Bookmining on Twitter

Stuck for reading material?

Image: David Pritchard, Creative Commons

Just ask your social networks for their recommendations.

I had a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble that was burning a hole in its sleeve.

I have a habit of using gift cards to get gifts for others, but this time I decided to treat myself.

W00t!

Look at some of the great recommendations I got (and am still getting)

on Twitter:

and on Facebook

I ended up buying:

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (I heard about it on NPR and have been wanting to read it),

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, who is one of the best Indo-Anglian writers EVER,

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee-Divakaruni (ditto on the Indo-Anglian author thing, and because I think her take on the Mahabharata might possibly be better than that of Peter Brook’s), and

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, which Leah Betty mentioned on Twitter while we were chatting:

And the $50 covered them all (including tax, free shipping).

Double W00t!

So now I have four great books coming my way, and a whole host of others to add to my “must read” list, especially when I need a new book fix.

Yes, I know I could use the library, but I’m one of those people who likes to keep the books they love.

They become some of my best friends, and there’s nothing like going into your home library and sitting down for a cuppa to get reacquainted with characters you haven’t seen in a while.

Just another way social media makes my life better.

So what if you’re not saving the world?

My social networks didn’t help me save the world today, or save a dog.

But they added immense value by opening up my world just a little bit more.

And it’s only by inhabiting an open, forward-looking world that we can progress, not one that shutters and bars the doors to change.

Thank you, SM; and thank you everyone who gave me such great suggestions.

I’m here because you are.

Why “Like” Is a Four-Letter Word

“Like” is the four-letter word that outdoes them all.

I’ve been trying to figure out why I reacted so strongly to Facebook’s announcement that their “like” button is the new green.

OK, they didn’t exactly say that, but that’s what it amounts to, doesn’t it?

From now on, you won’t be able to “fan” a page on Facebook, you’ll “like” it. (Hello, Mashable, didn’t you get the memo?) You won’t become the fan of a brand, you’ll “like” it.

Image: Alba Danés, Creative Commons

When you go to CNN.com, for example, you’ll be able to see what other people have “liked;” when you shop, you’ll be able to see what your “friends” “like.” And so on and so on, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

The best commentary I’ve found to date on this development is Robert Scoble’s. If you haven’t already, you should read it.

I get the pros for businesses and the cons for individuals.  Heck, Google’s already taken over the world, why shouldn’t Facebook have its shot at it? So I’m not really going to bother with the whys and wheretofors of it. It’s here and it’s probably not going anywhere.

What sticks in my craw a bit is how ubiquitous the word “like” – and its implications thereof – has become.

Where did our passion go?

As a consumer, I don’t “like” Elvis. I LOVE Elvis. And Elvis Presley Enterprises benefits.

As an independent PR practitioner, I don’t “like” Tungle. I ♥ it big time. And Tungle benefits.

As a content-sharer, I don’t “like” Google Buzz, even though it forces me to use the word to signify appreciation for something someone’s shared. I hate it. And Google… well, Google doesn’t really care what I think.

Certainly, Facebook didn’t invent “like.” Stumbleupon‘s been doing that for a while, though at least they had the decency to add an exclamation point after, thereby giving it some pizazz.

But if all we’re going to do is get folks to “like” stuff, then we PR and marketing practitioners have our work cut out for us.

Because we need our audiences to do more than “like” us/our clients; we need them to be so motivated that they’ll actually DO something, whether it’s share, email, sign up, buy, donate, or take whatever action(s) it is we need them to take.

Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way. Here’s what some of my Tweeps had to say:

To me, “like” is the four-letter word worse than many other four-letter words. Because it’s just… so… insipid, as Kathy Moore tweeted.

Seriously, with all the brainpower at its disposal, could Facebook not have come up with something better?

My friend Desi del Valle summed it up best in an email. She gave me permission to share this with you, so here it is:

What say you?

Of Sugar And Spice And Everything Nice

It’s my birthday, and I’m taking the day off, but I needed to say this to you, so here goes:

Remember the nursery rhyme? “Of sugar and spice, and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of.” Little boys seemed to get the shaft on that one (I mean, who wants to be made of snips and snails and puppy dogs’ tails?).

That popped into my head this morning as I was looking at the incredible kindness and warmth flowing towards me today, my 40th birthday. Actually, the flow started a few days ago, when people started donating to my birthday fundraiser for Kids with Cameras via Facebook’s Causes application.

