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The Power of Words – The Fall of News of the World

July 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As I’ve noted in prior posts – contrary to the popular belief the core of the Internet is not images, but words. Twitter and Facebook thrive on the words of the populace and with the news of the demise of the 168-year-old News of the World. Social Media is being proclaimed as the victor in bringing the alleged illegal action of the newspaper to the attention of the world. Now that the consumer is an instant author, even a historic bastion of journalism is susceptible to being brought down by the words of the masses. According to Gerry McGovern, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and others through history understood the power of words and appropriately as technology has evolved so has the way words get to the masses.

Today it’s a 140 characters at a time, but as the Muslim Spring and other tragedies have shown us the words of the public spread information and news quite effectively. The pressure to get the story in this digital age seems t have caused the News of the World to do anything to get the story, but in the end the public has the last word.

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Remember Qantas Has Never Crashed – Except when Implementing Social Media

November 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

After hearing about the Qantas near disaster in Indonesia, a friend forwarded me an article on how Qantas was a bit behind the 8-ball when it came to getting in front of such a story from a PR perspective. As the article points out and I’ve mentioned in this blog before using social media means more than just pushing promotional messages out to your audiences but also using these tools to inform them of breaking news. Use Twitter and Facebook and any other media to push them to your official website, that you’ve set up prior to a crisis, for official information and news as you know it. The passengers of the flight were recording video and tweeting photos of the emergency landing as the media and Qantas scrambled to get word out that the flight didn’t crash and what exactly happened. Even small companies can learn something from these global companies. Social Media not only gives you the tools to get your message out, it also gives all your customers the same power to get the message about about your company. The world is flat when it comes to social media.

Even Wikipedia reported the incident as “On 4 November 2010 Qantas Flight 32, an Airbus A380 “Nancy-Bird Walton” VH-OQA suffered a serious failure of its left inboard engine. The flight landed safely, and all 433 passengers and 26 crew on board are safe. Cowling parts of the failed engine fell over Batam island.”

Filed Under: Social Media, TV/Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

RavenWood Creative Published in the Library of Congress

April 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Yes, with the acquisition of the Twitter archives by The Library of Congress, where every public tweet ever “SENT” is now archived with the Library, everyone who uses Twitter publicly is now published in the Library of Congress’ vast archives. So such great tweets from @TimErnst and @RavenWoodCreate as the following:

@TimErnst Lots of little projects filling my day, today. But’s it’s these types of days that keep me busy and projects moving. Bouncing 1 to another.

Or my personal favorite, my first tweet: @TimErnst blogging and surfing the web

Or @RavenWoodCreate Just completed the 2009 State of the Market Report for a client, just under 700 pages of Adobe InDesign Layout and… http://bit.ly/djE9Jj

… are all now a part of American history.

As you can see its stunning insights into the human condition that I’m contributing on Twitter. But it is interesting and historic that the LoC has deemed this relatively new form of communication (started in 2006) worthy of archiving. Our President used it to thank supporters when he was elected, and the Miracle on the Hudson was broadcast first on Twitter by rescuers and folks standing on the wings in the chilly river. So it looks like Twitter will be around for a while and it’s archives even longer. Can you imagine a student researching our history in years to come trying to write a report citing their facts in 140 character snippets?

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Historical, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Birthday Edgar! Here’s to an Original…

January 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Edgar Allan Poe would be 201 today. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Every man is born an original, but sadly, most men die copies.” Lincoln who would come to national prominence after Poe’s death, surely was familiar with Poe’s works. Poe was an original. Although many critics of his time, i.e. Rev. Rufus Griswold, thought him to be an odd and overly analytical literature critic. Griswold who met Poe in 1841, thought they shared a love of literature, but that’s about all they shared. Griswold thought befriending Poe would help his own writing career. Until later in 1841, when Poe wrote his first criticism of Griswold’s work in “Autobiography” – the friendship was over.

