Why Protecting Your Twitter Profile is a Bad Idea
Yesterday, Shanan Sorochynski asked a question here on WUL that struck a chord with quite a few people: “Are you using social media to talk to yourself?”
The comments are really interesting, and even though I mentioned it in my comment, it reminded me of Mary Barber’s post (also published yesterday) where she pondered aloud on whether we all see the world through our own respective filters.
My short answer: yes, but that’s not what I was thinking about when I sat down to write today’s post.
Shanan said something in her post that I wanted to riff off of: Continue reading »
Are You Using Social Media to Talk to Yourself?
Of all the people you follow on Twitter what percentage have interests or values different than your own?
A recent visit to our campus by journalist Chantal Hébert and her lecture “Missing the Forest for the Trees: A Look at the State of Political Coverage in the Social Media Era” had me thinking about how I use these tools.
For those unfamiliar with Hébert, she is best know for her work as a weekly participant on the political panel At Issue on the CBC’s The National (in Canada The National is like … if it was food you’d spread it on toast and have it sustain you for life. It’s a big deal here).
She is also a national affairs writer with the Toronto Star, a guest columnist for Le Devoir and L’Actualité, and has been covering the major moments of Canadian politics since I was old enough to have a driver’s license.
One of the key messages of her lecture was that – in her experience – social media tends to narrow people’s perspective, not widen it.
7 PR Lessons Komen for the Cure Didn’t Know It Was Giving You
Update at 11:40 am ET: Since this post was published, Komen has restored funding to Planned Parenthood, which you can read via this statement they released today. Special thanks to Jen Zingsheim for noting in the comments that she learned this via Jezebel, which is how I found out.
I’ve been fascinated by the way the Komen drama – over its new grant policies resulting in withdrawing funds for most of the Planned Parenthood programs that were formerly recipients – has been unfolding.
Kind of like watching a train wreck, isn’t it? That’s what it feels like to me, at least.
Before we go any further: I do care about women’s health (I have my own issues that I deal with every day), and have donated to Komen by supporting friends who’ve participated in their walks, but not directly. I have friends who’ve survived breast cancer (among other cancers). I briefly met Nancy Brinker some years ago, when I was a “scrub” on a client event, and the American Institute for Cancer Research is a former client.
