Great presentation on innovative brand comms - Communication that Rocks a Boat by @ronnestam
via slideshare.net
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How Punctuation has Changed Due to the Internet
via cracked.com
And this post contains some other key facts about punctuation:
" 1. Punctuation became standardized by early Europeans so that natives could read the Bible before being raped and pillaged.
2. The period is the most commonly used English punctuation mark. Aside from separating sentences, it is also used to form obnoxious acronyms like A.S.I.N.I.N.E. (ASsociation of INnovative INtellectual Egalitarians)
3. As humans slowly phase out the need for physical activity, punctuation is becoming overlooked by texters and bloggers who see the practice as an archaic exercise for the "mouth talkers.""
Apple détient 30% du marché US des smartphones
via ZDNet News on 10/30/09
Selon les chiffres de l'institut d'études ChangeWave, Apple possède 30% des part de marché sur le segment des smartphones. La firme à la pomme se rapproche de RIM dont la part de marché (40%) recule.
Web Communications (Almost Always) for Free
The other day I wrote up a collection of information for a non-profit starting to get into social media. Thought I might as well share it more broadly.
Blogs can be free - for example
- Blogger - https://www.blogger.com/start - It's free and totally WYSIWYG, plus there's lots of information on how to use it.
- WordPress.com - http://wordpress.com/ - A stronger more flexible host, that requires some know-how but is basically WYSIWYG. Again, tutorials and videos are available; use Google & search for them.
- Both of these require only people to learn how to use them and then to write, post pictures etc.
- You can also pay for experts to run blogs and for more expensive systems. I'd go for the simplest, that is, Blogger, if I were you.
Chat rooms,
- What do you want chat rooms for?
- If you just want a way for a group's members to communicate, check out Google Groups - http://groups.google.com/?pli=1 - It's free, email-based and asynchronous. People send to their Google Group and it goes to all the members, who can then reply if they want to.
- If you do want to talk to a small group all at the same time, you might try Skype - http://www.skype.com/ - also free
- There are other ways to set up chat rooms, too, but that's a start.
Ask an expert forum,
- Probably you should just set up a FAQ on a wiki where people could share expertise.
Social networking site
- Ning is a very good free one - it does take time and expertise to set up and maintain - http://www.ning.com/
Webinar,
- I've never used Vyew - http://vyew.com/site/product/vyew-in-action/uses - but this could be what you want - again, someone would have to know or learn how to use it.
- I've attended webinars that were run with WebEx for literally thousands - http://www.webex.com/ - but it wasn't entirely satisfying and it isn't free.
- You might want to check with local podcaster and webinar producer Donna Papacosta - http://trafcom.com/services.html#webinars
Webcast,
- Again, what do you want it for?
- If for live webcasting, check out Ustream - http://www.ustream.tv/ - free, but time and expertise required
- If for presentations or tutorials, check out SlideShare for PowerPoints - http://www.slideshare.net/ - it's free and only requires the creation and uploading of slide shows
- Screencasts are interesting - people get to see what's on your screen and hear you speak - Jing - http://www.jingproject.com/ or Screenr - http://screenr.com/ - both are free but you have to learn a little to use them
- Also, if you create a video, you can upload it for free at a number of sites, including YouTube and Vimeo
- You might find VoiceThreads interesting too - http://voicethread.com/#home
Podcast,
- There's lots on Google about podcasting, and it's easy enough to add an audio file to a blog post - here's some information - http://computer.howstuffworks.com/how-to-podcast.htm. There's free recording software called Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ - and lots of tutorials available on it. It takes a while to learn.
On-line seminars
- See webcasts
Almost all the costs for the ones I've mentioned are people-based - needing only expertise and/or time to learn
Joan Vinall-Cox, PhD
JNthWEB Consulting - http://jnthweb.ca/
Social Media & Learning
http://joanvinallcox.wordpress.com/my-e-portfolio/
Halton Peel Communicators Association - http://www.hpcaonline.org/
The Five Act Crisis Management Plan
The old saying about crisis management is that one should not be worried about if the crisis happens. One should be prepared for when it happens. Crises happen all the time. In these days when everything flows, markets are global, recession is looming or already here, no one should overlook potential issues and problems. Autriche method will not do – whatever the political leadership wants us to believe about our country being untouched by the global problems, the business must not cave its head in the sand. And this approach doesn’t only apply to business. It applies to all kinds of crisis, from scientific to political and anything in between.
Hiring For Social Media: What I’d Look For | Brand Elevation Through Social Media and Social Business | Altitude Branding
22 November, 2009 | Written by Amber Naslund 29 CommentsHiring For Social Media: What I’d Look For
In my previous posts on, I pointed out some good and some bad on the social media job front. A few asked what I thought social media jobs should look like, so I’ll do my best. But I’m not going to write this like a typical job description, because I think the content is more important than the format.
