Photography, art, things that occur to me.
An exchange between me and The Mrs. in the car, talking about The Boy:
She: “Maybe next year he should go as a member of Devo for Halloween.”
Me: “Well, that would probably guarantee him free haircuts for life from the woman who cuts my hair.”
She: “Yeah, I’ll bet.”
Me: “Do you know what I’m talking about?”
She: “No.”
Me: “Then why did you say ‘yeah’?”
She: “Sometimes it’s just easier that way.”
Facebook, as you know, has gotten a lot of grief in the past for the way it treats users’ privacy. Seemingly every few months, they make some change that has users up in arms because more of their information is exposed.
I understand why people get upset, but at the same time, most people who use Facebook every day don’t take the time to learn how it works under the hood, even when there are hundreds of posts online that explain in simple terms how to manage your privacy settings. If you opt in to use a free service that provides a lot of value to you, is it too much to ask that you put in a little effort to understand it?
That attitude went out the window today, thanks to the new Facebook Groups feature. This article in PCWorld does a good job of laying out the problem “and the prank Michael Arrington of TechCrunch pulled on Mark Zuckerberg that clearly shows one of the fatal flaws”. Essentially, anyone can create a Facebook Group and add anyone else to the group. You then start getting emails any time anyone posts to the group. If you don’t want that, you have to go and opt out.
Someone I know, although not very well, added me to a group this morning. By mid-afternoon, my inbox had more than ten emails telling me that other people had posted in the group. Who do you know who is eager to get more email, especially without their knowledge and possibly against their will?
Yes, I can go in and turn it off, and I did. And just like everything else with Facebook, it took me a long time to find that control, and I’m not entirely sure it did what I think it was supposed to do.
And if you go to that group’s page, I’m listed as one of the members, even though I didn’t actually join it. So, as we saw from the Arrington – Zuckerberg prank, I could go create a group called “Kitten-Hating Devil Worshippers Against Springtime” and add you to it. You’d show up as a member, and get an email whenever another member posted about how the sight of a flower in bloom makes them want to punch a tabby.
“If you now feel you need to go and create that group and add me to it, I’ll understand.”
Imagine what this has been like for the big name social media folks. I wonder how many groups Chris Brogan, Scott Stratten, Amber Naslund, David Armano, Brian Solis et al have been added to?
I wrote a while ago that Facebook needed a business board of advisors to help it make better decisions about its functions that affect the way Facebook is used by companies. I still think that’s a good idea.
But now I think they just need some people with common sense.
I use Evernote for keeping notes during calls and meetings. Often something comes up that I want to add to my to do list, and I write it this way in my note:
*TODO: Send an email to Clint Flamblemast re pumpkin rodeo
Then at the end of the call, I transfer all those to dos to my master to do list. I can also search “*TODO” and find all the notes with “todo” in them.
What I want, though, is for that to somehow happen automatically, so that something noted as a to do item gets automatically populated to a master to do list.
Is there a way to do that? I’m happy to change my taxonomy or procedures.
I’m taking a risk here, but it’s necessary. I realize I am crossing a line. I try to keep my social media presence friendly, informative and funny when I can. In the last few weeks, you’ve seen a lot of posts from me that have been more serious and not at all funny. If you’ve been following me here, on Facebook and on Twitter, you know I’m talking about the effort to Help Bring Noor and Ramsay Home.
I need you to do more.
Click on this page. Click “like”:Â http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay
If you know the story, skip this paragraph. My friend “and now my boss” Colin Bower had sole custody of his two sons Noor and Ramsay. His ex-wife kidnapped them and took them to Egypt more than a year ago. He has not seen them since. The only thing that can help at this point seems to be public pressure on the US and Egyptian governments. And in this day and age, the best way to do that is on the Internet.
We have been told that the State Department is watching the Facebook page and gauging public interest by the number of “likes.” The more people who click the “like” button, the better chance Colin has of seeing his sons again.
Click on this page. Click “like”:Â http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay
Have you gone to the page and clicked “like”? Have you shared it with your friends, told people about it, even clicked “Share” to post it to your Facebook wall? Many of you have. I notice and I genuinely appreciate it.
I see posts from my friends today promoting their blogs, their bands, sharing music videos and encouraging their friends to support restaurants and food trucks and other causes. That’s fine; I do that stuff too. But can you please spend five minutes to help Colin see his sons again?
Click on this page. Click “like”:Â http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay
If you’ve seen my appeals and those of many others and you haven’t done it yet, respond here and let me know why, or email me privately at dave at dbthomas dot com and tell me why. If there’s something holding you back — technological reasons, you’re not on Facebook, you’re not sure you want to commit before you know all the facts, whatever — let me know.
