How Foursquare Feels About Facebook Places [VIDEO]

If only I had a crystal ball to predict how this will end up. But I am optimistically going to say that Foursquare will be okay - I feel that Facebook fatigue is starting.

How Foursquare Feels About Facebook Places [VIDEO]

Whistle the theme here

I thought it might be nice to share the news from our favorite Old Spice campaign, it's a backgrounder and then a results list. SPOILER: 107% increase in sales.

Piperlime's Mean Social Media

I'm a fan of the online shoe and clothing company Piperlime on Facebook. I've bought a ton of shoes from them and became a fan because I thought they might post messages about sales, new styles, etc. Lately, their messages have been pretty strange.

Every day they post messages like "Yoga pants are not pants," "Every time you wear sweatpants in public a single guy leaves New York," and "No more pajamas in public." Every time they post a message like this they start a giant war between their apparent sweat pants loving and sweat pants hating fans.

I don't know what their strategy is, but the messages are pretty annoying. They have a new ad campaign with similar themes, but it seems worse here. The first rule of social media campaigns should be "Don't insult your fans."

10 Steps for Social Media Monitoring

Great post reminding and outlining for us how to listen and react responsibly in social media versus listening to everything and reacting to everything.

http://mashable.com/2010/08/02/successful-social-media-monitoring/

Booshaka!

Just like you can view trending topics on Twitter, now you can follow trending topics on the largest social media platform in the world, Facebook. Booshaka aims to be the source of trending news and communications discovery for Facebook. I think it could use some design help, but the overall concept is long overdue in the social media world and it should do well.

Also, here's a map demonstrating each social media platform's relative dominance.

Your Own Digital Magazine

We talked about how to share social media successes with the C-Suite and how writing a report of content would be helpful for those who don't track an organization's Facebook updates, Twitter feeds etc. With this new app called Flipboard, you can create a digital magazine of your social media content. A powerful and visually appealing snapshot of your organization's social media presence. But you'll need an iPad.

Your Own Digital Magazine

Georgetown Waterfront Park Update

See this article in The Washington Post for an update on the park - seems Phase II is now underway though they are still working on the funding.

Hit RECord.org

Did you know that actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("Third Rock from the Sun," "10 Things I Hate About You," "500 Days of Summer," "Inception") has a production company? And not just a production company, but a "professional open collaborative" production company. Neither did I - until today.

JGL started HitRECord.org five years ago, and the community is blossoming. The idea is for people to upload their artwork, videos, music, poetry, stories, etc. to the site not only to show them off, but to collaborate with others in the community to make them into something better. JGL, going by the name Regular JOE, also frequently posts his creations and video blogs about updates. He even takes some of the best collaborative products and pitches them to traditional media in Hollywood. As a result some of HitRECord's productions have been screened at Sundance and SxSW. If the creations are turned into money-making productions, half the revenue goes to HitRECord and the rest goes to all the individual collaborators.

JGL is also a regular social media user. He has a Twitter (@hitRECordJoe) and Tumblr account. And as a side note - could he be any more adorable?

Why the DOD is Mishandling WikiLeaks...

As y'all are probably well aware, the WikiLeaks vs. Department of Defense saga continues to unfold...

Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Defense Department demanded WikiLeaks return secret military reports from Afghanistan leaked to the website and purge all copies from their records, including tens of thousands of reports already publicly posted.

But here's why the DOD's attempt to censor WikiLeaks are futile... and will likely backfire:

The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to censoror remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of causing the information to be publicized widely and to a greater extent than would have occurred if no censorship had been attempted. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, following a 2003 incident in which her attempts to suppress photographs of her residence inadvertently generated further publicity.

As early as 1993, John Gilmore observed that "the Net treats censorship as damage and routes around it."[1] Examples of such attempts include censoring a photograph, a number, a file, or a website (for example via a cease-and-desist letter). Instead of being suppressed, the information receives extensive publicity, often being widely mirroredacross the Internet or distributed on file-sharing networks.[2][3]

This phenomenon is the Internet equivalent of the earlier-known effect of a listing on the Index of Prohibited Books. The Index was discontinued in 1966, but in its time, it would act as a reading list for what were, or would become, best sellers,[4] and Papal condemnation was seen as a welcome endorsement.

Google Wave is Dead

Perhaps it was the crushing review that Lidia, David, Liz and I gave Google Wave after attempting to use it for our final project: Google announced that they are stopping development on Google Wave.

Wave will remain live, for now, but may be taken down in the future. Article here.

Mad Men & Twitter

Since you all know what a fan of Mad Men I am, it shouldn't surprise you that I post my thoughts on the Mad Men hashtag (I am trying to get my nickname for Pete Campbell (The Peasel) to catch on.  Well, after a few postings this week, I got an email telling me that Peggy Olsen was following me and then the next day, Don Draper was following me.  Their posts are pretty funny, and I have to say as a fan of the show, I found this to be somewhat flattering.  It definitely engages me as a user, and I also want to continue the conversation.  I'm wondering if this is just me that finds this clever or is this a smart strategy.

Five Emerging Internet Companies To Know About - CNBC

Five Emerging Internet Companies To Know About - CNBC

We talked about many of these in class but I hadn't heard of Modcloth (though I am a fan of its competitor Etsy). I like the social component to shopping but it seems like a lot of work to vote on a design and then see if it will be produced. But with 19.8 million in VC funding, I'm sure they can make it a success!

Why Companies Suck at Social Media

I thought this article wrapped up some of the major themes of our class -- why companies find social media so hard to take on, and what are the important things to keep in mind -- like listening, staying nimble, and being willing to fail.

http://tinyurl.com/28ptcxu

That guy who plays video games is taking over the world

On Twitter this a.m. I found out that online gaming has passed e-mail as the second-most popular activity online. The Washington Post article mentions that social networking is still the #1 online activity but is this only scary to me??

The article does pay homage to the type of guy I referenced in the title. And since this class is mostly women I'm hoping to slide by with a brief jab in the side of those guys who spend endless hours playing video games long into their 30's...no, it's not hot. But now THAT guy, and your friends (and likely my friends) are spending more time playing online games than most anything else? And since everyone is connected to online activities 24/7 these days, that means some people may spend more time playing online games than most other activities!

