With a large paper due just a week from today I've decided to make what some would consider a drastic decision: to disconnect from Facebook (and Twitter, Youtube, Scribd, and unfortunately, writing here as well) until I have finished my essay properly and without distractions. Mount Allison is a tough school, and professors notice and grade much more harshly when they know you wrote your paper last minute and didn't proofread it...so I'm going to do things right and not let that happen.
Before I go I want to thank everybody for all the kind comments regarding the NPR Facebook Page. That being said I won't be on any accounts related to the video in the next week so if you would like a reply to anything the only way to contact me will be through my Google profile e-mail form available via the link below. Thanks again. See you next Friday.
To everyone who has seen the NPR Facebook Page video and wants to know more:
So I've already made a couple posts about the video I put up the other day from a seminar by the folks at NPR. Since then I've shared it with friends and I've been asked why I put it up and what my intention was....and so I thought I'd share that answer here.
I made the group around March 2008. I had gotten my acceptance from the best undergraduate school in Canada, Mount Allison University and I had decided to go. While I was drudging through what was left of my senior year of high school (like so many are doing right now) I thought about what I would miss from the US while I was abroad...and one of the first things that came to mind was NPR. Growing up my Dad always listened to Car Talk and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and as I grew up I found their website and looked at more of the political stuff.
(As a little aside at the time I decided to go to Mount Allison for my undergraduate I saw Canada as...well... what the US would be if everybody were reasonable and listened to NPR instead of Fox News. It, to me, in an idealized version, was basically a democrat's paradise...more or less this video:)
And so I went (actually listening to Obama accepting the Democratic nomination for President on NPR on the drive from Boston to Sackville)...and then quickly became disillusioned with Canadian politics/culture and have related even more to my American upbringing.
Anyway, back to the story: With the explosion of Facebook I added those things I 'liked' to my online profile...but when it came to March '08 I was looking for a few American things I really liked, I couldn't find NPR...and so...
The story in the video is the most important respects true, but they left out the 12 days I waited for a form-letter reply to my specific question...and they never sent me a mug...
But anyway...as far as what my intention was: It was to show some support for an organization that I really admired. I was really surprised how slow to keep up with technology NPR was at the time so I offered to help. After telling them they should make an Facebook page, asking them if they would mind if I did it, and not ever really getting any response, I did it myself. The rest of the NPR Facebook story is pretty well documented and advertised.
I hope that answers any left-over questions anybody else who has seen the video has about why I decided to support an organization I like. From all the comments and other feedback (articles and other mentions) I think other groups have learned from this and are taking the lead in connecting with their fan base on their terms.
Think about it. Can you really put a price tag on the value of one Enthusiastic Geoff? Can you afford to miss him, or worse, make him unhappy? What if NPR had sent the cease and desist letters? Oh, I'm sure that NPR would have launched a Facebook presence at some point, but instead of fighting the tide of public enthusiasm started by one Enthusiastic Geoff, they took that momentum and ran with it.
It's all a little crazy. I'll have a bit more to say about it later...like why I made the Facebook Page to begin with, the new media landscape, being ahead of the curve, and the importance of connecting with your fans on their terms, and all that stuff NPR caught up on (and has since excelled in) a year after I made their Facebook Page for them. For now, I'm just going to pop some popcorn and wonder if I'm actually going to get that mug.
I thought there would be some interest in the video about me creating NPR's Facebook Page since there are now over 1.5 million fans on the Facebook Page but I'm still surprised by the enormous amount of positive feedback on the Facebook Page itself, the Youtube video, and messages sent to me through Facebook and Youtube.
To give you an idea of the popularity, Today, it is the 10th Top Favoritee Video for New & Politics in Canada and the 5th Top Rated video in the same category. The number of views is clearly not updated as the video has been shared, as of right now 795 times on Facebook.
Thank you to everybody for the kind words, and to NPR for programming that inspired me to create a Facebook Page for your organization.
Here again is the video from NPR's training session at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.
The other night I was pretty bored and avoiding doing my work and so I decided to google my name and see what came up.
And something popped out at me:
Something from the Knight Digital Media Center
I actually did make the NPR Facebook Page...but I had trouble believing they had discussed that...so I looked into it.
It turns out there actually is a video from a summit at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism entitled "Building Online Community" during which Eyder Peralta, the Associate Producer of Social Media at NPR mentioned the story of how I created a fan page for NPR on Facebook and the News Organization then took control of the page. I'm not going to retell the story here when they already have (except where they sent me a mug...that part isn't true...but I'm not holding my breath) but here's the message from "Reasonable Andy" they mentioned in the video below.
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