Valentine's Day - 2011 style

I found this great video by the always great Socialnomics, and it was too cute not to share.




Also a rewind to the past.

Keyboard Conversationalist: Let Your Fingers Do The Talking

When I go to a social media site of an organisation I am following, I am not hoping to get their 30-page newsletter dumped on the page. If that was my intention, I would just read the newsletter, or attempt to read it as the case may be, depending on where it falls on the snoozemeter.

Writing for social media is diferent than writing for more traditional channels. Where a magazine or newsletter or press release typically used to be one way, the tools we use today have given readers a greater voice and have empowered them to speak up positively or negatively about a brand. Where writing used to be very business-like, a bit stuffy and in some cases, downright boring, writing for social media, as the name itself suggests is more social, more personable, more conversational - bringing the reader into the conversation and rather than persuading, it engages. Be familiar, but this does not mean "dumbing down" your content either. I don't advocate your English going to the dogs just because it's social media. The same rules apply, but it's your tone and your level of engagement that sets it apart from your Annual Report summary or your quarterly digest. It's pretty much like meeting your readers for drinks and having a conversation. Use bridges to connect your point with their experiences. I used Ellen's iPhone commercial here, not only cause I thought it was hilarious, but also it was a nice segue to the rest of the post. Don't be afraid to talk about yourself, an experience, something you observed at the supermarket etc, once it has relevance to your business point. You're writing for real people, who go to the supermarket and who may have gone through something quite similar and then they can better relate to it. But your witing should be infused with some life...real life.

Twitter is the ultimate space killer and focus enabler, with brands only having 140 characters to get to the point. So you message has to be really concise. I think this is generally indicative of communicating online. I would sit with that 30-page newsletter on my time, maybe on the weekend, if at all and give it the 2 hours of my life that it may require - 2 hours of my life I can never get back. The average person spends around 20-35 minutes a day online (note  said average, and not addicts!), so your content cannot rival the Nile in length. It means you need to be concise, to the point since you now have to write to adapt to people's time, their attention spans online and the space allotted in some cases. The "back" button is a serious thing and you should recognise that where a customer may be trapped for long stretches of time in your waiting room, with just a dozen copies of your newsletter on the rack, and no choice, the internet allows them to "put down" your article and find something else. So, while blogs are fab for expounding, noone wants to read your 5000 word entry, especially when they're networking on the down-low at work or taking a break from screaming babies at home. God knows when I am stealing time before I get ready for work to catch up on my reading, I don't have time to sit and read sermons - not when my toast is burning!

And for heaven's sakes, yes we are using social media to sell and that's how we convince our bosses to let us use it. However, your tweets and updates and blogs don't have to be a 24/7, non-stop commercial about your products. The continuous hard sell gets real old and can seriously come across as spam if you're not careful. Let your readers see the other side of your brand as well - staff, company activities, employee stories, customer events. And ask them questions. It's about engagement, it's about conversation. What do THEY have to say? Do you ever ask? What they say can be great content. It's not really about you as much as it is about you and them. Get excited about everything that makes your brand unique, and get your readers excited as well.



Photo credits: www.evisibility.com; www.mikeurbonas.com

How young is too young for social media?

There has been a lot of talk in the news and over drinks about kids and their use of technology, and whether the younger ones are emotionally ready to handle the wider world which these tools let into their lives. Facebook, for example, requires that you must be over 13 in order to be a member. Of course, in this world and with the wily youth, this is not so hard to get past. There is the concern that the typical kid drama that once used to be limited to school playgrounds and hallways, with innocent childhood pranks, would now escalate to full blown trauma with online bullying and cyber malice.

Imagine your child being the subject of a sinister Facebook group, where schoolmates weigh in on how much he/she sucks. This can be really traumatic on a child, and these are real concerns being raised by real parents and school administrators. But is the real enemy the technology? I mean, shouldn't the onus be on the adults to monitor what their children are doing online, especaially since there are bigger sharks out there than the neighbourhood kid with a grudge, namely the adult predators, seeking out unsupervised and vulnerable children.

Is restricting kids' use of computers the answer?. Of course not. This is the technology generation, where changes are afoot every minute. It is simply not practical for the caution tape to be placed around the computer desk in this day and age. So the questions parents should be asking then, is

• Do you know where your kids are?
• Do you know how long they stay online every day?
• Do you know what your kids are sharing online?
• Do you know what content they are posting?
• Do you know if they are being talked about or if they are doing the talking?
• Do you know if they are being malicious to other children online?
• Have you talked to them about social media?
• Does their school have a social media policy for its students?
• Are their teachers monitoring their online activity at school?

And if they are using these sites,

• Are you their friend?
• Can you access their profiles and the info on them?
• How are they using them?

Some parents don't see anything wrong with their kids being on Facebook, for example.

I have allowed my kids to have one. I set up their accounts....to make sure that they can't be found by just anyone. Actually, after I went to look for them, before I was their friend, I couldn't find them. Their friends haven't been able to find them either, so unless I provide a direct link, they can't be found, unless they are on someone else's list. They have gotten requests from people they don't know, and I have told them, not to accept anyone they don't know. I go and check their accounts and their friends list on a regular basis and if they can't tell me where they know the person from, then I delete them. This has only happened once in the last 6 months. As anything in life, if the parent is involved in their kids' life, and give them good instruction, most of the time, it's ok. It's also been a great way for my family that lives far away to talk to the kids. We don't live close to family...it's a great way to keep them connected. - Felis (www.squidoo.com/kids-on-facebook)

Some don't agree.

I think that allowing them into some sort of social networking site is good in order to teach them internet responsibility - however - it seems pretty impossible to navigate facebook without seeing things inappropriate for children. An kids orientated alternative I might agree to, but facebook? No. - kab (www.squidoo.com/kids-on-facebook)

There are more kid-friendly social networking sites like FBFKids and Club Penguin, but the other sites will always be there for anyone who wants to sign up, child or adult. And so will mobile phones, television, video games and all the other bells and whistles which come with our technological evolution and that come with their own "dangers".

