Author Archive

The newest SSN Minute video is posted, and the topic is trading in a social media strategy for social strategies.

A company needs to focus on how it is affecting people, not just using social media options.

“Before pushing a product or building buzz, a company should carefully consider whether its efforts are aimed at creating meaningful value or merely increasing profits.”

The video is posted at YouTube.

Jessica West Bratcher, April 16, 2010

Note: Post not sponsored.

Thank you, American Idol!

This nine-season-old TV favorite may not be biblical in nature, but it is the closest to Moses coming down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments. It showed the way… in this case, to social media activism. “Dial 1-888- IDOL-008 to vote for Adam Lambert.” And millions did, time and time again, for Adam or their favorite.

As a people, we never did that before. Never had the means or the opportunity to be so easily heard. We had the right generation at the right time for the right reason, being counted by this new (at that time) form of expression.

A few years later, there was another kind of call… this time, the 2004 Christmastime tsunami in Indonesia, and we learned we could help in the same manner. But it was this year’s Haitian earthquake that really made the point.

Get this: When the Red Cross asked people to text “Haiti” to the number 90999, millions did within days and still do, for Haiti and then Chile a few months later. The call triggered an automatic $10 donation added to the phone bill, resulting in more than $32 million actually collected to date. And as an added bonus, the money got into use almost immediately with no check to write or pledges to cover. (Does any young person write checks anymore? Do you?)

We have learned the technique, and in a very short period of time, learned something even more important: Benevolence! More people–and notably more of our young–were moved by the tragedies, and their friends, busy texting back and forth, Facebooking and twittering about the suffering are doing what now comes naturally: letting their fingers do the talking.

Social networking taught a whole new generation something their parents, television, direct mail, newspaper headlines and emotional pleas could never do. It got them immediately and personally involved, just like that.

Social networking tools and the habits engrained in using them, have changed charitable fund raising dramatically. And that’s a positive thing. Said USA Today, “good causes are finding younger, first-time donors who are more likely to give via messaging or Facebook than by writing a check after opening a traditional solicitation delivered to a mailbox outside their door.” Well, duh. What’s a mailbox?

While donations from social media is still a lesser percentage of the overall, a survey of nonprofit organizations show online donations growing 28% in the last few years. In 2008, 10 groups have raised $25 million or more, thanks to Twitter, Facebook, texting and the like.

The future of charitable giving, say those whose success depends on it, is in social media. There is no world this growing and ever evolving trend will not touch… in one way or another.

Jerry Constantino, April 16, 2010

Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.

Note: Post not sponsored.

Stephen E. Arnold, an expert in search, content processing, and online systems, and author of “Google: The Digital Gutenberg” (Infonortics, 2009) and three other significant Google studies, will be writing a column for the information industry’s trade paper, Information Today.

The column will focus on new directions in search and content processing, and will pick up the interface and usability theme from “Successful Enterprise Search Marketing,” which Arnold co-authored with Martin White of Intranet Solutions.

“I want to document the rapid changes now taking place in the way users interact with search systems. The era of the desktop PC is ending and new devices with new form factors mean major changes in search and retrieval,” Arnold said. Arnold has worked in the search and content processing field for more than ten years. He also writes columns for the Smart Business Network, Information World Review, and KMWorld.

More information about Arnold and his strategic information consulting business is available at Arnoldit.com. He also supports two blogs: Beyond Search focuses on next generation search issues, and the Strategic Social Networking Blog addresses trends and current events in social media for business. His Google studies are available at Infonortics.

About ArnoldIT.com

Arnold Information Technology is an organization specializing in electronic publishing, marketing via electronic media, online system engineering and database design. President Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his office in Kentucky. He works with colleagues worldwide on a wide range of online and content-related projects. Beyond Search is the research arm of AIT. The company’s Web site is http://arnoldit.com.

Jessica West Bratcher, April 1, 2010

David Thimme, Strategic Social Networking, addresses the topic “Redrawing the Line for Employee Privacy.”

The two minute video makes clear that there are some tough decisions and trade offs when social media are in use at an organization. You can access the video from the SSN Minute link or navigate directly to YouTube.com.

Stephen E. Arnold, April 1, 2010

Remember Robert Mitchum, the great but scary actor in movie The Hunter? He had the letters L-O-V-E tattooed on the knuckles of his right hand and H-A-T-E tattooed on his left. Well, that visual is not unlike social media. It’s mostly good but it can BITE! Just ask Swiss-based Nestle.

The corporate giant had purchased just over 1% of its palm oil from an Indonesian firm that got its raw product from the rainforests there. Greenpeace International says that this production has potentially exacerbated global warming and endangered the indigenous orangutans. (NOTE: Nestle DOES NOT do this anymore.)

