Social Media Bible, Chapter 14: Microblogging
The idea of microblogging, that is, making comments on a variety of issues in a very succinct manner, does seem to make some sense. People are busy, and if you can get your idea across in 140 characters or less, shouldn’t that be a good thing? Of course. But if your communication is limited to “going for coffee” or “time for bed,” are you really doing anybody a service? Aren’t you then just turning Twitter into a social media game of “trivial pursuit?”
From the first time I saw Twitter (I think it was about 3 years ago) I’ve been trying to understand the business model for this microblogging site. Apparently I’m not the only one (see pg. 263). That being said, I was impressed by the Expert Insight section of this chapter in which cofounder Biz Stone explains the development of the service. Specifically: “One of the key things about Twitter is that it’s agnostic when it comes to what sort of device you prefer to use to interact with the system…mobile phone…on the web…and with thousands of third-party pieces of software.” (p. 274) I hadn’t really thought of those third-party pieces, until the book suggested we check out Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. Now, I find myself using Tweetdeck as an easy way to condense a Twitter feed. I understand I could also follow Facebook updates using Tweetdeck…one step at a time, Dave…one step at a time.
This chapter highlights some folks, mostly celebrities and political figures, who have literally millions of followers on Twitter. According to the text, one social media expert, Guy Kawasaki, suggests following every person who follows you. Why? I don’t know the answer to that one, but I did find a really good, although somewhat dated, blog post from Kawasaki talking about how to best use Twitter as a tool in business.
Although the chapter is called “Thumbs Up for Microblogging,” there are some rather negative aspects to this social medium. For example, the March 2010 study by Retrevo that revealed a real obsession with sites such as Twitter. Other negatives include the description of Microspam (p. 263), a return to my question about profitability, the concern about the number of “fails” people have encountered with Twitter, and a mention of a DDOS attack, which while defined as a Distributed Denial Of Service attack, was never really explained.
Is microblogging an appropriate strategy for every company? Is there a way to monetize Twitter or other systems? These are important questions for us to ask ourselves as Public Relations or Marketing professionals. Especially intriguing in this chapter in the section called “Microblogging beyond Twitter” (P. 270.) This section, with its mention of MANY different types of services, made me scrawl WOW across the margin of the book as I was reading it. It’s hard to not be overwhelmed.
Social Media Bible, Chapter 13: Got Video? (Video Sharing)
This is a shorter chapter than some, and as in the audio chapters, this chapter is an extension of the previous chapter in which we learned about making video blogs, or vlogs. Now, in Chapter 13, the author gives us more information about how to share those videos with others. Unfortunately, I got that sinking feeling again when the author says “you and your company already have a box of VHS tapes or video on a hard drive somewhere.” (p.243) It sounds like he means just take any old videos and post them and you’ll be successful. The mere fact that a company might use old VHS tapes should tell you this couldn’t be very NEW material, and is that really what we want companies to be posting?
I’m sorry to say it seems like the book is now taking a turn toward “do it just because you can,” rather than “do it because it’s the right thing to do for your company.” We’re still hearing the ‘What’s In It For Me’ mantra, but are we really considering how to answer that for our customers? I understand the idea of building your “Google Juice” as explained by Mr. Safko (p. 243), but just because there are millions of people looking at websites like YouTube, does that REALLY make them millions of potential customers for my particular business?
To his credit, the author does a good job of explaining how easy it is to upload videos, and enjoins us to “Just do it…gather all the videos you have on hand and start uploading them to YouTube.” (p. 244) Sometimes you do just need to get in there and try something so you’ll feel comfortable with it. But then, he suggests “make sure you have your tags picked out ahead of time” and “build your video into an RSS feed.” The problem is that tags aren’t really explained until Chapter 19 and RSS feeds are in Chapter 18.
I appreciated the explanation of peer-to-peer file sharing: Napster, Kazaa, LimeWire, BitTorrent, but I’m not sure I understand why there aren’t still legal problems for those that came after Napster. (Since the publishing of the book, LimeWire has ceased distribution of their software, under court order.)
