Social Media Damage Control

Social media damage control is real. Just ask the clown in charge of Iran right now. His problem is he lives in a world from 30 years ago, but the kids in the street are half his age and 5 times as social media savvy. He will fall...they will take over. I've seen it before. On another front...don't let your company suffer from a social media meltdown. Mashable has a post from:

"Sharlyn Lauby is the president of Internal Talent Management (ITM) which specializes in employee training and human resources consulting. She authors a blog at hrbartender.com." This is worth reading and implementing if you care about the futue of your product, company, employees and the general busines climate going forward.

Search Beyond Google

Search is more than just Google. For proof, check out Venture Beat's article, "Who Rules Real-Time Search? and explore the brave new world of niche search engines (below) that he analyzes.

Scoopler Aggregates and organizes content being shared on the Internet

Topsy A search engine powered by tweets

OneRiot Find the pulse of the Web

Tweetmeme The hottest stories on Twitter

almost.at Following people at real world events in real time

dailyrt The most popular tweets on the Web

twazzup Twitter search plus extras

FriendFeed Share anything online

Twitter Building a brave new world 140 characters at a time

Collecta Real time search engine

Crowdeye Twitter search engine

Violin

Social Media Crisis Communication

Conversations in Public Relations presents Gayle Weiswasser, of TMG Strategies, who outlines six social media steps organizations can use for crisis response planning. It was recorded for the Social Media Club (SMC-DC) on May 20, 2009 by Mary Fletcher Jones. See the full video here. Below is my summary of her comments:

1. Understand the landscape: know who is out there covering you

2. Join the community: bloggers, Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed

3. Use a variety of media: Livefeed, Twitterdeck, email lists, etc.

4. Be prepared to engage: Communicate with your social media contacts regularly so they know you in advance of a crisis

5. Involve your employees: Have many employees trained in social media in advance

6. Put a social media crisis plan in place BEFORE a crisis hits.

Preparing an Emergency Kit

Preparing an Emergncy Kit in Plain English by Common Craft gives a quick look at how to create a very, very, very basic emergency kit (aka a bugout bag). 

Tens of millions of Americans live on flood plains, in hurricaine zones, in earthquake zones, in tornado alleys, fire zones, and in terrorist-targeted cities, suburbs and towns, yet few have a basic emergency kit.  Instead, tens of thousands line up at he hardware and grocery store the day before a disaster strikes in the rush to get emergency supplies, which is a staple of local news stories. Avoid that nightmare. Get it done BEFORE the disaster. Take the simple steps shown in this Common Craft video and you and your family will be better prepared. 

Idiot's Guide to Disaster's

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Disaster Preparedness

Dr. Maurice A. Ramirez and John Hedke

This book is not yet out, but keep an eye out for it. Why? Dr. Ramirez has decades of experience and takes a practical and comprehensive approach, i.e. that all disasters have common elements, and are more common than we think so we should all have the tools to deal with them. Hear a podcast inteview with the author here.

Here is the book blurb: "Both natural and man-made disasters seem to occur with greater frequency. While these disasters can be devastating, the vast majority of casualties are caused by a lack of preparation. The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Disaster Preparedness teaches readers the right steps to prepare the home or office for a disaster, and about issues relating to insurance, evacuation plans, and building an emergency to-go pack."

Twitter Lists, Resources and How-To

This mashable Twitter List is worth a look. Click this link to find a "mashable" of Twitter tools, lists, resources, how-to posts. Twister is mutating faster than anyone can keep up with it, but at least this mashable Twitter list gives you a few avenues to drive down, wave, smile, and say, "Ah...I get it now!" 

Michael Hyatt's Twitter Dee-Twitter Dum

Twitter-Dee, Twitter Dum, 12 Reasons to Start Twittering,  Beginner's Guide to Twitter, and How to Attach Photo's to your Twitter Posts by Michael Hyatt are quick, concise descriptions of how to get the most from Twitter for beginners. 

He helps answer the two question I always get when I give talks about Twitter: "What is Twitter?" and "But how can I use it?"

I highly recommend his posts to answer those questions. 

Michael Hyatt is CEO of Nelson Publishing and has an interesting blog. For example, his Twitter bio states CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, avid blogger, husband of one wife, father of five daughters.  Great stuff, that...

Calacanis has $50,000 for your Startup

Jason Calacanis and TechCruch offer $50,000 to jump start your company at TechCrunch50 Conference 2009. Jason gives detals below.

"Topic: Launching your company at TechCrunch50 (or an event) 

When: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco, CA

Disclaimer: This is somewhat self-promotional, but 

heartfelt. Skip it if you're not launching a company/not interested in TechCrunch50. :-)

I want you to launch your new company at TechCrunch50 this September in San Francisco. Not only that, I want you to win the competition and take down the $50,000 grand prize! For background, the TechCrunch50 event is a conference where 50 companies demo their new product or service on stage for eight minutes before a panel of industry experts. It's basically "American Idol" or "Britain's Got Talent" for startup companies.
The conference was started two-and-a-half years ago over a steak dinner with Michael Arrington, the editor of TechCrunch, tech pundit Steve Gillmor and me. While eating far too much red meat, I explained to Mike that, during my Silicon Alley Reporter days, our business was largely based on conferences. A TechCrunch conference was guaranteed to be a hit. Mike wasn't sure, but Steve Gillmor was. Steve pushed us to collaborate on an event, and I suggested that we do something to help entrepreneurs break out. A DEMO-style conference, only without what I call DEMO's $18,500 "conference payola" charge.  I offered, "what if the winner got a $25,000 prize?" In classic Mike Arrington style, he responded "let's double it to $50,000."Any two or three people with six weeks on their hands could build a demo that knocks our socks off. It really is that simple: two to five folks busting their butts for a couple of weeks to make something that solves a big problem and is well executed (but doesn't need to be complete). If you get into the event, you're guaranteed to get countless meetings with venture capitalists and the press. If your product and business plan are solid, and you've got a decent team, you're going to get

 funding. Period. Almost all of the companies in the event for the past two years have raised money. Some of them have raised a LOT of money.

