Zane Safrit

Bloggin' ain't all fun and games

If you want to be a blogger, you have to be a:

• copyright lawyer
• graphics designer
• Internet enthusiast
• writer
• investigative reporter or opinion columnist or both
• programmer
• network administrator
• Internet marketer
• social media maven

And you’ve got to do all that to even think about making money from a blog — i.e., be an entrepreneur. - Anita Campbell's This Blogging Stuff is Harder than It Looks

(Fortunately, Anita's not anything like the Associate Press. She appreciates when others link to her articles....Links to that story about AP's relations with blogs here, here and here.)

The Power of You (as measured and controlled by us)

Time-Warner announced their new metered-use internet service plan for the lucky residents of Beaumont, Texas. From TechCrunch.

Time-Warner's slogan now  is The power of you. After today, for the residents of Beaumont, it should say The Power of You (as measured and controlled by us).

The power of innovation that's been unleashed until now in the US with internet access is what's opened the doors to opportunities and startups and competition and innovation, regardless of locale. It's a level playing field that's benefited everyone. THAT's what's unleashed the power of you. And not a single corporate provider.

And now by limiting it, by controlling it and metering it ...they serve only to  control (stifle) this power of innovation and creativity and enterpreneurship...they seek to become the gatekeepers of small business, the jobs they create, our ability to compete globally...

Yeah, it is that big a deal, especially for small business, startups and small communities. You know, those places where over 50% of new jobs are created.

I'm blessed in many ways. One way is our community's commitment to bringing fiber to each home. 1/4 of the town has it now. We'll have ours later this summer. Let's measure the job growth in each town, Fairfield and Beaumont, over the next few years. For job growth, my money's on my town.

Ironically, not as in funny irony, but the kind of irony that makes you get...agitated, we've, all of us,  maybe already paid for fiber to the home. From TechDirt: You've Already Paid...

It's the relationships...

Another dustup on the blogosphere about new technologies, what's it mean, who's a blogger 1.0, 2.0, does Twitter signal the end blogging or of even writing in complete sentences with sometimes somewhat correct grammar...some claiming this is the end, the end, my friend....

I have to chuckle a bit. The fluttery, breathless, tone to the discussions, raises the concerns to an almost armaggedon-like level.

Here in our little town, the conversations have moved from KC Diner and Chuck's Grill up through the late 70's to Taylor's Off-Broadway Grill to gas station/convenience store combos and then to the coffee shops with excellent pastries. (You know a trend's peaking when it hits Fairfield.) Each is its own community with their preferences for coffees and pastries and company and conversations. Occassionally one community  member wanders over to another community. Then starts another dustup of worry and breathless titters that the former community may be coming to an end. What with the better croissants over at Revelations or the better, but infinitely slower coffee at Cafe Paradiso.

Some of the community 1.0 members worry that the town's changing...and it's all going to hell and donuts were just fine...to dunk in your Maxwell House coffee, thank you very much. But, soon they show up at 2nd Street Cafe for some machine-made capuccino and to see what free wireless is really about.

They, we, often end up telling the same stories from the same perspective, drawing the same conclusions. Some call it wisdom of the crowds or mob mentality, group think or peer pressure.

Just like on the blogosphere.

All the time the conversations just keep going. And they keep going for the same reasons conversations continue in the blogosphere. People want to talk. People like to differentiate themselves. People like to bond and find community. And the ebb and flow of all these resources and folks' passion for them  ...have enabled the conversation to be in new places as Louis Gray's post, Blogging 2.0 Causing Friction with 1.0 Bloggers points out.

And whether it's donuts and machine-made capuccino...or Friendfeed and 140-character blog posts, the only important element is that another media, medium, place, spot, resource, community...exists to continue to have the conversation and explore and create and think and argue and clarify.  And the opportunity to leave and find another pastry, real or virtual, continues to exist so we can differentiate, separate and form up again.

Social Networks: Rushing to grow up

2 trends caught my attention this week about social media and it's rapid rise through adolescence.

* Cross-Platform migration.  Google, Facebook and MySpace have all announced ( or will announce) in the past 3-4 days their own APIs that allow their members to pull their profiles onto 3rd-party sites with ...a click or two. - Three's company or Three's a Crowd from TechCrunch.

* Ok, time to personalize my social network. And now it's time to pursue your own unique identity. Chris Brogan points out the next phase of maturation: Social Networks: Time to Specialize.

Don’t stop at the basics. Don’t just give me another place to make a profile and add friends. It has to give me much more than that before I care. And I think I’m speaking for the user base in general at this point.

Consider what might really make the software valuable and useful. Consider ways in which your targeted users might want to interact. Specialize instead of generalize.

The social network community seems to at the point where everyone's reached out and gathered their friends together and celebrated their common interests. And that was great. And in that process we realize we also have very unique interests, talents, and possibilities open to us. And we want to explore them with people who share the same interests and goals and possibilities.   

