hal tweets ·7:42 AM
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
Personal
2008,
15:19 GMT
Facebook Obsession and Indie Writers Deathmatch
Posted by: Hal
Okay it’s time to admit that I’m currently obsessed with Facebook. I’m spending way too much time on good old FB. What am I doing on there? Nothing of consequence whatsoever. Adding then deleting applications. Looking at random people’s pictures. Answering my FB messages. (A young woman today sent me a message through FB saying that she just wrote a 2 hour exam based on my article about my failed FB party.) I’m also chatting using that annoying pop up chat thing. I’ll chat with anyone! I’m a chat slut! It’s got to stop, but will it?
In order to justify my obsession with FB, I decided to try out their advertising feature so I could pretend I was doing business. I created an ad for Broken Pencil Magazine’s short story contest Indie Writers Deathmatch. It was actually quite interesting. You can target by age, country, education and interests. The ad is currently aimed at Canadians ages 16-45 who indicate writing and creative writing as interests or hobbies on their profile. I created the ad last night and so far today there’s been 12,029 impressions, and 11 clicks. I’ve spent $3.77 of BP’s money for those 11 clicks, an average of 31 cents a click. (I’ve capped it at $10 a day.)
As a advertiser, I like how targeted I can get. And as a consumer I think it’s also valuable – you’re a creative writer, so you get an ad for a creative writing contest. At the same time, there are drawbacks both practical and philisophical. On the practical side, clicking the ad takes you to the Facebook group. You then have to go from there to the actual contest page in order to find out all the details and enter your short story. So that’s one extra step which is a drawback (unlike, say, a Google Ad which would take you directly to the page you want people to go to). I have no way of knowing, ultimately, how many people actually go from the FB group to the Broken Pencil Death Match page.
More abstractly, this kind of advertising simply enhances what we already know but often chose to ignore: that the stuff we put up there to tell our FB friends about our lives can be used by just about anyone as marketing fodder. Even your social decisions – for instance if you say you are “attending” the Deathmatch – could be incorporated into the ad. (The ad is designed to have a headline above it that says “Hal Niedzviecki is attending the Indie Deathmatch”.) So all this integrates your social life into commercial life and makes me slightly queasy, slightly fascinated, and, as someone who’s trying to reach a very particular cohort of potential creative writers, slightly fascinated. If anything else comes to mind about this, I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, I really need to write a blog post about something other than FB. Get out of the house. Do something with my life.
Hal.
ps – and do consider entering the Deathmatch. It’s a really fun contest and a great opportunity for an emerging writer. I’ll be one of the initial judges to see what stories go on to get voted on. If you’re not a short story writer, please pass the link on to someone who is!
2008,
18:24 GMT
Bits and Pieces: Hal's Upcoming Weekend, More on Facebook Advertising, playlist for Hal's 10
Posted by: Hal
End of the week bits and pieces…..
1) I’ve been really tired lately. And hungry. I think I’m getting ready to hibernate. W. is going to be away this weekend. It’s just me and the kid. I hope she takes long naps…
2) Michael, reader of the blog, sent me an article in response to my musings about Facebook ads. The article talks about Facebook’s approach to advertising and why they’re using these small low paying ads instead of massive blockbuster advertising.
From the piece:
“Mr. Rose argued that Facebook isn’t so much about explaining products as showing people which of their friends endorse them. He pointed to a campaign by Procter & Gamble that allowed Facebook users to give each other Tide vintage T-shirts (actually tiny pictures of a t-shirt).
“Tide wants to create a positive affiliation with their brand in your mind,” Mr. Rose said. “Are they more likely to do that with an ad that says ‘Hey, we’re better”? Or are you more likely to have a positive feeling if one of your friends sends you a virtual gift that is a Tide vintage T-shirt?”
Again, it’s this whole question of using people’s lifestyle inclinations as a way in. Of course that can backfire: do people who wear vintage Tide t-shirts really have an affiliation with Procter and Gamble products?
Anyway, so far the FB ads for Indie Writers DeathMatch that I’m running have had an average of about 26,000 impressions a day, with about 36 actual click throughs to the FB page for the contest. I’ve capped the amount we want to pay at $10 a day and plan to run the ad for 10 days. So in the end it’ll cost $100 for 360 click throughs. Now since it costs $20 to enter the contest (you get a subscription too) at the end of the day I only need 5 of those 360 to actually enter the contest to make it worth it. The question, of course, is whether or not we’ll get those five people through this.
