vs.

Benjamin K. from Florida asks: “I have a limited amount of time to spend on social media marketing for my apparel company. If I had to choose, should I spend more time on Twitter or Facebook? Which provides the best ROI from a time perspective?”

This is a great question! Since both Twitter and Facebook are free services, ROI is computed based on time spent as well as opportunity cost (what could have been done with that time). Many businesses are also paying staff or outside support to manage their social media presence using Facebook and Twitter. Both services have received a lot of press, positive and negative, especially in recent days. Facebook is growing into a worldwide phenomenon, effectively linking six degrees of separation together for the first time in history. Twitter has been criticized and raved about equally as much and it’s merits as a business promotional tool still have many confused despite the hype. So what gives?  Which is better?

To start off my answer, let’s first touch up on what these two services provide:

• Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read 140 character messages, known as tweets. Tweets are posted on the author’s profile page and are delivered the the author’s subscribers, known as followers.
• Facebook is a social networking site with over 250 million users worldwide. Users can create profiles and and send messages to friends. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school and region.

In my opinion, Twitter is more quantity-driven (it’s primarily about the number of tweets and followers a user has) while Facebook is more quality-driven (it’s primarily about connecting people that already know each other through two way and public conversation and the sharing of content like photos, videos, links, notes, etc…).

Time spent on Twitter would be spent creating a profile, tweeting messages from your Blackberry or computer, following other users, adding your profile to directories, promoting your tweets, making lists of users, attempting to consistently stay relevant, interesting and/or useful with your tweets (no easy task), etc..

Time spent on Facebook would be spent creating a profile, adding friends, posting content (photos, videos, notes, polls, discussion board topics, pages), managing wall posts by fans, managing ad campaigns, viewing fan page statistics, creating and/or promoting Facebook apps for your band, post on other’s walls, etc…

Facebook is usually a more personal medium while Twitter can be more ambiguous (or less, depending on what’s being tweeted).  If you’re a business or consultant, the additional layers of content and tools you can utilize with Facebook may allow you to better brand your product and more persuasively and visually communicate with your target audience.  Twitter, on the other hand, may be a better customer service tool (customers tweeting issues and receiving quick feedback) for easy two-way communication.

The Conclusion: Facebook wins!

Facebook currently provides more tools for businesses and brands to promote themselves in the way of tailored fan pages and profiles, pay-per-click advertising and the Facebook developer platform.  It also currently has the biggest user base (250 million+).  In my opinion, it’s also easier to use.  It’s nearly just as portable as Twitter (it can be accessed and managed on most cell phones).  It allows you to leverage yourself (through a personal profile) as well as your brand (through a fan page or business profile).  It has a great, cost-effective advertising system offering pay-per-click marketing that is highly targeted.  Facebook provides more statistics for businesses and brands to manage their efforts as well. If you have less time, Facebook can be more useful as in my opinion it is easier and more engaging to connect more with your existing network via Facebook than Twitter.  Plus, it is very likely that more of your existing friends, family and customers will be on Facebook than Twitter.  This is why for initially building your social media presence, Facebook is a good place to start and Twitter is a good place to expand to.  I think Facebook should be the backbone of your social media presence and Twitter your customer service and branding “skin”.

Twitter’s value shouldn’t be diminished because I’m choosing Facebook over it in this post. Twitter is a great tool and one of the most interesting and hyped sites ever made.  It’s helped Iranians organize rallies and President Obama raise money. But Twitter tends to work faster and better for established brands and personalities, not new wannabes.  If you’re a new company or have a new product, you have to start from scratch without name recognition, making your results slower to come by than, say, Ashton Kutcher or Coca-Cola would experience.  Facebook’s a bit more turnkey and provides more value quicker for the average company.  Too many small businesses and consultants brag about thousands of Twitter followers, but they don’t know any of them that well and most are junk or not in their target market.  Better to have a few hundred high quality customers, friends, family, and prospects than a few thousand random people that you don’t know and that doesn’t care about you.

