Quiddities Dev, Inc.

A Creative Web Solutions Agency Weblog

The Next Required Business Skill

Is social media literacy, according to Joel Postman.

I love informative books, and since I’m cheap, there’s nothing better than reading them for free. Naturally I hijacked Margaret’s copy of Social Corp: Social Media Goes Corporate, by Joel Postman, which just came out and promises to be the first of many life preservers we’ve been groping for as we try to stay afloat in the sea of social media marketing.

Maybe you’ve picked up from my tone that I haven’t read the book yet. Okay, so I can’t vouch for it a hundred per cent–but its about time that new media lackeys like myself had a handbook.

We used to get our understanding of social media marketing two ways: via our direct experience using social media, which would probably be supplemented by reading some kind of commentary–on a blog or marketing website, for instance. Either way, getting a comprehensive knowledge of the social media marketing world is pretty hard. Plus, if you’re reading about social media marketing online, chances are you’re pausing to update Twitter, check your Facebook messages, and peruse your RSS reader.

Having a book by no means elevates the social media marketing commentary from the realm of opinion–but now the beast is between two covers. Joel Postman has done our industry a service by publishing a handbook on the SocialCorp (”a company that has adopted social media strategy intelligently and effectively”), taking it a step further than a cumbersome list of social media terms.

Before I sing any more praises I should get to reading.

Posted on January 7, 2009 – 5:54 pm by Desiree in Quiddities & tagged , | Comments (0)

RadioEngage: Now With Thought Upgrade

Today I realized the success of Radio Engage will be contingent upon one thing, and that is whether or not stations and their listeners choose to embrace a style of conduct that places outcomes higher than ego.

We’re weeks away from getting KUSP fitted with a brand spankin’ new website, chock full o’ the shiniest social media bells and whistles. Fans will be able to share photos, articles, micro-blogs, make suggestions for improving the station, and have conversations with each other–all from the station’s website.

If it works, it will add new dimensions to the public radio experience. Two new information pathways will open. In addition to the movement of information from the station to the listeners, now listeners will be able to send information back to the station…and to each other.

It’s the last information pathway that worries me as I sit here, trying to type up station protocols for KUSP’s new social media tools. It would be super-easy to say that nobody can use the word “jerk” or post pictures of people making mean faces on my website…if I was running a small business. But nobody owns the public radio station–except, maybe, the public. What user-generated content gets allowed? What gets denied? Why is it appropriate to do so and can we possibly arrive at a shaky consensus?

Can the  community be trusted to use social media tools in the context of public radio with the collective well-being in mind?

Yes, but it’s going to take a thought upgrade. Social media allows us to share experiences in ways we never before imagined, and that’s dandy–but some experiences are less than pleasant. The old school way to keep out uncomfy experiences was to lay down strict guidelines: “no nudity,” for instance. But if it’s artistic nudity, then your helpful guideline might change into controversial censorship. If you change your guideline to allow artistic nudity, you are confronted with another problem: how can you tell when nudity is artistic?

The rules that used to put limitations on online shared experience are breaking down. Hack at it enough with a logical argument, and it will fall over. This is a good thing. It means we’re getting closer to a solution that is better than rules: a sensible solution that takes personal accountability as its mantle instead of careful moderation.

In order to arrive at that solution, it goes without saying that we all need to look at ourselves a little more closely, and think before we act. Ideally, we must all moderate our own content, putting it in its appropriate place the best way we can. That’s easy.

More difficult will be the task of increasing our tolerance for experiences we fear. Radio Engage will give locals the meeting hall they never had, and for all the good it will do, I suspect there will also be plenty of disagreeable information rising to the surface that we never got to see before. When something happens that we don’t like, we’re all going to have to suck it up. But that’s the nice thing about Radio Engage: if it works, it will let us–the users and listeners–take a more active role in our community. We will get a real, tangible opportunity to make important changes. But it’s only going to happen if we all remember to share.

Posted on December 30, 2008 – 5:23 pm by Desiree in Quiddities & tagged , , | Comments (0)

Christmas? Again?

NextSpace is quiet today. Which is fine, because Amie and I can blast our country western Christmas songs as loud as we want. Plus, it makes for less “co” and more “work.” So, with the final few days of 2008, we’ll be cleanin’ out the clocks to make room for new conversation platforms.

