David Kamerer

Associate Professor of Communication, Loyola University Chicago

Some time for friends, some time to be alone

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Of course I’m interested in Twitter. So I signed up for an account, found some friends, and started watching … and tweeting. But the thing is, I really have nothing to say. I’m happy to share my life with my friends, but reluctant to share it with the world. 
My interest in Twitter stems from using it in workgroups, for professional applications, to document a one-time event in real time. I see lots of uses.
But if you want to know “what I’m doing” you’re sure to be disappointed. I may be organizing my sock drawer. Or something else equally boring. Or I may be doing something positively brilliant. But it’s not for sharing. At least not with the entire world.

Frontiers of social media: You suck at Photoshop

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This morning on Weekend Edition, Scott Simon interviewed Troy Hitch of the Big Fat Institute about the viral campaign, “You suck at Photoshop.” Listen to the interview, then view the first episode from season one. I found it hilarious and beautifully written and produced. Finally, online rich media feels like it belongs online. This wouldn’t be nearly as effective if viewed on a television. The granularity is right, also; each episode is about five minutes. A good size for a media snack. The Big Fat Institute website is also worth a look. Donnie, I feel your pain!

An online relationship is a real relationship

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That’s a basic principle of social media. You can have a relationship with someone and never meet them face-to-face. But there’s nothing like real conversation!

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Here’s a photo of a “Tweetup” I attended this week at Panera in College Hill in east Wichita. While there was almost no talk of Twitter, there was wide-ranging discussion of social media and how it touches our lives. Fun, inform
ative, and no, we’re not all nerds. Though some of us spend a dangerous amount of time online.
This group meets most weeks at different places around town. Join us! A good excuse to get out of your pajamas and stop typing for a while.

It’s only an earthquake … so tweet away!

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earthquake.jpgOK, reality check time. Your house is moving. You’re inside it. Do you:

  • A. Get out!
  • B. Make yourself a latte
  • C. Share the experience on Twitter
Ack! Angelinos chose C in large numbers, as witnessed in this wonderful interactive graph put together by the LA Times (be sure to scroll down and mouse over the graph). 
Personally, I’m going to grab my guitar and get out of Dodge. But my hat’s off to you, you scrappy SoCal survivors!
Oh, one more thing. I guess Twitter is a mass medium, a news wire.

Three blogs that are always worth a look

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PR Squared, by Todd Defren, SHIFT Communications. Small agency that plays big, good balance between traditional PR training/technique and a solid understanding of how the Internet works.

Micro Persuasion, by Steve Rubel. He works for Edelman, a leading PR firm, and one that has positioned itself as social media-smart.
seth godin’s BLOG, by, well, Seth Godin. (that’s his capitalization, not mine). More marketing oriented than above, Seth is always swinging for the fences. Sometimes he connects, sometimes he whiffs. His writing has some of the qualities of Wired Magazine, always in search of the BIG IDEA (my capitalization). There’s always a next BIG IDEA to push the old one out of view. But, having qualified his world view, he’s fearless and imaginative, and you will learn something from him.
Find your own favorite social media/PR/marketing blog. Visit the Advertising Age Power 150 and toss some clicks. FYI, seth’s BLOG is ranked #1, Micro Persuasion is  #9, and PR Squared comes in at #40. This week, that is.

IRS to eBayers: the party’s over

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Tucked into the housing rescue package is a provision that would require PayPal to report financial information to the Internal Revenue Service for some online merchants. Read about it in the Wall St. Journal.

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The rules change could hit millions of people who buy and sell on eBay, who, for the most part, have treated the auction site as an online garage sale. These entrepreneurs have blissfully shoved gross proceeds into their pockets and not paid income tax on them.
Why does this matter? After all, for some sellers, eBay sales are legitimate income. For others, it’s just a way to get liquid, offing guitars, CDs and stereo equipment for walking around money. The IRS’ operational definition under the proposed change seems fair: you would receive a Form 1099 if you have gross sales of more than $10,000 and more than 200 transactions in a year.
It’s not the creeping Big Brother-ism that bothers me. Rather, it’s creeping universal identifier. It used to be that people worried about your Social Security number being the universal identifier. That’s still part of the equation. But the real identifier is your online identity. There’s only one Internet. There’s only one you. Your behavior will follow you. And remember, Google never forgets.
Social media analysts spend a great deal of time talking about your online reputation. Here’s a data point that targets your financial reputation. What’s next? 
Steve Jobs talks about “the cloud,” that online place where all your data reside. Of course Jobs frames it as all good, all progress. Good time to pause and think about the dark side: the unintended consequences.

People first

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groundswell.jpgAll these new channels – blogs, Twitter, YouTube, whatever – require some exploration to fully understand. And so begins the romancing. As we see the unique qualities of a particular tool or channel, we swoon, and become a hammer-pounder for it. Every problem gets solved with a blog, or the tool du jour.

What’s a hammer pounder? You know the old maxim, “Give a kid a hammer and everything looks like a nail.”
This is why basic training in strategic communication is so important. It helps you focus on achieving long-term objectives. It keeps you from being seduced by tactics. So you don’t become a hammer pounder.
Take a look at this article by Josh Bernoff, co-author of the excellent book Groundswell. He advocates the POST method:
  • People: assess your customers’ social activities
  • Objectives: decide what you want to accomplish
  • Strategy: plan for how relationships with customers will change
  • Technology: decide which social technologies to use
Traditional communication training may use the term “audience.” But “people” is better. An audience is an aggregate, faceless, unknowable. But people are knowable. Since we’re engaging one person at time in unique communication transactions with social media, let’s embrace “people.” 
So remember, if you ever get lost in a morass of technologies and don’t know how to proceed with a communication problem, slow down. Take a breath. And remember, people first.

Good design: more than making things pretty

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Today a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. government has an obligation to make money more accessible to people who are blind. It’s easy for Americans to just assume money has to be a certain way. But we’re pretty much alone in the world – out of 180 countries that use paper money – when it comes to making all denominations the same size and color. 

As a result, it’s near impossible for a person who is blind to know which bill he or she may be spending or receiving as change.
American money is ripe for redoing as an exercise in universal design. Canadian money features a handful of accessibility features, including tactile spots that work like Braille. Different denominations of Euros are different colors, and the bills increase in size as they increase in value. They’re nice looking, too.
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A quick hit of Wikinomics

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Lately the “to read” stack of books by my bed table has been getting bigger. And as I fire up my RSS reader every day, I learn more and more that I know … less and less. So I was quite happy to hear Wikinomics co-author Don Tapscott on Talk of the Nation today.

I know that doesn’t excuse me from reading the book, but he represents the material in the interview quite well. While the focus is on using Wikis to enhance democracy, there’s a wide-ranging discussion of relevant social media topics. The interview is about 26 minutes long. Give a listen.