What? You haven’t heard of the 140 Character Conference Series? It’s been going on for YEARS and this September (actually in two weeks) it comes to Boston for the first time. What’s the big deal? Try to follow along with the 14 reasons I’m going to this edition of the conference. Then, maybe you’ll be excited enough to attend too. Would love to see you there.
And no, even I wasn’t creative enough or so disrespectful of your time to trot out 140 reasons. Here are 10 reasons to attend. Just sayin’.
10 – You’ll get to meet Jeff Pulver. For those of you that continually call ME Jeff Pulver, that will prove once and for all that we’re different people.
9 – It’s right here in Boston. No need to hop on a plane, train, Fung Wah bus or other mode of transport. You can just ride the MBTA – might I say the ‘reliable’ MBTA – search for MBTA on UniversalHub and you’ll get why I use quotes around reliable – to the door of the conference.
8 – The topics are short. If you really don’t want to hear a session, rejoice! They’re only about 10 minutes long each so you can gloss over the blather and concentrate on the good stuff.
7 – The topics are short. If you really get excited by a speaker, you’ll get a tasty tidbit of info that you can then build on during lunch, a break or after the conference. What better way to forge a relationship or conversation with some of the smarties who’ll be speaking.
6 – One of the people speaking is me. My topic has to do with social media and the media. But I’ll probably just talk about the Gulf oil spill, tweetups and NomX3.
5 – The people speaking include names like…
Adam Gaffin (@universalhub) – Founder and editor, Universal Hub.?Alicia C. Staley (@stales) – 3 time cancer surivor?Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer) – Artist?Amy Kiel (@Abeeliever) – Community Leader?Andy Dixon (@andydixn) – Singer Songwriter Author and Visionary?Ariel Hyatt (@cyberpr) – Founder, Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR?Bijan Sabet (@bijan) – General Partner, Spark Capital?Blake Hall (@troopswap) – co-founder, Troopswap?Bobbie Carlton (@BobbieC) – Founder, Mass Innovation Nights?C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman)?Carissa O’Brien (@CarissaO) – President, Red Box Communications?Christopher Penn (@cspenn) – VP, Blue Sky Factory, co-founder PodCamp?Doug Haslam (@DougH) – Supervisor, Voce Communications?Erik Proulx (@eproulx) – Creator of Lemonade. Founder of Please Feed The Animals.?From the perspective of a stay-at-home dad?Geo Geller (@geogeller) – Artist, Inventor, Photographer?Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy) – Managing Editor, Web Communications, Tufts University?Jeanne Dasaro (@JeanneDasaro) – Principle, New Prosperity Initiative?Jeff Cutler (@JeffCutler) – Content Creator – Social Media Journalist?Jeff Keni Pulver (@jeffpulver) – founder, #140conf?Jeff Persch (@JPersch)?Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett) – Author, Change Agent, South Dakotan, and sometimes Cowboy.?Jeffrey Sass (@sass) – VP Biz Dev, Myxer?Jessica Murray (@JessicaRMurray)?JessicaRandazza (@JessicaRandazza) – Community Manager, Digitas?Jodi Whalen (@augustfirst) – Owner, August First Bakery & Cafe?John Baronian (@johnbaloney)?John Daley (@Boston_Police) – Deputy Superintendent, Boston Police?John Haydon (@johnhaydon)?John Moore (@JohnFMoore) – Founder & CEO, The Lab?Keith Spiro (@KendallPress) – Director of Marketing, Kendall Press?Kevin B. Gilnack (@kgilnack) – Membership Development Associate, Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers?Kirsten Olson (@bhsprincipal) – Author of Wounded By School and the principal of Old Sow Educational Consulting.?Lane Sutton (@kidcriticusa) – Social Media Strategist/Entrepreneur/Writer (and a 13 yr old kid)?Matthew Ebel (@matthewebel) – Artist?Michael Hayes (@hayesbtv) – Wizard of Wonderments and Digital Delight, Magic Hat Brewing Company?Mike Schneider (@schneidermike) – Team Boston’s “Mr. Movember”?Miles Ward (@milesward)?Nelson de Witt (@dewittn) – Chief Story Teller?Patrick Larkin (@bhsprincipal) – Burlington High School (MA) Principal?Perry Hewitt (@perryhewitt) – Director, Digital Communications and Communications Services?Rich Nadworny (@rnadworny) – Owner & Digital Strategist, Digalicious?Roger Toennis (@Roger_Tee) – CEO, Liquid Media?Scott Henderson (@scottyhendo) – Principle, Cause Shift?Shay Totten (@ShayTotten) – Political Journalist, Seven Days?Shwen Gwee (@shwen) – Lead, Digital Strategy and Social Media, Vertex Pharmaceuticals?Stephanie Miller (@kordmiller) – Director of Digital Media, CBS Boston’s WBZ-TV & TV38?Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) – Author: Get Seen, Online Video Secrets / Founder of Boston Media Makers?Ted McEnroe (@tmcenroe) – Director of Digital Media, NECN.com?Tony Baldasaro (@baldy7) – Assistant Superintendent of Schools for SAU #16 in Exeter, NH and administrator at the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School.?Wayne Kurtzman (@WayneNH) – Volunteer Social Media Director, Destination Imagination
4 – The Back Bay Events Center is a grand place to enjoy this great learning event. Historic Boston elegance and a classic, modern venue.
3 – Topics like Social Media Rehab: A Time to Disconnect; Lemonade – The Story Behind the Story; There’s Something About Video; Music Panel; Media Panel; and more.
2 – Sponsors and organizers. Names like Virgin Atlantic, Verizon, SummerHill Venture Partners. And folks like Joselin Mane, Ellen Rossano, Laura Fitton and others have worked their tails off to put on this event.
1 – Content, content, content. The value here goes beyond what occurs on stage. Spend some time in between sessions to talk to the presenters, the organizers and the other attendees. You’ll learn more than you’d ever imagine. Ask people who have attended other 140 events.
Let me know what you hope to learn and why you’re attending. See you there.
Talk to a normal human and ask them how much of their day-to-day activity is controlled by Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools. They’ll likely back away from you slowly while offering you a nice tinfoil hat to wear.
This response isn’t because you’re crazy – or because anyone who leverages, relies on or works solely with social media is foolish or ill-informed. It’s because a lot of the world still doesn’t pay attention to or understand the ways in which social media tools can be used.
I usually tell a story during my SPJ trainings. It pertains to how everyone should approach Twitter…with no expectations. This is because you can never tell if anyone is listening before you foist a message upon them. The story goes like this…
One day in Boston, a couple friends and I decided to go get coffee after filming an episode of NomX3. We thought that Starbucks made good coffee and agreed to walk to the local ‘Bucks for a cuppa. While walking down the street, I Tweeted out “Going to Starbucks near Borders in Downtown Crossing – join us!” That message got one taker and the gentleman who saw it showed up and we all enjoyed marvelous conversation and beverages.
But the point of this man’s appearance was what he told us when he showed up.
“Guys,” he said. “I almost missed your message. I had Twitter open on my screen and had just gotten back to my desk after lunch when I saw your Tweet. A few seconds later and I would have never known you were here.”
To that point, a few seconds earlier and he wouldn’t have known either. And that proves my point. Which is….
Twitter and many other tools are haphazard in how they engage people. If you are not already having a direct conversation with them, Twitter often fails as an information-sharing tool. You can’t depend on it to share your message with all your followers because at no one time are all of your followers paying attention to your missives. Not everyone gets that.
Not even Leo Laporte. He of the mini media empire. He of the 24-hours-a-day podcast network simply didn’t understand that what he experienced this week was exactly how social media behaves all the time. And the fact that he didn’t know how social media works really scared me.
But then I turned the lens on myself. I have expectations that are also out of whack. I need new tires. I know a guy who runs the Twitter account for Sullivan Tire. I sent them a note either earlier today (August 23) or yesterday (August 22) announcing that I’d be going to their Nashua store on August 24 for new tires and other work. And I asked for their help. Take a look at this picture taken at 10:30PM on August 23.
