K Street Cafe

I was inspired by Amanda Phraner’s post, Foursquare for Advocacy. I have been using Foursquare for nearly a year now and love it (in fact I am the Mayor of Toscana West on I St, NW, DC between 13th and 14th… great place for lunch in the bar).

The idea of using Foursquare for advocacy makes a lot of sense, taking the flash mob notion to another level. Because Foursquare lets you post the address where you are and a brief comment, it is a great way to tell the world about demonstrations, events, and other activist activities you want people to join.

This has great potential, and it doesn’t matter that there are only 1 million Foursquare users, which is rather a lot, anyway. Not only is Foursquare mobile, allowing you to check in from anywhere, but it can post your check-in message and address to Twitter and Facebook. This immediately reaches out to all of your followers and friends and taps into the viral potential we all know and love.

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Obama’s First ‘Tweet’ Makes Presidential History (CNN)
Obama made history yesterday by becoming the first commander-in-chief to “tweet” a message on Twitter.

How to Disappear from Facebook and Twitter (CNN Tech)
Want to commit social suicide online? There’s an app for that.

I recently gave a lecture at American University’s Public Affairs and Advocacy Institute on how to use social media and other online strategies for advocacy. You can watch it here.

Logs Don’t Lie: Which Tech Execs Have the White House’s Ear?
(Ars Technica)
Find out who the White House listens to most when it comes to tech issues.

Is Facebook’s Privacy Philosophy TMI? (SmartBlog)
One blogger weighs in on the changing attitudes toward online privacy.

When it comes to Facebook, what’s more important: Having a large network of “friends” whom you don’t know? Or a smaller well-connected group of individuals with whom you have real relationships?

I consider myself a friendly person, but that’s no longer the case when it comes to Facebook. After careful thought and deliberation, I’ve decided to stop accepting friend requests from people I don’t know.

With more than 350 million users, Facebook is home to an incredible network of people. Complete strangers ask to be my friend every day. Some are so self-absorbed they’ve even prodded me to become “fans” of their pages. Others bombard me with event invites I have no interest or possible way of attending. Don’t get me started on annoying applications like Pillow Fight and Blingee Book. Enough is enough. (more…)

While I’ve been taking notes and learning from the social media ventures of many organizations around the District, there has been nothing but radio silence from that old Washington institution, the American Enterprise Institute.

I visited AEI’s Web site a while back, and found a dated platform with no obvious plans to engage in social media outreach.

Imagine my surprise today when I received an email that proclaimed, “AEIOnline is now following you on Twitter!”

Say what?

I checked it out, and sure enough, there was AEI tweeting away. Even AEI’s President, Arthur Brooks, is firing off tweets from his own account. He’s using hashtags and everything!

Surely if they’re on Twitter, there’s a Facebook page floating around here, I thought. (more…)

Would You Pay for a Facebook Vanity URL? (Mashable)
Facebook has been floating the idea of paying for unique and simple URLs for organizations.

Pepsi’s RefreshEverything Campaign: By the Numbers (ClickZ News)
Pepsi recent campaign was aimed primarily at millennials – Anna Maria Virzi takes a look at its success.

Surprise! That Facebook fan page you built for your organization has totally changed, and it may have happened right under your nose.

If you’re like many organizations with a Facebook presence, you probably spent a day months (or years) ago carefully crafting your Facebook fan page to look like an institutionally approved multimedia brochure. Your blog’s RSS feed was automatically posting on the side panel; your YouTube videos were displayed handsomely in the center; and the description of your organization’s goals, policy positions and political philosophy were clear and brilliant. Anyone who clicked on your page was greeted with a clean, carefully crafted page. (more…)

The US Chamber of Commerce is taking a stand against card check legislation that would abolish the secret-ballot system currently in place for employees who are voting on whether to start a labor union. Regardless of how you feel about card check, take note: The Chamber is using some very neat social media strategies to get the word out that will work for any cause.

On their campaign Web site, the Chamber makes it incredibly easy for activists to rally around the cause by offering a simple form that users can fill out, which will send a letter that addresses the issue directly to their legislator.

But wait, there’s more! (more…)

The Anatomy of a Tweet: Twitter Gets a Style Guide (The New York Times)
Are you new to Twitter? Dom Sagolla and Adam Johnson have written a book that includes user how-tos, tips and tricks, and stories.

MySpace: User Engagement Up, Unique Users Flat (ReadWriteWeb)
As Facebook and MySpace battle it out for the top social media site in the United States, Frederic Lardinois of ReadWriteWeb examines current traffic stats about both online communities.