Broadcasting Brain

For all of the talk in the blogosphere about niches and focus, it’s almost undeniable that we all live in intersections. Don’t we all have more than one interest? (Yes, besides blogging or social media.) Aren’t we multi-dimensional beings?

I believe that we all live in intersections of interests, backgrounds, and knowledge. In fact, I think we are those intersections personified. And, for lack of a better term, that makes us interesting.

As an example, this is how I would visualize where I sit in the blogosphere.

First off, I don’t claim to be an expert in any one of these areas, but I do have an interest in all of them.

I started off as a personal blogger, although you could rightly argue that I didn’t get terribly personal in the original incarnation of my blog. Most of the people that I enjoyed interacting with in that segment of the blogosphere are in my Blogroll.

Before I dug deep into blogging, I spent a lot of time with social news, bookmarking, and so on. I was very active in Digg, StumbleUpon and other sites at different points in time. I met some interesting people in those communities and I learned a lot in the process.

Lately I’m more interested into the theory and applications of social media and I’ve been participating in more of those conversations. FriendFeed the comment nexus has been a real catalyst for this interest and I’ve been interacting with more cool people (and even more cool people).

I have continously been interested in geeky fun stuff, whether it’s technology or popular culture. This might be a future area of exploration for me. I’m actually hoping to have a guest post at an up and coming pop culture blog (geek culture? Movie/TV/comic books/gaming blog?) in the near future.

So this is the intersection where I lie, because somehow, over time, I manage to blend these interests into Broadcasting Brain.

If we are the sum of our experiences, then it’s inevitable that our interests will bleed into our main niche. Giving ourselves some wiggle room to explore multiple niches helps keep everything interesting, I think.

How about you? What roads meet at your intersection?

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With passion, creativity, and hard work, no one can top your story.

You have to write it.  No one else can.

Everything else is process.

I’m very pleased to announce that I have a guest post at Problogger.net (the brainchild of blogger Darren Rowse) called Leaning Into The Blogging Dip.  This is definitely the highlight of my social media activities to date!

Please have a look and also check out Darren’s Problogger.net blog - it’s one of the best, most comprehensive blogging resources online today.

Many thanks to Darren for the opportunity and best wishes to him, his wife, and son as they prepare to enlarge their family!

Source: FTC Inside

Comment fragmentation is the term used to describe the process by which people comment on a blog post in multiple places where there is an associated link that you can use to reference the original post. Some people think that comment fragmentation penalizes the content creator.

This is particularly true on the FriendFeed website, where each blog post can be linked and relinked via social news and social bookmarking functions, which appear in FriendFeed whenever the author chooses to share their RSS feed from an application. The phenomenon multiplies, however, when the blog readers are also active in these social media services, which help spawn many instances or branches of the conversation.

You could compare this situation to an artist who puts a lot of work into a painting, but who doesn’t get to hear or see all of the reviews about his or her work. They may be frantic to get feedback about their work, but that feedback may be spread across dozens of conversations, including little groups of people that huddle together to talk about the artist’s painting. Read the rest of this entry »

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?

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?

Note: if you’re visiting this blog for the first time, welcome! I’d like to recommend that you check out the Essential Broadcasting page to get an overview of some of the best content after you read this post. Or before, if you like.

Your deadline is approaching; time to write a new blog post. But… you don’t know what you’re going to write about. You feel your heart racing, sweat pops out on your forehead, and your stomach begins to ache. Your mind races but it can’t settle on any one good blog post idea. What to do?

If you are in this unfortunate situation, try reading this post for help!

Here are 82 handy ideas or subjects, especially geared for social media bloggers, for a great blog post if you’re a bit too lazy or if you are pressed for time to come up with your own (or you can try these 10 unusual blogging ideas if you’d like a real challenge - here’s an example):

