RaceTalk posted on Tuesday about the Apple/Gizmodo conflict involving a break in at the home of Gizmodo editor Brian Chen to recover an iPhone prototype. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show’s take on the situation (which aired last night) is a hilarious, sound bite filled segment titled “Appholes.”
Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune’s BrainstormTech blog wrote in a post today that his favorite Stewart rant was, “Apple, you guys were the rebels, man, the underdogs. People believed in you. But now, are you becoming The Man? Remember back in 1984, you had those awesome ads about overthrowing Big Brother? Look in the mirror, man!”
RaceTalk’s favorite segment gem asks, “The cops had to bash in the guy’s door? Don’t they know there’s an app for that?”
Enjoy Stewart’s plea to Apple to return to innovation, and step away from the home invasions.
AOL Travel is launching a really cool project over the next several weeks. They are sending a someone undercover to fly on ten major U.S. airline carriers and report back on their experience. Called the mystery flyer, this person is blogging and tweeting their travel experience.
Since airline travel has been such a frustrating experience for many people over the past several years (especially with added fees for almost everything) this is proving to be quite the cool investigative report for AOL. The blog reports and real-time updates through Twitter enables followers to live through the experience and ask questions as the trip progresses.
Be sure to follow this Twitter handle in the upcoming weeks to get a glimpse of the best and worst airlines.
At every basketball game the home team’s mascot usually performs a series of dunks. They usually involve a trampoline, large mat and one or two flips. However, this week the mascot for the Milwaukee Bucks performed quite the high-flying dunk, which has quickly become a YouTube favorite (see below).
The iPhone-leak saga rolled on today as news broke that the home of Gizmodo editor Brian Chen was raided by California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT – couldn’t make this name up) last Friday night. According to Chen’s account of the story, the team broke down his front door without him present, seizing four computers and two servers, in serving a warrant issued by the Superior Court of San Mateo.
The warrant and the ensuing confiscation of Chen’s computers hinges around the investigation into if Chen, Gizmodo and its parent company Gawker Media committed a felony by paying $5,000 for a lost, iPhone prototype. Was picking up the lost iPhone in a bar, asking around a bit and then selling the iPhone to Gizmodo a felony? Was the subsequent purchase of lost goods a felony? John Gruber thinks so.
Meanwhile, Nick Denton and Gawker seem happy to see this saga continue (free marketing and publicity). In fact, they’ve taken the issued warrant and seizure to propose that the Shield Law protects Brian Chen from the search and seizure as a journalist (full Gawker memo below). Denton proposed via Twitter that this case may finally give us the answer to the age old question – Are Bloggers Really Journalists? He may be watching too many old newspaper movies.
The Shield Law was established to protect journalists from having to give up sources that may have committed a crime, which would likely not apply in this case. Especially, if prosecutors are basing the search and seizure on the premise that Chen has committed a crime himself in this case. Therefore, while the reality is that California has been clear in defining bloggers as journalists (especially those working at a media company such as Gawker), the statue may simply not apply.
To make matters even more interesting (for conspiracy theorists) — many bloggers are pointing out that Apple serves on the steering committee of REACT.
Yesterday in San Francisco Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg rolled out some big plans for his baby at the company’s 8th developer conference, f8. After combing through all the tech round ups, here are the major take aways:
Facebook global domination, one thumbs up at a time: The most notable announcement at f8 was that Facebook’s “Like” feature will now be available on any website that wishes to add the cheery sign of approval to its site. You can indicate your favor for anything on the web – a song, a recipe, a celebrity gossip post – all with one click.
While many support this web-wide expansion, others have strong concerns. John Sutter of CNN writes, “A consequence of these “like” buttons will be that your friends’ Facebook profile photos will start showing up all over the web. If you see your friends’ smiling faces online, it’s an indication that they have clicked a “like” button on the website you’re visiting. In a way, they’re recommending it to you.”
While those concerned with privacy issues are shrieking and scrambling in horror, marketers are smiling and planning ways utilize this public display of brand loyalty to move the sales needle.
