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If your brand is struggling with social media -- wondering how to become involved with a "viral" marketing activation, there is much that can be learned from Stride Gum's involvement with Matt Harding and his Dancing Matt videos.

The folks at Stride Gum took an interest in the videos that Matt took while travelling. These videos show Matt doing the "only dance" that he knows how to do in a number of places around the world. And while these were initially done for the benefit of his family, they were absorbed into the great viral milieu and spread far and wide. The videos worked because they manifested the P-L-A-Y framework as I discussed yesterday (and in more detail here).

• P -- for power: the videos demonstrate the power of belonging, the desire to connect
• L -- for learning and curiosity: Matt chooses his locations well. He sparks recognition in the locals and curiosity in everyone else.
• A -- for adventure: through this very simple visual storytelling, Matt stimulates our own sense of adventure. Importantly he also demonstrates that despite very different circumstances and locations, that we are connected to others in a primal, joyous way -- a connection that has no regard for language or alienation.
• Y -- the yelp of surprise and delight: just watch this and you will know what I mean.

After seeing the videos and their impact, Stride Gum approached Matt, and sponsored him to travel around the world again, this time on their dime. Again, this was a great "viral" achievement. After that success, and after thousands of emails, Matt returned to Stride Gum and suggested he do the trip again -- this time inviting the community to participate. Those who had emailed and commented on his blog were invited to perform the dance with Matt ... the result is shown below. Fanstastic.

But even better is the approach taken by Stride Gum. While they could have plastered their logo throughout the clips, provided T-shirts to participants etc, they are content with what is effectively a post-roll credit. This allows us, as viewers, to be drawn into the story and into the experience. It allows us the possibility of transference from passive recipient to imaginary participant. It grants some respect to the story, the communities who participated and the viewers. And it really puts a smile on my face.

Special thanks to Ian Lyons for introducing me to Where the Hell is Matt!

Now I know that there are many people who believe that the man in the hat can change the world, but is this a step too far?

With thanks to Leo Bottary -- make your own here.

One of the great technology driven innovations is real-time translation. It opens up the opportunities for us all to communicate across languages, to make language less relevant to the spread of ideas.

Today I noticed that this post about Greg Verdino was garnering attention from an overseas audience. Now while I doubt that the subtleties of the language translate fully, I find it fascinating that there is even the slightest chance that these words/ideas have drifted not just across geographic boundaries but into new cultural spaces. And while I expect this will become an ever more increasing aspect of blogging, at the moment it feels novel and strangely astonishing.

We had an interesting social media discussion on Plurk today (now known as a Plurkshop) that raised a lot of questions. There were many participants in the quickly shifting conversation, including Amber Naslund, Connie Reece, Tim Jackson, Beth Harte and Mack Collier. The conversation started by talking about managing conversations across different platforms (Amber has a great wrap-up here), but along the way, the conversation shifted and changed. One of the questions that was raised concerns the objectives of social media -- how do you use/activate social media and why. The answer depends on where in the media spectrum that you sit.

At the far end of the blogging spectrum, there is the lone blogger who is writing for their own enjoyment -- the diarist. Then comes the activist or even passionate brand evangelist. In the centre is the Careerist -- the blogger who writes as a demonstration of their skills and expertise. Next comes the "expert" blogger who writes about their area of knowledge. Then there is the corporate blogger which is written from a business perspective. Professional  bloggers can roam across any or all of these categories (and I am sure there are many others). But each of these bloggers will have their own objectives ranging from the personal to the professional -- but there is something that they have in common -- a desire to create a community.

YouTube subscriber base. At first instance, you can wonder what can drive a 14 year old to write, produce, star in, and distribute a series about a six year old -- but clearly, in doing so, Lucas has opened opportunities for himself and his family (while at the same time building his own skills and experience).

You may not start with the aim of turning your social media/content into a business, but once a community forms and achieves a critical mass, opportunities will be pulled into your gravitational field. This is, perhaps, the great leveller of social media -- the traditional barriers to entry in media are related to reach and production cost. Both are dramatically lowered thanks to social media.

After all, with social media, it is not where you start that is important. It is the journey, and the story that you tell (or allow to be told) along the path.

