It’s amazing how social media changed the power game between employees and employers. Case in point: Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who freaked out on the job.

Most of us may remember a time when this kind of behavior would have triggered personal humiliation, psychological distress and a “Man, I just screwed myself” inability to ever land a new job.

If you want to become a celebrity like Steven Slater, listen up and follow these five perhaps not too tongue- in-cheek rules of the new world media:

1. Take your frustration public - If you’re fed up and can’t take it anymore, don’t sulk, don’t get depressed … don’t kidnap or shoot. Instead shout to the rafters and make your voice heard using social media. Slater tweeted, Slater Facebooked. Give birth to your own community.
2. Don’t be afraid to tell it like it is - Be colorful, be bold. Authenticity rules! Slater said, “To the f---ing a-hole who told me to f—k off, it’s been a good 28 years. I’ve had it. That’s it.” Indirectness sucks!
3. Tie into a grassroots theme - People latched onto Slater because he personified what many feel every day in the workplace: loss of control and power. By losing his cool, he actually restored his reputation and gained new levels of power he never had. Become a modern day folk hero.
4. Go for the extra flair - Slater could have just grabbed the microphone, shouted his message and waited for the armed guards. But no, he added special touches that helped shape a more memorable persona. He grabbed two beers and maneuvered his own exit, sliding down an inflatable ramp. Do it in style!
5. Become one with the peacock - After the initial dust settles, don’t let second thoughts enter your head and never regret the action you took. After the incident, Slater didn’t look fed up, angry or berserk, he looked, well, mildly freaky, but content. So flash your colors and embrace your inner peacock!    

One of the best and worst things about social media is that anyone can make up the rules, i.e. the conventions, protocols and etiquette by which we collectively conduct ourselves. For instance, someone once made up a rule that PR people shouldn’t blog on behalf of clients. Like sheep, we all nodded and went along for a while murmuring slogans like “Must be authentic.” Someone else finally questioned “Why?” Debate ensued, logic prevailed, and blogging services (with the proper disclosure) have become a standard PR offering these days.

Social media norms tend to be self-regulating. We now all agree that censoring blog comments is bad (except for trolls and incendiary words).  Writing in upper-case sentences = SHOUTING = impolite. And our Farmville-playing Facebook friends got the hint and stopped annoying us with their barnyard updates.

Twitter, on the other hand, remains largely un-self-regulated. Despite the wealth of tools available for filtering and finding good information, Twitter’s poor noise-to-signal ratio remains the #1 obstacle to adoption cited by our clients. So in the spirit of self-regulation, I want to direct you to Mathew Inman’s witty 10 things you need to stop tweeting about from the popular The Oatmeal site, even though it may suck 80% of the oxygen out of the Twittersphere if the rules are embraced.

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Even the ultra-cool sometimes just don’t get it.

It’s been six months since the 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than 230,000 people and leaving 1.5 million homeless. There are still few jobs to be had and no permanent shelter. Only two percent of promised reconstruction aid has been released. And according to a report issued this week by the US Center for Strategic and International Studies, only nine percent of pledges by governments (about $50 million) has actually been delivered.

Sean Penn has been a vocal activist for Haiti since the quake, remaining in the country with his daughter to help over the past six months. He brought up an interesting point yesterday in speaking with Harry Smith of CBS News’ Early Show: "I think that the media has played an enormous part in the failures that are still going on today and the recovery here and the relief operations."

Smith then said: "People would be curious why you went in the first place. And then, why you stayed. What's the best answer for that?" Penn answered: "...if they're wondering that, then that would be an indictment of the American and the international press that came here in the immediate aftermath of this devastating earthquake."

Penn elaborated: "The United States sent its military, that did an extraordinary job in immediate relief....And then when they went on with other deployments, when the amputations en masse stopped, the media left."

I ran a Factiva search to prove or disprove Penn’s theory. If you’re not familiar with Factiva, it’s an advanced search tool from Dow Jones that enables you to analyze media coverage. Factiva’s database includes more than 28,000+ leading media sources from 157 countries in 23 languages, including regional and industry publications, Web and blog content.

Using Google, I found the two most popular (and relevant) search topics:

1.       Haiti earthquake

2.       Haiti news

Using these key words, Factiva revealed the following levels of media coverage over the six-month period: 

While Factiva isn’t a be-all-end-all and doesn’t include every publication or blog in the world, it’s comprehensive.

This data suggests Sean Penn may be onto something.

An important component of the project is that it uses BP’s corporate logo as a marker, to orient the computer-generated 3D graphics. Basically turning their own logo against them. This repurposing of corporate icons will offer future artists and activists a powerful means of expression which will be easily accessible to the masses and at the same time will be safe and nondestructive.

For decades, the same titles were used for public relations and communications professionals in companies, agencies and organizations. These included Director, Marketing Communications; Manager, Public Relations; Account Executive; Vice President, Corporate Communications; Director, Community Relations; Publicist; Director, Government Relations; Account Director.

Consider, for example, some of the current PR & communications job openings:

1. Some communications and PR titles are moving away from general functional descriptions (“communications,” “community relations,” etc.), shifting toward a more emotive position (innovation; evangelist, strategist, responsibility).
2. New titles are embracing online community and consistent two-way communication (engagement, social media, cyclical communications).
3. They mirror major societal changes (green marketing; web; wellness).
4. Some of the new titles are trending big picture (positioning; global partner, competitive intelligence).
5. Authentic, compelling & engaging content creation is central to branding success (the emergence of the Chief Content Officer).