The Social Path

What is social media? The blurring of author and audience.

Late last week, I found myself in a meeting that began with a question that's always surprisingly difficult to answer: "What is social media?"

I've long since settled on my own preferred definition -- "any tool that lets you share information and network with others" -- so I was intrigued to hear the various definitions that other attendees had scoured from the Web.

One of those definitions included a line that's been echoing around in my head for days now. It said that social media is a form of online communication "in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author."

That is dead-on perfect. And I'm not just saying that because it's the definition my boss brought to the meeting.

Turns out it's just part of a summary written by Joseph Thornley, CEO of Thornley Fallis, back in April 2008. Here's the full thing:

"Social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests."

It's a bit long to spout off whenever a friend or relative asks me to explain what I do as a "social media strategist," but it's a really spectacular summary. Joseph covers millions upon millions of diverse conversations in just two sentences.

Do you have a preferred definition that you've stumbled across or just cobbled together on your own?

There's no such thing as privacy in an open universe.

I got a lot of thought-provoking feedback yesterday on my post, "Is job security keeping us from being ourselves online?" One of the most interesting responses was actually an e-mail from my close friend William Sabados, a research scientist at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

I wanted to share Bill's thoughts with you folks, since I think he does a far better job than I did of capturing the big-picture issue of online privacy:

I think (your post) gets to the crux of the problem I have with social media.  In the past I've cast the issue in terms of the open universe/closed universe assumption. If I say something in a room full of friends, I can look around and know who will hear it. The room is a closed universe. I can adjust the message to fit the context of the situation for maximum impact with minimal risk of unintended repercussions.

With Twitter or a blog, you have an open universe. You don't know who is receiving the message and you have even less idea how they intend to use the information. You cannot adjust to fit the context because there are multiple simultaneous possible contexts.

I think the real danger of the medium is when people choose to conduct themselves in an open universe as if they were in a closed universe. They choose to ignore the open universe assumption because they find it inconvenient or like to assume security through obscurity (which has been proven to be a poor strategy time and time again.) In doing such, they are taking on the risk that whatever they say can come back and haunt them.

I suppose the reality of the situation is to decide how risk-averse you are and try to post in accordance with the amount of risk you're willing to take.

I think it's vital that, as Bill says, people recognize how much of our lives exist in the open universe of social media.

As I told him in a reply, it bothers me when people acknowledge only part of the open universe ("my boss could be listening") while ignoring the bigger issues. People often seem far more concerned about saying something potentially embarrassing than they are about saying something that could potentially threaten their family's safety (pictures and names of children, public posts about being out of town, etc.).

But that's a topic for another day. Possibly another day quite soon.

Today's photo credit: brianarn on Flickr.

Is job security keeping us from being ourselves online?

If you're a young professional, the only thing scarier than the economic forecast might just be your Facebook wall.

Or your Twitter feed. Or your blog. Or anywhere else that embarrassing information might be found and cost you a job.

In recent days, the Web's been abuzz with yet another case of someone likely losing a job (or at least a job offer) because of poor judgment online. Specifically, a woman wrote on Twitter that she had accepted a job at Cisco but likely would end up "hating the work." You can read the whole story here and even check out the writer's response on her blog.

Cases like this, which are rare and usually overblown, have created a culture of fear among America's young professionals. And I personally think we all face a far greater threat from this chilling effect than from a few salacious Facebook wall posts or poorly planned Twitter missives.

Social media is exploding in popularity all around us, which should be a wonderful thing. But instead, this influx of coworkers, parents, clients and teachers has made people paranoid about being themselves.

Yes, yes, of course young people should be careful with the information they share online -- as much for security reasons as for job protection. But they should also be free to express themselves without constant fear of reprisal by puritanical rubberneckers.

I'm as guilty as anyone. I find myself being afraid to use even PG-13 language for fear of offending a paying client or Web-savvy grandparent.

But repeat after me: "We're all adults here."

Adults use salty language. Adults have political opinions. Adults drink alcoholic beverages.

We can do our best to avoid this stuff hitting the Web in places that overlap with our professional lives, but we can't stop it.

