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It’s actually part of an elaborate cube prank my coworkers pulled on me today. I was greeted by an inflatable snowman in my cube, white sheets, blinking colorful lights, and a light up Santa on the wall. Welcome back!
As 2009 comes to an official close, there is no going back, only forward. I wrote a blog post on CaseyCheshire.com about how we need to remember our family and those not in social media.
Waterski the Web, a guide to the now web and staying ahead of the curve, also needs a 2010 article. I’m not a big fan of predicting the oncoming year as it’s been done by just about everyone. I’d like to make one quick point and then let you get the champagne ready for tonight:
It’s a Process not a Phd. And those with such degrees will relate to you the intense years of study/research as the process which matured their intellectual thinking. Some even skip their conferring ceremony as they’re already continuing the process with their PostDoc.
Just over 10 years ago we were experts in 14.4 and 28.8 modems as we dialed into America Online. Last night, I read a sidebar in a book on puppies published in 2001 about getting more information on their forum on AOL. No web address listed, rather: search for “puppy forum” to find us.
How things have changed! America Online has been bought, sold, reinvented, and helped itself become obsolete for the future.
If you stopped learning and evolving in 1995, you’d be way behind today. It’s just like turning off the air pump for the inflatable snow man. As soon as it’s off, that snow man gets a little sloppy. Before you know it, you’ve got a heap of nylon.
You’ve got to constantly feed your inflatable web brain. Whether it’s because you are in the profession or just a citizen of the united states of .com, staying at the front of the power curve will be critical to your future and continued success.
In the old world on online social lifestyle, Facebook was for sharing photos with friends, how you really felt about “it all” and maybe just maybe playing Mafia Wars. Then came along Twitter that said, “Hey I like to share!” And share it did, all of your tweets with any and everyone out there.
The world was two separate activities, two large continents: private life and public life.
This is what I would tell people when explaining the difference between the two. “On Facebook,” I’d say, “the only people that can see your photos, rants, and profile were people you’ve explicitly given permission to.” You had made them your Friend, and that granted them privilege.
This was the way things were “back then.” Privacy was king, and you didn’t want “crazy Internet stalkers” accessing your bikini photos- or your boss, or your mom (hi mom!).
Twitter was the public side of you, where you could share your expertise in hobbies, industry, and passions and at the same time, inform people that you just took your dog to the dog park. I’ve often suggested that Twitter is best when its a mix of business & pleasure.
You see how they were two happy worlds? Happy! Happy!
Then Facebook, large gigantic behemoth that it is, decided it wasn’t big enough or didn’t own enough of our online social lives, so they slowly started becoming more like Twitter. A while back you may remember when Facebook’s interface changed drastically, and then they put more emphasis on your Status Feed. This Twitter-like feed of you and your friend’s activities was only the beginning.
It was a friendly way of saying that every user will be asked to make their news feed(list of activities, Mafia/Farmville jobs, and anything else you shouldn’t be doing on Facebook) public.
Whammy! But that’s only half the news. The real definitive part is that:
That means all new accounts- whether they understand this feature or not, will have a public news feed.
This is hugely different from Facebook’s previous role as privacy protector in the social space. And you can see why its just another step of Twitter-like activity. You can see Facebook saying “Why not us!?” when looking at how popular Twitter has become. As soon as Twitter started cutting deals with Google Search and Microsoft Bing (search)- Facebook saw its chance to do both public and private. Though this has me wondering if the private means anything to them anymore.
Update: Facebook allows you to pass on changing your privacy settings once, but the next time you log in you’re forced to make decisions.
Facebook is so massive and widely used that not much will overthrow them. Charging $$ for the use of the service and future innovation are the only two that come to mind. With the popularity of their advertising program, Facebook becomes like Google in a sense that it doesn’t need to charge users. Future innovation is anyones game, though it appears Facebook is doing it’s best to stay in front.
