And this. . . this happens to us all. We have all been the blogger and the reader in this cycle. Skim with care my friends, skim with care.

• Mickipedia Sent Me Some Link Love
• The Blog Council is formed
• SFGate Agrees that PR Blogging Works for All Business
• Blogging From Work FAQ
• Blogging is a Great Career Move
• Blogs Have Either Died or Consolidated
• Online Communities are Real Communities of Real People
• Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
• When You Blog You Are Not In the Pub
• When You Blog You Are Not In The Bar

Abraham Harrison loves the Neema Crafts Cafe (http://www.neemacrafts.com/) and the amazing work they are doing for the physically handicapped and hearing impaired in Iringa, Tanzania, East Africa. Besides… they have hands down the best melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake between the Cape and Cairo!

And Neema Crafts is hoping to win British Airways “Expat Best of British” contest for the restaurant category. Please help them out by going to the Expat Best of British Restaurant page, and casting your vote for them (scroll down and click on Review & Vote for this venue below the images and above the comments.)

Neema Crafts is a cafe (yum!), weaving, and handcrafted paper workshop/store employing the deaf and physically handicapped in Iringa, where I used to live in Tanzania. Amazing panini, incredible cakes, and freshly roasted, freshly brewed local highland coffee… incredible. Neema saved more than one of my days there in the mountains of East Africa.

In addition to treating us customers to moments of culinary bliss, Neema has literally changed the lives of the physically handicapped and hearing impaired there in Iringa. People with handicaps in Tanzania suffer under strong discrimination and in the past have have few opportunities to earn good livings for themselves, regardless of their skills and talents otherwise. They are also subject to particular targeting for acts of crime and violence. Neema Crafts has changed all that in Iringa, providing training, employment, and as a result, status and futures for the handicapped of the city. It’s a truly amazing organization, making the world a better place for their co-workers and for anyone in Iringa craving a delicious bite!

Here’s the Neema Crafts entry on the British Airways Expat Best of British page:

Set up and run by a Yorkshire couple from Harrogate, Neema Crafts Restaurant is entirely staffed by deaf people and is part of the Neema Crafts Centre employing 103 deaf and disabled people in our craft workshops making everything from elephant dung paper to micro-solar panels. Also a physiotherapy Unit serving disabled children where you can also book an amazing massage. The restaurant, internet cafe and conference room (plus soon a guest house) serve fantastic food, cakes ice cream and some of the best teas and coffee in east africa. A favourite stop off for everyone from ambassadors to the guy with hardly a shirt on his back. A great place to relax and the place to go for the top tips to explore the area.

A tour of the workshops is the unexpected highlight of many an expat or tourists trip to Tanzania. The restaurant serves local dishes, but also a taste of home with cakes made to recipes from Susie’s (who runs the place with her husband Andy) great grandmother. The chocolate cake and carrot cake draw expats and all the VSO workers out of the bush to induldge. The ice creams and deserts like lemon meringue pies and rubarb crumbles are equaly fantastic and the chocolate toffee shortbread… The restaurant also features a childrens play corner with wendy house and books and toys so you can sip your coffee in peace while reading British and local newspapers or reading one of the second hand novels which we sell to raise money for the physiotherapy work with disabled children, playing a board game or browsing the development journals in the development library which is kept up to date with the best in development literature for the N.G.O. workers in town.

The Centre recently recieved rave reviews in the Rough Guide to Tanzania and the new Bradt guidebook and is soon to be featured in the National Geographic magazine for its micro-solar project. They run regular childrens clubs for the whole community in school holidays. Their deaf dance and drumming group are also amazing, having toured the UK in 2008 and danced for the EU embassy celebrations in Dar and zanzibar where they are currently performing in a major cultural event sponsored by the British Council. please also see these videos to hear more: http://www.vimeo.com/322277 & http://www.vimeo.com/322185 to hear from some of those who work at Neema Crafts.

Stori Nne/Four Stories from Usikike/Be Heard Film Project on Vimeo.

Safari Siyo Kifo from Usikike/Be Heard Film Project on Vimeo.

Every month a evening event is held which ranges from Scottish dancing to concerts from visiting musicians often top international cultural acts from across East Africa. These draw a huge crowd of Ex-pats and locals in from the bush to have a great time! A truly British establishment fully imersed in the local community and including everyone and serving the most disadvantaged.

Please go vote, and if you are ever in Iringa, Tanzania (perhaps on your way to a safari in one of Africa’s best, but still little known game parks, Ruaha), stop on by and tell Susie and everyone there at Neema that you voted for them!

