Taking Advantage of Social Networking for Good and Bad

A recent event involving copyright infringement elicited a flurry of social networking activity, illustrating the power of the online community to promptly deliver a tenacious response to any transgressor. Even though it was the openness of the web that gave rise to the problem in the first place, that same transparency then allowed for immediate feedback that sought to right a wrong.

The issue at hand: A contributor to a CBS-run website, Smart Planet, wrote a blog about healthcare. To illustrate his essay, author Dana Blankenhorn pulled an image called Big Mother, which was originally produced by artist Chris Buzelli for Boston Magazine. Buzelli was outraged that somebody else would repurpose an original piece of art without offering compensation or asking permission.

Buzelli commented on Blankenhorn’s article, asking him to remove the image. Blankenhorn did so, but not without chastising the artist: “This idea that one must gain permission before doing what comes naturally on the Web has to end. You have the tools to stop it. Use them.”

That did not sit well with Buzelli. He put out a call to his fellow artists, and they quickly hijacked the comments’ section of the offending author’s blog post. Dozens of comments poured in, turning what was intended to be a conversation about the new healthcare reform into a heated discussion about copyright laws and artists’ rights. The comments showed no mercy. “Your views on copyright are appalling,” one contributor wrote. “You are a thief,” another said.

The Internet has blurred the line of who owns what, leading many artists to fear their work will be disseminated illegitimately without credit or compensation. Blankenhorn is not alone in his view that it’s the artist’s responsibility to make sure his work doesn’t get stolen, and that web users have free rein to redistribute anything they find online.

But the openness of the Internet, while threatening in a way, has also ushered in a new level of transparency and accountability to those who make poor decisions. In this case, the “offender” was forced to answer to the community at large – in a public online forum.

When something like this occurs, word spreads quickly and self-policing begins. If the action doesn’t get corrected, the offending party will at least find himself unable to hide from the ridicule he incurs. If you commit a mistake, everybody sees it and lets you know. To their credit, the author and CBS haven’t removed the huge number of mostly negative comments posted. The amount of feedback on Blankenhorn’s blog is large and visible. He attempted to respond with another article that specifically addressed the issue of copyrighted images online, but that only produced more outrage, and the increasingly angry readers following the story again blitzed the comments’ section with negative feedback.

This visible, publicly accessible record of the conversation unfolding is unique to this world of social networking. By making the decision to use somebody’s original artwork without permission or compensation, Blankenhorn taught the online world a lesson: If you take advantage of the freedom of the Internet, it just might turn around and take advantage of you.

Illustration: Jake Sproul (Please don’t steal it)

The tricks of the trade for keeping your accounts organized.

Many companies often discover that to keep up with their audience they have to subscribe to a variety of social networks. Often they find it hard to navigate between the various social sites. which invariably results in one site being favoured over the others — leaving the other deserted.
Success in social networking is found through consistent usage of the medium. How is it possible to effectively manage all of these social networks?

One trick is to leverage the flexibility of some social networks by linking them together. Facebook is an extremely useful social site not for its popularity, but for the fact that it can be linked to a number of other social networks. For example, by linking your Twitter or Plurk accounts to your Facebook profile, every time you tweet your Facebook status will automatically be updated. Also, blog articles can automatically be published as notes on your Facebook page.

Another trick is to employ the use of a social networking aggregator — a program or web application that streams all of your social networking accounts into one user interface. Aggregators such as Spokeo or NutshellMail give you the ability to monitor the conversations of multiple networks and effectively maintain a relationship with your audience.

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Got a new project in mind? Drop us a line at hello@aardvarkdesign.com. We would be honored to speak with you.

]]> http://aardvarkdesign.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/weve-been-a-bit-busy-heres-a-look-at-what-weve-been-up-to/feed/ 0 aardvarkdesign http://aardvarkdesign.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/originality-is-dead%e2%80%a6hey-i-was-gonna-say-that/ http://aardvarkdesign.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/originality-is-dead%e2%80%a6hey-i-was-gonna-say-that/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:20:10 +0000 aardvarkdesign http://aardvarkdesign.wordpress.com/?p=51 ]]> The difference between being an original and an effective thinker.

I’ve been picking my brain all week and I’ve finally come up with a kick-ass concept for a marketing campaign. With great bravado, I show it to one of my co-workers looking for the level of admiration given off by a religious zealot. “Oh yeah. That’s just like that ad campaign that [insert your favorite brand here] ran last year.” Five minutes later I awoke from my shock induced coma, slough-fully returned to what I thought was my drawing board, but apparently is a scrapbook of other people’s ideas, and tried to keep my shoelaces in their rightful places.

Now-a-days you have a higher chance of winning the lottery than coming up with an truly original idea. That said, we as designers have had to come up with a way to cope with our near impossibility of being original.

Instead of striving for original ideas, we embrace the materials that subconsciously make up our thought process. Anything that we have come in contact with – old movies, music, literature, ad campaigns, a high school lecture – we internally reference during our bouts of creative development. The result is well-informed concepts that aren’t independent from our inspirations, but rather created by them, filtered through our personality, and squeezed into effective ideas.

