Spam from Friends

Like most people I use Facebook. I have used other social media site, in fact I believe I still have many half completed and out of date profiles on several sites, but Facebook is my site of choice. Facebook is what most people I know use and it helps me, and the rest of the world, stay connected.

When it comes to social media my only complaint, which I am sure I am not the only one that feels this way, is the constant bombardment of advertisement. At least once I week I log in to find a friend has suggested a page for me to view. These pages are usually for a not-for-profit trying to get its message out or an advertisement for something. I rarely read the full page. I glace at the title and quickly ignore it.

Last week I received a recommendation, from a former classmate, to join the “EVERY ONE: Save the Children (Canada)” fan page. When I saw this I quickly ignored it. Why? I receive page suggestions every week and I find them annoying. I acknowledge that this page might be for a great cause and contain some great information, but page suggestions have become almost as annoying as spam. But this spam is worst then the kind you find in your email because this spam is being suggested to you by your friends.

In the current issue of Strategy, Jason McCann offers “An open apology to people using Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, etc.” In this open apology, McCann apologizes for not integrating social media into the campaign but replicating it for a social media platform. Now, McCann does recognize some real successes in using social media. But in the end he recognizes the failure in many social media campaigns.

I was excited by this apology. This article demonstrates a valuable lesson in using social media to expand a brand in a meaningful way that connects with your audience. As social media continues to grow and change any brand wanting to keep on track has to keep current with what other brands are doing and go beyond. It is not enough enough to tag on social media to your campaign, it has to be focused, planed, and specific. It must have meaning for your audience.

This may seem like a good point for me to offer some great ideas for using social media, however, I am not. A good social media campaign has to be specific to the the brand and audience. More generic ideas will only lead to more facebook spam, and who really wants that? Not me.




***If you are looking for some great example of social media campaigns read McCann's article, he offers some great examples.

Sometimes I Like Adventures

Sometimes I like adventures. I like to try new things and be open to new ideas. This characteristic can lead to lots of adventures and amazing experiences. Last March (yes, I know I am a little late on posting), I had one of these experience. I traveled with group of 12 to a mission in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  The group I traveled with has been traveling to this mission annually for the past 10 years, and has made a significant impact on the surround community. The mission is run by a few Brazilian nuns. The mission has a school, medical clinic, pharmacy and offered adult outreach programs.

We flew in to Santo Domingo, the capital of the
Dominican Republic. Once in the Dominican Republic we traveled for about an hour, or two, to a small neighbourhood just outside Santa Domingo. I am not overly familiar with the city landscape, or how the city is laid out and neighbourhoods are named, but the area where I stayed was Los Tres Brazos. The exact location of Los Tres Brazos I could not tell you, nor could I located it on a map.

Los Tres Brazos is not like any place I have been before. The streets were extremely narrow and hilly, and only few were paved. The houses were joined together, built right next to each other, and sometimes on top of each other.  The “rich” homes would have a front door, bars over the windows, and multiple rooms. A typical house, however, would have dirt floors, a single room, and not much more.

Despite the poverty level I saw and experienced, the community I encountered, and lived with for those seven days in March, was not poor in hope, spirit, or faith. The children looked after each other. They were eager to invite the “Americans” to play a game and sing a song. The community was generous and welcoming. I have never experienced this sense of community in North America, not even when I return home to my parents house, in my hometown, where I have spent most of my life.

This adventure taught me that I take several things in my life for granted. An even bigger lesson I learned was how to keep going. Each person I met in Los Tres Brazos worked hard every day to support themselves and their family. They didn’t have the choice of giving up. They had to keep going. They kept moving forward, working hard, and never giving up.

A little girls, who attends school at the mission,  drew this one my arm. I had no idea what she was doing at the time. After she drew it, I looked down, and then at her, she was so proud and happy of her drawing.