Tomorrow I am working with an esteemed group of coral reef scientists here in Hawaii to illustrate various ways to use social media. I will be using a version of The Social Media Game, an interactive learning process originally developed by my darling colleague Beth Kantor a few years ago. I’ve updated it and added 12 more “tools” – and am still missing a lot of those available to us today. It just shows you how much app and platform development continues in the sphere of online social networks and mobile options.

The confusing part is also very good news: it is very arbitrary whether we call something a “social network” or an “online broadcast” etc – most of these tools listed below easily fall into many of these categories! I’ve stayed as true as I can to Beth’s original designations though have added 50% more options! And my savvy readers will recognize right away many more that I have not (yet!) included on this list. Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments so the net iteration will be even more thorough…if also more overwhelming for those who have not yet entered the social media space.

Note: I am rushing to get this live and will be updating it. Leave a comment so you can be automatically updated when changes occur! Second Note: In the PDFs below, I added even a few more tools!

Question from the workshop: How to find Twitter users in Hawaii? Check out WeFollow.com.

Here are the files I used to create the game cards and the situation cards. Please download, print, and use when creating your next Social Media Strategy. Mahalo nui to Tara Coomans for dropping in and assisting us in the game strategy session today.
social-media-tools-2011-07 (PDF)
situation-cards-2011-07 (PDF)
overview-time-commitment (PDF)

Listening

Yelp/Trip Advisor
Customer-generated reviews of products and services. You can interact with them directly.
Have you claimed your business? How will you deal with negative reviews?
www.yelp.com
www.tripadvisor.com

Google Alerts
Set up automated reminders for any mention of your org name or your product/service keywords.
How often should you get reports? Who will review & act?
www.google.com/alerts

Social Network

Facebook
Set up an organization page on an existing popular social network to connect with others.
What will you name your page and what will you feature there?
www.facebook.com

Ning
Create your own niche online social network with ready to use blogs, RSS feeds, forums and more.
Do you have a community on the ground to support an online community? Or would you be better served to set up a community inside another social network?
www.ning.com

LinkedIn
Use for recruiting, research on potential contractors, ask/answer questions, create org profile.
When will you set up your profile? How can you ask for referrals? What about your staff?
www.linkedin.com

Communication

Twitter
Web and mobile updates. Hash tag conversations. Share links.
Is your target audience familiar with using this tool? How’s your understanding of social media etiquette?
www.twitter.com

Mobile Texting
Instantly text message your audience about urgent updates to their cellphones.
How will you collect and manage cellphone numbers?
www.group2call.com

Skype
Free or low cost calls over the internet with ability to record and conference.
Will you create audio or video interviews using Skype? Will you connect with others at low cost?
www.skype.com

Collaboration

Google+
Just now opened to the public, you can chat in private circles, video chat on the fly, and coming soon you can live stream video from within Google+.
Can you make time to learn a new system to save time and extend your communication abilities?
plus.google.com

Exploration
Allow your staff to explore and learn more about the social web.
Where will you start? What do you want to know to move forward?
Google.com
www.mashable.com
Training Programs (Sign up for ours! www.knowhowcafe.com)

Wiki
A wiki provides groups with collaborative publishing and work- space. Great for group editing documents or projects.
Confident about collaborating? Who will be the wrangler?
www.wikispaces.com

Social Bookmarks
Help organize your own presence on the web by tagging your own pages or pages related to your mission.
Willing to make an effort to tag and share so others can find you?
www.stmbleupon.com
www.delicious.com

Private Groups
Facebook & LinkedIn allow you to create private groups. Manage invitees; they discuss and share.
Where do you and your staff spend more time?
www.facebook.com
www.linkedin.com

Hashtags
Create custom tags for your org & events or concepts. Prepend with a # sign, aka a “hash” mark.
Have you created your main tag? Are you checking for duplicates?
www.hashtracking.com

Tweetup
Host an event organized on Twitter. Raise money, share info, meet face-to-face (IRL).
Does your venue tell the story? Are you more influential in person?
www.twtvite.com

Media Content

Flickr
Create or archive photos online to share with others. You can also share find photos of other’s you can use under a creative commons license.
Will you create your own or use others? Create a group too!
www.flickr.com

YouTube
Create or archive videos online to share with others. You can also share other’s videos.
What can you post? How will you share your channel with others?
www.youtube.com

uStream
Create a live (and recorded!) video stream of key events.
What stories make sense in real time? Who can monitor the chat?
www.uStream.tv

