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an unkindness of ravens

a shrewdness of apes, a bloat of hippopotamuses, a parliament of owls, a labor of moles, and other collective names for animals.

Nov. 20. 1905

J. H. Todd
1212 Webster St.
San Francisco, Cal.

Dear Sir,

Your letter is an insoluble puzzle to me. The handwriting is good and exhibits considerable character, and there are even traces of intelligence in what you say, yet the letter and the accompanying advertisements profess to be the work of the same hand. The person who wrote the advertisements is without doubt the most ignorant person now alive on the planet; also without doubt he is an idiot, an idiot of the 33rd degree, and scion of an ancestral procession of idiots stretching back to the Missing Link. It puzzles me to make out how the same hand could have constructed your letter and your advertisements. Puzzles fret me, puzzles annoy me, puzzles exasperate me; and always, for a moment, they arouse in me an unkind state of mind toward the person who has puzzled me. A few moments from now my resentment will have faded and passed and I shall probably even be praying for you; but while there is yet time I hasten to wish that you may take a dose of your own poison by mistake, and enter swiftly into the damnation which you and all other patent medicine assassins have so remorselessly earned and do so richly deserve.

Adieu, adieu, adieu!

Mark Twain

"Do I really look like a guy with a plan?
You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars.
I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it.
You know, I just ... do ... things.
-- The Joker

On the product side of marketing, planning has served me well.

But on the marcomm side, you know, I just ... do ... things.

And since the whole point of marcomm is to draw attention, I try to do things which are at least a little outrageous:

We did those things because nobody had done them before. I'll try just about anything. I just want to see what works. And afterward, I usually report here on my blog about how these things go.

In the second half of 2009, we did a marketing campaign for Vault.

This is your brain on SourceSafe

As I mentioned above, Vault was originally positioned to be a compelling replacement for SourceSafe. Since our 5.0 release contains a new Handoff feature which makes it easier than ever to make the transition, we decided to focus this campaign on the product's original positioning, as a SourceSafe replacement.

The creative on this campaign was ... edgy. In a nutshell, we compared SourceSafe to an addiction. The ads were loosely patterned after billboards and ads aimed at convincing people not to use illegal drugs. The basic idea was to portray SourceSafe as something which might send your life into a downward spiral toward a 12-Step program or rehab.

We knew from the beginning that some people were going to be ticked off. We just weren't sure how many people and who.

We tried testing the ads by taking them home to our spouses for feedback. This resulted in a few tweaks, but we didn't get any criticism that caused us to change course. One guy's wife suggested that the ads would be a better reflection of our industry if the models in the stock photos were less attractive. :-)

So we moved ahead. The first thing we did was run the ads in MSDN magazine, which is published by an outside firm in close coordination with Microsoft. Nobody complained, so we kept going. We ran banner ads on several Microsoft-centric websites.

And then we showed up in November at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference with this campaign as the theme for the entire booth. We gave away hundreds of T-shirts saying "VSS Must Die".

You can see the whole thing at vssisdead.com

This campaign was darker and more negative than anything we've done before. We knew we were pushing the envelope.

Did we go too far?

Well, we certainly didn't expect to win any Most Admired Company awards by running a marketing campaign which portrays the users of our competitor's product as drug addicts. :-) But the campaign was intended to be funny, in a "humor noir" sort of way.

Somewhere during the execution of this campaign, I realized that SourceSafe is very much like that dorky kid in high school that gets teased by everybody.

Why do high schoolers pick on other kids? Because it works. In high school, popularity is correlated with several factors, but one of them is unkindness. The meaner you are (to the right people), the more popular you are. Once the crowd has observed who is getting bullied by the popular kids, others join in. Even if they don't know the kid, they start ripping on them, just to try and identify with the "in" crowd.

As grownups, most of us know that this is reprehensible. No kid deserves to be treated this way just because they're different.

But teenagers do it anyway. And they do it because it gets them what they want.

This particular kid is an easy target. SourceSafe isn't just a little bit dorky. We're talking pocket protector, greasy hair, and a sport coat with elbow patches.

When it comes to poking fun, if any company is fair game, it's Microsoft. And if any Microsoft product is safe to pick on, it's gotta be SourceSafe. SourceSafe is the bullying target that everyone can agree on.

