This video features Heather Maves (@heatherm17), blogger & social media content writer for Sentry Insurance — and a mighty fine archer.

Despite it’s modest size (about 100 pages), Real Truth is filled with actionable insights that are easily understood by traditional marketing executives and business leaders, without time-wasting jabber or hollow social media evangelism.  Real Truth answers the most common question that business leaders have about social media: Why bother?It’s not about social media. It’s about customer service.

“If you deliver old-school customer service to your customers — if you care, listen, and have humility, and if you put people first — you will reap rich rewards from social media. You will build a volunteer army of passion-driven, newly-empowered marketers,” Harr said. “The brands that are winning in social media do it old-school.”

And he’s right. The most successful companies with social media are the ones that have put the greatest effort into customer service — and knowing their customer. Social media is just a method of reaping and measuring the rewards of doing so more quickly.

The book demonstrates to business owners how the balance of the business-customer relationship has changed — making it more important than ever for business owners to leverage the law of reciprocity by providing the highest level of customer service possible. Harr includes ‘actionable insights’ throughout Real Truth that help business owners test social media by putting simple tactics in action.  For example, he suggests that join the Twitterati by joining Twitter and putting four simple rules into action: 1) spend more time retweeting than tweeting; 2) Tweet about things that matter to you; 3) focus on getting others to talk (see #2 for topics); and 4) Have fun.

The book provides one of the best summaries on social media metrics that I’ve read. Instead of measuring your success on Twitter by counting the number of followers, Harr suggests monitoring more meaningful metrics: How far your Tweets reach; How often your tweets are shared; How influential people who retweet your messages are (based on their Klout score); and the click-thru rate on content that you share.

Real Truth is a good read that resonates with business owners and social media evangelists alike.

We don’t talk anymore

Recommended by Harr, “The Break-up” The Break-Up’ is a classic YouTube video about the relationship between an advertiser and a consumer. Enjoy!

We recently had the opportunity to interview Sam Espinosa, Director of Marketing for stickK.  Sam  is a Social Pro, so we wanted to share this entire interview with everyone.  Enjoy!

Stickk.com is a tool to help people meet their life goals.  Can you explain how stickk.com can help someone meet their goal?
Espinosa: stickK.com helps you reach your goal by utilizing the fundamental tenants of behavioral economics.  Put simply, money and reputation are powerful motivators, and we use both to positively influence your behavior.  By combining incentives and third party accountability to your goal, stickK nearly triples your chances for success.

To set your own incentive, stickK gives you the option to put your own money at risk. In a way, it’s betting on yourself, where you are fully in control of the outcome.   As long as you reach your goal, we don’t charge you a penny.  But if you fail to reach it, we will charge your credit card for the amount you put at stake, and send it to a person or organization of your choice.  Taking it one step further, you can even choose to send your money to an Anti-Charity, or an organization you hate.  Putting money on the line raises the price of failure.

And, to make sure you don’t fudge the truth, you can select a Referee to verify your progress, and you can invite friends or family to become Supporters.  Supporters find out about your success each week over email.  This way, it’s not just your money at stake, it’s your reputation, too.

What is a ‘commitment contract’ and how does it work?
Espinosa: stickK starts by turning your goal into what we call a Commitment Contract.  A Commitment Contract is a binding promise by you to reach your goal, personalized using your own incentives and third party accountability to increase your chances for success.

For any Commitment you create, you can pick the start and end date, the amount you want to put at stake (if any), and who gets that money if you are unsuccessful.  You can also pick your Referee, and your Supporters.

There are two types of Commitment Contracts, One-Shot Commitments, and Ongoing Commitments.  One-Shot Commitments are typically chosen for goals that must be completed by a specific date.   For example:  Run in the Boston Marathon.   Ongoing Commitments are chosen for goals that can be completed in stages, where each stage is measured independently in the form of weekly reports.  You chose the number of weeks you will need to achieve your goal.   For example:  Run 4 times a week leading up to the Boston Marathon.

What impact does weekly reporting have on meeting a goal?
Espinosa: Weekly reporting is important because it requires you to encounter your goal on a consistent basis.  Over time, that repetition and consistency lead to positive habit formation.  For example, you’ll start to remember that every Friday you are going to have to report your weight.  So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, you are more conscious of your eating and exercise habits, knowing that in just a few days you are going to have to show progress.  It starts to influence your thought process and makes you more aware of the small choices you need to make all week if you want to be successful by the time your next report is due.

Reporting regularly also helps ensure that no matter how busy life gets, there is always a point each week when you stop to think about the goal you set for yourself.  That interaction is necessary to make any goal effective in the short and long term.

How important are the ‘stakes’?
Espinosa: Very. More than any other element of the Commitment Contract,  stakes make the biggest difference in determining the likelihood for success.  Users who make a Contract with stakes are successful over 70% of the time.

Consider our “Cheeseburger Example”.  Let’s say you are trying to lose 1 lb. a week, for 10 weeks, and you have $50 at stake for each week you don’t lose a pound.  If you have to weigh in tomorrow, and you are looking for something to eat for dinner tonight, a cheeseburger might normally only cost you $5.  But, if you eat it and that means you don’t make your weight the next day, that cheeseburger isn’t just $5 anymore, it’s gonna cost you $55.  And let’s be honest, would you ever really pay $55 for cheeseburger?

