Hummingbird604.com » Twitter

On the Twitter 101 for Business guide from Twitter

Raul — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:11:25 +0000

Credit: Robert Scoble

Recently, Twitter has become more mainstream as a tool for internet-based marketing. Many companies are realizing the potential impact that having an account on Twiter can have. Despite the ups, downs, “Fail Whales”, TwitterGates and “Twitter is Down”, FriendFeed and the likes, people still seem very drawn to the microblogging platform. I sure am addicted to it!

I do believe in the power of Twiter as a tool to raise awareness and I advocate its use as part of a comprehensive social media marketing strategy (clients will buy your product if they can find you), but I’m also well aware that there are many people on Twitter who feel annoyed by the fact that some businesses aren’t using it in a way that is perceived as effective.

Recently, Twitter itself launched a Twitter for Business 101 guide. I believe it’s a good stepping stone, but I am not sure it replaces real solid advice from consultants. I asked on Twitter:

Does the fact that now Twitter has a Twitter 101 for Businesses put out of business some social media consultants? What do YOU think?

Several friends responded with very insightful thoughts, reproduced below.

As always, I love to open the discussion on my comments section. What do YOU think about the Twitter 101 for Business guide? Do you think it’ll put pressure on social media consultants to provide more/better value? Will it be a good stepping stone? Would love to hear your thoughts.

How Addicted to Twitter Are you?

Raul — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:01:46 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve had no-brainer, no-thinking, purely-for-fun blog posts, so here it is – are you addicted to Twitter? I thought I’d get a 100% but I think I lost points because I don’t have an iPhone.

Created by The Oatmeal

Reflections on Twitter, “grow your network organically” and #nofollow

Raul — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:07:33 +0000

Credit: 7Son

I am frequently the subject of #followfriday and I am very honored and truly blessed by the people who choose me as someone worthy of being followed. I am limited by my capacity to absorb information from people and therefore, I don’t follow back everyone. I NEVER ask anybody to follow me back simply because I think that’s something that needs to grow with time. As I build relationships with people I always believe that there’ll be a point where we follow each other back.

There is a GAZILLION people I would LOVE to follow but I’m unable to, not because I don’t want to but because I simply don’t want to make the relationship non-existant. I know that TweetDeck would allow me to filter, but it’d be inappropriate of me to make people believe I am paying attention when I am not. Much rather have a lower number of people I follow than to be dismissive.

The same way I don’t like to do a #followfriday (simply because if I had it my way I’d recommend everyone both on my follower and following list) I don’t like the idea of the #wontfollow hashtag. I strongly believe that by saying “oh I won’t follow you because of … and ….” the beginning of the relationship is hostile.

I am really against popularity contests in the Twittersphere and I am also a firm believer of building real, authentic relationships on Twitter. I really strongly believe that we need to cut people on Twitter some slack. I am sure that the people who know me well and that follows me and I don’t follow back know that it’s not because I don’t want to but because I have a limited capacity for following people. At least, I would hope so! And I hope that people know that I can’t be forced into following someone back. At the same time, I don’t preclude anybody by saying “I won’t follow you”. Well, except Oprah, Ashton Kutcher and Perez Hilton

I also dislike the concept that businesses “must grow their network organically”. How the heck do people think that we are going to notice that a business is on Twitter unless the person behind the business account follows us? As I was writing this post, Todd Sieling (a friend whose opinion I respect and value) mentioned that businesses can have organic growth of followers by “talking to people talking about your domain and using hashtags”. As I answered to Todd, I don’t think both are mutually exclusive, but complementary.

The most important thing for me on any Web 2.0 platform is to maintain and continue the conversation. So, chime in with your thoughts on here

Twitter as an online social space to hang out virtually and enable offline interaction

Raul — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:46:45 +0000

I am an academic. I love looking at things through the eyes of research, even social media (see my latest analysis of social media marketing here). I don’t research social media per se, as I am a specialist in environmental studies. danah boyd is one of several researchers who has studied how youth use social networking sites as places to virtually hang out.

I have a feeling that scholars of the sociology of new media think that adults don’t use Twitter and other SNS as “places to hang out”. Sam Ladner (a sociology PhD in Toronto whom I just recently started following on Twitter) is currently working on designing a project to study Twitter as a social space. I am curious to see the results of her research.

