thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

When my daughter was 3 she used to ask what I did for a job. She has a much better idea now but to keep things simple I used to say something like this.

“I talk with people, I take lots of notes. Then some web stuff.”

Fairly often now some of this takes place all at the same time. Live twitter streams from events are now part of the (new) media mix.  Services like Be in the Room can aggregate social media feeds and we can take questions from external observers via the use of hashtags.

Here is recent example (August 4th) from the Unitec Forum for the Future series on Auckland Super City debates. Look at earlier posts on theDomm website for more about that event and/ or follow on twitter @UnitecFTF At the UnitecFTF those who couldn’t be there asked questions via twitter.

This was the 6th forum event so far. More are planned. Noted business commentator and journalist Rod Oram is the chair for the event and Associate Professor & Head of Department Rob Davis deserves full credit for being the catalyst & firestarter on this project.

As this debate took place in a TV studio with lots of outside media present some of this was captured on video. I even got a rare chance to see myself at work because when you are on live streaming it all tends to be a bit of blur in the moment.

The super city changeover for Auckland is an important change and  it deserves better, smarter, more engaging media and new media engagement.

Well done Unitec cast and crew for making a difference.

Looks like you have visited before, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks again

At WordCampNZ I was planning to talk about what I do most of the time which is online marketing projects integrated with WordPress.

On the day I talked more about the logistics around WordCamp rather than the stats & case studies I had planned to do.

My business is focussed at the marketing end of the scale and so I use email tools especially Campaign Monitor and MailChimp plus various other social media plugins to make it as easy as possible for customers and partners to engage with each other.

Again not having enough time (or sleep) I mentioned these WordPress plugins in passing.

This is the partly the presentation that I had planned but on the day it seemed more important to go wider and talk about WordCampNZ future planning.

1. Google Analyticator is one of my favourite plugins as it gives a rolling 30 day view of GA on the WordPress dashboard. This saves going into the google account which not many of my customers want to do. The plugin has role settings and so that desktop widget can be rolled down to below admin and editors if that is what you want to do.
2. FB Like is Facebook like plugin that we use on WordcampNZ. I like it (sorry about the pun.) Much as I personally have mixed views about Facebook (privacy & commerce) there is no doubting the huge clout it has when someone that you know likes or comments on stuff we all care about. (see also my post from June 06 Trust & verify on trust cues.)
3. Backtype Connect is another plugin that is used extensively to feed in the twitter and other social streams into blogs. Part of the reason we use it is that it provides some twitter analytics which is a growing area of interest for many businesses. Have a look at these analytics for the post on Richard Hollingnum.The other reason I / we use Backtype is that some of the automattic people invested in it. (P.s you may need to setup a free account with Backtype if you can’t see the full set of stats)
4. In passing I also referred to VaultPress for backups and VideoPress for video hosting also very much worth checking them out.
5. WordPress Mobile Edition plugin from Alex King is one of my favourites. I don’t mind reading the instructions as there is a theme part and a plugin part. So this plugin needs a FTP whiz to do upload. Auto install won’t get the theme part in the right location.

The other point to remember with these kinds of lists is that plugin versions and WordPress versions are a moving target and do change.

This means that – as always there might be a particular combination of versions that may not work with your theme or other setup configuration.

Congrats to Bill Bennett for his piece on Writing for the web in 300 words one of my favourites and now I’ve just hit 482 so time to publish.

We have been hearing that Facebook is due to hit 500m users this month.

As a student of human behaviour this seems to be one time when the passenger get to be the driver in pretty much any way they choose.

Unlike in many areas Facebook is ideal for 500 m niches of 1 and that works pretty well for everyone. Expression is a very powerful thing.

You may have seen an earlier version of this video.

I watched the Digital Nation documentary on the multi tasking clicking on everything that moves lifestyle that many of use are heading towards. Is this wholesale immersion helping us or hindering us while making us feel like we are doing better than we really are.

