A bit on Social Media

Long long ago in an ivy-covered castle, a young man yearned for more constant companionship.  He made a book full of faces and passed it around the land so his peers could become closer aquatinted without being face to face.  Other nearby places heard of this idea and asked the man to make the same for them.  Soon, many groups were all using this 'face book' to make 'friends' with those around them.  

This tale is that of FACEBOOK, the social networking site, started at Harvard University in 2004, expanded to other Boston universities in 2005, and then offered to the world later on.  What began as a networking site per school, joined with a legitimate school email address, soon became an online communication network open to anyone.  Facebook's history is a rich (literally) and interesting one.  

However, when  Mark Zuckerberg launched the site, I don't believe he realized the sometimes ' monster' he was creating.  A site that could cost you a job, make your mother stop sending you money, bring your grandmother to tears, cost you a friendship or force you to talk to someone really awkward.  Just as anything that trusts humans to behave and gives them too much freedom, Facebook has been slightly abused and now necessitates an etiquette guide: 

Thank you YouTube; you are hilarious and oh so helpful.     

BEST DAY EVER: AUGUST 14th

Awhile back, I blogged about books that would provide a great escape from a recession.  Though I've finished many more works since then, my favorite is still THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE.  Here is how I summarized it before:  This international bestseller is praised for all the right reasons.  It is the most exciting, tamely passionate, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking love story I have ever read. The title is a testament to the plot.  This is not a gushy love story but one that makes it hard to deny the existence of love's power and grace.  The book is one that appeals to all ages, from teen to retirement.  I have never flown through pages as fast as I did with this one.  If I was going to choose one book to be a reading snob about and insist on just ONE, this would be IT.   

Now, it is coming to LIFE on August 14th staring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana.  Look here for more info.   I can hardly wait to tingle and cry.  But please, don't let this be a classic replaced by a Hollywood film - read the book before then!  

    

Twitter - Not as Lame as I Thought

"Having Frosted Flakes for Breakfast"

"So You Think You Can Dance with @zeny"

"Loving sunny day number 4 this summer"

"New Shoes = Heaven"

"Forgot to pack a lunch today, oops"

My step dad recently sent me this article about Twitter telling me that it was pretty interesting and I should give it a read.  I hesitated, but a rainy day and a sore throat gave me nothing better to do.  Now, through gritted teeth, I am writing to tell the world that Twitter is not as lame as I once was convinced of.

I joined Twitter for practical purposes to be about to 'tweet' about a client and get their product out there in the twitterverse.  However, I never really 'twit' (?) about myself and my grande lattes or bad hair days (like the realistic comments above).  My friends who did made me laugh and about once a week, I would sign on to see what they had been saying all week.  Without a mobile phone with internet capabilities and constant Twitter access, I didn't get into it... ignorance is bliss right?

However, after reading this smart article, I am eating my words and rolling eyes about the internet sensation.  People once reacted the way I did to Twitter about Blogger and CLEARLY I don't see the problem with a blog.  Blogs scared people because they worried that people's attention spans would decrease to only enjoy short paragraphs and their desire for hard news would decrease as well.  Twitter only further expands this fear, with its 140 character limit for each 'tweet.'  The skeptic reaction to these internet communication trends is that we will soon be limited to only one punctuation mark to express emotion virally.  Today I am "!"  Tmrw I will be "."  (Guess why.)  However, now that I am no longer ignorant, this is why Twitter deserves some credit:

• It's like a 'suspension bridge made out of pebbles' allowing you to build a substantial thought out of 140 character statements
• The 140 characters are the SMS platform limit - used to make Twitter instant (from cell phones)
• Creates an alternative to the "Hey, What's up?" phone call - doesn't do away with it 
• Has a search component to follow a specific topic - i.e. strawberries (What are chefs, farmers, legislators saying about your favorite fruit today, now?)  This is brilliant because rather than competing with Googles legitimacy-ranked search, it provides 'real-time' answers about the current perception of the topic of your search
  
• TinyURLs - make 140 character limits limitless when you can supply a billion dollar document in a link with a short message... called a 'pointing devise'
• Some governments have begun tracking Twitter to see areas of flu/cold in order to protect their citizens
• Activists use Twitter to plan events without otherwise immediate punishment - this is good/bad depending on where you stand, but it does show that Twitter can be a useful tool for more than light conversation {China has blocked access to Twitter for this reason, so much for those billions of users}
• Allows @replies to any user (yes, even the White House and Oprah) - truly Global communication and changing our concept of the secluded 'celebrity'

Most interesting about Twitter is that the quickly developed system was not solely created by TwitterHQ.  In fact, it was designed to allow users to build off of its platform and create more useful tools for the system to better serve the public - like the @reply.

