OCDQ Blog

Social Karma (Part 3) – Listening Stations, Home Base, and Outposts

Social Karma (Part 5) – Connection, Engagement, and ROI Basics

March 11, 2010

Social Karma (Part 7)

March 11, 2010/ Jim Harris

In Part 6 of this series: We discussed some of the books that have been the most helpful to my social media education.

In Part 7, we will discuss some recommended best practices and general guidelines for using Twitter.

Frosted Cheerios are Yummy

In social media, one of the most common features is some form of microblogging or short message service (SMS) that allows users to share brief status updates. Twitter is currently built on only this feature and uses status updates (referred to as tweets) that are limited to a maximum of 140 characters, which at first glance may appear to indicate an obvious limitation.

Twitter is a rather pithy platform that many people argue is incompatible with meaningful communication, especially of a professional nature. Most people who have never (as well as some who have) tried it, assume Twitter is a source of nothing but inane babble such as what its users are eating for breakfast. I must admit that this was my opinion as well—at least at first.

However, Twitter is not only one of the most popular microblogging and social networking services, but if used effectively, it can easily become one of the most powerful weapons in your social media arsenal.

Twitter as Research

In addition to a listening station and an outpost (concepts discussed in Part 2 and Part 3), I use Twitter as a research tool.

Twitter provides near real-time updates about my online community and my areas of professional interest. For example, the above tweet alerted me to an excellent LinkedIn discussion about the business benefits of master data management (MDM).

I chose this particular tweet in order to clarify an important distinction about Twitter.

Unlike other social networking services, you do not need an account on Twitter for read-only access to its content, which means that anyone could have seen this tweet. (Of course, Twitter does provide privacy options for both tweets and accounts).

However, in order to click on the URL in this tweet and read the discussion from the Master Data Management Interest Group, you would require both an account on LinkedIn and need your group membership request approved by the group's owner.

Therefore, because it's not a “walled garden” you could leverage Twitter as a listening station only without creating an account.

With or without an account, Twitter Search provides the ability to search for relevant content. Tweets often include embedded search terms called “hashtags” since they are prefaced with the hash (#) symbol. You can also save search queries as RSS feeds.

If you are not familiar with how to use it, then check out my video tutorial by following this link: Twitter Search Tutorial

Twitter as Social Networking

As we discussed in Part 5, the difference between connection and engagement is going beyond simply establishing a presence and achieving active participation within the online community.

Active participation can take on many different forms. However, as we also discussed, “social media is not about you.”

A focus on helping others is what separates social networking from (especially shameless) self-promotion.

In the example above, I was helping a fellow Twitter user promote his new blog. However, conversations are better examples of social networking—and not just on Twitter. Tweets between users can be public or private (referred to as direct messages).

As with any public conversation, you should use extreme caution and avoid sharing any sensitive or confidential information.

The Art of the Re-Tweet

Re-tweeting is the act of “forwarding” another user's tweet. Many bloggers use Twitter to promote their content by tweeting links to their new blog posts. Therefore, many re-tweets are attempts to share this content with your online community.

A simple re-tweet is easy to do. However, a few recommended best practices include the following:

Make your re-tweets (and tweets) re-tweetable by leaving enough unused characters to prevent truncation on re-tweet, which is important since a link is usually at or near the end of the message and truncation would send a broken link
If you are re-tweeting a link, verify that the link is neither broken nor spam—and if you're not sure, then don't re-tweet it
If the tweet uses a URL shortener (e.g., a bit.ly link), then reuse it since the user may be relying on its associated analytics
Space permitting, add relevant hashtags to the re-tweet to make it more compatible with related Twitter searches
Prove that you're not a robot by providing a meaningful description of what you're re-tweeting (as in the above example)

Following, Followers, and Lists

The Twitter term for connecting with other users is “following.” Unlike other social networking services, Twitter is not permission based, which means connections do not have to be first requested and then approved.

This creates two different perspectives on your Twitter world—those following you and those you are following.

Unless you only follow a few people, it is a tremendous challenge to actually follow every user you follow. Twitter Search as well as tools and services (see below) can help with making following a more manageable activity. Twitter also has a list feature that helps organize the users you are following—and you can follow the lists created by other users.

However, as we discussed in Part 5, social media is not a popularity contest. Therefore, Twitter is not about the quantity of followers you are able to collect and count, but instead the quality of relationships you are able to form and maintain.

Twitter Tools and Services

Twitter tools and services that I personally use (listed in no particular order):

TweetDeck – Connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
Digsby – Digsby = Instant Messaging (IM) + E-mail + Social Networks
HootSuite – The professional Twitter client
Twitterfeed – Feed your blog to Twitter
TweetMeme – Add a Retweet Button to your blog
Ping.fm – Update all of your social networks at once

“Thanks”

Thanks

I haven't performed the actual analysis, but I am willing to bet the word that appears most often in my tweets is: “Thanks”

I named this series Social Karma for a reason—beyond simply being a cute pun for social media.

I view the “Social” in Social Karma as the technical variable in the social media equation. Social is the strategy for accomplishing our goals, the creation of our own content, the effective use of the tools—the technology.

I view the “Karma” in Social Karma as the human variable in the social media equation. Karma is the transparency of our intentions, the appreciation of the content created by others, the sharing of ourselves—our humanity.

The most important variable in the social media equation is the human variable.

In other words, I want to say thanks to all of you for being the most important aspect of my social media experience.

In Part 8 of this series: The series concludes with my Social Karma presentation for Enterprise Data World 2010.

Social Karma (Part 3) – Listening Stations, Home Base, and Outposts

Social Karma (Part 5) – Connection, Engagement, and ROI Basics

The Wisdom of the Social Media Crowd

The Twitter Clockwork is NOT Orange

Video: Twitter Search Tutorial

Live-Tweeting: Data Governance

If you tweet away, I will follow

March 06, 2010

Recently Read: March 6, 2010

March 06, 2010/ Jim Harris

Recently Read is an OCDQ regular segment. Each entry provides links to blog posts, articles, books, and other material I found interesting enough to share. Please note “recently read” is literal – therefore what I share wasn't necessarily recently published.

Data Quality

For simplicity, “Data Quality” also includes Data Governance, Master Data Management, and Business Intelligence.

Let the Data Geeks Play – Rob Paller is hosting a contest on his blog challenging all data geeks to submit an original song (or parody of an existing one) related to MDM, Data Governance, or Data Quality. Deadline for submissions is March 20.

The First Step on your Data Quality Roadmap – Phil Wright describes how to learn lessons from what has happened before, and use this historical analysis as a basis for planning a successful strategy for your data quality initiative.

Bad word?: Data Owner – Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen examines how the common data quality terms “data owner” and “data ownership” are used and whether they are truly useful. Excellent commentary was also received on this blog post.

Data as a smoke screen – Charles Blyth discusses how to get to the point where your consumers trust the data that you are providing to them. This post includes a great graphic and received considerable commentary.

Applying “Lateral Thinking” to Data Quality – Ken O’Connor applies some Edward De Bono wisdom to data quality using the analogy of water quality where a factory's water inflow pipes are downstream from its outflow pipes.

Traditional Methods for Estimating Business Benefits of MDM – Larry Dubov of Initiate Systems examines calculating the return on investment for MDM using a simple business case scenario, and also provides links to several useful articles.

MDM Streamlines the Supply Chain – Evan Levy ruminates on the change management challenge for MDM—where change truly is constant—and how the supply chain can become incredibly flexible and streamlined as a result of MDM.

MDM as a Vendor Fight to Own Enterprise Data – Loraine Lawson (with help from actor Peter Boyle) looks at another angle of the recent MDM vendor consolidation, based on the recent remark “MDM is the new ERP” made by Jill Dyché.

The Battle for the (Master Data) Item Code Is In Full Swing – Andrew White examines the challenge of making MDM work with existing business applications, which often have their own custom business rules for governing master data.

Data Quality Open Issues and Questions? – Jackie Roberts of DATAForge issues the blogosphere challenge of discussing real-world best practices for MDM, data governance, and data quality. This blog post received some great comments.

Noise and Signal – David Loshin examines the implications of the rising volumes of unstructured data (especially from social media sources) and the related need for data (and metadata) quality to help filter out the signal from the noise.

A gold DQ team! – Daniel Gent, inspired by the recent Winter Olympics and his country's success in ice hockey, discusses the skills and characteristics necessary for assembling a golden data quality team.

Unpredictable Inaccuracy – Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen incites another thought-provoking discussion in the comments section of his blog with this post about the impact on data quality initiatives caused by the challenging reality of time.

Does your data quality help customers succeed? – Dylan Jones searches for the holy grail of data quality—providing your customers with great information quality that enables them to achieve their goals as quickly and simply as possible.

Referential Treatment - The Open Source Reference Data Trend – Steve Sarsfield shares his excitement about the growing trend of open source reference data and its positive impact on the future of data quality and data enrichment processes.

Charm School: It’s Not Just for IT Anymore – Jill Dyché reminds the business that it’s their business, too—and illustrates the need for a sustained hand-off cycle between IT and the business—and the days of the IT-business mind-meld are over.

Data Quality Lip Service – Phil Simon examines why leaders at many organizations merely pay lip service to data quality, and makes some recommendations for getting data quality its due. Simon Says: “Read this blog post!”

