My four social media pillars

Hey there,

So I thought I'd share what have become the four pillars supporting my social media philosophy. And by no means are these necessarily original. As any other good college graduate, this is a synthesis of ideas that have made sense and been useful to me. All combined and distilled, these are the four things which form the support of my social media philosophy, regarding its professional use and how I apply me time and energy, when assisting and managing social media with the organizations I'm involved with.

Coordination - "the harmonious functioning of parts for effective results"

So while this might not be as much of an issue with small organizations (with a staff of one or so) or large ones, I think that this might actually be one of the biggest challenges for mid-size organizations. Coordination with social media is referring to coordination on all levels, with content, with programming, with existing messaging, etc.

It speaks to social media not happening in a vacuum, like some red-headed step child of a company. It means that at least those in leadership knows what is happening with social media, and that whoever is managing social media, is working in conjunction with other departments. One great way to start, which I will actually be doing as part of my work on a newly formed Communications & Media committee with SpeakeasyDC, is share an editorial calendar with the Social Media person, or start one that is at least shared by all department heads.

Finally, I like the last part of the definition, about "effective results". It's one thing to throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks. It's another to not just analyze what sticks to do more of it, but to tie in stuff that works with the goals of other departments, more donations with development, ticket sales production, brand recognition with marketing, etc, and what measurements will inform them about successful efforts.

Integration - "the act of combining or adding parts to make a unified whole"

Yes, some of you might be saying that integration and coordination are sometimes used synonymously, but for the purpose of these pillars, I'm focusing on the definitions that are different enough to address separate aspects.

Where coordination might speak to the actual management of social media and how it connects with the rest of the organization, integration speaks to it holistically, in terms of something that needs to be a part of every aspect of a company. Not only that, it needs to be consistent with branding guidelines, so that regardless of what channel you reach your audience, to them it aesthetically feels like it's coming from the same place, in look, in tone, etc. Actually about to go through a rebranding process with an organization I'm involved with, and you can be sure I will be reminding them about the implications and usability for our social media presence.

It's also not a matter of if social media is useful for any particular aspect of an organization's work on any level, from day-to-day office busywork to the occasional board meeting, but how...how can social media be integrated into a process to open a window to the world, whether it be telling a behind the scenes story, providing a space for conversation where there wasn't any before, or simply for the purpose of transparency in what makes art happen.

Translation - "a change to a different substance, form, or appearance"

When consulting on social media, one of my main takeaways I hope to leave people with is that, as much as possible, this should not be significantly more work than what you're doing already, like if you have a communications or marketing plan in place. My caveat is that using social media well is so much more than about marketing or communications, but more on that next time.

One example, we recently had an e-blast go out at my work at Class Acts Arts, for Black History Month, highlighting all of the artists on our roster with relevant programming. I "translated" that e-blast, into a series of shares one day, highlighting each of the artists we mentioned in the email, over the course of the afternoon.

Another example would be a show I just saw with another organization I'm involved with, and there were chapter/scene titles throughout the concert to help provide a loose narrative. Those prompts could have easily been used as conversation starters on social media leading up to the performance.

So it's taking copy/text and images you might already have and be using through other, more traditional media platforms, and figuring out how you might share it on Facebook, tweet it, etc.

Re-appropriation - "to set apart for or assign to a particular purpose or use, again"

So this is somewhat related to translation, but this speaks more to new opportunities, rather than existing ones. An example that comes to mind is another one with SpeakeasyDC and the wealth of videos from performances which we have up on our Vimeo channel.

A project I've taken upon is going through them and cataloging them according to various meta data, date(s) the stories took place, location, organizations mentioned, cultural references, etc., so that we might re-share them at appropriate moments. We had an LGBT pride-show, which speaks to those videos being reshared each pride month. If we have stories that relate to holidays, we can post them again leading up to those holidays.

So re-appropriating speaks to seeing how content you've created and have on hand, whether marketing, archival, whatever, can still be used in the future.