The question is, where will you be?

Great article on the use of social media in the classroom.

How Social Media has changed the way we travel

So I talked a lot about travel this week so thought I would just end the week with a travel round up.

Social media has changed the way we travel, in more ways than one. You can plan your trip using social media, meeting new people in the process, use it to enhance your tourist/explorer/adventurer experience and on the back-end, when things go awry, you can turn to your new media tools to rescue you from various levels of hell.

But it's also changed the way we travel on a basic level. We now have a larger audience at our fingertips with which some of us may want to share our experiences with, be it through photos or a blog, and be it with closest friends and families or the voyeurs of the cyberverse. Though we cannot pack our best friends in our bags and take them with us, through our images and our words, they are right there with us, no longer after the fact, but in the heat of the moment. The simple touch of a button on a phone, or on a Netbook has made MY experience, OUR experience, and that is something we did not have 5-10 years ago. Tweets and real time status updates (and BBMs) are the new check-in phone calls, without the static and long distance charges. Videos and digital images are the new living albums. And out of the newness are born photographers, videographers and authors of life - those who may not be published or recognised in the mainstream, but whose words and visuals mean a lot to someone out there, for one reason or another, creating an audience unique to them. No need to worry about spelling (unless I am reading it of course cause yes, I am anal about it!) or bad lighting (unless you are anal about it).

Social media affords us a window to our lives and the lives of others. The only thing you really have to do is decide if you want that window and how wide you're willing to open it.



Photo credits: Me

Social Media is Hot over Iceland Ash

The immediacy and community of social media benefitted many of the millions of stranded travellers across Europe and the world. Sitting around in an airport is never fun. I have had my share of long layovers and having access to other people rather than running amok in a terminal was really a Godsend. I was never as unfortunate (knock on wood) as the "victims" of the Icelandic ash vs flightplans, but I can well imagine how having a channel to the outside world, to tips and help would lend to maintaining one's sanity in the face of uncertainty, especially after several days.

The Survival Guide page was one such page created on Facebook, where already over 1600 persons have been offering tips, advice and using the space for frustrated discussion.

Not only was it an opportunity for travellers to connect with each other and share their experiences and gripes, but it also afforded many of them the opportunity to find accomodation and support from others. On Twitter, hashtags like #getmehome, #putmeup and #stranded have provided tweeters with dozens of links to available hotel rooms, guest rooms, people willing to put up the stranded in a spare room of their private homes, etc.

The uncertainty lately with flightplans, with strikes and acts of God have made it even more important for social media to play bigger roles in the tourism and hospitality industry. Their crisis management plans not only kicked into high gear but also took to the cyberverse in a big way. Communication in this instance needed to be immediate and ongoing, with so many people being affected and taken completely by surprise. Not knowing when you're going to be seeing your home, your dog, your 2.5 kids because you're stuck in a foreign country can only exacerbate an already tenuous scenario. Twitter sites from airlines and hotels lit up like flash bulbs when news of the ash cloud stopping flights first dropped. Tweets and DMs have been going back and forth between airline representatives and passengers, as one can imagine. Despite not being stranded anywhere myself, I still took time to tweet @British_Airways yesterday on something related to the ash and their tweeters are on the ball, though it must be an extremely tough time for them all at the moment - passengers and airlines alike.

This Facebook group is just one of many which was formed within hours of the closure of European airspace to offer solace to passengers stranded miles from home in New Zealand.

There have also been a number of people who have used the opportunity to blog about their experience, from sitting in an airport terminal, to looking for more comfortable accomodation, trying to reach family in other cities, and the long, convuluted journeys home. Nadia El-Awady chronicled her Icelandic ash "adventures" in her blog, Inner Workings of my Mind. There are many more and which would be excellent reading, I am sure.

The silver lining in this ash cloud is that we are reminded that community still exists and though we use social media everyday for idle chatter or for business/marketing, we only fully appreciate how powerful social media communities really are in times of crisis. The help which many of the stranded have been able to get simply by logging on to Facebook or Twitter or Roadsharing via their laptops or their mobile phones, is testament to how important social media has become in our daily lives and how it can connect us to people we never imagined we would need to be connected to. Had this happened back in the 90's or maybe even 3-5 years ago, when social networking had not yet gripped our senses, I can only guess that the chaos experienced by those left behind would have been multiplied by 10,000. Here's hoping everyone gets back home safely in coming days and weeks.

Here is a really cool story about a webcam wedding which happened as a result of the bride and groom being stranded. Congrats to them. Ahh...technology. Isn't it great?

Content is king, even and especially during an election

There are three contentious issues most people tend to avoid, religion and a woman's weight being two of them. The other is politics. Though I have no comments on the election campaign at hand here on the twin island state, or the leaders or their parties, I stumbled across the Opposition Leader's Facebook page yesterday with over 5,000 fans. I immediately thought "Yes, She Can", in light of the Obama links running around.

The People's National Movement, in addition to their website, also has a Fan Page and a YouTube channel.
So, yes they are, but the question is CAN THEY?

Nothing really jumps out at me from either party's initiatives thus far. Photos from events, updates on meetings. The UNC page has some notes from meetings and news reports but nothing new. It's a social calendar as far as I see, and a space to post press ads and news articles.

I remember back in the day, there were a PNM and National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) manifesto on every coffee table, with the details of what each party hoped to achieve if elected.

Manifesto = what is my unique selling proposition?

Does the electorate even ask for this anymore? Do we even care? So while it is great that we are getting social and political parties reaching out, it's not that fantastic if it's the same old song and dance and nothing solid. I have not seen anything yet that will influence me in either direction. There is nothing really that I cannot access from picking up a paper or turning on the television. So far it's a lot of speech posting, ad posting, meeting schedules.

