Talking Point

Crisis Sourcing is the way to channel your inner zombie

By Craig Regan

Crowd Sourcing on the Internet is so hot right now. In simple terms, it means outsourcing a job to a group of people, raising financial backing or tracking an event or cause.

Upheavals in Libya and Egypt are great examples of how to use crowd sourcing to map a crisis. Think of it as social media for activists, where plotting actions on a map mobilises protesters or shows the extent of an issue to raise public support.

We’re going to see a lot more of Crisis Mapping in world hot spots as access to wireless broadband explodes. Wireless broadband is cheaper than cable Internet in much of Africa.

The ubiquitous TV aerial that’s a part of every shack in even the poorest shanty towns in South Africa is fast being replaced by less visible smartphones as a prime communications channel.

It’s probably not far off the mark to say that we’ll soon have billions of digital media users on social media but lack access to fresh running water or a toilet.

One issue that needs to be explored is how reliable as a source of information Crisis Sourcing will be. Crisis Mapping is as easy as signing-up for online software and galvanizing people with the same interest.

Hackers accessing back-end software is a daily event and who’s to say the servers these databases run won’t become the target of operatives spreading disinformation.

In military parlance, this is “black ops”. Where winning hearts and minds used to rely on leaflet drops or foreign language radio broadcasts, the digital world is the new theatre of warfare.

You can read an academic’s view on Crisis Sourcing here.

If it’s all too hard, you can always watch how the world is tracking the zombie apocalypse here. 

What's not to like? Why Facebook will never have a Dislike button

By Craig Regan

Pondering the Federal Budget? Concerned about the prospects for peace in the Middle East or simply pondering the existence of a god? Worry no more. The single most important issue in the world today is Facebook’s lack of a Dislike button.

For anyone cut off from modern society and technology – and I’m thinking people who are Amish, strict Methodists or members of The Australian Greens – you need to know that Facebook users view the world as a blue-themed stream of comments, pictures and videos on a computer screen.

People used to interact with friends by phoning or dropping by their house for a drink or a coffee. Now they do it through acknowledging a post on their Facebook wall by clicking a button called Like.

The lack of a Dislike button sticks in lots of craws - and fair enough. It’s very limiting.

Nobody in the real world walks around “liking” everything unless they’ve been lobotomised, inducted into a hippy commune or live in Nimbin. All of which are more or less the same thing.

It’s oddly uncomfortable to see a Facebook friend mourn the loss of a loved one on their wall and have “liking” what they posted as the only option. Unless, of course, callous Aunt Millie also left you out of her will or Iggy the axolotl was particularly ugly.

Assuming they ever became “friends”, would Tony Abbott ever like anything on Julia Gillard’s Facebook wall? There’s more chance of Bob Katter’s Far North Queensland electorate freezing over – although judging by some of his past statements, Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery might say it’s on the cards.

No, if Abbott’s really Mr Negative he’s going to use that Dislike button more often than a disgraced MP plonks a trade union credit card on the counter at a knock shop and says: “Charge me!”

Every few months someone threatens to bring a Dislike button to Facebook - and it always turns out to be a scam or a lame browser add-on that’s only visible to worshippers of Google Chrome.

Disliking is simply not part of the Facebook World. Social media is about connecting "friends” and encouraging interaction. A Dislike button would mayhem.

If Google Circles was meant to be a place for fights it would be called Google Boxing Rings.

So if you see this blog piece on a Facebook feed, don’t forget to “like” it and pass it on. And if you dislike it – suck eggs.

 

Break out the popcorn: Your movie choice (supposedly) reveals who you are

By Craig Regan

You are what you watch, apparently. The New York Times carries “news” (termed applied loosely) about market research claiming your choice of movie reveals your personality.

“Fans of ‘The Avengers,’ for instance, are 18 percent more likely than the general public to…try new experiences,” research company Meebo says.

Then again, they might be fans of Marvel Comics.

“People looking forward to…’The Amazing Spider-Man’ are 34 percent more likely to be optimistic than the general public.”

Who makes up the “general public” and why they’re so down on the world remains a mystery.  

Meebo has even compiled its research into a pretty picture (they are called Infograms these days and they’re the hot online PR trend in the US) to make it easy to digest.

A couple of things to note here: Meebo isn’t really a research company. It’s another social media platform that pulls together a number of channel feeds in one place.

Apart from some cursory media reportage, there’s scarcely any information available about how Meebo reached its conclusions other than it conducted a survey.

