Category — Blogs

I would greatly appreciate your help in determining the future of this blog. I’ve created a short 7-question survey that shouldn’t take longer than 2-3 minutes of your time.

This link should go straight to the survey without any weirdness: Where should I take my blog next year?

Kitchen Timer by LynGi

Why does length of story indicate whether something is a feature, or conversely a pedantic blurb?

Why does frequency of publication matter?

When we set out to write, shouldn’t we write about the things that matter to us?

At that point, shouldn’t we write for however long it takes to cover the story?

My concerns stem from several sources: experts on blogging say that you have to continually publish something to maintain an audience, Dan Lyons (a.k.a. Fake Steve Jobs) whining about having to write a hundred-word feature, and reading about the 13,000 word megastory on the Health Care Crisis that will probably only get read by people who are already acolytes for the cause.

However on the other side of the issue is the web’s creativity guru Merlin Mann telling us that it doesn’t take much to tell a compelling story (so long as that’s the goal), or web standard savant Jeffery Zeldman challenging us to combat the blogosphere’s noise by writing when we’re inspired.

The great thing about media in an on-demand world, is that it’s just that: on demand. We don’t need to write to fill space or talk to fill time. We tell our stories when it’s time for them to be told, with the intent to give them the focus they need.

I guess we could think about it this way– which is more compelling: a poem that alludes to emotion and the specific, or a 5-page paper that stumbles over itself in an attempt to fill space. If we want to get more practical and less academic, try this on for size again: a politician who is unequivocal in his answer of “Yes, No, or Maybe” to a direct question, or a candidate who distracts from the issue and rambles on for three minutes until the timer changes color.

I feel that I write best when I have something to say, or I’m addressing an issue that went unaddressed. I communicate at my worst when I ramble to fill 5 minutes, or because I need to post “something” to maintain consistent web traffic, or because a columnist didn’t submit their article leading me to use unsound logic while relying on polemic arguments or ad hominem attacks.

However, deadlines and constraints are mostly good. They force leaders to answer the question. They make designers, writers, creators, craftsmen churn out usable products or unexpected solutions. Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte, “presentation” experts, have often said that more managers need to think like designers because they can think best within constraints, communicate at the audience’s level, and focus on the essentials of the idea (making them concrete).

As with most things, it comes down to the spirit vs. the letter of the principle or law. Deadlines become misused when writers who have nothing to write about end up writing about nothing in order to meet the monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly deadline. Constraints become abused by students, teachers, debate moderators, anchors, and producers when we write to fill space, talk to fill time (or don’t talk long enough), resulting in rambling papers or vague and abstract soundbites that are essentially hot air.

I could offer a conclusion because that’s the expected format, or let you draw your own conclusion.

• What are other examples of how we abuse or misuse constraints?
• How can we combat meaningless noise, and give quality the legs needed to stand?

On Friday, I read an article on Poynter about how the FTC intends to start monitoring blogs for conflict of interest violations, or pay-for-play reviews. This has long been in place for magazines, newspapers, and broadcast media.

Have you ever seen an “advertorial” in print that looks like an article, but is clearly shilling exercise equipment or Shamwows? Usually, such an advertorial is accompanied by small print indicating that it is an “ADVERTISEMENT” or “SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT INSERT”. This is because advertising is regulated by the FTC, with the interest of the consumer and with the intent of protecting against misleading claims.

Blogs are new territory, living on the frontier of the internet and Web 2.0. Like the Wild West’s cowboy law, interactions are often governed by implied codes of ethics, or unspoken tradition. Bloggers have posted several variations of the Ten Commandments or Declaration of Independence in an attempt to codify what has long been practiced. My favorite is still Aliza Sherman’s “10 Golden Rules of Social Media”, which I have in front of me every time I open WordPress. What’s missing, however, is some kind of regulatory body to enforce and protect us (the consumer public) from misleading snake oil salesmen.

