WhatsTheBuzzAbout.com

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Perhaps you are already a blogger, perhaps not.  If you blog, your blog may be one of the most read blogs on the web or perhaps it is just for you or for your family. In any case, blogging is a commitment.  Someone or many may follow your blog with expectations that you may not even know about or understand.

Therefore, how do you approach starting a blog or what the content should be in a blog? There are a series of fundamental questions to ask yourself.

The first question should be whether you are willing to make a commitment to blogging? Blogging is not like a personal diary or journal. When you have a diary or a journal you can just stop and you disappoint no one. While you may have the option not to post or to disband a blog, there is always someone on the web who may be disappointed to not find a post or your blog.

The second question you should ask yourself is why are you starting a blog or writing on a topic? Are you starting it because you want to have the opportunity to explore a particular topic and receive feedback? Perhaps your rationale is simply that almost everyone you respect has a blog. Perhaps, you believe that it is necessary to raise your credibility from a professional viewpoint. Perhaps you think that it will drive traffic to your company. Perhaps you are frustrated with a company or a product, and want to discuss that publicly. Perhaps you have a deep interest in a subject or a philosophy, etc.  If you know what the driver is, then you can set your personal expectations about how often to blog accordingly.

Assuming you are committed to blogging and understand what is driving you to blog, the next step is to determine is the mechanics. Perhaps you want to post on someone else’s blog. Perhaps you want to start your own blog or a second blog, etc. If you start your own blog, you need to determine what you want the feel of your blog to be. You can decide the host, layout, colors, crispness, images in your blog, etc. There are a myriad of choices and they are all yours.

Another step is to determine what the content will be of each blog. You may want it to be all original thought. You may want to post a scholarly blog, replete with references, attributions, etc. You may want a combination. You may want to develop the content so that it can translate into a book or a personal or family historical record, or an adjunct to your business. You may decide that each blog you write does not have to have any relevance to any other blog in that site.  Again, the choice is all yours.

Blogging is an interesting exercise in free expression. It permits the public exploration of ideas and thoughts and provides a brief glimpse into you as a person-what is important to you about that particular topic. Blogging gives you the opportunity to start a buzz and to be heard. If your heart is in it, you will be successful and it will not be a burden. Jump into it thoughtfully and enjoy the freedom that blogging affords.

What is your buzz about?

Is Your Contact Information Your Own?

I was astounded when I received an email from one of my contacts asking if I wanted to bid to buy his “Group” that he, as an executive recruiter, had established on a particular social network platform. As the CEO of a company which does executive search, I had not been permitted to join that group. Now, I was informed that the group would be offered to the highest bidder and asked to bid. The platform management soon advised my contact that the highest bid concept was not permitted and that the group could not be “sold.” I wonder if this practice goes on elsewhere and this is the first time I have seen it in action.

What is troublesome to me was that it was not the social media platform which was up for sale or changed ownership. In that case, it which would seem realistic that data would become the “property” of the new owners who ran the platform. In fact, it was only a small group of several hundred on a particular platform in which the individuals joined based on their relationship to the manager of the group. I would be surprised if anyone joined that group expecting that if the manager no longer was in executive search that their “relationship” and “contact” information would be on the auction block and potentially be sold to the highest bidder.

Are there ethical questions behind this? If so, what are they? Do the group participants have the right to not be auctioned? If it had gone through, should each have received compensation too? Who owns your data when you join a group?

There are social media web sites which pay for individuals to submit referral leads—those leads could include your data. There are social media web sites which publish your profile information and which do not permit you to “cloak” or “deny” access to some or all of the information from other members. Many sites populate your profile, etc. from other sites, and this is a good thing. Of course, what is written on public platforms, such as this blog, becomes public.

Can you control access to your contact information if you participate in social media platforms being accessed by a large population or even one person?  Perhaps, but it will take a conscious effort on your part, the cooperation of your employer, if applicable, and a practically non-participatory effort in the major social media sites or sites that capture contact information of members and keep it up-to-date.

Think about your data? What are your expectations when you provide it to a social media site or to an individual?  With more portability of information, you can expect your data to become available.

Think about this issue if you manage the data of others. What is your fiduciary responsibility to those individuals? Does the public have the right to access the information of your swarm?

What is your buzz about?