If you can’t read the tiny type, their most recent tweet was on August 18 – FIVE DAYS AGO!
What that shows all of us is that even companies that believe in social media either fall down on the job or come to the realization that they can’t be online all the time. Sadly, all it takes is the one missed Tweet or the missed engagement to put a chink in the social media trust I had in that brand.
I’m still going to get my tires and my brakes and even my oil changed. But I’ll probably be more hesitant to share Sullivan Tire’s Twitter address now that I know they let days go by without any engagement.
Worse are the companies that get into social media and then back off. These are the firms that went whole hog into Facebook and Twitter and started offering specials and events and then decided that since it wasn’t working they were done conversing with customers. That’s idiocy.
Take Summer Shack for instance. I was excited to go there for dinner tonight (and we did go – and spent $70 by the way). But before we went I hopped over to their Facebook and Twitter pages to see if they could save us a seat at the bar and if they were offering specials.
Not since July 14 (Twitter) and May 21 (Facebook) had they conversed using these media.
So, what’s that mean for social media? What’s that mean for consumers? What’s that mean for businesses? A lot. With the proper education, there are companies and brands that are selling more products and making more money than ever because they are reaching out to consumers using these tools. There are also legions of consumers who have moved away from traditional information sources and now rely on the Web and social media to inform them of deals, events and happenings in their physical community. And these same folks are focused on only buying from companies that have a social media presence.
It’s a new kind of activism I suppose. Where you might have only bought milk from the guy who had the farm in your hometown, you know only buy groceries from the shopkeeper who shares coupons online. And you might only get your tires at the place that would give you 10% off when you Tweeted their name. And you might only eat at the sushi place that shares its specials on Facebook.
I’m not saying this revolution is full-fledged or that it will have a significant impact tomorrow or the next day. But we’re moving to a time when the business that ignores communication channels will get left behind because its competition will understand that online works, and works well.
Social media might be about timing, in fact it often is. But I believe the time for social media is now. I just hope the brands I liked before are listening.
Do you worry about your Twitter content? Do you agonize over what you’ve said on Facebook and LinkedIn? Are you bereft if everyone doesn’t agree with your blog posts?
Image from http://www.bconnected.lk/hrd/social_businesss_registration.htm – a 2008 course advertised on the Web.
Well, as much as I want everyone to like me, I subscribe to the idea that I should share my thoughts with conviction and my feelings without reservation. Because these thoughts and feeling are stuff I’d share easily and freely at a cocktail party. It’s stuff I’d tell my friends. And it’s content I wouldn’t hesitate to send in an email, text message or other missive vehicle.
But people continue to get bent out of shape over some of my thoughts. So what should I do? What’s the etiquette? Is there a precedent?
Recently I ranted about Greenpeace and now have people up in my grill about my attitude over the environment. Back in July I griped about bad communication among a group of people – and those folks still aren’t over that misunderstanding (ironic situation based on my points about our communication issues).
Therefore, I’m looking to readers to share their experiences when something they’ve written gets people all riled up. I’d like to hear from Stuart Foster, Justin Levy, Meg Fowler and Christopher Penn. I want to hear from you.
Is there a strategy to keeping people unoffended and still entertained? Should people just create their content and throw caution to the wind? And is there a stage at which the caution throwing becomes more restrained?
Share your thoughts in the comments. Or point me to documents that have explored this very issue. Thanks!
Yes, I’ll be leaving the house this Friday the 13th to appear on Hubspot TV in Cambridge, MA. You can tune in to watch live or even come to the studio and watch. Failing both of those – you can send your questions for the host and co-host (me) via Twitter to @karenrubin and @jeffcutler.
