Once you realize the extent of Google Reader’s ability to consume more Blog and Feed Content than ever before, the next question is…

Where do I find the best blogs to follow?

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.

Think of it as one big gigantic research tool.

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!

If you want to be on the leading edge,

Google Reader is the tool to get & keep you there.

In 1999 a lot of things happened.  Some predicted the world was going to end and no doubt several rock bands had mega hits that are now just overplayed remnants from our past.  It was also the year that The Matrix came out.

A sci fi movie that really broke the mold on reality, both mentally and with killer special effects.  If you haven’t seen it, then you should pick it up at the local movie rental store (if you can still find one) or just add it to your NetFlix queue.

No seriously, if you haven’t seen it- the rest of this will both 1.) not make sense and 2.) spoil the whole movie.  Go bake some popcorn over the fireplace, watch the movie and report back ASAP.

Warnings aside- one of the main concepts in the movie was the idea of plugging into the Matrix. That life was run by an

The Matrix: Streaming data is our friend.

immense computer program and the result of it was a HUGE amount of streaming data.  You could say it’s similiar to a stock ticker on speed, or an Amp Energy drink.

Only by “plugging in” could one access the data stream and basically know what the heck is going on. Yes heck, darnit!

Some folks got really good at staring at a computer screen and reading the cryptic symbols.  But those guys lived on oatmeal that tasted like Tasty Wheat and got chased by spider looking death robots.

As for me, I elect to plug into the Matrix using Google Reader.  The best part is that you create your own Matrix. We can go branding crazy and call it the Mini Matrix, Me Matrix, or shoot, how about Metrix.  The point is that:

We don’t have to read the daily newspaper and learn about what

someone feels is most important anymore.

You are your own Editor-in-Chief.

Using your Google Account (created by getting a free Gmail account) you already have access to a free Google Reader account.

Go to http://www.google.com/reader/ and log in with the username/password for your Gmail. You’re in!

You’ll see several posts in your new Google Reader account. Read them.

They will highlight key features, such as the ability to simply scroll by an article and Reader (it’s cool to drop the “Google” for this one) will mark it as “read.”  You won’t see it again, freeing up your attention for new fresh articles

everytime you log in.

Welcome to your Matrix. Only there isn’t any information streaming by just yet- you need to add your sources!  Finding awesome blogs and sources of information for your Reader Matrix is definitely worth it’s own post.

But I wouldn’t give you the Keys to the Universe and not let you start taking her for a spin.

I’ll give you the first method for adding content to Reader: Subscribing to RSS feeds. (What’s an RSS Feed?)  If you look at the left margin of this blog, you’ll see an RSS button- if you click it you can subscribe to this blog.  But it’s no longer 1999, so I’ll make it easy for you.  Here’s the button and link to this blog’s RSS feed:

Once you click the orange RSS Feed button, you’ll see plenty of subscription options, including:

Click on that button to add this blog’s feed to your Reader.

On the next screen, Google offers you two choices.  Pick “Google Reader” naturally.

Finally back at your Reader screen, be sure to confirm the subscription and you’re done!

You can repete these steps for any blog, news portal, and website with an RSS feed.  My parting words for you as you begin to explore this tool and build you Matrix- add whatever interests you to your Reader and worry about refining your feeds later.  For now you want to build a mighty personal Matrix.  It can be overwelming, but I will help you focus your reading and pair it down to a mangeable level in later posts.

Go plug in! You’ve truly started to Waterski the Web!

Twitter recently released Lists,
allowing you to organize the people you follow into groups.

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

Yeah! Hooray! Yehaw! Huzzah.

Lists work great, they’re fine and dandy.

The real topic of this post is not the Lists themselves, but the effect they may have on the way people use Twitter.

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).

More is Less

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.

There are 3 things that have caused me to recently shift my view of the best practice for following:

• Twitter’s introduction of Lists
• Many colleagues and peers with large numbers of followers/follows.
• My adoption of Google Reader for reading RSS Feeds.

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!