By the time the Capitals were done celebrating Ward’s overtime goal that knocked the Boston Bruins out of the playoffs; Ward was the center of a different emotion online.

Immediately following the goal Ward, who is a black Canadian player, was the target of irate fans using racial epithets and slurs on Twitter.

No matter how much you believe in free speech, I hope most of you will agree that these posts are disgusting and reflect poorly on the authors. After the flood on Twitter, Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis offered his take on his blog:

What these people have said and done is unforgivable. I hope they are now publicly identified and pay a huge price for their beliefs. There should be zero tolerance for this kind of hate mongering. Their messages should now stay glued into the algorithms to place a forever warning and a mark upon these people and their actions. They shouldn’t be able to escape their keystrokes.

While Leonsis’ opinion may sound extreme, it is not too far from what is possible, given the data that is shared on social networks. I am sure that the majority of the folks who Tweeted out this vitriol thought they were being snarky or funny to their friends did not realize the reach of what they Tweeted. In reality their Tweets have went well beyond that network.

This is 2012 and the whole naivety around social networks needs to go away and these rants only further showcase how society in general is clueless as to the reach of what is said online. There is a clear line as to decency and what is acceptable out in public – where users of social networks not only reflect themselves, but also their employers.

With all the ugliness aside, I do think that this incident offers some real teaching and learning experiences for everyone who congregates on a social network at any given moment.

Education is key – Before sharing something on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Path or a blog, take a step back and think about how that can be seen by others. This also includes looking at the individual network privacy settings and how your content can be used. And don’t forget that whatever you post can be forwarded, reposted, copied, etc by those in your network regardless of your privacy settings.

Online = Offline – Do you ever think about hitting send on a Tweet or status update? Chances are that more times than not you don’t. It is easy to voice your opinion because a social network is all about you and how you interact with friends. What many people do not realize is that employers are looking at these updates and can, at times, deny or terminate employment because of what was posted. Many of the folks who tweeted out these posts might be marked as Leonsis suggested and denied employment due to the beliefs that they made public.

Words can hurt you – The old adage of sticks and stones breaking bones and words never hurting you rings false when it comes to social media. There have been a number of people fired for their Tweets and one of the Tweeters in the Joel Ward incident is currently facing punishment from his school in Massachusetts. At the end of the day, we may all be entitled to our opinions, but employers and schools reserve the right to punish those who use a public platform to voice outlandish thoughts and hate speech.

While I know that these three points might seem basic, it appears that they still need to be said because so many people just don’t get it.

Image -  clydeorama

Why Twitter is bigger than you think – This is some really interesting research from Tom Webster. According to the data his company collected ~89% of Americans are familiar with Twitter. While less use the service, it shows that its impact could be quite huge. If you are attending BlogWorld in New York, don’t miss his keynote that will include a deeper dive on this data.

Why half of all PR students will be working at Burger King in 3 years – Arik Hanson offers some good insight into what it takes to break into the public relations industry and stay there. He also notes that Burger King might be getting some folks who need to learn to flip instead of spin in the next 36 months.

AshleyMadison.com Puts $1 Million Bounty On Tim Tebow’s Virginity – I love audacious marketing and public relations ploys. The website that brought married folk hookups (not with their spouses mind you) has now put a bounty on the V-card of Tim Tebow.

Hasbro tricks fan-blogger into revealing his address so they can send him legal threats over widely available leaked product – there are shenanigans and then there are low-down rotten tricks. This is an awful PR move from Hasbro in luring a blogger with products for review only to serve him legal papers and harass his neighbors for reviewing a product that was leaked to him. The kicker, the toy is widely available.

Seven truths about online influence – the word influence is dropped a lot in the social media space. Many folks confuse the meaning. If you are on the fence or need a refresher course, check out this post from Maddie Grant.

Bonus Bonehead Move of the Week

Leading the charge of education to community managers is the Community Roundtable and its founders Rachel Happe and Jim Strorer. Over each of the past three years, the CR has produced the State of Community Management Report. This report offers insights and research from the group and sheds light onto the general health and status of the space.

The 2012 State of Community Management report is a good read overall but had five underlying themes that really stood out to me.

Evolution – communities are not built overnight. They grow in both adoption and maturity over time. This report breaks community maturity into four separate stages. It also offers tips for community managers to get from one stage to the next. This report can also be used by future community managers to show executives the long-term commitment needed to get a community off the ground and on its way to success.