• CC Chapman on Second Life Marketing and PR
• Make Your Life a Work of Art
• A dilemma for the marketer-agency-media relationship
• Second Life Gamblers Need to Fold ‘Em
• Second Life Marketing has Only One Life to Live
• Corporate Blogging Case Study: Antiques Dealer
• What is RSS? And How can it change my life?
• Paradigm shift, stage of life, or a bit of both?
• Social Media On The Sidewalk
• The Corporate Culture and Work Environment of Abraham Harrison LLC

Looks like the smart phone revolution has really actually come this time, and is keeping pace with the social media revolution, or maybe they are completely building on each other.

Sarah Perez over at Read Write Web says in Social Networking Now More Popular on Mobile than Desktop.

A recent study from Ruder Finn revealed that Americans are spending nearly three hours per day on their mobile phones. And what are they doing there? Educating themselves, conducting business, managing finances, instant messaging, emailing? All of the above, as it turns out, and then some. But perhaps the most interesting finding from the new data is the fact that more people are using the mobile web to socialize (91%) compared to the 79% of desktop users who do the same. It appears that the mobile phone is actually a better platform for social networking than the PC.

What has given rise to this trend? What makes social networking such a popular mobile web activity? It’s easy to point to the proliferation of smartphones and their host of applications, 3G network speeds and more affordable data plans, built in web browsers and mobile-ready websites. Of course these are all important factors that have helped increase mobile social networks’ popularity. However, these measurements are the reason why mobile web use, in general, is growing, not specifically mobile social networking.

A less quantifiable statistic that may also have impacted the rise of mobile social networking to the point where it has surpassed desktop-based social networking is the fact that it’s an activity that taps into how people – normal, everyday people – go about their lives.

Perez has hit the mark with that one.

• iPhone in Corporate World
• Skype Goes POP!!
• Open Studios – Nokia In Africa
• The net outside of our world
• War and Pornography
• Google Could Kill the Wireless Star
• Text Message Ads = Terrible Idea
• Google Launches Android AKA the Google Phone
• You’re Good Enough, You’re Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like You!
• Yahoo! Go 2.0 is Almost Everything Yahoo on Your Phone

As twitter reaches 10 billion tweets this week (check the counter) and Facebook has over 400 million users and over 3.5 billion pieces of content, we find the data that definitely supports this huge success: the mobile data.

There’s no doubt that social networking sites depend on mobile technology, specially when the concept involves updating on the go.  comScore released the data today about social networking from mobile phones. The change in Twitter and Facebook mobile users is remarkable as expected, and MySpace once again shows to be losing ground. Here is the table:

Basically, the future is looking very bright for social networking specially the ones that depend on mobile platforms to support and improve on-the-go interactions.

This is great news, but let’s not underestimate the magnitude of Twitter’s achievement of getting 10 billion total tweets and what’s more impressive, 5 billion of them came in the last 4 months. Even though the company has faced some scrutiny about security issues and traffic lately, Twitter is proving to be strong enough to overcome its troubles.

One more thing to know about Twitter is that it announced the decision to open its firehose to all developers in the beginning of 2010, giving ordinary developers the same access to real-time data as Google and Bing. This will open up many windows for new applications and revenue for Twitter, on top of the already great exposure provided by Google real-time searches which features live streams, including Twitter of course.

• A Smart Phone Is A Social Phone
• Twitter Japan And Twitter India
• CBS/Loopt team up to offer mobile ads
• Google Mobile Reader Needs Sharing
• Mobile Marketing is on its way
• What they talk about in Nairobi
• “Social Networking Tools in Politics” Event
• You can run, but you can’t hide–unless you turn off your phone: LBS are growing
• Google snaps up Jaiku
• School kids film fights then put online

Earlier this week, while looking through the Washington Post I stumbled on an article by Monica Hesse about a new fad online, ChatRoulette.com. Hesse says in ChatRoulette.com is the latest fad in social networking Web sites

Trollers of the Internet, you have been looking for the next big thing. Facebook bores you. Twitter is too frenetic. For months you have been wanting something different — a way to connect with people online that will both stir your heart and turn your stomach, that will launch a thousand privacy debates and discussions over just what our society is coming to.

The experience is either an unbridled realization of the Internet’s awesome randomness, or a compilation tape of its greatest hits: Omegle meets Hot or Not meets Match.com, plus a liberal dose of shame.

Personally, as far as I can tell, ChatRoulette.com is just plain garbage. It’s a useless waste of time that I can’t see building any kind of real relationships without some better social networking structure. I don’t just see it as burning out, I truly hope it does burn out quickly.

