Anna’s Picks of the Week is on a hiatus this week, enjoying a break – and you should too! We’ll raise a glass to ya.
- The Crew
May
22
22
Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week (05/21/10)
The Official Twitter iPhone App:
Last month, Twitter acquired Tweetie, and this week, they launched The Official Twitter iPhone App. The iPhone app, (called “Twitter” but essentially Tweetie 3.0), is now available, and it’s free. It allows users who aren’t on Twitter to easily browse content and sign up, and makes it easier for users to search and Retweet.
Pakistan Bans YouTube & Facebook:
In world social media news, Pakistan banned Facebook and YouTube. On Wednesday, Pakistan banned the use of Facebook due to an offensive group gaining popularity called “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” On Thursday, Pakistan also banned YouTube, due to growing sacrilegious content.
Google TV:
On Thursday, Google unveiled Google TV. Google is partnering with Sony and Logitech for Google TV. Google does not want to replace your TV, but work alongside it. They want you to be able to search the web for content and be able to watch it on your TV. YouTube has also announced a customizable version of their site, called YouTube Leanback, which you will be able to access of Google TV.
Google Wave Updates:
Google has also updated Google Wave and released it to the public. This announcement came about on Google’s I/O Conference. The public version of Wave is said to be “much faster and much more stable than when we began the preview, and we have worked hard to make Wave easier to use.”
Facebook & Privacy:
Facebook has been taking a lot of heat for their lowered privacy settings lately, and today, another issue has unfolded. The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook, MySpace, and several other social networking sites have been sending data to advertisers despite promises that they don’t share information without consent. After The Wall Street Journal contacted them, Facebook and MySpace moved to make changes.
May
18
18
Announcing The Feedback Mobile Lab
Rendering is not representative of actual lab, which will clearly utilize hyper digital beaker technology
Our Target: The Bonnaroo Music & Art Festival in Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo was named one of the 50 Moments That Changed The History of Rock & Roll by Rolling Stone, while The New York Times said, “Bonnaroo has revolutionized the modern rock festival.”
Our Mission: Gauge the usefulness (and usage) of social media tools, explore and experiment with new ideas and trends of destination marketing, consider the effect of communication concepts from within and outside of the participants, and find out what innovations are coming from the crowds.
Featuring: Onsite, @dbrowell, @ideaman, @alucas9, @ScottTKE517
Homebase: @thomasmcdonald, @hmillar13, @bcarr & Brittney!
Details: The people, not institutions, drive social media trends. So when more than 80,000 online denizens converge for a vacation, we’ll see tens of thousands choosing how they communicate to those inside and out. What that communication does to help them prepare for, travel to, live within and reminisce after their chosen destination will say a lot about the current state of tourism online and where its going. Plus, what best practices can we observe from festival-goers, event organizers, bands, vendors and more?
Feedback will use four distinct personal accounts and personalities to cover one of the largest music and art festivals in the US, testing trends, performing live tests of multiple apps, taking a look at the communities and cultures that are reflected online, studying communications and, of course, having a blast watching how radically diverse acts and fans share experiences in person and online. The “best of” our live work will be featured on our Feedback channels and studied for post-event analysis. (Also be on the lookout for performances via Radio Free Feedback; if you’re going to Bonnaroo and from an ad agency or PR firm, or are a Friend of Feedback, let us know and we can organize a jam session!)
One of Feedback’s founders, Dean Browell, was one of the first people to broadcast social media content from the farm at Bonnaroo, covering the entire weekend via blog, Twitter, Brightkite, and more for the last five years. Now he returns with a company and team to continue that tradition as well as take it the next step: treat it like the incredible laboratory it is for the benefit of all of our clients, from travel and tourism to healthcare.
In Preparation: Ahead of our trip, we will be canvassing our clients and our partners to find out what they would like to know about how certain trends perform, apps, critical mass of usage, technology needs and what events they have that we should keep in mind for new ideas. If you have an idea or a question you’d like to see us pursue, just let us know! Just email Contact@feedbackagency.com or through our individual contact info, below or on Twitter.
May
14
14
Anna and Heather’s Social Media Picks of the Week – Higher Education Edition (05/14/10)
Seth Godin, author, blogger and CEO of Squido.com, recently blogged about the “Coming Meltdown in Higher Education” (as Seen by a Marketer).” Some of his insights certainly provide food for thought:
- Most undergraduate college and university programs are organized to give an average education to average students
- Accreditation isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.
- One reason to go to college was to get access. Today, that access is worth a lot less.
