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Posts Tagged 'Social Media'

Newtonian Physics Applied to Social Media Metrics

Some of those who know me personally might know that I began my undergraduate studies in civil engineering. I transferred out of that after realizing that engineering wasn’t what I expected and that I wanted to try other things.

On my path out of high school and in university, I had a lot of exposure to physics – particularly mechanics of the static and dynamic variety. Fancy words for figuring out the forces responsible for making things stable and stationary, or making them move.

So I said to myself, “Self, these ideas, information, memes, trends, and things we communicators work with – they all move.” Or they stay stationary. But in the fields of communications and marketing we want them to move.

I began thinking about how Sir Isaac Newton’s theories, laws and formulae for describing physical motion can be adapted to describe, measure and maybe even predict the spread of ideas through social media with some level of accuracy. I’m not sure if any of the numerous companies and individuals involved in measuring the web have explored this path. I’d love to have a conversation about it with people involved in measurement and developing tools to do it.

I’m not even sure this is a feasible concept. Particle physics and projectile motion are very different from human communication. I began from the thought that messages and ideas could be described as having paths with direction, speed, acceleration, force… but mass is my stumbling block.

If you’re interested in discussing this harebrained idea of mine, it could be a fun conversation. Or maybe there’s something to it.

What do you think? Have you ever tossed around ideas like this?

Photo credit – Claire Sutton (Flickr CC Search)

How I use Evernote

Published September 7, 2010 Random thoughts , Reviews , Technology Leave a Comment
Tags: archiving, evernote, ideas, organization, saving, Social Media, web

There was a little discussion I had with @GaryEdgar on Twitter spurred by @davefleet about effective uses of Evernote. The web-based service with the simple mantra “Remember Everything”.

I love Evernote and thought I’d briefly share a breakdown of how I’ve been using the exceptional note management program.

If you’ve never used Evernote, it’s a freemium service that allows you to write notes in a variety of formats – text, photo and voice. You’ll probably do fine with a free account if you only use text, as it comes with a monthly upload limit similar in concept to Flickr’s free service.

You can share notes with yourself using a smartphone app for BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, WinMo and probably a few other mobile operating systems. There are also desktop applications for Windows and Mac OS. It also has a pretty good web interface. You can even upload text and pictures through e-mail from your non-smartphone.

Evernote boasts the ability to let you access your notes from anywhere you have a web connection, and syncs your notes with your various devices so you can access them offline too.

Here’s a graphical breakdown of my Evernote usage. And I’m being brutally honest, if not 100% numerically accurate.

Social transparency? How about honesty.

Published December 6, 2009 Random thoughts , Social Media 5 Comments
Tags: honesty, language, Social Media, transparency

The word “Transparency” is being overused by us communicators and social media folk.

What happened to words like “honest”, “candid” and “sincere”? They’re great for describing human exchanges, and they’re not used disingenuously by CEOs, elected officials and spokespeople to describe their relationships with stakeholders.

I feel like honesty, sincerity, and candidness are more closely connected with ideas of human morality. Transparency has to do with optimization; finding a balance between sharing information and protecting proprietary knowledge in order to maximize trust and minimize loss of competitive advantage or stakeholder’s personal information.

Why am I saying this?

I noticed a status post on Facebook today by a well-known person in social media who I’m friends with. They were mentioning that they tend to make the occasional negative post, or share personal thoughts differently on Facebook, because they see it as a more personal channel than Twitter. They were asking honestly if their friends and “friendz” minded this.

One of the comments in the thread beneath it thanked them for being “Transparent”.

I shook my head. I hope that it was said in jest, but for some reason I get the impression it wasn’t.

Put up your hand if your response to your spouse or significant other saying “I love you” has ever been “Thanks for being transparent”? I don’t expect to see many hands.

What about this scenario:

A good friend says “Thanks for helping out, I was having a tough day.”

Which of the following would you respond to this sincere thank-you with:

It’s my pleasure, you’ve been there for me in the past.
Don’t mention it, I was maximizing your shareholder value!
Hey, what’re friends for?

It’s a bit of a ridiculous example, but you probably get my point. You’d most likely answer with 1) or 3) but not 2).

Keep the formal corp-speak for the boardroom.

Am I the only one getting tired of terms frequently used in government and corporate mission statements being used to describe social exchanges? Am I overreacting here? I’d like to hear your take.

(Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandang/)

Evangelism & the Social Media Socrates

Published July 16, 2008 Random thoughts , Social Media 3 Comments
Tags: Evangelism, Philosophy, Social Media, Socrates

Social Media evangelism is kinda like this:

A lot of ideas, a lot of talk, but nobody really knows what they’re talking about. There’s anectodal evidence, there’s even some hard numbers in cases where businesses improved their sales greatly when they started engaging with customers in the Web2.0 atmosphere.

But there’s a lot of “cluetailtipinomics” out there, if I may use the expression coined by David Jones. Basically meaning (and correct me if I’m wrong) the mistaken assumption that social media IS a valid business model; rather than a means of supporting a valid business model.