• How Much Is Your Facebook Worth?
• An actual demo as to how Facebook Beacon works
• Famous Last Words as Said by Yahoo!
• Dove Pro Age Campaign is Loving and Gorgeous
• Chris Brogan – If bacon had a god
• A Line in the Spam
• The Don’ts of Email Etiquette
• Social Media Revolution
• 3 Major Social Media Assumptions That Are Wrong
• PRWeb is a Powerful Online Promotional and SEO Tool

We have been talking about the growth of social media in Latin America and now that some exciting numbers came in, let’s check out the quantitative truth behind all of our qualitative hype about these markets.

According to “Inside Facebook”,  Latin American Facebook users grew by more than 10% from last November. The stats also point out that Argentina has the most FB users although Brazil is the country with the most potential due to the current growth rates and number of internet users. We have experienced this growth first hand through our two big clients operating heavily in Brazil. Mexico also shows great potential due to its current low penetration rate and large population.

Another very interesting research was made by Paris-based Semiocast, pointing out that only 50% of all tweets are in English. Although Twitter is still a young emergent in social media around the globe, different countries are showing great potential, specially…….. That’s right, Latin America. Coming in 3rd on the number of tweets the study shows the Portuguese language (majority coming from Brazil) and 5th is the Spanish.  The two main languages of Latin America account for 13% of all tweets which means that on average, there are 4.5 million tweets in Portuguese and 2 million tweets in Spanish per day.

This all means that Abraham & Harrison is on the right track when it comes to anticipating for the latest international trends. We all know that the Asian market presents great opportunity for many different industries, but when it comes to the openness required by Social Media, Latin America presents the perfect setting. Latin America is quickly becoming a considerable piece of the Social Media pie and there’s already plenty of hungry companies out there.

• Social Media Marketing Success in Latin America
• Latin American Internet Usage Country-By-Country
• Our Client, Global Classifieds Giant OLX Expands in Brazil
• What’s next? Where is new media taking us?
• Web 2.0 Mirrors Us As We Actually Are
• What is False is True and what is True is True!!
• Official Mark Harrison Bio
• Good Morning America – Jerry White Survives and So Can You
• The net outside of our world
• AfriGadget-Ingenuity Central

Below is a basic video tutorial for using URL tagging in Google Analytics via the URL builder (which is really really really buried). I hope this helps out my fellow bloggers, coders, geeks, and gurus.

Things to keep in mind:

• Only useful when linking to a page that has the analytics code on it.
• Results in really ugly URLs in the address bar.
• Not good for tracking views of a banner/link/etc

Keeping those things in mind, URL tagging still has its uses:

• Good for tracking click throughs
• Useful for figuring out which banner/link/flash produced the most click throughs

Let me know if it helps you out, any questions you might have, and anything you’d like to see further tutorials on.

• I Am Recording a Video Tutorial on Blogging
• Dublin Core Becomes Sexy When Called Tags and Tagging
• Wordpress.com How to Blog Video Tutorial
• Online Folks Love Them Some Yahoo! Video!
• Folksonomy is Word of the Day
• Tagging is the New Black Suit
• Freud and Modern Public Relations
• Black Hat SEO Will Get You Expelled
• Vanity Advertising on PayPerPost is Addicting
• No More Gaps in Google Apps with Google Gears

I thought I’d wander through some old propaganda films with all of you. Public Relations is based on propaganda, and propaganda is not a four letter word. We can look at these films and use the techniques in them to promote worthy causes. We should not shy away from studying these very effective films.

Educational film to teach viewers about the dynamics of propaganda, made in the in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s.

A teacher dissects the processes in which propaganda works to an eager student. In it are moments of classic hokum, but curiously it all rings true today.

This film tries to dispell fear of nuclear radiation by such tactics as portraying the human body as a factory run by pixies, telling you you can always get a toupee if your hair falls out, and informing you that you’ll be dead before getting a high enough dose of radiation to make you sterile. The naration is alternately patronizing and clueless, making this a highly amusing example of 50s cold war propaganda.

1960s LSD Propaganda Film

American Propaganda Films Capitalism 1948

What do you think of these old films?

• School kids film fights then put online
• Propaganda, PR, Business, Edward Bernays, And Us
• The Commercial That Made Me Cry Real Tears
• Newsreels are Cool Looks as Nascent Techniques in Crowd Control
• Will the DoD Win Blogger Hearts and Minds While Being Transparent?
• Product-Placement: Here, there and everywhere.
• What’s next? Where is new media taking us?
• Full Length Super Size Me and Others Now on YouTube
• Employer 1.0 Must Appeal to Employee 2.0
• Go Thee to Bad Pitch Night School!

