Thanks to Kami for pointing me to her post about the how the Red Cross is using social media to communicate with victims, donors, etc. about the California wildfires. I just added their Twitter account to my list of people to follow and I added their news widget to the righthand sidebar of my page (see it over there?).

Kami's post details how you can donate via text from your phone, one of my favorite features of technology. Smile, dial and donate.

I'm trying to think back in time to pinpoint exactly when journalism became mean. Because the-magazine-who-will-not-be-named-on-my-blog is promoting a mean-spirited survey about Philly.

I guess I'm ugly. Oh well.

I just love this post by Todd Defren about the Social Media Release. Go go and read that and remember, social media isn't just about having all these neat tools in our toolbox (although 1-click publishing is nice!. For marketers and for PR people especially, it's an opportunity for us to get back to what our professions started out doing - relating directly to the public where they live and breathe. All those places online and off. Sure, it's a lot of work, but here's the thing some of you might not know - it's fun too;)

IMG_4980.jpg

IMG_4980.jpg
Originally uploaded by uwishunuflickr

This one is for the Phillies. Why do I think we are on the cusp of a regional explosion of babies named Chase, Cole, Shane, Aaron, Ryan/Howard and Brett?

Ok, September has gotten away from me on my blog. If you want to follow me, you are better off following me on Twitter. It's my lazyweb platform of choice.

I've been so busy, working on things like this live webcast of Bono and DATA receiving the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia tonight (webcast will be reposted tomorrow morning on LibertyMedal.org), that I haven't even recapped yet!

Now I'm really gonna be in trouble, because I'm down here at BlogOrlando, and I still don't have time for a proper update. Come to my session at 1:15PM tomorrow at Rollins College. If you wanted to learn something about new/social media and didn't know how or who to ask, come to BlogOrlando. It's a free event and smart folks who know this stuff AND can speak in plain English, are here and leading a whole day of discussions. Come ready to talk, because this is an "unconference," and not some stuffy line up of powerpoint presentations.

This isn't your grandfather's technology seminar;) See you tomorrow.

The Band's Back Together! Tonight was the kick off party for Podcamp Philly hosted by the awesome dudes at interactive design firm P'unk Ave. Viddler's Community Evangelist, Colin was on a roll tonight. I think he made me laugh for almost 2hours straight.

I left the party early to try and get some rest. I need to be at Podcamp by 8am tomorrow and it's a full day of sessions, a night of parties with the band, and another day of sessions on Sunday. No rest for the web 2.0-weary!
*~*
In other news, check out this clip of Cate Blanchett playing Bob Dylan. Wow. I have to give it up to her, I bought her as a man and as Dylan. Can't wait to see the film!

Now here's a great story illustrating how social media can quickly take a bad situation and make it worse by exposing it to a massive, global audience, and how someone then LEVERAGED social media to come back on top - bigger than ever.

During the recent Miss Teen USA pagent, Miss Carolina made a huge gaff on-air. Yes, it was nationally broadcast, but as we know, TV audiences are dwindling, so it's once and done, right? Enter youtube. By Monday, the clip had so much traction, it was even picked up by Gawker Media sports site Deadspin.com. The video on Deadspin alone generated almost 25,000 views. On Youtube, nearly 8 million people have viewed the clip. And those are just two of the many websites who posted the clip. In a matter of a days, a bad interview got much much worse.

Now this is where Miss Carolina (or her management team) proved she's not as simple-minded as she sounded. Instead of allowing herself to be the butt of blog jokes and late night show banter and fade into oblivion, she joined forces with a credible and visible third party, People.com, and poked fun at herself, virally.

Suddenly, she's laughing with everyone.

One of the most important things to remember when responding online via social media is to have a sense of humor. It's important to understand the tone online: irreverent, cheeky, snarky and quirky. While I rarely recommend a snarky tone for a response online, because it has to be done right and can read as defensive in a response, I do recommend being playful and picking a safe channel to host a response, both of which, Miss Carolina did. Well done.

One last note, I acknowledge that not every crisis or gaff is appropriate to respond to via social media and humor. Of exception would be incidents like product recalls of serious consequence to consumers, like the recent toy recall, a pharma crisis or a pending litigation.

**Thanks to Jeremy Pepper for tweeting the the link to the People.com video.