Broadcasting Brain

Doing something different today - I created an audio blog entry and it’s stored at Utterz. It’s an MP3 file, about 11 minutes long, but you can listen to it directly without downloading it to your computer.

Here’s the link to the entry:

Broadcasting Brain Aug 7 2008 - about names

I hope you enjoy this change of pace!

Note: The book that I mention in this audio blog entry is:

The Making of a Name - The Inside Story of the Brands That We Buy

by Steve Rivkin and Fraser Sutherland.

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Is it all smoke and mirrors or is there any substance to it after all? Or are there just a bunch of hucksters out there trying to make a few bucks off naive people who want to get ahead in life? Is social media just next iteration in hucksterism and pyramid style marketing scams? Or is it something more?

Greg Davies, aka CGT2099 of social news fame, wrote a heated, yet insightful post critiquing the use of the phrase “social media”. As you may recall in last week’s Q&A post, Greg basically said that it’s just the Internet; social media is just a buzzword.

Greg aims pretty clearly at a key constituency who he blames for the hype behind social media:

The individuals I am talking about are those who claim they are knowledgeable about Social Media. It is the biggest con of the 21st century, folks: they create a buzz word, convince you that it exists, persuade you that you and/or your business needs it, and then convinces every person that they are so competent in the area that you can afford to pay them lots of cash to be your “Social Media Consultant”.

You know, he’s got a good point, although I do think he’s generalizing a bit. Greg’s not bashing the medium as a whole, though. He acknowledges that there are some people using the new tools smartly and effectively. However, he does spew a fair amount of bile towards people in the “make money online” and blog monetization segments of the world.

Whether or not you agree with his article, I think Greg brings up some excellent points and serves to put a bit of a reality check in place. If you’re new to social media and you have dreams of becoming rich and famous, or you know someone who is, I’d recommend that they read Greg’s article just to get some perspective. You don’t have to agree with him, but you should at least consider what he’s saying.

Empress Eve and Dave III were kind enough to let me guest post at their fantabulous blog Geeks of Doom, devoted to many things fantastic and geeky.

My guest post is humbly entitled 10 Ways To Make a Kick Ass Version of Space:1999. It’s based on the 1970’s TV show, which I talked about in a previous Broadcasting Brain blog post about keeping old flames burning bright.

Please have a look at my Geeks of Doom guest post and don’t forget to give it a Digg or a Stumble if you like it.

P.S. The post really doesn’t have much to do with social media, but they did a great job of adding additional images and stuff to beef up my words.

Unfortunately, I don’t have my laptop here with me, my usual writing platform. I’ve actually been reading (from paper) most of the evening.

In conjunction with the podcasts that I’ve been sampling and some of the other browsing that I’ve been doing, I’ve been reading up on a couple of blogs.

GestureLab

Newsgang

Steve Gillmor.

After Steven Hodson’s (WinExtra’s) commentary about one of Gillmor recent Techcrunch posts, I was intrigued enough to read up on SG.

I’m continually in (virtual) school these days and Gillmor’s stuff is … educational. To me, anyway. His writing is not easy reading at the best of times because there’s a fair amount of underlying context that’s not immediately visible, but which does reveal itself in bits and pieces over time.

I like reading something with character, even when I might not agree with it or understand it.

EDIT:  the written Gillmor is a different experience from the podcasting Gillmor.

Any suggestions on other people that I should be reading in the realm of technology, etc?

You may well be laughing at me for writing such an odd title for this post and I don’t blame you. Bloggers are known for their ideas, writing skills, multi-media expertise, and often their wit, but most of us aren’t known for good looks, physical prowess, or heroic deeds.

A profession that requires you to spend a lot of time inside, sitting on your bum, and developing carpal tunnel syndrome doesn’t exactly pass most tests of coolness (although it does bear some resemblance to car racing when you look at it the right way…)

NASCAR driver are walking billboards and their cars are billboards on wheels. Look at your average stock car or driver’s uniform and you’ll see that there’s barely any space for color: cars and uniforms are covered in logos and company names of several different sizes.

Some of the logos are quite recognizable and show up very well on TV. But some of them… you’d need a telescope to see them from a short distance. They’re positively tiny compared to their larger neighbours. There’s virtually no chance that anyone’s ever going to see or recognize those logos, but they are there in spades.

