Workflow- Social Media School Teacher:
[Via chrisbrogan.com]

Dharmesh wakes up a little late. After a quick shower, he skips checking email, but goes right to his RSS reader to see updates of where the students worked within the social network. Luckily, Ning (and lots of services) send new activities out via RSS, so they’re easy to track.

It looks like Margarite has added more YouTube videos to the video section, and Franklin has written a blog post about the town’s historic water cooler. Jeremy has already commented that Franklin forgot to cite a source, saving Dharmesh the effort. He eats a breakfast bar, and hops in his car for the commute to work.

On his iPod, Dharmesh listens to last week’s book reports read out by the students. The quality of their work has improved a great deal since switching to the audio requirement. The second report, by Kelly, is a little loud and the audio clips a bit. Dharmesh makes a mental note to show Kelly how to level the audio in Audacity.

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Photo credit, LizMarie

These are pretty interesting representations of what the day might be like in a Web 2.0 world. Chris has a couple others – a minister and a marketer. They are nice ways to visualize the possibilities.

Technorati Tags: Social media, Web 2.0

by 416style
Beware of the Overload:
[Via Enterprise 2.0 Blog]
Information overload is a real problem as we develop new work processes to deal with it. At the moment, email takes the brunt, often serving as a catch basin for all types of data. This not only makes it inefficient, it makes it even more difficult to work through the large amounts of data that are usually included. Making the tools we already use more efficient in our workflow is critical.

Here we have a discussion of how one might do that. The Enterprise 2.0 blogs always has some interesting points.

Staying afloat in the depths of one’s email is a daily struggle for most of us. It’s difficult to carve out time to devote to other time consuming projects. Luckily there are collaborative tools that can help ease the strain. But just as important as the existence of the tools is the best practices associated with them. Here are a few I came up with:

1. A community can’t be force fed. It needs to take on an organic growth and naturally evolve. As a bottom-up movement, the members of the community shouldn’t need outside motivation to contribute. The benefits of membership should speak for themselves.

This is often true of a mature community and its tools. However, often the community needs some active gardening, particularly in the early stages, in order to become self-sufficient. This acts to increase the rate of diffusion of innovation for these tools.

While the benefits should speak for themselves, there is an element of internal marketing that often needs to be provided. IBM’s data indicate that corporate-wide initiatives have strong impacts on the creation and retention of new blogs. Care just must be taken to be sure that these sorts of top-down approaches do not hamper the bottom-up needs of the tools.

2. Be considerate of existing processes. Don’t anticipate replacing your email client with a wiki (just yet).

This is an important point. None of these new tools and processes will really replace another one. They will just provide a more appropriate avenue for dealing with large amounts of information. A screwdriver does not replace a hammer.

3. Know which tool is most appropriate for the task at hand, and use accordingly. Don’t try to fit a square peg in a round hole.

This is what is hampering email. Email is great for one-to-one communication where multiple forms of information (i.e. PDFs, photos, spreadsheets) can be moved between people. But is is not the best method for creating or distributing these to larger groups. Here, wikis serve a better purpose.

The goal is to make sure the tools are available. Too many communities only have round holes available. Thus the frustration.

4. Keep company policy top of mind when using tools. This policy should be communicated clearly. Removing a member’s post is justifiable, so long as the policy for what is appropriate content and what is not can be referenced as due cause.

Usually this only needs a light touch. If a company has done its job right, these sorts of policies will only be an extension of current corporate policy, such as appropriate emails. The community will fairly quickly determine what is really needed, particularly one that is already behind a firewall.

5. If you’re in management, be prepared to hear the truth – this may includes some things you don’t want to hear. A community is an excellent forum to spark debate and discuss issues business processes. It allows those in lower level positions the opportunity to have their voices heard.

This is a critical point. It is not that these tools create this voice. People already say these same things. The tools just make this discussion visible. Dealing with these truths will be an important skill to develop. The goal must be a more successful community and organization, not just to assign blame.

Technorati Tags: Social media, Web 2.0

Workflow- Social Media for Marketers:
[Via chrisbrogan.com]

What does a day in the life of a social media marketer look like? I’m not a marketer, so if I get some of your terms wrong, forgive me. I thought maybe we could do a walkthrough of a fictitious social media marketer, Yolanda, for a small hotel group (four hotels) in Boston. I picked hotels just because otherwise I’d have picked a software company. Let’s walk through a workflow, and then reconstruct it in bullets at the end.

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The rest is very interesting and provides a possible scenario for what the future might bring. Having people who are embedded in a community can be a tremendous asset for an organization. It sure sounds like a fun job.

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0

by Annie Mole
Technorati Doesnt Count Microblogs:
[Via chrisbrogan.com]

Something Mack Collier just said rang a bell in my head: Technorati doesn’t count services like Twitter, Friendfeed, Plurk, Identi.ca, etc, as valid sources of traffic for a blog. Meaning, for the dozens of people who say that they find something interesting and share the link on Twitter, none of that goes towards whether a blog is authoritative.

