3 huge mistakes corporations make on Twitter

(1) Having a list of Links to Social Media Sites, but the Twitter logo is linked to the main Twitter home page, instead of their specific corporate Twitter account profile page.

WHY IT'S WRONG: People don't want to visit the Twitter home page, they want to visit the corporation's Twitter page, and perhaps Follow it. Often the Twitter account name of an organization is not intuitive. A company called XYZ might use "XYZDave" or "SpreadXYZ", not just the name of the company. Linking to Twitter's home page makes you look inept, amateur, disorganized.



(2) Putting the list of Links to Social Media Sites at the bottom of the corporate website home page, instead of up near the top so everyone can see it.

WHY IT'S WRONG: People are flocking to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social networks. By burying your social media links, putting them at the bottom of your corporate home page, many people will not see these links. Web users are in a hurry, distracted, multi-tasking, and not reading websites carefully. They skim, scan, and skip content that's not immediately relevant or sufficiently interesting. Often, they don't even scroll all the way to the bottom of a home page.



(3) Having only a Company XYZ News account on Twitter, perhaps with an email contact in their profile bio, rather than having an additional Company XYZ Support account on Twitter, so people can quickly contact them with problems, suggestions, questions, and other input.

WHY IT'S WRONG: News is somewhat self-centered, and while many customers are interested in your company's news items, many of them also want to contact you. Twitter news profiles generally don't Follow other Twitter users, nor do they tend to interact with them, so it's just another unilateral, one-way communication medium, violating web norms and social media expectations. Smart companies use Twitter for more than just news, like Comcast, they create a separate Twitter account for Support.

Content is Slave, not King

Contrary to popular myth, Content is NOT "King." Completely dependent on other factors, Content is actually...a Slave.

Many times, not only is Content not King, but Content poses as a Drag Queen -- something prancing around, dancing as corporations pull its strings, pretending to be something it's not.

Content cannot be King. Dethroned, or better, usurped by Connectivity, Presentation, and Interactivity, Content is low man on the totem pole.

Often, people search for pure Content, like movies, music, news and opinions. But even then, if the content is poorly organized, badly displayed, hard to navigate, or non-interactive, it will be ignored.

Many times, when someone is consuming content they enjoy or find valuable, their first impulse is to interact with it. They want to post a comment, a question, a praise or a complaint. Some may want to enrich the content, add their own view, amplify or criticize it.

Content, to be effective and valuable, is entirely reliant upon other factors. Content is extremely important, but is not the ultimate, universally dominant entity.

To call Content a "king" is to revert to old fashioned imperialistic, phallocentric, male-dominated hierarchy. Even worse, "Content is King" is a meaningless mantra that people chant, without being able to explain it.

It almost goes without saying: fancy flashy packaging or presentation with poor content is going to fail. But even the world's best content, all by itself, just sits there, isolated, accomplishing nothing, attracting nobody.

One thing many business owners don't understand, when it comes to websites, is how important Content is. Sometimes they even think the web designer just "makes it up" for them. "I have to provide content for my site?" they say with a disappointed look on their face. "What kind?"

But to dump a bunch of Content into a website is not nearly enough. The hard part, or fun part (depending on how you look at it) is to keep adding fresh, relevant, updated Content. That's what search engines and consumers want.

Some say "all things being equal, good content beats bad or no content". But we could also say "Packaging is King" because nice, attractive packaging will be more compelling than ugly or no packaging.

Calling one element "king" allows people to get away with slighting other elements. A clueless corporate person might say, "I don't know why nobody visits our website. It's loaded with great content!"

Perhaps it's because your highly exalted Content is missing the synergists that make it complete. Things like Presentation, Understandability, Substantiating Links to Reputable Sources, Findability, Relevance, Timeliness, Update Frequency, Context, Usability and Navigation Ease.

If there is a "King" on the web, it's Connectivity. Caring and Sharing. Interactivity. But not Content, especially not the pre-packaged, corporate kind that comes in the form of broadcast homogeneity.

People care more about trivial but personal communication than they do about the "content" of professional hucksters like Big Entertainment, Big Advertising, Big Government, Big Religion, and even Big Sports.

Hit rewind.

Now that we've disrupted the mantra, dislodged the parroted mindset, let's back up a bit. Before we can decide if Content is King, Queen, Court Jester, Serf, or Villain, let's define what people generally mean by "Content".

[QUOTE]

What is content? This word derives from the Latin "contentum," which means "that which is contained," but this derivation is not very descriptive.

There is no precise definition, but generally content is used to denote material prepared by professionals to be used by large numbers of people, material such as books, newspapers, movies, or sports events. That is the sense in which it is used in this work. In general, content is distributed by "mass" or "broadcast" communications systems.

....

In this work I do not classify information services such as weather, directory assistance and airline schedules as content.

Many of the standard phone calls access just such services, and the Internet is leading to increasing usage of them. I also do not classify most of e-commerce as content.

Somebody going to the Godiva Web site may be exposed to creative work in the ads flashed on the screen, but is interested in purchasing a tangible good. These types of interactions will flourish on the Internet, and some will be merging with content, but they are more typical of the standard point-to-point communications.

-- "Content is Not King" by Andrew Odlyzko

[END QUOTE]

While corporations, media, and other organizations try to hype their fabricated, often deceptive or over-priced Professional Content, consumers are sharing their own home-made, so-called Amateur Content.

From music and videos to photos and text, Do It Yourself Content is making Professional Content providers jealous. They want to go back to the good old days when the public was a passive, easily influenced group of spectators and consumers.

Perfect example is the telephone.

When it was first invented, Alexander Graham Bell thought it would deliver Content, not intimate connections between people. "Useless chit-chat" was discouraged and mocked, even as some still poke fun at the "triviality" of blogs and Twitter.

Take the post office as an illustration of Content vs. Connectivity or Professional Content vs. Do It Yourself Content.

The US government believed the main benefit of mail would be delivery of newspapers, a Content-rich medium. While newspapers did outweigh personal letters in pure data, people valued the mail system as a means to communicate with each other. Propaganda and mass entertainment were a distant second.

Those who keep shouting "Content is King!" often conceal a greedy agenda.

They typically mean "User Generated Content is Amateur Crap! Long Live Professional Content!" Or they want unpaid users to fill their social media site with Content, so they can put ads all over it and use the amateur content to lure search engines and paying customers.

They want to turn the internet into a broadcast medium. They see social media as comprised of sitting ducks, low hanging fruit, dumb chumps they can bombard with ads and seduce into buying their junk.

You, as a blogger, Twitter user, or website owner, need good Content, that's for sure. But if that's all you've got, if you don't pay adequate attention to the other factors that make Content valuable and easy to search, use, and share, you're doomed to fail.

