Deborah Schultz

Snack, byte, chunk, chomp, - here's the takeaway

We access information at greater velocity

In smaller bits

Requiring a different mode of behavior

Learn to weave or die.

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Here are some nice related posts

Snackbyte: Mad Men - Why we play

This scene from the Mad Men season finale is brilliant and sums up why I love, love love the show.  But more than that it got me thinking, so here is my requisite list of ten:

1. It is never ONLY about the technology
2. It is almost always about what drives us emotionally
3. Selling stuff as NEW alone just does not cut it anymore
4. Even the best technology needs a good storyteller
5. There was a time when advertisers were literate men of the future
6. When exactly did advertisers and technologists move from symbiotic relationship to antagonistic?
7. Wow, they smoked A LOT in the 60s
8. I really love mid-century modern furniture
9. Nostalgia truly is an underrated word
10. How much I really miss the sounds of the carousel wheel going click, the nano second of anticipation from lights off to the first slide and the ghostlike stream of particles that accompanied "the show".....but that is just me being nostalgic.

Nod to Giovanni for being the catalyst for this post]

Snackbyte - a meme takes off

Since I wrote last week about the Snackbyte, I have gotten a lot of great feedback on and off the blog about the concept. 

What is most interesting to me is that I happened upon the term without realizing that DK over at Medisnackers started an entire company on this concept of media snacking.  I just needed a term to describe something that was shorter than a full blog post but provided more context than a linkblog.

After I posted - DK and I got to chatting [god bless links & tags] and now I have a great new contact over in London. I have even recommended him to a client.

Then l low and behold it seems Jeremiah and Chris have run with the term as well.

Ain't it just interesting how memes are sometime in the air..;).  Sometimes I just love the web.

[Nod to Alexandre for the great flickr photo]

Choose literacy- one week to go

    

A few weeks ago the blogosphere took on a challenge to fund classroom projects in schools.  Then Tim Ferris, in conjunction with DonorsChoose.org and RoomToRead, stepped in with a challenge to raise $1million dollar for literacy in one month - called LitLiberation.  Kudos to Tim for taking up the cause and bloggers and companies alike for jumping on board. 

I  was on the road when the program kicked off, missed the email invite and therefore was behind the ball on getting my post out the door.  Shame on me.   Well - there is one week to go  - so it is now or never.  I cant' think of a better cause that is more symbiotic with what social media and blogging is all about than funding literacy and school programs. It is great to see the community give back.

It is amazing that over 30% of rural children in developing countries aren’t enrolled in school.  As one project, a group of people can choose to build a school for $17,000. When split among 10 friends, it breaks down to $1,700 each or $850 if 20 people contribute.  Those involved will provide education to tens of thousands of children, have their names forever associated with the school, and also enjoy the opportunity to visit it in the future.  And there are hundreds of classroom in the US that need your help as well.  Anil has taken up the mantle to match funds on his challenge called Notes in Class.

The blogosphere is always fighting against this wrongful assumption that we are a self-absorbed bunch, so now is your chance to prove em wrong. There are even prizes.

The first step is for you to choose to donate to either the Litliberation or Blogger Challenge  leaderboards. I was specifically asked toh elp promote LitLiberation, but I say it's all good!

So choose your fave or go ahead and start your own challenge by choosing a dollar goal based on a project, create on online registry, and then spread the word.

Snackbyte: A passionate reminder

John Scalzi is my hero of the day. I have read only one post from his blog and based only on this post entitled, "How to Irritate and Annoy People in the Name of Blogging" I am in worship mode - instant subscribe. I love his passion.  This is a post for the ages.

He calls out one of the many “how to get more people to read your blog!” posts that are always surfacing online and how they just plain miss the point - that what makes blogging and social media different is just that - it is social communication.

Final word - ya gotta give to get.  It's a relationship! Not a win-win, zero sum game.