In this day of citizen journalism, with blogs, you tube, and all the other social media available, I find it hard to find an original. It’s just so easy to just retweet, cut and paste and just create a copy of others works. I wonder what Edgar would think of all this instantaneous media and news? Would the Griswold vs. Poe feud take place on Twitter? Would their “personal brands” be damaged by being thrown under the bus by one another on TMZ?

The two men would continue to criticize each others work. Phrases such as “hack”, “outrageous humbug” and “lacks independence, or judgment or both” were traded between them and in letters to friends. Griswold would hold the grunge beyond Poe’s death. Griswold’s obituary of Poe would become infamous, as the fans of the first detective novel and the master of the macabre, would forever color Griswold as the villain.

Do you have someone in your life that you’re cordial to in public, but behind their back you slight and criticize? How has society and the implementation of so much technology changed the way people criticize one another?

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Historical, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Changing Definition of “Audience”

August 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The social media aspects of the Internet are changing the rules of the game and personal technology, (i.e. mobile phones) are changing the audience at those games. As I prepare to take in a ballgame of the 2008 World Series Champion Phillies tonight, an article on Mashable caught my eye. It seems the SEC College Football Conference has updated its media policy to be stricter on regular fans in the stands:

football-fans“Ticketed fans can’t “produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event. …”

This policy is stricter than most policies out there and written that way for a reason. Since it’s publishing it has been slammed by bloggers, Tweeters, and the like as “chasing shadows,” or “not enforceable.” All true, but I don’t see security personnel scanning 90,000 fans and swooping in on a fan in the stands who’s using TwitPic to upload a shot of the latest touchdown by University of Florida.

I agree with most that state that such policies, such as the SEC’s is a fear reaction to not only the present technology that makes every fan with a mobile phone “a mobile news van” but also a policy that is trying to prevent the future from happening when phones will be uploading and sharing video of the action (can you imagine the phone bill?). The definition of audience is merging with the media. Fans are becoming reporters and reporters are relying on such technology to capture fan reaction or track down different perspectives. Remember policies about using the phone at work? Or ones regarding sending personal emails from work? Some are still in place in the corporate world. And right now there is an HR professional out there somewhere writing a policy regarding the use of social media within the company. All will be ignored or skirted as the technology becomes easier and easier for everyone to use. “It’s my mobile phone. I can do with it what I like,” is the prevailing attitude and I think the SEC will soon find that out. Technology is making it more difficult to keep events, whether they be sporting events or a plane crash on the Hudson, from being the sole domain of the media. We’re all media and the sooner the traditional media: newspapers, TV, even today’s bloggers realize it and forget about trying to legislate how we interact and use technology the easier it will become for them to reach and engage their “audience.”

What do you think?

Until next time, Tim

Somewhat related video from YouTube, could this be the future the SEC fears.

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FTC wants to Regulate Bloggers

June 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

images.jpg

Look out Mommy Bloggers and Reviewers, the government is coming to get you! According to the Washington Post (Article June 22, 2009) the Federal Trade Commission is reviewing guidelines it hopes to present later this summer that would regulate how bloggers disclose that they are receiving payments or freebies for their review. MomCentral (@momcentral) and IZEA (@IZEAinc) both of whom follow me on Twitter are mentioned in the article. I’ve met Stacy DeBroff very quickly after she spoke to IABC in San Francisco recently and put the following question to her via Twitter:

My question for @momcentral how do you stay transparent that you are tweeting/blogging for a paying client? #iabc09 ROI to SOI7:38 PM Jun 8th from Twittelator

I haven’t received an answer, yet. I’m sure Stacy or @MomCentral fields hundreds of direct tweets, so maybe they can’t answer them all, but it’s curious that the Washington Post singled them out over their practice of supplying coupons to Mommy bloggers so a certain product can be reviewed. IZEA on the other hand follows me, but has yet to reach out to me to offer any products or companies. But, it should be interesting how the FTC handles the slippery slope of trying to regulate the Internet.

