DISQUS

Hmmm ... doesn't sound like that audio recorded properly ... What'd you say?

Jason Falls: Secretly counting the days until he can ditch his PR/social media gig for life as cowboy in the great outdoors.

Note: learned of this *other* side of Jason at SXSW 2009.

Bryan | @BryanPerson

Love that last Friday's Social Media Breakfast inspired you to give this new project a try. Most of my best ideas seem to come in the shower!

Bryan | @BryanPerson

Charlie is dead on with his "empty restaurant" analogy. We refer to it as "first on the dance floor" at LiveWorld. Taking the lead is difficult, but joining a party -- or community -- where everyone is already dancing is much less daunting.

There is a whole range of duties undertaken by "moderators" in online communities today, but a crucial one -- and one that is often overlooked -- is the social host-type that Charlie references. Social hosts aren't simply approving or rejecting posts and comments; rather, they're fanning the sparks of topics that members have raised, welcoming newcomers, connecting members to each other around shared interests, and jumpstarting new discussions as needed. It will be interesting to see if Barbara plays this role, for example, on the Hotel Check-In boards.

These efforts are vital in the early stages of new communities, when members are still finding their way around.

Bryan | @BryanPerson
LiveWorld

Christie, thanks for the tip. I really don't want to keep paying $12.95/month for Jott. Will check out reQall now!

Fran:

It was wonderful to see you at SXSW last week, and it was a thrill to be honored as part of the Statesman's Texas Social Media Awards. We do have something good going on here in our state.

P.S. Good reminiscing about Australia with you as well! Hope to see you at the park this spring.

Richie:

Wish I could have attended your TSPRA presentation in person - so pleased that it went well!

And another presentation-preparation lesson I learned this week: Be prepared to press on when your slide projector has terrible contrast and the images you think are so cool are actually hard to see!

Maybe we can present together sometime, Richie!

Bryan | @BryanPerson

Jennifer, what a great agenda! I'm going to see if I can make it.

For the iPhone, Google Latitude is "coming soon." Blog about this again in a month or two to remind me? :)

Christie:

There's another post from ReadWriteWeb that goes through the steps for building a "social media cheat sheet" in any field. And in this case, post author Marshall Kirkpatrick all chooses the education field; he builds a "Top Education Blog - Greatest Hits" OPML file. Here's the post: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_bui...

A quick scan of Marshall's post tells me that it's a bit technical (or "geeky"). I'm going to need to spend a dedicate hour with it before it will sink in.

Bryan | @BryanPerson

Jennifer: Really looking forward to helping you and Jennifer Navarrete to kick off the Social Media Breakfast series in San Antonio next week.

By the way, I think we met at the PRSA event in San Antonio in October, right? I wasn't at the New Marketing Summit, although I hear it was a great event!

Bryan | @BryanPerson
Social Media Breakfast founder

I received the dodgy DMs from someone I wasn't even following earlier today. Was smart enough (whew!) not click through. Any idea on the best way to report that user account?

And maybe I can work on spelling my own name correctly when I leave comments!

I'm sure you think carefully about the ratio of Ford posts vs. non-Ford posts here on your blog, but I'm asking for plenty of Ford-related items in this space in 2009. The behind-the-scenes stuff that Brandon references are interesting to me, too. Here are some ideas:

* How your communications/social media team works with the legal department, and the kinds of discussions those groups are having around social media and outreach.
* What you want out of your agency (specifically thinking the Social Media Group here). Kyle Flaherty blogged about this recently (http://www.engageinpr.com/2008/12/22/communicat...), and I think it would be good to get your take on this, too. How does that agency impact your thinking and the work that your team does?
* Case studies and results. Echoing the other commenters' sentiments here.
* Humanizing the brand. You're already doing this well, but how do you continue to lead the charge to put a social face/voice behind a corporate behemeth, and how well is that playing with the suits at Ford HQ?

Here's hoping these suggestions/questions triggers a few new thoughts and posts for you in the year ahead.

Happy New Year, Scott!