Content is Slave...but it's a good, hard-working slave if it's under the right Task Masters!

call in sick without speaking with text to speech processor

Got laryngitis, it's painful to try to speak, but you have to call in sick to work? No problem. Just use the AT&T Labs Text-To-Speech processor. The official name for it is

Natural Voices® Text-to-Speech Demo

http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php




Here's how to convert your text to voice, to call in sick to work, without speaking:


(1) Type in your message (300 character limit).

(2) Select the voice you want to represent you:

* language (US or UK English, or Spanish, French, German)

* male or female (Crystal, Mike, Rich, Lauren, Charles, etc.)

(3) Click on Speak. A WAV file will be generated and your QuickTime audio player will play it.

(4) Adjust the volume by playing the recording a few times.

(5) Call your boss at work, and when he or someone answers, play the recording, with your computer speaker up close to the telephone receiver. Play it 2 or 3 times, to make sure the message is received.

EXAMPLE: "This is Steven Streight. I have swine flu with severe laryngitis. Painful to speak. I'm using a Text-To-Speech processor to deliver this message. I can't make it in to work today. Thank you."

I actually used this today to call in sick.

It used to be possible to type in a comment on a YouTube video, then, before posting the comment, you could click on Play Audio of Comment, and some widget would convert your message to speech.

I guess they no longer offer this service, but I used it to create an entire parody video of a Jean Baudrillard interview "Jean Baudrillard - Cultural Identity and Politics - 2002 1/8":


Streight interview Twitter - Fundamental Misgivings


Restrictions On Use Of Audio

This page is for demonstration purposes only.

See the FAQ for full policy details.

-- Audio samples are for private, non-commercial use. Publication and distribution require licensing. The restrictions are the same for non-commercial use as for commercial use.

-- Exceptions for limited private use are described in the FAQ under Usage Policy. Information about licensing and sales can be found in the FAQ under How To Buy.

-- Input text is logged. It is treated as private customer data and is handled according to AT&T's Privacy Policy. Note that AT&T will cooperate fully with law enforcement.

8 Common Homepage Mistakes

A website's homepage is the first thing a person sees when they visit your site.

This is obvious, but many homepages contain mistakes, or leave things out. As customers do more shopping online, and do internet searches to find information, your homepage is becoming more vital for business survival.

Errors and deficiencies on homepages are easily corrected, once you identify what can be improved or added.


Here are some Common Website Mistakes:


(1) No photo of CEO/Owner.

Showing your face is not a matter of vanity. It's all about humanizing your business, making it more personal and friendly. A homepage with no picture of the President, CEO, Owner, or Founder seems cold, bleak, even unaccountable.

You'll increase good will, personal warmth, and credibility for your homepage by displaying a nice photo of the primary spokesperson of your company. This photo will instantly convey authenticity, a person who is in charge, whose reputation is on the line.

People like to do business with people they can see and relate to. Select your photo carefully. Look approachable, charming, professional, smart, kind.


(2) Clutter.

Trying to display too many items on the homepage can cause all of them to disappear, lost in chaos. Instead, show the most customer-relevant items and functionalities. Then group the secondary items under headings that make sense to customers, in words they typically use to talk about the topics, and make top navigation bar links to these categories.


(3) Hard to read.

Be especially careful about the color of your text and the background colors. Medium gray text on light gray backgrounds is difficult to read, for example. Gradients, where a color fades from top to bottom, can sometimes reduce readability.

Your website visitors are always in a hurry, or multi-tasking, or otherwise distracted. Don't assume they're devoting total attention to your website. Make it easy to scan quickly, so customers can readily find the information they need, and can ignore what's not relevant to them at that moment.


(4) Drop down menu About links.

Even if you feel you must sub-divide your About page, don't make your customers choose categories from a drop down menu. It seems minor, but any extra complexity can cause frustration to customers.

Your About page link should be a single item that takes them to a page where you explain who you are, what you offer, and how customers can benefit. Then, on the main About page, you can display links that focus more on each separate item, like Personnel, History, and Employment.


(5) Hiding Contact page in About.

While it's good to have Contact information in your About page, you should display a separate Contact link in your navigation bar on the homepage. Again, we must keep in mind how customers are in a hurry.

You want customers to contact you. And contact is a primary action that customers want to perform. If they don't see a Contact link on the homepage, it could frustrate them, and they may leave your website to visit a competitor.


(6) No tagline or slogan.

People like jingles and statements that sum up what your business is about. You probably have one you're using now. It's part of your identification. So why leave it off your homepage? Customers like to do business with familiar entities.

By adding your slogan, jingle, tagline, or motto, under your logo or business name, your customers will more readily connect with your business. It can be the hook that says, "You already know us. You've heard our commercials for years. You can trust us."


(7) Unfriendly.

Your website is you. It represents your business just like a sales person does. Is your staff aloof and depersonalized? Of course not. Then why should your website homepage look sterile, like a manual or textbook?

The wording should sound like the way normal humans talk. Some trendy companies go so far as to be comical, edgy, or even smart alecky, just to lighten things up a bit. Your homepage should have the feel of a friendly person who enjoys helping people, not a spec sheet with "just the facts ma'am". LOL


(8) Links that disappoint.

If you have a News link on your homepage, fill it with actual news, rather than just a statement about how you'll be featuring news there eventually. If you have a link to a blog, why not state some reason to visit it, some benefit to customers? If you have a Photo Gallery link, be sure to fill it with interesting, educational, or entertaining photos, including recent events, with captions explaining the scene.


Tweet

Twitter Changes the Question and Improves Its Content

Finally, Twitter is depersonalized! They changed the question (or "prompt"), and it promises to be a huge improvement. Hopefully, everyone will pay attention and slavishly obey the new inquiry.

I blogged, in a comical manner, about "Changing the Twitter Question" back in February 2009. Twitter has finally seen the error of their ways. Follow me on Twitter, I'm: @vaspersthegrate

"What are you doing right now?" was the original question that greeted Twitter users, right above the small text entry box that permitted only 140 characters per message or "tweet". This Twitter inquiry was mocked by detractors."Who cares?" and "How narcissistic!" were common responses by those who did not "get on Twitter" and wanted to emphasize the frivolity of such an application.

Sarcasm and disparagement directed toward Twitter and Twitter users mirrored the attacks on blogs years ago when they were called "web logs". Old fashioned "slomo" (slow motion) blogs were derided as "online journals" that only myopic, self-centered teenagers would ever care about.

When CEOs began to use them, and mainstream journalists got "Ratherized", starting with Dan Rather, and individuals as well as organizations realized that blogs were great as mini-websites they could design, update, and control all by themselves, they gradually gained acceptance.

Twitter also entered the fabric of daily life as cable news networks began using Twitter and incorporating tweets as timely, spontaneous, average folk feedback on news items.

