that canadian girl

Category: Blogging & Online Media

  • The Richter Scales: Here comes another bubble

    Can you hear the bubble?

  • The Secret Strategies Behind Many 'Viral' Videos or why Dan Ackerman Greenberg is an idiot

    [Disclaimer: I realise the last thing I should be doing is giving this guy more visibility and mentions on the web, but his original article, as well as his follow-up REALLY rubbed me up the wrong way and I need to vent it out.]

    When I took on my first marketing role, some years ago now, I quickly realised that the term marketing, like sales came with a lot of negative baggage. Since then, I’ve met enough marketers who fit the awful cliché to see why the name has been sullied for good.

    I’ve made it my personal goal to never, ever fit in with the stereotype of the marketer who is willing to lie, cheat and sell his firstborn child for the sake of hitting some haphazard target numbers set by a boss in an executive leather chair in a clinical office boardroom. I want marketing to be about a great product and an honest passion for the community to whom it brings a solution to a problem. I only want to work for company directors who have visions I can agree with, and marketing managers who have their heart and their ethics in the right place. Call me idealistic or naïve, but that’s how this girl rolls.

    This morning, I came across a TechCrunch guest post by a guy called Dan who claims his viral video marketing agency can take average videos and shoot them into the viral fame sphere. He candidly starts with this introduction:

    “Have you ever watched a video with 100,000 views on YouTube and thought to yourself: “How the hell did that video get so many views?” Chances are pretty good that this didn’t happen naturally, but rather that some company worked hard to make it happen – some company like mine.”

    Now, I’m not new to paid blog posts, fake forum users and spam comments encouraging users to go view videos. I know very well how much money some companies will pay to get some of that hard-to-get attention time from viewers. In fact, I’ve been asked in the past to take part in every single one of these types of grey-area tactics, and have held my position. The Internet is polluted enough as it is, I won’t be adding to the spam that goes around by lowering myself to talking to myself on a public forum, pretending to be some teeny bopper who loves whatever product I’m asked to market.

    What rubs me the wrong way is the apparent pride with which Dan talks about his agency, while knowing very well that what he’s doing is a. ethically wrong, b. taking the lazy route, c. quite likely to one day blow up in his face.

    In his follow-up post, Dan apologises for the tone he took in his article and does a 180 degrees on his claims of spam tactics. His attempt at saving face with the sudden claim that he does not spam or manipulate people is pathetic and pretty damn weak.

    There are two scenarios that could’ve led Dan to require that second mea culpa post:

    • Either he does use dirty tactics and was a bit too honest, which makes him a moron for not foreseeing how others, with more ethics than him, would be incensed and angered by his post. If he can’t foresee consequences this obvious, do you really want him marketing your product?
    • Or he’s being a gusty bastard and did this specifically to get a rise out of people for the sake of some publicity, spicing his article with a few sensationalistic techniques he doesn’t necessarily always use. If that’s the case, he’s still an idiot for claiming to use frankly spammy techniques.

    Either way, Dan, it still makes you an ethically-twisted little shit.

    Unlike me, Ian Delaney doesn’t get his knickers in a twist, and focuses on the positives in Dan’s post, and highlights the things we can learn from successful viral videos.

    • Make it short: 15-30 seconds is ideal; break down long stories into bite-sized clips
    • Design for remixing: create a video that is simple enough to be remixed over and over again by others. Ex: “Dramatic Hamster”
    • Don’t make an outright ad: if a video feels like an ad, viewers won’t share it unless it’s really amazing. Ex: Sony Bravia
    • Make it shocking: give a viewer no choice but to investigate further. Ex: “UFO Haiti”
    • Use fake headlines: make the viewer say, “Holy shit, did that actually happen?!” Ex: “Stolen Nascar”
    • Appeal to sex: if all else fails, hire the most attractive women available to be in the video. Ex: “Yoga 4 Dudes”

    So while there’s a bit to learn from Dan’s posts, I just hope everyone remembers that there are plenty of ethical, community-centered and honest people in the marketing world who will agree that dodgy spamming and paid links just isn’t fair play. While dirty tricks might work short-term, you can’t build a community through it, and in the long run, that’s what matters.

  • Must PR people and bloggers be like oil and water?

    Last week, Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail and Wired Magazine blogger, lashed out at lazy PR people. The crux of the story is that Chris gets torrents of press releases, some more or less relevant, from public relations agencies that can’t really be bothered to do their research before sending releases around. Therefore Chris chose to publish the email addresses of a few hundred PR people who’ve sent him said releases.