How important is having a ‘referee’?
Espinosa: A Referee is important to keep you honest.  Every time you submit a report, your Referee receives an email asking them for confirmation of the report’s accuracy.   And, we take the word of your Referee over yours. Without a Referee, when the going gets tough, it can be easy to slip back into your old ways.  But if you knew your friend, family member, or co-worker was going to be asked to verify your progress, it puts the pressure on you to do what it takes to meet the goal.

How important is having a ‘supporters’?
Espinosa: Everyone has faced peer pressure at some point in time, and it’s not easy to fight.  The concept of the Supporter is no different.  They are your cheering section, but they are also keeping an eye on your progress.  So, your reputation is at stake.  If your friends and family are going to find out about your progress each week, you are going to do what it takes to make sure you don’t let them down.

How many stickK users are there?  How many goals achieved?
Espinosa: There are nearly 150,000 stickK users, and over 120,000 Commitment Contracts.  As for success, that just depends on the type of Contract you create.  It can be different depending on the layers of incentives and accountability that you put in place.

How does it feel to be a change agent for so many people?
Espinosa: It’s inspiring to see people succeed, and it feels great knowing that we provide a service that helps people help themselves.  Because it’s not like this is magic.  We are just helping you approach goal-setting differently, giving you a new perspective. The rest is up to you.

What goals are most common?
Espinosa: Lose Weight is the most common, but a large percentage of the goals that people make classify as “Custom,”  meaning anything and everything under the sun.

‘Carrot’ versus ‘stick’?  What’s the role of each? When are each effective?
Espinosa: At stickK.com, it’s mostly about the stickK.  Using negative incentives (or loss aversion) to positively influence behavior.  But, the carrot is there too.  When you reach your goal, you get to enjoy it J

Anything else you’d like to add?
Espinosa: On that note, stickK has developed a separate version of its website for corporations and organizations to use for their constituents.  In this case, it’s more carrot than stickK.  Employers can use our private solution to provide a wellness or performance based program for employees, and reward them for reaching goals.

These are things that don’t come naturally to me. It’s been more than 30 years since I’ve balanced a checkbook, created a formal household budget, or given adequate attention to my family’s personal finances.

However,  I’ve been able to restore financial responsibility almost overnight with help from Mint.com — a free web-based from Intuit that allows you to connect all of your banking, credit card and loan accounts in one place.

Mint can connect and securely download transactions from virtually every bank, credit union and credit card account in the United States that has online banking capabilities. It can connect with more than 16,000 US financial institutions and supports more than 17 million individual financial accounts.

It’s no surprise that the site has more than 6 million users.  It took less than 24 hours for the site to connect all of my bank accounts, credit cards (including Kohls, Best Buy and other retail cards), loans, and investments. Mint imported 90 days of credit card  and checking transactions and categorized expenses to show me where I’m overspending and provide an accurate picture of my finances.  Mint’s web-based interface is ‘crazy easy’ to use — and so are its applications. Within 48 hours, I’ve become more attuned to my personal finances than at any other time in my life.

I feel like a grown up.

Mint also offers applications available for Android, iPhone and iPad that can help make financial decisions in real-time by viewing up-to-date accounts balances, checking your budget, and considering upcoming expenses.

The site also provides personal finance-related resources that I’m hoping to take advantage of in upcoming months — tips about personal finance, budgeting resources, alerts, trending resources and videos.

How much Stuff is enough?

George Carlin’s classic standup routine about the importance of ‘Stuff’ in our lives. This was from his appearance at Comic Relief in 1986.

The offer to purchase a home on the Wisconsin River, near Stevens Point, WI, is part of a change that I triggered 60 days ago, when I accepted a great new job at Sentry Insurance.  The new job is only 90 miles away– but its a whole new life for EVERYONE in my family: New home, new schools, new community, new friends, new opportunities — and a new cloud of uncertainty as we consider the good friends and the good life we’ll be leaving in De Forest, WI.

I’m the Christopher Columbus (“new world explorer”) of our small band. While my family finishes the 2011-2012 school year at home, I’m exploring the new community and laying the foundation for our move.  I’m currently leading two lives, in two places.

My current life transition “brings to mind” the 1711 Scottish poem by James Watson entitled Auld Lang Syne. The song is an uncertain celebration ”for (the sake of) old times” and unknown beginnings. It’s an anthem for funerals, farewell parties, graduations and New Year’s Eve parties.

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot, and old lang syne ?

For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup, and surely I’ll buy mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

We two have run about the slopes, and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne.

We two have paddled in the stream, from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand my trusty friend, and give us a hand o’ thine !
and we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.

Life pulls us apart in new directions. As it does so, we hold close to hands of friendship. We draw our strength from the familiar things around us before donning our coats, tugging our hats, gloving our hands and moving steadfast forward into darkness, wind, snow, and uncertainty.

Warmed by recent time among friends, our fears are (at least temporarily) set aside. We persevere with confidence.

A Sign of the Times (Square)

In 60 seconds the ball drops to change 2011 to 2012! Lady Gaga pushes the button to drop the glowing ball. The ball counts down from 60 seconds and when it is 2012 everyone goes insane and confetti drops!

 Credits: Written for the3six5. 365 days, 365 points of view.

‘Accountability’ can be the key to  eliminating bad habits — or achieving personal goals — especially when it’s combined with the power of social media.  stickK.com helps people use negative incentives (loss aversion) to positively influence behavior.  It allows you to pledge money that will be forfeited to friends, charities, or anti-charities (organizations you HATE) if you fail to meet weekly goals. Stickk boasts nearly 150,000 stickK users and over 120,000 Commitment Contracts.

