<![CDATA[Phil_Adams · Storify]]>http://storify.com/phil_adamsNodeJS RSS ModuleSun, 19 May 2013 05:42:18 GMT<![CDATA[Games makers.]]>

I met a London 2012 Gamesmaker at the Edinburgh Book Festival. She was radiant. She had an almost palpable Ready Brek glow of pride, energy and enthusiasm. It was infectious and I have basked in that glow for two days. That brief encounter moved me to make this Storify.

Storified by Phil_Adams · Wed, Aug 15 2012 01:37:37

The #Gamesmaker relay baton is beautiful. It's anodised aluminium & regulation size & weight. Lovely to hold. http://pic.twitter.com/Bxq6pXEN · Paul Gilpin
That's it folks Last shift complete remarkable 2 wks that will live with me forever. Over and Out #gamesmaker #LO2012 http://pic.twitter.com/NnX1X910 · Towcester Tearooms
#gamesmaker #london #olympics2012 #thankyou · jadeburn
#london2012 #gamesmaker #olympics · Mehdi Habib

What a priviledge the past fortnight has been for me as a 2012 Gamesmaker. It has been a truely incredible experience words for which I really cannot find to do justice to how I am feeling this Monday morning!

— Ann Leo · Mon, Aug 13 2012 01:31:59
My lovely super duper #teammanagers and #teamleaders #gamesmaker #olympics2012 · C U P C A K E

I'm not going to let it go back to normal now. I'm going to think of the little things, like the happiness in this gamesmaker's face every time real life starts to creep back in... http://i.imgur.com/hKmUq.gif

— Nick Trahair · Sun, Aug 12 2012 16:39:51

So London flame goes out in some style but memories will burn bright forever. Now time to learn portuguese-Rio 2016 gamesmaker has nice ring to it:)

— Rich Hook · Sun, Aug 12 2012 16:00:10

I just want to say how proud I am of my brother Chris who has been a Gamesmaker (volunteer) at the Olympics over the last two weeks. Job well done sir.

— Nigel Berry · Sun, Aug 12 2012 14:15:59
De Gea + Me #football #espana #spain #olympics #gamesmaker #glasgow #london2012 · Emma
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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/games-makershttp://storify.com/phil_adams/games-makersWed, 15 Aug 2012 08:36:39 GMT<![CDATA[IRN-BRU #IMAFANNY Magnet Twitter Promotion]]>

A YouTube film that, for once, really did go viral introduced the world to a baby girl called Fanny. To keep the conversation going IRN-BRU produced a simple, limited edition piece of merchandise. A fridge magnet named after baby Fanny. All you had to do was say #IMAFANNY on Twitter.

Storified by Phil_Adams · Thu, Aug 16 2012 09:37:33

The film. 1.25 million views and counting...
Baby, new IRN-BRU advert 2012 · irnbru
The promotion mechanic is launched on Twitter.
And this little fridge magnet is what all the fuss was about to be about.
Fbcdn
It captures the imagination from the outset.
A nudge from the brand, not that it needed one.
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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/irn-bru-imafanny-magnet-twitter-promotionhttp://storify.com/phil_adams/irn-bru-imafanny-magnet-twitter-promotionThu, 16 Aug 2012 16:30:10 GMT<![CDATA[Grouped by Paul Adams. Book review.]]>

Paul Adams used to work at Google. A lot of his thinking went into the Circles feature of Google Plus. He's now a product manager at Facebook. Grouped is the summation of his strongly-held views on how networks do and don't work.

Storified by Phil_Adams · Wed, Mar 07 2012 00:49:49

Deepdiscount
The Slideshare presentation below has been viewed 974,897 times at the time of writing. I'm not surprised. It is heading towards its second birthday and it is a seminal piece of thinking, which I have shared many times. It contains many of the themes that are developed in this book - the internet being built around people, strong and weak ties, and the fallacy of "influencer" thinking.

There was no way that I wasn't going to buy the book.
The Real Life Social Network v2The Real Life Social Network v2
Presentation at Voices That Matter Web Design Conference, San Francisco June 2010
And what about the book?

