The Anti-Social Media

NBC vs. Social Media: I’m with CoCo (as long as it’s...

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:00:00 -0500

NBC vs. Social Media: I’m with CoCo (as long as it’s easy)

There’s a lot of buzz going round about the madness over at NBC all about The Tonight Show, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and low ratings.

Then I see people are changing their Avatar to the above in supposrt of Conan keeping the Tonight Show in it’s early time slot. They tweet about the madness. They blog about how much it sucks. Consumerist released the names and e-mails of NBC executives so people can write in support.

But here’s the thing.

NBC doesn’t care too much about how much you tweet, or change your avatar, or send them mindless e-mails. NBC cares about money. They see you care when you turn your hearts, minds, and television sets to NBC. When they have more viewers, advertisers pay more to be in their commercial breaks, and then NBC keeps paying to make the show so it makes more money.

It costs NBC more money to read your angry tweets, e-mails, and look at your avatar. It’s cheaper for them to ignore you and put the new programming in place. NBC is in the television industry to MAKE money, not lose it drowning in sea of angry digital messages.

The way I see it, if you want to make a real difference, you’ve got two options.

Keep giving them money. Don’t mass e-mail them. Instead, make it a nightly habit to watch The Tonight Show with Conan every single night you can. Boost his ratings, and give NBC the incentive to keep him exactly where he is.
Cut them off: Mass E-mail NBC. Tell them you won’t watch ANY NBC Universal programming unless Conan is kept on the Tonight Show at 11:35. Then stick to your guns and make them bleed.

Take action to hit them where it hurts, or give the incentive to keep things the way they are. That’s how you change what’s on your TV. Changing your Facebook pic only makes you look like you jumped on a bandwagon.

As for me? I’m with Letterman. Have been since I was 10, and plan to stay that way.

Feature: How NOT to Tweet with Sarah Palin Sarah Palin’s...

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:00:00 -0500

Feature: How NOT to Tweet with Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin’s Twitter is the internet train wreck of Social Media. You know it’s really awful, but at the same time, you can’t look away. And if you’re a masochist like me (and face it, if you’re here, you probably are), you keep coming back for more.

Today’s lesson is coherence and concision. On Twitter, you’ve got 140 characters to work with, and by hell you better make sure each one works.

This tweet fails. Let’s see why.

Sarah starts out with a question, which is good. Twitter is AMAZING for questions. Your followers can instantly send back replies or forward it onto their followers to an answer.

However,this question is awful. It’s almost rhetorical, it leaves her open to attacks, and she wastes 2 characters by spelling “out” instead of typing “w/o.” A better question for her to ask is “Do you like my new $15,000 down jacket paid for by FOX News?” or “Want to see me make Sean Hannity my bitch every day on FOX News?” These questions have simple yes or no answers, but can also facilitate discussion.

The next part of her tweet is crappy grammatically. “w/team” Sarah? Your missing indefinite article is important. Also, the missing spaces between “fair&balanced” make it more difficult to read. This sentence is so long it would be a great stand-alone tweet, but in this form it is some awful carry-on attached by the periods to the rest of her tweet.

The last part of her tweet is a disaster. “Please join us!” Who is us? Are you plural Sarah? Do you mean Fox News? Do you you mean the GOP? WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Worse still is how do I join? You give no link, no terms, no nothing. If I google “us” I get “US Magazine” Should I subscribe? I might, because they at least know how to write three coherent sentences.

What have we learned?

Questions are good, but keep the possible answers simple.
Use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Be specific.
Provide appropriate follow up information in a link.

Any questions?

Why Anti-Social Media?

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:24:03 -0500

You can’t avoid social media. It’s everywhere. It started with those awful jokes your...