Where Do You Stand?

St. Louis blogger Dana Loesch (aka Mamalogues) was contacted by Nintendo to host a party for friends introducing them to the Wii and the Wii Fit. Dana wrote, “I got to invite eight close friends to my house and Nintendo would bring the food, drinks, and the games. In exchange, I’d write about what it was like on my site - good or bad, just what my experience was.” It’s fairly easy to see that Nintendo’s intention for offering this opportunity to Dana was to gain coverage by an influential blogger while also introducing Wii products to a new audience.

In addition to the party, Dana was given a Wii and a Wii Fit to give away to anyone she chose. “I would like to give it to a family, a person, someone in need,” she wrote. “I want you guys to nominate a deserving party … there are no restrictions on who can win except that I’d like for it to go to a person who normally wouldn’t have the means or opportunity to obtain a Wii.”

Recently I had the privilege of escorting media during prom at Ranken Jordan Pediatric Specialty Hospital, a Standing Partnership client. The pediatric hospital is one of only five in the country that cares for both sick and seriously injured kids regardless of their ability to pay. I was able to see the patients in formalwear, dance, socialize and just be kids regardless of their conditions. The teenage patients were able to participate in a “normal” high school event and reach an important milestone toward physical and emotional healing. Due to income and insurance limitations, many children, however, cannot receive the ongoing therapy and medical treatment that is necessary to make a full recovery. My colleague Justin and I nominated Ranken Jordan to receive the Wii and Wii fit as it was apparent that the kids could benefit from the gaming system not only as a social outlet but also for rehabilitation and physical therapy.

Well … Ranken Jordan WON the Wii and Wii fit, and Nintendo has shipped them off to the pediatric hospital.

Way to go, Nintendo: not only did you receive coverage from Dana, but you are gaining traction online through this blog, and “in the real world” by indirectly providing a great tool to children in need.

A couple of months ago, my colleague Amber goaded Melissa into writing a blog post by calling her a hypocrite. In her follow-up post, Amber said, “I can completely understand and empathize with Melissa’s concern about finding the time to blog. It’s a common response to social media – at least for me and others who aren’t addicted.”

When I read that I thought, “That’s me; she’s talking about me — one of the people addicted to the internet.” I took umbrage at that post, and thought, “I’m not addicted! I can stop any time I want to!” In fact, I took a little break from my personal blog for about a month, turning away from my online life to focus a bit more on my offline life. In this space, I’ve stepped aside briefly to allow my colleagues to have more presence in this collaborative corporate blog. My respite from blogging, however, did not make national news as the unplugged project of Ariel Stallings, fellow blogger and BlogHer pal, whose 52 nights of text, Twitter, IM and blog-free living did.

Am I a tech junkie? Yes, I guess I am. Even while I’ve managed weekends of online-free life, it never lasts long. And even while I’ve taken breaks from contributing online content, I have never stopped reading and absorbing. It’s that, more than anything, to which I am addicted. Like a true addict, here comes the rationalization: I’m doing it for clients! It’s my job, my responsibility! But it’s really more than that; I have a driving need to know what’s going on in people’s minds, in my industry, with people I care about and people I find interesting.

I’ll let you know when I need an intervention.  

I have become obsessed with watching primary returns on CNN.  Isn’t the “magic map” cool?  Watching last night the commentators pointed out the rural areas Clinton continues to win by a very wide margin. 

By now, everyone is familiar with Clinton’s argument that she is the only Democratic candidate who can secure the vote of white, bluc-collar voters.  And everyone in our industry has followed the Obama campaign as a fascinating case study in social media.

When reading a recent survey by Scarborough Research that analyzed digital savvy consumers and where they live, I began to think about the correlation of Obama’s  success in social media and his seeming inability to reach white, blue-collar voters.  Here are just a few of the headlines from the research:  

The “digital savvy” sound like they could be that nasty e-word, “elite.”  I wonder what  this means for corporate social media campaigns.  What do you think?

Twitter has been the discussion EVERYWHERE as of late, including the Standing Partnership lunch room. One of my colleagues who shall remain nameless challenged me to provide him with thoughts about Twitter’s usefulness.

BusinessWeek’s Stephen Baker is currently writing a story on the growth of Twitter as a business tool … in 140 character chunks ON TWITTER! Why is this useful? For PR professionals, it proves that the media is accessible beyond our old school media lists and telephone books. With over 600 people following Baker’s story, it illustrates the fairly-accepted notion that journalism is moving beyond the print methods of yesteryear.

