A "NOVEL" way to Help Those In Need

Over the weekend, I received a request for help from a fraternity brother that is teaching at a specialized school district in Chester, PA. Her school does not have the money to purchase literature for her students that are up against reading level requirements to meet PSSA (state education standards). These are students that live in a challenged area and have made a commitment to meet GPA and educational standards to attend this school.

The request for help is simple, they need novels for their literature classes in order to meet state education standards and testing. The teacher has made a list on Amazon and has already included the shipping information. The books can be new or used and will continue to reach students long after this school year. There are literally books that you can buy and send for less than a dollar!

By purchasing even a single book, you can help students this year and years to come. I've included a snip-it of the request I received below so that you can learn about some of the demographics of her school district. I do hope that you will consider buying a book from this list: http://amzn.com/w/2PLS52UH1NNO9

I work at a specialized school within the Chester Upland Public School District called Smedley Allied Health High School. My students had to have certain GPA requirements and go through an interview process to get in, and it helped if they had an interest in a health career. I teach 100 9th grade boys and girls. I'm writing you today because I and my students need your help.

I understand that it's almost the holiday season, and it's also a recession. However, I wouldn't ask if I didn't really need your help. My district just doesn't have the money to buy novels for my students, and they desperately need to read novels to improve their reading levels (our PSSA scores are literally the worst in Pennsylvania). I have a list of five novels that I need 30 copies each of on a wish-list I've created on Amazon.com. I'm not asking anyone to buy a whole set - one or two would even be helpful. Whatever you can spare/afford, I would really appreciate it.

Just to give you an idea of the poverty in Chester and therefore of our district, the average income of a Chester resident is $13,000 a year. That's average - not the lowest. In the United States, a family of three making $18,000/year is the poverty line - anything below that is considered extremely poor. Most students in Chester don't even graduate from high school, let alone go to college. Only 1 out of every 3 people over the age of 25, living in Chester, has a high school diploma. I want my students to be different. I want them to succeed, and right now, they want to too. I just need to help them learn to read and develop their skills, but to do that, I need novels, and I need your help to get them.

Here's the link to my wish-list. Like I said - whatever you can afford, I would greatly appreciate. Also, please forward this to any friends or other family you may think would be willing to help out. http://amzn.com/w/2PLS52UH1NNO9

Happy November: Market District Giveaway Monday

OK, so I didn't give anything away over the weekend, but my procrastination is your gain. Here's your chance to win a $25 Market District gift card in celebration of the new Market District store opening in Robinson this week.

As you may know, Market District is more than a grocery store. It is also a resource. For example, MarketDistrict.com offers tips and solutions to maximize your meal preparation experience. So, today's gift card contest will see how well you can use the Market District site as a resource.

Go to MarketDistrict.com and tell me the following: What composition of ground beef is best for a balance of lean, juicy burgers? If you are on Twitter, Direct Message me with your answer @woodysworldtv. If you are on Facebook, send me a message with your answer.

I will do a random drawing from the submitted answers at 8pm tonight (11/2/2009).

Woody's Trick or Treat Market District Contest #3

Woody's Trick or Treat Market District Contest #3 for a $25 gift card for the new Robinson Township location is a fun one -- a TRICK! Since my last contest was a Facebook-only, this one will be Twitter-only.

For contest #3, you must place a post-it (or other type of note) on an unsuspecting co-worker's back (or friend) that says I follow @marketdistrict on Twitter. You must then take a picture of it and post it on Twitter with the hashtag #MarketDistrictRocks. Note: it will help if you @WoodysWorldTV too.

You have until 5pm tomorrow (10/30). I will use a random-number generator to pick among the people that post pictures and use the hashtag.

Woody's Trick or Treat Market District Contest #2

I've made contest #2 an easy one on Facebook:

Contest 2: Win a $25 Giant Eagle Market District Gift card! All you have to do is go to the Giant Eagle Market District fan page (by clicking on the link), join as a fan and write, "Woody has me fired up about the opening of the Robinson Township Market District" on the wall. I will use a random-number generator to pick a winner. You have until 5pm today (10/29/09). http://www.facebook.com/marketdistrict

Go! (Note Contest #3 will be Twitter-only)

Trick or Treat: Contest for $25 Market District Gift Card

Ok so Halloween is coming up and so is the opening of the new Giant Eagle Market District in Robinson Township! So, I'm going to let you show your "spirit" by combining the two events.

