Young MC’s Weblog

Even in today’s blended world of media, communications, technology and social networks, I still don’t have a Facebook or MySpace account—my Blackberry works just fine, thank you. However, you can check out Young MC’s page here.  It seems that I’m part of the rare few who doesn’t have a stream of “friends” or “buddies” somehow linked to me.

Is there such thing as too many friends? Do you actually keep in touch or is it more of a competition to “see whose friend belt has the most notches,” as a recent Newsweek article puts it? The piece explores the psychology behind how we choose friends on MySpace, Facebook, etc. and what exactly the implications are in the decisions we make. Could you use those relationships for your advantage? Advance your career? Or are you just checking out last Saturday night’s photos?

I’m still fascinated by the magnitude and impact that online social networks can have and the evolving role social media plays in today’s communications, marketing and advertising arenas. And with such networks boasting price tags into the billions, the opportunities and function of social media and online communities are limitless.

So we just saw that Capitol Communicator came out with their May issue, and that we were included. This made us feel pretty good.

For those of you who don’t know anything about us, check out the What’s the Deal section. We’re in the midst of planning our June event, so if you’d like to be included send us an email, or just wish really hard and wait for us to call.

Good issue Paul and Phil, we like it.

For all of you folks who fall into the “public relations” category of the communications world, here’s an interesting piece from PRWeek discussing reporters’ practice of blacklisting e-mail addresses from PR pros that they deem to be spam or unwanted.

While some reporters feel publishing such lists will cause other PR professionals to think twice before clicking send on that blast pitch email, Wired.com senior editor Dylan Tweney has a different perspective on the issue:

“…I think most reporters are probably savvy enough and dependent enough on PR folks not to do something like that, because they know they get enough information from that channel – as noisy as that channel is.”

I tend to agree with Tweney. Blacklisting specific email addresses really isn’t the best way to keep from being included in blast pitches–nor is publishing those lists and running the risk of burning any bridges you may have with an agency or professional.  From my experience (and yes, I’ve been asked a few times to “please remove me from this list”), a simple note back asking not to receive such emails in the future will work just fine. And then you can go reprimand the intern who put that media list together!

Again, I’m a little late in posting this article from Business Week but I thought it was a good discussion about the virtual corporate world. As communicators and marketers we are moving closer and closer to having distinct, and different, virtual identities. All the time companies are getting in trouble for posing online as something they are not in real life.

It is interesting that at some point in the near future you could exist professionally as some sort of virtual alter-ego of yourself. Essentially correcting the things you don’t like about your “real” professional visage. Think Jim in The Office when his Second Life character plays guitar. My second life persona could be great in a pitch…even though he wouldn’t ever have to, you know, speak in front of people.

So, in blog land this a relatively old article (3 days!) but I wanted to post it; it’s a Washington Post article about Facebook.

1. Because I know the guy who wrote it and think he’s talented and palatable. 2. Because I think it’s really more about Facebook’s privacy settings than anything else. I find it astonishing, and delightful, that folks haven’t figured out it’s ridiculous to have your privacy settings set-up so that anyone other than friends can see your information. Seriously, can anyone tell me why that’s a good idea and/or the default setting?

My favorite section is how directly after being contacted by the reporter, the settings were changed…a little late in the game.