Interview with Hollis Thomases – on balancing the public and the private in social media

Hollis Thomases and I only knew eachother through Twitter so it seemed appropriate to Tweetup in San Francisco. She answers the questions I posted recently on my blog.

Listen as she reminds us that social media has been around longer than we think, why she is proud of her Twitter profile and the important of direct response. 

Hollis is CEO of her own company that provides a variety of web-based solutions to her clients. She is also a regular columnist for ClickZ, a blogger and a great Twitterer.

This is my second interview from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

Interview with Carlos Hernandez – on the social capital of social media

Carlos Hernandez does something I had not heard of before. He trains unemployed baby boomers to find work through social media.

Listen to what he had to say about the role of social media for good in society and what Carlos said to Twitter’s Evan Williams.

I really like Carlos’ approach to social media. The early web was an egalitarian place where all were equal and most things were shared. And then the big corporations came along and changed things.

Could social media, the great leveller, play a similar role? Will it survive its rapid absorption into the mainstream?

This is my first interview from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

I’ve got my digital kit ready for the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco (plus shades!)

I will be travelling to or arrived in San Francisco when you read this, on my way to the Web 2.0 Expo, San Francisco. I’m really excited.

Several leading and up-and-coming social media experts have arranged to meet me. I wrote in an earlier post that I was going to use permission rather than assertive networking – that is only approach people if they made it clear they wanted to network. It has worked better than you could imagine.

So I’ll try and video, photo and record as many of the important ideas that they mention. So I’ve taken my digital kit with me.

When I was a traditional editor, I would have taken the lot to report with them ie broadcast from the event.

Today my goals are quite different. They are

• to use the kit for networking, 
• to test myself as I try to make all the kit work together,
• to record, rather than report, the important points in videos, pictures and words.

The picture shows my

1 Dell laptop. I am hoping there is Wifi because I want to be able to follow Tweets about the event via the #w2e hashtag identifier on Twitter Search. It is also essential kit back in the hotel room to keep up with the office in London, process all the material I will be gathering and knock out a regular blogpost.

2 Flip video camera. I’m going to ask several of the people I meet the same five questions and record them.

• How long have you been in social media?
• What social media kit have you got on you?
• Which part of your social media activity are you most proud?
• How are you using your social media footprint to network at this event?
• What one thing have you learnt this week that will help your business?
• What’s next in social media?

Then I am going to upload the recording to my Vimeo profile before posting it on my blog as a post.

3 Blackberry Storm. I’m concerned whether the battery will last each day but otherwise Twitter on my Blackberry Storm is going to be an essential cog in keeping me networked throughout the day.

4 Keyfob. All these years later, I am still so excited to be able to sit at my work desktop wherever I am in the world. What will it be like working through the company Wiki for the first time?

5 Exilim digital camera. I cannot get the quality of pictures with my Blackberry Storm that I can with my trusted digital camera so I will put up with the inconvenience of downloading. It’s not in the picture above because I had to take this picture!

6 Shades by Cartier. Heh, it’s the Web 2.0 Expo.

What is the quality of the conversation you are having with your Twitter community?

I used to be obsessed with how Twitter can help you to develop skills to cultivate a community.

Then I became fixated with people to follow on Twitter.

Next I morphed my interest into types of Tweets if you Twitter every day.

Now it is the quality of the conversation I am having with my Twitter community that absorbs me.

What do I mean exactly? I keep on eye on my Twitter profile feed. But I am also transfixed by my Twitter Search Feed. I open it each day, type in “johnwelsh” and see what happens. 

Don’t get me wrong. I am not doing it to see if I myself am mentioned. I am doing it to see whether my Twitters are part of a conversation with my community, that is

• are my Tweets being reTweeted?
• are individuals in my Twitter community addressing me publicly but directly with @replies?
• is my Twitter community answering questions that I ask?

Take a look now at my Twitter Search. I hope it is not just my face filling the page, that my own Tweets are interwoven with other people’s Tweets. Of course there’s a risk that it will all be me. 