Industry-based conversation takes place at all hours on Twitter, from searching for an SEO expert to social media best practices. Many prominent bloggers, who are often inappropriately pitched via their blog, also use Twitter and often report when they’re spammed (because truly, 90 percent of “blogger outreach” is spam) by a public relations person trying to get them to peddle products unrelated to their blogs’ content. A group of public relations practitioners (myself included) have taken it upon ourselves to debunk the myth that all of us are spin-doctors reaching out to anyone and everyone for a hit. By putting ourselves out there, and allowing our personalities to be known, we can show that we are people too, and we may be more relatable than just another nameless product pusher.

Personally, I have been using Twitter for nearly a year now; hardly a first adopter but not exactly a new adopter. I have 158 followers and I follow 138 others. Yesterday, one of my Twitter followers, DtotheK told me that I was the top St. Louis area Tweeter according to TwitterLocal. Recently I had some concert tickets stolen, and upon learning of it, one of my followers told me that through his connections, he could help me replace them should I not be able to replace them using traditional channels. Twitter connected me to someone who made my life just that much easier.

What’s next? I’m betting my skeptical coworker will be on Twitter within the month. With Twitter-based love connections, business deals virtually inked in 140 words or less and at least one marriage proposal occurring via the microblogging site, anything is possible.

If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, look for me as one of the top Tweeters from TwitterLocal’s St. Louis feed.

Standing Partnership is proud to support Stray Rescue of St. Louis as one of our 2008 community partners. Tomorrow, we’re hoping that hundreds, maybe even thousands, of St. Louisans will also be proud to support this critical organization for the city’s homeless animals.

At 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 1, Stray Rescue will be hosting their largest event to date at 2320 Pine St. — next to the building it hopes will someday soon become a state-of-the-art animal shelter. But, in order to make the shelter happen, it must first win a $1 million shelter makeover competition, sponsored by www.zootoo.com.

In a brilliant social media move, www.Zootoo.com began challenging animal shelters last October to drive attendance to its new Web site. Shelters were able to gain points “towards the makeover by encouraging their communities to be active on Zootoo.com.” Each mouse click gained more points for the shelter makeover, and also connected animal lovers across America. In turn, online dialogue began booming on the site, and Zootoo’s mission to help raise awareness of pet shelters and loveable, adoptable animals came alive. Bravo!

After more than six months of generating awareness and excitement for the contest, Stray Rescue hopes tomorrow’s pep rally will show Zootoo officials the determination we have for getting homeless animals off the streets.

Cardinals’ Manager Tony La Russa, Mayor Francis Slay, the St. Louis Rams Cheerleaders and St. Louis Blues players Barret Jackman, Bobby Plager and Kelly Chase are just some of the local dog lovers who will be in attendance. Adoptable Stray Rescue dogs and the St. Louis Police Department K-9 unit will also be showing their spirit.

To view the potential new shelter, along with the kind of dogs that will benefit, click here.

We hope to see you there!

A recent conversation with my mother-in-law had me thinking about the way journalism has evolved over the past few years. Are those who are in the social media world (i.e. bloggers, online news gatherers, etc.) changing the role and definition of “journalist?”

According to Wikipedia, a journalist is “a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people.” It goes on to identify journalists as reporters and columnists, as well as editors and visual journalists (photographers, graphic artists and page designers).

The entry does acknowledge modern media and “citizen journalists” who offer grassroots, non-corporate coverage. The consensus through a quick survey on Twitter (thanks, Susan!) indicates that many people prefer the term “citizen journalist.” However, some argue that “citizen journalists” can’t be called journalists, because they aren’t held to the standards and norms found in the Society of Professional Journalists ethical code.

But consider the recent earthquakes around Illinois and Missouri. I’ve heard rumblings around the office that the earthquake was first reported on Twitter - they beat the radio stations, TV crews and newspapers.

So, what do you call these modern news-gatherers? Are they journalists? What about conversation-starters? Or perhaps you like the term citizen reporters?

Talk amongst yourselves…

This week I have the honor of attending the Forum for Healthcare Strategists annual meeting. Participants largely include the leading healthcare marketers at hospitals and health systems throughout the country. In the opening session, Jay Silverstein, chief imagineer at Revolution Health spoke. He chided the audience’s low participation in social networking and talked about what he perceives as the imperatives for the healthcare industry to change and become more consumer centric. Much of what he talked about has been discussed among product marketers for a few years now, but his company, founded by Steve Case of AOL, is putting these learnings to work in an industry that often believes it is different from any other industry, meaning the innovation happening in the rest of the world doesn’t apply.

