Meow, Meow, Myspace! Social Media and Pets

Social Media has changed how we interact with our pets and others

As I write this blog, my "child" is sitting on my shoulder, serving as both muse and distraction. This "child" is not, in fact, human; it is my one year old cat who plays quite a large role in my life. When he is not removing keys from the laptop or snoring on the couch, Soscal, my cat, enjoys staring into the screen because it is bright and it moves. These two traits are major prerequisites for holding a feline's attention. However, some pet owners have taken this interest to a novel level with the creation of social media profiles for pets of all kinds.

A Place to Call Their Own

Time recently reported that pet owners have banded together to create a version of Facebook entitled Doggyspace andMycatspace . These websites feature pet profiles that allow the owner to post pictures, create status updates, and befriend similar breeds. Instead of focusing on the human, these sites are supposed to be from the pet's perspective. Doggyspace claims that it "is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who love dogs. People use Doggyspace to keep up with friends, upload funny dog videos, and to give their dogs their own cyber place." The site, along with Mycatspace, features blogs, headline pet news, and forums to discuss the joys and trials of pet parenting. Doggyspace also allows users to search by breed in order to find other Great Dane devotees or German Shepherd groupies.

Making it Accessible

The Iphone and Ipod Touch now feature a Doggyspace app. Users can easily access information about their pet's "friends" while on the go. Videos and groups encourage member participation while the unique pet focused forums could save hours of pet training or veterinary care if users band together to compile knowledge about a specific breed. Mycatspace is not quite as informative; though blogs, forums, and pictures do exist on the site, the main purpose seems to be entertainment value. There are several games that members can play as well as cutesy pictures for desktop backgrounds and screen savers. Only members can access the main parts of the site which does not lend itself to visitor stops.

Making Anonymity Easier

Blossom states in his book Content Nation that one of social media's biggest goals is to entertain. While this goal is most certainly the end result of the pet sites, they can also serve a very practical purpose. Users of social media who are not comfortable with sharing their name, city, or workplace can still find a way to express themselves online through pet profiles. By personifying your pet, you are allowing other users glimpses into your daily life and your personality. It gives pet owners the interaction that they may need with people of similar interests, but also allows the user to take the emphasis away from their own body or careers. Time also claims that "pets write messages to one another about shared interests and offer advice on health problems, training or local dog-friendly parks. Some have even enlisted their caretakers to arrange offline play dates." The user can extol Fido or Sassy's latest accomplishment for an audience of interested peers. What better way to use social media then for enjoyment?

A Few Problems

With more than 700,000 users of Doggyspace, social media for cats and dogs has really taken off. However, what about gerbils, snakes, bunnies and assorted other pets that do not fit into the traditional American home? Some bunnies have sneaked on to Doggyspace with the explanation that a Bunnyspace does not yet exist. So, unless your the owner of a dog and cat, you may have a hard time finding the social media site for you. Also, the dogs on Doggyspace tend to rack up friends even faster than their human counterparts. For this reason, it is imperative to keep personal information from infiltrating the site as it distributed to people you do not know except through the website. Caution would have to play a role in using the sites.






Soscal the cat

Overall, pet social media seems to be taking off at an advantageous time. People and their pets have gotten closer than ever and it no longer seems odd to create a profile for your furry friend. In fact, it may just allow me to figure out how to stop my cat from scratching my couch or how to appropriately keep him tick free. And all of this may mean a happier kitty, which means a less mutilated keyboard. I give it a two paws way up.

How to Be a Social Media “Guru”

Through some twist of fate, I recently found myself managing the social media of three clients, including two extremely well-funded startups. But I still have trouble answering the question, “So what exactly is it that you do, Jennifer?”

The other day, I told an author that being a social media guru was “easy.” Keeping me real, she replied, “Yeah, duh. It’s easy for you because you’re good at it. You’ve practiced and you know what you’re doing.”

And she was right. To some of you, math – which terrifies me – or swimming or cooking or piloting planes, might be the easiest thing in the world. That’s because you took the time to learn the rules and figure out what you’re doing. And that, in a nutshell, is how to be a social media guru, right?

…Okay, so maybe there’s a little more to it.

Do you really want to be a “Guru”?

First, I don’t really buy into the term “guru,” even though, sadly, it seems to have become the default term for the services I and my counterparts at this relatively new position provide. A traditional guru imparts words of wisdom to followers. But a social media expert should always, always start and maintain conversations. If all I did was drop a “Confucius says” quote on Twitter once and awhile, I wouldn’t be a very good social media guru, now would I?

When writing for social media, make sure to be as open as honest as possible. Sometimes that simply means asking questions that don’t have “Yes” or “No” answers. For example, which is the better Tweet?

"Do you think Company X should create an iPhone app?”