His article has sparked lively conversation online and with those on both sides of the fence. The conversation has been, at the very least, interesting and entertaining to read.
OSU built a strategic social media presence on Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn and multiple Twitter accounts. What’s “Powered By Orange?” Here’s the answer from the PBO website:
“It’s you – the network of alumni, students, faculty, staff, friends and fans connected to Oregon State University. It’s the positive impact you make every day in Portland and beyond – on the economy, the environment and the community. Use this Web site to tell your story and connect with the other practical idealists who are Powered by Orange.”
Since the campaign’s launch, enrollments have soared, first-time donations by alumni are up and visits to the OSU website have grown exponentially. Luanne Lawrence, OSU’s vice president of university advancement said that they are letting social media drive their decision making,
“We stripped our budget and rebuilt it. It was the hardest thing we had to do. Fifteen to twenty-five year-olds are rebuilding every aspect of the industry, and I’m listening to them.”
Watching the Web Watch the UVa Murder Case
In a time of tragedy and a lot of questions left unanswered regarding the death of UVa’s women’s lacrosse player, Yeardley Love, social media seems to have found a way to respond with patience and maturity. The sports blog, Deadspin, known at one time for its vindictive and unprofessional posts, proved a firm and respectful grasp of the situation by shutting off comments on the UVa story when they veered towards bad taste.
Editor, A.J. Daulerio said, “It was more a message to think a little bit more next time around.”
There also wasn’t a single negative comment to be found when a Facebook page was set up in Yeardley’s memory. Instead, there has been an outpouring of compassion towards Love. The number of likes on the Facebook page jumped from 4000 to 13,000 within 14 hours … and two weeks later, there are over 66,000 likes.
Social media addiction: Worse than you think
One student blogged the following: I started to feel isolated and lonely…By 2:00 pm I began to feel the urgent need to check my email, and even thought of a million ideas of why I had to. I felt like a person on a deserted island…. I noticed physically, that I began to fidget, as if I was addicted to my iPod and other media devices, and maybe I am.
Two hundred University of Maryland students agreed to live 24 hours without any social media – no cell phone, iPods, or computers. The results of this study actually found that students suffered from the same physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms as alcohol and drug addicts when they went without social media and their cell phones for 24 hours.
Self proclaimed middle-aged, balding college President learns valuable social media lessons
President Brian Rosenberg of Macalester College has never blogged, tweeted, and he’s not on Facebook. However, as he stated, he learned first-hand how new forms of social media “have more potential to connect audiences across both generational and geographic boundaries than do virtually all previous forms of communication.”
After a seemingly innocent, self-parodying video on YouTube, “President’s Day at Macalester College” initially designed to engage alumni reached over 40,000 viewers on YouTube and annual fund donations spiked, the self non-technology savvy college president has had a change of heart:
“I have begun to learn about the nature and power of the social media that are reshaping the way we communicate with one another and should be reshaping the way organizations of all kinds communicate.” – President Rosenberg
-Heather (@HMillar13) and Anna (@alucas9)
May
12
12
Keep Up-To-The-Minute With Feedback
In case you aren’t one of the nearly 1,000 people who subscribe to our regular stream of consciousness and news feeds, we wanted to encourage you to visit:
Feedback on Facebook (Facebook.com/FeedbackFB)
Where you’ll find our active links, commentary, great discussions, photos, video and more on a daily (heck, hourly) basis… just click “Like” and you’re in!
Feedback on Twitter (@feedbackagency)
Twitterers can get their fix on our stream here, linking to great articles, thoughts and more!
And of course here on our blog and on YouTube (user: FeedbackVideos) you can catch Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week every week. We’re thrilled you’re here and hope you enjoy what you see – contact us (804-893-3437) for more!
