Help Me YouTube

            My faucet has been leaking for a couple weeks now. My landlord sent a plumber over to take a look. He replaced some parts and the problem disappeared… for a while. Two weeks later the leak is back and is driving me crazy, drip by drip by drip. There is only one rational thing to do in this situation: YouTube how to fix a faucet.

            South Park may lead you to believe otherwise, but YouTube is much more than an engine to waste time and kill brain cells. The video hosting site serves as a useful teaching aid and is a great resource for those who do-it-themselves. YouTube steadily replaces user manuals and help hotlines as the primary source for customer support. Experts host short how-to videos that are far more convenient and useful than anything printed in a manual. Viewers get active demonstrations that save them time, money, and frustration. Everybody wins!

            What do organizations stand to gain from use of YouTube?

1.     Media-rich product demonstrations

2.     Reduced overhead costs related to product guide production

3.     Expertise and though leadership

4.     Marketing and advertising opportunities

5.     Instant consumer feedback and two-way communication

6.     Improved customer service

There is definitely a shift in paradigm when it comes to customer support. YouTube may eradicate the need for home visits from the plumber or impromptu trips to the mechanic to fix car trouble. To avoid going extinct like old school print manuals, corporations should hop on board the video hosting bandwagon. All they need is an iPhone 4S that shoots HD videos in 1080p to assist their customers and to help save the whales.

Sporcle: Social Media or Major Time Waster?

            Sporcle is a trivia website that was launched in July 2007 by Matt Ramme. The quiz site fulfills Ramme’s desire to learn trivia and occupies a niche like no other of its kind. Sporcle’s mission reads, “We actively and methodically seek out new and innovative ways to prevent our users from getting any work done whatsoever.” Mission accomplished. I’ve been working on this blog post for like three hours now! Apart from being a huge distraction, does Sporcle qualify as a social networking site?

            Social media scholar Nicole Ellison establishes three requisites for social networks. Social networks allow users to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. Other widely accepted definitions of social media stipulate that they allow for user-generated content and two-way interaction. How does Sporcle measure up?

            Sporcle allows users to create personal profiles. Profiles include handles, profile pictures, about me sections, and user stats. These profiles also allow users to create user-generated games, leave comments, bookmark games, and establish connections with other users. This profile setup satisfies all of Ellison’s requirements, as well as the additional aforementioned prerequisites. It assists in finding friends, and provides a mechanism for users to post quizzes on other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Though it’s not the typical platform, it does meet the definition, so consider it in the category… for now.

Oh My Lady Gaga

            No one connects with fans quite like Lady Gaga. The songstress, with her eccentric style, unpredictable personality, and amazing talent, always gives her little monsters something to talk about. Gaga is the self-proclaimed queen of Twitter and has 14 million plus followers to back it up.  Corporations and individuals alike can learn a great deal from her most recent Twitter antics.

            On October 16, Lady Gaga issued a challenge to her fans via Twitter. She promised to release the cover of her new single, Marry the Night, in advance of Interscope Records intended release date if her followers made “MARRY THE NIGHT SINGLE COVER” the number-one trending topic on Twitter. A few hours later, Gaga followed through with her promise and revealed the album art via Twitter. Social media blogger Mack Collier identified the three main things that Lady Gaga did right in terms of her use of the micro-blogging platform.

1.     Lady Gaga gave her fans ownership. She empowered her fans to take an active role in promoting her forthcoming single by making it a top trending topic on Twitter.

2.     She communicated what they needed to do. Gaga appealed to her fan’s desires to get exclusive access and made them work to get it, instead of just handing it over.

3.     She communicated to her fans that what they want is above what her label wants. She made it clear to her fans that she prioritizes them over her label’s wishers.

I would go so far as to add a fourth dimension to what she did right. Gaga followed through with her promise in a timely matter and using the same platform that she issued the challenge in the first place. This made her more accessible and removed the boundaries that other mediums would have created. Organizations and individuals stand to learn a lot from Gag’s social media practices.

Occupy Facebook

            A recent survey by harmon.ie found that employees blow over $10,375 of productivity through social media each year. 60% of these distractions stem from social networking sites, texting, and instant messaging. Respondents admit that they put off work to check Facebook or to respond to a text every 15 minutes. The irony according to harmon.ie co-founder Yaacov Cohen is that these tools were created to save time and improve efficiency, but they have proven to do just the opposite.

My experience with students in Club Richter tells me that young people run into the same problem with social media distractions. The ratio of those who actually study to those who, instead, update their statuses every fifteen minutes about how they should probably log off and get to work is one-to-one. The worst part is that those slackers take up all the good seats! I almost had the mind one day to tell one of them off, but I quickly changed my mind once I noticed what was on the screen.

The guy had a page open called “Super Secret Study Group!” Apparently, he organized a group to help his classmates prepare for an upcoming midterm. The group had study guides, links to relevant articles, and even a discussion about possible questions. He also had a live conversation open where the group members fired off questions and some occasional side chatter. This near altercation led me to take a closer look at what everyone was really up to.