What is the name of that block? – Rich Murnane provides a fascinating discussion about looking at things differently by sharing a TED video with Derek Sivers, who explains the different way locations are identified in Japan.

Aphorism of the week – Peter Thomas recently (and thankfully) returned to active blogging. This blog post is a great signature piece representative of his excellent writing style, which proves that long blog posts can be worth reading.

Bridging the Gap between Data Governance and Technology – Marty Moseley of Initiate Systems bridges the “great divide” in data governance with CRUD—meaning Create, Read, Update and Delete—to create active online documentation.

How tasty is your data quality cheese? – Julian Schwarzenbach explains data quality using a cheese analogy, where cheese represents a corporate data set, mold represents poor data quality, which causes indigestion—and poor business decisions.

Wild stuff: Nines complement date format – Thorsten Radde provides a great example of the unique data quality challenges presented by legacy applications by explaining the date format known as Nine’s complement.

Social Media

For simplicity, “Social Media” also includes Blogging, Writing, Social Networking, and Online Marketing.

Ten Things Social Media Can't Do – B.L. Ochman provides a healthy reminder for properly setting realistic expectations about social media, and provides a great list of ten things you should not expect from social media.

Why Are Marketers So Bad At Measuring Social Media? (And How Can They Get Better?) – Nate Elliott of Forrester examines the challenges of measuring social media ROI, and recommends a three-step approach.

A Manifesto for Social Business – Graham Hill discusses how the nature of business is inexorably changing into a new kind of Social Business that is driven by social relationships, and lists fifteen themes (the Manifesto) of this change.

Framing Your Social Media Efforts – Chris Brogan explains there are three fundamental areas of practice for social media: (1) Listening, (2) Connecting, and (3) Publishing.

Minding the Gap – Tara Hunt examines the gap between the underlying values of business and the underlying human values that drive community. This blog post also includes an excellent SlideShare presentation that I highly recommend.

Nine Scientifically Proven Ways to Get Retweeted on Twitter – Dan Macsai of Fast Company shares with us some of what viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella shared in his report about The Science of ReTweets.

The Albert Einstein Guide to Social Media – Amber Naslund channels the wisdom of Albert Einstein by using some of his most insightful quotes to frame a practical guide to a better understanding of social media.

The 6 Dangerous Fallacies of Social Media – Jay Baer examines six of the most common beliefs and expectations about social media and explains why they are all false.

How to Measure Return on Investment in Social Media – Brian Solis explains that 2010 begins a new era of marketing, one based on information, rationalization, resolve, and the need to truly measure your return on investment in social media.

Social Networking Starts the Relationship, Face to Face Clinches It – Terri Rylander reminds us although social networking allows us to interact with more people, it is always best to be able to follow-up the on-line greet with an in-person meet.

Book Quotes

An eclectic list of quotes from some recently read (and/or simply my favorite) books.

From Why New Systems Fail: An Insider's Guide to Successful IT Projects by Phil Simon – “It's all about the people making the decisions, using the applications, and running the projects. No technology, regardless of moniker, implements itself.”

From Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business by David Siegel – “Another word for semantic is unambiguous. In the semantic web, we declare what we mean in precise, standardized terms. Data that is semantic means exactly the same thing to any system or person who uses it.”

From Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin – “You don't become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to be indispensable is to be different. That's because if you're the same, so are plenty of other people. The only way to get what you're worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.”

Recently Read: January 23, 2010

Recently Read: December 21, 2009

Recently Read: December 7, 2009

Recently Read: November 28, 2009

Recently Read Resources

Data Quality via My Google Reader

Social Media via My Google Reader

Books about Data Quality, Data Governance, Master Data Management, and Business Intelligence

Blogs about Data Quality, Data Governance, Master Data Management, and Business Intelligence

Books about Social Media, Blogging, Social Networking, and Online Marketing

Blogs and Websites about Social Media, Social Networking, and Online Marketing

February 25, 2010

Social Karma (Part 6)

February 25, 2010/ Jim Harris

In Part 5 of this series: We continued discussing the basics of developing your social media strategy by reviewing some recommended best practices and general guidelines for engaging your community, as well as the basics of social media ROI.

In Part 6, we will discuss some of the books that have been the most helpful to my social media education.

The following list (in no particular order) includes links to and quotes from five of my favorite social media books. The last book is actually about social networking in the social scientific sense, but does contain useful material for social media discussions.

The Whuffie Factor

The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business by Tara Hunt.

“Whuffie is the residual outcome—the currency—of your reputation. You lose or gain it based on positive or negative actions, your contributions to the community, and what people think of you.”
“Whuffie flows from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation that moves quickly within social networks.”
“Turn the bullhorn around: Stop talking and start listening.”
“Become part of the community you serve and figure out who it is you are serving. It isn't everyone.”
“To truly become part of the community you serve, you must add value.”
“Instead of being concerned with quantity, you need to become more concerned with quality of relationships. This doesn't mean that quantitative measurements disappear, it just means they aren't your most dominant measurement.”

Crush It!

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk.

“Your business and your personal brand need to be one and the same. Your latest tweet and comment on Facebook and most recent blog post—that's your résumé now. It's a whole new world, build your personal brand and get ready for it.”
“Can you think of any business that isn't in some way dependent on human interaction?”
“If you're not using Twitter because you're in the camp that believes it's stupid, you're going to lose out. It doesn't matter if you think it's stupid, it's free communication. That in and of itself has value, and you should take advantage of it.”
“You're in business to serve your community. Don't ever forget it. Don't betray their trust.”
“The other thing you're going to do is accept that just having good content and Internet access is not enough to take your business to the top. Someone with less passion and talent and poorer content can totally beat you if they're willing to work longer and harder than you are.”
“Creating community—that's where the bulk of your hustle is going to go and where the bulk of your success will be determined. Creating community is about starting conversations.”
“Building and sustaining community is a never-ending part of doing business.”
“Don't get obsessed with how many friends or fans are following you—the stats are only marginally important. What's important is the intensity of your community's engagement and interaction with you. The quality of the conversation is much more revealing than the number of people having it.”
“Making connections, creating and continuing meaningful interaction with other people, whether in person or in the digital domain, is the only reason we're here.”

Trust Agents

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.

“Focus on connecting with the people—the human stuff is far more important than the software.”
“The Web and social media give you the opportunity to reveal the human side of your business.”
“Building any kind of following online is difficult enough. It requires solid leadership skills, the ability to create a sense of belonging, a gracious attitude, transparency about who you are, and empowering the community to feel important.”
“Trust agents build networks almost reflexively by being helpful, by promoting the good work that others do, by sharing even their best stuff without hesitation, and by finding ways to deliver even more value on top of all that without asking for anything in return.”
“Attention is and will continue to be our scarcest resource.”
“Social networking is not about getting attention for attention's sake, but rather about being a part of the network, making other people aware that you are there—and that you'll be there in the future, too.”
“If you are to learn how to be a trust agent, the skill of being a Human Artist—someone who understands how to communicate with people in a real and thoughtful way—is very important to what you're doing.”

Six Pixels of Separation

Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. by Mitch Joel.

“It's no longer about how much budget you dump into advertising and PR in hopes that people will see and respond to your messaging. The new online channels will work for you as long as you are working for them by adding value, your voice, and the ability for your consumers to connect, engage, and take part.”
“This new economy is driven by your time vested—and not by your money invested.”
“Networking online is core to success because it's not blatant sales and marketing.”
“You can't have a strong business without a strong community.”
“The digital social spaces are built on trust and trust alone.”
“Your ability to leverage true ROI is going to come from the level of trust you have built and the community you serve.”
“Nothing stinks of insincerity more than using these new digital channels and not listening to the other conversations.”
“The more human, honest, and transparent you are, the quicker you will be able to build trust and leverage it to build community and your business.”
“You're not looking for sheer mass numbers of people for the sake of traffic. Traffic has levels of quality that only you can measure. Focus on building community and not traffic.”
“The long-term game of sustainability in the online channels is one of quality versus quantity.”

Connected

Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD and James H. Fowler, PhD.

“Six Degrees of Separation: We are all connected to everyone else by an average of six degrees of separation (your friend is one degree from you, your friends' friend is two degrees, and so on).”
“Three Degrees of Influence: Everything we do or say tends to ripple through our network, having an impact on our friends (one degree), our friends' friends (two degrees), and even our friends' friends' friends (three degrees). Our influence gradually dissipates and ceases to have a noticeable effect on people beyond the social frontier that lies at three degrees of separation. Likewise, we are influenced by friends within three degrees but generally not those beyond.”
“Just as brains can do things that no single neuron can do, so can social networks do things that no single person can do.”
“Social networks have value precisely because they can help us achieve what we could not achieve on our own.”
“Since information flows freely within a close circle of friends, it is likely that people know more or less everything that their close friends know. We might trust socially distant people less, but the information and contacts they have may be intrinsically more valuable because we cannot access them ourselves.”
“Networks with a mix of weak and strong ties allow easy communication but also foster greater creativity because of the ideas of new members of the group and the synergies they create.”
“Although social networks may help us do what we could not do on our own, they also often give more power to people who are well connected. As a result, those with the most connections often reap the highest rewards.”
“Social networking fosters strong ties with groups that optimize trust and then connects them via weaker ties to members of other groups to optimize their ability to find creative solutions when problems arise.”
“For thousands of years, social interactions were built solely on face-to-face communication. The invention of each new method of communication has contributed to a debate stretching back centuries about how technology affects community. Yet, new technologies just realize our ancient propensity to connect to other humans, albeit with electrons flowing through cyberspace rather than conversations drifting through air.”
“The recent surge in mobile phones, the Internet, and social networking sites has shifted our ability to stay in touch with one another into overdrive, causing us to become hyperconnected.”