More companies are starting social media based marketing campaigns every day, and not just tech companies.

Initially, it was marketers of technology and telecommunications products that tried out the social media, reflecting how their consumers were among the first into that realm. Now, as familiarity with the social media becomes more mainstream, companies like Clorox, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble are arriving there — not to mention purveyors of bologna, ham and turkey. -New York TImes

However many of the larger companies stepping into the social media arena are actually just putting down their proverbial pinky toes rather than getting fully entrenched and involved. Too bad for them, great news for their competitors.

The fact that the Fortune 100 do not leverage multiple tools is a sign of how consumer-based social media tools are not fully understood or leveraged for maximum benefit. It’s also evident of just how much of an opportunity big companies have in using the social Web if they use it to its full extent. Companies that extend to multiple media networks still have a chance to get ahead of competitors.-Read Write Web

I’m glad to see so many new company faces circling the social media realm, but they need to step in compeletly. Trying to test the waters will only leave them stranded on dry land in the long run.

• Skype Down Google Talk Up???
• Learn From The Fumbles and Grace Of Others
• Listen Before You Engage in Social Media
• Official Chris Abraham Bio
• Learn “how you can tap that power” with the ‘Twitter Book’
• Time Adds Social Networks to its Weeklies
• 3 Major Social Media Assumptions That Are Wrong
• .EU Joins .US in Our Passion for Online Marketing
• British Executives Lag Behind the U.S.
• Social media: Who will control it?

I missed American Idol last night because I decided last minute to go to a Social Media Club of DC event.  I know, 1) how will I know how Todrick Hall did and 2) serious nerd alert.  If only there was a way for me to set the DVR from my iphone…oh wait, DirecTV has that.  I think that’s pretty newsworthy, especially if it means not missing a minute of AI.  But according Charles Miller, Director Digital Care/Social Media Strategy at DirecTV, no one in the newsroom (or popular blogosphere) thought the launch of the DirecTV iphone DVR app was anything special and they said “no thanks” to covering it.

So instead of tearing up their press release and crying about it, Miller and the PR team at DirecTV decided to leverage their social media networks to spread the word about the launch of the app instead.   The promotion was done by reaching out to well-connected individuals who had relationships with DirecTV and had shown they were active, responsive and available to re-tweet.  Turns out, people did think the launch was special and 200,000 of them downloaded the app from itunes within the first week.  After 100,000 downloads, traditional news media took notice and finally covered the story – driving the social media conversation even more and contributing to the next 100,000 downloads.

As more and more brands begin to create and cultivate their social media networks, I think this phenomenon will be happening more frequently.  Brands will be turning to their consumer base directly through social media to get the word out in addition to traditional PR approaches.  The purpose of getting press coverage is to increase awareness and understanding of your product among consumers – so why not cut out the middle man (the media) and get right to business?  If the product catches consumers’ interest first, it will appear more newsworthy to the media and they will cover it and the conversation will continue to grow.

But will creating online buzz first become the only way to get reporters (and now A-list bloggers) to cover your brand?  I don’t think so.  The news media are just looking for a good story that will appeal to their readers.  Your media pitch needs some element that makes it different from the rest.  Another iphone app?  Great, but not that easy to craft a catchy story around.  Another iphone app that has reached 100,000 downloads in less than a week because of Twitter?  Pretty newsworthy in this day and age.

Social media is  a cost-effective, easy way to reach consumers, and as DirecTV’s example has shown us, a great avenue for attracting traditional media coverage.  But as all the experts keep saying (I am not an expert or a “guru” by any means…yet) an integrated (social media and traditional media) marketing and communication strategy is your best bet.  So keep the traditional PR channels open, but why not start out with some social media outreach to get the conversation started and generate interest in your product.  Journalists and bloggers are on Twitter, they’ll find you.

• The Value of Dot-Org
• One example of how Facebook Beacon is sleazy
• Online Marketing
• Newspaper troubles
• Recession-Proof Online Marketing Services
• The Benefits of the Home-Office Life
• Sure, PR is a mess, but…
• Leveraging digital PR to Build Your Brand
• Pay more to be fat?
• New Coolness For Google Apps

Lee Odden over at Online Marketing Blog shared 15 Social Media Answers From OMS10 with the blogosphere recently:

What’s your advice for individuals just get started using Twitter?

Have some idea of what you want out of Twitter. Connect with people of similar interests and goals and engage with them.

What’s the #1 myth preventing companies from embracing social media?

