All posts tagged Twitter

5 Posts
December 7, 2012 · behaviour, Books, digital, movies, music, TV

2012 Top 10s of everything

The year 2012 is drawing to a close (where did it go?) and the world did not end. Lots happened and as always here’s my little collection of top 10s… please note they’re in no particular order and just my own subjective opinon:

1 – Books

  1. Charlies Bronson – Bronson – Compelling reading. Frightening but a page turner. More an overview of the failings of the prison system than a memoir of a total loon.
  2. Bear Grylls – Facing Up
  3. Jon Krakauer - Into Thin Air – A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster in 1996
  4. Oscar Pistorius – Blade Runner – Never a more moving and inspiring story written!
  5. Wade Davis – Into the Silence – Haven’t finished reading it yet, but it’s shaping up to be my favorite book of the year.
  6. Simon Yates – Against the Wall – Not a page turner and pretty repetitive, but it’s still a good read if you’re into climbing books
  7. Michael Crichton – Jurassic Park / The Lost World – I’ve read them before but wanted to revisit. Well worth it too. Still two amazing books. Jurassic Part far superior.
  8. Mark Johnson - Wasted - This is the big one for me. A truly remarkable book. Absolutely engrossing and moving.
  9. Keith Richards – Life – Just an ‘alright’ rock biography full of the anecdotes you’d expect but nothing that really made me go “oh wow”
  10. Walter Isaacson – The Authorized Biography of Steve Jobs – Took me a while to get through this. It’s not an easy or enjoyable read. But worth it. RIP Jobs – I think few men or women get to say they actually ‘changed the world’… Steve Jobs was one of them.

2 – Most visited websites in order (officially – I kept stats!)

3 – Music (albums)

These are the albums that weren’t necessarily all released just in 2012, but the ones I discovered and played the most;

  1. Chicane – Thousand Mile Stare - An unbelievable return to form
  2. Deus Ex Human Revolution Soundtrack – What an amazing thing… a computer game soundtrack made it into my top 10. Seriously good album. Almost Bladerunner-esque
  3. John Murphy – Sunshine Soundtrack – Again. A bit of a weird edition and no real explanation other than that I listened to it loads.
  4. Sucker Punch Soundtrack – ANOTHER soundtrack. The horror. A bit different this time though… some very very cool covers of some very very cool songs by the cast of the movie. A great selection.
  5. Robbie Williams – Take the Crown – ALRIGHT… I admit it… this is my guilty, uncool addition. 3 songs I skip on an album of 10 tracks is pretty good going.
  6. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Got a lot of air-play in the Trainor house. I’m glad he left Oasis & went solo. He’s better on his own.
  7. Keane – Strangeland – It’s not a guilty pleasure when it’s an album of this quality. Some big tunes.
  8. Toploader – Only Human – Technically released in 2011 but it only hit my ipod in 2012 and I listened to it religiously for MONTHS.
  9. Muse – The 2nd Law – Sometimes ridiculous but always rewarding. I fear Muse are starting to morph into a slight parody of themselves, but for now they’re still turning out big rock.
  10. Beastie Boys – The in sound from way out – When co-founder Adam Yauch Dead this year I went back over all my old BB albums and I found this little gem. Just a straight up Funk Jazz album. It’s massive.

4 – Music (individual songs)

  1. Keane – Sovereign Light Cafe
  2. Robbie Williams – Into the Silence
  3. Chicane & Vigri – Sòlarupprás
  4. The Envy Corps – Rhinemaidens
  5. Ki:Theory – My Thoughts
  6. Muse – The 2nd Law / Unsustainable
  7. Coldplay – Don’t let it break your heart
  8. Grouplove – Colours
  9. Chicane – Thousand Mile Stare
  10. Public Enemy – Harder than you think

5 – Films

  1. The Dark Knight Rise – Disappointing conclusion but it was a slow year for films so still made it in.
  2. The Avengers – Dumb & I loved it.
  3. Skyfall – The jury is still out on this one.
  4. Prometheus – I actually really enjoyed it despite the scathing reviews
  5. First Ascent – A climbing film… about first ascents…
  6. Sucker Punch – So it wasn’t amazing. But it did entertain me on a plane.
  7. Warrior – A film about mixed martial arts????? Ughhhh… How? Amazing.
  8. Super 8 – Just a really interesting film. Not brain taxing, but is represents what cinema should be – silly escapism.
  9. The Amazing Spiderman – OK… a reboot wasn’t really necessary so soon. However… it’s a much better film than any that Rami (the horror) was able to create & it’s got all the component parts for a great superhero flick.
  10. The Devils Double – We rented this off the Box Office and found ourselves pleasantly surprised. A really great movie.

