Wolfserial

Favorite moments at The Observer

2009-11-05T05:01:00.000-08:00

I've been a columnist at The Observer since 2002, and Friday is my last day as I move on to pursue social media entrepreneurship. I've had many great experiences, from making friends with a hitman to meeting a president and Nobel Prize winner. Mostly, I've enjoyed connecting with all of you, which I will do now even more than ever in person and on social media. With great gratitude to Charlotte and The Observer, here are some of my favorite times.

Almost being kissed by movie and TV star Bonnie Hunt, who misunderstood her handlers' instructions in posing for a photo with me for my column. "How's your breath?" she asked me. "Oh, you're fine." Then she put her arms around me. That was fun.
Making friends with Michael Fitzsimmon, who was hired by a drug gang to kill crusading pastor Barbara Cameron, but heard her preach, found God, did his time, and went straight. "How many people did you kill?" I asked him. To which he ominously replied, "Let's put it this way: I could take care of anything you needed done."
Meeting Bill Clinton, Toni Morrison, Michael Jordan. Jeff Gordon, Steve Smith, Tony Bennett, Elvis Costello, Pete Sampras, Ken Lewis and Ric Flair.
Surviving for a week on nothing but Christmas party food.
Performing in Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus as a clown, and walking backstage next to unicyclists juggling and enormous, swaying elephants. Circus women are the sexiest women on the planet. Bar none.
Having "the Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan, tell me: Every dog needs to know its job. People, too.
Having Andie McDowell tell me: Beautiful women should never sell themselves short and trade on their looks, even if they sacrifice their careers.
Walking down the street with former hoops star Muggsy Bogues, who is so beloved in Charlotte that everyone greets him by name.

Living in Concord Mills mall for four days without leaving over the Thanksgiving weekend, and telling Sheri Lynch on the air: To quote the name of one of these stores, I need a Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Having a Harlequin Romance villain based on me, and giving the author a tour of my apartment, where she asked the details of my sex life.
Driving the 500-horsepower Ford Shelby Mustang.
Going 115 mph around a NASCAR track.
Writing with Tommy Tomlinson, Tom Sorensen, Sarah Aarthun, Jim Morrill, Karen Garloch, Eric Frazier, Ames Alexander, Scott Fowler, Peter St. Onge, Liz Chandler, and many other scribes.
Sneaking backstage at the Rolling Stones. An arena executive told me: "That's the door to backstage. Under no circumstances do I want you to go back there. ... I'll be over here."
Testing the new super-sticky Post-It note by putting it on the belly of an exotic dancer and having her undulate.
Blowing my bit part in the Broadway show "The Wedding Singer."
Listening to Tony Bennett sing "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" a capella with no microphone in the McGlohon Theater from five feet away.
Talking female body parts with "Vagina Monologues" author Eve Ensler.
Having Hugh McColl point out the changes he made to uptown Charlotte looking out the windows of his offices in the sky at the BofA tower.
Watching NASCAR team owner Felix Sabates bid $2 million at a charity auction for Super Bowl tickets, and then, when I asked him who was taking, saying: "I'm not going. I hate the Super Bowl!"
Breaking a story from the National Institutes of Health on how stress is reconfiguring American brains to be more prone to depression, which has devastated the lives of people I love.

Watching my coworkers at The Charlotte Observer file faithfully in, one after another to work on the morning after the ice storm in December of 2002. As much of the state huddled in their dark homes, waiting for conditions to improve, our staff suited up and showed up to get people news they badly needed. Every Election Day, every Christmas eve, every rainy Sunday night in February when most people are at home, the people of my paper come through, 365, year after year. Of that I am fiercely proud, forever respectful, and profoundly moved.

Foxx vs. Lassiter on Facebook

2009-11-03T08:51:00.000-08:00

It's a Facebook election, with pictures and enthusiastic encouragement posted for the mayoral candidates' friends to see and comment on. This lends a bit of a smalltown feel to the mayoral race online, as if Republican John Lassiter and Democrat Anthony Foxx were running for high school class president, not for the mayor's seat of the nation's 19th largest city.

I just did a TV spot with Stuart Watson of WCNC NewsChannel 36 on social media and the mayoral race. It will be on tonight's newscast at 5:45. Here's what we talked about, primarily how the mayoral race breaks down on Facebook, the platform each uses the most.

Foxx has a bigger following, and a younger, more active approach. The Democrat has more than 3,300 friends, contrasted with Lassiter's nearly 1,200. The Democrat also has a "group" of more than 1,200, while Lassiter's only group is just 154. In what could be an age difference, Foxx plays more on Facebook: He's a fan of Stephen Curry, who starred at basketball at Foxx's alma mater of Davidson. And he's a fan of jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. He's more active, and relaxed.

This participation seems to pay off for Foxx: Fifty friends responded on Facebook to get get-out-the-vote post this morning. Just 10 of Lassiter's did. That community spreads out to each of that person's friends. And that can add up.

One interesting note about Lassiter on Facebook: He lists his cell phone number. So friends get access to that. When WCNC's Watson called it, Lassiter picked up.

As a Facebook friend of both, I created a friends list with just them on it, which allows me to isolate and compare their posts. Politicians often want friends during a campaign, so friending two opponents and checking them out this way can be illuminating.

Will these guys bail on Facebook tomorrow? Something tells me they'll be a little less active after the election. (Just a hunch.) But Foxx is invested there. And win or lose, a populist candidate benefits from the personal touch. As a more corporate guy, Lassiter might indeed back off some.

Also, I created a mayoral race list on Twitter, so you can compare the candidates' tweets. You don't have to be friends or be followed by them to see that.

A ghost story

2009-10-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today, I wrote a fun front-page story about ghost hunting in the middle of the night in one of Charlotte's oldest houses. But I did not tell the entire truth, and never have. Until now.

The entire published story appears below. At the time, the most unusual thing about the story was that I filmed a video of objects moving inside the historic Rosedale Plantation home. That was an amazing thing to witness, and I remain convinced it was in no way a trick. But in the time since that latenight phenomenon, other things have transpired, things that have made a much more startling impression upon me. For reasons you are about to discover, I have never spoken about this.

It all began happily on a crisp fall day that seemed impossibly innocent and light. I was sitting at my desk that October afternoon in 2006, when I received a phone call from someone telling me something fun: Things were moving inside the Rosedale house near NoDa, which was built in 1815. I'm a newspaper columnist, and, sensing a Darren McGavin "Nightstalker" story, I jumped at the chance to investigate.

A crew of us assembled to investigate: A docent of the plantation, a writer about ghosts, a psychic, a couple who like to chronicle such things, and myself. We met at a nearby pizza place late that night. The docent told us there was rumored to be a ghost named Cherry in the home, a woman who had run the kitchen, and that she was beckoning someone for help. Something horrible had happened to innocent children on the top floor of the house, it was said. Cherry wanted help to set those children's souls free.

We grabbed our flashlights, and headed into the darkness.

We walked past the outline of a faded corral, up the cold steps, and into the darkest place I have ever been.

The small door of the large, empty home swallowed us in.

There was, of course, no electricity in the house, and we huddled together so that we comically bumped along like the cartoon cast of "Scooby-Doo." The old wooden floors creaked beneath us, and our shoes scratched along in the dust until I began to believe that the familiar tingling along my spine had always been there, and always would follow right behind me, from now on, a chill that had attached itself permanently to me.

Up the steps, to the top floor we climbed, closer to a low ceiling that pressed down upon us, pushing us into a presence that contracted my chest and widened my eyes. In the top room, where the children were, where the horrible crime took place, we felt a numbing headache, all of us, as though a great bell were ringing. In the corner: A dense black hole splashed into the room, a crawlspace that emitted such pain, I could not look into it. My throat seemed to echo a moan in the air. I was so oppressed by this that I gasped that I needed to leave. It was not so much fear that caused me to flee as a kind of pressure, the sheer force of 200-year-old crime never reckoned, of innocence tormented and brutalized, and a sustained despair with nowhere to turn.

I stumbled down the stairs, dizzy and fraught with the stunning torment above me, and my cohorts followed me down into the kitchen -- where we found ... comfort.

Kindness, even. A feeling of love. Cherry was here, the psychic told us. She was glad to see us. She had called us here, to help the children.

Then the psychic absolutely stunned me by asking something: Would I like some proof of Cherry's presence? If so, Cherry was happy to provide it. Yes, I said. I want her to move something, as has been rumored. Very well, the psychic responded. What?

Herbs hung from the ceiling in large bunches. Move those, I said. And I watched as the herbs, which had been still, twisted in the air. Now this one, I said. But turn them this way. Now this one, but not that one. Every request I made was met. And I caught it on video.

The psychic climbed the stairs again into the top room, to relieve that centuries-old burden, and free souls both tragically young and terrifyingly old. She performed a rite, burning herbs and throwing open the windows, and I can sincerely report that the pain in the top room seemed pacified. There was relief.

We said goodbye to Cherry's presence, who seemed grateful and even more kind. And we left.

I went into work the next day and told my editor I did not want to write the story. Why, she asked. Because I believe I saw ghosts. And I have a video. That's not the kind of thing a newspaper reports.

The features editor disagreed: That's exactly what a newspaper reports, in a tongue-in-cheek way, on Halloween. On Halloween, everyone knows, or should know, not to take a scary story too seriously. The story ran on the front page. The video of the herbs twisting in the air received hundreds of hits.

All of this you can read below, from The Observer archives. The video, sadly, has been lost.

But there is something you can't read there. There is something from that house that I have not revealed, and that has traveled from that blackest crawlspace into me and as a part of me since that time. That tingling energy unexplained, and uncontrolled, marshaled not by laws or men, which climbs my spine and will not release me.

I know what that is. I have known since that night.

The story was published. Readers joked with me about it. Thanksgiving came and went.

Six weeks after that night I received a phone call from an unfamiliar number. On the other end of the line was Catherine C., the psychic who led us that night. I do not know how she got my number, yet I was not surprised to hear from her. C. was no kook; she was calling from Detroit, where she'd flown to help a Fortune 500 auto company (they had those in 2006). A top executive needed to make a decision, and was struggling to get in touch with his intuition after all the reports and analysis.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," she said. "With your experience." Her voice in my ear stopped me from what I was doing, and I struggled to swallow. "You don't have to be alone with it. You should be flattered that they came to you."

"I know they won't hurt me," I said.

"They won't," she agreed. "I knew that you saw them. Why didn't you talk to me about them?"

I did not know what to say. "I can always feel them," I told her. "They come to me anytime." A tingling chill at my side. An unstoppable energy that flutters through me and won't let me be.

"They like you," she said. "They do."

"I know," I said. "I know."

C. has checked in on me again, several times, and I appreciate that. I have grown accustomed to the added buzz of the companions at my side.

But on murky autumn nights, when we play at ghosts, when shrieking and laughter dispel any respect for the unearthly, when all is a joke, and you cannot see what is more than real, I do feel fear. Not of the friends I made that night. They will never hurt me. When I watch you pretend, I see my friends again, and I fear what they could do. They do like me.

But I am afraid you will soon discover that they do not like you.

A HALLOWEEN GHOST STORY
SADNESS PERVADES THE DARK QUIET, THEN LIFTS WITH THE SCENT OF AN ABSENT FLOWER. SILLY, SPOOKY IMAGININGS - OR SIGNS OF AN UNSEEN POWER?

Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Section: MAIN
Edition: THREE
Page: 1A
JEFF ELDER, JELDER@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM

On these autumn nights, as branches claw the moonlit sky

and leaves scrape the cold sidewalk,

do you ever feel the looming of a quiet presence?
Even the most reasonable among us can shiver

when a steely chill scurries up the spine.

You must come to where the spirits linger to feel them

tingle in your bones. Into a Charlotte house built in 1815, where

sadness dwelled, and slaves were kept. Into the dark. Into your fear.

I got a call last week from my friend Debby, who mentioned there'd been ghost sightings at Historic Rosedale in NoDa. I called Andrew King, a member of the board of the old plantation, and asked if I could visit the house. He arranged for a Charlotte intuitive (many dislike the term psychic), Catherine Crabtree, to come along. Stephanie Burt Williams, the author of "Ghost Stories Of Charlotte And Mecklenburg County" and "Wicked Charlotte," happened to be available. Radio personality Anthony Michaels from 107.9 the Link, and his wife, Melissa, also came along.

At 11:30 p.m., we drove through the gates and up to the old white house on North Tryon Street, where three stories of dark windows peer over the deserted grounds.

We huddled on the porch as King unlocked the door. "Are you ready?" he asked. "Let's just all stay together."

Inside it was dark and cold. Most of the house doesn't have electricity. We all followed the path of King's small flashlight.

There was a hollow darkness at the top of the stairs. A void into which we climbed. On the top floor was a schoolroom with slates set out on benches.

Slave children had sometimes been taught here - which was against the law. But children also had been treated badly, Crabtree said. "You can feel the heavy sadness."

"I have a headache," said Williams, the author. We all did. It was stuffy, confining.

In the corner was a crawlspace. A small double door opened out. Inside was a despairing depth of black.

"There is such sadness in there," whispered the intuitive.

"Yes, you can feel it," said King. "Like a moan."

"I want to go," said Williams.

"So do I," Anthony Michaels said.

Our heads throbbing, we descended the stairs. But we were met with the oddest thing:

The smell of jasmine. A light, floral fragrance that hadn't been there when we went upstairs, and there was no jasmine to be seen.

"That's not unusual," Crabtree said. "Someone may be trying to comfort us. Because of upstairs."

We had one more room to visit. In the white-walled basement is the old house's kitchen. It is a warm room, where generations of meals were cooked. Here slave women cared for children, black and white.

"Cherry's here," said the intuitive. Historical documents show that Cherry was a slave woman, a nursemaid who helped run the house for decades. As much as anyone, she cared for Rosedale.

"What would you like as documentation of her presence?" Crabtree stunned me by asking.

I didn't know what to ask for.

King was at the ghost sighting I'd been called about a few days earlier. He said, "The bunches of herbs hanging from the ceiling turned last week. Ask her if she will do that again."

