People think I am a dick.

Prejudice. It’s a bad thing.

I’m a victim of prejudice. I am sure we all have been at some point. Some more than others, due to appearance, gender, race, disabilities, and many other completely unfounded reasons. Prejudice is what builds walls between us, and prevents individuals who practice it from experiencing everything life has to offer.

I’m guilty of prejudice too. I’ve made judgments based on the strangest of criteria when it comes to evaluating people. However, just recently I came to the realization that I am being judged in the social media space based on perhaps the strangest criteria of all.

I have an odd name.

In the social media world, you are two things on the surface from which people make judgements: a screen name, and an avatar. If you’re lazy like a lot of folks, your avatar is generic, so you’re just a screen name. I like to be 100% transparent about who I am online, so whenever possible, I use “mikehollywood” as my screen name.

So here’s the rub - I’ve been asking people I’ve met lately (at SXSW notably) what their initial take is on my screen name, and if they would even click through to see what I am about if they noticed I followed them. The answers:

“Selling something.”

“Self absorbed.”

“Not real.”

“Dickhead.”

“Bot.”

“Spam account.”

“Arrogant.”

“Porn Star.” (this actually may be the most frequent…)

For those that know me, I do my best to avoid all of the descriptions above. For the most part, I am a quiet guy. I don’t chest-thump. I’m a bit socially awkward at times. I’m decidedly not in the shape I would need to be for any chance at the porn star thing.

I actually was just visiting a big ad agency in NYC, and happened to catch a glance at an email that happened to be on the screen when we arrived. Evidently, the account team we were working with thought it would be fun to speculate if my name was real (it is) and if it was a stage name (it’s Irish.) Judging by the reactions I get when introduced in new circles, I can only assume that this conversation has played out numerous times, no doubt with someone taking random pot-shots at the defenseless.

Even some of my best friends from college have admitted to me that they were initially put off by the air of arrogance that assuming the Hollywood name comes with. My best friends initially thought I was an asshole… man, that’s some ditch to have to climb out of!

So what’s a guy to do? On the one hand, I have this tremendous asset - a memorable name that some folks would die for. (I’ve had marriage proposals tendered on the spot before.) On the other, it creates boundaries between me and many other people that make a judgement based on something as silly as the last 9 letters of my twitter handle. I’ve thought about changing it… but momentum is a powerful force. That’d just be too hard, given the number of platforms on which I’ve established myself. Plus, adopting a “stage name” to avoid people thinking I have a “stage name” is strangely ironic.

For now, it stays. But if you meet me, or if this blog post is your first exposure to me, please… don’t judge.

I just don’t see how this sells office supplies…

Year four for Elf Yourself, which got coverage in Mashable not once, but twice.

Hopefully, after four years, people can remember it’s Office Max that puts this on, and not Staples.

Cute video. Though I think there is something that agencies and brands of all kinds could learn about capturing an event like this - over-production kills the vibe. This effort, with the slick audio mix and the dramatic pull-backs to demonstrate scale make it feel corrupted. A flash mob that happens without the hours of account-team and creative planning, that truly is about a bunch of “performance artists” getting together and entertaining on the spur of the moment, conveys a raw, captured with a handycam-type vibe.

Happy Holidays. May we all have smarter marketing under our trees this year.

Changes on the way for blogger outreach

With the new FTC guidelines for online disclosure just around the corner, brands, agencies and bloggers are all doing their best to understand what this means for online reviews and product information. Jason Kottke successfully (and humorously) turned a 57-word blog post into 375 with the disclosures he included. At the same time, a new site

launched which is trying to standardize the disclosure copy that bloggers, tweeters and other online content creators can use to disclose their association with a product or brand.

You’ll notice there are several “flavors” of disclosure – this is probably not the be-all-end-all solution, but if you are looking for ways to ensure your online contacts are being transparent, you may want to use this copy as a suggested starting point for the disclosure statement.

