Ms. Adverthinker

Here is a cool Facebook infographic shared over at Mashable.

[Source: Online PhD Programs for MashableMashable.com]

This recap is also posted on Talk Business.

This is my first time at the geek Mecca that is South by Southwest (SXSW), held annually in Austin, Texas. Anxious to jump into the experience, I obediently waited outside my hotel at 8:30 AM for the shuttle service to pick me up. The driver was there by 8:45 AM; eight stops and thirty minutes later, we actually arrived at the Austin Convention Center. (Keep in mind that the events of this first day did not actually begin until 2 PM that afternoon.) After securing my badge, bag and swag, I had nothing to do but park myself on the floor near an electrical outlet (convergence and socializing seem to occur around electrical outlets here) and geek-out with the rest of the geeks.

Guys definitely out-number the girls around here and the ages skew under 40 years old, but over 25 (although there are many that fall on either side of that range). If you are using anything but a Mac computer, you stand out as odd. Everyone walks around with his or head down, focusing on the mobile device of choice.

Themes heard on day one were (1) social media is diminishing human interaction and (2) location, location, location. There were over 60 sessions today, occurring in three scheduled time periods, so being one person, I could only attend three of those 60. My panel/event attendance for the day included:

• “Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age”
• “Do Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive?”
• “Time + Social + Location. What’s Next In Mobile Experiences?”

“Program or Be Programmed,” presented by Douglas Rushkoff, was an argument against the passive approach to the digital space that we are taking. He cautioned against the use of long-distance technologies in short-distance situations, the oversimplification of choices we are given on the Internet and translating those into life, and anonymity that the online space allows. Rushkoff highlighted the fact that until five years ago, 80% of communication was non-verbal and now most of our communication is done online, thereby negating non-verbal cues. Perhaps a bit overly intellectual, but nevertheless fear-inducing, this presentation was not what I expected to hear at festival celebrating technology.

“Do Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive?” was conversation about whether the early adopters of social media applications are right to feel ownership of the spaces, and insult when there is an attempt to incorporate aspects more amenable to the general public in an effort monetize the application or service. Basically, it was the “what do I do when my mom/my boss/my kid friends me on Facebook” discussion; “cool kids” and “suits” were simply metaphors for whatever a participant’s particular situation might have been. Because this session was structured as a conversation open to all attendees in the room, the discussion branched several different directions. Most interestingly, however, was that most people walked into the room assuming they were a “cool kid,” but soon realized they were a “suit.” At one point, even Google was likened to a suit, and it used to be the coolest kid around. The simple fact is that we are all in business to make money and to make money, we have to take on a “suit-like” attitude.

Another interesting turn in the conversation was use of the social media space and user maturity in understanding what can be said and what should be shared. There was a sentiment in the room that frequent users are being conditioned to share inappropriately; that his or her privacy filter has disintegrated. The moderator noted that the next iteration of social media will be more about improving human-to-human interfaces rather than human-to-computer interfaces.

“Time + Social + Location. What’s Next In Mobile Experiences?” was, by far, the most engaging session of my day. It was at last year’s SXSW that FourSquare took off, so it is fitting this year that there is a lot of discussion about location-based applications. In fact, there are eight sessions over the five-day festival where location-based applications will be discussed. It was standing room only in this panel-led session and a poll of the attendees revealed that almost everyone in the room had “checked in” with at least one service, and many people had checked in with two or more. Services, or applications, used included FourSquare, Gowalla, Loopt and Twitter (which just launched its location-based feature in the last couple of days), among a smattering of others. Location-based applications are services that allow the user to update his or her status (much like Twitter or Facebook), but attach a very specific location to that update, either with a dot on a map, a longitude and latitude reading, or a location defined and named by the users (a restaurant, retail location, ballroom at a convention center, etc.).

The big question about location-based updates: is it creepy and dangerous to announce your exact location to the world? The simple answer: no. The panelists quickly dismissed sites like Please Rob Me as irrelevant to the discussion because, in truth, we have been announcing our locations for years using Twitter and Facebook. By defining the location, we are creating a database for future reference of that location. We are giving those locations more meaning by being able to walk into that location at a later date and know not only who has been there before, but what they did there and what they thought about that location. The social power of location-based applications is in knowing where friends have been, not in where they are right now.

