Keep Calm And Instagram On: #NoFilter

This week's Instagram fiasco told an interesting story beyond that over user's rights. I woke up on Tuesday to a slew of privacy right screen shots and declarations that Flickr was the new, old, new old.. you get the idea. I downloaded the new Flickr app just to see what all the hype was about and while it was definitely an improvement over the old app, I still wasn't terribly impressed as it forced me to switch between the mobile website and app. But that's not the point.

Everyone had their own, very strong opinion. Some Facebook friends declared how happy they were because they thought Instagram was dumb. Personally, I think they're dumb and were missing the entire point of Instagram in focusing on its filter functionality. HINT... intimate life sharing and relationship building! Many declared they'd be deleting their account in mid January before the new user rights came into effect. I just absorbed the conversation.

As a former art buyer, purchasing stock imagery and hiring photographers, I knew right off the bat that there was no way a photo of me via Instagram would find its way into a banner ad on Facebook. First off, unless Facebook has some sort of secret image recognizing technology or thousands of visually trained photo editors, there is no way an art buyer or photo editor is going to shift through millions of untagged photos to find the right image. For every breathtaking sunset, there are probably at least one hundred boring, blurry, under exposed, or plain visually unappealing photos. And beyond separating the good from the bad, most stock photos are tediously key worded from the more obvious descriptions to the more esoteric. Who would they hire to do that?

Now let's say that they've somehow shifted through the photos and pulled out a handful that they deem sellable. Do you think any photo buyer would risk getting fired or sued just to use an Instagram photo when they have plenty of model released, legally acquired photos from Getty, Shutterstock and iStockPhoto? When I worked for an agency owned by a major holding company, we weren't even allowed to experiment with some of the lesser known stock agencies unless vetted by legal. In fact, every photo used was carefully tracked and assurances were made that the photos had model releases and the stock agency legally owned the photo. While imagery is more important than ever, the stock industry isn't necessarily growing. Rumor has it that 20 year old Corbis, Bill Gates' pet project, is just starting to turn a profit. And while startups like Foap seemed like an exciting idea, I don't know anyone who has actually made a sale of their photo.

So now let's get back to the users. What I found truly interesting about the situation was that as social network users we're becoming increasingly freaked out over the usage of our data. Yes, by all means, it seems oddly more terrifying to have a company profit over our "art" than the cumulative use of our data. But people come on! We've come to expect so much from startups without giving them anything in return. Instagram has introduced me to new friends. I've gotten job interviews through building relationships on the site. I've learned new recipes. I've discovered new restaurants / foods. I've been inspired. I've been moved. And I've been encourage. All through a service that I got for free.

So what can Instagram do to make a profit? Remember when the startup moto used to be, give people something for free and then once they have users, make them pay? Instagram could get away with changing a yearly fee, or creating a pro vs regular account like Flickr. They could work with advertisers like Tumblr to create branded content. Or they can even crowdsource from their loyal users to find out a better way to sustain the service. Now excuse me while I check my feed.

"Dating" 3.0

Picture this. A new app comes out that's all the rage - at least if you're a nerd in the advertising/ tech community. We'll call this app "Color." Naturally, you try it out because you're curious. It takes you a good five minutes to realize this app can either attract stalkers, be used for dating or potentially expose you to some saucy material while you're sitting at work. A few pictures and comments later you realize you have a few admirers ... digital admirers that is. In fact, they're fighting each other for your attention and the chivalry that you've never seen in person suddenly comes out in their comments. A day later, one digital admirer outwits all the rest and you reveal a tidbit that shows your identity. Five minutes later, you get a Facebook request. As the old saying goes, curiosity usually gets the best of you - so you accept.In the weeks that follow, you have a series of back and forth Facebook messages with the intention of actually meeting in the flesh. Despite working for the same company, you haven't crossed paths. A slow response rate and abbreviated messages indicate that maybe he's not that interested. Okay.. you think. It's not like we've ever even met. You browse through a dating site wondering if you actually have time to date and spot an old message you sent to a dating profile weeks prior. It's him ... weird ... But he never responded. Hmm. A few days later there's no response to your message and you think whatever it was, it's over. But wait. He has just requested you on FourSquare.

