Unjournalism

(A note about the headline to old people who might read this: “FTW” means “for the win.” Think golf: “The Shankman sinks the big putt - for the win!”)

PRNewser provides a brief write-up about Peter Shankman’s “Help a Reporter” Web site, a good-karma-earning project in which the Shankman (doesn’t the “the” make him sound at least three times cooler?) fields requests from reporters looking for people to talk about, well, anything. The Shankman then compiles and shares those requests for resources with a community of somewhere around 1,200 or so (last I heard) public relations folks.

This Web site actually works its magic in one of the oldest forms of “social media”: a massive, e-mail distribution list. Remember those? Came around a few years before RSS and wikis and the like? Yeah?

HelpAReporter.com started as a group on Facebook.

Read those last couple of lines again. As bloggers tend to say when they’re trying to be funny about stuff like this, I’ll wait…

You back? OK. Did you catch it? Facebook, the darling of so many social networking junkies and social media consultants and so many other people who say “social” a lot, drove away a very successful, purposeful group that embodies exactly what social networking is supposed to be. Drove it away to an e-mail distribution list.

Way to go Facebook.

This happened because, as PRNewser mentioned, Facebook puts a limit on the number of Facebookers who can receive direct messages, sort of like an “internal e-mail” unique to the Facebook system. The Shankman’s group quickly outgrew that limit.

I’m sure there’s (probably) a reason for that and other limits, but probably not a very good one, especially if you’re Facebook and you’re trying to take over the Web. Plus, the Shankman really should want to be on Facebook to help his group grow. I know coverage on the NY Times site can help, but so can a link in my Facebook news feed that says, “[Friend's name] has joined ‘If I can help a reporter out, I will…’” That’s how I learned about it months ago. The power of that spread is not to be underestimated.

On a related subject: The folks who run ProfNet apparently hate Peter Shankman. ProfNet is a service from the PR Newswire that does basically the exact same thing HelpAReporter.com does. Two differences: It looks a little bit prettier and costs thousands of dollars. For kicks, I’ll remind you that the Shankman seeks no money, just good karma.

ProfNet has no ground to stand on. It’s not kosher to take content from ProfNet and share it with thousands of others who aren’t paying for it. But there’s nothing stopping a reporter from submitting a call for help to both ProfNet and ShankmanNet to improve his or her odds of success. Maybe ProfNet will find some other way to succeed in the long run.

Tags: Facebook, social networking by Mike Keliher
7 Comments »

I want people to leave SocialTNT alone, and here, I’ll tell you why.

It all started on Saturday when Chris Lynn, a.k.a. SocialTNT, made a comment about how he found coolness in a gay couple and their adopted child and the skin colors of each. It seemed an honest, innocent statement to me, but one Ike Pigott started questioning Chris’ comment.

I’ve met neither Chris nor Ike in person, but I “know” them both somewhat well via the Internets and the wonderful world of Twitter. Chris is here and Ike is here. They both seem like great guys. Certainly smart and worth following.

Anyway, the conversation between Chris and Ike, as Chris worked to explain his views and Ike questioned his motivations, became just a little heated. Not unfriendly or mean, but a bit testy at times.

Finally, Chris said, “Do I need to cry to win your sympathy and seem more human?” (He was kidding, of course, and he wrote it more like Prince, using the number 2 for the word “to” and whatnot.)

Just for fun, I asked Chris how long it would take to upload the video. He took me seriously. Unfortunately, before he put his video together, Chris said that if he did it, he’d want me to re-create that infamous “Leave Britney alone” video for his story.

So I did.

I used the original Britney-fan video as a loose outline, changing the lines to be relevant to Chris Lynn — and to make them funny. Each line in my video is prompted by a little something I know about Chris, like how he does a series of video posts on his blog called “3Qs in the 3min” or how his lesbian roommates moved out AND TOOK THE MICROWAVE!

I’m writing this post for three reasons:

1) To document this story, time capsule-style, for future generations of geeks who will find this as funny as I do.

2) To explain why I did this so I seem a little less demented and to increase the chances other people will think it’s funny.

3) To make sure I don’t piss off Ike. He’s always talking about logic and fallacies and syllogisms and whatnot. I’d hate to get in a argument with him. Seems smart.

Plus, it’s just a joke.

Tags: SocialTNT, Twitter by Mike Keliher
3 Comments »