Use QR Codes
Embed the custom graphic into your flyers or printed material. Lets users w smart phones jump directly to a webpage or get SMS.
Do you have a specific info page?
www.qurify.com

SlideShare
Share powerpoints and PDFs that can be embedded on other sites.
Do you have compelling presentations and/or data to share?
www.slideshare.net

Online Broadcast

News & RSS Feeds
Capture other people’s content using their RSS Feeds and aggregate (display) them on your website.
How will you choose your feeds? Do you have a feed?
www.feed.informer.com
www.feedburner.com

Project Blog
Organization uses blog to support projects and events. Can have many authors
How will people know about blog? Will you add share links?
www.wordpress.com

Personal Blog
Individual in organization writes personal perspective on a topic related to your org’s mission.
How will people know about the blog? What links will it include? How often will you post?
www.wordpress.com
Or a custom WordPress blog via standalone hosting:
www.greengeeks.com (our Bare Feet affiliate link)
www.hostgator.com (our Bare Feet affiliate link)

Mobile Apps

FourSquare/Gowalla
Geo-location app, users check-in at your place, share with friends.
How can you support your regular fans/customers? Who will monitor this social network?
www.foursquare.com
www.gowalla.com

Tout
15-second videos straight from your phone to Facebook, Twitter, Email.
Do you have basic video skills to make yours engaging?
www.tout.com

Facebook Places
Facebook creates geographical places that allow people to “check in” when they are there.
Do you already have a place? Are your fans checking in? Are you responding?
www.facebook.com

Event Tools

Aloha,

Share/Bookmark

Sometimes the synchronicities are too much to ignore, so today’s post is about recurring instances of a brand name. That is the spiritual undertone for how the internet follows memes of words and vibrations too. Here are the three learning points:

• SocMed 101: What can you share that will enable others to talk about you?
• SocMed 202: Good manners have a dual payoff online.

• SocMed 303: Take time to make this benefit you.

  My LinkedIn Back Story for Today:

  A week ago I gave a private keynote address to the annual management conference for Servco Pacific Inc., one of the largest, most successful, and innovative companies here in Hawaii. They bravely let me address them “from the future” while intentionally opening a can of worms. (Worms, I told them, that make black gold compost!)

  Servco also met me there in the future, and in fact instead of the usual (often boring) speaker’s bio (which anyone can read online if interested) they put up a screenshot of my LinkedIn profile on the big screen, and introduced me by sharing stats on my social network influence. Very clever. I was impressed!

  Then this morning, I had an email from Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, in my Inbox. I have attached it here for you to read. I’ll go in to the details below, however this email combined with this post and a little more convo on Twitter neatly illustrate my three SocMed points above.
  

  SocMed 101: What can you share that will enable others to talk about you?

  In this case, Reid shared several very useful things. First, he shared the success of his company: LinkedIn has reached 100 Million members. That is a huge success, especially since he figured out early on how to have free and paid premium services for a web-based platform. Take a moment to think about how many companies have not been able to do that yet. (Note: I am a paying member.)

  Second, he told me how I played a role in this success – giving me a piece of the credit. I loved that! My partner Shane and I were talking about it before we got out of bed this morning! (He got one too of course.) As a very early adopter, I stayed with LinkedIn even when it was out of favor and struggling to cross the free-to-paid chasm. I do talk about LinkedIn constantly in my social media talks and training/coaching workshops, listing LinkedIn as one of the top five social networks that every business person should be using.

  Naturally, now that I was part of the winning team, I wanted to share that with my network as well. Keep reading!
  

  SocMed 202: Good manners have a dual payoff online.

  In my world the “thank you” means a lot. It was a perfect thank you – which we all know from decades of The One Minute Manager – means to make it personal and make it specific and make it timely. He addressed me by name and he gave me my actual signup number. I was the 49,201st member of what is now a 100 million member community! So of course I felt good about that – most of us love being acknowledged for our participation.

  Secondly though, this data had value to me as well, in terms of building my influence and reputation online. Word-of-mouth is the SOLE way we get work here at Bare Feet Studios. We have never advertised; we stand by and on the excellent services we deliver to our clients. So I posted this accomplishment of mine and LinkedIn’s to my Twitter feed. With all the “social media wannabees” making noise online, it is nice to have some solid data points that clearly establish me as an experienced pro. Click on the thumbnail image to see the actual tweet. You will see I also credited my first connection – Trevor Loy – who introduced me to LinkedIn. LinkedIn and Reid Hoffman got very public acknowledgement for their thank you note to me.
  