As soon as there are innovations in the world, there’s usually a flock of folks looking to exploit any weaknesses that may be present. Twitter is no exception, as I learned recently.
It all began when I received a DM (Direct Message) from someone I was following. You see Twitter was smart and only allows people who are both Following each other to exchange DMs. This makes sense. You can follow Bill Gates and @ Reply him but not send him a email-like message. The difficulty with this is that a lot of people (myself included) tend to follow those who are following me. It’s like shaking hands. Is this a strict rule? Of course not.
So here I was, minding my own business on Twitter when…
I received this Direct Mesage:
Looks unassuming and like a link to what you might think would be a photo of you on the internet. Makes you start thinking: “Oh jeez, what kind of photo have my friends posted?”
Notice the link is to “dwarfurl.com” and it looks like one of the many URL Shortening sites (that turn a long link into a short manageable one). Low and behold it is just that! It’s where it takes you to that you should watch out for it, and the reason they used an url shortener in this case is not to shorten but to hide!
The short link takes you to: http://twitter.expressplacement.com/ (don’t go there)
And this is what you see:
It looks *just* like the sign in page at the real Twitter.com but it’s not. They want you to be fooled and so they include the Copyright notice, all of the standard links and graphics. It only looks like the sign in page but it’s really ExpressPlacement.com (evil twitter destroying empire?)
The unsuspecting person would see this and think that perhaps they were logged out of Twitter (if they were using Twitter on the web already).
If you log in (and give Express Placement) your information- guess what it does? It sends out the same Direct Message to everyone that YOU follow/follow-you. This is just like your basic computer virus, except that it exists solely on the Twitter interface.
Update: Kudos to the team at FireFox (the browser I use) and a few savvy folks who reported this page. If you click the link now you’ll see this:
It’s a middle step to warn anyone accessing that address that the website you’re about to view has been reported to be a website that pretends to be something it’s not. Awesome! This should prevent most folks from using this link now. Keep in mind it took a few days for this to go up, and when I first clicked it I went to the actual page.
Knowing how to spot forgery sites, on and off Twitter, will save you and your friends a lot of trouble!
If you know anyone that is new to Twitter or has sent you a DM like the one above, send them a link to this article. If we’re all informed, these annoying scams will be powerless. Know, recognized, and avoid the Twirus when you see it!
One answer to this question is Technorati.com.
Technorati tracks and links to the top blogs out the in the Blogosphere. It’s an awesome way to find unique content written by thousands of bloggers. Additionally they have editors who write articles related to the world of blogging and share their big picture view of it all.
If you click on one of the main headings, Business, you’ll get the Business Channel and they have several popular articles. What I find even more helpful is the listings of “Top Business blogs.” In addition to top blogs, they also have top movers. Movers are important as they signify a drastic change in popularity that can often signal a trend or important new topic.
But don’t stick to something as high level as “business.” There is a Blog Directory as well as Top 100 listings for every topic imaginable! This is where you can start following quite a lot of blogs in a short period of time. When in doubt, add the blogs that catch your eye to your Google Reader. You can always fine tune and cull (haha) your subscriptions later.
Technorati also assigns “authority” to blogs that it tracks. This number is a measure of that site’s standing and influence in the blogosphere. Based on linking behavior (who links to it) and other “associated data” that all gets calculated together spitting out a number between 0 and 1000.
Cool Side Note: In order for me to have this blog included in the Technorati listing, the following code needed to be placed on a blog post: E4MZU2GDFVBX and 9Z6Z9J9UQUVS What this does is verify that the person who registered it on Technorati is really the writter. Once I’ve covered all of the basics of Waterskiing the Web, the articles will begin to touch on writing your own blog as it’s an important part of the web.
Hit Technorati like a firestorm and increase the amount of blogs that you subscribe too!
From the retweet to Lists, they are fun and provide additional levels of functionality. The more of them you use regularly, the more powerful Twitter will be for you.