McAzadi

The problem with good ideas is that they take a LOT of hard work to bring them to life. Now, both Drew McLellan and I knew that going for a second edition of the Age of Conversation was going to be a challenge, but we had already lived to tell the tale once already.

Little did we know that the author list would more than double!

And while we had about 275 authors raise their hand early on, life and the other catastrophes of modern living have intervened, whittling this down to a mere 237. As a result, we are knee deep in editing right now -- still aiming for a publication date towards the end of August (we are still discussing and planning the exact launch date -- but we WILL let you know).

In the meantime, become acquainted with those outstanding individuals who have committed their time and creativity in the name of charity (after all, all proceeds go to Variety, the Children's Charity):

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

"The IT Crowd" is one of the funniest shows on TV -- especially if you work in (or near) IT.

What does it mean to be happy? According to Malcolm Gladwell, it is the different between 60% and 78%. In this great TED Talk (thanks to Drew McLellan via Todd Andrik), Malcolm delivers a great story built around Howard Moskowitz's pioneering work in the field of psychology-led market research. Moskowitz successfully used data to not just build out a long tail type analysis of data, but he aggregated this data to form clusters of relevance. How this works for a taste test for coffee is as follows:

• Participants in a focus group are asked to rank from 1 to 100 how happy the coffee makes them feel
• On average, the ranking sits at about 60 -- which actually translates to a cup of coffee that makes you wince

However, if a high level pre-screening takes place before the focus group, the outcomes are dramatically different. If participants can self-select a style of coffee (eg mild, heavy roast etc) -- from as little as three categories -- and then that particular style is provided to the focus group, the ranking from 1 to 100 will rise to 78. A 78% ranking is a "coffee that makes you deliriously happy".

Think about this in terms of your brand. Consider it in light of your profiling and strategic approach. Perhaps we don't need to deliver value to the "nth" level of the long tail ... we simply need to deliver value to the clusters. The old adage "you can't please all the people all the time" is true -- but if you can spend your research and insight budget in a way that will identify the clusters that make sense for your brand/product, then making your consumers 78% happy will more than deliver on your brand promise. It will open new markets. Don't believe me? Listen in to the whole of Malcolm's speech.

Last week, Jed White from itechne hosted Pubcamp, Sydney - the Web 2.0 media day - bringing the publishing/media world face-to-face with the increasingly vocal and empowered social media/web 2.0 crowd. This week, it was followed up with a Melbourne event.

Broken into a short format presentation style (similar to the approach we took at Interesting South), a variety of speakers provided their take on the current role and the future of media. There was a panel discussion and a debate -- all followed by unconference sessions which allowed participants to actively investigate some of the topics raised during the presentations.

In Sydney the room seemed to divide into two camps. One one side were the new media folks, furiously commenting and conversing via the Twitter "backchannel" -- and on the other the "traditional media" folks who appeared largely unaware of the un-unconference being carried on through Twitter. There seemed to be no middle ground between the two sides -- each holding firm to the belief in their own relevance.

It was, however, during the panel discussion where the Twitter conversation spilled over from the back channel onto the conference room floor. The panel appeared to be populated by people who had spent most of their careers in the publishing industry with no "new media" representative. Stephen Collins summed up the collective Twitter response along the lines of "you don't know what you are talking about". From that point onwards, there was no going back -- with the conversation becoming stuck around the relative merits of "professional" vs "citizen" journalism.

It wasn't, however, until I sat in on Matt Moore's unconference session on value networks that I began to see a way forward. It is not that there is no overlap between the two camps, it is just that there is no shared vocabulary for us to discuss shared areas of interest. And rather than spending our energies debating the relative merits of our own cases, I feel it would be far more productive identifying opportunities where each group could collaborate or experiment together. This, of course, means new ways of identifying and measuring value -- it means new approaches to community and to business.

And while there may well be a long way to go before we see such opportunities come to pass, perhaps Pubcamp is the first, tentative step forward. Next time, I hope to see greater web 2.0/social media representation; getting down and dirty with the business model discussion; less plugs for new services/offerings; discussion on the role of communities; involvement from digital strategists/agencies.

For more detailed coverage of the Sydney event, see Renai LeMay (for the AFR), Craig Wilson and Nic Hodges (let me know if I have missed your coverage). Melbourne has been covered by Ben Barren, Michael Specht, Stephen Mayne.