The NBA set to Unveil Social Media Policy

After the NFL and ESPN’s recent attempts to control the way employees and athletes interact in Social Media, the NBA is set to unveil their official rules regarding communicating via social networks.  Based on this article by ESPN, it seems that the NBA will get applauded by the social media elite for a lax and open policy.  Regardless of these rules, this article contained a quote by Mav’s owner Marc Cuban:

“Asked if the Mavericks will impose their own Twitter restrictions on their players this season, Cuban said Sunday: “Not really. I will talk to the guys about never venting or talking about team business on Twitter. That’s usually what creates problems. [But] Twitter is just another form of media. What you say on Twitter is like saying it on ESPN.”

That’s the perfect interpretation of social media.  It’s just another form of media.  It’s a tool.  If you’re a business, training your employees to at least reach a certain level of media literacy is better than putting up restrictions and rules that may hurt employee morale or, if you’re high profile like ESPN, actually hurt corporate image.  It will be interesting to follow this story and see the exact verbiage of these guidelines, but initial reports look promising.  When more high profile organizations develop an understanding of these tools, it will help all businesses.

Spreading the love

I wouldn’t be where I am in life if it wasn’t for friends.  Friends have pushed me through high school, prodded me during college, and inspired me during my career after.  Since moving to Boulder, I’ve met so many great people that do so many great things.  In fact, it seems that lately – everyone I know is off doing something that is truly inspiring.  I wanted to take a moment and give shout outs to all the things that are going on with friends and acquaintances that I admire:

Andrew Hyde is putting on a conference in Boulder.   After a great summer at Techstars, a bunch of really great Ignite Boulders, and all the other things that Andrew is up to – the conference is called BoCo.  I, unfortunately, won’t be able to attend the conference but I’m sure it will be a good time and embody all the things that I love about Boulder.  (blog: AndrewHyde.net )

My friend Elaine Ellis is actually embarking on a personal journey – forgoing the conventions of job and home to journey the European countryside.  This is something that makes me extremely jealous and sad.  Jealous because I would kill for a reason to go out to Europe with her.  Sad that I will miss having her around, even if I don’t see her enough. (Blog: The Art of Awkard)

Alli Worthington launched her “Smart Girl’s Guide to Twitter” the other day.  Alli is, hands down, one of my favorite people in the world.  I mean, she tried to set me up on a date during BlogHer – I can’t complain about that.  (Blog: MrsFussypants.com and BlissfullyDomestic.com)

Vikas Reddy and Occipital are really kicking some butt.  Just the other day, they released (with Daily Burn) an awesome Food Scanner for the iPhone.  As someone that struggles with dieting, this could be the perfect techy addition to my arsenal to get me on the right track.  Congrats Vikas!  (In addition to Occipital, Vikas has a hilarious Blog called Awkward Rules)

While Boulder may have lost Jeffrey Kalmikoff, I’m excited for him joining Digg.  I didn’t get to know Jeffrey that well, but whenever I was able to talk to him – I was always impressed at his intelligence.  Digg (and San Francisco) just gained a really big asset.  Congrats, Jeffrey!  (Blog: CallMeJeffrey.com)

The ubiquitous Micah Baldwin has left Lijit to join a yet-to-be-named start up.  I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment of his adventures and wish him the best of luck.  (Blog: LearntoDuck.com )

I’m probably missing a lot more.  Friends like Jessica Smith Lucretia Pruitt and Ef Rodriguez have all started new jobs this year.  Kit Seeborg launched her start up Bumpertunes.  Heather Capri and Rachel Ryle are working on TweetyGotBack.com.  Chris Brogan and Tamar Weinberg recently released books that you NEED to buy.  Jason Keath always keeps me on my toes with the great things that he works on – like Social Fresh.  Gwen Bell and Wayne Sutton are spreading love teaching Social Media to the masses.  Jyl Johnson Pattee is kicking butt with Mom It Forward and Office Max’s A Day Made Better Campaign (which will help so many of my friends that are teachers).  It seems like everywhere I turn, people in my network are doing things that I need to tell everyone about.  Unfortunately, I’m not the greatest at doing that so I hope this helps catch me up on the a lot of the biggest things in my friends lives.  Congrats to everyone and I’m so happy to know all of you.

