Browsing Tag Social Media

Dear KTVU,
First I need you to know, I have been watching Channel 2 since I was like 5. Heck I remember the old theme song you know “There is only one..two!”, hear I don’t sing well, listen to it yourself:

Boy that was catchy back in the day. You ought to think about bring… sorry I am off on a tagent.

Look I am sending you this letter, not because I hate you, dislike you..though it would be nice if you played more MASH reruns, I do like MASH… sorry back to the point. In this day of people watching less tv, reading less newspapers, companies like you need to do whatever you can to stay current and go where the people are. I get that. So I was thrilled when I found out KTVU was on Twitter!

I thought how cool! I can send messages to the newsroom, get interesting info about stories your working on, what Ross is up to. I did love him on People Are Talking  back on KPIX.

Whatever happened to Ann anyway?

So imagine my dismay when I went to your Twitter page and saw this:

It is just links to videos. I can see this on your site or heck the 10:00 news. It is well..boring. There is nothing interesting here.  No, there is no rule that you have to be intresting or exciting, you can do what you want on Twitter, as Eric Rice kindly points out. Let me give you a few pointers though. I will do in in list form as people like lists:

-Do not just post links it well to quote Mike Mcallen it is “spammy”

-Give us some behind the scenes information, stories your working on. Funny things going on. Tell us something we can not see on the broadcast

-This is important, interact with other twitter followers. I said “Hi” to you yesterday and you never replied. Heck DarthVader says Hi, and he is a Sith Lord.

-Learn from NBC’s Today Show mistakes on Twitter. They did exactly what you did with nothing but links, now check it out. They answer peoples questions on Twitter and interact, heck they make funny comments and everything!

-Act like your part of the community. See NBC’s Today Show above.

-Try getting Twitter involved with your news team. Ask for leads, read users responses online. Take polls. The Twitterverse is yours for the taking.

So please dont take this the wrong way, I am on your side. I just want to help you with the learning curve! I know you can do it.. cause well there is only one two..

Hope to see you on Facebook!

Dave

With Christmas upon us and a short week ahead, I thought It would be a good idea to get “Your Week In Review” out early. I am thinking there will no be a lot happening on Friday from me.

-With 2008 coming and 2009 upon us, I have seen several posts looking at where Social Media will take us next year. Will it still be relevant? Of Course! Here is a great post on why you need it  from  Todd Mailcoat, its called 9 Reasons You Need Social Media Marketing in 2009

- The folks at Futurelab have a different outlook. They list “Five Things that Probably Won’t Happen In Social Media in 2009″ . I am not sure I agree with them on item #1. What do you think?

Seems to me its a glass 1/2 empty, 1/2 full situation.

-Have you tried to start an alumni group on Facebook? Maybe a Class of 2013 kind of thing? Yet the name is taking? Seems there may be some cybersquatting going on according to Brad J Ward. Check out his post called There’s something going down on Facebook. Pay attention

-Oh and  speaking of Facebook, you might of noticed that the 2nd most popular music application has been removed due to TOS issues. Its the Music Playlists. (MySpace banned it earlier in the week as well, but no one noticed

-Okay now for something non Social Media realated, I just need to share that I am interested in seeing The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. Something about it has me interested.  I hope its not a chick flick. Let me know if anyone sees it.

Sorry for the shortlist, but its a short week.  I hope everyone has Happy Holidays!

It is time for your weekly round up of things  I have been reading, researching, working on,  excited about or just think its worth sharing. If there is something that you think I should know about or might be worth sharing with others, please feel free to send it to me. My email is  here. Several readers have already been sending me links which is great! Please keep doing that! So, here we go, this will of course be  in list form because people like lists:

-When was the last time you read a newspaper? I used to read 3 newspapers a day. Now I read everything on line. Heck there is even a Newspaper Death Watch site put together by Paul Gillin.

-Newspapers are seeing the writing on the wall and that the web and social media are where it is at.  Brian Solis does a nice recap about how newspapers are responding. He got his data from the annual report by The Bivings Group, who report how newspapers are using social media.