I can see it now: You spend XX hours sleeping, XX hours watching TV and XXXXX hours playing online games in your lifetime.

Weird. Are the games really that interesting? Are people getting smarter through Farmville? Help!

Tumblr: "a space in between Twitter and Facebook.”

Interesting article yesterday in the NYT on Tumblr:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/technology/02tumblr.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=technology

Where does social media fit in?

Mayo Clinic announced earlier this week the opening of their new Center for Social Media - overriding the PR and Marketing department efforts within recent years. The medical center has many great accomplishments within the realm of social media. According to their website, they have the most popular medical provider channel on YouTube, over 60,000 Twitter followers, and 20,000+ Facebook connections. They also maintain multiple blogs (all with different audiences and voices), were revolutionary in podcasting (started their journey into social media in 2005), and maintain support forums for diet, disease, and more. Furthermore, the hospital utilizes internal employee newsletters and blogs to communicate with staff and faculty – tools that undoubtedly influenced Fortune Magazine’s decision when rating Mayo Clinic among “Best Places to Work.”

But where does social media fit in? Of course, Mayo Clinic was lucky to have the resources to create a whole new center for the cause. But most nonprofits, hospitals, and corporations aren't able to do something so costly and time consuming and end up grouping it with another department. But where should it go? Is it marketing? PR? Or even IT? I know most of us would be likely to say PR, but I've definitely worked places where they would disagree. In fact, my last internship had IT managing their Facebook and Twitter accounts!

Managing social media is managing a reputation – it can quickly turn into a crisis scenario and they have to be ready to deal with it. Take the Nestlé case that we discussed in class as an example. Their Facebook page was overtaken by Greenpeace advocates, but instead of responding in a calm and composed manner or listening to the conversation, they attacked their fans & critics and alienated their supporters. This ultimately resulted in negative press - and a lot of it! Had they been properly trained in social media, this crisis scenario would have played out in a much different manner.

Mayo Clinic is in an even tougher spot, as they are a health service provider dealing with sensitive information that could potentially lead to life/death scenarios. It's extremely important that they monitor and respond to social media and maintain control – even though they are, essentially, giving it up. The Social Media Center is a great stride for Mayo Clinic, hopefully other health care providers will take notice and jump on the social media bandwagon.

Below is a video of the manager of syndicated & social media for Mayo Clinic discussing the new Social Media Center:

More women use the web

I know we had our last class yesterday, but Prof. Kumar has turned me into a real 'social media junkie.' My appetite for any social media news is now insatiable(sigh).

An article on Mashable says that according to comScore (a marketing research company that provides marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses)more women than men across the world visit social networking sites and spend 30% more time per month using them. As such, in the “Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet” report, comScore concludes that women are the digital mainstream, a group of savvy Internet explorers who are more engaged than their male counterparts, and are the primary drivers of online and group buying.

Interestingly enough, comScore identifies middle-aged women, 45 plus, as the group most responsible for growth in social networking site usage. Fifteen to 24-year-olds, however, are the heaviest users and have the greatest reach. When it comes to Facebook in particular, the younger crowd use that site more than 350 minutes per month on average. That data seems to line up with an Oxygen Media study showing that more than a third of young women check Facebook first thing in the morning.

In a U.S. consumer survey conducted in April 2010, comScore asked men and women how they use Twitter. Responses demonstrate that women use Twitter more for finding deals, following celebrities and their own self-defined purposes than to post tweets or read tweets from the people they follow.

Reading all this made me remember all the tactics we discussed in class yesterday about how the organizations we profiled could use different social media platforms to reach and engage different and more diverse audiences. So, to you organizations, if the bulk of your target audience is made up of women (of all ages), you are in luck. Social media is giving you a platform - on a platter of gold, I must say, since most of the applications are free to use - to reach them.

To read the article in full, please go to http://tinyurl.com/33kaupn

One last word from an AU student…

My excitement is going up as I keep looking at my watch and see that I’m only one hour away from completing my master’s degree in public communication. Yes, I am positive that I will pass the social media class :)

Had you asked me a couple of weeks ago why I chose to attend this class, I would have answered that options were very few for summer classes, and that this class “could be” more entertaining than other ones. Yes, this is how I have always seen social media: entertainment. Although I enjoyed reading the Groundswell book because of its simplicity, yet richness and clarity, several thoughts came to my mind as I was going through it: “is this whole thing really worth it?” “I don’t even know if I will ever use this in my professional life,” “who cares!” and many others.

Don’t be surprised, those are typical thoughts that cross the mind of any individual coming from a place where organizations could not care less about Facebook, never used Twitter (or probably never heard of it) and cannot understand the “blogging” culture… Organizations where the “take it or leave it” culture prevails. Add to it that many social media tools are “officially” blocked in my country, but people are surprisingly managing to access them on daily basis.

Wait a second! Why am I talking about organizations? Am I not acting the same way? The first time I ever heard of Twitter myself was in my strategic communication class (Fall 09). The first time I logged in to Twitter was six weeks ago, because I felt I had to create an account. I didn’t want to feel like an “alien” among social media savvies in class. I was only active on Facebook, which, for me, is only a tool to communicate with my friends.

Throughout this six-week semester and after having read so many articles and case studies, I started – just started – appreciating social media and see that it could be of help to many businesses and organizations. My appreciation increased as I went more in-depth when working on my case analysis paper. I was like “wow, this social media thing can really be dangerous!”

And here I am! Not only am I tweeting (still baby steps), but also I reactivated my ASMALLWORLD and LinkedIn accounts. My Gmail status is no longer “I hate blogs, blogging and bloggers.” I found out that after all they’re not that bad :P

During my MA at AU, I have learned that any communication strategy should have measures of success. If I take this to a larger scale, I would say everything we do in life should have measures of success. This simple attitude shift from a “non-social media believer” to a “social-media advocate” is but an indicator of the course success.

Thank you professor Kumar and thank you my classmates. I really enjoyed this course.

Best of luck to all of you and CONGRATULATIONS to those who have just completed their MA!

Tamara

Last Crisis Scenario

Well, it seems that we have run out of time for this crisis to truly play out.  You guys are also way too clever - there were no rookie mistakes in this class!

