Jackson’s death crashes Google

B&T: News of Michael Jackson’s death caused Google to crash temporarily as social media sites Facebook and Twitter were bombarded with people clamouring for news of about the king of pop’s demise. There were so many people across the world typing “Michael Jackson” into the search engine that Google believed it was being spammed.
Users were greeted with this message when trying to access Google. "We're sorry ... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application.”
A Google spokesperson in the US confirmed that it had “experienced difficulty” for 35 minutes.

What’s this? Google FlashMob?
I remember fondly, the time I went into a shop and there was no one in it. Within 30 seconds the place was packed and I cheekily commented to my friend that we had been the victims of a flashmob. A great and wondrous feeling.
Here we see the first case of a Google Flashmob. And this got me thinking, how would it be possible to ever recreate something as great as crashing google for 35 minutes? You would have to get at least 5 million people (maybe 2) to participate methinks, and how would you do it? Send out mass emails? Tweetmob to get everyone to enter the same term at the exact same time? Marvellous
It would be glorious. Every so often you could organize the world to crash google for a period of time. Why does it feel so exciting? And why does the world seem to join together to create these fun little pranks?
My instinct tells me it’s the power of the individuals banding together to make a difference, but it also appears that this is the tip of the iceberg.
One thing I do know, I don’t think it will be long before we see an orchestrated Googmob.

Social media used “badly”

BandT: Australian marketers may be adopting social media platforms to engage with their customers, but are, for the most part, using digital channels “badly”, according to a leader in direct marketing.
Speaking at the Australian Direct Marketing Association forum in Sydney today, Douglas Nicol, partner at independent agency The Works, said marketers need to reconsider the way they are using social media both on their own websites and external platforms such as Twitter.

Not on my watch, bub
Really? Methinks no and perhaps the 'lady' doth protest too much.
There have been a couple of good campaigns in this country. V-Raw comes to mind. I think the youths kind of enjoy that one and still do.
Sprite with their how to series, particularly "How to get into any club" , we're very good. And these are just 2 that are top of mind.

I think on the whole, all marketers GLOBALLY don't know what they're doing. But some people, some good chestnuts and good eggs, do. And these people are making some beautiful campaigns and activations that really bring some goodness into people's lives.

It's very hard for marketers to adapt to a totally different methodology to one they have quite literally been brought up on from prehistoric marketing text books. Social/digital media is still very, very new. The change won't happen overnight- just think it took 18 months for both YouTube and Facebook to tip over into the mainstream - it will take longer for marketers to get it. To say badly is a little unfair.............they're on a learning curve.