Will bloggers go off-shore to accept payments for reviews? What about Twitter, much of the buzz on the microblogging site, is where do you put a disclaimer in the 140 characters you have to work with? I think the government should review the existing laws it has in place for retailers and the like. Rather than trying to chase down every Mom on a blog or band geek turned techno-blog reviewer, the U.S. Government should clamp down on the unscrupulous retailer trying to lure shoppers with “independent testimonials.” Code of ethics for bloggers are a good thing as well, and most bloggers who don’t disclaim they are receiving payment for their posts are soon uncovered by others who are trying to make blogging an trust-worthy news and information source. As for me, I have never taken payment for my thoughts, if I were, trust me, it would be disclosed.

What are your thoughts on this controversy?

Until next time, Tim

Other thoughts on the issue: Debbie Weil; Ideas that Spread; Weblog Tools Collection

Filed Under: Blogging, corporate blogging, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Recap via Twitter of IABC World Conference 2009 – Part 1

June 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

abccolor_logoI started using Twitter at IABC International Conference in 2008. It was held in New York City and I soon became a big fan of Twitter and saw that it was a great tool to recap conferences. Back in 2008 there were a handful of us using Twitter and commenting on keynote addresses, what we thought of the breakout session speakers and what we were doing in New York. Checkout out my tweets about the IABC world conference 2009.

This year’s conference was in San Francisco and before the conference event began there was buzz about the conference on Twitter. Then as the conference started, I witnessed an entire sub-conference going on. I’m recapping it here and linking to other recaps from fellow members of IABC.

Prior to the conference and recapping the conference as it happened was OutoftheGate and Linda Johannesson. Byran Person and the Daily Boo also did a nice job recapping the conference.

It’s interesting to see each individuals takeaways from the conference and even the difference in opinions as the session were taking place. Typing in ‘#IABC09′ into Twitter search you will find a plethora of opinions, tips, and recaps. I also made lot of new friends on Twitter through recapping the conference, including: @valpakcoupons @dave1meyer @glendarholmes @distruptivethink @Punkpoet_jb @jenbenz @tomroux @zingzone @kathryncobb @shaileymotial @llibitz @willy26 @paulbartonABC @paulacassin and many more… If you review any of their tweets you’ll see a different perspective on the conference. 

Twitter the Conference’s Hot Topic:
As for the conference Twitter was a part of the majority of the sessions I attended. I think it was mentioned in every session where social media was the topic or not. It’s the hot topic in communication. It was used live to demonstrate how social media is changing the communicator’s role and job in today’s business world. Neville Hobson (@jangles) in his podcasting session did a live Audio Boo recording and instantly had a photo and audio up on the site. That’s me in the green shirt in the blurry photo. He did it all from his iPhone, so lots of other equipment isn’t necessary. Shel Holtz (@shel) showed off the future of the Social Media News Release, I like that he called it a Social Media Kit as it has multimedia information for the press and everyone else out on the net to use as they like. Stacy DeBroff, aka @momcentral discussed Twitter at length and so did Barbara Gibson @Barb_G and @BryanPerson who did an entire session on Twitter for the Communicator.

Opening Session Sunday:
The overall feeling about Blair Christie and Cisco’s opening session was that is was a bit heavy handed on what Cisco could do for its clients and not the expected 30-thousand foot look at the communication industry. The tweets flew fast and furious throughout the speech and demonstration of Cisco’s intranet software packages.

General Session Monday:
Brian Dunn COO and soon-to-be CEO of Best Buy was awarded the IABC Excel Award for his leadership in communication. His thoughts on there no longer being internal and external communication (is all shows up on the Internet) was spot on. And the work his communication staff of 70 is doing with videos for employees and the new ads featuring real employee stories was a great way to highlight the youth of his company’s employee (avg. age 24) and the creativity of the company.

Monday Afternoon:
Branding session: David Grossman, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA and Marty Campanello, APR, Fellow PRSA Did a great job recapping the Carolinas Healthcare System and it’s rebranding effort: Highlights: Branding and brands the currency of business today marketing from the inside out; Branding session – 26% of employees engaged according to Gallup leaves lots of disengaged and not engaged; in the age of mergers employees need to know what brand promise is and act on it; Carolinas Medical Center transformed their brand – the challenge was encouraging caring staff over other measures; Internal branding isn’t a logo, tagline, giveaway, website. It’s the promise of the brand that make people act; Grossman -branding brings up ops issues that get in way for employees must be addressed.