Tragic events like school shootings, the Burmese massacres of Buddhist monk dissidents, the corrupt Iran elections, the Balloon Boy Hoax, and the Ft. Hood lone terrorist massacre brought Twitter into the limelight as a viable means of interpersonal communication and first hand news reporting by citizen journalists.

But, in spite of occasional good uses of Twitter vanity question persisted in generating boring personal drivel, reducing the overall value and relevance of Twitter content.

"What are YOU doing right now?" spawned endless geysers of private details to bloat the Twittersphere. Many users could not think outside that dreadful box. We had to hear about what they ate for lunch, what con artist blog conference they were attending, and what airport they were at.

No more!

"What's happening?" is the new question.

Interpretation: Twitter no longer cares about what you and I are doing. Or what we are thinking. Twitter now enlists us all to be citizen journalists. We are commanded to report on what's going on around us, or being done to us (by the government or whatever?)

Twitter wants you to be a news source, probably due to how rich and valuable such content is to the mainstream media and other interested parties. Perhaps now the quality of tweets will skyrocket!

Another benefit: spammers will not be as likely to hype their junk! It may be more difficult to tweet a sales message. Commercial usage of Twitter may wane and completely disappear. Nobody joins a social network to receive hype or corporate PR anyway! Purity and joy are within reach once again!

It may be harder to reply to "What's happening?" with relentless inspirational quotes!

It may be harder to reply to "What's happening?" with announcements of dubious investment opportunities, Twitter Follower Acquisition Automation apps, and declarations of private affairs and vague feelings that nobody wants to clutter their mind with!

Eureka!

Twitter finally figured it out!

We want to know "What's happening?" and NOT "What are you doing?"!!

Prediction: Eventually, the Twitter question will be changed to "WTF?"

LOL

FURTHER READING: Brian Solis post "On Twitter, What Are You Doing? Was Always the Wrong Question".

+

interstitial ads vs below content ads

Interstitial ads (also called transition ads) are advertising that comes between you and the web page to which you're trying to navigate. Or they appear in your transition from one webpage to another webpage within the same website.

The word interstitial means "coming in-between two things".

It's a form of browser hijacking. They annoy people. Don't do it.

MarketingTerms.com "interstitial" definition:

A full-page ad that interrupts sequential content, forcing exposure to the advertisement before visitors can continue on their content path.

Interstitials are a form of interruption marketing. This quality appeals to advertisers who feel Web advertising needs to be more like a broadcast medium to be effective.

Interstitials often draw an above average amount of response and resentment. The high response rates typically translate into higher CPM rates. The high level of resentment may translate into consumer backlash, although the exact long-term effects are unclear.

For example, you do an internet search, see a promising link, and click on it. But instead of seeing just the web page, you see an ad overlaid on top of the web page, partially or totally obscuring it. It's a commercial intrusion that interrupts your web browsing.

You want to see what you believe is relevant, interesting, or entertaining web content. But you're rudely confronted with an irrelevant ad instead! The ad may be relevant to the topic, but it's irrelevant because you are seeking information, not products related to a topic.

You're not shopping for anything. You're not in the mood to buy. You feel insulted and offended. You've been tricked into viewing a video commercial with loud, horrible music. Or a digital print ad that's hyping something you don't care about. Even if you might care about such a product, the way it's imposing itself on you turns you off.

Instead of successfully selling the product, you get pissed at both the product and the website that lets these interstitial ads come between you and it.

Irony of ironies! The BusinessDictionary.com definition of interstitial advertising is itself interrupted by an interstitial: an ad for their email newsletter (a very common content type for interstitials).

Interstitials are similar to pre-content video ads, that force you to watch a short commercial prior to enjoying a movie, news report, or other video content. You have to endure the commercial to get to the content.

While the pre-content video ad runs, you're probably resenting it, and making a note to boycott the company behind the commercial. Bad will and negative word of mouth are generated instead of increased sales.

Ads that are unexpected, unwanted, and disruptive to web browsing are counter-productive. They backfire. And they may increase the webpage's loading time.

What's the answer?

Below Content Ads.

These are sales messages that come AFTER the content.

You get the content you want. Now you're happy, in a good mood. When you see an ad below the content, you may be curious. Interested. Prone to investigate a product that's possibly relevant to your interests. Like a book or DVD that expands upon the content you've just consumed for free.

Below content advertising is natural, non-annoying, non-intrusive, endurable. You may skip it and move on, but at least those who do click on the ad or respond to an email newsletter sign-up form, are not antagonized. They will be more qualified, more likely to buy something or receive something free that carries more advertising.

There is also Above Content Ads, which are treading a fine line between Interstitials and Below Content Ads. While they're unexpected and unwanted, at least they don't block your view of desired content. You just have to scroll down a little.

Don't use interstitial advertising no matter how they're hyped to you. Go with below content ads and generate good will as well as increased sales.

Wikipedia article on interstitial webpage.

Smart Computing article on interstitial ads, with Above Content Ad.

"10 Online Ad Formats People Hate Most" from Catalyst Group, as seen on Silicon Alley Insider:

They are:

* Banner ads below headers

* Ads that look like content

* Dancing ads

* Auto-expanding half-page ads

* Banners next to logos

* Billboards in the top right corner

* Google text links interrupting content

* Ads with hidden close buttons

* Interstitials

* Page Take-overs


+

How to Embed Flash Slideshow into Blogger

This is just a demonstration of an embedded slideshow on Blogger. A client asked me today how to embed a single .swf Flash file into a blog post.

You have to first make a Flash Slideshow with one or more images. A
Flash image cannot just be embedded like a JPEG. It needs a widget, something to transmit the image to, or render it within, a web browser.

Use a free software program like Flash Slideshow Maker.

http://www.flash-slideshow-maker.com/

Install this program. Then use it to Create Slide Show. Select the image or images you want in the slide show.

When you get the Publish Now dialog box, be sure to give it an HTML title and SWF title (default is "myalbum", I changed it to "Str8 Sounds CDs").

Once Published, you have to then upload the slideshow to a host site.

You'll get a prompt to upload to SkyAlbum. Click on that. Create an account with username and password.

Here's the "Str8 Sounds CDs" slideshow on SkyAlbum.

Once the slideshow is hosted on SkyAlbum, you'll get embed code and swf code.

Highlight the embed code, copy it, then paste it into Blogger > Create New Post (or Edit Post if you want to embed the slideshow into an existing post) > Edit HTML > paste that embed code in > change the dimensions.

You'll see

object width = "____" height="_____"

at the start of the embed code, and for my blog I use w=380 and h=400.

You'll also see it again, toward the end of the embed code. Be sure to change the dimension values at both spots in the embed code.


Publish Post.

corporate websites vs social media

Many companies, despite the advice of so-called social media gurus and blog conferences, still fail to prominently display their Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, blog, and other social network links.

You will notice how I display a link to my Twitter profile near the top of my sidebar, and links to other online presences are further down. You can find my web activities in my blog sidebar, without having to Google my name and go hunting all over the internet for them.