Your Vendors Are Watching You

I read an article today about a blogger who used his blog to vent about a supplier of his that was not meeting his expectations, and another individual who posted negative comments about a company.  In both cases, they were contacted immediately by a customer representative and in both cases were surprised that their postings were monitored. In this case the blogger chose to view this as “big brother” was watching him.

Isn’t this an interesting scenario? A blogger complains about a company in a public blog expecting many people to read it but not the company staff. The company responds immediately to the blogger and takes corrective action. The complaint is resolved. The blogger then complains that this response resulting from reading his blog posting is an invasion of privacy. Who out there thinks that the World Wide Web is private—a blogger of all people?

Was not the complaint that the company needs to take action, and when they do, it is a problem also to this individual?  Perhaps the blogger looked at his posting as venting only—maybe he enjoyed the complaint process, being the “victim” and that was taken away from him when the resolution came so quickly. He should be ecstatic that the company was responsive!

Not all businesses can afford to or choose to monitor internet chatter about the company, whether on forums, blogs, Twitter-type media, or otherwise.  Those who do and then take the extra step to take the comments, criticisms, problems, ideas for improvement, or complaints seriously deserve kudos.

If you have clients, monitoring what is happening through even a simplistic mechanism such as Google Alerts is very helpful. It is also helpful to monitor what is happening to your company as well.  Monitor yourself, monitor your company, and monitor your clients. Take action to make things better if you can. Monitoring is not a 2008 version of big brother; it is good, solid business practice.  Let your inbox buzz with good information.

What is your buzz about?

How Much Public Face is Enough?

The Web is an interesting place to spend time. You can simply spend time surfing, shopping, or learning etc.  You can become highly visible or you can be relatively stealth. Regardless of the option you choose for any or all of the social media tools, there is a certain expectation that what you do choose to reveal publicly is true.

You can participate in numerous social networks without revealing your true name, photograph, or email to the public or to other network members. You can assume an avatar and live a fantasy existence on certain platforms, or you can comment on blogs without having to take ownership of your comments.

Alternatively, you can choose to live a public existence–from revealing the date of your birth including the year to your photograph. You can participate in or join hundreds of groups. You can write a blog and have it feed into your profile. You can permit people to see what you read, what your favorites are in videos, and what you are doing at any one moment including your mood.

Many individuals permit their emotions to drive their choices. For example, many individuals will join Facebook because their friends are on it or they perceive that it has its roots in “social” connections and not “business” connections.  Others join social networks such as LinkedIn or Xing because they perceive those networks have a business value and will permit them to identify and connect with others for business development. Some will try to maintain a presence by separate “social” network and “business” network platforms. However, they quickly learn that their business connections will find them on their “social” network platform too. Do they want their business connections to learn that they enjoy having people add to their online monster car collection that they are a member of a save the three-eyed flying turtle foundation?

New people to social media do not always understand the ramifications or longevity of their choices to be or not be visible. There are war stories of individuals who have tried to have inaccuracies removed from the Web. People who say, “I wish I had not posted that or joined that” are too late at the gate. The decision whether to have a public face must be made at the start. Decisions to join any groups—including sports, religious, political, cause, or others—should be made judiciously.

Think smart when you make your decisions to join a network, a group, a cause, etc. or respond to a blog or posting or save something in your network which is visible to others. Buzz around in your mind and get a handle on whether you will be happy with your decision in a year. Think of your actions as being ‘in perpetuity.” They are!

What is your buzz about?

Social Media Personal Due Diligence

Most everyone in business is familiar with the term “due diligence.” Individuals and companies conduct due diligence when determining whether to invest monies into a new venture or going concern, for example. In addition to reviewing the known factors such as current competitors, investors also evaluate financial predictors and determine the potential return on investment (ROI).

Most social network individuals spend a good bit of time joining networks, joining groups, posting or commenting on posts, responding to invitations to join networks, groups, clubs, applications, or forums by saying yes or no or simply ignoring, getting RSS feeds, and using social media tools to communicate – such as Skype, Jaxtr, Twitter, Pownce, Pulse, or other instant message programs. Most people are on a react mode. They move the data—whether it is a request to join a group or a posting which drops into email.

