Inauguration Day didn’t simply usher in the 44th President heralded globally as hope for an Extreme Makeover: USA Edition. Exciting for web heads, the first change this President made, nearly on the dot during the botched oath was The White House official website.  Keep in mind, this is the president who talked about social networking on the campaign trail, embraced Twitter, now posts his weekly address via YouTube, and fought fiercely for his BlackBerry over the last few days.  Needless to stay, we web-heads are eager to hear his choice of national CTO and are thankful for the ways in which President Obama has and continues to embrace the Internet for a more transparent government and a more united America.

The first wired President clearly wasn’t just poking people on Facebook in the days before his Inauguration.  While Change.gov functioned as the transition hub, he also went to work (or should we say put others to work) on a new version of Whitehouse.gov that would be ready for January 20th’s festivities.  In past days, design, usability, social media, blogging, and video weren’t given attention, even in the land of the Internet that Al Gore invented.  Former President George Bush’s site design reflected his presidency in many ways, if you know what I mean.  President Obama appears to have carried over successful design and usability parameters as well as social media integration strategy from his previous sites, BarackObama.com and Change.gov.  Not to mention the online Briefing Room.  What a great concept in government, to use the web in this way!

So while President Obama’s administration is blogging about the year of the ox and his stance towards the Muslim world to try and heal the wounds of yesteryear, I recommend you visit the new WhiteHouse.gov site for yourself, grab his RSS feed, and start watching his weekly addresses on YouTube.  If government is going to be more transparent via the web, it’s up to all of us to keep tabs on it!

The Old Version of WhiteHouse.gov, courtesy George W. Bush:

:: written by @epsilonc ::

Although I have used it before, I detest the word campaign in the phrase “Social Media Campaign”.

Conversations trump campaigns and the word “campaign” has a military undertone I’m not comfortable with. The people you’re supposed to be having a conversation with are not enemies to be raped, pillaged & plundered.

Although I will continue to use the phrase, it would be nice to find a more accurate way of describing how brands initiate conversations with true fans (see also: Seth Godin’s Tribes)

Until that happens, I will continue to use the word campaign because:
1. It’s pretty much a standard phrase when social media is a part of the marketing strategy, which means that:
2. It is the most efficient way of having conversations with other people involved in the social media landscape

I realize I’m deviating from the original reason these words began to be used in this context to begin with; and that is exactly what I’m saying we might need to do.

One conclusion I’ve come to so far is that although the Sun Tzu route may work in a certain context, there’s a need to draw a line somewhere so that that hawkish mindset doesn’t carry over to the conversations brands should be having with their fans.

Otherwise, we would just be paying lip service to the social in “social media”.

I will now proceed to shut up & return to looking for a word to replace “campaign”.

Any suggestions on where to begin?

Here are a few of the posts that have given me food for thought about the “campaign” part of the phrase “social media campaigns”:
Chrome + Art of Story Telling = Google is the web communication Sun Tzu
The Myth of the Social Media Marketer
Sun Tzu and the Art of Social Computing
Marketing warfare strategies (wiki article):
Sun Tzu Marketing (the book)

Happy New Year To You!

Yes, 2008 is over and another odd year has arrived.  In other more exciting news, we’ve just completed our first year of blogging @ Things Worth Talking About.  Despite a lot of hectic schedules and tight projects, we managed to publish 153 posts over the last 12 months.  Averaging 3 posts per week, bushmanbill, myself and several guest bloggers wrote the bulk of the posts.  We also improved the design of our blog, have added some valuable auxiliary content, and have integrated other social media tools into our mix.  Yes, yes, I know, I might break my arm giving myself a pat on the back. What can I say, blogging is sometimes a tough habit to stick with. Luckily, we’ve developed the habit of blogging and have kept the vision (for the most part) when it comes to growing our megaphone in the digital world.

It is also true that wisdom is gained from experience and growth occurs from mistakes.  We’ve made mistakes this past year, but I’ve been very happy with the level of productivity and support I’ve received from my team.  This spans outside of our blogging efforts into other facets of our service offering.  Our team has really grown this year, out of diversity and also out of tremendous success.  With each hill that we climb, we become more confident in ourselves, in each other, and in the value of our mission.  In a low-trust world, we focus on the relevant, the valuable, and the lasting to achieve results for ourselves and our clients, each goal at a time.

We want to continue to publish interesting and relevant content via this blog and aim to stay focused around our core competencies and passions, namely social media, social & environmental causes, new media, new marketing, outsourcing, and globalization. We also may reduce the quantity of posts, as we focus in on producing and publishing only the most remarkable, relevant and focused content as possible.  If you’re interesting in contributing or have a recommendation or request, please do contact us.  We’ll be doing more social site reviews in the coming year, as well as talking about the happening events and vendors that are adding value in this space.

In 2009 we also aim to solidify our events section, keeping tabs on relevant events around the areas just outlined above, worldwide.  Furthermore, our upcoming Digital Directory will be a clean, usable, and valuable directory of digital professionals.  Listings will be granted upon editor approval on a first come, first save basis.  Basic listings are free and premium listings are only $25 per month.  We will only be selecting and recommending a limited amount of vendors and freelancers, aiming not for the biggest digital directory, but the best.

The new year is here and we will only be selecting a very limited number of clients this year, probably less than 5 or 6.  We’re working on some exciting projects and want to really enhance our quality, output, and credibility in this new year.  The economy may be rough waters, but we believe if we’re good enough, we’ll always be worth the investment for our clients and that this economic landscape is the perfect time to expand, hire more people, and fuel our growth and success in this field.  We’re fast coming up on a decade in business, so it’s imperative we continue to make solid headway in the new year.

Additionally, in late ‘09 I’ll be formally announcing the release date of a revolutionary new global business-to-business platform.  I’ve been working on the foundation to this concept for the last five years and we’re hard at work on a global social directory that will connect buyers and sellers across the world, promoting world peace, global collaboration, and strengthening individual country’s economies as well as the global economy.  Our site will be just as valuable to the buyer as to the seller, with a feature set chock full of revolutionary features weaving social networking, search, and a directory.  Outsourcing is a multi-billion dollar industry with a bad rep and we intend on opening up global collaboration in a powerful, easy, and intuitive manner. The three things that stand in the way of outsourcing are risk (or perceived risk), ignorance, and communication (or lack thereof) and we believe our platform can and will address each in a remarkable way.

Until next time, HAPPY #*%! NEW YEAR TO YOU, TOO!