6 – TV Moments

The first 3 are all episodes of the same TV series. Justifiably so… First Ascent is in my mind one of the greatest pieces of TV that I’ve ever seen. The missing episodes were equally amazing but it’s these that really blew my mind.

  1. First Ascent - Episode 3: Alone On The Wall - Alex Honnold usually a bumbling, slightly geeky kid, becomes poised and graceful when free solo climbing. He sets his sights on scaling Yosemite’s iconic 600-metre Half Dome wall.
  2. First Ascent - Episode 4: Brothers Wild - Professional climber Timmy O’Neill and his brother Sean, who is paralysed from the waist down, rely on their skills and tenacity to climb huge walls like El Capitan and remote Alaskan mountains.
  3. First Ascent - Episode 5: Point Of No Return - Two top alpine climbers and a cameraman go on a fateful journey to a dangerous mountain in south western China. There’s an unbelievable twist in this story that really almost had me in tears.
  4. The Paralympic Closing Ceremony – So what if it was essentially a great big Coldplay gig. It was amazing. The best of the games ceremonies this year.
  5. Game of Thrones Season 2 – Epic. Just epic.
  6. The Walking Dead Season 3 – Taking the action up a notch. Thrilling & big value TV.
  7. Grand Designs – More compelling wackiness. Some great projects. Some absolute stinkers. All great to watch.
  8. The Killing Season 2 – Much pacier and more enjoyable than the first (which I wasn’t a massive fan of).
  9. True Blood – I raced through all 4 seasons this year. Was never expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. Great TV.
  10. Homeland – It’s not grabbed me as much as the wife, but it’s still good to get into a regular show. It’s made Sunday nights better!

7 – Interactions / Experiences

  1. Nike Fuel Band – Nuff said.
  2. Photos To Art App – Smart. Clever. Easy.
  3. New MySpace – This one had me excited right from that teaser video & it’s delivering. The search on it’s own is one of the coolest things I’ve seen all year. Pure amazingness.
  4. SF Dok – 360 Langstrasse Zurich – It’s not new but it is amazing. I saw a new way of navigating when I found this, so I learn some new tricks.
  5. Amazonc.co.uk – It got easier, it morphed, it was tweaked…
  6. eBay iPad App – It’s marmite. You’ll be in love with it or you’ll hate it. I found all it’s weird little interactions amazing and compelling. Like developers had just been told to ‘go and play’.
  7. Isotope from MetaFizzy was a defining library of code for me in more ways than one. For starters this blog you’re reading right now is built using it (amongst other project). It’s also been my ‘sort’ function of choice in 2012.
  8. Responsive Web Design – It’s no silver bullet. It’s mis-used. It’s over-sold. But it was the big thing in 2012 and will continue to be so into 2013 and beyond despite what the naysayers predict.
  9. Maily – You know when you see something & think “sh*t, I wish I’d come up with that”… this was that moment for me. My son Charlie LOVES it and so do I.
  10. Roambi become one of my most used references for Data Visualisation (real, not creative) and it inspired a lot of conversations with a lot of clients and colleagues.

8 – News stories

  1. President Barack Obama earning a second term as President of the USA after defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney
  2. Facebook’s much-hyped initial public offering was the biggest in Internet history. It gave the company a market cap of more than $104 billion but then went on to flop.
  3. The crisis in Syria has escalated through 2012 as the government of Bashar al-Assad continues its extreme crackdown on Syrian rebels and protesters. The U.S. and the international community have come under increasing pressure to act.
  4. Great Britain’s Andy Murray took Olympic gold over Roger Federer at Wimbledon… made so much sweeter by the fact he lost in the Wimbledon final to Federer in June. An astonishing comeback.
  5. Jessica Ennis really proved why she was our Olympic poster girl after she clinched the Olympic heptathlon title in style.
  6. The Curiosity Mars Rover was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011 aboard the MSL spacecraft and successfully landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012. We just loved the fact that the Rover was ‘Tweeting’.
  7. Apple axed the ‘Maps chap’ and Jony Ive took over software design – Which is going to mean some astonishing things. Mr Ive also visited the palace in 2012 and was Knighted. A remarkable achievement.
  8. The SOPA Blackout On January 18 – Wikipedia, along with many others, orchestrated a service blackout. The sites shut down for the day and put up banners explaining why they weren’t operating and instructing people to sign petitions against SOPA.
  9. STILL TO BE DECIDED
  10. STILL TO BE DECIDED

