Video: A Networked Society

Very interesting video about urbanization and the role technology is playing in cities around the world. A must watch.

An Intro to Google+

Saw this on Youtube and thought it would be helpful to share.  If you’re looking for a quick intro to Google+ this will do.  There are some great features to Google+ but I think the jury is still out on it.  There is no question it’s growing fast though, last I heard, some 20 million people are now on it.  Enjoy!икониПравославни икониикони на светци

How the Army is Integrating Social Media

Integrating Social Media into your organization isn’t easy.  Often times people rush off to start their company’s Facebook page only to see little to no lasting effect.  You’ve got to have an implementation strategy.  I spent 5 weeks on an internal marketing campaign that included sheet cakes, customized M&Ms, posters and more to get our staff and volunteers hyped up on the idea of new and social media.  This was before we even rolled anything out to the public.  Without good integration, you’ll lose steam.

Among the organizations that operate at large scales, deal with sensitive information and require high security, the US Army is definitely at the top.  Yet they are not only embracing but leading the way in integrating social media at this level.  On January 20, 2011, the U.S. Army released their new Social Media Handbook.  They’re working hard to ensure that soldiers, personnel and families have an understanding of social media and some best practices to abide by.  I suppose it could be very easy for the Army to take a very rigid stance on the issue and dismiss, downplay and otherwise ignore the prominence of Social Media but instead they are leveraging it.  The opening statement of the document says it all:

Team-

You already know that communicating your organization‘s messages is important. Today, it takes more than press releases to successfully communicate. Being an effective Army communicator today relies on proactive planning, nesting messages, engaging audiences on a variety of plat- forms, monitoring what is being said both online and in traditional media, and taking a proactive role in telling the Army‘s story.

This new handbook provides tips, best practices and information on operations, security tips, branding information, regulations and FAQ’s.  While there are a number of great things in this hand book to learn from, I pulled a few concepts that are helping them integrate this into their organization at the highest levels.

1.  Be Prepared

It’s easy to ignore social media for your organization (even though most people use it personally on a daily basis).  It’s also lazy to do so.  Doing the research and hard work up front can prevent a disaster later.  For the military, preparation precedes success.  Remember the 5 P’s: Poor Planning Promotes Poor Performance!

2.  Empower People

Your marketing and communications department just grew exponentially so equip them to lead the conversations.  Lack of understanding and fear of the unknown naturally kills your ability to empower those people.  Preparation enables the Army to empower potentially thousands of soldiers and their families to “manage” the Army brand.  Given enough eyeballs, a situation can quickly and easily be diffused and capitalized on but only if you learn how to empower your people.  Very powerful!

3.  Trust Your Experts

It’s so easy for every CEO, Senior Pastor, Director and or manager to think because they use Facebook & Twitter that they can develop and manage the Social strategy for their organization.  While they should help shape these policies, trusting your experts in this is key to sustainability.  Don’t take this on alone.  Trust and empower your experts to set this up properly and support them through the process.  You’ll be glad you did.  If you aren’t an expert, get some around you.  Stephen Lanza, Major General, USA writes:

I advise you to embrace social media, read through the regulations at the back of this handbook and develop a strong fundamental knowledge of these tools.  I asked the experts in my Online and Social Media Division to create this handbook to help you use these tools as effectively as possible.

Organizations open Facebook accounts everyday with little to no success but the Army is a great example of an organization that is taking the time and allocating the right resources to make sure they experience success.

 

Social TV: Facebook to create program guides based on what your friends are watching

In a June 30 article, D.M. Levine poses a new way for people to determine what they watch on TV.  Rather than search through hundreds of channels to select a program, why not use social media, Facebook in particular, to decide what to watch.  At the PromaxBDA conference attended by a crowd of media and branding “honchos,” Andy Mitchell, SVP of Strategic Partner Development at Facebook, gave his sales pitch on the ways that he believes his company can assist broadcast media to both enter and become part of the social world.  By connecting with friends and accessing a “program guide” that shows what they are watching, the experience radically changes from a random search through five hundred channels to determine what to watch.  This concept is not exclusive to Facebook; last week Comcast revealed their next generation of Xfinity TV will feature a program guide based on shows that are “trending among Facebook friends.”

Bottom line according to Mitchell:

• Social media (Facebook in particular) is in a position to change how we watch TV
• Content as well as how we connect with each other around that content will change
• Friends connecting over a program will create “recruiters” for that program
• Social media provides a new opportunity for programmers to “court new viewers”

I couldn’t find the video of Andy sharing this at the conference but here is one of him at the iBreakfast conference sharing on same topic.  The quality is bad and the cam angle is not very exciting so be warned.

What are your thoughts on social TV?  Does the TV industry need a refresh?

Down the Rabbit Hole

What happens when you travel down the rabbit hole of your web site?  Click the link on your main navigation.  Where does it lead?  Does it solve a problem or produce more noise.  Noise is information that doesn’t solve a problem.  Click another link.  Where does it go?  Keep clicking until you get to the end of the rabbit hole.  Has the experience solved anything?  If not, fix it.  If so, how many clicks did it take to get to the solution?  Can you make it better?

It’s important to do this frequently because over time we (I’m going through this process today actually) can drift from the discipline of posting information in a way that solves problems.  People don’t need any more noise in their lives, they need answers.  They need solutions.