Insights

A Tale of Two Twitters

It’s been quite a few days for social networking site Twitter.

Many users are up in arms about a recent change that Twitter implemented regarding replies to other users.

I’ll be the first to admit that, originally, I thought it was a major overreaction on the part of the users who were complaining the loudest. After all, the problem stemmed from something that was never a part of Twitter’s original toolset.

So, to take the stance that a lot of users were taking (abuse and bile directed at the Twitter team being just part of the response) seemed an ineffective way to try and make a point.

There are still people doing that, and I don’t think it helps the situation. But that’s by the by. What is clear now is that there are two very distinct sides to this situation, and both have merit.

Twitter Is Right

The reasoning behind Twitter’s “meddling” with the reply system is that it can be confusing. They discussed this very topic over a year ago on their blog – unless you’re up to speed on Twitter’s kinks and terminology, it can be a very confusing place. Hashtags, @’s, RT’s and? tweetchats are just some of the idiosyncrasies that await users.

As Twitter looks to find the model it needs to succeed from a business point of view – and it is still primarily a business model in progress – it needs to be as accessible and as easy to use for the majority as possible. This means having less confusion, which Twitter thought the reply system caused.

Cue the amendment and subsequent Twitter user backlash.

Twitter is Wrong

One of the effects that the new Twitter reply system has had is that it’s effectively blacked out the feed of many Twitter users. Whereas before you could see a friend’s conversation to another user even if you weren’t following that other user, now you no longer have that luxury.

So this means that users that only follow a small amount of other users will have a very barren feed. This was pointed out really well to me by one of my closest people on Twitter, and something I may not have realized initially (sorry, Freddly!).

So, instead of seeing all the conversations that I’m having with everyone I’m connected to (and possibly checking them out as well), Freddly can only see the conversation if it’s to someone she mutually follows. This is where the new Twitter reply option is letting users down.

Those of us with a lot of connections will be fine – others, not so much.

Endgame

So, what’s the solution? There are a lot of angry people around, and this is leading to a lot of friction on both sides. The pro-change camp say that you can still find new people using the search option, and if you don’t hit the Reply button then everyone following you will see the message.

The anti-change camp suggest that it’s nothing less than censorship and that Twitter is bowing down to the celebrities and post-Oprah crowd. They suggest boycotting Twitter until the old reply function is reinstalled.

Twitter, for their part, are listening to the criticism (constructive and otherwise) and trying to appease users with halfway house solutions.

Bloggers are sharing their views, some calmly and sensibly, others not so much. It’s a touchy subject and one that’s causing a lot of heat in the Twitter feeds.

From my own perspective, it doesn’t affect me as much as it may others. The people I’m connected with and converse with are mostly mutual connections to others, so the conversation hasn’t really been affected on my feed.

But, I can see why this isn’t the case for people like Freddly, and on that count, Twitter seems to have messed up a key part of the user experience. It’s clear to see that there’s some major work ahead for Twitter to try and satisfy both camps.

In the meantime, though, I’m not sure if the mob mentality will help or hinder this process. And seeing some of the Twitter power users asking “Social Media or Social Control?” seems sensationalist.

How about you? What’s your take and where does Twitter go from here?

photo credit: Archie McPhee Seattle

Availability Factor Ten

I’m not too keen on using this blog as an advertisement. It’s one of the reasons you don’t see any affiliate banners, badges or sponsored posts. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that – it’s just not for me.

Today, I need to change this. But don’t worry – it’s just a one-off, so hope you don’t mind too much.

A little back story. I’m in Canada, having arrived here Christmas 2006. I applied for my residency and it’s been a nightmare from start to finish. Delays between the UK and the Canadian government departments talking to each other meant expired paperwork and medical reports that I then had to go through again.

This week, I learned that my residency application had been denied, because they hadn’t received my updated medical report. Despite me paying $200 last year for the privilege of a government recommended doctor to examine me. You can imagine I’m a little galled, and both the government and doctor will be hearing from me quite sharply.

Jump forward a little. I’ve put the appeal letter in and advised that the medical was carried out, confirmed, and sent off. So, get your asses in gear, official paper shufflers.

This is where my advertising comes in.

Because I am now still classed as a visitor, I can’t work in an employed capability (even though I have a temporary Canadian tax number). And despite the fact I have had companies interested in employing me. So, it’s back to contractor status.

So here’s the deal. I am currently available if you have any projects you wish me to look at with you. I’m currently working on a long-term project but have room for a few more.

