What Would Stephen Do? (WWSD): Five Social Media Solutions for Super Bowl XLVII

Not Steve Jobs! Stephen Chukumba! What Would Stephen (Chukumba) Do?!

So I’ve spent the past two days bitchin’ and complaining engaged in thoughtful dialogue about what advertisers did wrong with their Super Bowl commercials, from a social media perspective.

Sure, I was disappointed, but what would I do differently, if any of those brands had hired me or my firm to manage their social media efforts?

So without further ado, What Would Stephen Do (WWSD) to make Super Bowl XLVII commercials more socially engaging?

1.  Seed. If you’re a marketer, you knew that the ads that ran during the Super Bowl were available before the big game. Only a select few knew this. Why? Why not make these commercials available to your active social media audience?

Everyone who has ‘liked’ your Facebook page, followed you on Twitter or belonged to any of your social media networks should have received a private message letting them know that the commercial was going to be available before the game.

They should have been encouraged to give their feedback and share, share, share! In this way, advertisers would have given their loyal followers exclusive, first-look access, and built valuable in-roads with folks who were already interested and advocates of their brands.

For Super Bowl XLVII, I’d make sure that I seeded my audience with snippets, trailers, teasers, sizzle reels, behind-the-scenes, and other exclusive content to prime them for the big show.

2.  Give Explicit Calls To Action. One of the greatest issues I had with the commercials which aired Sunday, was the absolute lack of clear calls to action. What <brand name here> did you want me, the viewer, to do?

Hey Chevy! You and your apocalypse ad. Was I supposed to stock up on Twinkies? I know you want me to buy your cars, but you could tell me to visit your Facebook page, website or something!

I would have explicit calls to action included in all my commercials. I.e. “Text CHEVY to 37619 from your mobile device to schedule a test drive.” Or “‘Like’ Chevy on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chevy to learn more abou the new Silverado.” Or “Visit us on YouTube at http://youtu.be/XxFYYP8040A to watch our Silverado Super Bowl ad and share it with your friends!”

3. Rewards & Giveaways. You’ve got to give something to get something. In social media, the law of reciprocity is understood. So if I were advising any of these brands, I would make rewards and giveaways an explicit part of my strategy.

Several brands integrated Shazam into their commercials. If you used Shazam to find out the title and artist of the song in the commercial, I <brand name here> would send you the song as a free download.

Everyone who “liked” my car company on Facebook would be offered a free test drive. “Like” my beverage or snack company and get a coupon for a free sample. Tweet my hashtag, and get a discount when you file your next tax return with my company or register for insurance.

There is no greater way to build brand loyalty, than to give things away. And give sh*t away, we would!

4.   Contests. The NFL was the only brand that understood the inherent value of running a contest. The commercial for the NFL Perfect Fantasy promotion, ran throughout the Super Bowl, was the only contest from any of the brands.

If I were advising a car manufacturer, the contest would have given a way a new vehicle (or a lease for a year). A food, beverage or snack brand, free beverages/snacks for life. Tax brand, free tax preparation. Clothing retailer, free wardrobe. Insurance company, no premium policy.

I could go on and on.

Regardless of the brand, I would incentivize social media participation and sharing with a contest.

5.  Polling. One clear opportunity that was lost to everyone who aired a commercial during the Super Bowl, was the chance to find out what their audiences thought.

Did you like the first quarter? First half? Half-time show? Our commercial? Our product? The Super Bowl? Who do you think is going to win? What do you think the score will be? Who do you think will be the game’s MVP?

Anyone/everyone could have asked probing, insightful, or humorous questions easily.

Aside (one again) from the NFL, which asked people to vote for the MVP of the game, there were absolutely NO POLLS. WTF!

With people sitting captive for over four hours watching the game, WITH THEIR CONNECTED DEVICES (which they were obviously using the entire time!!!) not one brand thought, “Hmmm…maybe we should ask them what they think about our <fill in the name of your innocuous product here>?”

I would ask questions until I was blue (no pun intended, but completely apropos) in the face!

