SEO Werkt!

 It’s a great idea. Unleash well-produced zombies as mailmen, first-responders, shoppers on the streets of city, capture the ‘freak-outs’ of passerby’s and then cap with the meaningful, action-inducing message.

“Put Zombies Back on TV” is the flag we are waving. AMC Networks is the one doing the waving. We have seen these disputes before between content publishers/networks and the distributors. Usually it is about money. Who gets what slice of the pie. It is usually pretty complex and impossible to decipher who is “in the right.” Essentially, it is two big corporations battling to protect their business needs. The consumer’s interest doesn’t enter into it unless you count the enjoyment we get from watching their programming (which we pay for one way or another). And this is where this corporate advocacy program falls apart. The best that they can do is to try and trigger AMC show fans (e.g. Walking Dead, Mad men, Breaking Bad) to scream bloody murder.

The Zombies are great. Of course, I am exactly who they are trying to reach….almost. I love Walking Dead and all of the combined zombie canon. Problem is, I am not a DISH Network customer. Best that I can do for them is share the video or share the message of the campaign. The DISH network customer, on the other hand, they want them to literally switch to another provider who does carry the AMC shows.

Three problems

The issue is too complex and I really don’t know who to support in the battle.  AMC hasn’t done enough to simplfy the issue, if that is even possible. Here’s how they explain the issue on their microsite:

“DISH’s decision to drop AMC, WEtv, IFC and Sundance Channel had nothing to do with our fees, or our shows. In fact, unlike almost every other dispute you see between providers and programmers, and despite DISH’s misleading claims to the contrary, this is not about fees.

The simple truth is that DISH is using their consumers as pawns to attempt to gain leverage in a lawsuit involving an old and unrelated business venture that has nothing to do with AMC, nothing to do with our shows or fees, and certainly nothing to do with DISH subscribers, who just want to watch the shows they love and are paying DISH for. You will not see any AMC Networks’ shows on DISH any time soon.

In other words, since DISH’s reason for depriving you of AMC programming is based on a lawsuit that won’t be resolved for a long time, this problem won’t be solved shortly, unlike other disputes between programmers and providers, which typically are resolved in a matter of days (weeks at most).” 

Huh? What “old and unrelated business venture?” Without simplicity and transparency I cannot possibly form a view as to which profit-making enterprise is worth supporting. AMC’s claims that the only way I see my beloved show is by voicing my discontent or outright switching (to one of the cable providers who are not likely to be bastions of customer goodwill, themselves)

If you are a glutton for detail (it won’t help sort it) then here is how Chip Lebovitz at CNN Money summarized it:

“The two companies have waged a legal war for over four years. In 2008, AMC Networks and its then-parent company, Cablevision, sued Dish (DISH) for $2.5 billion for breaching its 2005 carriage contract with Voom HD, a suite of channels created by a Cablevision (CVC) subsidiary. The dispute centers on whether Dish violated the contract when it dropped Voom because, Dish claims, Voom didn't spend enough money on programming. A trial is set for September 18th in the New York Supreme Court.

The timing of Dish's decision to drop AMC seems retaliatory. Dish first threatened to drop AMC in May, a week after it lost an appeal in the Voom lawsuit…

This is a litigation strategy. By not renewing [AMC Networks], Dish gained leverage in the underlying lawsuit," says Thomas Claps, an analyst at Susquehanna Group. "It highlights the fact that Dish faces significant headwinds in the [Voom] trial."…

According to Nielsen, in the last six months The Walking Dead had the highest rating in the key 18-49 demographic among Dish's basic cable subscribers. The network also has popular shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

Any Dish blackout of AMC, regardless of its motivations, hurts AMC significantly more than it does Dish. Without access to Dish's 14 million subscribers, AMC ratings and ad revenue will drop, weakening a company already struggling with net debt of over $2 billion.”

I feel like a zombie on the wrong end of one of Darryl’s arrows from the show The Walking Dead. My head hurts.

