Victim of Success

Posted on April 10, 2008 Written by 6 Comments

I’ve never been a big fan of that phrase, because in nearly every case where it is used the pluses outweigh the minuses. But often success means growth, growth means popularity, and popularity means uqibquity; and that something special isn’t so special when everyone is doing it.

This rant is about Twitter. I don’t talk much about Social Media stuff here unless there is a lesson to be gleaned outside the bleeding edge. For those of you who don’t know about Twitter, it is a microblogging service that is becoming increasingly popular for its ease of use, its ability to work on multiple platforms, and its flexibility. You create an account, and you can choose whose updates to follow. You can track their updates on the web, in a special program, through instant messenger, or as a text message. You can send direct messages that will reach your “friends” in whichever manner is convenient for them at that particular moment.

I like Twitter for a number of reasons. I track some pretty smart people, and it’s useful for hearing what they’re talking about. I can ask questions of my “hive-mind”, and usually get a number of insightful answers within moments. I track PR and marketing professionals, web developers, Red Cross friends, and Birmingham area locals. I monitor the timeline for keywords, and have found instances of real people reporting “breaking news” on Twitter, long before the cable news networks ever acknowledge a thing. I’ve been a big fan of the service, and have used it to connect with many neat and interesting people (some of whom are going out of their way to help a friendly stranger in his job search!) I also helped develop strategies the American Red Cross will soon employ, using Twitter to connect with evacuees during the next big event.

The Alltop Effect

Apparently, I’ve done so well connecting with others, I made a list. Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop site has a list of Top Twitterers, and I made it somehow. It’s not based on volume or popularity — someone just liked my content there to include me among the sixty or so names in the aggregator. I am truly honored.

Since being on the Alltop Twitter list, I have been getting anywhere from 6-12 new followers every day. These are people who haven’t engaged with me anywhere else, and they didn’t find me by following conversations I’ve had with others. These are relatively new users, who have just signed up and apparently start by adding everyone from the Alltop list. I make it a habit of checking the profiles and websites of those who follow me just to get a sense of who they are and what they’re about.

In the last week or two, the “new follows” have taken a decidedly darker turn.

I’m getting Twitter Spam from people who are creating profiles just for the attention. They have nothing to say (and in more than a few cases haven’t posted a single update.) They know that the moment they “follow” me, I’ll get a notification email and at the very least will check them out. But hey, I’m still somewhat conscientious about this. There are many Twitter users who are either so desperate to be followed that they automatically follow back, or they have rigged their account to automatically follow back.

A Changing Dynamic

Twitter changes with you over time. The more you use it, the more value you find in different strategies for using it. As your Twitterverse gets larger, some of those strategies and techniques don’t scale, and you have to use the tool in different ways. This is nothing new to the PR and Marketing types with whom I regularly correspond. They’ve been seeking clever ways to use Twitter within their campaigns. Jason Falls did a great job with his work for the Robby Gordon team. Dell Computers has several customer-service people on Twitter who find complaints and address them before the hapless (and soon-to-be-happy) customer knows what hit him. These successes are dependent upon understanding the culture of Twitter and of the many many ecosystems within it.

I firmly believe these successes are fueling the TwitterSpam artists. They know the culture is trusting, and they know they can follow 3,000 people and get 700 to follow back. They know they can pump out links and advertisements – and to be honest, I’m even getting concerned about the safety of some of the sites they have in their profiles. There are documented cases of websites that launch malicious code through your browser. I’m thinking twice about even checking the sites listed on Twitter profiles, because the Culture of Trust is too big a target for hackers, and the cost is zero.

Some of the diehard Twitter purists have been advocating an attitude of “you-follow-me-I-follow-you.” They like to see users whose follow/followed ratio approaches 1. Others have made the argument that you should follow as many people as you can, and expand your universe to as many opinions as possible. I think that’s just outright silly, and it doesn’t scale for me. I still want to be able to see what people I am truly connected with are doing, and I can’t with so much noise in my follow-stream.