So I set myself a tough task. If my face begins to fill a whole page on the Twitter Search Feed with not another human being in sight, I feel under pressure. How can I shift the nature of my Tweets to ensure I am conversing with my Twitter community and not just broadcasting to it.

What happens when you put your Twitter profile name through Twitter Search? What is the quality of the conversation you are having with your Twitter community?

Photo credit: Phineas H

The etiquette of permission networking

You’ve heard of permission marketing, right?  As defined by Seth Godin, it is the transformation wrought by social media encouraging people to opt-in to rather than opt-out of marketing.

Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.

What about permission networking? How does that work and what is the etiquette? 

I’m off to the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco at the end of this month (disclosure: the conference is produced by O’Reilly Media and TechWeb, a sister company of mine in the US).

Last time I was in San Francisco, I had been writing this blog for barely two months. And I had scarcely got going on Twitter. I still had the habits of a traditional broadcast editor in me, thinking nothing of emailing directly a leading and high profile social media expert.

But it takes a lot more than an email to convert a social media relationship into a telephone conversation. This social media guru very politely suggested we could speak on Skype a month later. 

Now I’m surprised he even bothered to reply.

Seven months later, nine months into this blog, five months into my Twitter profile, four months into my Google Reader and ten months into social media, I know better.

Just as social media has transformed push into pull marketing so it has transformed assertive into permission networking.

As I head to San Francisco this time round, I’m not going to be sending emails. I’m not even going to be picking up the phone. 

What I am going to do is

• Tweet out my preparations for the trip.
• Follow the Expo’s hashtag #w2e on Twitter Search to check on who is going.
• I will begin following people I am interested in and see if they follow me.
• Suggest a Tweetup each day.
• Update my status on LinkedIn and TripIt to alert my existing networks of my plans.
• Read Chris Brogan’s 27 things to do before a conference.

But other that those few things I will wait. I wait until people come to me.

And if they don’t, I will know that I need to spend even longer investing in my community before I try to convert social media acquaintances into face-to-face meetings. I will need to contribute even more to people’s conversations on Twitter. And I will have to comment even harder and way more intelligently on their blogs.

I’ve got a dinner booked already and a meeting, both through permission networking.

I’ll let you know how the rest goes.

Photo credit: theogeo

Three ways to cultivate your community at work

We are all working so hard to identify and garden communities among our clients or websites users that we often overlook the community closest to us – our colleagues. 

This is mad. And it misses a great opportunity to learn.

If your colleagues already have a strong network within their business sector, they will create very strong communities when they move online.

Each and every community will develop differently. Do not miss a bit of it.

You need observe how each community behaves, learn from their actions and pass on best practice.

Here are three ways to cultivate you community at work.

1 Set up a Twitter profile just for them.

The people I learn from/follow on my Twitter profile are exclusively social/new media. I find it really distracting when anyone makes any comments outside the subject.

Listening to my colleagues – working across 15 different business sectors – is impossible. Yet I want and need to listen to and learn from their conversations.

I have set up a new Twitter profile where I follow all my colleagues on Twitter.

I’m only just getting my head around. I get to see what kinds of Tweets they are sending out and can give permission feedback (ie only after asking if they want it). I circulate good Tweets by colleagues to spread best practice. And I reTweet one or two of the most appropriate Tweets from my social/new media profile. I congratulate them on their good ideas.

They certainly do not have to follow me – they might be so focused on their own communities that they might find me a distraction.

2 Ask you colleagues to write a guest post on your blog

Many of my colleagues have taken only one or two steps into social media – perhaps a fresh look at their Facebook profile and a stab at Twitter. A blog is just one step too far.

Ask them to write a guest post for you. What is their experience of social media so far - remember they are real practitioners not early adopters so their experience is key to further developments? There will be no shortage of subjects. 

Get them to add links. Ask them to add a list. Encourage them to choose the picture.

Once you have pushed the “publish” button, show them the traffic on a daily basis. Send them links to blogs that have picked up on their post. Show them how to Tweet out a link to their guest post on their Twitter.