Your mission -- should you choose to accept it -- is to POST a picture of YOU in your Halloween costume holding a sign saying that "Market District is opening in Robinson."

You will need to post said picture via Twitter and/or Facebook and draw my attention to it BEFORE NOON TOMORROW (either via @woodysworldtv or posting it on my wall on Facebook). I will post all of the pictures to this page and determine my first winner of a $25 gift card to the new Market District.

Anybody can win from the Pittsburgh area. If you don't win, don't worry. There will be more chances to win. Have fun with this, I know I will!

Trick or Treat: A New Market District Is Opening

Trick or treat is always fun for me. I love giving away candy and seeing the costumes--especially in Pittsburgh. It's always funny to see how the kids can incorporate their winter coats into their costumes. At least they don't have to wear those hard plastic jumpsuits that came in cake boxes like we (I) did years ago.

As torturous as it was sporting a plastic mask that I couldn't see out of, trying not to crack a frozen plastic jumpsuit and dodging the homes that were giving away Mallow cups, I still loved it. Everybody was happy to see me dressed up and rewarded me just for doing it.

I just wish there was a better way that we, as adults, could engage in the festivities. Sure, we can dress up and party, but where are our treats?

Well, here's where it gets fun! I've been given a handful of treats to give to you, my online friends.

I'm sure you've heard the word, Giant Eagle Market District is opening up a new store in Robinson Township. Well, they've given me some gift cards to share with you, my readers.

I'm not a very commercial guy. But, if I get a chance to make putting up with me worthwhile, I'll pass it along to you. And, if I happen to make you guys jump through a couple of hoops to win and I am amused, we both win, right??

So, starting tomorrow, I'll be holding a couple of Trick or Treat contests to award the gift cards to you all via this blog, Twitter and Facebook.

And, before you yell and cry foul, there aren't any rules and I'll tell you in advance, this isn't fair -- it's Woody's World. Market District supported Pittsburgh Pod Camp. So, I'll give them out as I see fit and best helps them to communicate their message.

Afterall, what is the fun in having power if you don't abuse it? You'll just have to pay attention and hopefully win an advance on your Market District lunch or Thanksgiving dinner.

Wasn't there a TV station that said "watch and win?" Well, I'm taking it. Watch and win! Oh, and thanks for reading.

The Joy and Amusement of Watching Protester Punishment

Nobody said civil disobedience would be easy. After all, disobedience means that there are rules and there is some kind of consequence for noncompliance. Otherwise, why follow the rules, right?

So, I guess maybe that's why I have to giggle when I hear protesters decry the evils of getting shot in the ass by rubber bullets or a having a headache from intense audio shot at them by police. Either that, or it's the same demented side of me that laughs really hard when people bite it in the show Wipeout. Knowing me, I'd guess it was the latter.

In either regard, you know what you're getting into when you show up. In Wipeout, there are two ways you can approach things. You can take your time and carefully traverse the obstacles, knowing you'll be safe, but probably won't make the show or make any money. OR, you can fly recklessly though the course in an effort to win and make money with full knowledge that you'll probably have a spectacular "wipeout"and probably make TV in trying.

Same thing goes with protesting. They call it CIVIL disobedience for a reason. Those that do it coherently and methodically (a la purely civil) probably will not get hurt. But, by the same token, they probably won't get the TV coverage either.

There needs to be a balance. The person that wins in Wipeout is able to call upon a balance of fortitude and caution. Same goes with the protesting. Too much civil or too much disobedience, you'll either end up beat down in the mud or on the cutting room floor.

For example, the Greenpeace demonstration at the Pittsburgh G-20 Summit was a spectacular balance of fortitude and caution that resulted in their victory in getting their message across. Greenpeace showed great fortitude in a daring demonstration where protesters rappelled from a high-visibility bridge with a sign with their message.

At the same time, Greenpeace showed extreme caution by using protesters skilled at rappelling and making sure that nobody was hurt (and no damage came to property).

The protesters fully-knew and understood the consequences of the fortitude portion of their demonstration. It is disobedience after all. And, when they ascended their ropes, they willingly turned themselves in to authorities without incident. Nobody was beat, gassed, shot or deafened.

