Yesterday, I went to an insightful Social Media Week at the office of 360i. Beth Reilly, Digital & Social Marketing Lead at Kraft Foods and Sarah Hofstetter, President of 360i, led a session on “How Oreo is Using Social to Celebrate 100 Years of Brand Love.” Oreo has over 24 million Facebook likes and they engage daily with their Facebook community.  The page features a member of the community’s birthday every day as part of their centennial celebration which will be in March.  They also encourage people to share #oreomoments on the Facebook page.  It is interesting how Oreo draws upon both nostalgia and innovation to build interest in the brand. Here’s some of my tweets from the event.

Find conversations about brand that are happening outside branded sm to your brand’s community to stimulate more engagement. #smworeo — Nichelle Stephens (@niche) February 14, 2012

.@oreo social media efforts has lead to 2.5M earned impressions so social media does help earned media. #smworeo — Nichelle Stephens (@niche) February 14, 2012

.@oreo built a platform for brand love that is agnostic of social media channel- across platform. #oreomoments #smworeo — Nichelle Stephens (@niche) February 14, 2012

RT @Spilleigh: “Social media is a conversation, not a one night stand” #SMWNYC #SMWOreo

— Liz Dennebaum (@LizelleD) February 14, 2012

I admit that I try to be funny on Twitter.  I like making people LOL, but sometimes I hesitate before I hit send because I don’t want to offend.

Heidi Moore of NPR retweeted this from Courtney Lilly last night after reading tweets about Whitney Houston’s untimely passing, and it was really insightful.

@moorehn If twitter’s good for anything it’s showing us how very few people are actually funny.

— Courtney Lilly (@courtneylilly) February 12, 2012

Lately, people have gotten into hot water because they have tweeted something offensive, rude, tasteless, racist, sexist, homophobic or just plain mean. Most often, the tweet was meant to be a  joke.  Somehow, the 140 characters that Twitter allows seems to be a perfect online outlet for a punchline. The expression, “Brevity is the soul of wit” comes to mind. However, comedy is not easy. There is a set-up. There is context. There is subtext.  Comedians write loads of jokes that fall flat.  The smart thing that many comedians do is write them in a notebook, and later try them out in front of an audience.  The audience for the comedy is niche compared to the internet where an inoffensive joke can cause  a lot of damage.  A dumb tweet can lead to ridicule or worse–, getting suspended or losing a job.

Buzzfeed and Dumbest Tweets are great for aggregating for shameful tweets.  That’s not where you want your tweet to be.

Think twice before you tweet. You are not as funny as you think.

The first time I met Baratunde Thurston was back in 2008.  I think I was invited by Liza Sabater and/or Twanna Hines to have  drinks at a bar in the East Village.  It was an impromptu Black blogger meetup.  I knew he did stand-up comedy, worked at Onion, and most notably was the co-founder of the blog Jack & Jill Politics. Soon after meeting Baratunde, he was popping up everywhere–on my Twitter feed, at parties, and at SXSW.

About two weeks ago, I got a galley copy of Baratunde’s book, How To Be Black, from my friend Rachel. I started reading it immediately.  One of the added benefits of reading How To Be Black in public is the looks that you get when people see the book cover. I can relate to many of the things in the book, especially the chapters on “How To The Black Friend” and “How To Be The Black Employee”.

The book is part about being black, and  part memoir.  I kinda wish there was more memoir.  I am left wondering how did Baratunde make the leap from being a Harvard grad to being a stand-up comedian.  It would be nice to offer more insight on being the Black comedian.  As someone who worked tangentially in stand-up comedy, I know there’s a dirty underbelly to comedy especially when it comes to getting booked and getting paid.  When I read Tina Fey’s Bossypants, I wanted her to share more of the struggle of being a woman in comedy, and Baratunde could have added more as well.  Not as a woman, but as a Black man.  To be fair, I am a wee bit of a comedy geek, and not every reader wants to know how the hot link sausages are made.  Also, it would be a bonus to have a chapter on “How To Be The Black Couple”, but Baratunde is NOT Steve Harvey. Thank God!

How To Be Black is hilarious and very insightful. I highly recommend reading the book if you are Black.  I also recommend reading the book if you are White, but you may want to read it on your Kindle so as to not draw unwanted attention to yourself.

P.S.

I just checked on Amazon, and the book is $12.99 on Kindle and $14.40 Hardcover.  Advantage: People with a  Kindle.