  SocMed 303: Take time to make this benefit you.

  In addition to the Twitter post, I am taking time to write this blog post. My main goal is to help others be internet literate. Social Media is easy to get into, but not that easy to use effectively. The people in my classes and talks love it when we take the theory and turn it into practical, real life examples.

  The beauty of all this is that done consciously, there are always numerous benefits and numerous beneficiaries. This just keeps the good vibes in motion and that means some of it points back to you. Take a scan of the numerous people and companies mentioned here (and linked to!) free of charge, so to speak.

  It is not the same energy as a quid pro quo transaction – those IMO are often laden with unmet (and unstated!) expectations that turn the energy sour. Social media is effective and it is fun, and smart business people know how to ride those waves together! It fails when you try to make it one-way, all about you, or only transactional for the sale. Some people do all these things naturally and gracefully, Like Rosa Say; others of us benefit from the step-by-step how to.

  In the end, all three of these learning points actually roll into one – you cannot isolate the good news from itself. I’d love to hear your examples of keeping the good vibes in motion using social media too! Share the love.

  Aloha,
  
  

  Share/Bookmark

  ]]> http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2011/03/25/a-social-media-tutorial-with-linkedin/feed/ 23 http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2011/03/16/case-study-us-navy-in-hawaii-uses-social-media-during-hitsunami/ http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2011/03/16/case-study-us-navy-in-hawaii-uses-social-media-during-hitsunami/#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:51:41 +0000 Roxanne Darling http://www.barefeetstudios.com/?p=1731

  As a direct result of the U.S. Navy’s outreach to bloggers here in Hawaii, I have been fortunate to both participate in some outstanding programs (like an overnight embark on the USS Nimitz) and also developed enormous respect for their adoption of social media (video interview) and their orderly and standardized approach. They are among the best examples of what I often wish for: more grown-ups using social media to get the job done! I mention them frequently in my talks to business, as I did earlier yesterday to business customers at Hawaiian Telecom University.

  Last night we held our monthly meeting of the Hawaii chapter of the Social Media Club (yours truly is the founder.) Our topic was Social Media, Tsunamis, and Crisis Management; lots of good links in the comments there too. Judi Clark live-blogged this event; you can read her summary here. Geophysicist Brian Shiro of the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center joined us to share the back story and help us fact check. View informational slides that Brian prepared here.

  I had reached out to Chuck Bell, Emerging Media Director of the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet based here in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor; he was unable to attend in person but sent me this thorough report via email. I am sharing it here as it really is a step-by-step example of how this works – written in plain speak and bullet points = music to my ears! I have bolded a few things that really stand out to me as best practices and best case scenarios.

  Please leave your comments and kudos for Chuck and the US Navy in the comments below and on Twitter: @PacificFleet.

  It was a given that social media was going to be a primary means of communication. Adm. Patrick Walsh, U.S. Pacific Fleet’s commander, emphasized early on in the crisis that our efforts via social media were critical in communicating with our wider Navy family. While we in public affairs realize this instinctively, we are fortunate to have senior leadership that embraces the use of social media as a key means of communicating with our various audiences.

  Here are the actions we took: —I immediately monitored my Facebook news feed, which includes extensive likes of Navy commands, and my Pacific military Twitter lists, for announcements and advisories from Navy commands in Japan.
  —I reposted each advisory on our Facebook page with attribution and by tagging the Facebook page from which the information came.
  —The Navy is much more active on Facebook than in Twitter, so I tweeted everything I was re-posting on Facebook, for the most part.
  —At critical points during the crisis, such as the decision to have the ships remain in Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet PAO provided very specific verbiage for use on both Facebook and Twitter.
  —As we began receiving questions that I couldn’t answer, especially those of an operational nature (no visibility on those types of decisions from my den at home), I immediately emailed them to the Pacific Fleet PAO and our PAO in the operations center. I would have answers back within minutes and was able to quickly respond to comments and concerns.
  —We quickly had a “database” of answers to respond to questions, as many were similar.
  —We addressed every question that was posted on our wall, often within minutes, and tried our best to keep a close eye on comments in our posts to quickly address any issues there.
  —24/7 monitoring of our social media presence continued for three days.
  —Given the ongoing relief effort in Japan that our Sailors are supporting, we are continuing to monitor our social media presence very closely, with truly, only a few hours during the day when there is not eyeballs on it from this office.

  Biggest take away: Not only did the social media channels offer a way to immediately share critical information, but the interactive nature of it and our ability to answer questions and concerns immediately, appeared to provide reassurance in particular to the family members of our Sailors.