In much the same way that customers look to brands for rich content about what they do, about performance, new and upcoming initiatives, and look for brands to offer something different, especially when using the new tools, I think we should expect the same from our politicians and not get caught up in the tribalism. And this goes way beyond social media now.

I would love to see us get back to basics. Let's get the basics right - comprehensive information, information which pushes your political brand, your mission, your vision, your strategic direction. No sense upping the ante and using technology if we aren't really saying anything. Content is King, yet the content I have seen thus far is far from regal.

One thing I would really like to see happen one election year in the near future, though I doubt it will happen this time around (if ever) is the televised debate. Give us our leaders and their take on the issues and their plan for the country, minus the flag waving, minus the branded supporters, minus the campaign trail mudslinging. I really enjoy these. With an experienced, assertive and brilliant moderator, debates can be rich viewing.

The Brits had their first ever election debate this week and what is most interesting with this is that the televised debate has given Nick Clegg and the Liberal Dems in the UK greater visibility and perhaps a greater chance in the polls (not predicting that they will win eh). Nick Clegg, by most accounts was brilliant. The first past the post electoral system, which we chose to keep as a souvenir from the Queen, effectively maintains the "strength" of the two established parties. Nick Clegg possibly emphasised the limitations of this system in the UK's first ever televised debate, giving the traditional Labour and Conservative party leaders a run for their money and opening himself and his party to segments of the electorate he may never have necessarily been exposed to during the normal campaigning. The debate provided an avenue that the electorate would not have had before to hear the views of all the candidates, outside of the myopia of blind party allegiances.

I don't know about the rest of the population, but I want this type of debate, and this type of content from our leaders, not just the allegations and "in my back pocket" mysteries about candidates. These are the types of communication channels that we should tend to first, before we dabble in others, without giving us anything substantial to "feast on". Perhaps now that the election date has been announced we will get to the meat of the matter as far as manifestos are concerned. Let's hope so. If not, then I am not really interested in the myriad of communications channels available. They all mean nothing, if they say nothing.

As for a woman's weight, I will not even touch that...not even with a 15ft pole!

Nick Clegg on Facebook
David Cameron on Facebook
Nick Clegg on Twitter
The Conservatives on Twitter
Labour Party on Twitter


Funny review of the Brown/Cameron/Clegg debate here as well.

West Indies Cricket: A Brand in Need of Help

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like the ICC Twenty/20 World Cup is happening somewhere else? Is it really starting in the West Indies in a couple weeks? Am I missing something? I mean, sure we are in the midst of election mania here in Trinidad and Tobago, but even before that, with the exception of the lone promotional video with Gravy or Blue Food or whoever, there seems to be quite a laid back feeling. That's in my world, anyway. It may be different for you.

So I decided to do some digging from an online perspective. What I found was rather disturbing to say the least. I decided not to go to the WICB's website first. I decided to see if they had a presence on Facebook. Why? Over the years, there have been those who say the sport is dying in the region. Test cricket is not sexy to young people. The idea of sitting watching the lovely game over a 5-day stretch does not appeal to them. One day cricket is still entertaining but the team's "prowess" has not been consistent enough to keep the interest, loyalty and support of some fans. In comes Twenty/20 which seems to have injected some new life into the game and has brought a new legion of fans - what I call the "instant" crew. Instant coffee, instant meals, instant cricket. Half day of cricket is perfect for them, not to mention exciting, with a faster pace and big displays of ego with the bat and ball. Maybe not beautiful cricket but popular cricket. But this is not about the game and where it's going. This is about the game and where it is from a marketing perspective especially when one thinks about this segment of the market that is disillusioned with the game and have turned to other avenues for excitement.

So I turned to Facebook. Before I even got to West Indies cricket, I checked these pages first:

- Chelsea FC
- Arsenal FC
-FC Barcelona
- Soca Warriors

Chelsea's Page is fantastic. Not only is beautifully laid out, with rich photos and video, but it is current, interactive and has exclusive content. Over 660,000 fans who are active and passionate about their love for the team.

FC Barcelona's page is stunning and has over 1.6million fans. Again, current info, great content.

And while the T&T Soca Warriors are not in the same league as their European club colleagues, their Page at least has some currency and hosts updates of our local ballers's activities in their respective clubs etc. We don't have much to boast of as a team these days, being out of the WC and all, but that does not mean the Page had to die either. Good job, Soca Warriors.

So after going to where a lot of the young people's interest lie these days, I looked for WI cricket.

(shakes head)

Goodness. The site has nothing! Nada! Nil! The hard part about it, is they have over 8,000 fans - people who have an interest and want to know what's up. The site is basically an online forum with just the fans contributing, hoping, waiting, praying that someone out there in WI cricket world will post a photo, a video, an article - ANYTHING. So while they are where their untapped market spends most of their day, they aren't REALLY there. Sad. Such potential for fans to get to know the players on a more personal level, get some insight into their coaching schedules, how they feel about upcoming tournaments, maybe excite some with some exclusive offers. But nope...there was nothing at all.

So then I said, maybe their website is so fab that the FB Page was unnecessary. Get there and the page has some potential. I see some video, some current content - news, ticket info, updates. Good. I wanted to learn more about the ICC T20 tournament so clicked on the banner ad. Before I start on that, let me just say, I know that the ICC probably does have rights over what the WICB can do or say as it relates to this tournament. Based on how the ODI World Cup went a few years ago, with all the restrictions, I can bet they are probably muzzled...

But...the WI cricket team is still yours and though I don't know to what extent the Board can promote the tournament (who knows, maybe they can, maybe they can't), they can still promote the team and their chances which, I am not hesitant to say, are good in this drive-by form of the game.

