The Cheap Revolution

5 Easy Social Media Tips for Technologists

A couple of weeks ago, Skip and I spoke at the Chariot Solutions offices for a Social Media "Lunch & Learn". Our audience? Open source technologists!

We reviewed some of the basics, but also discussed why a person in the technical field should care. Granted, many of these technologists are already "hip" to social technology. Some have embraced the tools and are harnessing social technology to build & nurture relationships and share/collaborate with other technologists.

Quite frankly, it's refreshing that Chariot is "leading the charge" (pun intended!) and encouraging their employees to participate in social media. It's really a no-brainer; in some cases, employees of small and medium sized companies can be the best content generators and evangelists of the company brand. Of course, mileage will vary depending on your industry, how many employees you have, etc.  I'll save that for another "brand & reputation management" post, though.

Anyways, we had a lot to cover in the session since it was only an hour long, but we revealed some easy things technologists can integrate into their daily routines to participate in the company's social media efforts. Most of these things can take 20 minutes or less a day to do!

1. Share your Google Reader with other employees. If you're already using Google Reader to read the latest news and blog posts from the technological world - why not SHARE interesting links/info with your fellow employees?
2. Use Twitter to connect & share with your co-workers as well as RT (re-tweet) company news (if they have a corporate Twitter account). If you're creating a professional account, consider including your company name or area of specialty in your Twitter account. For example: "OpenSourceFrank"
3. Find and join groups on LinkedIn. Try to focus on those related to your technology niche. For example, if you're an open source developer, start your search with "open source" or "open source development".  Use keywords related to your specialty to find those relevant groups.
4. Utilize social bookmarking sites (for example: Dzone - which is like Digg, but for developers) to share news articles, blog posts, and interesting videos. Google Reader offers easy social sharing functionality. Many websites, blogs, and social networking platforms also have this social sharing functionality built-in as well. It's easy to use, you just need an account on the social bookmarking sites.
5. Comment on your company's blog. Seriously. Your blog comment doesn't have to be a dissertation. It can be simply agreeing with and supporting what the blog post is about. Naturally, we also encourage regular commenting on other, industry blogs. Do so as time permits.

There's many other things technologists can do to participate in the company's social media, of course. Knowing what your company's social media strategy, though, is key. If they don't have one, it's time for them to step up & create one. But we'll leave that for another blog post.

What are some of YOUR social media tips for technologists?

Best,
Marilyn Moran

An Integral Philly look at the Internet

One of the organizations that I'm active in is called Integral Philly.  Part of our mission at Integral Philly is to explore complex and dynamic topics using the Integral Theory lens called AQAL.   At our last meeting, we decided to apply the AQAL Lens to the rapidly changing Internet.   (Ken Wilber is the originator of the AQAL model.)

The conversation quickly jumped into a discussion of Network Theory and Six Degrees of Separation.  It seems that this idea is particularly important in the social networks we are creating and propagating across the Web.  

However, the conversation quickly ran through a gamut of topics which I captured in the Quadrant breakdown shown below.  For those of you not familiar with AQAL, the quadrants are:

- upper left.  the interior of the person.  Think of our consciousness.

- upper right.  the exterior/measureable elements of the person.  Skills, demographics, behaviors

- lower left.  the interior of the group.  This represents our culture.

- lower right. the exterior of the group.  The formal organizations we use.

In the diagram below, the four quadrants capture single phrases around a wide range of topics.  However, some of the key takeaways and discussions were captured as links between quadrants.   A brief recap includes:

1) Remember that Technology runs ahead of Morality (Blue Line).  One of the saddest moments of my career as a technologist came when I realized how a cool technology like a video camera built into a cell phone could be turned into a cyber-bulllying tool.  Imagine a boy or girl being humiliated on a playground by one or more bullies.  A 12 year old girl, thinking its funny, whips out her phone and records the whole scene on video.  The bullying video is posted to YouTube.  The next day, the bullied child with low self-esteem, now the laughing stock of the entire school, does the unthinkable.   

We are blessed daily with new technologies.  But those of us who use them, or who put new technologies in the hands of children, are obligated to recognize that morals and ethics for these devices often have not been established by our culture.  We have the responsibility of using vigilance in personally monitoring ourselves and others for moral and ethical violations that emerge from using these technologies.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. - Martin Luther King Jr.

