Twitter games

Can’t help but think that the Twitter ARG is going to be a re-occurring theme over the next few months.

See @Resistance2018 and @Simeonhobbes

Not sure whether to be exicted or not….

Labour / McBride / Red Rag and lessons for us all

There’s something in this. Honestly. It comes from the brilliant Hugo Rifkind where he discusses the simple idea that the Labour Party views us, the general public, as sheep who need to be driven, rather than goats who need to be led.

For those that need an update on the story, refresh yourselves here. In short, the Mcbride, Draper and the whole Red Rag Blog debacle was founded on the fact that when looking into blogosphere, the Labour Party noticed that there seemed to be a distinct lack of independent bloggers eulogising over the Labour mission. ‘Bugger’, they thought, ‘we’re just going to have to do all it ourselves’.

Which is, of course, a huge mistake. Brands, whether Starbucks or the Labour Party, can not micro manage conversation in the blog world. If you do, your blog will be unreadable, and as a result, unread. Controlling conversation is exactly what Labour wanted to do. Seeding rumours, innuendos and insults into existing independent bloggers simply wasn’t an option – after all, what if they then went and said something slightly off message. So they tried to do it all themselves. An independent, trouble making, interesting blog controlled entirely and to the finest detail by the Labour Party itself. Regardless of the publication of the actual smears, the project was alway going to end in an inevitable disaster.

Ironically, the project was undermined by the very person the Labour wanted, so badly, to emulate. Paul Stains’ Guido Fawkes blog, housed at www.order-order.com, is a cheerfully obsessive right wing libertarian with a good network and political nose. Sure, certainly with Conservative Party leanings, but hardly a mouth piece. Yet he is viewed by many in Labour Party as the smiling front of a Tory acid tounged machine.

Does he receive inside gossip from the Tory party? Sure. Does he discuss rumours and possible attacks with Conservative members? Almost certainly. Has Paul Stains and the Conservative party built a mutually beneficial relationship upon which the Guido Fawkes blog gains access to at least part of his insider news and gossip? Absolutely.

But this is the point. Paul Stains is an independent blogger. He is also a very successful blogger with a large readership who enjoy and agree with his viewpoint – a viewpoint which, on many occasions, does not concur with (in truth, often attacks) Tory policy, Tory ideology, Tory thinking.

But he can only be successful BECAUSE of this. He stands out as a voice that wants to be heard, and use them correctly, seed interesting information to them, provide content without trying to control any other aspects of their output (even if ‘off message’), and you create an incredibly powerful and effective channel for your seeded story.

So, to conclude, we have a tail of two political blogs. One controlled from the centre, with a remit only to support the actions of the Labour Party and undermine the opposition. One an independent with right of centre leanings who has forged success through accessing content and gossip (much of which is probably as scandalous, unfounded, and derogatory as the Mcbride emails) through successful insider relationships.

The outcome of the debacle is a lesson not just for Political parties, but for brands of all types worried about how to control conversation in blogosphere.

House Party at mine….

There something quite mythical about the house party; an event, episode or experience which lives long in the history and comes to define a group friendship or social circle. Of course, these are often remembered to be slightly more significant than they actually were. I drank three times as much as I did, was involved in incidents which were half as funny as I now recount them, and, in truth, I definitely didn’t sleep with the whole of the Brazilian volleyball team.

But why do we hold the house party in such high esteem? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some awesome experiences of them, as, I’m sure, have you, but I wonder if the likes of Skins or the stream other fanciful American teen dramas filled with the kind of country estate style gatherings which make your mouth water fuel this desire to place the simple house party on the experience pedestal we do. (In saying this, I really hope I’m not showing myself to be the type of person who watches American Pie with a sense of endless longing)

Anyway, this leads me nicely onto the Adidas ‘Celebrate Originality’ spot. Maybe the above is simply a caveat to the fact that I love this advert, or maybe I’m a bit ashamed to like an advert without rhyme or reason as much as I do. Because I know why I like this advert so much, a reason so transparent and shallow as to be a smidgen embarrassing. Looking logically, there seems to be absolutely no link between the execution and strategy. Ok, Run DMC, Missy Elliot and a few other faces who appear could claim to be ‘originals’, although I’m not sure how Estelle justifies her position, but beyond that, it seems to be nothing more than a house party with a few famous faces in.