To start when you’re ready. You’ll never be ready. But you need to do it anyway because it’s the only way towards progress.

What’s the best way to integrate social media with other marketing efforts like email, direct mail, etc?

Strategically. Learn what customers want and leverage social technologies across channels to make it easier for them to get it.

What’s the one social media skill set that you wish more potential employees had?

Honesty about skills. Social media user & expert are very different. Passion, curiosity and ability to really listen, learn and create value using social technology.

He goes on with some great advice and you should check out the original article and let me know what you think.

• Gift and Asset Distribution
• Will passionate petowners possibly help PurinaProPlan?
• The effectiveness and limitations of blogs and mainstream media
• Make Your Life a Work of Art
• Do online petitions carry any weight in PR campaigns?
• What do I get from talking to you?
• Be where they are
• 7 Online Marketing Mistakes
• What motivated you to learn about social media?
• Corporate “Disruption” by the “Rogue” Celebrity Blogger

One of the most exciting discoveries in business communication and psychology in the past 30 years has been the development of a communication and rapport-building tool called Neurolinguistic Programming.

If you’re not familiar with NLP, here’s the quick thumbnail. NLP was developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s at the University of Santa Cruz in California. At the time, Bandler was studying for his master’s degree in information sciences and mathematics. Grinder was a professor of linguistics (language). The two discussed how some people are able to “get through to difficult people, and others can’t” and NLP was conceived. It examines the relationships between thought, communication, and behavior. One of the basic definitions of NLP that I like to use in my trainings is that it bridges communication gaps.

The core of NLP focuses on positive outcomes, body language and physiology, the words we use to communicate our experiences, and our mental programming. Top business leaders, politicians and athletes around the world use NLP to build trust and influence. They use it as an internal success tool to visualize positive results in advance. It’s fascinating.

OK, so where does Social Media play into this mix? Obviously you can’t read body language with written blog posts, texts, Tweets, LinkedIn group discussions or on Facebook walls. But the clues and cues to help you build relationships online, engage new people, and connect with your industry leaders and ideal clients are literally right in front of your face.

Here’s how it works. NLP focuses on our five senses, or learning modalities. The three main ones for communication are sight, sound, and feel. While we are dominant in one of these areas, there is always an overlap.

• Visual – Most people are visual communicators. They learn by seeing and reading. They need to actually see how something is done in order to comprehend it. They use expressions like “Take a look at this” and “I get the picture.”
• Auditory – Others learn by hearing. They can hear something explained once or twice and have full understanding. These are individuals who prefer audio books and are not couch potatoes who spend time with TV and movies. Auditory people tend to use phrases like “That’s music to my ears” and “That sounds good to me.”
• Kinesthetic – These folks learn best through touch or feel. Artists and creative people are usually kinesthetic. They may say things like “I get the point” and “I feel comfortable with that plan.”

Think about what kind of communicator you are. If you are a visual communicator and have a face-to-face disagreement with a colleague who is auditory, you will clash. It’s as though you are speaking Spanish and he is speaking French. By listening closely, you can identify your colleague’s main modality and begin to use it in your conversation. You’ll soon be on the same page.

The goal of NLP is to bring people together by finding similarities instead of differences. It’s about positive outcomes and bridging communication gaps.

This holds true of the written/typed words in our Social Media activities. Consider these  examples of phrases used online:

“I love this video”

“Google blurs the line…”

“Let’s touch base”

“Quick overview of”

“UN Chief sees corporate profit…”

“Best advice I’ve heard in a while”

“Looks exciting”

“The way it sounds to me…”

If your ideal client Tweets an article link and writes “Best advice I’ve heard in a while”, he has dropped a clue (the word heard) that he may be an auditory learner. Take a quick minute to read his Profile or a blog post to discover more about his communication.  This is called doing your homework. You can then Retweet him and add “Sounds like a solution for marketing pro’s.” You can also try and engage him one-on-one with a similar auditory response. Another option is to send him a link to a podcast or Teleseminar (audio programs) on a related subject. Bringing the conversation off-line is the goal so you can continue to connect with him.

By being aware of other people’s modalities and shifting your communication to match theirs, you will build trust and a connection. People will feel comfortable with you because you are “like” them. In turn, they will “like” you. NLP calls this practice “modeling” or “mirroring.”

Even though Social Media and other technology often has us speaking in tongue or 140 characters, the basic clues of NLP and building rapport is present.

NLP is the subconscious tool of influence. Social Media is the vehicle to drive that influence.

