We should all realize that our digital community is a little more like the small town life filled with nosy neighbors, than an anonymous big city. Privacy is something we should all take seriously and only share what we’re entirely comfortable with everyone in Mayberry knowing — even Aunt Bea.

Here are a couple tools that can help you understand what is public about you or anyone else on the Facebook.

YourOpenBook.org

zesty.ca/facebook/

Here’s a tool that may actually help you stay a little more private.

ReclaimPrivacy.org

The truth is that Facebook is constantly changing how they address privacy. And because advertisers are Facebook’s customers and not you, Facebook is unlikely to hold your privacy more dear than ad revenue.

To paraphrase what a South Carolina State trooper once said to a smart-asssed New Yorker friend “when on Facebook, you act like you Moma is looking over your shoulder all the time.”

And one more thing; it doesn’t hurt to Google yourself every now and then too. You never know what you might find.

This is probably one of the more shocking numbers on the rise of video on the Web but maybe not the only one that will amaze you:

Did you know that Netflix accounts for 30% of internet traffic.

Or that iPad users watch three times more video?

Or that video traffic will exceed 50% of mobile traffic this year?

I don’t need to flog the newspapers. We know that printed word has lost its dominance. Video content has established itself as the primary form of mass communication. And web distribution is quickly becoming the best way to reach diverse audiences on their own terms. And as connected devices including tablets, smartphones and set top boxes become more important that computer desktops, Web video will not only be important but essential to a brand’s success.

Your audience no longer just has a lean in, “interactive”, work relationship with the web. Today it’s also social, relaxed, playful and fluid. It goes where she goes. And you have to too. That’s where Fluid Films comes in.

Over the last couple years my professional direction has changed slightly. No longer just writing copy for ads and social media, I began editing and then shooting video. Which isn’t all that crazy since during the time I was working in Los Angeles I was directing commercials as well as freelance copywriting.

It was inevitable that this transition was coming from copywriter to writer/director. And with the rapid rise of web content and shrinking advertising budgets there’s no better time to embrace the change with my full attention, passion, and on my own terms.

I’ll be blogging about what exactly this means over the next week.

Last week the Twittersphere was all abuzz about Google+. A simple search shows the network already has 9 million users. Probably even more by the time you read this.  My first impression is that it is no Google Wave, Apple Ping, or even Google Buzz. In fact, I’m predicting a hit – probably not on the scale of Facebook, but a hit nonetheless.

While 9 million is still a paltry sum compared to Twitter’s 200 million or Facebook’s 750 million users, Google+ is destined to be a place where marketers can learn about their customers and effectively target them. Not to mention, a good showing on the social network should have a positive effect on your brand’s search engine recognition.

So what’s a brand to do? Wait, mostly. Google+ is by invite only for the time being. Your business can apply to be one of a limited number of businesses on Google+ in the future. Of course, as an individual, once you’re on the network, you can hock your wares to anyone willing to listen.

Soon, you’ll be able to monitor your brand’s activity on Google+, at least in public posts. This should provide a valuable new way to gather information and respond to customers and potential prospects.

Remarkably, Google+ is currently ad free. But just like YouTube, search, and most of Google’s other products, contextual and banner ads are certain to arrive.

As new functionality is revealed, opportunities will arise. Marketers should pay attention to changes here and, for that matter, at all the social networks.

Whether or not your business takes an active role on Google+ depends on if it makes good business sense. Ask yourself: Are your business customers there? Can your business communicate valuable information to them on the site?

Has Google+ factored into your marketing plans yet? If so, how do you plan on using it?

Studios are reporting the biggest Memorial Day weekend ever.  Why is this important? The advertising industry is consumed these days with articles about the “changing” media landscape, detailing why it will never be the same. While it’s important that we keep up with the advancement of media technology, it’s also important to recognize that we’re not experiencing a rapid, wholesale transformation of an entire society’s media consumption habits. People still love to go to the movies, watch cable television, and, gasp, read the occasional newspaper.

What we’re experiencing is more of an evolution. Some people are quickly adopting  new technology – but not everyone. And many of the adopters aren’t necessarily dumping the old media but rather adding another way to consume media to their diet. Here are nine statistics that might surprise you if you’ve spent too much time reading and listening to the gurus.