Marketing Lessons I Learned From Spammers

Whether you’re on email, Twitter, or the next big thing – an issue that always pops up is Spam. Spam are those unwanted messages – usually marketing in nature – that annoy virtually every person that they come in contact with. Dealing with spam has become a way of life – we build technology to remove as much spam from our lives as possible, yet it still exists and probably always will.

I started to think about spam recently. How can something so universally maligned manage to exist without an end in sight? Then it occurred to me, Spam’s ability to survive illustrates some good marketing insights that you can apply to your (hopefully) non-spam marketing plans – especially in the social realm. Here are the marketing lessons that spam taught me:

Fit In

Spammers are notorious for fitting in.  Often times, you can track a source of your spam to a web form that you filled out innocently, a cookie that you picked up from that site you shouldn’t have visited, or a variety of other things.  So much of the spam that’s received can be tracked back to user behavior – meaning that they are trying to assimilate to the anonymous person that had ventured to the wrong side of the tracks.

I was struck by a recent article on Ad Age entitled, “Marketers: Think About Fitting in Before Breaking Through.” The article focused on the changing way that consumers experience their media – with the proliferation of technology causing interruption marketing to not only be interruptive of entertainment, but of people’s lives.

One section of the article summed the scenario up perfectly,

“Instead of asking “How do we break through?” advertisers should be asking “How do we fit in?” If your audience is on Facebook, don’t interrupt their social life by shouting at them; find a way to insinuate your brand into their existing behavior. Burger King did it when it realized people with “friend fatigue” would gladly sacrifice 10 friends for a Whopper. On another hand, if your audience is made up of runners who like to run with music, put a sensor in their shoe that connects to their iPod and then to a network of runners around the world and call it Nike Plus. Or, if your audience is already searching the web for cooking ideas, do what Kraft did and give them a “Food and Family” digital magazine and iPhone app full of inspiration, recipes and tools.”

The main premise behind all of this is understanding what the consumer wants. Using these social technologies, brands can begin to understand the motives of the crowds that drive revenue. It’s about capitalizing on micro trends in cost-effective ways to assimilate your message into the prevalent topics of the day.  Spammers attempt to do this with little effort – which is why they’re strength lies in the millions of messages they send and not the content.  If you’re not a spammer, make a concerted effort to fit in with your customers in natural ways.   Which brings me to my second lesson…

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Rewatching Casablanca

Tonight, as I was working, I decided to watch Casablanca.  I have seen the movie hundreds of times but tonight, what struck me was Ingrid Bergman.  She plays her character Ilsa so well, and perhaps it’s just the black and white cinematography but there is a bittersweet glistening in her eyes – like someone who has cried a few too many tears – which fits with the character.  It’s catching these things that I had not noticed before that.

As the weather starts to cool off, I would expect that my movie watching would start to pick up. Back in High School, my friend Brian and I watched the AFI’s top 100 movies. I’m not sure if we ever got through the entire thing, but we definitely watched the top 25. I think it might be nice to start that over again – to consume these movies with a new perspective. I’m older, sometimes wiser, and much more experienced.

Ignite Boulder #6: How to Master Debate

I recently presented at Ignite Boulder #6. My presentation was entitled “How to Master Debate.” While my presentation contained humor, I really think this is a really important issue. We live in a country where so many people don’t know how to debate. In my presentation, I included a quote from Henry Miller and it’s one of my favorites of all time:

We do not talk – we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.

