Music Guest Blogger Katie Carroll: OK Go Goes Viral, Again.

Guru’s Note: There’s a very long list of reasons why I’m glad @kredcarroll is back from her semester in London. But hovering at about #9 is our mutual passion for today’s ultimate good-times-band, OK Go. We’ve actually been a bit stalkerazzi about the fab foursome over the years, what with t-shirts and concerts and talent show performances. Now, as of 4 pm this afternoon, the boys have released a new video in support of their “This Too Shall Pass.” There’s nobody better to give you the inside scoop than Social Media Music maven, Katie Carroll:

Here It Goes Again–or, OK Go Goes Viral, As Usual.

Okay, so I haven’t really thought about OK Go in a while and then all of a sudden they come up again with a vengeance. One of the more obvious things about OK Go is that they are best known for their fantastic videos. These creative and quirky videos, though, are just part of a larger truth about the essence of the LA foursome: they get social media. They’re at it again regarding the release of their second official video for their single ‘This Too Shall Pass’.

Obviously their treadmill video was a massive viral success, culminating in their performance at the 2006 MTV VMAs. Pretty impressive stuff. This video was actually preceded by not one but two choreographed videos: ‘A Million Ways’ (or In the Backyard Dancing) and ‘Cinnamon Lips’. They were playing around with these ideas years ago, not too long after the rise of Youtube itself (another non-dance/music video is their Table Tennis Program–I believe this was their first, but don’t hold me to that).

The new video, following the old ‘This Too Shall Pass’ video featuring the Notre Dame marching band, is the appropriately subtitled Rube Goldberg Machine, a crazy concoction directed by James Frost (Radiohead’s ‘House of Cards’, Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’, and more). It follows in the same tradition as their old videos, capturing their zany spirit and “we will eschew traditional videos that just make us look sexy” ethic (they’ve directly mentioned this–but they do still look sexy), while still being a bit of a refreshing aesthetic departure. ‘This Too Shall Pass’ feels more reminiscent of their self-made material, unlike their slightly glossier videos for ‘WTF’ and ‘Do What You Want’ (the wallpaper version).

What interests me more than the video itself (which says a lot) is its release. The video debuted today at 4:00pm PST, and was followed by a live stream Q&A. Damian Kulash, the band’s lead singer, answered questions from within the room as well as via live chat on the band’s website. He even got a phone call mid-question from the band’s bassist (and lip-synching lead) Tim Nordwind, who was able to give his brief two cents as well via speaker phone.

This latest in fan participation further illustrates the band’s grasp of the importance of interactive social media. After their ‘A Million Ways’ video success, they opened up a contest in response to the entirely organic outpouring of fan-made replicas. I’ve called the dance jokingly the ‘Single Ladies’ of its day, but the public reaction was no joke. They set a precedent.

The band has built its success and reputation on these sorts of ‘grassroots’ endeavors; on multiple occasions, for example, they’ve encouraged fans–via Facebook–to meet them in various locations to give food to the homeless. They’ve set up yet another contest, this time looking for remixes of their ‘WTF’ video. The fan response is clearly a reflection of this mentality: a post on Facebook from yesterday, for example, reads: “A fan is giving $1 to charity for every comment he gets on his repost about our video. What an excellent idea: http://bit.ly/d8i4Sm“. Another fan made their own online app inspired by ‘WTF’’s crazy coloration, allowing people to try it out for themselves.

Yet another interesting choice from OK Go has to do with Youtube embedding. Damian’s op-ed article in the New York Times criticizes his own label (EMI)’s involvement in disallowing the embedding of Youtube videos. He mentioned in today’s live stream that ‘This Too Shall Pass’ will not have those restrictions, allowing fans to embed away. This is very much in line with OK Go’s ideology: not only do embedding restrictions hurt the band’s views, it also undermines their overall marketing strategy and ethos.

In general, OK Go is a band that strives to avoid the traditional. From their quirky dress to their funky videos, they really do give power pop a slightly different flavor. But their genius comes from their methods, which are, in a way, much more traditional than the corporation-dominated marketing strategies of others in their field: they try to connect. They try to know you, and let you know them. It’s almost neighborly–as if you were invited to dance along with them in their backyard.

Please check out my tumblr for music posts and other musings.

