May 7, 2010

LYNTC: 5/7/10

Here’s the batch ‘o’ links I’m suggesting you click for Friday, May 7, 2010.

  • Thank goodness. Peter Shankman and the fine folks at HARO are tweaking their “anonymous” policy for the multiple-times-daily media & source email, to cut down on the overuse of “anonymous” that was being used by media looking to find sources for stories. I’d been seeing more and more (and more) use of “anonymous” in recent months, and am glad to see that it wasn’t just me who found that a little tricky. For those of you not familiar with HARO, find out more here.
  • You guys might think I’m a little bit iPad happy or something, but I’m not the only one who is looking at the device as a real game-changer. [via many]
  • It can’t be coincidence that the same day this spoof post, “If Super Mario Bros. Was Made in 2010,” was published that Blizzard Entertainment announced it would be connecting its games to Facebook, right?
  • Joy shares one of the really bad PR fumbles that those of us in the industry see on an almost daily basis. So sad. Stop using canned lists and actually read something, people.
  • For those of you going to see “Iron Man 2″ tonight / this weekend / as soon as you can possibly leave the office, you might dig on Chris Thilk’s writeup of the marketing behind the film. It’s pretty stocked up. Oh, and the movie was really good. Not that I went out at midnight last night or anything.

Apr 2, 2010

Is your mom on Facebook?

Oh, this is an amusing one…

[via @angryaustin]

Oct 19, 2009

LYNTC: 10/19/09

Here’s today’s short list of links that are of interest. I’ve got more links, but a lack of time to share. More later this week.

  • For the ad lovers out there, check out today’s Q&A w/ Stuart Elliott in the NYT.
  • The Yanks are out playing the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, USA, North America today, but you can still go to Yankee Stadium, if you were so inclined, to watch the game. I remember doing this during the New York Rangers’ 1994 run to the Stanley Cup, while the team was out in Vancouver. Kind of fun, but it wasn’t like 42 degrees in Madison Square Garden.
  • Andy Beal writes about the news that social networking via mobiles has doubled in the last six months. Wow. [via Chris Thilk]
  • Dave shared a solid Friday Heh this past week, with the payoff of a Facebook conversation having its way with the “Fresh Prince” theme song and balloon boy.
  • Ben Wagner shares some personal perspective and a great way of spelling out what the film adaptation of “Where The Wild Things Are” means to a lot of people.
  • This is awesome. That is all.
  • Broadband is a privilege, not a right, right? Wrong, if you’re in Finland.

Sep 28, 2009

LYNTC: 9/28/09

These are links. You should click them. Here are some reasons why.

  • In this week’s edition of “What Exactly Is Gawker’s “beat” These Days” news, I point to their recap of last night’s “Mad Men” and turn my head like an RCA dog.
  • How fast is Usain Bolt, really? Some ESPN staffers found out.
  • In case you missed this one, check out some fun that the New Yorker had with a recent NYT review of The Beatles: Rock Band.
  • Could the “Tribute in Light” that graces lower Manhattan every year around September go dark in 2010?
  • Gruber points to William Safire’s favorite New Yorker cartoon.
  • If you were a digital Robin Hood, apparently you’d start at Facebook and head back to MySpace with whatever you’ve got. Or something like that. Or maybe you’d just sit on MySpace all day and post updates to Twitter.
  • The amusing thing about this computer tumor is that it’s probably totally representative of the RAM bloat that your applications are chomping on, and will give you a good idea when you need to reboot.
  • Trash your coach on Twitter, no Twitter for you, says Texas Tech coach Mike Leach.
  • No coverage, no problem, say the Los Angeles Kings.
  • OMG “Star Wars” bathrobes! [via Gizmodo]
  • Dabitch seems to feel the same way that I do about the latest Windows 7 commercial.

Sep 20, 2009

Links You Need To Click: 9/20/09

It’s another edition of things that I’m obnoxious enough to suggest that you really really really wanna click through to.

  • On Tuesday, Scott Monty fired a well-deserved shot across the bow of the 50 zillion social media books and experts floating around these days. With a few exceptions, of course. Also, Kottke with a semi-unrelated, yet serendipitously timed post. So what if it was posted two weeks earlier and sitting in my flagged items. It fits.
  • I must admit, seeing Katie’s comments about getting started on what is her current blog, way back in 1999, when she was like 14, is quite fun and takes me back. To somewhere in the early 1990’s, and my BBS addiction.
  • 4 Awkward Moments In Facebook “Likes” – via Mike.
  • You won’t like Chris Thilk when he’s angry, movie studios!!!
  • Leave it to Rex to put it down right when it comes to Microsoft’s Browser for the Better campaign. Now, like my randomly rotating in headline says – “If you’re on this site on IE6 then I hate your computer.”
  • I’m sorry, but docs asking patients NOT to rate them online? Next thing you know this’ll start showing up on the back of movie or theatre tickets, that you can’t tweet about the show for 24 hours. [via David Weinberger]
  • Have I mentioned that I FRAKING LOVE the new Studio MWW site? Seriously. The staff page wins at the Internet. For this morning, at least. Crap, it’s afternoon already. Sorry, guys.