I’m not writing this post to advocate selling every pixel of blank space on your blog for ads. What’s the value for sponsoring something when no one can see your ad? However, seeing those tiny ads made me thing about the bigger ads and about how NASCAR drivers make a lot of their money. I think there’s an opportunity for bloggers to monetize themselves in a different way than most do today: through bigger, longer term sponsorships.

Consider:

• You can place an ad on someone’s blog and it’s a simple business transaction that might have no lasting value.
• Or, you could be a sponsor of a blog and that entails something different. Sponsorship could be a longer term relationship and support for the sponsored.

There’s also another possibility, a reason why people buy tiny ads on racing uniforms and cars. You know what that is?

Bragging rights. Some people will take any opportunity to be associated with greatness. That’s where the small ads come in. And the really big ads, too.

Think about it. It could be good for the blogger and the advertiser. It might not be something that many bloggers have the pull to do, but who knows? Maybe it’s worth checking out?

Just make sure you wear your seatbelt. And a helmet. Because falling asleep at your keyboard can be hazardous to your health.

With all of the talk of microblogging and lifestreaming of late, I wonder how the lowly old art of social bookmarking is doing.

I think this question is particularly pertinent given that FriendFeed is giving new and heightened visibility to any kind of social media activity. For example, you can use FriendFeed to monitor your friends’ social bookmarking activity that occurs on sites like Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia, StumbleUpon, Furl, and Google Shared Stuff.

Seeing this activity front and center in a new way made me think about how and why we use social bookmarking. As I see it, there are four main reasons for indulging in social bookmarking.

1. Used to track websites for our own future use
2. Used to share information with our friends and social media contacts
3. Used to support your friends and contacts in social media to help build up your own social media profile
4. Used to build links back to websites for SEO purposes

The interesting thing about this is that the last three reasons are not for your own personal information tagging - they are for directing web traffic (i.e. other people) to specific websites. Although each person’s reasons for bookmarking will vary, there are plenty of reasons to bookmark for other people or for reasons other than their own information retrieval.

Therefore, when you see people bookmarking stuff in Del.icio.us, is it more likely that they are saving this information for someone other than themselves?

Bookmarking seems to be evolving from the original purpose of saving information for your own use at some later date. However, it’s still perfectly fine for its original purpose. However, how many of us really use it to its fullest potential?

I’ve researched social bookmarking on several different occasions. I looked at Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia, Netvouz and Google Bookmarks, as well as StumbleUpon. Without question I use StumbleUpon more than any other bookmarking application but I rarely go back to check out the things that I’ve bookmarked, nor do I ever search through StumbleUpon by tags.

For ease of use it’s hard to beat Del.icio.us, including its toolbar. Yet it seems so spartan.

Ma.gnolia hasn’t made much of an impression on me, although I understand it has strong groups and community.

Netvouz is probably the strongest bookmarking tool of all that I’ve used, but for some reason it hasn’t “stuck” with me. I think it’s because I know that I’d have to devote some time and energy to set it up properly so that I could use it to its fullest potential. Quite frankly, I’m a little too lazy to use it properly when I could just use StumbleUpon or Del.icio.us.

In fact, I rarely ever go back to my bookmarks to check them again, relying mostly on Google searches or the favorites functionality in my web browser.

This begs the question: is tagging and bookmarking really worth the trouble for tracking your own information? I’m starting to wonder if it is.

So, I’ll turn the question over to you. Do you use social bookmarking? If so, do you regularly create bookmarks? And how often do you go back to find something that you’ve saved in a social bookmarking program?

Why not leave a comment and share your thoughts?

My blog reading habits have changed a bit lately, so I thought I’d give you a glimpse into the places that I’m spending a lot of my time:

On Topic - Social Media/Technology

Colin Walker - thoughtful observations and speculations about current events and possible directions for social media; a thinking person’s blog equal parts sociology and technology. Colin’s a great guy and a welcome commenter/guest here at Broadcasting Brain.

WinExtra - Steven Hodson “calls ‘em as he sees ‘em” and his “no BS” approach to modern technology is always insightful and refreshing, even if you disagree with him. Steven points out things that I should be checking out.

ReadWriteWeb - I don’t read Engadget, Gizmodo, Techcrunch, Techmeme, or Ars Technica regularly, although I’ll check the latter three out on occasion. RWW is the industry blog, along with a bit of Mashable, that I use to keep track of what’s going on in social media. They’ve got a great range of writers (I do have a slight bias towards Alex Iskold, but they’re all good). This is the blog where I’d absolutely love to guest post if I ever get the chance.

