My Mental Health Five-a-Day

If eating five fruit and veg a day is good for your body, then what's the equivalent for your mind?

That's the question that Andy Gibson asks, the guy behind Mindapples, a social movement to promote individual self-management of mental wellbeing:

"The original “5-a-day” campaign encouraged people to take care of their physical health through simple daily activities, and we want to do the same thing for mental health. We aim to create a stigma-free public debate about mental wellbeing, simply by asking everybody the question: “What’s your five-a-day?”

Dominic Campbell was kind enough to tag me in this meme of sorts, so I scratched my noggin' for a wee bit and plucked out the following five:

• Excercise - Nothing clears my mind like exercise, whether it's going for a run on a crisp, clear winter's morning, getting down and dirty on a muddy football pitch, or pushing iron in a weights session to sculpt those guns. 

• Reading - I like to break a mental sweat too and find reading a wide range of books, news sites, blogs and the occassional weekend newspaper helps keep up with the ideas of the day, helps form my own perspectives on the world, and helps me relax at the same time.

• Writing - As the survey suggests, a brain dump onto a clean white sheet of paper is a great way of making my mind feel like, er, a clean white sheet of paper. My colleague Drew says I'm good at keeping a mental checklist, but I always feel better when it's down on paper and not running through my mind.

• Playing - I honestly really like playing computer games. Not only does it help me destress after a long day, but I think it helps with my reflexes, coordination (thank you Nintendo Wii) and keeps my brain active. I like to think that computer games are like chess, but with more headshots.

• Switching Off - Perhaps the biggest way to keep mentally healthy for me is simply to push that power button and switch off all of the various gadgets and technology that's become an intrinsic part of our modern lives. Taking a walk with no electronic beeps, noises, or whirring to disturb you is perhaps the most refreshing way to cleanse the mind.
  

That's the mental health floss that keeps my mind fresh, so I'm going to tag Jeddy Jeddison, Drewbie, Tommy Tomson, Dommy Domson, and Jazzy J to hear their thoughts.

But why not take the survey yourself here? After all, it will get your mind going just thinking about what keeps your mind going!

Peter Schiff was right...

...and was laughed at:

Wii are shaking it up

Normally I get annoyed if for some reason I'm not able to take content from one site and share it with my friends through whatever channel I choose. Whether it's via email, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious or embedded content on a blog, it makes sense to make your content as shareable as possible.

However, this YouTube video for the new Wario Land Shake It! game on the Nintendo Wii is the exception to the rule.

What appears as a normal YouTube video actually descends into an engaging experience that plays on our normal experience of social media, yet actually mimics the gameplay mechanics of the real-world product. This experience is also replicated on the game's minisite, which requires you to shake the menu items before you can move on to the next page.

It's an example of traditional advertising making forays into social media and will leave you hesitating over whether to play that next YouTube video or not. Then again, I might not want that happening to my Twitter stream...

(Hat Tip - Outside Line)

Magpie: How to lose followers and alienate tweeple

There's a lot of chatter on Twitter this morning about Be-A-Magpie,  a service that will pay you to insert advertisements into your Twitter stream.

According to TechCrunch, advertisers pay on a cost-per-thousand-impression basis, and the ads are promised to be delivered to relevant audiences based on keywords. That means Be-A-Magpie will analyze the content of your Twitter messages to see if there is a match to particular advertisers. The service auto-determines the number of ads to insert per legitimate Twitter message - the default is one ad for every five tweets. The service inserts the ads automatically by storing your Twitter credentials.

The TechCrunch Twitter account, with 31,000 followers, can earn a whopping €14,410.51 per month. By comparison, my Twitter account can earn a paltry €149.11  per month.

However, there has been a lot backlash against the service. One of the main reasons seems to be that Be-A-Magpie is aginast the ethos that the twitter community has created, namely to share what's interesting to you at that moment, not what someone has paid you to share with others.

As for disclosure, a #magpie hashtag is added to each Tweet. You can also see who has signed up for the service already as Be-A-Magpie are seeding messages through Twitter to get more people signed up, as this photo from TechCrunch shows:

Scobleiser has started an interesting disucssion over on FriendFeed which discusses whether Be-A-Magpie should be banned from Twitter. A lot of people are saying that they will unfollow anyone who starts using the service as it is considered spam.

My favourite comment comes from Enrique Gutierrez:

"Social Media is about sharing interesting things with people who find those things interesting, not about soapboxing crap and spamming others with random junk. Magpie is a service that doesn't understand that, and though it attempts (poorly) at doing some level of justice to spamming, it's still spam/ads and unwelcomed in my book"

Jeremiah Owyang gives his take on the service here. Neville Hobson also gives his take on what Twitter with ads might look like, which explores some of the issues around advertising on Twitter, although the post doesn't look specifically at Be-A-Magpie.