I think responding to the blogger is a must and I too like the idea of saying that we are constantly testing our products to ensure their safety while emphasizing that we have been using the same ingredients for 96 years.  For now, it is probably not a good idea to give the blogger a tour of the facilities but what can be done is to create the video anyway about the process of making the candy corn (and making sure the video focuses on the process rather than the ingredients) and giving the blogger first dibs on posting it to his site.  I might also consider sending all the bloggers I track a Halloween treats bag just to continue to maintain friendly blogger communications.  And if the study ends up being conclusive at any point, I would of course reach out to the blogger first and foremost to make sure they had our side of the story.

I would then work with the corporate communications team to begin assembling an independent panel of scientists as Sarah suggested to form an advisory board to Trach's.  This way if a crisis did come out as a result of this testing, the company would be well prepared to have advocates in place that could help to balance the story.  Since there has never been conclusive evidence of the link between food dye and ADHD and Trach's is not alone in using this particular food dye, it seems that they wouldn't necessarily be singled out even if the story did break.  The only two issues that concern me are 1.) that Trach's is testing this on rats and you never know when/if PETA will make this is an issue if it is not public information and 2.) the chance of a whistleblower at the FDA releasing the study.  There are some things though that you can never really be prepared for unless it happens and this could be one of those times.

Thanks to all for participating!

Calm after the storm? Not for Pepco

As of 1pm yesterday, 122,749 were still without power from Sunday's storm. 25-year old Andre Francis is in charge of responding to the numerous attacks on Pepco from Twitter. Though its only his third day on the job, Francis is getting a good lesson in crisis communications.

Responding to angry customers in 140 characters trying not to upset them more is a challenge. Pepco is using social media because "you talk to Andre and know you're talking to a real person" says Francis's supervisor.

"I understand your frustrations"
"I undestand your concern"
" I appreciate your humor"

are a few of the phrases Francis has been tweeting, along with tailored responses to individuals.

After a 2009 cold front that left thousands powerless, Pepco realized that traditional press releases weren't working. They decided to respond to their customers where they were voicing their complaints--online. Francis created the Twitter account as part of his social media duties.

I have to give props to Pepco for getting online and having an employee whose job is to monitor the social media sphere. And I really don't envy poor Andre trying to stay afloat during all the complaints and #pepcosucks hashtags.

Full article here: http://bit.ly/bcQQmI

Microsoft Street Slide

Microsoft has introduced its own version of Google Street View, called Microsoft Street Slide. Street Slide "combines the best aspects of the immersive nature of bubbles with the overview provided by multi-perspective strip panoramas." The goal is to provide a multi-perspective "strip" that is similar to viewing the entire street from a distance. Here's a video demonstration.

This technology has the potential to increase the hyper-local visibility of businesses -- when someone is trying to find places to go near their hotel, after the theater, etc. It's interesting how they imbed various location-specific interactive company logos along the bottom. I wonder if companies will have to pay for placement?

Yelp Gears Up To Take On Groupon, Starts Testing Local Deals

In an article published yesterday by TechCrunch, Yelp has announced that it will be doing local group deals.  Although they're "testing it out for fun," this could be a serious threat to Groupon, which is, as we learned, a site that specifically deals with local group deals made cheaper.

This brings me to a question I have been asking myself for weeks since we started this class: Is there any point in having a site with only one function anymore?  It seems as if all these social media tools are just morphing into bigger and bigger entities of the machine-- Google tapping into the phone market with Android and Yelp- an already extremely popular review site- wanting to incorporate the same thing as Groupon in their website.

I guess this is a good thing- it shows that the people at Yelp are paying attention to what's hot in social media.  But still, can't they just stay within their own sphere?

Here is a sample of what Yelp would offer.

"Examples:
Yelp Eats (week-long promotion where we spotlight restaurants and work with them to offer special pre-fixe menu specials)
Yelp Drinks (promotion to highlights local bars with drink specials)
Hawt on Yelp (week long spa specials 50% off special services"

 Also, there has been much buzz recently because of Google's new location- review application (like Yelp) called Google Places.  I feel like there are only going to be social media companies that incorporate everything and everything is already too complicated.  We have too many things helping us out.  Apps are taking over the damn planet, causing some of us to wonder how three or so years ago we ever survived without this beloved technology.  I can't wait to see what happens next!

Full article here:
http://tcrn.ch/bun8H7

Facebook Instant Account Destruction, at Last

Wow.  I thought the day would never come.  Finally, Facebook is letting you delete your account and all information tracing back to it.  At the bottom of the deactivation screen is now a box in red which allows you permanently delete everything.  Which is the only option that Twitter offers, which I find annoying.

Anyway, I think this is a good thing because of all the privacy concerns surrounding this form of social media.  And because we all know how I feel about it.  I always wondered why Facebook never allowed that option; especially when people died et cetera.  But they do say that nothing's ever really erased from the Internet.  So this could just be a temporary thing. And what you posted and photos of you from your high school prom might still come back to haunt you later.

Here's the article- Gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/5597476/

Presidential PR with Social Media

During the last election, Barack Obama got plenty of publicity for his social media and its role in his success. Obama was all over it: Facebook, Twitter, iPhone app, the works.

Looking at elections in other nations over the past several years, it is clear that Obama has not been alone in trying to win votes online. In 2007, the candidates in the French presidential election battled online as well as on television. Nicolas Sarkozy had a complex, 17-channel video site, while Segolene Royal built a blogger network, encouraging supporters to blog on various topics related to her campaign (there was also a short0lived but highly popular website called DiscoSarko, which allowed visitors to select various tunes and have a flash image of Sarko boogie down to them -- see below).



But today, even leaders in nations that used to shy away from digital media in politics are embracing the Internet to connect with their constituents. For most of the 21st century, Russian politicians eschewed social media (instead, they were a popular tool among dissidents). But in the last few years, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has made a point of embracing the media channels most popular among his constituents. He began by producing a video blog, which he then started mirroring on LiveJournal, Russia's most popular blogging platform. And now, as Twitter makes inroads in Russia, Medvedev has launched his own Twitter account, @KremlinRussia (as well as a mirror account translated into English, KremlinRussia_E, to reach out to non-Russian audiences) in order to connect with more people online in a direct, personal way.