I just wrapped up a project for EDRnet as their reporter in the Gulf of Mexico. I was interviewing scientists, business owners, residents and tourists about the impact the BP oil spill has had on their lives. This encompasses work, lifestyle, recreation and future livelihood. And what I found out might astound some folks. Here are a few things…
1 – The beaches in the Gulf of Mexico – on the US coastline – are gorgeous. I have never seen sand as white or well-cared for. The communities in the Gulf derive a huge portion of their income from tourism, so keeping the beaches in good shape is of paramount importance. #ioilspill tidbit – The beaches were mostly deserted and the local economies were mostly decimated because of the perception of oil rolling up on the shores like a big black blob. Not true. I spent 14 days in the Gulf and didn’t see one tarball. I saw and learned a lot about the BP oil spill.
2 – New Orleans has a Holocaust memorial, plenty of cigars and booze, little things called begniets, a few donkeys and of course great jazz clubs. I was stationed in New Orleans for about half of my reporting mission (unlike iRoadTrip when we drove a Ford across the nation) and I saw a lot more than the photos above. I also saw poor people in the street. Houses still standing – barely – from the Katrina hurricane. Crime-prevention methods everywhere (locks on the anti-perspirant at CVS!!). And some fabulous food. If you’re planning to visit NOLA, come down in September or October. The weather will be better, the hurricanes will be gone, and you’ll still get to enjoy all the great stuff the city has to offer without sweating to death.
3 – Big disasters trump personal ones. While I was in the Gulf, six kids drowned in the Red River in Shreveport, LA. It didn’t make the news in as big a way as it might have because of the oil spill.
4 – Movies go on regardless of the real world. The world of make-believe continued forward as the filming of Green Lantern took place in downtown New Orleans for about a dozen days in late July and early August. I didn’t get a chance to see the filming as I was reporting on the oil spill and doing interviews. But the filming caused traffic tie-ups around the city and consternation to taxi drivers and others whose income comes from shuttling people around in the heat.
5 – The city is a little gritty. If you’ve never been down to New Orleans, here are a few photos of the real-world. In fact, during my stay, the city had an argument with a trash company and refused to pay them. So the trash company refused to pick up any trash. The streets didn’t stink TOO badly as the city made municipal employees clean up the really bad areas.
6 – The industries down here are oil and fish. That’s it. And that’s really why the oil spill has had such a psychological and financial impact on the region. What happens if the fish die? The region dies. What happens if they can’t drill for oil? The region dies. What happens if both occur? You tell me.
14 days reporting. A ton of new information and insight. Anew perspective on a historic city. And another iRoadTrip wrapped up.
Got any questions about the trip? Does your organization need a content specialist to attend an event or report on a region? Give me a shout or leave a comment here on the blog. As you can see from the success of this project, good content has its place in the mainstream.
The first week of #ioilspill has wrapped up and it’s been a ton of fun, eye-opening in ways I never considered and a challenge of all my journalistic and social media skills.
I’ve spoken with folks who have great insight into how and why the spill happened and what’s going on now with the clean-up. I’ve taken a TON of photos of both BP and spill-related items as well as historic New Orleans and Gulf Coast sights.
And I’m looking forward to the week ahead. If you’ve got questions about the coverage. If you’ve got comments you want to share. If you think your organization wants to create its own Informational Road Trip*. Leave all those thoughts in the comments here and I’ll get back to you.
*An iRoadTrip is NOT a PR blitz. It is a content-creation journey to an event, through an area, during a calendar period – and the content created by Jeff Cutler and team is unbiased and journalistic. It includes the entire gamut of media and requires a real commitment. If your company or organization is unsure that it wants to engage its audience in this way, or if you’re afraid of what the world might say about your products and services, then stay away. iRoadTrip projects show the good, the bad and the ugly behind brands and events. In most cases, the news is good and the response is positive, but this isn’t an easy way to get Google juice. It’s a strategic and professional way to share your company’s workings with the planet. Still with me? Send an email to jeff@jeffcutler.com and we can chat about specifics.
