Posts tagged as:

Twitterstream

Twitter, Followers, and First Date Syndrome

by Daria Steigman on January 30, 2012

Awkward Meeting of Terra Cotta Warriers, Twitter, Independent ThinkingI cleaned my Twitter house recently, dropping off over 200 people whose streams never grabbed my attention and/or with whom I rarely or never engaged.

This was not a lazy mass unfollow; I looked at every single account. One by one. (No, it didn’t all happen in one sitting.) And guess what? I can identify most of the avatars in my stream, and I know why I’m following you (e.g., marketing smarts, entrepreneur, funny, news source, runner, baseball fan, athlete, friend, tweet chatter, etc.).

My mantra for social is engagement.

Someone tweeted me the other day:

Informal Poll: Why Are You Following Me?

It’s the wrong question to ask me.

You see, I know why I followed you. But sometimes, like a first date, it goes nowhere.

Who do you follow–and why? Is it “the right reason” for you?

Photo by Shashi Bellamkonda (Flickr).

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Why I Quit Klout

by Daria Steigman on November 21, 2011

Klout, Social Media, Influence, Independent ThinkingI no longer have Klout.

I’m not sure what pushed me over the edge. Maybe it was the endless notifications urging me to urge my friends to sign up. Or the incessant efforts to get me to link to my Facebook account. Or the fact that it was so easy to game–and I don’t even like gaming.

Maybe it was the day Klout told me I’d lost my influence over @MagicPeaceLove (aka, my brother).

Guess what Klout? I can quit you.

Here’s the thing about influence: You can’t measure it with an algorithm. Computers can filter data, but you still need humans to provide the context.

Chuck Hemann led a terrific #socialmedia discussion on this topic recently. The transcript is here, and there’s some good food for thought in the tweet steam.

Do you have Klout? Why or why not?

Photo by Meg Wills (Flickr).

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Forget Streamtime: Preliminary Impressions of Twitter and the Real-Time Web

by Daria Steigman on August 3, 2010

I’ve been looking at my Twitterstream in real time since Thursday morning. Unlike the streamtime approach we’ve become used to, real time has no updates. It is a non-stop stream. Instant-ness. Immediacy.

In a blog post aptly titled Trialling Twitter at the Speed of Wow, TweetDeck opened up an experimental version of its desktop app to a handful of accounts. I was lucky to nab one, and so I thought I’d share my first (very preliminary) impressions.

1. Much as our brains have had to learn to process growing amounts of information in streamtime, real time will force us once again to readjust how we process information. I’m not sure yet whether this process will be iterative or require new systems and tools.

2. Without the “chunking” of tweets (via timed stream updates), it’s easier than ever to miss key information–so setting up TweetDeck notifications for mentions and DMs is more important than ever.

3. You can once again pull in replies to people you don’t follow from people you do. This is a huge step to restoring the ambient discovery Twitter took away 15 months ago.

4. We’re following a lot more people than we were 15 months ago, and somehow we’ve gotten accustomed to the quieted stream. I’ve been experimenting with the new functionality restored sometimes–and sometimes silenced when the volume of tweets streaming by gets overwhelming.

5. I’d like to see Twitter (or TweetDeck and other app developers) create a tool that lets me selectively follow the public replies of some people in my Twitterstream without having to pull in all of them. A list that I can shape and reshape to fit what matters to me over time.

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7 Deadly Sins of Bad Speakers

by Daria Steigman on March 24, 2010

[Note: This post originally appeared on IABC's Communications World blog.]

It can be hard to hold a room these days. Between the Twitterstream and the BackChannel, and our relentless need to surf as we learn, keeping your audience alert and engaged requires skill, smarts, and a great presentation.

While not every speaker can be a rock star, there’s no excuse for not doing your homework. Yet, time and time again, speakers screw up the basics.

Here’s my list of the seven deadly sins of a bad speaker:

  • He mumbles, fumbles, and stumbles out of the gate.
  • He reads his PowerPoint, which is all text anyway.
  • He makes sweeping pronouncements, but offers no data to back them up.
  • He’s giving the same speech, with the same examples, at the third conference in a row.
  • He doesn’t bother to change the date on his handouts.
  • He forgets (or does he really?) to leave time for questions.
  • He name drops, and name drops some more.

Have I left anything out? What speaker sins have you seen?

Photo by Mauren Veras (Flickr).

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Are You Filtering Information In or Out?

by Daria Steigman on November 2, 2009

Filter Failure

Call it Web squared or just a data explosion, but the universe isn’t the only thing that’s expanding. So is the volume of information out there in bytes and megabytes.

Take Twitter, for example. When I first signed up, I wasn’t following enough people to need any group functionality. That quickly changed. So I created a “Faves” group in TweetDeck to make sure I didn’t miss tweets from the 50 or so people I interact with most or whose Twittersteams provide other value. But then that Twittersteam started to grow, so I created a second group–this time of local folks.

That’s when it hit me: by default, I’m filtering in more and more information. Whether on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Reader, or another site, I’m increasingly looking for tools to help me receive and process–rather than avoid–the growing data stream.

What about you? How are you filtering information, and has this changed over time?

Photo by catspyjamasnz (Flickr).

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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