PepperDigital

Happy Birthday To Me!

By Brooke Winebrenner, Pepperdigital

Last week, I celebrated my 24th birthday. Now I realize this year does not mark a special milestone in life, but nonetheless it was my day. Overall, I would say it was much like many other birthdays in the past, or was it? 

As the day came to an end, I was caught off guard at the realization that I had only received 2 phone calls from loved ones wishing me a Happy Birthday. The dozens of other birthday greetings were sent to me via emails, texts, tweets and Facebook wall posts and direct messages from extended family, as well as close and long lost friends. Now I don’t know about you, but 5 years ago this would have never happened. My phone would have been ringing off the hook and I would have received a handful of birthday cards.

While experts have repeatedly stated that social media is changing the way we communicate with one another, on a personal level, it really hit home. Is it that hard to pick up the phone and give someone a call? Maybe for some, but no, I don’t think that is the case. I believe this is a result of the level of comfort we have all begun to develop through social media. Communicating through these outlets has become the norm, day in and day out. So, silly me, why would I ever think that my special day would be an exception to these communication platforms? 

Maybe if I would have read Mashable.com’s: Top 5 Ways Social Media is Changing Our Daily Lives before my birthday, then I wouldn’t have been caught off guard. I think it is important for everyone to take the time to reflect on how our lives are continually changing overtime in result of social media. Below, please find an excerpt from Mashable’s Top 5 Ways Social Media is Changing Our Lives:

1. Where We Get Our News

News has become more social than ever. While many people still use RSS feeds to stay up up-to-date on publications of interest and blogs, our list of sources for what is worthy of our attention has expanded substantially. Many of us have begun to look to our friends and the people we recognize on social networks like Facebook and Twitter for recommended news. This makes it easy to communicate with one another about this information.

2. How We Start and Do Business

It is easier than ever to start and launch a business today, in great part thanks to social media. Social media, including everything from blogging to posting videos on YouTube to tweeting, has brought about unlimited opportunities for both consumers and clients. Who we do business with and how we promote that business has moved increasingly online, and for small business especially, social media has proved valuable. A recent article in the New York Times concluded, “For many mom-and-pop shops with no ad budget, Twitter has become their sole means of marketing.”

3. How We Meet and Stay in Touch with People

Studies show that our time on social networks has nearly tripled in the last year, and while Facebook has always primarily centered around connecting with people and staying in touch with friends, according to a study on eMarketer, “41.6% percent of Internet users who used Twitter did so to keep in touch with their friends.” People certainly still meet others at social venues like clubs and parties, but it is easier than ever to discover people who share our interests through social media, whether that means via groups on Facebook or following people on Twitter. Of course, there is only so much communication that can happen through a social network, but via Tweetups and other in-person events, people are expanding these online interactions to face-to-face meetings. 

4. What We Reveal

We now have queens acknowledging that they get nervous at times when speaking, CEOs being more honest and at times using blogs to express reservations over past decisions, and people openly sharing personal views on social issues. Of course, what we decide to reveal and when to reveal it can be delicate, and there will always likely be items we wish to keep private. However, rather than working to hide our thoughts and feelings, social media is helping to create greater personal transparency. The paradigm is now no longer to try to appear perfect, but to be more transparent with your thoughts and feelings, to reveal your humanness.

5. What We Can Influence

So-called mainstream media is no longer always the driving influencer of public opinion. On Twitter, some individuals now have a million or more followers, Facebook Pages can also have hundreds of thousands of fans, and YouTube videos can get millions of views when they go viral. Most of this content is coming from regular people, rather than big, corporate-owned media organizations.  As the networks for sharing and amplifying information strengthen, the ability of each person to influence public opinion and policies increases. As a result, we feel much less like passive bystanders and much more like participants who have a voice in the events in our world.

Mass Media's Job is to Make Us Curious

 By Rob Longert

In an article in the New York Times editorial section from last Wednesday, Maureen Dowd highlights the dangers of driving while on a cell phone, even with hands-free devices.

Dowd explains that not only is the act of dialing and talking on the phone dangerous, but the “truffle hunting" impulse we see when we are around people who find it normal to check their phones and BlackBerries during conversation, is really what we have to worry about.

Stop for a moment and ask yourself a question... Do you feel “an intense social and economic pressure to stay constantly in touch with employers, colleagues, friends and family?"

I would hypothesize that many of us, especially digital natives, would answer yes.

While this may be alarming and raise red flags for highway safety agencies, think about what it means for mass media.

Mass media outlets are charged with finding a way to tap into these “Pavlovian impulses," as Dowd calls them, to keep their readers engaged and looking to different technology as an avenue to fulfill their curiosity and need to be connected.

The outlets and communication tools that succeed at peaking our curiosity, by getting us to visit their sites, download their apps or expect a newsletter in our inbox, will be successful as the industry learns how to navigate waters that are still unchartered for the most part.

Which media outlets or forms of communication keep you hooked and fill you in on ''don't-miss-a-moment" news?

