Well I’ve been radio silent for a while, and you may (or may not) have been wondering, “Hey, what’s up? Where’s Shanee? Where are the comics?” Worry not, I’m fine — having a lot of exciting new things happening in my life including taking on a brand-spanking-new opportunity at NVIDIA, where I’ll be serving as the company’s Social Media Manager. Today’s my first day, so wish me luck 
Leaving Voce was an extremely difficult decision because it’s an amazing place to work and grow. I’m going to miss my clients, colleagues and managers like crazy but, like a little birdy, it was time for me to fly the nest. It’s really been an honor getting to collaborate with and learn from the smartest folks in social media at Voce (yes, I’m biased) including Mike Manuel, Josh Hallett and Ryan Lack. These are guys who really get it – they don’t just talk or hypothesize like many of the other self-proclaimed “social media gurus,” they actually create and execute successful social media programs for their clients: major brands from PlayStation to eBay to Logitech to Yahoo!. So what I’m trying to say in way too many words is, if you have a chance to work with these guys in any capacity, don’t hesitate!
I’ll continue to write/illustrate here on the blog about my own personal thoughts, as well as on my Twitter profile twitter.com/sbenzur — I’ll update you all when I have a more NVIDIA focused profiles you can follow as well.
For now, thanks for all your support and, again, wish me luck!
-sbz
Post it comic: FTC and blogging regulations – with great power comes great responsibility
Alright- don’t anyone shoot me, but I did want to make a point. Regulation is necessary, unfortunately. Because, well, the honor method just doesn’t seem to work in society and on the internet. I think the main point is that the FTC wants bloggers to disclose relationships when endorsing products (or, otherwise reviewing them. even if it’s a bad review) Why? because consumers need to know about any biases that might exist when they’re making buy-decisions.
I know most of us in the Silicon valley consider ourselves to be savvy in these kinds of things, but just think about the rest of the world. Someone has to be there to help them see how this whole process works. In PR/Marketing/SM we always talk to our clients about transparency, so it’s really important that level of clarity pervades all aspects of the comms cycle. Bloggers shouldn’t be worried – in the end it all helps build the trust and relationships on which social media is hinged.
So let’s all be big boys and girls, and accept the fact that with great power comes great responsibility. (credit: Spider Man)
Ok, so this is sort of basic stuff, but I think the diagram helps make conceptualizing it easier. Why should you be on Twitter you ask? Well – because one person says something and then all his/her followers see that message. Then if his/her followers respond (@reply) or syndicate (retweet) the comment, all of their followers see the message. It’s a ripple affect, whereby your message can be carried instantly to a large group of people. What’s more, by virtue of the relationships (ie. I only follow people/things that matter to me, and presumably people only follow me because I talk about things that matter to them) the content is being spread to the most interested and relevant audiences.
That’s enough learning for today. . . but if you still have questions, just ask!
What happens when it’s the apocolypse and only land lines work? Well I think we’re all kind of in a bind, because, really, who knows phone numbers by heart anymore? When Gmail was slow this morning, and said that “contacts were temporarily unavailable” I didn’t think it’d be a problem. But then I startd working, and trying to send people emails took twice as long. I had to dig up old emails, and I didn’t have anyone’s phone number…it was pretty horrible. And then I thought, geez, what’s going to happen in a real emergency? Time to start memorizing my phone book.
