What Ever Happened to the New MySpace?

Remember eight months ago when MySpace relaunched with a brand new look, user experience and TV campaign? The commercial featured a hipster party that included Erin Wasson, Pharrell, Mac Miller, Ciara and other "it" celebrities trapped in what looks like an American Apparel explosion. A spray painted "Welcome to the neighborhood" tagline ends the TV spot, but how many people actually joined? Is the neighborhood barren or hopping like a Saturday night in Williamsburg?

To be honest, I'm not sure. I have not seen one headline in the last eight months about MySpace or the usage of the new MySpace. What happened? To answer this question fairly, I'm tasking myself to use the platform for the next week. Will keep you posted...

In the meantime, find me on MySpace here.

Are You Bothered By How Insensitive Brands Are In Social Media? I Am.

Something has been bothering me all day. The constant Facebook posts and tweets in my news feeds from brands and media outlets unrelated to Hurricane Sandy just doesn't sit right with me. Yes, I know there's a world outside of New York and the east coast area and life goes on, but selling me coffee or telling me how to use a shampoo in 3 different ways just doesn't feel right.

We live in a hyper-connected world, so brands need to be extra sensitive to what's going on in the world and how it affects their audience. This is what geo-targeting capabilities in Facebook are for, so brands can segment their messaging and post only what's most relevant to their audiences.

Don't ask your audience who might have lost their home what they are doing for Halloween. Don't tell your audience that just stayed up all night without power or water that they should be partying it up with your brand of beer. It's a fast way to lose brand credibility. Brands should think about whether what they are posting makes sense to someone like me who is living in a bizarre bubble of constant tragic news and unusual circumstances. If what they are saying doesn't make sense, then don't tweet it. Your business won't suffer from one less tweet, but you could lose a handful a followers with tweets like the above from @adage. Gap and American Apparel are guilty of the same.

I am not just talking about social sensitivity during natural disasters but also shootings, riots and large-scale accidents. Social media can be a very powerful tool to connect with your audience but it can also hurt your brand and business tremendously if you don't use common sense. Rule of thumb: if a friend dear to you would punch you in the face about what you are going to post, then don't post it.

Type Pop & GIF CTRL, Two More GIF Sites to Kill Time

TypePop.com
Instantly make pretty GIFs of all the things you think are "supercute"or "so wrong"

gifctrl.com
You just have to try this site to see why it is so awesome

 Thanks to my coworkers Kaity and Richard for sharing these links!

What is #September22NYC? Just Another Great Example of Social Media Hyping

Building hype for a concert, museum exhibit or party is nothing new; however, nowadays, you can't expect to send a bunch of press releases and hope that it will sell tickets or get people talking. If you want people to talk about your event organically, and by "talk" I mean "social talk" through a facebook post or tweet, you need to get creative.

Today, I was sent a link september22nyc.com and when I got to the page, there wasn't much information beyond a hashtag, few instagram photos of recognizable NYC landmarks and additional clues to be revealed over the next couple of days.

When I'm confused, I like to search on Twitter or Google the information that I know, which in this case is the #September22NYC hashtag. It didn't take long (a few tweets to be exact) for me to figure out the date "September 22nd" will be for a Size Records music event with DJ Steve Angello and potentially Thomas Gold and Eric Prydz at Central Park or Governor's Island in NYC. Whether these assumptions are true, who knows? But the wisdom of the crowds has spoken and this is what I have gathered until the official announcement is made on August 1, 2012 at 1600 (EST I assume?).

This social-hype mystery reminds me of the recent Reddit subway $50 bill cryptic code stunt which had New Yorkers hungry for clues and running around the city to a mysterious location looking for a blue jay (I'm talking to you Karen & Jordan!).

Here are 3 things you need to pull off a social-hype stunt:
1) The Reach (of 1 person) Still Matters When Seeding - You might be wondering, how did people know the september22nyc.com existed? Popular DJ Steve Angello (one-third of Swedish House Mafia) tweeted the below to his 315K followers:

Likewise, the Reddit subway code probably wouldn't have been solved without the help of Reddit's million+ readers. Also, it's really important to keep the initial source of information as organic as possible so the information is not disregarded as another corporate stunt (even though it is). 