So clicked on the banner ad.Of course it goes to the ICC site, which is of course a general site with info on all the teams. There is an ICC Facebook Page and Twitter stream for the tournament, again, for the tournament as a whole. You can send your messages to your team, wishing them luck in their games and so on. But that's it. Nothing branded in the maroon and green. Nothing for the fans of the WI squad on the WICB's website.

No video from our infamous captain, or the coaches. Nothing from the young players who are the role models for the young people we so desperately need to attract to the game. No T-20 forum or discussion board for fans besides the fans-only FB page. Just a static page in this age of social internet platforms. It was pretty depressing especially when competing with the bells and whistles of a page like Chelsea FC. Cricket Australia's site, though not quite that current, still has some content with over 45,000 fans giving their feedback quite regularly. So it's not a cricket thing. It's a WI thing! Epic fail!

The performance of the team over the past few years has not engendered any hope and passion either, and is it any wonder that people will turn towards exciting games with high performing teams like Chelsea FC? At the same time, out of sight, out of mind. If we only hear about the team when they have either a strike or a loss, which is usually all we hear these days, then the brand is being denigrated. As marketers, the responsibility should be on building on the positive elements of the brand and the game and using it to the team's advantage, to the advantage of the WI brand and to the advantage of the game in the region, especially among those who did not grow up knowing about Viv or Des, or who have, because of such bad performance (and Beyonce..lol), even forgotten Brian.

Or have we just completely given up on this team and cannot be bothered to work on strengthening their brand, as best as we could?

Well, I will make my own plug here to my 10.5 readers. The ICC 2010 Twenty/20 tournament starts in the West Indies on Friday April 30 and will run until Sunday May 16. Good luck to the West Indies cricket team. Hope to hear from from you somewhere, from someone. I have bashed you in the recent past, but I am still a fan and it would be good if your Board would do some work on marketing and strengthening your brand, so that more of us know who you are, what you're up to and how you feel about the beautiful game - and not just about how horrendous your performances have been. Maybe then, I will not be so quick to judge you, your captain and your management because I would feel an affinity or...something.

Hot Cross Buns go social in T&T

Yesterday afternoon when I left work, I did not intend to make any pitstops. But I had promised myself some ice cream. Then as I sat in traffic, the ice cream stop evolved into an ice cream/hot cross bun hunt. I am not sure why people make such a big deal about hot cross buns on Good Friday. Yes, I know all the stories and traditions, but it's really the same bun you can buy the other 364 days of the year, just it comes with an accessory. The icing sugar cross. So why all the hoopla?

This is what I asked myself as I walked into Hi-Lo and was greeted by about 15 people at the bakery counter haggling for buns. Great! But since I was there, I decided I could withstand the bumrush for a half dozen buns and in less than a minute, much to the chagrin of the dude next to me who seemed to have been there a while, I had my box of buns.

But then I read the paper this morning and was tickled to read that a bakery here used Facebook to control and build their sales of the sticky bunny goodness. Using their Facebook Fan Page, they managed to maximise their returns this year on their buns and build a nice little following, even offering free samples to fans. I think this is awesome and kudos to them for giving it a go. And fans I am sure were guaranteed of getting their buns instead of facing a literal beatdown and cut eye (the guy I out-bunned gave me dirty looks every time he saw me after that) from desperate bun seekers.

Happy Good Friday to my 3.5 readers! I'll have a bun for you.

Guest Post: Social Media, "the ultimate stormer"

As promised, there is a guest post today, in response to my post on social media and how it impedes, or rather, is allowed to impede upon life experiences and moments that a couple years ago, we revelled in, and enjoyed in its essence. This is a topic that resonates with a lot of people and I am glad to have another perspective. Thanks to GWTO for his take on how the social media phenomenon is taking over our lives. (You can also follow him out on Twitter: @gwto)



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I read the "Social Media - The other ball and  chain" post on this blog, and I found myself nodding along with it, simply because it put into words exactly what I've been thinking for a long time. Facebook has indeed become "the ultimate stormer, wedding crasher and boldfaced guest."

But it got me thinking about my ultimate pet peeve: people who take photos at sporting events and concerts. For full disclosure, I will point out that I've been guilty of this up until a year ago. And I'm not against the concept of people taking photos at these things per se. It's the people who do it incessantly. The people who spend long periods of time snapping, looking down at the viewfinder, and snapping again, thus beginning a long cycle of snapping, then looking down, snapping, then looking down, snapping then looking down before you feel the urge to rip the camera from their fingers and scream at them, "Look at the stage/field/court!" And don't even get me started on the people who take video of the event and upload ridiculously poor quality ten second clips to Youtube.

But I digress.

The truth is that it really doesn't bother me during the event itself. But it's the professional photos afterwards that suffer. Let's take a look at Steven Gerrard's goal celebration during Liverpool's 4-1 mauling of Manchester United last season at Old Trafford. Gerrard scored and celebrated in front of Manchester United's support, so you would expect to see angry faces in the crowd behind him as he kissed the camera.



But look at the woman on the left and the man in between Gerrard and the camera. Did that goal stab them through the heart? No. They don't care. They just wanted the best shot possible so they could go home, upload it, and sit patiently waiting for people to "like" it.

So I've vented and I've plugged Liverpool Football Club. You might wonder what my point is, and what this has to do with Social Media. And the answer? Not much. But if you take anything away from this post, let it be this: Social Media is great, wonderful, and fantastic. But don't let it interfere with the special experiences in real life. If you're at a wonderful event, you really don't need to record every moment of it. I promise you that they'll stay in your memories. Honestly. They will. Leave the photography to the professionals.