Warning! The Scary Side of The Hot New Location-Based Technology

Last night, one of our own got a terrifying lesson in what can go wrong with the hot new location-based social technology:

@CarriBugbee : Deleting FourSquare. 2 strangers called me @ restaurant I was at after seeing my updates on PleaseRobMe.com. One called me a “stupid bitch.”

When the controversial new site called Please Rob Me emerged recently, with its mission of exposing the possible pitfalls of the current geo-location craze, it all felt somewhat abstract. Yes, it’s eerie to see familiar faces and know exactly where they are — one of the Bay Area’s most famous business leaders, for example, just checked in to FourSquare from a building in Washington, D.C. But who ever believes the bad stuff is going to happen to them?

Which is exactly why the founders of PleaseRobMe created the site: “On one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home. The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz, etc.”

If you’re checking-in via a location-sharing site to a local restaurant and pushing these updates out to your public Twitter stream, as social innovator @CarriBugbee did, you’re telling the world that you aren’t home. Which could mean that your home is ripe for burglary — or that you’re ripe for stalking. Those of us who work in the social media realm frequently get so enthused about new technology, wanting to beta-test all things new, that we sometimes forget about the potential dark side. We forget about friends who may get over-zealous with our personal information — like a home address. These personal privacy threats certainly exist throughout social media — but seldom in such a physical and potentially dangerous way. Identity theft absolutely sucks. But it’s not the same as coming home and finding your grandmother’s jewelry missing or wondering who’s following you in that shadowy parking lot.

PleaseRobMe’s Twitter account has been shut down, supposedly for suspicious (spammy) activity. But the original site is still up and running and scaring the heck out of me every time I see check-ins from my friends.

Should you delete your FourSquare, Gowalla, Loopt or Brightkite accounts? Or is it possible to practice safe location-sharing? I’d love to hear from you about this via @guruofnew.

The Apple invitation I didn’t get. (Yet)

Here’s the email I’d kill to get:

From: Apple Media Events
Subject: Please Join Apple on January 27 for a Special Event

Obviously, the tablet will soon be unveiled. At least, we think it’s a tablet. And we think it’s called the iSlate. But all we really know is that the event is at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, near Samovar, one of my favorite tea shops, and that so far, I’m not invited. I guess I could sit in said tea shop on the 27th and follow the inevitable tweet-up from the tweeps who nabbed an invite and are thus many zettabytes cooler than moi.

Tom Dunsmore of Stuff.tv, who did get one of these elusive invites and is gleefully tweeting about it, recommends this great Stuff tv roundup of Apple Tablet rumors.

Forget Everything You’ve Ever Known About Book Publishing.

I’ve been planning on writing about writing for a couple of months now. As a writer-since-birth (aren’t we all?), my world is heavily and happily populated with other writers. In most ways, my fellow writers and I are simpatico. We’re soul mates. We’re creative kin. But there’s one way in which I’m decidedly different from my comrades: I saw it coming.

“It” of course is the Internet. It of course is the driving digital force that’s (pun intended) re-written everything, especially the already fragile world of publishing. New technology continues to rock the business of books. And I don’t mean the technology that gave us self-publishing and Kindles. I mean the uber-disruptive combination of enhanced bandwidth plus social media. As one of the rare writers (in my crowd anyway) who very early on embraced the “Interwebs” and later on, social media, I’ve been the proverbial canary in the mine, grown hoarse and embarrassingly bombastic at lunches, cocktail parties and phone conversations about the need to ‘get’ it. My original plan was to post a list of useful links and actionable ideas for writers here on GuruofNew.com . I still may do that. But I realized after reading Adam Penenberg’s article in Fast Company: Viral Loop Chronicles - Forget Everything You’ve Heard About Book Publishing — that unless a writer realizes the very foundation of our writer’s world has crumbled (drumroll) and is being feverishly re-built — no list of 10 Must-Have Links for Writers is going to matter one whit.

Consider this scuttlebutt: Agents now ask prospective authors how ‘big is your network’ — suggesting 100,000 as a good place to start, because if 10% of this combo of Follows, Friends, Fans and Connections buys the book, pub costs are covered.

Consider this scuttlebutt: Tim Ferriss, the author of New York Times bestseller “The 4-Hour Workweek,” is using PBwiki to organize reader feedback and participation for the second edition of his book. Tim’s innovative use of social media such as blogs and social networks won him numerous accolades for “The 4-Hour Workweek,” including his first book launch being named one of the top 50 product launches of 2007 by Advertising Age magazine, and simultaneously reaching #1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Businessweek bestseller lists.