I also think guys like Seth Guru are on to something when they limit the number of social media channels they utilize.  Seth Godin, a prolific marketing and web author,  has written previously about why he has limited his social media usage to one or two services.  The simple adage “jack of all trades, master of none” rings true in social media.  Try to do it all and you may end up simply managing a bunch of accounts instead of successfully building community and engagement with one consistent audience from your main social media presence.  Limiting your time to one or two main services doesn’t necessarily limit your reach, it can make your more effective!

The good news: you can use Twitter without using Twitter

If you are one of those people who doesn’t have the time (or willingness) to manage multiple social media profiles, don’t fret!  You don’t have to miss out on Twitter.  Turns out, you can tweet without tweeting!

You can (and should) still use Twitter even if you only have enough time for Facebook.  There are many free tools and websites that offer ways of hooking up your Twitter account with your Facebook account.  For instance, you can set it up so that your status updates on Facebook in addition to your notes and wall posts are automatically tweeted to your Twitter profile!  The reverse is also possible, where your tweets are sent to Facebook for promotion with your network there.  This makes it easy to post your content and messaging at one site and yet communicate with several.

- @RobbyBerthume

Recently Robby Berthume of Epsilon Concepts and Moon Berthume sat down with Andy Koehn, Jeff Haden, and Andrea Knight to discuss how social media is affecting business models, particularly in jewelry and bridal related industries, over a series of eight webisodes. The series was produced by Where To Get Engaged, an engagement and wedding social network designed and developed by Epsilon Concepts, and directed by Josh Gooden. What follows is episode two.

To follow the series, visit EngagingConversations.com and become a fan on Facebook!

Last week I wrote about what exactly Twitter is. Despite how popular Twitter has become, believe it or not there is still a large group (we’ll call these the “late bloomers”) who have no idea what’s going on.  I know, hard to imagine.  So we defined Twitter and discussed who started it, why it’s popular, how I personally use it, and the love and hate going around about it, complete with a video mocking the concept of twits and tweats.

This week, I want to continue the discussion by attempting to answer the following question:

Why should I care and how can I use it?

You may not be an early adopter, but the fact of the matter is that you’re sleeping at the wheel.  Even many of the “early majority” has been on Twitter for a few months now.  It’s time to sign up, if only so in conversation or while watching a news report you know what the heck “Twitter” is when you hear about it and don’t sound like an ignorant fool.  I mean, come on people, it’s not that hard of a concept to understand (if you still don’t get it, re-read my first post and/or watch the video at the bottom of this one). If you’re already on Facebook or MySpace, you have no excuse.  It won’t take much extra time and it integrates well.  If you don’t like it, just cease the tweats, simple as that.  Before you spit out the brussels sprout maybe you should let your taste buds decide their opinion first, it might be personally and/or professional healthy and perhaps even enjoyable in the process.  So stop waiting around for a formal invitation, point your browser to Twitter.com and get on it.

Here’s 10 valuable ways you can use Twitter immediately

1. Interact with the media and “the man”
What does CNN’s Rick Sanchez, Barack Obama, the US Congress, Ellen, The Today Show, and The New York Times have in common?  Twitter!  Listen up and talk back, the media and “the man” has never been more accessible.

2. Follow your favorite celebrities, athletes, and brands
There are countless celebs on Twitter, to the point where some are predicting the fall of tabloids due to Twitter.  Brands and wanna-bes have flocked to Twitter in droves as well. From C-list to A-list, from Athletes to Musicians, from JetBlue to Whole Foods Market, Twitter is exploding with fame and hot air.  Twitter provides celebs like 50 Cent, MC Hammer, Ashton Kutcher, and John Mayer with an easy to manage, easy to run platform for fan engagement.  It’s far less hassle than MySpace and a lot easier than Facebook for celebs to use and not screw up.  It’s a simple, portable way of staying engaged with the largest group of people while not creating a management headache and without sacrificing direct content control or paying hefty fees in the process.  Therefore, to Simon Cowell’s dismay, Twitter is tearing it up amongst today’s celebs and you, the user (unless you’re famous) benefits.   Now you can openly stalk your idols.  Maybe instead of the NBA fining Cuban for tweating about the refs they should instead think about paying guys like him and Shaq to keep up the free promotion and for keeping the NBA in the news and in conversations.  After all, any press is good press, right?  Not exactly…

