This is not a New Years resolutions post, these are just some ideas I have to change the way I share, and work in the new year.
1. “Like†Less Often – I know Facebook is on a mission to place a “Like†button on every page of the internet (yes including this one). I almost never use the Facebook Like buttons outside of Facebook, if there is something I “Like†I generally prefer to share it in to my stream, usually with a comment. On Facebook though it is a different story, the Like button has become a cheap substitute for actually commenting, I want to try to “Like†less and comment more (I am referring more to Statuses and Links, than Photos here)
I really prefer the Follow term used in Lotus Connections 3.0, when I Follow something I indicate I have interest in it, where as Like indicates I have something to say I am just not saying it.
2. Inbox Zero – it’s not realistic, or even in my control, so I am not even going to try. Last year I tried to keep my inbox to less than one page (i.e. “no scrollâ€) I know I was successful for a good few months, then it all fell apart. Having spent time at the end of last year restoring my inbox to sanity, I would now like to keep it that way. A few things to try to help me
- Unsubscribe from any legitimate e-mail I get but don’t read
- Block more subjective SPAM with my personal Lotus Protector block list
- Use mail rules to block or folder messages I can not block for various reasons but don’t read
- Use Conversation mode more and eliminate repetitive messages
3. Comment More on Blogs I read – along the lines of number 1 above, be better at taking time to leave a comment on a blog to thank the author for help, agree, respectfully disagree, or otherwise. It is easy to read and move on, more difficult to remember to stop and give feedback.
4. Share Differently – one thing I keep noticing is that I am spreading content all over the place, here on my blog, twitter, Flickr, Google Reader, Twitpic, Posterous (aka curiousmitch.net), just to name a few. This is what drove me to create my “Lifestream†site last year. While I haven’t really promoted it (I guess I am now), I use it as my site URL in some of my online profiles, and now have it linked on the header of this site. While I need to find more time to work on it, I intend it to be a one stop shop to capture my online activity (minus Facebook).
In addition to bringing all the activity together in one place, I also want to re-think how and where I share stuff, for example Twitpic, most Twitter clients do a terrible job of attaching the Tweet to the photo, so you wind up with a bunch of photos with no context. I could switch to another photo service, and spread stuff to yet another service, something I would prefer not to do. Another example is certain links, cartoons, articles that get shared on Twitter, some really are intended to be tweeted, and gone in an hour but other content I would like to have saved as more than a tweet. I also don’t want to clutter this site with every photo, cartoon, etc that I want to share. I am going try to use Posterous more for this type of sharing. As I mentioned when I migrated to WordPress, I thought about moving to Posterous, but did not feel it was ready (though since I migrated they have released an Android app), and while you could argue that I am creating “just another blog†I am going to use the Posterous site (aka curiousmitch.net) more for sharing photos, etc, and this site for the content you are used to seeing here. I hope this will help limit the number of places I share data, and make it easier for myself and others to go back and find something later on.
I am also playing with Memolane, I see that as more of a personal search and history, rather than a public one at least for now. Trunk.ly is another new site which does a nice job of collecting your shared links from Twitter, Facebook, and Delicious, into an easily searchable format, these are excellent tools that are aggregating existing content, not a place to create new content.
That’s all for now, there are a few more ideas rattling around my brain, but I will let them rattle a little longer. Would love to hear your thoughts on these items, and any other ideas you might have to change the way you work or share in the new year.
Very nice post, Mitch… I like the thought-out approach to what you’re doing. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks… Sharing them is the easy part, executing is the harder part, but I am going to try 🙂
And I thought you didn’t want to ‘like’ me because I’m an Eagles fan and you’re well . . . sorry ’bout your season! 🙂
Really though, if I take just one thing away from your post, it’s to leave feedback more often. Even if just to let the author know that I read it to the end.
And I did.
Correct… in your case it is because you are an Eagles fan
I struggle with the “what content goes where”. I hate doing things twice. Thus far, my stream is much simer that you have. I divide my content into how public it will be. Short shotgun info goes out on twitter and TweetDeck let’s me have the option to cross it over to Facebook. For public content I author, that goes to the blog and cross posts to Facebook (and a tweet). For more private content, that goes only to Facebook. The downside is that, while I now alway author just once, comments and feedback are all over the place. I have different readers in different places Nothing is perfect. I’ll be watching your “stream” to see how it works for you. Thanks!
one stop shop to capture my online activity (minus Facebook).Â
bringing all the activity together in one place
I already know you don’t like me, so this is nothing new.
I will attempt to comment once in a while, and you might get lucky and I’ll offer something useful. Unlikely, but…
*Like*
You could have used the button you know LOL
Excellent post and good thoughts on issues affecting anyone trying to participate in online communities in a meaningful way (or even just for cheap laughs). May lead me to find a better place to use as “my website” than the blog I no longer update very often.
“Like” x2 but I did not want to throw your stats off by using the actual button. Moving my main page for IdoNotes.com and TheSocialNetworker.com to a live stream made much more sense long ago. I have also been busy trimming the Facebook friends so I can share and be more social there as well.
We all still like you Mitch!
Thought it would be too ironic for me to read this and not post a comment.
Interesting to see how many people are starting to get all their social networking stuff muddled up and fragmented. Don’t know what the answer is though, it only seems to be getting worse with new sites popping up here and there.
Can’t say that I’ve ever used the Like button outside of facebook either. I’m one of those luddites who would prefer that sites like facebook stay in their boxes and don’t invade the rest of my web experience.
You encouraged me to both like and comment! nice post.
Hi Mitch! Happy New Year, my friend! (I know I am coming late to the game, since I am currently recovering from a massive cold I caught over the holidays… almost there!) Rather interesting and insightful blog post that surely brings forward three key words for 2011 in the social networking world out there: focus, focus, focus!!
I think we are all embarking into focusing our interactions a whole lot more and try to avoid spreading thinner by the minute. I think in 2011 we are going to see how we are all wanting to become thicker than ever, and re-gain focus with our online interactions with colleagues, friends, family, etc. etc.
You surely highlight a good bunch of great ideas to help re-focus how you would want to share stuff and rather intriguing to see how it would work out for you over the course of the next few key initial weeks!
A couple of additional thoughts though on that re-focus task:
1. Don’t have that issue with the “Like” button; heck, I don’t use Facebook in the first place! (I heart owning my content, something that FB doesn’t seem to understand very well), so it may well be a good time to reevaluate whether it makes sense to invest that heavily on it or not. Same would apply for LinkedIn or Twitter, by the way. It’s always a good thing to do some hygiene and clean up some accounts 😉
2. It’s possible to live a world without email, my friend; you know me, I have been living that for nearly three years and still going strong! (Almost over with my three week holiday and got about 10 emails throughout that time!); I think it’s just a matter of getting things started… From the tips you shared above I think you are missing a key one; if you would want to reduce substantially the amount of emails you receive, stop replying to them. Find other venues, encourage folks to think outside the Inbox and before you know it they are all gone and using something else. Believe me, it’s possible, Mitch. I am doing it myself 🙂
3. About the usage of TwitPic, I would be very careful with that one, since last year there were some articles that were stating how Twitter apparently owns the rights of the pix shared through TwitPic, so you may want to think about it twice. I am loving Instagram at the moment; and good choice revamping your Posterous site. I have done it myself and it’s going to take much of my sharing in the new year, once I get things going with work for 2011… still savouring last few days of holidays …
Well, I think that’s enough for today… Have a look and let me know what you think and happy to keep the discussion going while at #ls11 … almost there! 😀