And this is enough. Because although I have never been to a house party like the one depicted, I really wish I had. And in my weaker moments I may even pretend that I’ve been to a couple of nights which were quite similar and I really should make the point of going to more of these parties as if I have that option on a daily basis. But as all great adverts do, it makes me believe that parties like this do exists, parties like this are accessible to me, and that, actually, there’s a whole world out there where doing the funky chicken with Missy Elliot is just the ‘done thing’. But only, of course, if I go out and purchase a pair of Superstars…

Twittering about Twitter

I know, I know; another thought piece on Twitter. Or more accurately, a confession interspersed with an observation or two. I hope that makes this all slightly more palatable. Oh, and please don’t expect anything revolutionary, these are just the musings of someone trying to understand more of how all this crazy hoo ha works. However, first things first; I’ve been converted. Any initial misgivings of a service which I presumed was created and housed solely by self absorbed egomaniacs convinced in the overarching importance of their breakfast menu has been replaced by a committed and complete embracing of all things Twittersphere. I’m a tweet geek.

But why? I’m still not remotely interested in the inane chatter of idiots (of whom they are plenty) but what Twitter has provided me, completely unexpectedly, is the best information aggregation tool on the internet. I follow interesting people who post up interesting links which I read. Simple, but great.

The harder part is trying to work out what Twitter actual is, or more pertinent, what does Twitter represent. From a purely personal perspective, there seem to be two prominent themes.

1. An open instant messaging style service compatible with a wider circle of friends then practical with actual instant messaging and less reliant on immediate response.
2. An open forum to advertise links, resources and information of interest to your followers

On purpose 1, which I think many would presume to be the more prevalent, and also, I’d argue, the description to which non Twitter users would be more likely to subscribe, the service falls down hopelessly. Unless all your friends are all social media experts it is unlikely your social circle will be well represented. Similarly, as soon as you begin following even a moderate number of people it is pretty much impossible to engage in any type of real conversation. Quite simply, how many @replies do you see on the average twitter feed? Not many.

So, purpose 2. And this is where it gets much more interesting because here we see an interesting shift in regards to one of the most fascinating aspects of the internet – and to date, one of its greatest failings – aggregation.

This has been something that has troubled me for some time. Take any subject; media, advertising, fishing or postage stamps, and you’ll find such a plethora of information online that even 24/7 dedicated Googling would only scrape the surface of what’s available. You can subscribe to your favourite blogs, add RSS feeds to Google reader, search high and low for new sources, but ultimately, as we all know, there are never enough hours in the day. Sourcing information online is a truly inefficient process, one where you the inevitable conclusion is of inadequacy and frustration as one feels ever further behind in the great knowledge rat race.

Today was the first time I had visited my Google reader in over a week. The number of unread posts was enough to close the window, turn away, and conveniently forget to visit again any time soon. Why had I failed to keep more up to date with my reading? Well, simply because the latest selection of articles, blog posts or reports I have found the time to enjoy have all come from links posted on my twitter feed, humming happily away in the background on my tweet deck (or tweet dick, as I have heard it amusingly, and possibly accurately, called)

In short, Twitter provides me with the ability to RSS feed not just blogs or news sites, but people. And people are MUCH more interesting to RSS feed because they are multi-faceted beings offering insights into their bookmarks, their sources of info, and their nodules of knowledge – wherever it may be, wherever it is from, and whatever form it comes in.

Put it this way. My personal profile and photos are housed on Facebook. Some further photos on Flikr. I write a blog, occasionally, which are mostly rehashes of cool things I’ve discovered on other people’s blogs. By default, adding a blog entry takes time, so inevitability I may only blog about 1 in 50 interesting things. This is especially true if I don’t get time to blog for a few days by which point, so many other people have done so there’s no point in me doing the same. Oh, and my blog, like so many others, is theme specific. Believe it or not, there are other things out there which I find interesting beyond media. Gosh, I’ve never written the term ‘blog’ so many times in one paragraph in my life. Web 2.0, baby. Anyway, my bookmarks are on Delicious, my videos stored on my YouTube video channel. Etc etc

So what if you were really interested in me? You’d need to be my friend on Facebook, subscribe to my Flikr stream and YouTube channel, and RSS feed my blog. It’s as if facets of our personality are pieces of real estate housed in different compounds, and for an outsider a comprehensive view of what makes me tick involves troopsing around the internet visiting each of these pieces of real estate in turn. Time consuming, inefficient, and ridiculous.