3. Kill your boredom and maybe even learn something in the process
Bored?  Twitter takes web surfing to a whole new level – it’s like moving from surfing to windsurfing.  Suddenty you have a sail and some wind to guide you.  What a difference! Track conversations and content, snag fresh and hidden links, and get a feel for the undercurrent of opinion and rhetoric.   Your eyes my glaze over at some point, but until then you can justify the screen-staring by thinking about the educational value all of those links and ideas are going to provide you with.

4. Arrange local “TweetUps” easily
What’s the easiest way to meet up with peeps?  Call out a TweetUp or announce when you’ve arrived somewhere.  You can leave it vague, invite everyone, or pick and choose.  Either way, no more lonely nights whether it’s a pick-up game or Thirsty Thursday.  Mobile, geo-centric tweats make it easier than ever to prevent solo movie theater nights.

5. Integrate Twitter with your existing social media persona without any substantial extra work
Before you reject Twitter because you’re already on social media overload, hear me out.  Twitter won’t take that much extra work.  Do you change your Facebook status or post links to mySpace or delicious?  Tweat these!  Better yet, connect the platforms and eliminate all manual labor from the equation.  With your tweats hooked up to Facebook, you can update both at the same time.  With your blog hooked up to Twitter, you can post each new blog post as they come, automatically.  You get the idea – Twitter is a screwdriver in your toolbox.  You still need the hammer and nails, but boy does a screwdriver come in handy.

6. Expand or detract relationships
There is a difference between followers and friends.  Some of us reserve “Facebook friend” status for real friends we have an offline connection with.  Others accept and seek out friendships and think of Facebook friendship in much looser terms.  To them, a hobby, group, or friend in common is plenty an introduction.  Many of us open ourselves to lots of friends, but still limit certain sections of our profile, like drunken photos.  Twitter gives you a second option in expanding or detracting relationships.  Think about it.  If you send out frequent tweats, it’s a great way for loved ones to really peer into your life and stay in touch with your thoughts and happenings.  Or maybe it’s a profile you can give out to those you don’t want to be Facebook friends with, like a second skin for the strangers (or customers, you get the idea).

7. Build a personal brand and platform
Why do you need a personal brand?  You may have a job or company now, but you never know when shit might hit the fan (pardon my French).  Whether you’re a nobody, an aspiring author, or maybe a 15 year old musician, Twitter can help you begin to build your personal brand.  Building a personal brand involves creating a story (and it should be authentic or risk flopping) and promoting it.  Building a personal brand has never been easier with the Internet and social media.  Maybe your ideas are lame or you don’t need the book contract or record deal now, but why not leave the door open?  By building a personal brand and platform via Twitter, it’s there when and if you need it.   Twitter is like a megaphone.  Imagine yourself in a large, empty opportunity with an open mic.  Now fill those seats with followers and let it rip, but make it meaningful.  Remember, reputation is build in a lifetime and lost in a tweat-second.

8. Promote your business, broadcast sales, and engage in market research
Twitter is all the rage for businesses.  Whether you’re a small business (like this chiropractor or this restaurant) or a Fortune 500, your peers are either already there or are moving in for the kill.  Become a “vocal point” in your industry.  Post sales, promotions, and events.  Distribute links, reports, and articles.  Be a voice.  Answer questions.  Learn from customers, prospects, and market segments.

9. Stay abreast of your industry in real-time
What’s going on in the bridal industry?  Perhaps if you were following a few hundred voices in the industry you would have a better answer to this question?  Whatever your industry, followers find you based on what you post.  So focus in on your hobbies and market and unite with others who care about the same things.  It’s a great way to keep tabs on the ever shifting sandstorm of professional and public opinion.

10. Stay more closely connected with friends and loved ones
As opposed to weekly or monthly calls where you catch up and skip the details, Twitter allows you to engage and be a part of their day-to-day lives, whether the thought of it peaks your curiosity or irritates your senses.

