This is the end... practically

The journey through Social Media has been a weird, wonderful and sometimes dark one.  To finish, I went back (not really a future gaze?!) to the beginning to remember why I was doing this subject in the first place.  I am working in the ‘real world’ so how does Social Media fit into the communications/public relations aspect of business?

Here are few quick and simple notes about what I can take away from the various topics and use in a practical manner in my work.

Blogging

Blogging in business would require:

·         Expertise in the area and gaining trust from your audience

·         A real message for your audience

·         An interesting way to grab and keep your audience’s attention

·         Commitment to blogging on a regular basis

Some examples of successful business blogs:

http://www.manrepeller.com/
http://www.deloittedigital.com.au/

 

Mobile devices

Mobile devices are such a huge part of our lives now, people are rarely not ‘connected’.  Any business/communications strategy should consider how to reach and engage people on their mobile devices.

Twitter

The huge and swift take up of twitter has provided opportunities for celebrities to monetise their tweets, providing endorsements for products to a massive audience.  Twitter is also a great way to reach people on their mobile devices if you can encourage them to follow your organisation’s tweets – it helps you to stay at the top of their minds and the short message length can help with making it seem less intrusive than other forms of marketing.  mashable.com has great resources for business tweeters.

Digital Activism

Eeek… Well, in your work, digital activism will most likely be recognised in the customer feedback/ complaint management side and you should have resources in place to respond to it.  Target saw itself as the Target of digital activism when a mum spoke out online against young girls’ fashion.   It is also important to track what people are reacting to in the digital space when thinking strategically.  Berlei is currently running a sports bra campaign, using Facebook – the reactions from consumers on there has not been great and managing people’s negative comments has not been a priority, but this information should be used for future planning.

Politics

Watching politics unfold in the social media space is a great study of public relations strategy.  Lobbying opportunities in the social media space might also be something that needs to be considered in your business.

The Simulacrum

Commerce does flourish in the online worlds.  Matt Ende gives a pretty clear picture of its possibilities and pitfalls.  Should your business consider having a presence in virtual communities?

Produsage

Produsage has been a platform for people to get noticed and to find success - we all know about the likes of Justin Bieber.  User Generated Content can also be used for successful brand awareness campaigns, if managed well.  Advantages include cost-effectiveness, uniqueness and immediate engagement.  Just make sure there are resources to manage it and the legal boxes are ticked.

The dark side of social media?

As previously discussed, there can be a tendancy for people to be cruel when they are able to hide behind the relative anonymity of social media.  Make sure any of your business platforms have acceptable use policies and are properly monitored to shut down offensive or illegal posts.  Mamamia.com.au is a successful website that has included strict terms of use and is constantly monitored.

 

I would LOVE to hear your suggestions about how you plan to get the most out of social media in your professional life!

 

 

Image source: Author unknown, Walking backwards into the future, viewed 10 February 2013, http://creationrevolution.com/2011/05/%E2%80%98the-people-who-walk-backwards-into-the-future-%E2%80%99/

Let's keep things nice - only tweet if you love Cheezels too.

Oh, I’m tired.  I go over the readings, videos and posts this week and I feel tired.   And I feel so sad.  And if I don’t perk up I might get philosophical too.

A ‘Facebook friend’ of mine once posted something along the lines of:

‘Why on earth would a mum send their child to a kindergarten Christmas party with a box of Cheezels?My kids like healthy food. ‘

I got a bit worked up, and, with visions of her children at the last party with fistfuls of Cheezels in their hot little hands and sharing them with no one, I immediately composed a reply:

Five Reasons why a mum would send her child to a kindergarten party with Cheezels

1.       Cheezels are delicious

2.       It is a party

3.       It is Christmas

4.       The dad probably bought them

5.       There is no way that mum is going to try to compete with the mums who bring natural muesli cookies or homemade cupcakes individually decorated like Sesame Street characters

I never posted it.  I told myself it was not worth a fight and my response was unnecessarily passive aggressive.  I was being a bully.  She had her opinions and I had mine, and we actually shared others.  I simply exercised my ability to self-edit maturely and thoughtfully.

I was bullied sometimes when I was young.  And it hurt.  And I got over it.  And I don’t really think of the people who did it.   I also acknowledge that, sadly, some people never get over it and I cannot pretend to understand how it can affect other people or their families.  Thinking of my bullies now, what they could have done with the anonymity and freedom of new social media makes my skin crawl.  I would hope that with age, generally, people realise when they are horrible - and perhaps why – and start to modify their behaviour.  However, social media is a pretty easy place to hide and be mean… Here is a quickand easy-to-find example that took me no time to find.

