Welcome aboard…the view’s great

January 2, 2009 by kevinhauswirth

This has really become a place for me to gather social media case studies and insights that I can use for trainings and my class. Attention students: If you’re wondering what we’ll talk about this semester, here’s a hint…

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kevin@kevinhauswirth.com

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CBS got their (granny) panties in a twist

February 3, 2010 by kevinhauswirth

Given the postings this week, I feel like I’m having an early bird special.

Pro-choice grannies’ YouTube response to CBS airing anti-choice ads.

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Get out those bifocals, it’s time for some boomer sexting.

February 2, 2010 by kevinhauswirth

New York Magazine talks to “expert-ish doctor” and cites AAPR research. And you thought it was weird getting Facebook posts from Mother. It just got weirder.

Older People Are Now Sexting Each Other

It was only a matter of time, we suppose. As soon as older people starting learning how to use their cell phones for things other than calls to their adult children, they were bound to send dirty texts to each other. And that’s what has happened, apparently.

Teenagers aren’t the only ones sending racy pictures and text messages over their cell phones. Believe it or not, the AARP says ’sexting’ is catching on with the 50-and-up crowd.

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Going up

February 2, 2010 by kevinhauswirth

Just last night I lectured about how traditional media pros use social media. Then, I see this brillant and fun Gawker story about Ann Curry and some fellow journs trapped in a NYT elevator—tweeking and posting videos the whole time!

Ann Curry Trapped in New York Times Elevator for One Well-Documented Hour

“What happens when a group of social media freaks—including Ann Curry—get trapped in an elevator? It is electronically recorded and broadcast over the internet at near-dizzying speed. Welcome to the most thoroughly documented elevator entrapment ever.”

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BBC Breaks(down) the News

January 29, 2010 by kevinhauswirth

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See ya later, Fatties.

January 5, 2010 by kevinhauswirth

“Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.” – BeatifulPeople.com founder Robert Hintze tells the BBC. As the site touts:

  • Do looks matter to you, when it comes to selecting a partner?
  • Do you want to guarantee your dates will always be beautiful?
  • No more filtering through unattractive people on mainstream sites
  • Meet beautiful people locally and from around the world – now
  • Attend exclusive events and private parties

While appalling as it may be, a site strictly catering to hotties further demonstrates the need for brands to find their niche(s). You can’t be everything to everyone…right?

Old school demographics don’t always fly in the me-centric social media space.

“24-40 year-old women” might have worked for buying ad space before, but if brands are serious about building a real following, they have to micro segment even further. Even the term “mommy blogger” has become watered down as a niche— are we talking green moms, minivan speed racers, single parents, cougars, working ladies…?

The fact remains that in the digital space, age/gender/location-based targeting isn’t the standard it once was, especially when building actual communities. People are self-selecting their info and networks based more on personal interests that may not be aligned with “traditional” assumptions.

A student last semester developed an approach to reach an “urban consumer” for a national consumer brand—without mentioning age or race. Her position: Whether you’re a 14 year-old white guy in Naperville or 25 year-old black girl in Chicago…if listen to hip-hop, follow Jay-Z and want the latest Nikes, you’re our target consumer audience and likely take cues from the same sorts of celebrity/pop culture influencers.

I haven’t looked too much into BeatifulPeople’s biz model, but with over a billion people in the US and Europe alone, if Hintze can find just a few hundred thousand loyal users, he’ll carve out niche that will be very attractive to advertisers—thereby positioning himself and his site as one hot channel to consumers. Again, this is nothing new…just look at all the brands who fill SWAG bags at fashionable events and line the gifting rooms at award shows.

As superficial and demeaning as this site may be…he’s onto something, it’s  just nothing new.

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User Generated Nausea

December 29, 2009 by kevinhauswirth

Brands kill for it. Marketers promise it.

But one problem with “user generated content” is, well, users.

Props to Hanes for keeping this post live.  Makes me wonder what kind of posts get censored from the underwear fan page…!

Here’s the page. The video (if you dare) is here

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It’ll make you go blind

December 8, 2009 by kevinhauswirth

I’ve heard of adults scaring adolescents with threats of hairy palms…but a hairy face? This is new turf.  James Lipton’s Give It a Ponder PSA about the dangers of texting.

http://www.youtube.com/GiveItaPonder

Knee-jerk reaction: “Why is this old dude warning teenagers about sexting…do they have any clue who he is?”

Then I think to myself, “Self, does it matter?” Does this actually hit several audiences, just on different levels?