Environmental activists have taken their message to Facebook and YouTube, and Twitter is alive with bad PR for the company. The Nestle internet site has been deluged with comments decrying the action.

Nestle has reacted positively and apologized, adding that it was never Nestle’s intent to cause any harm. “We, like Greenpeace and many others, abhor destruction of the rainforests, and will not source from companies where there is verifiable evidence of environmental damage.”

“The difficulty with social media,” says Nestle’s spokesperson, is “to show that we are listening, which we obviously are, while not getting involved in a shouting match. Like all companies, we are learning about how best to use social media, particularly with such complex issues. What we take out of this is that we have to engage.”

Ahh… the power of social media. Remember: L-O-V-E / H-A-T-E

How early do they start texting? Learning starts at first blink. Behavior patterns form very early in life. Copying mom and dad happens before that first step. So, regarding texting, how does six-years-old sound? When the beep on my phone told me I had a text message, I read: “Hi papa I cant wate until u come I love u by rio” … my granddaughter, age six. She did it all by herself, mom told me. And this message, for me, defined the medium.

But if you look at the impersonal view, the medium really is the message… and that message: It’s a digital world baby. And it becomes even more-so with every new birth.

So is it any surprise that, with six-year-olds texting to begin their digital ‘baptism,’ religion would be there to cover the ‘last rites?’ Twitter.com/tweettheexodus is almost biblical in the world of tweets. In fact, it is everything biblical! Rabbi Oren Hayon felt the Passover story of the Israelites’ struggle to be free of the Pharaoh needed some spicing up. Not that the story is dull. If the plagues God unleashes on the Egyptians don’t catch your attention, then you are skipping parts of the Old Testament… but hearing the story year after year, it might get a little too mundane. “We’ve only been telling the story for 3,000-plus years,” says one follower who has, in the past, led his Seder guests in a game of ‘Jewpardy.’ It was time for a change.”

So Rabbi Hayon organized a ‘tweet-a-thon’ by recruiting fellow rabbis to act out the drama on Twitter, from March 16 thru March 29…  @*gallop*  *pant *  *gallop* Let’s get ‘em! Keep moving! @ will there be treats at the end?… @ bet you’ve never seen that before. Make those waters part! (Passover began March 30.)

While there are many ways Jewish families relive the Passover story to keep it as fresh as possible… and keep their children involved, this is the first digital version… and undoubtedly, not the last.

Remember a few weeks ago, I told you about God tweeting? (Actually, a contest… if God did tweet, what would that first tweet be? “Tweet others as you would have them tweet you.” was my favorite.) But what I’m saying here is that churches are using social media, not only to stay in touch, but to recruit the digital romantics.

The Church of the Later Day Saints (LDS)… aka the Mormons, has 47 Facebook pages with lots of followers. Scientology has its fair share. The Catholics are in there modestly… a little behind the social curve (as usual). But most are there… and those that aren’t, will be. Trust me… it is written. (And you just read it.)

I recently received a postcard addressed to ‘Occupant.’ Its enticement was the ‘Friendbook’ sermon series that was ongoing. The message titles were Status Bar, Friend Request, Wall Post, Instant Messaging and Send A message. The appeal is to the young, the wired and those just catching the digital spirit.

So yes, God really does text, tweet and Facebook. No YouTube yet, but won’t that be something?

Jerry Constantino, March 31, 2010

Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.

Note: Post not sponsored.

Perhaps no ‘published-on-paper’ magazine has reached deeper into the digital pocket than Esquire in its attempt to broaden its reach and influence beyond print boundaries.

Yes, there are e-papers and e-magazines worth a look (and we will)… but these products are finding their unique audience entirely on the web. It has been the printed-on-paper magazines and newspapers that have been struggling to hold an audience that is smitten with digital magic. No medium wants to become passé or irrelevant to a trend.

Esquire’s 700,000-plus monthly readers are predominantly “well educated, urbane and affluent men,” it says, with a median age of 43.6 years. Will they always read (and pay for) printed-on-paper words or will the digital ‘sirens’ call’ bleed that number ever lower? Newspapers’ struggles have painted a fearful picture of declining readership… and there is reason for concern as upcoming prospective readers have not ‘cut their teeth’ on non-digital news and entertainment.

David Granger, Esquire’s Editor In Chief, says the magazine “has been doing a lot of experimenting with the way magazines are made. We’ve been messing with the basic elements of a magazine—paper and ink—and we’ve been using newer technologies to enhance what magazines are capable of.”

For the magazine’s 75^th anniversary issue… yes, that many… Esquire’s cover was printed on electronic paper (technology similar to the Kindle and other e-readers) that allowed for a section of the cover to ‘blink’ “The 21^st Century Begins Now” message to every perspective newsstand buyer. The industry called it a ‘silly gimmick’ but applauded the forward thinking.

