Still Tweetless in DC…

So people who visit may wonder where my name came from…I thought I’d shed a little light for folks.  Many compare Tweetless in DC to Sleepless in Seattle.  Clever assumption since I am a native Seattleite located in the DC area.  Then, there’s Tweetless, which is my refusal to use Twitter.  I know many find it a wonderful tool, but I just can’t get into it.  After weeks of visiting the site, I still see it as a tool for stalkers or for over sharing – neither of which need more help.  TwiTip blogger says it helps him as a research tool, a personal branding tool, a tool for collaboration or networking, his watercooler, or a way to direct traffic to his blog.  Charles Arthur, a writer for The Guardian, wrote that Twitter can be a social savior or commentary tool.  In Egypt, an American student is arrested and tweets the world about it for help or California residents tweet family members their location after fleeing the fires.  His take on it?  Use Twitter to spread news, ask friends or peers questions, or provide social updates.

Honestly, my take on Twitter is that it really depends on who you are and what you do for a living.  News or sports reporters have a need to let people know breaking news as they hear about it.  Researchers have the opportunity to pose or research on Twitter on their topics.  For the average individual, I could see gaining much more information than giving.  To be forthright, I just don’t see what is so interesting about someone using tweets to give blow by blow descriptions of their day.  Sorry if I offend people who are reading this, but this is really the average type of tweet.  So for now, I guess I will remain Tweetless in DC.

Death to books?

There have been all sorts of commotion about the various e-Readers impact on books.  No one will buy paper anymore, magazines going out of print, death to newspapers, and the world coming to an end.  It feels like we’ve been through this before…anyone remember that the world was going to implode on New Year’s Day 2000?  How about the invention of the computer?  That was devastating right?  The end of carbon paper, overstuffed file cabinets, mimeographs, stained clothing, and no more typewriters were the result of what is now viewed as such a fabulous invention.  I do feel for the thousands who are no longer employed because of the demise of their industries, but millions of new jobs were also created. 

So how about some of the benefits of e-Readers?  Think of how many books likely exist in the world today.  Being an avid reader, it becomes pretty limiting when I run out of room at home for storing books.  Do I trade in my prized collection to make more or just stop buying?  How about the price of a book today?  $25 is the average price of a new hardback book, but a new bestseller on e-Readers averages around $10.  Additionally, there are so many obscure books that can now be more accessible to readers online.  A e-Reader makes many of these things much easier.  Not to mention the benefits to the environment for being an overall friendlier way to read.

Now about the concern for books, magazines and newspapers…This is my personal opinion – one benefit of my blog – but I think it’s unrealistic to think that an e-Reader is going to be the single-handed demise of these industries as we know them.  Can you imagine a one year old with an e-Reader as opposed to a board or cloth book?  What about those special collections of authors that you keep?  Magazines and newspapers, in my opinion, are the least likely to be affected by e-Readers.  If anything, someone should have complained about the development of online news sources via the internet.  Plus, nothing is quite the same as turning the pages of a magazine for me – not environmental I know but I recycle.  I wonder if this is just the hype for now and if it will all blow over in a few years.  I guess I’ll read about it on my eReader…mines a Kindle a more carbon emission friendly way to read. 

What do you think?

Alright, who “friended” Betty White?

So unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably heard about Betty White’s hosting of Saturday Night Live.  Now, I know for most that you are probably wondering what the heck a Golden Girl is doing on such a pop culture show.  Well, it wasn’t her idea…there I said it.  Betty White didn’t reach out to SNL to see if she could host.  A campaign was started on Facebook to get her to host.  That’s right.  A Facebook group was started for “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!”  A tribute to Betty’s eighth decade on TV, fans started the page to get Betty to host the show.  With over half a million fans, Betty got their dream and was invited to host the show on May 8, 2010.

Her opening monologue said it all “I really have to thank Facebook … I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never think that people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite,” White joked during her monologue. She continued on Facebook, saying: “At my age, if I want to connect with old friends, I need a Ouija board. Facebook just sounds like a drag. In my day, seeing pictures of people’s vacations was considered a punishment.”

So when did Facebook become such a powerful tool?  Well, we’ve all seen its power with flash mobs like the DC 2010 Snow Storm (if not I included the video).

Not to mention job offers like I blogged earlier about Conan O’Brien or the unknown man, Dave Winfield.  So, why not kick start a career via Facebook?  Betty White is glad she did…

Tweet your way to improvement…

One of my passions is being able to volunteer.  I am fortunate that I work for a company that is supportive of giving back to the community, whether through pro bono or volunteerism.  So as I began blogging, I started to get curious in how social media might or might not be impacting social causes.  In terms of philanthropy, privacy isn’t as much of a concern as you might think.  Philanthropy 2.0, special project of bloggers Qui Diaz, Beth Kanter and Geoff Livingston, details that there is significant opportunity for non-profits online.  “Social media power users” in both the 30-49 and over 50 brackets have used social media to discuss social causes and actually prefer, at 45% and 31% respectively, to get philanthropic information through social media.  Many power users would like the ability to interact with other donors, hear success stories and information about their chosen causes.  This currently seems to be an area that is lacking in social media.

