Chris Brogan and Edward Boches visit Emerson Social Media’s Class

On Tuesday December 15th, Edward Boches and Chris Brogan will be present live and through video chat. Although they are both know as “influencers” in the world of social media, there is a difference in their respective blogs.

On Chris Brogan…

A ten-year user of social media, Chris Brogan is identified as a source of information when dealing with any and all social media. His blog can range from discussing product or service reviews (like Google Wave) to guides on how to start a moving business.

Brogan’s goal is to provide businesses and organizations on how to use social media and social networks to build relationships. He is the president of New Marketing Labs, a social media marketing firm which boasts clients like Pepsico and Sony.

A reader of Chris Brogan’s blog would be someone hoping to join in on a conversation about how businesses or products use social media. Brogan does not have a preaching tone and there is always great discussion in his comments about what readers feel about his blog post. With Brogan, there is more of a call to action for brands looking for more social media knowledge. He has a “work with me” tab, and also links to his company.

I would challenge the idea of a sponsored post that Brogan occasionally puts on his blog. I feel as although there are specific guidelines that one should write about. Sponsored posts are moderately new to the social media world and there is controversy since social media is often focused around “conversation” and “genuine-ness”.

On Edward Boches…

As the Chief Creative Officer of mullen, Edward writes about his experiences in the Advertising industry. His name has been closely tied with the term crowdsourcing and is seen as another strong thought leader in the field of social media marketing.

Edward and I know each other from his pet project he has started called The Next Great Generation, which is based off a  crowdsourcing model of Generation-Yers writing on topics ranging from sex to brands.

I was able to interview Edward and this is what he said:

1. What are your thoughts in terms of being a “thought leader”?I don’t try to be one, I’m flattered that I am. I think I am learning more than I am taking, and I am always obligated to share what I know.
2. When you first started writing, was there a specific target for your blog?I thought CMOs and big time clients would see my blog. But that’s not who actually came to my site. Instead, peers, people from the advertising business, young people are coming to my site. 
3. How do you react to challenges on your thoughts?Some of the times, I end up agreeing with them and change my mind. Other times, I argue politely. If you are open minded to contrasting point of views, you can learn and develop your own thinking, and become more focused and clear. 
4. Is there anything you are proud of about your blog?I’m glad it has stimulated conversation. Writing blog posts should be the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one. Instead of being “proud”, I am more pleased with stimulating conversation that matter to this business. 
5. How do you feel about people calling themselves “experts”?You can only be experts in things that have hapened in the past. You are less likely to be successful, because its best to talk about something when there is always more to learn. Declaring yourself an expert is arrogant, there is always something new — whether it be technology, consumer behavior, or travel.

Edward’s blog is a reflection of the things he practices and preaches. He focuses on consumers and their interaction with content and media. This allows for marketers to understand their viewpoint, to interact and connect with the community. There is no call to action as strong as Brogan’s blog because his intentions are different, Edward is willing to share and stimulate conversation. 

For the older-than-13 crowd out there, hopefully, Nintendo64 was a part of your childhood. The intense rotation of your thumb-bone as your struggled to wind-up the Shy Guy in Mario Party, the repeated “Tap A and B Together” as you ran up and down the halls trying to rescue your princess in Super Mario 64, Tapping Z and R twice to do a barrell roll in Star Fox 64, and of course, the A+Z combo to do a jump pound attack in almost any Mario game. These motions from this console all bring back the 90s in its shoulder-padded glory.

Named Nintendo 64 (N64) for its 64-bit CPU, the bulky gray console game with 4 controller plugs, an On/Off switch, and a reset button. The game cartridges require a strong huff of air in the bottom of the cartridge before slamming it down into the receiver. When the on button was pushed upwards, the glowing red light on the console would signify the N64’s breathing, living, life.

Gameplay was so realistic, I must bring in a snapshot of the love:

N64 was definitely the highlight of my childhood. I remember when my brother (4 years younger than me) got an N64 for Christmas, he was crying of joy. Reminding me quite similar to the viral video you can see here (warning, turn down speakers).

What if the N64 had been released during the influx of social media? What tactics would Nintendo have used to create buzz? I will now discuss tw

o recommendations for Nintendo to infiltrate the video gamer’s market:

1. Total Annihilation of Product

Nintendo needs to completely annihilate the N64 on camera. Invite a couple of bloggers/press members and we have ourselves a press event.

Recently, I had blogged about a Sony Bravia TV getting slammed in the face by a PS3 slim. Sony Australia invited a couple of bloggers to this event and got a huge amount of press for it.

Similarly, this 300,000+ viewed youtube clip of IceT completely demolishing his Apple MacBook Pro in his yard also got around the internet.

I think you know where I am getting at.

Blendtec’s brilliant campaign of “Will it Blend?” is the best example of destroying technology. Tom Dickson, CEO of BlendTec, uses hilarious ways of blending random articles (from iPhones, silly putty, skiis, toilet flushers — to so, so much more) with his Blendtec blender and shares it on YouTube.

In this video, Tom blends the entire multimedia Olympus line of cameras (point and shoot and video cameras) to show that BlendTec really can blend anything:

So after 6 million views on their first Youtube video, a 500% increase in sales, and a case for many social media enthusiasts to look after, we can say that destroying/blending technology will create some, if not a lot, of press.