What do these developments mean for democracy around the world? Clearly, like any other type of media, social media can be manipulated in various ways for political means. However, it would be nice to hope that this is yet another step toward creating more transparent governments and presidencies around the world -- a system where leaders talk to the people not only through press conferences, but by texting from their cell phones as well.

Washington Post, New York Times be warned: AU Prof develops bloggers, spin-meisters, journo-lists | The Georgetown Dish

The article on our class on today's Georgetown Dish - thanks for all the retweets!

Washington Post, New York Times be warned: AU Prof develops bloggers, spin-meisters, journo-lists | The Georgetown Dish

Facebook + Media

Facebook just recently launched a "Facebook + Media" page to show journalists and media outlets how to get active on Facebook.

The idea is to educate media outlets to use the site to drive traffic and increase consumer engagement. In addition, the page points users to successful journalists already using Facebook, and directions for how top media outlets can use the Facebook tools on their sites. There's a tab for journalists and another for developers giving tips and best practices to make the integration easier.

Facebook says:
We're excited to begin a dialogue with media companies on how we best can deliver value. Media companies are great at creating content and delivering it to the right people at the right time. We think Facebook can add a social dimension, to show users the content that friends most care about and most recommend.

It's always important for PR professionals to know what journalists are up to and maintain relationships with them, so this site may prove significant for that industry as well. It's no surprise that Facebook is trying to drive media outlets to use Facebook more, since that will drive more users to Facebook. Facebook's over-arching plan seems to be to get everyone to go to Facebook to get all their media, so this is a smart step on their part.

http://tinyurl.com/2975q3u

The Colony: Social Media Experiment

At the risk of this post sounding like a shameless plug for Discovery, I still thought this was worth sharing.

There's a new season of "The Colony" airing on Discovery Channel tonight (10 pm). It's a show that takes real-life volunteers and puts them in a simulated pandemic environment and forces them to survive. It examines what would really happen to humanity if a horrendous virus actually broke out and destroyed our civilization. On the show, volunteers are asked to rebuild in the aftermath. A really scary concept to think about, especially since it could happen.

As a promotional tactic, Discovery launched a Facebook application that shows you how a pandemic would affect your friends and family. It shows you a fake Facebook page with updates from your friends and family trying to survive. Read Mashable's post on it here.

I logged into the application and it does make you think about what the world would be like during a viral outbreak and pandemic. Think swine flu x10 because this virus is actually infecting, killing, and taking names. You'd have to rely on a totally different skill set that many of us just don't have.

While I think this application is clever, I didn't really find it THAT believable. Mostly because friends of mine that I know don't know each other were commenting back and forth on posts. So that hampered the reality for me a bit. Also there were some things that sounded too cheesy, even for some of my friends to say.

I think this would have been so much better if it somehow integrated into your actual Facebook feed gradually. That would heighten the reality and make you actually think twice about whether this pandemic was actually happening. As it is now, you can exit the application by closing your browser. Although I guess if you couldn't easily tell this application to stop, then Discovery might inadvertently create a crisis from confused users.

Did you try it the application? What do you think of it?

An Inventory of Social Media Measurement Tools | KnightVision Marketing

An Inventory of Social Media Measurement Tools | KnightVision Marketing

Influence

How do you measure somebody's influence on Twitter? Some people measure it by glancing at the number of followers any given tweeter has. Others may go deeper, asking for statistics on link-clicking: what percent of your followers actually click on the links that you post?

But lately, more and more people have been turning to a new tool for measuring influence: Klout.com. This website allows you to enter a Twitter handle to determine someone's Klout Score - a score ranging between 1 and 100 that is based on three key factors: True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

Klout defines these parameters in the following way:

The size of the sphere is calculated by measuring True Reach (engaged followers and friends vs. spam bots, dead accounts, etc.). Amplification Probability is the likelihood that messages will generate retweets or spark a conversation. If the user's engaged followers are highly influential, they'll have a high Network Score. (details)

Thus, Klout is able to get beyond the superficial measurements and provide a much deeper look at people's influence on the web, using over 25 measurement variables.

It's worth playing around with it and looking at the results it provides when you enter your own Twitter handle, and that of other users. For example, when you enter @barackobama, it immediately tells you that he has "celebrity" status with a KScore of 90 points. It also shows that he does more creating than sharing of content, and that this content tends to be fairly broad, rather than focused.

Compare this to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (@sengillibrand). She has significantly fewer followers than Barack Obama (a little over 4000), but nevertheless earns a score of 40, which means she is still in the "celebrity" bracket because of the influence of her tweets. The "Achievements" section shows how many lists she is on, how many total retweets, as well as unique tweeters have retweeted her, and her message reach (which is over 50 thousand).

Enter the handle of a less influential tweeter, and you see how the score decreases and how the parameters change.

These scores may be used in many settings. Naturally, they can be used by employers to evaluate the true influence of potential social media hires. However, they can also be used in PR practice to determine which tweeters can be reached out to, in order to spread the message as widely as possible. As Klout demonstrates, more followers does not always mean more influence.

Paying for Twitter?

I found this article to be interesting. Think about how broke a lot of Americans would be if they had to pay to be on Twitter or Facebook? According to this article, not broke at all because people would not use them. From day to day we talk about how important social media is and the future of it, but yet people do not want to pay for it. When compared to other everyday "needs" such as means of transportation and internet use that we typically pay for, how come many will not pay for social media. I found this to be funny but I must agree that if I had to pay a monthly charge for my Facebook profile, it would no longer exist. Do you think that paying for Twitter and Facebook is something in social media future? Would you pay to retain your profiles? If so, how much?

http://tinyurl.com/28uofw3

"Crowdstreaming" -- Start-up idea or fool's errand?

Over the weekend, I found myself thrown into an exercise to connect and apply the various social media technologies that we've discussed in class.

It all started Thursday night when I sat down at my computer in anticipation of my first ever Netroots Nation live stream. Eager to begin the first of 14 panels and trainings I'd marked as "must-sees" on my PDF copy of the conference agenda, I navigated to the Netroots Nation website, and clicked "Follow at Home." Suddenly, I discovered that the Thursday night panel I'd written down wasn't listed on the live stream site, as it was scheduled to take place in a conference room without a video camera. Big deal. I'd just plan to watch the other 13 scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Then it hit me: by some random coincidence, 12 of the remaining 13 panels I'd selected were scheduled to take place in rooms without cameras. So much for Netroots Nation! Maybe next year? Right? No.

