Quiver & Quill

Ok, I’m a little late on this…but it’s really funny.

See Ad Age’s top ten viral videos of 2006

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Hide cool things. Other people find them and leave something there for you. It all happens @ Drop Spots site.

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“It is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke and at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.” cited in Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone.”

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Myspace

You Tube

Gather

Facebook

Grouper

Adwords

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1. Browsing the Internet will soon feel like interactive television. The UFC and Toyota
microsite are good examples… (via Scott WeisBrod blog).

2. Stanford Law’s Professor Lessig flash presentation on Free Culture, an audio presentation
from 2002.

3. Just for fun: a web game to create a chain reaction (my best score was a 400).

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I sat with a mother and her baby girl on the train to New York. She ‘s a member of a Yahoo Group called “Brooklyn Baby Hui.” Hundreds of new parents are members, and they share concerns and give advice daily on a Yahoo list serve. “We talk about everything,” Diane, the mom I sat next to, said. “We discuss lead paint, where to find baby friendly local coffee shops, and we even coordinate weekly meet ups.”

I think this is a cool example of how online social networks converge offline.

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At what point do you intervene when someone is asking for help online? Zadi Diaz noticed a suicide note written on Myspace and has documented the outreach efforts on her Flickr posts (screenshot above).

“Today I came across a teen who had written a suicide note on MySpace. At first, I thought it was a joke - just a teen looking for attention.
 But when I clicked on his profile and read some of his blog posts, I
 began to realize that it may be real after all.

It turned out it was real. And he was overdosing on pills. Rick Rey, a 
fellow videoblogger, called the school and the authorities handled it
 from there. Just a few moments ago I received an email from one of his
friends saying the kid was alive and holding on in the hospital.

…What should the protocol be in instances like these?
”

-Source Zadi Diaz

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I’m amused that Neiman Marcus is advertising on Myspace (screenshot above).
Just several month ago, media buyers wouldn’t have regarded Myspace as a place where they could reach Neiman Marcus customers.

Times have changed.

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If you don’t know about the Facebook, an online community in which 90% of the college student in the US participate, start here.

The Facebook has an alert feature which tells everyone in the community every time one of their friends uploads a photo, responds to an ad, writes a comment on a friend’s page, sneezes, etc. Facebook just told me that my friend Jessica is now in a relationship.

And, upon looking closer, she posted this relationship at 4:34 am.

Interesting….

I wonder if she and her new boyfriend formally discussed being in a relationship together before posting it?

What if he had no idea?

What if his frat subscribes to Facebook news feed on their mobile phone and received an alert at 5 am that their frat brother is now in a relationship.

Can you imagine the scene…the newly made boyfriend walks into a frat house, which erupts at 5 am teasing him about the relationship he formed twenty minutes prior.

News travels fast on Facebook.
The way it’s travels is changing how much we know…but not what we want to know about

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Envision the most comfortable blanket. The rainy daily blanket. The blanket that you wrap around yourself to get a glass of milk in the middle of night. The blanket that you and your girlfriend always fight over even though it’s big enough to cover both of you. You know the blanket.

How would you imbue it with personality online?
In what ways would you make people want to buy it—without the benefit of touch?

The Slanket, “the best blanket ever,” has done just that! Its web site has personality. The descriptions use real words and the pictures feature real people. It’s filled with small personal touches like a hand writing font that’s not corny, and a few funny pictures and captions.

And their Myspace page is an extension of their personality, not an inauthentic attempt for a business to reach new customers. Here’s how the Slanket describes himself on Myspace:

“Only the best blanket in town. I’m all fleece and I have sleeves to keep you warm all night. Grab a book, eat some popcorn, change the channels. You’ll never get cold and you’ll never want to get out of me. You won’t believe how much you’ll love me until you jump inside. We’ll put your grandma out of business! I am for sale right now so come get me.”

They’ll earn my business.

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by way of Mr. Nice Guy

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fishing
Originally uploaded by Deathnewt.

I fell for a pitch, and I fell hard.

Have you heard of H3? It’s the Myspace of Referal Hiring.

H3’s promise is to “convert your social network into a motivated search party.” They pay people to help recruit for job openings. In the email I received they offered $5,000. If someone in your network’s friends refer the right candidate to the job, you receive a portion of that money.

The reason I responded to this ad, and respond to many ads in general, is when make sense mere seconds. And, it seems like a win for me, my friends and for the company–I understand how everyone is getting paid and why.

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Check out Cnet’s Buzz Reports. It’s a video podcast that summarizes new media news and trends.
It’s worth four minutes of your time! I like it because it’s news but it’s also a little on the geeky side.

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I did
Originally uploaded by VonCanon.

There are two types of data: persuasive and directional. When someone makes a statement like, “people over 50 aren’t on the internet,” that’s when it takes persuasive data to politely prove otherwise. Here are three good examples of persuasive data:

24% of Gen Y Read Blogs
Is Old Media’s Influence Really Declining?
50 Million users of RSS don’t know what it is

I often use persuasive data to substantiate my perspective. However, data seldom changes someone’s opinion. People’s experiences, and your ability to present new ideas that relate to what’s familiar to them, form their opinions. Persuasive data can be boring and unreliable. It often confirms what you already know…and you can find a statistic for almost anything.

I prefer directional data: facts and observations that inform decisions rather than impress or persuade people. What causes people in online communities to talk to each, what copywriting evokes action, how real people use social networks: this is that data the most interests me.

Persuasive data always answers the question of “what’s happening?”
Directional data always answers the questions “what should we do.”
And I’m all about the “do.”

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