Victor Piñeiro http://victorpineiro.com Most recent posts at Victor Piñeiro posterous.com Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:07:03 -0700 Writing About Facebook Timelines For Fast Company http://victorpineiro.com/writing-about-facebook-timelines-for-fast-com http://victorpineiro.com/writing-about-facebook-timelines-for-fast-com

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I'm honored and thrilled to have my article on Facebook Timelines picked up by Fast Company. 

The full article is here. 

 

Facebook Brand Timelines Tell Better Stories, But Who's Listening?

The crown jewel of Facebook’s first fMC conference, Brand Timelines, is being touted as “the richest, most customizable marketing canvas ever created.” Judging by the hype that’s flooded the Internet since their unveiling, marketers agree: This is apparently Facebook’s most important development since Open Graph. Brands now have the opportunity to craft a richer story on the platform and build a more inviting destination site that lives inside the smaller Internet we call Facebook. And yet, among the avalanche of articles full of tips and best practices, most marketers have been silent about an elephant in the room.

Nobody actually visits your brand’s Facebook page.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:56:00 -0700 A Digital Ecosystem For the Galaxy: Designing a Universe For a Universe http://victorpineiro.com/a-digital-ecosystem-for-the-galaxy-designing http://victorpineiro.com/a-digital-ecosystem-for-the-galaxy-designing

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[Originally published in iMedia Connection – here.]

When we first engaged with Lucasfilm, we were confronted with an exciting challenge - How do you create a digital ecosystem for an entire universe? Digitally translating franchises like Star Wars, Transformers, Lord of the Rings or even Coke’s Happiness Factory presents a monumental challenge to brands and their agencies. Besides boasting a galaxy of content, these properties have multigenerational enthusiasts of all shapes, sizes and intensities, each looking for something different from their favorite brand’s online presence. In crafting digital homes for iconic brands, we've  learned a thing or two about the process. Here’s some wisdom we’ve gathered along the way that benefits franchises, agencies and any marketer that is trying to resonate with a diverse group of fans and followers:

Research Your Fan Base

Every brand or franchise has diverse audiences with different needs, so begin with deep user research and audience segmentation. Get to know how your brand’s fans are split and what the different user needs are. This might mean visiting fan conventions and conducting ethnographies, or administering surveys on the existing website. Persona research and development will help stakeholders visualize and better serve each segment throughout the process.

Prioritize Audiences

Every fan base is split into unique subsets, each with their own dynamics and needs. It’s rarely as simple as stratifying hardcore superfans and casual fans.  For example, Lord of the Rings enthusiasts might feasibly be broken up into those who love the books, those whose primary touchpoint is the movies, those who experience it through the video games, and those who recreate it through Live Action Role Playing. Each fan subset wants something different from the site. Emblazoning the homepage with Elijah Wood might feel traitorous to the novels’ fans, while using Tolkien’s artwork might confuse movie fans. Role players want a site that focuses on information and community, while those who love the video games want strategy guides and more games to play on the site. Who do you please, and how do you reach a balance?

The Eye of the Beholder

If you’re constructing your brand's core website, you’ll likely want to appeal to all fans, which can become a balancing act. One thing to keep in mind is that different fan subsets can appreciate the same things in completely different ways.  When redesining StarWars.com, we found a Star Wars fan might peruse Star Wars’ online Encyclopedia to learn more about Jabba while a superfan might delight in the details the author put into the Encyclopedia entry on moisture vaporators.

The Universe vs. The Culture

There are two levels to a brand or franchise, and both must be taken into account when translating a property to digital. On one level we have the fictional universe – the diegetic – full of the characters, locations and moments that won fans over. On another level we have the culture that’s evolved around that fictional universe, from memorabilia and cosplay to conventions and YouTube parodies. A subset of hardcore fans might want to stay within the fictional universe when engaging with your brand, while others are more interested with the culture surrounding it. It’s important you engage both types of fans online, and provide content that satisfies each.

Make It Scalable & Modular

Because active properties are growing universes, the online hub needs to be scalable and easy to update. To that end, building a modular framework will help you out in the long run. As new brand stories come into the picture – not to mention fresh editorial content – the experience can be tailored to accommodate new developments without a need to reinvent the entire digital experience.

