What if Facebook Becomes the Next Monsanto?

I love nothing better than a good "what if?"

So when I saw this news about Facebook patenting the news feed, I couldn't help but think of the movie I'm now obsessed with, Food, Inc. Specifically, the part about my worst nightmare company, Monsanto, and how they are systematically suing farmers who don't use their genetically-modified--and patented--soy beans.

If you haven't seen the movie, you need to--if for no other reason than so you can tell me if I'm crazy for thinking that there's nothing stopping Facebook from doing the same thing to rival social networking sites that Monsanto is doing to hard-working farmers. Basically, Monsanto has huge pockets and can afford to sue small farmers who are then forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend themselves, even if they've done nothing wrong. I've personally never seen a more horrific example of greed or soul-less-ness, and it makes me question what kind of world we live in that they can get away with what they're doing.

Facebook has money and a patent. Let's hope they have more of a conscience than Monsanto--otherwise, looks like we can all kiss Twitter and other social networking sites goodbye. Seriously--if you don't think it could happen, watch Food, Inc.

Is The Age of the Troll Over?

There was a really interesting article in the New York Observer a few days ago about the new trend towards  civility. Don't get me wrong--there are still plenty of haters out there--but this point in particular struck a chord with me:

With all due respect to the Internet, it has not often been described as a "lovefest"; indeed, it has been better known as a forum for fire-breathing, semi-literate personal attacks. But suddenly, wide swaths of the Web have become bastions of support and earnest civility, where community-members "retweet" or "reblog" each other's bon mots, promiscuously proffer thumbs-up, help sell perfect strangers' books, drive traffic to each other's blogs and real-world events and even defend one another.

I have to say that I totally agree with the author--it honestly does seem that the internet has recently become a lot "nicer." I personally attribute it to several things:

• Less anonymity. A few years ago I had the pleasure of being an occasional guest blogger on the Washington Post's "On Balance" blog. That was back before people were required to login to leave comments--you could just create a lil' nickname and fire away. And trust me--fire away they did. Some of the readers of those posts pretty much tore me limb from limb--thankfully usually my writing wasn't the target of their jabs, but me personally. If you have a few minutes and want a laugh/shudder, go read the comments in this post and this one. "Maggie clearly has issues." "Her last guest post was as loopy and insecure as this one." Etc. And my personal favorite "Not for nothing, but Maggie's actually pretty hot"--and the ensuing comments about how I was probably a former cheerleader. Anyone who knew me in high school would be laughing their asses off over that one--suffice it to say that cheerleader or Queen Bee I was not. Ok--sorry--back to my point--the readers of that blog did the same for every post--their daily joy was picking apart whoever was up at bat--the nastier and snarkier the comments, the better. It was actually an online community where the same people posted every day and had conversations with each other--all behind the safety of their nicknames. The Post subsequently changed their policy and required all commenters to register with the site...and lo and behold, the On Balance blog faded into non-existence. Without their shroud of anonymity, the commenters had no incentive to read or comment.
• You can't hide online anymore. I blogged about this concept back in the day: "I have to wonder what it would be like if everyone had their photo next to their "screen name," or even if they had to use their real names; would they still be as aggressive as they are in their safe anonymity?" Fast forward to today when a lot of the time people DO have their photos next to their names--and, not so surprisingly, are a lot nicer. You also can't hide online as easily as you used to. Of course, there's nothing stopping anyone from using made up online identities, but most times when you're commenting on a blog post these days, your name--real or not--is tied to at least an email address and, if you have one, the url of your blog or website. Commenting on blog posts is now a way to attract blog readers and/or to call attention to yourself in a positive way. Of course, there is still plenty of online nastiness to be sure--but there's more accountability. More people are interested in what you're doing online these days: potential employers Google you; marketers and creditors may well scrape information from a number of sites to get as much information about you as possible, or use services like Rapleaf or 123People (hat-tip to the Community Roundtable and the awesome call with Lauren Gelman yesterday for making me obsessed with this issue now!)
• Online reputations have tangible value now. Not only is it harder to hide online these days, but there is lots of potential gain from NOT hiding. Amber Naslund makes about the most compelling argument possible for this with her post about how she made $100k using Twitter. I know I've gotten speaking engagements--even job offers--just through my interactions with people online. Sure, I could skulk around using a fake name, blog anonymously, and get out all my hostility by blasting people like the On Balance commenters did back in the day....but why would I--or anyone else--waste my time doing that stuff when there is so much potential benefit from using your real identity online? It doesn't matter what line of work you're in--a strong online presence is basically part of your resume. I have a friend who once had a series of great interviews and was one of the top contenders for a position--only to be told that she didn't get the job because when they Googled her name, not enough stuff came up. 

