I’m a Digital Nomad, Are You?
In July Steve Rubel wrote about the rise of the Digital Nomad, independent and corporate workers - myself included - who work from wherever they want, be it an airport, hotel, plane or coffee shop, thanks to digital- and web-based services, mostly laptops, mobile phones and wi-fi.
Mike Gunderoy, Chris Brogan, Hugh Macleod and John Jantsch each report on Dell’s launch of Digital Nomads, a community-focused website that aims to help its users discover and share ideas, tips, tricks and best practices while promoting their new range of Latitude laptop models aimed at this emerging working class.
Is this clever marketing on Dell’s part? Very, especially with Dell predicting that digital nomads will drive the sale of laptops to over one billion in the next five years. But the real marketing genius is Dell again demonstrating their commitment to reinvent their business with value-based web platforms that put a strong focus on community and collaboration.
If you’re still wondering what a digital nomad is, this video should help explain the concept.
Who “Owns” Social Media?
This morning I posed a question on Twitter asking people to suggest which corporate division- marketing, PR, Brand, HR, Customer Services or IT - they thought “owned” social media.
Of the responses, some stood out. Melissa Attree suggested that it cannot be defined to just one of these departments and that it should perhaps sit as a separate unit in possession of the correct skill set (via Walter). Matt said that social media sits in some or all of the aforementioned divisions and pointed me to his own post on the matter inspired by Jim Tobin of Ignite.
In my opinion while internally everyone can take responsibility for it, social media should be “owned” by corporate communications and should operate as a strategic online communications unit (either internally or externally) that functions alongside brand, marketing, public relations and internal comms - the custodians of the brand - specifically because of, as Mandy de Waal points out, social media’s direct and indirect reputation and brand implications.
I say this not because most of my clients, past and present, are in this corporate division but rather because social media, like any other online channel is a communications-focused activity and requires an understanding on not only how to use social media (and online) as part of the communications mix but also how to produce, market and measure it effectively.
This said, different companies operate differently based on a wide variety of factors. So, with this in mind, what do you think? Where should social media sit?
Go At Your Own Pace
Chris Brogan wrote an interesting blog post about how people should do what works for them specific to social media likes and dislikes.
I believe that his lesson relates to anything online - and offline for that matter. In the context of online, just because company or person X uses a different tactic or tool to you does not mean that you too have to, especially if it goes against your preferences, your cultural makeup, your goals and objectives, to name just some. Furthermore, in a world where most people and companies are too consumed with getting on with business than experimenting with the latest social network or Web 2.0 site, it’s important for them to be left to follow their own stars.
The reality is that this world and the Internet that we share is large enough to be enjoyed by different people. Aside from being open to strategic change that ultimately delivers growth, I believe that no person or business should be pressured into using or doing anything. Anything else results in frustration and sometimes even failure.
Experiment. Observe. Research. Strategise. But in the end, “do what works for you!”
The Secret Behind Successful Viral Videos
Do you want to know how to make a good viral video? This smart and useful video teaches us the “secret strategies” behind the viral videos we come across on the Internet. Spread it on 
Kudos to Alister.
Social Media Defined In Two Words
Jason Falls asked his followers on Twitter to define social media in two words or less. Here are some of the results:
- Overrated
- Relationship Building
- Communal Interaction
- Community Building
- Shared Narcissism
- Citizen Journalism
- Confusing
- Authentic Minutia
- Scaled Intimacy
- Serendipitous Networking
- Movable Relationships
- Establishing Trust
- Business Networking
- Participate. Reciprocate.
Getting social on the Web
Here are some social media articles that I have found on the Web which I hope inspire you as this week kicks off to a firing start.
Chris Brogan writes about 50 Steps that can be used to establish a consistent Social Media practice while Information Week has a look at Google’s online encyclopedia offering and the New York Times reports back on Facebook’s latest features that were unveiled last Wednesday, including the social network’s new design. Also read Sean Moffitt’s article on three “social media elephants” that needs addressing in social media-related business discussions.
In other news, Mandy de Waal asked me to write an article on Social Media for the Wired section of Moneyweb’s newest feature called ‘MoneywebLife. Let me know what you think.
Engaged Learning Communities
In the age of social networks, wikis, podcasts, blogs, search engines - to name some - people, both young and old, have access to an ever-growing repository of data and information. The ability to make sense of this information through the development of the right skills and digital literacies is becoming ever more important through all phases of life, from schooling to corporate, and beyond. As Alan Moore says, we should start demanding an “Engaged Learning Community”.
Howard Rheingold, who I have had the pleasure of meeting and workshopping with, once wrote in a piece entitled Participatory Media to better enable Civic Engagement.
Teaching young people how to use digital media to convey their public voices could connect youthful interest in identity exploration and social interaction with direct experiences of civic engagement. Learning to use blogs (“web logs,” web pages that are regularly updated with links and opinion), wikis (web pages that non-programmers can edit easily), podcasts (digital radio productions distributed through the Internet), and digital video as media of self-expression, with an emphasis on “public voice,” should be considered a pillar—not just a component—of twenty-first-century civic curriculum.
Participatory media that enable young people to create as well as consume media are popular among high school and college students. Introducing the use of these media in the context of the public sphere is an appropriate intervention for educators because the rhetoric of democratic participation is not necessarily learnable by self-guided point-and-click experimentation.
Wise words indeed.
Social Design Explained
In a video post trio for today, I love this video by SocialDesignSite.com that shares insight into what social design is.