If you know me from online, you might have an idea of what I can do. If not, you can find details here. If you’re looking to build your awareness, let’s talk. If you don’t need any projects at the minute but know someone that does, feel free to send my way. Here’s my bio, if that helps.

Like I said at the beginning, I don’t like advertising on this blog, so I hope you’ll allow me this one particular ad.

Thanks for listening, guys, appreciate it.

photo credit: Curtis Gregory Perry

Translation Marketing

Jump of the Cliff When you’re selling something, how do you do it? Are you keeping it simple or are you overselling?

In other words, are you using translation marketing or not?

In his post today, Chris Brogan discusses the sales cycle and where social media fits into it. Prospects, awareness, leads, customers and evangelists. All great stuff and well worth reading. But that’s internal talk. Yes, the aim is to take that internal talk and transfer it to external listeners.

But when you’re trying to grab these external listeners, are you talking their language or double Dutch?

Marketing seems to have gone through a metamorphis over the last few years. More are trying to be clever with their message – unfortunately, many are coming across as too clever and the message is being lost.

Nothing needs to be complicated. People by nature are simple. We like simple things. Confusion might be fun in a mystery movie or a game of Cluedo. But when it comes to businesses marketing to us, confusion just turns us off you and onto your competitors.

Yet it doesn’t need to be this way.

The Like Factor

Years ago, when I first got into marketing, one of my mentors taught me about The Like Factor. It was a pretty straightforward concept and one I’m sure was widely used. Maybe it still is today, but I’ve seen few examples if it is.

People are more comfortable when they relate to something. Personal experiences tell us whether we like something or not. So use that and turn The Like Factor into your own translation marketing so we don’t have to translate your message.

Compare these two messages:

“It is important to manage the performance and availability of your critical Web applications to deliver consistently superior services aligned with your business goals. Meeting this challenge requires a new approach to application performance management, where IT becomes a strategic service provider and an innovation partner of the business organization.”

“You know that feeling you get when you go out and you can’t remember whether you turned off the gas or not? We’ll be the guys that make sure your gas is looked after in your IT kitchen.”

They’re the same message aimed at the same people – IT managers. The first one is a marketing spiel given by an IT provider, the second is something I just came up with to use translation marketing.

You’re the customer. Which one would you relate to more? Do you prefer marketing talk or translation marketing?

photo credit: greg321

Better Blogging and Community Spirit with Scribnia

A little while back, I shared some tools with you that I thought helped enhance the community spirit for bloggers.? One of those tools was Scribnia, which I described as your “personal feed recommendation”. Having sat down with it a little more since then, it’s clear that it’s a lot more than that.

At its simplest, Scribnia allows members to find blogs and authors and rate them. So far, so what? After all, BlogCatalog offers the same feature with their star rating system.

This is where Scribnia separates itself from much of the pack, by using “contextual ratings”. Instead of just rating a blog between one and five stars, you have three slide bars to choose from: the contextual ratings system. The context of the blog defines what rating descriptions you can use.

For example, if you were to review my blog on Scribnia, the contextual ratings you’d be offered are Technology, Approach and Radicalness:

Technology – are my posts on marketing targeting e-marketing or print and billboard campaigns and companies
Approach – do I tend to offer more low budget or high budget solutions
Radicalness – are my views mainstream or radical

You then use a slider for each one and offer the higher score to the rating that suits me best for each context. It’s a novel way of letting other readers know at a glance what a blogger or author’s writing style is like. So far, people see me as more e-marketing, lower budget and a bit of a radical – I can live with that!

But as cool as their contextual ratings system is, Scribnia is really about building transparency, trust and community for bloggers and authors, by offering honest reviews. You’ll also find some great new writers and blogs you may have missed – something I’m all for.

Once you register for an account at Scribnia, you can either add your own blog or browse the authors and publications that are already on the site. To make it easier, you can browse by categories or niches. Then you can start reviewing your favourite bloggers and give them a wider audience.

What’s really cool about Scribnia is that you can actually add your favourite bloggers if they’re not already there. Simply fill out the details needed in the Add an Author section, hit submit and that blogger you feel deserves a wider audience is there in front of Scribnia’s members.

Another nice feature once you’re on your Scribnia homepage is the Suggested Users to Follow box.

As the term suggests, this shows you other Scribnia members that have similar tastes to you. Normally these kind of things are just token little add-ons to fill out your admin area.