Marketing blogger B.L. Ochman tackles this odd deficiency in a recent post.



"Why are companies hiding their social media involvement"

[QUOTE]

While thousands of companies have either experimental or well-established presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media sites, those communities remain invisible on all but a tiny fraction of company homepages.

Why do companies hide their social media efforts from visitors?

My guess is that their reasons include

* fear that they'll lose control of their brand if too many people know they can have a say;

* lack of cooperation between marketing and IT;

* and perhaps pressure from lawyers who are nervous about new-fangled new media.

It's hard to find a company website whose homepage easily and clearly allows visitors to see all of the its social media initiatives. You'd have to be Nancy Drew to find the company blog on most websites, or its Facebook page, or all of its YouTube videos.

[END QUOTE]

I think the reason social media is not integrated with the main corporate website is simple incompetence.

Corporate websites do many things wrong. It's only natural that they would forget to have links to all their other sites, Twitter, YouTube channel, blog, etc. They're inept.

Here's another failure that's common. Corporate websites should include embedded videos of current and classic commercials, with HTML code to enable people to embed the commercials in their own blogs, especially if the commercial is funny or innovative.

Why would a company NOT upload their tv commercials to YouTube? This would make it easy for marketing bloggers to display the commercial and comment on them.

Are companies afraid they might get negative reviews? They shouldn't fear this if they're confident in what their ad agencies are doing, and paying them big money to create good work.

For example, I wanted to show my blog readers and Twitter fans how the current Ditech Refi Rate Sales tv commercials are almost identical to the Twitter graphics, the bird, the blue color. But this new commercial is not on YouTube or the Ditech corporate site.

Even though my purpose was to point out how Ditech seems to be imitating Twitter in their use of a bird and blue color, my article would also provide more exposure for their tv commercial, and would promote their Refi Sale.

These companies are just plain clueless. It seems amateur and childish to resist the new ways people are interacting with products and promotions.

If you seek competitive advantage, start integrating your social media presences with your corporate website. Also, be sure to include videos of recent commercials on your corporate website, and upload them to YouTube. Provide embed code so people can post your commercials on their blogs.

Don't fear criticism, which only makes us smarter. Don't thwart praise, which helps distribute your message.




*** B.L. Ochman, one of the first marketing bloggers I ever read, consistently posts thoughtful articles about corporate internet marketing and social networks. Follow her on Twitter: @whatsnext

FBI warning on spear phishing

SPEAR PHISHING E-MAILS TARGET

U.S. LAW FIRMS & PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRMS

11/17/2009—The FBI assesses with high confidence that hackers are using spear phishing e-mails with malicious payloads to exploit U.S. law firms and public relations firms.

During the course of ongoing investigations, the FBI identified noticeable increases in computer exploitation attempts against these entities.

The specific intrusion vector used against the firms is a spear phishing or targeted socially engineered e-mail designed to compromise a network by bypassing technological network defenses and exploiting the person at the keyboard.

Hackers exploit the ability of end users to launch the malicious payloads from within the network by attaching a file to the message or including a link to the domain housing the file and enticing users to click the attachment or link.

Network defense against these attacks is difficult as the subject lines are spoofed, or crafted, in such a way to uniquely engage recipients with content appropriate to their specific business interests.

In addition to appearing to originate from a trusted source based on the relevance of the subject line, the attachment name and message body are also crafted to associate with the same specific business interests.

Opening a message will not directly compromise the system or network because the malicious payload lies in the attachment or linked domain. Infection occurs once someone opens the attachment or clicks the link, which launches a self-executing file and, through a variety of malicious processes, attempts to download another file.

Indicators are unreliable to flag in-bound messages; however, indicators are available to determine an existing compromise.

Once executed, the malicious payload will attempt to download and execute the file ‘srhost.exe’ from the domain ‘http://d.ueopen.com’; e.g. http://d.ueopen.com/srhost.exe. Any traffic associated with ‘ueopen.com’ should be considered as an indication of an existing network compromise and addressed appropriately.

The malicious file does not necessarily appear as an ‘exe’ file in each incident. On occasion, the self-executing file has appeared as other file types, e.g., ‘.zip’, ‘.jpeg’, etc.

Please contact your local field office if you experience this network activity and direct incident response notifications to DHS and U.S. CERT.

-- public domain information "Spear Phishing Emails Target US Law Firms & Public Relations Firms" at FBI Cyber Investigations unit.

It's time to get smart about cyber crime and cyber war techniques. This is the realm of blogocombat on steroids. In regular blogocombat, words are used to attack, defend, and debate issues or personalities.

In cyber crime/war, the combat is waged against your personal computer or corporate network. They use highly seductive or relevant phrases, like the name of a fellow employee or a family member, or a topic related to your job or personal interests.

A Twitter friend, Michael Koby, (his blog: Michael Koby - Commentary on Technology, Media, News and More ) recommends this book (Amazon item page):

"The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security" by Kevin D. Mitnick

Mitnick is the "reformed cyber criminal hacker" whose exploits inspired the movie War Games. He was the Most Wanted Computer Criminal at one time. See the Wikipedia article on Kevin D. Mitnick.

Social Engineering article on Wikipedia.


[QUOTE]


Social engineering is the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim.

All social engineering techniques are based on specific attributes of human decision-making known as cognitive biases.^[1] These biases, sometimes called "bugs in the human hardware," are exploited in various combinations to create attack techniques.


[END QUOTE]

7 keys to success in social media

You create a profile, upload photos and media files, personalize your page to reflect who you are, but then what?

Social interaction comes next.

Depending on the contextual relevance of the site, your involvement with other members of your network can be anything from intense and nearly constant -- to casual and sporadic.

For example, I might spend hours on Twitter, RTing (retweeting) and @ing (replying to) various Twitter users. It could be joking, advising, debating, self-expressing, self-promoting, other-promoting, or just plain chatting about whatever.

However, on MySpace Music, I rarely interact with other musicians, aside from an occasional comment or private message. I often update the content, adding new tunes to my mp3 player, or new photos and videos. While I keep my Str8 Sounds page fresh and always changing, I don't spend a lot of time interacting with others.

I do more than most bands probably. I at least comment back when another band posts a comment on my page. And I make a point of complimenting bands that I really like and admire. I'll post a photo of me holding their new CD, as a comment, for example. Or mention some specific song or musical style of theirs that I enjoy greatly.

So my social interactions on MySpace Music is sincere and steady, but not all that frequent or intense. I never debate anything over there. I don't seek advice or express my thoughts like I do on Twitter.

Twitter interactions are rather well defined. Norms and netiquette sprang up spontaneously, with services like Twitter Fan Wiki to codify and keep pace with the site. Then we develop our own pet peeves or idiosyncratic practices.

