Twitter: A Window into #WestIndian Culture

November 8, 2009

As an online PR professional, you work with a variety of web based tools, dashboards, platforms, destinations, networks…throw in a few more nouns and you get the point. Business and tech analysts dig into them upon release, a value is assigned to them and their creators, promotion hits hyperdrive and off it goes to the general public. We integrate these tools into our daily routine to get work done, and a few of the special ones get to be a part our lives.

If you think I’m going to far by saying that these tools are a part of my life, talk to any online pr pro you know about what happened the day Twitter really went down or the day gmail just wasnt there…but on the to point of this post.

hashtags3Using these tools can become so normal that, in some ways, they get a little boring. Well, I got a little surprise last week when I looked over to the trending topics sidebar and saw that “#westindians” was one of the top trending topics.

Why was this so surprising?

We often get into categorizing by race but stop at the surface, without digging deeper to look at subgroups. So it was extremely exciting to see people from an essentially “hidden” subgroup (my subgroup!) identifying and discussing the culture from their perspective.

Now, I can’t guarantee that everything people shared is true…but I can say that people were very open and honest with their thoughts.

I’ve spoken about hashtag use before, specifically about how we need to do some hashtag research to see if there are communities that we can tap into and increase the power of our message. Well just like blogging and anything else in the social media space, our efforts tend to work better if we listen first.

Like I said, not everything tweeted here is truly representative of West Indian culture, but I couldn’t let me this evening go by without sharing this user-created window into #WestIndian culture.

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Posted by jaywalk1

Raise Your Hand If You Care Who Owns Social Media

October 22, 2009

Ok class,  raise your hand if you care who owns social media. old classroom hands down

I found this subject interesting a little over a year ago when there seemed to be some industry infighting, but the battle is still very much on with Marketing, PR and even some HR departments making claims to own social media.

Maybe since I’m getting to do the work (and I’m not in a true corporate setting)  this isn’t as big of a deal to me, but can’t we all get along?

Can’t we all have a piece of the pie?

We all have social media campaigns we could develop, contribute to, and execute. Why not play nice together, collaborate?

My stance on this may change again at some point, but for now, let’s forget about who owns it and focus on doing it big and doing it right!

7 Comments | PR, Public Relations, Social Media, Thoughts, Work | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jaywalk1

Going to the Final BlogPotomac?

October 21, 2009

Are you going to the Final Blog Potomac? In a way, I’m a little sad to know that this will be the last one, but I’m glad that I had the opportunity to attend all of them.

I’m hearing rumblings about about a BlogPotomac wake, which could be pretty interesting. Love how the interwebs are kooky and kewl at the same time. Maybe it’ll be like Saw and repeatedly pop up with unexpected new sessions. Unlikely, but it would be nice to regularly gather speakers like these folks.

So, I said it last time and I’ll say it once more:  If you’re going to BlogPotomac and we have not met in person, leave a comment here, email me at james.walker@prprescriptions.com, @ me or DM me. It would be great to meet a few more good folks in the community.

See you Friday!

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Posted by jaywalk1

What Have You Done For Me Lately? A Note on Climate Change

October 15, 2009

bad09-cli_change

It’s October 15th, 2009 – Blog Action Day!

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.

This video above spells it all out, but this initiative is major. Blog Action Day 2008 focused on Poverty, and it has definitely grown in prominence since then. How do I know this? One of the contributors this year: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown!

Now Down to Business – Climate Change and What Have You Done For Me Lately

I could try to tackle the issue of Climate Change with  a bunch of stats, but if you know me, you know I’d much rather go with a personal perspective…mixed in with some music.

Yesterday, I went to a networking session with a few people from work . In the email exchanges, people began talking about meeting up to take cabs. Not a big issue right? The session was 30 mins away. Makes sense right?

Here’s the thing: The session was metro accessible. Our building is practically built on top of a metro station on the same line. It was rush hour (meaning the roads were full with traffic…and metro was scheduled to run extra trains).