Legitimize Fans: Aggregate Niche Content

If you have an established fan base, chances are that fans constantly create content around it.  From blogs to wikis to discussion forums, fans are constantly churning out opinion pieces, writing up brand-related news stories and critiquing the latest brand-related products. Rather than spending considerable resources creating timely, niche content, aggregate that content from fan sites and focus instead on mainstream, evergreen content. Not only does it free up resources, it legitimizes fan efforts, which often earns you bonus points from the hardcore fan community.

Different Audiences = Different Social Behaviors

When considering the social aspects of your digital presence, keep in mind the audiences you want to engage with on every platform. While hardcore fans prefer discussing your property with other hardcore fans, these conversations often turn off casual fans, who would rather socialize with their actual friends. If you’re trying to make Star Trek’s site (or social presence) friendly for casual fans, the post with 500 comments debating Kirk vs Picard might be turning them off.

Casual Fan Entry Points

To engage casual fans, which tends to be significantly more challenging than engaging hardcore fans, consider what casual fans love about your brand. Often, hardcore fans tend to be more detail-oriented, while casual fans have positive memories of their favorite brand experiences. The History of Cybertron feature on your site will probably draw far less casual fans than the page showing off Optimus Prime’s Top Ten Lines.

The Site = The Hub

Finally and most importantly, if you’re dealing with a brand that has a large universe and huge fan base, fans are already engaging with it across various forms of media. Digital should be the hub, providing connective tissue between the myriad experiences fans are having with the brand. Whether a video game, movie or banner ad brought them to the site, it must contain information that provides context about the property, fills in knowledge gaps and gets them excited about the universe. Beyond merely educating or marketing, digital needs to feel like your property – it must exemplify the tone and personality of the brand. When building StarWars.com, we never wanted to lose sight of making it feel like the epic space opera that it is.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:46:00 -0800 Big Spaceship: Most Innovative Ad Companies | Fast Company http://victorpineiro.com/big-spaceship-most-innovative-ad-companies-fa http://victorpineiro.com/big-spaceship-most-innovative-ad-companies-fa

#10 BIG SPACESHIP: For being a crack team of digital inventors. Its What Do You Love? campaign for Google is a metasearch tool designed to help users utilize and explore the endless possibilities of Google by inviting them to learn something new about their favorite things while interacting with Google’s broad range of services. Big Spaceship also created "The Expressive Web" for Adobe to help designers and developers maximize the capabilities of HTML5 and CSS3 to design the modern web. And Taco Finder has been called "the app I never knew I needed," a unique compass that directs iPhone and iPod touch users to the nearest taco using GPS technology--part of its growing portfolio of creative digital intellectual property.

via fastcompany.com

So proud that our little agency is listed as one of the top ten most innovative ad agencies this year!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:25:00 -0800 Talking Star Wars with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal http://victorpineiro.com/talking-star-wars-with-the-milwaukee-journal http://victorpineiro.com/talking-star-wars-with-the-milwaukee-journal
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[One of my favorite perks of having worked on StarWars.com is getting asked my advice on all things Wookiee from time to time.]

via jsonline.com

Kids love "Star Wars."

How'd that happen? How did today's boys and girls find their inner Jedi? How did they become indoctrinated in a film franchise that debuted the year Jimmy Carter was inaugurated president?

The credit or blame can be spread among parents who were young when the original trilogy was released and paid their affection forward when they had kids; a toy industry that kept the franchise evergreen with an array of playthings; and "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, whose prequels to the original films reinvented the "Star Wars" wheel for a new generation.

Kids, most of whom never saw the films in a theater, are the intended audience when the first of the prequels, "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" is rereleased in 3-D on Friday.

When "Phantom Menace" - about a boy named Anakin who grows up to become Darth Vader - was first released in 1999, it was met with a backlash by adult fans who found it too juvenile.

Turns out that was the point. In my review at the time, I wrote that "kids will regard this film with an awe and amusement" similar to when their parents saw the original films. Time has proved Lucas' kid-friendly strategy to be incredibly savvy.

