Global Neighbourhoods

RackSpace downtime, competitive response & lethal generosity

Rackspace is a leading hosting service. It is sponsors Scobleizer's new video show Building 43, which I think has been a venue where Robert has done some of his best work so far.

Just after July 4 weekend, the hosting service experienced a brief downtime caused by a faulty "bus duct," whatever that is. The point is that a significant number of users were incapacitated by the crash.

Rackspace went into immediate action using what I would call the social media playbook, if there were actually such a thing. They used there blog, having Eric Johnson a senior web developer explain clearly what had happened, what the company was doing about it and apologizing for the inconvenience. Meanwhile via FriendFeed and Twitter Scoble was doing what he does best and he was doing it with equal transparency. Rackspace customers chimed in, nearly unanimously expressing loyalty and faith in their hosting company.

Of course major competitors noticed. When a hosting service goes down, there are obvious opportunities. There are unhappy and frightened customers. One competitor, Online Tech of Minneapolis took two days until it posted a blog intended to hijack Rackspace customers with an "easy transition plan" from Rackspace to them. The company boasted that unlike Rackspace, it had never experienced customer downtime. It brought the message into Twitterville and posted a couple of follow blogs.

That is a predictable approach. It comes from a traditional marketing approach based on military strategies. When you see your opponent has a weakness, attack it with extreme prejudice. Take more ground.

But the day before Online Tech posted its blog assault, another competitor ServInt posted this blog by Reed Caldwell, CEO , which takes an entirely different approach, one I find better-suited for the new conversational marketplace  rather than the commercial gladiator approach used Online Tech.

Caldwell, stated that his competitor had been "communicative, forthright and responsive to its customers. He said ServInt stands behind Rackspace and advised customers to do the same.

The conversations heated up in Twitterville, and Friendfeed where Scoble pointed to most of the blog posts and dozens of hosting service customers had joined in. The sentiment was nearly unanimous for Rackspace and particularly ServInt, whose CEO revealed himself to be a class act leading a classy culture.

There may have been a defection or two to Online Tech, but I could find no reports of it. But in the court of Twitterville opinion, the were the clear losers.

ServInt's approach falls into something that I call in Twitterville, lethal generosity. The companies that are most generous to their marketplaces--including competitors--become thought leaders. Those that take more combative approaches become thought followers. Which would you prefer as your vendor?

There are other twists. A tech company should never, NEVER, boast that it hasn't suffered downtime. When one does, it is as sure as the night follows the day, that company will stumble, because in the end all parts break. When it happens to Online Tech, it will have few friends. ServInt conversely will have friends and credibility going for it.

Times have changed. Companies who learn to put their markets before themselves, and happy users before themselves are likely to profit greatly from that generosity. It is one of those difficult to measure issues--but there is an ROI on generosity and Servint is likely to enjoy that return in coming months and perhaps years.

Blame Drew's Cancer for this Blog Post

Most of us have had an experience involving someone we love and cancer. Even when the beast is defeated there simply nothing funny about cancer. About 13% of all people who died in 2007 were taken by cancer.

In the US in 2008, some 11 million people were afflicted by cancer. Drew Olanoff, 29, a Philadelphia-raised developer became one of them, when a lump on his neck turned out to be lymphoma, one of the most treatable of all cancers when caught in early phases. Except Drew's cancer was detected in Stage 3, which is not an early phase. It had first appeared on his neck but had spread into his chest and abdomen.

It meant Drew would have to cancel plans to move to Los Angeles where he had just been hired as online communities director for mobile text pioneer GOGII. Instead, he moved in with his mom in Swedesboro, NJ where he immediately began chemo treatment and neulasta shots every 2 weeks.  He has completed 4, and has 5 to go. 

Drew is a self-admitted geek, known and popular in the Web 2.0 community and long active, particularly in social media and Twitter. Like many people with cancer and other chronic and threatening diseases, Drew turned to social media for support.

What is different for Drew is his injection of humor. He created a Twitter hashtag called #BlameDrewsCancer. Read through that list of thousands of tags, and I'm wagering you will have no choice but to smile if not bursting out laughing. Then you stop and think, "Wait, I'm laughing about some guy's cancer."

Your entertainment helps Drew. It supports and encourages him to fight the fight he has to face. He knows he is not alone. He knows people are on his side.

Drew started what has become a Twitter meme, by blaming his cancer on his missing keys or yet another loss by his beloved Phillies. Soon others joined in. Among them is cancer survivor Lance Armstrong who blamed Drew's cancer for a sore shoulder. This has led to Drew's increasing involvement in LIVESTRONG, Armstrong's online cancer-fighting community.

Drew has guest blogged at LIVESTRONG. When people blame Drew's cancer at LIVESTRONG they are requested to donate a dollar per complaint. Drew is searching for a corporate sponsor to match the funds.

Here are my questions for Drew and his answers.

Q1 When you first noticed you had a lump, what was your initial response? When you showed it to your mom, what was her response? How did the doctor break the news of cancer to you?

I first noticed I had a lump a week or two before I left San Francisco.  I took pictures of it and my mom's response was "it could be anything."  I already knew I was coming home to visit before I headed off to LA and GOGII, so it seemed reasonable.  When I got the diagnosis, the doctor called me into the office.  I knew it wasn't good.  He was direct, and scheduled my first chemo treatment right then and there.

Q2 What were your first thoughts when you discovered you had cancer?

"Dammit."  Probably because I knew deep down something was not right.  Because of the tests and the feedback from the doctor and surgeon, I knew it was a probability.  (Lymphoma of some type, Hodgkin's being the easier to treat of the two)  When I got "the call" I broke down.  Both of my parents were there at the time, luckily.