Here are three reasons why I’m in favor of the FTC monitoring “sponsored conversations” for misconduct:

1. Sponsored posts are dishonest and manipulative. Consumers have now begun to rely on search engines and blogs for warnings of lemons and bad deals, or praise about the next greatest widget. This implicit trust is what undisclosed “sponsored conversations” preys on.
2. Sponsored posts are nothing short of blog spam. While Google’s Gmail gobbles spam for fun, there are no similar “spam filters” for blog posts that clog search engine results like they would our inbox. This is Payola 2.0.
3. If Alan Greenspan discovered that the “market cannot self-regulate”, we shouldn’t assume that bloggers will either. This is where the FTC should step in, if anything enforcing the long practiced tradition of respect on the web.

I am thinking about adding either Google’s Friend Connect or Facebook Connect as an option for people leaving comments on this blog. Either technology gives me what I’m looking for: a way for people to “join” a community without having to remember another password. The problem lies in not knowing which audience I’m doing a disservice to if I adopt one over the other.

Help me figure out which one you would use.

Two weeks ago, I helped coordinate the Alaska eHealth Workshop: a discussion on the need for, and concerns regarding Alaska’s implementation of an eHealth system. Some of the other facilitators thought it would be an interesting exercise to find out what social media each of the 13 participants were using.

In this post, I look at what and how well social media is being used in Alaska, and how it could be improved. For your consideration, and improvement, I present the top six Alaskan uses of social media. For each technology, I’ve described an anonymous, composite “worst” scenario, and showcased one or two best cases that you can check out today.

1. Email
   • Worst case: You’re at a networking event and you gave someone your business card, they added you to their email blast list. Your requests to opt-out haven’t been taken into consideration. You get blasted more than once a day, with badly formatted emails that make it difficult to find relevant content, or act on the content. Think fax spam.
     • Are you acting like the networking leech?
     • Have you been subject to email blasts like this?
     • What could you do to improve your email newsletters?
   • Best of:
   • Spenard Roadhouse (via Snow City Cafe): I get their emails about once a month, or every time they start running a new special. Albeit, since the Roadhouse is a new joint-venture from Snow City and Sack’s, the first email I got from the roadhouse was through Snow City, and it felt like they had poached my email. But I had an opt-out option, their emails weren’t too long, and they didn’t clog my inbox.
2. Facebook
   • Worst case scenario: It can go one of two ways. You become an organization’s fan: they smother you with attention, or don’t post anything, ever. When you’re smothered, you get 2-5 updates a day from the group, in addition to status updates, and invitations to events in Anchorage when you live in Fairbanks. When you’re ignored, no pictures are posted, a smattering of events go up, and all the links shared are strictly self-promotional. Dull.
     • How can your organization find the happy medium?
     • What would it take to build the momentum that your “fan base” wants?
   • Best case:
     • Anchorage Won’t Discriminate. Any local organization should be so lucky as to grow and earn over 2,000 fans in the first two months of creating a new profile. AWD has also maintained their growth momentum the right way. They respect the spirit and transparency of the web, and only use the profile to communicate items of value to their constituency. Frequent (but not overly so) updates that include events, pictures, videos, links, and clippings from local media on their campaign give supporters what they want and need to stay connected to this cause.
3. Twitter
   • Worst case scenario (in 140 characters or less): Posting too frequently or too much. Followers have 120 other tweets competing for their attention. Respect the noise.
   • Best case:
     • Anchorage Daily News. The ADN knows how to make their content viral, and give readers multiple avenues to get the content that they want. If you like a specific columnist, perhaps Julia O’Malley, you have the option to follow her feeds, get advance notification of her new content. You can get breaking local news updates, especially important when a student pilot is having issues with landing gear. Furthermore, the ADN tweeple understand that social media are value-added conversations, engaging readers in polls, and re-tweeting highlights from their readers (Twitter’s ultimate form of flattery).

