If you read my previous post from last week you might be aware that I am not a big fan of Google’s new release, Google Buzz. Honestly, I feel that the release of the iPad is equally ridiculous. They have both created products for non-existing markets. The market Google Buzz operates in is already saturated, and Apple is offering a product that sits in-between two product categories (mobile and laptop) without any of the benefits! Both Google Buzz and the iPad are considered to be the two giants’ major releases for Q1 2010, and have therefore generated a lot of discussion. However, they have also receive a lot of critique (not just from me) among all praise.
I want to see which one is considered to be the bigger failure? Or am I wrong? Are they both products that will revolutionise respective industry? Please answer the poll, and if you consider me to be wrong, please tell me why in the comments field!
(This post and poll represents my own opinions and thoughts, and not those of Jam)
As all you Gmail users probably are aware, this morning Google launched a new leap into the Social Media space. They call it Google Buzz, and it works very similarly to Facebook’s “What’s on your mind?” sharing functionality:
You are able to share thoughts, links, photos, videos, RSS feeds etc. What sets it apart from Facebook, aside from one obvious thing, is that you are able to pull in content from your social networks or utilities such as Picasa, flickr, Google Reader and Twitter. This is a great functionality that facebook is lacking, and will probably do so due to equal lack of collaboration partners. All this is done straight through your Gmail account and is shared to your Gmail contacts. You are able to follow peoples’ Buzz feeds, or bring in random content from all your contacts.
Of course this has taken Twitter by storm (around 3,189 tweets over the last 6 minutes on ‘Google Buzz”) , and is the second highest ranking topic at the moment. However, even though it holds high share of buzz, it is not really received well:
According to me the biggest difference between Buzz and Facebook is also why I don’t think it will revolutionise the Social Media world: Gmail is not the forum where you want to share thoughts, party pictures or funny videos to everyone. My contacts in Gmail differ quite a lot from my friends in Facebook. Even Twitter gets around this problem due to a level of anonymity within the micro blog. As I have used my Gmail account for professional correspondence, I run the risk of sharing my content to unintended recipients.
Even though it could be considered a nice effort by Google to try to break into even another space, I don’t think they will succeed. I use my Gmail account for sending emails, for which it is great, but that’s what I will continue to do, nothing more. I’m not saying that Google hasn’t succeeded before in branching out, but this time they are moving in the wrong direction.
But an even more important question, what happened to Google Wave? I haven’t heard anything about it over the last months. This email system that was going to revolutionise the email world, did it flop?
Our neighbours and friends Fallon have together with B-Reel produced a game for the Kerry Foods Cheestrings website, supporting their new range of TV advertisements. The protagonist is Mr Strings, who is on a quest around the world to re-establish cheese as a great source of calcium. The adverts are targeted to tweens aged 8-14, and are supposed to educate them in the importance of calcium.
The website is filled with interactive bits and pieces (like designing your own vehicle and character), perfect to catch and hold the attention of any 8 year-old. As you play you can share your progress over your Social Networks.
As always when B-Reel is behind the production it looks great, and I have to admit that even though I am quite far outside the target demographic I got a little hooked.
YouTube has recently asked their customers what they are missing from their favourite video host. The result was a large outcry for something that goes well in line with Twitter’s genius: Simplicity. Most YouTube users want to watch videos with minimum hustle. However, there is one smaller group of people, that is very important for YouTube’s revenue stream, that wants the complete opposite: the uploaders. The latter user group wishes to enhance communication with the audience and asks further ways to increase audience volume, and both would need further added features to the interface.
So, who did YouTube listen to? Today it was announced that the video site will be launching a new version of the site, quite similar to Facebook Lite. It is not officially made yet when YouTube Feather will go live but, we the Beta version is ready for testing now. It will provide viewers with the benefit of watching video with the minimum latency possible. The downside? It achieves minimum latency through limiting many of the features available to the user lowering the amount of bytes that needs downloading by the browser. This will definitely make it more difficult to feature sponsored content, but could however contribute to an enriched brand experience for the viewer.
This week I will continue to talk within the theme of my Swedish origin. In Sweden, millions of people each year ignore paying the TV license, the fee you pay for the public channels. Radiotjänst, the Swedish organization in charge of annually collecting these fees, have since a few years back switched to a new strategy to get TV owners to pay up. Instead of attacking all bilkers they are officially thanking everyone who is paying the fees.
This week a new campaign was launched where Radiotjänst is personally thanking each and every responsible person out there. Through uploading your photo your face gets superimposed on a film, thanking the one person of the world, who is protecting freedom of speech through sponsoring open television broadcasting. You can now see your face being praised all over the world as people reach out and celebrate you as the Hero. You can then share this video with all your friends, showing that you are a giving and responsible person:
This campaign has faced a lot of criticism. It is not very likely that it will generate a lot of new TV registrations. I also think they could have expanded of the “virallability” of the campaign. It is however a very fun way to connect people to the cause and I can think of many ways of how this could be used for more suitable brands. I really enjoyed watching myself as the protector of freedom of speech… Now my next goal is to become the UN Secretary-General.
I have always been intrigued by the brand Absolut, even before I, for the first time tasted the transparent, not very well tasting, liquid. Even though I’m not a great vodka fan, Absolut has always reigned as my favourite among liquor brands. Its clean and its simple. It has incredible branding and always great packaging. And part of my love for it might lie in the fact that we share the same Swedish origin.
