Flip the Media » Paolo Mottola

How “Sh*t Seattle People Say When It Snows” Took Over Seattle

Paolo Mottola — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:15:04 +0000

Last year, I stumbled into mainstream Internet recognition in Seattle. Actually, I drove into it.

My wife and I got stuck in a terrible storm from Seattle to Tacoma, where we live, and in the boredom of our 10-hour “#snomg” commute I tweeted about everything that came to mind, with little filter. As a result, I flooded the stream on Twitter and gained some very minor celebrity (I mean, levels below even Kathy Griffin) during the event and a few days after.

This year, I had no plans to produce media around the impending storm, but then MCDM colleague Madeline Moy suggested in a Facebook thread that someone parody the “Sh*t Girls Say” meme with “Sh*t Seattle People Say When It Snows.” I found inspiration in it and got started. I filmed for a couple hours after work and dropped the first video that evening on YouTube, just to entertain my Facebook friends.

That first video took off. I thought it’d get 1,000 views at the most, but by the time I woke up the next morning I was well into five-figure views. I had plenty of shots left over, so I edited Part 2 and posted that, too. The two videos received many great comments in 48 hours, so I “replied” to them with Part 3 just earlier today, featuring many of the suggestions viewers provided.

So, how in the hell did this work out so well?

In digital media circles, we often talk about content and distribution models, but we rarely talk about newsworthiness — a more common discussion amongst PR flacks. Even great content — and I think I produced amateur content — needs a reason. To go viral, and I don’t think the “Sh*t Seattle People Say When It Snows” videos have hit that hockey stick growth quite yet, content needs more than a business reason or approval of an inner circle of friends. It has to appeal with reason and context for a broader audience to “get it.”

This year’s snow was my perfect storm, pun intended. I knew that a) people like to talk about the rare snow in Seattle, b) Seattlites have plenty of free time on snow days, and c) everyone likes a good laugh. Madeline’s request reminded me that there was a familiar and popular meme format to leverage.

It has been all Seattle snow jokes since.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Ping Sounds Like More than Music For Apple

Paolo Mottola — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:38:37 +0000

“Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes… It’s a social network all about music,” was how Steve Jobs described Ping during another monster Apple event last week.

He lied between his teeth.

Ping, Apple’s new social networking service, is as much about music as Facebook was about college students circa 2005. Music is the obvious marketing bait given iTunes’ position as a music and entertainment storefront, but Ping is much more about connecting the population of iOS users and introducing them to a preferred network for their preferred devices. Ping introduces Apple’s iTunes customers to that next generation of ecommerce – social commerce.

The move is genius, really (Pun intended).

Dedicated social networks to date (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) have all started out online, growing their users through unique experiences and eventually pushing out specialized experiences to mobile devices. Apple has taken an opposite approach by selling millions of mobile devices first, and then pushing the network out to the users who rely on those devices. Mind you, Apple has sold 120 million iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches and sold 6.5 billion applications via the iTunes App Store.

Consumers don’t have a choice. If they want to use Apple devices, and Apple requires they have a profile – much like Google requires Gmail for its Android devices – then Apple suddenly has a multi-million person network at its disposal. You thought you only had an iTunes login. Now you have a Ping profile! Ta da!

Amazon and Facebook, watch out. Apple already has a robust, competitive ecommerce system in iTunes, and all Apple has to do is open profile pages to brands – much like Facebook has – and allow them to sell. That’s an easy solution for consumers who already have their credit cards stored on iTunes, and a better solution for brands who are struggling to turn a direct profit via Facebook.

Apple’s Ping isn’t a guaranteed success, much like Google Wave wasn’t, but the idea of a social network introduced directly into iTunes, a healthy ecommerce platform with 160 million users, is a good jumpstart. If Apple can overcome what seems like a culture experiencing social networking fatigue much the same way it overcame a non-existent market for tablets – by providing a superior experience – then we’ll have a shake-up, and you’ll be buying your jeans from your Ping profile in some iMarket in the near future.

Paolo Mottola is a MCDM student and manages social media at Eddie Bauer. The opinions expressed here are his own. He can be found @paolojr, facebook.com/paolojr and at his personal blog, The Digital Hangover.

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I Can See Your Facebook Updates…In Outlook?

Paolo Mottola — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:09:46 +0000

Microsoft today launched Facebook integration for Outlook via a new social plug-in. See the story at Mashable.

What does this mean for you?

Your personal Facebook information and activity will be more closely tied to your business network. Period.