I wanted to take the metro oddly because I thought of the climate and how it would be a waste to take a cab when we didn’t need one, even if we were in a group.

I say oddly because I am far from winning a green award, but I do care about the environment and thought it was senseless.

To avoid appearing somewhat rude/anti-social, I took a cab with the group, but the whole situation got me thinking.

I was compelled something to do something, not for personal preference, but in the name of the environment.

I can see the question mark on your forehead…but this is rare for me.

Next time, I’ll actually speak up, but here are a couple things for you to chew on:

How many times do you things in the name of the environment?

When have you done for the environment lately? Ooh ooh ooh yeah! (jk…sort of)

As you chew on that, listen to the ever-talented inspiration for this post:

Janet Jackson: What Have You Done For Me Lately?

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Posted by jaywalk1

National Visionary Leadership Project: An Evening with Chuck Brown

October 11, 2009

It feels like it’s been a long time since my last post. While I was working, running around town, and basically doing everything but blogging, I thought back to the interview I did with Jun Loayza for Awesome Bloggers.

In that interview, I said that I would work on a few things in terms of this blog. One involved making a schedule…still need to get to that point, but I am making some progress on another front – integrating music (something I couldn’t live without!) into my posts.

Given the time that’s gone by, I felt like Bob Marley’s “Nice Time” would work.

“Long time we no have no nice time:
You-you doo-doo-doo, yeah: think about that!”

As much I love listening to some old time reggae from him and the Wailers, Chuck_Browntoday’s post is about another great musician, the Godfather of Go-Go Chuck Brown. Before I came to DC, I had no clue what Go-Go was, but I think I was here for a sum total of 18hrs before I figured it out.

Over the last six years, I have come to love Go-Go not just because of its addictive rhythm but also because of the joy I see spread the minute anyone from the District hears it.

When I found out that Chuck was being honored by the National Visionary Leadership Project, I knew I had to attend.

Co-founded in 2001 by Camille O. Cosby, Ed.D. and Renee Poussaint, the National Visionary Leadership Project (NVLP) “unites generations to create tomorrow’s leaders by recording, preserving, and distributing through various media, the wisdom of extraordinary African American elders – Visionaries – who have shaped American history.”

All of the photos, videos and podcasts featuring legends of our time are available on the NVLP website, and permanently archived at the Library of Congress with the goal of allowing students, scholars and the public to gain a new understanding of America’s past, the roles so many have played in shaping what it is today and the lessons to be learned from it.

I was lucky to attend the great event with PR mover and shaker Amanda Miller Littlejohn and we teamed up to live tweet the event. For a play by play and some interesting perspective, check out the #NVLP tweets.

I strongly encourage you to check out NVLP’s website, but in the meantime, I leave you with one of my favorites from Chucky B.

1 Comment | Events, Just Fun, Music, Thoughts | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jaywalk1

Quick Note on Reaching the “African-American Audience”

October 2, 2009

One thing I need to say up front: We are NOT all the same.

I’m sure that many of you think I just stated the obvious, but I had to say it because while many people accept that to be true, it seems to go right out the window when people begin planning communication campaigns.

The diversity of races is acknowledged, but somehow the idea of diversity within races does not make it into the conversation.

Most people who know me well are aware of the fact that my family is from the Caribbean. West Indian people and really anyone else who looks black in this country seem to get placed in the African-American category, but any 1st generation American with West Indian roots knows exactly how “African-American” our family members truly feel….

This is a bit of a rant, but it’s a rant with a purpose.

netjournallogoYesterday I picked up the Sept/Oct issue of the Network Journal and decided to dig into their news brief section. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that they dedicated a section just to data on Caribbean-Americans.

It’s so rare to see data on any segment of  the broad group referred to as African-American that I can somewhat understand how groups of people from the Caribbean get lost in the planning process. Though I have a bit more cultural perspective here, I’m still a communications guy and I’ll admit the fact that it’s hard to craft and tailor messages for an audience on which there is not much data.

