Blogs - Blogservations
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Where the Fishermen Ain't -- Phil Gomes' Thoughts on PR, Social Media, and Online Communities Fri, 20 Aug 2010 My colleague Zeenat Subedar from Edelman's Silicon Valley office e-interviewed me about a wide range of topics, including the Social Media "Belt System" that our tiny team has built at Edelman. I get a lot of questions about the Belt System, so this serves as a pretty good FAQ. Mon, 09 Aug 2010 For a Slate article subtitled "The Facebook Posts Palin Doesn't Want You To See", perhaps I was expecting too much. Generally speaking, Slate appears to try to make an issue of what, by and large, appears to be a sound and reasonable Facebook moderation policy employed by Sarah Palin's online team. From the piece: The deletions amount to a real-time look at how much effort and care Palin puts into protecting her public image. It's not just the number of posts that are screened out that gives some indication of how seriously Palin's team is monitoring things. The superfine mesh through which posts are sifted also gives an indication of the work involved. You don't get erased just for using vulgarity or pushing spam (which Facebook might remove anyway if flagged). Replace the word "Palin" with "any reasonably funded public figure or candidate" and you start to wonder what exactly... Fri, 30 Jul 2010 Credit: Steve Mason In "Slashdot Struggles to Remain Relevant in the Social Web", ReadWriteWeb asks "Why is Slashdot almost irrelevant to the social media community?" I ask: "Is there really a 'social media community', at least as I understand the term?" and "Just because something is online, does it necessarily mean that attention from the 'social media community' always the best—or even a good—measure of success?" Among the fallacies in the post: They're comparing apples and snow-tires. Seriously... What exactly does Slashdot have in common with the likes of, say, Digg? On Slashdot, people submit stories that admins select for publication. With Digg, Delicious and so on, the process is a bit more democratic, operating more like a common service first and a news-source second. Slashdot never aimed to be a service, as such. This miscategorization allows RWW to make the statement that "Slashdot is no longer the powerhouse that... Sun, 11 Jul 2010 Photo by Laughing Squid Not too often but, every once in a while, a company will send a cease-and-desist letter to a netizen it finds, well, pesky. These are typically attempts at control and intimidation in an environment where the most one can reasonably strive for is to influence an outcome. These letters quickly get posted, passed around, and become targets of richly deserved ridicule. Nevertheless, there are instances where taking such action is justified. OnTechnologyLaw gives a five-point test to at least help ridicule-proof a C&D. Philosophically, their approach is very sound: A kinder, gentler approach is almost always better – not least because the cease-and-desist letter might someday be read by a judge, by jurors, and/or by journalists and bloggers. The Technology & Marketing blog wisely points out: Increasingly, lawsuits play out in the public arena, so it's also worth looping in the PR/messaging folks at the early... Mon, 28 Jun 2010 A U.S. general and a political journalist have had their less-than-flattering comments become the talk of the interwebs. The former is, I could argue, someone who should uniquely understand the value of information control. The latter is in a profession that often relies on failures in information control in order to demonstrate its value. While holding two different perspectives on this concept, in both cases, the general's and the journalist's media behavior cost them their jobs, one by way of a public dismissal (of the most public variety) and the other through a speedy resignation. And, in both cases, the most naïve and hackneyed of all possible excuses was deployed. Yup... General Stanley McChrystal's handlers and WaPo's David Weigel said they were "off-the-record" when their comments came back to bite them via Rolling Stone (McChrystal) and during participation in a since-scuttled listerv for journalists (Weigel). "Off-the-record." People actually still believe... Thu, 24 Jun 2010 I've lately been interested in how some of the names-you-know in social media have blown up their digital presences in order to refocus, retrench, or reinvent their online identities. Some examples: Leah Jones has tweeted her last as @leahjones is now @chicagoleah on Twitter. She explains the move over at the Natiiv blog. My colleague Steve Rubel stopped blogging and started "lifestreaming." Going back further, I remember when people made a ridiculously big deal out of when Hugh McLeod killed (and later resurrected) his Twitter account. Me? I just kind of got sick of dragging around my technology choices of 2001. In any event, I was already running two blogs on TypePad. Mostly, though, the old blog represented a "me" from a long time ago and starting Where the Fishermen Ain't was a good way to make a clean break. All of this is so much more than the nauseating... Wed, 09 Jun 2010 Flickr User: Firexbrat Over at the old blog, I wrote that the news media, despite its problems with its business model, should not seek help from the government. To do so would be to bring American media to the level of countries we rightly criticize. I continue to follow this topic with interest, noting during breaks in the Memorial Day celebrations that Mark Tapscott and Jeff Jarvis have published their similar positions, warning of the dangers of FTC involvement in journalism. Tapscott outlines the issue succintly: Journalists must understand that there is no way the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press will survive if the federal government regulates the news industry. Those who accept at face value protests to the contrary or the professions of pure intentions by advocates of government takeover of the news business are, at best, incredibly naive. Journalists who remain silent or apathetic about... |