ROi to SOI: Stacy Debroff: Return on Investment to Sphere of Influence: Stacy who is the CEO of Mom Central Consulting demonstrated how she’s captured the niche market of moms on the social media networks and turned it into a successful consulting business. She’s been a part of campaigns for Frigidaire, Motrin (post-Motrin Moms incident, which she recapped for her point of view). Like any great blogger, she dropped a lot of names, but also backed it up with great content. Highlights: ROI to SOI: social media is changing the way we do everything. Power to the Moms!; ROI to SOI google is new corporate homepage. What people say about you is more important than you say about yourself; SOI increase enthusiasts, negate detractors, drive to action, change perception; transparency and authenticity again appears. The truth will set you free; Now following @momcentral from roi to soi at #IABC09 huge crowd majority of audience is in SM her followers growing by the minute; SM has given rise to crisis management via SM by 45%. Can companies manage a crisis on Twitter?; Stacy DeBroff getting clients off Twitter. MomCentral connects with Pepperidge Farms via a tweet exchange.; Great examples about the power of social media Frigidaire, Ringling Bros., Disney on Ice.; “motrin put out a stupid, bad ad about baby-wearing.” deep analysis YouTube twitter bloggers jumped on it.; how to crisis respond via SM for your company? Need to be able to respond where the conversation is taking place.; Debroff “never argue with an idiot because from the outside you can’t tell who is who!”; SOI is all about relationships. ROI to SOI #iabc09 create brand enthusiasts, stream of conversation – thread a story together. Impressions.; What is the story you want to tell via social media? ROI to SOI Can you change the perception of your brand with those on SM?

My question for @momcentral was how do you stay transparent that you are tweeting/blogging for a paying client? Still waiting for an answer.

Tuesday and Wednesday recap. 

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Things Aren’t Always What They Seem …

April 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Great viral video of things not always being what they seem.

Click “creative” to see what I mean…

creative

Let me know what you think, Tim

Filed Under: Design, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Marketing More Tools in the Box

April 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I was flipping through Twitter today and one of my followers @BethHarte retweeted a blog entry from Susan Etlinger of Brass Tacks. The point of her blog was a recap of Why Social Media Marketing Fails (and How to Fix It) at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Her recap of why companies need to integrate social media into company cultures, what can be marketed (Can anything be effectively marketed within social media?) And what should be measured and what should it be measured against. Each day I read about company trying to do all of these things or shall I say reacting to how its employees or customers are using social media.

This blog is full of examples of what companies are doing with social media but when it all comes down to it…

It was a great recap, and I thank Susan for sharing it. I think a lot of people get caught up in the mania of social media and think of it as a cure all, but social media networks, communities, users, and applications are just tools like the fax machine and email before them. Once we all (i. e. marketers and communicators) learn to integrate these tools into marketing plans, customer service plans, etc. we’ll all be onto the next latest and greatest tool. But in the meantime, how we use the tools we have to promote our companies and its products is the fun part.

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Exploding and Twitter is Lighting the Fuse

February 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Tomorrow, I plan on taking on the impossible. I need to sum up what’s happening on the web in the realm of social media for group of business people, and I only have about 30 minutes. I’m presenting on the web to the Flourtown Businesspersons Association, FBA, a group that spans several generations and obviously is a diverse audience from different lines of work.

I plan on briefly covering the history behind social media, about a minute. Discussing how eBay and other original online communities (remember listserv, bulletin boards, chat, etc.) have continued to evolve to the facebooks and Twitter of today.

Then, I’ll explain how facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have taken the online world by storm. Facebook offers advertisers the opportunity to get in front of 175 million pairs of eyes.

Finally, I’ll tackle some of the many examples of how people are using social networking, these new media tools and micro-blogging such as Twitter to find jobs (Dave Murray), recruit members (Coast Guard), and stay in contact with customers (TSA, Timbuk2, Zappos).

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Social Media, Technology, TV/Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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