Broadcasting Brain

Today’s special edition brain food comes from Chris Brogan! Chris is widely recognized as an expert on social media and social networks and is probably one of the most active users of Twitter alive! As per his About page:

Brogan lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two children. He travels frequently, speaks at conferences, attends several social media networking events, and is generally a fun guy to be around.

Are you sitting comfortably? Good, then catch the brainwaves!

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1) You’re a New Englander. Do you find you have more contact with bloggers or social media people from that part of the world or with other parts of the world, including other regions of the US?

I’m fortunate. My boss last year, Jeff Pulver, believes strongly in community. To that end, he flew me to conferences and meetups all over the US, and even a few in other countries. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend tons of events and meet lots of great folks.

2) Does the US have a social media capital city? If not, should it?

Social media is actually mostly distributed the way traditional media is (NY, LA, Boston, DC, etc), but then there are these strange new media hubs mixed in (Pittsburgh, Austin, San Francisco). It’s the blend of technology hubs with media hubs that makes this happen.

3) What is the downside to a business or organization if they do NOT have a blog?

Blogs are great for search results. They are also a great way to engage customers, prospects, and people with like minds. I think they’re not for EVERYONE, but more often than not, it’s a good thing to have.

4) Is the importance of proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation increasing or decreasing as social media usage and general Web communication increases?

Oh great question! For example, I’m not especially happy with LOLCAT speak. This is the ICanHazCheezburger.com speak. But I think that simple typos are overlooked in social conversation. It’s probably important for blog posts to be spelled correctly, but tweets and IMs? Probably not as important as it used to be, I think.

5) Do you think that “bricks and mortar” businesses are starting to “get” social media? Can they connect its relevance to the manufacture and sale of physical goods, particularly industrial goods or heavy equipment?

I think the phrase “social media” throws them off. I think that it’s all about the value of understanding what CAN be done via these tools, and then which areas might derive the most value back to them. I think it’s not about “getting” social media as much as getting how it will or can work for them.

6) Do we have the technology in place to mimic the “universal translator” (a la Star Trek) now? Is there any downside to that if we do?

There are lots of ways to translate. I’m not looking at that space in any depth, but for example, a really neat social media space, you can check out dotSUB.com, group translation of video. I think it’s a neat project, because folks can watch a video clip and enter their own subtitles. Google has some translator tools, of course, as does good old fashioned Altavista (Babelfish).

7) How are your kids going to communicate with their friends (near and far) when they are in high school?

Kids today are faster, more connected, and getting introduced to these types of tools earlier and earlier. My daughter isn’t even six and she has the One Laptop Per Child XO computer. It’s built with social computing in mind. Why did we get that so early in her life? Because we believe it will be just as big a requirement in coming years as the three R’s.

Do you see many examples of people who are more introverted or shy that are making a name for themselves in social media?

All the time and every day. Look at Glenda Watson Hyatt, who is NOT shy, but who has Cerebral Palsy which keeps her out of a lot of conversations. Now? With social media, she is a blogger, an avid Twitter user, and part of a lot more conversations than ever before. (By the way, buy her autobiography book on her site. Killer story that should inspire YOU).

9) Pretend the Internet was destroyed overnight. What would do the next day?

Run away! The Internet is pretty strong stuff. I went to a big event in DC in November, with heavy hitters like Vint Cerf and all these other people discussing the guts of how the Internet are self-healing, shouldn’t have gone down during the Tsunami a little while ago, etc, made me realize that it’s just crazy how powerful this thing is.

But to answer your question, I’d become a comic book artist and master photocopy distribution.

10) What one piece of wisdom would you like to leave with our readers today?

Always try new things. Failure is just something to get out of the way on the road to good stuff.

Thanks to Chris for his great answers and for participating in “Catch The Brainwaves”.

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