Online vs. Real Friends - Is There A Difference?

I enjoy following people's blogs and Twitter accounts. After reading what they have to say for a while, I get a sense of their language, attitudes, personality, and interests. As social media becomes more and more transparent, people have stopped hiding behind screen names and have begun branding themselves and their real names with what they talk about. Even the accounts on Twitter that are under a brand name are often run by a real person who is open about who they are.

The relationships that get built online can feel very real and genuine. We regularly talk to that person and share ideas, but how well does the relationship translate to real life? What would it be like to meet one of your Twitter friends on the street? Would you have things to talk about or would things feel odd? How different are online relationships compared to those you can make physical contact with? My suspicion is that in some cases, some who are real-life introverts feel more free to be social butterflies online. While not a bad thing, there has to be some difference between online and real world presence and relationships.

Seth Godin talked recently about how he has built relationships online with people who he has never met, yet could ask to crash at their house for a few days if he was in the area. Would you go out of your way for your online relationships? Have you done anything tangible to show that you are making an effort to connect not just in the online world, but the real one? Quality, and not always quantity makes more of a difference in online relationships, no matter how transparent and real you are.

Whassup in 2008?

One catchphrase that I never thought would come back, besides use by Michael Scott in the Office, is Budweiser's "Whassup" slogan. It has indeed resurfaced again, this time with political relevance as a promotional ad for Obama.

The video visits the Whassup guys 8 years after their debut on TV and shows what they are up to now. One just lost his house, one is in Iraq, one needs health care, and one is watching his stocks drop. This is obviously trying to reach out to all of the different issues in the election.

The Effect
So far the video has over 2.5 million views on YouTube. It has circled around on numerous blogs and was featured in the Wall Street Journal today.

Will this have any impact on how people vote? Probably not. It is more so a clever way to bring back a catchphrase that died out 7 years ago. There have been thousands of political videos on YouTube parodying other videos, songs, and movies. This is just one of the more well done and creative spots.


On a side note, I hate when companies or individuals representing their company shout out their personal opinion on politics via their blog or twitter. Below is a humorous video promoting Obama. Here is a humorous article favoring McCain from The Onion.

Ditch the One Size Fits all Pitch

You must be completely naive to continue in the graces that is bad media relations, not PR, but bad media relations. Online spells transparency and as the frequency of bad flacks outweighs the good, you’re even more likely nowadays to end up on the Bad Pitch blog—or something a lot worse… the subjective of a forum flame war where you have to play defense.

Our Pitch-Perfect session last week featured the mastermind behind Axiom Marketing, an integrated communications business developed during prep days at Kellogg School of Management. Mr. Mike Reiber discussed the new frontier of new media and the passing of traditional tactics still in use by the many today.

Among the many topics discussed with Mike, one really hit home for me: Journalists have more to do now and less time to do it. I was informed of this earlier on as our team ventured off to meet with a Star Tribune reporter, herself reiterating the importance of learning Web so she and many others wouldn’t lose their job.

What this also means is you better have the pitch right the first time sent out. With all the e-mail clutter, all those microbloggers updating their Tweets to appeal to the news masses following, it’s time for a Cadillac to park in their garage.

If you’re a Ford lover, shame on you.