Mary Madden and Aaron Smith of Pew Internet and American Life Project published a very interesting report, Reputation Management and Social Media, that really put my mind into a spin.

• 44% of young adult Internet users say they take steps to limit the amount of information available about them, compared to 33% of users ages 30 to 49 and 25% of those ages 50 to 64.
• 71% of younger social networking site users actively change their privacy settings to limit what they share with others online, compared to 55% of those 50 to 64.
• 41% have removed their names from photos of them posted by others, compared to just 18% of those 50 to 64.

So what does this say about the state of privacy?  I believe the younger generation is more willing to share their life online and engage in socialmedia.  However, they want to know their in control of the information.  They want the say in what is streamed out, and what is not.  Rightfully so I might add.  A larger portion of the younger generation have an online presence because it truly is “norm” for them.  So even the privacy conscious feel compelled to be on these social platforms; however they really take note of their privacy trying their best to lock it down tight.

Older generations are either with it, or they are completely against it.  If they feel okay with having their information online, they are generally very “open” type people.  They have nothing to hide and don’t fear what others may know about them.  These types of people are much less likely to be overly concerned about privacy.  They don’t change privacy settings and they don’t un-tag photos of themselves.  Those in the older generation didn’t grow up with it so they could take it or leave it, it’s not viewed as a “necessity”, like it is to some of our younger generation.  In essence, the adopters of technology in the old generation are truly comfortable with having their indentity online.

These reasons are why Mary and Aaron received the results they did.  I wouldn’t call them overly surprising, but more so highlighting the generational divide in technology adoption and the varying principles between the two.

New media is changing how our society communicates and keeps informed on the topics that are most important to us.  Whether friends, family or our favorite celebrities, social media keeps us connected.  Barack Obama illustrated how new media platforms could play an integral role in politics.  From raising money to keeping constituents informed, new media has solidified its place in the future of politics.  One candidate for Governor in Wisconsin is using these new platforms to drive his campaign to what they hope will be a favorable vote this fall.

Hyper Focused Advertising

Inexpensive ads are one of the many advantages for campaigns.  The most useful platform for very narrow, focused ads that don’t hurt the pocket book is Facebook.  Traditional advertising mediums like television and newspaper may blanket a vast number of people but there is no telling how much waste is included in traditional ad campaigns.  The problem is they are not highly targeted, and that is some new media platforms like Facebook deliver.  Not only are they a fraction of the cost, but they also let you target extremely narrow demographics and focus a particular message for that group.  This kind of targeting is incredibly valuable to political campaigns and traditional business alike.

There are many stories around the country of success with using new media for advertising in politics.  One of these is Republican Patrick Mara. Mara defeated a 16-year incumbent in a DC city council primary in 2008.  His campaign said they had excellent results using hyper focused ads on Facebook to reach their core demographic.

Put Your Net”work” To Work

No one can help you more than your constituents.  Motivating your network to action is an extremely powerful task to accomplish and is now easier than ever before with new media tools and the Internet.  Passing your messages and beliefs through your followers is much more effective than any high-dollar ad campaign can accomplish.  A personal conversation between friends or family is much more likely to carry weight than a TV ad or a radio spot.  Your network is your biggest and most powerful advocate.  Don’t forget it, you’ll need them!

Don’t underestimate what your network will or won’t do.  Don’t assume they won’t help your cause or do what you ask.  Once you have solidified connections with them, your message hits hard.  While casual messages through television, radio and other traditional mediums may reach constituents, the message isn’t nearly as personal and is less likely to influence.  When your followers choose to connect with you on a new media platform, they’re allowing you into their personal network, they’re not picking up background noise on traditional mediums.  Messages are hence stronger and make a larger impact on your constituents, and are more likely to spread.

Bring Your Network Into “The Huddle”

To utilize your network, you need to bring them into your huddle.  A disconnect between executives, administrators is a very common problem; both business and politics suffers from this disconnect.  This disconnect is often referred to as “Ivory Tower Syndrome.”  The leaders of movements often fall out of touch with their base and aren’t aware of what their constituents really feel and really want.  New media platforms connect leaders with even the smallest of their base.

82 year-old Dorothy in a town of 1500 people can get on her Facebook account or Twitter account and voice her opinion; something that without these new technologies would be incredibly more difficult for her.  This is the power of the “Huddle.”  Being your network close and communicate.  Don’t just spew one way and use your tools as broadcast platforms.  Talk with them, engage them and good things will happen.