Dissing SourceSafe is so common that folks do it whether they have used SourceSafe or not. Just like in high school, people join the bashing just because they think it makes them look cool.

And SourceSafe has basically nobody defending it. When emacs people get an attitude, the vi fans speak up. When Visual Studio fans start trash talking, the Eclipse crowd starts showing features. But nobody stands up for SourceSafe. People bash it, and SourceSafe just mopes down the hall wearing flood pants and a shirt with the top button done.

So anyway, we chose to go negative on this, but we figured we were in plenty of company.

And while I'm rationalizing and making lame excuses for being a jerk, please note that SourceSafe is NOT REALLY A PERSON.

Results

In general, this campaign worked. People at PDC loved the T-shirts. The click-through rate on the banner ads was the highest we have ever seen.

Some people were offended, but we received far more positive feedback than negative.

However, just like the awkward kid at school, SourceSafe doesn't really deserve this. I've admitted it before, and I'll do it again now: SourceSafe isn't really that bad.

In its day, SourceSafe was awesome. When it was created by One Tree in the early 90s, it was nearly revolutionary. SourceSafe brought ease of use in version control to a whole new level. Microsoft acquired this product because it was outstanding.

Over the years, SourceSafe hasn't always aged well. Its architecture didn't fit with the Internet. By relying on file sharing protocols for network access, SourceSafe ended up with data corruption problems that triggered a tidal wave of criticism.

But overall, SourceSafe has been a very successful piece of software. Most of us would love to create something that has thousands of happy users 15 years later.

At trade shows, people come up to us and ask why they should switch from SourceSafe to Vault. We always respond by asking them if they are happy with SourceSafe. If they say yes, we tell them not to switch. This conversation has happened at every show I have ever attended. Lots of people use SourceSafe every day without problems.

And despite those negative ads, I believe SourceGear is doing more for SourceSafe users than any other company, including Microsoft. We recently shipped SourceOffSite 5.0, a major upgrade with improved performance, new features, and a fancy new ribbon UI.

Eric, if this is an apology, it sucks.

It's not. I don't owe SourceSafe an apology. SourceSafe isn't a person. It's just a bunch of code.

And it's hard to imagine the need to apologize to Microsoft as a company when so many of its employees stopped by the booth at PDC to join the bashing. Some of them took shirts.

So I'm not really apologizing. I'm just sharing about my experience and my reactions to it.

One exception: SourceSafe's principal author was Brian Harry. In working through the Microsoft acquisition of Teamprise I came to know Brian and developed a great deal of admiration for him. He is incredibly smart, and his accomplishments are amazing, including SourceSafe, the CLR, and Team Foundation Server. Brian, if our campaign caused you any personal offense, please accept my public apology.

So anyway, there you have it. I went negative. And it worked.

I'm not eager to do it again.

But I have no regrets. You know, I just ... do ... things.

Credit and blame

I wrote most of this piece in the first person, but the truth is I deserve more blame than credit. If you were offended or disappointed by this marketing campaign, blame me. On the other hand, if you liked this marketing campaign, credit John Woolley and Paul Roub. The creative work here was mostly theirs.

Trolls: Those creepy, hyperaggresive, hateful, mouth-breathing basement-dwellers. They were a feature of the Internet long before the social web, and most of us feel they're probably here to stay.

But one of the things most trolls rely on is anonymity, a wall behind which they hide any information that could be used against them, including their jobs, locations, appearances and real names.
And anonymity is a not-so-slowly disappearing feature of the social web. What do you think: Will the rise of transparency and the fall of anonymity put trolls in the deadpool any time soon?

Sponsor

Two things have brought this to mind.

First, there's this interesting post from The Next Web. Last week, Zee Kane wrote this piece about a typical flame thread that became a bit too personal.

Kane observes, absolutely correctly, "If you've spent more than ten minutes on any blog, YouTube video or any site that permits anonymous commenting, you will have noticed some of the filth that many commenters come out with. Often it's completely incomprehensible; other times it's pure bile and frankly a test of what a human will not reply to."

