Apr 22, 2008 | blog
Sometimes it gets too easy to look for that “easy button†in the social media landscape. That all-powerful, easy to use, fast, tool that lets us quickly grow valuable & worthwhile relationships with fellow social media explorers. I say “explorers†because there are no real experts in social media, but there are many knowledgeable people who advise and recommend strategies.
The reality is that there is no such thing as an “easy button” of course, but there are several valuable tools that we can use. Among the most flexible and productive is the venerable blog.
A blog is one of your best investments in time for creating a social prescience on the web. Instead of canned pages, color schemes and applets that don’t represent you very well on platforms such as MySpace or Facebook – it’s you who gets to create the content. You get to decide how to present ideas, talk through your points of view and explain things. You also control the type affiliated content (ads, guest writers, etc…) that is published alongside your message.
A blog has the ability to connect to all services and tools that you’re currently using. In fact, a blog can be the portal to all things you on the web and help people get to know your story better. Think of how powerful that is. Instead of a service suggesting what “associates†or “related content†to readers, you have control of it.
Sure, a blog is a bit of work. There are no two ways about it. However, for many people, once you’ve got it set up, there is very little maintenance to do – just write and publish. Add a few links to your other social media/networking tools (Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing, Plaxo, FriendFeed – whatever) and keep up on blogs from similar bloggers or friends.
I can’t stress enough how much keeping control of your own content reflects on you – call that part personal branding. The important part is being able to publish your thoughts and comments in a place that is uniquely yours and not lost in someone else’s idea of social nirvana.
What’s your take? Have you taken the jump and started a blog, or are you content with the services that others provide?
Photo credit: Jill Greenseth
Apr 20, 2008 | blog
As is usually the case, the way we use tools changes over time. I’m wondering if how I use Twitter is going to change because of some of the issues that have been discussed this weekend. Probably not, I’d been starting to change how I use Twitter about a week or two ago.
While Twitter has had some problems in the past and certainly is having another round of troubles, I too have problems that need fixing. I’ve found that the way I’ve used the service in the past does not scale well, and clients such as Twhirl have added to the problem.
It’s TOO EASY to keep flipping over to my Twhirl window whenever it “pings’ at me, scrolling through up to 20 messages to see what’s going on. Like some mad Pavlovian subject, I have to see what’s been updated. Now that FriendFeed is also in my Twhirl stream, it’s gotten much, much worse.
So I’m changing how I use Twitter. I’m shutting off the notifications for the bulk of the Twitter and FriendFeed updates. I’ll keep notifications on for Replies and Direct Messages. I’ll check in when I have a few minutes and review what’s in the last page or two on the website, but that’s the extent of it.
Twitter has become extremely important as a social and communications tool, but it’s also become too big of a time sink to keep on top of during the day. I know several people who shut it off during the main part of the workday – something I’ve put off as much as possible – and tune back in after work hours.
I still encourage everyone to contact me through Twitter first and foremost. A DM in Twitter will get directly to me (they are all forwarded to my phone) and I respond to every Reply, so don’t think I’m not monitoring it if you don’t see me Twittering a lot.
My Twitter Profile: http://twitter.com/rickmahn
My FriendFeed Profile: http://friendfeed.com/rickmahn
I’m curious what techniques you may be using to manage your Twitter stream? What can you share with our Twitter friends to help ease the volume of information that speeds past?
Apr 17, 2008 | blog
So you’ve got your blog. You’re on Twitter. Accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Xing, Plaxo and countless others are kept up to date and keep you networked with your peers. The question keeps coming back… what’s next? What does all this time interacting and connecting with people accomplish?
After all the hours involved in networking and connecting with people you start to wonder what the payoff will be. Twitter seems like a time sink, Facebook is flat-out a bad college prank, and blogging is more demanding that you thought it would be. Is the payback just a little link love, or a couple hundred Twitter followers? Maybe it’s feeling good about answering a couple dozen questions on LinkedIn Answers. It still hasn’t changed you yet has it?
Are you sure?
If you’ve stuck with it for awhile I bet you’ve found it easier to connect and reach out with people at work. Maybe writing project plans or documentation is a bit better than it was before. How about a few technical skills – if you’ve done any customizations on your blog I know you’ve been working on HTML at the very least.
