Category: new media

new media, social media trends

Where the millenials are

Josyan McGregor

Just read this post on Mashable entitled: 3 Things Brands Must Do to Reach Millennials Online

Here are the bullet points:

  • Provide Exceptional Social Media Customer Service
  • Do Good, Even When It Challenges Your Interests
  • Be a Smiling Omnipresence

I totally agree with the post but might add that organizations must also be willing to BE where the millennials are hanging out and the best way is through location-based applications, such as Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, and Google Latitude.

The aim would be to subtly become part of a person’s daily life and routine by taking advantage of local search.  It’s low-key and unobtrusive and, I believe, one of the best ways to never be far away from the unconscious consumer.

mommyness, my thoughts, new media, stuff from my life

Are you turning your loved-ones into Social Media haters?

Josyan McGregor

I have a 13 year old boy and I realized something enormous this past Saturday. I’m speaking of a game changing event.

Evan and I planned to spend Saturday in the city (about a 25 minute bus ride from where we live). We would walk and talk and have lunch somewhere.  It was to be a free-form afternoon.

As we were getting ready I naturally packed up my iPhone.  Evan immediately asked me “you’re not going to check in on Twitter and Foursquare every place we go with that all day are you?”

Stunned, I answered no but I suddenly realized that in some part, Evan has indeed been an innocent by-stander when it comes to my Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare ways.  I am not, by any means, a social media addict.  I’ll even prove it.  I am able to leave the house without my iPhone and I sometimes DON’T check in on Foursquare everywhere I go. You should be able to do the same by the way.

Anyways, all this got me thinking.  Here I am; thinking that I am a cool Mom because I am an early adopter when it comes to geeky things like social media and technology.  That should make me awesome right?  It seems not.

Social media participants know, it literally takes a few seconds to check in somewhere but all this paused-attention has a direct effect on the people around us. I think we are unknowingly sending them a message.

What is that message?

Well in my case, I am telling Evan; and very clearly I might add, that every person I follow on Twitter, Foursquare, or Facebook is more important at that moment and that we must pause our conversation, our walk and our moment while I announce to my audience that I am doing, seeing, watching something extraordinary, funny, odd or stupid. Aren’t those things supposed to reserved for our offline lives? Or at least some of it should. Don’t you think?

Make no mistake: this is also an issue for our non-participating Social Media loved-ones.

Let’s say you are out with your non-participating social media life partner and you both have planned to walk, converse and share quality time with each other.  Now, how much of that is actual quality time if and you are clutching your iPhone, Blackberry or Droid with the grip of a young Chuck Norris and are constantly announcing to a bunch of strangers precisely where you are and exactly what you are doing at every possible moment.

In actual fact, if you really think about it, you ARE NOT doing what you say you are doing with your child or life partner because you are are way too busy signing in, tweeting and checking @ statuses every moment you can. And of course, hoping someone will RT your message as you announce every clever word, phrase, action or reaction your child or life partner experiences during what was supposed to be “quality time” together.

I’ve asked Evan a few times if he wanted a Twitter account and his answer has always been “Nah, it’s not for me”.  Of course it’s not. Why would he want to use the one thing that takes my attention away from him.

I think I may be unknowingly creating a social media hater.

How do I (we) change this?  Well, like with every problem knowing you have a problem is a good start.

A case for moderation

I think we all need to monitor ourselves and gauge our Social Media usage to the more appropriate moments in life.

Don’t Use Case – You are the only person at the family reunion with a smart phone and the inclination to Tweet or self-geo locate.  Answer: Your best bet is to send an offline-for-awhile Tweet and put the mobile away and enjoy your family.  They love you and want *and deserve* your complete attention. (update) Okay, maybe you can take pics with your mobile but wait until you get home to upload them to Flickr.

Ideal Usage Case – It’s Twestival and the place is filled with like-minded tech-savvy peeps and you want to share your minute by minute experiences as well as share your pics and want to pick up lots of info for your next blog post.

