Number one social media trending topic: ANXIETY?
Jan 17th
I was reading Ross Dawson’s excellent blog on media trends and was entranced with a visualization he developed (with Richard Watson) on future trends.
Along with the usual trending topics of urbanization, gentrification and a power shift to the east was “anxiety.” Anxiety as a trend?
This struck a chord, especially during a week where every critical technology in my life malfunctioned! What are the ways technology is contributing to growing levels of anxiety in our culture?
• Paralysis
Last year I was in the hunt to buy a new digital camera. On top of the millions of combinations of brands and features, there were an incredible number of purchase options. And sorting through hundreds of consumer and web reviews –supposed to make things easier — seemed impossible to process. Many consumers faced with a similar amount of information simply shut down — they are afraid to make the wrong decision. Decision paralysis that comes with too much information is a real issue.
• Complexity
I just bought a new computer. It took me three weeks to move the software, settings and files from one computer to the new one. This involved multiple phone interactions with various software companies, finding licence numbers that required a magnifying glass to interpret and manipulations of servers to get all of my applications to work together again in harmony ( which has not happened). Just setting up this basic business functionality was difficult and time-consuming. While individual applications may make life easier in the short-term, the complexity and fragility of technology systems is making life increasingly stressful. Which also leads to …
• Impact of Gentrification
What if I did not have the underlying experience with technology to make this all work? There are two speeding trains heading straight for each other — the increasing number of senior citizens and the increased complexity of technology.
• Vulnerability
We are becoming increasingly vulnerable to Internet attacks as our dependence on web life-tools increases and the analog method of doing things becomes obsolete. Don’t buy that? Try getting by for one week without email.
• Ubiquity
Undoubtedly the Orwellian vision of “Big Brother” is coming true. Technology companies may soon know more about us than we truly know about ourselves. What are the implications for how we live our lives when every movement, and every mistake, is recorded for posterity?
• Rate of change
Technology moves in dog years. If you un-tether for a month, it’s like missing seven months of technological advancement. The answer to staying on top of things? Never un-tether.
Before you beat me up and point out all the wonderful benefits of technology (including this dialogue) I’d like to leave you with this thought. Two hundred years ago, the pressure to keep up with technological change was not even a human consideration. Life pretty much went on as it always had, and our mindset was that it would continue that way forever. Mankind lived a rural life dependent on friends and family, weather and livestock … as it had for centuries. There was no “app for that.”
Genetically, we are cut from the same cloth as our pioneering ancestors. What are the implications for having a constant imperative in our lives to understand, assess, deploy and maintain our digital selves?
Love notes from the social web
Jan 15th
A lot of social media content elicits “rants,” “vents” and snark these days. But today I am overwhelmed by the positive feelings flowing from the blogosphere. Let me back up a step.
This has been a difficult couple of weeks. I have been very sick, had a string of daily technology disasters, and the perfect storm of critical customer deadlines. By today I am exhausted.
Then this amazing thing happened. I started getting all of these little “Follow Friday” love notes. About every 10 minutes or so my computer would “ping” with an unsolicited little ‘atta boy. I think maybe 30 or so floated in with very touching and generous sentiments on many of them. How did you know I needed this today?
Did you ever think we could live in a time when you could get 30 love notes from people you’ve never met?
Even more important are the growing friendships I am developing with you. When I see your comments on my blog, tweets or Facebook posts, I get a smile on my face because I think of the special relationships I’m developing with so many people, and it has been so powerful and unexpected.
I began on Twitter eight months ago. In that time I have:
Collaborated on videos, articles and books with Rebel Brown, Ben Hanna, John Bottom, Jamie Wallace, Robin Frank, Shane Mac, Neicole Crepeau, Kimmo Linkama, Jayme Soulati, Anne Giles Clelland, Jenn Whinnem, Venessa Miemis, Nancy Scott, Rebecca Denison, Michael Winn, Jeremy Victor and Steve Farnsworth.
Started working on customer projects with Steve Dodd and Jeremy Floyd.