To succeed in being human, or a humanized organization, on social media depends on several considerations. You will judge your ROI in social media according to your own goals. But the basic social media ideology remains the same.

Social media is fundamentally about caring and sharing. Not sales. Not viral marketing. Not investment opportunities. Not spam. Not positive affirmations.

To simplify: success in social media depends on being social. Not contrived. Not scripted. Not trendy. Not self-impressed. Not corporate fluffy. Not hype-driven.

Nobody joins a social media network to receive sales messages or corporate PR.

If you act human, caring and sharing, some few may be interested in your product or organization. But social media is not "just another communications / advertising platform." If you see social media participants as dumb sitting ducks waiting to waste their money on your junk, you're doomed.

We see the spammers do this. They lure you into Following them by using relentless inspirational quotes from other people. Or they try to act like a normal person, posting trivial details about their life, then every 10th post will be about some product or "opportunity".

Here's what it takes to succeed in social media, the kind of personality and behavioral qualities required to interact effectively with others online.

7 Keys to Success in Social Media

1. Value

You, or your organization, have plenty of knowledge or talent to share. Provide your insights, expertise, links to relevant sites, news, facts, questions, experiences, trials, struggles, triumphs, humor, skills, education, training, dreams, art, music, poetry, whatever you have to contribute to others.

Share links to sites you know about, but most others probably don't. What web tools do you use that others could profit from? What sites are authoritative in your field? Link to them! That's how you prove you're an expert, and people are attracted to those who share nice things.



2. Authenticity

Be yourself, don't quote others constantly. Emphasize what your friends or customers say are the good points of yourself or your product.

No ghost-posting! Don't position yourself as an individual, then have a staff pretend to be you as they interact with others. You'll be hated for this fake and insincere approach.



3. Altruism

Genuinely care about others. Prove it by interacting kindly, sympathetically, inspirationally with fellow members of your network.

Are you pushing something that will really help others, or are you selling something just to make yourself rich?

In social media, we discover your orientation a lot faster than you realize.



4. Articulation

You have to be a fairly good writer. Much social media consists of micro-content, short bursts of text, encapsulated contexts, abbreviated ideas, condensed thought.

As you practice, you'll gain marketable skills in communicative brevity.



5. Strength

You must be tough, able to take criticism, flaming, trolling, and assorted abuse. Some people think debates are things to "win" at all costs, rather than a mutual search for truth. Google the word "blogocombat" to learn more. Most of what you'll find was written by me, as it's one of my specialties.

For the definitive work on internet trolls, see Troll Guide: The Return.

Never let an online statement, especially if it's anonymous or from a total stranger, bother you or make you react in an immature or unprofessional manner.

Express your opinions or product claims firmly, but remain open to questions, challenges, and hostile attacks. Respond calmly and methodically. Provide links to substantiate your assertions.



6. Revolution

Realize you're a revolutionary, a ground-breaker, a pioneer in the midst of a communications upheaval. Never before in human history have ordinary people possessed a global platform to publish text, image, sound, music, art, etc.

Have patience with yourself, your online community members, and the technology itself. We and the technology are evolving together. The faster and further you go in social media, the better positioned and prepared your organization will be, as the new media reinforces or replaces the old media.


7. Goals

What do you wish to accomplish in social media? It can be anything from making real friends, gaining a virtual advisory staff, entertaining people, collaborating with colleagues, providing better service to customers, promoting an idea, campaigning for a candidate, or selling a product.

No matter what your ultimate objective may be, keep the overt actions to a bare minimum. Promote your seminar not with pushy hype, but by freely and abundantly sharing your expertise, valuable insights, how-to tips.


For better view, CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW -- "Conversation Prism" by Brian Solis, social media expert, author of The Conversation:

Personal Media vs Social Media

On Twitter, "Beyond Social Media", a post by pioneer blogger and tech guru Doc Searls is getting lots of RTs (retweets). After reading it, I thought a good sub-title would be "Personal Media vs. Social Media".

Doc Searls, one of the first bloggers in the blogosphere, and one of its most brilliant and tireless theoreticians, states that when Social Media is controlled by companies, and cannot evolve apart from them, they are not really empowering the personal.


[QUOTE]

Later questions in the survey assume is that social media is something that happens on private platforms, Twitter in particular. This is a legitimate assumption, of course, and that’s why I have a problem with it. That tweeting it is a private breed of microblogging verges on irrelevance.

Twitter is now as necessary to tweeting as Google is to search. It’s a public activity under private control.

Missing in action is credit to what goes below private platforms like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook — namely the Net, the Web, and the growing portfolio of standards that comprise the deep infrastructure, the geology, that makes social media (and everything else they support) possible.

.....

Tweeting today is in many ways like instant messaging was when the only way you could do it was with AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple and ICQ. All were silos, with little if any interoperabiity. Some still are. Check out this list of instant messaging protocols. It’s a mess. That’s because so many of the commonly-used platforms of ten years ago are still, in 2009, private silos.

....

Computers are personal now. So are phones. So, fundamentally, is everything each of us does. It took decades to pry computing out of central control and make it personal. We’re in the middle of doing the same with telephony — and everything else we can do on a hand-held device.

Personal and social go hand-in-hand, but the latter builds on the former.

Today in the digital world we still have very few personal tools that work only for us, are under personal control, are NEA, and are not provided as a grace of some company or other. (If you can only get it from somebody site, it ain’t personal.)

That’s why I bring up email, blogging, podcasting and instant messaging. Yes, there are plenty of impersonal services involved in all of them, but those services don’t own the category. We can swap them out. They are, as the economists say, substitutable.

But we’re not looking at the personal frontier because the social one gets all the attention — and the investment money as well.

Markets are built on the individuals we call customers. They’re where the ideas, the conversations, the intentions (to buy, to converse, to relate) and the money all start. Each of us, as individuals, are the natural points of integration of our own data — and of origination about what gets done with it.

Individually-empowered customers are the ultimate greenfield for business and culture. Starting with the social keeps us from working on empowering individuals natively. That most of the social action is in silos and pipes of hot and/or giant companies slows things down even more. They may look impressive now, but they are a drag on the future.

[END QUOTE]


The key phrase from Doc Searls is "Starting with the social keeps us from working on empowering individuals natively".

My interpretation of this aligns with the Sitting Duck Theory of Social Media Marketing.

Many businesses think of social media participants as easy targets for sales hype, investment opportunities, and PR. Malware promoters try to trick Twitter users into clicking on links in DMs (direct messages). Spammers use deceptive tactics like kitty tweets (inspirational quotes and fake personal trivia) to seduce people into thinking they're normal, average users.

Few companies recognize that social media is where they can provide customer service. Instead of pushing products, they should be handling complaints, responding to questions, sharing insights, linking to relevant web pages unassociated with their company -- in short, being non-productively altruistic.

