Author Archives: Steve Mays

“If you’re not responding, you’re not seen as an authentic brand”

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“If you’re not responding, you’re not seen as an authentic brand”
The eye rolling and derisive snorting I used to get by mentioning Twitter have been replaced by a thin-lipped, folded arm silence. Due in some part, I’m sure, to stories like the one in today’s Wall Street Journal:
“Ford Motor Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., among others, are deploying software and assigning employees to monitor Internet postings and blogs. They’re also assigning senior leaders to craft corporate strategies for social media.”
“Some companies are training staffers to broaden their social-media efforts. At Ford, Scott Monty, Ford’s head of social media, plans to soon begin teaching employees how to use sites like Twitter to represent the company and interact with consumers.
Coca-Cola Co. is preparing a similar effort, which initially will be limited to marketing, public affairs and legal staffers. Participants will be authorized to post to social media on Coke’s behalf without checking with the company’s PR staff, says Adam Brown, named Coke’s first head of social media in March.”
If you want my business, you’ll listen to what I have to say, and respond. Or suffer a PR shit storm.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124925830240300343.html

The eye rolling and derisive snorting I used to get by mentioning Twitter have been replaced by a thin-lipped, folded-arm silence. Due in some part, I’m sure, to stories like the one in today’s Wall Street Journal:

“Ford Motor Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., among others, are deploying software and assigning employees to monitor Internet postings and blogs. They’re also assigning senior leaders to craft corporate strategies for social media.”

“Some companies are training staffers to broaden their social-media efforts. At Ford, Scott Monty, Ford’s head of social media, plans to soon begin teaching employees how to use sites like Twitter to represent the company and interact with consumers.

“Coca-Cola Co. is preparing a similar effort, which initially will be limited to marketing, public affairs and legal staffers. Participants will be authorized to post to social media on Coke’s behalf without checking with the company’s PR staff, says Adam Brown, named Coke’s first head of social media in March.”

If you want my business, you’ll listen to what I have to say, and respond. Or suffer a PR shit storm.

The siren call of Posterous

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http://ihnatko.posterous.com/damn-i-really-like-posterous-now-what
The siren call of Posterous
I continue to be enamored with Posterous, the bare-bones blog service to which you post via email. So much so, I’m moving one of my Typepad blogs over.
My friend Taisir doesn’t have time (on inclination) to post to a traditional blog. With Posterous and his iPhone, he can update the blog with minimal effort. And Posterous did a pretty good job importing the the 160+ posts I had on Typepad.
Like tech columnist Andy Ihnatko, I’m boiling down my online life to my WordPress blog, Twitter and –now– Posterous.

I continue to be enamored with of Posterous, the bare-bones blog service to which you post via email. So much so, I’m moving one of my Typepad blogs over.

My friend Taisir doesn’t have time (on inclination) to post to a traditional blog. With Posterous and his iPhone, he can update the blog with minimal effort. And Posterous did a pretty good job importing the the 160+ posts I had on Typepad.

Like tech columnist Andy Ihnatko, I’m boiling down my online life to my WordPress blog, Twitter and –now– Posterous.

N1H1 is not the virus that will destroy us

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The notion of “viral ideas” is a central theme in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. And the “birther” nonsense is a near-perfect illustration:

“We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas. Like mass hysteria. Or a tune that gets into your head that you keep humming all day until you spread it to someone else. Jokes. Urban legends. Crackpot religions. Marxism. No matter how smart we get, there is always this deep irrational part that makes us potential hosts for self-replicating information. The only thing that keeps these things from taking over the world is the Babel factor — the walls of mutual incomprehension that compartmentalize the human race and stop the spread of viruses.”

A world where all, or most, of the people speak English would be a dangerous thing indeed.

Posterous review by Andy Ihnatko of Chicago Sun-Times

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A really good review of Posterous by Andy Ihnatko of Chicago Sun-Times. The more I use Posterous, the more I like it. Can’t see myself giving up the WordPress blog but if I were just starting today… If you haven’t seen my previous posts on this, Posterous is a blog you update via email. It’s really that easy but the resulting site is far nicer than you’d expect.

Jing: Five minute screencasts

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Did you ever show someone how to do something online and then show them over and over and over again? Sure you have. A couple of years ago I started using screencast apps (like ScreenFlow) to record brief “how-to’s” that I could put online rather than do the same demo again and again.

ScreenFlow and Camtasia and similar products enable you to record your demo once, and then let folks watch it when –and as often– as they want. These apps are very good… and maybe too good. (I tend to go on and on)

Lately I’ve been using Jing, which is made by the same people that make Camtasia. The difference is Jing is free and it limits your screencast to 5 minutes. Which I consider a feature, not a limitation. It forces you to focus, to be concise. If you need more than 5 minutes, you’re probably rambling and wordy.

I’ve done a few screencasts showing our reporters how to put stories online using our new WordPress websites. Recorded on the MacBook and uploaded to Screncast.com ($15/year). I then just send the links to our folks and they can watch the short videos (without downloading files). Works on Mac and PC.