If you are “friends” with someone on Facebook and exchange email with them in Outlook, this plug-in will show that person’s Facebook activity in the Outlook experience. Even if you don’t have this plug-in on Outlook, your information will still appear in Outlook for anyone who has the Outlook plug-in and is your Facebook friend.

I unfortunately cannot provide a screenshot of my business inbox, but I can show you how I see Facebook status updates when I am composing mail to my boss, Kristen. She and I are Facebook friends, and even though she doesn’t have the plug-in, I do, which means I can see her Facebook updates in the New Mail Message window.

Outlook also provides similar plug-ins for MySpace and LinkedIn, but considering the nearly half-billion Facebook users and dominance of Outlook for business email, this is probably the most impactful social integration for business yet.

Of course, this isn’t all bad. You have immediate access to information about people in your business network if you choose to use the plug-in, and that could create for better working relationships. You can skip those office parties and team offsites to get to know your coworkers. You’ve got a Facebook plug-in for that!

On the other hand, you will want to be sure that you do not post photos, status updates or other content that you wouldn’t want your colleagues or business network to see in their inboxes. Likewise, you may want to delete unflattering messages that friends have left on your wall. They, too, will appear in front of your colleagues.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. If/when Outlook integrates more robust features like Facebook photos, movies, calendar, friends, mutual friends, location updates, etc., then we’ve got a whole new privacy issue at hand, which affects businesses — and their legal and HR departments. When Facebook and Outlook start to look the same, that’ll be a tough transition for employees to figure out. Things could get ugly. At least this go around Facebook will be able to share some of the legal costs with Microsoft.

I assume that Facebook will continue to create more intelligent filters so that you can determine who in your network can see your content through a plug-in like this, but until then I would assume that anyone in your Facebook network can see your personal information and activity on Outlook.

On that note, I have some toga pictures to de-tag.

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TEDx Seattle FTW

Paolo Mottola — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:23:55 +0000

Google Africa project manager Fiona Lee addresses the crowd at TEDx Seattle. Photo by @stephenbrashear for MCDM

I spent all day Friday at the Pacific Science Center at the first-ever TEDx Seattle conference. For those of you unaware of TED, click here or just know that it’s the premier annual event where the world’s geniuses give inspirational, motivational talks about their respective fields.

I didn’t know what to expect at TEDx Seattle. I had only heard of one of the speakers before but despite my not knowing of them in advance, I was FLOORED by the quality and range of stories that they had to share.

Whereas TED brings the best of the world together, TEDx Seattle brought those on path to become the best. It felt like seeing Nirvana in 1989 or Lady Gaga in 2008 (Choose whichever is most relevant for you). You just knew you were seeing people on the brink of (if not already) renown success. Their stories were raw, emotional and inspiring.

While I was impressed throughout the day, I have to highlight five lectures that really stood out for me. I know others will have completely different lists or recall different anecdotes from the same speakers. That’s what makes the TEDx Seattle experience so rich!

Science fiction author Greg Bear spoke about being overwhelmed by too much information and how our desire to consume all of it limits our ability to take action. He said, “We are spending so much time tracking everything online…We don’t have time to be private.” Time is scarce, so how are you using it?
One Day’s Wages’ founder and lead pastor of Quest Church Eugene Cho gave a entertaining, informative lecture about global poverty and made it relevant. How is it that so many people in the audience had iPads while more than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2/day? He said, “We are probably the most overrated generation… We are in love with our ideas so much that we don’t seem to move beyond them.” So very true.
Google Africa project manager Fiona Lee spoke about how Google is investing in simple text messaging search technologies to help Africans learn more about health and sexuality. She showed a number of examples of how people can ask via mobile phone about transmitting AIDS, condom use and pregnancy and receive nearly instantaneous, accurate answers. She said, “Technology is not the be all and end all, it’s a starting point.”
Contrast can be such a powerful thing. Cheezburger Network (I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, etc.) CEO Ben Huh is well-known for his stupid-funny websites, so imagine the silence in the auditorium when nearly halfway through his speech, Ben paused to hold back tears as he talked about failing his first businesses and failing his family’s expectations.
The show closed on a sweet note. Theo Chocolate’s Debra Music and Joe Whinney provided free chocolate for the audience to munch on while they talked about being the only organic, fair-trade bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the United States. Debra talked about how they take their chocolate bars to cocoa farmers to educate them about what makes a good product and provide the farmers – some of whom have harvested cocoa for decades – with their first tastes of finished chocolate. As Joe said, “When we come from a place of love & joy, we have a greater capacity to affect change.”