Also, my latest PRWeek column is up, (subscription req’d) and discusses how PR people need to understand the value of working with journalists on stories that might only appear online – and how that’s a good thing.

Aug 24, 2009

Links You Need To Click: 8/24/09

Man, it sure is easy to batch up stuff and share it with everyone. If more people I knew used something like Google Reader, I’d use that, but this lets me throw some spin on stuff that’s of interest.

  • Looking for a solution for people who park all douchey around you? This is probably it, and partially NSFW given its…title. Thanks to my West Coast pal Lauren for throwing me that a few weeks ago.
  • Doers. You know, the people who aren’t out there all day talking about all the cool stuff that you COULD be doing, but are doing maybe 1/20th of that, and spending the rest of the time…doing. Seeing a lot more throws their way of late than we used to. Thank goodness.
  • Some news showed up that reality show participant Ryan Jenkins had committed suicide, and it appears that there was a bit of a dilemma as to whether or not to “like” the news on Facebook. I “liked” it before I “unliked” it, I must admit.
  • Leah Jones makes some good points about ethics in social media consultancy, and whether timing is key in at least one situation currently making the rounds. Interesting debate, to say the least.
  • The sheer concept of the Dow Jones indices going up for sale is almost too hard to get my head around, but then I realize that we call something the “Dow Industrials” and I’m able to check out what “industrials” make it up, and feel better.
  • Rework is probably my #1 business hate. Except when it’s the new book from the 37signals folks.
  • I’ve been sitting on this one since March, and just couldn’t figure out what to do with it. What do you think about online ads having “icons” that when clicked, would tell you what they “knew” about you? Saul Hansell described that scenario in this Bits blog article.
  • Given the issues that NFL players continue to get into, I’m not sure that the League’s efforts to sneakily check out what future players, currently in college, are up to on Facebook is going to matter, a few months after word came down that this was going on. Or maybe it’ll only get more intense.
  • OMGzors. I totally want one of these cassette tape USB hubs. [via Gizmodo]

Some part of me sits on these until I have something interesting to say, another just feels like there’s SO much good stuff out there that I’m filtering so we can see what sticks or not, rather than that instant-gratification that you get from flagging items in an RSS reader. It’s free and all – too easy for me to just spam the heck out of all of you here. Hopefully these are enjoyable for those of you who actually read this.

Aug 20, 2009

Links You Need To Click: 8/20/09

We’ve got a mixed bag today, which I guess isn’t totally surprising.

Bonus link: Do you think my rice is happy about its current state of affairs?

Aug 4, 2009

ESPN stirs the Twitter pot — but are they wrong?

Tonight, there was a whole lot of hubbub about Twitter, again. Earlier in the day, word had come down via reports like this one from WIRED’s Noah Shachtman that the Marines were banning the service, among other social networking platforms, from its network(s). (As an aside, check out what Gomes has to say about that…) The NFL has also put the block lockdown on the service (though not necessarily specifically just Twitter, but use of devices that can communicate online in a number of ways) and the WaPo’s Mark Maske, among others, report that the League will have a formal policy coming very soon.

But the coup de grĂ¢ce was the story from NPR stating that that ESPN had laid down the law on use of Twitter by employees, most specifically on-air hosts and writers — by detailing what they should (or shouldn’t) be doing on said sites, whether through personal accounts or not. Mashable’s Jennifer Van Grove had some not-so-nice things to say about the network’s move, and she cites Chris Brogan, who calls out the network (and its @espn feed that offers links to ESPN.com stories). It should be noted that ESPN’s not saying you can’t post about anything non-work related, which is frankly the stuff that I don’t think I’m alone in stating is the most interesting stuff to read from famous people, on-air talent, and so on. Hell, I get more of a kick out of the Starbucks-drinking habits of adult film stars than anything “work related” that they might post. Oh, that’s right, most of them use Twitter for the same reasons we do, to complain about airport delays, what they just had for lunch, why traffic sucks, and so on. You know, the stuff that I would get a kick out of seeing my favorite SportsCenter anchor talk about, just because it’s realistic. They just say that they’ll be held accountable for anything they say on Twitter. You know, like the rest of us who have employers who know what they’re doing.

