Social Media in 2007; My Personal Reflections
by Kyle Flaherty on Dec.31, 2007, under Social Media
With an amazing 2007 winding it’s way up and 2008 getting ready to unveil itself I wanted to take a quick moment to recap some of my favorite personal moments in social media in 2007. Some of these I’ve read about, others I participated in or know about through some other super-secret means. Rather than give you resolutions, predictions or a sappy 2007 send-off here are the happenings in social media this past year the left their mark on moi.
Traffic, Traffic and more Traffic
During the sudden and fierce snowstorms we had in Boston during December one could read, watch and listen to folks talking traffic. It even inspired an awful commute wiki and Chris Brogan did an impromptu “Call Chris” session through Twitter.
All great uses of time for folks stuck in traffic, for sure, but what about municipalities using social media to help us beleagured commuters? I really like what the St. Louis Post Dispatch is trying to do with their Highway 40 Twitter. As someone who married into the cult that is St. Louis and with my Mom-in-Law visiting from the ‘Lou I know what Highway 40 means to these folks AND what the upcoming construction is going to mean (and we thought the Big Dig was a hassle). Yet here is such a simple way for the community to directly help each other with real-time user-generated information.
Wine, Wine, Wine
BusinessWeek originally had this story that I simply loved, for many reasons. Basically Michael Stager sold his personal wine collection in a hope to create the WineCommune site. When he did the bubble burst, he never got funding and amassed tens of thousands in debt. Now? WineCommune expects to bring in $17M in revenue in 2007. Why? They focus on micro-social networking.
Attracting people with a very specific need, whether that be wine-o’s (properly called oenophiles, but I like wine-o) or a specific neighborhood is an ideal way to help establish community online, since they are already a community, they just might not have a resource to gather at this point. Stajer didn’t just simply create a site that would compete with giants like Wine.com, instead he gathered the wine-o’s and let the community dictate what they needed…then worried about the revenue pouring in (pun intended).
Listening to your Community
This one involved me directly and many of you will recognize it since it just happened recently. On December 18th at 7:32pm I Twittered:
as much as I dislike slideshare, it is awfully easy to use
It was picked up by my Jaiku integration and I completely forgot about my comment as I posted some slides up to my blog. The next day I had this email in my in box:
Hi,
Your Jaiku comment came up in my feed. I would love to know why you dislike SlideShare :-)
I find that we learn the most from people who don’t like the site for some reason. And if you have a moment to reply, I would appreciate your reply. And no, I won’t take offense at criticism. I am genuinely curious.
regards,
rashmi
SlideShare cofoundero———-o———o————o
Rashmi Sinha
CEO, Slideshare
I was astonished at how quickly Rashmi had touched base and how willing she was to get feedback from me. I immediately sent her an email with a few of my thoughts about why I wasn’t an overall fan of SlideShare, which she answered within hours with some really helpful tips and tricks for using SlideShare (FYI, I asked for permission to reprint this information.
Personally Expanding my World
This one is the most simple, but simply the most personally beneficial. In 2007 I met hundreds of people online and offline through the use of social media. Twitter, Utterz, Facebook and more. In October I watched the Red Sox win the World Series while Twittering away with many of you including @Bryper, @sarahwurrey, @dough, @jackhodgson and others.
Not surprisingly many of these folks I’ve been able to meet personally at events such as the Social Media Breakfast. We share information, help each other with blog postings and inspire each other to accomplish more in this industry. In that sense folks like Geoff Livingston, Chris Brogan, Jeremy Pepper, Jeremiah Owyang, Todd Defren and Aaron Brazell.
Each of these people, and many, many more, have enriched my life in 2007, thanks to social media and personal thanks to each of you!
Peas…enough said
Perhaps THE social media story of the year is the Pea movement happening across the web, just go to this page to read all the incredible stories. I haven’t commented much publicly about this story because it is a hard topic for me since it touches very close to home. My mom is an amazing survivor of Breast Cancer and back when she was stricken there was none of this social network support, oh sure there were groups you could attend, people you could meet for coffee, and that certainly helped. But what we are currently seeing happening is inspiring to all of us who believe in the power of this medium and perhaps more importantly it is a breathing example to those who don’t understand the potential impact of social media.
Go to the site, give money if you can, but read Susan Reynold’s amazing story and take a minute to think about her and everyone else that will be effected by this disease in 2008.