So there!

I’ve said it!

If you had hired me <name of brand that didn’t hire me here>, I would have given you far more run for your money, AND you would have incalculably valuable data THAT YOU COULD IMMEDIATELY ACT UPON to boot.

So next year, make sure I’m on your short list.

Super Bowl XLVI: Social Media FAIL!!

The Super Bowl commercials integration of social media=FAIL.

This weekend, I, like most, watched the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots to become the Super Bowl XLVI Champions.

But unlike most, who were likely concerned with the outcome of the game, I was watching to see how the advertisers, who had forked over a pretty penny, integrated social media in their ads.

With ads going for up to $3 million dollars for a 30 second spot, I figured that advertisers would go the extra mile to make sure that their ads got all the traction they could.

At a minimum, I figured most (if not all) the advertisers would add websites, Facebook URLs or Twitter handles into their ads.

But I fully expected that at least one or two advertisers would realize the tremendous potential in social media, and do something more exciting.

To me, that meant leveraging social media, and integrating text messaging, QR codes, SnapTags, etc., in interesting and innovative ways.

So it was with rapt attention, that I waited for each time out, 2 minute warning, quarter and tv time out.

I sat through over 75 different commercials (excluding pre-show, post-show and half-time), and I was saddened…saddened by what I saw.

Not only were the commercials…ho hum, but they completely missed their mark from a social media perspective.

The most “innovative” use of social media (and I use innovative so loosely as to have absolutely no meaning in this context) was by the NFL itself.

Their NFL Fantasy promotion gave viewers the chance to win a million dollars.

Viewers could either text NFL to 69635 or visit the NLF Fantasy website to register for the contest.

Beyond that, advertisers brought nothing exciting (from a social media perspective) at all.

There were a collection of advertisers that used hashtags.

Hashtags are the # symbol, used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet.

It was created by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages and used widely to track a particular topic in Twitter.

• Audi’s #solongvampires played on the brightness of the Audi’s headlights.
• Bud Light’s #makeitplatinum highlighted the new platinum Budweiser beer.
• Best Buy’s #betterway hashtag alluded to the depth of their mobile phone offering.
• H&M used #beckhamfromh.m in it’s ad with David Bekham, sporting their new trunks.

Spectacular! NOT!

Some of the more “progressive” (again, I use the term loosely) advertisers, added their Facebook pages to their ads.

• Disney’s The Lorax
• Marvel Comic’s The Avengers
• Cars.com
• Bud Light’s spots (LMFAO and Here We Go)
• Pepsi Max
• MetLife
• NBC
• Samsung Galaxy

Amazing! NOT!

A few advertisers also listed their websites, including:

• Godaddy (.co and .com)
• Taxact.com
• Chevy (letsdothis.com)
• Teleflora.com, Cars.com
• Prudential (dayonestories.com)
• Honda (leaplist.honda.com and cr-v.honda.com)
• BMW (tristatebmw.com)
• GE Works (ge.win.com)
• Hyundai (hyundai.com)
• CareerBuilder.com
• Cadillac ATS
• NBC’s new show Awake (isheawake.com)

Inspired! NOT!

GoDaddy was the one advertiser who used a QR Code in their commercial.

But for a 30 second ad, I didn’t think it was the best execution.

When the commercial came on, and I saw the QR Code, I immediately tried to open my iPhone, launch the QR code scanner, move to the tv and scan the image.

But by the time I had completed all those steps, the code was gone and they were on to the next commercial.

One interesting thing I noted, was that a few advertisers with music in their commercials, had the Shazam logo in the corner.

Shazam is the app that helps you find out the title of a song you’re listening to.

Shazam...sucks!

By letting the Shazam app ‘listen’ to several seconds of a song, it searches it’s database and (if the song exists in it’s database) tells you the title and artist.

Ads from both Cars.com and Toyota had the Shazam logo.

My previous experiences with Shazam have been so underwhelming, that I no longer have the app on my iPhone.

So I didn’t determine whether the Shazam integration worked for either of these brands.