    Bloggr cat sez ur PR is b0ringThis story really rings true for me on three levels;

    • First, I’m a blogger, albeit a small-time one. But I still get plenty of press material, ranging from jaw-droppingly excited news to awfully written, pointless drivel. More of the latter than the former, needless to say.
    • Second, I come from an email marketing background where my key concern was whether the content I was sending week in, week out, to over half a million readers was worth THEIR while. I was, to say the least, precious about Data Protection and if anyone suggested buying lists from agencies or scraping our customer database for addresses, I suggested in return ripping their balls out and cooking them in a nice tomato and basil sauce. Once I felt that the company I worked for didn’t allow me to produce content I genuinely thought could make our customers feel warm and fuzzy inside, I had to leave.
    • Finally, in my new role at Taptu, I wear many hats – one of which involves handling some of the communication and PR. I adore that part of my job but it means I’m on the OTHER side of the fence, sending press releases, praying that bloggers won’t rebuff me or, worse, publish a post claiming I’ve spammed them with irrelevant content. That’s amongst my worst nightmares, no joke.

    It’s a funny place to be, to say the least. I sympathise with both camps to a certain point; the PR people who are given targets to meet, numbers of mentions and pageviews to get, and the bloggers who want real news.

    At the same time, as a blogger, poor journalism in the form of bloggers who regurgitate press releases thinly veiled as news articles make my blood boil, as I know these are the people who have lulled PR agencies into a state of comfortable laziness.

    There’s no denying it, working in PR and always being on top of the latest news and the important bloggers isn’t easy and requires passion. You need to be interested in your industry and personally invested. The canyon between the passionate product evangelist and the PR Joe Bloggs who’s trying to hit targets on paper is deeper and more obvious than ever, and I’ll let you guess which one manages to appeal to me, Carlo or Chris Anderson.

    So PR people, make an effort to think before you send. Send quality news, don’t blow your own trumpet too much and let us figure out whether your product is “revolutionary” or “ground-breaking”. And bloggers, let PR people know when they’re hitting the sweet spot and when they’re not.

    Hopefully, we can all learn to play nice together and live in a nice utopian world where bloggers and PR people walk together hand in hand, surrounded by rainbows and unicorns. Right? Right? Can’t we? Well… I tried.

    [Cat picture by edmittance on Flickr]

  • Sweet Roxy, Pink Roxy

    I ain’t a big time blogger. I’m definitely not A-list. In fact, I don’t know if I’m even E-list. And E-list bloggers don’t get cool benefits from their internet ramblings – except for the occasional stranger running up to you going “heyyyy you’re that canadian girl! … I don’t know your real name, sorry…” – which just further causes you to feel like a total dweeb.

    Roxy perfumesHowever, a few weeks ago, I struck lucky when the lovely people at Roxy asked me if I’d like to review their new girly fragrance. How can one refuse a freebie? Especially one that’s pink and smells pretty.

    So I’m not usual one to talk about uber-girly stuff like fragrances, unless they smell of Play-Doh, but if you’ll oblige me for a moment, I’ll switch into that mode.

    When the package arrived at work, I literally had to tackle the other girls in the office to the ground to get a hold of it. I opened it, expecting travel-size samples of the products, but found a full size eau de toilette, a body lotion and a shower gel!

    Now, before I give my verdict, I’ll say the following: Roxy have won themselves a blog entry on the product, but they can’t buy my opinion. Those who read me regularly will know I tend to be rather blunt about it.

    However, the fragrance smells heavenly and I’d shower in it if I could – and in fact, I do, with the shower gel. It’s light and yummy, and makes me feel really zen and positive. It’s a great way to start the day! (Please don’t tell me you expected a “punctuated with a zest of citrus fruits and velvety berries, with tones of magnolia and a magnificent organic Ylang” tune, because you know I’d be reading off their press release.)

    Where they failed to impress me is with their marketing. They’ve launched the website Roxy Parfums which, while cute and pink, doesn’t quite do it for me. Does anyone else get a white box right in the middle where a video should be playing? And that’s accompanied by some dubious-at-best blog entries by Roxy, and a game that now seems to have expired. Why not invite a real girl to blog about her lifestyle? And why not leave the game running and add a caption saying the competition is over? I might like to try the game anyways, you know.

    But aside from the slightly dodgy marketing, the fragrance itself is sooo nice that I really wish my blog had smellovision so I could share it with you.

    Roxy can be bought at Debenhams, amongst other locations, so pop by at lunchtime and grab a little spritz of it. You’ll love it. It really is nice enough to give you a boost of energy and a little pick-me-up!

  • Your call is important to us: Seven tips to use when dealing with customer service

    We’ve all had situations where we’ve needed to call the customer service number for a product or service where either something’s gone wrong, Angry call centre workeror we’re dissatisfied with what’s happening. It’s normal for that to happen considering the amount of goods and services we consume in a year. Some products are bound to be duds sometimes.

    What’s not normal or acceptable is to have to fight uncooperative call centre monkeys, who have no notion of service and no interest in helping you.

    To help ease the pain of this process, here are a few tips to expedite the process and get to a resolution to your problem as quickly as possible.

