Digital Influence Mapping Project

Helping Me Get Green Simply & Socially

A lot of brands are jumping on the bandwagon by embracing issues surrounding green, sustainability, and good-fo-the-environment. Agencies (including Ogilvy with the Greenery ) are setting up prcatices to better communicate 'greenness'. Some brands are sincere and have changed business practices to provide a more "green" approach and impact. Others just want the credit.

One thing many could explore is to help all of us citizens improve our personal impact on the environment. That means giving us tools or information that we can use. I doubt anyone believes this is anyone's job but rather will succed when we all do our part. Together we can win. And that is good news for most brands who want to build stronger bonds with their customers. By being of-use to us (customers) in terms of helping us to reduce our carbon footprint, for example, brands help us achieve something we find valuable. That's a brand-bonding opportunity.

Climate Culture Makes it Easy

Climate Culture is a Web2.0 social network-enhanced tool to help me reduce my family carbon footprint. It was developed by a group of Ivy League-plus grads and it's board of advisores is dominated by Yalie profs (oh, and Ed Begley - who apparently dropped the "Jr." from hsi name a while back).

On the surface, Climate Culture's main attraction appears to be a virtual representation of your world as an island. That's not the best thing it has going for it. In fact, that "virtual space" visual was one reason I was sure that I would hate it. 3D interfaces that mimic the space we breathe in are not good interfaces for most utility computing. When we were developing some of the earliest interactive TV shopping mall interfaces in 1991, we tried these 3D replicas of malls that were just horrible user experiences. Imagine if Amazon required you to walk down a hallway, open a door, "talk" to an avatar....you get the picture.

But Climate Culture's virtual island makes sense and, more importantly, doesn't suck. That's mostly because it's not the main interface. They use very simple and smart Web 2.0 menus. As you calculate your initial carbon footprint, you get to walk through a terrific list of tactics to reduce it. This list is magic. They are helping me think of ways to take actions - from big to small - and then giving me an idea of the impact. I earn points for answering questions and can reduce my footprint by acknowledging those things I already do or are willing to commit to doing.  (Not sure I can realistically 'reduce my Internet use' but that's only good for 51 lbs of CO2 a year whereas using a solar-powered lawnmower is good for 63).

What else could they do:

• Make the list more portable. I want to access in Facebook and on my Blackberry.

• Give me a way to challenge someone within the community or, more importantly, someone from the social Web to meet goals (e.g. "I bet I can earn 100o points by Friday...")
• Let me advocate for Climate Culture. Give me badges or apps to embed in my blogs et al.
• Create a sponsorable application for brands. Allow Brand X to show their support for Climate Culture and the mission of helping us all reduce our footprint while highlighting what they or their product contributes. 

A Social Media Inauguration

Today's concert at the Lincoln Memorial was moving. President elect Obama's speech inspiring. I watched it on a free glimpse of HBO (since revoked back to paying subscribers only). The excitement is rising. I attended a friend's party last night filled with out of town revelers who are planning to attend the frigid swearing in and a few Inauguration Balls to top it off. The energy at the party was high. At the Ward 4 house in Shepherd Park, they played Dr. King's "I Have a Dream Speech" on a loop into the street to greet all of us who came. The party went till 4am and the police came when they forgot to turn "off" Dr. King.

There are many ways to participate in the Inauguration via social media:

1. Use the hashtag #inaug09 on all of your tweets. I am certian that there will be others. This one comes from Kenneth Yeung who gives credit back to NPR's Andy Carvin (in our fair city).

2. You can see this  hashtag feed via this Tweetscan

3. You can jump in with CNN via their Facebook partnership. It will lead you to an "event page" within Facebook which is essentially a promotion for the live coverage site found here. Sounds like they are planning on displaying the Facebook news feed (user's updates) adjacent to the video stream. Not sure this adds up to more than a "subscribe" outpost in Facebook but we'll. After all, CNN got an awesome write up for their digital leadership in news via the Sunday NYTimes today. 

4. You can contribute to NPR's coverage of the event at their"Inauguration Hub". The idea there does seem to be to integrate your texts, tweets, videos and images via tags and the hastag mentioned above. They also seem to have an iPhone and Android app:

Download the iPhone app from the social networking section of the iPhone app store. For the Google phone, go to the Android Market and search for "IR09."

