Blog to Network

Do you manage your online presence? If you want to work for a traditional corporation, you might want to keep your head down:

A recent survey commissioned by Microsoft found that 70 percent of recruiters and hiring managers in the United States have rejected an applicant based on information they found online. CNN

Embarrassing photos, stupid ideas posted to their Facebook wall in a drunken stupor and angry rants about a current or former employer can cost you a job at a new employer or even get you fired. So does this mean to hide your online presence through a fake name, as the CNN article above suggests?

You might want to reconsider: Steve Cheney, MBA '09, worked in finance after graduating from Columbia Business School. But as he reoriented his career towards the start-up and venture capital world, he found it difficult to get a footing without a positive online presence. So he took the challenge head on, started a personal blog and posted his thoughts and ideas online. In his own words:

In the few months since I've been blogging I've created as many key relationships with heavy hitters like Chris [Dixon] as I had during the prior few years (a time during which I worked on Sand Hill Road, marketed to Google & Apple, went to b-school, etc). No joke!!
steve's blog

He can now send start-ups and VCs he meets to his blog. Instead of just marveling at past accomplishments on his resume, they can now understand how he thinks. If it works for Steve, maybe it will also work for us?

"Tweeting" the News

Online newspapers already have enough trouble developing successful marketing models for their webpages. Now, with the current demand for up-to-the-minute news, the same newspapers are scrambling to keep up with the reporting of social networking sites. As more and more social networking sites penetrate society, many are finding that the sites are developing a speed and reach that rivals some of the best news outlets. PaidContent.org's Brian Solis even referred to Twitter as TNN, the "Twitter News Network," because it is continuing to break news and trends faster than more traditional media outlets.

While better access to news may be good, it also poses some problems. Social networking webpages may have the latest news, but is the "reporting" always accurate? Can a website edited by any individual with an online account really rival the quality of a true staple of the news world like The New York Times?

Interestingly enough, many reporters are now turning to social media sites in their reporting. 55% of journalists sited social media as being either "important" or "somewhat important" in developing their stories, with blogs coming in as the #1 social media info source for reporters and Twitter coming in at #3. Does this mean that the social media users are actually reporting to the reporters? And when putting together their advertising campaigns, where will advertisers choose to put their money--in the struggling online newspapers, or in the blossoming social media industry?


Check out "The Information Divide Between Traditional and New Media" here:

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-the-information-divide-between-traditional-and-new-media/

Crowdsourcing for Social Good

I recently came across a really interesting use of crowdsourcing by way of an iPhone app. Through "The Extraordinaires" app you can perform tasks that have been parsed into small elements for not-for-profits. These small individual efforts then accumulate to produce a larger result.

An example of the work that is being done on The Extraordinaires is shown at left where iPhone users can help scan pictures of individuals that are missing in Haiti. You can check out this and other similar apps on mashable and read up on other uses that The Extraordinaires are finding for crowdsourcing on their blog.

Organizational blogging

This post is related to Shikha's post below on museums and social networking sites. I work at a much smaller organization downtown that recently launched a blog as an offshoot of its regular website. While it's not the same as Facebook or MySpace in that the aim is not to create a visual web of fans and friends, the blog is certainly another example of social media in that it relies on users' interaction, multimedia content, and constant real-time updates. The blog is so new that we don't know yet how popular it is or what its potential for growth might be. However, as Shikha indicates, we did feel that it was important to do what we could to leverage this low-cost but savvy marketing opportunity to spread our name among new audiences.

One question that I am still having trouble reconciling, however, is that of the balance between our regular website and our blog. Right now, it seems that there is substantial content overlap between the two, mostly in terms of event postings and other news about the organization. Furthermore, it would seem that much of what is posted on the blog (i.e. examples of artwork produced on-site, pictures documenting our special events, general information about our programming, etc) could just as effectively be published on the main website. The main difference, then, seems to be the blog's more informal and conversational voice. (This makes sense given that the blog is updated by a 22 year-old teaching artist as opposed to the website's content which must be approved by the marketing department and the associate director.)

In a case such as this one, what is the point in maintaining both the blog and the website? In an organization as small as ours, there is not the same need to offer transparency and an "inside' look at the organization via an informal blog as there would be at a major institution. Shouldn't the success of the blog just instigate the staff to make substantial improvements to the main website so that it is up to par with the blog? However, if this were done, what role would the blog then play?

My Favorite Mash-up

In our first class session, we discussed mash-ups online: sites that fuse content from disparate sources in order to create something entirely new and often quite useful. 

We shared some examples, like HopStop (or OnNYTurf, which I prefer), which pulls content from Google maps and the NYC subway system in order to offer a helpful overlay that might make your commute a little easier. 

But the mash-up also facilitates some amazing works of art, which reveal truths about ourselves and how we use the Internet -- and present this information in stunning, colorful, and sometimes ineffably beautiful ways. 

We Feel Fine, created in 2006 by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar (formerly founder/CEO of Kaltix), draws data from blogs and social networking sites around the world that employ the word "feel" (or "feels," "feeling," etc.). It displays the phrases and images associated with these "feelings" in a variety of ways: "Madness," for example, is a cloud of quivering, multicolored orbs that -- when moused over -- explode to reveal the source text and its author. "Mounds" shows the most commonly expressed feelings at the moment. The application even lets you filter by gender, age, location, and weather!