I am assuming you noticed the operative phrase “product launches” — because that’s exactly what a book is these days. I’m not idealistic fool enough to think this is necessarily a bad thing or even a new thing.

Here’s an excerpt from Adam Penenburg’s article. Trust me — every writer needs to read it:

“Forget everything you’ve heard about book publishing.

For instance, recently at a party to celebrate the publication of my latest book, a number of people asked, “Is your publisher sending you on a tour to promote your book?”

Dicl;dsCKWDfce9qdck. Sorry, I was laughing so hard recounting this story that I hit my head on my keyboard.

These friends/colleagues/acquaintances/random people I met were inquiring about Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves. It tells the stories of the fastest growing companies in history–Skype, Hotmail, eBay, PayPal, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and many more, all of which grew virally. By amassing such huge numbers of users without spending a dime on marketing, they were able to create multimillion and in some cases billion-dollar businesses practically overnight. They did it by creating a product that its users spread for them. In other words, to use it, they had to spread it. Never before in human history has it been possible to create this much wealth, this fast, and starting with so little. I’d like to think Viral Loop is partially inspirational. If they can create billion-dollar companies from scratch, why can’t you?

Most people have a vision of publishing that ceased to exist years ago: writers of yore traipsing bookstore to bookstore across America to offer readings and scrawl inscriptions to the handful of strangers who bothered to show up. It sounds so quaint. Alas, today’s publishers have little patience for such low-yield marketing efforts. Building a writer’s career isn’t part of the equation. It’s all about the bottom line. If legendary editor Maxwell Perkins, who patiently guided some of our nation’s greatest writers (Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe) were alive today, he’d probably be working in public relations.

Publishers don’t pump serious marketing money into a book unless they know it’s a hit, even after coughing up a six-figure advance. They don’t commit to ad budgets in contract negotiations and are loath to spend a dime on authors’ Web sites, travel, or any other expenses. That’s because so few of the books they publish actually “earn out,” that is, sell enough copies so that the author’s advance is covered by his or her sales. A book that sells enough copies to justify an author’s advance is about as common as a kind or thoughtful anonymous comment on Gawker.

There’s an old saying in publishing: Your agent hasn’t done his job if you earn back your advance. But, you might ask, how can a book be a hit if your publisher doesn’t get behind it?

Therein lies the mystery of marketing a book at a time the old rules don’t apply. As a former book editor of mine explained, publishers follow the broadcast TV model. You schedule a show for primetime and see if it develops an audience. If it does, you throw your weight behind it. If it doesn’t you pull the plug. Book publishing is a “hits” business, with a tiny fraction of huge sellers–thank you Dan Brown, Malcolm Gladwell, and soon, Sarah Palin–carrying the rest of us losers. Publishers don’t care about dropping money on 99 books if the 100th is a Tipping Point or Freakonomics. This also characterizes the music business and we can see how well that turned out, but I digress.

Instead of a publisher building your career, you’re on your own. And if you talk to editors you’ll get an earful. They wonder why authors don’t take a percentage of their advance to pay for their own marketing. Why should the publisher have to do it all? They paid you for the work, didn’t they? For too long authors have acted like crybabies, waiting for publishers to be like, well, publishers used to be. That was a long time ago, when editors used to, well, edit, but much of that responsibility has been passed on to literary agents.

I’m not kvetching, mind you. I can honestly say that Hyperion, which released Viral Loop, is the best publisher I’ve worked with. But there is nothing sexy about an author selling a book. It isn’t about cocktail parties, readings, and witty repartee at the Algonquin Hotel. Nowadays it’s about press coverage, social media, Facebook and Twitter, iPhone apps, virality, and the hope that if you hang on long enough and convince enough people to buy and read your book, they will market it for you.

How? Because if they like it–really like it–they will, without prompting, enthusiastically recommend your book to a friend, and so on, and so on (like the old “psst” shampoo commercial). It’s word-of-mouth, the gold standard of marketing, because a recommendation to buy comes from a trusted source like a friend or family member. This is how publishing has always worked, of course. It’s just the journey there that’s become particularly treacherous.

The hardest part for most authors is to create that initial large installed base of readers. Some like Gary Vaynerchuk, who dictated Crush It: Why Now Is The Time to Cash In On Your Passion, are, as Gary Vee would put it, “crushing it!” Most, however, fail.”

