Jason Falls

I’m proud to say the first legal action that may (I have my fingers firmly crossed) smack newspapers right across the face for allowing their website commentors to post anonymously could stem from a case developing here in my home state of Kentucky. Kymberly Clem, a student at Eastern Kentucky University, is suing the Richmond Register and an online commentor known as 12bme for defamation.

Clem was kicked out of a mall in August of last year for allegedly wearing a dress that was too revealing. She bought it at the same mall the day before. The commenter claimed on the Register’s story of the event that she was actually kicked out for exposing herself to a woman and her children who commented on the dress.

Clem’s attorney says the person fabricated something and represented it as fact. That’s defamation.

Of course, the Richmond Register is hiding behind the First Amendment right of freedom of speech, saying the paper and the commenter both have the right to speak freely in a public forum. Certainly they’re just trying to avoid paying Clem a bunch of money. Surely the people who run the Richmond Register aren’t dumb enough to believe their own argument.

The short-sighted “principles” of the newspaper industry in allowing people to comment anonymously on their websites is the primary reason most people fear public discourse on websites and blogs today. Calling the people who frequent them “people” is sometimes a stretch. The spirit of the First Amendment is to ensure that people aren’t censored and should not fear retribution for honest and fair discourse. It is not meant to protect spineless dweebs who just want to spew rumors and hate and see how many curse words they can get away with before being thrown out of the room.

A newspaper website’s comments section isn’t a public forum in the spirit of the law, either. A public forum is a town hall meeting, a political rally or an venue to discuss matters of import in the interest of public good. A newspaper website’s comments section is just a place for readers to ask for clarification, chime in with their opinion or participate in conversations around the subject. They have no greater impact that the discussions themselves.

And, of course, the fact that newspapers have allowed the dredges of the web world to rum amok on their sites means these “public forums,” while read by many of the community elite, are populated mostly by a nation of turds.

My hope is that Clem wins and newspapers everywhere do what they should have done years ago: Hold the readers and commentors accountable and responsible for their words and actions. When they do, the quality of discourse on the sites will multiply by 1,000 overnight.

If we aren’t free to see the speaker, then the speech isn’t truly free.

Agree? Not? The comments are yours.

Jason Falls

There’s a lot I love about the Web 2.0 culture. Open source platforms and the abundance of free tools and technologies available to us all are chief among them. But there is also a fair amount of insanity in those approaches that I fear is creeping up on us.

The inspiration for this post was a conversation I had with a friend the other day who said, “I love my DVR. I haven’t watched a commercial in months.” When I asked him how long he expects to still be watching his favorite shows, he looked puzzled.

“The avoidance of those commercials means those shows will eventually be cancelled,” I said. “You’re killing your own chances of being able to watch them by watching just them.”

To be blunt, those that think they’ve been getting their television for free all these years are short-sighted, if not ignorant. Your admission charge has been watching the commercials. The advertisers pay the production costs and salaries of those involved in the programs. If they don’t get a return on their investment in the programs, they don’t sponsor them, the shows get cancelled and you get pissed.

Any Jericho fans out there? Thanks for TiVo-ing it.

While social media has emerged largely because most people grew sick of thousands of marketing messages each day. They turned to emerging online technologies that enabled connections with like-minded folks for recommendations and discussions around buying decisions, hobbies and more. The ensuing culture produced a library of free services and platforms. Don’t buy it. You can find something similar online for free. Today, online users are almost offended if they have to pay for a service.

With all due respect, Mr. Anderson, the Economy of Free culture we’ve created is, in a word, stupid.

If a tool is free, then you’re likely paying for it by having to view advertisements which support its costs. Unless, of course, you’re talking about Twitter, whose business model is perhaps the only thing on the planet more elusive than Osama Bin Laden.

Venture capitalists are running all around the world looking for the next platform or tool they think Google will pay too much money for, dumping millions of dollars into businesses no more sound than Wild Stallions. (Bonus points if you get the reference.)

What we’ve created is a marketplace that isn’t sustainable. For every FriendFeed, there are half a dozen Profilactics that were much better, but didn’t have a direct connection to some Silicon Valley big shot. Anyone who invested in the also rans lost money. While I’m not one to predict all the good ideas have been had, the disproportionate amount of money that is being poured into technology startups these days makes me shudder to think what the entrepreneurs will do when the investors come calling wanting their money back.

