The Blogcademy is a trio of inspring women teaching aspiring bloggers to be smarter about their brands, social media, communications and content. I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for months. It was a beautiful drive down the street… LA is beautiful right now.
Nubby Twiglet (above), Gala Darling, and Kat Williams are the headmisstresses. Ladies passed business cards and chatted before class started promptly at 10am.
I haven’t even begun to absorb the day’s education. Workbooks, report cards, new names, faces, and bags full of swag.
I’d met and corresponded with a few, both in person and over email. One thing most women (and it is mostly women) take away from the experience is a newfound community. Animal ears are kind of a big deal around here.
I met ladies I’d lunched with, soul-sisters from my hometown, girls from across the globe, and two very cool owners of the McCadden Space with a thing for vintage and campers.
Class isn’t over yet… more on The Blogcademy later…
My flight was at 3:15. Boarding was at 2:45. I was at home. And it was 1:15. Holy crap, how’d I mess that up? So my mind snapped into crisis mode, remembering three very important things: 1.) I never gave my catsitter the housekey. 2.) I needed to write my rent check. 3.) I needed a taxi IMMEDIATELY.
the cat is spoiled
Enter TaxiMagic. I’ve used this app more times than I can count, especially on research trips. In cities where I’m unfamiliar with my location, this thing pinpoints my location and sends a driver.
It remembers where I’ve often called for rides: home, Lil’G’s, the Cha Cha Lounge… TaxiMagic knows me well. Check out the screengrab at 3AM and barely any juice. (It’s really easy to use intoxicated.)
taken immdiately AFTER using Taxi Magic
Taxi Magic has proven to be reliable. It’s integrated into dispatcher’s fleet management systems. I called after a furious run to my catsitter’s, and the dispatcher was able to recognize my number and immediately tell me, “Oh, your cab just pulled up outside.” Perfection.
Not only can you save your credit card and pay via app, certain fleets have integrated card swipers in the backseat– no bitchy cab driver demanding cash and swiping old-school, crappy carbon credit slips. (This has caused me to miss a flight in the past. Big, big fail.)
this is the difference between flight or fail
Also on the way to the airport, I got a text from Alaska Airlines, and a link to check in and get a digital boarding pass en rote.
who says QR codes are worthless?
I was able to check into Hotel Tonight, on my way to the airport, a fabulous app that shows availability-based rates for hotels in your area (and multiple cities) after noon, when rates are lowered and deals are set. The design is smooth and crisp. A fantastic user experience that remembers your payment details like Taxi Magic.
you gotta love mysterious phone photos (when did I take this?)
So I got to Burbank airport at 2:15. There was NO ONE in line. NO ONE. Crickets. My digital boarding pass got me straight through security, I walk to my gate about 30 feet away, and ABC7 News has kindly provided the free wi-fi to write this post.
And they’re playing David Bowie’s “Fashion.” Later that night I sang “Fashion” at karaoke. It was a great inspiration when challenged to compete with the likes of my friends: top 2 karaoke performers of all time…
The trip to Portland and Seattle was beautiful, busy, and delicious. I caught up with friends during a few sunny days in Portland. I even stumbled over the Portland edition of The Blogcademy, a glamorous and inspirational 2-day class I’ll be embarking on tomorrow. My trip lacked Wi-Fi reception, so I’m delving back into social media strategies with a fresh mind.
I love the Northwest, but it’s great to be back in Hollywood in my home after a nonstop trip…
A long, long time ago, Saturday Night Live predicted that every single URL would be claimed one day, with their www.clownpenis.fart skit.
www.clownpenis.fart
As the marketplace becomes cluttered, individuals are struggling to break through. One important part of a digital strategy is having a consistent username. As new social networks bloom, you’ve got to be searchable. Celebrities get Verified Twitter accounts, but what about the rest of us?
Having a “real” name as your username is now ideal, as the Internet shifts from the “nobody knows you’re a dog” mentality to greater transparency. Social networks are seeking greater responsibility on the part of users. For example, YouTube’s answer to the hive of sexist, racist, homophobic comments their videos foster was forcing users to switch YouTube usernames to their Google email usernames, an identifier that allows less obscurity.
