Personalized Blogging

I've taken the last few weeks off from blogging, and I think it was a great decision.  I had previously been adamant about keeping a rigid posting schedule (3 times a week) and I got burnt out.  I became focused on meeting my self-imposed deadlines, and the quality of the blog posts often suffered.  So after taking a little breather, I think I'm ready to start writing about things that I care about, and hopefully that will translate into a more enjoyable experience for me as well as for those that read this blog.

It looks like it will be a busy fall for me, and there should be plenty to write about.  Next week I start my final term for my MBA program, and the schedule should be pretty challenging.  I also will be taking on some new responsibilities at work, which will give me an opportunity to expand my base of knowledge.

I'll try to write at least one post each week, but I don't plan to force it into my schedule when it just doesn't fit.  More than anything, I just want to make sure that my blogging experience feels authentic and worthwhile.  Anything else is a waste of your time and mine.

Gone Fishing

When I started blogging at the beginning of the year my goal was to post 3 times a week, no exceptions.  Well, last week I posted on Monday, and that's it.  When it came time to write posts for Wednesday and Friday I just didn't have it in me.  I felt like I had nothing at all to say, and I didn't want to write a boring, meaningless post just to stick to an arbitrary schedule.

I've written before about some of the difficulty I've had keeping up with my blogging schedule, and until now I've always maintained that blogging on a regular schedule was important enough to me that I would continue, even when I didn't really feel like blogging.  The difference now is that the quality of my blog posts have been going down (in my opinion, anyway), and that means it's time for me to take a step back and rethink my approach.

I need to rethink a few things about how I approach blogging.  For now I expect to post on an ad-hoc basis, most likely once a week.  Hopefully a few tweaks can help me feel a little less burnt out.

Social Gaming is Big Business

On Tuesday afternoon two large companies threw their hats into the social gaming ring.  Gamestop announced their plans to acquire Kongregate Inc., a social gaming forum for free-to-play gaming. Kongregate currently hosts 10 million monthly players.  Just hours later Disney announced plans to purchase another social gaming platform, Playdom, for around $763 million.

I'll be curious to see how many companies follow their lead in the next few months.  More information can be found here:


Social-game makers scooped up in acquisition deals

GameStop Buys Online-Games Distributor Kongregate

Flipboard Revolutionary for iPad and Social Media

When the iPad first came out I thought "Wow, that looks cool, but I don't really have a need for it."  The new Flipboard app has me rethinking my position.  Launched by Twitter and Facebook co-founders, Flipboard takes links from social network feeds and displays them as pages in a magazine.  The Montreal Gazette explains in this article:

Flipboard takes the stories and photos linked to by friends on Facebook and Twitter and lays them out on the full-color screen of the iPad tablet computer like on the pages of a magazine.

Users can personalize the content on Flipboard, create their own sections around particular topics, and quickly flip through the latest material posted by friends on social networks by using the iPad touchscreen.

After reading the article I watched the short video demonstration on http://www.flipboard.com, and the application is very impressive.  I may have to consider buying an iPad just to use Flipboard!  I'll wait until they iron out some kinks though (Flipboard Responds to Failed Launch).

Does Blogging Quantity Decrease Quality?

I received a comment on Monday's post that I should consider abandoning my rigid blogging schedule of posting every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday at 6am.  The idea is to focus on quality posts and not worry about quantity.  I agree that quality is critical, but isn't quantity important as well? 

I think blogging on a schedule has merit.  If I were doing anything else business related on a schedule it would imply improved quality (better focus, earlier shipping times, etc.).  I try to have the same focus when it comes to blogging, and thought I admit I've posted a few dull ones here and there I think the schedule ultimately helps me remember that this is something important to me.  Otherwise I'd just post whenever I felt like it, and it would quickly cease to be a priority.

Do any other bloggers keep to a schedule?  Any that don't?

Blogging Failure

My blogging goal for 2010 was to post 3 times a week: on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 6am.  I typically write each post the afternoon or evening before it's scheduled, and when I get up the next morning I paste links into LinkedIn groups and on bizsugar.com.  For six months I posted on time without fail, even while on vacation.  My schedule had never been broken.  Until today.

