I am two years late to Ryan Holiday's publication"Trust Me, I'm Lying". Never much of a PR person, I learned immediately out of his nonfictional account of becoming a"media manipulator" that advertising can be everything once you've built a fantastic item. Since I must return the publication by 12/20 into the San Diego Public LibraryI figured that this is a good time to write my notes down as a blog post.
Quotes from"Trust Me, I'm Lying"
Orson Scott Card
"Social media isn't a set of resources to allow individuals to communicate with humans. It is a set of embedding mechanisms to permit technology to use people to communicate with each other, in an orgy of self-organizing... The Matrix had it wrong. You're not the batter power in a worldwide, human-enslaving AI, you are somewhat more valuable. You Are a Part of the shifting circuitry"
-Venkatesh Rao (Entrepreneur in residence at Xerox)
"It's a prime example of the feminist oznaki zainteresowania nieśmiałej dziewczyny blogosphere's tendency to tap in the industry force of what I've begun to think of as"outrage planet" -- the regularly occurring firestorms stirred up on mainstream, for-profit, woman-targeted websites such as Jezebel as well, to a lesser degree, Slate's very own XX Factor and Salon's Broadsheet. They are ignited by authors who are compelling readers to feel what the authors assert is righteously indignant anger but that is actually just petty jealousy, cleverly marketed as feminism. All these firestorms are fantastic for page-view-pimping bloggy enterprise."
"Companies should anticipate a full-scale, organized attack from critics. One which will simultaneously overrun blog comments, Facebook fan pages, and an onslaught of sites, leading to mainstream media allure. Begin by developing a social networking crises plan and developing inner fire drills to anticipate what could happen."
"Our selves are the house where we live; they are our information, our personalities, our adventure, our forms of art, our very experience."
Practice Advice from the Novel
Control your Wikipedia page (use any press mention from sites or conventional media)
Examine the top stories and you'll see a pattern: the best stories all polarize poeple. If you make it threaten people's 3 Bs -- behaviour, belief, or possessions -- you receive a huge virus-like dispersion
Compose stuff bloggers can post right away with no work. Feed them their own lies"help them trick their subscribers"
Silence on blogs is the worst.
Faking leaks with email editor (from various sources) can work if you have the right connections
Prominent headlines that cried excitement about utlimately unimportant news
Lavish use of images (often of little significance )
Imposters, frauds, and faked interviews
Color comics plus a big, thick Sunday nutritional supplement
Ostentatious support of the underdog causes
Use of anonymous sources
Prominent policy of high society and events
Concepts in the book
Ongoing Narrative /Iterative Reporting -harm is already done, there's no anything. Iterative reporting is bullshit, folks treat information headlines as"cultural fact", the damage is already done, even it's a baseless accusation.
Faking escapes with email editor (from different sources)
For instance, each image is not the same load display = more pageviews (short term vs. long-term metrics). Usability vs. profitability -- publishers are focused blindly on pageviews, but in the long term, user trust will be important. Meanwhile, reckless bloggers are making countless sensationalizing stories that are untrue.
Snark -- deadly weapon (humor in its dark form. Example = "Your Daily Douchebag: John Mayer Edition". Another online example: Hot Chicks with Douchebags
All that happens -> All that is understood by media --All that's newsworthy ->All that is published as information -> All that spreads. This really is the systematic limiting of the information seen by the General Public
My Action List / Lessons from the Book
Websites hold a Good Deal of power
The right contacts at the right sites in a specific industry hold tons of sway. Example: Apple statements
Building a brand new site with high viral traction (but with the ideal user metrics in mind) can take off quickly. Sites like Watch Mojo, Ebaumsworld, Break.com, ride the wave of copying content from other people, organized in a digestible manner that consumers can quickly spread. Millions of dollars are created this way while resources are never credited. There must be a means to do both.
There is a demand for a reputable news source, or an industry specific source that does not pander to"mass hysteria". Case in point: refinery29.com