The protesters did their job and the police did theirs. Balance! The result? WIN! They had the shock and awe to get on to TV and they had the skill to make sure their message was communicated while not being overshadowed by damage or injury.

So, that's not to say that you have to be arrested to conduct a successful protest. In fact, I watched thousands of people march in protest to the G-20 in the Thomas Merton Peace March.

Thousands of people with several different agenda all marching and showing symbols of their position. Not a single one of them received a cross look from a police officer. And, to my knowledge not one of them had a brush with the law--or experienced police brutality. In fact, I shot video and pictures of the event.

So, what does that leave? The "protest" that is all fortitude (disobedience) but no civility or coherence (a la "anarchists"). These are the absolute fail protests that I classify purely as amusement because they're all reckless abandon with no visible substance and you just know they're going to end badly.

You know you can count on these people to run blindfolded in a field with an electric fence and be "shocked" when they get zapped by testing the boundaries. They willingly enter the obstacle course, challenge the course and cry foul when the course wins. (photo by @iwasthere)

It is no small wonder that these are the ones that get the TV time--largely because they are the most amusing to watch.

They're angry little pawns that rail against authority by following somebody's orders to destroy things to communicate. They're pent up balls of unsubstantiated frustration just like a pre-screening call for a reality show.

They think they're famous and accomplishing something because people look at them. But, in reality, people watch them because they love to see them unravel and self destruct.

Thousands marched across the city without a single incident, but this small group of Tasmanian devils somehow seemed to attract every police incident, every ounce of gas and voluntarily become guinea pigs for new technology like LRAD (Long Range Acoustical Device) cannons. Thank you all!

I need to thank you all for your spectacular "stunned fan" look as you are body slammed to the ground. Thank you for your willingness to act surprised that the police "victimized" you after giving you a forty-five minute notice to disperse (as well as incremental notices in between).

Thank you for being surprised that removal by physical means actually means that you will be removed. Thank you for willingly standing on the news and showing me the welts that the rubber bullets left. Otherwise I wouldn't be sure that it was truly a good shot.

Even better, now you all shoot home video and cell phone pictures to capture those off-screen moments--enabling me to get a first-person account of how bad tear gas burns or how new technologies like LRAD really hurt the ears and fuck up your phones.

But, I understand, you weren't protesting, you were just there to document it. The orders didn't apply to you, right? You are yet another innocent victim.

Much like the media that go to Iraq and Afghanistan to cover the battles, you run a risk of becoming collateral damage. When you decide to get close to the action, it's a risk you take. Seriously, would you stand next to an artillery fight in the Middle East?

Then why would you stand there when people are breaking windows, throwing rocks (or poo), or otherwise doing stupid things to attract body slams, hand cuffs, gas or noise? Or at least, how can you stand there and be surprised that you caught come kind of shrapnel or other type of collateral damage? When you watch on TV at home, you're safe. When you show up and get in the mix, you're an active participant and a potential target.

When I went down town to shoot video and pictures of the march, I completely understood that if shit hit the fan, I could be gassed, trampled, pelted or even arrested. It's a chance you take--an occupational hazard. So, much like those you're watching, don't be surprised if you get caught up in the tornado you're watching.

I guess unintentionally this entry has become "Woody's Guide to Proper Protesting," but it was intended to be a a thank you to those that opt for disobedience over civil disobedience for your spectacular failures--whatever your message was. And, please save your home footage, it will come in handy for your tryouts for Real World, Big Brother or especially Wipeout.

My Week Away From Twitter

In a neurotic, self-aggrandizing experiment, I quietly took a week away from my PERSONAL Twitter account to see if anybody noticed.To the best of my knowledge, nobody did. HMMPH!

No, this wasn't (completely) to see if anybody was hanging on the edge of the keyboard pining for my next post. It was more to quantify why exactly I'm using Twitter for a personal account.

Originally, I opened my personal Twitter account simply to feed into my personal home page (another form of self-aggrandizing to be examined at a later date). It was just a simple update that was added to my webpage (woodysworldtv.com). From there, I started hob-knobbing with some of the who's who of social media, including Geoff Livingston, Lizz Strauss, Paul Chaney, Robert Scoble, Brian Solis.

