Todd Lyden

I have not written like this in a while, but I had to document my reaction to yet one more "NO, THIS is the PROBLEM with Twitter" blog post. What finally set me over the edge was a "reaction to a reaction" blog post by Mack Collier here. His post was a response to Gary Vaynerchuk here . Wow. I REALLY can not believe we are hearing the same inter-webs pap for the last TEN YEARS? Yes, ten years of hearing the same complaints, same problems, same same. To Vaynerchuk, I say thee: why invest in something that has ESSENTIALLY been the same "group chat" tool it has been since day one. Sure, there are some ups and downs based on who came and went, or how Twitter helped something some time, or heaven forbid, it was the ONLY place that celebrity posted that thing that time. They can enact some algorithms like Facebook to make it more palatable, less of a firehose, but it was ALWAYS a firehose with ZERO privacy and always noisy, always competitive. Heck,...

I should have been giving Google Plus a little more attention in the first month of service. It still feels very much like it is reserved for the special people, but that's probably a good thing. I've decided to experiment operation out of Gplus primarily for the next week. I set up my feed to head over to Facebook and Twitter . I will still address stuff that is in those places as if I were still posting from there, but I am going to try to do all the posting from Gplus and see how it works. You can selectively send posts from Gplus to Twitter and Facebook, but I don't want to worry about that. I generally share tech and specific stuff to Twitter and more personal stuff to Facebook, so that might get a little dicey. Thoughts? How can you keep the fans on either more popular site happy, while integrating Gplus?

Twitter is so many things. But at its core, its a functional checkin service isn't it? If you use it the way most experts recommend, you are retweeting messages (links) from people you wanted shared, including a small mix of yours in for good measure. Isn't that just telling people what you are reading? I've seen some automated Twitter tool discussion lately. The gist was that people didn't like referring something that they maybe hadn't read. But that means that all functional checkins are just referrals right? Checking out an article, link, webpage, a restaurant, movie, book- it is all the same right? So as long as Facebook and Twitter allow us to aggregate those "checkins" or referrals, we will keep doing it. And Twitter ain't going anywhere fast.

I saw the percolating of Triberr.com at least a week or so before it a critical mass recently. (Does that make me an early adopter ? Or just early spotter?) Mitch Joel, and commentors, have a great discussion about Twitter automation going. I really liked the idea- practice is another ball of wax. Most folks are complaining that automatic retweets of unread blog posts suggests that you are recommending something that you might not recommend.  I can see that side of the argument, very legit. Course, this operates with the assumption that EVERYONE assumes you are recommending something when you tweet or re-tweet it. Are you? Should you be held liable if you were to send a link and it changes? The discussion of decorum and expectations about online practices such as this isn't going to end any time soon. The reality is: EVERYONE has their own set of best practices and SOP. I'd like to think that most of them mesh up. I dare say, I get a little tired of experts t...

photo © 2008 Peter Gorges | more info (via: Wylio ) I've seen some posts lately about the expectations that people have about social media online usage. This started in part with @ambercadabra's post on reciprocity.  She rightly points out that the expectation of a follow or friend through Twitter or Facebook is not warranted. This is about expectation right? I responded to Amber 's idea here initially  but I've been seeing more and more talk about how to interact online. A recent great example is @webby2001 post on social media non-natives "not getting it."  The gist was users of  social media and everything that it entails need to see the divide or gap and acknowledge that just because the luddites aren't online isn't a reason to "educate" them. I think this still comes down to expectations. You really need to know why you are using social media, because your goal isn't always going to jibe with people you know online or ...

Ok, I am cool with the principle of using audio to blogcast. Specifically, I have been using Cinchcast like  others. However, subscribing via RSS doesn't help you do much unless you are prepared to listen to it directly. And Cinches that are embedded in blog posts are lost- check out a recent one I posted via Feedburner : That's right, it looks like I stop altogether. Ugh- I checked the RSS for Cinches and unless you post something on their edit, you would see nothing as well. Which makes sense. Really not sure about using as a LEGIT blog alternative- especially because I can't listen to them on my "dumb" phone. Related articles Social Networking with your Audio using Cinchcast.com (lehsys.com) 10 Ways to Use Cinchcast to Boost Your Visibility (biztipsblog.com) Robert Scoble: You might have heard of CinchCast. It's a new app/service that runs on mobile phones. I use the iPhone version. I record audio using it, which posts right after... (scobleize...