With access to information getting quicker and quicker by the minute, the skills needed to really debate issues need to be addressed. The things that I feel that need to be stressed are listening skills, debate decorum, and the ability to lose.   What do you feel are skills needed to successful engage in debate?  I’d love to hear from the readers as I start to really look into this issue more…

Music of My Mind #5: Karen O and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

What is beauty? This is something that I have been thinking about lately. Where I find the most beauty is in music. To express one’s self in music is, for me, the pinnacle of art. One of my favorite bands, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, capture so much emotion and primal energy and come up with beautiful music. It’s not conventional beauty – just like it’s front woman Karen o – but it’s something I can’t help but be attracted to. Especially Karen O – who radiates the sexuality and power that is at the core of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ music.

There is a chaos to it and the primal screams of Karen O are poetic in their sexuality and power. The timbre of Nick Zinner’s guitar and pounding rhythm of Brian Chase captures an energy of New York. While I haven’t fully digested the dance beats of the new album, their older material is considerably interwoven into my life. I’m looking forward to hearing the new album and seeing what place it takes in the canon of my life.

One in the Same: Multidisciplinarians and Millenials

My personality is something that is hard to describe. My bedroom is littered with books, magazines, pictures, and various other items that serve as anecdotal evidence to my hobbies and passions. When you walk in – you’ll notice something that reveals a part of who I am. What do you notice first? Perhaps it’s the picture of Bob Dylan on a motorcycle above my desk that illuminates my love for his work and singer/songwriters and musicians of similar aesthetic. Maybe it’s the silver framed pictures that line the walls by my bed that illustrate my love for the visual arts. Maybe it’s the picture of the Dalai Lama and the stylized Arabic writing on the other wall by my desk that captures my predisposition to alternatives to our western way of life. Whatever it is you notice – it’s simply a piece of the puzzle and even the collection of items in my room do not capture my complete personality.

I always felt that the jack of all trades personality that I had would not serve for much success in the world.

For a long time, I always felt my diverse passions were detrimental to a healthy life. After all, I saw friends who possessed more focused and finite skill sets that seemed to have their paths set from the get go. I always felt that the jack of all trades personality that I had would not serve for much success in the world. I don’t feel that way anymore, as my varied skill set and ability to master multiple disciplines seems to be paving the way for a successful career.

In fact, Ad Age recently wrote an article about that phenomena called “Hiring and Cultivating A New Kind of Talent.” In the article, the author Eduardo Braniff reveals a new business trend: “New talent is entering the marketplace innately programmed as multitaskers and academically trained as “multidisciplinarians.” They have grown up maximizing new tools and platforms to process information, creating new media and connecting through new communication forms — often simultaneously.”

I instantly relate to this “new talent.” He mentions various traits – including the fact that this new talent often seeks second and third careers in their spare time. In addition to my regular job – I do web design, consulting work, freelance writing, and various other things that in the background.

This seems to parallel many of the traits that of the Millenials – which makes sense since we’re at a Tipping Point as far as Millienial integration in the working world. As someone that skews to the millenial demographic, I am excited about the potential changes in business practices. I also like the fact that the Ad Age article gives suggestions at integrating both types of workers together. In the end, it’s a compromise and business needs to understand how to have different types work together.

As technology allows for us to pursue and refine a multitude of talents, how will the workplace and society adapt? The next few decades will be interesting to observe.

Jessica Knows that It Takes Two

My friend Jessica Smith recently created a video to the music of Rob Bass – It Takes Two. It was a video made in collaboration with bloggers and PR pro’s – a quick video that symbolizes the symbiotic relationship between blogger and PR representative. Here it is:

The relationships between PR and Bloggers is an ever-evolving phenomena. As more corporations put emphasis on embracing the social web – this evolution will be an interesting thing to watch. Until I feel like more commentary is needed, just enjoy the video – it’s fun and has a bunch of people I consider friends in there!

Carmelo and The ‘Cuse

Carmelo Anthony recently returned to Syracuse to dedicate a new basketball court near South McBride Street. Here’s some video footage:

Having only spent 1 year in Syracuse, I am always surprised at the amount of support that ‘Melo gives to the University and Community. He’s done some charity work, donated money for new basketball facilities, and has actually returned to Syracuse more times that I have in the last two years. You can check out the full article on Syracuse.com