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5 reasons to love Jónsi

Jónsi (real name Jón Þór Birgisson) is a singer-songwriter from Iceland who, I think, brings happiness and wonder back into music. He’s released a solo album, but gained fame as part of the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. Jónsi sometimes plays his guitar with a cello bow, wears sunglasses through entire shows and has invented his own language, which he calls “Hopelandic”.

So he’s ecclectic. That’s your first reason to love Jónsi. Here’s another four, in musical form:

Jónsi – Animal Arithmetic

Jónsi – Sinking Friendships

Jónsi – Kolniður

Jónsi covers MGMT’s Time to Pretend

I hope you enjoy him as much as I do!

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Best drink driving ad… ever?

 

I’m really enjoying this ad, newly released by the New Zealand Transport Authority. It’s a departure from their usual shock value ads – and other attempts into this territory have fallen flat (Google “mantrol” and “manis”) – but they seem to have struck it right with this one.

“Bro, Monique says you’re dumb”

“Puzzle time!”

“You know I can’t grab your ghost chips”

“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head”

Music is by Franklin Road Studios, especially for the ad. The main actor is Darcey-Ray Flavell (who you may recognise him from Boy). The agencies are Sweet Shop and Clemenger BBDO – you bloody legends.

UPDATE: There’s now a Ghost Chips song – it’s by The Cuzzies and here’s the official video:

Before you ask where you’ve seen that guy before, it’s Jermaine Leefe, who used to be a VJ on C4.

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Facebook insights for web

Facebook page owners are starting to learn the real value of Facebook page insights – and it’s become even more important to know and understand your users now that Facebook’s new metrics are public.

But there’s a little-known analytics package in Facebook called Insights For Your Website, which can tell you a lot about who is hitting your site, what they’re sharing to Facebook, and how they’re sharing it.

From the insights you can deduce who your major advocates are, the demographics of users who are reaching your site, if your like buttons are working, and what Facebook social plugins are having the best impact.

So how do you access these insights?

First, you need a website and a Facebook account. Then you’ll need to prove to Facebook you have the rights to see the insights. Visit facebook.com/insights. In the top right hand corner there’s a button – hit it!

A popup will appear – and you’ll see a domain to put your website details in, and a dropdown menu. Select the brand page you want to hook the domain up to. Anyone who is admin on that brand page will be able to access the web analytics for the website. If it’s for personal use – for your blog or similar – then just select your own name.

There’s a line of code sitting in there. This is called a meta tag and it needs to go into the header of the main page of your website. Each website is different, so I can’t tell you exactly how to do this part. If you’re not sure how: Google is good.

Once you’ve inserted the line, come back to this screen and click “Get Insights” – it’s that simple!

Now you’re in, and given Facebook a couple of minutes to get all the data loaded, it’s time to pick the meaty bits. For me, it’s looking at demographic information, and the conversion between like button impressions and like button shares.

Breaking your users down into age and gender is useful if you’re dealing with demo targeting – something helpful if you’re advertising, but perhaps not so much for the layperson. It’s still interesting stuff, though.

I also like to compare impression demos against those on the Facebook page they relate to. Is there an area of my web audience who aren’t liking my posts? Is there a section who aren’t clicking the like buttons? Who are doing organic shares – and do those rates tell me that my like buttons are under-utilised, and may be in the wrong place on the page?

Another useful insight is the Popular Pages section – you can see how many times the like button has been clicked or URL organically shared to Facebook on certain pages and start to see patterns in what gets your audience sharing.

So give it a go – hook your website into Facebook insights. I’d love to hear about your results!

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Sharing trends

Mashable recently posted a block infographic released by Clearspring based on AddThis data, but I found it hard to read as it was so big and oddly spaced. I’ve recut the graphic slightly, but the data is all there. No infringement inteded!

