Game Plan for Institutional Dysfunction. Lessons learnt from watching The Wire

One of the best scenes from The Wire

Social Media Evangelists have to not only educate but also have a strategy in place for institutional dysfunction.

I have been watching The Wire, David Simon has created a cracking drama, he has breached on a really interesting theme in the series called, ‘Institutional Dysfunction’. I define it as all the bureaucracy problems that are faced within organizations, these are mainly caused because the goals of the individual and organization are not always aligned. He demonstrates that this happens both within the ‘Baltimore Police Force’ and the illegal Drug Syndicate.

In terms of Social Media Marketing, I think that there a number of people within companies that understand what they need to do in terms of social media marketing but because of Institutional Dysfunction they are not able to implement these activities.

With this in mind, You have got to take your hat of to BigPond for the pace that they got to market with their Twitter account @bigpondteam.

I think the job of the evangelist/agent driving social media change within an organization, is to not only educating a company but also have a game plan of how they are going to deal with institutional dysfunction in making sure that a company embracing social media becomes more than just an idea.

Alright we got real deep just then, I promise fluff pieces for the rest of the week.

Australian Youtube star Blunty3000 and Toshiba promotion

Blunty3000/Nate (Australia's 3rd most subscribed Youtuber) has collaborated with the people at Toshiba, he is giving people the chance to win a new computer all they have do is tell Toshiba what song they should put in their latest commercial.



Why does this work?

- Low involvement to entering. All you have to do is suggest a song.

- Blunty3000 is all about technology and gaming so this is not a stretch for his audience or for him to talk about computers.

- Full disclosure is given that; Nate has teamed up with the people at Toshiba.

The whole thing is pretty similar to any promotion you would see running on television. What is interesting about it is that Australian Youtube Vloggers are starting to do paid forbranded promotions with full disclosure.

EDIT: My bad, after the jump on Nate Youtube description it states that this is not a paid for promotion. However, Nate would love to get a new Toshiba, and they would be mad not to give him a computer after what he has just done! IMO there is no drama here if money did exchange hands anyway.

On a side note, anyone know the agency involved?

I party farkin hard wif me mates, I got photos to prove it! WTF is Public Identity?

Do your mates like to P-A-R-T-A-Y hard on the weekends? Do they get really munted or pass out drunk all the time?



Then you might need to submit the evidence to Skanked Weekly – Facebook Group. The group is ‘A weekly pictorial update of the worst of the worst. The trash of Melbourne seedy underground.’ This is a public group that ANYONE can join. Even your future employers.

It is always very entertaining viewing and I sometimes think about dobbing in my mates.

But I always come back to my mothers sage advice;

If Asher Moses took those photos and published it on the front of SMH would it still be LULZ-worthy?


Probs not, don’t want to embarrass my mates that much.

Last week, Over in Perf a small time blogger LoversandLobbers (a blog that captures clubbers who have taken too many pills or very public displays of affection) published some interesting shots of a nice gal giving a good servicing to a guy under the piano in a popular Perth nightclub.

Turns out via comments time, that the boy in photo was married and that girl is not wifey.

Photos became little Perf meme and turned up on NOVA website.
Guy in photos asks blogger to take them down,
Blogger tells him to get stuffed.


Public identity is in a little bit of a pickle at the moment. People are told to be careful what they publish online but in a number of cases it is actually a third party who can alter your identity via publishing/tagging you in incriminating photos.




New problems for the youf of Australia?

What is your advice to iGens knowing that Amateur Paparazzi are out every Saturday night but all they want to do is feel ‘real’ via ecstasy, munch their jaws off for 6 hours and then get intimate with 'new friend' at club?

Six practical tips to getting a video onto the Youtube Honours Board

I am getting pretty good at this photo editing thing.


Most so called 'viral videos' online are pretty much stuffed before they start.

One thing that is stressed at The Population is that with clients we do not like to be brought on after production of an idea. We are not a seeding company. The success of any content online relies 90% on the content; whether it has been built for an online audience in mind and whether it is remarkable.