I had the idea early on to post regular tweets about themes that struck a chord and to use these later as the basis of a review.

Here goes...
The main premise of the book is that "small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web."

This starts with an inner circle of about 5 people. Then (increase by a factor of 3) a 15 strong "sympathy group." Then (increase roughly by a further factor of three) a group of 50 people with whom we communicate on a regular basis. Then the well documented Dunbar number - 150 people with whom we can maintain "stable social relations".

Beyond that, even today when technology theoretically enables much wider social groups, the human nature that is hard wired into us makes 150 a physiological barrier beyond which genuinely social behaviour just doesn't happen.

The establishment and the quantification of these strong and weak tie divisions is the foundation for much of the remainder of the book.
The big social networks are not built to distinguish between strong and weak ties. The subtlety with which I can handle weak tie relationships in meat space is not an option online. Slurs and slights, real and imagined are more more likely and more visible on Facebook and Twitter than they are offline.

There is an interesting discussion around the fact that our strong ties (obviously) exert disproportionate amounts of influence over us, whereas weak ties are often better sources of information. This knowledge should influence our design decisions, but usually doesn't.
The prose of Grouped is simple, easy to follow and as free from jargon as it's possible to be when your subject matter is based on research and scientific study.

The prose also carries the conviction that comes from subject matter which is based on said research and scientific study.

Grouped is a reassuringly assertive read.

And Paul Adams would make a good barrister. These are my facts, this is my story, my conclusions are incontrovertible.

The reference sources that justify this assertiveness are extensive. There is no way that I'll find time to read them all but the process of cherry picking will make the social network component of my Delicious account much richer and more valuable.
And I quote : "This is how we want the world to work because it make our jobs easier."

Paul Adams is talking mainly about mythical beings called "influencers" when he says that. But the statement applies equally to an awful lot of what passes for digital marketing strategy.

If branded content really did go viral it would make our jobs easier.

If we really did have a community around our brand it would make our jobs easier.

If engagement were actually a meaningful, measurable objective it would make our jobs easier.

If networks were driven by a few powerful, easily identified and easily influenced influencers that too would make our jobs easier.

Grouped makes it unequivocally clear that network life isn't like that.
Your friend's friend's friends can exert a significant amount of influence over your choices.

We are influenced by people that we don't necessarily know.

But the ability of others to influence us falls off a cliff beyond three degrees of separation.

Numerous, comprehensively referenced studies have shown this to be the case.
Here's another example of thinking that makes our jobs easier but which probably hinders our work from working.

There is no such thing as a rational decision.

People do not move in an orderly, rational, linear fashion down a funnel marked awareness at the top and purchase at the bottom.

They don't.

This section of the book was, for me, one of the most thought-provoking.

Some time ago, when I worked in "trad" advertising, I had the good fortune to work with Robert Heath and to apply his low involvement processing thinking to the development of a new (and highly successful as it turned out) advertising campaign for a large financial services company.

Low involvement processing is a model for how our subconscious brain, which is hardwired to our emotions, basically makes most of our decisions for us. It has profound implications for how advertising campaigns are conceived and executed.

I'm sure this thinking also has profound implications for how social media programmes, platforms, campaigns and content should be conceived too.

But if I have a bugbear with Grouped, it is this.

It is highly effective at raising issues, challenging conventions and scratching surfaces.

But it is sometimes frustratingly light on advice on what you should actually do to address the issues.

For sure, every chapter ends with a series of "quick tips".

But in their quickness and tipiness lies their weakness.

Whereas the issues raised by the book are often profound, the tips are often trivial and (not surprisingly) Facebook-centric by comparison.

This is a minor gripe. The primary purpose of this book is not to hold your hand and tell you exactly how to do it right. The primary purpose of this book is to make you aware that what you're currently doing is probably wrong. It does that job well.

Anyway, I have set myself the task of revisiting low involvement processing in a social context, and I wouldn't have done that had I not read this book.

