Student Flights Social Recruitment

Student Flights are advertising for a social media specialist, only they're not asking for a pdf folio or a word doc resume, they want your links. Just your social media links. Your blog. Your Twitter. Your LinkedIn.

"...all we want from you is links to your blog, Twitter profile, LinkedIn, and other social sites and in 140 character (or less) 'why we need you'. Forget the PDF or Word resume and formal application process. This is recruiting in the Social Media age and you get it!"

After all, they're only going to Google you anyway, find these links, and cyberstalk you to find out if your resume is a load of crap. So why not cut to the chase ... after all, if you are applying for a social media job you will be using your social media accounts so what better way to find the right person for the job?

http://www.studentflights.com.au/company/jobs/social-media-specialist

Well done Student Flights.

How to Make Facebook Profile Art

There was a post on Mashable last week that profiled some creative ideas for the new Facebook profile layout. Well, it called them 'profile hacks' but I hardly think tagging some pics can qualify as a 'hack' ... it really is that easy.

Here are some instructions for creating the Facebook profile layout art seen in this article, but it assumes a basic knowledge of Photoshop and some creative flair.

Good luck!

1) Screencap your Facebook profile and paste it into Adobe Photoshop
2) Create a layer mask over the profile pic and the 5 profile thumbs across the top. You may also want to post a gallery and include these thumbs in you design. If you don't know how to make a layer mask, fill a new layer with white, change the layer transparency to 50% and use the selection rectangle to draw over the profile pic and thumbs, deleting the white layer over the top. Set back to 100% transparency.
3) Create your design behind the white layer so you can see what it looks like made up in the format of profile pic and thumbs.
4) Using guides drawn top, bottom and sides of the profile pic and thumbs, select the photo/art area.
5) In the edit menu, select 'copy --> merged'.
6) Create a new file for that image. Repeat for all thumbs and profile pic.
7) Save these as thumb1 to thumb5 and upload them into a gallery.
8) Upload your profile pic to the profile pic section
9) Tag yourself in your thumbs, but be sure to do it in reverse order ... ie the one you want to show up on the left (first position), tag it last.
10) If anyone else tags you, this will ruin the order of your thumbs! Disable this option or be ready to quickly delete tagged photos!



Here is my first effort, using a cartoon of a Fairy in a Christmas hat that I did for Xmas last year.



Post your creations ...

Baby Monkey Lyrics

Our favourite YouTube video of all time, Baby Monkey, complete with lyrics.



baby monkey, baby monkey
riding on a pig, baby monkey
backwards on a pig, baby monkey

the world has gone insane
and you don't know what is right
you've got to keep on keeping on
get on a pig and hold on tiiiiiight

baby monkey, baby monkey
riding on a pig, baby monkey
going backwards on a pig, baby monkey
heeeey

My year on Facebook

You know you post too much when your year of status updates looks like this:



Beware though, this tool is filled with ads and tricky buttons designed to pull you through to a page advertising scammy astrology type stuff. Now I don't mean astrology is scammy, just most of the services practicing it! So be careful not to click on the 'continue' button that actually takes you to a landing page of ads.

Or ... just don't ever install this kinda stuff in the first place!

Tony Hawk & the V8 Skateboard

The brief:
To create a viral video to promote Tony Hawk's visit to the V8 Supercars, Telstra Sydney 500

The idea:
To build a V8 Skateboard

The result:
Teaser - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgsk8d32AaM
Final - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm8kb3kQ3co

The articles:
http://www.campaignbrief.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/11668
http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/32951/V8-Supercars-Tony-Hawks-V8-Skateboard-Project
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/v8-skateboard
http://www.motorward.com/2010/11/tony-hawk-v8-skateboard-video/
http://www.caradvice.com.au/93057/video-tony-hawk-to-ride-v8-powered-skateboard-in-sydney/

The stats:
Almost 100k views in 4 days.

Love that viral effect!

iPad 4.2 Update - Finally!