-Sony has finally launched after what seems a long, long time of talk and, development,  PlayStation Home, an online community for Playstation gamers.  Community 2.0 has a great take on it. Is it what the Playstation users want?

-If your in the Los Angeles area, your Mayor is using Twitter.. Antonio Villaraigosa he has a flickr account too.. lalawag asks  can he do more?

-Recently Izea launched a online marketing campaign for Kmart. Kmart would give $500 gift cards to bloggers, who would then blog about their experience. Jeremiah Owyang wrote a great piece about how sponsored blog posts are becoming more common.

-Jeremiah’s piece questioned several things about this type of marketing. Which Chris Brogan quickly  replied to.

-Roxanne Darling did a great post called How Ford Can Ramp Up It’s Social Media Turnaround Story of 2009 it is a list of ideas how Ford can turn it around by using social media.  Roxanne will be speaking at SVAMA on January 28th, check her out if your in the Bay Area. I will be there.

-One of the best conferences I went to in 2008 was BlogWell. It was several case studies on the use of Social Media by companies like Home Depot,  Graco, UPS and many more.  In January 22nd   they will having a BlogWell in Chicago with case studies by Allstate, H&R Block, Mayo Clinic, Procter & Gamble, Walmart and others.  If are intrested in going here is a 15% off discount code: Daveiscool . Hey I did not pick it.

That is it for now! Have a great weekend!

Dear Facebook,

Our relationship has come to an end as we know it,  I am sorry to say. Its not you.. its me. Do not be sad. Really, I am going to miss you. See look.. I have no more friends left to add. I do not know anymore people to send friend requests to. Look I have added:

-My co workers even the strange guy who keeps  inviting me to mob wars twice a week

-My Buddies who just created an account to add young college girls.

-All my high school friends, including those people I never said one word to and the senior who shoved me into the girls bathroom when I was a freshman. I guess we are friends now.

-Elementary school friends I have not spoken to since 2nd grade when we played star wars on the playground. So let us see I was  8 when I was 2nd grade and never spoke to them since. Do we even have anything to discuss? It was 30 years ago since I have talked to them I guess we must have alot of catching up to do.

- All the big names in social media  I follow but have no idea who I am like Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble, Brian Solis and such. So maybe there aren’t friend requests, more like “Fan Requests”. I’m just thrilled they added me back. I am such a fanboy.

-My friends’ friends, you know the type. You meet them at your common friend Ed’s party, then Facebook commands you must add them cause you have Ed in common. You have never talked to them or seen them since.

-The guy who bags my groceries, not sure how he got my email

- People who work at companies at Customer Service companies I emailed to complain about poor customer service so we emailed a few times: Yes You Susie at AT&T and Paul at G.E.! Not sure why you want to add me on Facebook but whatever. I figure they checked their email contacts in friend finder and just hit add all.

That is it, I have no one left to friend request. You have them all.I’m done..

Okay to be completely honest there is a little more to it:

-I have no more room for (Lil) Green patch

- I don’t need any more Pieces of Flair in my life

- I already have found out Which 80′s Movie defines me about 10 times (Ferris Bueller by the way)

-I really appreciate everyone asking me when my birthday is on Birthday Calendar but I wish they would send gifts or just look at the Facebook birthday notification on the front page. I just don’t get that application.

-The pressure to update your status. I can not handle it anymore. I’m just not that interesting! For example.. “Dave is Reading. Dave is eating. Dave is getting the boil lanced on his foot and boy does it hurt.” Hey I am just saying.

-Seeing what a great life that the girl I dated when I was 15 is having. She dumped me for the Junior who was 17 could drive. I still hate her for that. So thanks to you Facebook I can see she married the jerk(who invited some stupid tech thing) has 3 kids, great job and is loaded. That just brightens my day every time she posts status updates like ” Tiffany is playing tennis at noon on Wed. Tiffany is waiting on her Au Pair to show up. Tiffany..blah blah. Just salt in my wound.

