Kaintuck music and bourbon

Now...right NOW I'm fine. I'm four drinks in, nuzzling Mother Maker, and I'm feeling good. Got the itch, though...the music is in me, as they say. Looking for old tyme rhythm. 'Murican music. Music to match the Kentucky Bourbon that's making me feel so good and coursing through my veins. Thankfully, like the availability of the bourbon, the availability of the music is easily accessible and cheap.

A new home

Just moved my blog from a personal domain to Blogger. So, for the next N years I'll be posting here.

Created Content Versus Generated Content

How difficult it is to start a blog..or a Twitter account? Well, "starting" is never terribly difficult, but keeping consistent with your writing and updating can become difficult. However, it can become easier if you're willing to understand and utilize the differences between what I call "Created Content" and "Generated Content."

Created Content

Created Content is basically just what the name implies: content that you create, from scratch, on your own. It is your unique thoughts and ideas put down on paper, whether it is actually written on paper or if it is (more often than not) the virtual kind. Created Content is the content most susceptible to the dreaded "Writer's Block", crippling consistency with a blog or update.

Generated Content

On the other hand, Generated Content is what is "generated" as a result of something external. For example, a blog post that springs from someone else's blog, a re-tweet, or even a re-tweet with something you've appended. The main idea here is that you're not generating the content on your own. Rather, you're taking someone else's "created content" and adding in your own take, your own spin, your own ideas, your own opinions.

Therefore, to put a finer point on this, I'd say "Created Content" is proactive whereas "Generated Content" is reactive.

Speed Doesn't Kill in the Blogosphere

If you want to sit and labor over a blog post, be my guest. However, realize that the impetus of your blog (and, therefore, any result you're trying to accomplish with your blog) is greatly affected by the delay between posts, updates or whatever. Speed doesn't kill in the blogosphere (usually), but stagnation definitely will. Therefore, use both types of content to your advantage!

Good Rule of Thumb:
For Blogs: 2 Generated Content blog posts a week, 1 Created Content blog post.
For Tweets: Try the same formula, but a tighter time frame. 2 Generated tweets per day, 1 Created tweet.

Will this cure your writer's block? No, but it isn't intended to. Just realize that you don't have to be terribly prolific if you want to participate in social media. You just need an opinion at least - use that to your advantage whenever possible and you'll remain relevant and authoritative. Pepper your Created Content in between Generated Content posts and find a formula that you're comfortable with, one that will keep you writing and moving towards your goals.

From Whence the Tweet?

I just read this great tidbit on ReadWriteWeb that discusses how people use Twitter. Some base statistics from a report done by the "Consumer Internet Barometer" include these: "...the majority of Twitter users (42%) use the service to communicate with their friends. About 29% use Twitter to update their status, 26% to find news, and 21% for work-related reasons. Oddly, only 0.3% said that they use Twitter for fun."

So that got me to thinking about why I use Twitter? Before I answer, it's interesting to make the distinction between "why do I tweet" and "why do I use Twitter?"

To me, a tweet is a <=140 character push of information to followers. Therefore, I "tweet" because it is challenging to compress a piece of information into bite sized pieces. That challenge is what attracts me to the tweet. On the other hand, the overall "use" of Twitter encompasses not only tweeting, but the reading of, and interaction with, the tweets of others.

Now that we have that out of the way, why DO I tweet?

1. To Comment on Others Updates: Twitter is a social application, after all, so one must be social to use it. I find tidbits here and there that I want to comment on - conversations (sort of) that I want to be a part of. On Twitter, especially when you're at an event that attracts the Twitterati, it's easy to fall into a trending, topical "discussion" with others, more or less in real time, and irrespective of geographical locale.  Electronic socialization at its rawest.

2. To Disseminate Interesting Information: I do my best to read as much as I can throughout the day. Every once in a while I'll come across an article or blog post that I want to pass along to others. I'd like to think that, apart from the spammers, my followers have similar interests to my own. Therefore, if I find something interesting my hope is that others do as well. I cannot quickly or easily turn a phrase or spit out repeatable, 140 character parables or bits of advice, but I'm pretty good at passing along the wisdom of others.

3. To Disseminate Promotional Information: There is a certain amount of gentle push marketing one can do on Twitter. I loathe those who use the service solely as a pulpit for touting goods and services, but it's not a crime (at least in my neck of the electronic woods) to tout a new product or service once in awhile.

