LinkedIn: It’s Not Facebook!

This post is a classic demonstration of how eclectic my blog really is. I’ve gone from writing about outsider music, to a post-slash-rant on the downward spiral, as I see it, that the website LinkedIn is on.

LinkedIn is a great way to connect with professionals, colleagues and thought leaders. It provides a forum for discussion, through groups, on issues pertaining to your industry and professional interests. You can connect with old co-workers, research companies that you’re interested in working with and, to some extent, network with new people.

On the other hand, as I see it, Facebook is where you connect with your close friends and family. You share photos, make silly comments, send birthday wishes and all the other stuff that you can do comfortably with friends, but wouldn’t dare do in a professional setting.

The reason for this post, is the other day on LinkedIn, a connection had liked a photo. In this photo, was a boy holding a sign saying “I just beat cancer, can I get a million likes?” First: I’m not heartless. That’s great that cancer is being beaten, not just by him, but by thousands of people worldwide. But the photo stopped me in my tracks: why is a like-farming photo appearing on LinkedIn? That’s hardly appropriate!

I’ve noticed it sporadically on LinkedIn, but it continues to grow: photos being shared that are personal, or simply to get “likes.” To me, this is a downward spiral for LinkedIn. In my mind (and maybe I’m just not with the times), the photo sharing option on LinkedIn should be used for things like infographics, or for informational purposes. I don’t want to see photos of your new baby; that’s what Facebook is for!

Facebook is the personal space (but remember that on the internet, nothing is personal/private), whereas LinkedIn is just like your workplace: cordial, friendly but professional. I’ll always keep mine that way, and I hope to see more of my connections follow the same path.

No, I’m not dead…

@JoshuaMTerry so you've left Facebook. The logical explanation is that you're dead ?

— meeka meeka (@meekamartina) April 6, 2014

While the part about me leaving Facebook is accurate, I assure all of you that I’m very much alive.

After considering it for some time, and leaving temporarily a while back, I’ve deactivated my Facebook account with no intention to return. It’s day four of my removal and there are moments where I wonder what’s going on and my mind immediately thinks to go to Facebook. Having used it since 2006, I guess that’s a habit that will take a long time to break.

Ultimately, for me, I don’t see the value in Facebook anymore. 90 per cent of my posts are simply me ranting about politics; or talking about the latest episode of Dallas; or ranting about the politics happening on Dallas. I think, with Facebook, people often forget about having human interaction (or that human interaction involves immediately posting about it on Facebook).

When I really think about it, what am I going to miss by leaving Facebook? The answer: not a heck of a lot. Sure, I won’t get the impersonal birthday wishes that we’re all guilty of. “Oh hey! I remember her from high school! It’s her birthday! Happy birthday former friend who is now a complete stranger but I see you online all the time!”

And sure, I won’t get to see photos of your baby. Or your engagement ring. Or your baby’s x-rays because he ate your engagement ring… But that’s okay. We can have a conversation about it the next time I see you. In person. Or you can call me!

So sure, leaving Facebook isn’t quite as extreme as the family living like it’s 1986, but in the year 2014, it makes me an anomaly. I’m okay with that – and this is one post that nobody will be able to “like” on the monolith of personal information that is the Facebook.

PR Tuesday (on a Thursday): Deadlines and other basics

In addition to this title being ironic (I know I’m two days late with the PR Tuesday post), it stems from a meeting I had earlier this week. On Tuesday, I had a meeting of the Durham College PR Advisory Committee. Essentially, we meet twice a year and talk about industry trends, and what changes can be made to ensure students of the Durham PR program are well-equipped to enter the industry.

It was interesting to hear the perspectives of some of my more senior colleagues on the panel; namely, that students enter the program with no sense of how to write, and in some scary instances, can’t write professionally when they enter the industry. We all remember having to take the basic introductory grammar class where we learned things like this:

and this:

Side note: I think Mr. Morton and Mr. Weatherbee from Archie are the same guy.

But the question is, are these basic classes effective? Should there not be more stringent requirements for new entrants to the industry to prove their writing skills? I know in my experience, aside from the first agency I worked at, I’ve always been required to complete a writing test after my first interview. It has been part of the requirement to qualify for a second one.

We also heard that many new entrants to PR are non-chalant about deadlines. Excuse me? I’m sorry, but I know from my experience that missing a deadline, be it to get a written document to a manager or something to a client, is an egregious breach. Perhaps my experience in the PR industry is what causes me to get upset when people in my personal life are not on time for things.

