Comments on: “What are you doing?” Boycott

By: Dana Lookadoo

Dana Lookadoo — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:46:40 +0000

Frank, thanks for the input. I have enjoyed the value you add to my Twitter stream.

Thanks also for sharing the exciting things going on with Twitter for fundraising and non-profits.

Readers, check out Don’t Fall Behind, Fundraising is Moving On! to learn about some cool events on Twitter: Twestival, Tweetsgiving, Pledge to End Hunger, Tweet-a-thon, and other fundraising efforts.

Frank, you’re showing great examples of how people are using Twitter to make a difference.

By: frank

frank — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:21:21 +0000

Twitter is my main conversation tool of choice in the social media world. I use Facebook & LinkedIn also, but much more passively. Twitter has some exciting things going on that stretch far outside of just updating a status with ‘what I’m doing now’ …

This whole concept took me a bit to figure out and get used to, but now it makes total sense. The tough part now is trying to explain it to others … that can be challenging!

I use my Twitter status to share resources/links , talk to people , let folks know what I’m working on / thinking and a wide variety of other things.

http://twitter.com/franswaa

franswaa: @LifeRollsOn COOL to see you on Twitter. Would love to hear more about how u get on and what ur doing? Twitter rocks: http://bit.ly/8y7Y:

By: Wild Dingo

Wild Dingo — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 03:31:55 +0000

oh i totally agree on the "drunk" thing on linked in. i can't believe what people write. it's one thing to write...going to costco (like i do sometimes) but its another to really soil the rep. even my boy loki sometimes pens a little TMI in his facebook! MVP:

By: Dana Lookadoo

Dana Lookadoo — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:36:43 +0000

We all manage our time and prioritize differently. As stated, each person had different reasons for being social online and different uses, which may vary by time of day and day of week. Noise, IMHO, also varies depending on if it’s during work or socializing hours.

My goal and boycott is to focus on priorities, which includes:

Increasing and selecting my signals and reducing the noise.

Social media can be a distraction. It takes a lot of discipline and filtering.

I’m hoping people will realize their status updates are a footprint that stays in the minds of their connections as well as in the search engines. As stated in the heading above:
Status Updates = Your Online Reputation

Updating how one got drunk over the weekend, on LinkedIn of all places, is more than noise! I now ask myself if I want to consider my connection as a “vote.” It’s a good opportunity to evaluate friends, connections and who we follow.

By: Wild Dingo

Wild Dingo — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:06:04 +0000

“Consumers have a voice like never before.”

I always wondered where the WP “kvetch” thingie ended up. i think it goes right into some server trash can. LOL! I once used it thinking my kvetch would be put in some bug list. doh!

I’m not saying that socnets will go away completely and people will stop using them for personal or “product” review…but i am saying that they will become just another tool and not always the marketing tool of choice. right now, i cannot deny that they are a hot marketing tool for companies. But for the very reason of “noise” i think they can become less impressive as other marketing tools come out in the future.

But what i can’t understand is why it even necessary to critique the way people use the tools, whether its for their own voice/to hear themselves speak useless drivel, or whether it is for “constructive” use like product reviews? As a person who didn’t want to hear the “noise” of a socnet in the first place, i whole heartedly admit that i contribute to the “noise” and useless drivel. I also use it for advertising free stuff i give away (so its partially informational). Isn’t noise subjective? why is stuff that is useful to companies not considered noise but stuff that can be silly and a distraction considered noise? My definition of noise may include hearing about new products from a company. I’d rather hear about someone’s fabulous weekend or baby’s new tooth coming in. I have to admit, i like the filters FB employs to help me reduce “noise” w/in my own FB friends. i guess i like that i can choose my “noise” wisely!

Now for my own critique: the amount of “causes” and “groups” that sprout up on FB blows me away. i mean, I like David Zabriske and all and am sad he got robbed, but isn’t there insurance for all his stuff that got stolen? why is there a group dedicated to helping him get his stuff back? why do people even join these things? They seem to be like no-where causes/dead-end causes/groups that do nothing but get members. so odd. now that’s an interesting phenomenom.

Am I now harrassing you Dana? Hopefully not. It’s fun chatting about this. I think the Socnet thing is fascinating and fun to talk about sociologically, politically, economically, culturally, etc. feel free to block my crazy opinions from commenting on your awesome blog.

MVP:

By: Dana Lookadoo

Dana Lookadoo — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:24:45 +0000

Many people thought rap music was a passing fad, but the subculture continues to influence genres of music and even clothing styles. Connecting and sharing with others will not go away. Currently, social media provides multiple platforms for people to do so. People do leave a digital (and mental) footprint by how they update their status boxes. An article that explains how search has shifted from static to real-time search is "The Conversation is Shifting":

People are sharing what they are reading, where they are going, and what they are doing, and the amplification of all that social intention is spreading across the web.