Susan Young works with businesses who want to increase their publicity, credibility and revenues with public relations and social media. She’s a news and communication expert and President of Get in Front Communications, Inc. Susan also works with professionals and college students who want to improve their communication, leadership and self-confidence. She is a certified practitioner in NLP. Susan can be reached at www.getinfrontcommunications.com. Read her blog at www.getinfrontblogging.com.

Network with Susan:

• PR is about relationships
• How We All Often Assure Failure
• Welcome to the Blogosphere Flugpo
• What Service-Oriented Architecture Is
• Chris Brogan – If bacon had a god
• Business is Relationship
• Virtual Relationships, True Love
• Attention Attention from Janet Johnson
• Virtual Worlds & Second Life for Marketing
• Marketing to Social Networks is About Building Trusted Relationships

Soren Gordhamer over at Mashable walks us through the 5 Levels of Effective Communication in the Social Media Age.

In this era of social media when we are reaching out and engaging more and more people, the question is not just “Should I communicate with someone?” but “How should I communicate with someone? How can I build engagement one step at a time?” The more we allow for and understand the importance of all the various levels of communication, the more we can skillfully and effectively use each one.

Those levels of communitcation happen to be according to Gordhamer:

• Level 1: The Public Reply
• Level 2: The Direct Message
• Level 3: E-mail
• Level 4: Phone
• Level 5: In-Person (or Video Chat)

I think he’s got it pretty much on the mark.

• The Unique Challenges of Telecommuting
• What humans need
• Defensive SEO: More vital than ever
• Workers Love Them Some Telecommute
• AfriGadget-Ingenuity Central
• New Technology and Education
• Official Mark Harrison Bio
• What’s Oprah’s Effect on Twitter
• How to make readers care about your blog
• Quality vs Quantity

Bridget Carey over at The Miami Herald thinks we should all Consider Ning to broaden social networking strategy.

Your business Facebooks. It Tweets. But does it Ning? There are about 300,000 active groups on Ning — many of them brands and interest groups — and about 40 million users actively participating in them. If your business has a social media strategy (and there had better be a strategy) you might want to consider setting up a Ning network.

It’s where you can take any topic and make a social network community for it in less than 10 minutes. I spoke to Ning’s chief operating officer, Jason Rosenthal, who says that every month, there’s a 14 percent increase of active Ning networks. There are about 2.1 million networks, not all active. That’s about 40,000 new and active networks created a month.

I’d have to agree with her, Ning is a great platform to create very focused communities.

• Andreessen joins Facebook’s Board of Directors
• Does McKinsey Indicate a Social Media Tipping Point?
• Are we ourselves stuck inside our own walled garden?
• BL Ochman Debunks Six Social Media Myths Over at Business Week
• Spring Thank You to the Fresh Air Fund Bloggers
• Thanks to Springtime Fresh Air Fund Bloggers
• Big Ass Master List of Marketing Blogs
• Time Adds Social Networks to its Weeklies
• 3 Major Social Media Assumptions That Are Wrong
• Dive Into Social Media

(The following is a personal view expressed by Phillip J Rhoades formed under the influence of caffeine and annoyance)

• Are you a blogger (aka citizen journalist)?
• Did you put your contact information up for everyone to find?
• Are people contacting you about news in the field that you report on?
• Are you complaining because you’re being contacted?
• Did you “friend” someone on facebook and then complain about what they post, suggest, or send you?
• Did you follow someone on twitter and then complain about how many tweets they send out?

If the above sounds like you, then you are probably a Social Media Jackass. Buck up, shut up, and listen. You signed on for all of this. You made yourself a public persona and posted your contact information for people to find. You will receive pitches for both stuff that you actually think is cool and stuff that only the creators think is cool. You made this a part of your life and it’s time you owned up to it.

If you’re complaining about “spam” on facebook or twitter, shut up. You opted into those channels of information and you can opt out at any time. Just click unfollow or unfriend or whatever. Wow, that’s hard, so very hard, oh my god, how could I ever expect you to simply click on a link or a button. . . oh wait that’s not hard at all.

Look, stop being an idiot. Stop acting like receiving an email, or a page suggestion on Facebook, or a tweet (direct or otherwise) is some sort of personal violation. It’s not. It’s just simply not. You’re a big boy or girl and it’s time you started acting like it.

You don’t like receiving emails? Don’t put your contact information up. You’ll miss out on a lot of cool press releases, information, etc, but that’s what you want, right? To speak to the world, but to never have the world speak to you. See? Easy, just remove your contact information and no one will ever contact you again.