What do you think--is "nice the new black" online? Or are there just as many trolls as ever and I'm just blind?

Is Your Association Equipped to Integrate Social Media With Member Service?

I'm having wicked writer's block this week for some reason; luckily I have tons of half-baked blog posts just lolling around unpublished. This one is from several months ago and I'm not sure why I never finished it, but it seems sort of relevant after today's #assnchat that focused primarily on whether or not associations should be integrating social media into their overall member service offerings. What does "integrating social media and member service" mean? Listening to what members are saying on Twitter, blogs, and social networks and addressing complaints or questions in the appropriate channel as they arise. Then tracking those exchanges in the AMS just as you'd track any other member interaction such as a phone or email inquiry. Working in "real time" rather than just 8:30-5. Stuff like that.

My feeling is that, for most associations, integrating social media into member service is probably still a long way off for several reasons. The first and most important of which is that, in order to even think about mixing the two, ALL members of an association's staff must be fully versed in all aspects of social media: understand the tools, be actively listening, have a coordinated plan for responding and have plans in place for properly tracking such interactions. Yes, that's right: all. Not just member service staff. But that's another post for another time; I'm going to back it up and start by saying that a good place to begin is with the social media team concept.

Amber Naslund wrote a great ebook on developing social media teams that I think is a perfect foundation for the concept of creating a culture that would be willing and able to incorporate social media into its member service activities.

Points that are especially relevant to the social media/member service pairing:

• "No matter who is reaching out on behalf of your company, your customers and community aren’t segmenting you by department and they don’t care about your job titles. They’re looking at you as a unified team that they can count on to meet their needs. So by all means devise a system that works for you, but ultimately remember that you are ALL stewards of your company and your brand, and by participating in social media, you’re setting new expectations for accessibility and availability. And you’re all in it together." In other words, that silo culture that's always worked before? Won't work anymore if you want to effectively use social media to listen and respond to members. 
• "The members of your team doing the participating need to be interested in doing so in the first place. Check out whether your team members are using social networks or blogging in their personal lives, and see where their interests lie." Audit your existing staff resources. Do you already have social media "experts" on staff? If so, good--they can take on the not-insignificant task of evangelizing to and training staff who aren't familiar with social media or who think it's stupid and a waste of time.
• "An aspect of social media execution that I think often gets lost in the shuffle is communicating among your internal team." What channels already exist to allow staff to communicate with each other? None? That's a problem. A huge part of being able to effectively integrate social media and member service is coordinating the listening, triaging, responding and tracking. 

I'll leave it at that for now...what do you think? Does this make sense or should I just wait out this writer's block and not attempt to dust off old, unpublished posts ever again?

Guest Blogging on Socialfish

I'm so excited to have been asked to do a monthly guest post for the awesome Socialfish blog. Today was my first post--Curating Content for Social Media Outposts. The post looks much fancier there than it would here! Even more awesome is that they also have an iPhone app. I need to carve out about a hundred hours and make one for this blog.

Does Social Media Really Mean Big Opportunities for Women?

Playing a quick game of catch-up on Facebook, I nearly scrolled right past Mashable's post--but the words "social media" and "women" caught my eye. Why Social Media Means Big Opportunities for Women. Does it really?

Last time I checked, the news wasn't so great for women in social media. Traditional gender bias seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Even though women dominate social networks, the gender/salary gap in social media jobs widened in 2009. Yes, there are a lot of mom bloggers out there, but how many are actually making money doing it--as opposed to spending a ton of time networking, making connections, writing blog posts--all for the chance to win a gift card or get a free sample of something?