And, (shameless plug alert) while you're at it you should take part in my Project 2010. :-)

(Photo from the Telegraph; www.telegraph.co.uk)

Social Media: The other ball and chain

I remember the days when you could go to dinner with your girlfriends or go to the mall or take a nap, without a camera phone in your face. You would get home and not have to worry that already you had been tagged by Mary in 8 photos. Life used to be so simple then. You socialised without socialising. That is, you went out and enjoyed the concept of going out and catching up and having a good time and did not get lost in the tomorrow of "I need to share this with my network" or "This will make a great profile photo". These days Facebook does not even need an invitation or to RSVP. It's the ultimate stormer, wedding crasher and boldfaced guest.

You went out and did not tweet where you were. You just went out, stayed out, did uour thing and came back home. You did not have to worry about being caught on video in the supermarket or on the promenade. You did not have to ask a friend not to post that photo or tag you, or email them to ask them to take a photo down. One friend did not want to share the best day of her life with thousands of strangers and asked her friends who had posted her wedding photos not too long after the wedding, to please take them down. Some people do have the love affair with social media, some people don't.

I remember when not everything was everyone else's business.

I don't go everywhere with a camera or use my camera phone to catch every single moment. Shucks. My camera seems to only leave the house when I am on my way to the airport and some work-free environment. I enjoy hearing the jokes and tales from friends and not missing a single detail because I was foraging around in my bag for my camera phone so I could upload yet another photo to Facebook or Twitter, or make a video. I do have albums on Facebook, of vacations and special occasions or random crap, but I don't have scores of albums to memorialise every car trip, every birthday party, every dinner, every beach lime I have ever gone to. I don't sit at the dinner table with my smartphone checking tweets or emails. I like looking into the faces of friends and hearing their laughter and being wholly part of the moment. And if I don't have tons of photos to remember the occasion, or some means to let my network know that the steak was spectacular, that's okay.

I am old school that way. And though part of my job is social media - a big part - it's not my life either! Are you bound by the old ball and chain when it comes to social networks? Don't get me wrong - we all know the impact it has had on us and I will be the first to admit that social media is awesome awesome awesome. But oh gosh, who is the master and who is the "servant"?

Social Dating Adventures: Part 1

My Facebook friends would know all about this because I admonish people enough about it. So you put up a profile photo - it's nice looking, a full head shot of you looking relaxed and a bit cute. You maybe trawl the FBsphere commenting on notes, on friends' statuses or photos and their friends follow suit and oh, someone notices the comment above theirs, notices the profile photo and thinks, "wow, that girl is hot" and they click on your photo, get your abridged profile, because you know about privacy settings, and then send you a Friend Request.
 
If you're looking for a date online, this may work for you. If not, it becomes annoying. (I am annoyed)
 
But more and more people are using social media for dating. It's no longer merely online dating, but social  dating and I decided to do a social experiment this weekend with the new tools. So I did a search for "facebook dating" and got 5 recommendations

 

• Zoosk
• Are you Interested?
• Flirt Wall
• Best Match
• Most Eligible Single

 
After the first 2 experiments, I did not even bother with the last 3, but I added the apps for the first 2 and created profiles.
 
Zoosk allows you to connect with people in your local neighbourhood, up to 160km/miles away (I forget), so this meant I was going to be matched up with Trini men. It allows you to add ice breaker questions, which you can ask your prospective "date" to gauge whether you have anything in common. Being as anal as I am, I had 25 ice breaker questions, but this was supposed to be an experiment, right? In less than 5 minutes, I had 5 notes in my Zooskbox, 10 views. I thought, "damn, there are some SERIOUS people out there". Not many of these dudes seemed to be capable of starting a conversation or doing much beyond sending winks. But there was one dude who answered every single question and clearly showed he was interested. Sadly, I was not. I noticed a few of my friends also used the application, though how actively I am not sure. In any event, by the next day, I had deleted my account and removed the application because the bevy of strange looking men winking at me (including the 63 yr old grandfather from Arima) was too much for my senses. "Co-founder Shayan Zadeh said that the site's platform is the digital equivalent of going out to a bar with friends and meeting new people." And he's not lying. It's the same sort of thing, just without the smoke, loud music and consistent leering. So don't let anyone dissuade you from trying it cause in actuality, it is not that much different to meeting someone in real life!

The other application, "Are You Interested?" was more of a meat market than the first. Where Zoosk opens you up to local men, this one opened you up to the universe. So again, in less than 5 minutes I had 28 Likes from men as far as Israel and Finland. This one was not as "social" or I should say you had to fork out money to be social, so you could not send notes or even read notes unless you paid. This one survived for about 5 hours before it was deleted and removed.
 

So while it may not be for everybody, social dating is real. And not only is it real, but the person next to you in the taxi or in the next cubicle may be a social dater. The days of online romantic interactions being a joke, or for the lonely and desperate seem to be long gone. Now with social media networks, it really has become an extension of what you do everyday anyway, just with a purpose - pimping yourself out for love. Pretty much as I wrote yesterday about pimping yourself out for a job, many people are using social media to find that special someone and creating a personal brand that they hope would be appealling and attractive to a potential mate. I have friends who have met their husbands via online dating. Social media just increases the odds for the romantic at heart, with greater visibility and opportunity to find THE ONE. So though you may not know it or never really thought about it this way, online or social dating is pretty much creating and strengthening your personal brand, engaging your "customers" who in this case are your dating pool to get best results! You marketer, you!
 
Some people are also using social media to do other things - some less savoury than others. I know some of you know about these.
 

• You meet a guy, you think he's cute, you get home and what do you do? You know the answer! You go search for him on Facebook. Maybe it you're really serious, you send him a friend request hoping he will accept it.
• You use the newly discovered Facebook profile to stalk this person - find out where he is working, look at his photos, see who he hangs out with, what he did this weekend etc
• You check out what your ex is doing now and stew in your angry juices because he is tagged in photos with other girls, looking very happy too I might add.
• You wonder why your co-worker's status says "In a Relationship" while her boyfriend's says "Single".
• You update your status or send tweets which should not be out there in the public domain in the first place, denigrating the girl you think is with your boyfriend, or the ex.