Q3 What made you decide to turn to social media?  Were you aware of other people in social media with cancer?

I always feel like I want to share.  Not because I want attention, but this is my chosen profession.  If I'm going to share something funny, great, or sad ... then I better keep things real.  And this was as real as it got. I have a lot of friends on Twitter and various other social networks ... even if I haven't met them in person.   I wasn't aware of that many people who were that public.  In retrospect I was wrong.

Q4 How did you get the idea for #BlameDrewsCancer?

I started blaming things on my cancer a week before I was diagnosed officially.   The doctor had said it looks like a lymphoma so I took that as my diagnosis. I blamed things on my cancer, and my mom's initial response was "You don't know that its cancer," to which I'd respond "Yes, I do."  I wanted to turn it into a site since I'm a geek.  Ran it by my longtime mentor Micki Krimmel and she said "Do it."  So I called Mike Demers whom I worked with for a long time in Seattle, and not only one of my best friends, but a Hodgkins survivor.  He said yes immediately and built what you see today.

Q5 What has #BlameDrewsCancer done for you? What about social media in general?

For me, it has allowed me to talk about cancer in a way that not many people can.  Cancer scares people, and rightfully so. But there are things that can be done, and are being done. You see it every day with LIVESTRONG and other foundations.   What it does for social media is prove the medium even more.

Q6 What are some of your favorite anecdotes from #BlameDrewsCancer?

Blaming my cancer for Nickelback still makes me laugh.  But when I woke up to Lance Armstrong blaming my cancer for his shoulder injury, I knew that I struck a chord.   An unintended chord as far as reach, but a chord none the less.  I've also woken up to people blaming my cancer for the death of loved ones.  Difficult, but real.  

Q7 Can you share with me some comments--pro or negative, the hashtag has caused.

Zero negative whatsoever.  Do I know that things can be misused either for spam or nastiness?  Yes.  It's a part of the territory.  But I'd say that 99% of the tweets come from the heart or the funny part of the heart and that's a wonderful thing.

Q8 What advice do you have for other people with serious or chronic diseases and using social media?

Reach out.  You're not alone.  If ONE person comes back to you with a sign of support, or an offer of friendship, you've won and the disease has lost.

Q9 How did you become affiliated with LIVESTRONG and Lance Armstrong? How much money have you raised? Just how does it work and how do people contribute?

The day that we launched the site, LIVESTRONG's CEO and community team reached out to me.  They asked me if I needed support, needed anything ... and asked me how I was feeling.  It meant a lot.   To date, we've raised $600 solely for LIVESTRONG, but have raised over $3,000 for the American Cancer Society and $500 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. 

People can donate directly to LIVESTRONG via a link on http://www.BlameDrewsCancer.com or through our Facebook Cause Page.  http://bit.ly/bdcfb - The support has been amazing.  But I won't rest until I find sponsors to donate $1 for each unique blamer to LIVESTRONG.

Q10 additional comments?

Cancer picked the wrong people to mess with. 

Welcome BurrellesLuce, my new site sponsor

You may notice a new icon on my blog sidebar, to your right. It has the icon of my new sponsor, BurrellesLuce, a leading monitoring, measurement and contacts service for communications professionals. If you click through and register, you may win a new Kindle, a giveaway item that I wouldn't mind winning myself.

BurrellesLuce decided to give Global Neighbourhoods a try for a few months to raise awareness of its online services. It is a non-exclusive relationship and I have room for more icons in that sidebar.

Why I chose Five Star as my Speaker Bureau

Just about every author I’ve shared notes with see a cart horse relationship between writing books and speaking. Most of us do better on the fame side of the fame-fortune continuum but we need both speaking and books to make a decent living.

My author friends who do the best financially from speaking engagements, invariably use speaker agents. Until a few weeks ago I have not followed suit, although I was aware that I was not doing well on the paid-speaking circuit as several of my peers.

This is because the speaking agents and bureaus I’ve spoke with have not made me comfortable on three simple areas. I want to feel like anyone representing me understands who I am, what I talk about and can help find audiences that want to hear what I have to say in the style I deliver it.

The first agent I ever spoke to was right after Naked Conversations was published. I suspected we had a mismatch when he advised me that he would not use the title of the book in pitching on my behalf. “Naked,” he advised me, would turn off some of the corporate audiences that he would sell me too.

Other agencies have told me how great the agencies were.  Others could not fathom that I was not a technology speaker and so on. My conversations with other bureaus got less frequent and shorter, until I decided to go my own route.

I didn’t do badly, but with a new book, I thought I would give it another try. I actually found two that understood social media and even Twitter.  One was in Boston and represented several of the most respected social media speaker authors, people I look up to, but that agency failed to convince me that they understood where and when I was unique versus another name on the list.

About then I asked for recommendations on Twitter.  I have obvious faith in Twitterville and I have always trusted the opinions of people I know more than Google searches or what organizations say about themselves on a website.

So when Wallace Wilson recommended Steve Gardner, CEO of Five Star Speakers in Kansas City, I paid attention. When Wallace said he had actually used Five Star, I paid closer attention and when I discovered that Steve actually tweeted I started getting downright optimistic.

Steve has spent well over two hours talking with me on the phone. We have exchanged over 30 emails. We have discussed aspects of our personal life. During all that Steve convinced me that he knows who I am, what I have to say and why people might want to hear it.

I share all this because some of you may need to retain an agent or a consultant. Others of you may be consultants. I thought it might be useful or interesting to share the process and what factors got me to decide to go with Steve and Five Star.