Anybody who knows me and has read my blog more than three times should know that I use Twitter to virtually hang out with my friends and to build new friendships. It’s the new normal. I have obtained a lot of out of Twitter as a socialization space. As Dale mentioned, it’s the “online water cooler”.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the concept of Twitter as a virtual space. Do you use it that way?

Brokeback Qwitter: “I wish I knew how to Qwit you!”

Raul — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:40:26 +0000

I’ve been unfollowed on Twitter many, many times, and for a wide variety of reasons. At first, I did take it personally, I admit. And by at first, I mean within the first 3 months of using the service. Particularly since it was pretty much the Web 2.0 application I had signed for that allowed me to catch up with my friends in real life. Now that I am on Facebook, it’s not anymore the case. A few times in the past few months, I have declared Twitter bankruptcy and I thought to myself that I wouldn’t feel offended if the reason why some friends of mine (who are actually friends) would unfollow me on Twitter (because, even though I’ve toned it down, sometimes I am still a tad too noisy).

I also have unfollowed some people who have unfollowed me first, not because I am engaging in a reciprocal unfollow but simply because it annoys me when someone sends me a uni-lateral DM that I cannot reply to privately. And well, seeing as I’m being the person unfollowed first, I think it’s alright to regain control. I actually have suggested to Twitter that if a DM is initiated by someone who is not being followed by the other person, the recipient should have the ability to respond also as a DM.

Unfortunately, the act itself of unfollowing someone on Twitter, un-friending them on Facebook, un-whatever-ing anyone is perceived as an act of detachment and alienation. By it’s very nature, it is the breaking of a bond. Whatever relationship or bond existed between the people whose photos you could see (Flickr), whose DMs you could receive and send (Twitter), the very act of un-following/un-friending (Facebook) severs said relationship.

It would be totally cool if we all were mature enough to deal with this, but some of us may or may not be. I’ve become way cooler with people unfollowing me on Twitter, simply because I know that we’re linked in many other ways. We have each other’s phone numbers and emails, we check each other’s Flickr account every so often, etc. If a good friend unfollows me, I’ve come to assume that it’s because they find that my tweets aren’t adding value and that’s quite alright. We still see each other at meetups and other Vancouver tech community events, and I’m still good friends with them.

I don’t want ANYONE to follow me on Twitter out of obligation or some sense of reciprocity. I have a limited capacity to follow people’s tweets and I’m not really there for any sort of corporate reason. I’m on Twitter to chat and catch up with my friends, and to keep up with their lives and with what’s going on in Vancouver.

I just think that the use of Qwitter is not going to do any good. At least, it’s not going to do ME any good to know who unfollows me. I happened to notice earlier when I had relatively few followers, but right now, I’m lucky that I have so many followers I can’t really notice if anybody has unfollowed me. And for what it’s worth, I don’t really care. As long as our friendship is intact, anybody can unfollow me at will.

Twitter has officially become mainstream – my civilian friends know all about Twitter

Raul — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:42:15 +0000

This morning, I had brunch with C, B and L. My usual brunch crowd. These are friends I met while we all were doing our PhDs at UBC (in different disciplines, but we all lived in the same residential college). I call these friends civilians as well, because even though they use computer tools for their day-to-day lives, they don’t blog or use much of any other social media platform (other than, well, Facebook).

The topics were varied, but the thing that really struck me was how well they now know what Twitter is – C mentioned the Doonesbury week-long mock of Twitter, and L indicated that Stephen Colbert had talked about it (and she even accurately indicated that each tweet was 140 characters). Heck, even Barbara Walters and Jon Stewart talked about Twitter!

*sigh* I guess it’s official. I am no longer special. Twitter has officially become mainstream.

TweetDeck’s flaws – The “You’re now following So-and-So” issue

Raul — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:19:11 +0000

So, let me tell you a flaw that TweetDeck has (yes, I know that I’ve even given a seminar about TweetDeck and sung its praises). There are two big, major flaws (are you listening out there?)

1) When you add someone to any group, TweetDeck tells you “You are now following So-and-So”. Haven’t tested if they actually get the stupid DM or email “Raul is now following you on Twitter” but if that’s the case, my friends whom already I’m following are going to think “huh? wasn’t he following me before?” – I know – drama.

