Wall of Shame

A site owner told me he was taking down his “Wall of Shame” or leaderboard, showing the top contributors to his site. It was an administrative headache as users changed their posting patterns. He was most upset about power users who had been thrown off the site, but their cumulative contribution continued to show.

Dave Eggers’ unsettling book, The Circle, recommended by JBat, provides some insights about personal and marketing addiction to leaderboards and potential uses and consequences.

Although I had not joined the site for the leaderboard, didn’t discover it until I got the notice I was on it from the site owners, the leaderboard subsequently did drive my contribution, and when it came down, my participation diminished. The site became less of a priority.

I’m just reporting my behavior change. There was no encouragement/discouragement, just a page that got more compelling over time. I’m pretty driven when I’m browsing, and I spent a lot of time glancing at that page.

Nothing cynical or damaging. An insight into what works.

On another site, they ended their Wall of Shame thinking it might be an increasing discouragement to the other 99%.  The members who were contributing to the site changed dramatically. Contributions are down and posted by a different group. Not overnight, but over weeks and months.

I noticed that the editorial contributions of the independent writers is tighter, closer to the site owner’s desires, and less interesting.  That could be maturation of the community, a change of the participant’s focus or something else. I think it’s too big to be a conspiracy.

The Wall of Shame is a powerful tool.

See how Cost Goes Both Ways

Do You Blog?

Fred Wilson, A VC in NY, wondered how many of his readers had blogs. He set up a poll and a hackpad to collect readers' blog, url and author, comma delimited There are hundreds of really interesting blogs listed. I put in two.

Browsing the list, I punched on Punctuated Equilibrium and got this:

ttfn,

Ten Principles of Sound Public Policy

1. The government should only do what people (individuals and associations) cannot do for themselves.
2. A sound public policy would impose the same standards, norms and punishments for non-performance on government as are imposed on the non-state providers.
3. A sound public policy will enhance:a. Choice    b. Competition     c. Freedom
4. A sound policy would consider long-term consequences over all groups of people, not just the good intentions behind the policy.
5. Subsidiarity: A sound policy would enable governance (decisions about taxes and expenditure) closest to the people.
6. A sound policy would place incentives according to Friedman’s Law of Spending:
   a. Spend your money on yourself.    b. Spend your money on someone else.    c. Spend someone else’s money on you.     d. Spend someone else’s money on someone else.
7. A sound policy would rely more on participatory instead of representative democracy (referendums, tax allocations by citizens’ choice).
8. A sound policy will not sacrifice the rights of an individual for the interests of many.
9. The premise of sound public policy should be that people are responsible, resilient and self-governing given the right set of incentives and framework of law.
10. A sound policy should have an expiry date (sunset clause). 

Check out the list of blogs!

The Changing Social Paradigm

The Web provided the pathways. The software provided the user with sophisticated tools and utilities. Social media – like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Twitter – provided the community and forum. All of which has contributed to far reaching change in the way we interact, conduct business, pursue careers, and entertain ourselves.

bitod (back in the old days) we were mostly a private people – we were limited by desire and opportunity in what information we shared with others – even the braggarts and attention seekers had limited range on spreading their exploits. The notables and infamous receive greater exposure when the news media ignite their 15-minutes of fame.

bitod social interaction was predominately face-to-face, by telephone conversation, and through written letters.

bitod information about individuals was costly to collect and therefore was not freely shared – although bulk information about people was a salable commodity.

Along comes the ability to easily share information – among friends and family or in the business community – and the information about individuals exploded, becoming widely available, intentionally and inadvertently.

Many found an advantage in creating a personal legend using LinkedIn to chronicle professional activities and accomplishments; or Facebook to develop an on-line personality mixing social and professional interest and exploits. This information is available for others to discover or the individual can point interested parties to it.

An alternative to traditional interaction is asynchronous written communication: instant message (IM) or text messaging. Using the phone keyboard one person can send a text message to another phone and the recipient can receive it immediately. Even though the message is a one-way send-receive process, the parties often carry on a 'conversation' of text messages going back and forth.

With the variety of communication alternatives now available, ranging from personal to impersonal, active to passive, engaging to transactional, the social paradigm – how we interact has been shaken up while being broadened dramatically.

People can share their most intimate thoughts and actions delivered in an impersonal way – by posting on-line.

Messaging is so handy and people are quite skilled in its special language as well as the speed of writing and sending, that they may be texting the person sitting next to them. Text rather than talk – indirect rather than direct is part of the shifting paradigm.