I’ve been using the site since September to track my goal of losing 30lbs in 30 weeks.  So far, I’ve lost more than 20lbs with mixed success. I’ve reached 75 percent of my weekly goals.

“Putting money on the line raises the price of failure,” said Sam Espinosa of StickK. “Money and reputation are powerful motivators, and we use both to positively influence your behavior.  By combining incentives and third party accountability to your goal, stickK nearly triples your chances for success.”  The site encourages users to select a Referee that can verify your progress and you recommends that you invite friends and family to be Supporters.  Supporters find out about your success each week over email.

“This way, it’s not just your money at stake,” Espinosa said. “It’s your reputation, too.”

Social accountability is also a powerful disincentive. That is why some police departments, like the Deforest Police Department (the small midwest town where I live) are learning to leverage these ideas are starting to share traffic violation videos on Facebook and YouTube.

According to Lieutenant Dan Furseth, the Deforest Police Department has been sharing squad car videos of local traffic violations on Facebook for two years. He said that reactions to shared videos have been overwhelmingly positive — except among those featured in traffic videos.

While no one likes the hefty fine that accompanies many traffic violations, they often aren’t big enough disincentives to prevent unwanted behaviors.  A bigger disincentive for many of us, is the embarrassment associated with a traffic penalty. We don’t want to be seen on the side of the road or in the local newspaper’s police report by people we know.

Caught in the Act

This video from my local police department in DeForest, WI, (population 9,074 ) show a driver passing another vehicle on a residential street, into oncoming traffic at 45 mph in a 25 mph residential area. Driver stated that he was late for work. $380 in fines and a 9-point reduction on his driver’s license.

The laws of attraction, popularized by 2006 film The Secret (and the subsequent book) suggest that the the path to being liked is mastering ‘likeability’.  If you act like a ‘likeable person’ — or offer a ‘likeable brand’ — fans, followers and friends will flock to your door.  Using the laws of attraction, marketers seek success by creating a strong, likeable brand and promoting it with a large marketing budget (AKA mass marketing).

That doesn’t work in today’s world… where ‘likeable’ is akin to ‘forgettable.’ Actions speak louder than words– and that’s what the laws of reciprocity are all about.  Two concepts drive the laws of reciprocity: 1) Treat people well (the golden rule); and 2) perform likeable acts without specifically requiring an in-kind response.

When I recently changed jobs, I spent the last two days writing LinkedIn recommendations for the peers, employees and vendors I enjoyed working with.  I didn’t ask for any of these recipients to recommend me back — but some did.  For every five recommendations I sent, I received one or more recommendations back.

Collin Kromke of SocialPoser.com, exemplifies this when he participates in Twitter chats.  He filters all posts that include a question mark (“?”) and provides responses when he can. He’s less concerned with being ‘retweetable’ than being helpful. Collin’s likeability is based on his willingness to share his often contrary, sometimes unpopular opinions with others. When he participates in online conversations, they’re always the better for it.

In Contrast, Peg Fitpatrick attracts a large Twitter following and loyal fanbase by reaching out to others, making connections, and making everyone’s day a bit better. She has an infectious positive attitude.

Author Stephen Covey, describes this process as making deposits into the ‘emotional bank account’ of others.  When you perform likeable acts, you earn likeability back. The laws of reciprocity also drive sustainability.  It allows you to retain customers — even after they’ve had a bad experience. I’ve experienced this first hand while providing customer service for brands on Twitter.  When a customer complaint on Twitter attracts a company response (“you seem frustrated by our company’s actions. I’d like to learn more..”) , it shows a dissatisfied customer that the company is listening.  Oftentimes, it turns the scenario around.  About 20 percent of dissatisfied customers will engage with the company if asked to do so.  Of those that do, nearly 20 percent will come out the other end satisfied — transformed from a brand critic into a brand advocate.

In the insurance industry, customer service is unique because we often provide service to our competitors’ customers.  When someone insured by a competitor is in an accident caused by one of our customers, they’re dependent on us to restore the vehicle they own. What better opportunity is there to show them that our company provides great service?

One of the best tools at the disposal of every marketer is ‘trial.’  Let others experience it — and  let them be the ones shouting it from the mountaintops — instead of you.

Call it Karma

Each episode of the TV show, My Name is Earl, starts with the following premise: “You know the kind of guy who does nothing but bad things and then wonders why his life sucks? Well, that was me. Every time something good happened to me, something bad was always waiting round the corner: karma. That’s when I realized that I had to change, so I made a list of everything bad I’ve ever done and one by one I’m gonna make up for all my mistakes. I’m just trying to be a better person. My name is Earl.”

Credits: Image by Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void. Kudos to Collin and Peg. Follow them both on Twitter. You won’t be disappointed.

One of the biggest challenges for all marketers is getting the right message… to the right people… at the right time.  Digital marketers have typically had the advantage meeting this challenge by leveraging pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and display ads triggered by keywords appearing in on line content.  While these tactics allow better targeting than traditional media, they’re still limited by the universe of individuals searching with the right keywords and finding the right destinations.

Facebook’s new timeline overcomes these limitations by enabling and encouraging Facebook users to share their life events with others.  Facebook’s new timeline allows users to share information when they move, buy a home, add a vehicle, have a child, change their job and so on. The possibilities are endless.

Life events, the important milestones of change that everyone experiences in life,  bring marketers fresh opportunities to build new customer relationships and strengthen the ones they have. People are most likely to make decisions about financial services and products when they experience common life events. Leveraging the timeline life events of Facebook users may be the quickest, least intrusive, and most effective way to reach customers and prospects during these times.