Does that actually make sense? If we’re shifting as a user base into using services like Facebook, Twitter, and Jaiku more frequently (okay, not Jaiku), why wouldn’t Technorati, the current reigning source of “authority” of blogs on the web, count these sources?

Has Technorati become the Alexa of measurement?

Update: I guess Alexa counts FireFox now, too. Again, if you have the bar installed. Thanks for the update. (Note: Alexa, as far as I know, only counts users of the IE browser with the Alexa toolbar installed in its ratings of who visits your website, versus Compete and others who count much more.)

Technorati is a great place to get numbers about blogs, or to learn about what is reverberating around the blogosphere. But Twitter, Friendfeed and others provide alternative means for blog-like information to move freely.

How does a group know when to take on new areas and when not to? This is one os the critical questions we face today. An innovation organization that is not ready to answer that question almost every day may not be around long.

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0

How to Use Friendfeed as a Collaborative Business Tool:
[Via chrisbrogan.com]

The social media aggregation software, Friendfeed has much more value than one might originally think. The tool lets you add several disparate parts of your social web use into one spot (it collects your blog, your Flickr account, your upcoming.org event list, your bookmarks, etc).

Most people use this as a way to share a more enriched experience with friends and colleagues. But I think there’s a business opportunity in using the tool for collaborative business. Remember, Friendfeed can collect your status information, your presence, media from several sources, your bookmarks. There are many ways to use that. Here’s one set of use cases to consider for that purpose.
How to Use Friendfeed as a Collaborative Business Tool

Sign up for an account on Friendfeed.
On the”me” tab, on the right where it says “services,”click “Edit/add.”
Add appropriate accounts. (See below).

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Friendfeed is a recently developed Web 2.0 tool. It will be interesting to see how it develops as a business tool.

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0

Inbox Taming for Busy People:
[Via chrisbrogan.com]

I’ve had my inbox at zero for over four weeks now ( Merlin Mann should be proud). I’ve learned that this helps my all around business processes, because to do this, I had to have a system to account for everything. The way I’ve managed it was a mix of David Allen’s Getting Things Done process, Stever Robbins’ You Are Not Your Inbox program, and simple figuring out what works and doesn’t work for me personally. I thought I’d share my process, in case it might be useful for you.

Most people do not have a really good plan for dealing with email. But it can make a huge difference in how effective email is for you. Chris has some great insights to get you started.

Technorati Tags: Social media, Web 2.0

by dano272
50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business:
[Via chrisbrogan.com]

We really can’t deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape. You can say it’s a stupid application, that no business gets done there, but there are too many of us (including me) that can disagree and point out business value. I’m not going to address the naysayers much with this. Instead, I’m going to offer 50 thoughts for people looking to use Twitter for business. And by “business,” I mean anything from a solo act to a huge enterprise customer.

Your mileage may vary, and that’s okay. Further, you might have some really great ideas to add. That’s why we have lively conversations here at [chrisbrogan.com] in the comments section. Jump right in!

Web Strategy: The Evolution of Brands on Twitter:
[Via Web Strategy by Jeremiah]

Last week, I listed out 9 reasons Why Brands Are Unsuccessful In Twitter, and other microblogging technologies. Companies are caught between the minutia of the discussions and their willingness to be human or add value to the conversations. Although a one-sided view of what’s going wrong, now let’s focus on what’s going right.

I’m watching –and talking– to many brands that are choosing to engage with this seemingly endless stream of personal thoughts, updates, and conversations within Twitter.

Web Strategy: The Evolution of Brands on Twitter

Two of the smartest guys on new media on the Web. Twitter is a great example of how rapidly Web 2.0 tools can arise to mass numbers. In its first year it has doubling about every 6-7 months. Lots of innovators and some early adopters. So is it ready for an organization? Will it be a useful tool?

Both Chris and Jeremiah provide some insight into where Twitter use is going and how a business might implement it. Still seems a little early to me for most organizations but things could change rapidly.

Technorati Tags: Social media, Web 2.0

Etiquette in the Age of Social Media:
[Via chrisbrogan.com]

I’m no Emily Post, but I have some things I want to share with you. Many come from my own experiences. Others come from thinking about how people might use the web in a less-than-polite way. In some cases, you might have a difference of opinion. Consider this a starting point, and not the final say. Please feel free to add your advice, disagree, and/or share your perspective. That’s why we’re all here.

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Photo credit, FoundPhotosLJ

Email, Blogging, Facebook, Twitter Etiquette. There are some great points here. Most have to do with enhancing the online conversations within the context of each tool. Keep emails brief. Use lots of links in a blog post. Comment as much as possible. Remember there are human beings involved. Not everyone has to be a friend. Filter your contacts.

While online social networks are similar to regular ‘analog’ ones, there are some real differences. We are still learning the social habits necessary for an effective online conversation but we will figure it out. I wonder who will write the definitive tome of this and become the internet Emily Post.

Technorati Tags: Education, Social media, Web 2.0