook taking over Google last month as the most visited site on the internet, it's clear "social media" is the new "search"... And companies need only glance at Googles market value to see how important it is to be a player in the social media game.

Personally I think understanding that social media is essentially a new way of delivering mass media through conversations and communities (that subtle difference between "telling" and "talking"). It's about tapping into people's wants and engaging with not only current consumers, but the people around consumers. Essentially (from a business perspective) it's about fostering a desire to re-communicate a core message amongst people and businesses that matter to you.

Ian Lurie at Conversation Marketing outlines some great questions (and comedic reactions) CEO's should ask any potential "expert" in social media to find out if they're worthy of the title (read that article HERE).

For me, I think trying to couple the term "expert" to a field of knowledge that is in such a constant state of evolution, development and expansion seems futile. Anyone with experience in social media is free to advise on their experiences, but if there's ever an expert way to analyse, strategise and implement social media campaigns then we can be sure the human race is dead and the world is being run by robots.

New Radical Love Clip

Here's the latest clip I directed and produced with the absurdly talented Anthony MacFarlane. Currently in the seeding phase we'll wait and see how far this clip can go.

Also, if you pay close attention, you might just see some familiar faces waiting for the bus :)

Check it out:

Ernest Ellis - 'Want For Anything' from Radical Love/Dew Process on Vimeo.

Expressing Loyalty In The Online Community

I read an interesting article at YouAreNotSoSmart.com last month and have been meaning to share it's insights for a few weeks now. It attempts to dissect the behaviour of online communities, forums and blogs to become so heated and aggressive in their opinions in digital conversation. We see lines being drawn constantly between Brand Lovers ("fanboys") and Brand Haters ("hostages") on the digital battlefield of web forums, comments pages and status updates.

David McRaney offers an interesting insight into the psychological aspect of fanboyism:

The Misconception: You prefer the things we own over the things we don’t because we made rational choices when we bought them.

The Truth: You prefer the things you own because you rationalize your past choices to protect your sense of self.

I find it an interesting argument for why people become so anonymously aggressive in the world of digital debate. To imply we respond (in any way) to a comment about a brand to defend our most private sense of self is powerfully intriguing...

It's the reason why Apple would rather show us the people who use their computers (I'm a Mac!) rather than the (rational/empirical) features of their computers. It's the same with McDonald's, who not longer tell you what's on their burgers, but rather show the people that find solitude and satisfaction by consuming their burgers. It doesn't matter if they're healthier or cheaper or faster, it's the lifestyle and image they're trying to push (even if it is more artificial than their flavourings).

At the end of the day, when making decisions, it's just easier to go with emotions than rational thought. There's too much to consider if we try and rationalise everything. Emotions are far more efficient at convincing us we've done the right thing, made the right choice, and bought the right product. "Gut instinct", that most primitive of concepts and enemy of the rationalist, still serves society with more impression that any of us would admit to.

Anything you own by choice, like it or not, you are consciously a slave to defend. Brands are the colours that signify which army you aline with in this fertile digital war of words. By protecting brands we are protecting ourselves... Loyalty doesn't get much better than that!

Read the full article HERE.

Shameless Thanks

Thanks to everyone that voted for me in the 2010 Cleo Bachelor Of The Year Awards.

Your tireless clicking, tweeting and posting helped project me into third place behind two of TV's hottest names.

This really shows the power of an online community where one can bring people together and focus them on a common goal... even if it is self-promoting!

Thanks to everyone, especially the other guys in the competition who were some of the coolest gents I've ever had an ale with.

Check out the article (and awkward video of me accepting my award) here.

The Crossroad of 3D Cinema

I read an interesting article in US magazine Variety today about the current (and future) state of 3D cinema in the eyes of DreamWorks CEO Jeff Katzenberg.

It comes as a warning to Hollywood deafened and dazzled by the sound of cash registers for anything with "3D" slapped to the title, and Katzenberg makes little disguise of his disappointment at some recent 3D efforts (namely the widely panned Clash of the Titans).