Relevance is one of the most powerful tools of social marketing and no one — not even Google — seems to wield it better than Facebook.

Dear Sophie – A Story of Irony

This popular Google Chrome commercial depicts a father using the web to share memories with his daughter as she grows up. Ironically, Facebook’s new Timeline may be the best way to do just that.

How did the idea to create ‘preparedness 101′ for a zombie apocalypse come about?
Silver: Our office asked users what emergencies they were prepared for through Twitter and we got responses that included what we considered “normal” emergencies (e.g., tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes), but we also got response that talked about being prepared for zombies. Hurricane Season was coming up and we wanted to spice up our usual messaging so we decided to run with the idea of “zombie preparedness” introduced by our Twitter followers.  

What risks did you identify, related to the idea?
Silver:  We realized this wasn’t the typically health message a federal agency like CDC might put out, but we really wanted to grab people’s attention because disaster preparedness is an important and simple way to save lives and property. To make sure people realized we were being tongue in cheek, we continually referred to “real” emergencies like floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes throughout the course of our blog and social media outreach.

What barriers did you need to overcome?
Silver: Luckily our Director was on board with the idea so we didn’t have to overcome any barriers. We were very careful the whole time to make it clear that we were using a pop culture icon (zombies) to draw attention to our real message about disaster preparedness.

Who wrote/contributed content?
Silver: The original blog post was crafted and edited by 3 members of the CDC Zombie Task Force. Other communicators from our office helped to promote and track the blog post and it’s media coverage as it began to gain steam.

Whats your favorite part of the content?
Silver: In the blog, we were able to get the across the basic preparedness message for an emergency, which is, “Get a kit. Make a Plan. Be Prepared.” This is the key to the whole campaign. You never know when an emergency situation will occur, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.

What was the reaction from others at CDC?
Silver: We got a great response from our colleagues. This project showed that the government could have a sense of humor and it also demonstrated the power of social media. I think it has opened the doors for future projects by showing people that a little risk taking can go a long way, especially when social media is involved.

What was the reaction from the general public?
Silver: We had an overwhelming response from the public, to-date there have been over 450 comments on the blog post and they are still coming. Feedback on Twitter and Facebook has been astounding as well. The number of zombie lovers out there is unbelievable and they all seem to get what we were trying to do and they love it. We’ve had a few nay-sayers post comments but all our fans stick up for us. People are usually concerned that the government is wasting money on this, but the post only cost $87 and it generated 3.6 billion impressions. We believe this is totally worth it since it got people thinking about preparedness and drove people to our site who otherwise wouldn’t have visited.

 What was your favorite reaction?
Silver: It’s been really fun reading all the comments left on Twitter, Facebook, and the blog. People are really into zombies and have seriously considered what they would do if there was a zombie apocalypse. It’s just funny to read through what they write. We also have enjoyed the comments from people who let us know that they are going to make an emergency kit and are going to learn what disasters they need to be prepared for in their area.

 How has this content influenced the’CDC brand’?
Silver: This was a great brand boost for the CDC, we trended worldwide on Twitter which was amazing and it showed the public that we aren’t stiff scientist; we can share a good laugh too. We’ve had people from the private sector reaching out to us telling us how impressed they are with our work and we’ve gotten a lot of opportunities for partnerships to further our message. The CDC was also honored as a finalist for the 2011 Platinum PR Awards on September 14^th. The five categories were Blog, PR on a Shoestring, Social Media Campaign, Wow, and Word of Mouth/Viral. We won in the Blog and Wow categories and Honorable Mentions in the other three (http://www.prnewsonline.com/platinumpr2011/ ).

What have you learned from this lighthearted approach?
Silver: We feel like we’ve really connect to the public. We didn’t just reach audiences that were already interested in disaster preparedness, we reached people who had never before thought about what they would do if their town flooded or was struck by a devastating earthquake. This is really important because this is the hard to reach population that we are always trying to get.

What would your recommend to others considering this approach?
Silver: Think things through, how will it be perceived by the public and what can you do to make sure people get what you are trying to do. Also, we believe the reason this campaign worked was because we used something with “combined relevance.” In other words we used zombies, which the public loves, and coupled it withpreparedness, something CDC finds important so that it was a win-win for both groups.

Anything else you’d like to add?
Silver: We had such an overwhelming response to the original blog post we’ve created some more zombie related items. Visit our Zombie Page (http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm) for more info on: Posters, Graphic Novella, Video Contest, and T-Shirts. Please see attached report for statistics on the campaign.

What makes  the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta more approachable, and more effective at one of its core missions?  A  hoard of zombies.

When CDC staff from the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response asked Twitter users what types of emergencies they were prepared for, answers citing tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes were numerous.  Answers were also humorous, prodding the CDC about the Zombie preparedness.  With this in mind, the team decided to boost their 2011 hurricane preparedness campaign by adding some deadpan  content to attract readership.  The result? A blog post entitled ‘Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse .’

“We realized this wasn’t the typically health message a federal agency like CDC might put out, but we really wanted to grab people’s attention because disaster preparedness is an important and simple way to save lives and property,” said Maggie Silver, a Health Communication Specialist for the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “To make sure people realized we were being tongue-in-cheek, we continually referred to ‘real’ emergencies like floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes throughout the course of our blog and social media outreach.”

