The Good Apple – Issue Two
Hello and welcome to Issue 2 of The Good Apple.
I’m compiling this newsletter under significant duress. Not only do I commence work on a HUGE and exciting undertaking in a matter of hours (I may have started already… ask me when we catch up for lunch), but my Mac is struggling to cope with the sheer scale of awesomeness that I have been trawling in order to bring you this issue of positive commentary on the Australian Digital Media landscape, and I have to drop it off to some genius to fix its busted bearings.
So, without further ado, onto the contenders.
Tweets on the beat!
It’s everywhere, so I won’t dwell on it, but Victoria Police, I salute you, and whoever advised you to tweet dangerous drivers. Awesome. Roll it out to other crimes and idiotic behaviour, um, now.
On another topic almost entirely, @penguinbooks ran a cute little competition recently where they asked their followers to finish the joke, ‘Why did the Penguin cross the road?”. Now, I didn’t win, obviously the pun-force is not strong in this one, but it was a sweet idea and there was some interesting engagement, including the tweeting of pics of the judges deliberating. Twitter really is a great place for the micro-competition, long may they continue.
Does this guy only talk about Twitter?
No, but Twitter is wonderful, isn’t it?
‘What’s the next big thing?’ I hear you say. Could be any number of things.
Micro-blogging is yet to reach saturation point, despite a cursory glance of the tech section of The Age. Micro-blogging will grow to cover more seamlessly other types of media, certainly. Have a look at Tumblr, noice!
And, Personal Brand Management. It’s so hot right now. I strongly, strongly, urge you to check out John Green. He’s an American author who writes young adult fiction (but it is VERY good, before you deride me for reading ‘kids’ books, or recommend I read Twilight…).
Basically, a couple of years ago John and his brother Hank started the Brotherhood 2.0 project. They pledged that there would be no written communication between them for a year. They would communicate by Video Blog, and it was so popular and brilliant, that they still do it. I spent an afternoon watching John Green autograph 500 party blowers in a Chicago hotel room. Obviously I was almost as bored as him at the time, but hey, I watched it, didn’t I?
He also founded NerdFighters. Google it, and DFTBA (that’s Don’t Forget To Be Awesome, and Hanks bands name, I think)
Not only does John Green bear a passing resemblance to me, he is about 83 times as charismatic, funny and intelligent and it is a grand example of perfect Personal Brand Management and a nice little glimpse into just how personal brands have become and can be. And how much work it takes, alongside your day job.
Bullet point brilliance
- When will we see a brand run a campaign on Twitter by utilising the influence of other individuals on Twitter, rather than attempt to build and exploit their own? Oh, I think I just saw it. Catch of the day are giving free speakers to people who tweet about it.
- Twitcam. Wonderful! Another place people can watch each other not looking into a camera, typing, pulling inexplicable and out of context faces. And potentially forgetting that they’re broadcasting and exposing their pyjamas, or worse.
- Thank you Twitter for clearing the spammers out of my follower list.
- Comment of the week; When I asked a client to give open, honest feedback on working with me (and Volkside, Hi Jussi!), and the quality of the final product, the worst she could say was “Maybe it could’ve used a cover sheet”, EPIC WIN (and duly noted, cover sheet template design added to to-do list)
- Mental note; think of things other than Twitter next time…
Over and out. Have a nice period of time between this issue and the next one.