If you’re not selling to Google, Yahoo or Microsoft within 18 months, you’re probably toast.

Then there’s the general open source movement. I love open source software but relying upon the masses for its security and sustainability scares the bejeezus out of me. I use WordPress for a lot of online publishing. What happens if Mullenweg and company decide to go open a bar or something? What happens if a meteor hits Austin during South by Southwest?

Yes, I’ll be secure knowing LifestreamBackup.com has my back. (Gratuitous plug for my new venture, but meant as lighthearted fun, not, “Buy This!” Sorry.) But can we really count on the platforms and technologies we use? Sure, the longevity of a paid content management solution is no more predictable, but when I think of “the community” of the world, “trust” isn’t something that immediately jumps in my head.

All this Web 2.0 culture shift has created a disturbing attitude in most of us toward advertising as well. We DVR our favorite shows and skip the ads. We get pissed off when we go watch something on Hulu and have to sit through a 15-second car commercial. Hulu’s tag line is, “Watch Your Favorites. Anytime. For Free.”

But Hulu isn’t free. Watching the ad is the price of admission. If you don’t watch it, Hulu will either charge you a subscription fee or not let you watch your shows.

This is why advertising is not dead and why we need to wake up and smell the rich, pure aroma of our Folgers Coffee. The Economy of Free will only last so long.

Better save your money.

Is open source sustainable? Are venture capitalists leading the world in dumb moves right now? Can television shows survive without advertising? If so, will enough people pay to watch what they want to sustain entertainment as we know it?

A penny for your thoughts!

IMAGE: By Lou Oates on ShutterStock.com. Used with permission.

David Finch

Social media is more than just a buzzword. There are opportunities and measureable results that it offers that can be extremely beneficial to companies of all sizes. While Facebook and Twitter may be included it’s more than that.

Many times people get so caught up in the tools that little time is spent talking and strategizing and about what social media can actually do. Tools are great if you know how to use them, but at some point the tools need to have purpose. It’s where there is no purpose that abuse becomes the end results.

I often hear small to mid-size companies ask to help implement social media strategies into their overall marketing plan with a skewed outlook of what social media is and what its benefits are. However, if you know what social media isn’t, than it’s a lot easier to grasp what it can do.

If you have a good product, a detailed business plan, and customer service policies in place and willing to invest time, here are a few things that social media can do for your business.

Benefits that Social Media Could Provide

• Gives you the opportunity to begin listening to what others are saying about your company online.
• Allow you to have one-to-one communication with your consumers.
• It can be used to gather feedback about new products.
• It personalizes your corporation/brand
• Provides channels to produce and distribute exclusive content that can be shared which in return extends the voice of your brand.
• Can be used to share exclusive information and offers to your loyalists.
• It’s an extension to your public relations strategies
• Provides platforms to build communities for your brand enthusiasts around your product and company.
• Offers opportunities that will bring exposure to your company.
• Provides potential opportunities for word-of-mouth buzz about your company and products.

While I know that this isn’t the end all list of benefits, it is a good place to begin thinking about the benefits that social media provides. Once you know what it can do, building strategies is your next course of action.

What has social media done for your company? Leave a comment! I would love to hear your story.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Creating and managing an online community (specialdee.wordpress.com)
• Truth and Two-Way Communication: Using Social Media for PR (kylelacy.com)
• You Still Need a Frame (chrisbrogan.com)

Jason Falls

By now you know I review tools, programs and services related to social media. The ones I really like, I mention often and even devote entire blog posts to. Now I’ve run across one that I believe so passionately about, I wanted to be a part of it. As such, I must disclose that the tool I’m about to tell you about is one I have a financial stake in. Frankly, I hope that conveys the sense of urgency and importance I’ve placed on it.

LifestreamBackup.com went live recently and offers a subscription-based service to automatically archive your content from blogs, social networks and more. For just $4.95 per month (with a 30-day free trial to start), LifestreamBackup.com reaches out and downloads your Tweets, pictures, bookmarks, documents and even blog content and backs it up.

Secure your online life for less cost than a good cheeseburger.