"Can we have the herbs move, please?" Crabtree asked. A large bunch of rosemary turned, slowly, but quite noticeably.

"What about this one?" I asked. The rosemary stopped moving, and a different bunch of herbs turned. The others bunches of herbs were still.

To see the herbs turn, go to charlotte.com, click on Charlotte.com/news

"Why is she here?" the author asked.

"Cherry wants the house to be well taken care of. She's cared for it for a long time. And she would like the children in the attic to be freed."

Crabtree climbed the dark stairs back up to the attic, and burned sage in a large clay saucer. She closed her eyes and told the children it was OK for them to leave. And, she said, they did.

"A huge whoosh of pain seemed to flow up and out of the house," she said.

The intuitive suggested that was it: The reason we'd been called.

"Will Cherry leave now?" Williams, the author, asked.

"Cherry would like to stay a little longer," the intuitive said. "She loves this house. She likes it when other people do, too."

That night I returned home with a tingle inside: A feeling that I was not alone.

I stretched out on my bed, and slept better than I had in months.

Jonathan Woodlief, 14, leads Facebook revolt

2009-10-29T03:44:00.000-07:00

Nearly a million and a half angry Facebook users are protesting recent changes to the Web site. The leader of the furious online mob? A smiling eighth-grader from Apex who wears his baseball cap backwards and likes to play FarmVille.

His parents were not aware of this.

“He's doing what on Facebook?” asked Jonathan Woodlief's father when the Observer called their home near Raleigh on Tuesday night. Then David Woodlief and his wife, Claire, got Jonathan, 14, out of bed. He came downstairs and explained just how he happened to become the leader of one of the fastest-growing viral movements online. The group was booming by more than 100 new members a minute on Wednesday.

Adding a twist, Jonathan Woodlief just happens to be a dead-ringer for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, another social media whiz kid, who is only 11 years older than Jonathan.

Jonathan is the administrator of the Facebook group CHANGE FACEBOOK BACK TO NORMAL!!, which has exploded over the past six days in response to unpopular changes the site made to its News Feed feature. The feed now shows only those friends Facebook deems “important” to you.

Maybe innocence helps a cause. Jonathan added a note to the side of the group page that reads:

Lets try and get 10,000,000 people to join! :)

Jonathan did not start the group, but joined it a day after it was started because he dislikes the changes. Poking around on the page, he noticed that the group had no administrator, the person who configures the page, allows posts, and makes rules for the group. Believing in the cause – and perhaps sensing an opportunity – “I clicked a button to make myself the admin, and that was it,” he says. Since then he's been inundated with messages and friend requests from around the world.

“We had no idea,” David Woodlief said after the situation became more clear. “He's a smart kid.”

How Twitter is about to botch retweets

2009-10-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

Project Retweet is set to roll out, and it's gonna be ugly.

In the next few weeks, Twitter will add a streamlined retweet function that you can click on, as when you reply to a tweet. You just click a button and the retweet is added to your stream, and your icon is added to a little gallery of other people who've retweeted it. (See the mockup provided by Twitter, above.)

The really bad news: You can't add a comment to a retweet -- and the commentary of why you're retweeting something has been a major part of Twitter's group conversation.

The new retweet will be strictly a thumbs-up, like clicking "Like" on Facebook.

Twitter has always been snarkier and more opinionated than Facebook. Retweets are a way of furthering the conversation by adding your thoughts. When you pass something along, you like to say why you're passing it along. You might even be retweeting to argue against the tweet, or to differ on part of it.

Sorry, Twitter: I'm not clicking Like. (You can manually retweet the old way, of course.)

Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times missed this point in a story today mentioning Project Retweet. In a glowing company profile, the NYT stressed how much Twitter lets users guide development. But there has already been significant discussion on Twitter about what a fundamental misunderstanding of Twitter's user interface this is.

The good news? You can now retweet longer tweets, because you don't have to add the RT and name of the tweeter. And you can't fake retweet someone, by making it look as though someone else said something ridiculous, and you're just passing this along.

(Although I have seen that done with hilarious results.)

Why Faceberg has its pitchforks out

2009-10-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

In Faceberg, the people are up in arms over the new, improved Newsfeed, which seems to choose for us what we see about our friends. The goal is to help filter the "social utility," and the New York Times writes a jaw-stroking think piece about how it represents an important new direction online. Hmmmmm...

That hasn't stopped 700,000 people from joining groups -- in just the past three days -- protesting the change. The biggest affront? Facebook only allows the 250 friends it deems most important to you (algarythmically, of course) to be listed in the feed. After that, the filtering philosophy says, you don't really care. (NYT glosses over this point.) Here's a link explaining how to remedy this.

Do people care in Charlotte? Uh, yeah. I posted two items about the changes on my wall and received more than 40 responses in two days. (And remember, only 250 of my closest friends could see this, at least when clicked on the new, default Newsfeed.)

Over on Twitter, everyone's favorite annoying little bird has been crowing about its new searchability, thanks to Bing, the greatest search engine no one uses. (And, apparently by design, a very economical porn search engine.) Google is huffing and puffing its way up behind the Bing deal, and all this was announced at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, where there was so much tweeting about tweeting that 50 tweets simply announced Twitter CEO Evan Williams was taking the stage.

Here's just a really radical idea: Why don't you guys stop twisting the dials long enough to make a little money? I agree with the NYT that filtering is the next big thing in cyber-communications. But Facebook friends lists, the simple way to filter that most users won't take the time to set up, does this pretty well.

Over here in the cobwebbed corner of what my friend Andria Krewson calls "legacy media," we do something pretty well: Hit people's seasonal needs. Halloween is Saturday. Facebook is the biggest photo-sharing system in the world. How'sabout a cheap way to share via family, age groups around the country, topics of costumes, with a paying prize for best costumes? Thanksgiving will be big-time photo sharing on Thanksgiving. What about a nonprofit tie, or a way to support the troops? Christmas might have a few Facebook and Twitter holiday e-card possibilities. Hello?

Twitter is already searchable. Sure, incorporating tweets into search engines is intriguing for all its possibilities. But let's work on some standardized hashtags first. And I want to get updates on my NCAA bracket this year, telling me exactly where I stand after each game. I want Election Night tweets that aren't all over the map.

Instead of giving us "the next big thing" every few months, why don't you guys just give us better platforms for our real lives? In other words, we're your customers. Act like companies, not messengers of the gods. Follow our needs, and stop leading us into "the future."

Social media's breast implants

2009-10-21T05:43:00.000-07:00

They look really good, from far away, that is. But there's something phony about this pair that we've been admiring for two years now:

Facebook and Twitter are breast implants.

There's a round perfectness to the idea of each, but it's phony, and that causes some consternation within the companies and among investors: A tempest in a D cup.

There's something each company doesn't want you to see. A number that exposes their seeming size and beauty:

Facebook can't make money. Now boasting 300 million users, worldwide, the Giant Peephole will make about $500 million in revenues this year. That's weak. A buck seventy-five or so per customer might be OK profits for a hot dog vendor, but not for the portal that is transforming communications. Facebook ads are impressively targetable, but people don't think about Facebook as a place to spend money. It's the good, clean fun of the recession. A free mall where we can hang out. And virtual goods are just not a solid business plan. (Despite the success of Farm Town, a company this big cannot be run like a cartoon farm.) Last year Facebook insiders admitted to me the company was still figuring out the money thing, only to have an investor angrily refute that later. Uh, sorry moneybags. I'm guessing a top executive is telling the truth.

Twitter is a small community. Everyone's favorite annoying little bird doesn't even pretend to know how to make money yet, as Evan Williams admitted yesterday. But that's not the problem. The problem is that Twitter is just not that popular. Seventy-five percent of Twitter accounts are dead. And 10 percent of Twitter users account for 90 percent of tweets. What does that add up to? According to Nielsen Online, bout 2.5 million actual dedicated tweeters. There are more active knitters in the United States than twitters. But Time magazine didn't do a cover story on How Knitters Are Changing The Way We Live. Walker Smith, head of Yankelovich Worldwide Marketing told me, "Twitter gets talked about a lot, but it just hasn't captured the public imagination." Chuck Schilling, head of Nielsen Online, echoed his comments: "Twitter seems to be relegated to a certain upper echelon of media-savvy people."

Nice pair. Not real.

Next time: The good news.

Get a little weirder, Charlotte.

2009-10-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

Charlotte BarCamp 2, the Geek-stock that huddled happily against Saturday's chill in Area 15 near NoDa, pointed and clicked in an important direction for Charlotte business. We used to be Cash 'n' Crash -- banking and NASCAR. And the business environment seemed contentedly divided between power suit and fire suit, the Benjamins and the Earnhardts.

That's changing.

The Chamber Of Commerce and main Rotary used to be a Who's Who of Charlotte business, but events like BarCamp 2 might be a Who's New. And we need new. The banks have been pummeled, and many NASCAR revenues are down.

The recession came down like a wedge between old Charlotte and new Charlotte. The old power base of established money lost some hold on techie new transplants -- in part because some lost their jobs. But also because that old Charlotte's hold on things -- and the banks' towering command -- was show to be vulnerable. Saturday's "unconference" was the new: Geekier, weirder, not-so-Southern, happily nerdy. The offbeat Texas music center has a longtime movement: Keep Austin Weird. And Charlotte can borrow the idea: Make Charlotte Weirder. (Burn your khaki pants!) Why? Because innovation is weird. Charlotte, like the rest of the world, needs to keep reinventing itself to emerge from the recession.

Programmers, search engine optimization professionals, online marketers, bloggers and -- gulp! -- artists convened for BarCamp (named after a programming term, not a tavern). Many were networking out of necessity: The self-employed, underemployed, unemployed -- familiar shades of a gray economy -- were there to bootstrap new careers. But there was also bankers and even a politician: Republican City Councilman Warren Cooksey.

Ecommerce businessman Jon West, sportscaster-turned-social-media guy Corey Anderson, social media maven Jenifer Daniels, innovative blogger Matthew Vincent and web designer Heather Murphy were a few of the 200 in attendance. Corey Creed, a consultant and teacher in SEO and social media, preached to find your niche and create content that you love. That's a new concept for a city that has previously embraced big companies, and the big-tent of the established business world. See a snippet of Creed's talk, below.

The free event featured giveaway T-shirts and coffee mugs, and lunch thrown in, too. (Sponsors are listed below.) So what's the only reason not to go? It was a little weird. A kid led one session -- on balloon twisting. An artist led another, in which he took participants down the "rabbit hole" of his studio in Area 15.

But, considering the economy, and strait-laced Charlotte's struggles, maybe that was the best reason to go.

BarCamp 2 sposors: Area 15, netphase, russ communications, Counter Culture Coffee, Amelie's French Bakery and heels.com.

Live from BarCamp 2

2009-10-17T05:12:00.000-07:00

Charlotte BarCamp 2 is huddled in Area 15 near NoDa today, for the Charlotte Area's chic-est geekfest, an "unconference" that develops as it goes. We're kicking off this morning with what looks like about 200 in the lofty, artsy space. It's a different crowd for Charlotte -- geekier, friendlier, not-so-Southern, happily nerdy. SEO man Corey Creed, massage therapist/geek Summer Plum, former Observerites Crystal Dempsey and Andria Krewson and, of course, Justin Ruckman, the boy hero of CLT Blog -- and one of the organizers -- are just a few faces in the crowd.

Watch live on http://cltblog.com/live

The topics for the seminars will be pitched in a moment. "And hopefully they're not all about Twitter," joked one of the organizers.

Balloon Boy, internet sensation

2009-10-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, seven of Twitter's top 10 trending topics were related to a the "Balloon Boy" story out of Colorado, which made for riveting TV until it turned out the Jiffy Pop popcorn-looking homemade spaceship actually had nobody inside.

It was enough to make you miss the innocent, bygone days when you knew there really was a kid stuck down in a well and could get good and justifiably worried sick about them.

In case you just stepped out of a spaceship yourself (and if so, you really should post to YouTube immediately), much of the nation watched on live television yesterday as a weather balloon zipped around Colorado, supposedly with 6-year-old Falcon (really) Heene in the payload. It turns out that young Falcon hid in a box in the attic while the nation hoped and prayed he would not crash into power lines on live TV. Spicing up the story is the fact that the family appeared on "Wife Swap," an ABC reality show with -- despite the title -- not near the ratings of the balloon escapade. Then young Falcon threw up on the "Today" show this morning as father Richard insisted he and his wife were not in on any kind of hoax. (And authorities now say there is no evidence the parents were involved. Making Falcon the king of all 6-year-old pranksters.)

You just can't make this stuff up. By the time it was all done, even Middle East news service Al Jazeera was coving the story. There must be an easier way to become an internet star, but effectively viral this spectacle has certainly been:

Huffington Post is aggregating the best Balloon Boy jokes online, so you don't have to chase him all over creation to get the goodies inside.

On Facebook, folks are writing a folk song for the new folk hero, set to the tune of the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" theme. New groups are popping up like crazy. And (lame) Balloon Boy T-shirts ,as well as other products, are for sale.

Over on YouTube, there are more than a dozen videos of young Falcon throwing up on the "Today" show this morning. (I kid you not, people want to watch this. Forgive me for not providing a link.)

I couldn't find a Balloon Boy presence on LinkedIn (proof again that it is the most reasonable of social media platforms). But if he's smart young Falcon will slap up a resume, pronto, before his star fades.

Question: Can you really blame a kid whose parents appeared on "Wife Swap" for thinking it's cool to grab attention?

Should you think we're done with this, just look ahead to Halloween, coming up in two weeks, and all the balloon boys who will be competing for attention then.

Grammar and bacon Bloody Marys

2009-10-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

"What is Twitter doing to our language?" a CPCC prof asked from the audience of a talk on Wednesday evening. To which I replied: "OMG, Gr8 question!!!"

