#90: Movements, Gaga, fake influence, Matilda, Trump, B2B values, and the worst direct mail
Quick question -- do I know anybody in South Dakota?
Because next week I am coming in hot to share a talk at the South Dakota Advertising Federation. I had to look up South Dakota on a map, I won't lie. Glamorous.
Anyway...
In this week's edition of The World's Best Newsletter:
1. New tool to measure fake followers / false influence (+ Trump analysis)
2. Movements and marketing - video live
3. Matilda's values 30 years later
4. What's old is new again - and the worst direct mail
5. The problem that has no name
6. Lady Gaga and postmodern double truths
7. Quote of the week - “I’m not too confident. I’m fantastic.”
1. New tool to measure fake followers / false influence (+ Trump analysis)
I had the great pleasure this week of meeting and sharing the same stage as Rand Fishkin (founder of Moz and now SparkToro) as we both keynoted the marketing track of Spiceworld 2018.
On stage he revealed a new tool to find the number of Twitter followers who are inactive, spam, bots or solely propaganda.
My percentage: 3.4%
Donal Trump: 61% read more in his analysis here
Methodology: Using SparkToro's capabilities, if an account had 7-10 or more of the following signals, they were marked as spam/bot/inactive/propaganda:
72% have been inactive for 120+ days (i.e. the account did not send any tweets or RTs during that time)
3% have been inactive for between 90-120 days
3% created their account in the last 90 days
36% use Twitter’s default profile image
39% use display names that include spam words+patterns
92% either don’t use a URL in their profile or employ a URL with spam patterns
60% don’t use a recognized location
27% have set their language to something other than English
54% have gone more than a year without sending more than a handful of tweets
3% send an abnormally large number of tweets per day
96% have been placed on very few (or zero) lists
79% have an unusually small number of followers
76% follow an unusual number of accounts
74% employ spam-correlated keywords in their profile description
His most important comment:
The ease with which these accounts can be identified suggests Twitter is unwilling (rather than unable) to identify and remove obvious spam/bots/inactive/propaganda accounts.
Read the full post.
2. Movements and marketing - video live
Learn the history of our fight for women's rights in 12 minutes. In my opening as emcee for the recent Women in Digital National Conference I walk through four waves of feminism and explain what 4 things movements have in common with marketing.
Watch the full 12-minute talk here.
3. Matilda's values 30 years later
This week in that aforementioned talk delivered to a room of IT marketers, I showed a photo of a statue of Matilda staring defiantly at a statue of Trump.
A couple of weeks ago, the organization behind Roald Dahl's famous book about a defiant, smart little girl launched a clever campaign for the book's 30th birthday - asking the public who the modern day version of Ms Trunchbull would be.
Topping the poll with 42 percent of the vote was President Trump. Now a statue in southeastern England depicts the two near the author's former home.
My point to the room of IT marketers was this: What endures after your stunts, after the buyer takes a demo, and during a long sales cycle are your values. Even 30 years later, Matilda's values are clear as day.
Bonus: the original illustrator of the book, Sir Quentin Blake, has published several new drawings depicting Matilda in her thirties, with careers as an astrophysics professor, librarian, hairdresser, and world champion wrestler. As a kid who loved all things Roald Dahl, I was ridiculously delighted by all of this.
4. What's old is new again - and the worst direct mail
New podcast episode:
Hear the story of the most disappointing piece of ABM direct mail I've ever seen and how creative marketers (like my co-host Lindsey McKinney) are making this old tactic new again -- Episode 10 of the Explicit Content Podcast with Enterprise Marketer is live.
Listen to the 20-minute episode here.
5. The problem that has no name
In her piece written after our president mocked Dr. Ford for her testimony, best-selling author and NYTimes columnist Jessica Valenti writes, "We still have no word to describe what happens to women living in a country that hates them."
Researchers who study objectification theory have shown that when women are dehumanized, it has a profound impact on their mental health. Other studies have shown a direct link between misogyny and psychological trauma and distress.
Though we may not have the language to name what is happening to women, its impact is well-documented. What we are witnessing right now through the response to Kavanaugh — and the slow-roll comeback of various men held to account by #MeToo — is a large-scale dismissal of women’s reality.
It’s a national gaslighting by politicians and pundits saying Yes, I’m sure something happened to Dr. Blasey Ford, but the poor thing must be mistaken. It’s a mass trauma perpetrated by leaders who would tell women in their most painful of moments that it’s men who are the real victims.
This is an unraveling of the lies this country tells itself about women’s progress.
It is a sobering and important read for both men and women.
6. Lady Gaga and postmodern double truths
Anyone who knows me well knows I am a super-fan of Lady Gaga ever since the days of disco sticks. My colleague Scott has called me the "Lady Gaga of Marketing" since 2010 and truth be told, I am more than fine with that questionable comparison.
After A Star is Born thrust Gaga back into our public narrative, many think pieces were published about the movie and its remake of the 1937, 1954, and cringeworthy 1976 versions.
But, my favorite piece so far is a focus on the evolution of Gaga herself, written with reverence and linguistic gymnastics from NYTimes Magazine's Rachel Syme.
Gaga’s initial obsession with masquerade predicted the double lives we all live now, our simultaneous existences as living, breathing people and disembodied avatars.
But instead of seeing those identities as segmented — the real person, the facade — she put forth the concept that it’s possible, and ultimately adaptive, in a fractured world to try to free yourself from old boundaries. You can be an insider and an outsider at the same time, a human and an alien.
All that is solid melts into Gaga. If this seems paradoxical, it is; but the paradox is where Gaga shines. Postmodern double truths are her milieu.
7. Quote of the week
Comes from the indelible Kara Swisher on career lessons learned from the worst - and best - bosses she's ever had.
“I’m not too confident. I’m fantastic.”
The full piece is worth a read.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Thanks for reading, as always.
Katie
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