David Griner is a social media strategist for Luckie & Company. He's also a contributing editor to Adweek's blog, AdFreak.com.
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Here's a presentation I gave to the Luckie & Company staff a few days ago. It's an evolution of a training slideshow I've been using for a while now, but I've updated it quite a bit. Enjoy!
As always, I'm open to your feedback and additions.
This week's installment of The Social Pathology Report seemed a good a time as any to catch you up on stories that first broke a while back. All the links have to do with ongoing issues and how they developed this week.
and finally... a Friday laugh to hopefully lift my pollen-ated spirits:
If you have any tips or links worth mentioning, send me some social aggregation fodder via the e-mail or on the Twitter.
High-speed Internet access and video sharing form a bit of a chicken-and-egg question: Is broadband evolving to meet our needs for high-definition video, or is our need for high-definition video growing as broadband evolves?
For one perspective, revisit this quote from Jim Cicconi, vice president of legislative affairs for AT&T, speaking at the Westminster eForum in April 2008:
(By the way, YouTube has since upped that estimate to 10 hours of video uploaded every minute.)
If you're like me, you might find it hard to keep up with all the different Internet access technologies that are rolling out to suit (or feed) our obsession with HD video.
First, a recap of what we have today, then we'll ease into the near future:
Dial-up
Top speed: 56 kilobits per second
How it works: Your computer uses a modem to connect to an Internet Service Provider over the telephone line. There's a lot of screaming and clanging involved, as my parents learned every time they tried to use the phone in the early 1990s.
Market penetration: 10%, according to a 2008 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Looking ahead: Obviously this granddaddy of Internet access technology is on the way out, but with prices as low as $5 a month, it still appeals to a certain casual browser set who only wants to check e-mail.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
Top speed: 6 megabits per second (100 times faster than dial-up)
How it works: Data is carried over your phone line's high-frequency band, leaving the low-frequency band free for voice communication.
Market penetration: 44% of broadband users at end of 2008 (source)
Looking ahead: With AT&T dominating the DSL market, you can probably expect this service to eventually give way to AT&T's new U-verse suite of high-speed offerings. U-verse uses fiber technology (see below), offering speeds four times faster than top-tier DSL. (Disclosure: AT&T is a client of Luckie & Co.)
Cable Internet
Top speed: 8 megabits per second
How it works: Data is sent over your cable TV's network, similar to how DSL uses your phone network.
Market penetration: 53% of broadband users at end of 2008
Looking ahead: Cable giant Comcast seems to be betting its money on a pricy new "wideband" service with a potential for reaching up to 160 megabits per second. More on that below.
Optical fiber
Top speed: 10–50 megabits per second, depending on whether the fiber comes all the way to your house.
How it works: This one can be confusing, because there are lots of fiber optic networks, but not all that many that come directly to your house. (Usually the signal gets slowed down by your existing coaxial cables and such.) But anyway, it works by sending information as bursts of light through a series of tubes.
Market penetration: About 3-5% of broadband users (that's a guess based on the numbers reported here).
Looking ahead: The big players here are Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse, though each still has a relatively limited reach. Still, expect to hear about them more and more as they gradually become the broadband standard for people currently using DSL.
Wideband (DOCSIS 3.0)
Top speed: 160 megabits per second
How it works: Upgrades current cable Internet to blast out data a whole lot faster.
Market penetration: Very small. Comcast has only rolled the service out in a few California cities, where it's $63–$140 a month.
Looking ahead: Expect Comcast to slowly push this across the nation as it fights off fiber offerings from AT&T and Verizon. But in this economy, such a steep price point might be a hard sell.
WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access)
Top speed: 12 megabits per second, so far
How it works: WiMax is a type of wireless access that can cover an entire community. That said, there's a lot of debate about whether it's a worthwhile competitor with current broadband systems like DSL and cable. You most often hear it mentioned as a "fourth generation" or "4G" wireless technology.
Market penetration: You know that new Sprint ad that mentions having 4G? That's WiMax, but it's only in Baltimore. There's also a school in Taiwan and a few other potential hotspots.
Looking ahead: There's a bit of a 4G battle simmering between WiMax and a competing technology called LTE. Sprint and Intel are the major backers of WiMax, while AT&T and Verizon have each committed to LTE. Again, it's hard to say if these cellular-oriented technologies will really replace our home broadband systems.
LTE (Long Term Evolution)
Top speed: 100 megabits per second (theoretical, but unlikely)
How it works: LTE is a 4G wireless technology that could potentially let you stream HD video and perform other ultra-broadband tasks from mobile devices. First it just needs to exist.
Market penetration: Nil.
Looking ahead: As I said above, this one has a lot of potential, not just because of its blazing speeds but also because of its support from AT&T, Verizon and other telecoms that see it as the bright and wondrous future of wireless access. At least until something better comes along.
I'm sure I've missed (and oversimplified) quite a few things, so let me know all about it in the comments.
Luckie & Co. social media intern Whitney Mitchell returns to honor us with her weekly picks for The Social Pathology Report:
After a (literally) bang-up week of tons of projects and even some injuries, I'm in a weekend kind of mood.
Hopefully you are too because there was a lofty amount of news the past few days.
If you have any tips or links worth mentioning, send me some social aggregation fodder via e-mail or on Twitter.