One other note. My "turning pro" does not eliminate the selected free speaking engagements that I have done. I love speaking to the social media community itself. I have just completed a new book and I want to talk about it. Instead, it vastly expands the audiences that I hope to reach.

In fact, there are several ways it may be easier for me to participate in community events, by getting me to cities and venues, where sponsorship might not otherwise be available.

Iran, Twitter & Braided Journalism

I completed final proofing of Twitterville on June 12. Many authors, myself included, love to conclude a book with a demonstration of some form of Big Picture vision. Mine was a final chapter that explained how on Twitter, we can easily form global neighborhoods-virtual spaces where people all over the world can come together to share information, ideas and passion on any particular subject.

Twitterville concludes that these global neighborhoods lets people in different places and of different cultures talk directly with intermediation of governments, media or employers. When we do that we start to notice our similarities and can find them more compelling than our differences.

It was supposed to be a big thought, a vision of instances that would happen far into the future. But on June 12, in Iran, a country that I knew little about an election was held. By the next morning results of 30 million ballots had been allegedly hand-counted and the incumbent anti-West, pro-terrorist regime declared itself a winner by an overwhelming majority.

The speed and the count defied credibility. Details revealing some districts had counted more than 100 percent of the registered voters led to questions. Unopened ballot boxes photographed in libraries led to expressions of disbelief, spurred by protests from defeated candidates, respected clerics and reasonable people everywhere.

Those who had hoped to see change; who believed they lived in a country that provided them a choice at the ballot box felt they had been robbed of that choice and they took to the streets do demonstrate their disbelief, which soon erupted into outrage.

For the most part, traditional press was hamstrung. It was not that they were shirking responsibilities, but years of budget cuts had thinned the ranks of stringers, correspondents and reporters for mainstream media. Plus the Iran government plays games with journalist visas. Worse when government "requests" are ignored, the leaders of this republic responded by detentions, expulsions, and occasional arrests and perhaps charges of disruption or spying both of which can result in being slowly hanged to death [they raise you by the neck, so that you strangle, rather than just drop you through a trap door so your neck quickly breaks].

This onerous and successful suppression of traditional journalism has worked in many countries all over the world. When certain governments kick the press off a story, it almost always means ugly things are going to happen; unarmed people will suffer, voices for change will be silenced.

But this time there was some new force coming into play; something that had not occurred before. The voices of people on the streets could now be heard on Twitter, where people who supported them could amplify what they had to say by retweeting. Twitter became the voice of the street. It also worked in tandem with YouTube and Flickr to serve as the eyes.

These video not only showed us smoking guns of evidence, it showed us the victim of these smoking guns, such as the sniper killing of Neda Agha-Soltan a 26-year-old student. Twitter filled the void created by the traditional media's inability to report the news and it did it in a grassroots, ad hoc manner that made many news organizations wince.

First off was the issue of sourcing. It was dangerous to Iranian tweeters to identify them. On Twitter, we just agreed to not post names. Many of us also changed our own addresses o appear as if we were in Iran, and we encouraged authentic Iranian Tweeters to say they were from elsewhere--to confuse government investigators.

For the press, who is disciplined to at least attempt some level of objectivity this was a problem. While as a Tweeter I get to say what I think, a professional journalist is trained not to do that, but to attribute a quote to a  credible source.

But second, was the issue of factual credibility. As had been the case in events like Mumbai, the Schezuan Earthquake and Gaza-Israel, there was a huge amount of misinformation being circulated. It was hard to verify and during the days when the story was moving rapidly from streets, to rooftops; from embassies to hospitals and was a definite challenge to determine what was actually happening and to do so with reasonable speed.

For me the Internet posted photos and videos were the verifiers. For the press, posting such content without knowing who took these visual renderings was a challenge.

But the press had been locked out for the most part. They could go talk to some Iranian now sequestered in the safety of a Western university or they could trust the story emanating from the streets of Iran.

After a few days of confusion, much of the press turned to Twitter and social media to report the story. They added some professional vetting that discounted many of the early stories that were seemingly manufactured to overstate an otherwise credible case.

Twitter came first. It told a story that the word is likely to have otherwise overlooked. Tweeters were the feet on the street who wrote the story. They were the videographer and photographers and these citizen journalist did so at great personal risk--as have professional journalist been doing for centuries.

The longer, deeper, more balanced and accurate stories were written by the great traditional institutions such as The New York and Los Angeles Times.

But something new has been happening ever since the China Quake when much of the Western press first learned about a tremor that killed 50,000 people because a Dutch teenager named Casper Oppenhuis de Jong was an eyewitness with WiFi access. The press went with the unknown guy whose feet happened to be on the street and at that point, the strands between citizen and traditional journalism began to intertwine.

This evolved into a full-fledged braiding of traditional and social media by the time Janis Krums used an iPhone to photograph US Air 1549 landing near his passenger ferry on the Hudson River.

By the time Iran erupted, it was becoming clear that to get some stories there needs to be a convergence of of these two reporting systems. In Iran, traditional media started to bend some of its rigid and perhaps outdated rules, simply because they would not have participated in a story that held great interest to many people all over the world.

There are many things that can be said about Iran. There are also many disparaging comments any of us can make bout social and traditional media. But it is becoming clear that we are moving in a direction in which journalism braids, and in so doing people who care can find out more news about events in more places--large and small than has previously been the case.

For a very long time, media institutions have looked disdainfully, even contemptuously on social media coverage. There are more of those days behind us, it seems to me, than there are in front of us.