It is a great question. Students in the audience piped up that it can be hard to shift away from text shorthand when they put down their phones (intermittently) to write papers. I'm going to throw it out to you, and write my own paper (excuse me, my phone...) about it soon. In the meantime, I thought this piece by Greg Downey was interesting. He argues that texting and Twitter are indeed a kind if pidgin, but that their own rules, conventions and even witticisms are developing. I agree. Inspired Twittercisms can be quite charming, to my writing ear. It's also kinda cool that @grammarcops on Twitter have more than 4,400 followers.

The bacon Bloody Mary, which could play a key role in bringing us out of this here recession, is of course garnished with a social media tie. Join the Terrace Cafe's Facebook fan page, get a bacon Bloody for two bucks. And you get a secret code word, too. Pretty fun stuff from the stylish eatery near SouthPark. Wouldn't everything be better with a piece of bacon stapled to it and a secret code word whispered on the side? There is, BTW, a big daddy version of this porcine beverage, at 750. That's grams of fat. Kiddin'. $7.50.

More Twitter links go to news sites than anything else, a new survey from Chitika marketing research shows. Then movie sites, and tech. Facebook users are less newsy. They go to tech, then lifestyle (wow!), then news. Twitter is a better headline service. Interesting, though, that Facebook is more tech. I think of it as less so.

Still interested in how nonprofits are using social media, and whether its working to bring in money. For a story in The Observer coming soon. Holler at me.

Free talk, wild football video

2009-10-13T16:29:00.000-07:00

I'll give a free talk Wednesday evening at Central Piedmont Community College on "Social Media: The Truth Behind The Hype." The talk is at 6:15 p.m. in Halton Theater (map here). Click here for more details. I'm going to talk about three things:

What Facebook is like up close, and the "big number" the company doesn't want you to look at.
What Twitter is like in person, and the "big number" that company doesn't want you to look at.
The phenomenon of the "social media expert," and the "big number" that new profession doesn't want you to look at.

I'll also have Richard Brasser, a top social media and marketing consultant who's worked with big companies give a brief talk and field questions. My boss, Steve Gunn will talk about social media projects at The Observer.

We will have a long Q&A period after the talk, and I'd love to hear your questions.

And now for an amazing video. High school football team blocks a field goal to apparently win the game. But watch what happens afterward.

Cockroach comedy with video.

2009-10-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

Giving cockroaches the slip from Cambridge University on Vimeo.

Researchers at Cambridge University, England's 800-year-old bastion of dignified academia, have developed a substance that makes cockroaches slip and fall down.

Insects secret a sticky fluid that allows them to walk on almost anything. Three zoology researchers at Cambridge have developed a formula that soaks up the water in that secretion, leaving only an oil behind. They say it could represent a breakthrough in pest control, by preventing bugs from crawling into homes.

Free talk at 6:15 Wednesday at CPCC's Halton Theater on "Social Media, the truth behind the hype." Click here for details.

“It can be entertaining,” Jan-Henning Dirks told The Observer in a phone interview Monday. “We had fun watching them in the lab. It is a little like slapstick.”

This video shows a cockroach easily walking up a little pole coated with Teflon. Then the roach tries to climb up a pole treated with the new substance, and the results might remind one of gym-class rope-climbing trauma.

Dirks developed the substance with Christofer Clemente and Walter Federle. He told me they are exploring commercial applications. The substance does not yet have a name.

Suggestions?

Web 3.0 and journalism

2009-10-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

Google Wave represents a new opportunity for print journalism. Wave itself is still a buggy, empty platform, and it might never succeed. But it represents a potential new approach for journalism: Bringing readers and citizen journalists into the process, and making the developing story a product.

There are at least four deliverables from a transparent, collaborative reporting process: The immediacy of tweets and other social media updates; incremental short pieces in a Wave-like approach; what we now consider to be the finished product; and a kind of scrapbook of the pieces that is archivable.

Here's why journalists should care: It can make money.

By aiming this process-is-the-product strategy to mobile, we can hit a marketplace and audience that is willing to pay. It took many big companies years to make money online, but consumers have been far more willing to spend money on the devices and services associated with the mobile Web.

But they won't pay for tweets, which are free and omnipresent. And they won't pay for what print journalism has always considered to be our final product, because years ago we committed ourselves to the philosophy that information is free online.

They will pay for incremental breaking news multi-media stories that come in waves from events that they care about. It's a product they've never seen on their mobiles, and they can take part with social media. Web 3.0's geo approach can target users, and pair mobile advertising with stories.

This would look like a user in Chicago getting an alert on their mobile that the Olympic Committee was about to announce the selection of 2012's host city, with a short video, print story, photos, and the ability to share the story with friends, and an ad from Olympics sponsor Bank Of America.

The user could be updated every 15 minutes, and share the story while commenting. If they committed to the developing story, location-based ads could be attached to the story. ("Sad the Second City didn't get the Games? There are beer specials right around the corner...")

There are many moving pieces, but this pulls together some promising strategies. Journalism needs to take on the challenge.

How much time on social media?

2009-10-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

How much time do you spend on social media? Too much?

Nielsen Online reported over the summer that Americans people spend more time on Facebook than any other Web site. The study noted that 87.25 million U.S. users visited Facebook during June, and each of those spent an average of four hours, 39 minutes and 33 seconds on the site during the month.

More recently, Nielsen reported that time spent on social network and blogging sites accounted for 17 percent of all time spent on the Internet in August, nearly triple the percentage of time spent on the sector a year ago.

"How do people work a full-time job and manage all their social media accounts?" an old-school communications guy asked me recently. It's a good question. Social media users might argue that the sites make them more productive, helping them quickly gather information, connect with colleagues and stay plugged in. But there's some goofing around that goes on, too.

Here are my opinionated suggestions for how to limit your social media time to a well-spent hour a day:

Direct messages: Whether on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, read and respond to these as they come up. These are like answering the phone. This isn't so much social media as direct communications. If you get dozens of these a day, you're either so successful that you need a personal assistant, or you're a teen-ager. Either way, I don't feel sorry for you. Time spent: 10 minutes, as needed.

Twitter: Tweets are like Tic Tacs. You always have time for one, and they can be refreshing and fun. But if you're popping a Tic Tac 30 times a day, do you have a problem? Your mobile device should be your main Twitter interface, and you should tweet, and post pics, as they come up. If you see something or hear something great -- and especially if you witness news -- whip that phone out and tweet. (I enjoy people's mobile tweets far more than the jabberers who sit home or at work and post all day long.) Twitter is also the ultimate dentist-office time filler. When you get a break in your day, nothing wrong with checking Twitter. (I've wondered recently if Twitter users would have been heavy smokers in a previous generation.) Time spent: 15 minutes in the form of daily gap fillers.

LinkedIn: I think you should check in with LinkedIn for 10 minutes every day. That is, unless you're rock-solid confident about the economy, your job and peace and prosperity in general. Work today is all about networking. LinkedIn is not a place to park your resume. Drop a key contact a message, reach out, and see what colleagues are doing. You might need their help someday soon. Think about LinkedIn as like watering a plant or brushing your teeth. It's a healthy habit that pays off. Neglecting to do this has sad results. Time spent: 5 minutes in the morning.

Facebook: Biggest time suck in the universe right now? Nope. Not even close. Nielsen reports that the average American TV consumption remains at an all-time high of 141 hours per month, more than 30 times the average time spent on Facebook. But I think a good way to think about Facebook is like your favorite TV show. If you sit down for a half-hour in the evening and check out what's going on in your friends' lives, you'll catch many of them at prime time. If you have friends lists, which I highly recommend, you can sort of DVR your experience by focusing on separate areas of your life. Time spent: Half-hour in the evening.

Please understand me: I am NOT recommending everyone spend an hour a day on social media. If you spend less, or don't use these sites at all, more power to you. But if your time on the sites is growing, and you're not evaluating or monitoring it, I hope this helps provides some perspective.

Now get back to work.

How can causes use Facebook?

2009-10-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

I am so impressed with the Charlotte teens who reached out on Facebook to tell me about their favorite cause, Playing For Others. The organization pulls together the performing arts and volunteerism. High school students involved with the performing arts go through a nine-month program in which they buddy with special needs kids. This year the teens are working with Misty Meadows Mitey Riders, which provides equine therapy for special needs kids. The photo above is from the group's public Facebook page, which you can see here.

Morgan Lane Grubbs, a senior at Hopewell High school, said this on my Facebook wall about Playing For Others:

"Not only is PFO helping local non-profits work with these amazing children, it is also raising a future generation of leaders who are inclusive, accepting and driven to create change in their communities. I have been involved with PFO since I was a freshman in high school; now as a senior I can see the visible and tangible changes in myself. I am better equipped to deal with the adult world I am about to join. PFO has changed my life. I would encourage everyone I know, and even those I don't to check it out."

Many other teens, and a few adults, chimed in to tell me about Playing For Others when asked you to tell me about your favorite Charlotte causes. All these folks wrote about PFO on my Facebook Wall:

Emily Hudson, Julie Thomas Walton, Joseph Vladimir Ehrman-Dupre, Kaitlin Wightman-Ausman, Austin Whitehead, Rebecca June Moore, Savvy Jillani, Melissa Lebet, Julianna Sosa, Marina Hoggan, Meghan Neal, Briann Messick, Tracy Irick Grubbs, Emily Moore and Clara Grace Howell. If I'm not mistaken, Kate Schwab, daughter of two Observer types, started the whole movement to get PFO noticed here.

You'll notice this whole thing took place on Facebook, which has become a gathering place for nonprofits. But how is that working in the recession? Are causes able to find financial support?

Tonight there's a get together at the lovely McGlohon Theater uptown to talk about Mission Possible, the media-partner effort to brainstorm and implement innovative ideas to help Charlotte nonprofits get through this hard time. You can find details at the Facebook events page.

I'd like to hear from you: How can our community best use social media to help good causes?

What Google Wave adds

2009-10-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

I have a Google Wave account, and have played around with it in pathetically rudimentary ways. I even had some extra invites to join the new communications platform, and was besieged by requests for them. (Google slaves do the begging for Google faves.)

The hilarious saga of a blogger auctioning Wave invites on eBay suggests some of the hysteria around the release of 100,000 invites to check out the new platform. Even searching for invites online can cause you to wander into some weird neighborhoods.

This is reminiscent of the lines to buy iPhones. (The photo above is of a line in Boston for the 3G when it as released in July, 2008. Today, who wants a 3G?) If technology and social media are the new rock 'n' roll, this might be the equivalent of screaming so loud you can't hear The Beatles. A lot of this hype. Google Wave isn't anything yet, and a lot of what it offers was available on Google Docs. It's lonely on there, and buggy and not relevant yet.

But here's what I think Google Wave adds to the conversation:

We used to think of composed communications as being sent when they were completed. You wrote a letter and mailed it. You wrote an e-mail and sent it.

Then real-time meant you didn't have to wait. You could send right away. This took the immediacy of a phone call and put it online with chat and Twitter.

Wave adds another option: The incremental, periodic communication. People collaborating on a communication that is somewhere between immediate and completed. The process becomes transparent. The conversation becomes the product.

And the big question is: Will this change how we exchange information?

I think it will -- maybe not in the form of Google Wave, but using this philosophy. I think communication is, by nature, incremental and collaborative. At a cocktail party, one conversation doesn't end before another begins. Groups of people flow in and out of topics and add what they have to contribute. (And, these days, that sometimes includes pulling out an iPhone to show photos or videos.)

Waiting until a document is completed now seems archaic. Blurting out whatever is top of mind is, as we are discovering, sometimes too ephemeral. Wave suggests a compromise: A transparent process in which the ephemeral gradually adds up to something more lasting.

I do think that's a significant contribution, and a good thing to think about in an open, growing conversation.

BTW, I sold my invites for $100 apiece.

Kidding. But they are all gone.

How Ken Lewis news flew online

2009-09-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

Around 5 p.m. Wednesday, Ryan Ruggiero, a CNBC assignment desk editor in New York with a relatively modest 307 followers, sent out a tweet that helped spread a wildfire of business news online:

RyanRuggiero CNBC'S Gasparino: Bank Of America CEO |Ken Lewis To Step Down By End Of Yearabout 3 hours ago from Seesmic

(Charlie Gasparino, Ruggiero's CNBC colleague, first announced the news on TV.) As news organizations around the world prepared full reports, analysis and commentary, Ruggiero's message flew around Twitter. The 140-character format makes Twitter an excellent headline service, as other stories have shown. People who would wait until later to get the full story read and sent along the headline as the news was immediately retweeted.

Twitter's advanced search shows that, in Charlotte, more than 50 Twitter users sent out tweets announcing the Lewis news to thousands, within an hour of CNBC breaking the news.

Within two hours of the story breaking, 450 different stories about Lewis retiring were online. The Google News graph below shows the spike of the number of different news sources covering the story.

As happens online, commentary instantly jumped into the breaking news. Huffington Post's slideshow of "The 7 Most Awkward Ken Lewis Faces" made the rounds on Twitter right away.

Details behind Obama Facebook poll

2009-09-29T16:01:00.000-07:00

I spoke tonight with Jesse Farmer, the developer who made the platform used for the disturbing Facebook poll asking "Should Barack Obama Be Killed?"

"I do know who created the poll," said Farmer, who runs Bumbalabs in Palo Alto. (He lives a few blocks from Facebook's offices in Silicon Valley.) Farmer would not name the creator of the poll, preferring to let the Secret Service handle that. But did say the person does not live in the Southeast of the United States. He also suggested that this was "one person who created one poll" and that this was not a big conspiracy. "This kind of thing happens all the time," he said of objectionable content online.

Farmer, who said he worked for the Obama campaign in last fall's election, also said "95 percent voted no" in the poll, taken by more than 700 Facebook users. "Like 12 people voted yes," Farmer said.

Facebook pulled the poll Monday morning when the contents were discovered, Farmer said. "In some ways, I was the last to know," he said. Farmer checks any user complaints about polls every day, he said. Thousands of polls are created by Facebook users every day, he said.

"People shouldn't put too much stock in the crazy stuff people write on the internet," he said. But he added: "There is this strange thing happening with the president where some people feel this hostility for him, and they're expressing it publicly."

