“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my … [Read more...]
Video Clip of the Month: Context, Not Content, is King
July 1, 2011 by
My July 2011 video clip of the month takes on the Web 2.0 cliché that “content is king.” It features Ben Watson, Adobe principal customer experience strategist, explaining that content is not king, context is. By context Watson means a brand's ability to connect with customers and filter information for them in a way they find useful and enjoyable. I picked the video because it illustrates an important point. Today, context drives relevancy, efficacy, and … [Read more...]
HOW TO: Fearlessly Start a Blog in 8 Easy Steps
June 27, 2011 by
Are you ready to start blogging to get your ideas out into the social media ecosystem? Or are you hesitating, afraid to get your feet wet? Here are eight steps to get comfortable—and your content carefully calibrated to your target audience—before you take the “publish” plunge. 1. Decide what to blog about. Choosing the right niche for your blog is perhaps the most important choice you can make before you actually start blogging. Search for a way to balance what … [Read more...]
Social Media, Democracy & the Death of the ‘Big Lie’
June 16, 2011 by
I let out a huge sigh of relief after reading the results of a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey released today. It wasn't because the survey didn't find social media is isolating us inside digital bubbles. Rather, I was relieved because it didn't find social media polarizing perspectives and harming democracy. According to Pew's website: "We measured 'perspective taking,' or the ability of people to consider multiple points of view. There is no … [Read more...]
Could Clinton Win Presidency in ‘Fifth Estate’ Age
June 9, 2011 by
If Governor Clinton had been up to his shenanigans in the "Fifth Estate" age, do you think he could still win the U.S. presidency? Or would the citizen media's ability to document indiscretions and spread them virally have squelched his political ambitions? It's hard to say for sure. But without a doubt his successful message control strategies wouldn't work today. As Geoff Livingston, Zoetica cofounder, emphasizes in his new book, Welcome to the Fifth … [Read more...]
Video Clip of the Month: Google Goo Goo for Gaga
June 1, 2011 by
My June 2011 video clip of the month—a commercial for the Google Chrome web browser and Lady Gaga's new "Born This Way" album—was part of an unprecedented social media campaign that propelled the album to more than 1.1 million sales during its first week of release. I picked the viral video because it's an amazing example of how digital is changing marketing. Today's superstars don't buy attention. They earn it, and Lady Gaga is the queen of earned … [Read more...]
HOW TO: Remove the Snooze from Your Company Blog
May 24, 2011 by
Once you get past the "should my company be blogging” hurdle, you need to ask yourself "what type of blog is right for my company?" Unfortunately, many companies forget that question and take starting a blog lightly. That sets them up for a blog full of regurgitated press releases with a high snooze factor and little readers. To remove the snooze from your company blog, figure out what strategy (or strategies) will build the most rapport with your target … [Read more...]
Is Twitter King and the Press Release Obsolete?
May 22, 2011 by
Now that anyone can break a story through Twitter is the old-fashioned press release obsolete? People have been predicting its demise for years, but I think the truth is much more complicated. As I wrote in my Are Blogs King and Press Releases Obsolete? post last year, today’s Web 2.0 world doesn't mean you should stop issuing press releases and replace them with announcements on your blog. Likewise, you shouldn't just start tweeting all your announcements. The … [Read more...]
Top 12 Blogs to Help You Change the World
May 13, 2011 by
If you want to use social media and mobile applications to make the world a better place, a number of blogs can help you chart your way, even as technologies change. Among the many strong ones out there, here are my favorite 12: Beth's Blog—one of the most popular and useful blogs for nonprofits (and anybody else interested in making a difference)—provides the latest insights into social media, online networking, and transparent organizational management. Its … [Read more...]
Video Clip of the Month: Fast & Easy Story Curation
May 1, 2011 by
UPDATE: About 45 minutes after posting this article, I (like a million other people around the world) learned via Twitter that Osama bin Laden had been killed. That was about 45 minutes ahead of President Obama’s official announcement. Compare The New York Times' writeup on how the news leaked out with Australian Broadcasting Corp's Storify version to get a feel for the curation tool’s ability to provide context in an entertaining way and help readers make sense out … [Read more...]
State Department Abandons Cold War Mindset!
April 26, 2011 by
I was greatly relieved to learn the U.S. Department of State is recalibrating its public diplomacy efforts toward social media and finally abandoning its Cold War mindset. As part of these efforts, America.gov, an ambitious public diplomacy portal launched during the Bush years, has been shut down. According to The Hill: A message on the front page of America.gov informs visitors that, as of March 31, the site is not being updated and will be archived. A notice … [Read more...]
Social Media & Measurement: Elusive But Not New
April 23, 2011 by
Microsoft Director of Corporate Communications for Citizenship Tom Murphy recently wrote a thought-provoking blog post on how social media is clearly important but not the end of public relations and marketing as we know it. "We should all embrace social media where it is useful, makes sense and has a practical use, but the baby needs to remain safely in the bath," he wrote. I am completely with him about embracing and mobilizing social media to support your … [Read more...]
Future Is in Creating Strategies, Not Copying Tactics
April 18, 2011 by
How not to react to social media is found in a famous exchange between Alice and the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter.” It might seem obvious that you must know where you’re going to get anywhere. But because social … [Read more...]
HOW TO: 10 Ways to Engage ‘Luddites’ in Social Media
April 10, 2011 by
As more organizations decide to open up and join the Web 2.0 interaction revolution, some will flounder or even fail at it. Why? You need to get enough of your organization on board to really scale. Problems are inevitable if you can't inspire the technophobic "luddites" within your organization (Late Majority and Laggards on the Rogers Adoption Curve) to adapt. Distributing social media policies, mandating use of wikis or collaborative planning software, etc. … [Read more...]
Video Clip of the Month: Treesaver & Accessibility
April 1, 2011 by
My April 2011 video clip of the month features a pre-release demonstration of the free open source dynamic publishing platform Treesaver. Online publications created with Treesaver automatically adjust to the size of any screen (you've got to see it in action). Treesaver is a lot like the Flipboard iPad app except it's built with web standards—HTML, CSS, and Javascript. That means you can just design a publication once and the same code will work on any device … [Read more...]
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