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#ULRNM URBAN LIFESTYLE REPORT NEW MEDIA

free new media

trend report

for marketers

no. 1 january

2009

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You might wonder what the hell the weird sign on the ront cover means. Or youmight recognise it rom numerous places like or instance rom Twitter. In act you arecompletely right i you thought about Twitter. This might seem like a worn out topic,but it has become such an important part o the current media landscape that it wouldbe impossible to write a new media trend report without giving this topic the proper attention. Many bloggers out their write tons o great advice on dierent Twitter apps,we are in this issue ocusing mostl y on how Twitter is actually used by people and

how it can create value or brands.

Since this is the rst issue o 2009 I elt it was almost necessary to start o this issuewith a glance into the crystal ball in the rst article. But since you probably already haveread quite a ew o these already I only choose a ew o the trends that I personally think are important in media production and gadget consumption. Convergence and

divergence are two key words here. But this issue is so packed ull o inormationand insights that you really need to poor yoursel a cup o tea, or coee, and startcracking at this bad boy. First a ew words about the uture o this report though.

We are proud to present some new writers in this issue and we would love to

fnd more and more writers out there who can help improve this report. So please let us know i you want to write an article or become a regular writer.

It eels exciting to take this product rom a walled garden out into the world

o ree content. And it is much appreciated i you help us spread the word. Youcan send our reports to riends but it would be great i youwould ask them to register their own accounts on www.UrbanLiestyleReport.com so that they get all the latest

inormation directly. This also gives us an idea o our reader base. Another way to spread the word and make this reportbetter is to use the hashtag #ulrnm when promoting or commenting on our repor ts on Twitter .

Now, I know you can’t wait any more so just turn the pageand get started already! :)

THE HASHTAG ISSUE!

Tomas Nihlén, Editor in Chief and

writer. Co-founder of Urban Lifestyle.

Holds a very strong interest in new

media and how Internet is changing the

fundamentals of the whole marketing

arena. He particularly keeps an eye on

the evolving Internet video scene. Alsoloves podcasting both as a viewer and

a creator.

E-mail: tomas@urban-lifestyle.se

Linda Pierre, Editor and responsible

for layout & design. Co-founder and co-

owner of Urban Lifestyle. She is also

marketing director for an e-commerce

site in the travel accessories category.

Linda enjoys actually using social

media in her daily work instead of justtalking about it. She loves podcasting,

both practicing and consuming.

E-mail: linda@urban-lifestyle.se

editorial staff

TOMAS NIHLÉN - EDITOR IN CHIEF LINDA PIERRE - EDITOR

Editor in Chief Tomas Nihlén tomas@urban-lifestyle.se +46 8 501 64 377 Editor & Creative Director Linda Pierre linda@urban-lifestyle.se +46 8 501 64 376

Company behind the report: Urban Lifestyle AB

INFORMATION - WHAT IS ”URBAN LIFSTYLE REPORT - NEW MEDIA”?

”Beyond buzz words and corporate bullshit. We write about what’s actually going

on in new media and how it’s changing the marketing game. And we are always on

the look for talented and passionate people who want to write for us. So if you think

you have what it takes, don’t hesitate to shoot us an email to info@urban-lifestyle.se

and tell us more about who you are and what you want to write about.”

How do I get free issues? Create an account at

www.UrbanLifestyleReport.com and you’ll get anemail to download the reports.

How often? 4-5 times per year.

Images & illustrations: If not taken by any of our

writers, been approved by the copy holder or freeof use from Flickr Creative Commons.

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TOMAS NIHLÉN - STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

writers

Obsessed with new media but even more so i it is related to

moving images on a digital screen. Wanted to become a moviedirector in high school, and now enjoys every second spentin Final Cut editing video podcasts or short documentaries.

Web: Urban Liestyle Report Twitter: @tomasnihlen

LINDA PIERRE - STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

HJÖRTUR SMÁRASON - REYKJAVIK, ICELAND

LIA DUTRA - SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

A perectionist who is addicted to keeping up to date toeverything new, but in particular everything digital. Relives an olddream to become a radio host by keeping a mic close to her at all

times so that she can start a podcast episode at any given time. Web: Urban Liestyle Report Twitter: @lindapierre

Anthropologist who went practical. Writes, speaks andconsults on Internet marketing. He is also owner anddirector o a marketing consultancy in Reykjavik, Icelandspecializing in branding, social media and Internet marketing.

Web: http://blog.scope.is/ Twitter: @hjortur

Passionate strategic planner at the Brazilian agency AricaPropaganda who believes that in hard times creativity blossoms.Her thirst or knowledge never stops and her blog and articles hereare two outlets or her thoughts on marketing and related topics.

Web: http://liadutra.blogspot.com/ Twitter: @liadutra

A curiosity geek at a Stockholm based PR agency who thinks ”social”

is the most important part o social media and enjoys diving into this digital ocean every day. He thinks everybody should try Twitter at least once in their lietime and not be araid to try new things.

Web: http://jungrelations.com/blog Twitter: @oahnve

Sustainopreneurship acilitator and global knowledge nomadnetworking with intention and quality who runs/develops sixventures.

Web: http://www.sustainopreneurship.biz/Twitter: @sliceonline

Planner with a love or digital at Lawton CommunicationsGroup but also a blogger, podcaster and general evangelist or innovative marketing strategies. Has previously worked as a clientpartner and strategic leader or a wide range o blue chip clients.

Web: http://bluurb.wordpress.com Twitter: @nicholasgill

30-something Community Marketing Manager at Bauer Media, specializing in creating content, conversation andcommunities. Also experienced blogger (www.thewayotheweb.net and www.140char.com), journalist and social media addict.

Web: http://www.thewayotheweb.net Twitter: @badgergravling

OLLE AHNVE - STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

ANDERS ABRAHAMSSON - NORRKÖPING, SWEDEN

NICHOLAS GILL - LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

DAN THORNTON - PETERBOROUGH, UNITED KINGDOM

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in this issue 2009.01

5. First some mandatory crystal ball predictions

COVER IMAGE BY:

respres

8. A year of Value, not wealth

9. One day at a time

11. The New Media (and people) scenario14. Curiosity Geek - the marketing pro of tomorrow

16. The next phase of social networking online

19. Micro-blogging? All know what it is, no one knows what it is

25. Hashtags & Retweets - more than just fancy words?

30. The live web - at first glance34. A different kind of Internet Buzz - the one that comes from drinking

36. It’s all about the brand experience - seamless but not standardised

40. Death of the anonymous web?

41. A crisis of convergence Music 3.0

45. Liar liar pants on fire!

47. Opinion: STOP bugging us!

48. Connect with us!

49. Donations & ”Looking for Indesign Guru!”

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ince this is the rst issue o 2009 it would be

almost unheard o not to do some predictions

or this year. But I will keep it short and

(hopeully) sweet. Basically just some o the things

I’m contemplating right now, in regards to new

media and consumer trends. But just ocus on a

couple o interesting things rather than everything

going on right now in this eld.

S

First some

mandatory crystal ball

predictions

TOMAS NIHLÉNLocation: Stockholm, Sweden

Blog: http://tomasnihlen.tumblr.com/

The two hottest gadgets right now seem to be smartphones

and netbooks. And related to netbooks we see ultraportable laptops like MacBook Air. In act, no matter i you

are rocking a small laptop, netbook or even smartphone it’s

cheaper and easier than ever to bring your oce wherever

you go.

Apple revolutionised the smartphone industry when iPhone

hit the market. No doubt about that. They ocused on

making a great product instead o copying the competition

or sticking to industry standards.

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Picture: swanksalot

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Now the other manuacturers are doing what they usually

do; playing copycat and building iPhone like products. It’s

obvious that the strategies vary between Apple and the

rest o the brands in this space. But that’s all I’m going to

say in this anboy maner.

My prediction here is that we will see continued growth

in the netbook sector and we will also see more and

more netbooks running OS X, something that Apple

will need to address. Microsot needs to watch out,

because I think both Linux and OS X are really attractive

operating systems or these netbooks.

In the cell phone corner we will see a convergence

between regular phones and smartphones. In the uture

this categorisation will not make sense anymore, and I’m

not sure it even does at the moment. How smart does a

smartphone need to be, eh well to be called a ”smartphone”?

Not smart at all i my SonyEricsson P1 can claim that title. It’s the dumbest phone

I have ever had the misortune to use.

Speaking o convergence, another interesting eld with great convergence is

between digital still cameras and digital video cameras. Canon Mark II or instance

is a digital SLR that also shoots ull HD video and has even been used to shoot this

short lm.

These two types o products will no doubt grow into one in the uture, but it will

be interesting to see what the winning orm actor will look like. Will it be a video

camera that shoots great still images or a still camera that shoots great video? At

the moment it looks like the latter alternative, but I guess time will tell.

We do not only see convergence in the eld o

digital video capturing though, we actually

see both convergence and divergence

at the same time. Let me explain

what I mean. My example is the Flip

camera, a small and super easy to

use digital video camera. The rst

model ocused on two things; easyto use and cheap. So it was dierent

rom many other cameras going or

the top end or middle range. But

with the new model o the Flip Mino

HD you actually get HD in a very small

and cheap little box. I think this type o

cameras will food the market and replace

regular users’ old DV cameras.

Picture: P/\UL

Picture: Steve Keys

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This should in act become the top choice or both regular

consumers and average Internet users who need a cheapand easy way to shoot and publish videos to the Internet. I

also see great corporate uses or these type o cameras, just

send me and e-mail and I would love to talk more about this

topic. I love almost everything about digital video online.

So here is a summary o what I will (and you should?) keep

an extra eye on during 2009:

Laptops; cheaper and cheaper + aster and aster

Netbooks; shooting or the stars

Microsot getting competition in the netbook sector

Convergence between digital still cameras and digital

video cameras

HD video cameras that disappears in your pocket

Well that's my two cents anyway, when it comes to articles

in the “new year predictions” style. At least or now.

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7

Picture: JOE M500

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With the slow economy, declining ad budgets and tougher markets,

marketers are going to be seeking new ways to market their products.

Traditional opinion makers, newspapers, TV channels and other traditional

media outlets are losing out while new infuencers are taking over.

Infuencers in social media. Average Joes who become powerul opinion

makers online. Seeing the success some marketers are getting via social

media, many advertisers will try their luck using social media as a marketing

channel. So we will be looking at a lot o noise later in

the year in social media.