Finally.. a moment you were completely unprepared for. It's a crazy day at work and you're running around, stressed and frazzled. And who do you run into - him of course. You can hear in his hello that he is pleasantly surprised. After one more round of Facebook messages, there's radio silence. A few weeks later, he has changed his relationship profile to "In A Relationship" which to my understanding, women have to practically withhold sex to get their boyfriends to do that or be dating for an extended period of time. So you wonder... is this what has become of "dating" in 2011? Dare I say dating 3.0? And you tell yourself that maybe next time, maybe you'll control your curiosity and not fall down the web 3.0 rabbit hole. 

Social Network

This weekend I had the pleasure of seeing two awesome movies, Inception and Salt. The trailers looked just as good. Especially this one - maybe it's the music but it totally gave me the chills. Yeah, it's probably the music which I'm downloading as we speak - Creep (live) by Scala & Kolacny Brother. Enjoy.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHkYEC-UfTo&hl=en_US&fs=1&w=640&h=385]

Tête-à-Tête Tuesdays with Molly

Margaux Zion is a Social Media Consultant, specializing in interactive customer experience. She works with retailers in the Fashion, Cosmetics, and Home Products industries to make shopping as easy and FUN for people who don’t love shopping as much as she does.

When not glued to her Tweetdeck feed or Tumblr dashboard, she works as a makeup artist, painting some of fashion’s freshest faces. Follow her on Twitter @margauxz or catch the occasional blog update at margauxzion.tumblr.com for a little insight into the world of all things Margaux!

To introduce you to my readers - we met last year at my birthday party via a mutual friend but then didn't have a quality introduction until a few months ago. And it was all uphill from there.

Can you give me a brief introduction of what you do for MAC?

I am on the Online Product Team- a position that is synonymous with “mystical psychic wizard.” I use social media to assist customers with cosmetic product selection that they cannot touch or see in a physical store. I cannot see them, and they cannot see me, [hence] the mystical psychic wizardry. I worked as a freelance makeup artist and in a MAC retail store for years previous to this promotion- the product knowledge I’ve amassed in combination with my loquacious personality and savvy for social media was logical next step.

This is only what I do for MAC, though not at all what I do in my secret alter ego as a Social Media Consultant.

Talk to me about your background. You were a costumer for a Soap Opera. How in the world did that happen?

That was my wildcard career. When I was in college for Textile Science before I worked for MAC, I volunteered my services as a dresser at New York Fashion Week. My uncle, who is a Broadway Producer, caught wind, and decided I needed to be in the Theatrical Wardrobe Union. He literally walked me directly into the President’s office where I registered on the spot. The President, a well-poised, elegant woman, phoned the supervisor at the now defunct Guiding Light soap opera, and in her best showbiz voice:

“Heeeeeeey! I have a GREAT new girl here, MARGAUX! She is so ENTHUSIASTIC, and has a GREAT SMILE; you’ll just LOVE her! She just registered; she’d be GREAT for the show! I can’t talk now, but let’s do lunch! Bye babe!”

I went to work on the show the very next week, and the rest is history. This is where I decided I needed to embrace Social Media for my livelihood. I used to sit in hair and makeup in between shooting and sign the actors up on Twitter and made Facebook groups for our adventures making the television show. Then soap fans started to follow ME, and I knew I had something.

The show was very dear to me. We were cancelled last year, (ON APRIL FOOL’S DAY!) and I miss it very much. It was a privilege to work with such an outstanding group of people.

Switching gears here -what are your three favorite MAC products at the moment?

Three products I wear no matter WHAT the look, are Mineralize Skinfinish Natural, (Buffed with the #182 brush) Opulash Mascara, and Fast Response Eye Cream. I have over 1,500 individual MAC Cosmetics products in my “stock" so choosing color would be a very hard decision to make.