December 31st, 2007 on 7:32 am
Kyle, thanks for mentioning the Frozen Pea Fund - it’s turning out to be an amazing experience in building community around a cause. We’re also seeing just how many lives have been touched by breast cancer. Susan’s courage in openly sharing her story is what has rallied the community and is encouraging others to talk about it. So glad to hear your mother is a *survivor* - let her know the peas are for her too!
December 31st, 2007 on 9:38 am
You’ve hit on one of the real gems of social media. It works best when people are listening. It’s so great that Rashmi got right back to you. It shows that they are out there, they’re in the game, and they care. Hell, that’s practically a reason to get INTO using slideshare. What a great little gem.
And yes, the Frozen Pea Fund is definitely a really neat use of social media. I’m glad that the web seems a lot more human these days. : )
December 31st, 2007 on 11:25 am
Kyle, it’s been great meeting you as well, and keep on doing what you do. While I am not sure Twitter will be mainstream, it has brought more voices to my attention, and been an interesting community unto itself.
December 31st, 2007 on 12:08 pm
Kyle, it was a blast! I’ve enjoyed your writing, too. Onto 2008 and more social media growth for all. Hope you and yours have a special holiday planned.
January 26th, 2008 on 8:39 am
I do not have a website, but need help in building one that would help with a particular concern regarding children.
I am in my late 50’s and know nothing about how to go about building a web site community. (I even have difficulty figuring out how to use my own laptop let alone how to build a web site. smile.) I woke up this morning with the idea that I should build a web site community in spite of not knowing how. I typed in the words about non-profit web sites in the search engine and up came a page that led me to “NetSquared.” Their site led me here.
There is a specific community of individuals who I would like to assist in a non-profit or not-for-profit way but in such a way that generates enough money to offer grants to individuals in the community who are currently facing what I had to face on-my-own without any emotional, social or economic support.
I learned quite a bit through what I endured over a five year period on-my-own, but I do not think others should have to learn the hard way. Importantly young children’s lives are at stake and if the going gets too tough, many individuals may give-up the struggle. Or, if they do not want to give up, they may have to anyway because most likely they will run out of financial resources and have no choice but give-up. Then the very children that they are attempting to protect will be placed in harms way.
Too much is at stake regarding children’s lives to not share my learned wisdom. I would like to pass the knowledge on to others who are now in a similar situation that I went through. I would like to find and connect others who have gone through what I did with those who are currently in the middle of the struggle.
I would use a community web site to (1) share my personal story, (2) to advocate change to current laws by using three states who have passed “good” laws as examples of what can be done legislatively, (3) link others to sites that may be helpful for specific referrals, (4) and importantly give grants to those in need so they do not throw in the towel.
I personally lost everything and anything of financial value due to a need to protect one particular child. After five long years, the child is safe, but at such a cost. No child should have to endure what occurred. No family should lose everything materially to protect a child. The child is safe, but now I am in great debt and wonder how at my age I will recover and be able assist this particular child with other needs as she matures.
The child that endured the situation tells me I am a “good role model.” Being a good role model is one thing, but I would like to be able to provide for her in practical ways. All that I spent to protect her could have eventually been used for such things as her college education or for living without great debt and being able to afford “luxury” things like her music lessons. She has a talent with the violin.
I woke up this morning thinking that there must be a better way. Others should not have to endure what we did. There needs to be a community of individuals who could help one another out and eventually make changes in the law so that individuals do not end up in financial ruin due to a need to protect a child.
If there is anyone who could assist me out-of-the-goodness-of-his-or-her-heart to build a web site community that would help protect specific children who are in harms way, please put that person in contact with me. Thank you. You have my email address where I typed it into the space above. Sincerely, T.
January 26th, 2008 on 8:45 am
Did I post the above correctly? Thanks, T.
June 17th, 2008 on 5:16 am
[...] But as Chris Brogan tells us to do, I listened, and listening was when I learned the most. I heard the frustration in people’s voices as they tried to understand Twitter, Facebook, blogging and more. I saw their eyes gloss over as people talked about how important MySpace and LinkedIn could be, but never stopping to explain what RSS stands for or how to use Google to manage your online reputation. To be fair, this conference did not have a place for this rudimentary education, but it was obviously needed. I’m as guilty as anyone else when it comes to this topic, I try to get someone else to run beside me when I should be showing them how to walk. It would be great if we could truly have a conversation about using social media for B2B leads, but right now we have to continue to push the social media bootcamp. [...]