Changing The Way We Attribute Our Content

A wise person once said to me that nothing is new and everything is an evolution of something that already exists.

There is nothing truer than this sentiment when it comes to the web. Look at the more popular sites and lets use YouTube as an example. How many of the viral/popular videos are parodies or response videos to another popular video? Old Spice Parodies, Sh*t ____ Says and more.  I just watched Kevin Alloca’s Ted talk about Why Videos go Viral and found it fascinating how many viral videos are parodies on parodies of an original viral video and how popular *those* videos are.

The web is filled with individuals who have the ability and the need to take existing content and make  it their own.

But what about the originators of the content? Shouldn’t we credit and acknowledge those that created the original content? Or at least the individual or group that spent time and effort taking existing content that inspired us to put our own spin on it be it a comment,  a tweet, a shared link, a blog post, a pin or a video?

I am a passionate proponent of attributing where you found the content that was shared. If it was important enough for you to share it, comment on it, make a parody of it, then it should also be important to allow your friends/family/visitors to see the originating source. As Maria Popova says in the NY Times article  mentioned below “Discovery of information is a form of intellectual labor. When we don’t honor discovery, we are robbing somebody’s time and labor. “

Today the NY Times wrote an article titled A Code of Conduct for Content Aggregators. The articles highlights examples of content sites that hijack  popular content and re-publish it as their own. What this article fails to mention is that this is the way of the web from the monster content aggregators to the little itty bitty bloggers. Everyone on the web is guilty of taking content  and republishing it as if they were the ones to create it. Part of this issue is not just the actual content but the discovery process.

And here is where The Curator’s Code comes in.  They have created a web browser bookmark that allows you to participate in giving attribution every time you share a link. There are two different icons that you can chose from when sharing a link – one that is considered a “via” link and the other is a “hat tip” or better known as “HT” link.

As per the definition on their site, “via”  indicates a link of direct discovery and “HT” indicates a link of indirect discovery, story lead, or inspiration.

Hopefully this will help stop the endemic issue of taking someone else’s content or shared information and republishing it as  your own.

Earn 1K on the Side: The Briefcase Technique

I have been reading Ravit’s blog for years – I Will Teach You To Be Rich

You Must Tell A Story To Sell A Story

I am a firm believer that in order to sell something (anything), you need to tell a story. By telling a compelling story, you are drawing the audience in.

Here is a video by Beth Comstock, Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of GE: You Have To Tell A Story, Before You Can Sell A Story

Our Survival Depends on Trust

By the Author Simon Sinek who wrote “ Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action”

Sherry Turkle Discusses Technology and Society

Sheryl Turkle, a MIT technology and society specialist and author of Alone Together, presents the impact of technology and how now we are all connected via our devices.. but yet we are still alone. Being online is “easier” than being physically present.

It is an interesting video. Watch.

Twitter.. It will always be Twitter

This morning I was discussing my frustrations with Facebook and Google+ with a friend. Most of my frustrations with Facebook (and who yet knows about Google+) is that it is the same articles, statuses, and posts are regurgitated over and over again. There is a “herd” mentality on FB.

His next question was – doesnt Twitter have the same issues as Facebook (same content appearing over and over) and my answer was – not in my feed.

My Twitter feed is made up of so many different people from all over the world who are interested in a huge variety of topics. I purposefully chose not to just follow people in the high-tech scene. I wanted variety .. I wanted to learn new things and this was the forum do just that.

And the most astonishing conclusion I came to this morning was: I do not have the email addresses for the people who I consider most interesting on the web.

And this is why Facebook and Google+ will never satisfy my needs. I want to connect to strangers, not people I know.

It’s Always Time to Speak Your Mind

Today my friend sent me an article from Wharton titled: One Woman’s Advice to Another -  It’s Always Time to Speak Your Mind

The essence of the article is that women typically do get what they want because they do not ask for what they want.

I can relate to this article as I am sure many of my female contemporaries can as well.

Here is snippet from the article that rang true to me “The book concluded that girls are taught to be others-focused, that women settle for the salary they need rather than fighting for the amount that they are worth, and that women often struggle between being too assertive and not being assertive enough. The book also said that women don’t ask for what they want or feel they deserve because they are fearful they won’t be liked, whereas men perceive asking as a fun and exciting game of strategy with little downside.”

I recommend you read the article in its entirety.

Using Twitter to Generated B2B Leads

Yesterday I spoke at MEGAComm 2011 and shared with the audience the presentation below.  The most important point I need to stress is that using twitter to generate leads is not for every organization in every industry.

RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms

I think that this is an important watch for both parents and future parents growing up in our generation.

As an adult with ADD – I can really relate to this video. I have always stated (unscientifically) that we could probably trace the increase of ADD in my generation to Sesame Street.

Sesame Street was  the first TV show I watched – and it was geared to attract my attention for brief periods of  time and then jump onto another topic keeping me highly engaged.

My main issue with Sesame Street is  that it was my first educational setting and it instilled within me a need for short bursts of information and a hyper stimulated experience to keep me engaged.

This video just emphasizes the enormous divide between student and educator. Educators are not trained to deal with overly stimulated children and  children need to be medicated to focus. Medicated during their formative learning years- does this frighten you like it does me?

Watch. Please.

Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability: What Do Marketers Think?

Excerpt from the King Fish Media report: Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability: What Do Marketers Think?

“The responsibility for creating and maintaining social media falls mainly on the marketing department and in most cases it is an addition an existing job, not a dedicated job function. Only a small minority of companies are outsourcing their social media efforts as they are mostly done internally. When they do outsource it, a freelancer or agency is the likely candidate. ”

Did you know that according to this study, only *9%* of companies have a dedicated full time person working on the company’s social media strategy and activity?

So let me get this straight -  the objective of using social media platforms  (according to this study) is to focus on the relationships  of current customers and lead generation.

Yet only 9% of companies have a dedicated internal person working on strategy and implementation full time? Companies fail to understand that social media implies hiring a web schmoozer who understands the technology, brand and corporate goals. This is not a one way street where you shout out your company message all over the web. These activities mean engagement.  Dialogue. Two way street. You cannot spend 2 hours a day and expect effective relationship building.

I would recommend internal, external and all the “social media guru’s” out there to take a look at this study. Read it.

Please understand that there are people out there that truly understand the power of Social Media and can work with the internal individuals so that their activity is that much more effective with an ROI. But you must be very selective and ignore “buzz” words.

To read the full report you need to register here