I definitely don't know everything. What I do know is this: women are being tapped by advertisers and PR agencies as the new influencers. Brands are falling all over themselves trying to capitalize on the fact that women spend money and influence peers. If you are lucky enough to be female, a mom, and have a huge online following, the sky's the limit. Dooce just inked a deal with HGTV; the Pioneer Woman just irked the mom blog world by allegedly getting preferential treatment (and compensation) from Blogher Publishing Nework. But as far as I can tell, the main people making money off the efforts of mom bloggers are agencies for blogger outreach or other coordination efforts. Companies pay these middlemen thousands of dollars; the bloggers themselves rarely see a fraction of that money.

I don't know--what's your take? Am I being too pessimistic or do you agree that maybe Mashable's headline is a bit off-base?

Snocial Media, #UnTech10 and Social Media Salaries (Yes, Again)

It's been a long week. TWO blizzards, a 48-hour power outage at my house, kids out of school all week--and my husband's been out of town the whole time. The positives? Shoveling snow is a good workout. Lots of time spent with the kids--AND they did most of the shoveling after the second storm. And LOTS of time spent online. Even during the power outage, thanks to my trusty iPhone. Did I mention I *LOVE* my iPhone? With it--and Twitter and Facebook--I managed to stay connected to the world throughout the storm, monitor Pepco's progress on the power restoration front, figure out what areas of DC/MD/VA were getting plowed and which weren't, and generally not feel like I was cut off from the rest of the universe.

I also got to attend a conference I wasn't originally scheduled to attend. ASAE's Technology Conference was supposed to be this week, and I was sad not to be going. But ASAE had to cancel due to the weather. Within minutes of the cancelation notice, my association buds Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer--together with a host of generous and hard working sponsors and organizers--whipped together an unconference--#UnConf10. They livestreamed most of the day Thursday and hosted a bunch of virtual sessions today. I can't say enough good things about it so I'll just link to what others are saying.

My favorite take-away from the event? The conversation about the importance of community managers, of course! You KNOW my biggest blogging obsession is the role of community/social media managers and the haziness of the whole thing, so the more people start to get on board with the fact that it IS a legitimate, important function, the more likely there will be some standardization of titles and salaries. I think this is particularly important in the association world, where there are no existing benchmarks for this role. I about died when I read Mack Collier's post on what a social media strategy will cost--because I know there are associations out there who are on one hand saying "we can't afford to hire someone to do this full time" then, at the same time, paying consultants $2,000-$5,000 a month to set up and maintain a Twitter account or $5,000-$6,000 a month to set up and maintain a Facebook page. If social and community are as important as we keep proclaiming them to be in terms of organizational strategy, member culture and all the rest of it, isn't it time associations (in particular, ASAE) put their money where their mouth is and come up with a real job description and some concrete salary benchmarks for the role?

If I Were Mayor of Dunkin' Donuts...Oh Wait, I Am

Lots of buzz about Foursquare lately--in the association world, the marketing/social media worlds--and of course, my personal world, as my friend/co-worker Janet and I battle it out daily for mayorship of ASHA's National office. Meanwhile, on other, not totally unrelated fronts, Dunkin' Donuts is investing significant amounts of money and time into social media marketing.

What do the two of these topics have to do with each other? Well, frankly--me--and the other majors of various Dunkin' Donut locations. Did you know that I am the mayor of not one but TWO different Dunkin' Donut locations? What's my point--other than me making a shameless plug to get something free out of the deal? I actually do have one...

