A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Two billion watched the royal wedding – or did they?
If 67 per cent of statistics are made up on the spot (I made that up), then how many of the assumed figures thrown at us on a day-to-day basis are also fabricated?
A couple of extraordinary numbers have been lobbed into the public consciousness recently, namely Lady Gaga’s new $10 million video for Judas and the astounding two billion people alleged to have watched the royal wedding.
The Lady Gaga figure seemed to have been plucked from the ether in a moment of sensationalist anticipation by the E! television channel, which had the exclusive for the video, and which later tweeted that the statistic was wrong – without saying how much it actually cost.
Nevertheless, the $10 million figure will probably go down as fact. As for the two billion royal-wedding audience? That figure appears almost impossible.
It would take approximately 29 per cent of the world’s population to be tuned in – and as 24.5 million people in the UK watched it, unless all of China, every man woman and child in the US, the entire population of Russia, Germany and one quarter of everyone who lives in Africa were glued to their television sets, the figure looks a bit funny. Like the lottery, it’s best to check all the numbers before thinking they’re legit.
Una Mullally
Social media awards to recognise business efforts
Brush up on your virals, business blogging, Twitter strategy and Facebook crisis management, because the inaugural Social Media Awards take place on May 26th at Mansion House in Dublin. Businesses, brands, PR companies, State bodies and digital agencies will compete for honours in categories including best online PR campaign, best video campaign, best business Twitter account and the grand prix award of best use of social media.
The awards, founded by Damien Mulley of Mulley Communication – founder of both the Irish Blog Awards and Irish Web Awards – aim to celebrate “the best in social media”. Mulley had the idea after last year’s web awards, when categories dedicated to social media grew in number, indicating that perhaps they needed special attention. “There are agencies and individuals in small organisations doing interesting things that deserve recognition,” says Mulley.
The number of categories increased again when he went to talk to various agencies, which suggested further elements that should be considered. As for the standard of social-media engagement for business in Ireland, Mulley says, “It’s okay; it’s not fantastic. If you look at Facebook, for example, there are two million people in Ireland on Facebook, yet, looking at Facebook pages of businesses, some might hit 60,000 or 70,000 [fans].”
Mulley singles out food companies as particularly good at engaging with people online, and it’s that engagement that grows interaction in terms of numbers. As for the ceremony itself, Mulley is known for a slightly unorthodox yet effective way of conducting business, and says the ceremony might be “an eye-opener” for agencies, with a more lively approach. “It will be a little more fun than the usual industry-awards ceremony.”
See socialmediaawards.com
Una Mullally
The good, the bad and the hugly
Shake or hug? For Irish men it was always the former – briskly, with little or no eye contact. Hugging was for women, football players and men from foreign countries.
But go past any school or fast-food outlet where groups of young Irish males congregate in their typically desultory way and you’ll think you’ve walked on to the set of a rap video or are watching an outtake from The Wire.
Young Irish males do not do the handshake. They do the hip-hop hug, also known as the hetero hug – a type of fraternal greeting favoured by US gangs that has since bled into suburban society.
But what works seamlessly for urban b-boys and cast members of Entourage does not easily translate to suburban Ireland. Like a well-off white male trying to talk street, we make a farcical mess of the hip-hop hug. A tight handshake grasp that has grown a few back claps simply doesn’t cut it; nor does the full-on bear hug.
Correctly executed, the hip-hop hug entails moving in with your shaking hand in an almost vertical position. There is no shake: it should just be a light palm slap. Simultaneously, your non-shaking hand will pat the other person’s back about two-thirds of the way up – and one pat will do it. To ensure fluidity of movement, both people need to enact this in sync, with both heads moving in to the opposing shoulder but never actually making contact.
If you’re not in and out of the hip-hop hug in five seconds, you’re doing it wrong and need to practise in the mirror. Vertical brief hand slap – one pat on back – head moving towards other person’s shoulder. There should be no conversation and, especially, no smiling. The very action itself should say it all.
But why is the young Irish male making such a hames of the hip-hop hug? It’s not as if they don’t watch enough American television.
It’s too often a mistimed lunge – one shaking hand vertical, the other horizontal, leading to a lot of fumbling. There are too many back pats. And don’t take all day over it: it should be as quick and brisk as the regular handshake.
And that’s all apart from the fact that the use of the hip-hop hug by young Irish men is a pathetic approximation of a culture they know nothing about – especially when their name is Gearoid, not Tupac.
Brian Boyd