Or

"We here at Company X want your help designing our iPhone app! What features can you not live without?”

Of course #2 is the better Tweet, because it encourages participation and discussion. A “guru,” on the other hand, might simply announce “Company X is developing an iPhone app. So be it.” That’s not very social media like, is it?

Know Your Social Media Sites

The second ground rule in social media is to find ways to quickly ascertain the etiquette of any social media site you encounter. You should, of course, know the etiquette of the big sites like Twitter, Facebook and Linked in, but there are plenty of social media “sites” out there – blogs, forums, Nings, etc. – that don’t start with the letters T, F, and LI. You may have a real estate client who wants you to establish her presence on CitySearch.com, for example. Or you may have a client who wants you to establish her presence, but isn’t sure where. It’s your job to use the tools are your disposal, such as Alexa or Google PageRank to determine whether sites are big and bad enough for you to invest your time on.

Know Your Target Audience

On the other hand, you also have to be able to ascertain a social media site’s audience and decide whether that audience gels with the folks you’re trying to reach. Say you’re selling sausages. Don’t you think you would have a better chance of selling lots of sausages on the Sausage Lovers Forum (for god’s sake, never, ever Google that) with 3,000 members than you would on a bigger site like Facebook, where users may or may not be sausage lovers? Often, it pays in social media to hit a variety of targets both small and large. Read here for more on identifying your target audience.

Be Able to Show Return on Investment (ROI)

One of the biggest complaints about social media is that its ROI is hard to ascertain. That’s certainly the case. Just like with something like public relations or marketing, it can be difficult to discover whether your new customer randomly stumbled on your service or whether they did so because of a marketing, PR or social media effort on your part.

While there is no exact science when it comes to social media ROI, there are tools you can use to at least prove that your message is getting out there. First, you know you’re doing something right if you get more social media “followers” or “fans” on sites like Facebook or Twitter.

You also need to get analytical with tools like Google Analytics. This handy free tool tells you how many people are looking at your anchor website, what sources they are clicking in from (I.e. Twitter, Facebook, the Sausage Lovers Forum, etc.) and what they do (i.e. buy a product, subscribe to your mailing list, etc.) once they are on your site.

One caveat: Google Analytics and tools like it are not a foolproof way to discover the ROI you are generating from social media. A Twitter follower could love your Tweets and feel great affection to your company, but you would never know that that unexpected sale that just came through came from that guy because he simply typed in your website URL. In that way, social media is like public relations in that it generates general good feelings, but those feelings may not be quantifiable.

In Conclusion…

This is just a tiny encapsulation of what it takes to be a social media guru. As John Blossom has already illustrated, “everything” it takes would fill a book (or, more likely, a blog.) The most exciting – and nerve wracking – thing about the social media “guru” position is that it’s changing every day. There are a plethora of new sites, iPhone apps, strategies, analytic measures, laws and regulation to keep up with, and they are always changing. Social media is like the Wild West of the internet. Do you think you can strike your fortune?

Can Social Media Help You Drop Some Pounds?

We've talked about how social media can help you connect with friends, business colleagues, corporations, and even government officials -- but can social media take that connection in a direction that is personal and intimate? In a country that is burdened by obesity in children and adults, can social media become a positive power that changes lives?

Is There a Group For That?
With the advent of Facebook, it seems there's a group for just about everything, including weight loss. The Virtual Weight Loss page has more than 600 fans, with most posting about other weight loss sites or avenues, but a few posting about their own struggles. The page directs users to an application where they can upload a photo of themselves and see how they will look a few pounds thinner. An interesting concept, but is a photo enough motivation to lose the weight?

Weight Watchers stands out with more than 175 thousand fans, many posting before and after pics and words of encouragement to each other.

How To Do Squats, Pushups and Eat Right

YouTube is a great place to check out exercise and nutrition tips. There are videos for nearly every aspect of weight loss, including this one on David Elmore Smith's 400lb+ weight loss:

David Smith's story is an inspirational one, shared not only on YouTube but also various news shows. He now works as a personal trainer to help others lose weight. His story is told in detail on trainer Chris Powell's Stax website.

Support Is Just a Click Away

In addition to the aforementioned Facebook groups, there are support groups created just for people trying to lose weight. Support groups work to help provide, well, support for the weight loss journey. People who otherwise might never have an opportunity to meet or converse suddenly become a critical link to someone who is struggling with an "overeating" day or needs extra motivation to get off the couch. One of these groups is Twit2Fit, a community of Twitter users who tweet about their weight loss and offer or receive encouragement and movitation.

How Many Calories Does Blogging Burn?

