Some short time after the 2016 election, I had a conversation with a friend about the impact of social media on Trump’s win. I was wrestling with the role of what I thought was an inherently neutral marketplace of ideas in promoting Trump, the larger issues of Russian propaganda and interference in the election, and the general problem of abuse.
“We can’t put too much faith in technology,” my friend said. “Technology is more like magic than science.”
Read MoreA Syrian brain surgeon and two women in Chicago unite to stop a humanitarian disaster.
This past weekend, I stood outside Terminal 5 at O'Hare, protesting along with thousands of other Chicagoans the treatment of Muslim immigrants and refugees by the current administration. As we enter a dark stretch in this country's treatment of refugees, I wanted to get a first-hand account of someone who's been an advocate of those fleeing Syria, and how she used online media to shine a spotlight on the tragedy.
Wendy Widom is a two-time Emmy-award winning social media manager at CBS 2-Chicago, and the co-founder of #StandWithAleppo, the highly visible online advocacy campaign. Wendy and I have been exchanging messages about her experience. Read more below.
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Read MoreOne of the things I loved about being a history major in college was getting to step back and look at the big picture. The study of history shows you how things — people, communities, religions, leaders, ideas — interact and influence each other. It made me appreciate that everything is connected, but it also showed me that if you pay attention, patterns emerge. “History repeats itself” is a trope that has a certain truth to it.
Read MoreIn mid-October, not long after Donald Trump drew attention for his 3 a.m. tweets, I received an email from Hillary Clinton’s campaign inviting me to help canvass voters in Iowa, a short drive from my home in Chicago. The message noted that “1,500 of Hillary’s best supporters” had headed to neighboring states the weekend before, and now they wanted me to do the same.
Read MoreTechnology is a wonderful thing — until it starts to get in the way.
2014 was a year of automation failures. Oreo had an auto-reply slip up. The New England Patriots had to apologize for accidentally tweeting a racial slur. Facebook stirred up memories that people would like to forget.
See: Good intentions gone bad.
Read MoreI didn’t want to be the one to write a post like this. But my brain was about to explode.
I got into the social media industry shortly after getting my MBA, because I saw the incredible disconnect between what we talked about in business school and what was happening in the real world. The old ways of thinking about business, not just marketing or PR, were changing.
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