Congratulations to Mindi for launching four UC Berkeley websites last week! Thanks to lots of hard work, nights at the keyboard, naps in the NextSpace library, and “high maintenance” cups full of coffee, she made the friendly folks at UCB very happy. We look forward to launching more great sites for Berkeley in the future.

The last bells and whistles are going on the BoomBoom! Revolution site–a place to share your random acts of kindness (and the only place to pick up your awesome revolutionary BoomBoom! Cards). Ever pick up a piece of litter? Smile at a stranger? Leave an anonymous note of encouragement? Well, now you can track those little bits of fuzzy goodness (complete with pictures and video!) while encouraging others to do the same. You can even watch your BoomBoom travel across the country…or the world!

But the best thing about this Christmas is getting the time to work on RadioEngage! Thanks to your feedback, and the dedicated team at KUSP (especially Steve, who is keeping us company today), we are completing the development phase this week and begin doing the Drupal install in January. In a few days, we’ll start working with public radio volunteers, teaching them to use social media tools to start conversations with their listeners online and in real life. It’s a social media/public media experiment, so there’s no guarantee it will go over without any kinks or bumps. But if we keep getting the enthusiasm we have experienced this far, KUSP’s social media platform will be  a resounding success. (Check out the photos from PublicMediaCamp.) One step closer to creating a platform for all public radio stations to engage their listeners!

Whether you’re going to celebrate anything or not, now is a great time to support your public radio station. Their teams work hard to deliver the best stories, keeping us all abreast of things the corporate networks may have missed. What’s more important than getting the stories?

It’s also a great time to join the BoomBoom! Revolution. You don’t have to do much, but your small act of kindness will earn compound interest when you share it with others, and a lot of good will be done along the way.

Happy Winter,

Des

Posted on December 24, 2008 – 11:58 am by Desiree in Quiddities & tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Social Media Scruples

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
-Albert Einstein.

This blog entry is for anybody who still feels squeamish about social media.

As RadioEngage moves forward, we are met with more reluctance. We didn’t know why at first. Public radio stations are eager for better ways to manage their websites, but many people are averse to using social media. The reluctance stems from some common myths: that social media is a useless pastime for high schoolers, that it’s a time-suck, or that it puts your copyrighted material in danger, for example.

Social media can be abused–just like any tool. But it can to positively transform your business and personal life. For many people it already has. But there’s still a long way to go. The power of these programs is still being discovered. And in a time of moral and economic poverty, new solutions are exactly what we need.

Here is a list of the most common social media myths I hear and their corresponding truths. Hopefully, this will help clarify how social media can be used to create a positive impact in problematic times.

Myth: “Social media is just showcasing, it has no practical use.”
Truth: Social media is for sharing.
Sharing pictures, videos, ideas, stories, laughs, tears, and anything else you can think of. When you use social media, it may feel like showcasing, but really you are contributing to a pool of shared knowledge. Shouldn’t information be shared?

Myth: “People will find out sensitive personal information about me if I use social media.”
Truth: People will find out sensitive personal information about you if you are careless.
Social media sites allow you to choose what information you share. If I run a business out of my garage, of course I want to put my address on my social media site–that way customers can find me. But, if I don’t want somebody to know where I live, I don’t have to include any contact information–just a valid email address.

Myth: “Social media will take up too much of my time.”
Truth: Social media takes only the time you choose to give it.
One of the best things about social media is its capacity to do complicated things quickly. We can upload a hundred photos in five minutes, or complete and publish articles in under an hour. Just remember: if you go online with a purpose in mind (like finding out up-to-the-minute opinions on the IMF, or getting some pictures of great latte art), you’ll get what you want faster than ever before. It is equally possible for you to look at funny pictures of cats for hours. (I can vouch for both.)

Myth: “People used to go outside and talk to each other. Because of social media, people go online instead of connecting in real life.”
Truth: Social media enhances our face-to-face interactions.
Nothing will replace sitting down with a friend or family member over a meal, or the pleasure of meeting someone new upon a chance encounter. But we can’t always be together. When your loved ones are distant, you can share photos or videos instantly, instead of sending them through the mail. We can also learn more about our friends from what they choose to share online.

Myth: “I’m too old for social media. It’s for young people.”
Truth: Social media needs everybody, and everybody can use social media.
This one really gets me. Not only is social media for everybody–its usefulness is dependent upon a diverse network of users. It is especially important for people who did not grow up with computers to participate in sharing information: the more wisdom to impart! And don’t worry about getting lost: there’s already an active community of self-described “baby boomers” and “greying computer users” to help if you get stuck.