Backing up your lifesteam is easy. Just enter your login credentials for each service you want to back up, and set your backup preferences (daily or weekly). We take it from there. You will get regular emails confirming your backups are completed, or you can turn the email settings off knowing we’ve got your back.

We presently backup Flickr, Twitter, Delicious, Basecamp, Zoho, Google Docs, Photobucket and Wordpress content. YouTube and Facebook are coming soon. We will continue to add services based on user suggestions and feedback until we have covered as many as the users need.

And soon to be added to the list … full Gmail backups!

Where Did This Come From?

The inspiration for the service stems from many ideas, the least of which isn’t the sudden catastrophic disappearance of Ma.gnolia, a bookmarking site, in January. Thousands of users simply lost their bookmarks, never to be seen again. Suddenly, those handy Web 2.0 sites that kept all that data for you aren’t so reliable. What happens if your family catalog of Flickr images goes down in similar, fatal fashion? Or what if someone hacks into your account and destroys or deletes content? With daily backups, you’ll only lose information you may have uploaded since your last LifeStreamBackup.

We’ve got your back.

The plans are to not just backup the base information, but contacts as well. As we develop more refined processes, we will archive your Tweets, but also your followers. Your Facebook content will be in tact, as will your list of Friends. Some of these features are live and working, others will come soon as we work diligently to become the security blanket you need for your digital life.

Who Backs Up Our Back Ups?

Using Amazon’s Web Services, our application and data is not only secure, reliable and ensured using redundancy, but wholly scalable and not susceptible to spikes in traffic or bandwidth. AWS is an experienced, proven solution for both small and large web applications.

Of course, we also recommend that you periodically log in and download your latest back up files on your own hard drive. It’s as easy as a click and save from your archives page on the site.

How Is Jason Involved?

LifestreamBackup was the brain child of my friend, former notable business blogger and serial entrepreneur Rob May. He pitched the idea to me as something I might write about on Social Media Explorer. I immediately said, “I want to be a part of that.” We talked about how I could help, discussed the possibilities with his investors and reached an agreement for me to serve as product evangelist, a customer service interface (when necessary) and feature tester.

I will contribute to the LifestreamBackup Blog from time-to-time and help users understand the inherent and exponential value in such a small investment.

The reason I felt an immediate excitement for this product is simple. I have kids. While I do maintain digital back ups of our family photos on an external hard drive at home, I would be distraught if Flickr’s servers ever had Ma.gnolia-like issues. I also have a lot of content on a lot of blogs and services out there I can’t afford to lose because some semi-successful start-up gets sold to the wrong cat or can’t pay their hosting bills.

This is an insurance policy for my online life.

And I’m proud to offer it up as an invaluable service for you.

So, Does This Mean Jason Will Spam Us?

Absolutely not. You will see a small advertisement for LSB appear on SME soon. (We’ll eventually roll that program out and tell you how you can have one, too.) I will mention and link to the service when appropriate and in context, always with a reminder I’m involved with the service.

I will also talk about the service when speaking publicly, but only in appropriate context with the talk I am giving and, again, will full disclosure as to my involvement.

What Do I Do Now?

First, go sign up for a 30-day trial. It will be the most useful, but uneventful 30-day trial you’ve ever had. We do all the work. You just relax knowing your lifestream is taken care of. Once you set your services up, you theoretically never have to come to the site again and we’re backing you up daily or weekly.

Next, jump in the comments and let me know what you think of the site, user experience and ask any questions you might have. I will be happy to address them here, have Rob stop by to do the same or help you along with using the site.

And, please, if you have some feedback about my involvement with the service, I’d love to hear that as well. I’m passionate about this, folks. And would not recommend it to you or be involved with the service if that weren’t true.

The comments are yours. But first, take it from some third party folks:

• Lifestream Backup: Keeping A Copy Of Your Posts, Tweets, Photos And More (ReadWriteWeb)
• Lifestream Backup archives your online life (news.cnet.com)
• How To: Backup Your Tweets (WOTNews.com)
• Lifestream Backup Keeps Your Online Life For Posterity (AppScout.com)
• Ma.gnolia Suffers Major Data Loss, Site Taken Offline (Wired)
• Our Data on the Web- What if We Woke Up to Empty Shelves (danielabarbosa.blogspot.com)

Related articles by Jason Falls and Zemanta

Kat French

Geoff Livingston’s controversial “Social Media Is Dead” post has had me thinking a lot lately about the future of social media and my personal place there.

