Where Will Video Take You, Where Will You Take Your Video?

The primary goal of Social Media Club’s Reality Check is to get down to the brass tacks of how people are really using different technologies and to uncover unmet needs. In this, our premiere series of Reality Check, we are focused on how people are using video in both their personal and professional lives.

More specifically, we are trying to discover where you take your video beyond your desktop and your living room and thinking about what you would really like to do with video while on the go. We want to discuss your ideas, insights, case studies and deeper needs so that we can all learn from each other, fulfilling one of the most important promises of Social Media Club.

With RealPlayer SP, it is now possible to download any non-copyright protected video from the web and view it on almost any portable device. Personally for me, this means that all those videos, in all those open tabs that get lost everytime my browser crashes, are now easily accessible for me to watch in the spare moments waiting for a meeting, sitting on a plane or taking the Muni down to Citizen Space. We also know that many people use it to take their cooking videos into the kitchen, sales teams are using it to show product demonstrations, and emergency planners are using portable videos to educate field teams.

If you want to get some deeper insights into the conversation that we have had so far, click over to hear some of the conversation from New York City’s Reality Check or check out this video below from the Reality Check at Social Media Club Chicago’s meeting on September 23, 2009. (Hot topic: who should not be on video?!)

There are still several more events to come over the next 4-5 weeks. Join us for a Reality Check in San Francisco on Monday October 19, 2009 (my home chapter) for an incredible event talking about the technology and the creative process around mobile video. In addition to Justin from Justin.tv and Lacy Kemp from RealPlayer SP, we will be joined by Christopher Coppola. For more details and to RSVP, click over to the Eventbrite page or visit the event page on Facebook. Additional upcoming events will be held in Los Angeles on October 20 and Salt Lake City on October 29. In November, we will wrap up the series with Reality Checks in Boston, Philadelphia, and Sydney, Austalia.

So where will you take your video? Where will video take you? What would you just love to be able to do with video while youre on the go? Share your thoughts with us here in the comments and let’s explore stories of what else might be possible together.

To see what is now possible with portable video using RealPlayer SP, take a look at this demo from @realtweeter Lacy Kemp that was filmed in DC as part of the Reality Check series.

#SMCQ19 Paying social media forward

As SMC moves forward with our education initiative, we’re thinking hard on how to teach, share and encourage media literacy. It’s hard to imagine now, the more immersed we become in social networking, but thinking about  newcomers, as well as the next generation of social media users, it’s clear there’s both a large knowledge base and a lot to learn. What about social media would be best to take with us and what can we leave behind? This week’s question of the week looks at how to pay the best of Social Media forward.

#SMCQ19 What are the best qualities of social media you want to insure never get lost as both the media form and media user evolves?

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

#SMCQ18 Whose making change happen

Earlier this week, we called out for thoughts on “Who do you think is best using their social media influence to affect change for the benefit of others?”

Having kept one eye on the Tour de France all week, drawn in by the comeback of Lance Armstrong who returned to competition more to use his platform to advance the fight against cancer as much as win the race, Livestrong remains change-making. Hip to Social Media, Lance folded in tributes and discussions about cancer survivors during his video posts and  regularly made tweets to his 1,549,562 @lancearmstrong followers.

Other ways to do good online:

Kimberly Turner wrote a fine wrap up of other help efforts on her Regator Blog “10 Ways to Make the World a Better Place Without Leaving Your Computer Chair,” July 23, 2009, focusing on how you can make a difference right now. She highlighted five missions, including Mashable’s Summer of Social Good, and VolunteerMatch but points out:

“There are hundreds of fantastic sites devoted to connecting volunteers with projects, bringing awareness to issues, helping people find and donate to nonprofits, and making the world a better place.”

#SMCQ18 Social Media Change Makers

Who is most influential (and how to tell) is always a hot topic among those keeping track of the social media landscape. But who of those influential folks are using their solid, highly connected platform for the betterment of other lives is another topic altogether. This weeks addresses the change makers:

#SMCQ18 Who do you think is best using their social media influence to affect change for the benefit of others? What can we learn from these examples?

We look forward to your comments.

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

#SMCQ17 Avoiding misteps in social media

SMCQ17 Doing Social Media differently

Is Social Media doomed to make the mistakes of traditional broadcast media, favoring popularity over quality and providing a platform for relatively few points of view? So wondered The Social Media Social Media Club Chris Heuer, Dave Peck and Deborah Crooks on Friday as they discussed how to keep Social Media as revolutionary as it already is. How can we ensure we stay open, flexible and willing hear new insights? What action would need to be taken to keep Social Media diverse and inclusive? We’d love to hear how you’re doing media differently in your social media reading and interacting.

