I've got to say it was pretty cool having a video about me hit 15,000 views in a week and having it being covered by Brand Channel, Techdirt, and Mount Allison. It even earned a small mention in the Times and Transcript. Earlier this week it was kind of cool having a google search for my name actually come up with stuff about me under "Everything, Images, Videos, News, Blogs, Realtime, and Discussions. I'm still beat out by about twenty pictures of the character on the Australian soap opera, but I'm at least on the first page of results.
What's more important, however, is the story behind all of this. I actually retraced my steps and was able to find the original note I sent to NPR (which was responded to...but never really read) which I sent out regarding creating an NPR group.
The letter... and response. I'm glad NPR has become much more responsive than this.
NPR seems to have done away with this old form of disregarding comments and has begun to listen to its fans. In fact, it now has a "shining" social media strategy built from the training session in L.A. This active community building is essential in a time when the republicans are yet again trying to destroy public broadcasting.
Viral Video Watch: How an NPR Fan in Canada Created Its Facebook Page
Posted by Shirley Brady on February 23, 2011 05:30 PM
Trending today on YouTube: NPR's associate producer of social media, Eyder Peralta, explains how Geoff Campbell, a Canadian university student and NPR fan, created its Facebook page — a page that now has 1.5 million fans. The full version of the seminar above can be found here.
"Reasonable Andy," by the way, refers to NPR's social media guru Andy Carvin, who was recently profiled in the New York Times for his Twitter-based reporting on the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
How 'Reasonable Andy' Stopped NPR's Lawyers From Threatening Fan, And Actually Connected With Him
from the nice-to-see... dept
The actual story behind this is a few years old, but it was just retold in a recent video by a social media person at NPR, about how the broadcaster got control over their Facebook fan page that had been set up by a fan:
Basically, this guy -- Geoff Campbell -- noticed that NPR didn't have a Facebook fan page. He emailed NPR about it and offered to set it up, and all he got back was a random "thanks for emailing us" note, which he took to mean "sure, go for it." It took some time, but eventually, NPR noticed the fan page and the lawyers freaked out, thinking that they needed to send him a cease-and-desist letter. However, as the video notes "along came 'Reasonable Andy'," who isn't named in the video, but is Andy Carvin, NPR's longtime social media guru who knows his way around the digital world better than most folks. Andy, smartly, told NPR to hold back on the legal threats, and just reached out to Geoff in a friendly manner, and a transfer of the Facebook group in a reasonable manner was arranged (though, Geoff insists that he never received any promised coffee mug). Some will note that there's nothing "remarkable" about this story. However, we still live in an age where so many organizations reach for the legal threats first, rather than seeking a friendly discussion on matters -- especially in cases where it's obviously a "fan" who is trying to help. So, it seems worth posting stories like this to try to spread the idea of holding off on the legal threats as the immediate response. 
https://www.facebook.com/mountallison/posts/158672410852825
See also: http://www.mta.ca/news/index.php?id=3518 (Discussed earlier)
Mount A student creates big Facebook page
Third-year Mount Allison University honours international relations student Geoff Campbell created American media organization NPR's Facebook page three years ago, after being accepted to Canada's top undergraduate university in Sackville.
A Boston resident, Campbell grew up listening to NPR and was puzzled by the popular organization's lack of Facebook presence. NPR is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. Today, the NPR Facebook page has surpassed 1.5 million fans.
The end result for all of this has been the above mentioned in addition to Mount Allison getting a little bit of attention from google.
P.S. The mug from NPR should be in the mail. I'll post a video response (and embed it in a new post) when it arrives.
