Month: September 2011

Interlude: Meaningful Follow Fridays

Meaningful Follow FridayI like Follow Friday. It is nice to have some traditions in the constantly changing world of social media, and Follow Friday can sometimes be useful for discovering new people.

However, often it is not. It is in large part dominated by spammers and long lists of people. While I appreciate being mentioned in an #FF list, it is more like a minor compliment than a real suggestion to follow me, as I never bother clicking through all those names to find out more about them and I know most others do not either.

I know this is not brand new information. People have discussed the shortcomings of Follow Fridays almost as soon as the tradition began, and most things have been said multiple times already.

I still want to share the way I use #FF, because I enjoy it when I notice other people using it the same way and often check out people suggested this way:

  1. I always include some comments about the person I recommend.
  2. I only recommend one person or a related group of people each week. On some weeks, I might just skip the #FF entirely.

Here are my latest #FF tweets as a demonstration, and I suppose this promotes these people a little bit more as well:

#FF @torikyes – social media and technology; also infrequent but interesting blogger – ask her to blog more when following! (23 September 2011)

#FF @wittlake – writes about B2B marketing and social media; has a good head on his shoulders. (15 September 2011; I know it’s a Thursday.. Well, I know now that it’s a Thursday)

#FF @markwschaefer – One of the few daily bloggers who produces value on most days. He also practices what he preaches (in Tao of Twitter). (9 September 2011)

#FF @GrahamHill @ireneclng @SteveVargo – all three for their discussions on #SDLogic (2 September 2011)

Photo: Roger Price (cc)

Technorati token: MVQFB6SESAYC

 

Creating engaging social media guidelines

Creating engaging social media guidelinesThere seems to be a general consensus that companies need to have social media guidelines. The various guidelines share some common features, but also differ in many ways. In this post, I will examine the purpose of creating social media guidelines and try to identify key features that make social media guidelines engaging instead of just constraining. Continue reading “Creating engaging social media guidelines”

Interlude: The zombie argument for empowering your employees

Zombie argument for empowering your employeesPeople are a company’s most important asset. This is an often heard phrase, but in order for it to be more than lip service, those people should be empowered to do a good job.

One of the main reasons companies are unwilling to empower their employees to do a good job is fear. What will happen if a well-known expert leaves the company? Will people think less of the company then?

These fears are based on a mistaken premise. Everyone knows that people sometimes change employers. What makes a company look good, is a culture where great people are allowed to do a great job.

Hence, the zombie argument for empowering your employees:

You have these great people working for you, but if you don’t let them work their magic, you could just as well replace them with zombies.

Picture: Sweet Honey Pie (cc)

Interlude: Why would poor grammar make things better?

Why would poor grammar make things better?It is an often repeated mantra in social media that updates and blog posts should include the occasional typo and grammatical errors.

I’m sure they do, even properly edited books do, and I’m not suggesting that everyone needs to hire an editor for their blog.

But still, seriously, come on! Poorly written text is never more pleasant to read than well-written text. Quit praising it already!

I always proofread my blog posts. The results may still vary.

Why would poor grammar make things better?

Photo: Damien Ayers

Translating your blog, is there a good way to do it?

Is there a good way to translate a blog?Whereas English may at times seem prevalent online, the majority of people in the world do not speak it. Furthermore, only a small minority speak English as a native language. For all other languages, the audience figures look even worse, save perhaps for Chinese.

Therefore, providing content for people in their native language is an attractive idea for many bloggers and companies. A static website can be translated, no problem, but what about a blog, with comments and all? Continue reading “Translating your blog, is there a good way to do it?”

A Millian framework for deciding what to share online

Some books from my personal Mill libraryAs the online world becomes even more deeply integrated into our everyday lives, everyone needs to think through what exactly they should be sharing online and where to draw the line.

I have been thinking about this issue by taking John Stuart Mill’s views on the freedom of speech and action as a basis. His famous harm principle, formulated in On Liberty (1859), argues that “the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection” (On Liberty, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill (CW), volume XVIII, p. 223). Continue reading “A Millian framework for deciding what to share online”