And since it would have (presumably) led the viewer to the underlying song in the commercials, I’m not sure what value the advertisers would have derived from it’s integration.

Anyway, nothing from my wish list came to be.

My disappointment is palpable.

I guess we’ll have to wait another year before we see whether advertisers ‘get it’ and utilize their 30 seconds a little more effectively.

If you want to see all the commercials that aired yesterday, AdAge has a great compilation of them here.

But don’t blame me if you’re bored.

When Social Media Attacks: Susan G. Komen, What Were You Thinking?!!

Susan G. Komen effed up big time!

A few days ago, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, cut Planned Parenthood’s funding for breast cancer screening.

Planned Parenthood offers almost a million breast cancer screenings a year, and without the support of organizations like the Susan G. Komen Foundation, hundreds of thousands of women will no longer be able to avail themselves of the benefits of screenings and early detection.

Citing a pending investigation against Planned Parenthood, the Foundation’s true motivations were quickly exposed as bowing to Republican anti-choice pressure.

The response to the foundation’ actions was as swift as it was passionate.

The social media response was immediate and massive - check the shares!

Thousands shared their outrage and posted their reactions on Facebook and Twitter.

Overnight, advocacy groups set up websites calling attention to the fight and asking visitors to sign and share the petitions.

MoveOn.org and other organizations quickly established online petitions.

No less than four separate online petitions were created, each calling on visitors to tell the Foundation to reverse it’s decision.

Hundreds of thousands of people shared the story, through links on Facebook, videos, tweets and various online calls-to-action.

The Foundation also set it’s damage control units to work, issuing (inconsistent) statement after (inconsistent) statement, trying to clean up it’s mess (but only adding fuel to the fire).

Cutting funding for Planed Parenthood’s breast cancer screening is the antithesis of this mission, and the executives at the Foundation who participated in this are feeling a social media magnified wrath that is unprecedented in the history of the organization (and likely most philanthropic organizations).

To quote Jennifer Preston and Gardiner Harris of the New York Times:

To Planned Parenthood, that decision amounted to a betrayal of the organizations’ shared goal of saving lives through breast screening programs. Ms. Richards, Planned Parenthood’s president, said her organization was gratified by the support the controversy has brought.

The growing sentiment, both internally and externally, is that the Foundation waded into muddy waters (the debate on abortion), and should remain focused on it’s mission, fighting breast cancer.

Clearly, the powers that be at SGK are scrambling to make things right.

Unfortunately, in this day and age of social media, where bad news travels faster than the speed of light, ‘making things right’ are often easier said than done.

Whatever happens, someone will have egg on their face, and I imagine that someone will step down/fall on their sword/be the scapegoat for this debacle.

Hopefully, this lesson will be learned: if you’re going to do something unpopular, be prepared for the social media backlash.

UPDATE: Politico.com just reported that the Susan G. Komen Foundation backed down from it’s earlier stance and has restored funding to Planned Parenthood. 

Power to the people (and social media)!!

Mobile phones everywhere and no (free) public wi-fi!

No public wi-fi? For shame! For shame!

Last week, I wrote a post about how annoying it is to attend a ‘digital’ function, where there is no public wi-fi to jump on.

Equally frustrating is when you attend a function, where the conveners publish their Twitter handles or event hashtags, but leave attendees to their own devices to wade their way through spotty and/or inaccessible cellular signals to post updates to their social media accounts.

I’ve been feeling this frustration for some time now, as evidenced by this unpublished rant from Social Media Week 2010:

“Sitting at the Bands and Fans panel hosted by CMJ at Social Media Week and I’m pissed!

Why? You ask. Because there’s no wifi!

WTF!? How can we be sitting talking about the value of Tweeting and staying connected, when there is no f*#king internet connection?!

AARRGH!

I’m just saying. AT&T’s network is crap and I can’t flex on my iPad the way I had intended!

Hootsuite is unresponsive.

Twitter feels like swimming through molasses.

Facebook is kaput!

I am ashamed to be a part of this right now. Ashamed.