Events of the last years have varied greatly. But the strands of braided journalism are growing stronger and broader with each passing event.

Using YouTube to Crash UA's reputation

The frustrating part of writing a book like Twitterville is that great stories keep happening after the book gets locked up and before it gets to the bookshelf. I wrote an entire chapter about users taking control, talked about classics like Motrin Moms and Pepsi's offensive suicide ads, but perhaps my favorite was about David Alston, the Radian6 marketing executive who Tweeted that U-Haul had treated his wife rudely and discovered a global community of unhappy former U-Haul customers.

Today David sent me a link to the above YouTube clip, which had over 120,000 views in its first 36 hours. If you skipped it, it depicts Dave Carroll and the Sons of Maxwell, singing a clever ballad about how United Airlines freight handlers broke his guitar and took a year before refusing to make good.

In days of yore, Carroll and other customers who felt they were poorly treated had little or no recourse. But now, as HistoryBlitz, one of the 1200 commenters noted: "YouTube is the Consumer's Weapon."  He or she is absolutely right, but it is not just YouTube. People are using Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Flickr and podcasts to fight back. [BTW, I could not find a single defender of UA among those 1200 comments.]

Suddenly companies that do not apologize for poor customer treatment and play odds that most customers have neither the wherewithal nor the patience to litigate will just fade away.

They're wrong of course. Companies that do not understand that individuals can use social media to raise concern, ire and awareness. Companies that continue to ignore this, I predict, are the ones that will fade away and sooner than they may think.

Help me with my Social Media Global Report

Since 2005, I have used this blog to post interviews on people who are using social media to change their businesses and lives. So far, I've interviewed over 400 people in 38 countries. The diversity has been enormous--from CEOs of Global 100 companies to people fighting for human rights in countries' that abuse them. I've talked to students, government workers and people passionate about non profits.

At the core of my work has been the Social Media Global Report [SM Global Report]. When work there emerges into specific projects, like Twitterville, I move the conversation over to the new category.

Thanks to the completion of the book, and to BurrellesLuce coming on as a site sponsor, I am reinvigorating my SM Global Report. I am looking for new stories that are useful and interesting to people who are exploring social media. I am looking for stories with business or human angles. Yes, I like to write about prominent people, but equally so, I like to find the stories, that no one has previously told. For example, in Twitterville, one of my favorites is the story of United Linen, a restaurant laundry service in Bartlesville, Okla--a company born in the Great Depression, and using social media to get closer with customers in the current recession.

Please help me. Tell me your stories or stories that interest you. Leave a comment here, or send me email at shelisrael1@gmail.com. Let me share your best social media stories.

Three Reasons why PR folk should love Social Media

    [KD Paine contemplating the measure of a conversation. Photo by Shel]

Yesterday, I wrote about the difficulties of measuring a conversation, thus creating a measurement issue for PR people who use social media, a practice to which I think they have no choice in embracing.

My pal KD Paine the measurement maven, has done a good job of refuting some of the issues I raised yesterday. Years ago she and I had a chasm of philosophical differences between us. Now, it's just a few silly feet of cyberspace. We both understand that the entire communications industry is in a transformational phase, and that professional PR people need to adapt to the challenge for change and the clients they serve need to understand that the rules have changed to adapt into the Conversational Era that is replacing the Broadcast Era.

From my perspective--that of a recovering publicist turned social media champion--the smart PR people should embrace this new direction as a Golden Era.
There are many reasons why. Here are a few:

1.  The best PR people have never been one-directional broadcasters.

The most successful PR folk have never just smiled and dialed, have never just used a blanket pitch to extol virtues of a client. Instead, they have read editors before they called them, have found reasons to have conversations with their industry analysts when they were not pitching, have worked hard to become sources of information, rather than mere conduits of it. The best PR people have traditionally been unsung industry experts. They have been able to educate their clients on why some people prefer competitors about subtle but perhaps significant changes in the marketplace and perhaps what should be done about it.

2. You can now join the conversation as yourself

During my lengthy tenure as a PR practitioner, I sometimes found it difficult to remain the voice behind the ear of the actual spokesperson. I often knew as much as the spokesperson, better understood the needs of the person being presented too and felt I could add more value to hat was happening in the room than being the person delegated to carrying the paper press kits of that era.

Now, some of the best--and most popular--blogs are written by communications industry professionals. PR people pervade many Twitter neighborhoods. Their are many of them to be found at Facebook, even YouTube and Flickr.

PR people now are allowed to have their own voice. Speak from their personal perspective. They can talk with passion about their clients, so long as they are transparent about their perspective. Through conversations they can build actual relationships with people that make a difference--BEFORE there is a need to pitch.

It makes it much easier to have the conversation, my friend Shel Holtz talked about yesterday--the one that moves the needle for your client, the one that keeps you retained and compensated.

3. Social Media provides an infinity of potential PR "hits."

In days of traditional media, each PR client had a small cluster of relevant newspapers, broadcast, influencers to pitch and visit. Now we are the media. Each of us, through social media, can influence a market and very often one of us does.

Jessica Gottlieb didn't like an ad series produced by Motrin. Christine Lu felt the same way about a Pepsi ad. Both stopped campaigns with a few tweets. Every day, people on Twitter influence what others buy, watch, listen to; where they travel to; what they wear or drive; who they vote for and what they encourage their kids to do via social media.

A PR person can join these conversations and influence how the relationships people have with clients. The need to reach audiences through mass media intermediaries seems to diminish every day. And the ability to serve as a catalyst between client and customer grows strong by inverse proportion.

