How Social Media is Changing Television

We have always gathered around the storytellers of our day: our elders, a radio, the television. When JFK was shot, families and neighbors came together across the country to watch the coverage, consider the implications of JFK’s death, and support each other. Each winter, epic parties take place in homes across America to watch the Super Bowl. My own college roommates even had weekly parties to watch The OC and American Idol. With the knowledge that we seem to be built with the desire to share these storytelling experiences, social media takes on a whole new meaning for both its creators and its participants.

Hulu introduced live-streaming to its offerings during the 2008 Presidential election debates, joining a handful of other sites with similar viewing options. Though live-blogging has been regular feature of many sites in recent years, the widespread introduction of television online and live-streaming have been a game-changer for these online conversations, and that is only the beginning.

Click here to read the rest of the article. (Got to give my editor some love!)

Facebook Ups the Ante with new Comment-by email functionality

As I've mentioned before, I've been writing for a blog called Social Media Marketing. The following is the first bit from a piece I wrote last week. To read the full article, check it out here.

Many of us have come to depend on Facebook for daily entertainment, connecting with old friends, or communication to pass the time. Since it’s launch in early 2004, the site has evolved greatly from the small, relatively exclusive site with an emphasis placed on what individuals put out there for others to see. As time went on and poking (thankfully) fell out of fashion, the way we communicated with each other on Facebook changed drastically. We started with messages, sent directly and privately from sender to recipient. When the wall was launched, most folks took their conversations public, but those conversations always ran the risk of being deleted by others who wanted to claim more space on the page. Anyone else remember those early day free-for-alls? Oh, how things have changed.

OMG, SM is totes sweet! Avoiding a Communication Breakdown

In the days of Facebook status updates and 140-character tweets, the language we use has been getting more and more concise, though not necessarily simpler (as those of us not familiar with “1337 $p34k” and the TXTing language the youth population can attest.) For businesses utilizing social media platforms, this has been both a blessing and a curse: it has forced us to quite literally consider the language of our consumers and learn how to interact with them, but it has also forces our hand a bit. The brevity of our social media interactions means we have little time to make an impression. Therefore, there is more importance placed on the crafting of those messages. Social media is often viewed as being more casual, but that doesn’t mean that all convention can go to the wayside;spelling, grammar, and clarity are still crucial to successful communication.

Want to read more? Check it out on my page at the Social Media Marketing blog.

Oh how embarrassing, my laziness is showing...

If you haven't already read enough new year resolution-based promise posts, for all practical purposes, you can add this one to the list. I have no set goal, and it wasn't brought on by the coming of 2010, but I'm coming back. Time to recommit to spending time doing the stuff I love.

Though I'll be making a conscious effort to post here more regularly, if you'd like a little variety, you can come check me out on Causecast, read my weekly post for Social Media Marketing, or follow me on Twitter (but no promises that'll be anything worthwhile.)

Looking forward to getting this conversation going again.