When an anonymous commenter attacked the subject of the original post in the comments thread, the subject, one Hermione Way, decided to find out who the troll really was. Email addresses, IP addresses and the social web being what they are, Way soon had her attacker pegged and found out that his "anonymous" persona had been trolling and attacking some of the people he'd called his friends in real life.

This chain of events left Kane editorializing, "Privacy truly is dead." This is a theme some think we've been beating over the head lately at ReadWriteWeb, but it's as timely as it is true.

Facebook's game of footsie with privacy and user data has led to a string of well-researched, thoughtful posts by our own Marshall Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick has very well justified his position that Facebook's original brand promise to conceal and protect user data has definitely changed to a promise to make the site - and user data - more "open" and accessible to other users and search engines.

Kirkpatrick sees this as a broken promise, which it is, to a point. I also see it as an overarching trend of sociological behavior online.

Think about the days of You've Got Mail, that god-awful, AOL-based Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks flick where two real-world rivals end up being anonymous penpals via email with no idea who the other person is or what he or she looks like. That could never happen today. Username conventions have drastically changed over the past 10 years; more and more online identities are tied to part or all of a user's real name rather than a "handle" for anonymous chatting and posting.

The same is true of avatars. However posed or candid, more of us are using real photographs of our own faces on the web rather than cultural icons, cartoons or some graphical represenation of our personality.

Today, anonymity represents the far, sketchy outposts of the web, much like the Reaver-filled edges of space in Firefly. Those who inhabit that space might be more likely to engage in account-cracking, cyberbullying, mob behavior and other activities that run the gamut from unkind to actually illegal. The illusion that their anonymity protects them from discovery and possible prosecution is often just that - an illusion.

Of course, anonymity can be great for freedom of speech purposes. Several of our favorite sites lately, such as Formspring.me and Quora, provide opportunities for the anonymous asking of questions in a safe environment. But I've already experienced a bit of trolling on those sites, as well.

What do you think: Is anonymity linked directly to trolling behaviors? Is the social web trending away from anonymous profiles and posts? Will less anonymity lead to fewer incidents of trollism? Let us know your opinion in the comments.

Credible case studies or examples of how people in organizations successfully use social communication channels like Twitter to connect and engage with customers are gold dust to anyone looking to make a case in their own organization.

We know how Dell can make money out of Twitter $6.5 million so far, they say. It's a terrific case study. Yet such an achievement can not only seem out of reach for many organizations, but also not necessarily reflecting their goals which may not be about making money directly from their Twitter activity.

So it's great when some details appear of what a handful of well-known international companies are doing and getting out of their use of Twitter.

Examples from Franchises Go Social, a feature in the January edition of the American Entrepreneur magazine:

• Subway: Subway's Twitter presence, @subwayfreshbuzz, attracted more than 6,000 followers in less than six months. The sandwich shop franchise uses Twitter to interact with Subway fans two ways: sending out product and promotional news and monitoring Twitter for buzz about its brand.
• McDonald's: McDonald's operates two main Twitter handles. @McDonalds, which has more than 4,700 followers, is used for brand news and information as well as customer service. (Internal research shows that the company is mentioned every 10 to 20 seconds on Twitter.) @McCafeYourDay promotes the company's line of specialty coffees.
• 7-Eleven: Convenience-store giant 7-Eleven launched its first Twitter campaign at @7eleven in September, when it created an online game to promote its Brazilian Bold coffee to 18- to 34-year-olds. A few weeks in, the game has scored about 100 followers and counting, but it has also generated a wave of buzz online and will be followed by more promotions.
• H&R Block: H&R Block uses @HRBlock, launched in November 2007, as a customer-care and question-and-answer tool more than a marketing vehicle. Although the company posts info about tax law changes or company news, it more frequently answers tax questions, solves log-in issues and helps connect its more than 3,600 followers with the expertise they need to get their taxes filed.
• Dunkin' Donuts: In a little more than a year, @DunkinDonuts scored more than 38,000 followers by creating a place where people can share their Dunkin' Donuts experiences. The company focuses on creating a place where people can talk about how much they love Dunkin' Donuts products.