1. The new star-power scoreboard. Kutcher's race against CNN Breaking News to 1 million followers is
just the beginning. From here on out, expect Twitter follower count to
be a definitive sign of someone’s cultural cachet. Will that change the
content much? Probably not, but publicists and agents are going to be
working Twitter addresses into almost every sentence that comes out of
their mouths.
2. A major source of charitable donations. I was glad to see Kutcher
and CNN donating 10,000 mosquito nets to Malaria No More as part of the
race to 1 million followers. But I’m a bit leery of other
instances of celebrity generosity — namely Hugh Jackman’s challenge to
cut a $100,000 check to a nonprofit that can “convince me why using 140
characters or less.” The line between offering support and yelling
“Dance, monkey!” is a little too blurred for my comfort level.
3.The new place to "slum it." For the same reason rock stars like playing surprise gigs at small venues and hip hop moguls like to make cameos on the club scene, celebs seem to enjoy palling around with the masses on Twitter, though they obviously can't really keep up with all their hundreds of thousands of followers. That said, they tend to still favor talking to each other (when in doubt, take a look at who celebs follow -- usually it's just other stars). But even when they're chatting among themselves, the results can be pretty entertaining.
4. A place to redeem your reputation. I have to admit, I have a newfound respect for Kutcher. Until this week, I knew little more than the persona conveyed by his movies and US Weekly. Now I've seen his entrepreneurial, competitive and philanthropic sides. If he can impress me a few more hundred times, I might even consider renting "What Happens in Vegas."
What with all the tornadoes, power outages and general chaos last Friday, we're just now posting Whitney Mitchell's weekly Social Pathology Report. Sorry if the lack of links and insight wrecked your weekend. But breathe easy. We're back:
So here's what was popping up on the social media radar last week:
If you have any tips or links worth mentioning, send me some social aggregation fodder via e-mail or on Twitter.
With apologies to my readers who have a hard time watching video from work/phone/etc., I think it would be criminal to talk about the new iPhone app by Nine Inch Nails without including this summary clip:
This is a really practical yet exciting way to spread information about your band while also empowering your listeners to share pictures, reviews, remixes and more.
Luckie social media intern Whitney Sides returns with a new installment of The Social Pathology Report — and a new last name.
Happy Friday, and guess who's back?
Sorry for my lack of Luckie links last week; I got a little held up with nuptials, general happiness and, you know, things of that nature. I now have an added last name and newfound appreciation for all things people-wrangling and invitation-related. Let's hear it for being mega-social in my offline dealings as well. ("Chorus of "yays!")
Today, I'm back and full of fodder for the slightly techie, largely social folks out there.
And in 3... 2....
And I'll close on a heart-flutter note to go with the awesome week I'm having....
If you have any tips or links worth mentioning, send me some social aggregation fodder via e-mail or on Twitter.
College is great, but it's time to kiss those days of wild and free exhibitionism goodbye.
A good first step is to ramp up your privacy settings in Facebook. That way you don't lose all your photos and other digital keepsakes.
Start by limiting your exposure to non-friends on Facebook. If you're tagged in a photo from a brewfest, you might not want those shots being visible outside your network (which, for some reason, is Facebook's default). Just go to your Profile settings in the Privacy tab and make your settings accordingly.
Then I'd create a pretty thorough set of "friend lists" that covers most of the people you'll meet in the professional world. Then you can customize what each group can see on your profile. I'd recommend having groups for "Close friends," "Casual friends," "Family," "Coworkers" and "Clients." To get started, just go to your Friends page and use the tab on the left to start making lists.
There's no reason to abandon personal blogs you've been writing for years, but it's probably worth starting one that you wouldn't mind sharing with your bosses.
Use it as a place to talk about your career, your industry, your perspectives on emerging trends. If you care enough to have gotten a degree in something, hopefully you care enough to write about it on your own time.
This blog will impress potential employers and set the stage for some paid blogging opportunities once you land a job.
It's easier than you'd think to "search engine optimize" yourself. But here are a few suggestions:
• Use your real name on Twitter. The quantity of posts will destroy almost anything else Google tracks. Of course, you'll want to make sure it's a feed you want people reading. If it's not, start a new one and keep it (relatively) clean.
• Populate your LinkedIn profile with links to anything and everything you'd want employers to see. The more links, the better. And be sure to customize your URL so that it uses your name instead of a bunch of gibberish code.
• Consider using FriendFeed, which puts your social media channels in one place. I know it's not the world's most beloved social site, but it racks up pretty solid search rankings with minimal effort.
• Go ahead and splurge on buying the main URL that uses your name (MyName.com), if it's still available. Use it to park your virtual portfolio. Speaking of which....
I've long preferred Web site portfolios for design, writing or just about anything. Who wants to deal with a big obnoxious portfolio these days? Well, OK, probably quite a few people. So you'll still want to have something you can bring into an office when you lan an interview.
The good news is, there's little need to build a site from scratch. The blog platform WordPress has become so flexible, you can use it to create almost anything. It's unlikely anyone will even notice you're using a blog. To go even more simple, try out VisualCV.
This is perhaps the toughest — but also the most important — priority to set for your job hunt. Today's college grads are the keys to helping businesses across the nation understand Generation Y. Don't downplay the role you could play in helping redefine how your employer does business.
That said, always remain humble and willing to listen. The best bosses out there are the ones who are as willing to teach as they are to learn. Find one of those, and it'll probably be many years before you find yourself on the job hunt again.
