Archive for the 'social media' Category

Rittenhouse Square - Looking for More Non-vagrants

Published by brian on July 23, 2008 in social media. 2 Comments

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If you live in the Philadelphia area & are active on Twitter, you may have recently received an email telling you that @rittenhouse is now following you.  While it is fairly obvious what @rittenhouse would be referring to, there is a good chance you were not quite sure what you would find.  Further extending their reach into the Social Media space, they have also created a Facebook page that allows members to become a fan. 

For those of you not familiar with Philadelphia, Rittenhouse Square is a small park in center city Philadelphia with plenty of open space, trees, park benches, a few statues & the obligatory floral landscaping.  It is a popular destination that offers a lot of versatility.  Parents with children, artists, musicians, couples, groups of friends, the daily lunch crowd, people watchers; pretty much anything you would expect traverses through the park each day. 

The underlying beauty is in the history.  The peripheral beauty, literally, is the immediate, surrounding area; fashionable & trendy shops, top-notch restaurants, bars, clubs, even a five-star hotel.  Well known to those who frequent Rittenhouse Square, you will also find your fair share of homeless people. 

So why the sudden foray into the Social Media space?  My guess is that more people who are looking for a place to relax &/or spend money need to come visit;  @rittenhouse is lonely & misses you.  I love Rittenhouse Square, but admittedly am not there enough.  Sure, life happens & you spend your weekends in Avalon; but if I feel I could be in & around the Square more often, there are definitely plenty of others who should as well. 

Did I mention they’re also creating buzz around an upcoming potluck picnic?  Seriously.  What a great way to bring attention to something different that could build a physical & interactive community.  Initially the interaction starts online, is strengthened in the real world, & then can continue both online & off afterwards.  Should you be looking for a great example of Social Media integration (& something that embodies the real value of it), you’d be well advised to observe what @rittenhouse is doing.


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Live Blogging - FriendFeed Registration

Published by brian on July 9, 2008 in social media. 2 Comments

From the buzz I hear & read on a daily basis, having a FriendFeed account is a must. 

  • First Impression: Simple & clean.  As you will read immediately below, creating an account is done in two steps & doesn’t require a lot of time or hassle.

  • Registration Process: Creating your account name is quick & easy; it should take you less than a minute.  The next step lets you find people you know through Facebook or your existing email accounts.  The Facebook application did not work after a few attempts, but finding people through my Gmail & Yahoo mail accounts was simple.  Unsurprising to me; I can only find two people I know, but luckily, before completing the registration process I am taken to a screen of popular friend’s friends.  Subscribing to their feeds is done with the click of a button.  Nine appear at a time & new subscription recommendations auto fill each time a new one is added.  Once you are done with all of this, you are taken to your friends page & can begin seeing what they publish or add your own.

    • friendfeed-create-account

     

friendfeed-find-friends

 

  • What It Is: An aggregator for just about every social media account you manage online.  Currently there are 41 services you can add to your FriendFeed.  There are four main tabs - friends, rooms, me, & everyone.  Friends shows you all subscription updates with the most recent displaying at the top of the page.  You can join or create your own discussion room; a great way for niche topics, interests, etc. to become more in-depth conversations.  Your me tab removes everything but your updates.  In the everyone tab, you see just that; everyone’s updates.

 

  • Potential: If you are ahead of the game & you frequently update things like your blog Twitter, Flickr, Del.icio.us, & StumbleUpon & have a healthy FriendFeed subscription list your ability to reach many increases.  It is a great way to engage & share your content with others while pulling the same type of content from your friend’s feeds.

 

  • Why You Should Join: Once you sign up for FriendFeed & realize the connection potential, you will instantly realize the value of this service.   Many of us spend a lot of time updating others about the various types of content we post; problem is we are usually wary of spamming our friends.  However, if someone finds you compelling enough to subscribe to your feed, chances are they will want to participate in many of the things you wish to share.

 

  • Why You Should Avoid: I honestly cannot think of one.  Yes, FriendFeed could be a little prettier in presentation.  BUT like RSS, you can easily keep yourself up to date with content you find interesting or valuable.

