Apple Getting Social?

If the rumors are to be believed then the answer to the question everybody is asking appears to be yes. Tomorrows Apple music event hints that there may be new hardware coming which we all expect with an update likely to the iPod lineup. However when the talk turns to iTunes things get interesting. One of the rumors that has to do with the integration of social media into the music giant iTunes.

This time last year we were seeing the same rumors flying, especially after the appearance of leaked screenshots on the Boygeniusreport website. The photos are included below for those looking for a recap of the last round of rumors. It is time once again to speculate on when Apple will fully embrace social media.

The reality is that iTunes has not had a real significant change in its functionality in years, it is a music store at heart and it is a very popular. A change to introduce social media integration could be a minor one or it could amount to a complete overhaul of the interface we all know and have accepted. As it sits the rumors are pointing to the integration of social elements as a way for users to share not only information on what they are listening to but also for them to share recommendations with others. That sadly doesn’t mean that we will be able to share our favorite songs with our friends, but it is still a step towards making music and iTunes a friendly place.

The positive side of the rumored updates, assuming they are true, will be a new way to share music with friends. What worries me is the possibility we may see millions of “ (name) is listening to (blank) on iTunes” posts on Twitter… Then again there are easy and simple ways around that issue. Other music providers such as Last.fm already offer social media updating without the annoyance of thousands of posts about your listening habits to your friends and family. The model is in use already and works without issues.

Rumors of increased social media integration have been flying for a long time, iTunes is the logical first step if they are really intent on following through. The technology is there and services such as Facebook and Twitter are already in use by hundreds of millions of people. My personal bet is that Apple will bring some form of integration, tomorrow, I don’t know, but certainly it is on their radar.

Come tomorrow we will see if its going to be true and if Apple is really going to make a move into social media with iTunes.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta

Yesterday I had a wonderful time at the Jasper Park Lodge presenting to NOT the Certified General Accountants of Alberta as I blogged about in my previous post but the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta (ICAA).  I must be getting old, I’ve never got the association wrong before like this.  This was (in my terms) similar to when the lead singer for a major music act exclaims they’re totally stoked to be in “Calgary” when they’re actually in “Edmonton.” I start talking about why those in the room should consider becoming a “social accountant.”  Ok, so far so good, they’re all accountants.  Then we start digging into specifics and I realize, yes we’ve got a different designation in the room.  Now I explained early on that I was taking the approach of looking at the accounting industry as a whole anyway, so the impact in terms of data was still there.  I talked about CGA’s, CMA’s, even a group of accountants from Ireland, all as examples to communicate various points.  Still as a professional speaker this is not something you want to get in the habit of doing, I won’t do that again and my apologies to the Chartered Accountants in the room .

Everyone was pretty good about the little slip-up, although in true social media fashion, there is a tweet explaining the mistake I made and I couldn’t resist and also had to blog about it too.

The Giant is Asleep

In a room of just under 50 professional people, (2) were on Twitter, that’s not entirely unexpected for this industry after my preliminary research.  There were also (2) self-proclaimed bloggers in the room, one of which I found out later was actually a teacher.  That too was lower than expected.  However, I believe that many started putting serious thought into taking some action towards becoming a “social accountant.”  I can extrapolate this from the questions that were asked after my presentation was completed.  Discussions of how to reduce white noise or irrelevant information flow, pilot projects  and where to start, this was a very friendly and engaged group.

Admissions of the beginning of Linkedin profiles and Twitter accounts.  By enlarge, this industry is dormant in terms of social activity.  Certainly with respect to Alberta, we have a long way to go before anyone could state that our regional accountants of any designation are truly invested in social.  My hope is that for one person or organization, yesterday’s presentation was enough inspiration to take action.  I did receive a little feedback from folks which I always appreciate as it helps me improve.  That despite the faux pas mentioned above was quite positive and I feel really good about the experience as well.  We’re all human after all and prone to mistakes, it’s how we learn from those experiences that is the real story.

I want to thank the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta for the chance to speak at their wonderful event at the Jasper Park Lodge and for the wonderful speakers gift too.

