Chat Republic – Galley Proofs today!

The metaphors for describing what one goes through when writing a book are inadequate.

Suffice to say it’s been a breathtaking learning process.

But it’s finally coming down to the moment of truth. Here’s what the cover looks like. I wanted it to be minimalistic, but communicate in an instant what it’s about.

Chat Republic, though a crowded place, is also about a call for more space – space between the noise, space between the rapid, vapid statements we send out and are inundated by.

Some see this is as a ‘country’ –a map– populated by loud mouths. I see it as this giant speech bubble, we could all be sucked into (if we don’t make some sensible choices).

Let me know what you think of the cover!

 

Update on my book: “Chat Republic”

It’s official, and I’m now ready to announce the title of my book, which is in its final stages.

It’s called Chat Republic.

I’ve been covering the intersection of technology and business; technology and culture for more than 18 years. More recently, I’ve focused on digital media and our social media-centric lives, and I wanted to put my ideas into perspective.

Chat Republic is more than a fictional country. It’s about the spaces you inhabit.  Those online and offline communities you move in and out of: conference rooms, Google Circles, IM lists, Facebook, online forums. I think of it as a ‘country’ whose fluid borders take the shape of a giant, invisible speech bubble.

The conversations and opinions pouring in and out of our republic, in real-time, are what make our communities more civil, more vibrant. Our chats are certainly not friction-free! But absent these conversations we would be one dimensional citizens, won’t we?

As of today, I am planning to launch the book in two time zones, in June.

Some specs:

• 25 Chapters – Divided into 3 sections
• Case Studies from the U.S. and Asia
• Interviews with non-profits, tech companies, activists, chief execs, editors, citizen journalists, PR consultants, podcasters, government officials

More information here at ChatRepublic.net

 

Healthcare, now a social, not private affair!

Time was when someone would keep his/her healthcare concerns under the hood, so to speak. A health complication would be kept within the family; the unwritten doctor-patient privacy act was upheld.

Now? We seem to be ready to blab more about it. or, to put it another way, patients are more than ready to take to social media to discuss health-related issues in the open. Some examples

• I once interviewed a CCL survivor, Andrew Schorr, who formed a community and a radio show around social media collaboration. Pat
• Elliott was one of the earliest people I knew who believed that community involvement with regard to one’s health information was to be welcomed.
• Robert Scoble was onto this health privacy-is-dead issue three years ago, curating a series of comments. One of them: There are much larger health benefits to be gained by allowing your healthcare provider to openly share you information between providers/organizations.

This latest report by PwC recognizes this, and gives you a more granular look at how the private concerns of those seeking healthcare have become closely intertwined with their social media behavior.

For example:

• Nearly a quarter of people in the US (24%) post something about their healthcare experience.
• 16 % share health-related videos and images!

It gets more interesting, in the face of concerns about invasion of privacy and health information.

• Some 30% of people are willing to share their health-elated information with other patients, using social channels.
• Also, 80% of 18-24 year-olds are likely to share health information through social media. 80 percent! You could find out more here at the PwC site.

This ought to have huge implications for healthcare companies, and even medical practitioners who have been concerned that their connecting with patients could run afoul with health information privacy, or HIPAA, laws. Physicians have been behind the curve. Sermo, their online community, has just 130,000 users, but one study found that while 87% of physicians use at least one social media site at a personal level, only 67% are using at least one site for professional reasons.

 

Wanted: A new formula for PR!

FT Online | Bi-weekly column

I don’t think there’s a single waterer-proof formula for PR.

No matter how much we love the Social media Press Release, (basically an enhanced press release, with some great links and embedded media to create a richer story), it seems like too much work for companies to build these.

Then there is the quest for that secret sauce of Public Relations that might involve a more integrated strategy. Translated: the PR agency works with the ad agency which works with the promotions company. Good luck with that!

So in a bid to stir up things I came up with my own formula for PR. Here it is in a nutshell. C + C + E = Tn.

Got it?

You need a decoder ring for this one, so here it is. Context plus Content plus Engagement equals Trust to the nth degree.

Continue reading…

This was the subject of a newspaper column, in a series I have been writing on, published in FT Online. Until the web site has been updated, this is a link to a PDF.

 

How to fly (through social media turbulence)

Airlines frequently fly into turbulence –not always the kind they are used to.  Just ask United. Better still, just ask Southwest Airlines. Over the years since they began embracing a slew of social media tools, Southwest has done a grand job of listening and responding. Sure, they’ve made their mistakes, fixed them fast, and moved on.