Alexander van Elsas - sometimes crazy-awesome thinking about technology today; always interesting. Alexander clearly pursues common themes throughout all of his writing and has certain biases (I don’t think you’ll hear the phrase “walled garden” more often on any other blog), but he’s a good thinker and discussion initiator.

How To Split An Atom - my friend Steve writes with passion and style about business and technology with a focus on the hip, interesting, and groundbreaking. He gets it and he’s a gentleman to boot.

Mathew Ingram/Work - Mathew’s own blog, not directly associated with the Toronto Globe and Mail, provides an interesting (and slightly opinionated) perspective on today’s Web technologies and related businesses. He’s got years of journalism experience from both business and technology and his opinion is worth reading.

Men With Pens - two crafty wordsmiths/creators always have a lot to share on the art and science of writing. They have one of the most amazing comments sections of any blog like I’ve ever read, where the comments take on a life of their own. I think of them as the Potters (Harry and James… get it?) or occasionally as John (James) and Paul (Harry)… do I have to explain the John and Paul reference?

Remarkablogger - Michael Martine is a rising force in the blogging world and he’s worked his butt off to get there. His “wolf pack” concept may be mutating in ways that he never expected, but nonetheless he gets it. If your business is thinking about blogging, you really need to check out his stuff.

Seth’s Blog (Seth Godin) - Seth Godin is another craftsman, mainly of ideas related to sales, marketing, customer service, innovation, and product design. He has a consistent, distinctive voice and presence and I think he has some of the best ideas in business today. Some people complain about the fact that you can’t leave comments on his blog. My response: try sending him a question by E-mail sometime. You might be surprised.

Louis Gray - I’ve recently become a fan of Louis’s work and I’m astounded by the sheer amount of research, documentation, analysis and commentary that he does. As good as his blog is, however, he’s best experienced through FriendFeed, where you can really get a handle on all of the work he does. In fact, guys like Louis Gray are the people for whom FriendFeed was designed and that the rest of us can emulate.

Problogger.net and Skelliewag.org - I lump these two blogs together because of Skellie’s association with Darren Rowse and because they cover some similar territory, but most of the good things that I’ve learned from blogging has come from studying their blogs. It’s great, great stuff, especially if you’re trying to figure out what blogging is all about. I think they’re great people, too.

Dosh Dosh - Maki is a blogging/social media juggernaut. Sometimes he sounds like a wise old man, other times he sounds like an enthusiastic school boy. Regardless, once he starts into a topic, he owns it. Period.

Social Media Explorer - maybe it makes a difference that I’ve met Jason in person but I still think he’s doing some great work in both promoting social media and trying to bring PR and communications firms into Web 2.0 and social media thinking.

Search Engine People - another personal contact here (I’ve met Jeff Quipp) but I think his team puts out some really high quality material covering a lot of angles in search marketing and social media. Jeff, Jennifer, Ruud, Tom and the whole team write great stuff.

Off Topic - entertainment value only

Rokk’s Comic Book Revolution - some of the best comic book reviews that I’ve ever read - amazing detail
and care.

The Legion Abstract - another fan site, devoted to one of my favorite comic book concepts: the Legion of Super-Heroes. Another remarkable work of love.

Entertainment Weekly - I read the reviews and analysis of both Lost and Battlestar Galactica and I’m looking forward to the same when Heroes returns to the airwaves in the fall.

I’ve probably forgotten or missed a lot of other great blogs… but these are the ones that I hit most consistently.

(Edit:  I can’t believe that I forgot Chris Brogan…)

How about you? What blogs do you read regularly?

Steve Rubel (yes, that Steve Rubel) posted a question in FriendFeed asking whether or not FriendFeed was the next big thing or whether people were just getting bored (with what, I’m not sure.)

I posted this reply and wanted to share it with those of you who don’t use FriendFeed:

It’s easy to forget amongst the chatter and noise that FriendFeed is quite a powerful aggregation platform. Think of the seven blind mice (or men, depending on which version you’ve read) who are all trying to describe an elephant. They can only sense one part of the elephant and so they guess differently because one feels the trunk, another the tusk, one the leg, the tail, and so on. Finally, one smart person figures out that all of these parts are connected together into an elephant and recognizes it for what it is. In a similar light, FriendFeed makes visible virtually all social media presences for a specific person and you get to see how interesting or talented they are. This sets the stage for more interesting and enjoyable conversations and learnings.

