Social Media: Keeping Friends Close (but enemies closer)

 

#راهنما



That's #awkward in Farsi (or at least it's supposed to be), and that's what might be trending this week in Iran, where earlier this week, Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif tweeted his announcement of the country's nuclear deal with the United States that will end decades-long economic sanctions against Iran. Good news except that the Iranian government blocks its citizens from using any type of social media.

If that's not awkward enough, then maybe a Facebook friend request from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's current Supreme Leader and Shia Cleric, might have you questioning your next post (revolution or cute cat photo? revolution? cute cat?). Yep, everybody who's anybody in Iran is racking up his Klout score.

NPR discussed two of the world's most unexpected online presences earlier this week, when it explored "Iranians React To Nuclear Deal On Social Media." When asked if Iran would soon be freely allowing its citizens access to the web, Babak Rahimi, associate professor of communication, culture and religious studies at the University of California, San Diego, said the hardliners in Iran will not allow it, continuing to fear that social media would support the type of unrest that facilitated the tumultuous Arab Spring and changed the political face of the region.

HOWEVER, those same hardliners, according to Rahimi, will be using social media to debate opponents and communicate their messages to supporters. 

Interestingly, a Huffington Post blog, citing that social media caused a change in Tunisia and Egypt so quickly that opposition parties had no opportunity to develop leadership to fill the void, recommended that Arab countries consider "digital brainstorms," similar to the discussion hosted by IBM for 300,000 of its closest confidants, to provide input on their new governments.

Amazing that social media can generate such fear and respect, where oppressive governments forbid their citizens access yet use its power to spread their message. Iran also may have learned a lesson from the Arab Spring and recognized a need to be part of the message instead of its clueless victim.

To take a page from Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, or "The Godfather," if you prefer: "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

 

 

Follow me on Twitter: @FWgib



Social Media: A diamond can be an old guy's best friend

Ever want to give up? Just hand over the reins to the more capable, the learned, the younger who've mastered the latest digital tools and say, "Give me my #2 pencil. I'm comfortable with my #2 pencil and some of that manila paper I drew on in elementary school."

My degree program forced me into tweeting this semester and into resurrecting this old blog, but just like last semester's quantitative analysis, I swore that I'd dump @FWgib as soon as I got my grade. Twitter and all of its social-media kin delivered WAY too much information WAY too fast, and I didn't care about most of it.

How good could a system be that when you need help understanding it, friends reply, "Ask your teenager. They know all about it?" If I knew how to communicate with my teenager, I'd already know how to Tweet, so what's the point.

I'd accepted that this is a young person's game. 

(Ever felt this way? Leave a comment and let me know how you bounced back)

And then Steve Lee crawled up on one of our classroom tables, sitting Zen-like in a Lotus position, and said, "We're only social media experts for a minute, and then it changes."

Steve's business card (yes, he still has a business card ... boomers went from collecting baseball cards to business cards with the delivery of our diplomas) tells us that he's the "CEO and Chief Pathfinder" for Quicksilver Interactive Group, which its website describes as "our great team of employees who excel in managing our clients online presence (web sites, blogs, social media, mobile etc.), develop innovative designs, and program highly customized online systems."

Steve said it's all about the strategy.

So, he's said that nobody else in our classroom knows any more about what social media -- digital interaction -- will be doing one minute from now than I do. And, hell, I'm a damn good strategist. How hard can this be?

And then he made it even simpler. He explained the "Digital Diamond."

The four corners of the Digital Diamond are labeled: website, email, blogs and social media, and smart a "digital engagement" specialist ... okay, anybody with any need to communicate ... integrates all four in order to enjoy  on a potentially massive, split-second scale that same one-to-one, "tribal" relationship that folks like barbers and neighborhood bartenders have reveled in for decades.

The website is the cornerstone of our digital presence, the source for all information that is us, where we engage your publics (hopefully our clients and soon-to-be clients) with meaningful, up-to-date information. 

Email is the first opportunity where clients or potential clients give us "permission" to interact with them, and it's our opportunity to "talk" with clients about what's important to them and what's new with us.

Blogs are next, and this is our opportunity to engage our clients (friends, too) in a conversation and tell a story that's important to both of us (and notice that I even learned to ask you to comment ... because I care).

The final corner is social media, and in this case, social media refers to networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Interestingly, Steve pointed out the significant differences among these three social media.

As you might guess, LinkedIn is ALL business. He said the Facebook is personal, and we, representing businesses, should tread lightly in Facebook and be sure that our communications are things we'd share when we visit in what this semester's professor, Samra Bufkins, describes as our living room.

Ms. Bufkins might describe Twitter the best: it's our bar. It's where we tell quick jokes, comment on news of the day, share over-the-top political opinions ... all in 140 characters, pretty much the same number of words you can understand in a bar when shouting over the music.

(For Ms. Bufkins, they're her living room and local bar. What are your Facebook and Twitter?)

So, thanks to a successful guy who looks like I have wait until I retire to look like -- long hair, beard and a Hawaiian shirt -- I feel much better about social media -- digital interaction -- and my opportunities for strategic successes in that area ... and that I'm not headed to the same museum as rotary phones, newspapers and cabinet stereos.

Next time, we can talk about television, the "second screen" and our opportunity for 15 minutes of fame. But today, I'll enjoy this personal victory ... I had to/was able to explain hashtags to a early 30-something.


Follow me on Twitter -- @FWgib

Societal Ills

Think under-aged drinking is not a problem? Check out Facebook photo of Daughter #1 at her New Year's Eve party.