Watch them as they experience the excitement of blogging from the safety of your own blog.

3 Introduce your colleagues to the new contacts you meet

Inevitably you build new contacts through social media. They are different from you colleagues at work coming from outside the usual recruitment silos of our businesses.

Both sides have much to learn from eachother: the early adopters begin to understand some of the slowness of traditional companies; the corporates begin to see that the early adopters are actually just like them.

Invite them into the office. Ask them to give a talk to your colleagues. Suggest a work placement that they might find useful.

Picture credit: adele.turner

A list of ten Google Reader Shared Items to which you can subscribe saving you time.

UPDATE: I’ve added an eleventh!

You’ve only just learnt to manage your daily reading through RSS feeds. And soon you find yourself overwhelmed with the number of blogs to which you have subscribed. What do you do? 

Why not subscribe to the Google Reader Shared Items of those bloggers that you trust and admire? Here is how to find Google Reader Shared Items from anyone if you don’t know where to look.Or follow my list and discover some with whom you might not be so familiar.

They appraise hundreds of blogs on a daily basis and post only those they rate to their Google Reader Shared Items. 

They make choices – having edited down the mass to a manageable few - so you will need to do much less reading. 

You might also be introduced to new thinkers and writers. These bloggers tend to subscribe to so many blogs – Mike Fruchter mentions subscribing to over 1000 in a guest post on how to become a power Google reader on this blog - that they come across hidden gems.

Of course you have to trust the blogger’s taste, values and editing skills. But, a hint here. If they produce regular work of a consistent standard that strikes a chord with you, their Google Reader Shared Items is just as likely to be for you.

Here’s a list of ten Google Reader Shared Items to which you can subscribe saving you time.

1. AJ Kohn - Some serious tech stuff but also an nice eclectic mix of sci-fi book reviews and social media badges. (MF)
2. Chris Brogan – Just like his blog, Chris’ Shared Items are a useful spread of the best new and social media writing. 
3. Corvida Raven - Social media blogger behind “SheGeeks”, student and evangelist. She’s gonna’ go far. (LG)
4. Jesse Stay - Blogger and author of ”The Social Geek”. (MF)
5. Louis Gray -If you cannot face TechCrunch, GigaOM and Gawker filling your reader every day, sign up to Louis’ list.
   
6. Mark Dykeman - The Canadian’s choices cover communication, social media, and technology. (MF)
7. Mike Fruchter - Mike is famous for the width of his reading. It comes out in these Shared Items.
   
8. NetMediaPlanet -  From NMP’s research and insight department and details development in various verticals from search, PPC, social media to online behavior in general. (PM)
9. Rob Diana - Author behind RegularGeek blog “where programming, the internet and social media collide”. (LG)
10. Steve Rubel - As you would expect of a leading PR blogger, much on new rather than social media, many from his company’s blog.
    
11. David Cohn – building his own personal brand and commenting on the new journalism.

Thanks to Mike Fruchter (MF), Louis Gray (LG) and Peter Moore (PM) for their suggestions.

If you still cannot find anything in those ten, then try FriendFeed’s Shared Items room, as suggested to me by Louis Gray. 

Are you going to subscribe to some Google Reader Shared Items? And, if you already do, whom would you add to the list?

If you think your followers/community on Twitter would be interested in this post, show them your value by reTweeting it to them!

Guest post: how to be a better listener by becoming a Power Google Reader

Many of my colleagues ask me how to get started in social media. I always say “listen”.

Set up a Twitter profile, but do not Tweet. Read blogs, but do not comment. Listen to the conversation, before you dare to participate.

To become a good listener, you need to know what to read and where to find it.

Mike Fruchter boasts his own blog Social Media Marketing Strategies, a lively and useful Twitter/FriendFeed and seminal Google Shared Items. He also subscribes to over a 1000 blogs by RSS feeds through his Google Reader.

Here he tells you how you can become a Power Google Reader so that you can really listen to the conversation.

