DISQUS

Welcome to the blogosphere, guys!

Letters like this are empty threats, made to make the person receiving it scared and compliant. Most of the time, they have zero legal basis, and are just written out of anger. There's no way senior people in the company didn't see that before it went out.

It drives me absolutely crazy when companies use the legal system as a blunt instrument, and all of your points should be taken to heart by any quick-tempered CEO who reads this..

Hey Dan - it was great meeting you there. I imagine I'll see you at future conferences, and I'd love to hear about the kind of stuff you're doing at the Tribune.

I couldn't agree more. Social media has a huge potential that's simply not being met, and we're not going to change the world telling people at a social media conference how great social media is.

I'm teaching a class in entrepreneurship in January, and social media is going to be a large part of it, both in how it works, and what the broader social implications are - how it's affecting charitable efforts, research and the worldwide sharing of ideas.

My head is definitely going to be in this space in the next few months coming up to the class, but if you figure out how to fix the planet in the meantime, I'd love to hear it.

Great hack - I was peeling these little bastards for about a half hour this weekend, so I'll be sure to use this way in the future.

My hacks:

1. A slice of apple in rock hard brown sugar will turn it soft and fresh again in about an hour.

2. Wrap fresh bread in wax paper - it stays fresh almost disturbingly long with no preservatives.

We've already got over 30 RSVPs in the first day of announcing the event, so I'm glad to see there's interest in it. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

It may not be necessary right now, but as the Facebook generation grows up and becomes the new business leaders and decision makers who don't read the newspaper or consume media the way our generation does, it's going to become increasingly important.

That said, getting onto Facebook or Myspace does not give you the keys to the social media kingdom. It all comes down to strategy - go where your customers are, listen and engage them honestly... don't just use it as another venue for shouting.

Isabelle - there are plenty of case studies to show that engaging in social media does, in fact, work. The examples you point to are cases of doing it badly. Saying social media doesn't work based on that is the equivalent of sending a badly written press release out to 100 unqualified reporters and then professing that media relations doesn't work. It's not a marketing tactic, so much as something that needs to be built into the business itself.

A feeling I know all too well. One of my biggest complaints is that I use Google Apps for your domain, and I have no decent way of persistently syncing my contacts to my Mac.

I use Plaxo (I know - bad, bad spam) to sync my office and home computers, and the BES to sync that with my blackberry, but I still have my webmail contacts vs. my address book contacts vs. all of my social networking contacts.

I expect something will come out by the end of this year that will rectify this... but I don't know whether it will be a third party or a synchronization standard.

A friend of mine runs a local festival, and got a call from the Yellow Pages asking if he wanted to renew his ad. When they asked why he didn't, he replied "because it's the year 2007?"

This is one of the things I love about Twitter - so many like minds in one place. If you wouldn't mind adding me, I'd love to be part of the connection.

http://www.twitter.com/ryananderson

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I've got a great list of resources that I'll post in the new year. Hopefully, it will be helpful to someone.

Dr. Jim - public relations sounds really confusing. I think I'm going to go back to my job at KMart.

I couldn't agree more. I consider myself very well-rounded, and I find it frustrating to talk to people who have only studied, lived and experienced a one-track profession. The law, finance and engineering students I went to school with were extremely frustrating to talk to, simply because they only saw the world in one way, and it was better than yours. I was lucky enough to go to a university that offered "interdisciplinary studies," and allowed me to study through multiple schools toward one goal.

To the commenters who have come before me, though... I completely disagree with the notion that higher learning is a waste of time. Not everyone needs a PhD., or even a degree, but well-rounded learning that actually makes you think, exposes you to ideas you wouldn't be exposed to, and ways of looking at the world are never a waste of time. The list of things that I actually learned in university is fairly short (but includes the social history of the dildo) but it was that experience that broadened my horizons and ability to learn so that I could master things on my own.

I'd love to hear Tim's thoughts on the role of higher education.

I hadn't actually seen them until you pointed them out, but the NDP's use of social media tools is hands down the best of the group. Every political party has a vocal constituency full of influencers. Giving them the raw tools to promote the party's cause and get their word out seems like a no-brainer to me... especially the video widget.

Personally, I think that all candidates need to embrace social media a whole lot more and focus less on filtering their image through the media. Because there's so much focus on distorting the image of a leader by other parties, it's extremely important to be actively creating your own image. If Layton wants to be the political everyman, he could do worse than to tear down the smiling politician photos and rhetoric filled bios, and address his constituents with transparency and authenticity personally through blogs and videos that are linkable, sharable and stimulate conversation.

It's hard to get a politician to take a risk, though. The first time there's an American president who the media deems as "elected by bloggers," every politician in the country will adopt the view.

Wow - you guys are aiming high. I was going to suggest a couple months of weekly lifestyle coaching over Skype.

How about that, plus seven continents, plus a pony?

