Posts Tagged ‘change’

True Blue

Posted on: October 11th, 2011 by Geoff Livingston 9 Comments

Go as a River

True blue — loyalty in your views and causes — is an admirable quality.

Blue means more culturally, too. It can mean feeling down.

When I consider this blog over the past year and half — really since I began writing Welcome to the Fifth Estate — I have the latter kind of blues because I sacrificed the true blue of authenticity, and writing what I cared about.

Yes, I was supporting a book. Yes, I do care about social media, but as time has come to pass, it’s clear not enough to write about it every post three, four even five times a week.

During the Fifth Estate period this blog became well-ranked. It’s the fourth such blog I have written or created the strategic plan for that has earned these types of rankings. This is a noteworthy achievement that many respected marketers want and most bloggers love.

But as a writer there is something immensely unsatisfying about the restraints of a beat, particularly one like social media that is well, limiting in several ways. For all intents and purposes it is the limitations of being a trade journalist, and not writing about anything with serious life consequence. Frankly, to become top ranked in social media there is an element of selling out — writing about Twitter, Facebook, Google+, shamelessly pursuing retweets, Likes and plusses, etc. — that is just unpalatable after a while.

I work to find ways to positively impact society via media and communications with as much reach as possible. These are the types of projects I successfully find professionally. Yet at times my social media writing has little to do with my personal passion.

It gives me the blues to thing about what I have done to become well read, and to market. There is a sense of dismay and personal loathing when you realize you have sold out.

I am sorry for this. Not just to my reader, but to myself, for compromising my character in such a fashion.

After all the Google+ hoopla last July, I stopped writing about popular social media topics every post. I also stopped making myself post four or five times a week. The social media expert land grab around Google+ was the final straw, killing my passion for the game.

My rankings plummeted. My love for writing the blog has returned. Writing flows from me again, tapped back into my soul, a river running its natural course.

Popularity may be worth it to some. In fact, it can downright lucrative, if done right. Without popularity and ranking as a goal, this blog can have so much more passion and discuss important issues. It can address aspects of the Internet, media, marketing, cultural and life issues beyond the popular top ten list of Twitter tips. Yes it will be eclectic, but even when the posts are social media oriented (and I will continue blogging about social media), they will be pure, and not contrived to meet a quota of top ranked posts.

This blog in the past few weeks has been more representative of my heart. My conclusion: It’s better to be true blue.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Will Media Make Our Children Think Differently?

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 by Geoff Livingston 21 Comments

Toca Tea Party
Image by Toca Boca

Semantic data, smaller screens, texting, social media, short videos, network update streams, augment reality, and more continue to evolve the way we receive information from both new and traditional email. As each new innovation arrives and evolves, people ask whether or not the new XXXX is harming our youth. Will they will be unable to think logically or effectively? Perhaps the right way to look at this is to ask whether they will think differently.

Inevitably, the answer is yes. Their media information environment is dramatically different than the childhood we remember so fondly.

Currently, there is much concern about literacy, and the state of language with texting and short form media. In actuality, what new media seems to be doing is increasing spelling skills and literacy. However, face-to-face skills may be suffering. Meanwhile, the iPad is revolutionizing learning with more than 40,000 education applications.

But, generally speaking, we have seen a decline in the general public’s ability to discern quality information with the rise of social media. As online media becomes more prevalent, it increases the amount of reading an individual is subjected to in their daily lives. More and more of it is headline oriented, and less and less of it is text rich. Sources are not validated, and this is already creating problems with poor media reporting, much less the general public’s belief in unproven data.

Mobile and tactile media continues this trend, leaning towards shorter media, less text, and more video. While this is a natural trend, there is no emphasis on quality or on educating people and youth on how to intelligently discern what is fact, what is fiction, and what is actionable. Further, they are not being taught how to create quality information either.

Adding to the face-to-face issues, we have already seen how millennials and generation xers will text to each other in a room rather than talk. Relationship break-ups are now occurring via text message. There is a general devolution or devaluing of face-to-face interaction that technologies inherently bring.

Yet, is this bad, or is it just change? Was the telephone and televisions’s impact on local neighbors any different? Would you get rid of voice and video technologies because of it?

Point being, media is changing. It changes us, and the way we behave towards each other, but that doesn’t make it good or bad, just different. The waters move further down river, and we need to move with them. Our children simply have an easier time of it.

What do you think of new media’s impact on the next generation?

Popularity: 1% [?]

Is Social Media Training Us to Help Others?

Posted on: June 29th, 2011 by Geoff Livingston 5 Comments

by David Murray

The Morning After SxSW on 6th St
Image: The Morning After SxSWi on 6th St

Those who claim the social media bubble is about to burst may want to take closer look at the landscape.

2010 was supposed to be the year of social media adoption. The year companies and professionals from all industries celebrated the blind acceptance of tools as a substitute for effective marketing. But for those who still practice the ancient art of listening, understand that this didn’t happen.

If we look at social media as a communication channel then companies and industry professionals need to re-learn what it means to communicate. Better yet, both parties would be well served to remember that this medium doesn’t suffer fools lightly.

And who are the biggest fools when it comes to this space?

Perhaps it is the few who believe social media can and should be used for more than just effective marketing and successful business communications. These folk use social media for social good. How strange.

This goes against the grain of the immediate ego pampering tools that are at everyone’s disposal. It’s easy to talk about ourselves, what we are doing, and whom we are with. It’s not in our nature to sacrifice the spotlight, and share it with our neighbor.

If the social web is a mirror of our human behavior, then this shouldn’t be a surprise.

It’s about looking out for #1, right? If you believe we do come from some primordial ooze, then just watch The Discovery Channel. Those wild beasts understand the rules. It’s survival, not followers. There’s no re-tweeting in their world.

But the fact that we will re-tweet something from someone is what separates us from the animals.

Though there is still a lot of “I” happening on the social web, we are beginning to see more of “You.” There are people bringing value to the table before they bring themselves. They’re doing something we all strive to do, but don’t always succeed in accomplishing. They’re helping.

Helping isn’t natural.

We all want to be good individuals on this chess board, however, it is not in our immediate nature to lend a hand to a friend, let alone a stranger. Perhaps the social web is training us to be better individuals? At least it’s providing a stage for those who want to create something bigger than themselves. This can only increase the possibility that their actions will “influence” others to follow.

The true leaders are beginning to replace rock stars.

As more individuals think about the value they can bring to this space, the more we will see what it really means to be social, and what it really means to help your fellow human being. We’ve already seen this in action, and this new thing called helping can only grow from here.

The social media bubble is far from bursting.

We are re-learning value. We are re-learning what it means to truly help. There is still much to re-learn, but thanks to social media we are heading in the right direction.

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David Murray (@DaveMurr) is the Social Web Communications Director for re:group, a fully integrated marketing and communications firm focused on creating and maintaining relevant, powerful brands. You can connect with David and re:group on Twitter and Facebook.

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