Social Media and Hurricane Irene

Social Media had a profound impact on delivering news during Hurricane Irene.  You could find an NYC Evacuation Center on Foursquare, learn about the aftermath and reaction of Hurricane Irene, view pictures of the calm before the storm, and of course – view “Hurricane Irene” twitter account.

Facebook Sharing – Privacy/Security/Settings

(Source: Facebook Blog)

On August 23, 2011 Facebook organized two areas of content sharing: what shows up on your profile, and what happens when you share something new.

On your Profile:

• Content Sharing – Options such as hometown, latest interests, photo albums and more, now have an inline menu that allows you to control who sees a specific part of your profile. A side benefit of moving most of the settings to inline controls is a much shorter and simpler Settings page. (to view this simply click “edit” next to the content section you want to change the settings for)
• Profile Tag Review – Previously, photos you were tagged in would show up on your profile as soon as you were tagged.  Now – you can choose to use the new tool to approve or reject any post you are tagged in before it’s visible to anyone else on your profile. (to view this simply go to account settings in top right hand corner and select “privacy settings”)
• View Profile As – You can now view your profile as others see it.  If you go to your profile page and select “View Profile As…” you can view yourself from a different perspective.

When You Share:

• Inline Controls – Before in order to control who saw your posts you had to click around within the settings page.  Now there is an inline option for each post to control who and how you share your content. Also, when you tag someone the audience label will update to show that the person tagged and their friends can see the post.
• Change your mind after you post? – You can now change who sees your update even post you post through inline options.
• Tagging Locations – Before you could only “check in” to locations using a smart phone.  Now you have the option add a location to anything from your home computer.  Currently, there are no restrictions on your location post.  For example, you can say that you are currently in Paris, when – for example -  you are laying in bed from your home in Cincinnati.

This didn’t really seem fall within the categories above, but is really cool.

Your options for removing tags or content on Facebook are presented more clearly. Your options are: removing from your profile, removing the tag itself, messaging the photo owner or tagger, and requesting the content get taken down. (More details on tagging can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/about/tagging)

Update: The article I wrote above is a summary of social media news that I found interesting.  I kept the tone relatively formal and intentionally left out my opinion.  After sharing this with the New Media Cincinnati committee, I thought it would be fun to share my “two cents”.  So, if you are still reading at this point, here it is:

I thought it was really interesting how social media played a part in delivering information on Irene.  The actual @Irene account was a Product Strategist who was delivering information and communications about the hurricane.  While the tone was light, a lot of sources reported that “her” tweets were informative.   I was also impressed with the option to “check-in” to an evacuation center on foursquare.  It was designed to reveal a list of local evacuation centers and make it easier for residents within the area to find a center.

On the Facebook section of my post, I am really glad to see Facebook taking steps to make privacy easier to manage.  I like that I have control over accepting or rejecting tags of photos and locations.  The inline controls to make content sharing easier among certain friends was also a great added value for me.  While nothing is ever truly private online (especially Facebook), it brings me a bit of solace to know that controlling my privacy has gotten a little easier – even if it’s just an illusion of security.

Here is a link to the video of the meeting as well as some pictures of the event.

Building Online Community video

~vickie

In case you missed the planning conference call last Thursday, here is the audio. Great collaboration from everyone who stopped by.

Eventbrite event registration will be dropping in the next day.

New Media Cincinnati began in October 2007 as a simple meetup group of people in the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Northern Kentucky areas who were passionate about new and social media technologies like blogging, podcasting, Twitter, etc.

The group consists of people who are using new and social media for a living, but also includes people who are simply involved as a hobby. Anyone interested in learning more about these technologies and in connecting with others is welcome to attend. New Media Cincinnati has become, as one attendee remarked, “the premiere social networking event in the Greater Cincinnati area.”

