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Noise cancellation
I don’t talk much social media anymore, and certainly not here, but I need a place to offer up a simple suggestion about how to use tools to help others cut down on information overload.
I never mentioned this, but it came to mind during a brief discussion with Chris Brogan and Mack Collier about when to “unfollow” people on Twitter. I typically don’t worry about who decides to follow or unfollow me, and I don’t bother with any of the services designed tokeep everything artificially reciprocal. I can understand why Chris does, though, because he follows more than 80,000 people, and is followed in similar numbers.
I was convinced that I didn’t want to follow more than 500 people, but for personal reasons started expanding my local network, essentially following most Birmingham-area people I came across. But I know of several who, over the course of months, have dropped me. “Nothing personal, you’re just noisy.” And I certainly can be that.
On my Twitter policy page (which anyone who clicks over from my profile will see) I outline my behavior and my expectations. I’ve tried to make clear how I feel about forced reciprocity, and my desire to engage does about every conversation that comes my way. Several people have freely cribbed my guidelines, modified them, and clearly set their own expectations for visitors. (By the way, this is also a great Best Practice for corporations and organizations…)
Recently, I added a way for the noise-averse to still know what I was up to, without being “in their stream.” It’s a link to the Twitter search page for ‘ikepigott’, so it includes all the people who reference me. Instead of being a direct link to the page, I’ve taken the RSS feed for those results, and put them through Feedburner for two reasons:
- I get a better sense of how many people would rather me not be in their Twitter streams, and
- I have the flexibility to alter that feed in the future by changing the inputs. For instance, I might change my mind and want just my Tweets instead of mentions, or if I want to include misspellings of my name.
It’s just offering people a different way to engage, and not feel left out of the party (or sheepish about unsubscribing.) For those hung up on numbers, the Feedburner stats aren’t reliable on any given day, but over time you’ll get a better sense of your reach and the measurement you crave.
Back On the Air
No, I’m not going back to television.
But I will be a guest on “BSide with Alan Hunter and Dr. Josh“ tonight on Live 100.5.
Alan Hunter is, well… he’s Alan Hunter. Yeah, that one.
Dr. Josh Klapow is a psychology professor here in Birmingham who I had done a number of interviews with in the past, and is an all-around pretty cool guy.
This time, I’ll be the subject of the interview questions. From 6-7 p.m. (Central time), I’ll be talking with them about the past, present and future of what we call Social Media. Maybe even get a plug in for the new #bhamchat Twitter events on Tuesday nights, and the upcoming Social South conference and soiree.
It ought to be fun, and you don’t have to be in Birmingham to listen. Live 100.5 streams on the net.
Have you checked your water?
I read an interesting post by Terry Heaton, about how broadcasters are complaining that they couldn’t see the disruptions they are now experiencing.
My question is, have they checked their water?
- When the pool gets shallow, people are less likely to dive in.
- As water gets more murky, people are less likely to drink.
- The more stagnant the water, the more likely to breed mosquitoes.
It’s applicable to broadcasters and to automakers, industries that ignored decades of trends and advances that changed their markets under them. Instead of measuring the change to understand it, they measured the change as a means to make excuses. Instead of adapting and innovating, those companies are now scrambling and possibly ceasing to be.
Have you checked your water? Are you measuring the right things? Are you prepared to act on those measurements, even if it means straying from your comfort zone?
Books I want to write
There are a couple that I have in mind in real life, but it would be fun to write a couple of parodies.
The first idea was a simple juxtaposition that resulted in better titles.
“Who Moved My Cheese?” and “What Color Is Your Parachute?” became the rather disgusting “What Color Is Your Cheese?” and the distressing “Who Moved My Parachute?” Those two books would make for great business parodies, but would likely be done as a tandem.
Today, I stumbled across another idea for a mashup. Put Malcolm Gladwell
Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “The Black Swan” with Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail” and you get “The Swan’s Long Black Tail, or how swimming in circles can stain your butt.”
What are your ideas for clever business-book title rewrites?
[Black Swan attribution fixed - thanks for pointing out my obvious blunder]
Truly Powerful Addiction
About the Author
Ike Pigott is a veteran communicator who got out of television news and back into life. Now working for Alabama Power, he specializes in corporate communications, but has interests that are all over the place. This site is as much for him as anyone -- to explain things that ought to be explained, explore ideas that keep him up at night, and connect concepts that are just begging to be joined.
A personal site, opinions here are his and those of his commenters.
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