Here’s some sharing trends from the last five years of data collected by AddThis:

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When good stats go bad

I was faced with an interesting situation this afternoon: I had found a blog post where some work I had overseen was critiqued with a point of view that didn’t align with the goals we had, and made the project look bad. The project was, in reality, a big success.

It’s an easy mistake to make. Heck, I’ve made it. We judge work based on the standards we have for it. We think we know the desired outcomes, and we make assumptions based on that.

But it is a dangerous path, making a case study from external stats, especially when you don’t know what the point of the endeavour was.

The figures are, I imagine, faultless. There’s no arguing the number of times words have appeared in a feed, or the number of status updates on a single platform. But that yardstick didn’t match the one we were using.

When reading a case study, one of the most important questions you can ask of it is: Was it written by or with the help of someone who was a part of the project? Can the writer tell me the point of the project? Do they know the measurements to decide “success” in this instance?

A one-size-fits-all approach is tempting, but not always the right move when it comes to social strategy. Getting ‘heaps of mentions’ on Twitter, or ‘1,000 views on YouTube’ is not always the goal of the exercise. Something that looks great on the outside may not be achieving any of the objectives, or tell the whole of the story.

A Facebook page with 100,000 fans may look good on paper – but how many of those fans click the links, interact with the brand, or buy the product? How much did you spend in ads to get those fans? A Twitter account with 50,000 followers seems legendary – but are those followers in an active relationship with the account holder? Are they even real accounts? Is it the old follow-followback trick?

One of the issues with social media in New Zealand is that there are so few case studies released, fewer still with in-depth strategic commentary, that any data is picked apart until it loses meaning. But a fundamental mistake in reading too much into data is thinking the intention of the project manager was to achieve “A”, and then failing them for not doing so, ignoring that they may well have been aiming for “B” all along.

I learned a valuable lesson about my own assumptions today.

The next time you’re reading an analysis of a project, read it critically, asking yourself if the author really has the authority to offer the context required. If you don’t, you could miss out on some real insights.

Seems basic, right?

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We are like trees

If you’ve ever studied a tree stump you’ll know all about the rings. Looking over them is like caressing a lifetime. You can see exactly how different events in the tree’s life affected it. The grafting, the pruning, the good years, and the bad years – they are all right there in those rings. The events are so woven into the tree that they shape it and give it character.

In many ways, you and I are like trees. We are shaped by the events around us – the good and the bad. But unlike trees we have a choice about what we prune.

Maybe you are an emotional spender. Maybe you jump from relationship to relationship. Perhaps you feel jealous when others succeed. Whatever it is, it’s costing you peace and wellbeing – and possibly some friends too.

There is a model that’s really helped me clear out some of the emotional junk hanging around my life: Face, trace, replace.

Face the fact that you’ve got a problem. This might sound easy, but sometimes self-awareness is one of the hardest things to learn. Don’t let shame stop you – face up to your issues and the underlying feeling, be it jealousy, anger, sadness – acknowledge it. Get to know what triggers it.

Trace the problem to its root. The inappropriate emotion you’re feeling harks back to something earlier – where did it start? How did it start? What lies did you learn at that time – “I’m not good enough”, “I’m ugly”, “I don’t matter”, “No one listens to me” are examples.

Replace the lies with truth. Whatever you told yourself that caused you to go off on this understandable tangent, replace it with honesty. “She really didn’t mean to overlook me, it was a mistake. She loves me”; “I am beautiful, even if he didn’t say it. He probably didn’t know how to say it”; “I really do matter. They were just rude and horrible and I don’t have to believe what they said”… see what I mean?

I’m not a counsellor. I’m just telling you, from a person that’s struggled, that this worked for me. Yes, it took a long time. No, I’m not perfectly healed… But this is a big step in the right direction.

So next time you see a tree stump, stop to admire the rings… and know that you have a choice.

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Baggage

The thing about baggage is that it falls into one of two categories: You’re carrying it because you’re going somewhere, or because you’ve been somewhere.

