Web 2 dot Oh Crap, More Things For Me to be Self Conscious About

As I get more involved with Twitter, not to mention other social outlets like Facebook and FriendFeed, a few things keep coming back to haunt me:

1. Is there some sort of ethical code to following those who follow you?
2. If I follow more than I am followed, what does that say about me?
3. Am I the number of Friends and/or Followers I have?
4. Should I be anonymous in my travels (i.e., leave my various profiles – specifically on Twitter and FriendFeed – blank or, worse, filled with unintelligible garbage) or should I be open about who I am?

So, rather than sit here and let my petty doubts and fears of inadequacy rule my life (any more than they already do), I figured I’d face my fears and address each of these in turn. So here goes…

1. To Follow, or not to Follow. THAT is the question. I pick up Twitter followers here and there. I don’t actively seek them, and for the most part I’m guessing they come to me from those whom I follow. However, I don’t know whether the people who follow me expect ME to follow THEM out of common courtesy. Is there some ethical code to a reciprocal follow? Is this like the whole “I link to you, you link to me” phenomenon in the early days of search engine optimization? I honestly don’t know, so until someone tells me differently I’m going to pick and choose those I follow and won’t simply quid pro quo a new follower. Really, how does someone follow 100, 500, 10,000 people? Where is the benefit? How do you manage the conversation? How do you have the time to do that, especially when you work a 50+ hour week? I see no harm in being picky, so picky I shall be.

2. Sheep or Sheep Dog? Truth be told, I follow more than I am followed. Is that wrong? Am I simply a follower and not a leader? Should I even care? My answer to that last question is a confident “no”. I’m new to all of this. I am learning, and part of the learning process is to acquaint oneself with the environment. Following people is a great way to do that; you learn techniques, you learn styles, you learn strategies. And with all of that learning you gain your own voice and your own goals. As I grow, so will my followers. I believe that. Woof.

3. My Dad can beat up your Dad. Here’s something that may shock you: I don’t want a legion of followers or innumerable friends. I am not the quantity of people that I converse and interact with, I am, instead, the quality of that interaction. In that respect I’d much rather have 10 friends than 10,000 acquaintances. Besides, what good does it do anybody if I have 10,000 followers but I don’t say a damn thing? I am NOT Jack’s Self-Gratifying Id, I am his more Socially Acceptable Super Ego (pun intended). I strive for quality, not quantity; I am all about interaction and engagement. I’m not Bono – I can’t engage a stadium full of people. I’m more of the “small club gig” type.

4. What’s My Line? I am under the impression, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, that the whole idea of “social media” is the conversation. That it is the ability to actually engage and interact with people, actual living and breathing members of the species “Homo Sapien”. If that’s true, then why do people insist on wrapping themselves in the blanket of anonymity? When I go to view the profile of someone who starts following me I expect to see THEM, not just their profile. I expect to see a name, a web address, maybe an occupation, and, hopefully, something that gives me a glimpse into that person’s personality. I don’t follow people who use pseudonyms,  or who don’t have a URL and some personal tidbits in their bio. Will it kill me not to follow “UnusedName” who is a “kick ass 18 yo wannabe rock star”? Not at all, but it may mean they miss out on some of my worldly wisdom, poignant insight, and keen wit.

So there we have it – doubts quashed, fears dashed, feelings of inadequacy held at bay for now. At least until my next post that is.

Filed under: Musings, Ramblings, Technology, Work , delicious, friendfeed, self doubt and aggravation, social media, Twitter

Twitter: Marketing Tool or Public Relations Godsend?

I’ve seen a few articles cropping up this afternoon about how a recent WebTrends survey shows that only 2% of companies use Twitter as a marketing tool. Personally, I’m surprised the number is that high.

When you look at it, Twitter is a social media application. By definition  the term “social media” generally refers to methods to “facilitate communication, [and to] influence interaction between peers and with public audiences.”* Therefore, to paraphrase and expand a bit, Twitter as social media application is best used to open lines of communication with a public audience, regardless of whether that public audiences is friends and family, businesses, coworkers or even customers. To me, that’s also a pretty decent definition of “Public Relations”.

Now, I can’t sit here and say that there aren’t more full-fledged marketing potentials for Twitter, but a company has to really sit down and plan out their strategy around Twitter (or any social media application for that matter, including Facebook and MySpace). Do you want to blast out promotions and incentives to followers or do you want to use the medium to connect with customers and open a dialogue? For example, by managing your brand and reputation via Twitter search you can address issues, both good and bad, in almost real time. By opening that connection directly to customers you also set the expectations of your existing and potential customer base – you are being proactive in how you address issues, actively seeking out your customers and interacting with them versus waiting for them to contact you. In fact, I would argue that by using Twitter in this way companies will be more profitable and more successful with their implementation versus using Twitter and other applications as just another means to distribute promotions and discuss deals. People want to BE social in their social media applications – they don’t need just another method of receiving junk, that’s what email is becoming.