• While every social media expert may own an iPhone, most Americans still don’t own any smartphone at all.
• Unlike me, most people aren’t dumping cable for Internet TV. More people than ever are subscribing to broadband Internet and cable TV.  Only 3.9 percent have broadband.
• 45 percent of all ads recorded on DVRs are actually viewed.
• Only 10 percent of Americans have devices that connect their TVs to the Web.
• The top bandwidth hog for mobile is e-mail, not social networking.
• Pop stars are still selling millions of singles.
• E-book sales may be skyrocketing, but only 5 percent of people own a dedicated device to read one on.
• People are using iPads with TV, not instead of it.
• Most people are not interested in owning a 3-D television. In fact, most don’t even own an HD set yet.

So what’s the takeaway for a marketer who wants to make the most out of the latest technology? Know your customer, learn her habits, and you’ll find it easy to speak to her where she is.

We’re in the midst of some rather transformative times. Especially if you happen to live in the Middle East.  Some are crediting Facebook and Twitter as key catalysts that helped to overthrow a 40-year dictatorship in Egypt. This phenomenon has spread throughout the Arab world from Yemen to Bahrain and is currently erupting in Libya. You can follow the revolution on Twitter. Read the rest…

I’ve written here before about the need to post frequently and maintain a  constant presence. Consistently creating high-quality content is the best way to build influence in the social media sphere and to increase the chances that  posts be featured high in search results.

What if you’re not up to creating high-quality content? Jim Rome the popular sports DJ jokes that he has to go “down in the basement and recharge the batteries” every now and then to keep the quality of his program up to  his standards. This is a human and normal thing to do – yet professionals still feel the need to tweet their vacations away. Stop it.

If you’re in a corporate environment you need a plan for your personal time. For the agency blog, we keep a couple generic articles in reserve that can be posted when people are on vacation – we advise clients to do the same. If you’re a personal blogger you can do something similar, posting before your vacation but not have the posts go live  till you’re far away from responsibility – WordPress makes this really easy. Or you can just give yourself a break. I did and I don’t feel guilty.

Sorry, navel gazers, your belly button can’t help you. Finding yourself might have been the mantra of 70s-self-help gurus but you’ll need to listen to your customers first if you want to make your marketing relevant to them.

Even worse, this feel good approach most often leads to corporate chest pounding. “Your number one source for widgets.” “The market leader in top-quality widgets.” Messaging no one gives a damn about outside the company and most customers will even find off putting. After all, who wants to listen to someone who only talks about themselves.

This approach totally ignores what the customer cares about. If you’re spending all your time discovering yourself, you’re not discovering the hopes and desires of your customers. Just your own.

The saddest part is there’s never been an easier time to really get to know what your customer wants and what they care about. Just fire up your internet browser and get to know them better. They’re putting everything on record for you through social media. Heck, you don’t even have to actually talk to them to get to know what makes them tick.

To be clear, this isn’t to say who you are as a company isn’t important – as long as it’s focused with the perspective of the customer. An easy to understand example of this is — UPS. What can brown do for you?

First lets look at sentiment. Seems my taste for indie rock (and not pop ballads) isn’t shared by everyone. Sentiment for these folks is pretty darn positive. And positive in almost the exact same numbers. Bowersox get’ one percentage point on DeWyze. And negative sentiment is exactly the same.

But the story doesn’t end there. Since this is a popularity contest, the winner is going to need more buzz about them.

And it looks like over time DeWyze has had an advantage over Bowersox. And last week DeWyze was able make significant gains.

Looking at the percentage of posts ratio, in combination with a tie on sentiment, I think this is pretty safe call for DeWyze. So I’m going on record here for DeWyze.

I’m expecting to see a real dive in some pretty positive sentiment overall. Maybe not a wholesale hate fest but some definite disappointment. So what does a quick analysis tell us?

First there are a lot of positive things being said about Lost in general. Not surprising. But there are still more people “disappointed” than “satisfied.” Seems I’m not alone but not everyone agrees with me either.

So now lets look at the content of posts. Here the vast majority of references to “Lost” have positive sentiment. That makes it appear that most people have some pretty good things to say about Lost over our allotted time period of  30 days.  Maybe I’m wrong. People may have been pretty happy about the way the show was ending.

But then when we look the actual posts about Lost things start to get a little more mixed. So maybe I’m on to something — people aren’t entirely happy with the way the show is winding down.

OK. So now for the true test. How has the sentiment changed day to day. This shows a huge spike in negativity on the day the second to last show aired and then a more mixed but also more positive take on the very last show.

This tells us there are more people happy about the ending of the show than feeling let down, like me. So way to go Lost writers, you made most of blogoshpere happy, just not me.