Last month I wrote a guest post for my friend and fellow blogger, Louis Gray, titled “RSS Overload: Don’t Complain, Do Something About It.” It touched upon some people’s growing frustrations with Google Reader. The frustrations are mainly due to RSS mismanagement and being overwhelmed with massive amounts of feeds. The post outlined some productivity tips on better feed management.

This post will touch upon a few key areas of better feed management, and feed discovery. Follow my tips, and you will be on the road to becoming a Power Google Reader, I assure you.

If your Google Reader is overwhelmed, start with a clean slate immediately.
If your Google Reader is not efficient anymore, it’s probably due to subscribing to the wrong blogs, blogs with no update frequency, or feed clutter. Feed clutter will turn your Google Reader into a deserted wasteland of RSS feeds.

First make sure you have a backup of your mainstay feeds, the feeds you simply can’t live without. Once you have done that, go to the settings tab in your Google Reader, select all and press the unsubscribe button. If your Google Reader is currently in a manageable state, then proceed to the next step.

I use a holding tank for RSS feeds first, before I subscribe to them in Google Reader:
Being a Power Google Reader, I simply don’t just add anything to my feed reader. In the old days I would add anything and everything. All that did was clutter my feed reader into an unmanageable state. While I follow over 1,000 + feeds currently, these are feeds that met my criteria for being added into Google Reader. I will go over my criteria further down the post.

I use a holding tank for feeds. To accomplish this I use a site called Toluu. Toluu is a powerful feed discovery service, but it’s also a good tool for storing rss feeds. When I come across new feeds, I enter them into my Toluu account first. By doing this, it serves two purposes, the first its it lets me evaluate a feed over a period of time, usually a week or so before I add it into Google Reader. The second, is that it also serves as a backup for feeds, because it gives you the ability to download an OPML file of your stored feeds, which you can then import into your Google Reader. Think of it as an approved handpicked feed reader list. This method works rather well for me. I suggest you all try it out, if you need an invite to Toluu, leave a comment on the post with your email address and I will shoot you a beta invite.

So basically, if the feed is a must read, I enter it into Toluu first then into Google Reader. If I’m unsure about the feed because of a lack of updates and so forth, it stays in Toluu for an evaluation period. Toluu also has a handy tool that lets you add an RSS feed into their system and simultaneously into Google Reader with one mouse click. Remember it’s all about working smarter not harder. This system eliminates what I call “garbage in equals garbage out.”

How I discover new voices and their RSS feeds?
I consume information perhaps at a quicker pace than some. I’m discovering new blogs every day. I use a variety of tools to accomplish this. What works best for me is blogrolls, believe it or not. When I discover a new blog, I always glance over to their blogrolls and follow the links. The majority of time, specifically in the social media realm, I will see the same links to the same blogs repeated. That’s a good sign as that tells me this blog is worth paying attention to, and in most cases it is. When a specific blog is constantly repeated, it has the earmarkings of a mainstay feed in my Google Reader. Bloggers already know what the quality blogs are therefore they link to them for that reason. Along with the usual suspects ( the mainstay blogs ) I will always find new voices among them. When I click over to a new blog that has caught my eye for a specific reason, I look at their blogroll. I rinse and repeat this process over and over again. That’s one way I discover new blogs. 

I follow many blogs covering different subjects. The majority of blogs I follow are social media related, but I also follow blogs about PR and marketing along with technology blogs. I find these blogs mainly through a Google Blog Search. I use blog searches daily to track specific keywords that I use for marketing and research. This has become the second best discovery tool for me. I also have set up different Google Alerts for the various keywords that I track on a daily basis. These alerts often aid in the discovery process of new blogs. For instance, I have an alert setup for my name, Mike Fruchter, that’s how I found These Digital Times, John Welsh’s blog. John mentioned my name and blog url in a previous post. Had it not been for the alert I have setup, I would have never found his blog. Do you see the power in linking out to people? Always link out to fellow bloggers every chance you get. This will help in you getting discovered and most of all establishing relationships with fellow bloggers. That’s another post for another day perhaps John or I will write about.

