the social media fox

Volunteer community moderation #iranelection protest thread

For those of us working diligently to help keep the #iranelection and #gr88 tweet stream helpful and positive - I put together a few tweets for us to easily copy and paste. It would be good to think about doing this in shifts.

Although, a bunch of us tweeting the right way to do things is very helpful at keeping the thread on track, I’ve noticed when I @ people directly they seem to respond and then help. By being polite and tactful I’ve noticed most people are typically just new to twitter and don’t understand how to use it effectively yet).

Here are some tweets to copy and paste into your tweets:

!!Be careful to remove username when reposting tweet from protesters inside iran. Govt is srching them out. Please RT! #iranelection

Iranian tweeters jeopardized by mainstream media sharing their contact info with no regard for safety. Please RT #iranelection

False twitter accounts, constantly updated. Check list and block as necessary. http://tinyurl.com/kon6wy #iranelection

Entire world seeing ur photos & hearing your voices. Stay united. #iranelection #gr88

u are making progress- the pressure is on from around the world. Stay peaceful & ask for what you need.

Watch it. Spread it. http://bit.ly/17kmgj #IranElection

Please RT: Help keep this feed clean for #iranelection protesters to get message out to us &start new hashtag thread for political debates.

Feel free to send me more or add to comments.

Iran Election protests documented from Twitter

For those trying to help share information to support the people of Iran.

Protest begin immediately after election results.

Iranians use twitter, flickr. youtube and facebook to get the message out. Social media users flock to support protesters. Andrew Sullivan is one of the first to post a blog.

Mousavi posts letter

Rumor circulates Mousavi under house arrest.

US Secretary of State Clinton cites voting irregularities http://tinyurl.com/kpxnpl

Ahmadinejad “denounced foreign diplomatic and journalistic criticism” NYTimes http://tinyurl.com/luy5ru (nobody is surprised.)

Specific websites and networks begin to get blocked. Citizens from around the world begin posting proxy server addresses for protesters to use. This works for awhile.

Protests continue and grow. Twitter runs circles around mainstream news, CNN trends from complaints. BBC only mainstream news for public.

MSNBC steps up to the plate and posted this video http://bit.ly/c6nkD.

CNN finally starts reporting.

Iranian govt gets savvy and starts using communications to find out who is inside Iran. Protesters request users to stop publicly publishing proxy information. A few people decide to help by direct messaging protesters the proxies provided by citizens. After citizens create proxies (Here’s the HowTo), they are to send the proxies to fingertipnews@live.com.

Someone wonders if proxies is the right approach. If the govt owns the ISP - Tor would be the only way to protect IPs. I still don’t know.

Reports of people being called on phones to stop communicating after being tracked down reported on Twitter.

Iran govt apparently hacking to find locations of Iranians messaging out to world via twitter and other websites. People from all over the world on twitter decide to change the location of their own profiles to confuse efforts. Questions arise will this work?

Obama says “The world is watching”.

Tweet from Iran: Mousavi spoke to the people from a cars rooftop & announced his readiness to stand again in another election.

People are also asked to stop Retweeting the username of protesters tweeting. After a few hours of citizens moderating the #IranElection thread, the retweeting of usernames has almost completely stopped.

Supporters of protesters turn their profile pictures to green to show unity.

Random people use the #iranelection stream to have nasty political talks about what Obama should or should not have done. Community slaps hands - “Use another hashtag”. It works.

Twitter suppose to be shut-down for maintenance. Twitter community calls for change of plans, finds out it’s Hosting company. Community bombards hosting company until time and date is changed for early in the morning to not affect Iran as much. Everyone celebrates this and floods #IranElection with tweets.

Also, it’s been recommended to go back and delete tweets calling attention to specific protesters.

Tweet: Many arrested taken to Evin Prison in past 24hrs - evin under heavy protection

One of first and most prolific protesters hasn’t posted in 14 hours. People wonder through tweets if the person is ok.

Found out citizen hackers also working to jam email and communications from official govt. websites.

Rumors that Ahmadinejad has given nationwide Ok to shoot protesters circulates.

RT from Iran:” I’ve learned something today. Americans DO care about the world outside America. Their media just doesn’t.”

Just saw this blog post covering Day 4: http://www.terry.ubc.ca/index.php/2009/06/15/twittering-a-revolution-day-4

RT from Iran: Iranians are writing “where is my vote,” “dictatorial regime” on money and spending it, thus spreading it.

New link quoting Ahmadenijad *IN* Russia http://tinyurl.com/l3fw74

Citizens organize demands: http://emsenn.com/iran.php

Another live blog here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html

Apprently, 7 ppl died in yesterday’s demonstration

(6/16) NYU Professor Clay Shirky says “this this is it. The big one. This is the first revolution that has been catapulted onto a global stage and transformed by social media.”