With my apologies to the author, here’s one more dig. One of his final thoughts is that companies don’t really have to be creative…just look at some videos on other sites that are attracting attention and “create a video with the same kind of general content…” (p. 250) So the idea is to copy someone else, just because it worked for them? I can’t quite buy that, and I’d hesitate making that suggestion to any of my clients.
The Social Media Bible, Chapter 12: Watch Out for Vlogs (Video Create)
This chapter sets up the basics of how to create video blogs, or vlogs, as another way to communicate with customers. In fact, the author continues the important theme of “communities” when he says “vlogging is so appealing because it removes geographic boundaries and truly creates a global community through personal interaction.” (p. 231) The following chapter (Chapter 13) will deal more specifically with how to share these vlogs once they are created.
The reader of this chapter gets a good historical perspective on software that has contributed to the wide acceptance of watching video clips on the Internet, including Apple QuickTime, Windows Media Player and RealVideo. Of course, it was the video storage site YouTube and the advent of video streaming that really contributed to the success of video on the Internet.
I was interested to read about the Yahoo!Videoblogging group, which the author says is the most popular community of vloggers. I didn’t know such a group even existed!
The Tips, Techniques and Tactics section of this chapter is pretty sparse, basically saying get a video camera, script what you want to say, shoot some video, edit the video…and there you go. The chapter does mention several specifics in the editing section, like Apple’s iMovie, Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro. But mostly it’s “go get the software and start playing around.” That’s probably not the best way to teach us how to do something, but in this case, it is prudent advice. The best way to learn video editing is just to DO IT.
An interesting development since the book was published has been Apple’s announcement of the release of Final Cut Pro X. While this has been controversial among professional video editors, Apple is hoping this will open their software to a whole new world of consumers who want a slightly higher-end editing system ($299), without going all the way to the much more complicated Final Cut Pro. What makes it controversial is that the new Final Cut Pro X is NOT compatible with older versions, meaning an editor can’t import previously produced projects into the new software.
Although the next chapter of the book is designed to go into more detail on the uploading of video, this chapter does have a simple to understand explanation of how to use YouTube for sharing video clips. That section wisely admonishes the reader that “just because your video is on YouTube doesn’t automatically mean that others will watch it and you will become an overnight success. It is now your responsibility to drive traffic to your video.” (p. 233)
Once again in this chapter, the “Expert Insight” section is worth noting, with the senior director of marketing for Yahoo! Online search marketing explaining the process of sponsored search. He says “as you probably know, small businesses are experts at what they do, but they are not necessarily experts at advertising.” (p. 237) We all need to keep this in mind as we advise clients on the use of social media.
Chapter 11 Got Audio? (Audio Sharing)
This chapter of The Social Media Bible is really an extension of the previous chapter. While Chapter 10 was more of the basics of how to produce a podcast, this chapter goes further into the distribution of those podcasts. New information here gives a little more background on iTunes and also discussing a variety of iPhone apps. Since the book was published, Apple has now introduced iCloud, allowing users to store downloaded files in “the cloud” rather than having to have them all on your computer. I was disappointed that the discussion of iPhone apps, specifically the “identify music” function, fails to mention that a similar app is also available from other providers, such as Verizon Wireless, on a variety of other phones.
I was intrigued by the discussion of Podbean, the online service that hosts and serves up the media file that is your podcast, also providing web traffic reports. Especially interesting is the idea that Podbean has revenue potential through paid advertising, paid subscriptions and merchandise sales. I’ll be checking out this service.
The ROI section about Nicole Walker Photography was especially good in bringing social media into focus. It’s a very smart social media expert indeed who says “Our strategy was to be active in a space where our customers already were.” (p. 220). However, as with the last chapter, I’m not sure what this ROI case study has to do with the specific chapter topic of audio sharing, since podcasting was not one of the tactics used by this company.