I use Twitter and Twitter search for discovery, it’s great for keyword tracking. If I need to find out something, I resort to Twitter first to see if people are talking about it. This always leads me to find new blogs. I will also check in on my Twitter stream from time to time to see what people are talking about and retweeting. The majority of social media blogs that I read, I also follow on Twitter. I have an expressed interest and in some cases friendships with these bloggers. They are like human filters for me. They aid in the discovery process of new blog tremendously. Make it a point to follow the bloggers you read on Twitter.

I also use FriendFeed, a site that I have been active on for close to a year now. FriendFeed serves a multitude of purposes, the first being a content aggregator. The second is as a power social media search engine. FriendFeed acts as my secondary RSS filter, whatever I may miss in Google Reader, I most likely will find on FriendFeed through the people I’m subscribed to, or via FriendFeeds advanced search function. As you can see, my main theme of discovery relies heavily on search and social search engines.
If you want to get a good idea on what feeds I subscribe to, you can follow me on FriendFeed or follow my Google Reader .
If you don’t have time to search, I suggest checking out the Ad Age Power 150 list. It lists the most popular and active social media and marketing blogs on the web. I follow approx 100 of the blogs on their list. That’s a great starting point. You can also download the OPML file of all 150 blogs on the list, then simply import the OPML file into your Google Reader.

What is the criteria for adding an RSS feed to my Google Reader?
Simply put any blog that has quality content and that updates with some amount of frequency. I often look for the smaller and less known voices, it’s often the smaller blogs that add more value, share different aspects, and are passionate about the story they are telling compared to the bigger publications.

How many RSS feeds do I currently subscribe to?
At the time of this post, I have 1,125 RSS feeds in my Google Reader. On a daily basis I probably skim through about 250 + of these feeds. The high priority ones are my must reads, these are often the ones that update with a daily or bi daily frequency. The rest of the feeds that I still take an interest in with less updating frequency are stored in “low frequency folders.” This allows me to come back through the course of the week and check on them. There is always something to read in my Google Reader, it’s never at any given point empty.
Having over 1,000 RSS feeds is excessive, but they not all on a particular subject matter. I also organize my feeds into folders, which allows me to streamline my RSS consumption rather easily.
Every 3-6 months I spend a day and prune my Google Reader. Clearing out feeds that no longer interest me, and feeds that have not been updated in some time or at all. 

How many blogs should you subscribe to?
The question is how much can you handle?  If you are the type that gets overwhelmed by the unread feed count, I would say no more then 100 RSS feeds. My Google Reader at any given time has a few thousands unread RSS feeds, this does not bother me, or intimidate me as it does other people. Remember you can always hide the “unread count.” Never let the feed reader get the best of you! 

The key to becoming a Power Google Reader is productivity and organization:
To make the most out of your Google Reader you need to be using two of the built in features. The first is folders. Set up folders for your must reads, or folders based on topical interest. You could create a folder system for “daily”, “important”, and “other”. My system is similar to the one I  mentioned. This is crucial if you are going to follow more than 100 RSS feeds. Simply having over 1,000 + RSS Google Reader is a major distraction and clutter. Keep the clutter contained to folders. 
The second feature I use is keyboard shortcuts. I’m all about productivity, the less mouse clicks and hand gestures I need to use, is more time spent reading my feeds. Get familiar with the keyboard shortcuts, you will be amazed how much more productive your feed reader will become.

By Mike Fruchter of MichaelFruchter.com (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Photo credit:ky_olsen

Use the rules of traditional journalism to ensure you’re on your best behaviour in social media

Social media encourages a sense of glorious informality. But do not let its appearance blind you to the necessity of rules.

Take the issue of confidentiality.

• Can you Tweet a comment made in a LinkedIn group?
• Can you write in your blog something that you were told through a Twitter Direct Message?

To find answers, look no further than traditional journalism.  Here the concept of “Chatham House Rules” and “off-the-record” ensure you do not fall out with your network. 

