You know you're a social media expert when you...

...press the Twitter icon in a print ad.

...get a little misty-eyed when you remember defunct web apps.

...make a point of remembering your witty remarks at parties so you can tweet them later.

...judge people's worth as human beings by whether they auto-DM new followers.

...add the suggestions you made in Google+ to the comments on the main post.

And look! All fixed. :)

Thanks, Arik. I'll get in touch with Ragan directly.

BTW, great to see the link to StopBlocking.org! It's a terrific resource on this issue - and has compelling answers to many of the pro-blocking arguments people have posted here.

Hi! I'm glad you liked the cartoon.

Unfortunately, this version doesn't credit the original artist (that would be me), or link to its home on the web. Would you mind linking it to http://www.robcottingham.ca/cartoon/archive/2007-... ?

Thanks!!

I'll second Damages. I also loved Episodes, although some didn't.

And here's a dark horse: the BBC series Absolute Power, a half-hour comedy about a scruples-free PR firm led by Stephen Fry and John Bird.

"Put them in the iron maiden."
"Iron Maiden? Awesome!!"
"Execute them!"
"Bogus!"

- Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, 1989

Good luck - hope you'll post the results of your first experiment with it!

That's exactly what they were doing, and I don't believe the VPD set out to ridicule anyone. But the public reaction to their feed established the need for some context, and this post makes me wonder if they recognize that: http://connectedcops.net/?p=3519.

There are a few obvious pitfalls: adopting a bland, impersonal, corporate voice, for instance; or waiting forever to respond to comments and conversation, while the response is vetted and approved by six layers of bureaucracy.

But the one that struck me when the Vancouver PD launched their Twitter account was how their updates ended up serving as entertainment fodder - often at the expense of the mentally ill. One report of a "possibly intoxicated woman" dancing in the street generated a lot of retweeting and ridicule; so did another report of a man yelling at passers-by.

A 140-character update can't help but take those incidents out of context... and out of context, those *are* funny situations. But consider the larger story: people who may have addictions, or suffer from mental illness, or some other deep distress.

Compassion is a pretty critical part of policing, and it happens to be essential to successful social media. But at least with this launch, it was missing... not because of callousness, but because their approach to date didn't make room for it. Even a few tweets reminding people that these are real people facing real struggles could provide some crucial context.