Posted by admin on Jun 24, 2011 in
opinion,
technology 
Social media is a fantastic marketing tool, so it’s no surprise that celebrities have jumped on this bandwagon. It’s interesting to think about the effect this online sphere has on the more X-rated industries however, and just how the adult industry is managing to harness this tool, bearing in mind the constraints (Facebook doesn’t allow X rated photos) and the maintenance using these tools properly requires.
Lauren McEwen is a cofounder of 7Veils, a USA based agency which specializes in creating social media strategies for the porn world, and she’s very vocal on why it’s something all adult stars should get into. She’s surprisingly down to earth, with a great business mind, and her acumen is another step in the long process of making people realize that licensed consensual porn doesn’t need to be seen as second class or seedy.
The adult industry has played a major part in technological changes over the last decade, with the decision to use the Blu-ray format essentially ending the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD wars- and making Sony executives very happy. Their interest in 3D has also helped televisions develop, and whilst we can’t completely say that porn has helped 3D establish itself in the mainstream, it certainly has been very receptive of the new tools.
It’s the arena of social media that I’m focusing on here, and I asked Lauren why she thought it was important for adult stars to have a digital presence.
She replied, ‘If you are asking why social media is important for adult stars you are really asking why is social media important for any business or brand. Porn stars are a business, a brand and a personality. It is important for them to get to know their fan as much as any other public figure. Whether they are improving their reputation, growing their network, promoting their content or simply connecting with fans, social media is the most powerful direct access media tool available.’
I like the fact that Lauren approaches adult social media the same way as any brand, and that she doesn’t differentiate between work for adult stars and the mainstream. What sort of challenges are involved in working with adult stars though?
‘I am not mentioning anyone (adult stars) on Facebook that is because it is much harder for adult to operate on Facebook due to the strict terms of service. There are a few nice pages that have beautiful landing pages like Playboy and Sasha Grey, but pages get deleted so often that adult stars are often reluctant to use Facebook.’ Read more…
Tags: 7Veils, PornStar Tweet, X rated social media, X rated Twitter agency
Posted by admin on May 10, 2011 in
opinion,
technology 
Twitter is a fabulous resource for many things. I use it for monitoring trends, finding cool sites, sharing my links and getting top expert advice for free (from the many accountants, recruiters and developers that populate Twitter). Twitter has evolved from being a somewhat dismissed ‘Facebook status update site’ where people shared the culinary delights of their breakfasts to a playground for tech lovers and communicators where views are shared , expressed and deliberated on. You have instant contact to all sorts of experts, from magazine editors to realtors, and I’ve had a lot of free expert advice when I’ve tweeted out for help (and reciprocated in kind). It’s a marketers dream as you have untapped access to a potentially huge audience, so it’s no wonder most brands are hiring social media consultants ( a moniker I’ve been known to adopt) and getting heavily Twitter involved. Where this strategy falls down though is when people get to obsessed over the number of ‘followers’ their account has and starts to look as Twitter as a numbers game rather than a service about engagement. They get into a desperate race to get as many followers as they can, little realizing that this is actually a fools errand. Services have sprung up to cater to these execs, marketing themselves as being able to get you ’10,000 followers in 10 days’, for a price, naturally.
Twitter n00bs may see this as an exciting offer- they’ll quickly be able to impress their boss, look like they’ve been hugely productive and push their catfood/ mobile phone/ really funny vid they’re calling a ‘viral’ out to loads of people. In theory it sounds great, but the reality is something very different.
Here are my four reasons why this wouldn’t be a clever action.
Reason One: There is no engagement when you buy Twitter followers
The whole point of Twitter is to create a discussion, and if you have loads of followers/spambots who haven’t followed you for any reason other than cash, they’re not going to interact with you are they? They won’t reply to your queries, click on your links- they’re essentially dead weight in numbers.
Reason Two: Many services require you to follow back your fake followers
The majority of paid ‘Increase you Twitter Foloowers’ services operate on a one in, one out basis. A lot of people have accounts set to autofollow anyone who follows them and you hand over your account name and password (also a security issue) to the providers and they proceed to follow 10,000 people, unfollowing anyone who doesn’t reciprocate. You’ll now have an account where you follow approximately the same number of folks who follow you (Give or take a few followers who drop out) meaning you have numbers but zilch authority. You could pay more to have followers who ‘don’t follow you back’ or you could spend loads of time ‘unfollowing’, but wither way, authority wise you’ll lack credibility. Read more…
Tags: buy twitter followers, how to get more twitter followers, Twitter followers
Posted by admin on Mar 27, 2011 in
opinion 
Today some of you may have noticed my face beaming up from Fabulous Magazine as I revealed to the world my battle with cancer over the last year. In March 2010 I was diagnosed with cancer, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Stage 3 to be precise. I sported a strange egg shaped lump in my neck and started a six month chemotherapy treatment plan around June. It was a gruelling time, and I was under major strain.
