Papal Tweets

Only the Pope could start a Twitter account, not post a single tweet, and still have 116,859 followers (as of this posting). He's barely begun his social media journey, but could it be that he's already having trouble "feeding the beast"?

What suggestions do you have for the Pope, or anyone else who is considering starting a Twitter account? How should they keep it fresh, on message, interesting? I'd love to see your comments.

The evolution of social media: We don't even bother to read anymore

It's all about images now, as this article from Fast Company notes. How do you show, rather than tell, what your unit does?

Finding Your Niche in a Social Media Explosion

It seems I can't do anything in the communications world without bumping elbows with yet another one of the billion social media tools popping up these days. In the crowded room of businesses, college departments, and organizations all screaming for your attention through their various social media, it can be hard to decide what tools are best or applicable to you and your place of work. Here's a quick article on some of the newer buzz-tools out there: the new Facebook Timeline for businesses, Pinterest, and Instagram.

What's your take on these new platforms? Do you see an opportunity to use them in your workplace?

Throwing your work into the ether: measuring value

Everyone likes validation. Validation is tangible evidence that what you do is valuable. For those in a creative field it's essential, if only because for most of us the money isn't validation enough (because it's not enough money). Social media is a shining example of the power of validation. The Facebook "like" button is founded on the principle. Twitter's retweet is the same. Digg is a popularity contest. Everyone wants to go viral on YouTube. Measurement tools, metrics, and analytics are just another way to ask, 'Do people like us (me)?" In a way, it feels very much like an extension of high school. The hormones of it all are quite frankly making me breakout.

Despair
Let's assume for a second that when, for example, I write a story, it's not about me getting any sort of personal feedback--that it's about who or what I'm writing about. Now get rid of that notion. It is about me, dammit. How long would any of us keep doing something without once-in-awhile hearing an "attaboy?" Say what you will about writers having low self-esteem (it's true), but sometimes you gotta hear "good job" to believe it.

I asked a friend in a similar field about this, and, like me, he wasn't afraid to admit his deepest insecurity about self/work-efficacy. He said, "Sure, you're promoting events people might attend, making someone aware of research. They might or might not take action. But that's just too far removed...too hypothetical." His despair is my aggravation. And so, as in every situation, I first ask myself, "who can I blame?"

Assigning blame
First, I blame inadequate metrics. Metrics for online media simply aren't yet where they need to be unless you're selling something (and someone is buying). If your video of an intoxicated squirrel gets 7 million views, what does it really mean (other than being absolutely friggin' hilarious)? Who does it touch? What difference did it make in a life?

For this conversation, I reference a fantastic article on ClickZ about measuring marketing success (related), which says all I might hope to say. Suffice to say, metrics are and will continue to evolve until one day we all have high self-esteem.

Second, I blame you. And I blame me. Because it's not enough anymore to drop your work into the series of tubes (minute 2:12) that make up the internet, hearing only a "whoosh" and then...nothing...into the ether.

Solution: "Good job!"
When is the last time any of us read something wonderful and sent a note to the writer, or photographer? Why doesn't this happen? If someone sat down and told you a story in person, or showed you a slideshow, and you just sat there and didn't say anything afterwards, it would be...a very weird and awkward silence. Direct feedback can't be beat. Most of us, I'd wager, would trade 1,000 "impressions" for a direct comment any day. So next time you read something you like, send a note to say so*.

So, what are some solutions here, and how are you getting your fix? Do comments on Facebook do it for you (certainly more meaningful than "likes")? Is a retweet enough? Should the author always include a byline with an email address? Let us know in the poll.








*The irony here is that most of the time, if someone takes time to send a comment, it's negative. Nothing motivates quite like displeasure. Let's try to change the tone.

P.S. The Comm Forum does a nice job of filling this void with its yearly conference and Maroon & Gold awards program. And members are known to give the occasional shout out. But no one should need to fill out an application in order to receive positive feedback.

Have you followed @PrezKaler?

