Heal the world, make it a better place

For one day only Jam are social media observers no more and are joining other bloggers to tackle climate change. So far 8,263 from 146 countries have registered for this year’s blog action day.

But what’s it all about? I hear you cry. We all write a post that helps unite the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.

I cannot stress to you enough how important climate change is. So I went to a very serious website to get this very serious fact:

“The bottom line is that temperature and CO2 concentrations are linked. In recent ice ages, natural changes in the climate, such as those due to orbit changes, led to cooling of the climate system. This caused a fall in CO2 concentrations which weakened the greenhouse effect and amplified the cooling. Now the link between temperature and CO2 is working in the opposite direction. Human-induced increases in CO2 are driving the greenhouse effect and amplifying the recent warming”

We can all make a difference and at least try to offset Las Vegas

Buzz monitoring can lose you money

A few weeks ago I was given the pleasure of writing our weekly buzz monitoring article for Media Week. The nominees had recently been announced and it seemed like a good idea to do a piece on the powerful nature of our buzz monitoring tools at predicting the future. In this case who would win the Mercury music prize.

According to the buzz (and the bookies) Florence + the Machine should have won having got the most buzz online about them and the award. However to my dismay, having bet £900 on Florence, the outsider Speech Debelle scooped the award. While I have not heard her music she has made me look like a fool so please do not buy her music.

The valuable lesson she has taught me however is that buzz monitoring is only useful in predicting the future when it is a public vote. The judges in this case obviously read my article and decided to teach me this lesson by choosing the rank outsider.

Next week Derren Brown Vs buzz monitoring.

Have a festival on your own

My favorite online music providers at it again, in 9 days Spotify will be holding their invisible festival. Put simply by using play lists you can have all your friends round and listen to the same tunes others are listening to across the country.

Importantly all the proceeds go towards charity. A lovely example of social media going off line and doing something wonderful.

My only concern is that if i asked my friends to join me for a festival in my flat listening to my computer play music i would have very few takers. My prediction for the outcome of invisible festival is lots of very lonely people listening to the same play lists imagining each other having a better time. Hope i am wrong.

Paedo Proof

Yesterday a new type of social media site was launched that aims to make hanging with your friends online safer. The site is My Secret Circle and it is aimed at 9 – 12 year old girls.

Unlike social networks for grown ups you cannot befriend others online. You buy the program, which comes in the form of a flash drive, and each person has their own secret “code” for the My Secret Circle. After generating your code (a code box prompts you to do this), you print the code out on a small piece of paper and place it in a tiny capsule called a “charm”. Then, you exchange the charm with another My Secret Circle user in person.

Hand to hand viral.

I’m sure mums will love it but I have my reservations. This age group constantly strives to be grown up so joining Facebook is surely going to be much more appealing. Just in case however I am buying some shares.

A toast to keeping children safe from harm.

Litter Twitter

Twitter comes up again today as with everyday on the social media world. Moonfruit lounge have used an idea the Jam team have talked about in the past. They are giving away 10 Macbook Pro’s with the competition platform being Twitter.

To participate in their birthday giveaway users had to include the #moonfruit tag in any tweet on twitter. They could be as creative as they like with their tweets. All they had to do then is follow @moontweet to find out if they’ve won.

The debate that raged here at Jam was over the possible negative backlash from basically spamming Twitter. I however was firmly in the camp that due to the amount of Tweets that go through someone’s feed each day a few here and their wont annoy people. However now this has been done I think only a couple more brands can squeeze this same idea out of Twitter before people do feel it is getting a bit much.

Twitter’s fast but full of opinions

Read a tremendously interesting article in the Economist the other day about the speed at which news is being covered. It explores how wonderful Twitter is at breaking news but then, how inevitably with so many people trying to have their say, descends into useless nonsense.

I experienced firsthand the use of ‘Twitter news’ during the tube strike when the TFL website was providing no useful information about if it had a actually started or not. Instead i turned to second by second reports of hellish bus journeys on Twitter due to the strike having begun.

However with more important news such as the recent protests in Iran while Twitter provides the second by second reports the broadcasters are incapable of it is by no means a substitute. Information is often incorrect and the depth of coverage will never reach the levels broadcasters are capable of no matter how many tiny URL’s are used.

More importantly as on any Twitter story the first few posts are ‘factual’ but this quickly descends into opinionated rants making searching for actual useful reports very difficult.

Long live the BBC (for accurate news coverage even if it is a little bit slower).

The end of the action hero

Word on the street is that the studios are going to remake a host of 80’s classics such as Karate Kid, Short Circuit and Ghost Busters. Amongst those also being remade is Total Recall and this got me thinking about a very important and serious question; In the modern day world of action heroes who can step into Arnie’s shoes?

The answer is nobody. The role of the action hero has changed with more nimble, in thought and body, stars taking centre stage such as Matt Damon or Christian Bale. We are therefore left with the likes of Vin Diesel to play our traditional action hero. Unfortunately he is terrible even in the most basic action role.

The true action hero is dead. Goodbye and God bless.

Give to get given

Jam has a philosophy that you need to give something back to your audience if you want them to do something for you. This can come in many different formats from once in a lifetime opportunities to simply giving them free stuff.

Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails has obviously been listening to us as together with Jane’s Addiction they have helped raise $850,000 for Eric De La Cruz, a Nine Inch Nails fan being denied a heart transplant.

Whereas most similar causes tug on the heart strings in attempts to raise money this one is giving away a host of amazing prizes such as back stage VIP passes and dinner with the band. Trent’s Twitter account has been key to raising awareness for the cause with constant updates.

Twitter saves lives.

Music heals

Day of reckoning

The day is upon us. It’s more important than the World Cup, presidential election and Olympics combined. That’s right it’s i-level’s perfect pitch competition. Six teams made up of i-level staff battle it out in front of the company and 3 special judges to see who is the best at pitching.

Five Jam members have been split into different groups and will go head to head after work tonight at the local colosseum. The prize of winning comes a distant second to the recognition of your peers and the fact you have succeeded in not making a fool of yourself in front of the entire company.

Hopefully we can remain friends after the competition is over. We will let you know the results tomorrow.

Jam in battle

UPDATE: I fear that Sam’s disappointment meant he never shared the results of the Perfect Pitch. Unlucky for Sam it was my team that hauled the mighty trophy from bar to bar that evening.

Better Luck next time – Tom

We all love Spotify

Jam are big fans of the breakthrough act in music consumption Spotify. This blogger is obviously a fan too having come up with a lovely way to share his music collection. Having burnt all my CD’s during the rise of the MiniDisc sadly this is not an option for me.