There was an allusion to “Tribes” a couple of times in yesterday’s post, listen to Seth Godin talk about it for more than an hour in this special edition of the Marketing Over Coffee podcast. It took me a long time to finish it because my daily commute is five minutes, but so worth it.
Generation Y, Digital Natives & Millennials
Workplace 2.0: Motivating and Managing Millennials - Very short (12 pages total, about 8 pages of content) PDF file on managing millennials (aka: us). It doesn’t actually give much of a “how to”, but it does lead you to understanding us more. I must say he is right on about fervour, hard work and tireless labour. I’d work overtime, for free, for a job that’s rewarding in an industry I’m passionate about.
Digital Natives are here by Mitch Joel - Again, great post to help the people in management understand the digital natives. I feel a lot of people still aren’t ready to accept that our generation is a little bit different and that being constantly connected is more of an empowerment than a distraction. But those organisations who do grasp that, are going to be able to channel us much more efficiently.
Social Media Strategy
The Strategist and Social Media by Kami Huyse - Great slides in there that you should read if you’re beginning to think of a social media strategy, especially points about risks of social media engagement, and the Sea World case study.
MTV to MySpace: Post Our Content, Please - you might remember in my review of the book/rant Cult Of The Amateur by Andrew Keen that he called Viacom (parent company of MTV) suing YouTube a “powerful message”. I say the partnership between MTV and MySpace is a) a more powerful message b) a sign that at least one player in the industry waking up to reality.
The Top Ten Reasons iTunes Sucks - I agree with every single point mentioned here, and it absolutely sucks that Apple obviously doesn’t care what people are saying, with similar issues existing in 2006. At this point I hate iTunes so much, I’d pay money for a programme that would solve these problems.
As always, share your links with me in the comments, or you can find me on delicious.
In line with generating some social capital, I thought I’d go back to my link-sharing ways to both spread stuff of value, as well as generating some nice linklove.
Corporate Social Media
Social Media For Business - Who’s Doing It Well & How - In addition to some common social media case studies, I really liked breaking down the social media strategy to a four step process, and being absolutely clear who your target audience is. Too many people have the misconception that social media reaches everyone, and reaches them quickly. False on both accounts.
Don’t Be Boring - Ten Company Blogs Analysed - by who else but Hutch Carpenter from May’s blogs worth reading. What I appreciate is the attempt to distill blogposts and empirically count them, what I enjoyed was hearing that companies include silliness in blog content. And why not? Brilliant, I say.
5 Competencies of the Connected Corporation - For the people working in social media enabled workspaces. I think being in the loop and being nimble are traits that you need to have in this new world. The sooner companies realise this and try to get there, the better.
RSS
I’m Evangelizing RSS With Google Reader’s E-mail Function - Haven’t linked to Louis Gray in awhile (though I am still reading him frequently), but this post is great because I honestly have never used Google Reader’s email function. Now that I know how useful it is, you can bet I’ll be using much more of it. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Louis has emailed someone content from my blog. Thanks!
Music
What Would the Perfect Streaming Music Service Look Like? - Although I usually blog about music over on my personal blog, I think this link is good just to share good stuff about the music world, and how it’s not driven by the labels. I feel their legal nonsense and DRM issues in general are the biggest threat to music innovation.
I’m always on the lookout for great blogposts to read and share. If you have any, feel free to post them in the comments, or send them over to my Delicious profile.
Julien Smith gave a mindblowing presentation yesterday on trust agents and social capital. I cannot believe I have never heard of him before because his stuff is nothing short of awesome.
It got me thinking back to my “Blogs worth reading” feature that ran for a few months but has fizzled out recently. There are a few reasons for this. One was that I was getting very busy in summer with freelance work and just had no time to explore blogs the way I used to, the second is that my Google Reader was already getting overloaded, and thirdly, was that these blogposts just weren’t generating much interest for my blog, traffic-wise.
But Julien’s talk reminded me that sharing these links is creating value and social capital. It’s not about me and my traffic. It’s about sharing these resources to people who might not discover them otherwise, and the value that they bring. Even if that’s just to one person.
Stuff surrounding Social Media Breakfast | Singapore and certain events have affected my love for the local social media space over the last few months, but this really made me think back to why I started the blog, why we were helping each other on Twitter, why we went out on a whim and started Social Media Breakfast | Singapore with nothing but faith that it would work out.
And it was captured in one comment yesterday: Because that’s the kind of world I want to live in.
I hope you’ll think back and remember why you got into this space to begin with, and if where you are now is a far cry from that beginning. If it is, why did that happen, and is that something you want to continue to happen? If it isn’t, what changed?
Just got back from the IDC Web2.0 Conference today (thanks to Debbie and Joyes for granting me access!) and have some immediate thoughts before I go into detail about the various topics discussed.
Main thought: People need to do more research before coming for these conferences.
I estimate about 200 people in the room, and when the room was asked who used feeds (RSS), less than 30 people raised their hand.
