Tom Cooledge

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My thoughts on social media, PR and who, truly, was the very best Thundercat.

21/06/2011 • 9:16 am 0

Cheese

I had a really heavy night on Saturday. I went to three different birthday parties (really uncommon, promise) and toasted at each over lunch, dinner and later that night. I can only imagine how bad I looked by closing time and, luckily, that’s all I’ll ever be able to do. Imagine.

Cameras don’t like me and I’ve tried everything. Flashes wipe my flesh tone and the outcome is something a fanatic might produce in support of the life-beyond-death argument. However, thanks to a Photo Booth app that night, a nostalgic sepia effect kept my colour and even smoothed over my ruddy awful complexion. I think I sighed with relief.

As rare as a solar eclipse, I always get excited when somebody manages to take a good photo of me. It’s usually because I can share it on facebook with my friends (provided they aren’t part of the group allegedly shunning it at the moment.) There are plenty of studies that suggest social networking boosts confidence and people skills and I can well believe it. It’s a great opportunity to put forward the best version of yourself, as well being the perfect playground for cyber-disinhibition.

What disappoints me is that, whilst most social networking promotes self esteem, others are all too happy to unpick it.

I was delighted to think that beautifulpeople.com had been infiltrated by renegades with enough techy know-how to bypass the entry criteria yesterday. Infamously dropping members for ‘gaining holiday weight’ last January, the site only permits forum members that are considered attractive by other users. For the codeheads behind ‘Shrek’ to have gained access was one-up for those continually disappointed with how their photos turn out, reclaiming online societies for all.

However, reports that the hack was a hoax for publicity meant that I didn’t get chance to fly the flag for long. Isn’t it a little crass to gate a community and create a USP, then use those outside the elite as fodder for column inches? Maybe it’s just me.

Filed under: Online Individual, Online networks, Uncategorized

12/12/2009 • 5:50 pm 1

Virtual Guinea-pig

Today I decided to sign up to LinkedIn. A couple of years ago, I might’ve been a little more reluctant to join a professional social utility. Where are all the photos from last Friday? Is Friend A definitely still in a relationship with LoveRat B? Can I not even ‘poke’ anyone?!

Linked In, according to a comparative article against Facebook written by Papacharissi, is a ‘business-oriented social networking site.’ Its focus is on generating a ‘network of contacts to maintain communications, trade information and refer each other.’

The potential of such a utility has been nationally acknowledged according to journalist Whitehead. Membership in the UK alone has hit around 3m as victims of the unemployment crisis invest their hope in Linkedin. Software company Micro Focus has the same trust in the network, creating a group as part of a government supported manifesto to create 250,000 jobs in technology this week.

New Media theorists like Castells might find this ironic: phasing out the manual worker in favour of technology is ‘a centuries old fear’ which has been realised time and time again. Can innovation in this same field really offer a solution? Blogger O’ Carroll makes the prospect look bleak: LinkedIn itself is allegedly cutting 36 jobs in the UK office.

Papacharissi does conclude, however, that LinkedIn lends itself far more for those with professional goals than purely social ones. The pages and profiles are ‘more static’ and without the tools to entice ‘fláneuring.’

Facebook encourages users to snoop through user profiles, whilst expressing a more ‘flamboyant’ self with the use of ‘props’/applications such as food-fight or super-poke. I would never consider throwing a virtual guinea-pig at a potential employer and, with LinkedIn, that danger doesn’t arise.

However, as the Groundswell team warn, ‘social technologies are social’; distinguishing between being an individual and representing a company requires some practice, just ask anyone in PR or Communications.

Filed under: Facebook, LinkedIn, Online Individual, Online networks

06/12/2009 • 9:24 pm 2

The Perfect Host

I’m aware that I harp on about company Facebook/Twitter presences a lot. It’s just too tempting this week but I promise to change the record for next time.

Justin Hunt wrote about the ongoing divorce between traditional brand advertising and social media this week. ‘Glossy brand messages – one size fits all- do not work well in a social media context.’ He discusses the need to tailor communications to different ‘niches’ rather than the masses. Logical, really, as he refers to Facebook: one of the most personal and easy to personalise utilities out there.