I entered the live stream of a concurrent panel and asked the moderator if the sessions I'd hoped to see were, in fact, only accessible in person. "Yes." By the hours end, my disappointment tempered and frustration set in. But what could I do? Just a few years ago, probably nothing. And then came that "aha," teachable moment: I'd use Act.ly to target @Netroots_Nation and petition them via Twitter to add cameras to their few remaining conference rooms: http://act.ly/27t. It worked, sort of. Using the #nn10 conference hashtag, I launched the petition into the room, so to speak, of thousands following the conference from Vegas and across the world. Within four minutes, ten people had retweeted my petition and @Netroots_Nation responded to the post: "We do as many as we can afford, hiring video crews and streaming panels is not cheap." #nn10

Time for Plan B. Recalling Trace's in-class "experiment" to momentarily live stream via the new iPhone (using the free UStream app), it occurred to me that many of the affluent, tech-savvy conference attendees in Vegas would have the same capability. So, why not make Netroots Nation the first conference to crowdsource the burden of live streaming its panels?

By Saturday afternoon, I'd succeeded. My target? The panel on incorporating social media into advocacy campaigns. Instructing Tweetdeck to list all tweets containing #nn10 and "social media" that were also sent via iPhone, I identified about ten or so people live tweeting from that very panel. I messaged each, asking if they'd be willing to stream the session live via iPhone. Within minutes, one attendee agreed; moments later I sat back in disbelief as I watched the remainder of the session (along with Trace and others) via this stranger's iPhone -- thousands of miles away.

Earlier today, I sat back and wondered: Could this be the beginning of something much larger? With thousands of phones capable of live streaming sold each day, will the conferences of the future be open to the world? Maybe, but someone will have to make it happen.

The trouble, I think, is that the time expended by an individual (like me) to orchestrate a particular crowdsourced stream tends to outweigh the benefits of having access to that stream. And ad hoc solutions beg an important question: Who'll benefit? Just that particular individual? In my case, because I posted the stream's URL to the class blog, and tweeted it out using the #nn10 hashtag, a few others were able to watch. But the spirit behind this whole exercise -- that of open access to information -- demands a better, more participatory, solution. And that's what Wiki's are for.

So, why not create a website that facilitates such "crowdstreaming" -- powered by a Wiki -- that a) allows netizens to request that specific panels or conferences be live streamed, b) provides a platform for attendees to sign up to, and c) aggregates and indexes each stream so that they are easily locatable. Start-up idea or fool's errand?

Thoughts?

WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks has done it again. The website, intended to give whistle-blowers a safe outlet for sharing information while remaining anonymous, has now published a set of secret documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan.

WikiLeaks published over 90,000 reports about the war since 2004, while withholding 15,000 more in order to protect the anonymity of those who submitted them. The reports paint a very bleak picture of the war, detailing its many civilian casualties and showing problems related to Pakistan's cooperation in the war, demonstrating that "representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders." (CNN)

This is not the first time that WikiLeaks has released reports or information that have reverberated around the world, but with something of this magnitude, this incident may have enormous implications.

As far as this class is concerned, the incident serves to demonstrate how drastically social media has changed the whistle-blowing landscape. Before the Internet, it would have been virtually impossible to release this kind of information while remaining anonymous and avoiding legal repercussions. But it is possible today, and WikiLeaks takes special pains to overcome such hurdles (for example, by having servers based in multiple nations to avoid being trapped within a specific country's laws). Thus, for better or worse, new media are allowing people to overcome traditional barriers and create a more open society, whether or not it is in the interest of their nations' politicians, institutions, and security agencies.

The Wayback Machine

As a kid, I watched Peabody and Sherman go back in time and check out twisted history, it was always entertaining, and while silly, the idea of twisted history similar to how we look at the Internet.

In the Internet sea there are few rocks. Have you ever been exploring the Internet in search of a page that you absolutely know exists and you just can't seem to find it?

The internet is constantly changing. It's in the Internet's DNA. Everything is updating and re-evaluating, deleting and adding. Google or Bing are really amazing resources to show you what the internet has now, but what about what the internet had back then? Do you even know how to look back in to Interwebs' past?

This week, I was auditing Bloom Grocery's social media and website, however, near the end of the week-long project, Bloom updated their outreach. This update, aside from adding exactly what I was recommending, changed their website. What does one do? How do we go back? This is where Archive.org's Wayback Machine is useful.

Read More...

Crisis Simulation - Scenario 2

You head to conference room B on the 10th floor of the building to meet with the brand manager responsible for Trach's candy corns.  You decide to tell him about the blog post acknowledging that it was just an offhand remark but that you wanted to let him know because "Candy Confectioner" is the highest authority blog that you monitor.  You mention the possibility of offering the blogger a tour of the factory and how candy corns are made.  You think this might make for some great content especially with Halloween coming up and allow the blogger to take his own video, which might have the potential to go viral.


Scott, the brand manager, listens to your suggestion and then sighs rather defeated.  You ask what is wrong.  He informs you that he is not sure how to proceed.  


Trach's nutritional research department is always conducting ongoing studies on all products to get additional research on various benefits/negatives of each brand.  The connection between ADHD and food dye has never been proven.  But a recent study by Trach's (which hasn't been released) offers some troubling news concerning the yellow dye used in the candy corn.  Quinoline yellow is a very specific formulation designed to produce that exact vibrant yellow that Trach's candy corns are known for.  It is the same formula the company has used for the past 96 years.  


It seems that the yellow dye is produced through artificial coloring rather than using natural pigmentation.  The study found that there was a statistically significant increase in ADHD behavior among rats in a laboratory experiment using quinoline yellow.  There was no such activity for the orange dye known at Tatrazine, also a synthetic dye.  At this point it is too early to tell if the findings are accurate - more tests need to be conducted with a larger sample size and eventually human subjects.  The study will not be released to the public but will need to be reported to the FDA.  The FDA is supposed to keep the information confidential until more research is conducted.  


You are not sure how to proceed at this point.  Now, it feels like by not responding to "Candy Confectioner" you are hiding something but it was also a rather innocent remark.  Part of you also would still like to offer a blogger a tour of how candy corns are made because you know this would be really good content for Halloween.  


