On Wednesday, socialTNT gave you the 4-1-1 on Republican social media campaigns. Today, socialTNT directs our browser to the Dems to find out who makes the grade and who gets held back.

Barack Obama, Most Likely To Succeed (Overall Grade: A+)

• Online Video—At time of writing, there are 572 videos on Barack’s YouTube channel full of debate clips, campaign stops, direct conversations with the camera. On the site, you can find BarackTV, a really pretty player integrated by Brightcove . Don’t miss the interesting, YouTube-meets-digg-style “citizen generated campaign” called YouBarack. Chris was let down at the lack of streaming video. [UPDATE: Obama does stream some campaign stops through ustream.tv] Grade: A-
• Blogging—Active blog with some posts receiving an impressive 1000+ comments, but our reviewers couldn’t find any posts older than Jan. 31st. The “older posts” link took us nowhere, and no archive–what?! Mad props for asking for feedback from readers. Extra credit for allowing citizen blogs hosted through my.obama.com community. Grade: A-
• Social Networks—Obama’s Facebook profile supposedly has the more friends than any other candidate, but his Wall is full of teeny-boppers spouting racial epithets (Where are the chaperones community managers?). Surprisingly, his MySpace has a clean look with more commenters actually adding to the dialog. Oh, and widgets for everybody! Flickr is current. Extra credit: With LinkedIn, MiGente, Eons (Boomer SocNet), AsianAve, and BlackPlanet, he has all his demographic bases covered Grade: A+
• RSS—You can subscribe to the blog. No RSS for Press Releases or coverage, and what about an Events RSS?: B+
• Extra Credit: Twitter—Ok, so he’s got a Twitter profile that gets updated every coupla days. That’s worth something, right?

Hillary Clinton, Most Studious (Overall Grade: B+)

• Online Video—Of course, has a YouTube channel with a so-so 232 videos at time of writing. There is also a clunky looking player with Hillary commercials videos called HillaryTV. Most interesting attempt to seem human: The videos section link to “The Hillary I Know,” a Web 2.0-style site with video interviews of friends of Hill Grade: B+
• Blogging—Hillary’s blog seems to serve as a news room, with mosts post consisting of news round-ups. Unlike Obama’s blog, the comments are pretty low, with most posts receiving 30-100. Clinton’s team should try to make it more about conversation, less about messaging. Grade: B-
• Social Networks—If I were trying to guess messages based strictly on social network membership, Hill is looking to win over the college age and boomer voters. MySpace, Facebook and Eons pages are all pretty standard, but we do love the behind-the-scenes, not super-produced flickr page. Grade: B+
• RSS—The blog has its own RSS feed and–gasp!–so does the news room. No feed for HillaryTV, but we’re still in shock about Newsroom RSS! Grade: A
• Extra Credit: Twitter—There is a Twitter page, but “Hillary” isn’t following anyone…shame!

Now that John Edwards and his ustream.tv are out of the race, the Dems aren’t quite as cutting edge. But how can any hip Dem hit the town without an Obama ringtone?If you could give a piece of social media advice to the candidates, what would it be? What is your primary source for political news? TV? Friends? Blogs?

Don’t miss a post: Add us to your RSS reader [what’s that?], or Sign up for our Email.

:: :: :: :: ::

[The above photo, “Sri Lankan Elections Commissioner” by indi.ca on flickr, used under Creative Commons license.]

Imagine if you will, a world where government is fully transparent. The president videocasts his life live, turning off the cam only when discussing matters of national security. He polls the populous Twitter-style to get feedback on upcoming proposals. Cut the weekly radio address–Radio? What’s that?–the president of the Social Age does a weekly Seesmic post.

New Media President meet your new staff member: Director of Community Relations. The Director and his underlings are responsible for all outreach and relations with the populous. Just like any good community manager, he follows all online dialog and responds thoughtfully. This doesn’t mean spitting out spin at negative postings. Instead, he actually listens to and addresses the concerns of the populous-at-large.

The Director of Community Relations is also responsible for maintaining and tracking feedback. Like Dell’s Ideastorm, the web community can post ideas to the appropriate department and also vote digg-style on submitted ideas. All ideas get tracked through completion. A idea/policy development wiki will also be set-up, allowing interaction between thought leaders, academics and government agencies.

As long as it’s not top-secret, all government employees will be encouraged to blog. As much as the Social Age president would like to blog daily, he simply can’t. His style is more micro-blogging through Twitter or Utterz. Instead, his full cabinet will blog, each member responsible for content every two weeks. Supreme Court justices and Senators will blog in the style of TechCrunch’s CrunchNotes, allowing the world to see the back story behind or reasons for decisions and opinions.