If you’re like me, carrying baggage because you’re off somewhere is great. Your suitcase is tidy, full of clean clothes and extra space, ready for all those little nick-nacks and pressies you’re thinking of bringing back. You’re off into the unknown and it’s exciting and perhaps a little scary.

If you’re carrying it because you just got back, then those bags are going to be heavy, full of laundry and random crap, and you’ll be tired from the trip. So what do you do when you get home? You have a rest, then you unpack. Maybe a couple days later, but you will unpack.

At the very least you’ll put the suitcase down, right? So why don’t we do that, emotionally speaking?

You came from somewhere, having collected a heavy load of stuff – some helpful, some not. And years later you haven’t unpacked it all. It’s all still sitting in baggage that you’re dragging around your day-to-day life. Perhaps you figure it’s easier to ignore it, pretend it’s meant to be there, that it’s really a part of you now. Maybe you don’t know who you are without it.

I don’t know your story. But mine has caused many, many suitcases full of crap to gather around me. I’d sit on them, use them as a fort, use them as a reason to not do something.

But there comes a time in life where, to move on and be ready for the next adventure, you really need an empty suitcase and a spare hand to hold it with.

What suitcases from journeys long passed are you still refusing to put down?

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Best Tweets: September 2011

It’s that time again – time for the best Kiwi tweets of the month!

Party time in NZ! Drinking! Woop!
bobsyauncle I’m not as think as you drunk I am
pinkdeedle Success!!!! Woke up in my own bed.
cadetdory It tastes like there’s a party in my mouth and everyone is throwing up.
BRONNINATOR My god, all the french men with cocks on their shirts. Delicious.

RWC2011(Trademark IRB, no infringement intended. This blog is in no way affliated with the RWC, IRB, sponsors or partners)
Kiwi_Chatter Do we warn all the #RWC2011 tourists about Hamilton?
Andrew_Mulligan Oh look! Sonny Bill is on the front page of the Herald. I haven’t seen that since yesterday’s edition.
BabeAtSea It’s painful to watch the whipping we’re giving Japan. Maybe half the AB’s could go off, to make it more of a challenge?
ManStanMatt BREAKING: McCully has appointed himself as All Blacks trainer to prevent a repeat of this week’s series of injuries.
melhomer Just passed a huge tree near Eden Park with lots of flags in it. And a road cone. And a deck chair.
JonoHale Looks like every lamppost in Levin had a RWC flag! There must be at least 4 of them!!! #onlyjokingthereisabout50
VegasNZ I dont have Rugby World Cup fever yet but I imagine i have to get it from an official supplier.
annagconnell Just filtered ‘rugby’, ‘rwc’, #rwc, ‘rugby world cup’, ‘all blacks’ out of my feed. It went blank.

Kiwi Tweets: The X Factor edition
TophHooperton Whenever it cuts to a black and white freeze frame on X Factor I always say in a sombre voice ‘and then they aaaallll died’.
evilkud Hairy cleavage was the real winner of that audition
Twonetweet Is it normal to sob your way thru x factor? Just checking
MelenieNZ What is going on with these contestants? It’s like they were all recruited from a psychiatrist’s waiting room.
The_Vonk Oh jeezus they’re letting it through

Kiwi Tweets: The Coro edition
jv_nz Uh ohhh… Channel 1 is moving Coronation St to make way for Masterchef Australia. There’s gonna be a mutiny! A really slow, dusty mutiny.