 The second problem I have is a simple social design and messaging one. They need my advocacy even if I am just a fan and not a customer. The video has a proper ‘throw’ to the “putzombiesback.com” site. Okay, I’ll bite (so-to-speak). But once there, my actions are not as clear and simple as they could be.  If I am a customer, they want me to switch. If not, I can either go to the @AMC_Assist  Twitter handle (>750 followers) or click on one of the ubiquitous social network share buttons at the bottom of the page (only 15K Likes on Facebook and only 5 Tweets?).

I want to share content not pages. Crafting a fan-oriented message that links to the video yet still carries a message of the campaign is what we need. Instead, the auto-fill on the tweet-share says something flat and not action-oriented. 

“DISH Customers have lost AMC, WE TV, IFC and SUNDANCE Channel.”

Why not, 

“If you luv Walking Dead, don’t let DISH Network keep it from 14 million fans. Join the Zombie swarm (link).” 

This lets me be a part, keeps the focus on the show I have an affinity for, and  drives me to deeper content as a collective action. 

The thrid problem is hardly that simply because I dont know what they have done to market this effort to the right people. But I hope that are using Facebook's Connections Analysis Tool (CAT) and other targeting efforts to deliver stories with clear calls-to-action to people who are fams of the shows, live in Dish customer regions, have affinity for similar programming, are big TV lovers and so forth. They could run this more as an advocacy program and less like a corporate issue deserving of a newspaper ad and, in this case, a cool video wth a mcirosite support.

Half a job done, I think. 

But wait, then there is the response from Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, not much a fan of AMC programs. he essentially recommends that we just watch our video programs through iTunes. Not sure what kind of advice that is from someone who runs a satellite network:

"He was also dismissive of AMC which has acclaimed series includingMad Men and Breaking Bad. “They’re critically acclaimed but not viewed as much by our audience”, he says. “And our customers can go to iTunes and get Mad Menthe same time it’s on. We could pay the entire iTunes bill and it would be cheaper”

16 days of intense competitions around Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in London are over. And to send us off into the ‘Time after The Olympics’ adidas UK have produced this fun little video in record time. It features many stars of Team GB miming Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. A nice and warm way to remind us of the joy and humanity of the events.
Strategically adidas linked the video to their overall Olympics campaign ‘Take the Stage’ with David Beckham top and tailing the video as a fictional director and the final hash tag #stagetaken.

I think Jessica Ennis and Victoria Pendleton show some serious star quality - and all of this in an unusual low-budget (by adidas standards) kind of production. There is more on the Making Of here on director Philip Bloom’s blog.

Client: adidas UK

So the London 2012 Olympic Games have come to an end.

A spectacular closing ceremony last night – with music, song, dance, awe-inspiring stadium lighting and fireworks that made up the greatest show on earth – brought the past two weeks of competition to an emotional climax.

The sight of the Olympic spirit rising as a phoenix from the dying flame is an excellent metaphor to apply to the 2012 Olympics legacy in the coming weeks and months, not only in terms of the big picture politicians and others are painting about investing in school sports throughout the UK (“empowering a new generation”) and helping British businesses “reap the rewards”,  but also for Team GB and the launch platform their success has built in these games.

All the doubt, worry and criticisms before London 2012 about our ability to host these games quietly vanished within days of the start, replaced instead with powerful and growing feelings and displays of national pride as we witnessed thousands of athletes from around the world doing amazing things in open competition, right here in our capital city and other places of competition around the UK.

Indeed, worldwide worry disappeared.

And we were suddenly proud to be British, uplifted especially by the achievements of our Team GB, collectively and individually – and that includes the 70,000 volunteers – with their selfless hard work, team spirit and determination to succeed, maybe even win a medal or two.

If government can enable the framework – that’s their prime job – then Team GB can be an influential player to kick-start the legacy.

As they say so compellingly, don’t stop me now.

There are a few different music festivals in San Francisco and nearby — like the annual (FREE) Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival and Treasure Island. But my favorite has to be Outside Lands, which just happens to be taking place this weekend. In part, that’s because beyond just having a great lineup, Outside Lands wins at providing an all-around great experience on the web, through various social networks, and on mobile devices.

