Like that scene at the end of “Independence Day” when Randy Quaid flies into the alien mother ship to save the earth, I’m baaaack.
I found out yesterday that I have been nominated to an adjunct faculty teaching position at my alma mater, the University of Maryland University College. Beginning next Spring semester, I’ll be back to teaching, most likely for a PR techniques class. I’m returning to a wonderful place where I got my Master’s degree a long time ago – and began my teaching career as a TA even longer ago.
I am absolutely thrilled to be going to back to the classroom. I missed it because of all of my wonderful Georgetown students whose own intellect and wit challenged me to be at my best each and every week. I miss you all terribly but am lucky to keep in touch with so many of you.
Thank you Theresa and Julie for bringing me home!
W00T!
Mark
P.S. - This will be a part time gig, so SEC colleagues: don’t start eying my office furniture just yet.
Although many of opined on this topic, every person has their own thinking on the most annoying – nay, downright maddening – behaviors in the world of social media that well, merit the social media death penalty.
By “death penalty,” I’ll leave it up to you to decide (adding a disclaimer that I am NOT endorsing you grabbing a gun and using it). It could mean calling someone out on Twitter, Facebook or a blog post. Worse yet, your egregious infractions could land you in the print media doghouse – like I did to me a year or so ago when I was an idiot.
So here’s my list of the Top Things that Merit the Social Media Death Penalty:
Twitter trouble: I try to keep up on followers on Twitter. If you are nice enough to follow me (and are not a spam bot which probably DOES merit the death penalty), I try to follow you back. But sending me a DM right after that goes something like “Thanks for following me. To get more eyeballs on your web site, get my advice HERE! http://jerkoff.com/123abc. ” Suggested punishment: Lifetime Twitter ban.
Calling yourself a “guru.” If you call yourself a “guru,” there is 100% chance that you are an idiot. In my experience, people who lavish praise on themselves are rarely deserving of it. Plus, there are a bazillion gurus out there who are clogging the social media space and confusing people who actually need good social media counsel. Suggested punishment: Public humiliation. Note: When I was at Fleishman-Hillard, I remember getting ripped to shreds in a client meeting by a consultant that the client had brought in to manage us. A “guru.” With our alpha Web site on the screen, she tore into us. Revenge? I said “Ok, can you please show us an example of your work?” I kept pressing and finally we pulled up a Web site that looked like it was designed in 1990 by blind monkeys. Touche.
Facebook follies. If you “like” yourself on Facebook, you are a most likely and egocentric moron. If you “like” your own blog post that you cross-post on Facebook, you are a double idiot. Let others praise you (but if you are the one doing this, don’t hold your breath). Suggested punishment: One year ban from Facebook (accompanied by 40,000 volts of electricity delivered via your keyboard if you load the page). Hell, the way that Facebook is going prying into people’s lives, this can’t be more than a couple of weeks away.
Temper tantrums. For those of you who think this is a tantrum, feel free to publicly flog me. But for this one, I am thinking of people of a particular prestige who engage in petty pissing matches with others. And get personal. And the winner and undisputed champion of this one is Jack O’Dwyer. Last year, he got into a public flaming match with respected Waggener Edstrom over their refusal to pay for a listing on his compilation of top PR agencies by revenue. And recently, he took on public relations measurement Queen Katie Payne. Get over yourself, Jack. Really. Suggested punishment: Mass unsubscription of his service.
Blogger hubris. There are plenty of bloggers out there whose egos far outstrip their accomplishments. Their keyboards write checks that their online following cannot cash. Hell, look at this blog and this post. And me. Suggested punishment: Be Mark Story for a day.
Bonus offenses:
Using the term “hits,” as in Web site. I think that it was my friend Shel Holtz who termed this “How Idiots Track Success.” Same for “hotlinks.”
Using AVE, or Advertising Value Equivalent. Ads are not consumed and processed the way that earned media is. And earned media is not paid media. See #5 above.
“;-).” It creeps me out when people use this emoticon. Especially when guys use it. If you don’t wink at me in real life, please don’t wink at me online. For me, this is the social media equivalent of the wet fish handshake. <shudder>.
Bonus bonus: Doing the “double gun” when you see someone.
What’s on your list of offenses that merit the social media death penalty?
For those of you about to flame, we salute you. This is satire, people.
Somewhat lost in the endless debates about the planned $100 million community center/mosque/lightning rod is the efficacy of using social media tools to influence the debate. As I have been following the – very passionate – debate, my mind has turned to thinking about other ways that both sides have used “new media” (or not-so-new-media) to project their points of view.
The Twitter account “Park51,” that which represents the group who wants to build the community center/mosque/lightning rod near Ground Zero in Manhattan has drawn some unwelcome controversy. Earlier this week, whomever was maintaining the account got snarky with some people who were posting @ messages to Park51.
According to the New York Post, the exchanges went pretty far south, quickly:
“If Haaretz likes publishing fables, perhaps they could go back to the Yiddish ones with parable,” they tweeted on Monday. In response to a critic who had “Amish” in his handle, Park51 tweeted, “Shouldn’t you be making butter?”
The next day, Park51 took down the post and apologized. It then posted an announcement that it was “introducing a new team” to take over the account. “We are in the process of introducing a new team and are issuing apologies for any prior tweets that may have caused offense,” the mosque organizers wrote.