2) TweetDeck has NO way of recovering closed groups. I accidentally closed my “Focus” group and it’s going to take me hours to rebuild it. Why? Well, because I follow 400 people and I need to distribute those amongst the groups that I have. But I don’t have the kind of patience to add meticulously every person to each group I have assigned. So, now I have to add them on the fly when I see their tweets. And TweetDeck gives me the “you’re now following…” message. Which is stupid and annoying.

Someone needs to fix TweetDeck. And Twitter for all I care.

Have we lost the bidirectionality of Twitter this early in the game?

Raul — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:55:59 +0000

I have previously written about the topic of how Web 2.0′s premise is that sense of bi-directionality and conversation between content creators and users. Recently, David Gratton tweeted this:

I’ve notice that the conversational ‘tone’ of Twitter has nearly collapsed in the last 3 mos. It really is predominantly broadcast now.

David and I continued our conversation back and forth and I mentioned that some people may be afraid of being perceived as noisy and afraid as well of being unfollowed. Tris, and a few others (I am blanking on some people who chimed in) mentioned that they didn’t notice this decline. However, if you check the reply index in the Twitter noise application (FollowCost), my reply index is hovering around 70%.

I do recognize I am noisy. I admit it unashamedly. Mostly I try to provide value, but primarily, I use Twitter to create new friendships and maintain the ones I already have. I use it to keep the conversation going. While I have made a conscious effort to go to DMs when the conversation gets too chatty, I for one don’t plan on reducing my conversation index. Follow me at your own risk. … and remember, Web 2.0 IS predicated on bi-directionality.

The use of Twitter in an academic context

Raul — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:41:26 +0000

And here I thought I was going to beat everyone by THIS MUCH to write about how to use Twitter in an academic context and… guess what? Somebody beat me to it. Yes, the blog “AcademHack” wrote about the usefulness of Twitter in the classroom, and funny how it goes, I found about it on the January 28th, 2008 issue of Wired Campus (in The Chronicle of Higher Education). Given that I am an educator (mostly third/fourth year university undergraduates but I’ve also taught at the Masters and PhD levels), I always find it funny when something I use for fun is deemed valuable in my own professional context.

The more I’ve thought about this, the more I’ve realized that even those established newsletters like The Chronicle of Higher Education have actually been blogs all along. Well-researched, meaningful blogs, but blogs nonetheless. Their short columns are widely read, online, time-stamped, although one element is not present there that is totally Web 2.0: the bi-directionality. Mostly, The Chronicle’s articles are just written by the author, posted and there is no bi-directional interaction between author and reader.

When I think about Twitter and its use in academia, I often had wondered how I’d react to students of mine tweeting back and forth at me. Given that I didn’t feel comfortable with my students “friending me” on Facebook (and hence one of the key reasons why I don’t use it) I thought I wouldn’t be comfortable with Twitter and my students. However, one of my former students (and one of the best, I might add) has recently joined Twitter, and while we don’t follow each other on my personal account, I had a chance to chat with him in person recently and we talked about the microblogging tool.

Right now, I kind of wish that my students were on Twitter. We could keep in touch (although some people say that that’s exactly what Facebook is for), but I can also see the potential value in the classroom for interacting with the professor, particularly in a remote location (distance education) and when the student is particularly shy (he/she could send me a DM and answer a particular question).

Those of you who have used Twitter and are academics/educators/teachers, how else would you use Twitter in the classroom?

TweetDeck is the tool of choice for Twitter

Raul — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:34:27 +0000

Quite frankly, the only reason why I did this post is to get in on the increased traffic that TweetDeck is having on Twitter, no other reason. Well, there’s another one. Since I use TweetDeck I have been able to increase the number of people I follow to about 300. I couldn’t have been able to do that with any other tool

I know that Twhirl lovers will tell me about the multiple accounts, the Seeismic integration and small, nicer interface. And yes I did love the yellow DMs and the green @ replies. But I frankly doubt I’ll switch from TweetDeck.

And yes, I know there are some people out there who get all upset about yet another blog post written about Twitter. It is to those that I dedicate this post

On the use of Twitter for personal interaction

Raul — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:25:38 +0000

I’ve been reading a lot of posts recently on how to best use Twitter for business and the top mistakes that people make on Twitter. Frankly, I am not going to claim to be an expert on the use of this awesome micro-blogging tool. Many of my good friends are excellent evangelists for Twitter (particularly for businesses). But I don’t want to write about that (I can point you to other people’s excellent posts) On the personal realm, I use Twitter (as I mentioned in a previous post) to create relationships and friendships.

Admittedly, I am sometimes rather noisy. But for me, the whole point of Twitter is to engage in a bi-directional (or multi-directional) conversation. And frankly, if you really really want to know my view – I prefer to add value to your life IN REAL LIFE rather than on Twitter. Of course, if I find something that may be relevant, I’ll tweet or retweet – but for the most part, Twitter is the stepping stone to create real-life friendships. At least, in my case.

And now we return to our normal programming

Using Twitter and WordPress to create and maintain friendships

Raul — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:07:54 +0000

As I tweeted earlier today, my posts for the day are all themed around friendships. I am a very, very blessed man. I am very lucky in that I have amazing people who inspire me every day, who comfort me when I’m down, who can confront me with the truth and tell me right to my face when I’m doing wrong, and who are always happy for my growth and improvement.

Last Friday, I had the privilege of having lunch with Rachel Black, whom I met (not surprisingly) through Anthony Nicalo (and I met both of them through Twitter). Rachel does research on water as well (from an anthropological perspective) and (yes, call me academic geek) it was awesome not only because of Rachel’s personality and charisma, but also because we both got a chance to talk tenure-tracks, publishing research, and potentially collaborating in projects.

I wouldn’t have access to the many wonderful individuals I have in the past year if it hadn’t been for Twitter. I met Melanie Hoyt through Twitter and even though she is in the US now, she’s coming to Vancouver soon and we’ll get to hang out in real life. I keep in touch with Yam, a friend I made here in Vancouver, through Twitter. So, in reality, Twitter has given me an opportunity to build new connections, friendships and to grow them.

So, when I was watching Lorelle’s keynote presentation at WordCamp Whistler (read my liveblog here) I completely understood where she was coming from. I have used social media, and specifically WordPress and Twitter, to create new friendships. And yes, maybe, just maybe, social media may actually help me land my dream job. But that’s another completely different topic.

In closing, yes – I DO know that sometimes I’m noisy on Twitter. But bear in mind that, to me, Twitter is a relationship-building tool. I have tried very hard to keep my @ replies to a bare minimum (I follow 300 people, and I would follow more if I had the actual physical capability to do so – I don’t follow everybody back simply because I can’t not because I don’t want to).

Yes, I have gained a lot from Twitter – I have made NEW FRIENDS. And for that, I am always grateful.

Twitter as real-time news: The case of the US Airways plane crash on the Hudson River

Raul — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:32:13 +0000

As many of you know, a few hours ago, a US Airways plane landed safely on the Hudson River. CNN has live coverage, but even before they started covering it, everyone on Twitter started giving updates. A Summize search was updating between 330-550 tweets every 0.03 seconds. I am NOT kidding.

While some people may think of this as information overflow, I think of this as true crowd-sourced citizen journalism (like the awesome work that NowPublic.com does). Twitter-sourced citizen journalism.

No wonder why so many mainstream media folks are getting on Twitter. And local Vancouver people like Gillian Shaw and Jeff Lee from The Vancouver Sun, and Stephen Hui with The Georgia Straight (just a couple of examples, this listing is by no means exhaustive), are doing excellent work by “getting it” (e.g. understanding social media even if their day job is mainstream media).

Honestly, I am glad I am on Twitter. And I am even more glad that the passengers are safe. To the pilot of the US Airways Flight 1549 – YOU ROCK. You saved more than 150 lives today. And to the crew – you rock too!

[UPDATE - With all the search that has been occurring on Flickr for photos of the plane landing on water and the rescue, it occurred to me - how many people are going to upload photos to Flickr that weren't taken by them and how will those copyright violations or Creative Commons license violations be dealt with?]

[UPDATE - I failed to mention that one of the people who was helping the rescue, Janis Krums (@jkrums on Twitter) sent to TwitPic what is considered the very first photo of the plane floating on the Hudson River. Kudos to him! The true power of social media eh]

Petition to Twitter – change the tagline!

Raul — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:58:57 +0000

I know that many people who are new-ish to Twitter (or want to explore it) want to know what the heck is Twitter and how to best use it. I have repeatedly said here on my blog and on Twitter that my use of the tool is primarily social networking. I like to chat with my friends online while I do work.

I will admit that I have also used it to
(a) help me learn new things, not only about social media but also about my own research
(b) find interesting trends
(c) ease my worries by providing me instant, real time information about catastrophes – such as the one that afflicted Los Angeles in recent months
(d) push my blog posts using TwitterFeed
(e) organize social events
(f) get real-time tech support from my friends
(g) find new friends worldwide (which also has given me newfound points of reference)

So, I can completely understand why some people would be frazzled about using Twitter, or even perplexed. After all, Twitter asks you the question “what are you doing?”. The truth is, I very rarely complete that sentence. I know that it would be the logical thing to do. After all, the status on Facebook has been SO predominant that when people explain Twitter they say “it’s like a chatroom with Facebook statuses“.

So, this morning, while doing some work, I mused about the topic, and my thought and suggestions seemed well received. After all, most of us are just saying stuff, not really updating what we are doing. So, it would be better if Twitter changed the tagline to “Say something right now” instead of “What are you doing?” It would definitely make my life easier when I explain why I use Twitter!

What are YOUR thoughts on the matter?

TweetDeck as a standard Twitter client

Raul — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:30:22 +0000

While I think Tris was the very first one whom I saw using TweetDeck, I’ve started to notice lately that many of my friends are adopting it as a tool to manage their Twitter contacts.

It’s been hard for me to do so while away because I haven’t had a chance to download the software (the laptop I’m using is not mine so I don’t feel at liberty to do so) but I did before my previous laptop became defunct, and it was AWESOME. For someone who was an evangelist for Twhirl, I simply love TweetDeck. I’ve noticed that many more of my Twitter friends are using it, even Mac users (like Andy Peatling) or Ubuntu users (like Stephen Rees).

I know that Cecily Walker also uses TweetDeck, and she was jokingly telling Tris and I that we were late adopters. I’d say that TweetDeck should cut both Tris and I a share of the revenue, since we’re both evangelists, hehe (and unpaid ones, at that!). No, seriously… I think that TweetDeck has established a high profile and has started to become the industry standard for Twitter management.

Same as Tweetie is quickly becoming a standard for iPhone Twitter management (I know for a fact that Arieanna and Ianiv use it extensively, as does Jeffery Simpson).

Twitter and the bi-directionality of Web 2.0

Raul — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:00:01 +0000

While this week (and weekend) has been incredibly busy, I still managed to see Joe Solomon and Jonathon Narvey for a really quick coffee. Both Joe and Jonathon live fairly close to me, and we tend to hang out at JJ Beans. It’s such a cool coffee shop. They were there to play chess, and I just did a mega-ultra-quick visit to catch up with them in real life.

At some point in our conversation a couple of nights ago we discussed the bi-directionality of Web 2.0 and Twitter. I indicated that in fact I DO know many, many of my Twitter friends in real life, and that I’m actually friends with them. Karen Parker and I mentioned it to Shane Gibson at the recent Tweetup: our usage of Twitter is much more social and less business-oriented. Arieanna and Ianiv mentioned this point to Ianiv’s family one night when we were having dinner: we have been able to develop our friendship through the use of Twitter, because it keeps us connected even though we are in remote places.

David Drucker actually suggested this theme as a potential topic for Northern Voice 2009: how to stay connected when you’re far away (if you remember, I was away from Canada this past summer for about 1.5 months to attend a funeral and be with my family). Even though I wasn’t really in Vancouver, I kept my connections with my friends through Web 2.0 tools – Twitter, my blog, GTalk, Flickr, etc.

One element that Jonathon, Joe and I were musing about is the need for bi-directionality in Web 2.0. In the case of many politicians, their use of Web 2.0 was dismal. Broadcasting your very next move is not what Web 2.0 is all about. It’s about bi-directionality. You speak, I answer. You drop a comment on my blog, I respond (or I monitor the discussion so that I can jump into the conversation at some point). You tweet at me. I tweet back. It’s a 2-way street. I just hope politicians and newcomers to Twitter and the rest of the Web 2.0 applications can understand that.

Steve Jagger’s talk about Twitter – Vancouver Real Estate Tech Meetup

Raul — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:59:53 +0000

I usually attend this meetup because I have a lot of friends (the organizers included, Shane Gibson and Steve Jagger) who are either realtors or do tech stuff for realtors. Steve gave a quick talk followed by a question answer period on our beloved micro-blogging platform, Twitter. These are my notes of Steve’s talk

Twitter is a microblogging platform, but has evolved into a communication device. Twitter allows you to communicate with people you find interesting. Steve uses the Favorites function to engage with new people and stories (Steve talks about how he got an interview with The Vancouver Sun on Twitter precisely through Twitter itself). You can make stories happen.

Search.Twitter.Com (formerly known as Summize) is a tool that allows you to search the conversations happening on Twitter. You can see other’s public conversations, and through that, you start creating conversations and new relationships (that may lead to potential business). Start following people and engaging with them, and the relationships will come.

The concept of Tweetup – a gathering (mostly impromptu) of people who use Twitter and may be geographically close to you. Shane explained how he got involved with the China Speakers Bureau (he started following them and writing blog entries, etc.) Tom also explains how he got appointments to the National Real Estate Association.

Shane also commented on the fact that realtors should be on Twitter to signal that they are early adopters. Also, Ubertor and Twitter can be integrated.

Another tool that Rodney and Steve showcased was Twitterlocal – that’s a tool that allows you to find people who tweet within the same geographical location that you are.

If you’re following noisy people (I am one of them, hehe) you can use TweetDeck. Also, I emphasize that part of Steve and Shane’s success (and many other real estate tech people) is that they engage with people as human beings, not only as realtors. [Raul's note as well -A great example of this are my friends, like MJ Ankenman and Matt Collingem Yam de la Peña, Kye Grace, to mention but a few. I would have never met them either if it hadn't been for Twitter. Same goes for Steve and Shane]

I really enjoyed Steve’s talk, and was particularly amused by the fact that, while many realtors were already on Twitter, many were on the fence. Hopefully Steve’s talk helped them decide to join!

Beyond national frontiers with Twitter

Raul — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:15:17 +0000

Credit: JMilles

Yes I know I tweet. A lot. With over 9,000 tweets since April 2008, I have no clue how I have managed to actually maintain my followers. You are too kind! At any rate, while I was in Mexico I started thinking about following some people there but then I unfollowed them as I figured that I wouldn’t be staying for long and thus it was kind of pointless.

Through my tweeting, I’ve discovered that I now have followers not only from Canada, but also from the US, United Kingdom, Mexico, and that’s kind of neat to me. Because I sincerely think that Twitter should trascend domestic frontiers.

I know that I shouldn’t care about my stats but since I was asked to provide some metrics of traffic, I did a quick Alexa search and found out that about 30% of my traffic comes from the US. Nice! To be quite frank, I didn’t even think anybody read my blog in the US (seeing as the vast majority of my writing is fairly hyper-local, e.g. Vancouver). But I’m glad people do, and I’m glad I am able to provide some content that can have wider appeal.

Credit: justj000lie

On a semi-related tangent, I also have to say that I’m glad that Elizabeth May (leader of the Green Party and candidate to Prime Minister of Canada) is interacting with her followers on Twitter (@elizabethmay). I was very impressed with the way she conducted herself during the debates, and I have several very close friends of mine who are friends with her (or at least know her very well).

Politics 2.0 – Data and research methods (and Twitter)

Raul — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:00:47 +0000

I briefly saw a little segment by Susan Ormiston on The National (the night news) where she explained what has been going on Twitter. She has teamed up with Dr. Greg Elmer from the Infoscape Research Lab at Ryerson University. I hadn’t heard about them (although I kind of think that Dr. Elmer was here for Cossette Convergence/VIDFEST — but then again remember that I am not really a tech/new media/social media researcher (like danah boyd or Frank Stutzman). So I should be cut some slack

However, as a researcher and a scholar, I kinda like to know the research methods when I examine a project. Given that I do social media as a hobby, but still look at it from the research perspective, I was kind of taken aback when Susan was explaining that Twitter was “sort of a micro-blogging platform” ( I know I’m being nitpicky, heh ).

They (and by they I am meaning Greg and his team) implemented a tracking mashup “OrmistonOnline” and its corresponding website where they were tracking the Canadian politicians debate that happened tonight (with Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton, Elizabeth May, Gilles Duceppe – I hope I didn’t miss any candidate!).

I saw part of the debate, and I was kind of taken aback that at some points, the leaders weren’t really very polite to each other, interrupting each other. But I digress. My point of this brief post was that I’d be interested in seeing a global mashup (e.g. not only tracking with the hashtags #ormistononline but tracking for all and each one of the candidates).

I also saw some really neat graphs on television, and I’d be interested in knowing the methodology behind them. I must say that I like the approach of surveying new media on the part of mainstream media. As I have said before, bloggers and journalists both have a role.

And *geek alert* Greg Elmer’s website is powered by WordPress.

Politics 2.0? Are Canadian politicians using Web 2.0 the right way?

Raul — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:10:57 +0000

While I know that there is already buzz around the town on the use of Twitter (seen a couple of posts by Buzz Bishop and Kate Trgovac, as well as one on The Tyee’s The Hook, led by Monte Paulsen), Facebook and other Web 2.0 applications by Canadian politicians (like Elizabeth May, Stephane Dion and Stephen Harper), I am a bit surprised that almost nobody has (at least from what I’ve been reading on the sphere) touched on the very basic element of Web 2.0 – interactivity and bi-directionality.

Even if I don’t follow everyone who follows me on Twitter, I ALWAYS interact with the people who follow me. I have just briefly seen the Twitter account of Elizabeth May and she is not following anyone and has not interacted with anyone. The opposite attitude was that of the Twitter account of Barack Obama who basically followed everyone who was following, and then some more.

I don’t know Liz May, but some of my very closest friends do, and if any of those would like to relay this message to her and to the rest of the politicos in Canada, please feel free to do so – TALK TO YOUR FOLLOWERS. Yeah, you could argue with me that Obama never did talk to anyone on Twitter, but the point I’m trying to make is that Twitter should not be treated *just* as a news broadcast. If those of us who evangelize about all things Web 2.0 are really interested in harnessing social media for change, we need to explain to the “newbies” that the crux of social media is the bidirectional, interactive conversation that occurs within the realm of blogs, Twitter, vlogs, Facebook, etc.

And yeah, boo for fake Twitter accounts for political figures!

Witty tweets

Raul — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:32:32 +0000

I use Twitter both as a tool to interact with my friends as well as a tool to reach out to a broader public. I’ve programmed TwitterFeed to publish my posts (I can’t use WordTwit because I’m not self-hosted yet). Usually I make a concerted effort to write funny tweets, because honestly, I really appreciate reading one, but I’m not always as witty as some of my readers and follows.

I uploaded some funny tweets (you can check my Favorites on Twitter) on my Flickr account, so this is only a sample. A recent really funny one that Lorraine (aka Raincoaster) published recently was this:

raincoaster Web 2.0 Shirley Manson says: Stupid Twhirl! about 7 hours ago from web

I figured that we could start a thread of witty tweets for singers and songs and Web 2.0 (like Lorraine did here), but I’m not witty enough. Any ideas?

New to Twitter? Use a Twitter client

Raul — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:48:07 +0000

I know that Rebecca has compared Twitter clients at some point, and I recall a post by John Biehler (that I couldn’t find) and one from Gary Jones by BlueFur explaining Twhirl, so apologies if I’m missing another one. Feel free to ping me and say “hey Raul you missed my blog post about Twitter“. I’ve previously written about Twitter etiquette, about the relevance of Twitter, about why I use Twitter instead of Facebook, etc.

At any rate, I recently connected on Twitter with two bloggers whose blogs I read, Sexy In VanCity (by Emme Rogers) and From Sparkly to Single (by Laura Smart) and made a suggestion, that they download a Twitter client. I haven’t tested many, having only tried Twhirl and TwitterFox (given that I am PC-based).

I love the fact that Twhirl picks up tweets where the @ is in the middle of the sentence (e.g. “How was your weekend, @hummingbird604?”). My recollection of TwitterFox is that it doesn’t pick up those tweets where the @ is in the middle, but since I only have Twhirl here, I have no idea.

I love the fact that TwitterFox accumulates ALL the tweets and replies (thus giving me a chance to see what everyone has been doing instead of browsing through pages of the Twitter website). It also reminds me of direct messages much faster than Twhirl does.

I love Summize aka Search.Twitter. You can search for your own @ replies and make sure that you haven’t missed tweets. But I’ve tried it already a few times and it still DOES miss some tweets.

SO WHAT’S YOUR TWITTER STRATEGY, RAUL?

Right now (while in Mexico) I open Twhirl, and browse the website for the last few pages of tweets. I know, a bit of a waste of time, but I feel a tad uncomfortable downloading the TwitterFox extension on my Mom’s FireFox. But last night I discovered she does NOT use FireFox so I might end up downloading the extension anyways.

Anyhow, since this post is mostly for Emme, Laura, Jonathon Narvey (who just recently joined Twitter) and those Twitter newbies (or those who use the web more often), those of you who are Twitter and Twitter-client pros feel free to chime in and explain why you prefer one client over another. And STOP praising Twinkle and Twitterriffic! I *can’t* use them because I’m PC-based! (ok, fine… you can talk about them, since I seem to be the only Vancouver blogger in addition to Dr. Beth Snow who uses PC – shame on us – that’s why you need to give us MacBook Pros!)

Welcome to Twitter, Monica!

Raul — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:30:41 +0000

There are a gazillion reasons why I adore Monica Hamburg. She is smart, she is witty, she is beautiful, she is incredibly knowledgeable, savvy, sweet, warm-hearted (ok enough with the gushing, hehe). We had joked FOREVER about how I knew she had a Twitter account and I had followed then unfollowed her because she never Twittered. Finally, she has caved in and is now part of our Twitter folks. This is her first tweet:

“@monicahamburg is giving up I’m twittering now – thanks for your patience you wonderful peeps! 11:44 AM June 09, 2008 from web”

She is one of the local powerhouses in the realm of social media, and there is a lot to be learned from her. So, I am glad you’re now one of us, Mon. You’ve assimilated on to The Collective, Seven of Nine! Much love to you and welcome to Twitter!.

Being a workaholic AND a blogaholic…

Raul — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:20:54 +0000

Hello, my name is Raul and I am both a workaholic AND a blogaholic. I don’t think I had admitted that I was a workaholic until fairly recently. I am trying to update my academic CV and I can’t even remember how many talks I have given in the past couple of years. I am trying to not miss anything, and list everything that should be listed under each heading (journal articles, books, book chapters, etc.)

Furthermore, I have done what my friend HZ says – I have delved deeply into the blogging world and now have become addicted to blogging. Jonathan has written the 50 signs that you blog too much. The sad thing is that breakfast for me is scrambled eggs, toast, coffee and Google Reader

I am also worried that I have an inherited gene for workaholism. My Mom and I were talking on Skype tonight at 11pm (1:00 am Mexico time). My brother and I are talking on MSN as I write this blog post (1:00am Mexico time). This is insane. I was even planning to stay up (I think I’ll have to. I have a revise-and-resubmit that NEEDS to be published in 2008 so I *better* stay up).

Not in the best mood this weekend despite having had a great time with my friends. I think I’m basically frustrated with my own being not very productive. By the way, Vancouver local bloggers Ianiv and Arieanna are THE blogaholics (note their site) I don’t think I know anyone who blogs on more blogs than Arieanna!

Self-deprecating post about Twitter and me

Raul — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:15:26 +0000

How fun would I be if I weren’t able to poke fun at myself? Yeah, i would be VERY boring. Since the image I am going to link to is probably copyrighted, I won’t lift it off of the site. Instead, I will kindly ask you that you go and read the card and then come back. Done? Cool

Mostly, I take Twitter as a conversation tool with my fellow blogging friends. But I frequently joke on Twitter that I am “Twitter spam” and that this may be the reason why some people ‘unfollow’ me (actually I’m pretty certain that’s not the reason, but it’s always fun to say it). The someecards are always fun, sarcastic and give me a chance to say things I would like to say but sometimes don’t know how to say.