Blue Helm

One day when I was in the third grade, one of my classmates showed me that trick where you hold a pencil and shake it to make it look like it’s rubber. You know the one. At the time, I thought that was the coolest thing any human child had ever done and possibly would ever do. I mean seriously—the pencil was wobbling as if it were RUBBER. Unprecedented. I showered praises on my talented peer and so did most other kids sitting around me. He did the trick for a while, until some other kid sitting near us shouted, “Hey look at me! I can do it too!” We all looked and witnessed his sorry attempt at the pencil trick, paling in comparison to our other friend’s feat. We severely berated him, telling him that he was just trying to copy what was already done to look cool. He was a wannabe.

Today I experienced a remarkable sensation of déjà vu….Google Buzz is that wannabe kid.

Now let’s be clear: I love Google. I love Gmail, Google Search, Google Maps, Google News, Google Wave, Google Earth, Google Everything. But this new attempt to jump on the social media bandwagon is lame at the very least. Why does Google even think its new social network can compete with Twitter or Facebook? It’s too closed up, too walled-in. With Google Buzz, you can only share information with other Gmail users. It also sends every Buzz update to my Gmail Inbox, which infuriates me to no end. And it’s just a ripoff of Microsoft and Yahoo’s previous attempts to integrate social media with email.

I’m not opposed to new, innovative and creative social networks that compete with Facebook and Twitter. Competition is healthy, even in a saturated market. But Google Buzz offers nothing new and only succeeds in annoying me.

Am I missing something? Do you love Google Buzz? Will Google prove me wrong and dominate the social network market? Let me know what you think.

Coca-Cola’s new “Happiness Machine” video is viral genius, plain and simple. Released earlier this month, it topped one million YouTube views this week, and was almost entirely shared through social networks like Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

Social media and viral marketing is about people, not products. Coca-Cola gets that, and successfully produced a compelling, entertaining and human campaign that connects with the consumer in a deeper, more memorable way than a traditional advertisement might. Ravi Sawhney said it perfectly in his Fast Company blog post yesterday:

“How can designers create these special moments–this magic? And not just ‘viral video’ magic, but that everyday life magic of the emotional connection that bonds people with your brand. Can we conceive of the complete story and lead people down a path of creating smiles?”

If your social media campaigns aren’t cultivating inspiration, motivation and smiles, you’re probably doing something wrong.

When your friends speak out on Facebook, do you answer?

We all know about the ‘Like’ button on Facebook, and most of us probably use it from time to time. And we may or may not comment on a buddy’s post that particularly interests us. But did you know that you help increase your friends’ content value and prominence by ‘liking’ their posts or commenting more often?

For instance, let’s say you have a close friend that posts a funny YouTube video on Facebook. You watch it and laugh until you pee yourself. But you don’t comment on the video or use the ‘Like’ button to show your interest. And why should you? You’re a busy person with lots of other YouTube videos to watch. Here’s your friend’s problem: Her hilarious update will quickly fall victim to the massive amounts of other Facebook content constantly being generated. As the minutes pass, her post will fall lower and lower on News Feeds everywhere.

But if her video happened to have a lot of comments or ‘likes’, Facebook sees it as more valuable content and keeps it higher on News Feeds, even as other content comes in. Thus, your friend’s video is seen by far more friends and has more potential to become viral. And her self-esteem dramatically improves.

Some Facebook users avoid commenting or ‘liking’ posts because they get annoying notifications every time somebody else comments on the same update. This site on Mashable explains how to solve that pesky problem.

But in the end, why should you care if your friends’ posts get more exposure? Why should you take the time to comment or ‘like’ a status update or link. Well, because you’re a human being and social networking is, at its core, a conversation. You’re free to harvest the benefits of Facebook without participating, but that makes you lame.

So don’t be lame. Take the time to ‘like’ or leave a comment on a Facebook post that genuinely interests or entertains or inspires. Doing so cultivates more good content, and I think we all can agree that our Facebook News Feeds would greatly benefit from better content.

These sad employees aren't allowed to use social media at work. Could their boss help them use it to be more productive?

