Hip to be Square

During my two weeks as an Intern working for the Social Media Marketing department of a well known P.R company in Sydney I noticed a lot of people in the industry were keyed in to all sorts of different phenomena of which I had previously been unaware. Sites such as Pinterest.com (which I wrote a previous post about here) and many others have sprung up throughout the past year to become social, cultural and professional hunting grounds for users and companies alike. Now, if you asked your average Joe about social media, they would most probably direct you in the ways of Facebook, Twitter, maybe even Instagram or LinkedIn; but there is one I'd like to mention in this blog that may be relatively unknown to most readers.

I happened to notice in my Twitter feed last week a few colleagues who kept popping up with statuses about something called "Four Square". It intrigued me enough to go out and download the App for iPhone. Much like Twitter stole the "Status" portion of Facebook and made it interesting for users, Four Square has grabbed the "Check-In" feature and made it fun. When Facebook did it, it came off a little bit pretentious to me. Sort of like a "Look how cool I am" with most users only checking in when they were at a trendy bar or nightclub. In Four Square, users can earn points, special badges and "Mayorships" by checking into places when they go out anywhere, you can check out tips for top spots and you can see the sort of places your friends are going (sounds a bit creepy but I can assure you, it's not). Ironically, it's kind of like an incentive to be social; if you want to earn more points and beat your friends, then get off your ass and do something about it.

Screen Shot of App after a "Check-In" is made.

Now, the only problem with this App that I've found so far, is that it was all well and good in the professional world last week. But now that I've completed my internship and come back to University to finish off my degree, I'm starting to realise that not many other people know about Four Square (hence my poor collection of 4 friends) and therefore much of the fun is sucked away when you're out there by yourself. I even pulled my Facebook and Twitter contacts and absoultely nobody has a profile. To explain this an article in Social Media News says that although it presents great opportunities for businesses to target customers and receive feedback, research shows it only recieves high usage from media professionals and business workers and it has not penetrated the general population yet.

Dont be a social outcast.

 So here it is, my attempt to gather the masses. If anybody has a chance to read this and wants to play the "I'm more social than you" game on their iPhone (ridiculous concept I know but fun nevertheless), then download FourSquare immediately. I'll be the guy with four friends that keeps checking into the Uni Library; by the time you add me you might as well call me "Mayor".



Add me on Foursquare: My name is "Jesse Lewis"

Remarkable Remake: 21 Jump Street

 All I know about "21 Jump Street" the T.V show is that it is now aired on "111 Hits" on Foxtel, and that it starred a very young, classically shaven version of Johnny Depp. I've never really watched it or took interest in it at all so I have little to offer as to the original versus the modern day remake. However, today I stumbled upon a trailer for the remake of 21 Jump Street, coming out on the 16th of March this year and it looks awesome.

Starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as two police officers at the start of their career. Tatum is all Braun and no brains and recruits Hill as his partner, who plays a whizz kid struggling with the physicality of the police force. Police work turns out not to be anything like they'd imagined and they quickly screw up their chance in the excitement of their first bust. Sentenced to go undercover at a local high school to find the source of a student drug ring, hilarity ensues as they try to fit into their environment and convince the world that they are students and not cops.


I would've had doubts about the ability of Channing Tatum to play a solid role in a comedy movie a month ago, and even being able to feed well off Jonah Hill's comedic prowess. But I recently watched an episode of Saturday Night Live in which he was the host for the night and he absolutely killed it. So here is the trailer below. Be excited to see a new and exceedingly hilarious Channing, and an always powerful comedian in Jonah Hill this March when 21 Jump Street hits the big screen. Finally, good cop buddy movies seem to be coming back.

KarmaLoop

 I've noticed that when attempting to review things that interest me personally, less words make for a better reception. So here it is, Karmaloop.com. They added me on Instagram the other week and it actually turned out to be surprisingly impressive. It's an online clothing store offering wicked deals on some really cool stuff at U.S. prices with the added bonus of no shipping costs.

 

 

 There are some awesome stuff for both guys and girls. If you're worried about this week's pay cheque pulling a disappearing act then hit the "Sale" section for some of the best deals I've seen available to Australia. I guarantee it, you're bound to love this site!

Related Links:

• Follow Karmaloop on Twitter @karmaloop
• Visit the Website @ Karmaloop.com

Eye Candy: Will business see the big picture in Pinterest?