Obama Facebook poll and Washington Post rules

2009-09-29T05:58:00.000-07:00

The disturbing news of a poll on Facebook asking if President Obama "should be killed" points out the real questions around social media best practices and ethics. A developer created the poll, which was taken by more than 700 users. Choices in the poll were Yes, Maybe, If He Cuts My Health Care, and No. The results are not available, Facebook says, and the poll has been taken down and is being probed by the Secret Service.

Organizations like ESPN and, most recently, The Washington Post, have been busy composing restrictions on how employees use social media. It's understandable that organizations want to provide guidelines for employees and draw boundaries for how social media differentiates from their own mainstream media. (In the eyes of The Washington Post, staffers should post to social media as if their bylines were attached. I disagree.)

Since when have communications professionals been more concerned with covering their backsides than with using new tools to serve their audiences, report on the bad guys -- like creepy poll developers -- and provide ethical and laudable communications in the new forums? Preventative measures will fail against social media -- that river of free-flowing information is too strong for any dam. But real best practices, which use these tools for good, can ride the flow of that river. We need to provide good information, not focus on what might go wrong.

Some of the earliest and most crafty users of social media have been doing some of the worst stuff. The Obama poll isn't an isolated incident on Facebook (although it may be the worst). There are four polls that ask Which Serial Killer Are You? There are spam bots and sex bots and phony accounts and crooked apps. The problem isn't Facebook and Twitter. The same old hate and avarice have found new playgrounds. Fear and outrage that blame the messenger are, as always, missing the point.

The best way to address wrongdoing is to do right. The real ethical obligation of media companies is to provide good information, otherwise the creeps lead the way.

Corporations -- especially media outlets -- need to get beyond their fear of getting caught with a goofy tweet and start leading by example. We need to be proactive in communicating with ethics, not preventative in censoring employees. Expose the bad guys, report in new ways, and show the world how this new media can be used right.

The real best practices are not "how to protect my company." We need a Society For Social Media Ethics that covers more than one industry.

Rules that show how journalists or PR people should behave, and focus on what they shouldn't do, are missing the point. We need something that shows how all users can best use Facebook and Twitter and the rest, and media are the best people to provide that.

Communications people need to look beyond what media should not do, and start leading by example in a new way.

Bobcats' Gerald Wallace has fun on video

2009-09-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

So there I was, skulking around Bobcats media day at the arena today, being a non-sportswriter, when I hear team captain Gerald Wallace say to a team staffer something along the lines of:

I've given four video interviews so far and I've said exactly the same thing. They're all the same.

I whipped out my iPhone, asked Wallace if he'd like to do something a little different, and we made the video below. I think he got a kick out of it. I know I did. It's fun to see these guys in a slightly different light.

I also spent a little time with Raymond Felton, who told me how he learned to handle the ball: By dribbling in the grass and dirt of the little town where he grew up.

On the purely social media side, fans should get a kick out of this: Nazr Mohammed sometimes retweets his fans. "If somebody says something good, I send it back out," said the big man.

Rookie Gerald Henderson told me likes Twitter because he can speak directly to the fans. The young man is very well-spoken, I must say.

The Bobcats will see the king of NBA tweeting, Shaquille O'Neal as the Bobcats play the Cavaliers in Charleston on Oct. 10. Think the team will let me ride down on the bus and tweet what I see?

Too many invitations on Facebook?

2009-09-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

Invitations to add apps, attend events, join groups and "fan" business pages are choking Facebook with so much clutter that it can be hard to find your real friends. "Games, apps and polls are fine. Just don't ask me to join / participate!" writes a Facebook user from Winnsboro, S.C.

Lets hack through some of that right now.

Apps are potentially the worst, because they can suck privacy information right out of your account and into the outside developer's database. If you're invited to join an app you don't like, you can block that app and not be invited again. On the requests page -- where you're directed when you click on your request notifications on the home page -- click "block this application" under the invitation. If you get a lot of applications from a certain friend, you can block all application invites from that friend. You'll see that fine print beneath the app invitation, too. If you like this friend, feel free to send them this in a personal message:

I like connecting with you on Facebook, but please don't send me any more application requests. Outside apps have privacy risks I don't like, and I don't care for the invites, either. I'm glad you're having fun with this. Thanks a lot. To see more on this, go to http://bit.ly/3xf4PF

That link is to this blog post, and might explain things a little. I don't mind being the bad guy, and you could be saving many of your friends the same aggravation. You can also hide an application with a large logo so you don't have to see it on your wall. (Anything with "farm," "mafia" or "vampire" in the name comes to mind.) Just hover your cursor next to the logo when it appears on your wall, and click hide. There you'll also see the option to hide the friend who uses this app. Tempting, isn't it? Let's talk about that for a sec.

There are three layers of distancing yourself from an annoying friend on Facebook: Hide, unfriend (techinically, "remove connection"), and block (which prevents someone from even finding you on Facebook. You can find that on your Privacy settings.) I'm going to suggest again that you instead address the behaviors that are bothering you about the friend. If they're really a friend, the brief, uncomfortable exchange could be well worth it in the long run.

On the subject of applications, there's a chore many of you need to do, now. Facebook recently added privacy controls for how much you reveal to outside developers of applications. Take note: We're talking here about apps you don't use. These are apps your friends use, but that can access your privacy info. If the very idea of this alarms you, do this: Go to Settings at the top of the Facebook page (yours or the home page), click Privacy, Applications, Settings. There you see a bunch of check boxes where you choose what info your friends can see "through applications," and therefore what privacy info this developer can see and use -- like your religion, who you're in a relationship with and whether you're online. I chose to shut a lot of that down. For more on this issue, see here.

At the bottom of this page, you can see which friends you've blocked from inviting you to use apps. Ask yourself, do you want to be on any of your friends' pages here?

Requests to attend events come in by the truckload, it seems. I rarely go to these things, but it seems I have to deal with them all the time. From the requests page, you can click "Remove from my events" under an event. It's not clear to me if this prevents you from being invited to it again. I have read online that that's not the case. There are no settings to prevent receiving invitations to certain events, or from certain friends. There should be, and I think there will be soon. In the meantime, feel free to send a persistent friend this:

I like connecting with you on Facebook, but please don't send me any more invitations to events, or to fan a business or join a group. I'm glad you're finding this worthwhile, but I don't wish to take part. Please remove me from these invitations lists and practices. I like to see what you're doing, and don't want to "hide" you. Thanks a lot. To see more on this, go to http://bit.ly/3xf4PF

You can also choose the option Ignore All from the requests page. (You're taken there when you click "See all" next to Requests on the home page.) You can ignore all the requests, getting rid of them, or ignore a whole category, like applications requests. But again, this doesn't go to the source of the reuests. I'd reach out to that friend.

Sara Woodmansee of Charlotte seemed to sum up how many of us feel when she wrote: "Agree about quiz, poll and apps requests. Also had one person who sent me their fan page 'suggestion' about 8 times! I ignored it the first 7, why would i do it now?"

You don't want to be the person she's talking about. If you sincerely want this particular friend to attend this event, join this group or fan this business, reach out to them directly, and have a conversation about it.

Don't send invitation spam on Facebook. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Here's a hilarious video on Facebook etiquette suggested by my friend, Bill Benac. (We studied social networking together at Stanford.) It's not exactly what we're discussing, but is very funny. Enjoy!

Do Joe Wilson, Kanye West and Serena Williams win in the end?

2009-09-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

The public outbursts of Joe Wilson, Serena Williams and Kanye West sparked roaring wildfires of reaction across the Web. About 300,000 tweets in one hour reportedly responded to West's interruption of Taylor Swift receiving an award at MTV's Video Music Awards.

What's interesting though, is that the pendulum swings back the other way. Congressman Wilson actually received a significant jump in fund-raising after his interruption of President Obama's address last week. (See video, below.) But only after he was swiftly condemned on Twitter and Facebook.

And West's appearance on Jay Leno's new show Monday night cast the rapper in a far more favorable light because he almost broke down when Leno asked what his mother would've thought about the award show interruption. More than 18,000 have watched a YouTube video of the Leno interview in 14 hours after the NBC broadcast. (See below, middle.)

Williams' verbal attack of a line judge at the U.S. Open might prove more difficult to defend. But that didn't stop the tennis star from urging her million Twitter followers to watch her on "Good Morning America" this morning. In the interview, Serena said about the line judge she screamed at that, later, "I would've liked to give her a big hug." She also seemed interested Tuesday morning in selling her new book. Will the outburst allow a positive pushback, letting her sell the book and, in the end, get more positive publicity? Irony: Serena's book is called "On The Line," when a foot fault sparked the whole outburst. (See the "Good Morning America" interview, bottom.)

Is the speed of negative reaction online to these public faux pas actually paying off for the instigators in the long run? Some thought Wilson's political career was permanently damaged last week, when he was roundly criticized for his behavior, seen as disrespectful of the president. But the incident has in some ways galvanized his support. (And sparked a slew of ads for him on Google and Facebook.)

Does this mean we're stumbling into a trap, and that the bad behavior that gets so much of our unfavorable attention immediately only proves a few days later that there is no bad publicity?

Hero pilot Capt. Sully giving away his new book

2009-09-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Capt. Sully, the hero of the Hudson River plane landing, is giving away 20 signed copies of his new book on Facebook.

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger has been hailed as a great hero of aviation since his safe ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 -- which was bound for Charlotte -- on Jan. 15. When both engines failed, Sullivan landed the plane in New York's Hudson River. All 155 people aboard survived.

Spokesman Alex Clemens posted a Facebook "note" -- an application that allows users to share text -- for Capt. Sully, who does not have a personal Facebook page, just after noon Monday. Hours later, close to 2,000 people had commented on the book giveaway -- and that does not

count how many simply entered the contest.

See details of the giveaway on Facebook, here. (It is required that winners be a fan of Capt. Sully's on his Facebook "fan page" to win.) Click here to go to that page. If you have trouble reaching either link, perhaps because you're not already signed into Facebook, try searching for "Sully Sullenberger." The page is also becoming somewhat overwhelmed by traffic, as news of the giveaway goes viral.

The book, "Highest Duty: My Search For What Really Matters," goes on sale Oct. 13.

Colleen Mainwaring Brooks of Weddington was one of many Charlotte-area Facebookers to cheer the book news online Monday. Asked by The Observer about her support of Sullivan she posted, "I would love to have a signed copy. Capt. Sully is a true American hero."

The giveaway is not the first social media connection to the dramatic flight. Some of the first news reports of the crash were on Twitter, including a widely circulated photo tweeted by a witness.

Panthers on Facebook and a great video

2009-09-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

Not in a fantasy football league yet? Facebook has one that you can view right on your page, with drafts still going on all the time. Big fan of a certain team? If you get their app, the logo goes on your Facebook page, you can taunt opponents, and take trivia quizzes. Wondering how to tweet other fans during the game? There's a very cool way to do that throughout the game. Not a part of the biggest Panthers fans group? We'll take you there.

This is the first big weekend of football season, and the first big football season for social media. Every other Facebook post seems to be about somebody's team. Charlotte's Jeff Kennedy seemed to speak for many when he posted on Facebook: "my wife is sad... she is a college football widow... I watched 8 hours straight.... just wait till the NFL starts tomorrow!" Also posting about the Panthers this weekend were Bruce Goldinger, Nan Gray, and more Charlotteans than I can possibly name.

While the Southeastern Conference and NFL have drawn up confusing plays about social media policies, fans have found that football is the perfect thing to tweet and Facebook about. Here's where to click to make sure you're part of the action online.

Facebook has 1,700 football-related applications, but some are for soccer. The most popular NFL app is Fantasy Football 2009, which lets you play fantasy football right on Facebook. More than 730,000 people play this. If you're not in a fantasy league yet and you're a Facebook user, it's worth looking into. Sports Illustrated and Citizen Sports are behind it. Note: On a lark I invited Anthony Foxx and John Lassiter to join my league. I'll let you know if the mayoral candidates play.

The Carolina Panthers Fans application is very popular in Charlotte, with more than 9,300 monthly users. (I was stunned to see 139 Facebook friends had installed it.) Lets you play quizzes, get into discussions, post photos. Looks like a healthy boosters app. There's also a Carolina Panthers group, which doesn't require you to install anything or risk privacy information. About 11,000 belong to it. And you can friend the TopCats, which sounds fun to me.

There are many NFL apps, including What NFL Player Are You? This quiz is very popular, but I'm always wary about privacy information. The NFL has its own app, which lets you put your team's logo on your page, and play a little game throughout the year where you "throw passes to your friends online." It might not be as lame as it sounds. (How's that for an endorsement?)

What about Twitter? You can obviously include #panthers in messages as a way to connect with other fans. But during a game, if you want to discuss strategy, try using the hashtag #panthersshsould. Yes, it's long. But it's clear what the discussion is: A forward-looking argument about what play should be called or strategy used. That way, you're not just reacting, and can show how smart you are. This can elevate the conversation a little beyond "Go Panthers!"

Finally, if you want to trash talk to the league's rudest fans, you can sneak into the Philadelphia Eagles' online huddle by tweeting the hashtag #Eagles.

In a few days I'll have a similar post on college football on the social web. To help you get psyched for today's actual, here's a great Panthers highlight video.

When I swapped cars with Skipper Beck

2009-09-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

"Why don't I just give you a car?"

Skipper Beck asked me that years ago, when he saw my lousy little compact. The Charlotte businessman was killed in a plane crash Friday morning. He was a generous guy, who seemed to give without a second thought. I once saw him give millions to charity in one night. And I know he gave a tremendous amount of his time to help organize charity events.

But I wasn't asking him for a car. (And my editors, with all their silly rules, would not have allowed me to accept it.) I was asking him to take my car -- a 2001 Toyota Echo, and drive it for a weekend. Beck was a second-generation luxury car dealer, and my proposal was to switch cars for a story. My car was valued at $3,500. His top-of-the-line Mercedes at $86,000.

He did it, even though his wife, Lynn, wouldn't ride in my filthy little jalopy. "What is all this at my feet?" she asked, kicking around some garbage. (It turned out to be my divorce papers.) "I'm sorry," Lynn said, climbing back out. "I really do think this car will ruin my dress." (She was probably right.)