Over the last few weeks, we've attended a TON of techie networking events and I've noticed that you're the social media, networking, friend-making queen. When did you enter the Twittersphere? What are some tips for quality networking? And how do you keep track of all your contacts?

I just really like meeting new people. I’m a really talkative person and this reflects both in the real world, and online. Twitter is actually a very evolved form of social media for me- I used to regularly post and moderate on Ezboard communities and LiveJournals as early as 1999, and still keep in touch with friends I made then, today.

Quality networking doesn’t mean you have to reach the widest audience by talking to a million people. It means that you have to meet the right audience by talking to people who want to know more about what you already know a lot about. It's also helpful to be somewhat interesting, friendly, and approachable. This attracts people’s interest in your character, and lets them know that you’d be a super awesome/knowledgeable/hardworking member of the team. I naturally smile a lot both online and off- it's a lot like dating.

As for keeping track- I have Oompa Loompas. That was a joke. I have FIT interns. Also a joke. (I’D LOVE TO HAVE ONE, THOUGH!!!) I have a special cheat sheet and a little black book, nothing too fancy. I also have a bookmarks folder titled: “REALLY AWESOME WEBSITES” for all the new utilities I liked at NYTech Meetup, etc.

Interns... not a bad idea. Inquiring minds want to know - i.e. ME. While at the last Tech Meetup, I noticed that you often managed to add someone via Twitter, Tweet, and reference a presenters comments within the Tweet before they were finished talking. What Twitter program do you use? And how do you do this?

Haha! I did do that, didn’t I? As I said before, I am a very chatty person- tweeting instead of talking keeps me from interrupting people who are supposed to be talking!

I like Tweetdeck for personal use- it's a very easy dashboard to control my two Twitter accounts, Facebook profile, two Facebook Pages, and Foursquare account. (C’mon Tweetdeck! Integrate Tumblr and Wordpress next!) I also monitor updates with MAC related hashtags; MAC fans are pretty much really nice people, with a lot of artistic insight and brand enthusiasm. Social Media is exactly how to find conversations about things you really like and want to discuss with others.

For my professional clients, I am currently discovering Postling, a web-based social media management tool for brand management. It allows me to keep track of all my blog posts, tweets, status updates, comments, and all return correspondence. I met the Co-Founders through NY Tech Meetup and they are really smart guys with a great product.

You interact with people from all over the country. How do you think the soccer mom from the middle of Wisconsin will benefit from the technological revolution?

I think she has it better than us New Yorkers. Media consumes our space like none other. She can sit in her nice quiet SUV, waiting for the kids to come out of practice, and choose what types of media she wishes to take. She may use her shiny new tablet device to coordinate recipes and prepare dinner later in the evening, read her Cosmo mag in a digital reader, or order groceries from her local market to be assembled for pickup or delivery…. The possibilities are endless! I wouldn’t be surprised if a new wave of tech startups are designed and marketed as productivity apps by and for busy moms!

Hmm. I think you're on to something. Any developers out there DM me @missmolls. Tell me more about using technology and social media in retail. How do you think our retail experience will evolve over the next few years?

I think that phase one is over now and that most companies integrated e-commerce in the late 90’s. Many e-tailers now provide Live Chat services- a great service for shoppers who cannot experience products using their 5 senses and must rely on an expert.

With the explosion of social media, the virtual shopping experience is going to be huge; filled with rich content, more useful, personalized services. Even advertising will be smarter and less annoying because it will be properly targeted and more interactive in nature. I don’t want to reveal too much, because building the e-commerce experience is one of my current projects. My specialty is landscaping the customer experience for virtual retailers. There is so much work to be done, but most retailers understand that this dynamic shopping experience is essential to keeping loyal customers.

As far as physical stores and retail events are concerned, Diesel had an amazing promotion a few weeks ago, inviting traffic into the store with a free t-shirt for the first X number of foursquare checkins. Heavy store traffic is what makes a store seem cooler so this was a brilliant idea. Also, aside from the brands that users may follow on Twitter or Foursquare for great tips and shopping guides, there are great networking apps like FoodSpotting and Fareshare. There are even apps for retailers to use geo-tagging apps to drive customers into stores.