In Part 7 of this series: We will discuss some recommended best practices and general guidelines for using Twitter.

Social Karma (Part 3) – Listening Stations, Home Base, and Outposts

Social Karma (Part 5) – Connection, Engagement, and ROI Basics

Will people still read in the future?

February 14, 2010

The Wisdom of the Social Media Crowd

February 14, 2010/ Jim Harris

In his blog post A Story Culture, Michael Lopp, author of Managing Humans (check out the book's great promotional website), used the intriguing phrase “connective information tissue” to describe the value of tweets (status messages sent via Twitter).

Information Hierarchy

Challenged by his editor to better understand what information is, Lopp starts with the definition of the Information Hierarchy provided by Ray R. Larson at Berkeley:

Data – The raw material of information
Information – Data organized and presented by someone
Knowledge – Information read, heard or seen and understood
Wisdom – Distilled and integrated knowledge and understanding

Lopp then examines how information ascends this hierarchy using the perennial vehicle designed for its transmission—the story.

Shattered bits of narrative

“The traditional narrative,” explains Lopp, “has been shattered into bits of well-indexed information. Google wasn’t the first indexing tool, but it’s certainly the best. Still, Google is powerfully dumb. Yes, I can find whatever piece of information I’m looking for, but what’s more interesting are all the related pieces of information. How do you query for knowledge via Google? How about wisdom?”

Constructing (or reconstructing) a meaningful narrative from shattered bits of information requires a human storyteller.

“There’s no replacing,” explains Lopp, “a human being combing through seemingly disparate pieces of information to evaluate, interpret, and combine it into something unexpected; into a new work. Into a story.”

What tale can tattered tweets truly tell?

With their 140 character limit, tweets are certainly capable of being classified as shattered bits of narrative.

However, according to Lopp, “the point of Twitter isn’t knowledge or understanding, it’s merely connective information tissue. It’s small bits of information carefully selected by those you’ve chosen to follow and its value isn’t in what they send, it’s how it fits into the story in your head. There are great stories to be found on Twitter, but you have to do the work.”

Case in point—it was the tweet sent by Rob Paller that lead me to the blog post I am trying to write a great story about now.

Of course, as Lopp acknowledges, Twitter is not an isolated example.

Information continues to be shared in smaller and smaller bits in accordance with our shorter and shorter attention spans.

“Paradoxically, it’s never been easier to share or meaningfully interact with more people with less physical, in-person effort,” explains Lopp. “Your ability to compose and convey information as well as express yourself through your fingertips is a skill that is only going to increase—and increase in value—as people become more comfortable with their place in communities that span the planet, and as the tools to connect them become more commonplace.”

As social media's conversation medium continues to supplant traditional media's broadcast medium, it is enabling a world that fulfills James Joyce's vision in Finnegans Wake: “my consumers, are they not my producers?”

In other words, we are both consuming and producing the connective information tissue that forms our collective intelligence.

We are all storytellers

Even before the evolution of written language, storytelling played an integral role in every human culture. Listening to stories and retelling them to others continues to be the predominant means of expressing our emotions and ideas. Writing (and reading) greatly improves our ability to communicate, educate, record our history, and thereby pass on our information, knowledge, and wisdom to future generations.

We are now living in an amazing age where the very air we breath is literally teeming with information. Digital data streams are continuously transmitted across the globe at near instantaneous speeds. We need storytellers now more than ever.

However, storytelling is neither an esoteric skill possessed by only a select few, nor is it the sole providence of writers.

“The construction of a story,” explains Lopp, “has very little to do with writing. It has to do with the semi-magical process of you taking disparate pieces of information, combining them into something new, which includes your experience and understanding, and then giving them to someone else.”

In a story culture, we are all storytellers.

Storytelling may not be as simple (or as fun) as playing a game of Mad Libs. However, it is important to realize that the very act of thinking is a form of storytelling. The thought process is your brain collecting the shattered bits of information whirling around in your head and weaving them together into a narrative that, at least at first, might not make sense—even to you.

The thought process isn't always simple and it isn't always fast. Especially when all those voices in your head talk at once.

My own thinking often feels like I am herding cats or—thanks to the “semi-magical process” makes me describe it—as if I am “full of broken thoughts I could not repair” (from the song Hurt originally by Nine Inch Nails and covered by Johnny Cash).

Eventually, you assemble a tale actually worth telling. But even though you may be certain that the force is strong with this one, your tale is not a story yet.

“Just like information isn’t knowledge until it’s understood,” as Lopp thoughtfully explains, “your tale isn’t a story until you give it to someone else—until they have a chance to see what they think about your inspiration.”

The Wisdom of the Social Media Crowd

One of my favorite books is The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, which was originally published in 2004 (i.e., 2 B.T.E., two years “Before the Twitter Era”) before the real rise to prominence of social media. Aspects of social media (such as blogging) were already prevalent at the time, but most of today's leading social networking tools were still in their nascent phase.

However, I believe many of Surowiecki's insights are very applicable to social media. Take for example the four conditions that characterize wise crowds:

Diversity of opinion
Independence
Decentralization
Aggregation

Returning to Lopp's concept, it is social media's small bits of connective information tissue, gathered from diverse digital sources, acting as independent agents, lacking any centralized information authority, aggregated with your own knowledge, which you then construct into a story and share with others—that is The Wisdom of the Social Media Crowd.

The War of Word Craft

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February 09, 2010

Social Karma (Part 5)

February 09, 2010/ Jim Harris

In Part 4 of this series: We discussed some of the recommended blogging best practices and general guidelines for creating useful content in your own unique blogging style.

In Part 5, we will continue discussing the basics of developing your social media strategy by reviewing some other recommended best practices and general guidelines for engaging your community—beyond the pages of your blog.

The Talk Nobody Wants To Hear

If we're honest, then we have to admit, when we considered getting involved with social media, we all had the same question:

“What's in this for me?”

It is a perfectly natural and totally legitimate question. As we have discussed throughout the series, more than anything else, effectively using social media requires a significant commitment—mostly measured in time.

Without question, the “opportunity cost” of social media is high, so you are right to question your return on investment (ROI).

This series is about using social media in a business context. Therefore, ROI is about far more than simply measuring the quality of your experience. I am not going to lie to you—measuring the ROI of social media is very challenging.

However, before we can even attempt to measure ROI, we must honestly evaluate why we are investing in the first place.

The primary reason I started blogging was to demonstrate my expertise and establish my authority with regards to data quality and its related disciplines. As an independent consultant, I am trying to help sell my consulting, speaking, and writing services.

You and/or your company are probably considering using social media to help sell your products and services as well.

However, the only way for any of us to accomplish our goals is—first and foremost—to focus on helping others.

This is the talk nobody wants to hear:

“Social media is NOT about you.”

Home Base = Connection, Outposts = Engagement

In Part 3, we discussed establishing a blog as your home base (where you have complete control), which is connected to your outposts (where you don't have complete control) that provide a presence out in other parts of your online community.

We also discussed how “connection is the message of social media's medium.” This is true. However, effective community participation is about extending connection into engagement—and this actually occurs mainly at your outposts.

As this trend analysis chart provided by PostRank shows, off-site (outpost) has surpassed on-site (home base) for engagement:

“Shift happens,” explains Shawn Rogers. “In the past many of us relied on the metrics of trackbacks, comments, forum posts, and other on-site interactions to determine the level of engagement we have with our online community. Over the past 3 years, there has been a noticeable shift in these numbers.”

I believe true community engagement has always occurred off-site, but what has changed in recent years is social networking sites (outposts) have rapidly evolved into truly effective services.

On-site (home base) connection is important and will continue to be—and true engagement can occur on your home base. However, because you are in control, it can sometimes seem like it's all about you—despite even your best intentions.

Therefore, effectively using social media requires that you go to where the conversations are occurring—your outposts—and participate without always trying to invite everyone back to your home base.

Outpost engagement best practices include the following:

Promote the content of others far more often than you promote your own content
If you use Twitter, then re-tweet more than you tweet (Note: a future part in this series will discuss Twitter in detail)
Leave meaningful comments on other blogs—and only include a link to one of your blog posts if it is truly relevant
Try to respond as promptly to a message left on one of your outposts as you would to a comment left on your blog
If you blog about conversations that originated on one of your outposts, then properly attribute the others involved

Quality is more important than Quantity

How many followers do you have on Twitter? How many friends and fans do you have on Facebook? How many connections and recommendations do you have on LinkedIn? How many visitors, subscribers, and comments do you have on your blog?

Social media can sometimes feel like a popularity contest.

