Tag | Social Media
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Hate 2.0 – Does Social Media Bring Us Together OR Tear Us Apart?
As I participate in Social Media, I watch people interact. I observe behavior, sometimes predictable, sometimes shocking and sometimes downright hilarious.
But the recent issues surrounding Facebooks policy on free speech made one thing clear – Social Media can be anti-social. It can be used to bring tribes together or tear people apart.
Teenage bullying on MySpace, antisemitism on Facebook, blogs promoting racism and other Hate 2.0 sites are proliferating. The Simon Wiesenthal Center released a report last week that says online terror and hate is on the rise, particularly on social-media sites. The number of sites they identified is around 8000, a 30% increase from last year. Caroline McCarthy reports “In addition to religious terror groups, the sites identified also pertain to anti-Semitic, racist, xenophobic, and various anti-religion and anti-government sentiments. And social media is a particular concern, with games, Facebook groups, and Second Life having been identified as potential communication and event-planning tools for terrorist and hate groups.”
All of this seems to point to a disturbing potential trend: the use of Social Media to encourage hate and ostracism, perhaps even violence. Instead of bringing people together based on beneficial common values, the promoted values are divisive, us vs. them. “You don’t believe what I believe so I will harass, bully, harangue, insult and degrade you or worse.”
But what happens when this Hate 2.0 leaves the virtual world and invades our street corners? Are we giving people who would preach anti-social messages an easy way to gather and communicate and proliferate? Are we giving them a better faster way to organize violent actions? Is Social Media becoming a tool of war?
Perhaps Social Media can do one great thing. It can help us see ourselves, our behavior, in a greater context. It can reflect our ability to accept and tolerate the differences while celebrating the commonalities. It can help us see ourselves in the context of the whole. True perspective is one of the greatest gifts you can receive.
Social Media may be a path to greater self governance. There is opportunity in debating opposing views. It comes in the form of really having to listen to the view from “the other side” in order to make a poignant, effective argument. Debaters may find that they cannot change each others views, but they may develop respect for their opponent in the process. And a healthy dose of respect puts an end to violence – verbal, emotional, spiritual or physical.
Clearly, we as a society have found value in Social Media. The implications and ramifications of all the new interaction will unfold as time marches on. The question remains will Social Media change us? Will it drive new social behavior or simply reflect what we already are?
Book Marketing Through Social Media
If you want to know how you can make use of Social Media to sell more books, get book publicity and drive traffic to your site I have published a free eBook “65 Ways To Use Social Media To Sell Your Book.” Just sign up to the right on this page
7 Best Twitter Blogs and Apps: How To Use Them to Boost Your Online Branding
Twitter is an important web tool for online brand management, where reputation is everything. The short term and long term benefits should not be over looked, especially in a tough economy. There are many useful twitter blogs and twitter apps that help you use Twitter to streamline your online brand management. Here are a list of Twitter blogs and Twitter apps that you can effectively use to boost the brand of your online business during this recession:
FAVRD – Who’s Your Twitter Favorite?
What’s That? FAVRD is a website (read twitter blog) that aggregates Twitter posts based on the number of times they have been marked as favorites by Twitterers. Usually, the Twitter posts that find a place on FAVRD are funny, insightful or entertaining. Being one of the most popular twitter blogs on the Internet, FAVRD lays down a set of rules regarding what it considers filtered posts on Twitter.
How Does That Help Me? This massively popular Twitter tool helps you find the most filtered and favorite posts people tweet about. Hence, you can use this Twitter app as a platform for social media networking by writing interesting, insightful and thought-provoking tweets about your business activities. But, make sure your overall approach towards FAVRD should be interactive rather than promotional. FAVRD is no place for “web-strategy, social-media, and online-marketing webcocks” as mentioned in its guidelines.
TwiTip – Make Your Tweets Count
What’s That? TwiTip is a popular Twitter blog owned by Darren Rowse, the guy behind the famous blog – ProBlogger. With short, crisp and highly informative posts, Darren shares his thoughts and ideas on how to use Twitter efficiently and productively. The best part of TwiTip is that it allows you to contribute your innovative thoughts and ideas you have on how to better use and improve the experience on using Twitter.
How Does That Help Me? If Tweeting helps you manage your online brand image, TwiTip tells how you can do it the best way. While everybody is leveraging Twitter to nurture their online brand identity, few know how to make the right move. With many useful Twitter tips, you can surely find out ways to optimize your social media campaigns.
Tweetstats – Follow Your Own Tweets
What’s That? If you wish if there was anything like Google Analytics to help you keep tabs on your tweet counts, Tweetstats is the answer to your prayer. To say Tweetstats is a Twitter application is an understatement – it is a supercool twitter tool that graphs your tweeting habits blow by blow. With Tweetstats, you can figure out the number of Tweets per hour or month, Tweet timeline and even your reply statistics.
How Does That Help Me? Since Tweeting is one of the most effective ways of social networking and brand building online, it pays to know how your fellow Twitterers are using Twitter. With feature like Twitter Trending Stats which shows the Top 100 Trends that are currently on Twitter, Tweetstats can be an effective tool for niche marketing.
TwitterSweet – What’s Up On Twitter?
What’s That? TwitterSweet is unofficial and independent tweeter blog that offers wealth of information including news, features, tips and highlights that can be very helpful for regular Twitterers. Created by Joe Grossberg, the founder of Joegrossberg.com, TwitterSweet aims at offering interesting news, features and tips on Twitter that can help you enhance your tweeting experience.