Donated to charitable causes with the inspiration of Danny Brown, Billy Mitchell and Kacy Maxwell.
Created a video (you’ll see it soon!) with Michelle Chmielewski.
Wrote a case study with Nathan Dube.
Provided potential new business opportunities to Trey Pennington, Nitin Gupta, Tim Knight, Stuart Mease, Lisa Foote, Michele Linn, Rebecca Renner, Christina Kerley, and Rebekkah Hilgraves.
Received new business opportunities from Nathan Egan, Lisa Worley, and Leil Lowndes.
Worked through problems on phone calls and meetings with Jason Falls, Dianna Huff, Olivier Blanchard, Joseph Fiore, Christina Kerley, Gavin Baker, Karl Yeh, Dean Holmes, Jen McClurg-Roth, Dan Levine, Sidney Eve Matrix, Gregg Morris, Bill Sledzik, Jennifer Yeager and many others.
In less than a year, there been nearly 2,000 comments on my blog from hundreds of people. Thank you so very much.
If you’re not on the list and we’re connected, it’s just a matter of time until we find some way to work together. Let’s make it happen!
Thanks for making {grow} the greatest community on the social web.
P.S. I’m sorry if i missed somebody. Remind me and I’ll add you to the list!
A primer on social media “listening”
Jan 14th
I’ve spent a lot of time studying social media “listening tools” and found this site via Sidney Eve Matrix (follow!). This slide deck by Stefan Betzhold (follow!) compares both free and paid options and I found it very useful.
The idea of monitoring and measuring is crucial to social media marketing, whether for a company or your own personal brand. It is also the most dynamic and exciting area of marketing right now. If you haven’t put together a personal “listening” platform, this side deck is a good place to start! Click and enjoy!
This is also a good example of effectively using Slideshare to promote a concept and a company. Do you have slide presentations suitable to share with the world? Why not get a little extra “oomph” out of your effort by posting on Slideshare?
Kernels of truth on social media marketing
Jan 13th
If I leave a conference with a few “kernels of truth” I can gnaw on and think about, I consider the time well-spent. Here are a few nuggets I picked up at the Social Fresh conference held in Nashville this week.
“Movements make their audience feel like rockstars.”
To me, the highlight of the conference was a talk by Geno Church. Geno, of Brains on Fire, is an engaging speaker and discussed the distinction between marketing plans and a cultural movement. The most amazing case study of the day was work he had done for Fiskars Scissors (I guess you could call it cutting-edge). By enlisting scrap-book enthusiasts (The Fiska-teers) to contribute as bloggers, they created an army of passionate Fiskar users. If you can make scissors exciting, this guy can market about anything!
“People fill information voids with rumors. Your strategy is simple. Don’t allow information voids.”
Another super-bright guy I met was Dan Zarrella. Dan spends his time poring over Twitter statistics to determine the secret sauce that makes something go viral. He applied evolutionary theory, mathematical principles and psychology to his study. A few Twitter items that people pay attention to:
- Warnings
- “Social proof” as evidenced by large numbers of tweets
- Bigger, bolder, louder statements
- Tweets with “you”
- Tweets that are personalized
- Tweets that occur later in the week
“The biggest failure in social media marketing is not doing anything.”
Paula Berg, who just left her job with Southwest Airlines told some riveting stories about the social web and crisis communications. Remember when the USAir flight went down in the Hudson and the first news and photos came through Twitter. USAir did not have a Twitter account … but started one that day! She also talked about the trust-selling strategy on Twitter, noting that the airline had been on Twitter since 2007 but did not attempt to make a sale through the channel until 2009. When they did, they set a single-day sales record — only using the social web!
Paula also provided an entertaining case study about a rap-singing flight attendant that became a national phenomenon.
“If you don’t think it’s about BUSINESS your gonna be out of a job!”
This was a refreshing and encouraging statement from Jason Falls, an admitted recovering social media purist. He has distanced himself from the “it’s all about community crowd” and in fact playfully made fun of them. Nice to see capitalism creep into the social conversation.
Illustration: Christian Science Monitor
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-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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