Post your recommended next steps and look out for the next scenario!    

iPhone App: "Fabulis"- Gay Social Networking

It's "like carrying the big gay world around in your pocket" says Fabulis CEO Jason Goldberg. According to a TechCrunch article, the iPhone app for homosexual men has grown 40% in the past month, with over 51,000 members.  It's like a Foursquare exclusively for the gay community.  It lets members know when others are nearby, and chat with them.  It also gives users the luxury of knowing gay-related events; over 71,000 worldwide have been posted so far.  It links to your iPhone's GPS and lets you know which events are closest to you.  Can you ask for anything more?

Stats according to TechCrunch:

• "Registered users spend 10 minutes per visit to the site currently
• There have been over 300 million fabulis bits (their virtual currency) spent by members so far
• 67 percent of members are in the U.S., with the UK coming in second with 9% "

I think this is a great thing.  As the iPhone community continues to grow, so does niche groups.  And, thanks to location-based social media pioneers like Foursquare and Gowalla, another app can use the phone's internal GPS to connect to others.  Brilliant.  What do you guys think?

Check out the full article (with screenshots of the app!) here:
http://tcrn.ch/9SfCRO

Livestreaming now: Netroots Nation Social Media Panel

At home and online? Check out this panel at NN10. Details to follow.

After You Hit Send: How to Integrate Social Media into Campaigning and Advocacy

SAT, 07/24/2010 - 10:15AM, Miranda 6

This training session will give you an overview the tools social media offers that can be used to round out your campaign or advocacy group's communication plan. Tools to be discussed include Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and blogs. You'll learn how each tool can fit into your communication plan and best practices for each.

PANELISTS: Beth Becker, Neal Rauhauser, Alan Rosenblatt

Live stream:

http://bit.ly/bEUWDd

This is MyTown.

To all location-based app lovers, Booyah’s MyTown has announced a new software update that will let users check-in to physical, real world products. According to an article on TechCrunch, MyTown is one of the first LBS apps where you can use bar codes to check into a dress at a department store or a box of Kleenex at your neighborhood grocery store.

If you are like me and have not heard about Booyah before, they are headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., and are dedicated to creating new forms of entertainment to the masses by bringing together elements of the real world and the digital world. MyTown is a location-based app built around local shops, restaurants, and hangouts. Users check-in at real-world locations to level up, unlock rewards, and earn cash to buy their favorite real-life places. MyTown has over 1.4 million users who play the game on an average of over 70 minutes a day.

If this initiative takes off with MyTown’s 2.5 million users(more than Foursquare), Booyah will have a valuable mountain of consumer data and a bevy of marketing partners eager to tap into the power of the product check-in. Booyah is preparing to announce a major product check-in partnership in August, with a mystery (and reportedly, very large) consumer products company. So watch this space!

Read the full article at http://tinyurl.com/23f2vhc

July 24, 2010 Life in a Day

Life in a Day is a "historic global experiment" produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald, the project will be a collaboration of film footage filmed by people all around the globe. The premise of the project is to show what it is like to be alive on July 24, 2010. The film will be similar to a time capsule, where it will capture a day in the life of people from all around the world.

"On July 24, you have 24 hours to capture a glimpse of your life on camera" the website states. Macdonald invites people "To make a film unlike any film that's been made before. Which is to ask thousands of people, everywhere in the world, on a single day, which is the 24th of July this year, to film some aspect of their day and then post that material onto you tube so that we can use it to make a film that is a record of what it's like to be alive on that one day. It will be kind of like a time capsule, which people in the future... could look at and say, 'oh my God, that's what it was like.' A portrait of the world in a day. "

Those who film a portion of their day-- anything from a monotonous daily commute to the birth of a child-- are asked to answer three questions:

First: What do you fear most in your life today?
Second: What do you love?
Third: What makes you laugh.


The last thing Macdonald asks participants to do is to pull out whatever is in their pocket and film it.

Those whose footage is picked to be a part of the video will receive recognition as a co-director. The film will premiere at the Sundance film festival in January, 2011.

The film is a social experiment that uses social media from every stage from spreading the word
to showing the final video. Social media provides the platform for users to share their videos. If this video had been produced five years ago, each participant would have to mail in their video and people would not be able to spread information about the project as quickly.

The projects official website is: http://www.youtube.com/lifeinaday

Washington Post Facebook Article

The Washington Post had a cover story today about Facebook getting its 500 millionth user: Status symbol: Facebook is ubiquitous, but is it really an antisocial network?

In my opinion, this article is very poorly researched and reported. Focusing only on how annoying the site can be, the author mocks those who haven't joined yet ("I don't gettttt it, they say. What does it dooooo?"), makes blanket statements on how users want Facebook to stop changing their privacy settings (without any explanation of actual policy or details) and makes vague remarks about how our relationships have changed. There is no mention of how businesses or non-profits are using facebook, how other social media is working differently, or what the author really wants to happen. Does this really belong on the front page of the post?

And the winner is...

Kat Brick!  Congratulations - your submission garnered the most votes - I've pasted it below.  I think the reason it resonated is because it contained all the hallmarks of good social media content that we talked about - it was authentic, personal, encouraged conversation and included a specific call to action.  Nice job!  Second place is to Julie Balamaci - her submission is below Kat's.  Julie's had a quirky, funny introduction that I think also speaks to an authentic approach.


Thanks to everyone for participating - the fact that we had 19 different versions shows how complex social media writing is as well as how many different approaches can work (and you probably have to use several for one campaign!)

Kat's submission:
Georgetown is beautiful in the summertime.  If you're like me, you enjoy watching boats on the waterfront, laughing with friends at Tony and Joe's and Sequoia on the harbor, and taking strolls with family along the C&O Canal.  Just a couple of years ago, the land between the Washington Harbor and the Key Bridge was filled with concrete and used as a parking lot.  Today, thanks to support from the National Park Service, the Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park have restored this area into a beautiful, lush, multi-use urban landscape.  Take a stroll with friends; watch the kayaks and canoes fly through the water.  Today, it's possible.