Networking with that crowd was a great learning experience. They were great source of what's happening and what's coming in social media (and still are). But, by interacting with that crew, I was losing the personal contacts that I was simply updating about my life (and lunch). Then the "tweetup" aspect came about where you start interacting with people locally. Pittsburgh has quite an active Twitter scene. But, with each evolution, my Twitter account drug along more baggage.

Basically, my personal Twitter account became a catch-all for social media activity that fell beyond the scope of my Twitter professional brand accounts. As my personal Twitter personal account continued to evolve (or devolve), it became part chat, part learning, part networking, and part fishing for comments and followers--leading up to a lot of noise and time with little-to-no purpose.

Once you hit that level of crowd (1000+ followers), how much SOCIAL interaction is it? If you're chatting with one, it's noise to 999 others. If you're posting on public relations, it's noise to the "chatters." If you're chatting, it's noise to the social media crowd.

And, if you're playing by the rules, being social and following those people in return, how much noise do you have to sort through to find useful information to you? With the help of tools like TweetDeck, I was able to compartmentalize "groups" into categories, but the root problem remained.

If you are trying to do to much with a single account, you run the risk of loosing or boring people across the board that lie beyond the scope of a given topic.

What's the answer? Do you split your account into several accounts to represent every aspect of your personality or interest? My single-purpose, on-scope professional Twitter accounts are quite successful. But, wow, I've seen people that split their social identities between professional and personal interests. Ultimately one (or more) of those accounts end up being neglected or ignored. Not to mention, that's a whole heck of a lot of effort for what return?

I've networked. I've made contacts. But, I now interact with most of those people on Facebook or Friendfeed (in the case of social media types)--away from the noise. So, do you keep going? Do you keep shouting out in the crowded malls and streets simply fishing for a RT or response? Or, do you focus on your core, stick to your guns, quit pandering to a crowd hoping for an audience?

The short story is that I was putting a heck of a lot of time into having an untargeted, catch-all, personal presence. Stepping away, is it worth the investment of time? I'm not sure. I'm an information junkie. I love all the information that pours in. And, the reporter in me loves to share information. But, when the account is scatterd all over the place like my mind, is it serving any value? Are you reaching anybody? Is there any value? I'm not sure there is. But, the experiment continues...

What I've Learned About Social Media

I was asked recently to pull together some thoughts on what I've learned while working with Social Media. It was meant to serve as a "how do you engage," and "what are some of the pitfalls." This is very basic social media 101. However, I figured I would share it as either a refresher course or an introduction for anybody that's interested. Feel free to comment or add to it. Here you go...
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What I’ve learned about social media:
For years, I’ve been experimenting with social networking and other web outreach media. If I’ve taken away one catch-all lesson, it’s that if there is a group of people together and communicating, there is a marketer wondering how they can best inject their message into that conversation.

Whether it’s sponsoring a 5k race, advertising at a ball game, commercials on TV, ads on a website or now injecting their message into web 2.0 media, marketers are always looking for an entry. Social “media” is no different.

For years, people have been networking through social sites like Classmates, MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook. Never has it been so easy to mass-update your friends yet still “keep it personal.”

With the newfound ease of managing large groups of friends, it has become easier to also grow your network to even more new friends that share common interests or objectives. The common thread of these networks is the desire to share or observe. As the phenomenon of social networking grew, so too did the sites and tools trying to tap into this rage. Specialized sites developed trying to tap into some of the most popular aspects of social networking such as opinion sharing, photo sharing, video sharing, audio sharing and even status sharing.

Some of these sites continue to try to do it all, like Facebook and MySpace, while other sites look to tap into a specific niche, such as:

• Blogging: WordPress, Blogger and LiveJournal
• Photo Sharing: Flickr, Picassa, Webshots
• Video Sharing: YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler
• Information Sharing: Wikipedia, wikis
• Status (microblogging): Twitter, Plurk, identi.ca

It was only natural that communicators/marketers wanted to tap into these veins and begin sharing as well. But there was a lesson to be learned in this new arena. When people are sharing their personal thoughts and having personal conversations, the traditional “party line core talking points” seemed wildly out of place. Thus, social media is born—a way to share and communicate to the masses as they share their lives without looking like a blatant spammer. Not to mention, it seems to give communicators a good excuse to play on the Internet.