(Via Janet Meiners Thaeler via Rodney Rumford)

Related posts:

• Twitter drives $6.5m global revenue for Dell, company plans to embrace the social web
• What's for lunch today, Twitter?
• Twitter marketing: genuine works
• Twitter 101 for business: just what you need

2009 - visit the author for more great content.

Since our Christmas-themed posts are a bit thin so far this year, here are a few topical blasts from Language Log's past:

2008: "Seven fishes"; "Happy Christmas";
2007: "One Christmas too long"; "Christmas and 'politically correct(ed)ness'", "'Tis the season", "The unkindness of strangers", "Victims and etymology", "Lexical repulsion", "Insert flap 'A' and throw away";
2006: "Merry umm Christmas, Will!", "Like, a Christmas gift card", "Happy tensing and coal in sex";
2005: "Christmas trees and holiday trees";
2004: "Talking animals: miracle or curse?", "A boxing day election or not?"
2003 "'Twas the night before Christmas", "Same-sex Mrs. Santa: 'The semantics are confusing'"

You can download the mix here.

As Delta Delta Delta sorority's "Fat Talk Free Week" comes to a close, I'm curious: How did you do?

Were you able to refrain from making critical comments about your body? Were you able to avoid making jokes at your own expense? It's a noble effort on the sorority's part -- to bring awareness to the world of the unkind words that women hurl at themselves, too often under the guise of female bonding.

But there's another kind of "fat talk" that's less obvious. I'm talking about the internal dialogue we have with ourselves. True freedom from "fat talk" isn't just about biting your tongue before the self-criticism escapes your lips; it's about silencing the inner voice that tells us we aren't good enough...that we must "improve" ourselves...that we can be "perfect," if we'd just try hard enough.

It's a battle that takes much more than a week to fight.

Over and over, I hear from women that they want to accept themselves. They want to let go of the chase for elusive perfection. After a lifetime of waging this internal war, they want peace.

But how?

It starts, I think, with the uncompromising belief that we can choose -- at any moment -- how we're going to react to what comes our way. Please don't mistake me for saying that people aren't entitled to their feelings. We're human, and sometimes we'll feel sad, jealous, envious, inferior and all the other emotions we use to put ourselves down. But when those waves of feelings roll in, I'm confident that it's always my choice as to how I want to see myself. Like standing in the surf, I can let that wave drag me down or I can let it wash over me and stand back up. It's my choice.

Sound easy? Nope...it isn't.

But recognizing my ability to choose is an incredibly powerful thing. Every time I make the choice to treat my body well with reasonable exercise and healthy foods, I send myself -- and the world -- a message. Every time I choose to replace an unkind thought about myself with a more positive and forgiving thought, I'm consciously changing that internal dialogue. As the dialogue changes, so does the behavior. When I think confidently -- even if I have to fake it to myself a bit at first -- I begin to act confidently. And when I act confidently, the world meets a different person.

In my experience, people haven't treated me differently because I've lost or gained weight. Those differences have happened because of how I felt about having lost or gained weight. It's my internal dialogue and the feelings it creates in me that has shaped the way I see and react to those around me. When I haven't felt good about myself -- when my internal dialogue is negative -- I don't want you to look at me or talk to me. Guess what you see? An unfriendly, aloof person. Negativity feeds on itself.

Try this experiment today: Every time you have an unkind thought about yourself, say, "That isn't true." Act as if you're the person you've always wanted to be. Turn off the internal "fat talk," or whatever dialogue it is that keeps you feeling unconfident. Greet the world as your version of your best self.

Let me know how it goes...

A group of ravens is referred to as a congress or an unkindness. The most famous unkindness of six ravens at the Tower of London are employees, kept on staff at the expense of the British government. There are claims that the ravens were decreed to be kept by King Charles II to prevent disaster, or that they had been placed near the Tower in order to dramatize execution proceedings. These days they're kept around for tourists, and they are fed well (for ravens) on a diet consisting of raw meat, bird formula biscuits soaked in blood, whole rabbit, eggs once a week, and occasional pieces of fried bread.

Ravens are fairly vicious by nature, so the Tower's Ravenmaster must bond with them over a period of six weeks when they are fledglings. These birds are so vital to the Tower's image that several fledglings are kept as understudies for the six working birds as they die, even though the average raven lifespan is twenty-five years. The current raven roster at the Tower consists of Gwylum, Thor, Hugin, Munin, Branwen, Bran, Gundulf, Baldrick, Fleur, and Colin.