Bittertweet Lessons

This article isn’t about Twitter, though. It’s about how success has a dark side. Twitter doesn’t have a business model and as far as I know isn’t actively courting a buyer. What it does have is enough of a dedicated user base and a powerful platform that spammers can’t ignore it. It’s like making enough money that you can finally afford your first brand new car — one so nice you now have to get an alarm for it.

I don’t just blame Twitter, nor the people who are seeking to game the system. I’m partly to blame. I invested enough time and attention on those in the community that my name made a list. I should expect to be targeted – and that’s the price that goes along with all that good. All the people I have met and connected with, and all of the wonderful ways we’ll end up helping each other down the road. (Rob, Mack, Jason, CK, Daniel, Shannon, Shashi, Mike, Connie, and the many many others who I’ve had the privilege to speak with.) SxDS wouldn’t be anything without Twitter.

Now, while trying to figure out how to wrap up this article, the following e-mail arrived:

Hi, Ike Pigott.

googlecashreviews (googlecashrevie) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out googlecashreviews’s profile here:
http://twitter.com/googlecashrevie

You may follow googlecashreviews as well by clicking on the “follow” button.

Life generates irony far more twisted than the brain of a fiction writer.

[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, Twitter, Spam, microblogging, social media[/tags]

Filed Under: Communication, Marketing Tagged: ,

10 Years Gone

Posted on April 8, 2008 Written by 6 Comments

ABC 33/4010 years ago this very morning, I was working in the news business. I was working the nightside reporting shift for the ABC affiliate here in Birmingham. I was fishing around for a story, to replace the one that I knew someone was going to do.

A couple of days before, a local middle school student named Lindy collapsed and died while running track. The school was in shock, and the family was taking it very hard. The funeral was to be April 9th — and I don’t like doing those stories. It always felt a little invasive for me, but that was the big news of the day. Of course, there were the standard follow-up stories about grief counselors, and the availability of Automated External Defibrillators (AED). I just wanted to find something else.

That “something else” was an alligator. A fifteen-foot long alligator that attacked two men in a canoe. They survived, and shot the alligator. Jerry Wade was my photog partner that day, and we went to get interviews and video with the alligator guys.

However, you’ll never find any file video of either the alligator or Lindy’s funeral. They were overtaken by events.

F-5

Radar loopThat night, 10 years ago, an F-5 tornado ripped across central Alabama. It killed 34 people, most of them in metro Birmingham. For the next week and a half, there was no other news that mattered. There were eyewitness accounts, tales of survival, and tales of heartbreak and loss. The real story was in the way so many communities were brought closer as they recovered from such an awesome destructive force.

Our news Jeep pulled in to affected neighborhoods just minutes after the tornado passed. After one or two live updates, Jerry and I put our gear down and took a break. We had been commandeered by a Marine Policeman who happened to live there — he wanted our lights for a rescue mission. Jerry had the camera light, and I had a 2-million candle-power aircraft landing light. We followed a group of four others about a half of a mile into a field, climbing over felled trees and trying to stay out of the downed power lines in this total darkness. One of the party started raising an objection to our being with them. The patrolman said “Not now. They’re with me, and I need their lights.”

We came upon a house — rather, what was left of one. It was flattened. Pinned underneath that debris was a woman named Dorothy. It took us an hour to dig her out, and clear a path for the pickup truck masquerading as an ambulance. We got her loaded on board, and escorted the truck out, removing any other debris that was in the way.

When we got back to the live truck, it was time to set up for another hit. We sent in a little bit of the video of the rescue, and proceeded to introduce that live. While we were doing the live shot in front of a damaged home, a family of five popped up out from underneath a brick stairway. They were in one corner of the basement to ride out the storm. They picked the right corner, because the other three fell in.

10 Years of Perspective

Now that I look back, I don’t think I was ever as proud of my station as in those moments. When we radioed in that we were being pulled into the rescue effort, there was not a single complaint. No over-eager producers demanding that we stay and go live. No managers cussing us out for doing something human and humane. There were many amazing stories that came out of that storm. I’m proud of all of them, but especially the one I tell now. On that day, and in that way, we got it right.

