I am 2 years late to Ryan Holiday's publication"Trust Me, I am working". Never much of a PR person, I learned quickly from his nonfictional accounts of becoming a"media manipulator" that marketing can be everything after you have built a great item. Since I have to return the publication by 12/20 to the San Diego Public LibraryI figured this is a good time to write my notes down as a blog article.
Quotes in"Trust Me, I am working"
"We play by their rules long enough and it becomes our match" --
Orson Scott Card
"Social networking is not a set of tools to permit humans to communicate with humans. It's a pair of embedding mechanisms to permit technology to use people to communicate with one another, in an orgy of self-organizing... The Matrix had it wrong. You are not the batter power in a global, human-enslaving AI, you are slightly more precious. You are part of the switching circuitry"
-Venkatesh Rao (Entrepreneur in residence at Xerox)
"it is a prime example of the feminist blogosphere's tendency to tap in the market force of what I've come to think of as"outrage planet" -- the regularly occurring firestorms stirred up on mainstream, for-profit, woman-targeted websites such as Jezebel and also, to a lesser degree, Slate's own XX Factor and Salon's Broadsheet. They're ignited 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 co napisać do dziewczyny z klasy feminism. All these firestorms are great for page-view-pimping bloggy business."
-Emily Gould out of Slate.com
"Businesses should expect a full-scale, organized attack from critics. One which will simultaneously overrun blog remarks, Facebook fan pages, along with an onslaught of sites, leading to mainstream press appeal. Begin by developing a social networking disasters plan and growing inner fire drills to expect what would happen."
-Jeremiah Owyang
"Our illusions are the home in which we live; they're our news, our heroes, our adventure, our types of art, our very experience."
Exercise Advice in the Novel
Control your Wikipedia page (use any media mention from blogs or traditional media)
Examine the top stories and you'll notice a pattern: the best stories all polarize poeple. If you create it threaten people's 3 Bs -- behavior, belief, or belongings -- you receive a massive virus-like dispersion
Compose stuff bloggers can post right away without any work. Feed them their own lies"help them trick their subscribers"
Silence on blogs is the worst.
Faking leaks with email editor (from different sources) can operate if you have the Ideal contacts
Media historian W.J. Cfambell once recognized the distinguishing markers of yellow journalism as follows:
Prominent headlines that cried excitement about utlimately unimportant news
Luxury use of images (often of little relevance)
Color comics and a big, thick Sunday nutritional supplement
Ostentatious aid of this underdog causes
Use of anonymous sources
Prominent policy of high society and events
Concepts from the book
Ongoing Narrative /Iterative Reporting -harm is already done, there is no such thing. Iterative reporting is bullshit, folks treat information headlines as"cultural truth", the damage is already done, even it it is a baseless accusation.
Faking escapes with email editor (from different sources)
The Psychology of Error -- Errors and errors get rewarded, causes outrage = pageviews = money
For instance, each image is a different load screen = more pageviews (short term vs. long-term metrics). Usability vs. profitability -- publishers are focused liberally on pageviews, but in the long term, consumer trust will be significant. Meanwhile, reckless bloggers are making millions from sensationalizing stories that are untrue.
Snark -- mortal weapon (humour in its dark form. Another online illustration: Hot Chicks using Douchebags
All that happens -> All that's understood by media --All that's newsworthy ->All that is printed as news -> All that spreads. This is the systematic limiting of the information seen by the public
My Action List / Courses in the Book
Headlines matter
Blogs hold a lot of power
The ideal contacts in the right sites in a certain sector hold lots of influence. Example: Apple statements
Building a new site with high viral traction (however with the ideal user metrics in mind) can take off quickly. Websites like Watch Mojo, Ebaumsworld, Break.com, ride the tide of copying content from others, organized in a digestible manner that users can quickly disperse. Millions of dollars are created this way while resources are not credited. There has to be a way to do both.
There's a demand for a reputable news source, or a business specific source that doesn't pander to"mass hysteria". Case in point: refinery29.com