A quick search for "weight loss blog" on Google turns up more than 46 million hits. Not all of them are personal blogs, of course, but many are. Hollie's Weight Loss Blog comes up high on the list and features posts by a young woman trying to lose weight. She started blogging in 2008 when she was 333 lbs, and now is around 290. She has also blogged on SparkPeople, one of the most popular community sites with message boards, blogs and tons of great information on nutrition and exercise.

Social Media Can't Do It For You

Although social media obviously has great options for support and instruction, it's important to note that spending a lot of time blogging about weight loss or reading about exercise will defeat the purpose of actually getting up and moving. It's a little too easy to get caught up in talking about something rather than doing something. But of course, there's an app for that, so you can just take it with you while you walk.

The Social Media Avalanche

One of my most favorite things in the world is cotton candy. When I take my kids to Chuck E. Cheese the first thing I do is distract them with handfuls of tokens. When they go off to play skee-ball, I stealthily buy a big bag of sweet, glorious pink cotton candy and eat it in peace. The way I see it, cotton candy is like underwear - I don't want to share either one.

The inevitability though is my complete and total lack of control in stopping half-way through the bag. My stomach plainly says, "Chris, you need to stop now," while my head says, "Let's see if we can finish the bag." Cotton candy, as Martha Stewart might say, is a "good thing," at least in smaller, manageable doses.

Over the years, I have found that many things are filled with cotton candy-styled awesomeness, including beer, live Sunday afternoon Bowling on ESPN, and social media. Like cotton candy, all are really incredible yet best enjoyed in small, manageable doses.

Options, Options, and a Few More Options

Just the other day I was playing on my Facebook when my eye happened to spot a link with an unusual title - something like Klurf, Shooff or Mlipr. In a rare moment, I channeled the crotchety ways of my long-dead grandfather and wondered, "What's the deal with all these stupidly named social media Web sites? ...They're everywhere!"

I opened up a new tab in my browser, went to Google and typed something about there being too many social media sites. Much to my delight, I found an equally crotchety fellow who had written an article called "Too Many Social Networking Sites Out There." While I completely disagreed with his assessment of Twitter, I really found what I was looking for - not from his writing, but from the technology powering his blog.

I clicked on the "SHARE" button on the navigation across the top of the blog. To my surprise, a list of sharing options popped up.

Not one or two options.

Not three or four options.

I was presented with a list of 263 OPTIONS - everything from the familiar: Facebook and Twitter; to the semi-familiar: Orkut and Digg; to the "really?!?!:" Fwisp, Plurk, and Mister Wong.

In fact - here's a graphic of all of them.

I don't care how much anyone loves social media; if people are having to figure out one of 263 options (of anything) it's probably too much.

Social Media is 2010's Version of Cable TV

I can bet that most of us have seen a giant list - like the one above with tiny little logos - like this before. In fact, if you still check your mailbox every week, more than likely you get some sort of cable advertisement from Comcast or AT&T that has an information graphic on it listing all the channels you get if you subscribe to their service.

After much cotton candy-fueled deliberation, it finally dawned on me that social media sites are patterning their propagation and consumption very much after our modern-day television.

Once upon a time, people turned on the television set to a limited number of stations - outside of the "Big Three" networks, there wasn't much else. Last year, when I signed up for AT&T U-Verse they had to give me a 12-page foldout brochure to help me get acquainted with my channel listings. Truth be told, I've had U-Verse for nearly a year; the only stations I know by heart are the networks, ESPN and the ones my kids watch.

Social media is very similar: there are places like Facebook and Twitter that I (as well as countless millions) flock to every day. If there was a Nielsen's rating for social media, those two sites would be near the top.

Then there are other sites like Tumblr and Flickr which I go to once or twice a week. On my cable box, their equivalent is Food Network and VH1.

Admittedly, I am paying for channels that I didn't even know I had - and often wonder who watches programming on them and why. In the realm of social media, I am still scratching my head in regards to purpose of Fwisp and Plurk.

Basically, television and social media are not only similar in the massive dearth of channels, sites and content; but also in how the "players" are separated into the "big boys," the one's with a legitimate audience, and the niche pretenders.

Of course, where social media differs from television is that while there are numerous niche cable channels, they usually have intuitive names. If I see a channel called "Game Show Network," I don't have to put my rocket science degree to use in determining that the station shows game shows. When I see names of social media sites like ZooLoo and Sphinn, I not only have no clue what on earth I'm supposed to do with it - but I'm probably so busy on the "Big Three" that I won't even care.

So What Does This Mean?

I have no doubt that with every passing day, ever-improving technology will mean that new social media sites will spring up with the promise to do bigger, better and more exciting things. As more sites come online, it will not only be harder for users to figure out what they do, but how best to manage and integrate social media accounts - those with varying information types, interfaces, and purposes.

