Richard Telofski

on "Irregular Competition"

Archive for March, 2008

Dith Pran Was a Gentleman

Mar 31

Posted by Richard Telofski in Truth | 1 Comment

Reading over today’s news, I found that Dith Pran passed away yesterday, Sunday March 30, 2008. I was very sorry to read that.

Dith Pran was known to the world as one of the characters in the movie “The Killing Fields.” And because of his role in that true story, he was certainly one of history’s heroes to humanity. To me he will always be known as all that, plus a little bit more.

In 2005, I had the honor of meeting Dith Pran, a New York Times photographer, when he came to my office to shoot a photo session for a story The New York Times had written about me. When the NYT photo desk called to arrange the appointment a few days before, I asked them the name of the photographer they would be sending.

“Well, we’ll send either Sally Jones or Dith Pran,” said the photo editor.

“Dith Pran?” I asked. “You mean the fellow from ‘The Killing Fields?’ ”

“Yes. The same.”

“Well, if you can, please send Dith because I’d certainly love to meet him,” was my reply.

And sure enough a few days later, there was Dith Pran at my door. I was quite honored.

During the 2 1/2 hours Dith spent photographing me, from every imaginable angle I might add, I discovered that underneath his image of hero to humanity was something more. Something that we all can relate to.

He was an engaging personality, an average New Jersey (his adopted home) guy just like me, and above all a gentleman. A pleasure to be around. His personality sparkled, and when I thought about how much he had been through I decided to take a lesson and improve my outlook on, well, everything.

Certainly our lives will be diminished because of his passing, but my life was augmented because of that 2 1/2 hours.

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Is Gen Y As Revealing in Person?

Mar 28

Posted by Richard Telofski in Trends | 1 Comment

Would teenagers tell us as much about themselves in person as they tell the world in their social network profiles?

Jeremiah Owyang posted today about how Generation Y puts information about their whole life on social networks like Facebook. This is a well-published topic. He wrote about how they list information, ad nauseum, relative to:

  • Their demographic profiles (age, gender, geo locale, etc.),
  • Their psychographics (their likes, dislikes, hates, loves, etc.),
  • Their technographics (how they use technology); and
  • Their relationship network (who’s doing what with whom and how they’d like to get in on that).

We’ve all seen these extensive profiles on various social networks. If I’m too presumptive, and you haven’t seen them, sign up for Facebook or My Space and have a gander. In the course of my work, when I peruse these profiles I wonder if many of them are just ego-trips. Do the posters really need to disgorge the complete, painful minutiae of their angst-ridden teenage lives? Are they only about Facebook-to-Facebook discourse? If their tender teenage emotional id compels them to do so, would these Gen Y members be as forthcoming in real life, interpersonal, face-to-face interaction?

Sadly, I think not.

The social network, seemingly, offers a psychologically “safe” environment, one where the disapproval of facial expression and other body language does not impede the unloading of a personal life history, complete with its successes and failures, summoning readers to share the burdens or the happiness of the writer, and in the process elevating the writer’s own self-image to that of part of something larger than their own seemingly isolated existence. I don’t mean to go all Jean-Paul Sartre on you, but this is an issue that concerns me as a social media analyst. I’d really like to know.

Comments?

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Is Social Media Really Branding?

Mar 28

Posted by Richard Telofski in Strategy | No Comments

Well? Is using social media really branding? Yes and no.

Branding is the total sum of marketing efforts to create an impression of a product or service in the marketplace. Branding takes a while; it’s not an overnight sensation process. Neither is social media.

Social media’s not going to give you an overnight slug of sales the same way an ad campaign might. Sorry, but social media’s a long, sometimes drawn-out process, just like the overall branding effort. Social media’s certainly part of the branding process. An important part. Giving your brand that personal touch is an imperative in having it move up to the top of the charts in your industry. And if you haven’t got the patience, don’t even attempt using social media in your branding program.

Or if you’re a lousy conversationalist, dump the idea altogether.

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Faked Out Titles in Social Media

Mar 26

Posted by Richard Telofski in Truth | No Comments

This morning while perusing my news feed headlines I saw a story from The Jamaica Observer entitled “The ROI of Social Media.” Always seeking out other opinions about return on investment from social media, I clicked on the article. What a disappointment.

The author, Yvonne Grinan-Nicholson, wrote eloquently about social media in general, defining it, commenting about how it can be used in business (especially in Jamaica which is where she lives), telling us about how social media is now the way of the world (that’s debatable, but that’s a topic for a different post) and then entreating those who aren’t using social media to “get with the programme” (again, debatable).

I, foolishly, kept looking for the discussion about return on investment. I never found it.

This article is just another of those many posts with teaser titles. They fake you in, but then don’t deliver. A lot like some girls I dated when I was young.

Being somewhat annoyed I thought I’d leave a comment. I clicked on the comment link and was greeted with this:

To our valued readers:

The Talk Back service has been suspended until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Sincerely,

JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM Internet Team

Note: Editorial comment can still be made to editorial@jamaicaobserver.com

Gimme a break. This publication posts an article about the greatness of social media, which was actually disguised under another topic, and then doesn’t even allow comments.

How utterly stupid.

Not having any opportunity to make a comment, I decided to write my own post. Your reading it. I thought I’d trackback to their article but, no surprise, no trackback URL was provided.

The take-away?

  1. Don’t give people false impressions. Give articles titles that pertain to the subject matter.
  2. And don’t write about how social media facilitates a discussion and then provide no tools to enable that discussion.

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Why Do We Have to Wait for Trolls?

Mar 26

Posted by Richard Telofski in Blogs | No Comments

Yesterday, Tom Foremski over at ZDNet posted an article, a very short article, about trolls. He said not much more about them other than the topic was interesting; and he defined them as people who leave inane or abusive comments on blogs, stopping the conversation. He then asked readers to check back in a few days for more.

Talk about killing a conversation.

Why start a conversation about trolls, pique everybody’s interest and then annoy them by asking them to return later? Last I checked there were only eight comments.

Hey. The digital world is about instant gratification, Tom. I wanna know now.

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Help Somebody Who Needs It

Mar 25

Posted by Richard Telofski in Truth | No Comments

Helping is something we should all do. Someone, something, somebody.

That gray box over on the right will enable you to do that. Click it and you’ll be taken to the donation page for the North Shore Animal League. If you can, please donate. NSAL does great work in rescuing, rehabilitating, and adopting out dogs and cats. The NSAL even has a great “seniors”program about which you should read.

I donate to NSAL every month. Perhaps you can manage a small, one-time donation? That’d would be great if you can.

Just think about your own cat or dog, and where they’d be without your loving care. Perhaps they’d be at NSAL.

Thanks.

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Get Rid of Abandoned Blogs, Once and For All

Mar 25

Posted by Richard Telofski in Blogs | No Comments

In the course of my day job, I review a lot of blogs. Within many different categories I’ll find blog abandonment running at least 50%. And this abandonment level is among business blogs, not personal blogs for which I would expect the jettison rate to be high. Take comfort in the fact that the online shopping cart abandonment rate is even higher, about 75%.

Come on, people. Do us all, and mostly yourselves, a favor. If you have a blog that you haven’t used in a while, and have considered giving it back to the owner, do so now. Delete it. A blog growing mold detracts from your business.

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