South Park: You Have 0 Friends

I'm not an avid South Park watcher, but some of my favourite episodes are the ones that cover current events and issues. The newest episode of the show, "You Have 0 Friends" is all about how serious Facebook can be.

As an avid fan of Facebook humour (and a regular viewer of Lamebook) this episode was right up my alley. Stan is the guy who is forced into the Facebook world kicking and screaming, Kyle is a Farmville addict who quickly loses friends when he becomes friends with the unpopular kid and Cartman is in classic form. In particular, his segment on Chatroulette may be my favourite part of this particular episode.

With the exception of the Tron bits, I think I've seen or experienced all of these scenarios and behaviours since I signed up for the service years ago. I recommend checking it out here if you haven't already seen it.

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Twitter 101 For Businesses

As Twitter continues to grow, more and more businesses are jumping on the bandwagon to try and improve their web presence. For a lot of start-up advertisers and marketers (such as myself), creating and maintaining a Twitter account is going to be an increasingly important part of our future.

Thankfully, Twitter has launched a guide called Twitter 101 for Business. Having read through it, it seems like something you should definitely check out if you have any sort of social media work coming your way.

If you're already a Tweet junkie, you can probably skip the basics (such as the lingo section), but the "best practices" section in particular I recommend you check out. Using Twitter as a business tool takes makes your role in the Twitter-verse a bit different, and people's tolerance for your "Twitter-rhea" is minimal. I've removed myself from such accounts cause it was just too many tweets to go through.

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Twitter Trending Topic Pollution

One of my favourite things about Twitter besides telling everyone how awesome my lunch was, is the Trending Topics feature. I've always found it fascinating to see what people are talking about and be part of the "party line" either by reading what people have to say about the topic or jumping into the conversation.

But recently I've noticed a ton of people taking advantage of the system and to me it's really hampering the experience.

Let me pull up one example from a trending topic this instant: Wal-Mart.

Why is it a trending topic right now? Let's see if I can find out.

lcarou2148 Make $20.00 an Hour on Twitter See how here! http://tinyurl.com/mrwcve Michael Jackson harry potter WAL-MART less than 20 seconds ago from web

Swing and a miss. Spam is becoming increasingly prevalent on Twitter and it's really disrupting the conversation. People who throw in trending topics into their tweets to draw attention to their spam are just as evil as any other form of spammer.

chiquitaaa @LegendaryWriter Why the heck is wal-mart in the trending topics??? O.o weird... less than a minute ago from web

It seems like every time something new breaks into the trending topics section, 80% the tweets then become, "Why is this a trending topic?" instead of just hitting the topic button and finding out for themselves. Ugh.

Divas365 I sometimes hook in Wal-Mart parking lots hoping to meet harry potter & Nia long.

Personally the worst to me. The people who think they're clever writing a sentence with every trending topic at that moment are just maddening. Your not clever if everyone on Twitter is doing it. And the idea is dumb in the first place just a shameless cry for e-attention.

I'm about 100 tweets in, and I STILL don't know exactly why Wal-Mart is a trending topic? I found only two bits of news (something about India and something about rating eco-friendly products), but 98% of the Wal-Mart tweets were just garbage.

I'm not sure if there's any solution to spammers or people being...people. But I do miss when it was easy to find out why a trending topic was a trending topic.

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PS22 Chorus = Coolest Choir Ever?

Last night, I saw the PS22 Chorus rendition of "Eye of the Tiger" on CNN and thought, "Wow! This is cool! I wish I had a music class as cool as this!" Today, I check into YouTube and their rendition of Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" is currently the second-most popular video on YouTube. They've made fans out of Perez Hilton, Tori Amos, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and more. And the PS22 isn't some special music school...just an ever-changing group of grade 5 NYC public school kids.

I love this whole initiative primarily for two reasons:

1) The implementation of more "popular" and "contemporary" music into its curriculum and

2) The leveraging of social media such as the PS22 Chorus blog and YouTube videos to not only keep the kids interested, but spread the word about what it is they're doing.

Personally, I've had a very weird and informal path discovering, learning and creating music. Little to none of which occured in school. A lot of that unsatisfactory feeling towards my school music experience came from not being able to sing and learn the songs we wanted to learn. It was always the by-the-book kiddie stuff or music we students couldn't connect with.