Maybe you are concerned about the facts. Understandable, considering all you know is what you’ve read online. But know this: I’m not. I know Colin, I’ve seen how he’s conducted himself through much of this ordeal. I’ve read what his old and close friends have said about him. I’ve met Noor and Ramsay’s grandfather.
If that isn’t enough, then think of it this way: more attention on the issue will at least help resolve it, which is best for the boys.
Click on this page. Click “like”:Â http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay
I can look and see that 80 of my 541 Facebook friends have liked the page. Have you?
Click on this page. Click “like”:Â http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay
PLEASE do it now. If you’re tired of hearing me talk about this, imagine what Colin is going through, spending more than a year wondering if his sons are alive, what they are being told about him and wondering if he’ll ever see them again.
If that doesn’t move you to click “like,” then go ahead and unfriend me now, because I’m not going to stop talking about this until Colin is with his boys.
Click on this page. Click “like”:Â http://bit.ly/noor-ramsay
Go to the bottom of the left column. Click “share.” Post it to your own Facebook page. Ask your friends to like the page.
Thank you very much.
Wednesday was my last day at SAS as social media manager. I’ve written about my departure “two posts, actually: one on my SAS blog and one here” and the decision to give up a great job at a great company to go to New Marketing Labs. My old job was posted yesterday on the SAS jobs page “search job #10002098”, and, as I said on Twitter, I found it a bittersweet experience seeing it there. “I think that word may have confused some people; it was bittersweet because I’m leaving a great job and great people, but it was my decision and the parting was even more amicable than I could have hoped.”
Since the job posted, I’ve had quite a few people contact me to ask about the job through a variety of methods available to us these days: email, Twitter DM, Facebook message and Skype. “No one has called.” All of their questions have been along the same lines, and since the answers are positive for all involved, I thought I’d save time and answer them here.
Q: Is it a good job?
A: Absolutely. SAS is truly a great place to work, and this is a great job for the right person. It’s the best job I’ve ever had. It’s a big company, with all that entails, so it does require someone who can build consensus and motivate people. And you’ll be able to have a tremendous amount of influence on the future direction of social media at the company, both in the U.S. and overseas.
Q: Who does it report to? What’s she like?
A: The job reports to the estimable Kelly LeVoyer, for whom I have nothing but respect and affection. She’s a good manager, a good person and a SAS veteran, so she knows her way around the place. When I left, she gave me a bottle of 20-year old port. So, like that.
Q: What skills should the person have? What do you think is most important?
A: You need to be able to motivate people. You need to know how to bring virtual teams together and get the most out of people who don’t report to you. You need to be patient, because it’s a big company and, as with any big company, there are lots of moving parts in any decision. You need to be a good writer and communicator. You need to be a good public speaker and comfortable presenting to groups both inside and outside the company. And you need to be a good project manager. You’ll have lots of balls in the air and lots of deadlines.
Also, you need to have an analytical mind and a devotion to proving the bottom-line value of social media. If you’ve never given any thought to social media monitoring, measurement and analytics, you might be tweeting up the wrong tree.
Q: Do you just hang around on Facebook all day?
A: Paradoxically, most of the time I didn’t use social media tools to do my job more than anybody else. My job was primarily to work internally to develop strategies, policies and training. I communicated primarily via email, phone and meeting. I was on Twitter a lot, and I ran the Conversations and Connections blog “until Intern Extraordinaire Stacey Alexander more or less hijacked it”, but neither was a major part of my job. I wrote most of my blog posts at night, in that golden hour after everybody else has gone to sleep and I was still able to keep my eyes open.
That being said, if I were hiring my replacement I would cast a very critical eye on anyone who isn’t already blogging, tweeting, participating on Facebook and LinkedIn and hasn’t shot, edited and posted videos to YouTube. The job requires an understanding and level of comfort with the tools, because you’ll be teaching other people how to use them.
On the other hand, you don’t have to be mayor of 200 coffee shops on Foursquare and have a Tumblr account that autoposts when your dishwasher finishes the rinse cycle. You’ll need to keep your eyes on the horizon, but you’ll mostly be working with established social media channels for the foreseeable future.
Q: Do they already have somebody internal in mind?
A: Nope. It’s a sincere effort to find the best candidate, whether inside or outside of SAS.
Q: I’m thinking about applying…
A: Do it now. I suspect that, as with any SAS job, they’ve already been inundated with applications. Often SAS job postings come down after a few days because of the volume of replies.
Good luck!
photo by mylerdude