Social media-exclusive jobs are okay for now, as foundation building for companies needing to learn the ins and outs, understand intent and strategy, and educate their internal folks. But eventually, these kinds of jobs will fall by the wayside (or at least evolve) when social media becomes part of each and every role in one way or another, perhaps with specialists that have particular experience in application of the tools within their roles. (Think of it this way: we don’t have email managers that do nothing but. The *use* of email and digital stuff touches every role, whether it’s inward or outward facing).
Attributes
In my experience, the folks who grok social media best have a lot of attributes in common:
Curiosity: The desire to explore new ideas, in detail, and without specific direction to do so. Curiosity about the intersection of human interactions and technology is a specific aspect that’s helpful, and a passion for the potential of the work and the organization’s purpose is key to instilling that in others, both internally and externally.
Innovation: Ignore the buzzy nature of this word for a moment and concentrate on what it really means: the introduction of something new. Social media implementation requires new approaches to existing processes, both internally and externally, including communication, strategy, execution, measurement, reporting, and training. (This needs to be carefully balanced with realism and pragmatism, too, but I’d rather rein someone in than have to prod them forward.)
Motivation: Folks thriving in social media jobs are self-starters, often capable of creating clarity from a bit of chaos, and devising their own marching orders without constant direction or specific instructions. If you can instill and nurture this in others, too, so much the better.
Collaboration: “That’s not my job” and “get out of my sandbox” don’t play well in these kinds of roles. They’re far too new to be that rigid, and they definitely need cooperation and work with others across the organization.
Translation: In many companies right now, we need people that have the patience and clarity of explanation to teach others about the impact of the social web, and who work well across departments within a corporate culture. These roles, most critically, need to know how to work and educate across silos, in the terms that make sense to the relevant colleagues.
Humility: The goal here is to elevate the entire company and your colleagues as contributing, valuable members of the community and leaders in the industry. Not you and your “personal brand”.
Diplomacy: Social media roles are today’s change agents. If you expect instant sea change inside your company without a lot of legwork, communication, negotiation, discussion, education, and trial and error, this job is NOT for you. And the outside community will present challenges to you; you need to be able to handle them with patience and tact. It’s a balance of emotional intelligence here.
Connectivity and Awareness: This is a people job, inside and out (and I don’t just mean community roles). You need to be able to talk to people, work with them, socialize with them, connect with them in multiple places. Understand how the network and the people in it need you (and don’t), and how all of those interactions work together to encourage more, deeper, and better connections that ultimately elevate the quality of your work and company.
Expertise
Business Process/Planning and Analysis: From the mid level on up, you want someone who understands financial frameworks for profit and loss, strategic and long range planning (including how to write goals and objectives), and how to map out execution at a tactical level. The key here is the ability to think at a global company level, not within a silo, and not in a linear fashion.
Social Media Anthropology & Participation: If you have someone spearheading social media, I feel pretty strongly that they need to be using it themselves in order to fully understand its implications and unique culture. Yes, that means familiarity with the most widely known tools and technologies, and some of the most consistent and popular applications (for better and for worse) of same, and interest and observation of what’s new on the scene (without the tendency to chase everything new because it is). Academic knowledge is good, applied is even better.
Hedgehog Management: Social media programs that are well thought out have lots of moving parts to manage and drive. People who excel at social media jobs can tackle projects that span multiple networks or areas, and keep all the pieces moving toward a bigger, crystal clear goal (or in Jim Collins’ terms, Hedgehog Concept).
Customer or Client Service: Whether it’s a formal title or not, you really want someone who has experience communicating with customers directly, and fostering those relationships in order to meet their business goals. The most powerful bit of social media is in mobilizing those relationships.
Written Communication Skills: Yep. Sorry, folks. I think this one is really imperative. So much communication and engagement online is in the form of written communication. If you can’t write coherently and professionally, you’re going to struggle. On this note, I also think a lot of social media positions will and should include elements of content marketing, which means that the ability to create and contribute solid content is key.