Does this make sense to you?

Edit: Steve Rubel brought the discussion over to his blog as well.

Warning: this is going to be a very long post, a response to two great posts about the future of social media and the social web from Alexander van Elsas and Colin Walker from the week of May 19, 2008. I’m placing the More tag here because, frankly, it’s going to be a lot to wade through and I don’t want to force people to read through it. I hope Alexander and Colin do, however. And, for that matter, I hope you do as well!

Read the rest of this entry »

I sense a disturbance in the Force some new life forms

My Spider Sense blog stats and other social media sniffers are indicating that I’ve received a bit of a jump in my visitors and subscribers of late. First of all, thank you! It’s great to have new people here visiting this young but growing blog.

What do you do to accommodate both the old and new blog visitor? Do you carry on as if nothing has changed? Do you try to create new content to help the new reader? Should you try both?

In either scenario you run the risk of committing a possible sin: repeating yourself.

I loathe repetition - how about you?

Credit: Rochelle, et. al.

For many years I used to talk softly most of the time. I lacked the confidence to speak aloud in social situations, plus my voice did not naturally carry well without some assistance. I managed to overcome both of these problems, for the most part, with a lot of practice.

However, occasionally I’ll mumble my words, forcing me to repeat myself. I really, really dislike repeating myself. However, I’m trying to get over that.

People have strong feelings about repeating themselves. Some people can’t stand to say the same things over and over again (witness FAQs and resource pages), while other people could tell the same story a million times.

I’ve decided that repetition is often helpful and in some cases it’s mandatory. So, in my desire to change my way of thinking about repetition, I thought I’d share these ideas with you.

Valid and important reasons to repeat yourself (especially as a blogger)

First time readers don’t know you.
Even though you may have an About page, it doesn’t hurt to do the occasional post to help out the new reader.

Your message was too complex and too hard to understand

Sometimes we screw up the first time when we try to explain something. If you’re getting mixed or negative feedback about a blog post, try restating your point either in the comments section or as a follow-up post.

Reader was distracted and missed part of the message

You can’t always control this problem, but, on the other hand, maybe your blog is too cluttered or your formatting is off. You can always try to neaten things up.

Message didn’t stick – too boring

It might help to have an impartial or vicious person read over your posts and see if it’s interesting to the reader. Sometimes we can’t judge this very well when we’re the writer, so it helps to have a second opinion. This person can give you advice on how to grab the reader’s attention.

Message didn’t stick – irrelevant

You can try to impart information, but unless the reader actually cares about the topic, they probably won’t remember what you were trying to say.

This is bad if the information is particularly newsworthy or important. For that reason, it’s important to stay on topic within a blog. Blogging about Arctic reserve drilling might not be very important to gossip blog readers or food blog readers, as an example - at least within the context of that blog. However, eco- bloggers, political bloggers, or journalism bloggers could find that story to be very important.

If you persist on blogging off-topic, be prepared to repeat yourself if the message doesn’t get through the first time.

Sometimes we just forget

We’re all pushing our semi-evolved simian brains to the max on a daily basis with an overdose of raw data, processed information, and stimuli. This represents an aspect of the “signal vs. noise” concept:

• The signal is the message that you’re trying to convey.
• The noise is composed of all of the interfering pieces of information and stimuli that prevent the message from clearly registering.

What’s worse is that clear signals can be overpowered or overwritten by other urgent stuff.

I believe that is one of the biggest needs for repetition in the Web 2.0 environment (or off-line, for that matter). We are bombarded with so many images, sounds, and ideas over the course of each day that we wind up forgetting things, especially if they aren’t urgent.

Just think about blogging for a minute. You’ll remember some bloggers after one exposure to them because they are doing remarkable stuff. However, this isn’t true for most of us. We need to exposure ourselves and our ideas to you multiple times until you start to remember us.

It’s just the nature of communication: repetition is sometimes necessary. Marketers and advertisers have known this for years and it’s a growing problem, especially if you believe in Seth Godin’s ideas (and, for the most part, I do).

Accept the need to say it again, and again, and again, and…

I don’t like repeating myself any more than most other people, but I’m starting to accept that it’s required. Every now and then I’m going to repeat certain ideas and concepts on this blog. You never know which new set of eyes will start tracking your blog.

Things have to be said, then said again, and repeated as necessary.

I’ll try to make it as painless as possible.

So, what do you think? Is repetition necessary? Or should it be avoided at all costs?