CommSpace

Social Media, Organizational Communications Trends and Turkey...

Lots of thought provoking material out there this week. Here are some links for your perusal while I enjoy WAYYYY too much turkey and stuffing during this Thanksgiving Holiday:

• Interesting look at how the recent Craigslist ruling can potentially impact our thinking on legal issues/liability in the new media space

• Some thoughts around how social media was utilized during the recent elections. Blogs are not going away anytime soon, so how will they continue to factor in upcoming elections?

• Can marketers learn something about engagement from (good) internal communicators? Absolutely...and vica versa.

• Updated global list of CEO bloggers...check it out.

• The primary skepticism that I, and a number of us still have around the Social Media Press Release is that its very difficult to determine if there is a direct correlation between the amount of submitted PR elements and quality of the coverage. As we all know, a Press Release is still open to the receiver's interpretation, no matter how many elements are provided. Would be interesting to see how this evolves if/as it gains popularity and begins to take shape. Certainly worth keeping an eye on.

• Have you heard about mobile/smart wallets? Apparently folks are trying to enbed short-range, RFID technology into cell phones, which would store your personal information in them. The idea is that you could use this as personal ID, a credit card, car keys, passports, etc. This scares me on SO many levels. Feels like we are inching one step closer to George Orwell's 1984...maybe its just me.

• Talks about the HR trend of 'stay interviews'...would still need to see the data that supports that this helps to engage and retain folks, but I like the concept in theory. Would certinaly help further ongoing HR/employee engagement.

• If you haven't checked out Podzinger yet, do so immediately. You can search audio and video Podcasts based on keywords.

• Finally, as my 2-3 loyal readers know (*grin*), I often try to leave you with a fun one. Here is a timely, festive article...a website that is dedicated to the art of regifting - giving a gift that you may have received from someone to another person. I don't even have a comment for this...

The Kid With All the News...

Another example of how traditional media are engaging with new influencers in the emerging media space.

I'm slightly put off by the fact that they refer to the 21 year old student as a "kid" but perhaps that is my own hang-up. I understand that everything is relative.

Good to see people understanding that traditional rules and roles are changing...the same thinking and approaches don't apply anymore. There is always the need to understand foundational structure and historical perspective, but only if you are willing and able to apply it in a way that meets the changing requirements of the day.

High standards are always needed, but recognize that the standards themselves can be somewhat amorphous.

Stepping for Success...

During my college years, I pledged and became a member of a Greek-letter organization. Many know these to be called Fraternities (men) and Sororities (women). The organization that I joined is called Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity, Inc. The "Inc." refers to the fact that it is indeed an operating business, in addition to being a Greek-letter organization. Many notable and affluent public figures are and have been members of this fraternity.

My experience being a "Kappa" has taught me so much about responsibility, training for leadership, accountability, and collaborating with others to meet common objectives. The organization, like its counterparts, is run very much like a business and has helped me to develop many professional skill sets prior to my entering the workforce. Let's just say that I have a lot of pride in my accomplishments as a "Kappa" and my affiliation with the organization.

So what does this have to do with work or this blog? We talk a lot about utilizing emerging media to help tell stories, build awareness and create engagement. I wanted to share a "YouTube"-type video with you that showcases one of the most exciting and engaging traditions of historically African American Fraternities, called "Stepping." Here is the Wikipedia definition of "step dancing," which gives you a good idea of what its about. In this video, my "frat" is represented by the guys in red with the canes.

Now if participating in "step dancing" or "stepping" doesn't teach you about teamwork and collaboration, I don't know what does. And for those out there wondering, yes, I USED to step back in college and have even been a part of a few teams that have won competitions. Unfortunately, my stepping days are over. However, the values, training and diverse perspectives that I and hundreds of thousands of others across the world have gotten as a result of these college experiences, really enhances our value to the communities that we live in, and the companies that we work in.   

Quick Hits...

