Remember Google Wave? Last year I was pretty excited to get an invite to join what was suppose to be Google’s hot new social networking platform. With Google Wave, collaborators share—in real time or over time—e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking merged into topical waves (kind of a cross between chatting and threaded discussions on a blog). Like many people, I didn't end up doing much with it (in my case due to a lack of collaborators), so I … [Read more...]
Cyberbully Seeking High Google Rankings Arrested
December 8, 2010 by
I was glad to read in the Huffington Post today that cyberbullying is no longer helping New York eyewear merchant Vitaly Borker get top Google rankings and more business. Instead, Borker is behind bars charged with, among other crimes, fraud, interstate threats, and cyber stalking. A Manhattan judge has denied him bail. Accordingly to the New York Times, Borker intentionally created a customer experience so vile, his customers would rant about it on the Internet, … [Read more...]
Video Clip of the Month: Christmas Flash Mob
December 1, 2010 by
My December 2010 video clip of the month is a flash mob surprising dinners in a mall food court with a breathtaking rendition of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." Regardless of your religious preference, you've got to love the great performance and the reaction of the people around them. I picked the video because it's a wonderful holiday example of how two relatively small organizations in Welland—a town of about 50,000 in Canada near Niagara Falls—hit a home run … [Read more...]
From Wax & WordStar to Paper.li Daily ‘Newspapers’
November 28, 2010 by
Back when I was editor-in-chief of my university's student newspaper in the 1980s, it seemed we were on the cutting edge. We'd recently obtained some PCs, WordStar word-processing software, and a laser printer, so we could print out articles reporters typed themselves in columns ready for layout. It was so much easier than retyping and coding all the copy with an old phototypesetting machine. Even with the new technology, however, laying out the newspaper still … [Read more...]
Cookie Monster, Social Influence & Crowdsourcing
November 27, 2010 by
Tweets about watching a Cookie Monster audition video to help him land a gig hosting SNL started showing up in my Twitter stream this week. While I typically tweet about things like old and new media, public relations, and Montessori, I couldn't resist retweeting the plea. Yes, you read that right. A Montessori mom who doesn't let her 3-year-old watch television, including Sesame Street, was one of the people who helped Cookie Monster's video reach 1 million views … [Read more...]
Tweeted & Deleted: Dodd’s ‘Technical Mistake’
November 22, 2010 by
Twitter followers of retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) got a surprising tweet from him last Thursday morning. “U love torturing me w this shit.” was tweeted from the Senator's Twitter account @SenChrisDodd. Then came the tweet “From Dodd Staff – Apologies to Dodd’s followers, last tweet was not from Chris Dodd.” The first tweet has quickly deleted but not before some of his followers took screenshots and sent out comical tweets about it. Later in the day, … [Read more...]
Video Clip of the Month: KFC Pinkwashing Parody
November 1, 2010 by
My November 2010 video clip of the month is an oldie but goodie. It's a parody of last spring's “Buckets for the Cure” fundraising partnership between KFC and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The low-tech, cheaply produced parody video, by Greg and Lou, a New York City comedy duo, received 10,795 hits on YouTube as of Nov. 1, 2010. This is more than both of KFC's high-tech and presumably expensive-to-produce "Buckets for the Cure" campaign videos: KFC Employees Do the … [Read more...]
Replacing Silos with Hives: Creating a Social Culture
October 24, 2010 by
This week I ran across a Geoff Livingston post with a brilliant bee metaphor explaining how organizations need to create a social culture to exploit social media's full potential (readers of my blog know I love social media bee metaphors): "The basic nest architecture for all honey bees is similar: 'Honey is stored in the upper part of the comb; beneath it are rows of pollen-storage cells, worker-brood cells, and drone-brood cells, in that order. The peanut-shaped … [Read more...]
The Washington Post: A Barrier to Communication?
October 21, 2010 by
We're in an extraordinary moment in journalism. "Who needs newspapers when you have Twitter?" many are saying. Others predict that all media as we know it today will become social and that journalists will become storytellers reporting in "interactive" ways. Granted "interactive" reporting hasn't caught on yet, but most people today do expect interaction on social networks. That’s the “social” part of social media. Apparently, the Washington Post, however, … [Read more...]
Will Social Media Kill Traditional Public Relations?
October 2, 2010 by
Social media will replace traditional media as the main tool for public relations practioners within two years, according to a new survey by StevensGouldPincus, merger and management consultants to the communications industry. Today, communications consulting firms devote 30 percent of their total percentage of work to social media as opposed to traditional media. Next year, the percentage will increase to an average of 42 percent. "If this trend persists, … [Read more...]
Video Clip of the Month: Crowd Accelerated Innovation
October 1, 2010 by
My October 2009 video clip of the month features TED's Chris Anderson giving a fascinating talk on a new phenomenon he calls "Crowd Accelerated Innovation." Web video is driving the global phenomenon, a self-fueling cycle of innovation and learning that he says could be as significant as the invention of the printing press. By watching his video, Anderson says, "you're part of the crowd that may be about to launch the biggest learning cycle in human history, a cycle … [Read more...]
Social Media: Democracy’s Ruin or a Better Planet?
September 23, 2010 by
With summer over and more time to read in the rainy fall days ahead, I decided to finally buy The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change, a book by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine that I've been meaning to read since it came out in June. So I drove to the nearest Borders, but it didn’t have the book. Then I drove to Barnes & Nobles. It wasn’t there either. Then I remembered the words of Jacques Ellul in Propaganda: The Formation of … [Read more...]
McDonald’s Foursquare Success: $1,000 Pays Off Big
September 17, 2010 by
Mashable posted a fascinating article today about how McDonald's spent a modest $1,000 on a pilot Foursquare campaign resulting in 33 percent more foot traffic in one day, more than 50 news articles, and 600,000 people opting to follow and fan the brand on social media sites. McDonald's Foursquare Day on April 16 used 100 randomly awarded $5 and $10 gift cards to lure Foursquare users into McDonald's restaurants to check in. Foursquare is a mobile … [Read more...]
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