I’ve got friends in all places – to have a successful community, a community manager will have to have friends in both high and low places. The first place for community managers to look for friends is also one of the more unlikely places – the legal department. While lawyers might seem scary and always willing to say no, they can be one of a community manager’s best allies as they can not only dispel executive fears, but can also offer guidance on how community related issues have played out in the legal space. They are also good friends to have in terms of keeping you above board (especially important for regulated industries and publicly held companies). Some other areas to look can be product managers, communications executives or the IT department.

Users, not platform define your community – while there are various areas for communities to form and live, the technology does not define your community. Facebook, blogs, forums and company-hosted communities are great and vary in price and user experience, but none of them really matter unless you have users willing to cohabitate in a community around a company’s brand. It is up to community managers to remember this and leverage input from community members as the group evolves. Users need to feel like they are vested in the group to continue to participate in it.

Internal recruiting – in a perfect world, a lone community manager could handle all facets of a community. In the real world this is not possible and the more successful the community becomes, the more others in the company will want to get involved. The best thing to do is take a deep breath and realize that while this may be scary, community managers can set the tone for others to get involved with the community and its members. One easy way is to set training and testing for employees before they are given the OK to jump into participation.

Measurement is important – as with all things in companies, measurement is truly important. With that said it is also important for community managers to keep measurements concise and in a format that executives can understand as this will help avoid alienating them. It is also important to keep in mind that while measurement is great, do not expect too much too fast because community growth and adoption does take time (sometimes years).

Check out the report embedded below if you are a community manager, aspiring community manager or an executive trying to figure out if there is a value in having a customer community.

“Yeah I’ve got a LinkedIn account, but I hardly go on it. I’m not looking for a job.”

It’s a response that all of us who engage in the social media space have probably heard at one time or another when we ask someone if they are on LinkedIn. And whenever I hear this statement, I typically counter with something along the lines of, “that’s too bad, you’re really missing out on some opportunities.”

Image: Wikipedia

Of all the social media platforms and/or networking sites that have enjoyed some semblance of longevity, LinkedIn is probably the most misunderstood and the most underutilized. When you bring up the topic of LinkedIn to social media enthusiast and neophytes, it usually conjures up thoughts of resumes, job seekers, headhunters and employment recruiters.

This is easy to understand given the fact that the HR community as well as PR people were among the dominant early adopters of the platform going back to its 2003 launch. They found a way for LinkedIn to make their jobs easier (think Pinterest and women). But LinkedIn has come a long way since its early days as a pseudo “hiring site.” The latest version of LinkedIn is – dare I say it – social.

Despite the earliest iterations of the site seeming to focus on job seeking and hiring, that was never the original intent for LinkedIn. In many of the interviews given by the founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, it is explained that the site was intended as means to help people connect with people. Even LinkedIn’s first publicly recognized tagline was “Relationships Matter.”

LinkedIn, much like Facebook, was born during a time of blossoming internet transparency, when people began to come from behind the ambiguous screen names and revealed their real selves and in some cases their professional selves, online. That embrace of honesty and transparency was to be the catalyst for forging new relationships that could benefit the individual personally and professionally.

“So if LinkedIn isn’t just about jobs and hiring, what else does it do? What makes it ‘social?’”

There’s a lot that LinkedIn can do for individuals or an organization in terms of sharing, highlighting, promoting and engaging. For the individual employee, LinkedIn provides an opportunity to share professional experiences; work endorsements; upcoming events or travel destinations; accolades; projects and insights. Individuals can post and promote presentations, videos, white papers and news releases or links to relevant news stories. There are also a number of groups and associations that can be joined and used for interaction with others within industries of interest.

LinkedIn allows organizations/companies to create a branded page where people can learn more about an organization, its staff, products and services for sale, or “follow” the organization so that they can receive timely updates on new happenings or staff changes. Additionally, the “company page” pulls in a feed from an organization’s blog, and also it aggregates, from across the web, various news items mentioning an organization and/or brand. Participating organizations can also advertise within the LinkedIn ecosystem or create ad campaigns focused on core objectives such as sales.

From a social media standpoint LinkedIn allows users to connect with real life acquaintances, network with others that share similar interests or to share ideas and information. LinkedIn allows users to provide status updates (much like Facebook and Twitter) or integrate other social media profiles. Lastly, LinkedIn allows its members to digitally congregate and engage within online professional groups or according to professional/academic association. There’s even an iPhone/Android app that allows user friendly mobile participation.

Additionally, with all of LinkedIn’s investment into all of the site’s new bells and whistles, social connectivity cannot help but occur. Whether you are commenting on an interesting status post, answering a question of the day, or interacting with others in one of the many available professional or social groups housed within the platform.