Why not work some work some "cooler" music into the curriculum?

I know school will never be the place for choirs to sing Crank That by Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, but is there any less musical merit in a Miley Cyrus song? A Fleetwood Mac song? Heck, "Eye of the Tiger" is almost 30 years old, but the choir sang that song because the lead singer loved that song in Guitar Hero. If part of your job as a music teacher is to get the kids to enjoy music, why not work with more songs that the kids like?

Also, can't let these boys and girls go without talking about their social media implementation. Their teacher has created a blog and a YouTube channel to document their performances and major accomplishments to add an extra level of legitimacy to what these kids are doing. Even if they weren't discovered by Perez Hilton or Ashton Kutcher, just being able to show my parents and my friends what I'm doing at school is super cool. Not only that, knowing that the whole world could be watching, I'd try a little bit harder to make a lasting impression too.

Great job everyone at PS22 Chorus. Can't wait to here more music from you!

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Tweet My Gaming: What Nerds Are Talking About

One thing I love about Twitter is being able to join and follow the conversation. Regardless of the topic, you'll be able to use the search engine to see up to the second what people have to say about pretty much anything.


Though this method does have it's limitations, which is why I find Tweet My Gaming so cool. It tracks in real-time all tweets that mention video games or anything video game related. Using Twitter search, you can only find stuff if it's hash-tagged or very specific things. For instance, if I wanted to find stuff about "video games", Twitter search would only pull up results where people typed "video games". Tweet My Gaming seems to be able to grab anything with a video game reference.

It'll be cool to see all of the different variations on this idea pop up to follow all sorts of subject matter. Tweet My Baseball? Tweet My Lunch? Tweet My Re-tweet?

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The Facebook Username Scramble

You probably already know this, but come this Saturday at 12:01 AM, there will be a mad scramble of users trying to get their user name because they can't spend another day as Facebook ID # 103898908909022. If your name is John Smith, you might as well give up now.

Are you excited to finally not be a number anymore? No? Me neither.

Will I make a mad scramble like everybody else to get the name I want? Probably.

Facebook says they're doing it to make it easier to find people, but I never really had a problem finding people on Facebook, and people who wanted to add me don't seem to have a problem finding me either. And I never access Facebook in a way where I need to check out specific profiles on a consistent basis.

The only reason I'm remotely interested in this is for the mad scramble that is bound to happen when the time comes. Will Facebook crash? Will Bob Joe in Kentucky take Oprah away from Oprah and charge her a gazillion dollars to get it back? Will it actually make a notable impact on the Facebook experience in the long run? Will anybody care within 24 hours of this launching?

Probably not. But I'll be here, hitting F5 over and over until I can finally get my hands on facebook.com/keyboardcat.

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Twitter + Google Street View = Stweet = Overly Creepy Mash-Up of Technology?

Thanks to Mashable, I discovered this new application called Stweet. It's the unholy mash-up of Twitter and Google Maps street view so that you can see the latest tweet in that city and a view of approximately where the person was tweeting from. It works by syncing up with such mobile applications as Twitterfon and locating an approximate address of where you just tweeted. For some, part of the appeal of Twitter is having people care about each and every move you make. But do you really want people to know exactly where you are when you do it?

Right now the site is a bit buggy, with the feed dropping out every few minutes. Certain cities work better than others. I'm not sure if this will ever have any practical use as is, but it's a cool mash-up nonetheless. For now, I'll go back to randomly stalking New York tweeters for no other reason than the fact that I can now.

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You're Gonna Love My Nuts

2 weeks ago, YouTube user djsteveporter posted this hilarious creation on YouTube. His remixing of the Slap Chop infomercial has been viewed over 1.5 million times, spawned almost 400 blog posts and 8,000 comments since release. Using a classic-era break beat and Auto-Tune, he makes an entire song and music video with the Slap Chop infomercial, starring Vince Shlomi, better known as the Sham Wow guy.

Digging into it a bit further, I discovered that the original Slap Chop infomercial has been remixed over 100 times, most of which are crude edits focused around the line, "You're gonna love my nuts!".