Perhaps one day Google will create an uber social media application where users could manage any and every social media account under their name from one single screen; or perhaps social media will continue to function much in the same way we interface with television - we pick what we like and pay no mind to the other stuff. I leave the floor open to you humble readers and the Comments link below.

In the meantime, I will sit back, enjoy a bag of cotton candy and wonder how long it will take for some industrious chap to say, "Hey, you know what cable television needs?...A Social Media channel."

Uncle Sam Wants You – To Tweet

When you think about organizations that embrace social media – you know, that newfangled paradigm that encourages two-way communication between enterprises, employees and consumers – the first one that springs to mind is the U.S. Army, right?

What? No?

Actually, yeah. Reversing their tradition of banning military service members from using social sites like Twitter, MySpace and YouTube the Department of Defense officially released their official social media policy, Directive-Type Memorandum 09-026 last month. Since the title doesn’t exactly say it all (the DOD’s directive writer could use a face to face with a social media consultant, I’m just saying), I’ll recap.

As of now, users of NIRPNET (the DOD’s non-classified network) can use any kind of new media they want. So check Flickr for snaps of the Kandahar sunset, and Facebook for hints on what to stow in those care packages you’re still sending to the soldiers. (Right?) I don’t even want to know what we’ll see on YouTube.

(The DOD’s Social Media Page even has a handy graphic with fancy pop-up information on each of the popular social media sites. See?)

If you’ve noticed soldiers blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking before the oh-so-creatively-named Directive-Type Memorandum 09-026 came out, that’s because those soldiers were lucky enough to serve under commanders who allowed social media. The problem lay in the fact that some commanders arbitrarily shut soldiers out of social media sites, even going so far as making them close accounts or shutter blogs. This new policy specifically prohibits any one commander from making those decisions, essentially opening up access to social media to every member of the armed services.

In my opinion, while there are understandable security concerns (like the recent situation when an Israeli soldier posted details of an operation on Facebook), for the most part this can only be good for our armed services. In my opinion troop morale will soar as our fighting folks are able to have more up to date contact with their loved ones. It’s one thing to arrange for a session to talk to little Johnny and Jenny on the satellite phone, but quite another for the troops to read their spouse’s Facebook pages and keep abreast of the little details as life goes on back home in the country they are fighting for.

But it’s not all family, fun and games for our troops. The policy specifically prohibits some of the baser things in life, namely “pornography, gambling and hate-crime related activities.” So while we here at home can look at jiggly bits, lose our fortunes in a ridiculous manner, or start a Facebook group defaming bacon lovers, our men and women in the armed services still have to put up with a few restrictions on their internet usage.

But wait, there’s more! Uncle Sam also wants you to connect with him. Here are the vital details about how you too can Tweet with the U.S. Department of Defense:

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

Flickr

Now I just have one question. What do you want to say to Uncle Sam?

Alpine Access - A revolution and then . . .

For a company credited with revolutionizing the telecommunications and customer service industries, Alpine Access, the leading work-from-home customer service provider is allowing the social media revolution to pass it by. The company’s lone social media account, a Facebook page, is poorly maintained and has no clear purpose.

Having worked for this company for six months on a total of two client programs, I believe their social media efforts should focus on acquiring quality, long-term clients with legitimate business needs, and on attracting a workforce whose goals are more compatible with that of the company. The company's failure to act proactively on one, or both of these initiatives, left me and other agents armed with very little information and a whole lot of explaining to do to customers affected by the Acai Berry scandal.

As a result of having to work for client programs like the one referenced above, and being ill prepared for what the position actually demands, the company has a very high rate of attrition. Investing time and effort into Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts for the purpose of recruiting clients and agents might help to turn this trend around.

Twitter

On its website, Alpine boasts of the many different ways in which it can reach the potential clients’ customer base, including via social media. However, the fact that they themselves use little in the way of social media is not a very encouraging sign.

Not only is there no Alpine Access Twitter account, @alpineaccess has already been taken by a company named Alpine Accessories. The ability to follow potential and current clients will afford Alpine the opportunity to fulfill on requests for information at a much faster pace than via email.

Currently, everything is done via email. For example, the contact-us page on the company website links to a form where potential clients can inquire about Alpine's sevices, after which time they are expected to sit back and wait for Alpine Access to get back to them.

With today's increasing use of real-time communication, this method is not good for business.

FaceBook for potential and current employees

Alpine Access is now looking to hire 600 new employees. In this economy, they are sure to net thousands of applicants through the job boards on which they advertise, but they are also almost certain to net the same high attrition results.

A Google search for reviews on Alpine Access reveals that many potential candidates are using the internet to research this company. And while Alpine Access seems unaware that an online discussion is even taking place surrounding them; the conversation is happening, and far more often than not, Alpine Access is presented in a negative light.