I used to have a theory that we'd all be saved by "mutually assured destruction" — ie, let he among us without sin throw the first drunken Flickr party pics.

These days, I worry we're far more likely to hide behind the protection of "mutually assured dullness." At that point, we can probably save ourselves some irony by no longer calling it social media.

Today's photo credit: PhoenixDailyPhoto on Flickr.

No one would shut up about Twitter this week.

Luckie's social media intern, Whitney Sides, returns with the second installment of The Social Pathology Report, your weekly lump of links and likes.

Let's get right to it. Twitter was a big hit (as it always seems to be on CNN and with every imaginable celebrity) and garnered hot-topic status this week.

• Expanding at a mildly impressive 1,382%, Twitter was the fastest growing online community of the past year, eclipsing Facebook and new kid on the block Wikia. Somewhat surprisingly, the 35-49 year old age demographic dominates Twitter, making up 41% of its active members. [ReadWriteWeb]

• Milwaukee basketball player Charlie Villanueva got a scolding from his coach after tweeting "in da locker room" during halftime. [ESPN]  

• FINALLY: Digg.com's owner launched WeFollow, a user-generated Twitter directory. [Mashable]

• During a very public and noisy fight with her girlfriend Samantha Ronson, Lindsay Lohan barricaded herself inside the home and had a "Twitter meltdown". [Vancouver Sun]

• Lastly, some Twitter news in spite of itself. For those hoping to expand their company's social media outreach in 2009, Adweek reports that despite the hype surrounding Twitter and Facebook, advertisers for the most part spend relatively little (under $100,000) on social media marketing. [Adweek] 

In a few of the week's only non-Twitter news items:

• An unofficial Facebook application asked users to rate the network's recent redesign. 94% of the notoriously growsy bunch gave the new look and interface a thumbs-down. [ReadWriteWeb]
• YouTube can actually be heart-wearming. No, seriously. A teenager used the video site to find his laid-off dad a job. [Deadspin]

If you have any tips or links worth mentioning, send me some social aggregation fodder via e-mail or on Twitter.

Whitney Sides is a social media planner for Luckie & Co., founder of the local-music blog Bham.Fm and a music blogger for AL.com. Her Social Pathology Report appears here each Friday.
 

Fear and Loathing in Social Media

It was both an honor and a blast to speak this week at the Cleveland branch of the American Advertising Federation. The crowd had some great questions and very kind feedback.

In case you're interested, here's the PowerPoint:

Fear and Loathing in Social Media

View more presentations from David Griner.

"OK, I’m on Twitter. Now what?" Tips for newcomers.

Few social media sites are being embraced by the mainstream as rapidly as Twitter. In the past few weeks, I’ve had dozens of friends, colleagues and clients sign up on the brief messaging service.

That’s great, except for the fact that Twitter is far from intuitive. New users are often confused by the process – or even the point – of posting on Twitter. So I thought I’d throw together a few tips for Twitter newcomers. (Oh, and you can always hit me up with specific questions at Twitter.com/griner.)

1. Give a little more thought to your name. Whether you want to or not, you’ll likely end up using your Twitter account for professional networking. Most longtime users recommend you go with some relatively obvious variation of your real name.

Try to avoid numbers, underscores or incomprehensible letter clusters. The ideal is to have a Twitter name you can say out loud, which is a challenge when your ID is Twitter.com/pr3ttEh0rs3z.

Oh, and changing your name is easy. It can be done in a snap from your settings page, as long as the name you want is available.

2. Before you follow a whole mess of people, go through this checklist:

• Pick your pic. Remember, your “avatar” (thumbnail photo) is going to be tiny. Clean, clear headshots are the norm, but hey, it’s your picture.
• Fill out your bio. I like ones that give the facts but also show a little of your personality.
• Use your real name and real city in your profile. These will help people find you, and it’ll ensure your friends follow you back.

3. Start talking. People will rarely follow someone who hasn’t said much. That’s often a warning sign that you might be a spammer.