I don’t want to take anything away from the other amazing speakers at the event and encourage you to read about all of their lectures:

See more images by my MCDM colleagues at the TEDx Seattle Flickr photostream, and read more about the event at the following online spaces:

Reflections on TEDx Seattle by Eugene Cho
The ‘vast social brain’ and other highlights from TEDx Seattle by Todd Bishop/TechFlash
Digital media program bridges storytelling, business by Cory Bergman/Lost Remote

Paolo Mottola is a MCDM student and digital comms extraordinaire at PR firm Weber Shandwick. He can be found @paolojr and at his personal blog, Word Is Born.

Scott Macklin – Convening Community through Stories

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Will Google ‘Send’ a mobile, social Gmail application?

Paolo Mottola — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:35:11 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google will tomorrow announce more “social” features to Gmail, such as status updates and sharing content. Considering that Gmail is a primary, free email service, this is a really great innovation for consumers. It also threatens dominant, dedicated social networks like Facebook and Twitter unless they too can be integrated into the Gmail social streams. Hopefully they will be.

What about mobile? Currently, Gmail can be accessed by every major mobile platform through IMAP setting, but I think that a social Gmail would require an entirely new application to utilize more rich functionality. This provides Google an opportunity to differentiate Android with a best-in-class social Gmail experience and extend its presence on other phones like Blackberry and iPhone with must-have social Gmail applications — like it has with Google Maps.

At risk will be those computer and mobile applications like TweetDeck and Tweetie that already aggregate social feeds like a social Gmail would, but don’t provide that core email service to complement. Also at risk are mobile check-in applications like Foursquare, which would have a hard time competing with a social Gmail mobile application that has the same GPS functionality and services (maybe without the gaming/novelty component).

Speaking of services, this is where a social Gmail mobile application could really excel. With its recent acquisition of AdMob, Google is ramping up the mobile advertisement services. By drawing from a pool of data drawn from a connected social network, email and search, the ad services could be incredibly targeted and sink the competition.

Social Gmail may be an evolutionary step for the email platform, but it could be revolutionary for Google’s mobile strategy.

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Online Media Democracy Is Still Under Construction, or Why Engadget Had to Flip the Switch on Comments

Paolo Mottola — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:11:47 +0000

After turning off all site comments on Tuesday, AOL-owned Engadget today flipped the comment switch back on, ending a two-day hiatus resulting from its editors seeing too many comments that were “mean, ugly, pointless, and frankly threatening in some situations.”

Engadget columnist Michael Gartenberg expressed his discontent with the comments that followed his recent iPad editorial in a Tweet: “Amused. Bash me on @Engadget column. Suggest my parents were not married prior to birth, suggest I be fruitful & multiply. enclose your CV.”

With traditional news outlets declining and enthusiast blogs like Engadget on the rise, the implications of closing comments reflect how the stampede of online discourse can sometimes be too much for even mature, full-time blogs to endure. According to Alexa, Engadget today ranks 195 in the nation and 384 in the world for Internet traffic. It recently launched mobile applications for iPhone and Blackberry. It produces its own weekly podcasts and monthly TV shows (Edited per Zack’s comment). This is a full-time media company in all respects and an influential one at that – The AFP wrote a story on Engadget’s comment disabling.

Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky explains why things got out of hand in a Tweet: “I don’t think it’s about the class of the readership, it’s about scale.”

Scale is certainly an issue, but it shouldn’t excuse community behavior. Especially for a technology site like Engadget, you’d think that its die-hard community would be populated by primarily educated (either by trade or academically) and at least civil readers. Surely most are, but what caused Engadget to call “time-out” demonstrates how online media-enabled free speech can unveil the worst in us.

Defamatory or threatening reader feedback is nothing new. Print media has dealt with it from the beginning (and the feedback inspired new publications with alternative views), but there was some effort required to write the letter and put it in the mail. Editors had choices about what they wanted to publish. On the contrary, online media provides a fantastic opportunity for people to share their thoughts and opinion with little barrier – Just ID yourself with a pseudonym, write your thoughts and they will be published immediately. Instead of rising to the occasion of opportunity, participants in a massive community like Engadget have failed over and over: Engadget also shut off comments in 2005; competitor Gizmodo warned its readers against poor commenting practices in October 2009. (Thanks to Gizmodo’s Wilson Rothman for clarifying that they have never turned off comments.) Surely some of this is due to spammers, but some of it is also due to the immature. Both threaten productive, democratic discourse.