Red Bull Space – you should have shame too!

All this great info from J Sider, Marni Wandner, Robbie Mackey and Ariel Hyatt and no wifi!

Booo!”

Needless to say, almost two years later and not much has changed.

Businesses have not adopted offering free wi-fi as a standard.

Even if (as my good friend Rob Underwood noted in my rant last week about the NYC DMC event) the reason for a private wi-fi or an unpublished password is security, when you host one of these functions, setting up a temporary wi-fi network and/or password is a sensible thing to do.

With municipalities across the country looking at implementing free public wi-fi, shouldn’t businesses, retail establishments, cafes, bars and restaurants also look to do the same thing?

How many of we entrepreneurs select meeting spots bases on the availability of wi-fi?

Starbucks has undoubtedly made a butt-load of cash off of folks using their wi-fi (because we know their coffee is…how do you say…crap!)

Anyway, perhaps I’m all sour grapes because I’m on AT&T and their 3G network isn’t worth the technology it’s built on (damn you FCC for interfering with the acquisition of TMobile!!)

Or perhaps, rather, wi-fi is a really important element towards achieving a broader network of connected users and devices.

Whatever the case for adopting a free wi-fi solution may be, know that if I’m coming to an event, and it’s not popping, I’m putting you on full blast!

I feel better.

Twitter is Playing Itself. For Real.

I just read this and felt that I had to say something, lest it pass unnoticed.

Pour some out for my dead homie, Twitter.

Even though I’ve already tweeted it, posted it as a status update to Facebook and Linkedin, I still can’t believe it.

I'm Paul Revering it across the internet. "Twitter filters are coming! Twitter filters are coming!"

Apparently, Twitter has gone ahead and implemented a filter that will prevent ‘charged’ tweets from being delivered to or seen by users in certain geographic locations where the content of the tweet would be deemed objectionable.

Using Twitter to tweet about how wack Twitter is being! LOL!

Despite the Congressional retreat from SOPA and PIPA, and the general consensus in the digital community that the proposed bills would stifle the free exchange of ideas over the internet, Twitter has taken a step that will likely draw vocal criticism in the days to come.

In a statement to reported by the Inquirer, Twitter offered, “Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country – while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.”

The reality of the proposed filter is that it won’t work. Period.

What it will likely do, is simply remove literally thousands of tweets from the Twitter stream, regardless of whether the that content is actually offensive.

As Mark Gibbs noted in his article in the Forbes blog (where I first read the story), “if the algorithm Twitter uses registers a false positive [or determines that content is offensive when it isn’t] and the tweet has any time sensitivity to it then that attribute will be completely nullified by the time the tweet makes it out of tweet-jail if it ever does.”

What makes Twitter…well Twitter, is the fact that information moves instantaneously, and users are able to tune in to content (and the ramifications/implications of that content) in real time.

Now Twitter is just another trick of big business.

How sad.

Let’s all hold up our bottles and pour a lil’ out for our dead homie, Twitter.

SoLoMo Profile: Wyst

The second company I’m going to profile for the Starters+Startups: The Future of SoLoMo & You panel I’m moderating is Wyst.

The Wyst app allows you to share geo-tagged photographs, with family, friends and members of your Facebook and Twitter social networks.

Wyst's homepage is spare.

In the header of the page, there are three icons next to a phone which offer:

Share experiences. As they happen, where they happen.

Discover new stories around you.

It’s a new kind of message in a bottle.

Since there was a video, I watched.

It’s a 3:13 minute commercial, that I think does a really good job of telling you what Wyst’s all about, without a single line of dialogue.

You simply follow this bloke around NY as he use the app and a companion screen of his iPhone shows you his Wyst thread.

Nicely done Wyst.

From what I gleaned from watching the video alone, you can take a picture, tag it with different emoticons and post it to your Wyst profile.

I’ll know more when I take the app for a test-drive.

The bottom of the page offers links to the App store, their social media profiles (Facebook and Twitter), the Latest News, Blog and About Us pages.