2) Different Internet Communication Channels provide different levels of Context.  An interesting discussion started with a conversation about email and how so much can be taken out of context.  Indeed, it seems that proper etiquette in email should be required education in our classrooms today.  That said, what is the difference between the context provided by Twitter - at 140 characters of text - and live online video?  Quite a bit, I'd say.  But its interesting to think about the differences of context provided by the various Internet channels.  Live networking or "Pressing the flesh" may always be the most intimate way to interact with someone.  This item opened up an entire range of new topics for me related to mapping Internet Marketing Channels.  More on that in an upcoming blog post.

3) Working at Home has a crucial side-effect of more isolation.  Okay. I admit it.  I often communicate with my wife by email... even when she is 20 feet away from me.  I instant message co-workers who are in the same room.  How pathetic is that? 

We are becoming increasingly isolated even as we become more connected.  

4) Disembodied Surfing needs to be more present.  Have you ever zoned out while surfing the Web?  I have... plenty.  A random meditation bell software program that rings periodically, without warning, helps to bring me back to reality.  I can take a deep breath... appreciate my surroundings and begin surfing again with more presence. 

Some of the topics discussed during our Integral Philly Meetup are shown below. 

I hope you get the idea that, during the talk, we covered a wide range of topics.  One of the final areas of discussion before we ran out of time was the role that generation is playing in how people interact with the Web.   One hot topic was how Millenials relate differently to the world in particular.  Millenials are the first full-fledged Internet generation from just-about cradle and on.   

Apparently, this hasn't gone un-noticed by a number of authors.  Some books mentioned during the conversation included:

Fourth Turning by William Strauss

Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation by Neil Howe, William Strauss and R.J. Matson

and 

What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis

How do you relate to the conclusions our group reached?   What questions do they raise for you?

Are there other cross-quadrant topics that you'd like to explore?

By: Skip Shuda

5 Practical Tips on Following People on Twitter

I know there’s a lot of talk about Twitter these days. According to a Nielsen survey, it’s the fastest growing social networking site on the Internet today. Individuals, businesses, and celebrities alike are using it to communicate and connect with others. Back in June, I participated in a workshop called Twitter for Business 101 (sponsored by Team and a Dream).I explained the benefits of signing up, basic usage, and covered some Twitter etiquette (what and when to “tweet”).

A big part of my presentation was about searching for people to follow on Twitter. I focused a good bit on how to qualify the best people to follow. Knowing your target audience is a good first step in figuring out whom to follow. Know the topics and issues that they are interested in and ensure they align with your own. Use that as a foundation in order to start a conversation and build a relationship with them.

Note: it’s important to read people’s Bios as well as scan their most recent tweets before following them. Take this extra qualifying step so you’re not just randomly following people. It will also assure you that their tweets are of value to you. Are they frequently sharing news, links or other information that interests you? Are they actively engaging in conversation with others?

5 Twitter Follow Tips

1. Finding People on Twitter – Twitter allows you to search for people you already know or based on keywords. You can also invite people to Twitter. http://twitter.com/invitations/find_on_twitter

2.  Real Time Twitter Search – this seems like a no-brainer.  Write down a list of keywords that you’re interested in or that describes your business. Plug those words into Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com/) and you will immediately get real-time results of people who are using those exact words in their tweets.  Real Time Search also includes trending topics which are the hot topics at any given time.

3.   Friend Followers/Following – Scan your friends’ following/followers from time to time. It never hurts to see who they are following or who is following them. Chances are you will find a common thread in which to start a conversation.

4.   Twitter Directories – Directories are like Yellow Pages on the web. On most Twitter directories, you can submit yourself to the directory listing that's most relevant to you – usually you will be grouped by categories/keywords or interests.  Great Twitter directories to get listed on and find people are Twellow, WeFollow, and TwitterGroups.

5.  Tweet Alerts – set up a tweet alert on your keywords so you can have conversations emailed to you. It is essentially like Google Alerts for Twitter. Good examples of online tools that can do this are Tweetscan and TweetBeep.

Let us know how you find and follow people on Twitter!

By: Marilyn Moran