Gen Y’s- Yes, we know him for his awkward sense of humor on Inside the Actors studio. For us, texting wasn’t around in high school. We’re of the “no SMSex ’til college” generation.  Back in our day, we had to send saucy messages using alpha-numeric codes on pagers. That said, we’ve tapped our tech-savviness and embraced inappropriate texting, albeit in far more characters than our Jonastweens cousins and little sisters.

Millennials- Yes, that crazy uncle-looking dude is the guy Will Ferrell mocks on SNL.  Sean Connery? Close.   Why listen to what he has to say about sex textiquette? Because it’s really goofy and you can’t help but listen.  Whether or not anyone stops late night booty texts after watching this is unclear. (I also doubt that anyone heeded the advice of McGruff and took a bite out of crime.) The campaign is a mega horn, not a solution.

Parents- You’d better believe this got sent around. Every mother knows of someone else’s kid who’s sexting.  Thank goodness it’s never their own.  Just last weekend, Joan and Mike’s boy was talking about the you-know-what with you-know-who on that whatchamacallit he got for Christmas.  And, if I know mothers like I think I know mothers, this was very matter-of-factly sent to their kids, likely greeted with a “mommmmmm, you’re so weird-a! Get off my Facebook wall!!!!!”

Traditional media- And via traditional media, you hit another (dare I say older) audience and help validate the campaign.  Will this serve as a 5:00 lead in to more coverage of sexting and SMS dangers? Find out after traffic and weather.

http://www.youtube.com/GiveItaPonder

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Toothpaste in your dupa?

October 22, 2009 by kevinhauswirth

Apparently, Charmin has a solution.

In case cartoon bears wiping their butts on trees wasn’t weird enough, Charmin’s new YouTube video takes personal hygiene to a very odd place.  Not quite funny. Not quite serious.  But if this is what he does with his TP, I’m not looking forward to learning what he does with his toothbrush.

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Keeping abreast of McCain

October 15, 2009 by kevinhauswirth

John McCain’s daughter and blogger, Meghan McCain, stepped out of her pantsuit and into some controversy.   It’s one thing when an old college friend tags you in some beer bonged Facebook photo, it’s another story when you post trashy webcam pics of yourself . 

meghanmccaintwitterThis reminds me of words of wisdoms I’ve given to over the years regarding privacy and social media:

1) Recently commented my 22 year-old sisters’ status regarding an upcoming vacation.  “Just remember: what happens in Vegas better stay off Facebook…”

2) Creepy 1995 webcam photos have no place on LinkedIn

3) If you wouldn’t say it at the water cooler, don’t post it to Facebook

more to come, surely….

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Social Networks are Real Life

October 14, 2009 by kevinhauswirth

“We still tend to connect with the same people through online social networks who we connect with offline…” What a shocker!  It baffles me that this concept is still a new revelation!

It should be little surprise that moms talk to moms online, urban kids chat with urban kids…etc. 

 Take for instance my class on social media where the students are developing social media strategies for real clients.  We’re five weeks in now and still have not yet started talking about “social media” tactics for their final campaigns.  I was really impressed last week when students turned in their first competitive case study.  The assignment was not to look solely at what competitors are doing online, but rather to look at who they are and what they’re doing offline.  We can’t even begin to start planning an online positioning strategy until we have a deep sense of how to align that with an offline personality.  “Social media” insights started with findings like: “Our competitor is doing X, Y, Z . Our strength is A,B, C. In order to compete, our social media presence must position us as ….” YES!

Nowhere in that analysis did we say things like “we need to blog more” or “we should have a podcast.”  Start with what we know off line and the online approaches will hit you in the face (hopefully!)

Does your social class determine your online social network?

  • Story Highlights
  • A recent Nielsen study finds class differences between online social networks
  • Wealthier people are more likely to use Facebook; the less affluent, MySpace
  • Almost 38 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $100,000 a year
  • A researcher found that college students tended to self-segregate online
By Breeanna Hare
CNN

(CNN) — Like a lot of people, Anna Owens began using MySpace more than four years ago to keep in touch with friends who weren’t in college.

But soon she felt too old for the social-networking site, and the customizable pages with music that were fun at first began to annoy her. By the time she graduated from the University of Puget Sound, Owens’ classmates weren’t on MySpace — they were on Facebook.

Throughout graduate school and beyond, as her network began to expand, Owens ceased using MySpace altogether. Facebook had come to represent the whole of her social and professional universe.

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