This morning I realized I forgot to write a blog post.  I should have over the weekend, but it was gorgeous out.  I took care of regular weekend chores (grocery shopping, laundry, etc.), but mostly I tried to avoid the indoors.  A little outdoor dining, a walk downtown, a mountain biking trip... blogging never crossed my mind.

I'm disappointed that I broke my streak (I'm kind of obsessive like that), but it was a great weekend and I'm actually glad I didn't try to force blog writing into it.  Plus I'm still getting this up on Monday morning, so I'm not too far off the mark.  No harm done!

Social Media in the News

I'm back at work this week, though part of me is still mentally on vacation.  Judging by the modest amount of activity on my social networks many of you are having the same problem!  I decided to use this lack of focus as an opportunity to find out what's new in social media.  Here are a few of the top stories:

Are Men Using Facebook to Hook Up, Break Up? Ask Sandra Bullock

Some doctors join Facebook, Twitter; others wary

Twitter takes steps towards social media advertising

Social Media for Professionals

A reader commented on Wednesday's post about how I've been using social media, and he included a link to a business oriented website that I've never heard of: http://biznik.com.  I decided to sign up for it when I read the following on their website:

• Their tagline made me laugh: "biznik: business networking that doesn't suck."

• Their membership terms and conditions includes this statement:  "I certify no aspect of my business or the business I represent involves recruiting other people to sell third-party products or services so that I can earn a percentage of their sales (including hosting parties)."

I'm new to it, so I don't have much of an evaluation to share just yet.  I'll gladly reference it again in a future blog post if I think it's a "must-use" networking site for business professionals.

Do you use any professional networking/business oriented websites?  If so please share in the comments!

6 Months of Social Media

Today brings the first half of 2010 to a close, which means I've now been actively using social media for 6 full months.  I thought this post might be a good opportunity to reflect on how I've been using social media.

Blogging- The interactions I have with readers who comment here, in LinkedIn forums, and on Bizsugar.com have made the blogging experience more worth while to me than any other social tool.  I struggled early on to figure out what writing style worked best for me.  For the most part I try to be brief to respect my readers' time, as well as my own.  Also I hate reading blogs that never seem to get to a point, and I don't want to have one of those.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn has turned out to be the social media tool that has allowed me to make the most real connections.  I especially love the group discussions, which have helped me to find an audience for this blog.  With their new and improved discussion format it might be even easier to join in other discussions, and I look forward to that.

Twitter- I do an okay job of using Twitter, but I'm certainly not a power user.  You know what?  I don't think I want to be.  I mostly use it to help publicize my blog, but I'm always happy to retweet another article or message that I think others may enjoy, though I consciously do so in moderation (quality over quantity).  I also enjoy reading a few other people's tweets, though my follow list is small.

Facebook- I still haven't quite figured out how to use the world's most popular social media tool effectively.  With LinkedIn and Twitter connections just seem a little more natural: I follow you on Twitter because you write interesting tweets; I connect with someone on LinkedIn either because I've had a professional relationship with them (work or college) or because we've met through a discussion.  Facebook is the tool where users are most inclined to connect with everyone they can, so I get friend requests from people I barely knew in high school and others that I may have passed in the hallway at previous jobs.  I've kept my list of friends relatively small, and I'm comfortable with that.

Has anyone else been working to define/redefine their social media strategies this year?  I'd love to hear how it's been going!

Better Conversations on LinkedIn

Monday I shared information I'd found for the top 10 social networking sites for May, and I was surprised that LinkedIn wasn't listed as one of them.  Then I remembered that until a few months ago I didn't even know it was possible to have group discussion on LinkedIn, and apparently many others are still unaware.

It looks like that might be about to change.  LinkedIn has begun revamping its groups to make conversations a little bit easier. An article on Mashable.com explains some of the adjustments LinkedIn has made:

There is also a new focus on surfacing quality conversations from influencers. A new feature allows you to scan different conversations and “Like,” “Pass” or “Comment” on a discussion within a group. This information then brings the best conversations to the top of the group. There is also now a “Top Influencers” feature, which highlights quality contributors based on how well they stimulate conversations from other members.