And finally, dream big. What's your next upcoming project?

Ah! I can’t talk about it! I’m always working on my dreams, I’ll be sure to let you know when they come true.

How To Make Your Personal Brand Visible With Social Media

Re-Blogged from Jeff Bullas's Blog

PDRTJS_settings_649365_post_5608 = { "id" : "649365", "unique_id" : "wp-post-5608", "title" : "How+To+Make+Your+Personal+Brand+Visible+With+Social+Media", "item_id" : "_post_5608", "permalink" : "http%3A%2F%2Fjeffbullas.com%2F2010%2F06%2F09%2Fhow-to-make-your-personal-brand-visible-with-social-media%2F" }Personal branding is a relatively new concept and is thought to have emerged in 1997 after a ground breaking article was published on the Fast Company website by Tom Peters.
We are in the age of the ‘knowledge worker‘ and the days of being an anonymous cog in the wheel of a faceless corporation are fast disappearing. The opportunity to stand out as a personal brand without having to know a politician, grey and grizzled powerbrokers or gnarly gatekeepers is now a reality and it is possible to accelerate the time it takes to make it happen.
Firstly what are the key elements and the questions that we need to consider to become a visible and effective personal brand.
1. What makes you different?
What is it that makes my product or service does, that makes it different? The challenge is to state that in 15 words or less and it needs to light up the eyes of a prospective client.
Here some questions to ask and honestly answer to help you with this task.

• What makes you distinctive from your competitors?
• What have you done lately.. this week.. last month to stand out?
• What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy personal trait?
• Just like a corporate brand what features do I offer that yields an identifiable and distinguished benefit for my client or customer. An example is how some companies pride themselves on offering lavish personal service, complete your projects on budget
• What do I do that adds remarkable measured distinguished distinctive value?
• What do I do that that I am most proud of or I unabashedly brag about or shamelessly take credit for?

Finally you need to ask a rather brash question ‘What do I want to be famous for? This questions are to get you focussed on what you as a personal brand are about…once you have that clear then you take the nest step.
2. How Do you Market ‘You’ the Brand
Ten or Twenty years ago it was a much more difficult proposition and it could have involved a range of offline networking opportunities such as.

• Signing up for an extra project inside your organisation to to showcase your skills or develop new ones that grew your personal brand.
• Freelancing to a new group of  people that could spread the word about how remarkable you are.
• Teach class at a local community
• Contribute to a column in your local newspaper
• Write an article for the company newsletter
• Make yourself available for a panel discussion in your industry
• Put yourself forward for a presentation in your area of expertise whether that be within your company or an external association

You need to remember that with this personal visbility campaign is that it ‘all’ matters. Everything you do communicates the value and character of your brand. This about not just about substance but style.
In 2010 you have at your fingertips the tools and social media platforms to leverage yourself into high personal brand visbility at digital nanosecond speed and here are some of the social networking channels that are most important to help you achieve that. You don’t need to be on all of these but choose the ones you ae most comfortable with but the more you are on the easier it is to get found.
What is important to remember is that it is now a digital web world so if you are not on the web you are fast becoming invisible. So here are the core channels for promoting brand ‘You’.
1. Blog or Website with a domain name that is either your own name or a ‘Brandable’  version of it
This is your personal  homebase that becomes your personal brands portal. It could be a website or a blog but my personal preference is for a blog as it seems more personal and authentic as it allows interaction with your readers and visitors to the site that a website doesn’t provide. If you are not comfortable with your personal name being so visible.. and some people are not comfortable with that, another option is to get a vanity URL that encapsulates  what you are about. eg Personalbrandingblog.com (Dan Schwabel)
2. LinkedIn
This is essential but here are a few elements that are crucial

• Make your profile public
• Ensure that youset up your other online web channels on your profile such as your blog, Facebook and your company’s site ( you are allowed three on LinkedIn)
• Set up your Twitter account feeding into the account page as well as your blog feed. These are all visible and easily set up on your LinkedIn homepage profile