#SMCQ17 What will keep Social Media from falling into the same traps as traditional broadcast media?

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

More Notes on Influence

Our SMC Question of the past two weeks, #SMCQ16 How do you measure social media influencers and/or influential online communities? yielded the following responses:

@schmediachick: Measuring influence in social networks demand quant & qual elements. Most important is being part of conversation

@enicholson: #SMCQ16 We need some sort of “influence” cookie that can follow ideas rather than people. a “meme tag” that follows key words, actions

@Rickbischoff: How do I measure influence? By the evident passion they have for the subject they are delivering

The SMC Editorial Board will be reviewing the responses and talking more about measuring influence, this Friday 10am PST on BlogTalk Radio Social Media Club. We welcome your participation. Please join in!

More quotables on influence from the blogosphere:

“Authenticity, Blogs, & Spencer Pratt,” Punk Rock HR, June 18, 2009

“Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself if you’re concerned about following the advice of career gurus and business leaders on the internet.

• Do you trust that the blogger is operating beyond his self-interest? If not, does that matter if you still learn something?
• Does the blogger respond to your questions or care about you as part of his community? If not, are you visiting the site because the blogger’s posts fill other needs in your life?
• Are you following the blogger because of his popularity or because he has a perspective that you can’t find anywhere else?”

“Spinning the Web: P.R. In Silicon Valley,” New York Times, July 6, 2009

“Gone are the days when snaring attention for start-ups in the Valley meant mentions in print and on television, or even spotlights on technology Web sites and blogs. Now P.R. gurus court influential voices on the social Web to endorse new companies, Web sites or gadgets — a transformation that analysts and practitioners say is likely to permanently change the role of P.R. in the business world, and particularly in Silicon Valley. …Instead of calculating the impressions an article gets by estimating a publication’s circulation and pass-along rate, [Brian] Solis counts the number of people who tweeted about a company and their combined following, the number of retweets or clicks on links, as well as traffic from Facebook and other social networks”

#SMCQ16 How do you measure influence?

Because influence, perceived or real, is affecting so much of how we interact and conduct business today, the Social Media Editorial Board decided to roll over last week’s question of the week into this one. We’d love to hear your thoughts about how you quantify and rank influential bloggers and platforms:

#SMCQ16 How do you measure social media influencers and/or influential online communities?

We welcome your input. Please tag your comments, tweets and posts #SMCQ16. We’ll be continuing the discussion later in the week on Blogtalk Radio. Tune in!

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

#SMCQ16 On Measuring Influence

Earlier this week, the SMC Editorial Board posed the question “How do you measure influencers and/or influential social media platforms?” having wondered aloud which combination of measurement and know-how equaled influence. As the community response demonstrated, influence is equal parts quantitative and qualitative. From ‘listening platforms’ such as Radian6, eCairn and ScoutLabs which track and calculate conversation volume, page rank, comments and frequency as well as a host of other data garnered from Sales Force and CRM tools, to  good old intuition, influence is subject to the eye of the beholder. Some notes from the online response field:

“I look for the number of followers and the number of participants who add comments. Equally important is the quality of the content and the comments. They should be well-written, intelligent, supported by references to sources, focus on the positive, succinct, and not reflect a strongly biased opinion.” — James O’Connor, Owner, Clutter Control, O’Connor Communications,

“So effective, efficient messages are key.  Regularly is another.  Transparent, non-promotional communications essential.  Self-effacing humor is nice.  But the most important aspect is just to be a part of the conversation and thought stream.  One person with one comment at the exact right moment in time who we never hear from again can be a profound influencer.” —How Do You Measure Influencers,” by Bob Stewart,

@the_sophist: #SMCQ16 The act of measuriing influence, influences. Especially in the state of social consciousness. u can’t measure u can only approximate

Suggested Reading:

“How to Measure Influence Online,” Mashable, by Micah Baldwin, March 2, 2009

“Do You Know Jack About Social Media Measurement,” MetricsMan, June 15, 2009

“Is PageRank the Ultimate Measure of Online Influence?” Nine By Blue, October 8, 2008

“Social Media Metrics Superlist,” Interactive Insights Group,  by Robin Broitman, February 2nd, 2009

The SMC Editorial Board will be reviewing the responses and talking more about measuring influence, this Friday 10am PST on BlogTalk Radio Social Media Club. We welcome your participation.

#SMCQ16 How do you measure influence?

Metrics, popularity, comment counts, network buzz or simple word-of-mouth credibility? There are a huge number of factors that go into determining the influence of a blogger or online platform, but how can you tell who or what truly influences both individual and community behavior. What does true influence even mean?  On this week’s Social Media Question of the Week call, our Editorial board discussed how we rank influence in an ever-more-vocal online environment. When do you listen and when do you tune out a blogger’s opinion or other online source of information? How do you choose and rate your sources? We want to know:

#SMCQ16 How do you measure social media influencers and/or influential online communities?