Open Manitoba

On the heels of a $555 million dollar deficit budget released by the Manitoba provincial government led by Premier Greg Selinger and Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk, I find myself in Winnipeg to speak to a CIPS chapter regarding Government 2.0 and how it is changing the way governments operate as they migrate towards a collaborative platform.

Interestingly, there were some folks in the room from very large organizations, including the provincial government.  As the nice folks I met here brace for impact regarding cutbacks, I believe they found the discussion around tax savings and government efficiencies related to an Open Government environment interesting.

I was told about some very interesting things happening here in Manitoba, I can see sparks of interest and some daylight regarding the use of Web 2.0 technologies and that is very cool.

The local Twitter community is not as active as ours in Edmonton but there are signs of growth from what I hear from locals.  I really enjoyed my stay here in Winnipeg, the people were welcoming and the city itself has some terrific architecture.  There’s a lot of pride here and from what I’ve learned, there is considerable interest in the idea of Government 2.0.  I’d like to say more but have to head to the airport to catch a flight.  I’m heading to Seattle today to attend OpenGov West.

What I will say is, people feel Premier Seliger is open to the idea of Government 2.0, so I say – Here comes Open Manitoba!

Shaping the identity of a community

Interview with the Mayor of Hinton, Alberta – Glenn Taylor

I first met Glenn on Twitter, when he put a link out asking for feedback on a housing report for the Town of Hinton.  I replied asking if he and his administration had considered using a wiki for policy feedback from citizens?  He replied, “No, but I’ll pass it along.”  Then becoming Facebook friends and continuing our discussion, we found out that he was presenting at the ALI Social Media for Government conference.  This gave me an opportunity to meet Glenn in person for the first time.  Glenn was presenting a fire-side chat (no PPT slides) with Ken Chapman of Cambridge Strategies about the Grande Alberta Economic Region (GAER).  The story is interesting in terms of how this particular region has been impacted by many different issues.  The Mountain Pine Beetle for example has had a devastating effect.  After the conference we agreed to follow-up and today’s interview was our next step.

WS: Why become an elected official?

GT: “That started in the sandbox, I was learning about the political process in grade 5 which was when I became class president.  After school I was involved in unions and activism.  For me, it has always been a sense of representing other’s concerns that’s interested me. Union politics turned out to be too limiting, contractual negotiations etc – a narrow lens of looking at the world.

The opportunity to represent citizens’ concerns to administration is what I found fascinating and why I really love governing at the municipal level.  You can discuss something at Council and the next day be having a cup of coffee over the fence with a neighbour fielding questions about the decision.  That has translated into what is currently my 3rd term on council and 2nd term as Mayor.  We’ve focused on shaping the community identity.  We’re an industrial town, and yet, as a community realize that we have a responsibility to give back to the land.”

During the ALI conference, Glenn described his initial response to Ken Chapman’s suggestion that he start using social media as resistive.  ”I don’t have time for this,” he stated while speaking at the ALI conference this week.   However, what I don’t think Glenn bargained for is how persistent Ken Chapman can be and so @mayorhinton is now active on Twitter.  Also during that presentation he revealed that others on his Town Council are on Facebook now, although they’re not as active as they could be and more Twitter accounts have been set-up recently too.

WS: What resistance if any has there been from your colleagues on Council, administration or the region?

GT: “Well I would start with the traditionalists being afraid to engage, the silent majority if you will.  They’re asking, how can we control the message?  What’s motivating that fear are examples like what’s happening with elements associated with Rockyview County Council generating a facebook group.  Basically fixating on the negative.

We (government) can’t be superficial, can’t just listen and continue to do the same thing.  We need to take action.  However, within administration there can be fear that change will bring about more work.  Fear about change of the status quo.  At the provincial level there’s a tendency to consult with citizens through town halls so that it can be stated folks were consulted and then do what was planned anyway.  As the community changes, we need to bring that message back from the citizens to the government.  In a municipal government it’s truly the citizens issues being presented to the government and that’s my favourite part.  The challenge becomes then, how do we get those issues to the administrative team…for change in process?”