  Thanks Chuck for being part of the conversation and for making it look so easy.

  Aloha,
  
  

  Share/Bookmark

  ]]> http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2011/03/16/case-study-us-navy-in-hawaii-uses-social-media-during-hitsunami/feed/ 24 http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2010/06/09/brain-crack-innovation-leadership/ http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2010/06/09/brain-crack-innovation-leadership/#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:38:54 +0000 Roxanne Darling http://www.barefeetstudios.com/?p=1550

  Forget the 30,000’ view of the marketplace, I am going into space for some cosmic observations. I invite you to debate a few of these ideas – one person’s perspective is never enough to really get a complete sense of things!
  

  What is Brain Crack?

  As far as I know Ze Frank coined this term on one of his daily videos from 2006 when he discussed the notion that having a bunch of brilliant ideas was nothing really, if you don’t act on them. It strikes point blank to the fear some of us have about their ideas being great but “would never succeed out there” etc. He is motivating us to get off our brains and do something. Otherwise, shut up. “Brain Crack” is such an awesome, clear description of that high we get from wondering what if – often followed by the post-drug crash and depression when we see someone else executing one of our brilliant ideas. He he, been there done that.

  Watch the original Brain Crack episode from Ze Frank here.

  I do not intend to discourage brainstorming and imagining though – it in itself has tremendous rewards, and often, the ideas in the mind are all that was necessary to have the glorious experience of the idea – the high if you will – and there is no need to execute. Your mind can indeed get the emotions flowing and a somewhat palpable experience of the concept. Plus, execution takes time and effort and sometimes other people too. This is all my way of saying don’t let anyone make you feel pressured. Instead, use the ubiquitous information and inspiration to find your own voice, have your own daydreams, and execute when you feel the irresistible pull.

  I’d rather focus on what we do with the execution, more than what we do with ideas.
  

  Twitter is an Innovator, But Not a Leader

  So back to my question at the beginning of this post. To me, there is tremendous innovation taking place online in the past decade. But very little leadership. Twitter recently announced they will be selling ads in the content stream and they will be demanding a cut in ads sold by others in the Twitter stream. I was so disappointed, but not surprised.

  Three years ago, when Twitter was a tight knit community of tech and communications early adopters, we literally begged them to charge for the service. We saw the intrinsic value of this real-time, widely distributed conversation and we wanted them to grow into a stable, successful business. As late as November, 2008, Guy Kawasaki ran a poll and over half still said they would be willing to pay – despite the usual snark attack common by internet communities.

  Instead, they kept it free, getting more and more investment to cover server and development costs. Twitter has experienced crashes and growth issues throughout its entire history (including today – hence I was inspired to write this post.)

  • If Twitter were truly a leader and not just an innovator, it would have seen that “free plus ads” is a very old and not too successful business model.
  • If Twitter were truly a leader and not just an innovator, it would have seen that even a nominal fee would all but eliminate the huge waves of spam and bot attacks that cost it money to constantly track, clear out, manage and that irritate its users so much.
  • If Twitter were truly a leader and not just an innovator, it would have realized that big numbers hold less and less true value and that the quality of the members, the quality of the conversations, and the quality of innovations being developed by the user community are far more valuable than a whole lot of bots.
  • If Twitter investors were leaders, they too would have realized the unique opportunity that Twitter offered in the marketplace. It was truly a game changer – there was nothing like it even remotely. The impact it has had on the world is awe-inspiring to me. But it seems all they can think these days is “build your user base, sell ads around the content, hope Google buys you for an insane amount.”

  Leadership is More Risky than Innovation

  But it really is the secret sauce if you are looking for lasting change. Tom Friedman addressed this in his NYTimes editorial today:
  

  Although there are many “innovation” initiatives ongoing in this administration, they are not well coordinated or a top priority or championed by knowledgeable leadership. This administration is heavily staffed by academics, lawyers and political types. There is no senior person who has run a large company or built and sold globally a new innovative product. And that partly explains why this administration has been mostly interested in pushing taxes, social spending and regulation — not pushing trade expansion, competitiveness and new company formation.

  
  You see, leadership is the truly hard part in today’s marketplace. Ideas are coming at us a mile a minute, yet finding the time and the courage to actually go out and do things differently is a rare find. 37 Signals has been a leader in this regard, both innovating and leading by being willing to charge for their web apps from inception. We’ve used (and paid for) their web apps like Basecamp from the the beginning and love them far more and more. Meanwhile Twitter has become something of a cesspool – relevant mostly because of the third-party apps that make swimming in that muck a more productive experience. Many new Twitter users do not realize this but most of the innovation on the Twitter platform has come from the user community and third party application developers.