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

#SMCQ15 On truth-finding

This week’s SMCQ15: How do you know who to trust within the social media environment? was especially pertinent given the dramatic impact Social Media had amidst the election and protests in Iran.  The online conversation and direct responses we received pointed out the need for self responsibility and incorporating a journalistic standard for fact checking.

Have thoughts to share on the subject? Please tune into BlogTalkRadio this Friday, June 26 @ 10am PST as the Social Media Club Editorial Board reviews the conversation. We welcome your input.

Some notes from the online conversation:

“Is Twitter The CNN Of The New Media Generation?,” by Brian Solis, TechCrunch,  June 17, 2009

“Fact checking is a vital part of the news business and is ultimately what separates amateurs from experts. But researching fact from hearsay or even opinion is almost impossible on Twitter for most users. Keen believed that citizen media is corrupting the very institution of news media because most of the individuals publishing information using social tools, he argues in his book, are “grossly misinformed.” While Morris didn’t make the sweeping assertion that Keen expressed, his point is noteworthy and deserves further examination”

“How Not To Be A Social Media Sucker (aka who to trust online),” by Kimberly Turner, Regator, June 25, 2009

“You can guarantee fast or you can guarantee accurate, but you can’t guarantee both. We want things instantly. If a plane landed in the Hudson 30 seconds ago, we want details NOW. Fair enough. But remember, the faster you get your news, the less likely it is to have undergone a fact-checking process. Monthly magazines, for example, often have teams of fact-checkers who verify everything from the spellings of names to the color of a source’s hair if it’s mentioned. This is because monthly publications work several weeks out. There is time for due diligence.”

Iran + Twitter = Trust, But Don’t Verify, by Farel Chideya, The Huffington Post

“So, how do you verify? Well… some people say, just… don’t. It’s a cul-de-sac you can go around again and again. I am not saying don’t follow Twitter (again, that would be useless). I do want to follow Twitter, on #IranElections and all else. What I don’t want to do is give up the idea of verifying information.”

“How Do You Know What Tweets are True? Exactly the Same Way You Source Everything Else” by Sarah Delman, Corporate Memo

“Social media isn’t some separate sphere: it’s similar, in fact, to all other source building. If you don’t know who to trust, online or off, then you’re not doing your job. It’s what reporters do: they figure out who to trust before they need to. You should have built social media sources beforehand in exactly the same way you build offline sources.”

“Twitter and Social Media in Iran,” By Anthony Caruana, Hydrapinion, June 24, 2009

“solely relying on Twitter where particularly poignant or inflammatory Tweets are heavily retweeted doesn’t equate with accuracy.”

Highlights from The Twitter Stream:

@rustytanton There’s nothing in the question to imply that mainstream media or what you hear on the street is superior in any way 

@dwiggins: How different from other sources? Same question. Most folks think answers found on Google correct! Info literacy a core need here.

@znmeb posted twice on the question: I don’t think “social media” are any different regarding trust than any other communication channel”
and, noting need for self responsibility, @znmeb: #SMCQ15 fool me once, shame on you … fool me twice, shame on me

@ baurecom: nowadays you can’t really trust anybody. You have to thoroughly check the validity of the source b4 you broadcast it.

Further Reading

Twitter on the Barricades: Six Lessons Learned, by Naomi Cohen, New York Times, June 20, 2009

“Crisis Communications Online: Social Media Usage during a Crisis with Leysia Palen,” by Eric Schwartzman, On the Record, June 4, 2009

“Thumbs To The News: Public Turns To Twitter,” by Wendy Kaufman, NPR, April 20, 2009

“Finding Truth on the Internet,” Wired, by Louise Witt, September 4, 2004

Have thoughts to share on the subject? Please tune into BlogTalkRadio this Friday, June 26 @ 10am PST as the Social Media Club Editorial Board reviews the conversation. We welcome your input.

#SMCQ15 Who to trust? Verifying social media information

Receiving retweeted information that doesn’t have a clear source, mail from hijacked email accounts and coming across yet another poorly fact-checked blog post represent the down side of the instant information age. How does one determine the accuracy of information found online? And how do you verify sources to ensure that you’re getting the truth, be it business, personal or political? During last Friday’s Question of the Week call, the Social Media Club Editorial Board discussed the conundrum of finding the most accurate sources of news amid a vast ocean of information. Now we want to hear from you. We welcome your thoughts on this week’s question:

#SMCQ15  How do you know who to trust within the social media environment?