1. Read the newspaper and write about the front page news
2. Surf the Web and find out about the day’s news. Write about a story that’s popular.
3. Check Twitter for interesting stuff, especially stuff that a lot of people are talking about.
4. Complain about how Digg’s front page sucks these days
5. Complain about how Digg’s algorithm is still broken
6. Complain about all of the people who complain that Digg’s algorithm is still broken
7. Complain about any other bookmarking/news service
8. Comment on the latest Scobleizer post
9. Explain why Scoble is the most important blogger ever
10. Explain why Scoble is losing his influence
11. Comment on the latest Scoble FriendFeed discussion
12. Complain about Scoble when he doesn’t give you the “juice” that you deserve!
13. Write a post explaining why Robert Scoble is just this guy, you know?
14. Complain about Twitter
15. Explain how Twitter could be so much better if the following changes were made
16. Write about the coolest new Twitter app that you’ve discovered
17. Explain why people don’t read anymore
18. Explain why people read more than ever
19. Explain why people actually scan content instead of reading it
20. Talk about how you or someone you know suffers from ADD
21. Talk about how everyone’s attention span is shrinking
22. Complain about (pick one of: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Apple)
23. Praise (pick one of: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Apple)
24. Rant about how the banks make too much money
25. Complain that taxes are too high
26. Complain that taxes aren’t high enough and your country is going to go broke
27. Explain how the economy is going into a recession
28. Explain how the economy is going to pick up any day now
29. Explain how the economy is better than ever
30. Make fun of a well-known politician/celebrity/business leader/religious leader/blogger
31. Praise a well-known politician/celebrity/business leader/religious leader/blogger
32. Complain about how all of the good ideas have already been taken
33. Define social media
34. Explain why everyone else has the wrong idea of what social media really is, but you’ve got it right - and why
35. Explain what Web 2.0 is
36. Explain what Web 2.0 isn’t and why everyone else is wrong
37. Explain what Web 3.0 will be
38. Explain what Web 3.0 won’t be and why everyone else is wrong
39. Explain why Web x.x is a stupid, stupid way to classify Web technology
40. Take a common noun or verb, add x.x to it, and explain what it really means.
41. Find an unknown blogger and sing their praises
42. Crap on the A-list bloggers
43. Praise the A-list bloggers
44. Explain why you should really be on the A-list
45. Explain why you’d never, ever want to be on the A-list
46. Explain what the A-list really is
47. Explain how you can make money online
48. Complain about Google Adsense
49. Explain how you have a fool proof system to make good money with Google Adsense (but give very few details)
50. Complain about how Technorati authority is really, really broken
51. Defend the merits of the Technorati authority doo-hickey
52. Complain that (insert blogger here) isn’t giving “link juice” like they should be
53. Complain about how people are bugging you to link to them
54. Explain how the music industry is doing just swell in the digital era
55. Show the world how and why the music industry is F&$^^d
56. Defend Torrents and other file sharing services
57. Explain how it is so obvious that “free” is the killer business model
58. Complain about how people should be paying you for your creative work
59. Complain about spam
60. Complain about all of the social media “noise” that you have to deal with!
61. Explain why “noise” and comment dispersion aren’t bad things
62. Explain why comment dispersion and dispersed conversations will kill your blog
63. Rail against injustice of some kind
64. Rail against censorship
65. Complain that some @ssholes shouldn’t be allowed to blog
66. Eviscerate someone who’s been talking trash about you or your buds
67. Tell the world why Wordpress is the best blogging platform
68. Complain about “echo” in the blogosphere
69. Complain about websites and companies that enforce the “walled garden” approach
70. Explain to your readers why it is EXTREMELY important to write your posts in advance
71. Give advice on creating and launching the perfect meme
72. Complain about the use of memes and how they are a waste of time
73. Complain about how you get pitched by too many people and they don’t do it properly
74. Complain about how professional sports suck all around
75. Complain about how no one understands (someone or something else other than you)
76. Complain about how no one listens to you
77. Explain your fascination with superstition, particularly numbers
78. Debunk superstition and myths because it’s all dumb
79. Explain with enthusiasm all of the great blog post ideas that you have
80. Complain that you don’t have any good ideas for blog posts
81. Complain that you don’t have enough time to write the good posts that you really want to write
82. Write a post listing a bunch of different posts that you could write

This list is a combination of serious and silly ideas and hopefully you’ll find something in there to help you with your blogging dilemma. Feel free to try them out - I’ve written this list of blog ideas to help people like you and me. If you do try one of these ideas on your blog, please consider linking back to this post.

