Aug 19, 2008 | blog
Do you blog with an authoritative or a more passive voice? By “authoritativeâ€, I mean an expert, someone with experience. I don’t know about other bloggers, but I seem to get wrapped around the axle when it comes to authoritative voice in blogging. Maybe I’m not even on point in this post – you tell me. When a post starts drifting from my intent, it usually starts sounding “wishy-washy†and doesn’t draw conclusions as I’d like.
Depending on what you’re focus or intent is for your blog, it’s important to keep your tone consistent. If you are an authority on a topic, a knowledgeable or an experienced professional, it’s important to find the right voice to present your ideas to support your brand. Writing with too authoritative a tone without having the expertise to back it up won’t bring a positive vibe to your brand.
Because I want to share experiences, ideas, and such, I often stop writing a post when I feel like I’ve lost that authoritative voice. Usually, it’s also about the point where I’ve lost direction on what I’m trying to say. I know this happens to others as much as it happens to me, but I find it really disruptive and end up closing the work and walking away for a few hours.
Being authoritative is a double-edged sword though. As easily as you can communicate your expertise, you can also annoy or alienate some folks too. There’s a balancing act to it, one that nearly every blogger works to maintain. At least if their trying to be a contributing resource to the social web and not just blog about their family photos and latest vacation.
So how do you stack up? Are you able to present your ideas as an expert without being a know-it-all? How about me? Which way does my writing usually end up?
Aug 6, 2008 | blog
Part of what made the early and current social media crowd important to me, has been the willingness for folks to “give it awayâ€. By that I mean all the ideas, tools, and techniques that are used and talked about on the social web. This post itself is inspired by the very concept of sharing and giving ideas away as the title comes from Chris Brogan’s 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write. During one trip nearly a year ago, he gave away 100 topic ideas, offering them up for folks to expand on.
That is an example of what I mean. One guy has time on his hands and wants to share his ideas, knowing that he may not have time to write about some of the posts he’s thought of. There’s more though. The bulk of social media to date is based on giving away something. Whether it’s ideas, or stories, or comedy, or podcasts, or how-to’s, or videos, the interest in sharing in this new media venue is what makes it all so exciting. Sure, it’s going to change – you can already see that happening – but it’s the folks who’ve started it, and those that follow the same ethos that make it exciting.
As this medium evolves as a method to connect and interact with clients and customers, it will become more commercialized and controlled. At least, there will always be attempts to control it. We believe at this point that most attempts to control the social web will fail – we’ll have to wait and see if that turns out to be true.
Mostly, I enjoy the idea that through all the years, through all the social and political change, through the technological changes, that we still value social interaction as much as our grandparents. It’s the satisfaction that through the years, the desire to share tips and things we’ve learned with folks doesn’t change. That people are quite happy to share and “give it awayâ€.
Photo credit: mdezemery
Thank you to Chris Brogan for giving away some good blog topics. Occasionally dip into those 100 ideas to see what I can come up with.
Jul 7, 2008 | blog
So I’ve been doing an experiment of sorts. Staying off most social networks, answering requests and status on only those I believe actually bring value. This was not totally planned, but is something I have meant to do for some time, as it’s my opinion that I was spending too much time on social networks.
During this period, I have also been paying attention to my productivity. You know, the real work I do to actually make real money. Of course, it’s not surprising that reducing the time involved in social networking will increase productivity, it is the ratio that seems interesting. I’ve no scientific data that indicates anything, and it doesn’t seem anything more than a one to one relationship to me.
That’s the main reason I’m not very active right now on many social networks. So that begs the question: What social networks do I find valuable right now? That would be Twitter, LinkedIn, and FriendFeed – not in any particular order. These are the networks that I’m finding value, sharing with friends, and meeting business opportunities.
I am, however, curious about other’s experiences. What networks do you find the most valuable right now, and why? Is it the tried & true, or the up & coming?
Mar 4, 2008 | blog
I’ve been thinking about the content I publish on my blog of late. Personally, I think I’ve let it get a bit messy, and have been working on cleaning it up a bit and thinking of new layouts and such. Currently, I’ve not planned an overhaul of the entire site, but that may happen in 2008 – we’ll see.
Recently though, I’ve started to dislike my “links” post that I try to keep updated every day. It’s hard to keep up, and be selective, sharing quality links in these posts. They’re partially automated, coming directly from my del.icio.us bookmarks. However, del.icio.us is fed by ClipMarks, after careful screening through my Google Reader’s Shared Items.
For the past year, I’ve maintained a Google Reader Shared Items blog. In early autumn 2007 I created a Lifestream that aggregated all my online postings of multiple types of media into one place. Two weeks ago, I discovered FriendFeed which does the same thing, but also brings social interaction to the shared content as well.
With these aggregated or interactive shared streams, I wonder if there is any real point of posting a “links” post every day (or trying to anyway). I’d love to have your thoughts. While it does take a bit of extra effort on my part, it may be of greater value to you… I don’t know, but I’d like to find out.
Share your thoughts in the comments. Do you find value in the “links” posts that I share, or do you find more and better links in things like FriendFeed, Plaxo Pulse, Google Reader Shared Items, or a Lifestream?
Photo credit: BlakJakDavy
Technorati Tags: Links, del.icio.us, Google Reader Shared Items, FriendFeed, Lifestream, Shared Feeds
Jan 31, 2008 | blog
I have to immediately thank Dave Delaney (Twitter: @davedelaney) for this tip. Revealed in his 5,000 tweets and counting post earlier today, he suggests the following to find your first tweet:
- Browse to your Twitter profile page
- Click on the “Archive” tab
- Scroll to the bottom
- Click on the “Older” button
- Notice that the URL is now something like http://twitter.com/rickmahn?page=2? Change the “page=2” to “page=200”
- See anything? Start decreasing that number until you find your first post.
- Or, if you’ve been especially productive, you may need to try higher page numbers! 😉
Mine just happens to be on March 4th, 2007 at 1:13pm (found here) where I tweeted the very informative “Reading RSS feeds” to the world.
So, thank you Dave for that tip, and congratulations on crossing 5,000 tweets. I had been curious about that first tweet lately because I know I was starting to get close to a full year on Twitter. Just over a month to go!
Technorati Tags: Twitter, Dave Delaney
