X-Box Ad worth watching

There's some guff about MicroSoft refusing to air it or something which is probably all PR hype, but I love this ad for the X-Box. I don't have an X-Box but I used to regularly play Halo with friends and two networked X-Boxes. This ad captures what I loved about that, the social aspect to it. Worth a watch. Good fun.

Do brand evangelists make us play nicer?

I've been meaning to write something on this for ages and just haven't had the time. I don't have the time now either, but just very quickly...

Due in part to Mena Trott's speech, and what people took from it, there has been some renewed discussion on civility in blogs.

It does seem to me that a lot of Bloggers are less civil on their blogs than I believe they would be in a face to face. That's the nature of the medium though isn't it?

Some will argue that it's not less civility, it's more honesty.

Irregardless (as they say on the Sopranos) what is interesting me is the role of the brand evangelist. Say someone has a beef with a product or company, and they blog about that issue - a brand evangelist will probably spot that post (through their RSS search feeds - see here) and respond to it.

Having a person representing that product or company respond to a negative blog post certainly humanises and personalises the issue.

Does this soften the bloggers approach? I guess it depends on the relationship the brand evangelist can engender with the blogger.

It worked for me. Look at my post on Ning's content agreement. Gina Bianchini responded explaining they were hoping to rectify the situation. I have received several emails from Gina explaining there have been delays and the content agreement AFAIK remains the same. But I haven't posted about it since. I'm not saying Gina has intentionally strung me along - not at all. I'm just saying the effect of her contact has been that the only follow up I did to that post was to praise Ning for being on the ball and post about the positive aspects of Ning which I wouldn't have bothered doing otherwise.

Having personal contact with companies is great, and having immediate responses to questions or issues about companies or products is great. Humanising companies is fantastic.

So what's my point? Well right now I think most brand evangelists are actually genuinely reaching out, and that includes Gina from Ning, but I worry that if things move forward the way we're heading, everybody will jump on the bandwagon and most companies will have 'brand evagelists' out there for damage control and saying whatever needs to be said to reduce negative impact and keep people on side.

Maybe I'm being too negative, but once businesses really take to this whole blog thing I think we're going to see a huge dilution of the positive aspects of blogging/response.

I guess all we can do is continue to push for honest blogging and real responses and hope I'm wrong.

RSS feeds - full vs partial

Yes, the full feeds vs partial feeds debate rages on. And on. And it gets boring and it gets heated. But it is quite an important debate to be having.

I personally think there is no 'one solution fits all' here.

Robert Scoble brought it up just recently, and for those who don't follow his blog religously here is the text of the comment I left on that particular full vs partial post:

So full vs partial rages on...

I publish full feeds, but only because I have nothing to lose. RSS is taking off, but it's still not largely understood by the average user. To be charging into 'full feeds are right all the time' at this point seems a bit strange to me.

Yes, I want to syndicate my content. But I respect the wishes of those that don't. Whether I subscribe to a partial feed will depend on the quality of the content.

If 'A List Apart' offered partial feeds, I would take them - gratefully (And not want to shoot them...).

Of course, I don't know who *this* post refers to and perhaps there is no reason for them not to have full feeds; but they obviously believe there is.

Are we talking Blogs only here or all RSS content...?

Most blogs at his point are either fluff or self promotional (at some level) - both these purposes have no reason not to publish full feeds...

The issue here, I guess is mostly monetisation.

I think an earlier commenter was fair to point out we need research and stats on full vs partial. I think it might show full feeds result in more subscribers and still get click throughs. I think it might also show that partial feeds, though resulting in less subscribers *might* have more targetted audiences and therefore yield greater results.

If users subscribe to partial feeds it may be because they know it's worth it. If they know it's worth it it may be because they trust the source. If they trust the source they may be more likely potential customers/consumers/whatever.

Maybe. We'll see.

Creative solutions for charity.

I often get stopped by people working for charities who want me to set up a direct debit and give them X euro a month.

I am not very good at organising my personal finances and, as a result, I HATE direct debit.

I always say, 'look, I'll give you a lump sum...' but the answer is invariably:
'Sorry, we don't do that.'

'But I want to give you money'

'So set up a direct debit.'

Today was a little different, I had this conversation with a guy from Barnados, he made a compelling argument about Ireland being a rich country and yet we have 1 in 7 children in living in poverty.

He said all he wanted was a tenner a month. I said I'd give him €120 in a lump sum. No can do was the response. I explained why I really didn't like direct debit and he respected that. Then he said, look - make it €150 and I'll make it happen.

At this point, I should interject that I had already established the guy doesn't get commission on individual donations, he works for a flat salary plus bonuses for number of sign ups.

I agreed to donate €150 if he found a way to accept it. He made a call to his team leader to ask if I could set up a direct debit for €150 a month and then cancel after one month. He got a positive reply and that's what he did.

A simple solution, don't know why I never thought of it before and I don't know why none of the other charities that stopped me thought of it before!

That's the kind of simple but effective solution I really admire.

Now all I have to do is remember to cancel it before it bankrupts me!!!

Cork Blogging Dinner with Robert Scoble a great success.

I knew the whole 'what to post where' issue would become a headache... I have posted about the blogging dinner on the BifSniff site, because I attended the dinner wearing, primarily, my BifSniff hat.

Here is my brief overview, and here is an interesting conversation I had about the impact of RSS feeds on visit lengths.