  I can only imagine what a rich and fertile and innovative community Twitter could be if they had listened to their core users and started charging two years ago. Meanwhile, Twitter just buys more servers, gets more investment, and encourages robots. Now it is going down the tired, worn road of embedding ads and extorting others to pay them for ads on the re-purposed user-generated content stream. That is not innovation nor is it leadership IMO. And certainly not as much fun as brain crack.

  What’s your opinion? I will talk in a future post about practical ways to find leadership within. It’s an ongoing task I assign to myself.

  Photo Credit: “Desert Leader” by Hamed Saber on Flickr.

  Aloha,
  

  Share/Bookmark

  ]]> http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2010/06/09/brain-crack-innovation-leadership/feed/ 9 http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2010/05/06/cam-conversation-business-travel-to-hawaii-nextlevelhi-facebook-privacy/ http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2010/05/06/cam-conversation-business-travel-to-hawaii-nextlevelhi-facebook-privacy/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 01:59:59 +0000 Roxanne Darling http://www.barefeetstudios.com/?p=1474

  Here is the next installment in my web cam conversations with you. I am experimenting with the new uStream Producer “desktop application.” It allows me to record and live stream at the same time, while mixing in graphics, etc. You’ll see a small attempt at that at the end. Over time you will see many different forms and iterations of these web cam chats as I am using them to explore both my interactions with you, the visitor, but also the technology available to us. I am not seeing my voice in sync with my lips – do you see that glitch too?

  More links and questions…
  The big question for you: How much lead time does it take for you to be comfortable planning a business trip to Hawaii? Please leave me a comment. We’d love to host more conferences here and it’s vital we know what it takes on your side of the pond to get here!

  Links Mentioned:
  Aliza Sherman – “Social Media Talent Exchange” (I love that idea!)
  Connie Reece
  Hawai Convention Center
  Kelly Mitchell
  NextLevel Hawaii
  Facebook Chat not so private – It’s ugly but these problems are not going away any time soon. (IMO)

  Aloha,
  
  

  Share/Bookmark

  ]]> http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2010/05/06/cam-conversation-business-travel-to-hawaii-nextlevelhi-facebook-privacy/feed/ 0 http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2010/02/27/hawaii-tsunami-proves-social-media-power-again-information-is-a-tonic/ http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2010/02/27/hawaii-tsunami-proves-social-media-power-again-information-is-a-tonic/#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:23:52 +0000 Roxanne Darling http://www.barefeetstudios.com/?p=1307

  How do you explain the calm and cooperation that was everywhere in evidence during the wind up to the Hawaii tsunami alert? Social media has earned a spot alongside our government planners and traditional news media. The user-generated messages supported both of those organizations on a second by second basis.

  If you think about the mechanics of panic, it largely stems from a lack of information and and abundance of misinformation. When we leave things to people’s imaginations, it tends to bring unfettered “awfulizing” and a survival-based focus on worst case scenarios. Here are several use cases from the past 12 hours here in Hawaii where the free flow of information both locally and globally served to keep both panic and perhaps a tsunami at bay.

  Distributed Reporting:

  
  
  Numerous reports coming in from specific locations help people know about road and facility closures. These are instantly made public, and shared via numerous web and traditional media channels. No longer do first responders or reporters have the pressure to be everywhere at all times. It also helps allocate resources and it keeps exponentially more people better informed than traditional media alone. (via @KaimanaPine)

  Extended Family:

  
  
  Online communities like Twitter and Facebook serve as extended families – smart and caring to boot! People also share support and help dispel rumors that create anxiety. It’s like the borg on Star Trek – the people are drawn to each other and truly feel the deeper connections we all share in times of crisis. They have the ability to soothe each other and just like the butterfly effect, effect change across wide distances. (Via @jdlasica, @zsazsa, @CelesteAnn)

  Across Time Zones:

  
  
  We received a phone call at 3 am HST from a web colleague, @cdevroe, warning us about the tsunami. Colin is a friend and colleague I met online but 5000 miles and five time zones was no barrier. By 3:20 am I was at the grocery store stocking up and contacting other friends and neighbors. Throughout the morning, I received support and offers of help from all over the world! (Via @cdevroe)

  Instant Publishing:

  
  
