Facebook finally realizes that consumers are afraid of commitment
Is anyone really surprised that Facebook changed its functionality from “become a fan” to “like”? To be honest, hearing this news is about the equivalent of someone telling me that guys in college don’t want a girlfriend, they just want to get laid. Truth be told, the average consumer doesn’t possess the type of brand loyalty that warrants fan status and the average Page administrator doesn’t have the intention of building a real, meaningful relationship with users anyway. Fans by definition are people who are enthusiastic devotees, diehard admirers and sometimes even addicts. These are the people that marketers should court on their hands and knees, the kinds of people who deserve more than a Facebook one-night stand.
For years, I’ve always felt that Facebook gave lazy marketers an ego boost by providing a metric that said marketers were doing their jobs better than they actually were. As consumers, “becoming a fan” never really meant much beyond the word “like”. There were no real relationships there, no real types of meaningful engagement.
Facebook’s decision to switch from “fan” to “like” feels logical, natural, and really very necessary. The ecosystem today is one giant meatmarket of brands and products vying for our attention. At the end of the day, we as consumers have no desire to commit to contrived relationships. Luckily for us, Facebook just gave us an easy out.
What SXSW Means to Me
Yes, I know some of you are “over it”…. I’ve been reading a lot of “been there done that” lately. Well guess what? This is my first year going to SXSW and I’m practically on the verge of tears that’s how excited I am. For years I’ve wanted to make it down to Austin and due to financial, personal, work-related reasons, the stars just never aligned for me.
Well world, I am officially here! This week I’ll be joined by about fifty of my colleagues from Porter Novelli (disclosure: we’re SXSW’s Agency of Record), helping Stephanie Agresta and Brian Solis rock out the blogger lounge and TechSet, recording an episode of Capitalize for Dartboston, and connecting with some of my favorite people in the industry.
I’m slightly worried that VIP lists and secret dinners will create a separation between the “haves” and “have nots” or the “influencers” and the “wannabes”. I do not have VC funding or a hot startup to call my own. I am not an online personality nor do I have an upcoming book deal. I do not have a million Twitter followers or a personal fan page. But what I do have is a purpose.
This year at SXSW, I want to celebrate the following:
- Friends – There are people who I’ll be meeting this week who I’ve known for years and some just a few days. There are people who I haven’t met in person yet, but have written emails and tweets to for months. I want to celebrate friendships that I’ve been fortunate enough to have thanks to this wonderful community. I’m a better person because of them.
- My job – Do you know how awesome it feels to get to be here because of work? I take a lot of pride in being able to say that I’ve hustled hard over the past four years to get to this point and to know that I’m making a living doing what I love means everything to me.
- Serendipity – I ran into @heyamberrae on my flight earlier and we bonded at the airport and over lunch about our similarities, passions, and shared connections. Prior to this run-in, we were just twitter acquaintances who had met briefly at an event in NY. I can now say that Amber is officially on my “watch out world” list and someone who I’m looking forward learning from and collaborating with in the future. This is just one of many serendipitous moments that I hope to have in the days to come. It’s the unexpected, anything can happen, spontaneous nature of this space that keeps me coming back for more every time.
In this vast landscape of social media practitioners, ideators, innovators, entrepreneurs, and technology titans, to know that I somehow have a piece of the puzzle is something words can’t describe. And even though I officially haven’t slept for two nights straight, I am so alive, alert, and ready to have SXSW kick off my best year yet.
Autotune Effect in Garageband
Jay-Z may have proclaimed the “death of autotune” but I discovered it is very much alive and well thanks to programs like Garageband. If you don’t know what autotune is, it’s a vocal effect that’s used to correct the pitch of a singer.
It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything on this blog… go figure something like this finally inspired me to get something up here. I spent some time hanging out in Garageband and iMovie to make the video below. Let’s just say I had way too much fun geeking out and fulfilling my inner pop-star fantasies.
How to create the autotune effect in Garageband:
1. Pick a song that you like. Find a karaoke version (lots to be found on Youtube or you can try MySpace).
2. Open Garageband. If you’re on a Mac running Tiger, click “Music Project” and set the key of the song you’ll be recording. If you’re running Mac OS 10.5+, just click voice.
3. Make sure your key is set properly. Look at the bottom panel near the play and record buttons and select the project icon. This will pull up a mini screen that indicates the key you’re recording in.
4. Record your track and then locate the little scissor icon in the lower left of panel. Click it and you’ll see a set of preferences come up. Move the second slider “Enhance tuning” to the right to create the autotune effect. Make sure you select the “Limit to key” check box.
That’s it! It’s as easy as that. Now if you don’t have a Mac or this is just too much work for you, highly recommend the T-Pain iPhone app, which is pure genius. It costs $3 at the iTunes store (link), but it’s ridiculously fun. Check out the kiddies testing it out below:
Alright, that’s all I got for now! Let me know what you think and happy auto-tuning!
UPDATE: Best autotune video ever:
