Category Archives: online communicatons

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A democratic #myth

Once upon a time men of thirteen colonies declared there should be no taxation without representation. They had grown tired of an entitled distant group dictating policy that limited their freedom to define their own course. Ignored by the ruling class, the thirteen colonies declared their independence. Independence was relative. Women were chattel and slavery was the law of the new land. Freedom was proscribed.

Those founding fathers overlooked the irony, and continued the corruption that predated their independence. Now however they lined their own pockets…which was righteous. The founding fathers rejected the model of government that suppressed their opportunity to accept bribes and make laws that favoured their friends. They created a system of checks and balances, believing they had a superior system that would prevent oppression by a ruling class to ever occur again.

They institutionalized oppression of all but the male land-owning class. The new system was as open to corruption as the previous. Most importantly they made it virtually impossible to rid themselves quickly of a government that was ineffectual.

Two hundred and some years later. Some wrongs have been righted. Women can vote, slavery is abolished. But a 4 year term has become ineffectual after two years. Lame duck has become a descriptor and special interests buy votes.

Democracy is a myth in America. 

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Taking over the world – Facebook’s agenda may not be your agenda

With more than 700,000 members, one should be wary of calling Facebook a closed community. With the objective of connecting the world – limited only by political agendas – Facebook’s agenda can be seen as an anti-privacy agenda.

Consider Open Graph. At first glance it appears to be a boon to those who use Facebook to communicate with those who friend or like. However Facebook is a business. Never forget that Facebook is a business. So the value to Facebook of Open Graph is its value to aid message mongers – not-for-profit and for-profit alike.

If privacy is important to you, do not post on the Internet – ever. If you want an Internet presence, but want to protect your privacy, don’t join Facebook, or any “closed” group with a population greater than that of the United States of America.

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Never having to choose – #heaven

My vision of heaven is a place where choice does not exist. Evil can exist without choice, but temptation cannot. Do I eat that chocolate bar? Do I run that red light? Do I gossip, lie, cheat? If I didn’t have a choice the right path would be so much easier to follow.

Ah…there may lie the flaw in my argument, at least in this life. What then is the right path? One woman’s right path can be another’s wrong path. In heaven without choice, perhaps right is the same for all regardless of culture and dogma? Wouldn’t that be heaven on Earth if we stopped adhering to the inflexible differences and clung to the shared similarities? Respect, love and loyalty that doesn’t come with a plastic card.

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Content Marketing: Three Books, One Review

Content Marketing Book ReviewsGet Content, Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing

Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett are the co-authors of this 2009 book. Joe runs the Content Marketing Institute. He lectures around the world on the subject and produces an enewsletter with tips and ideas for content marketers. This book is much like his blog, full of great content delivered in such a way that I felt like I joined a conversation half way through. If you want to know what content marketing is, I suggest you peruse Joe’s blog, which is current.

Content Marketing: Think like Publisher – How to Use Content to Market Online and in Social Media

Rebecca Lieb wrote this 2012 book. If you have a print background and are trying to shift into online marketing, this book will make sense to you. It may be the place to start if you’ve been hiding your head in the sand hoping that online marketing would go away.

Content Chemistry: An Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing

Andy Crestodina wrote this 2012 book. Google Andy, you’ll discover that he takes his own advice. Always a good sign. You’ll find his twitter handle, Google + account etc. Of course, using his name as the keyword phrase is not a best practice. He makes a sound case for doing some detective work to identify the keyword phrases that will deliver traffic and with the right content conversions.

His book really is a how-to book, with charts,lists, exercises, and a chemistry analogy that had my hyperventilating until I read it. If like me you skipped chem in high school, do not fear. Andy’s analogy makes sense when you read it. As does his book from front to back cover.

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#Awe, #Anger and #Anxiety vs. Stupidity, Bad Taste and Humiliation

Yesterday I read a scholarly article entitled, “What Makes Online Content Viral?” The authors are Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman. It can be found in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Marketing Research.

They used data from the New York Times to identify emotions that compel people to forward a link to others. They identified 3 arousal emotions – awe, anger and anxiety. Sadness they learned failed to motivate Internet users to forward. Degree counts too – Content that evokes high-arousal emotions will be more viral.

I ruminated about these findings, then went online this morning to YouTube. My YouTube homepage delivers suggestions based on my behaviour patterns. It also delivers “popular” videos. This morning my popular offerings were bad lip-reading videos – some with more than 15,000,000 views. The suggestions inspired the question, “Why do stupidity, bad taste and humiliation compel people to forward links?”

Of that list only humiliation is an emotion – and not one of arousal – unless perhaps you are kinky. Stupidity is a condition. Bad taste…that is cultural…one culture’s bad taste is another’s height of artistry. [Japanese game shows are an example.]

I must think on this some more.