My biggest pet peeve, and this doesn’t just apply to new PR practitioners, is unorganized people. I have little patience when I’m in the same meeting as someone and they leave the meeting asking their colleagues what work was assigned to them. It’s called listening. Do it; it’s essential to your career (especially in PR).

What traits do you find people lack, that are essential for success in PR? Comment below or let me know on the Facebook page.

 

PR Tuesday: #Fail (Best of the Worst)

All of us, in our professional or personal lives, have seen a “hashtag fail.”  I thought this week, I’d change things up a little bit and share some recent examples of failures, whether PR blunders or social media slip-ups, or a hacking. It’s PR Tuesday: #Fail (Best of the Worst)…

Eco-Friendliness Stops Suicide?

This #fail comes to us out of Europe, where Hyundai’s ad agency ran a commercial where a man is trying to end his life using a hose stuck in the tailpipe of his Hyundai iX35. The kicker? The iX35 has 100 per cent water emissions, meaning there’s no carbon monoxide emitted and thus, the poor man’s attempt is futile.

Hyundai’s response, once the ad was condemned?

“We understand that some people may have found the iX35 video offensive. We are very sorry if we have offended anyone. We have taken the video down and have no intention of using it in any of our advertising or marketing.”

Some people may have found the ad offensive? How about any human being with any sense of compassion or dignity? It’s a wonderful thing that you’ve created an eco-friendly vehicle, with 100 per cent water emissions. How about, you know, show a pristine lake? A forest? Connect technology with the natural world, working together in harmony? No, instead, you use suicide? Shameful. While their response was swift, it was half-hearted. This ad should have been fully and completely condemned and Hyundai ought to fire its European ad agency.

Toronto Star fact checking goes on holiday

Last Tuesday, the Toronto Star ran an article about Scarborough Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Margarett Best, who is on medical leave from the Legislature, being on vacation in Mexico. The intent of the article, of course, was to shame Ms. Best for taking a holiday while she was purportedly unable to fulfill her duties in the legislature. How did the Star find out Ms. Best was in Mexico? The ever-reliable approach of looking at a Facebook profile photo. What’s wrong with that, you ask? First, go and try to read the original article here. I’ll wait…

You’re back? So you saw the “this article has been removed for legal reasons” post? Why is that? Well, because the Star was wrong in their reporting. So wrong, that they were forced to run a front page apology explaining their lack of judgment.

How did it all happen? According to the Star:

Brennan [Toronto Star Queen’s Park reporter Richard Brennan], a Facebook friend of Best, was looking into her absence from Queen’s Park when he came upon the photo of her and her daughter in Acapulco. Though he tried to contact Best through her constituency office, and sent her a message through Facebook, at no time did he give the MPP any indication he was writing a story that would report she was on vacation while on medical leave. Nor did his messages say anything about her Facebook photo.

Essentially, it appears Brennan made the assumption by looking at a photo – and not the date included with the photo. As said in their apology, he did not indicate to Ms. Best or her staff that this was the angle the Star would take in the story. A lack of understanding, perhaps, of social media leaves one of Canada’s largest newspapers with a lot of egg on its face.

Hack has economic impact

Late last week, the Associated Press’ Twitter account was hacked. The fake tweet reported that there had been an explosion at the White House and that President Barack Obama was injured. A horrifying thing to read, especially following heightened worries after events in Boston. Not only did the tweet cause horror for those who saw it, it also had an economic impact: the stock market, following the issuing of the tweet, plunged 130 points.

What is the over-arching theme?

There’s a couple lessons to be taken from these three incidents:

1. Don’t create advertising based on issues that are bound to offend; suicide is far from a laughing matter. While controversy can generate sales and publicity, there’s a very delicate tight-rope walk to go through. Clearly, Hyundai’s ad agency failed and one hopes they are fired in a spectacular fashion.
2. This is perhaps the most important one: verify anything you see on social media with other credible sources. The Toronto Star, in my opinion, has the biggest fail of all three of these stories. Why? Because their damaging, false article impacts the career of a public official. Had they been able to verify MPP Best taking a vacation during sick leave, then it is a legitimate story. A Facebook profile photo tells very little.
3. Protect your accounts. There’s not much more I can say here; it’s the standard stuff: use multiple passwords for your accounts (IE: your Twitter password should be separate from your Facebook password). When it comes to corporate accounts, don’t store your passwords on a shared server. Document and control who has access to your accounts, to help prevent hacking.

There you have it: another Tuesday, another instalment of PR Tuesday. As always, thanks for reading: and if you have seen a bigger fail, please share it by commenting or by posting it to the Facebook page!