That's how good will can be generated, which will ultimately increase sales, but in a nice way.

Social media as "not empowering the personal"?

This concept leads me to another tangent: what happens to the sociability of social media participants when they step away from their computers? How sociable will we be if the internet went down forever, and we had to go back to social interactions via direct contact with real physical persons?



My comment posted at the Doc Searls post:


Wonderful analysis, by a pioneer blogger, on Personal Media vs. Social Media.

I also think that Social Media, if there really is a deep socializing element in it, should make all participants more friendly, compassionate, and extroverted in the real world.

If all "social" interaction is happening on the social media sites, but we're surly, sour, and asocial in our daily offline affairs, then Social Media is a Grand Illusion.

In blogocombat, my primary technique is to respond with text to text. I don't make it personal. I fight bad ideas with good ideas, hopefully. But in blogocaring, I try to connect my heart with the hearts of the people who seem to reside behind or beyond the text.

I've noticed that I indeed have become more sociable in the offline world, as a result of intense social media interaction, as typified by RTs, @s, :^) and sincere kindness to those who ask questions or provide me with comfort and support.

But to many, social media may be just another video game where points accumulated are Followers numbers and now Listings.

And, back to your point, if social media platforms are controlled by companies, then we are only slightly empowered personally.



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Stealth Spammers and Kitty Tweets on Twitter

Stealth Spamming and Kitty Tweets are popular new techniques of con artists. These criminals are phishing for usernames and passwords, offering to sell you automated programs to "Add 10,000 Followers weekly", or promoting Get Rich Quick schemes.

Sometimes they trick you into revealing your password, so they can hijack your account and send out spam to others using your username and Twitter account.

On Twitter, the Stealth Spammers either tweet messages with their silly claims, or go "under the radar" and send you DMs (Direct Messages), private communications, with links. These links lead to a variety of scam sites, which typically shout at you to "Register Now. Enter Your Password. Start Earning Big Money!"

They typically skip such standard features of credible websites as About pages, FAQs, links to reputable sites, and Client Lists.

READ MORE

"Stealth Spammers & Kitty Tweets on Twitter" at OpenSalon

My OpenSalon post on Content NOT Being King

Contrary to popular myth, Content is NOT "King." Completely dependent on other factors, Content is actually...a Slave.

Many times, not only is Content not King, but Content poses as a Drag Queen -- something prancing around, dancing as corporations pull its strings, pretending to be something it's not.

Content cannot be King. Dethroned, or better, usurped by Connectivity, Presentation, and Interactivity, Content is low man on the totem pole.

Often, people search for pure Content, like movies, music, news and opinions. But even then, if the content is poorly organized, badly displayed, hard to navigate, or non-interactive, it will be ignored.

Many times, when someone is consuming content they enjoy or find valuable, their first impulse is to interact with it. They want to post a comment, a question, a praise or a complaint. Some may want to enrich the content, add their own view, amplify or criticize it.

Content, to be effective and valuable, is entirely reliant upon other factors. Content is extremely important, but is not the ultimate, universally dominant entity.

To call Content a "king" is to revert to old fashioned imperialistic, phallocentric, male-dominated hierarchy. Even worse, "Content is King" is a meaningless mantra that people chant, without being able to explain it.

READ MORE:

"Content is NOT King, But Slave" at my new OpenSalon blog.

Twitter is where my main content is posted

Just a heads up to my fans and colleagues who want the most juicy and timely updates. My web usability analysis, social media insights, and anarchist political rants are to be found on Twitter. This micro-blogging platform is where I spend most of my blogging hours.

I whip out my best thinking, in easy to absorb, condensed, 140 character bursts. Late at night I tend to go really wild with it. My best thoughts, my funniest jokes, and tons of relevant links are in my tweets.

Often I let it all hang out on Twitter, then am too tired to re-package my observations and opinions in a proper "blog post" on Pluperfecter. I wish I was better at this. But with the advent of Twitter, slomo (slow motion) blogging is dying. It's because Twitter is faster, easier, and more interactive in real time.

When you say something clever or controversial on Twitter, you typically get an immediate DM (direct message) or @ (reply tweet) from one or more your Followers. This instant gratification aspect of Twitter makes it addictive.

If you gradually build a good list of Followers, by Following smart people at interacting with them so they notice you and Follow you back, you'll have a virtual advisory board of great value.

How do you assemble a valuable list of people to Follow and Followers? Start by going to blogs and websites you like, then look for their "Follow Me on Twitter" link (usually right under their "Follow Me on Facebook" link). Click on it.

In some cases, like my Pluperfecter blog, they'll have a Twitter update display widget you can read recent tweets at and click on to Follow them. But I just now added a big Twitter logo, with clickable link to my Twitter page, near the top of my sidebar.

Get hip. Get competitive advantage. Get on Twitter today.

Click here to read my profile: Steven E. Streight aka Vaspers on Twitter.

This Was Your Life

12 music CD packaging and promotion tips

I have had the joy and honor of recording, producing, manufacturing, distributing, and promoting music recordings, from cassette tapes to CDs, for several years now.

Many things have been learned as I promoted Str8 Sounds, my old band Camouflage Danse, and such clients as The Skabs, Vava Vol, Ritualistic School of Errors, The Kick Me's, and many more, with more clients accumulating.

Here are some of my more recent conclusions and observations.


(1) CD front cover art should include the title of the CD and the artist name.

(2) CD back cover art should include numbered track listings with time durations. Numbering the tracks helps those who are hearing a good song and want to know which song is playing at that moment.

Also include the relevant URLs (MySpace Music page, artist blog, CD Baby) and contact information (email address and land address)...on the back or in the inserts).

(3) Never substitute non-text artwork or corporate hype about the band on the back CD cover, unless you're trying to be obscure, difficult, and anti-fan. For some avant garde artists, mystery is desired, they don't want to be user-friendly.

The album "Hillulah" by Gang Gang Dance is a good example of what not to do with your CD cover art. I'm not slamming this band, I love them, but they goofed on this point, if they seek maximum sales.



If you desire popularity and record sales, you must think "What would a fan want to know about us, in buying this record and in perusing it as they listen to the music on it?"

Stories on CD back covers don't sell records. Interesting song titles do!

(4) Doing a parody of another artist's CD art will not be seen as such. Most fans will not "get it". They'll just think the art is your idea, or they'll think you ripped off the other artist because you couldn't think of anything else to do.

(5) Don't begin your CD with a poem. If you must have a little recited poem on your album, shove it to the end so people can skip it if they want. A poem at the start of a rock album will slow down the listening pleasure, for most folks don't like poetry even with guitars rambling around aimlessly in the background.

(6) If you want your CD to sell, you must get out and play gigs in real world venues. Your record label president will be angry if you're a lazy slacker who fears audience critique!