And a shortcode for texting:

Send a text message to 66937. Begin the message with the phrase #inaug09 or #dctrip09. You can include a ZIP code or one of the location tags in the sidebar.

You can follow along in their aggregate feed widget located here. Not sure how to download or embed it which is strange since it is formatted to look like an embeddable widget.

5. You can follow PBS's NewsHour Twitter updates here. While not strickly social, they also have a handy inauguration map here.

6. Or you can simply follow Obamathon Man's blog where he promises to attend and cover the Inauguration so you don't have to.

photo: thanks to earmuffboy of Flickr and his groovy CC license.

 

The Shape of Corporate Comms: Ford

There have been a couple of interesting social media-driven corporate communications stories during the last quarter. One is, of course, Motrin. That has been posted about ad naseum. Suffice it to say that there was a missed opportuntiy there for J&J, but that's another post.

The more interesting story unfolded in the middle of December with Ford. While the specifics of the conflagaration between Ford and it's attempt to protect trademark with Ford fan sites and blogs, the more interesting by-product is Scott Monty's (Ford's recently hired social media guy) willingness to jump into the conversation. He held a sober conversation, stayed within the bounds of messaging without coming off like a flack in any way, and he didn't take the bait from the more extreme voices in the comment flow.

For those who weren't following along, the basic skirmish arose as follows (from PickupTrucks.com):

"Ford and TheRangerStation.com, a 10-year-old website for Ford Ranger enthusiasts, have mutually agreed to end a legal dispute that originally had Ford's attorneys demanding $5,000 and the rights to the domain name "TheRangerStation.com." Word of the dispute quickly caused an eruption of online support for the fan site that had some questioning Ford's relationship with some of its most loyal customers.

According to Jim Oaks, owner and founder of TheRangerStation.com, Ford's legal action had merit. It focused on vinyl decals sold to raise funds for site maintenance that bore Ford trademarks without Ford's approval.

"We sold vinyl cutouts with Ford trademarks that we shouldn't have," Oaks told PickupTrucks.com. He posted similar words on TheRangerStation.com's forums.

After being contacted by Scott Monty, Ford's public relations manager for digital media, Oaks and Monty quickly worked out a tentative agreement that ends Ford's pursuit for monetary compensation and the site name" 

The more interesting side to this was Scott's willingness to carry on a blog-verse discussion (trying to avoid the "blog-o-" word) about what was going on while at the same time offering some clarifications on Ford's POV on the bailout and even his perceptions of Alan Mulally's leadership. Scott commented 8 times over the course of a day.

Here's an example of a comment from Scott on the Voltage Blog (marketing firm in St. Louis that hosted a 59 comment post on the subject):

"Scott Monty 12/10/08
Sorry, I wanted to add one more thing. In the heat of the RangerStation fiasco, I neglected to respond to some other points you made above.

1. Ford has not been denied. In fact, we chose *not* to accept any of the funds in the pending bill. Our statement is at: http://is.gd/aSY1

2. In my experience at Ford (and mind you it's only been 5 months), Ford does not suffer from hubris. Anything but. That's been part of our perception problem - we've just got our heads down and are working steadily.

3. Alan Mulally is a very honorable and likable guy. He had a long day of Congressional testimony behind him when he said that, and I'm sure he regrets it.

We've tried to put together a pretty plainspoken and user-friendly site to tell our story. It's appropriately titled "The Ford Story" and can be found at http://thefordstory.com. I hope you'll check it out, including a video of Alan on the "Our Plan" page.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to share our side of the situation and for being so fair in your airing of it.

Scott"

This is the form of modern coporate communications: a willingness to have a clear conversation with people over an issue of mutual interest. Scott and Ford carefully (and quickly responded) with facts and what I will call human-speak (normal conversation not "message-delivery"). They joined the conversation out where it was happening. They didn't freak out when they got criticized.  