This is one of the many reasons that measuring social media ROI can often feel like you are searching for the Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster. No, ROI is not an urban myth. However, in social media, quality is more important than quantity.

Your outposts and listening stations (Part 2 and Part 3) provide excellent feedback loops allowing you to determine if you're effectively getting your message out and more important, if you're creating a noticeable online presence.

But true ROI is not measured in followers, fans, recommendations, subscribers, comments or other feedback. Although this analysis is useful and its associated metrics are meaningful, it is important to realize that this only measures connection.

True ROI is about measuring your engagement with the online community.

Engagement is about going beyond simply establishing a presence and achieving active participation. Are you adding value to the community by creating useful content and contributing something meaningful to the collective conversations?

Engagement is measured by the quality of the relationships you are able to form and maintain—and not the quantity of connections you are able to collect and count. Social media is a long-term investment in the community.

Therefore, the truth is you must be patient—your true social media ROI may take a long time to materialize.

Small Town, Big Business

Many organizations as well as individual professionals struggle to understand the value of social media because they attempt to relate to it using a traditional business perspective.

Most of the organizations I discuss social media with are very uncomfortable with being personal and acting human while participating in online communities—because they believe that would somehow be “unprofessional” behavior.

This viewpoint relates to a common misperception about social media—that “social” means “try to act like everyone's friend.”

However, we certainly don’t want organizations to try to act like (or try to become) our friends. In social media—just like any professional or personal interaction—the emphasis needs to be on transparency, which will help build genuine rapport and trust.

I believe the unrelenting growth and popularity of the online communities being facilitated by social media are driving the commercial landscape back to a business model reminiscent of small towns.

On Main Street in the small town where I grew up, I remember many small businesses.

Although I wasn't necessarily friends with the proprietors of these businesses, they weren't total strangers to me. I saw them around town, in the park walking their dog, on the playground with their kids, and at local sporting events.

In other words, I knew that in addition to being professionals who wanted to sell me something if I visited their business, they were also human beings who weren’t any different than the people I did call my friends.

Social media definitely has the professional potential of big business—but it requires the personal rapport of a small town.

Don't Ignore “The Man Behind the Curtain”

In this OCDQ Video, I discuss the importance of the human variable in the social media equation.

If you are having trouble viewing this video, then you can watch it on Vimeo by clicking on this link: OCDQ Video

In Part 6 of this series: We will discuss some of the books that have been the most helpful to my social media education.

Social Karma (Part 3) – Listening Stations, Home Base, and Outposts

Commendable Comments (Part 1)

February 06, 2010

The Twitter Clockwork is NOT Orange

February 06, 2010/ Jim Harris

Recently, a Twitter-related tête à tête à tête involving David Carr of The New York Times, Nick Bilton of The New York Times, and George Packer of The New Yorker temporarily made both the Blogosphere all abuzz and the Twitterverse all atwitter.

This was simply another entry in the deeply polarizing debate between those for (Carr and Bilton) and against (Packer) Twitter.

A new decade of debate begins

On January 1, 2010, David Carr published his thoughts in the article Why Twitter Will Endure:

“By carefully curating the people you follow, Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information.”

. . .

“Nearly a year in, I’ve come to understand that the real value of the service is listening to a wired collective voice.”

. . .

“At first, Twitter can be overwhelming, but think of it as a river of data rushing past that I dip a cup into every once in a while. Much of what I need to know is in that cup . . . I almost always learn about it first on Twitter.”

. . .

“All those riches do not come at zero cost: If you think e-mail and surfing can make time disappear, wait until you get ahold of Twitter, or more likely, it gets ahold of you. There is always something more interesting on Twitter than whatever you happen to be working on.”

Carr goes on to quote Clay Shirky, author of the book Here Comes Everybody:

“It will be hard to wait out Twitter because it is lightweight, endlessly useful and gets better as more people use it. Brands are using it, institutions are using it, and it is becoming a place where a lot of important conversations are being held.”

The most frightening picture of the future

On January 29, 2010, in his blog post Stop the World, George Packer declared that “the most frightening picture of the future that I’ve read thus far in the new decade has nothing to do with terrorism or banking or the world’s water reserves.”

What was the most frightening picture of the future that Packer had read less than a month into the new decade?

The aforementioned article by David Carr—no, I am not kidding.

“Every time I hear about Twitter,” wrote Packer, “I want to yell Stop! The notion of sending and getting brief updates to and from dozens or thousands of people every few minutes is an image from information hell. I’m told that Twitter is a river into which I can dip my cup whenever I want. But that supposes we’re all kneeling on the banks. In fact, if you’re at all like me, you’re trying to keep your footing out in midstream, with the water level always dangerously close to your nostrils. Twitter sounds less like sipping than drowning.”

Someone who admits that he has, in fact, never even used Twitter, continued with a crack addiction analogy:

“Who doesn’t want to be taken out of the boredom or sameness or pain of the present at any given moment? That’s what drugs are for, and that’s why people become addicted to them.

Carr himself was once a crack addict (he wrote about it in The Night of the Gun). Twitter is crack for media addicts.

It scares me, not because I’m morally superior to it, but because I don’t think I could handle it. I’m afraid I’d end up letting my son go hungry.”

“Call me a digital crack dealer”

On February 3, 2010, in his blog post, The Twitter Train Has Left the Station, Nick Bilton responded:

“Call me a digital crack dealer, but here’s why Twitter is a vital part of the information economy—and why Mr. Packer and other doubters ought to at least give it a Tweet:

Hundreds of thousands of people now rely on Twitter every day for their business. Food trucks and restaurants around the world tell patrons about daily food specials. Corporations use the service to handle customer service issues. Starbucks, Dell, Ford, JetBlue and many more companies use Twitter to offer discounts and coupons to their customers. Public relations firms, ad agencies, schools, the State Department—even President Obama—use Twitter and other social networks to share information.”

. . .

“Most importantly, Twitter is transforming the nature of news, the industry from which Mr. Packer reaps his paycheck. The news media are going through their most robust transformation since the dawn of the printing press, in large part due to the Internet and services like Twitter. After this metamorphosis takes place, everyone will benefit from the information moving swiftly around the globe.”

Bilton concludes his post with a train analogy:

“Ironically, Mr. Packer notes how much he treasures his Amtrak rides in the quiet car of the train, with his laptop closed and cellphone turned off. As I’ve found in previous research, when trains were a new technology 150 years ago, some journalists and intellectuals worried about the destruction that the railroads would bring to society. One news article at the time warned that trains would ‘blight crops with their smoke, terrorize livestock … and people could asphyxiate’ if they traveled on them.

I wonder if, 150 years ago, Mr. Packer would be riding the train at all, or if he would have stayed home, afraid to engage in an evolving society and demanding that the trains be stopped.”

Our apparent appetite for our own destruction

On February 4, 2010, in his blog post Neither Luddite nor Biltonite, George Packer responded:

“It’s true that I hadn’t used Twitter (not consciously, anyway—my editors inform me that this blog has for some time had an automated Twitter feed). I haven’t used crack, either, but—as a Bilton reader pointed out—you don’t need to do the drug to understand the effects.”

. . .

“Just about everyone I know complains about the same thing when they’re being honest—including, maybe especially, people whose business is reading and writing. They mourn the loss of books and the loss of time for books. It’s no less true of me, which is why I’m trying to place a few limits on the flood of information that I allow into my head.”

. . .

“There’s no way for readers to be online, surfing, e-mailing, posting, tweeting, reading tweets, and soon enough doing the thing that will come after Twitter, without paying a high price in available time, attention span, reading comprehension, and experience of the immediately surrounding world. The Internet and the devices it’s spawned are systematically changing our intellectual activities with breathtaking speed, and more profoundly than over the past seven centuries combined. It shouldn’t be an act of heresy to ask about the trade-offs that come with this revolution.”

. . .

“The response to my post tells me that techno-worship is a triumphalist and intolerant cult that doesn’t like to be asked questions. If a Luddite is someone who fears and hates all technological change, a Biltonite is someone who celebrates all technological change: because we can, we must. I’d like to think that in 1860 I would have been an early train passenger, but I’d also like to think that in 1960 I’d have urged my wife to go off Thalidomide.”

. . .

“American newspapers and magazines will continue to die by the dozen. The economic basis for reporting (as opposed to information-sharing, posting, and Tweeting) will continue to erode. You have to be a truly hard-core techno-worshipper to call this robust. Any journalist who cheerleads uncritically for Twitter is essentially asking for his own destruction.”

. . .

“It’s true that Bilton will have news updates within seconds that reach me after minutes or hours or even days.

It’s a trade-off I can live with.”

Packer concludes his post by quoting the end of G. B. Trudeau's book My Shorts R Bunching. Thoughts?:

“The time you spend reading this tweet is gone, lost forever, carrying you closer to death. Am trying not to abuse the privilege.”

The Twitter Clockwork is NOT Orange

A Clockwork Orange

The primary propaganda used by the anti-Twitter lunatic fringe is comparing the microblogging and social networking service to that disturbing scene (pictured above) from the movie A Clockwork Orange, where you are confined within a straight jacket, your head strapped into a restraining chair preventing you from looking away, your eyes clamped to remain open—and you are forced to stare endlessly into the abyss of the cultural apocalypse that the Twitterverse is apparently supposed to represent.