Guest blogger: Elizabeth Giorgi ( egiorgi at umn.edu )

Elizabeth Giorgi (Liz), social and multimedia coordinator in University Relations, has some words of wisdom about the whimsical world of social media. Liz manages the U's Facebook page, YouTube channel, and the recently launched @PrezKaler Twitter account. In her free time, she also blogs about social media, Internet culture, and general geekiness at beinggeekchic.com. Her conclusion here may seem intuitive: ask yourself the most important question of all: Would I read this? But the road to a good Twitter post and indeed much social media is fraught with the perils of tedium.

Here's what Liz has to say:

You may have noticed that our 16th President has a beard. Did you know that he is the first since U president William Watts Folwell? It's these kind of quirky details that we hope to capture with the @PrezKaler Twitter account.

People are already starting to ask me what my goals for our social media accounts will be in 2012. The introduction of the @PrezKaler account is a huge part of what I see as the future of social media at the U. Here's why: we tend to pay attention to and share the things that we see from friendly faces. As a large entity, we're not always effective in doing that.

When you break down the walls of academia and focus on one voice, you can make the conversation more personal and more impactful. So, how does the beard come in? One of the ideas we're playing with for November is to have people tweet their pictures of their "Novembeards" to @PrezKaler as a sign of solidarity. Who would you be more likely to send a photo of yourself to? A nameless face acting as a large department? Or a guy you see on TV or in the halls? We're betting on the latter.

Getting Twitty with it
In a nutshell: We need to be sassier, more personal, more risky, and more ever-present.
 
As for the larger accounts that do represent us as a whole, aka the University of Minnesota page on Facebook, the U's page needs to find a way to more clearly distinguish ourselves from other information on your news feed. That's where sassiness comes into play. We recently posted a photo album on Facebook with some autumnal scenes. One caption reads: "The Lilly Plaza is a little-known study spot. Oops, did we just let out the secret?!"

When you look to establish your goals for social media this coming year, think about what you can do to distinguish yourself and use a more personal voice. And ask yourself the most important question of all: Would I read this?

Review: Promoting Strategies on a Budget: Internal PR

*Note: This review will appear in next week's "Preview/Review" column in Brief.

Sometimes when we think about communications we believe them to be the sole job of professionals with focused job titles like "communications specialist." But communications--helping others understand the value and role of an organization--are most effective and persuasive in numbers.

Anna Kucera, director of marketing and public relations with the Upper
Midwest Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, had a clear
message for the several dozen attendees at the Oct. 20 UMCF event, "Promoting Strategies on a Budget: Internal PR."



Everyone in your department should be involved in communications, and
ultimately, everyone in your organization is anyway, she said. A
conversation is happening--online, in coffee shops, and in
backyards--people talk about work. Providing the tools to enable
employees to lead the conversation, and to advocate on behalf of [the
U], is ultimately a communicator's job.



"The people who work for the University need to be able to speak about what they do for the U and why it matters," Kucera said.



At her own organization, Kucera said "A lot of times our employees are
the people best connected to the communities we serve. We want to
empower them to get the word out about upcoming events, and our agenda."



Her advice was to train everyone, in the key messages (the value) of
the University, and in the use of social media (by holding social media
brown bags)--an inexpensive way to amplify 20,000 faculty and staff (and
60,000 students) who make up the U.



"Social media policy should be not only a list of what not to do, but
"to do's" and "how to's." Facilitate interactions among employees.
Empower them to reach out to their own networks in a way that
positively represents your organization," she said.



Certainly food for thought as the U approaches another important
legislative session, with tens of millions of dollars on the line.

 

One way to get involved is to join the U's Legislative Network, get informed, and get ready for action at the U's 2012 Legislative Briefing, coming Feb. 1.



Follow the U's new legislative network on its new Facebook page, and continue the conversation online.

Tweet late, email early, and don't forget about Saturday: Using data to develop a social media strategy

At this point in the social media game, there's a lot of pontification being pitched about and not whole lot of the Dragnet ethic. It's hard to say what's what about social media at this point, but this analysis gives a few great pointers. Try them out and see for yourself. A few I'm going to try to ride with:

• Tweet a lot to accumulate as many followers as possible, but if your goal is to drive more traffic to your site, you should show a little more restraint; accounts that share two or more links an hour show a dramatically lower clickthrough rate than those who share no more than one.