On the other hand, the company’s FaceBook page highlights the other extreme where almost every post exalts the company as nothing short of “fabulous,” except for one post that laments the fact that the company does not give raises. The environment feels highly censored which might explain why a company with more than 3,000 employees has less than 400 "friends". On sites where the company has zero input, the remarks are far more brutal, and for the most part, go unchecked.

The Facebook page is described simply as a page for employees, though actual postings indicate that the page is in high use among potential employees and curious onlookers as well.

Organizing the current Facebook page for the purpose of giving potential agents the opportunity to obtain real insight on what it is like to work for Alpine might improve on the number of people who actually make it out of training.

You Tube for employee recruitment

If a picture can paint a thousand words, imagine what a video can do. Some individuals have taken the initiative to post work-at-home videos that mention Alpine Access, among other work-at-home companies, but again, nothing from the company itself.

Because there are good and bad stories circulating the internet regarding working for Alpine Access, YouTube videos can aid in creating a more balanced picture of what it is actually like to work for the company. Testimonials from current employees or videos showing what a typical work day is like can help potential candidates to screen themselves and determine whether or not they still want to apply. Since many people are also dubious of the $45 fee for a background check, a video explaining the process might also be useful to help ward off fears that Alpine is nothing but another work-at-home scam.

A YouTube channel could also be a fun way to encourage interaction among employees that are spread out across the country.

If you had to advise Alpine Access on how to best utilize social media to attract new employees and clients, which social media tools would you recommend and how would you suggest they use it?

Pepsi's "Refresh"ing Campaign

Pepsi Forgoes Super Bowl for Social Media

"Pepsi refreshes the world." This message is prominent throughout the soda product's new social media site. In a risky marketing move, Pepsi decided to forgo their usual hefty commercials during the Super Bowl this year. Instead, Pepsi launched a social media campaign designed to allow social media users to submit philanthropic ideas that are then voted on by other users. The ideas that receive the most votes will be monetarily supported by Pepsi. Pepsi has committed $20 million to the effort in an attempt to revitalize their marketing strategy.

Divided into sections like Arts and Culture or the Planet, Pepsi categorizes the ideas into monetary categories, starting with $5,000. Submissions are due by the fifteenth and are then voted on until the end of every month. Seems simple, right? Wrong. Hours upon first releasing the campaign, Pepsi's Facebook site became a sounding board for the issues with the submissions. Technical issues kept many philanthropists from submitting their ideas and Pepsi was forced to respond to the complaints. Though the issue was soon resolved, it gave bad publicity to an effort that needed as much positive attention as possible to work. As one blogger observed, " this is not a good way to launch a massive social marketing campaign aimed at fostering warm-and-fuzzy feelings towards Pepsi."

Unfortunately, philanthropy doesn't seem to have the same "fuzzy feeling" that Cindy Crawford inspired in her famous Daisy Dukes. It was 1992 when Crawford blessed the Super Bowl by guzzling Pepsi while two little boys said that the Pepsi can was "be-a-u-tiful." The end of the 1980's and the beginning of the '90's was still characterized by the common culture. Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Cindy Crawford were huge American symbols of pop culture. Their influence seemed to be universal, so the bet on Crawford could not have been a risky one.


Flash forward to now. Without such a common culture, what Super Bowl ad could compare? Pepsi may not be able to replicate their memorable ads, but they can inspire a new generation of Pepsi drinkers. Though I do not remember the original Cindy Crawford ad, I am old enough to now realize the impact of Pepsi Refresh. If Pepsi is trying to reach my generation, the Millennials, what better way than to appeal to our sense of philanthropy? The idea that Millennials, generally known for their immense interest in self, are trying to make a difference may be novel, but it is true. According to Tactical Philanthropy advisors, Millennials are volunteering more than any other age group. Most learn to do this act in college, as it is frequently required of most scholarship and fraternal organizations.

Social Media is a genius way to appeal to this generation as well. Asking someone my age to go to Facebook and submit an idea for a philanthropic endeavor is not hard, despite the initial technical difficulties. After just browsing through the various topics, I came across a project to provide low income mothers with diapers. It ranges from concerns like this one to providing SmartBoards to science students in rural America. However different, these projects have the same goal- to better America and the world one Pepsi (or idea) at a time. I can live without the Super Bowl commercials if it means more babies have diapers and more students have technology. Maybe I am just a typical Millennial.

By making this year's advertising about bettering each other and the planet, Pepsi has invited us to once more have that common culture. We can work together to achieve goals and can help others while we're at it. And that, more than Cindy Crawford in Daisy Dukes, is "be-a-u-tiful."

Will Twitter Elect the Next President?