Ok, these are just a few small things that you may or may not have noticed along the way. What’s the bigger payoff? I dunno – but it’s that unknown something that’s attracted you into the mix. There is potential on multiple fronts, from connecting with people, learning about things, growing as a person, even simply having a hobby. Social media doesn’t mean any one thing, and doesn’t have to be business related.
Since there is no one definition of social media to any one group or person, it never stops growing; morphing into something new with every additional person and service. Heck “social media” is not even a good name for it, it really just kind of stuck because we use new “social” tools that use different types of “media”.
It’s an exciting ride. One I encourage you to explore, even if you think it’s a bunch of hooey. There are many smart people out there that would love to share ideas with anyone who would listen. And that is what it really comes down to. Social media is people and ideas, the tools are incidental and change with the whimsy of the crowd.
Where are you going from here? What’s your next move?
Photo credit: *davierae*
Apr 16, 2008 | blog
Are missing what’s right in your backyard? Many “social media” types (explorers I like to call them) are connected with peers across the country and around the world. That’s great! Connecting with people from different places, with different views is great way to learn new things and discover new possibilities.
What about the people in your city or neighborhood? The people in the lane next to you commuting to and from work, in the grocery store, at the ball game – these people are part of your local economy and community. You know, the one that affects your daily habits and your local career opportunities.
Are you connecting with this group? How many fellow Twitter users are there that you could be sharing info with? What common values and ideals could you leverage with them to do something bigger, something better? Have you looked for these folks, met with them, had coffee with them?
Now’s your chance to change that. Who says you aren’t the one to get the ball rolling? Search Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and the like for your local area and start making some local contacts. Seek your neighbors out, and find what interests them. Is there business opportunities, or civic needs, or groups aligned with your faith? Get out there and connect with these folks.
Even if you’re in a more rural area, getting to know fellow “social media explorers” in the area can allow you to plan. Going from a small town to a big-city meetup may be daunting alone, but if you’ve got a local group to share the experience with, it can become more fun.
Some of the things you can try for very little time and money invested is a Twitter meetup, or a Social Media Breakfast, or simply let people know where to meet for coffee. So get out there and network on the local level, there is bound to be social media people in your area thinking about the same thing.
If you have organized, or are thinking of getting the ball rolling, what ideas have you come up with? What have you tried that works or doesn’t work? Let’s share our ideas and experiences with others to make future networking better!
Photo credit: Kecko
Apr 15, 2008 | blog
So Andrew Baron has his Twitter account for sale on ebay? Can anyone tell me what the point of this exercise is? Other than a money grab that is.
I mean, who among his followers would keep following the account when they discover it’s not actually him? So that negates the value of his follower list – without that the account has no monetary value.
Heck, any one of us can go and build a “Fake Andrew Baron” Twitter account and follow the same people that the real one does. Then go sell it on eBay for half the price the “real” account goes for. In the end, it’s essentially the same account.
Just for fun, I should start creating “Fake <famous blogger here>” accounts, following the same people that the real person does and sell them on eBay. The absurdity of it all just stuns me to the core.
Andrew, if you’re that hard up for cash, maybe you should take up a paper route… it builds character, at least it did in my case. 😛
What’s your take on this? Seriously?
Technorati Tags: Twitter, Andrew Baron
Apr 14, 2008 | blog
I was just thinking about the promise of Java some 15 years ago or so (I forget exactly) about being the answer to cross-platform programming. For sure it’s done quite a bit of that, and also been a pain in the but at the same time.
Now fast-forward to 2007 and the development of Adobe AIR. All the AIR apps that are popping up for different web services. That you can run AIR on Mac, Windows, and Linux – and all those AIR based apps is a huge shift in not only how we use apps, but what systems we decide to run them on. Sure, Microsoft has a (very good) also-ran platform in Silverlight, but do you think that’ll end up on the Mac, let alone Linux?
It allows us to forget about what our favorite operating system is and focus on running the system that is relevant to what we’re trying to accomplish. What’s your thoughts on this? Have you tried any AIR apps? What ones are your favorites?