As we sat together, you not feeling well, you asked me if I knew where there were any headphones. You were looking to engage in something that might serve as a necessary distraction from *blech* and simultaneously not bother me.
I said, No.

It wasn't entirely untrue. I didn't know for sure. But was in fact unkind and lazy and did not show the care I promised to you.
I could have, I should have, gotten up and looked. It wouldn't have taken long because I just found them and thought of you and thought less of me for not having done so last night.

I am sure that things like this happen everyday in relationships.

The lie we tell seems quite harmless until we weigh it against the value we have stripped from the care and kindness we could have showed.
I'm sorry.

Two books, two consequences: Shashi Tharoor on Congress icons

Sharlyn Lauby is the president of Internal Talent Management (ITM) which specializes in employee training and human resources consulting. She authors a blog at hrbartender.com.

I admit I'm a Twitter addict. I enjoy the flurry of tweets and the variety of information my followers share with me. But even though I like the variety, it's still important for me to feel some sort of connection to the people and companies I follow. On the people side, the way I connect is by getting to know someone's personality. It's the same if I'm following a company. Where the person is offering personality, the company is successfully tweeting their corporate culture.

But if all you're doing is sending out auto-tweets, I'm not sure either of us is getting the full benefit of your presence on Twitter. Some people don't like communicating with a company logo. But when a company offers a pleasant look and feel, and tweets out information of value to customers, then it is possible to connect with them. Here are 7 suggestions (along with some Twitter examples) for establishing a rock-solid corporate culture on Twitter:

1. Share Your History

I'm not talking about chronicling the 42 year history of your firm 140 characters at a time. Although, I guess if you really wanted to, you could. What I mean by share your history is that you should tell the Twitterverse when you make history. For example, if your company is named one of the Top 50 Places to Work or wins an industry award; that's making history and you should tell the world by tweeting about it.

Another historic moment is when an organization grows and expands, especially in the current economic climate. Dunkin' Donuts did a great job announcing their entry into the Birmingham market.

2. Talk Vision and Mission

Kris Dunn, vice president of people for DAXKO, explained to me why Twitter is a great fit for his company. We've got a culture that calls for a lot of communication, so the transparency and immediacy of Twitter fits that. Also, we believe in our team members being active in their professional communities (their profession marketing, software engineering, etc.), so Twitter fits that as well.

His point is well taken. People want to be engaged with companies that look engaging. Think about the purpose of your organization. Twitter can be a place to talk about goals, plans and offer a glimpse of what life is like at your place of work.

3. Reveal Industry Insights

Many companies are using Twitter not only as a place to talk about their organization but their industry. For example, looking for the top 10 cruise vacation destinations? Rather than hoping customers find that information via some travel survey, then put two and two together, Princess Cruises smartly tweets that info out and at the same time lets people know they have cruises that take you there.

Another company setting the standard in this area is Pandora Radio. When a piece of legislation that could impact their business was introduced in the U.S. Senate, they turned to Twitter to educate listeners. They regularly updated their followers on the progress of the legislation. And, they thanked their tweeps for the support. (Very important!)

4. Recognize Employees

There are so many ways you can share with Twitterland the things you do from an employee standpoint. Everything from healthcare coverage, to free gyms, and employee orientation can all get the Twitter treatment. But when it comes to tweeting about employees, the leader is really Marriott International.

First, they very smartly tweet about their company's commitment to diversity. As a reader, this speaks volumes about what's important to Marriott as a company. Second, I have been equally impressed with the sensitivity they expressed for their associates and others during the recent tragedy in Jakarta. That puts a very human face on the corporate Twitter account.

5. Profile Customer Successes

Twitter, like many other social networks, is made up of groups of really supportive individuals who want to see positive happenings and big wins with social media.

Jessica Lee, senior employment manager for APCO Worldwide, feels that as Twitter matures we'll start seeing companies share more of their own and their clients' successes. I personally like sharing even the very smallest things clients wanting to get more involved in social media, or how our own Facebook Fan Page is growing because it's exciting to see the growth along with new and different ways of being applied in the business world.