Unlike a lot of social media professionals, I’m not taking offense at the thrust of Geoff’s post, which as I understand it was not about whether or not social media is going to continue to be a communications channel.  It was about whether or not it was still in the “lifecycle of adoption” phase that’s his vocational sweet spot.

I really think the infographic sort of said it all: he likes to be in the space between innovator and early adopter, and social media has (in his opinion) moved on to the late adopter/laggard stage.

What I’ve been wrestling with lately is, if indeed corporate adoption and participation in social media is reaching the late adopter/laggard stage, is that even a good thing?

I know.  Blasphemy in the halls of Social Media Explorer.  Not to mention crass hypocrisy because I make my living doing corporate social media.  So I suppose I should cough up an explanation PDQ, right?

Here’s the deal, in brief:

Corporations + Social Media = Government + Religion.

More blasphemy!  And adding politics and religion to the discussion!  The comments should be really fun on this post…

Okay, assuming that statement doesn’t get me kicked off Jason’s blog permanently, let me explain that a little better.

The original ethos of social media is similar to the original ethos of most religions; counter-cultural movements with an ethos of honesty, reform, generosity, and looking out for the interests of the  small and powerless (”the least of these”) against powerful and often corrupt institutions.

What happens when those institutions and movements merge?  Historically, the intent and hope is that the movement will reform the institution.

Unfortunately, the usual result is that the institution corrupts the movement.

When it comes to corporate misuse of social media as a communications medium, we don’t have to argue whether or not it’s going to happen. We already have plenty of examples of how it already has happened.

So where does that leave a person who has been drinking the social media movement Kool-Aid for a few years and also earns a living doing corporate social media work?

Pretty much right where I want to be, as it turns out.

It’s not just Geoff who’s ready to move on to greener pastures now that the new and shiny has worn off social media.  Take a quick look around and see how few really big-name social media bloggers are still calling themselves “social media [whatever].”

I respect that.  I’m a huge believer in working from your strengths, and if your vocational bliss is firmly planted on the front end of the adoption bell curve, that’s where you ought to be.

"Poof! I'm outta here, boys!" (c) Sony Pictures

Here’s the challenge, though, gang.

The corporate social media genie, she has exited the bottle, never more to grace its groovy 60’s interiors.

Companies have entered the social media space because as a bottom-line, businesses go where the foot traffic is, and in 2009, the foot traffic on the social web is too big to ignore.

If companies are going to participate in the social web (and they are), odds are pretty good that they are going to do it badly (at least at first).  The wheel of probability pulls hard toward “they’re going to poison the well” moreso than “they’re going to allow social media to transform their business.”

Additionally, I would propose that the companies and organizations that reside in that fat tail of the adoption curve (late adopters and laggards) are disproportionately more likely to abuse social media than to embrace its ethos.

That means working with them to ensure that they see the long-term benefits of a sustainable, authentic engagement in social media, instead of trying to strip-mine the social web for some perceived fast-fix for their increasingly ineffective traditional advertising is going to be tough work.  It requires patience and perseverance and a high tolerance for frustration.  Not to mention a tremendous amount of integrity, because so many of them have already been burned by social media hucksters.

To go back to our religious metaphor, this work is not evangelism.  It’s more like pastoral work–”a long obedience in the same direction,” to quote Eugene Peterson–pointing our clients to the right path and helping deal with the fallout when they (inevitably) stray.

The biggest struggle is to actually keep steering against the current, and not to simply give up and just do whatever the client asks whether it’s a good idea or not.

(And Geoff, in the event you read this, to answer the question we talked about offline last week, my biggest mistakes in this work have been the times I’ve done exactly that–provided a client with exactly what they asked for, despite knowing it wasn’t what was best.)

This work is not for everybody.  It can be exhausting, and eventual burnout is almost guaranteed.  Honestly, moving to the greener pastures of the innovators on the bleeding edge seems pretty darn appealing, since presumably they at least cut you some slack for your mistakes because you’re boldly going where no one has gone before.