However there is that other 10%, where alot of Ad Agencies/Marketers fall over. Once video content has been released online, people just expect it to go viral because it is good. However I feel alot of companies either dont know or do not 'drive' content hard enough in this initial stage.

For me one of the key performance indicators I always look at is the Youtube Honour Board. This accounts for the most viewed clips for the (day/week/year). Being on the Honour Board works two ways, it proves you have driven enough eyeballs but it then helps to spotlight your video and helps it get to a wider audience.

6 things about the Youtube Honour Board that are vital to creating a viral success.

1. You have really got 24 hours to hit it, from the minute you publish your video you have 24-48 hours to get it on the Daily Honour Board. No slow burn approach for Youtube.
2. Remember that the Australian Honour board will only take into account Australian views, concentrate on getting to an Australian Audience to begin with.
3. Australian online news sources (news.com.au, smh.com.au, etc.) can seriously help generate traffic, think about a strong media release strategy.
4. StumbleUpon can help offer social advertising, which point relevant traffic towards your video.
5. Approx 10,000 views will get you in the Top 5 most viewed for a Daily and 10,000 for the Top 20 for Weekly.
6. How does your video sound in 100 characters? because that is all you have to help it hit on Twitter.

Have you got any other solutions to helping getting a video into the honour board?

Top 10 Branded iPhone Applications - Utility Marketing

After going to Ad:Tech I got inspired yall. I heard about the future of marketing being utility marketing. Creating services which help your customers. I was told that I would find this nirvana on my iPhone, in the App store. So I did a bit of searching for branded Apps. I found that there was a limited amount of offline brands creating apps, those that did create Apps nicely fited into four categories;

Utility- The brand helped create something that would help people in their life, it was not directly related to the product that the company sold.
Extension -This was Application that supported the current product offering. In a number of cases reformatting content into an App.
Entertainment - This was when brands created games and in a way sponsored the 'good times'
Apps for Apps sake - This was when a company knew they had to have an App but didnt know what to make.

Top 10 Branded iPhone Apps.

Proof that I did my research and I don't read your emails

1. World Nomads Language Courses (Utility)
Learn French from your phone. I like this extension they are giving value to people with this application. Something all travelers need and when they come to think about Travel Insurance hopefully World Nomads will be top of mind.

2. Surf Report – Oakley (Utility)
Offering the grommits a chance to find the surf report = gold. They have also given you the opportunity to stay in contact with Oakley sponsored riders.

3. Carlings iPhone Beer (Entertaining)
A game where you wobble a beer down a bar and then get to drink a virtual beer. Hint: You can entertain friends kids with this one for hours and at the same time turn them into future Binge Drinkers.

4. Volkswagen Polo Challenge (Entertainment)
Reminds me of that game you used to play on your gameboy where you would chase the car and you could never get past the second level! What was the name of that game? Yeah, this game is that except your driving your ex-girlfriends car.

5. ESPN Cameraman (Entertainment)
Wow this game sounded awesome, I can fulfill my life long dream of being a Paparrazi! Turned out to be, spot the difference game! :(

6. ANZ Banking (Extension)
What a sweet app, I enjoyed this throughly, especially the part where they asked me to put in my banking deets. Oh yeah that is right I am with Commonwealth Bank. But if I did have an ANZ, I would be able to transfer money between accounts and view transactions.

7. ABC (Extension)
Now I can listen to Triple J when I am walking home! This is awesome! I don't even listen to Triple J but if I ever did I would so use this App.

8. QANTAS(Extension)
Learn when your flight has been delayed by 3 hours, find where the QANTAS lounge that you are not a member of is in any airport in the world.

9. Pinks Funhouse –Sony Music (Extension)
I think this will become quite common (not angry woman singers empowering 14 yr old girls all round the world but Musicians having apps), you can buy the songs, see pictures and keep up to date on the latest Musicians news.