4. To Acknowledge Others: One could argue that this is related to disseminating promotional information, but I enjoy hearing what others say about me, about the company I work for, or even about industry-related topics like ASP.NET or ColdFusion. When someone says something I enjoy, respect, or even revile, I note it and pass it along. This, too, can be a bit tedious, especially if all you do is re-tweet compliments for yourself or your business. However, in moderation it's no great breach of etiquette.

So that's it, in a nutshell. I could probably write a dissertation on the benefits of brand monitoring and building authority via Twitter and related services, but I'll either leave that for a future post or for those far more intelligent than I.

So what about you? Do you Twitter? If so, why?

Lest we forget...

So I sat and watched the first 30 minutes or so of "Saving Private Ryan" last night. It was late, and as the movie is a bit long I wasn't able to stay up through the entire thing. The movie is spectacular, but the one part I seem to enjoy the most is the scene where General George C. Marshall reads the letter Abraham Lincoln wrote to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a widow who was presumed to have had five sons killed during the Civil War (interestingly enough only two of Mrs. Bixby's sons were actually killed).

The letter is beautifully written and reminds us not only of the beauty of the written word, but its power as well. This is what writing is all about, so I wanted to re-print it here as a reminder of why we all write, regardless if we write in 140 character blocks or 140 pages.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine that would attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved, lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

Abraham Lincoln

Updates and Texts and Tweets, Oh My

I spent some time at a family reunion this past week and was asked by one of my "uncles-in-law" about Facebook and Twitter. The reunion was basically organized through Facebook, and as this uncle had yet to take the plunge into Facebook (he is quite technically proficient, he just hasn't had the time) we got into a discussion about the differences between things like Facebook and Twitter and their relationship to text messaging. As this conversation is pretty fresh in my memory, I figured I'd get it down on paper...er...well on virtual paper at least.

SMS/Text Messaging - Very much a one-to-one conversation. You interact directly with someone else and communication is generally conversational in tone and content. Reports say that texting is the de facto method of communication for youths (or "utes" for you Joe Pesci fans), surpassing phone calls. A recent survey by Comscore shows teens text on average of 2000 messages a month, with some texting upwards of 15,000 or more.

Twitter and Tweets - Similar to texting as there is a character limit (in fact the 140 character limit is taken directly from the SMS limits of cell phone carries), but tweeting is more of a one-to-many dissemination of information. This is purely my opinion, but I don't consider tweets to be "conversational" so much as "informational" since a back-and-forth conversation via Twitter is fairly cumbersome. You can certainly tweet with the anticipation of a response, but rather than getting a response from a single, focused individual like you would with a text message the responses come from a number of disparate "followers". In addition, you generally need to subscribe to a hash tag search in order to participate in any real discussion (see #CmtyChat as an example). Regardless, a question about the "best place to eat in downtown Boston" takes on a life of its own when tweeted to thousands of followers versus texted to a friend living in Weston.

Facebook Updates -  [NOTE A quick glossary is in order: A Facebook "update" is just as the name implies, you updating your status or passing out some juicy tidbit to your friends, a "comment" is where someone replies to your update, and yoru "wall" is where information appears on your Facebook page - both your own info as well as updates from your friends] Updating your Facebook status is a bit outside the realm of services such as text messaging and microblogging (the term coined for things like Twitter), though there are similarities. For example, when you update your status on Facebook, that update is carried over to your friends' Facebook pages and just as your update shows up on their wall their updates show on your own. Therefore, updates are more interactive across a group of individuals (like Twitter, a one-to-many dissemination of info) but the ability to carry on a conversation with friends as a result of your updates is easier as you don't need to subscribe to a search or hashtag (like texting). One major difference is that you're conversing within and amongst a group - all of your friends can see, follow and participate in the conversation - even if only one other person is actually replying to your update and any subsequent comments. Of course the other obvious difference is that Facebook is a more full-featured social framework, allowing a user to not only update their status, but also post links to articles, videos, music, not to mention using any one of a number of different applications to perform things like personality tests, etc.

So there you have it. Hopefully that helps give some clarity to the various social communication methods out there. If not, feel free to leave a comment or question - I'd be happy to answer.