Eleven-year old Anthony Kopczynski of Wauwatosa was introduced to "Star Wars" about five years ago. Today, he has "like five" lightsabers - "two blue, a red one, purple one and green one" - and plays "Star Wars" with friends "at recess all the time."

"Half of us are bad people, and half are good and we just fight together," he said.

At a "Star Wars"-themed birthday party, Anthony said, "everyone had to bring a lightsaber, and we went in the backyard and had a major fight" until "we all died." And he played the cantina theme from "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" and Darth Vader's theme on the piano at a recital at Christ King School, where he is in the sixth grade.

His favorite film is "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" from 1980 - which most adult fans consider the best of the series - because "it's set when there aren't many Jedi left." But his favorite character is Clone Marshal Commander Cody from the 2005 film "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith."

The character also appears in the animated "The Clone Wars" series on the Cartoon Network, which has become a major factor in keeping the franchise alive among the grade-school crowd. The show is set in the years between "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith," at a time when Anakin was still a Jedi knight, or a good guy, with a young girl apprentice named Ahsoka Tano fighting by his side.

Because of Ahsoka Tano, "Clone Wars" has "a ton of appeal to females," said Victor Pineiro, senior strategist for Big Spaceship, a digital creative agency that helped design StarWars.com, the franchise's official website.

When surveying attendees at the Star Wars Fan Fest in 2010, Pineiro said, "we saw as much interest among girls as boys" in the TV show. "I can't tell you how many times I heard that (when the show airs) is 'daddy-daughter night' or 'mother-son night.' "

Ahsoka Tano, along with Queen Padme, Anakin's wife, and Princess Leia, their daughter, are the only major female characters in a franchise whose action and father-son rivalry between Vader and Luke Skywalker is otherwise considered boy-centric. My wife's nephew, Matthew Flanigan, said his wife, Jamie, "has never sat down and watched it with" him and their sons, ages 5 and 7.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:37:00 -0800 Facebook's 2011 Ad Sales Took No Pity on Portals | ClickZ http://victorpineiro.com/facebooks-2011-ad-sales-took-no-pity-on-porta http://victorpineiro.com/facebooks-2011-ad-sales-took-no-pity-on-porta
Some of my thoughts on Facebook's ad sales and their lack of mobile ads, from a ClickZ article by :

Agencies, marketers, and research data all say the same thing about Facebook's 2011 ad sales. The social giant left portals Yahoo, AOL, and MSN in the dust, as well as most major publishers.

"It's definitely a challenge to [Yahoo, AOL, and MSN]," said Scott Symonds, head of media for digital agency AKQA. Symonds said Facebook's marketing allure lies in not only its 800 million worldwide users, but also how it can offer advertisers routine follow-up pitches in terms of the likers/fans community they build on the social site.

"There's the whole concept of earned media and talking to influencers around your brand," he said. "We've seen that positive impact in surveys. We've seen it in data from Nielsen, etc. I think Yahoo, AOL, and MSN all have great content. They are all trying to find a way to make their content more sharable so they can compete with Facebook, which has a pretty good advantage right now. The portals are not even disputing that. They are trying to socialize their inventory."

Digital shop Big Spaceship is experiencing the same trend. "Specific to our clients, I've seen larger and larger portions of our media agency partners' display budgets allocated to Facebook," said Victor Pineiro, a Big Spaceship strategist. "Especially since Facebook released Sponsored Stories, [which is] an ingenious way to leverage fans' social graphs to propel ads socially and organically."

Brian Yamada, executive director for Kansas City-based ad agency VML, offered up a more nuanced assessment. He echoed some industry analysts who have concluded that Facebook is nabbing more marketing dollars from traditional platforms like broadcast, print, and billboard than from other digital channels.

"I wouldn't say an apple going to Facebook means an apple lost for portals," Yamada said. "But I think the money is definitely following the eyeballs, and people are spending a lot of time on that particular platform now."

Facebook's Jump to No. 1 in Display

The anecdotal talk from agencies can be backed up with data from third-party researcher eMarketer. Facebook's display ad revenues, according to the most recent eMarketer forecast, will total $3.8 billion this year - up 104 percent from 2010.