Log in, plug in: In addition to the “Like” feature on websites outside of Facebook itself, the company is also going to allow sites to show Facebook user preferences without needing to log into that specific site. For example, if you frequent the music site Pandora, you will be able to see your friends’ music preferences based on their Facebook music preferences. Miguel Helft at the New York Times dives deeper with Pandora CTO Tom Conrad:
“It makes it really, really easy to ring your friends into Pandora and discover the music they’re experiencing,” Mr. Conrad said. Mr. Conrad started listening to a band and a picture of one of his Facebook friends who likes the same band showed up. With a click on that picture, we were able to see all the other bands that his friend also liked.
The features also allow Pandora to know which bands users have included in their Facebook profiles and begin playing music from those bands. That makes it easy for Pandora to begin playing music for new users without requiring them to type in their music preferences.
“Pandora is finally social,” Mr. Conrad said. And he said that Mr. Zuckerberg deserved all the credit for the changes. “You get a personalization with no clicks, and that was Mark’s idea.”
My friends and I already share Pandora station and Grooveshark playlist recommendations and this takes out the need for a third party mode of sharing. Tech and social media guru Robert Scoble tweeted this morning to his 121, 500 plus followers:
@scobleizer: OK, I’m sold on the new Facebook stuff. The new Pandora is FREAKING AWESOME.
So what does it all mean? In his keynote address at f8 Mark Zuckerberg explained, “The Web is at a really important turning point now. Most things aren’t social, and they don’t use your real identity. This is really starting to change.” This new expansion of Facebook preferences into the broader web begins that transition from stagnant to social on the broadest of scales.
These moves are not altruistic, of course. Facebook is opening the door to a whole new set of tactics from marketers and promoters, as well as increasing new opportunities for their own revenue stream.
Jon Swartz of USA Today wrote, “If successful, these functions could help Facebook gain valuable insights about millions of consumers and help it sell more advertising in its escalating rivalry with online ad leader Google.”
You hear that Google? Mark’s coming for you.
Former Fortune writer and author of the soon to be released book The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick, summed it up best in a tweet today:
@DavidKirkpatric: Facebook’s f8 yesterday represents a sea change for the company–now the world clearly sees the scope of its ambition.
Today and tomorrow the 92nd Street Y in New York City will be home to Jeff Pulver’s 140 Characters Conference. The gathering gets its name from the maximum number of characters allowed in one post on Twitter, affectionately know as a tweet.
Unlike other conferences where presentations can last an hour plus, at the 140 Characters Conference panel discussions are 20 minutes maximum and key note addresses tap out at the 15 minute mark.
“At #140conf NYC we will be taking a hard look at something Jeff Pulver calls “The State of NOW” and the continued effects the worldwide adoption of social communication platforms such as twitter is having on a number of industries including: Celebrity, “The Media”, Advertising, Politics, Education, Music, Television, Comedy, Real Estate, Public Policy and more. The take aways from this event will provide the attending delegates knowledge, perspectives and insights to the next wave of effects Twitter and the real-time internet will have on business in 2010 and beyond.”
Seems broad, no? The list of speakers at the New York City event range broadly in areas of expertise as well. The roster includes:
o Alexis Maybank, Founder of Gilt Groupe
o Anny Curry, NBC’s Today Show
o Bruce Upbin, Managing Editor at Forbes
o David Carr, Reporter & Blogger at New York Times
o Dennis Crowley, co-founder of FourSquare
o MC Hammer, Musician
o Ivanka Trump, The Trump Organization
o Joe Randazzo, Editor of The Onion
o Michael Ian Black, Comedian & Blogger
While it may not seem obvious at first what this motley crew has in common, that’s precisely point. Social media is limitless in its reach. It bridges gaps between types of businesses, country borders and even foreign languages. The 140 Character Conference is proving that individuals can maximize the opportunities provided by this event, without even needing to physically be in the room.