Other popular uses for Twitter include breaking up a relationship, broadcasting a plane crash (colorfully), and telling the world you broke your hip. Let’s summarize: if you can text it, you can tweat it.  If you can tweat it, others will read it and, if you’re cool enough, perhaps even follow you.

Twitter isn’t all peaches ‘n’ creme, though.  Here’s why, in 3 points

1. Clutter, Spam, Abuse & Misuse
What would Simba be without Scar?  Batman without the Joker?  Everyone needs an enemy.  Spam and clutter, unfortunately, is the enemy of the web.  Whether it’s e-mail, links, social networking, videos, you name it – spam affects it.  Wherever there is freedom, there is abuse.  Where there is a system there is an abuser of a system.  Before getting too deep into philosophy, just take heed.  Not every Twitter profile is legit, not every tweat is meaningful, and not every follower is worth following.  Get Rich Quick schemes aren’t limited to e-mail.

2. The Fat, F’ugly Fail Whale
Twitter gets overloaded every now and then. With its breakneck growth rates and ever-multiplying traffic, it’s not always online to accept your tweats. When it breaks, I introduce you to the “Fail Whale” as it’s known.    While this happens rarely, it still happens more often than all of the other websites I frequent.  It’s a bit annoying sometimes, after all, what if my plane crashes and I’m not able to tweat about it? It’s a problem Twitter is no doubt working hard to address.  Meanwhile, the whale calms me and enrages me at the same time.  Not sure how that works…

3. Stupid Tweets & Tweet Overload

It’s easy to get carried away.  There is a heck of a lot of garbage and downright lame tweats out there in tweat universe.  People spew really boring crap either because they are trying to reel in new followers, are that full of themselves, or are simply boring, dull, and uninspired to begin with.  I don’t want to always know what you are doing, right now 24 hours a day.  I want to hear what you are doing, in general (for more on this, re-read Part 1).  Is that really such a hard concept for people to grasp?   On Twitter, it’s too often quantity over quality and not the other way around.  Keep your twitter-holicism in check, will you?  Didn’t your mom teach you to think before you tweat?

Still hung up on the concept?
I present to you “Twitter in Plan English” courtesy of CommonCraft

- @epsilonc

Although I have used it before, I detest the word campaign in the phrase “Social Media Campaign”.

Conversations trump campaigns and the word “campaign” has a military undertone I’m not comfortable with. The people you’re supposed to be having a conversation with are not enemies to be raped, pillaged & plundered.

Although I will continue to use the phrase, it would be nice to find a more accurate way of describing how brands initiate conversations with true fans (see also: Seth Godin’s Tribes)

Until that happens, I will continue to use the word campaign because:
1. It’s pretty much a standard phrase when social media is a part of the marketing strategy, which means that:
2. It is the most efficient way of having conversations with other people involved in the social media landscape

I realize I’m deviating from the original reason these words began to be used in this context to begin with; and that is exactly what I’m saying we might need to do.

One conclusion I’ve come to so far is that although the Sun Tzu route may work in a certain context, there’s a need to draw a line somewhere so that that hawkish mindset doesn’t carry over to the conversations brands should be having with their fans.

Otherwise, we would just be paying lip service to the social in “social media”.

I will now proceed to shut up & return to looking for a word to replace “campaign”.

Any suggestions on where to begin?

Here are a few of the posts that have given me food for thought about the “campaign” part of the phrase “social media campaigns”:
Chrome + Art of Story Telling = Google is the web communication Sun Tzu
The Myth of the Social Media Marketer
Sun Tzu and the Art of Social Computing
Marketing warfare strategies (wiki article):
Sun Tzu Marketing (the book)

Be Yourself
“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” -Confucius

“Be yourself” is a pretty cliche statement, but its value cannot be diminished despite the frequency of its use.  Authenticity has been on a lot of minds lately and personality is even a new P in marketing (according to author Rohit Bhargava).  In this new era of the web and with the evolution of the open source paradigm, those with personality, humanity, and authenticity will likely succeed.  The skin of protection and privacy is disappearing, word spreads quicker, and brands sour faster than the milk in your fridge.

