Klouchebag will die soon. Here’s why.
Tom Scott has a gift for making fun web ‘things’ that get a lot of attention. He also speaks a great deal of sense. This post is the best thing I have read about the latest strategic changes that Twitter are implementing. It is a clear and pragmatic response to something that has clearly peeved a great deal of the development community but isn’t (in my opinion at least) that huge deal so many are making out of it. I think it comes back to this tweet from Dave Winer again;
This little Twitter crisis has also been a boon for the fundraising efforts of app.net – a startup that aims to provide an ad-free alternative to Twitter. For $50. Personally I think it is another vanity project that is likely to be little more than a tumbleweed farm. Diaspora anyone? [though it did spawn a wonderfully funny parody site – http://ihave50dollars.com/ which is nice.]
How to Buy Digital Engagement Software by Gez Smith
I think this is a great article by Gez and is valid for any digital procurement project not just for engagement. Points (2) and (3) are particularly favourites of mine.
Funnily (not sure thats the right word really!) I have just been involved in a major procurement for digital software and we did not follow a single piece of this advice. In fact I’d suggest we did the exact opposite the majority of the time. The thing is we followed procurement rules to the letter so it just shows how far we have to go still.
“Celebrating 10,000 Followers!”: Social Media is About Nodes and Connections
Spurred by the announcement the JISC Twitter account had reached 10,000 followers Brian Kelly takes at what makes social media such a useful tool and the importance of the network effect.
As someone who helped introduce Twitter to JISC back in 2007 it is interesting to see how it has grown and also how their use of the corporate channel has changed. For a long time it was just an automated feed powered by RSS from the websites but the last year or so it has started to have much more personality as individuals from the Comms team become the voice of @JISC.
I do think the final paragraph is where Brian really hits his stride. I remain convinced that it is when expert individuals are empowered to communicate on behalf of organisations in their own voices, from their own accounts that you get the real benefits of social media and that is when lasting communities are formed. This isn’t easy and requires trust on all sides but I do believe it should be the goal. This goes back to the ‘credible voices‘ stuff I wrote about recently.
Digital by Default 
2 responses to “Three of a kind [3]”
Fair point Jukesie!
I agree that a successful social media presence for an organisation is all about expert individuals who might be employed in a social media/ communications capacity or who might have their own personal accounts and be employed elsewhere in an organisation.
What’s difficult is deciding when I’m “me” and when I’m “the organisation”.
The answer is – I’m always both, while I’m with my current employer.
Could this lead to more mystery avatars and incognito accounts as organisations make more use of social media, and keep a closer eye on what their staff are saying?
Signing off, in morse code…..
I do think we are starting to see a really two tiered system with on the one hand lots of organisations/businesses freeing up their staff to be active and engaged with social media while others are getting more and more draconian with their policies and monitoring. I know which one I am backing but I have no idea which way of thinking will win out.