So, what is Social Media? There are a lot of experts that will try to tell you that they know what it is, but in reality, it’s a moving target. The approach that was cool yesterday has become cliché today. Yet, at the same time, some of the base fundamentals and traditions of communications/marketing still hold as well.

The “viral video” was once the Hallmark of a successful social media campaign. The viral video was something quirky that amused people and compelled them to pass it along to those that they felt would be amused as well, only to find later it was a hook into a commercial or subtle ad for a product.

Today, a successful social media campaign can involve getting favorable microblog mentions, people to share your bookmarks, people writing favorably about your messaging, people using your images or video or any combination thereof.

Droves of companies now pay top dollar to manage their social “image and brand.” This social management is much more than just what you’re going to say, it’s also watching what people say.

As numerous companies have found, you are never more than a misquote away from a flash-mob social backlash. As hard as companies can work to spread positive messages and spending countless hours to get one positive thing said about their product, a simple misstep can lead to a social media firestorm.

The common element among the vast populations of social networks is that they want to be a part of something bigger, they want to be the ones that share, they want to feel like they are on the ground floor of all things new.

So, how do you engage in social media? I’ve seen one-person campaigns generate as much success as big-dollar agency campaigns. Your ultimate success can be impacted by a key influencer being on or offline. Your success can be impacted by another unexpected trending topic. But, most of all, your success comes down to core communications skills like knowing your tools, media and audience.

Before engaging in social media, it’s important to know your goal. A fast path to social irrelevance is adding a bunch of followers and going out there and floundering around with no message and posting direct links to your site. The key element of social media is SOCIAL. As I referenced above, people are sharing aspects of their lives. They don’t want you bursting into their conversation and shouting to visit your website.

Rather, a sound strategy is to start out small. You need to identify people that are talking about topics that relate to your key strategy. You can join discussion groups, you can participate in conversations, you can search out blogs of relevance, but most of all, it is important to establish yourself as an individual that is engaging in conversations.

Granted, there are people that will follow your messages without being engaged, but most likely those people are predisposed to your message or brand (see Ashton Kutcher, CNN, etc..). In those instances, you’re not really gaining ground, you are just giving people that were predisposed to your message another avenue to tap into your messaging. If that is your definition of success, then the bar is low.

If you’re looking to make inroads to new audiences, the strategy becomes more involved. Where do you start? How do you find people that might have an interest in what you have to say?

Finding an inroad comes back to mastery of tools. There are a number of social media tools that will help you identify where to start. The current critical mass and prom queen is Twitter. Twitter is the quintessential microblogging site where users broadcast 140-character updates to their followers. From corporations, celebrities and musicians on down to the solo individual, people are listening and sharing more than ever through Twitter.

How do you engage these masses? A good starting point is to search current conversations. Popular tools to search Twitter conversations are search.twitter.com, TweetDeck and Seesmic. These tools let you enter key words that are related to your objective and engage the people that are active in that area. TweetDeck is a powerful tool that you can use to have multiple searches active at all times, allowing you to proactively engage conversations as they are happening. By engaging these individuals, you are gaining their attention and possibly the attention of their followers that presumably share their interest.

As I indicated above, an underlying desire of many people engaged in social media is to be in on something bigger. Users of social media are looking to share. So, your objective as a social media practitioner is to give them something to share. You, as an individual have a much larger reach if your followers are sharing your information to their networks, and so on. You only need to be the initial source, not the singular source. Give your followers ownership of your information. Letting your followers own the information gives them brand loyalty and taps into their objectives for engaging in social media.

Another strong strategy is searching the blogs. Many of the most popular search engines are able to search blogs. But, an even stronger tool is making use of news alerts. Both Yahoo! and Google have news alert services that will email you comprehensive searches of news stories and blogs mentioning the key words that you’ve identified. News stories are a great conversation starter among your newfound audience and the blog searches are a great way to find people that are writing in long form about your chosen topics.

You can also use tags to find people that you are looking to engage. Tagging is a powerful tool for drawing people to images and videos and other content. It is also powerful for you to find people who are engaging in your areas of interest. Image searches and video searches are often-neglected aspects of social media outreach.

So, you’ve found your audience, congratulations. Now what? What is your call to action? Do you want them to buy something? Do you want them to find even more information? One common strategy is to drive traffic to a website.

