Quote of the day

"Businesses today fall into three camps – the social 'denyer,' the accidental socialite, and the socially aware.

— Michael Fauscette, IDC

Supervising social media

Guidelines issued Monday by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are intended to “ensure that firms and brokers use social networking sites in an appropriate manner," says Chairman Rick Ketchum. FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States, overseeing nearly 4,750 brokerage firms, about 167,000 branch offices and some 633,000 registered securities representatives.
Regulatory Notice 10-06 says member companies need to supervise the use of Web sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn by their employees — and "associated persons," such as their brokers and representatives — for public communications, to ensure that customers are not misled.
Firms also need to ensure that they can retain records of those communications.
Twitter, a 140-character online text-messaging phenomenon, started as a way for people to update friends and family on what they were up to at any given moment, but has become a powerful business tool. According to a recent report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project,
46 percent of American adults who use the Internet logged onto a social networking site in 2009, which is up from 8 percent in 2005. The "of the moment" nature of Twitter postings and FaceBook chats have an almost ephemeral feel, compared to blogs — something FINRA seemed to take into consideration. (Get its updates on Twitter by following @FINRA_News.)
It considers static postings to blogs to constitute “advertisements,” and any firm or registered representative that sponsors such a blog must obtain prior principal approval of any such posting. The exception: real-time interactive communications — such as tweets that are fed onto a site. FINRA considers that portion of the blog to be an interactive electronic forum that does not require prior principal approval — but that must be supervised.
The guidelines address the use of social media sites by firms and personnel for business purposes, not use by individuals for purely personal reasons. Translation: It's still not a great career move to post photos from your BFF's birthday bash at the beach bar — but FINRA won't care if you do.

Tweet outburst of the day

from @toddramsey

Dear event planners: please put the dates of your event on your homepage. In big, garish, bold, and maybe even neon, type.

Man of Steel takes on self-righteous rants

He may not think of himself as a Superman, but the strength of John Stewart's political humor on "The Daily Show" is that he consistently conveys the message that he is looking out for Truth, Justice and the American Way. His delivery style shows that he's not grinding an ax, he's just trying to have an intelligent and witty conversation with friends (his audience). And like any good friend, when political observation degenerates into ranting, Stewart considers it his responsibility to lead an intervention.  Rhetoric and debate professors across the nation no doubt cheered his Jan. 21 Special Comment.

Thought for the day

Customers don't care what department you're in.

— Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group

Dancing into theaters soon

"The Dead Can’t Dance," a feature length zombie flick by Wichita's own Rod "Rodrick" Pocowatchit, has finished principal photography and is nearing completion. Because a writer-actor-director's work is never done, Rod, a talented artist, page designer and film critic for The Wichita Eagle, also created the eye-catching movie poster. The taglines hint at the Native American storyline: "Your Bloodline Matters" and "The First Ones Here Will Be The Last to Leave."

"Wichita" on video

Have you ever been watching a movie or TV show (or music video) and realized that you recognize the location? Maybe it's the 10,000th shot of Central Park featuring that little lake that you cruised past in a pedacab on your trip to New York City. Or a house with a lot of character near your old school. It gives you a little thrill, eh?

It's even better when the camera captures familiar images but gives them back to you in a way that opens your eyes. Lonny Quattlebaum and Wade Hampton, a couple of talented videographers and fellow Wichitans, took a quick nighttime tour through our hometown the other day and produced a startling little video. Thanks to the soundtrack by local musician Gooding, Wichita has never looked (or sounded) so space-age and gritty in the space of about two minutes. But that pretty much sums up the spectrum here!

WICHITA from Wade Hampton on Vimeo.

Look! Up in the Sky!

Trash or Art? I say: Pure genius! Check out an aptly named photo collection: Things Caught In Trees.

Thanks to cellphone cameras, it's easier than ever to document the world around us, but we have to take the time to actually see what's around us!

An informal survey quickly revealed that the irony inherent in the pic of the Dollar Tree Store bag was a favorite of many viewers . . . proving that these are not just "throwaway" snapshots! (Sorry for the pun; couldn't resist.)

(thanks to @nprnews for the heads up on Twitter!)