• Reach people when the noise of the crowd has died down. It turns out that time is often the afternoons, when blogs and news sites are slower, and the weekend, when they're all but asleep.

• Retweet activity is highest late in the work day, between 2 and 5 p.m., and the sweet spot (tweet spot?) is 4 p.m. Late in the week is most retweetable, too.

Use TweetWhen to analyze your Twitter account to see what time days and times yield the most retweets.

Read the full story at Nieman Journalism Lab.

Social media: conversation, not directives

The judges for last year's Maroon & Gold Awards were underwhelmed with how University communicators were using social media. Their comments could be summed up by saying that they feel we who are using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube need to start thinking of those formats as ways to communicate back and forth, not as one-way conversations with our audiences.

As I look at how my colleagues have been using these media during the past year, I would say we've made great strides in that direction. I'm not on the Awards Committee this year so haven't seen the entries, but my guess is the judges gave higher marks this year for all the great social media work that's been done.

Here's an article that I think makes some good, basic points about social media and how to best use it: http://tinyurl.com/4at2gr4.

Brief is on Facebook!

It was inevitable. After 41 years as the U's internal news digest for faculty and staff U-wide, Brief has dipped a toe into the cool waters of social media via Facebook.

From the salmon colored paper of old delivered in a frenzy of envelope stuffing parties, to today's all electronic variety, Brief continues its evolution. We're just now getting our feet wet, but expect that this supplement to Brief proper will go swimmingly. Our content will very often highlight faculty and staff at the U, with a particular focus on community and culture--the manifestations of our aspirations, expectations, values, systems, and programs as embodied in our people that characterize the U.

So tell us about your people. Come post on our wall.

Befriend us at http://z.umn.edu/2uv

Social Media Blunders: We Know Better

I read with some relish this piece posted today from SmartBrief on Social Media:
The Suxorz pick the worst social media moves of 2010.

I can't help it, I love to see the bad. I learn so much from it.


Remember Cisco's "Ted from Accounting"? Barely, right? It was their lame attempt to mimic Old Spice's brilliant campaign where Ismail Mustafa made videos on the fly based on tweeted suggestions.

Did you hear about Denny's asking their customers to "join the conversation"--by directing their customers to an abandoned Twitter account held by a boy in Taiwan? Anyone can make an error, but it took Denny's many months to even notice their mistake.

My favorite blunder? The Price Chopper grocery store complained to a customer's boss when she complained about the store on their Facebook page. Yikes!

As I read about these beautiful losers, I couldn't help but think that we know better here. I thought of the monthly program we had a couple years ago with Katie Elfering from Iconoculture, who taught us viral videos can be nurtured, but never controlled. And while entering social media is nerve wracking, Liz Giorgi reminded us at a social media brown bag that we have to let the audience have their say and police themselves--there is no absolute control, and that's ok. The benefits outweigh the risk.

And finally, we don't need a monthly program to tell us to check our work. The Denny's mistake is hysterical because their real Twitter accounts are much longer than simply @dennys, and they just simply didn't notice or bother to correct their mistake. We know better: check, test, recheck, retest. Then click send.

"I am," I said: Social Media and me (and Neil Diamond)

A new me is rumored to be in the works, with public release to occur later this week. The new me, called "iMe," will feature a me that can be downloaded for various tasks and fun times, ranging from "work" to "friendship" to "party buddy," without actually needing the real me to be present. The new tool will save those who acknowledge my existence considerable time. Real me could not be reached for comment, and may not, in fact, actually exist at all.

I wrote that about a year ago as a status update on Facebook. It's ironic that I'm now using it as a lead for a post about the potential ills of social media and media tech in general.