The key to these three  points is that you need to be a good conversationalist. You need to listen well and you need to find interesting and useful tidbits to bring to social media other than "NuCo announces yet another widget to add to your blog."

If you have the misfortune to be a PR pro and be a crappy conversationalist. If that's the case, then you will probably do crappy work in social media or for that matter any other channel you choose to use.

   

Social Media & the Relations Part of PR

                   [Needle-pusher Shel Holtz. Photo by Shel]

I am a recovering publicist.

I have taken the ten-step cure offered by Hype-Enders and I pitch no more.

More seriously I spent over 25 years of my life as a PR practitioner. I conducted myself and the agency I headed with ethics and pride and helped me technology startups build interest and enthusiasm for the products I helped them introduce. There were many who did the same during my tenure in my profession and I find it boring and inaccurate when I see epitaphs hurled at the profession.

Simultaneously, as a writer I get more than a few really bad pitches and emails about subjects that do not interest me. I bristle that I'm pitched by people who seem totally ignorant of what I do and see no problem with wasting my time so that they can bill those minutes to their clients.

There's nothing new about this. PR has always had a lot of bad practitioners. Mst of them untrained rather than unskilled a few of them just plain unethical, but that can be said about just about any field.

It's just not an issue I pay a lot of attention to anymore. But today, several really smart people, some of who are my favorites in social media, such as Shel Holtz, KD Paine and Todd Defren,did a good job of refreshing the old dialog about what PR is, how it should be measured and why its practitioners are or are not needed in this emerging Conversational Era in which social media's importance is on a trajectory to eclipse traditional media, and probably has already done so in most PR categories.

Shel Holtz emphasized that PR is not necessarily evaluated by sales, but it has to move the needle. I jumped in and said that personally I prefer a good conversation, to which he retorted that no one ever paid him to have a good conversation.

Perhaps, but perhaps not.

Shel, of course has to have a better program objective than "nice chats," in his proposals to corporate clients. And KD Paine, generally recognized as the social media measurement goddess needs something more quantifiable than a nice conversation to measure the program.

But how much of the success of a PR program really is the indirect result of precisely that?  When Shel calls up an editor, one he may have known for several years, what is the value of the fact that editor--or analyst, or blogger--remembers having good chat with Shel.

Before he makes the money call and before KD measures the effectiveness of that money call, theree were other conversations, conversations that built relationships between people, relationships that were built so that the money call, that was made for specific, measurable business purposes was even contemplated.

This seems obvious when you read it I bet. It seems obvious to me. The mystery is why the "just a good conversation part" gets so often overlooked and undervalued?

It's why people glibly discount talking about what you had for lunch, when in fact business conversations start with pleasantries like lunch, or weather or local sports. It's why so many of us have found a strong preference for conversational media over broadcast media.

We like good conversations. Sometimes, good conversations lead to big business and sometimes they lay dormant for long periods of time before business rises unexpectedly as a result.

Without good conversations upon which relationships and credibility get built Shel's needle might remain unmoved.

When I was in that business I thought the keyword was relations. Social media had not come along yet and now that its here you can build these relations faster and more often than was previously the case. We are in a conversational era and having conversations with customers is a highly effective way to achieve in possible PR goal that I can think of.

And to me, the ultimate goal of any PR program--including those that support sales--are relationships

To me PR folk have to be good at both ends of a conversation and social media is a tool in which several of them, such as Todd and Shel excel.  The Conversational Era was made for PR people who understand that tools of their business have changed and the results can be--forgive me KD--immeasurable.

Back into the Sandbox

It has been a little over three weeks since I finished proofing Twitterville and sent it off to my publisher for the last time before I see the thing in hard cover.

Since then, I have been kicking back more than I usually do, playing in my garden, with my wife, dog, cat and a few friends who I've missed during the reclusive process I require to write a book. It's nice to get out.

It's also scary, when I wrap up a project that took so much time and attention. There is a feeling that I have touched the top of a mountain and have stepped into a vacuum, a bubble where my work and focus have been excluded.

But I have a great number activities coming up. And for a three-week rest period, there has been a lot of planning and thing and doing.

First, I am going to do everything I can, and go everywhere that time and budget allows me to promote Twitterville. I feel good about the book. I think the stories I've told about the incredible people I've met in Twitterville are stories worth telling and sharing.

I'm planning a big party sometime in August. I have begun to invite people who are my close friends and people who are in the book. My friend Tatyana Kanzaveli has agreed to produce it for me and we are currently raising sponsorship, which we of course need before we can open the floodgates to the public. So far, Network Solutions and Intuit have kicked in, so we are well on our way. I'll tell you more about that when I have more to tell and I hope that will be soon.

Next, I am thrilled, THRILLED to announce that BurrellesLuce, the media planning, monitoring and measurement service for social media, online and print has signed up to sponsor this blogsite starting July 15, and I have agreed to pst at least once weekly--thus the title of this post.

This bog has served me as a sandbox, I play in it, try things out and watch how they develop.  I allow myself to stray and wander to cover whatever interests me.

Since 2005, the core focus for me in this sandbox has been social media and how it is changing the lives of people and the structures of institutions. Essentially, what I do is I talk to people about how social media changes their work, play and cultures.

Over these past few years I have interviewed more than 400 people in 38 countries about how they use social media. A majority of these interviews have been in the section called the Social Media Global Report. Projects that start there have resulted in two hardcover books, Naked Conversations, Twitterville; The Conversational Conversations, a Dow Jones, eBook and contributions to BusinessWeek.com, as well as FastCompany.TV.