Now I’m not judging, but I think if companies are going to spend $240 to send people for a three hour conference, they need to be able to absorb what is going on and follow the discussions. If only 30 people understand feeds, how many would understand the rest of the topics today? Wikis? Co-creation of content? Social networking? User-generated content? I have my doubts. I think companies owe it to themselves to do a little bit of research before going, so that they can truly engage in the discussion.
The thing is there was some good content at the conference. One speaker mentioned it’s not necessary to be front and centre of the content-creation, just a curator. And I wonder how many people got the reference.
Edit: Maybe next time after a conference I should walk up to people randomly and ask “So what do you think the takeaways are for your business?” and see what answers I get.
Finally, a question was asked towards the end of the day: “Is there research to show that using IM and Facebook increases productivity? And are some professions more suited than others to using social media in education. For example, would it be applicable to medicine?”. A muted groan rippled through the room.
Firstly, obviously there is no research to show that. The people who question the benefits of IM, Twitter and Facebook are those who are not on it or don’t understand it or are suspicious and un-trusting of their employees to be on these applications. Do you think people aren’t using the office phone for non-productive uses? Or the office email? Or the office printer?
The reason why this question comes up, to me, is because companies want to see this instant gratification. Are you using Facebook to generate a sales lead or close a sale? No? Waste of time. But it doesn’t work that way. Facebook, Twitter and IM take time to produce results. I spend a lot of time in the office on Facebook. I joke that it’s “research”, but finding out how people use Facebook and interact is very important. If you don’t know how your consumer is using their tools, how can you ever hope to be relevant?
Will there be employees who abuse this trust and throw sheep or superpoke friends at work? Sure. But I don’t feel that’s a reason to shut down access, because to me, the benefits outweigh the cons. Let’s keep this all in perspective. It’s the people that abuse the tool. Not that there’s anything inherently “wrong” about the tool.
Secondly, what a crazy question! Can the medical profession use social media? Of course! I honestly and truly question why this person was at this conference at all. The whole morning people were talking about interaction and content sharing and co-creation and wikis and transferring ideas and collaboration via Google Docs.
You mean you don’t see how medical knowledge can be pooled together, developed and refined via these tools? Or did you seriously mean doing away with practical surgery sessions and teach it via social media? Which is absolutely ridiculous too.
It is people like that, that are holding social media (and your company) back from advancing. The new consumers are not going to be convinced by an advertisement in the newspaper. If it’s not timely and relevant, forget it. If your business is not showing and interest in discovering how the new consumers think and behave, you might not be around in 10 years when they graduate and choose to spend their disposable income with a company who does.
I’m beginning to feel the load of reading a lot of blogs right now, so every month when I subscribe to new blogs, I put them on a “probation” list, look at them at the end of the month and then decide which are worth keeping. Here are those that I’ve added to my Google Reader permanently this month, as well as one post I loved recently that I would like to share with you.
Bloggers misunderstand PR and vice versa - Not a big deal in Asia yet (probably because the PR firms are slow in catching on), but an interesting insight to both sides of the coin.
What college students can’t get from blogging - A nice contrarian view from someone who’s also gotten an internship from blogging, but a good reality wake up call for students who may think blogging is the solution to everything.
That’s it for May, if you have new blogs to recommend, feel free to plug it in the comment box. Let me know if you liked these recommendations as well.
Yesterday was Read and Comment day, where you have to make an active effort to comment on blogs and join the conversation. It was suggested by Chris Brogan, and true to form, he even left a comment here as well. Read and Comment day also inspired me to encourage people to strengthen their links to people on Twitter, especially the weaker links.
My Report
I put aside an hour last night to really go through my Google Reader (learnt how to use it yet?) and properly digest blog posts and comment. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of when I first started blogging in January when Prof. Netley advised us that we should comment twice as much as we post to establish a presence and drive traffic. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I forgot that along the way, but Read and Comment day really reminded me how important it is not just to create my own content by blogging, but to add value to others’ content as well.
How About You?
Have you found yourself commenting less than usual? Something holding you back from joining the conversation? Go post a couple of comments today. You’ll feel great!
RSS really changed the way I used the internet when I first discovered it late last year. If you’re not using RSS, take 10 minutes to read this and your online life will be much better for it! The 10 minutes will pay itself back many times over.
I promised Ingrid I’d do this post this week, apparently I’m too late because she discovered it for herself and guess how she feels about it?
Ready to discover some “awesome shit” for the uses of RSS for yourself? Read on.
What Is RSS And Why Should I Care?
RSS stands for really simple syndication. In a capsule, what it does it feeds you updates from websites and blogs you follow. For example 20 of your friends have blogs, so you visit each of these blogs from your bookmarks once or twice a day to see if they’re updated. With RSS, you don’t have to do that anymore. When your friend’s blog is updated, you’ll see it updated on your RSS reader.
In short, instead of “going out” to look for your content, they’ll just “come in” to you naturally. Why waste time visiting 20 blogs a day only to find that 16 of them aren’t updated? That’s valuable time you could’ve spent on something else.
Ok That’s Great. So… What Do I Do?
Well first you head on over to Google Reader and log in. Not a problem if you’re signed up with at least one Google service (and who isn’t, right?). It’ll probably be blank since you haven’t added any RSS feeds yet. But that’ll change soon.