In the end, you only get out of LinkedIn what you put into it. Just because you created a profile page magic doesn’t happen and you immediately burst into spontaneous engagement. You have to start by investing in the platform. Complete your profile to 100 percent completeness (adding some interesting things about yourself and your interests), join some groups, add your blog or Twitter account (however, be mindful of the tweets you share), update your status, and most importantly of all, visit the damn site with some level of frequency.

Just look at it this way, if you bought an annual membership to that cool new gym in your neighborhood, you can’t rightfully complain about your lack of physical fitness if you only go there once a month {author’s note: this is actually a true example from my own life}.

So what is the next step? Go log-in and get to networking and socializing.

Larry Jones is a public relations and social media strategist with more than 12 years of comprehensive communications experience. He currently serves as Communications Director for a DC-based trade association. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter at @OffThe_Record.  

Why bother trying when you get the same result? Think differently.

March 29, 2012 9:49 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffliving

Geoff Livingston

A few weeks ago, the Tweet above inspired a pretty good conversation with Geoff Livingston. While some saw as passive aggressive, I saw it as an inspiration to dealing with roadblocks and changing perceptions.

There is no question that every now and then we are faced with challenges that test our breaking points. Be it family, work, a pet or just plain old life, you have two options for dealing with these challenges – banging your head through the wall or thinking of another way to approach the problem for a resolution.

In the social space, a common challenge we face is when coworkers question the true value of social media is or read research reports that say that all companies need to be using the “hot new social network.”

Sound familiar?

Hearing these questions day in and day out can be trying and annoying, but treat it as an opportunity rather than a hindrance. When faced with these kinds of queries, be ready with a well constructed answer, which will serve everyone better in the long-run. So instead of the eyeroll or quick terse response, take a step back and consider answering with a thought out response similar to the ones below.

On measuring social:

Hi X. Thanks for bringing this up. When we look at social media there are a number of factors that we’re measuring. These include X,Y and Z. If you’d like to hear more, I’m more than happy to set up time to walk you through them.

On the new shiny object:

Thanks for reaching out about X. We’ve been looking at it as a potential avenue for some time now. Currently our strategy is X or X network is not going to fit into our current strategy immediately due to the following factors. . .

While the template responses above are only examples, hopefully they can serve as an example of a way to diffuse a roadblock or annoying situation.

How do you deal with these situations? Do you keep getting the same frustrating results, or do you try to think differently?

Over the weekend I picked up a 12-pack of Magic Hat for a family birthday party for my son. While loading up the cooler, I noticed some interesting packaging where the brewery invites consumers into their online community. During the sampling of the brews, I noticed on that had a QR code on it, leading to an online profile of the beer (click here to see site).

This was definitely the first time I’d seen a QR code on a beer, click the video above to see my full breakdown.

Take a second to consider the answer. I am sure that for the most part that the answer is no.

While the question might seem a no-brainer, it is actually one that I have seen debated time and time again within the community management and social media fields. Sure debate is good, but when it comes to this question I often find myself in a state of conflict whether to laugh or feel sad for people.

The reason for the conflict is that younger practitioners in these spaces feel the need to be on the clock and working for their companies at all hours of the day. When I’ve engaged folks as to why this is a need, the typical responses are that they don’t want to miss anything and that being devoted now will pay off in the long-run.

Both answers have merit, but are equally incorrect.

Social media is a 24-hour buzz-cycle, but for 99.9 percent of the brands out there, 24 hour a day, 365 day a year coverage is not merited. Whether you want to admit it or not, your company and its products are just not a matter of life and death, so responding to every waking Tweet, Facebook message or blog comment can wait until the morning or end of the weekend. There are exceptions to this in terms of crisis, but for the most part, you get the point.

Devotion to one’s career is admirable, but committing all of your waking time to work with no break will lead to burnout. Don’t try to deny it, you are human and have been burnt out at some point in time.

When we reach the tipping point of burnout, two things typically happen: frustration and mistakes – both of which lead to anger. Any of those things can spell disaster for the career and company that you’re killing yourself for.

To avoid this, I’d advise finding what my friend Jim Storer refers to as life balance. This is where you have a healthy balance of everything that you need to be human. If your company is looking for extensive coverage take a step back and provide some education for them. Within this plan, lay out how your company handles traditional support along with industry standards with two options. One would be a staffed 24-hour solution and the other would give options with the existing resources.

Sure it might be scary saying no, but an educational framework will serve you better down the road than working non-stop.

So I’ll ask again do you work around the clock, seven days a week?

