Scriffles: Influences v influencers. You know most people don't know and don't care.

When family members ask how I can blog about my thoughts for anyone to read, I just say it's
just like writing a newspaper column. It's called being a writer. 
I don't like this word: influencer. It's like the difference between a editorial and advertising - tricky ;)
It's all in the sway.

Do ordinary folk really aspire to be influencers? If they did they'd write, blog, publish, twitter, etc...etc...etc...
Most folk don't even comment on blogs.
And despite the fact that the interactive calendar (Facebook) now has a population the size of the USA, I know heaps of people who are on Facebook who rarely - if ever use the account.
Most people I know think Twitter is a waste of time - media professionals included.
One friend says Twitter's just another place where people who all think alike waste time admiring themselves and each other - she was a first-adopted who opted out.
Who set up this title of "influencer"? Influencing who? Other influencers?

 Ever thought about broccoli from an ant's perspective?

That little 1950s movement they call advertising spun off into marketing which created PR which resulted in spin doctoring and now ...
in the age of social media aren't individuals supposed to have a voice?
Is Influencer another name for cat herder? 

TWITTER: What are you doing?
INFLUENCER: Herdin' me some twittering social media cats Ma!

It's the space race all over again - cyberspace race to the top of the social media py ramid...
The message is the medium. Right? Well, no. Is it all about the Influencers?
Dare I ask it, but what about the "soul" of social media?... or is it  just a utility?
All's this "socialnomics" media debate is about is who owns the utility and who gets to charge for its use.
So then the next big question is how do you get people to pay for it?
What's the content? Answer: Jargon. Marketing. Bit of this. Bit of that.

Even the Skin Horse could do better. 
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but
REALLY loves you, then you become real." - Margery Williams was a writer. She wrote a children's book called The Velveteen Rabbit in 1922.
Is she an "influencer"?

Writers do what most people wouldn't do in a pink fit. It seems that what social media really demands is folk, ordinary folk to speak their minds, in writing, in visual art, in music ... 
They're moving, they're already doing because deep down everyone thinks of themselves as an artist in one way or another. They just don't say it out loud.
Not even his family knew Scott Newnham could sing before he landed a spot in Australian Idol: 
Australian Idol also has Toby Moulton who's never sung in public before: http://www.australianidol.com.au/toby-moulton-fan-club.htm

Why are people transfixed when they read a tweet from Iran or watch a video of a woman being gunned down in the street?
Because it's not only a compelling story - it's REAL!
We've lost the art of conversation. Don't argue! ;)
Social media is awakening that art. It's on the other side of the mirror. 

"It (art) is like that s mall mirror in fairy tales - you glance in it and glimpse the inaccessible where no horse or magic carpet can take you.
"And the soul cries out for it..."Alexander Solzhenitsyn s aid. 

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I think most people live their lives without speaking their truth - EVER to anyone.
This intrigue is what makes Mad Men so interesting - for me anyway.
They die without really saying what they feel or think because they are scared that they are stupid
or wrong or that God (or Golem) will strike them down. 
Even worse, that they will be ignored, that that will only confirm their fear that no one really cares what they think.

And I kind of know what that's about - people read this blog but they don't comment.
Do they agree? Do they disagree? They can't be afraid of hurting my feelings ;?
It is a social network and the same rules apply online: the cool kids hang with the cool kids. 
Anyway. When I started court reporting I met an old police prosecutor who was on the brink of retirement.
He told me, when I'd asked him to explain people's motivations in some case:
"T'aint nothing queerer than folk".  It's what his Old Gran told him.
So the rules of pure logic dictate this line of reasoning: If you are "folk" and all folk are "queer" then "YOU are queer".

What's even more queer is the way everyone pretends they're not - maintain the silence.

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Scriffles: Social media active users and market penetration by country... this is really interesting.

So Australia (80.6%) has a greater internet penetration than Japan (73.8 %) Korea (76 %) US (74%) France (65.7%) Germany (67 %).
Norway (86 %) leads the world in market penetration.
BUT in terms of active users - those who blog, upload video, photos, music, social network _ Australia is behind these guys (probably because our broadband is so bad)
There are 625m approx active users in the world: leading the charge is USA, Canada, Brazil, France and Germany.

This is according to a survey of 22,729 users in 38 countries.
In the past year, the growing areas of activity are: watching video online; listening online; visiting friend's social network page; creating a social network page; commenting on blogs and then uploading photos and video.

Discover the H-code with Uma Thurman's dad. Scriff File 241

Got a letter in the post this week which wasn't a household bill.
The 5th Annual Conference on Happiness and Its Causes is on in Sydney in May.
And Edward de Bono, Dr Robert Thurman (that's Uma's dad), Naomi Wolf (Author of The Beauty Myth), Hugh Mackay - even Natasha Stott Despoja (the former leader of the Democrats) are speaking about how are we to live.
It's a great question. I was thinking about this as I flew over my beautiful city at night.
Flying over Brisbane always makes me happy and sad - because you see all the sprawling chaos.

At night, all you see are roads and buildings and electric lights.
All the electricity being burned on a Saturday night just for security purposes in empty warehouses.
Lovely to gaze down upon. All taken for granted. But can we afford it?

The financial woes pressing down on world economies are tied up with scarcity - the scarcity of bare necessities.
If people aren't working - there's less taxes, less money for health and infrastructure.