The Hashtag (#) is one of these features and lately you’ve been seeing it more often than not.
To understand this crazy symbol’s involvement in Twitter, you must first be aware of Twitter Search.
On the web interface there is a search box on the right column. You can search for anything you’d like, and if it’s been mentioned in any tweet recently, it will be shown to you in the search results. Nothing special has to be done to your own tweets, they are publicly search-able by default. Cool huh?
But wait! Your results won’t always be what you expect them to be.
If you typed in “wave” into the search box looking for information about Google Wave- and I just did. These are some of the results:
Jakafe @St_agustaf Yo… Wave yo hands in da air like you just don’t care… Hooo.. Heeeyy.. Hooo…
zckenny just requested my Google Wave Invite! Get yours at http://www.google.com-wave.info – #googlewave #googlewaveinvite
strellson 說 大家晚安 (wave) (sleeping) http://plurk.com/p/2pjspa
And the list goes on with several more pages.
There were successful results about Google Wave, but they were mixed in with other uses of the word “wave.” Could you have used the search phrase “Google Wave”? Yes! Of course, and we’ll get to the difference between using/not using a hash later on.
Try that same search with the search phrase #wave and you get a much cleaner result- most if not all are related to Google Wave. Why is this? One important thing to remember is that:
This implicit, going out-of-their-way notation of the core of their tweet makes the hashtag a very good way of finding other people’s tweets related to a subject. Compare the two:
I got my Google Wave invite today!
I got my Google Wave invite today! #wave #GoogleWave
This example is a little simple, but the idea is the same. Hashtags are deliberate. The Tweeter (person who Tweets) is actively thinking about other people who might be searching for the same topic.
Okay so we take it to the next level now. Why waste all that valuable space? Perhaps you need it for your really cool quote? You can use the hashtag inside your actual message. Here’s our previous example kicked up a notch:
I got my #GoogleWave invite today! SWEET!
That is a finely tuned tweet right there. Gets the message across and tags it for others.
You can also have fun with your hashtag usage! And even use it to get a second point across. Here are some actual tweets found by searching #fail.
pingu_98 left power supply for my laptop at work. #fail.
And here’s a great one! (Link goes to image shown below.)
debcha Propped-door #fail: http://yfrog.com/37p44j
So Debcha’s tweet talks about MIT wanting to conserve energy- even use TWO signs, all while propping open the door. Notice how the use of #fail worked perfectly for a search. Just typing in “fail” would have resulted in tweets simply containing the word.
The possibilities are endless!
For me, the most fun use of the hashtag in tweeting is at large scale events and conferences. If the Event Management or Corporate Sponsor of the even is up on the their social media, they’ll tell you what hashtag to use while you’re there.
For example, I recently attended a B2B conference and the host, SilverPop let the attendees know prior to and during the even that the hashtag to use when tweeting about the conference was: #b2buniversity
On my Twitter iPhone app Echofon, there is a place to search and I typed in #b2buniversity on my way to the event. The fun starts here as you’ll see lots of other people tweeting about making their way TO the event:
On my way to #b2buniversity! Looking forward to it!
And when at the event, people will often tweet key points and metrics:
@KeynoteSpeaker : 28% of all elephants are color-blind #b2buniversity
So for someone not at the event, all you have to do is set your Twitter Search to the hashtag and you can follow along with updates and often pictures of the event!
The Online World, Twitter, and the way we tweet/search is constantly evolving. Understanding and using hashtags will help keep you at the forefront of the #knowledgecurve. So get out there and use those #hastags like a #hero!
If you’re already up on both skis, you’ll find the Twitter announcement as new & exciting as a PBS special on Covered Bridges. “Why?” you say. One simple reason:
That’s right. We’ve been retweeting for as long as we’ve been tweeting on Twitter. The new part is that the Twitter interface on the web at Twitter.com (finally) has a little button that allows you to retweet and spot the retweets of others. It’s less about innovation and more about recognizing the retweet as an integral part of the Twitter experience.
