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3 SOCIAL MEDIA LESSONS FROM YOUNG ADULTS AND THE AUTHORS WHO SPEAK TO THEM Best-selling YA authors John Green and Meg Cabot discuss lessons from interacting with the most intense social media users—the youngs. BE AUTHENTIC t’s a cliché that teenagers can sniff a fake a mile away (paging Holden Caulfield), but both Green and Cabot say that if you don’t enjoy posting, it will show. “Teens are very media savvy,” Cabot says in a phone call from her home in Florida. “They can tell if you just show up to promote your book. That’s kind of phony.”  THE COMMENT SECTION CAN BE A PLACE FOR GOOD, NOT EVIL Though most people think of online comments as a scourge of the universe where Godwin’s law is proven on an hourly basis, but for YA authors, they’re a big part of connecting with fans on a more intimate level. “While YouTube comments get a bad rap, I’ve found it to be an excellent place to have meaningful conversations on everything from the Oxford comma to Indus Valley history,” Green writes. TAKE READERS SERIOUSLY, BUT DRAW BOUNDARIES Teenagers connect more deeply with the objects of their fandom than adults tend to—they’re at an emotional, somewhat volatile time in their lives and they feel their love and hate intensely. But this fierceness of feeling is why it’s important for YA authors to draw firm boundaries with readers. Cabot says she’s gotten a lot of requests from readers to help them with their homework. “It’s a report and it’s due tomorrow, and they want you to help them figure out the theme of your book, and if you won’t, they get a little angry,” Cabot explains. With entitled readers like this, you’ve got to draw the line when you’re a living author.  [Image: stjudes.org]

3 SOCIAL MEDIA LESSONS FROM YOUNG ADULTS AND THE AUTHORS WHO SPEAK TO THEM

Best-selling YA authors John Green and Meg Cabot discuss lessons from interacting with the most intense social media users—the youngs.

BE AUTHENTIC

t’s a cliché that teenagers can sniff a fake a mile away (paging Holden Caulfield), but both Green and Cabot say that if you don’t enjoy posting, it will show. “Teens are very media savvy,” Cabot says in a phone call from her home in Florida. “They can tell if you just show up to promote your book. That’s kind of phony.” 

THE COMMENT SECTION CAN BE A PLACE FOR GOOD, NOT EVIL

Though most people think of online comments as a scourge of the universe where Godwin’s law is proven on an hourly basis, but for YA authors, they’re a big part of connecting with fans on a more intimate level. “While YouTube comments get a bad rap, I’ve found it to be an excellent place to have meaningful conversations on everything from the Oxford comma to Indus Valley history,” Green writes.

TAKE READERS SERIOUSLY, BUT DRAW BOUNDARIES

Teenagers connect more deeply with the objects of their fandom than adults tend to—they’re at an emotional, somewhat volatile time in their lives and they feel their love and hate intensely. But this fierceness of feeling is why it’s important for YA authors to draw firm boundaries with readers. Cabot says she’s gotten a lot of requests from readers to help them with their homework. “It’s a report and it’s due tomorrow, and they want you to help them figure out the theme of your book, and if you won’t, they get a little angry,” Cabot explains. With entitled readers like this, you’ve got to draw the line when you’re a living author. 

[Image: stjudes.org]

“The Instagram account of an Israeli soldier has been thoroughly scrubbed after a photo posted recently generated significant criticism both from the soldier’s followers and from the Internet writ large. The photo appears to show a child’s head positioned in the center of a sniper rifle’s crosshairs. Full size The Guardian has confirmed that the boy in the photo is Palestinian, and that the soldier who uploaded the photo to Instagram is a sniper.”

Instagram, social media, journalism- 

Outrage Over Israeli Soldier’s Instagram Photo of a Palestinian Child in Sniper Rifle Crosshairs (via illegalplumpudding)

(via jhermann)

Trying to make it big on social media? Want more followers? Here are10 Tips From Boing Boing On Making Online Content Sing At the dawn of blogging in 1995, Mark Frauenfelder moved his ‘zine Boing Boing online. Boing Boing—whose mission was to explore “the coolest, wackiest stuff”—became and remains one of the Internet’s most popular blogs. “The recipe for an excellent blog is to be so deeply obsessed with something that you need to communicate it to others,” says Frauenfelder. “If BoingBoing stopped making money tomorrow, I’d still need to do it.” Excerpted from The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It so Well, here are Frauenfelder’s 10 tips for building a addictive, compelling website—and a big following:  1. Tap into the Zeitgeist. If you can tap into the right cultural moment you’ll have a lot of fans. 2. Be original. If you try to emulate a successful blog, you’ll just be a second-rate version of something already out there, and who needs that?  3. Make the connection. Instead of obsessing on digital marketing the mission of the blog should be to share information with like-minded people. 4. Get an attitude.  Without a point of view, your blog is unfiltered mush. Whether you love or hate a blog, you still want it to have a unique perspective. 5. Don’t waste people’s time. If you’ve developed a trust with your readers that they’ll get good value for the time they invest in visiting your site, they’ll be back. 6. Mix it up.  You have to have an editor’s gut feeling to get the mix right. We’re as likely to have a post about a chilling political development as something on the frothiest bit of pop culture. 7. Appeal to the novelty gene. They say that there is a novelty-seeking gene. It causes people (like me!) to crave excitement, and to want constant hits of surprising things that don’t fit the conventional model of the way the world works.  8. Let feedback change you. The community feedback has made me more aware of my insensitivities and the blog has evolved because of it. 9. Think of a friend.  So to get over blog stage fright, when I post something I’ll often have a friend in mind who has the same sense of humor as me.  10. Keep it real. People love to hear about real life, as if they’re sitting there with you, experiencing it. What other tips do you have? What makes your blog special?

