Archive for June, 2010

Cody Damon, our recently-married Social Media Director, is speaking tonight on the current state of the new media world and how non-profits are operating in it. More details here.

Knee surgery made Common Sense NMS Founder James Boyce ponder the impact of having friends all around the country and the world who just can’t be there when you need them. A recent week long stay in the hospital got me thinking about connections, our five best friends and how vast our local neighborhoods are. When I busted my knee up, and couldn’t drive, or get dinner by myself, you turn to your friends for help. I am not the most social of bees perhaps but do have a nice collection of close friend but thanks to email, Facebook, cell phones, Twitter and Texting, my core group of friends are all very close to me, and I probably communicate with them much much more often than my father would have with his five best friends at our same respective ages but of my five best friends, people I could call and say come pick me up at the hospital, only one of these friends actually lives in Boston. The other four are on Long Island, in North Carolina, in Los Angeles and in Scotland. Read More…

I love Virgin America. It’s simply a great airline with great people. I’m not sure I qualify as a “Twitter Influencer” but if the reward is a free flight on VA with no strings attached, I can promise you one thing. I am going to try.

We are lucky to work with a number of the top progressive organizations and companies in the country and the world. Some mornings when we fire up our Macs, we look around and realize how fortunate we are to be involved with these groups and their remarkable missions. So this morning, we are going to call out a few of them and share what they are doing. Today, at the top of Huffington Post, Daphne Eviatar from Human Rights First writes about how the failed Times Square bomber has plead guilty in Federal Court and that the US court system is working just fine thank you Liz Cheney. Yesterday, HRF working with our Political Director Nathan Havey held a great live chat with an human rights activist from Egypt, Nora Younis, who is bringing attention to the story of an internet cafe user who was beaten to death by the police there. Nike, a partner of our client (RED) has launched a remarkable campaign showcasing their support of (RED) and (RED)’s mission to save lives in Africa. Check out the continent of Africa created with (RED) laces that you can help add onto. Family Violence Prevention Fund capped off a busy month with more than 1,000 people signing their pledge of respect. From Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, FVPF used a combination of multi-media tools to drive pledges.  More of these client shout outs to follow (all of our clients are doing great work every day) but for a start, congratulations to HRF, (RED) and FVPF for much success today.

One of the issues facing anyone dealing with new media and helping companies and organizations maximize the new media world is the dual issues of “shining penny syndrome” and “criminally stupid online stories.” I’ll save details on the shining penny issue but essentially it means that senior executives will look at what you are proposing as nothing more valid as a young child fascinated by a ‘shiny penny.” With Facebook, for example, we often suggest that clients invest in building their fan base for very valid reasons (communicating with supporters, empowering activists, building donors) and often are meet with the look of bemused parent. The second and frankly bigger issue we face is that there are so many stories out there that involve online operations and criminally stupid wastes of money and I fear the recent AOL / Bebo debacle will stick in many people’s minds for quite some time. Read More…

Volumes have been written about the strength of President Obama’s social media strategy in the 2008 election. Barack 2.0, as it has been dubbed, utilized already existing platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Meetup to engage the electorate. The success of Barack 2.0 didn’t rest on Senator from Illinois broadcasting his message out, but rather on the army of volunteers that responded and interacted with the public. The campaign made people feel apart of politics (many for the first time) and linked them to a piece of American history. Read More…

The world in which we live and I work is one that is changing at light speed. We are living Moore’s Law, the founder of Intel theorized that computer power doubles approximately every eighteen months. A generation ago, the power that was being doubled was significantly less than that which is being doubled now. Famously, a new car has more computer power than an Apollo landing module. The iPad is really the Ipod doubled, and then some. So now, everyone’s attention is turning to not just building Social Networks but also in optimizing. Increasingly our company is helping groups with what we are calling Social Media Optimization or SMO – how do you get the most out of the networks you have spent so much time building. Read More…

Consumers are inundated daily with a barrage of messaging – be it online or off. Organizations are all pitted against each other in an attempt to get the smallest amount of attention from the masses. You are not given a lot of time either; a 30 second radio spot on the morning commute, a well-targeted cost-per-click ad on a search engine, or maybe just 140 characters. You have a very short amount of time to try and draw attention to your brand or organization. Read More…