In the many discussions about the role of the Internet on how we as a society receive our news, there has been much discussion about accountability and reliability. As a communications strategist, I’ve talked to many clients about the need to be more aggressive about negative online commentary about their business. The Internet has changed the rules because it makes it so easy to publish anything – true or false.

In the case of Liskula Cohen, she argued that she should have the right to sue the blogger for defamation, because the blog posts undermined her credibility and made it more difficult to get jobs. I can see this as viable. Hollywood seems to run scared at the first sign at a little controversy. Note how Michael Phelps was dropped so quickly for possibly smoking marijuana.

The larger question, however, is how accountable should bloggers be? Frankly, I have to admit to being biased. I’m trained in journalism from the University of Missouri of Columbia where entire classes are dedicated to libel and slander. One wrong fact in a news story and your grade dropped a letter – this includes a wrong phone number. So, while I like the Internet’s ability to share so much information and to bring the world to your fingertips, I admit that I’m not so fond of the anger- or hate-motivated speech that happens on the Internet.

Where is the line? And how can it be adequately enforced? Share your thoughts!

Janet Jennewein provided me with a great resource for helping clients define and determine an online strategy when she informed me about New Media and the Air Force at a recent GIMA event.

Here is my favorite list of guidelines:
1. Don’t Give Classified Info.
2. Stay In Your Lane (of expertise).
3. Don’t Lie.
4. Give Your Opinion!
5. Always Identify Yourself.
6. Safety.
7. Beware of the Image You Present.
8. Use Common Sense!
9. Don’t Be Afraid To Take Calculated Risks.
10. The Enemy Is Engaged.

These are great general guidelines to follow when developing your social media strategy. However, I also suggest that you determine which social media tools best meet your objectives and test a few sample postings with friends, vendors and clients before maximizing your Web site with SEO or sending links out to the twitterverse.

Please share any tips and tools you have for developing a new media strategy.

Currently, Twitter is growing at a rate of 30-40% per month. In the last year, the number of users has grown from 1.1 million to 32.1 million. I’d say that these are some stats with some muscle.

How do you feel about twitter?

Now, I admit that I came to social media with the same attitude, and for a long time, I ignored social media too because, like my clients, my days were crazy full with other details that didn’t include telling everyone about the minutia of my day. My days aren’t any less busy, but I have spent some time with twitter and facebook and other social media sites so that I could figure out what it was all about. I was converted in less than a week. Turns out that twitter and facebook provide a lot more info than I first expected.

Think of it this way. Social media is like word-of-mouth on speed. The viral element makes information spread at rapid-fire pace and has the potential to quickly deliver a message.

In a recent Fast Company article by Lon Safko, this bit of information provided a more tangible account of the potential of Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook has more than 150 million members with more than 80 billion page views each month. Facebook is represented in 170 countries & territories, every continent, even Antarctica, and is available in 35 different languages. More than 1 in 5 people who access the Internet visit Facebook. If Facebook were it’s own country, it would be the eighth most populated country in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia, & Nigeria.

… MySpace, on the other hand, has more than 76 million users in the U.S. and 120 million people worldwide with an average age of 26 years old. 88.1% of its members are between 18 and 55 years old and the 35 to 54 year old demographic is at 32%.

…And finally, LinkedIn is used as a professional directory and has more than 27 million users with an average household income over $110,000. The gender distribution weighs heavily toward males at 65% and 35% Female with an average age of 41 years old.

There’s no ignoring these numbers.

“In a test run April 23, an exclusive-to-Twitter promotion brought in 15% of the day’s business.”

$0 for a Twitter account + Time to Manage (or outsource management) = 15% one-day growth

This is a hard ROI stat for print, radio and tv to combat. Of course, a lot depends on the message, culling a following and time to effectively manage a company’s tweeting. I know some businesses are still fighting the need for social media integration into their marketing plans; but it is time to join in or become obsolete.

If you are interested in this topic, check out and join the Social Media Club of St. Louis. There’s an event tonight (with a lot of RSVPs from local marketing gurus) at Atomic Cowboy at 6pm.

The answer to that question was varied, but the one resounding statiistic tossed out for consideration is that only 1% of all Web sites are mobile ready. Compare that measly 1% to the 30 million I-Phone and Blackberry cellular users accessing the Web via their mobile.

Something seems a tad bit off about this number. Whether mobile marketing is here or not or whether your company needs an I-Phone app is not the problem; it’s whether your Web site translates to mobile applications without going crazy. Start with the basics; then experiment with your marketing campaign.

If you don’t know if your Web site translates to mobile technology, talk to my friend Barbara Hines with Anchor Mobile Marketing. She can help you find the answer.

SAVE THE DATE FOR THE NEXT GIMA EVENT – June 17: Business Speed Dating

Whether you disagree or agree, I’m curious how you use social media … and whether or not you agree with Ryan’s admittedly “generalized” assertions on social media. Frankly, I think he’s onto something when it comes to considering the gender differences when strategizing your social media marketing plan.

Here’s a teaser clip:
“I think women put more emphasis, focus and time into their social media browsing than men. Men seem to be very ADHD with social media, jumping from news story to story, whereas I’ve noticed women take slow time and incorporate what they read more into their daily life and lifestyle planning.”
Loren Baker, Search Engine Journal

A great thing about social media marketing is that you literally get a first-rate, hands-on education in human anthropology. You learn what moves people. You learn what people want. You learn how to tug at heartstrings and drive emotions to their limit. You learn how different groups of people respond to different types of content. It’s simultaneously liberating and disillusioning to discover how predictable groups of people behave.

Read the entire article “Gender Differences in Social Media Participation.”

By: Rob Hubert

The once innovative and dominant company from Redmon this week announced their plans to start a public beta of it’s Twitter-like “notification system”, called Vine. I don’t really understand why they would invest in this type of a product without a clear return on investment. Twitter is not generating revenue at the moment and just recently announced premium pay accounts. Will Microsoft actually be able to turn a profit from this type of product?

Read more…

Article Highlights:

* Use your real name and a real picture to highlight a human connection
* When writing your bio, consider SEO
* Include a useful URL

Obviously, I need help with the first item. Check out the entire article.