Guru’s Note: The Guru of New Group is here to help you with book strategy and social media. And we’ve got a great Book Tour guy who gets that IRL (In Real Life) still sells lots of books.

Oh and another thing. Here’s a great article on 15 Twitter Users Shaping the Future of Publishing.   And stay tuned for my upcoming posts on (yes!) the Vook and the Nook.

What Twitter Could Learn From America Online.

Go ahead and break out the rotten tomatoes. It’s near blasphemy to mention the much-maligned America Online in the same breath as today’s newest shooting star, Twitter. But digital anthropologists will remember that once upon a time, AOL was the rock star, replete with magazine covers, explosive growth and millions of addicted fans. The early America Online also had something all-too-few Internet darlings ever managed to achieve: a revenue-generating business model.

As one of AOL’s first Greenhouse Partners, I was there for a few of those shining years, soaking up the smarts from the likes of Ted Leonsis, Steve Case and more Harvard MBA’s than show at a Crimson football game.

What Twitter Could Learn From America Online

Lesson 1: User experience anyone? According to Nielsen, Twitter’s growth has skyrocketed to 10 million in the past couple of celebrity-fueled months. But despite lots of tweeps in the social media sandbox, very few are playing.

Here’s the real shocker from Hubspot:

• 54.9% of users have never tweeted
• 42.12 have only tweeted once.

Wimpy participation rates like this simply wouldn’t last for long in the young AOL. “Lurkers” in the chat rooms were encouraged to join the party by exuberant Chat Room Hosts, whose job it was to welcome newbies, manage flame wars and stimulate ‘repeat business.’ Nowhere were these savvy business practices more in evidence than in the Greenhouse properties, where our site survival was dependent on how long members stuck around. Our hosts were all pros at making chatters feel comfortable: {{{ MidnteLace!}}} @@>—>—–! We understood that everyone starts out as a Lurker. Our mission was to transform those silent on the sidelines into active participants.

Yes, of course it feels truly dippy now. We are all waay too cool for this kind of behavior. And yet? What if Twitter created a group of Tweeter Greeters? What if they used the new Verified Account badges for more than celebrities? What if they developed the 2009 version of Twitter Hosts, empowered to do what their AOL counterparts once did?

How many of the 54.9% who’ve never tweeted might join the conversation if they weren’t concerned about being an Accidental E-Hole? Or if they weren’t worried about inadvertently falling victim to Twitter spam, password scams or viruses? Or if they weren’t simply mystified by the endless stream of disconnected me-me-me broadcast tweets?

What if some of the 42.12% who’ve trepidatiously tweeted just once got an authentic reply from the Twitterverse? Inclusion is a magical thing. In the every-Tweeter-for-himself environment on Twitter, inclusion is the happy fairy dust that leads to high engagement.

Lesson 2:  Okay, we get it — you’re an understaffed, overworked, over-caffeinated start-up scraping by with only 50 employees (and 55 million in funding.)

So why not do what AOL did in those formative years? Tap into your masses of addicted Power Users the way America Online once did with the Community Leaders program. Most sites had CL helping with everything from managing message boards to chat rooms to content development. Community Leaders received free accounts in return — a hugely sought-after prize in those days of $2.95 an hour for AOL access.

Obviously, that model no longer exists — but what’s still in full and fervent swing is the heated desire of tweeps to venture behind the velvet rope. Imagine the avalanche of applicants if Twitter asked for volunteers. Imagine the avalanche of applicants if Twitter ‘paid’ these volunteers in customized Tweets (designated colors, fonts or graphics) or added them to the recommended Follows for new users– or invited them to exclusive volunteer events. How about a SXSW Tweet-up at Gingerman Pub?

I’m ready for those tomatoes now.

Are You An E-Hole? The Six Tell-tale Signs.

Normally, when I’ve told friends “Hey! I’m writing a book”, the response is polite to vague to “I’m so sorry. I’ve given up reading for Lent.” In LA, they’re likely to suggest a fair exchange: I’ll read your book if you read my screenplay.  In Silicon Valley, they look blank until you explain that a book is kinda like a giant Wordle app or literary widget.  In New York, they immediately kvetch about agents while in Paris they offer to read it once smoking is reinstated in cafes.