    1. Always document your interactions: Even if you’re sure you’ll remember, write down the name of the person you spoke to, the time/date at which you spoke, and the status of the issue when you hung up. It’ll quite likely help you resolve your dispute quicker.
    2. Keep the phone number handy: The first time you use a new service, add their customer service phone number to your address book. If they “streamline” their website and remove all trace of their customer service number, you’ll still have a copy of it. Doubly good if you sync your address book with your phone.
    3. Letters still work: Sometimes, nothing will get the message across better than a firm, well-written, snail mail letter to customer relations. Clearly state the context in which the problem occurred, give detailed accounts of communications to date and end with a statement of what resolution you expect. The clearer your letter, the more likely they’ll answer it promptly.
    4. Send your letters by registered mail: Don’t allow them to pretend the letter was never received by ensuring it’s signed at the other end.
    5. Send a copy of your letter to Public Relations: Whether by email or post, copy the Public Relations department. They have to deal with public flare-ups all the time, and if yours looks like it might cause them hassle, they’ll try to nip it in the bud and might even beat Customer Services by responding first.
    6. Most importantly, be patient, polite and have a sense of humour: You’re talking to someone who’s most likely doing an 8 hour shift in a bleak, crowded pigpen of a call centre. If you shout at them or act aggressively, they’ll tune you out and maybe even mislead you to get you off the phone. Being nice pays off in situations like this one.
    7. Bonus tip – Do not swear: Ever. Even if you’re the sweetest, nicest office manager around, don’t say “f*cking weather today, eh?” followed by a couple more expletives, because they will respond with “I’m sorry mam, but you used foul language three times, I’ll now have to end this call. Good evening mam.”

    [Credit to Dan Says, in Merlin’s Flickr comments, for striking some ideas that led me to finally scrapping this post together after talking about it many times.]
    [Image borrowed from Think Geek]

  • SXSW '08 – I'm going, are you?

    It’s late afternoon, and I’m hyperventilating. It might be the caffeine I’ve been ingesting hourly since I stepped into the office, it could be the nerves because Taptu is launching Monday, and I’ve just invited hundreds of people to the beta. But no… what’s really got me going right now is that I’m attending SXSW ’08. I really am. Like, really really! Ticket to Interactive, Music and Film all booked.

    I’ve been hoping to attend this conference for three years now, and this time ’round, I’ll be there with bells on. And with a videocamera. Texas, here I come!

    If you’re going, drop me a line. If you’ve been, drop me a line. 🙂

    Now, I’m off to do a little happy dance.

  • Diggnation 118 live in London – The bits you didn't see

    As you’ve probably figured out by now, I really like Diggnation, enjoyed Wednesday’s live show like no live event I’ve been to before, and am thrilled to have met the guys there.

    I took my video camera to the show and it was such a good move. The show does not start when the cameras start rolling. Alex and Kevin are naturally completely whacky, especially when drunk, so the moment they roll in, the madness begins.

    So here are the 10-15 minutes before the show, including the marriage proposal to Alex, some pre-show checks and opening their new shiny Diggnation mugs.

    The video job is pretty bad, no need to tell me, but hey, I didn’t want Glenn to feel his job was at risk. Or that’s my excuse anyways! 😉

    [Don’t forget to Digg it! …How full-circle-meta…]

    Diggnation 118 Live In London – The Bits You Didn’t See

  • Tell me what you think of the mobile web

    Do you work in mobile? Do you have questions about mobile phones? Do you have an opinion on mobile phones of today? (Who doesn’t!)

    Tomorrow, I’ll be hosting the 94th Carnival of the Mobilists, a big roundup of news and posts in the week about the mobile world, over on Taptology, the Taptu blog.

    I would love to get some fresh blood into the Carnival, so if you want to contribute, send a link to a post about mobile you’ve written recently to mobilists at gmail dot com before midnight PST tonight and I’ll include you in the roundup.

  • FOWA: Some evening fun with Diggnation

    After a number of interesting panels in the day, it was time for beers and Diggnation.

    Think of being 10 years old and looking up to your biggest, most favourite music star. Now imagine the excitement if you were told you’d get to meet them. That’s how I felt yesterday.


    Vero & Alex @ Diggnation live in London

    I filmed a good part of the live Diggnation show (which I’ll put online tonight), but then the guys bravely took on the mobs of 16 year olds and joined the Carsonified party at the Excel pub. Once the crowds went home, only a few people were left. But surprise, while Kevin buggered off to the hotel, Alex and the Totally Rad Show guys stayed for some drinks! Having a chat with them, they’re just as lovely as I’d hoped.

    If this kind of event and show format is the future of TV, I’m going to feel right at home.

  • Creating a community

    Matthew Haughey, MetaFilter says…

    “Be the third place; people have home, work and a third community or social attachment. This can be a car enthusiast club, a WoW guild or a website community. Make something they’ll want to spend time on everyday.”