Twitter allows people to see a 'collage' of tweets on ones home-page (personalized of course) - friends, businesses, celebrities, etc.  By choosing to 'follow' someone, you receive a live feed of his or her tweets.  This, combined with the search component, allows for a national conversation.  While they aren't in the form of living room chats around the news station - they are open, diverse and specialized to one's interest.    

       

So while you'll never catch me 'tweeting' about my cereal choice in the morning or letting you know I just stepped in a giant puddle, I DO appreciate the 'real-time search', the tinyURL component, the user expansion option to redevelop the site at any given point, and the dare it presents people to say something of value to the twitterverse in a mere 140 characters.  Tweet on.  

Spotted...

I was walking home from CVS today and I saw this: 

Only when the last tree has withered, 

the last fish has been caught,

and the last river's been poisoned,

will man realize we cannot eat money.

Why advertising has a bad name...

There are a lot of critics of advertising out there... they see the images and messages as annoying, unnecessary, invasive and ridiculous.  They think of the multi-billion dollar industry as a leech sucking the individuality out of Americans.  

I say they are just a bunch of cry babies looking to complain about something, because advertising is a creative strategy based art that aims to sell a product (the key to our economy and way of life).  It is used to entertain, inform and contribute to the growth of product use (how else would you know there's a new phone that has a gps or a new line of baby-food that is much healthier for your child?)  

However, for all of the well-executed, carefully-crafted ads there are out there, there is one part of the industry that us advertisers like to ignore... the black sheep in the family... the one who rides on our coattails and tries to share in our legitimacy: SALES PROMOTION.  

You're lying or lonely if you say you truly enjoy telemarketing and unless someone approaches you on the street with something completely free (at which point you're going to suspect its covered in anthrax or something harmful), you are most likely trained to half ignore every word they say because you know it's laced with some sort of CATCH.  

Why are we so pessimistic towards person-to-person sales?  Probably not because we hate people' more likely it's because there have been too many scams involved in this type of sale.  It's not personable and "a cheaper way to sell," it's INVASIVE and MANIPULATIVE.

I recently applied for a job that tricked college graduates into thinking that this start up company was hiring people to train for upper management at their promotions company. I explained in my interview that I was a creative strategist and would enjoy working with clients and on-site sales teams after developing the best way to promote a company based on their current problem that needed to be solved.  They whole-heartedly assured me that this company was the place for me.  After borrowing cars and paying tolls and wasting two days of my life, I found out I was at the other end of a joke.  They had duped me with their sales skills to come for an all-day final interview where I followed the sales team around selling coupon cards to a local spa and resort.  Not only was the card riddled with small print, the team would go door to door and interrupt local businesses to sell the commission-based product: a coupon.  I felt like a monkey in a circus and was saddened by every person that fell into their smooth-talking trap.  At the end of the day, I had learned a very important lesson:  DON'T SETTLE on ANY JOB, no matter the recession!   

Luckily, there are still smart people out there who understand the value of a promotion to increase foot-traffic to a company without sucking people's wallets and souls.  

GROUPON is a web-based promotions company that through word of mouth, google, twitter and facebook, offers their coupon services to those who approach them.  It is an email-reminder service that informs the group members of each day's special and it's their choice whether to click the link to the site to learn more.  For instance, the site is Boston-based (although they have sites for Chicago, NY, DC, San Fran, LA and Atlanta) and they sent me a coupon for whale watching 40 minutes outside of the city.  Since I am car-less, I deleted the email within seconds... no annoying sales person to try and rehash and get me to reconsider.  Today, I was offered a 65% off coupon to a salon nearby for a mani-pedi (every girl's dream!)  I wanted it SOOO bad so I read everything searching for a CATCH.

Guess what? Groupon did it; they created a promotional program without ANY catch.  Instead, it's realistic.  If 100 people participate in the promotion, you get the deal.  If not, no deal.  It's callled Collective Buying Power - companies agree to lower their prices if they get the return they desire.  Today's deal, already has over 600 participants at 10 am.  Looks like I'm getting a 20 dollar mani-pedi from a first-class salon!   

Still Skeptical/ don't trust your blogger?  Check it out here:

Groupon is different!  Learn how it works! from The Point on Vimeo.

So, don't get scammed.  I now have an insider view on the whole street team sales thing and will only be buying sodas and ice cream off the streets now.  Get with the times and don't get harassed.  Let advertising have it's good, innovative name back.  (After all, who doesn't love giant interactive billboards or the classic J-E-L-L-O jingle?)  Join GROUPON.             

