Review | Transformers 2: Revenge of Michael Bay on Critics

I saw a lot of negative reviews before I went and saw the Transformers 2, and after seeing it myself, it’s only fair that I give my on take on the movie:

It’s a movie, based on a kid’s cartoon from the 80s made to sell toys.  You see, there are these huge robots than can transform into cars and other normal everyday things.  There are two kinds, Autobots and Decepticons - they fight and typically when they do, things blow up.  A lot.  No, I mean A LOT.

Oh, and then there is Megan Fox in slow motion and the dude from the Indiana Jones movie.  Did I mention explosions?

It’s awesome.

There you have it, my official review.  If you feel the need to criticize the accent of an GIANT ROBOT WHO TRANSFORMS into other things, you just don’t get it. If you’re worried about a plot more than I gave above you just don’t get it. Acting - doesn’t matter.  Cheesy dialog - you should have expected it!

In a time where we’re worried about layoffs, recessions, celebrity deaths, Iran, and on and on, this was a fun escape, which is what movies are great for.  I didn’t have to think about anything for over two hours except what terrific piece of special effects was I going to see next.  I can best sum up the movie with the word “fun.”  Yep, this movie is going to make a TON of money, and you can go ahead and think about what “Transformers 3: LOL - Suck It Ebert” may be about.

Now, the price of a Coke Zero and some popcorn?  That I can criticize.

You’re An Animal!

Jim Panzee

Tim Berwulf

Leah Murr

Ella Fant

Cole Wallah

Flo Mingo

Anne Taylope

Dawn Key

C. Otter

Dina Sauer

Iggy Juana

Allie Gaiter

Tara Enchula

Penny Guin

Chip Monk

Ben Gaultiger

Kay O’tee

Leo Perd

Jack Gwar

Walter Bufflo

Wally B.

Will Vereen

Millie & Cindy Peede

Pau Somme

Cylde Stail

Amir Katt

Ward Hogg

Anne Teeter

Art Vark

Jen Chilla

Van Pierbat

Jill E. Fish

Perry Keete

Al B. Tross

Jai Entsloth

Mac Awe

Ken Garue

Woody Peckar

Sal O’Mander

Sam Mon

Ty Garr

Will DiBeest

Al Paca

Camille Leon

Arman Dillo

Bea Verr

Jack Ashe

Ray Vinn

Liz Arde

Gil O’Monsta

Orin Gutan

Guy Coe

Ben D. Cootz

Sy Berriantigre

Syl VerBeckerella

Twitter = Spammer’s Heaven

Twitter, everyone is talking about it, talked about it, or is nearly ready to talk about it – even if they don’t know it.  Apparently, not being on Twitter is akin to using carriages, wearing leisure suits or cooking with a toaster oven.

I would say that I was actually pretty early to the party, joining on July 31, 2007.  Ancient in “Internet years.”  I didn’t use it much at first and wouldn’t call myself a “pro” now, but I can hold my own.

I was “sold” on Twitter, recommending it to friends and family, and thinking it was part of the “future” of the Internet.

Then a not-so-funny thing happened: I started getting @spam. Lot’s of it.  What made it worse, the more I complained, the more I received.  Something I was tweeting about, and I’m still not quite sure what, was picking up these auto-follow type accounts.  The follow notifications were initially going to my Gmail inbox.  I usually would follow someone back if they followed me, I would look at their tweets, and if they weren’t spam or MLM types, I would have no issues.  There would occasionally be spam, but I’d say it was only one out of ten.

Now?  Only one out of 100 are legitimately “people” (maybe, if that much).  A few weeks ago I started filtering notifications out of my inbox and check the Twitter label once a day.  I’m very close to sending them straight to [TRASH] or [SPAM].  I can’t check each one, so if someone follows me now, it’s very unlikely that I would follow them back.  My “experience” has been ruined in that aspect.

For a short amount of time, Twitter became a very effective method of spam delivery for spammers to my Inbox.  Gmail, effective at blocking email spam, was wide open to this “legitimate” platform. 

How else have spammers taken over twitter?  They hide in trending topics, simply adding the needed hash tags and their link.  When you check the trends, there they are, with their spammy links.  With the links themselves being the other way they exploit Twitter.  Because of the limited characters in Twitter, many use URL shorteners when posting links.  Spam links can now easily be disguised.  There are “workarounds” for showing the full URLs, but I don’t want workarounds from a platform that is supposed to be the future.

Twitter needs to do better in controlling/stopping this trend or things are going to get ugly in a hurry.  People will run back to Facebook, which I’ve never personally received any spam.  Hopefully Twitter can use their new verified accounts to help solve this issue, but until they address this directly, I’m losing my faith and they’ve lost my recommendation to use their service.

Oh, and feel free to follow me @vdegeorge – just don’t expect me to follow you back, because I won’t know that you even did.

I just Googled your company.

So, when I read and commented on the post Diving Safely in Social Media on the Social Media Explorer blog, I mentioned:

“The truth is, your brand is quite possibly “involved” in social media already.”

This statement is very very important and worth repeating. It’s why brands should be involved in social media even if they don’t initially see the intrinsic value. With any brand, the last thing you want to do is play “catch up” or caught needing to put out fires in a medium you’re unfamiliar.