Going on these lines, fans of 'Titanic' probably have a liking for holidaying in West Africa (there's no ice there) and people queing for 'The Hunger Games' need to go on a diet. 

While all this makes a Today Tonight phone poll look like an admission exam for Mensa, you have to question how it's going to sell movie tickets - if that was ever the intention.

More likely, it's a stunt to get people talking about Meebo. Getting them to join the platform is goign to need a whole different script.

 

With augmented reality, there's a whole lotta Shakur going on

 

The live rapper is on the left.

 

By Craig Regan

Yo - listen up: Dead American rap stars may soon be coming to a stage near you.

One of the biggest hits/creepiest moments of last weekend at Coachella, the world’s biggest music festival, was an appearance by Tupac Shakur who joined recent Australian visitor Snoop Dogg on "Come With Me”, "Hail Mary" and "Gangsta Party."

This was a surprise to almost everyone at this show in the middle of the Californian desert because Tupac died in a hail of bullets 15 years ago.

The appearance was at night so there’s no blaming sunstroke.

Another Tupac song, “"I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghetto", went unperformed.

Tupac got the virtual gig on the strength of being a computer generated image. You can watch the video here. It’s a stunning example of augmented reality, where a live view of a physical, real-world environment is supplemented by computer-generated sensory input.

It’s one of the fastest-developing new media frontiers and has the potential to take news and entertainment off our TV flat screens and onto a coffee table or living room floor, in 3D.

There's some technical discussion here (and an explanation why it wasn't a "hologram".)

There’s no word yet if Dead Tupac will take to the road and play venues around the world. This takes Madonna and Milli Vanilli's miming to another level.

Presumably Tupac’s image projection equipment will need a first-class airline seat. At least promoters can rest easy knowing his backstage food, booze and drug requirements will be light on.

 

Why the Olympic social media police won't come knocking

By Craig Regan

Lawmakers often overlook the unintended consequences of their actions. Take the London Olympics for example, where the self-declared “first social media Games” could turn decidedly anti-social.

The Brits have pushed an Act through Parliament to ensure the intellectual property rights of the London Olympics are protected.

Nothing unusual about that – it happened in Australia long before Cathy Freeman went anywhere near a naked flame. It’s just part of the price countries pay to hand over a city for a fortnight to the private company called the International Olympics Committee.

The Guardian newspaper reports that the British legislation goes much further than existing copyright protection. Legal opinion is that someone in the London crowd uploading a photo or footage to Facebook could be prosecuted for breaching criminal law.

The Guardian says using “2012” in connection with terms like “London”, “medals”, “sponsors”, “summer”, “gold”, “silver” or “bronze” is another likely breach. An event called the "Great Exhibition 2012" was threatened with legal action over its use of "2012" but it was later withdrawn.

With ambush marketing in mind, Twitter has agreed to work with the London organisers to ban non-sponsors from buying promoted ads with hashtags like #London2012

Back in the years BS (Before Social), the Australian Government was so sensitive to its own legislation that it referred to the 2000 event as “the Sydney Games” and avoided using The O Word in official communications.

Owners of the Olympic Hotel in Sydney’s Moore Park, located a short stumble across the road from a Games venue, were threatened with prosecution unless they changed its name, despite having long known by the O name.

Common sense prevailed and the dogs were called off.

Much of the same will probably apply in London, even if the draconian law looks, sounds and smells like an ass.

It might say on your ticket that you agree not to “license, broadcast or publish video and/or sound recordings, including on social networking websites and the internet".

But does anyone think the Olympic Police are going to knock on the door after you go home and confiscate your smartphone?

Unless you’re working for a non-Olympic sponsor, the PR consequences would be dire.

More on the games and social media here if you're interested (and that's where we borrowed the image.) 

Questioning Kony doesn't make you a baby killer

By Craig Regan

Unless you’ve been living under Uluru you’d know that a relatively low-profile, not-for-profit called Invisible Children is running a campaign to lift awareness of a murderous Ugandan warlord using YouTube as its main vehicle.

Now, this blog was going to be a Kony Free Zone but it’s an important public affairs and communications issue, so resistance seems futile.

The YouTube figures alone are amazing - 72 million “viewings” of the documentary in six days. It’s a long video by online standards which makes you wonder how many of those hits were for the full 30 minutes.

Facebook “likes” have rained down like Sydney’s dysfunctional wet weather. Links to the video, news articles and blogs have been passed around faster than a ticking package in a Middle Eastern market.

In communications terms, you can track the life cycle of almost every public affairs issue.