For a while, I'm going to play in the sandbox, interviewing people about social media. I am looking for interesting and useful stories. I am happy to hear any that you think are useful and interesting.  am particularly interested in hearing those that are unique; that stretch the boundaries of social media. I am more interested in the human element, but I remain primarily a business writer. Please email me or leave a comment hear if you know someone or something you think I should cover.

I'm a sucker for a good story, so please tell me one.

At some point, a subject will come along that may lead to my next book. I certainly hope so and I am always searching for my next book. I will pursue a subject for a while and see if it fits for that topic, then either leap into it or move away.

For the past several months I have been talking to my friend Tom Stitt about a subject that has his passion and which invokes great interest on my part--the role of social media in healthcare. It's a great subject, and there are more than enough stories about cool people in healthcare who are changing the medical practice, respecting patient choices. There are also people like ePatientDave and Drew Olanoff who are using social media to share ideas and information and support.

But ultimately, I realized that a book we were going to call Conversational Healthcare, was not one I should help write. This subject greatly interests me, and I will write about healthcare and social media many times in the coming months. But it does not grab my passion as does another subject. Tom is continuing with the project and I have agreed to write the forward to his book which nw has a new working title.

What did grab my attention and my passion over the past few weeks is the role that Twitter has played in shedding light on the dark awfulness that has followed the Iran Election and I have little doubt that the hours I have spent following that story will be part of  my next book.

If it had not been for Twitter, Flickr and YouTube the world would not know and probably not care about what as happened there. Social media let people everywhere hear and see what has been happening to a people who were fooled into thinking they were part of a democracy when they were not. People bypassed governments and traditional media to inform each other. Truth in Iran keeps bypassing those who would suppress it via handheld devices and it is a fundamental change in how people connect.

This story has my passion. Iran itself may not be my next book, but it is likely to be a component. It seems a direct descendant of stories I covered in Twitterville including Mumbai, Israeli-Gaza, Janis Krums and US Air 1549 on the Hudson.

At this point, the likely focus of my new book will be an extension of what I call "Braided Journalism," the title of my favorite Twitterville Chapter. It is the idea that news requires both the efforts of traditional news-gathering organizations as well as the feet on the streets of the world being covered by people with connected devices in their hands.

I am in no great hurry to start the next book. There is still a great deal of time and effort needed in support of Twitterville. But for a while, much of my focus will be directed at the points where traditional and citizen journalism converge and intertwine to make something entirely new and perhaps, better.

It's nice to be playing in the sandbox again.

Restarting SM Global Report

While there is still some work to do on Twitterville, the heavy lifting is over on my part as the publisher's efforts swing into full gear. Interviews about 125 people for the book and nearly 100 of them will be cited, to varying degrees in the book when it comes out Sept. 3. About that number are also acknowledged in the book for having contributed useful ideas or content.

It seems the core of my work since 2005, has been to talk with people about how social media is changing their work, culture and life in general. I have now interviewed more than 400 people in 41 countries for my two books and for my Social Media Global Report which has appeared on this blog off-and-on for three the last three years.

I put on hold last November when I started working fulltime on Twitterville. In better times, the SM Global Report had been sponsored by SAP, and Intel. I'd love a sponsor, but even without one, I will do the report as a labor of love. If you happen to think your brand would benefit by being associated with this ongoing project, I would of course like to talk with you.

But more than that, I would like your help in finding stories of how social media is changing work, culture and lives. My stories are about people. They can be business stories, but if you cannot personalize or humanize the story, I'm not the right guy to write it up. If you have a story idea, please contact me.

I have a particular interest these days in hearing stories about social media and health. I want to learn and report about people who use social media tools to learn, collaborate and share ideas about health conditions of all kinds. I am aware of the rising number of healthcare institutions joining the conversation, but for now, my focus is on people who have found support, encouragement, inspiration and-- most of all--choices.

I have been talking for a while with a friend about doing a book on the topic of social media's growing role in health and healthcare and I'm curious to see what is happening in this area and what sort of difference it is making.

But please, do not confine any story ideas you have for me to just health. Send me anything you believe would be interesting or useful to my readers.

Cleansing Tiananmen Square

A few hours before the actual anniversary began, Isaac Mao, one of China's best-known bloggers, tweeted: "Tienanmen Square is the world's most clean Plaza." He wasn't talking street sweepers. He was talking about the near-total erasure from official history of a massacre that occurred in Beijing's largest and best-know square.

Twenty years earlier, Chinese people gathered in that square. First it was a handful of students, then more joined in. It went beyond students and everyday people joined in, peasants, workers, professionals even Marxists, people who lived different lives and held different views. The crowd built over up over several days. No one is sure but it is said more than a million people gathered in all. There were no organizers, no leaders, no agenda, no list of demands to be negotiated.

The people in that square were diverse in an extremely diverse country. They shared a common thread. They felt it was time that China's government allow the Chinese people greater freedom's. The oppression of Mao was gone. The ruling Chinese Politburo seemed to e kinder and gentler. The country had walked away from Communism. It was moving rapidly toward a market economy, which in most places of the world had always resulted in a free market and a free people.

The government had already promised the people would have greater freedoms. But they would be given by the Politburo at a pace that the Politburo decided, a pace that would ensure the social stability of a nation that was then nearly a billion people. Many of those billion people felt the pace was to slow and the people, not the government, should set it--particularly in a country that called itself a "People's Republic."

So in early June 1989, they gathered in Tienanmen Square.

The government responded by sending in soldiers and tanks and machine guns mounted on the backs of trucks. They didn't come in like storm troopers, slashing and shooting. They came in slowly, methodically and in a most non-confrontational way.  When one man, Wang Weilin of Hong Kong, stood blocking a column of tanks, there was hope that the people would prevail against those who governed them.