It seems students use social media more as a way to organize, mobilize, and communicate with each other. A friend of mine used chat to get a hold of his girlfriend so that she could forward him a presentation that he left at home. Another group cycled through a few Occupy pages to help get ideas for the group he wanted to organize here on campus. Some other kid perused his Twitter feed to look for articles to write about for his homework.

This begs the question: should corporations be more aggressive with their social media use policies, or does the benefit outweigh the possible distraction?

It Sells Itself

            Allow me to pump the brakes one more time on the whole social media bullet train. Don’t get me wrong, social media are wonderful weapons that offer countless opportunities. Every sword, however, has its foible. My last post exposed figures whose social media antics destroyed their public images and tarnished their reputations. Today’s post highlights a visionary who forgoes a heavy social media strategy and just lets his product sell itself.

            In 2009, Brian Moore Esq., a land use and development attorney, launched Harmony Kettle Corn, a brand of homemade, gourmet popcorn that unites sweet and salty in the best way imaginable. Moore hopes to one day fill grocery stores with his product, but in the meantime he and his small staff venture between Jackson Memorial downtown and the UC at the Coral Gables campus to entice customers with the popcorn’s ridiculously enchanting aroma, and better yet, free samples. They manage to maintain a loyal band of followers with very little help from social media, or traditional marketing for that matter.

            The crux of their popularity stems from the quality of the product. Harmony Kettle Corn is just plain good! They do have a modest website and a whopping six followers on Twitter, but the appeal of the brand is the product itself. It’s made fresh, it’s cheap, and it always satisfies. Anyone who tries some always shares it with their friends, which ultimately gets them hooked as well. Their success mirrors that of those Hollywood blockbusters, like the Blair Witch Project and the Dark Knight, who initiated viral campaigns in lieu of typical publicity tours. They generate very little of their own content and let their fanatics stir up their own hype. With every friendly recommendation comes a new, loyal follower.

            Could Harmony benefit from implementing a social media campaign? Of course! My point is, though, that they don’t need to; what they produce is so good that it stands on its own. Social media, good social media that is, requires a huge investment of time and capital. Organizations that don’t have the resources to do so should stick with what they do best and put their faith in their product. Companies that decide to go the way of Tom Dickinson and Blendtec, however, better make sure their social media efforts are well thought out and executed, and that their product measures up when it’s time to perform.

WARNING! NSF Your Image

My older posts emphasize the benefits of social media, especially when used to alert and incite the masses or to establish and maintain a brand. Though such platforms do a world of good for millions of individuals and organizations, I would be remiss not to draw attention to the dangers of social media mismanagement. Be forewarned; new media are capricious animals. One misguided tweet or compromising post can kill a career in a heartbeat. Don’t just take my word for it; consider follies of the following social media ne’er-do-wells:

Gilbert Gottfried: In March 2011, Gottfried was canned from his role as the Aflac Duck after he tweeted a series of insensitive remarks in reference to the 8.9 earthquake in Tohoku, Japan.

Miss New Jersey, Amy Polumbo: The pageant queen’s reputation took a damaging blow in June 2007 when an anonymous blackmailer threatened to release compromising photos that were retrieved from her Facebook profile. Though she retained her crown, her reputation suffered irrevocable damage.

Rashard Mendenhall: The starting running back for the reigning AFC Champion Pittsburgh Steelers tweeted controversial remarks that concerned the death of Osama bin Laden and questioned the events of September 11, 2001. Mendenhall and the Steelers organization faced weeks of backlash from the media and disgruntled NFL fans.

Anthony Weiner: C’mon… His name is Weiner! Need I say more?

            Let these wretched souls remind you of the carnage that social media exposure can do to your career, or better yet, your reputation. Take the little birdie’s advice; think twice before you tweet!

Facebook Friendship Fail

They did it again! Just as the world finally got over the last wave of “improvements,” Facebook slapped its users with a new hoard of changes to deal with. Granted, a few of these upgrades are pretty useful. Photos upload faster and appear larger on newsfeeds and profiles. Friends can link their app activities directly to their timelines which makes it easier to share what they are up to. The issue, however, is the extent to which Facebook continuously estranges its users in the name of progress.

            Facebook has made it its business to implement changes without advanced warning or approval from users. Consequently, users lose trust with the company and they vent their frustrations via posts, tweets, blogs, and the like. In the past, Facebookers would complain until they got use to the changes or until people stopped listening. This round of changes, however, may lead to more drastic actions. Facebook’s new competitor, Google +, is no longer invitation only; now anyone can join. Since most of the changes to Facebook were adapted from other services like Google + and Twitter, users are more likely to deactivate their accounts and jump ship to another platform. Facebook needs to be more conservative and forthcoming with their “improvements” in the future or they may just "improve" themselves out of the market.