Social Media Roles And Responsibilities
Again, let me say that I’m writing this from the POV of a job that’s heavily or exclusively social media, and I don’t think these jobs will exist like this forever. And this is a broad, sweeping list that’s not meant to tie to any one job description (though I’m quite certain I have experience bias), but instead give you things to consider if you’re in need of a role like this in your company. A few things that might fall under this umbrella:
- Establish and use listening platforms to gauge the health of the brand online, and potential for participating in new communities
- Build outreach initiatives outside of sales or marketing goals to give our brand a personality and voice within the industry and the communities we care about
- Engage the community actively and responsively, both in relevant outpost communities and existing resident channels (like brand communities), and teach and empower team members to do the same, with consistency and clarity
- Build training programs to help other areas of the company learn and tap the potential of social media for their roles
- Collaborate on internal communication programs to inform and educate around social media initiatives and their broader implications
- Create and facilitate content in multiple media to further engagement goals, both internally and externally, and contribute resources and expertise to prospective and existing community members
- Consume, curate, and share relevant, interesting industry information and content with internal and external communities.
- Understand and observe the parallels and implications of other online activities, including web analytics, email, and search
- Communicate and collaborate on how social media activities impact other business operations, including customer support, human resources, product development, sales and business development, and translate online community and social learnings into business insights
- Establish relevant metrics (new or existing) to map the impact of social media activities in both a qualitative and quantitative fashion, and amend strategies based on learnings and patterns
Reporting wise, I’d put this position under whomever is charged with driving customer experience and a sustainable, positive company presence through online channels, and whatever business function is being most heavily supported by these initiatives. That might be someone in PR, marketing, customer service, client or donor relations, even product management. It needs, in whatever case, to report in to someone who gets the importance and potential of this, even if they don’t necessarily understand the “how”.
Your Turn
There’s no way my list can be exhaustive, nor can it possibly cover every subtlety and nuance of individual positions based on unique business needs. I’m painting with a broad brush, with the hope that it gets the gears turning for all of us to think critically about how these positions fit into business, from multiple perspectives.
So I need to hear from you! What’s missing? What would you included or have you included in your job descriptions? What have you seen that articulates the need for these jobs well? I can’t wait for you to weigh in. Comments are yours.
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The Telecommunications Experience Happens to Suck Right Now
Despite my best efforts to find a reason to spend money and use a mobile data device with Verizon, I couldn't bring myself to do so. The basic service I have now is for a handful of phones that Peej and I use. It's not like me to spend money just because I can. I want value and I want good service. I want quality and I want something that doesn't annoy me and drive me batty when I use it. Few bloggers actually pay to have their blogs hosted on a platform like Squarespace, but I pay it, and I pay it gladly, because of how much better it is than everything else out there. I tried some services, and walked away from them, even though they were free. Spending money isn't the problem--finding something worth spending it on is the struggle.
I know I'm old fashioned. I preferred having a SkyTel pager.I used to love my pager. I kept it as long as I could before I broke down and got a cellular phone. It worked well, it always did what I wanted it to, and I never hesitated when paying the bill. Contrast that with how unhappy I am whenever I try to use a cellular phone nowadays, well, it just doesn't add up. If I can't get reliable service on my existing Verizon product, how am I supposed to believe them when they tell me their BlackBerry service is such great shakes? I hear nothing from Miranda but complaints about her iPhone. She's gone through three of them. It was nice at first--then the thing slowed down considerably when she was in Florida and didn't work at all most of the time when we were outside of Miami and Tampa-St. Petersburg. Around here, forget it. She usually just uses my phone.
When they talk about technology and networks, bear in mind--the companies selling these products to us put the cart before the horse. They sold innumerable devices with extremely high demands for data, and forgot to build the networks to handle all of that data:
"The average consumer doesn't care about peak data rates or network acronyms," said Dan Warren, the GSM Association's director of technology. "They just care about the experience. They want to be able to watch YouTube or get live traffic updates on their smartphones. And they don't care whether it's a new network or a current network that is being upgraded."
Mobile operators around the world are seeing a huge growth in the amount of mobile data traffic across their networks.
This trend is expected to continue as more consumers buy smartphone and jump onto the mobile Web. By 2014, mobile devices are expected to send and receive more data in one month than in all of 2008.
Three-quarters of this traffic will be attributed to Internet access, while nearly all the rest will be due to music and video streaming, the GSM Association recently said. The new usage patterns will put strains on carrier networks, and operators are planning now to keep up with demand. Already, AT&T, which is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., is struggling to keep up with the heavy data usage.
While 4G networks will certainly increase network speeds and capacity, these networks and the devices that can be used on these networks will not be built overnight. This is why many carriers who are looking to meet demands today are turning toward advanced 3G upgrades.
If 3G doesn't even work, why even talk about 4G?
And, yes. Yes, I do care about data rates. That informs me as to what my experience with a product is going to be like. My needs are very basic, by the way. I don't care about video or music--I need E-mail, financial data, access to the news, and that's about it. Everything else is static to me. And yet, with my very basic needs, no one has a product I'm willing to bite on. Do I wait for 4G? I'm basically a 2G customer, and no one can make money off of me. They're chasing the kid who wants to look at the same skateboard crash fifty times--the kid who eats bandwidth and rings up a big charge for all of that streaming data. They're not pursuing my business anymore. It makes me wonder if I can still fire up my SkyTel pager...