If you're the makers of Slap Chop, how do you feel? How do you react? Besides the fact that the star of the infomercial is in hot water for beating a prostitute, your brand is getting some serious online word-of-mouth that you may or may not want to associate your brand with. Do you get offended that people are "violating" the brand? Or are happy that people are getting some enjoyment out of it that might translate into sales, even if isn't how you originally planned?

In the age of new media, you can't really control this remixing of your brand, but if the community remembers you more for the song than someone editing your video so that your spokesperson says, "You're gonna love my nuts!" over and over, maybe it wouldn't hurt to ride this one out.

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Without Advertising, *fill in the blank*

Web developer Mindrally has put together a site called "Without Advertising", where users are given the statement, "Without Advertising," and asked to fill in the blank. I had come up with something similar when my group pitched Zig a month ago. I'm still not sure exactly what they're trying to achieve with this particular site, and a lot of people are just posting irrelevant comments to mess with the system, but just "for the lulz", I pulled out a few choice comments, which you can read below.










I left a comment on there, too:

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Tips to Control Your Personal Brand

The idea of personal branding is extremely important to me. I started this blog as one way to control my personal brand, so that there were other things to find out about me besides a fake Amazon review under my name. I also started Leaders of the New as a way for other future advertisers to control their personal brand.

Yesterday, Mashable (which is quickly becoming one of my favourite blogs) posted an article about 5 ways to control your personal brand right now. If you have any sort of interest in controlling your personal brand, it's a must-read.

Thanks to the article, I signed up for a Google Profile, which will help bring up direct information about you when people try and search for you. For current and potential Leaders of the New, it wouldn't be a bad idea to post the link to your interview on your Google Profile.

I'm not going to run through all 5 tips, because the article explains it a lot better than I could. The one other thing I wanted to mention is that the E-elevator pitch is real, and happening right now.



There is a service called twtjobs, that allows users to create and distribute a resume through Twitter in 140 characters or less. When I first came up with the e-elevator pitch, I half meant it as a joke. Now it's real. Should I brush up my current pitch?

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60% of Twitter Users Abandon Fail Whale After Only A Month?

According to a post on the Nielson blog (which I found through Mashable) over 60% of Twitter users quit the service after only one month. All of the staggering growth aside, it seems as though Twitter may have a hard time riding out this momentum long-term.

From the Nielson blog:

Currently, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.

image from Nielson

A 40% retention rate is not that great, especially compared to Facebook and MySpace, who years later still hover around 70%. Having people drop off the service that fast will not be good for growth or the future of Twitter.

Personally, I know a lot of people who signed up for the service, thought it was dumb and left. Part of that comes from the service being caught in the media hype-train. Part of it comes from the stigma of Twitter being the service to tell people what you just ate for lunch. Part of that comes from people who try it out and find out it's not for them.

I've become quite the Twitter fan, but having used the service for a couple of months now, I don't see it offering enough to ever catch up to something like Facebook or Myspace. Does it need to? Probably not. Right now, it's estimated to only have about 6 million users, which is still low, especially considering all the hype it's been getting. Do you think Twitter is going to make it through or is the high dropout rate proof that Twitter is the next social media fad?

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Twitter Wars: Niketalk Vs. Diddy

image from Niketalk

Niketalk is one of my favourite message boards on the Internet. No, I've never been an official member of the board since I started following it in 2002. And no, I haven't even been following the sneaker industry for years. But the Niketalk general message boards are a regular stop-over of mine, checking a few times a day at least. It's an interesting window into the world of sneaker fans that includes a unique perspective on the latest events of the world, lots of discussion about girl problems, and is one of my favourite places to get funny pictures.

I was on Niketalk just now and I found the community decided to do something I hadn't seen done before.

Gang up on a celebrity. First victim? Diddy.



