richardirvine.com

Category: internet

  • On the box

    So I was on the telly, along with Simone McCallum and Rick Shera talking about this ruling in Australia where by companies are responsible for everything that appears on their Facebook or social media pages.

    My (expanded) view is that social media should be literally social – a two way conversation between companies, their customers and their online communities. Of course we keep a close eye on what’s on our page – like Rick says in the clip, you can’t just set up a Facebook page then forget it. We also make no apology for removing posts that are non-family friendly – much offensiveness is automatically headed off at the pass by our profanity filter (great to finally make use of my specialist profanity knowledge in a professional situation).

     
     Getting a quick game of Angry Birds in.

    I’d personally be disappointed if a similar ruling here meant a moderation step before people could post on one of our pages. If we set our slate out and ask customers to let us know what they think, folk should be able to say what they like, within reason. A moderation step would make the whole exercise less, well, social.

    As for the process of being filmed for the telly and that, it was fun if slightly nerve wracking. And weird to see yourself on the box, but I imagine once you reach full Brislen level, you’d be used to it! The kids loved it. My greatest concern was that one of my mates, seeing the ‘I get an email to my phone when there’s a Facebook comment’ comment would post mass hilarity on the page. Hasn’t happened. Yet. My phone went nuts on the night with relatives txting and kind people tweeting – thanks to everyone who tweeted, you are too kind.

  • On buying followers

    Here’s a very simple test you can perform at home if you suspect someone has bought their followers on Twitter.

    Step one: Read your mark’s tweets. Go back a week or two if you can be arsed.

    Step two: Ask yourself ‘would X thousand people REALLY be interested in that? Really?!?’

    There is no step three.

    PS – read Bill Rundle’s excellent blog post on follower buying for much more reasoned thinking than this.

    Update: fakers.statuspeople.com can confirm any suspicions.

  • What did we learn?

    This last couple of weeks I was lucky enough to:

    Speak at the Social Media and Mobile Apps forum, with a Telecom case study; “Social and corporate values – making them play nicely”

    Attend The Flying Social Network’s The Social Media Breakfast

    Both were fine events, and they made me think about conferences and expectations.  If there’s one thing ‘social’ ‘media’ has been good at, it’s creating conferences. And nobody is happy about them, if you read the Twitter commentary. They’re too ‘101’. They’re just an argument about why you should do social media. The presenters just read this shit on Mashable this morning*.

    I’m just wondering what people expect. In the information-diarrhoea age we live in, there is no shortage of social media how-tos, gossip, case studies and news on the internet. It’s highly unlikely that a presenter will give birth, live on stage, to a unique information snowflake that will instantly make everything crystal clear and can be readily adapted to make your own SM strategy roar like a some kind of online Harley Davidson.

    It’s worth remembering that this stuff is still new to most people, especially if they’re not among the daily-Mashable-reading set. It seemed to me that at the SoMo forum in particular, many of the audience WERE there for a 101. Fair enough, and that’s pretty much what they got for their money.

    Over at Air NZ’s event, Wildfire’s Jessica Gilmartin gave a fairly 101 level presentation and the twitter hashtags lit up, railing against the basic level it was pitched at, as well as a lack of local case studies. But when Randi Zuckerburg gave her top ten ‘what’s hot’ tips, which included mobile, gamification and curation, the audience gave her a considerably easier ride than Gilmartin, despite many of the hot tips having been around long enough to cool off somewhat by now. It helped that RZ was generous with the war stories about Facebook’s early days and appeared relaxed, charming and to be thoroughly enjoying herself. She’s a great presenter, so folk were willing to forgive the content, which I dare say you could have largely googled up yourself, saving yourself the early start and $75.

    So what about conferences then? Should you bother? Yes, because there’s other actual humans there articulating the problems and solutions they’re working on, both on stage and over shit coffee. There’s a limited pool of both presenters and potential attendees for social media conferences in NZ, so maybe we should just decide if we can take the time to attend, and if we can, STFU and take the day on its merits and enjoy meeting new folk and catching up with old ones. Or maybe I shouldn’t read so much into the Twitter conversation.