You can also sign up for the Wyst newsletter on the page.

The Latest News includes the fact that Wyst is now out of Beta and available in the iTunes App store.

The Blog takes you to a page which offers various Wysts of the Day.

It’s essentially a blog roll of different pictures taken by Wyst users all over the globe.

Wyst of the Day

Wyst’s About Us page is fairly irreverent.

It pays homage to the Brooklyn roots of the app, as well as the following:

“Wyst is a like a new kind of message in a bottle: it’s a fun app that enables you to share cool moments, random musings, unique tidbits and interesting experiences by capturing them on a photo or text note and tagging them to a location for others to find. The idea came to us from a simple question:

“Wouldn’t it be awesome to freeze this moment in time, in this place, so that when someone else passes by this same spot they can find it and experience it themselves?“

As the Wyst site is light on pages, I checked out their Facebook and Twitter pages too (let’s get those numbers up fellas – okay?) while downloading the app from the App Store.

Wysts are a tad scarce, huh? Gimme a chance why dontcha!

I’m going to play around with their app this week too, so stay tuned for any updates.

Again, if you’ve used Wyst, like it or have an opinion, please share!

Digital Stewardship: PAL Digital U.N.I.Verse.City

A PAL Digital U.N.I.Verse.City workstation.

If you’re a forty-something like me, computer classes in high school involved learning to program in ASCII or DOS on a monochrome screen.

If you attended college, there may have been more advanced computer classes, for which you likely moved and stored content on floppy disks.

After college, you used a PC running some version of Windows at the job, and computer proficiency meant that you knew how to use Microsoft’s Office Suite.

You’re up on the latest gadgets, even if you don’t own an iPad or mobile tablet.

You probably have a smartphone, a laptop and an mp3 player.

And you probably consider yourself pretty savvy when it comes to digital technology.

Right?

Wrong!

We are dinosaurs!

Present company excluded, of course.

Today’s youth are exposed to technology, not as a stiff class taught by some bored out-of-touch professor, but as a natural extension of their everyday existence.

Their access to and adoption of technological gadgets, is second nature to them, almost intuitive.

And unlike us, who came into the ‘technological age’ of massive building-size ‘super computers,’ today’s youth have microprocessors in virtually every device they touch.

The Macbook Pros, Xboxes, Playstations, Wiis, Leapsters of today are tens of thousand times more powerful than anything we ever used growing up.

With Facebook, Twitter, texting, etc., kids are more immersed in interactive technology and applications than we ever were.

They can access and touch virtually any part of the digital universe, and regularly use technology to communicate, socialize and interact with one-another and others.

This intimacy, however, has it’s consequences, though.

Cyber-bullying, internet plagiarism, and the regular posting of questionable (and often inappropriate) content are norms, that we didn’t experience when we were using computers and cell phones.

Social media, as we know it today, didn’t even exist.

It’s no wonder that kids are acting…like kids, when they use them these different tools.

I think it’s important that we take stock of what our children are exposed to (from a digital, content and technological perspective), and give them real guidance on the appropriate and responsible use of technology.

To that end, I want to share a project that I’ve been working on with the Police Athletic League of New York City (PALNYC).

It’s called the PAL Digital Digital U.N.I.Verse.City and its a class being offered as part of an apprenticeship program.

The apprenticeship program is the initiative of Marcel Braithwaite, the Director of Centers for PALNYC.

Marcel manages PALNYC’s eleven (11) centers, located in the five boroughs of New York City.

And he wanted to develop a program that exposed kids to technology as a means of both skills/workforce development and keeping them off the streets.

The curriculum we are using for the program was developed by Mark Hines, a graduate of Princeton University, and the CEO and Founder of Marksmen Productions, Inc., a New York city-based creative agency.

Mark has designed a program that teaches real life skills to the youth, using live scenarios which give the students active participation in projects with real time results.

The Digital U.N.I.Verse.City (DU) is a six (6) month intensive audio, video and technology training program, tailored to students of varying degrees of technical proficiency.