(7) Be sure to have more than just the old limit of 6 tunes on your MySpace Music player. Since artists can now have 10 songs, fill 'er up! It shows you're proud of your music and you want to share it with fans.

(8) Keep adding fresh photos, video, and songs to your MySpace Music page. To let it sit with no changes may imply to music lovers that the band has broken up, or is stagnating and not doing anything new.

(9) Get up off your butt and interact with other MySpace Music artists. Post sincere and specific comments on their pages. Send out Friend Requests. Your record label president won't like it if you're lazy here too. How much can he put up with?

(10) If you want to be the Flagship Band of Honor for your record label, you can't disobey your record label president and fool around with shit that hurts, or does not help, record sales. Do some local shows and promotions, but concentrate more on iTunes, CD Baby, and touring to support the album.

If you refuse to tour, you're saying you're lazy or you are insecure about the musicianship and relevance of your own music!

It's just another slap in the face to your record label president.

(11) Be careful about joking around about being apathetic, or not caring about anybody's opinion, or wanting people to hate you. Again, if you emphasize this "bad boy" attitude, and your records don't sell, your record label president will want to have a few words with you.

(12) Band feuds DO NOT sell records. People will just think you're being petty, jealous, or hiding the fact that you suck as much as your enemy does. Bashing other artists may get some attention for Already Famous Bands and hip hop artists in particular. But for obscure, small label bands, it's a suicidal policy.

interview with Vaspers on blogs and blogging

Here's an audio interview I did over the phone about 5 years ago.

Interviewer is Chris Ritke of 49 Media. It's the only interview I've ever done. I prefer the manifesto as a means of disseminating information. But you may find it interesting what I was saying about "new technology, new words, new people" and other meaty Web Revolution topics.

I even was asked to define "blog". I said "online diary or journal" is the worst definition. Listen and learn! LOL

Autistic Fire Monkey dreamy French female vocals

Within a day or two of posting some Str8 Sounds songs on Sony ACIDplanet, I had a fan and mentor who was posting detailed reviews.

Str8 Sounds at ACIDplanet.

Here's a sample of her too kind reviews:

STR8 SOUNDS "You're So Remote"


PRODUCTION : 10/10

I like the lo-fi sax and the vocals more again ! Cool levels for the vox in ur mix . The latin feel and the sound a la Portishead add a good lil' something. Original and well-done spoken word .

WRITING / ARRANGEMENT : 10/10

maybe some mix-up or puzzlement when wishing to know what means the title .... (are the leaders remote ? do you like leaders ? do you hate them ? ) :

so , the titles are the secret story of the song for someone who doesn't understand English too good ... like me ..

ENJOYMENT : 10/10

Good production without any doubt. Good flow of the lyrics ! Xellent mix.


-- AFM Autistic FireMonkey

I feel so good with a guide and colleague at this site that I'm new to.

Her music is floating, dreamy, atmospheric, French/English jazzy pop. Sultry in a nice way. More like intellectual and sweet. Very relaxing and polished. I'm so honored that she likes the Str8 Sounds. I must not suck that bad! LOL

Her version of Dylan's "Knocking On Heaven's Door".

Check out her 3 different profiles on ACIDplanet, download her free mp3s, and be amazed...


AFM Autistic FireMonkey

Autistic Fire Monkey aka ANGELS FRAGMENT

Autistic FireMonkey aka NOBODY'S HERE

Sony Acidplanet music genres

I'm experimenting with both composing and remixing songs, using various music studio software.

The book The Complete Guide to Remixing: Produce Professional Dance-Floor Hits on Your Home Computer by Erik Hawkins (Berklee Press, Berklee School of Music, Boston, 2004) is excellent and highly recommended for DJs, composers, and recording studios.

Berklee Music

Berklee Press

I've been working with Sony Acid, have joined their Acidplanet online artist community, and have started posting some Sony Acid produced music to my Str8 Sounds page. As I was uploading a tune, I noticed the popup menu for Genre and was intrigued by the brief descriptions.

See if you agree with these specifications. As an opinionated researcher and collector of musical styles, I have sharply delineated objections to many of them, especially "Noise" "Experimental", and "Psychedelic/Trippy" but actually, this is a decent attempt.

It's hard to find a good treatment of music genres. I guess it's assumed that everyone knows what they are or has their own understanding. It's a bit vague.

How would you tweak these definitions?

A

A Cappella

Sung without instrumental accompaniment.

Acid House

House music featuring squelching loops from Roland TB-303 synthesizers.

Acid Jazz

Contrary to its name, this style has little in common with Acid House. Acid Jazz consists of various blends of Jazz, Funk, House and Hip-Hop.

Acoustic

Created without the use of electricity.

Ambient

Usually quieter than other styles, ambient music describes three dimensional atmospheres with sound, often without a beat.

Atmospheric

Genres that create an extraordinary emotional tone or quality.

B

Ballad

A narrative, sentimental poem set to music.

Big Beat

This genre features very thick, prominent beats (often breakbeats) with fun, energetic samples and a party atmosphere.

Blues

Growing out of spirituals and worksongs, Blues usually features simple chords and improvisation on vocals and instrumentation.

Breakbeat / Breaks

Any music that uses drum break samples from rock, soul or funk.

C

Classical

Relating to European music during the latter half of the 18th and the early 19th centuries.

Club / Dance

Any style of music with a danceable beat.

Contemporary

Music created similar to current styles.

Country

A very simple and traditional style, Country stems European folk music and other sources, and has since taken on other influences such as blues, rock, etc.

D

DanceHall (Ragamuffin)

A style of Reggae featuring faster synthetic drums and rapid sing/speak vocals.

Dirty

Genres with distorted samples or beats.

Deep (Deep Underground)

Often containing many elements of Dub, Deep music is the furthest from the mainstream, with relaxed, smooth and romantic characteristics.

Dub

This style accents percussion and bass, with sparse vocals, echo effects, and reverb on other instruments.

E

Electro

70s style funk performed with synthesizers.

Electronica

A term representing any style of music made with electronic equipment.

EuroDance / Hi-NRG

A variation of Disco that's simple, lightweight and catchy, with a faster tempo and fluffy, repetitive lyrics.

Experimental

A general term surrounding electronic music without predefined genres.

F

Filtered

An effect created by temporarily removing high or low frequencies.

Folk

A down-to-earth style focusing on universal truths, often with traditional acoustic instrumentation and a simple melody.

Funk

An effect created by building and releasing tension with the placement of notes and rhythms.

Fusion

At the time of its origin, Fusion was a blend of Jazz with the aggressive qualities of Rock. Today it can represent a blending of any two or more styles.

G

Gabber

This style is an extremely fast variety of 4/4 Dance music with tempos of over 200 BPM.

Goth

Music placing emphasis on dark, grotesque, gloomy atmospheres.

H

Happy Hardcore

An extremely fast variety of 4/4 dance music with 'happy' melodies and tempos of over 200 BPM.

