Archive for April, 2008
Liberate Media pays homage to the Facebook ‘is’ status option
April 30th, 2008
Liberate Media is going back in time today, way back to when the ‘Facebook is’ status option was not optional.
More than 160,000 users wanted to remove the ‘is’ status and even a Facebook group was created called “Petition to Get Rid of “is†from Facebook Status Update!â€.
On the night of November 20th 2007 they got their wish: the ‘is’ in Facebook status updates was removed.
Have a look at the comedy video from crackle below that pays homage to the Facebook ‘is’ status. Be warned there is some strong language and content that may offend.
From Crackle:
April 24th, 2008
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There’s a fascinating debate going on over at the Guardian’s ‘Comment is free’. It started off as a discussion between well-known blogger and journalist Jeff Jarvis and the Guardian’s America editor Michael Tomasky, but has turned into something much bigger.
The debate centers on: Should the internet’s new breed of ‘citizen journalists’ have the responsibilities of journalists or the rights of citizens?
The catalyst for the discussion was a report by Mayhill Fowler, on the Huffington Post’s politics blog, Off The Bus in which Fowler confirmed that Barack Obama had described rural, white voters as “bitter”. Obviously this caused plenty of political noise, and last week Michael Tomasky argued that Fowler’s reporting raised serious ethical questions, suggesting that blogging, like journalism, needs rules. Jeff Jarvis responded on his blog Buzzmachine that openness, not rules, was demanded in the era of the internet.
Of course the debate hasn’t stopped there – it’s still going on at ’Comment is free’ and i think it raises a wider question of reputation on the web, which Jarvis touches on.
If, as the debate mentions, a blogger, citizen journalist, call them what you will, publishes a tissue of lies, they will be found out, barracked – (excuse the pun) and lose their hard earned reputation. So, the question becomes why would a trusted source ruin their own reputation, which is something that takes time to build and is hard work to keep? And if the story isn’t coming from a trusted source, why would it be believed?
While i understand that Tomasky is trying to bring some regulation to citizen journalists, i believe the accountability is inherent and the environment radically different to that of mainstream journalists. Therefore, why would bloggers need a stifling rule book, which would just be ignored by the muck-rakers that he is trying to eradicate anyway?
I believe that in an online world of words and content, where transparency and reputation is the one thing that can’t be faked or purchased, the web is self-regulating as it’s easy to write a lie, but hard to get people to believe it.
Personality versus brand on Twitter
April 24th, 2008
There’s no denying that over the past month or so, Twitter has increasingly become a brand promotion tool. On the media side in particular, journalists, newspapers and magazines are using the communications tool with increased frequency to break their stories.
What I’ve noticed is that subconsciously I’m paying far more attention to some media Tweets than others…while some are very useful and time-saving, others are admittedly going straight into my mental ‘spam’ folder. I thought it might be interesting to share my views with you on why I think this is, and seek your feedback…
It appears the most useful Tweeters are those who are using the platform under their own name, sharing not only their breaking news as it happens, but also their personal views on issues within their sector. Jemima Kiss is a great example.
On the other hand, journalists Tweeting under their newspaper or magazine brand are having a tougher job of attaining ‘stickiness’ with me. If the tool is only being used to promote stories, with no individual voice coming through, the Tweet is of far less value. I’d much rather receive news roundups as a daily email, than eight Tweets in a row. This is particularly aggrevating when the news isn’t exclusive or breaking, but rather something that is all over the news already.
Media Week has been making great strides on the social media front recently, and I was encouraged by its Facebook message on the subject of Twitter today:
“The twittering is also coming along nicely. So far we’ve been posting headlines and links, but we’re going to be flexing our gossip glands a little more in future so feel free to sign up for tip-offs on the stories behind the headlines – we’re at twitter.com/mediaweek if you want to keep an eye on us. If you’ve got any suggestions on what we should be sending out, just let us know.”
It will be interesting to see if Media Week can effectively combine personality with brand. Travolution is incidentially doing a very good job of this.
It would be interesting to know whether people agree/disagree with me…
Dance Jam puts the social community into dance…(you might even learn a dance move or two)
April 22nd, 2008
The concept was created by the famed singer and dancer/entertainer MC Hammer, and so DANCEJAM should be gold.
MC Hammer says the concept of the site is to “be a star or make a star”.