Others try with limited success to restrict personal information on-line and in social media sites, only to find it is elsewhere on the Net. A friend was shocked to learn that her name, age, address, and others in the household were readily available on-line from several sources, although she has been judicious about protecting such information.

During a presentation at Verisign earlier this year, Vint Cerf made the point that there is no privacy on the internet - it is a vast copy machine with no delete key. Any information about you can be found eventually.

How does this affect the new social paradigm? The common assumption is detailed information about the individual is available through social media and on the Web. The unspoken assumption is what is not readily available did not happen.

How does all this come together and how does it affect you?

You are profiled on the internet – your legend is a combination of what you have contributed directly – like your content on Google Plus, LinkedIn, and Facebook – and passive content that search engines and information aggregators discover.

Today a person interested in your background, accomplishments, and activities will research it on-line and use their own legend on the internet as a metric of the accuracy and completeness of your information.

For those of us in business – whether selling products/services, working in a role within an organization, or in a transition between roles – our collective profile is an important tool to increase our visibility and aid in our success. A strong showing aids in a winning contract, a promotion, or landing a new job; a weak showing can make it harder to reach your objective.

Personally I use LinkedIn as my address book and research tool for a person's career and accomplishments. I glance at Facebook content to get a broader sense of the individual. Google Plus is a running faucet of activities, thoughts, and alerts from people I find worth listening to about near and future innovation and change.

We each have a collective profile on the internet; it is important that you contribute and shape your content where able. That means working on your presence in the social media sites and publicizing your activities to be visible for search and information aggregators.

Writing a good profile (and updating it every 3-6 months) is an investment of your time and energy – but worth the results. Adding other content routinely to the site shows you are engaged and paints a vivid picture of your capabilities and interests. If not posting your own blog, commenting on others' posts increases your visibility, especially among your tribes – the people you know and others who may be interested in you.

Today's social paradigm is built on ready access to information about people and their activities and an array of methods to make contact, carry on conversations, and develop relationships.

Time has past to sit in wonder about how to engage social media for your benefit – your absence or 'in-name only' participation is not an answer.

Sales Lab Video Channel - Entertaining experience

Join us on Monday July 15^th for The Changing Social Paradigm - How It Affects the Job Market, for details about this free presentation: 40Plus Washington, DC.

Live Tweet Google Plus – The Center Of Your Internet

Monday July 1, I gave an hour plus talk about how I use Google Plus to 40PlusDC.

Best thing I learned at the meeting was about the baggage we make up about being unemployed. If you’re not interesting a potential partner, lack of employment is an easy a way out of a boring meeting. If you’ve created an interest, being immediately available is an asset.

The talk was live tweeted by Susan Mandel, on the 40PlusDC Twitter site.

This is the first time I’ve been live tweeted. I reversed the order from the 40 Plus twitter page so the tweets are in chronological order. I like it!

• Joel Sarfati ‏@40PlusDC 1 Jul
  

We plan to livetweet today's event, Google+ for Job Seekers, with @DickDavies starting @10am http://40plusdc.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/40plus-presents-google-for-job-seekers-71/ …

.@dickdavies: I say Google+ is the center of your Internet.

.@DickDavies: Writing your own resume can take 6 wks since we're coming to grips w/ who we are. Same for creating your 1st Google+ page.

.@dickdavies: It takes just 10 min. to create your 2nd Google+ page.

.@DickDavies: Use a URL shortener for your Google+ page. Gplus.to/dickdavies, or bit.ly/DicksProfile

.@DickDavies: You don't get to layout your Google+ page. You answer questions & it comes up.

.@DickDavies: Creating Google+ will take you 6 weeks while you come up w/ the language @ who you are.

.@DickDavies: You can take parts of your Google+ page and paste them onto your LinkedIn (and other) profiles.

.@DickDavies: Google+ follows a stock template and it works.

.@DickDavies: My blogs are syndicated on my Google+ page. Artwork from my blog shows up on my Google+ page.

@DickDavies: Google+ will give you a great web presence.

.@DickDavies: I blog twice a week.

.@DickDavies: I tweet my blog posts.

.@DickDavies: If you retweet other people's stuff, you should add something or be the 1st to do it.

.@DickDavies: I learn a lot of useful Google+ tricks from presenters at the Google Technical User Group.

