Entries in blogging (3)

Thursday
Oct012009

This is not a social media blog

DateThursday, October 1, 2009 at 11:24AM

I have been struggling for content a little on this blog recently, despite having more time on my hands. As I write in my bio, I have never felt that social media is the only topic worth discussing, despite the fact that I am increasingly positioning myself as an expert in that space. But it's not the only space I have worked in, unlike anyone who has "guru" or "ninja" attached to their title. And that's why this blog needs to be more than social media. There are enough blogs out there discussing it, and most of them are redundant. As Rebecca Thorman writes:

Stop writing about social media. Talking about how Twitter is or isn’t an effective networking tool is boring. Really, freaking boring.

I read a lot of posts on social media hoping someone will say something new, but that never happens. We need to stop masturbating to what the tool is and start using it to see how it works.

This blog post is from March, by the way. And still relevant. Anyone who blogs should strive for something that is readable and relevant months (even years) later.  How many blog posts were wasted on "Twitter-killer" Plurk? How many will be written on Google Wave? Just this week, even Amber Naslund reached out to her readers for ideas that matter to them, due to the circular nature of the social media conversation.

My goal here is to write something different than everyone else, rather than recycle the same conversations and adapt them to whatever new technology emerged in the last week. I've have always believed in the difference between Soundbytes and Solutions, and I'll continue to apply that ideology to this blog. If I'm not writing, it's not because I'm not paying attention to what's happening in marketing, new media, etc. It's because I'm waiting to write something that I think is interesting, rather than just creating noise.

So bear with me as I continue to re-think the types on content I write about here. And stop by my Posterous blog, which is one of the top reasons I don't write here as much nowadays.

Authoradam stewart | CommentPost a Comment |
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Saturday
Jul042009

Announcing: the minidisco

DateSaturday, July 4, 2009 at 11:17AM

Inspired by Greg Verdino's Verdino Bytes, and indirectly kick-started by Steve Rubel's post on Posterous, I have created another blog. It is cleverly named the minidisco. Because, y'know, the main blog is discobeta. The new one is mini. You get it.

the minidisco fills a void that my blog, twitter and lifestreams (both crayon and FriendFeed) don't: the need for to me to post items (mostly unrelated to marketing) with as little thought-out commentary as possible. They are items that I find interesting, inspiring and humorous for reasons that generally speak for themselves. At least to me. A lot of the content is filtered to me through friends, so it also serves as a "best of" my custom social web.

Basically, it's fun, which is what creating content -- even if it's recycled -- is supposed to be.  Take a look and give it a subscribe if you like what you see.

Authoradam stewart | CommentPost a Comment |
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Monday
Apr072008

Techniques on saving and sharing

DateMonday, April 7, 2008 at 9:02AM

On a daily basis, I'm being fed information from the following sources (listed in order of volume):

  1. Google Reader
  2. Twitter
  3. Inter-office
  4. Facebook
  5. Other: GTalk, Digg, StumbleUpon, FriendFeed, personal email

So I've read or received a compelling piece of content and I want to share it. There is no shortage of ways to do this, and I often pause for a second, wondering how best to share, and who I want to read it. Here is the methodology I seem to have fallen into.

Share on Google Reader This is probably one of the most common ways I share information. But I'm also catering to the audience I know is reading my shared feed. I have a few friends who aren't interested in the majority of the social media information I read, but they might care about a cool map, tech review, sports story or music post. I also have a "shared" feed on this blog, so I consider this to be the most public and professional of my sharing options.

Save to Delicious I don't consider delicious to be an especially social tool, so anything I save there falls mostly into the "personal reference" category, like a cool fashion retailer, online tool or list of running trails. Admittedly, my delicious page is a tagging disaster (which is why I can't wait for delicious 2.0) and I use it mostly for information storage.

Digg it I generally Digg current events, such as a recently-published article of interest in the New Yorker, a tabloidy story or something I just generally want to spread the word on to a wide audience.

Share on Twitter If I'm dropping it on Twitter, it's either an immediately breaking story I hadn't seen from anyone else on Twitter yet (which is rare), a new tool/technology that will appeal to my Twitter followers or a video that has been making the rounds.

Share on Facebook Reserved for items I find amusing, timely or relating specifically to friends (i.e. a project they are part of). If I get a viral video or funny story, it's probably making it on here.

Stumble it StumbleUpon is probably the least-utilized of this group -- for me, anyway. I think of StumbleUpon as a receptacle of interesting photos, videos, tools and content, but not necessarily a resource to find information. There is probably a little overlap with delicious here, but there is pretty much zero chance I'm stumbling a really informative blog post or article.

And finally...email You're getting an email from me if you were foolish enough to include me on any group email list and I know you won't come across the content through any of the other methods I share information. And, obviously, since email is the least public means of sharing information, I'm sharing information just for one person, or sending something that may be deemed a bit too inappropriate to be shared to a larger forum.

So, how do you share information?

Authoradam stewart | CommentPost a Comment |
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