But this is where I am, and I seem to be well-suited to it.  If preventing or even slowing corporate social media participation from poisoning the well is a possibility, then it’s necessary and valuable work.  Even if social media is entering the realm of “so what?”, I’m sticking around.

In more ways than a few, mobile is really the future of not just social media, but the web in general. The more sophisticated our iPhones, Pres and Androids become, the more dependent we’ll all become on them as our primary connection point. As such, the applications and deliveries from brands and services will become more enticing.

My friends at Awesome Inc., in Lexington, Ky., are always up to something good. On July 18, they’re hosting the first of what I’m sure will be several mobile mini conferences for developers, enthusiasts and those interesting in becoming one or both. The event will consist of workshops and learning from veteran iPhone and other mobile application developers, working sessions for collaborative exploration and an application contest complete with end-of-day pitches and judging.

Visit the Awesome Inc., website to learn more about the conference. You can sign up via their Eventbrite page here.

If you don’t know much about Awesome Inc., just check out this tour and chat with Luke Murray a couple of months ago.

The bottom line: Mobile developers and those interested in becoming them should attend this. You’ll learn a ton and have some great opportunities for networking with like minded folks. And I love what the guys at Awesome Inc., are up to. Luke and Brian Raney are good peeps.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The first Best Buy iPhone app (garykoelling.com)
• Almost confirmed: Dell prepping a smartphone (phonemag.com)
• Google Mobile Lands on S60 Devices (jkontherun.com)

Jason Falls

After a recent presentation, an audience member approached to compliment my talk. “You did a good job of taking what was a very complex subject to me and refining it into something I could understand.” I was flattered and satisfied that I had helped this woman grasp a topic that intimidated her.

As I thought about her statement, it occurred to me this is what professional communicators are charged with - refining complexities into meaningful data. It’s a shame that many of us lose sight of that.

Working on a client project several months ago, I was asked to review a page of website copy for a particular initiative. The company wanted the page to communicate an urgent call to action around a specific issue. I’ve changed the industry and anonymized the information, but this is an example of what the presented copy said:

Recent safety upgrades to non-biodegradable processors required to ensure Environmental Protection Agency disposal compliance have resulted in a budget shortfall in Palookaville’s Waste Management Department. The city commission is considering several options to offset the increased expenses of the department, among them is a 25 percent increase in disposal fees for area residents. To help persuade the city commission to consider other options, please email your concerns to citycommission@palookaville.org.

It’s not that the copy is confusing. The issue is clear. But the language is corporate, complex and sanitary … exactly how most public relations and corporate communications professionals have been trained to write.

My version of the copy for the web page looked like this:

The city commission is about to increase your trash bill. Click here to fight for your money.

Which would more easily compel you to take action?

Are you writing for him or his customers?

The root of the problem is that we, as communicators, serve the wrong of our two different audiences. The two audiences are the actual one and the one that has to approve the corporate message. The actual audience (in the scenario above, citizens of Palookaville) doesn’t see the world or the issue at hand like the other (CEOs and marketing managers or their legal counsel.) The audience professional communicators end up writing for is the one that has to approve the message, not the one that has to consume it. Thus, we end up with boilerplates and industry speak and gobbletygook the average Joe or Jane Consumer doesn’t understand, or at least has the patience to get through.

In the most recent issue of the Public Relations Society of America’s monthly newsletter, The Strategist , Alison Davis of Davis & Company offers thoughts about employee communications. The same applies. Davis wrote:

“Part of the problem is that communication, in its current form, is not design to meet the needs of its employee audience. Instead, it’s shaped to appeal to our internal clients — senior executives — and the lawyers who protect them. This means that communication to employees closely resembles communication to the board of directors: strategic big-picture pronouncements supported by a lot of data.”

Davis goes on to say that employees don’t want to reject or ignore communications from the company, but the resent how it’s prepared. Employees want the information, but it needs to be communicated to them in fresh, relevant and candid fashion.

All audiences are like that. Social media has emerged as a more trusted venue for consumer information gathering because most of the talking is not done by corporate mouthpieces but fellow consumers, like-minded or interested parties and even trusted friends. But it’s not just social media that needs that level of genuine straight talk. Effective advertising copy has almost always been that which is simple, clear and definitive. Press releases have a higher chance of getting used, or even copied and pasted, if the main gist of the story is clearly defined in the first sentence or paragraph and the ensuing words provide proof points.

