I presented this weekend at the annual New York State School Boards conference, held at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Manhattan. It was a great, receptive group, although (and this happens often) a few faces were quizzical and downright skeptical. Nevertheless, there were many questions from the standing-room-only audience and I truly appreciate the interested many people have in Web 2.0 and social media.
School leaders are always a tough sell, but I’ve noticed a dramatic difference in the way everyone has become a bit more willing to suspend their disbelief about PR tools like Facebook and Twitter.
If you’d like to take a look, my presentation, Communicating in a Web 2.0 World, is available on my Slideshare page.

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Thanks to markhamnolan on YouTube.

Shane Haggerty, a school communications professional from Ohio, recently posted the following list on his blog, Social Avenue. I felt the need to post it here because I feel exactly the same way as he does about social media.  Thanks, Shane!

1. New Connections: More than anything else, social media has opened up a whole new pool of connections, many of whom have become friends. While most of these connections remain on the professional level, the use of tools like Twitter and Facebook and Linkedin have been an excellent way of doing business and getting to know new people. At first, it seemed strange opening up on these tools, but choosing to “follow” like-minded professionals has been great for learning new things that I probably never would have had the chance to know before.
2. Old Connections: Thanks especially to Facebook, Linkedin or other social networking sites (the now-irrelevant MySpace), social media has changed the way we keep in touch and has allowed us to re-connect to old friends. Some may think that’s a bad thing to re-connect with that person who may have driven you crazy in junior high, but for the most part, social media creates a sort-of “at-a-distance” re-kindling of old friendships. This is excellent if you are nosey and want to see what a disaster that person has become who used to torment you in gym class.
3. Lightning Speed: The ability to blast messages and communicate with masses of people is made much, much faster with social media. While email is still popular, full inboxes, Spam and an abundance of e-newsletters have created an opening for social media to take advantage of, which is to send short, quick messages and then make it viral with sharing tools that allow you to pass-it-on with the click of a button.
4. Leveling the Playing Field: Never before has a medium allowed small businesses, entrepreneurs, everyday, common people, non-profits and more market to the masses like social media has. This is one of my favorite things about it. Before, large advertising budgets of the corporate giants could quickly swallow the messages of the rest of us and celebrities controlled our attention anytime they wanted. Now, the mom-and-pop store can easily create a viral sensation on tools like YouTube and any one of us can be a “celebrity” with our own blog or large followings on Twitter and Facebook.
5. Down Fall the Sacred Cows: Finally, I simply love it because it makes the establishment and those who love control and order nervous. Social media, because it is new and viral and real and transparent gives control to anyone, anywhere, anytime. I love anything that shakes things up and takes down existing “sacred cows.” Social media has caused people to change, and change is always a good thing.

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Why? It seriously is the most intuitive digital application I’ve ever been on. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t find myself marveling over the fact that Mark Zuckerberg, then a Harvard college student from my neck of the woods, came up with this thing.

Brian Solis, who maintains one of my favorite blogs, PR 2.0, recently put together a list, Everything You Never Knew About Facebook, that just vindicates me in my Facebook Fascination. It’s a list of 20 factoids that are rather mind-blowing, especially when you consider that the popular application didn’t exist until it was incorporated in 2004.

Here’s a sample from the Solis list:

Facebook has more than 250 million users

120 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day

People 35 years old and older comprise the fastest growing demographic

More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day worldwide

30 million users update their statuses at least once each day

1 billion (!) photos and 10 million videos are uploaded to the social network each month

2.5 million events are created each month

45 million active user groups exist on Facebook

About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Every month, more than 70% of users engage with applications developed for the Facebook platform

More than 350,000 active applications are currently available on the Facebook Platform

15,000, and counting, websites, devices and applications have implemented Facebook Connect since its launch in December 2008

30 million users currently access Facebook through their mobile devices

There’s a reason my kids love Facebook. Ditto for their Mom.

This blog has been around for 16 months, so it’s time to take stock. Some posts have been better than others, admittedly, and there have been dry periods, when other projects have distracted me from blogging for weeks. But I’m stickin’ to it until I literally run out of words.
Since I’m taking stock, I’ll be egotistic for a moment and share a few amazing facts about my readership. One of my favorite analytic tools is FlagCounter, which you can see in the right-hand margin of my blog. Flag Counter, among other things, tells you from where in the world your readers have visited.

School Communications 2.0 has received:

1,782 visits from the United States (I’m going to assume that 100 of those visits were from the author)

290 visits from the Philippines

243 visits from Canada

169 visits from the United Kingdom

141 visits from India

107 visits from Malaysia (who knew?)

77 visits from the Netherlands

66 visits from Australia

And the list goes on, with a good number of visits from countries in Europe, as you might expect. But it’s when the numbers begin to dwindle down to single visits that I’m reminded how awed by the Web I continue to be. Here are just a few of the visits that fascinate me:

4 visits each from Jordan, Vietnam, and Kenya

2 visits each from Croatia, Moldova and Oman

1 visit each from Mongolia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan and Morocco.

And finally, on March 27, I received a single visit from the Holy See (Vatican City State).

My guess is that someone at the Vatican stopped by to read my post about the Pope’s YouTube page. Perhaps the Official Papal Social Media Guy. Whatever. The point is, he stopped by.

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Sunday New York Times lyrics

Thank you so much for coming
I wish I saw you more
Sorry I can't offer lunch
I've got to shove you out the door
I'm afraid I'm just too busy
I have fallen way behind
My garage is full of ten years
Of the Sunday New York Times

Some get their news from the radio
Some people read headlines
I read every single word
In the Sunday New York Times

Each week it comes, about 10 pounds
Of newsprint that combines
News and style and reviews
And the Op Ed page opines
Ten pounds of small grey print
Stories of all kinds
I do the best I can but I'm
Up to May 1999.

I feel an obligation
To my teacher Mr. Heinz
To keep up with current events
So I read it, line by line
Bill Clinton still is president
And the Dow Jones Index climbs
‘Cause I read every single word
In the Sunday New York Times.

The garage is full of paper
Each month tied up with twine
Stacks of paper ten feet high
Made of pulp from spruce and pine
Trees died to make this
Men toiled to design
This journalistic moment
For the inquiring mind.

I quit my job at P & G
I gave up beer and wine
Don't go out to dinner
Invitations I decline
I sit and read the paper
Hard copy, not online
And now my ophthalmologist
Tells me I'm going blind.

The columnists: Frank. Maureen. Paul.
Are like old friends of mine
Kakutani, Friedman, Herbert
Ludwig Wittenstein
I'm pretty good at language
I'm not a Philistine
But to do the crossword puzzle
Is a seven hour grind

They say its days are numbered
As readership declines
I can't imagine living
Without the New York Times
When it's gone then I'll be lost
The sun no longer shines
Thank goodness I have a backlog
So I'll just take my time.

Should newspapers fade away
In Auld Lang Syne
We'll drink a cup of kindness to
The Sunday New York Times.

This is the sidebar on the White House's blog, pointing readers and followers to a number of the social media tools this new White House uses to get out its message and the news. Now, in addition to its Facebook page, its Twitter account and its YouTube channel, the White House has a Slideshare page. Slideshare, in case you don't know, is a free Web 2.0 site where presentations of all shapes and sizes -- on every topic imaginable -- are shared by people (including me) from all walks of life. By doing this, the Oval Office is inviting us in to judge for ourselves and broaden our knowledge base about our government. No excuses, guys.

Here's just a sample slideshow from the White House page:

It's an impressive example of how social media can be used. And again I ask: If the White House can do this, shouldn't you be thinking about it?

There’s something for everyone on social media these days, and two websites — Sit or Squat and MizPee — prove that.

Sit or Squat is a relatively new Web 2.0 site that seriously lives up to its name. When you sign up, the site provides you with a map of all the rest rooms nearby where you can relieve yourself. The Sit or Squat reference? That’s meant for anyone who wants to know whether you’d be safer to sit or squat once there.

On a recent visit to Sit or Squat, I was furnished with an interactive map of White Plains, NY, where I live. I was able to quickly determine that all the major department stores near me — Target, Walmart, Fortunoff, Bloomingdales and more — had rest rooms. Nothing new there. But users also tell you what the conditions are like in those rest rooms.

When I clicked on WalMart, here’s what one reader warned: “YUCK! DISGUSTING! GO ACROSS THE STREET TO TARGET.”

Another reader, who has obviously used the facilities at the nearby Fortunoff department store, made my search easier by noting: “On 3rd floor, near ATM and water fountain.”

I was also able to view the photo taken by the user of a lonely portajohn located somewhere on South Lexington Avenue in downtown White Plains. (See photo at the top of this post.) That contributor also called it the “Blue Box o’ Mercy.” As would be expected, that particular spot was stamped with a big “Squat.”

You can also download Sit or Squat to your iPhone or Blackberry, so you can use it when you are traveling and really have to go. It functions worldwide and is based on Google Maps, and anyone can submit their favorite, or least favorite, “throne” to the site.

MizPee is a simple text service that finds the closest (and supposedly cleanest) toilet near you.Using your cell phone, you simply send a text message of your location (city and state) to the number 415-350-2290. MizPee will send you information about the nearest rest rooms, which includes a rating system for cleanliness and information about whether you need to be a paying customer at the location before using the loo.

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From the top of Issuu’s “In the Media” page:

Here’s what the media are saying about Issuu. Be sure to check out our testimonials too.

“We’re big fans of Issuu.”
- TechCrunch

“What a breath of fresh air! Digital publishing done right.”
- Issuu reviewed on The Future of Publishing

“The first word that comes to mind with Issuu is ‘awesome.’”
- Dallas Marketing Services

“Issuu is the IKEA of documents.”
- Technology and Opiniated News

“Downloading a PDF and reading it in Adobe Preview is sooooo 2008.”
- Quickrelease.tv

“This is an awesome app that I intend to use frequently.”
- School Communications 2.0

I appreciate the mention and definitely appreciate the link. Thanks, Issuu.

Speaking of which, I used Issuu as an example in my presentation, “Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Reach Your Audience,” at last week’s National School Public Relations Association conference in San Francisco. People seemed to love the application. “And it’s free?” they kept asking me. I’m always a bit floored by the fact that people still think there’s a catch to Web 2.0. But hey, we’re school folk and we’re jaded.