Get Lucky! -Daft Punk's Marketing Brilliance

Daft Punk got lucky this week. Or did they?

The duo knew exactly what they were doing last weekend at Coachella when they released a funky, catchy teaser for their new single, 'Get Lucky' which also aired during SNL the same night.

Featuring Pharrell on vocals, the song has stuck in my head ever since hearing it. And apparently I'm not alone. It harkens back to the smooth and 'robotic' sound that made Daft Punk huge in the late 90's and has certainly caught the attention of thousands worldwide.

So, what does a DJ duo expect will happen once a 1 minute teaser track is released in this digital age that they have been a big participant in? That hundreds of 'full-song' edits would start appearing online and be shared extensively. Laptops and tablets were logged into right away with tech-savvy fans creating unofficial versions of the song overnight. Social Media channels accelerate the sharing of, and in less than a week, news of the song and forthcoming album (release date May 21) is known worldwide without any further effort nor spending on Daft Punk's side.

I say brilliant.

Until May 21, many more versions will pop up on SoundCloud (500+ and rising), get shared, commented on and liked (or disliked) and without lifting a finger, anticipation for their new album will be high. Will people be sick of the song before it even hits the iTunes store? Maybe. Will those who already love it - like me - be looking forward to hearing the real version? Most definitely.




But wait. Maybe they've come to regret their marketing decision. Or are they worried about that possibility of people getting sick of the song before it even gets released? I can't answer that, but I can report that the official release has been announced, and it is at 12:01am tomorrow, Friday April 18 2013. It appears all the hype gave their plans a quick change. Maybe their fans, as amateur DJ's, have created some unappealing versions that many have mistaken for the real thing, and this doesn't sit well with the duo. Who's to say?

Whether they regret what I think was an ingenious marketing approach or not, their use of Twitter's new video service Vine to announce the track listing for the album and the teaser being featured at Coachella where they performed what is now a legendary show in 2006, have certainly prepped the masses for a new Daft Punk album.

I, for one, will be purchasing the song tomorrow.

Idle No More: Rethink Social Media & Hire an Instructional Designer

If there's one thing that comes up in conversation a lot these days, it's Idle No More. The #IdleNoMore hashtag is buzzing, their Facebook page has racked up almost 75,000 Likes and Chief Theresa Spence has over 35,000 followers of her Twitter account. Impressive numbers, but so what?

Idle No More is taking the wrong approach to Social Media, despite what the press is saying. In a recent Toronto Star article titled, Social Media helps drive Idle No More movement, Karissa Donkin writes:

Idle No More and its rise have been driven by social media, a place where anyone — no matter how physically isolated they are — can participate in discussion and follow news if they have an Internet connection or smartphone.

Yep, similar to the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement, Idle No More (INM) has used the convenience, simplicity and ubiquity of Social Media to connect, grow and speak out. And with good reason. Facebook and Twitter are free to use and available in the palm of your hand and in a vast country such as Canada, these platforms get the word out fast and to all corners.

But, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram need to be used by INM as tools to educate, not simply to rant and collect people together around drum circles and public squares. And they'd do well to hire some expert Instructional Designers to help create their Social Media strategy.

Currently, there are significant gaps between what the 'average Canadian' knows and believes about Aboriginal Canadians and what the latter would have us understand and accept. This obviously limits any support they hope to gain from Canadian taxpayers and the voting public. As instructional designer Connie Malamed states in her post, 'What is instructional design':

Instructional design involves the process of identifying the skills, knowledge, information and attitude gaps of a targeted audience and creating, selecting or suggesting learning experiences that close this gap, based on instructional theory and best practices from the field.

Therefore, hand in hand with skilled instructional designers, INM must design an approach to closing the knowledge, information and attitude gaps that exist between themselves and the rest of Canada. And the tools to educate, connect and engage should include, at the very least, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Here's what I briefly worked out on my whiteboard that I will expand upon more after the image (please click on photo for enlarged version):

Let me elaborate on what I'm getting at in the photo. Chief Theresa Spence is being criticized -and I think rightly so- for not granting access to the media on Victoria Island where she is undergoing a hunger strike. If INM wants to garner support, then transparency is key. 

Via Facebook and Twitter, INM is connecting and updating supporters, building momentum and organizing protests. 

And the media is doing its part to confuse and overwhelm the public with their biases. 

The result? Idle No More vs. Canada. 