3) Back to my weekend. In addition to W. being away leaving me as sole parental unit in charge – watch out kid, there’s a new sheriff in town – I’m going to be on a panel at a conference on Sunday. The conference is called Culture Congress and the panel I’m going to be on is Technology of Contact. 11:45 – 1:15 at the Lakeside Terrace, Harbourfront Centre, downtown Toronto. also on the panel are: Jacob Zimmer, Michel Lefebvre, and Peter Flemming. It’s free if anyone wants to check it or the other events out.
4) Finally, I’ve created a CD mix of Canadian tunes to send to my 1000th Facebook friend, the free thinking, home schooling blues playing Texan Marie Angell. There are 13 songs on it. Here’s the lineup: 1) “When She Appeared” – Aaron Booth 2) The Commute – The “Barmitzvah Brothers 3) Slow Recovery – Beans 4) In Her Dream – Bob Wiseman 5) Almost Crimes (live version) – Broken Social Scene 6) Pamphleteer – The Weakerthans 7) In State – Kathleen Edwards 8) I Will Not Sing a Hateful Song – Constantines 9) Almost Summer – Jason Collett 10) I’m a Mountain – Sarah Harmer 11) 38 Years Old – The Tragically Hip 12) Blackheart – Cuff The Duke 13) The Dead Flag Blues (all 16:28 of it) – godspeed you! black emperor. I’m excited for Marie to experience this cross Canada panorama of weirdness!
2009,
18:55 GMT
Back in Action in 2009: Hal's new Macy's wardrobe, Adventures in Translation and JohnTV
Posted by: Hal
Okay I'm back and I'm blogging. I spent the holidays with W. and E. in the suburbs of Maryland. There are a lot of stores there. A lot of them. A good place to visit if anyone wants to ponder just how it is possible that people get sucked into spending so much more than they actually have. Speaking of which, we bought a whole bunch of new clothes. Macy's was having a sale. Hey, a man's gotta look good, right?
The visit was pretty decent. My mom watched the kid a lot which let me do what I like to do best: sleep in. When I wasn't sleeping I was doing something else I'm partial to: drinking beer. Also went to a hockey game (Capitals versus Leafs, Caps won of course, go Caps!), saw two movies - Slum Dog Millionaire and The Reader - both at this giant movie theatre on the edge of a fake lake built beside a weird fake town made up entirely of stores and restaurants (condos surround but do not intrude). Anyway, you get the idea.
So, while I was gone two articles popped up that mention my work - both in different languages. One appeared in La Presse (a Quebec paper) and one appeared in a Mexican newspaper. I posted the link to the La Presse article on Facebook and requested a translation of the article and promptly got two sent to me. I posted them to my FB page, so if you want to see them friend me. Today I posted the piece in Spanish, so hopefully someone either here or on FB will translate that one for me too!
Pic on JohnTV with the caption:
"This could be you. Would it be worth it?"
So the piece in French by Mario Roy is about pride and its spill over into pseudo-nonconformity ie. the idea that we are trying to be different just so we can proudly proclaim that we are different. It got me thinking about the roots of Peep Culture. Is it pride or insecurity that causes us to reveal so much about ourselves? It's probably a little of both.
While in DC I watched a bit too much cable on Dad's giant - and I do mean giant - recently acquired HD big screen tv. One of the shows consisted of Shocking Videos. They featured the work of Brian Bates, "Oklahoma's Video Vigilante" who takes great pride in videoing prostitutes and johns in the act and posting the ensuing footage to his website Johntv.com.
Obviously the fact that he does this, and that his videos are all over cable as well, is indicative of the rise of Peep - in which we derive entertainment from other people's 'real' lives. But there's something else here, the zeal with which Bates pursues his subjects, and the pride he takes when he is featured on TV. You can argue that the videos posted to YouTube via his website serve to advance his stated aim of battling prostitution in Oklahoma City, but when they are put on TV, they become entertainment, and the only thing they advance is his pride. (I should add here that at least one of the videos posted to YouTube from Johntv.com come with advertisments from YouTube that say: "Hookup With Sexy Asians.")
Here's a sample of the work of Brian Bates.