How the West was Won (or How we ReTweeted Back in the Early Days) If someone you follow had a simply remarkable Tweet (for who knows what reason!) and you wanted to share this tweet with the people that follow you- you would copy and paste the tweet into your own New Tweet text box and put “RT” in the front of the message. Here’s an example: I received: @SmartGuy32 : New study says Elephants can fly! Full report here: http://www.mit.edu/bleh I sent: RT @SmartGuy32 : New study says Elephants can fly! Full report here: http://www.mit.edu/bleh
How the West was Won (or How we ReTweeted Back in the Early Days)
If someone you follow had a simply remarkable Tweet (for who knows what reason!) and you wanted to share this tweet with the people that follow you- you would copy and paste the tweet into your own New Tweet text box and put “RT” in the front of the message. Here’s an example:
I received:
@SmartGuy32 : New study says Elephants can fly! Full report here: http://www.mit.edu/bleh
I sent:
RT @SmartGuy32 : New study says Elephants can fly! Full report here: http://www.mit.edu/bleh
Brilliant isn’t it?! You can quickly pass information and give credit to the original tweet. Brilliant! Pass me a Guiness!
The RT (Yes ReTweet. You know it now so we’ll use savvy lingo!) is arguably one of the best parts of Twitter. Plus people get a kick out of seeing their own tweet being retweeted.
You can tweet from Twitter.com. Those that Waterski the Web use a program to keep above the water on Twitter. I use Twhirl and it’s great! We’ll have another post talking about the variety of programs out there. Twhirl, and programs like it, built in a button to allow you to retweet and they did it a “long time ago” (really, ages ago in Internet speed).
So you can see now why those of us using powerful software like Twhirl to read, send and retweet give a little chuckle when Twitter finally catches up to us.
Didn’t the title talk about extending my network? If you’re looking to grow the size of who follows you then you’ll want to check out this post. If you still want more, and I would- not to worry, there will be more about growing your numbers (in the right way).
In addition to (re)introducing the (re)tweet, the point of this post is to point out how retweets extend the effective range of your own network. It does this in a pure and simple, spam free way:
Important and interesting information travels.
You might only have 15 followers, but if you tweet something really interesting (to those that follow you), you’ll often see your tweet being retweeted. And it doesn’t necessarily stop there. Their followers might also find it interesting and the number of RTs has no bounds. In this way, content is king. On Twitter, its often much more about what is said than who said it. A boring RT from Ashton Kutcher won’t get nearly as far as a link to a new, rabidly insightful blog post.
So if you’re new to the retweet, welcome! Get out there and be a part of an awesome human network!
It’s something I’ve dabbled with on my own twitter account:
After attending a B2B event and following many of the participants- it seemed a natural course to put them all in a B2B list. It was easy enough to create the new list by clicking “New List” in the right column of the main page in Twitter. Then I went to the page of the people I was following (http://twitter.com/following) and added each of the B2B folks to my new list. To add the person I click on the first of the two option buttons next to each of the people I was following. The result is a list of savvy B2B professionals: http://twitter.com/CaseyChesh/b2b
After attending a B2B event and following many of the participants- it seemed a natural course to put them all in a B2B list. It was easy enough to create the new list by clicking “New List” in the right column of the main page in Twitter. Then I went to the page of the people I was following (http://twitter.com/following) and added each of the B2B folks to my new list. To add the person I click on the first of the two option buttons next to each of the people I was following.
The result is a list of savvy B2B professionals: http://twitter.com/CaseyChesh/b2b
Yeah! Hooray! Yehaw! Huzzah.
Lists work great, they’re fine and dandy.
Out there in the Twitter universe you’ll find people with 2 follows and others with over 50,000. Top followed accounts will be in the millions! Then general rule with a lot of people- even people I admire and respect, is that Quantity is the name of the game with Twitter. In order to get many followers, they follow thousands! It’s also generally accepted (for non-celebrities) to follow back anyone who follows you (as long as they’re not just SPAM).
