I am 2 years to Ryan Holiday's book"Trust Me, I'm Lying". Never much of a PR person, I learned immediately out of his nonfictional accounts of becoming a"media manipulator" that advertising can be everything after you've built a great item. Since I have to return the book by 12/20 into the San Diego Public Library, I figured this is a good time to write my notes down as a blog article.
Quotes from"Trust Me, I'm Lying"
Orson Scott Card
"Social networking is not a set of tools to permit humans to communicate with people. It is a set of embedding mechanisms to permit technologies to use people to communicate with each other, in an orgy of self-organizing... The Matrix had it wrong. You are not the batter power in a worldwide, human-enslaving AI, you're somewhat more precious. You are part of the switching circuitry"
-Venkatesh Rao (Entrepreneur in residence at Xerox)
"It's a prime example of the feminist blogosphere's tendency to tap into the market force of what I've come to think of as"outrage world" -- the frequently occurring firestorms stirred up on mainstream, for-profit, woman-targeted websites like Jezebel as well, to a lesser level, Slate's own XX Factor and Salon's Broadsheet. They're triggered by authors that are compelling readers to feel what the writers claim is righteously indignant anger but that is really just petty jealousy, cleverly promoted as feminism. All these firestorms are great for page-view-pimping bloggy business."
-Emily Gould from Slate.com
"Companies should anticipate a full scale, organized attack from critics. One that will concurrently overrun blog remarks, Facebook fan pages, and an onslaught of blogs, leading to mainstream media appeal. Start by creating a social media disasters plan and developing inner fire drills to anticipate what would happen."
-Jeremiah Owyang
"Our selves are the home in which we live; they are our information, our personalities, our adventure, our types of artwork, our really experience."
-Daniel Boorstin
Practice Advice in the Book
Control your Wikipedia page (use any press mention from blogs or traditional media)
Examine the best stories and you will notice a pattern: the top stories all polarize poeple. If you create it endanger people's 3 Bs -- behavior, belief, or belongings -- you receive a massive virus-like dispersion
Compose stuff bloggers can post immediately with no work. Feed them their own lies"assist them trick their readers"
Silence on blogs is your worst.
Faking leaks with email editor (from jak zagadac do dziewczyny na rowerze different sources) can work if You've Got the right connections
Media historian W.J. Cfambell once recognized the distinguishing mark of yellow journalism as follows:
Prominent headlines that screamed excitement about utlimately unimportant news
Lavish use of pictures (often of little relevance)
Shade comics and a big, thick Sunday supplement
Ostentatious support of this underdog causes
Use of anonymous sources
Prominent policy of high society and events
Concepts from the publication
Ongoing Narrative /Iterative Reporting -damage is already done, there's no such thing. Iterative reporting is bullshit, people treat information headlines as"cultural fact", the damage is already done, even it's a baseless accusation.
Faking leaks with email editor (from various sources)
The Psychology of Error -- Errors and errors get rewarded, causes outrage = pageviews = money
For instance, each picture is a different load screen = more pageviews (short term vs. long-term metrics). Usability vs. profitability -- publishers are focused blindly on pageviews, but in the long term, consumer trust will be significant. Meanwhile, reckless bloggers are making countless sensationalizing untrue stories.
Snark -- deadly weapon (humour in its dark form. Example = "Your Daily Douchebag: John Mayer Edition". Another online illustration: Hot Chicks using Douchebags
All that occurs -> All that is understood by media --All that is newsworthy ->All that is printed as news -> All that spreads. This is the systematic limiting of the data seen by the General Public
My Action List / Courses in the Book
Websites hold a lot of power
The right contacts in the ideal blogs in a specific sector hold tons of influence. Example: Apple announcements
Building a new site with high viral grip (but with the right user metrics in your mind ) may take off quickly. Sites like Watch Mojo, Ebaumsworld, Break.com, ride the wave of copying content from other people, organized in a digestible way that users can quickly disperse. Millions of dollars are made this way while resources are not credited. There has to be a means to do both.
There's a need for a reputable news source, or a business specific source that does not pander to"mass hysteria". Example: refinery29.com