  
  My colleague John Garcia, built a web site in these early hours that became one of the gathering points for updates: hitsunami.info. It hosted important emergency instructions without any clutter or additional clicks buried deep in some traditional web site. He embedded other live media to keep people informed, and was being used by CNN to inform their global television audience. It was named after the hashtag – see next item. (Via @JohnGarcia)

  Hashtag Aggregation:

  
  
  People create hashtags to help aggregate related content from disparate sources so the world (and all of its relevant subsets) can be easily informed. The tag #hitsunami was quickly created and spread among the community, and moved to the top of Twitter trends in a few hours. Hundreds of tweets were created every minute covering every imaginable aspect of the traveling tsunami from the Chile. We built a web site last year to aggregate Hawaii-based Twitter users(InHawaiiNow.com), and quickly added a custom page for the tag so people around the world could follow the tag and the people on the ground all on one site.

  Truth in Reporting:

  
  
  Traditional media has a tendency to over-dramatize breaking news. My mom, in Florida, who was watching CNN and Fox News, got easily worked up into a real state of worry. Fortunately, we could video chat throughout the day as I shared with her the actual state of things here. I gave her the legitimate, truthful, complete information, which today was much calmer than the selected worst-case only details. In contrast, our local news worked closely with the Twitter community and provided awesome coverage, include live streaming from various real individuals and web cams. Much mahalo to Joe Moore on KHON Fox, Guy Hagi on Hawaii News Now, and the team on KITV. (Via @shane)

  Shared Warnings:

  
  
  Just like in real life, disasters attract those who want to take advantage of the situation for unscrupulous purposes. However online we have the ability to spread the work immediately, free of charge. Another quality of online communities is the desire to “serve and protect” in a very grassroots way. (Via @Peterliu47)

  Uplift and Closure:

  
  
  Social networks are rich resources in uplifting messages, out of the box solutions, and lovely light-hearted ways to wrap up even the most frightening situations. When your “crowd” is large enough, it will be populated by this rich diversity of humanity – researchers, connectors, jokers, technologists, creatives, and those who care, just because that’s who they are. (Via @MarkFromHawaii)

  UPDATE:

  
  Please share our gratitude to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for their intense, accurate, and thorough work on our behalf. Though they predicted likely damage and the possibility of a 6’ tsunami wall, we were spared completely. I personally think our collective hearts and minds influenced the power of the waves while on their way to us. In any case, the PTWC deserves a big mahalo hug from all of us!

  Aloha,
  
  

  Share/Bookmark

  ]]> http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2010/02/27/hawaii-tsunami-proves-social-media-power-again-information-is-a-tonic/feed/ 8 http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2009/10/26/social-web-bootcamp-time-to-get-in-the-game/ http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2009/10/26/social-web-bootcamp-time-to-get-in-the-game/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:32:51 +0000 Roxanne Darling http://www.barefeetstudios.com/?p=1239

  Does it feel like 1999 all over again?

  Remember when you didn’t think you needed a web site because you had a brochure?

  Confused by all the hype surrounding blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook?

  Then Social Web Bootcamp is for you. It’s a one day program that takes you from the 30,000’ view of how things work all the way down to live demos for creating a blog, a Twitter account, and setting up your social networking identity.

  Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009
  Time: 9 am – 4 pm
  Place: ING Direct Cafe – 1958 Kalakaua Ave, Honolulu, HI

  A decade ago when the internet was really taking off, I used to tell people not to feel pressured to get a web site for their business. After all, I said, the internet is not going away and you have time to figure things out.

  I no longer say that.

  Now, I tell people that the longer they wait, the steeper the learning curve. New interactive web applications are being created every month. Everyone can be a publisher. You no longer control access to information about you and your business. It’s been building for several years, and now we’ve reached critical mass.

  If you are still trying to figure out what all this is or what it means to your business, or how and where to get started, we’ve got a program for you. Plus, you receive a $30 discount as a member of the KnowHow Cafe mailing list. Please visit our sister site, KnowHow Cafe to read more about the Social Web Bootcamp and register.

  I hope to see soon!
  Aloha,
  
  

  Share/Bookmark

  ]]> http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2009/10/26/social-web-bootcamp-time-to-get-in-the-game/feed/ 4 http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2009/08/06/twitter-facebook-denial-of-service-attacks/ http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2009/08/06/twitter-facebook-denial-of-service-attacks/#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:57:32 +0000 Roxanne Darling http://www.barefeetstudios.com/?p=1157

  Twitter and Facebook were down some today due to “Denial of Service” (DoS) attacks. Here’s some information on what they are, how they occur, and what you can do as a netizen to help prevent them!