Bryan | @BryanPerson

Wanted to add one other way I like to use delicious. I tag all (or many) of posts I leave comments on with the "commented" tag. This gives me a running history of posts/bloggers I've "interacted" with, and is also helpful when I want to check back in on follow-up posts from other readers later on.

Very helpful post here, Jason, and a timely one, too. (I've also been kicking around an idea for a post on delicious for a week or two, so I'll make sure to write about this from a different angle).

Delicious bookmarks are most valuable for me when I'm doing research for or preparing a presentation. I'll create a unique tag for that presentation (like Blogging101), and then tag all relevant content that way for a while (assuming I have enough notice ahead of the presentation). As I'm getting my remarks/slides ready, I can review all Blogging101-tagged content and organize my thoughts.

Like you, Jason, my tags are generally a mess. I have, gulp, 447 of them, and most have 5 or fewer items. How about a challenge: Let's see which of us can reorganize all our tags first? I'm making that a goal for January.

Bryan | @BryanPerson

The Mzinga guys (or at least one current Mzinga guy and one soon-to-be-fellow-Chris-Brogan pirate) had a good interview with Liz Strauss a few weeks ago, and here were her two top blogging tips:

1) Leave a blog post unfinished (you advise the same in point 5), giving readers more impetus to jump in and finish your thoughts for you.
2) Ask the right question at the end of the post that moves people to respond. Liz says about one-third of the time for her posts are spent coming up with just the right parting question.

Scott:

You're a kinder man than I, as I actually declined to participate in this meme (have done it once or twice before, too) and do the same for most other memes.

Fellow former altar boy here, and I'm hoping -- though I can't say for sure -- that I never wore sneakers under my robe.

Merry Christmas.

Bryan Person | @BryanPerson

OK, checking in on the site proper a couple of more times. It really is a crisp, readable font.

From a visual perspective, I also liked the old design that Nico built. Bolder, livelier colors in comparison to this design. On the other hand, if this theme gives you better results on the SEO front, that's probably reason enough to make the switch.

Are there other behind-the-scenes benefits to using the Thesis theme? Maybe Chris Pearson can chime in on this front. I'm on the lookout for a good theme for an upcoming work project, so I'm all ears ... or, uhm, eyes!

And as a guy who reads you almost exclusively in Google Reader, I personally won't fret either way over your design choice! I read you because the content is good.

Bryan Person | @BryanPerson

Moving your car loan? If GMAC goes under, it might be moved for you!

Bryan Person | @BryanPerson

You may not be Twittering, Seth, but a Tribes fan of yours is: http://twitter.com/sethgodintribes

Agree with you on this one, Chris. And hey, don't forget the millions of message boards around the world, Utterli, Seesmic, Flickr ...

Really, if you wanted, you could spend all day bouncing from site and community to site and community trying to join every last relevant conversation. Know what would happen, though? 1) You'd still miss some 2) You wouldn't get much else done.

Pick your handful of sites, social networks, and communities where you'll participate, and then make sure you're accessible should someone from another group/community wants to reach you. This way, you're in touch (enough), focused, and sane!

Bryan Person | @BryanPerson

Chris:

This is a point that hits home for me. I'm now blogging on LiveWorld's new SocialVoice site, while also trying to maintain my own brand and presence on BryanPerson.com. And the subject matter for the two blogs isn't all that different (social media marketing). So if I write the post of my life, does it go on my blog or my employer's? It's a tricky balance.

--Bryan Person | @BryanPerson

I wholeheartedly agree here, Jason. I think it's easy to fall into the trap of talking to ourselves inside the each chamber, since we seem to like and support each other so much. But it's stepping outside the babble that's vital. I'm also giving a presentation to a PRSA group this week -- on the basics of blogging. That's right, so many communications professionals are just getting started in social media, and we have the power to share what we've learned along way. Can't wait until Thursday afternoon.

--Bryan Person
LiveWorld social media evangelist

Kat, I have Disqus installed on a couple of small Tumblr blogs, and I get notified as well when new comments come through. You may want to check your settings in your Disqus account.