[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, tornado, f-5, April 8th, Birmingham, ABC 33/40[/tags]

Filed Under: Communication, Personal Tagged:

Video Killed the Internet Star

Posted on April 8, 2008 Written by 4 Comments

“Video is the wave of the future for business! We’ve got to get some viral videos up and running! Customers love video!”

Simmer down. Now that it’s out of your system, lets look at what it takes to incorporate video into your overall communications strategy.

I worked in television for 16 years — a dozen of that on-air as a reporter. Being a “teevee reporter” isn’t rocket science, but it’s not as easy as you might think. However, there are a number of influences out there that might make you think the leap to video is a piece of cake:

  • The equipment is cheaper
  • The distribution channels are cheaper than free
  • The editing can be done on a home PC
  • The quality bar has been lowered by streaming video standards

All of that points to a no-brainer, but video can easily blow up in your face if you don’t know what you’re doing. And believe me, you don’t have to know anything about the subject matter to know when someone is making horrible television.

“American kids know television the way French kids know wine.”

- Lorne Michaels, Producer

Any idiot can grab a camera and shoot some video, even attempt to narrate it. The real skill is the weaving of those words and pictures in ways that simultaneously reinforce each other and amplify the communication. You can pack a lot of impact in a little piece of video if you know what you’re doing. It’s a language — one you have to study for a long time before you understand the nuances. Or, you can hire someone to tell your story for you.

Before you get to that point, and succumb to the You-Need-Videos Siren, please run down the following checklist:

  1. Do you know precisely what you want to communicate with a video? (If you’re lucky, the viewer leaves remembering one thing. Just one. Try to say too many things and you say nothing at all.)
  2. How are you going to use the video? (If you’re only going to the web, a lower-budget format might be acceptable. If you have designs on using it for something else, the quality will bite you.)
  3. Who is doing your editing? (Great video and great content can be rendered useless in the hands of a ham-fisted editor.)
  4. Is the tone of the video right for your intended message?
  5. Will anyone care? (If you don’t know why anyone will care, then you don’t have a message worth delivering.)
  6. How does this fit in the overall communications plan? (Will the video enhance other efforts already underway? Or will it overshadow/undermine?)
  7. Do you have a sufficient budget to hire the right people, or get the right training?

If there are any red flags, then just say no. Bad video can kill off any good momentum in your other online pursuits.

(Ike Pigott is an Emmy Award-winning writer, who regularly posts at Occam’s RazR)

Filed Under: Now Is Gone Tagged:

Magnitude of Miracles

Posted on April 4, 2008 Written by 4 Comments

Your Miracle May Vary. The inexplicable always seems grander and taller when you’re standing so close to the base. But the seeming recovery of my almost-but-not-quite-late cousin has now been quantified by his doctor:

In 27 years of medical work I’ve never seen someone turn around in a 24 hour period like Bill just did.

He’s now responding, and not only smirking at jokes but now cracking them. Not bad for a guy who was nearly written off last weekend.

Filed Under: Personal

Question Everything

Posted on April 4, 2008 Written by 6 Comments
Tiger Woods

Tiger WoodsTiger Woods made big news a few days ago… for losing a tournament. He’d won several in a row (something he’s done multiple times in his career), and fell a little short one week. And the fact that he lost was the news.

I want you to think about golf for a moment. Think about the physics involved, the ratio of target-size to distance, the impact of unforeseen variables. The wind blows a little differently 60 feet up than it does on the ground. A small patch of grass in the rough is slightly more springy than the patch next to it. The speed of the club, the shape, the spin imparted to the ball…

…well, I’m not going to bore you with the math. But suffice it to say, that when Tiger Woods steps into several consecutive tournaments and beats the entire planet in golf — that’s a level of mastery we may never see again. How does one attain that degree of dominance and precision? You question everything.

Stepping Back

A few years ago (after Tiger had already left the amateur ranks and won every Major available) he fired his golf coach. Sitting on top of the golf world, and with record endorsement dollars, Tiger fired his coach. Said he wanted to work on his swing, and find one that was more sustainable. He’d already cemented his legacy as one of the greatest golfers ever, and that wasn’t enough. He knew there was something greater — another plateau. And maybe he was the only one who could see it.

