Gawker Exposes Megan Fox’s Flower-Giver on Facebook

Last week, a very popular photograph circulated of Megan Fox appearantly ignoring a sweet chubby kid trying to give her a flower:

Kodak then announced that it was offering $5000 to anyone who could identify the boy in the photo.

Earlier today, Gawker recieved an email from a young woman claiming to not only know the identity of the young boy but said she was his friend on Facebook.  Eager to confirm this tip, Gawker tried looking up his page but it was set to private.  So, what did Gawker do?

Since the young lad’s Facebook profile was set to private and can only be viewed by his “friends,” we asked Kim to send us some screengrabs of his Facebook page as proof, and she obliged. As you can see from the gallery below, which includes a pic of our boy with one of those little Jonas freaks, it looks as though we may have found the victim of Megan Fox’s smoldering disdain, an 11 year-old Brit named Harvii.

Yup, they posted the whole thing online.  His whole private collection of photos.  All of it.

Now, this is certainly not the first time someone has had their private social media profile published for all the world to see but it is troubling when a major blog, trying to make at least some stab at legitimacy, does it.  We all know that nothing on the web is private but does that mean we should all just disregard anyone’s effort  to even attempt a modicum of privacy.  It’s not like this kid is a legitimate star who’s just asking for attention.

I’d be curious to hear from any lawyers out there if publishing screengrabs of a private Facebook page is in any way a criminal offense.

Jonas Bros. on Facebook Bad Omen for MySpace

The common wisdom I hear bandied about is that while Facebook is the faster-growing social media site, old favorite MySpace remains the place to be for younger users and a key site for musicians and bands.

Now comes word that the Disney-bred musical freakshow that is The Jonas Brothers (making tween girls ‘ginies tingle is the key to sales) will be debuting their new single live on Facebook:

They’ll be performing the new song, “Paranoid,” in the first of four Webcasts created with a Ustream app for the Facebook platform. Fans can access it by navigating to the band’s Facebook fan page. The Jonas Brothers, who also were poster boys for the debut of the MySpace Music service, also will answer questions from fans and talk about their upcoming tour. That’s at 5 p.m. PDT on Thursday; they’ll host three more Webcasts on May 14, 21, and 28.

It is not a good sign for MySpace that the band switched teams (that sounds like I mean something else but I don’t).  While there are certainly arguments to be made regarding the value of MySpace and it’s prospects downt the line, the new management over there better get things together quickly.  There are few worlds more fickle than the World Wide Web and plenty of well-established sites have faded into obscurity.

LINK

UK’s Social Media Masters Degree Not So Silly

The UK’s Birmingham University is offering a one-year masters program in “social media” and many short-sighted individuals seem to think it is a silly waste of time and money:

Offering courses on how to use social media for business and marketing is one thing. But an entire degree on it? As Politico columnist Ari Melber posits on Twitter, It’s about as brilliant as a degree in email would have been ten years ago. (via)

Here is how the program is described in the GuardianUK:

Students on the £4,000 one-year Social Media degree, offered by Birmingham City University, will explore how we communicate on the websites and how they can be used for marketing.

Other modules on the course will teach students how to start a blog and podcasting techniques. The course is being advertised through a video on the university’s website.

It seems to me, especially in this challenging economic climate, that spending a year mastering the tools of communication online is a far more valuable investment than, say, a two-year masters in English Literature or many other areas of study we’ve all come to accept as “valuable.”

Sure, the basics of social media are not all that complex, but those who are able to master and manipulate those networks stand to end up far ahead of the pack.

If I had the money in hand, I would probably go take the program myself.

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• Brit University offers degree course on Facebook, Twitter! (taragana.com)

ManiaTV Takes a Shot at Being a Music Label

PaidContent has a bit of information about ManiaTV’s latest venture, an attempt to reinvent what it means to be a music label:

it’s jumping into the music business with a new show called Making the Music, which effectively seeks to take over the role long played by the music labels. The original series is focused on hip-hop producer Scoop Deville as he works on a new album—and maniaTV will get a cut of the revenues once the LP is released.

The idea is that Scoop et. al. will be able to use the social media aspects of show as a way to test-market and hone their final product.  Of course, this only works if people tune in and get involved.