But, we're only halfway there.  To finish this project, we need to raise $150,000.  When it's complete, the park will include additional seating to watch the sunset over the water; a separate bike trail linking the Capital Crescent Trail with the Rock Creek Trail; plus a fountain plaza and and an arbor and river stairs that form an amphitheatre for viewing boat races or other activities. 

Wouldn't you like to spend a Saturday on the water?  Wouldn't you like to enjoy nature right in your own urban backyard? 

My favorite memory of the Georgetown waterfront occurred just a few days ago when some friends and I walked along the water before going to a movie at the Georgetown Cineplex.

What's yours?

Join the fight to make Georgetown Waterfront Park beautiful.  Just $50 can help to get us there. Help us to create a new urban landscape for Georgetown.  




Julie's submission:
To Georgetown Families and Park Enthusiasts,


Did you know that when you are sitting under a tree, your brain is absorbing more oxygen?  Not only do trees improve your health, they also increase the property value of the land.  And trees are gorgeous and essential to the ecosystem in which we exist.  We must work together to maintain this beauty in our area!

The Georgetown Waterfront Park is in need of our help.  The park connects 225 miles of the Greater Washington Area through a 10 acre stretch along the Potomac.  It is a place of relaxation, fun, and community bonding.

Mayor Fenty has already raised $950,000, but $150,000 is still needed.  All we are asking is a minimum of $50 to help help complete our park- a luxurious sanction we are so fortunate to have in a busy city.

Parks have something for everyone.  Don't let one in our own backyard fall into ruin.

Thank you,

Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park
P.O. Box 3653
Washington, DC 20027

Crisis Simulation - Scenario 1

Tuesday, September 7, 2010
You work on the Social Media team for Trach's Candy - a leading candy manufacturer in the United States.   You are a manager and you report to the director of Social Media, who in turn reports to the SVP of Communications.  You frequently work with various brand managers for Trach's different brands.  

You have just returned from a Labor Day holiday in Martha's Vineyard.  The office is pretty quiet as many of your colleagues have chosen to extend their three-day weekend to four days.  You have a Google Reader that regularly tracks the top candy blogs and you scan it this morning to see if there is anything interesting.  The blogs are written by true fans of all things sugar - they are colorful posts with lots of pictures and the tone is fun and sweet.  

You notice that one of the top blogs "Candy Confectioner" has a whole post on candy corns and how their coloring leads him to question what exactly goes into them.  He goes on to list the ingredients -- "sugar, water, corn syrup, fondant, marshmallow and some crazy artificial food coloring that probably causes ADHD."  His post catches your eye because your company is the leader when it comes to the production of candy corns with 70 percent of the market.  You are about to head into your weekly meeting with the brand manager of Trach's candy corns.  What do you do?  Do you let he/she know about this blog post?  Do you recommend any action?  Are there any issues about the timing of this blog post that concern you?

Please post your next steps and look out for the next scenario!   

Health 2.0

This was the article I spoke about yesterday regarding the use of social media among physicians. I think there are still significant barriers in terms of doctors feeling comfortable and compliance with HIPAA. But if there could be a universal health tool (sort of the equivalent of Blackboard in academia), social media applications could play a big role in healthcare for the future - things like wait time, limited appointments, the delivery of test results etc. could greatly improve if there was greater adoption. I also think that PR firms working in Pharma can make great progress towards moving healthcare along this path.

Netroots Nation Livestreams!

Many of you may have heard of the Netroots Nation conference that's taking place right now in Vegas. For those who have not, it's a conference for grassroots activists and bloggers who use the Internet and new communication technologies to advance progressive politics. It was launched in 2006 by Daily Kos, and is now exists as a partnership with Democracy for America.

What's so great about a conference a few thousand miles from DC? They live stream! Here's a list of the 70 panels going on between now and Saturday: http://bit.ly/cHjH7g

A lot of panels are issue focused, but many are specifically about social media and online communications, and a handful feature eminent speakers (note that the times listed are Pacific Time, so add three hours for ET). Obviously most of the content is politics oriented, but the techniques and technologies can be universally applied. Here are a few I recommend:

Online Grassroots Fundraising for Candidates, Causes and Concerned Citizens

THU, 07/22/2010 - 4:30PM, Miranda 8

Online Advertising for Progressive Causes and Campaigns

FRI, 07/23/2010 - 10:30AM, Miranda 8

After You Hit Send: How to Integrate Social Media into Campaigning and Advocacy

SAT, 07/24/2010 - 10:15AM, Miranda 6

Online to Offline Engagement

SAT, 07/24/2010 - 1:45PM, Miranda 6

Growing Your Email List

SAT, 07/24/2010 - 1:45PM, Miranda 8

Extending Our Reach: New Tools for Online Progressives

SAT, 07/24/2010 - 1:45PM, Miranda 7

From Online to Offline: How OFA Leverages the Web and Social Media for Real-World Organizing

SAT, 07/24/2010 - 4:00PM, Brasilia 1

Metrics-Driven Design for Progressive Organizations

SAT, 07/24/2010 - 4:00PM, Miranda 7

To access the appropriate live stream for each panel, check here for the Ustream.com link: http://bit.ly/aFR8ud

Lastly, if you are super interested in staying on top of it all, follow #nn10.

FaceTime for Health

I mentioned in class yesterday that the iPhone 4's FaceTime feature had recently been used in surgery for the first (known) time. After looking up some info on this, I saw that this surgery took place at Valley Presbyterian Hospital's Amputation Prevention Center, a state of the art facility that just opened earlier this year. The Amputation Prevention Center is focused innovative, preventative approaches to limb preservation in patients diagnosed with diabetes (a number that sadly only seems to be rising). The core approach of the center is a "team-based" technique, pairing vascular surgeons with podiatrists.

While the surgery itself was performed by Dr. Lee Rogers at Valley Presbyterian, the help came from Dr. David G. Armstrong at the University of Arizona's Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA). Rogers called Armstrong via FaceTime for a real-time wound patient consultation. The doctors communicated during the surgery and followed up later for a second opinion on a different patient.

“While the University of Arizona has had one of the world's top telehealth systems, the ability to communicate quickly with something that is an afterthought has the potential to alter how we work with our colleagues and patients. Just as with the iPod in music and the laptop in computing, it is not the change in technology, but the change in form factor and ubiquity that alters this landscape," Dr. Armstrong said in a press release.