10. Spin the Coke (App for Apps sake)
In 2006, I went to a Ja Rule concert, it was pretty much awesome, until he got to his slow song, Ja - 'If yall feeling me right now raise your lighters, if you dont have a lighter, raise your mobile phones!'. And with that 5,000 14 year old girls raised their phones.
Okay this App is a bottle that you spin, so when you are at that crazy arse house party and someone suggests a game of Spin The Bottle, and there are no bottles around, you can pull out your iPhone and save the day! Thanks Coke!

Notables
Disney World Webcam
If Michael Jackson was ever to create a iPhone Application, creating an App that had a video stream of kiddies playing with fantasy characters would have to be pretty high up there. This app allows you too see the lines for rides, weather and a map! Sweet!

Betty Crocker Mobile Cookbook, QANTAS, BMW Z4 , Quantum of Solace, , Weather Channel

From Online Ghetto (4chan) to Civilised Communities (Facebook)

Lately, I have been doing a bit of discourse analysis (looking at the conversations that take place) for brands in social environments. One thing I have noticed is the quality of insights is dependent on the channel alot of the times.

I believe that there are two traits that affect how civilized a community will be online, the opportunity to be anonymous and the chance of offline interaction.

We expect brands to act civilized all the time and I think that they can struggle with having valuable conversations when consumers are not playing by the same rules.

Brand guardians must remember that further down the path of uncivilized communities the value of peoples opinion and feedback becomes less reliable because people are not accountable to their words.

Unicorns get all the babes!

Okay, 3 quick Adspace Pioneer related updates;

1. There is some dood in Melbourne who is doing some crazy street art, is it our ol graf mate from Sydney.


2. I have been able knock one thing off the list of 10 things I want to do in Marketing before I die. My dad has always wanted to travel across the states in a Muscle Car, so for his birthday I bought him a ticket to come to US with me and drive from Chicago to LA on May 8th.



3. The full story from Boxxybabee comes out, I kinda of miss her.

Misunderstood

The problem with the written word is that it is so easy to be misunderstood. I fall into this group, whether it be my posts, twits or emails.

How do you deal with being misunderstood online? What do you do to ensure that you are not misunderstood in emails/blog posts/twits?

One thing I have started doing is using emoticons. I find them really important in helping to communicate tone maybe the 14yr IM loving Julian Cole was onto something.

7 traits of Cool Kids Online

Just like in school the cool kids start trends, Online is no different, the cool kids start global memes such as Lolcatz, to getting bizarre words on Twitter Trends #fisting or to being the most viewed on Youtube. There are some common traits that cool kids online share in common.

1. Cool kids have alot of friends
Friends are different to followers here is a great article describing the difference (HT Gav)

2. Cool kids will pick up technology really fast.
They will usually be an early adopter and understand the unspoken rules of the technology.

3. Cool kids hang out with cool kids
Cool kids will hang out in the same areas, they will help to bump friends trends. This helps to push their own memes when they need. 4chan is living proof of this.

4. Cool kids can remix
Can remix and have friends who can remix; be it words (tweets) or pictures (lolcatz) which help to carry a meme.

5. Cool kids rock at asynchronous conversation
Cool kids are really good at writing online, they are confident and can paint scenarios/stories with words/images better than your average.

6. Cool kids meet offline
Cool kids look to every opportunity to meet up with friends offline as they understand the power of connecting offline.

7. Cool kids live an online lifestyle
To be able to do all of the above you must be consistently connected, there is no 9-5 with this technology, it is constant and a part of their lives.

Why should Marketers care about the cool kids?
If I was also looking for a Community Manager for my brand; I would definitely be looking for someone who display some if not all of these traits.

If I was in the selection panel for Best Job in the World these would also be on my shortlist of traits needed.

Can you think of any other trends that cool kids online show?

The silver bullet to going viral! Friendship

This week, all I am going to talk about is friendship!

People say there is no silver bullet to going viral but there really is….it is friendship.

Friendship is different to networking/relationships because you can know someone but friendship is about going out of your way for someone.

I have done a number of things on this blogs that were along with other reasons motivated because I wanted to help my friends out.

The Samboys Chips video was not that remarkable, I think the way that all my friends (Nat, Andy, Nicole and some Twit bros) helped spread the word, really illustrated the true power of friendship.