 9 – Most used App (iOS)

  1. Facebook
  2. Twitter (most used by a country mile)
  3. Instagram
  4. Chess.com
  5. LinkedIn
  6. Ebay
  7. NatWest
  8. IncrediBooth
  9. Nike Fuelband
  10. CineXPlayer

10 – People

  1. Jony Ive – The man who shapes my tech.
  2. Tom Hardy – The actor who appeared in 2 of my top 10 films (Warrior & Dark Knight Rises).
  3. Kim Jong-un – The funniest politician on the planet.
  4. Barack Obama – The guy did good. Again.
  5. John McAfee – What an amazing news story.
  6. Oscar Pistorius – For me, the elite Athlete of the last 10 years.
  7. Bashar Assad – The man who just keeps on keeping on.
  8. Sebastian Vettel – Answered the critics (much like Andy Murray) and for me, he is the sportsman of the year.
  9. Hans Rosling – He made me fall in love with Data this year.
  10. Mark Zuckerberg – He is still the most influential man for my social circle.

Conclusion

And that concludes my 2012 10×10. Really nothing AMAZING and controversial this year (with the exception of me admitting to like Robbie Williams new album) but still a year of some great events and media consumption. A steady year, not an explosive year.

July 3, 2012 · advertising, digital, mobile, Social media, Twitter

Riots… the greatest viral campaign of 2011.

A riot is the language of the unheard – Martin Luther King Jr.

In August 2011 riots ripped through major cities in the UK & the best viral campaign of the year was created. What do we now know about the rioters and looters? Are they a criminal, feral underclass OR victims of socio-economic blight getting their own back on the rest of society? Fluke organizers or the new experts in 140 character communication. Rather than shouting through a megaphone — as in the infamous 1985 riots on the Broadwater Estate in Tottenham — today’s rabble rousers organized online and with the aid of their iPhones and BlackBerrys. As the riots unfolded, they turned to Social Media to encourage violence & organize hordes of youth into areas of the cities. They communicated digitally and efficiently and in ways that every advertising agency in the world only dream about executing successfully.

If any proof was needed that Generation Y, Generation We, Generation Sell, the Millennials, Generation Next, the Net Generation & Echo Boomers should be running the communication strategies in advertising and digital media then last year it was given to us on a big flaming plate. The demographic cohort following Generation X proved without a shadow of a doubt that with their thumbs and fingers they are the greatest organizers and communicators on our planet at the moment.

Youth custody is failing young people who want to change their ways - Mark Johnson

Characteristics of the generation vary by region, depending on social and economic conditions. However, it is generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies. In most parts of the world its upbringing was marked by an increase in a neoliberal approach to politics and economics. The 2007–2012 global financial crisis has had a major impact on this generation because it has caused historically high levels of unemployment among young people. This problem is particularly acute in Europe, and has led to speculation about possible long term economic and social damage to this generation. They want to start reaping what has been sown over 3 decades of creating grotesquely unequal society, with the alienated young copying ethos of looting bankers in their own special brand of communication. But they also have the firepower and the passion to fight back. They just need to be tapped and employed by we the communication makers. We talk to them but we don’t talk to them in their own language.

So what happened then?

  • 6 U.K. cities where rioting broke out
  • 1,051 Arrests in London alone as of Aug. 12
  • 591 Number of people charged in London
  • 11 Age of the youngest person arrested
  • 5 Number of fatalities
  • 16 Civilians officially reported as injured in the riots
  • 186 Police officers injured in the riots
  • 6,000 Number of police on duty in the areas affected by the riots on Aug. 8
  • 16,000 Police on duty in those areas on Aug. 9
  • 2,169 Calls received by the London Fire Brigade on Aug. 8
  • 20,800 Emergency calls received by the London Metropolitan Police Service on Aug. 8 (a 400 per cent increase over the average volume)

The figures are a devastating indictment of the way society has failed some of the poorest and most disadvantaged younger members of society.