Whichever way you look at it, flaunting the fact that companies aren’t using Twitter as a full-fledged marketing tool (which, to me, reads as “pushing their latest sale and/or promotion”) is akin to discussing how they’re not using their online Help Desk applications as marketing tools. Sure, you ‘could’ use Kayako to tout products and services by embedding ads in various places, but that’s not its primary use. Neither is Twitter’s use primarily in marketing – it’s in conversing, and more importantly, LISTENING to what is being said.

*While it’s not the greatest for defining things, my definitions of “social media” and “Public Relations” were taken from Wikipedia. At least it’s better than quoting FoxNews .

Filed under: Uncategorized

6 Tips to Ease Your Twension with Twitter

There’s been a lot of talk in the last several weeks about Twitter. Seems like everyone and their dog is on it now, and it has become a media darling with reports of celebrities such as Britney Spears and Shaquille O’Neal now joining the “Twitterati” (though the former is allegedly updating via a ghost writer and the latter has a tendency to “tweet” during basketball games).

For those of you just getting started with Twitter, and reports are that more and more people are signing up every day, here are a few suggestions on how to make Twitter your own, and how you can get more comfortable with the technology and ideology of Twitter.

1. Don’t fret the stumbles and blunders. Your best bet is to start following, and being followed by, friends and family – they (hopefully) accept you as you are and will be more forgiving of the mistakes, misspellings, misinterpretations, and unintelligible updates you send. However, they also give you an audience to speak to versus just sending messages to the ether. As you begin, be comfortable with the realization that mistakes are part of the learning process, so don’t get hung up spell  checking everything through Word before you hit “update”. Use, learn and grow – the expertise will come later.

2. Personality is important. I follow people I wouldn’t know from Adam, and I follow people I know very well. What’s surprising is how the people I know go about sending out updates: Some send updates just as if they were bumping into you on the street – they are very personable, very believable, and very much being themselves. Others are robotic and unemotional in their updates, but face-to-face are entirely the opposite. You don’t need to be anyone but yourself, so don’t try to be anyone but yourself.

3. Try and find the angles. While it’s nice to occasionally send out messages of the mundane, try not to fill people in on the minutiae of everyday life. A friend of mine worried that people wouldn’t care that she was doing the laundry so she was reticent to start up a Twitter account. To a certain extent she was right. while people may not care that you’re doing the laundry, they may care that you’re doing laundry using your brand new Kenmore front loading washing machine. You can put a spin on anything that makes it more memorable. Find the angles and people will take notice.

4. Mix it up once in awhile. You don’t need to just send updates on “what you’re doing now”, so send links to YouTube clips, cartoons and jokes, quote song lyrics or poetry snippets (I know someone who sends out Bible verses), and even the occasional non-sequitur like “I like pie!” As this tip evolved out of #2 – show your personality – by adding in links to pictures or short videos, especially of you or something you like, you can really move towards Twitter rock star status.

5. Have fun with it. Probably the most important point to be made: while there are definite, serious benefits to using Twitter, that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with it. This is not life-or-death, this is an extension of how you communicate, so leave your serious side at home occasionally. Besides, once you start having fun using Twitter you’ll gain greater comfort with it, and once you’re comfortable with it you’ll get a better understanding of how to use it more effectively.

6. Be ready to be followed, and follow as well. As  your usage grows you may be surprised by the occasional “follow” from someone you don’t know. Don’t despair! Twitter is a social media application, which means that a TON of people are using it and a TON of people are on it every day. Something you say may trigger someone to start following you (to use the example from #3, some Kenmore enthusiast or even a Kenmore representative may follow you), someone following one of YOUR followers may start following you, and you may get the occasional spammer who is following you just in the hopes that you’ll reciprocate. Regardless of the reason, following and being followed is part of the process. Look at it as an extension of your usage – following others gives you a better understanding of how to use the product, it gets you participating in the community, and it may even make your own updates better. Followers expand your audience and reach, and depending on what you say, you may make a few more friends in the process.

So, there you have it. Hopefully, this helps some people. As I said, I’m no expert, just a guy who is trying to find his way in the ever-changing world of media and communication. I’d really be interested to hear what others have to say…

Filed under: Musings, Technology

31 Days to a Better Blog Lesson 1 – the Elevator Pitch

Image courtesy of Hardly the Last Word

With this blog I am striving to be a Social Media Apologist, but in a good way. That means I will be writing about social media but not in the vein of Scoble or Jarvis who, at times, teeter on giddy adoration. Instead, I intend to discuss social media from the layman’s perspective – I’m just a guy who sees the importance in where our use of the web is headed. I see the usefulness and potential reward of staying very near the bleeding edge as we move forward in our use and understanding of the Internet. I am by no means an expert – I will most certainly make mistakes – but I’m an interested and expectant user of the internet and I hope to bring that perspective to my blog. Ideally, others out there, especially those new to the buzzwords (Web 2.0, Social Media, Twitter, blog, etc.) will find a place to visit and feel comfortable with the terminology, the technology, and the ideology of social media.

Filed under: Technology, Work , internet, social media, Web 2.0