“Sometimes we have to ask the hard questions and get real, truthful, and sometimes harsh answers. The more we know about what our constituents are thinking, the better we can serve them.” said Nicole Russo, Legislative Aide to New York State Senator Kemp Hannon.  (Mashable)

Transparency = Trust

All of these efforts provide transparency for the candidate.  Transparency is something Barack Obama really mainstreamed in his presidential campaign.  People want that from the political candidates today.  With all our personal information being streamed online, it is becoming the norm to receive your most important & personal information on the Internet.

What are my nephews up to today via Facebook?  VOIP chat with them online via the PlayStation Network, and see what my friends around the country are talking about today on Twitter.  This transparency is further illustrated by the explosion of location-based services like Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt.  Millions of people have no problem sharing their location every second of the day with the world.

Making the candidate transparent lessens the probability of your messages being lost in translation and makes it much stronger.  Trying to communicate solely through press releases or your press team making statement can lead misinterpretation and statements being mis-judged.  This can quickly swirl into a PR nightmare.  Keeping fresh content and being 100% open on your new media platforms keeps everything on the public record accurately.  Transparency also allows to handle small fires that arise on the political trail quickly before they can spread out of control.  Cutting the legs beneath allegations and disputes before mainstream media picks it up while reassuring your base of your stance.  Mobility and timeliness are key in putting out the fires.

The Neumann campaign uses  video to discuss Mark’s stance on the issues and answer question he receives online.  The key to efforts like this boils down to one word, genuine.  If you think Facebook, Twitter, E-mail will just be another one-way street with you soapboxing your messages, your horribly mistaken.  The ship has sailed for you.  These platforms need to be personal, they need to be genuine.  Your constituents want to feel connected to you and your causes.  They do not want to feel connected to your PR team and press releases.

Here is a perfect example from the Neumann campaign.  It’s not overly produced and you can tell it’s just Mark speaking, no fancy scripts, no constant cutting and splicing of the video. It’s genuine and it offers some personal details about his life

Wrapping It Up

New media has a firm place in politics.  Candidates who fail to utilize these technologies, I feel, are at a significant disadvantage.  The Neumann campaign has dedicated effort to the social media sphere and has a following of over 50,000 constituents online because of it.

Don’t be afraid to embrace the new and understand how society is changing. People’s information gathering is changing and they have certain expectations from public figures.  Meet those expectations, engage with them, be transparent, and be genuine.  Mark has, what can’t others?

Learn more about Mark Neumann

http://www.markforgov.com

http://www.facebook.com/strongwisconsin

http://www.twitter.com/strongwisconsin

http://www.youtube.com/strongwisconsin

http://www.flickr.com/photos/strongwisconsin

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO

Facebook has taken a lot of heat, a lot! Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, recently took the stage at AllThingsDigital; a prestigious tech conference where all the big players in tech were watching, including tech journalists.  It was here where Zuckerberg was on the firing post around recent privacy concerns.

Come on people; leave this guy alone!  At least consider cutting him some slack.  A young CEO who only created the biggest thing on the Internet today out of his Harvard dorm room and become a multi-billionaire!  Sure he has made some mistakes; he’s human as we all are.   Many journalists are swarming around recent leaked IM conversations Zuckerberg had with a friend from Harvard.  Who cares what he said before Facebook was even, Facebook!?  A young college kid holding a private conversation.  I don’t think it holds any viscosity on the current privacy heat Facebook is taking.  People should not judge that old, private, conversation as his firm stance on privacy.

Zuckerberg’s recent moves with Facebook and these leaked details may be the tipping point for Facebook.  MySpace wen’t through the same slow death with people migrating to Facebook.  However, Facebook shouldn’t quiver just yet.  There is no suitable competitor to Facebook therefore no matter how angered, people don’t have another social network to migrate to.  I also feel Facebook holds much more value than MySpace ever did and leaving it will be much more difficult for users.

You have to give him credit for even taking the stage and facing the heat head-on, even if he didn’t handle it perfectly.  Some CEO’s would have just cowered and not even shown their face.

Cut the guy a break!

You can read a bit more on this newly release report  at Mahable.

Facebook Overview

Facebook is the Internet’s phone book.  It is way to connect with friends, find old classmates and stay in touch with loved ones who live far away.  Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg at the age of 19 while attending Harvard University.  It was originally founded to be used at Harvard by students only. Facebook spread like wildfire on-campus and soon Zuckerberg and his co-founders distributed the service to forty-five schools and had hundreds of thousands of users within 6 months.   They were onto something.  It was at this point Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to pursue Facebook as a full-time venture in the summer of 2004.  Zuckerberg is still the CEO of Facebook to this day and has a net worth of over 2 billion.  Facebook has been estimated at a staggering $15 billion dollars by Microsoft Corp.  (Wikipedia, 2009)  In 2008, more than 93% of UW-Stout students had an active Facebook account.  (Kaskavitch, 2009)