I worked briefly in the healthcare industry and found Silverstein’s characterization of the industry to be 100 percent on target. It’s part of the reason I did not stay.

In his talk, Mr. Silverstein offered some tips to the audience. Of those he offered, the most interesting was to “open up your garden.” He asked audience members whose web site linked to somebody else’s in the room. From where I sat, no one raised his or her hand. (Maybe someone sitting behind me did.) He explained how these linkages were so important to search. Again, nothing new to us, but to this industry, it is a pretty big stretch. These hospitals compete with one another for patients. From their perspective, why in the world would they want to promote another hospital? But, as Mr. Silverstein points out, think of the consumer first. If, for example, your child has been diagnosed with a rare disease, why shouldn’t your local children’s hospital direct you to an online community of doctors who specialize in this disease, whether or not they are affiliated with your hospital. As a consumer, you will give your hospital credit for giving you access to the information you’re seeking and probably become very loyal. He even encouraged participants to think of models of partnership that include revenue sharing.

So, for those of you in healthcare, how can you open up your garden to make the healthcare experience better for your patients?

The engaged group of students, faculty and St. Louis businesspeople who came together Thursday for a social media symposium at Washington University heard from a passionate panel of four experts. The group energetically covered everything from the future of news and journalism to Twitter and Second Life.

In preparing, panelist Jason Fiehler of full-service interactive agency infuz confessed he and his team had changed their definition of social media just before the seminar.

Jason’s original definition was:
Social Media - An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings.

New definition (4/3/08):
Social Media – A publication model in which there is no distinction between audience and author.

Jason says, “I used this definition in the presentation because I decided the original definition didn’t get to the heart of the matter.”

To illustrate, Jason presented a list of well-known brands he feels are Social Media or NOT Non Social Media (according to the new definition):

Social Media  
eBay
YouTube
Twitter 
Digg
Wikipedia

Not Social Media 
Amazon.com
NBC, CBS, etc.
Yahoo Instant Messenger
CNN
MapQuest

Do you agree with Jason’s definitions and examples? What’s your definition? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Also, if you were at the symposium, what did you think?

Thanks!

I invite you to attend the upcoming Social Media Symposium at Washington University in St. Louis.

It’s going to offer a great panel of speakers including Bob Duffy, Jason Fiehler, Scott Granneman, and Kurt Greenbaum, and I’m excited to be moderating the discussion next Thursday evening. 

Of special interest, Bob Duffy will introduce the Saint Louis Platform, a major new online news site being launched by leading journalists in our region (mostly former Post-Dispatch reporters).  According to Bob, The Platform promises to offer in-depth, high-quality news coverage in the best traditions of excellent journalism, along with all the best new media innovations. 

Event details: Free and open to all, Thursday, April 3, 2008, 6:30-8:00pm, Washington University, McDonnell Hall, room 162.

Sometimes it seems as if the Google vs. Yahoo! battle is almost as heated as the Alabama vs. Auburn intense near death smackdown friendly rivalry. I actually prefer Google, for the simple (and admittedly simplistic) reasons that I find Google easier to navigate, I like the ease with which I can use their services, and I like to see the fun things they do with their logo on holidays (yes, I’m easily entertained).

Yahoo!, however, has decided to up the ante with a couple of new offerings - Yahoo! Buzz and Yahoo! Shine. As Yahoo! Buzz explains, it’s like other social content websites such as del.icio.us and Digg, but it’s unique because it “also takes into account things like trends in search queries on Yahoo! Search, and the number of times that content is shared with friends over email.” Maybe I’m just being dense, or maybe it’s too early to tell, but I haven’t noticed that the Buzz is significantly different from other social content websites, although I am enjoying The Buzz Log.

Yahoo! Shine targets women with easy-to-navigate content on everything from fashion to parenting to food, along with blog entries from people like Immigrant Magazine columnist Bobbi Miller-Moro and (apparently) random bloggers (given what’s there, they may want to rethink this strategy). Shine is well-designed and draws from a number of popular women’s magazines including Self, InStyle, Cosmopolitan and Prevention for stories and video content. I’m still trying to figure out how astrology fits into the content (and why astrological content appears in women’s magazines but not men’s), but Shine is something I’ll check out again.

And for the record, I also prefer Alabama…unless they’re playing Arkansas.