I am not — repeat NOT – going to debate the merits of building the community center/mosque/lightning rod near Ground Zero. So save your flames for another day. What the Twitter posts underscore is the need, especially in a controversial environment, to have AN ADULT IN CHARGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA, especially if you are at Ground Zero of a heated controversy.
I checked the Twitter account of Park51, and as I write this, they have a paltry 2,800 followers. North Korea has more than that, for Christ’s sake. How many people do you think heard about or read online and offline articles about the Twitter snarking? Millions? It’s one big echo chamber, guys.
In a recent Media Bullseye Radio Roundtable, Jen Zingsheim and Doug Haslam discussed a call for Scott Monty of Ford – someone who really gets social media – to use interns to staff their Twitter accounts. Mr. Monty said “no, thanks.” And rightfully so. He knows that giving someone the keys to your social media accounts is giving them the Global Ford Bullhorn and allowing them to broadcast messages on your behalf.
It’s almost natural, however, for some organizations to put younger people in charge of social media. “Oh, he is all over Facebook/Twitter.” Let him do it.” While GenY may, in fact, participating in social networking sites (at a 96% clip), this does not make them expert at crisis communications. When you are firmly in the public eye and all communications are being watched closely, why snark at detractors – who will then howl and spread your information far and wide? One can take a few lessons from this:
If you don’t get social media, stay the hell out. Having a Facebook page or Twitter account means that you can reach people quickly and one the cheap. But understanding how you do these things is critically important. If you don’t get it, stay out.
Don’t ever snark.I wrote about this over the winter, but Nestle learned a hard lesson when Greenpeace hijacked their page. The Internet is forever, so if you snark, people will use this as a sharp instrument to bash your skull in in the court of public opinion.
HAVE AN ADULT IN CHARGE. Is it fair that people get to take swipes at you and you can’t swipe back? Nope. Can you snark at them if you get mad? Nope. Gotta grin and bear it if you are at the heart of a controversy, especially when there are opponents looking to trash you.
All of this is probably Social Media 101, but it is stunning that a) someone would suggest that a global brand like Ford turn over the social media to an intern, b) that Nestle was not prepared for the Facebook page corporate campaign, and c) the Park51 folks, who are getting hammered in the press, would be anything less than hyper-vigilant about ALL of their communications.
The views in this post are mine and mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chairman of the SEC, its Commissioners or my colleagues. I am not a lawyer and do not offer legal advice.
As you may have guessed from my uber-disclosure above, I am the Director of New Media for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We have three pillars at the SEC, one could argue the most important of which is to protect investors. This is why we hold most publicly traded companies to a very high standard, regulating what they can say, when they can say it and how.
This is one of the reasons that I closely followed Frank Eliason’s departure from Comcast and subsequent landing at Citi. Frank is truly one of the pioneers of using social media in general and Twitter in particular – as a platform for customer service. “Comcast Cares” was arguably one of the best uses of social media to help resolve customer service issues. I got to meet Frank at BlogWorld Expo last year and I found him to be down to earth and likable as well.
He was the start of a social media craze from Comcast, chasing down and responding to online complaints from customers. In the history book of social media, Eliason, who popularized Twitter handle @ComcastCares, will be among the forefathers of the movement.
True ‘dat.
Throughout a long and checkered career, every new job I have gotten has been based largely upon the experiences and successes from prior jobs. This is true for almost everyone and, I presume, the same for Frank as well. And since he was so successful at Comcast, I cannot help but wonder which of the social media tools and tactics he can take with him to Citi.
Tech Philly Frank describes what he will be doing at Citi:
Together with my Citi team, we can … further build relationships with our customers. Since my days at Vanguard Investments, I have always enjoyed the industry, and with the transformation that has been taking place, now seems to be a great time to return.
Here’s where the social media rubber hits the financial regulation road.
As I stated, the SEC issues strict guidance on what publicly traded companies say, what they can say and when they say it. Much of this is encapsulated in something called “Regulation FD” – the “FD” being “fair disclosure.” Feel free to read the SEC explanation of Reg FD, but in plain English, this means that the SEC mandates that all publicly traded companies must disclose material information to all investors at the same time. Hence, “fair disclosure.”
Since Frank is beginning anew at Citi, I can’t help but wonder which strategies and tactics will be replicable at his new job. As I note above, communication in the financial services industry is, quite “frankly,” more strict and controlled than it is in the non-regulated industry. Oftentimes, there is a lot more legal approval that has to go through internal compliance offers to ensure that companies are, well, in compliance with FINRA and/or SEC regulations. Strict stuff.
None of this is to say that Frank will be anything less than successful – what he has been in prior stops in his career – but I wonder how much more challenging it will be to deploy a wide array of social media tools and tactics to inform and educate investors and other market participants.
Good luck, Frank, but I doubt if you will need it.
Mark
P.S. – Have I mentioned that these words are mine and mine alone?
earth, I’m baaaack.
it). It could mean calling someone out on Twitter, Facebook or a blog post. Worse yet, your egregious infractions could land you in the print media doghouse – like I 
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social media – 
regulating what they can say, when they can say it and how.