Kiwi Tweets: The Vagisil edition
SpeelyFreaking The first rule of Vagisil club is: you don’t talk about Vagisil club. Probably obvious, but I thought I’d share it anyway.
Vegrandis Vagisil ad “when you feel fresh, you feel confident.” ohh so that’s why i’m too scared to ask boys out, cos my cunt isn’t fresh

Technology makes life better..?
BexieLady When will twitter stop suggesting I follow douchebags? Twitter, you have terrible taste in men sometimes.
Kiwiseabreeze Saw a “No more Tangles” ad on FB. totally thought it said “No more Triangles…” #downwithtriangles
HungryandFrozen “what band is this?” “it’s xyz, you like?” “no I just wanted to get the name right so I can complain about it on twitter”…
AdrianwithaW “Student Loan. Stuudent Looan. Student Loan. S.t.u.d.e.n.t.L.o.a.n. Stuudeenntt Llooaannn” – Colleague talking to automated IRD call service
allstarangel Downside of a 10 year old having a phone. They text you at 6am to tell you they are awake. Had to censor what I sent back.

Noms-related tweets
KimChisnall At Fonterra briefing for new CEO. Again no chocolate milk on offer! What gives!
kittengloves Success is: getting to the end of the party and still having an unopened bag of Twisties.
PaMelville @amiewee like cake through the hourglass, these are the cheesecakes of our lives

Bodies!
shazndolly went to the @trelisecooper sale today…the one thing that I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted was in a size 8. Great. No dinner for me. This year
VinLew I think I’m going through menopause…
robtreacher Jeebus, just caught a glimpse of my body in the mirror. That satellite isn’t the only thing being adversely affected by gravity
CNell_NZ Best part of Titanic? “Kate Winslet’s taking her robe off! OMG I’m about to see her boobs! Hooray boo– [camera change] GOD DAMMIT.”
beekay77 Poor misunderstood Steve Crow. He’s just concerned about my right to walk down the streets with my boobs out.

Oops!
NessOldfield Just emailed someone to tell them that the cat needs to be desired….it was meant to be desexed. When spell checking goes wrong.
chadirl @TyeTyeee whats a nun? is it a breed of dog?
RachelRayner Getting trapped in ones cami is significantly less embarrassing when it happens in the privacy of ones own bedroom.
normanstrange Don’t fucking come into my store and say the other guy knows more than me. I know more about your shit phone than you do.
benjamintelfer Soo, I just walked in on my flatmate getting a BJ in the bathroom.
feefeebofaye Omg dying here! M11 was telling me about cleaning up his school and how the teachers told them if they find any congdongs not to touch them

Smart-arses
guywilliamsguy Normally I wouldn’t steal a car or a handbag but now, based on my success with movies, I’m kind of thinking I should give it a crack.
RyanSproull I sometimes feel I’m waiting for the opportunity to say, “I’ll pay you a retainer,” and bounce an orthodontic device off someone’s chest.
MoataTamaira Just realised why the Arrow, generic pharmaceuticals ads are so hideously painful… They sell painkillers.
00k Here’s a quick test: what are the opposites of these six words? Always. Coming. From. Take. Me. Down.

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Glee’s Zach Woodlee on beautiful imperfection

zach-woodlee

Earlier in the year I had a chance to interview Glee choreographer Zach Woodlee. We ended up having a really interesting discussion about “imperfect perfection” – something Zach is really passionate about.

“It’s OK that your legs don’t go up to your ears and you can’t stay on your good leg when you’re turning. I just love watching people dance.”

He says that working on Glee and The Glee Project is a totally different beast to working with professionally trained dancers – he’s previously worked toured with Madonna, and on movies including 27 Dresses and Hairspray – because Glee helps him remember all the reasons he wanted to dance in the first place.

“It’s really opened me up to a whole other part of dancing. When you spend your life in a dance studio, in front of a mirror, working on perfection and improvement, that becomes what you do. My appreciation for trained dancers is, of course, outstanding, I think it’s a wonderful, wonderful art to get into. But then being put in this position, I think it’s really taught me about, or re-taught me about, why people dance. The joy in it.”

It seemed obvious that the beauty of imperfection was his new driving force. We talked for a while about how Glee was freeing teenagers from restricting ideas about who they should be. I was really touched by his attitude – I felt like he wasn’t just talking about teenagers, but a principle that could be applied to anyone: Accept and love yourself, and know you’re perfect, just as you are.