Facebook User Count:  Over 310 million active users

Facebook Behavior during Crises

Virginia Tech, I35 bridge collapse, US Airways 1549 all have one thing in common.  Each event spurred dozens if not hundreds of Facebook groups often within an hour of the actual even occurring.  These groups on the network provided an open platform to share information at a very fast pace.  Facebook groups were setup during the Virginia Tech tragedy within 15 minutes of the news breaking on what was occurring.  News and information spreads faster than ever before.  So fast sometimes it can cause information overload.  A study published in New Scientist magazine in 2008 found that social network sites like Facebook, instant messengers, blogs and micro-blogging sites like Twitter spread warnings and information more efficiently than traditional communication channels.  (Catone, 2008)

How to utilize Facebook for crisis management

The big question:  How does UW-Stout utilize this tool in its campus crisis management planning?

The answer to this question is by creating “dark groups” on Facebook.  Dark groups are groups that are only visible to the creator and those whom the creator selects to invite, these are known as “secret” on Facebook.  These dark groups can then be pre-loaded with crisis plans and content that students, faculty and staff will need to know in the event of a campus crisis.

These groups will need to be altered and information about the actual incident will need to be added to the group description because of the fluidity of emergencies, but that should only be a paragraph or two.

Once a crisis occurs, you simply make the group public and invite the first ten or fifteen students.  With that small starting cluster of users, the group should grow exponentially will little administration effort.  It would also be worthwhile to put it on the UW-Stout home page to align it with other official channels of communication like news releases, blogs and messages from Chancellor Sorensen.  The power of viral spread via Facebook was demonstrated when students organized the Westboro Baptist Church counter-protest in under 36 hours.  All this organization and information exchange was done with a simple Facebook event.

You will need to consider a few things before considering yourself prepared to use Facebook as a platform in crisis management

• Will you include photos and videos in the group?  If so, will only administrators be allowed to upload media or will everyone be allowed to contribute?
• Do you want to enable the ‘wall’ to allow open conversation?
• Do you want the discussion board enabled?
• Who will manage it in the event of a crisis?

Organizations want very tight control on the messages being delivered and content being passed between users, especially during something as serious as a campus emergency.  Locking down the group and making it a billboard inside a walled-garden is not effective.  You have to be willing to open up and let information flow across the channel in an unfiltered manner.  The speed at which is can go back and forth across this medium could be incredibly useful during an emergency.  You want your message to get out, and you should want feedback from your receiving audience as well.

Creating dark groups on Facebook will not stop other groups from forming.  Having the official group will bolster much more credibility than groups created by students.  You will not be able to censor these groups and the information exchanged on them.  Having the official group and positioning/advertising it as an official channel of communication will make it more relevant and more likely ‘the place to be’ for your target audience to gather and exchange information.  You will be able to:

• Censor information (only if absolutely necessary)
• Direct message all members of your group instantly.
• Control the message and information presented within the group.

All these become possible only if you have administrator privileges in the group.  You would not be able to do the above points if you simply joined a student’s group and tried to calm the flames or correct information as a regular member.

There is one ‘issue’ with pre-creating these groups ahead of time.  You will need to name them right away and you cannot change them later on.  Therefore, you won’t be able to put actual situation specific information in the group name.  Some advocate practice setting up these groups, know the setting’s you want and have the information ready to paste into the group.  You would actually create the group once the emergency or crisis occurs allowing for a detailed group name.

New technologies and communication platforms like Twitter and Facebook connect large clusters of students like never before.  Information is exchanged at light speed and exchanged more efficiently than more traditional channels of communication.

The plug-in is called FacePad.  FacePad is a simple Firefox plug-in that allows you to right-click a Facebook photo album and download all photos inside very quickly.  An album of 60 photos takes about five seconds to download on a 10 meg connection and places the photos where you specify within Firefox preferences.

What could be a ‘Facebook creeper’ use of this plug-in?  You could begin archiving Facebook photo albums from friends and random people on Facebook, then place them into software that is now available with face recognition technology.  Tag people for the software to recognize then cross-check to see if their face appears in any photos you have archived.  Your talking about cross-referencing possibly thousands and thousands of photographs.  There’s a new way to keep tabs on someone!

Get It now!  Click below!

Twitter had to temporarily shut down their search results, saved searches and trending topics to mitigate a full-blown site failure.  This isn’t uncommon for the micro-blogging site.  Twitter has been known to be very unstable during breaking news like the Hudson River plane crash and the Iranian conflict.  “We saw over twice the normal tweets per second the moment the story broke as people shared their grief and memories,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told The Associated Press via e-mail.