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the opportunities for Dunkin' Donuts and other businesses out there with regard to Foursquare. Let me break it down in a totally self-serving way: let's pretend Dunkin' Donuts wanted to add Foursquare to their social media marketing mix. Here are some ways they could do it:

• Incentivize Foursquare checkins. They've already had more than 25,000 people share virtual donuts on Facebook--which is great and all, but what's the real value in people exchanging pretend donuts? Is it is great as real people going to actual Dunkin' Donuts franchises and purchasing stuff? No. Dunkin' Donuts already sees the value in social sharing; how about taking that one step further and encouraging people to actually GO to their stores and share that? Foursquare offers some great suggestions to businesses on how to do it--or just ask me--I've got plenty of ideas.
• Base ad campaigns on Foursquare. Subway did it with Jared. Taco Bell attempted to do it with Christine...but caught a heap of flack about it. (which, incidentally, is bullshit--Taco Bell is my favorite fast food restaurant and I've been swearing by their low-fat selections for over 10 years...including when I lost over 50 pounds not once but twice. Rock on Taco Bell and don't let the haters get you down....but I digress.) So, donuts--the fare of cops and fat people, right? Bite your tongue! How about using Foursquare to promote Dunkin' Donuts healthy offerings? Feature real people--like, say, me, who eat there several times a week--or hell, I'm sure there are people who eat there daily--who are fit and swear by stuff like the egg white turkey sausage flatbread? We exist. And we are living proof that you can eat donuts and not be fat.
• Do market research. When people check in on Dunkin' Donuts, encourage them to share what they ordered and how it was. Dominos recently used focus groups to redesign their pizza; how about using Foursquare to get feedback on the menu and then tweak it accordingly? 
• Make mayorship mean something. Smartphones are becoming more and more ubiquitous and Foursquare traffic has tripled since November. But it takes a decent amount of effort on the customer's part to use Foursquare, especially frequently enough to obtain the coveted status of mayor of a place. Now we do it because it's novel and there's some kitsch value in declaring to the world that you're the mayor of Dunkin' Donuts. But beyond that novelty, what's in it for that cross section of your customers who are both brand devotees and well-connected in the social media space? Not much. It takes time to manually add a new location to Foursquare, patience to wait on Foursquare to work while you're checking in, even more time if you want us to share check-ins on Facebook and Twitter. Giving mayors--those who are making a statement to the world that they visit your establishment on a regular basis and are proud enough of it to announce it on Twitter and Facebook--a discount or a free donut or cup of coffee now and then costs you virtually nothing, but ensures that they'll keep checking and in and spreading the word.
• Become a case study and get great publicity for your brand. How psyched is Comcast to be the poster child of successful use of Twitter for customer service? How much good press have they and @Comcastcares super-star Frank Eliason gotten? A lot. What Comcast did for Twitter Dunkin' Donuts could do for Foursquare. If they don't, I guarantee you, some company will.

Why Businesses Should Think Twice Before Investing Money or Time in a Facebook Page

Not to be all "what if"--but the more integral to companies' social media efforts Facebook becomes, the more leery I am about the idea of putting business eggs in a basket over which one has no control. Twitter has already announced that it's testing some business features; Facebook pages, however, while clearly a business offering, are still dependent on individual profiles. This is a HUGE liability which is virtually never discussed--I've literally seen one blog post addressing the issue.

Ok, so say you're the individual who initially set up a huge brand's Facebook page. First of all, congratulations to you--you've basically made yourself indispensable to your company or agency because if you go, the brand's page goes. Seriously. The ability to transfer ownership of that page to anyone flat-out does not exist. So you set that up, pour tons of money into having the page customized because of course you need that (not really--but of course your social media guru charging a metric shit ton per hour will tell you you need that.) So you pour thousands--or tens of thousands--of dollars into customizing your page. You add fan page widgets to your web site, add your Facebook url to all your print collateral and pay your social media guru even more to analyze the ROI of every fan, interaction, page view and what-have-you.

Then one day--poof!--Big Brother Facebook decides that the admin for your page has been bad in some way and banishes him/her forever. Apparently this is happening (hat tip to Carri Bugbee for tweeting about this) . No warning, no explanation--just you go to log into Facebook one day and can't because your profile has been deleted. Your profile and all Pages and/or ad campaigns gone too. Yes, really.

"Not only was my profile disabled, but a facebook ad campaign I was runnig [sic] disappeared, as did the 'Page' I use to promote a business." (comment by C.J.)