From there you can start participating on LinkedIn in Groups and the Question & Answer features. That will get you started. You need to keep in mind the importance of this channel as the demographic includes an average  salary of LinkedIn member is $130,000 plus and currently there are 60 million members globally.
3. Facebook
This social media platform cannot be ignored with nearly half a billion members and has become the ‘elephant in the room’ or the ’800 pound gorilla’ of social media. There are  privacy challenges but it can be used to engage with people and increase your visibility and make you real. One way to look at Facebook is that it is more like a barbeque where you turn up in Jeans and a t-shirt, whereas  LinkedIn is the company cocktail party
4. YouTube
As the newer generation are much more video centric and would rather watch a 5 minute online video than read a page of text this a social media channel that I would recommend you start becoming familiar with. It is great site for uploading your videos that have recorded your speaking events or your panel sessions. If people are looking for speakers and you have an easily found and distributed recording of your presentations then you are much more likely to be hired for a gig.
The other benefit of YouTube is that it much easier to rank high and be found online in YouTube with a video search than Google. You also need to keep in mind that it is the second largest serach engine after Google.
5. Twitter
Register your name ‘NOW’ .. if it is still available!! Twitter is not about ‘I am having a coffee with Bill’ but it is one of the most effective platforms the world has ever to distribute content (blogs, videos, presentations, music and images) and promote a brand whether that be corporate or personal.
These are just the basics on the channels and how you should be using them for your personal brand, optimising your social media platforms to get your personal brand highly visible requires constant fine tuning and tweaking.
What have you done to promote “Your” brand?

What To Do Now That Twitter Is Down

Hysterical article on TechCrunch on what to do now that Twitter is down. Suggestions range from blogging that Twitter is down to discussing the outage on Facebook. Personally, I'm doing deep breathing exercises and desperately trying to focus on my work at hand. Interesting to see how habits change from a situtation like this. Facebook has been acting funky lately too. Is it because everyone is using Facebook now that Twitter is down?

This is messed up. Latest news via TechCrunch is that it's a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. i.e. someone hacked their system and is messing with it. Jeeze.. think about the little people hackers! What would we be without our Tweets.

Ponderings

I don't mean to be all complainy complainy but I've sort of, kind of been in a bad place lately. I'm fairly sure 90% is the fact that I'm stressed about moving. Granted this was my decision and who likes moving. But yeah. Moving and trying to find reasonably priced two bedrooms in Manhattan/ Brooklyn is not an easy task. I'm excited that I've at least found someone to look with who is super sweet and I've known for a while. On top of that, I've been very lazy with my exercise routine which I think only exacerbates any negative energy that I may have but once you fall out of the habit, it's easy to skip without feeling guilty.

Anyway, after coming home from a nice dinner with a friend (I actually skipped my spinning class!), I got momentarily bored and felt the sub conscious/ semi-conscious need to torture myself. So I looked up this kid on Facebook who I went on 4 dates with last winter but ended up being a douche bag. To my delight (okay delight is a strong word), I noticed a thread on his wall of him with a black eye. I couldn't figure out how he got it (there's only so much "research" I can do) but I will say it made me feel a little better. Given how he ended things and his complete douche bag choice of words, I have a feeling he vastly offended someone to the point where they felt a strong need to be violent against him. Hmmm. I could understand that.

In other news, I have recently become obsessed with Iron & Wine despite having them on my iTunes for 5 years. Both songs I really like are from The Shepherd's Dog - House By The Sea and Boy with a Coin. Aight, I'm going to try and get back into my happy place and focus on what's going right in my life.

Mothers - oy vey

My mother should be banned from Facebook. She goes onto my father's account and now I know for certain that she stalks people through it. I logged onto Facebook and saw to my horror that my dad's latest update had the name of someone I grew up with. Weird. I don't even think I've looked this person up on Facebook. I instantly came to the correct conclusion- that she put in the name of someone to look up but in the wrong field. So after going through a few potential password combinations, I thankfully managed to log on to his account and fix her mistake- hopefully before anyone noticed. At least my sister and I got a good laugh.