The “criminality” vs “ideology” argument goes like this. These riots are fundamentally criminal acts, an opportunity for a criminal class to act with impunity. BUT, so the counter argument goes, these crimes have an undercurrent of ideology. They are the voice of the unheard. Of course they are largely criminal acts. But the bigger story is the dwindling of confidence in the idea of progress. The idea of progress is as fundamental to a society based on science and technology as the idea of liberty was to the enlightenment.

TWITTER: Everyone up and roll to Tottenham f*** the 50 [police]. I hope one dead tonight

TWITTER: Be inspired by the scenes in #tottenham, and rise up in your neighborhood. 100 people in every area = the way we can beat the feds.

Jody McIntyew was forcibly removed from his wheelchair by police during London demonstrations last year – he asked his 9,000 Twitter followers to spread unrest across the city. He has ‘followers’. The police forget about that.

People were referring to BBM as a network where they were telling people where they were going. References to the Tottenham riots on BBM began cropping up two days before violence broke out.

There’s a recruitment broadcast going around on BBM to gather hoodrats to start a riot. Just received 3 BBM Messages detailing a new organised ‘Riot’ plan complete with ‘Loot Rules’. This is the start of something new. #Anarchy

Some 90% of those brought before the courts were male and about half were aged under 21. The 18-30 market are themselves, gatekeepers and experts on leveraging communications and messaging… In an age of social media in which disgruntled youth are frequently more skilled with smart phones than are the adults who police them, authorities believe handheld technologies may have helped those trying to instigate violence to spread their message. You’ve got to admire their resourcefulness.

62% of youth brand and technology decisions are influenced by friends and family. Other decisions are no different. By 2013, Earned Media will replace paid as the #1 driver of youth consumer behavior for smartphones. Who understands earned media better than the people creating the most powerful messages? Brand choice is shaped by Paid vs Earned Media splits. Research data shows key “Beachheads” of customer support for brands in specific age groups not found in rival brands. Youth spend just short of £200 billion on mobile services annually. That’s one pound in every ten of their disposable income going to a mobile telecoms company. They get it. They understand it. They also understand how to use it to mobilize and rise up.

13% of those arrested were gang members (but in London the figure was 19%).

In terms of ethnicity, 42% of those charged were white, 46% black, 7% Asian and 5% were classified as ‘other’.

In this same demographic group only 1/3 of the youth generation trust advertising or traditional top-down messaging – preferring peers to guide their choices rather than traditional marketing messages.

For many people who were rioting, that week was a rejection of the future that was laid out for them… so I say why not employ them? With support obviously… they need proper integrating and acclimating. Unlike most people, some of those rioting and looting had no stake in conformity, those things that normally constrain people are not there. But they have the will and the communication methods that we in advertising and communication would LOVE to tap and bottle. A generation bred on a diet of excessive consumerism and bombarded by advertising has been unleashed… now we have to make them the arbiters.

They feel they can rationalize it by targeting big corporations. There is a sense that the companies have lots of money, while they have very little.

Passion is the mob of the man, that commits a riot upon his reason. – William Penn

Most advertising agencies prefer candidates with bachelor’s degrees and a liberal arts background – preferably in advertising, journalism, public relations, literature, sociology, philosophy, or psychology. However, after fifteen years working across the big players I realised that the greatest skill in an agency is passion and vision. A channeled desire, defies and beats any recognised degree. Strong leaders and mentors trump all teachers and lecturers. We can create a new system where people are empowered to learn and improve.

The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.

Some say we need leaders in Government and the tech community to give us a vision of where science and technology is headed, and how it makes us better as a society and a people, and to articulate why that is an inclusive vision. I say we need to ask and empower the people who fight for their voice.

These kids are called the hardest to reach, what we’ve found is that they’re really easy to reach. All you’ve got to do is have a really honest approach, and for them to see transparently that there’s an opportunity to be part of something. mark johnson

March 17, 2011 · digital, Twitter

#numbers – Twitter Growth

This interesting article was posted on the Twitter blog on Monday 14th March. As a huge admirer and fan of Twitter (it’s an experience of simplicity… my favorite kind of experience) I really enjoyed reading the numbers so I decided to share them here too:

Five years ago this week, a small team of people started working on a prototype of the service that we now know as Twitter. On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first Tweet.

