Ravenweb Blog

Check out my guest post on SmartBlog on Leadership: 10 ways social media can help “flip” your network http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2011/06/06/10-ways-social-media-can-help-flip-your-network/

My neighbor recently had a disagreement over a payment and an unpleasant customer experience with Independent Health , a large health insurance carrier that operates in Buffalo, NY and the surrounding area. To release some of his frustration, he posted an entry to his blog , in which he recounted the entire episode and even created a mock ad, revealing how the organization treated him. A few days after publishing the post, Independent Health (to its credit) contacted my neighbor and agreed to cover the full amount of the disputed payment . Score another one for social media. Never underestimate the power of this emerging bullhorn. Links: Initial post in which neighbor vents on his blog: http://kaynou.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/advertising-we-can-believe-in/ Follow up post recounting Independent Health's response: http://kaynou.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/independent-health-comes-through/

Cognitive Surplus continues where Here Comes Everybody ends and examines how excess free time and the adoption of social media are transforming us from consumers into collaborators. We've had surplus free time for a while, Shirky contents, at least since the postwar boom. However, because we spent so much of this excess time watching television, the surplus was mostly used for consumption. It has only been in recent years, with the emergence of online social networks, that we're beginning to see our cognitive surplus applied beyond consumption, to all manner of sharing and collaborative creation. It's worth noting here that the application of our cognitive surplus to social networks is instrumental. It won't by definition produce output of higher quality. You will instead get everything from Wikipedia to Napster to millions of blogs and Twitter posts. But because the Internet has removed the barriers to entry for amateurs creating and sharing content, the pool of ...

Groundswell is a really great survey book about the importance of social media for business. Here, the authors interpret social media as the groundswell, "a spontaneous movement of people using online tools to connect, take charge of their experience, and get what they need -- information, support, ideas, products, and bargaining power -- from each other." The book is well-structured and begins at a high-level, defining the groundswell and why it's vital for businesses today. Next, the authors include case studies and go through various strategies for tapping into the groundswell. The final section includes tactical examples detailing how to implement social media initiatives and gain buy-in throughout an organization. As you read the book, it's easy to tell that Groundswell pulls together a ton of relevant information, and the authors did an excellent job of leveraging data from their parent organization ( Forrester Research ) and gathering new information tho...

I love using social media sites to meet new professionals for networking and sharing ideas. LinkedIn and Twitter are my favorite social media sites for this, as they bring you into contact with a ton of people in all different fields and specialties. Over the past few months, I've been trying to add new professional contacts and I've reached out to people I didn't previously know. At first, this was a little awkward, as I had to overcome my own hesitation about connecting with strangers. I was worried I was being too intrusive or even spamming people. I tried to balance this by being transparent about my intent to connect and never bothering anyone with duplicate messages or invitations. Overall, this process has been rewarding and very positive, as the majority of people with whom I've interacted have been very receptive to networking and connecting on LinkedIn or Twitter, and I now am connected to many more interesting professional contacts that I would be other...

In the hours leading up to the "Lost" series finale that aired last Sunday, many people updated their blogs, Facebook statuses, and Twitter pages with a statement indicating that they'd be staying off the Internet and powering off mobile devices until after they watched the finale, so as to avoid surprises and spoilers. Of course, you don't have to be a fan of "Lost" to relate to the impulse to disengage from online distractions, but the willingness of so many people to do so to watch a television show made me wonder what else qualifies as a reason to steer clear of the Internet and social media. Do people just pull away for media that's prone to spoliers and leaks, like anticipated television shows and movies? What about pro sporting events, particularly when someone attempts the often tried but difficult to accomplish feat of recording the game, avoiding the score, and then watching it later without knowing the outcome. And what about people who di...

When you're connected to someone on a social media site like Facebook , Twitter , or even LinkedIn , and the person uses the service regularly, it doesn't take long to learn some new things about the person that you might not have known, including likes, interests, and affiliations. This can create some interesting dynamics and bedfellows, especially when you're interacting online with people you haven't connected with in a long time (like high school or college friends) or have only met professionally. To me, this is most acute when I begin to parse that someone I'm connected to is my complete opposite, politically. This got me wondering -- what do people think and do when they notice their connections have different politics? Do people disconnect from people if someone's at the other end of the spectrum? Do they keep the connection but ignore the person? Conversely, are social media sites rare vehicles where we actually talk to and listen to each other ? I...