Pounding Away

Neil Peart is considered one of the greatest drummers of all time. (If you have a friend who is a musician, just ask.) For decades, he’s been in just about every short-list published, if his name isn’t listed first. As the drummer (and lyricist) for Rush, he has nothing left to prove from a musical front.

Neil PeartA few years ago, he ditched his drum kit and started over. He got himself a drumming coach, and re-worked his technique from the ground up. Starting from the grip and working from there, he remade himself as a drummer. (Much to the consternation of millions of air-drummers worldwide, who had copied his technique as faithfully as they could.) He now can seamlessly move from Matched Grip to Traditional Grip as the occasion calls.

Question Everything

Most of us aren’t in the same enviable position. We’re not the best in the world at what we do. But too often, we wrap our identities in the accomplishments and achievements where we do excel, and don’t push ourselves to see something better. It’s easy to be the big fish in the small pond, and for some it’s even easier to be among the larger fish in the larger lake. We like to bask in that we do well. But are we willing to question everything in an attempt to do it better?

The world tells us “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Just because something isn’t broken doesn’t mean it can’t be better.

Filed Under: Philosophy Tagged: , , , , ,

Awake and Aware

Posted on April 2, 2008 Written by 3 Comments

I haven’t been sharing the ups and downs of my cousin Billy, not because there haven’t been, but because they haven’t been earthshaking in either direction. However, the overall trend seemed to be headed downhill.

Until this morning.

This is from my cousin Dave:

While sitting in Bill’s room blabbering and telling jokes I noticed Bill looking toward me and trying to grin. I told him I would go get dad and Kathy and come back to the hospital. We came back by and I started showing Bill pictures on my laptop and when I’d show him a funny one, he’d try and laugh. The Dr. walked in about this point and walked over to Bill and said “are you hungry?”, and Bill replied with a quiet,breathy, but very distinct “Yes”.

You could have heard a pin drop after he said that. I called Sharon and told her and I held the cell phone to Bill’s ear so she could say hi. Bill really perked up hearing her voice and he responded to her and said very weakly ,”How you doing?” Sharon was in tears. I called Patrick who couldn’t believe Bill had spoken and while holding the phone to Bill’s ear so Patrick could talk I heard Bill respond and say ‘Brandon”. Well, Brandon is Bill’s dog.. and 15 minutes later Patrick shows up at the hospital WITH Bill’s dog and Bill petted the dog.

He hasn’t responded to a Dr. since he’s been in the hospital (March 16).. They were basically giving up on him Sunday figuring he wasn’t going to make it would be gone soon….UNREAL! We’re hoping for no relapses, and small positive steps forward!!! If he can pull through this he still faces a complete bypass.

I don’t know how much human knowledge we lost when the Library at Alexandria burned — I’m reasonably certain that as a people, we know more at this time and place than ever. We know more about anatomy, physiology, physics, disease, injury, and medicine. We have tools that allow us to watch cells split in two, and tools to help us correct defects in the hard-wiring of those same cells. We are even learning how to help the body regrow parts it has lost.

And as a whole, we still don’t know squat.

Again, thanks to everyone who has shared their thoughts and prayers. The whole family appreciates it.

[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, medicine[/tags]

Filed Under: Personal Tagged:

You Don’t Need a Blog to Have a Blog Policy

Posted on April 1, 2008 Written by 3 Comments

The title says it all.

Maybe a blog isn’t right for your company.  Maybe you don’t have anyone in-house who can step up and be the voice for the firm, the agent of engagement.  But you do need a blog policy, pronto.

Cisco is now in hot water because one of its employees was running an anonymous blog tracking so-called “patent trolls.” When a site is official and transparent, there is no confusion about loyalties or the source of information.  When employees are engaging in underground behavior, their actions can be tied back to you down the road.  That applies to sites they run, administer, or even participate in commenting.

Sun, Yahoo, IBM, and many other companies have publicly available policies.  There are many other resources available to help you craft one.

You may never have a corporate blog.  But you have employees who do, and they comment on things that interest them.  A clear policy can be the firewall that keeps your corporate interests out of the flames.

(Ike Pigott regularly writes at Occam’s RazR)

Filed Under: Now Is Gone Tagged:
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