"Social intention" is the key takeaway. Companies can now listen to what people want, read their reviews, and many are using this as R&D to improve their services. Consumers have a voice like never before. A couple comments from the referenced article are pretty funny. One person says,

I really don't care if you just bathed the baby or put out the cat, or what TV show you're watching. This kind of drivel is just pathetic.

Maybe I should tell them about my boycott!

By: Wild Dingo

Wild Dingo — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:44:17 +0000

39.1 million pages is exactly my point on “privacy” and you are what you ‘tweet’… businesses LOVE people putting out the info, whether they say they had 3 beers at lunch (and it gets them fired) or not. to me, the tools don’t matter (internet, tv, radio, magazines)…the model stays the same. hang your billboard wherever you think audience is: at movie theaters, on tv, in magazines. marekting budgets will always be the same but methods will change and perhas socnets will replace movie theater budgets or magazine budgets. but my thinking is that socnets will come and go and over time, they will be as water-downed as the other forms of marketing.Socnets (unless REALLY targeted, such as linked-in…lets hope they stay targeted and away from tweeting/fbooking tools) will evolve into just noise and companies will always resort to traditonal marketing tactics. “myspace” was all the rage until it got some teen (or a few) killed. the human being can be a strange creature. i still cringe at the leg warmer trend in the 80’s! LOL!

MVP:

By: Dana Lookadoo

Dana Lookadoo — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:22:29 +0000

@WildDingo You’re right about the importance of picking up the phone and spending time face-to-face. Nothing replaces that for personal socializing. Most people are drawn to socnets for that reason alone, a valuable tool/use for many. Twitter and Facebook are often called “water coolers” and serve as such for many who work remotely.

Privacy is another concern, but that’s not stopping participation when you look at the exponential growth of new users each day. They should be aware of the ramifications of what they type into status updates. Latest news stories include a kid being kicked out of school and two people loosing their jobs for what they posted on Facebook and MySpace.

100 years of marketing practices are out-the-window as a result of social media. Businesses are changing their customer service models. Twibs is a business directory for Twitter. One can view their tweets to see who is doing a good job at engaging customers. Not everyone will do it right. There is no cookie cutter or textbook approach. We can’t predict the future, but many companies are embracing the current trend.

Just one small example of how social media affects search results (SEO) can be found in Google showing http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Atwitter.com” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>Twitter has 39.1 million indexed pages!!

I hope this helps anyone reading to think twice when telling people what they are doing and the viral effect of connections. Maybe one solution is to keep a very small network, but one never knows who is listening!

By: Wild Dingo

Wild Dingo — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:23:05 +0000

The "noise" was exactly WHY i never joined these Socnets in the first place. When I entered the job market in the early 90's I taught myself how to network, using the phone, lunch meetings, social gatherings, etc. I got every job through networking the old fashioned way. FB is addictive because its fun. I turn off all apps because they're a waste of time. I like to look at people's status because sometimes they make me laugh. And it feels like I get that cool part of working in an office again by being connected to people instantly, like telling a joke to my friend in the next cube. Since i work from home, i don't have it and i miss it, so i use FB that way. to say stupid stuff and read stupid stuff. As a little break from my daily work tasks as a web developer. I looked around and tried twitter, linked in and FB and settled on using FB for fun and linked in for "limited" business networking because i'm privacy nazi and prefer my information be retained on my server and my really "personal/personnel" information (CV/resume details) be given out at my descretion and offline. I think there's a limit on what we should put out on the 'net becuase of technology is growing faster than we can turn on our privacy blocks. That should concern EVERYONE. I think though many in the SEO/SEM industry hype Socnets as "THE TREND" in SEO and they way to do business, i see them as a passing trend and only another way to give big biz more information (from people putting it out there/profiles) for more marketing and most people will after a while will NOT engage in social networking with corporations (like Coca Cola on FB) for that reason. socnets will evolve to be more noise than business use. its just the nature of the biz. tho i do get "some" biz from online referrals (they go to my site, not my socnets), the majority of my biz is face-to-face/word of mouth networking. i for one will continue to do biz the way i always do it--face to face. who knows, maybe that will be my new differentiator! and i'll continue to use Socnets for what they really are: a fun silly distraction. MVP:

By: Dana Lookadoo

Dana Lookadoo — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:06:19 +0000

I’m not telling you! LOL

Eric, your decision to seriously consider your “connections” provided me with one of those “ah ha” moments. Greatly appreciate your transparency!

Thanks for stopping by!