The beauty of this type of conference is that it uses the micro-blogging site Twitter as its starting point, which automatically makes it relevant to anyone on the site. Then the conference added a hashtag (#140conf) making updates from those at the event easily identifiable, and more importantly, searchable. All of the best sound bites, images and videos are being fed directly into your Twitter stream right at your desk.
Here is a small sampling of the expert advice pouring into my Twitter feed this morning:
@acarvin: Carr: you’re standing in line w/ mopes at Starbucks and you look at your Twitter feed and you become calm. Makes sbux tolerable. #140conf @SarahCaminker: Twitter is a human enabled RSS, adds a human element where people are curating their own feed. Via @carr2n #140Conf @LaurynBennett: Having a successful brand = having a consistent voice and message across all your businesses and audiences. @ivankatrump #140conf @JulieSpira: Eric Kuhn @CNN says everyone at CNN is tweeting from the CEO/Pres. down. #140conf @LaurynBennett: “Rule #1: Never forget the brand – your message MUST be in concert with your brand values.” ahthankyouverymuch, @Donny_Deutsch #140conf @JulieSpira: @GavinPurcell says Late night with Jimmy Kimmel has been on tv for 13 months. Started as a daily video blog for 5 months before TV #140conf
Jeff Pulver’s goal with this conference was to “explore the state of now” and you can join in, right this minute, with one simple step: logging into Twitter. Some of the most influential players in media and business are offering free advice and all you have to do is listen.
Twitter is finally taking the first step to monetize its service on Tuesday by launching an advertising platform called “Promoted Tweets.”
Co-founder Biz Stone officially announced the move this morning on the Twitter blog, citing that the company will start running “Promoted Tweets” from companies such as Starbucks, Best Buy, Sony Pictures, Bravo, Virgin America and Red Bull at the top of Twitter.com search results. So as an advertiser, what does your money on “Promoted Tweets” buy you? Similar to Google’s ad sense, it will buy you the top search result for certain keywords that you’ve bought. But that seems to be about it. Other than clearly stating that the tweet is sponsored, it will take on the same characteristics of a typical tweet on the micro-blogging service.
According to @Biz, “Promoted Tweets will also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and favoriting. Only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search results page.”
Similar to Facebook, Twitter also seems to be taking measures to ensure that the “advertisements” do not take away from the Twitter ecosystem. Therefore, “Promoted Tweets must meet a higher bar—they must resonate with users.” If users don’t interact with a “Promoted Tweet” (by replying to it, favoriting it, re-tweeting it, etc) the “Promoted Tweet” will disappear.
It will be interesting to see just how useful the tweets are for advertisers and brands, who associate much of their success on the Twitter service to engaging with fans one-on-one. Will a simple text based search ad on the top of a Twitter.com search result provide additional value?
Twitter COO Dick Costolo will address the new offering in further detail today at the AdAge Digital conference.
Tiger Woods makes his return to golf this afternoon at the Masters. Ending what seems like an eternal wait for golf fans, a media circus, casual bystanders and the few sponsors that stood behind him. His tee off at 1:42 p.m. ET will signal the next step of his rebranding from the downward spiral he initiated on November 27 in a car crash outside his Florida home.
After months of silence, Tiger and co. began the rebranding on February 19 in a heavily-controlled and choreographed apology. They took no questions and although they signaled that a return to golf wasn’t imminent, word spread a few weeks later that Tiger Woods would return at the Masters. They followed by making Woods available for exclusive interviews with Tom Rinaldi of ESPN and Kelly Tilghman of Golf Channel. Questions were vetted and once again Tiger managed to say something without really saying anything at all. Only this Monday at the Masters did Tiger address questions without parameters from a throng of reporters. To be fair, he answered every question and finally seemed genuine.
Galleries around Augusta, who’ve been following Tiger through his practice rounds this week, have marveled at his interaction with fans (something that has only occurred during disputes with them in the past). Jim Nantz, who will call the Masters on CBS, is already calling Tiger a changed man.