Next year, those same marketers

will say that social media marketing

doesn’t work, that it’s a waste o time.

That’s because they don’t get it. They’ll never be

infuencers. They’ll just be spammers.

You see, being an infuencer is not measured by the number o riends

or ollowers you have

and can spam with your

ads, oers or messages. It’s

measured in the value your words have, the value you provide

to your listeners and the quality o your network. For your

words to have some value or people you need to establish a

relationship with people. And to get these people to listen, you

have to build up trust. That is a process where

you need to invest time, energy and

creativity. Don’t think you can getyour way with people with your

rst tweet.

The year 2009 will be a year o change. Change

driven by a dierent economic environment, new markets and

new opportunities. Let’s embrace the opportunities those

changes bring. Let’s build new relationships, strengthen our

networks and bring value to our riends and ollowers.

A YEAR OF VALUE,not wealth

HJÖRTUR SMÁRASONLocation: Reykjavik, Iceland

Blog: Marketing Safari

“Try not to be a man of success, but

rather try to become a man of value”Albert Einstein

Picture:

buggolo

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Every day thousands o pictures are being uploaded to sites like Flickr,

Photobucket and not to orget the biggest ones o them all Facebook.

People don’t seem to get enough o the attention a photo can give. Some

do it to archive their photos, some to show their riends and amily and

others seek the stardom a perect photo can give you.

Back in 2004 Taylor McKnight started taking photos o himsel and called

it “Project 365”. We’ve seen many similar projects since then, like this girl taking a photo o hersel every day or three years and then she made a

video out o it. Noah Kalina took it a bit urther taking a photo o himsel

during eight years and o course also made a viral video hit out o it with

over 11 million views so ar on YouTube and 49 000 on Vimeo. A ew things

hits me, there’s is no way you can have the exact same hairstyle two times

in your lie and why do they have to look so bored, isn’t this supposed to

be a un thing, right? And it seems like men tend to grow their hair longer

as they get older. Middle age crises or what?

One day at a time

the enormous universe called the Internet is not

showing any signs of running out of space due to

too much information, not yet anyway.

LINDA PIERRELocation: Stockholm, Sweden

Blog: http://lindapierre.tumblr.com/

Picture: erin MC hammer

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Anyway let me get back on the path I intended to go with this

article. The phenomenon o taking your own picture everyday

wasn’t just a hype that went away. The photo site Photojojo

urges everyone to create their own “Project 365”. You might

wonder why. Well i not or your own sake, like a diary, you

could do it to be able to show your kids what you did and howyou looked during this period o time. There are many dierent

ways in which you can do this, it doesn’t have to be a (boring)

acial picture. You could choose to take a photo o your shoes

or why not do as this Canadian photographer did and take a

photo o people in your neighbourhood? People all over the

world already upload their pictures to dierent Flickr groups

doing similar things like that.

EpicFu has got the list o people taking the challenge at the

moment. There’s no limit to where your imagination can bring

you, or your company or that matter. I mean i people like seeing

things grow (like beards) or decrease (beach season closing inon us) it doesn’t have to be something on a human being...

Think about that all you marketers out there! And let me know

i you come up with a neat idea. Also check out Photojojo’s Time

Capsule, a cool way o reminding yoursel what you did at the

same time last year. Oh time or my daily time saver...

Click! P i c t u r e : e r i n M C h a m m e r

P i c t u r e :

N o a h K a l i n a

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Most bloggers enjoy lists – of all kinds. They lovelists of websites on certain topics, lists of the top

things of several issues, lists of other bloggers andso on. They enjoy lists even more if they’re on them.Since I am a blogger myself, I considered makinga list for this article, mainly due to how I wanted towrite about this subject – in the predictions form. ButI have to admit I find it hard writing lists of any kind,so instead, I chose a mix of a list with something of anarrative, discursive way. Hope you enjoy it.

The

new

media(and people)

scenarioThrough a world crisis

LIA DUTRALocation: São Paulo, BrazilBlog: http://liadutra.blogspot.com/

I l l u s t r a t i o n : W e s l e y F r y e r

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It’s said that in a moment o crisis a lot alls apart. But also, somegreat things rise. And these are the ones that shine and gets highlighted incomparison to others, especially because they have a dierent way o movingwhen compared to the rest.

What I like the most about these dierent things is that sometimes it is pretty clear that they are not just something new coming up. They are not a newrule, a new innovative practice. But yes, they’re the exception indeed. They are dierent because they do things dierently. And this is what’s related to the positive side o the crisis. They bring resh new perspectives.

Last year I read some o the Senior Vice President and Worldwide Publisher or BusinessWeek , Jessica Sibley’s, predictions on the magazine marketor 2009. Ater reading it I realized we strongly have a common ground.Crisis are worthy somehow, they provide an environment with room or inspiration and or motivated people who want to make a dierence in these times – times that actually need a new attitude – and rom there new thingswith new approaches come up. Turns out, this seems to be true not only inpublishing, but in several – i not all – markets.

The world is changing, in every single possible way.The economy ischanging, politics are changing, people are having to change. Anything couldhappen.

I have seen lots o people making bad predictions about how this will be a tough year – and Ido agree with that in a cer tain way - but I also do believe it’s time or us to try to recover andstop complaining about how we won’t be able to justiy not even the costs o the company paper. (As i the lack o money were an excuse or not doing good things). The thing is allabout the money, as usual, but that’s not enough o a reason. Creativity does not require hugeinvestments. I guess the money issue now can be quite a standard or not allowing bad moves

– since there’ll only be a certain amount money available and that cannot be wasted.I’m very optimistic about this year. For those who haven’t been going through a good way, there’s a chance to try to do their best. It’s a brand new beginning, a lietime chance to startover – without urther explanation.

As this whole crisis started, the worries concerning the global economic scene have beenmaking companies re-think their investments in communication. But as you might have readin some publications, this is exactly the time we shouldn’t stop communicating, advertising.And I truly support that cause.

I guess now it’s time or brands to be clear, transparent and simple. It’s time to take complexity aside since no one needs it and keep it all simple without losing the spark and the poetr y. It’s time to engage people, even more than how we did in prosperous times.So I believe the key now the marketing investments have decreased is to nd other ways thatallow a major return. In this aspect, new media has a great opportunity to grow even more.

Here’s what I believe will happen:

One thing is or sure, despite companies' and brands' positions and their decisions in this situation, and even i the market itsel does not grow as expected, people won’tstop spending time online, nor do it less than they used to.

In this new scenario it’ll be all about people and what (and most important, HOW) they relate to brands. People who act and do dierent things will show up on stageinside their proessional environments. It’s their time to shine, which is why we areprobably going to say the ‘cool’ will be growing more than ever. Talented people willkeep hanging there, but new talents will show up. It’s time or innovation.

In 2009 we’re still about to see great campaigns using social media - including Internet,mobile, video (a lot o video), content generation and lots o other tools, maybe evengreater campaigns than some o the best we had in 2008.

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I believe we’ll have both interesting and successul initiatives on social media, onmulti-platorm initiatives. Exploring all possibilities that multi-media can bring .

We’ll do even better once we start realizing that it is not all about the technologies themselves nor just about the mediums themselves, but also about the content they carry within. As Cam Brown, the King Fish Media President, wisely said:“2009 will eature the greatest redirect in marketing approach that the mediaindustry has seen”. I believe it’ll be time to identiy and guide new practices or the usage o media in a more strategic way. It’s time to notice and realize (or those who still haven’t) that mediums are more than just mediums.

I believe the big open television will become even less relevant or people.Traditional media will keep dropping as content and social media grow (and Iam not saying that just because this is a New Media Report).

The whole new media growth won’t happen only or big brands and their consumers (as in the way we’re used to name them). On last June’s repor t LisaSculati wrote about the companies engagement and use o Wikis, and somehownow it suddenly bumped into my head once I strongly believe companies will

start making more usage o social media and networking tools or themselvesinternally as well as to communicate externally even more – that includes theB2B market.

It’s highly likely that big traditional companies that crawl mostly through big traditional media will give a shot to social media eorts. In lots o the belovedblogs’ lists with predictions or 2009 we can see people talking about the traditional merging with the digital age, whether they are print magazines thatwill disappear or go online, television channels that will broadcast their showsonline, bigger media companies that will more and more work with online/socialmedia provider companies or even make alliances with companies or individualswho oer this nature o services to build that kind o environment.

One o the recent moves concerning this topic is the Printed Blog, the newChicago newspaper made rom posts o several blogs, which WILL have localadvertisement and WILL be distributed or ree.

I do believe major brands will keep trying to t and interact the best way withsocial media.

Mostly I believe all that will happen not only in advertising and marketing itsel (considering strictly the dialogue between people and brands). I think even theway o shopping (eCommerce) will change with more aggregating services andintegrating people.

I just saw Scholz & Friends’ video the other day, describing how we came to “thesocial world” where everything is a dialogue and it’s more about people than thecompanies themselves. It was called a “dramatic shit in marketing reality ”. Simple asit is, it doesn’t say anything actually new to any o us – especially to those who liveand breathe the 2.0 and even 3.0 world. But it reminds us o the basics we should bereminded o rom time to time.

Now is the time to engage. More than that, I believe there’s a great room or interaction we should not loose, concerning the philosophical and practical

terms I just mentioned beore.I’m sure I’ve missed a lot to talk about here, in details and all, but I guess the whole thing is that this crisis will leave a lot o room or social media to act.

That’s why I’m so optimistic, even though I am not even a digital strategist, but am inact passionate or it.

Ater our recovery, the world will not be back where it was. We’ll be OK again, butdierent rom beore.

All we’re going to have to do is adapt. Learn and adapt.

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Curiosity

I have one humble advice or the communicator o tomorrow: you must be curious

to learn new things. All. The. Time.

Do you converse or broadcast?

You know the modern way o communication is conversational style. You know it

is all about two-way communication, listening and engaging by contributing to the

community. But do you actually do this? Do you listen to nd out what your community

is interested in and engage by adding value to the community? Or do you use the same

14

The marketing pro o tomorrowGeek

OLLE AHNVELocation: Stockholm, Sweden

Blog: Jung Relations Blog

Social media is fundamentally changing the work life of the com-munications professional. While change is nothing new to the commu-nications industry, this time is different – it’s a fundamental shift bothin style and direction. And it is happening faster than ever before. Sohow do you keep up?