While I can appreciate the interest of getting the story going after ESPN’s own Ric Bucher tweeted about the policy itself and a ton of facts weren’t necessarily available, and the story was “ongoing,” I found it more than slightly disappointing that no one seemed to reach out to anyone involved with the situation, e.g. a PR person at ESPN, a trusted source at the company, or something along those lines. Isn’t it possible that something got “lost in translation” as this got out there and bloggers started picking up on it? What, we’re going to start distilling opinions and attitudes based on 140 characters or less, and just move on? I know, I know, I get it, I get it. Sometimes the story is what the story appears to be, and we all move on.

But dig around for five minutes, and you’ll catch the memo floating around a little bit. Deadspin had it up earlier tonight, and you can read it here. Before finding it, and after deciding I’d write about this subject tonight, I reached out to ESPN PR about it, frankly just for the sake of actually doing so because, like, why not get the other side of the story? It took me all of thirty seconds to find their email address via Google.

In any case, Deadspin’s AJ Daulerio also had some not-so-hot things to say about the policy, which I won’t pass judgment on just yet as we don’t know what else is going on behind the scenes, and frankly, because I’ve seen the other side of this and can’t say that ESPN is wrong to believe they need to go in this direction. Am I thrilled with it and do I think they will get slapped around for it publicly? I’m not, and they are – and will probably continue to be for a bit.

That said, will ya look at what happens once someone reaches out to ESPN’s PR for a comment or additional detail? The New York Times‘ Richard Sandomir wrote about this fray tonight, stating that the guidelines “restrict the freedom that ESPN employees might previously have enjoyed,” but states the facts in the case. More importantly, I think he, along with ESPN spokesperson Chris LaPlaca, drop dime on the point of it all – letting ESPN have some level of control over what WORK-RELATED things that journalists, on-air analysts and announcers, along with online, broadcast and print writers can say, as themselves, online.

Let’s see if this other example makes sense to any of you. If I write exclusively for newspaper X, and instead of posting all of my scoops through the newspaper FIRST, even if that means dropping short blog posts online in this day and age, I post them on my personal blog, and then publish the stories minutes / hours / the next day through my employer, who effectively financed the research and time that went into the story, aren’t I doing a disservice to my employer? Locking and loading that story, and having some level of understanding with my employer that at 10pm I could publish a short item on Twitter saying “my story going live at midnight tonight talks about XYZ company, and so on,” makes much more sense, doesn’t it? Again, I’m not saying this is 100% correct and the best answer, but it’s some level of happy medium and reasonable expectation.

Mind you, Ric Bucher might have the contacts he has because he’s Ric Bucher, but ESPN is paying him to be said Ric Bucher on their airwaves, online, or in their print magazine, no? Is Ric Bucher’s use of Twitter to comment on an NBA item that he might never mention on air at some point a good thing for ESPN in the long term? ABSOLUTELY. Does ESPN have the right to ask Bucher to stay away from work-related topics outside the lines of ESPN-”world?” I think they just might.

What’s key here is that ESPN is looking out for itself. As talent-related content is posted on Twitter.com, people’s Facebook statuses, via text messages, and so on, they “lose” that traffic. They ABSOLUTELY gain mindshare by having their talent “outside” the box, per se, and hopefully people recognize that they’re following on-air talent or their favorite online writers on Twitter, etc., and link those individuals to their employer. But it’s a tough line to figure out and ESPN is attempting to figure out what it needs to do in this particular case. According to the last graf of Sandomir’s article, ESPN does appear to be aiming at getting to a place where Bucher’s tweets about pending NBA trades COULD land on Twitter, but would also land somewhere on ESPN, perhaps in a breaking feed or something like that. If that’s ultimately the case, then maybe we’re just at a temporary standoff here.

In any case, ESPN is by no means stating that its talent can use Twitter, Facebook, et al, at all. It’s relatively specific to job-related stuff. These two points (from the policy at the above-linked-to Deadspin) are kind of key, however. The latter I think is more interesting.

  • Avoid discussing internal policies or detailing how a story or feature was reported, written, edited or produced and discussing stories or features in progress, those that haven’t been posted or produced, interviews you’ve conducted, or any future coverage plans.
  • Steer clear of engaging in dialogue that defends your work against those who challenge it and do not engage in media criticism or disparage colleagues or competitors.

