Through the Web 2.0 Looking Glass
Groundswell is so far the best book on social media I've ever read. Written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (and recently updated), the book is a must read for anyone who pieces together coherant communications strategies. My favorite quote — "concentrate on the relationships, not the technologies" — supports the book's four steps to creating strategies: (1) people, (2) objectives, (3) strategy, and (4) technology. It also sets the stage for a brilliant … [Read more...]
Today, every organization is a global brand. Thanks to Web 2.0, people from around the world can access your content, discover and interact with other members of your online communities, and add their own voice to the conversation. This is exciting but also a little unnerving. How do you relate to people from another culture? What do you say, or not say, to start a conversation off right? Are there cultural taboos you need to be aware of? Fortunately, a … [Read more...]
A Communications 301 rule of thumb is "information alone doesn't change behavior." You might have brilliant left-brained arguments about why people should do something, but if you don't touch them emotionally, they won't be swayed. O.K., maybe they'll give you a thumbs up, but they won't act. Raising awareness is only effective in changing behavior when you have the time and resources to reach the saturation point of "everybody knows that everybody knows … [Read more...]
A dozen or more New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers could get dooced for posting offensive comments on Facebook calling West Indian Day parade-goers in Brooklyn “savages,” "filth," and “animals." (Dooced, in case you don't know, means fired from one's job as a result of one's actions on the Internet.) The New York Times reported last week at least 20 comments maligning parade-goers on a “No More West Indian Day Detail” Facebook page were … [Read more...]
A teenager's snarky, potty-mouthed tweet about Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback contains important Web 2.0 lessons for us all: Anything you write on social media, no matter how small your audience, has the potential to go viral. Trying to control your message behind the scenes is not only futile, it could backfire in a big way. Check out the CNN video below, my pick for December 2011 video clip of the month, on the latest most-famous tweet in the United States. … [Read more...]
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend." —Melody Beattie Even in tough times like these, we all can count our blessings on Thanksgiving. We can be thankful for our family, the accident of our birth in a nation with abundant food and water, and a roof over our head. … [Read more...]
Chilling video images surfaced online today showing a campus police officer at the University of California, Davis, calmly pepper spraying the faces of Occupy Wall Street protesters seated quietly in a line with their arms interlocked. The images, captured with cellphones by several onlookers, quickly spread virally across the Internet. As unsettling as the video images are, the keyword for me in the news event is onlookers plural. It reminded me of … [Read more...]
I hit the Klout jackpot this week. No, my Klout score of 40 isn't suddenly up. Klout's Marketing Manager Megan Berry personally left an incredibly insightful comment on my blog. Her comment isn't gold to me because of the ego boost (O.K., maybe a little). It's gold because it plainly illustrates the fallacy of Klout's claim to be "the standard for influence." Here's how Berry summarized how Klout scores work: "1. Influence isn’t about you, it’s about your … [Read more...]
A thought-provoking exchange in the comments on Danny Brown's marketing blog recently caught my eye, inspiring my pick for November 2011 video clip of the month. From Brown: "@RichBecker Sweet Lord, seriously, mate? A professor grades based on Klout? How screwed up is that? "You nailed it with the dehumanization of the online (and, to a degree, offline) populace, mate. By encouraging people to only connect with "influencers", as decreed by Klout and their screwy … [Read more...]
What do public officials and narco gangs have in common? Usually nothing. But in Mexico, both have rallied against citizens' attempts to use social media to warn others about cartel checkpoints, shootouts, grenade attacks, and other public safety concerns. Narco gangs see social media as a threat to their hold on power, while public officials complain the new technologies spread rumors. In fact, several Mexican states are considering laws criminalizing the … [Read more...]
Every now and then one of my posts hits the search engine jackpot. To my dismay, my first post to garner a large amount of search engine traffic was about Twitter and pornography. Because a lot of people typing the keywords "Twitter" and "pornography into search engines arrived at that post, it quickly became one of the top 10 most popular posts of all time on my website. It maintained this ranking for months despite getting minimal views and tweets from my … [Read more...]
Almost a year and a half ago I wrote that "we are on the verge of a massive shift in the way we communicate and inspire action." Last February, as I watched jubilant Egyptians celebrate the resignation of their 82-year-old former president, I asserted that paradigm shift had arrived. Today, as I read news articles mocking the Occupy Wall Street protests spreading from Lower Manhattan to hundreds of cities and towns, I realize how many still aren't visualizing the … [Read more...]
“The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with.” —Marty Feldman Did you know a '60s-era campaign organizing strategy inspired by Mao Tse-tung foreshadowed social media's power? From Richard Hofstadter's 1964 essay The Paranoid Style in American Politics: "In his recent book, How to Win an Election, Stephen C. Shadegg [Barry Goldwater 's Campaign Advisor] cites a statement attributed to Mao Tse-tung: 'Give me just two … [Read more...]
A tweet about diapers caught my eye during my frantic Twitter searches last weekend to find information on Hurricane Irene's impact on Long Beach Island. It read "If u have problems finding diapers please DM me your # so we can talk. @darkangel1321" and was from the "verified" account of Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker (@CoryBooker on Twitter). I took a couple of seconds to read the mayor's Twitter stream and found he was doing more than help moms find diapers. … [Read more...]
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HOW TO: Engage Bonafide Critics vs. Feed the ‘Trolls’
"What if somebody says something bad about us?" is a common concern stopping some institutions from using social media. After all, as the old saying goes: "You can please some of the people all of the time. You can please all of the people some of the time. But you can't please all of the people all of the time." Whether you are participating in social media or not, however, these networks are giving a megaphone to all the people who are not pleased with you, at … [Read more...]