May
05
05
Feedbacks Favorite Moments @ ROFLcon II
Dean Browell, PhD (@dbrowell) and Anna Lucas (@alucas9) discuss their favorite moments at ROFLcon II:
May
03
03
The Internet, Anthropology, Facebook as Training Wheels & More at ROFLcon II
We’ve returned from ROFLcon II (April 30 & May 1, 2010) and are eager to share all we learned with anyone who will listen… 
Huge ideas abound and it was an incredibly helpful (and dare we say important) conference to witness. It was only the second time in two years they’d even held this exploration of internet culture, memes, academia and society at MIT. Anna (first-timer) and I (returning for round two) soaked up every minute of the packed two days. There’s so much to share, but we wanted to be sure to get some key themes in writing first:
- The entire conference started out with Ethan Zuckerman’s (The Berkman Center for Internet and Society) brilliant “From Weird to Wide” primer on important philosophical questions about culture, the internet and memes. This included not only a bright debut of Kenyan’s first meme explosion, but also an important discussion of a significant point: Be an anthropologist, not a bouncer. In other words, embrace rather than exclude. It would set the tone for some interesting underpinnings for the rest of the conference
- Apparently the rest of The Internet agrees that YouTube comments are the most ridiculous in the universe
- Another giant point writ large: Know your history. There were many great moments in a variety of panels that included memes and networks old and new, but the overall one can’t be hyped enough: know where we’ve been. For example, the open community of Usenet, with its challenges, imperfections, sub-communities, stalwart user trust and very existence pre-AOL set the stage for one of the toughest but singularly important lessons of the entire conference…
- “AOL” and “Training Wheels.” The Tweets heard round the world. As the very last panel at ROFLcon II tried to wrap its arms around the topic of “Mainstreaming the Web,” Ben Huh and Moot (from LOLcats and 4chan fame, respectively) deftly created a distinct separation between the open sub-communities that operate online (some anonymously) and those that allow for a mainstream audience to operate in a larger but closed system. With over 950 attendees, ROFLcon included employees from ominous internet giants such as Google and Mozilla, but as this panel pointed out, not a soul from Facebook (or none that would admit it). This lead to the single most Re-Tweeted line from the conference, uttered by Ben:
“Facebook has become like AOL, it’s like training wheels for the internet. It’s a safe place, except for your privacy.”
And thus what was once considered a fringe medium was correctly pegged as having moved into a mainstream culture controlled by a single corporation. We’ve been here before. With 400 million users, with meaningful proportions of diverse generations, races and cultures, Facebook is not unlike the closed system of AOL. This doesn’t make it right or wrong, but it does make it everywhere and closed – and drastically different from much of the sub-cultures brewing away contently in the rest of the web.
For Feedback one overriding point was clear: the social web hardly, barely begins and ends at the doors of Facebook and Twitter. Certainly a critical mass at those two giants means we must implement there to reach a large population of consumer. But even more importantly we must dive deep, see fewer obstacles and research even smarter and harder beyond these barriers into the sub-cultures that exist in the interest, cultural and geographic communities. There are enough self-proclaimed social media gods to take care of staring at Facebook and Twitter only. But it’s not unlike marveling only at a capital city and not noticing the swarms of people outside, down the roads, in other states, in other countries… The future of the net and community is not only also out there, it may indeed only be out there. Think I’m just being overly dramatic? Ask AOL.
More to come on some of our favorite moments by myself and Anna (@alucas9). We certainly had fun too and some photos are up on our Facebook Page right now. In the meantime be sure to check out her interview with Christian Lander of “Stuff White People Like” fame.
28
Top Tweets! Dean Riffs on Recent News
by FeedbackA few of the best stories this week, hand-picked by me (Dean) from our Twitter and Facebook feeds, with a dash of commentary. (Anna’s Picks will return next week!)
10 Things You Need To Know About the New Facebook Privacy Changes: http://bit.ly/cVvLoP
Can you imagine a company that makes physical products being able to backpedal this fast and publicly? No? Me neither. Check out the ever-helpful AllFacebook.com for tips on those new privacy controls.
The Half-Life Of A YouTube Video Is 6 Days: http://bit.ly/dkJUYO
Or: why you need to get that video up FAST.
Why Facebook Community Pages Are No Big Deal For Brands…Eventually: http://bit.ly/cUEQNe
One of the single most perplexing things for brand managers right now is the sudden appearance of “Community Pages” – a weird cross between Wikipedia and a living Facebook Wall, these have cropped up for some but not all random subjects, brand names, employers and more. This article explains why over time they won’t be so confusing or important, but right now they’re causing consternation…
PA Becomes First State to Join Foursquare: http://bit.ly/c7IjKq
You know you want the, “PA Retail Polka” Badge :)
Why BP Isn’t Fretting Over Its Twitter Impostor: http://bit.ly/aEOmgv
While the comedic value is sometimes hit and miss, the fact it has been left alone is telling enough. Read why BP isn’t pulling the plug on a sarcastic rival PR horn.
We had an incredible time at the New England Society of Healthcare Communications this week in beautiful Stowe, VT. Feedback presented the keynote, moderated a panel on social media and New England hospitals, and gave a talk/discussion on generational differences. The NESHCo group is a great group of folks!
For those just joining us from that conference or others:
The gnome is watching you...
Have a safe holiday weekend everyone!
-Dean (@dbrowell)