  A DoS occurs when a malicious programmer or programmers unleash commands across thousands computers that have been infected with viruses (those computers are referred to as “zombies”) telling them to “hit” or visit a specific web site on a specific date and time. Large popular sites are typically the victim. These large sites (Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft) have complex back end programming that make the site run as expected as well as front end programming to control the incoming traffic and direct it to available servers, known as load balancing.

  A DoS attack is like thousands of people converging on Wal-mart for a giant sale and the crowd overwhelms itself thereby preventing anyone from getting in.

  Say Wal-mart has 6 big front doors. As you approach the entrance a family of 5 shows up and heads for the first door. You naturally head for one of the other doors. You’ve “load balanced” yourself by picking an entrance that is less crowded. The routers that sit in front of the server farm that houses the Twitter WEB and DATABASE servers does that load balancing for the requests that come into Twitter. They notice that servers 1,5,8, and 10 are busy so they send your request for your Twitter page to server 2.

  When hundreds of thousands of people (requests) rush the doors (front line routers) the doors just can’t organize (load balance) fast enough. And even if they could, the WEB and DATABASE servers sitting behind them can’t answer the requests for pages fast enough. Even if 100,000 people managed to get into the store, there wouldn’t be enough employees, shopping carts, or space to handle the crowd, and everything would screech to a halt.

  Hacking is when a malicious entity actually gains direct access and control of the WEB and DATABASE servers. That DID NOT happen today. Today was the DOS attack – the swarm of hundreds of thousands of simultaneous requests that overwhelmed the ability of the Twitter servers to respond. There is very little that can be done about that, because the attack is actually carried out by “zombie machines” – perhaps even the one on your desk via which you are reading this article!

  I am not kidding.

  If you have a PC, and you run a Windows OS, and you are not incredibly vigilant about your anti-spyware software, there is a decent chance that you have inadvertently been infected with viruses and your machine could be used to unknowingly join the other “zombie” PCs and assist in these DoS attacks.

  System Administrators (Sys Admins) see malicious efforts to hack into their sites frequently. You rarely see a well-managed site actually get hacked, as there is a lot a Sys Admin can do to protect from the inside. Much less can be done to protect from zombies converging on the outside. By looking at the unique IP address of the attempted hacker, a Sys Admin can block incoming traffic from that IP or group of related IP addresses. With a DoS attack, the requests are literally coming from all over the world, via unsuspecting zombie computers that are infected with a virus.

  Now please go out and get a Mac or go clean up your PC!

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  This is not Pick on Twitter month – I am just posing some questions to get the attention of those who see things for what they are, not how they should be.

  I’ve been thinking a lot about the effects of Twitter’s popularity and just did a phone  interview with Janice Magin of the Pacific Business News on how many local businesses are getting on Twitter. Twitter has become incredibly popular, and so that does by default lower the value proposition. I am thrilled that small business is embracing social media. Being on Twitter is becoming a new normal. However that also raises the challenge bar for how to use it innovatively.  If everyone is offering a coupon, then a coupon is no big deal. Same is true of traditional coupons.
  
  Dell was a leader in selling $1M worth of used computers on Twitter on 6 mos last year; they now offer exclusive discounts to their followers. When people have thousands of others in their stream, more of your messages will be filtered out. The people with the longest experience on Twitter know about these filtering tools, and many only respond to ”@” messages or “DM’s” ignoring the general stream from their followers.It’s not rudeness or snobbery; it’s just math.

  My colleague, Robyn Levin, stated it well on her blog:
  

  On a whole, I think this is a good thing, but here’s the problem: whenever technology becomes fashion, return-on-investment (ROI) tends to get lost in the excitement of the latest .com catwalk.

  
  My traditional business mind says find out at least a little how it works before jumping off the cliff, that crowds can and often do spoil many things, and be careful what you ask for in terms of being popular.

  My “here and now” mind says that this explosion of connectivity and creativity is producing “wins” from many unlikely sources – just like the story of Ed Morita’s Twitter Case Study at Social Media Club Hawaii we recently profiled. It says that people are able to filter themselves too and proactively signup for things that are if interest. 

  My consumer mind is sick of the automated robots, spammers, and auto-DM’s on Twitter. Please go away and join me in supporting #noAutoDM.

  I do think there is a some incredible creativty to be tapped there. Just keep in mind that much tactical advice for “how to use Twitter” gets out-dated within 3-6 months at this current pace. The place just keeps morphing in new directions. One thing that seems to be a constant is the desire for authentic conversation. Getting one of those ”@” messages directly to you sure does get your attention now doesn’t it? It’s just not that practical for mass marketing.