Yes, it feels weird to be posting things when it seems like no one’s listening. To get started, try just sharing some interesting links, talking about the next book you want to read, or just rant about how much you hate the newest changes to Facebook. You’ll fit right in.

4. Talk to the first people you follow. Your early days on Twitter are downright zen compared to when you’re following hundreds of people. Use this time to have some conversations and get comfortable with the system.

When you see a post you want to respond to, just hit the reply symbol (a curved arrow) on the bottom right of the post. That will automatically start your next post with an @ and the person’s name. That way they’ll see your response when they check their replies.

5. Speaking of which, use your Replies tab. Better yet, search regularly for your name on Twitter Search. Many newcomers don't notice that people are talking to them until weeks later, when they finally discover these tools.

Without replies, you’re just broadcasting one-way, and that’s not what Twitter is for. (People do it, but I’m not a fan.)

6. Click on your friends’ profiles, then follow the people they’re talking to. This is the single best way to gain followers that you might actually care to read.

That’s about it! Soon you’ll be chugging along like a power user. Whatever that is.

Of course, there are a few “don’ts” to be mindful of. These are subjective, but I think I likely speak for the majority of regular Twitter users when I say:

• Don’t set up an “auto-DM.” This service by TweetLater sends an automated private message to each of your new followers. It will show up in their e-mail inbox and, most likely, make them hate you. It’s hard to say why these are so obnoxious, but they are.  Just don’t do it. It’s not being polite. It’s being a spammer.

• Don’t obsess over your follower count. It doesn’t mean a thing compared to the quality of the relationships you already have.

• Don’t use a private (or “locked”) account. It’s almost never worth it, because few people will follow you back if they don’t know what you’ve said.

• Don’t be a sales robot. If you’re on Twitter as part of your business, that’s fine. Just keep the self-promotion to a minimum. You’ll build sales and site traffic by building relationships, not the other way around.

• Don't feel you actually have to answer Twitter's standard question, "What are you doing?" That gets old fast.

• Don’t post a Tweet at halftime. I’m talking to you, CV.

Whatever your experience level with Twitter, I'd love to hear your tips for newcomers. Be sure to share in the comments. For tips on using Twitter for business, check out my slideshow, The Tao of Twitter.

Introducing the Social Pathology Report (and our new intern)

This was an exciting week for Luckie & Co. as we welcomed our new social media intern, Birmingham blogging maven Whitney Sides. As part of our cruel taskmastering, we've asked Whitney to start a new weekly feature called The Social Pathology Report. Each Friday, she'll file a digest of interesting social, advertising or tech-related news from the week that was. Here's her first roundup:

• Now that Twitter is becoming more and more universal outside the "social" and "media" realms, celebrities are jumping on board by the day. Geeksugar thinks you might want to check the new site Valebrity to see if you're really following whom you think you're following. Our shout outs: @THE_REAL_SHAQ & @richarddreyfuss). [geeksugar]

• Mashable has compiled a list of the "Top 10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs". Surprisingly, LinkedIn only managed to pull in the 4th spot. [Mashable]
• Since South by Southwest Interactive kicked off today and I've got ants in my pants until I head out to Austin NEXT Friday for the music side of things, here's a teaser to the SxSW Web Award finalists. Spoiler alert: It's hosted by a guy from The Onion, so it's gonna be G-O-O-D.  [ReadWriteWeb]
• Facebook is being touted as the new Google in this piece from AdAge, citing Hitwire's recent discovery that Facebook drives more traffic to larger sites and video sharing networks. [AdAge]
• Ever wonder what's going to happen to all your passwords after you log in to the great beyond? Joel Johnson of BoingBoing shared an article about a "Legacy Locker" that stores and protects your online accounts and access codes if you pass away. [Technologizer] 

If you come across anything entertainingly useful or just plain surprising in the brave new world of social media, drop me an e-mail or follow me at Twitter.com/brightsides.

Thanks, and have a great weekend!

In addition to being Luckie's intrepid social media intern, Whitney Sides is the founder of Birmingham's local music blog, BHAM.FM. She also helped create the social media presence for local TV affiliate CBS42.