Sephora gets Social

Beauty aficionadas know that Sephora is launching its new site at www.sephora.com and to do so it has a promotion http://www.sephora.com/win and of course in the social media obsessed world in which we live, this page really redirects to Sephora's Facebook Page It is intriguing, this growing intertwined and incestuous relationship between different web channels. There is a common adage now that websites are information and social media is for interacting. Where does the distinction lie? Is the knowledge economy where website launches could be a gala events dead? And has it been replaced by an interaction industry? An ever increasing issue not just for marketing execs but for business itself is how to find the right balance Online. Carving out the appropriate roles for twitter, facebook, Google Plus, pinterest and your good old website, are essential to your Online value proposition (and that means value proposition period... Remember the days when we argued about Brick and Mortar v Online)

In the ecosystem of social interaction online, where do the niches lie? What's next?

The Future of the Internet? SEX.com launches

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Pin Up Girls - Gender and Pinterest

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This is my debut night on Pinterest ( ahem, http://pinterest.com/humanandmachine/ ) . Do I say NIGHT because I anticipate hours ahead continuing to listen to Supergrass and pinning that which I love?

So far it does feel v girly (which is obviously a compliment) Is it then true ( as Time wrote) Men are from Google +, Women are from Pinterest or it is that I am really on the UK Site and not girly at all but a Rich Man (apparently it's more popular with minted men in the UK)? Ah, the Sociological questions abound. Actually, a boy told me about Pinterest in the first place but admitted that he really doesn't pin. A Study in Gender differences perhaps? Or what we think of Gender and assign as feminine in the first place.

Gender still an issue you ask (eyes rolling)? Pah. How passe. Men are secure in their masculinity ( haven't you heard the term metrosexual). Some are even so secure that they won't set foot on Pinkterest, sorry Pinterest, but will instead prove they are men by heading over to Gentlemint "a mint of manly things", or Manteresting with its "Interesting. Man. Things." How can you not love the "You've got cooties taunt" on Manteresting "Invites are lame! Get started today." If you don't know what they are referring to, the stats so far will suggest you're a boy as polite girls apparently wait for an invitation. How stereotypical. But seriously, where do I mail my Hallmark Thank You Card to.

This apparent Gender dichotomy feels like a 10 year old's birthday party with girls on one side of the room and boys on the other. Is there still such a divide? Is this the whole nick name thing again where girls can be called a boyish Nickname but if a boy is he's a Sissy (which you would think is a good thing... did you not see Carrie?) If Pinterest started with more boys than girls would it have gone a different way? Is it like publishing a book and making sure ppl don't know you're a woman so boys will read it too. If J. K. Rowling put Joanne on her books would it have been more Henrietta than Harry?

So will I be a Pin Up Girl? I guess you'll know when I pin something about it or maybe I'll Google Plus it. Or pull a Lady Gaga (as they say) and do both.**

Let the Gender studies continue....

Are you Pinteresting?

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* Picture from http://sarahperkinsphotography.com courtesy a Pinterest Board by Ida MC. Many Thanks.

** by that clearly I mean do either while wearing a dress made out of meat.... I should Pin that on myWear Me Out Board

Digital Killed the Paperback Star? 3 ways to think about e-Books

1.e is for Enemy.

Did Digital Kill the Paperback Star? Some people think so. Some people think that e-Books will destroy the reading experience. Some people think that paper is sacred. That’s the Paper v Digital debate. e-Book as in “e is for Enemy”. Enemy to that gloriously exclusive Publishing Industry. Who now will decide for us what is worth printing?

2. e is for Electronic... get over it.

Sounds pretty logical. An electronic version of a book. A rose by any other name. Moby Dick made of some dead trees or Moby Dick plastered in electronic ink. Call me - Isprettymuchthesamething. Some think digitising a book creates just that a digital version of a book. This may be a neutral thing or maybe e-Books can save a readership dying on the borders. Digitise it and they will come. From my first Kindle experience a couple years ago or even before that early Project Gutenberg (RIP Michael S Hart) copies scrolling across my screen or perhaps an early pdf, they took the books off the shelves. e-Ink has its own enchantment.



What happens next? When the Kindle Fire is burning throughout the world. Does it change the game? We’ve seen Push Pop Press' Digital Book for Al Gore’s Our Choice on Ted. Then we heard they were bought by Facebook. Something is happening.The texture of the book is changing. The format, the experience. Juliana Baggott Julianna Baggott has introduced an Inner Circle for her Pure Series of Books. The relationship between the author and her audience is evolving too. What are the possibilities forward for interactive books? That brings us to no. 3...


3. e is for Everything.

Thinking outside the Book

What if we look beyond the book. We see them as stories. From the pre-paper days that define conventional notions of a book to the oral tradition and history of storytellers telling their tales to bards on a stage to Spielberg showing a little extra terrestrial or a big dinosaur. Stories are everywhere and they are not only confined to pages. Think of the new e-Book possibilities as stories presented with text, film, music, spoken word, animation whatever it takes to tell a great story. Is this a cop out? Is this a cheat? Should a story stand on its own without props. I’m hearing Simon on the last season of X Factor in the back of my head flogging great performers for letting their dancers and props overshadow them. Will these new media options be distractions or redefinitions?