How Does That Help Me: What is the easiest and most private way to send direct message to someone on Twitter? Answers to questions like this can be found on TwitterSweet, which means you can stay updated on all the latest APIs and other similar news about Twitter.
Twittown – Join Hands with the Twitter Community
What’s That? If you have been looking for a Twitter community where you can talk about, share your ideas and meet like-minded people sharing similar hobbies and interests, Twittown is your ultimate destination. This is Twitter blog brings together all the Twitter fans who may be in different professions, but share a common passion, i.e tweeting. Twittown allows its community members to read news on the blogs, chat in the forums, apart from offering many useful Twitter tools and applications which are relevant to the Twitter communities.
How Does That Help Me? Twittown covers a wide range of social networks and their applications, widget platforms and mobile platforms such as iphone, blackberry and android. If you are a frequent traveler who tweets extensively and is tuned in to Twitter updates, Twittown can help you remain updated. Besides, there is no better way to foster your online network than using this wonderful twitter blog.
Twitter Blog – Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
What’s That? This is the official Twitter blog. It should be the first place you visit when you want to learn how to use Twitter effectively. It brings you a lot of news, stats and apps that are vital for a great experience on Twitter. Besides, this is the best place to get familiar with the Twitter lingo. Being the official Twitter blog, you need to visit this blog to update your TQ (Twitter Quotient).
How Does That Help Me? As the official Twitter blog, Twitter offers the most authentic and latest updates that are necessary for its users. Whether you’re new to Twitter or not, Twitter blog always offers you something new that helps you monetize Twitter.
Twitterholic – When Madness Counts
What’s That? Twitterholic offers ranking of the top twitterers in a list, which is updated quite frequently. Hence, you can find the most popular twitter users. It shows all the vital statistics of top twitterholics such as the location, number of followers, friends, updates, the date of joining and even the URL of twitterers.
How Does That Help Me? When you show up in the top 100 Twitterholics list, you increase your opportunity of being found easily. Although, it takes a ton of tweets and followers on Twitter everyday to access the “top one hundred”, you should make your tweets interesting, relevant and readable.
Twitter location: Google’s Latitude can stay put.
What are you doing?
Many are wondering if Twitter will begin to integrate geo-location like Google’s Latitude.
If they are, then they have missed the point of Twitter.
I don’t care where you are, I care what you are thinking.
The relevancy of Twitter comes directly from it’s ability to facilitate conversation. Smart business people use Twitter to network. They tweet strategically. They know they must present value to be “followed”.
Tweets telling me that you are on the George Washington Bridge are irrelevant unless you are late to meet up with me. It’s the equivalent of people who tweet what they had for breakfast. I don’t care. “Spam, spam and eggs, spam, spam, spam, hash and eggs” – Some people’s Twitter streams are like a Monty Python skit. The problem is unless you know these people intimately; their life’s details are, frankly, boring.
Their mistake starts with the assumption that the minutia will somehow foster closer relationships. Connecting over daily drudgery does not create long lasting bonds. Otherwise, you would be best friends with the cashier you see every time you go to the grocery. You might develop a polite banter, but you will hardly be best friends unless you go out of your way to do so.
Effort is required. Real relationships demand that, at times, you “go out of your way.” That’s what builds the value. So, if you want to develop a strong network via Twitter, tweet strategically. Here are a few guidelines for a solid Twitter Strategy:
1. Focus on a subject area. Tweet about your industry. Tweet about your company.
2. Show thought leadership. Pick topics that are controversial, informative, or relational.
3. Tie related subjects together and create some interest. Tell people why they need to know about them. Why are they important?
4. Retweet significant posts to your audience.
5. Have a voice that shows your style. Are you funny, cynical, friendly, outlandish?
If you begin to lose “followers” ask yourself what value you present, then focus your tweets around it. Your Twitter strategy should save time, keeping miscellaneous tweets to a minimum. A last word of advice: before you press send, ask yourself if it’s RELEVANT to your audience.
After all, if you really need people to know where you are all the time, perhaps you should just invest in an ankle bracelet. Then local law enforcement can “follow” you.
advertising vs social marketing: the push and the pull.
the pull and the push…
When I try to explain to people the difference between the old way of marketing and the new paradigm in marketing, I compare it to the forces of push and pull.
The old method of advertising is interactive marketing. The term is misleading. Most people think it means that there is some type of interaction on the part of the person advertised to, and there is. But, it is not conversational. Instead, the advertiser wants you to interact with their campaign in a specific set of steps. Following the call to action and visiting a website for instance. It’s the push to make you do something. Live this image. Buy this now.
Social Media Marketing is just the opposite. It’s the pull of the tribe. The tribe already has your trust so the actions they take are ones you align with. On a larger scale, it’s the allure of belonging in the group as you take action together. “l am doing this so why don’t you do it with me?” On an individual level, the attraction is to behave the same way to get the same results that benefits your fellow tribeswoman. “She looks hot! I want to look hot too. I want to go to her hairstylist” and you do.
While advertising tries to use the same tactic, with a billboard for instance, of a gorgeous woman telling you the benefits of the salon, it doesn’t have the same impact because it’s pushing you to go. It is not pulling you in as a trusted friend. Your friends have your best interests at heart and advertisers do not.
Companies that are at the forefront of this paradigm shift have demonstrated an understanding that creating and maintaining trust uses the power of attraction. People are attracted to people they like, want to imitate, respect and admire. The tribe will watch company actions. They will move to align with companies that earn trust acting on principles admired by the tribe. When the alignment becomes real enough for the tribe to “take ownership” of their experience with the company, they move from customer to brand evangelist.
This is the path to follow to create brand evangelists.