In the last year, and in the midst of the social (but highly un-social) revolution there have been a large number of social media startups to take the world by storm. Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr and LinkedIn to name a few, but none more than the growing social media giant, "Pinterest". Over the past three months Pinterest have grown their usership by as much as 155% per month and (naturally) presented massive growth opportunities for businesses  to visually promote their brands, their products and their company culture with the power of repins.
Although Pinterest has recieved much coverage in terms of the value of user engagement and brand exposure, there are still questions to the matter of how effective is Pinterest in generating ROI (return on investment) as users are not yet converting their (P)interest into actual sales. It is already proven that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can do the trick, and it is said that Pinterest generates two the three times the amount of coverage and interaction than Twitter; so why is the P.R world so skeptical?


In an article addressing this very topic, P.R journalist Geoff Livingston says that despite all the rage about the new social platform, it is really too early to go nuts. "Outside driving traffic and Pinterest follower counts, most businesses don't have any outcomes to offer," he says. "Pinterest is a huge experiment in marketing". So far most of the articles declaring statistics about its success are predominantly referring us towards fashion or food retail, a department which has always been visually appealing and therefore cuts straight into the core of Pinterest users. But what does it mean for the rest of us?

Livingstone says the reality just doesn't meet the hype, not yet at least. "Experts who tout Pinterest as the second coming of Facebook need to answer the ROI question or damper the enthusiasm. Otherwise, we’ll be pinning burst bubbles in six months." Personally, I think this outlet for visual communication is a fantastic and promising platform for a similar style of visual engagement proved successful by many companies via Instragram, and it's proven that people are waking up to the opportunities it presents (155% growth per month!!). It really just depends on how people use it strategically. There is a massive opportunity for even tech companies and not-for-profits to engage with innovate ideas and an already proven example of this is General Electric, who pinned "bad-ass machines", their events and the history of their company and invited users to view and re-pin their company culture on a personal level. As a consequence of this, their top 10 most used links to their website following were coming from Pinterest.

I think that livingstone is right to question the value of Pinterest, especially in light of how quick everybody in the marketing world seems to have jumped on the bandwagon. I think that until we see results in business than there is no way to declare it the new big thing. Despite this, I believe in the power of Pinterest. It may not be the "new" big thing, but it is definitely the "next" big thing, and social media marketers need to be brave in order to see results in the future.

Check out the article by Geoff Livingstone, "What is the ROI on Pinterest?"

sourced from P.R Daily Online

Strange Talk

I never thought it would ever come to this. But I'm starting to realise that as I get older I fall more and more out of touch with new (out of charts) music. As a youngen I always thought I was on the cutting edge and that I'd always be catching wind of the cool stuff that nobody else knew about, but an increasingly busy lifestyle and work schedule means less time sitting in my short shorts scouring the internet for that next big thing (that sounds a little bit nasty doesn't it). That being said, since I've been back in Australia I'm starting to catch on to some cool Aussie stuff whenever I get some free time.

I picked up "Strange Talk" when an English mate of mine sent over their first single and hit "Climbing Walls" but only really payed attention about a year later when I somehow got their new single "Sexual Lifestyle" stuck in my head on Australia Day. I don't know how it happened but these guys will snowball into your life so quickly it's ridiculous. They only have an EP out at the moment but with their new single "Sexual Lifestyle" hitting radio's quite frequently, I'm sure there's an album on the way.

Here is "Sexual Lifestyle" as well as one of the unreleased songs from the EP that I just love, "Is It Real?" Enjoy, Strange Talk.

Lin-Sanity!

It took them a solid two weeks to catch on to the "Lin-Sanity" surrounding New York Knicks wonder child Jeremy Lin and the already out dated puns that came with him. But NBC's long running sketch show, Saturday Night Live this weekend produced a hilarious skit playing off ESPN's most recent journalistic muff up.

 I'll admitt when I heard about this being the opening sketch, paired with SNL's habit of producing incredibly sub-par, politically charged openers - I was worried it may just be another over use of the cringe worthy Jeremy Lin puns that had been splashed throughout the American sports media for the last two weeks. However, what I saw was a great spin, focusing on the recent racist remarks made by an ESPN jouralist (who was fired that day) and perhaps more importantly, the current state of American sports journalism in relation to the hypocrisy of racism in America. As they say in the short, American media has learned through such figures as Jackie Robinson to be "Tolerant". But of which race?

Stars Bill Hader as the host of New York Sports Now Dan Mardell, and Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah as two black commentators; and of course the white guy. Enjoy.