Old media bias – or is it fear of obsolescence?

Jun 16, 2008 | blog

Saturday night I was listening to social media guru & fellow Social Media Breakfast conversationalist @Albert Maruggi of Provident Partners being interviewed on WCCO radio here in Minneapolis. What really struck me was the way in which the host of the show totally spun every point that was brought up. Instead of a real discussion of what is happening in the social media space, she choose to simply believe her pre-conceived notions of the Internet as a “dangerous” place.

Now I agree that everyone is welcome to believe what they want, but to not let an honest discussion develop seems deceiving to me. Whether you believe in the hype or not isn’t the point, rather the inability to have an honest discussion about something on an old-media platform in a public space. Personally I think that fellow Twitter @MNHeadHunter hit the nail on the head in this tweet.

@rickmahn Biased or not knowledgable. Or feeling threatened 🙂

Personally, this is one of the examples that worries me about so many people relying on old media for all their political news. If we can’t have an honest discussion of the facts on the platform about something like social media, how can I trust them about my political choices from any party? Disappointing to say the least.

Oh yeah, Albert was great on talking about facts, concepts, and directions – well done Albert!

Did anyone else catch the broadcast last Saturday? What did you think of the interview?

50 Uses for Twitter

Jun 8, 2008 | blog

twitter Awhile back, I’d started a list of "101 Uses for Twitter", but never seemed to get past 27 for some reason.  Of course, it had been last autumn since I brainstormed on it.  While I don’t think that I personally could come up with 101 uses, I’m sure there are many more than that.

So I thought about this again for awhile this morning and did think of 50 uses that I’ve seen or participated in.  So here is a list of 50 uses for Twitter, I’m thinking of more as I write this, so maybe there is a chance at that "101" post sometime.

  1. Keep in touch with my Twitter peeps friends
  2. General news item links
  3. News & links on my industry or area of interest
  4. Fast answers to quick questions
  5. Professional networking
  6. Links to nearly everything
  7. Marketing
  8. Personal branding
  9. Corporate & product branding
  10. Haiku’s
  11. Making friends
  12. Feel "plugged into the web and it’s various personalities"
  13. Replacement for instant messaging applications
  14. Chat tool
  15. Promotional tool for my blog
  16. Providing new reading opportunities
  17. Fun stuff!
  18. Meeting new, interesting people to communicate with
  19. Collecting links
  20. Finding sites related to social networking
  21. "To listen in on my contacts rants"
  22. A web worker "water cooler"
  23. Micro-blogging
  24. A personal "techmeme"
  25. Lightweight text broadcasting tool
  26. Easy way to annoy your spouse
  27. Promotional tool for my brand
  28. Ranting
  29. Idea generator
  30. No-cost non-profit announcement system
  31. Bring a sense of community to your home office
  32. Tracking status of friends
  33. Status message generator for other social networks
  34. Frustration generator (at least when it is down)
  35. Thought publisher
  36. Promotional tool for my organization
  37. Following public discussions
  38. Travel guide
  39. Controlled discussion between friends
  40. Uncontrolled discussion between friends with viewers
  41. List generator
  42. Meeting agenda generator
  43. Coffee shop locator
  44. People search
  45. Promotional tool for my company
  46. Product reviews
  47. Trip planner
  48. Backchannel for events
  49. Feedback generator
  50. Authentication mechanism

So what are you uses for Twitter?  I’m sure I didn’t capture them all, so add your ideas and things you use Twitter for below.

Brainstorming – Learning the Power of the Mind Map

May 22, 2008 | blog

Post_IdeasSo I was working on some planning for various things when I ran across this post by fellow blogger Joanna Young. It really got my attention on planning and generating ideas.

I’d heard a lot about mind-mapping and the great results that many accomplish by using the technique, but for some reason over the years, I’d never tried it out. Sure the odd brainstorming session at work, but nothing to promote my own agenda. Aha! Another tool to use for my own purposes!

So being the typical geek I am, off I went to find a simple, inexpensive (read: free) tool to do this with. I’ve found a few to try and will do a roundup of what I found – but won’t try to do a review by any means. However, the consensus from my Twitter friends is that pen & paper rules the day.

