What’s a blogger supposed to do when a published post contains an error or gross misstatement? When a mistake is made and facts are overlooked or opinions run wild, it’s time for an update.

Early yesterday, Perez Hilton responded to rumors about Michael Jackson’s hospitalization with the following post to his blog:

Thanks to Jim D for the screen capture. Perez confirmed the authenticity of the image in his @reply to Pete Wentz:

Bloggers are known for their ability to rapidly churn out content and Perez is no different. In the dog-eat-dog world of celebrity and entertainment blogging, timing is everything and current content trumps factual and witty prose. Perez posted about Michael Jackson as soon as he heard rumors of the star’s hospitalization. In typical cutting fashion, he then made remarks that seemed suitable at the time.

When it turned out that Jackson wasn’t faking sickness and had actually died, the situation seemed very different. Now the post mocking Jackson for previous publicity stunts seemed in very poor taste.

What did Perez do? He deleted the post and published new content meekly remarking on Jackson’s hospitalization and death. I think deleting the post was a mistake.

By removing his original post, Perez missed out on a golden opportunity to use the power of the update to send a strong message to his readers. With an update he could have explained the hasty nature of his first post and reminded readers that his remarks weren’t out of hand in light of the available information. An update lets readers know that the author doesn’t always get everything right the first time. An update lets readers know that sometimes circumstances change and content needs to be altered to reflect those changes.

As Perez Hilton is discovering, once disclosed, content rarely goes away. It’s best to leave posts up once published and update as new information comes along. Readers appreciate it and appreciative readers make the blogging world turn. Treasure them.

What do you think? Would you prefer a blogger delete a post or simply update it with new information and explanations as needed?

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Chris Anderson, the Editor-in-Chief of Wired has a new book coming out on July 7th called Free: The Future of a Radical Price. With a fascinating glimpse into Anderson’s copy-and-paste-without-attribution writing technique, Waldo Jaquith writes in The Virginia Quarterly Review [online]:

In the course of reading Chris Anderson’s new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price (Hyperion, $26.99), for a review in an upcoming issue of VQR, we have discovered almost a dozen passages that are reproduced nearly verbatim from uncredited sources.

Jaquith then offers a comparison between text taken from Wikipedia and the final print version of Anderson’s book:

[Jaquith's complete article including extended examples of Anderson plagiarizing]

Anderson took a last-minute 5th grade approach to writing. He found the Wikipedia listing for “Usury” and pasted the text into his manuscript. His reply to Jaquith’s accusation is flaccid at best:

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Twitter has finally admitted to a portion of its monetization plan with the introduction of “sponsored definitions.” [See screen capture] Their look and feel are quite similar to the sponsored results we’ve grown accustomed to from Google. (Could there be a future partnership involving Google handling the ad space while Twitter takes the cash?)

The first definition to appear as part of the sidebar redesign described Twitter as a noun and gave a brief definition. Soon other definitions followed. We Follow, Threadless, and Tweet My Gaming are among the links currently “defined” just below the number discussed so often on Twitter: The follower count.

Twitter is finally advertising.

Where do you think this is headed? Will text links in the sidebar attract enough attention to give Twitter any sort of substantial income? What about 3rd party users? (Most hardcore twitterers use systems like Tweetdeck, Seesmic Desktop, or any number of mobile applications.)

It seems unlikely that Twitter would create much revenue from just a few text links on the service’s web interface.

Perhaps this is the start of sponsored Tweets? I know I’d be willing to pay for my “stream” to run clear of ads. Would you?

Update: (10:25am EST, 6/24) Parisian Thierry de Baillon just pointed me to the Japanese language version of Twitter. According to Baillon, the image ad block was a part of the initial release!

You can see for yourself by visiting the account settings of your Twitter account and changing the language preference to Japanese. (Don’t worry about finding your way back to the English version. The layout is identical.

Does this change your initial thoughts on Twitter publishing ads in the sidebar? Once again, 3rd party system users won’t see these ads either. I think in-stream ads/premium services are the way to go. You?

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I have a problem with silly job titles.

Job title inflation has turned the labor market’s once-useful currency into something of a joke. Gone are the days when employees willingly took titles in lieu of monetary raises because a title was worth more than money. The solution to the silliness lies either in rejection of job titles as a whole or a subtler rethinking of what makes a job title useful.

The job title as an invented form:

A few years ago, human resources (a silly title itself) pros decided that front desk staff would smile more if given the title “First Impression Technicians“ and garbage men would take pride in their work as “Environmental Revitalization Technicians.” Intentions may have been honorable but their efforts resulted in silly and bloated job titles that meant nothing more than extra letters on a nametag.