Picture: Kapungo

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old one-way communication that has done the job historically?

Do you communicate with a personal voice or do you use the

old corporate kind?

I you communicate one-way with a corporate voice – is it

because you think it is the best style o communication oryour organization? Or is it because you know the old way o

communication and that makes you eel secure?

Do you dare trying?

You know there is a whole new line o web technology that

can help you in your communication. Blogging and micro-

blogging platorms, RSS reading/ltering/mixing, podcasting,

vodcasting. The list o new and incredibly useul inormationtechnology goes on, but have you tried it? Or do you still use

the same clipping service and report the same kind o results

that have been successul historically?

What does the future communication professional look like?

Rest assured – you don’t need to become a tech geek. But you

do need to become a curiosity geek. You have to be eager to

learn, and you must be willing to leave your zone o condence

and try new communication styles and new tools. Sure, you

will display your weakness, but you will learn rom experience

and your mistakes.

Are you araid that some social media “expert” will tell youthat what you are doing is wrong? Don’t be!

As long as you are transparent in all your actions and respect

your community, they will guide you rather than attack you.

How do I get started?

Being curious will get you a long way, and most o all – it will

get you started. So, go dive into the social media sphere by

trying out Twitter, blogs, RSS, social networks. Ask or help

when you need it, but don’t ear trying.

Trying is being curious. Being curious is good.

Picture: aturkus

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Facebook started as a small roots movement in an American

dorm room a couple of years ago. It was the “David” to the

MySpace phenomena that was Goliath. No CEO, CMO, CTO,

marketing consultant or whoever would ever predict that this

little web project would ever be a catalyst in a trend that is

transforming not just marketing, but the way businesses will be

built in the future.

But today Facebook is the reigning champion and MySpace is, well

more like the old heavy weight boxer struggling with health issuesand possible brain damage . You don’t buy what I’m saying? Well letme paint out a picture o what I’m seeing as the uture o socialnetworking, or rather the uture o social businesses. Let’s useFacebook as an example since I think or the oreseeable utureit will be the dominating service in this area, even though many marketers might think it has lost its coolness.

16

The Next Phase of

social networking

online

What does the

status message say on

Facebook right now?

Let’s start by checking the statuso the new social networking king,what’s really going on with Facebook. HaveFacebook passed its peak and soon to be meeting the same destiny as MySpace?Many people would like to think so, it seems to be a constant drive or many people to pass o ads

and to be able to be the rst one to proclaim the next big thing. But the truth is that Facebook still has the magic which translates to 140 million users according to InsideFacebook.com with a growth rate o 600 000 more users per day, which is hard to beat. And it’s not like the network is losing traction, likein Argentina or instance, last year can denitely be summed up as a great year or Facebook. How doesa 2 000 per cent increase in a year sound? At the beginning o 2008 there were 100 000 registeredFacebook users in Argentina, but when Santa Clause was climbing down the chimney at the end o theyear, this number had in turn climbed up to 2 000 000 user s. Neighbouring countries Chile, Venezuela,and Peru have also seen impressive growth during the last time. 3768 per cent, 1277 per cent, and 328per cent respectively to be exact. Quite impressive i you ask me.

P i c t u r e : l u c l e g a y

TOMAS NIHLÉNLocation: Stockholm, Sweden

Blog: http://tomasnihlen.tumblr.com/

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Speaking o Christmas, Facebook certainly had a merry one this year and notonly in Latin America. According to CNET Hitwise it saw a big peak in tracduring the holidays. Heather Hopkins o Hitwise lists some possible theorieslike crediting the peak to boredom, heavy snow in key cities and/or seasongreetings. Maybe Facebook is just a part o peoples lives and these lives circlearound some important events each year like Christmas and thereor Facebook becomes a must or all big holidays. Anyway, no matter what the real reason is,

these stats provides more proo that Facebook is here to stay, at least or quitesome time. And it is not just a site but rather a way to communicate.

Problems on the horizon?

Maybe becoming a giant makes some o the cool actor and buzz worthinessade? Some people think so and maybe that was the reason why Facebook tried to buy the new wonder kid on the block; Twitter, late last year. According to Kara Swisher that is what some insiders at Facebook are claiming. Twitter was oered$500 million worth o Facebook stock, i.e. potential value, which in all airness

might be a good deal since Twitter has yet to generate any revenue. But Twitter stuck to its guns and rejected the oer, keeping to a strategy that ocuses ongrowth rather than prot, at least or now. For Facebook the deal might haveinsured a massive coolness injection and some more cred among the early-adopters growing tired o Facebook.

Another area that social networking sites need to keep an eye on is all the newaggregating sites that wants to be the hub o your social web experience. Themost buzzed about o these services is probably FriendFeed, which i Twitter isapproaching the middle o the long tail, is located at the ar right o that curve.

17

FriendFeed and similar services collect all your activity rom the social web inone place and generate a “master fow” o all your public activity. Sort o whatFacebook wants to do but with a totally dierent approach. Then there areservices like Power.com that wants to collect your social networking services inone place. But wait, didn’t Facebook sue them? Yes they did, claiming it is al l about

“copyright and trademark inringement; unlawul competition; and violation o the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, CAN-SPAM Act, and the Computer Fraudand Abuse Act, among other charges”, according to CNET. Power.com lets youaccess riends and other data rom multiple social networking services in oneplace. For Facebook this means that it wouldn’t matter as much or the userso services like Power.com which riends are on Facebook and which are only on other sites like MySpace and Hi5 etc. This could denitely put a dent in theFacebook brand since its core oer and strength is collecting and maintainingyour social graph or you.

I l l u s t r a t i o n : I n s i d e F a c e b o o k

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18

Capitalising on the social graph

In the time up until now the whole ocus and point o Facebook has been this precious social graph, which is basically just aancier name or your “riend list.” But now the site enters aphase when it need to start doing something with this graph,and something more than just being a playground or viralmarketing, annoying games and endless invites to causes or events. Facebook Connect is an example o the uture o social networking online; bring your social graph wherever you go online. Letting websites all over the world implement this service means or instance that comment unctions onblogs can be integrated with Facebook. This is the rst step,but going orward I think we will see whole sites just buildon common interests and Facebook Connect. This is a greatservice to website builders and a great move or Facebook strengthening loyalty and increasing its reach.

Also by integrating the service with media companies toconnect news and media in general with Facebook they can create new revenue streams. For instance there is aninteresting initiative between Facebook and the social media

platorm Pluck . An example o this collaboration is that visitor s to SFGate (the digital home o The San Francisco Chronicle)who comment on articles via Facebook Connect also get their comments automatically imported into their News Flows inFacebook. This is a great service to SFGate’s visitors, drives trac to SFGate.com and also a smart move or Facebook.This is an examples o how companies are becoming ar moresocial than beore and it is also a part o an increasing demandor transparency.

The uture o social networking

As I started in the paragraph to the let I think Facebook Connect is a look into the uture o socialnetworking online. It’s not the only example, and it has got competition rom Google. By the way guess what Google calls its own ser vice? Yes that’s right; Google Connect. Go gure... And it wouldbe a big surprise i Google wouldn’t do anything in their power to try to beat Facebook in thisarea.

In 2009 I predict we will see several new initiatives in this area but it remains to see which oneswill prove to be sticky. They also have some competition in theory by an open source alternativecalled OpenID. But the truth is that it’s not about the best alternative, the best integrity or anything

else, but a matter o what service the masses will adopt. Will you want to use your already existingFacebook account or would you rather get yet another one rom or instance OpenID? At this timeI would bet my money on Facebook and put Google as a potential runner-up, but it could end up the other way around as well.

So now to my prediction. I think that 2009 is all about phase two o social networking online. Andin my book that means making the social graph portable and going rom destination sites to animportant part o the inrastructure o the social web. This phase will also start changing the way businesses act on the market. Smart companies will nd endless new opportunities and remember Urban Liestyle’s three golden rules o social media:

1. Don't suck

2. Create good content

3. Be a part o the conversation

It's not harder than that, no matter what so called “social media exper ts” will tell you. The principalsare easy, it's the execution that is a bit tricky.

But at the end o 2009, i I was wrong about my predictions and our golden rules o social media,you can hate all over me on Facebook , Twitter and FriendFeed...

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One blog post that went up or the 24 hour-o-ame buzz on the #1position on Twitturly (a service that tracks what is linked the most in twitterverse) a day in January 2009 was called ”Social Media ‘Experts’ are the Cancer o Twitter (and Must Be Stopped)”. A sign o the times. Yes,I do agree that they who start to ollow me and introduce themselvesas such in their micro-bios at their Twitter proles by deault is an auto-nonollow or me – usually just another one who tries to sur the waveo a recent phenomenon, and seldom adds value beyond acting as a parto a big echo-chamber with ew spots o original thinking.

One core aspect o the twitterverse is illustrated by this in a nutshell,emphasizing the social in ‘social media’ – ollow or be ollowed. Or mostpreerrably, excluding “or”; the mutual ollow – where some o thesecouples o people ollowing their respective streams o sms-lengthy snippets in their micro-blogging actually call themselves “riends”. Youknow, what it meant in LBF – Lie Beore Facebook: Actually someoneyou even happen to meet ofine, and share both dinners and potentially your innermost thoughts and private secrets in hope or an honest advice

to serve and lead your lie bet ter. Yes, someone that adds va lue to your lie,and thus worth your attention, and adding value back, unconditionally.

Coming this ar, I claim no expertise, more than applied common senseand humbly learning rom and refecting around my experiences as a socialmedia ‘learner’. Quoting the media guru, or true - Marshall McLuhan -”I don’t necessarily agree with everything I say”. In this article I want to

share some short notes and noteworthy on the phenomenon o ”micro-blogging”, with a special ocus on how to approach this conversational buzzbubble as a marketer or a brand or a business. Sharing is caring!

Social media and the market conversation

Micro-blogging is a part o the wider game related to social media,concluded so ar. One o the many attempts to grasp what social media

Micro-blogging?