Trying to make it big on social media? Want more followers? Here are10 Tips From Boing Boing On Making Online Content Sing

At the dawn of blogging in 1995, Mark Frauenfelder moved his ‘zine Boing Boing online. Boing Boing—whose mission was to explore “the coolest, wackiest stuff”—became and remains one of the Internet’s most popular blogs.

“The recipe for an excellent blog is to be so deeply obsessed with something that you need to communicate it to others,” says Frauenfelder. “If BoingBoing stopped making money tomorrow, I’d still need to do it.”

Excerpted from The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It so Well, here are Frauenfelder’s 10 tips for building a addictive, compelling website—and a big following: 

1. Tap into the Zeitgeist.

If you can tap into the right cultural moment you’ll have a lot of fans.

2. Be original.

If you try to emulate a successful blog, you’ll just be a second-rate version of something already out there, and who needs that? 

3. Make the connection.

Instead of obsessing on digital marketing the mission of the blog should be to share information with like-minded people.

4. Get an attitude. 

Without a point of view, your blog is unfiltered mush. Whether you love or hate a blog, you still want it to have a unique perspective.

5. Don’t waste people’s time.

If you’ve developed a trust with your readers that they’ll get good value for the time they invest in visiting your site, they’ll be back.

6. Mix it up. 

You have to have an editor’s gut feeling to get the mix right. We’re as likely to have a post about a chilling political development as something on the frothiest bit of pop culture.

7. Appeal to the novelty gene.

They say that there is a novelty-seeking gene. It causes people (like me!) to crave excitement, and to want constant hits of surprising things that don’t fit the conventional model of the way the world works. 

8. Let feedback change you.

The community feedback has made me more aware of my insensitivities and the blog has evolved because of it.

9. Think of a friend. 

So to get over blog stage fright, when I post something I’ll often have a friend in mind who has the same sense of humor as me. 

10. Keep it real.

People love to hear about real life, as if they’re sitting there with you, experiencing it.

What other tips do you have? What makes your blog special?

How Skype Is Helping Topple A Dictator In Syria This article from Mashable gives us another reason to love technology. Skype is the go-to social network for communication between rebels, anti-government activists, journalists and officials inside and outside of Syria. Why? Skype uses wiretapping-resistant Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, making it safer for transmitting messages while under the watchful eyes and ears of government censors. It’s free to download and easy to use, both positives for cash-strapped rebels and activists. Its video-based chatting makes it easier to identify the person on the other line, important when verifying information as legit amidst the fog of war. And it provides an easy way for Syrians to gather electronically in areas where assembling in person poses too great a security risk. [Image:via Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images]

How Skype Is Helping Topple A Dictator In Syria

This article from Mashable gives us another reason to love technology.

Skype is the go-to social network for communication between rebels, anti-government activists, journalists and officials inside and outside of Syria.

Why? Skype uses wiretapping-resistant Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, making it safer for transmitting messages while under the watchful eyes and ears of government censors. It’s free to download and easy to use, both positives for cash-strapped rebels and activists. Its video-based chatting makes it easier to identify the person on the other line, important when verifying information as legit amidst the fog of war. And it provides an easy way for Syrians to gather electronically in areas where assembling in person poses too great a security risk.

[Image:via Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images]

“Every human being is born with an inherent desire to create,” says the Indian film director Shekhar Kapur. With that in mind, Kapur, who directed Elizabeth: The Golden Age among other films, teamed up with Indian musician A. R. Rahman (best known in the West for his Academy Award-winning work on Slumdog Millionaire) to cofound Qyuki, a social network that fosters creativity. Dubbed “a community of creative expression,” Qyuki launched late last year with an initial investment from Cisco Systems.

“Every human being is born with an inherent desire to create,” says the Indian film director Shekhar Kapur.

With that in mind, Kapur, who directed Elizabeth: The Golden Age among other films, teamed up with Indian musician A. R. Rahman (best known in the West for his Academy Award-winning work on Slumdog Millionaire) to cofound Qyuki, a social network that fosters creativity.

Dubbed “a community of creative expression,” Qyuki launched late last year with an initial investment from Cisco Systems.