How do INM go from versus Canada to plus Canada instead? Through creative instructional design and use of Social Media. For example:

1) Twitter: 

• Host Idle No More Twitter chats that broaden the discussion and involve more citizens. 
• Educate Canadians on the Idle No More issues via succinct tweets and links to documents that explain what INM is demanding. 
• Tweet links that illustrate the history of Native Canadians and why current demands exist. 
• Engage followers AND detractors on the Twitter stream like many corporations do effectively. 

2) Pinterest: 

• Pin recipes and photos of unique Aboriginal cuisine. 
• Pin photos of Native Canadian clothing, styles and fashions from all Aboriginal nations. 
• Focus on individual chiefs by giving them a pinboard spotlight. 

3) Instagram: 

• Show the 'rest of Canada' who you are = photos of reserves, paintings, sculpture, textiles, etc.
• Demonstrate daily life through photos = Native Canadian portraits, customs, events, etc. 
• Encourage Aboriginal photographers to submit and participate. 

4) Facebook: 

• Include documents, posts and videos that educate and illustrate what it is you're wanting from the rest of Canada and the government. 
• Announce activities that Canadians can attend and experience, giving opportunities to rub shoulders with members of INM and create meaningful connections. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as I'm concerned, but I think even these few ideas I've explored would help bridge the gaps immensely. What do you think? 

Death to Learning Styles?!

In the past two years, I have learned so much about so many things that if it weren't for Evernote and PearlTrees, it would be hard to keep track of it all! One of the things I've learned about and appreciated was the Kolb Learning Styles Inventory.

Once the group I was in learned what style they most closely connected with and then separated out into those sub-groups, we had a blast! (Well, the Divergers certainly did!) I was utterly amazed at how blatantly we demonstrated our learning style characteristics and it truly opened up a new way of thinking for me. It also helped me improve my instructional design that I was working on at the time and helped me to challenge myself to learn in varied ways.

Now, over the past month, this lone tweet in the Twitter-verse appeared along with a subsequent blog post and has stirred up some conversation:

I posted Mark's blog post on Twitter and LinkedIn and was honestly surprised at the quick responses and to which way they were leaning -leave the learning styles behind. Surprised because of how valuable learning about these styles had proven to be for me and others.

Mark writes:

It is the desired Learning Objective or Performance Outcome (and, to some extent, the content) that will determine an appropriate instructional strategy. While instructors and leaders may have a responsibility to support the learner through their progression from (potentially) novice to (developing) expert, they still have to acknowledge the optimum methods for delivering said instruction. Any instructor trying to adapt instruction to ALL learning styles (e.g. Kolb) is setting themselves up for failure.

I read this and my immediate reaction was, 'Really??' And my second reaction came from my love of Social Media: 'How great it is that I can connect and discuss issues and topics like these with people from all over because of a tweet and a post!'

The Learning Objectives and the Performance Outcomes we focus on are certainly crucial to effective instruction and training and I agree that adult learners are ultimately responsible for their learning. But aren't we called 'facilitators' for a reason? Are we not out there to facilitate deep, meaningful and engaged learning? And can we not enhance our approach by ensuring that in our Learning Objectives, Performance Outcomes, content and presentation that Divergers and other learning styles are 'targeted' and considered? I have come to believe that the 'optimum methods' for delivery would mean making sure you don't simply cater to Assimilators and hand your learners a textbook and say, 'Read it'. So, if you're not 'adapting instruction to ALL learning styles', who are you leaving out and disengaging? And can you make those that aren't engaged 'responsible' for their own learning when you've basically left them out of the equation and they can't relate?

I still believe from personal experience and conversation, that many people do not adopt Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook into their professionl development or personal lives because of their learning styles. But don't quote me on that, because as a lifelong learner, I'm still doing just that -learning.

I would love to know what you think about the Learning Styles approach to instruction and training, so please add your comments below and thanks for continuing the conversation!

SPECIAL NOTE: Join me for tonight's Learn with Me Twitter Chat at 8pm EST (December 3, 2012) where we will be discussing this issue of Learning Styles and their value, the case against and what alternative viewpoints and approaches lead to engaged learning as well. Use the hashtag #learnwme and see you tonight!

Student Snitching: No Laptops During Class

A few weeks ago, the Toronto Star published an article about Professor Henry Kim at York University's Schulich School of Business. The focus of the article was on Kim's approach to students using laptops while in his classes. To ensure 'proper' use of their laptops, Kim has created two pledges the students must agree to:
1 - No laptop use for anything other than class work.
2 - Spy on their classmates' screens and report truthfully on what they see.

