Comments by Joel Postman Subscribe

On Is the Twitter RT irrelevant?

Hi Terrence - I like your idea. They could embed not only the originator but the full audit trail. -Joel

On Is the Twitter RT irrelevant?

Agreed, Jaron. These conventions are confusing. When someone clicks to "Like" an item about the radiation problem in Japan, clearly they are saying thanks for the posting, or saying it is well written, informative, etc., but it often seems like they are saying they like the radiation itself. - Joel

On Is the Twitter RT irrelevant?

Thanks for your comments, Mike. I agree that it's important to know where an article came from. I have had many situations where headlines were modified and even where provenance was entirely fabricated. That's the value of the Twitter "official" RT. I've even seen myself RT'd manually on tweets I never sent. -Joel

On Social Media as an Investigative Tool

I don't think a blog post needs to feel like the Bataan Death March, Avi. A post on the 196 Ways People Are Using Social Media as an Investigative Tool is useless. Instead, I make a number of well substantiated claims in rapid order, with solid backup, and then express my opinion clearly and tersely.

As I wrote "Anyone who is surprised that this goes on has not been paying attention and only has himself or herself to blame if it happens to them... if you don’t want the world to know about it, don’t post it on your Facebook page." I also write in the close that rulings have been mixed but that people should expect social media-based investigation to become an everyday part of their lives.

Secura posted their job description 11/23, so this was not a fact anyone knew before. It provides a rare glimpse into how companies see themselves as they are doing this kind of investigation online. Usually, all we hear is consumer histeria. (Think Foursquare check-ins and burglaries.) The Secura position also substantiates the notion that many social media roles are staffed by inexperienced, young, and underpaid (or not paid at all employees).

So what do you think, Avi? This is the age of participative media. Your opinion maters just as much as mine does, probably more.

On Email - the Silent E

For junior bloggers, there is nothing more exciting than declaring something dead. Print is dead. Email is dead. Dead is dead. It's a tedious and predictable meme.

On Debunking Five Social Media Myths

Mr. Analogboy,

Thanks for the update on Malcolm Turnbull. I mentioned that the piece was originally published in November 2009, and I did not update it. Turnbull was great with social media. He had a good following on Facebook and responded to questions. He used Twitter and Facebook more like a "real person" and less like a news feed than do most politicians.

Joel

 

On Why Social Media Purists Won't Last

Right on the money, Jason. This is exactly the premise of my book, SocialCorp http://is.gd/73Sh . Somewhere in between the conversational purists and the executives and attorneys protecting the interests of the corporation lies a social media comfort zone where the large company can realize the benefits of social media without compromising its obligations to shareholders, regulators, employees and so on. Anyone who pushes a company too far either side of this middle ground is doomed.

On Five Social Media Predictions for 2010

Amanda I agree that you've identified two important trends, but don't discount the FTC guidelines. The temptation to game the social media system has proven too great to too many. Yelp has been in trouble for hiding negative reviews for pay  and hiring paid reviewers. Services like Amazon's Mechanical Turk and ShortTask pay users to leave positive comments, positive product reviews, Diggs, etc.

Anyone who thought social media would take corporate hype out of the marketing picture and replace it with the "authentic" voice of the people was wrong. Consumers unfamiliar with all of the tricks of the social media trade are worse off today than they were in the age of the corporate web site, which was closely watched and regulated.

On A Blog is a Better Social Media Hub Than Twitter

Scott,

For businesses with the budget or expertise, embedding a blog in the company's existing web site is a popular approach, and a good one. I was attempting to give advice on fast, simple blog deployments that either large or small businesses could do with limited technical background. I've actually had Fortune 500 clients who, rather than work with their IT department for an embedded blog, have hosted their blogs separately, on a domain other than their own, and "skinned" them with a theme that matches their regular web site.

Thanks for your comment.

 Joel

On What's a Retweet?

I'm not at all a fan of retweeting. Twitter's lack of a structured retweet makes the RT convention nearly useless, and wide open to abuse.

On Is Twitter Going to Make It?

Interesting post. Small point, but comScore says there were 17 million U.S. visitors to Twitter in April, nearly doubling March's 9.3 million.