ReadWriteWeb had a good post about the waste of time and money on corporate Social Networks. Seriously, who really wants to hang out with fellow, let’s say, Deutsche Bank customers in a Deutsche Bank network? I know I don’t! Most customers will choose their preferred Social Network to exchange thoughts about products – like the HSBC group of outraged students on Facebook (I wrote about it last year).

They will also talk about what they like… don’t worry, corporates! But as ReadWriteWeb put it: “How would you feel if you spent more than $1 million throwing a party and less than 100 or even 1,000 people showed up? ” So corporates: harness existing big networks, and stay away from custom building them. It just doesn’t pay off.

From their e-mail:

“It’s the electoral race of the century. Political maps are being redrawn, and rules are getting rewritten across the board. Fundraising records have been broken. The candidates are even comparing the sizes of their email lists.

The mainstream media is tripping over itself to report on every last press release and campaign announcement. But do any of us REALLY know what’s going on?

With you helping from the frontlines, the Huffington Post can change campaign coverage. OffTheBus is HuffPost’s citizen-powered and -produced election site, and we’re depending on readers like you to tip us to what’s going on or, better yet, to write up the stories you think should be covered.

(…)

Last October OffTheBus members dropped in on Sen. Barack Obama’s Nationwide Canvassing Day from more than two dozen locations. Hours later every observer independently relayed to us that the economy, not the war, was the voting issue. Twenty-four hours later we reported on the significance of the economy, beating the mainstream media to the punch by a few weeks.

As our numbers grow, the same collaborative reporting model that got HuffPost’s OffTheBus the scoop on the economy may tell us a lot more about what’s happening nationwide.”

This sounds exciting. If I was in the states permanently, I would probably join them… not sure how useful I can be with all my travelling all over the place. But if you are interested in the US election and feel you can contribute, check it out. I am very curious to see what happens with OffTheBus, and how the coverage influences mainstream coverage.

The question that I would like some answers (or speculations) to is: how is Chinese censorship going to affect the use of Facebook? Will Facebook have to impose their censorship regulations, and if so, how? Haven’t found any further info about this, so if you have, share it in the comments!

I sincerely think that Twitter is a great communication tool, that could be highly useful for public sector communicators. If you are a public servant, and you are using or want to use Twitter, read the above mentioned article as a good example on what not to do.

You remember: last week I recommended War, Inc. The team behind the film is using a viral marketing approach only, since they have 0 money they can devote to traditional marketing. And it did the trick: they managed to get enough people out there to watch the film in theatres in LA and NYC and rake up more than $50,000.00 last weekend at the box office. Now if you do the math, this number correlates to the 2nd highest per screen average in the US (second only to Indiana Jones 4).

If people keep flocking to the theatres, the filmmakers will bring War, Inc. to additional cities around the US, which is what they are aiming for of course! They want this film to be seen by as many people as possible, and so they should – it is terrific!

So here is me playing my part in their viral marketing campaign (again): go see War, Inc. this weekend if you’re in LA or NYC! It is absolutely fantastic and deserves a wider release. And if you catch it, tell me how you liked it!

If you want to get a first overview on who does what online and why, you can find a nice little summary of a variety of user groups in this article on AdAge.com. And if there is anyone who you are interested in that cannot be found in these categories, leave a comment, and I’ll try to give you an overview.

The beautiful islands in the Pacific urgently need to sort out their broadband speeds. Fast internet is a pre-requisite for using a huge number of websites that are essential today. The slow speeds in New Zealand have become a big obstacle to businesses in the past few years, and there is a government initiative going to get Kiwi-broadband up to speed. Hope this happens sooner rather than later.

I wanted to express my gratitude to both the morning and the afternoon groups – both sessions were very inspiring and I really enjoyed our discourse. Also, thank you to the Network of Public Communicators, who organised this event with me.

I found a nice post about what you need to consider if you want to start an organizational blog (not strictly for the public sector, but it is very transferrable)- something we discussed during the workshop a fair bit. I wanted to point you, fellow participants, and my valued readers, there. Any thoughts, comments, remarks (about the article, or the workshop)?

Twitter has been struggling with outages a lot recently. I am not an avid Twitter user, but it is a very useful tool to stay in touch with your peers, your family, your friends, and all that easily via SMS. It is a great concept. However, with it having serious issues at the moment, I am not convinced it is a reliable channel…yet.

I am for the use of multiple communication channels – crisis or not. Sure, you may have preferences (or special uses – Twitter as a tool for business communication is great for spreading short, snappy news or updates); but if you want to make sure you reach who you want to reach – use channels that are fairly stable, or better yet: multiple channels. Especially when your message is important and time-critical.

Last week Facebook was asked to pull the application by Mattel, due to a violation of copyright… you can find details about it here. Facebook members immediately started a protest on Facebook to keep the – can I say it again -  popular app.

I think that banning this would be a missed opportunity for Mattel. Why take something down which actually promotes their cause? In my opinion, Mattel should just buy Scrabulous! What better way to do some advertising that actually engages people…

And now there is actually some evidence that this could happen.