Certainly this is going to be an interesting aspect of the communications world to follow in the coming weeks and months. With the FTC more likely to slap a fine on the associated brand than the offending blogger, we can likely look forward to at least a few large brands serving as the unfortunate examples for the larger community of what might happen if the new guidelines are not followed. For many, disclosure has always been a part of how we as communications professionals do business – but these new guidelines certainly underscore the importance.

(This blog post is reprinted from the Cone Brand Channeler Blog)

Awesome typographic visualization of a classic…

Posted via web from Mike Likes…

An incredibly disturbing OOH ad’s use of social media

Ignore the creepy long-necked, clean shaven, self-appointed “TV personality” if you can… have social media calls to action really become so important that the purchase call to action and website deserve that much less real-estate?

Or is this just a horribly disturbing ad?

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Mike Likes…

Can’t buy me love

Who falls for these things?

USocial is a service that has promised in the past to bring its customers scads of Twitter followers and is now jumping into the business of bringing the masses to Facebook fan pages, according to a recent AdAge article.

Is it just me, or is paying for fans and followers in social media the equivalent of a band paying to pack the club it’s playing tonight?

Think about it… OK, so the club is packed to the gills. The band comes on stage and starts to play. It’s actually really good! But…no one in the club cares. Not a single toe tapping or head bopping in the crowd. At best, they politely sip their drinks, keep the chatter to a minimum and don’t throw stuff at the band members. With every song, the band tries harder and harder to get the crowd groovin’, but it receives no feedback, just blank stares and chirping crickets. When the concert is over, the people leave and go about their business.

The next day, not a single concert-goer tells a friend what they did the night before. No one goes onto iTunes and buys the band’s songs, and the band can forget about getting any of those folks to come see it in another venue in the future.

In the end,  the band feels defeated and the members wonder if they can go on chasing the rock-star dream.

What should they have done instead? And how does this apply to building a social media following for your brand? Here’s a better option:

1. Find the fans you have. Tell them where you’re playing. Sincerely acknowledge their presence, and maybe even give them something special for attending your show.

Social Media Application: Use your existing marketing channels to promote your efforts in social media. Engage deeply with the early adopters as they are the key to your future growth. Make them feel special (because they are!) with exclusive offers or products.

2. Even if there are only a few people in the audience, put on the best show that you can – something people will talk about the next day. Encourage them to spread the word.

Social Media Application: Create (or aggregate) content that wows your fans. Make it shareable. On Facebook, use the publisher to update your status and share photos, videos and stories. Don’t underestimate the power of users “likes” or comments - their friends are listening.

3. Listen to your fans. If they don’t like the song you just played, try something new.

Social Media Application: Engage. Solicit feedback. Silence is a good indicator that you are not hitting the mark. Establish metrics and keep an eye on the types of content and engagement that produce the most feedback from your fans. (Facebook Fan Pages have all of these measures built in.)

4. Understand that you’ll be playing smaller venues for a while, but if you follow the above steps, you’ll soon be packing them in.

Social Media Application: Be patient. Sustained organic growth of your follower and fan base will ensure you are reaching the most targeted consumers with the most appropriate messages. Don’t fall for the easy way out of paying for your fans.

(The blog post above was reprinted from the Cone Brand Channeler Blog)

Still don’t get Twitter? Iran does.

When the US Department of State asks Twitter to delay an upgrade because of how Iranians may be affected by site downtime, you know that Twitter has officially crossed over from being “something on your to-do list” to an “absolute must-understand.”