Cybersquatters can’t be evicted.
There’s also the issue of cybersquatting—people who buy up likely corporate/ artist names, or misspellings of those names, then try to sell them to the rightful owner for an inflated amount.
There aren’t a lot of Suzys in the world today, yet I ended up at lunch with two other Susies last week. There definitely aren’t a lot of Suzy Maes, yet, they exist, and I’m unable to claim every SuzyMae username.
An increasing number of people; a limited number of names to claim. As much as we laugh at celebrity babies Bronx Mowgli, or Rainbow Aurora, they’re not going to have
much of a problem claiming a unique URL in the future. In the future, it’s people with names like David Smith who face digital social tension (who saw that coming?)
How frustrating does this get for a non-famous person when a celebrity or, god forbid, a celebrity BRAND has their name? I personally know two Mark Jacobs. Neither is the famous designer Marc Jacobs. Neither particularly enjoys the resemblance.
This gets scary when people get aggressive over coveted handles. Remember Wired author Mat Honan’s devastating hack, where his computer and phone were wiped clean and he lost all photos of his baby
daughter? The hackers merely wanted his early-adopter Twitter handle, @mat.
Hypotheses & solutions.
Based on these patterns, I’m hypothesizing that the future will be filled with personal brands, rather than names as identifiers. So let’s talk solutions. There are myriad ways to strategize and create a unique username or workaround when the one you love can’t be owned exclusively.
#1. Try your first pick.
That didn’t work? Ok, move on!
#2. Create a brand.
I love Nubby Twiglet, Gala Darling, and Penelope Trunk. All have URLs that link to their
names—but those aren’t their real names. Instead of insisting on their birth names, they created new identities that reflect their creative efforts. They don’t have to be fake “names,” either. CinemaMinimal from Portland is the branded handle of musician/ artist Blake Carrillo.
Other options that are a bit more direct:Friend
and art director Will Holmes uses www.stuffIhavedone.com. Copywriter Derek Man Lui uses “Derek Did It’ as his username on CargoCollective. cargocollective.com/derekdidit.
#6. Stick with nicknames.
Anthony Clune, art director, uses www.TonkyDesigns.com, due to a childhood nickname. It’s memorable as well as an ice-breaker. I’ve also seen creatives abbreviate their names, like copywriter Alex Harvey’s alexharv.com.
#7. Use me.
No, don’t email me to do it for you. Use a unique address, such as .me or .tv. AaronLee.com is being wasted by some cybersquatter, so photographer and designer Aaron Lee created a memorable rhyming URL with AaronLee.tv.
#8. Find a homebase.
So you were lucky enough to score the URL you wanted. Congrats! But you don’t have that luxury on Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram (dangit!) So drive people to your site, and link out to your social pages. See if you can create a secondary username that won’t be as snatchable. For example, SarahJane might have
multiple social handles as MistressSarahJane.
#9. Go legal.
I maintain SuzyMaeMattay.com and SuzyMattay.com, redirecting to SuzyMae.com, my shortened legal name and face of my personal “artist and advertiser” brand. If you must go birth name, try your full name. I’ve seen quite few resumes from folks like Thomas James Henderson, David Christopher Jones, or Ashley Christina Smith (those names are all fake, FYI).
#10. Branch off.
Remember when I mentioned the Hunger Games Instagram issue? All HungerGames accounts had been taken by enthusiastic teens. So the Lionsgate marketing team created a different name, one that made just as much sense: @CapitolCouture. This official feed plays off their Tumblr blog and stays true to the marketers’ (very successful) strategy of staying true to the tone and “reality” of the books and movie. I could easily create @suzymaetwitter or @suzymaeinstagram.
On the examples I’ve used:
Most of the portfolio’s I’ve linked to are friends, but for a few I used the resource of Modern Copywriter, a site that showcases young talent. Every new group of graduates with work to show will be forced to become ever more creative.