 


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Live Blogging - Plurk Registration

Published by brian on June 3, 2008 in social media. 2 Comments

I think we can all agree there is a plethora of social media tools/sites out there. Some might say it’s getting a bit ridiculous & I would agree. While I would love to think that each is created to give people new & interesting ways to connect, the cynic in me says this is just an attempt to get in the game with the ultimate goal of generating advertising dollars. Oh wait, that’s what pays my bills.

That said; I feel compelled both personally & professionally to check these out. For your benefit; I’ll keep a log of my thoughts & experiences during the sign up & initial investigation phases.

Plurk: Your life, on the line

  • First Impression: Holy crap; there’s using design to be different/endearing/edgy & there’s plain stupid. A weird fish asking a headless pig, “What is up, headless doc?” This seems like something looking to compete with Twitter. Note to head Plurk guy or gal; Twitter is dumb enough a name, don’t mistake our affinity for the tool to be something related to having to talk about Tweets, retweeting, & using the @ or # symbols.

Plurk Home Page

  • Registration Process: One step to sign up. You can search for friends from your AIM, Yahoo, or MSN instant messenger accounts, Twitter, or email. The latter two are much more helpful. Twice submitted AIM account info & got a HTTP 400 Bad Request page. A subsequent attempt using my Yahoo IM info yielded the same. Lame. I am then brought to my home page with an invite to the tutorial.

Plurk Profile

  • What It Is: You can view both your own & your friends’ plurks, over time. Conversation is displayed in a timeline manner &, just like Twitter, you get 140 characters per post. Very easy to navigate & using the tool (updating, changing account settings, editing your profile, & finding new Plurkers) is easy. There’s even a link - Interesting Plurkers - which allows you to browse people you may want to add. Mobile & IM capabilities exist; although I think this is standard now for the Social Media world. The last note in the tutorial explains that Plurk is not 100% instant, meaning that you should check back for new plurks, comments, or friends.

Interesting Plurkers

  • Potential: Like all social tools, there needs to be enough people with similar interests who will start meaningful conversations. I sort of like the manner in which the conversation is displayed & I find it amusing that you can segment friends into Cliques. Plurk has done a few things to differentiate themselves such as creating color-coded words that are commonly used to start and the ability to share multi-media without opening a new browser or leaving the page. There are also Karma points; not sure what these are as there is now mention within the FAQs (dumb), but a Google search tells me they’re awarded based on activity.

Plurk YouTube Clip

  • Why You Should Join: If you can get all of your Twitter friends to abandon it, completely, & move over to Plurk, it might be worth your time. The multi-media components give you the opportunity to share more dynamic content & the timeline view is easier to read & navigate, in my opinion, than a simple list, a la Twitter.

Plurk Conversation

  • Why You Should Avoid: If you are already actively using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., & have a healthy influx of new content into your RSS reader, adding something that takes more time to monitor, update & investigate will eat into the little free time you have.

Look for more upcoming; I’ll be doing one a week (or so) & will include brightkite, Plaxo, Jaiku, & Utterz. If there are any others you would like me to scope out, let me know.

It’s worth noting that I am not heavily engaged in all of these tools; I have a life & would like to keep it that way. That said, I’m sure there are some things I’ve missed or possibly misinterpreted. If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it! If not, go plurk yourself…


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How Connected Should You Be?

Published by brian on May 20, 2008 in social media. 3 Comments

If it wasn’t for Facebook, MySpace (zip it, Matt), Twitter & texting, I am not sure how I would keep up with everyone. Used to be things like email & instant message were enough. Now, I check my Yahoo email, Facebook, & Twitter accounts daily, use Yahoo IM for work, AIM for friends, & will occasionally update one or more of them from my Treo. Once in a while I check my site’s email & MySpace account. Add on to that all of my work emails & phone calls &, for some, you’ve got communications overload. However, I sometimes feel like it’s not enough.

How connected should you be? The quick & easy response is that there is no one, right answer. It depends on your wants & needs. But these change over time, thus affecting our habits. Both our professional & personal lives play important roles in this as well.

While connecting people quickly & in ever-increasing ways, is technology really pushing us apart?