The public response was overwhelming.  The $89 post generated more than 3.6 billion impressions and 450+ comments. The CDC trended worldwide on Twitter and has since been recognized by the 2011 Platinum PR Awards. The CDC won in the ‘Blog’ and ‘Wow’ categories and Honorable Mentions in the ‘PR on a Shoestring’, ‘Social Media Campaign’ and ‘Word of Mouth’ categories.

The irony of ‘going viral’ isn’t lost on CDC staff.  “It’s been really fun reading all the comments left on Twitter, Facebook, and the blog. People are really into zombies and have seriously considered what they would do if there was a zombie apocalypse. It’s just funny to read through what they write. We also have enjoyed the comments from people who let us know that they are going to make an emergency kit and are going to learn what disasters they need to be prepared for in their area,” said Kristin Banks, a Health Communication Specialist on the Emergency Web & Social Media Team at the CDC.

The spontaneous  campaign has become part of the long-term strategy to fulfill the CDC’s mission to ensure the public’s emergency preparedness and response capability.  Since it’s success, the Center has added a permanent  Zombie Preparedness page to it’s website. It includes a graphic novella entitled Zombie Pandemic that uses the idea of a zombie apocalypse to demonstrate the importance of being prepared and what might happen in a real emergency. Included is a personal preparedness checklist so readers can take action once you’re done reading. The page also allows the public to print, share, and order a series of Zombie Preparedness posters (currently out of stock) and to enter a video contest.  The top disaster preparedness video submitted by the public will be featured on the CDC home page to thousands of visitors.

“We feel like we’ve really connected to the public,” said Silver. “We didn’t just reach audiences that were already interested in disaster preparedness, we reached people who had never before thought about what they would do if their town flooded or was struck by a devastating earthquake. This is really important because this is the hard to reach population that we are always trying to get.”

About the contributors

Social•Pro•Files is created for SmartBrief on Social Media by Troy Janisch (@socialmeteor) and Mark Anderson (@doodlehaus).  Both contributors have two decades of digital marketing experience and lead social media activities at American Family Insurance, a Fortune 400 corporation. Troy blogs at SocialMeteor.com. Mark shares his art at Doodlehaus.com.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead TV series premiered on October 31, 2010 on AMC. After broadcasting only two episodes, The Walking Dead was renewed for a second season which begins airing on October 16, 2011.  In this episode from season one, Dr Jenner from the Atlanta CDC describes the situation on day 63 after the disease causing zombification has gone global.

Flipboard bills itself as the world’s first social magazine. Inspired by the beauty and ease of  content shared using traditional print media, Flipboard takes online content from social media sites, blogs, and online media and remixes it to provide a magazine-like feel. No doubt, Flipboard contributed inspiration to the Facebook team toward the site’s upcoming look and feel.  Facebook’s timeline uses a similar graphic layout to display a user’s Facebook stream — including an area for short updates along the right side (ala Facebook’s ticker) and the ability to navigate via a Facebook timeline. 

Basically, Facebook’s new look is Flipboard on steroids. It allows you to view, build and customize your timeline over vast periods of time.  Want to insert timeline updates from your childhood? Add baby photos? Graduation photos?  Wedding video? It’s all possible.  

Facebook’s new timeline is a sophisticated social magazine of your life.  It’s capabilities reach far beyond what Flipbook has been capable of on its own.  Using its Graph Rank algorithms, Facebook can infer the importance of content to determine which events you share are major events to be featured.  Less important events can be automatically de-emphasized or hidden until you choose to reveal it.  And, utilizing Facebook’s permission settings, you can customize the viewing experience of others.

According to a recent Nielsen study,  Facebook reigns supreme as the top U.S. social network with  nearly 3x  the audience of the #2 site. Facebook reaches 70 percent of active U.S. Internet users.

Americans spend 23 percent of Internet time on social networks and they spend more time on Facebook than ANY other website. according to Nielsen. As Facebook evolves over the next year to incorporate the changes announced today at F8, the Facebook developer’s conference, expect to see dramatic increases in time amount of time spent on Facebook and the volume of ‘transparent’ engagement that occurs as sharing gets integrated into our favorite entertainment apps (such as Netflix), activity apps (such as Nike plus) and our favorite media outlets. 

With its new features, Facebook is more customizable, personalized and social than ever.  In the meantime? Flipboard remains the coolest way to view your Facebook stream.

Facebook Timeline – It’s about time

The new Facebook Timeline is a collection of all the top photos, posts and apps that help tell your story.  The look and feel is more engaging, personal, and organized. To me, it’s Flipboard on steroids.

We’d like to think that the links we share on social networks have a life of their own.  However, the links we share on social networks have a half-life shorter than the North American mayfly.

While a mayfly can live for up to 24 hours, most of the energy behind the links you share on social networks is spent in a few hours. According to bitly.com, the leading site for shortening and sharing links, links shared from Twitter have a half life of 2.8 hours. This means that in less than three hours the link has gotten half of the click-thrus it will EVER get. The average link shared from Facebook has a half life of 3.2 hours.   The longest-lived links are those shared from YouTube, which average a 7 hours half life. Bitly’s results were based on examining the half life of 1,000 popular links shared from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

“In general, the half life of a bitly link is about 3 hours,” said Hilary Mason, chief scientist at bitly. “Many links last a lot less than two hours; other sticky links last longer than 11 hours over all referrers. This leads us to believe that the lifespan of your link is connected more to what content it points to than on where you post it.”  The key, of course, isn’t to depend too much on any single share.  Good content is shared dozens…hundreds… thousands… of times by different people sharing unique links.