But this book?  Amazingly, people have not only urged me to write it but to write it laser-fast. Three of my Twitter pals have already asked if the guide will be published in time for Christmas stocking stuffers. I’ve almost been persuaded to write an e-book first and then follow up with hard copy.

Is this because I am such a crackerjack writer? Although I’d love to say yes, the true answer is ‘probably not.’  The fact is, there is a clear and compelling, even urgent, need to make sense of the good, the bad and the blurry of the digital era, particularly the consumer-friendly, tool-rich phenomenon known as Web 2.0.  The Internet does genuinely ‘change everything’ — including the ethics and etiquette of how we use these tools. Countless books have already been published on this subject, many of them scholarly works of genius from academics that probe everything from user-generated content to mass collaboration to digital innovation and citizen marketing.  

If you’re looking for books of this decidedly brainy ilk, click to close and move on to Amazon or your local library. The goal of my upcoming guidebook is quite simple: to help keep you out of online doo-doo and encourage you to dip into this dynamic digital world. And maybe have some fun while you’re at it.
 
Here’s a small sampling from my new book:
How Not To Be An E-Hole:  The Ultimate Guide to Online Etiquette and Ethics.
 

Are You An E-Hole? The Six Tell-Tale Signs.

Sign 1:  Is Social Media all about you?  Social Media can indeed be Me Media.  Today’s tools make it fast and easy to get the word out about your inherent rockstar-ness. Isn’t everybody fascinated by the ham sandwich you had for lunch? Doesn’t the world want to know about your cool car, your hot bod and the gaggles of groupies hanging on your every tweet?  Smart folks see that switching from Me to We is the secret to shining at Social Media.  And yes, it is possible to be an E-Hole in only 140-characters:  http://tweetingtoohard.com/

Sign 2:  OverSharing  Over-sharing can occur on any of the Social Media channels. Over-Sharing is defined as sharing anything from the too-intimate details of your world (tweeting during your during your prostate exam) to the too-mundane (I had scrambled eggs for breakfast) to the too-frequent.

Sign 3:  Are you a FRAMMER?  Friends just ain’t what they used to be. In fact, my buddy Elizabeth Cohen, Senior Correspondent at CNN, who covered my recent Facebook Addiction story, believes the very definition of Friendship is at stake: “What exactly is a friend these days?”  Well, it sure isn’t FRAMMING them. Friend Spam is being spammed by your so-called Facebook Friends including:

• A barrage of shameless self-promoting links, events, fan pages, webinars, promos, etc.
• “Cherry-picking” among a Friends List — picking the most ‘useful’ for marketing and networking.

FRAM hurts more than traditional spam because, after all, it’s the ultimate in permission marketing. You haven’t merely signed up for an impersonal newsletter, you’ve opened the door wide to your life. You’re not an address on some database sold and re-sold by dead dotcoms. You’ve willingly extended an invitation to participate in your own personal universe.

Sign 4:  Uber-Exuberance   Apps, widgets, links, videos, photos — it’s a smorgasbord of Social Media tech and toys out there. Are you so sure all your friends want that ‘growing gift’ of cactus, that beer or cup of coffee you’re dying to send? Does everybody want to take that quiz, play 25 Random Things and beat you at movie trivia?  The sure sign of a Social Media newbie (and often Accidental E-Hole) is assuming everybody will appreciate these occasionally amusing time-wasters.

Sign 5: Where are the Privacy Police when you need them?  It’s true: Facebook keeps changing its interface, which confuses the heck out of who can see what. What was private on Tuesday may be part of a News Feed on Wednesday. So if you’re not careful about the changing-rules, your mother-in-law may be able to see the pictures of the dinner party she wasn’t invited to posted prominently in Highlights.  Or your boss might see that comment you made about ‘blowing off work’. Or your sorority sister might post racy stories about an era you’d prefer to forget on your Wall for all to see.  The secret to avoiding E-Holism?  Use the Privacy settings!

Sign 6: Keep It Social, Stupid.   Keeping it social means you never forget these new tools are all about people and being personal. Keeping it social means you avoid using robots as well as acting robotically. So personalize your Friend, Follow and Connection Requests, say no to Auto-DMs on Twitter, and develop new online relationships authentically. Don’t think you can FRAM like mad, never bother to check the youtube links your buddy proudly sent of her kidlet’s concert, and then expect favors, shares and RTs (Re-Tweets on Twitter).  Keeping it social is keeping it reciprocal. Friendship is a two-way conversation, not a Me-megaphone. 

