media

Share |

Social media, on purpose

Rob on what 2010 will bring for social media

I missed passing this along when it first came out, because I didn't know those nice CBC people had put it on YouTube. It's their segment on what to expect in 2010 for social media, based on an interview they did with me in their stunning new Vancouver studios.

Share |

Hope for the Facebook generation

A recent graduate finds hope in Social Signal's social media career advice

We were delighted to see that Tamsyn Burgmann's article on social media career opportunities -- featuring Alex, Channing and TheBigWild.org's Theo Lamb --  ran in the Toronto Star yesterday. And we were even more delighted to get this lovely message from a Toronto Star reader Rhea Claus:

Share |

Blog ROI: Throw out that news release

10 ways to maximize your blog's ROI: Part 3, an alternative to news media

Blogging by typewriter

So far in this 10-part series, we've seen how blogs can give your organization a human voice, and provide valuable feedback from your customers. Now we're going to look at how they can open up a new communications channel to the world: one where you can tell stories that might not make front page news, but can still move your audience.

Many organizations have only two ways to talk to the public about the issues that matter to them: advertising, and mass media - often through a news release.

Share |

Why not send us your thoughts on this video?

BBC comedy clip parodies news outlets asking for citizen participation

Hat tip to the good people at CBC's Spark.

Share |

Check out Six Pixels of Separation

One of the real treats of speaking at the Canadian Marketing Association's Word of Mouth Marketing Conference last week was meeting Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image and the guy behind one of the best podcasts on the Internets.

It's called Six Pixels of Separation, and it focuses on the leading edge of marketing with a strong emphasis on social media. It's spontaneous, engaging, fun and always informative. And it gives you a glimpse into Mitch's fine, fertile and fascinating mind.

I'm a fan, which means life doesn't get much better than this: Mitch and I sat down after a great dinner (yes, fellow Vancouverites, there is great sushi to be had in Toronto, when you have Jennifer Evans hunting it down for you), and he broke out his voice recorder.

For the next eight minutes, he asked really challenging (that's as opposed to aggressive) questions about very big issues. We talked about change, marketing ethics, social trust and the prospects for humane capitalism. It was great, and it was also some of the hardest work I've ever done in an interview; I found myself mulling over the ideas we discussed well into the wee hours that night.

Check out the episode here – and then do yourself a favour and subscribe to Mitch's podcast if you haven't already.

Share |

Vancouver types: want to be The Tyee's next webmaster?

One of the nicest, most talented folks in Vancouver’s independent media scene is leaving town. Dawn Buie is off to Toronto… which means there’s a dream job opening up at The Tyee:

Share |

My interview with Blau Exchange

Paul DiPerna recently posted a conversation we had about social media on his Blau Exchange web site. Blau Exchange is

a web-based initiative that will be an intermediary for professional groups interested in how information and communications technologies (ICTs) affect society, with particular focus on the Internet and World Wide Web.

Paul interviewed me about my own history on the web and my perspective on what comes next. If you're interested in how Social Signal got started, where we're going, or how we see the web, please read the interview. Here's a sample tidbit:

Young organizations are no more likely to make mistakes in their community-building than are well-established organizations; if anything, they're less likely, because they're less constrained by conventional ideas about message control. But anyone who's new to the social web has certain challenges and there are certainly are some mistakes we see more often.

The most common mistake is to focus all the attention, energy and resources on building the technical structure of a community, without thinking about the social structure. I was lucky to work on telecentre.org with Mark Surman, the Managing Director of that project, who made a point of allocating several times more dollars for animating and supporting his online community than he'd allocated to actually building the web infrastructure. We encourage our clients to think about spending at least as much on supporting their community as they do on setting it up -- maybe not the first year, when your technical costs are front-loaded, but certainly over time. If you haven't got a budget to pay for site animation (aka moderation), ongoing content development, and participant incentives (like contest prizes), then you're was ting your money by building an online community. Better to take half your budget, set it aside for the support of the community itself, and build a more modest site in the first place. When we design a site we create an activity plan as well as a site architecture so that our clients think through ongoing support of the site as well as set up.

I hope folks will find the interview useful, or at least interesting -- and if you check it out, be sure to read some of Paul's other fascinating interviews with folks like Howard Rheingold and Craig Newmark.

 

Share |

Advice to social media mavens...from media pros

We're just back from two days in Houston as the guests of ttweak, a marketing, communications and design firm that shares our belief that authentic, original voices are the best way to convey a message. ttweak's best-known work is probably their Houston It's Worth It campaign, but their extensive and varied experience also includes a number of video projects that let interview subjects, rather than narrators, tell the story.

Share |

Turning Words into Deeds: A response to Knight Foundation's 21st Century News Challenge

Exploring widgets as lightweight website gateways to connection and real-world participation

What makes for a transformative media moment: a moment when an individual reads, watches or hears a news story and is galvanized to take action on an issue? Social Signal hopes to offer a new answer to that question with the WIDget, a tool that will turn words into deeds by marrying web-savvy media outlets with the latest nonprofit volunteer and donation opportunities.

Share |

ChangeEverything is TechCrunched

We're delighted that Change Everything has been noted on TechCrunch as "a nice alternat

Social Signal on...

RSS feedTwitterFacebookGoogle+

Work Smarter with Evernote

Get more out of Evernote with Alexandra Samuel's great new ebook, the first in the Harvard Business Press Work Smarter with Social Media series!

Available on Amazon, iTunes and HBR.