A recent survey reveals that social media remains a challening obstacle for employers and employees to tackle. Who’s surprised? According to the survey, “half of companies have not set out a specific policy for workers’ online social networking activities.” And one-quarter of the 800 professionals surveyed claimed their organization has had to discipline an employee for activities on social networks. Yucky stuff.

So what’s to be done? Employers, here’s some advice:

1. Throw out your draconian internet rules. Unless legal or other rare circumstances require it, don’t completely prohibit your employees’ access to Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networks simply because you’re afraid they might use them for nefarious or time-wasting purposes. Social networking can be used to grow your business (if your employees are educated how to do so).

2. Use social media (and your employees’ attraction to it)  to your advantage. Brainstorm with your staff and find out ways to use social media in your marketing or sales campaigns. You could require your employees to connect with at least one potential business client on LinkedIn each day, or have a couple workers update and maintain your company’s Facebook page twice a week. Don’t be afraid of social media. Use it.

3. Talk to your staff openly about your company’s social media expectations and requirements. It’s fine to make rules about Facebook or Twitter usage and formulate effective company policies that protect your business from rogue or irresponsible employees that misuse social media. But banning social media outright is like banning email or phones. Not smart in the 21st century.

Now, some words for employees:

1. Do not, do not, DO NOT waste your company’s time, money and talent by surfing your social networking sites during business hours–especially if it’s not for business reasons.

2. Don’t post stupid pictures of yourself or offensive/inappropriate/creepy comments on your social networks. If you must, learn about the privacy settings, and learn them well. Also, don’t EVER post your company’s private or confidential information on the interent.

3. Keep brainstorming about what you can do to help your company grow using social media. Maybe you can volunteer to create or revitalize your company’s blog. Or you can create a company Facebook, Twitter or YouTube page. Present some ideas to your boss and work with him or her to use social media for your business’ advantage, not for its self-destruction.

What do you think? Do you agree with my advice? Disagree? Do you need some help thinking up ideas on how to use social media to help your company? Let me know by commenting below.

Bill O'Reilly

I was watching The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News last week and heard the controversial host say something unusually distressing. One of his guests mentioned Facebook and Bill immediately rolled his eyes said something to the extent of: “I don’t even know what Facebook and Twitter are, and I don’t care.” (I have searched tirelessly on the Internet for a video or written transcript of the segment, but couldn’t find anything. I’ll keep searching.)

This sounds very bad coming from the highest-rated cable news host. Bill O’Reilly, a seasoned reporter known for his opinions and analyses of current events, doesn’t know or care about social media? Bill, if you’re reading, please accept my humble advice and change your mind about the biggest phenomenon to change the way we communicate since the mobile phone. Here’s why you should think twice about your ambivalence toward social media:

1. Social media changes the world every day, for better or worse. Barack Obama’s campaign arguably won the 2008 presidential election through its consistent participation and interaction with younger voters on social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube. Sarah Palin and other potential candidates currently drive their grassroots political movements through social media. And perhaps most stunningly, the recent protests in Iran over alleged election fraud was largely organized and broadcast through Twitter.

2. Social media is changing the dynamics of our modern media. Once-powerful newspapers are succumbing to bankruptcy at alarming rates. Why? The emergence of cable news is one possible explanation. But blogs and citizen journalists are attracting more and more Americans, undermining traditional media outlets and forcing them to evolve. No one could have envisioned such drastic times for newspapers and the mainstream media. Who’s to say social media won’t dramatically change the potency of Fox News or other cable news outlets within the next decade in a similarly unpredictable way?

3. Social media isn’t going away. It may change over time, but like other communication megatrends of the past few decades (the internet, personal computers, cell phones, etc.), social media is a powerful networking and conversation tool that unites friends, strangers, businesses and families. It won’t be abandoned any time soon.

4. Hundreds of millions of people use social media every day. As a news anchor, someone who reports on the prevailing trends of our society, shouldn’t you care? You alienate your viewers and listeners by saying you don’t know what Facebook is. Roughly one third of Americans actively use Facebook. This is an astonishing statistic. Many of these Facebook users undoubtedly listen to you and trust your judgement of what’s important news. How should they interpret your utter lack of interest or knowledge concerning something so revolutionary, so innovative, so vital?