These are really good techniques. It's important to remember though, that it would be virtually impossible to execute in a real life situation unless it was practiced extensively beforehand. In a stressful situation, it's only muscle memory and experience that would allow you to execute any type of defense like these. The best advice for women with no training is to stay out of potentially dangerous situations (parking lots at night, etc.) and to not be afraid to yell - very, very loudly. I recommend for every woman to take at least some basic self defense from a good school.

That said - great videos. You're an excellent teacher.

One of the things that has always bothered me about both sites is that they are just what you said. Strong branding, clear messages, text and photos. Nothing at all remarkable about either one of them. The next election is going to be won or lost online, and both parties are going to have to look beyond "we could... start a blog" for their web strategy. If I didn't abhor politics and even moreso, politicians, I feel like I could make a LOT of money as a political web strategist. Someone will - that's for sure.

Great analysis, Bernie. I was hoping that the "spacebook" thing was an attempt to be ironic and hip, like "intertubes" but sadly, it doesn't seem to be the case.

This isn't a very Canadian thing to say, but I couldn't watch more than 30 seconds of the video because I couldn't understand a word he was saying. Although I fervently believe him to be the devil, I will grant that at least Harper speaks English.

Can't wait to hear what you have to say about the other parties.

I'm not sure why it is, but I cannot write a word without complete and utter silence. On the other hand, I can't do anything creative (drawing, design) without a TV blaring or lots of distractions.

I think every single person is different in the stimuli they need to activate parts of their brain. The best takeaway from this post is that it's possible to figure it out for yourself.

I was just in a wedding party and was stared at like I had three heads when I tied my tie like this. It came with several offers to "show me" how to tie a tie. My favourite part of this knot is the fact that you can get a great cleft in the top, which to me is the hallmark of a well-tied tie.

It's funny. I work in an office where I would be soundly ridiculed for wearing a tie. Secretly, I love wearing a suit now and then because everyone (strangers and friends alike) treats me as if I'm royalty. It's a very odd thing, but there's something to be said for being well-dressed.

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Hi Ryan,

The key part of this knot is the last part, the ability to shape the tie. It is possible to make it very narrow at the bottom and give it a nice taper. No one has ever noticed the knot was any different from the "normal" knot, but I've had compliments on the shape and symmetry. I'm a bit OCD with symmetry.

Like you, I actually enjoy wearing a suit on occasion, perhaps due to my tango experiences. It's fun to really dapper it out once in a while. Suits also remove the nuisance of making things match.

Rock on,

Tim

I'm a big believer in the value of comments, because it leads to the value of conversation. In my corporate blog, I've outlined "generating comments" as one of our main goals, because ultimately, it's not the words that we're pushing out that is going to get people thinking, so much as the discussion that is created out of those words.

That said, when I read blogs much bigger than my own, I'm frequently and consistently amazed at the level of discourse that has become the standard in comment areas. Read any Wired article to see what I mean - the most cretinous, uninformed, hate-filled dreck seems to become commonplace when a site reaches a certain level of mainstream popularity. In that respect, I completely empathize with people like Seth Godin, who refuse to allow comments.

From where I sit, having too many comments to manage is a nice problem to have and moderation is really not that hard. If you're going to have a corporate blog, you have to understand that you may be subject to more scrutiny. It comes with the territory, and you have to plan from that from the beginning.

The problem of ad clutter is not new, but the ability to avoid that clutter certainly is. We've got more noise than ever, but also more signal - MSN, Facebook, iTunes, Youtube, etc., etc. Because we're consuming so much information in a digital medium (not just internet, but cable, iPods, etc.) the ability to filter signal from noise in terms of PVRs, popup blockers, personal playlists and the like is a completely new phenomenon, and one that is scaring advertisers.

You're right that a well-crafted message can break through, but it has to be more than just a message. It has to be entertaining, educational, beneficial. As advertisers, our new currency is utility as we struggle to keep buying eyeballs in an attention economy.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Bernie! I have no doubt that you'll have a ton of insight to add to the PR blogosphere and that this site will be among the elite in no time.

This isn't particularly out of the ordinary for focus group research. It's standard practice to offer an incentive for participants in usability testing, and $100 is about the norm, though it depends on how hard it is to recruit a specific group of people. I did a group with doctors once... I think the incentive was about $150.

Interesting that the reporter would automatically make the jump to "bribe."

Ugh... client work and presentations? That smacks of effort. I find it much easier to just be loudmouthed and opinionated.

Well, you obviously have strong beliefs - but you missed my point. I was not talking about promoting things I disagree with. I am talking about promoting things that I don't necessarily support, but that I can see serving a public good. Also, you should understand that I didn't just start thinking about this... the flu shot just happened to spark this.

There are many things that I believe strongly in, and I do fight for those things. But, just like anyone else, there are things that I don't care much about - things that don't affect my life much. If you start taking a radical stand on those things, then nobody will take you seriously on the things you do believe in.