I’m thrilled to report that thanks to your generosity my goal of raising $800 was long surpassed and, as of this writing, we’re up to $966 that will go a long way in changing the lives of marginalized kids around the world. If you’d like to keep donating, though, don’t stop! Or do consider helping by “joining” the cause, spreading the word, etc. – you know the deal.

I may be beginning my own new decade today, but I’d like to think I’ve still got some sugar and spice left in me. And a large part of that is because of the people around me and I get to know each day. Social media, in particular, has opened up my world in a way I could have never conceived. So has IABC and the wonderful people I keep meeting through professional events.

And when those professional connections grow into relationships, boy, I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot. At last night’s IABC/Washington chapter meeting, for example, as I got up to make the announcements (because I’m chapter president and all), the entire room sang happy birthday to me.

WOW.

(By the way, my friend Shashi Bellamkonda took the photograph of me with Jakub Konysz, our chapter’s co-VP, Professional Development, who told me, quite sincerely, that I “look great for 40.” How cute was that?)

I am very lucky to have all of you as my sugar and spice. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I hope, in some small way, I am – or can be – that for you too.

And now – here’s to the Fab Forties. Bring ‘em on, I’m ready to rumble!

Photo: courtesy (cc) Shashi Bellamkonda www.shashi.name Social Media Swami Network Solutions

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

With IABC/Washington’s first chapter meeting of 2010 coming up next week, I thought it would be interesting to see what our moderator, Daria Steigman, had to say of the communication changes over the past decade (h/t Geoff Livingston for giving me the idea from the final BlogPotomac). That’s what our meeting’s focusing on, or “looking back, looking ahead,” as its title goes.

I know Daria will have a lot more to say come next Thursday, but in the meantime, here’s a peek into her grey matter to get you thinking. And I hope we’ll see you next week – it’s not often that Shashi Bellamkonda (Network Solutions), Torod Neptune (Waggener Edstrom), John Taylor (Sprint Nextel) and Paul Sherman (Tech Wire Publications) gather under the same roof. Early bird registration ends Jan. 12, so hurry, hurry, hurry!

What, in your opinion, is the most dramatic change we’ve seen in the communication landscape since 2001?

I tend to think that Web 1.0 and the democratization of access to information changed the landscape in the 1990s. That said, the arrival of Web 2.0, and the ability for everyone (or anyone) to be a content creator, publisher, and sharer of information transformed the communications landscape in the first decade of the 21^st century. If you think about some of the key developments and the tools we take for granted, they weren’t around when the century started. If you did a timeline of some of the key platforms, you have 2003 (WordPress, MySpace, LinkedIn); 2004 (FaceBook, Flickr), 2005 (YouTube), 2006 (Twitter).

How has this impacted you as a communications practitioner?

It’s clearly had an impact on how we do our jobs, but it has had less impact for me on how I approach it. Perhaps because I came out of the public affairs arena, I’ve always thought about audiences in buckets. By this I mean that no organization has One Audience—but instead multiple stakeholders. And while you need message consistency across your audiences, you need different language and different approaches to reach different people.

While I’ve always thought of this as “duh,” I’ve been surprised in recent years that so much of the social media conversation has been around this very topic.

From a day-to-day perspective, the biggest changes may be the speed of information and the volume of business intelligence that we need to track. It’s also the enormity of the task.

It’s not like blog posts and videos are replacing old-school marketing, because not everyone’s using social tools or using them the same way. So our jobs are just getting bigger.

At the same time, I’ve been really pleased to see the conversation move away from siloed work stations (i.e., public affairs, public relations, media relations, marketing, customer service, and so forth) to how these must be integrated for an organization to be successful.

As a business owner, I have to add one more transformative element: the democratization of access to people. These same tools that allow us to share our stories also enable us to identify and engage with people across the globe.

Is there anything you miss about “the old days”?

Not really, because I think that this shift to a more level playing field vis-à-vis access and information is a social good. And while some rail that we’re all spending our time online, I actually believe that this technology is making us less isolated.

Our communities may no longer be bounded by geography, but they’re just as strong.

What’s next?