Share your story about the non-participating Social Media people in your life.  Do they understand what you do? Are they frustrated? Has it affected their view of Social Media?

new media, tech

Entrepreneurial Inspiration by Jason C

Josyan McGregor

I like Jason Calacanis and think he is a genius entrepreneur.  This is an honest and spontaneous bio and it’s filled with great tips and advice!  If you have some time please watch it.  It’s totally worth it.

P.S. Thanks Kate for sending me this link!

Entrepreneur and Startup Thoughts from Jason Calacanis: Be A Samurai, Not a Rice Picker

conferences, new media, Portfolio, social media trends, TV

Daisy, a pink logo and NAB

Josyan McGregor

A few weeks ago Daisy Whitney asked me to come up with a logo for her involvement at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Expo.  Daisy  is a partner in the Broadband Theater Sessions. This is a brand new exhibit area for the NAB Show:

The newest exhibit area at the NAB Show focuses on broadband-enabled TVs, online video, mobile broadband networks, platforms, set-top boxes, gaming, IP, streaming, advertising, monetization and the mavericks driving today’s media.

Exciting times for new media indeed!

I’m happy to announce that the logo is up and it looks great (although a little small).

new media, social media trends, tech

The Facebook “Unlike” Syndrome

Josyan McGregor

Just last week Facebook started rolling out its latest redesign and for all it’s worth I like it. I think it’s more intuitive and it’s definitely a better and a smarter layout.

However I seem to be in the minority among my non-geek Facebook friends.

As we all know by now; every time (and I mean every time) Facebook releases a new layout or a feature change, a small but very loud minority whine and complain about how they hate it. Let’s be clear, hate is a huge word and I don’t think it applies here.

Over the last two years, Facebook has become a hyper personal experience for most of its users and I believe these users are very attached to it – perhaps too much. Hence all the negative emotional outpouring and haters when something changes.

Here’s what I think. people are reacting in a negative manner to the displacement of “their” buttons and re-arrangement of “their” layout.

“How dare you change my Facebook – Put it back the way it was – Now!”

I believe that most people have trained themselves to use Facebook in a certain way (their way) and now their “work flow” isn’t like it was a week ago. Cue the hater mode. And the whole thing is suddenly turned to crap. It’s as if they shut down and their brain can’t handle the extra pressure of The Unknown. When the reality is that all they’ve got to do is look around and explore. This should be fun and it just isn’t and that’s really too bad.

At the same time we all should realize that life and goodness knows, the internet, goes through constant change everyday and if it didn’t it wouldn’t follow its true organic nature. I use the words “organic nature” here because the Internet is an living and evolving extension of our selves. I like to think we’ve come a long way from Geocities.

If Facebook didn’t change it would be… MySpace.  Sure there are still many MySpace users (about about 125 million) but it’s no secret users have been leaving the site over the last few years because it just doesn’t change at least it didn’t change enough. Ironic, eh?

Facebook, as I have noticed, is always setting us up for the next development phase. They aren’t dumb. They know that in order not to become the next MySpace, they need to aim ahead (way ahead) and towards their next development plateau.  They, as with all businesses, know they cannot rest on their laurels and remain satisfied with the status quo. They are building and when you build you often reinforce, restructure and rearrange. Facebook equally knows that if they don’t do it – someone else will and better. In fact, that lesson isn’t only reserved for businesses (at least is shouldn’t be), as human beings we should also seek (want to seek) to be better than we are today.

Maybe the bigger question is not why do you hate the new Facebook so much as why do you become a hater when things change and that’s a question I can’t answer.

What are your thoughts on this?

gadgets, new media, tech

Slow and focused wins the game iPad

Josyan McGregor

Just my observation but I believe the iPad will be a long term success story much like the iPod was and remember that changed everything.

People (which include TV, Film and Print industry people) are much too much into immediate gratification. They have to help out in reaching that sweet spot. It’s not up to Apple to hand it over on a silver platter. Apple has simply provided the vehicle to achieve it.

iPad is an advance in technology that we don’t understand yet.  I am confident that this will be revolutionary for the future of the print and rich media industry.

That’s all I have to say 🙂

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