Oh no you didn't!

This is the response of jilted ex-girlfriends, former roommates, ex-employees and others who have suffered the indignity of being "unfriended". With so much of our lives and personal relationships taking place online, the "unfriending" is almost as hurtful as the break-up...sometimes moreso, thanks to its passive-aggressiveness.

And yes, "unfriend" is the correct term for that action, at least according to the AP, which has expanded its style guide to include 42 new rules for social media. Among the new rules are the change from "Web site" to "website" as the proper reference for an online destination and asserting that "fan", "friend" and "follow" can be used both as nouns and as verbs.

If your sore thumbs and reflex-like full body twitch toward your "smart phone" (which is now officially two words, rather than a compound word) every time you hear something funny didnt clue you in, it's now official: social media is here to stay.

Check out the new 2010 AP Stylebook for the new rules as well as explanations of acronyms and jargon that have popped up with the proliferation of social media. And learn that "POS" no longer has anything to do with your 1986 Buick Le Sabre, with the drooping ceiling, duct taped door panels and trunk that latches with a bungee cord.

The Internet Could Pwn Newspapers (if it wanted to)

Matt Thompson at Newsless.org wrote a pretty great article about what’s missing from the news today. He claims a typical news story consists of four essential parts, three of which are withheld from the reader. A brief summary:

What we get:

• What just happened – This is what you would expect, the who, what, when, why, etc. of a standard news article. Just the facts, ma’am.

What we don’t get:

• The longstanding facts – This is the background information that informs the uninformed on a complex topic with important, relevant history. Matt uses the recent ongoing health care reform effort as an example, describing how what we get are stories about what has happened very recently, but what we’re not getting is how past actions around this effort (including previous major reforms) have shaped the dialogue we’re having now.
• How journalists know what they know – The methods by which a journalist comes to learn about a story can be just as informative, taken in context, as the actual story itself. It can speak to credibility as well as make the presentation of the story more engaging than a strict recitation of facts.
• The things we don’t know – There is a tendency to shy away from acknowledging the unknowns of a story. Standard journalism is all about “this is what we know”, but there is value in understanding what we don’t know and why we don’t know it.

It’s a pretty fascinating article, chock full of references and links to examples supporting Thompson’s notions, and while it didn’t necessarily come right out and say it, the implication is that those parts we don’t get would be perfectly at home online. Wikipedia, or something more vetted if you prefer, is able to provide that concise backstory and history, “the longstanding facts”. Free of the physical demands of space and size with newspaper publishing, journalists could embrace an online format that allows them to expand on their stories, adding to them as new information emerges.

Personally, I rarely read a newspaper. I’d say almost exclusively my news intake comes from online sources. Most of those sources, though, generally just use traditional journalistic methods. I’d love to see a site fully incorporate the 3 missing parts Thompson described.

I might even pay money to read it.

Journalism

I couldn't help it... I have to post this journalist request just by virtue of the fact that it is so detailed and thorough...

A journalist writing for a major women's magazine sends the following query: I'm looking for a variety of unique experts who can explain how you can (successfully) have sex in the following locations: in the ocean/pool/hot tub; during a dinner party; in the mountains (while on a hike, for example); on the beach; in a movie theater; in a public library; in the shower. For example, what should you consider beforehand? What should you wear? When should you try it? What "props" prove helpful ? (For example, perhaps a sleeping bag is better on the beach than a blanket because less sand gets in. Also, maybe applying baby powder beforehand is a good idea because it helps remove the sand stuck to your body.) Ideally, in some of these cases, the expert had experience with this sort of thing (a former librarian, for example, can weigh in on the library scenario).

A dinner party? Really?

Twitter a Journo

@ericasmith, who runs the graphicdesignr blog, has posted an amazing list of 793 reporters, editors and newspapers who are using Twitter. Following these folks will not only help you get a better perspective on what they are writing but also could lead to a valuable reporter relationship.

Crap, they're on to us...

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore." - The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus.

Message boards are to gamers what the wretched teaming shore is to the huddled masses. Yearning to breathe free, gamers flood comment sections, forums and messageboards eager to spout their opinion, extrapolate on what they think is newsworthy and generally look for the opportunity to make the next poster feel like absolute s#$! about themselves.

It's a fascinating ecosystem to watch, and one in which I participated in as a voyeur for many years before coming to my job which made it a requirement. Silently watching, scrolling we’ve been tracking what gamers are saying, what industry announcements are significant, and what new ways to say pwned have emerged for years now. Well apparently, they’re on to us.

1UP has an extensive article examining the effects of messageboards on the gaming industry, featuring interviews with developers, journalists and people just like me (except they have more impressive sounding job titles and significantly bigger pay checks). The stories of these individuals range from those who have tried too hard to fit in to the crowd, those who ignore the crowd, and those who love messageboards for exactly what they are. A ridiculous, over-the-top, mind numbing source of fiber and news.

The article asks “Do marketers keep their ear to the ground at NeoGAF and other message boards? Do they track public reaction to their promotional efforts?”

Some PR types admitted to doing exactly that and commented on how it affects their plans.
“At every level, we have people who follow the trends closely and pay attention to what the community takes to and what the community skewers.”
Elizabeth Tobey (community manager, 2K Games)

Others tend to be more cautious:
“We live in an online world where anything we say and do is disseminated on a global scale in an instant. This has revolutionized the way we do marketing and PR. While we are always thinking about our campaigns through a digital, global lens, we do not micromanage our campaigns in reaction to any one online moment.”
Tammy Schachter (senior director of PR, EA Games)

A NeoGAF moderator, one of the prime examples of a vitriolic and fantastic gaming messageboards, noted that his community does not respond well to such efforts, saying “I'd like to think GAFers could smell a rat, but it seems like a good percentage of them can't even smell the ones right under their noses.”

So with such a huge potential of backfiring, questionable analysis of content, and enough bad grammar and hate mongering to make a Klan member feel bashful, what’s the value of a messageboard and how do PR types go about using it? How involved with the conversations should we get, considering how easy it is for a forum moderator to look up your IP address and tell everyone exactly who you work for and the latitude/longitude of where you posted from?

I’ve seen success to a certain extent with “MVP” programs where companies designate particularly level-headed forum posters, and encourage them to actively remain a voice of reason. By providing these individuals with slightly increased access to the company, community members tend to congregate around every post these individuals make. It doesn’t stop more high-strung posters from calling these MVPs corporate shills and digitally spitting in their face, but it at least insures that a larger crowd is seeing some more levelheaded messaging. Other than that, these forums are excellent sources of news and trends. With 1000s of people posting leaked info, screenshots, developer interviews and much more daily, messageboards are like google alerts on steroids.

What do you think?

Oh yeah, and really, go read the 1UP article.