Absolut has launched a bottle design called Absolut Rock, and as part of the new ‘Absolut World’ concept they have released a new campaign with the pay off “In an Absolut World you’re with the band”. On the website you get to follow how Absolut introduces music photographer Danny Clinch to the Australian band Wolfmother. Together they are documenting Wolfmother on tour and in the studio.
Both videos and photos are featured on the site, and together with the website the total impression is really nice. Also the bottle looks amazing.
However, I am missing the Social Media element. Users are not even able to leave comments. I believe that there are plenty opportunity to create an engagement around this campaign, but it seems like Absolut wasn’t willing to take it all the way.
I am willing to call it a good execution, not an Absolut one.
During September, 22,781 online conversations circled around one major topic: fashion. This autumn’s major fashion events displaying collections for spring and summer 2010 have now ended.
When people are talking about fashion week, the main forum used is Twitter with 25% of all the conversation. Probably not all that surprising, but certainly highlighting Twitter’s integration with mobile handsets has now made it easier than ever to let the world know about the latest ‘must have’. What is also interesting to notice is that the major social media platforms are the main medium for discussion and not the dedicated fashion forums. That blogs hold 57% of the mentions, compared to forums with 9%, shows that, as with the designers themselves, fashion bloggers want their own stage, rather than sharing it with others.
The Graph to show where Fashion conversations are happening online. Twitter is considered a Micro blog, hence placed under the category ‘Blogs’. Source: Brandwatch
However, when people are willing to listen they want to hear from the experts and fashion brands need to be there. Gucci is one of the major brands that have understood this and their Facebook page has yielded over 450K fans to date. Marc Jacobs on the other hand, who is not engaging with the fans on Facebook, but is only hosting a fan page, has only 150K fans. Gucci consequently is the most mentioned fashion brand relating to the recent fashion weeks, and has three times as many mentions as Marc Jacobs. – perhaps not just a co-incidence.
So learnings for fashion marketers, head to the next event with your iPhone in one hand and your influential blogger in the other.
CNN technology posted an article two days ago stating that Vivox, a US based company that provides an online integrated voice service for gaming and social virtual worlds, is going to launch its services on facebook. Vivox, who currently have over 15 million users, will probably be able to expect a massive user growth, and facebook users will be able to experience their favourite social network in a completely new way.
But Twitter is not late to follow its main rival. Yesterday the web based phone service JAJAH released news about their new service. Through typing “@call @username” Twitter will prompt both phones to start ringing on a secure line, through Twitter. They are also true to the Twitter brand through keeping the conversations to a 2 minute maximum.
I can’t help to think about some problems that this will bring. Both Facebook and Twitter are currently being flooded with information, and to a large extent spam. This opens up for another way for us to get targeted by all the litter out there. Are we going to get this spam through our phones now?
Also, some people have hundreds, others thousands of friends and followers, that actually post or write them messages every day. Imagine that coming as phone calls instead.
from teaberryltd.com
So now that we are actually going back to talking to each other again, will this mean that in a not too distant future we are also going to start meeting each other in person?
Christopher Cornell of Sci-Tech Today is writing an interesting piece on how employers must have social media policies. He starts out with reminiscing about the Domino’s Pizza case where two employees videoed themselves doing nasty stuff to food, and then uploading it to YouTube. I reckon it is self-explanatory that if you do something disgusting or illegal while wearing the brand’s uniform, displaying it through an open medium it will generate negative buzz and damage the brand. You don’t need any policies against that. It is like having policies against robbing banks while wearing your McDonald’s uniform.
However, Cornell also talks about how your own Social Media appearance reflects the brand. As many companies have Social Media profiles, their employees are the ones representing that profile online:
“I’ve found that social networking has blurred the line between one’s professional and personal life. For example, if I want a sales person to invite all of his professional contacts to our Facebook fan page, I need him to have a Facebook profile. Once, his profile appears on our corporate fan page, I may click on his profile.”
This of course means that as your personal on-line space is merging with your employers, you will more and more take your work with you home, and your ability to clock out will no longer be as apparent.
“I cannot control how he represents himself, but I can tell you that it isn’t the most professional representation of one’s self if his personal life is posted all over his profile.”
Social Media is making our lives a lot easier and gives us more freedom, but it is also limiting our autonomy. If my Facebook profile is linked to my employer’s, prospect customers will be able to in detail see what people are representing the brand, and the line between the professional and social person is becoming less defined.
I have always been impressed with people that are a bit too lazy to learn the real thing, but still very keen on practicing it. Like people becoming the world champion playing Guitar Hero instead of learning how to play the guitar, or just not being able to keep from singing really loudly with a false voice at parties, to their peers’ great appreciation, instead of actually learning how to sing. Some people decide to every day write a blog, instead of actually sitting down to write something of real substance.
Last week the UK Air Guitar Championship was held in the O2 academy in Islington, and the winner, Wildthing37, is being sent on to the world championship in Oulu, Finland, the country who has brought to the world great acts such as tough guys Lordi and cool cats Boomfunk MCs, to go face-to-face against his likes in the ultimate air guitar showdown.
You might sense the sarcasm in my tone of voice, and I must admit that I have never thought highly of people playing Air Guitar. But after looking at this video from TIME’s website I must say that I am pretty impressed! These guys are putting on a way heavier performance than most acts they are imitating.
Maybe next year this Air Guitar virgin will also be on his way to Oulu to face the best of the best in the World Air Guitar championship. I just need to come up with a cool stage name!
