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Social Media Explorer

Newspapers: Stop Hiding Behind The First AmendmentJune 30

Jason Falls

I’m proud to say the first legal action that may (I have my fingers firmly crossed) smack newspapers right across the face for allowing their website commentors to post anonymously could stem from a case developing here in my home state of Kentucky. Kymberly Clem, a student at Eastern Kentucky University, is suing the Richmond Register and an online commentor known as 12bme for defamation.

Clem was kicked out of a mall in August of last year for allegedly wearing a dress that was too revealing. She bought it at the same mall the day before. The commenter claimed on the Register’s story of the event that she was actually kicked out for exposing herself to a woman and her children who commented on the dress.

Clem’s attorney says the person fabricated something and represented it as fact. That’s defamation.

The Economy of Free Is StupidJune 29

Jason Falls

There’s a lot I love about the Web 2.0 culture. Open source platforms and the abundance of free tools and technologies available to us all are chief among them. But there is also a fair amount of insanity in those approaches that I fear is creeping up on us.

The inspiration for this post was a conversation I had with a friend the other day who said, “I love my DVR. I haven’t watched a commercial in months.” When I asked him how long he expects to still be watching his favorite shows, he looked puzzled.

“The avoidance of those commercials means those shows will eventually be cancelled,” I said. “You’re killing your own chances of being able to watch them by watching just them.”

To be blunt, those that think they’ve been getting their television for free all these years are short-sighted, if not ignorant. Your admission charge has been watching the commercials. The advertisers pay the production costs and salaries of those involved in the programs. If they don’t get a return on their investment in the programs, they don’t sponsor them, the shows get cancelled and you get pissed.

Any Jericho fans out there? Thanks for TiVo-i

Can Social Media Help Your Business?June 26

David Finch

Social media is more than just a buzzword. There are opportunities and measureable results that it offers that can be extremely beneficial to companies of all sizes. While Facebook and Twitter may be included it’s more than that.

Many times people get so caught up in the tools that little time is spent talking and strategizing and about what social media can actually do. Tools are great if you know how to use them, but at some point the tools need to have purpose. It’s where there is no purpose that abuse becomes the end results.

I often hear small to mid-size companies ask to help implement social media strategies into their overall marketing plan with a skewed outlook of what social media is and what its benefits are. However, if you know what social media isn’t, than it’s a lot easier to grasp what it can do.

If you have a good product, a detailed business plan, and customer service policies in place and willing to invest time, here are a few things that social media can do for your business.

Benefits that Social Media Could Provide

• Gives you the opportunity to begin listening to what others are saying abou

Protect Yourself With LifestreamBackup.comJune 25

Jason Falls

By now you know I review tools, programs and services related to social media. The ones I really like, I mention often and even devote entire blog posts to. Now I’ve run across one that I believe so passionately about, I wanted to be a part of it. As such, I must disclose that the tool I’m about to tell you about is one I have a financial stake in. Frankly, I hope that conveys the sense of urgency and importance I’ve placed on it.

LifestreamBackup.com went live recently and offers a subscription-based service to automatically archive your content from blogs, social networks and more. For just $4.95 per month (with a 30-day free trial to start), LifestreamBackup.com reaches out and downloads your Tweets, pictures, bookmarks, documents and even blog content and backs it up.

Secure your online life for less cost than a good cheeseburger.

Is Corporate Social Media Poisoning the Well?June 24

Kat French

Geoff Livingston’s controversial “Social Media Is Dead” post has had me thinking a lot lately about the future of social media and my personal place there.

Unlike a lot of social media professionals, I’m not taking offense at the thrust of Geoff’s post, which as I understand it was not about whether or not social media is going to continue to be a communications channel.  It was about whether or not it was still in the “lifecycle of adoption” phase that’s his vocational sweet spot.

I really think the infographic sort of said it all: he likes to be in the space between innovator and early adopter, and social media has (in his opinion) moved on to the late adopter/laggard stage.

What I’ve been wrestling with lately is, if indeed corporate adoption and participation in social media is reaching the late adopter/laggard stage, is that even a good thing?

I know.  Blasphemy in the halls of Social Media Explorer.  Not to mention crass hypocrisy because I make my living doing corporate social media.  So I suppose I