And up and up. There has been a recent spate of stories in the mainstream press about the struggles of Facebook shopping. The current twist is that Facebook shopping is failing because people don’t want to shop on Facebook. One social media pundit recently quipped: “Turns out shopping isn’t that social.” The reason for [...]
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Archive by Author
Blank Canvas
February 16, 2012
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That is exactly what social media is. A blank canvas. An empty page. There is no content on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or any other social network without content creators. People, brands, artists, writers and news organizations populate social networks with content and bring the value to it. Social media companies are just platforms. They are [...]
Read moreThe Sorry State of Political Journalism
February 14, 2012
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Not even NPR is immune anymore. This morning, WBUR, a NPR affiliate radio station in Boston, broadcast a story about the results of a poll about U.S. Senator Scott Brown and his likely Democratic opponent Elizabeth Warren. The story reported that the two candidates were neck-and-neck. But the content of the piece centered on two [...]
Read moreFacebook is NEVER Private
February 13, 2012
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“Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” – Benjamin Franklin, statesman Facebook gives users the illusion of privacy. You get to choose your friends and have the ability to regulate your content. Some people can see this. Others can see that. But regardless of how you direct traffic on Facebook remember [...]
Read morePawngo Stunt is an Example of “Vile” Marketing
February 7, 2012
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Today most of New England is still bruised from the Patriots loss in the Super Bowl on Sunday. For the last 48-hours the city that has been spoiled by championships in football, baseball, basketball and hockey in the last decade was numb at the sudden and heart-breaking loss by the Patriots. You can feel it [...]
Read moreThe End of Channel Media
February 6, 2012
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CNN used to be a cable news network. The New York Times used to be a newspaper. The Huffington Post used to be a blog. But that’s not the case anymore. CNN, New York Times and the Huffington Post (like almost every other major news organization) are no longer defined by their channels. This is [...]
Read moreAgencies Can Add a Rocket Boost of Social Know-how
February 2, 2012
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What do you think sets apart a gold-medal effort in social media from a mediocre one? Is it ideas? Passion? Knowledge? Creativity? Likely those are factors, but most often the difference is more pedestrian: Resources. Most marketing and communications departments continue to be underfunded and understaffed when it comes to social media programs. It’s difficult [...]
Read moreFacebook Timeline is the New Tombstone
January 30, 2012
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“There are more dead people than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living are getting rarer.” – Eugene Ionesco, playwright People hate the Facebook Timeline. While many of Facebook’s most prominent changes over the years have caused a lot of hand wringing, none of them have caused as visceral a response as the Timeline. [...]
Read moreGoogle Decides to Kill Privacy
January 26, 2012
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Remember when Google adopted “Don’t Be Evil” as its unofficial motto? You’ll find that little ditty at a yard sale next to a Bay City Rollers album and a skinny leather tie decorated like a piano. Because this week Google announced it was drastically changing its privacy policy and the side of sharing – and [...]
Read moreGetting Rational on SOPA
January 25, 2012
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The debate on the Stop Online Piracy Act (known as SOPA) has jumped the shark. SOPA and its companion bill Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) were both shelved recently by Congress and the Senate after a frenzied protest by dozens of websites and Internet companies including Google, Wikipedia and Facebook. The goal of the bills [...]
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HighTalk by George F. Snell III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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