Watching the coverage of President Obama’s State of the Union address last week, I was struck by the attention given by major news stations to Tweets and Facebook posts, as well as blog comments. CNN kept a running image of the country, showing the divisions between red and blue as the social media updates came in, and providing a Twitter analysis of the speech. Even the White House jumped into the media pool, launching a free iphone app days before the speech. The app enables users to stream live events from the White House newsroom, as well as “get up-to-date information directly from the Obama Administration right to your iphone,” so users could conveniently view the speech right from their phone.

Of course, this type of strategy is to be expected from the tech-savvy Obama administration. And, as expected, the White House web site also features the first official White House blog, with frequent updates, mostly by White House staffers, but periodically by cabinet members and others in the administration. Maybe the president himself will blog someday.

The 2008 Presidential Election

All the attention given to the social media aspect of the State of the Union address was reminiscent of the 2008 election season. On November 5, 2008, an article on BusinessWeek.com titled “The Vote: A Victory for Social Media, Too," referred to the 2008 election as the "first social media election," and discussed the unprecedented effect all forms of social media had on the election. According to the article, Facebook kept a running tally of users who checked a box indicating they had voted -- and the number had exceeded 4 million by around 10pm. Facebook users could also send each other virtual Obama or McCain buttons, and many wrote on friends' walls showing support for a candidate.

YouTube also came into play in a big way during the campaign season. PBS teamed up with YouTube to ask American citizens to "Video Your Vote," a campaign for people to shoot videos of their voting experience and then upload them to a special section of YouTube.

Not to be left out, Twitter provided another non-partisan voting tool, the Twitter Vote Report, a collaboration of volunteer software developers, designers and others who teamed up with blog techPresident to allow voters to share problems with their voting experience.



As reported on the techPresident blog, Nina Keim and Jessica Clark of American University's Center for Social Media compiled a report describing the project and its results:

"...Developed in less than a month, the project generated more than 12,545 submissions, marshaled more than 7,500 contributors, and involved nearly 20 highly skilled volunteers and partners."

Where Will It Take Us?

We know that the Obama campaign led the numbers in social media, in terms of friends on MySpace and Facebook, and being first out of the gate to use Twitter. The McCain campaign jumped on the bandwagon, but never managed to amass the number of online supporters. However, both camps were heavily dependent on social media by the time election day rolled around. As the use of social media continues to grow and its importance to our culture expands, future candidates will have an unprecedented opportunity to use this free avenue to reach mass numbers of people with targeted messages without dipping into their advertising budgets. Clearly, social media influenced the 2008 election -- what will be its influence on the coming elections in November for Congress -- and what will be its effect on the next presidential election? Will social media become the most important tool in a candidate's arsenal?

Doppleganger Week on Facebook: Who's Your Celebrity Look Alike?

Is that my friend Nikiah or is it Lisa Nicole Carlson from Ally McBeal?

And I never really noticed that my favorite uncle’s childhood best friend (oh what a tangled Facebook friend web we weave), looks just like Chris Elliott. But now I’ll never get this image out of my head.

Why am I suddenly comparing all my friends to celebrities? Because its Doppelganger Week on Facebook. Nobody, not even the gurus of all things social media over at the Mashable blog, knows where or how Doppelganger Week started, but it has taken Facebook by storm. Like the “What color is your bra?” status update meme and Wayback Week, Doppleganger Week is the newest fad, and it has practically everyone on Facebook changing their profile pictures to a famous face. Now, as I scroll through my friend feed, I do double takes when I see the celebrities my friends (sometimes misguidedly) think they look like.

While internet memes (an idea, catchphrase, game, or concept that spreads quickly via the internet) are by no means new to Facebook, memes that require users to change their profile pictures are. But they make sense. Facebook, more than any other social media platform, encourages users to be themselves. And that includes uploading pictures from their real lives. While people might be tempted to use another picture – such as a funny avatar or a company logo – on Twitter or online forums, Facebook is all about just that… the user’s real face. I’m just surprised that Facebook, a platform that’s celebrating its 6^th birthday this week, didn’t adopt memes that played on user’s pictures even sooner.

I confess I rarely get told I look like a celebrity, so I haven’t picked a doppelganger. Should I be annoyed? Or proud that my striking good looks are so um... unique?

Since I was having trouble finding my famous twin, I did what any social media user worth her salt would do. I asked other Facebook users. I got suggestions like Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt from the 1971 movie Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) and Janeane Garofalo. I liked both ideas, but I thought I might find someone even better, so I turned to Google. After searching the keyphrase, “find my celebrity look alike,” I stumbled across MyHeritage.com’s Celebrity Collage.

…Which is clearly broken. After uploading this picture, I, flatteringly, received an 80% match with the elegant Grace Kelly, a 78% match with smoking hot Mary Louise Parker, and a 75% match with Gene Tierney. I think this website is trying to sell me something, don’t you?