.@DickDavies: First thing I use Google+ for is to get news.

@DickDavies: You can use Google+ to post info to different streams of followers, so everyone doesn't have to see everything you post.

@DickDavies: I find lots of useful info on Google+.

.@DickDavies: Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, anyone can follow you on Google+. You can block them if you want.

@DickDavies: Job hunters should get 20 face-to-face meetings a month. Can be just 15 minutes, if you leave something of value.

.@DickDavies: Have something interesting to talk about at your meetings, could be something you read on Google+.

.@DickDavies: I go to 20 meetings a month.

@DickDavies: Google+ is my morning paper. That's where I find stuff I need to know & events to attend.

.@DickDavies: I like XKCD blog, which is cartoons @ tech, science. I send things from it to my buds.

.@DickDavies: You can post stuff on Google+. & in the About section, you can put links to your blog, videos, recommendations, etc.

.@DickDavies: My Google+ page is the best-managed website about me.

.@DickDavies: Read other people's Google+ pages to learn how to create yours. R&D is Research and Duplicate.

.@DickDavies: Metrics - I aim for 20 face-to-face meetings a month, run an ongoing public program, and post 2 blog posts a week. That’s a good activity metric for the new economy.

.@DickDavies: Biggest advantage of Google+ over Facebook & LinkedIn is that you can choose who sees each of your posts.

@DickDavies: You want to post your original content on Google+.

.@DickDavies: You can use the best content from your personal website on Google+.

Tx @DickDavies for a great talk.

Sales Lab Handouts – You’re giving this away?

Social Media Becomes More Influential Than News Media

Search Engine Watch has a post, Google Takes Top Global Brand Title from Apple, which may be interesting.

What was really interesting was that if you look at the table of the top global brands, Social Media has more impact than News Media and Twitter. (I thought Twitter was Social Media)

There are just more bloggers than journalists, and many deeply interested and providing constant focus in specific areas, providing ongoing context and timely publication.The switch bloggers saw coming has occurred.

How many of you use Reader or another blog aggregator? I’m interested in how readers follow bloggers.

Facebook As a Social Media Tool

Facebook has developed apps for business and government to make it easy to use as a channel for individuals and business/government to provide and exchange information.

Does it work? Yes – but it's not magic. Creative design and vibrant content are required.

Here's illustrations of an innovative approach – one by business and one by government.

Proctor & Gamble has moved its advertising from print to social media to help sell their product line – soap, personal care, and consumer products. Ads can be targeted based on location and preference of the individual users.

The Facebook pages provide a variety of ways to present P & G products – text and static pictures like print media, as well as audio tracks, video, and interactive navigation of material.

With this flexibility, the company feels they can create active content to entice the consumer to buy their products that will be more effectively than static print ads. They also expect to reduce cost in the process.

In Congress, House Republicans have created the Citizen Cosponsor Project app using Facebook. In their words, it is a dynamic communications platform to enable the user to follow legislation and receive first-hand information from the House as it moves through the legislative process, and express support by becoming a bill Citizen Cosponsor.

These two examples illustrate how social media is being used to raise awareness of products or legislation and engage the users by incorporating an interactive component. Accomplishing anything similar using traditional channels would be costly and cannot scale to an audience of even a small percentage of the 800,000,000+ users in Facebook..

How will you use social media to further your mission?

The Mosaic of Social Media

Initially, social media may have been thought of as just a toy for the kids. A way to keep track of what friends are up to, to share snapshots of the grand kids, to write on walls and tweet, or whatever. In the early days was some sense of a potential for business, but plenty of confusion about what that meant in reality.

Time has passed and early adopters have shown that social media is a powerful tool to get the business message out – to a potential audience of over a billion now (YES that is a B for billion) and up to 10 billion devices within this decade – on the desktop, on the laptop, on the tablet, on the smartphone.

Many organizations have entered this arena and use social media channels to provide information about services and products, extend their electronic personality, and have rich two-way communication with clients and other interested parties.