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All know what it is,no one knows what it is

ANDERS ABRAHAMSSONLocation: Norrköping, Sweden

Blog: http://sliceonline.tumblr.com/

I l l u s t r a t i o n

: H u b S p o t I n b l u n d M a r k e t i n g B l o g

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”is” has been done by Social Media Club co-ounder Brian Solis through the ”Conversation Prism”. As he says; ”The conversation map is a living,breathing representation o Social Media and will evolve as services andconversation channels emerge, use, and dissipate.”. It is exactly o this reason there is no collected ”expertise” to nd - it’s all about interpretations o adomain in constant fux and knowledge distributed among all stakeholders.

So, i I choose only one thing that I want you to bring with you rom thisarticle, is this: take part o the conversation about ‘social media’ by actually joining the conversation using one o the social media services – wheremicro-blogging would be on my number one recommendation! It is as a socialmedia user you can have a chance to understand what it ”is”. And micro-bloggingin a sense actually is the lowest barrier o entry in the many arts o ‘DIY publishingon the web’ – posting 140 characters or less at a time.

The rest o the ‘barrier o entry’ is actually inside your orehead, and that is thegreatest sometimes, isn’t it? By being an active user, you take part o and infuence the evolving dynamic landscape that actively gets co-developed by its users, creatorsand producers – and thus co-discovered, applying collective and collaborative

intelligence. Since the Cluetrain Maniesto, celebrating its ten year anniversary inapril 2009, we have learned that ”markets are conversations”, with human spirits,brains, hearts and emotions. With the last o the 95 Theses ormulated back in1999 in response to the evolvement o Internet and its impact on markets andmarketing; ”We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But weare not waiting.”. I you’re not micro-blogging yet, what are you waiting or? Listen,participate, play, try. And learn with me (http://twitter.com/sliceonline – or morecommonly expressed nowadays, the Twitter ID ormat that goes with your nextdeck o business cards printed; @sliceonline) and all others in the conversation.

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Micro-blogging, defned?

A denition is no proo, but i we turn to Wikipedia, micro-blogging is ”aorm o multimedia blogging that allows users to send brie text updates (say,140 characters or ewer) or micromedia such as photos or audio clips andpublish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group whichcan be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety o means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web.” It’s a story that started in July 2006 with the launch o Twitter, andemerged rom the question answered; ”What are you doing right now?”, with

the breakthrough and rapid growth when winning a web award in SXSW07, March 2007. I you’re rst and succeed in your new niche, you dene and rule the game. And they sure do. Many other services have been trying to getinto the sphere o micro-blogging (these were covered in the Urban LiestyleReport in August 2008), but Twitter is the biggest with ar beyond 3 million users, with somewhat around hal a million messages sent per day . Twitter hasgrown in trac by 422% rom August 07 to August 08 - no other social media service has had this kind o growth. And, paradoxically, still, they actually lack abusiness model soon three years ater its inception, but is about to get one.

Illustration: Gapingvoid

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Who microblogs?

To get into this hive with your message, you need to know your population.Users are - among many kinds - rst and oremost individuals, brands,companies and organisations, where you usually introduce yoursel withyour ‘@name’ – linking to http://twitter.com/’name’. Individuals rangerom the neighbour-around-the-corner to the super celebrity (either celebrity ‘beore Twitter’ such as @BritneySpears and @BarackObama,

or the new breed o ‘Top Twitterati’, the ‘Twitter Elite’ amed on theplatorm in itsel such as Guy Kawasaki ( @GuyKawasaki) or MichaelArrington ( @Techcrunch). There are some ctive characters as well – early on users were Borat and Darth Vader, and all ake tweets deliveredby @historicaltweets blog lately, just or un.

Brands and companies constitute an increasing number, and a sampleo them are listed in two blog posts (Mashable and Buzz Marketing or Tech postings). Maybe one o the most travelled stories on proactiveusage to boost your brand through engaging in your customers is @ComcastCares. And, actually a washing machine ( @PIMPY3WASH – created to tell its rst geeky ollower and account creator when the

washing machine is nished, and clothes ready to dry via an auto-sms to its Twitter account). I you compare ollowers vs ollows numbers,you could conclude that one who ollows many, but have ew ollowersprobably is a ”twammer” or ”spitter” - a Twitter spammer – who have tried to get a lot o attention by random mass-quantitative ollowing.And vice versa – a ‘guru’ prole maybe shows up to be someone whoollows a selected ew, but is ollowed by many, a pattern also ound withmainstream media news services twitter accounts, and e. g. web apps/services update streams/status reports.

One exceptional case o excessive numbers in both ollows and ollowers isnewly installed president Barack Obama, beyond 160 000 in numbers in bothends. The new presidential administration in the USA is worth a separatecoverage and case story article in itsel with an ongoing development o avery proactive web strategy, where Twitter has a central place in the quest to be the most transparent governmental administration in US history, seee. g. the new http://whitehouse.gov, revamped beyond inauguration.

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22 What do they blog about?

It started out by the trivia ollowing the original question o everydayness inreal-time, but since then it has evolved signicantly in a whole new ecosystemo communication. There is little ormal academic research on the subject,but the rst ormal academic research covered usage patterns, with daily chatter, conversations, sharing links and commenting on news as the most requent activities going on. A bit outdated, but the ndings still apply. Someare just ”dumping” content rom other places using e. g. Twittereed tonotiy when new blog posts are out, some shares more actively other stu like media (music through Blip.FM, pictures through Twitpic, videos throughTweeTube) and recent discoveries with one o the fourishing numberso URL shorteners – where TinyURL.com was quite alone and dominantbeore the brie 140 character messages were common, and now you have this space lled with new services, like snURL, bit.ly , is.gd, ow.ly and tr.im tomention just a ew.

Notably is that Twitter works multi-purpose – some have e. g. abandonedInstant Messaging chats altogether, with the use o Direct Messages, ‘Duser message’. In that sense, micro-blogging is a convergence o dierent

communication evolution tracks. One is the ”distant communication 1x1”- roughly ollowing a development o telegraph > telephone > teleax >email > mobile phone > instant messaging > direct messages throughTwitter. One other trace is ”news dissemination” through the centuries: theMarathon Runner or Horse Courier > the priest in the church on Sundays> newspapers > radio > tv > Internet > blogs > Twitter, where news canshow up beore even regular news services catch them.

One Twitpic rom the Hudson River Plane emergency landing by an iPhone photographer rom a erry even ended up as an ocial AP newsdesk syndicated picture, which actually crashed the Twitpic server rom the trac at the time. We can thus talk about a special kind o ”mediaconvergence”, where all communication, direct one to one, side by sidewith the one-to-many, is shared on the same platorm. And you better be there – the conversation goes on, with or without you (to dene your ”Twitter Acceptance” 5-stage, check Rohit Bhargavas blog on the subject)!Imagine your company getting the viral buzz that Hudson River picture had – it happens in seconds on Twitter, where it used to be hours through emailbeore. Positive, or negative. You better let it to be positive news spreading,right? In that sense, being there with your own voice also works great or ‘crisis communication management’. Picture: jkrums

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How to approach the micro-blogging tweeters?

For a PR/Marketing department to ormulate a strategy, it is wise not to strategize too much. In act, it’s better to ‘get on with it’, in small scale as a pilot project,with some individual users tweeting with their personal brands, in order to

learn rom the medium. Beyond that, a ormal brand or company tweet can beestablished. Mainly it is an endless loop (I owe this basic, simple outline o theTwitter Marketing and PR interactive loop to HubSpot, where I have spiced it upwith some own reerences and learning bits) - 1. Building your network, 2. Engagein your community and 3. Track and analyze, and then start all over rom 1.

1. Build your network - attract qualitative ollowers

First o all, ater establishing a Twitter account, important is to juice up your prole to be attractive – the rs t glance could be your only chance to attract a subscriber,since many people who use Twitter only judge once by the Twitter page, and thenbeyond ollow-click get your stream through other means (popular are client-side

applications such as TweetDeck or Twhirl – see a comparison with Mashables blogpost and review on the subject). As a brand, you should let it glow in anice setting with a customized background (or inspiration and how-to, see e. g.Twitter Backgrounds Gallery ). Add your location. Add short bio with your taglineand preerably also what to expect rom the tweet stream – in two sentences or less. Link maybe to your company site, but preerably i you have a company or brand blog. I it is an individual representing the company direct, add that person’savatar – otherwise use the company logo as avatar – but do add an avatar! For startups it is important maybe to have both – one s tream or the company/brand,and separate streams or the individual team members to engage in community building and sharing their stories in real-time. See e. g. Ki-work and Twingly , as two

interesting startups ( @kiwork ‘enabling agile businesses’ and @twingly , a blog andmicro-blog search engine with Ki-work core team members ather and son @michaelwol (CEO) and @jimwolman (COO) check their dierent tweet styles;Twingly CEO Martin Källström is @martinkallstrom). A strategy also applicableor established companies, such as Virgin ( @virgindotcom) and Richard Branson( @RichardBranson).

2. Engage in your community - remember, it’s a conversation , not a broadcast

A conversational and personal tone, with the @replies showing that you actually

care about your most valuable asset beyond your own value-creation means – thecustomer. Now you have naked direct contact, and i someone converses you through an @reply in the public stream, be sure to respond! Remember that

an @reply in your ollowers stream also gets visible through their ollowers. Tosimpliy this procedure and making it manageable or your customer service team,use applications such as TweetDeck that maximises your tracking and control.And, you keep your ollowers by conversation and adding value, not to push your product/service in every tweet. They can check you through Followcost to see i ollowing you is worth the eort ;). And be sure that you have an activity in your company that actually gets tweeted beyond your own tweets and without your own prompts, rom other tweeters than you!

3. Track and analyze - monitor your brand and your core tags and keywords

With TweetDeck and other tools, you can evaluate and search what’s going

on with buzz around your company, brand and oerings in real time, e. g. by adding a column with your tag search and get notied directly as it’s happening.Beyond searching your own brand name, you can also trace your most importantkeywords to see i your brand is mentioned in conjunction. Check your ”status” through Twitter-Grader and various stats tools, such as TweetStats, Twinfuence,Twitterholic and Twitter-Friends . Those who talk about you, approach them by ollowing them – they get notied when you start to ollow, and thus have thatonce-in-a-lietime chance to have them to ollow you back (or really good advice,check ”Twitter Follow Fail” - @ABartelby guest blog at Mashable blog). But besure to be worth the eort to be ollowed. Which leads us back to one!