2009,
19:50 GMT
Belated Birthday Thoughts: Happy Birthday to Me and Thanks to You
Posted by: Hal
Okay so since I've been back from holidays I've been working pretty much frantically (which means for me missing the occasional nap) to get the Peep book done. Everything else has been pushed aside. In a few more days, the super duper newly updated and edited version will go to my editor. Then I'll be back to updating more frequently and consistently.
In the meantime, my birthday was last week! W. bought me a cool new jacket/sweater thingie - hard to describe but i picked it out so obviously i dig it. I will wear it soon and take a quick webcam shot so you can see if you like it. E. made me a card depicting a monster and fire. Not counting the cards from W and E, I got 2 birthday cards, 3 birthday phone calls (not counting relatives), 2 birthday emails, 5 Facebook birthday messages, and 61 Facebook birthday wall posts. I think I would have gotten more wall posts but FB turned off the wall posts function for a while fearing that I was the victim of some kind of spam attack or something.
Anyway, for all who sent me birthday wishes, thank you for helping me turn 38 years old. It was great to hear from everybody.
So how do I feel about turning 38? I haven't really been paying much attention to my age over the last 5 years or so. The 30s are kind of a blur I guess. Turning 38 snapped me out of it a bit. 2 years to 40! I need to be paying attention to my glory days here before I completely miss them.
So here are a few things I've noticed about Hal at 38: I'm still immature, but not as big of an asshole as I used to be. (Could it be I've developed a capacity to consider other people's feelings?) I get tired more. I don't - and can't - drink as much booze as I did in the good old days. I like routine. I dislike spending money. I'll eat just about anything including pieces of meat E. drops on the floor.
That's me at 38. More soon.
2009,
23:47 GMT
What I Have Been Up To: A Quick Hal Update
Posted by: Hal
So for those who caught my status update on twitter/facebook (I’m using ping by the way now, which I recommend for those who want to update status on multiple platforms), I spent the weekend on my own with E. We had a pretty good time…in two days we managed to do ballet (her, not me), swimming, skating plus grocery shopping and making Jello. We put grapes in it, yum. I’m getting into this whole fatherhood thing. The only downside was a trip to my brother’s house, 45 minutes each way only to find out that his daughter, who E really wanted to play with, wasn’t even home. Plus they didn’t seem to really want us there. Ah family, whattya gonna do?
Now it’s back to work. Had an editorial meeting with my publisher this morning. We had a great talk about the remaining stuff to be done to the Peep book. So it was back to it today but maybe because we’d just had this very intense discussion, I found I couldn’t focus. Sometimes I need a little time to mentally digest ideas. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to fully focus.
In the meantime, the publisher has lined up some great blurbs for the book, which I’ll be sharing with everyone shortly including the official presentation of the cover.
Other news: The Peep documentary is getting serious, we’ve got a long meeting scheduled for thursday where we’re really going to start getting into the planning of the who-what-where-when. Exciting. Plus we’ll be looking at the prototype of the Peep website which will be a super cool interactive site that encompasses the documentary, the book, and it’s own web-only components.
So that’s my update. Gotta go convince the kid to get into bed. I will use my newfound daddy skills.
ps – anyone want to hang out with me? I’ll be at the Ice Cream Social this Wed. We’ll be informally launching the new issue of Broken Pencil and hanging out.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 6:30pm – 11:00pm
Habesha Club
875 Bloor St. West
upstairs
Toronto, Ontario CA
With RM Vaughn, a. rawlings, Derek McCormac and others…the iCE SCReAM SoCIAL, an evening of literature, music, Valentine’s crafts, door prizes and (you guessed it) ice cream. The festive occasion will be held at Habesha Club (Bloor and Ossington) on Wednesday, February 4. 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Craft Time! Make Valentines. Eat Ice Cream. Social-like. Authors 7:30 p.m. Bands 9:00 p.m.
The Bloggist
Hey, I’m Hal Niedzviecki. I’m a writer/thinker who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wife and daughter. Up till now I’ve always considered myself a private person. But at the same time I’m fascinated by people who effortlessly open themselves up to the whole world. So I’ve… more...
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
New content on the Broken Pencil website! Short fiction: Shack the Clam Girl + How to Make Your Own Game Cabinet http://bit.ly/b6CHLP
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