carrie*connects

Social Media Impact Explained

This is a clever little YouTube infomercial argument for social media that is very compelling - I hesitate to agree with the producer's enthusiasm for Gen X driving the way the trend is evolving, and I think their concept is a bit reductive in terms of scope, but it does offer great food for thought - especially with the notion that brands need to drive their message directly to their customers.

Animals and TV ~ Sometimes Not The Best Mix

I saw this piece from CNN correspondent Jeanne Moos over the weekend and couldn't stop laughing. Some doggies and kitties could use a little media training before making their small screen debut.

Video | Do You Need A Social Media Recovery Group?

If you erupt into a mini giggling fit when you watch this video (from Sony Vaio) about Social Media, you may need to seek counseling (like I do).

Julie Powell Talks Food Blogging With MediaBistro

 
I must admit that I haven't had time to see the new Julie & Julia film starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams- but it's definitely tops on my to-do list.  Both actresses are my fav's and I love the concept of the movie - an aspiring writer, Julie Powell, desperately in need of some zest in her life decides to blend a love of cooking with her passion for writing.  The result:  Powell cooked her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and kept a well documented and very popular blog about it.

What resulted was a book and what looks like an amazing film - just goes to show the power of the blog!   Powell talked with MediaBistro recently about her media odyssey - below are a few highlights ~ but be sure to read the whole interview here.

Powell says:  "I was a frustrated writer. I majored in fiction writing in college and wanted to be a writer, and nothing was happening with that. I pretty much stopped writing by the time I was 29 and was feeling extraordinarily unfulfilled. So I had this midnight revelation that I would cook my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which came out of talking about going to cooking school. But I didn't have the money and didn't think I wanted to be a chef or anything like that. I did want to learn how to cook well, and Mastering was obviously a great way to do that.

I had no notion of what a blog could do and what the medium was really capable of at the time. I kind of chanced into it. I just was in the right place and time.

I started on a pretty instant level because I thought I was writing for family and friends. I would write, "Here's what I'm cooking." And then I would have some side notes about what was happening in my life. People ended up being interested in the food, but really interested in the other stuff. Then, I realized that I had all these readers interested in the gory details of my daily life; that's what they were following, and they wanted to learn more about that. "Tell me about how shitty you feel about your job, and tell me more about your pet snake," [readers said]. By that time, this bar had been set in terms of intimacy, which was very important to the development of the tone of the blog."

Also check out Julie Powell current blog.

This is Brill ... The Start A Lie Campaign

Love this idea ~ The Tappening Movement is an educational campaign to move people away from bottled water.  A clever devise they created was this "Start a Lie" website in which you choose from a number of witty, implausible lies about bottled water such as "Bottle water hates Father of the Bride" and "The US Government uses bottled waterboarding" and then spread the word on email, Facebook, Twitter or Digg (what no FriendFeed??)  It's not a non profit, but it is quite clever.

Social Media Marketing ~ How To Infuriate Your Fans & Friends on Facebook pt. 1

About a year ago if I mentioned the concept of harnessing the power of Facebook and Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, ect as a realistic strategy for marketing a brand, I would generally get a very long "hmmmmmm ....." followed by a very pregnant pause from many of the people I talked to.   A massive question mark would float over their heads as, more often than not, they just couldn't grasp the concept. 

Magically within the past six months however all that's changed with virtually every person I've ever known jumping on (at least) the Facebook bandwagon.  Unfortunately, rather than adopting the evolving norms of social media into the platform, which BTW are based on (1) actual human contact (2) original and interesting ideas (3) reciprocation ~ most Facebook newbies have attached dusty old marketing ideas to their shiny "new media" programs.  

As a result Facebook in particular is being used in some very annoying ways.  I thought I'd start tracking the most insidious behaviors and note them down here (mostly as a venue for venting my angst about the situation)....if you want to annoy on Facebook, here are some ideas:

1)  Businesses who want to really tick off their Facebook fans should be sure to send incessant group emails announcing minor sales, bland product announcements, and other information that is of interest only to their internal sales staff.  As a blogger, I'm used to getting press releases from other PR firms emailed rapid fire via specific email accounts, as such I really have little patience for this type of information sent to my Facebook in-box ~ and I'll lay you odds that I'm not in the minority here.  Even the most casual Facebook user is most likely not interested in being spammed about your 5% off sale once a day - if they are they'll visit your page to see it.  Facebook by definition is a "FACEBOOK" ie: people attached to faces, and personalized messages should only be sent this way. 