On mobile

The best part of Outside Lands might be its mobile apps, which are designed to help users get around. If you’re going to Outside Lands and you somehow haven’t downloaded the official iPhone or Android app, correct that now. It’s pretty invaluable.

It’ll provide you with maps of the different stages, as well as various food, beer, and wine options. Users can also create their own lineup of bands they want to see, and the apps send push notifications when the schedule changes, as it’s wont to do. It also has built-in GroupMe messaging, so that users can connect with their friends and coordinate where they’re meeting. Outside Lands also has a mobile web experience for users who don’t have one of those fancy smartphones with apps.

On Twitter

The Outside Lands app is just one part of its strategy, though. Outside Lands also has a pretty substantial social profile on Facebook and Twitter. On Twitter, the official @sfoutsidelands is manned by Ranger Dave, who posts Instagram photos, scheduling changes, and witty anecdotes, all in the third person. Ranger Dave has almost 18,000 followers, which is pretty impressive when you consider that the festival will probably draw more than 60,000 attendees each day.

ranger dave is ready for round two. rise and shine people.

— Ranger Dave (@sfoutsidelands) August 11, 2012

On Facebook

The Outside Lands Facebook page, which has amassed more than 100,000 likes, is also an informative one-stop shop for schedule changes and highlights from each day of the show. It’s also got a pretty awesome Q&A thing going where fans can submit questions to their favorite bands at the show, and the Outside Lands team will get answers. How cool is that?

On Instagram

What would a music festival be without pretty pictures? If you’re in SF, your Instagram is probably blowing up with photos from the show, but it’s also worth following the official feed, which has some pretty awesome photos.

Basically, this is how all music festivals should be… And increasingly, it’s what visitors have come to expect. That’s true not just for the weekend of a show, but also to keep fans interested year-round.

The SoLoMo Show is a weekly podcast hosted by Adam Helweh and Cory OBrien. Each week they discuss topics, trends and tactics related to social, local and mobile marketing. Every weekend we will publish the latest episode, related show notes and links to all of the topics discussed on the show here on Social Media Explorer.

Adam and Cory discuss what smartphone apps shoppers are using and how brick and mortar stores can take advantage of this mobile trend, Starbucks teaming up with Square and why this might signal a huge increase in mobile payments, Pinterest alternatives The Fancy and Svpply and how they are better matches to the needs of retail businesses, Land Rover’s Apple iAd case study and what you can learn from this big budget campaign, a review of Scribe SEO and how you can use it to optimize your content marketing, Facebook’s official estimate of their ‘undesirable’ accounts and if you should be worried, the return of Digg and whether or not marketers should be paying attention, brands that are active on SocialCam and what their results signal for the network, how to verify your Google+ business page, and more.

Show Notes:

• What Smartphone Apps Do Savvy Shoppers Use The Most?
• Starbucks and Sqaure Team Up
• The Fancy
• The Fancy One-Ups Pinterest with Unique Referral Codes to Reward Users for Sharing
• Svpply
• Svpply: Window Shop The World With Our Store Explorer
• iAd + Land Rover
• iAd Producer App
• iAd Gallery App
• Scribe SEO
• Facebook Estimates 8.7% of Users Are Undesirable
• Digg
• Brands Try Out SocialCam
• Verifying Your Google+ Page

SoLoMo Show Links:

• SoLoMoShow.com
• Subscribe: iTunes, Email or YouTube
• Twitter: @SoLoMoShow, @CoryOBrien and @SecretSushi
• Email: SoLoMoShow@gmail.com

Assuming all goes well and we didn't just jinx ourselves, GamesBeat is launching its official podcast this coming Monday, August 13!

We're calling the show BYOT: Bring Your Own Topic.

Every other week, we're going to have three new guests on, and each will bring his or her own gaming-related topic (revolving around a special theme) for the group to discuss. In between conversations, we'll be grilling our friends with tough questions in our dreaded 4 Hit Points trivia game. Can they survive? Let's just say it was really ugly for our first show….

(If this podcast format sounds familiar, yes, BYOT is the second coming of the old Mobcast by Bitmob.com. By popular demand, and thanks to our sponsor Playhaven, we're able to bring it back under a new name.)