An additional twist to the location-based applications is that they award participants points for their check-ins. Frequent updating of status becomes a game, with users attempting to out-score people they have never met and reap the reward of badges and mayorship of locations where they check-in.

Day one of five is complete. I am excited to see what I learn during day two. Stay tuned.

The Interactive portion of the SXSW festival starts tomorrow and I am headed to Austin to partake in the activities.  I will be on Twitter @reeves501 and @stoneward, will be posting here at Ms. Adverthinker and on the Stone Ward Facebook fan page.  I might pop up a few other places, too, but I will direct you to those links when they happen.

For now, I am still in the Little Rock airport, where my flight is delayed.  I am hoping to make it to Austin in time to pick up my badge and registration materials tonight, and get a fresh start in the morning.  It will be a busy five days if I am going to try to stick to a semblance of this schedule.

There was a Super Bowl gathering at my abode, and in between cooking, conversation and conviviality around the Saints, we Googled, blogged and surfed the social networks.  Because we work in the business, our web use centered around the Super Bowl advertising.  And while most commercials were disappointing, there were some stood out from the overdone guy humor that was abundant this year.  I am not going to get into my opinion of what advertising was good, bad or ugly – you can find more than enough commentary about that here, here and here.  I want to talk about is the morphing of the event into an online social experience.

Watching the Super Bowl has always been a social event: friends gather, eat, drink, boo and cheer. The advent of social media made our parties grow exponentially over the last couple of years as we interacted with those we knew online in addition to those watching the game with us in person. Last year, 12% of Super Bowl viewers were online during the game, according to Mashable. But this year, rather than having to search out the pertinent discussions on Twitter and Facebook separately, communities have developed around areas of interest, be it sports, food or advertising.  Hashtags are now used more consistently, making search for relevant commentary outside those communities easier, too.  With these community hubs and hashtag prevalence, our online interactions have gone from just the people we know (and the people they know) to introductions to people, content and views we might never have stumbled upon before.  And just when we thought we couldn’t be more connected to the world.

I didn’t want the Super Bowl fun to end last night. In years past, I have only watched the Super Bowl for the commercials, and even then become bored by the second half. Last night was different, it was bigger and it felt like my world expanded just a little bit more.  And that is always a good thing for the curious being that is me.

For fun, here is my favorite commercial of the night.  Although, as it turns out, it has been around for a few months, last night was my first viewing.

Small businesses are finally starting to figure out how to make social media work them.  Take Sprinkles, for example.  They were recently highlighted in this LA Times article for their smart use of Facebook:

“Each day on the website, Sprinkles announces a secret word, such as ‘ganache,’ or ‘bunny,’ or ‘tropical,’ or ‘love,’ and the first 25 or 50 people to show up at any of its five stores and whisper that word get a free cupcake.

“‘On Facebook, we can ask our customers what’s the next location they want,’ Nelson said. ‘What do they think of our next flavor? It’s an amazing way to communicate with our fans.’”

This is exactly how small businesses (or even businesses in general) should be using the social media channels: (1) not just pushing information out to their fans or followers, but providing them with a benefit for “friending” or following them, (2) engaging them in dialogue and asking for their opinions, and (3) giving them a reason to come back to your page again and again (or keeping them from “hiding” your brand’s updates from their news feeds.

Social media channels allow small businesses, that can’t afford a website or advertising to drive customers to a website, the opportunity to set up their own space in an existing community.  Increasingly, consumers are searching out their favorite brands on Facebook and businesses that are not there are missing the chance to connect with people (and all their friends).

One local small businesses that is using social media well is The House (on Facebook with just over 1300 fans) and @TheHouseBar (on Twitter with 136 followers).  The House uses these channels to update fans/followers on changes to the menu/hours, scheduled events and when they reopened after some remodeling invited just its Facebook fans to check it out the day before the official reopening.  I don’t think that The House even has an official website: on its Facebook page, the Twitter page is listed as its web address and on its Twitter page, the Facebook page is listed as its web address.

