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We’ve seen this so many times before that I’m actually excited for Indie Artist Eloise to be in this fiasco. What’s going on? There is an alleged scandal. Let’s be clear… there are always three sides to a coin… but you can get up to speed on the Paperchase Plagiarism scandal here.

And TechCrunchEurope’s coverage here.

Tote bag in question! Album in question! Indie Artist - Eloise – at the center of it all.  

I figured I would just take the comments I shared with Eloise and post them here. It really does say it all… So if we find that there has been an injustice - do you think my predictions will come true? HAH!

<Comments I posted on Eloise’s site earlier today – only this time, I fixed my typos! HAH!>

This is soooo great! I love this David and Goliath scandal… because we all know how it’s going to end!

Smart Amazon should be the first to step up and take respectable action. Paperchase will be flanked across Social Media platforms from US to Oz. Mainstream media will finally pick up the story and shamed Paperchase will have to send out Corp. Comms boy to save face and fumble with some garbage excuse. Hot lawyer will make his name taking your case pro bono only to have Paperchase and you negotiate behind closed doors for an undisclosed amount of money! You and your fabulous artwork will become famous over night a la – United Airlines Guitar Player and Where in the World is dancing man!

And why? Why is this going to happen?…. because of Social Media. That’s why!

When will brands learn that if you don’t play nice in the sandbox the masses will go Social on thier brands! Eeeeeee! Let the next case study begin! Woot! Woot!

Congratulations Eloise! This may just be the best thing to happen to you and your fantastic art yet! Shannon

Feb 11th by Shannon

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I think I understand the difference between Online Marketing and Social Media… or as someone recently pointed out to me… not Social Media… but Word of Mouth (WOM). I guess we’re finally starting to enforce some nomenclature

Online Marketing which takes traditional marketing but makes it web ready evokes this reaction:

Social Media … or as it’s now being referred to, WOM evokes this reaction:

The difference? One broadcasts, manipulates and parades as butter when we all know it’s a version of. One uses humans, social tools to facilitate and enable… think; community managers, brand evangelists or better yet the public who fall in love with your brand – brand fanatics. Truly – there are people out there with a gift for building, nurturing and growing a community! We’re not saying throw everything else out… we’re saying that if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right! And getting WOM right as part of your marketing plan is ridiculously powerful.

I remember asking several people who appeared amazing-at-life a few questions including: If you could talk to yourself at 20 yrs of age, what would you say? – one response still rings true: “Buy your weaknesses, sell your strengths!”

If you’re looking to hire some really great and truly social types who absolutely get WOM. You want to chat to Barry Furby of Fresh Resources.

Jan 29th by Shannon

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Dec 14th by Shannon

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That’s it… just pondering a remark some child made in passing. Sometimes genius is in the most simple of things. Hmmm….?

Dec 06th by Shannon

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I blogged earlier about a random idea I had about consumers being an active ingredient of a marketing/advertising campaign.

The more I investigate, work in and ponder all things Social and Digital the more I can’t help but think of ‘Engagement’ as being the Hero.

There is bucket loads of information, insights and research out there that states online users in this day and age are looking for:

1. Fame

2. An experience that they can share with their networks.

3. Immortality

Brands want the online audience to swap their cash for said product/service – Brands are active online in an effort to capture those sales. I can’t help but see two islands that need a bridge.

Online consumers are looking for something specific, Brands are also looking for something specific… marrying the two could prove to be more of a win win. All this leads me back to an earlier random thought – what if consumers were enabled to be an intricate part of an online marketing and ad campaign? Literally able to jib jab themselves into copy, banner ads, videos, photos and more.

side-bar: HAH! I love how jib jab can now wear both hats: noun and verb! That’s a great measurement of success for a brand – non?

Nov 30th by Shannon

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Do you care what it is exactly I want you to tweet? It’s not porn, it’s not racist or anything else offensive to your next door neighbor. What is it then? I want you to tweet a marketing message that has been disguised to appear genuinely from you. I’ll give you $250 for pressing a button! So? Will you do it?

Tempting – isn’t it? Do you think average joe with 10,000 twitter followers will find it tempting? Absolutely.

Full disclosure? I am a marketing and advertising type.  (but not one you can easily cookie cut by any means.) How do I feel about this? Bah! Not impressed. Why? Several reasons that I’ve attempted to outline below – what will this mean to our networks, relationships with friends and perception of social anything a year from now? Two years from now? I appreciate there are the full disclosure type companies but I tend to think they’ll be in the minority… most companies will work hard to hide <seed> their marketing messages as genuine tweets from mates. I can’t help but think that this is dodgy space.. why?

#1 – It’s not honest. Granted it could be argued that it is the ‘friend’ who is tweeting his love of said brand that is being the dishonest one. Regardless – when a brand is exposed in this space as acting in a way other than honest and authentic – they are in for one helluva run. The Nissan Cube, Habitat and the classic Dell brand can all testify to this harsh reality.

#2 – it’s not the way Social Media (SoMe) is done. It is a “Get Social Quick” scheme and for those of us who’ve earned our stripes know this does not work. There is no long term growth achieved. I’d even argue that this takes you one step forward and three steps back.

#3 – smells like MLM. Network Marketing. Pyramid. Whatever you want to call it. Now everybody is a mark. Now every twitter list is a dollar sign. Now every potential twitter account that befriends you is actually a robot looking to build a list to benefit from Black Hat Tweets! (That’s what I’m calling it as it feels a lot like Black Hat SEO) And when said person discovers that they are being considered a mark or seen as a dollar sign, what do they do? They revolt. (or bolt in the opposite direction)

#4 – it exploits a space that prides itself on trusting the recommendations of others. Hmmm. I wonder how long this will last. AC Neilsen can be quoted as saying- 78% of people trust what their network recommend to them.

#5-  it is setting a brand up for a beating. When exposed to be paying for fake recommendations how do you think said brand will be received by the social space? If the brand is big enough and the story is outrageous enough there will be one helluva a job waiting for some PR firm. (Hopefully a PR firm who appreciates that we’ve evolved and social media is no longer a fad)

What do you think? Am I over thinking this? Is there a place for this type of evil? HAH!

Nov 22nd by Shannon

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