2) Keep requesting your friends "fan", join a group, or attend an event 0ver and over and over - even though they've probably repeatedly chosen to ignore your previous attempts for a reason.   Once is more than enough.

3)  Repeatedly poke, send game requests, gift requests, and all manner of the embeddable widget nature to people you've never had any sort of correspondence with and to whom you're a complete stranger - they love that.

4) Post only the dullest and most narrowly defined product photos and information about your company on your Facebook page so that instead of a lively interactive forum with an array of accessible ideas and information, it resembles a yellow page ad.

5) Never correspond with your fans or friends when they post info of their own (you know - the stuff that comes through on your homepage news-feed from them) ~ we know you're the only one that matters!  And when they comment on your posts or go so far as to post items to your page or wall, be sure to ignore them.  People love being treated solely as "consumers" and not individuals - isn't that what "social" means?  Oh it doesn't??  It means engaging and talking??  Whoa ....

Oh....there will be more .... stay tuned.   Yes, the Medium is the Message, but only if you know how to use it.  Otherwise it's just another cyber-armload of junk-mail to toss in the trash unopened.

Events | Boston MFA Hosts a Giant Karaoke Party

I love this event - a giant dancing and karaoke party held on the Museum of Fine Art in Boston's front lawn to kick off what sounds like an interesting exhibit.

As described by the museum: ""Seeing Songs" presents an eclectic mix of work—mainly from the Museum's collections—that draws on music as inspiration, focusing on abstract as well as representational art and connections to musical forms as varied as classical, jazz, and pop.

From lyrical works on paper by Wassily Kandinsky and a painting by Stuart Davis that depicts music as gesture and improvisation, to recent videos by Gillian Wearing and Candice Breitz that explore the relationship between pop stars and their fans, this exhibition brings together an international group of artists in whose work we see songs."

The Vogue-ing party included a giant screen and a Madonna impersonator which celebrated one of the key pieces by artist Candice Breitz’s - a video installation entitled "Queen (A Portrait of Madonna)".

One thing to note: A stated goal of both the installation and the event was to involve younger people with the museum - they publicized it through social media like Twitter and Facebook, ect to this end.   So I thought it was kind of interesting that the main musical icons featured were Madonna, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond - all artists over 50 that I wouldn't necessarily associate with a your typical urban youth - I would see Katy Perry and Black Eyed Peas perhaps as more appropriate, however perhaps they have not achieved iconic status yet in the eyes of the museum.  Here's a video of the dancing and singing. 

Paul McCartney Makes a Splash In New York

Imagine you're hanging out at the office, working - Facebooking - Twittering away and all of a sudden some guy starts playing his guitar really really loudly just outside your window.  And then it actually sounds like someone is playing drums and base!!  You rush to the window to offer the dude a few choice expletives and - wow - realize that it's Paul McCartney hanging out on the Late Show marquee playing music. 

Surreal? Yeah - a little - but not so much for the Big Apple.  A fabulous publicity stunt?  Yep!   McCartney's spontaneous concert garnered him pics on all the major news networks and on countless blogs and websites - whereas a similar planned event in Central Park or at Rockefeller Plaza would have been more or less digested into the panorama of constant activity in NYC.  Good show Paul.  Love the shots of the cell phone behind him below, and the images of people looking down on the event from the offices above taking pictures - wonder how many Facebook pages those ended up on. 

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Another Ode to Michael - the EternalMoonwalk Site is Just Fabulous

Yes, I've been on a Michael Jackson video binge the past few weeks - remembering anew, much like the rest of the world, what it was that made us pay so much attention to this guy in the first place.  I will absolutely never forget the first time I saw Thriller, and further than that, watching that Motown Anniversary Special when Michael first showed us the Moonwalk.  It stays permanently in my heart along with so many other cultural time capsule events from that era.