 
The implications of social media and dating are endless and just way too much to discuss, but here is a great post on rules for social media dating. It was hilarious and sadly, I know people who break these rules. 
 
So anyway, I thought I would just take a load off and delve into this exciting new world of romantic interactions via new media. This one I may try this weekend, if time permits, and post my review next week (you know I love a good review). But technology is just taking us places we never knew we could go, isn't it? It's both amusing and intriguing. I hope you guys would try some of them out too and let me know what you thought.

Here is a great article about social dating and an interview with a guy who found his love via new media.

The Two Face Dilemma with Social Media

I came upon a really timely and interesting blog entry yesterday, because it is something that impacts me and I am sure some of you as well. With social media being everywhere, including in business, one has to seriously think about the identities which one has online and how it impacts your professional and personal lives. I blogged on this already but felt a need to "wheel and come again". Most people would have started off with a personal Facebook profile or a personal blog. That's how I started. Then companies started getting involved in social media and the landscape changed from being just about "me" and more about "us", and especially in a case where you are actively involved or recognised professionally, your social media profiles probably need a review. Not only that, but there is greater convergence of the personal and professional.


I have several social media identities, between work and play-

• Blogs - this one is more professional while I have others, which are more personal in nature
• Twitter - a healthy balance of the two
• LinkedIn - I don't know if there is any other way to use LinkedIn other than personal branding for business and professional networking
• Flickr/Photobucket - personal
• Facebook - my profile here is strictly personal

But here is the rub. I also manage a few professional profiles on YouTube, Flickr and of course, Facebook. Before pages came along, one had groups and if any of you have a group, you would know that when you send messages to your members, regardless of the name of the group, your personal profile photo and your name go out with the message. I cannot tell you (though my friends would know cause I complain about it enough) how many people I do not know personally, but whom I would probably interact with via my groups' activities, send me friend requests. Some may want to keep me close as a company insider for when they want assistance and some may just want a date, which sadly seems to be the usual reason. Not only that, but you have to then be mindful of the photo you have up. Can you imagine getting a message from an organisation you're following and the admin's photo is of him/her in a bikini/speedo, with a beer bong, and a spliff? How would that inspire you?

Now while I support networking and social media for business especially should heartily support interaction, am I willing to let customers and interested persons into my personal space? I say, without hesitation, no. With pages, I now can interact with customers from a strictly corporate profile which keeps the lines firmly in place and you can still contact me directly.

My personal spaces are for personal things. I don't want to share my vacation photos, my notes, my status updates about all my craziness with people I do not know personally. And you do continue to meet people in the course of doing business and they may want to "friend" you on Facebook, but those relationships are also different to the ones I have with the people who are my friends on Facebook. So do I have a professional Facebook page, for this purpose - without personal family photos, videos and the like? Do I ask you to become a Fan of my professional Page? Sure I think I am awesome but the word "fan" has this connotation and I am not that vain to think I am SO popular or SO interesting that I would attract "fans".

This is not to say that I would not become friends with people I form virtual relationships with. Not at all. I think social media allows for rich interactions which you may not have via the traditional channels. I DO have people I have met through work on my profile - once I have developed that relationship with them. I DO sometimes share stuff that is non-work related on my blog or in my not so personal spaces. And at the same time, I DO harness my personal profile for work sometimes, by sharing work stuff, asking for feedback or running ideas past them (and many thanks to my fab friends for being so supportive). So where does one draw the line then?

I try now to use what I have to network professionally. So LinkedIn and Twitter work for me right now and I have had great interactions there thus far.. My Facebook, let me say it right now, is off limits for people I do not know personally, or even people I work with. I do not subsrcibe to mixing my professional life with my personal life. And my Facebook profile is still not half as bad as some of the profiles I know are out there - with sexy profile photos, status updates about their sex lives and fetishes etc - and which are open and welcoming to colleagues, suppliers, bosses. Do you want to update your profile, which your boss has access to, saying that you're in Tobago when you called in sick that day? Scary stuff, man. I see some things sometimes and cringe. Not only that but I know of people who have unwittingly lost a chance at a job or a business opportunity because of stuff on their personal profiles, which they have opened to the masses.

But it's just different. Your personal voice and your corporate voice. Your personal profile and your corporate profile. Different but not separate. They still, I think are interwoven, especially if you are a marketer who really forms great, personal relationships with clients. Customers rarely want an autobot, do they? But as social media continues to permeate our lives, the lines will continue to get more and more blurred. You just have to decide where, when and IF you want to draw hard lines of demarcation.

Lent: The Ultimate Sacrifice...or Nightmare

With Lent upon us, many people have been pondering what to give up during the 40 day period. Traditional answers would be like meat, alcohol, cussing, sex. All are serious sacrifices. But what's scarier? Sarah Evans tweeted:

Last year during the season of Lent I asked people (regardless of faith): If you had to give up ONE what would it be: Twitter, FB or phone?

I almost passed out. I could live without meat and liquor, not too sure about cussing (lol) and I plead the Fifth on the last one. But you're asking me to decide between Twitter, Facebook and my phone? Je..eebies.

This is the world in which we live, peeps. I am horrified to think how I would survive without my phone for one. You remember those days when you had a phone book - a pocket sized book you would take down people's numbers in? I no longer own one of those and God forbid I should lose my phone or be asked to do without it for a week, I would not know how to call anyone, save maybe 3 people. And now with smartphones, would we be dumb without them? Or go crazy? My phone comes in handy when in waiting rooms, for example. Doctors keep you waiting. Airlines. Restaurants. During that time, you can get so much done via your phone - send emails and get some work covered, make appointments, catch up on news.