I then tried FaceDouble.com, which wanted my email address before finding my celebrity look alike, and then claimed that I looked like two separate teenyboppers named Rachel, neither of which I felt at all resembled plain little ol’ me. I suppose the art of internet-based celebrity look alike identification is as yet an inexact science.

I have yet to pick my celebrity doppelganger. Have you? You’d better get on it, because soon enough Doppleganger Week will be gone the way of the dodo, and Wayback Week, and the What Color is your Bra meme…

Side note: More interested in finding your true facial twin than your celebrity twin? Then check out Coke Zero’s Facial Profiler made especially for Facebook. While it seems to have some of the same problems as My Heritage’s Celebrity Collage and FaceDouble.com, this snazzy app claims that it will find your twin among Facebook’s over 350 million users. ...Once again, I was “unique.”

Did you have better luck than I did finding a twin? Post your results in the comments!

Jennifer Escalona is an Atlanta-based professional blogger and social media consultant who writes about small business, technology, and intercultural marriage. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook or read more of her work at JennEscalona.com.

Frittering in the Information Age

Do You Know Where Your Children Are? 

As reported in the New York Times, the Kaiser Family Foundation has published a study indicating that the average American child under eighteen years of age spends an amazing seven-and-a-half hours per day online or otherwise connected with media. This average time spent connected is up over an hour per day from the Kaiser Foundation’s previous study done four years ago. The researchers were quite surprised by their findings, apparently, because they had thought that the six-and-a-half hours of connected time reported in 2005 represented the apex of the trend.

Ten Hours or More
The present study doesn’t even take into account various hand-held media such as texting, cell-phone use, or laptops. Nor does it allow for the fact of multi-tasking. When both of these factors are considered, the researchers speculate that the average American youth is exposed to over ten hours of social and entertainment media per day.

Poor Mama
If my poor, sainted mother were alive today, this study would kill her. When my siblings and I were youngsters back in the dark times known as the fifties and the sixties, she waged her own personal war against that most despicable of all childhood activities. Yes, I am referring to frittering—her word, not mine—and I am here to testify that I am where I am today because I never frittered. Or more specifically, I never frittered in front of her.

This was a woman who would allow me one comic book a month. And then it had to be an Archie comic, or one of those classic comics such as Gulliver’s Travels or Robin Hood. Television was one hour per week, period, just long enough for either Bonanza or Disney, but not both.

And movies? If a movie had a G rating, and if it was showing at the drive-in, and if my parents had five dollars, all three of which were pretty big if’s, then we got to see a movie. To this day, every time I see Mary Poppins, it makes me want to climb into the back seat of a 1957 Ford, drink warm Kool-aid, munch cold, chewy homemade popcorn, breathe second-hand smoke, and watch one of my siblings get backhanded from the back the front seat. Talk about the good old days.

Frittering Takes Time
All of which brings us the long way around the barn and back to the Kaiser Foundation study. With children spending an average of seven-and-a-half hours per day connected, that means that some are spending much more. And even though the internet is the literal doorway to all the knowledge in the world, somehow I get the feeling that not all of this net time is being spent at the Library of Congress Rare Book site or over at the Discovery Channel website.

According to the Pew Research Center, the estimated 21 million American teens who regularly use the internet spend the majority of their online time sharing music and video files, on social networking sites, and with online gaming. Sounds like a whole lot of frittering going on, to me. You've sort of got to wonder where Mom and Dad are.

Bad News on the Horizon

As my mother always suspected, the trouble with frittering is that sooner or later, the piper must be paid. If kids are spending close to eight hours per day at the activity, that doesn't leave much time for anything else, such as education. Once you throw in another eight hours for sleep and some time to eat, bathe, and brush their teeth, the youngsters that are over on the right-hand side of the frittering bell-curve are already running out of time.

Trouble in River City

In 2009, the National Center for Educational Statistics found that American high school students came in a mediocre 34th in math literacy when compared to students in other nations. They came in an equally sobering 28th in science literacy when compared to the same group. What’s happening? I don't claim to know the full answer, but I know what Mama might have said.  She'd say that the young folks today are frittering away our future. Frittering. Which rhymes with Twittering.  And as those of you who recall The Music Man might remember, that stands for trouble in River City.

This Government Won’t Let Us Say What We Want. Social Media Will.

by: Jessica Allgaier

I have to admit, when I think of the term social media, I envision popular social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace, and maybe a trendy iPhone app like Urban Spoon. I picture mindless tweets about picking the kids up from school or a twitterpic of a really janky car in the drive-through at Burger King. Social media, I once thought, was merely a way to stay in touch with friends from high school or to announce a new relationship cyberly. Chapter 2 of The Social Media Bible says social media enables conversation (1). My narrow definition used to limit that “conversation” to idiotic text jargon and self-portraits from strenuous camera angles, but lately my definition is widening. Through Obama’s presidential campaign, permission based text message advertising, authors using NING to localize readers, and the promotion of unsigned bands through Facebook events and RSS feeds, I’ve realized—perhaps later than my tech savvy peers—that social media is an uncensored way to create and share news content.