Well after weeks of refreshing the page on Apple.com, the update came out while I was away! So now I've installed it, and done the first step of sorting my apps into folders.

I had a question from a friend asking how to do this so here's a few quick tips:

1) Tap and hold an app until it starts to wiggle
2) Drag it over the top of another one until a box appears around the 2.
3) You'll be given a striped panel across the screen that will let you name your folder
4) Repeat this until all apps are sorted into folders

What else does it do? Well, not much really unless you have an air compatable printer, Apple TV or a need for poor mans multi-tasking!

Bathurst 1000 Competition 2010

The things we do to win stuff!!!



http://www.areyoufanenough.com.au

http://www.facebook.com/bathurst1000

ASP - Finally getting taken seriously?

This article appeared in the Australian this weekend ...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/sex-party-stands-out-in-lacklustre-field/story-fn59niix-1225904808930

"One minor party that has been prepared to go out on a limb is the Australian Sex Party, whose leader Fiona Patten has proposed an overhaul of Australia's censorship laws and called for fixed-term state and federal governments as a means of saving the nation many millions of dollars.

Earlier this week, Queensland-based criminologist Paul Wilson endorsed the Sex Party's radical new policy to decriminalise personal drug use. Relying on data from Portugal's four-year-old program of decriminalising all drugs for personal use, and the work of Ken Crispin QC in his new book, The Quest for Justice, this policy could empty our jails by 70 per cent and save us billions of dollars. "

Finally the masses are not just asking 'is this a joke?' or 'is this a parody party?' There seems to be a growing audience who sees that sex and its surrounding issues are at the core of everything in our lives ... in particular the 2 main things that govern our society - religion and politics.

If parties that are run by churches can exist, and be a significant part of the laws we are governed by, then balance can only help to represent those of us who don't feel reasonably represented by the current political options.

The debate on Sunrise felt like a turning point ... and every day feels like a little bit more ground is made.

With so few main options, and so many minor ones, who are you voting for on Saturday?

The Debate Video

The video from the debate this morning on Sunrise between the Australian Sex Party and Family First.

Australian Sex Party vs Family First

If you missed Sunrise this morning you missed a firey debate ...

** Stop Press: The debate is on! The Australian Sex Party's Fiona Patten will go up against Family First's Wendy Francis Monday, 2 August, 7.15am on Sunrise.
This is the debate Australians really want to see. Two politicians with differing views, debating real issues**

The phone poll showed Family First winning the debate 51% to 49% but the online sentiment for social media discussion has put the Australian Sex Party firmly in the lead. Fiona puts forward a great argument and believes passionately in the rights of all adults to choose and for everyone to be truly treated equally ... but what sets her aside from other politicians who claim to believe the same things is her frankness and lack of shame when talking about sex and its related issues. She isn't afraid to inject herself and her opinions into her arguments, even if they aren't popular.

Reading through the online conversation today it is hard not to get goose bumps at what I think we are witnessing - a true change in the balance of power, moving away from the control of religion and into a society where most people believe that everyone should have equal rights.

Maybe I'm reading too much into a single day ... but sometimes, that's all it takes to change the world. For someone to have a dream ... and to dare to sell someone about it.

Flipboard iPad App

I saw a post on Mashable Facebook feed yesterday about this new iPad app that lets you browse your social media like a magazine. What the?! I clicked but got sidetracked by work until later in the day when I downloaded it, but it took me till the evening to get time to play with it. The Twitter portion was the only bit that's working on my version but this morning I'm unable to view anything due to excessive connections. Normally that would piss off any potential app user, but I and millions of others are eagerly standing by awaiting the server upgrades that are apparently taking place right now.

http://www.flipboard.com/

From what I got to see last night this app basically scrapes the data from Twitter and apparently Facebook and some blogs. You can add other services in there but only from those listed in their directory, which was a bit limited when I looked. Will it be possible to add any blog to the feed? Will we be able to submit our own blogs or websites? How does the data get scraped?