Of course, many folks have tanked--that's the nature of startups. However, your entire live could change by buckling down for two months and making something that knocks our socks off, enabling

 you to get on that stage and knock the socks off the rest of the world. We don't care wh

o you are, where you're from or who you know. We only care about how frackin' cool your work is and that you get your application in by June 30th.TechCrunch50 is a meritocracy in which you're not qualified by being able to pay a ransom in payola or because you know the right person. You're

 going to get into TechCrunch50 because you've got a KILLER IDEA and KILLER EXECUTION. Period. You can do it. You know you want to do it. The only question is WILL YOU DO IT!?!?!? 

Jason mailing list

Jason@binhost.com

https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/jason

If you want to attend, you can buy one of the half-price "recession busting" tickets that are only $995 and which are almost sold

 out: http://www.techcrunch50.com/2009/blog/get-tickets/"

Free Web 2.0 Tools for Emergency Workers

The Journal of Civil Defense, published by The American Civil Defense Association, just published an article I sent them two years ago, Free Web Safety & Emergency Tools. Hightlights follow:

What is not addressed in the current discussion of the new “social media” (Twitter, qik Modulus, and dozens of others) is how useful they can be for preparing for, responding to, recovering from, and mitigating emergencies. Here I present four I use that may also be useful to you.

Twitter – www.twitter.com

Twitter is quick way to update others about your current situation. It is a free, social network (known as ‘micro-blogging”) service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service, instant messaging, or a third-party application (such as Twitterrific).updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery of each post.

You can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application. For SMS, four gateway numbers are currently available: short codes for the USA, Canada, and India, as well as a UK number for international use

Mogulus – www.mogulus.com 

Broadcast live via your own TV station twenty-four hours a day…free. You register with Mogulus and they give you software that allows you to create a television show. You are the producer. You can load in existing emergency management videos and you and your staff can watch them at any time. Or, you create your own videos with a digital camera, load them onto your Mogulus TV channel, and create a TV show. 

Most useful to emergency managers is that you can video a table top exercise or a disaster scene and watch it over and over to learn from it. Anytime you want…anywhere you want…as long as a computer is available. You can watch it from home, on the road, at work, while traveling, or in your boss’s office. It is a very powerful tool that is easy to learn and use. Imagine…you can collaborate with your co-workers, your manager, or another in your profession who is 3,000 miles away or even in another country. 

Qik - www.qik.com 

Their tag line is “from your phone to the world” and they mean it. Basically, you download their software and use it to go live with your life by using your phone camera to broadcast video. Think about it. You are at a fire, a chemical spill, or a flood and you use your cell phone camera like a camcorder to stream it live for many hours without using the storage capacity of your cell phone. 

Currently, qik supports video streaming on Nokia S60 phones: N71, N73, N75, N76, N77, N80, N91, N92, N93i, N95, E50, E51, E61i, E65, E70m E90 Communicator, 3250, 5500, 5700 Xpress Music, 6110 Navigator, 6120 Classic, 6121 Classic, and 6290. Qik is currently developing support for other cell phones. 

Emergency Email and Wireless Network - http://emergencyemail.org/ 

The Emergency Email and Wireless Network provides free email, cell phone and pager emergency notification. Local, regional and national government agencies will update you on breaking weather, disaster or emergency information. 

Registration is simple:

1. Go to their website.
2. Click your state from a list.
3. Add your email address.
4. Repeat for other states (if desired). 

Emergencyemail also provides radar maps, airport closings and delays, and other notification services. They have been providing these services since 1999. I have been getting notifications from them for several years. They are always ahead of the media and the local weather channel by at least a few hours. All these social media tools are even more powerful when used together. Robert Scoble has coined a term, “Social Media Starfish” to explain how. His link below explains it. 

http://www.fastcompany.com/multimedia/2007/12/building-a-political-starfish.html 

Even though Scoble explains how the social media starfish applies to political and business organizations, the same principals apply to emergency management organizations. The new social media will revolutionize your work world. If you don’t see it yet, talk to your younger members.

Twitterjobsearch - Find a Great Job

Twitterjobsearch  provides job leads that are current, real, and easy to apply for. 

When I entered "technical writer" in the job search engine, I received 104 hits back. The great part is that these hits were all relevant. They display in the infamous 140 character Twitter way. 

When the job hits display, each one offers three options:

view job - click to go to the position listing for details
retweet - click to go to your Twitter page and retweet it to others
follow - click to follow the job posting as you would follow another twitterer. Good job hunting, God Bless You in your search, and may you find a great job!

What's Your Digital Footprint?

Understand the business use of Twitter: view this Debbie Weil social media SlideShare Presentation:

What's Your Digital Footprint?

View more presentations from Debbie Weil.