Esquire followed up with two issues featuring origami-like doors on the cover that opened to multiple images of George Clooney, Justin Timberlake and Barack Obama. Yep… still experimenting.

The latest experiment, the piece de resistance to date, is the December ’09 AR (Augmented Reality) issue featuring scanable codes that bring the magazine ‘live’ to your computer. (Reader has to download a small, free ‘app’ first.) The cover, for example, showed Robert Downey Jr. sitting on a black and white ‘cube’ which, when put in front of your web-cam, had Downey talking directly to you about the delights of this digital effort.

The cover ‘blurb’ read: “…A LIVING, BREATHING, MOVING, TALKING MAGAZINE? For instructions on how to use that thing Downey’s sitting on, see pg. 21 and visit Esquire.com/AR”.

There were scanables throughout the magazine that opened other digital windows, including a regular feature, ‘Funny Jokes from a Beautiful Woman’ where the model tells a favorite joke… and, if you repeat this action after midnight, she tells another. There was a clever fashion feature, a photo feature, a jazz article and yes, a scan for an advertiser, Lexus. Can you imagine how impactful that ad, featuring its new hybrid, was? Papa John’s Pizza used the issue but put the scan on its pizza boxes. Now there is another dimension… and a win-win-win… advertiser to buyer to prospective new reader.

Esquire is a ‘with-it’ product… good features and sidebars, tongue-in-cheek humor, great graphics and enough balance of interests to appeal to its reader base.

According to Granger, “For the last fifteen years, all the hype has been about laying new pipe to facilitate the dissemination of ideas. We’ve watched, awestruck and credulous, as AOL, and then Google, and then YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have given us new ways to move information from one place to another on all sorts of new machines. These are the technicians of the new media world. These are the pressmen. It’s the equivalent of Gutenberg’s press that’s had us mesmerized, rather than the words and ideas that were suddenly given life because of it…

“We’re enthusiasts, and this is the most exciting time to be in creative media. As technology changes, we intend to harness that change to augment and expand this paper-and-ink creation. But what you are holding in your hand is not incidental to the Esquire experience; it is essential.”

It almost goes without saying that Esquire has a monthly downloadable ‘app’ in both free and $2.99 versions… the free gives a good preview of the issue, the paid puts the whole issue-plus extra material on your iPhone.

Esquire is a Hearst Magazine product and within the last month, Hearst has committed itself to the development of ‘apps’ for today’s digital media… lots of ‘apps’… more than 1,000 and counting.

Everything changes, and if publications on paper can’t adapt, they will wither. Many, however, are proving ‘up for the challenge.’ And while they may be the old guard in the new world, they have a distinct advantage… they have been providing reader-desired content for a long time. Not a lot of new media have that experience or depth… yet!

Jerry Constantino, March 30, 2010

Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.

Note: Post not sponsored.

Is Internet Explorer a sinking ship or does it still have the artillery to battle Google Chrome?

Either way, a recent Tech Radar story, “Microsoft: How much do you want Google mothership to know?“ put on a clinic of how not to defend your brand. Microsoft UK’s suspiciously positive boss, Ashley Highfield, admitted that Internet Explorer is slower than Google’s Chrome browser, but  claimed their browser was, “the safest and most private way to get more people onto the internet.” The surprisingly defensive interview cited concern over Chrome constantly feeding all searchable information back to the “mothership” and stating cynics might think, “it enables them to exploit you more.”

While the sheer amount of data Google collects is concerning for many users, slyly attacking the competition while your business suffers isn’t the best way to build goodwill. Highfield’s defensive statements sound like the Titanic’s captain telling passengers its massive hole makes for a smoother ride.

Patrick Roland, March 21, 2010

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Identity theft and hacking are an ever present threat for any business working on the Web, and really, what businesses aren’t?

A recent CNET News article, “Woman says boyfriend kidnapped her Facebook page,” pokes a lot of fun at the victim in this story, but the underlying message is important to any individual or organization using social networking. A woman in New York is taking an ex-boyfriend to court for coercion and harassment due to his hacking of her Facebook profile and changing her status to make her look gay. This should have any business phoning their lawyers and getting the scoop on their rights. Since you can’t control the security of social media sites like your own company’s site, the chances for hacking are much higher.

The SSN Take: It is not a bad idea to learn what your legal rights are when a hacker is caught.

Patrick Roland, March 19, 2009

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In some worlds, Christmas season is the biggie, but in the world of social media, nothing – I mean nothing - is larger than March Madness.