Just a few quick hits until time and life afford me the ability to draft another brilliant post! Can you tell that I'm in a cheeky mood? I think that i am missing London something awful. It must be the dreary weather that we've been having on the US East Coast of late...unseasonably warm, but rather dreary.

Before I forget, had a good time at a recent Edelman conference in NYC. We didn't get too much into the Walmart situation, as Gary Grates was unable to attend. I did however get a chance to catch-up with my good friend and colleague Christopher Berger from IBM, as well as a few new intriguing folks from various companies. There were some strong examples of organizational best practices there. I walked away really appreciating that in today's environment, our respective workforces determine/decipher what the key internal sources of information are, not like the old model...we need to be paying more attention to that.

I hope and believe that a year from now, we can and will be presenting at a number of conferences as well.

Enough with my babble, here is what you all came to see/read:

• YouTube - invention of the year or Time magazine/ad selling gimmick? You decide.

• U.S. Intelligence has found the Wiki.

• At the conference last week, a few of us had a good discussion around the prospective business application(s) of secondlife.com. Again, I encourage you to get familiar, as there are a significant number of people out there looking to capitalize on this growing phenomena. Here is another posting about it.

• Good points here on the value of social media as it relates to internal comm. I agree with many of the points here. In particular, I love the headline of the blog! I feel like that most mornings.

• Have been checking out Melcrum's free resource for communicators of late. Definitely worth a peak if you have a moment. Imagine that, a free resource from an agency (*smile*)

• Here is a ranking of some good social bookmarking features that you should be looking into/considering.

• It may surprise some that I did my Communications Master's thesis on the growing impact of globalization and how it affects the way in which we mass communicate. Of course this was 6-7 years ago before there were blogs, wikis, and the expansive use of and access to WiFI and mobile devices (how weird is that?) Anyhow, I say all of that to say that I'm very interested in the topic. Here is a good blog post from Iran on the Impact of Globalization on Health.

• Here are some survey results from a recent Doubleclick survey around online purchasing behavior.

• Finally, looks like a mass convergence of web 1.0 and 2.0 tools is underway.

Our 2006 Trending Issue...

Ladies and gentlemen, communications and technological trends for your approval.

• The future is now! Imagine how this and the spread of Wi-Fi will continue to transform our means for communicating...

• In keeping with the futurist theme, here are some thoughts on the future of technology. The author labels this "integrated communications" but for my communications colleagues, think of it more along the lines of integrated enabling technologies. Many of these ideas shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, as we can clearly see how we are headed toward this, today.

• If you don't know about sermo.com, get familiar! Its an on-line networking community for physicians to discuss health care trends with one another. They label the site "For Physicians, By Physicians," and its just another example of how social networks are impacting the way in which industry influencers are collaborating and sharing information.

• We've all heard about how the makeup of our workforce is going to shift in the coming 5-10 years as baby boomers retire and create a huge need for younger, qualified employees, but how are we preparing this next generation to contribute and succeed? What if their qualifications and aptitudes are substandard? This article takes a look at this potential problem. My take -> first, if this is indeed the case, it will create an increased bidding process for the highly talented bunch within that generation (supply and demand) and second, a shift in the thinking may develop around what are the most essential and necessary skill sets for business. You will always need "do-ers" as it were, but how and what you "do" most certainly will have to change.

• If you don't read any of the above posts, please read this one ->"The Future of Social Media" by Chris Heuer. Let it sit, digest it, and offer your thoughts. I myself have read it three times and I am still processing it. I'd be very interested in getting the take on this from a few experts in the social media area.

• Finally, we close with blogging coverage (ironic?) of the Edelman/Walmart blogging fiasco. I know that I plan to use this example when talking to my mentees about truth, ethics and transparency in our profession.

Quick links (to be discussed in the future posting):

http://www.womma.org/ethics.htm
http://secondlife.com/
http://www.isrinsight.com/pdf/media/2006engagement.pdf