Social Media Top 5: Watch Your Tweets, Unconference, & Personal Brand for #$@%@s

time a for another weekly batch of observations related to social media:

1. How cavalier are you about what you put on the Internet? Do you discuss politics on Twitter? Boy was I surprised to hear my snarky Tweets about this week’s Vice-Presidential debate ended up on Current TV’s broadcast of the debate. As part of their “Hack the Debates” program, Twitter messages about the debate were streaming on the screen- and on their Web site- throughout the debate. Thanks to Sean Percival for catching this on camera:

   

   I’m cool with what I wrote, but it makes you think– those messages in public forums, they can turn up anywhere can’t they? you can’t stop it, can you? Makes me think a little more about what I Tweet. Well, a little…

2. Apple shareholders took a collective heart attack when a “citizen journalist” on CNN’s iReport reported that Steve Jobs had a massive coronary. No heart attack for Apple, but a big fat black eye for CNN and citizen journalism in general.

   Citizen journalism can work, but it’s obvious from this that self-policing (“Content that does not comply with Community Guidelines will be removed” – too late) and “public editing” is not enough in the high-stakes world of stock manipulation.

   iReport. “Unedited, Unfiltered, News.” No kidding.

3. National Public Radio has expanded its online offerings, with an eye towards increased sharing of its programming. I love that thinking, I listen to several NPR podcasts already. This San Jose Mercury News story by Anick Jesdanun points out, however, that local stations might feel left out of the loop here. There has always been a pull between the public radio syndicators (NPR being the biggest of a few) and the individual stations, who rightly worry that a focus on the program source drains their fundraising base. This is an added dynamic to the usual talk about traditional radio vs. the newer social media distribution.

   Still, NPR has been innovative in using the Internet and social media, with very clever people like Andy Carvin helping it along. And some stations are doing well on their own, but not all have the resources (or Ken Georges) of a WBUR in Boston

4. I blogged earlier today about the need for social media cliques to get out and mingle with the rest of the tech community- many of whom made social media tools possible. The Massachusetts Tech Leadership Council provided a great opportunity this week, as they put on their first “Unconference.”

   I was struck by how the crowd, not the standard “social media” set, took to the unconference format, putting together the session schedule in a matter of minutes and embracing the less formal nature of the setting.

   

   I was also reminded of the ridiculously rich heritage of the Boston tech community, with the day’s events being led by leaders such as bill Warner of Avid Technologies (welcome him to Twitter, will ya?) and Dan Bricklin, co-creator of a little thing called the spreadsheet. And there were more. Special shoutout to the Bosto social media regulars who came out for the day, including Laura Fitton and Adam Zand.

5. Last, Mashable is gathering a panel in New york City on personal branding. Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV is a great choice– high energy, popular, successful, well liked. But the other two? I understand they have something to say, but I hardly hold either up as a positive example of personal branding. Loren Feldman can be a bitingly funny satirist, but he can also be an antisocial pig who doesn’t know the line between funny and tiresome. Some of his online adventures are actually case studies in destroying personal brand– of yourself and others. Well, I can see how that would be interesting. The other is Julia Allison, the “famous for being famous” Paris Hilton of the Internet (and I again thank Geoff Livingston for comparing me favorably to her– I think). Is personal brand for personal brand’s sake really useful? I would love to hear reports from people who go to this thing.

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