From the article:

I think we are at a genuine crossroads. Today, 3D in theaters offers probably the greatest innovation and opportunity for movie makers, studios, exhibitors and, most importantly, the consumers, of anything that's come along in several decades.

I think people have really misunderstood what my anxieties have been about in these last few weeks. We had the largest 3D release platform for "Dragons" than any movie today. It's not been about losing 3D screens for "Dragons."

So the issue of "Clash of the Titans" is actually not about theater (capacity) and theater access, it is about (what) that movie represents -- a different experience. And in my opinion, one that, if replicated, and becomes the standard, is the end of 3D.

We've seen the highest end of (3D) in "Avatar" and you have now witnessed the lowest end of it (in "Titans"). You cannot do anything that is of a lower grade and a lower quality than what has just been done on "Clash of the Titans." It literally is "OK, congratulations! You just snookered the movie audience."

The act of doing it was disingenuous. We may get away with it a few times but in the long run, (moviegoers) will wake up. And the day they wake up is the day they walk away from us and we blew it.

He raises a valid point. Like hybrid cars or Twenty20 cricket, 3D cinema is the new flashy reinvention of a century-old industry, and nobody knows if it's here to stay or a passing fad. Right now 3D is in its formative years, and if it is to become accepted as a staple story-telling tool (as sync sound did in the early 1900's and colour film in the 1950's) then producers and the wider industry have an obligation to ensure 3D is used to enhance viewer experience and not revenue raise. We need to be clever and respectful with how we use the technology and not lose sight of the fact that, glasses or not, our job is simply to tell good stories in the most engaging way possible.

The full article with Katzenberg can be found on the Variety website here.

iPad Record Release In USA

Interesting to see the iPad is selling better than the iPhone in the first weekend of sales. Apple is clearly getting a loyal following (especially considering many early adopters of the product are still unsure how they'll even use it... what a wonderful brand image Apple have crafted!)

The impact of devices on this on our social media interactions is certain to be a game changer - a fact that commercial industry is already starting to listen up to.

One of the areas I'm hoping products like the iPad will penetrate is the 60+ demographic. A device like this that is stripped-back, simplistic in design and intuitive in operation is the kind of device that might bring grandfathers and nanas into the worl of Facebook, Twitter, and even Blogger!

Through my research and involvement with NGO's like The Macular Degeneration Foundation here in Sydney I've witness the undeniable hesitancy of older people to embrace technology.

And who can blame them!

Mountains of installation CD's, monthly Security updates, hourly virus attacks, hard drive failures... PC's are hard work (even for a Gen X nerd like me).

I'm hoping the iPad will cut through the clutter and open the eyes of our parents and grandparents that the world can be a small, connected place of sharing and interaction. The condemnation the product received for being too simplistic to me is its greatest virtue in opening the marketplace beyond tech-savvy teens and young professionals.

And whoever is first to make a "Where Are My Glasses" app is an assured millionaire.

Thanks Dr D!

Thanks to all the hard-working folk down at Dr D Studios (George Miller's animation company) in Sydney for listening to our presentation on monetising social media. It was a real pleasure to meet many of you afterwards and hear about the personal projects you're all working on beyond the realm of Happy Feet 2.

I was particularly excited to read a few emails afterwards stating you'd opened your own online stores!

Thanks again, and keep the virus spreading!

Social Media - The False Security Of Talking

We humans are a social creature. It is our ability to network, coordinate, and share our experiences that allows us to develop, progress and ultimately improve the ways in which we do things here on this lonely planet in the corner of the Milky Way.

The cultural embracing (read "devouring") of technology (especially mobile/internet technologies) over the last few decades has flashed a lot of binary chatter across our eyes in the form of blogs, podcasts, status updates and tweets. Indeed, I often find it hard to not receive an email or notification every five seconds about what someone I remotely know is doing or thinking or reading or listening to or...