Digital U.N.I.Verse.City classes meet two (2) times a week to provide students instruction in digital media production, it’s cultural impacts and ethical and moral responsibilities that accompany the use of these tools.

The program officially launches next Wednesday at the Harlem Center on 119th Street, and Digital Uni.Verse.City students will study media (news, tv, movies, music, art), how it is produced, and begin rudimentary hands-on manipulation of video and audio (DU101/102) in preparation for the Advanced Studio Workshop (DU201).

The Time Warner Center in the Harlem Center has been converted into the PAL Digital U.N.I.Verse.City classroom.

Students who successfully complete the intro courses will be invited to participate in the Advanced Studio Workshop, focusing on professional skill development in (one of the following) music production, audio/visual engineering, video production and direction, video editing, motion effects, journalism and musicianship.

Digital U.N.I.Verse.City instructors include many of our professional colleagues, who are experts in their respective fields.

From Grammy-winning musicians, to New York Times best-selling authors, the Digital U.N.I.Verse.City instructors will offer students hands-on training and skill development on live projects.

The Digital U.N.I.Verse.City curriculum starts with a review of the DU Acceptable Use Policy, which lays out the foundation for every student’s participation in the program.

Most people have never seen (much less read) an acceptable use policy.

But it is the most important thing, for people living in a highly interconnected digital world – and the point of this rambling post.

I helped to develop (read: wrote) our acceptable use policy, which came together after many long sessions, during which we worked diligently to draft something that actually made sense.

For the majority of people who have ever read (read: scanned) an AU Policy, you know its a statement by the owners, administrators or other gatekeepers of any digital or online environment, which provides a code of conduct that users must observe while utilizing (or as a member of) a particular system.

As an advocate for technology, the Digital U.N.I.Verse.City program, gives me a constructive way to address the issue of responsible use of technology by our youth.

More importantly, working on this project has forced me to address the fact that most of us operate without a set of guiding digital principles.

Obviously, I always promote best practices with my clients, and have helped draft numerous Terms of Use, Privacy Policies and various other online instruments governing the use of certain online programs or environs.

But that’s not quite the same thing, when the audience for my usual written verbosity is the youth.

Next Wednesday is our first class (did I say that already?) and I’m excited.

The pictures above were from our dry-run, when we set up the local Moodle we’re using for the class.

Be sure to look out for future posts about how the program is coming along.

Also, feel free to donate to or volunteer at your local PAL!

Social Media: Mobilization, Commentary, Discourse

This weekend was quite an active one in social media: President Obama officially launched his recruitment effort for the 2012 race. Shit White Girls Say…To Black Girls created a stir all over the internet. Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos pulled out a thrilling overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

How do I know all of this stuff? Am I clairvoyant? Do I own a crystal ball? Did I have CNN on smash all wekend?

No. No. And no.

I learned all of the above through Facebook, Twitter and text.

I’m sure that most would scoff at this statement.

So what? Don’t we all get our stuff that way?

Perhaps. But the reason I’ve decided to talk about this today, is to offer a snapshot of the real impact that social media has in our lives.

Social Mobilization: Obama 2012

Late Sunday evening, I got a Facebook alert on my iPhone that a friend of mine posted a job opportunity from President Obama.

Go Team Obama!

Intrigued, I followed the link, and there it was http://www.barackobama.com/jobs

There were jobs for State Directors, Communications, Press Secretaries, State Digital Directors, Deputy Field Directors, and the like.

Each job listing identified the state (or multiple states) for which the posted position was applicable.

Clicking on the link opened a detailed job description, which led with an overview of the job, the responsibilities, the requirements, salary statement, and a link to either apply for the job or send the listing to a friend.

Of course, I threw my hat in the ring.

The great thing about the applying for the job was that the interface allowed you to either (i) upload your resume or (ii) use your LinkedIn profile (I opted for the second).

A few multiple choice selections later, my application was complete.

Bam. Give me a call, let’s talk strategy.

I was (and am) completely impressed with the way the Obama campaign is (once again) leveraging social media to grow their staff and volunteer base.