In short: Be personal. Be interesting. Be valuable. Be nice. Be

colourul!

Now, go on register - or tweet this report and mention the articles on Twitter i you’re already are a Tweet-a-holic :) - here’s the retweet copy: ‘RT @urbanliestyle #ULRNM Urban Liestyle Report: great Freemium Content PDF – latest issuewith micro-blogging eatures!’. See you there !

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Resources:

- On the web – directories, portals and collections;

• A twitter wiki library – the ultimate resource base: http://twitter.pbwiki.com

• A database o twitter applications: http://twitdom.com • List o twitter tools: http://mashable.com/2007/09/29/twitter-toolbox/ and ollow up list http://mashable.com/2008/05/24/14-more-twitter-tools/

• Squidoo page on Twitter applications: http://www.squidoo.com/ twitterapps

•Twitter tools or Community and Communication Proessionals: http://www.briansolis.com/2008/10/twitter-tools-or-community-and.html

• 181 Free Twitter Buttons, Badges, Widget and Counters to Help You FindFollowers: http://www.twitip.com/181-twitter-buttons-badges-widget-and-counters-to-help-you-nd-ollowers/

Design:

•Twitter Backgrounds Galler y: http://twitterbackgroundsgallery.com

• Creating a Twitter Background using PowerPoint: http:// theclosetentrepreneur.com/create-a-twitter-background-using-powerpoint

• Creating a Twitter Background using PhotoShop: http://www.elasticmind.ca/innerpreneur/index.php/2008/09/25/download-my-twitter-background-design-psd-template/

Books:

• An updated list is ound at http://books.twitdom.com/

Recommended Selected Apps and Services (linked):

• Twitter management: TweetDeck , Twhirl, BrightKit, Twitteric , Ping.m,HelloTXT, Tweetie (iPhone, paid)

• Twitter mobile apps: Twitter Mobile (updates, browser), Twapper (monitoring,browser), Twitteron (iPhone, ree)

• Twitter stats:Twitter Grader , TweetStats, Twinfuence, Twitterholic,TwitterFriends

• Feeding your Twitter e lsewhere: FeedInormer ,Twitter’s own widgets andbadges, SpringWidget Twitter Widget, TwitStamp

• Sharing media (pictures, video, music, web quotes): TwitPic, TweeTube, BlipFM,TwitSnip

• Shortening links: Tr.im, budURL, TinyURL, SnURL, bit.ly , is.gd, ow.ly , TwitSnip

• Tracking twitter buzz: Twitturly , TweetDeck (note: add search column withxed tag and get update notication popup), Advanced Search in Twitter ,Twingly Microblog Search, TweetScan, Twellow, Twittervision, Twistori, Twitscoop

• Twitter groups/recommendations: MrTweet, TwittGroups

• Follow Fail (to check when someone unollows you): Qwitter

• Evaluating Twitters – ollow or not to ollow? FollowCost, Twitter Grader,

Twitterholic

Blog Coverage:• Directories at Alltop.com with live update headlines/eeds:

- GoodTweets

- Twitter News:

- Twitterati

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Twitter is the micro-blogging tool I use the most out of the ones available right now. It may not be thebest one if you look at functions but for me it’s the obvious choice, not only because it has most usersbut also because of the climate within. At this party everyone is invited and no one (well except forspammers) are left out in the cold. It’s also a fascinating environment to walk around in. People from allover the world are constantly telling each other what they read, watch, like and dislike.

There are so many dierent ways to use Twitter (and other

micro-blogging tools or that matter) that it would denitely

take up all the space in this report i I would let it. There are tonso applications that let you use the service in a number o ways.

This time though I have chosen to put the magniying glass on

two dierent ways o using Twitter, namely “hashtags” and

“retweets.”

Recently I discovered a fow, or should I say “stream”, o people

on Twitter using hashtags (#) in ront o a word or, more oten, an

abbreviation. At rst it seemed like it was mostly used related to

dierent conerences and other events. A way to organise what

everybody was saying at, or about, that particular event. Since

Twitter isn’t amous or its structure that made sense. This was

a way to make it easier to gather inormation and to see what alarge amount o people were saying about a particular subject.

The past ew months the use o hashtags have grown to be much

more than just a way to structure and/or gather inormation.

We saw how the Twitter crowd used it at tragical events such

as the one in Mumbai back in November or instance by using

#mumbai when tweeting. The voices rom within the disaster

were being heard through the megaphone o Twitter.

Hashtags (#) & retweetS (RT)

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MORE THAN JUST FANCY WORDS?LINDA PIERRELocation: Stockholm, SwedenBlog: http://lindapierre.tumblr.com/

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News about what was going on in and around the area

o Mumbai spread aster than traditional media ever

could catch up with. What I think is most interesting

about the use o hashtags in this way is that it’s the

people, not the media, who create the news. When

this becomes a tool in every mans mobile phone we

have a new journalist in every corner o the world,

telling and showing the rest o the population what

is going on in real time.

Using hashtags as a way to collaborate on a story

was exactly what these journalists did to gather

inormation about the food in southern Washington

a ew weeks ago. Instead o working in their own

chambers separated rom each other, they chose

to use the hashtag #wafood. This way they could

aggregate both what they as dierent newspapers

were tweeting about, and what other people in the

area could update them and the rest o the world in

real time. One o the journalists took it a bit urther

by creating a widget to put on his website, which all

o the others also did ater a while. This way their

readers could easy ollow the news without having

to go elsewhere than to their avourite news site.

Collaborative journalism became a act. The scoop

was no longer the main goal but to get as much

and accurate inormation as possible. Then it was

up to the readers to choose where they wanted to

consume the whole story.

Not more than a ew weeks ago, while there were still

a ew slices o the Christmas ham let, many Swedes

started to look or a new puppy to cuddle with in the

big world wide web. Beore Christmas the choice had

been the Finnish micro-blogging service Jaiku and

those o us in Sweden that preerred Twitter weren’t

that many. Overall we were still talking about a airly

small amount o people using both these services,

until something happened a couple o weeks ago.All o a sudden Swedish mainstream media opened

up their eyes to this treasure o inormation and

registered accounts on Twitter. At the same time

Swedish politicians also joined and the beginning o

using micro-blogging as a tool might have taken an

important step towards going mainstream almost

over night here in Sweden. The use o hashtags

while tweeting didn’t come ar behind. Soon there

were hashtags such as #svpt (Swedes on Twitter)

and #svbloggen which aggregates dierent types

o Swedish blog posts. Two Swedes took theopportunity to put together a site that made it even

easier or you to ollow everything being tagged

with #svpt. Hans Kullin, a Swedish blogger and PR

consultant, put together a widget that aggregates

all tweets including the hashtag #svpt. By putting

this widget on your blog, you and everybody else

using that particular tag can reach out to people not

yet using Twitter.

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I’m not sure I think it’s such a good idea to put such a broad tag like

#svpt next to everything you tweet about though. For me the purpose

o that tag was simply to show others that you exist and I don’t think

you should do that in every message you put out there. The more people

are using any hashtag in the wrong way the more it’s destroying its

value and going against its purpose. At least that’s what I think.

Hopeully though this will contribute to make micro-blogs more

mainstream and that is something I denitely encourage. I you are

Swedish and want to see which hashtags that are most active at the

moment, check out this page. I you preer keeping a wider perspective to

what conversations to take part in within the Twittersphere, hashtags.

org is the site or you. There’s even a twitter account that is all about

hashtags simply called @hashtags. In just a month (and not more than

10 updates) this account has attracted over 25 000 ollowers. They are

also the ones who created the social network I mentioned earlier called

hashtags.org. That number is probably that high because i you ollow

this account, it will automatically ollow you back and can then index

your hashtags into their statistics at hashtags.org.

Not only about news

There are other ways to use hashtags than just categorising news,

more relaxed and un ways. One o those is when hashtags are being

integrated with Google Maps to or instance nd ellow tweeters. Say

you are at the airport waiting or boarding, just tweet #boarding and

your tweet will appear at this Twitter Google maps mashup called

Boarding. The idea behind the application is to nd ellow stranded

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travellers, but to do so you must add the three letter airport codeater the hashtag or no one will be able to nd you and vice versa.

Another way people use hashtags are to see what other people’s year

resolutions are by tagging them with #resolutions. You can also nd

new interesting Twitter users to ollow by looking up the hashtag

#ollowriday. Its purpose is to tip other ellow tweeters about that

certain somebody you are ollowing and think

should get more attention and more ollowers.

The list o ways to use hashtags could go on

but i we stop here and think or a while. Is this

airly new way o trying to structure messages

on dierent micro-blogging services only a good

thing? Absolutely not. Almost nothing comes in

just one favour. There’s o course both good tastes

and more bitter ones. An over usage o hashtags

not only takes space away rom those poor 140

signs you have to express yoursel with, but also

makes it less spontaneous and more database

alike. How oten you should use hashtags (i at all)

and how many at the same time is o course totally up to you. Even

though I think there are great potential to make good things out o

this new phenomena you should think beore you automatically put ahashtag next to your message. Ask yoursel is this really something

that would add value to that certain conversation or topic?

The enormous amount o attention and the massive growth in usage

o hashtags tells me though that this is here to stay, well at least or

a while until something better comes along.

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What about Retweets?

Well I guess this trend suers rom the same syndrome as the usage o

hashtags. It’s becoming more and more common, which means people might

be clicking on that “retweet-button” a bit too much. What is a retweet you

might wonder? Think about the way we use orwarding to pass on an

email to others you think might be interested as well. This is kind o the same thing but with Twitter messages instead and it’s open or

every one to see. I you choose to retweet somebody’s message

everybody that ollows you are the receivers you could say. It’s like

giving props to a message you want to help spread.

Sometimes it could be a good thing. You easily see what a lot o

people nd important right now. But mostly I think it’s a way to

clap on each others shoulders (and we all need that ones and a

while) and to suck up to someone you ollow. I’m not saying I

haven’t done this mysel but it’s important I think not only to

pass along what others say but to contribute with your own

opinions. As long as you do that a retweet now and then is a

good thing, at least in my opinion.