Driving traffic to your website:
It’s assumed that you have more to say than you can inject into a social media arena in a single tweet or ad. So, let’s assume one of your goals is to drive traffic to your site where you are able to more verbosely support your core messages and objectives. What strategies work?

The audience that you’ve identified is already having conversations related to your topic. So, a simple first strategy is to provide a link for additional information on the points you are making when you engage in a conversation.

An even more sound strategy is to provide tools within your website to let those people share your information in their chosen medium. There are numerous tools that will let users push your information into blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon and many other social media outlets. Their endorsement or ownership of your information is much more effective than you tooting your own horn.

Engage blogs that are discussing your topic. Bloggers are a great resource with a built in readers and networks. They are also great areas for you to provide comments and feedback, as well as links back to where they can find more information on their topic of interest.

Bring the conversation to you. Another under-utilized tool is controlling the conversation. Have the forum on your own website. Provide analysis of your information and let your visitors provide feedback that can be seen on the site. Users love to see their name on sites and will drive people to the site to see their contributions. Likewise, build sections on your site where you can quickly post images or information relevant to a topic, archives of key conversations, provide lists of people who have interests in the topic or link to great blogs on the topic.

Another powerful way to control the conversation is to create a group—not necessarily about just your brand, but more broadly on your topic. That way you are the conversation starter. You are the owner of the conversation. You are the home team where the conversation is taking place.

How do you control the conversation that reaches beyond your website?

On the chance that the conversation is happening without you, or the conversation is getting away from you, you need to engage. Countless social media wildfires have been extinguished by simply letting people know that you are listening. When bad things are being said related to your brand or topic, follow the participants in the conversations. You do not necessarily have to correct them or say they are wrong, but let them know you are listening and that you are engaged in the conversation. Most people will change their tone when the conversation becomes two-way.

How do you create new conversation?
The easy and obvious way is to post a question to your audience. Let them tell you about your topic and you can clarify key points. But the objective here is that you are getting your audience to have a conversation about your topic in front of their networks.

But, what about reaching beyond the conversation starter? How do you reach into traditional media metrics?

You cannot forget the “media” portion of social media. An increasing number of traditional journalists are monitoring and engaging in social media as a part of their reporting. Additionally, an increasing number of citizens are engaging in citizen reporting. Social media is a transitional area between traditional journalism and new media.

To help ease this transition, tools like the social media release are becoming increasingly popular among social media communicators. The social media release combines aspects of traditional press releases, but also incorporates new aspects of social media, including relevant microblogs, blogs, sound, images, video, bookmarks and other related streams. The social media release provides resource for web content, print content, audio content and video content. It gives new media and traditional media journalists resources and comfort alike.

The easier you make it for the writer to make the story, the better your results will be—plain and simple. An increasing number of companies engaging in social media are creating social media “newsrooms.” These newsrooms house all the resources that new and traditional journalists need to write the story. One powerful tool that is emerging is PitchEngine, which builds and indexes the newsroom for you. Not only do resources like PitchEngine create a central, searchable repository for social journalism resources, it also feeds the information to more traditional search engines so that your resources are highly visible among the most common search media.

So, now you have your tools to find people, your audience, your objectives, your media, and your messages, why aren’t you engaged? A common fear is that you’ll mess up. You will mess up. It happens in traditional journalism, it happens in public relations, it happens in social media.

Fortunately, the Internet is a dynamic medium and you can clean up or come clean about your errors. But, even beyond the biggies—insulting your audience, misinformation, and technical faux pas, there are other common mistakes that you can make with social media, including:

• Insisting on being the source: One of the biggest mistakes in social media is that the people engaging in social media want to be the source. You do not have to be the source to engage in a social media campaign. You simply need to provide people with the information and resources that they need to have a conversation on your behalf.
• Forgetting social media is SOCIAL: Not everything has to be on message. Again, this is social media. People are sharing. Social media is a conversation. Participate in the conversation. If everything you post is on topic, you are not really engaging in the social aspect of social media.
• You won’t always win: You can’t control the New York Times and you can’t control a blogger. People will say what they want. People have their own agendas. All you can do is provide your information accurately.
• Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill: If a person with 5 followers badmouths your topic, don’t give them more attention than they deserve. Your simple acknowledgement of them draws attention to their message and most likely doubles their followers.

