If you’re just getting into blogging and using Twitter (which is also called microblogging) then you’re going to run into a few opinions about what to do or not to do.  Don’t get spooked.

For example, periodically you’ll hear people complaining that too many bloggers act like they are talking in an echo chamber meaning nobody has anything new to say. This one seems to surface every few months or so. I just figure people who yammer on about this haven’t really got anything else to blog about so they’re complaining about others that repeat or forward along news from others versus writing something creative.

Truthfully, I don’t know why they get so fixated on the issue but hey, that’s the nature of the Internet now, everyone has a voice. What you do with it is your business. I’m all for encouraging creative thought but let’s be practical here. First off, what’s so wrong with repeating news?

Recently, I had the New York Times newspaper and the Wall Street Journal coming daily and the local paper on Sunday.  That had to stop; quickly it became abundantly clear that traditional news sources are as much an echo chamber as the bloggers. I’d see practically the same stories in all three papers then hear the same key stories on NPR on the radio, then see it again on TV at 5:30 in the evening. NBC, ABC, CBS – would all repeat the same old stories. And that’s not an echo chamber?

The point is this – if you’re subscribing to too many bloggers that all say the same thing, unsubscribe to them. But don’t let the killjoys crimp your style.  If you’re blogging (or microblogging with Twitter) keep writing about the topics that fuel your passion.  Your audience will decide if they like your version or your way of passing along interesting news about the topic areas you cover. It’s that simple.

Now let’s talk about a more recently bogus vibe that is floating around the Internet now. There are those saying you are a snob if you don’t FOLLOW everyone that follows you on Twitter. I recently saw a video podcast of some guy talking for seven minutes about this topic and he was all worked up about it. He just went on and on about how snobbish the practice is and how crippling it would be to building your Twitter community if you didn’t follow everyone. He offered his work around by saying you should create a second Twitter account just for yourself to follow only the people you want to follow. Sorta like a private back channel I guess. Seems like a lot of extra trouble.

Hey it’s not about how many people you follow or how many follow you or how polite you are or are not by following. Go down that rat hole and your focus and attention on quality writing will dwindle. If you’re just starting, find a few people you want to follow. Over time look for more. Don’t worry about following back. Be ok with dropping those that are not blogging or microblogging on topics you’re interested in at this point in time. Maybe you will follow them later.

There are no cheat codes for blogging and microblogging. Be yourself; don’t get caught in the ruts of naysayers and complainers. Look for people that add value to where you are right now in your life. Want people to think you’re awesome? Be awesome and enjoy yourself. The rest will follow.

Tom

It’s up now and kudos to Domagoj Barisic for getting it installed.  If you’re curious what Google Friend Connect looks like on a WordPress blog then drop on by and login and leave a comment. For now we have comments set up for the home page. But I think it’s going to make more sense to have comments per blog.

For now I’m just keeping this simple.

One question that comes to mind is how does the commenting on Google Friend Connect work with the WordPress blog comments? Right now they are separate.

I’m considering this a work in process. What I’m hoping to show is that all the various niche community social network sites and blog sites will want to interconnect with bigger networks like Google and Facebook. So I’m experimenting to just ’see’ how thing work versus speculating.

I’m interested in getting Facebook Connect to work but that hasn’t proven to be so easy. I’m going to let that rest while we test this interconnection with Google.

Go ahead, leave a comment. Try it out.

Tom

Here is a personal note I composed for a dear friend that recently called to ask me “why bother with Twitter - I don’t get it”. She’s on Facebook now and is just starting to ‘get it’ with regards to building communities online in these new ways. I’m hoping this will be of help to others.

Dear Gwynne -

Thank you for your note about Twitter and how you just don’t get how Twitter works compared to Facebook. I applaud you for moving your traditional mailing list marketing efforts into a Facebook community.  Doing so will help you stay connected with people in Facebook who know you.  Facebook will help you build a community to continue providing insightful support to people who want to use symbolism and models of astrology as a guide to finding themselves and happiness in their life.

You’re right, Twitter is different and at first it seems overly simplified.  There is no on-going flow of people’s thoughts and actions showing up. Well, not until you start befriending others on Twitter. That requires finding people that don’t know you and waiting for others to find you.  Give it some time.  Your Twitter BIO should have the keywords that describe you and your personal interests. You’ll find over time people seek you out on Twitter like they used to do in Google Search engines finding your monthly writings and then asking you to be on your mailing list.  Now people find your Twitters and they decide to follow you.  Like signing up to be on an email list, people ONLY FOLLOW who they really ‘want’ to follow. It’s not a numbers game, it’s about quality of conversation.

Think of Twitter as a kind of  ‘birds of feather’ group where people share thoughts and ideas and links with each other. You want people that add value to your life by sending along new ideas or thought you have not seen before from the Internet. They uncover valuable insights that you appreciate. I only follow 40 or so folks on Twitter and most of them  do not post often. Only a few post daily. But the ones I follow have very high value content. I often reTweet which means I  forward their Tweet along to my list of about 400 which gives them more visibility.  This BTW is how you build up your Twitter community (also called your social graph on Twitter).  Say something useful and post a relevant link. Others will follow.

I’m not interested in how many glasses of water people drink or when they are going to bed at night.  I ignore those folks or just drop them from my follow list. You DO NOT have to follow everyone that follows you. Don’t let others chide you into thinking that. I’m not trying to be hard here just practical.  I think conversation is important but to me having ‘useful’ conversation is more important.