By comparison, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN's display ad sales - not including search, to be clear - were modestly up year over year in what has turned out to be an uptick year for numerous display platforms. The fiscal quarters for the trio of aforementioned Facebook competitors, respectively, showed growth typically between 5 percent and 15 percent. In the meantime, according to eMarketer, Facebook has catapulted to No. 1 in display ads market share at 17.7 percent, beating Yahoo (13.1 percent), Google (9.3 percent), AOL (4.9 percent), and MSN (4.2 percent).

At this time last year, Facebook trailed Yahoo and Google. Five weeks ago, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN struck an unprecedented partnership for major display platform competitors, pooling together their unsold inventory in a deal aimed to increase their margins, secure higher prices for remnant ads, and augment the reach available to agencies and advertisers.

"Facebook has hurt publishers," said Nichole Goodyear, a strategic adviser specializing in social media for marketing services company Extole. "They've hurt CNN, ESPN, and Yahoo - any of the big publishing or portal sites that we used to consume as the entry point of the Internet. They still have a lot of content on those sites. And they still have a lot of traffic on those sites. But what they call the 'excess inventory'…They have a lot of excess inventory, which affects the price and supply curve. A large portion of that display advertising has shifted to Facebook engagement ads."

Facebook vs. Google Battle Moves to Mobile

Bloomberg yesterday reported that Facebook would unveil mobile ads by the end of March. When it does introduce the commercial mobile feature, Facebook will likely find a burgeoning Google atop that emerging space. On Monday, IDC reported that Google was now leading mobile display in terms of market share, charting at 24 percent. According to IDC, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, ad network Millennial comes in second at 19 percent while Apple trails at 15 percent. Previously, IDC said, Apple had been in the No. 1 slot.

Whenever Facebook joins the mobile advertising fray, Pineiro from Big Spaceship said the move won't come soon enough. "With more than 40 percent of Facebook users accessing the platform on mobile devices," he said, "this [has been] an enormous missed opportunity."

So because Palo Alto, CA-based Facebook has had a break-through year on the display ads front, a question begs: Can it make a similar impact in mobile advertising during 2012? Whatever the case, Symonds from AKQA predicted that social-centric platforms like Facebook and Twitter - as well as the more general digital powerhouse Google - would continue to disrupt the marketing world.

"As we build additional technologies around social media and refine our thinking to more socially focused rather than being reach or broadcast focused," he said, "there is a potential for social media to not only shift the construct of digital marketing but marketing [as a whole]."

Build-A-Bear vs. eBay? Bacardi vs. Betty Crocker? Converse vs. Xbox? AT&T vs. Best Buy? Which brands will come out on top in the second round of ClickZ’s Holiday Social Showdown? Vote now!

via clickz.com


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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Fri, 07 Oct 2011 06:33:00 -0700 Re-Ranking Facebook's Top Ten Brand Pages with New 'Talking About' Metric http://victorpineiro.com/re-ranking-facebooks-top-ten-brand-pages-with http://victorpineiro.com/re-ranking-facebooks-top-ten-brand-pages-with

[Update: Mashable re-posted this – check it out here, as there's more conversation around it.]

Now that Facebook's unveiled a new public metric, "People Talking About This" – I thought it'd be interesting to re-rank the top ten brand pages (as measured by Famecount), fresh out of the gate.

Facebook Top Ten Brand Pages (Ranked by LIKES)

1.Coca-Cola: 34,511,504 
2.Starbucks: 25,446,846
3.Oreo: 23,092,391
4.Red Bull: 22,427,254 
5.Converse All Star: 20,780,055 
6.Converse: 20,141,021
7.Skittles: 19,348,317
8.Playstation: 17,420,065 
9.Pringles: 13,602,128
10.Victoria's Secret: 15,343,727 

Facebook Top Ten Brand Pages (Re-ranked by TALKING ABOUT)

1.Starbucks: 508, 526 
2.Coca-Cola: 220,867 
3.Victoria's Secret: 145,125 
4.Skittles: 137,558 
5.Oreo: 114,454 
6.Red Bull: 112,051 
7.Playstation: 104,837 
8.Converse: 52,866 
9.Pringles: 50,488 
10. Converse All Star: 40, 858

(Also interesting to note that McDonalds, ranked #18 on "likes" has a 'Talked About' # of 264,867, ranking #2.)

