90 AVATARS IN 90 HOURS!!!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEE
Actually it was 91 avatars in about 96 hours but who’s counting? Not me, I’m unconscious.
I don’t know what came over me. There I was on holiday, relaxing, wandering about. Hadn’t drawn a cartoon since the pygmy hippopotamus christmas card last Tuesday (and that was photoshopped). I was cleaning my office, looking for something to distract me from cleaning my office, when I wiped my whiteboard clean and… for no good reason, cartoonly duplicated 20 twitter avatars with a whiteboard marker. Poing! Just like that. These were a random selection of people who I have had twitter conversations with some of whom are proper internet friends and some of whom were there at the time and well, I love everybody. I felt a bit foolish. But there they were. I posted it. (I am still uncomfortable with the term tweet as in “I tweeted it”) but I did.
The response was immediate. People wanted my version of their avatar as their avatar. People who weren’t on the whiteboard were a: offended, b: a platypus and c: wanted an avatar as well. There was a @firsdogonmoon avatar feeding frenzy. Ahahahahahaha! Suddenly, I was drawing avatars feverishly – and quite happy to do it mind you – having a lovely time. A cartoon is a cartoon and I was watching the cricket and what else was I going to do? Lie around reading a book? Have some kind of alleged nap? Speak to humans? Not draw cartoons? I don’t think so. Word (tweet) got out and I was doing requests and more requests and to date I have drawn almost 91 avatars in about four days. 90 Avatars in 90 hours! (sort of) All of them brilliant (except the zombie rabbit for @missdizzy, still not sure about that one). Anyway, I am so clever.
It was important, where practicable to duplicate the existing avatar. Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn’t, particularly if an avatar was already someone elses cartoon (@zbender – Bender – @sukiebunny – A Bunny – @dcouch – Hong Kong Phooey).
I have also increased by about million followers in no time at all. I have asked people to nominate me for a shorty which is a twitter award. No really, they have them. I have inadvertantly raised my social media profile quite a bit. People are blogging about it….
@jinjirrie said another thing!
Some have suggested that I knew what I was doing all along and that it was all a cunning marketing ploy. I wish I was that cunning.
You could say that Avatars are an important visual currency in a text based medium like Twitter. You could.
It was a delight I must say, to look at the twitstream I follow and see image after image that I had created. Never seen anything like it.
Some tweeps used them, some didn’t. Some coloured them and changed them about (@seancarmody, @nickhodge) and there was the brilliant marsupial at the beach (@garthk) and the guy who put a collar on a dog thing (@magian3 or something). It didn’t matter either way, they were freely given to be used in whatever way the recipient chose to use them and the only expectation is that no one makes money off them. Except me, but that comes later if I can figure out how to do it. I did just get a commission to do one for a guy in NY. Hahaha. It turns out it was my inadvertent and serendipitous New Years gift to the twitterverse and the intehwebs. I am even nicer than I thought!
Over the next few days I will post them all here with the original that inspired the cartoon. There are some below. But you can see them all here including the original whiteboard with lobster.
Note to self : Remember to have holiday at some point. After I open my redbubble.com shop. lol
Happy New Year and thanks for freaking out with me.
@genrobey - I think this is my favourite
@reemski - those are her eyes!
@sukeibunny
@ninjameoba
@nickhodge "Can I have a cat with black glasses please"
Labradoodle on the moon! @lillylauren
@earleyedition
@jdub Crikey's indomitable web consultant
@johnsonlab
4 Comments
What can I say First Dog? Love your work!
- The Prawn.
The best post I have seen on the use of social media. And the best way to win followers. I am unsure if it was all altruistic or a very cunning ploy
BiteTheDust
Firstdog says: No no, it wasn’t a plan at all! I’m just not that cunning. I mean, it became a plan after a couple of days when it all went off! I thought “ooh, I’m on to something here” and then @neerav said “Can I have a t-shirt – you can do it on redbubble.com” and I knew about Redbubble because @katska had told me about it and then it sort of went from there and became a mini-meme and a very very long sentence like this one. As for winning followers, most of them are from the US and are PR people or run websites that sell pet products.
I find it amusing that many if not most of the people who suspected this was all a marketing stunt were people who had “PR” or “marketing” somewhere in the online bio. The kind of people who can’t look at any human activity without thinking “How can I make money out of this?” The kind of people who seem unable to conceive of anyone doing something for sheer fun or — gasp — generosity.
You, Mr Onthemoon, are a man of generous spirit. They are not. I suspect Andrew Roberts is not such a shallow PR person because he seems to recognise that in social media you build social capital [ugh!] by social actions, not by pretending to be sincere.
Oddly enough, after 2 million years of human evolution, we’re very good at spotting the fakes.
P.S. I like the avatar you did for me. Some have said it’s rather appropriate. Bastards.
Damn! First Dog, you might have made it known that you were doing personal avatars. I’ve long wanted one. Finally, when I arrived at the point of actually asking for it. I did one myself. It looks great on Huffpost, which has a larger format than Crikey.
When I looked at your photo on the calendar, I was taken by two items. 1) You are a very fine looking dog-even though your paws looked a little…added on. 2) I felt your publishers could up-date your computer.
Venise
PS. Are you going to favor the crowds with your presence at the OZ open?
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