I'm not going to harp on it too much here though, except to say that there will come a day when I run screaming into the woods leaving a trail of cell phones, laptops, and probably pants, behind. Besides, plenty of dire warnings are already cropping up; but with warnings come the potential for solutions and balance. Two in particular from this past week are worth a read:

The first regards Susan Maushart, who unplugged her teenagers for six months. No Internet, TV, iPods, cell phones, or video games. She calls her book The Winter of Our Disconnect. In my opinion, the best takeaway, in easy-to-digest sound bite (tweet?) format, of course, is this line: "Her girls had become mere 'accessories of their own social-networking profile, as if real life were simply a dress rehearsal for the next status update.'"

The second comes from MIT professor Sherry Turkle, who writes in her new book Alone, Together, that loneliness is failed solitude, explaining, "If you don't learn how to be alone, you'll always be lonely. We're raising a generation that has grown up with constant connection, and only knows how to be lonely when not connected...if you grow up thinking it's your right and due to be tweeted and retweeted, to have thumbs up on Facebook, we're losing a capacity for autonomy both intellectual and emotional."

My own greatest concern with social media--and remember, we're talking about me here--is with the development--or rather, overdevelopment--of the ego. So much of the focus of so much social media is on "me."

Before you denounce me, a disclaimer: I'm not going to even begin to contend that social media is a bad thing overall (just that it is an all-consuming monster that feeds on the flesh of humans and which can never be satiated). It has the capacity to do and has already done many wonderful things, particularly in the way of charity and disaster response.

But today, it seems more and more that the new American Dream is to go "viral;" a celebrity culture where everyone is a celebrity. In point of fact, no matter how much you tweet about yourself, or how awesome and interesting your status updates are, or whether 100 million people watch your YouTube video--the majority of the world will never have any idea who you are or were. It's true: of the nearly 7 billion people in the world, nearly 7 billion of them have no friggin' idea who you are, and they never will. Fact. In some ways then, you are already dead. Sorry. My point, I guess, is this: you better make sure your intentions for using social media are about more than you.

Neil Diamond: social media pioneer
In any case, take heart: the majority of the world also has no idea who Neil Diamond is, even though he's been pumping out hit after hit for more than 30 years, and looking awesome doing it, particularly during his sequined phase. But there's an important philosophical question about Neil here apropos to my point: Is Neil Diamond's sequined shirt an accessory to Neil Diamond, or is Neil Diamond an accessory to his sequined shirt?

Neil, of course, has already posted on this exact issue, in his hit, ""I am," I said.

I leave you with some of the lyrics:

"I am," I said
To no one there
An no one heard at all
Not even the chair

"I am," I cried
"I am," said I
And I am lost, and I can't even say why
Leavin' me lonely still

I am available for karaoke upon request.

Saying No: A Case Against Social Media

Sometimes the newest and greatest isn't always the best. It seems the world is looking to social media as the solution to marketing on a budget and as the vehicle to connect with Gen Y. As is often the case, one size does not fit all.

Are you in a situation where your client wants to jump on the social media band wagon, but you know it isn't a good fit for them? How do you say no to the enthusiasm your clients might have to social media marketing? You might have a great case against social media marketing (not audience appropriate, might open up privacy issues, etc.), but here are some interesting articles in case you need additional material for your arsenal!

The Many Challenges of the Social Media Industry

Listen & Learn (Simplified Social Media Process)

The Biggest Problem with Social Media Marketing

There's More to Marketing than Social Media

The Problem with Social Media Marketing

The Problem in Social Media Marketing (is word of mouth actually good for your org?)

Is Social Media the Same as Marketing?


Is Social Media an Impediment to Problem Solving?

Duluth Forum program hit the mark

by Karen Kloser, program associate, Institute for New Media Studies.

After four years working for the Institute for New Media Studies research center in the U's School of Journalism, I have yet to meet someone who understands all the social media tools and is maximizing all the platforms and their potential.
Over the years I have looked to the Forum programs to expose me to the missing pieces.

The Forum's first program of the year, held in Duluth, did just that with guest speaker Marty Weintraub, the frenetic owner of AimClear. Weintraub, along with one of his bright, young staffers and blogger Manny Rivas for Search Engine Watch wowed attendees with their energy and command of social media and especially their work in search engine optimization (SEO).