So its over Facebook. I will miss you but I think with over 100,000,000 users you wont miss me…

Bye

See you around

Later

Are you still here?

Do you not  have somewhere to be?

Great, because I do not either.  I’m addicted. I must see what I am going for on Friends For Sale! and am I still 3rd in the Coolest Person Contest? Maybe I need to go to Facebook Users Anonymous.  I think I have a crush on Facebook.

So what is my point here?

That social networks are here to stay and they are going to grow and change from the way we are using them today. The way we use them will evolve. Once the wheat is separated from the chaff (i.e when they have matured). Social networks will focus on what we need them for most. They will evolve from still being somewhat of a nice way to catch up and trade flair  with friends to becoming even a more useful tool. A tool you will need in your everyday life. This will be the key.

The possibilities are endless.

Stay tuned as I will be explaining my thoughts on this further.

Yep, that is it. I just wanted you to know that one key to Obama winning was that he used social media.  Move along now. This is the end of the blog post. Nothing more to read here.  Really, are you still reading this? Fine….

How about I share with you some of the social media tools Barack Obama used to help become the next President of the U.S.A? I will give them to you in list form, because people like lists:

-There is the Black Eyed Pea’s Yes We Can Video as of this post 13,000,000 have seen it. (How is that for a return on your investment?)

- The Obama/Biden blog that averaged about 300 to 1500 comments per post. This was updated several times a week and sometimes several time daily.  This blog was what I think the most important part of the whole website which has several other social media aspects to detailed to get into.

-A Flicker account. Now this is key. These were not pictures of Barack. Not just pictures of his staff. They were pictures of people. Those in the field, those who were supporting him. Heck most of them don’t even have the people’s names. My point.. the Obama campaign did not just push a single message or talk about Barack. They shared pictures of everyday people who were part of the campaign, the people working hard, the message here with Flicker was almost more personal. Bottom line.. brilliant!

-Facebook There are fan pages, groups and of course a “Supporter Page” for Barack Obama. Why not? Easy, quick and simple. People join and all their friends can see that you did via notifications.

-Youtube Channel Videos they say, tell a thousand words.. wait that’s pictures.. but you get the idea.  Lots and lots of videos they posted over 1800 as of this post. Each video has at least 50,000 views and most are around 100,000 on up.

-Twitter Yep he was on Twitter posting updates, where he is, what he is doing. Lots of posts sharing links to live videos and blog updates.

Oh and notice that I said a few times “as of this post”? That is because these videos, pictures, tweets, posts, etc are still getting views and impressions after the fact. They are still out there for people to interact with.

There are to many tools that the Obama campaign used to list. The bottom line here. Social media has amazing reach and power. This is an amazing example of the power of social networks. Let this be a call to action for companies and those big brands, get involved now!

Footnote: One item that is not necessarily social media, Search Engine Optimization. I have no knowledge that they used it, but I have no doubt they did. SEO is a very powerful thing these days. Companies need to get on board with SEO.

So this will be a quick and short post. Wanna see something really cool? Thought you would! Check this out!

See! Pretty cool huh?

The newspaper! Im talking about the New York Times “Obama Wins” Headline. See you can give it as a gift to someone on Facebook! Here look at what my friend C.C. gave to Steve

Click on the image if you are having trouble seeing it, I will wait.

So here is my point. The New York Times has 2,000,000 plus of these things for people to give to one another on Facebook. Its a mini NYT newspaper.  People send them to their friends in excitement for the Obama win or like I did to my friend John, to throw salt in his wound.  My point though is this is part of online branding for you right there! This is social media at its best.  People are sending millions of NYT gifts back and forth on Facebook, cause they want to!

Another cool thing is that FB then sees what is happening between the users and the system says to its self ” Ah, Steve must be interested in Obama lets hit him with some custom advertising on his screen! See the NYT:Obama Wins ad on the right side? More then likely you don’t even know its happening, its really a natural flow that is niche marketing and online branding. NYT gets it!

