SOCIAL MEDIA INFOGRAPHIC VIEW OF 2011

Thought this was an interesting infographic of social media for the year 2011 ... I like infographics, they are fun. So, if you would like to read it go here columnfivemedia lol!

source: columnfivemedia/flowtown

GOOGLE +1 INVITE

What's really bothering me today is that I want an invite to join Google +1. I want one NOW! Talk about transparency Google - come on! The brilliance of this technique is not without merit though .... YAY- Google wins! Facebook beware because you always want what you can't have. Or you can't always get what you want ... either way.

"In" Social Media

Jay Baer is a creative leader in the field of social media. He has the ability to create a culture around his blog Convince and Convert, where himself and others can share their ideas and feel that they're valued. The following is an article by Bill Murtha that Jay has graciously allowed me to share with you. Enjoy!

Guest Post by Bill Murtha, President and CEO of Roberts Communications, a leading independent advertising agency with offices in New York and Minnesota. Everything you know about social media you probably learned in high school.

In full disclosure, a lot of our social media strategy flows out of the work we do with Jay Baer. He’s been great, taught me and our entire agency a ton about how to develop and deploy social media for our clients and own efforts to grow business. That said, much as we love our time with Jay, I’m always struck right after hanging up the phone, or at end of a webinar, just how simple this whole social media thing is. The hard part—like losing weight, quitting smoking, eating your fruits and veggies– is doing it and sticking with it with in a disciplined day-in and day-out way. But the real basics of how the ecosystem works— well, I learned (and you did too) back in high school.

Cliques and groups define you. Who’s your audience? What are they thinking and feeling? What’s important and relevant to them? In high school, I spanned a bunch of ques, groups, even a few lame gangs. We had juicers, druggies, motor heads, hippies (yes I’m that old,) rockers, heavy metal rockers, jocks and nerds in my HS. And that’s not an exhaustive list. But in each case, as I’d weave through my angst filled teenage years jumping from group to group, each had its own coda, jargon, ethics, special interests, badges of honor (or dishonor) and tests of loyalty.

If you wanted to be part of one – you had to connect with authenticity. Fake it or fail the the test and  sniff, whiff or otherwise –and you’d never really be accepted or “in.”

Sound familiar?

Word spreads fast (True or not ?)

Once you were “in” or “out” – anything you’d do that either enhanced your status or tainted it would be known fast …at least before homeroom, often in time for the bus ride home or that night’s game. Word of your distinction (“you won’t believe what Murtha did?”) or loser move (also, “you won’t believe what Murtha did?”) spread instantly and widely.

News about your peers, their activities and interests reached everyone like an organic virus. News about the Beatles, The Doors, Hendrix’s latest riff, a new album, or movie were known and evaluated, liked or disliked in-between class changes and hallway conversations. “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” “Hell no, we won’t go.” “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” McMurphy asking in Cuckoo’s Nest, “Which one of you nuts has move (also, “you won’t believe what Murtha did?”) spread instantly and widely.

News about your peers, their activities and interests reached everyone like an organic virus. News about the Beatles, The Doors, Hendrix’s latest riff, a new album, or movie were known and evaluated, liked or disliked in-between class changes and hallway conversations. “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” “Hell no, we won’t go.” “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” McMurphy asking in Cuckoo’s Nest, “Which one of you nuts has got any guts? “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

Like the info-overloaded hyperactive characters in the current Bing commercials—all this stuff flew through our “social media landscape” like a T1 fire hose. Even without all of today’s technology accelerators, I still think a teenager or tween on a land line can spread word of mouth at comparable speeds. Add texting, tweets, retweets, online reviews, Flickr, HootSuite, Droids, iPhones, transparent consumer rating sites….and you get the idea. Word spreads fast.

Friends want to hang out with other friends

Homogeneity was the goal. Fitting in with a HS clique meant you shared a clothing style, a haircut, an attitude, special interests, leaders, and of course, common enemies and causes. And sharing meant hanging out with your group and talking incessantly in-between chemistry and honors English about the stuff that really mattered to us. And after school, it meant hanging out with a following of like-minded individuals. And followings mattered. The size of the crowd that would show up at that nights’ game, or smoke filled stage at the Fillmore East if you’re not going to share the experience after the concert. And relive each Aqualung or Locomotive Breath crescendo. So we were “atomizing” and recycling our content streams and we didn’t even know it.

Good friends talk, listen, comment, trash or praise and relive everything they experience.

What did you see, hear, watch – and most important, what did you think and feel about it. So if you’re not talking to others, listening to others, telling and retelling their stories, saying thank you with comments, retweets, and pass alongs, reading others blogs, and adding knowledgeable content to the thread—you’re not really a friend. Friends don’t just eavesdrop and watch – they converse and engage with passion and purpose.

You can try to belong to a bunch of groups

But you can only really belong to as many groups who allow you to join. Permission marketing at work in the real world. Ever try to fake or force your way into a group in HS? Do you remember the look on their faces…the stone cold silence or one word answers you’d get in response. You can ask to be in a group as much as you want – but ultimately the group has to let you in or not. They have to accept your invitation and credibility as someone true, valued and worth hanging out with.

I guess everything old is new again?

(Flickr image by Arborreality)

HARDLY WORKING START - UP GUYS

Through an article in Mashable , I saw this video and it was really funny. I wanted to show the image of the video so you could just click play, but it's not on You Tube. I do have the url for the video so please click this link HARDLY WORKING START-UP GUYS. I guarantee that if your into tech you will love this.

