The Lighter Side of Social
Second City’s UP Theater hosted last week’s Social Media Week event on humor in Social Media. Panelists including staff from The Onion, Nissan, and  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provided unique insights on social media and humor in their respective fields. Despite varied audiences, all three backed the value of humor as a necessary skill in the social space. The NHTSA focused on the use of humor when dealing with serious and often life-affecting issues. This approach entertains, while at the same time, informs the viewer about serious health and safety risks. Often the efficacy of humor is taken for granted in social media. When “likes” or “clicks” are the focus of concern, a humorous approach is effective, but beyond that it’s often regarded as a company not taking itself seriously. It seems that tide is changing, as even the most serious, salient issues are addressed under the guise of comedy.
– VB

Google+
We’ve attended many meetings and most people (excluding social media and web professionals) claim they don’t use Google+, Hangouts, and 1+’s, but data doesn’t lie. On average, users are on Google over 12 minutes a day [consider that Facebook’s average is 14 minutes a day]. With over one million companies jumping on the bandwagon (including over 50% of the top 100 US brands), this arena is growing rapidly. With 5-billion plus ones per day, it’s the fastest growing social media tool in history. And now with Google’s acquisition of Zagat, Google+ is going to continue to grow in size and influence. – GL

Mayor Emmanuel’s Digital Trio
Rahm’s digital team revealed some valuable nuggets about attracting attention within the existing population of followers and combining fun/social elements with useful information for the greatest impact. The best example of this was during the heat wave this past summer they were making posts about shelters to cool off and where to receive aid and water. Most of their health and safety posts went ignored… until they attached a picture of a puppy sitting on a pile of ice. The result was instant and extremely effective. – DH

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