       Check them out:

     • @adndotcom – ADN Breaking News
     • @adn_jomalley – Julia O’Malley
     • @ADNVillage – Kyle Hopkins
     • @playadn – Play Magazine
4. Blogs
   • Worst case scenario: Someone on your board said that you needed to have a blog. Everyone else who is important seems to have one: CEOs, the White House, and your grandmother. The problem is, you haven’t identified a strategy or set of topics that you want to address, let alone set aside the time each day to write a post. Blogging takes time, energy, and planning. Yes, anyone can do it, but do you really want to?
     • How is your organization leveraging this technology?
     • What kind of topics would you address?
     • Can you spend an hour a day to spend writing posts, managing comments, and planning the next day’s?
     • What resources do you have available? Would a volunteer blog be appropriate for your organization?
   • Best cases:
     • I had a hard time narrowing this down to one. I’ve been really impressed with how quickly the following blogs have built an online community in Alaska.
       • Social media expert Aliza Sherman’s Living in Tok, is a virtual hybrid of a small town newsletter, coffee shop bulletin board, and local newspaper. All published from Tok, the last bit of Alaskan civilization before the Yukon Territory.
       • While in Alaska is the online journal of two college students who decided to try an Alaskan adventure on for size. (Kind of like Christopher McCandless, except with wireless internet, and not on an abandoned bus).
       • The Mudflats has become the defacto online political gossip “watering hole” for Alaska. They dish dirt on elected officials, providing (partial) transcripts for (some) public events, and catalyzing local conversations. Each post nets over 100 comments. Wow!
5. MySpace
   • Worst case scenario: Your organization has done the bare minimum, and posted a link to its profile. Good first step, but you rarely post any events, you don’t really have a need to share music with your audience, an audience that doesn’t even use MySpace. Your profile looks empty, and you provide no value: it’s no wonder that Tom is your only friend.
   • Best case:
   • Chilkoot Charlies. When I use MySpace, it’s to check out an emerging artist’s songs, and upcoming events. Beyond that function, I don’t like using MySpace, thanks to the seizure-inducing, aesthetically disjointed tweenaged profiles that seem to be in excess.

     Koot’s takes advantage of MySpace at its best, providing a full event listing; just this week it has 11 events listed, not including next month’s. They have consistent branding and links between their multiple online profiles (web, MySpace, Twitter, etc.). Their blogs are kept active, and right above the blog is a link to buy presale tickets. No beating around the bush with what they want you to do. Directly under the blog is a VIP email list registration, giving you the opportunity to serve as an evangelist for their brand.

     While I don’t visit Koot’s, I can say from years of trudging through poorly implemented MySpace profiles, that this a venue that gets it.

6. LinkedIn
   • LinkedIn seems to me like Facebook meets Monster.com: you can upload and customize your résumé, while also networking. I’ll be honest. I haven’t used LinkedIn much beyond establishing my own profile. The group functions seem a bit restrictive at first, requiring me to wait for “manager” approval before I can see anything. It has some nifty app functionality, yet again, I haven’t used it much.
   • Do you use LinkedIn regularly?
   • What kind of apps do you use?
   • How have you made this useful in your workplace or for your organization?

What technologies do you use that aren’t listed? What are other good examples of Alaska putting the web to work? How can we use these to develop a fourth leg for the Alaskan economy: human capital?

Last week we started on a journey to discover what it means to lead and engage in a webbed Alaska. I outlined five questions that will shape our discussion of leadership, engagement, and assets. These are questions that we all can revisit daily, weekly, or whenever it’s necessary to evaluate our work in building the state’s future.

This week I thought it would be a good idea to delve into the nuts and bolts of social media: ethical questions about sponsored content, reviews of “vintage” books and blogs that have made me think (and I hope you too), how to get your organization started on Twitter, and then bring it back to the foundation of online community building.

Stay tuned, and please, keep me honest. I encourage and consider all of your feedback.