Pretty Bad Phorm

By Carl Foster, PepperDigital

Yesterday the European Commission announced that it would sue the British government. The crime? Its failure to take any action against British Telecom and Phorm, the technology company that works with ISPs to track users’ online behaviour to deliver more targeted advertising. Apparently, BT and Phorm worked together in 2006 and 2007 to secretly profile the behaviour of web users on behalf of advertisers.

Whatever the veracity of the case, the timing of the announcement from the European Commission is interesting. On Monday, Britain, along with the rest of the EU, became subject to a new European Directive that means records of all electronic communications be stored for 12 months. It is now mandatory for every email sent and website visited to be recorded for future reference to assist the police and other law enforcement bodies with their work, although as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, they won’t be monitoring the content of the communications. Records of phone calls have been maintained for some time already – again, only who called who, not who said what.

However, in a country where every Englishman’s home is his castle, the EU Directive hasn’t gone down too well, and only in part because it stems from Eurocrats in Brussels. A survey by Politics Home found that 60 percent of people reject the new directive, with only 23 percent approving of the new measure. In a separate, but rather interesting, example of how Britain rebukes the ever growing surveillance culture, just look at the reaction to the launch of Google Street View in the UK. One privacy watchdog has requested it be shut down, while the residents of a village chased a Google camera car out of their village so Google wouldn’t have pictures of their homes - or should that be castles?

But back to the European Commission: could the legal case against BT and Phorm be a gesture to demonstrate to the British that they take protection of our data and privacy seriously? Possibly. Something to think about as you re-read Orwell’s 1984.

Dear Pen Pal, My Hand Is Cramping

By Lauren Begley, PepperDigital

For the past two weeks, I have had a letter sitting on my desk that I have yet to mail. Now, when I say ‘letter,’ I mean an actual piece of paper with hand-written words that I plan to send to my friend, Alejandra, who recently moved to Peru (We thought becoming pen pals would be a nice throw-back to our junior high days when we would pass each other notes in class). Why has it been sitting on my desk for so long? I don’t consider myself a lazy person, but I haven’t put forth the effort to determine what sort of postage I will need to send the envelop to South America.

The point is handwritten correspondence has taken a beating with the rise of digital communication. It’s much easier to send a quick email, IM, or text to the person sitting in the cubicle next to you or to someone halfway around the world—and you don’t need stamps or get a hand cramp. Digital communication is no longer the hip, new trend like when your 8th grade classmate got AOL before anyone else. Digital communication is a necessity, in both our business and social lives.

Imagine a work day without checking your email or Blackberry. Scary, huh? For most of us, our digital communication is what makes the day tick. Even more recent social media trends have taken a step into the world of traditional communication. We tweet interesting updates throughout our workday, we make business contacts on LinkedIn and we look for new employee candidates on Emurse. We don’t even think twice about the fact that we aren’t sending an office memo or sorting through business cards or reviewing a hard-copy resume.

Even beyond general forms of e-communication, businesses across the board are making strides to “go paperless.” From banks to schools to hospitals , businesses are cutting down on paper and exploring digital options not only for communication, but internal data management, marketing efforts and client/customer service as well. The green element of going paperless is appealing, but in this economy, the amount of money saved in the long run from the strategic use of digital applications is an undeniable benefit.

Even though digital communication opens doors, allows us more time and saves us money, don’t forget that a handwritten note can still go a long way. Now, I’m finally off to the post office…

Snope it Out

By Jackie Kolek, PepperDigital

In the past week, I've been sent two chain emails with rumors dating back years. The first, a supposed rant by Andy Rooney about political correctness has been circulating since 2003 and is still being forwarded as if it happened on the latest edition of "60 Minutes." Another one involves the online dollar store Eyeslipsface.com. This one dates back almost two years and claims that Nordstroms is redoing all the packaging on their make up and is selling everything for one dollar for a limited time. In reality, the company, which is owned neither by Nordstorms nor Bloomingdales (as some versions state) sells all their products for one dollar all the time.

We all get these spams (mine come mostly via way of my mother). There's the AIDS-infected blood being injected into unsuspecting moviegoers, the burundanga-soaked business cards used incapacitate victims and, of course the countless Barack Obama as radical Muslim who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance claims. Why is it that these ridiculous claims survive and thrive year after year? A quick visit to Snopes.com or truthorfiction.com will debunk them in a minute. Yet seemingly educated and sophisticated people continue to read and pass on.

While I don't understand why people are still talking about dying from ingesting pop rocks and soda, the popularity of Internet urban legends speaks to the power of social media. Fact or fiction, compelling content will be believed and passed on. Smart markets have leveraged this power to build loyal fans and evangelize their products or services. Yet too many companies, especially in today's economic turmoil are failing to realize the sustainability of these claims. They refuse to listen to what is being said about them and are not taking the proper steps to debunk damaging rumors. The impact of rumors and speculation has the power to ruin brands and alienate customers.

Just ask Jamie Lee Curtis, two decades later people are still talking about her being a hermaphrodite.