Given the right elements, media seize on a cause and drive its profile before a backlash sets in and its legitimacy is questioned.

For social media, simply increase the speed of the process many times over.

Weekend commentary expressed amazement that after initially embracing the Stop Kony campaign, so many people were questioning it.

To which you have to say: it’s the Internet, stupid.

Why not question something that rose from obscurity and seek evidence?  If you do, it doesn’t automatically follow that you support evil tribal gangsters.   

Invisible Children haveachieved one of their objectives of building broad awareness of their cause, even if most people are still light-on for detail. They've harnessed emotion and they've made millions of people feel empowered.

In public affairs, however, you need to go beyond bald metrics and look for results.

If the end game is stopping Kony by any means possible, the neutral but mildly supportive reaction from the US Government suggests a solution like that is already in the works.  

The question will be that if Kony is terminated “with extreme prejudice” will it be because millions of people clicked on a link on the Internet or because US covert operatives have been on the ground in Uganda for a long time?

If and when it happens, the scramble for the moral high ground will be frantic. 

 

PR sting in the tail for surveillance drones

 

By Craig Regan

 

From the UK comes this story about the people who brought you flying surveillance drones wanting to lift their public image.

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association – yes they have a representative body for drones other than the UK Parliament - has recommended that these flying spies should be shown to "benefit mankind in general”. 

They’d like them to “be decorated with humanitarian-related advertisements, and be painted bright colours to distance them from those used in warzones”.

OK, these are spy drones, not the armed version that take out Taliban warlords. But if they’re being used for surveillance and aren’t supposed to be seen, what’s the point of them carrying advertising?

If you hadn’t thought much about how PR could improve the public image of surveillance drones you’re not alone. The Poms have a far more sophisticated view of these things than most people, with almost as many closed circuit TVs in their public places as churches and ruined castles.

There’s even a UK website that keeps tabs on the flying cameras.

If you think it odd that such a specialised industry sector should be worried about PR, don’t.

Public relations agencies are even employed by all sorts of organisations. The eastern European state of Kazakhstan brought in PR after its image was allegedly trashed by the Borat movie.

A British lobbying firm was even brought on board to run a social media campaign using children to attack Sting after he cancelled a concert in their country.

(Personally, I think the kids gota reprieve when Sting was a no show but I wouldn't say that publicly.)

 

Creative video another way of pushing HR cred

By Craig Regan

At Lighthouse Communications Group, we spend a lot of time helping clients show why they’re a great place to work.

Everyone wants to be an “employer of choice” because it means a company can attract the best talent.

Sometimes even good companies can struggle to cut through the clutter and make their voice heard.

That’s why we love this recruitment video from Twitter. It speaks to the platform which is all about directly communicating, but leans heavily on the fun factor. View it here.  

 

The App that can be your digital tombstone

By Craig Regan

Want to leave a digital trace of yourself on the Web using social media when you kick the bucket? As they say in the advertising world: “There’s an app for that.”

If I Die  lets you to post a video message to all your Facebook friends after you shuffle off this mortal coil. Shades of Pauline Hanson’s infamous leaked message from the grave in that and more than just a little morbid.

Download the app, upload a parting message or video and nominate three Facebook friends as “trustees”. They need to confirm your demise and you’re good to go.

You have to wonder if the marketing gurus behind this thought about calling the app When I Die, just to add some inevitability to their message and promote a stronger call to action. 

That’s one app that might have come in handy for relatives of the NSW hospital patients in this story. Hospital took 765 days to write a referral letter by which time the patient had died. The family of another deceased received a $70 bill after 535 days.

If you want to say goodbye posthumously, watch the Ifidie promo videos here. There’s even a Southpark version. 

 

Curriculum vitae to go the way of snail mail and fax machines, Wall Street Journal says

By Craig Regan

Between jobs? In this digitally-connected, social media-driven world, there are lots of options before you enter the revolving door of recruitment companies.

PR Weekly is spruiking this thoughtful column piece on the value of blogs as a tool to put on your best face.

While prospective employers trawling social media to gain perspective on a candidate is becoming legitimised, an article in the Wall Street Journal today says some US firms are going one step further and telling candidates to ditch their resumes and show them their Web presence.

Nervous? If you're a serial killer, it's probably a good idea to take down your Facebook page (but you probably already knew that.)

The less colourful might fret about that embarassing MySpace photo album of us chugging a yard glass at our 21st before getting behind the wheel of the porcelain bus for a technicolour yawn.

But things change so quickly in social media. How many people with a MySpace page can remember their password let alone the defunct email address they used to register?