But Skipper stayed in the car. He took it to Phillips Place, where he found that "The valet parkers didn't exactly jump off their stools for the chance to park it." For the first time in a long time, the car Skipper was driving did not command attention. "This would be a good car for someone trying to avoid being noticed by the authorities," he said.

He seemed to have a ball doing the story. After that, I always considered Skipper a friend, even though I never did get to know him well. But I will miss his sense of fun and generosity. I always thought of him, first and foremost, as a good sport and a kind man.

The entire story is below. The photo above, of Skipper begging not to have to drive my car, ran with the article.

TOYOTA FOR A BENZ? GIMME THE KEYS!
I GO FROM BEING INCOGNITO TO DRIVING IN THE LAP OF LUXURY IN 5 SECONDS

Friday, September 1, 2006

It all started when Skipper Beck called me up and said, "How'd you like to drive the 2007 Mercedes 550 S Class for the weekend?"
(My job is such a hassle.)
That's a $90,000 car, an elegant sedan presented to winners of PGA golf championships. It has a 380 horsepower engine, a 14-speaker surround sound stereo system, computerized everything and an all-leather interior. It's like a race car mated with Donald Trump's living room.
"Sure!" I said to Skipper. And then my twisted mind roared up and crashed into the whole situation. "If you'll drive my car."
I drive a 2001 Toyota Echo. It cost $12,000 when I bought it six years ago. The engine light's been on for five months. My ultra-basic model didn't even come with a clock, so I jammed an alarm clock into the dash. My car's main special feature is, you have to turn off the air-conditioner when you turn left.
Skipper, the owner of Beck Imports in Charlotte, is a second-generation car dealer. He's been surrounded by classy cars his whole life.
On a Friday afternoon we traded cars, and traded worlds.
"Is that a talking, computerized navigation system in the hand-polished wood dashboard?" I asked, peering into my new ride.
"Is that an open bag of dog food in the back seat?" Skipper asked, peering into his.
Now lemme just screech to a halt right here and make it very clear that this story is in no way an indictment of Toyotas. The Echo is my fourth straight Toyota, and I will probably buy more. (Skipper is a fan, too, for the record.) My particular no-frills car has just seen better days, and that's mostly my fault. (I haven't kept it up well.) When it was new, it was cute and round and shiny and white. But I parked it under a tree for a while.
"It looks like a hard-boiled egg somebody rolled around in the dirt," was Skipper's first reaction.
Lynn, Skipper's wife and co-chair of the upcoming Championships at the Palisades tennis tournament, warily climbed into the Echo's passenger seat.
"What is all this at my feet?" she asked, kicking around some garbage.
I looked in. "Hey, thanks!" I said. "You found my divorce papers!"
"I'm sorry," Lynn announced, climbing back out. "I really do think this car will ruin my dress." (She was probably right: I have at times used the passenger seat as a napkin.)
But Skipper stayed in the car. He took it to Phillips Place where he found that "The valet parkers didn't exactly jump off their stools for the chance to park it." For the first time in a long time, the car Skipper was driving did not command attention. "This would be a good car for someone trying to avoid
being noticed by the authorities," he said.
Meanwhile, I was discovering the Mercedes' power, and powers of seduction.
I accidentally cut a guy off in traffic, but before he could demonstrate his knowledge of sign language, I was gone. "Sorry," I said, hitting the accelerator and feeling the big V-8 engine take off. "And bye."
I carried on conversations with the female voice in the talking navigation system. (I actually got two real women in the car, too. Briefly.)
I eased into the fully adjustable leather seat and floated over rough roads. I announced what radio station I wanted to hear - "88.7!" - and listened as the crystal-clear music surrounded me. And the hooks, I can not
forget to tell you about the grocery bag hooks in the trunk. (Your plastic bags don't slop over!)
More than anything else, it was the attention I got in the big, sleek, silver sedan. People looked to see who was behind the wheel of that fine automobile. And it was me! If Skipper was anonymous in my car, I was the opposite in his. I had arrived.
But I also felt a little guilty. "With all the problems in the world right now associated with fossil fuel consumption, does anybody really need a car like this?" I asked myself.
Then a really good song came on the stereo. I opened the sun roof, relaxed into the luxury and felt carried away by the power. I should've checked the rear view mirror for the conscience I left behind.
At night, my worried mind caught up with me. I had to leave the Mercedes in the parking lot of my Dilworth apartment complex. I lay awake and worried:
What if someone keyed the car? Or smashed a window? Or slashed the tires?
Across town, Skipper had different concerns. "You know, that's not a bad little car," he told Lynn at home. "If he just took better care of it."
On Monday morning, when many magic coaches turn back into pumpkins, it was time to return the Benz. I set the navigation system for Beck Imports, and had a last conversation with the little lady in the dashboard. As I pulled in, she said, "You have arrived at your destination." It sounded like, "Time to give back the dream, chump."
I felt a little down. I felt a little confused. I wanted the big, beautiful car back. So I called famed psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers in her New York office. I really did.
"Dr. Brothers, you've spent decades looking at the psychology of the rich and famous. Why did I love the status-symbol car so much?"
"Jeff, people are drawn to power, and this is a very powerful car," she told me. "It's also a very expensive car, and anyone who looks at it can see that. We like to be looked at in awe, and that's what you're feeling.
"But you also might find you're actually more comfortable in your little car. You don't have to live up to it. It's a reminder that you're comfortable being you."
I'm back to sleeping soundly again. I have no fears that someone will break into my 2001 Toyota Echo.
If you do, please take the dog food. My dog, Corky, has moved up to a luxury brand, with which he appears quite comfortable.
2007 S550 Mercedes sedan
List price for base model: $86,175.
32-valve V-8 engine.
382 horsepower.
0-60 mph in 5.4 seconds.
16 mpg city, 24 mpg highway.
Curb weight: 4,465 pounds.
Special features include: Infrared-reflective glass; rain-sensing wipers;
computerized control center for settings of audio, climate control,
navigation, seat adjustments, telephone and other car settings; leather
upholstery hand-fitted to each seat; hand-polished burl walnut wood trim on
dash and doors.
Jeff's 2001 Toyota Echo
Estimated blue book value: $3,500.
16-valve 4-cylinder engine.
108 horsepower.
0-60 mph in ... we'll have to get back to you.
34 mpg city, 41 mpg highway.
Curb weight: 2,078 pounds.
Special features include: Alarm clock jammed into dashboard, have to turn
off the air-conditioner to turn left.

Your opinions on Joe Wilson

2009-09-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

"You lie!"

The exclamation by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., during President Obama's address Wednesday night bellowed across the social Web right away. Within two hours, three of the 10 most-tweeted phrases on Twitter were "You lie!", "Joe Wilson" and "R-S.C."

Thanks in large part to the deafening buzz online, Wilson’s Democratic opponent, Rob Miller, had raised nearly $500,000 as of 6:30 Thursday night, about 10 times his previous campaign funds, and more than twice Wilson's.

Think about that: Three of the most discussed things were about these two words. It makes you wonder why someone in Wilson's office didn't immediately tweet an apology. (Which he still had not done on Thursday evening, although he has tweeted several times, "Stand with me against liberal attacks.")

-- A Twitter search for "Joe Wilson" at midday Thursday revealed there had been 81 tweets in the past minute using that term. And that's only one way to call him up.

-- Thursday night 1,350 Facebook users had commented on the congressman's post on his page about his comments. But many Facebook users got the wrong guy, leaving notes for a political Joe Wilson -- a judge in Washington state.

-- "You lie!" T-shirts popped up for sale on Twitter.

-- A site popped up satirizing the demonization of Wilson in which you click and a different mock accusation appears each time: "Joe Wilson didn't refill your Brita pitcher." "Joe Wilson canceled Arrested Development."

-- On Facebook, where multi-media posting is easier (or at least more visible) users posted videos, photos, links to organizations and, of course, opinions. One user posted a link to the Wikipedia entry sneaked by censors soon after the televised speech. Note the last line in the intro blurb at the top. (Warning: May be offensive to some readers. Not responsible for content.)

-- One Facebook user in Charlotte, Michael Hernandez, posted: "It was a misunderstanding. Joe Wilson was shouting at Nancy Pelosi to bring him a MOON PIE. Who denies a man of his moon pie?"

Bottom line: When something like this happens -- a zeitgeist, a pop-culture moment, a "talker" -- we like to talk. Why wait for the latenight monologues when we can have our own?

If you wonder if politicians from somewhere besides South Carolina ever embarrass themselves, check out this YouTube fail by Rep. Baron Hill, D-IN.

Iverson tweets he's a Grizzly

2009-09-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

OK, I think it's kind of cool that Allen Iverson announced on Twitter that he's signing with Memphis -- rather than the Bobcats. You do get the info directly from the source. But do wonder about his tweet beginning "God chose Memphis as the place that I will continue my career." That's where a journalist's questions might add a little clarity.

Hosting N.C. Tech Association event tonight. Tweet questions to #NCTAevent. Great panel with expertise in privacy, networking, PR and search engine optimization. Panelists are Brandon Uttley, Heather Lipford, Fred Sexton and Lisa Hoffmann.

Love the site http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com and the stories in the WSJ and Wash Post about hovering parents. I'm doing a story for Friday on Facebook etiquette -- although it's really more accurate to call them personal fouls, or red Faces. I got two egregious pieces of spam from FB friends in the past 24 hours. I mean, I'm tempted to out them in the paper. (But I won't.) Stories of your own? Let me know.

Gave my second interview to a journalist today about the Twitter directory, to a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter. And got an email request for an interview from the Richmond paper. Interesting how much outside buzz it's getting. The goal is to create a visible, clear local directory for what can be a very confusing, global medium. If you aren't on it yet, good time to get in, here.

Invited to speak in NYC. Have a half-dozen talks coming up. And, ironically, I'm working on a big story on whether all the buzz around social media is warranted, and how to assess all this vs. e-mail and other major media innovations. There certainly is a lot of buzz. Let me know your thoughts.

This is your brain on Twitter.

2009-09-07T17:51:00.000-07:00

Does Twitter make you dumber, and does Facebook make you smarter?

Not exactly, but the two social media sites affect the brain in opposite ways, a top researcher told The Observer on Monday after making headlines when she presented a study at an international conference.

Twitter's truncated, grammatically incorrect messages train our brains to under-perform, Dr. Tracy Alloway (pictured, right) said in a phone interview. In contrast, the elaborate social connections of Facebook stimulate the brain.

"There's a lot of evidence that some technology is good" for the brain, she said. "And some technology is bad for it."

As winner of the prestigious Joseph Lister Award from the British Science Association, Alloway presented a study on technology's impact on the brain on Sunday at the British Science Festival. Her research showed that students who took part in an elaborate memory game improved in academic and even IQ testing in just eight weeks. Intricate video games improve the brain's performance, as well, she said. But students who spent a lot of time text messaging have been shown in tests to decline academically, she said.

That's where she says the two very different social media sites come in. Twitter is a messaging forum that limits users to just 140 characters. Facebook is a more elaborate social realm that allows users to use language more fully, stay touch with people from different areas of their lives, and use multi-media and applications to vary the user's experience.

Alloway is an expert in "working memory" -- the ability not just to recall, but to effectively use information. One key to that is using language creatively. For instance, working crossword or Sudoku puzzles can stimulate the brain and prevent Alzheimer's.

"With Twitter, the character restriction means you have to really restrict what you want to say," she said. "Language isn't meant to be used that way."

But a variety of social connections, such as one develops and maintains on Facebook, has been shown to help performance on the job. Later in life, those rich social networks help keep seniors astute.

How does this play out in our daily lives? In many small ways, Alloway said.

"One real tip is, how do you use your breaks at work? If you're socializing at the water cooler, that helps working memory. If you're spending your free time texting or tweeting or watching a short video on YouTube, that hurts it.

"There's a lot of great technology, but you've got to use language. Otherwise, the brain says, 'I'm not using

this, so...'"

Local academic John McArthur of Queens University of Charlotte (pictured, right) said Twitter might get a bad rap in the media and in research circles.

"I think there is some negative attitude toward Twitter," said McArthur, a communications professor and social media expert. He pointed out that Twitter can be used to send links to more thorough articles. "I don't know that Twitter is meant to elicit deep thinking, but it can, if we connect it to other information on the internet."

And Alloway, who uses Facebook but not Twitter, allows that "there are always creative people" who might use Twitter poetically enough to grow their brains, 140 characters at a time. "If so, that would be worth another study," she said.

Informed of Alloway's opinions, Charlotte Twitter users rose to her poetic challenge Monday night. Jody Mace, who tweets under the name cltcheap tweeted:

Twitter is concise, but also can be nice. It requires that your verse remain short and terse.

And Steve Swanson of Rock Hill tweeted (under the name preacherskidd):

Twitter is littler. Only the smart can master the art to be short.

Charlotte's Twitter rock stars

2009-09-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

Social media is this era's rock 'n' roll. It's very cool, and it's filled with irritating noise. Some people are doing it like crazy, and other people think they're crazy.

Facebook is the Beatles: Sunny, likable, a common denominator. The new “I Want To Hold Your Hand” is “I Added You As A Friend.”

Twitter is the Rolling Stones. The messaging medium with a 140-character limit is darker, more cryptic and harder to love. The people who hated rock 'n' roll really hated the Stones. The people who hate social media really hate Twitter.

Which makes the cool kids sneer and say, “Good.”

Which brings us to Charlotte's cool kids. On Thursday I listed 10 Charlotte tweeters biz people should follow. Today, I'm going to add to your must-follow list. Here are the people who, when I see their tweets, I crank up the volume. They're ju

st good rock 'n' roll. I hope they give you satisfaction, too.

Want to get started on Twitter? I'll give a how-to primer in this space soon.

Some people on Twitter are just funny. WCNC producer Jeremy Markovich – who tweets under the name deftlyinane – is an enlightened snark. Ad man Jim Mitchem (top icon) also tweets with some healthy irony under the name smashadv. And the Charlotte guy who tweets under the name WadetoBlack (and prefers to leave his name at that) is just hilarious.