Transparency - Trick, Spin or Threat? From Climate Change to Public Relations
The infamous hacked emails of some leading climate change proponents are making rounds across the world. I have read of the coverage and yes, of course it’s very difficult to estimate what really has gone on when we only have access to some out of context emails. However, I have serious problems in understanding the reaction of the very people whose comments have been revealed. It is as if they were a case study of “What Not To Do When A Crisis Hits You” –book.
The resistance of some scientists to come open with their data and research, because of the way in which the hint of a wrongdoing was found, is as if a confectionary company denied any risks to public when a shoplifter is admitted to hospital care after being poisoned by a stolen chocolate bar. This approach doesn’t stand any intellectual criticism and is, to say the least, odd.
The scientific method is based on peer reviews and transparency. It is based on exposing your version and interpretation on basis of published data for other to see and criticise. Transparency is not a simple trick, it isn’t about the spin. And it definitely shouldn’t be considered a threat. Transparency is the very reason that science has allowed us to get where we are today. We should be proud of it as a society and we should embrace it as we embrace democracy.
I personally feel disappointed to see that what we now almost consider the climate change dogma may partly be a result of inventive statistics and trickery, spin and threats against those who came up with alternative data, views and interpretation. It is not altogether surprising, but nevertheless, it saddens me.
The hacked climate change emails are a lesson not only to the scientific community but to us who communicate about complicated issues. We must be careful in our judgements, we should tell the whole truth, warts and all, if we want to progress and remain credible with our audiences. There are no double standards in transparency and in being honest.
Sarah Palin's Not The Only One Burned by the C.B. Radio
CB Radio Setup
I have to admit that, while coming of age and being a man in the 1970s, I engaged in some rather unsavory behavior. I wrecked a lot of women. I slept with a lot of sports cars. I ate a lot of meat. I talked on the C.B. radio.
Father became enamored the the C.B. radio when he discovered that, relatively cheaply, he could put a C.B. radio inside of the cab of each of the riot control vehicles we were selling and turn, through the miracle of communications, six vehicles into a coordinated, powerful, crowd-flattening juggernaut.
That meant that all of us boys, and my sister Diedre, had to learn how to properly enter a C.B. radio network, use the appropriate 10-whatever codes, and properly leave the network by signing off. For example, for me to call up Father and tell him that the transmission was out on one of our R-362 Crowd Sweeper vehicles, I would have to ask for permission to enter the net. I would have to say something like,
10-41 [radio test], this is Sugar Foot, over (Sugar Foot was my “handle”).
Father would reply,
10-4, Sugar Foot, this is Tater Tot (Father’s “handle”). 10-67(prepare to copy message), 10-8 (stand by).
An hour or so would go by. I’d do a 10-41 again, and then Father would wake up and holler at me in the clear.
These lengthy harangues in the clear, abandoning all pretense of using 10 signals, would inevitably end up being recorded by HAM radio operators all over the Northeastern United States. For years, during the 1980s, Father’s lengthy diatribes were handed around at trade shows and exchanged via mailing lists. He is widely credited with inventing the words “Fuck Stick” and “Pigeon Fucking Toad.”
I can certainly see how this exact same thing could have happened to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:
[…] a few years later the young Sarah became enamored of Todd Palin, a quiet boy who’d moved to town to play basketball at the high school. He drove Sarah to practice. He owned both a car and a truck. He was polite. Her family approved. All was great.
But with four teenagers in the Heath household, calls to members of the opposite sex on their single phone line were banned. Sarah and Todd found a way around this when they discovered that if they stood on their respective back porches they could talk to each other on the VHF radios he used on his fishing boat in the summer.
They talked that way for months – until they discovered that the commercial trucks barreling through towns could hear them.
Instead of love, I experienced nothing but abuse on the C.B. radio. And, just like poor Miss Palin, the haters were listening and recording my conversations. Somewhere, those love notes over the open frequencies were recorded by horny truckers, and put on cassette tapes, and filed away. For her sake, I hope they don’t pop up at the next Republican National Convention.
I have a blog, and God, I love my blog. I love it MORE than my children, sir. As God as my witness, yes, yes I do...
Making the Rounds: "66 truly great minimalist ads"
via creativebits.org
When you think about visual communications that have stood the test of time, what comes to mind? Flags? Signs? Gestures?
They are all minimal.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are approximately 66,000 words that entertain, inspire, influence.