I told a few friends about my illness but for the most part kept my treatment and health a secret from the wide world in general. There were numerous reasons for this, from wanting to be treated like a normal person by colleagues to not wanting to lose out on work as a freelancer. I finished treatment in December and so far the prognosis is good.
I decided to come out about my cancer and its effect on my life in order to help people with the disease and chose a public forum to do so as I felt Fabulous would reach more people than just a post on my blog. I’m quite a private person, so this was a difficult decision (I may in fact remove this post at some point) but really wanted to show people who get diagnosed with my disease that life doesn’t have to be put on hold.
Sure, it was no walk in the park and I regularly felt like death on the bad weeks, but on the good weeks I sported heels, mini-dresses and rode my pink scooter round town- because why the hell not? I may have turned into a lightweight drinker and my lovely head of hair might be a hairpiece provided by the Denise Le Bar salon (note; the staff there have now opened a new salon called True You Hair - recommend them 100 times over) but I still managed to attend posh events, hang out with celebrities (mostly B and C listers) and generally give the overall impression of good health. Heck, I even got complimented on my skin, despite not being allowed to have facials! Read more…
Tags: cancer battle, Hodgkin's Lympohma, Laura Linney, The Big C
Posted by admin on Mar 24, 2011 in
news,
opinion,
technology 
People’s attitudes to apps baffles me. Like, really REALLY baffles me. The way they react to a rubbish App is completely different to their attitude towards any other purchase they make. If you buy a dress that doesn’t fit you return it. If food is off, you’d get your money back. If you bought Monopoly that was missing the money, well, that’s straight back to the shop. People don’t like faulty, rubbish goods that fail to deliver- so why does that attitude not follow through when they buy applications? It’s REAL money that you have shelled out for that app, so why not reclaim it? You have purchased a service after all, and if it’s not lived up to expectations, well you deserve a REFUND. Refunds are available as well- they just tend to be fairly well hidden.
Before you start rubbing you head and telling me that you don’t need a refund, I’d just like to draw your attention to a few events in recent years. Reclaiming Bank charges. People said it couldn’t be done, that was just the way it was, don’t challenge the status quo, but helloo- the huge excess charges banks whacked on your statement if you were late paying have been declared Unfair by the Office of Fair Trading, and the amount you have to pay has now been capped, rather than spiralling out of control. This change was due to people MAKING a fuss, and getting their voices heard, so never just give up on something because it hasn’t been done yet.
What about the whole UK politician expense charges scandal? For years politicians had got away with letting the public pay for their second houses/ flatscreen TV’s/ moats, and then it all came out, enough was enough, and many hands got more than slapped. Just because something hasn’t been done YET doesn’t mean it won’t be, and I’m sick of the lack of transparency that the various Application stores have in regards to their refund policy. I’m going to tell you just how you can get your money back when you buy an app you aren’t happy with- and what we collectively can do to stop those companies keeping us in the dark about our App purchases.
Buying an Application from an App store falls under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 and the key elements of this (the relevant ones) are that:
- you must give consumers clear information including details of the goods or services offered, delivery arrangements and payment, the supplier’s details and the consumer’s cancellation right before they buy (known as prior information)
- you must also provide this information in writing
- the consumer has a cooling-off period of seven working days.
Whilst most app stores DO give part one and part two of this to purchasers, I think you’ll find that they don’t offer part three- how can a 15 minute window (Android store) be a seven day cooling off period? Whether or not they say you only have 15 minutes to choose your refund, that is illegal in the UK, so you still have the FULL seven days to make up your mind. Just to be clear I contacted the Office of Fair Trading and asked them to clarify whether the application stores were breaking the The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 policy.
Read on to find out what the Office of Fair Trading replied and for my detailed GUIDE ON HOW TO GET A REFUND FROM EACH OF THE FOUR APP STORES- Apple App store, BlackBerry App World, Windows 7 Marketplace and the Android Market.
Read more…
Tags: android app refund, Android Marketplace, app, app refund, Apple app refund, application refund, BlackBerry App, blackberry app refund, Distance Selling Regulations act, iPhone, Windows 7, Windows 7 app refund, Windows Mobile
Posted by admin on Mar 23, 2011 in
opinion,
technology 
My DirectBikes scooter
Last year I decided I was sick of my daily struggle with public transport and decided to get a moped. It would be quicker than the bus, more economical than a travel card, and would invest me with the type of ‘cool factor’ that you only get in Shoreditch. Alas, my budget wasn’t quite as big as my dreams, so I settled on buying a Chinese import scooter from import company Direct Bikes- and this is my tale.