More shared links means more life for your blog post. My favorite tool for increasing the life of blog posts is Triberr.com. When you join tribes on Triberr, your blog posts are promoted by everyone in the tribe.  Everyone in your tribe tweets your post to their followers. And you do the same for everyone in your tribe.   As a member of five tribes, I’ve added 57 shared links to each new blog post and increased my reach to more than 500,000 Twitter users.  And, since Triberr spreads shared links for blogs posts over time, it leverage the half-life of each share independently.

It’s also a good idea for bloggers to leverage the sharing power of video content on YouTube.  Not only do shared links from YouTube have a 2.5x longer half-life than shared Tweets or Facebook posts — videos also generate a higher volume of overall engagement.  According to a recent study by Vitrue, video posts also receive 24 percent more engagement than text posts.  The virtue study also indicated that posts shared on Friday generate the most engagement, while posts shared on Saturday or Sunday generate the least.

Half Life in 60 seconds

Half-Life is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation, the company’s debut product and the first in the Half-Life series. First released by Sierra Studios on November 19, 1998, the game was also released for the PlayStation 2 on November 14, 2001.[2] In Half-Life, players assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who must fight his way out of a secret underground research facility whose research and experiments into teleportation technology have gone disastrously wrong.

Today, that thinking behind the doctrine is as dated as the mainstream media itself.

The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the Commission’s view, honest, equitable and balanced. The doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented.

The doctrine was abandoned in the mid 80′s for the ‘chilling effect’ it appeared to have on broadcasters by “restricting the journalistic freedom of broadcasters … [and] actually inhibiting the presentation of controversial issues of public importance to the detriment of the public and the degradation of the editorial prerogative of broadcast journalists.” The doctrine remained ‘on the books’, unenforced until earlier this month.

As bloggers, journalists, and consumers, there is no reason to mourn the Fairness doctrine, which served its pre-Internet era purpose. Instead, we need to stay focused on ‘Net Neutrality’ — an essential  freedom on information tenant of the FCC that remains at risk. Why? Net Neutrality protects everyone’s access to the Internet.

The ‘Net Neutrality’ principle advocates no restrictions by Internet service providers or governments on consumers’ access to networks that participate in the internet. It prevents restrictions on content, sites, platforms, types of equipment that can be attached to the internet.

“Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet,” says Google’s Public Policy blog. “The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days… Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet… Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online.”

Net neutrality is opposed by members of the Cable TV and telecommunications industries that want to protect their turf.  Cable and telecommunication providers are uneasy about providing Internet infrastructure to consumers that can be co-opted by competitors such as Netflix, Vonage, Amazon on Demand, and others.  Even Google — a long-time supporter of Net Neutrality — is backpeddling on Net Neutrality for wireless carriers.

This can’t be tolerated. Broadcasters and telecommunication company’s can cling to their land lines and airwaves — but they have to let the content flow free.

Keep the Internet Awesome!

Enjoy this video on net neutrality by Google’s public policy team:

Credits: Calvin and Hobbes cartoon by Bill Watterson.

The DC quake was the largest on the East Coast since one of the same strength in New York in 1944 and the largest in Virginia since a 5.9 temblor in 1897. A 5.8 earthquake releases as much energy as nearly 8 tons of TNT, about half the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Shannon Montague, a middle school technology coordinator from Bethesda, MD, began tweeting with the#DCQuake  hashtag just a few minutes after the quake when she observed “THANK GOD FOR TWITTER. I was alone in my office and felt the quake. Thought I had lost my mind…”

More than 12 million people live close enough to the quake’s epicenter to have felt shaking, according to the U.S. Geological Service. The agency said put the quake in its yellow alert category, meaning there was potential for local damage but relatively little economic damage.

Within four minutes of the quake, news hits my own Twitter stream — not from someone retweeting the news, but from someone that I’m following who’s experienced it directly.  This seems impressive to me, since I follow less than 500 people on Twitter.  Of those, Stephanie Schierholz from NASA tweets “I just spent a week in California and had to come back to Maryland to feel my 1st earthquake @NASAGoddard. Wow.”  An hour later, I learn that Schierholz is having trouble getting phone calls out to tell everyone she’s ok.. and that Goddard is shutting down.

By midafternoon, I learn that she’s made it home safely and I’m relieved: “I made it home. I’m okay, although I have to admit my heart is still racing. Thanks for all the notes of concern & care.”

This particular situation is a prime example of how the accessibility of social media tools and technology ranging from Twitter, Facebook, and smart phones, enable regular citizens to report breaking news from their own personal phones or computers faster than traditional media, and even aggregated news.

As seen on CCTV

One of the strongest earthquakes on record has shaken the East Coast of the United States. Windows shattered and grocery stores were wrecked in Virginia, where the quake was centered. Cars were also damaged when bricks and debris fell from damaged buildings. In Washington, the White House and Capitol were evacuated.

If you have the same problem, take these steps to eliminate text-based SPAM.

I’ve been receiving a barrage of unsolicited text messages lately from companies offering secret shopper opportunities, details on secret crushes, and ways to get $1500 in by bank account within 24 hours.   The practices of Text spamming (most often referred to as m-spam) is ubber annoying — particularly if you have a per-message texting plan because mobile phones don’t have the ability to identify spam directly.  It’s costly and annoying. The’ secret crush’ offer has been troubling  mobile users for more than a year.