Glenn didn’t name the group but I found this one called Stop the Madness in Springbank! which seems to be against development.

WS: How do you see social media impacting your region economically?

GT: “Well number one – you need to make decisions with good information which means you have to gather good information first.  Being open to listening is key and understanding the challenges.  How do we tap into that knowledge?  Traditional invitations to discuss the issue and also connecting people online through various channels.  Flexibility has to be present in our approach so that we can reach as many citizens as possible.  In fact, we’re hosting a workshop on social media to help folks understand the tools better.”

WS: What challenges lie ahead for you and your community?

GT: “We’re really at the beginning stages of engaging the citizens.  I believe that we’re ahead of the curve and that’s a source of pride for us. However, there can be a disconnect between administration and council that sometimes exists and that will be something we have to work on.”

WS: What advice would you give to other elected officials?

GT: “Build the business case, not I have a dream, rather it’s what I have learned. It’s way easier to to operate in reactionism rather than finding the path.  I’d say it’s important to be proactive rather than reactive.  For example at our GAER Board meetings we now start with blue sky sessions and ask what’s on the horizon?  What are you hearing in your communities?  Is it a priority, do we need to spend time working on it…that means that key issues have a chance to help us set our course at the beginning.”

 

“Leaders get the behaviours that they themselves exhibit and tolerate.”  - Larry Bossidy, Author of Execution: The discipline of getting things done.

And with that in mind, I’ll leave you with the same question that Glenn has posted on Facebook and like other elected officials I’ve come across (but unfortunately not all), he cares about the answers you give…

GT: What does community mean to you?

Social media is about sweat!

One of the things I’ve always taken exception to is the comment that social media is “free.”  You’ll see some content in the video below about Gary Vanyerchuk and “$0 dollars invested in Twitter to generate 1800 customers.”  Social media is not free, this is a gross generalization.  Vaynerchuk continues to state that social media is free throughout his book Crush It as well, and regardless of his success (which is substantial) he is sending the message that simply because the tool itself requires no registration fee to use, all social media is free and essentially has no value.  Wrong!

“There’s nothing stock about a stock car.” – Harry Hogg

He’s not coming straight out and saying social media has no value but to the untrained eye that could be how it is interpreted.  I certainly agree that on average the investment in social media marketing is considerably lower than traditional methods of marketing, but free and of little value?

Is the key to massive social media success simply just working 16 hour days on free software?  According to Vaynerchuk, yes and he explains the importance of what to spend those 16 hours on.  He advocates relentlessly building your personal brand, something I completely agree with. Ultimately, many social media tools may be free to use but the time invested and experience on how to apply them in a coordinated way is very valuable. In the case of Vaynerchuk and many others, it’s worth millions.

His main message is “listen” to the Internet and your customers, answer all your emails and comments and treat your customers like gold.  Sound advice AND it’s nothing new.  Having said that, many still do not do this because it’s too much work.  Vanyerchuk is proving that his simple, in your face style and showing up every day is and does work.  Is he passionate? Yes.  Is he relentless?  You bet.  Is it hard work? Absolutely!

As for his book Crush It, I found it a very easy read, entertaining in a few places and there are a few good tips.  Would I call it revolutionary or mind blowing? No.  Vaynerchuk’s mantra is simple, he considers much about the use of social media to be about showing up, sweating and being passionate as you do it.  With that I agree but in reality it’s not free.

As for the socialnomics video.

Eric Qualman has released a new social media centric video on Youtube, this man loves his stats and I think you’ll appreciate them as well.  I originally found the link to this video on Twitter via Mike Street (@streetforce1)

Mike’s link sent me to LitmanLive, a blog which provides a bit of a break-down of the stats within the video itself, it’s below for your viewing pleasure.

By the way, if you haven’t played this iPhone game called Pik’s Revenge yet, you’re missing out.  Speaking of “sweat,” we’re working with Edmonton’s Fluik Entertainment on this cool project, I thought I would throw this in too…

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