The Social Path

How my great-aunt became a hit on the Internet.

UPDATE: Shortly after posting this item, I learned that my great-aunt, Genny Spencer, passed away this morning. My family and I would like to thank each of you who have expressed an interest in Genny's life and writings.

I've always been baffled by the randomness of what goes "viral" on the Internet. And over the past month, I've gotten a first-hand look at how rapidly it can happen for even the most obscure project.

On Jan. 1, I started posting my great-aunt's line-a-day diary from 1937 on Twitter. It was just a fun side project that I thought might interest my friends and family. I wrote about it on this blog at the end of January, when the Twitter account had a respectable audience of about 50 followers.

A month later, her diary has more than 2,300 followers. It has been highlighted by Twitter's co-founder, linked by dozens of blogs and referenced by other Twitter users an amazing number of times.

That's great, but if you're like me, you're wondering how the heck this happened. As with all viral phenomena, it's a strange mix of networking, luck, timing and content.

After the jump, I take a look at the time line of Genny's popularity:

Could bloggers be sued for telling the truth?

If you've ever worked in journalism, you've probably heard the expression, "Truth is the ultimate defense against libel."

Well, maybe not, according to a new court decision that could leave countless bloggers and other citizen journalists exposed to libel suits for true statements.

In a bulletin posted today, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said a federal appellate court "took a unique approach to libel law by ruling that true statements can be libelous if published maliciously."

The case is Noonan v. Staples. It deals with a Staples employee whose firing for travel and expense violations was announced via executive e-mail to 1,500 employees. Alan Noonan did not question the truth of the e-mail, but he claimed it was libelous because it was sent with malicious intent.

The issue is far from settled. But the fact that it could now go before a jury has sparked serious concerns among First Amendment activists, who call it "the most dangerous libel decision in decades."

So why is this such bad news for bloggers? Because the court's decision drew a distinction between libel rules for "public figures" (ie, anyone featured in a mainstream news publication) and libel rules for everyone else.

The Reporters Committee bulletin offers this ominous quote from Rob Bertsche, a prominent First Amendment attorney in Boston:

“It's a disastrous decision for the media, and in particular for the new media: bloggers, people who post on Facebook, indeed anyone who has a website but lacks press credentials.

"That's because the mainstream media may be protected, at least haphazardly, by an assumption that if The Boston Globe writes about a topic, then by definition the topic is one of public concern. But no such presumption is likely to protect an outspoken blogger's critical remarks.” 

Today's photo credit: Meredith Farmer on Flickr.
Hat tip to my friend and former newspaper colleague, M Hoyer.

Will social media boom in a bust economy?

At lunchtime today, I had the privilege of talking to the Birmingham chapter of the American Marketing Association about social media's growth in the recession.

This is a huge topic with no clear answers, but I tried to cover a wide range of issues that marketers (and everyone else in business these days) need to be thinking about. Here's the slide show, in case you'd like to check it out:

Will social media boom in a bust economy?

View more presentations from David Griner. (tags: social media)

So what do you think? Will social media explode at the cost of traditional marketing? How will we find a balance of trying the new without sacrificing the proven?

Does snark cast a shadow over online conversation?

If you weren't lucky enough to catch it in the car this morning, you should be sure to check out NPR's fascinating discussion of "snark" and its ill effects on the world.

I've often been called a snarky blogger, which is probably merited by some of my posts on AdFreak. But I've actually tried to avoid the sneering condescension that became synonymous with blogging due to the success of sites like Gawker.

Thanks to my time in newspapers, I know what it's like to be eviscerated by anonymous callers, bloggers and public figures. It made me come to value earnest criticism, however angry it happens to be, and ignore hollow bullying hurled from the gallows mob.

NPR's interview is with David Denby, author of a new book called "Snark." He makes a valiant attempt at drawing the distinction between snark and satire, although I don't know if he accomplishes the goal.

True snark, however dispariging, requires a decent amount of intelligence to pull off. Personally, I think the Internet is about 1,000 times more plagued by people who think "lol ur gay" is a pointed social critique.

Desperate marketing for desperate times.

ABC News has a great take today on the "Top 10 Desperate Ad Tricks in a Recession," and I'm not just saying that because they quoted me extensively (along with my stalwart blogging colleague Steve Hall of Adrants).

Here are their picks:
1. MacGruber/PepSuber
2. Starbucks offers a "value meal"
3. Wendy's 3conomics
4. Jimmy Kimmel's live commercials
5. Burger King's Whopper Sacrifice
6. Miller Lite's one-second ads
7. Hyundai offers to take back your car if you lose your job
8. Dodge offers "buy one, get one free"
9. Las Vegas courts small-town America
10. Spirit Airlines sells ads on flight attendants

So what about you? What are your favorite (or most despised) recession-fueled marketing moves out there?

Advice for mom bloggers, from mom bloggers.

Last Friday, I had the surreal distinction of being one of the very few men at BlissDom09, a new blogging conference organized by Blissfully Domestic and One2One Network.

I was there representing our client, Little Debbie, which was an event sponsor and which has been doing some recent (and rewarding) outreach with mom bloggers.

But the conference, which truly featured an all-star lineup of presenters, was also an invaluable place to hear real-life advice for bloggers, especially those looking to make money.

A few blogging tips that seemed to come up quite often over the weekend:

1. Be patient.
2. Find a mentor.
3. Set a pace you can manage.
4. Pick your money-makers carefully.
5. Be ready for marketers, whether you want them or not.

Details on each, along with some thoughts from my perspective, after the jump: