Here are some highlights of the busy two-day schedule:

Thursday

Keynote: Riding the Digital Wave
Curtis Marvis, President of Digital Media, Lionsgate, reveals how film studios are getting into the business of tackling the digital space. Learn about the creation of the Weeds Social Club and the Dirty Dancing Social Game, which became the #2 fastest growing facebook game in the world within two weeks of its launch.

Youtube: How to Engage Audiences Online–Brian Glick
From desktop to mobile to living rooms, online video has become a daily presence in our lives, viewable wherever you have a screen. Some online creators now have audiences larger than most television networks. What are they doing? How is online video altering audience engagement and how is YouTube keeping up to speed in the rapidly evolving landscape? How can we partner with YouTube to make most of our online presence?

The Canucks Showcase–Creative Kudos
We celebrate Canucks in the limelight. (Evan Jones) Stitch Media, (Michael Fergusson) Ayogo, (David Gratton) Work-at-Play, (Sean Embury) Fulscrn & (Sandy Fleischer) Dare are among some of the top Canadian companies producing cross-media projects that have won international awards and recognition at SXSW and other Canadian Festivals. What have they done to deserve this recognition?

Friday

Related posts:

1. Merging Media 2011 (as reviewed by @anabellebf)
2. On the relationship between mainsteam media, social media and academia 1: Mainstream media and social media’s complex relationship
3. On authenticity in social media

What gets me is that I have preached to anyone who would listen to me since, at least early 2008, that it was important to value liveblogging as a skill and that we should not devalue it by giving it away for free. With the transformation of mainstream media and how it now necessitates to adapt to the fast-paced, changing world of social media and instantaneous news delivery, mainstream media organizations now realize that they NEED to have someone who is a good liveblogger. AND PAY FOR IT.

It amazes me that things that we’ve been routinely doing for a long while now (and that I’ve preached for a long time) are now being seen as a “trend of the future”. Really? With the advent of social media, content curation, content creation and liveblogging should be valued EVEN MORE. I would rather read a good liveblog than a poorly curated livestream of tweets. Right now I can totally see how much Minna is struggling to curate the live tweets of Freelance Camp Vancouver 2011. It probably would have made sense to have the sessions liveblogged.

Hopefully people will catch on to the fact that good copy writers, excellent content curators and brilliant livebloggers are scarce. And that if brands and corporations and companies need good content (to digest and consume or to publish) they will need to pay for it.

Related posts:

1. Digital media content creation – impromptu meetups :) – NDMD ’08
2. Liveblogging vs. live-tweeting in social media events
3. Review – CoverItLive as a tool for liveblogging

Related posts:

1. Guest post: What’s so great about bloggers? by Simon Ogden
2. 4 additional thoughts on pitching bloggers and online influencers
3. EPIC ’08 – Simon Jackson: The evolution of a sustainability leader

A few months ago, we hosted the organizers of Coop Culture (and of #NetCulture) at The Network Hub in their inaugural meetings. On April 5th, #NetCulture: Stories of Culture and Diversity in Social Media takes place. The organizers have assembled a great line-up of local speakers from Vancouver’s diverse ethnic communities to share how they use social media tools like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to explore and define their cultural identities.

I’m thrilled to see that many of the #NetCulture speakers are also immigrants to Canada (and many of them are friends of mine) —including LatinCouver.ca’s Paola V. Murillo and Norma Ibarra, my friends Jay Catalan (cofounder of The Network Hub) and Rafael Aquino, DDB Canada’s Veronica Heringer and Ajay Puri’s own father, Ashok Puri (AKA Papa Puri).

So why #NETCULTURE: Stories of Culture and Diversity in Social Media?

Stories connect us to each other, our cultures, and the world. Come and hear from inspiring local speakers reflecting our culturally diverse communities who will show how social media has helped them strengthen their identities, roots and friendships. How can Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other tools help you do the same? Ask the speakers in this interactive session. Afterwards, meet community leaders and social media activists at the after-party where we can continue the conversation.

MAIN EVENT
The event’s keynote speaker is Kety Esquivel, a well-known advocate for the Latino community and VP of Digital Strategy at Ogilvy Public Relations. She will be joining the event via Skype.

Following a short entertainment break, six sets of local speakers will share their unique, personal stories:

Veronica Heringer | DDB Canada
Ray Hsu + Zi-Ann Lum | Way Too Azn 

Jordana Mah | Schema Magazine

Rafael Aquino + Jay Catalan | Tulayan

Norma Ibarra + Paola V Murillo | Latincouver

Ashok Puri | Retiree + World Traveller

#NetCulture: Stories of Culture and Diversity in Social Media is a free event co-sponsored by the VPL, Net Tuesday Vancouver and Cooperative Culture.

AFTER-PARTY
The after-party will take place after 9PM at the Kingston Tap House in the WREC Room where food and beverages will be available by donation. All proceeds go to support #NetCulture and future events.

EVENT AND REGISTRATION DETAILS

Main Event – 
Tuesday, April 5, 2011- 
7-9PM – 
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch
Registration link here.

After-Party

Tuesday, April 5, 2011 – 
9PM onwards – 
Kingston Taphouse and Grille
Registration link here.

Please note that attendees will need to register separately for the Main Event and the After-Party. I hope many of you will attend because this is a fantastic event worthy of attending. And even more – IT’S FREE.

Related posts:

1. Where is the diversity in social media conferences?
2. On being jaded with social media for social change
3. Vancouver NetTuesday April 2009 – Mini Social Media Camp for Nonprofits & Other Do Gooders!

Spend at least 30 minutes a day replying to @ mentions or promoting someone else’s blog or retweet someone

I have to say that’s perhaps one of the things I enjoy the most – retweeting. Naturally, I do promote my own posts, hence why I schedule a few tweets indicating to my Twitter followers that I’ve posted on my blog something that I think will be useful to them. But for the most part, you’ll see me retweeting stuff All The Time.

I find that while retweeting itself does not build community directly (or alone), it does help build the online relationships that you can then take offline and build a strong network of supporters. My tweets are frequently retweeted and even though it takes a lot of me to thank people individually, I do make a point to say “hey thanks for that retweet” (I will fully confess that in the past weeks, the number of retweets that I have gotten has been so large that I have been remiss in thanking people individually – same with the Follow Friday mentions).

So if I may give you a piece of unsolicited advice, follow Scott’s advice and spend some time promoting other people’s posts. It’s good karma, and it feels good (at least for me!).

Related posts:

1. Does retweeting build community online? Twitter as a real social media platform?
2. Build a blog entry around a photograph (Blogging 201)
3. Retweeting, contests and social media etiquette

I don’t actually make money out of writing for Hummingbird604.com. I don’t even do professional web development. Blogging on Hummingbird604.com is a labor of love. But one that is taking discipline for me, and for which I budget my (rather scarce) time. Given that I committed in the past 2 years to have both of my lives full time, I need to schedule myself to the minute. And I most certainly book time for dealing with blog-related matters.

I recently did an exercise where I monitored the time I spend on social media/blogging matters (purely the website, forget about the volunteering activities I do that are related/associated with social media). On a Sunday morning, I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes writing 4 blog posts (I only had Flickr photos available on my own stream for 2 of them, and I had to search my own website to find relevant cross-links). I spent 30 minutes connecting people with each other and crafting emails. I spent 15 minutes checking Twitter and having conversations. And I focused on each of the above tasks individually. On top of that, I have to liaise with PR folks, read press releases, write the post, make it pretty, communicate with winners, promote my posts on Twitter and Facebook. It’s A LOT OF WORK.

Do I expect to be paid for my blogging? You know, almost 5 years into it, I’m not quite sure. I do know for sure I want to continue doing it, and I take it so seriously that I do all the above indicated activities ON TOP of my consulting/academic activities. My friend Derek K. Miller wrote a rather compelling post a few years ago on whether blogging can bring you income. But more importantly, I found what Derek said and what my friend Arieanna Schweber commented on that post extremely applicable to my case (both quotes are taken from the same post I linked above):

Arieanna:

And yes, I can say emphatically that blogging for a living is a LOT of work. You are *never* done your work. Whether it’s finding more stuff to post, checking on comments, promoting, or reading feeds, there is always something more you can do. As your sites grow, they become more work to maintain, and you have more social obligation to update them each and every day. I work way too much – but I do love what I do.

Derek:

If you look at blogs that are popular enough to pay people’s salaries [...] they tend to be very focused and updated many times a day. They often attract lots of comments, which require moderation and feedback, and their posts tend to be well sourced or individually researched, and also well written and concise. In many cases, the words are carefully crafted to attract search engine traffic, and the blogger may spend quite a bit of time writing about things he or she isn’t all that interested in, or at least (as in any job) may have days where the job is just a slog, rather than a joy. Money-generating blogs take a lot of effort, skill, and time to maintain. They’re work.

Blogging on Hummingbird604.com attracts A LOT of traffic and comments, and it’s hard work to maintain a high-quality blog (modesty does not become me, does it now?). But damn, do I ever love it. I absolutely enjoy writing, sharing my story with the world, showcasing food, arts, travel destinations. Even if it’s not direct income, the fact that I take blogging seriously as hard work (and that I put in the long hours that come with it) is giving me A LOT OF SATISFACTION.

That’s why I keep doing it.

Related posts:

1. Taking my blogging as a job
2. Blogging 201 Reconnect with old blogging friends
3. Use an offline blogging tool (Blogging 201)

I don’t know who is teaching the newbies in the social media world in British Columbia, but whoever it is is about to get an earful from me (and an unfollow as well). Automated direct messages that say “thanks for the follow” must cease to exist. While some folks in the social media world may find them engaging, I find them annoying and generating absolutely zero engagement. Moreover, what happens whenever I get one of those automated DMs (direct messages) is that I unfollow that account immediately. It’s about as annoying as the “please follow me so I can DM you”. Uh, no, sorry. I’ve made it clear why I hate DMs. If I hate DMs as they are, can you imagine how much I hate automated DMs? As I have tweeted frequently:

An automated DM sends you directly to my unfollow list, fast than a rock in still water

Please, everyone, stop this annoying, disrespectful practice. RIGHT NOW.

Related posts:

1. Do you follow routines?
2. Tip # 8 – Listen to your Circadian cycles and follow them
3. Social networks, LinkedIn and our professional lives

In the almost five years I’ve been fully immersed in the social media world (not only in Vancouver and British Columbia but worldwide, as I have built an online network that reaches beyond the confines of Canada and into the United Kingdom, Brazil, the United States, and other parts of Europe), I have grown to hear terms such as “community manager” and I almost shudder at the mention.

It’s hard for me to fathom the role of ‘Community Manager’ without feeling that it is some sort of reified notion (see the definition for reification I am using here). In a way, anyone who builds and grows a community organically IS a Community Manager. Whether this community is online or offline, whether you are getting paid for it or not, if you build and grow and maintain the networks and relationships required to build a community, for me you ARE a community manager.

Maybe it’s because I have actual graduate training in sociology, because for me the term ‘community’ is somewhat sacred (talk about reification!), I feel a bit uncomfortable with International Community Manager Appreciation Day. I heard about CMAD via Jeremiah Owyang, and I think my friend Kris Krug was looking to organize an event for today in Vancouver for CMAD.

All of the above said, I think it’s important to acknowledge those people who build communities, and if CMAD is the right vehicle, so be it. So, Happy International Community Manager Appreciation Day!

Related posts:

1. A quick word of appreciation to the theatre community in Vancouver
2. Building an Online Community with WordPress (aka Blogging 101)
3. Vancouver bloggers – building a community?

I have been thinking of putting together a full-fledged page on “My Rules of Engagement” (e.g. my criteria for following, my rules of commenting, etc.). But I really don’t have the time, and I think there many rules I have, so it’d take me a while to put together. All of the above said, there is ONE thing that is, and continues to be my eternal pet peeve – the direct message. I hate them. I hate them SO much. And for so many reasons.

Primarily, because it makes a really bad assumption – that I am going to read it, because, “obviously, I’m on Twitter all the time” (I am not, you see – right now, I pre-schedule my tweets much more than I used to last year).

First off, I recognize that I don’t follow everyone back. I don’t have the brain capacity to do so. I follow about 650 people and that’s about 500 too many. And the problem is, I do follow some “DM-happy people”. You know, those who send DMs for just about everything. I have been THIS close to unfollowing them all. There’s only about 10 people in the whole world whose DMs I pay attention to. The rest, I ignore.

There are many types of DM that I really dislike, and some that I do enjoy. I dislike DMs that ask me stuff that can be public. “How are you doing?” is not precisely something that needs to be hidden from the world. “Thank you for that retweet” is not something that needs to be hidden from the world. But, seriously – do you need to thank people in private? As my parents taught me, scold people in private, praise or thank them in public. If you were asking me “I heard that you have been feeling depressed, are you ok?” by direct message, sure (and even then, I’m so terribly public most likely I wouldn’t mind if you asked me by @ mention). Or if you are feeling down, of course I’ll respect your privacy. Or stuff that is just between you and I, and that is really private. For example, if you really didn’t like someone’s behavior with regards to how they treated you. That’s confidential, and personal. We can talk about that via DM.

Lots of people think “well, Raul, there are so many things that can be resolved so fast via a very quick DM“. That’s not true. If you have access to my DMs (e.g. if I follow you), in all likelihood you have my cell number. Which means, you can text me. Which means, I’ll get it pretty much instantaneously because, contrary to Twitter, I *do* carry my cell phone EVERYWHERE. AND I can respond to you pretty much immediately.

I know, I have my rules, my quirks and I know that many people get annoyed by them. So be it. If you want to reach me, there’s my contact form, there’s email, there’s a text. Heck, there’s even a public @ reply. But DMs, I really, really don’t need to clog my DM inbox. Plus, can you imagine if Wikileaks released my DMs to the public? There would be a diplomatic debacle!

PS – Before anybody thinks that this note is aimed at anyone in particular, IT’S NOT. My beef with DMs and DM-ing stuff that can be public has been publicized widely, both on Twitter and here on my blog.

At that time, I posted:

I am fiercely protective of my email (I receive hundreds of them) and of my DMs. I find direct messages, intensely private. Because I live such a public life (and because I don’t give a damn if people think I clog their feeds – after all, it’s their choice to follow me, and being too noisy on Twitter is one of the characteristics that define me), I use DMs only, and only ever when I am saying something that REALLY needs to be private. Otherwise, I live (as my friend Chris Walts says) on my @ replies tab.

When I follow someone, I give them access the capability to send me a direct message. I hope and expect that they are judicious in their use of DMs. This may sound awful, elitist, snobbish or whatever. But it’s how I feel. I don’t force anyone to follow me. But when I choose to follow someone, I choose to give them access to the possibility of telling me stuff in private that they might not want to have on public streams (and that is of very confidential nature!). I trust them, and implicitly, I expect them in return to make the best use of that access.

I also unfollow most people who unfollow me not out of a “THERE, if you unfollowed me, I can unfollow you too”. I unfollow them to remove their ability to send me a private message. It puts us back again on an equal ground.

One of the reasons why I spend SO MUCH TIME on Twitter is responding @ replies, and I try to make a point to respond to each and every one, because I feel that, even if I don’t give everyone access to my private DMs, I give everyone equal access to a conversation with me.

Related posts:

1. The things I hate the most
2. I hate MSN, however useful it may be

I was recently contacted by a very close friend of mine whom we will call the Photo Credit Police for purposes of this post. My good friend indicated that I had not provided credit ON THE BLOG POST, even though I was linking back to the original photo on Flickr and there, I filled a complete credit line. I’m glad my friend caught that, as I agree with this viewpoint. I’m not perfect, and even though I do think that I am a pretty damn fine blogger, I could perhaps improve on my practices. So I will be going back on my posts trying to catch where I did not provide credit on the blog post.

I will also continue with my extensively long disclosure statements. Why? Because I think I need to be one of the people at the forefront. If I am to be considered a power blogger, then I need to hold myself to high standards. And for 99.99% of the time, I think I hold myself to really high standards. But I must set the example, so I’ll make damn sure that I provide credit ON the blog post IN ADDITION to on the Flickr upload. If you see photos that are not credited (and you are 100% sure that they are not mine) then do let me know and I’ll fix it.

Related posts:

1. Blogging as a learning exercise (Blogging 201)
2. Blogging about blogging, Twittering about Twitter…
3. Schedule your posts throughout the week (Blogging 201)

Anybody who knows me well knows that I’m always skeptical of anything that looks or smell like a fad (did anyone say Google Buzz? or Formspring?). Given my social media activities, I’m always exploring new platforms, knowledge sources, etc. But I’m not a bandwagon-jumper. Thus, despite the recent hype on Quora, I haven’t joined. I’m very wary of following an overwhelming stream of content, and thus, I’m pondering whether to join Quora.

So, those of you who DID join Quora – why did you do it? What are the advantages you see in it?

Related posts:

1. Practice what you preach in the social media field
2. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
3. Persuade Me: Why and how should I join Facebook?

In 2011, please reconsider your Foursquare-to-Twitter behaviour. In the little impromptu poll I did on whether people found value from Foursquare tweets, the vast minority were saying “yes, I find value”. And those who do find value, it’s because the tweeter in question provides additional context within the Foursquare check-in.

Related posts:

1. On the uselessness of Foursquare and Gowalla
2. New to Twitter? Use a Twitter client
3. The Twitter lost followers

July 2010

- Isabella and I organized again Mental Health Camp Vancouver 2010, and helped with suggestions and feedback to Mental Health Camp Toronto. We were attacked online (as were some of the speakers) but as I said before, I would do it again. Stigma around mental health is still enormous and if MHC helped at least one person, I’m happy enough. If you want to read what I went through that month you can click here.

August 2010

- I made a conscious decision to cover Pride Vancouver 2010 (given that my blog is considered fairly mainstream, and that I feel a responsibility to the community) as well as the Vancouver Queer Film Festival (and I gave away tickets too. I met some fantastic folks in the GLBT community in Vancouver, without forgetting any I hope, the kids at V-Rag Magazine (Skipp and Cole), Homorazzi (Patrick and Tyrell), GayVancouver.net (Mark and David), Sean Horlor (Xtra West), Jay (who did the tweeting for VQFF), Brian Webb, and many more. I felt incredibly honored to share this time with all of these folks. Plus I got to be on the CiTR float thanks to Caroline McGillivray.

- I also covered and sponsored as media the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival (thanks Veronica Heringer). I had been disconnected from the Latin American community and 2010 was the year when I reconnected. And very glad and proud I did.

- I was invited to the exclusive VIP reception for the end of filming Conviction Kitchen (thanks Alex Lee-Behan and Janis Behan). And of course I got to chat with several local Vancouver TV and film stars, including Sebastian Spence. And to hang out with my friends Erin Ireland and Dawn Chubai.

September 2010

- In addition to being the most important month of the year (it’s my birthday on the 19th), it was a fantastic month because for the first time, my birthday trended on Twitter in Canada (also, there were hundreds and hundreds of birthday wishes). It was very heartwarming.

- I got to be a Living Book at UBC, which was great. I got to showcase all of my facets. And the invite got to me not because I’m a faculty member at UBC, but because I’m popular on social media platforms. Go me.

- I also wrote a “this is what I accomplished in the past 12 months” post which was incomplete, because there’s always something I forgot to write.

October 2010

- I gave an actual academic talk on social networking and environmental transnational movements at Social Media Camp Victoria 2010. The reception was great and I’ve been asked to get involved with SMCV2011 so we’ll see what I’ll be speaking about in the 2011. What would you like me to talk about?

November 2010

- Along with a few other social media folks, I gave a speed-dating round series of short talks on Social Media 101 which were incredibly well received. I’m always flattered when people tell me that they look up to me for social media advice. Not because I am self-absorbed, but because it means that folks find my teachings useful. And I’m an educator, first and foremost. I do this for a living. Not social media, but educating people. So, that’s why I am so happy my insights are valuable.

- I spoke at WordCamp Fraser Valley 2010 on Building an Online Community. I organized a panel with the same topic at the Vancouver Blogger Meetup for November 2010 and I am grateful to my speakers Rebecca Bollwitt, Arieanna Schweber and Robert Ballantyne for sharing their insight. My own tips for building an online community are here.

- I considered shutting down Hummingbird604.com earlier in the year, but after careful consideration and assessment of my time, I decided to keep working on it. As I said, I wake up at 4:45am so that I can have a full time academic career with a full time teaching, research, consulting and social media life. And it’s challenging but I will manage in the 2011.

December 2010

I disconnected myself from the online realm for about a week in order to focus on writing my academic book, but I’ve continued to check Twitter occasionally. More importantly, this year I gave two workshops on social media in education and social media in academic research and reflected on something that allowed me to realize that any project I take on about social media will be in the non-profit, health/environment, public policy and politics and higher education realms. I will probably redirect any requests for projects that are not associated there to the appropriate consultants.

I also continue to be interested in speaking on topics of social media, technology in education, politics and public policy. It’ll be an interesting year. I’m sure I’ll get asked to speak more, but I’ll make my decisions and choices as to when/where to speak.

In short, 2010 has been an amazing year. And I’m grateful to all of you who day after day continue to read Hummingbird604.com. It’s because of you that I didn’t shut down my blog.

I love this photo of me. It shows a mirror reflecting my image. And as I reflect on what the year has been in social media, I come back to the same thought: I’m in social media because I love building communities, and I’m good at it, not because I’m in love with myself. Trying to shut down my blog or my Twitter account would probably leave behind a big void, one I don’t have any interest in having. I prefer to work hard and schedule my time in order to maintain some degree of sanity.

May people stop requesting “please follow me”, sending automated direct messages, stop the passive-aggressive tweets and then having to eat their own words, and eschew drama. May the snake-oil social media salespeople stop doing that.

Here is a toast to 2011.

Related posts:

1. Raul’s 2010 in review: Social Media and Blogging (January to June)
2. 2008 – A year in review – social media
3. Dr. Pacheco’s 2010 Year in Review: Academia, Teaching and Research

This year, you may have noticed that I have pushed a lot harder to have my academic credentials recognized and to ensure that people don’t think of me just as “a popular blogger” (their words, not mine). I’m WAY more than just ‘a popular blogger’. I self-identify primarily, as I indicate in my About Me page, as a full-time academic, consultant and researcher. So, I find it funny sometimes when people ask me on Twitter “are you in higher education?” Everywhere on my bio (on Twitter, Facebook and on all my other social platforms) I explain what I do primarily (which is consulting, research and teaching). Sometimes I wonder if people actually read my bio before following me. But I digress…

Two times this year I have been asked to be an example of proper management of personal and professional digital identities (by Kristopher Hermkens, from SFU and by Dave MacDonald, from AvidTetra). While I have been honored to be asked to be this model of personal and professional identity management, I cannot generalize the strategy I use as the best one.

My students at UBC do know for the most part, that their strict and rigorous professor of public policy and environmental politics, has another, “secret” identity where he is a social media power user. At times, I blend both worlds, particularly when I see projects initiated by students, or job searches that could benefit from the larger community that Hummingbird604 enjoys.

I am both, one and the same. But I thoroughly enjoy that many colleagues and friends recognize how I want to keep them differentiated and interact with both identities differently. My students joke and share fun stuff with @hummingbird604, yet maintain an absolutely arms-length and professional relationship with @raulpacheco (and with me, in person, during office hours, on campus and in the classroom).

Appreciating that I can be both the academic and the social media maven is one of the best gifts you can give me. And knowing how to interact with each one is one of the qualities I appreciate the most in people. I recently praised my students on Twitter saying how proud I was that they understood that both identities are separate and how well they deal with each one.

I don’t have a particular piece of advice for you. But for me, keeping my personal and professional self separate has worked, and I’ll continue to do so during 2011.

Related posts:

1. Canon Powershot SD1200 (digital camera review)
2. Blogging couples: How do they deal with their online identities?
3. On the digital disconnect (or how to take a real holiday from online life)

photo credit: adria.richards

For the most part, disconnecting is going about 80% well, I would say. I’ve gotten SO MUCH WORK done. I’ve been able to say “no, you don’t need to check Twitter/Facebook/email for the next 6 hours” and in fact, do it. But I am still blogging. Mostly, because I want to make sure all my posts are scheduled for the 10 days that I plan to completely, totally disconnect.

I think the fact that it’s taken me a solid 3 days to wean myself out from checking Twitter (which, admittedly, I checked four times over the course of the past 3 days) is a testament to how strongly embedded Twitter is in my personal life. But the thing is, I’ve already done this. I’ve disconnected for a full 24, 48 and 72 hours. All I need to do is refocus. Don’t let the curiosity get the best of me.

And learn to make people wait until I respond. Because I’m always the hummingbird. Always the fast. Always the one who has a response RIGHT THERE AND THEN. Truth is, nobody needs me to respond immediately. And even *I* can (and am supposed to) take holidays. But it’s sooooo hard to disconnect. All of the above said, since I announced my digital holidays on Wednesday, my community on Twitter and on my blog have been incredibly respectful of my time and know that I am actually not checking my social streams. In fact, every tweet you’ve seen on my stream except for one on Christmas Day were fully pre-scheduled. And I cross-posted a couple of photos iPhone -> Flickr -> Twitter.

But I’ve managed to stop myself from checking! And it’s incredibly re-invigorating. I am indeed blogging, but for the most part, the content you’re reading is stuff I had pre-written and pre-scheduled. There IS value for taking a digital holiday. And I am enjoying it to the fullest.

Related posts:

1. Does retweeting build community online? Twitter as a real social media platform?
2. Guest post: Making the Most of Twitter – in Real Life, by Cathy Browne
3. #Disconnected3 : Challenging yourself to disconnect for a full 3 hours a day

Anybody who has read my blog before knows that I’ve been extremely critical of the regional transit authority and their online behaviour. I have never been shy about it. But in the past few months, and specially in the past few weeks, I’ve been witnessing (as have most of my friend in the Metro Vancouver region who are on Twitter) an increasing level of interactivity with the @Translink account.

[UPDATE - In my original post, I had intended to praise Jennifer Siddon, the fantastic woman behind @SkytrainLady and in my humble opinion, the model of interactivity and customer service that the rest of Translink's staff followed. You may remember how on top of things Jennifer was while the 2010 Winter Olympics were taking place, and she's kept that same pace, at times checking her Blackberry on the go and answering customer inquiries outside what you could consider normal hours - Jennifer DOES deserve a lot of kudos, and I have said so publicly as well, as shown on the tweet below]

Staffed by a multiplicity of folks who work for the communications area of Translink, the Twitter account has worked hard at keeping up with mentions of “Skytrain”, “Canada Line” and other services. In fact, sometimes they go back in the conversation and track it to the point where they can find what the problem was. This happened to me recently when an 8 Fraser didn’t stop where it should have dropped me off. I didn’t complain, but the folks behind the @Translink Twitter account tracked down the conversation up to the point where they realized what happened.

I asked Erin McConnell from Translink to comment on how they feel about the response from the public and the rationale behind this expanded effort to provide real-time updates and how successful it has been. Below is her response.

I believe the pilot has been a remarkable success for two reasons: customer support and the team running @translink. TransLink customers on Twitter have been tremendous. They have helped us improve the type of information we share by engaging with us directly and have been instrumental in growing our Twitter community by sharing transit and service updates with their followers, allowing us to reach more people across the system. We are thrilled that customers have sent us more commendations for our work on Twitter than for any other project to date. The Customer Information team tweeting from our @translink account has done an outstanding job at providing passengers with real-time, personalized service information. In addition to being extremely dedicated, they were Twitter naturals and truly love engaging with customers through @translink.

In the same way I have criticized Translink before on what I think they’ve done wrong, I have to praise them on what they’ve done right. And I want to give them kudos. Not surprising, most people are feeling the same way!

Related posts:

1. Translink, social media and the issue of instantaneous updates on Twitter
2. The return of the liveblog?
3. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria

Ah, the re-tweet (RT). That good ol’ friend. I would say “long time, no see” but truthfully, I can’t stay that. My stuff gets re-tweeted all the time, and I am extremely grateful for that. That people will think of my stuff relevant enough to share it with their own networks makes me happy. The way I have thought about retweets has evolved quite a lot, though. I am pretty sure that’s this evolution is result of the fact that my 5th year of blogging is soon over (April 2011) and that I have thought about this topic quite a lot.

In my two most recent speaking engagements in the field of social media (WordCamp Fraser Valley and the Canadian Public Relations Society Student Chapter in Vancouver Social Media 101), I indicated that one of the easiest, fastest and best ways to contribute to building your own community online was retweeting people’s stuff. I often do that, intermingling my own tweets (pre-scheduled, for the most part) with retweeting stuff from other individuals.

But the interesting thing is, not everybody thinks this way. The reason why I retweet what I read, mostly, is because either (a) I find it valuable (b) I agree with it and/or (c) I think there’s a reason to share it with my broader network. I retweet Translink’s stuff because my own online network is fairly large and well connected. I would (and probably will) do the same for the Vancouver Police Department (which is now on Twitter, and YouTube – and apparently Second Life?).

I look for ways to make my relationships bidirectional, and I think retweeting other people’s stuff is one way. But some folks might disagree with me. What is YOUR take on retweeting?

Related posts:

1. Build online relationships, promote others as you do yourself
2. Retweeting, contests and social media etiquette
3. Is measuring real influence in social media possible?

This past month I gave a talk around how to build an online community with WordPress at WordCamp Fraser Valley 2010. This is a topic I am quite interested in, so I organized a follow up Vancouver Blogger Meetup on How to Build an Online Community Through Blogging, where 3 local blogging superstars (and all dear friends of mine, Rebecca Bollwitt, Arieanna Schweber and Robert Ballantyne).

Thanks so much for sharing your expertise with us!

Normally, I would post my slides on SlideShare, but this time, I think all I’m going to do is post my 20 tips on how to build an online community through blogging on WordPress. Hope they are valuable to my readers.

0. Say thanks. Always.
1. Write your blog in WordPress.
2. Never forget to put the social in social media.
3. Write with pretty visuals.
4. Tell a good story.
5. Link, attribute and thank people.
6. Respond to comments on the blog.
7. Rise above the trolls.
8. Stop worrying about your stats.
9. Meet other bloggers in real life.
10. Cross-link your content through your social platforms.
11. Promote other’s stuff just as much as you do yours.
12. Write for you, before you write for others.
13. Spell-check and good grammar are your friends.
14. Optimize your blog for mobile reading.
15. Re-blog with a purpose.
16. Encourage your readers to stay in your blog and read other posts.
17. Write often, and write well.
18. Remember that content is king.
19. Maximize your use of the minimal number of WordPress plugins.
20. Go self-hosted.

And a key one that I just remembered: Your blog should be your home base. Don’t ever direct people to Facebook. You should have a website or blog, and all of your directionality should point out to the blog.

Related posts:

1. 6 Simple Plugins to Make Your Basic WordPress Blogging Easy
2. Vancouver bloggers – building a community?
3. The move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org and self-hosting

I wanted to alert you to an incredibly important case that is scheduled to be heard Dec 7 in front of the Supreme Court. Crookes v. Newton revolves around whether it’s libellous to simply link to another website. We link/footnote to other sources in our own writings all the time – news articles, other books, journal articles, etc – and the freedom to do so is in the crosshairs. This case is *not* about what you write around the footnote; Crookes isn’t accusing Newton of writing libel material himself but just linking to what Crookes perceives as libellous speech. Given how commonly academics refer to facts that they may subsequent disagree with or dispute, often facts that could be seen by some parties as libellous, this is an incredibly important case for academic freedom and freedom of speech in Canada more generally.

Link to interview about case: http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2010/12/full-interview-can-a-hyperlink-be-libellous/

I am, quite obviously, concerned for the outcome of this case. I’ll be following the case closely.

Related posts:

1. Academia.Edu – Like Facebook, but for academics
2. The business case for good blogger relations with high-traffic bloggers
3. Vancouver Bloggers Meetup November 2008 coming up!

Despite the fact that I am now geekier than I have ever been (heck, I even created a whole website all on my own, “look Ma no hands” style), I tend to NOT follow social media fads. I wait until I have seen how others have explored the platform, how I see them working, I play around with them for a bit and then I decide if I stay or I go. It took me a solid 3 years to decide whether I wanted to join Facebook.

There are a few social media platforms that I dislike, particularly Foursquare. As I said at a recent Social Media 101 Roundtable where I spoke, I can’t see Foursquare building community. You could say “hey, but I have my friends on Foursquare already and when I tell them where I am, they may want to check the place out or share it with their friends as well”. Um, no, actually that’s not totally true, particularly if you already have a community built (likely, by being on Facebook or Twitter, or simply by having met them in real life) and Foursquare imports your contacts. Foursquare, I repeat, is not a community-building tool. I have criticized it before.

I’m less likely to follow your Foursquare updates if I don’t know you even if you’re Foursquare friends with my own friends. But I may follow you if you are followed by my friends on Twitter or friend you if you’re Facebook friends with mine. I have used both Foursquare and Gowalla and I got bored faster than you can say “I’m here”. And I have all but looked at the many ways in which I can try to erase “Facebook Places” on my Facebook account (you can’t, but that’s another story about how Facebook manipulates what you do).

I have a few friends who are Foursquare happy (some of the check ins make me roll my eyes – albeit, just as much some of my Twitter updates make THEM roll their eyes). That wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t have their check-ins cross-linked with their Twitter account. But sometimes, the frequency of those check-ins (particularly those that don’t offer ANY value, e.g. “I’m here” instead of saying, for example “here to try their allegedly fantastic pancakes”) just drives me insane. I finally found where I can remove all Foursquare checkins on TweetDeck (HootSuite, I’m waiting for you to have that option).

photo credit: minimalistphotography101.com

But there are two areas where I think cross-linking is actually good. The first is Flickr-to-Twitter (thanks to Rebecca, Gus and John for letting me know how to set up my Flickr to cross-link via e-mail). And the second one, that I was kind of reluctant to accept, is the Twitter-to-Facebook. Because you can hide it from your Facebook, if you’re friends with someone you follow on Twitter.

There is a place for cross-linking content across your social media platforms. I’m not 100% sure everything needs to be cross-linked, though. Sometimes it drives me crazy to see Facebook updates from friends I also follow on Twitter and those updates are actually Plancast-to-Facebook-to-Twitter. Just as I have tried to tone it down on Twitter (and also, really, I don’t have as much time to tweet anyways), I’d hope people tone it down on the excessive cross-linking.

And for the love of God, if you test “TweetBuddies” or any other of those applications that automatically tweet for you, please check off the box that says “post to Twitter”.

Related posts:

1. On @Translink as a case study in public service delivery and interactivity in social media platforms
2. Reconsider your Foursquare-to-Twitter behaviour in 2011
3. DemoCamp Vancouver 7 (Social Platforms Edition)

As someone who is an academic and an educator but at the same time a power user of social media, I felt it was important that I volunteer my time to this type of events, because it is by spreading my thinking on social media to other folks that I’ll be able to enhance and further the field (a goal of mine since I arrived into the social media scene in Vancouver).

You can read tweets associated with our conversations by following the hashtag CPRS101SM on Twitter. I will try to do a series of screencaptures as I know that tweets are rather ephemeral and I did not live-blog the event (as I was speaking). I hope everyone found our insights useful! And thanks Nick Seliwoniuk for the invite.

Related posts:

1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
2. Social Media 101: A Conversation with Vancouver’s Top Influencers (CPRS Student Event)
3. Does retweeting build community online? Twitter as a real social media platform?

The role of social media in the day-to-day lives of public relations practitioners changes by the minute and has revolutionized the way we do our jobs. Social media and the constantly shifting online landscape will continue to impact the public relations industry. It is impossible for communicators to ignore this rapidly evolving and increasingly important tool, now a staple in the communications mix.

Social media is now a part of the regular curriculum in many Lower Mainland post secondary schools and is a hot topic at many of the industry’s professional development seminars. This workshop endeavors to offer students a unique, interactive approach to learning about online communications and best practices.

I am delighted to share the stage with a variety of very talented folks in the Vancouver social media realm.

Dale Tournemille, eMarketing Manager, Coast Capital Savings
Natasha Netschay Davies, Director Social Media, Peak Communicators
Gus Fosarolli, Senior Client Relations Manager, Marketwire +Sysomos
and of course, yours truly

The format allows participants to rotate tables throughout the evening allowing you to meet, chat with and learn from each of the four speakers. You can join at a special CPRS Vancouver Student Member price of just $10, which includes refreshments. If you are not yet a CPRS Vancouver Student Member, you can attend the event for $15 or sign up for a yearly CPRS Vancouver Student Membership for just $40 here.

I can’t wait to be part of this event, particularly because I am passionate about social media and sharing my experiences with students and recent graduates (remember, I am a university-level educator, so I’m definitely a big supporter of student-run events). The event takes place on Tuesday, November 23, 2010, 5:30-8:00pm at the SFU Harbour Centre campus, 515 West Hastings Street, Second floor, PR classroom room 2200.

Related posts:

1. The @CPRSVanStudents event on Social Media 101
2. What would you ask if you were to be my student in a social media workshop?
3. Vancouver Bloggers Meetup and Social Media Club Vancouver Event March 18th

Both of the previous months’ Third Tuesday Vancouver meetups were of interest to me, and I caught myself in a whirlwind both of work and having to deal with personal issues (friends needed time with me and I will always ditch anything for my loved ones), so I missed being there in person. I tried to follow the Twitter stream with live-tweets hashtagged #3tyvr and it was an absolute mess.

Sorry guys, I know that many of you live-tweeted as well as you could for those of us who couldn’t get in on the action, but I find it really hard to draw any actual insights from the live tweets. There is a reason why I blogged earlier this year about how important it was to have liveblogs of talks.

You’ll see, for a couple of years, I liveblogged almost every single meetup in Vancouver (2008-early 2009). I attended the vast majority of them, many times along with my good friend Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss604), and we would both liveblog events (for the most part, entirely free) in benefit of the community at large. We both liveblogged Northern Voice 2009. We both liveblogged many of the BarCamp 2009 sessions. But I got to a point where I refused to do any more liveblogging for free (actually, ANY work for free). And I also got way too busy with my consulting, my research and my teaching.

The reality is, there is a real dearth of liveblogs of events out there in Vancouver anymore. With the exception of some Social Media Club events I’ve seen liveblogged, and a few times that I have volunteered my own blog to capture the live-tweetage of conferences, liveblogging is primarily, not done. I know that this post may not earn me any sympathies, but I wish there were more people in Vancouver doing what Rebecca and I used to do for the community: liveblog events. Because the live-tweeting is just not cutting it anymore.

I recognize that liveblogging is an activity that is draining, takes time and technical expertise and savvy. I know that better than anyone. It should be rewarded as a professional activity. People should hire and pay livebloggers. I have been in fact one of the people who have championed being paid to do work that we used to do for free. Of course, you could say that *I* could very well pay to have the events I miss liveblogged. That’s not the point (and I won’t, of course).

The point is, live-tweeting is good for quick snippets of thoughts, but we need a real long form liveblog. Live-tweeting brings up one important issue – attribution. In 140 characters, how do you attribute a particular thought to a particular speaker? I saw lots of examples of thoughts that were the panel’s that were being re-tweeted as though they were the person live-tweeting. And I can list many other examples.

There is a reason why liveblogs should come back. And there is a point where they’ll come back. I am feeling that this might be the time.

Related posts:

1. Net Tuesday Live blog/live tweeting (using ScribbleLive)
2. Cover It Live vs Scribble Live (Round 2 Comparison)
3. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria

Despite relentless teasing by my friends from Invoke Media (who often ponder if I actually do use HootSuite), I actually am not only a frequent promoter of their Twitter client (HootSuite) but a frequent user too. At Social Media Camp Victoria 2010, Scott Stratten (UnMarketing) suggested that if you are strapped for time, you should schedule at least 30 minutes a day for social media activities. Sadly, I can’t really do that. So I decided this past weekend to use a few hours to write all the blog posts for the upcoming week, and schedule tweets that would promote my giveaways and posts. I think this actually works better. Admittedly, I can’t really spend much time every day because I do spend over 60% of my time now on academic activities, so 4 solid hours of social media helps me.

Do you pre-schedule blog posts and/or tweets? If so, how much time does it take you?

Related posts:

1. The Skittles social-media-ification experiment
2. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
3. Scheduling project work early in the morning

I have always been interested in the behavior of networks, in particular social networks within an industrial agglomeration complex (e.g. a cluster of firms that are located close by from each other). That was one of the reasons why I wrote a PhD thesis on the economic geography of decline of industrial clusters. Networks have a way of mesmerizing me. I’m fascinated by connections between people and firms, and the social commerce phenomenon is one that I’m puzzled by. I’m really interested in understanding the drivers of purchasing social commerce coupons. What makes YOU choose to buy into a ‘Groupon’ or a ‘Grooster’ or a ‘Good News Van’ or ‘Social Shopper’.

Even more interesting is, JT is subscribed to all of them. We (JT and I) had a text message conversation today about why he chooses to buy into them, what kind of things he buys, etc. He is not someone who is a heavy social media user at all (much to the contrary, rarely uses Facebook and is definitely not on Twitter). He is, by all measures, your average Vancouverite. So, if even he is interested in participating in social commerce as a customer, there must be something going on (I’m totally a skeptic when it comes to fads, so I have never acquired any deals).

Side note to all of you providers of social commerce coupons – please STOP using “X dollars for Y dollars worth of”. Maybe I’m just a grammar tyrant, but we all know it’s not worth Y. Please use “X% discount” if you can. I feel ripped off if I’m told “X dollars for Y worth of”. Seriously. One of the reasons why I am somewhat turned off of social commerce.

So, to my readers, your day-to-day average folk – do you buy social commerce coupons, and if so, why? What makes you buy into them?

Related posts:

1. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
2. Empowering women in traditionally-male-dominated professions: Interurban bus drivers
3. Go for dinner at one of the The Heather Hospitality Group restaurants (on the house)

It’s been a relatively long while since I have liveblogged the way I used to in 2008 and 2009, but I have always (well, at least since I began dipping my toes into the social media world) thought that there is value to having an event liveblogged. I no longer have the luxury of enough time to liveblog events and thus have been really happy whenever someone else takes on that role.

For example, at a recent event that the Social Media Club Vancouver (Social Media 101 with Tris Hussey, Guacira Naves and Kemp Edmonds) had liveblogged, I took over from Sascha Neth (who was the designated liveblogger) as soon as I arrived to the event (but I would have not been able to do that if Sascha hadn’t volunteered to start it!). Unashamedly, I’m well-seasoned in transcribing (as I type close to 100 wpm), and I’m proud of the liveblogs I’ve done.

I was intrigued today by a tweet sent by Jeremiah Owyang (now with Altimeter), someone who is very well respected in the social media sphere. See his tweet below. He indicates that folks should think long-term and not rely solely on Twitter, particularly if they are live-tweeting conferences.

What *I* do is create iFrames (I have experimented with CoverItLive and ScribbleLive and have chosen to stay loyal to CiL) and grab the tweets that are hashtagged with a particular keyword. I then download the content locally as HTML and that way I preserve both my liveblog and all associated tweets. I am a bit puzzled to see Jeremiah’s tweet because, well, I thought *everyone* did what I do. But it seems they don’t.

For a recent example of a combined liveblog-incorporating-livetweetage you can see my coverage of Convergence’s Corporation 2.0 panel.

Three factors I suggest people consider when pondering whether you need to have your event/conference liveblogged:

1. Liveblogging requires valuable skills (not only typing, but ability to summarize content, find links and add your own commentary). Don’t expect your events to be liveblogged for free. This is a service that is important, and thus should be rewarded monetarily
2. Tweets are fleeting. If you are going to use CoverItLive or ScribbleLive, consider downloading your liveblog locally
3. Make sure you link and credit your sources.

I think that as more people realize just how fleeting tweets are, people will return to liveblogs. At least, I hope so!

Related posts:

1. On @Translink as a case study in public service delivery and interactivity in social media platforms
2. CBC contest for Mother’s Day #cbcgiver
3. Alexandra Samuel (@awsamuel) on Coping with Social Media #nv10 liveblog

I am a very, very frequent Twitter user. To be quite frank, there is rarely a day when I don’t open my Twitter client (I use both TweetDeck and HootSuite). I use hashtags (words preluded by a # sign) in my tweets to be able to track conversations around any particular topic (for example, for Mental Health Camp Vancouver 2010 we are using the hashtag #mhcyvr10). The hashtags I use try to add information about the specific topic I am tracking. Amongst the people I follow (and even some people I don’t follow but whose tweets are re-tweeted by people I do follow), I have a number of what I call “hashtag-happy people“. Folks who use LOTS of hashtags within their tweets.

While I appreciate the value of adding metadata, I rarely can retweet those tweets because they are filled with hashtags. My username (@hummingbird604) occupies 16 characters (if you include a space between my username and the actual tweet. That means that I need to keep it brief when I retweet stuff. And I appreciate people’s brevity and the reduced use of hashtags. So most frequently, I simply remove all of their hashtags (or at least, the ones I think won’t be tracked and won’t expand the conversation further) and try to shrink their message as much as I can.

I am not one to preach about specific best practices (I believe we all crowdsource rules of engagement in social media channels, but I would strongly suggest to my hashtag-happy people to cut down on the hashtag use, so that your message doesn’t get diluted. I found a video of Chris Messina talking about hashtags at Northern Voice 2010 (video by Stephen Hui of The Georgia Straight) that I thought would be interesting, for instructional reasons.

Related posts:

1. Reflections on Twitter, “grow your network organically” and #nofollow
2. Reflections on Twitter etiquette
3. Declaring Twitter bankruptcy

Related posts:

1. Social Media 101: A Conversation with Vancouver’s Top Influencers (CPRS Student Event)
2. Surveillance Games Research Workshop Livetweets #sgw
3. Social Media for Sustainability and Public Policy

I am not usually one to suggest rules in the social media world. I firmly believe that rules online evolve from crowdsourcing. I also don’t brag to be a social media star, much to the contrary, I mock myself. Every time somebody tells me “oh but you have so many thousands of followers!” the first thing I answer back is “just to keep things in perspective, about 10,000 people have unfollowed me, so…”

But there’s one thing that makes me a bit queasy – when people ask me for a re-tweet. And also, when I have found myself asking for a retweet. I am not beyond having asked, on occasion, to have my tweets retweeted. Mostly, I will plead guilty to have asked a RT for Mental Health Camp, and other initiatives similar that I’ve participated in.

I recently tweeted a link to the journal Theory, Society and Culture. Their most recent volume is freely accessible (usually, it’s a paid journal), and it’s on a topic that I find important – climate change. So, I wrote at the end of my tweet “RTAYSF”, which means “Re-Tweet As You See Fit”. I feel that by adding that acronym at the end, I give people the choice – if you think it’s worth retweeting, please by all means do so.

What do you all think? Or should I just assume that, if people deem stuff worthy, they’ll retweet directly without me suggesting it?

Related posts:

1. Bid For My 100,000th Tweet (for @BCCancer) #b4hb100k
2. I don’t care about Oprah’s first tweet.
3. Request for signatures, please forward/re-Tweet/Facebook

To me, this is the danger of Wikipedia as a self-correcting informational mechanism. Granted, I fixed it as soon as I found out (and as soon as Gregg told me I could edit without even being an editor). Still, it’s scary to think that anybody can deface the Wikipedia entry of anyone.

Related posts:

1. Unwell
2. Six years ago on this day

While my traffic has gone up, I have also noticed at the same time, a decline in hyperlinking to other blogs and a decline in comments overall in the blogosphere (I’m really lucky in that my readers still comment quite a lot, though, so I ain’t one to complain).

Credit: Rob Cottingham (Noise 2 Signal)

For a while, as my online network grew, I have had my followers gain additional entries to my contests by just retweeting the post. The reason why I did that was because I thought that made it easier for them to enter the contest.

But I can see the point that my good friend Rob Cottingham makes in his cartoon and blog entry on Read Write Web, which probably should be titled “How to Retweet to Win in a Contest And Lose Followers“. It is true, we seem to have lost the ability to engage in online conversation and build community.

I loved the post, and as usually, Rob made me think about what I can do to make my contest posts more conversational and less about the retweet. Good food for thought. Now, if you were in my place, and you ran contests online, how would YOU make them more conversational? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And no, please don’t retweet this post to win anything. If you think it’s worth sharing with your networks, please do so, but by no means feel obligated to retweet.

Related posts:

1. Does retweeting build community online? Twitter as a real social media platform?
2. Social media faux pas? The evolution of etiquette, rules and norms in a Web 2.0 world
3. On the etiquette of re-tweets – a response

Owyang asks for folks to look at quality and quantity of list memberships when measuring influence. The more time I spend analyzing social media (with an academic lens, even if I don’t actually study social media in my research), the more I think that measuring influence is next-to-impossible. Let me explain why. The graph to the left of the above paragraph is my Klout score of a few months ago (right now my Klout score has gone down to approximately 59, down from 75 which used to be my score, consistently).

For a while, I used to be in the top 5 Twitter Grader for Vancouver, even reaching #1 (that score also oscillated so much that it was almost useless). So when Klout came along, it seemed as though I had found a better measure of my own influence. Truth be told, in my own view, now that my Klout score is substantially lower, I believe that I have MUCH more influence, measured not by numbers, but by impact. I think my tweets have more impact now than ever before.

For example, recently, I asked the people who follow me on Twitter to re-tweet a job at UBC (I clearly marked my tweet as “please share widely”). I get one, two re-tweets here and there, maybe 6 on a good day, when I am not running contests that involve retweeting. But with this particular job, I got about a dozen or more retweets. That puzzled me. Is it the nature of the job, is it the fact that I have more influence, what made more people decide to retweet.

And the more time I spend trying to understand social networks (particularly for my research on ENGOs, but also transferring lessons to social media), the more I think influence is not associated with numbers. It’s associated with degree of trust. It’s associated with the right mixture of strong and weak ties. And please note that I didn’t create a causal link. I said that it’s associated (or even, has some degree of correlation).

In the next few weeks, I’ll be giving “tech-ie” talks (e.g. on blogging, on freelancing, on WordPress site building). But as I clear my desk from all the marking I still have to do, I want to start thinking more about issues of privacy, influence, safety and network modeling in social media. This post is the first of a series of thought entries. Obviously, it’s still half-baked, but it’s a start…

So, my question to you, my dear readers? What measures of influence do you take as most valuable? What constitutes influence, particularly as we think of social media?

Related posts:

1. Measuring influence in social media (the Klout score)
2. Measuring influence Part I: Social media
3. Does retweeting build community online? Twitter as a real social media platform?

But when I took the microphone, I told Gladwell that instead of seeing me as a social media guy, I was speaking as an academic who has studied transnational networks of environmental activists for over a decade. I told Gladwell that my research contradicted what he had just told the audience (about how revolutions aren’t created through online tools – he really misinterpreted Granovetter’s findings). And it’s true. In my research, I have found that transnational networks of activists are strengthened by the use of online tools. So, the ‘weak ties’ become with time, ‘strong ties’. Gladwell said that my research showcased people who were using online tools the right way and that we should learn from those cases.

I found it kind of ironic that one of the points that Gladwell made (that anonymity hinders trust) is actually very true, and highlighted by a curious gaffe that occurred during this event and the follow up. I met Gladwell and had a chance to have a very brief conversation where he told me he wasn’t even on Twitter, and that whoever was behind the @Gladwell account wasn’t him. Funny enough, during F5Expo, another fake Malcolm Gladwell account was created. See screenshots below.

So, ironically, Gladwell was simultaneously right and wrong. Right in that online tools foster anonymity and anonymity precludes trust. Wrong in that social media and online tools can’t create revolutions. You have the case of Iran, you have the case of RETC activists (ask me in person about my research on these transnational networks). More importantly, I can easily say that my own life has been revolutionized thanks to social media.

I know that Nels and Lindsay are doing a follow-up event on Wednesday (and I can’t make it, unfortunately, as I teach right at that time), but I do hope that the issues I present here are raised. And if they know who is behind the fake Gladwell accounts, I’d LOVE to knwo.

Related posts:

1. On authenticity in social media
2. Social media tools and academia
3. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria

I looked through my own Privacy settings, and I have them cranked to the max apparently (e.g. only my Friends can post to my Wall, etc). Still, I wish there were other features for MORE privacy on Facebook, rather than LESS. There has been a lot of debate online about how Facebook keeps making it more difficult for users to keep their privacy. My question to everyone is – if Facebook is THAT “evil”, why are we all still using it? Why not be completely democratic and demonstrate (with our vote, e.g. with our not-having-a-Facebook-account) that this loss of privacy is unacceptable?

The answer is – because not enough of us care. If the millions of users of Facebook really cared that much about their privacy, they would make the Big Brother/Sister accountable (e.g. Facebook). But in a society that is valuing privacy less and less, accountability has become an afterthought and not mainstream. Sadly, that also means that we have lost the power of protecting our privacy to commercial interests. And that’s a sad thought (and for the record, I do keep a Facebook presence, but not really by choice, but because I think it’s important for me to test all social platforms).

Related posts:

1. On privacy, Facebook and the future of our information online
2. Is Facebook decreasing the relevance of MySpace?
3. Yes. I caved… I am on Facebook now!

A short while ago, on a blog entry that Alex Samuel wrote about the new Facebook privacy settings, I made a comment where I wrote a sentence that I found particularly powerful (I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m tooting my own horn, but I *do* love my own writing). I tweeted it yesterday and it seems to have touched a nerve.

Irresponsible misuse of the word “friend” in social networking sites has led to the erosion of meaning & value of real connections.

When I first joined Twitter (and particularly, when the number of people I followed and who followed me was quite small), I commented on my blog how I thought Twitter was a great place to hang out. A place where I would continue to foster my friendships. Twitter and my blog have, indeed, created opportunities for me to build new friendships. But I still find the casual use of the word “friend” in social networking sites rather disturbing.

The truth is, I find myself incredibly annoyed at the fact that many social networking sites call everyone with whom we interact, a “friend”. Certainly, the vast majority of my Facebook friends are actually friends of mine. But I haven’t friended a number of my actual offline friends on Facebook, for reasons that only *I* am and should be privy to. I shouldn’t have to explain to anyone how much of a friend do I consider them and assumptions shouldn’t be made on the extent to which friendship exists on the basis of our interconnectedness (or lack thereof) in a social networking site.

There are friends of mine, very good solid friends of mine who don’t follow me on Twitter. There are great friends of mine that I don’t follow on Twitter. But the problem with all these social networking sites is that using “friend” indiscriminately can create drama in so many ways it’s not even funny.

The meaning of the word friend seems to be eroding and social networking sites seem to be playing a key role in this. As for me, if I consider you a friend, you’ll know it, regardless of what our relationship on any social networking site is.

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I was raised in a family headed by two lawyers. My parents, both educated in the legal world, taught us the value of dissenting opinions. Not the legal notion, per se (which has its own definition), but the idea that, maybe, someone else who had the opposite opinion to us, just maybe, that person’s opinion was actually right (or it had the possibility of being right)

photo credit: Francis Carnaúba

At the family dinner table, we would engage in profound discussions, which ranged from philosophy to science to politics, to our interpersonal relationships. We grew up immersed in a family culture that valued dissent. Nobody was *always* right, nobody was *always* wrong, but there was always room for a “middle-of-the-ground” approach. At the very least, we were able to express our contrary opinions. I would say something that one or more of my brothers might disagree with, and we *always* waited to hear the opposing view.

We waited to make our argument and try to win over (by convincing the person, not by beating it up) because we (my brothers and I) were raised seeing how arguments between lawyers were constructed: by presenting evidence and leaving it to judges to weigh on the evidence presented.

We (all my 4 brothers and I) went on to study various types of engineering and we adopted the scientific method as a rigorous template for our own work. Three of us went on to do PhDs, where the value of argumentation and presenting evidence in a rigorous manner is even more appreciated (as indicated in the quote with which I started my blog entry).

I value dissent, I really do. I appreciate my friends’ dissenting opinions and I appreciate the feedback when they think my view is not the right one. I disagree with people publicly when I don’t agree with them because I think it’s the right thing to do: to create a debate that allows us all to learn. I always offer my criticism in a respectful manner, though.

I worry, however, that social media is harming rather than enhancing our ability to dissent online for three reasons.

photo credit: antwerpenR

First, the online and public nature of dissenting opinions via online tools may lead to recipient(s) not reacting well to the feedback. I am pretty sure nobody likes to be called out publicly (particularly if they’re sensitive and the ‘calling out’ is worded in a negative way). As my parents said, you can get so much more by using honey rather than using vinegar.

Second, the quick, reflexive nature of 140-characters-long responses does not give the recipient enough time to process the message. We fire quick “FAIL” messages with the assumption that the recipient will understand what we mean by that. Which, most of the cases, is not true.

Third, the attention span of people immersed in social media has been greatly reduced, so people love to read quick, witty bits of 140 characters but nothing more. Long blog entries where an argument can be properly outlined and developed are eschewed in favor of long bursts of tweets.

This is something I’ve been reflecting on for a long, long time. As an academic, I’ve been trained to confront dissenting opinions and offer evidence to support my viewpoint. I *enjoy* it when people disagree with me (and of course, I love winning arguments). I worry, however, that the fast-paced, group-mob mentality will overtake our ability to present cogent and articulate arguments that might be dissenting with the majority’s view. And that *is* something to be worried about. Because a society can’t learn without dissent.

Will dissent be permitted? The answer to that question will determine whether the society is a free society or a fear society.
Natan Sharansky

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I spoke to Tris’ class this past March 3rd, 2010. It’s kind of coincidental, because I have previously sought to teach at BCIT (this was before I started teaching at UBC) and I never got any positive feedback/responses. So, for me it was a bit of an irony that I ended up, indeed, teaching at BCIT (guest lecturing, of course, and it’s Tris whom I have to thank for the opportunity).

I’ve given a similar version of this talk previously, but this time it felt more fun as the students were already well engaged in the social networking space. The perspective I took then was more on the political analysis/policy analysis side (which suits me rather well, as those are the topics I teach at UBC). I centered my analysis on issues of publicness vs. privacy, seeking the audience where it is (for example, the Facebook page for Kelowna, British Columbia, is very active). The government of BC is seeking public input for the new water laws through a blog. There’s a broad variety of things already happening in the space, and it’s very exciting.

And, on that note, I submitted a panel to the conference Northern Voice 2010 precisely on this topic. I would copy and paste the abstract, but I prefer to surprise you with the excellent panel I have assembled. I am hoping (fingers crossed) that my panel will be accepted, because it has an excellent group of speakers.

Thanks to everyone who sent me tweets about examples of use of social media in politics and public policy, and to Hans Peter Meyer for sharing a report he created. An earlier post of mine where I asked these questions can be found here.

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Last year, I was asked to be the editor of an online, pluralistic, non-partisan website that aggregated information from all sorts of online sources to inform citizens about the choices they could make for Premier of British Columbia. On this blog, I interviewed Carole James (NDP), Jane Sterk (Green Party) and Gordon Campbell (Liberals). As someone who teaches public policy, and uses social media tools (and sometimes teaches ABOUT social media), I am always looking for good case studies and examples of “good” use of social media by politicians and government officials and agencies.

I asked the question on Twitter, and I’ll be compiling the responses. However, if you do have some ideas as to good examples and case studies, please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you all!

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I am quite wary of increasing the number of people I follow on Twitter (something that has led more than one person to try to “force” me to follow them – which, actually, most of the time goes horribly wrong because I react very, very badly to being pressured to do anything). This has led more than a few thousands of people to unfollow me (which, to be quite frank, is quite alright).

I don’t think I’m an elitist, but I just have a limited amount of brain to process stuff. Plus, I HATE receiving direct messages that can easily be either emails or public replies. I just HATE IT. I am even more careful about the people I add on Facebook, because there mostly I have family members, close friends, a few selected members of the social media community that I’m not that close friends with but whom I like to get to know, and many of my academic research colleagues.

The one network I am delighted to Olympically ignore is LinkedIn. And the irony is, lots of people seem to think I’m committing a mistake by ignoring LinkedIn. Now I can’t really ignore it that much since I sit on the Executive Committee of the Social Media Club Vancouver, and they have created a LinkedIn group (why this is the case still escapes me, but then again, I ignore LinkedIn). I have heard so many different stories as to who should I accept to connect on LinkedIn that I just simply try to ignore it. I have a few of my friends (mostly, close friends) on LinkedIn. People with whom I have interacted mostly on a professional level. Even if they’re my friends, I can indeed vouch for their work.

But adding everyone and their mother to my LinkedIn kind of worries me, because contrary to Facebook or Twitter, being connected on LinkedIn seems to appear as a tacit endorsement. And admittedly, in my case, for the most part, I think I am more than happy to endorse those who ARE already on my LinkedIn connections. That said, I don’t have a professional connection with everyone who has me or whom I have on my LinkedIn list. SOME of those connections are, indeed, professional (particularly those related to my research). But a vast majority, are my friends, and some folks whom I know through social media.

But what happens when you don’t accept those connections? That does NOT mean, in my opinion, that I wouldn’t be willing to endorse the person with whom I’m not connected. I just hate all these assumptions about social networks. If I follow you, people assume it’s because I find you interesting or whatever. And if I don’t, people assume that I am not interested in what they have to say.

Life in a networked society, it seems, is filled with assumptions. As for me, I would like people to stop assuming how I think and what I think. If you need to know, ask me point blank. Don’t assume anything about my relationship with you on account of any social networking connection we may (or may not) have.

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Furthermore, I would like to create a directory of local Vancouver bloggers. Those of you who can find yourselves on my blogroll, don’t worry about leaving a comment. I already have you there. But those of you who are not, by all means feel free to drop a comment on this blog. I will be creating a directory for Vancouver (and British Columbia) bloggers. I am, after all, the Vancouver Blogger Meetup Organizer.

I also offered my knowledge of the local Vancouver bloggers to any PR people who needed suggestions on which bloggers to pitch (as I know most of them), but to save my time, you can also refer to this resource. I might find a Google Documents way that may make it easier, but for now, commenting is fine. Feel free to re-tweet this post and share with anyone you know who blogs in Vancouver.

And those of you who weren’t on my blogroll, don’t feel slighted – It was mostly defunct! Now I’m resuscitating it.

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