    *Incidentally, at both these events, at least one presenter advised reading Mashable. One specified ‘every day’.

  • Hear me say ‘um’ and ‘yinnow’ a lot

    Dylan and Morgan at the @discoursenz podcast were kind enough to have me on the show, to talk @telecomnz.

    My bit is from about four minutes in, and goes for about ten minutes. I hang around for some of the rest of it too.

    Discourse NZ Episode 3.12: Minty Fresh

    I enjoyed myself – it’s quite an experience to appear on a podcast you listen to every week, you have to keep reminding yourself you’re *on*, not just listening to an episode at your computer and that you really should say something every now and again.

    If you don’t listen to Discourse, you should. It’s not easy putting together an hour’s worth of interesting, funny and well produced audio every week, and the chaps are doing it for free. Get in there, rate the show, etc.

  • Avatar

    Your blog, Twitter and LinkedIn* are your shtick. My shtick is apparently a stream of unrelated stills from films with me clumsily Photo Shopped in, probably saying ‘work shy’ and ‘limited Photo Shop skills’ to any potential employer. Here goes.

    Previous edition

    *probably not your LinkedIn

    Alien – bonus corridor related link
    Billions of stupid avatar barnacles
    Chemosphere
    About to blow this thing and go home
    Me and Kirky with NZ’s (other) World Cup
    Teen idol
    Ready for lift off
    Remember caring about screensavers?
    “Why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam? I swear to God, one of these days, I just kick this piece of shit out the window.”
    These days are on
    Turn to the right
    All work no play makes Richard a dull boy
    Never change the default desktop
    Ringo is a tremendously under-rated drummer

  • Cheating on Flickr

    Once, Flickr was THE photo site, with one of great early online communities, formed around a shared love of photography.

    All the proper photographers I know are on Flickr. Me, I’ve got 1450 images and videos there. I get a free Pro account though my *cough* marvellous ISP – with this, I can upload all the photos I like at full resolution – making it my online backup for photos I want to keep safe forever more.

    But – I’ve been messing with something I shouldn’t have been messing with. Instagram photos ran through my Twitter stream, with a 70s-hued-glow array of cats, sunsets and food (ref: @textinstagram). Without having actually used it, I’d always scorned Instagram’s hipster filters and iOS-only elitism. Bah. Humbug, etc.

    Still, when the Android app was released, I signed up (ahem) out of curiosity. And saw what all the fuss was about – the mobile app is marvellous. A never ending stream of creativity from people you know, with basic but easy to use social features is a wonderful thing to have at your fingertips.

    Photography-wise, I don’t like the filters – they seem a bit knowing, self-conscious or just plain hipster-ish to me. The ‘square frame’ limitation is a pain and explains why so many Instagram photos are close ups of whatever’s to hand. I’m getting my head around the fact Instagram is MOBILE ONLY – the web presence is spartan like an Australian’s capacity to understand jandal-situation-appropriateness, but everyone seems pretty comfortable with it.

    Where I’m at now is this:

    • Flickr is my home for photos (and videos) of the kids, photos taken on my ‘proper’ cameras and photos I generally want to keep and back up online in one place. That includes non-Instagram pictures taken on my phone, ‘nicer ones’ I guess
    • Instagram is my home for everyday photos, ones I care less about (if you get me), but want to share on the internet. The mobile internet, anyway. It IS fun, for sure

    I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into Flickr, am proud of my little collection and the story it tells about my little family (my kids’ photos are behind a security layer, sorry!). Where Instagram has turned my head is its tremendous mobile app and associated ease of sharing. When Flickr’s own mobile app, which is sadly lacking, catches up, it may be able to compete, if it can get all those hipsters to use the same photo service their Dad does.

    Update – just found this today: How Yahoo killed Flickr

  • Social Media Club Hamilton

    Being a Waikato chap, I was pleased and honoured to be guest speaker at the first Social Media Club Hamilton event.