I'll trade you 100 pennies for your one $5 bill.
The problem with quantity is that the more people you follow, the less you’re following each person. If you follow 3 people, when they Tweet, you’ll be sure to see what they have to say if you check your Twitter account regularly. Follow 30 people, and now you’re cooking. You should have several tweets every few hours.
At the time of this post I follow 210 people. Prior to the B2B conference it was under 200 and even with that
Can you keep up with the Matrix?
many people, I was largely overwhelmed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to read every Tweet. This poses the challenge. How much value do you place on individuals that you follow? No doubt some are more important than others.
There are several people that I follow who don’t tweet too often, but when they do it’s usually important and something I definitely want to read. As the number of people I follow goes up, the chance of me missing an important tweet also increases. With 200+ people tweeting, I’m left with a Stream of Information. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if that’s what you’re looking for.
It wasn’t what I was looking for, so for a long time I have culled (cool word) back the people I follow.
The use of Google Reader is critical. It has become my Knowledge Tool, replacing what Twitter use to be. And with my need for news/learning satisfied (you can say that again!), ensuring that I see the most important tweets from certain people is no longer as important. RSS Feeds / Google Reader have allowed me to view Twitter more as a broadcasting tool.
Tweets <———–>Tweets is now replaced by Tweets ————–> Tweets
While this is potentially a good thing for me in terms of personal branding, I’m not sure it’s such a good thing for Twitter. Which brings us back around to their introduction to Lists. Lists will allow us to continue to add to our Follow numbers with the illusion that we’ll be able to keep up. (Many pros don’t keep up and use it as a broadcasting tool, others will hire people to manage it.)
I wonder if Twitter could be saved by limiting the number of people you can follow.
A controversial point! We’ll save that one for another post.
In conclusion, the number of Tweet broadcasters increase and Twitter has a fundamental need for Tweet consumers. I look forward to seeing how the service evolves!
Look in the URL window of the web browser you’re in right now. It’s the same window that has the address of this blog.
It’s the logo for RSS, or in long winded words, Really Simple Syndication.
Wikipedia quotes Netscape (it’s ‘Dada’) in describing RSS as “a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.
Web feed? I knew you were going to ask. (That’s because I did too!)
Photo thanks to thinkartificial.org
A web or news feed is a data format for providing users with frequently updated content (Wikipedia again, love these guys!).
So to illustrate this example we need frequently updated content. We can use this blog for that. How did you get here today? Did you surf the web, or perhaps you’ve bookmarked the site? That’s not too hard.
But what if you wanted to read the contents from 5 of your favorite blogs? Now let’s say you wanted to check the sports scores for football too. It’s going to take you a long time.
RSS packages up the information you’d like to read and provides it on the web for any web program to come along a grab it. These programs can then present to you all of the information from a variety of sites all in one place. It’s like you’re own personal newspaper- made possible by RSS. Without it, programs would all be sharing information in different ways, and it would look messy by the time it got to you.
Stay tuned and we’ll discuss the best programs to use to gather your favorite RSS feeds.
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
I want to share with you a video of an interview with Google CEO, Eric Schmidt. It’s a fascinating look at what the Web will look like in 5 years.
One particular point he makes drives home the point of this blog:
“One of the things that people forget is that the rate at which information is growing is faster than anything else. So we’re like always drowning in information. And that’s why you never feel like you never get ahead. You finally understand this model or that model and there’s another one… Most people’s information will be gotten from other information as opposed to from traditional sources. You tend to listen to other people more than anything else.”
As soon as you learn one thing, there’s another, and another. I think we can all relate to this- drowing is a great metaphor, especially for us Web Waterskiers. The concept of contiual learning is never more important than with the Internet.
I’ve found a way to ride the information, and sharing it with you is why we’re all here.
