Chris Brogan

Quotes for the week ending 3 Oct, 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“There’s nothing quite as insecure as a television anchorman.”

Kent Dana, the news anchor for Channel 5 (KPHO) in Phoenix, and previously anchor of Channel 12 (KPHX), retiring after a 30-years work in the news business.

“This is the biggest investment we’ve made in a national launch … “This is not your grandmother’s instant coffee.”“

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, on the launch of Via, the instant brew

“rather than submitting their images and videos to mainstream media organisations, they post them online on Facebook, Twitpic, or wherever their friends are likely to see them.”

Robin Hamman, visiting journalism fellow at City University, London, commenting on the social media use during disaster and tragedy.

“This whole things has been quite scary.”

David Letterman, admitting he had had an affair with an employee.

“It is a whole other universe of risk.”

State Rep Steve Farley of Tucson, on texting and driving, as Arizona considers a bill to ban it.

“… Which is another reason why news operations don’t publish all the good news we hear about. There would be no room for the rest.”

E.J. Montini, commenting on All the Good News Fit To Print.

“But you have to remember if you have a conversation on the wall, you could be opening up the entire conversation to the public.”

Robyn Itule, an account manager with Armstrong Troyky, a PR and Ad agency in Phoenix

‘Then out of nowhere this big wave, as tall as the sky, hit.”

A 21-year old woman in the Pacific Island of Samoa, on the devastating tsunami that hit the area, followed by an earthquake in Sumatra.

“There’s always truth in snark.”

Chris Brogan, during his presentation at New Media Atlanta, commenting on the back-channel tool, BackNoise, saying “always confront the thing you are fear most head-on.”

Get-rich-tweets and why we fall for them

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I want to apologize to any of you who follow me on Twitter if you received a direct message from me saying “hey, I made $384 yesterday. this website showed me how.” Apparently my account was hacked because I may have clicked a link in a similar message from others in my network.

I had contacted two senders from whom I received the suspicious DMs with the shortened URL, and thought I was immune. A reader to my post at ValleyPRBlog confirmed that I too had taken the bait.)

So why are we so vulnerable to the garbage that gets  passed around the Twittersphere faster than you could say Phish? One word: Trust.

  • We screen less: We are so inherently trusting of those in our network, we don’t always take time to check if the email jokes, the ‘Must Read This’ links, or the PPT attachments are safe.
  • We click more. I tend to click more on a shortened URL because I see so much of them. The link economy teaches us to prefer clicking on links rather than typing a URL out.

I have made the point elsewhere that there will soon arise  Trusted Friends, or Network Curators, and these may not even be major brands; they could be individuals with great credentials. People we value, and… trust like crazy!

Speaking of which, I am about to purchase a book on the subject called Trust Agents –co-authored by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. It comes highly recommended. Brogan’s original thesis for the book was that it was about: “people who use the web in a very human way to build influence, reputation, awareness, and who can translate that into some kind of business value.”

Quotes for the week ending 22 Dec, 2007

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Forgive me for being an old fart, but today’s “social networks” look to me like yesterday’s online services.”

Doc Searls, on why he is not joining a debate on whether brands should build their own, or join social networks.

“If I were a brand or agency, I would be down at the picket lines seeing if some of this top story-telling talent was available for freelance work.”

Joe Marchese, in Online Spin, on the impact of the writers’ strike, and what ad agencies should be considering.

“Democrats are at least 10% more likely to do just about anything involving social technologies. The Republicans are the opposite — they’re a lot LESS likely to participate.”

Josh Bernoff, on Charlene Li’s blog at Forrester Research, commenting on the social media profile of presidential candidates in the U.S. elections.

“At the end of A Bug’s Life, the main character, Flick, finally convinces all the ants that they have to stand up to the grasshoppers who’ve kept them repressed for years …It’s what happens when we all have a voice, and distribution, and the ability to get together and say something.”

Chris Brogan, co-founder of Podcamp, about how Social Media is a Bug’s Life.

“Googlepedia is perhaps a more direct rival to Larry Sanger’s Citizendium, which aims to build a more authoritative Wikipedia-type resource under the supervision of vetted experts.”

Commenter Ben Vershbow of IF (The institute of the future of the book) analyzing knol, Google’s answer to Wikipedia, that was launched this week.

The word “weblog” celebrates the 10th anniversary of it being coined on 17 December 1997.

BBC, on the birthday of the word that got all this started!