DISQUS

A fw of us spoke at the recent Boston Social Media breakfast about this. Two of the things I pushed were:
Know Where You Are an Why You're There - don't join a social network and keep it active just for the sake of a presence there. If it doesn't give you anything of value, don't dilute your time or personal brand by being there.
Tie Up Loose Ends - DO NOT just abandon a profile on a social network. We've all signed up for sites that we've never gone back to. Sometimes we try to sign up for one just to find that we already had a profile there. Talk about diluting your brand! The last thing you want as a job seeker is to have a 9 month old resume on Plaxo because you only focus on LinkedIn. Or a MySpace profile that says your single that your new spouses best friend finds! If a site isn't doing you any good, don't just drop it, delete your profile there.

For those interested in a service to help you manage your online presence, check out: http://www.gathr.me/video.html. It won't solve the issues I mentioned above but it will "streamline your online life".

Ironic that Steve Garfield and I met for only the second time at SummerMash Boston and were scrambling to pull up a mobile version of this app:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdurwin/sets/72157...

I had CNN on in the other room while following the latest Tweets. CNN's coverage was spotty at best. I watched all day today as well as they began using reports from Twitter and Facebook. If CNN's coverage was so good, then why did they have to resort to using content from the same social networks they claim were no better. You can't have it both ways guys.
I understand your reporters faced danger (their job I thought) and were band from covering, but couldn't they have used the same camera phones and SMS that Iranians on the street did?

The most important take away from this, actually mentioned by someone on CNN: social networks enable freedom. Freedom of speech and expression. Networks just cannot compete with real people telling real stories from the middle of a possible revolution. Networks are too large, political, bulky, and rooted to be able to be as responsive as people want. It takes hours to report a plane landing in the Hudson from any network, it took someone on the scene seconds to post an eye witness report with a picture.

Good thing my main iPhone Twitter app is Tweetie, which seems to be safe so far.

You're absolutely right there. Of course that is a very generational thing. Certainly Baby Boomers and Gen X (my gerneration) will need to feel that they can trust the site. To that end, we're partnering with proven security companies to get that aspect of the product nailed down. Gen Y though, doesn't worry so much about it. They'll share anything. Diverging from a demographical view, most early adopters think about security, but when it comes down to it, will give up there mother's social security number to join a cool new service!
If you're interested in more, visit our site. We're in beta, but if you leave your email we'll let you know when we open testing to the public: http://www.gathr.me

It shouldn't be difficult to do. An AutoDM would be published almost immediately after you Followed a user. It wouldn't be hard to create an addon that compared your Follow to a DM, and filter out any that were sent within seconds of yours.

One of my partners sent me this post, as it's exactly what I do to manage all of my digital stuff. But, we're working on a new site that will do all of this for you, and then some.

I'm subscribed through your site. I get your daily emails already. I'm surprised to get a subscription drive email from someone I already subscribe to.

Or you could buy Photoshop.

You guys neglected to mention the ship combat Star Trek game. It features great graphics, 3 ways to steer your ship (by touch, joystick or iPhone tilt) and the killer soundtrack from the film. Of course it has it's cheese-ball moments like character illustrations with dumb comments in text, but for the most part it's a fun game.
iTunes URL:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/...

EA game info:
http://www.eamobile.com/Web/iphone-games/star-trek

The flaw in that formula is that mentions don't necessarily mean drinkers. If I say beer sucks, I prefer martinis, does that count as a beer drinker? Statistics are great and very helpful, after all: "there are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

What I find amazing is that Twitter has recently landed a HUGE amount of additional funding. The only thing that users have seen happen with the service is a removal of functionality. This begs a few questions:

What is Twitter using their money for, new office chairs?
Who in their right mind offers functionality for their product that they're not prepared to scale? I can see that perhaps Twitter has been caught off guard by the numbers their getting thanks to Oprah and Ellen, but honesty especially with your hard core users, would have been nice.
How is this going to effect companies like Comcast who are doing such a great job responding to issues through Twitter, if they can only see conversations aimed at them? Other than being driven to use 3rd party apps with API call limitations?

While I find it hard to believe that only 3% of users utilize the @reply feature, perhaps that number is so small because of the ridiculous influx of celebrity Twitter followers, what isn't clear is if it will be put back or not. As almost every one of us early and power Twitter users has told Twitter, this particular feature is how our networks have grown, which in turn is how Twitter has grown. If Twitter is not going to give back the feature, then our networks will become stagnant as we won't grow them without knowing who to Follow. #followfriday and #newbietuesday help, but it's really about finding interesting people from seeing part of an interesting conversation, not just being told someone is cool. That's fine for Ellen, Oprah, @aplusk, and @mrskutcher, but how about those whose conversations are the real value of Twitter? Once more: it's about the content, but this change in functionality is now hiding that content.