DAXKO, meanwhile, is combining the popularity of Twittering by their customers with their company user's conference by setting up a Twitter account for the conference. According to Dunn, they'll use the site to live tweet from the conference so our customers that couldn't attend can follow what's going on and hopefully get some value out of it.

6. Be Responsive

Using Twitter for sharing business messages is one thing. But as your culture becomes more defined on Twitter, you might find yourself using it provide customer service. @ComcastCares has raised the bar for addressing customer service matters via Twitter.

Much of the success attributed to @ComcastCares is their responsiveness. Dunn agrees. I think I'd rather have no Twitter account than an account that wasn't responding to replies or DMs within 5 to 10 minutes. Customers that are savvy enough to use Twitter are going to expect a lot of responsiveness.

And, it's not only how fast you respond but how you respond. Lee reminds us that whether your customer is a consumer of your product or service, or in my case, a potential employee who is interested in working for APCO the tone should still be conversational and friendly. And ultimately, you want it to be an extension of yourself and a reflection of your organization's culture.

7. Ask Questions About the Future

If you're looking to reach into the mind of consumers, Twitter can be a medium to get real-time information. Just ask a simple question, what are you concerned about?

Or, what do you want to see in our tweets?

As a consumer, I love it when companies ask me for my opinion. It shows me they care about me and what I have to say. And, I love it even more when I see a company take suggestions and ideas seriously.

Conclusion

So whether it's an individual talking about their organization or a company tweeting about what makes them special, Twitter can help to define and promote your corporate culture. Even with 140 characters you can say a lot about yourself, your workplace, and what you do.

Use the examples in this post as the starting point for a conversation or training session about Twitter best practices and your corporate culture. By sharing with your team the right way to leverage Twitter, we can all celebrate our successes together. If you know any other good examples of companies using Twitter to share their corporate culture in a positive way, please share them in the comments.

More Twitter resources from Mashable

- 5 Habits of Successful Executives on Twitter
- Twitter for Beginners: 5 Steps for Better Tweeting
- HOW TO: Use Twitter for Customer Service
- 25 Twitter Apps to Manage Multiple Accounts
- 40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them

Tags: business, Lists, social media marketing, twitter

The rest of this post will make no sense to you if you haven't seen Rachel Getting Married, which you should.

A few scattershot observations:

• First, David Edelstein is right: the movie is a masterpiece. Easily one of the best I've seen this year, and a convincing portrait of the weird and sometimes toxic mix of bitterness, neediness, bratty manipulation, and genuine warmth that you find in relationships between siblings, particularly sisters. Whoa, that was really heavy.

*Tunde Adebimpe's character is too cool to be marrying Rachel. This was implausible almost from the start. I think you're supposed to sympathize with Rachel, but I have to say I found her deeply unsympathetic, and more than a little dim. Edelstein writes:

Rachel is at long last fed up with being upstaged, and when she reacts to her sister, we react to (and like) her.

During Kym's nightmare toast, I cringed, for Kym and also for everyone at the table. But the moment passed. Kym was rescued by the gracious guests, who I assume chalked up Kym's psycho narcissism to, rightly, the fact that she'd just returned home from rehab and they figured, rightly, that the right thing to do was to cut her some slack. Yet Rachel had to lash out, insisting that she have her moment. Of course she wants her moment, and she deserves it. I get that. At the same time, Kym is in a really bad state. And while it might have made sense to stop indulging her years ago, confronting her under these circumstances was simply cruel and ungenerous.

*The saddest character is, of course, the saintly suffering dad, who really makes you want to withdraw from humanity. His basic decency has been nothing but a source of heartache for him. Like a lot of people I romanticize the idea of having children but when your children are willfully self-destructive, it's easy to imagine wanting to die. The panic you must feel when your kid goes missing, even if its for the umpteenth time, has to be totally gut-wrenching. You could see it the punishing burden on Bill Irwin's face.

*I also really loved the best man, who seems like exactly the kind of person you'd want as your best man. I think I have a real hunger for the drama of life, and this normally harmless impulse gets people in destructive spirals. When the best man talks about missing the drama and desperation of being an addict, it sounded perverse, of course, but it's on a spectrum: a lot of us have wrecked happy life situations out of a weird mix of boredom and pure nihilism. How scary to imagine all of the relationships that matter to you dissolving in the process.