What’s the public thinking? Instant polling and voting through SocNets get immediate response on hot topics. Voting in elections may also be done through cell phones. OpenID coupled with YouService-like security prevents voter fraud.

Finally, forget having to go to DC to see the National Archive. The New Media National Archive (lovingly dubbed Archive 2.0) stores the Prez’s videocast and flickr stream. All government documents will be able to be searched and accessed from anyone’s home computer.

Because more people can get involved, disenchantment is low and voter turn out is high. Yes, the government of the Social Age will create a more true, transparent democracy where politicians and citizens interact.

How do you think social media could be used in government? Would it create a government for the people, by the people? Or would it create a 1984 nightmare?

[All you Sci-Fi Buffs should check out Vengeance on Varos, a Doctor Who episode where citizen vote instantly by touching the TV!]

[UPDATED INFORMATION BELOW]

On Tuesday, Facebook took the hardest bashing of its short history, with FORTUNE’s Josh Quittner echoing the rest of the blogosphere in a post ruefully titled “RIP Facebook?” This follows Monday’s news that Facebook confirmed a finding by security firm Computer Associates that Beacon still sends information back to Facebook even when you are not logged in. (For a complete history of the last few weeks, check this New York Times article by Louise Story.) Subtract a few key advertisers, add a lawsuit questioning the allegedly shady history of Facebook’s founding and an attempt by Facebook to block First Ammendment rights, and Facebook seems to be embroiled in a PR quagmire.

The question on everyone’s mind is: Where is Mark Zuckerberg?

He’s playing Jetman, of course. Take a look at the below screen cap I grabbed from his Facebook profile (click to enlarge):

WOW! A score of 1942! Congrats, Mark!

Was he working off a little stress while in between Crisis Control sessions with his PR team? The blogosphere doesn’t think so. Just look at this post by Robert Scoble advising Zuckerberg to say something (this is just the nice stuff):

Facebook’s PR machinery is hiding its head in the sand and hoping this story goes away.

Hint: it’s not.

Do the press conference. Admit you screwed up. Take your shots. Look into the camera and say you’re sorry.

Crisis PR hint: don’t answer company bashing with text messages. Do it in video and with live events. Have the CEO do it.

Henry Blodgett, Todd Defren (satirically blogging as Fake Mark Zuckerberg), Brian Solis, and several other key PR bloggers all offered similar advice: Fess Up.

So what exactly can Facebook do to pull themselves out of the muck:

1. Zuckerberg–not a PR spokesperson–needs to admit to the community and advertisers he made a mistake.

• Explain that FB learned the hard way that privacy is important.
• As a result, FB wil allow a members to Opt-In (as opposed to currently being forced to Opt-Out) to Beacon.
• FB apologizes profusely and promises to make the selling and use of member data a transparent process.

2. Utilize the social media upon which FB is built.

• Eat the loss of prime Ad real estate and post the video apology in a banner over the newsfeed, not in the New Features” group.
• No blog posts since mid-November. Fix that.
• If you are feeling a little more hip: Create a live videocast (to be archived) with live questions being submitted through the community and Twitter.

3. Send an open letter to blogs and top-tier publications. Reach out to the reporters and bloggers who feel used and lied to.

• Better yet, do a video blog tour with top bloggers (ala Don Imus, et al.)

4. Appoint a User Privacy Guru to launch an educational program on how member data is handled and what members can do to protect their privacy.

• Create a Privacy Rights/User Data partnership with other social networks.
• This transparency and education will regain user trust.

5. Community Managers address bloggers concerns as they come up.

• Don’t hide behind your PR spokesperson. Get involved!

Don’t forget your community (and your financial success) is based on the users. You have to listen to them and respect them. If they aren’t happy, they’ll easily move on to the next big thing. Part of me hopes that FB really thought users would see the value in Beacon. The other part thinks that FB only saw the dollar value it could gain from Beacon.

Social networks are trusted spaces. Facebook differentiated itself as the social network where members could control privacy settings, thereby allowing only some friends to see certain things. We felt like Facebook was a safe place where we could share our lives with our friends. Beacon violated that trust. It’s sad and I feel completely used.

A quick Twitter poll asking what Facebook could do to regain trust yielded several responses, all easily summed up by Kyle Flaherty‘s Tweet:

What can Facebook do to regain your trust? Or do you feel Facebook has done nothing wrong?

[UPDATE: This morning, Mark Zuckerberg posted an apology on Facebook's Blog. Is that enough? Do you trust them again?]

:: :: :: :: ::

This week, a lot of talk has been given to “Web 3.0.” Before discussing how to approach a social media campaign, it’s important to step back and look at some of the key points that got us to where we are today; look at two defining moments in media history; and figure out where we are going.