There may be a huge difference between an airline and an airplane, but I thought of juxtaposing them because of some common lessons they have for all of us –not just people who communicate about objects with wings.

If you missed this case involving Boeing, it’s worth a second look. The setup:

• Child draws lots of pictures of airplanes.
• Child sends one drawing to Boeing.
• Corporate office sends him a standard letter saying it does not accept unsolicited designs, and has destroyed the letter.

Sad? Legal? Damaging to brand? All of the above?

The boys father was crushed/confused. He writes a blog so he asked his readers what to do.  Word got out. People came up with creative answers (including one that suggested writing the letter Boeing should have sent his son!) Boeing was forced to join the conversation at the late stage, and respond.

There are many lessons here. The first is about a canned response and a genuine response. So easy to do the former. But it’s out-of-place in a world where we make a huge din about being better at communications, great at listening yada yada.

To cut to the chase, Boeing Corporate (which uses this Twitter account that’s different from the one that talks of its engineering stuff) responded with aplomb, and thanked everyone for ‘supporting’ Harry Windsor, the child artist/airplane designer. “Supporting Harry,” as you might suspect is code for Punishing Boeing. Loosening them up. Humanizing them…

But we all live and learn. Boeing is a great company. They may have never in their wildest dreams of crisis planning imagined an eight year old would teach them a rapid lesson in communications. Neither do many organizations. So here are my takeaways from these two examples:

• Plan  for the unplanned: Social media adds a lot more turbulence, often the kind that cannot be anticipated by the most sophisticated ‘tracking’ tools on board.
• Know your audience’s audience: No matter who your end-users or customers are, your audience –and your ‘followers’ are always larger than you thought.
• Put humans in charge. A professional response is not as good as a human response. Many of us/you are trained in the former. Don’t check your humanity at the door when you walk into your office.

Social media is nothing special. It has no secret ingredient. It is nothing more than humanized communications, for a world that has done an awful job at it.

 

Who needs a widget? You do!

Let’s face it. The things that are supposed to make our lives easy continue to befuddle us: trackbacks, podzines, twebinar, RSS. The widget, however, is easier to like.

Yahoo! has this really neat ‘Typing Speedometer‘ widget that you never knew you needed –until now! Wikipedia has a cool widget, many blogs are littered with widgets, and Facebook users hit on you with widgets until you want to reach for the pepper spray. One day you’re gonna bump into one so before someone gets hurt (I spotted two attack widgets) get to know how to use a few of them. You could always get the Dummies book on widgets, but here are some useful places to start:

• PRSA web site has a primer on widgets.
• There are Google ‘Gadgets‘ that are sort of widgets. Want to dig deeper, read this –with caution.
• Try out a widget or two on your desktop -no programming required.
• If you have a blog, there are the top 50.

 

IABC Phoenix – Social Media Presentation

If you attended the Writers’ Group workshop on social media and blogging, here is the presentation. Thank you to the IABC, and Suzanne McCormick, for inviting me to speak.

I realize we sped through a lot of material, so please feel to contact me if you have any follow up questions.

Incidentally, if you are interested, my colleague Dan Wool spoke about the same topic on Wednesday at the PRSA luncheon. Dan has a wonderful perspective of social media. If you haven’t already, do subscribe to the RSS feed of ValleyPRBlog.

 

Are communicators behind the curve?

Shel Holtz had an interesting analysis on why professional communicators are lagging.

Communicators, as a profession, are woefully behind the curve when it comes to participatory communication, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is one overarching reason for this: Communicators don’t like or understand channels over which they cannot exercise complete control.

Holtz’ long post (about the role of professional associations) makes a solid point that too many folks wearing a ‘communicator’ hat “are woefully behind the curve” with regard to new media channels, a.k.a. participatory media, a.k.a. social media.

I have no problem with people being behind the curve –who isn’t, considering how fast the curve is rising? — but it gets scary when people seem disinterested in where the curve is taking us and our organizations. I often hear the “we’re getting there slowly” response. Which is code for “We aren’t really sure if this will be relevant.” Not the same as diving in, and taking baby steps, which I often advocate.

To put things in perspective, Commmunicators aren’t the only ones behind the curve.

• Lawyers are behind the curve
• Politicians are behind the curve
• Students are supposedly behind the curve
• Healthcare is also tailgating the curve

The trick is to not be so deliriously happy staying in the laggard position, and do nothing about it.