Folks may be getting a little ahead of themselves. As I’ve heard several pundits rib on Tiger’s camp over the last couple days “A Tiger doesn’t change his stripes overnight.” Perhaps, Nike understands that. In an ad created by Nike creative partner Wieden + Kennedy that began airing on Wednesday night, Woods stairs speechless at the camera. Not appearing as a new man but someone who seeks understanding. The only voice heard is of his late father Earl, who eerily addresses Tiger’s scandal without his own knowing.
“Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything?”
This certainly isn’t a remake of the Nike’s “Hello(again) World” Tiger ad, but a controlled message to viewers that tries to establish that Tiger is listening to his father and learning from his own missteps. Then again, nothing that Tiger has “accomplished” over the last 6 months has been awe inspiring enough to say “hello” again.
Let’s remember that Tiger’s image has been controlled since becoming a pro. During his first news conference in August 1996 to mark his pro career, he casually said “hello world.” Those in attendance and at home found it endearing. Until of course, it was revealed to be the headline for his Nike campaign that hit television sets across the world days later.
This ad from Nike is no different. Although it may draw controversy for using his late father’s voice, it stays in-line with his message to reporters and fans over the last few weeks: staying true to who he is as a person, strengthening his practice of Buddhism and introspection. This is who Tiger, and his team, want him to be during this transition period. When he has recaptured his greatness on the course (and he will), it’ll be time to say “hello” or “he’s back.” Now is not that time.
It’s shortcoming is simply that it’s another advertisement. A one-way message. It has always been with Tiger. He seeks the same control for his image that he has with a seven iron in hand at Augusta. Unfortunately, that’s not possible, especially in today’s 1,440-minute, Internet news-cycle. Fans will ultimately determine if and when Tiger is a changed man and no matter how many ads he throws their way, their words will count more than his or his late father’s in determining the future of his brand.
There are generally two types of brands on Twitter: engagers and talkers.
Engagers talk with their customers to develop conversation and build brand loyalty. They answer questions that their customers may have, and try to connect with them on an individual bases. Talkers are a little different. While they may have a good Twitter following, they do not engage in real conversation with their customers, choosing only to send out information, but not engage.
As I go through my Twitter feed I see far too many companies that fit the “talker” category. There are some really large brands that I like, and purchase items from, that I would simply label as a #twitterfail. It’s unfortunate, because many of them could easily engage others. They already spend a good chuck of time using Twitter, but simply don’t know how to make their use beneficial. Sure, they may be getting @replies and re-tweets, but without engaging this interested audience further they will be missing an enormous opportunity.
It’s important to regularly reflect and examine how you are using Twitter. Are you following your potential customers so that they can DM you with potential questions, which could lead directly to sales? Are you responding them them and making them feel important so they’ll visit your store or website more frequently? Are you asking them questions, not just pushing out information?
These are questions that brands must constantly ask themselves in order to become an engager instead of a talker.
Note: There is a third kind of brand on Twitter: one that creates a page and then vanishes. For the purpose of this column I did not include them – but this is by far the worst possible thing a brand could do. From the consumer’s perspective it’s simply frustrating.
Mashable published a really interesting report today, showing the percentage of state populations (United States) that have Facebook accounts. As you can see, the states with a red tint (South Dakota, Virginia, Massachusetts, and District of Columbia) have more avid Facebook users, while states shaded in light blue have less Facebook users (New Mexico, Alabama, West Virginia).
Another interesting statistic in the report shows that the city of Philadelphia has almost as many Facebook accounts as people, while New York City’s actual population is more than double its Facebook population.
These charts are worth spending a few minutes going through, as they offer some really interesting information on where Facebook users live and who they are – which can help brands identify key groups of audience, and market more directly to them.
RaceTalk posted on Tuesday about the Apple/Gizmodo conflict involving a break in at the home of Gizmodo editor Brian Chen to recover an iPhone prototype. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show’s take on the situation (which aired last night) is a hilarious, sound bite filled segment titled “Appholes.”