The worst symptom due to too many retweets is that it can

send the Twittersphere into a loop, just going round and

round. Like a giant eco chamber, and that is something we

do not want right? We have already seen it happen in the

blogosphere, please do not make the world o micro-blogs

another puddle in which only a ew pieces o inormation

makes it to the surace! Most important to remember is

that you can use hashtags or a good cause as well, and

not only to be a part o a certain group o people. I morepeople would gather up and use hashtags and retweets

or new ideas and solutions within dierent areas this

might actually make a dierence. Jim Carlberg created the

hashtag #peace so that you could say that you “Twitter

or peace”, a good start but what i that could evolve and

actually mean that people around the globe would join in

and do something concrete instead o just talking about it.

Think about that all you tweeters out there!

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If you want to dig deaper into the world of hashtags and retweets:

Twitter Fan Wiki

Hashtags – open source grouping

Why I unollow people who use hashtags on Twitter

The microblogging phenomenon Retweet

Picture: bitterlysweet

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Late 2008 tickets for Barack Obama’s inauguration

were reaching insane levels online a few weeks beforethe historical event took place. CNN reported that one ticket vendor wanted over $20,000 for asingle ticket! This is indeed an historical event, but why cough up 20 grand when you can watch thewhole thing online I wonder? I mean we are living in the era of the live web and our choices forwhat to watch at the click of a button is growing faster than algees in a summer lake.

The live web- at first glance

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TOMAS NIHLÉNLocation: Stockholm, Sweden

Blog: http://tomasnihlen.tumblr.com/

P i c t u r e : D a v i d J o n e s

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The principals

First let’s break it down, what do I mean by “the live web”?This is a trend that started way back in the days o theInternet adolescence but we are now at a point whereboth the technology is there and the consumer behavioursas well. These to actors are o course the most importantones or a trend like this to gain momentum.

Live inormation or entertainment can come in many orms,but basically it’s all about the components o the web:

TextImages

Audio

Video

Other le ormats

In this article I will ocus on text, audio and video.

Text

Live text might not sound that exciting, but in many cases it can in act prove to be very interesting. And I would actually claim that text has led the way or many consumers on the path to adapting the live web. Most important mightbe the Facebook mass adoption that seemed to sweep over the globe lastyear. One o Facebooks success actors was their news eed that presents theactivity in your network in more or less a real time eed. At rst the only way to get the real time experience was to constantly hit “Reresh” but now thereis the option to watch the live eed.

A new way to create collaborative spaces or covering things in real time is by using FriendFeed (an aggregator o your social services) and to start a “Room” there where other people can add text, links and photos. These rooms can then be watched in real time to get an overview o these events. But somebody needs to create an event quickly or it to be relevant. For instance web prole

Robert Scoble regrets deeply that he didn't create a room ater a plane crashrecently, the comments give a good motivation to the benets o creating sucha room on FriendFeed.

Video

We have in the past written about “lie casting” where more or less insanepeople bring along broadcasting equipment o some sort to let the world peek into their everyday lives. These could be seen as catalysts and role-models or other people to open up to the idea o starring in their own Internet soap o sorts. Justin Kan o Justin.tv and iJustine are two people who attracted massiveattention or their lie casting projects. They have both moved on and Justin.

tv is now one o several services that let you put yoursel out there using your computer and/or cellphone.

I lie casting is a more continuos project or reality show online, there are alsoa lot o people who just broadcast snippets o their lives at cer tain moments.I you want to try some webcam/computer broadcasting I would recommend taking a look at Mogulus, Ustream and Stickam. For mobile live broadcasting Irecommend Qik or kyte (both mobile and computer), but you can also check out Bambuser (a Swedish service).

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Picture: Brian ”DoctaBu” Moore

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Audio

What is happening in the Internet audio scene is really exciting right now. Weare seeing round two o digital broadcasting. In round one it was all about “ondemand” or rather record-publish-download, i.e. podcasting was king.

It was relatively easy to get going with podcasting, the listeners took to theormat and some podcasting superstars were born like Leo Laporte. Laporte was trained in the old school type o radio and even TV journalism. But his passionor technology and curiosity got him hooked on podcasting. He is now the manbehind the podcasting power house twit.tv which can take credit or popular shows like “This Week In Tech”, “MacBreak Weekly ” and “net@night”. But whatmakes Laporte extra interesting right now is the move towards both the live and

video trend. Now you can listen to the recordings in his studio live, watch a videostream o them recording, listen to recorded episodes on their blog, downloadseparate episodes or get them automatically as a podcast in or instance iTunes.

Me and Linda, the other part o Urban Liestyle, were totally inspired by thisand decided to use the same philosophy when we record one o our podcastson a Swedish blog/podcast about innovation and entrepreneurship calledInnovationsbloggen.se (The Innovation Blog) . We record episodes or our podcast,but we also broadcast them live while recording and make sure there are multipleways to listen, download and participate in dierent ways.

Events live orever online

One consequence o these trends; live and on demand combined, means thatbasically all big events are recorded and published online or sometimes bothstreamed live and published or later viewing/listen ing. Barack Obama’s inaugurationor instance will be (or have been when you are reading this) probably themost heavily covered event when it comes to streaming video online. All mediadestination sites are working hard to get all the trac, including CNN which is theonly news site delivering live video news broadcasting 24/7. CNN now has teamedup with Facebook to let you look at the live stream and at the same time i you

update your Facebook status it will show up beside the video. It’s similar to whatmany news sites did with Twitter or the US election last year. One interesting thing is that Facebook is so much more widely adopted by regular consumerswhich might make it a dierent experience than it would by using Twitter.

Another interesting event taking place live online recently was the Sundance FilmFestival. Sure, not at all as big a thing as the inauguration, still a pretty well-knownevent. This time you could ollow the estival live at 24HoursAtSundance.com.It might not be your typical live coverage though. Ashton Kutcher and Internetsuperstar Kevin Rose were hosting this extravaganza and our dierent reporterswere competing during these 24 hour which means trying to complete a number

o tasks, which might not be that easy.Catching everything live or later

The point to this article is that content needs to be, and more oten is, availableboth in some sort o live stream and or downloading aterwards. For brandsand marketers this is a new thing, they are typically used to just guring outwhich channels to use or a campaign, what message etc and then blasting out themessage. Now you need to realise that it’s now all about the consumers and how they want to consume content. They are picky and used to getting what they wanti not they will go out and get it somewhere else.

Sum upWe will return to this topic in uture reports. But or now just remember these two things i you are about to create content or the web:

− Go live, but only i live is relevant

− It must be available aterwards, and in multiple ways

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As the Internet population keeps on

growing the national boarders looses

their value, it might sound like a cliché but that doesn’t make it any less true. I’m talking about the power o

communication across the world, no matter in which country you hook up your laptop.

a different kind of

internet buzz -the one that comes

from drinking wine...

Services like Skype makes it easy or people to stay in touch across boarders

without spending a ortune on phone bills. We use blogging tools to speak our mind about political issues, share links or just upload photos. I you eel like youneed an instant response to a thought or a question, try using video services like12seconds.tv or seesmic, or micro-blogging services like Twitter or Jaiku.

I recently came across an interesting site called Twitter Taste Live . Yes I admit, Iam a Twitter reak and should probably need to check into “twitter rehab” one o these days. But or taking the temperature on what’s going on in the world o theweb at this very moment it’s just so much un to use. And addictive.

Anyway it was on Twitter I rst heard about Twitter Taste Live, a community or

ellow tweeters that are very interested in wine, beer or cigars. The part that gotmy attention was not that it was a niche social network, because there are plenty o those, but that it actually gathers people around the globe at joint tastings.Not the traditional wine-, beer- or cigar tastings o course but by using Twitter instead.

LINDA PIERRE

Location: Stockholm, SwedenBlog: http://lindapierre.tumblr.com/

Picture: Richard Mackney

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All o a sudden I saw the hashtag #ttl requently used in my Twitter-stream. At rstI didn’t get it, what was I missing (you know I just can’t handle not knowing all about these things)? Then it hit me that a live tasting event had begun and people whereparticipating and showing it by using the same hashtag. The people over at Wine Conversation had listed three wines to the tasting called “Beyond the Trade” and the British Twittersphere eagerly participated. Normally you don’t have to be in acertain country to participate, all you have to do is to buy the wine bottles, beers or cigars listed or the tasting and just go nuts. With the glass or cigar in one hand and the other hand typing away at the keyboard. Maybe nuts is the keyword here, butyou got to love people who are passionate about these things.

This event though was a bit dierent. It is actually a physical event taking place inLondon and now also or the rst time live on the web using social media as the tool o choice. For those sitting at home alone, or in groups, a box with all the winebottles were home delivered so that they could participate. Richard Mackney wasone o the eager ones trying the later version and lming it or us to see aterwardsas well. What did we do or un beore the Internet I wonder...

What i we could collaborate like this more?There’s no limit to what that could help people (and companies) to achieve don’t you think? World peace might be taking it a bit too ar I guess, but solving problems andhelping each other out in dicult times are something we see more and more o.

Hm, I’m gonna think some more about this or uture issues o this report. I have towrap this up since I just spilled some red wine on my Macbook Pro and @garyvee just dissed my avourite Syrah on Twitter!

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P i c t u

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The way users consume digital content has changed the way brands need to behave in the digitalspace. Where traditional media (web 1.0) is shouting, web 2.0 is about conversations. Consumersexpect to be involved, engaged and invited to collaborate. They have on-demand expectations;they expect real-time dialogue and want personalised experiences. This is where digital has theadvantages of relevance and context, enabling consumers to immerse as much or as little as they want, when they want, how they want.

It’s all about the brand experience- seamless but not standardised

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NICHOLAS GILLLocation: London, United KingdomBlog: bluurb.wordpress.com

P i c t u r e : k a t m e r e

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Social networks are now culturally assimilated into the psyche

People are spending less time on communication and content sites and

more on consumer generated media (+47%) and entertainment (+8%)

sites which has seen the huge rise o social networks leading to theubiquitous Facebook app in every creative presentation in the last 18

months. To dramatise the impact social networks have had; Christmas

Day 2007 was the busiest ever day or social networks in the UK.

Facebook was the 3rd most visited website pushing eBay to 4th or the

rst time.

Social search on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Linked

In etc. will become more valuable to users because o relevancy and

their inherent higher trust in consumer, particularly peer, reviews o

places, people and companies than rom brands themselves. 90% o

consumers trust recommendations rom other consumers compared

to 45% rom a TV ad. Augment this with the act that 51% o users

would abandon a consumer electronics purchase due to negative user

generated comments and positive opinion and increased use o social

search become increasingly important. Combining search and peer

advice will become more important than contextual listings and vertical

search.