PR Tuesday: #Oversharing?

It’s that time again! Happy PR Tuesday!

In the last post, I wrote about under what circumstances I think a tweet should be favourited. There was a bit of discussion, and it trended towards agreeing with what I suggested.

@JTerr88 Glad somebody agrees with me on the favourite-"ing" vs. being lazy! Thanks

— EnviroJan (@EnviroJan) April 17, 2013

This week, I thought I would tackle a topic that I know I am guilty of, as are many people I know who use social media: oversharing of information.

Social media is fascinating, as I mentioned, because it allows you to instantly connect with people from across the world who have similar interests (and differing opinions). It provides a glimpse into a person’s life. Sometimes, it’s less of a glimpse and more of a “hey, look who’s getting changed with the blinds open” view.

An example of oversharing

https://twitter.com/JTerr88/status/326487636703326208

Yes, I totally am willing to admit that I fall prey to this. Who cares?! What is the relevance? This isn’t going to spark conversation, it is meaningless to every single person who reads it. Yet, in today’s day and age, it’s ingrained in people to share the minute details of their lives this way.

We see it all the time – people  tweeting about going to bed, taking photos on Instagram of their food/dogs/kittens/offices and checking in every ten minutes on FourSquare to tell strangers where they can be found. Creeping is easy, with location-based apps.

Mashable has suggestions on how to avoid oversharing; the action has gotten people arrested, caused them to lose out on a job opportunity and much more. Really think about what you share – posting a photo of your dog may seem innocuous enough, but don’t be too surprised if your bank account gets hacked and someone was able to get in because that was your security question! Perhaps I’m going to an extreme, but it makes the point.

There’s a balance to be struck; there are things in our personal lives that are interesting and worth sharing. They spark conversation and debate. But I’m going to be monitoring more closely what I say, as I have a feeling nobody cares if I have spaghetti for dinner or am wearing flip-flops. It doesn’t do anything to benefit my personal brand. I’m going to take an approach like this: if it isn’t something I wouldn’t tell a stranger on the street, it’s not going on social media.

PR Tuesday: Why “favourite” a Tweet?

First: let me thank you for your patience. I know I had promised to post on a weekly basis, but life intervened. It’s been a busy time at work, but I’m here now and that’s what matters.

Second: as many of you know, I work in the wonderful world of PR! I decided that, you know, I have some thoughts on general trends in PR and I should share them! So I’ve decided to dedicated Tuesday posts to the very topic. I hope you at least find them somewhat insightful.

With that in mind, I had two posts in mind. I decided to go with this one and save the other idea for next week.

The majority of my readers are on Twitter; I can say that because I know that most of my traffic is derived from clicks through my personal account. One of the features of Twitter (as you know) is the ability to “favourite” a Tweet (and yes, there is a “u” in favourite – this is a Canadian blog). I think most of you would agree that there are two reasons to favourite a tweet: to show the author that you have seen and enjoyed what they said and/or to save the tweet for later.

I think marking a tweet as a favourite for the first reason is pointless. The action is a very passive form of engagement – it’s Twitter at its laziest. If you think something that somebody has said on Twitter is funny, interesting or controversial, there’s a far better solution: say so! Social media is exactly that: social. It’s an opportunity to engage, to connect with people across the globe who share similar (or not) views. I can’t count the times I’ve engaged in political debate with people across Canada who, I’ve never met and likely never will.

What do you mean?

Here’s a great example of a discussion I had with somebody today:

https://twitter.com/JTerr88/status/324260088439250944

Marking a tweet as a favourite is just as lame as clicking “like” on Facebook. What’s the purpose? A virtual thumbs up or gold star says, well, nothing. It’s something that was reinforced with me in discussion with a friend recently: a like is objectifying, in a sense. As I said: social media is social. Why be quiet and hide in the corner? Talk to people who say things you like!

Where being able to mark a tweet as a favourite comes in handy is very simple, at least for me: it’s when somebody shares something I want to view later (a link I want to visit from my own computer, after work, for example) or is something I want to follow up on (ie: someone replying to me, but not being able to reply immediately for one reason or another). In that case, a favourite serves as a bookmark.

So, what do you think? Do you agree that marking something as a “favourite” or “like” is passive? Or is it a form of meaningful engagement?

Coming Soon: 100 Things About Josh!

I was inspired by the Twitter hashtag #100ThingsAboutMe and decided I’d write my own version on the blog. The first half will be up tomorrow, with the dramatic conclusion (!) to come next week.