Dance Jam is one of my favourite social networks/community sites of the year so far. It may not be the prettiest to look at or have the best features, but in terms of pure entertainment it’s 5 star!
The primary idea behind Dance Jam is the BATTLE section, where dancers do their thing (shake it), and it’s up to you to decide who is top dog.
Check out a battle here:
The features:
All the usual stuff: upload videos, leave comments, search by video type, share via email, but there is one feature I particularly like which works really well for this site . It’s the ability to play the video in slow motion – so if you see a killer move you like you can break it down and potentially learn it!
Dance Jam as a knowledge base:
The Dance Jam site has an educational element too. For instance, there is a video called A Snake in the grass which is suposidaly where Michael Jackson got his influences from. Check it out – you won’t believe the similarities!
Right that’s it from me. I’m off to try a moon talk…I mean walk!
Should PR fight its corner? Or just evolve…
April 18th, 2008
Danny Rogers’ leader article in PR Week raised a common and often debated subject this week. In Danny’s words: ‘Since the beginning of the year there have been several diatribes against the PR industry in the national media, equating it to a malevolent force’.
Nothing new there then eh!
Two quotes from the piece stand out in particular:
Exhibit A: Nick Davies’ book: Flat Earth News, argues PR’s raison d’etre is ‘… that the masses are a political threat whose thinking must be controlled by the techniques of PR’.
and
Exhibit B: A quote from this week’s Independent: ‘The aim (of PR) is to undermine or marginalise independent journalism, control decision-making, and lastly, mystify and misinform the public.’
PR gets a rough ride from the media as it is the media on the receiving end of much of what is wrong with the industry. To be fair their experiences have probably led them to these assumptions/conclusions, and after more than 10 years in the industry i can see why. I have met an assortment of PR professionals over this time, some that i am proud to say are the most intelligent, creative and real people I’ve met, and others well, are not.
So am i here to defend PR? No. Am i here to slate it? Nah. Do i have a point? I hope so…
The point is that as with all industries and stages of evolution, the strongest, or in fact the most suited to their environment, survive. PR’s evolution is based on moving away from the controlling instincts that the quotes accuse us of. Those that persist in employing these outdated models in a new environment will be found out and go the way of the famous flightless bird from Mauritius (featured above).
I think many of us, especially in the digital space, have already moved away from controlling the message/audience/issue. I feel a great many agencies and individuals have changed inline with their environment and as a result they are flourishing.Â
For what it’s worth, I don’t think PR needs another slagging match, or even defend itself to these allegations. What PR needs to do is understand how communications has changed, not just on the web but in all walks of life. Â
So, should PR fight its corner as Danny says? Or just get on with it, shed this archaic image and prove the doubters wrong.
Weekly social media and web 2.0 news round up for week ending 18th of April
April 18th, 2008
We have been scouring the blogosphere all week for the best hot social media and web 2.0-related news and resources. We have also added all the new links to the Liberate Media resource/research page, – it’s a little slow to load but well worth the wait!
Twitter: news/resources
James Karl Buck Twitters his way out of Egypt Jailhouse
Twitter Spy – Twitter public time line in real time
Summize Realtime Twitter Search
Blogging: news/resources
10 Easy Ways to Get in The Habit of Blogging
More Practical Tips For Starting A Corporate Blog
General social media: news/resources
Social Media: Tools the alpha geeks use
Real People Don’t Have Time for Social Media
Building a Popular Social Media Profile: Seven Essential Characteristics
Get off Twitter, Lay Off the Blogs, and Put Some Thought Back Into Your Email Campaigns
Etiquette For A Social Media World
YouTube Dominates Video More than Google Dominates Search
Social Media To Create Social Media Training – social media training wiki
edopter.com: social trendcasting – discover and share the next big trend
12 Tips for Getting Your Startup Featured on Mashable
South Africa’s First Social Media Press Release – The Standard Bank Pro20 Series (cricket)
Second Life resource list – is it still a good place to build brand?
Please tune in next Friday for the next weekly round up…
Crisis management storm brewing for O2
April 17th, 2008
O2 is not faring well in the press or public eye at the moment with its blunders over 3G speeds, and PR gaffe where it called readers of The Register “techie nerds”… and I’m about to make matters worse for them!
I’m unfortunate enough to be an O2 customer. My Blackberry is my lifeline. So when my data connection went dead yesterday morning, I phoned O2 up to see what was going on.