People who come to New Media Cincinnati Second Saturdays

• make and foster business and personal connections with at least one other person,
• have face-to-face time with social media connections made online,
• learn from one another about social media technologies as we share best practices and other tips
• have the chance to talk about their own online presence
• have opportunities to share something they know with the rest of the group
• partake of food and drink and in general have a great time!

Connecting at New Media Cincinnati Second Saturdays has led to new business and employment for some.

Topic: Colleagues or Competitors?

• New Media Cincinnati. Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). American Marketing Association (AMA). Business Networking International (BNI).
• Groups such as these and many others are made up of people in similar professions and backgrounds.
• How do individuals and businesses in these organizations engage one another?
  • Do we come to events to solicit business from other attendees?
  • How should this be done amicably, if at all?
  • Should/do organizers of events get any remuneration from this type of business being done?
  • What if someone wants to promote something to the group that will mean income for them?
  • What makes you as a potential customer pick one person/colleague over another?
• Get ready for a great discussion!

Details

Join us for the September 12th New Media Cincinnati Second Saturday from 4 pm until 7 pm at The Pub Rookwood Mews:

• Event Tags
  • Twitter: #newmediacincy
  • Elsewhere: newmediacincy
• Registration
  • Event registration is required and limited to 60 attendees. Once the event is sold out, please use the Contact page to be added to the waiting list.
  • Please complete the registration form so that we can know a bit more about who’s coming.
• Date: Saturday, September 12th from 4 pm until 7 pm
• Location: The Pub Rookwood Mews at 2692 Madison Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45208 (map)
• Cost:
  • Free, but you are responsible for your own check at The Pub.
  • Some have expressed an interest in donating to the group to cover expenses, etc., so a separate ticket type has been created for that purpose. Thank you!
• Questions? Contact Daniel Johnson, Jr. via the Contact page or see below.

Planning Conference Call

If you haven’t already, you may want to listen to therecent planning conference call we had on August 27th. Thanks again to all who participated and shared their thoughts. It was a great discussion!

Create and Share Content

The strength of this group comes from everyone’s participation. The more you share about the group online and in-person with others, the wider reach this group will have.

To that end, unless otherwise specified, New Media Cincinnati events and content therein are licensed under Creative Commons to promote the sharing and distribution of new media content.

In other words, please

• take pictures and add them to the Flickr group and elsewhere,
• record audio and video,
• blog,
• tweet,
• record audio and video,
• live-stream, and
• otherwise create and share content to document and promote this event on the internet

Participating in the event means that you understand that your image and voice may be captured and used for non-commercial use.

Twitter for Late-Breaking News

Speaking of Twitter, for all last-minute updates on the day of the event, please follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/newmediacincy . In addition, you can also follow me on Twitter:http://twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Alternatively, you can contact

Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Founder and Event Organizer, New Media Cincinnati

photo credit: Soller Photo

Possible related articles by Zemanta

• Twitter Is Sustainable (socialmediatoday.com)
• Social Media vs. Job Boards: The Ultimate Winner (jonggunlee.tistory.com)

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re meeting up tomorrow.  Here’s some food for thought.

I just happened upon this blog post from Justin Knowacki entitled “I Don’t Want To Meet You“.  Justin talks about how we tend to gravitate in public situations to people we already know.

This post reminded me that some people are Extraordinary Extroverts and have no problem engaging in conversations with people they don’t already know.  They get energized from being in a crowd and mingling with others.  I would consider myself to be one of them.

Other folks are quite the opposite: coming to a public event takes so much out of them.  They feel worn out from being around so many people.

Over the years, I have had to learn to “tone down” my extroversion a bit and work on really relating with all kinds of people.  A big key for me is to try to let other people do most of the talking.  The best way to be interesting, Dale Carnegie said, is to be genuinely interested in other people.  So talk to them about what they like.

Justin offers 5 tips for breaking up the monotony of a live event:

• Pre-set one goal.
• Talk to the loner.
• Bring people together.
• Make a scene.
• Refuse to leave until you’re out of business cards.

Go read what he means by this, and let’s have a great meetup!