If you are a basketball fan, you know what I mean. It’s NCAA basketball tournament time. Fans go crazy, and the best part of that mania is today’s digital world. It is absolutely made for “crazy.” Five of the 10 busiest Internet traffic peaks ever are March Madness related. Ya think the marketers aren’t paying attention? Not only will every game (64 of them) be broadcast, and every team (65 of them) be featured, but for $9.99, a fan can watch it all on his/her iphone. And yes, there is more.

The big marketers are in position across the board. The rest are staking claims all over the social media world. CitizenSports has 450,000 followers to its Facebook application. And at this moment, there are 51 other tournament-related pages. Twitter is “alive,” both commercially and individually. Google (big time), Bing, Youtube, My Space and every digital outlet will feel the effect to one degree or another. This stuff is just made for buzz!

Of the social media ‘bigs,’ Coke Zero has its “Department of Fannovation Brain Bracket” asking fans to pitch ideas to “shake up” basketball. Papa John’s has its “In the house” sweepstakes. Applebee’s hotspots offer $1 million for the fan who picks all the winners. Captain Morgan features its Morganette women in a March Madness-related contest. You’ll find them on Facebook and Twitter… and anywhere else some follower chooses to use.

It used to be just radio. Then radio and television, and it was exciting then for the fans. Now it is Facebook and Twitter and apps and digital contests and sweepstakes and updates and interaction galore… now that’s the March Madness spirit!

Just think what will happen next year if the NCAA actually expands the field of play from the top 65 teams to 96. We’ll all go stark raving mad! Oh, and sponsors and colleges will make lots more money, which drives almost all of this, and innovation which invariably benefits.

Who would bet against watching next year’s March Madness mania on your iPad Kindle, Sony’s Reader… or even a “heads-up” display on your car windshield?

Jerry Constantino, March 18, 2010

Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.

Note: Post not sponsored.

The social networking power of ONE is unbelievably BIG! Now that can be good… and it can be bad. But it is a fact.

Remember movie director Kevin Smith who was thrown off a Southwest Airlines flight for being too fat for the last seat on the plane? (He failed the ‘armrest test’ because, said the airline, he didn’t fit when both armrests were in their ‘locked and lowered’ position.) Well, he ranted on Twitter, the web, his blog, and his podcast… and at the peak of this attention, he reached an estimated 1.65 million followers and spawned 354 Google items. Admittedly, Kevin is a high profile guy. The response to the airline was so heavy (kind of like Kevin) that it reportedly briefly crashed the Southwest system.

So it was just as fitting that Southwest issued an apology on Twitter… which, by the way, was not accepted. Ah, the power of ONE at it’s nastiest.

It works both ways though. A San Antonio man was ‘taken’ by 88-year-old actress Betty White after watching her Super Bowl candy commercial—the one where she was tackled in the mud by a pro football player. It was a funny spot and seemed to highlight the star’s long and entertaining career. Well, the fan started a Facebook campaign to convince Saturday Night Live’s executive producer, Lorne Michaels, to ask her to host an upcoming show. The campaign attracted nearly half a million members.

The result? Betty White will host the May 8^th Mother’s Day show… and become the oldest ever to host SNL. Ah, the power of ONE at its best.

The Israeli military called off a planned raid on a West Bank village because one of its soldiers posted the information on his Facebook page, possibly ‘tipping’ the opposition, which uses Facebook too. (Doesn’t everyone?) Not only did Israel ‘unfriend’ the soldier, it court-martialed him. Ah, the power of ONE at its unsneakiest.

The social networking media is a powerful tool that can be used as a carrot and a stick, a hammer, a recommendation, an advisory or a tell-all. And yes, the “I’m taking a bath” messages have given way to even more ‘over-messaging.’ Just after the minister pronounced a Maryland couple husband and wife, the groom pulled out his phone, updated his Facebook page and tweeted, “Standing at the altar with @ (wife’s name) where just a second ago, she became my wife! Gotta go, time to kiss my bride.” Ah, the power of ONE at its stupidest.

One thing for sure: social media is a tool. Use it wisely and it will tweet… er, I mean, treat you well.

***

According to Harper’s Index:

Number of U.S. States that have banned texting while driving: 27

Number of these states that offer traffic updates via Twitter: 25

Hmmm.

***

My, how things have changed in 10 years. According to Wired Magazine:

Things That Are Too Slow

In 1999—mail, processors and modems

In 2009—e-mail, newspapers and DSL

Contents of a Business Plan

In 2002—sell stuff online, get venture capital funding, sell out to Microsoft

In 2009—get publicity via Twitter, ask parents for money, sell out to Google

Notice a trend here? (Oh, by the way, my spell checker, which is only four years old, does not recognize Google, Twitter (no, not like a bird), Facebook and podcast, to name a few.)

Jerry Constantino, March 16, 2010

Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.

Note: Post not sponsored.