Talking Point

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.

 

Newsjacking and why pimping someone else's ride isn't as easy as it seems

By Craig Regan

“Newsjacking” is a colourful American PR term that means hijacking a breaking news story and inserting your own angle. In the Australian context, many try and few succeed and here are the reasons:

Despite what they might tell you, most Australian PR consultancies aren’t very nimble or responsive. Awakening at dawn and diving into the media to find out what news is breaking isn’t second nature unless you’ve worked as a political press secretary or journalist.

Once a rival story is running in the mass media, it’s almost certainly too late to seize the moment unless you jump ahead of the agenda and define where the issue’s going.

Even at the breaking stage, your story has to be more than good to change the news agenda. It must be newer, more unusual or a bigger game-changer than what’s already out there. That’s a judgement call based on experience and some gut feel.

If a client thinks their angle is the greatest story since 9-11 and it’s not, you need to have an honest relationship that lets you tell them it’s not. The same applies if buying into an issue isn’t a good idea.

Your PR company needs to know its way around the media. It’s no good firing out an email to an over-crowded or unattended in-box. Talking to someone senior on the newsdesk is imperative.

Newsrooms are chaotic places. A phone will ring out or be answered by a reporter’s neighbour who has no idea where their colleague is. That’s no time to be passive – it’s time to go up the line or find a roundsperson on their mobile.

Social media can be a useful tool here but it's no good tweeting if no-one's following. 

Lastly, the client needs to be prepared. Can they talk to the angle if journalists pick up on the angle and come calling? If they’re part of a large local company or multinational do they have authority to act without sign-off from someone else? Pre-agreed messages make all the difference.

It’s not as easy as inventing a colourful term.

Picture credit: Beyond PR blog

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. 

 

Operation Global Black-Out - a stunt or real?

By Elizabeth Coad

The internet activist group ‘Anonymous’ plan to take down Facebook at 12am eastern standard time on 28 January 2012. Or maybe not.

Alleged members of the group posted a You Tube Video overnight calling for people worldwide to join the ‘Greatest Internet Protest - the first official Cyber War’.

In the YouTube video they provide instructions on how to disable your local Facebook server. They claim that if enough people participate and simultaneously disable all 60,000 worldwide Facebook servers the system will collapse. They also claim you can’t get caught!

 

Called Operation Blackout this latest call to join their protest action or ‘hacktivism’ by members of the online community. As they profile in the You Tube clip, the group have previously hacked the CBS and Warner’s Bros websites amongst other sites.

Anonymous is a decentralised community that employs leaderless resistance which is a political resistance strategy in which independent groups and individuals, challenge an established adversary, such as a government.

In this case their protest is centered on the now-stalled US Government's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and their desire to uphold the Internet rights for people worldwide. As their You Tube video states “An online war has begun between Anonymous, the people, and the Government of the United States”.

This latest video posting could be just a splintered subset of the community or in fact a hoax. Other members of Anonymous also tweeted from their @AnonOps Twitter feed that they would not attack Facebook. Although as their motto states: "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."

Regardless of the outcome, the YouTube posting last night and other recent videos are some of the best entertainment on the internet – bring on the cyber war!