This brings me to Twitter. I use Twitter primarily for work. I tweet on 2 accounts, a personal account and the company account. The latter I update and use to interact with customers throughout the day and keep a finger on the pulse of our customer base. The former is great because I can follow the people and organisations that interest me, primarily work-related stuff, and access fab content which I read during breakfast or lunch, or in waiting rooms! There is always something new happening in such a short space of time and how else am I supposed to keep up? I have barely touched a newspaper in weeks. I follow CNN and BBC among others to keep current and not have blonde moments while socialising with others. Work-wise, I follow PR and social media feeds because again, keeps me current. Sometimes you find something quirky and interesting enough that you want to share it with your friends.

Facebook. Though I am not as addicted to some people I know (they shall remain nameless in this space, but you know yourselves), I love my Facebook. I can keep in touch with so many friends, who are scattered all over the place and this is where I go "offline" - off work. Work does factor in here occasionally, especially as I also manage the company's FB presence and I think by now my friends know exactly where I work with all the work things I tend to share from time to time. Again, I go back and forth between FB and the office, getting feedback, answering questions, hopefully solving problems.

And at the end of the day, sometimes in traffic, with the help of Blackberry IM, I share a laugh with my peeps about the day, make plans for the weekend and send ridiculous voice notes.

So you're asking again, which would I give up? If I gave up all of the other things - the meat, the sex etc - could I keep Twitter, Facebook AND my phone??

Photo credit: www.blackberryinsight.com

Cyber chicken!

I often wonder how on earth we managed to live without the internet and all the sexy stuff that comes with it.

This weekend, I went to my neighbourhood Hi-Lo and as I stood in the meat section, I saw that there was no chicken. Aghast, I stalked the meat cutters in the back room until I saw them rolling out the trolley with chicken. To my horror though, there were only freshly packed and wrapped chicken breasts.

I am NOT a fan of the chicken breast. I have had many a bad experience trying to cook breasts and to get them all succulent and moist as they are in restaurants. I am a thigh girl, myself, cause thighs make this whole moist and succulent thing rather elementary, since thighs have fat and breasts have none. But I am also trying to eat healthily so I grabbed a pack of breasts and shoved it unwillingly into my basket.

I got home and there they were - the breasts - looking back at me mockingly, willing me to put them in the oven so they could get all tough and stringy and dry. But I was not willing to let my $25.99 go to waste either so I logged on to Facebook and posed the question on my FB status

(Me) wants to know how to get my chicken breast as tender and moist as the ones I order in restaurants. Somehow mine never comes out that way. Always dry and lethal and usually causes choking. I bought a pack of sexy boneless boobs and refuse to fail again!

Needless to say, I have some great friends and aspiring chefs in my life who all offered advice to aid my chicken breast mission. I also got a lovely email (thanks W.C) with fab-u-lous ideas for the breast and of course, nothing beats Google in times of dire straits, and I also learnt about brining said breasts.

I have decided that the internet, with its social media, search engines and the like, is one of the best ways to get feedback, ideas and all sorts of hoo-haas about everyday life that maybe 5 years ago, you would have been forced to painstakingly search around for, via relatives, television or dusty encyclopaedia. I have come to depend on it for everything and cannot remember life without it. Thinking...thinking..nope...can't remember. The internet has quite possibly saved the chicken breasts from a stringy death, my oven from a slew of curses, my jaw from overwork (trying to chew and masticate said stringy flesh) and my $25.99!

It is a great place to fuel what interests you and to find new interests. I have always loved cooking and still don't always have the time to do it but when I am caught, as I was this weekend, with the raw materials and not quite sure what to do with it, sites like Allrecipes.com, where I have a profile and a packed cyber recipe book, as well as linking with friends online, helps drive the need to create in the kitchen. And that is an awesome thing!

And though I decided on shrimp today, since I had some leftover from last week's Hi-Lo adventure, I will be sure to let you all know how good my breasts turn out - notice I said how "good" cause there is no other outcome this time around. But I have high hopes for the outcome and you can stay tuned for it right here.

Unfriend - Oxford Word of the Year

(AP) What word sums up the year 2009?

How about "unfriend?"

That's the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year. It means to remove someone as a friend on a social networking site such as Facebook. Each year Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year. Oxford lexicographer Christine Lindberg says "unfriend" has "real lex-appeal."


Finalists for 2009 also included "netbook," a small laptop, and "sexting," the sending of sexually explicit texts and pictures by cell phone.

Me: There was also "intextication" - distracted because of texting on a cell phone while driving a vehicle.
To be honest, I had never heard of the word "unfriend". I would simply refer to the act of deleting someone from my friends' list as...well...deleting. Who is responsible for these words being part of official lexicon though? Is there a committee? Is there a  board that oversees these additions? Or is it just some lazy dude, who once a year, picks a word out of a hat and says "this is the word of the year"? I am confused. And how do I get a word included in the Oxford dictionary? An Avi-ism? I have plenty, some more profane than others, most made up while driving and in the throes of road rage, but who do I speak to to get a bligh? Who is the Oxford Daddy? Do you notice that social media is taking over the way we communicate in every way possible? My God! What's next??

But as we are talking about unfriending people, I have to confess that there are some actions which are quite unfriendly and which would warrant some unfriending if I did not love the people on my friends' list as much as I do. Because in reality, my friends' list is not an honour roll of people whom I would like to know, or who flattered me enough that I felt the burning desire to add them. My friends' list are actually...well...friends. But friends, friends....please don't do this to me.

The mass message/mass threads. You know...when someone sends a video or a link via Facebook message and then everyone replies filling up your inbox with junk. Sorry. Opinions. While this is all well and good that we are sharing and exchanging ideas and thoughts, can we do it somewhere else? Seriously? I have stopped tagging people in notes, except for my Grey's Anatomy notes, because I recognised it was annoying. In fact, this blog should serve as a single forum for things I may want to share and when I have updated, I post the link on MY page and it will end up on friends' feeds for them to do with as they please. If you want to share a video and get my feedback, just post the video and let me come find it. Don't do the mass email thing where all 20 of your other victims...umm...friends comment over and over, on and on, and as soon as I check one, the little number (1) appears next to my Inbox again. Just don't do it.

