Confessions of an eBiz Junkie

Brands, Twitter and Follow Backs

I've recently hit the 2k threshold for Twitter. For those that don't know, there's a mystery algorithm that limits you from following more than 2k people if you do not have enough following you. At the end of the day, it makes sense as they're really just trying to limit spammers... And no one likes a spammer.

I pinged the crew @ Twitter about this, and rec'd a canned response stating something along the lines of 'Best practice suggests a one to one ratio of following to followers....". Great, but not helpful given my situation.

So I'm now forced to go through and figure out how to un-follow some to follow others. This and bad paper cuts are two inconveniences that my life could deal without.

The Blurring Lines of Work and Life

Here's a simple question that I've been pondering a bit of late...

When you participate in the social realm - such as a comment on Twitter or updating your Facebook status - Who do you represent? Yourself? Your employer? Both?

I'm always cautious about what I post. Perhaps to a fault. I'll consider all sorts of angles from potential audience to potential misinterpretation. There's no doubt that my contributions in public forum are influenced by my affiliation with EMC. I'm not suggesting this is right or wrong - it's how I'm wired.

Let me give you an example. I'll make it fictitious to cover myself (see, there I go again).

Little Things Make a Difference

Watching the news is fun these days, huh? I usually follow it up by running full speed into a wall a few times. It adds to the overall experience.

Suffice it to say the new administration has the weight of the world on them. I've been using this of late to help put even my worst days in context. I'd much prefer deal with a site outage here and there versus having "Save the planet" on my To Do list.

All of this has me thinking - What can I do? Sure I wish I had a spare billion to throw into the kitty - but I don't. However, there are things I can personally do to effect change.

Social Media, CNN and Gustav

Knock on wood - So far, 9:36AM PST, looks like things in Gustav's path are holding up relatively well... The images from Katrina help remind just why these poor folks don't need a repeat.

With regards to Social Media - it's been impressive to watch CNN adopt platforms like Facebook and Twitter to engage in real time discussions with viewers. It looks like the activity is isolated to a particular program with host Rick Sanchez - perhaps as CNN tests the waters with the medium.

CNN used this Twitter feed to engage with viewers in real-time. The whole thing felt quite dynamic, with the show basically taking and answering questions and comments from viewers throughout the program. What struck me last night was the questions coming from the audience. They were relevant to the story but loosely off topic at the same time - helping provide a much broader discussion around the impact of Gustav and the region.

There's plenty of discussion going on around this... Some good - some bad. I think the key point here is not about Rick Sanchez or CNN or Twitter... Rather the convergence of one way and interactive mediums and perhaps a preview of what's to come in the future. I noticed fellow Tweeter and SM advocate Pistachio was influencing the conversation last night and provided her thoughts on the topic.

Nice to see a major news outlet such as CNN engaging viewers in real time with Social Media.

The Twitter Pack Project

Friend and Brulant Partner Adam Cohen posted an interesting read on how he leverages certain 2.0 tools and his thinking around adding connections. A good read, IMO. Interestingly, it mirrors my thinking and online behavior... If I were to sit down and plot a chart around my usage, it would look identical to AC's. Unlike Adam, however, I don't have the time for such things ;).

As is usually the case, investing 5 minutes to check out my favorite blogs led to a (new to me) interesting discovery. Until reading AC's post, I was unfamiliar with The Twitter Pack Project. I'm a moderate Twitter user and have had a hand in some Twitter experiments in the enterprise. Part of the struggle has been finding the right conversation... Finding the right group... Harnessing the right tools.

I've spent some time poking around the TwitterPack wiki(s). It's a nice destination for those feeling their way around the land of Tweets. Point of this post was to help drive awareness.

TwitterPack has lists of individuals organized by categories... Looking for some Social Media types to follow? No problem. Want to talk sports? They've got that too. Perhaps you want to see what different companies have a presence?? Lastly, a comprehensive list of Twitter Tools to help get the most of the Tweet phenomenon.

Definitely worth a look if this is a new offering on your radar as it was to me. Thx AC, for mimicking MY online behavior and for the pointer. Oh yeah, and if you're one of the 100 new people I'm following as of today - You now know why...

Twitter as a Business Tool?

From past posts, you may know that we've been exploring different ways to leverage Twitter as a business Tool. We've set up Tweet accounts for EMCCorp, EMCWorld and a few others. We used Twitter as a tool to communicate with attendees at our recent EMC World event. As recently as this morning, I was discussing the validity of Twitter as a business tool with one of our senior executives.

I can certainly appreciate the complexities of introducing new tools, especially when adoption of said tool is quite high - perhaps beyond expectations. However, I've been experiencing more and more issues of late. Yes, I've been following the Twitter blog - and I know the team is working it. However, it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to tout Twitter as a relevant and legitimate tool while such issues continue to plague. I've seen the infamous 'over capacity' screen at least 5 times this morning.

Our EMC World experiment with Twitter was a good one. Twitter adoption among attendees wasn't as high as I would have expected, but there were enough to make the experiment interesting. We were fortunate not to experience any major issues during the week long event... But, if things had been as unstable as they seem to have been in recent days, I'd have considerable egg on face and would be backing away from my attempts to legitimize the tool in the enterprise.

The current state of the state may be fine for casual users... But really needs to tighten up if enterprise adoption is a desirable outcome for the team.

 

EMC World Begins

Today's the big day. Following a concert by the Goo Goo Dolls last night, EMC World kicks off in full swing this morning with an action packed agenda over the next few days. I'll be watching activities in real time via Twitter and following thoughts from employee and attendees alike via #EMCWorld @ Hashtags.org.

Some neat media is starting to surface. This one caught my eye and I thought you'd enjoy it. more to come over the course of the week. Of course, many more cool vids available over at the EMC Channel on YouTube.

EMC World and Twitter

Walking the halls here in Hopkinton, there's a buzz in the air... EMC World in next week. This years event will see a record crowd, with over 9,000 customers, partners, technologists, journalists and analysts assembling from across the globe.

With some late breaking conflicts, it looks like I will not be in attendance this go. Probably just as well as I'm not 100% sure the statute of limitations has expired from last year's incident.

What's most exciting to me is the focus on Social Media this time around. A year ago, SM was but a concept in the fortune 500 space. Yes, we had flavors of forums here and there - but most had yet to embrace it as a core part of their business strategy. That's changed - and demand is bubbling up all around - EMC World is no exception.

Twitter in the Enterprise

Me - "Hi. My name is Len and I have a problem.

The Crowd (in unison) - "Hi Len..."

I think I might be on the road to becoming a Twitterholic.

I have to admit, when I first signed up to Tweet, I saw it as a bit of a novelty. My first impression, and many early Tweets supported the thinking, was centered around point in time activity (I'm having eggs for breakfast or Man do I hate shiny things..." ). Not sure if I just didn't see it then or if the Twitter crowd has helped evolve the overall behavior of the community.

It's since become a critical part of my day-to-day activity. I use it to gather business intelligence, ask questions to a wide variety of subject matter experts and expand my overall network.

IMO, the opportunities afforded by Twitter to the enterprise are huge.