Credit: CartoonStock.com

There is a dizzying array of social media platforms, enough to make your average communicator’s head spin. What channels should you use, when, why and how? It’s like someone trying to build a house without a blueprint or awareness of what the various tools do.

When speaking to business groups I often point out the social media industry is following a well-worn path insofar as emerging industries go. Most new industries start with many competitors and eventually shrink to a few. For example, there used to be a plethora of North American railways, pulp mills, steel producers, automobile manufacturers; heck, even newspapers — now there are few.

In other words, it’s messy at the start of an industry and then consolidation occurs … continued on TheStarPhoenix.com

Credit: www.despair.com

In researching last week’s column on Air Canada’s woes played out on Twitter, I ran across an interesting school of thought. Apparently some folks, including a Toronto colleague who emailed me on the issue, believe Twitter should not under any circumstances be used for customer service, saying that service is a private matter between a customer and a company.

For example, an individual nicknamed “ThePope” (presumably not he of the pointy hat) posted the following comment on the Globe and Mail’s website:

“Twitter is a none (sic) communication tool for large customer oriented businesses like Air Canada, they shouldn’t even use Twitter …” – continued on TheStarPhoenix.com

Photo Credit: Personnel Today

Corporate reputation management is becoming a big deal on the social web. Just ask United Airlines and their series of luggage handling gaffes that led to hit song United Breaks Guitars.

Halifax musician Dave Carroll gained huge audience and support “by sticking it to the man” after exhausting every other option United offered for redress.

BP, the folks behind the calamitous oil spill you may have heard of, have suffered the indignities of Twitter ridicule and lost in court trying to cap the satire. Seems they can’t get a lid on much these days. Oh wait, the gush is over, but the reputational tar balls will continue to wash up, you can be sure.

Now Air Canada managed to step in a reputational sinkhole … continued on TheStarPhoenix.com

Photo Credit: MSN

Social media is increasingly becoming implicated in moments of crisis and significant world events. The 2009 Iranian election is a great example.

Thanks to a variety of technical manoeuvres, the Iranian government could not throttle the protesters’ use of Twitter to report on those events. Where traditional media could not tread, the citizenry and Twitter stepped in.

This year’s catastrophic earthquake in Haiti was another example where Twitter reporting reigned supreme.

Depth of reporting was improved at this year’s G20 protests in Toronto by tweets from many, including TV Ontario’s Steve Paikin (@spaikin on Twitter).

The common thread is people voluntarily reporting what they see … continued on TheStarPhoenix.com

Credit: TheSportsJuke.com

Social networking site Facebook hit a benchmark 500 million users this week, complete with much fanfare and celebration. But some folks weren’t celebrating, either because they are no longer enamoured of Facebook or they don’t have a profile at all.

It’s pretty easy for people like me to generalize our own experiences and habits and apply them to the entire population – always a wrong-headed move to extrapolate to the general populace from a sample of one. Just because I’m on Facebook (admittedly less and less) doesn’t mean you are.

In a socialmediatoday.com post entitled “93 per cent of the world is not on Facebook,” Matt Rhodes writes … continued on TheStarPhoenix.com.

The same can now be said for having a voice in social media, particularly blogging. If you don’t create content, you have willingly issued your own gag order. Rest assured, in the cacophony of “citizen journalism,” someone more shrill and with lesser intellect will take your spot.

I’ve decided my paternal grandfather, Douglas Vincent Lacombe, was the original blogger. Why do I engage in such revisionist history? Because I see blogging as an ideology as much as an activity.

Continued on TheStarPhoenix.com

This phrase, popularized by Mark Twain, gets to the heart of a current trend that is troubling — holding social media to greater account than any other medium past or present.

Business people talk a lot about the “Return on Investment” (ROI) that social media does or does not offer. While businesses absolutely should ensure time is not wasted on trivial or unproductive matters, it is possible to strangle an initiative by holding it to impossibly high standards … continued on TheStarPhoenix.com

War, huh, yeah

What is it good for

Absolutely nothing

Uh-huh

There’s an increasing chorus of voices that, somewhat like the lyric from the ’60s hit protest song War, wonders whether social media may be good for “absolutely nothing” when it comes to business.

Oddly enough, for a fellow who runs a Calgary social media agency, I agree with a lot of the naysayers … continued at TheStarPhoenix.com