“I feel like you can watch your favourite character [on Glee] and be it that they’re disabled, or overweight, or maybe not the prettiest or anything, but they still have permission to perform and they have permission to be themselves, and they work within a group. As a younger adult, it would make me definitely think ‘ok, this is ok, and I know that there’s a group of people out there that can accept me for this and love me’.”

He went on to talk about how Cory Monteith, who plays lead Finn Hudson, may not be the best dancer, but that’s not a weakness.

“We know that Cory is not our best dancer, but there’s a difference because you don’t feel embarrassed for him, you actually endear to the character.”

And surely that’s something we can all afford to learn – your weaknesses are endearing, not embarrassing.

Zach seems like a great guy and I have a lot of respect for the team behind Glee. They don’t always get it right, but you know what? That’s probably kind of perfect.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

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Kiwis share September 11 experiences

Casually asking Twitter anything is a dangerous sport – none moreso than when discussing the September 11 terror attacks.

Without ado, or too much editing, here are the responses I recieved when I asked Twitter users where they were when they heard the news.

Some woke up directly to the news
LittleIchiban I’d fallen asleep with the TV on so I woke up at 5am to it being broadcast, thought I was having some crazy dream
Margie186 Woke up to messages from US friends and didn’t grasp the enormity and horror at first.
jinnee79 I woke up from a nightmare about a plane crash in Sydney. Turns out it was the news on my clock radio alarm
splatdevil My dad came in to my room, waking me up, telling me they had collapsed. We then watched the coverage and talked of nothing else.
amandimoo At home. Hubby was doing late shift, woke wondering why he hadn’t come to bed in time to see the 2nd plane hit. Glued to TV from then
nicki_nz Woke up to the news on the radio. Grabbed my kids and made them watch it, realising it was one of those life moments.
PaMelville Alarm clock went off with Kim & Corbett sober and quiet. TV went on. Boom. Spent day doing corporate massage to very tearful people.
rmccarten Woke up to news blaring on radio. Husband said in dazed state “woah, this is massive”. Watched tv coverage before and after work
alliekatnz woke up at the exact time the first tower collapsed and looked and the clock wondering why was I awake. I turned on the radio…

Many were disbelieving
ogamu I was chatting to a friend in NYC on MSN when the first plane hit. She ran to her window and was like OMG the WTC is on fire!
brenasmith I had just got my PC working with a tuner card, couldn’t believe what was on, ended up with TV and PC running just to be sure.
AliCopeman Got up early for breakfast out with colleagues. CC turned on TV One Breakfast and let out a stream of expletives
Al_2c 10 years ago I was working with two Americans whom I love dearly as we watched the horrors of 9-11 unfold!
duncn I watched it live on tv. Saw the second plane hit. Absolutely chilling. We didn’t know what was going to happen next. Very scary.
bookemdanno At work, following online and on TV. Numb, in shock, and dimly aware that we were watching the world change. Scared.
brentrobinsonz I was working at DSE, heard snippets on the train into work, sat in front of a computer watching a low quality stream of CNN
Guinea6 I just got back from a run up One Tree Hill. Sunk into the couch speechless ’til the flatties woke up 🙁 Seems like yesterday

Others were left with plans hanging
chrisjquin In Rotorua after our sales conference, was due to fly to San Fran on the 11th our time… Never left on that trip for 3 months

For one, it was a birthday they’d rather forget
NanaJ9 Waking up, it’s my birthday and I get a text “Happy Birthday, by the way New York is being bombed”

Some were expecting new life
WendyWings Asleep and nine months pregnant, my husband called and told me to turn on the TV
karenhurley Me too…
allstarangel I was 9 months pregnant too! Son turns 10 next Sunday. Mother in law woke me up at 6am and turned on tv. There is a photo of me in labour reading a paper with Osama on the front page
Kiwi_Chatter Lauren was pregnant too.
kittengloves I feared for our unborn child’s life. Thought the world was ending
MrReasonable Hospital waiting room with very pregnant MrsR. Office phoned me to get in as there was panic in the markets. I stayed with MrsR.

