Monday, January 12, 2009
I am a digital tour guide in a land of digital tourists.
Digital native and digital immigrant are two labels we continue to assign to people based on generation. Their meanings rely on a division according to age in which one is a person who has grown up with digital technology and the other is the adopter of digital technology.
By simply dividing along generational lines, we ignore what it means to be truly immersed in a culture and to grasp the potential of the digital lifestyle.
These definitions propel the myth that digital natives are of a younger generation who instinctively get the web and that they have superior skills or greater interaction with the web than those of us who did not grow up with the web.
But we’ve all grown along with the web, and our most sophisticated digital leaders are not in their teens but rather in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.
Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg, 24
Google: Lawrence Page & Sergey Brin, 36
Wikipedia: Jimmy Wales, 42
Microsoft: Bill Gates, 53
—Mark Weber, slide 21
I call myself what my clients are searching for, “social media consultant” and “online strategist.” And I help those who want to understand the online world and how they can live and participate within that world. I am their digital tour guide. I show my clients the “sites,” I explain the culture, I tour them around. I explain to them how to live in a digital world. But when the session is done, they have a choice. They might return home. They might have notes and souvenirs that they place on their mantles. They might integrate some small part of what I’ve shown them into their daily lives. Or, ideally, they gain a stronger perspective on their role as a digital creators and consumers.
By including themselves in this world, each becomes a digital immigrant, which I see as one who embraces the culture, lives the digital lifestyle, and is immersed in it. There is no return to the previous state. In my mind, the connotations of digital immigrant are positive.
I do, however, agree with Mark Weber, who suggests it is better to look at categorization according to engagement levels. He explains in his presentation, “Fear and Awe of the Digital Native,” that digital natives and digital immigrants are artificial categorizations that ignore the fact that across all age groups we have digital originators, those who grasp the creative potential of digital technology and are actively involved in digital production, and digital consumers, those who are reactive consumers of digital productions.
Being one does not exclude being the other. I see it as a spectrum rather than two end points.
As for the digital tour guide, neither definition pinpoints how I perceive my role. Perhaps Nancy White, Etienne Wenger and John Smith come closest with the term technology steward.
Technology stewards are people with enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with technology to take leadership in addressing those needs. Stewardship typically includes selecting and configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in the practice of the community.
—Learning Alliances
In order to be a good digital tour guide, you must have an understanding of digital culture, digital origination and digital consumption; and you must be in a position to help others understand the workings of the digital community.
I am a digital tour guide.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
WOM (word of mouth), people-powered, social media ... these are all words we use to talk about internet marketing strategies for talking to our customers.
The word of the day is now Conversation Marketing.
Conversation Marketing builds on the idea that we, as businesses, need to talk to our customers in a human voice. We need to move away from the corporate PR voice and adopt a friendly, more transparent approach to the sales and marketing of our products and services.
Conversation is a natural human behaviour. We talk. We talk to each other about the things we like, don’t like, the services that were good, the ones that were bad. We act as a filter for each other, and we build up or tear down the reputation of companies through our daily comments.
As an internet marketers, we have to be conversationalists. We build relationships through conversation. And in order to market products and services, we need to be good at constructing conversations. It’s like being good at small talk. Are you able to listen and create something interesting and engaging out of what’s going on around you?
And for marketers, the small talk is important because the big brand messages aren’t sinking in the way they were in those wonder days that are glorified by MadMen. Plus the small talk is the marketing glue. Blog posts, customer reviews, feedback emails, these are all larger conversations happening about companies, products and services. In addition, we also live in a world of text messages, StumbleUpon thumbs up or down, TinyURL and Twitter. A world of small talk: 140 characters.
Your marketing messages are still important. But the storytelling that happens around those messages is much more interesting: the small talk, the glue, the conversation.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
What is a digital native?
“A digital native is essentially anyone who was born and raised in a household where there was always a computer.”—Mitch Joel
Anyone who has grown up with digital technology, rather than adopting it later: digital cameras, MP3 players, mobile phones ...
Friday, July 04, 2008
This is a wordle of the Boxcar Markting blog. The words that describe the content here.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Tech 101: Books to Read
Some people learn by doing, some learn by watching, some learn via tutorials, some via videos, some via books. For those of you who like a good book and like to learn, here are a couple of books that I recommend. Each gives a different perspective on online markets, web 2.0, and that thing we call the internet. See the book list.
Word for the Day: Brightcove
PC Magazine has an article on video sites that gives a good introduction to the benefits of the various sites. YouTube is the most common, but if you’re looking to upload videos online you should also know about Brightcove and Blip.tv. Find out more about videos.
Ask for Support
Is some piece of technology driving you mad? Are you a non-techie in need of support? Email me your questions for next month’s newsletter.
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See Also:
Underwire Newsletter for June
Work Industries Blog
Monique’s Personal Blog
Monique’s Upcoming Events:
July 17:
SFU Summer Workshops: Book Marketing Online
July 27:
SFU Summer Workshops: Magazine Marketing Online
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Friday, July 06, 2007
If you’re interested in posting videos online, you should know that YouTube is not the only game in town, and not even the best (depending on what your needs are).
PC Magazine has an article on video sites that gives a good introduction to the benefits of the various sites.
Brightcove is where we host our Think Salmon video channel. We chose Brightcove because it had the most professional look. We wanted the videos to be crisp and not as pixellated as they appear on YouTube.
Compare the quality of my Brightcove videos to the quality of my YouTube videos. (Yes, the quality will be slightly different because we used different cameras. This isn’t a perfect science experiment.)
Blip.tv is my other favourite video site. It is much better than YouTube and I haven’t decided yet whether it’s better than Brightcove.
Let me know what you think. Which do you like better?
What site are you using to watch videos? What site are you using to upload videos?
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
My friend Lee Lefever over at Common Craft has created a short video explaining the power of RSS.
RSS is a way to subscribe to your favourite blogs and news sites, or any site that offers RSS subscription. RSS is similiar to subscribing to an email alert or newsletter. It’s easy and you’ll love how efficiently you can keep up with what’s going on online.
Watch the video: RSS in Plain English
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