A Condensed History of the Internet

When the internet was invented, society was blessed with a way to access tons of information (content), regardless of distance. News sites posted their news, scientists their findings, etc. It was very one-sided.

Next, the internet was discovered as a means to communicate. People could email photos to family or forward funny jokes to friends. After email came chat rooms and instant messaging. Now we could communicate in real-time with others.

With the search engine, people were finally able to quickly and easily sort through all the stuff out there and find a great price on a camera or news about any company or person. Suddenly, we were able to get the information we wanted, when we wanted it.

One day, someone realized that the publishing capabilities and the communication aspects of the internet could be combined. Technology was developed that enabled users to effortlessly generate content. They became the creators and the distributors. They could respond to the news or to each other. Web 2.0 was born, and with it a conversation began.

OMG, there’s a lot of S**T out there!

Now that everyone is producing and publishing, there’s a lot of s**t out there. With search, you can find things, but how do we keep up with it all? How do we know what’s relevant?

News feeds (RSS and ATOM) made content easy to follow by providing a steady stream of updates to favorite blogs and news sites. Then, people started tagging (or adding keywords) to their content. This made it easier to find posts or discussions on a particular topic.

Currently, these tools are used by Social bookmarking sites like digg and del.icio.us so people can bookmark what’s important, easily organize with tags and then share with their friends. Technorati uses tagging and news feeds to help users organize blogs effectively. Tags on facebook help members find pictures others have taken of them. Also, when you log into facebook, a news feed aggregates your friends’ changes and let’s you know what’s going on.

These innovations, in addition to services like Twitter, have changed the way content is delivered, consumed, and distributed. These changes create interesting challenges for news publishers and PR professionals, while simultaneously creating new ways to reach audiences.

Television and Social Media: Two Defining Moments

I think most PR and Marketing pros can accept that, whether we like it or not, people now have the ability to exchange and share ideas quickly and in real-time. They want information as it develops. No more traditional news cycle, much less 2 month lead times. Cool. I can dig that. But why social media? Isn’t it just a fad?

Two very tragic events have been pivotal points in the history of media. TV news media had its defining moment with JFK’s assassination. During that chaotic time, the whole nation was gathered around TVs, watching events unfold in real-time. At that moment, TV became the primary source by which people got news, proving the technology’s power to effectively disseminate information to a large mass of people outside the traditional news cycle.

With Virginia Tech, the events and tragedy unfolded through SMS, IM, personal blogs and facebook. Sadly, people looked online to communicate with love ones by posting messages, emailing, etc. When the traditional news media covered the online developments, it became proof-positive to me that social media was, in fact, the fastest, most effective way to communicate.

Analysis

I don’t want to be another person who heralds the downfall of print. Instead, I would rather encourage people to embrace the new technologies. By becoming proficient in the social media tools, we can supplement our traditional PR and marketing campaigns to not just reach audiences, but actively engage with them. Go ahead and let them choose the content they want in the form they want, mash it up, and share it with their friends. It’s the future of the internet. Just let go.

Thoughts?

The next posts in the series cover the current tools available, how to approach a social media campaign and a few tips on what not to do during execution.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

On Friday, the New York Times published an article discussing how law firms have started embracing social media by releasing videos for the “YouTube Generation.” In the piece, Karen Donovan tells us how a few firms have posted videos on their site in order to attract more summer associates. The videos, seen here (Choate Hall & Stewart) and here (Morrison & Foerster–Check “Summer Associates), offer two different approaches at reaching the same goal. The Choate videos are admittedly cute “Mac vs PC” spoofs. Other videos include highly produced, obviously very-coached, employee testimonials. The Morrison & Foerster videos, also employee testimonials, have a very “Real World” reality-show-confessional feel.

Both companies get mad props for trying to appeal to a younger crowd. The M&F videos, however, look more real; the employees seem a little nervous as they speak into a consumer grade video camera, making them more believable. Ultimately, however, the full use of social media could have been better utilized.

If the videos had been embeddable, colleagues and friends could easily share on Facebook, their personal blog, etc. Speaking of blogging, wouldn’t a Summer Associate blog be a neat idea? I know it’s a tad cliche, but it would give a peek into the day-to-day life of a Summer Associate. For a deeper glimpse, maybe a Twitter account. Better yet, how about a live Twitter chat with a few of the Summer Associates taking Tweets from the community.

Why is this important? Because social media is more than just shouting at your audience or even slyly trying to hook them in. You have to plan your campaigns with a different approach. It’s a conversation, stupid.

In the upcoming posts, we will discuss the history of social media, the best practices on how to prepare for your social-media campaign, the tools available and what not to do when executing them.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::