People age 20-29, for example, seem to be feeling "better." But the #2 feeling is "bad." Feeling "like shit" appears to consistently rank in the top 10, in a wide variety of age groups and locations. 

On first glance, this may seem dehumanizing, like it's crunching people's feelings into data; but quite to the contrary, there's something mystifying and deeply moving about scanning the titles -- "lonely / stupid / comfortable / special / sorry / etc" -- that can make us consider individuals so remote from us geographically or in every other imaginable way, and actually feel for them.

I'm curious to learn of other projects like this, sites that employ a similar mash-up technique not merely to make commuting convenient or to facilitate some other practical activity, but to reflect and reveal something new. Please share some links in the comments!

 

“Crowdsourced feedback” (like it or not)

Tropicana is changing their package back to its previous incarnation after six short weeks. The strength of digital media and social networks may have fanned these winds of change.

Those of who know me well have heard my "gentle rants" about the Tropicana Orange Juice repackaging launched earlier this year. Why the vertical logo placement (I have never had a single piece of research support vertical logo placement, as efficient as it can be for big branding of primary panels)? Why on EARTH would you walk away from the strong visual equity of the straw-in-orange conveying freshness? Why a generic sans serif font... are you trying to make it look like a TESCO or Sainsbury's package ? They changed the cap to a half-orange which, while cute, smacks of premium packaging on a consumable which is a no-no in this conservationist age. And completely, utterly, unshoppable as all differentiation was buried no doubt for the sake of art.

I wasn't the only one thinking this way, the blogosphere agreed. This article in the NYT from earlier this week acknowledged the massive backlash Pepsico encountered acknowledged massive direct feedback via phone and email, but I have seen numerous blogs with innumerable comments all addressing the topic which I imagine carried equal sway as I imagine they no doubt helped create the 'push' needed to get consumers more vocal.

Kudos to Pepsi for listening to the consumer (doing so prior to launch would have been way cheaper) and moving swiftly to backtrack. And if anyone would like a little schadenfreude (Thank you John Gapper for that one) tune here to see Peter Arnett waxing poetic about all the psychological mumbo-jumbo reasons why this packaging is a winner at its launch. Next time you hear marketers speak like this about ANYthing, short the stock.

New York Times to Launch Local Blog?

TechCrunch reported this morning that the New York Times may unveil a local neighborhood blog project this upcoming Monday. The Brooklyn neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill will be one of two pilot neighborhoods. Users of NYTimes.com will be invited to report neighborhood matters including "...cultural events, bar and restaurant openings, real estate, arts, fashion, health, social concerns and anything else that goes on in the ‘SoHo of Brooklyn.’"

This new initiative can be likened to CNN's iReporters site, which also encourages the public post news stories. How this changes the nature of news reporting still waits to be seen, but it appears that both initiatives will attract more eyeballs, and in turn, more advertisers to their sites. Still, whether or not this can be a sustainable revenue model is anyone's guess. Will small, local advertisers finally be able to advertise on the coveted pages of the New York Times - space traditionally reserved for big name brands? Will the operational costs of running the local sites be recouped? How will the New York Times define "all the news that's fit to print?" Will the paper's brand and image take a hit? Again, the answers can only be guessed at this point.

Inspiration to blog

Sometimes blogging takes a little inspiration...

http://www.bbspot.com/comics/PC-Weenies/2007/11/3128.php

Note: This is not the type of post you should aspire to... I just couldn't resist.

"Bloggers are Monkeys"... Linkbait?

An interesting ad campaign for a Brazilian newspaper has hatched a Catch-22 discussion. It seems the newspaper humorously referenced bloggers as a pack of chimps cutting and pasting random text on the internet, then directing readers to its new, presumably more reputable site. The firestorm of pissed off bloggers linking to the site has generated another, very interesting question...

The ad in question - Bloggers are Monkeys...

Was it deliberate linkbait? That is - were the ad people smart enough to GOAD the blogosphere into giving the ad that much more impact? Knowing people, I doubt it... but it's a very interesting thought...

Bloggers Make (a little) Money

The message here is pretty accurate: in the era of contextual advertising and cheap web hosting, many part-time bloggers are turning a little hobby into a little extra income. Most, however, are not making a fortune.

The rise of what's known as contextual advertising has created a
21st-century version of royalties that's reaching deep into the ranks of
amateurs and hobbyists. It points to a future where many people will
moonlight online as small-time creators for a little extra income, with a
few finding fame and fortune along the way.

A self selecting sample in a survey (say THAT three times fast) points to around half the bloggers making around $100 or more a month - the Google check limit, incidentally. This doesn't allow many to quit their day jobs. Still, a perhaps hidden benefit is the other sort of income: consulting leads, free equipment to review, and even just a better reputation in one's industry. As one blogger notes, "...his approach has yielded some financial benefits, such as free computer equipment, and freelance and consulting work."

Perhaps one gentlemen put it best hwoever when he said, "I worked anything from eight- to 16-hour days over the last three or four years just trying to do this," says Mr. Rowse. "And a lot of people don't see that."

Full article here at the Christian Science Monitor.