Check out the Mashable.com article to see a short video demonstration:

LinkedIn Revamps Groups with Likes, Follows and Discussions

What do you think?  Will these new features help make LinkedIn's group conversations a little more accessible? 

Top 10 Social Networking Websites & Forums - May 2010

This weekend I came across data for the top social networking sites for last month, and I think it's pretty interesting:

Facebook dominates the market, which shouldn't suprise anyone.  YouTube has a little more market share than I would've guessed, but it makes sense.  There are a few things here that surprised me:

• MySpace still gets WAY more traffic than I thought
• Twitter gets WAY less traffic than I thought
• There are a couple of sites listed that I've never heard of (Tagged, MocoSpace)
• LinkedIn isn't mentioned at all

Unfortunately I didn't see any data that backed up the chart, but I think it's worth a look anyway.  Click on the link below to see the original chart, as well as many others on marketingcharts.com. 

Top 10 Social Networking Websites & Forums - May 2010

Social Networking vs. Social Media

An across I read on Fobes.com this week points out that many of us (myself included) tend to use the terms Social Media and Social Networking as though they are the same thing.  They aren't, as the article points out:

Social media and social networking are not the same. Social media are the tools and social networking is what you do in the communities. You can use one to enhance the other, but they are not the same. 

I agree that Social Media and Social Networking aren't interchangeable.  They are, however, inseparable, so I think it's okay to consider them part of the same overall process.

The article also points out that social media is more than just the three most popular tools: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn:

In fact, it's not about those sites. It's about a cross section of community sites, blogs, bookmarking sites, photo sites, sharing tools, audio and video tools and some even more advanced tools that are used in conjunction with one another to have a robust social media experience.

I definitely recommend reading the full article:

There's More to Social Media than Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

How Quickly Do You Respond?

How quickly do you respond to voice mail, email, and social media messages?

• Does it depend on the message?

• Does it depend who sent the message?

• Does it depend on what's going on that day?

• Is there a specific time in your schedule when you address messages?

• Do you respond to these communications as quickly as you expect others to respond to you?

Curing The Social Media Blues

Friday I wrote a post about how frustrating it can be to find time for blogging (or social media in general) when other time pressures seem overwhelming.  I'm thrilled at the great responses I got, and I'd like to share a few of my favorite tips that I received from readers:

• set aside a block of time and write several blog posts at once 

• keeping blogs short and breaking a topic up over several days

• Automate and schedule using tools like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite

• invite guest bloggers to contribute to the blogging

• take an occasional break, but be careful that the brand doesn't suffer

• hire someone to manage social media and/or ghostwrite blog posts

• focus on working smart rather than working hard

Thank you to everyone who commented.  I appreciate the feedback, and it gave me several great ideas for ways to adjust my blogging & social media approach.   More importantly, the interaction reminded me why I love blogging in the first place!

Social Media Blues

It's been really difficult to find time to blog for the last few weeks, and I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better.  I'm taking a couple of evening classes that have turned out to be more time consuming than I expected, plus I've taken on a slightly larger role at work.  Add in a little time for exercise (including the mountain bike I bought recently), and a very little time for relaxation, and I'm spent!  I definitely enjoy blogging, especially when inspiration strikes, but lately it seems like I've been rushing through it so I can move on to the many other things I need to accomplish. 

Really I've been having the same problem with all of my social media.  It was fun when it was shiny and new, but there are days and even weeks when it's hard to keep up.  I recently removed a few blogs from my reader in an effort to stay current on others.  My communications on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have slowed to a crawl as well.  I'm hopeful that at the end of the month my schedule will lighten up for awhile (I have 9 weeks off of classes!), but I'm not sure what to do until then.

Has anyone else had this problem?  How do you approach it?  Do you continue trying to keep up to date on social media, or is it better to take a break once in awhile?