2) Create Smart Clues, Your Fans Are Not Stupid - September22NYC did this by photoshopping the Size Records logo and strategic objects within NYC images. You don't necessarily need to draft a 500 character cryptic code, but you should create clues that your audience or fans would enjoy solving.

3) Set A Date, No More Than A Week Away - Give people something to anticipate by setting a date no more than a week out or people will lose interest and forget. Unless this is for Jay-Z tickets.

What I really like about the September22NYC idea is the tumblr-style website--simple and clean--and integration of popular social networks like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Even though I may not attend the event, I applaud Size Records for making things interesting.

#TopChicret Maybelline 'Uses Shit Fashion Girls Says' P'trique For Charlotte Free Annoucement

Some brands talk about collaborating with Internet famous people and some brands actually do it, like Maybelline's recent annoucement of Charlotte Free as the new face of their brand. Check out the pretty funny video featuring 'Shit Fashion Girls Say' star P'trique below. "N.F.T. (not for twitter)."

Whoa, Pinterest Looks Different!

I might be late, but hey, Pinterest profiles looks different/better!

What I Got Right (and Didn't Get) About Facebook Timeline for Brands

Hooray! Facebook Timeline is finally here for brand pages and I can't be more excited. Five months ago, I wrote an article for Mashable about the implications of Facebook Timeline for brands and majority of the changes predicted were positive--such as the "cover" photo real estate, infinite scroll of wall and timeline storytelling aspect. Moment of truth, today Facebook revealed what brands can expect by allowing pages to preview in Timeline. All pages are expected to rollover to the timeline format after 3/30, so it's nice to see Facebook allow time for brands to understand and prepare for these timeline changes.

Now it's time to see what I predicted right (most of these are obvious based on personal timelines):

• Cover Photo
• Infinite Scroll/Timeline
• Access Apps through Icons beneath the Cover*

What I didn't see coming:

• Guidelines on Cover Photo - According to InsideFacebook.com, CTA, arrows, references to price or purchase or asking people to like or share is not allowed--which is understandable to avoid terrible ad-like cover photos; however, this is a huge bummer because the potential for brands to use that space creatively to feature a promotion is enormous 
• Pinning Posts (or the "Sticky" Posts) - ability to highlight a post at the very top of the timeline for seven days. This is Facebook's fix to not allowing CTAs or call outs in the cover photo
• Doing away with Like Gates and Default pages - Brands need to work harder to earn those likes!
• Private Messaging to Page Fans - Finally!

The next big push for brands is to build open graph Facebook apps that live within the timeline versus hidden in a square icon. This will increase visibility of the app on personal profiles but also force brands to increase the value and improve the experience of these apps to make it worthwhile for people to use.

*I don't think I actually wrote this in the Mashable article but this is where I expected "tabs" and apps to move to

Who is Jeremy Lin? Tell Me Facebook.

On my way home on the 4 express train to Union Square today, I was cornered against the door by two 30-something tie-wearing men talking loudly about Jeremy Lin. The man closest to me complained about Linsanity and how all the fanfare around Jeremy Lin was unwarranted because the games that Lin scored 20+ points was against bad NBA teams (I have no clue since I don't watch basketball, let alone care about the Knicks) and how he's skeptical about Lin's ability. The other man told an interesting story of how large-size Lin jerseys were sold out at a Modell's and stores are rushing to produce more. During this time that I was eavesdropping, I first thought to myself, "this man's a racist", then I thought about how the only reason why I know who Jeremy Lin is because my Facebook news feed has been flooded with pro-Jeremy Lin video clips the past week. Who is Jeremy Lin? He's a basketball player on the Knicks who went to Harvard and is Asian American. I found that out through Facebook.