My interest in attending this program was piqued when I read the words "reputation monitoring" in the promotion copy. Straight up, there was so much to cover in one hour that Weintraub didn't even touch upon this topic. However, I was not disappointed.

He opened the presentation with the apropos analogy comparing their agency's online marketing efforts to an ecosystem: Like nature, all social media is intertwined and interdependent, with Google as mother earth. Although Rivas was careful to remind us that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.

Weintraub also delineated online marketing into two types: free (or organic) and paid. It sounds simple enough. But as he dove deeper into their practice and strategy for search engine ranking, driving traffic, creating content, engaging communities, and harvesting high quality inbound links, I knew he was way over my head.

I didn't expect to come away from the program as a social media scholar; however, I did pick up a few tidbits to share:

• Social media dovetails nicely with customer service

• There is stunning micro-demographic diversity in FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube to be mined

• Play with Facebook's amazing advertising reach-- add some off the wall likes and interests, or change your political or religious views, and watch what appears in that right hand column of ads on your page

• Don't rule out B2B marketing, there are tons of Facebook social segments in it

• Try Facebook advertising.

Finally, the best part of Forum programs is the networking. Afterwards, Weintraub and Rivas mingled with us during the reception. Weintraub may be a wiz at what he does, but he was very approachable and came across as just a regular Midwesterner.

U. of Kentucky Encourages Students to Check In via Facebook

Here's an idea about using Facebook's new Places location service on a college campus:

The University of Kentucky has planted giant, wooden pointer thingies --
like the tab that marks the map in the Facebook Places logo -- on its
campus to encourage students to check in at school.

"We're encouraging students to check in, so when they do, it'll show up
in their news feed and maybe their friends still in high school will see
it over and over again," said Kelley Bozeman, Big Blue's marketing
director, adding that the university's marketing efforts are focused on
undergraduate recruitment.

Read more

CASE V Mini-Conference "The Meaning of 'Like': Social Media and the New World Order"

How do blogging, Facebook, and other social media impact advancement?

Discover "The Meaning of 'Like': Social Media and the New World Order" at the CASE V Morning Mini-Conference Thursday, September 16.

Find out how blogging fits in with new social media. Discover how to measure activity and its impact. And, probe a case study on Facebook ads. Presenters:

• Mark Engebretson, Director of Electronic Communications at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health

• Amy Phenix, Director, Communications and Public Relations at Macalester College

• Paul Sorenson, Director of New Media and Brand Strategy at the Minnesota Medical Foundation.

Schedule:

    8-8:30 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast
    8:30-10 a.m. Panel presentation and Q&A

Events are in the Ski U Mah Room at the McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. S., Minneapolis. Registration is only $30 for CASE V members and $35 for others.

The Conversation Prism--and bringing social media into our lives

I've had the pleasure of co-hosting two social media brown baggers for Forum members, and the events have been just like I thought they'd be. We have some stellar early adopters here at the U, and they are enormously generous in sharing what they know and how they did it. And we have a lot of people who are wondering where in the world to start. When I look at The Conversation Prism, I can understand why.

The Conversation Prism was designed by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas in 2008 to "provide a visual representation of the
true expansiveness of the Social Web and the conversations that define
it." They've since updated their graphic, and one look at their beautiful, rainbow flower of possibilities can strike fear into the heart of the part-time communicator who has, like, five minutes a week to focus on social media for her program.

A repeating question at the brown bags has been, if you think you need social media, "what do you want to get out of it?" And the Conversation Prism does a nice job of ordering our communications methods and priorities, placing Brand at the center.

Social media can be intimidating, and as the Prism so clearly shows us, the possibilities are endless and astounding--blog? Facebook? Flickr? Why? And as long as new sites and services are created and old ones fall out of favor (Friendster, anyone?) this will continue to be a fluid subject. Luckily, with a little guidance from the Conversation Prism and a lot of advice from your fellow communicators, we have the means to wrestle social media to the ground and make it do our bidding.