Guru’s Note: Please send me your favorite E-Hole stories. Were you an Accidental E-Hole? Do you know an Intentional E-Hole? Do tell all. Email me at: hello@guruofnew.com or post a comment. Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seven Signs You May Be Ready for a Social Media Detox.

I gave up Facebook for Lent.  For forty days and nights, I will not be updating my status, becoming a fan, poking anyone or commenting on 25 Random Things.  I will not be turning to page 56 and finding a sentence, sending good Karma or sipping along with my A Glass of Wine Solves Everything group.
 
My decision has absolutely nothing to do with any religious fervor, other than being fervently grateful to the Episcopalian calendar which served up a handy excuse to log off.  Said calendar also delivered a mighty reason to take a look at Social Media’s impact on my life.
 
What I saw was not pretty. 
 
And yet my addiction is on the mild side, more like a low-grade fever than a full-on infectious case of Facebook-itis. I may have sampled the Social Media Koolaid, but I’m not chugging the stuff like many of the ‘tweeple’ I know.  I’m enamored but not enslaved. In fact, I’ve only made my way through a smattering of Chris Brogan’s 100 Personal Branding Secrets.
 
Still, as a market researcher and passionate digital anthropologist, I knew it was time for a dig. Like Yahoo’s Internet Deprivation Study of yore, I wanted to understand the grisly details of deprivation.  I wanted to know what I would miss about Facebook; what I actually value; what I would be overjoyed to leave behind.
 
By the time I posted my last status update shortly after Ash Wednesday (which I pretty much only knew about because of Joe Biden’s forehead), I realized I was more than ready to not only give up Facebook for a time but also consider a complete Social Media Detox.
 
Ask yourself: Do you need to do a Social Media Detox?  Here are seven signs you might be ready:
 
 
Are you an Early Adopter? 
Ho-hum. Are you sort of over it? Those of us who are perpetually on the bleeding edge of new, sometimes either want to ditch it when the vox populi show up in droves or simply because it’s no longer the pretty shiny new thing.  We thrive on beta. We thrive on sneaking behind the velvet rope. When they let everybody in . . .  On the other hand, there are enough cool new tools popping up virtually every second, especially for Twitter, (Twiddeo) and a parade of nichey new social networks to keep boredom at bay.
 
Does buzz equal biz?
Despite the constant chatter from all directions about ‘putting yourself out there’ via networking, much of this buzz is total BS. Even if you aggressively transform yourself into a social media rockstar via the notorious TweeterGetter, your newfound fame may not automatically translate into mucho dinero.  Those shameless self-promoters swarming over every social network may generate noise but that doesn’t mean they’re doing much real, sustainable business. The dirty secret of social networks? Too many sellers, too few buyers. Consider: What’s the benefit of social media to your bottom line? Show me the money, folks.  
 
This doesn’t mean social media tools aren’t valuable –I’ve met terrific people, gotten great projects and leads, mined countless consumer insights, and overall, found the tools to be worthwhile if sometimes overwhelming.  But to be blunt, I have solid skills and talents to back up my putting myself out there. I am not using them to shill for an empty suit.

Who owns your stuff?
Facebook’s recent Terms of Service switcheroo shocked many into re-thinking how they want to use the social network.  Although they’ve since reversed themselves and formed a consumer advisory group, the brouhaha was tantamount to social media shock therapy.  The pivotal question:  who owns my content? Do I want Facebook to ‘own’ it even after I’ve deleted my account?  And for businesses who routinely recommend Facebook as part of a social media strategic plan, what are the guidelines for who owns and retains an advertising or promotional campaign that’s appeared Facebook?
 
Are you blurring your business and personal life?
You may have jumped on to Facebook early on and populated your profile with real-life friends.  Then along comes the barrage of networkers, business colleagues and in betweens. Now you’ve got a quixotic stew of business and personal.  Sometimes it works just fine. It can be a joy to get to know colleagues and clients in a more human way. Last fall’s political campaigns pointed up a growing issue:  For example, do you want your clients to know your thoughts on Prop 8? (I do!) And then there’s its discretional corollary: Do you want your Great Aunt Hazel or favorite high school teacher to see your tipsy party pix?
 