It did not turn out that way. On June 4, 1989, the soldiers suddenly opened fire, spraying masses with bullets, killing at least 1400 and wounding an additional 7,000 or more of its peacefully assembled, unarmed citizens.

The poet TS Eliot wrote, "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." The Chinese Government had decided that the Chinese people had gone too far and it responded with great harshness. It did so in the name of social stability. Many of us saw it as having acted in the name of suppression.

What has happened subsequently in my view is not all as bad as what we in the West sometimes assume. I visited China in November 2008. I talked about Tienanmen and freedom and the Politburo with some well-informed people. Each observed that in the past 20 years, the people have been doled larger doses of new freedom, more freedom than their parents or grandparents ever dreamed of having. Many seemed to tolerate--but not endorse--censorship. "We're happy with the Internet we have," I was told. "Everyone in our generation is wealthier than their parents," I heard. The smart social media users, like Isaac Mao can easily bypass China's often clumsy censorship attempts with mime servers and overlooked 3rd-party apps [like Tweetie to get to Twitter] in part because there are simply too many voices online being surveiled by too few governmental ears.

This was relevant in the past 30 days, when China started blocking social media sites. Silicon Dragon Author Rebecca A. Fannin complained she could not get to any social media sites during a recent China visit. Then Chinese bloggers started using workaround technology to complain that blogs, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube had been blocked. My Chinese friends are telling me they're sure that their abilities to have online conversations will be restored, so long as they do not talk much about topics on a short list of government-culled taboo topics.

Some, like Isaac Mao use "cleansed" methods to make their point, to circumnavigate a government whose continuing policy has been to cleanse the national memory of what happened 20 years ago in Tienanmen Square. NPR ran a piece this week that talked about how an entire generation of Chinese has been born and raised, not knowing what happened there. Even if they did know, their perspectives were different than you might think.

NPR interviewed a school girl who said, that if such a massacre actually happened, the government must have had good reason.

So, I have to wonder. Can a government over time, actually erase a major incident from the nation's memory as China apparently wishes to do? I hope not. I hope that China's citizens will learn what happened in quiet conversations with older family members and in the vast wealth of information that they can sometimes access on the Internet.

I hope that as China's people continues to have conversations with people in the West they will understand what happened and remember what happened. Mostly, I hope that that the people of China continue on their paths of acquiring more freedoms as time goes by.

Perhaps some day that freedom will empower them to choose who governs them. I wish I could predict that this will happen. Perhaps it will and perhaps not.

At Tienanmen, both government and people discovered what happens in an oligopic society when people try to go too far and too fast. It's as though both side stepped back and for 20 years have tried a slower, steadier approach.

Twitter and that Business Model Thingee

I had a really good time at TWTRCON yesterday. While some were critical that it was the Twitterville community's testimonial to itself, I found it inspiring to see the rapid emergence of a business community that shares a passion for Twitter. The conference was sold out and the room was about as filled as it could be--unless the round top tables had been removed.

My old friend Gina Smith, for ABC tech correspondent and iWoz co-author, did a good job of co-hosting, but she seemed to inject a common theme regarding Twitter and the alleged lack of business model. I found myself disagreeing with her observations and the fact that every time she took a mild snipe at Twitter's alleged lack of model many heads in the room would nod in agreement.

I was not among them. First, I believe the company has been pretty clear that it will charge businesses for services. The founders have stated this and expanded upon it many times. Second, Twitter should do so well as other Silicon Valley start ups that were knocked for not having a business model such as Google and Facebook.

But more than that, the room was filled with companies that show the viability of Twitter's approach. All day we heard from people like Frank Eliason who heads the Comcast Twitter support team, Beth Mansfield the voice behind the curtain of the Carl's Jr, Twitter account, Dell Computer who sold over $1 million in refurbished computers via Twitter in its first year and so on. Each of thee company representatives made clear that their companies are making money because of their Twitter involvement. They were feeding ideas and encouragement to an audience of people who want to use Twitter to profit while getting closer to their customers. Here were these successful companies telling a business audience how Twitter was making them money, positioning them closer with customers efficiently and giving multiple examples of how other companies could do the same.

Then there was the observation by Comcast's Eliason: His company had come to Twitterville because that's where they could find their customers. So what company would not come to Twitter to get closer to customers and make money?

Now, here's the obvious leap that Gina and others, in my opinion are missing. Twitter will eventually charge for such services and as long as charges are reasonable, companies like Comcast, Dell and Carl's Jr will be happy to pay for these services. And the longer Twitter can wait before they charge, the bigger Twitter gets during that period, the more companies will see the value and be willing to pay.

Gina asked the question whether Twitter made a mistake by turning down a $500 million stock offer to be acquired by Facebook. Some thought they had. I do not. I think the amount is chicken feed.

Ford's endorsement of a national emissions standard

Long before I was passionate about social media, I had become passionate about the issue of global warming and emissions. Long before that I was passionate about cars and frustrated at how few of the really cool ones were being built in the US.

In fact, long before I team up with Scoble to write Naked Conversation, I researched what would have been a book about the auto industry, environmental non-protection under the Bush administration and the blocking of a California emissions standard approved by voters in 1998 and blocked by Detroit and the EPA in 2002. It was going to be called "Out of Gas."

So when I tangled on this same issue with Scott Monty, my friend who is the lead social media guy at Ford Motors, a while back, it got a bit up close and personal. Scott at one point dismissed me as someone who didn't know what I was talking about. Ford, Monty argued, opposed California setting a tougher fuel emission standard, because it would be better for Detroit, if the nation had one standard. My position was, fine: let the nation adopt the California standard.