All these questions will be answered soon I'm sure, in a paid app! But in the meantime ... in the 10 minutes it has taken me to type this blog there are 235 new twitter posts featuring the word 'flipboard' ...



And as I finish this post, the Facebook part of the feed is working! I'm off to play with my flipboard ...

Old Spice Social Media Campaign

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_old_spice_won_the_internet.php

What I love about this the most is that a team of creatives are in a room with a couple of social media experts and a tech dude, making ads in realtime in response to actual questions from online influencers.

This is one of the first examples I've seen of true team work - collaboration between techs and creatives to produce a piece of marketing which is succeeding in all of its goals. Each member of the team is key to the result, and we are watching a successful campaign play out right in front of us due to those combined skills.

By creating a character and a campaign which allows 'internet celebrities' to draw promotion from a commercial marketing campaign, Old Spice have had questions sent to their character by the likes of Demi Moore (aka Mrs Kutcher), Alyssa Milano and Perez Hilton in less than 24 hours.

This highlights the core of social media ... "It's all about me".

These internet celebrities are following the 'if you talk about me, I'll help promote you' line that has seen forgotten celebs like Alyssa Milano make a comeback through building relationships with past fans and online followers.

The social media specialists, often dismissed for being full of 'hot air' as the article says, are showing that their value is the ability to think on their feet ... to maintain a goal, irrespective of the challenges and changing dynamics of the environment, the social media specialist is simply using their personality, knowledge and experience to react and respond in the most effective way while working within technical and creative limitations.

This reminds me of a method we used in adult - solo girl site fan sign sessions. Affiliates who marketed our websites were given the option, in live sessions held on chat forums, to request a photo or video from a model which is customized to them. The photo would feature a message written on a sign and the video would feature a spoken message thanking them for their support. Key influencers were done first, often even if they didn't request one. These photos and videos would then be posted on their sites and the rest speaks for itself. Give people an opportunity to talk about themselves and promote their agenda and they will - even if it means promoting you in turn.

The conclusion? Social media peeps rock.

See? This article was all about me.

Is Facebook Finished?

Privacy issues, exceptional growth in May and the novelty wearing off could all be reasons why Facebook lost ground in June 2010. Losing hundreds of thousands of members in the 18 - 44 age bracket and only putting on around 300k of new accounts tells us that Facebook may have reached its saturation point.




http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/07/06/facebooks-june-2010-us-traffic-by-age-and-sex-users-aged-18-44-take-a-break-2/

Is something out there replacing Facebook, or are social audiences going to fragment just like other web trends?

Facebook Community Pages

Facebook community pages are auto-generated based on the 'job' or 'employer' and 'interests' each individual lists in their profile. Each one of these words has automatically been turned into a page and they have been called 'community pages'.

The result is that if you have a business and have put time into creating a presence, your potential audience will now be presented with Facebook community pages before your official page. Isn't this effectively Facebook stealing your audience for their own benefit?

Now we could argue that Facebook gave us the audience in the first place, but not if they are tricking people into visiting their pages when the audience is looking for something which was marketed to them offline by the company. I think its safe to say that those who have marketed Facebook URL's in campaigns will be regretting it! The answer? Don't ever market anyone else's business ... put your social media marketing on a sub address of your own url and market that, not someone else's website.

This author makes a good point ... several of them actually:

http://corporate.bangthetable.com/2010/05/23/facebook-community-pages-a-plague-on-all-your-houses/

Socialnomics

I love how this video says that social media usage has overtaken porn online ... um what do you think social media gets used for the most?!?!? stupid stat! ;p

Work Life Balance? What's that?!

More on Apple vs The World

As you can probably tell, i'm buried in techology at the moment producing jobs for Apple products so I'm catching up on debates which have been raging in iLand for years. What I really don't understand is how Steve Jobs can claim his restrictions are for the benefit of the human race and hoards of iSheep take his garbage and regurgitate it.

