Sirona Says

Is Twitter the new RSS subscription?

It's Monday, so I thought I would start the week with an interesting poser to get your brains working.

Is Twitter the new RSS subscription?

RSS Subscription is an awesome and powerful tool, but has it already become 'mainstream'? Are people now looking for that next communication channel with an edge? Has it just become 'accepted' all of a sudden?

Twitter has become that edge (for the moment anyway!) and is expanding very very fast, so just think if you had joined Twitter just 6 months ago? How many followers would you have now? You could have 1000's of people following you and taking note of what you say - a very powerful distribution channel to get your message across. There is no doubt that Twitter could be as powerful as RSS subscription, but is it better?

So for those of you that either haven't joined Twitter yet or have only recently seen the light (my hand is raised here! - want some Twitter tips?) then you need to get over to Twitter and join up (follow me).

Twitterberry - a new Twitter addiction!!

I know this Twitter thing seems to be everywhere, but today I discovered that there is (of course) an application for Blackberries - very correctly named Twitterberry!! So if you want to take your Twitter addiction (follow me) a little further download this neat little app here.

Very simple but so effective!!

Social networking is a true symbiotic relationship

We are all members of numerous social networks - in many cases, way too many to be really effective!! But is this coming at a price for all the friends that we keep adding to each new media? The ability to follow your friends on multiple channels sounds great ....for the first week, and then unless you are a SNOS (social networker on speed) it will it will naturally tail off to follow the most interesting only. So what about the reverse - all the people following you. Why are people tracking what you do, reading your blog, watching your videos and  listening to you twitter on?

The reason is they want something from you, and of course you want something from them! So what do you get when you link up / add a friend / follow / join a new network group etc. Maki from Dosh Dosh explains what benefits you get:

Access to more data. You get to view more data on the user, some of which may be intentionally obscured from the public or other non-friend users. This allows you to network with the specific user in a more intimate and personal setting.

Greater communication options. Depending on the social site, when someone adds you as a friend, they open up more avenues of communication. This adds a greater level of interactivity: you can connect with the person who added you through private/direct messages, instead of the highly visible public channel.

Recommended content. When someone adds you as a friend (and vice versa), your activity or actions on the site may be recommended or ‘pushed’ towards the other person in some part of their admin panel or profile. This means that you’ll get greater visibility automatically whenever you use the social website.

Greater Social Proof. An auxiliary advantage of having many fans on social media websites is social proof, especially when the social site itself ranks the users according to the no. of followers/subscribers they have. Popular and visible users tend to accumulate friends more easily than unknown users.
Basically, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain when someone adds you as a friend on any social media website. They are giving you permission to share messages with them while bestowing attention on your recommendations/actions within the social site.

So as you can see social networking is the new symbiotic relationship of life! It is about both parties getting something out of the relationship.

The new networking SIN - Special Interest Networks

There has been recent decline in the sign up rates for Facebook and other social networks, and I believe this is a sign of people's expanding knowledge and expectation of using social networks. For alot of people, joining a huge entity like Facebook or MySpace is perfect for them - being part something new but still part of the generic social media mainstream. But there is now a trend seeing users wanting more out of a social network - they want to  interact with like minded individuals that have specific knowledge about their skills or interests. It may be a specific skills at work, such a network for HR Professionals, or it may be a network for mothers with newborn babies. The main point is that add real specific value to the people in that network, with very relevant information about their subject.

So the SIN has been born - the Special Interest Networks.

Special interest networks are nothing new - take LinkedIn for example - but they are now gathering pace with sites like Gurgle, Flixter, BakeSpace, Recruitingblogs and of course Talent Management Network. The one thing they have in common is their need to be niche - without that their value is minimised. The shifting of social networks is reflecting how we are as people, and by networking on a site that is specific to us, we are solving our needs. We solve the practical need to find out specific information about the interests we have and we solve the emotional need to express ourselves to people that will be interested and will listen.

So for all you optimisers, add another to the list - SEO, SEM, SMO and SIN!!!!!

Ten Tips on using Twitter

For all of you that have gone Twitter mad over the last few weeks, I thought these unofficial tips from Grammar Girl on using Twitter might be helpful for you.