I don’t blame Engadget for taking drastic actions. I don’t know if it was the only way to settle the circus, but it seems to be effective so far. The unfortunate lesson here is that the good comes with the bad. Yes, we have more opportunity than ever to express our opinions in online media, but not all of us exercise the best judgment or honor the opportunities that are afforded to us.

Sure, we’re talking about a tech blog today, but as we progress toward more transparent, democratic discussions online for other topics – politics, education, healthcare – we have to consider if it’s worth a scenario where the comments can’t just be turned off.

Paolo Mottola is a UWMCDM student and digital comms extraordinaire at PR firm Weber Shandwick. He can be found @paolojr and at his personal blog, Word Is Born.

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Mobile donations are making a difference in Haiti

Paolo Mottola — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:42:17 +0000

Today I donated $10 to the American Red Cross to support the catastrophe in Haiti by texting “Haiti” to 90999. It was that simple (See actual screenshot at left).

As of a tweet this morning (Jan. 14), the Red Cross has already raised $3 million dollars through this mobile donation method.

Mobile phones have already been a prominent way of reporting the event, but they also provide a powerful, scalable way to collect the necessary financial support to aid relief efforts.

According to a NY Times article, the texted donations are being handled by a company called mGive, which started the campaign in a joint effort with the State Department and the Red Cross on Jan. 12. The $10 donation I made via mGive will be charged by my carrier, AT&T, which will relay the donation in full to the American Red Cross. mGive typically charges a licensing fee for its software platform, $4 to $1,500 a month, but has removed all fees for this fundraiser.

Unfortunately, CEO Tony Aiello says it typically takes up to 90 days for the charity to receive the donation, but the mGive is trying to expedite the process with carriers to get the money to the Red Cross as soon as possible. So while it feels immediate to make the donation, the impact of the donation is felt long after hitting “Send.” Hopefully this process will continue to improve.

In another mobile fundraising campaign, Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean is urging people to donate $5 to his charity organization by texting “YELE” to 501501.

Mobile donations are getting massive support, too. The AFP reports that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the rounds of six morning television news shows where she urged Americans to make 10-dollar donations by cellular telephone.

“If you wish to help, you can text Haiti — H-A-I-T-I — to 90999,” she said on NBC’s Today Show.

Additionally, the White House has endorsed the mGive mobile donation as one of three key ways Americans can assist Haitians.

I am impressed by the support mobile donations have received from top US officials, and am even more impressed with how Americans have embraced mobile donations as a primary resource to provide financial aid during a crisis. I encourage you to make a mobile donation and help those in need.

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Even In the Android/iPhone Era, Carriers Dominate

Paolo Mottola — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:53:44 +0000

The launch and availability of Google’s Nexus One smartphone last week reinvigorated the dialogue about how phone makers are changing the carrier model in the United States.

This is far from true.

Google offered the Nexus at competitive, subsidized prices with contracts with TMobile for $179 (or Verizon and Vodafone soon), and “unlocked” (without carrier contract) for $529. The unlocked offering was a pure marketing play to exploit Apple’s exclusive contract with AT&T, but it’s not unique. Nokia smartphones are also offered unlocked and at high price points in the United States, and every other phone, including the iPhone, is offered at subsidized prices with no contract.

Google didn’t break away from the carrier model, it reinforced it by offering the Nexus One with three carriers off the bat (whereas most phones only launch with one carrier) and selling the unlocked Nexus One at a high price point, driving customers to want to save money upfront with a carrier contract.

What has changed is that the marketing of phones has shifted from carriers to phone makers. Credit Apple. It has reinvented revenue opportunities by offering iPhones through Apple Stores and selling applications through the App Store. It has also shown that a focused phone maker can produce a better, focused marketing campaign for a single phone than a carrier can for its portfolio.

But this too benefits the carrier model.

The service contracts (Read: revenue) for the iPhone reside with AT&T, and operators supporting the Nexus One, whether it be the subsidized or unlocked phone require contracts. Apple has bought no spectrum, nor has Google, and until they do they will not be able to offer service for their phones.

Google and Apple have positioned themselves as thought-leaders and innovators over the past year, just like Microsoft and Palm did five years ago, and like their predecessors they haven’t changed the carrier service model – they’ve only supported it.

Paolo Mottola is a UWMCDM student and digital comms extraordinaire at PR firm Weber Shandwick. He can be found @paolojr and at his personal blog, Word Is Born.

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Flip the Media » Paolo Mottola

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