Facebook has started a group called “Social Media for Social Causes”.  An initiative to “promote the use of social media in the marketing of non-profit organizations,” Social Media for Social Causes was founded in 2009 and sadly only has 351 fans at this time.  Fortunately, there are sites like Causecast.  TechCrunch dubbed “one stop philanthropy shop”, Causecast is one site “where media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment and education converge”.  People who are interested in learning more about social causes or philanthropy can visit the site where Causecast has already vetted the cause to make sure that the minimum standards for non-profits are met, connect members with causes related to their passion (whether it’s animals, arts, human rights or other), and provide a safe site to donate with no fee removed.

A few companies have taken the step to get on social media for social causes.  Target dipped their toes in with a “Bullseye Gives” Campaign on Facebook in 2009.  The goal of the campaign was to get users involved with selecting which of the Target selected charities was their top selection for Target donation.  The top 10 charities were designated to receive the percentage of money that they earned in votes (10% got 10% of the money).  Most recently, Pepsi caused an amazing amount of buzz related to their decision to forgo running a commercial during the Super Bowl and instead opted to run a social media campaign, called “Pepsi Refresh”, leveraging a microsite, Twitter, and Facebook.  It was a completely different approach, not only for Pepsi, but for marketing in general.  Never before had such a large brand invested as much into a social media campaign centered on community development.  As it’s a year long campaign, the results aren’t in yet, but so far results have been fairly positive with a 71% approval rating from consumers.

So the question is, do you tweet for fun or passion?

Conan O’Brien gets a job through Twitter…

So we’ve all heard about the battle between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien in the media.  If not, here’s the recap…Jay moved to prime time, Jay gave Tonight Show to Conan, Jay sucked in prime time, Jay took Tonight Show back from Conan, Conan out of a job.  Regardless of whether or not you even cared about this, you couldn’t avoid hearing about it.    Posts on blogs, tweets on Twitter (even from the two hosts), twibbons on Twitter (think breast cancer awareness ribbons but in a digital sense) to support Conan, and interviews on 60 Minutes. 

Conan did more than that though…he took to Twitter in February after this all came to fruition and he found himself in limbo.   Coincidentally, this happened to be right around the time that Jay was back in the late night fight with David Letterman.  If anything, this kept Conan in the spotlight, increased his popularity and created a platform to launch a new show.  Blogger, Amit Chowdry, did an excellent job of summarizing Conan’s support through social media as follows:

Digg

The Digg community is strongly opinionated and strongly affluent. As it turns out the Digg community highly favors Conan O’Brien. Below are some examples of how the Digg community supports O’Brien:
- 5000+ Diggs – An Open Letter to Conan O’Brien from Revision3 offering him a job [Digg link]
- 4800+ Diggs – Conan O’Brien Puts Tonight Show for Sale on Craigslist [Digg link]
- 4700+ Diggs – Conan O’Brien Says He Won’t Do Tonight Show at 12:05 [Digg link]
- 3000+ Diggs – BREAKING! Conan O’Brien coming to TBS [Digg link]
- 2400+ Diggs – Conan O’Brien’s Tweets Now Updating on Billboards (pics) [Digg link]

Facebook

Mike Mitchell and his friends created a Facebook campaign called I’m With Coco.  He created a Facebook Fan Page called I’m with Coco / Conan O’Brien. Today that Facebook Fan Page has over 980,000 fans. Some of the other Facebook groups and Pages include:

Keep Conan O’brien – 32,666 fans
Conan O’BRIEN – 7,391 fans
Late Night with Conan O’Brien – 42,397 fans
We Support Conan O’Brien – 1,435 fans
Save Conan O’brien – 4,927 fans
I’m with Coco – Support Conan O’Brien – 23,286 fans
and the list goes on.

I did a search for Conan O’Brien in Facebook and there are over 500 group results and 281 Fan Page results. O’Brien’s marketing team created a website called Teamcoco as a result of the Facebook Fan Page.