You know the feeling.

We can only assume this increase in visible babble is gold to the inboxs of big business keen to hear how their brands are being perceived and discussed by consumers.

What's more, the immediacy of the internet and social networking suggests corporations and commercial entities can react faster than ever before in the history of advertising to customer reaction and suggestion.

Until recently, I took this as a simple logical truth. This is why I was surprised to read last month that a social media survey conducted on behalf of PRWeek and MS&L (interestingly for PRWeek and CA Walker) found that

"marketers don't make changes to their products based on customer feedback, despite monitoring feedback being one of the most common business uses of social media in the first place"

The survey continues to state that an amazing 70% of marketers don't make changes to a product or marketing effort based on feedback from consumers on social media sites. This shows a high level of skepticism in the corporate world towards the weight of review social media can provide. Whether this is the result of limited implementation/strategy timeframe, lack of experience with social media, professional hesitation, the global nature of social media (and the need to impliment a global campaign) or a fundamental conviction there is no ROI with social media is hard to say.

Let's take a look at why the 271 interviewed CMO's and MD's use social media:

• Managing and monitoring customer feedback
• Understanding the consumer and competitive landscape
• Reaching key influencers

"Customer feedback should be the front lines of product development," says Jim Tsokanos, MS&L’s president, North America. "Marketers need to act on information culled from social sites and are missing out on a key opportunity to improve and shape their products and programs based on what their consumers need and want."

Tsokanos also stated that "if brands do not have a social media presence, consumers will create one for them." I found this very interesting and possibly a professional reasoning as to why marketers might shy away from including social media budget in their campaigns. If the fans are going to do it anyways, with a "roots up" element to it that no amount of tricky flash or online giveaway can compete with, then why spend thousands on a social media element to a brand campaign?

Obviously there are incentives in consumer information and additional behavioural monitoring that can be analysed when your fanbase passed through your own servers, but can 39% of senior marketing executives saying none of their current marketing budget is dedicated to social media programs truly believe the wiki culture of the internet will do their job for them?

Hopefully they learn soon it's not about what people are saying about your brand, but rather are brands listening? That is the new competitive advantage.

Sneezing Panda & The Need For "Remark-ability"

Following up my last blog, an interesting quote from Paul Williams, founder of Idea Sandbox:

“The key of it is, people passing the word about you. …It just boils down to ‘what does it mean to be remarkable?’ So remarkable, that people remark.”

Depending on your mood when you read this, you will assume Paul Williams is either a genius or a retarded badger.

Sadly I think defining "remarkability" is an impossible task. Few concepts are more subjectively beholden to the individual than "does that impress me?" Look at "Sneezing Panda" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzRH3iTQPrk), which on a conscious level doesn't impress, inspire, or amuse me at all, but I've certainly watched it several times (including slow-motion)!

I can hear the usually-silent intellectual in me screaming "It's so stupid! A panda sneezes! It doesn't even get eaten or attacked by the other panda! In fact, the most action is a chewing motion! Don't watch it again! Please? Oh God, he's watching it again in slow-motion! Why is this popular!?"

As my intellectual mind slips back into dark silence I ponder the question - what does make this "remarkable"?

Personally I think I might have just accidently summed "remarkable" up. When we are entertained and we don't know why, we find ourselves in the realm of remarkability. Maybe we feel inspired to pass on these clips and content so others around us (namely those we trust and associate with - friends, family, co-workers) may define this x-factor we ourselves are unable to understand.

Perhaps the 53 million viewers of Sneezing Panda are all simply looking to each other to define why they were transfixed for that 10 seconds of their lives, and why, despite no logical reason to watch it again, we find ourselves compulsively pressing the replay button.

Perhaps viral media is actually a form of crowd-sourced psychiatry, where by sharing the videos we are instinctively opening a door of communication to discuss what it is about them that made us pass them on in the first place.