Here are a few interesting points from the Networking Journal:

  • Percentage of the African-American population of Caribbean origin: approx. 33
  • European languages spoken in the Caribbean-American community:  4( Dutch, English, French, Spanish)
  • Buying power of the Caribbean-American community: $16.3 billion
  • Amount of money remitted annually to the Caribbean region by Carribbean-Americans: more than $8 billion
  • Number of President Obama’s cabinet members with roots in the Caribbean: 3 – U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder Jr. (Barbados); White House Political Director, Patrick Gaspard (Haiti); UN Ambassador, Susan Rice (Jamaica)
  • Percent of Caribbean nationals who described themselves in a study as “a person of Caribbean Heritage” rather than “African-American” or “a person in the general market”: 72

As a professor I had in college often proclaimed, I say all this to say that in trying to reach the “African-American” audience or any defined racial group, it is worth taking the time to drill down a bit further and learn about existing cultural sub groups.

When we fail to do so, we miss a great opportunity to create campaigns that resonate with all areas of our target audiences, tap into their sizeable buying power, change perceptions and inspire people to take action.

6 Comments | Diversity, PR, Public Relations, Thoughts | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jaywalk1

The CBC Needs To Be More Social

September 27, 2009

cbc_alc 09If you were out and about in the DC area over the past weekend, I would expect you to know that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) just hosted their 2009 Annual Legislative Conference, but I wouldn’t expect you to know what happened there.

Why? I don’t think the CBC used social media as much as they could have to promote the conference, the people in attendance, the issues being discussed and the solutions created.

**Full disclosure – I was NOT in attendance at this year’s Annual Legislative Conference. Not because I was boycotting or anything of that nature. Just couldn’t make it. Before I go any further, I would like to say this:

Only a small group of people can attend conferences like these, but to create the change that needs to occur, many more people need to be informed and engaged. Social media can help achieve that goal.

Though I could not attend, I tried my best to catch up on what was discussed, but it was not particularly easy. Honestly, if I wanted to party, I would have had no problem gathering that info on Twitter, but for some reason, the pure content or true substance of the meeting was hard to find.

You have a problem when someone who is actively looking to connect can’t find you. It makes it harder to engage, and you open yourself to the risk of losing the interest of your audience in the process.

I did, however, come across video from some of the panels that took place this weekend. My favorite thus far is the Black Power Panel (relax, it’s way less militant than it sounds.). I like it because it happens to cover an area that I’m particularly interested in, the use of social media among people of color.

CBC logoIt’s a long video (1hr, 40mins), and if you’re not up for watching the whole thing, I would queue it up and then jump to 1:11:40. The panelist speaking touches on some key things related to how people in the communities of color and elected officials are missing out on opportunities because of how they *are* using social media today.

Okay, so I’ve pointed out the social media #FAIL. Now I’d like to give a quick list of my PR Prescriptions on how the CBC could have better utilized social media to connect with people to provide more real time coverage.

* Official Tweeters – There were probably over 100 (maybe 200) people at the conference on twitter using the #CBC hashtag. Some spoke about the panels and live-tweeted. Most, I found spoke about the celebs they saw and the parties they were planning to attend. Fun, but not the best in terms of substance.

Next year, the CBC really should have official designated tweeters operating their own handles sharing the meat of the conversation, utilizing tools like twitpic to share behind the scenes pictures and services like What the Hashtag? to claim, define and share those hashtags.

* Official Bloggers – The key for this is integration. The CBC already produces the ALC Daily, the conference newsletter. This information should definitely be leveraged online, and then, you take what you have and enhance it with tweets from the conference, pictures, video and everything else.

Official bloggers should be announced (promoted essentially), and they should be on the floor, in the panels and at the galas gathering content, creating content and providing more context on happenings in real (or close to real) time.