Hulu

Hulu allows their users to add tags to TV shows that are hosted on the video streaming website. Since Hulu hosts The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan fans decided to attack Leno with some creative profanity. If you go to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’s profile page on Hulu, you will see Tags such as: sellout, retire, grandpa show, corporate shill, for the comatose, eff leno, judas, creep, lenodict arnold, go away jay, tasteless, over the hill, lame, scumbag, crickets, linklicker, anvil face, traitor, asspiss, douchenozzle, sell out, jay llama, phony, horrendous, brett favor, circus clown, gag reflex, tool, asscabinet, egomaniac, slime bucket, cowpattie, dong huffier, pompous, satan, assburger, zombie, schemer, dingleberry, sleazebag, slimebag, and yawner.

Reddit

Just like the Digg community supported Conan O’Brien — Conan was supported massively on Reddit too. The Reddit community is very similar to the Digg community — diverse and affluent. Below are some of the stories that were voted up on Reddit that involve Conan:
- 2447 votes – Conan O’Brien puts his show for sale on Craigslist (losangeles.craigslist.org) [Reddit link]
- 2393 votes – Dear Conan O’Brien, thank you for making us laugh and may you forever live between 11:35 and 12:35. Love, Reddit. (self.reddit.com) [Reddit link]
- 1951 votes – Portrait of Conan O’Brien entirely made out of Cheetos. (wimp.com) [Reddit link]
- 1278 votes – Conan O’Brien’s Twitter stunt turns tear-jerker (salon.com) [Reddit link]

Twitter

Conan O’Brien created a Twitter account on February 24, 2010. His tweets were mostly jokes, but also provided promotions about his upcoming comedy tour. Within several hours of joining Twitter, he gained more subscribers than Jay Leno has.

O’Brien’s massive following on Twitter allowed him to promote his comedy tour called “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour.” It would be a 30-city live tour beginning on April 12. Through a partnership with Lamar, O’Brien’s tweets would even be posted on billboards in real-time.

Ultimately, Conan’s use of Twitter got the attention of TBS and landed him a new show.  It remains to be seen if Conan will continue his use of social media now that he landed another gig or if he’ll ditch it now that his mission has been accomplished.

What do you think about Conan’s use of social media?  Do you think that it was used in the way it was intended?

Tweets from a Queen

So, I caught a tiny snippet of an Oprah show the other day.  Most people know that Oprah has engaged in almost all forms of social media.  Using social media helps to keep a finger on the pulse of her followers and engage with them in an authentic and personable way.  Celebrities aren’t the only ones starting to engage with social media though.  Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan shared how much she enjoyed using social media in her job.  

 

It’s not uncommon for people to feel that royalty is unreachable – a level above the common folk of the country.  So, Queen Rania uses Twitter, Facebook, her blog, and a YouTube Channel to stay connected.  She shared on the Oprah show her thoughts about social media: “My virtual self can get closer to people easier than my real self,” she says. “People sometimes think of queen as a title that’s shrouded with protocol and formality, and for that reason sometimes people are not easily saying what they want to say. They’re reluctant to express their opinions, and I kind of find that frustrating because I want to know what people really, really think.”  Being online breaks down barriers between the queen and others. “It creates a space where titles mean little and people can just say what they want,” she says. “It opens a window to my life and opens a window for me into other people’s lives so I can see what people are thinking or what the sentiment out there is all about.” 

 How did Queen Rania learn about Twitter?  The US election buzz.  The elections used social media to mobilize people around a common cause – to elect President Obama.  She sees social media as a way to create social change.  Something she’s fighting for in her country and around the world.  So, I’m curious what you think…do you think that having royalty using social media is a good thing or do you think that it lessens the authority or potential for enacting change by the individual?

Dating in the Twitter Era

So my last post was about social media’s impact to the face of religion…But there’s another area of life that is changing significantly.  Dating just isn’t what it used to be…Gone are the days of meeting that special someone in your apartment complex or in the supermarket.  Instead, people have turned to social media to meet that special someone.  Sites like e-Harmony and Match.com have been around for years, but the new era of online dating is with sites like gelato.  gelato is an online dating site that allows users to build their dating profile the way they live by using their Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Netflix and other social networking accounts.  Instead of creating a unique profile specific to the dating website, it allows users to view you in your daily life activities via your tweets, Facebook status updates, and Flickr photos.  

Changing the face of online dating, gelato creates a profile that’s hard to fake.  They call it “stream dating”.  Instead of a carefully planned profile, it’s a stream of real information that’s being updated real-time.  Created by recently divorced Steve Odom, gelato was intentionally designed to be different from other dating sites.  Steve was frustrated with his dating experiences through other dating sites.  He hated creating profiles and didn’t feel that they were ultimately the best and most honest reflection of him.

Then there’s the whole question of whether social media helps or hurts dating.  Using electronic means to connect with people rather than face to face interaction changes the whole feel to dating.  Does a tweet or a post on your wall replace the feeling of holding hands for the first time or a first kiss?  I personally don’t think so…what do you think?  Has social media changed dating and if so is it for the better?