…and yes Facebook knows what you are doing, talking about  and sending. It creates custom ads based on what your doing. Do not think for a minute they are not watching!

I’m a New Media Strategist!! Good enough answer?

Lets just stop right there shall we?

I am very excited to share with you all that I have been hired as the New Media Strategist for<a href=”http://www.lsfinteractive.com/”> LSF Interactive.</a>

So now your saying “Great! Congrats! What the heck is a New Media Strategist?” I am so glad you asked! Well a New Media Strategist provides planning and execution of public relations strategies that will help increase a company’s image, community stature as well as brand awareness.

Yes, that is a mouth full isn’t it?

Lets break it down into its parts. How about a list? People like lists! The areas all be handling and advising on are:

-Blogs

-Social Networking Sites i.e Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Plurk,(always have to work the word Plurk in)

-Podcasts

-Outreach/Advocacy

-Relationship management

-Webcasting/Lifecasting

-Tradeshows/Industry Conferences

-Viral Campaigns

-Public Relations

So there you go. The Cliff Notes version.

This is a repost from my older blog peckpack.com

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“Will this video go viral?”

“How soon till this video goes viral?”

” His video went viral, what about mine?”

If I got a nickel for everytime someone contacts me asking, “What do I have to do to make this video  go viral?” Its  got to be one of those classic lines social media folks get. Right up there with, “How do I measure social media results and what is twitter?” (these questions will be answered in upcoming posts).

So the answer to this question? Let us keep in mind that this answer is not limited to video. It can be a blog post, podcast, (insert media type here).

Well lets start with there is no simple answer. Its about timing, community, the message, oh and….Content. That maybe the simplest and best answer. …Content.

Content is King.

If your putting something out there that is amazing, well done and grabs people, then you have a better chance of going viral.

If your putting something that is just Blah, well then that’s what your going to get back.

My friend Tim Street, who is the brains behind French Maid TV, shared with me a simple secret to help increase the odds of a video going viral. He says ” A video must make you feel at least two emotions to go viral.” Be it sadness, happiness, anger, love, etc, etc. I think he is dead on with that. So my tips for things you should do to help a video go viral? Let me share them in list form, people like lists:

-Feel at least two emotions (thank you Tim.)

-Its got to be simple to share. So have  the sharing tools already embedded and available for the person. A simple tool like ShareThis will do it all.

-Its got to be simple. Something Straight and to the point. Do not make people think to hard.

-If they share it what is in it for them? Maybe making their friends laugh? Could it be helping a cause they believe in? Are they maybe getting linklove?(Wait for upcoming blog post to explain linklove)

-Timing. I believe the time of day and day of the week play into the release of a video too. If you do it at night people may be sleeping, but they check webpages in the morning and forward things on. Then you need to factor in other countries too. Remember we need to think global, not local sometimes.

Again, I use videos as the example but it about content in general.

The first time is always the hardest. I have been going back and forth about what this post should be about. Should I just dive right into talking about New Media or  Social Media? Heck isn’t it all under the same umbrella? Maybe I should start with who I am and what my background is? Nah, that’s all on the About Dave page.  Oh I know I can roll out a huge big post about something cutting edge and exciting in the space! No, its a slow week everyone is heading to Blogworld 2008 anyway. I could list what this blog is about, what I want to accomplish. Hey that’s not bad. Maybe I should do it in list form. People do like lists.

So in no particular order, I give you the goals, hopes, and dreams I want for New Media Chatter:

-For all of us to learn more about this space called New Media. ( I plan on learning from you too!)

-To pass on the tools needed for people to learn how to brand themselves in this new age of social media

-I want to start discussions and conversations about New Media, make us all think.

- To point you to people, websites and events where you can learn more and network with.

-A place where you can come to get the latest trends in the industry.

I hope this is not to deep or mushy for the first post. Heck, I hope I didn’t scare you off, I want you to subscribe to this blog!

So look at that, the first post is over. Great.. now we can get down to business and starting talking about New Media.