Structured Thought . ORG

It truly is amazing, the speed at which information moves in this day and age. I had heard a lot in the past about how quickly news spreads via Social Networking media like Twitter. Many times, Twitter will be talking about something several hours before the major networks have anything published. This is not always a good thing, however.

Today gave us an example of both the speed at which the information travels, and how quickly a rumor can turn to fact.

At approximately 11:15 am EDT today, the @BreakingNews Twitter account sent the following tweet:

Florida-based radio station KissFM reports that Patrick Swayze has reportedly died. BNO News is working to get more information.

At the time of this writing, at least 1,000 (a conservative estimate, I’m sure) tweets were sent pertaining to the subject. What was interesting was the ‘Telephone Game Effect’ that took hold almost instantly. The first tweet, relatively innocuous in the vein of ‘Hey, we heard this, we’re checking it out. Back to you soon’. Within minutes, however, poor Mr. Swayze was 3/4 buried.

Now, the kicker: He’s not dead. About 15 minutes ago, Mr. Swayze’s publicist stated that he is, in fact, alive. More information is coming in that he’s not doing well, and has possibly been hospitalized, but the fact remains: He’s not dead.

So, over the space of an hour, an unconfirmed report turned into absolute fact. Patrick’s Wikipedia entry was updated, corrected, updated again, and re-corrected, CNN had hastily posted and (just as quickly) taken down an article/obituary, and many people were led to believe this to be true.

So, kids, what can we learn from all of this?

News Organizations and outlets: Be very careful about what gets published. Today, people are more in tune to what’s happening in the world than they ever have before. News spreads in an instant, and it’s nearly impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. Once a false story gets out, the only thing that can be done is damage control. However, retractions and corrections can only get one so far. Credibility is a news org’s stock in trade, and any hits to the public’s perception can be deadly. Balancing the need to get out first with information with ensuring that the data is correct is an artform that very few, if any, have mastered.

Public: Be careful about what you read. Don’t always take the first source of reporting as fact. Many times, the first report that gets out either has some piece, or possibly the entire story incorrect. Take the time to verify and validate sources before coming to your conclusions. The ReTweet has become a great tool for helping to spread information. But, if the information being spread is incorrect, the signal-to-noise ratio (which is already pitifully weak) takes a major hit and makes it difficult for everyone else to be properly informed.

I’ve mentioned before that Twitter, the popular Micro-Blogging platform, is a beast, and the only way to keep it going is to feed it. I think that now, at this point, Twitter has reached a critical stage in its development. Usage is almost off the charts, celebrities of all types are using it daily, and the company has positioned itself as such that just about any revenue model they decide on will be wildly successful. Mainstream media (though, in many cases, they are doing so incorrectly) are talking about Twitter all the time. People like @garyvee and @leolaporte are continuously growing the public’s awareness of the service. The @reply has become almost ubiquitous even outside of Twitter itself.

It is at this point that I have decided to attempt a small Social Media experiment, utilizing all of the Social Media resources at my disposal. My goal is simple: Drive traffic to a bar in Los Angeles which just happens to be where my brother, an actor looking for his break, works. Specifically, if I can get people to go to Timmy Nolan’s in Toluca Lake on a Monday night and tell Steve the bartender “Alex sent me.” (my Twitter ID is AlexDeGruven. It’s a long story that I won’t get into right now), then I’ll consider my experiment a success. An extra bonus if any of these people are public figures of any type (Timmy Nolan’s is known to host quite a few celebrities from time to time due to its close approximation to the studios).

Why am I doing this? The answer is really quite simple, and twofold:

1. I love my brother, and I want him to succeed. I figure that any type of direct contact he can make in and around the industry will help him to get noticed, and if I’m in a position to help, why not?
2. I love Social Media, and any way to get people to understand how it works can only serve to help it.

So, keep your eyes planted here, as the experiment progresses, I’ll be sure to update.

Today, I saw a tweet by @kevinrose that he was getting ready to start the hundred pushups challenge.

This is a 6 week program that guides you through building the strength and endurance it takes in order to accomplish the goal: 100 consecutive pushups, without a break.

In my (much) younger days, I used to be rather fit. I was on the track team in High School, and did pretty well. Since then, I haven’t exactly been working to maintain my previous level of fitness, so I think that doing this will really give me a push to get back into better shape (better than ’round’, at least).

So, I’ll be posting my progress here if anyone’s interested in following it.

Wish me luck.

It’s been said in the web community “When John C. Dvorak thinks it’s worthless and says ‘what’s the point’?, it’s ready to hit the big time”.

For the last couple of months, he’s been saying this about Twitter. And now he’s joined himself. Something else he’s said was pointless and wouldn’t make it: Blogging.

I rest my case.

Robert Scoble (not the nano-projected hologram) follows a LOT of people on Twitter (16,992 at last check). Because of this, he gets asked the same question quite often “What’s it like to follow that many people?”

Today, he got tired of answering viat Twitter and showed us via video. If you listen carefully, you can even hear him say my Twitter name when I send a Tweet while watching.

So, what does all of this power and flood of information do for us? Think of it this way, every follower you have means that number of people are instantly informed of whatever it was you had to say at that moment. So, when Scoble Tweets, 16,000 people know it. Conversely, he is informed instantly when any one of us nearly 17,000 people say something. That’s a lot of information to process, yes, but when filtered properly, it can be a very very powerful tool.

Say, for example, you’re following 3,000 people, scattered throughout the world. At any given time, you’re getting information from each of those places instantaneously, as it happens. You don’t have to wait for the major media to pick it up and put it on TV or the radio. You don’t have to wait for web junkies to craft 800-word dissertations on the effects of the events on the poor of the affected area. You get instant snippets into what’s going on.

Think of it this way: Company A, in which you own stock decides to buy Company B for 20% over the current share price. A tech-savvy member of Company B’s board Tweets ‘Yes! Company A is buying us for $53/share!’, immediately after leaving the filing meeting. Company B is currently trading at $42/share. You are now privy to information that hasn’t hit the media or even the market yet, but is still public information, and therefore not ‘Insider Trading’ (at least, I don’t think so, maybe an econ lawyer can step up and confirm for me). You can now buy Company B stock at $42 and wait for the spike in both Company A and Company B as the news trickles out.

Pretty interesting stuff, methinks.