Today, on every measure of growth and engagement, Twitter is growing at a record pace. Here are some numbers:

#tweets

  • 3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
  • 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
  • 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
  • 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.
  • 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
  • 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
  • 6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

#accounts

  • 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
  • 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
  • 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees

  • * 8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.

The reach and addict-ability of Twitter is unquestionable. After the Japanese earthquake hit it was Twitter I went too for updates from the news rooms… that’s what it’s become to me – The place of ‘updates’.

Long may it reign.

June 14, 2010 · Books, Social media

Viral Loop – The power of pass it on

I was recently recommended a book by Adam Penenberg called ‘Viral Loop’ by an old colleague of mine Marty Carrol who has just set up a cracking start-up called PowNum.

In essence the take-aways from the book are:

  • Some traditional companies, such as Tupperware, achieved “viral”-type success decades before popular use of the Internet.
  • Online firms grow virally when members of a Web site invite their friends to join.
  • When this pattern generates exponential growth, it becomes a “viral expansion loop,” which has three categories:
  • A “viral loop” expands based on referrals from members to their friends.
  • A “viral network” is made up of numerous connected viral loops, such as Facebook.
  • A “double viral loop” is a combination of a viral loop and a viral network.
  • With quality online offerings, sites don’t need salespeople or advertising to go viral.
  • Viral companies, such as Hotmail, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and eBay, share certain traits, like clear concepts, ease of use and rapid adoption.
  • A Web offering’s “viral coefficient” is measurable; a score of 1.0 – indicating that each member generates one new member – leads to exponential growth.
  • Viral growth is an integral component of great products and services, and is suited for smart phones, which will soon outsell PCs as Internet access machines.

The Web can make a business hugely profitable if the entrepreneurs have the right design and offer something the audience really wants. This formula worked for Hotmail, eBay, PayPal, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, Twitter and Flickr, as well as Hot or Not. Such sites offer services to which people come to feel so deeply attached that they become fervent evangelists. Then their contacts do the same, in a “positive-feedback loop.” That’s how viral lightning hits. Companies become Internet juggernauts when they can ride the three-part “viral expansion loop,” wherein Web visitors reliably beget additional guests:

  1. “Viral loop” – This referral-multiplying mechanism grows member-to-member.
  2. “Viral Network” – Members form groups that intersect as they expand.
  3. “Double Viral Loop” – This hybrid of viral networks and viral loops is built on ever-increasing user content. A double viral loop grows more quickly as it adds users, often with little marketing effort (though increasing technical concerns).

The expansion of a viral loop depends both on users who promote a site’s goods or services, and on designers who build virality into their offerings. The Web is the ultimate, exponential connectivity medium, in that it enables people to share blogs, links, photos, videos and other Internet services. This creates a “virtuous circle,” the most efficacious form of direct marketing, based on the understanding that people will share things they like. The trick is figuring out what they like and including it, intrinsically, from the very beginning.

Big-time viral winners like Ning share certain characteristics:

  • “Web-based” service – The firm is designed to function and grow on the Internet.
  • “Free” offering – The service is complimentary but may be monetized in the future.
  • “Organizational technology” – Users, not employees, develop the content.
  • “Simple concept” – Straightforward and easy is always best.
  • “Built-in virality” – Users spur growth through sharing and positive word-of-mouth. “Extremely fast adoption” – Some 50% of Harvard students joined Facebook a month after the social network started, although the site spent no money on promotion.
  • “Exponential growth” – Users bring in more users, who bring in more users.
  • “Viral” characteristics – The “Virality index” must read greater than 1.0 for exponential growth.
  • “Predictable growth rates” – Just as “epidemiologists can predict with some certainty how quickly a virus will spread through a city,” you can foretell the birth of a viral loop.
  • “Network effects” – The more users there are, the more attractive joining becomes. “Stackability” – PayPal’s relationship with eBay offers stackable, synergistic growth. A “point of nondisplacement” – Viral companies eventually hit a “tipping point,” an unbeatable mass of users.
  • “Ultimate saturation” – Growth can slow once a site becomes immense.

Get the book:

June 3, 2010 · Twitter

Check out this SlideShare pres…

Check out this SlideShare presentation : Advertising at the speed of culture http://slidesha.re/dAZka1

open