An additional example in this chapter of the author not providing quite enough information for the reader (as I complained about in Chapter 9) is in the conclusion when he suggests that you need to “embed your podcasts on your web site and blog site,” without an explanation of how to accomplish this. (p. 223)
Social Media Bible–Chapter 10: Talking about the Podcast
Talk about timing! If you’ve ever wondered if there is any tie-in between all this “media stuff” we’ve been talking about, here’s a great example:
I had just finished reading the chapter about podcasting in The Social Media Bible when I happened to be listening in my car on my Blackberry to another podcast from comedian Chris Hardwick (mentioned in a previous blog). Hardwick was interviewing comedian Jimmy Fallon about many topics, among them social media and how it has become important to their business. During the interview, Fallon talked about, and then played, a clip of a musical spoof they had done on his late night show on NBC. When I got to a computer, I went online to see the video of that clip. So, in just a short time, I was using my smartphone (1) to listen to a podcast (2) which then steered me to a website on my PC (3) where I watched a video clip (4) of something that had been on regular broadcast TV (5). Seems like a great example of convergence of several technologies.
(For those who might be interested, the video clip was a really fun Glee-type spoof using the song “We’re not Gonna Take It” )
The particular podcast had quite a few other discussions about social media, which I may include in a future blog, but for now, let me go on to tell about why I have some problems with parts of this chapter.
First, the good news: the author does a great job of explaining what podcasts are, how to record them and how to distribute them. I like his description that podcasts are “an effective way for you and your business to be heard—to capture the valuable mindshare of customers, prospects, and employees.” (p. 190) There’s a lot of good historical information in this chapter, also, including the fact that Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod in 2001… “a thousand songs in your pocket.” I also appreciate that Safko lays out the necessary four steps for podcasting: planning, recording, editing and publishing.
Now the bad news. Author Safko says
“Podcasts allow anyone, for the first time in history, to create one’s own talk show, interview, educational or training seminar, sermon, speech, presentation, or music file that can be distributed worldwide to literally tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people who can play or download it and hear what you have to say…for free. You can create a following of colleagues, friends and customers who care about what you have to say; and by podcasting, you’ve created a viral, entertaining, and informative medium through which you can be heard.” (p. 193)
Is that really what we need? More people putting just about anything online, claiming to be experts, or entertaining, or informative…or God forbid, all three…just because it’s free? And to make matters worse, when producing a podcast, Safko says “less than perfect is okay, even better…This holds true for all social media” (p. 195) REALLY? Now it’s OK to have shoddy production values because the listeners won’t expect anything better? I absolutely disagree, as does Evo Terra in the Expert Insight section of this chapter (p. 204). And in listening to another podcast, I heard another comedian, Patton Oswalt, say there is no excuse for poor quality in a podcast, not when “you could improve the quality with items easily available at your local Rite Aid store.”
And then Safko says “With social media, the content is by the people, for the people. It’s ad hoc, fresh, spontaneous, unbiased and noncommercial.” (195) WHAT? Unbiased? Noncommercial? What podcasts are he listening to? I only listen to a couple, but they are definitely NOT unbiased and they all have a commercial sponsor attached to them.
One thing I do want to look into, because I’m not a legal scholar is when Safko says “If you aren’t smart enough to own a Mac, then you can capture a few seconds of copyright-free music from any recording, or from the Internet.” Is that really legal? My experience at a TV station would say otherwise, but perhaps the rules are somewhat different for music use on the Internet.
I’m not sure why the ROI section is included in this chapter, because it has no mention of podcasting, but it does have a good example of how social media was used to tell the story of this funding crisis.
I really liked Evo Terra’s “Expert Insight” section…well written, with suggestions about using free software such as Audacity and Levelator to make your podcast sound good. Thanks!
Another rant is over…
Chapter 9 A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (Photo Sharing)
I got kind of a negative feeling for this chapter in The Social Media Bible because the author mentions quite a few things without any explanation. For example, within a two-page spread (p. 180-181), he says businesses should upload as many pictures as possible, “entering the best meta tags as possible,”…and “remember to install a free widget, gadget or plug-in to your company web site…so that it will pull your photographs from your photo sharing web site.” Earlier (p. 179) he says to upload photos to Flickr World Map or Google Earth.
Wow! He never explains WHY you should upload as many pix as possible…he never explains HOW to enter a meta tag…he never explains WHAT are these widgets, gadgets or plug-ins…he doesn’t explain WHY to upload photos to the World Map or Google Earth… I guess we’re just supposed to go figure it all out ourselves…or hire a social media consultant for our company to make it all happen?