Hard

Genres with faster, louder, pounding beats.

Hardcore

Genres displaying intense melodramatic loyalty to specific characteristics of a style.

Hip-Hop

Four elements make up Hip-Hop: The MC (Master of Ceremony), DJ, Breaks and Graffiti. Rhymes performed by the MC center around subjects relevant to daily life.

House

Named after its birthplace, the Warehouse, a club in Chicago, House is in many ways an electronic extension of Disco. House features a steady 4/4 beat, with accented percussion and basslines.

I

IDM (Intelligent Dance Music)

Sometimes called Brain-Dance, this style features extremely fast, complex rhythms in not only the percussion, but in every instrument used in the track.

Illbient

This style often combines elements of Dub, Hip-Hop and Drum 'n' Bass, with dark & eerie atmospheres.

Industrial

One of the earliest styles of dance music, most Industrial has Heavy Metal / Rock influences with a 4/4 beat. It often is dark and dehumanized, with samples from mechanical tools such as drills and saws.

Instrumental

Music without vocals.

Intelligent

Genres created for listening, often much more complex than dance floor counterparts.

J

Jungle / Drum 'n' Bass

Both styles display very fast tempos around 160-200 BPM, with double-speed breakbeats along strong basslines. According to leading DJs, Jungle conveys a party atmosphere with Reggae inspired bass, while Drum 'n' Bass is considered to be more intelligent listening music.

L

Latin

More of an umbrella style than a genre, Latin influenced music often has acoustic instruments and horns with many layers of percussion.

Lounge

This style refers to easy listening music made in the 50s and 60s from a blend of Swing and Big Band, but the modern representation of Lounge can be synonymous with Downtempo.

M

Metal

Heavy, distorted guitars with simple melodies and loud, brutal percussion.

Minimal

Music created with the lowest degree of instrumentation possible.

N

New Age

Music aimed at producing a sense of inner calm.

Noise

Often abrasive, this style contains distorted samples and white noise.

O

Old-Skool

A term for the 'original' sound of a genre before sub-genres appeared.

P

Progressive

Styles that have characteristics from being created by the latest of technology and technique in audio production.

Pop

Has a catchy melody and relatively simple rhythm.

Psychedelic / Trippy

Genres relating to hallucinations, distortions of perception, or altered states of awareness.

R

R&B (Rhythm & Blues)

As an extension of Blues, R&B steadies the beat and adds a concrete melody.

Rap (Toasting)

Speaking in time over a beat.

Retro

Music directly imitating styles of the past.

Rock (Rock & Roll)

Pure Rock has a strong beat and a catchy melody backed by three or four chords.

Roots

A term often applied to music closely related to the birth of a genre.

S

Smooth

Genres with a relatively constant tempo and volume.

Soft

Lush, inoffensive and smooth, often very commercial.

Soul

Music with an emphasis on performers expressing a high degree of emotion.

Symphonic

Genres containing sweeping symphonic textures.

T

Tech

Often very aggressive, associated genres sound very mechanical, like metal scraping on metal. Tech is often used to describe techno-influenced music that has too many organic qualities to be pure techno.

Techno

This term has come to have two popular interpretations, the first being a description of all electronic music. The second interpretation is a style that developed from House music, which completely abandoned the influences of Disco; Techno is more mechanical and less organic.

Trance

This style usually features a 4/4 beat with intense arpeggiated synthesizers along energetic build-ups & breakdowns.

Tribal

Genres utilizing tribal drum patterns.

Trip Hop

This genre is a variety of breakbeat usually featuring psychedelic atmospheres and female vocalists singing in a rock-influenced style.

U

US Garage

Named after NYC club the Paradise Garage, this style is very similar to Disco, mainly differing with deeper bass and more pronounced percussion.

UK Garage / 2 Step / Speed Garage

Pronounced 'gare-ridge' in the UK, it is similar to US Garage, adding influences from Jungle and R&B.

Underground / Alternative

Genres existing outside of pop culture.

Urban

A term given to R&B and Soul produced in the 80s and 90s.

W

World

Refers to music with heavy influences outside the traditions of the US and the UK.

Music Promotion via Cassette Tape in the Digital Age

It's nice to have retro versions of your music.

Vinyl is a big fad again, this time as an underground revelry around the pops, scratches, clicks, needle skips, hifi analog sound reproduction, and artifactual surface noise that only vinyl can deliver.

Cassette tapes are another incredibly flawed and old fashioned mode of music distribution. Wow and flutter, oxide particle hiss, mold, motor drag, head demagnetizing, strand entanglements, and drop outs are common problems.

I hate how you have to rewind and fast forward intuitively guessing where songs might be buried in the magnetic mess. But I'll soon be releasing some Str8 Sounds music on Cassette Tape Only, the good old cassalbums of yesteryear.

Do you have cassette tape editions of your band's music? Why not? Some people have tape decks in their older cars, and they might love to jam away on your tunes. It might shock some friends, they might say "I thought you only had a tape deck in your car!" and you say, "I do. This is a cassette you're hearing now. A cassalbum by Rubber 0 Cement" or whatever.

Regression is fun. Put out wire recordings, Edison cylinders, 78 rpm ceramics, DATs, 8 track cartridges, vinyl singles, and cassalbums of your band now!

Click here to visit Str8 Sounds on Rhizome.

Now my pals at Rhizome at the New Museum (NYC) have an interesting article on cassettes: "101 Cassette Labels".

QUOTE

In the 1980s, cassette labels played a vital role in the distribution of underground music, most notably in the noise, industrial, and punk scenes of the time. Easy and relatively inexpensive to produce, cassettes became a common format for the circulation of music lacking popular appeal. Although the majors produced cassettes as well, many of the producers of these underground labels saw their DIY business model as a stance against the greed of the mainstream music industry. Connections made through distribution and information sharing among the artists and musicians in these circles helped to establish a network for those involved.

In the age of GarageBand, Myspace, and file sharing, it may come as a surprise to some that cassette labels are still very much in operation.

Tapes now function as a basic form of patronage between musicians and their audience; since a physical format is no longer necessary to send or receive music, these objects become a gesture of support.

Tapes act to make tangible the connection between a creator and their listeners, and the attentive and often handmade packaging speaks to this exchange.

One instance of this relationship is revealed in the description provided for the Gilgongo Records “Singular Set” series, a run of cassette releases recorded directly onto the tape by the musician in an edition of one.

Gilgongo’s James Fella explains that for the project, “…the emphasis is on reaching out and sharing something specific with one other person, that an unrepeated portion of time and creation was individually cut and passed on to one other person to hold onto as their own.”

Cassettes also yield a grainy, degraded sound quality, an aspect that has its own appeal. The draw to this sound can be read as a type of nostalgia,

END QUOTE

READ MORE at Rhizome