Personally, I think the next wave of growth comes not from bringing  migrating your profile from one platform to another, along with your friends and pictures and faves and links. That's kinda Basics+, really. I think the next phase of social networks growth comes with what Chris is saying, when we push social media to provide ways in which WE might want to interact. Specialize around OUR interests instead of generalize around YOUR abilities.

Links from Twitter posts by Dave Winer and Chris Brogan.

Update, an hour later after I wrote everything above this line, here's how it'll all end. How Tech Wars End, by Dave Winer.

Things are moving fast.

Here's how to pitch me.

Paul Chaney from Conversational Marketing lays it out for PR firms, etal  on how's the best way for a PR firm to pitch me or any blogger on their project.

And he brings in added thoughts from a few other seasoned bloggers and their posts from...ahem, 2004. 4 years in blogging social media is essentially a generation, if not a lifetime, of learning.

So...somewhere, somehow, some of these tips and recommendations should be common practice now in the PR industry.

These aren't high-level skills we're talking about:  open-source coding tips or how to create RSS feeds simultaneously defending life and limb on public transportation and twittering about the event at the same time, shooting a video and uploading it to YouTube and checking your friendfeeds.... These are pretty straight-forward common-sense, common-courtesy tips for even the most basic email campaigns.

That is, if they're listening...

Exactly.

Paul's pretty polite about the whole thing unlike some others. I'm of two minds on the thing. I just shake my head, laugh darkly and mutter something in the privacy of my office. Besides bald heads, Paul and I share a dearth of such pitches.

However, our embrace-ratio would significantly increase (that's a good thing PR folks) if some of these tips in Paul's post, and others, were followed.

Ultimately, I think the marketplace will shake it out.

Tactics like public blacklists are the signs of a long-standing pattern of disrespect and a lack of communication. Personally, I like them. Call people out if they're not listening. People rarely remember the numerous times you were patient, kind, repititive, clear, consistent, logical, direct. Stop wasthing time. You've earned the moment. Put them in a web 2.0 version of public stocks where we can all hurl tomatoes at them and their communiques for an extended period, maybe until the next offender arrives.

Or maybe blog about them. I mean...the PR firm DID ask you to promote them...right? It's your blog and your time. You're not gettin' paid for it...

But remember, based on my experience, you look bad, mean and venal, for doing that. Justified, yes. Satisfied? Oh, yes, baby. But you look bad.

So, unless you want to look bad but feel satisfied, stop wasting time with them.

And in the meantime, set up an email rule for repeat offenders, ignore the others and let's get on with it.

Pretty soon those PR firms who can't get tricky social media norms, norms like common courtesy and personalized emails, will no longer generate results for their clients. While those that can embrace the idea of a few moments to research a blogger's interest and then tailor their pitch to them....will find more business than they can shake a string of twhirls at.

And we'll all be happy with that outcome.

(Satisfied...maybe. But definitely happy.)

Blogging coming to an end?

If the strategy is to be controversial then suggesting this is consistent:

At some point the word 'blogging' will be anachronistic. I communicate. If you say undifferentiated things that are expected, then you shouldn't expect anyone to care. - Jonathan Schwartz, CEO with Sun Microsystems, said at the Web 2.0 Expo here in San Francisco.

And if you say them with resources everyone uses then...no one's going to notice. But then...blogs and other social media, while seemingly universal to their member users, aren't ubiquitous...yet.

On the other hand...undifferentiated things are still said with resources everyone's familiar with and they're still being noticed. Think TV. Think MSM.

Granted, more differentiateds are noticed with more interesting resources. Think YouTube. Or blogs. And that's where the conversation is happening. This won't change. Whether it's called blogging or 'I communicating', that's where innovation will be happening. That's where change and connection and disruption and opportunity will be happening. That's where the future be happn'n, too.

Link from Webware.

Social Media Business Case: One Profile

Annie Mole's London's Underground's Blog.

From the article in Reuter's

A number of the private companies which do maintenance work on the 12 Tube lines that criss-cross London's Underground, have recognised her blog's powerful influence on commuters and have met Mole to clarify rumours and answer complaints, she said.

"They think what I'm doing is positive...they say it's a way for the public to see what actually goes on behind these lines that they would have never done without bloggers."

What happens when more people talk about you, using social media, in an open and transparent manner: You get a better experience, better communication, a better product, happier people. Not immediately, mind you. But first the conversation, then small steps and then you have a system, aka a conversation that's sustainable to make your business sustainable with the help of your customers and employees talking with each other. 

Blogging Tip: Write, write, write

THEN...edit, edit, edit.

First time bloggers often face writer's block at their first post. A possible great voice is stymied at the thought of...how to write it.  I know I faced it when I first started blogging. I face it regularly now. ( I as a blogger, not a great voice.)

The only way to get through that is it write, write, write. Then edit, edit, edit. I write until I get my head around what I'm really trying to say. Sometimes that happens in 20 words or less. Sometimes, I might need 4-500 words written first and THEN I realize what I'm trying to say.

But I, and you, will never get to that point unless you write, write, write. THEN edit, edit, edit.