According to author Lon Safko, the purpose of this chapter is to show readers how to use photo sharing web sites to create revenue, and that we should “approach this process from the mind-set of a prospect or customer who is searching the site for you and your product or service.” OK, that part I understand, especially when he continues that ” if only one prospect per quarter sees your photos and becomes a customer, isn’t it worth the free posting?” At the end of the chapter, he helps calm me down a little when he says “don’t get overwhelmed,” even though it was a little too late for that by the time I read that!
The book does a pretty good job of explaining what photo sharing sites are all about, including the history of sites designed for printing of digital pix (we use Walmart’s site and Snapfish quite often for that) and the potential for using manipulation software like PhotoShop and Picasa. However, according to a recent report, with the advent of Google+, Google will drop the brand Picasa, but not the service.
A general question from this chapter: What does Windows Live Messenger have to do with photo sharing?
I do understand Safko’s conclusion that “sharing photos…is the very essence of social media. It’s all about 2-way communication. Upload your photos, create communities and start building credibility and trust with your clients and prospects.” I just think it’s a little harder to do than he makes it sound in this chapter.
The Social Media Bible, Chapter 8: The Wisdom of the Wiki
I was just recently listening to a podcast by comedian Chris Hardwick, in which he and his panel were talking about Wikipedia, both from the standpoint of it being a useful tool, but also that they get upset when they can’t change stuff on the page about them. (Ironically, the link I just included for Chris is to his Wikipedia page!)
Author Lon Safko begins this chapter by saying “these web sites truly represent the social media foundation of user-generated content and the wisdom of the crowds.” (p. 159) and ends the chapter with “a great way to collect the wisdom of the crowd.” (P. 172) Of course, that is both the good and the bad about wikis…they are the wisdom of the crowd, and you’re just never sure how much you can trust the crowd. As a teacher at the college level, I am careful to always include in my syllabus that Wikipedia is NOT an appropriate source for a true research paper. But, when we talk about that in class, I am glad to hear that many of the students understand that SOME of the info in Wikipedia (and other wikis, for that matter) is actually correctly cited, meaning you could go to the original source material…if you wanted to.
In my class, we sometimes use a form of a wiki to allow many students to participate in building a common page with information on a topic. If you’ve ever used Google Docs to share info with others, you’ve used a form of a wiki that allows several people to all be working on the same document at the same time. Safko explains it best when he says “a wiki is not a carefully crafted site for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creating and collaboration that constantly changes the web site landscape.” (p. 161)
I’ve been reading recently about what you might call an extension of the wiki process…crowdsourcing. The most recent example was somewhat controversial, when the New York Times and the Washington Post used a wiki-like method of social media input to have “regular joes” review thousands of emails that Sarah Palin had released. The Associated Press’ Mike Baker laid out the situation well in his article: Palin emails let old media test new media reporting methods.
Safko gives a great example of a wiki-like site called MyGads.com. If you haven’t yet checked out the video that explains their process, do it now. I’m already trying to figure out how I might use this in some of the classes I teach, to help students find some information they need quickly, without always having to open up their laptops to go to our classroom site (e.g., Blackboard). And if I was still in the business world, I’d be considering ways to develop a wiki to allow employees to share ideas about how to do their jobs better…with everyone contributing and seeing what others have contributed.
Of course, it is still an issue that wikis allow ANYONE to add to or change the information that has been posted there. But as long as you can live with that, it could be a good tactic to help your company.
The Social Media Bible: Chapter 7 The Ubiquitous Blog
Keeping up with all the good information that’s available in blogs could almost be a full time job, because really, who DOESN’T have a blog these days? Yep, “ubiquitous” is a good description: Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time. (Yahoo dictionary) And, there’s trying to keep up with all the blogs by people who THINK they’re providing good information. That’s another story.