Of course, no one is interested in me. But viewing this from a purely personal perspective, we can look at the type of people whose content I find interesting and whose content I want to be kept up to date with. And this, ladies and gentleman, is where Twitter suddenly fits snugly back into the equation as the beginning of a shift in information aggregation which treats the individual as the gatekeeper to their online personalities (of which we have many) and allows this information to feed through, from their plethora of sources, to their followers. As I said earlier, it’s an individual, personal RSS feed, through which content from delicious to Flikr to Facebook can be filtered and distributed in the form of 140 characters and a tiny url.

What does this mean for me? Well, it’s easier. And in a world of time constraints, ease is paramount. And like everything about the net, those people who offer the greatest number and most interesting selection of insights will rise to the top and enjoy the cultural, and advertising, capital associated with such a position.

But, I hear you say, Twitter is all good for feeding blog updates, or posting ad hoc links to great content, but it hardly provides the one size fits all gateway to an individual’s life. Where’s the Facebook profile, or Flikr stream? Well yes, exactly, and that’s why Twitter is the first step towards this new reality and not the celebrated solution to everything.

Information aggregation should be an opt out process. If I want to follow Mr Interesting, that one click should provide me instant access, through one platform, to their Facebook, YouTube, delicious etc etc (or whatever Mr Interesting is willing to allow public access to) at which point I should be able to chose not to be kept updated on certain aspects of their life. Do I care if Miss Fascinating has been tagged in a series of dinner party photos? No, of course not, but if Miss Fascinating is happy to share that information with her followers, the mechanisms should be available for me to opt out of receiving that information and access without having to venture across a number of different websites, log ins and feeds.

In a world obsessed by opinion formers and key influencers, the next logical step is for these people to do the job of information aggregation on our behalf, filtering to us through their personal funnel the best, most interesting and relevant insights and information they have access to from whatever sources or format that information comes in. This fundamental shift from ‘real estate’ sources (blogs, profile websites, photo hoisting sites) to personal sources is the vision of the future offered by Twitter, a vision which will fundamentally change how we source knowledge on the internet and one which will make all of our lives a hell of a lot easier.

I think.

The National Gallery

I walked by this lovely institution t’other day. Promised myself that I must go again, and rather like so many of London’s famous landmarks, realised that I probably wouldn’t ever get round to it.

So back at the office I thought I’d hunt down some of the actual paintings I will never find time to go and see properly. First port of call, The National Gallery website. Ok, so we have some photos, some commentary on the picture, the ability to send the photo to my mobile, and… erm, well, that’s about it.

But I wanted to comment on the paintings I really liked or really hated, I wanted to share these photos with my friends, add to this blog or my Facebook profile, add information on the artist or an interesting anecdote relating to the history of the piece. I wanted to ask questions and have responses from people with a genuine interest. I wanted the whole thing to be housed on Flikr, or Facebook, or another form of interactive social platform where people like me who knew nothing could talk, understand and learn about this crazy classic art nonsense.

More than anything I wanted to be persuaded that, actually, a visit to the gallery itself was worth a few hours out of my day. That when visiting I would know the paintings I wanted to see up close and personal, understand what motivated the artist when he created his piece, understood more of the social context behind the imagery, been provided informative answers on my ignorant questions which would improve both my understanding and desire to explore the matter further.

But a visit to the National Gallery website does none of this. So I probably won’t get round to going anytime soon – my loss, you may say. But the technology is available, the audience willing, but I wonder if proffesional snobbery will always resist taking art from the gallery and onto the net. I hope i’m wrong.

The full service media agency dream is over?

I received an email yesterday from a lovely young lady working on a global pitch asking me to delve through any previous campaigns I had been involved with for examples of where a creative message had been magnified by relevant and contextual media placement. An example provided was of a Swedish anti smoking poster placed, poetically, on top of the spluttering exhaust pipes of a decaying bus – the blue, soot ridden smog replicating a smoker’s exhalations. Clever, eh? And it got me thinking, not that this is in anyway revolutionary, that such creative and media synergy must be the default. An effective communications message must be placed in a space both relevant to the brand and audience, as well as such placement being in synch with the particular creative execution. Not one without the other, and certainly not the combination of each being such rare examples that we must rummage through our network drives in fruitless despair.

But again, this is not a revolutionary point. After all this is why all agencies, large and small, are clamouring to fill the full service ideal, as already provided by many niche digital agencies, offering brands a one stop shop for effective communications. The more interesting aspect of this shift, however, is the dynamic between media and creative agencies. A traditionally fraught and politically driven relationship, both are now eyeing up each other’s space as the solution to their ever dwindling revenues.

