University of California: Protest 101

UC Irvine hosted a budget write-in this week and I can’t imagine why we’re still putting pen to paper.

While delivering letters in bulk to our state legislators is much more civil and respectful than the protests and disobedience that have been observed around UC campuses this past month, aren’t there more innovative, collaborative and effective ways in which to communicate our dismay with the state of the State and University?

After all, isn’t the University of California the top public institution in the world?  Don’t we produce Nobel Prize winners and Fulbright Scholars, life-saving research and game-changing technology?

Advice to UC students.  Take what you know best — Facebook, YouTube, Twitter — and turn it into a campaign that legislators can’t ignore, toss aside, or hand to an aide to craft a scripted response.

The write-in would have been a good opportunity for student leaders to flip out their mobile phones and interview each other about the personal impact the fee hike will have on them come the new academic year.  It was a chance for students to plead their hardships, share their personal stories, and talk about their needs… and to tell their stories through a new medium to legislators and public citizens alike.

If just a 1,000 students from each campus joined a Facebook fan page or custom website that integrates Facebook Connect (or the like) and allow students to voice their concerns online – that would be a collective power of 10,000 voices telling their story to the public. The public and media can then help pay it forward and tell tens of thousands of other people how devastating the fee hikes are.

A letter only goes to one person, and your voice may or may not ever be heard.  But new media content can be shared, redistributed, repackaged, emailed, linked, tweeted…  The same effort put into a letter can be put into a message that has the potential to be heard across the world.

And all it takes it the one story that becomes viral.  The one story that tugs at the hearts of the voters of California, the philanthropist across the globe, and the legislator who votes on the UC budget.

How about a video profile of how much it costs to be a bio major:  How much are your textbooks?  What additional lab fees do you pay?  And how are you able to afford the expensive rent around Westwood, Irvine, Santa Barbara?

Letter-writing campaigns didn’t even work in my time as a UCSA Legislative Affairs member or ASUCD External Affairs Chair.  What worked were the face-to-face meetings with the educational committee members, staffers for the legislators or better yet the legislators themselves.

Today, students have the best tools at their fingertips: new media and social networks.  Whether it’s a student, parent, professor or staff member speaking, why aren’t we using these innovative communication mediums, which are either no-cost or low-cost, to effectively lobby the State and its citizens?

A collective voice is a powerful thing when used the right way.

Protesting and rioting may have worked in the 1970s.  But times are different. Technology is different.

The UC’s budget is an obvious mess, and I have strong personal opinions about it.  What it boils down to though, is there’s plenty of blame to spread.  But I don’t think it’s too late to make a new media move — the right move — to influence change from the ground up.

Picket signs, the wood sticks and magic markers to poster board is so last millennium, and so un-ecofriendly.  If you want to be heard, to be green, to be innovative with your message, take a lesson from the 2008 Presidential elections.  That wasn’t that long ago…

#Aardvark Opens to the Public

Check Vark out on Sunday’s New York Times… Congrats, Vark Team!

A few months ago, I wrote a post introducing Aardvark (aka Vark) – a service where your question is broadcast to those mostly likely able to answer it within the Aardvark community.

Vark has been really useful because I can broadcast a specific question without clogging Facebook or Twitter feeds, and count on someone with at least a basic knowledge of my query, to point me in the right direction.

Today, I got an email from CEO Max Ventilla:

Since you’ve blogged about Aardvark in the past, I thought you might be interested in some exciting developments…

…Anyone can join now at http://vark.com using their Facebook account. (We’re integrating with other social networks very soon.)

[Fan them on Facebook too.]

This is a great move on the part of Aardvark.  They’ve really come a long way in the last few months, partly thanks to the growth in number of users.  Once it reaches critical mass, it’s value will increase exponentially.

Five more suggestions that I think will make their tool and brand name powerful are:

1. Allow my Vark Q&As to be published to social network feeds, particularly on Facebook, Twitter and FriendFeed.
2. Facebook app that can also be a tab within a profile where friends can see your Vark profile, and question/answers.
3. iPhone app (this is already in the works)
4. And if an exact or very similar query has already been answered, to automatically “reuse” that answer for faster responses (with a like/dislike option).
5. Vanity URL to profile.  (I’d like “vark.com/sherry”.)

I enjoy Vark because it’s (almost) anonymous social networking: I’m interacting with strangers to help them out, and vice versa.  If you use the instant messaging (IM) tool for Vark, the unexpected randomness of questions breaks up my work day.  Vark “interrupts” subtly by asking “Are you there?” and you can choose whether to engage or not by typing “sure”, “busy”, or “pass”.

Try it out… you’ll be surprised at how much you actually know.

Twitter Style Guide

Updated: Thanks to @zkiraly and @faseidl.

Just like print media and even blog posts, Twitter should have a style guide.  There are some tweets that I will never read because they just look plain ugly.

Many people tweet just for the sake of sharing what’s on their mind.  But if you truly want to call attention to what you’re writing, especially if you are promoting a corporate or personal brand, here’s a simple guide to help make your tweets “legible”:

• Use appropriate sentence case (please – this is a huge pet peeve). Typing in all lower case doesn’t gain you any extra characters.  And unless you’re fighting for space, use proper grammar.

• Give a brief description, or better yet, a teaser of what we’re about to see.  Think of it as a movie trailer, and you want people to follow-thru to the link.  Similarly, don’t just post a link.