2. Offer a tour!

Because N64 does not offer any sort of online play or any outward interaction except for 3 other friends at home, the only way to promote a gaining of knowledge for this product is to look inside the product itself.

Create an interactive world, where players/people interested can log online and explore the workings of a Nintendo 64. Why is it 64 bit? What makes that different? How does the console look inside? What are the workings of the cartriges?

Toyota creates their own “Toyota Metapolis” in which it is an interactive city-like map that is designed for people who are seeking more information about the company to look inside the map to check out their different department. Almost like an alternate reality, Toyota creates an area where each individual Letter and Number on the map has a little blurb about the departments that they do. It is an excellent tool into providing information-seekers more guidance in their product.

Comments

For this week, I am going to profile Valeria Maltoni - writer of Conversation Agent.

The blog is featured currently as #29 on Age Age’s Top 50 (as of 10/15):

Valeria also writes for Fast Company, The Blog Herald, Marketing Profs on top of maintaining her blog. Conversation Agent is a blog that connects people to ideas through different forms of communication. She’s extremely interested in learning, in her interview with Ad Age under a Power Profile — she focuses a lot of her content on conversation and the intricacies of it. Also she likes to eat edamame when she blogs (yum)

She has mastered the compilation of lists! Her two most well-known is the “W-List”, and the “100 PR People Worth Following on Twitter”. The former sparked what Valeria said “unleashed such a controversial debate all over the blogosphere” by suggesting a top 20 women in PR list. The latter includes, as described, the 100 people worth following. (Our SHIFT Principal Todd Defren is included + Account Director Doug Haslam too - whom I wrote about here! Cool!)

I asked Valeria about the usage of technology in communication, whether or not it changes the content of what we communicate, and this was her response:

“The big thought is that you don’t have to tell all to be transparent, you can still be that in spirit and attitude. Which is what creates conversation. Technology just enables it, amplifies it, makes it faster, more available. It’s the altering of attitude that will change things.”

She emphasizes that it should be the intention of the conversation that makes things transparent. Maybe the more open-minded and embracing one is about technology also affects the content in which they speak/write/tweet.

I’m always hearing scary stories about employees getting fired from their jobs because of things their bosses find on Facebook. I’ve never had an issue where I was hiding something from someone on public profiles. I think of the internet as a public pool, if someone pees in it, WE ALL KNOW.

So I have compiled a list of 7 things that you can do to protect your facebook privacy and to just become smarter in general about what you do online:

1. Change your password frequently.

Just a security measure for yourself. Before you go changing your own personal information, make sure that people who you don’t remember giving your password to or people you don’t want getting their hands on your password don’t get it!

Change your password every 3-5 months and make sure that they aren’t silly things like “happy” or “password” or “12345”.

This is your personal image we are talking about here, make sure that no one has control over that but you.

2. Your Privacy Settings!

If you haven’t been here to change your privacy to settings, do it.This is probably the first thing you should do after you get a Facebook personal page. I personally would not want anyone poking around my photos whom I don’t know, no matter how much fun I had in “Summer ‘09”, I would not prefer it if my personal details were just out in the open to random men in Albuquerque.

BBC News writes an interesting article on how malicious software out there can steal your identity, no matter how private your settings are. Read about it here.

3. Check how different people can see your profile.

Right on top of privacy settings, Facebook can show you how your friends can see your profile. For me, no one can see my wall if they are not part of the Emerson network. If you want to share photos to people that you went to college with but not your employers (BEWARE OF THIS) you can do so by changing the privacy settings. But just a note of warning, if it’s on the internet, its probably not only in the one place you think it is.

4. Leave unnecessary networks.

I am currently in the Boston, MA, Emerson College, and Shanghai American School network. They are all applicable to me, and I live in Boston. Don’t join networks because your friends are on it, don’t try to stalk other people in a network because if you can see what they have on their profile, others can see what you have on yours.

Make sure you are making the correct choices. People are watching.

5. Be smart about your updates.

Facebook updates pose the question “What are you thinking” before you update your status. A good idea is to post a link to something you found interesting, or a remark upon how far/close the weekend is. NOT “My job sucks, I want to die” - those are the sure fire ways to get you on the streets my friend.

If there is any advice that I would say take away from this list is to take a second to think. Facebook, like any other online tool is shared by hundreds of millions of people. Don’t think that only the people you want to see it will see it.

6. Periodically sort through your friends

In the beginning when I had facebook, I would just friend everyone (even the people who I didn’t know). Months later, I have random people commenting on my photos, writing on my wall — eek! Never.

So make sure you are cleaning out your friends. It’s not that great to have 1000+ friends but 800 of them are random people from India, Nepal, or Finland. Facebook is about connecting with the friends that you have, not having creepy ones you will never meet like your statuses.

7. Google yourself!

If you haven’t done this yet, do so! Google is the best way that people can search for you. What is being said about you? Look at the photos. I personally have random people from San Francisco come up on my google search — weird I know. But at least they aren’t photos of me throwing up on my couch, slacking off during a work day, or doing other embarassing things.