The platform now exists for personality.  You can paint a digital picture of yourself (positive or negative) and over time, leave digital footprints and snapshots of yourself along the cyber-highway. Personality will always serve you well so make sure you’re giving people an impression of who you are as a person.

Now that we’ve established that the platform exists and the time is right for making an impression, why exactly should you make a personable impression?  Why be yourself in order to be useful?  Because being yourself creates an aura of authenticity and helps you come off as genuine.  The more genuine you appear, the more people will trust you.  The more people trust you, the more use you can provide to them (and the more value you can create).

People can spot spammers and scammers.  Sure, if you are yourself, some may not like you, but that’s the risk you take.  Unless you’re truly a jerk who provides no value to the world (I’m going to assume you’re not), chances are you’re going to increase your success rate with your social efforts by being yourself.

As a resident of Tinsel Town, I can attest to the fact that there are a lot of fake people in the world.  And it’s easy to spot them, they are the name-droppers, the flashers, the ones that brag and carry on about themselves.  Don’t go too far.  Be yourself.

Lastly, we all admire what we perceive as original.  Original thought, original people, original looks.  Originality is sexy.  The thing is, you don’t have to be original to be perceived as original.   And you don’t have to be original to be yourself.  Be yourself and chances are, original thought will come as a byproduct.  And you’ll be respected as a result.  Remember, the more social capital and credibility you have, the more power you have and therefore the more useful you can be.

Zidane The Legend 2008 from africa87 on Vimeo (FF to 9:00 mins for the really good stuff).

Note: Kevin Kelly also has one of the best examples of lifestreaming I’ve ever seen. Check out his site: http://kk.org/ to see what I mean.

If you’re up for a good read, take a look at Mashable’s HOW TO: Grow a Startup 300% in 3 Days? SocialMedian Tells All.

The title is bloated, but the article is important for at a few good reasons:

• People are the heart of any worthwhile business model (See also: Happiness as a business model)
• Listen to user feedback and actively do something about the feedback you’re getting
• Change should not be implemented lightly. Or slowly
• Forget traffic. You’re nothing without engagement
• Always build a good user interface. Always.

Here’s a quote from the interview to get you started:
“Goldberg has stated several times, “Our model at SocialMedian has been:  small, fast, and listen to users.” You have probably noticed that you do not see any advertising or many press releases plastered all over the major news sites. Essentially, SocialMedian has been built through its user base. The only “press coverage” you tend to see are reviews from various blogs, including here on Mashable.”

I’ve used the site long enough to know that

• SocialMedian actually pays attention to user feedback
• They take change seriously
• Once prioritized, changes are implemented quickly

Don’t work without a system
Although it’s easier to see the connection between creating media and art, code too is an art. Managed chaos is required so they can all work well together: each creative process should work within a framework with defined ways of going about it. A lot of it maybe uncharted territory so at the very least, clearly communicate the big picture.

Don’t set unreasonable goals
This is worse than setting no goals at all. Stretching the team too far guarantees that Monday through Friday, everyone’s simply showing up to put in their time and go home. That attitude has eerie ways of showing up in online communication and people have a second sense for these things.

Don’t implement changes lightly. Or slowly
The only thing we know about change is that it will come. We don’t know how or when, but we do know it will happen (for example, blogs are now officially “old school”). Think hard before you adopt a (small or large) change. If you do decide to accept it,  go after it like your life depends on it because while you were thinking, someone else started going for it.

Don’t get greedy
The effect of a well executed idea has a way of multiplying in significance, but it’s also the same thing with mistakes. Dream all you want, but make sure your focus is on what can be achieved in the short term (along with the lessons you’re going to be learning constantly).

Don’t assume you can “catch up” later if you get off schedule
In the same vein, don’t expect you’ll stay ahead of schedule later because you’re ahead of schedule now. In fact, you’re probably better off without a schedule altogether. You’re dealing with people and they won’t always keep to your well-organized schedule, no matter how great your intentions are.

Don’t take shortcuts or relax standards
I’m going to assume you know all about this so there’s not much to add here.