And then, try writing a blog and keeping it up to date. For this class, people will understand if the blog isn’t updated that regularly, but if you’re idea is that your blog might actually be of value to readers…you’d better get ready for a lot of work. According to Lon Safko in Chapter 7 of The Social Media Bible, maintaining a blog requires work and a moderate amount of dedication and effort…boy is that true! Actually, I’d suggest it needs more than a “moderate” amount of dedication. I only read a couple of blogs on a regular basis, but I see excerpts from quite a few more thanks to the several aggregators to which I subscribe. What surprises me the most is how much time these bloggers must spend on OTHER blogs, because invariably there are quoted references to several other blogs within just about every blog I read. I just read this blog entry that gives some good tips for how to manage your time using multiple social media platforms. If I get much further into social media, I’ll probably need to pay attention to some of the ideas in that blog. Thanks to Katya Andresen for this post.
Safko says that although many people may try their hand at blogging, the novelty eventually wears off. He says 200 million former bloggers have already ceased posting to their blogs!(p. 146) Of course, there are many famous blogs, such as that written by Julie Powell in 2002, The Julie/Julia Project, that became a popular movie.
In this chapter, the author once again returns to the idea of citizen journalism:
“In the 20th century, professional reporters and publishers decided what the news was and determined how the public saw it. Though we might still have some professionals making these decision in the twenty-first century, we now have personal reporters and publishers–more than 50 million of them–who bring our news to us on a daily basis.”(p. 139)
But, do we want that? In my blog about Chapter 3 I addressed this issue with a link to a column by Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald. If you didn’t check out that link previously, you should do it now.
I was intrigued by the idea of a Blogger’s Code of Conduct (p. 145), but I can’t figure out how you could ever enforce such a code. The link to the info about Tim O’Reilly’s idea doesn’t work, so I couldn’t get more information about it. I even tried looking at O’Reilly’s own website, but I couldn’t find it there. Oh, well.
I also learned in this chapter about blog specific search engines, that I didn’t know existed. For example, the discussion of Technorati ratings was interesting…I don’t think my blog will ever show up there!
Three random comments from the end of this chapter:
ROI: VistaPrint…I appreciated his reference to the importance of responding to comments on your blog
I think the WordPress guy…Matt Mullenweg…looks very young.
David Risley’s 50 Rapid Fire Tips for Power Blogging…LOTS of info
One final note…I loved the author’s comment about Google Juice (155) : “the goal of this book is to squeeze as much Google Juice as possible out of your social media marketing and communications.”
Chapter 6: The Internet Forum
In this chapter, we learn that the Internet Forum was one of the first online communication tools…the predecessor to the blog. An interesting use of this forum idea is a site I’ve just heard about that basically has questions and answers on just about any topic…put together as a Forum. It is called Quora, which describes itself as “a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it.”
In the classes I teach, we use a classroom management tool called Moodle, (kind of like Blackboard) which has a Forum function available to students and teachers. I use it to have students post questions to help other students study for exams.
This chapter introduced a new term to me, Warez…works that are copyrighted and shared in violation of that copyright. This is probably one of the biggest problems on the Internet, I think. Now I have a new word to use when I talk about that. Author Safko gives a good explanation of RSS…which I now see will be a really good way to follow some of the blogs/websites that may help us in this class and others.
I was intrigued by the discussion of Forum spamming…blog comments that are obviously selling things. This is supposed to be a “no-no,” but it’s pretty obvious that some blogs police their comment sections better than others.
OK, another small issue I have with the author….his discussion of Emoticons, which he says are “visual ways to express the way you feel when words along just aren’t enough. Try some in your next text message, email or Word document.” Really? Now we’re encouraging people to use these? I get so tired 😦 of seeing these things stuck in the middle of emails and text messages. I’ll bet it IS possible to actually use language to express your feelings. 🙂
The discussion of the website empathica.com caught my interest. I didn’t think I had ever heard of it, so I wanted to check it out. But when I did, I realized that quite a few sites I have visited recently were actually surveys created by this website. Businesses interested in customer service would do well to see if Empathica.com might have something to offer them.
One more comment, on Yelp.com. From the info in this chapter, it sounded like it might be similar to Angieslist, built on the notion of community. It took me awhile, but I did finally find reviews of local restaurants and other businesses on Yelp.com. It was strange that when I first went to the website, it defaulted to giving me info in San Francisco. And when you use the pull down menu to find other cities…it is all major cities. But I eventually did find that you can search by city or zip code, and I found quite a few reviews from my city.