People like Rheingold dream of a utopian online society, where communities form to the benefit of real-life communities; sharing ideas, making plans, figuring out issues and developing new relationships.  Rheingold does acknowledge though that ‘the fundamentals of Human Nature always scale up.’  This here is my problem – that damn human nature getting in the way – the need for power, the ability to hurt someone for your own purpose, your own survival instinct kicking in.  These always show up alongside the best parts of human nature – even online!  Many people come to recognise them and manage them better as they get older. 

Unfortunately, I do not know how to predict the behaviour of younger people, who’s technology is a vital part of their being (Turkle, 2011), in their online communities.   I do not know how to protect them from the things they might do or experience.  I just want them to be resilient.  As I stand over the stovetop, making my still-small children a lentil curry with organic spinach and brown rice (yeah right), I also start devising strategies to make my children resilient, as well as decent members of society and the human race, as they face a digital-rich future.  All good!

 

References:

Turkle, Sherry 2011, Alone Together : Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, e-book, accessed 3 February 2013, http://swin.eblib.com.au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=684281.

 

Image source: Mayer, P, 2010, Desenhos, viewed 5 February 2010, http://concentrado.tumblr.com/post/718745543/pablo-mayer-desenhos-bullying-digital

Please let me win this one argument, my husband is a lawyer.

You will probably agree, the last couple of weeks have seen me a little bit demented trying to understand, maybe find perspective on, how people use digital media in ways that I have not exploited, or even tried.  Contentious, divisive, unresolved...

Now, Produsage – again, complex, but for me, there is some fun in this!  Where do I even start picking hilarious YouTube clips or photos from blogs where someone has taken something, made it into something else that is meaningful to them and posted it for people’s entertainment  or comment.  Too many to choose from.

 ‘These produsers engage not in a traditional form of content production, but are instead involved in produsage – the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement.’ (Bruns, A 2007)

I do have some questions though. 

Like, how do we assess the knowledge being built – how do we decide what to believe?  Bruns (2007) discusses that the paradigm shift from ‘Industrialist’ information provision to the information age means that we have to make way for and prepare for information to be produced in a collaborative and participatory manner.  To what end?  Do we become a people who says – “I saw on YouTube that it takes 30 times as much energy to boil an egg as to drive your car to McDonalds to buy one.”  Just as I championed the journalism profession, so too will I now champion academia!  I know that academia is adjusting to this new collaborative information age, but there must be checks and balances.  

I am sure everyone else has wondered, as I automatically did – who has the legal rights in the produsage process?  Who owns what?  Who gets credit for what is prodused?

Now I am no lawyer, but I am married to one.  I know…

Aaannnyhooo…  one of his team, a lovely and brilliant technophile, Leanne O’Donnell, who does much work on Social Media, Intellectual Property and Copyright law in Australia and overseas, told me that in the legal profession, produsage is often termed ‘User Generated Content’ (UGC) and says that this topic is under current review in various jurisdictions. ‘Canada for example last year introduced a UGC exception into their copyright law that allows for non-commercial ‘mash-ups’ etc.’

Google’s submission in November 2012 to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) review of adequate copyright exceptions and statutory licences advises that new laws have to include a flexibility and future proofing ‘to ensure greater availability of copyrighted material in socially and economically beneficial ways’  and claimed that the current Australian Copyright Act is ‘blocking creative and transformative uses of copyright works, such as mashups and innovative maps layers.’

This transformative use of all peoples’ content to create, what appears mostly entertainment, is certainly being taken seriously and will be an important part of law reform. 

One last thing. My husband is really lovely!  Oh and it would be great if you could tell me - is this post, with its links to other sources and little pictures embedded in it, produsage?  Is it teaching anyone anything?  Created some value?  You know, I must say, it has been a way to help me learn.  Uh – oh… sorry, it always comes back to that – it is all about me!

References

Bruns, A 2007, Produsage, Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI conference on Creativity & cognition, pages 99-106, ACM New York, NY

Image source: Author unknown, viewed 4 February 2013, http://themetapicture.com/when-you-use-a-meme-in-real-life/

Sorry, Lisa Dooley is not available. Please see her avatar for any questions.

Sorry about that - I just wanted to give it a try.  Interesting how my avatar has a distinctly Drag Queen feel - apologies to Drag Queens... They are at least real...