My suspicion was that Scott was adopting the same hokey position that the EPA an Detroit had adopted earlier; that we Californians did not have the right to protect our air. This is an old issue. It goes back to the 1970s when fuel emissions had caused a near cataclysmic smog over Los Angeles, that lessened after catalytic converters were imposed on Detroit despite the protests that these devices would destroy the industry.

I have no desire to destroy the industry. In fact I would be happy to consider anything that coud help Detroit take place, short of sacrificing the world's breathable atmosphere.

But perhaps there was something Monty knew at the time that I did not know. A couple of weeks ago, Obama announced new national emissions standards that were extremely close to those that California has been attempting to impose. A few days later, to my surprise and great pleasure, Ford announced its endorsement of the plan.

Perhaps Scott had some advanced information this was coming when we tussled. Perhaps not. In fact it does not really matter so much as we have America's leading automake embracing a real and viable standard that will help reverse the damages to the air we breathe.

Thanks you, Ford. I'm sure there will be speed bumps, but from my pers[ective, it is encouraging to see all concerned parties heading in the same direction.

Send me your favorite tweets

My editor came up with a great idea for Twitterville. he wants to sprinkle a few chapters with a few sample tweets.  The idea is to give readers a sense of the diversity, depth, humor, passion and surprise you find there every day.

I'd like you to send me your favorite tweets. The catch is that it should be someone else's--not your own. If we use it, I'll add you to the Acknowledgments. If there is space please use the tag #TVL. I know some entries won't have space, so I'll be pretty vigilant looking.

Of course it will score points--but is not mandatory if you send a tweet if it touches on the subjects and companies I cover in the book. So below is my final Table of Contents, with a brief summary of the content.

Table of Contents
Forward
Introduction
Talks about James Buck being arrested in Egypt and it discusses why the incident inspired me to write Twitterville

PART 1.         How It Started

Chapter 1      A Pinot Kills Odeo
The story of how Twitter got started and looks at @Ev @Biz & @Jack'a backgrounds before joining.

Chapter 2      Showtime
Talks about SXSW 07 and how Twitter stole the show with an investment in nothing more than two flat panel screens.

Chapter 3      Dell’s Parallel Avenues
Traces how Lionel Menchaca and l and Richard Binhammer developed down one Twitterville avenue to engage customers while Riccardo Guerrero explored down another avenue and figured out how to sell computers via Twitterville.

Chapter 4      Why Comcast Cares

Profiles Frank Eliason  and how it has turned around an historically negative customer service image. looks also at how airlines have used Twitter and how U-Haul hurt itself by ignoring David Alston's conversation. Explains why Twitter is so superior and efficient as a support tool

Chapter 5      Customers Take Control

Looks at the Motrin and Pepsi Suicide ads and explains why companies  need to be vigilant. Profiles Scott Monty at Ford Motors. Looks at big  picture implications of Twitter's customer-generated conversations, particularly when customers are angry.

PART 2          What They’re Doing.
   
Chapter 6     The Twitterville Marketplace
Brief Chapter explains why Twitterville is a marketplace and how markets have become what they used to be before the 60-year intrusion of the Broadcast Era.  

Chapter 7      Global Companies. Local Touch
Looks at how big companies like Zappos, Molson, Rubbermaid, Henry Ford Medical Center and Sutter Health give a close human touch to customers via Twitter.

            

Chapter 8        Seeing the Wizard
Looks at logo tweet accounts such as Starbucks, Whole Foods, and CarlsJr. Interviews the real people behind the corporate logo and other proponents of branded tweeting. Tells why I disagree.

Chapter 9       B2Bs Are People Too
 Looks at several business-to-business Twitter strategies including IBM, United Linen, Pitny Bowes and little CrowdSPRING.

Chapter 10     Small Business.  Big Footprint
Looks at startups and small companies who are using Twitter to their advantage. Includes Seesmic, Stocktwits and CoffeeGroundz and others.

Chapter 11     Personal Branding

 Looks at how Twitter has favorably impacted personal brand. Intervews with Chris Brogan, Veronica Belmont, New Media Jim, Jeremiah Owyang and Cheeky_Geeky

Chapter 12    Braided Journalism

 Examines the convergence of citizen and traditional journalism in Twitterville. Looks at Szechwan Earthquake, USAir on Hudson, Mumbai and Gaza.

Chapter 13    Conversations with Constituents

 Looks at how politicians and government employees are turning to Twitter to get closer with Constituents. looks at Obama, UK prime minister, local transit services and snow school warning in Newcastle England.

Chapter 14    Goodwill Funding

 Looks at grassroots fundraising including charity:water, Tweetsgiving, The Frozen Pea Fund and more. Talks with Connie Reece, Stacey Monk and Beth Kanter.

Chapter 15    Dark Streets
 Reports on the spammers, phishers, stalkers trolls and other assorted slimewear. Gives tips on dealing with it.

PART 3        How & Why to Do It

Chapter 16    Tips, Metrics & Finer Points
Provides advice on getting started as well as dealing with complexities of                       measurement, following/followers and retweets. Interview with KD Paine.

PART 4        The Big Picture

Chapter 17    Global Neighborhoods
A personal note on why I believe the ability to form a geographically agnostic community of people who share interests can lead to World Peace.  Seriously.

Please forgive the poor formatting and lack of links. I am am really stretched. I look forward to your comments. I also look forward to completing the details of this project and seeing it come to life on Sept. 3.