As we become increasingly mobile, will our ways become inherently nomadic?

Normally, I’d banter on about this, but I want your opinion.


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What’s Your Twitter Style?

Published by brian on May 18, 2008 in social media. 4 Comments

If you don’t understand Twitter, it’s ok. Exactly one year ago today (did not plan that, I swear), I posted my first Tweet & literally had no idea what the point was. It didn’t help that Twittervision was my initial foray into this communication vehicle & caused massive information overload. That’s akin to ordering tako the first time you eat sushi; sometimes it makes sense to dive in without abandon…other times a more cautious approach is required.

It can be a little intimidating at first; Twitter is not the easiest place to assimilate yourself. It takes time & you will find, fairly early in the process, that it is good to have a balance of people you follow. Once you get a feel for the flow, you’ll see how easy it is to add people you know, find new people, & minimize the noise. You can change the voice & direction of conversation without much hassle.

I did not visit or log on to Twitter again until the end of March, this year. Now I get it…well, mostly. So, in the spirit of getting it & idea mashups, I dedicate a post to Twitter with a bit of Starbucks influence. While this is no Machiavellian approach, I’ve segmented things based on what I’ve seen thus far.

Solo

  • What they do: Literally answer the question, “What are you doing?”
  • Who follows them: No one…yet.
  • Why you should follow them: If your TweetStats tell you something along the lines of “get a life” or “you are supposed to use your vocal chords to communicate as well”. Their random posts with no replies will remind you what it’s like to be the low man on the Tweetem pole.

Dopio

  • What they do: Random status updates aimed at pulling people in…problem is, not too many are listening.
  • Who follows them: Mostly kind people who Dopios have added; many of them gleaned from or recommended by friends & co-workers. Maybe a few friends & old colleagues they have referred to Twitter.
  • Why you should follow them: If you’re tired of talking & want to listen to someone else talk about things like current events, sports, weather, Belgian beers, or why stupid people are the bane of their existence.

Tall

  • What they do: Multi-task; they tweet semi-frequently, but are more interested in on-demand access to people, information, answers, etc.
  • Who follows them: Industry peers, friends, airlines, news wires, bars, restaurants…usually a reciprocated follow.
  • Why you should follow them: Their multi-tasking nature & hunger for information will have inherent fringe benefits. They have a knack for pointing people in the right direction.

Grande

  • What they do: These are your industry & social leaders. Somehow, even the seemingly inane stuff they post is relevant & adds to the conversation or sparks an idea. Dopios aspire to be Grandes.
  • Who follows them: Those with a thirst for knowledge who seek inspiration on a daily basis.
  • Why you should follow them: If you are looking for cutting edge stuff, personally or professionally, these people have it. It will be difficult to keep up though as many others have identified this. Be prepared to retweet. Truthfully, I don’t know how Grandes keep up with it all.

Venti

  • What they do: If you’re not sure what’s on their mind this very second, give it a couple minutes, you’ll soon know. By day, they are solving the world’s problems. By night, they want you to know that what they’re doing & where they’re going is way cooler than anything you’ve got planned.
  • Who follows them: Industry peers, social media mavens, friends, Obama, your mom, your dad…just about everyone.
  • Why you should follow them: Because of their hyperactive involvement, Ventis have lists of followers that would make an aspiring Tweeter jealous. You want to get plugged in fast? Follow a handful of Ventis & add the Twitter RSS feed to your reader.

Barista

  • What they do: Have a following:follower ratio of about 15,000:1. Their lives are truly & fully open books. Random micro-blogging at its worst finest.
  • Who follows them: Not many, but mainly because people don’t want current or potential followers (or simple browsers) to know they follow people like this. While Baristas don’t have as many followers as they’d like, people occasionally read their tweets.
  • Why you should follow them: Keeps you on your toes & reminds you that everything you publish online can follow you forever.

So, which style best describes you?

Don’t have Twitter? Sign up, install twhirl, use Tweet Scan, TwitterLocal & Twitter Friend Recs, & when you’re bored, check these - TweetStats, Twistori, & Tweet Clouds.


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