*I was very resistant to seeing Rachel Getting Married because I felt that I couldn't take Anne Hathaway's face seriously. I'm officially an idiot. She was insanely good.

*Um, a lot of the cultural trappings of the wedding struck me as ridiculous. I saw the movie with a friend and at one point we said:

So why does the wedding have an Indian theme exactly?

I think it's because they're assholes.

Which is unkind, but I think you know what we meant

Also, as I noted before, Rachel is just not cool enough for Sidney. Seriously. She's a terrible dancer, for example, which suggests a broader lack of soul. Also, Rachel's best friend is a wretched punk who lacks common decency. This suggests poor judgment. Sidney, in contrast, has this ease and a generous nature, as reflected in his kind gestures towards Kym. He could do better. Alas, Sidney and Rachel will forever be bound together by the mysterious third party.

*As for the Ethan thread, I have to say is there any denying that this is Debra Winger's fault? How could that fact not have occurred to Rachel in her most vicious moment?

Lastly, a plea: please be kind to each other. I don't always succeed in this, but I'm doing my best. Remember context, and remember that a different set of circumstances could have left you in an unenviable, difficult state.

Shared by chrisbrogan.com
I hadn't heard about this. Man... what part of stupid is this?

One of the most amazing things about the Web is that when an idea takes off on the Web, it can propel a brand to fame and fortune. Marketers particularly love when this happens to a product without their influence. There's no better way to get your product out there than to have people talking about it via word-of-mouse. Think iPhone. Remember Mentos and Diet Coke Geysers?

I call it a World Wide Rave.

However, when companies don't understand social media or those that hide behind legal eagles and public relations experts frequently get tripped up. Then people talk. A lot. And they say lots of unkind things about your brand.

I call that a World Wide Rant.

Consider the 3M Post-It note debacle. Dozens of blogs have covered this in the past few weeks and I had thought it was common knowledge so I had held off writing about it. However, when I mentioned it in a presentation yesterday, only a tiny percentage of people were aware, so here are the basics:

Scott Ableman and some colleagues strategically placed 14,000 3M Post-It Notes onto a co-worker's Jaguar. The photos they took became a phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of people looking at the photos he posted on Flickr. I have a few below, but you can see them all on Ableman's Flickr page.

Any marketer would be thrilled at this. 3M obviously was, because of what happened next, but instead of celebrating Ableman's cool idea and giving him credit, they messed up.

Ableman writes: "After all the completely free publicity we generated for the folks from 3M Post-Its, they contacted me asking if they could use these photos on their back-to-school store merchandising this summer. When I asked what their budget was, they wrote back and said they didn't want to pay to use the photos. Instead, they copied what we'd done, took their own photos, and used them to create a national marketing campaign. So if you saw this in a store, you saw a copy created by 3M."

According to Melanie Phung in her post 3M Carjacks the Post-It Note Jaguar, the amount of money we're talking is a measly thousand bucks or so.

Here is the 3M copycat campaign, again courtesy of Ableman's Flickr page.

Take a look at all the bloggers with negative posts about the 3M behavior. Yikes. I wouldn't want to be a marketer at 3M right now.

Contrast that to what Pete Healy, vice president of marketing for Perfetti Van Melle USA, makers of Mentos did. They immediately linked to the original, famous video with the Mentos and Diet Coke geysers from the official Mentos site. When I spoke with Healey, he told me that he contacted the guys who made the video and offered the company's support. "When they appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and The Today Show, we were there," he says.

You need t be social media aware if you want to propel a World Wide Rave and to prevent a World Wide Rant. Here are some ideas.

David Meerman Scott's Social Media Guidelines:

1. Transparency
Never pretend to be someone you are not

2. Privacy
Unless given permission, don't blog about something disclosed to you

3. Disclosure
Disclose anything people might consider a conflict of interest

4. Truthfulness
Don't lie

5. Credit
Give credit to bloggers (and other sources) whose material you have used in your blog

(Number 5 is the one 3M violated).