Social Media

I have fun with technology which means that I spend a lot of time online as a result of which I enjoy creating online friendships. The advantage of that is that wherever I am in the world I have people to chat with, or so I thought. I am taking a break from one social network in particular because I am no longer gaining from that social network. It was never about more than developing interesting friendships with interesting people and this was fine when I lived in a city where everyone used the site. The problem is when you move to a place where there are fewer geeks. The social media require one very important character trait for success. That the user is not stigmatized as being geeky. This comment comes after reading facebook statususes. One person said they were online at six am, second person replied “dweeb”. Of course this is playful but below the surface that attitude is very strong within contemporary culture. Spending too much time socialising in social media labels you as a geek. Social media will never be social whilst people still think of conversing with people online as geeky. Social networks will never be strong until people drop the stigma of being geeky and embrace a new way of doing things. Mobile technology is evolving the right way with so many social media networks developing their services for people to carry with them at all times. For the moment business professionals have blackberries and geeks like me have a diversity of smart phones. In two to three years when smart phones become more affordable then the stigma of being social online will weaken. It’s at that point that social media will hep improve your social life, rather than run along side it.

Jub - Feb 6, 2009

I think the most important point is the one you make in article 7.

I am happy for anyone to use twitter and any other micro-blogging service for self-promoting. Frankly, that’s their choice, and I can choose to not follow back.

But then, they have totally missed the point of it, and will have a hard time maintaining a good level of followers unless the content they share is of a superior quality.

Article 1. I shall take interest in the projects of others before my own. In this capacity, I will pay attention to what others are doing and see how I may help them bring those projects to fruition

Article 2. I shall Participate as actively as possible in as many discussions as possible. That is to say that I will make sure to get to know the audience that is listening to me. This may include answering any and all tweets, commenting on blog posts and more

This video filmed with the HDR-SR12 in Geneva Switzerland at La Reserve wine bar. The event was organised via facebook.

snowbroader - Jan 1, 2009

Hey Richard,
Do you know when the Geneva event is planned?
Thanks
Nico

For the moment I am planning on going to Zurich for the twitter dinner. It’s the first Zurich twitter event I go to and it will be interesting whether I need to speak swiss german or whether my English and French will help make conversation a little simpler. I don’t exchange messages with many Zurich twitter users so it will be quite different from the London events where I had exchanged so many messages. There’s another one in a month’s time in Paris although with the label I don’t enjoy much. I like the word tweetup because you have to smile to say it. Video of the event may arrive online. As a side note I should be going to one of the Geneva Inauguration event to get some footage of how the international community/facebook users of Geneva react to the event.

A few days ago I noticed that twitter was tweeting their programs as they were on in German and this looked like a good idea. I commented it was a shame that they didn’t have the same in French. Within a few days it’s there. This morning I saw Arte’s tweet for one program and so I’m watching a guy play some Chopin on the Piano. I spend quite a bit of time watching the twitter stream so if someone gives me their program details, as an opt in then there’s a good chance that I will tune into the program on the spare of the moment. If I had intended to watch the program at 2038 in three days time I would have forgottten about it. As things are that’s what’s playing on the right side of my screen now.

To Maggie and Chris I dedicate this, my 600th blog post as you are now in Florida, engaged and planning the rest of your life together. We have exchanged hundreds of messages over the past year and it’s been fun. Now the dynamics have progressed and in so doing why not mark the occasion :-) Have fun. As a sub note I also dedicate it to my Cousin and his fiancée. And to Seesmic Whit and Claire.

Twitterfriends is another of those interesting tools to see who you converse with most on twitter. You can see who replies to you most, who you reply to most, the sphere of influence and more. As a result it’s a good tool with which to establish who are the interesting people to continue following as well as those that may be worth dropping. In particular the second to last tab deals with inactive account. It’s a quick and easy way to see which accounts are no longer worth following. The network tab is also interesting. It’s a quick way of seeing who is in your networki graphicaly. Click the FOAF (friend of a friend) tab and you can see how your network and that of others interact. [caption id=“attachment_916” align=“aligncenter” width=“373” caption=“Warzabidul statistics for 3rd of January 2009”][/caption] As more people use the website so the value of those figures go up. You’ll notice that according to this I have received no replies. If that was a reality I would have given up on twitter a few months ago.

Loic - Dec 1, 2008

merci pour les pics!