Anyway, this is as avatarish as I get - I couldn't go into one of these virtual communities.  Not interested.  I don't actually know anyone who is a 'gamer'.  That said, given the staggering numbers of people who use these virtual worlds, maybe people just don't talk about it to their 'real world' friends - they can make that distinction.  Happy to keep it that way.  But!  I honestly cannot say whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that people spend their time (and money) in these worlds - especially when I come off the back of a night where I watched four hours of tele... hhhmmm




References:

Smith, AJ 2009, The politics of participation: revisiting Donna Haraway's 'A cyborg manifesto' in a social networking context., viewed 28 January 2013, http://www.nyu.edu/pubs/anamesa/archive/fall_2009_intersections/the_politics_of_participation_revisiting_donna_haraway.pdf

Turkle, Sherry 2011, Alone Together : Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, e-book, accessed 21 November 2012,< http://swin.eblib.com.au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=684281>.

Have chickens ever questioned why they cannot fly?

I love to sit and watch my chooks out in the garden.  They each have a different personality and their moods change like any woman’s.  They are overseen by Captain Ned, the gorgeous rooster, who is so kind to the girls, and occasionally gets lucky behind the elm tree.  The thing is, if I watch long enough, I begin to imagine them with arms, I  mean ,they don't use their wings to fly.  While they are fabulously capable creatures as they are, if they had arms, I think they would love it!  Toes and fingers in the ground scratching, arms pumping as they powerwalk from the henhouse to the hydrangeas.  Who knows what else they could achieve.



I shouldn’t have written that down.  It makes me sound crazy, and if some institution is keeping a file on me somewhere, what will that say about me?  I have done some things in my time that probably should have ended up on a file…  Do I now sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist? 

So should I worry that ‘they’ are keeping a file one me? 

No – I should be worried that they are keeping files from me.  Or more, I should be worried that I do not really think twice about it.  Thank goodness for Julian Assange.  I mean, whatever people think of how he looks or his personal baggage, someone who writes:  ‘The quality of our discourse is the limit of our civilization’, and simply asks people to find out about our world and challenge what people in power are telling us’ is thinking! (Assange, J,2012)

We have learned about the evolution of digital citizen journalism and Jenkins’ (2009) theory of the ‘collective intelligence’s’ ability to monitor government practices.  After checking out all the blogs that the online study group posted as the ones that they regularly visit, and blogs in general, the 'journalism' that we pay attention to is, let’s admit it, pretty fluffy.

We have discussed that digital activism acts as a great platform for informing the world about injustices that are happening around us, but that it can actually make it too easy for us to feel like we are participating because we clicked a ‘like’ or a ‘share’ button.  In reality, are we actually changing anything? I think most of us would answer with a resounding… aaah… no.

So here I want to champion respect for the independent role and professional status of journalists.  People who put themselves on the line to look for the truth, without which, people cannot really participate comfortably in the democratic process.

Digital platforms, such as wikileaks.org now give these professionals a whole new way to reach and inform citizens, outside of traditional media organisations.  We should be actively seeking them out and learning from them, and then questioning everything ourselves!  Not watching chooks - birds that cannot even fly!

Is there a responsibility, if we are to use digital platforms for activism and citizen journalism, to learn and internalise journalistic principles?  Let’s think about putting it in schools so that future generations will resist simply accepting and being controlled by institutions and self-serving individuals and know how to properly question and collaborate to create a just world to live in, instead of just uploading photos of themselves at a party.

Let’s hope that is not when pigs fly and chickens have arms.

 

Image Source: Elizabeth Rose Stanton, Henny's Arms, 2011, viewed 19 January 2013, http://penspaperstudio.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/some-chicken-scratch.html

Hey you! Get your filthy hands off my social media!

When I worked in a small country town - it happened to be the town I grew up in - my office was just two doors away from the region's federal MP's office.  I encountered him regularly over 12 months and each time he said, "Oh, hello, nice to meet you, do you work locally?" Hhhmmm. 

He would invariably shake my hand on those occasions too.  Those hands.  Not standard small country town hands.  These hands had never dug a trench, never played footy, never chopped wood.  They were soft and neat, slightly limp and ridiculously clean.  Despite his best politicianny efforts, his handshake turned into a flaccid, tepid tangle in my grasp that left me feeling a bit icky each time.  I would have to tell myself that at least it wasn't one of those male-to-female business handshakes that include a strange tickle on my palm from the guy's middle finger while he looks me straight in the eye.  WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?????