Please tag your response, posts and tweets #SMCQ15.

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

RE: SMCQ14 Dumbing Down or Getting Smart?

“Now along comes Twitter, which totally reduces our collective thought leadership to 140 characters or less and in doing so, belittles and minimizes every big thought into a punch line or social limerick. It’s premature articulation if you ask me and it’s very unsatisfying.” — Joseph Jaffe, “Blogging is Dying, Twitter is to Blame,”

In this week’s question, the editorial board asked “What are the consequences of exposure to a constant high-volume stream of info?”#SMCQ14

A quick tour of the blogosphere (I picked up one actual book this week, a novel, which give you a hint of how much information I get online), revealed many pundits, theories and postulations on how hyperconnectivity may be damaging our ability to pay attention as much as it opens up a door of infinite knowledge.  We’ll be summarizing the comments we received, but in the meantime, here are some notes from the field:

“I learned that instant feedback from the web had caused me to change the “voice” of my writing.   Over time I had learned how to post messages and content that maximized chances of “retweets” “blog postings” , blah, blah, blah.Instead of saying what I believed – I was writing based on what I thought the audience wanted.  The result was a “dumbing down” of my messages.  And, a lack of authenticity.“ —Doug Hall, “Why Instant Feedback on the Internet Can be Bad,” Communty Marketing Blog

“In the digital age, with its overabundance of information, the modern newsweekly is in a particularly poignant position. Designed nearly a century ago to be all things to all people, it Chaplin-esquely tries to straddle thousands of rapidly fragmenting micro-niches, a mainframe in an iTouch world. The audience it was created to serve—middlebrow; curious, but not too curious; engaged, but only to a point—no longer exists.”—Michael Hirschorn,  “The Newsweekly’s Last Stand,” The Atlantic

“Multitasking messes with the brain in several ways. At the most basic level, the mental balancing acts that it requires—the constant switching and pivoting—energize regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination and simultaneously appear to shortchange some of the higher areas related to memory and learning. We concentrate on the act of concentration at the expense of whatever it is that we’re supposed to be concentrating on. ” —by Walter Kirn, “The Autumn of Multitaskers,” The Atlantic

“The sheer volume of information which many of us are exposed to every day may actually impair our performance and add stress to our lives.” Data Smog (thanks @matt_klein)

Have thoughts to share on the subject? Please add your comments or tune into BlogTalkRadio this Friday @ 10am PST.

#SMCQ14

SMCQ14 Media overload? Consequences of the stream

At the same time social media has created a wealth of opportunities to create, consume, interact and react to information, the diversity of media can be staggering as quantity and immediacy often overshadow quality. The Social Media Editorial board discussed how this ‘web of now’ is trumping deeper context and how exposure to a constant stream of information may be shaping our behavior for better or for worse.

We’d love to hear how you are making meaning in an increasingly shallow media landscape. What have we lost, if anything, and what are we gaining? Do you have any strategies for negotiating media overload? We’d love your comments on our 14th Question of the week:

SMCQ14 What are the consequences of exposure to a constant, high-volume stream of media and information?

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

Conversation SCMQ13: Social or Socialism

“When masses of people who own the means of production work toward a common goal and share their products in common, when they contribute labor without wages and enjoy the fruits free of charge, it’s not unreasonable to call that socialism.” — “The New Socialism,” by Kevin Kelly, Wired.

This article prompted much conversation when it was published in May, which led the editorial board to this week’s question. However, when we asked point-blank whether Social Media was indeed the new Socialism, most SMC readers noted more differences than true parallels:

“It isn’t the new socialism. If anything, it’s the new expression of liberty — commented Allen Taylor on our blog.

“I think that politics of the internet are – and have always been – closer to pure Anarchism than anything else. Socialism is mandatory, and based on coercion. Therefore, the analogy to the Net instantly falls apart.” —Alex

“Socialism’s hallmark is government control of industry and other aspects of society. Our government would have to be in control of our activities and dictate them to some extent. In fact, social media’s ability to connect people for collaboration outside of the reach of government’s tentacles makes social media anti-socialist,” —Shaine Mata

@matt_j_kendall: “With no allegiance to state or market, could it b a 3rd way? ”

And some posed that it perhaps wasn’t completely relevant to even bring political labels into the conversation:

“If my research showed me anything, it’s that the word itself—no matter how accurate or inaccurate—is too charged to be of much use to us in this context.” — Kimberly Turner wrote on Regator. Kimberly  also conducted a slew of research tagged on Delicious that you may want to read. We’ll be fielding calls to further discuss Social-or-Socialism, this Saturday, June 13, 10am PST on BlogTalk Radio. We invite you to listen, and call in, and share your thoughts.

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