NEW YORK TIMES PAYWALL FOR DUMMIES

What do you think about the NYT's paywall and it's free 20 page per month viewing limit? Reading 20 pages goes quickly, but you can get extra pages if you link from another site. The NYT's also limits the number of searches that count towards your extra links via Google and other engines - the limit is 5 per day. Forget about paying more for usage on your PC or IPad than your IPhone, Android or Blackberry, that's just plain UNFAIR. If any of this is a bit confusing, it gets even worse, so read here.

Danny Sullivan makes all free access information more difficult to understand - but that's the point. What he does explain very clearly, is what the New York Times is up to, in terms of making money off of this whole paywall - pretty darned well.

What are the tags here: sneaky ... that's the only one i could think of right now.  
Image courtesy of blog.freshthrills.com    

FLICKR PRIVACY AND THE STOLEN SCREAM

Here is a great video about Noam Galai, a New York photographer who uploaded his photos a couple of years ago on Flickr and some of his photos went viral, but ... not because he wanted them to.

The copy below is an excerpt of the terms & conditions that one agrees to when opening up a Flickr account.

CONTENT SUBMITTED OR MADE AVAILABLE FOR INCLUSION ON THE SERVICE

Yahoo!7 does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, you grant Yahoo!7 the following worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s), as applicable:

• With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of Yahoo!7 Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the specific Yahoo!7 Group to which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo!7 removes such Content from the Service.
• With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service other than Yahoo!7 Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo!7 removes such Content from the Service.
• With respect to Content other than photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service other than Yahoo!7 Groups, the perpetual, irrevocable and fully sub-licensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

• "Publicly accessible" areas of the Service are those areas of the Yahoo!7 network of properties that are intended by Yahoo!7 to be available to the general public. By way of example, publicly accessible areas of the Service would include Yahoo!7 Message Boards and portions of Yahoo!7 Groups, Photos and Briefcase that are open to both members and visitors. However, publicly accessible areas of the Service would not include portions of Yahoo!7 Groups that are limited to members, Yahoo!7 services intended for private communication such as Yahoo!7 Mail or Yahoo!7 Messenger, or areas off of the Yahoo!7 network of properties such as portions of World Wide Web sites that are accessible via hypertext or other links but are not hosted or served by Yahoo!7.

I had to force myself to read this very slowly because this part of the terms & conditions is complicated. In a nutshell, they are saying that by agreeing to the terms, that even though Yahoo doesn't "own" the photos on the site Flickr - they can use them. Perhaps for the front page of the site when you log in or if they back it up on the recovery site, etc. Not a big deal. THEY don't say though that by putting your photos on the site that anyone can "steal" them. That's up to whomever has the indecency to do something like that. You can protect yourself though. Flickr has a lot of privacy settings, for instance. You can also put your copyright notice under each photo or a watermark on the photo itself. You can do these things if you don't want anyone to use your images. Hopefully ... or atleast you have some sort of retribution if they do.

Noam didn't do any of this. His photos were public and boy did the public take advantage. He says he doesn't mind so much that artists used the image, to make a statement, for example, but he was not too happy about when somebody or company was making money off of his image. His face has been recycled so many times I wonder if even half of the people using his image know the real source. Originally someone did though, they saw his Flickr account and there is such a thing as Flickr mail. If they wanted to use any of the images it's called "asking permission". 

He's turned it around a bit though - he has a website, Facebook and Twitter accounts and he's even selling his images on merchandise in his website store. Noam also works for AOL. I can't help but wonder if any of this would have happened had he been working for Yahoo instead. Rock on Noam Galai !!

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR BUSINESS

As a social media consultant, I am pretty aware of how to help a business utilize social media. I spend loads of time researching this topic and have narrowed down some useful tips that may help to dispel the mystique surrounding social media that many companies seem to have. I will be writing about this topic for the next few weeks. Here's a couple of ideas to get you started.

1. Social media is social. Being a social person helps A LOT. If you are a small business or are starting your own business and are too busy or consider yourself an introvert and the thought of socializing is not your thing, I would advise finding someone who can assist you and/or be social for you. There are a ton of social media experts out there who consult and or provide services to do the job of "social" for you.

2. Research how your business competitors are using social media. Are they using the popular networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn ? How are they representing themselves and their company? Who amongst them do you feel are being the most innovative, exciting and engaging ? Try to learn from these companies. Again, social media is social. Ask yourself if your business would be the popular kid in high school or the one that no one knows exists? Being friendly and nice go a long way.

3. Most people, myself included, are inpatient. They want what they want and they want it now! Have you ever had a new lover and felt that rush of excitement when it really "clicked"? When you first venture into social media you will find yourself getting very excited when you get some friend requests on Facebook and people want to follow you on Twitter. Beware the instant infatuation with social media ! Sure, it can be lotsa fun, but it's also hard work. Just like the giddy rush you get with a lover, after awhile that feeling will fade and you will need to work on the relationship in order to build trust. This applies to social media networking 10 fold. Social media takes effort and the ability to develop the "dreaded" quality of patience. But if you hang in there and work at it, and people, clientele and other businesses learn to trust you, a long and lasting connection will result and that is what can help your business grow.

Photo courtesy of penn-olson.com