Motrin comparison:  I would argue that J&J overreacted in the Motrin case to the complaints of moms about their admittedly poor web video spot. they could have easily engaged and discussed and ended up ahead of the game. What woudl have happened if J&J asked moms to create a better spot about their particular pains?  I got the sense that they just wanted to mollify those crazy mom bloggers and Twitterers and get the hell out of the conversation.

The Ford approach is much different. I actually believe that having Scott's voice out there will have a great and positive impact on the Ford brand reputation. He will not only help be a corporate communications voice (and brain) as they navigate the next tricky 12 months, I believe he will be part of a new commitment to word of mouth marketing (strategic use of social media) that will ultimately help sell cars in the future.

Check out this case study of Scott's experience from Ron Ploof, a B-to-B social media consultant:

The Ranger Station Fire

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Marketing Business communications twitter

Can Bloggers Drive Peaceful Dialogue in the Middle East?

Our Johns Hopkins graduate class is doing a project with the group Seeds of Peace. They are trying to bring peace to the Middle East by hosting leadership programs for the next generation of Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Their model involves very immersive dialogue through camp experiences and a sustained conversation between people whose politics or culture stresses suspicion, hatred and intolerance. They belong in social media. Can they bring their sober approach to promoting discussion to the global blogs and social networks or is that such an uncontrolled environment that their careful and thoughtful approach won't work?

I am no political expert. No expert on world peace or on Mideast culture or politics. I am a citizen of the US, aspiring citizen of the world, blogger and marketing and communications expert. So understand that is my POV in my comments (which do not reflect the POVs of any of my affiliations or employers).

I remember watching the WeMedia conference from London in 2006. An Iranian blogger joined the session via satellite feed and spoke of tens of thousands of Iranian bloggers. I loved the idea that so many people within what we, in the West, always considerd a repressive regime, could be finding a way to express their personal opinions online. Having met many bloggers from around the world, I have a naive belief that having so many individuals talking and meeting online will, in its own way, contribute to peace. I love reading Global Voices Online for all the variety of people blogging around the world.

Iranian BlogFather, Hoder, Arrested

Hossein Derakhshan (aka Hoder), an Iranian blogger, has apparently been arrested by the Iranian government and been accused of spying on behalf of Israel. You can sample the various stores about this event below (it would be a step in the right direction if Iranian news source Jahan News had an English-language version as I would like to understand their POV - couldn't find stories in Aljazeera either):

• Iran Executes Man in Spy Case, and Blogger’s Arrest Is Reported - NY Times

• Iranian Blogger Hossein Derakhshan Arrested - Huffington Post

• Iranian blogger arrested 'as Israeli spy' - The Guardian

• Iranian blogger arrested as Israeli spy - Jerusalem Post

Now Hoder has been supportive of the Iranian government (specific people and maybe not some others) and is not the traditional critic gone too far (okay, maybe he criticized the wrong person but he is reported to be a patriot for Iran). He traveled to Israel. He posted POVs that humanized Israelis bucking the dogma that demonized them in many pro-Iranian publications. He remained super-critical of the US government's attempt to hurt Iran. 

I cannot know what Hoder did or did not do. But it makes me think about the role that social media can play in terms of promoting discussion across cultures and borders. Hoder has two blogs - one in English and one in Persian. He is making an effort to communicate beyond his borders. To my knowledge, he is not inciting violence even while he voices provocative ideas. 

While Seeds of Peace brings young leaders-to-be together to confront their bias and learn compassion and understanding, can this be extended by hosting or supporting sustained conversations online via blogs and social networks? Those same people who come to the Seeds experience are best equipped to have those conversations with bloggers from Iran, Iraq, Israel - you name it. Or is the blogosphere too wild a place to have sane discussions about such heartfelt and passionate issues?  Just as Seeds uses a tremendous amount of expertise to have safe and rational conversations in the camp experience, is there any way to have the same online?

The first step is to not persecute bloggers - if that is what is happening to Hoder.

A New Social Presidency?

All of us wonder how the Obama Presidency will continue with their social media leadership. Can they convert their experience and gains from the campaign into a new way to run the country?

Our John Stauffer points out a hugely promising first step. Could it be that "Change" is real?

