Building out the Social Media FAQ

In talking with Chris Brogan recently (during his WordCamp Las Vegas presentation actually) I pointed out the fact that our RSS Streams don’t do much to help build our collective memory. In some ways, a tweet is like a shooting star, if you happen to be looking at the right time in the right place, you can see something brilliant on occasion. They serve as sparks for our imagination, but as with our real world conversations, it’s presence is often more ephenneral then permanent. Chris rightfully pointed out this is why he focuses so much effort on his blog, that there is deeper conversation and permanence in blogging (which is one reason why I am going to try to do more of it in 2009 like this).

In our back and forth, we discussed the fact that the online conversation that occurred in ‘the early days of social computing’ on mailing lists and forums often had significant (and generally misplaced) energy directed at people who joined the community and did not first ‘read the FAQ’ to discover the historically important conversations they had before you showed up. It included some cultural nuances, pointers to reference data as well as answers to questions from people new to the field or the industry or the community of interest or whatever the central topic was for the group.

So in thinking about our mission to further media literacy, our efforts to promote the Social Media profession and the widespread use of Social Media by different people from around the world, we are going to start a new project to build out the Social Media FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). When launched during SxSW (good goal eh?) we hope that people will be able to send anyone interested in Social Media here as their starting point into the world of Social Media. If you have some ideas about what this site should look like or what it should do, please share them in the comments or write them up on your blog and send us a trackback.

In the meantime, please help us get started by submitting one or more of your frequently asked questions below. If you have an answer for the question, even better, but the value of powerful questions is what we are seeking here. Ultimately, the biggest questions will be explored as part of our new International Social Media Club program we are simply calling Question of the Week right now. So let’s get started and move to get all the information, knowledge and insights organized! Not only will it help people learn, it will enable practitioners and professionals to invest more time innovating and less time explaining the basics.

If you get it, share it.

SMC Poll: RSS Consumption

I am researching RSS Readers and the various ways people consume information/lifestreams, and ran a quick poll on Twitter this past Tuesday. It turned up some interesting feedback with 170 responses coming in by posting time:

Nothing surprising from the first question, most people consume information while in the office, with in the living room a solid second.

The second question was more interesting to me – most folks working off laptops over desktops and a large percentage tracking feeds while on the go.

And then came the kicker – the largest percentage (35%) feel they are fighting a losing battle and fall into the ‘information overload’ category.

The last question was exported into an Excel spreadsheet (not a graph), so I need to cull that data and will try to post a follow up over the next week.

I kept the poll short and to a very focused audience, which I believe slightly skewed the results, but still found it valuable information and will play a key factor in my research paper (for private use, but will continue to post results on future polls here).

Thank you to everyone who participated in this poll.

Research Project: RSS Consumption

I am in the middle of a research project and thought I would poll my pals here at Social Media Club to learn how you all consume information, assuming, you use RSS readers.

If you have 30 seconds to spare, I would love your thoughts on this, and I will be publishing the results on the blog tomorrow.

Chris Heuer on RSS Ray Today (May 23)

I am really excited about being on RSS Ray’s show tomorrow, and glad to focus my attention on the fun parts of my work – helping more people learn and understand how communications is changing as a profession to be effective in a world where the company is no longer in control (or holding onto the illusion of control). Of course, we will talk a little bit about Social Media Club as well, but I hope to focus the talk on those trends and transformations that are of ‘greater significance’ here more so than myself and the club. Lee Hopkins wrote about a portion of my perspective on this the other day, but the original post was removed – and there is a bit more you can read about on my old consulting company site (not updated for a long, long time). I have been thinking about “The Communications Strategy” for a long time, and many of the things I only envisioned when forming these ideas are actually now a part of the toolbox. Wiki’s, blogs, tools for measring influence, better distribution and so much more are a part of our everyday lives now…

From my few conversations with Ray and listening to a few of the archived shows you can download, Ray is a really sharp guy and has a great team working with him on his show. (I wish I could get a producer like Stacey!)