I am always interested in new takes on music production and promotion and this is certainly an intriguing idea.  One does have to wonder, with LP sales decreasing pretty steadily, if getting a cut of the record sales is really worth all that much.  Maybe they are cut into the other potential revenue streams such as licensing, touring and merchandising?

The Motrin Mess, Twitter and FAIL

The blogs are all afire over this internet ad posted by the makers of Motrin:

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.747861&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

The first wave of revolt seems to have been largely driven by users of Twitter – you can view a real-time stream of comments here.

If you ever wanted to cite an example of how the internet has shifted the power away from the advertiser look no further.  Not only has Motrin been pounded by everyone for making a stupid and potentially insulting ad, but it all happened literally within hours of the video being posted.

Sure, Motrin immediately took the ad off their site but as well all know, once you post something online there really is no way to get it back – it’s like trying to stir the cream out of your coffee.  Not gonna happen.

That means that all the bad press about Motrin will remain online as will everyone’s ability to go check out the offending ad – whether Motrin likes it or not.
And check out this sampling from around the web:

• “Motrin moms,” a-Twitter over ad, take on Big Pharma–And win
• Flash flood: Mom bloggers and Motrin
• Social Media Storm Erupts as Motrin Brand Campaign implodes, needs to be run by someone who knows the Brand well and Social Media, well
• More Outrage as #MotrinMoms Reaches #2 On Twitter
• Motrin learns about Twitter
• The Motrin Moms Backlash by the Numbers
• Motrin Bows to Social Media Pressure From Moms – Removes Controversial Ad
• Motrin Faces Twitter Headache Over New Video Campaign
• Motrin MANIA!

• Motrin Bows to Social Media Pressure From Moms – Removes Controversial Ad
• Motrin Faces Twitter Headache Over New Video Campaign
• Motrin MANIA!

Honeyshed Is Back – Act Fast, It Won’t Last

Image by danorbit. via Flickr

Honeyshed is a web-based QVC aimed at 20-somethings that had a soft beta lauch sometime last year and is now back with slick packaging and social media integration…and it is still proof that they don’t understand how to sell to young people at all.

Aside from the obvious problem that every product is sponsored, making it hard to trust the opinions of the lovely young hosts, who the hell is going to sit and watch this thing instead of just heading over to Google and doing a proper product search?

QVC is great for the homebound housewife with little else to do all day but why would anyone think the same basic approach would work on the fast-paced hipsters they are sadly courting?

They say they are “Home Shopping for the Digital Generation,” but that’s actually called the internet and today’s youngs don’t need Publicis showing them the way.

Media – Social, New and Alternative (not to mention Dead Tree)

Steve Rubel over on MicroPursuasion is calling for an end to the use of the term “social” media:

“Folks, it’s time for all of us, especially “The Joes,” to give ourselves the self-respect we deserve by calling all of this work “media.” Otherwise, by continuing to propagate the term “social media” we’re just reserving our seat at the kids table for our little cut up pieces of chicken. it’s time to feast on drumsticks like the adults do. Google doesn’t delineate. So why should we?”

One can easily make the same arguement for “New” media (as my only comic strip points out) or “Alternative” media.

The problem is that all media isn’t the same.  What we really need to do is evolve our vocabulary so that we can become more specific, not more general.  When someone says they work in New Media it just doesn’t mean anything anymore – if it ever did.

Social Media – Um, Show Me the Money?

Yay, I used a really old cliche in my header!

The reason is because Wired has written a very smart look at the difficulty of turning huge numbers of social media users (literally millions of people) into large piles of money.

“Social networking was supposed to be the Net’s next rocket to riches. But many social sites are having trouble capitalizing on their audiences, and it’s looking like the convivial atmosphere that promised to boost the value of commercial messages may actually diminish it. Even the big brains at Google are stumped. The search king, which pays a special rate to place ads on MySpace, has suggested that it may be paying too much. “I don’t think we have the killer best way to advertise and monetize the social networks yet,” Sergey Brin admitted during a January conference call with analysts. ”

To the person who figures this out will go gobs and gobs of dollars.