Let me tell you about two recent scenarios.  

Chatham House Rules

One of our  journalists is intending to ask the senior executives of his business sector to join a LinkedIn group. The more open the discussion the more valuable the group. But members will be relaxed only if they know that their identity will be protected. The journalist needs to make clear the rules of the group.

So the journalist asked me last week

“If I set up and lead a LinkedIn group, should I make it clear we are operating under Chatham House Rules?”

Wikipedia defines Chatham House Rules as

When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.

The rules might have been established almost a century ago. But the principle remains just as valid in today’s social media.

So, ask yourself, what are the rules for your group?

Off-the-record

My Twitter network stepped in to help me when I thought my blog post had been reproduced without adequate credit or links. Peter Moore contacted me with a solution but he did so through Twitter’s Direct Message.

I wrote about the help in a blog post.

I was just about to publish when it suddenly occurred to me. Peter had not communicated with me through the public conversation that is Twitter but rather through the privacy of a Direct Message. On any traditional journalism basis, his advice was “off the record”.

Wikipedia, again, defines “Off-the-record” as

The information is provided to inform a decision or provide a confidential explanation, not for publication.

Perhaps Peter did not want his name associated with my post.  Like a journalist, I needed to check I had permission before using his name. I did so through another Direct Message. He said yes. A simple check had protected a relationship in my network. 

Do you have any rules from old media that help protect your relationships in social media?

If you think your followers/community on Twitter would be interested in this post, show them your value by reTweeting it to them!

Photo credit: markhillary

Guest post: ask your readers – what are the key five principles of blogging?

Phil Clark started  the blog Zerochampion in February 2007 and focuses on one one particular community – that of sustainability. He also cultivates a Twitter following with his sometimes ironic Tweets  (disclosure: and is a colleague).  Here he has asked his readers to answer the question, what are the key five principles of blogging?

I’ve been blogging for just over two years now at Zerochampionand while the tool is essentially one that offers you freedom there are a few principles I think that are crucial to establishing yourself both as a trusted voice and to building a loyal and growing audience. This is especially true if your blog is one that is not just personal but plays a part in your role as a practitioner, professional or journalist.

In order to cement the five principles I’ve worked up I put the question out to my audience and got some fascinating results. While the commenters picked up on different aspects about blogging I think there were core messages that came across. So here goes:

1 It’s journalism but not quite as you know it -There are key skills that transfer to blogging from journalism (writing style, grasp of subject, interpretation and analysis etc,) but there are other qualities you need to possess, such as

• a greater openness with your audience,
• more honesty in admitting the limits of your knowledge in writing and
• an eagerness to engage more directly with your audience.

Here’s a perspective from one of my readers William Shaw:

Journalists make the mistake of thinking they’re like a rolling op-ed page… that they’re writing the last thought on something, whereas really a blog is about your third or fourth pass at an idea.

2 Be passionate - You need a real passion for the subject of your blog – Without I think you’ll struggle for two reasons,

• I’m not sure the audience will really believe in what you’re writing or connect with you,
• and secondly I think you’ll struggle to keep the enthusiasm going to keep it fresh and updated.

3 Be patient- Nothing online is overnight as I discovered when starting to focus my attentions on online. You’re not going to get a string of comments days after you start. It takes effort, but the rewards are fantastic. I have developed relationships that are as strong as any than I have made as a journalist through more traditional means such as face to face meetings.

4  Experiment– Your blog doesn’t have to be flat prose. There’s a freedom to blogging that’s liberating. Try things out few quick examples — use audio-visual material or style your posts differently. Why not try a poem, a bit of satire, a conversation or just ask series of questions? William Shaw again:

A blog is a try-out of a half-formed thought. That’s why it’s such a wonderful form.

5 Blog first time– I find that holding on to ideas is more often than not fatal for blogs. Wait for even a day or so and the inspiration wanes. If you let an idea fester it does just that – fester and wane. Get it down as soon as the inspiration takes you.

Picture credit: sideshowbarker