My new favorite toy for Twitter is one that you have to wonder why THEY didn't create- seriously this time. Slipstream gives me a reason to use the "NEW" Twitter interface as it only works in it right now. As you can see from the screenshot, it allows you to HIDE specific Tweets from people or based on keyword mentions. It will even let you determine where to block it. You can pick your lists, your home feed, you name it! So far, oneforty only has one review  and it is neutral if not positive. You can find it in the Chrome Web Store and it was an easy download! The reviews there are positive as well! Watch a brief video: Slipstre.am from Arthur Klepchukov on Vimeo . You can see how it has changed from when it was being worked on last year, but after just messing around with it, I now have to stick with "new" Twitter to enjoy the benefit of Slipstream. Related articles Launching My First Incubated Startup Today (artvankilmer.wordpress.com) Picking Twitter T...

photo © 2009 Lauren O'Grady | more info (via: Wylio ) A great response to a common Twitfliction: reciprocity. @ambercadabra  wrote a slight diatribe here  about folks on Twitter and Facebook to a lesser extent feeling that they are entitled to your attention for theirs. Head over, good stuff. My only contribution was to check out one of the sites that appears to be helping the cause.  Head over and check out: who.unfollowed.me  - not the most useful Twitter toll in the world, but I suppose if you really want to have an idea about WHEN people are ditching (thus avoiding such Tweets in the future) it could be handy.  I doubt that self-reflective reasoning is why when it seems some people are calling out others for not following back. Weird! I think the real reason you might see some expectation of follower reciprocity is that many are viewing these communication methods as if they were just collecting Pokemon or even worse that they were just...

I like some people I've met via Twitter quite a bit, but one whose voice really hits me is @WordsDoneWrite  . I know part of the reason is because we were both debaters. How I know is because of the way she "says" things. I get it. I can actually hear it. Photo: ImNotQuiteJack She took particular offense to "contest criminals" running shady contests on their blogs. I was with her one hundred percent until she got here: When you talk with someone online, you're implying to some degree that you think they're alright. If you take that further and retweet their blog post, share their contest, or promote their event, you're telling your network that you  approve  of this person. It's essentially vouching for them. The reputation you've established may sway people to participate, enroll, or otherwise support the person in question. Your reputation is at stake with every bit of information you share.  This is PROBABLY nitpicking- we could hash this ...

Image via Wikipedia Well this wasn't how I was going to do this, but what the heck. I was ready to bag on Posterous a while back, but after I made the decision to move my "social media" stuff exclusively over to www.socialmediawannabe.com  (go ahead you can check out the goodies there) I was contemplating my next move for toddlyden.com. I learned the entire structure of hosting and the domain were farked up and back tonight so I jumped shipped over to Blogger. Why? 1. I was able to move the entirety of the old blog over with so little hassle it wasn't even funny. Posterous keeps pushing people to move their blogs to them and they would LOVE to have you, but I had almost ZERO time and effort in shifting the old posts over to the new host. 2. Blogger is CHEAP. Oh, yeah- it's FREE. Well so is Posterous, but dang they were killing me. I love FREE but it should be as reliable as possible and I already had experience with a lovely time over here at Blogspot . ...

http://www.theconversationprism.com/media/images/twitterverse-poster-lg.jpg My question of the day stemmed from two blog posts from bloggers I follow speaking to the semantics of what Twitter/Facebook/et al. call their respective users. @WordsDoneWrite lambasted the notion of followers in an older post . I get where she is coming from. "Followers" connotates something akin to worship. (I'd dare say the way people are overly positive and grossly cheery, they are worshipping). Amber suggests that the name hurts the power of social media. I guess because it infers a relationship of power over another. @ariherzog has written something similar here . He breaks it down as simply as this: "We need to stop calling the people we know online as friends." I "follow," have "friend-ed" and done whatever else a website has done to simple connect with folks via social media. While I get the complaint about the verbiage used, I don't think a...