Digital Advocacy: Micro-engagement Works

We are all paying close attention to the accumulated track record of the Obama campaign in social media. It is the new "gold standard" - certified as much by the outcome of the election. There will be books written (hopefully) by the team dissecting all that they did and how each strategy and tactic worked or did not. As a voracious reader and a improving teacher, that is one book in the sea of inane same-books on social media that I am looking forward to.

Micro-engagement

One of my favorite strategies that the Obama campaign adopted was best articulated by ZeFrank. It's about micro-engagements or small things people can do amongst larger things that require more commitment. Think of it as a sliding scale of engagement from simple and quick to deep and rewarding. Whe ZeFrank was doing The Show, he was publishing the video above a comment string. He noticed that participants would leap into the string once a new video was posted and just type in "I'm first!", "I second", "I made it third..." and so on. That's all those users added to the conversation. Now, a more traditional content creator might get upset. ZeFrank saw the opportuntity - there were participants (can't just call them "viewers" as they play an active role) who just wanted a small form of interaction, a short and easy way to play a part. He created a series of simple clickable dingbats, easter-egg-y type interactions on teh main screen to give them a little more to interact with and keep them engaged at the level they clearly wanted to be.

The Obama campaign offered that same sliding scale of engagement. Just look at their Downloads section of their site. From blog buttons and widgets to the big blue posters for printing to campaign videos, users can take elements of teh campaign and apply them to their blog, website, office cubicle, front lawn. The camapaign will be known for mobilizing grassroots action - call centers, canvassing, voter protection, etc.. yet their understanding that everyone can do something and the long tail of those somethings can add up is a big part of their insight.

Takeaway: People come in all shapes and sizes and want different levels of engagement. Don't just offer one way to interact or get involved. Don't just offer two - add as many as possible. Use the social Web as a guide: buttons, widgets, RSS feeds, bookmark icon galleries, one-click send this to a friend and more. And pay attention to your participants. As ZeFrank found out, they will tell you or show you what they want. And make sure that matters to you. 

Don't Vote - Not!

Only one thing matters tomorrow - voting

We Media 08: Using Media to Innovate and Make the World a Little Better

What do you do in a world where "media" is no longer defined by newspapers, magazines, television and other 'traditional,' organizations who still know what the term "4th estate" means?

For Andrew and Dale at ifocos.org (The Insitute For The Connected Society) they collect some of the most interesting people wrestling with the impact of the digital media explosion and all its fallout, bring them together online and in person at We Media 08 in Miami from February 26-28.

They trigger dozens of conversations amongst these unlikely colleagues about what is media today and how we can use it to innovate our respective businesses while at the same time serving the world. Sound familiar? It shouldn't unless you remember the Thomas Carlyle's meaning behind the "fourth estate." Even still, things have changed. The whole fourth estate thing was a nod to the political power of the press. I would argue that WeMedia is less focused on political power or the impact within anyone country of a new, exploded view of media than it is with the global reach of a very public 'media' defined by the BBC, as well as,  a momblogger in New Mexico. This new media has the potential to transcend political and social boundaries. The idea behind the "fourth estate" comment was that the press at that time had a not-so-soft power equal to, or sometimes, surpassing the assigned leaders in power.

If anything has the potential to let global people get to know each other better, reduce our human fear of the unknown and help us connect over new affinities and ideas, it is this new media fueled by the connectivity of the Internet.

I will admit that one of my strongest attractions to Andrew and Dale's vision is how it plays into my hopelessly romantic and, I'm sure, naive belief that a global social network (the meta-network that is the Internet) can help make us global citizens working together to solve problems for other people regardless of political, ethnic and social boundaries.

The WeMedia 08 conference will have sessions like:

• The Power To Change The World
• Political World | Hype vs. Reality in Campaign 08
• Search World | Trust, relevance and rights
• Activist World | Social networks for social good
  and my personal favorite (and the one I am moderating):
• Informed World | The citizen’s guide to media literacy

The event will pull traditional media leaders, social media proponents, academics, tech start-ups, VCs, social activists and much, much more. It's a weird collection of people many of who will come based on a faith that they will discover new affinities and ideas from being social and alert with people unlike themselves in so many ways.