Web-Based Music Becomes Social

I just read a great article on businessweek.com about the push to combine internet radio with some elements of social networking.  Companies like Microsoft and Google, as well as the founders of Skype, have all thrown their hats into the rind with their own unique offerings.

I'm not entirely sure what the social aspects of this are yet, but we should see fairly soon.  If this catches on (and I think it will) this could easily be the extra push that the music industry needs to become a primarily digital medium.

Feel free to check the full article out here: New Web Services Put Music in the Cloud

Yahoo!'s New Location-Based Tool

A couple of weeks ago I admitted in a post that I don't see the value of location-based social media.  There were some great comments posted on this blog and in LinkedIn discussion posts.  Some had examples of effective location-based marketing campaigns (like Starbucks discounts given to Foursquare "mayors").  Many others recognized that while there may not be apparent marketing benefits yet, location-based media is fun and therefore relevant.

It looks like Yahoo! agrees that location-based media has great potential.  Yesterday they acquired Koprol, a location-based social network in Indonesia.  This article on Mashable.com explains the possible implications of the acquisition:

This acquisition is especially interesting in the context of Yahoo’s new partnership with Nokia. Yahoo says it plans to continue to invest in the evolving Koprol service, including mobile applications, like its newly released app for the BlackBerry.

I'm still not convinced that location-based media has any value today, but there are enough powerful companies interested enough to make it effective tomorrow!

Don't Talk TO Your Customers; Talk WITH Them

Social Media gives companies the ability to build customer relationships like never before.  Customers can share positive experiences they've had with a company, and when they share negative experiences companies can address them proactively.  Companies can use social media to provide their customers with information about new products or upcoming events.  Customers can ask questions and receive helpful feedback.

Or social media can be used as just another form of advertising.  Many companies use Google AdWords, Facebook advertising, and social media tools simply as a way to drive traffic to their website.  They post information about their products and services, but there is no opportunity to interact.

Does your company's online presence help build relationships?

Social Media With A Busy Schedule

Social media can open a lot of doors for those that are willing to put time into learning and using the tools.  I enjoy the social tools that I use, so keeping current doesn't always seem like work.  However, there are definitely times when social media can make an already busy day, week, or even month seem unbearable. 

I'm having one of those week myself, so I looked to the web to find some advice on how to manage my social media time more effectively.  I found a link to an eBook that I really enjoyed:

Social Media Time Management: Strategies for Tackling Information Overload

It's an insightful, well-written eBook and I'm glad I took a few minutes out of my busy day to read it. 

Why Use Location-Based Social Media?

One of my personal goals for 2010 has been to increase my knowledge and use of social media.  The year is not quite half over, and social media has become a useful and enjoyable part of my life.  I've been able to keep in touch with friends, make new business contacts, and share my ideas with the world.  I've also been able to read some thoughtful, often provocative material, and it's all been at my fingertips to read when the mood strikes.  In all I've thoroughly enjoyed most of the social media experiencs I've had.

There is, however, a newer trend in social media that I don't quite understand: location updating.  Applications such as Foursquare are a way for people to let their friends know where they are at, and by looking at updates they can see where their friends are (or were recently).  You can also post reviews for a particular place you've visited, and you can potentially get rewards from establishments for mentioning that you were there.

Is there a real value to this?  I'm sure some people find it fun to use, but for the most part it seems like a hassle.  Also, some of the more powerful social media users may not want their thousands of followers to know where they are at all times.  So what benefit does this technology provide that might interest mainstream users?

This article on Mashable examines some of the issues with social location tools going mainstream, but believes there are upsides:

One of the ultimate promises of location-based checkins is more accurately targeted advertising. For some users, the privacy concerns of sharing their location might be trumped by the potential utility of receiving highly targeted advertising and promotions.

I'm not so sure targeted advertising will appeal to a mainstream audience, at least not in the next couple of years.  The article also mentions that Facebook and Twitter have thrown their hats in the social location ring, so perhaps they can figure out how to add value to the average user.

What about you, do you use location tools such as Foursquare?  If so what do you enjoy about it?