social networking – Page 131

Kudos to CASE for offering Karine Joly‘s primer about social media and the web, User Generation, for free until April 15. The article appears in the March 2007 issue of CASE’s magazine, Currents. Usually, the mag’s online contents are accessible only to CASE members. (If you aren’t a member, you should consider joining, as CASE is the world’s largest professional organization for institutional advancement people — not just those in the communications and marketing field, but also those working in alumni relations and development.)

Karine’s article includes some steps to “You 2.0” — i.e., ways to get digitally connected. Good advice.

An aside: I also discovered that my February 2006 Currents article, Changing Lanes, is also accessible. For how long? I don’t know. But it’s a brilliant albeit now-dated analysis of social media’s impact on education. How dated is it? I mention Amanda Congdon and Rocketboom in the same sentence. How brilliant? For me, not bad. But not as brilliant as Karine’s. You should read her story first.

Jeremy Peppers of POP! PR fame nicely summarizes online video’s impact on communication in the social mediasphere. It’s a breathless, optimistic view of the future, with links galore. But Peppers cautions marketers about using video wisely.

Rule No. 1: keep it away from the ad people.

How should video be used? First, most importantly, it should be used when appropriate. In this social media rush, firms and corporations rush out to put everything together in one campaign. It does not make sense, though. Video is a great way to get your message across, but companies need to remember to have an honest voice, not messaging [emphasis mine]. It’s one of my lines about social media – hand it over to PR rather than advertising, because PR is used to talking TO people, not like advertising that just talks AT people.

Well put. Also this: “[O]nly use video if it makes sense. New demo to showcase? Video it and post it in the newsroom and on YouTube. Just don’t try too hard, and it should be fine.”