With a service like Twitter, I think it's important to define the word use. You can read anyone's posts without signing up for the service. Of course you can't interact, but interaction is only part of what the service offers. So while some users are signing in just to watch, and some are signing in to create content and interact, there is a large portion that may be simply going to Twitter.com just to watch without signing up for an account.

Is it hype two years after it's launch?

A quick question Stuart,
I agree with most of what you posted expect for the last two:
Why should an employer pay you for spending hours a day on your personal social networks? Aren't you getting paid to work?
Why should a company screw up it's entire schedule just to suite you? After all, if you just worked whenever you wanted to, how is this fair to others? By the way, most jobs don't end at 5pm. Especially in a touch economy, anyone that wants to get ahead is taking work home.
BTW, $30k starting salaries were common for the previous generation too. Gen X is still paying off their college debt, started at 30k, and didn't have Facebook to occupy their day.

You forgot #newbietuesday!

I REALLY wanted to tweet from court when I was recently on a jury. Of course it was morally wrong. But it would have been fun. I don't know how one would get away with it. Court officers, lawyers and judges are constantly looking at the jury box, I cant imagine them letting someone get away with Tweeting while in the box. My wife was more lax when I tweeted during her contractions (@durwin2point0)!

Once again, Boston gets left out.

It's a testament to the pace of the world these days that so many are concerned with what departments "social media experts" fit in. It took a decade before webmasters became entire departments of specialists.

I think you got off track a bit here. As someone who came up through the web craze from the early 90s on, I can appreciate the parallels. The thing is, at the time, one person could and HAD TO be a web master since no company would dedicate the resources to entire departments dedicated to each task. In 1994 I was creating the graphics, the layout, writing the content, developing the code, even promoting a site on bulletin boards (yes, long before the term social media popped up. Hell, I even used HotorNot to promote my band). In a very short time of course, businesses saw the need to take web strategies seriously.

Fast forward to 10 years later. How many companies have budgets and talent dedicated to community management? How about content development? Widget execution? Social analytics? Until they do, you'll see the term social media expert used often. These poor suckers will have thread bare budgets, be expected to perform miracles, with no staff, while having to manage all aspects of a social media campaign.

I'm curious myself what titles will manifest themselves over the next decade. Alot of the comments I've read here break themselves into several categories:

Those who think social media is a fad. I remember you guys laughing my out of your office when I pitched you the idea of having a web site. "Where's the money in that?"

Those who are tied up in semantics: social media v. social marketing.

Those who saw the birth and maturity of the web as a tool for business and see the value in a hybrid at a time when few understand what is going on never mind agreeing to pay for a team of specialists!

I'm about to become a parent, but as most know, my baby already has it's own Twitter account. Twitter is like any other Internet channel in that if you say it publicly, it will be available publicly. I never say anything that I'd have a problem with others seeing, even children. I'm not lewd, I don't swear (often), and I don't talk about anything that I wouldn't bring up at "Sunday diner".
While that is how I moderate myself, I wouldn't want others to moderate themselves because my children are around. It is my job as a parent to monitor who and where my children communicate with others, until they are 18.

<abbr>Michael Durwins last blog post..Gen Y Does NOT Dominate Internet Usage</abbr>

Most of the replied here are legitimate. Companies do require RIO and numbers. They also need to be made aware that SoMe is not a hunt & gather tactic, it's more of an agricultural one. TV, billboards, PPC, is great for quick turnaround ROI. Social media is a much more long term investment. That being said, measurement is going to be of primary concern to companies. While some good tools have been popping up, few SoMe measuring tools exist that compare with those used for traditional and online media. When those tools are developed you'll see a more confident use of social media for business.

Chris,
I had the same thing in mind (magazine-style layout) when I set up my blog. I have a big fancy picture and headline for the articles I want to feature, then smaller headlines with snipits, organized by subject beneath. Of course my latest reel, Twitter posts, and links to all my SoMe location, and subscription box all in one column. I've gotten nothing but good feedback on the layout and I think it's been helpful for visitors ingesting my content in a non-linear fashion, like a magazine.

Boston Twestival raised almost $4000. Our pictures are up here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1027808@N21/
http://boston.twestival.com