The Good, The Bad, The Spin

“Our sweepers were empowered to ‘dismiss’ certain reports.”*
 – Twitter Vote Report’s “Lead Sweeper”

The Twitter Vote Report was promoted as a “non-partisan, all-volunteer network” in which voters with cell phones and accounts on the micro-blogging site Twitter could text message or post voting experiences. An analysis of the Twitter Vote Report shows, however, that the volunteer, social media project aimed at publicly identifying voting problems in the 2008 election was subject to indeterminate amounts of human judgment and technological error.

In running data on Nevada’s publicly posted reports and in email correspondence with Twitter Vote Report volunteers, I found that the Twitter Vote Report had so many potential loopholes that the report’s results should be interpreted only as a glimpse at the sharing of views of a relatively small number of voters — just over 11,000 out of more than 110 million. [NOTE: Read the complete data analysis here: Twitter Vote Report Data Analysis.]

The Twitter Vote Report provided a novel opportunity for people to share their voting experiences in real-time. At the same time, the report’s processes for collecting and posting user experiences indicates too many subjective interpretations of what to post and what not to post in order to be considered reliable examples of the average voter experience. 

Other problems were that:

Vote reports did not follow recommended use of hashtags (hashtags are words preceded with a number sign and are searchable in Twitter)

Vote reports were potentially dominated by a minority of users (one user in Nevada had 38% of the posted reports for that state)

Vote reports were subjectively approved to be publicly posted on the Vote Report site 

Vote reports were subjectively “dismissed” from public posting using inconsistently enforced criteria (see below)

Vote reports were duplicated

Vote reports were posted that appeared irrelevant as to intent of the Vote Report (one example from Nevada: “@DwayneH dude I love egg salad sandwiches, but liquor store is scary. downtown scarier, even. best of luck. #votereport”).

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Heard it? The term social media, that is. For the unknowing, social media and its oft associated terms, such as wikis, blogs, Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and so on, can be intimidating and confusing for people not familiar with these words and terms.

Here’s a simple definition: Social media is best understood as technology that is first, online, and second, is interactive. More and more you are seeing less and less on the Web where you are merely a passive reader or viewer.

Now, you have the ability to talk back. You can review the books you’ve read on Amazon. You can rate and comment on videos on Youtube. You can even post your own video response. You don’t like what a news reporter writes? Many news sites allow you to write back and publicly post your comments.

For many of us, especially those in the communications fields, there’s a tendency to jump into the social media fray and attempt exploit the hell out of it. I remember viewing one person’s online profile somewhere. He had every way to contact him listed, including his Myspace page, Skype number, Facebook page, Twitter page, LinkedIn profile, website, blog and so on.

This is overboard. I recommend more judicious use of social media. Used effectively, social media can be very effective for communications. Used without critical thought, though, and social media can be expensive in terms of spending vast amounts of time on something that doesn’t show a significant return.

Here are five strategies for approaching the use of social media in ways that are less time intensive and more effective for communications.

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It was a sad day yesterday for Northern Nevada blogging. A local publication released its annual “Best Of” edition and cited favorite reader blogs, of which none of mine made the list. While I read most of Nevada’s blogs, if not daily at least weekly, there are some that stand out in my mind as being well worth regular visits. Here they are, in no particular order

Around Carson. Scott Schrantz’ unassuming commentary on my second hometown of Carson City is always of the variety not seen in other media outlets. Scott doesn’t have an ax to grind; yet, he tells it as he sees it, and his updates are nearly always relevant and interesting, such as when local restaurants open or close. Or construction updates, or the town’s history. Around Carson is always interesting, and anybody can post to it.

MrJerz. I’ve been a longtime reader of Ryan’s blog and always appreciated his honest tone and willingness to call out dirt when he sees it. Ryan’s gotten into trouble, some of it serious, only for standing up for what he believes in (and, I have to add, with offensively little support from his fellow bloggers). Most of the time he’s right. Because of this, he has made enemies and burned bridges, which probably contributed to why he didn’t make the “Best Of” list this year.

Inside Nevada Polics. Done by the Reno Gazette-Journal’s political reporter Anjeanette Damon, INP publishes political news not found in regular news stories. Anjeanette seems to always get scoops nobody else does and is highly dedicated to her craft. While I wish she was more interactive with her readers, she reports politics well and her blog remains the source for Northern Nevada political updates. (more…)