Everybody's tied up with details on the ground too busy to pull back and see the big picture.
Maybe this conference would be a great opportunity to do just that.


Happiness seems to be a recurring theme for me at the moment.
Coca-Cola is also seeking to associate itself with Happiness.
I went through the motions of creating a digital campaign which I had intended to enter in the Content 360 competition that MIPTV.


MIPTV is the famous Cannes (as in South of France) annual gathering of the world's TV industry for a huge trade show - if you want to buy or sell TV to the world this is where you come.
But in recent years they've been interested in digital content and this year Coca-Cola and the ad agency Ogilvy lay down the challenge to create an idea for branded content that engages teenagers: a TV show, a web movie series, a mobile application.
I came up with: Discover the H-code.
The code for Happiness.

But I didn't submit it because it really disturbed me.
It was like I was Anakin Skywalker flirting with the dark side.
And in the end I abandoned the project - I could not turn.

This whole concept of branded entertainment is something I've been interested in for a while in story design.
At the Media 2010 conference last Friday I listened to the aspirations of top companies in this regard:  
Richard Titus, CEO of Britain's Associated Northcliffe Digital, is a very clever and creative man.
He's been at the forefront of digital media since the beginning.
He has his people now creating a single user profile for their customers across the group which includes The Daily Mail newspaper, jobsite and many other data and content businesses.

If you look for a job on their jobsite website they can cross reference the data they have when you start looking for real estate on their other website and they build a whole profile on you.
It's not new - everyone's doing it.
And they do want to install a prompt to pop up and allow you to edit the profile on you - if you wish.

The reason they want to know all about you is so they can "create an experience to delight the customer" in order to sell you stuff.
In other words it's all ADVERTISING - making a world that fits you like a glove, allaying all your fears so that you feel comfortable with buying stuff - their stuff.
Much more powerful advertising than we've ever seen before.

Now, if people are fully aware of what's going on and they can factor that into their thinking (ie they are educated and the process is transparent) then that seems fine.
But if we're marketing to teenagers who just go along for the ride (like the slug humans in Wall-E who spend their lives glued to screens and consuming) that's not fine.
It's not so much about government regulation as it is about education and awareness.
It's like technology is moving so much faster than governments, education and a lot of parents - who are probably even more vulnerable than their digitally literate children.
Don't take my word for it go to talk to an informed pediatrician who deals with kids whose lives have been jumbled by media consumption:
i-Kids: Children & the Media

Happiness is tied up with social and digital media these days: the mobile phone, the internet, Facebook.
We need to look at ALL the angles.
Just like big business is doing.

What do you think?

Rendering Authenticity in the Experience Economy. Joseph Pine TED Talk. Scriff File 244

Joseph Pine identifies a paradox in the act of giving a customer an "authentic" experience : All business is about providing a man-made product in order to make money.
"You Americans!"
So how can you be authentic in business?
Joseph Pine says think Shakespeare: "And this above all to thine own self be true and it doth follow as night the day that thou canst not then be false to any man." (at 7 minutes into video).
Ask yourself: Are you a Real fake or a Real real or a Fake fake or a Fake Real?
Is a Fake fake the same as a Real real?

Lisa's snide remark: "And they question the value of ART!"

Beyond Experience. Joseph Pine on partnership between Business & the Arts. Scriff File 246.

Joseph Pine released a report last year called Beyond Experience: it continues on the same theme of creating Authenticity for the Experience Economy.

 See Scriff File 244

I haven't yet read the report but you can download it here: http://www.artsandbusiness.org.uk/Central/Research/Branding-consumption/Beyon...

<p>Beyond experience: culture, consumer & brand - panel discussion from Arts & Business on Vimeo.</p>

As an Arts Reporter years ago, I interviewed an opera singer, theatre practitioners and visual artists who identified with this idea that business could learn from the arts and likewise the arts could learn from business. That was 10 years ago, it's not a new idea.

What's new is that Joseph Pine thinks it's key to unlocking the main ingredient customers value in a product or service : Authenticity.

"Are you a Fake fake, a Fake real, a Real fake or a Real real? - I think a lot of artists think they must not be tainted by business.

Businesses like advertising and media are in the culture business whether we like it, are conscious of it or not.

My niece *8* walks around talking fast talk interspersed with  "boom-chika!" on the end of a hip thrust and a huge grin - she's created her experience from a controversial TV ad for a men's deodorant. Yes, it drives women wild.  

I don't think she's even seen the ad, she's not allowed to watch commercial TV, her friend told her about it.

Business is not about enlightenment - Art is about enlightenment. How do you overcome this? - business has to care about more than the mighty dollar! That's authenticity.

I listened to the audio book: Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. It's great in-depth journalism. They have in one book summed up the digital revolution as they've experienced it and given people an insight into how it works. Why is it that mainstream journalism has not been able to do this? Is it conflicted? Is it just ignorant? Smith and Brogan are big on authenticity.

Start hobbling, start walking, sprint if you can because you're going to need a head start on this voracious new generation coming up the track - unless your market is going to be skewed towards the authenticity of the 20th century for the older generations.

I reckon the integration of humanity and technology is just that far away and the arts is the only way to hold on to humanity.

Like Joseph Pine says, authenticity is about knowing yourself, about being connected, being true to yourself and to others.

The arts is the INTERFACE connecting us - images, video, music, film, stories ... yes, even design.

It's always connected us from the first lullaby and the first cave painting to Avatar.

But you have to learn to use an interface - don't you?