I get how people wouldn’t want criticism of “the editor cut out my favorite part” kind of stuff out there, but “future coverage plans” is kind of a possible missed area. I mean, saying “It’s really interesting that the A’s are going down this road with their trades, I’m thinking of looking into it” or whatever seems kind of silly to halt. The second bullet is curious – sure, you don’t want your writers getting in drag-on battles about how they’re biased or not biased vs. the Yankees, but is it the end of the world for someone to say that they did XYZ in order to make sure they got the whole story? I don’t see how that’s any different from a reporter/columnist calling into a sports talk radio station, and being criticized about a column they’d written, and stating their case. It’s their job to be opinionated. Why not let them do so in the most awesomely transparent forum, online? Again, I think most reporters and on-air talent that have adopted technologies like Twitter have done a pretty good job grasping when and when not to delve into responses. Just my $.02.

At the end of the day, I think that this is a very situation-by-situation thing. For example – last Friday, I hit up SI’s Jon Heyman for tweeting about the Victor Martinez deal to the Red Sox before going on air on the MLB Network on Friday. I had found it curious in that the on-air reports weren’t going anywhere near the story that he (and a couple of others, moments later) had been buzzing about on Twitter, for a few minutes. Then, there was Jon Heyman on the air to discuss the completion of the deal. Pretty cool, right? If it were an ESPN reporter, and this policy were in place and they were sitting off-camera, about to go on ESPN’s air, would they have been able to post on Twitter about it? Maybe. What if we got to a point where said tweets actually drove people to turn on the MLB trade deadline coverage? Could happen. But was it good for SI that Heyman is out there doing this? Given that SI doesn’t have its own “channel” like MLB or ESPN does, perhaps it’s the way go to. That said, Heyman’s Twitter account is SI_JonHeyman, so he’s also clearly identified as an employee, and posting about things related to his job directly. It appears that “breaking” stories, at least the granular stuff like trades on trade deadline day, is an acceptable use for him.

Having a policy is FAR BETTER than having zero policy. People knowing what the line IS vs. what it isn’t is better, no? Will people test the limits of it? I think we’ve already seen that happen. Will this get worked out? Absolutely. ESPN’s a smart organization, and I think they’re trying to make a smart decision here. Would it be more fun if @espn did more than post links to stories? Sure, but let’s take a couple steps forward here, not jump off the cliff, okay?

May 22, 2009

Fun with ad ratings on Facebook

I’m sure this isn’t what Facebook had in mind when offering the opportunity to rate advertising. If you wanna get all contextual, then I don’t think it’s outlandish for me to have said this – I don’t like the Lakers, have never said I did, and so on. Just sayin’. =)

Fun with ad ratings

In other news, I *really* love M&Ms. No, seriously. And yes – it’s Friday, and I’m a little bit slaphappy.

[update: 5/25] It’s an epidemic!

Skynet knows where I am (most days)

WAY back in November, I flagged this NYT article by John Markoff, about how some technologies people are using are causing them to leave a “trail,” whether or not they realize it. Amusingly, my first thought about the item, even before making it halfway through, was that if I were one of the people that the fictional (gulp) Skynet computer system from the world of “Terminator” wanted to track down, I’d be screwed. Brightkite, Facebook, Loopt and a host of other services would do me in quicker than I could say “I’ll be back.”

While I can poke fun at it, I almost feel like these type of location-based services – which I’m in love with, truly – are to me and my “generation” of tech-heads the same as the doing-in of a lot of our teenagers and 20-somethings via their Facebook / MySpace photos and other permanent items on the Internet will be when some of them decide to become elected officials one day in the very near future. It’s not so much that I’m worried about time-traveling, relatively invincible machines that look like humans coming to my apartment and throwing me out the window, all while deeming my cat a non-threat, but between this, the use of EZ-Pass to pay tolls (or whatever your region of the U.S. or world might have), and other “helpful” items we rely on all day, we’re sort of putting it all out there for anyone with a couple of servers and some brains to crack down into something genuinely useful. A corporate terrorist (a domain name that I and a few friends somehow managed to not buy in the summer of 2001, thankfully) could easily do in a company’s team of tech-heads simply by figuring out who they were, and taking them out in one fell swoop at a “Tweet-up” or some other gathering in a public place, for instance. Okay, so maybe “useful” is in the eye of the beholder.

If this type of thing isn’t a marketer’s dream, then I don’t know what is. You thought Bluetooth-delivered advertising was something frustrating in the last couple of years? Wait to see what you’re going to get by posting your status on eighteen different services through whatever FriendFeed turns into next. Just sayin’.