As blogging grows up and becomes more of a professional marketing channel for companies and people alike, it is easy to look for quick answers and strategies.  Sure there are things you can do to be a smarter blogger but there are no shortcuts - creating interesting authentic content is hard and call me naive but people find the good stuff and send it around.

My thoughts on the original post:

Some of the advice the bloggers give is ok in context.  Penelope Trunk (a fav of mine) suggests  "be interesting". It is the prescriptive language of the article and how it lacks soul that bothered me.   What made my skin really crawl--along with John-- was the heavy use of corporate speak. God - I thought that bloggers and social media were going to evolutionize corporate speak not the other way around.   Finally -the most important point is mentioned in passing at the end as a nugget:

Jay White | DumbLittleMan.com - This is going to sound VERY generic but there is no better marketing than writing great articles. I would simply use that time to write.

Jay - my man, you are not dumb, not dumb at all.

[Parental warning for the  - John post uses the word fuck a lot, so sensitive ears have been warned]

[Note: Thanks to  Kevin  for the Twit to the link. i added the photo from a recent conference booth - similar theme]

Snackbyte: Don't call it a campaign

I have been getting a lot of people asking me:

Have you seen any interesting Social Media Campaigns these days?

Wrong Question

There is no such thing as a Social Media Campaign.  Social Media is not a campaign - you cannot view it through an outdated advertising lens. 

If you are an individual it is about creativity and expression and connection.  If you are a company it is an attitude, behavioral and cultural shift.  It should be about persistence and dialogue and being in it for the long-haul. It is strategic.

Introducing The SnackByte

What is a Snackbyte? 

Simple - it is a quick thought, "aha" moment  or "dot I have just connected" that I want to share with you before it flies away.  It is all those little notes I open in Ecto or Notepad or save to draft and never actually do anything with.

A Snackbyte is lighter than a complete blog post, has more context than a del.icio.us link and is more thoughtful (and hopefully more informative) than my typical Twitter post. They are tasty morsels of thought that go down easy.

If velocity is indeed one of the prime attributes of Social Media [you can argue the point - but heck, speed is screamingly important these days] then Snackbytes are my way of ensuring that I share my thoughts in the moment so that they retain relevancy with the many topics and conversations I follow and engage in on-line.  The idea percolated from a recent conversation with my friend Amanda on how we have become "media snackers'- absorbing all forms of media in bits and bytes.

The concept also gives me permission to "blog-lightly".  Something I recommit myself to every morning and never seem to have accomplished come sundown. 

Long live the cupcake. 

If you like the concept go ahead and tag your own pithy thoughts as 'snackbyte' and share the love.

 

[Nod heather for one of her many gorgeous cupcake photos]

The "Widgetization of our World" [from FOWA]

Back from London and the Future of Web Apps conference.  Thanks to Carsonified for the invite to participate and for putting on a great show. 

From my POV it seems that a major theme out of the event is "the widgetization of our world" - and I don't mean "apps".  My brain is still percolating.  Listening to the breadth of chats during the three day event, it has really hit me that success in the future hinges on understanding the nodes that make up the network - whether this is data, people or organizations. Top down, centralized mechanisms just do not work any more.

Here are just a few examples:

Leisa Rechiert - on Ambient Intimacy
Umair Haque - on the economics of open society and velocity of information
Thor & Lane - on customer service (and customers) as the new marketing
Brian Oberkirk - on productizing relationships and services

My workshop on Friday addressed how we communicate and "market" in this ever increasingly decentralized universe of Social Media. Thanks to everyone who attended and to Brian for joining in on the fun.  I am cleaning up my slides and will upload them to the slideshare group ASAP.

For full coverage make sure to check out Suw , Jennifer and Steph's blogs.  Conference after conference these ladies do an amazing job capturing info for those who cannot attend in person - how *do* they do it!?

[Addendum: and let's not forget that last week was also devoted to two different conferences on Facebook apps - if that is not an indication of the chunking of our world -- what is?]