Now, I'm not sure what your first reaction is to reading those two pledges, but mine wasn't positive. (Before I go further, I'd like to point out that the comments posted by readers are quite an interesting read, too.) My first thought was, 'He doesn't get it'. Then I read on to see what his reasoning would be for his classroom rules:

By recruiting this new breed of screen snitches, Kim hopes to make digital distraction so socially awkward that students will close forbidden windows — Facebook, email, Sikh field hockey matches — and plug into class.

So again I react, "Why is Facebook 'forbidden'"? I wonder what the reasons behind students tuning out and watching sports matches are?  Does Prof Kim need to focus more on what he's doing -or not doing- rather than what his students are doing, or should be doing?

Kicking students out of your classroom for looking at something deemed 'improper' on their laptop screen seems to me counter-productive. I consider that Kim could instead be more engaging himself. Maybe he could use some creativity and have the students actively use Facebook, email, Twitter and Pinterest to expand their learning experience with digital tools they've come to love.

Could there be one class online, one class offline? Would it work better if the first 45 minutes of the class occur with laptops closed and students knowing that they can open and use laptops productively for the following 60 minutes of class time? I'm thinking there has to be better solutions than spying, snitching and expulsion from the lecture hall.

Prof Kim rightly asserts:

There’s not an ounce of scientific evidence that students can actually multi-task and learn.

I personally do not feel, however, that the issue here is of multi-tasking and whether it inhibits learning or not.  I believe we cannot fight the digital wave that is crashing down upon us daily nor do it in a way that is not going to turn many away from learning. There are ways to integrate digital technology into classrooms successfully, so let's find those ways, create new ones and keep the learners in their seats -engaged, excited and passionate. If we don't, then more comments like 'steboy' will be made:

Saying we should sit straight and pay attention but not take the care to find out if we're going to want to be there is double talk. This issue seems personal to you, are you a bad teacher? Because I pay attention to the good ones.

Let me know your take on this article and Prof Kim's approach in the comments below.

 

Facebook: UnLike

A number of people have asked me today to weigh in on this article from Dangerous Minds that went 'viral' this week in the Social Media sphere, so I'll try. Richard Metzger is undeniably angered and frustrated by what Facebook has done by forcing the sponsored posts business model: 

“I despise it.” Hear that beleaguered holders of Facebook stock? That kind of talk would make my blood run cold. How many companies can you name that you actively despise?

For online publishers who depend on “page views” to sell advertising against—and who have invested considerable time and effort courting Facebook fans—the company’s new policies are particularly galling: Imagine losing 85% of your inventory and then being asked to pay a daily king’s ransom—more than it’s even worth to you—to get it back!

Netflix was only trying to soak you for another $6 a month, not starve you to death!

First, for the $2000 Dangerous Minds spent on promoting this article, I believe they certainly got their money's worth considering the reach this has had already and is still going strong. Obviously they can't afford that cost on a daily basis however, but in this instance it worked quite fine actually.

Second, Facebook is 'free' for the majority of us, and one side of me says that nothing is ever free and therefore these changes should have been expected someday - maybe just not to such exorbitant rates. (I won't get into Big Data in this article and its value.) As mentioned in the article, the pricing scale needs to be adjusted and fast. Small businesses shouldn't be paying the same as Ford or Nike when deciding to promote posts on Facebook. And Facebook, not exactly hurting for cash presently or anytime soon, should be content with the hundreds, or thousands of dollars smaller businesses will throw their way yearly with a different cost structure, like the one mentioned by Metzger: 

But make no mistake about it. Had Facebook debuted the Promote “option” with a more reasonable rate card that would apply to frequently updated blogs and media outlets—something akin to “book rate” at the post office—we’d have been willing to pay between $7 to $10 a post. Facebook WOULD have made around $2500 to $3000 a month from Dangerous Minds, every month. That’s around $30,000 a year, but apparently the price of a new car is not enough for Facebook to want to cultivate Dangerous Minds as a customer! 

It believe it is true, though, that pulling this 'bait n' switch' on your customers as Zuckerberg has done without sufficient notice or properly disseminated information, is a huge, mind-boggling blunder that is already having unwanted ramifications on a company whose IPO tanked spectacularly. When you have Google+ hot on your tail, what Facebook has done is simply not smart.