Planning Above and Beyond >> Low Involvement ProcessingPlanning Above and Beyond >> Low Involvement Processing
The Hidden Power of Advertising was published a year ago and has ruffled feathers and generated rave reviews in equal measure. It costs £...
Aside : Here is Paul Adams himself talking at the recent fMC 2012 conference about What People Share (and why). The 30 minute talk contains plenty of "what you should be doing" advice.
fMC 2012: What People Share Breakout · Livestream
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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/grouped-by-paul-adams-book-reviewhttp://storify.com/phil_adams/grouped-by-paul-adams-book-reviewWed, 07 Mar 2012 08:49:49 GMT<![CDATA[Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning]]>

Browning's poem in which jealousy turns to madness, retold in tweets.

Storified by Phil_Adams · Sat, Feb 11 2012 08:17:26

Porphyria s Lover by darkcutie88 · deviantART
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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/porphyria-s-lover-by-robert-browninghttp://storify.com/phil_adams/porphyria-s-lover-by-robert-browningSat, 11 Feb 2012 16:17:26 GMT<![CDATA[Bret Easton Ellis on being scary.]]>

Some Halloween tweets from the author of American Psycho on the films and books that scare him. Read from the top down for the order in which he tweeted his thoughts.

Storified by Phil_Adams · Mon, Oct 31 2011 02:24:22

Wikimedia
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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/bret-easton-ellis-on-being-scary-http://storify.com/phil_adams/bret-easton-ellis-on-being-scary-Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:24:22 GMT<![CDATA[I'm kind of a big deal in Ipswich.]]>

These are the most interesting (i.e. least inane) Foursquare "I just ousted" messages that people have been "kind enough" to share with the rest of us on Twitter recently. In fact using Storify to curate even mildly interesting Foursquare updates has proved to be an exercise in futility. Having done the spadework, however, I hereby share the least bad of an awfully bad and banal bunch.

Storified by Phil_Adams · Wed, Oct 26 2011 23:06:18

For the uninitiated, Portman Road is the home of Ipswich Football Club. So this first tweet has the dubious honour of giving this Storify its title.
FFS.
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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/im-kind-of-a-big-deal-in-ipswichhttp://storify.com/phil_adams/im-kind-of-a-big-deal-in-ipswichTue, 25 Oct 2011 12:47:57 GMT<![CDATA[Short, alternative marital guide courtesy of @Betfairpoker]]>

Storified by Phil_Adams · Wed, Oct 26 2011 23:25:02

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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/short-alternative-marital-guide-courtesy-of-betfaihttp://storify.com/phil_adams/short-alternative-marital-guide-courtesy-of-betfaiFri, 14 Oct 2011 16:36:54 GMT<![CDATA[@ReallyVirtual versus @pippasass - the brave, crazy new world of Twitter]]>

It's all kicking off and crossing over on Twitter just now. The man (Sohaib Athar - aka @ReallyVirtual) who unwittingly live-tweeted the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden has become the focus of a huge amount of journalistic and populist attention - attention that he is not necessarily enjoying. Meanwhile a spoof Twitter account purporting to represent the views of Philippa Middleton's behind is being affected by the story that @ReallyVirtual inadvertently broke. None of us had heard of either on Thursday. Now they are (tenuously) linked international Twitter superstars.

Storified by Phil_Adams · Thu, Oct 27 2011 01:58:20

Little did Mr Athar know what he was letting himself in for when he starting tweeting about the sights and sounds outside his house.
And the tragic irony is that he moved to Abbottabad from Lahore to get away from the craziness of modern Pakistan.
And all of a sudden he's the centre of global attention...
The realisation of what's happening to him suddenly dawns...
Initially he doesn't necessarily enjoy the attention.
Latterly it looks like he's deciding to embrace the madness, tweeting on-the-spot context to his new-found audience. The comment thread on this Twitpic image pretty much captures the immediate mood on Twitter, which is a combination of giddy excitement and more sombre reflection.
For the curious, here is life in abbottabad two minutes ago http://twitpic.com/4s8nfq · ReallyVirtual
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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/reallyvirtual-versus-pippasass-the-brave-crazy-newhttp://storify.com/phil_adams/reallyvirtual-versus-pippasass-the-brave-crazy-newMon, 02 May 2011 08:21:04 GMT<![CDATA[Young Scot Changing Perceptions - The Stephen Fry effect]]>

Working with our sister PR agency, Stripe, Blonde created a short film for Young Scot that is designed to challenge head on the often ill-informed negative perceptions of young people in Scotland. The profile of the film received a significant boost when Stephen Fry kindly shared the YouTube link on Twitter. This Storify summary shows what happened in the immediate aftermath of that tweet.