Other organizations are trying to map out a use plan which would be of value to them. Here's a snapshot of how I make use social media:

• Facebook.com has a huge audience (more than 845 million) and a dual personality: family and friends pages, and business pages - people can 'like' a business page to show support. I find Facebook useful to alert readers of interesting business events and presentations where I am participating .
• Twitter.com has 350 million users and accepts messages limited to 140 characters – business users can quickly share links with people they know, and the links can be found via search. I find Twitter useful to alert readers of interesting business events and presentation where I am participating.
• LinkedIn.com has 150 million users and focus on business connections, topical discussions, jobs, and other business information for its members – most information in LinkedIn is not available via search because only members may access detailed LinkedIn information. I find LinkedIn to be useful for sharing professional information and offering thoughts in discussion forums.
• Google Plus Pages have over 100 million users have created personal Google Plus pages which include an accessible Profile (can find full profile via search), invited contacts, a video conference feature, and a stream of posts and other public information about people and organizations the users designates. I find the Profile is useful to serve as my introduction to others and the information is searchable, and can easily share information with my contacts.
• Google Plus Business Pages (over 50,000 created in its first 90 days) are similar to Personal Google Plus Pages, but designed for business entities. I find the Business Plus Page useful to highlight our business entities, blogs, and to keep in touch with key individuals professionally, and to have available a quick and easy video conferencing service for up to 10 locations.

Although not of the same flock, posting to a blog is another channel to share thoughts and stimulate discussion and comments on current topics. Posting a blog twice a week is an effective way to be first in line to share new knowledge that you have discovered, as well as continuing the learning from a meeting or presentation by initiating a discussion with a broader audience.

Just as a mosaic is a collection of parts which come together to create a work of art, use of social media is a mosaic of business tools to better communicate in a variety of ways to reach a broader audience then ever before, in a form that appeals to that reader. It takes a brief amount of time to set up each form of media, but it is easily updated for new content, and is agile enough to broadcast a business happening while it is fresh. As is often the case, breaking news shows up in social media first.

How do you use social media? Please share.

Blog Lab

Social media leadership is a game of balancing goals and resources. I’ve learned to “begin with the end in mind,” balancing results, cost, time, staff capabilities, and continuous innovation for optimum value.

Continuous Innovation?

A long time ago I asked a customer CTO how could I tell when I was buying enough software?

He grinned and said, “Well first of all, you’re on a Mac, so it doesn’t really matter. And we all know you’re not cheap, although sometimes excruciatingly frugal.

“Try this. If 100% of the software you buy improves your business, you’re probably not buying enough software.

“If 20% of the software you buy is a waste, then you might be buying too much.

“If 10% of the software you buy you can’t use, then you’re probably buying about the right amount.”

His explanation has been serving me for 20 years.

Staff Capabilities?

Another time at the Web Managers Roundtable, we were discussing magical social media platforms. During a lull, I asked Tony Byrne, President of CMS Watch, “Wait a minute, what about Blogger and Google Apps?”

The Drupal guys thought my question was hilarious.

Tony said, “First of all, every singleton analyst thinks Apps and Blogger is the hot setup...and it is when you're just a few bloggers. The most important consideration is to select a platform you have the resources to maintain, which is a key value for Apps and Blogger.”

And that continues to be a very useful distinction.

Working to improve your social media strategy? Learn more about BlogLab, from the Web Managers Roundtable, coming this Tuesday, August 16.

The Real Ruling Class

A couple years ago, I was invited to speak at a law firm about the advantages of blogging. People had questions and I had stories so we were doing pretty well. Finally, one associate who wasn’t getting the answers he wanted, said it was all hopeless. It was not legal for lawyers to blog! Disarray.

After that I worked with a handful of lawyers at other firms who didn’t know blogging was illegal, and they used social media to develop relationships and a lot of business.

A year ago I was working with some investment professionals about the advisability of blogging to improve their businesses. One of the less gruntled (and less successful) professionals couldn’t dissuade his group, so he finally dropped the “L” bomb. Although it had worked previously, this time he was judged a motley fool.

When a lawyer was advising his doctor clients to create an agreement that said patients could not discuss the value of service received using the internet, my car mechanic told me there was a law against that...something about “go take a flying garbled at a rolling donut.”

What started this post was a meeting I attended yesterday where a member of the government gave an impassioned explanation of why intelligence agencies could not benefit from social media tools. Since no one else in the room knew the facts, he was allowed to proceed with his opinion.

Yesterday I overheard a building inspector yelling at a maintenance worker. “Don’t call me until this has been looked at by the elevator man and the electrician!” Now there’s someone committed to providing a good solution.

I’m starting to see how many rules are made up by people who are covering their weakness, uttering magical thinking to hold back new opportunities. These are often middle-of-the-pack functionaries, scrambling to hold a disappearing advantage, who don’t use the tools being considered and don’t intend to figure out how they can best be applied. They have little interest or impact on improving performance. Before computing took over some of the repetitious drone work, they had secure positions. Now they are trying to get that back.