• Know what you’re sharing. Simply tweeting a blog post or article title may not always be the best description.  Demonstrate that you’ve read what you’re recommending, by summarizing it creatively, and to fit your audience.

• Avoid multiple RTs (retweets). Simply RT the person you source.  If someone is interested in seeing who the original source is, they can click on to the person you retweeted, or do a Twitter Search of the phrase or link.  At some point, too many @usernames in a single tweet just becomes name-dropping.

• Via @username is OK.  You don’t have to RT everything.  Resummarize it in your own words, then give credit at the end.

• Use hashtags (#) appropriately, and sparingly.  Hashtags make it easy to search for topics, but they’re most valuable when you want to join a conversation.  Multiple hashtags in one tweet causes for clutter too.

• Leave enough space to be retweeted.  Somewhere between 15-20 spare characters will leave room for most all usernames.

And most importantly, if you’re representing an organization (or even yourself), if you want to get the most out of Twitter, interact with people who RT you or those twitterers that you find interesting.  It’s amazing to see what kind of conversations you might get into, and more importantly, what you’ll learn!

For a blog posting “style guide”, read 5 Rules for Blogging.

Photo credit: Delgrosso

#FollowFriday – Media Relations Resources

“Journalism is the first rough draft of history.”

-Philip L Graham, Publisher, Washington Post

I had several conversations this week about how Communications Directors and other media relations folks can use Twitter to interact with the printed press.   Interesting topic for a few reasons:

1. All indications are that the printed press is of the dying breed;
2. Using a 2.0 tool to connect with 1.0 media seems like an oxymoron;
3. New media communications is about getting information out quickly, and interactions surrounding it.  Print offers neither.

My colleagues and I stopped using news wires, primarily because of the cost associated with their services.  The same effort that it takes to write a press release and submit it through news wires can easily be used to broadcast yourself by serving as your own news service.

Communications needs have changed, as well.  I find more value in the interaction and feedback with our constituents on our blogs and social networks (primarily Facebook).

All this said, many journalists are adopting 2.0 tools in order to save their 1.0 business. Just this week, the New York Times appointed Jennifer Preston (@NYT_JenPreston) the New York Times’ first Social Media Editor.  Both the Times and Washington Post are doing a great job using new media and multimedia tools, and creating unique content using free resources such as Google maps and API calls.

So how do you find the reporters/journalists that best fit your communications needs?  Try these resources.  (If you have other ones, let us know by leaving a comment!)

• @muckrack – Muck Rack is the best repository of journalists that I’ve seen so far.  You can sort by beat, news outlet, or even recent tweeted photos.
• @wefollow – We Follow is a user-powered Twitter directory where Twitterers self-identify their areas of interest or affiliation through tags.  It’s not as easy to search by beat or outlet as Muck Rack, but you may find some unusual suspects here.
• Media on Twitter – In addition to U.S. journalists, Media on Twitter has lists of journalists and news media Twitter accounts in Australia, Canada, France, India, Malta, Mexica, Russia, South Africa, Thailand and the UK.

By the way, if you’re a major newspaper needing a Social Media Editor, tweet me @sherrymain.  I’m interested… and interesting!

#FollowFriday – My Twitter Philosophy

I often find myself trying to explain why I tweet, how it helps me, and why not Facebook… to list just a few questions.  Tweeting isn’t for everyone.  And, to each their own.

So here are my personal reasons for Tweeting (note: this does not translate to my philosophy on my professional/business uses of Twitter):

• I learn A LOT. 140 characters gives a quick summary about a story, and helps me decide if I want to read more – whether it’s new media stories from @Mashable or current events from @WSJ.
• Making connections.  I communicate with reporters such as @grobbins in my professional capacity or find the best local eats from @dbgoudie.  I even get virtual high-five’s from @charliefogg.  It’s like going to a networking event or meet-up… but not.
• Be the first to know.  News travels like rapid-fire on Twitter – way before it can be picked up by online newspapers.  Imagine had Twitter existed on September 11, 2001.  How many more lives may have been saved, I wonder?
• It’s not about getting 17,000 followers.  I’m on Twitter because it’s a great way to discover new things.  I enjoy the random conversations that I could never have otherwise with @ChasL, an interactive designer in Austin, or ReadWriteWeb blogger @eng1ne.  That said, I am flattered that 500+ people find what I say to be interesting enough to follow me.
• Brands and celebrities are uninteresting.  I hate being marketed to and I don’t gain anything from knowing where Britney is getting her car washed. But I do enjoy @Zappos or @JetBlue because they aren’t just about selling, but about offering human connections.
• No need to reciprocate.  In Facebook, you are mutually “friends”.  In Twitter, there’s no obligation to follow anyone… even those who are my real friends.  In fact, I only follow those who regularly post unique and intriguing tweets.  I can’t imagine trying to follow 1,000 tweeples as an individual.
• There are no rules.  BAH to those who say to limit tweets to 5x per day or avoid tweeting personal details.  I’m human and if I want sympathy for my migraine, I’ll seek it.  Tweet as little or as much as you want, about whatever.
• Camaraderie. Put another way, snobbery.  It’s yet another elitist clique where you have unique friendships – a sort of post-college sorority/fraternity.

Join the club and follow me @sherrymain I’d love to hear about your personal philosophy on tweeting too.  What do you get out of it?  Leave me a comment and let me know.