    The crowd had that friendly / awkward vibe of people who talk all day on the internet meeting each other in real life, maybe even for the first time. That vibe is a wonderful vibe, team – online communities are stronger communities when everyone gets together for a beer and a yarn face to face every one in a while. Wellington does this really well. The SMC Hamilton committee deserve a lot of credit for making the event happen – it was well attended, and the venue really worked for them. It’s off to a great start.

    I did my little spiel on Telecom and social media, looking at the who, where and why of it, the importance of *listening* and what we do when it all turns to custard. Luckily, no-one obviously fell asleep and there were some great questions. I thoroughly enjoyed telling our story, chatting to some new faces, meeting legendary fishermen and having me mum along to hear wot her eldest does over on the dark side (!).

    If you are a Hamilton or Waikato resident, I highly recommend making the effort to get along – like I say, I’m sure future events will be a great success. As in the rugby, Hamilton has it all over Auckland at the moment, SMC wise. Ahem.

    Doing my best Mr Burns impression at SMC Hamilton. Photo credit: Innes Fisher.

  • Who to follow on Twitter

    The NZ top Tweeter lists (one, two, three) probably did exactly what the Herald wanted it to – create a lot of page views. MUCH debate ensued as to whether your own humble tweet collection of chatter with your mates, with the odd artful zinger is as worthy as some breakfast jock’s.

    Only you and your sense of self worth can decide that of course, but I bet I wasn’t the only one dialling up the Herald stories on the bus to see if their undiscovered genius had been validated by the paper with the sharks on it.

    Yes, some of the people on the lists deserved to be on a list, some didn’t, and some people who should have been there weren’t. No shit. And surely trying to put a rank or value on the community, comedy and creativity we Kiwis produce 140 characters at a time every single day misses the point of Twitter itself.

    Anyway. Part of the fun of Twitter is figuring out how it works and who to follow. I can highly recommend the people I like to talk to on Twitter, both the ones that are on the Herald’s lists and the ones that aren’t. Me, I like my Twitter stupid, and in the interests of drawing a veil on the whole debate, while making your Twitter more stupid, here are my favourite comedy Twitter accounts. Your results may vary, etc.

    @Humblebrag – celebs with no filter

    @WOMANATBIGSAVE – Like the ads. I’m convinced I know who does this

    @cat_ebooks and @horse_ebooks (Read about one man’s quest to track @horse_ebooks down) – Wisdom, every day

    @clientsfh – What designers say when you put the phone down

    @willielose – The big fella struggling manfully through a cruel, cruel world

    @big_ben_clock – BONG

    @timeskull – I’ve got no idea what’s happening here, but I love it

    @watershitdown – Biting political insight

    @WeirdHorse – What it says on the tin

    @ruthbourdain – Weird food

    @ShittingtonUK – Just follow

    @fireland – Comedy stylings, etc

  • HTC Sensation review

    I wrote this review for Telecom’s late, lamented co. magazine, after using the handset over the course of a weekend. I subsequently acquired a Sensation to use as my permanent, day to day phone. Reading the review again, it pretty much holds up – I love using it. The camera and video capability are really, really good, and the screen is astonishing – and it hasn’t succumbed to ‘creeping slowdown’ like other Android handsets I’ve used. I *did* install Launcher Pro however, the HTC Sense stuff is to frilly pour moi, and got old, fast. Recommended.

    The first thing I thought when I got my mitts on the Sensation was that this phone is big. Big in every way. Conceivably, you could mount it to your roof and put your neighbour’s Christmas light display to shame. It’s got dual core chipset (which means it goes really fast), an 8 MP camera (which means it’s probably as good as your camera) and shoots full 1080p HD video (so you can show off your cat videos on your flatscreen TV), among other impressive sounding features. Everyone tells us our smartphones these days are small computers that just so happen to have a phone on them – this Sensation feels more like a small tablet to me. That said, making a call on this phone doesn’t feel like you’re talking into your ironing board – it’s extremely thin, light and slips easily into your pocket.

    The thing that’s stuck with me, though, about the Sensation is the screen. My goodness, the screen. It’s bright and sharp, to say the very least, and for the first time I could imagine sitting down and watching an entire film (with proper widescreen) on a phone without feeling like I was in some kind of dubious adult interest theatre for insects. And with all that screen real estate, tapping out a text, tweet or email was easier than any other touchscreen handset I’ve tried.