Is social media a time and energy suck for you?
How do you find time to blog, tweet, update Linkedin, Facebook and MySpace, post your pix on Flickr, your articles on Mixx, Digg, Biznik and Kirtsy, your favorites on Delicio.us, your sites on Stumbleupon, your art on etsy, comment on relevant blogs and networking email lists, search for juicy links to share — and oh by the way, also do your real work? Sure, some Tweeters are using a variety of time-saving organizational tools (Tweetdeck, Friend Feed) to manage their activities.  Even so, putting your best business face forward across multiple social media platforms is a challenge. (Quite a few rely on Virtual Admins like the awesome @jkvirtualoffice). 

I don’t know about you, folks, but I need time, quiet and focus to serve my clients well and feel good about what I do.
 
True Value
In the immortal words of Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks:  How can I miss you if you won’t go away?  
Perfectly said, Dan. I’ll soon know what it is, if anything, that I miss about Facebook.
 
Do you have a personal social media strategy?  Should you get one?
Last night, social media pioneer Chris Brogan mentioned on Twitter that he had already deleted 350 of his Facebook friends. I don’t know his reasons but I do know more and more people are re-defining how they want to use social media. They’re pondering social networking’s role in their lives and rejiggering the balance of business and personal. My neighbor here on the Monterey Peninsula, @fuzznfeathers, recently took a short break from Twitter and enjoyed the extra offline time. Jumping off-the-grid results in more time and energy available for face to face connection. According to research I’ve recently conducted, the blend of online + offline touchpoints turns out to be one powerful combo for increasing engagement.
 
What have I learned already?
I already know, mere days after exiting Facebook, that I don’t miss the Frammers who weaseled their way into my list of Friends. I do miss seeing the new pictures of my baby cousins and the parade of polls, surveys and beer-apps from my dear sorority sister, Kimberly. I do miss the pithy and often intriguing posts from Laurie Peterson, Eric Weaver and Katherine Ruppe.   

But most of all, I miss my daughter’s ever-changing profile pictures, usually taken in the dorm around 2 a.m. while she’s avoiding writing a term paper.

Easter’s so close I can almost smell the egg-salad sandwiches.

Thinking about A Tech Incubator? Think Pink. Pink Garage Mentors.

February of 2009 sure doesn’t feel like a particularly auspicious time to launch a new business. In fact, it feels more like it’s time to hide, to hunker down and wait out the storm. Maybe tuck that great idea away for now. Or simply hang on to that job for dear life and slog through your day.

But at the risk of playing Pollyanna (does anyone know who that is anymore?), here are some positive factoids about successful businesses that got started during a downturn. From the legendary HP, which got its start in a Palo Alto garage with an investment of $538 at the end of the Great Depression, to Trader Joe’s, CNN, MTV and even Jim Henson’s Muppets, start-ups that run nimble and smart often have the edge in a down economy.

A recent article in Fast Company profiles three companies –Method, RF Micro, and Clif –that survived and thrived during times of economic uncertainty. Then there are more legends: GE started during the panic of 1873, Disney’s start was during the recession of 1923-24, and Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft during the recession of 1975.

So what do all these uplifting examples mean to you, other subjecting you to a hopelessly perky pep talk? (I’d mention Gidget but I’m already in trouble with Pollyanna.)

Forge on. Keep on keepin’ on. And if you’re a woman with a hot business idea or part of a women-led team, take advantage of a real opportunity to get experienced help from women who’ve been there, done that. That opportunity is called Pink Garage Mentors. We’re here to help you successfully apply for a tech incubator — often the first tangible step toward making your entrepreneurial vision come true.

Pink Garage Mentors are experienced founders, VCs and C level execs who will read your application pre submission, help you refine it, and provide virtual coaching to serious applicants. We will focus this month on TechStars and YCombinator applicants.

If you would like a mentor for your Summer 2009 TechStars and/or yCombinator application, email pinkgaragementors@gmail.com with a copy of your application and we will match you with a mentor.

Application deadlines are coming up fast: (So get in touch with us asap)

TechStars — Applications close March 21st.
YCombinator — Application deadline March 18th.

Should We All Be Required To Go To Obama’s Ethics School?

Now that President Obama’s staff is required to take an Ethics class, I am thinking we should all go to Ethics School. As the media tells us 24/7, there is a barrage of bad business behavior out there, from acts deserving of an orange jumpsuit, to merely bad pool or bad karma (if you live in California).