Who doesn't want some healthy (clinically and psychologically healthy) sex in their day? Here's a typical tweet from sexologist Becky Knight, who tweets under the name livingsex

uality: “Wish your wife was always in the mood? Think again...”

You can see inside an NFL player's life by following rhysjlloyd. The cool British Panther kicker actually opens up.

LisaHoffmann is one of the most popular Twitter personalities in Charlotte. See a video with her discussing Charlotte's Twitter community below.

Derek Kelley, (second icon) who tweets under the name DKelley31, is so honest that he's very cool. Young entrepreneur thejonwest – rocks Twitter. Twitter can be poetic, and I like the way creative guy nakedmedium makes up words. And a must-follow is Justin Ruckman (third icon) – jruckman. Buy stock in CLT Blog's chief NOW.

Want mommy cool? Tune into olgabow. Mom Olga Bowman really shows her feelings. If you want some cool-kid sneer to give your day attitude, follow the tweeter with the name prettyannoyed. Her screaming-baby icon is a clue to her tone. Can you be a cool kid and really into knitting? Apparently, yes. Follow MaggieHyde. And I love the brief Twitter bio of tiny AlexisAcosta: “I'm not short, I'm fun-size.” (Bottom icon)

OK, that's a baker's dozen, not 10.

Now, here's what I love about Twitter. The people who hate Twitter will rip me for writing this and wasting precious space and manpower in a newspaper on such noise. And the cool kids on Twitter will rip me for being mainstream media and not cool at all.

10 to follow on Twitter and funniest video ever

2009-09-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

As a Charlotte business person, who should you follow on Twitter? That's one reason we're

compiling a Charlotte Twitter Directory. In the meantime, here's a Top 10.

http://twitter.com/cltlobbyist -- Natalie English of the Chamber.
http://twitter.com/tmecia -- Tony Mecia, Observer deputy business editor.

http://twitter.com/MyCreativeTeam -- Harry Hoover, active PR guy .

http://twitter.com/CrystalDempsey -- Former Observerite is queen bee of small biz.

http://twitter.com/SubGuy -- Fort Mill small biz guy is entertaining, active.
http://twitter.com/CoreyCreed -- Corey Creed, internet marketing strategist.

http://twitter.com/WayneSutton -- Raleigh (OK, not really CLT) techie brings national news to N.C.

http://twitter.com/cltecondev -- Best official Chamber feed.

http://twitter.com/staceysimms -- WBT radio host is fast on Charlotte news.

http://twitter.com/jakrose -- Social Fresh organizer is connected.

Speaking of those you should follow, do not forget to join Charlotte Business Professionals on LinkedIn. This group has boomed from during the recession, and now has nearly 4,500 members. It's a must for CLT biz buzz. Very active with many events. On Sept. 10, Chamber chief Bob Morgan speaks.

What's with the new corporate role of social media director? Duke Energy, Bank of America, Wachovia, Wells Fargo and other big companies either have one or are hiring one. Why?

"It's just like the early phase of the Web," says Brandon Uttley, (pictured, right) who built Web sites for many businesses at Charlotte-based Carbonhouse, and now helps ad agency Wray Ward implement

social media strategy for clients. "Companies are seeing competitors adopt social media, and they're realizing it's not going to go away."

Uttley, who has watched companies go through the hiring process, says they're looking for someone to set marketing strategy on social media, actually implement those tactics, and set policy guidelines within the company.

That last part can be tricky, says social media strategist Kathleen Hessert, who runs Charlotte's Sports Media Challenge, and has advised the Southeastern Conference, ESPN and Penn State.

"In a worst-case scenario, someone might say something on social media that amounts to a trade secret," Hessert says. More likely is a personnel matter being discussed on Facebook or Twitter, she believes. "If you have the right people in the right positions, that's not going to happen," Hessert says. "I'm recommending to every client we have and every prospect we have that they seriously consider hiring a director of social media."

This is kind of a fun thing BofA is doing online, including on Facebook: The big bank will give a buck to your favorite charity if you draw a design on a "footprint" for the Chicago Marathon. The completed digital footprints will be available online, and runners will run over them in the October race. “The advent of social networking and the nature of today’s on-the-go, connected consumer are fundamentally changing the marketplace," says Charlotte's Ray Bednar, global sponsorship marketing executive for Bank of America. Check it out here.

This video, of a Japanese family mixing their pets -- a large beetle and a French bulldog mom and puppy -- kills me. Watch what the puppy does when his mom finally gets the beetle off him.

How to organize your Facebook

2009-08-31T08:50:00.000-07:00

Covered in this post: Cleaning up apps, hiding friends, privacy settings, creating friends lists and super-neat-o tricks.

Once upon a time you joined Facebook and took the attitude of "The More The Merrier." Friends requests? Sure! C'mon in. I barely remember you from middle school and you appear to have joined some kind of cult, but I'm sure you'll behave. Weird applications that take up half my screen? Oh, that'll be no problem.

Now you sign on and its like your trapped in Concord Mills. There's stuff everywhere competing for your attention. Li'l Farm Life and Fishes and Gifts and that middle school friend writing diatribes that seem about to crash your computer.

Have no fear: We're about to clean all that up. Why don't you create a new window and bring up Facebook while also keeping this blog post window on your screen. We can walk our way through together.

First let's get rid of stuff.

Kill off dumb apps

Chances are you don't want about half the applications you've approved for your page. A friend requested you do something, and before you knew it you'd OK'd it. There are several ways to edit your applications. The easiest might be clicking on the Applications link at the bottom left corner of your page. That raises a pop-up box that includes the link Edit Applications. Click there and you'll be taken to your Applications Settings. Let's get rid of some of these. Run through the toggle switch on the top right and look for apps you don't use anymore (or never did). By clicking on the X on the right of them you can delete them. I'd go through each choice on the toggle switch and clean them all up.

Hide annoying friends

Now lets deal with some annoying friends. I don't recommend unfriending people. It leads to drama and hurt feelings. (Been there.) And you might regret it later. Far less emotional is the "hide" option. The easiest way to accomplish this is to do it as people annoy you. (To put it bluntly.) Go to your Facebook Home page. There on the Newsfeed are all the posts and status updates of your friends. See somebody who's been bugging you? Hover your cursor to the right of their post and "Hide" appears. Click it. That friend is now hidden from your Newsfeed. You can also do this with applications. (I highly recommend hiding anything with Farm in the name.) If you ever want to reconsider hiding someone or something, you can click Edit Options at the bottom of your Newsfeed and see who you've been hiding.

Hide stuff from a psycho friend

But wait, maybe you have a friend who has gone pretty psycho -- perhaps temporarily -- and you need to shut them down. This requires a trip to your Privacy Settings. Click on Settings on the top of your page, and then Privacy. Click on Profile. You now can choose how to control who can see different parts of your profile. One problem might be the friend in question posting weird stuff to your wall. Let's stop that right now. Go down to Wall Posts, select Customize from the toggle switch, and add the person's name. They can no longer post to your wall. If you're having problems with a friend, you might also want to perform this same operation on the status and links option, so they can't see what you're doing. Click Customize and type in the name of the peson you don't want to see your status updates. While we're here, it's a really good idea to control who can see photos tagged of you. (Like employers seeing party picks.) Customize the Photos Tagged Of You option, and the Edit Photo Albums Privacy section.

Create "channels" of friends

Still with me? Good. Because we've actually arrived at my favorite section: How To Organize Your Friends. This is a huge time saver. The best thing about Facebook is that it brings so many aspects of your life into one place. That's also the worst thing. You might not want to jumble up work friends, family, high school friends and people from around town. But how can you just see one section of these at a time? Let's create some friends lists. This lets you create "channels," so you can watch the Jen's Friends Channel on Facebook, or the Jen's Family channel.

Click on the Friends link at the top of your Facebook page. Once there, click on Create New List. Lets create a Work Friends list. Name it that and run through your friends, selecting everyone you work with. Click Save List. Now you can click on your Work Friends list on the left side of your home page, and see only that group of people. This might be handy on Monday morning before you head into work, so you can see what everybody's been up to over the weekend. Or if there are changes afoot in the office, and you want the lowdown.

I have a half-dozen lists. It's very helpful for me if I want to see what my "Media Types" are up to, or my "Very Close Friends," "My Family" or "Newsmakers." I just find it very tiring to look through my newsfeed at everyone all together. And if I need to find out very quickly what's going on with, say, people at work, I can click to that "channel," and see right away.

Super neat-o tricks

Want to call one of your Facebook friends, but don't have their number handy? Go to your Friends list by clicking Friends at the top of the page. On the left you'll see the link Phonebook. Click it and you'll see the phone numbers of all your friends -- who haven't hidden that information. Which, actually, is not such a bad idea. But wait: You want some people to be able to call you and contact you, right? So this is where things get super neat-o. If you created friends lists of close friends and family, you can allow them to see your contact info, but not anyone else! How cool is that? Just click on Settings, Privacy, Contact Info, Customize, Some Friends, and type in the name of the lists of intimate connections you created. Now only those trusted friends can see your contact info.

What if you want to see what all your friends are saying about a certain topic, like the Panthers or CMS or health care? Type what you want in the search box at the top of the home page. Scroll down a little on that results page and you'll see what your friends have posted about the Panthers. Click View All Posts By Friends, and you'll see everything your friends are saying about your topic.

Got some tips?

I hope this has helped you clean up your Facebook page some. I believe that "channels" will become more and more necessary to organize our online lives. The better you organize, the more focused and rewarding your experience can be. And you don't have to spend so much time online!

Please let me know your thoughts on how to best organize your Facebook pages. And remember, you can always turn to the Help Page on Facebook with a question.

State giving traffic updates on Twitter

2009-08-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

Twitter was just made for car accidents. Well, causing them, yes. But also for alerting drivers to them.

This afternoon the state Department of Transportation issued a press release announcing its new Twitter feeds for drivers. Ten Twitter feeds for different geographic areas and five for specific interstates alert drivers to accidents, construction and other problems. NC DOT's Web page listing the different Twitter feeds is http://www.ncdot.gov/travel/twitter/.

If it seems ironic that a state department responsible for road safety is sending drivers to Twitter, there is a thorough reminder in the release not to tweet and drive.

"Know before you go," Greer Beaty, the DOT's communications director intoned to me seriously on the phone.

Or this could be the perfect co-pilot's tool, I pointed out.

"I hadn't thought of that," she said.

Another thing the state hadn't thought of: Making sure Charlotte was listed on the directory. When the Web site was announced this afternoon, the state's largest city was nowhere to be found. The stream had been created, but somehow dropped off the page, Beaty said. It popped back up again a few moments later.

Texting job offers?

2009-08-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

Talked to dozens of people for the Page 1 story tomorrow on LinkedIn. The weirdest little nugget was that some headhunters are now texting job candidates with job offers. They don't want to leave an e-mail on the person's work account, or call them at an inconvenient place, like the office. A few years ago that would've seemed really unprofessional. But I guess I can see the point...

Fun talking with Penelope Trunk this morning. Have always loved her tweets. "You wouldn't believe how much time I spend on them," she confided. It shows. They're really crafted. And this is a new medium that deserves its own language.

One of the main takeaways on LinkedIn is that most people use it very poorly. It's not fun, so they slap up a resume, do a half-hearted effort on the connections, and abandon it by the side of the road. Come job interview time, the people who have put a lot effort in will win. When -- if? -- the economy turns around, that could mean a difference in a lot of hires. We have some very good tips on how to use the site in the paper tomorrow. Hope they help someone.

I like the guy in Charlotte with 26,000 LinkedIn connections. Jay Rao told me that puts him two slots above Obama in the worldwide rankings.

Have heard from several dozen people on their favorite Charlotte causes. Happy to give them a shoutout here.

Here's a video of Stan Gwizdak's LinkedIn class in Concord. It really reminded me of classes at Stanford -- everybody there with their laptops open. His mantra is "give them something." He believes the gift economy comes back around online.

Penelope Trunk and LinkedIn

2009-08-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Man, if you want to get something done on social media, turn to LinkedIn.

I posted a message yesterday on LinkedIn about a story I'm writing for tomorrow's Observer and received 150 messages by the end of the day.

The knock on LinkedIn has always been that it isn't "fun." I have to agree -- unless you consider getting a new job, making more money and improving your career to be fun. I heard Charlotteans talk about headhunters contacting them directly, and landing million-dollar contracts. One guy I spoke with has 34,000 connecting on LinkedIn. If you have a LinkedIn story, let me know.

Also spoke with social media star Penelope Trunk, who has just launched a new professional networking site for Gen Y -- brazencareerist.com. "Gen Y doesn't have a resume, because they haven't done anything yet," Trunk told me. So her site has an "idea stream" like a Twitter feed, that allows users to show off their minds and get noticed.

"Gen X likes Twitter because we're suspicious of organizations and prefer to work from home," she told me. Raise your hand if you're guilty. I know. At some point I have to go into the office and tell me boss that.

Social Fresh Wrap-up

2009-08-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

One of the cool things about an edgy conference is collecting all the cool business cards. Here are the best ones I rounded up today.

Spike Jones reminds me a little of Chris Rock -- he comes at you all bombast and challenge and interrogation. But like Rock, he makes you think, and surprises you by making you feel.

Jones is one of the guys behind Brains On Fire, the innovative Greenville, S.C., marketing company known for its empathy-based grassroots approach. His loud -- and very thoughtful -- presentation closed Social Fresh, the social media conference that brought nearly 250 to uptown Charlotte today.

"Everything you've heard today is crap," Jones began, "if you don't have a strategy." The crowd, looking to better use social media for business, heard they should create "movements," not campaigns.

"This past election one guy ran a campaign and the other guy ran a movement," Jones said. Connecting with people's passions beats trying to sell them something, he said. See Jones speak in the video below.

Quotable quotes:

-- "Business on social media right now is like teen sex. Everybody wants to do it, but they don't know how. Then they finally get to, and they're disappointed." -- David Armano, Social Fresh keynote speaker, of of Dachis Corp.