In the "NT Roastin' ______ on Twitter Appreciation...Who's next?" thread, they coordinated an attack where numerous Niketalk members sent Diddy countless insults through Twitter. Let's look at some of the highlights:

@iamdiddy Ol, "You had a spark when you started / but now you just garbage" - type of man.4 minutes ago from web

@iamdiddy Ol' "I've never even wrote helped compose the best songs on my own albums"-style man.21 minutes ago from web

@iamdiddy Ol', "I charged Miss V. Wallace $$$ to use her son's music in his own biopic"-man. (-_-)

Dre_704 Ya moms didn't let you play baseball after ya greasy %%% slid from 1st base to centerfield. Umpires f'd around and called a travel @iamdiddy

pasCHITOWNyo ol selfish %%@ %@+!$..the least you coulda did was put craig mack in some proactive commercials @iamdiddy

I wish Jada woulda really hit you w/ the refrigerator @iamdiddy.

There were far too many insults thrown at Diddy for me to post here, so I'll leave it to you to find the rest of them. Diddy didn't respond directly to the outpouring of hate typed his way, but he did post this towards the end of Niketalk's tirade.

image from Niketalk

Certain companies and celebrities have opened themselves up more through technology like Twitter, for better or worse. On the other side of the coin, you, as an average person have power. If you know how to use something like a blog, Twitter, or Facebook, you could make something happen. Like making Diddy sad, if that's one of your goals in life, I guess. I'd hope you aim higher than committing the virtual equivalent of throwing a cream pie into someone's face, but I guess this is a start.

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Lamar Runs Twitter Digital Billboards Under 140 Characters

Image from Ad Age

You're welcome, Ashton.

As if Twitter-mania needed the hype, Lamar Advertising yesterday ran pro-bono ads on 1,133 of its digital billboards in support of the Ashton Kutcher/CNN first to a million race.

Everybody wins in this transaction. Twitter gets even more buzz. Ashton Kutcher gets his one millionth follower before CNN. And Lamar Advertising has the advertising and media planning world talking about them. They apparently were able to have that ready to go within just a couple of hours of notice. Digital out-of-home is cool for a number of reasons, and that was one of them.

Here's a bonus ad that Steff sent me. Volvo integrated Twitter into one of its banner ads on YouTube. The creative uses for Twitter continue to pile up, 140 characters at a time.

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Hate Me Now

When you look at that face and watch this video, do you instantly think "#2 most viewed director on YouTube Canada this week"? Do you think "#11 most subscribed to of all-time on YouTube Canada"?

I doubt it.

Regardless of what you or I think (and regardless of how most of his videos are rated lower than 3 stars), Pruane2Forever is one of the hottest people on YouTube right now. 148 videos deep, he's ranted about everything from fights at his school to 50 Cent's..."product-line expansion".

Why?

I've seen this guy's videos pop up on a variety of message boards, usually under the context of, "LOL look at this loser!" I saw one or two, didn't get it, and moved on. I thought that was it. Before this, I had no idea this guy (who lists himself as having the name "sexman") had 148 videos, over 30,000 subscribers and had a YouTube channel that had been viewed almost 2 million times. So what makes this kid so popular? Is he just popular because people like to laugh at him?

It's too easy to say he's popular because he captures the essence of what society deems as "nerdy". The "Revenge of the Nerds" caliber nerdy. The pale skin. The braces. The whiny voice. The barely intelligent ranting about whatever he feels like talking about. But is that really it? I dug a bit deeper. I watched a variety of videos of him sitting in his bedroom, talking up a storm about a variety of topics as well as watching a few of his skits. I don't get the appeal at all. I don't even find them funny in an ironic way.

Do people really see value in this guy's opinion? Or has the Internet made this guy an Internet celebrity for all the wrong reasons? I don't think this kid is going out of his way to be humourous. The look isn't intentionally there to make us laugh at him. The voice I don't think he's putting on for show. I get the feeling that he's just a kid that takes his opinion very seriously, and while he has the eyes and ears of the world on him, they don't really care about anything he has to say.

Maybe he has us all fooled (or at least me). Maybe it is all an act. Maybe he's another Lonelygirl15 and has actually been collecting cheques from Eminem's record label to hype up his latest single. In any case, Pruane2Forever's standing at the top of YouTube is further proof of the expression below holds true today. Or something like that.

image from uniquities.co.uk

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Jett, This Is Your Life

It is with a heavy heart that I find myself at the account status section of my old blog. I think it's time to pull the plug on an old friend.