Of course, there are only so many of these positions which will actually be filled via this process.

But the database they’re going to create will undoubtedly be the envy of the 2012 campaign cycle.

Social Commentary: Shit White Girls Say…To Black Girls

Last Thursday, one of my friends posted the video Shit White Girls Say…To Black Girls on their Facebook profile.

At the time, there were 305 views of the video.

By Friday, it was over 1 million

As of this posting, there have been over 4,277,387 views of that video.

In four days, this video was viewed over 4 million times!

Mind you, this is a parody of a parody.

The original video, Shit Girls Say has garnered over 9 million views since December 12, 2011, when it was originally posted.

Despite the fact that it owes it’s inception to another video, it has clearly taken a life of it’s own, spawning spirited discussion all over the internet.

The commentary around this video has been significant, considering it’s only five days old.

But it speaks to the power of social media to get people to address issues that they might not have otherwise.

Social Discourse: Shit White Girls Say…To Black Girls

I know. I know.

It’s tres gauche to use the same example for two different topics, but bear with me on this one.

On Sunday afternoon, a friend of mine sent me a text asking my wife to check out her Facebook profile on the whole “Shit White Girls Say” thing.

Apparently, she had posted the video to her profile and invited her network to weigh in on what they thought.

As my wife is not on Facebook and generally doesn’t pick up her phone, her girl knew that the most efficient way to reach her was through me.

But I digress…

Anyway, several of her friends had opined that the video was a realistic reflection of what they, as Black women, had experienced.

But one (brave/misguided) White woman decided that she was going to take up the charge for White women, and ‘educate’ the other posters on the ignorance of their perspective.

Her opinions were, needless to say, not ‘appreciated’ and folks let her know.

The heat finally became too much, and with this final statement (and I quote) “And I will un-follow this post now. It is ending like too many,” Miss Thing was done.

What I found particularly interesting about the whole episode was how people took ownership of the discussion around the video and had an active discourse on the subject.

While everyone was not in agreement, people took an active role in voicing their opinions in a forum, where the opinions of others were important to them.

Wait a minute…what was I saying…

Oh yeah!

Social media is a powerful force for mobilization, commentary and discourse.

All of this information I’ve shared with you, I initially learned of, interacted with, and ultimately shared via social media.

I even gave my two cents in the debate via Facebook on my iPhone, while I waited in the car for the wife.

Where TV used to be the dominant medium for sharing information, it’s now taking it’s cues from the internet generally, and social media specifically.

Think about how many stories last year broke on Twitter before mainstream media even knew what was happening.

So children, what’s the moral of today’s lesson?

DON’T SLEEP ON SOCIAL MEDIA!!

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. But it will be on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

I just finished reading The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Joe Trippi on the Nook app on my iPad.

Great read for 21st century political consultants.

It was a self-imposed homework assignment, for the work that I’ve been doing with Vincent Morgan, the Democratic candidate for Congress I’ve been working with for the past two years.

If you haven’t read it (why would you?) it’s a good read.

It was especially informative for me because in it, Joe talks about the various online and social media strategies Howard Dean’s campaign employed to build it’s base, push Dean’s message and raise money.

To make a long story short, the Dean campaign was really responsible for the both the use and proliferation of the web and social media by political candidates.

Without Howard Dean, there would have been no Obama. Period.

What Howard Dean’s campaign did with the internet and social media, completely bucked traditional notions of what online communities meant, how to galvanize supporters and raise money.

Trippi’s title, an homage to Gil Scott-Heron’s poem and song of the same title, refers to the fact that TV is no longer the dominant medium, especially as it relates to the manner and methods of running a political campaign.

Gil clearly didn't know about iReporting back in the day!

Where campaigns used to pour millions of dollars for television spots, in an effort to frame the issues and influence voters, Trippi posits that online forums, blogs, social media and the web generally, will have greater impact in future races.

As I sit here, thinking about how to apply Trippi’s strategies to Vince’s campaign, I’m brimming with excitement.