  If we look at the photo in this post, you might see lemmings jumping blindly to their death or you might see cliff jumpers taking the fast and exhilarating ride down into the sea. Much of social media is what you make of it.

  If you are someone who uses filtered groups and keyword search notifications to manage your Twitter stream, I have a question for you:

  What percent of your filtering is for friends vs. business competitors vs. tracking companies from whom you buy things?

  If it all gets to be too much noise for you, you can do like Loic Le Meur did: unfollow everyone and start over.

  Aloha,
  
  

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  ]]> http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2009/05/18/twitter-roi-is-it-too-popular/feed/ 4 http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2009/04/29/twitters-supposed-lack-of-loyalty-its-too-easy/ http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2009/04/29/twitters-supposed-lack-of-loyalty-its-too-easy/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:14:24 +0000 Roxanne Darling http://www.barefeetstudios.com/?p=963

  
  
  Have you seen the latest Neilson reports that Twitter users fail to come back after a month at a seemingly high rate? I think one reason is because they don’t fully understand the depth and breadth of usefulness Twitter can offer. Like a quick pass through any collectibles shop, you ‘re likely to miss the gold that is co-mingled with all the garbage.

  Currently, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.

  I am not surprised as one of Twitter’s “problems” is that is so easy to use. People are jumping on it like flies, because it is so easy to get started. It is deceptively difficult to truly understand how to leverage Twitter and what it’s core values are – many of which are still be discovered. Most new users are not well mentored, and hence give up before finding any gold at all. It’s also worth mentioning that at least some of those “users” are spam accounts that Twitter does a decent job of deleting or that voluntarily leave once they’ve gotten the click-thrus they wanted.
  

  There are many experts who have been on Twitter for a few months or less telling people what it is and how to use it. It appears so accessible. But in reality, if someone starts describing it as “You just answer the question, ‘What are you doing now?’” I consider that a red flag of ignorance! As has been stated thousands of times already, few care that you “having a cup of coffee.” The discussion and conversation is all about context, and context shifts constantly and throughout multiple dimensions.

  From people not knowing when to use an alias vs. a real name, to the spammers, to the false notion that more followers is better, to knowing how and when to use any of the hundreds of third-party apps that extend the functionality of Twitter &emdash; there is far more about Twitter people don’t understand than they do.

  My current account on Twitter was created April 1, 2007. That was actually my second account, as I was first invited a few months prior by my friend Chris Brogan; I created an account immediately then deleted it after a month. At the time, before the SXSW explosion which was the first big learning opportunity for how to leverage Twitter, I thought it was one more distraction that I didn’t have time for. It was also very small, and the quality of conversation was very mundane – such is the making of genius! Also, at that time, we were producing our Internet tv show, Beach Walks with Rox, as a daily show, Sat and Sun included!

  I consider myself experienced, having seen a lot of trends come and go through Twitter over the past two years. I have seen boat loads of tangible benefits, though yes, there is a lot of “noise” there too. I have worked out a system though whereby the return is excellent, and it takes me very little time each week. After all, I could be at the beach in Hawaii so I am quite focused on how I spend my time online!

  I also have a systems analyst mind, so I learn things in part by understanding the mechanics of how they work. And also as a trainer, I track how people use the various web tools so I can pass on that knowledge to others. Naturally, it also informs our own creativity for using the tools too.

  Twitter may turn out to be of little value for the “masses”. Still, I wish people didn’t abandon things before they had a decent understanding of how they actually work. Especially business people. It’s not easy understanding how to be a brand on Twitter, though it is being done very well by some.

  Please check out a video case study presented at our first meeting of the Social Media Club (you are all invited! – next one is May 8th) that shows the other side of Twitter: it’s fast and accessible usefulness.

  FWIW we offer training in how to use Twitter and would be delighted to work with any individuals or companies who want to use it as a business tool. And as you folks know, a tool is only as useful as the person using it, and if the person doesn’t know how to use it, well, please don’t blame the tool!

  ---

  Take Action: Free Webinar, Thursday April 30: 7 am HST – 10 am PDT – 1 pm EDT
  I found out about this in one of my feeds; it’s free so you can try it out and there’s a good chance you’ll learn something! I am planning to listen in myself.

  Hear from Anamitra Bannerji of Twitter and Chris Abraham of AbrahamHarrison about how to use Twitter effectively in a professional context.

  Aloha,
  
  

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