Data, data, data. Data-driven research has always been critical, but we’re just starting to harness the enormous amount of information that is all around us. Two other big trends are mobile (of course) and real time. Real time is going to be increasingly important, both in the data context and also for reputation management.

Daria Steigman, founder of Steigman Communications, has been helping companies and other organizations tell their story for over 20 years. She’s also the author of a bimonthly column and a blog that both focus on the business of running a business, entrepreneurship, communications, social media, strategic thinking, and Independent Thinking.

Mirror Image: Carol Green

Demystifying Digital Communications

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting a couple of workshops at Goodwill Industries International‘s 2009 Summer Learning Event in Grand Rapids, Mich. – an educational “retreat” of sorts for GII employees. I say “pleasure” because the event was organized beautifully, I got to visit Grand Rapids for the first time and, most of all, the workshops were a ton of fun.

The second class I taught (the first was on measurement) was on “social media 101.” What’s delightful to me about this kind of class is that you invariably learn as much, if not more, from your audience as they do (or you hope they do) from you. It was also one of the most engaged audiences I’ve spoken to, and I think the most fun part of the session was when attendees broke into a lively discussion on the pros and cons of social media adoption for nonprofits… all while we were exploring Twitter in real time. Remember this tweet from me that day?

Yes, it was so much fun that I couldn’t spell “sizzle” properly.

What was also interesting to me was that the attendees weren’t only GII employees in the marketing/public relations departments – there were folks from HR and IT present as well. What a great demonstration of willingness to break down intraorganizational barriers to communications to achieve a shared mission.

They also gave me some new phrases to incorporate into my vocabulary, such as “paying a personal visit” to employees who might be spending too much time online in the pursuit of personal pleasures, and “excusing them” if those suspicions turn out to be true. Ha!

Joking aside, the energy in the room was great; I wish I could have captured it.

If you’re at the 101 stage when it comes to learning about social media, here’s the presentation, sans a couple of slides I couldn’t get to (I told you the session was hot).

Many thanks to all my Tweeps who helped bring Twitter alive for the attendees that day, and to Scott Henderson for the great HungerPledge case study. You rock. And since the learning process is a continuous one, if you have tips to add for “newbies,” I’d love you to chime in and leave a comment.

~Photo: fsamuels

Don’t Dig Yourself, Lazarus

Yesterday I was millions of people taken completely unawares by Twitter’s DDOS (distributed denial of service). In plain English, that means that those of us who consider Twitter our virtual world were shut out from “talking” to our tweeps, conducting our informal focus groups and taking comfort from our cheering squads while the service was suffering from an outage.

Apparently this also affected Facebook, but since I’m one of those who streams content from Twitter to Facebook, rather than vice versa (or simply versa), the T outage hit me harder than the FB one. Just like Scott Monty tweeted:

Jokes aside (or gnashing of teeth, depending on which side of the fence you’re on), the outage reminded me of just how dependent fixated we communicators can get on our favorite channels of communication.

Seriously, if something did happen to permanently shut Twitter down… or Friendfeed… or whatever your preferred digital communication channel is – what would you do? And, more importantly, how would it affect your work?

I don’t know about you, but what I’ve learned over the years – and what was brought resoundingly home to me yesterday – is that good communication is not about using just one channel effectively (or simply very often).

It’s about using the right mix of channels to achieve your (or your client’s) objectives – and always having backups.

For example…

If you normally issue news releases via a wire service, do you also have a strong list of targeted media contacts whom you can connect with if the wire service fails… or if your client can’t afford it?

If your regular media monitoring service goes down, do you have a backup such as Google Reader?

If you communicate regularly with influencers via a medium such as Twitter or Facebook, would you still be able to reach them through good old-fashioned email, or not-so-old-fashioned Google Talk, AIM or Skype?

If you’re a company that uses Yammer, do you still have an alternate way to connect with your co-workers and employees?

Would you be able to pick up the phone and – be still, my beating heart – actually talk to someone who could move your communication plan forward?

When we talk about social media paving the yellow brick road to relationship-building, we’ve got to be able to walk the talk. Because if we don’t, the very thing we tell our clients we’ll help them do is at stake.

After all, it’s not about us; it’s about helping them achieve their goals and measurable objectives. And that means using what’s best for them, not for us.

That means being able to connect, with the right people, at the right time, no matter what the technology du jour is. It means keeping our communications alive, rather than digging into a deep and narrow hole from which might – just might – constrict us.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a #twitteraddict. But I don’t want to be Lazarus.