How come with all the billions of social media experts out there nobody is talking about this? If companies are investing real money in Facebook, why is Facebook not offering businesses a REAL business option--e.g. pages not tied to individual accounts that can be disabled with no warning or explanation at Facebook's whim? What recourse does a business have if Facebook decides to delete the page they've invested tens of thousands of dollars into? If anyone has answers to any of these questions, please share.

You're a Douchebag if You Think Foursquare Won't Sell Out

I recently read this post about Foursquare's quasi-offensive "Douchebag" badge. Apparently non-nerds find the term "douchebag" to be offensive and are imploring Foursquare to consider the delicate senses of the masses if they want to go mainstream. The author of the post, MG Siegler, asks:

"This brings up an interesting dilemma for Foursquare: do they abandon some of the fun, quirky things that made the service what it is, in an attempt to go mainstream?"

I doubt it's a dilemma for Foursquare at all--that's like asking Mark Zuckerberg if abandoning the privacy concerns of Facebook users is a dilemma for him. Hell no it's not a dilemma if it means he's going to be a billionaire. I think early adopters are fooling ourselves (I include myself in this category) if we think for one minute that "nerd-only" services like Foursquare are worried about selling out. Why else would you spend money and time creating something like Foursquare if you're not hoping to eventually be faced with the "dilemma" of being a sell-out and alienating your early adopter/ nerd purists?

This is the new business model: count on early adopters to use and promote your service for free until it reaches mainstream status, then cash in.

List of Nonprofit Social Media and Community Managers

Every time I see Jeremiah Owyang's list of corporate social media strategists and community managers I wonder when he'll do a similar list for companies with fewer than 1,000 employees--or nonprofits, for that matter. I'm realizing he has his hands full trying to keep up with the list of enterprise social media types since the market for these jobs seems to be exploding, so I may as well just start my own list for nonprofits. I wasn't sure whether to call it Association or Nonprofit, so I'm going with nonprofit for now.

I think his idea of linking to a Linkedin profile is a good one, so if you'd like to be included on this list please leave a comment with your name, linkedin profile url, a brief description of your job duties that relate to social media and your title. I think title is less important than job description in the nonprofit space since I'm sure there are many people out there doing the work of social media manager but called something else because most nonprofits probably have not yet allocated staff for this position.

My hope is that this list can serve as an incentive for nonprofits to standardize both a social media/community manager job description and benchmark it appropriately salary-wise. I can only speak for myself and a few other social media managers in the association space, but it seems to me the salaries for nonprofit social media positions are well below the average reported in Forum One's Online Community & Social Media Compensation survey ($69,000 was the reported average salary for nonprofits).

I don't want to just randomly put people on this list unless they ask to be included so I apologize ahead of time if you're one of my association buds and you're not on here--just ask and I'll be sure to add you. You can also add yourself to Beth Kanter's list of nonprofit social media strategists on the WeAreMedia Wiki.

Social Media/Community Managers at Nonprofits

• Maggie McGary, Online Community & Social Media Manager, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (that's me, in case you don't already know that)
• Shana Rieger, Social Media Program Manager, InfoComm International
• Linda Chreno, Director of Marketing and Communications, American College of Phlebology
• Jessica Milcetich, Social Media Outreach, Federal Citizen Information Center in the General Services Administration.
• Ashley Messick, Social Media Specialist, Blood Centers of the Pacific.
• Alison McQuade, Online Marketing Manager, GlobalGiving
• Bill Sheridan, electronic communications manager/editor, Maryland Association of CPAs
• Sue Anne Reed, Communications Manager, EMQ FamiliesFirst
• Greg Allbright, CEO/Founder, Change for a Dollar
• Laura Norvig, Technical Services Librarian, ETR Associates/The Resource Center, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service
• Richard Millington, Social Media & Online Community Manager, United Nations Refugee Agency
• Colleen McMahon, Director of Member Services, Council of Residential Specialists (an affiliate of the National Association of REALTORS)
• Lindsay Reene, E-Philanthropy Coordinator, Alzheimer's Association, Georgia Chapter
• Archana Verma, Director of Marketing and Communication, International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
• Beth Clark, Online Marketing Manager, National Multiple Sclerosis Society
• Janie Graziani, Manager, Social Media, AAA