Make sure you put your Twitter address on your email signature and on your web page. You will want to grab your particular  Twitter name before someone else does,  just like you do with Internet domains.  Keep that in mind for now even if you don’t post often, yet.

So for you, post those amazing insights you have each day. Posts a link to your monthly astrology forecasts. Unlike Facebook, practically everyone on  Twitter is visible on the Internet so find interesting people to follow and reTweet their posts. There is an entire subculture of people building amazing Twitter search tools which folks are using to find others they are interested in following. Facebook is more of a ‘who you know’ kind of place where Twitter is more of a ‘what you know’ kind of place to build community.  In fact you can go to http://search.twitter.com and see Twitter posts on whatever topic you pick by dropping in a keyword word or two. It’s in real time from people all over the world. Try that in Facebook – you can’t do it.  Do it on Twitter and find people who are authoring Tweets on topic of interest to you. Click on their FOLLOW button.

The Twitter.com website is fairly dry and uninteresting. I hardly ever use it now. I use TweetDeck because I can see more of the conversation that is occurring from my community of friends. I highly recommend finding a desktop and iPhone Twitter application versus using the Twitter home page.

Enjoy building your community. The next time we talk I’ll show you how to use tools like FriendFeed to automatically repost your blog articles into Twitter and Facebook and find more friends for your community(ies = social graphs). In addition there is a Netscape plug-in tool called Feedley to help you further your efforts in finding relevant information and like minded souls around the world to be in community with.

Tom

Here are the topics I’m interested in learning more about at SXSW this year:

• mobile phone trends, especially where it intersects with social networking systems
• iPhone Development microblogging trends – all the various Twitter tools and related developments and use cases
• Community Management experiences (Intranet and Internet)
• Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect – use cases and view of future plans
• successful use of video business and branding strategies on the Internet

One of the oddities of the SXSW website is how difficult it is (at least for me) to navigate. There is no lack of information on their site, but when it comes to just finding out about the panels; it’s a journey to locate them. Why they make it difficult, I just don’t know.  Here is the link to the SXSW2009 panels.

I thought I’d take my own advice and do a quick scan of the interactive panels I’m considering attending. I have a Gold badge this year because I want to explore the Film side of the conference. This will no doubt cause me to compromise some, but we’ll see.  For now, here is what I’m considering:

Designing the Future of The New York Times
(Khoi Vinh, subtraction.com)

Lawrence Lessig Presentation – Change V2
(Lawrence Lessig, lessig.org)

Design for the Wisdom of Crowds
(Derek Powazek, powazek.com)

From Flickr and Beyond: Lessons in Community Management
(Heather Champ, Flickr)

How Social Networks Are Killing the Revolution
(Steve Swedler, Gangplank)

iPhone Development for Experienced Web Developers
(Joshua Siler, Babcock & Jenkins)

The Mobile Web for Good: Hype or Reality?
(Katrin Verclas, MobileActive.org)

OpenID, OAuth, Data Portability and the Enterprise
(Danny Kolke, Etelos, Inc.)

Video Blogging: Turning Wine into Gold
(Gary Vaynerchuk, WineLibraryTV)

Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content
(Louis Gray, louisgray.com)

Is Time the Key to Crafting Compelling Mobile Service
(Priya Prakash, Flirtomatic)

Keynote Conversation: Chris Anderson (Wired) and Guy Kawasaki (alltop.com)

How about you? You’ll want to be sure you bring a laptop or netbook or iPhone and have something like Tweetdeck installed. SXSW always provides wifi throughout the entire complex. I predict you’ll see people exchanging tips on what panels are good and which ones they are bailing out of to attend the alternate on their list. I remember the first year Twitter was at SXSW. It totally changed the way you found people with common interests and met up with them before, during or after panels and especially what parties were rocking and which ones were losers.

Tom

Are you going crazy? Concerned about the money in this current economy? That’s understandable but if you’re truly into a social media and social networking related business then this is ‘the’ place to be all year long.  And it’s time to plan your time. You will be swept up into a tornado of activity, people, ideas, parties, panels, movies and more. Non-stop from Friday to Wednesday, March 13-18. Myself, I will be attending the Film and Interactive sessions. My plan this year is to carefully pick just the panels I think has something of value for me and to focus a lot of my time networking. I find myself drawn to the panels and often find myself to tired to network with other folks as in the past. I believe networking has the greatest value, so this year, I will focus on that. .

The most important thing to do right now is to spend a few hours pouring over the panels and parties to map out what you want to do. What I find helpful is having alternate panels or parties on my list for a given day just in case I run into a dud or it’s so crowded I can’t get it (if you’re the type that runs late you’ll find yourself standing outside looking in more often the not).

This year SXSW has focused a lot of attention on their website to make it easier to build your schedule for each day and share it with others. So let’s go schedule.

Get ready! Today I ordered a MiLi Power Pack from PhoneSuit.com to make sure I have plenty of power for my iPhone during the day and evening. Plug outlets are difficult to find and in high demand. The entire Austin Convention Center will be consumed by the SXSW and wifi will be available in all areas. Staying in touch with others during the day and evening is a must. It’s quite a magical mystery tour. Hope to see you there.

Tom