Category — MySpace

Two weeks ago, I helped coordinate the Alaska eHealth Workshop: a discussion on the need for, and concerns regarding Alaska’s implementation of an eHealth system. Some of the other facilitators thought it would be an interesting exercise to find out what social media each of the 13 participants were using.

In this post, I look at what and how well social media is being used in Alaska, and how it could be improved. For your consideration, and improvement, I present the top six Alaskan uses of social media. For each technology, I’ve described an anonymous, composite “worst” scenario, and showcased one or two best cases that you can check out today.

1. Email
   • Worst case: You’re at a networking event and you gave someone your business card, they added you to their email blast list. Your requests to opt-out haven’t been taken into consideration. You get blasted more than once a day, with badly formatted emails that make it difficult to find relevant content, or act on the content. Think fax spam.
     • Are you acting like the networking leech?
     • Have you been subject to email blasts like this?
     • What could you do to improve your email newsletters?
   • Best of:
   • Spenard Roadhouse (via Snow City Cafe): I get their emails about once a month, or every time they start running a new special. Albeit, since the Roadhouse is a new joint-venture from Snow City and Sack’s, the first email I got from the roadhouse was through Snow City, and it felt like they had poached my email. But I had an opt-out option, their emails weren’t too long, and they didn’t clog my inbox.
2. Facebook
   • Worst case scenario: It can go one of two ways. You become an organization’s fan: they smother you with attention, or don’t post anything, ever. When you’re smothered, you get 2-5 updates a day from the group, in addition to status updates, and invitations to events in Anchorage when you live in Fairbanks. When you’re ignored, no pictures are posted, a smattering of events go up, and all the links shared are strictly self-promotional. Dull.
     • How can your organization find the happy medium?
     • What would it take to build the momentum that your “fan base” wants?
   • Best case:
     • Anchorage Won’t Discriminate. Any local organization should be so lucky as to grow and earn over 2,000 fans in the first two months of creating a new profile. AWD has also maintained their growth momentum the right way. They respect the spirit and transparency of the web, and only use the profile to communicate items of value to their constituency. Frequent (but not overly so) updates that include events, pictures, videos, links, and clippings from local media on their campaign give supporters what they want and need to stay connected to this cause.
3. Twitter
   • Worst case scenario (in 140 characters or less): Posting too frequently or too much. Followers have 120 other tweets competing for their attention. Respect the noise.
   • Best case:
     • Anchorage Daily News. The ADN knows how to make their content viral, and give readers multiple avenues to get the content that they want. If you like a specific columnist, perhaps Julia O’Malley, you have the option to follow her feeds, get advance notification of her new content. You can get breaking local news updates, especially important when a student pilot is having issues with landing gear. Furthermore, the ADN tweeple understand that social media are value-added conversations, engaging readers in polls, and re-tweeting highlights from their readers (Twitter’s ultimate form of flattery).

       Check them out:

     • @adndotcom – ADN Breaking News
     • @adn_jomalley – Julia O’Malley
     • @ADNVillage – Kyle Hopkins
     • @playadn – Play Magazine
4. Blogs
   • Worst case scenario: Someone on your board said that you needed to have a blog. Everyone else who is important seems to have one: CEOs, the White House, and your grandmother. The problem is, you haven’t identified a strategy or set of topics that you want to address, let alone set aside the time each day to write a post. Blogging takes time, energy, and planning. Yes, anyone can do it, but do you really want to?
     • How is your organization leveraging this technology?
     • What kind of topics would you address?
     • Can you spend an hour a day to spend writing posts, managing comments, and planning the next day’s?
     • What resources do you have available? Would a volunteer blog be appropriate for your organization?
   • Best cases:
     • I had a hard time narrowing this down to one. I’ve been really impressed with how quickly the following blogs have built an online community in Alaska.
       • Social media expert Aliza Sherman’s Living in Tok, is a virtual hybrid of a small town newsletter, coffee shop bulletin board, and local newspaper. All published from Tok, the last bit of Alaskan civilization before the Yukon Territory.
       • While in Alaska is the online journal of two college students who decided to try an Alaskan adventure on for size. (Kind of like Christopher McCandless, except with wireless internet, and not on an abandoned bus).
       • The Mudflats has become the defacto online political gossip “watering hole” for Alaska. They dish dirt on elected officials, providing (partial) transcripts for (some) public events, and catalyzing local conversations. Each post nets over 100 comments. Wow!
5. MySpace
   • Worst case scenario: Your organization has done the bare minimum, and posted a link to its profile. Good first step, but you rarely post any events, you don’t really have a need to share music with your audience, an audience that doesn’t even use MySpace. Your profile looks empty, and you provide no value: it’s no wonder that Tom is your only friend.
   • Best case:
   • Chilkoot Charlies. When I use MySpace, it’s to check out an emerging artist’s songs, and upcoming events. Beyond that function, I don’t like using MySpace, thanks to the seizure-inducing, aesthetically disjointed tweenaged profiles that seem to be in excess.

     Koot’s takes advantage of MySpace at its best, providing a full event listing; just this week it has 11 events listed, not including next month’s. They have consistent branding and links between their multiple online profiles (web, MySpace, Twitter, etc.). Their blogs are kept active, and right above the blog is a link to buy presale tickets. No beating around the bush with what they want you to do. Directly under the blog is a VIP email list registration, giving you the opportunity to serve as an evangelist for their brand.

     While I don’t visit Koot’s, I can say from years of trudging through poorly implemented MySpace profiles, that this a venue that gets it.

6. LinkedIn
   • LinkedIn seems to me like Facebook meets Monster.com: you can upload and customize your résumé, while also networking. I’ll be honest. I haven’t used LinkedIn much beyond establishing my own profile. The group functions seem a bit restrictive at first, requiring me to wait for “manager” approval before I can see anything. It has some nifty app functionality, yet again, I haven’t used it much.
   • Do you use LinkedIn regularly?
   • What kind of apps do you use?
   • How have you made this useful in your workplace or for your organization?

What technologies do you use that aren’t listed? What are other good examples of Alaska putting the web to work? How can we use these to develop a fourth leg for the Alaskan economy: human capital?