The next social media brown bag will be on Friday, May 21 in 202 Johnston Hall.

Technophobia: Is ____ making us _____?

We tweeted an interesting Slate article yesterday titled Don't Touch That Dial! A history of media technology scares, from the printing press to Facebook.The article reminds us that condemnation of new technologies is not new:

In parallel with modern concerns about children's overuse of technology, Socrates famously warned against writing because it would "create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories." He also advised that children can't distinguish fantasy from reality, so parents should only allow them to hear wholesome allegories and not "improper" tales, lest their development go astray. The Socratic warning has been repeated many times since: The older generation warns against a new technology and bemoans that society is abandoning the "wholesome" media it grew up with, seemingly unaware that this same technology was considered to be harmful when first introduced.

In this and other instances of societal hand-wringing, the discourse often gets stripped of nuance and turned into a blunt question, like: Is technology good or bad? Not only is that dichotomy unhelpful in thinking through the deeper issues, but it pressures people to choose a side: Are you a technophile who dives blindly into each new digital development or a luddite who takes pride in not owning a cell phone?

I've seen this false duality play out over and over in higher ed communications. The technophobia discussion is unavoidably laden with generational and age factors already. When placed in a university setting where distinct groups of young(er) and old(er) people meet, people may cling more strongly to their chosen "side" in the discussion. And, no matter your age, it's often easier to fall back on a stance of "I'm just not a technology person" than to take on new duties at work, or conversely, to invest time in sending your message through every new media without stopping to assess its importance to your audience.

I think the reason so many of the articles' headlines written on this subject are framed as questions is that there is no simple answer. And, as the Slate article says, the research fueling the news story is almost always less shocking, and may even suggest that, say, video games are good for us.

Part of me thinks that Socrates had it easy: his choice was between saying something aloud or writing it on parchment.* Now, when I want to communicate something my department is working on, I have to consider magazines, research journals, Facebook (MySpace? LinkedIn?), speeches, videos (YouTube? Vimeo?), Twitter, Google Buzz, posters, brochures, Web sites, Web apps, photo galleries, direct mail, text messaging, phone calls, fact sheets, print ads, Web ads, billboards, sidewalk chalk, blogs, news releases, guerilla campaigns, e-mails, e-newsletters, letters, banners, give-aways, booklets, slideshows, radio interviews, TV commercials, and on and on. It's easy to see why some overwhelmed journalist might ask:

Is technology making us crazy?

Though I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg, here are some related articles that have made the rounds in the past few years:

• Is Google Making Us Stupid? -- The Atlantic
• Is the Internet Making Us Stupid? -- NPR
• Is Facebook Making Us Paranoid? -- beliefnet
• Is Facebook Making Us Sad? -- Big Think
• Is Technology Making Us Dumber? -- Psychology Today
• Is Technology Making Us Idiots? -- Psychology Today
• Is Technology Making Us Lazy? -- EduBook
• E-mail is Making You Stupid -- Entrepreneur.com
• E-mails 'hurt IQ more than pot' -- CNN.com
• Twitter and Facebook could harm moral values, scientists warn -- Telegraph.co.uk
• Facebook and MySpace generation 'cannot form relationships' -- Telegraph.co.uk
• How using Facebook could raise your risk of cancer -- Dailymail.co.uk
• Warning: brain overload -- Times Online
• The Lure of Data: Is It Addictive? -- The New York Times

EDIT: I overlooked these two important articles that add to the discussion:

• How Google Is Making Us Smarter -- Discover Magazine
  
• And the Survey Says: Google Is Not Making You Stupid -- Discover Magazine

*Would it have been parchment? History majors, correct me...

Event Planning Online: 14 Essential Social Media Tools

Here's a cool posting from Mashable about using social media for event planning--from managing the planning of your event to invitations, marketing to enhancing the guests' experience.

Event Planning Online: 14 Essential Social Media Tools
http://mashable.com/2009/12/13/event-planning-tools/