Thinking about this more, the whole thing goes beyond brand management as a company - it goes much deeper. Social Media sites not only give a place to interact with people about the good and sharing what you like, but also talking about the bad, and possibly "venting" about your job. It may not even be you doing the venting, but it could affect your personal brand in the end.

Let’s go through a scenario. You work for a company that some employees have had reason (legitimately or not) to put some complaints online about said company. It may or may not be anonymous, but it relays various scathing statements about your company and several "managers." (Typically the more anonymous, the more scathing to be sure.) You happen work for this company as a manager. Are you the one being discussed? Could the perception be that you’re one being discussed?

So now there’s a brand management issue for both the company and you. Can this commentary be easily pulled up in a Google search for the company’s name? What if a search for your company brings up the complaints before your company’s official website? (Yes, I’ve seen it happen.) Good luck on your next job hunt, because you’re now tied to the negative comments about the company whether you like it or not.

In all honesty, there’s not much a company can do about such comments, whether they’re on sites designed for venting about jobs, or platforms like MySpace and Facebook. They’re simply going to happen. People leave jobs and they take bad memories with them, but what do companies do to react? Or is that the problem in the first - reacting? This goes back to my original comments. Your brand is out there and you can either react or get in the thick of things and ensuring that your "positive" branding is coming out on top.  You’re not only doing this for your own brand as a company, but protecting your employees as well.

Recommendation: As a tie into this, I highly recommend that you set up a myriad of Google Alerts - but as part of your personal brand management.  You should know what’s being said about your company, so beyond setting up what should be your obligatory alert for your name, you should also set up one with your company’s name - maybe linked to your title with the company.  I personally have around 30 alerts set up with the above in mind and the results have been eye-opening.

I’m fine with being a Z-List blogger.

More like a zzzzz… list blogger, huh?  Seriously, I’ve finally realized that I don’t need to write 300 word essays espousing my love for all things Web 2.0 with some sense of "purpose," but just write the things I’m thinking about and just enjoy it.  I don’t have adsense, but I can certainly do nonsense.

Lately things have been interesting on the Social Media front, I must say.  I’m more involved than ever — continuing my love for FriendFeed, but also being more involved on commenting on a couple of blogs and a significant amount of tweeting.  Combining like members of FriendFeed and Twitter, I have around 150 people following me. This makes my "real friend" to "internet friend" (there really needs to be a word for that) ratio at about 1:25.  I can live with that.

I’m hoping to merge the worlds somewhat starting next week with attending the Louisville Geek Dinner at the BBC on Shelbyville Road.  It should be an interesting affair and with being the first time I’ve attended such an event, I’m very interested to see how people interact at such a function.

I’ve also made several connections on LinkedIn, with a nice split between people I’ve never physically met before and old friends that I haven’t seen in around 15 years.  I find LinkedIn fascinating as overall it gives a little more "true to life" version of a person’s history.  This is not to say that people lie on sites like MySpace or Facebook, but your work history leaves very little for wild embellishments.  The assumption, by having a profile on LinkedIn, is that you wouldn’t "mind" being approached about a job.  With that in mind, you want to present your profile as your resume and while I’m sure there is some stretching of the truth in areas, you’re going to be a little more restricted and expected to back things up when all is said and done.  Because of this, I feel there is a legitimacy in LinkedIn than some other social sites.

So, I’ve increased my participation, but what am I looking for from all of it?  That’s something I’m still not sure of, in all honesty.  I like the interaction with the people I’ve met, and I find the whole "Social Media" thing very interesting - and really starting to see that there is much more to it than just surfing the Internet looking for the next cool thing.  In the end, I think I’m just looking to have fun and I’m fine just writing about what’s on my mind - and being a Z-List blogger.

You are a brand. Be a good brand manager.

Social media has changed the way that people intertact with Internet and with each other.  Many of us have “friends” we’ve never actually met who know more about you than some of your “real” friends.  They know what music you like, movies you enjoy, articles you read, and possibly most of your daily habits due a little web app called Twitter.  What you must keep in mind is that all these things you do form a picture of who you are… your “brand.”  While you may think trolling or posting long tirades of profanity may be fun, those action will be sure to tarnish your brand.

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FriendFeed as a networking tool.

I’ve become quite addicted to FriendFeed lately, making it the first and the last thing I do each day, and at several opportune times in between.  While I initially used it to find new and interesting things, ala Digg, Mixx or Google Reader, I’ve recently seen the potential for networking.  Sure, there are other “social networks” that you can say give you the same opportunity to meet with people and interact, but FriendFeed (henceforth in this post to be called “FF”) does something different.  You begin to see your interests aligning with someone else, whether it’s their comments on the posts of others, or simply what they post.  Since they’re not only posting directly to FF, but their OTHER social network environments as well, you begin to see the whole picture of who someone may be.

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You want 30, I’ll Give you 10 | Advertising 2.0

Entertainment is changing.  It’s all online and in bite-sized chunks of 30 second clips and videos.  Sure, there is the exception, the odd site that shows full-length programming, but much like everything, entertainment is becoming “smaller.”  The obvious example is YouTube, but extends to small snippets of stories (RSS), email and a little thing called Twitter.  Advertisers have had the luxury of a full 30 seconds to show you their product and convince you that you needed it, or a full page print ad that grabbed your attention.  This, however, is the past.  There is the obvious need for change when the entertainment ITSELF is only 30 seconds and the print is but a few lines of text, with maybe a picture.

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