And, in the case of the client I recently counseled, websites written or designed with only a few, simple and direct paths of exploration or calls to action are infinitely more successful in accomplishing their intent.

When I write copy for a general audience, I always write for my step-father. He is a high school educated, working class guy. He’s plenty smart, understands complex issues rather easily, but he’s a simple, everyday guy who would rather dismiss information than go look up the definition of a word he may not know. If he has to think about the message, he’d just as soon move on to something else. To him, the sentence, “The city commission is considering several options to offset the increased expenses of the department, among them is a 25 percent increase in disposal fees for area residents,” may as well be written in Mandarin. But the sentence, “The city commission is going to jack up your trash bill.” will resonate.

The first rule of writing, at least according to Layne Tackett, my brilliant, but exceedingly annoying freshman English teacher at Pikeville High School, was the KISS rule. Keep it simple, stupid. Why do we forget that so easily?

Sure, you’re getting all this information from a long-form, prolifically wordy blogger, but the reminder is important. Take the complex, the jargony, the corporate speak and the sanitary and make it make sense. Use my step-dad as inspiration if you want. You’ll get better results in the end.

IMAGE: Copyright Natalia Macheda from Shutterstock.com. Used with permission.

David Finch

Social media is a bridge that gives you access to people, stories, and companies that at one time you didn’t have access to. It facilitates conversations that previously came by invitation only. It tears down walls and allows you to see and participate “behind the curtain.”

This whole thought of the “What Social Media Can Do for You,” has really been at the forefront of my thinking and conversation this week. Watching and listening through multiple social media channels of the ground conversations taking place around the Iranian elections has been extremely interesting, as it was during the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

We often get so engrossed in the ROI, measurements, and tools of social media that we forget real life examples of how social media can work. For example, can you recall what your world was like before social media compared to now. I guarantee it has changed.

It’s changed for me. Here’s my list and something you can build upon.

What Social Media Can Do for You

1. Allows you to participate in networks that at one time you didn’t have access to.
2. Gives you access to thought leaders
3. Connects you to employment opportunities
4. Grants you an opportunity to have face-to-face conversations with brands
5. Brings the world closer to you
6. Allows you the ability to build a global network easier
7. Provides a platform to build and promote a personal brand
8. Increases the opportunity to become a thought leader in your area of expertise
9. Provides income opportunities
10. Gives you access to raw journalism often times not available to mainstream media outlets
11. Connects you with business opportunities - partnerships and funding
12. Gives you a platform to be heard, if you’re willing to take time to listen to others.
13. Give you access to information faster, easier and in real time.
14. Makes it easier to share information with your networks
15. Through technology and social media channels you have instant access to communities and networks at all time.

OK, there’s my fifteen. What would you add to this list? What opportunity has social media provided for you? What has changed for you?

Leave a comment and share your story.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Can Twitter be journalism? (billbennettnz.wordpress.com)
• Citizen Journalism: The Key Trend Shaping Online News Media - Introductory Guide With Videos (masternewmedia.org)
• 7 Ways to Use Social Media to Build Stunning Business and Personal Brands (slideshare.net)

Time to clean out the inbox again with a Pitch Log Mashup. As a reminder, this series is a collection of the sites, services, platforms and programs I get pitched by PR folks, start-up entrepreneurs and various others that I either don’t have the time or the interest in really writing full blog posts about, but are probably somehow still interesting or useful for you.

And if you’re interested in pitching me something, increase your chances and read the “How To Pitch SME” page. If you’re wondering why your pitch didn’t make it on my list, see the, “How To Pitch SME” page. If you’re still not sure, re-read the, “How To Pitch SME” page.

My Pitch Log Mashup, Vol. 8

Free White Paper Seminar For SME Readers!

My friend Michael Stelzner, whose blog on writing white papers I’ve been reading for years, is once again giving away his expertise, but only to a select few, including SME readers. You can sign up for a free online class called, “Marketing Strategies With White Papers,” which is normally priced at $59 by clicking here. The class is online, so you don’t have to go anywhere. It’s going to take place on Thursday, July 2. If there’s one source in the world for White Papers, it’s Michael. Go check this out.