I am sure there are several other local small businesses using social media in a smart way; please send me any examples and I will post them.

Thank you, @DanaDB, for the LA Times article link.

Check out this video with some impressive social media usage statistics.

Found in The New Yorker.

Frustrated with Facebook a few nights ago, I de-friended some people.  I cleaned house.  I assumed that no one would notice.  And I got caught.  Lesson learned: if you are active in the social media world and you live in a relatively small market, then your absence won’t go unnoticed.  I am now sheepishly re-friending.  Please consider this my apology to all my de-friended friends.  I will not blame you for not accepting me back now.

This experience has me thinking about privacy versus sharing in this age when social media participation has become expected and the societal norm.  Are we sharing too much?  Are we at a point where we expect people to share everything?  Is it weird that I find myself thinking of my daily activities in 140 character updates throughout the day (“Ms. Adverthinker is frustrated by stiff shoes that rub blisters; Band-Aid Blister Block helps though.”  “Ms Adverthinker is disappointed iPhone died, but excited about pretty pink cover avail for new one.  Damn accessories get me every time.”)?  I ask these questions when I find myself uncontrollably sucked into Facebook.

The risk we take in exposing ourselves in the online world is that we actually expose ourselves.  It seems so simple to type a few words and click a few buttons.  But the impact of these small actions can be large.  We are sharing our lives with the world.  The world.  Admittedly, in a market like Arkansas the world might be a little smaller: everyone who is online knows each other, even if they have never met.  We are all friends without actually being friends.  And I feel like I know everything about their lives.

Although I might not want to know everything about their lives, I just can’t help but read, watch and dig a little deeper.  It is human nature to be voyeuristic and social media allows us to feed this desire.   But it is easy to get caught up and overwhelmed by other people’s lives:  What does the cryptic status update mean?  Who is that person in this picture?  Why are they sad?  Why are they happy?  Who are they talking about?  Who are they quoting?  What does it all mean?! So I started thinking that I didn’t need to know everything about all of my friends.

Because I have very little self control and can’t quit Facebook cold turkey, I decided to taper cessation of the habit by cleaning the friend house.  Maybe I overreacted.  Or maybe I didn’t take it far enough; I left the door open by not canceling my account (much like cutting up your credit card when you have the number memorized: it doesn’t stop you from spending).

As an active resident of this new social media world, I should have known better than to think a person can do anything online and have it go unnoticed.

I made the point last night during SWIM that I think the media only started adopting social media at its fervent rate upon the use of social media by the Obama presidential campaign.*  His campaign used social media comprehensively and did it right.  Obama as president hasn’t let the social media advocates down: he proves that social media isn’t just for getting elected with the launch of White House 2.0.

By far, the best part of White House 2.0 is the Official White House Photostream on Flickr.  Social media is “about” a lot of things, but for President Obama it is about conveying his personality and bundling his messages up in that personality under an assumed premise that if we like him as a person, we will like what he has to say as a president, too.  That is what these photos seem to say.  And social media is good for that purpose.  We see him laughing; it seems genuine; we believe everything is going to be okay.  Our photogenic president appears serious when it is appropriate, accessorizes fashionably for events, and exudes confidence (or ego) in his overall presentation. 

In addition to the Flickr stream, on Friday the White House announced an official Facebook page, MySpace page and Twitter account.  There are also video postings by the White House on YouTube, Vimeo and iTunes.  All of this was announced as an effort to be more transparent and to engage the public.  And, they are allowing comments on all of these sites.  What I am not seeing in all of the comments are responses from the White House.  It makes me wonder if they are monitoring all of this feedback and providing a real two-way communication, or if this is simply another way to “push” information under the guise of engagement.  If they are not responding yet, I predict they will be soon: this White House knows how to use technology, the Internet and social media.

* While I recognize that many journalists and some media outlets had already recognized its power, for the rest of the slow-to-change media bunch, Obama’s success with social media was the turning point.  And now they just can’t stop talking about it.