 

A bit of background on the "People Talking About" metric – it's been added as a visible metric so that users can see how much engagement and conversation is happening around the brand and its page. It takes into account user-initiated activities: Likes, posts, comments, shares, polls, photo-tagging, mentions and check-ins. In effect, it measures how social each page is, rather than how many people have merely 'liked' it.

 

Thoughts as to which metric is more valuable? (More info on the new metrics here.) 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:50:00 -0700 Things We Say That We Owe to Shakespeare http://victorpineiro.com/things-we-say-that-we-owe-to-shakespeare http://victorpineiro.com/things-we-say-that-we-owe-to-shakespeare

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And many, many more here.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:55:00 -0700 RIP Steve Jobs http://victorpineiro.com/rip-steve-jobs http://victorpineiro.com/rip-steve-jobs

Smule_270x509

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Wed, 20 Jul 2011 05:24:00 -0700 The Top 20 Most Expensive Google AdWords http://victorpineiro.com/the-top-20-most-expensive-google-adwords http://victorpineiro.com/the-top-20-most-expensive-google-adwords
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via wordstream.com

Wouldn't have guessed the Cold Blood market was so hopping...

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2011/07/18/most-expensive-google-adwords-ke...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:41:00 -0700 This Sentence Has Five Words http://victorpineiro.com/this-sentence-has-five-words http://victorpineiro.com/this-sentence-has-five-words

"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important."

— Gary Provost

(via @willsimn)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:28:00 -0700 More Proof That Facebook is Big Brother http://victorpineiro.com/more-proof-that-facebook-is-big-brother http://victorpineiro.com/more-proof-that-facebook-is-big-brother

Screen_shot_2011-07-14_at_10

(via mlkshk)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:39:00 -0700 The Future According to Films http://victorpineiro.com/the-future-according-to-films http://victorpineiro.com/the-future-according-to-films
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via graphjam.files.wordpress.com

Just four scant years until cyborg cops. Hallelujah.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:51:00 -0700 Forty Quotes About Storytelling http://victorpineiro.com/forty-quotes-about-storytelling http://victorpineiro.com/forty-quotes-about-storytelling
via slideshare.net

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:41:00 -0700 Talking Funny: Seinfeld, Louis CK, Chris Rock & Ricky Gervais http://victorpineiro.com/talking-funny-seinfeld-louis-ck-chris-rock-ri http://victorpineiro.com/talking-funny-seinfeld-louis-ck-chris-rock-ri

 

Wow is this awesome.

Comedy's biggest names — Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ricky Gervais, and Louis CK — sit down for a revealing (and hilarious) chat on this HBO special. The four stand-up legends get serious about comedy, discussing how they first got into the business, the merits of on-stage profanity, and the science behind getting a laugh.

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Thu, 23 Jun 2011 06:49:00 -0700 Rappelling Your Bookshelf http://victorpineiro.com/rappelling-your-bookshelf http://victorpineiro.com/rappelling-your-bookshelf
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via neatorama.com

Think I've found my summer home improvement project. I'd opt for a sexier harness.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:43:00 -0700 awesome people hanging out http://victorpineiro.com/awesome-people-hanging-out-my-new-favorite-tu http://victorpineiro.com/awesome-people-hanging-out-my-new-favorite-tu

Though it lacks a brilliant title (like The Impossible Cool, its clear
antecedent) it does fulfill its promise stupendously.

The variety is the master stroke – Kanye West or Michael Jackson show
up often, alongside pics of old physicists and golden age Hollywood
starlets.

My faves below: MJ & Paul McCartney, Colonel Sanders & Alice Cooper
(wtf?), Dali & Disney and Bridgette Bardot & Pablo Picasso.
But it's a treasure trove – check it out.


awesome people hanging out

Micheal_jackson_and_paul_mccar Salvador_dali_amp_walt_disney Brigitte_bardot_amp_pablo_pica
See the full gallery on Posterous

ColonelSandersandAliceCooper Download this file

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Fri, 27 May 2011 06:38:00 -0700 Poetry After the Beep http://victorpineiro.com/poetry-after-the-beep http://victorpineiro.com/poetry-after-the-beep
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via coudal.com

Poems read on answering machines. An attempt at a brilliant little poetry meme.

