C3 Richmond Web + Strategy: Copeland Casati Media: Some Fools Wanna Put Me On TV.

7/22/09

Some Fools Wanna Put Me On TV.

Telecommuting to you, from the prefab house kit, on a tractor battery and blackberry hook-up, I confirm:
Thaz right, you heard it true: Some Fools Wanna Put Me On TV.

What do they want me to do? Muse on stuff.
So here are my social media musings for the week:

Richmond city council, and future area zoning meetings.
That’s ok, I don’t want to go to them either.

But thanks to a few passionate people that do, I can now follow what they’re thinking and add my own two cents to their discussion while the meetings are going on!

On twitter, the use of hashtags (# before a word) helps people to mark and follow posts about an event or issue.

Last week a few brave souls covered the Richmond city council meeting. If this interests you, you can read what they said by going to the search box in twitter and typing in the hash tag, #citycouncil.
Tuesday offered two media events from which to choose, #steakchat and refresh richmond.

#steakchat focused on the Artists and Arts in Richmond, while refresh richmond had an informal mixer for people that are in new media, information and technology fields.

From their site:
"refresh richmond is a community of designers, developers and other web professionals working to improve the creative, technical and professional aspects of new media endeavors in the Greater Richmond area."
#smcrva or #hashbrownnetworking?
The Richmond Social Media Club, @smcrva, is an event where twitter social media enthusiasts and professionals pay money to meet in a large, raucous crowd, drink heavily and talk about their personal brand. ; ) *

*KIDDING, kinda. : ) There are very nice cool people there, especially those that organize it. I'm making gentle fun of the mood of past attendees, not the group's fantastic programming.
And the next topic is super:
Summer of Social Good: from their website:
"Summer of Social Good is the first large scale online charitable campaign to raise funds strictly online through the power of Social Media and the Internet. The goal is to use the power of "Social Influence" via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Blogs and other online media to raise an unprecedented amount for a fund benefiting The Humane Society, LIVESTRONG, Oxfam America and WWF from June 1st until August 28th, 2009. All proceeds from this month's event (after expenses) will be donated to Summer of Social Good!"
But tickets are hard to come by... so... you could head out to #hashbrownnetworking!

What's #hashbrownnetworking (or hasbrownnetworking, depending on your humor)? Well, instead of eating yummy steak sandwiches in hallowed museum halls, this crowd meets at the local Waffle House.
But who can resist hash browns? Or that it's free? Bring on the TweetUp! : )

What's a TweetUp, you say?
It's where people who enjoy twitter actually meet in (drum roll) REAL LIFE.

You can learn about Hashbrown Networking here: http://www.richmondwiki.org/wiki/Hashbrownnetworking
The site on which you just learned about Hashbrown Networking is Richmond Wiki.org, where you can add and edit information about Richmond. You can find information on interesting things to do, and discover vibrant businesses and people that make Richmond such a great town. Visit them at Richmond Wiki.org.
And if you're on twitter and are looking for some neat things to do in Virginia, follow @VAStateParks. They highlight cool events happening RIGHT HERE in our state parks. Do you guys realize all the neat, interesting things we can do there?!?

Find out here: http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks

I am looking forward to telecommuting to you from a Virginia state park soon in my 1960s Scotty camper...
Now for the seedy side of local RVA twits. There is a blog, and hashtag, created by some RVAers that enjoy documenting their debauchery online. Check out this month's drama of their split into fighting factions: http://omgwtfrva.com, and the splintered-off http://omgwtfrva.net. On twitter their hashtag is #omgwtfrva. This group is not for those mindful of courteous demeanor. But if you enjoy staggering through bars eating tater tots and braying karaoke, this may be the "Oh My Gosh What The Frickin', RVA" site for you!!!
(That's what the f stands for, right?)
I always wonder about groups / people that air their dirty laundry so-- do you think they don't think their employer (or future employer) won't read it? (Do we really care?) If so, you'd better be very careful when you call in sick if you've been documenting belting karaoke and munching tater tots until the wee hours of the next day- data is public, and your employers might be listening.

Otherwise, you might end up like Scotty, who got an office job, where his penchant for documenting his antics did Not. End. Up. So. Well. For. His. Career.
(I hope I'm sending chills of realization down someone's spine... SPOOOOOOOOOOOOKY. ... eh. )
Speaking of employers being aware of what their employees are doing, how about our local schools? Chesterfield county schools are now on twitter and Facebook, and the superintendent is even going to blog: http://bit.ly/iFX9g This will be a great opportunity for faster and more communication for school employees and parents... however, if I were a student... ; )
And if you're doing anything you don't want your employer or school to discover, then you should also know... Richmond POLICE are on twitter: @richmondpolice

...and not only are they on twitter, they are also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RichmondPolice
Oh yes, they are.
Any-hoo, on FaceBook, last week they streamlined the process for users whom have been hacked (CAREFUL what apps / what links you visit!) to more easily regain control of and restore their account. Learn more at InsideFacebook's article, http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/07/17/facebook-launches-updated-process-for-recovering-compromised-accounts/
And what IS up with all of those crazy FaceBook apps? Do you really want to give your profile information to random people you don't know? Just to take a quiz on "Which Movie Star Are YOU..." ? Really?

Right now, all of my relatives are sending me FaceBook requests for an application entitled...
"We're Related."
Moi: "I already know that, because we're related." Why. WHY? ; )
In twitter developments, as of this week, when you roll over a user profile , link, or photo, that information is revealed thanks to integration with bit.ly and more.

Rolling over a profile to have a popup of who that is, is very helpful for reminding you whom you follow. Except, I know who I follow because I carefully select the voices in my head, not to just strive to add as many followers as possible... ? That must be for people who have no idea whom is in their community... ?

What I *DO* find valuable is the ability to track how many people from twitter are clicking links, and the new, automated Re-Tweet feature.

A re-tweet (RT) is when you forward on someone's post on twitter, crediting them, to your followers. Previously in twitter you just typed "RT" then copied the post and author. Automating it has been a nice improvement.

Just as nice is how, when you see a post that is a reply to someone, you can roll over "in reply to..." and see the post to which your person-of-interest responded! (Stalking was never so easy!)
Heeeeeeeeey... Remember when people would google "miserable failure" and it would result in a picture of George Bush?
Well... it had to happen... thaz right, y'all: go to google and type in "worst failure ever."

Yep, Obama got Google bombed: http://tinyurl.com/mbkzzx
Twitter hashtags of note:
I know, hashtags can have backlash, plus trending topics are often not of value to me, but I found these interesting, maybe you will too:
#HowDareYou
#BlameDrewsCancer
Coming soon: to discuss: Google Wave.
And congratulations all around, Amazon and Zappos! Awwww, y'all so cute: Make sure to send out pictures from the honeymoon!
Social media. Social media involves the timeless building of your own community, not just the latest shiny new toy.

Who ARE these people in this new town hall?
Here's some data for you via @socialmedia2day : http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/110196
Lookin' for something to do this weekend? Check out The 48 Hour Film Project. If local film events and opportunities interests you, you can follow the Virginia Film Office on twitter: @VFO