I wonder how much of this issue is generational. Most people I know who are over 30 remember the disaster Apple created the first time they owned the computing world and are watching with curiousity to find out how Steve Jobs and his megalomania will stuff it all up this time. When you read forums and chats from Apple fans talking about how poor the hardware quality is, the terrible repair centres and hardware support, and the lack of respect for loyal existing customers who constantly fork out a fortune for quickly out of date products, it is hard to see them still owning any market in 10 years time.

I just saw a post on Google buzz by one of the writers from CNET, stating how he hopes Adobe fixes the problems with Mac computers crashing when they run Flash. Sorry what? I thought mac's didn't crash?!?!

Why does adobe have to make flash work better on a mac? Why isn't it apple's responsibility to make their computers work properly with INDUSTRY STANDARD technologies? I can understand why Steve Jobs takes this line, he has profit to make and universes to take over, but what do individuals have to gain from such bias?

From my views it should be clear that I'm not an Apple fan, but I am grown up enough to admit when a technology is brilliant - I just don't think Apple are responsible for any of the brilliant parts.

I was going to try to find a 'team google' shirt ... but it seems Apple wants to take on anyone who has better products than them so my shirt may have to read 'team google, adobe ... and?' Maybe this time round, Steve Jobs should focus on improving Apple's products and respecting their customers who they seem to punish with every new release. All this energy put into fighting other companies is contributing to the 'us vs them' situation that got Apple in trouble the first time round with IBM and Microsoft. He certainly didn't get where he is for being smart or learning from his mistakes!

I like the angle HP are taking with their proposed SLATE (a nice name for a start!) by simply pointing out all the features their product offers that the iPad doesn't. Support for digital camera cards like SD, better interfacing with your pc (not via proprietary iTunes!), and the big white elephant that's missing from iPad's first release ... A CAMERA!

I've ordered my iPad. But knowing how little Steve Jobs cares about my $800 i'm sure a better release will come out within 6 months that features a camera, and I will be either expected to cough up another $800, or punished for being an early adopter by being stuck with out of date technology before it has its first birthday.

This highlights a famous quote by William Gibson ... The future is here, its just not evenly distributed.

Adobe, isn't this just a touch desperate?

Look I love Adobe as much as the next person ... maybe more if that next person isn't dependent on Photoshop on a daily basis ... but this latest attempt from Adobe to get the public behind the usage of Flash in an effort to pressure Apple to provide support sounds a little desperate.

http://mashable.com/2010/05/13/adobe-responds-flash/

It reads a little like begging and a little like sore losing. Adobe states that they have worked very hard to get Flash to be a standard across operating systems and browsers, so why should Apple come along and ruin their market share? Or as they put it, make things harder for developers?

I'm actually on team Adobe, but even I can see that this was a desperate attempt to draw sympathy from an audience that, quite frankly, is probably sick of paying a fortune for Adobe's long over-priced software.

The debate about 'free markets' doesn't really work for a company who, up until the past few years, has charged several thousand dollars for Flash and Photoshop software required to build this standard. It may be supported by default across most web browsers without cost, but it is still expensive for developers to work with this technology - especially now that Adobe releases a whole new suite every year, making it even more expensive for developers to keep up.

To build projects in Flash, one must own a copy of the software, but to write applications in HTML5 (Apple's 'replacement') simply requires learning the knowledge to write it ... no software required. It may be reinventing the wheel, but isn't HTML5 more 'free market' than a program which costs $1, 168 (aud) to purchase?

Now I'm no lawyer, but shouldn't there be a case against Apple for refusing to support a standard that's accepted across other digital technology? Isn't there an element of non-compete, forcing Adobe out of the market, or specifically targetting one piece of a competitors suite to take that competitor out of the overall game?

Wouldn't Adobe have been better off taking this to court, rather than trying to draw sympathy from a fickle audience who have already been given a way around a flash free future? Not to mention that Apple have given those developers who were paying a fortune for flash software the option, and means, to make money from their work.