While I don't think that man next to me on the train is truly racist, I do think Linsanity has a lot to do with Lin's race. The fact that Jeremy Lin kicks ass makes me pretty proud to be an Asian and now I sort of very minimally care about the Knicks or at least in Lin's story. Any NBA team that had a small window to gain greater press coverage and buzz would take it, explaining the rush in printing Lin jerseys and madness that is the Jeremy Lin internet memes: http://www.quickmeme.com/Jeremy-Lin/?upcoming 

I've always said this (many times sarcastically): Asians don't know how to fail. I used to yell this at BU hockey games when #18 Brandon Yip was on the ice and he always delivered. Whether or not social media and the internet blew the significance of Jeremy Lin's recent success out of proportion doesn't really matter. What matters is a week ago no one knew who Jeremy Lin was, and now, he's become all New York and Asians across America can talk about.

#YourCampaignIdeaHere

Does your campaign have an official hashtag? Is your campaign cool? Well it should be both. It's safe to say when #ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage trends for days on twitter, hashtags have reached mass usage in the US (unless you're targeting the 60+ crowd). Most campaigns aim to generate buzz and awareness through social channels, and to do that, marketers need to do some preparation in seeding the conversation by designating a campaign hashtag in the creative. Sometimes (rarely), campaigns are EPIC enough to sprout and carry conversation on its own but most brands can't afford to use Justin Bieber.

Hashtags are innately social as its intended use is to create a thread of conversation around a specific topic on twitter, and now, photo sharing sites like Instagram also have tag searching functions.

Here are some recent hashtagged campaigns:

1) #WalkofShame - Harvey Nichols

2) #BasketballNeverStops - Nike

3) #SWATH (Snow White & the Huntsman)

Lil Wayne Proves He is America's Favorite Cookie (or the Biggest Cookie Monster!)

Today, Oreo is attempting to break the Guinness World Record for most Facebook "likes" on a single post to solidify Oreo as the world's most "liked" cookie (surely Oreo is outgrowing its tagline as America's Favorite Cookie). Oreo currently has 100,642 likes which, according to the comment below, means its reached the record:

However, another chocolately treat had to rain on Oreo's good news--no not Ding Dongs--actually it was rapper Lil Wayne. I heard it first from Mashable that Lil Wayne decided to break some records himself today:

Lil Wayne probably did beat the record for most posts in 24 hours, because according to his Facebook Profile page, Lil Wayne has 430,686 likes in 6 hours--that is four times more likes than Oreo in almost half the amount of time.

I have never seen a "like" war or Social Brand attack of this scale before (moral of the story don't mess with Rappers or Justin Bieber fans); however, Oreo doesn't necessarily lose just because it doesn't beat the world record. With the added media attention and competitive factor, this probably catalyzed participation of all (Non-Lil Wayne) Oreo fans. And when it comes down to it, a pack of Oreos average at $4 while Lil Wayne's singles are selling at $1.29 per track on iTunes, how many Oreos do you think you will consume in your lifetime? A Milli probably.

Staying Connected With Hawaii During A Tsunami

I woke up at 9:30 am EST today, and like every Saturday, I turned on my computer and checked my Facebook wall, which was scattered with status updates from friends in Hawaii who had posted about a Tsunami warning.  I was instantly concerned.  As all of Hawaii was still asleep (it was 4 am there), I was in New York trying to figure out how serious the situation is back home.

Until today, when I needed to know what was going on halfway around the world in real-time, I did not understand how useful Twitter, Facebook or online streaming video can be.  I have been watching streaming live video of Hawaii's shorelines on CNN, reading tweets from total strangers in Hawaii about the progression of the Tsunami and viewing mobile uploads of crazy gas station lines in Hawaii.  It is interesting to see how a sudden, urgent event plays out online:  UFC champion BJ Penn has been video blogging his preparation for the disaster on his site BJPenn.com and Hawaii's newspaper The Honolulu Advertiser (@HonAdv) needed some help learning how to tweet.

Social media is surely changing the way we get news, and obviously, media channels are learning to adapt; however, the easiest and quickest way to find out what's going on is a phone call, and after talking to my family, I know that they will be okay and I have nothing to be concerned.  Stay safe Hawaii!