This is the 3rd, and last, post on what it takes to have successful social media campaign (you can read the 1st one here and the 2nd one here).

1. Create & follow a Social Media Campaign Plan
Obviously it is important to plan out any project before starting out. At the very least, establishing a basic idea of what you hope to achieve means it’ll be easier to keep everyone involved on the same page.

(In a similar vein, don’t overdo the planning or it’ll end up hurting more than helping. Be like water.)

2. Empower campaign personnel
Who manages your communication channels? What tools do they need? Do they work in an environment that actually helps them work better? Thankfully, the tools needed to run social media campaigns are well priced (read: virtually free) and you don’t have to break the bank to get a top notch toolkit.

3. Minimize red tape
Bureaucracy slows things down, which is always ugly. Always. If you’re starting from the top, a successful social media campaigns will require contributions from a wide variety of people (design, writers, customer service, marketing, PR and a host of other little pieces. Please think carefully before you clog the channels of communication with unnecessary (and pesky) obstacles.

4. Establish baselines & manage changes to it
“Social media campaign” is just a fancy term that basically amounts to allowing people to communicate with others online. Because the keyword in that sentence is people, there are certain goals you cannot establish as requirements because people can (and will) make up their minds for themselves. Social media isn’t a magical pill that will change minds in 2 days, 6 months or even 5 years. Nothing in real life does (except maybe fear, but that’s another story).

5. Take periodic snapshots of the campaign’s progress. Replan if necessary
Things happen: a new tool comes out you can’t get into (just yet),  the “competition” comes up with a better feature, etc… In other words, real life happens and you’re better off learning from what did or didn’t work right now. Make sure you don’t go overboard on this one. Points #3 & #4 are your guiding principles on this one.

6. Re-estimate size, effort & schedules periodically
Yes, this is related to taking campaign snapshots (#5 above) and although they are similar on the surface, reestimating or replanning without first finding out why you need to do so waters down the effectiveness of your great re-organizational effort.

7. Foster Team Spirit
Content is king only when people enjoy it so pay attention to how happy the team creating the content is. Google provides world class food, 37signals give their employees credit cards and others use the time tested “Thank you” to keep the team spirit alive. Regardless of how you choose to do it, just make sure you are doing it.

This is the 2nd of 3 posts on the general framework of a social media campaign. Read the first one here and come back next week for the last post. Better yet, subscribe to our RSS feed and get posts automatically delivered to your RSS reader.

I wasn’t planning on following the election too closely this year, but I can’t help myself considering the enticing tools available online. So here’s my online election arsenal for the day:

I’m using Pollster.com to follow polling data (a couple of other projection sites are covered in Mashable’s 12 Presidential Poll and Electoral Projection Resources) and for twitter eye candy there’s the Election Results According to Twitter.

For coverage:
Election 2008 on Current tv
“Co-hosted by Digg and Twitter, with video from 12seconds.tv, and with a Live DJ set by Diplo, Current is uniting the best of social media with a real-time broadcast of the most important results, facts and information and giving you a completely new way to experience election night.”

Leo Laporte w/ Jason Goldberg
“…if you’re looking for election coverage with a tech twist, Jason Goldberg, the founder, will also be covering the election with Leo Laporte live on This Week in Tech on Tuesday, Nov 4 @ 8 pm EST/ 5 pm PST.”

Mashable’s The Ultimate Election Day 2008 Toolkit has two links I particularly like and will be using whenever there’s no one looking:

Power Readers in Politics a feature for Google Reader users, “..it tracks things tossed into the Shared Items firehose by the presidential campaigns as well bloggers and journalists like Arianna Huffington and Patrick Ruffini.”

Youtube’s VideoYourVote experiment (in conjection with PBS) to document people’s experiences at the polls. The best videos will then be included in PBS’ election day coverage (there’s also a fantastic article on Mashable profiling Youtube’s contributions to the election that’s worth a read).

As always, CNN & USA Today blow it out the park with the visuals:

CNN Electoral Map – Not only do you get current projections, you can tweak the map to run your own scenarios.