Hopefully you’ll take the time to sniff the roses and enjoy the small stuff. Yes they are cliché, but hold truth and are essential to avoiding burnout.

Image - viewerblur

Innovation Is About Arguing, Not Brainstorming. Here’s How To Argue Productively – everyone likes to talk about innovation. Everyone also likes to argue and in this article, effective arguing tactics are outlined. This is definitely worth bookmarking.

Indiana High School Student, Expelled For Tweeting Profanity – I am not going to lie but I don’t understand the world that we are living in. Seriously how can you expel a kid for cussing in a Tweet?

What Should You Do With Your Lurkers? – Does your community have lurkers? If so, you might want to peep out this post.

Set sail with Captain Morgan’s new Foursquare-connected game – in all honesty, I am not a huge fan of social gaming. But this new app from the Captain is pretty bad ass and I just may have to download it and blow some stuff up.

Jose Canseco is now fighting global warming and possibly murdered Al Gore – for this week’s edition of bat-shit-crazy, I present you Jose Canseco and his latest rants on the Twitters.

Before you go gaga applying for every job on the job board, take a step back and answer the following questions honestly.

• Why do I want to work in social media?
• What makes me qualified for this job?

If you answered because I Tweet, use Facebook, I can pin things better than anyone, I blog therefore I am or I am Awesome! You will probably need to some polishing up because  companies aren’t just looking for power-users of social networks, they’re looking for someone who can tie social to the bottom line with passion.

If you’re new to the space, still in school or looking for a career change and social is where you want to go, take some time to educate yourself on the space with these five books that will get you thinking beyond the Tweet to make you more appealing to employers. Click on the links to see my video book review.

The Social Media Strategist (2011) – I wish this book from Christopher Barger was around when I started in the space four years ago. Goes over the basics and offers real-world experiences and case studies on some of the more successful companies out there. It also takes a look at dealing with a social media crisis.

Social Media ROI (2011) – Oliver Blanchard’s book is one that I often thumb through to get inspiration or work on some planning. It’s a great reference book that looks at setting up your program and measuring what matters.

Trust Agents (2009) – This was the first book on social media that I read when thrust into the space from Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. While it is an older book, it looks at a mindset that social media folks should have when working for a company.

Social Media Metrics (2010) – If you want to work in the social space, you are going to need to know about measurement. Jim Sterne offers some good metrics to get started with. If you’re well versed on measurement, this might be one to leave off your reading list.

Welcome to the Fifth Estate (2011) – Geoff Livingston’s book takes a look at media creation and best practices in getting your message out there in a way that stands out and doesn’t suck.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of any of these books for less, click here (Amazon affiliate link).

Hopefully this will help and best of luck in your job hunt.

If you’re a social media pro already, what books would you add to the list?

Image - Matt Hamm

This post contains video; click here if you are having trouble viewing.

Anyone who reads this blog with any kind of regularity knows that there are two things that I am very passionate about – sports and social media. So needless to say, when I see an initiative that mixes the two, I get geeked out.

At this year’s South by Southwest conference, Samsung caused one of these moments for me with their US Olympic Genome Project.

This initiative runs via Facebook’s Connect technology which maps users with Olympians with similar interests. So if you are interested in cats, computers and fishing, the Genome will connect you with an athlete with similar interests.

On a base level it is pretty interesting and should help spark some more attention on the US team as they head to the London Olympics next summer. This initiative could be really awesome if Samsung and the team have an engagement strategy to connect with fans. Since the Olympics are something that the vast majority of us will never experience, an insider’s look into training and the event can help draw people in and could increase overall interest into sports that fly below the radar.

I for one will be watching intently as the Genome project rolls out live and have high hopes for it. The program is currently in a beta stage, if you want to sign up to get in on the action when it rolls out, check out Samsung’s US Olympic Genome site.

A special thanks to James Price who gave me the lowdown on the program in the Samsung Lounge and took time to do a video interview on the program.

This post contains video, please click here if you are having trouble viewing.

A couple of months back, I was in a discussion over my head on social television with some folks. Many of them were pro social TV and I was of the mindset that it was an up-and-coming trend. So when Mike Proulx entered the conversation on the subject, I think I made the comment along the lines of it is way to early to have a book on the topic. After some back and forth, he noted that he hoped to change my mind and that he would send me a copy of his book (co-authored by Stacey Shepatin), Social TV: How Marketers Can Reach and Engage Audiences by Connecting Television to the Web, Social Media, and Mobile (Amazon Affiliate Link) when it came out.