So tune in tomorrow, or if you can’t be there live, go back and download the podcast – I love this stuff and can’t wait to do more of it…

PS – this is my first real radio interview in about 10 years…

PPS – no, I won’t be talking about that other story, we are going to focus on marketing and how it is changing and more importantly, how communicators need to change with it. [blatant_plug] I will be revealing a bit about “Listen. Join. Start.” The Social Media Playbook for Professional Communicators which is at the heart of our Social Media Workshop on June 11 [/blatant_plug]

Update: My Interview with RSS Ray Segment 3 — My Interview with RSS Ray Segment 4

CommonCraft Paperwork: RSS in Plain English

Great video from Lee and Sachi LeFever working to craft a better explanation of RSS for everyday folks. Good idea, and something we want to see more people trying to do – coming up with their own stories explaining the real value they get from their tools and how they use them. It is in their new ‘paperwork’ format and the first in what I imagine will be many such episodes, Video: RSS in Plain English.

The important thing to note here is that just because it has been done, doesn’t mean you can’t improve on it by trying your own creative explanation, but do give them some good feedback and love over on their blog. I think the one thing missing really was a good podsafe music background. I kept getting a Mr Bill vibe, was a little worried for the little guy sitting at this computer really… I really miss those great clay figure shows – perhaps Lee was channeling a bit…

I tried to embed the video here, but it is not cooperating with WordPress, so check it out over on their site… Video: RSS in Plain English.

SMC’s Most Excellent Ping Server List

Once again, I was in need of the latest Ping Server List for a client’s Blog, but I could not find a decent one anywhere that was up to date (if you don’t know – a ping server is a computer that gets notified when a new Blog post is published). Chris Abraham wrote the most popular one a while back which I have previously used blindly as is, only to now find it is woefully out of date. WordPress has a pretty decent list as well, just as out of date. Since it is something I think we all need, I went ahead and collected all the ping server URL’s I found from the first 2 pages of Google results and started testing them. [Read more]

Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and RSS – The 4 R’s

We don’t always need to reinvent the wheel, sometimes we just need to give it a fresh coat of paint and a new story. The other day while trying to answer the question of what was the most important skills that a Social Media Literate person should have, I saw the traditional 3 R’s in a new light. Rather than thinking of just the simple definition that each word represented (ala the act of writing, being able to read and undersand basic math), I realized the depth of meaning behind each word.

The 3 R’s are inherently necessary for basic media literacy, but I think the addition of RSS as the 4th R is what is really required for Social Media Literacy. By this I mean to say that an understanding of the nature of RSS is important, not the technical nuances. Rather than pontificating endlessly on this, let me briefly explain how I see the 4 R’s and ask you for some feedback to see what sticks.

• Reading – While a modern update to this would also take into account reading, listening, viewing and perhaps even researching, the important skill here is understanding what other people are trying to communicate – the comprehension of what is experienced.
• Writing – Here of course we can move beyond the act of writing and include speaking, shooting video and other forms of self expression, what we are really talking about is the ability to communicate effectively so that others can understand what we are thinking.
• Arithmetic – While you could argue that the math is an interesting aspect of good design (how many pixels wide can it be?), it seems the simplest understanding here is best – from my perspective this just means being able to add up the score on a given issue and understand which choice is better – objective decision making.
• RSS – This is one of the key elements that makes Social Media literacy different. I could describe it in many other ways, but within this context the important aspect for me is that understanding how RSS and by extension tags, work. It enables any individual to step into the conversational flow – to not only follow what other people are communicating, but ensuring what the individual has to communicate is heard by other people who care about the topic.

I like thinking about what is old being new again – I think it makes it easier for a wider variety of people to grasp what we are discussing. Greg Narain suggested that ‘Reach’ might be a better term for the 4th R and while I am inclined to agree with the idea of making it a simple, more common word, I dont think it has the impact it should as a fundamental skill. Maybe we need a different metaphor? So am I off base here or is this an interesting (and simple) way of explaining Social Media Literacy?