Last year, when Vince ran against Rangel, we knew out the gate, that we were in for an uphill battle.

For one, Vince was a relative unknown. Rangel’s name carried all the weight in the world – even in the middle of his ethics controversy.

Vince had no political experience, save a stint working with Rangel several years prior.

The M4C team was pretty inexperienced. It was the first political campaign for most of us.

He hadn’t raised a lot of money, which effectively meant that media buys (and virtually anything else that cost money) were out of the question. Even with Rangel’s ethical issues, he was still sitting on a (relative) war-chest.

This year, it’s a different story.

For one, Vince is no longer an unknown. While he may not evoke the same level of name recognition as Rangel, he is regularly featured in both local and national press.

He’s a frequent political commentator on CNBC, having most recently offered is perspective after the GOP Iowa caucus.

Although Vince still has no formal political experience, his previous run gave him political credibility and experience running a political campaign.

Even though he’s never held formal office, he is being discussed as a viable Democratic candidate, in the same breath as, and alongside other established politicians.

Team Morgan is staffed with experience. From his PR agency, Dash PR, to his finance manager, to his interim campaign manager, the team he’s assembled know their respective charges, and are ready, willing and able to execute accordingly.

But the most important thing, is the impact that social media and online, are having on the strategies we’re developing.

Unlike Charles Rangel, and the rest of the other candidates running (or planning on running) in the next election, Vince is truly technologically savvy.

While other candidates have third parties blogging, tweeting, FourSquaring, updating their Facebook status and generally leaving social media to someone else, Vince is actively engaged in the management of his online personae.

He actively posts articles, videos and pictures he finds to his website, personal and political profiles, and responds to comments he receives.

If you haven't 'Liked" the page, do so now!

And he makes it a point to ‘check-in’ with FourSquare, when he visits any of the restaurants, barbershops, cafes, stores and venues in his daily travels, staying engaged virtually with his growing constituency.

More importantly, he knows how important it is to get the formula, of online and offline activities, right.

As Joe Trippi noted in his book, virtually every political campaign, candidate and politician, has a website, Facebook page, etc. They would be remiss, in the post-Obama era, not to.

But having an online presence, and utilizing it effectively, are two drastically different things.

Our goal, in 2012, is to master the use of online and social media tools and put Vince in office.

That means we’ve got to raise his profile, raise money, get people off their butts and into voting booths on election day.

I’m confident that we’re going to do just that.

But don’t take my word for it.

Check in on the campaign from time to time and see how we’re doing.

What’s Playing? Get the !mpulse!

One of the main projects I’ve been working on, is a technology initiative called !mpulse.

“What’s !mpulse?” you ask.

!mpulse is an interactive platform that let’s you experience a venue’s music library directly from your internet/wi-fi enabled mobile or tablet device.

!mpulse enables people to discover and get music wherever they hear it.

!mpulse displays the currently playing, and the previous nine (9) songs played at an !mpulse-enabled venue.

Wi-Fi capable mobile devices, like the iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry and Android devices, can immediately display the song that is currently playing, comment on, share via Facebook or Twitter, or even play the song right from their device.

By bridging the gap between desire and action, !mpulse also allows users to explore a venue, its music library, or the particular artist which inspired them in the first place.

We’ve rolled at !mpulse (Beta) at a few select destinations, including Red Rooster Harlem, Tillman’s NYC and we’re rolling out Townhouse Hotel in Miami, 1300 Fillmore in San Francisco and more locations to be announced shortly.

Here are a few screen shots of !mpulse.

A screenshot of Townhouse Hotel's !mpulse page.

Select a song from the playlist and you'll get this page.

If you’re ever in New York, Harlem, Miami or San Francisco, please stop into one of these establishments and take !mpulse for a spin.

If you aren’t planning on being in any of these destinations, I’ve got a treat for you…snap either of the QR codes in this post, and you’ll be able to enjoy !mpulse on your own.

If you want to listen to a song, simply click on the album art to start playback.

Please send me your comments and let me know what you think!