So, now you know enough to be dangerous. Get out there and engage social media. This is by no means a comprehensive guide. In fact, it’s the tip of the iceberg. But, social media is fluid and there are things that you will learn as you go along. This is just enough to get you engaged and begin learning from your own experience.

Feel free to contact me with any questions. After all, this is social media and feedback is part of the process! If you have any interest, let me know, maybe I'll take it to another level and write some more.

Why I didn't renew my Pittsburgh Pirates Season Tix

Year after year, fans, and Pittsburgh’ers in general bemoan our child-star-gone-bad, the Pirates. Yet, the team puts enough butts in seats (mine included) that they don't feel compelled to do anything about it. This year, I'm showing tough love. I'm sad to do it, but I haven't renewed my season tickets. Sure, I'm just one person, but I'm hoping that there's enough people out there feeling the same way and send a message to the ownership that has sent so many mixed messages to us.

We’ve been assured by the ownership that they’re turning the ship, they’re building the team, they want to make us proud, but every move they make seems to indicate the opposite. Each year, the Pirates pick up a bunch of young, fresh faces. When you roll the dice this much, sure, sometimes some talent will come up. But, there’s a problem–at least as far as the Pirates’ business model is concerned. Talent requires money to keep around. Investing in the team is not a part of the ownership’s model. What is this model, well, at a glance it would seem like this:

• Bottom line: Don’t spend money on the team, leverage other available funds to put butts in seats.
• Leverage city/taxpayer funds into building a state-of-the art attraction for a field. This way, when the team doesn’t attract fans, the venue will.
• Promotions: Leverage promoter money to give away bobbles and sponsor fireworks, which Pittsburgh’ers can not resist
• Visiting Teams: Chicago fans travel well, other fans travel to see the venue, and the attraction of interleague and other strong contenders also put butts in seats
• Merchandising: build buzz around a mid-level player who is not hot enough to want a big contract elsewhere, but will be around for a while.
• Team: Keep bringing in fresh (inexpensive) faces that give a token impression that we’re building a team.

In short, the Pirate business model seems to be built around hoping that the combination of tradition, promotions, venue and blind faith will keep putting butts in seats while they keep costs down on the team–turning a profit on leveraging promotional dollars.

In a way it’s brilliant. They spend a little bit of cash to barely keep a team on the field and reap the profits from traffic resulting from the tails in seats for every reason but their team.

Why would they put a single other dollar into the team when they don’t have to? Well, I’ve got a question for the team. Why would I put a single more dollar into your team if you’re going to trade away any talent we have and reap the success of putting a sub-par team on the field?

It is for this very reason that I did not be renew my season tickets this year. Despite the three ring circus that the Pirates put on around the field, at heart, this is supposed to be a competitive sports team. If the Pirates ownership is not making an effort, neither am I.

Can I Just Say I Can't Wait for the NIN Tour?!

http://vimeo.com/3388630

The Steel Industry, Buy American and Wondering About the NYT and WSJ

So, like all of you, I now run on media overload. I am keeping up with my Twitter, my RSS feeds, blowing the headlines of most major news sites and trying to keep up with what’s going on around me. When it comes to the steel industry, I tend to pay a little more attention because my day job is impacted by the success of the industry.

So, on January 2nd when the New York Times published the article, "Steel Industry, in Slump, Looks to Federal Stimulus," naturally, I tuned in. When reading the article, I came across a paragraph that almost seemed to make it sound like the steel industry was asking for a $1 trillion bailout—as if the headline didn’t insinuate that enough. The paragraph was as follows:

"The industry itself is turning to government for orders that, until the September collapse, had come from manufacturers and builders. Its executives are waiting anxiously for details of President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, and adding their voices to pleas for a huge public investment program — up to $1 trillion over two years — intended to lift demand for steel to build highways, bridges, electric power grids, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and rapid transit."

Sure enough, the Tweets and blogs started to buzz that the steel industry was looking for a $1 Trillion bailout. I guess you don’t know how fast a wildfire can spread until you watch it roll out live on TweetDeck!

