Twinterview with Mitch Joel live, now

July 21, 2009July 21, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

Today I am conducting a Twinterview –Twitter Interview– with marketing guru, podcaster, and now author af an upcoming book, Six Pixels of Separation.

@mitchjoel Good afternoon, Mitch. I’ve been a longtime listener of Six Pixels of Separation. When did the idea of the book come up –and how?

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo book idea came together about two years ago. I wanted to connect the non-connected business to our world (using their words)

@mitchjoel Explain ‘six pixels’ to someone who doesn’t get Small World theory. http://bit.ly/ZrLme Do u have a Twit-friendly answer? http://bit.ly/ZrLme

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo we used to “know someone who knew someone” now – with these digital channels – we are all connected. No degrees. Only pixels.

@mitchjoel Let’s move to your marketing practice,. Are there clients who listen to your podcast & still shake their heads at social media?

Mitch Joel @heyangelo I think clients are much more savvy than some marketers give them credit for. They get it and they want more of it.

@mitchjoel Because of the Tweetdeck delay I want to go back to your point about Pixels not Degrees. Pixels as in links?

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo no pixels as in: we’re connected. If you do a search on Google for anyone, you are connected. No need for an intro through others

@mitchjoel Tell us a bit about the book –Use as many tweets for this to tell us (a) what gap does it fill (b) who is your audience?

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo gap: a business book in business talk for business people about connecting to consumers.

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo audience = every person you and I have to “convince” that using these channels is good/smart for business.

@mitchjoel Ah! So you mean we could secretly mail the book to someone in the C-suite? Would you have a podio-book of this as well?

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo no need to be secretive about mailing the book My hopes are that those reading this know who to give it to and they’ll be happy

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo audio versions will be available. I have to say, recording the audio was hard… they wanted it perfect 🙂

@mitchjoel Tell our readers why you were summoned (too strong a word?) to Google to explain social media. What did THEY need to know?

Mitch Joel: mitchjoel@heyangelo Google holds events – internally and public ones for clients. I’ve been asked to give presentations there. It’s an honor.

@mitchjoel Regarding the audiobook, do you have rights to do whatever you wish with it in your podcast?

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo I do not. The audiobook is the property of my book publisher: Grand Central – Hachette Book Group.

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo I do not have those rights. I’m sure my Publisher would be open to suggestions though 😉

@mitchjoel Are you under pressure to market the book using the digital strategies you recommend?

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo I would not say it is “pressure”. Again, I want the book to hit the businesspeople who are not following Twitter and Blogs.

@mitchjoel You’ve got another large digital footprint on Facebook – 1,681 members. What excites that community?

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo funny, I thought it was more like 3,660 😉 The conversation is def. different. Not sure why, but it’s just different.

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo it’s all the same to me. Give first, build the community and be helpful. Everything else works out.

@mitchjoel What have you learned as a podcaster and blogger, that you didn’t know as just a marketer?

Awaiting answer: Tweetdeck delay

@mitchjoel Thanks for your time, Mitch. + patience with Tweetdeck delays etc. I’m looking fwd to the book. Preorder! http://bit.ly/VToC8

Mitch Joel: @heyangelo thanks for the Twinterview… that was fun. Next time, let’s just use two cans and a string 😉

Diplomacy’s BFF, social media, opens third way

July 7, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

In 2005, an article that largely went unnoticed about using technology appeared in Hoover’s Digest. It was authored by someone names Jared Cohen.

In it he analyzed the pent-up resistance in Iran, and what it means for the future stability in the Middle east.

“That resistance, however, no longer appears in traditional forms of oppositional activity, such as massive political demonstrations and an organized opposition. Instead, it often manifests itself in the form of a “passive revolution,” a widespread social resistance that, given its methodology of engaging in activities that are antithetical to the regime’s values, is political in and of itself.”

He spoke of something called ‘virtual association’ a form of symbolic social networking among people who were passively resistant. These real, but invisible networks posed a threat to the status quo, he said, because “there is no leadership, network, or covert movement to crack down on.” Cohen also predicted there would come a Tipping Point, when those networks could be nourished.

That Tipping Point came in June this year, with the media bans and snuffing out of any form of protest. That idea of ‘nourishing’ the assets inside a country appears to have been turned into a diplomatic policy.

In April, the State Department took a technology delegation from Google, Twitter, AT&T and a few other companies to Iraq. According to TIME, the person behind the idea of a technology delegation was Jared Cohen.

I find this interesting because for decades, we have adopted a for-us-or-against-us approach to how we deal with the rest of the world. Now, a consensus toward a Third Way is being taken seriously at all levels. It involves first listening to those unlike us, seeing what ways they engage between themselves, and try to become part of their conversation.

Goli Ameri, US Asst. Undersecretary of State has also referred to this approach this third way: bringing people together to create greater mutual understanding. Dialog and exchange all fit nicely into the template of social media, which has no use of message-force multipliers –a failed PR strategy that is as crass as the phrase– and the likes.

Public diplomacy has been hamstrung with a top-down we-talk/you listen approach for decades. Today we have begun to understand the antenna is more important than the loudspeaker.

If social media and the possibilities they open up are making people try new ways of listening, connecting, and engaging we will be all better off for it.

Britain’s foreign secretary, David Milliband, on the release of one of its embassy staffers in Tehran.One other staffer remains in custody.

Leo LaPorte, about how his podcasting career took off late, being interviewed by his daughter, Abby who started her own podcast, Abbey’s Road.

Paul Fishbein, president of the AVN Media Network, an industry trade publication.

Melissa Chan, an Al Jazeera reporter from XinJiang, via Twitter, after ethnic rioting broke out on in Urumqi, China between the Uighur minority and Han Chinese.

Valeria Maltoni, in a Twinterview with Jason Baer

Josh Bernoff, Groundwell

Chris Anderson, on being accused of plagiarism in his new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price

Serena Williams’ father on watching his daughter in the semi-finals.

Chris Danielson, director of public relations at the National Foundation of the Blind, commenting on the story that a blind student at Arizona State University filed a complaint against ASU to avoid the use of the reading device until the menus are accessible to blind students.

Jared Cohen, State Department’s policy planning staffer, on taking Silicon Valley companies such as Google, Twitter and other startups to talk to government officials, business people, and students in Iraq

Clive Thompson, on what Twitter is good at creating; quoted by Steven Johnson in a TIME, about how Twitter cwill change the way we live.