If that's the case, then that's fairly remarkable as a concept unto itself.

"Word of Mouth" or "Viral"? Inspirations from "Word Of Mouth Marketing" by Andy Sernovitz

Recently on a trip to Thailand I was fortunate to pick up a copy of Word Of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz.

Apart from the author's surname this book is easy reading for anyone interested in word of mouth marketing. Although not tailored to social and digital media, the fundamental ideas it presents are surprisingly applicable to the online world.

Without attempting to republish the book, I thought I would share some of the interesting (albeit often straightforward) concepts Sernovitz raises presented in the context of viral media.

One of the best points Sernovitz makes comes early in the book where he discusses how social networking sites are an extension of friendships, and are therefore guided and regulated by the same rules. Trust, respect and honesty are just as valid (if not more so) in digital relationships as they are in real life. He also addresses how YouTube, Metacafe and other video streaming sites are as much a conversation as they are a screen, and only videos with earned trust and respect are forwarded on or talked about.

This is an issue I've seen countless brands fall into the trap of. Without an understanding of the paradigm shift from an aging culture of viewing to a contemporary culture of searching, brands too often seem to assume "if we post it, they will come". This simply isn't the case, irrespective of how expensive the production budget was or how big the media buying budget is. It is the conversational side of these sites, the basic interaction of running commentary (although less glossy in execution and far more simplistic in presentation) that is their real heart and source of popularity. I feel this is too often overlooked or ignored in online media campaigns, and that by saying "it's on YouTube" media strategists feel (falsely) that the job is done.

Even worse, I've seen companies embark on a shilling campaign (shilling is the term used to describe a company posing as a customer) in a poorly cloaked attempt to incite sales of their product via the comments section of these sites. Such action shows a complete misunderstanding of the social system YouTube and the likes are build on, and this ignorance of culture can only have a negative effect on brand image to the savvy constituents of these online communities.

Sernovitz also outlines four rules for what makes something most likely to be passed on via word of mouth in broader marketing terms. I found this interesting to read as quantifying success for viral media is certainly a guessing game at best. What tips one video into the realm of "viral" whilst another remains behind is hardly a science, but I feel the author has done well to focus on a succinct and core set of rules for viral video that appears all-encompassing:

1. Be interesting - No one talks about anything boring so do something/anything special
2. Make people happy - viral media is rarely depressing. Thrill/excite your audience!
3. Earn trust and respect - Making people proud to be associated with your video is most of the battle.
4. Make it easy - People are lazy, so make passing the video on as simple as possible.

These four rules give a good structure for anyone thinking of implementing an online viral media campaign and set a framework that, although not ensuring success, certainly improves your chances.

Beyond the constitution of the content you create, Sernovitz analyses the mechanisms by which viral video can spread as far and wide as cyberly possible. Whilst again there is hardly any new reading here, Sernovitz does well to make his points clear and simple. Below I have amended what he coins "The Five T's" to an online media context.

Specifically:

1. TALKERS - Find people who will talk about you (your digital evangelists).
2. TOPICS - Give people a reason to talk. It starts with a message that can spread, no matter how stupid the message is (look at your inbox for proof).
3. TOOLS - Help spread the message on blogs, Twitter and email.
4. TAKE PART - Join the conversations on blogs/Twitter/Facebook. Reply to emails and participate in discussion boards.
5. TRACKING - Measure and understand what people say, and do it regularly!

As I said before, much of this is nothing new and disturbingly elementary, but I feel it important to share my belief that despite the changes in the technology and the ever-increasing connectivity of our societies, many of the fundamentals of our behaviour remain eerily familiar. Grasping the basics of the complex machine that is the internet is crucial to mastering its potential to reach new and expanding audiences.

PS: More information on Word of Mouth Marketing can be found at www.womma.org

Arrival

Here I am... My first blog into the interweb... May God have mercy on us all!