Comments for Andrew Mueller's Business Unusual

Comment on Followfriday is Sabotaging your Twitter Experience – A New Model for Community Building Recommendations by isemann

isemann — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:39:47 +0000

#followfriday is borked – tweet after tweet after tweet stuffed full of names.

The way to fix it, in my opinion, is to use a hashtag to recommend people that actually works.

My pick is #worthfollowing. You can see why it’s broken, alternatives and why I think #worthfollowing is best on my blog http://isemann.posterous.com (just scroll down a bit mkay!)

R! @isemann

Comment on Followfriday is Sabotaging your Twitter Experience – A New Model for Community Building Recommendations by Julio R Varela

Julio R Varela — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:32:20 +0000

I will thank people who give me the recs but for the last two months I have been just picking five people and writing about them on my blog. It gives me more time to explain why I follow that person.

Comment on How Social Media has Profoundly Changed our Lives and in turn Business by Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:38:31 +0000

Thank you John, I am unfamiliar with Ester Dyson but for sure will take a look. Yes there is an ease of engagement and the broader Twitter community is quite forgiving because of the understanding of the limitations of the format. That said, I think it is truly a challenge to craft a tweet that conveys articulate meaning about complex topics in 140 characters – an art really.

Comment on How Social Media has Profoundly Changed our Lives and in turn Business by John Reddish

John Reddish — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:20:08 +0000

I’ve been a fan of Ester Dyson and her prophetic utterings on the impact on the changes in information flow – what’s said, what’s heard, who owns it, how it’s monitized – still evolving.

Your observations are in synch and show an aspect she doesn’t dwell on – the “ease” of connecting in 140 characters. Perhaps Twitter is, in some ways, the successor to Billy Joel’s “Piano Man,” providing both a knowing and a distance, a place of safety along with the adventure of exploration?

Comment on How Social Media has Profoundly Changed our Lives and in turn Business by Kara

Kara — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:07:58 +0000

Thank you for mentioning Marty Neumeier in your post. I work for Peachpit Press and thought you and your readers would like to know that he just released his very first video, INNOVATION WORKSHOP: Brand Strategy + Design Thinking = Transformation.

The 45-minute video presents concepts from his bestselling “whiteboard” books – THE BRAND GAP, ZAG, and THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY – plus downloadable exercises that will help you and your team work through brand innovation questions. Overall, this video expands to fill a one-day workshop (an $800 value!) for an extremely affordable price. Check it out below:

http://su.pr/2iE1k5

Comment on How Social Media has Profoundly Changed our Lives and in turn Business by Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:45:07 +0000

Thanks Tony,

I am glad that you liked it. I took a peek at your Post and will get back and read it thoroughly when I can keep my eyes open and my brain is processing again.

Cheers

Comment on How Social Media has Profoundly Changed our Lives and in turn Business by Tony "Frosty" Welch

Tony "Frosty" Welch — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:30:53 +0000

Hi Andrew,
Great article, and I’m in total agreement with you. I recently spoke at a panel and wrote this post:
http://frostyland.blogspot.com/2009/06/who-killed-social-media.html

Comment on How Social Media has Profoundly Changed our Lives and in turn Business by Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:46:38 +0000

Thanks Sorel, I hadn’t seen this. Quite interesting when one clicks through to the tagcloud for a particular brand. As a brand I would like to know more about the demographic sampling of the audience that responded. Regardless, as you said, it is an interesting starting point to understand how the brands audience articulates the brand.

Comment on How Social Media has Profoundly Changed our Lives and in turn Business by sorel

sorel — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:36:32 +0000

Have you seen the brand tags site? Great demonstration of how the community articulates a brand identity. http://www.brandtags.net/

Comment on Followfriday is Sabotaging your Twitter Experience – A New Model for Community Building Recommendations by Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:24:37 +0000

Hello Sonia,

Sonia,

You are coming to much of the same realization that may of us have. To answer your question about removing the hashtag entirely… The problem is one of search. Unless a common identifier is used with tweets that recommend people to follow, it is very difficult to search and find those tweets. A hashtag is a commonly accepted identifier used that allows the quick and easily discovery of the information sought. The more people you follow, the more useful hashtags become. I would suspect that most recommendations made without the #followfriday hashtag, are not seen. Additionally, all hashtags are subject to hashtag abuse, both deliberate and ignorant. Anyone can apply a hashtag to any tweet regardless of whether appropriate or not. This is done by marketers to spam participants of tweetchats.

So the answer is particular to your own beliefs. I use the #rec hashtag, even though I know that it is not a commonly known practice, so that folks who are aware of this can search for my recommendations. I do not use followfriday because then my recommendations would get lost in the ocean of lists. You may chose not to tag your recommendations, and that too would be fine. The bottom line is that the best way to find interesting folks to follow is to watch those that you follow, who add value to your experience, and see who they are talking too; it is a good bet that these folks would also add value.

Thanks for reading and for your comment.