1. Don't start posts with “I am.” You're answering the question, “What are you doing?” It's OK to answer with fragments in a conversation.
2. Use proper capitalization. Typing in lowercase doesn't save characters; it's just lazy.
3. Use proper basic punctuation. It helps people understand what you mean.
4. Don't use abbreviations such as 4U and L8. They make you sound like a 12-year-old (which is bad, unless you actually are a 12-year-old).
5. Shorthand symbols such as >,  =, &, and @ are allowed.
6. Shortened word forms such as nite and thru are allowed.
7. Use numerals, not words, for all numbers.
8. Provide links and context whenever possible. Remember that many of your followers can't see what you are responding to.
9. Use tinyurl or urltea to shorten links.
10. If you can't say it in 140 characters, reevaluate whether you should be posting it at Twitter.

So off you go all you Twits, and carry on twittering properly!!

How do Generation Y'ers and Generation Z'ers communicate?

This may surprise you (it certainly did me) that mobile texting didn't come out top in this survey, especially the way my daughters use their mobiles!! Habbo's Global Youth Survey looked at generation Y and generation Z teenagers - particularly aged 11-18 - to see how they communicate with other people (friends, family etc). Here are the ways they communicate:

1. Instant Messaging via internet  81%
2. Meeting in person   77%
3. Text Messages   70%
4. Talking on the phone   60%
5. Social Networking sites  54%
6. Email   41%

So as an employer looking to tap into this market, it does make interesting reading. Although the surprising one at the bottom is email with only 41%, it must be said that 72% of them do hold current email accounts but only use them for non-personal communication like school, work and family(!!!).

Jumptags - a challenge to the leader, Digg??

Yesterday I was at the Internet World Exphibition at Earls Court, and met with Jumptags. While talking to the UK Country Manager, I was very surprised by the lack of clarity of what the product actually is. He did of course give me the website URL (nicely placed on the back of a green rubber frog!) and told me the website was self explanitory (good sales pitch!).  So here is the official description of what it is:

Jumptags.com is a revolutionary Web 2.0 social bookmarking web service that allows you to collect, store, share and distribute web bookmarks, videos, notes, RSS feeds, contacts, and much much more…

Designed with breakthrough next-generation web technologies, Jumptags.com offers the easiest, fastest and most intuitive way to manage online resources. You will be able to create and share collections of online resources, facilitating joint contribution and collaboration. What’s more, Jumptags.com’s revolutionary browser toolbars (add-ons) will improve your web productivity beyond recognition…

So are you clear now??

Social networking going mainstream.....right into school!!

A great post on the Utah SEO Pro blog by Jordan Kasteler  has highlighted what is now inevitable - the march of social networking into mainstream society. He found a college in the USA that is now studying social networking and even producing exams in it as well!! Below is an example some of the questions put to the students...(I know you will know the answers but just in case Jason has provided the links!)

COMM 1500

1. A ______ is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission, (epidemiology), or airline routes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network
2. What is social networking trying to do? Most of the applications so far offer one or more of eight features or functionalities. http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2006/08/15/social_networking_a_status_report.html
3. Lots of people have opinion about Twitter, ranging from a complete waste of time to the indispensable connector with your community. What is Twitter? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter or http://twitter.com/
4. What is an RSS feed? http://www.fastcompany.com/about/rss.html and http://www.whatisrss.com/
5. They use video and paper to make complex ideas easy to understand. They present subjects “in plain English” using short, unique and understandable videos in a format called Paperworks. http://www.commoncraft.com/
6. Be familiar with the following Social Networks:

• iLike - http://ilike.com
• MySpace - http://www.myspace.com
• Facebook - http://www.facebook.com
• YouTube - http://www.youtube.com
• LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com

Let's hope that it isn't too long before we see this in the UK soon!!

LinkedIn - the next stage, network expansion

Following my article about LinkedIn for beginners, several people have asked what the next stage is with LinkedIn. Fortunately I don't have to write that one as there is a very good video below by Geoff Peterson - a global Top 150 linker - that explains very well how to further expand your network.

Find more videos like this on RecruitingBlogs.com

A beginners guide to LinkedIn

I thought I would share an article that I wrote recently for a good B2B website - BusinessZone.co.uk. I was asked to explain how beginners go about using LinkedIn, so for all you experienced hands, go off and make that cup of coffee.

But if you have heard about LinkedIn, wondered what it is and how it can be used to help you grow your network, then read the article  - LinkedIn for beginners - it is very useful. LinkedIn is the best social networking site for business!!  (I look forward to you sending me your LinkedIn invites).