CommSpace

Guidelines For Your SecondLife...

Where many of us are trying to get a handle on our first and current social media “life”, it seems that our good colleagues at IBM is yet again ahead of the curve in drafting employee guidelines for those in the company that utilize virtual worlds like SecondLife.

A Morning in the Mind...

What makes a blog interesting? Or for that matter what makes a person who blogs, take the time to write them? Expression? Passion? Narcacism? I don't know all of the answers and I guess it would depend on an individual's motivation, but I know that something deep down inside of ME likes to share and spread thoughts, ideas and information.

I've always believed that since we are all here for such a short time, we should really spend our life sharing as much of ourselves as we can. Hopefully along the way we can share perspectives and inspire insight in others....hopefully along the way we can help others grow, achieve their goals and the world will become a better place (key sappy violin music)

We don't live forever, but if we can inspire others, we can "live" through them and their efforts.

Seriously...these are the things that go through my mind.

The mind is a funny thing. One of the current (and I gather reoccuring) debates in Communications is around information overload. Now that we are in the information age, is this finally the age where our minds can simply not process the amount of information being thrown at us? Now I assume that this is not the first time such a debate has occurred and I actually think its the wrong question to be discussing.

We may all know and think of our minds as filters that constantly injest, process and dispose of information.

Want to know how my mind reads when I am monitoring media stories?

Blah, Blah...Iraq...Blah Blah....'Poll says'....Blah Blah...Mets win (GO METS!) ...Blah Blah...Oh, retiree shortfall in NJ, this is going to affect me sooner than I think. .. Blah Blah... Social Mdia...2008 campaign...blah blah...'FDA says'...Blah Blah...YouTube aiming to develop a Corporate version for internal company usage? We've been talking about internal viral videos for over a year now and watch this come along and make it a reality quicker than we could do it within our environment......isn't that always the way?...Blah Blah ... value of internal communications and employee engagement... Blah Blah ...

Well, you get the point. In that example I've gone through 200+ headlines and briefs in less than 5 minutes.

I think perhaps we should be giving our minds (and ourselves) a bit more credit, don't you think?

The medium is the message, right? Heard that before? Remember that the "medium" is not simply the invention or channel itself, but rather more broadly defined by an extention of ourselves. And remember that the "message" is not simply content, but the noticeable change brought about as a result of the extention's stimuli.

Bear with me. This is going somewhere...

Mark Federman describes McLuhan's premise well:

We can know the nature and characteristics of anything we conceive or create (medium) by virtue of the changes - often unnoticed and non-obvious changes - that they effect (message.)that constantly injest, process and dispose of information.

So by McLuhan's definition, anything we conceive or create - our thoughts, innovations, communications channels - are "our media," all of which ultimately stem from our minds

Mind -> Medium -> Message

In many ways, this makes logical sense to me.  Our minds are the most powerful tool that we can possibly have. 

And if we spend more time focusing on people's  minds and their motivations (media), and a little less on the channels and the content themselves,  the potential outcomes (medium) will become easier to explain and predict for.

MySpace vs. Facebook

(originally posted on my COMMSPACE 2.0 internal company blog on 7/24/07)

MySpace vs. Facebook
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134635-c,webservices/article.html

I’ve been singing the praises of Facebook for over a year now and it looks like a lot of other people are getting on board. In recent weeks Facebook has stepped it up considerably in terms of functionality.

All I know is that I check my Facebook page about 3 times more often than my MySpace.

Hurry up folks before the train leaves…

---------------------------

...and here is a FORBES article that a work colleague commented in my original posting about the potential class divide between the two.

Here was my response verbatim:

"You are absolutely right. I was trying not to go there, but I’ve heard this perspective more than a few times. I don’t want to say that I’ve seen a SIGNIFICANT difference between the two, but certainly because it started out as a social network for academic institutions (then expanded to businesses) it seems that the divide evolved somewhat naturally. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. - Matthew"

# of blog posts = ?

A number of us have had this conversation quite a bit lately...do the number of comments on your blog equate to anything measureable?

Here Shel Holtz writes a good post on the subject...and I tend to agree with him on this.

One of the toughest things about blogs and social media is how to measure the value. (some, like my good colleague Adriana might argue that to even attempt to do this with social media completely misses the point to begin with!)

But much like using traditional web metrics such as visits, impressions, etc., does not ever fully demonstrate the effectiveness of a piece of content, the amount of comments on your blog certainly does not even come close to effectively measuring the significance of your blog.

So what's the answer? Perhaps stop trying so hard to "measure" and take a moment to recognize what these reallty are...recognize that the value of these tools is in their ability to enable...in their ability to connect...

Is the value of the phone in the number of calls made/received? For that matter is the value of a road in how many cars go through it in a given day?

No. The value of a road is in the fact that the road exists for cars to go through in the first place. The value of a phone is in the fact that it exists and enables you to make the connection to another individual, whether its once a day or 5x a year.

...and the same can be said for social media tools. So how do you REALLY measure the value?

Well for starters, imagine if tomorrow it no longer existed...

Links and Stuff...

Before these get too old, check these out:

• Blackberry's rule!

• Interesting...YouTube and CNN

• Earning blog comments the "organic way"...I couldn't agree more! And yet...