Though video-chatting has been around for a while now, FaceTime sets itself apart in its mobility. People tend to carry their phones around, so it's certainly more convenient than a computer. Of course, some limitations are that you must both have an iPhone 4 and a WiFi connection.

Article here: http://tinyurl.com/38pgqom

When I was looking this up I found a group called 3G Doctor. According to the site, you can "video consult" with a registered doctor, but they're not meant to replace your regular physician or an emergency room. They also advise you only ask questions that can be answered from a remote location (like chronic pain, rashes, side effects...). It seems a little sketchy, but I guess they're filling a need - they're 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Only those 18+ in Ireland and the UK can use the service, which is £35 each time you call (via paypal, credit, or debit).

Facebook reaches 500 millions members

Facebook officially reaches over 500 million members. After only six years, Facebook has broken many records and become the most widely used site on the internet. Zuckerberg made an unusual television appearance while being interviewed by Diane Sawyer where he talked about controversial issues such as an upcoming IPO, the Facebook movie, and Ceglia's lawsuit claiming to be owner of 84% of Facebook. Though Facebook is valued at $20 billion, Zuckerberg tells Sawyer that they are running Facebook to serve people, not with the goal of an IPO.

The interview does not talk about Facebook's recent customer satisfaction survey that ranks the company very low--alongside airlines and cable companies, but Zuckerberg and Sawyer do talk about the new Facebook movie, which Zuckerberg says he will "probably" not see

Check out part of the interview and related videos on abc.com http://bit.ly/9Xweq4 and the article on mashable http://mashable.com/2010/07/21/zuckerberg-sawyer/

Digital Diplomacy

Here is the article in the New York Times I talked about in class about Digital Diplomacy. Many interesting issues in this article regarding "Twitter diplomacy." Some are fierce critiques of the use of social media by the State Department but others feel that with the administration's open government push, this type of diplomacy is critical. What do you think? Is this only a natural extension of social media? What obligation or role do companies such as Facebook and Twitter play in ensuring this type of outreach?

Social Media Doesn't Auto-Correct?

I've heard this time and again from people loyal to the freedom of social media - "A self-editing mechanism exists naturally in the blogosphere... Bloggers correct each other almost instantaneously." I wonder if Shirley Sherrod would agree.

In case you don't have a news-loving boyfriend to force all the cable news programs on you (MSNBC, Fox News, CNN), here's the background: Andrew Breitbart has a conservative blog, Big Government. He posted a video showing a speech Shirley Sherrod gave to the NAACP. As a result of this video and the attention it garnered, yesterday Sherrod was asked to resign.

In the speech, (**note to any speechwriters out there, your words can travel FAR!) Sherrod tells a story about how she decided to deal with a white farmer given the needs of local black farmers. What the video on the blog didn't show was her conclusion that both white and black farmers needed help. The story exploded into a reverse racism breaking news on all channels. In the end, the full video came out from the NAACP, along with an apology from the NAACP. The full video shows that Sherrod used the story to illustrate how she had learned from the event (in 1986) that both black and white farmers needed help. That it was a poverty issue that all suffered from.

What's more interesting is that the blogger, Andrew Breitbart, admits he didn't do it to expose Sherrod but instead to incriminate the NAACP for holding racist events. In the end, Sherrod is the one who paid the price.

Breitbart told CNN's "John King USA" on Tuesday that releasing the video was "not about Shirley Sherrod."

"This was about the NAACP attacking the Tea Party, and this is showing racism at an NAACP event," he said. "I did not ask for Shirley Sherrod to be fired." (Source)

So even though a blog and online video outed her, why didn't another blog and the full video come to her rescue?? Where was the auto-correct?

Now Sherrod has lost her job and her reputation over something someone posted. Besides the insanity of this event on its own, what about the bigger picture? You think things like this will ruin social media? Forcing people to list sources on blogs? Or is this just the new name of the game and we all need to have personal listeners to make sure we auto-correct our own stories before they get us fired?

It was a painful yet fascinating evening watching this story unfold so I had to share.

Is Facebook suffering from privacy issue?

The privacy issue of Facebook has been long debated. People even claimed to quit using this social networking website because their privacy is not well protected. Even though Facebook was given the lowest score in recently released 2010 American Customer Survey compared to other websites such as Google, Bing, Wikipedia, Yahoo and YouTube, it keeps attracting more users. Late this week, Facebook will hold a celebration for gaining 500 million users. Speaking from my personal experience, this world seems to be dominated by Facebook and Twitter. Almost all websites, corporations/organizations, and even governments in this country are using Facebook. Facebook logo can be seen everywhere. When I feel overwhelmed by Facebook-related messages, I, as a Facebook user, can not quit using it. Why? Because too many people are using it. I sent a close friend an email the other day and didn’t get any reply after waiting for 4 days. So I thought I should try Facebook. To my surprise, she replied within 24 fours, This is a dilemma. I can’t quit because I’ll be isolated from the majority of my friends. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, will be having an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer on Wednesday. Let’s see what he will say regarding Facebook privacy dilemmas. For the article about lower customer satisfaction scores of Facebook, see http://mashable.com/2010/07/20/facebook-survey.

Social Media Demographics

This article is a few months old, but it offers really interesting insight (and perhaps useful content for your final projects...if you are not presenting tonight) into the age groups of each social network. Believe it or not, the average social network user is now....37 years old.

Remember when it was just for college kids? Well, now the average age of social media users is actually OLDER than the coveted 18-35 year old advertising sweet spot.

The article has a bunch of interesting charts, but the easiest for me shows each network by average age, ranging from Bebo (avg age 28.4) to Classmates.com (avg age 44.9) and everywhere in between.

Interestingly, the 18-24 group is not currently the dominant demographic in ANY of the social networks analyzed in the article. Most networks are dominated by the 35-44 age group, which has become the most “social” demographic. This is the generation of people who were in their 20s as the Internet took off in the mid ‘90s. So, those 'early adopters' have stuck with it!

Facebook hits the same average age as all social networks (38.4). This does raise a question -- has the average age of social network users actually shifted, or is 35-44 just the average age of everyone with access to the Internet? It feels like social media is just that ubiquitous...is there really anyone who isn't on it yet?

http://tinyurl.com/yctss8r