Posted on December 15, 2008 – 6:03 pm by Desiree in Quiddities & tagged Comments (0)

$25 For Democracy

Newsdesk and The Public Press hosted a fundraiser party in San Francisco last Thursday. After some cajoling, Margaret convinced me to go with her.

I felt really weird. I was going to eat more than my fair share of the free food and I sure as hell wasn’t going to donate.

I don’t donate to anything and never have. It’s not because I don’t care about the public media, or the homeless, or starving amputee whale babies. My caring just gets lost somewhere in the Land of My Cash Makes No Difference. It’s somewhere in Nonprofits Are Often Corrupt Valley, which sits at the foot of I Need To Buy Groceries Mountain.

Jokes aside, I’ll sum it up: I don’t see how the benefit of my donation will outweigh the cost. Write a check for a bajillion dollars–throwing money at a problem doesn’t make it go away.

After navigating the streets of San Francisco we found our way into the church and entered the main room just as someone was tapping a fork against a glass. Margaret and I sidled in behind the snack bar. The host introduced Michael Stoll, who walked up to the podium and said the following:

“I want to thank you all for coming. I think your presence here is a testament to the passionate belief of journalists and supporters of good journalism that a vibrant and independent press is essential to keeping our democratic system healthy.”

Oh. Right.

When I was young I remember a strong sentiment that only the newspapers could be trusted: the Internet was too unregulated to be a viable source of trustworthy information and the news networks (who opted to air Bill O’Reilly and Nancy Grace’s insightful commentary on Janet Jackson’s nipple and whether it had actually appeared alongside Justin Timberlake at the Superbowl in 2004 instead of broadcasting anything that actually happened) were long abandoned as a source of democratically-geared commentary.

Studying political theory in college, we hunkered under the fear that the USA would never have a truly functioning democracy in which everyone could participate. We are different from our international democratic brothers and sisters. To oversimplify: instead of going out to vote, we stay at home and watch Bill O’Reilly. How do you get democracy out of over-worked, under-paid citizens to take time out of their day and vote, when the network news sees fit only to provide coverage on nipples? (Pun not intended.)

Michael clearly had not anticipated the rowdy applause following his opening statement. I pulled out my cell phone and texted Margaret.

Me: This guy is talking to my inner voice.
Margaret: What is he telling you?
Me: To give him my money for democracy.

“So,” Michael was saying. I tuned back in. “…in the last year or two a lot of creative thinkers have proposed turning the whole business model on its head. That’s why we’re here. Philanthropy and audience support have worked well for public broadcasting for decades. Now is the time to experiment with these new business models.”

And they should be successful, if you alert people that the health of their democracy could rest on their donation. Hell, it worked on me.

I walked up to the two women who were tabling by the door. “Hi,” I said, somewhat overcaffeinated. “Can I give you my money here?”
“Sure,” said a young woman who was startled by my enthusiasm. “Just fill this out.” She handed me a donation form. I looked at it strangely.
“Um, okay. I’m going to fill it out here.” I set my orange soda down in front of her and began aggressively hunting through my purse for a pen.

I donated twenty five bucks to start. I say “to start” because while independent news organizations need money, they also need people with hands and brains. Er, volunteers. Volunteers who get to do some kind of awesome work.

The Truthiness Project, for instance, is an interactive fact-checking experience for the 2008 election powered by Flickr and Spot.us. Not only does it provide a central location for voters to understand the array of propositions on the ballot–it allows them to instantly fact-check, or test the validity and relevance, of said propositions. Plus, it’s fun to use. And its pretty.

So, since I don’t have any more money, its time to start giving mad props. Newsdesk and the Public Press have anticipated the next viable business model for truth-based news media. If you would like to participate in a public news project in the name of democracy, contact the Public Press or Newsdesk. Currently they need help with

  • editing
  • reporting
  • photography
  • Web production (in Drupal)
  • business planning
  • finance
  • office management
  • volunteer coordination
  • databases
  • social-media marketing
  • fundraising
  • print design

And I’m sure they won’t say no to your donation.

Read Michael Stoll’s comments from Wednesday night, in their entirety, here.

Posted on December 8, 2008 – 1:54 pm by Desiree in Quiddities & tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

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