My mother (who lies somewhere between Wikipedia and Perez Hilton as a source of reliable information) completely agrees with the HR pros in the practice of dressing up an ordinary job with an extraordinary title. She often told me that I needed to “dress for success” and that my outward appearance would affect the way I behaved.

But she would never have given me a silly title like “Progenitor of Future Generations” and expected me to act in a certain way because of a title. Just like using a sharpie to draw a designer tie on a naked emperor, the product is absolute silliness. Besides, I was raised to avoid situations involving nudity and permanent markers.

Where did the silliness begin? Eric Idle of Monty Python suggests that titles began as a corporate adoption of military command structures: ”You could never make a show like Python in a modern situation with executives approving things.” He sees the executive as an invented position that only serves to muzzle creativity.

Stuart Foster agrees, “So why do we still have titles? To maintain order to some extent. To restrain people within existing power platforms.”

The job title as a necessity:

But a job title is about more than just crushing creativity within an organization. (I’m confident that crushing creativity has never been the publicly stated purpose of a title.) Since Idle and Foster both work in the creative sector, I get why they’d resent a power structure that restricts them. However, the size of many modern corporations dictates a need for “restraint.” (Freelancers who refer to themselves as CEO’s need restraint in multiple forms.) You simply can’t orchestrate massive projects without clearly defined responsibilities and a chain of command to fall back on when creativity runs amok.

In spite of the creatives’ resentment toward them, we need job titles. They’ve become a necessary part of corporate culture.

An effective job title does three things:

1. Reinforces the chain of command – where does final responsibility lie?
2. Illustrates the magnitude of decisions the individual is entrusted to make – are you the right person for a client to talk to?
3. Clarifies the role of the individual in an organization – what do you actually do?

Does your job title do all of those? If so, you probably won’t have much trouble describing your position and what your typical task load consists of.

Consider your own title. Does it simply and accurately state your role in an endeavor… or has it gone a bit stale… perhaps even a bit silly?

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original photo via flickr: jefmcneill

The half-naked, probably intoxicated, delight of a dancing man in this video teaches some valuable lessons on starting a movement.

1. Be different – When everybody else is sitting, stand up and start shaking what your mother gave you.

2. Avoid crowded spaces – If people don’t see room to creatively participate, they probably won’t.

3. Embrace your core community – Reach out to early adopters and delight in their participation. These are the people who give your movement legs. Celebrate them.

When you saw this video, what lessons did you draw from it?

Teach me.

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Note: Seth Godin’s take on this video, “Guy #3“ brings up an interesting point about early adopters.

Ever bogged down on a project and wished for a friendly professional to lend you a hand? Twitter is burgeoning with highly-caffeinated pros eager to share their knowledge in 140 characters or less. Follow these five simple steps to get free help from genuine pros in real time.

1. Clarify Your Need -

When you’re frustrated and need help with something, your first instinct will be to express your struggle in very general terms. Having trouble with a Wordpress plug-in? Your immediate response will be, “I need help with Wordpress!” when your real need is not with Wordpress, but with a specific plug-in. If you Tweet “Can anybody help me with Wordpress?” most of the professionals will ignore you because they don’t have time to clarify your need for you.  That’s what clients pay for. Step away from the frustration-induced generalities and find focus by describing your problem in specific terms.

You need to move from, “I suck at Wordpress.” to “I’m having trouble getting the Sociable plug-in to display buttons correctly.” There isn’t a single perfect way to find clarity in a crisis situation. However, a few tried-and-true methods are physical activity, laughter, or talking to a friend who takes absolutely no interest in your predicament. Everybody needs a friend who thinks the internet is stupid. If you don’t have one, do what you can to find one. They’re great for reality checks.

2. Create Your Question -

Once you’ve defined your problem, it’s often a simple matter to create a question. Continuing the plug-in example, your question might look something like, “How can I get Sociable buttons to display correctly in Wordpress?” That’s not bad for a basic question, but you can do better. Remember, the more concrete and particular your question is, the more likely you’ll be to get a useful response. “How can I get Sociable buttons to display only on the home page?” is a good question because it requires a single answer, not a conversation.

Once you’ve clarified your need and crafted a very specific question, it’s time to move toward finding a solution.

3. Leverage Existing Resources -

“Existing resources” are the answers already available to you online. If you have your question crafted and ready to ask, there’s something very, very important you must do before sending it as a Tweet.

Type your question into a search engine and check the first few pages of results for a solution to your problem.

Google, Bing, and Yahoo! are just a few search tools that will allow you to look for an answer before asking your Twitter followers for help.

There are many free tutorials online that provide step-by-step solutions to many of life’s persistent questions. If you can’t seem to find an answer, go ahead and tweet your question. Now that you’ve already seen some search engine results, you’ll be able to quickly see through the users on Twitter who delight in providing friendly answers remarkably like those on the front page of Google.

Serendipity? I think not. If you don’t believe me, try asking your followers, “Where can I buy spotted prawns online?” Most of the responses will point you to “great-alaska-seafood.com”…the top result from a Google search. It’s in poor taste to ask another to do something you might have already done for yourself. Don’t be lazy.

4. Tweet For A Solution -

If search engines fail to provide you with a satisfactory answer, it’s time to leverage your Twitter community for a solution. For best results, do this with two tweets.

1. Let your followers know you’re going to tweet a question. “I need help! If you know a Wordpress plug-in pro, would you mind forwarding my next Tweet to him?” Is a great opening Tweet because it primes your followers for the upcoming question.
2. “Do you know how to make Sociable display buttons on a specific page? Thanks for the help!” Is concise, friendly, and an easy question for a knowledgeable user to answer.

If you don’t get an immediate response, don’t worry. It can take awhile for your question to find a professional with time to answer. Just wait a few hours and ask again. Patience is a good thing. Remember the three P’s of information procurement and be precise, pleasant, and persistent until you find a solution.

5. Promote Your Savior -

We all know to thank people who help us. It’s simply the polite thing to do. Unfortunately, it’s easy to get sucked back into a project as soon as we find a solution. Make a point to say thanks before going back to work. When you’ve received help on Twitter, it’s important to go beyond a simple “Thank You” and take a moment to recognize the person who gave you help. Thank everybody who made an effort and give special attention to the person who provided the final solution. You don’t have to gush and insist that everybody follow that person. (Although that might be nice.) Just make a point to be pleasant and thankful.

Use these five steps whenever you run into trouble and you’ll discover that Twitter isn’t just another search engine. It’s a group of wildly different people willing to offer insight and wisdom on more topics than you’ll ever think to struggle with. If you take the time to be clear in your requests, thoughtful in your actions, and grateful in your responses,  Twitter has an excellent track record of returning surprising value.

Do you have any additional thoughts or a story about a project saved by a Twitter follower? I’d appreciate your input!

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photo: normairiz

Trent Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails b%$@!slapped their way to the front page of success  in Social Media by doing just what all the social media experts say to do. They blindly jumped in and tried to connect with as many people as possible.

Reznor recently posted a letter on the NIN forum expressing his stance on Social Media:

“The reason no record label knows how to market anything to new media is they don’t live there. They don’t get it because they don’t use it. What you’ve seen happen with the marketing and presentation of NIN over the last years is a direct result of living next to you, listening to you, consuming with you and interacting with you. Directly. There’s no handlers or PR people here, it’s me and my guys – that’s it. There’s no real plan, even – it’s just trying to do the right thing that respects you the fan, the music, and me the artist. That’s the goal – a mutual and shared respect.”

Transparency was the rule of the day and we learned a lot about the people behind the band. Things seemed to be going well. Interaction was at an all-time high and NIN seemed to be the glory child of Social Media success.

Then things started to go sour. NIN’s fundraising efforts for Eric De La Cruz resulted in more than $.5million for the cause…as well as some intense criticism. A horde of trolls, emboldened by the anonymous nature of online interactions, began chasing Reznor over Twitter, online forums, and through blogs.

The saying goes “no good deed goes unpunished” and the trolls were dedicated to punishing Reznor for his efforts.

In his own words, “I watched some of you get more engaged because you started to realize there’s a person (flaws and all) back there, and I watched some of you recoil in horror because I’m not what you projected on me.“ Because Reznor made himself available as a human with a personality, he also opened himself up to those who spout bile just to get a response.

He finished with, “I will be tuning out of the social networking sites because at the end of the day it’s now doing more harm than good in the bigger picture and the experiment seems to have yielded a result. Idiots rule.”

You can read the rest of his post but the point remains clear: A small group of haters ruined his experience.

A few weeks back, I had a conversation with Darren Rowse from Problogger about a blog that seemed bent on ruining his good name. I reflected on the bilious posts thrown at me and offered him my mantra: “Haters are just fans with frowns.” He laughed but we both knew that a mantra doesn’t fix the pain of being attacked without good reason. If you are truly interested in engaging  your community you will find impossible to completely ignore the haters.

I don’t have an ending for this post. There’s no dramatic conclusion. I have some definite ideas about how businesses can make the most of social media but I’m still foggy on a good way to approach the haters who simply want to hate for personal reasons. Feel free to ramble. I’m grateful for you.

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photo: jonklinger