Firsthand account http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/06/tehran_dispatch.html

List of Embassies accepting injured people: http://eldercato.com/2009/06/20/list-of-embassies-accepting-injured/

List of Bloggers/Reporters arrested http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/06/21/media_watchdog_23_reporters_arrested_in_iran/?rss_id=Boston.com+—+Latest+news

Photos

Police smash car window http://twitpic.com/7fhqf

Protester helps hurt police officer http://tinyurl.com/lqcvuq

Panoramic photo of masses protesting (6/15) http://twitpic.com/7h3r5/full

One woman in front of police riot squad http://tehranlive.org/2009/06/14/iranian-protest-election-results-2

More mass protesting http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/1753/slide_1753_23718_large.jpg

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_disputed_election.html

Dorms trashed by military http://picasaweb.google.com/iranonfire/KooyeDaneshgahTehranUniComplex#

Protests grow http://twitpic.com/7ki6e

Protester holds sign “My killed brother - I will get your vote back” http://www.flickr.com/photos/milad-avazbeigi-photography/3635646221/sizes/o/

Mousavi Statement #5: http://elections.7rooz.com/englishnews/Mousavi%27s_statement_number_5_to_Iranian_people

Videos

Protest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGUzXEpMwxg

Injured people (6/15) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXEu8_ce4dY

France and Britain discuss protests http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7YSz6qwH8s

Student killed http://bit.ly/17Ri4q

Tons of videos now here: http://giagro.wordpress.com/torrents

http://www.slideband.com/slide/1832_MEYDAN-SHAHYAD—YOUNG-MAN-GOT-SHOT-BY-BASIJ-IN-ANTI-ISLAMIC-REPUBLIC-RIOTS.html

Rush Limbaugh is a "drug-abusing, cheating, homophobic fat ass"

I didn’t say it. I read it on Twitter. In the author’s defense (one of many), the sentence actually started with “What if someone called Rush” a drug-abusing, cheating, homophobic fat ass. Does that make it less shocking? Do those few words make a difference? Do Words make a difference?

Either way, the tweet sparked me to share my take on Hypocrisy and the Republican Mouthpiece. I tried to think of a word to combine the two but frankly, I’m not that clever.

While I trifle with word play and the meaning of words, a strange noise calls to me in a Hart Crane-like moment. It’s not just a noise, it’s a RoaR really. It’s guttural and primitive and radiates from inside. Memories of banter run - words steeped in hypocrisy. I remember seeing the red demon in a fatsuit, sweating, spitting and spewing malcontent and acting out self hatred.

Torture, War, Greed, More Greed, a tablespoon of racism for good measure and Hey - check out my bible.

Toxicity distributed, hungry souls swallow and One Man Gets Richer.

The one man, the small band of moral thieves, the money-thin logic  - the depravity bangs around in my head. The noise is irritating. I pay attention to the irritation and it unfolds quickly like common sense. Stop supporting the sponsors - it’s not a new strategy but it’s a strategy that works.

What else is there to do? You tell me. Blog about it, tweet it, tell a friend, or send an email.

SPONSOR EMAIL ADDRESSES:
otherinfo@overstock.com
investor.relations@autozone.com
investorrelations@selectcomfort.com
advertising@hotwire.com
info@lifequotes.com.au
Feedback@RegionalHelpWanted.com

OTHERS
Some sponsors can only be reached through their websites. Here are the links:
http://www.lumberliquidators.com/custserv/contactus.jsp
http://www.oreck.com/customer-service/contact-oreck.cfm …
http://www.blue-emu.com/contact.html
http://www.eharmony.com/advertising/contact

Or don’t do anything. Consider this a social commentary and move along and enjoy the status quo.

Thanks to Grace for publishing the email addresses.

Engaging fans: Lessons from the Sports Industry

Thoughts around this topic have been flooding my mind over the last two weeks. It started when I read a tweet Jeff Pulver wrote dicussing his SocComm conference on June 23-24 (see what people wrote about the last SocComm). I responded to the conversation and brought up the idea of this post as a panel.

This week I received some interest from others in the sports and marketing communities and realize my panel idea could be useful for many audiences. I think it’s time to do a deeper dive and see if this thing has legs.This blog seems like a good place to start - hopefully, other people will contribute ideas and feedback, too.

The broad concept is to bring learning lessons from the sports marketing industry to answer specific questions around this topic. The four buckets I’m thinking of right now:

1. Content. We all get that ‘Content is King’ but what content drives traffic? sustains readers? promotes conversations? converts to sales?
2. Distribution. Everyone wants to push content out but how do you do it well? and how do you do it to scale? What platforms are best, easiest, cheapest? When is the best time and how often? What process works?
3. Engagment. How to help users move from passive to active - moderation best practice for dealing with lack of conversation and different personality needs.
4. Achieving success. What can be achieved? How long will it take? What are the best metrics to measure progress? What if a tactic isn’t working?

Are these topics of any interest to you? Why or why not? What am I missing?

PS I’m reading this wondering if it’s too pedantic? Does this need to be a higher-level discussion on content consumption habits, integrated marketing strategies, and examples of bleeding-edge work in this space???