Related Reading
George Lois on His Creation of the Big Idea

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We’ve all seen a YouTube video seemingly out of place on another website. Staring us in the face with a big, fat YouTube watermark. “Why would someone promote YouTube on their own site?” I never understood why some would use another company to display content.  That being said, I can say that I have recently become an advocate for sharing web content and embracing the power of the all-mighty watermark.

The reality is that the ability to share content between a number of social networks is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to leverage online marketing. In fact, by reading this article you’re making my point. Whether you are reading this on our blog or our company facebook page, I am using one piece of content to populate two different channels. By doing so, I am doubling my company’s exposure and reaching a much larger population of readers.

Along with sharing your own content there are many benefits to sharing other peoples content in your social outlets. First of all it gives you creditability. Sharing other peoples content demonstrates that you are active in your field and often read other blogs, watch videos, and visit websites that have the same views as you. This ability to collaborate with others is the foundation of social web. Second, it saves time and money. If you can’t say it better than someone else, why try. Endorsing the work of another author saves you the useless time of paraphrasing. Conversely, when you create a great piece of content, being endorsed by another individual gives you highly-praised exposure to a whole new audience.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: Use the share link in our sidebar to share this article within your favorite social networks.

Plan Ahead – What sets your business apart? What are your top goals for the exhibition? How long does it take to print 200 tri-folds and 500 white papers? Where’s your booth? If you haven’t started to think about your strategy for the exhibition, START NOW! You should always be thinking about what will give you a competitive edge. Remember once you have an initial idea, the necessary time that it takes to critique and refine your strategy is invaluable and the more the better. Remember once you have a solid exhibiting strategy you also need TIME to produce all the supplementary materials. Allowing your company the adequate time for planning and production will yield the most promising exhibition experience.

Promote your Presence – Let people know that you’ll be there. Your commitment to exhibiting is important and must be promoted. Tell your clients, friends, prospects, and colleagues. Pre-event marketing, whether it be online or in print is a great way to draw attention to your booth. People are most likely check out a display that already has a crowd, don’t be afraid to better your odds and hopefully get the ball rolling.

Look Professional – Meaning look the part. Remember that you are the best person to endorse your brand. Also make sure that any supporting elements are well made and give of a professional image. More stuff in your booth (i.e. elaborate lighting, curved walls, or HD displays) doesn’t make you look better if people mistake your toothpaste company for the latest home theater experts and you ran out of money to have a take-away printed for your visitors.

Cl+hear Mess +age+N – Clear and concise messaging is one of the most important factors in a profitable trade-show experience. Trade shows are the business equivalent of speed dating. You have to exhibit your company’s value immediately and clearly in order to reach the highest number of prospects. It is also important to remember that this is a mostly visual message. Your display is the first impression for potential visitors. Make sure it’s sending the right message.

Channel James Dean – Being authentic will go a long way in communicating with prospective clients. The biggest danger is over-selling. Having actual conversations about common interests disarms visitors and takes them away from the land of used car salesmen. The booth is there to display your product; you are there to display the company. More important than moving product in an exhibition based environment, is fostering potential business relationships.

Relax and take a step back. We’re not trying to write the Social Networking bible according to Aardvark. In fact, it’s already been written by thousands of other organizations that have “unlocked the mystery of Social Web”, trust us, we’ve read them. We’d rather hear what you have to say.

Do you have a question about that “thing” everyone is talking about?  Have you stumbled through whitepapers and PDF downloads and come out of the mess with 6 Facebook accounts, 27 blogs and a Flickr account full of photos from your last trip to Wally World? Don’t worry we’re willing to help and it’s also not as daunting as it may seem. If you’re reading this, you have already walked face first into Social Web.

Take the next step.  Post your biggest social web conundrum  (click on the word below this article called “comments” with that little hand) and we’ll make your marketing headache disappear.

If you are an agoraphobic and the idea of receiving a response has you reaching for you keyboard disinfectant. Here are some links to our favorite PDF downloads that may already be making a mess of your desktop.

Glossary of Social Web Terms
What is Social Media courtesy of iCrossing

The economy was front and center at this year’s Providence Business Expo. Or at least it was foremost on everyone’s mind. And the headlines didn’t offer much hope either. Even speakers mentioned it by name — yes, recession.

Yet there was a certain buzz about the crowd. Not a bad-buzz per say (for the most part anyway). Actually, quite the opposite. It seemed that fellow businesses weren’t too interested in sitting on the sidelines. For some, it was business-as-usual. For others, even a bit of defiant.

Either way, it was a boost. Especially given the fact that we spent two days talking to seemingly hundreds of different companies about the advantages of marketing in a down economy. And we pressed that despite the bleak economic outlook, there are still tremendous opportunities to be had— with the right design and marketing solutions of course.

So how did it go? Guess only time — and you — may tell.

Share your take with us. How’s it affecting your business? Please join the conversation.