I thought, though, I’d ask my readers to contribute by asking a question of me and maybe it will be included in the 100 things! Feel free to comment on this post or post on the Facebook page and I might include an answer in your question.

No limits – this will be revealing, honest and (hopefully) interesting!

Social Media Detox

Photo courtesy of: http://www.socialnetworkingandyou.com/

I work in the realm of social media; naturally, I’ve had a presence on a number of sites for quite a few years. I joined Facebook in September 2006. I joined Twitter two years later, before quitting for a bit and then returning during my last year of school, in 2009.

Last week, thanks to someone who means a great deal to me, I realized that I was too reliant on social media. I had a high number of Facebook friends – and a lot of them were people I never talk to. Sure, I went to high school with them or knew them through friends of friends, but they weren’t people that I knew. I decided that it was important to do a Facebook “cull.” Using the criteria of “who would I call in an emergency,” I took a high number of friends (300+) and trimmed it down to around 130. While doing this, my Facebook account was deactivated and I was even tweeting less than usual. It was a mild social media detox that had me come back to things re-focused and, believe it or not, a little energized.

Facebook has a lot of personal details – and I’m working on removing those as well, to a point. But, at the end of the day, those extraneous people can connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn or through this blog. I think I even have a G+ account, but nobody uses that – it’s awful.

The world in 2012 is hyper-connected. We can text, tweet, Facebook, IM, BBM, and whatever else is out there to our heart’s content. But, does that constant messaging cheapen our in-person relationships? I didn’t think so, until somebody told me point blank that they felt I was neglecting them for social media. It hurt me that I was hurting them and made the change for them. Doing so led me to see the benefits for my own life, too.

While I’m back on Facebook, I won’t be accepting friend requests from just anybody and I won’t have the app on my iPhone anymore: I’ll check it every so often and use it to promote my blog posts and talk to friends who may be great distances away, but that’s it. Six years is a long commitment and it’s a little frightening that the first thing I’ve given that commitment to is a website. We can do better, world.

Some of my Favourite Apps

Every single iPhone/iPad/iPod user has apps (and if you don’t – why the heck do you even have one?!) on their device and all of us have our favourites. I thought I’d take some time to write about three apps that I use regularly and why I like/dislike it.

Facebook Messenger

Perhaps one of the most handy (but also frustrating) apps I use. I just ranted about this app recently to a friend, who is far more knowledgeable than I in the realm of apps and technology (which was the inspiration for this post).

Pros: An easy way to keep in touch with friends while you’re on the go, who you may not have the ability to text. For example, had my friend Lauren, who goes to school in the UK, not downloaded “What’s App,” this would have been a handy way to keep in touch – my messages would have popped up on her Facebook inbox and when she responded, the messages would have arrived directly to my phone. Another positive, surrounds events; if the host of an event sends a message to the people attending their event, I’m able to look at it while I’m on the go and see what’s going on.

Cons: Certain people seem to think I’m on Facebook chat all the time. As such, they feel it necessary to not only message me, but to constantly message if I don’t answer (for example, when I’m in bed) to ask the inane question: “why aren’t you answering? Are you there? Hellooooo….” It’s just like a text: if I don’t answer right away, just assume I’m busy, ok?

Sleep Machine

I love this app. I don’t use it on a regular basis, but it is handy to have when there is a need for some white noise. In particular, I’ve always found that the sounds of a thunderstorm and rain help me relax. This app (there is a free version with sample sounds and the full version has more) allows you to set up to three different sounds, each with its own volume level. You can set your music as one of the three sounds if you like as well. You can set a timer in the app so if you only want white noise for 15 minutes, it will automatically fade out once the allotted time is up. Sleep Machine also features alarm functionality with any of its sounds for an easier transition to waking up than the annoying beeps of a traditional alarm clock.

Vlingo

For those of us still using iPhone 3G/4, Vlingo is comparable to Siri on the 4S. It’s not as functional and nor does it interact with a user, but it does allow for hands-free calling, texting, e-mailing, etc…

Similar to Siri, Vlingo adjusts to your voice and regular commands over time to become better at understanding what you want it to do. I’ve had very few problems with voice recognition with Vlingo. It almost always chooses the right contact and texts exactly what I tell it to. It doesn’t understand short pauses to accommodate for grammar and punctuation, so you usually have to instruct the app when to insert them by saying, for example, “Can you pick up bread ” or something similar.

It’s great for keeping in touch while on the road, especially now with all the hands-free driving laws.

So, those are three apps that I use regularly that are practical, functional and all in all handy to have around. What are some apps that you can’t live without?