“I replied stop after I got the first msg. (a month ago)and they said I was unsubscribed from their services, ” said Kathy. “Lo and behold I got this months phone bill and there it is $9.99 charge from the same #. I texted stop again and it said I was not subscribed for any of their services. Go Figure!” I can only imagine what would happen if an unsolicited secret crush invite found their way on to the phone of my middle school age daughter.  The app sends daily messages at $1.99 each   (nearly $60 per month).

Each text-based spam message tells me that I can reply ‘Stop’ to eliminate the messages.  However, based on the discussion I’ve seen on online forums,  I’m convinced that responding to a text may only trigger additional unsolicited offers or charges.  With a bit of research, I find that my cellphone carrier, AT&T, and others are prepared for these instances.  Each offers the ability to block text messages from specific locations. For AT&T, the destination is mymessages.wireless.att.com. It also provides the ability to replace the default email address for text messages [my 10-digit wireless number]@txt.att.net) with a  text ‘alias’ alternative that is difficult for spammers to guess .

If unsolicited text messages persist,  you can file a complaint with the FCC using an online complaint form. You can also file your complaint with the FCC’s Consumer Center by calling 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322).  You may also be able to file a complaint with the consumer protection department of your state government.  In Wisconsin, online complaints can be filed with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection using their own online complaint form.  I like to utilize both forms to reward marketers that abusing text messages in this way.

Evil Apps

Sending text-based SPAM is too easy. There’s no shortage of Apps, like this one that can be used to send SPAM to mobile phones. Use instructions above to block and thwart dubious texters.

Although social media has become a mainstream business strategy, there are few ‘how-to’ books that you can hand business owners who are eager to get started with social media.  The newest of these is Likeable Social Media by David Kerpen.

At more than 140 characters, the title of Dave Kerpen’s 2011 social media handbook may be too long to tweet, but the book is definitely worth talking about.  Officially titled Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (and other social networks), Kerpen’s book shares 18 strategies  for effective Facebook marketing and provides an overview of the most popular and effective social media networks for business.

Kerpen binds social media strategies together with  ‘likeability’. “Just be likeable, ” he said. “Succeeding on social networks amounts to your ability to be likeable.  Create and share stories, text, photos, videos, links and applications that you as a consumer would want to like, comment on, and share.  To be likeable, you must always respect and add value to your community.”

The book offers helpful examples, useful tips, marketing insights and a good index.  It’s a book that’s easily recommended and unlikely to offend. Anyone who’s new to social media will want to pick up a copy of the book for themselves.  Experienced social media marketers may want to pick up a dozen copies of Likeable to distribute to everyone around them.

Likeable gives  ‘by the book’ instructions for achieving likeability — which may be its only  shortcoming. Compared with Guy Kawasaki’s  search for  ‘enchantment’ and Scott Stratten’s battle cry to  ‘be awesome!’,  a quest for ‘likeability’ seems unintentionally bland, dispassionate and forgettable.

Likeable is a stand-out book, but it doesn’t stand alone.

I Like You

Google+ (pronounced ‘Google Plus’) is a group of social sharing tools that lets existing Google users leverage their existing Google profile and Google Buzz account in new ways: They can share content with friends using friend ‘circles’; They can recommend content to followers using ‘+1 button’; They can find social content on topics that interest them via Google ‘Sparks’; They can video conference with friends via ‘Hangouts’;  And, they can send mobile messages with groups of friends using mobile ‘huddles.’

All of the features of Google+ (or G+) are anchored to an individual’s Google account.  As a result, their social activity can be leveraged to influence their Google search results.  This is why many brands — especially those spending 100′s of thousands on search engine marketing — are keenly-interested and highly-motivated when it comes to Google+.

However, brands are prohibited from participating in Google+.

Google+ pages can only be for personal use. Google has deleted thousands of unsanctioned pages. And, they’ve attracted a high volume of criticism for doing so.  In part, this is because Google+ is not warning users before deleting their accounts. Additionally, some people have reported being locked out of essential Google services, such as Google docs and Gmail, that they depend on for productivity.

Google plans to roll out business profiles in the next 2-3 months.  In the meantime, brands can begin attracting followers by adding a ‘+1 button’ to web-based content.  Marketers can get the code  from Google. A variety of WordPress plugins are also available.

Things look hopeful for Google+, but it’s still very early. G+ has been described erroneously by some as a ‘Facebook killer’ because it surpassed 20 million unique visitors (5.3 million in US) faster than Facebook or Twitter.  However,  current G+ users are early adopters that are eager to explore Google’s latest offering.   They haven’t abandoned existing social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

It will take a minimum of 18-24 months before it becomes clear whether Google+ will achieve wide adoption and migration among mainstream social media users.

Do You Need to Choose Google Plus?

Credits: Cartoon by Tous des Cons.

In recent months, I’ve had the opportunity to talk with dozens of Social Pros such as NASA’s Stephanie Schierholz, Jen Martin of AARP, PepsiCo’s Bonin Bough, and Robert Scoble of Rackspace. Although the organizations they represent vary, a common ingredient to their success is the passion they have — not just for their job — but for their organizations.

Brand evangelists and social media managers take their jobs seriously and their brands PERSONALLY.  They believe in their brands.  They want to engage with customers.  The magic happens when they put these passions together. 

As the social media manager at American Family Insurance, I’m one of the brand’s biggest evangelists — not because it’s my job.  I really believe that American Family Insurance is the best insurance company.  I used them for a decade before I started working for them.  I wanted to be their social media manager BECAUSE I like the brand.  I WANT to promote it.  I’m driven to do it.  And, I’m getting paid to do what I love. 