* Media Partnerships - I won’t try to prescribe how the CBC should play with media partners, but a few that they could partner with come to mind. Here they are:  The Grio, The Afro (I followed their tweets!),  The Root, AOL Black Voices, TV One.

* Create a site to Build on the Discussion – There were GREAT panelists at the conference; many with their own businesses and non-profits really having a positive impact on the world. Conferences like these really are the beginning, and a site that linked to all of the panelists, businesses and other groups making the change spoken about the conference (and a site that documented their progress) would add some real value that people could take back to their communities.

I could go on, but I think the point was made. There were missed opportunities to engage people like me who wanted to be there but could not for one reason or another.

Feel free to respond to any of my thoughts, but here are a few places where I would like input from you:

  • Was the CBC doing something online that I missed?
  • Agree/Disagree with anything said?
  • What else would you suggest for the coming year?

2 Comments | Diversity, Resource, Resources, Social Media, Thoughts | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jaywalk1

When Social Networks Go Too Far…

September 16, 2009

It all started on twitter…

NishaChittal: Ok, Facebook is really starting to overdo it. RT @danschawbel: NEWS: Voice chat coming to Facebook http://bit.ly/eKOg7

Jaywalk1: @NishaChittal I agree. To get all “theory level,” makes me wonder about our expectations of a social network. Google, sure? FB, ehhh….

Jaywalk1: @NishaChittal Might be interesting topic. Do we expect certain things from certain netwks? what happens when we get more than what we want?

NishaChittal: @Jaywalk1 feature overload is never good. shouldn’t companies specialize in a niche rather than try to be everything to everyone?

 

So Facebook is launching a voice chat system called Vivox. According to Daniel Terdiman of CNET, 

vivox“The service, which is currently in closed beta, will allow Facebook users to have high-fidelity conversations with anyone on their friends list. Each user, however, will have to download Vivox’s plug-in. But once installed, the service works almost seamlessly with Facebook, and is intended for everything from one-to-one chat to large group discussions.”

When I read Nisha’s tweet, I agreed with her. I may be a little old school with my Facebook perspective, but I think I liked it best when it was a smaller, college focused network. It was a great niche (…one I happened to be in when it launched) that made great sense.

When the hail storm of apps pounded my friends’ profiles, the status of my relationship swtiched to “complicated,” and when text chat was launched, I laughed knowing I would never use it (that’s why I have gchat!). Facebook and I have since made up, and we were in a good place until I learned about this Vivox voice chat. 

Due to a fairly busy day (..and my choice to hit the rooftop for sun during lunch), I had most of the dayfacebook_logo to ask myself: Is Facebook going too far? Are they approaching feature overload as Nisha said? 

In an HBS article titled “Understanding Users of Social Networks,” professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski shares his view that “online social networks are most useful when they address real failures in the operation of offline networks.”

As the variety of technology grows in both type and function, so does the number of tools which aim to give you that all-in-one, one-stop-shop solution. Should Facebook serve this role? Do I really want a one-stop-shop social network – phone, email, tweet-like status posts, text chat and now voice chat? 

My answer is yes and no.

No because I don’t really see myself using this to chat with my friends on a 1:1, but yes because of the tremendous ability to connect on the group level. One example where this might work is for group trips.

A group of my friends used Facebook to plan our trip to our high school reunion. We are spread out all over the eastern seaboard, and though we maintained contact with some better than others, we were all still Facebook friends. It made sense to use the network to gather everyone to work out logistics of the trip. No phone numbers needed. No need to track everyone down. We were all connected there.

Chat could be a nice addition here, and with the right strategy, I can also see bold, trendsetting brands benefiting from this as well.

5 Comments | Resource, Resources, Social Media, Social Networking | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jaywalk1

Digging Yourself Out of A Hole

September 14, 2009

dig…what happens when you don’t plan effectively. Lesson Learned.

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Posted by jaywalk1

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