That title has probably been used two gazillion times since people started blogging (and probably even before Verizon used it in an ad campaign),
but it’s appropriate today because of the following…
1 – Turner Fisheries – one of my favorite places – is having difficulty responding to their messages on Twitter. I’ve been trying to DM them, but as you know a direct message can only be sent to the people who are following you. I’m judiciously waiting for this snafu, technical or operator-error related, to be resolved. What’s the urgency? Well, I was at Turner’s last week and the service in the bar area left me wanting to share some comments with management. Sharing is hard when people aren’t listening. It’s taken me two days just to get Turners to respond to messages sent to them via social media.
2 – Zoom Products specifically the Zoom H2 I currently use have failed me. Not completely. Not in a malicious way. But in a way that made me want to finally share the story here. It’s in two parts. Hold on, I’ll give the short versions of each part.
a – I tried to contact the company last fall for review products and was roundly ignored. Never mind that I’m a professional journalist who covers the consumer tech industry and that other devices are making inroads on Zoom’s turf. They obviously didn’t hear me. (To the company’s credit, their agency of record was responsive…to a degree, but I still don’t have an eval unit in front of me.)
b - While doing an interview yesterday, my formerly trusty Zoom H2 (not a review unit, bought because it seriously is the best recorder for the money on the market) didn’t do as good a job recording my interview subject as I had hoped. I still sound glorious, but the guy I’m interviewing sounds like he’s doing a Houdini trick in a closet, with a gag on, in a neighboring town. I may have had my levels too low. Or I may have not held the mic close enough to his mouth. Or maybe he’s one of those low-talkers. Whatever the case, it’s just some more ‘hear-me-now’ pain.
So what can I do about these two things? Especially given that I’m swimming in a fishbowl of social media and technical detritus that often compels me to be stubborn about how I contact people? Do I break down and dig for the Turner Fisheries phone number and give them a call? Do I do the same with Zoom’s people?
Or do I hope they’re better at listening for their own name out in the ether than they are at addressing specific consumer issues? If I link to their sites one would presume that Google Alerts would alert them to this article. To me it’s a puzzle.
So many companies are hot to get into social media. They fret about having a Facebook page or reaching out to people on Twitter. But if your customers are elsewhere, then there’s no need for you to pretend to be here. And if you do forge a path into a social media space – you’d better be there when people reach out to you with social-media tools.
Just my opinion, but 21 years of communicating with readers, colleagues and clients—with tools as varied as construction paper, hand signals and Tweets—has given me a little understanding into what consumers/customers are looking for.
It also doesn’t hurt that I’m a customer too and putting on that hat suits me just fine too.
What do you think about how people communicate these days? And what would you advise based on my simple descriptions above? Do I call Turners? Do I write a complete blog post on the details of that day?
What about Zoom? Do I give them another chance or vow never to write about any product they have until the end of time? For Zoom it might not matter. While I might only be writing for NPR, Technology Review, the New York Post and MobileMag.com, it might make sense for them to sit up and pay attention.
Lots of friends and social media colleagues use BlueMic equipment to do their podcasting. I have been using the Zoom H2 as my mic for 51 episodes of one podcast and for about 40 episodes of another (along with some recording for NPR and other projects). I can say without doubt that the Zoom equipment has served me well, but I wanted to see if there were other mics that I could use in my studio so I wouldn’t have to break out the Zoom every time I wanted to make a Skype call or record a column.
Here’s a fast fast fast first take on the Snowflake Portable USB microphone from BlueMics (they’re at BlueMic.com).
*By the way, here are two podcasts for you to listen to. One was made with the Zoom H2 and the other with the Snowflake. No need to listen to the entire file, you can tell the sound quality once I begin my intro after the lead in by Natalie Gelman and the typewriter.
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Now my thoughts…
The bad…
I think the Snowflake is a little more hollow than the Zoom. It has a slight echo and didn’t have the fine-tuning features as the other mic. This made me wonder if I had to go right up against the screen to get the strongest sound. It also may have some build-quality issues as the first unit that was provided to me didn’t work at all and I had to send it back. This unit worked fine, but the head swivels around easily and made me take extra care not to move for fear it would spin and miss some of my words.