In recent weeks, American Family Insurance has taken a stand to protect the American Dream.  You’ll see it in our ads: “The American Dream comes in all shapes and sizes.  No two are the same… The American Dream doesn’t come easy. You’re going to have to work for it. So put on your work boots, fire up your laptop, pour yourself a cup of coffee. There’s going to be some late nights. American Family Insurance has dedicated our company to protecting your American dream… Your dream is out there. Go get it. We’ll protect it.”

We’ve also created a Long Live Our Dreams website to promote the ideal. I love this initiative because it doesn’t treat insurance or insurance customers like a commodity. It’s something I believe in.  And, I want to spread the word.

You can’t fake brand evangelism.

Speaking of Faking it…

The 1989 film “When Harry Met Sally” is probably best known for this scene featuring the two title characters having lunch at Katz’s Delicatessen in Manhattan. The scene ends with Sally casually returning to her meal as a nearby patron (played by Estelle Reiner’s) places her order: “I’ll have what she’s having.” When Reiner died at age 94 in 2008, The New York Times referred to her as the woman “who delivered one of the most memorably funny lines in movie history”.

As one of Twitter’s most popular, long-standing Twitter memes, #FollowFriday is based on a noble premise:  recommending Twitter users that other people should follow. However, it’s gotten out of control. It’s become cluttered, spammy, and annoying.

I don’t follow people  based solely on someone’s #followfriday recommendation.  Neither does anyone else.

When Twitter was young, #followfriday was a great way to discover interesting people that your friends were following.  Now, it’s become an overused outlet for self promotion and pandering to individuals that retweet, follow, or mention you — regardless of how interesting your actually think they are. It’s also become exhausting to anyone who goes to the trouble each friday to thank the individuals that recommend them.

#followfriday has lost its mojo.  And, related hashtags such as #Top,#FollowSaturday. #FollowSunday, #FollowMonday, #FollowTuesday, #FollowWednesday, #FollowThursday, #FollowNow, #FollowEveryDay, #MustFollow, and #FollowerOfTheDay have lost their mojo too. People are using them to recommend droves of users — not just the undiscovered ones that stand out.

That’s why i was encouraged when Klout introduced +K last month as a way for social network users to reward peers that influence them.  +K  provides a way for social networkers to identify the people that influence them in moderation – it only allows individuals to reward +K to five individuals each day.  You can’t distribute +K en mass.

When you reward +K, you can let everyone know how an individual has influenced you by sharing your +K distribution on Twitter or Facebook. Or,  better yet, you can keep it to yourself and let others discover how you’ve influenced them when they visit their Klout profile.

“At Klout, we believe influence is the ability to drive action,’ said Chris Makarsky on Klout’s official blog. “We also believe influence is temporal — that is, you constantly need to drive action in order to remain influential in a topic. We believe the +K system stays true to those ideals.”

The +K system also provides a model for individuals participating in #followfriday: 1) everyone using the #followfriday or a related hashtag should limit their follow recommendations to no more than five individuals; 2) participants should award +K to each individual they recommend; and 3) participants should explain WHY they’re recommending someone else.

If we do this, #followfriday can become something that we look forward to again.  #followfriday will have meaning again.

How to Follow Someone

VideoJug presents a sneaky guide to following someone down the street without them noticing.

Credits: Cartoon by Rob Cottingham of Noise to Signal.

I’ve been learning this the hard way, working on The Space Crowd, a film that encourages people to contribute video of themselves discussing the impact that NASA and the space shuttle program has on their life.  I’m also learning to be comfortable seeing myself on camera — even though it still shocks me — to see how different I look and sound — from your perspective. Being on video triggers a natural social anxiety.

“This is the worst for me,” said Steve Glasberg, on a social anxiety support forum. “I hate the sound of my voice and how I talk. For some reason I don’t hear my voice the way it sounds on a camera or tape recorder. I hope mightily that video is not a true representation of my voice but how could it not be. Maybe it’s just my perspective that makes it sound horrible and other people don’t care but still I could die whenever I’m forced to watch myself.”

In a 2010 State of The Vlogosphere report, MeFedia estimates that there are more than 110,000 unique video blogs — 5x the number of video blogs they identified in 2007.  According to the report, YouTube is the most popular video blog hosting site (36%) and WordPress is the most popular independent platform for video blogging.  Videos are typically 1:15 to 8:50 minutes long and they’re often shot using  iPhones, Androids and Blackberrys.

In view of this trend, over the past three months I’ve started exploring video uses on my blog.  I’ve been using Skype to record interviews. I’ve been using Camtasia to record on-screen activities mixed with personal video.  I’ve been mixing it up.  I’m trying to build confidence and a ‘Frick it’ attitude when it comes to seeing myself on screen.

Over the past three weeks, I’ve seen some great personal videos come in from people attending the NASA Tweetup for the final space shuttle launch. The great ones give me hope.  The ones where people are visibly uncomfortable on camera gives me courage.

I’ve started video blogging the filmmaking experience. I’m collecting footage. I’m establish a video blogging pattern. I’m getting more comfortable seeing myself on film. And… sometime in the not-to-distant future..  I’ll find the courage to share more video entries online.

How comfortable are you creating and sharing personal video online?

Do you see what I see?

When you see yourself on camera, you’re seeing what everyone else sees — and likes to see — everyday.

This post is #24 (out of order) in a series for #Trust30, a 30-day writing challenge that encourages participants to look within and trust themselves. It’s an opportunity to reflect on ‘now’, and to create direction for the ‘future’. Prompts from inspiring thought-leaders guide participants on the writing journey.