Back in 2003, I was blogging before I even knew the word "blog" existed. To me, it was an online diary, and I treated it as such. Well, I treated it more like a personal diary, with the caveat that maybe someone else in the universe would find it.

As a teenager with a lot of pent up thoughts and emotions, having that extra outlet to vent worked wonders. Whether I was writing a happy or sad post, I could express that feeling and hit that "Post" button for closure. It was really weird going back and reading those old entries. It stirred up a lot of weird feelings in me. It also made me realize that I've matured a lot from the days of writing about lost love or random moments in life.

Writing that blog made me realize how powerful a blog could be. I thought nobody would ever care about what I had to say, but apparently a lot of people did. Many of my friends said they were active followers of my blog. Every now and then, I would receive random comments from people all over the world. What really freaked me out was the fact that I was ranked within the top million at one point on Technorati. To me, what I was writing was strictly for myself. The world thought otherwise.

From there, I decided to start a podcast to reach out to the world a bit more. Over 1,000 people subscribed to that before it had to end. It's still crazy to me to see the power you possess when you have an idea and an outlet on the Internet. It was through those "trial runs" that made me realize that I could achieve so much more if I structure it for a larger target audience while keeping the personality that made my old blog worth following.

Through that blog, I became a stronger person, found my voice in life and established a life plan. Ultimately, part of that life plan included starting a new blog that featured a new coat of professionalism and maturity. Since school ended, jettlandicho.com has been great as a tool with a much broader scope than my original blog. It's more than just a place to express my emotions. It's a place to create and build on career opportunities not only for myself, but for The Leaders of the New as well.

I'll forever cherish my old blog. I put in over 6 years of my life into it, with over 600 entries. It's hard to see it go, but it's for the best. The entire thing is backed up, should I ever choose to publish it or something. But it's time to move on, and I'd feel more comfortable removing it from public view than abandoning it for the cyber-squatters to tarnish.


Goodbye, old friend. Thanks for the memories. I'll do you proud on this one.

"I can't predict the future, but I can place myself in a position today where I'll be better off tomorrow."

- Me, "Coming of Age", September 28, 2004

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The Groundswell: Social Technographics Profile Tool

image from web-strategist.com

I've been reading this book called "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies" for school and for future career purposes. Within my internship, this book will be a critical asset to me in putting together a solution that works. A lot of the book centres around the idea that social media success isn't about using every social media platform available. It's about using the right tools based on the audience you want to talk to.

The book is full of Social Technographics profiles (like the one pictured above), and I kind of hoped there would be a free solution to getting a hold of some profiles myself.

Well, there is. And I'd love to share it with you.

With the tool, you can make Social Technographic profiles based on age, country and gender. While the tool doesn't dig too deep, it's a great free starting point to putting together a plan that makes sense.

For anybody interested in working with social media, the book is well worth a read. Thankfully for me, I got mine for free after attending their Ad Week presentation in New York last year. However, knowing what I do know now about the book, I would buy the book if I didn't already own it.

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LEADERS OF THE NEW: The Blueprint

"The revolution will not be televised."
- Gil Scott Heron

The revolution is here, on jettlandicho.com. Not just me, but I'm bringing some friends along with me. Together, we'll begin (and hopefully) maintain a section of my blog called "Leaders of the New", where I'll be interacting with the next generation of advertisers.

For the past two years (and in some cases, longer) I've been in the company of some of the brightest young minds entering the advertising industry. Some of them have just gotten their foot in the door while others are trying to find their way in. What they all have in common though, is that they're the future of this industry. While Ad Week or Marketing Magazine won't talk about these guys and gals (yet), their stories are just as compelling as anyone else's. They're hungry to establish themselves, and maybe their fresh ideas, skills and work-ethic will revolutionize the game.

Through "Leaders of the New", here's their chance to get a bit of spotlight before they hit the big time. To start, I'll be doing interviews with them, but we could take this a lot farther depending on how far we want to go. At the very least, it's a chance for them to put their best foot forward when potential employers Google search them. At most, who knows?

The wheels for this are already in motion. As I'm typing this, at least a dozen people have committed to partake in this endeavour. Some people already have their questions. And depending on where we go with this, there's potential to do so much more.