Of course, the best way to learn is to experience it first-hand, but if you are uneasy about taking the plunge, here are some tips:

1. Listen first: You would not barge into a cocktail party and start spouting off about stuff no one wants to hear. By that same rationale, after creating an account, find some interesting people to follow. Listen. Learn. If you are representing your brand or organization, use Twitter’s search tool to see who is saying what about you.
2. Add value: Only people *very* far out in The Long Tail really care about your coffee habits. Once you’ve mastered listening, add to existing conversations with valuable insights, commentary, and questions.
3. Keep the conversation going: no one likes a know-it-all. Twitter is about increasing the collective wisdom through shared knowledge, challenging opinions, and forging relationships that otherwise would not have been created. Respect others’ rights to speak, disagree and share their own unique perspective. Respond when people reach out to you.
4. Share it: blogs, photos, videos, websites, news stories, other tweets… if you found it interesting, maybe someone else will too. Don’t go crazy sharing only your own material either. Vanity has no place on Twitter.
5. Use the tools: make Twitter more accessible with TweetDeck (you won’t have to go to Twitter.com), set up an account with TwitPic, enable SMS updates on your phone, or even better, install an iPhone Twitter App or Blackberry Twitter App.

And always remember - Don’t ever Tweet anything that could be harmful to you, your brand, your organization, its customers, your colleagues, etc. If you ever have to question whether you’re sharing too much information…you probably are.

Photo Credit: http://twitpic.com/7gtbu

(The blog post above was reprinted from the Cone Brand Channeler Blog)

Get your Social Media Offsets here…

I spent the day moving stuff around the house in preparation for the arrival of our son in (hopefully) late March. It was an exercise that felt somewhat like arranging deck chairs on the Titanic - no matter how much you try, you just can’t fit 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag - especially when you are reserving a little extra space in the bag for all the shit that is yet to come.

But, I found that I had an incredible feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day, even though I am no where near finished and will be right back at it tomorrow. Then tonight, I was scanning tweets on the most excellent iPhone Twitter app, Tweetie, when I saw Jeremiah Owyang’s statement:

How profound, I thought… that pretty much sums up the difference I was feeling between the gruntwork of moving bookshelves and rugs around today versus the somewhat “meh” feeling I get from a lot of the social media tools I use.

In fact, I think it is this feeling that sometimes prevents me from really, fully engaging in social media. To be honest, sometimes I look at all of this stuff we’re doing, whether for ourselves, our clients or for social good and feel like I would be accomplishing more with a hammer in my hand.

Someone else must feel this way besides @jowyang and myself. Therefore, I am announcing the opening of the first (I hope) Social Media Offset fund.

It works just like carbon offsets - if you spend (or waste) a lot of time in social media, just purchase a Social Media Offset and your detrimental activities will be offset by a person performing some sort of meaningful manual labor, such as painting the nursery, weeding the garden, or washing the car.

Hmm… what’s the best way to get this thing started?

I’ve got it! Let’s use social media to raise awareness and generate funds!!!

Oh hai, Motorola Q…

There’s a new sheriff in town:

The Problem With Pimps

I participated on a panel discussion for the Publicity Club of New England last night with three other folks - @ajgerritson, @diannahuff, and @tweismann, with moderation services being provided by Kel Kelly. Overall, it was a pretty good discussion, with social media cases provided in the areas of B2B, consumer products, small biz and services.

Kel Kelly has some energy. She’s clearly passionate about the world of new media. She’s also not afraid to speak her mind. Inside of 20 minutes, she referred to social media as “crack” at least 4 times. The other outstanding metaphor Kel used was this: “Don’t be a pimp.”

Of course, she was referring to the way lots of PR people treat their relationships with the media and their clients. Her point was that you can’t use social media simply as a tool to spout off about your client and whatever they are paying you to promote, and expect anyone in the social media world to take you seriously (or even keep their mouths shut about how pathetic you are.)

So I got to thinking… why wouldn’t you want to be a pimp? You get to hang around with a bunch of seemingly attractive clients… err… women, and get a cut of the action when their customers… umm… take advantage of their “products” and “services.” Then, there’s the clothes…

The reason: Pimps don’t add value. They take a pretty common asset (ahem) that is out there for anyone to access, peddle it as exclusive, or as the best thing since sliced bread. Only the truly desperate are there to listen and react.

In the end, the folks who don’t need your services, those who are watching in disbelief as you practice your “craft,” will be busy laughing at your clothes while they forge strong, lasting relationships with the media and consumers.

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