Watch it. Share it.
Thanks Kate
Using Multimedia to Illuminate Cyberbullying
Every day, children are inappropriately targeted by peers on the Internet, mobile phones and similar technologies. This behaviour is called Cyberbullying, and its effects are felt across the globe.
To help spread awareness of online bullying, Sony Creative Software, The Ad Council and the National Crime Prevention Council organised the Cyberbullying PSA Development Contest. As winners of the content, the below two videos help relay a very important message about electronic cyberbullying.
Be sure to spread them to parents and children alike!
Marvin Jimenez’s Words Really Do Hurt
Josh Bourgeois’s Illuminate Cyberbullying
via Marc
The LinkedIn Common Craft Video
Mario Sundar, a Community Evangelist at LinkedIn, points us (via Lee) to a Common Craft video that explains the business social network. These guys are good!
Be sure to also check out Common Craft’s “Social Media in Plain English” video as well.
Twitter Grows by 500 Percent
If like me, you’re on Twitter, you’ll know that the micro-blogging service is often down due to one or other technical problem. In fact, just today it went down for a bit. However, these downtimes have not prevented Twitter from growing at an alarming rate, with Hitwise reporting that year-on-year visits have grown 500% from July 2007- July 2008.
I’d love to see a study on its user database and content diversity. My guess is that Twitter is mostly a conversation hub for the geek squad about geek matters. If this is so, the question that needs answering is whether Twitter is of interest to marketers and communicators?
My answer is Yes.
Sure, Twitter is not a mainstream communication channel that can or should be compared with other social media and traditional media avanues, specifically when it comes to tapping into the fundamentals of business sucess and growth, but if speaking to niche markets (and being a part of the “online buzz” culture) is important, it certainly should be on the communication watchlist.
Furthermore, if Twitter was explored as a communications tool for exclusive news about very specific campaigns or events of interest to a wide audience, much like Ogilvy have done for the summer olympics, its usefulness would be seen on a wider scale.
Still around . . .
So, things have been a bit quiet on this blog lately. Here’s why:
For those who don’t already know, I am enjoying the pleasures (and headaches - got to love SARS) of self employment, focussing my days on Cosmedia. As a result, I have been actively working on getting back into the being-ones-own-boss game, and things have been great. Already, I’m working on two very exciting projects in the publishing and mobile handset space, while continuing to work as an outsourced consultant with the guys from Cerebra on Converse, IS Labs and Absa.
Going on your own also means finding the time to build on your relationships. That’s what I am actively doing across South Africa and Europe. If we have not reconnected yet, get in touch and lets do coffee! I’m in Europe later this year and will be in Cape Town next week and then again in August.
So, I’m still around. It’s just been a little bit crazy lately…
Blogs Fail Because of Dull Material
According to a report by Forrester Research (via), business-to-business blogging took a nosedive this year. However, don’t start thinking that this is because business blogging is a bad strategy. Instead, as Forrester themselves say, corporate blogs fail because they read like “tired, warmed-over press releases,” resulting in users’ experiences with them being “simply awful.”
Blogging is a useful communication tool that, when executed properly with an “authentic, humble and honest voice”, can be used to build relationships with targeted users. However, before companies start seeing the real results - even better, before they get started - they need to understand how and why internal transformation is required, in terms of business and communication practice.
For lack of a better analogy, it’s like driving a Ferrari (or my favourite, a Porsche) like Ms Daisy…
What Joan Rivers Teaches Us
I’m a fan of Joan Rivers. Her energetic self confidence - to put it mildly - wins the hearts and smiles of many fans worldwide, myself included.
As with many celebrities, Joan Rivers has a blog. Sadly, like most celebrities (and some companies), Joan Rivers also demonstrates a bit of cluelessness. Here’s why…
Blogs are about connecting with people through the sharing of thoughts, opinions and commentary that take the form of regular entries, much like the keeping of a public journal. One of the benefits to having a blog is the ability to use the medium to solidify relationships with people, specifically through the use of RSS. This is because RSS allows a blog (and website) publisher to syndicate his or her content to interested subscribers, which keeps the blogger top of mind with readers by feeding them the latest blog updates.
As a regular blog reader, one of the first things I do when I find a blog I like is look for their RSS feed. Even if I don’t see it, I’ll enter the blog’s URL into my blog reader. Sadly, as in the case with Joan Rivers’ blog, no RSS feed is found.
In this day and age, people don’t have time to add blogs into my browsers bookmarks menu, yet alone remember to visit them regularly. RSS addresses this problem. Failing to include RSS on a personal or business blog ultimately leads to losing prospective long-term readers. What a bad mistake…
There Is Nothing New About Social Media
”We toss around these terms and definitions to try to give shape the world around us, and when we come across a neat new interesting way in which people are communicating we like to slap a new label on it. Social Media is no different - we all love it, it sounds cool, it’s the hip word of the day, but in reality all it comes down to is that the social networks that used to exist in communities, neighborhoods and college campuses have increased in speed and scope.”
I could not have said it any better.
“Social media is just an extension of what we have all being doing for centuries - communicating. Whether it is housewives chatting over the garden fence or a group gathering together in a pub the intent is the same it is just the method (or the media) that differs.”
Truth of the matter is this. Social media - from a business perspective - is about tapping into this human need in a cost effective manner to extend a company’s traditional voice and branding efforts. It’s nothing special. Just cost effective, measurable, and when thought out carefully, very powerful.