You can feel free to call me a Biltonite, because I obviously agree far more with Bilton and Carr—and not with Packer.

Of course, I recommend you read all four of the articles/posts I linked to and selectively quoted above. Especially Carr's article, which was far more balanced than either my quotes or Packer's posts reflect.

Social Media Will Endure

We continue to witness the decline of print media and the corresponding evolution of social media. I completely understand why Packer (and others with a vested interest in print media) want to believe social media is a revolution that must be put down.

Hence the outrageous exaggerations Packer uses when comparing Twitter with drug abuse (crack cocaine) and the truly offensive remark of comparing Twitter with one of the worst medical tragedies in modern history (Thalidomide).

I believe the primary reason that social media will endure, beyond our increasing interest in exchanging what has traditionally been only a broadcast medium (print media) for a conversation medium, is because it is enabling our communication to return to the more direct and immediate forms of information sharing that existed even before the evolution of written language.

Social media is an evolution and not a revolution being forced upon society by unrelenting technological advancements and techno-worship. In many ways, social media is not a new concept at all—technology has simply finally caught up with us.

Humans have always been “social” by our very nature. We have always thrived on connection, conversation, and community.

Social media is rapidly evolving. Therefore, specific services like Twitter may be replaced (or Twitter may continue to evolve).

However, the essence of social media will endure—but the same can't be said of Packerites (neo-Luddites like George Packer).

What Say You?

Please share your thoughts on this debate by posting a comment below.

Or you can share your thoughts with me on Twitter—which reminds me, it's time for me to be strapped back into the chair . . .

February 04, 2010

Commendable Comments (Part 5)

February 04, 2010/ Jim Harris

Thank You

Photo via Flickr (Creative Commons License) by: toettoet

Welcome to the 100th Obsessive-Compulsive Data Quality (OCDQ) blog post!

Absolutely without question, there is no better way to commemorate this milestone other than to also make this the 5th entry in my ongoing series for expressing my gratitude to my readers for their truly commendable comments on my blog posts.

Commendable Comments

On Will people still read in the future?, Don Frederiksen commented:

“I had an opportunity to study and write about informal learning in the past year and one concept that resonated with me was the notion of Personal Learning Environments (PLE).

In the context of your post, I would regard reading as one element of my PLE, i.e., a method for processing content. One power of the PLE is that you can control your content, process, objectives, and tools.

Your PLE will also vary depending on where you are and even with the type of access you have.

For example, I have just spent the last two days without WiFi. As frustrated as I was, I adapted my PLE based on that scenario. This morning, I'm sitting in McDonald's drinking coffee but wasn't in a place to watch your video. (Thank goodness you posted text.)

Even without my current location as a factor, I don't always watch videos or listen to podcasts because I have less control of the content and/or pace.

In regards to your questions, I like books, I read e-books, online content, occasional video, audio books, and Kindle on the iPhone. Combine these items with TweetDeck, Google Reader, the paper version of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Amazon, and the Public Library, and you have identified the regular components of my PLE. To me the tools and process will vary based on my situation.

I also recognize that other people will most likely employ different tools and processes. The richness of our environment may suggest a decline in reading, but in the end it all comes down to different strokes for different folks. Everyone motivated to learn can create their own PLE.”

On Shut Your Mouth, Augusto Albeghi (aka Stray__Cat) commented:

“In my opinion, this is a very slippery slope.

This post is true in a world of good-hearted people where everyone wants the best for the team.

In the real world, the consultant is someone to blame for every problem the project encounters, e.g., they shut their mouth, they'll never be able to stand the critique and will be fired soon.

The better situation is to have expressed a clear recommendation, and if the the customer chooses not to follow it, then the consultant is formally shielded from any form of critique.

The consultant is likely to be caught in no man's land between opposing factions of the project, and must be able to take the right side by a clear statement. Some customers ask the consultant what's the best thing to do, in order to blame the consultant instead of themselves if something goes wrong.

However, even given all of this, the advice to listen carefully to the customer is still absolutely the #1 lesson that a consultant must learn.”

On OOBE-DQ, Where Are You?, Jill Wanless (aka Sheezaredhead) commented:

“For us, the whole ‘ease of use’ vs. ‘powerful functionality’ debate was included in the business case for the purchase. We identified the business requirements, included pros and cons of ease of use vs. functionality and made vendor recommendations based on the results of the pros vs. cons vs. requirements.

Also important to note, and included in our business case, was to question if the ease of use requires an intensive effort or costly training program, especially if your goal is to engage business users.

So to answer your questions, I would say if you have your requirements identified, and you do your homework on the benefits/risks/costs of the software, you should have all the information you need to make a logical decision based on the present situation.

Which, of course, will change somewhere down the line as everything does.

And for goodness sake (did I say goodness?), when things do change, always start with identifying the requirements. Never assume the requirements are the same as they used to be.”

On OOBE-DQ, Where Are You?, Dylan Jones commented:

“I think the most important trend in recent years is where vendors are really starting to understand how data quality workflows should integrate with the knowledge workforce.

I'm seeing several products really get this and create simple user interfaces and functions based on the role of the knowledge worker involved. These tools have a great balance between usable interface for business specific roles but also a great deal of power features under the bonnet. That is the software I typically recommend but again it is also about budget, these solutions may be too expensive for some organizations.

There is a danger here though of adding powerful features to knowledge workers who don't fully understand the ramifications of committing those updates to that master customer list. I still think we'll see IT playing a major role in the data quality process for some time to come, despite the business-focused marketing we're seeing in vendor land.”

On The Dumb and Dumber Guide to Data Quality, Monis Iqbal commented:

“Pretty convincing post for those allergic to long term corrective measures.

And this spawns another question and that is directed towards software developers who come and work on a product/project involving data manipulation and maintaining the quality of the data but aren't that concerned because they did their job of developing the product and then move on to another assignment.

I know I may be repeating the same arguments as presented in your post (Business vs IT) but these developers did care that the project handles data correctly and yet they aren't concerned about quality in the long term, however the person running the business is.

My point is that although data quality can only be achieved when both parties join hands together, I think it is the stakeholder who has to enforce it during all stages of the project lifecycle.”

Thank You

In this brief OCDQ Video, I express my gratitude to all of my readers for helping me reach my 100th blog post.

If you are having trouble viewing this video, then you can watch it on Vimeo by clicking on this link: OCDQ Video

Thanks for your comment

Blogging has made the digital version of my world much smaller and allowed my writing to reach parts of the world it wouldn’t otherwise have been able to reach. My native language is English, which is also the only language I am fluent in.

However, with lots of help from both my readers as well as Google Translate, I have been trying to at least learn how to write “Thanks for your comment” in as many languages as possible.

Here is the list (in alphabetical order by language) that I have compiled so far:

Afrikaans – Dankie vir jou kommentaar
Croatian – Hvala na komentaru
Danish – Tak for din kommentar
Dutch – Bedankt voor je opmerking
French – Merci pour votre commentaire
German – Danke für Deine Anmerkung
Italian – Grazie per il tuo commento
Norwegian – Takk for din kommentar
Portuguese – Obrigado pelo seu comentário
Spanish – Gracias por tu comentario
Swedish – Tack för din kommentar
Welsh – Diolch yn fawr am eich sylw chi

Please help continue my education by adding to (or correcting) the above list by posting a comment below.

Commendable Comments (Part 2)

Commendable Comments (Part 3)

Commendable Comments (Part 4)

February 02, 2010

Social Karma (Part 4)

February 02, 2010/ Jim Harris

In Part 3 of this series: We discussed the basics of developing your social media strategy by first examining the benefits of establishing a blog (or company website) as your social media base of operations for effective online community participation.

In Part 4, we will continue this discussion by reviewing some recommended blogging best practices and general guidelines for creating useful content in your own unique blogging style.

And that's the way it is (not anymore)

“And that's the way it is” was the trademark phrase Walter Cronkite used to conclude almost every one of his CBS Evening News television broadcasts. The only exceptions (when he omitted his trademark phrase) were if he instead concluded the broadcast by sharing either his opinion about or his commentary on a particular event in the news.

As I have stated many times throughout this series, social media is a conversation medium and not a broadcast medium.

Blogging, especially when effectively serving as your base of operations for effective online community participation, can be one of the most powerful aspects of social media. When done well, it facilities effective communication by acting as the catalyst that gets the conversation started, and when necessary, helps continue the discussion.

Simply broadcasting your (especially sales and marketing) message is not the way it is anymore.

What are you going to blog about?

Alright, I have probably annoyed you enough with the “social media is about starting a conversation” speech.

So what, exactly, are you going to start a conversation about? In other words, what are you going to blog about?

(And don't say you, your company or its products and services—you don't want to listen to the speech again, do you?)

If you have performed your social media preparation (Part 2) and you have been actively using your listening stations (Part 3), then you should already know the answer—whatever your online community is already discussing.

What problems are people talking about? What challenging issues keep coming up? What are the hotly contested debates or deeply polarized topics? In short, what are the other members of the community passionate about?

How do you write effective blog posts?

Listening to the online community has provided insight into what to blog about. But how do you write effective blog posts?

I am sorry, but there is no simple formula.