Don’t like the volume or quality of posts, statuses, updates, or whatever that someone on twitter, facebook, or social media website x has been posting, just unfollow, unfriend, or unwhatever it happens to be on that site. It’s pretty easy and saves everyone involved a lot of trouble. Plus you get to just quietly ignore someone who was annoying you instead of looking like a whiny little twit.

• School kids film fights then put online
• Time Adds Social Networks to its Weeklies
• 3 Major Social Media Assumptions That Are Wrong
• Dive Into Social Media
• .EU Joins .US in Our Passion for Online Marketing
• British Executives Lag Behind the U.S.
• Social media: Who will control it?
• Edelman’s Social Media Index is Currently Useless
• The real bottom line on social media
• Social graph-iti

Which side are you on in this Twitterrific customer service debate between Southwest Airlines and director Kevin Smith aka “Silent Bob“?  I can understand both sides of the story, but personally, I’m with Team Southwest.  But Team Southwest but only because I think their communications team handled the situation well, not because of their customer service. Let me explain.

Last Saturday, Kevin Smith purchased two seats on a plane from Oakland to Burbank, which SWA claims is common practice for the not-so-small man.  However, Smith decided to switch to an earlier flight and fly stand-by which did not guarantee him a seat, let alone two.  After all the passengers with tickets were boarded, stand-by passengers like Smith were allowed to board.  Smith found a single seat, buckled up, and prepared for take-off.

Shortly after being seated, Smith was approached by a flight attendant who said she was told by the captain that Smith violated the airline’s “Customer of Size” policy that requires passengers that can not fit safely and comfortably in one seat to purchase an additional seat while traveling.  According to Southwest:

The spirit of this policy is based solely on Customer comfort and Safety. As a Company committed to serving our Customers in Safety and comfort, we feel the definitive boundary between seats is the armrest. If a Customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a Customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement.

Smith was asked to leave the plane, placed on a later flight on which two seats were available and given a $100 travel voucher.

Enter PR nightmare for Southwest as Smith proceeded to inflame the Twittersphere with a barrage of angry rants about his experience.  Smith is a popular celebrity director/actor and has over 1 million followers on Twitter, so you can imagine Southwest was quick to respond.  Christi Day, Emerging Media Specialist, posted this blog in defense of the employees’ enforcement of the “Customer of Size” policy.  In my opinion, her response was to the point, addressed what happened and explained why the employees did what they did.

But, the rantings continued, even after Southwest personally apologized (well, so they say).  So, Linda Rutherford, VP of Strategic Communications, wrote another blog post apologizing again and noting that the airline employees could have handled the situation better.  She adds that Southwest will be reviewing the policy and trying to figure out a way to implement it better.

Good work Communications department.  I think your responses were timely and said everything that needed to be said.  One, you apologized.  Two, you said you’d address the problem and said you’d try to be better in the future.  That’s all I need to feel good about flying Southwest again.

However, giant fail for the employees on the flight.  It is incredibly obvious to me that this policy should not be a “zero tolerance.”  The captain should have made a more calculated judgment about the safety and comfort of passengers on the plane.  The flight from Oakland to Burbank is a little over an hour.  I’ll give up half my seat to a “Customer of Size” next to me for an hour if it means not having to delay take-off because of this BS.

As a former frequent flyer, I’ve had my fair share of  inconveniences from passengers of size, passengers of snoring and even passengers of smelly feet, so I’m a fan of policies that help make the flying experience more bearable for those of us who usually just sit quietly and endure 10 hours of uncomfort so that no one is embarrassed.  But on a 1 hour flight?  Use some judgment Southwest.  And maybe just give the passengers on either side of Smith a $100 voucher.  We like those too.

• Southwest Airlines to be fined $10.2 million; FAA official had approved flights
• Southwest is missing an opportunity in their blog “Nuts About Southwest”
• Working With a Virtual Team
• A Guest of Bulldog Reporter on Beyond Twitter PR
• Book Report Assignments for Mr. Abraham Harrison
• ConnectBeam Doesn’t Suck as a Private Enterprise del.icio.us
• AHLLC is not just a job, it’s a movement
• The Corporate Culture and Work Environment of Abraham Harrison LLC
• Year of the Astroturfing Flog for Online Marketing
• Donate Now To Help The International Medical Corps In Haiti

Gina Trapani over at Fast Company wrote a great article about How to Do Everything in Google Buzz (Including Turn It Off). The best piece of which I think is how to post a buzz so that only certain people can see it:

You can use Buzz like you would Google Reader–to just keep up with your friends’ social network streams from around the web. But you can also post status updates via Buzz, and limit who can see those updates. From the Buzz posting text area (which looks a whole lot like Twitter’s), add your text, links, photos, or videos, and from the drop-down choose Private to limit access to that post. Check off the Contacts groups who are allowed to see the update.