There are many options when buying a Moped, and they range from purchasing a brand new model from a dealer, to getting a second hand version on eBay. Models and prices vary from around £500 for a used version to £1900 and up for a brand new scooter. Options do tend to get a bit more limited when your budget is low and you’re set on owning something pink (repressed Barbie fantasies) so I was a little bit stuck when searching for one. I have a full car licence, but annoyingly it was issued in 2003, which means I need to complete a CBT (a one day training course, approx £110) to ride a 50cc or 125cc scooter. Anything above 125cc required an investment of around £1500+ to get the correct licence, and I wasn’t willing to go there.. yet. The rest of the costs are negligible, as I live in London and scooters don’t have to pay congestion charge. Parking is also free in most places in central London, apart from Westminster where it’s £1.
DirectBike moped in detail
With these facts in hand I set off to buy a moped and experienced issues at every turn. Either they were well out of my price point- like this beautiful pink Vespa, or they were based in Manchester and I had no easy way of getting there. eBay wasn’t a huge help, nor was Gumtree, and then I stumbled across a site called DirectBikes. They ship all their bikes in from China, and sell them brand new in the UK at a markup. Even with their markup it was still only £649 for a BRAND new bike, plus a non negotiable £80 odd pounds for delivery. And no, you couldn’t pick it up yourself. Boo. OK, so that’s £731 all in so far.
I ordered it online.. and it didn’t go through. I rang them and they said my address had been wrong (it wasn’t) and reordered it. Same issue. Different card tried, same issue. Now my bank was calling me because they though there had been some fraud taking place and I had zero cash (frozen ) and no bike. Four days later I tried again, this time ringing them straightaway. Exact same problem. Losing hope, I got the boyfriend to try them, and somehow it went through. No apologies from them about this, and no mention of when they’ll fix their website ordering process- consider yourself warned. Read more…
Tags: buying a moped, chinese import scooter, DirectBikes, moped
Posted by admin on Jan 2, 2011 in
lists,
opinion 
Another year has come to pass, and as usual I’m settled in front of the computer screen with a hangover and some unhealthy feelings of guilt. There was so much I planned to do in 2010, and so much that I didn’t do. The guilt is vaguely balanced by the fact that I did have a pretty awesome year, and some pretty crazy life events were going on at the same time. In no particular order; I got to enjoy Miami Spring Break stylee, enjoyed the perks of being a successful freelancer (long lie ins, but holidays were stressful), made the move back from being a freelancer (a little lonely) to trying my hand at being a New Media Producer for the Olympics, with a 23rd floor office and an airport style scanner for my handbag (corporation central); went on my first cruise, moved in with my boyfriend (great, but he squeezes the toothpaste strangely), started a business (more on that later), dealt with the break up of two close friends (very hard, but we’re all being adult), got a beautiful pink moped (and fulfilled one of last years resolutions), learnt some awesome hula hoop tricks and dealt with That Which Will Not be Named (no, really, not yet) with a reasonably stiff upper lip. I went to Reyjavik for New Year, had my first Home Alone style Christmas, and made a nail art stop motion movie ( I was bored). I also read a silly number of books, and discovered a bunch of new TV shows (most of them bad, though I do like Lost Girl).
All in all, I feel I’ve done a heck of a lot, especially as That Which Will Not be Named took up so much time and energy. I feel a little bit proud of myself actually- despite the fact that I didn’t manage to complete more than 5 out of last years 12 resolutions. Still, another year, another vaguely achievable list. This time I’m focusing on both tangible goals and more esoteric achievements, think spiritual growth as well as a deepened skillset.
The Tick List of Resolutions:
1. Get the Top Secret (ish) business off the ground and make it a huge success (I was going to insert something jokey and ironic here, but I actually mean this, so I’m not going to).
2. Get my full motorbike licence. 50cc is just not enough horsepower for me. Then I can get something like this… (spotted on Camden High Street).
3. See a ballet. Really, it’s about time this happened, it has been on my list for three years. I might not even like it, I just want to go and try it! Read more…
Tags: 2011, new year, new year resolutions
Posted by admin on Dec 22, 2010 in
opinion,
random,
Theatre and Art 
There are many, many strange things that exist in the world. Hey, it’s all healthy expression right, whether you like yodelling on weekends or stalking people with leg casts (abasiophilia). I’d just about got my head around the concept of Air Guitar and its related championship events when I heard about the Air Sex World Championships, which is basically Air Guitar without the guitar and with people, well, you get the idea.
The thing I find odd is how seriously people take this sport, with forums upon forums of practise tips, video ideas, etc- culminating in a massive event that takes place in Texas. Read more…
Tags: Air Sex World Championships