So now you head over to one of the blogs you frequent (like say, mine) and look for something that says “Subscribe” with a little logo. Something like this:
Right click on the icon and choose “copy link location”. Got it?
Head back to Google Reader, on the left you’ll see a link to add subscriptions that looks like this:
Click on it, a text box will appear, paste the link location inside and you’re all set to go! Your Google Reader page should now look a little something like this:
So now you’re done! Every time I update this blog, you’ll know when you visit Google Reader. Do this for all the blogs you follow and voila! time saved permanently.
There are lots of things you can do on Google Reader as well like share and star items, but the first step is to just subscribe to a couple of blogs and get used to information finding you, instead of having to hunt for it.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to my blog by following these steps, and let me know if this guide helped you and if RSS makes a great improvement to your online habits. I’m betting it will. Next thing you should do is pass the link to this handy RSS how-to guide to a friend and help them make their internet life a little better too.
If for some reason this guide didn’t help or just confused you even more, please let me know in the comments!
And just for your viewing pleasure, here’s a Common Craft video on RSS in Plain English (if my blog post wasn’t plain enough).
I subscribe to so many new blogs a day it’s crazy. On one hand I feel like I should stick to just a few, on the other there is so much good material out there, it seems like I’m never following enough.
So I decided to come up with an experiment:
Put all new blogs in a monthly folder on Google Reader
Star great posts from the respective bloggers
Take a look at the end of the month who’s worth keeping (I mean if they haven’t gotten a single star post in 30 days, I probably don’t need to subscribe to them)
The result? About 30 blogs stayed on my subscription list, of particular mention (in no particular order):
Adam Stiles (of LinkRiver) - I’m admittedly not using LinkRiver a whole lot these days, but I do still follow what Adam has to say on his blog. I actually think LinkRiver has good functions, but just needs a little bit more critical mass.
CC Chapman - Heard of CC for awhile from Six Pounds of sound, but a recent post which highlighted CC on Second Life talking to some students, as well as a great musical pick by bill last month really made me sit up and take notice. The man takes great pictures too.
Claud Talking - I think I was randomly searching Tweetscan for “Singapore” and came across Claud. It’s nice to see a local blog know and “get” social media, without just being a Meepok blog.
Tony Hung @ Deep Jive Interests - I probably first picked up this post on Twitter from Tony, and since then have been following him both on Twitter as well as FriendFeed.
Jeremiah Owyang - A lot of stuff flies over my head because I’m not a practitioner like he is. But there’s still a load of good stuff in there and he does try to write for the newbies as well, so credit there.
I’m following most (if not all) of these bloggers in Twitter as well, look for them via my Twitter page if you like. (And follow me too!)
More blogs to share? Drop your URL and/or RSS feed into the comments below. I’m always on the lookout for new, interesting and educational stuff to read, absorb and most importantly, share.
I don’t know how many people took up those invitations, but I sure did and I have to admit my reaction is kinda mixed. I liked the features of AssetBar, but not the UI (user interface). I liked LinkRiver’s functions, but found it a little hard to find friends. All in all, great products, but I wasn’t sure they would ever take the place of Google Reader. Not that it really mattered, I wasn’t looking for a replacement, just different ways of using the same RSS function on the web.
As a pretty typical Internet user, my attention span isn’t great, and I thought “Ok nice programme, doesn’t do a lot for me, I’ll try to keep it in mind.” What changed it was that creators from both applications dropped me a message at my blog to say “look out for this” or “just to clarify this”.
And that alone was enough for me to consciously set aside time to continually explore their applications, and I’m sure one day they’ll give Google Reader a run for their money.
If you’ve had similar stories, or other such applications/programmes to share, feel free to comment and share them!
By the way, I am well aware that these posts are just flying over the heads of many of my friends, but I’m going to be introducing 2 things that have totally changed my internet usage habits: RSS and del.icio.us. So if you’ve been one of them who’s been telling me “your blog is so technical now” or “why do I want to be even more connected?”. Stay tuned and read on.
Louisgray is very quickly becoming one of my top “must reads” whenever something comes from his RSS feed. Late January he alerted the blogosphere about AssetBar, and now he has the latest on LinkRiver.
So we already use Google Reader or some other RSS reader, why LinkRiver? Without trying it out yet, the biggest draw for me is that is aggregates everything from your RSS feeds to Twitter to Del.icio.us bookmarks into one central location. As Louis says:
harnesses your RSS streams from multiple services, including Google Reader shared items, Twitter, del.icio.us, Yahoo! Bookmarks and others, and posts them to a single “Stream”. As your friends join the service, or you choose to subscribed to other LinkRiver users, these small streams become a “River” of shared links, hence the name.
To get a real good idea, check out Louis’s stream right here. I for one am already sold and have sent in my beta application.
The one negative that I can see coming out of it is if someone is pushing similar feeds on social bookmarks, Google Reader and Twitter, and then it could get very tiresome to deal with. I suppose we’ll find out soon won’t we?
Do you keep your feeds/updates central? Or is there some other way you keep on top of everything? Let me know.