Apple's choice to not support flash is annoying and not in the spirit of sharing, but would anyone ever have expected the bitter Steve Jobs to play nice with others? If Adobe wants to keep market share, they might need to do what Jobs has done ... bribe developers with the opportunity and means to make revenue for themselves.

After all ... why would Adobe's profits be more important to us than our own?

Optus releases iPad pricing

Not bad ... pretty much what I expected.

ABC's Apple Monkeys!

When writing an article about a new product, isn't ABC supposed to be objective?!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/12/2869846.htm

The summary according to this ABC journalist ...

Apple = god
Google = the devil

You get the picture.

Apple got me with an iPad

I said it would never happen, but today I purchased my first Apple product and pre-ordered me one of those iPad thingy-whatsits. I don't like this pre-order thing, where I pay for the product but wait 3 weeks to hold it in my eager little hands.

To make matters worse we already have one at work so I know just how much I'm going to love it. I'm looking forward to that first few hours where setting backgrounds and playing default games seems exciting.

Anyway ... on with the details!

Here's the Australian pricing:




Wi-Fi

16GB1 - A$ 629.00
32GB1 - A$ 759.00
64GB1 - A$ 879.00

Wi-Fi + 3G

16GB1 - A$ 799.00
32GB1 - A$ 928.00
64GB1 - A$ 1,049.00

Optus, Telstra and Three don't have any information on their website yet but they are listed on Apple's page as a provider. Vodafone have only told us that they'll offer iPad plans, and to register for information:

http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/ipad/ipad-register/index.htm

And now ... we wait.

Google's Social Search

The slight changes in google search results might not be noticeable to anyone who doesn't spend most of their day there, but I was most excited this morning to find that my Google results had updated with (some of) the features.

Most noticeable to me are the following ...

1) Google Image Search - By Colour, Face & Line Art
How awesome is that?! For those of us who use Google to be inspired by the design work of others, you can now refine image search by colour, displaying all results with red or green featured prominently. The colour bar is a 1 click, instant loading display option that sorts images based on their colours. Other options include sorting by face, black and white, photos, line art, clip art etc ... but what effect will this have on the big traffic war between Facebook and Google?

2) Google Social Search - Discussions
For some reason i'm seeing a different type of social search to what was described in Google's introduction video (below) so I think I'm getting a limited version here in the land down under technology reach. Discussions however is an option which allows me to see conversation in forums and blogs, which is just one more step towards an advertising economy driven entirely by social commentary.




3) Wireframes in Google Docs
This is a few weeks old by now but I stumbled on this awesome dude who created some templates to share for free, using the new Google drawing tool. Working with webpages every day means lots of mockups, so we are always looking for clean and simple software to compose wireframes for clients, designers and developers. Add the cloud computing component where the document can be secured or shared to anyone inside or outside your company.

If you just want to doodle a diagram, you can do that too, but to create complex wireframes the best place to start is to visit Morten's shared docs page which is linked below, save a copy of the free templates to your account and edit it to create your own wireframes.

> Here's some templates from Morten Just


These 3 features don't seem that exciting when I see them written, especially in comparison to the open graph announcements by Facebook with over 50,000 sites (apparently) implementing it in less than 2 weeks. They will however make my day to day life easier and will probably still be in my life long after Facebook has faded into little more than one night stand on the digital media relationship timeline.

What's a topic worth without a few good, unanswered questions to ponder? So here ya go ...

How will the new social search effect listings in Google? How will Facebook's open graph effect Google's backward link heavy algorithm and the accuracy that they are so known for? Is it ridiculous for so many social media commentators to be even comparing the likes of Google and Facebook?

You tell me ...

Facebook Changes ... Again. Dislike!

Facebook have recently changed the 'become a fan' option on facebook to 'like', reducing pages to mere items of content with no real interactive intention from the 'liker'. As a small business Facebook user I'm a little miffed at some of the changes ... or as some might say, DISLIKE.

