Ides of March and Social Media

By Dave Sniadak

It was on this day, 2,055 years ago in ancient Rome, Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus. It’s alleged that before the fatal blow that fell the Roman leader, Caesar uttered the famous line, Et tu, Brute? (You too, Brutus?)

You see, Brutus wasn’t just a rogue assassin. He and Caesar were actually fairly close. And while there were personal motivations for Brutus to dislike Julius Caesar, both men shared a political passion for making Rome the greatest empire of its’ time.

But Brutus’ political ambitions weren’t isolated. A group of forty Roman Senators, called the Liberatores, had become disgruntled with the status quo, and felt that Brutus was just the man to rise to the challenge of shifting powers. A mob of men bent on changing Rome’s direction decided that on the Ides of March in 44 B.C., Caesar would fall.

The uprising didn’t end well for Brutus or his co-conspirators. Two years later, after exile from Rome, Brutus and his band of supporters were defeated by Caesars successors.

Thankfully, we’ve come a long way in how we vent our frustrations with public officials. To put the recent transition in perspective, take a look at this powerful post from Mashable in September of 2010, when social media was becoming more of a hot iron in the political arena. Twitter and Facebook were becoming the sounding boards for our disdain and YouTube gave anyone with a camcorder an outlet to post their political rants.

Today, in our own modern era of the Ides of March, the ability of social media to virtually assassinate the work of public officials is off the charts. Look across the border from where we are to the Wisconsin union-busting situation as a perfect example (just Google “union-busting Wisconsin” and you get more than 2.6-million results).

Passion has its place in the world of politics. But what we’re losing sight of is that our words - as innocent and anonymous as they may seem in the social media arena - can come back to haunt us. Once you post something, it has the potential to be out there forever.

Pick your words and battles wisely, or one day, you may be asking Et tu, Followers? as the mouse clicks quickly crack away at your credibility.

An Introduction

Hello Everyone! I’m excited to be joining the amazing and talented Axiom team!

Why Axiom?

There were many things that drew me to Axiom. First off, I was wowed by the way they intentionally integrate social media and video into the programs they develop. Second, during my interviews it was apparent they encourage everyone to think out of the box. I believe ‘out side the box’ is often overused, but I have seen in a very short time, they do think outside the box and do it well. Finally, the diversity of the team at Axiom makes them well versed in many areas.

A little bit about me…

I don’t come from a traditional PR background but have other career experiences that I hope will help Axiom continue to thrive. In what seems like a former life, I was a TV reporter and meteorologist (go ahead and Google…you’ll find a few pictures of me as a blonde, but fortunately most of my years on TV were before YouTube, Facebook and Smartphones were part of everyday life). I had some amazing experiences in news but came to a point where it was time to venture to a new career and as so many TV people do, I transitioned to public relations.

I am back in the Twin Cities after spreading my wings for a bit, and I couldn’t be happier to be home. I grew up in Woodbury, MN, graduated from the University of Nebraska (and yes, I’m a Husker fan), and did the TV thing in Lincoln, NE, Fargo and Omaha.

I am thrilled to be part of the Axiom Team and look forward to blogging on Daily Axiom from time to time.

Facebook Friday: Huge Response to Crisis in Japan

The biggest news story of the morning is undoubtedly the massive earthquake and tsunami wreaking havoc on Japan and threatening other parts of the Pacific as well.

And even though the earthquake struck just this morning, the social media response has been incredible. Dozen of updates about Japan are hitting Facebook every second, as thousands upon thousands of people share news about the tragedy or try to check in with friends and family who may be in danger.

Twitter was also inundated with tweets from Tokyo, as nearly 1,200 tweets per minute were streaming in from the endangered city. But even more interesting (and useful) was the users were able to update people on the estimated time of arrival of the tsunami waves before the official warning went out from the government.

Google has also stepped up relief efforts with their Google Crisis Center, which aggregates important and relevant articles and information about the crisis in Japan. The site also features Google's People Finder tool to help people locate and connect up with their loved ones in Japan. Considering how jammed up telephone companies get during these crises, it seems to be a very useful tool.

Obviously the crisis itself and the safety of the people involved are paramount in times like this, but its good to see the level of response online.

Video Post: Mobile Gaming Not Playing Around

We've covered the prevalence of smartphones a few times already, but one area I haven't really been able to explore has been mobile gaming. But after a report by PopCap was released earlier this month, I thought it was time to dive into it. Sure mobile games seem to be popular, but just how popular are they? I look into this and other mobile gaming stats on today's Daily Axioms Video Blog.

Foursquare 3.0 Checks In

In what has become a South by Southwest tradition, Foursquare has released the third version of their location-based platform in time for the hugely popular festival.

The timing of the release was a smart move, because Foursquare was really able to hit the ground running in 2009 because of the heavy adoption and integration with SXSW.

Here's the basic breakdown of what you need to know about Foursquare 3.0:

• Exploring your options: Replacing the 'Tips' tab, a new 'Explore' tab offers recommendations to users, broken down into 5 categories: Food, coffee, nightlife, shops, and arts/entertainment. This seems to be the focal point of the upgrade because it will allow users to use Foursquare outside of the initial checkin.
• Making checkins pay off: Foursquare has partnered with American Express to make it easier to be rewarded for checking in to certain places. Basically, you register your AmEx card and then get access to automatic savings specials when the card is swiped at supported locations. The caveat here is that this is definitely experimental and will only run from this Friday to Tuesday the 15th.
• Feeling special: Lastly, Foursquare has retooled their merchant specials by segmenting and categorizing them in an effort to make it easier for merchants to get involved with the specials features. The different types of specials are:
• Flash Specials - the first person or group of people to checkin after a certain time get a discount or reward.
• Friends Specials - Checking in with a smaller group Foursquare friends gets you the deal
• Swarm Specials - Large group checkins get special discounts and rewards.
• Newbie Specials - The first time you check in at a certain venue gets you a discount.
• Mayor Specials - The classic Foursquare special where being the mayor of a place gets you a discount.

Overall, these seem like strong improvements, although Foursquare is still combating Facebook Places and generally low adoption rates for location-based services as a whole. However, I do like that Foursquare is looking beyond the checkin to get more merchants involved and attempt to establish Foursquare as more than just the service you use to check in to places to get badges.