And because there is no way to unfriend myself from these messages, it persists and I get annoyed and then you ask, why I don't comment or give feedback. Now you know why. I don't want to be part of the spam parade quite frankly.

Urban voyeurism

September 2009 stats showed that Trinidad and Tobago was ranked #30 on the list of Highest Number of Facebook users per capita globally, with 182,480 persons on the social media site, representing a 13.63% penetration rate...and growing.

And some of the most ridiculous and disturbing content also comes out of the twin-island republic. While social media has its advantages and is fast replacing traditional channels of communication, because of its immediacy, its appeal to a more tech-savvy demographic and its variety of channels, with Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Blogger etc etc etc, it also, like most anything else, can be demonised and used for disseminating the most alarming content.

The most recent of these which I have received is the now viral "Licks on the Promenade" clip, which goes on for over 8 minutes, and shows a young woman and her boyfriend engaged in a most crass argument on the Brian Lara Promenade, complete with profanity, violence and just plain absurdity. I would comment on the woman in question, but all I will say is that she should not show her face anywhere for the rest of her life for acting so stupidly in public. But it was not just for that brief moment, at that location, but with the assistance of the amateur media crew on the scene aka limers with a camera phone, she is now a nationwide, dare I say, global phenomenon.

But as I said in my reply to the stupid video, what was most disturbing to me is the fact that here was a very volatile situation, where someone could have been injured or worse cause tension and anger were escalating by the second, and there was someone with a camera phone, totally exacerbating the situation and in fact making it worse by provoking the couple involved, moreso the female assailant.

This is my problem. Facebook and these sites have now provided idlers with a convenient channel to exploit others and exploit negative situations. Now if in this situation, someone had been stabbed or shot, would Mr Camera Phone have kept shooting his video and worse, would he have posted it online to share with the world? When does the fun end and serious contemplation of decency begin? I saw very limited attempts in this video attempting to defuse the situation, and Part II of the saga (yes, cause Part I was clearly not enough for the masses), shows the young lady attacking the cameraman and yet he keeps filming and laughing and mocking an incensed and emotionally charged woman. If something had happened to HIM, should we have then felt sorry for him? It was clear that this was not the place or time to channel your inner Spielberg. But clearly we have not thought about time and place issues when it comes to the new technologies and people.

This comes on the heels of videos of female students fighting in the street with their skirts being ripped off and the fight continuing with them in just their panties. No matter what one may think of these girls and their behaviour, the reality is they were still minors, so did we need to videotape them in their underwear and post it online? YouTube eventaully saw fit to take the videos down since it breached their policies, but do we need someone else to tell us what we should know already?

Where do we draw the line? When do we realise that everything out there is not for cyberspace? Because if this is not the case, then anything can be found on Facebook in the future Anything. As one person said, you could simply tell someone off for poor customer service and then find yourself as the star of a viral video the next morning. Or you could be on Maracas in your swimsuit, sleeping under the Caribbean sun, and some joker could make you part of a sordid video, without you even knowing it.

Where do we say, okay...maybe this is not the place for this. But it goes back to basic "broughtupsy", and while we will ALWAYS have those who have no sense or propriety and will always find some insane new way to publicly humiliate themselves, do we need to help them along? Because then what does it say about you, the camera man or woman, who may coax them along for a "better" video. For more hits. For a popular video that everyone shares with their friends.

Society has long devolved into one where few people do anything to stop criminal activity, or to think "How can I stop this?" and some of us still have to come to terms with this. But are we also standing by, doing nothing, with our flip cams, our camera phones,  promoting negative elements via social media?

Someone stood by on the promenade for 8 minutes videotaping, what should have been an otherwise private event anyway. But seeing that the woman and her man put themselves out there anyway, does that still mean we have a right to just broadcast the nonsense. When do we stop and say, "Enough of this".

Enough of this.

Officer, I have an alibi. I was on Facebook!

November 12, 2009: ASSOCIATED PRESS


NEW YORK -- A 19-year-old New York City man arrested on robbery charges has been exonerated thanks to his Facebook page.

Rodney Bradford was held for 12 days on suspicion of robbing two people on Oct. 17 in the Brooklyn public housing complex where he lives.

Bradford and witnesses insisted he was innocent. They said he was at his father's Harlem apartment when the crime occurred.

A playful message was posted on Bradford's Facebook page one minute before the robbery. In it, he asked his girlfriend where his pancakes were.

Prosecutors dropped the charges after Facebook verified the words had been typed from a computer at his father's building.

---------------

Facebook has been in the news a lot. And it has been getting more and more technical, with legal issues arising as well. A judge in Bermuda was faced with the possibility of declaring a mistrial in Bermuda after a prosecutor expressed her annoyance on proceedings via Facebook. Wow. What an idiot. And now this dude. Now they verified that the words were typed from a computer in the father's building but did they do that fancy CSI stuff to see if he was actually the author of said words? Did they check the keyboard keys for his sweat or test the computer chair for bodily fluids, match it to DNA taken from a cotton swab? Or is Facebook so potent that it just stands on its own as a credible alibi. I am not questioning the system or the young man's innocence. Maybe the kid really just wanted some pancakes and was nowhere near the scene of the robbery for which he was accused. But it begs the question, will criminals soon be using the social tools to circumvent the law?

What is to stop me from giving my accomplice my password for my Twitter site, have him/her tweet while I go out on a heist? You may laugh, but I am sure you all read the news and hear about some out of this world stuff (hot air balloon boy; woman marrying dog...you name it, it's out there), so why can't this happen?

Facebook is known as a lot of things - maccobook, farsebook, the great evil, idlers' paradise. Add its new moniker - alibi.