The customer service person I spoke to knew “exactly what was going on” before I’d described the problem, which was enough to get the alarm bells ringing.
I was then informed that O2 had moved to a new billing system over the past couple of days, and that all my tariff details had been lost. There was no record of the fact that I was a Blackberry user, had a data tariff, or the number of minutes or texts I received each month. Hence the reason for my Blackberry saying “data connection refused” for the past couple of days.
I was asked to describe my tariff so that the problem could be manually corrected! I’ve been promised that my data bolt-on will be reconnected tomorrow.
In true O2 style there was no apology, no offer of compensation for the impact this might have had on my business, and no explanation.
So in true social media style, I’m breaking the story here!
The new billing system has been implemented across O2′s entire customer base, so I’m guessing if you haven’t picked up on a problem yet, you will when your next bill arrives! I’d love to hear how O2 iPhone customers have been affected.
The final irony in the tale is that when the post arrived later today, I had a letter from O2 about the new billing system, entitled “a change for the better”!
Has Twitter tipped over the edge into a tin of spam!
April 17th, 2008
First of all – thanks to Wadds tech blog for making me laugh-out-loud this morning with his stop twitter spam blog post – good post!
The highlight was this little round up: “Check out these fools: Braun Shavers, Invisus Direct and Wordframe. And my personal favourite Premature Ejaculation.” – Funny!
This reminded me of a post that I’d seen the day before The Epitome of Faux “Social Media Experts about so called social media experts that don’t have a scooby doo! (some good comments at the bottom of that post too).
We all know that Twitter is hugely popular at the moment, with what seems like 5 new applications coming out a day, and this has had a knock on effect and brought in the spammers by the bucket load. There is even a new blog called Stop Twitter Spam – thanks for the tip Wadds!
Unfortunately this is just going to get worse until every one moves onto the next big thing and then the whole process will start again!
Liberate Media social media resource/research map
April 16th, 2008
Social media resource
The Liberate Media social media research/resources page is where we archive all our social media and web 2.0 resources/findings. There is a huge amount of resource to be looked at, so please feel free to dig around at your leisure.
Liberate Media is always keen to add to the social media resource with new posts, so please get in touch if you have something of value to add. – The resource map will be ever growing with new headings and links being added all the time.
The social media resource/research is very heavy due to large amount of archived resource, it takes a little while to appear, but please be patient, it’s well worth the wait!
To use the resource map simply hold the left mouse button down and scroll around until you see the section you want to look at. Click the bars next to the paper-clip to get a description of the archive, then click the paper-clip to get a list of posts in that resource.
To add the resource/research map copy and paste the code below into your blog:
<iframe id=”mapframe_id226″ name=”mapframe_id226″ frameborder=”0″ style=”border:1px #B9B9B9 solid;” scrolling=”no” src=”http://www.glinkr.net/site_media/DebateMapClient/html/map_content.html?graphId=226″ height=”500px” width=”95%” ></iframe>
Michael Jackson uses social media tactics to promote ‘Thriller’ 25th Anniversary Celebration!
April 16th, 2008
Liberate Media is always on the look out for different/innovative uses of social media, and this one caught my attention the other day.
Sony BMG has teamed up with Big Stage – a media company whose technology allows users to create and integrate a life-like 3D avatar of themselves into everything from famous movie scenes, TV shows and video games, to music videos, short video clips, virtual worlds, still images, user-generated content, instant messages, emails, social networks and more – instantly. Nice idea!
The idea is for fans to easily create a life-like 3-D version of themselves that literally replaces the role of Michael Jackson in the Thriller music video – the video then gets uploaded to YouTube and you receive a link to view it. Your Thriller reincarnation can then be shared with friends by email or by posting on social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook.
This is what J.J. Rosen, Executive Vice-President, SonyBMG Commercial Music Group has to say about the project: “Michael Jackson is an innovator and a pioneer in the music industry and so it only makes sense, as part of our anniversary celebrations for Thriller, to give fans worldwide a new way to experience the video in a way not even Michael could have imagined 25 years ago.” How true!
Looks like they have a had a little but of sucess with the idea too. A fan generated video reached the Top 25 viewed Entertainment videos on YouTube, MTV liked the My Thriller Video tool, and produced a piece with their own people staring in the video for a showcasing piece on MTV.com NewsBlog.
Check out the My Thriller video here
And view some of the YouTube videos here