With that said, here are some mind-mapping sites & software that my Twitter query came up with:

There may be one or two I somehow missed – but that’s what I find in my Replies & DM pages.

I’d like to thank Twitter friends @inkedmn, @andytinkham, @suzemuse, @joannayoung, @amypalko, @rosasay, and @pfhyper for their suggestions and sharing their successes with me! You guys are great.

I happened to work through two mind maps in an hour or so that got a great start on direction on business plans, and some post ideas. Have you tried mind-mapping? What were your results? What tools did you find that work best?

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This Thing Called Twitter – Recap

May 12, 2008 | blog

This past Saturday (May 10th) I had a chance to facilitate an unconference session with Peter Fleck (@pfhyper on Twitter) at MinneBar on the University of Minnesota campus.  While Peter and I hadn’t planned it out long in advance, and we had technical difficulties at the beginning, namely to overhead equipment, it went pretty well.

The part I really enjoyed was the interaction.  Peter and I both wanted to start a group discussion, and that’s exactly what happened.  There were a lot of great questions from both experienced and new Twitter users, and many people shared their perspectives and ideas on using Twitter.  It reinforced the idea that Twitter is just at it’s earliest stages of uptake.

What I really want to do from Saturday is to thank everyone that stopped by and joined the conversation.  It was great to meet so many people here in the Minneapolis Web2 scene, and I look forward to talking more with you on Twitter and elsewhere.  Don’t hesitate to let me know if you have questions or ideas to talk about – you can find me on Twitter as @RickMahn.

Also, since I didn’t grab the names off the board in the room, I’d like to invite anyone who was there to share their Twitter name.  Just leave them in the comments and others from the session can find them and connect with you.  Any other questions or interest in social web tools that you’d be interested in talking about?  It might be worth putting something together if enough people are interested.

Is technology a crutch?

Apr 27, 2008 | blog

"crutch" by Kate Tomlinson It’s something that I’ve been thinking about recently. For how much all these nifty tools have helped us become more productive, I think there is a percentage of creativity or inspiration that we give up. All productivity tools are things that can do harm to our work habits as much as they simplify a task.

Maybe it’s that most of these tools are single-task automation or simplification utilities and from that perspective are inefficient solutions. Take a close look at all your “social media” or “Web 2.0” tools and services – I bet most really only solve one real task with a few frivolous extras sprinkled on top.

I’m not sure what to do about this, but I look at my productivity today and compare it to a year ago. Back then I was chewing through thousands more feeds, had more ideas and, it seems, more time to write posts for my blog.

Today, I have client software installed that automatically checks my Twitter and FriendFeed accounts for updates. It notifies me with a pleasant tone that triggers me to quickly switch windows and check out the latest possible news like a rabbit hitting the feeder bar for a food pellet.

How is this productive? How is this helping me? I have Twhirl updating the main Twitter feed every 2 minutes – how many times am I interrupted in an hour? Right. 30! Think about that. Now add FriendFeed into the mix on its own (similar) updates schedule. How many times can you be interrupted in a day without losing focus?

Now I don’t mean to beat up on Twitter and FriendFeed – heck, I can come up with dozens of reasons why they help more than hinder my daily life. Email used to be the same. I used to use Microsoft Outlook. If the computer was on, so was Outlook – and what was that nice feature introduced in Outlook 2003? Pop-up notification… great. So that is where that bad habit was developed for me. Since changing to web-based email about three months ago, I find myself checking email much less often. I’m no less effective or timely in my communication either.

So it’s really how we use the tools – their convenience allows us to lean on them for help. Sometimes a little too much. As we’re creatures of habit it’s up to us to develop, groom, and manage those habits. If we start developing bad habits, it’s ourselves that needs to correct them.

So that’s what I personally need to do.  Simply change how I use Twitter and FriendFeed. There are others, but those are the two that I really need to manage my time with the most.

How about you? What are your tricks & tips in managing these productivity tools?

Photo credit: Kate Tomlinson

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