With Scribnia, however, it does seem to work pretty well.

The system recommeded members to me whose favourite authors were Chris Brogan and Jennifer Schaeffer – two people I read quite a bit.

So far, I have to say that I’m impressed with Scribnia.

It’s bringing new bloggers to a wider audience; its rating system is encouraging you to write to a higher level each time; and it really does foster a sense of blogging community.

What more could you want? How about trying it yourself to see?

For tonight and tomorrow only, the good folks at Scribnia have opened up the Alpha site for readers of this blog. All you need to do is create your account and then when it asks for the Alpha password, type in “dannybrown” without the quotation marks.

You can then use the site’s features or write a review. Feel free to add your review of this blog – or just drop by and say hello. You’ll find me right here.

Note: This review of Scribnia is not an endorsement. I mentioned to David Spinks (the community manager at Scribnia) that I was writing a follow-up post to my initial mini-review and he kindly arranged the alpha pass for my readers.

Virtual Stalking – A Real World Problem for Social Media

Social media is great. Social media brings people together. Social media opens the conversation. Social media puts you in the eyes of the world. Social media gives you a voice.

All true. All valid. All beneficial.

But what happens when the eyes that social media puts you in front of aren’t the friendly kind? What happens when being transparent in social media opens you up to harassment, abuse and virtual stalking?

Sadly it’s a very real problem. Even sadder, some of the social networks seem very slow to react to this problem. Does this mean they’re not taking it seriously, and if so, will virtual stalking be the straw that potentially breaks the social media camel’s back?

Online Friend? Case Study

People are friendly by nature. We want to connect and meet others – it’s in our genetic make-up. The last few years have made this easier than ever.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Ning, MySpace, Friendfeed and more open up the world to us. Our blogs are our own private community in a public setting. Online forums and chat rooms mean there’s no such thing as physical walls or barriers.

Which makes targeting someone easier.

Karen* is a blogger who owns her own business and also runs a Moms community online. It allows other bloggers to take part in community discussions, write, sell and buy products and generally acts just as an offline community would.

Last year, she invited a new girl to join the community. For Karen, this is what happened next:

Her business was reported as unethical and fraudulent on Ripoff Report
The girl set up fake social network accounts to spread lies about Karen’s business
Karen is followed on every network and forum by the girl, who publishes false information on Karen and her business

These are just some of the ways Karen has been targeted.

Why doesn’t she have the lies taken down from Ripoff Report or contact the police? Unfortunately, the owner of Ripoff Report Ed Magedson seems more interested in traffic to his site than actual facts being reported.

I’ve written about why Ripoff Report is just as big a ripoff before, and the fact that the site won’t take down old reports says it all about their integrity.

As far as Karen reporting her stalker to the police, she’s more afraid for her little girl’s safety as well as the continued anguish cross-state law cases would cause. The cost is prohibitive as well.

Karen isn’t the only example. On Twitter, I’ve seen first-hand examples of guys throwing sexual abuse at female users, with graphic descriptions of what they’d like to do to the user. I’ve seen other users bombard accounts with profanity, racial slurs and more.

I know that these cases have been reported to Twitter’s support team and nothing’s been done about the abuser, who instead continues to add new people to their account to abuse further. This says a? lot about the customer service support that sites like Twitter has. Or doesn’t, as is abundantly clear.

We’ve also read the stories about suicides from MySpace bullying and Facebook groups spreading malicious and hurtful lies.

So what’s the answer? Some people have suggested that the very transparency that is advocated on social media is part of the problem. By offering too much information, we’re feeding the abusers and the harassers and the stalkers.

Is this true? Can our openness be used as an excuse for virtual abuse? Personally I don’t buy into that argument. I can see why it’s suggested but no excuse can make up for the type of mental anguish people are put through for being honest.

I don’t have the solution. But there are questions that can be asked to work toward a solution.

Do we make it more difficult than just signing up with a false email account? Should social networks be more pro-active at responding to reports of abuse? Can we as a community highlight and name and shame abusers?

Websites like Jodi’s Voice help raise awareness but they’re currently the few among the many abusers.

Like I said, I don’t have the solution. It’s clear that one is needed though, before the likes of Karen and others like her become another real-life statistic from a virtual hate campaign.

Ideas?

* Karen is a pseudonym to protect the real identity of the person behind her. Her stalker has admitted to Karen that it’s jealousy behind her hate campaign. It’s still continuing today.

photo credit: Dude Crush