Perhaps the illusion of instant activity is not just amplified by the web but actually it is distorting our perspective. (Cue Rat in Cage song here. ) See how easy it is to be distracted even by the good things we love.

View Digital Nation Chapter 1 Distracted by Everything here.

It seems that at least some of the really frenetic texting, facebooking, sm twitching is very much an illusion when it comes to focus. Here are the other chapter headings below.

• Chapter 2 What’s It Doing to Their Brains?
  Tests given Stanford multitaskers yield troubling discoveries. Other research into Net use and the brain raises more questions.
• Chapter 3 South Korea’s Gaming CrazeSome cautionary lessons from a country where Internet addiction has become a public health crisis.
• Chapter 4 Teaching with TechnologyTeachers are embracing digital media–’it keeps students engaged; new skills are needed for a new age.’ But is there a catch?
• Chapter 5 The Dumbest Generation?The debate has just begun on whether we are losing as much as we’re gaining in a 24/7 wired world.
• Chapter 6 RelationshipsMillions of people are inhabiting the Net as if it were a real place, satisfying the urge to connect to others in online games, virtual worlds.
• Chapter 7 Virtual WorldsSecond Life offers a totally new reality for humans, says its creator — and IBM has begun shifting its meetings into this virtual space.
• Chapter 8 Can Virtual Experiences Change Us?The U.S. military is using virtual spaces for PTSD therapy and for flying drones in Iraq while based in a room in Nevada.
• Chapter 9 Where Are We Headed?A school is organized around learning through video games–maybe its students are getting something we aren’t yet able to measure or recognize.

—- Very Much worth a look —-Watch it online

Anyone who has been around for more than a decade will have seen incredible change come – and go.

“Action is no substitute for direction.” Me

I actually wrote that more than 20 years ago in a list of recommended reading books that I used to try and compile every year or so.

Outcomes are what really counts most of the time. And yes there are many distractions along the way. For my 2 cents – I reckon switching down a gear and going to the film festival or for some really long swims works better for me.

At least that is the plan.

For years we ‘ve had endless conversations about online traffic. Now its all here and on tap I believe it is time to be more selective. Sure not every movement means anything in the way that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar but lets see some outcomes other than burnout and various over use symptoms.

Traffic is NOT the same as engagement. A like on facebook is not the same as a comment on a blog but the ability to click on the like button does give some clues. #justsaying (like they do on Twitter:)

So is a Facebook fan worth anything ?

I’m sure that there are some formulas.  All fans are different and their FB activity may give some clues as to what their influence or “clout” might be.

If only life was that easy to quantify.

Mashable had some ideas on what FB, LinkedIn and Twitter might be worth. A simple division of total by numbers of actual users might give some ideas.

Of course Linkedin may well be close to reaching full potential and actual earnings. For FB and Twitter they have yet to really monetize much more than a fraction of what they might be capable of.

In a few weeks I’m off to my 4th WordCamp. WordCamps are community organised and local events for bloggers and othere users of WordPress.

What I really, really like about the WordCamp crew is that everyone has a story and often they are are extrememely proactive about projects and outcomes.

WordCampNZ is on Aug 7th & 8th at Unitec in Mt Albert Auckland. Feel free to come along and join in. Go on change the world with us.

Here are just 16 of the speakers ( * a few more to be annouced)   who will be sharing their insights with us.

• Bill Bennett – Writing Online
• Sacha Dylan – Who Are Your Audience
• Alex Shiels – Automattic
• Jeff Ghazally – extending WP e-Commerce through Plugins
• Dan Milward – WP e-Commerce
• Robert Popovic – BuddyPress
• Quintin Russ – WordPress Security
• Grey Lynn 2030 – Community Management Suzanne Kendrick & Pippa Coom
• Courtney Lambert – Marcomms
• Online Video – Wine Vault Way Jayson Bryant
• HTML5 & CSS with Darren Wood
• Advanced Webhosting with Liz Quilty
• Jo Couchman Creative Web Ideas
• SEO 101 for WordPress Michael Brandon – Searchmasters
• Mogul Time Matt Miller
• Blog Design – Rachel Cunliffe

Here are three great post insights on how twitter is changing the game for all businesses.

