Meerkat Communications

Back in the day…

Before I get into Monday’s Wired Woman event on “Building Community with Social Media“, I have to share this brilliant comic from The Oatmeal. If you haven’t checked them out yet, you really should!

I think it really does illustrate the difficulty with Web 2.0 and the social media explosion. How are you an expert? How did you build your reputation? And do you really know more than the next guy? It also ties in wonderfully to the Building Community theme (albeit in a humourous stab at the subject).

The fantastic speakers we had at our event definitely were not “Social Media Douchebags” and really did have a lot of insight into turning that online community into ROI, and gave us valuable tips, tools and insights. The speakers were:

• Briana Tomkinson / Tenth to the Fraser and Fjord West – Co-creator of popular New Westminster blog, and Marketing Strategist with Fjord West
• Carisa Miklusak / SoMedios – New media marketing, business development, and leadership consultant
• Chris Breikss / 6S Marketing – Co-founder and Director, and Vancouver’s Social Media Innovator for 2010 with partner John Blown
• Mhairi Petrovic / Out-Smarts Marketing – Social Media and Internet marketing strategist and CMO of Out-Smarts
•  Sibylle Tinsel / Club Fat Ass – ‘Chief Executive Fat Ass’ Online Community Manager and social media co-ordinator

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the round table format and it generated a lot of discussion, with different women from vastly different industries coming together to add their insights too. One of the biggest lessons I took away from the event was the importance of listening. See what people are saying about you/your industry and start to build a following by answering their questions and finding your audience in the right places.

I came away with a lot of ideas and also a sense of pride that the event went off so well.

Now to get to the point were I really can add “social media expert” to my Twitter bio…

Geraldine

Meerkat Guest Blogging Series – Starting September 1st 2009

Starting September 1st, we are excited to be able to share with you the perspectives and insights of a range of business professionals on the Meerkat Blog. We will be focusing particularly on writing, business communication and social media, and you will hear from SEO experts, published authors, academics, magazine and journal editors and more. We will be featuring two or more guest bloggers each month,  and invite you to comment.

Some of our guests include:

• Mhairi Petrovic – CMO and Founder of OutSmarts, Social Media and Internet Marketing Solutions
• Andy Hadfield – Web 2.0 Strategist at First National Bank, ZA.
• Darlene Webb – Business and Technical Communication Instructor at BCIT
• Dina Grskovich - Founder of DMG Strategy, Strategic Change Consultants

Stay tuned for more information, and let us know if you are interested in contributing too: info@meerkatcommunications.ca

I’ve been wanting to follow up on my previous post about Twitter after the overwhelming response I got via LinkedIn and Twitter and the comments on the post too, and today’s news got me to sit down and put finger to keyboard, so to speak.

The Twitterverse is All Abuzz

Today Michael Jackson died at age 50. Now as surprising as that news was, what was more shocking to me was the speed of the news disseminating through Twitter. I heard about his heart attack and within a short while, I heard he was dead (all via Twitter) before Yahoo News was even reporting it (my usual quick dose of news when I log onto my email). I’ve witnessed an outpouring of sympathy as well as the predictable early jokes. And what is interesting, too, is that there has been an aggressive backlash against celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who earlier today posted a pic of Jackson and distasteful (his forté) comments that accused Jackson of faking the heart attack to get out of what would have been his comeback tour. Twitterers are calling for a boycott of Perez and are urging people to unfollow him.

@mashable has written an interesting post (including the offensive Perez blunder) in which he comments on the damage this might do to the blogging community. An interesting observation, though I think perhaps not totally true? Perez Hilton is offensive, that’s how he got famous and I am sure he realises, much to his dismay, that he has just made a terrible terrible mistake and will feel the repercussions, but I don’t see exactly how this will impact negatively on bloggers or Social Media in general.

Some Tweets on the topic:

hbgoddard: Perez Hilton should have died instead of Michael Jackson!

MamaNats: Perez Hilton is a true scumbag.

luckygnahhh: ‘Perez Hilton is a blemish on humanity. If you give him a voice, he cannot seem to use it for anything good.’ Best quote ever.

SmittnbyBritain: RT @mashable Perez Hilton‘s Despicable Michael Jackson Coverage Creates Backlash – http://bit.ly/URmTz  #unfollowperez

nonifan: Please retweet: just signed petition ‘Remove Perez Hilton as Teen Choice 2009 Nominee’ – http://301.to/24q

As of yet, I haven’t seen any posts supporting Hilton, just a lot of hate.

Heard it Through the Grapevine

Along with the Perez scandal, another strange development today was the rumour of Jeff Goldblum’s death that was spreading like wildfire on Social Media channels. And perhaps this is where @mashable’s comments on the tarnishing of Social Media’s image comes in – sometimes the grapevine is not the best source of news! Rumours have abound that the actor died on set in New Zealand and there are numerous tweets from people confirming his death, denying it, asking if it’s true.  I even saw a retweet of Kevin Spacey’s confirming that it was NOT in fact true.

Social media is powerful – I have been impressed with the support and news about the Iranian protests – but sometimes the speed of information sharing can lead to rumours and mishaps. There are so many ways to use Social Media platforms effectively, but as many ways to mess up and get yourself into trouble! I often talk to students in Communcation class about how technology has effected communication – particularly its speed. Compare writing a letter to someone that you know will only get it in a month to a text message or an email that they’ll get immediately. One thing I always warn them about is taking the time to THINK, PLAN and REVISE before they send off an email.

Bet Perez Hilton wishes someone had given him that advice!

Geraldine