Insights

Milk Cartons and Plastic Ninjas

I’m a fairly resourceful guy. Don’t get me wrong – I’m no Chuck Norris, but I’d like to think I’m pretty good at working a way around a problem. Just give me a little time and I’ll work out a way. May not be the right one, but if it’s workable then that’s all I need.

Which is why I get frustrated when simple things turn out to be anything but.

Take milk cartons, for example. Almost 100 years old now, they still have the same basic design flaw that the very first ones did – the cardboard spout that the milk comes out of when you pull the flaps apart. Not only can they be a pain to open without spillage, once you’ve managed to open the carton then the fun’s just beginning.

If you’re like me, sometimes you just like to drink from the carton when you’re really thirsty. (And no, it’s not gross to drink from the carton!). Trying to do that, however, without getting milk all down your top is second only to sneezing with your eyes open for levels of impossibility. Strike one against consumer friendliness.

Then you have the plastic ninjas. You know when you buy a new pair of scissors, or a carving knife, and they come enveloped in that tough plastic to stop you accidentally cutting yourself when opening? What they don’t tell you is that you don’t get a chance to cut yourself because they’re impossible to get into in the first place! You need another knife or pair of scissors to open the new ones – doesn’t that seem just a little counter-productive?

So why do we make ourselves like milk cartons and plastic ninjas when it comes to social media?

I read a great blog post today by Lisa Hoffmann. In it she suggested that the reason so many companies aren’t getting into social media is because we’re scaring them away. Yes, the people that evangelize most about social media could be the ones responsible for stunting its growth.

We’re doing this by pretending to be experts when there’s still so much to learn. We do this by telling businesses their approach to social media is rubbish and they should follow our lead. After all, we’re the social media experts and we know best.

Except we’re not and we don’t.

We may know what’s best for our needs, but until we get to know about a business we don’t know about theirs. So why do we jump straight in and say to business owners, “Get a Twitter account now. Join Friendfeed. Start Digging. You’re nothing if you’re not on Facebook.”

Instead of telling businesses what they will do with us, shouldn’t we be saying what they can do? Show them what’s available and what each benefit is, as opposed to join this or sign up for that or else you’re missing out?

Yes, businesses need to get into social media and begin building their community. But unless they’re able to do it the way that is right for them and not simply just right for us, then they’ll continue to be disappointed with the results. And frustrated.

Much like trying to deal with milk cartons and plastic ninjas.

How Do You Boil Your Social Media Egg?

One thing I used to love when I was growing up was breakfast at my grandma’s. She’d make toast soldiers and boiled eggs.

(Just in case anyone doesn’t know what toast soldiers are, it’s when you make normal toast and then cut it into about 4-5 strips. You then butter these strips and use them to dip into eggs or beans).

The reason I liked having breakfast at my grandma’s was because she always gave me a choice of how I liked my eggs boiled. Unlike my mum who always hard-boiled her eggs, which was okay when I was in the mood for them. But every now and again, you just want to get a runny egg and dip some toast in it.

This is where my grandma stood tall.

If I wanted runny eggs, she’d boil for three minutes and then I’d have my runny yolk. If I wanted hard-boiled, she’d keep them on the heat for six minutes and you sure got one solid egg!

It may not sound like much, getting the choice between soft or hard-boiled eggs, but trust me – for a 6-year old kid, it was everything. I felt that I had a voice, and my grandma really wanted to know my choice, as opposed to me having to like something just because everyone else did.

Social media’s kind of like the boiled egg. Initially, it can be a tough shell to crack if you’ve never tried it before. You wonder what’s the best approach – should you slice the top open and dig in slowly from there, or try and break it open evenly and absorb it whole?

Deciding how you want to use social media can be a lot like choosing your yolk. Do you want to just dabble and maybe use a mix of Twitter and Facebook? Then you’ll just want the three minute boil. If you really want to get something to dig your teeth into, though, and you want to try all the different tools and sites that social media has to offer, you better give your egg an extra three minutes.

But you know what? It doesn’t matter how you like your social media egg. Just like my grandma always gave me the choice, so you have the choice too. Because both ways are right. There is no wrong. Social media is your egg to boil as you choose – the main thing is that you enjoy it when it’s done.

To Magpie CEO Jan Schulz-Hofen

Dear Jan,

Firstly, I would like to offer my appreciation that your company Magpie is trying to give Twitter users a means to earn money. At a time of economic worry and uncertainty, any company that offers a passive income stream should be encouraged. Sadly, your model is flawed.

Your modus operandi is to pay Twitter users to allow third-party advertisements to go out via their Twitter stream. The default setting is that every fifth Tweet will be an advertisement. That’s a lot. Yes, you mention that Magpie users can change the default setting to a less frequent schedule, but then won’t that be less effective for those looking to earn revenue from your service? After all, less adverts=less money, no?

So, let’s say for arguments sake that people leave the default setting of every fifth post. That’s 20% of someone’s Twitter stream taken up with advertisements. Looking at some of the people I follow, that could be anywhere between 60 and 5,000 advertisements. Don’t you think that’s a bit excessive? And that’s just on the default setting – what if people went with the suggestion on your homepage and lowered the settings to every other Tweet so they could earn even more?

