I am 2 years to Ryan Holiday's book"Trust Me, I am working". Never much of a PR person, I learned quickly out of his nonfictional account of being a"media manipulator" that advertising can be everything once you have assembled a fantastic item. Since I must return the publication by 12/20 to the San Diego Public Library, I figured this is a great time to write my notes down as a blog article.
Quotes in"Trust Me, I'm Lying"
"We play with their own rules long enough and it becomes our match" --
Orson Scott Card
"Social networking is not a set of tools to permit individuals to communicate with humans. It is a set of embedding mechanisms to allow technology to use humans to communicate with one another, in an orgy of self-organizing... The Matrix had it wrong. You are not the batter power in a global, human-enslaving AI, you're somewhat more precious. You Are a Part of the switching circuitry"
-Venkatesh Rao (Entrepreneur in residence at Xerox)
"it is a prime example of the feminist blogosphere's tendency to tap into the market force of what I have come to think of as"outrage world" -- the frequently occurring firestorms stirred up on mainstream, for-profit, woman-targeted blogs like Jezebel as well, to a lesser level, Slate's very own XX Factor and Salon's Broadsheet. They are triggered by writers who are pushing readers to feel what the writers assert is righteously indignant rage but which is really only petty jealousy, cleverly promoted as feminism. These firestorms are fantastic for page-view-pimping bloggy enterprise."
"Businesses should expect a full scale, organized attack from critics. One that will concurrently overrun blog remarks, Facebook fan pages, along with an onslaught of sites, resulting in mainstream media appeal. Begin by creating a social networking disasters plan and developing internal fire drills to expect what could happen."
-Jeremiah Owyang
"Our selves are the home where we live; they are our news, our personalities, our experience, our forms of art, our very experience."
-Daniel Boorstin
Practice Advice from the Book
Control your Wikipedia page (use any press mention from blogs or traditional media)
Study the best stories and you will see a pattern: the top stories all polarize poeple. If you make it endanger people's 3 Bs -- behaviour, belief, or possessions -- you get a massive virus-like dispersion
Compose stuff bloggers could post immediately without any work. Feed them their very own lies"help them trick their readers"
Silence on sites is the worst.
Faking escapes with email editor (from different sources) can operate if you have the Ideal contacts
Prominent jak zagadać do obcej dziewczyny w szkole headlines that cried excitement concerning utlimately unimportant news
Lavish use of images (often of little significance )
Color comics and a big, thick Sunday supplement
Ostentatious support of this underdog causes
Utilization of anonymous sources
Prominent policy of high society and events
Concepts from the publication
Ongoing Narrative /Iterative Reporting -harm is already done, there is no anything. Iterative reporting is bullshit, people treat information headlines as"cultural truth", the damage is already done, even it's a baseless accusation.
Faking leaks with email editor (from various sources)
The Psychology of Error -- Errors and errors get rewarded, causes outrage = pageviews = cash
For instance, each image is not the same load display = more pageviews (short term vs. long term metrics). Usability vs. profitability -- publishers are concentrated liberally on pageviews, but in the long term, consumer trust will be significant. Meanwhile, irresponsible bloggers are making countless sensationalizing stories that are untrue.
Snark -- deadly weapon (humour in its dark form. Example = "Your Daily Douchebag: John Mayer Edition". Another online illustration: Hot Chicks with Douchebags
All that happens -> All that's known by media --> All that is newsworthy ->All that is published as information -> All that spreads. This is the systematic limiting of this data seen by the public
My Action List / Lessons from the Book
Headlines matter
Blogs hold a Good Deal of power
The ideal contacts in the right sites in a certain sector hold tons of influence. Example: Apple statements
Building a brand new website with high viral grip (but with the ideal user metrics in your mind ) may take off quickly. Sites like Watch Mojo, Ebaumsworld, Break.com, ride the tide of copying content from others, organized in a digestible way that consumers can quickly disperse. Millions of dollars are made this way while sources are not credited. There has to be a way to do both.
There's a need for a reputable news source, or a business specific source that does not pander to"mass hysteria". Case in point: refinery29.com