You got Yelp, Urbanspoon, and many other review sites that are offering a way to lodge a complaint or place a nice compliment about a service provider. I've got to say I was impressed with Gripe as a new entry in the "review" niche of apps/sites. Their blog highlights the effectiveness of the idea: One complaint got turned around fast. This is ENCOURAGING companies to take control of the word of mouth found on Facebook and Twitter! It is also a great way to measure your "influence." Look at Whole Foods on Gripe: The other thing I like about this system is that while it is mostly complaints it also allows for compliments. I posted one and look at how many people, conceivably (apparently) would see it: That's right- half a million people! Unlikely, but OK- it at least gives you the idea. They are trying to distinguish themselves from the review sites by resolving complaints as a better business bureau would and considering the problems they are having latel...

I've tried being a good Twitter citizen. Following those that follow me. But the incessant ebb and flow of people following me OBVIOUSLY just to get their numbers up is beyond annoying. I follow those that I find add the value that I want to SEE in my stream. If you want to follow me, I've given up on figuring out WHY. I would hope that you see value in what I have to say, but honestly, I know that 95% are just doing in the hopes that I follow back and pump those numbers up for you. Here is a GREAT example of the problem. Now, I have no IDEA why "Blockbuster Mexico" would CHOSE to follow me.  I certainly WOULD NEVER look for them to follow them. I have no issue with their stream but I am not fluent in Spanish.  I'm sure there are VERY targeted people and institutions on Twitter that would LOVE the follow and would follow them back, but NOT me. But that's the problem! They seem to be operating on the old idea of just getting the numbers up,...

I'm back with another lesson from Scrubs.   Last time it was all about Dr. Cox. Don't hate- it was a great show, even that last season.  I was rewatching the eighth season finale (which most  people  thought was going to be the last show) aptly titled " My Finale " the other night. A FANTASTIC monologue really spoke to me about what you do when you blog and other things in  life : JD is walking out of Sacred Heart for the last time and thinks to himself: "I guess it's because we all want to believe that what we do is very important, that  people  hang on to our every word, that they care what we think. The truth is, you should consider yourself lucky if you even occasionally get to make someone - anyone - feel a little better. After that, it's all about the  people  that  you've   let   into   your   life ." Granted this is not about YOU making someone feel better per se, but rather ju...

Image via Wikipedia I realize everyone offers their advice about  Twitter , but I want to offer a few   quick  observations about using   Twitter   as a blogger. 1. There are ZERO hard rules. This is the Wild West of the Internet! Posse justice and all that! 2. Numbers are irrelevant- interaction is not. Who cares if 1,000,000 people are following you? If you can't RT or do something, you may as well have ZERO. 3. Follow or list-following those that interest you. There are so many ways to read through the JUNK that there is little to no excuse to NOT follow people. 4. EXCEPT, you might want to not follow certain folks. Again, it is up to you! 5. People have guides and strategies out the ying-yang and there is nothing wrong with them, but first- know why you are on there!  6. Nothing wrong with SOME personal stuff, too much is too much. As with anything, moderation. 7. If you have several accounts, don't expect me to follow all ...

Everyone is sinking in it. And it is only going to get worse.  Social media and other associated tools, apps, tweets, fans, etc are all on the rise. The Tea Party's successful use to help their grassroots rise is a GREAT example. @jaybaer has this great post  about getting on board. The gist is: everyone doing it now is still learning but business needs to get on social media now. Why? Because once everyone is, you won't be so special anymore just because you were on Twitter in 2008. Jay makes his case about being involved in social media and I think most people agree that folks need to get on social media. However, its seems like we already have winners and losers.  This is a  double edge sword .  Everyday, there are little rewards for those ALREADY using it. This is about market analysis. While Jay works with Fortune 1000 companies, most small businesses are really playing catch up to what Jay is talking about. Mind you, there are a lot of folks just gett...