Our kids go to Character Counts, Anti-Hate Days, Matthew Shepard plays and Tolerance field trips. Even if these attempts to teach respect and compassion don’t appear to work or seemingly only work on the ‘good’ kids, at least the discussion is firmly placed on the table.

But grown-ups? Whatever we once knew about the Golden Rule apparently disappears once we sprout hair and hormones. Turn on the news (Blago anyone?) (AIG’s spa trip?) (John Thain’s $68,000 credenza) and it is clear that it’s past time for a refresher course.

The explosion of social media on the Internet has given us new technologies with which to behave badly. From the cacophony of scammers to the unnecessarily nasty to the outright tragedies such as Lori Drew’s murderous masquerade on MySpace, we have swiftly turned these revolutionary tools into weapons.

So drumroll, please, here’s the Ethics School concept, stream-of-consciousness style:

Trainings, workshops, classes are modeled after the Obama version. Courses may be developed and facilitated by the private sector — giving small business a chance to profit.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if this course was mandatory? Because nobody is ever going to own up to needing an Ethics Class, particularly the biggest rogues among us.

How about:
Want your Stimulus Check?
Want your tax refund?
Want to renew your Passport?
Want to renew your drivers license?

Then you must Pass the Ethics Class. (Can you see the bumper sticker?)

Also a given: The Ethics course is free to the unemployed, underemployed, and anyone who once held an AIG policy, banked at Indy Mac, invested with Bernie Madoff or has not flown a corporate jet to D.C.

What is absolutely imperative to the success of the Obama Ethics School is the cooperation and enthusiasm of American business. Just as Community Service programs in high school started as the right thing to do –and eventually morphed into a golden ticket to our premiere colleges, businesses must view anyone who has taken the Obama Ethics Class as worthy of a leap up the short list when filling jobs. Savvy hiring managers would use keywords: Obama Ethics Graduate when searching online resumes.

Our business and professional organizations should make Ethics a priority topic this year. This is already underway at the new Hatch Network. The soon-to-launch entrepreneurial education network is building an Ethics class into their curriculum and is making it a pre-requisite for completion.

One of my favorite organizations, WOMMA, (the Word of Mouth Association) has made an Ethics Code a major priority.

How about when you pass the class with flying colors, you then paste your badge on Linkedin, Facebook and the social media of your choice?

On Inauguration Day, there were 1.5 million Obama-related Status Updates on Facebook. How about we ‘donate’ our Status to those who have just graduated from Ethics Class?

How about that uber-cool icon of success — the iPhone — featuring the new Ethics app, all download fees donated to the ‘ethical’ cause of your choice?

Viralize videos from the Ethics School (I like what Kaplan U has done with their timely new TV campaign) and ensure that Ethics becomes our national conversation.

Our new President must continue to shine a light on unethical behavior as he did last week when he labeled the payment of billions in bonuses from our tax money ’shameful’ and ‘the height of irresponsibility.”

As part of a new national conversation about Ethics, we all need to speak up, refuse to put up, and overall, take back our own power. This is more apt to happen is if we’re all operating from a similar (USA) Owners’ Manual. Once upon a time, the Bible served this function but after being largely commandeered by political groups over the years, perhaps we need Jon Favreau to come up with something new while sitting in Starbucks.

Today’s HARO (entrepreneur Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out) has the announcement of a new book from the Stanford University Press by authors Robert Hoyk and Paul Hersey called The Ethical Executive. It describes “45 ethical traps to which anyone can fall prey.”

This book sounds like required reading for Obama Ethics School.

So let’s get our (digital) pencils sharpened and get ourselves back to school. This time when we re-build our American Dream back into the Land of Opportunity, let’s do it right. Let’s make sure our foundation is not faulty but firm and true.

IMHO.

Your thoughts?

Guru’s Note: According to the Sun Sentinel in Florida, apparently some enterprising PR firm has already registered ethicscollege.com and the like. Well, at least, the conversation is heating up in a the traditional American way.

PPS: Like gazillions of other citizens, I just received an email from President Obama informing me of the upcoming Economic Recovery House Meeting and video. He talks of taking ’steps to ensure an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability.” Sounds like the cornerstone of an Obama Ethics Class.

Image, many thanks to: lifesciences.byu.edu
(Love the exuberance!)