However, we doubt that just the minimum modicum of serious due diligence is undertaken by the social network participant who reacts to the torrent of requests. If we really thought seriously about the ROI, would we join so many networks, or groups, clubs, or forums? Would we take the time to read posts which do not add serious insight or knowledge value?

I had the opportunity the other day to hear a strong proponent of social networks tell someone else that he or she remains connected to a social network which is not giving a positive ROI and saps time, because that individual believes that he or she is expected to have a presence there.  “Hoisted by one’s own petard” so to speak, giving credit to Shakespeare for this initial thought and verbiage which is now modernized.

There are many reasons why individuals react as they do to all these stimuli. Most people want to respond positively to others who present something to them to consider, whether it be an invitation to join a group, or an invitation to participate in a podcast. Facebook has an interesting option called “ignore” which permits the meek or the indecisive or others to table a request and not respond “no.” Does not an “ignore” decision equate to a negative reply and not a positive response? Somehow, there is a perception that to ignore a request is a gentler way of dealing with the tough decision and response of replying “no.”

However, with all these options, how much due diligence, how much thought, how much reflection and evaluation do each of us do when we make these social media decisions to process data? We challenge you to look at your stream of social media data and apply the ROI eye to it, if only for a day. You will be amazed. Take time to smell the flowers (the beautiful stream of information you receive) and think about the nectar you are collecting through your decisions. Do your decisions make for good honey at the end?

What is your buzz about?

The Buzz is About

Buzz  - is an appropriate word to use for us social networkers. What is buzz? Our colleagues at Wikipedia today use the term “hubbub” to describe buzz and Merriam-Webster Online seems to use the applicable terms “murmer,  wisper, go quickly” to describe a buzz.

Let’s  think of the term ‘buzz’ in two ways for purposes of this blog:

1.       Rapid and consistent activity and

2.        What is “hot” at the moment (i.e., what are people talking about today? )

 We are all moving quickly through this space, taking care of business, friends, family, community, social and personal matters, environmental and other great causes and initiatives. The whole time we do this, we are processing information and data at enormous speed – discounting and forgetting some, making written notes and following up on others, moving other data to others, etc.

We use almost every part of our brain every day, though not all of it is used at one time, just like not all our muscles are used at the same time. We don’t have a brain drain, we are absorbing information at a phenomenal speed and those of us with a thirst for knowledge, buzz about gathering knowledge just like bees gather pollen. No wonder they are so busy, it takes a bee over 240 hours to collect about a teaspoon of pollen. Aren’t we fortunate in how much knowledge we can gather and how productive we can be in the same amount of time and that bees exist which enables humans to exist?

The question for us becomes to focus or not to focus.  If you are buzzing – what are you buzzing about?  Are you just buzzing with no definite purpose or destination or for the sheer joy of buzzing? Or are you buzzing with a purpose, a clear direction, a path, a target? How about your colleagues, your friends, your family – have you started them buzzing as well on a focused or non-focused path?

What is your buzz about?

The word ridiculous means literally, laughable, from rid?re to laugh, arousing or deserving ridicule : absurd, preposterous.

Everyday we watch the news and announcement of developments around the social web. Some of what we see is ground breaking progress while other stories seem absolutely ridiculous.

Subsequently we’ve decided to write a once a week story titled “How Ridiculous is This?” in which we will highlight news and announcements as well as perspectives that seem, well, ridiculous to say the least.

What is the Value if Knowing the Ridiculous?

Well just maybe if something shows up in our “ridiculous column” you may get a laugh, a warning to not waste your time or a perspective to broaden your own thinking about what can be done vs. what shouldn’t be done using all this “social stuff”. For instance some of our themes will include:

1. How many different social networks should one person join?
2. How “social” is some of today’s media
3. Can business really be social?
4. How virtual can life really be?
5. Do advertisers really think we’re that stupid?
6. Voting negative on blog post, give me a break
7. The validity of voting on the web period
8. Joining an anti-social community
9. Do you really think everything will be free forever?
   
10. And the list will go on and on and on

There is a lot of ridiculous “things” happening throughout the web. If you happen to come across a story or have one of your own which you consider “Ridiculous” simply add it to this weekly post or send it to us and we’ll add it to our weekly list and give you proper attribution for the story.

Sound ridiculous? Well that is up to you. Stay tuned and send us your own ridiculous stories.