AT&T said they set a new record for most text messages being sent over their network.  In the minutes following Jackson’s death AT&T subscribers were sending 4,000,000 text messages per minute at its peak, they also said call volume was up 10% during that same time.  AT&T went on to say that the spike in volume from Jackson’s death was even greater than during the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City.  This is an unfair comparison by AT&T because their customer base significantly increased thanks to the Apple iPhone in the past three years and mergers.  In 2001 AT&T wireless had about 20 million subscribers, in the first quarter of 2009 they had just under 80 million.

Internet giant Google was also crippled by the breaking news.  The security software that protects Google from hackers thought it was under attack with so many queries coming in.   Those on Google News had to enter a ‘CAPTCHA’ code to prove they were real users and not bot.  Google also began displaying ‘malware’ alerts for users trying to search for breaking news on Jackson.  Search queries spiked around 2pm Pacific time, skyrocketed by 3pm, and finally leveled off by 8pm. The majority of Thursday’s hot trends related to Jackson’s death, Google said.  Google provided this chart showing queries about Michael Jackson on Thursday.

Facebook unsurprisingly dominated the social media spread of Michael Jackson’s death with its 300+ million user base.  The saturation of networks is best shown on this chart. (Look at that spike for Facebook!!!!)

Yahoo.com had a record setting day as well.  Yahoo News had 16.4 million unique visitors, breaking the 15.1 million record set on Election Day 2008.

This event will likely continue to be studied for months to come.  I’m waiting to see information released on the stress placed on Google’s server farms and Internet hubs worldwide that funnel traffic in places like Chicago, New York City, Atlanta and Dallas.   Sure trend analysis like the graph’s above are nice, but I would like to see some technical break down of the event.

In Pt. I we discussed identifying new media platforms that you should invest in.  When you begin to build your presence on a platform, you need to identify your goal.  What is your purpose for being on XYZ network?  Build relationships?  Build awareness of your brand?  Maybe a bit of both?  You must identify the purpose and goals before you dive in.  This will help later when trying to examine your progress and success which sometimes can be difficult.  Traditional marketing and advertising analysis often don’t apply to measuring social media.

When diving into the social media pool, what do you want to accomplish?

• Create brand awareness?
• Build relationships?
• Both?

Once you have you goals identified you must then assign resources to manage your new web presence.  Part of assigning your resources is trying to figure out where they will be spending their time.  But where is your audience!?  If your trying to reach students the likely choice will be Facebook or MySpace, if your trying to reach out and connect with Alumni, LinkedIn might be a better choice.  Brad J. Ward of BlueFuego.com often speaks to universities about ‘Big 6′: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr.  “Typically, not all 6 fit within the strategy of the school’s presence due to limited resources (staff hours).   If you had to go with one, I would choose a Facebook Fan Page.  That’s where it’s at right now. ” says Ward.

Universities often ask who should manage this presence?  One or two people?  Each department separate and ‘doing its own thing’?  Brad Ward and I agree that there needs to be a champion leading the social media effort.  It doesn’t necessarily need to be a communications specialist, but someone from a department who feels comfortable with the task and is knowledgeable in these new media technologies.  The most ideal situation when using social media on a campus is when each department can dedicate someone to manage their social presence.  However, communication is crucial between the departments as they try to gain synergy and push in a common direction while accomplishing their goals.

You have now identified your platforms and have begun invading them.  You begin uploading pictures to Flickr, start tweeting on Twitter and managing your Facebook Fan Page.  Easy right?  Well yes, but no!  Wait, What?  Social media is often thought of as self-sustaining. You sign-up and your presence alone will draw traffic and conversation.  This might be one of the biggest misconceptions with new media.  Your presence alone is not enough.  Would you design a static webpage, never update it and feel content with it?  I don’t think so.  You need to engage on the platform your utilizing, this is ‘social’ media after all, right?  Your Twitter should not simply be a one-way broadcast platform for your news.  Your Facebook fan page shouldn’t lay dormant with no new photos or notes.  When you enter the realm of social media, your trying to build a community of followers around your brand.  To build that affinity you need to engage your audience in a interactive manner, not just broadcast content like a normal website would. 

“The schools who are really investing resources and staff hours into the social web are the ones having success.” says Ward. 

Now that you have started to invade your selected platforms and understand that you must dedicate resources, how do you go about engaging your audience?  This and more in the next installment of this multi-part blog!

Thanks to Brad J. Ward of BlueFuego.com for providing his commentary and insight.  Brad is a leader in higher education recruitment and is the Chief Explosion Officer at BlueFuego, a company he co-founded for consulting universtiies on how to recruit students using social media.