Make sure to read the rest of the article for the other great tips.

• Buzz Marketing, Guerilla Marketing, and Viral Marketing
• Google Is Buzzing
• The State of Buzz (and Word of Mouth) in 2009
• Year of the Astroturfing Flog for Online Marketing
• Number Two DC New Media, PR & Marketing Blog
• How do you see Social Media affecting marketing/public relations industry as a whole?
• The Anatomy of Buzz Still Mandatory Read
• Why did you begin the Marketing Conversation blog?
• Have You Missed Any of Our 10 Most Viewed Posts?
• Online Influence is Not the Only Influence on Voters

Steve McKee over at Business Week says that Social Media Is Nothing New:

Who hasn’t recommended a product to a neighbor, received a tip from a colleague, or asked for a referral from a friend? From grocery store aisles to cocktail party asides, the “social media” we’ve commonly called word-of-mouth or relationship marketing have always been the most trusted form of outreach.

In the last few years, however, a dramatic transformation has taken place in this oldest and most effective form of media. It’s been a cause for celebration for many, confusion for others, and consternation for a few. What it should not be to anyone, however, is surprising. It’s the same transformation that has happened to industry after industry, from computers to cars, televisions to telecommunications.

Social media has gone digital.

He’s of course absolutely right. Social media has always been with us, but now the digital era has allowed everyone to speak across greater distances and to more people than ever. Social media and word of mouth have moved beyond the regional and have become global.

• No related posts

With over 180 million internet users and 900% growth rate since 2000, there is no denying it; audiences in Latin America are massively moving into the online arena and what used to be predictions are now reality. Incredibly enough, this is not the main reason why we see an unbelievable potential for social media in these markets. The main reason is the culture.

We have invested our resources in finding a very diverse staff that is in touch with cultural trends in Latin America. We were moved to do this after watching numbers like mentioned above and the growth of Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and blogging amongst others. There are a few facets to the Latin American culture that present a great opportunity for social media. We fully understand the particular cultural differences within these countries, which is why we chose a diverse team that will work with the highest cultural knowledge whether it’s in Mexico or Brazil.

What they do have in common is the need to be part of the conversation. Generally, the whole web has grown to be this way, but what makes Latin America special is the way that opinions are expressed. The interaction surrounding blog posts is incredible. There are millions of blogs in the region and we are proud to be one of the first Social Media companies to explore the market and already have a track record of great success in Latin America.

Abraham Harrison has worked with international companies that expanded into this market and with local companies that needed professional assistance. The results were above even our own expectations and above what our clients could even imagine. As the information age progresses into an increasingly globalized world, our strong presence in Latin America is guaranteed by our strong engagement and conversation skills.

Via Abraham Harrison

• Latin American Internet Usage Country-By-Country
• Our Client, Global Classifieds Giant OLX Expands in Brazil
• What’s next? Where is new media taking us?
• Web 2.0 Mirrors Us As We Actually Are
• You Can’t Sell a Nothing Burger to Bloggers
• Official Mark Harrison Bio
• AfriGadget-Ingenuity Central
• Year of the Astroturfing Flog for Online Marketing
• Good Morning America – Jerry White Survives and So Can You
• iPhone in Corporate World

Tomorrow marks the first day of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver, BC.  Years of training, hard work, discipline and relentless dedication have given the great athletes of Team USA the right edge to grab that gold.  To make sure you keep track of who is skiing the fastest and skating the hardest, register with TeamUSA.org where fans get chance to take part in all of the action.  GO USA!

Register at TeamUSA.org and you will:

• Receive exclusive updates during the Winter Games
• Get the inside scoop, event by event
• Hear directly from our Olympic athletes as they chase their dream
• Be able to download photo and video highlights, right to your desktop

There is more than one way to get involved with this year’s Olympics.  Show your support by making a donation or becoming a member the Sixth Ring.  Check out TeamUSAnews.org and get ready to rally behind the great USA!

• Register at TeamUSA.org for exclusive Winter Games info
• Domain Name Strategy is the New Black
• Attend Our Free Twitter Webinar on April 30 at 1PM EDT
• Your Online Marketing Strategy Requires More than SEM
• Free How to Do Social Media Marketing Webinar
• The Ideal Newspaper Reader is Now His Own Publisher
• Free Online Reputation Management Webinar 7 May
• Communications Students Need to Blog
• New Coolness For Google Apps
• Working With a Virtual Team