Finally, although I have empathy for those small businesses who are now screwed by this new sponsored post deal, I also want to state that even just 8 years ago these same businesses were paying for ads in newspapers, magazines and possibly radio without much complaint as it was simply part of the cost of doing business. The fact that brand page promotion has been mostly free all this time is frankly a miracle. (Again, leaving Big Data out of the equation.)

So, is what Facebook is doing wrong? Partly. Should it be surprising? Not for a publicly traded corporation in a capitalist world. Should small/er business like Dangerous Minds jump ship? No. They might creatively try to provide content that gets spread around without needing to pay simply because their fans love it, and them. There's always a solution, isn't there? 

Facebook How To: Take control of your News Feed

Many of us use Facebook numerous times daily, but don't take advantage of all the settings and customization that is possible. Jay Baer - host of the Social Pros podcast that I listen to - has written an excellent article about taking control of your Facebook News Feed, '3 Ways to Fight Facebook's Algorithm and Customize Your Feed'.

Jay gives some great information before explaining these '3 Ways', to give us an idea of how Facebook's algorithm currently works:

Facebook has altered the math of the game so that only posts that get a disproportionate amount of engagement (likes, clicks, comments, shares) will be seen by a lot of people – regardless of whether those people are fans or friends. This opens up more real estate for Promoted Posts (ads) from companies or people. That’s right, Facebook also (somewhat quietly) announced that they are opening up the option for individuals to buy exposure on a per-post basis. So, if you want even more people to see your cat doing that funny thing, you can spend $7 to make it so.

He then clearly and succinctly (yay!) explains the 3 ways to take control of your News Feed which I've listed below:

1. Change Your News Feed Setting to Most Recent

2. Use Facebook’s Friends Organizer Tool

3. Change Story Preferences For Individuals 

So, I recommend you check out Jay's article and make a stronger effort to see what you want to see on your Feed and/or change it up once in a while to make it more interesting. I've done the changes already. Let me know how you make out.

 

 

Yes, Facebook enriches my life

I admit that it often surprises me when I hear people criticize Facebook and exclaim proudly that they would never join. How they don't want to see pictures of their friends' meals or pets and that they want to hold on to their privacy.

I like to see what my friends are cooking and/or eating, as long as it doesn't look like a big hot mess on their plates! My Brazilian friend posted a photo of the white sausages he ate today while on his trip to Germany. Although they don't look appetizing to me, I'm glad he's enjoying his adventure and trying new things abroad.

Now pets? Well, I'm a sucker for a cute dog or cat picture, so no big problem for me there. As you see below, I'm guilty of participating in the 'cats taking over the internet' phenomenon, too.

But let me tell you about how Facebook has actually provided value in my life over the past dozen or so weeks, starting with beer. 

The week of the Toronto Beer Fest in July, I entered a contest posted only on Facebook by a local promoter and won two free passes to the event! I must point out, that craft breweries in Quebec are rocking it!

I have crowd-sourced information about a local internet service provider, been informed of when my favourite coffee -Kicking Horse decaf- went on sale and in which grocery store and thoroughly enjoyed some meaningful debate over Chavez' recent win in Venezuela. And just two days ago a friend posted that he had free tickets available to Cirque du Soleil's current show, Amaluna, which I thankfully snapped up and was again amazed at the talent of the Cirque's performers that evening. 

So, yes, Facebook enriches my life in various and welcome ways. How about you? Share ways Facebook has provided value in your own life below in comments. 

How To: Follow/Unfollow Posts on Facebook

I'm on Facebook a lot and my list of friends grows weekly. It's a Social Media platform I really like to engage with and engage with others worldwide who also use it. However, the more you use it, the more notifications can pile up regarding every and any thing you've ever 'liked' and/or commented on from your friends' posts.

This can sometimes be overwhelming and frankly annoying. Many of the photos or posts I comment on are just 'one-offs' for me - I don't need to see who else liked them or commented on them, and I certainly don't want to be notified every time they do. Sound familiar?

Here's what you do:

1) Click on the notification that is informing you of someone else's interaction with a friend's post. For example: 'Jamie Good likes your comment....' This will take you to where you originally commented or 'liked'.

2) See 3 choices-as shown in the image below: Like, Comment, Unfollow post.

3) Click on 'Unfollow post', and you will no longer receive notifications from this post or posted photo making your notifications list much shorter and less bothersome. 

I hope that helps. Please leave any comments below. Thanks.