This week you get to do more than watch the video of the week. You get to play along. Will the prediction be right for you? It was for me. Enjoy the prediction video.

Yesterday I got a call from a friend who just started blogging for his company. Wouldn’t you know the first comment he received was from a jerk? You know a jerk…the kind of person who isn’t so much interested in helpful criticism as much as they are throwing out unhelpful and potentially unwarranted jabs? That’s basically what the commenter did in this case.

My friend asked me how to respond. As you may guess, his first reaction was to jab back with a few choice words of his own, but he didn’t do that. He also thought about deleting the comment altogether. I recommended he do neither. Here’s my response to him with five things to remember when responding to a jerk:

1. Don’t delete the comment unless it’s profane.

Just because someone is a jerk doesn’t mean they were vulgar. Sure, they should have been more helpful with their criticism and less mean-spirited, but still they didn’t do anything profane. If that’s the case, leave the comment online.

2. Take the high road.

Respond politely without a hint of sarcasm or attitude. Act like the jerk was actually helpful and respond that way because…(see number 3).

3. You’re not just responding to the jerk.

When you respond to a jerk you’re not just talking to him or her, but you’re showing everyone else who reads it that you’re above petty name calling or defensive responses.

4. Don’t feel like you need to agree with the jerk.

Just because you’re responding doesn’t mean you’re giving them validity. I have had people comment on my blog who I totally disagreed with. By responding to them I usually try to clarify my point a bit even if it’s obvious that we’re not on the same page. I’m always compelled to respond to commenters, but I’m never compelled to agree with them just because they commented. We should want to be part of the dialogue and welcome critical feedback and the exchange of ideas, but don’t think that you have to agree with everyone who comments on your blog.

5. Know when to stop commenting.

Sometimes a jerk will keep on coming back for more just to keep arguing. I usually stop after two responses to the same person and shut it down with a “we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on this” kind of statement. That usually works and it keeps you on the high road.

Yesterday I gave a presentation called “The ABCs of Social Media Ethics and Etiquette.” One of the things I especially enjoyed about the presentation was the chance to talk about how social media has broader implications in business beyond the marketing department. Social media is usually discussed in  the marketing and technology circles, but rarely in the broader implications for an organization.

Definitions

• Ethics: The definition of ethics is a philosophy of what’s good, bad, right, and wrong. In social media, the right ethic is an alignment of the right thinking and perspective of how to use social media and engage people properly. It is possible to have the wrong mindset and still use social media tools. I happen to think you’re likely to cut your leg off with that approach though.
• Etiquette: The definition of etiquette is a code of behavior of societal norms. In social media, the right etiquette is based upon acting the right way. Yes, there is a wrong way to use social media. Just ask anyone who’s been spammed on Twitter or received a sales pitch on a blog comment.

The ABCs

• A - Authenticity Is Honesty
• B - Being Transparent Works
• C - Conversation Sells

Authenticity Is Honesty (and dishonesty will be found out in time)

• Ethic: We always want to represent ourselves truthfully.
• Etiquette: We will always state who we are, disclose our affiliations, and what our intentions may be.

Being Transparent Works (it builds trust and people hire/buy from those they trust)

• Ethic: We will proactively share information that may be important to our customers.
• Etiquette: We will tell the truth even when it hurts. We will thank our friends and respond to our critics.

Conversation Sells (just not the way you’ve always sold)

• Ethic: We want to earn attention through valuable conversations and content that people will find valuable.
• Etiquette: We won’t just sell, promote, or advertise.

Take one mini piano, attach a ukulele, and stick a kazoo on the end and what do you have? The Kazookeylele of course! Without the Internet, how would we ever find something as good as this? Enjoy this version of The Final Countdown on the Kazookeylele. If you need more Kazookeylele, here’s his live version of The Bohemian Rhapsody.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where Facebook seems to be going for businesses, and I have several ideas about where it’s going based on observation and experiences with my clients. I’m not quite ready to blog about these ideas yet. Sometimes ideas just need to marinate a bit longer, but these stats seem to validate where things are going. In the meantime, consider some of these new Facebook stats from ComScore:

Traffic:
In Dec. 2008, Facebook had 13 million daily U.S. visitors.
In Dec. 2009, Facebook had 37 million daily U.S. visitors.
This is an increase of 181%.

In Dec. 2008, Facebook had 54 million U.S. visitors total.
In Dec. 2009, Facebook had 111 million U.S visitors total.
This is an increase of 105%.

In Dec. 2008, the average Facebook user visited the site 16.8 times during the month.
In Dec. 2009, the average Facebook user visited the site 27.4 times during the month.
This is an increase of 64%.

Engagement:
In Dec. 2008, users spent 2.8 cumulative hours on Facebook during the month.
In Dec. 2009, users spent 4.1 cumulative hours on Facebook during the month.
This is an increase of 45%.

In Dec. 2008, Facebook users spent 10.1 minutes per visit.
In Dec. 2009, Facebook users spent 9 minutes per visit.
This is a decrease of 11% (Though this is a decrease I think it makes sense that people would spend less time per visit when they’re visiting the site more often. There’s less new stuff to see since the last time they were there.)