Gaming has shifted our notion of entertainment

A huge shit in consumer attitudes has turned video games into the UK’s

most popular orm o entertainment with UK sales o games outstripping

music and video or the rst time in 2008. As CD sales continue to decline,

the traditional high street music retailers are diversiying and changing

store layouts to ocus on more lucrative areas such as gaming.

Gaming is clearly no longer conned to the traditional Generation Y

and younger audiences. Social gaming platorms, like the Nintendo Wii,

have been shown to have a positive infuence in the home changing

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the traditional view o gaming by amilies: acilitating peer

bonding and encouraging child exercise. 25% o all UK

homes now have a Nintendo Wii.

As much as consumers don’t experience brands in silo

channels these days, increasingly they will want to continuetheir gaming experience across channels. Already this

is happening in nascent territory such as downloadable

content to enhance the gaming experience. Online gaming

shited rom niche to mainstream with the advent o games

such as Call o Duty to the point where Radio 1 DJ’s Chris

Moyles and Vernon Kay talk about their gamer tags and

gaming activities. You can’t get more mainstream than

Radio 1.

Extending the gaming across channels will become expected.

From console to PC to mobile, porting your stats and chat

systems will become the norm. The communications activity

a brand produces must also replicate this experience.

Community

Enabling the brand in the social networks these consumers

operate in is no longer an option. This does encompass the

ubiquitous Facebook Group and Application but it needs to

go beyond this. Being a an o a new product is only part

o the story. Enabling true consumer engagement through

releasing the brand and content into the hands o the

passionate consumers, let them co-create and collaborate

with you to take the product to new levels. Participation is

not just a buzz word, it’s an expectation.

This extends to online advertising where it’s about

engagement and interaction. Advertising static content gets

lost. Deeper engagement and immersion delivers results.

Digital enables deeper immersion than any other channel. Fan boys will want

more than just the ocial web site and the occasional developer diary. Taking

learnings rom some o the major theatrical releases in modern times, Batman:

The Dark Knight and Clovereld, brands need to extend their digital presence

to involve, inspire and create talkability.

Device convergence

Today we carry many pieces o equipment, tomorrow one. And it won’t be the

laptop. Witness the rapid growth in mobile internet usage today, uelled by

the accessible interace o the Apple iPhone and new Google Android mobile

platorm. 38% o users will access the Internet via a mobile device by the time

the Olympics comes to this country in 2012. The pace o development in mobiles

will leave other devices in their wake. I you can get an 8 mega pixel camera

phone today, why buy a separate camera tomorrow?

P i c t u r e : e d a n s

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Is it the death of TV?

164 minutes online everyday versus 148 minutes watching TV

everyday suggest TV is dead. Well, not quite. It’s where and how

consumers are watching their TV that matters.

People are now accessing TV online, shitingtheir media and increasingly mashing it (the

youth demographic mash 44 hours o activity

into a 24 hour day) meaning they watch TV

and are online at the same time. A massive

engagement and relationship deepening

opportunity or digital.

The notion o time-shiting means PVRs

change viewing habits to when consumers

are ready to watch it and over 70% o PVR

owners ast orward through advertising.

Innovations such as BBC iPlayer and Channel

4 On Demand are place-shiting where

consumers watch. They’re still watching TV

but on their own terms. And oten on multiple devices. In a straight

choice between the TV and their PC 80% o younger consumers

wouldn’t lose their PC because it’s more versatile at delivering the

content they want.

There is a symbiotic relationship between TV and digital. Far rom

being separate channels, the two work in solid combination to drive

relevance, association with brand values and importantly intent to

purchase and talkability. Digital amplies this through the innatesocial aspects o the medium.

Implications of a digital future

The single biggest implication is that consumers do not think in

terms o or online. For them this is antiquated. There is no line. They

don’t experience a brand or product the way brands are organised

into departments and responsibilities. They experience it the way

they want to. On their terms.

A brand is the sum o all perceptions resulting rom every point o

contact a person has with a company, either directly or indirectly,

over time. Di erent people have dierent ways o perorming a task.

There is no need to limit to a single way o doingthings. Be non-linear. Don’t orce users to ollow

a specic path: brands can create and users will

nd multiple paths to same content. Consumer

interactions are not aligned vertically with the

corporate structure. They cut across multiple

departments o a company.

This means it’s about creating a brand experience,

not a channel led approach.

Think o experiences rather than channels. Achannel can provide multiple experiences.

Adopt a more integrated and customer-centric

approach to communications. Consider the moments o interaction

between people and brands, and seek to generate as much value

as possible rom these interactions. The experience needs to be

consistent and seamless across all points o interaction. This

doesn’t necessarily mean matching luggage creatively but must

absolutely be aligned rom a strategic perspective and applying

that to understand the role that each channel plays in the complete

experience.

In a nutshell, multiple ways to access the content and having great

content that is inormative, entertaining and engaging in the rst

place.

Sources:eMarketer, Forrester, Google, Yahoo!/OMD, OfCom, Advertising: It’s Everywhere, Me-

dia Awareness Network, Forrester/Intelliseek Research, Yankelovich Monitor, BBC.

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One o the old and much appreciated principals o the Internet is thateverybody can be anonymous.The upside is or instance ree speech withoutear o repercussions, which in some countries or situations is crucial. Thedownside is faming wars, racist remarks, and comment sections just generally turning into anarchistic havens or straight-out oul-mouthed little devils.

We might see the end o “the wild west” o the web or “the wild web”as you might call it. More and more governments are listening into whatpeople are doing and saying online and initiatives as Facebook Connectholds us personally accountable when we comment on blogs using our Facebook account.

Starting this year the Swedish National Deence Radio Establishment willlisten in to all Internet trac crossing the Swedish boarders. We have writtenabout this beore (in the October issue, only available or our ormer paid-or subscribers), we even made a web documentary about the blog stormcaused by this law last year called Wiretapping Sweden (a must see i youare not amiliar with this issue). Sweden is by now means rst in line whenit comes to keeping a tap on Internet communication but this controversiallaw contributed to putting the topic on the Internet agenda.

Death of the

anonymous web?

Another actor in the possible death o the anonymous web is a move rom the EU and this hasalso created massive discussions in the European blogosphere. This takes away one o the things that drove many o the original bloggers into this arena in the rst place; the opportunity to shareintimate details o their li ves but not giving away they names.

So we are seeing two trends right now working against the idea o the anonymous web:

− Users willingly giving away lots o inormation about themselves.

− Governments listening into everything we say online and building huge databases with our

social graphs.The rst trend could be used as an argument or letting governments store and analyse this data,and while they're at it also gather a whole lot o other data about us. But there is a huge dierencebetween opening your ront door to invite a stranger in or coee rather than that very stranger deciding to sneak in through the backdoor and copy all your personal documents.

The debates about personal integrity and the rights to data about specic people have already started but I think they will grow even louder in the years to come. Surely we will get back to this topic in uture issues.

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TOMAS NIHLÉNLocation: Stockholm, Sweden

Blog: http://tomasnihlen.tumblr.com/

P

i c t u r e : W h a t s e r n a m e ?

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A crisis of convergence

Music 3.0

If you want an example of music industry panic, consider this; the band Death Cab for Cutie has been forced to removevideos from its own website due to a copyright claim – by its own record label, Warner Music Group.

Yet despite the challenge faced by digital distribution and the perception by consumers of content as free, industryevents such as the recent Midem still feature lots of talk about the problem, but no real solutions.

DAN THORNTONLocation: Peterborough, United Kingdom

Blog: http://www.thewayoftheweb.net

P i c t u r e : n e t d o g 2

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Music sales actually rose in 2008 – digital music sales grew

25 per cent to $3.7 billion, and made up 20 per cent of recorded

music sales. Meanwhile vinyl album sales grew by 89% in the

U.S. in 2008 – albeit to just 1.88 million sales compared to the

65.8 million digital albums.

So with digital music growing, and even vinyl making a comeback – why is themusic industry sailing into the perect storm?

• Albums sales overall have dropped, and the CD ormat is being hit hard.

• Industry organisation IFPI puts the number o illegal downloads at 95% o all music downloads (40 billion tracks) Individual bands are going direct to their ans and making bigger prots by doing so.

• And music streaming services are leading towards ans essentially renting their content.

The current industry- avoured approach is to pursue illegal downloading by orcing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to track and notiy individuals, beoredisconnecting repeat oenders. And two surveys have suggested this would stop64-70% o internet users rom illegal downloads – but when you actually ask the

18 per cent o Europeans who are actually using Peer-2-Peer sharing to swapmusic, only 41% would respond to a warning, and 37% admitted they wouldcontinue to share music even when threatened with imminent disconnection.

But many people don’t believe legal downloads will ever succeed in tacklingpiracy, or replacing enough o the revenue lost rom CD sales. The tipping pointis predicted or 2013 when the majority o sales will be rom online, mobile andringtones or the rst time – but total music industry revenues will be about hal o the peak amount o just under Euro 12 billion in 2001. P

i c t u r e : N i g h t R P S t a r

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One alternative is shown by ot-quoted examples o Nine Inch Nails and Radioheadmaking their music available either or ree, or or a price set by consumers. Thebest-selling MP3 album at Amazon in 2008 was Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV whichwas released or ree under a Creative Commons licence – but made $1.6 millionin revenue in its rst week and hit #1 on the Billboard Electronic chart. Makingmusic available in this way is denitely successul or bands with a certain level o success – but the jury is out on how many musicians would be successul enough tomaintain a living, even when attempting to monetise their work through additionalphysical releases, merchandise and live events.

The other alternative which is viable, i complex, is oering music in a ‘permissionmodel’ – or example, a current proposal or the 80,000 residents o the Isle o Man to pay an extra £1 per month or broadband to cover the costs o themdownloading as much music as they like. And despite being dismissed by tradebosses or suggesting authorised ISPs should let P2P downloads occur in exchangeor payment, Media Futurist Gerd Leonhard ound support rom band manager Peter Jenner.