• ...here is a post that argues the opposite...or at least acknowledges that the practice of marketing a blog happens a bit more than you think

• Tips for avoiding Social Media Burnout

• Just more reasons why we should only work 4 week days...

• Interesting findings about the awareness being generated by political attempts at viral video...and their corresponding demographics...

The Gray...

One of my colleagues (and favorite people in the world :0)) posed a good question to my team over email yesterday:

“Should we in PR be managing our reputation or should we be reinforcing values?”

Here was my response…and I welcome other’s thoughts:

“I’d argue that without doing one you have no chance of being able to do the other. Much the same as a company selling a product, the legal system defending your rights, or a health care industry trying to enhance the quality of lives. In today’s climate, the reality is that credibility is not a given for ANY company or profession. But it is needed to affect positive change. So there lies the dilemna (spelling?) Can you ignore one and expect to progress in the other?

And ultimately to me change can only occur when you have people who are willing to push for what they believe, affecting change where they can, and dealing with the discomfort that the gray creates, in the pursuit of their overall goal(s).

The values and passions don’t have to change, but the gray can be the difference between success and failure, happiness or misery, or life or death — and the gray can be in one compound, one vote, one message, one person or one discussion.

That is what the power and responsibility of PR means to me. “

What A Difference A Decade Makes...

Eight years ago, I was finishing up my undergrad work and beginning to start my Masters program at RU. In addition to my normal coursework, my Master's program focus was on globalization and the impact that it has on the future of communications.

At that time, the web was only beginning to become a broadly utilized and credible communications tool. There were practically no studies on the web and very few resources that looked at it from a contextual comparison to previous communications mediums.

Now this article states that marketing (and to much to the same degree, communications) are in the hands of "the people." One might argue that its been the case for more than 10 years, but never to this degree. Expectations have certainly changed, and yet there are still a significant amount of the marketing and communications community that think that they can fully control "the message." Web-based communications tools and vehicles are no longer nice-to-haves...they are must haves, in all aspects of our lives.

So why have so few of our peers and colleagues truly embraced this as fact? And what are they truly doing to make themselves smarter and more strategically capable of maximizing the use of these tools?

This article talks about how integration is key, and I believe this to be true. We know that there is no "silver bullet" vehicle or means when it comes to communications/marketing or the way that people take in and seek out information. So we must become masters of these multiple channels, understanding each's strengths and weaknesses, in order to use them effectively.

But the one thing that has not changed is the Supply/Demand principle. People need information and those that can and will supply what they need will be looked to as credible and reliable. Couple that with a transparent, consistant and even engaging process, and now you build trust. And if you can sustain that trust over a period of time, here comes perceived value and equity.

Seems pretty simple doesn't it? Then why do we make it so hard sometimes?

Having a Baby...and Other Ramblings...

If you can’t tell by the post headline, I am going to be a father VERY soon. How soon you ask? Well we've begun counting down the forthcoming birth of my daughter in weeks as opposed to months, so that should be a sign for you. In any event, we're looking at less than 8 weeks now and we've begun taking these extraordinarily scary baby classes.

I'm convinced that the intent of these classes is to prepare you for every possible thing that could go wrong during your delivery. I've been referring to it as “Scarred Straight,” like those shows from the 80’s that folks used to keep kids from drugs and doing crimes… “this is your brain on drugs…and THIS is your brain after having children…” These classes should really be shown to couples that are thinking about having a baby, as opposed to those who have already taken the plunge.

All I could say to my wife after our 8 hour Lamaze class this past weekend is “I’m sorry for doing this to you.”

Needless to say, all of this is in fun. We’re more excited than ever!

Be sure to check back for more baby rumblings in the near future.Meanwhile, its been quite a while since I last posted thought-provoking links/thoughts for your enjoyment and amusement.

• Looks like HeySpread is an excellent opportunity to help your videos go viral!
• Good article from NY Times journalist Thomas Friedman, who theorizes that when we are all content publishers, we are all public figures...and that helps to foster transparency. I totally get that and subscribe to the belief that transparency is truly demonstrated when the cameras are "on" and we are not aware. Its all about authenticity. I don't think that this is a foreign or new concept by any means. In fact, I think the idea that people and companies can be held even more accountable for their practices is a good thing. My issue is this -> why does it take the proliferation of new media applications to force people and companies to be more concerned with being transparent and/or authentic? Shouldn't you be doing that already? Don't you know what the impact of NOT being transparent can do to your brand / identity / employee-base?
• This speaks to the difficulty of measuring the ROI of social media and social media-related activities. This happens to be VERY timely for my colleagues and I right now, and Shel Holtz provides some strong arguments against attempting to measure blogs, wikis, chat rooms, etc., by traditional measurement means.
• A sobering reminder of how everything internal can get out. Here is a person's posting of an internal Capitol BlueCross memo on the “Sicko” website, allegedly written by Capitol BC’s VP of Corp Comm.
• Web 2.0 applications are not only utilized by the 20-something generation. Look at me for instance :0) Though, I can pretty clearly see my 20's in the rearview I will add.
• Good listing of 21st century communication trends...
• And as always we close with a fun one…Do women actually talk more than men? My wife and I have this argument all of the time...I am still disputing the results of this survey!