What do you think? Do you have additional – or opposing – lessons to share on communicating in the 21st century? Do let me know and please tell me if I’m completely off the mark. This is your sandbox as much as mine.

Photo: Sarah G…

Clicking Our Way To Ending Hunger

Yesterday I came across an interesting article: “What Would You Never Sell, Though Desperate For Money?” in the Chicago Tribune (hat tip to @ColonelTribune). That’s a relevant question in these times.

But what if you didn’t even have that option? What if you didn’t have anything you would never sell… to keep a roof over your head, or stay reasonably healthy, or put food on the table?

Not a pleasant thought, huh?

Through the Communicator’s Lens

As communicators, we don’t have all the answers, much as we’d sometimes like to think we do, to ending the world’s problems. What we can do, though, is harness the power of our networks to spread awareness that results in action.

This is why I’ve joined the Pledge to End Hunger, which launches today. I’m going to do my very best to motivate my networks to take simple, easy actions that could provide 140,000 meals for children in Austin during South by Southwest 2009 (SXSW).

Why Childhood Hunger?

Share Our Strength has some heartbreaking statistics here, telling us that one in six children were at risk of hunger at some point last year. Among them are:

• 5.1 million kids —43.6%—living at or below the poverty threshold.
• 5.9 million kids living with a married couple.
• 5.8 million kids -one-third—who live in single-woman households.
• 10.6 million kids living within metro areas—5 times the number living outside metro areas.

Just One Click

All it takes is a click via this online form. For each click, Tyson Foods will donate 35 lbs of food product, the equivalent of 140 servings (Twitter flashback, anyone?).

If 1,000 people take the online pledge, a semi-trailer filled with 140,000 meals will arrive at the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas in Austin during the SXSW ’09 Interactive Festival.

Of course, you can do more. You can take the pledge yourself, tell your friends about it, change your social network avatars, join the Facebook cause… and, if your pocket allows, make a donation.

You don’t have to do any of these things – but you can help me help kids by making one click.

Will you join me?

Home Is Where The Mouse Is… Maybe

A few days ago, Pew Research’s “Daily Number” was 38%: the percentage of Americans who, having lived in more than one place, don’t consider their current community home. Given that this is a country of immigrants, that isn’t surprising, and a feeling I (a naturalized American of East Indian origin) can relate to.

A couple of days later, we had a friend over for lunch. Canadian-born, he’s worked all over the world, including in several African countries, and now calls Liverpool, U.K., home. At one point he asked, “Where do you feel at home?” Initially, my answer was, “In this country, California” – because that’s where my husband is from, that was my first experience of the U.S., that’s where many of our good friends and family still live.

“Home” Is…

I kept thinking about that question, though. Where does one really feel at home? What is it that defines “home” from “away”? Can one feel at home in several places… or none?

… Where The Heart Is?

Pew’s report answers some of these questions, and the results aren’t surprising:

Among all respondents to the Pew Research Center survey, 57% say they have not lived in the U.S. outside their current state: 37% have never left their hometown and 20% have left their hometown (or native country) but not lived outside their current state.

The Pew survey finds that stayers overwhelmingly say they remain because of family ties and because their hometowns are good places to raise children. Their life circumstances match those explanations. Most stayers say at least half a dozen members of their extended families live within an hour’s drive; for 40%, more than 10 relatives live nearby. A majority of stayers also cite a feeling of belonging as a major reason for staying put.

(Emphasis mine).

Movers are far less likely to cite those kinds of ties. Fewer than four-in-ten say a major reason they moved to their current community has to do with family or child-rearing. Most movers have five or fewer extended-family members living within an hour’s drive of them, and 26% have none. The most popular reason that movers choose a new community, selected by a 44% plurality, is job or business opportunities, according to the Pew survey. About the same share of stayers (40%) cite job or business opportunities as a major reason for staying, but far more stayers choose reasons related to family and friends.

(Again, emphasis mine).

… Or Where The Mouse Is?

Where one feels at home certainly has to do with people and community – a sense of belonging. Which is why, as I continued to think about it, I realized that I feel at home in several places. This is not only due to the people I’ve met and relationships I’ve made, but because I stay connected to them through my mouse.