No doubt @Ev and the others from Twitter will be taking a close look at the service and whether it should be allowed on Twitter. Their terms and conditons don't prohibit this kind of service, but if the backlash continues, it may well be worth their time to amend its terms.

I won't be using the service, but it will be interesting to see who does from those I follow. Although, if they do subscribe to Be-A-Magpie, I for one won't be following them for much longer.

Is a public relations degree worth it?

Over at Rock Star PR , Jed Hallam ponders the value of a university degree in public relations:

"I didn’t study public relations at university, I studied English Literature and, typical for the industry, I fell into PR. But what if I would’ve always have wanted to work in PR and would’ve studied it at university? Would that make me a better PR professional? Or would it have simply prepared me for the technical aspects of public relations; the format of the press release, the communications audit, the strategy, the three month plan, the research, the analysis and on and on… Can this be learnt on the job or must it be taught?"

John Burg left a comment on the post that points out that even the best degrees are useless uinless you can convert theory into practise:

"You cannot learn to ride a bike until you get on it. But if you first study physics, balance and riding on a stationary cycle, you will be better prepared once you hit the ground. However, just because you don’t have that piece of paper doesn’t mean that you are any less qualified than the next guy. All it means is that you don’t have the perspective of a trained “practitioner”. PR and Communications are a human sciences. We invented them, we drive them, we are them. If you intuitively “get it” you can do it. But a little background, some perspective, some experience goes a long way."

I feel personally that a degree in PR is the same as any other degree in the arts and humanities - unless there is a strong vocational element (as Richard Millington points out) then the degree won’t prepare you that well for working in ‘the real world’. History, Philosophy, English Literature, Sociology, etc. - all very good degrees with no clear career path at the end.

As such, it is the experience gained outside of these degrees that is more likely to prepare you for working life, whether its playing sports, joining a society, or taking up work experience as part of the degree.

It’s only when students/graduates get into a real working situation with real clients that their skills are put into practise. As Vikki Chowney tweeted just yesterday:

"Graduates; there’s nothing like real industry experience - now you really start learning"

This is an element that Bright One is trying to help with, offering students real life clients as part of their degrees - even if they’re not studying PR - so that they can learn on the job and do something for the social good at the same time. It's an opportunity to gain real world experience with real clients that will translate into a higher level of professionalism in years to come, using skills learned from studying in real world situations, benefiting both current studies and future employment.

Those who study for a public relations degree will benefit by gaining a better understanding of the communications industry and the everyday workings of a PR agency. There is a gap here that posts like Jed's highlight, a gap that Bright One hopes to help fill.

What inspires you to blog?

I've been tagged in a meme by Tom Malcolm, who was in turn tagged by Stephen Waddington to continue a meme that he was tagged on to by Ged Carroll on what inspires him to keep up his blog posts.

(See all that tagging by the people on the meme who already have a working relationship with each other? That's today's top tip on "How to start a meme").

So, what inspires me to keep up with my blog posts?

• Twitter - Probably first and foremost, this is where most of my inspiration for things to write about comes from, either through conversation, observation or procrastination (e.g. clicking on a URL when you have nothing better to do).
  
• News - Looking for stuff to blog about always makes me keep up with the latest news and issues in the big wide world.
  
• Writing - I think learning how to jot down thoughts in a clear and cohesive manner is an essential skills in the workplace in general. Plus I enjoy writing.
  
• Ideas - Whether it's an idea I've been thinking about and wanted to test to my blog readers, or an idea that I came across somewhere else but wanted to share, the blog is the place for it to go.
  
• People - At the end of the day, this is what it all comes back to. My inspiration to keep up with my blog posts comes from the people, whether to share something with them, hear what they have to say about something, or help me to connect with them.

If you want to read what other people have said inspires them to keep on blogging, then here's a selection of responses to the meme (See? More tagging!):

• Ged Carroll - Looking for inspiration
• Tom Malcolm - Shoestring inspiration
• Drew Benvie - Inpiration to blog
• JonnyRosemont - Looking for inspiration
• Matthew Watson - What inspires your blog posts?

To continue the meme, I'm going to tag Dommy W, Philly S, Timmy B, Jazzy C and by special request, Jeddy H (yet more tagging!).

What inspires you to blog? Let me know in the comments below or even carry on the meme yourself - just don't forget to tag me!

Can I have my spider back please?

A little bit of Friday fun to round the week off, courtesy of Miss Annie Woodhead: