Social Honeycomb

Michael Scott: Office Caricature or All Too Real?

I love The Office. Love it. I’m not at the point of obsession (you people know who you are), but I do look forward to my weekly fix of Dunder Mifflin and often find myself doing what E affectionately calls “the shriek laugh” during each episode. But last night, Dunder Mifflin Infinity actually got me thinking beyond Schrute Bucks and Pretzel Days:

Michael Scott: Business to business. The old fashion way. No blackberries. No web sites. I would like to see a web site deliver baskets of food to people.

We all watch scenes like this and laugh, but is it really that far off from reality? I know I’ve had professors and met professionals who may not sound as inane as Michael Scott usually does, but they would definitely agree with his views on technology. There is still such a widespread level of denial surrounding social media, new media, Web 2.0, Web 4.0–whatever you want to call it–and it’s simultaneously laughable and sad.

In my new media in public relations class (look out for us at Podcamp!), we recently discussed how one of our biggest potential challenges going into the workforce will be to persuade our managers to abandon the type of thinking that Michael Scott champions in The Office. There are so many amazing, evolving, exciting tech tools at our disposal–and if we take the time to understand them and harness them, we’ll find success (or at least more of it).

We all know people who are resistant to change, so it’s a worrying thing to be on the cusp of graduation (December 2007, woot!) and feel like I’m about to walk into a world where most people will make faces when I talk about what I believe in. I can only imagine what Michael and Dwight would have to say about me…

Michael Scott: Everyone always wants new things. Everybody likes new inventions, new technology. People will never be replaced by machines. In the end, life and business are about human connections. And computers are about trying to murder you in a lake. And to me, the choice is easy.

Um, just for the record, I know plenty of people with computers, blackberries and GPS systems, and none of them have ever driven into a lake…

Do you know a Michael Scott?

Social Media Breakfast 2

I had a great time this morning at the Social Media Breakfast, held at Digital Influence Group in Waltham, Mass. Loved Larry Weber’s presentation about his new book Marketing to the Social Web and the great people I got to meet (in person!).

The event was a great mix of conversation, laughter and sharing. If you weren’t there, here’s Julia Roy‘s UStream clip from the breakout discussion group we joined after the presentation. David Cutler led the conversation about social media business models and how we can hope to make money in this area of the communications industry.

Thanks to Yianni Garcia and DIG for making this great event possible. I hope to see everyone at PodCamp!

Eddie Bernays, You Sly Fox

I’ve been reading Larry Tye’s book Father of Spin about Edward Bernays, and thought I’d share this video I found from ToddAnd‘s blog.

Very interesting clip of history.