In BYOT #1, the GamesBeat staff will argue about the good and crappy of 2012 (so far). We'll follow up that episode with "The comedians of the gaming industry" and, after that, a trip down a pixelated and possibly fuzzy memory lane in an all-retro show.

Make sure you tune in on Monday, because we plan on bribing listeners with fabulous prizes (including i7 Core Processors from Intel, free games, and more). Follow GamesBeat on Facebook or Twitter to get announcements on when new BYOTs go live. And special thanks to Todd Windsor, who won our contest to come up with a new name for this podcast!

If rumors hold true, Apple should be gearing up to unveil its latest iGadgets in just a few weeks, and it’s no surprise that all sorts of questionable leaks are now worming their way into daylight.

The latest of those purported leaks comes in the form of images obtained by the French site Nowherelse.fr that reportedly depict Apple’s tiny new dock connector next to a USB plug. Got your grains of salt ready?

Good, let’s go.

Right now there are so many numbers floating around that it’s hard to make sense of what’s actually happening. TechCrunch and Reuters independently confirmed that Apple’s new dock connector would have 19 pins, but persistent rumors (along with some snippets of code within iOS 6) point to the existence of a 9-pin connector. Still others have been reporting an 8-pin connection, much like the one seen in these pictures.

So what gives? Who’s right?

At this point, who knows. It’s possible that we’re only seeing one side of the connector, and that a handful of pins live on the other side — whomever took the pictures doesn’t seem to have photographed the opposite end of the connector. Well, that or both sides of the plug are identical. It’s also possible that, as MacRumors’ Arnold Kim puts it on Twitter, the metal edge of the connector could effectively serve as a grounding pin, which pushes the number to nine.

Or, if we start paring down possibilities with Occam’s razor, we could also draw the conclusion that the images are fake and that there are better ways to spend a Friday than wracking our brains over Apple minutiae. Either way, there’s no way to get a full sense of what’s going on here.

For what it’s worth, the design doesn’t actually look too bad — I could conceivably see Apple running with something like this, though I have to wonder how sturdy the inevitably big-to-small dock connector adapter is going to be. In any case, there’s no way in hell that these images aren’t going to be followed up by even more leaks and speculation, so hold on for the ride.

UPDATE: Nowherelse.fr has updated their original post with a bit more information about the mysterious connector. iDownloadBlog‘s Sebastien Page (who in addition to being a nice guy speaks fluent French) offers up the following translation:

“We have obtained new information about this connector. We have indeed learned that it is not equipped with 8 but 16 pins with distinct functions (8 pins on each side), noting that one side would currently have no specific function and might be saved for future use.”

Reich took a vacation — lucky guy — and had a brainstorm:

Robert Reich,  Back from Three Weeks Vacation with a Bold Proposal

Here’s a bold proposal I offer free of charge to Obama or Romney: Every American should get a mandatory minimum of three weeks paid vacation a year.

Most Americans only get two weeks off right now. But many don’t even take the full two weeks out of fear of losing their jobs. One in four gets no paid vacation at all, not even holidays. Overall, Americans have less vacation time than workers in any other advanced economy.

This is absurd. A mandatory three weeks off would be good for everyone — including employers.

Studies show workers who take time off are more productive after their batteries are recharged. They have higher morale, and are less likely to mentally check out on the job.

This means more output per worker — enough to compensate employers for the cost of hiring additional workers to cover for everyone’s three weeks’ vacation time.

Sounds good, but Reich never mentions what the so-called self-employed are supposed to do. I guess this is another way that the government could screw us over, like having to pay both halves of social security taxes.

Here’s a thought. Since Freelancers are at least 30% of the professional and creative workforce in the US now, so if Reich’s vacation idea becomes law (as if) maybe the laws could have a clause granting a tax rebate that is equivalent to 3/52’s of our freelance income, each year. That way we could receive ‘paid’ vacation each year.

But his proposal will go nowhere in this ideologically charged political environment. Who is going to stand up for the average worker, after all? No one.

And Dr. Reich? Please don’t forget the freelancers. You were the Secretary of Labor once, so it looks bad for everyone.