Well okay—according to conventional blogging wisdom—maybe there is one simple formula:

B = U²C³

In other words, effective blog posts provide Useful and Unique content that is Clear, Concise, and Consumable.

The Two U's

The first aspect of conventional blogging wisdom is to follow the Two U's:

Useful – Focus on your reader and provide them assistance with a specific problem
Unique – Capture your reader's attention and share your perspective in your own voice

Blogging truly has to be all about the reader. If you write only for yourself, then you will also be your only reader.

Effective blogging often provides “infotainment” – a combination of information and entertainment that, when it's done well, can turn readers into raving fans. Just don't forget—your blog content has to be informative and entertaining to your readers.

One important aspect of being unique is writing effective titles. Most potential readers scan titles to determine if they will click and read more. There is a delicate balance between effective titles and “baiting” – which will only alienate potential readers.

If you write a compelling title that makes your readers click through to an interesting post, then “You Rock!” However, if you write a “Shock and Awe” title followed by “Aw Shucks” content, then “You Suck!”

Therefore, your blog content also has to be unique—your topic, position, voice, or a combination of all three.

The Three C's

The second aspect of conventional blogging wisdom is to follow the Three C’s:

Clear – Get to the point and stay on point
Concise – No longer than necessary
Consumable – Formatted to be easily read on a computer screen

Clear blog posts typically have a single theme or one primary topic to communicate. Don't run off on tangents, especially ones not related to the point you are trying to make. If you have several legitimate sub-topics to cover, then consider creating a series.

Concise doesn't necessarily mean “write really short blog posts.” There is no specific word count to target. Being concise simply means taking out anything that doesn't need to be included. Editing is the hardest part of writing, but also the most important.

Consumable content is extremely essential when people are reading off of a computer screen.

Densely packed text attacks the eyes, which doesn't encourage anyone to keep reading.

Consumable blog posts effectively use techniques such as the following:

Providing an introduction and/or a conclusion
Using section headings (in a larger size or different font or both)
Varying the lengths of both sentences and paragraphs
Highlighting key words or phrases using bold or italics—but don't underline—people will think it's a link and click on it
Making or summarizing keys points in a short sentence or a short paragraph
Making or summarizing key points using numbered or bulleted lists

As a general rule, the longer (although still both clear and concise) the blog post, the more consumable you need to make it.

Your Blog, Your Voice

Back in early December, I recorded my thoughts about the importance of blogging in your own voice as a podcast:

You can also download this podcast (MP3 file) by clicking on this link: Your Blog, Your Voice

Some of the key points covered in this 15 minute podcast include:

The easiest way to produce unique content is to let your blogging style reflect your personality
Make your readers feel like they are having a conversation with a real person
You should be personal but still professional when blogging in a business context
Don't be afraid to express your opinion—even on subjects where it seems like “everything has already be said”
Your opinion is unique—because it is your opinion
An opinion—as long as it is respectfully given—is never wrong
Consistency in both style and message is important, however it's okay to vary your style and/or change your opinion
Try your best to communicate your thoughts clearly, but don't be overly concerned with being misunderstood
Pay careful attention to the feedback you receive from readers, especially any constructive criticism they provide
Ultimately, you are the only one who can truly decide what style will work best for your blog

Please don't become a zombie

The blogosphere has a real zombie problem—no, not that kind of zombie.

“Zombie” is a slang term used to describe a blog that has stopped publishing new posts. In other words, the blog has joined the Blogosphere of the Living Dead, which is comprised of blogs that still have a valid URL, but desperately crave new “Posts!”

Before you start blogging, follow the 20-10-5 plan:

Brainstorm 20 high level ideas for blog posts
Write 10 rough drafts based on those ideas
Finish 5 ready to publish posts from those drafts

If you are unable to complete this simple plan, then seriously reconsider starting a blog.

When you start blogging, consider the following recommendations:

Do not post more than once a week
Maintain an editorial calendar and schedule your future posts
Finish more ready to publish posts (you're good until Week 6 because of the 20-10-5 plan)

Yes, you will be tempted to start posting more than once a week. You will be eager to share your brilliance with the blogosphere.

Just like many new things, blogging is really fun—when it's new. However, let's run the numbers:

Posting once a week = 52 blog posts a year
Posting twice a week = 104 blog posts a year
Posting five times a week (basically once every week day) = 260 blog posts a year

I am not trying to harsh your mellow. I am just saying that you need to pace yourself. You are trying to build and maintain an active presence within your online community.

Do I practice what I preach?

Check my archives. My blog was started in March 2009. I published 5-8 posts per month (1-2 posts per week) for each of the first five months. I then gradually increased my posting frequency. Later this week, I will publish my 100th blog post.

Conclusion

This series is about the art of effectively using social media in a business context. Although there are many practical aspects that I did not cover—such as choosing a blogging platform as one example—blogging is definitely more art than science.

Therefore, you are obviously free to ignore the recommended blogging best practices I explained above. However, I highly recommend that you first learn them and then try putting them into practice. After all, it's always more fun to break the rules when you actually know what the rules are.

In Part 5 of this series: We will continue discussing the basics of developing your social media strategy by reviewing some other recommended best practices and general guidelines for engaging your community—beyond the pages of your blog.

Social Karma (Part 3) – Listening Stations, Home Base, and Outposts

Social Karma (Part 5) – Connection, Engagement, and ROI Basics

The Mullet Blogging Manifesto

Collablogaunity

January 26, 2010

Social Karma (Part 3)

January 26, 2010/ Jim Harris

In Part 2 of this series: We discussed leveraging social media for “listening purposes only” in order to assess what type of active involvement would make sense for you and your company. Just like with any professional endeavor, you need to honestly evaluate both your expectations and your readiness before getting actively involved with social media.

Additionally, we also discussed that using social media effectively requires a commitment—mostly measured in time.

In Part 3, we will begin discussing the basics of developing your social media strategy by first examining the benefits of establishing a blog (or company website) as your social media base of operations for effective online community participation.

Listening Stations

Your social media preparation involved actively listening to the online community. As you begin your social media engagement, your “listening station” must always remain active in order to maintain true community participation.

Actually, you will need to leverage multiple listening stations. The following diagram shows my OCDQ Blog listening stations:

If you are having trouble viewing it, click anywhere on the diagram to open it in a new window and/or download it (PNG file).

Home Base with Outposts

As Darren Rowse of ProBlogger explained in his blog post How to Promote a Blog with Social Media, Chris Brogan developed a social media strategy using the metaphor of a Home Base with Outposts.

“A home base,” explains Rowse, “is a place online that you own.” This is your social media base of operations for effective online community participation. For example, your home base could be your blog or your company's website.

“Outposts,” continues Rowse, “are places you have an online presence out in other parts of the web that you might not own.” For example, your outposts could be your LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook accounts.

The following diagram shows the home base with outposts framework used by my OCDQ Blog:

If you are having trouble viewing it, click anywhere on the diagram to open it in a new window and/or download it (PNG file).

Social Media Strategy

In this OCDQ Video, I provide an overview of my social media strategy based on my listening stations, home base, and outposts:

If you are having trouble viewing this video, then you can watch it on Vimeo by clicking on this link: OCDQ Video

Here are the links to the social media tools and services that I mentioned in the video:

The Message of Social Media's Medium

Effective online community participation is about actively listening, inviting others to get involved, sharing meaningful ideas, contributing to conversations—and not selfishly distributing only your content or broadcasting only your message.

Social media is a conversation medium and not a broadcast medium.

In his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase: “the medium is the message.”

To slightly paraphrase the words of Mark Federman, social media provides the ability to connect with other members of the online community, to collaborate as we construct knowledge, to engage with one another's experiences, to bring multiple contexts into understanding what it is we are collectively creating through our connection.

Connection is the message of social media's medium.

In Part 4 of this series: We will continue discussing the basics of developing your social media strategy by reviewing some recommended blogging best practices and general guidelines for creating useful content in your own unique blogging style.

Social Karma (Part 5) – Connection, Engagement, and ROI Basics

January 23, 2010

Recently Read: January 23, 2010

January 23, 2010/ Jim Harris

Data Quality

For simplicity, “Data Quality” also includes Data Governance, Master Data Management, and Business Intelligence.