BtoB Magazine Hosting Free Virtual Event

BtoB magazine is teaming up with virtual events provider ON24 to produce a free virtual tradeshow demonstrating how to make the Web 2.0 world more effective for business. I may log in just to check out the virtual event, which is becoming a more compelling option for those who are watching their travel dollars. The thing is June 23rd. Their PR folks tell me attendees will learn about how social media can drive sales from experts at LinkedIn and Cisco. There will be breakout sessions, a vendor exhibit hall and real-time networking with other professionals using ON24 Virtual Show business networking tools, as well as Twitter. If I can carve out the time, I’m going to check it out. Perhaps you could, too.

Weber Shandwick Offers Online Video Production & Distribution

I’ve met a lot of great Weber Shandwick folks over the last couple of years. The big agency is now offering a digital video production and distribution service called Social Studio. You can learn more about it here. It took me 10 minutes, though, to figure out exactly what it was they were offering and I probably still haven’t nailed it. Worth checking out, especially if you’ve got a budget and want to do some video content online.

Twitter For Events Gets Sophisticated With ParaTweet

ParaTweet.com has launched to capitalize on the Twitter-as-event-backchannel trend. It’s a real-time, full screen display of tweets pulled from any hashtag or search term, but with powerful moderation capabilities that allow for any tweet to be approved or disapproved prior to showing on the screen. So if you’re conference organizers are nervous about updates having curse words, etc., you can use ParaTweet.com to filter them out. Or you can just filter out the Trolls who try to hijack your hashtags during conferences. The only drawback is that it’s a paid service and, frankly, is a bit on the costly side in my opinion. But it’s out there and useful.

Twitter Lexicon Becoming Useful Elsewhere

Outright.com has figured out a way to use the Twitter lexicon of @ replies to make Freshbooks a little easier to use. Instead of me trying to explain it poorly, go read their blog post about it here. Essentially, you use something like, “Paid @MackCollier $500 for social media consulting,” in your ledger and Outright translates that into the fields in your accounting system. I don’t do math, so I don’t quite get how cool (or not) that is, but you might. Go read and report back.

Add A Little Zing To The Web

Miracle Whip is attempting to spread some cyber salad dressing on the web with a new Firefox plugin called Zingr. You download the plugin and can then add a post-it note type comment to any web page. If other people have the plugin, they can see your Zing on that particular page. Interesting concept. Not sure why anyone would really do this, but it does offer a way to comment on a web page in a public fashion that can’t be edited by the web page owner. Not sure if I like that or not, but I tried it out and it’s at least interesting. Download the plugin here if you want to try it out.

A Connected Book Hits The Shelves

Iggy Pintado, one of my LinkedIn connections, has written a book called Connection Generation about how our connections determine our place in both society and business. Sounds pretty interesting. You can check out a YouTube video introducing the book, download a free chapter at the official book site or order it on Amazon.

Nice New Internet Marketing Book Available

My friends Brandon Eley and Shayne Tilley have written a book called Online Marketing Inside Out that is very useful. I gave it a quick spin and can honestly say I was surprised at how well done and wide-angle lens the effort was. (Not that I didn’t think they had it in them, just that I’ve read a LOT of online marketing books.) There’s everything from social media to affiliate marketing to paid search knowledge there. Please do check it out. If you’re hoping to use the Internet to promote your business, this book will come in handy.

Catching Wildfire For Your Online Promotion

Wildfire Interactive is in Beta with their Wildfire Promotion Builder. The concept is when you have an online promotion that is supported by video, etc., they help you distribute it across a bunch of social networks. Worth checking out.

Social Media Newsroom Made Simple

Presskit’n is live and offers an alternative to some of the larger and sometimes costly social media newsroom or social media press release solutions out there. You can do a couple of releases a month with a few images for free. There’s a mid-level and a soon-to-come pro upgrade for more space and releases. Looks like a neat solution for small businesses looking for a simple online press kit creation place.