Storified by Phil_Adams · Thu, Oct 27 2011 02:12:36

Firstly here's the film itself.
Changing Perceptions · allanscot1985
And here's the "firestarter" tweet from Mr Fry...
...which generated a significant ripple effect in terms of retweets, a sample of which are included below.
The screengrab below, featuring YouTube's own statistics tool, clearly shows the immediate, significant uplift in views resulting from the Stephen Fry tweet and associated ripple effect.
Young Scot Changing Perceptions film - the Stephen Fry effect · Phil Adams1
Or maybe this wasn't a Stephen Fry on Twitter effect at all.

Maybe it was the SNP on Facebook...

What's your perception of young people in Scotland?

— Scottish National Party (SNP) · Wed, Apr 20 2011 15:04:10
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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/young-scot-changing-perceptions-the-stephen-fry-efhttp://storify.com/phil_adams/young-scot-changing-perceptions-the-stephen-fry-efThu, 21 Apr 2011 09:53:35 GMT<![CDATA[Will Teenage Despair be Lynx's Waterloo (Wife Beater)]]>

User imagery can be (much) more powerful than advertising. Just ask Stella Artois. A beer superbrand that was propelled to number one status by elegant, evocative, "premium" advertising. But latterly it's a brand that has been a victim of its own success. Success has earned Stella the dubious distinction of being the "definitive" binge drinking brand. And it has picked up unfortunate and hard to shake off monikers such as "Wife Beater" and "Bed Wetter". A very quick and dirty Storify search suggests that, if it's not very careful, Lynx deodorant may be destined for a similar victim-of-success fate. It may not have reached a Wife Beater style tipping point just yet, but it could easily become the definitive teenage angst brand. And much as no self respecting beer drinker wants to be seen as a wife beater, no self-respecting teenage boy wants to be branded as angst-ridden through his choice of deodorant.

Storified by Phil_Adams · Thu, Oct 27 2011 14:06:12

Stella is firmly branded as "Wife Beater" all over the internet... in words and pictures.
Wife Beater · Blackstone Photography UK
And typing "Lynx teenage" into Storify opens a similar set of unfortunate digital floodgates.
Guess who has a teenage son? · dumbledad
lynx: official cat of teenage boy's bedrooms · RellyAB
Lynx - For that cheap, teenage smell of desperation.Lynx - For that cheap, teenage smell of desperation.
Welcome to a Facebook Page about Lynx - For that cheap, teenage smell of desperation. Join Facebook to start connecting with Lynx - For that cheap, teenage smell of desperation.
Present Tense - The Lynx effect: possibly exaggeratedPresent Tense - The Lynx effect: possibly exaggerated
The Lynx billboards tell us that the deodorant is as tempting as chocolate. The TV commercials feature a chocolate man having bits of him bitten off by fine-looking young ladies. Previous ads told us that a spray of Lynx Africa would send supermodels into orgasmic eruption. Lynx: something teenage boys use to mask the fact they [...]
These comments and images aren't necessarily being posted into teenage spaces, but how long before they spill over?
Teachers bemoan curse of the 'Lynx effect' | Education | guardian.co.uk
Teachers forced to open windows as 13-year-old boys douse themselves in Lynx deodorant.
I bet that this user imagery has been the subject of more than one angst-ridden (thirty something angst rather than teenage) strategy session at Lynx HQ.
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]]>http://storify.com/phil_adams/will-teenage-despair-be-lynxs-waterloo-wife-beaterhttp://storify.com/phil_adams/will-teenage-despair-be-lynxs-waterloo-wife-beaterWed, 06 Apr 2011 08:35:33 GMT