Funny, while gazillions of people have been backsliding across kitchen floors over the years since that first telecast, no one was ever able to work out the step quite like Mike.  But perhaps 99.9% of the fun is imagining that we can.  Now Studio Brussel has put together a brilliant, whiz bang project that involves the entire globe of MJ fans - and fancy that it came together in just the past ten days - amazing.

The site, eternalmoonwalk.com is an amalgamation of videos collected from all over the world and features people, cartoons, cats, dogs, goats .... yeah - if you can imagine it - it's there, moonwalking in 20 second clips from right to left.  The concept for the site alone is priceless, but then you add in the good natured creativity of the thousands of clips that have been collected from guys and gals just like you and me who are featured and you have some sheer brilliance - and a lot of laughs to get you through an afternoon.  Clever features include buttons you can hit to create Jacksonesque whoops and calls - all the while set to the Billie Jean beat. 

But before you click over you have to check out this very creative video from Abeja Mariposa who culled together archival footage of dancers from the 20th Century who were moonwalker pioneers - it's really quite amazing.

Pop Culture | Holly Madison Marries the Travelocity Gnome

In what seems like a fairly unlikely co-branding partnership Holly Madison hooked up with the Travelocity Gnome over the weekend for a fun spirited "nuptials" ceremony.  The photo opp was in support of Holly's Peepshow at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.  Judging from the photos a fun time was had by all.

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Fab Promotion | Threadcakes Contest

I love this contest that Threadbare T-Shirts has mounted to promote their seemingly endless collection of interesting and artful designs.  Called Threadcakes, entrants pick out their favorite Threadbare T-Shirt design and interpret it with flour and sugar in the form of a cake.  The contest started June 15th and runs through August 3rd - to date the promotion has inspired some very interesting and creative entries such as "The Apple" shown here.

There are two divisions of the contest 2-D and 3-D - 2-D being the sheet cakes with images created in fondant and icing on top much like a photo - and 3-D more sculpturesque.

An impressive roll out of prizes awaits the winners that includes free t-shirts, baking supplies, and ingredients.  To enter visit here.

via {ifitshipitshere.com}

Fashion PR | Patricia Fields May Pull Out of Sex & the City Film?

Wow - no Pat Field for the Sex and the City Sequel?  That's what Grazia is reporting - apparently Sarah Jessica Parker wants Carrie Bradshaw to be a little more down to earth and thrifty - aka - a Recessionista - in the next incarnation of the film.  I get that - the film was on HBO over the weekend so I caught bits of it (for the 40th time) and it reminded me that the outfits were a little out of line with what anyone but a millionaire could afford.  It's a bit out of tune with the way people are feeling these days I think.

Having said that I'm a huge fan of Pat Field's use of color and line - she's shown above with some creations from the line she designed for Mark's and Spencer in the UK - if you look closely you'll notice that versions of both pieces were featured in the first SATC movie.   She's also really done a fab job styling Ugly Betty and the Confessions of a Shopaholic film. 

Of the SATC situation Fields told Grazia, "I don't use the recession as a reference for my creativity."

While many will ponder and lament this, it could be a huge opening for smaller fashion brands to do product placement on the film should Fields actually leave.  Fields is notoriously obsessed with top labels, and her own design work, generally leaving smaller companies out in the cold. 

Grazia is also reporting that Fields would love to do a makeover on Susan Boyle -- OK!

via Grazia

Does the Term 'Shop Your Closet' Give You Shivers? Will the Sartorialist be the Next Mega Brand? Links!

--Style scribes love the term "shop your closet" these days - but the Times Ben Widdicome cautions what you find may be more radioactive than retro on The Moment.

--Edificial bemoans the PR-ization of recessionary design - they write "be on the lookout for the following pitches: flacks will “highlight the eco-friendly features of [their] client’s products”; they will deploy “high-quality images with every pitch”; and they will assault us with samples so that we can see how easy it is to be green with the splendiferous econo-trinkets they’re hawking."

--Fashionista is quite jazzed about the spector of The Sartorialist as the next mega-brand as they report about the intrepid photog's book deal with Penguin that will get its own pop-up shop at Barneys - a possible line for the ever expanding Net-a-Porter is in the works as well.

--The Girls in the Beauty Department took a very long look at Oprah Winfrey's hair last week when Tyra Banks appeared on the show.