If you can make it - you should come. It may just be the most impactful conference you partiucipate in all year long as it is likely to touch your business side and your personal side.

Andrew and Dale have created an organization that we can all belong to and participate throughout the year. Join us now (and find out more about the group)>

Pandora's Social Good Co-creation

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I love Pandora. I kinow many people do. It is one of those brands that engender grass roots support. Not least of which they seem to be the underdog in the chaotic melee of traditional(?) radio, music publishers, satellite radio, not to mention the taxaholics.

They are also a little disorganized which tells me they are human. They have been running an interesting crowd-sourcing poster contest in league with GlobalGiving, an online clearing house of social good issues. The organization was started by ex-World bank staffers and connects donors more directly with causes. The implication is that more money will get to where it is needed. (They could use a statement about how much, if any, money GlobalGiving takes for this matchmaking service).

They received 750 entries and have closed submissions. Now they - we - vote on the top 10. You can see my vote above - with a caveat. This is where the charming clumsiness of Pandora comes into play.

Pandora's contribution to the whle promotion is really unclear. there is nothing suggesting they will donate money nor even cover the cost of the poster. (The winning poster will become a donor premium for GlobalGiving). That leaves promotion. Well, I am an avid Pandora user (and fan - did I say that already?). But I learned about it via Kristen Nicole's article on Mashable.

Pandora is doing something interesting and good. But they may not be making the most out of it either for them or for GlobalGiving. It is hard to find mention of it within the service. It is mentioned in their blog, but I had to do some digging to actually get to the Votigo voting site.

The posters are great - really some nice designs. I am not sure how they narrowed 750 to 10 - that would be good to know. It also might be interesting to maintain the galleries of those that didn't make it. If nothing else it would give some pride of ownership to those that entered (generating word of mouth) and populate some additional search engine results.

They could have been clearer about the content fo the posters. Many promote Pandora when I believe the real goal is to spread the word about GlobalGiving's efforts and focus. GG actually made it easy on their pages to download logo artwork but judging from the top 10, many thought the goal was to make a Pandora poster. Perhaps that can be tweaked once a winner is chosen.

I have learned to trust Pandora. Therefore I assume these little things are just that - little things, coming from an organization that saw a neat, simple way to help out.

Go vote>

Media Literacy 2.0: Facebook

Back in the 1980's when I was a wee lad, there was a program on NYC public access TV produced by Paper Tiger Television. They would examine a media institution like the NY Times and reveal it's ownership and management structure down to the board members and their own leanings - left or right. Here's what the TV Museum says about them:

"In 1981, the Paper Tiger Television Collective formed--a changing group of people that came together to produce cable programming for the public access channel in New York City. Drawing upon the traditions of radical video, Paper Tiger Television invented its own home-grown studio aesthetic using rather modest resources to make revolutionary television. Many of Paper Tiger's half-hour programs are live studio "events," faintly reminiscent of 1960s video "happenings." The show's hosts are articulate critics of mainstream American media who examine the corporate ownership, hidden agendas, and information biases of the communications industry via the media in all of their forms."

Now, we need the same thing. Not just a broad knowledge of how Wikipedia works (and Encyclopedia Brittanica) so we know what kind of trust to bestow upon it, but the new emergent Web 2.0 landscape. We all know Rupert Murdoch owns MySpace (and we seem to be okay with that). What about Facebook?

This video from Vishal Agarwala looks at the VC trail behind Facebook along with the terms of use statements to paint a pretty suspicious picture. Should we be worried?  And who is Vishal and what is her agenda? She seems to be a Use Interface designer in Florida.  The video has had almost 40,000 views up until now. It seems to be driven by information discussed in 2005 within the CommonGroundCommonSense progressive community. Okay but who are they? (I hate it when sites that have a clear agenda don't have an about us page that names names - makes me wonder) 

Even if I presume the information is all true and accurate, I am not sure if there is enough to draw a significant conclusion. In the incestuous world of VCs, someone involved in government-driven venture capital is invested in Facebook?

Paper Tiger had a track record or built one. And they associated with some of the better known critics of that generation. That gave them credibility. Without that, this well-produced video is just a shot in the dark.

Judge for yourself.