There are critics who claim that social media evangelism is a bunch of fluff, that they aren’t about conversations but about self-promotion, and they do nothing for businesses.

Let’s consider Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher who lived about 2500 years ago, and is recorded largely in Plato’s dialogues. He was ridiculed in famous works like Aristophanes’ “The Clouds“. Socrates was portrayed as drifting around with his feet off the ground and his head in the clouds. He’s reputed to be a dead-beat dad, a street peddler, and more!

He’s also credited as a founding father of Western philosophy. His ideas surrounding justice, democracy and goodness are wildly influential to this day. He founded the Socratic Method, in which he asked questions, with one leading to another, eventually narrowing into a more focussed answer. This was a precursor to the scientific method of testing a series of hypotheses in order to arrive at an answer.

So, while the “Social Media Evangelist” may or may not be developing great business models, acquiring wealth or serving any immediate, measurable and practical purpose… They may be onto something. Great thoughts often come from people who are passionate enough to give their life for an ideal. And those thoughts and the people who hatched them, could be spoken of for millennia.

Get the Government out of My iPod

Published June 4, 2008 Random thoughts , Technology 2 Comments
Tags: Data Portability, Media Portability, MPAA, New Media, RIAA, Social Media

As the debate surrounding data portability continues to brew, portability of media is allegedly under fire. The U.S. Government is pushing a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement between Canada, and numerous other European and Asian countries.

The Globe and Mail featured an article about it today. One proposed part of ACTA is granting border officials the authority to sieze, and possibly destroy any devices found to contain content that is suspected to be pirated, in addition to issuing fines.

This is an assault on media portability and the rights of consumers. I rip my CDs to my computer to enjoy through iTunes and on my iPod. Does this mean that my iPod could potentially be confiscated if I don’t have all my 150+ CDs on my person at the time of the border crossing?

What shocks me is that the MPAA and RIAA have this much power in forcing legislation. I also can’t understand what they think they’ll ultimately achieve with an action like this. Further the alienation of their market? With Trent Reznor proving that he can successfully market content by himself, along with social media and the growth of the Podsafe music community, where does traditional recording and film come into the picture in 10 years?

What about independent netcast networks like TWiT.tv, and Revision3? They actively distribute their content over mediums like BitTorrent. They’re funded through corporate sponsorship and interests, viewer/listener donations and advertising. Is this the future of media? I seriously hope so, because the thought of the Internet ending in 2012 is not something I like.

What do you think? People say that social media is making the Internet more democratic, but then we have huge organizations like the RIAA and MPAA threatening the fabric of democracy itself, forget just on the internet.

Or am I reading too much into this?

Social Media and "The Pitch"

Published March 18, 2008 Blogger/Media Relations 2 Comments
Tags: Pitch, Public Relations, Social Media

I’ll be frank. This blog post is for a class assignment and has very little to do with video games. However it does relate to electronic communication, which can be entertaining in the right context. I’m going to go with that, and slip this right in.

Onto my topic – the pitch; it’s a core component of public relations. Whenever we’re presenting a new idea, a different behaviour or fresh picture of an organization we’re essentially pitching something to our audience. With evolving technology, the tools we use to pitch are evolving.

Social media is reshaping the way some agencies and organizations perform public relations. Along with these changes, the pitch is being reshaped. Social media is a tool that allows organizations and their public to engage in two-way communication.

“blogs can elevate your profile, establish credibility and open a two-way conversation with customers” [1]

The two-way element of the conversation that blogs generate builds trust among readers. They can get to know the writer over time. They become familiar with the writing style and the personality behind your responses. Pitching an idea is much different when you have established rapport with your audience. At this point, all you need to do is present a good idea that’s valuable to them, and you’ve got your change in behaviour.

Social media extends out from blogs to social networking sites like Facebook. Todd Defren, one of the fathers of the social media news release recently blogged about using Facebook to contact the media. Todd listed a number of mainstream media networks and prominent journalists who use Facebook.

“Whether you’re reaching out to bloggers, consumers or mainstream media, Facebook probably should be a consideration” [2]

In fact, not long ago former full-time reporter Tom Foremski of the SiliconValleyWatcher blog stated that he would only accept pitches from PR people who have befriended him on Facebook, and he wanted those pitches to be sent through Facebook.

With social media changing the face of the pitch, how are we to recognize it? Some pitches are stealth, they come in under the radar through flogs, Facebook applications, new and creative advertising tactics through YouTube and pretty much any other media under the sun.

Chris Brogan asks on his blog whether stealth pitches through social media have a negative effect on our behaviour or view of an organization. He argues that pitches should be transparent. If you’re pitching on behalf of somebody else, as in, you’re being paid to pitch something, be up-front.

It’s the trust you establish with your audience that’s going to lead them to make a decision. If you maintain your trust and pitch things appropriately, your audience will at least be neutral towards your pitch, because they like you. Then let them educate themselves and make a decision, while maintaining your authenticity.

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Posts Tagged 'Social Media'

Good content is about:

Strong communities are about:

Amazing conferences are about:

The word “Transparency” is being overused by us communicators and social media folk.

Why am I saying this?

(Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandang/)

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