Get And Give Advice Online At FunAdvice

Why spend time searching for advice on virtually anything when you can just ask and get an answer? FunAdvice.com seems to have that type of setup. Go there, ask for advice from fellow members and users on everything from the right MP3 player to buy to the best place to seek help for substance abuse. Interesting concept that Jeremy Goodrich and his crew have going there. They also came a smidge shy of five million visitors in May, so it’s a growing community and, thus, resource.

Online Community For Entrepreneurial Youngsters and Start-Up Types Live

There’s an online community for everything. An interesting one that came to my attention recently is Fledgewing.com. It is a ‘one-stop-shop’ for entrepreneurial students looking to springboard their careers and ideas. Josh Myers, one of the founders tells me, “The site helps get their businesses off the ground by networking them with students with complementary skill sets, matching them with mentors possessing extensive industry experience and providing a unique collaboration tool. In addition, FledgeWing launches their entrepreneurial careers by enabling them to directly showcase their abilities through its case study area and finding internships at hot new start-ups.” Worth a look see.

Allstate Offers Good Hands Community

Allstate continues to push for social media innovation. Their latest effort is an interesting one. They launched the Good Hands Community on May 4. Their objective, according to Allstate’s Ben Foster, who reached out to me, is, “to provide useful content and a discussion platform to help consumers live responsibly by helping them protect what they have and prepare for their future.” He also said it is a, “non-marketing based environment.” Which is an interesting declaration. Looks like Allstate is getting into the social media swing of things by giving great content and gathering great advice and customer insight and not just trying to sell more stuff. Nice work, folks.

Please jump in the comments and tell us what you think about any and all of the sites, platforms, services or products above. Our hope is always that we can collaborate to determine which, if any, of these items are useful for the rest of us.

Kat French

A while back, I offered up the Ten Commandments of Content Marketing here, and the always-smart Beth Harte posed a really good question:

“Can agencies participate in content marketing without crossing that ghost line (and helping companies to continue to be non-authentic)? Would the content fall more to the traditional side (while still be shareable/social?)”

Companies are always going to need content. As “the irrelevant corporate website” continues to become more irrelevant, the need for fresh, timely, engaging, useful content resources is only going to increase.

We tend to think “content marketing” is a corporate-friendly code word for “blogging.” In some cases, it is—the best problogging and corporate blogging have a content marketing mindset. But they’re not interchangeable terms.

In my mind, content marketing is… well, using your web content to market your business.

What’s the difference between a really useful blog post and an “article?” Do you really care who wrote it, if your primary interest in that piece of content is the value the content itself provides? Does making that content portable and easy to share make sense, even without a particular person’s byline? Does making it visually engaging and presenting it in a slick way make it non-authentic?

Yes, there’s a business case for having the company president blog to create warm fuzzy feelings between consumers and company. But for some companies, that’s a horrible idea and a bad fit for their corporate culture.

There’s absolutely a business case for using social media as a customer service response channel. But again, it depends on the company.

My main point (and I do have one) is that there’s also a business case for simply providing kick-ass, value-add content based on information that is either your business’ main product or service, or a by-product of your main product or service.

Transforming “information and data” into “engaging, portable, search-friendly content” is a huge, wide-open opportunity for agencies to provide value to their clients.

The beauty of this approach to content marketing strategy is that it scales down as gracefully as it scales up. Every brand, from individual consultants to multinational corporations, has a unique value proposition. Sometimes that UVP is grounded in the brand’s unique and appealing personality. Sometimes it’s grounded in a particular product, or feature, or the way the company does business differently.

It’s the “consistent, distinctive brand voice” that works equally well for a personal brand or a corporate one, and fits on the social web. And it’s time to face facts: the social web has become the mainstream web. (Hat tip to @ShivSingh of Razorfish.)

Your unique value proposition can be a great starting point for your content marketing strategy. Because it provides the “hook” that makes your content more appealing than the other guy’s (at least to the audience your business is centered around reaching).

(Extremely) Quick ‘n Dirty Guide to Content Marketing:

You* know stuff.

Offered in the right (friendly, engaging, portable) form, the stuff that you know can be helpful/valuable/entertaining to people.

People will like you for offering it to them.

People will tell others about you giving them good stuff.

Those people may well need to buy your product/service.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

* Replace “You” with “Your company/organization.” See? Still works.