   

When Street Art Makes You FAMOUS

Once upon a time kids made stencils and decorated urban environments by street light, always looking over their shoulders to not get caught by 'the man.'  ((I talked about this art in the Melbourne Graffiti post earlier.))  Some seek to make bold statements, others to change the world and some just to place their name in the limelight.  While many think of Banksy as the king of the stencil phenomenon, there's a new man in town.  

Today, I visited Boston's ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) to see an 'Obama' exhibit that a friend from out of town wanted to see.  I didn't know anything about it but was intrigued since I knew I could get in free as a BU Student (kinda, still have the ID card) and had never been to the museum on the water before.  

(If you don't go to the museum to check out an exhibit or aren't into contemporary art at all, at LEAST go for the breathtaking views of Boston, the Harbor Islands, and Revere.)   

When we got to the museum, there was a giant poster of a black and white image of a man's face at the top of the building.  I looked at it and wondered if it had always been there and also recognized the image without knowing why.  

Upon entering and asking where to find 'Obama art' we found out that we were there for the Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand exhibit (there until August 16th).  READ THE BROCHURE HERE.    

It was incredible.  I was immersed within his exhibit, that walks you through his art's timeline, within seconds.  Each image had so much character and detail, yet presented a simple image.  

A native of South Carolina and then student at Rhode Island School of Design, Fairey created his art campaign 20 years ago with the creation of his OBEY Stickers that he gained ample buzz for in Providence.  Now, OBEY's motto is "Manufacturing Quality Dissent since 1989."   

 

His work, which has been said to be unable to categorize, models after such artists like Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.  He uses lots of black, white and red to present political/propaganda like images to the general public.  

His work began with political-esque images of the WWF wrestler 'Andre the Giant.'

Eventually, the image turned to a zoomed in face with less features.  The OBEY campaign continued to promote this 'face' of the message while reiterating the fact that the face belonged to a 7'4", 520 lb. man. POWER.    

This is the face that is now seen on the outside of the ICA and across many forms of Fairey's work:

His art began with OBEY posters that played off the fact that Americans are so convinced to pay attention to advertisements.  His goal was to present an image and have people question its meaning.  In Fairey's Manifesto, he says the sticker campaign is an experiment in phenomenology - the attempt to see clearly something that is right in front of you but taken for granted.  "The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker. Because OBEY has no actual meaning, the various reactions and interpretations of those who view it reflect their personality and the nature of their sensibilities."

Fairey's creative career has centered around Andre the Giant, OBEY and the visual theme seen above.  At the exhibit, you see images that seem to promote peace and question the government's actions (again, the phenomenology).  Here are some pieces on display:

The giant stickers insist on not carrying a deeper meaning.  Rebellious individuals like to be in on the art and conservatives are often troubled by their meaning.  The stickers, then, are a social experiment to see just how people's psyche's react to the images.  Their sole purpose, as art, is to make people reflect on his or her surroundings, or at least take notice. 

The finale of the show, besides the GIANT mural canvas produced especially for the ICA (on which the power and value of money is greatly called into question), is the OBAMA poster.  Now, when you hear Obama poster, does one image come to mind?  Of course it does. 

Stephan Fairey, un-commissioned, created this poster:      

This piece of art, more serene than the one of George Bush that reads "Did a HELL of a Job" with devil eyes and werewolf teeth, quickly became the artistic expression of the grassroots Obama campaign.  The exhibit has a table full of tangible Fairey pieces, like his spray-painted sneakers.  On this table is a framed letter from Obama expressing his gratitude for the widespread image that links him with "HOPE."  So cool.

So, basically, this young-underground artist is now HUGE because of his OBAMA poster.  I, personally think it's amazing because more people have their eyes peeled to see his stuff lke this awesome peace symbol.

 

Self Promotion (website)

Does all this advertising leave you thirsty for more?  Well, don't you worry; I've got a site to quench your thirst.  I've said it before, my goal is to make you CRAVE me.

Recently my hilarious Hawaiian friend Zeny (who refuses to go outdoors because she is in constant search for a job) blogged about a site that may just help me land the job of my dreams.  (Check out her blog - It will make you smile every-time; after all, it's the insight of a SPAM-eater.)    

The site is called KROP, because it shows cropped versions of your creative work that when clicked on, enlarge to show off your stuff.  It also has a second feature that exhibits your resume, which can be conveniently downloaded as a PDF.  (hire me, hint hint.)  

Anyway, mine is done so check it out, forward it to important people or just appreciate that I JUST graduated and I'm sober and being productive.  

 and