Some had wee children to explain it to
tellywriter The teens (then 3 & 5) came in to say there were no cartoons on TV, just news. I said they had the wrong channel. But they didn’t.
sarabeee I had to act normal and cheerily feed Timbee in his highchair, not quite 13 months.
TelcoKT A friend was at home with her newborn (8 days old), feeding her and wondering what world she’d brought a child into…

… And some were just young themselves
Edaemus I was eleven years old and in bed. I remember lying there watching it on my little TV, completely baffled. Surreal memories.
KrystleF I was in 5th form, had just woken up, heard it on the radio & ran to the TV, it was all we talked about at school that day
br0kenbutterfly Was home sick from Year 6 at school, thought it was WW3.  Then our schoolwork was based around it for ages.
akianz I was home, my parents woke us up and we watched the news in horror until we had to go to school.
tinopai I was 8 years old getting ready for school. The most memorable morning of my young life. Just shocking.
lilyandalma I ran and woke my parents up and we watched the whole night- after them telling me off for being up so late on a school night.
KirstiGrant Was at boarding school, had business studies 1st period. I remember the teacher attempting to incorporate it into the lesson.

Some were overseas
genebrarian I was in London. My (English) husband received confirmation of his New Zealand residency on the same day. *Sigh of relief*
TophHooperton I was watching Neighbours. The news interrupted it and I sat in that spot watching it go down all day. Seemed like a dream.
TelcoKT In the UK. Financing trucks. Watching it unfold at work. Freaky.
g33kytweet I was in Westlock Alberta Canada, just about to head off for a shopping road trip to Edmonton with a friend.
muffinmum Our stuff had been shipped to NZ the day before, a place we had never been. Was at one of last days of work at special needs school
ClaireLHuxley I was in Newcastle, UK. Working from home (waiting for our useless disappearing builder) the whole day watched in shock. We’d already decided to move here, that just cemented the decision.
kathadu At an internet cafe in Marrakech, reading an email from a London-based friend
Keri_little I was in a job interview at bank UK, came out of the room into open office of 300 peeps, everyone in groups in tears. I was So confused
NZ_judester It was my first ever week of teaching in Hexham, UK. Colleague came in, told us and we all rushed to library to watch the tv.

… Including in the USA
corinnespleen Living in the states… Spent the whole day watching the coverage – emotional day.
SoniaLee At work trying to locate my big brother who was in NY city that day for their first antenatal check up, he emailed me to say they were ok
kiwifrenzy Sitting on the end of the bed at Circus Circus, Las Vegas, getting ready to go to the Grand Canyon, and watched the 2nd plane crash on TV
honorarykiwi I grew up in Pennsylvania. People started getting called down to the office – being picked up. Announcement made around lunchtime. We were brought up believing we lived in an infallible, invincible country. One day, and entire world view shattered. Eye opening.
leahisaninja In LA, about to book a ticket to NY. Eep!

Some were freshly home
2covet I was back in my NZ bed after having been standing on top of the South Tower & visiting the Pentagon just a few weeks prior.
kennewell I had returned from the USA the night before. Heard on the way to work. We all sat and watched tv at work. 40 of us. In awe.

September 11 seems to be one of those moments – you know where you were at the time because it was history-defining. You knew you were experiencing a moment that would make it to the history books.

Maybe it affected New Zealanders so deeply because we felt connected to America in ways we didn’t with the ‘stan nations – countries where things like this happen with horrifying frequency. Maybe it was because many of us had been there, or seen it in the movies, or on a playon on Friends. Maybe it was because it was televised. Maybe it was because it was so relatable, had such an impact on the way we travelled, or the subsequent war we entered into.

Feel free to leave your memories as a comment on this blog.