That's it!!

Let me know what you think in the comments,

JR

One Friday night, I turned to Foursquare

Hey there,

So, it happened. I mean I've done it before, I realize now. But I guess now it's becoming a regular part of figuring out where I'm going to go, when all I have are no plans and a spontaneous impulse.

Checking Foursquare.

There were two venues I was considering going to, this past Friday night. So I opened up Foursquare on my mobile device to see two things. First, how many people had checked in, in general. And, second, how many of my friends had checked in.

I do do something similar on Facebook, but it's Event specific. I'll see how many of my friends have RSVP'ed Yes or Maybe, and especially if it's the day of, if anybody's written on the wall talking about heading to it or being excited about it.

So yes, peer pressure works, we're all just sheep, and...wait a minute, social media can actually facilitate social activities in real life.

A survey whose results were shared just a couple of weeks ago from the Active Network, Research Reveals the Link Between Online Interaction and Offline Activities, speaks directly to this:

"According to the ‘Beyond the Click’ survey, the three most popular offline actions taken as a result of online engagement are to contact a person directly, attend an event and participate in an activity such as a sport or a class."

So, yeah. At least from personal experience, social media seems to be just another tool for communicating, informing, and organizing, and as with all tools, its up to the users to choose how to use it and let it affect their lives, for better or for worse.

Yes, I'm speaking to the many fears people have brought up about Social Media's adverse effects. Even just typing into Google "social media dest" the auto-fill results that come up are:

• social media destroying society
• social media destroys relationships
• social media destroying social skills

But again, ultimately I would argue that all this is up to each user to choose for him or herself.

In this case, I chose to use social media to figure out what I would do on a Friday night. And I ended up dancing until I and my friends (one of which was the deciding factor when I checked Foursquare) closed the club down.

Which I haven't done in a while.

Anyone else occasionally use social media to crowdsource their plans? Any particular stories that come to mind? Or do you not consider or check social media at all? Please share in the comments.

- JR

Facebook is to bulletin board as Twitter is to chat room

Hey there,

So this past weekend, I had yet another friend casually ask what the deal was with Twitter because they just didn't get it. And this is someone who is on Facebook.

And as I like to over-analyze things, there are a couple of (what I would call safe) assumptions that I make about what someone is REALLY asking with this question?

The first is that part of the essence of their inquiry is "I'm already on a social network, why should I put time and energy into another one?" Another part of what's behind their query is "How is this different from what I'm already on?"

To answer the first question, I'd actually that for some people, they probably shouldn't be on Twitter. The best comparison, which I've shared and others have generally agreed with, is that Facebook is like an online bulletin board while Twitter is the chat room. I'd also say that in general, Facebook is more on the private, friends and family, end of the spectrum, while Twitter is more on the public end, friends as well as people you might not even know or ever meet in real life.

And, yes, there is an option to make your Facebook profile public and subscribe-able, and one can have a private Twitter account, so this obviously isn't speaking of individuals who would like to use each platform as such. But those users tend to be the exception and in terms of the general, intended use, I would say Facebook is more for building on and maintaining existing relationships while Twitter is more for cultivating conversations among friends and strangers alike, particularly when you take hashtags into account.

Again, think public chat room with Twitter. It's a much more immediate sense of engagement compared to Facebook.

As I type this, I realize that one thing that clearly illustrates how the two platforms differ are by the tools they give you to interact with other people's content.

On Facebook you can Like, Comment, and Share. On Twitter, you can Favorite, Reply, and Retweet. And that's a blog post for another day, but if you have time and you aren't familiar with either set of interactions, definitely take a couple of minutes to just look it up.

And I digress. What's interesting is that even when I get through this, there are some people who've already made up their mind, and say they just don't have the time, which I call bollocks on if they're on Facebook. Or they say Twitter's just a waste of time, which might actually be true for them.