Last week, my friend over at Blake’s Think Tank wrote a post titled “Texting Etiquette.” He was right about that feeling of wanting to stomp on his phones when having a drink, or in this case lunch, with him:

Lunch with Blake’s Think Tank
Originally uploaded by reevesemily501

Really though, I don’t mind this behavior. Because, the truth is that I am not much better than he is when it comes to watching for and replying to messages on both my Blackberry and iPhone during business meetings and social outings.  I even find my own behavior annoying at times.  I know my dad has complained about spending time with my brother and me; we are always looking at some sort of device:

Ms. Adverthinker & Brother Visit Dad
Originally uploaded by reevesemily501

In a TED Talk released this week, Renny Gleeson says that “our reality is less interesting than the story I will tell.”  And he asks that “we please make technologies that make people more human and not less.”  Watch it here:

Maybe it is a lesson we could all learn in this instant-communication world in which we live.  But, we probably won’t learn it anytime soon.

It is that time of year when high school students are starting to learn whether they have been accepted to their dream colleges.  But now, rather than knowing with just a glance at the thick or thin envelope that arrives via snail mail in the privacy of their homes, students are learning of admission decisions online.  And they are checking constantly for the updates while in the classroom.  Then, they are posting the results to their Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts.  Reported in the LA Times today, however, that public notification could cause tension among friends:

“…for every member of the Facebook nation, even a successful admissions season poses challenges: Should you post your good fortune on your home page before learning whether your best friend got in? Or check your iPhone for online decisions, with everyone watching? If you put your college wish list online, will you be humiliated if the rejections come thick and fast?

…

“Some students will frantically check their e-mail or BlackBerries at school, a scenario that recently inspired a plot line on “Gossip Girl,” the television show about a New York City prep school. (Checking their Yale applications, lead characters Serena and Dan learned they were admitted, while Blair was wait-listed, launching her on a self-destructive cycle of vengeance.)”

Teens have grown up sharing everything about their lives: the good, the bad and the ugly.  Does this encourage honesty because it becomes harder to lie when everything is revealed online eventually?  Mabye that is an upside of living very public lives.  But, just as I took ettiquette classes as a child when manners were nearing extinction, I wonder if teens should be offered classes that teach them how to protect themselves in this online world as privacy is nearing extinction.

Hilarious.

Social media has come about out of a desire to share information, whether it is about our lives, our work or even nothing at all.  How we choose to use the technology has been the interesting thing to observe. Take eight minutes to watch the Ted talk below from Twitter co-founder as he talks about the evolution of Twitter use from the mundane to the informative (and I would argue, back to the mundane).  I applaud the technology and the innovative use of it by those interested in social media.  For those that are just jumping on the bandwagon: I wish you would just go away – you are cluttering the space and devaluing the tool.

Companies are finally starting to get serious about social media. The newest position at most big companies is now some sort of Director of Social Media (although the titles vary from “Director of New Media” to “Director of Conversations”). The job responsibilities include pushing information out to consumers, but also monitoring conversations for ideas or issues. Check out this Financial Times article for more details about how companies are using social media.

Obama has been lauded for his use of social media during his campaign.  And now many are anxious to see how it will transition that use into the working presidency.  According to an article in the latest issue of Wired magazine, he has many bureaucratic challenges ahead of him.  But Obama’s public has high expectations of transparency while he is in office.  They have become used to seeing him on YouTube (currently 20+ million views), reading his tweets (currently 144,000 followers) and staying updated through his Facebook page (currently 4.4+ million supporters).  And they don’t mind getting emails and text messages from him when the message is timely.  The power of social media on his being elected was evident.  Allowing Americans this same acces to him while in office can also have a powerful effect: engaging and educating more people in the work of government.  I hope that his office is able to overcome the challenges and share as much about the work of the president as possible.  If they can achieve this, we will have a more educated voter pool in four years.

Companies can learn from Obama’s successful foray in the world of social media.  It is where the people are, and they are there to listen and learn.  If you have something worthwhile to say, they will listen and share it with their friends.  It takes dedication and a lot of work.  And you have to experiement with all the channels to find the combination that works for your brand messages.