After reading the book, I do have to thank Mike for giving me a copy to change my mind. I also think it would be perfect for you to read if you fit the following criteria:

• You dig TV
• You are in marketing
• You are looking for tie ins for your advertising program
• You are a tech geek
• You want to learn something new

The Most Effective Marketing I Saw at SXSW – at conferences, brands blast you with their marketing messages. It makes sense and can be extremely effective. In this post, Tom Webster talks about how Chevy won his attention at SXSW.

Why I left Google – this is an awesome post that highlights some of the inner workings of Google and how obsessed they are with Google+ and how it might not be healthy. This post has made its rounds so apologies if you have seen it already.

Five Takeaways from SXSW Interactive 2012 – my buddy Chuck Hemann takes a look at what five trends stood out to him at this year’s SXSW.

Stop Complaining and Work Harder at Conferences If You Want to Succeed – a lot of people bitched after this weekend on how conferences are worthless and how they are disappointed more times than not after attending. To me a conference is only as good as the work that you put in during it. This post highlights that thought.

Call for Regulation In the PR Industry – I don’t get into PR discussions too much these days. It is mostly because I really don’t practice it all that much. This post from Gini Dietrich piqued my interest because it is a hot-button topic and caused a good stir. Where do you stand on the issue?

Bonus Video

How Companies Learn Your Secrets – Have you ever wondered how retail chains seem to know when you’ve got something going on? An engagement pending or pregnancy? Well if you do, be sure to check out this article on how Target uses data. It’s a great read and sheds some light on predictive data analysis.

Community vs. Social: Does It Matter What You Call It? – One of the biggest arguments that I see among peers is on the topic of community management. Can a community be hosted on a social site, or is social just a platform to expand a community. To me, there is no right or wrong answer as I see a community as a property owned or rented real estate where a conversation of likeminded folks talk and engage with a brand or idea. With that said, this article paints a great picture of the debate and the role of a community manager.

No Bitter Aftertaste From This Stock Offering – IPOs are all the rage these days with social companies filling for and earning big bucks going public. This article talks to Jim Koch about how the Boston Beer Company did something different with their IPO, selling some stock directly to their fans.

Huggies Taps ‘Baby Bloggers’ to Leverage Tumblr – Ever wonder how a consumer baby brand engages its customers in a blogger outreach program? Huggies spills the beans on how their leveraging Tumblr to build awareness via the millennial mom.

8 Social Media Metrics You Have to Measure – Good video worth the listen for some good measurement insight.

If you are like me, you’ve probably played around with a number of these new networks and had to decide whether or not they are right for you or your business. Don’t try to quantify the amount of time that you spend in this research phase because it will make your head spin and probably make you sick.

As you bucket these networks into winners and losers, you’re sure to have a few that are on the fringe of either being really awesome or being a complete waste of time. So it takes an honest effort to give these networks a try. I typically have a handful of these up live and have honed into four that I am really going to give the ol’ college try this year.

Buffer App – It is really easy to get caught up in the instant gratification of Twitter and share impulsively. I know I have and I’m sure you have, too. If you think you haven’t, log onto your public stream and look for quick bursts of Tweets sharing news stories or blog posts. Buffer lets you add stories to a queue that publishes the stories at set intervals. It also allows you to go back and change the stories that you have lined up if you did an impulse share, almost like an undo button that isn’t available on Twitter.

Path – I am not going to lie, but Path is quickly becoming one of my favorite apps. It is a location-based network that offers personal sharing and intimate networks, kind of like a hybrid of Facebook and foursquare mixed with a close circle. In keeping my network small, I’ve been able to have more meaningful conversations and relationships with the folks that I’ve connected with.

GetGlue – I have been playing with this application now for the past nine months and really can’t make heads or tails of it. I like the check-in functionality for TV shows, books, movies and music; but really haven’t seen much more benefit to it aside from the stickers for the users. If I were in the TV industry I would be on this like flies on poop, but I’m not so seeing the number of folks who love a program really doesn’t speak to me. This is the one on the list that I am hoping the most for because it could really add real-time feedback on shows to help a viewer decide if they are missing out on some jokes on a show or if the show is just not funny.

Pinterest – Despite all the hype around Pinterest right now including the traffic volume that it sends to sites, I am still relatively new to the site. Actually I have only been on the site for a few weeks mostly on the urging (or was it pity and peer pressure?) from my friend Gini Dietrich. On one hand I like that I can store a bunch of cool pictures and marketing graphs instead of cutting and pasting links in a word doc. To me it’s more curation than social ecosystem.

What applications are you currently evaluating to see if they are humps or dumps? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

Image - L O O K