As a new and social media group, we often get questioned and asked about the power of social media, how it works and how it can help either their cause, or business. Most of the questions are really about the fringes of the media and about frankly somewhat esoteric uses of the media.
What we usually try and do is two things.
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Earlier last week, Bill O’Reilly had great fun attacking The Global Fund on his show, grabbing onto the sensational headlines about corruption in Africa. He brought out some so-called expert from The Heritage Foundation on his show except the expert didn’t really understand The Global Fund, what had actually happened and didn’t really understand what he was talking about other than to scream massive corruption; that this corruption was bad and even though he didn’t blame it on Obama being born in Kenya, he probably wishes he had remembered that core talking point of our fine conservative brethren at the Heritage Institute – an organization initially funded by the Coors family and Richard Mellon Scaife.
O’Reilly, not surprisingly, was not really interested in pointing out that the “corruption” in the story was a result of The Global Fund internal audit team rooting it out and then going public with it and telling the world we’re spending billions in Africa and we checked our spend and here are the problems we are identified; less than half of one percent of the total aid sent to Africa from The Global Fund.
But what’s the fun of that Mr No Spin Zone said? Let’s make this about celebrities, Bono pictures of course, and corruption and waste of money. So he even tried to compare The Global Fund to Haiti? He lost me on that one.
Well, on Friday night, my friend and partner-in-crime, Bobby Shriver went on O’Reilly’s show and let’s just say, Bill O’Reilly proved that punching a punch bag is a lot easier when the bag doesn’t punch back. Bobby not only held his own but he set the record straight, telling O’Reilly how there are now six and a half million people in Africa alive today versus only 40,000 a decade ago because of the work of The Global Fund and others getting life-saving antitretroviral drugs in the hands of those battling HIV/AIDS.
This fact-based argument left O’Reilly to muddle that well, that’s a pretty impressive number – and well…
Bobby even brought some amazing before and after pictures of people who lives have been saved; it was a powerful moment and one that left even O’Reilly I dare say, not quite speechless but definitely sure that this Shriver guy was not the pushover he had hoped he would be.
For me, it answered the question should Democrats and Progressives and smart people go on FOX NEWS? Absolutely. Because bring some wit, intelligence and great pictures, you can make it a great appearance, just like Bobby did.
Score one for the good guys and let’s roll the tape.
Over 100 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt gave his famous “Man In The Arena” speech in Paris. He was identifying a trait of mankind that has existed essentially forever where those who don’t do critique and complain about those who do. TR, of course, was proclaiming this long before the avalanche of new media made the media mushroom cloud that explodes on someone who is trying to do well so much larger and so much overwhelming.
Twitter Advertising is out on beta, which means there’s a new marketing TLA (three letter acronym) to know: CPF. No it’s not cost per fan (Facebook), it’s cost per follower.
Twitter says advertisers should expect to pay about $1-2 per new follower, and a required minimum of $.50 per new follower. This is on par with Facebook, but one key question to consider: Is a Twitter follower worth the same as a Facebook fan for your brand? Not right now. As Twitter grows over the next few years…maybe.
The real valuable aspect of the new system is Twitter’s Advertiser Analytics. While there are some good social media monitoring apps out there, marketers and social media types have been clamoring for a Twitter-built analytics system. Getting at follower demographics is going to be a crucial part of effective advertising on Twitter. The drawback, Twitter’s analytics are only open to advertisers. Let’s hope a free version gets released soon.
Wisdom prevailed in Massachusetts today. Congratulations to all those involved who helped lift the Twitter ban at the State House. Days ago, when the Herald reported the ban, many including myself blogged, and of course, Tweeted our displeasure with the ban. Today it’s been lifted and lawmakers and staff can now access Twitter from their office computers.
So cheers to everyone who helped reverse this year-long ban so quickly. It’s great to see government agencies respond with such speed.
Last night President Obama gave his State Of The Union Address and neglected to mention two little points that my friend Peter Daou immediately pointed out on Twitter right after the speech.
“What a messed up state of our union when POTUS won’t utter “climate change” or “global warming,” among the gravest threats to humanity.”
Actually it’s worse than that as this is the nail on the coffin on the concept that Washington, our elected officials, and our national government is capable of or willing to do anything about these two issues that are indeed threats to humanity.
Worse as Dave Roberts at Grist noted:
“In his 2009 State of the Union-esque speech, Obama spoke of “saving our planet from the ravages of climate change.” In his 2010 SOTU, he affirmed the “overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change.” In 2011, fresh off the hottest year on record, Obama said … nothing about climate change. It didn’t come up. ”
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Thanks to WBUR Reporter Andrew Phelps for linking to John Peabody’s blog about the Massachusetts’ Legislature’s ban on Twitter. If you’re looking for some great local Boston reporting, you can find Phelp’s blog Hubbub at WBUR.org.
On a related note, Cheers to Mayor Menino for landing the first big business to call Boston’s new Innovation District home. Read more at Boston.com.
CS NMS Founder James Boyce took to the blogosphere this afternoon to point out that when you call the foul on yourself, and are fixing your own problems and telling the world about it, that’s a good thing. There’s more here.
The Herald reports today that the Massachusetts Legislature has blocked staffers and lawmakers from accessing Twitter on their office computers. This is a HUGE step in the wrong direction. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and City of Boston should embrace social media and technology. Social media not only offers a easy and cost effective way to communicate with citizens, but new tech companies that specialize in social media and technology are a growing industry that should be nurtured and embraced by officials, not shunned.
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