I went to great lengths to discuss with the Tweeters and bloggers that the steel industry hadn’t asked for a single dollar. The steel industry voiced support for a movement to include a "Buy American" clause in Obama's proposed Infrastructure stimulus package that would rebuild bridges, highways and rapid transit. This move would benefit all American industry and their employees, whom the stimulus package is intended to benefit.American industry, a critical artery of the US economy, was urging Obama to include a buy American clause in his proposal. The steel industry has voiced its support for that plan and the buy American clause. The one trillion dollar figure was in no way related to any request by or on behalf of the steel industry. The number was a statement of estimation for Obama’s stimulus package by at least 5 US governors.

The trillion-dollar figure, suggested by the governors, was for the ENTIRE infrastructure package, most of which does not include steel directly or indirectly. There are portions of this package, bridges, rail systems, culverts, sewage, which could benefit the steel industry. But, it most certainly is not about the industry or for the steel industry.

Most people (Tweeple) I spoke with were surprised at the wording in the article upon learning the truth, and some even retweeted retractions. However, some folks, determined to find flaw with the industry’s approach wanted to further engage me on the economic impact and “protectionist” aspects of “Buy American.” Not a problem, we can discuss that as well.

I explained that all federal government projects used to have a buy American clause in them. This is not a new concept nor is voicing your opinion for programs that will benefit you. The lobbying profession wouldn't exist otherwise. So, in essence, the industry, at most is lobbying for a program and voicing support for aspects of that program that would benefit the industry. I would be shocked at any business-minded industry that didn't want to make sure that monies, intended to stimulate the US economy, went into the US economy. That's a logical survival strategy in these times.

But, now, today, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) floats an editorial called “Steel's 'Buy America' Ploy.” The editorial insinuates that adding a “Buy American” clause to an AMERICAN Economic Stimulus package would “inevitably come at the expense of the nation's overall economic health.” I thought WOW, the 1.2 million people with jobs generated by the steel industry might have something that say about that. Or, hey, the American steel industry pumps $350 billion into the US economy, keeping that going is probably a great idea when you’re trying to stimulate the economy.

My read on the article is that the WSJ, and others, feel differently. I know theories on economic philosophies are like noses, everybody has one. But, for the sake of argument, I’ll address this from the perspective that I believe that the WSJ and others, who consider “buy American” protectionist and damaging.

In a utopian world, there would be no trade restrictions and all currencies would be equal. If this were the case there would be no trade borders. We would have a flowery world economy where services and goods would float seamlessly from country to country, constantly growing this utopian world economy. But, the reality is quite different.

WSJ noted that at the G-20 summit in Washington, D.C., in November, world leaders agreed to a moratorium on protectionist measures. But in that same vein, in 2007 the WTO enacted the Fair Currency Act of 2007. Yet, as we discuss this, China undervalues its currency through exchange-rate misalignment which creates an export subsidy which is prohibited through existing trade laws, including the Fair Currency Act of 2007.

According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, China’s trade practices, including the currency manipulation, creates a $50billion subsidy for China—just in the steel sector! Other practices by China include debt-to-equity swaps, inadequate enforcement of environmental and worker safety rules and large-scale subsidies in the form or preferential loans from state-owned banks and tax incentives. These practices are direct manipulation of materials markets, including steel.
And, China, as an export economy, produces 140% of its country’s consumption, including the steel it exports to US markets. According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, the largest volume of imports of finished steel products was from China. Chinese steel imports have been over 500,000 tons for each of the last three months, followed in second by Korea.

So, essentially, the WSJ and others are saying, let’s put Obama’s stimulus monies into these foreign economies? They’re saying that the US shouldn’t try to level the playing field against manipulative practices? That Obama’s stimulus dollars, intended to revitalize our economy, should not be spent with US markets, where possible? I just really don’t understand that logic. And, yet people blindly accept it because foreign lobbyists have big budgets and have the ear of key media.

But the bottom line remains. The steel industry did not create Obama's Infrastructure stimulus package. They did not ask for money from our government or any other kind of bailout. The steel industry voiced support for “Buy American” in government programs and voiced their support for Obama’s stimulus package—much in the same way that the cement industry has via cement.org (see Podcast Highlights Importance of Infrastructure Package), and the aluminum industry, who saw stocks leap on the day Obama announced his package—not to mention numerous other industries (on down to the catfishing industry), who all hope their industries will be vitalized, along with the economy, by money invested by our government.