Good luck and hang in there!

P.S. related to this topic, here are thoughts on building a creative infrastructure to help you generate your own blog ideas

P.P.S. want to work on your self-esteem?

And if you’re looking for more great ideas, why not subscribe and never miss a post?

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Maki does it again over at Dosh Dosh with his latest post: Rethinking Blog Comments. I highly recommend his blog if you are interested in social media, Internet marketing, or blogging in general.

In summary, Maki advises his readers to think long term when commenting on blogs. You can use blog comments as a way to interact with a blogger and build a connection between the two of you.

I know from my own experience that I love it when people comment on Broadcasting Brain posts. Blog comments have allowed me to connect with other bloggers.

The downside of blog comments, especially if you’re an established blogger, is that your comment section will mutate into a gigantic bulletin board where any greedy soul will post just to get their name noticed, plus the backlink that comes from a Do Follow blog comment section. Maki describes one scenario where an internet marketer mass-posted the same comment at multiple blogs as a means to promote himself.

I’ll be honest: I’ve posted comments on some of the A List blogs as a means to get some exposure. Caroline Middlebrook and Darren Rowse have both written useful posts about ways to use blog comments to make contact with other bloggers. I figured, “Hey, if they recommend it…”

However, on the other side of good taste, there is the obvious link spammer, not unlike the gentleman that Maki describes in his post.

I’m sure that it’s a bit discouraging to know that some people are commenting on your blog just to get some attention for themselves.

However, if they are contributing to the conversation in some way, then I think it’s perfectly fine to give your commenter a chance to be contacted by other like-minded individuals.  Most blogs were designed to allow the commenter to be contacted, after all. 

Yes, it’s an opening that some people will try to take advantage of, but when you’re a beginning blogger, every little bit helps.

Maki wrote a great post, as usual, so please check it out, won’t you?

(And why not leave a comment here while you’re at it?)

(For that matter, why not subscribe…  you never know what kinds of goodies I’ll be presenting here… 

Maestro Chris Brogan has declared today (Monday, April 28) to be “read and comment” day across the blogosphere. Works for me!

However, in addition to searching and devouring, I’m going to point you towards some blogs that you might not have read before, with incredible blog ideas that you might find intriguing:

The Ominous Comma - brill British humour blog with equally good comments

DCR Blogs - awesome American blogger

The Love Blog - it might not be all we need, but we can always use more

Mimzie’s Musings - check out my previous Catch The Brainwaves Q&A with Mimzie in order to brace yourself get grounded

For that matter, why not check out my entire Blogroll?

Bon appetit!

Here’s another contribution to the blogosphere. I’ve come up with ten unusual (dare I say uncanny) blog post ideas for you to consider. Some of them are very challenging. I’d love to see you try them out. If you do, would you please link back to this post?

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy trying these.

1. Pretend the Internet is destroyed overnight. What do you do when you find out?

2. Review an unsung hero: someone in social media who consistently creates excellent work but seems to get very little recognition. Look at it as an opportunity to discover a hidden gem or a star-in-waiting.

3. Should blogging platforms be easier to set-up, use and maintain? What are the pros and cons of making them easier to use?

4. Describe a situation when a blog post or article that you wrote was COMPLETELY misinterpreted by almost everyone that read it. What would you do differently now if you had to rewrite it?

5. Do memes have any value beyond entertainment? List at least five benefits to the meme creator, the meme participants, and the meme readers.

6. Write a post on any topic, but don’t use any adverbs. Bonus points if you can also write the post without adjectives.

7. Write a blog post about honesty from the point of view of a fictional character. You can be for or against honesty.

8. Find at least three of your best comments that you left on other blogs. Use them to write your own blog post. Find a way to tie the three comments together. (you can find an example of this idea here)

9. Write a blog post backwards, in the style of the movie Memento. The scenes in Memento are shown in reverse chronological sequence, so, literally, the beginning of the movie was the last thing that happened.

10. Imagine that a brain-to-computer interface has been created. Instead of typing, clicking, or talking, you could just think and then your computer would do whatever you wanted to do. How would that feel? Would you want to work that way?

Good luck!  By the way, here are 82 more blog ideas.