However, fellow blogger Jennifer Whitehead reported recently on a communications initiative to be applied to all Starbucks Facebook fans across 16 countries. The chain intend to bring users from across the globe together tomorrow for a web-cam singalong of The Beatles ‘All You Need Is Love’, raising awareness of its AIDS charity. I’ll admit there’s a worthy cause involved but isn’t this just a ‘one-size fits all’ CSR strategy masquerading as karaoke? Wouldn’t participation just draw a fan’s attention to being simply, as Richard Bailey considers, ‘part of the tribe’?

Yes, but there’s the opportunity to be something more important than a dedicated stakeholder or even philanthropist. That’s why this will be a success.

We have to remember that, as Gillmor considers, we are no longer the audience we once were. We can ‘transcend’ the traditional one-way communications to become part of ‘a larger [two-way] conversation.’ With Web 2.0, we have the chance to become the media rather than be subject to it. It’s not just the elite that are published these days and, in the same vane, singing to the world shouldn’t belong solely to U2 either.

Blogger Fisher has coined the phrase ‘Cyberdisinhibition’ – we’re 20% more likely to lash out or express ourselves in a particular way online than face-to-face. If this is the case, isn’t Starbucks doing something to further facilitate our voice (like Gillmor suggests) and our online persona (as put forward by Fisher)?

I still agree with Hunt when he talks about general brand advertising in Facebook etc. ‘If you were at a party’ he writes ‘you wouldn’t want to be interupted by someone shouting about a product which you did not care about, would you?’ We do not want social networking interrupted by irrelevant messages fighting for our attention. But, if we’re lured into a company forum, their message would be ever present and tolerated at the very least. Starbucks has cleverly repositioned itself here out of being the unwelcome guest at the party to become the perfect host.

Filed under: Gillmor, Online Individual, personal journalism

17/11/2009 • 4:24 pm 1

Bullies

I’ve been reading about Anti-Bullying week recently and a phenomenon that seems to grow at a dangerously exponential rate. ‘Cyber bullying’, according to the Guardian’s technology blog, is now the most common of all bullying according to a recent study by the Department of Children. 

This leads me on to think about the potential within networks such as Facebook and Twitter for users to manipulate and bully others. Not just children either. 

Arguably, corporations aren’t making enough of Web2.0 if they don’t seize opportunities to drive sales and promote themselves. Social media networks and online groups are full of receptive, yet highly vulnerable people. Some of the examples that Uwe Matzat lists in the article A theory of relational signals in online groups include those that require “social support…medical help…business knowledge…educational [material.]’ Often, according to the theorist, organisers/commercial organizations monitor members of their forums (e.g. Facebook groups, company blogs) like foxes assessing a hen house.

Did any of us realise that how long we communicate with another group member might be recorded? As well as our general behaviour, corporations monitor the nature of our online relationships to assess what we will respond to best, often DM e.g. discounts. But what is really scary is that often assessors will devise an ‘indirect’ strategy by discovering the group members most committed to the cause and encourage them to reinforce the ‘forum framework’ to ‘deviating members.’ 

However, we should take comfort in the fact that our online persona often represents only a tiny portion of our true selves. In his book The Rise of the Network Society, Manuel Castells considers that our online identity is often based on ‘a given cultural attribute or set of attributes, to the exclusion of a broader reference to other social structures.’ As a member of a group, we tend to orientate our online persona around only one or two elements of who we are e.g. nationality, sexuality etc. Also, text based messaging, Howard points out in his article, diminishes the ‘social cues’ that can be read by traditional ethnography (‘the study of scientific description of races and cultures of mankind’ according to my dictionary.) We still, largely, remain a mystery and unable to be completely manipulated. 

Probably even more reassuring, is the fact that the online group ringleaders can have their comeuppance by ‘Twitterjacking.’ CIPR award winning agency, Finn Communications cite the example of South West Trains being subject to a rogue Tweeter in their blog. The hijacker advised of false signal failures on their behalf. However, as Greg Felgate points out, this should be a call to action rather than one that dissuades corporations from being heavy handed with forums. It would seem if companies don’t take charge, someone else/anybody else is more than happy to do it for them.

Filed under: Online Individual, Online networks, Twitter

About Tom


Tom is a PR professional with six years experience of working within Leeds' creative community. With a background including events management and journalism, he recently graduated with an M(Sc) in Corporate Communications and continues to support high profile clients on national B2B and B2C campaigns.

Follow me: @tomcooledge

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