Data Quality Blog Roundup - December 2009 Edition – Data Quality Pro always provides a great collection of the previous month's best blog posts, this particular entry covers my data quality “recently reads” from before the start of the new year.
Hostile Environment Data Harassment – Phil Simon discusses the common tendency for an organization's culture to not only compartmentalize data issues, but also tolerate “data carelessness” and irresponsibility.
Data Profiling For All The Right Reasons, Part 1 – In this Hub Designs Blog guest post, Rob DuMoulin begins a tool-agnostic five-part series about data profiling using psychology and Jungian word association analysis.
Personal Data – an Asset we hold on Trust – Daragh O Brien shares an intriguing case study about data protection, and discusses the key stages and data protection principles in the Information Asset Life Cycle.
Standardizing Data Migration – Evan Levy uses a motion picture industry analogy to suggest establishing a separate functional team that’s responsible for data packaging and distribution.
A Data Quality Riot Act – Rob Paller shares a great real-world example of data quality challenges even when an enterprise system is well-designed with protocols specifically put in place to ensure proper data management and data quality.
What is a MDM Strategy – Charles Blyth channels the ancient wisdom of Sun Tzu to explain that an MDM strategy is the overarching governance that defines the goals, reasons, approach and standards of its individual initiatives.
Data Quality issue in my new database - or so we thought... – Rich Murnane shares an interesting real-world example of how not every apparent data problem turns out to be an actual data quality issue.
Diversity in City Names – Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen explains the challenges inherit in global data quality using the example of the many ways that the city of Copenhagen, Denmark can be represented due to linguistic variations.
How data quality derives from meta data – Rayk Fenske examines the relationship between data quality management and metadata management by discussing directed functional dependency as well as a hierarchy in requirements.
The Quality Gap: Why Being On-Time Isn’t Enough – Jill Dyché discusses the all-too-common tendency to emphasize efficiency over effectiveness in enterprise project management, where everything is date-driven and not quality-driven.
Name Patterns and Parsing – David Loshin explains that personal names, although conceptually straightforward, are beset by many interesting pattern variations, making them a very daunting data quality challenge.
A true story of how data quality issues can cripple a business – Graham Rhind shares a remarkable real-world example that illustrates very well the effect poor data quality (and lack of information quality) can have at every level of an organization.
WANTED: Data Quality Change Agents – Dylan Jones explains the key traits required of all data quality change agents, including a positive attitude, a willingness to ask questions, innovation advocating, and persuasive evangelism.
The Power of Slow - Paul Boal begins an excellent series about slow by explaining that a proper understanding of slow truly reveals it is the far more efficient approach—and not just for data quality.
Data vs. Facts, Illustrated - Mark Graban discusses the common problem of relying too much on reports and dashboards without verification of the underlying data—and shares a hilarious picture to illustrate the point.
The Value of Data – Marty Moseley discusses the core issue that most businesses still do not understand the value of data to their organizations, and shares some findings from a recent data governance survey.
ETL, Data Quality and MDM for Mid-sized Business – Steve Sarsfield on challenges of investing in enterprise software faced by small to medium sized businesses, and opportunities in the freemium model of open source alternatives such as Talend.
Beyond Data Ownership to Information Sharing – Joe Andrieu provides an interesting look at the often polarizing topics of data ownership, data privacy, and information sharing, explaining that we want to share our information, on our terms, protect our interests, and enable service providers to do truly amazing things for us and on our behalf.
The Great Expectations of BI – Promising new blogger Phil Wright provides an excellent Dickensian inspired explanation of why, in many organizations, business intelligence doesn't live up to its great expectations.

Social Media

For simplicity, “Social Media” also includes Blogging, Writing, Social Networking, and Online Marketing.

When Your Company Culture Isn't Ready for Social Media – On the Harvard Business Review blog The Conversation, Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd discuss whether your organization is culturally ready to implement social media.
Why Twitter Will Endure – David Carr of The New York Times explains how he came to understand that the real value of Twitter is listening to a wired collective voice.
Are Your Ears Burning? - 20 Tools for Tracking Social Media Marketing – Merle shares a great list of “online reputation” management tools, which are useful for monitoring your social media presence.
The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration – On Mashable, Brian Solis explains the ten most common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration.
Defining Social Business – Stowe Boyd explains that a social business is an organization designed consciously around sociality and social tools, as a response to a changed world and the emergence of the social web.
Three Ways to Get a Rush from Your Writing – In this Men with Pens guest post, author Phil Simon shares some of his great writing advice, including the need to “get it down before it gets away” whenever inspiration strikes.
40 Reasons Why The CEO Still Uses The Yellow Pages And Not Social Media – Jeff Bullas shares a hilarious list of the reasons the typical CEO still wants to use the Yellow Pages and not embrace the new marketing of the 21st century.
In Defence of The Real Social Media – An amazing post by Naomi Dunford, especially recommended for anyone who claims social media is only about superficial connections and doubts online friendships can ever be real friendships.
A-List Bloggers Agree: ‘Entertaining Differentiation’ Is Key to Success – In this Write To Done guest post, Bamboo Forest explains entertainment is a major reason people read blogs, and why differentiation is so important to blogging well.
The Power of Uniqueness – Darren Rowse discusses some of the ways that the best blogs tend to stand out from the crowd, and shares 19 starting points for helping you become a unique blogger.

Book Quotes

An eclectic list of quotes from some recently read (and/or simply my favorite) books.

From Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun – “Expressing ideas is often the only way to fully understand what ideas are, and to know what it is you really think. Expression makes learning from the criticism of others possible, and I'm happy to look like a fool if in return I learn something I wouldn't have learned any other way.”
From The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin – “The opportunity cost of investing your life in something that's not going to get better is just too high.”
From Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. by Mitch Joel – “It's no longer about how much budget you dump into advertising and PR in hopes that people will see and respond to your messaging. The new online channels will work for you as long as you are working for them by adding value, your voice, and the ability for your consumers to connect, engage, and take part. This new economy is driven by your time vested—and not by your money invested.”

January 21, 2010

Can Social Media become a Universal Translator?

January 21, 2010/ Jim Harris

I have always been a huge fan of science fiction, mostly television and movies, but also a few select books as well.

After only FTL (faster-than-light space travel, e.g., warp drive, hyperdrive, Infinite Improbability Drive, or “Ludicrous Speed”), the next most common technology found in almost all science fiction is a universal translator, which somehow manages to instantly translate all communication into the native language of the user.

Without question, and especially for television and movies, a universal translator serves as a useful plot device in science fiction.

It saves valuable time otherwise spent explaining how people (especially from completely different planets) are able to communicate without knowing each other's language. The time saved can therefore be dedicated to far cooler things, such as laser guns, lightsabers, space battles, and massive explosions—in other words, the truly scientific parts of science fiction.

Just a few of my universal translator (and science fiction) favorites include the following:

The Babel Fish – a small yellow leech-like fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series by Douglas Adams, which after it is inserted into your ear, simultaneously translates from one spoken language to another.
Translator Microbes – a bacteria injected on the Farscape television series, which after it has colonized your brain stem, translates spoken language and then passes the translation along to the rest of your brain.
The Universal Translator – a linguacode matrix on Star Trek, first used in the late 22nd century for the instant translation of Earth languages, which removed language barriers and helped Earth’s disparate cultures come to terms of universal peace.

It's a Small (Digital) World

Many of my social media blog posts have included some form of the following paragraph:

Rapid advancements in technology, coupled with the meteoric rise of the Internet and social media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) has created an amazing medium that is enabling people separated by vast distances and disparate cultures to come together, communicate, and collaborate in ways few would have thought possible less than a decade ago.

It's a really good paragraph (it must be since I just used it yet again!). However, apparently channeling science fiction's useful plot device, I waxed poetic while ignoring the still very present communication challenge of language translation.

My native language is English, and like many people from the United States, it is the only language I am fluent in. Blogging has made the digital version of my world much smaller and allowed my writing to reach parts of the world it wouldn’t otherwise have been able to reach—places where English is not the primary language.

What language do you blog in?

I have to admit that despite my professional experience, which has included some international commerce, I am often oblivious to how much of a challenge is faced by non-English speakers in the business world. Blogging is certainly no exception.

On ProBlogger, Darren Rowse recently posted Bloggers from Non English Speaking Backgrounds, which was a follow-up to a recent newsletter survey about the challenges facing bloggers going into 2010, where quite a few of the responses came from bloggers for whom English was not their first language, and they cited two primary challenges:

Not knowing which language they should blog in – Should they blog in their primary language and reach a potentially smaller readership, or should they blog in English where their readership could be larger, but where they have challenges with writing well?
Feeling isolated from other bloggers – Some bloggers felt that they were not taken as seriously by bloggers in other parts of the world and therefore found networking difficult.

Since Darren Rowse (he is based in Australia) is also only fluent in English, he requested that his readers comment on his post and share their perspectives on these common challenges. The last time that I checked, the post had over 170 comments.

One of the most telling things for me is that this discussion wasn't limited to blogging in the business world.

For me personally, I would have no choice but to blog in my primary language. Just as an example, if Spanish was the primary language of the business blogging world, then I would have to either settle for a smaller readership, or simply not blog at all.

Despite my four academic years with the language, just about the only complete sentence I can say in Spanish today is:

¿Dónde está el baño?

I can (pretend to) speak Danish

Some of you are probably thinking: What about computer software and online services for language translation?

I have always used Yahoo! Babel Fish (and long before it was purchased by Yahoo). It is far from the most robust online translation service, but the science fiction reference in its name (see above) is likely the reason I frequent that particular website.

Many have told me that Google Language Tools is probably the most advanced (and free) online language translation service currently available. However, no tool can make it as easy as science fiction—at least no current (free or otherwise) tool.

I recently used these tools to say Tak for din kommentar (“Thanks for your comment” in Danish) to Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen, for the excellent comment he left on one of my recent social media blog posts, which inspired me to write this blog post.

Not bad Danish for a non-native speaker, huh? Well, to be completely honest—that was the final translation provided by Henrik after my initial attempt (although close) was not quite correct.