In the most recent episode of The New Mediology podcast, Nathan, Alison, Ray, and I discussed, among other things, the rise of a mobile phone-based location aware game called Foursquare. Alison does a good job explaining it (jump to the 14:15 mark of the podcast on the New Mediology page to listen to the Foursquare discussion) but the idea behind Foursquare is this: businesses sign deals with Foursquare and the people within a city who visit the business “check-in” with their mobile phones whenever they visit. By checking in, the person is broadcasting to his or her friends their connection to that particular business, resulting in marketing exposure for the business. The person checking in may get special offers from that business for checking in, visit frequency, or becoming the “mayor” of the business (person who’s been there the most). At that point it’s up to the business to decide how to reward people.

So what’s this mean for you? It depends. Maybe nothing much. Maybe a lot.

Three Options For Foursquare And Your Business
If your company doesn’t have any physical location in which business with customers is conducted, this may not mean much for your business. I may be missing something here (and if I am someone please show me what I’m not seeing) but locations are key to Foursquare, and therefore the absence of a location makes Foursquare less applicable.

If your business has a physical location of any kind you will want to know, at the very least, if anyone has claimed mayorship of your location. It would be interesting to find out if you have a mayor you never knew about. If you find out you do, you’ve got some connecting to do pronto!

If your business is anything retail oriented, you are really going to want to keep your eye on Foursquare. It appears to be rolling out its services slowly across the country, so depending upon where you live, you may or may not be able to sign your business up with Foursquare yet. Here in Nashville, for instance, it’s relatively new. Frozen yogurt retailer, Tasti D-Lite, is using it locally along with several other bars and restaurants. You can see a full list of the businesses who have signed on with Foursquare on their businesses page.

In the end, the future success of Foursquare will depend upon getting enough people to participate. Whether players push retailers to jump in or retailers offer such good benefits to Foursquare players that it compels people to sign up, remains to be seen. At the very least it’s time to pay attention to Foursquare and determine for yourself whether it’s time to get in the game or not.

PS: As always, you can subscribe to the New Mediology podcast on iTunes.

This is certainly not the rooster you want waking you up in the morning. If you’re a heavy metal fan you may enjoy this little remix of the same rooster. When I first saw this clip I actually thought of this scene from Dumb and Dumber.

One of the potentially difficult changes for companies to overcome with the current online culture of today is the humanization of business interactions. What that means is that the distant, sterile formality that used to be considered “professional” is being undone by informal conversations and interactions with businesses. These informal conversations with otherwise fully professional businesses are perceived by customers as actually more authentic and trustworthy.

This not-so-subtle shift in consumer perception about interactions with brands changes the way brands should engage their customers, particularly when using any social media platform. What used to be the “professional” way to engage customers has changed.

Why The Shift?
This shift may not seem like a big deal. It may feel like a touchy-feely nuance of the social media space, but it actually is quite significant because social media tools work best with informal interactions. You have to remember that social media tools weren’t originally built for business. They were built for connecting people and letting people share what they create. It just so happens that companies have begun to realize the business opportunities in social media, but as such you have to enter the space as one who understands the culture and rules, rather than someone who thinks they can just do whatever worked for them up until now.

Implications For Branding
This will be a hard adjustment for companies that haven’t operated with that perspective before, but think about like this: I can’t have a relationship with a brand. I can have a relationship with a person. If you offer me a person from your brand to connect with, I get the best of both worlds. I get the affinity and interest in your brand, and the person I can build a relationship with to help me feel even stronger about the brand. Though it may be informal interactions that connect me to your brand, there’s certainly nothing unprofessional about engaging me and helping me  as a potential or current customer.

Understanding the culture and mindset that applies to social media is just as important as figuring out how to set up a Facebook page or shoot video for your YouTube channel. I would contend it’s more important to get the cultural understanding down first. Though the technology gets all the headlines these days, if you don’t know what you’re doing with it you might harm everything you’re trying to build…and that’s not very professional.

Selling the the benefits of social media inside organizations may be the single greatest battle ground for social media right now. A friend who works as a social media director within a large organization confirmed this for me recently along with several  other conversations with employees from other organizations.

Part of the internal “sell” is identifying the people who have issues with social media and then understanding their points of view. The problem is, the people you’re trying to convince are usually the very ones with the authority to really do something with social media or at least release it to take hold within the organization.

I’ve been doing social media consulting for three years now, so I’ve had my fair share of these kinds of discussions with everyone from the company CEO to an outside consultant working on the company’s behalf. In my experience, the bottom line is one (sometimes more) flawed perspective of how social media must work. These flawed perspectives skew people’s entire views on what social media can do, and together, they make up four kinds of people who can kill your company’s social media efforts. It’s time to call these killers out so you can attack them before they attack you:

I’m usually a fan of anyone who can take an average, everyday occurance and make me pay attention to it.  The folks over at Improv Everywhere are famous (and sometimes infamous) for that kind of thing, and I love the way they can take something so simple like giving high fives on a New York escalator and change the total demeanor of an otherwise average commute into the city.

I think there are some lessons we can apply to business here too. Are there some routine things you do for your employees or customers that could use an infusion of new life or attention with a simple and creative twist? Need some more inspiration? Check out the piano stairs.