The good…
It’s tiny. It’s plug-and-play. It’s affordable for anyone who prefers to use an external mic instead of the onboard one. It looks sleek. It works pretty well – again with some limits. And the customer service at the company is top-notch.
Verdict…
Too soon to tell. I’ve recorded one podcast on the thing and had the one hiccup of a bad unit. I’ll use it some more in various situations and let you know what I think.
What microphones do you use when you’re recording? What camera equipment do you use. I welcome your thoughts. Whether you’re Bob Knorp or Steve Garfield or even Robert Scoble, I know we can all learn something about the technology you use to record.
Last weekend I was off the grid. It wasn’t my plan to be without Internet or mobile access to all my digital pursuits (crutches) like Twitter and Foursquare and Tumblr. But Apple made it all possible by bricking my iPhone.
To be clear and fair and upfront, it’s not really Apple’s fault. It’s mine. I’ve been running a jailbroken and unlocked iPhone since the marvelous device came out. I have nothing against Apple, but I am loathe to do business with AT&T as they create moving targets in their terms of service, their data and voice plans and their overall presence in the marketplace.
As an example, they recently rescinded their promise that unlimited data plans for the iPad would be the norm. Now, if you buy an iPad you’re locked into a proprietary carrier (even though Apple and AT&T beg to differ and say your device is unlocked) and a horrid data plan.
That’s right. The SIM card in the iPad is only available as of this writing via AT&T in the United States. And the data plans offered now cap at 2GB of data use. How stupid is that? (By the way, T-Mobile might get the next iPhone)
Well, for a company that wants to make money it’s not stupid at all. AT&T probably saw that HD video and other content was coming for the iPad and wanted to capitalize on the added useage. They tried to explain that this pay-for-what-you-use model was better for most users. What they didn’t really tell the general public was that the heavy users of these devices are the ones who are most vocal in new media, most aware of technology limitations and restrictions, and most likely to fight for ALL users’ rights if restrictions were put in place.
I’m one of those users – though I don’t have an iPad yet. I have a USB modem with which I regularly go past the 5GB limit (lucky for me Verizon is true to its word and has grandfathered me into a true ‘unlimited’ plan which is what I pay for).
But I digress. How did I get bumped back into the 1970s? I’m an idiot. I tried to get my 3G iPhone to work a little better and upgraded it using some software at iClarified.com. This has worked a bunch of times in the past and the folks at iClarified are geniuses. They even told people like me that it was better to wait before upgrading because the risk of damaging your iPhone was pretty high until after the release of Apple iPhone OS 4.0.
I didn’t listen.
I flew too close to the sun.
I wanted speed and wanted to use applications that would only run on 3.1.3 as that number was growing and my older OS (3.1.2) was leaving me with more and more apps I couldn’t run.
So I did the upgrade and now my iPhone is a heavy iPod Touch with a camera. No SIM card works in it (except an AT&T one) and I had to buy a Droid over the weekend just to make phone calls.
Well, what’s the purpose of this mini rant? Do I want Apple to reward me for hacking their phone? Do I want AT&T to wake up and reinstitute unlimited plans? Do I just want to share my idiocy with the masses?
A mix of all of that. Right now I feel like a dolt because I’m using a Droid phone that doesn’t work nearly as well as the iPhone and I’m a little bitter.
I’m also acutely aware that I never want to be hostage in a no-grid situation. I will gladly put my Internet away and unplug, but I want it to be on my terms.
What’s the marketing takeaway here? That in order to remain in control of your digital life, you must spend a good amount of time researching your options, be aware that you are going to run into tech regret from time to time, and that speaking loudly about injustices like measured data plans is the only way we’ll ever enjoy true tech freedom.
I wandered around a bit here today. What are your thoughts on measured service, tech hacking, Apple and other Web-related news? Share in the comments.
What do you do when you find yourself face-to-face with someone you have only met on Facebook or Twitter? Tipping Point Labs made me answer that question on tape.
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