    The Sensation runs on Gingerbread, the latest and greatest version of Android (version 2.3) – if you’re an Android user, you’ll already be used to how it all works, but you’ll be blown away by how FAST it goes – it’s as responsive as a hungry puppy. It also features HTC Sense, which makes the Sensation even more user friendly with nifty thumbnail screens, people widgets, a WiFI hoptspot and a really neat weather feature you have to see to believe. Google’s apps like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps all run brilliantly, and there’s plenty more to choose from in the Android marketplace. Angry Birds, the incomprehensibly popular catapult game, is GORGEOUS to use on this screen.

    So, what did I actually do with it? Sat about on my couch and played with it, mostly, marvelling at its speed and the screen.  But I am a lazy, lazy man. Who’s going to want one? Early adopters, yes, but anyone interested in a highly spec-ed touchscreen phone that’s easy to use should have a look at the Sensation, it measures up to any phone out there, and beats them in places. I could imagine using one for work. I could imagine it coming in really handy for Googling and looking up directions when you’re out and about at the weekend. I can also imagine loading it up with Dora and throwing into the backseat for a happy family on a long car journey.

    Luckily for us, the Sensation is one of two HTC handsets exclusively available on XT that come out in early July. The other one is the Wildfire S, a slightly smaller, slightly lower-spec-ed handset, which may interest those who balk at the Sensation’s size. It goes without saying that the Sensation goes FAST on XT – this is mobile internet at its finest, and before you know it, you’ll be using the fan on your desktop PC to dry laundry. Probably.

     

  • Getting sociable and sensibile in the Bay

    MediaSense is a new social media conference put on by Hal Josephson, a Hawke’s Bay entrepreneur, impresario and top bloke.

    For me, this was a fantastic chance to meet folk I don’t normally meet, with people from all around the country attending. The Bay was well represented and I was most impressed with the locals’ friendliness and enthusiasm. These guys have secured interesting and challenging jobs or taken the plunge and started their own businesses in an area notorious for a vibrant food and drink scene. It had me scratching my chin several times about life outside Auckland. Hmmm. Needless to say, we were well looked after eating and drinking-wise, enjoying the hospitality of the Craggy Range and Black Barn vineyards, who hosted the event itself.

    I was there as the corporate perspective in the local case studies section, along with  Tim and Matt from Uprise, Jayson Bryant, Tom from Catalyst 90 and Kayla from Mini Monos.

    My case study was crisis communication. I told our earthquake story, which has some solid examples of the power of using social networks, and is a neat way to outline our approach in general. I think I got points for being honest(!), and I was pleased to get some  thoughtful anecdotal and online feedback.

    screen-shot-2011-04-16-at-85048-am

    I throughly enjoyed the afternoon panel hosted by Nat Torkington and featuring Xero’s Rod Dury, Matthew Miller from Mogul websites and Paul Brislen from TUANZ – local examples almost always give me more takeaways than any other section of an event like this. I was hugely impressed with Matt from Mogul’s common sense approach to social – it’s easy to overthink this stuff. Like Telecom, Xero is a heavy Yammer user, interestingly. I enjoyed Paul’s war stories from his the early days of doing this at Voda – can relate!

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    A nervous glass of water before speaking, while wishing I’d chosen more irreverent footwear like Jayson and Paul. Photo credit: @gnat.

    It was observed that Twitter was roughly 70% of the conversation, but someone did point out you need to look at it in context with all social channels available to achieve your goals, especially the lesser known ones like TradeMe forums, even databases and email! Karen Leland gave her two hot tips for PR in social media as 1. pick up the phone, and 2. go to lunch. I liked that.

    Full credit, as they say, to Hal and Odette for putting on a thoroughly valuable and enjoyable event, with some fantastic hospitality and conversations the night before, during and in the bar afterwards – I hope to be involved in some capacity next year. Recommended.

    PS I need to mention Tweet2Eat – if you’re in the Bay, you MUST follow for all your food and drink recommendation requirements.