Tag Archives: social media

Choosing what we don’t want to see

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“For the first time in our lives we were being exposed to more information than we could consume. In the age of newspapers we had to choose what we wanted to see. But in 2004 we had to choose what we didn’t want to see. This had a devastating effect on the traditional forms of information. In the past, you could get people’s attention simply by making something. People wanted more choices, so you simply had to give them another choice. But in 2004 this changed. People started to have enough, and now you actually had to make something better. It was not enough that it was different.”

From Thomas Baekdal’s Where Is Everyone? A brief tour of the history of information.

Tweetie

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Since installing Tweetie, I keep it running on the left side of my desktop. The clever folks who designed Tweetie must have anticipated this is how folks would use it. I can see at a glance when someone tweets; mentions @smaysdotcom or sends me a direct message.

 

Earlier tonight, William Gibson tweeted about a new movie coming out this summer, describing it as “must see” and included a link to the trailer. Well, when my favorite author says he “must see” the movie, you can bet I’ll see it, too.

When I saw his tweet, I thought: “Cool. William Gibson is online, at this moment, doing basically the same thing I’m doing.”

Now, I can’t direct message Mr. Gibson because he doesn’t follow me and I’d like to think I would not intrude if he did. But, with what other form of communication might I have such a real-time experience with one of my heros? Not email. Probably not a blog post. I’m not sure I can describe the feeling. Not quite personal, but almost.

“To follow or not to follow? How do you decide?”

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Here's how Phil Johnson, writing in Advertising Age, decides:

"When somebody new crosses my path, I take a look at their last 10 tweets and ask myself three sets of questions:

  1. Can I learn something from this person? Does he connect me with information that I would never find on my own?
  2. Is she original? Does she have a distinct voice and make interesting observations about the world and business?
  3. If I'm not getting a clear answer, I ask the ultimate question, "Would I drink with him?"

If I know the person, there's a good chance I'll follow them. If I don't, I'll look at their profile and check out a website if they provide a link. If they're "following" hundreds of people, I figure they're just trying to pump up their numbers and I block them.

When I hear someone sneer, "I don't care about what someone had for breakfast," as a way of dismissing something about which they are clearly ignorant… I immediately think: I don't remember the last time I saw a tweet like that. Why would I follow someone with so little to say? No, this is just an easy rationale for learning something new.

Twitterize listeners to your radio station

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Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I worked at a radio station that served a lot of small communities. We did our best to get news from as many of these little towns as we could. I remember one of the things we did was give away little plastic rain gauges (with a sponsor logo). On a morning following a big rain these “Weather Watchers” would call in and report how much rain they received.

I was reminded of this today when I came across @reportstorms, the Twitter page of ReportStorms.com. (“Almost 2″ of rain in Rockford, IL area”)
If I worked at a radio station that was trying to serve a regional audience, I think I might set up a Twitter page for each community and recruit a few people from each burg to feed them. I might even provide a mobile phone with minutes so they didn’t have to use their own. Bet you could build that into a sponsorship.

So when Holcomb, MO gets a down-pour, you get up-to-the-minute reports. Even pix. Nobody covering the Holcomb Hornets basketball game? Twitter away.

Pull the RSS feeds of all of these community Twitter pages into a branded and sponsored page on the radio station website. Maybe feature a different community feed on the station home page every hour.

Can’t find good news people to work at your station? Why not have hundreds? Once you get some traction, I bet you’ll have people waiting in line to join up.

Oh, and one more thing. The new iPhones coming out this summer are rumored to do video.

PS: As far as I know stations are already doing this. If you know of any, link me up.

Good use of Web 2.0 tools by non-profit

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One of the clients we work with is Missouri Children’s Trust Fund. It’s a non-profit that works with “partners” throughout the state to try to prevent child abuse and neglect.

When we started working with them a couple of years ago, they had an awful website that took days or weeks to update. They trusted us enough to scrap it and move to a blog (a scary word back then). Since then they’ve become master of their digital domain.

Their annual conference is underway and Kirk Schreiber –the executive director– has been posting updates to Twitter and –with a little help– posting photos from his iPhone.

Yesterday he whipped out a tiny digital recorder and did an interview with one of the keynote speakers for an upcoming podcast.

CTF and Missouri KidsFirst –a companion organization– have very small staffs but they’ve tapped into these web tools to tell their stories and they’re doing it themselves, for little or no cost.

Claire McCaskill’s blog

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Watching MO Senator Claire McCaskill play with her new blog.

“These (photo) are the Generals and Admiral all testifying at our Armed Services hearing this am. I will ask questions shortly.”

The thought of a member of Congress “reporting on” a hearing she is covering is… is… sacrilege? Heresy? What word would be strong enough? The obvious problem is, the senator is –by definition– partisan. No way you could trust what she reports. Right?

So, how is this different from Sean Hannity? Or Chris Matthews? Or Rush? No doubt about which side of an issue they come down but they have thousands of viewers. Can we automatically assume every post by Senator McCaskill is tainted and unworthy? That every tweet by @joliejustus is designed to mislead and spin us?

Or can we mix it in with all the other “reporting” we get, factoring in her point of view? I don’t know the answer to that question but if there is one, every reader will come up with their own.

Claire McCaskill news conferences will never be the same

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Good post by Post-Dispatch reporter Tony Messenger on how social networks like Twitter are changing the game.

“While covering the Democratic lovefest last weekend, I put a note on Twitter (I’m @tonymess, by the way) about how Republicans were exchanging nasty news releases about the Senate race in 2010 while the Democrats were uniting behind Robin Carnahan. Within minutes, the note had been passed around by countless Twitterites. The next day, Gov. Jay Nixon made the Republican infighting a central point in his speech to the group. Coincidence?”

Yeah, that must be it.

Man, all of this is SO painful for the old hands who can’t or won’t understand what’s happening and how to make it work for them. And so exciting for those do.

UPDATE: Here’s a screen grab of McCaskill’s most recent tweet. Call me naive, but I’ll be she gets some suggestions and I bet you reads them.

Sen. McCaskill Flips and Twitters Missouri reporters

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“After finishing a serious interview with a trio of reporters on various topics, Sen. Claire McCaskill suddenly whipped out her own mini-cam to turn the tables. McCaskill apparently wanted to put Tony Messenger, Jo Mannies and I in the uncommon role of answering questions. Then, I begin filming McCaskill’s experiment shooting us. The Senator asked for quick soundbites and hit me with a tough criticism about my own blog — that it’s video heavy.”

— Springfield TV reporter David Catanese

 

Tessie Hubbard is Panty Mython

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Tessie Hubbard (aka Panty Mython) has produced more than 80 videos that have been viewed more than 34,000 times by a thousand YouTube subscribers. Along the way she managed to watch some 25,000 videos.

We bumped into each other online and she was kind enough to meet me at the Coffee Zone this morning to talk about her work/play/art. For someone who is so comfortable in front of the camera, she seemed a little shy but that’s common with most of the people I stalk. It is my fondest desire to someday collaborate with her on a project. And for goodness sake, watch some of her videos.