I keep up with them on Facebook and certainly via e-mail. And increasingly, my online home is Twitter, where I make new connections with fascinating people every day, taking offline relationships online and vice versa. Apparently there are quite a few people around the world who are interested in what I’m thinking about, in 140 characters or less, most of whom I’ve never met “IRL.”

That goes for me too. Because of the engagement I experience online, I’m fairly certain that should I experience another physical move, this community will help me root myself offline, to the point where I begin to feel at home – wherever I may be.

How Is This Relevant to PR?

One of the fundamentals of good PR is knowing your audience. And a key element of that is having an understanding of which media they consume, and which they don’t; where they like to get their information from. In other words – where they feel at home.

The media landscape is changing dramatically; today’s shuttering of the Rocky Mountain News has been drawing national attention. Will other traditional media stalwarts, such as the San Francisco Chronicle, follow suit? We’ll have to wait and see. What we know is that consumers have more choices than ever before, and the media outlets they call home – both traditional and “new” – are growing exponentially.

Let’s forget about the media for a second.

Consider the data from Pew’s Internet & American Life Project December 2008 survey:

Over half of the adult internet population is between 18 and 44 years old. But larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past, and they are doing more activities online, according to surveys taken from 2006-2008.

Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the “Net Generation,” internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).

The Bottom Line

You may be an excellent PR professional who is not a Twitter devotee, Facebook junkie, or a fan of the countless online mechanisms that, for want of a better term, we call social media tools; and you are perfectly within your rights to remain so.

But as Internet users increasingly span generations, as millenials grow into their roles as business leaders and decision makers, I suspect you might be doing your employers or clients – and most of all yourself – a disservice if you don’t at least familiarize yourself with the online channels that help people meet, talk, work and grow – and where they feel at home.

Maybe, just maybe, home is where the mouse is.

What do you think? Where do you feel at home? Please share your thoughts and perspectives; I’d love to hear them.

Images: Pew Research Center

Through a Lens, Richly

Communicators: how do you use your lens to impact the world?

While channel-surfing a couple of years ago, I came across the documentary “Born into Brothels.” Having been born and brought up in Calcutta (now Kolkata), I was instantly captivated by the story. More than that, I was touched by Zana Briski‘s commitment to these children born, through no fault of their own, on the wrong side of the street; and her covenant to open their eyes and bring them the riches of hope – through a camera lens.

The original Kids with Cameras. Source: Kids with Cameras

The Communicator’s Lens

When “Slumdog Millionaire” swept last week’s Golden Globes, I was reminded of the “kids with cameras,” and the power an image has to convey what, often, 516 words cannot. That is the essence of what we, as communicators, should aspire to, isn’t it? To convey a message to our audiences in such an efficient and impactful way that they are moved to action, enabling our clients or organizations to achieve their goals.

As communicators, we each have a unique lens through which we reach out to, and touch, the world.

Just in the last several days, I have come across many passionate communications professionals putting their networks to work for the greater good. Take Beth Kanter, who raised more than $3,500 for the Sharing Foundation which helps kids in Cambodia. Or Danny Brown, who’s initiated the incredible 12 for 12K campaign. You need look no further than your e-mail inbox, Twitterstream or Facebook friends to find countless examples of how an image – coupled with the power of connection – can change lives forever.

As my tribe that has overwhelmed me with birthday wishes today, I’m asking you to use the power of your lens to make a difference for the kids with cameras. You can:

• Join the Facebook group for Kids with Cameras. (We can’t donate to them via Facebook right now, but we’ll find a way to help them.)
• Donate whatever you can – whether it’s $5 or $50, directly to Kids with Cameras. If you’re clicking through from this post, please select “Hope House,” since Avijit is already in the U.S. If you’d like to make the donation in someone else’s name, just check that box (and if you want to make it in mine, I’d be more honored than I can tell you; just make a note of that in your comment below so that I can send you my email address).
• If the amounts in option #2 above don’t work for you, you can make a donation of whatever amount is comfortable for you by either calling or emailing them a check.
• If you’re unable to donate or join the Facebook group (I know it’s a tough time) but would still like to help, just send me a note. We’ll find a way to put our talents to work for them.
• If this cause touches you, please tell your family, friends and colleagues about it. Spreading the word is the greatest power communicators have!

You can change the world through your lens. How you do it is up to you.