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‘The reality is we’ve got to compete with ree’

Stanord proessor and lawyer Lawrence Lessig prominently asserts that ‘prosecuting online le sharing turns a generation [into] cr iminal’.He doesn’t support piracy but calls or a reorm o copyright law and

tactics which has seen the Record Industry Association o Americasue tens o thousands o individuals and allege millions o dollarsin damages without reducing the amount o peer-to-peer sharing, or collecting additional revenues or musicians rather than the lawyers. He adds his voice exploring ideas such asa voluntary collective licence, and a more expansive ‘non-commercial use levy’ His latest book, Remix, explores the culture o digital media as something to be remixedand mashed-up.

Despite all the evidence pointing towards a radicalshake-up, Warner Music Group is in the midst o abacklash over a royalty disagreement with Youtube.WMG orced the video site to remove all clips by its artists,removing ocial videos and unocial soundtracks to amateur content which has let many hours o content eerily muted.Other content owners are allowing their content to be usedand monetising it via Youtube’s Content ID technology.

And the RIAA is in the midst o an increasing surreal caseagainst Joel Tenenbaum, accused o downloading at leastseven songs and making 816 music les available via theKazaa le-sharing network in 2004. Tenenbaum oered

to settle or $500, but the music companies demanded$12,000. Now Harvard Law School proessor, CharlesNesson, and his students have taken up the case tolaunch a constitutional attack on the copyright lawwhich has allowed the industry to pursue le-sharersin the U.S. Nesson and team had an order granted to narrowcast the trial over the web, which is beingappealed by the RIAA despite the act they seek topublicise the risks o copyright inringement.

And there’s one nal, and totally legal threat in the shape o streaming musiccontent via Myspace, BBC iPlayer, and dedicated services such as last.m,Pandora, imeem, Spotiy etc. Research by Forrester’s Mark Mulligan have

shown that only 9% o UK internet users purchase paid downloads, while24% listen to streaming music. One example o a payment model is Nokia’sComes With Music, with unlimited streaming and downloads or 12 months

with your mobile – Orange have a fat rate service in France, whilst Sony-Ericsson run a similar scheme in Sweden. Danish ISP TDC oers music with their internet packages, and even Google oers a ree music in China.

Streaming music, bundled music, legal peer-to-peer, monetising amateur remixesand oering physical objects as added value – they’re all available – but it remains

to be seen whether the industry can change radically enough to grasp them. Or whether more established artists will seek reedom rom the industry to grabnew lie or themselves.

Further reading:

www.ipi.org – International Federation o the Phonographic Industry

www.riaa.com – Recording Industr y Association o America

http://www.paidcontent.org/channel/name/midem/ - Comprehensivecoverage o Midem by PaidContent,org

http://www.mediauturist.com – Gerd Leonhard on the uture o musicand subscription services.

http://www.lessig.org/ - Lawrence Lessig

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/riaa/ The Harvard Law Blog or CharlesNesson and students.

http://musicindustrymaniesto.com/ - A maniesto or change in the musicindustry and collecting relevant articles and links.

http://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com/ - Music Industry articles and data by Mark Mulligan (Forrester)

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You’ve probably read about the inamous amilies playing the role

o satised Walmart customers back in 2006 and the so-called Sony

PSP an blog “All I want or Christmas is a PSP” that was exposed

as Sony themselves. You might think that more than 2 years later

these two examples may have discouraged brands to try and ool

their customers. Unortunately we still see these type o mistakes

being made. The only di erence is that today companies know that i

they make a mess they have to clean it up in public.

The latest brand to be put in the naughty corner is Belkin. One o the

company’s employees didn’t trust enough in the quality o its products

and hired people to write reviews on Amazon, reviews o products

they had never used. For every 5 star rating and good comment these

people got paid. Not only did he urge you to do this on new products

but on old ones as well, so that the products’ ormer bad reviews

would appear less dominant.

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Liar liarpants on

fire!

It is amazing that we still keep reading aboutbrands trying to lie their way to the top. Whenwill they ever learn that you can’t lie and getaway with it any more. The truth always finds

its way out somehow, especially in these dayswhen information spreads as fast as a wildfireand people are ready to expose the truth tothe world in heartbeat.

LINDA PIERRELocation: Stockholm, Sweden

Blog: http://lindapierre.tumblr.com/

Picture: ktylerconk

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People where even told to mark bad reviews as “not helping”.

The request was posted by a man called Michael Bayard.

According to LinkedIn there’s is a man by that name who is

Business Development Representative at Belkin International

and he works with Belkin sales via Amazon.com.

Ouch Belkin, this is not looking so good... Belkin’s CEO later

said it was “with great surprise and dismay when [they]

discovered that one o [their] employees may have

posted a number o queries on the Amazon Mechanical

Turk website inviting users to post positive reviews

o Belkin products in exchange or payment”. He

also said that they have “the highest standards

o corporate ethics” and do not accept this

type o behaviour rom their employees.

I must say they did act rather quickly,

only two days ater the rst blog post

appeared which by the way happened

to be on a weekend. They also removed

all reviews related to the link this Bayard

character had put up on the help site

Amazon Mechanical Turk. This has turned

into quite a mess though and I my eyes it

wasn’t even a clever attempt to ool us but,

actually a really stupid move. Not only the hole

idea to try to ool consumers but also in regards

to the execution o the plan.

Microsot also recently made a quite ool out o themselves. In this promo video or Microsot’s

Songsmith, an application or recording songs, a

girl is eatured singing in ront o a laptop. Nothing

strange about that, only that the laptop she is

using is a Mac covered with fower-stickers. Did

the makers behind the video really think that

people wouldn’t see it was a Mac or was this just

a trick to get some attention Microsot otherwise

has got a hard time getting? Songsmith only works on PC’s and since you can

turn your Mac into a PC using or instance Parallels it can actually run on a Mac

as well. But stil l, it just doesn’t make any sense to me why Microsot couldn’t use

one o “its own” laptops running their operating systems without middleware.

They should have know someone would pick it up and write about it anyhow.

There has been a lot o discussions lately both in the Swedish blogosphere

and mainstream media about the Swedish writer Liza Marklund and her most

amous book “Hidden”. When the degree o truth was questioned or her

book that is supposed to be “a true story” she chose not to answer

the accusations right away but to keep a low prole. I you google

her name a ew weeks ater the “blogger riots” began, lots o

angry voices rom the blogosphere appear on the rst page.

The same thing happened to the Swedish company Hewal

a ew weeks earlier. Instead o trying to answer a very

upset customer they chose to try to sue him and make

him take down the blog post he had written. This

o course only made things even worse and Hewal

got a mob o angry bloggers attacking them.

Once again people have proved that companies

can’t ool or treat us badly any more. I we don’t

like it, we will say it. That is kind o scary or a lot o

executives, I know. But put your sel into the shoes

o the consumers. Why should we keep our mouth

closed when there are so many ways to speak the

truth, and to do so in public? No there is no way

back rom this, now it’s up to you marketers and

brand owners to listen to the consumers instead o ignoring them and try to make your products look

good behind the mask that is called advertising.

That good old trick won’t work any more. It’s time or

companies to stop ooling themselves that they can

sell a product no matter the quality. Ads are only skin

deep and in the long run it’s impossible to hide products

that suck, under layers o clever advertising. So be aware,

be very aware and don’t try to ool us!

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Picture: Okko Pyykkö

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Ok, time for my opinion. Where to start,

I wondered, when I sat down to write this

piece. There are so many things right now

that are more or less bugging me. But I’llhave to save some of them and go for the

most important one of them all... Obama has

set out to change the US, and it’s time for

all marketers to start a process of real and

profound change in the field of marketing.

No more excuses.

The days of interruptive advertising are

about to run out. And it must stop really. Just

think about it, don’t you often change the

channel on the TV when you are interruptedby advertising? Go to the bathroom or

maybe put on a kettle of tea or coffee? Of

course you do, because the ad spots are

interrupting you from watching the TV show

or movie you sat down to watch. It’s getting

in the way of your experience. It’s not adding

to it but rather destroying it. Even though

many advertising agencies might think their

STOP

buggingus!

ads are a gift to the public, because they are

clever, or funny or generally nice looking.

But the truth is: it’s still, for the consumers,

mostly just an annoying part of the TVexperience. And when these people, who

are actually still watching old school TV,

understand that there is a whole world out

there without advertising, they just might

turn away from that same TV, like many

people I know already have. Do you really

want to chase them away?

Marketing hasn’t really changed that much in

the last 100 years or so. Evolutionary changes

mostly. And up until now there wasn’t muchpoint to change a winning formula. But the

last few years the consumers have changed,

and the competition and divergence in the

media space is punching holes in the current

marketing paradigm. It’s just a matter of

time until all marketers MUST rethink the

whole marketing game. At the moment only

the marketers that want to stay in business

OPINion

47

in the future need to think about this. The

other marketers could possibly keep going

in old footsteps at least a couple of years

more before they go out of business.

So what do you think? Will you be a dinosaur,

just before the meteor hits the earth’s

surface, or an adaptive mammal which finds

new ways to stay relevant?

And please, keep the consumers best interest

in mind and don’t try to brainwash them with

irrelevant and repetitive advertising until

they turn away from you...

And oh, I have to say three more thingbefore I let you go; DRM is stupid and must

stop all together, all companies should stop

treating the world as separate markets and

the Swedes who put #svpt i ALL their tweets

should stop. Ok, that’s it. Feel free to protest

against all my opinions in this blog post.

//Tomas Nihlén, Editor in Chief

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CONNECT with us!We at Urban Lifestyle also use a number o web 2.0-services,not that suprisingly, both in our work and away rom work.Here we have listed some o our most important toolsinormation, inspiration and integrating with others.

Add us as friends on any o these services (or all o themi you like). We would love to know a bit more about our readers and what you think about this report.

To keep track o what’s going on at Urban Liestyle also

check out our company Twitter account, the repor t websiteand the blog:

twitter.com/urbanliestyle

www.UrbanLiestyleReport.com

www.urbanliestylereport.com/newmedia

Tomas NIHLEN ( tomas@urban-liestyle.se)

Connect with me on:

Twitter

FriendFeed

LinkedIn

Plaxo

Tumblr

Linda PIERRE(linda@urban-liestyle.se)

Connect with me on:

Twitter

Jaiku

FriendFeed

LinkedIn

Plaxo

Photo: BotheredByBees

Illustrations from: Face Your Manga

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