-- "Well, I'm unfollowing him on Twitter." -- Jones, during his talk, when he asked if another panelist was in the crowd, and the person had left.

Live from Social Fresh

2009-08-24T15:03:00.000-07:00

Businesses need to outgrow the "gangly teen-age" phase of social media and adopt best practices to best use the booming communications media, said top experts at the Social Fresh conference today in uptown Charlotte.

About 230 have packed the Social Fresh conference at the Holiday Inn, including reps from Bank Of America, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and others. Walmart sent three from its Arkansas headquarters.

Keynote speaker David Armano told a spillover crowd that businesses on social media today are like teenagers experimenting with sex: They don't know what to do, and then they're disappointed when they finally get to do it. Armano closed his talk by telling businesses to look beyond this teen-age phase. "It's time to grow up," said Armano, of Dachis Corp., a new social media consulting firm founded with $50 million in venture capital.

Charlotte's Kathleen Hessert -- famous for teaching Shaquille O'Neal to tweet -- told a crowd that knowing how to post on social media and knowing the right way to represent your company are two entirely different things. Below, see a video of Hessert, who runs the consulting firm Sports Media Challenge from her six-person office at N.C. 51 and Carmel Road.

Other highlights:

-- Bank Of America's Andres Echevarria told me he believes social media can help in "flattening the organization" so expertise can be shared throughout. "Tech guys aren't necessarily the most social people. So they can share knowledge and get a little chance to be in the spotlight."

-- Idek.net, a url-shrinking company in Raleigh is getting lots of buzz for the analytics it can provide. One tip they've discovered: Thursday at 2 p.m. is the best time to tweet -- big audience coming back from lunch, but not that many actually tweeting. Want to get rewteeted? Post then.

-- Carey-based David B. Thomas of software company SAS gave tips on using LinkedIn for business -- and specifically getting a job as we emerge from the recession. Use your expertise on LinkedIn to show you are a thought leader in your field, he says. Don't just go hat-in-hand.

Your favorite Charlotte cause?

2009-08-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

What's you favorite Charlotte cause? I asked on my Facebook page, and invited new friends to post theirs on my wall. I'm reprinting their shoutouts below. It might just look like a list, but if you read between the lines, you see what really matters to people: Helping people with multiple sclerosis, or mental health struggles, or stray animals.

Connecting with the causes you believe in is a big part of Mission Possible, the community effort The Observer's helping to organize. Social media has been a wonderful bridge between people challenged by hardship. On Facebook, there are 94,000 groups related to cancer.

If there's a Charlotte cause you believe in, post it on my Facebook page, check out Mission Possible, or just mention it in the notes below.

Thanks for caring.

Chris Hawkins
The Batten Disease Support and Research Association is a non profit dedicated to supporting families affected by Batten Disease, a fatal inherited disorder that strikes children.

Sandra Davis Shanklin
DEFINITELY, Battered Women's Shelter!!!

Bo Hussey
When someone is having a hard time finding a job because of lack of skills, experience or education, Goodwill is there to help.

Wanda S Horton
Union County Red Cross - Serves both Union & Anson Counties.

Doug Robinson Animal Adoption League. Non-profit all volunteer organization fostering dogs rescued from shelters in North and South Carolina.

Christine Weber The Friends of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control (FCMACC) is the only not for profit organization dedicated to raising funds for the city's munincipal, open-door animal shelter, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control (CMACC)

Jim Mitchem
CMPD Animal Care and Control.

Michael Sealy

my favorite is The Charlotte Rescue Mission.

Marsha Ford

I'm the Community Relations & Fundraising Director for the Women of AT&T. We work with various charities that contribute to the lives of women and girls.

Sherri Bain

Shelter for Battered Women, Shelter for Homeless Women, Crisis Pregnancy, Loaves and Fishes.

Lynn Johnson

The Jingle Bell Ball is Dec. 11th and the proceeds go to the Shelter for Battered Women. They are also sponsoring a fundraiser on Sept. 26 at Dilworth Neighborhood Grill. Live band - Underground Detour - $10 cover. Should be a lot of singles attending!!

Bill Maerkle

My favorite cause is the volunteer unit of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. We are a group of about 600 volunteers who are allowed to work in many areas within the department.

Casey Shannon

Hoskins Park Ministries...amazing group of people...changing lives everyday.

Dianne Chase

Catholic Social Services...dealing with an overwhelming demand..they help anyone who asks... Fun and important wine tasting fundraiser- Vineyard of Hope- on Nov 13- Marriott SouthPark

Jodi Justen McLaughlin The USA is not commemorating the 100th Annivesary of the Boy Scouts of America! As a proud mom of an Eagle Scout I know this is an important program. Please join!

Alina MacNichol My Shoutout goes to Classroom Central! A marvelous resource for the teachers and students of CMS ...

Charlotte International-Cabinet
My shoutout goes to the Charlotte International Cabinet (CIC).The primary role of the Charlotte International Cabinet is to promote Charlotte as an international city and to serve as a resource to foster international relationships.

Amy Farrell
My shoutout goes to Kids Voting - prepares kids for a lifetime of active civic engagement, supports K-12 academic achievement and builds 21st century skills such as critical thinking, decision making and civic literacy.

Jeff Hartlage Catfish Hunter Chapter of The ALS Association - www.catfishchapter.org
serves all of North Carolina.

Charlotte Klopp
My shoutout goes to the World Affairs Council of Charlotte (WACC). We are a regional center for education and discussion of world affairs.

Mike McBride
My shoutout goes to Tiger World. We are an animal conservation and educational center dedicated to rescue, rehabilitation, and preservation of exotic animals.

Aldo Muccia Humane Society.

Shannon Hinson
My shoutout also goes to Thompson CFF! We embrace children who are at-risk for social and academic failure by providing intensive treatment, protection, specialized education, prevention and intervention services and stabilized family environments.

Kathy Catsinas Rowan
My shoutout goes to Thompson Child & Family Focus, a group that builds stronger,healthier families through prevention and treatment.

Alan Taylor I want to give a shout out to Hope Haven, a residential community that assists recovering addicts who would otherwise be homeless.

Video of the day:

I saw "The Hurt Locker" last night, a gritty, realistic, human movie about the war in Iraq. It reminded me of my time in Europe as an editor of The Stars & Stripes. When soldiers are overseas, they can feel very far away from everything they know and love. This is a moving video that reminded me that regardless of the politics of the war, the young people representing our country are an admirable, diverse and very human group.

More firms ban social media than gun sites

2009-08-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hypocrisy: As more companies use social media to promote their brands -- and screen prospective hires -- more also attempt to control or prevent their employees' use of the sites. Now comes a new study that more companies ban their employees from accessing social media sites at work than weapons sites. I'm the first to admit that Twitter and Facebook can be annoying. But they don't kill people. No disgruntled worker ever walked into the office and tweeted his boss to death. What this points out, once again, is that businesses -- including mainstream media -- want to do two contradictory things:

-- Harness the power of social media to access information and build business.

-- And control the message about their brand, and the use of the sites in the workplace.

You cannot take part in the dialogue and control the message. If you want to talk, you're going to get talked about. If you want to listen, you're going to hear things about yourself you don't want to hear. Go to ScanSafe's site to read more about the study mentioned above. The Web security company looks at a billion Web requests a month. I first read about the study on the social media blog Mashable, which, interestingly, didn't pick up on the weapons tie-in.

Many people are insulated from diverse political views online because of the company they keep. That was one of the main takeaways from my front-page story in Friday's Charlotte Observer on the role Facebook has played in the national debate over health-care reform. Users both for and against the Obama effort reported they believed most people on Facebook felt the way they do. And experts said this was a flaw of online political debate: As we learn to filter better, we better filter out opposing views.

If you have a cause or charity in Charlotte that you'd like to give a shoutout to, friend me and post it on my Facebook page. I'll also post your name and cause here. I'm trying to make a run at 5,000 friends before Facebook lifts that as the cap. If we can tie for the world lead, The Observer, and I suspect other media outlets, will give more attention to the charity chain and everyone's causes.

I'm writing a story about how to best use LinkedIn to rebuild your career as we

(hopefully) emerge from the recession. Please contact me if you have thoughts.

Forgive my delay in sending out my new business cards, which are very, very cool. I will mail them out ASAP, I promise.

The Observer's Twitter directory is gathering steam. To sign up, click here.

Finally, time for the video of the day. The Web can be used to blast those we disagree with and spread hatred. Or it can be used to reach out and to build tolerance and understanding. This is a moving video that does the latter. I think it will put a lump in your throat, if you open your heart to it.

Give a shoutout to your cause

2009-08-21T05:31:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I landed at 999 friends on Facebook, and folks started asking what I would do to mark 1,000. Through a discussion on my page, we decided to let each new friend give a shoutout to their favorite local cause on my wall. This could work in concert with The Observer's Mission Possible project. I'll repeat the names of the new friends, and their causes here on my blog. Facebook caps friends lists at 5,000, so if we make it that far, we'll be tied for No. 1 in the world. If that happens, The Observer -- and, I suspect, other media outlets -- will give the new, social media cause train some serious pub. To friend me and give your cause some pub, click here. Not on Facebook? Add your cause in the comments below. It's a lot better than making the world a more unfriendly place, right?

A couple of big stories the past two days. The New York Times put the Southeastern Conference's threat to ban social media from ballgames on its front page Thursday, two days after we had the story in The Observer. And today we have a front-page story on how the health-care reform issue has played out on Facebook. Sarah Palin made her infamous "death panels" comments there, you know.

The Observer's Twitter directory got some national pub yesterday. Media commentator Jim Romenesko noted it in his blog on the latest newspaper tech developments. If you'd like to be followed by local people and get your business some attention on Twitter, you can find the form by clicking here.

Working on a story about LinkedIn, and how people are using it to help their careers during the recession. If you have ideas, contact me here, or better yet, on my LinkedIn page, here.

Finally, here's a hilarious video of the day -- an oldie but a goody featuring a former Charlotte anchorman. I saw it for the first time today, thanks to Facebook friend David Beckwith of Charlotte, who posted it on his page. But this blooper featuring Michael Scott, formerly of WBTV, made the rounds years ago, and ended up on "The Tonight Show." Watch Scott gyrate when the lizard jumps on him!

Charlottean taught Shaq to tweet?

2009-08-19T04:49:00.000-07:00

A Charlotte woman taught Shaq to tweet? Who knew?

Shaquille O'Neal is a giant on Twitter, with nearly 2 million followers. He's famous for his playful and frequent posts.

Kathleen Hessert, the same Charlotte consultant who bailed out the Southeastern Conference in its social media missteps this week, put Twitter in the big man's hands.

An impostor was tweeting under his name, and his team, the Phoenix Suns, wanted to bring in legal counsel. Hessert said no, just let the real deal blow the fake away. She helped O'Neal get on Twitter as THE_REAL_SHAQ, and he took to it right away. "The first day he sent out, I think, 17 tweets," she said.

This week, the SEC faced a flurry of fan dissatisfaction over its policy, released earlier this month, banning social media at all athletic events. The aim of the ban was to protect a $3 billion contract with CBS, which could be threatened, the conference believed, by YouTube posts. Fans protested online, questioning why even Twitter would be banned in the stands. Many fans pointed out that the ban was unenforceable.

Facing a PR disaster of grassroots dissent online, the SEC turned to Hessert, who has also advised Penn State, the University of Virginia and ESPN on social media problems. Hessert runs the consulting firm Sports Media Challenge from her six-person office at N.C. 51 and Carmel Road. She advised the SEC to listen to the fans, and answer them -- on social media. Rather than issuing a press release to mainstream media, Hessert posted an interview with the SEC to her blog, and tweeted out the news.

“Issuing the new policy on social media was absolutely intentional,” said Hessert, “If the conversation is fan-generated, you've got to be where they are.”

While blogs commented and fans protested online, The Observer was the only traditional media to cover the story early this week, said Charles Bloom, an SEC spokesman. “Ninety-five percent of the feedback we got was online,” he said.

The new policy only bans broadcasting or recording what could be “a substitute for radio, television or video coverage.” And if a fan does record a game, “nothing will happen in the stadium,” said Bloom. The conference's tech advisers will work with YouTube or another site to pull the pirated material down.

Hessert said in both the case of O'Neal's impostor and the SEC's missteps, all that was really needed was a change in attitude by the organization.

“Everyone is grappling with what to do with this stuff, but it's not the tech that gets in the way,” said Hessert. It's often a matter of embracing the dialogue, she believes. “It's a cultural thing.”

Obama vs. Palin on Facebook; SEC update

2009-08-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

It's Obama vs. Palin in an ongoing health care debate taking place on their Facebook pages. The president has 6.6 million supporters, Palin fewer than 800,000, but her attacks on health-care reform are pointed and her followers outspoken, as has been noted in political journals. Both pages are regularly updated with health care posts. Facebook ads, which provide demographic information on the 73 million American adults on Facebook, shows 1.9 million users strongly identify themselves with the Democratic Party and 1.6 million strongly identify themselves with the Republican Party. Are conservative voices crying out elsewhere on the Web? Where? Do you think the online health-care debate is valuable?

How do you know who's on Twitter in your community? Good question. That's why we're compiling a Twitter directory. Sign up here. So you can get the right followers, and you can find the right people to follow. The directory is searchable, so the other knitters in Elizabeth can find you, and readers can find your blog. And you want customers to find your business on Twitter, right? Tomorrow we'll announce who won a free lunch for being among the first 100 to sign up.

The Southeastern Conference has loosened its rules on social media. The verdict: Video is out, Twitter is in. Or actually, any kind of broadcast is out. The new rule outlaws anything that could be "a substitute for radio, television or video coverage." That's what was expected, as the SEC safeguards its $3 billion contract with CBS. But why was the rule -- which prohibited all social media at games -- so strict in the first place? We're in an odd place with social media: Half the establishment (whatever that is) wants to be taught how to "do it right." The other half wants to shut it down. For more on the SEC ruling, see my blog post here, and Mashable's update here.