So, what’s the takeaway from this chapter? Businesses would do well to find online forums that might feature their type of business, then try to get reviews posted there that show the business in a positive light.
Chapter 5: The World of Web Pages
Although the sub-section title “What’s in It for You?” has been at the beginning of all but one of the previous chapters in The Social Media Bible, it seems especially appropriate for this chapter. As we delve into the World of Web Pages, it reminds us that we should be asking if we have truly investigated the NEED for this tactic for our clients…and continuing to also answer the question “What’s in It For Me?” for our client’s customers. A recent blog post by Rosanna Fiske, CEO of the Public Relations Society of America, addresses this issue asking “Do your clients or bosses really care?”
Author Lon Safko begins this section of his book by saying that once you understand the tactics, tools and strategies discussed in this chapter, you’re on your way to the potential for a more “sticky” website…to convert web viewers to viable customers. As usual, the chapter begins with a good overview of the history of the tactic, including the fact that we have Tim Berners-Lee to thank for the basic idea of the World Wide Web, his hope being that he could develop a way for computers around the world to communicate. I was fascinated by the fact that the first web pages were developed on Steve Jobs’ NeXT computer, which wasn’t successful in its first iteration because of its price tag of $6,500! Jobs eventually sold NeXT to Apple…and the rest, as they say, is history.
Completing the history section, we learn that in 1993, Mosaic, the first graphical web browser, was introduced. And shortly thereafter, dialup companies like AOL and CompuServe helped the Internet go “mainstream.” On a personal note, I joined AOL in its early years, 1996…and using their tools and a basic knowledge of HTML, I developed the first website for my employer at the time, a TV station in Sioux City. I’d love to offer a sample of my work, but unfortunately, no screen shots exist of that early site…thank goodness!
Author Safko describes the four steps in the “buying funnel”: Awareness, Search, Research and Buy. In the “buy” stage (p. 93) he says “an ideal web page delivers the specific information your prospect is looking at during the appropriate time in their personal sales cycle.” Of course, the challenge is determining when that is, which is why research is such an important term in PR/Marketing/Advertising.
I really like all the ideas given about websites, especially “make it easy for people to contact you…and signal you’re still there—often.” Frankly, that’s one of the things we didn’t do very good with that first TV station website. It was pretty much put up the site, and then change it every month or so. All of us that have had something to do with the world of web pages have learned so much since then.
I do have to disagree with Safko’s claim that “your home page is merely the cover of your book; it does not provide any of the information that your prospects are looking for.” Check out the website for just about any newspaper or TV station, and you’ll find a LOT of information that viewers are looking for. But, as mentioned above, I definitely agree that websites are providing info at the time the customer wants, and they’re looking for it voluntarily!
The section continues with the importance of page design elements and several Techniques and Tactics such as: fonts (sanserif are best), trademarks (check the rules), keywords, frames (don’t use!), Flash (use sparingly…careful of Macs), Page Titles (use explanatory, unique, compelling language), Offline marketing strategy (must align with online), platforms (lots to pick from!).
An important point when choosing a provider, if your company is not going to design your own website, is how they build it may determine how you can keep the page updated. Many broadcasters today are using a Content Management System (CMS) developed by WorldNow. When you check out some TV sites as suggested above, notice how many of them credit WorldNow for their design. (As one small example, all four of the commercial TV stations in Sioux City, Iowa use WorldNow)
I thought the ROI section was interesting…it discusses Staples development of a separate Facebook fan page focused on teen audience for Do Something 101. But, notice it was a FB page, not a traditional webpage. Several times in upcoming chapters I’ve noticed that the ROI section of the chapter doesn’t necessarily relate directly to the chapter.
At this point, it seems appropriate to quote Vint Cerf in the Expert Insight section of the chapter (p. 110): “…it has been something of a surprise to me that the users of the Internet, the consumers of information, have now become the primary producers of information on the network…”and “…we have a potential for both positive and constructive and also rather negative kinds of interactions in this online environment.” So, with that in mind, we can continue working with our clients to develop social media strategies that take advantage of those positive interactions.
Madsen Media 