USAToday.com – More often than not, these guys provide great data visuals. This time it’s an easy way to eyeball the the percentage of difference between the candidates.

UPDATE: AnOrangeAmerica.com is the latest election tool to join the arsenal. It would have remained “just another cool app”, but I like Tropicana’s OJ so I’ll give it the nod for coolest election app. Read more about it here. HT: Simon.

It’s clear the Internet is changing our world as we know it and we’re starting to see a significant shift in the balance of influence. American politics is slowly starting to wake up to this reality and only time will tell where we go from here.

But being submersed in the drama of American politics makes it really easy to forget about what’s going on elsewhere. This month’s issue of Wired changes that with a story on what social media’s doing to slowly crack the tightly controlled structure of authority in Egypt & the Middle East:

Back in March, Maher and a friend launched a Facebook group to promote a protest planned for April 6. It became an Internet phenomenon, quickly attracting more than 70,000 members. The April 6 youth movement — amorphous, lacking a clear mission*, and yet a bull’s-eye to the zeitgeist — blossomed within days into something influential enough to arouse the ire of Egypt’s internal security forces. Maher is part of a new generation in the Middle East that, through blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and now Facebook, is using virtual reality to combat corrupt and oppressive governments. Their nascent, tech-fired rebellion has triggered a government backlash and captured the world’s attention.

The article also ends with an interesting line of thought:

But Maher isn’t tortured. No one can say why his treatment in custody is more lenient this time around. One possibility is that, lacking specific orders to beat or harm him, his captors in Alexandria just went easy.

There is another hypothesis, though, one that many people familiar with Egyptian politics have suggested: Maher’s star has risen. His real-world profile is now high enough that torturing him could backfire, inspiring countless networked young people to take action. The last thing Hosni Mubarak needs is to turn this Facebooking regular guy into a full-fledged hero.

In a seemingly unrelated event, my favorite news website online, Socialmedian, is releasing an election widget with the Washington Post today:

The http://election.socialmedian.com site aggregates news and user-feeds related to the election and enables users to join in the election coverage and discussion.  We created this site with The Washington Post to enable people to track all the election news from thousands of news sources as well as from Twitter feeds, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, and more all in one place, and (importantly) to join-in and add their own feeds from their favorite sites to provide user reports leading up to and on election day.

You can see what looks like to the right and although It’s not election day just yet, it’s never a bad thing to get a feel for what’s underfoot going into the election, so play with it (click “Join In” on the widget if you’re not a member) and let the games begin! (follow me at follow bushmanbill when you sign up).

*If the whole thing sounds “amorphous” & “lacking a clear mission” to you too, read Seth Godin’s latest book (aptly named Tribes), which is all about movements, what their made of, the things that happen to make tribes possible to begin with and how to keep them going. In what amounts to one long essay that goes by all too quickly, Godin explains the situation and then presents the opportunity:

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It’s our nature.

Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they’re enabling countless new tribes to be born—groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming.

And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” – The Wizard

When I think of The Wizard from The Wizard of Oz, I think of a question I remember having even at the age of 6 when I first remember watching this movie.  Why is this man hiding behind the curtain?  Why not just come out and say it himself?  What’s the thinking here?

So I’ve pondered just why the Wizard is behind the curtain. I’ve concluded that placing himself behind the curtain offered these probable advantages:

1. spectacular awe-inspiring smoke effects (and impressive green lighting)
2. larger-than-life face
3. louder, more commanding voice
4. better and more impressive visuals
5. increased credibility
6. god-like persona
7. privacy / shielding true identity
8. increased confidence
9. portraying god-like intellectual capability and power
10. selling a story via acting

So there you have it… it’s quite obvious why the Wizard felt it beneficial to place himself behind a curtain.  By changing how he was perceived through utilization of a curtain and some 1930’s special effects, he changed the story.  He came off differently than he truly was.  He was acting, playing a part; acting for the purpose of selling his visitors through power, fear, and wizardry.