While I can't commit to a regular time-frame for these just yet, I'm thinking maybe once a week or so for each "Leaders of the New" feature.

Want to be a "Leader of the New"? Send me an e-mail and we'll see what we can do!

Until we get our act together and start this feature off for real, check out this classic LARPing video:

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Wendy's Bid For Value Makes Me Want A Baconator

Today on Joystiq, they posted an article about Wendy's "0.99 Cent Bid For Value" promotion and micro site. While it's ultimate goal is to promote the value options on the Wendy's menu (I must admit though that Baconator is worth every penny), it's also running a great reverse auction promotion to drive people to the site and register.

What users do is, they answer trivia questions to knock down the bid until its $0.99. The first person to answer enough questions to get the bid down to $0.99 then gets to purchase the prize for ...$0.99.

They've picked out some great prizes, from autographed sports memorabilia, to spy camera glasses, to an ultimate game room that includes an XBOX 360, a big screen plasma TV and an Ultimate Game Chair. I've always scoffed at owning such a ridiculous piece of furniture, but I can't help but say, "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

Nothing to knock about this campaign. I love how it fully integrates its target market insights, product insights, campaign concept and application of online tools into one tight package. They even allow users to get updates on the next auction through Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, as well as the ability to share the page with their friends.

Anybody else hungry for a Baconator?

image from Robonator

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Rick Rolling and the Online Cultural Movement Behind Rick Astley

image from Nuclear Family Warhead

Odds are, at some point in your life, you've been the victim of a Rick Roll. Heck, you might have been victimized as recently as April Fool's day 2009 by jerks like me.

Apparently, due to deceiving Twitter posts like mine, over 500,000 people got Rick Rolled two days ago. That's pretty good for a prank that people have had about two years to figure out and get tired of.

I still find it hilarious how the Internet community made Rick Astley and the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" relevant again after all these years. And in such a weird context. I'm sure he doesn't dislike being big enough to Rick Roll the Macy's Parade last Christmas, but somewhere in his heart he must think, "Damn...I sold millions of records in my prime, and all people will ever remember me for is the Rick Roll."

Due to the nature of Internet humour, jokes usually burn out really quick. But if those numbers are any indication, there's a chance that maybe the Rick Roll will remain as the Internet's equivalent of a whoopee cushion.

Oh, before I go, I saw this amazing goal by Linus Omark that you have to see!

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Your Space or MySpace?

image from product-reviews.net

I can't imagine Tom being terribly happy at the moment. With Facebook surging and MySpace falling behind, the former king of social networking and the entire web 2.0 movement is in dire need of a shakeup. When I saw that article a few days ago, I attempted to brainstorm some potential solutions to improve MySpace's position with no real luck.

According to an article I found on Tech Crunch, News Corp. has found the guy to turn the ship around. Johnathan Miller has been named the CEO of Digital Media for News Corp., which includes MySpace.

image from Tech Crunch

Does he have what it takes? It's too early to pass judgement, but according to Tech Crunch, he lacks the most obvious tool one would need in order to sell MySpace: a MySpace profile.

One of the fundamentals of being able to sell a product is to know the product. Not just read about it or have people explain it to you. Use it.

Back in second semester of my Creative Advertising program, my group and I had to do an assignment dissecting a television ad for Stride gum. While it would have been easy for us to say, "Oh, it's gum. We know what that's like," we bought packs of Stride gum and all of its competition to help us get a feel of what's happening in the marketplace.

By actually purchasing the gum, we were able to gather insights we didn't initially see, such as the move away from blister packs into a more trendy paper package. And by searching Facebook, we saw that there was a contingent of Stride users that chewed the gum with the wrapper. As odd and awful as it sounds, you better believe we chewed the wrapper too to get the full picture.

While I can see why he would have no personal use for a page on a social network with a reputation of catering to high school students, creepers and emo bands, not having a profile doesn't bode well for consumer confidence. I'm not saying he needs to add 10,000 "friends" and have music from Fall Out Boy playing in the background on his page, but any sort of proof that he understands the product he's in charge of selling could go a long way.

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