How do I love this? Let me count the ways...

http://www.coudal.com/verse.php

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Thu, 26 May 2011 18:43:00 -0700 The Filter Bubble: Algorithms as Gatekeepers http://victorpineiro.com/the-filter-bubble-algorithms-as-gatekeepers http://victorpineiro.com/the-filter-bubble-algorithms-as-gatekeepers

It happens more often than I'd like. I'm talking to a friend and getting an update on his life, when he hits me with, "Haven't you been reading all the stuff I've posted on Facebook?" And the truth is, through no fault of my own, I haven’t. I still check Facebook semi-regularly, but he hasn't appeared on my wall in months, despite being a close friend. And for whatever reason, I haven't noticed – and I have EdgeRank to thank. 


There's been plenty of talk around Facebook's EdgeRank formula, deciding who appears and doesn't appear on our wall. Google has a similar filter in place, separating the wheat from the chaff in our search results – rather, separating what they guess we'll consider wheat versus chaff. These algorithmic filters show up everywhere now, from our social networks to our Netflix cue, and even the online newspapers we read.

Eli Pariser, once executive director and now board president of MoveOn.org, noticed a world of difference in search results he was getting when he compared them with his friends. While Googling "Egypt" served his friend only travel links, Pariser was served mostly political links. (Pariser guesses that Google uses 57 signals to filter search results.) 

So he came up with the term "filter bubble" – your personal universe of information online, tailored specifically to you. Your browsing behavior creates it, but you can't decide on what gets in or is edited out. As Google's Eric Schmidt put it, "It will be very hard for people to watch or consume something that has not in some sense been tailored to them."

Clearly, there are issues with an algorithm delivering all of the content you're exposed to online. For one, because they pay attention to all those compulsive clicks you make on links like "Top Ten Kittens In Raincoats" it can throw off your balanced information diet - and you end up surrounded by information junk food. More importantly, these algorithmic gatekeepers now function as our automated curators, choosing what we read – and being robotic, they lack journalistic ethics. They’re programmed to feed us information that we like – not media that challenges us or pushes us out of our comfort zone. Not content that has points of view we're not used to or don't subscribe to. 

This has interesting implications on editorial strategy for brands who act as curators. Brand curation often means bringing back human filters – editors and content strategists selecting a mix of content that best engages your audience. As algorithms continue deciding our daily information diet, curated content will continue to grow more valuable, lending an idiosyncratic, human touch to a process that is becoming entirely automated. Brands that can “think outside the algorithm” with a thoughtful mix of content aimed at their target have the chance to provide something their audience isn’t able to find elsewhere.

On the other side of the coin, filter bubbles make earned media more of a challenge for brands. Having a million Facebook fans doesn’t mean your brand’s posts are showing up on one million walls – only fans who interact with your brand regularly see your brand’s content. If your brand has an overtly liberal brand voice, your brand’s conservative audience might not be finding them in their search results.

Ultimately, brands will have to find ways to “burst” their audience’s filter bubble. As Pariser states in his NY Times Op-Ed piece, “It is in our collective interest to ensure that the Internet lives up to its potential as a revolutionary connective medium. This won’t happen if we’re all sealed off in our own personalized online worlds.”

[I posted this on Big Spaceship's Think Blog yesterday – comment here, please.]

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Thu, 26 May 2011 07:04:00 -0700 Words We Don't Say http://victorpineiro.com/words-we-dont-say http://victorpineiro.com/words-we-dont-say
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via 6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com

From New York Magazine's editor in the mid-90s, Kurt Andersen, this list of words that he wouldn't permit in NYM.

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/words-we-dont-say/?smid=tw-nytim...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro Fri, 06 May 2011 11:33:00 -0700 The Creatures Capturing America’s Hearts [1981 - 2011] http://victorpineiro.com/the-creatures-capturing-americas-hearts-1981 http://victorpineiro.com/the-creatures-capturing-americas-hearts-1981
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via whenthewhat.tumblr.com

This explains why 1988 was such a good year.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1100671/vpineiro_pr_03.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3snuiT9JzePT Victor Pineiro Victor Victor Pineiro