Facebook has reassured Canada that the giant peephole will strengthen users' privacy controls. Our northern neighbor demanded Facebook demonstrate more attention to privacy rights. Wish this country was more pro-active on that.

The Huffington Post has hooked up with Facebook to aggregate friends' favorite news stories. The New York Times did something similar last year. I like it, but will this create even more of an insular news community in which you hear what you want to hear?

There was just an enormous amount of Panther commentary on Twitter during last night's game. Knew it. The tweeps who vowed they would only watch the game couldn't resist second guessing calls and tweeting high-fives.

The call went out on Facebook and Twitter today when Mark Epperly of Charlotte lost his white German shepherd near The Plaza and Eastway. She's wearing a pink collar. E-mail him at Alifeyoudreamof@gmail. This is what the real-time Web is good for.

For God's sake, hide the Farmville application on your Facebook page. Just look to the right of your friends' posts about it, and click HIDE. Hide anything you don't want to see. Or anyone.

SEC rethinks ban on social media

2009-08-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

You're at a South Carolina football game, sitting in the sun at Williams-Brice Stadium. USC scores, and as the fans go wild, you tweet to your buddies, "Touchdown, Gamecocks!"

Oops, there's a flag on that play. All social networking at games is against SEC rules. Gamecocks can't tweet. That's not allowed.

The giant booing sound you hear is SEC fans across the Internet reacting to what some say is college sports' most restrictive social media policy. Way to tweet your protest, fans. Thanks to the reaction on blogs, Twitter and elsewhere, that policy is about to be revised, the SEC told me this afternoon.

"I know what's being written," said Charles Bloom, the conference spokesman, about an outcry online by the media and fans. "The thought process is to get it loosened up a bit." Bloom expects a revision to be finished in a day or two.

The SEC is trying to protect its $3 billion contract with CBS and ESPN, which has video rights to its sporting events. A restriction on fans posting videos is "tougher to move," Bloom told me. "The main concern is videos." That part is staying put, it appears.

So, can fans post photos to Twitter and Facebook from the games? That remains to be seen, he said. Bloom indicated that fans would probably be able to tweet from the stands. But he confirmed that, right now, strictly speaking, that is forbidden. "I'm advocating that we loosen that part up," Bloom said.

According to the policy, ticketed fans can't "produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information."

The question is, why was the policy so restrictive in the first place? The Big 10 has a far more open social media policy that seems to embrace different formats and invites fans to take part. Here's more on the SEC controversy.

If you haven't seen the video above, of a guy who marches to the beat of his own drummer, check it out. Go your own way, and you never know what will happen.

In the past 24 hours, six of my friends on Facebook have posted about health care. That's not comments to an existing thread, but unique posts. I did a test this morning, searching Facebook and Twitter to see how many users were posting about health care. From all users, there were eight unique wall posts in one minute on Facebook regarding health care. (That didn't include comments or messages. These were new wall posts by users.) In one minute there were 20 Tweets mentioning health care. To put that in perspective, it took 45 minutes for eight people to post on Facebook about "Mad Men," the wildly popular cable show that had a season premiere the night before. But are all these posts constructive dialogue? Or just blasting?

In case you somehow missed it, this squirrel photo is a sensation online. He took a curious peek at the camera, and became a star of a Minnesota couple's vacation photo. Jackson and Melissa Brandts were on the "Today" show this morning, insisting that the photo is real.

If you want Charlotte people on Twitter to find you and follow you, sign up for our Twitter directory. It will be searchable, so you can list your interests, and find other people who share them. Sign up here.

Should we fear Facebook?

2009-08-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

What if the federal government demanded that Facebook adequately demonstrate it is safeguarding our privacy? That's happening, but not in our country.

Something inside me cheers Canada's privacy commissioner (wow, they have a federal official looking at that?) for putting the onus on Facebook to prove that the giant peephole is adhering to our northern neighbor's privacy laws. If Jennifer Stoddart isn't satisfied with Facebook's response Monday, she has two weeks to take the company to court.

Canada has two main concerns:

-- An overarching dissatisfaction with Facebook's privacy policies.

-- A protest of Facebook's belief that it still owns your information, photos, wall posts, etc. -- even after you terminate your account.

Others have voiced concern about the latter, including Mashable columnist Stan Schroeder, who eloquently sounded an alarm in February.

All of this was brought into a new focus last week when Facebook acquired social media aggregator FriendFeed, which was a little like McDonald's buying the entire Food Court. The Washington Post's Chadwick Matlin wrote today that this purchase raises concerning questions about a monopoly -- of two huge companies effectively owning our lives online. Are Google and Facebook gobbling us up in ways we won't really discover until after it's too late?

The are very real reasons to be concerned. I use Facebook as much as anyone I know. It is an important and wonderful way to connect. But as much as we use and like it, we should also be aware of how our information can be used. And as a culture, we might need more safeguards.

I would periodically purge your Facebook photos, keeping them on your computer, or on an online photo-sharing site, but not on Facebook. And I never take part in those "lists" in which you bare all kinds of detailed personal information to a pyramid of people. Facebook owns that information, and the more you bare in those games, the more they keep and can give or sell. Why list a detailed work history on Facebook, when LinkedIn is so much more effective as a work networking tool? In short, Facebook should not be your one-stop social network.

However, I do feel relieved on one count:

-- Facebook is as overloaded as a one-hour all-you-can-eat buffet plate. Its interface has become cluttered, its user controls complicated. It seems in danger of imploding, at least to the extent that it bottoms out under the weight of its expansion, and loses some popularity.

It has been said that Google is the new Microsoft, Facebook is the new Google, and Twitter is the new Facebook. I would agree that Facebook is making some of the same mistakes Google has made. Namely, loss of its mission, and a kind of greed concerning its users' lives.

But I don't see Twitter making those same mistakes. Twitter has invited collaboration without imposing exploitative practices on users. Twitter remains a gift economy, and it keeps on giving. There has not yet been a rush to monetize. Evan Williams and Biz Stone should be commended for that.

If Facebook has taken us down the wrong path, we may look back some time in the future and wonder how we trusted so much of our lives to a company where the average age of employees is 26. It is vital to understand Facebook's privacy settings. But a larger question is, how can we protect our privacy from Facebook?

And why does Canada have such a pro-active privacy commissioner, and we don't?

Bacon-filled Bloody Mary?

2009-08-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

Ever seen a cocktail quite like this? The Facebook photo below is proof that northerners can be just as food-indulgent as us. Kayte Hembree of Charlotte captured this shot of a restaurant's specialty "Bacon-Filled Bloody Mary" on a recent visit to Milwaukee. How's that for a way to say welcome to the weekend? (Actually, there seems to be a lot of stuff besides bacon in there. It's from Wisconsin, so is that yellow thing at the top a wheel of cheese?) She says the Comet Cafe tacks on the mini-Miller Beer chaser for free. (The drink costs 7 bucks.) Thank goodness. This drink was lacking something.

BACON-FILLED BLOODY MARY UPDATE: Kayte tells me her boyfriend, Jeff Doggett, is trying to get the Greasy Mary (my name, not his) served at the soon-to-open Terrace Cafe in Piedmont Town Center. As head of Doggett Advertsing, Jeff is handling PR for the cafe, which is expected to open around Labor Day.

BACON-FILLED BLOODY MARY UPDATE II: Kayte tells me that the Comet Cafe in Milwaukee, birthplace of the bacon-filled Bloody Mary, is actually known for its vegan fare. No word on how the non-alcoholic, vegan version of the bacon-filled Bloody Mary is selling.

You've sent me some great photos lately, and I plan to run at least one here every day. To send me your photo, tag me in a photo on Facebook or send me a picture on Twitter.

Weird and sad story much-discussed on Twitter this morning: Motorcyclist doing wheelies this morning, lost control, hit a Target -- store, that is -- in south Charlotte, and died. Bizarre and unfortunate.

Leigh Rose of Charlotte, who appears to have the most critter-filled yard in Charlotte, got quite a reaction by posting the above photo on Facebook. She snapped the shot right after this snake popped out of a hedge in her yard. Many pointed out that this appears to be a "good snake," which eats rodents and is not poisonous. Didn't seem to relieve Leigh too much.

Traded emails with Google yesterday, making sure I'm in line for Google Wave, the new interactive email sensation being released to a test market in September. Some developers have their hands on it now. Lucky.

What would a blog post be without a reminder to join our new Twitter directory? Five hundred joined the first 12 hours, and it has continued to boom since then. This will be for your use, to help you find the right people to follow in Charlotte, and so local followers can find you. Sign up here. For more on why we're doing this, see the post below.

Good lines on Twitter: "I learned a great lesson from Motown: You've got to know your temptations from your miracles." And, this tweet passed around last night, of a Jimmy Fallon joke refering to Michael Vick's new team: "Good thing they're not the Philadelphia Beagles."

Finally, here's a photo of our young contest winner, Charlotte's Janelle Thomas, in the official Panthers sun hat we gave away here. We asked for your best 10 words on why you deserved the hat. Her winning response: "Starving student fan can't afford tickets, wears hat on couch." Congrats, Janelle.

Why a Charlotte Twitter directory?

2009-08-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

We're compiling a Twitter directory for Charlotte. On the first day 500 signed up, and more continue to do so. You can sign up here.

Here's why we are doing this:

The ability to search for topics and people changed Twitter dramatically, and made it far more useful and relevant. Evan Williams talked about it at the TED conference in February. Twitter went from a strictly "who" medium to a "what" medium.

Before that, Twitter was a kind of CB radio of the 21st century: "Here's my cute handle, listen to me try to be clever, let's mostly talk about how cool CB radio is." The tech blog Radar O'Reilly recently researched and wrote about Twitter's limited effectiveness as a wide-open conversation medium, and its importance in other, more focused areas.

The ability to search, categorize and focus Twitter is changing it from a noisy and frivolous medium to a medium of unforeseen utility and power.

Now Twitter is a lightning-quick headline service, a living wiki of expertise, the easiest and fastest publishing and broadcasting tool, and a long-distance message service with broad reach.

Search helped accomplish all of that. And keep in mind that Twitter search was not developed inside the company. Neither were @replies, or the best Twitter user interfaces. Users and third parties helped to develop all of these.

When I was in Silicon Valley last year, I was privy to some of the thinking of Twitter leadership. One way Williams and Biz Stone are looking at Twitter is like a broad satellite TV package with millions of channels. It's fun to surf, but it's also an unfocused time suck. They want user contributors to continue using search to help focus that experience.

So Steve Gunn, The Observer innovations editor, and I had an idea:

What if we could help to localize Twitter to Charlotte, and identify users' interests -- so you could use search to combine "who," "what" and "where"? What if you could say, "Here are the working moms in Dilworth that you know on Twitter"? Or, "here are the bloggers in Charlotte that you don't know on Twitter"? Or, "Here are the pizza places in Charlotte offering coupons on Twitter"?

We would like this to be like a phone book. If you want to be found on Twitter by other Charlotteans, and for your business to be found, opt in. If not, opt out. We will never use this list for spam, and will do everything in our power to make sure others don't either.

Some people join "follow trains" and even pay to get more Twitter followers. Others end up connected with shady people, fake accounts, strangers in far-flung places, porn sites, and Twitter robots. It's hard to know who the players are.

We'd like to add a new tool that helps build the Charlotte community on a volunteer basis.

If you want to be found by Charlotteans on Twitter, we'd love to have you. Building that community is our goal.

Again, here's the form.

Get listed in our Twitter directory

2009-08-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder who in Charlotte's on Twitter? Want people to see your business tweets? Want more local followers? We're building a Charlotte Twitter directory to do just those things. If you join, you can see who to follow locally instead of getting lost in the noise. You do not have to follow anyone, and your information will never be used for spam or any other advertising. We just list you in the directory, so local people can follow you more easily.

A Charlotte Twitter directory -- like a phone book.

Yep, there are little lists kicking around the Twittersphere, but we're hoping for something comprehensive just for Charlotte. More than 175 joined in the first 16 hours, and it is growing fast. Be a part of it, and get your tweets noticed. Click here to fill out the form. Thoughts? Shoot me a line on Twitter. http://twitter.com/JeffElder

-- Social not-working? That's sneaking peeks at Facebook and Twitter on the job. (Going on LinkedIn is called "job hunting," and is very dangerous.) Here's recent research on how much productivity workplaces lose to these sites. And here's another study that shows surfing at work helps productivity. I vote the latter.

Spent some time at Microsoft's Charlotte campus on Wednesday. That 1,100-worker brick-and-glass outfit is mostly sales and support, but even there everyone is talking Bing, the big company's smart search engine. Adam Morgan, a sales director at the campus, told me he's working with large companies in the Charlotte area to look at how and when their customers search.

-- Two Microsoft PR folks looked aghast at my iPhone. (I was tweeting in the halls.) My iPhone retaliated by deeming the wi-fi certificate "untrustworthy."

-- Walmart has signed up for Social Fresh, the Charlotte social networking conference organized by local social networking leader Jason Keath. Impressive to reel in giant companies.

-- Lots of excitement around Google Wave, seen by many as a very promising new email tool that adds wiki-type of collaboration. In a little more than a month, a select group of users will get to test drive what could be the next big thing. Hard to believe Google hasn't reached its 100,000 early users yet, but the form to sign up is still online. Worth a shot.

-- I'm writing on "Whom won't you "friend" on Facebook today. Got stories? Friend me, ormessage me on Twitter.

-- One of the hot apps going around Facebook is the Myers-Briggs personality test, a classic management tool. If you've never taken it, this app is actually a quick way to get a peek into your social tendencies, and share them with others. The logo sure takes up a lot of space on your wall, though. You can "hide" the app with a link right next to the logo, if you're tired of seeing other people's.

From now on I'll run a Funny Video Of The Day in this blog -- YouTube is a social network, after all. I'd prefer to run yours. Send me a link if you have one. The one below, of a crazy penguin and a lazy polar bear represents two distinct personality types. I'm both.

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2009-08-12T05:22:00.000-07:00