That same day, I was privileged to see Steve Wozniak keynoting at FOSE. The recurring theme I heard was how people develop expertise by making things, often on their own time, to understand how to apply new technologies.

That was the same story I heard five years ago, about the founding and implementation of Intelliwiki, the intelligence community’s collaborative intelligence tool. One of the founders, a green screen mainframe jockey, decided he would invest a free half day every week until he learned how to build and use one social tool. By his second session he had mastered several tools and was ready to launch his prototype.

Our previous computing era was “enterprise.” The current era I guess could be “cloud,” although people on the outside keep calling it “something 2.0.” If you want to provide value in this era, it won’t be by making up rules, withholding permission, or criticizing social tools. You have to build something. 

Learn about  Blah, Blah Blog at the Web Managers Roundtable, on August 9, and BlogLab, coming August 16. 

Comments? 

School Of Blogging

Fred Wilson of AVC – Musings of a VC In NYC has a great post, The Fred Wilson School of Blogging. He has old truths and new ideas, and details to check to make sure I am doing them.

Then I started to think about my School of Blogging. I’ve convinced a number of smart people to start (and continue) blogging. I think that Fred is more expert, my posse more experimental, discovering and implementing new things with every post.

I don’t think my school requires “rules” as I am already busy with my day job. Targets or milestones are better things for me to measure against, because once I have achieved them, I can go on to other things.

I experienced the awesome power of infrequent blogging during a previous project, and afterward set a goal of two posts per week. That was pure declaration. I didn’t know if I could, or what they would be, but either I could do two a week or I couldn’t. Turns out I have.

Next question was, “What is a blog post?” Early on a reader sent a comment, “I understand your short posts better,” so that became important.

I figure the target is ten sentences/five paragraphs. If I go longer or shorter, fine, but the target is ten and five.

What to write about? That is my biggest challenge. I have ideas all the time, so to harness some, I decided to write all my ideas in my regular notebook, red ink when I have it, so I have an inventory. It’s not uncommon for two or three ideas to come together for one post.

Keith Richards noted how when he admitted to himself he was a song writer, he became a sharper observer of what was around him. Still a player, but now also an observer.

I want to be positive. I proved to myself a long time ago, there is no solution in the negative, or at least I don’t have much interest in being a part of it. I find that when I am upset, if I take some time and look at what I’m upset about, I can often find a positive expression, which often leads to the value of the post. Ted Anderson writes, “Wartime is only, the other side of peacetime”

I also want to write about things that really happened. I can convince myself of way too much theoretically, and if I describe something that occurred, I won’t forget something basic, like gravity, which has been a loud limiter for many theoretical builders.

Finally, I was sitting in the audience at the Web Managers Roundtable when Jim Sterne asked, “Do you want to control the platform or the conversation?” I thought it was an excellent question, along the lines of Dana’s distinction about journalists and publishers. I decided to syndicate off my own platforms to other outlets. I personally choose to emphasize outlets where I have been a member, held office, or performed, so I imagine I’m posting to a familiar audience.

What are some of the targets or milestones you’ve made for your School of Blogging?

Check out Blah, Blah Blog at the Web Managers Roundtable, on August 9, and BlogLab, coming August 16.

Differentiating LinkedIn and Facebook

At  the Social Media Engagement Forum at the Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce last month, I got a new distinction differentiating Facebook and LinkedIn.

I have been learning about social media for business use and operate a syndication model  using LinkedIn, Ning, and LinkedIn Groups.

I devote time to understanding Facebook, and have a potential use for it coming in the fall. One of the best Facebook tutorials I have attended came from Peter Corbett.

The best post about our evolving social instrumentation came from John Battelle reviewing Paul Adams slide deck. (Read the slides, too!)

The “Aha!” from the MV-L CofC was that people in Business to Consumer (B2C) operations, retail, real estate, Fort Belvoir, were doing well with Facebook, and people with Business to Business (B2B) operations were using LinkedIn.

New distinction – At that meeting, B2C was using Facebook, B2B was using LinkedIn.

What useful distinctions are you using for social media?

The next meeting of the Mount Vernon- Lee Chamber of Commerce Internet Engagement Forum is August 10th, 7:30 am. http://engagementforum.eventbrite.com/.