What’s the reason I’m writing about the Wizard and how does it relate to you, you ask?  My point is this: when you look at businesses or individuals, try to spot their inner Wizard(s).  Remember that special effects aren’t reserved for the 1930s.  Many individuals and businesses are all smoke and visual effects and it can be hard to part the curtain and look at reality.

MyBlogLog Founders at TechStars from David Cohen on Vimeo (HT: TechStars)

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Alan Silberberg, CEO of You2Gov.com, a former White House staffer for former President Bill Clinton, to discuss his exciting new political social networking website. In addition to discussing You2Gov’s current and soon-to-be released features for users, we also discussed the evolution of politics in the new digital era and how social media is changing the landscape – fascinating to observe a whole new era of political action develop right before our eyes!?

Silberberg explained that he built You2Gov for one reason: to empower real people by providing them with extensive political communications tools and resources on a social network platform. Silberberg’s goal is provide the tools and information that will allow regular Americans to learn more about the issues they care about; form online communities with like-minded citizens; and to take action by using the simple tools available on You2Gov’s social network platform.

Silberberg made the great point that lobbyists often represent billion dollar corporations that are able to influence politicians in a variety of ways and that You2Gov.com provides a platform that shows average citizens that they too can be influential, just like the lobbyists – and that exercising their democracy is not as difficult as one might think.

On the information side, You2Gov.com aims to provide customized, relevant and current information about what’s going in the user’s political world, whether local or national. The web site is populated with valuable timely and relevant content that is provided both by You2Gov and its users, including current news, videos, useful links, a national calendar of events, a burgeoning forum community, and a government database that allows users to connect with the appropriate elected officials. All of this information is aggregated in one place – it is very simple, giving You2Gov.com users no reason to leave the web site to accomplish the task at hand: ACTION!

You2Gov.com not only connects normal citizens like you and I, but it also connects citizens (sometimes individually and sometimes coalesced as a group) with key decision makers. In the words of Silberberg, “Collectively, every American citizen owns the government, so why not leverage our collective voice?”

With the growth of You2Gov, politicians may be wary: this website presents a platform that not only aggregates all of the important information and tools, but it allows literally millions of like-minded Americans to organize themselves and take action. You2Gov gives every citizen a direct line of communication with their Government officials, allowing Americans to hold their representatives accountable. It will be interesting to see how politicians react – will they embrace the open communications or ignore it? And if it is the latter, will they really be able to get away with it given that everything will be public?

Silberberg’s site is rolling out new features periodically and users can expect a steady stream of improvements and new functionalities. According to Silberberg, “…web applications and social networking sites are like ‘legos’ nowadays. It’s not a matter of reinventing the wheel, it’s about how good of a ‘lego’ builder you are.” Silberberg’s website represents this vision.

Though recently launched, his site is solid, comprehensive, and garnering attention in the media.

My main criticism/suggestion would be some key usability and design improvements, improving the registration process and making things even more intuitive and easy-to-use. The features themselves are great and Silberberg’s vision includes even better tools that are being phased in (like allowing users to fax petitions from the site and a mobile version). With just a few tweaks, there is tremendous potential for You2Gov to grow very, very quickly.

During our talk, we discussed how many social networking websites are struggling because they don’t provide enough value or utility to enough people. Many larger social networks are gaining new users, yet retention, frequency, and ad rates are all on a downward slope. It’s obvious that Silberberg has done his homework and has big plans for You2Gov. His core principles are:

• Content is king
• Content creates conversations
• Conversations create community
• Communities take action

Where many social networking websites miss the boat is by focusing on number 3 alone. Or, they don’t give users the motivation or ability to actually take action or take advantage of the content and community for change. Social media, in the belief of Silberberg, represents a fundamental change in power.

He said, “Fortune 1000s and politicians alike are and will continue to be grappling with how to deal with the switch in leverage from companies, PR, and “big money” to individuals and constituents united for a cause and using social media as their megaphone.”

If you’re looking to amp up your involvement in issues you care about, I recommend logging on to You2Gov.com. They are well on their way to growing the site into a powerful force in the political spectrum.

Sign up (free) here

Create & upload a 30 second political commercial and win $1000 here

This blog article was also quoted on MarketWatch and you can read that article here.