And just to name one of the current options for blog translation, Wibiya is a free service allowing you to integrate applications and widgets into a customized web-based toolbar for your blog. One of those applications is Translation, which is powered by Google Translate, and allows your blog readers to translate any page on your website into their native language with just a single click of their mouse. If you would like to view an example of a blog using this feature, then please visit: Phil Simon's Blog.

What makes language translation so difficult?

Although the current online language translation services are helpful, they are far from perfect.

The most common challenge is what is referred to as round-trip translation, where in the process of translation, an intermediate language is used (most often the primary language of the translator).

As a simplistic example, let’s pretend I wanted to translate the earlier Danish phrase into Spanish.

I would begin with a Danish to English translation (back to my primary language as a starting point), then an English to Spanish translation, and finally a Spanish to Danish translation (for verification purposes):

Tak for din kommentar –> Thank you for your comment (Danish –> English)

Thank you for your comment –> Gracias por tu comentario (English –> Spanish)

Gracias por tu comentario –> Tak for din kommentar (Spanish –> Danish)

Now, let’s try a more complex example by translating my favorite social media paragraph from English to Spanish to Danish, where for the sake of this example, we will pretend Spanish is my primary language.

Original paragraph in English:

English –> Spanish:

Los rápidos avances en tecnología, junto con el meteórico ascenso de Internet y medios de comunicación social (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) ha creado un medio sorprendente que es posible que las personas separadas por enormes distancias y culturas diferentes se reúnan, se comunican, y colaborar en cuantas formas hubiera creído posible menos de una década atrás.

Spanish –> Danish:

Hurtige fremskridt inden for teknologi, kombineret med den rivende anledning af internettet og sociale medier (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, osv.) har skabt et miljø, der kan overraske folk adskilt af store afstande og forskellige kulturer mødes, kommunikere og samarbejde på måder få troede muligt mindre end et årti siden.

Danish –> English:

Rapid advances in technology, coupled with the meteoric rise of the Internet and social media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) has created an environment that may surprise people separated by great distances and different cultures meet, communicate and collaborate in ways few thought possible less than a decade ago.

The differences are relatively minor:

“advancements” –> “advances”
“amazing medium that is enabling people” –> “environment that may surprise people”
“separated by vast distances and disparate cultures” –> “separated by great distances and different cultures”
“come together, communicate, and collaborate” –> “meet, communicate and collaborate”
“in ways few would have thought possible” –> “in ways few thought possible”

However, #2 (“enabling” –> “surprise”) and to a lesser extent #4 (“come together” –> “meet”) have not only lessened the dramatic effect of my original words, but may leave the overall message open to different interpretation.

Therefore, it is easy to imagine the challenges inherit in translating entire blog posts or websites.

Can Social Media become a Universal Translator?

Will the continuing trends of both the rapid evolution of social media technology and the widespread adoption of social media for communication and collaboration, be able to deliver on science fiction’s promise of a universal translator?

Although we still don’t have warp drive or lightsabers, we do have some of the other seemingly impossible technologies from science fiction—just compare that mobile device you carry around with you to the communicator and tricorder from the original Star Trek television show.

Therefore, I remain hopeful that a universal translator is in our not too distant future.

January 19, 2010

Social Karma (Part 2)

January 19, 2010/ Jim Harris

In Part 1 of this series: I introduced the series premise, motivation, and intended format. I also provided disclaimers about my social media experience and my lack of affiliation with any person, website, event, product, or book that I recommend.

In Part 2, we will discuss leveraging social media for “listening purposes only.” This approach provides a passive (and safe) way to determine what (if any) type of active involvement with social media makes sense for you and/or your company.

You seek first to understand

Let's start with a few common questions about social media:

Should every individual professional have their own blog?
Should every company have its own blog?
Should every individual professional actively use social networking sites (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)?
Should every company actively use social networking sites?

Some social media “experts” defiantly claim that the answer to all of these question is: YES!

However, the only honest answer to all of these questions is: Maybe.

As with everything in the business world, you should seek first to understand what social media can offer and what it requires, before making any type of professional commitment.

Both of those last two words are important—professional and commitment.

This series is about the art of effectively using social media in a business context. Therefore, we are discussing a topic about professional communication—which for both individuals and companies, must always be taken very seriously.

Using social media effectively, more than anything else, requires a commitment—mostly measured in time. As bad as many claim it is to not get actively involved in social media, believe me—doing it poorly does a lot more harm than not doing it all.

You say you want a conversation

Well, you know—do you really want to change your world?

The pervasiveness of the Internet and the rapid proliferation of powerful mobile technology is transforming the very nature of human communication, and perhaps most strikingly, business communication.

Social media is taking advantage of this amazing medium, enabling people separated by vast distances and disparate cultures to come together, communicate, and collaborate in ways few would have thought possible less than a decade ago.

We continue to witness the decline of print media and the corresponding evolution of social media. I believe the primary reason for this transition is our increasing interest in exchanging what has traditionally been only a broadcast medium (print media) for a conversation medium (social media).

So, returning to my paraphrasing of The Beatles that opened this section, I have to ask—do you really want a conversation?

In the business context of social media, conversations can occur on several levels. Just a few examples include:

Between companies and their customers (including both prospective and former customers)
Between companies and their employees
Between employees and customers (in a less formal sense and beyond the walls of the workplace)
Between employees (both within and beyond the walls of the workplace)
Between customers

Only you can determine if you or your corporate culture is willing and able to properly participate in these conversations. Many rightfully argue that you may soon simply not have a choice. Therefore, if you are currently unwilling or unable, now is the time for you and your company to properly prepare—once again, a lack of preparation will do a lot more harm than good.

Of course, once you are properly prepared, you will be positioned to turn this challenge into a true competitive advantage.

Your worlds are colliding

We are becoming an increasingly digital society, and through social media, we are living more and more of both our personal and professional lives online, blurring—if not eliminating—the distinction between the two.

Later in this series, I will return to this topic and its implications for individual professionals. However, from a company perspective, there are digital walls that can prevent (or at least slow down) your worlds from colliding—the company intranet.

First, I recommend establishing a corporate policy regarding what is permissible for employees to say about the company on external social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as other social media platforms, including the employees’ personal blogs. I am not advocating censorship—just some basic guidelines of professional behavior.

Next, I recommend evaluating an internal social networking platform such as Yammer or Socialcast (to name just two examples among many options) for employees to use while at the office for robust communication and collaboration. You might not have to block external social networking sites, but companies should strongly encourage that all work-related social networking be performed within the safety of the intranet and not out in the serendipitous “Series of Tubes” also known as the Internet.

Later in this series, we will discuss active participation in external social media (e.g., blogging) and social networking sites.

You're listening

Before committing to active involvement in (external) social media, perform some due diligence by actively listening.

Dedicate time to reading the blogs within your specific industry or other areas of your professional interest. Pay close attention to the most frequent topics of discussion—especially in the comments section. Your goal is to learn as much as possible about the online community within which you are considering active participation.

Useful—and free—listening tools include (but are not limited to) the following:

Google Alerts – receive e-mail updates of the latest relevant Google search results based on your choice of query or topic.
Google Blog Search – search blogs (or the web) based on your choice of query or topic, which can be saved as a RSS feed.
Twitter Search – Unlike other social networking sites, you don't need an account for read access to Twitter content. You can also save search queries as RSS feeds. If you are not familiar with how to use it, then check out my Twitter Search Tutorial.
Google Reader – aggregate your research, websites, blogs, and RSS feeds into a single “listening station.”

Conclusion

Just like with any professional endeavor, honestly evaluate both your expectations and your readiness before you and your company get actively involved with social media in a business context. Diligent research and proper preparation are standard best practices—and there is absolutely no reason that these sound business principles should not also apply to social media.

I have also recorded the key points of this blog post as a podcast:

You can also download this podcast (MP3 file) by clicking on this link: Social Media Preparation

In Part 3 of this series: We will begin discussing the basics of developing your social media strategy by first examining the benefits of establishing a blog as your social media base of operations for effective online community participation.

Social Karma (Part 3) – Listening Stations, Home Base, and Outposts

Social Karma (Part 5) – Connection, Engagement, and ROI Basics

If you tweet away, I will follow

January 15, 2010

Video: Twitter #FollowFriday – January 15, 2010

January 15, 2010/ Jim Harris

In this OCDQ Video, I broadcast (from within The Tweet-rix) my Twitter FollowFriday recommendations for January 15, 2010.

If you are having trouble viewing this video, then you can watch it on Vimeo by clicking on this link: OCDQ Video

Tweeps mentioned in the video:

Dylan Jones – @dataqualitypro – Data Quality Pro
Phil Simon – @philsimon – Phil Simon Systems
Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen – @hlsdk – Liliendahl on Data Quality
Charles Blyth – @charlesblyth – MDM from the Front Line
Jill Dyché – @jilldyche – Inside the Biz with Jill Dyché
Rob Paller – @RobPaller – Rob Paller's Blog
Daragh O Brien – @daraghobrien – The DOBlog
Jill Wanless – @sheezaredhead – Data Quality From The Ground Up
Steve Sarsfield – @stevesarsfield – Data Governance and Data Quality Insider
Dalton Cervo – @dcervo – Dalton's Blog

Video: Twitter Search Tutorial

Live-Tweeting: Data Governance