A user-centric and humanistic paradigm for privacy and #dignity

by Stan Faryna

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Fred Wilson, a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures, pokes the hornet’s nest with Some Thoughts on Online Privacy. In fact, the FTC has recently proposed the need for urgent legislation on the matter. Seth Godin, however, has suggested that our expectations for confidentiality of our online activity, transactions, and activities is a quixiotic quest.

Aretha Franklin, Respect

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The Challenges That Every Blogger Faces #EarthHour

The Challenges That Every Blogger Faces

by Stan Faryna

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As bloggers, we want to connect, communicate, share, and collaborate – regardless of our reasons and expectations.

Michael Jackson, Earth Song

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What were u doing when u first heard Tears For Fears’ song, Shout?

What were you doing when you first heard the Tears For Fears song, Shout?

by Stan Faryna

Over at TheJackB, Jack is writing dangerously.

http://www.thejackb.com/2012/03/27/write-dangerously

Jack can teach you and me a thing or two about writing tension.

Tears for Fears, Shout

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Do not stir up love before it’s own time. Song of Songs 2:7

How to get the most out of social media. And other social media DOHs.

by Stan Faryna

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My friend, Saul Fleischman, writes about the features that Google Plus needs to compete as a social media platform. In my opinion, Saul proposes features which would up the game value of the app. Saul has a passion for the social game and opportunity – a passion that I admire about the man.

Read Saul’s proposals for a better Google Plus here: http://osakabentures.com/2012/03/facebook-robs-google-plus-both-fall-short

The success and sustainability of a social media platform, however, will not be determined by the advantages it provides to the social gamer.

Superiority of social service is determined by the opportunities and use that the average netizen can utilize. I’m not saying that the volume of registered users is relevant. I am saying that the volume of daily users and user to user interaction is key to a platform’s health and value. That’s why Facebook games are critical to Facebook’s strategy. Some suggest Facebook games drive 50% of the network’s daily log-ins, usage, and user to user interaction.

Superiority must also relate to how well a platform empowers people to connect, communicate, share, and collaborate with other people. All platforms attempt to address this function in terms of managing one-to-one and one-to-many relationships, but none of them do it brilliantly.

Despite all the hype, Pinterest miserably fails in this regard. That doesn’t mean it will fail. But if Pinterest succeeds, it means that online relationships are trending toward increasing superficiality. If I felt just a little bit snarky, I would list all the cool kids that failed to notice Pinterest’s major defect.

Today, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, blogs, and websites continue to stand out as the most usable and useful of social media platforms. They are not silver bullets, but they are staple in any social media and/or online marketing strategy – commercial, personal or otherwise. Their value to you, of course, is belied in the quality of the relationships you have with other people on those platforms – not follower count, likes, comments, page views, etc.

Metrics, analytics, and data of any kind are often misleading without a deeper sense of context and dynamics. Data, in fact, does not easily convert to knowledge, prudence, or wisdom. You can watch 10,000 movies in your lifetime, but it will still be unlikely that you write a great movie script like Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, replace Anthony Hopkins in a remake of Silence of the Lambs, or direct a better remake of Guillermo de Toro’s film, Pan’s Labyrinth.

Contrary to popular superstition, data is not a commodity.

As my friends, Jack and Billy say, have fun with social. They and many others take what they do seriously enough to show up on schedule, make their presence felt, contribute to conversations, and make relationships. If you still have time and attention to build relationships with people on another social platform, go for it. But the last thing you should do is stretch yourself thin across a dozen major and minor networks where you leave no foot print on hearts and imaginations.

Digital footprints are often nothing more than sand castles that wash away with the tide.

Postscript:

Looking over my shoulder, I see the wind has blown the pages of a book open. Coincidentally, it offers wisdom on this subject:

Do not stir up love before it’s own time. Song of Songs 2:7

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Stan Faryna
28 March 2012
Bucharest, Romania

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Social Savvy: How Social Media Is Changing the World For The Better

How Social Media Is Changing the World For The Better

by Stan Faryna

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Beyond the marketing and personal branding opportunity of social media, social media is epic when it connects us, brings people together in compassion and dignity, and when it reunites us with the human family.

The most recent example is a Facebook campaign launched by Pushpin Mehina.

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Michael Jackson, They Don’t Care About Us

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Do you deserve recognition for your hard work?

Do you deserve recognition for your hard work?

by Stan Faryna

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Moby, Lift me up

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If you deserve recognition for your hard work, let me be the first to share with you my heart-felt appreciation.

2012 TED Talk: Brené Brown talks about shame, empathy, and courage

YOU don’t suck, but maybe you suck at social media. And other life DOHs.

by Stan Faryna

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Cristina Perri, A Thousand Years

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Brené Brown speaks to us again about vulnerability. It’s an all new TED Talk! “Vulnerability is not weakness… vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.”

“True love is real,” said John Dionsius. “And I’m not afraid to say that aloud.”

“True love is real,” said John Dionsius. “And I’m not afraid to say it aloud.”

This a line from my protagonist, John Dionsius. I’m not sure where it will go, but I think it will be a speech he gives to a crowd of survivors in 2023 post-apocalyptic Bucharest. He needs to say it because amidst the darkness, there is beauty. And, sometimes, people can’t see that beauty until it has been spoken, named, and received with an open heart.

Like the sunshine award. And I am grateful to be among those who are named in the sunshine by Carolyn Nicander Mohr. Thank you, Carolyn. At the end of this post, you will find 10 or more bloggers that I celebrate like sunshine. This is one of the rules – not just for the sunshine award, but this is also one of the rules of love: To give. More.

John has lots of reasons to believe in true love. I’m not talking about ideas, intellectual conjectures, or naive expectations. He experiences true love. He lives it out as best he can.

Let me tell you about the time John met Cristina. And, then, you decide for yourself – if true love is real.

Social Savvy: Don’t Blog Like The White Tiger

Social Savvy: Don’t Blog Like The White Tiger a la Aravind Adiga

by Stan Faryna

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Kelly Clarkson, Mr. Know It All

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A dear friend has been nagging me forever; he’s been wanting me to read the 2008 winner of the Man Booker: Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger. He even gave me a paperback copy of the book. After many months, love and duty to friendship has prevailed upon me to read The White Tiger.

Dr. Evil asks #Launch VCs and entrepreneurs to make a Terminator

Dr. Evil asks #Launch VCs and entrepreneurs to make a Terminator

by Stan Faryna

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Dr. Evil and Mini Me, Hard Knock Life

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