So, who’s going to win this battle of comms superiority? Personally, I can’t help but think that media agencies may be in for a hiding. Whatever the truth of the matter, media planning, buying and strategy with always been seen as the poor, dirtied kneed brother to the glamorous world of creative. Quite simply, would you trust a traditional media agency with creative execution? Or creative agencies with media planning and buying?

And I don’t think I’m alone. Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP head honcho, said in his address to the IPA lunch on Wednesday that he sees traditional media agencies having to adapt their business models to survive the new economic new reality. No shock there. But, he then went on to state that the future of WPP media agencies lay in consumer data, insights and analyses. Closer to Reuters and Bloomberg than BBH or Mother.

This may put the CHI’s recent partnership with WPP’s media buying arm GroupM in a slightly more interesting perspective. Is this the model Sorrell sees as the future of full service agencies across the WPP network? And if so, what does this mean for those WPP media agencies whose behind the water cooler murmurings are filled with notions of offering clients both media strategy and buying with creative execution management?

Questions, questions.

TwitterFeed, Tweet Deck etc etc

Twitter tools are plentiful. Sure, a lot of them are probably pretty useful. Aggregation time…

Fingers crossed this (useless) little update will filter itself into my Twitter Stream. In about an hour, hopefully.

Blog etiquette

I re-post a lot of other people’s work. I justify it as contributing to the distribution of what I believe are quality peices of content. It is, in truth, stealing. Recently I posted/stole Faris Yakob’s excellent little PDF on mobile futures on my work blog. Faris, kindly, left a small comment of gratitude. I, in turn, want to do likewise, something along the lines of; ‘Hi Faris, I am a huge fan of your blog and will continue to leech your content at will’.

But where do I do this?

Doing so on the original post on Faris’ blog would make no sense, being as it would, completely out of context. Similarly, I would be enormously surprised if Faris reads my work blog, so leaving any note of appreciation there would, I am almost certain, fail to be registered.

So I’m stuck. It is a far too minor issue to warrant a direct message, or general blog comment? Yet I feel, for the sake of my moral compass and genuine goodwill, that I must make a small gesture of appreciation.

Any ideas?

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

I like this..

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Not to be horribly corporate – but it would be an awesome partner for a brand. Coffee? Possibly. Any ideas?

Twitter + Social Media experts

So, I’m a twitterer. Granted, 12 months too late – but early adopting is not a term I’m overtly familiar with. Some initial thoughts? Ok, sure. Firstly, a couple of healthy caveats. A: I’m a month old twitterer, so maybe I just don’t get it yet. B: I’m not very bright, so maybe I just don’t get it.

But, and there is a but, something bothers me. Three days after joining I found myself with five new followers. All but one of these followers’ bios stated themselves to be ’social media experts’. (I wonder what percentage of Twitter users are ’social media experts’?)

Why was I being followed? There is no information in my profile, I am not a minor celebrity and I had, up to that point, two very non-descript updates. The only reason I could find is that I had chosen to follow Chris Brogan and that this validated me as Social Media fodder.

Not that this hugely bothered me. Follow me if you feel, and I in turn will follow you. (Does Twitter etiquette exist?)

But then I looked upon my twitter feed. ‘Off for a shower’, ‘Seven hours until the plane’, ‘OJ for breakfast’ etc. Not only do I not know these people, but I’m having minute by minute updates of their hugely inane lives. Sure, before you shout ‘duurrr – that’s the point of twitter’, I appreciate that fully. But why did these ’social media experts’ follow me in the first place? To hear about my life, or to possibly penetrate my network in the hope of building business connections. Supposedly, in doing this, they want to impress me, or my network with their social media expertise – or ‘hey, look at me, I totally get Twitter – let’s connect’.

Well no, you’re now blocked. Your crap choked my twitter feed so anything interesting from either yourselves or others was lost among your twoddle. It smacks very much to me of the ‘add as many friends on MySpace as you can’ school of online marketing. Just because the technology is different, it doesn’t mean that the lessons we have learned over and over again from other social media platforms don’t exist. Don’t add everyone and anyone, don’t shout at me all day, don’t assume that I’m interested in anything you have to say. Because I’m not, and actually, I find you marauding into my social circle like a bull in a china shop massively insulting.

Ironically, those people who I have chosen to follow, the likes of ViralBlog, whose updates are relevant, regular and insightful are the ones who do not have ‘Social media expert’ in their bios. Continue to wear your sandwich boards, I just hope people don’t fall for it. Alas, as brands clamour onto Twitter and the undoubted benefits that can derive from a well co-ordinated campaign (see Eureka, the US sci fi series) I think, sadly, that they will.

Ho hum