The three featured writers are Andrew Dubber, Dr Mark Drapeau and Laurel Papworth. 

Andrew Dubber has just noted that this is one of the top posts on his site this year. Read Andrews full post here. Adding context and interest. It has special interest for musicians.

“Steve Lawson, one of my top must-read music business thinkers, wrote a blog post today that explains Twitter in the face of some terrible journalism. I caught up with him for lunch in London and we had a chat about it.

Quite predictably, I made a video.” (Note: Included below)

Steve Lawson from Andrew Dubber on Vimeo.

 
Dr Michael Drapeau made some comments over here on on a post by Brian Solis. It is a long comment but deserves a good long read. Brian Solis is also worth checking out – THis comment was in response to a post by Brian Solis called “Is Twitter a Converstaion or Broadcast Medium”. 

“When I wrote “Expand Your Twitter Base” I commented that people should look at their last 40 tweets to see if they’re generally interesting. 

People can use Twitter however they please. But many people using it for “conversation” are speaking 1:1 with someone, and saying things that are not generally interesting. (@myfriend OMG so funny!) There’s no context, no proper nouns, no generality. There’s nothing compelling that makes people want to follow you in that example. 

Twitter is used *most successfully* as a broadcast medium within which some content can be discussed in a general way. This is like a radio talk show host making statements and interviewing a guest, and then taking a few questions. If all he did was take phone calls from his friends and have brief “conversations” that would not be a hit show. 

Brands and popular people alike do not need to converse with everyone who asks, nor reply to every comment made about them. It’s not clear that this approach has help Comcast any – they get some good blog stories and their hardware is still the source of heads banging against walls. 

What is far more valuable is for brands and people to provide information that they think is interesting and adds value to some audience, who can then comment on it. No one can effectively control who follows them on Twitter; thus, people will high followed/following ratios tend to be “popular” by definition. Unless they are truly famous, they are generally adding value to the mix, unlike many, as the statistics show (who have few followers and/or even ratios). 

Clay Shirky describes Wikipedia as “co-creation without collaboration.” There, as with Twitter, very few people are responsible for the overwhelming majority of content development. While a wiki and microsharing are different, on Twitter maybe the 10% of people that contribute 90% of the tweets can be thought of as subject-matter experts who would write an entire Wikipedia page. Sure, some edits are made, some discussion ensues, but they are the “knowledge broadcasters” and the other 90% of people are the gardeners and readers. And there’s nothing wrong with any of that. In theory, everyone is getting something out of the complex system.”

Mark’s earlier post on HOW TO: Win Friends and Twinfluence People is also an evergreen type of article which has a top 10 list and concludes with this advice below.

“The Bottom Line

There aren’t any secrets. You get out what you put in. Work hard, add value, and don’t rest on your laurels. Note what’s happening in the news, and in life. Always evolve; adapt to your environment. Embrace trial-and-error and a spirit of lethal generosity. Take risks. Be surprising. Be awesome.”

Online reputation management by Laurel Papworth. Laurel is based in Sydney and is clearly a star writer and marketing evangelist. There are many great posts on her website – however a good place to start is here.

What I like about Laurels posts is that she often uses diagrams so the visual element is there as well.

“Reputation
Reputation is the long tail of your content. Have you been naughty or nice. Asking questions – or answering them? Asking for stuff – or offering? Giggling with a great sense of humour or snarking off with rude words? You want a bad boy rep? YA GOTTA EARN IT. Anyway, you get the general idea. One blog post, one tweet, one facebook status does not build your reputation. It accumulates over time.”

As always your thoughts are welcome here. 

• To follow Andrew on Twitter go to @dubber
• To follow Mark on Twitter go to @cheeky_geeky
• To follow Laurel on Twitter @silkcharm