Whether personally or professionally, it isn't a platform to hop on just to do so. And it certainly isn't one to sign up for if all you're going to do is sync it to push from your other social media.

But if you're curious, I'd say the best thing to do is to find your friends, follow others who share your interests and passions, and just start by listening and replying to what shows up in your Twitter feed. Because ultimately, if you're not willing to engage with and share what others are tweeting, then...well you get what you give, or don't give in this case.

Let me know what you think about any of this. Are you a recent Twitter convert? Did you try it out and it just didn't jive with you? Are you the one your friends ask to explain it to them?

Leave a comment, as well as thoughts on other related topics that I should consider blogging about in the future.

- JR

Paul Ryan and the Meme'ing of life

Hey there,

So with the announcement of the presumptive (a technicality that just seems silly) Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick, Paul Ryan, thought it'd be a good chance to look at the ripple effects in the social media pool. This is turning into one in a limited series of posts on Paul Ryan as he intersects with my own interests. Last week, I blogged about Paul Ryan & LGBT issues. Later this week I'll be blogging about his support (or lack of support) for the arts.

The first would be Paul Ryan's twitter account, or should I say accounts, as there are two. One he was using as a representative who's last tweet as of the time of this post was:

My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and everyone in Oak Creek who has been impacted by this tragic act of violence.
— Paul Ryan (@RepPaulRyan) August 5, 2012

And one he is using as the Republican VP pick, who's first tweet was:

I'm honored to join @mittromney on America's Comeback Team. mi.tt/Romney-Ryan #RomneyRyan2012
— Paul Ryan (@PaulRyanVP) August 11, 2012

Not only does this mean that there were 6 days of Twitter silence, but it seems he's sacrificed one channel for the other. I would personally say that this would have been a great opportunity to show that he's still engaged in the work of his current office while campaigning, and that one doesn't have to choose. But it also seems that both accounts have been used to broadcast rather than for discourse, and while both are forms of engagement, I believe the latter more active engagement is where social media has its true value, rather than the former, more passive and traditional one.

Now where things get interesting for me are the memes and parodies that have been inspired by this pick. In fact, the main meme is actually a marriage with a previous one, the Ryan Gosling one. If you're not familiar with it, check out this article at Social Times from last year. If you're familiar with it (or read the link), the following will make sense in the context of humor:

Hey girl, let's take the "u" out of "uterus."
— Paul Ryan Gosling (@PaulRyanGosling) August 20, 2012

Mashable actually has a piece from last week about the Paul Ryan Gosling meme:

“Have election season, will meme” would be an apt tagline for this year’s presidential election, as evidenced by the latest and so far greatest of Twitter political parody accounts, @PaulRyanGosling. (read more)

If you wanna see some gems, The Daily Beast highlighted some of the best ones. And in true form with the Ryan Gosling meme, which was visually driven (images with captions), there is a Paul Ryan Gosling Tumblr. The internets aside, this meme has apparently made a real world appearance. Jezebel has a piece about a Paul Ryan Gosling quote flown over an actual Paul Ryan rally.

As long as we're talking real world effects from the memes of cyberspace, Policymic has a piece on the pros and cons of this one:

...the “Paul Ryan Gosling” meme could be damaging to the Romney/Ryan ticket; especially, since one of the narratives Obama and the Democrats are going to hammer away is the GOP’s supposed “War on Women.” In this sense, the “Paul Ryan Gosling” Tumblr is pure evil genius. (read more)

And I'm sure it's just going to get more interesting over the next couple of months, especially once the debates start. One meme I personally hope to see more of is this one:

Yes, that would be RuPaul Ryan. A good note to end on, I think. Any Paul Ryan Gosling favorites you have? Definitely share them.

The only other political meme that seems to have gained traction in recent time is the "Texts from Hillary" one. Are there any other political memes you've observed or remembered that compare?

Please comment with any of them, or just thoughts in general.

- JR