The point I am getting to is that there are probably plenty of politicians, as well as the general public, that are happy that the digital age of politicking has arrived.  Less handshaking for a good deal more interaction. 

Politicians have websites, Facebook and Twitter accounts and upload to Youtube among other things.  This gives politicians and the public a chance to make instant contact and receive instant responses to their queries and comments.  Interestingly though, Philip Seib (2012) makes the succinct observation that 'a fundamental incompatability exists between speed and diplomacy'.  He notes that speedy reactions to trends coming from social media are not always handled wisely and so from a political and diplomatic standpoint, there is room for error and, it follows, room for disapproval.  Perhaps the users of social media will be more forgiving of politicians' missteps in their desire to be more entertained than informed, as modern politics evolves?  Or are we already too forgiving??  I get the feeling that a large percentage of us prefer to get a good laugh or gossip from our pollies rather than participate in the democratic process of running the nation.

It appears to me, as a member of a particular demographic, that broadly accessible political news and analysis is still mostly derived from traditional means and news sources (Young, S, 2010), albeit in a different, electronic format.  However, I have no doubt that politicians of the future and their constituents will be facing a very different political canvas to what we use today, given the influence of social media. 

As I pause to reflect and remember those unwelcome handshakes, I stretch my unfeasibly large and calloused peat-diggers - hands too big and overworked for a lady, and the antithesis of that MP's.  I feel like I am not alone when I give the (enormous) thumbs up to electronic communication because, really, the less body contact with politicians the better.



(And yes, I have jumped on the 'Nek minnit' phenomenon - for some inconceivable reason I find it hilarious)



References:

Seib, P, 2012, Real Time Diplomacy: Politics and Power in the Social Media Era, Palgrove Macmillan, Basingstoke

Young, S, 2010, How Australia Decides, Cambridge University Press

Image source: Author unknown, The germaphobe, viewed 14 January 2013, http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2009/10/024777.htm

Nit picking? Aaah, afraid so...

My choice was to either write my blog or go back through my childrens’ hair checking for another head lice reinfestation.  So here I am blogging.   And giving my head a little scratch.

If your mum told you that you never had nits, she is a very lovely mum… and is lying!   She would have had to write the note to the teacher… “Lisa was absent yesterday as I had to treat her hair for head lice”, she had to inform your best friend’s mum that she sent home more from the party than intended.  Maybe, like me, she would have found a morbid fascination as she combed out hundreds of little buggers at different stages in their life cycle from her childrens’ and, let’s face it, her own hair.   

While I cannot shake that image out of my mind (or my hair for that matter), I have to ask: How can the human race, so advanced that we are able to take a photo of our food at a café with our telephone and send it into cyberspace so others can admire it on their electronic devices all over the world, not have figured out how to eradicate head lice??  They are pretty tiny – and no opposable thumbs!?

I know why.  Because no one has ever run a digital activism campaign to stop the nits!  Like that status on Facebook.  Retweet it to all your followers.  Upload some parodies about nits on You Tube.  That will stop them.  Hhhmmm

Sivitanides,M and Shah, V claim that activism is now sharper and more focussed thanks to the rise and rise of digital technology, but they do offer that there are three ways of viewing the value of digital activism.  The optimistic approach infers the hope that the use of digital technologies will ‘change the nature of power in the real world.’   The pessimistic perspective suggests that while one group uses digital technology to organise and act, so too can other groups use the technology to continue to oppress (head lice treatment manufacturers?).  The persistent approach recognises that the technology is being used to facilitate activism that was already possible, albeit, maybe faster and wider-reaching.

Mandy Cropper makes the point beautifully in her blog: if digital activism is as easy as clicking a button, we can all be involved, but is it really making a difference?   Henry Jenkins speaks about social media being the ‘technology of collective intelligence’.  The new ‘participatory culture’ reacts to digitally shared information in the digital space, but in my opinion, it is important to give credit to real people for creating change in real life.  From the French Revolution, to the Suffragettes, to Indian women and their supporters right now, the activism and desire for change is coming from their hearts, not the tips of their fingers.

It seems that my digital activism against head lice will only go as far as my fingertips scratching my head.  I realise my campaign against nits will probably stay my own, as bigger things are happening in the world.  I am excited to see how people will continue to explore how technology will help their cause.

But just in case, please like the No More Lice Facebook page if you see one.

Image source: Author unknown, Giant Insects Attack the Drive-in theatre, viewed 2 January 2013, http://cubadhl.blogspot.com.au/2010_01_01_archive.html