- What's a fan worth now?
Previously a 'fan' was a significant asset as each person cared enough about your product to proudly become a 'fan', a word which indicates someone who is fanatical (or at least interested) in the subject of the page. The same is true for 'groups' which users 'join' ... a commitment is required by the user therefore making them a more qualified 'lead'. A study conducted recently valued a 'fan' at $3.70 ... although this number is only for pages of 1,000,000+ 'fans'. What would be the value of a 'liker' as opposed to a 'fan'?

- What's a page worth now?
If a pages interactive properties are now devalued to the exact same status as any single piece of content (status update, photo post, gallery post, movie etc) then a page really doesn't have much value at all. Crowds will come and go like the tide, washing in on a whim and leaving just as quickly. Perhaps this will increase the volume of visitors to some pages but it will remove the value to the small, intimate, local business which have less than 500 fans. Many small businesses are happy to maintain small databases of valuable fans, utilizing it as a social customer relationship management tool. The 'likers' may no longer be potential customers, just window shoppers passing by enmass.

- A 'like' is lazy
A Facebook user clicks the 'like' button as a lazy way to get out of interacting with a piece of content further, therefore it is seen by many users as a non-committal nod and thumbs up as opposed to an in-depth interaction. This can be seen to mean that the 'become a fan' and the 'like' buttons are almost opposites - committed promoters and nonchalant, non-committed neutrals.

- I have 5000 likers
Will we easily accept the difference in terminology, or will this confuse new users to the site as older users hang on to phrases like 'I have 5000 fans'? Can you imagine a printed advertisement with the line 'Visit Facebook to like our page' or 'like us on Facebook'? Are we really that easily retrained that a service can happily change the meaning of its own branded terms after 4 years, at the peak of their market saturation, without fear of the masses leaving? It appears that only a week in it is catching on with some heavy users of pages, but not with the ungeeks.

- Tricked likers leave
Building on the value of a 'fan' vs a 'liker', we can imagine that there will be cases where individuals 'like' a page then become annoyed when they are receiving updates in their feed. Worse than a constant fluctuating 'liker' base (not the same as fan base, is it?), is an angry 'liker' who didn't really want to commit to the depth of interaction when you 'like' a page, as opposed to when you 'like' any other individual piece of content. It is already a complaint of users that they receive a notification when someone comments on something they 'liked' because ... well ... they don't really care that much, or they would have commented or interacted further! See, not so simple this human stuff, is it?

- Will it matter?
As with every other Facebook update, we have bitched and moaned but the service continues to grow. We not only become attached to the new ideas very quickly, but we seem to accept anything the service does to us provided it lets us connect with our friends. What will be the dramatic change, as we know there often is, that will finally turn that snowball into an avalanche of departing users?

Are we going to see fragmentation in social media sooner rather than later?

I hope so, I love mass corporate change! It's like a game of pick-up-sticks ;-)

Small and Medium Business and Social Media

Why are small businesses so reluctant to take up social media? If small business owners are spending personal time on social media, why wouldn't they expand this to include their business? Is there too much emphasis placed on separating personal and business life in small and medium business? Are our business ethics different to our personal ethics and are we nervous about being judged on business ethics by personal values? Will spending in social media really increase in 2010 like this graphic and business surveys would have us believe?

10 Steps To Balance Multiple Interests

10 Steps To Balance Multiple Interests

Posted using ShareThis

Google ditches china? hope so.

It didn't sit right with me that Google was working so hard to cater to the communist rules of China just so they could have a presence there. I'm happy to hear they are considering taking a stand and walking out of China after their efforts have inspired some scary political and human rights issues.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

In simple terms, *someone* has been accessing the gmail accounts of human rights activists both in China and in other countries. I'm going to take a huge leap here - and we know how I love conspiracy theories - that the Chinese government are using Google to spy on individuals who are trying to defend the rights of the slaves employed to run Chinese factories. (yes, the factories that make the stuff we buy EVERY DAY)

Take a stand Google. Prove to me you are truly interested in making a better world, not just your bottom line. Pretty please?