The most phenomenal display of social media, in my opinion, occurred this past June 2009 during the protests to Iran’s presidential election. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets, assembling the country’s largest protest since their revolution in 1979. “We want freedom,” protesters chanted, claiming, “This government won’t let us say what we want” (2).

The Iranian government closed news websites and newspapers, banning Western journalists from covering political rallies. BBC’s correspondents in Iran were arrested, video footage confiscated, and broadcasts suddenly became more discreet, like this video posted on YouTube. Because the U.S. doesn’t have an embassy in Iran, on-the-ground news sources were not available, except through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Internet broadcasting, weblogs, and status updates allowed news coverage to exit the country’s borders and feed into the rest of the world’s MacBooks, PCs, and PDA’s. Through social media, news broadcast companies such as CNN, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, were able to access user created content from the ground without actually having correspondents, let alone contacts, in Iran.

Across the globe, Twitter users manipulated their own account settings to prevent the Iranian government from tracking Iranian tweeters. By changing their location to Tehran, Iran, tweeters—in New York, Toronto, Singapore!—increased the number of #IRANELECTION feeds, making the amount of content too overwhelming for the government to filter (3). In certain locations where social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter were also disabled, CNN’s iReport was still assessable, allowing Iranians to share content (including video footage and photographs) with Western news sources. iReport, a news source that gives “news consumers” the ability to create and share journalistic content as iReporters, is utilized daily by the CNN audience and their producers in order to “paint a more complete picture of the news” (4).

Take a look at this iReport about Iran, a collection of video footage, commentary, and photos submitted by iReporters all over the world (5).

Perhaps the most famous and horrifying footage from the Iranian protests is the death of Neda, an Iranian student gunned down in the streets of Tehran. Her brutal and bloody last moments were captured on video and were shown on news stations and online broadcasts worldwide (6). I remember the first time I saw the footage on CNN.com, and then viewed it again on YouTube. I was stunned, mainly because the gravity of what I just experienced, but also because social media had allowed me to witness the same catastrophe Iranians were witnessing first hand. At this moment, information was not bound to borders; it was unable to be censored by government. Thanks to social media, information was truly in the hands of the general public.

The footage from Neda’s death appeared on Mashable.com in a post titled “Iran Election Crises: 10 Incredible YouTube Videos.” The website, subtitled The Social Media Guide, says “Social media is raw…YouTube allows you to get the uncensored version of things. We cannot be blind to that fact” (7). Footage from her death is under video 9, viewer discretion advised.

Social media testimonies like this example from Iran, updates and broadcasts from the most recent catastrophe in Haiti, and even the increasing number of businesses that have at least one employee dedicated to social networks all lead to an undeniable fact: social media is defined by its users. People who create content—news, reviews, videos, and photos—essentially become self-publishers, allowing anyone and everyone to participate in a greater conversation.

But some people who participate in the greater conversation defame their subject. ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was horrified to learn that Michael David Barrett, a former insurance company executive, secretly captured nude videos of her in her hotel room. Barrett allegedly video tapped 17 other women without their knowledge and broadcasted the footage on the Internet. Although Barrett faces prosecution in February, Andrews, back on the job, is receiving derogatory comments from sports fans. “I don’t want somebody else’s career to be ruined by this,” Andrews said (8).

I’ll leave you, dear reader in the blogosphere, with this question: if social media enables access to the uncensored truth, how much control do users have in regards to self-censorship? Are our lives forever on display with status updates or incriminating photos posted to our profiles? Do we enable narcissism and voyeurism with sex-tapes plastered on YouTube and clips of ESPN correspondents illegally obtained from a hidden camera in a hotel room? What happens when uncensored user-created content exceeds a healthy journalistic trend (like iReport) and becomes damaging to either the viewer or the subject?


1 http://www.thesocialmediabible.com/
2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcHT8-ps64w&feature=player_embedded#
3 http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/16/iran.twitter.facebook/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
4 http://www.ireport.com/about.jspa
5 http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/ireports/2009/06/15/dcl.ireport.monday.cnn?iref=allsearch
6 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/06/21/2009-06-21_neda_young_girl_killed_in_iran.html
7 http://mashable.com/2009/06/20/iran-youtube/
8 http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/espns-erin-andrews-attorney-hotel-security-lax-guests/story?id=9349351