Where your model suffers again is that you seem to have missed the concept of Twitter altogether. I’m sure you must have carried out focus groups and various forms of research to see what social media site offers the best potential for Return on Investment (ROI). Yet did you actually look at how the service is used and by whom?

Twitter acts as a wonderful way to have a two-way conversation and interact with like-minded individuals. Yes, there is self-promotion as people recommend their latest blog post but that’s a very small part of the Twitter experience. This is where Magpie falls down.

The key word here is conversation. Not broadcast. Not advertising. Conversation.

Where does the Magpie model fall into the description of conversation? Simple – it doesn’t. By paying users of your service to Tweet on behalf of your advertisers, you’re forcing followers of these people to read your adverts. In other words, you’re broadcasting. This is perhaps your biggest error with the Magpie model.

Look around any social media-centric blog, website or even Tweet, and one thing that stands out loud and clear is that social media is all about the conversation.

Not the pitch. Not the shameless promotion. Certainly not the broadcast. If Twitter is about the conversation, and Magpie is all about the broadcast, can you see where the problem lies?

Perhaps where your biggest problem lies, though, is with the very people that will be using your service. While initially it will be beneficial to them as far as compensation goes, how long will this last?

Looking around Twitter conversations and the blogosphere, there is a lot of negativity towards Magpie’s business model.

Indeed, there is a groundswell that unwanted adverts could lead to people simply un-following Magpie broadcasters. This isn’t just a Magpie problem, in case you were thinking the negativity is unwarranted. I, and many like me, stop following people who shamelessly self-promote, because that’s not what we want from Twitter.

How many of your early adopters will continue to use the service if it means they are losing people they really want to connect with?

I know you’ve been following this conversation. My friend Lucretia M. Pruitt has started a very healthy debate at her blog and I noticed your comments there. It’s commendable that you’re taking the time to answer concerns – but unfortunately you’ve even failed here.

At no time have you offered an alternative to un-following someone. Maybe if you allowed the option to filter your ads out then there wouldn’t be such disillusionment with your service. But you can’t offer a filter, can you – if you do that, then who gets to see your adverts? And no company is going to pay you revenue to promote a product that doesn’t get seen.

As I said at the beginning, I do actually want to encourage any company that allows users of any service the chance to make extra income, especially with Christmas approaching. Sadly, I don’t think Magpie is the answer.

To use the Twitter message itself, “What are you doing?” – I don’t think the answer would be, “Buy your next car at Dealer X”. Do you?

Regards,

Danny Brown.

The 12 Days of Social Media Christmas

Yes, I know, there are still 5 weeks until Christmas. But it never stopped the malls and stores from hawking their wares back in August! Besides, it usually gets pretty hectic for me from hereon in so I figured I’d do this now before I either forget or don’t have time.

And who doesn’t like a nice Christmas song? So, without further ado, I give you the 12 Days of Social Media Christmas song. Enjoy.

On the first day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
The Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Four Facebook apps,
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five brand new friends,
Four Facebook apps,
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Six BackType comments,
Five brand new friends,
Four Facebook apps,
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Seven Scoble gadgets,
Six BackType comments,
Five brand new friends,
Four Facebook apps,
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eight gains on Technorati,
Seven Scoble gadgets,
Six BackType comments,
Five brand new friends,
Four Facebook apps,
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Nine Yahoo Buzz ups,
Eight gains on Technorati,
Seven Scoble gadgets,
Six BackType comments,
Five brand new friends,
Four Facebook apps,
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Ten MySpace Tom’s a-leaping,
Nine Yahoo Buzz ups,
Eight gains on Technorati,
Seven Scoble gadgets,
Six BackType comments,
Five brand new friends,
Four Facebook apps,
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eleven front page Diggs,
Ten MySpace Tom’s a-leaping,
Nine Yahoo Buzz ups,
Eight gains on Technorati,
Seven Scoble gadgets,
Six BackType comments,
Five brand new friends,
Four Facebook apps,
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve more SM months ahead,
Eleven front page Diggs,
Ten MySpace Tom’s a-leaping,
Nine Yahoo Buzz ups,
Eight gains on Technorati,
Seven Scoble gadgets,
Six BackType comments,
Five brand new friends,
Four Facebook apps,
Three Brogan blog posts,
Two Magpie tweets,
And the Twitter bird in a pear tree!

Happy (early) Social Media Christmas everyone!

Mashable Open Web Awards 2008 Online Voting Round 1 Now Open

After two weeks and over 43,000 nominations the Mashable Open Web Awards 2008 online voting round 1 is now open.

Looking at the names that have been nominated, there’s a good mix of new and underrated companies and applications as well as the usual suspects. For example, it’s nice to see the likes of Kiva in the non-profit category after a year when the micro-lending company really came into the online consciousness.

The first round of online voting for the Mashable awards will run from 9am PST today until 11.59pm PST on Sunday November 30. Once this initial round of votes are in, the final round of voting will begin on Wednesday December 3, with the winners announced on Tuesday December 16.

You can begin casting your vote via the round 1 voting form below.