Seth Godin on how he uses social media

Image via Wikipedia

As I read Seth Godin's blog today we had a brief discussion in the 90:10 office about his use (or otherwise) of social media.

I had my thoughts and theories. I'm sure many of you do. So I thought I'd get it straight from the horse's mouth.

So here (with permission) is the email exchange that followed:

Me: "Hi Seth, please forgive the interruption.

"I've been following your work for some many years and always been interested in your apparent disengagement from social media (ie no blog comments on your blog, no follows or replies via twitter etc).

"I don't see you commenting on other people's blogs when they write something you've inspired, or linking out to others who have inspired you, either.

"But I've always made the assumption (you clearly aren't daft, after all) that you are paying a great deal of attention to what is said about you and your thinking via social tools; that you are listening, gathering, considering and incorporating - much in the same way as Apple does.

"Am I anywhere close? And if so what listening tech do you use, how do you go about filtering and why have you chosen to operate this way?

Seth: "David,

"Thanks for your note about comments. I'm delighted that you're interested in my blog, and commend you to: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/why_i_dont_have.html for my post on this topic.

"I actually often link to blogs when it's directly on point, I work hard to give credit when it's useful to reader and source and I used to comment on blogs that mentioned me quite frequently.

"I do in fact get an astounding amount of inbound info, and I think if you look at my outbound in terms of impact and number of words, it's pretty big, it's just all in one place.

"Anyway, I hope that link helps you out. It's a disability, but I deal with it.

Me: "Cool. I understand, I think, - something approaching Clay Shirky's 'Fame' thinking (abundance of attention - which Clay and others discussed a little here) combined with the desire to lead (in a triiibes way)?

"Would you mind if I blogged your response; your approach is one often discussed among the people who hang out in the networks I share :-)"

Seth: "sure thing".

So there you have it. Fully engaged.

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New Technorati rules encourage you to blog well and blog often

Stumbled on the latest update to Technorati today (the site that ranks blogs and their authority) and was somewhat shocked to discover FasterFuture's 'authority' had jumped by around 1000% to 423.

Its rank in the blogosphere has leaped by a similar order (13,896 of all blogs - where I recall it languishing around where you could pretty much could add a zero to that.

I had put a slow decline (the authority was once 120 and the ranking 70K ish) over the last year or so down to me blogging less and tweeting more.

The big change now is that Technorati is only gathering its data over the last couple of weeks or so - not the last six months as was it's methodology.

Which means if you've got a decent rank and authority - and want to maintain it - you'd best blog often as much as you blog well. It's helpful to those of us seeking individuals with particular interests AND authority, too - because the results are much closer to real time (as Stowe points out on /Message)

Technorati needed to cut its costs, this method not only does that (less intensive number crunching to do) but it also encourages a reverse in the decline in blogging - something very much inline with Technorati's needs, too.

And since blogs remain the single least silo'd way in which we express metadata and connect one to another in communities of purpose (the only silos in blogging are being online - or not - and language) I'd have to give that my blessing.

Well, that and the nice high ranking FasterFuture has acquired.

UPDATE: Oct 19, 2009 I'm going to keep track of this: Since time of first writing the rise has continued. And then some.
Today's stats show fasterfuture as 8312 highest rank blog on't planet (though I note this is of 825,402 indexed, as opposed to the 300m thought to exist). Guess these are those worthy of indexing in the past few weeks, as opposed to those created ever), Authority has risen to 464 (for context it would need an authority of 760-odd to make the top 100).


Update: Oct 27, 2009:

Today the authority is 485 and the rank is ???,??? - honestly, couldn't find a way to get that number today. I notice though that a little green badge has been apended: 'Top 100 (small business)'. It is of course nice to be in the top 100 of anything - but I'm a little baffled as to why the Technorati algorithm selected this blog for that category?

Update: Oct 29, 2009.

Today we have an authority of 506 and a ranking in the top 5000 (4965) - and that's after a fall! Gulp. The small business Top 100 badge still lives on some views on Technorati, too.

Update November 3, 2009:
Despite the red down arrow (which indicates we've been even higher since I last checked) FasterFuture is now has a ranking of 4214 and an authority of 522.

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Top of the publishing pops (almost) - lucky no7

Nice surprise today: Si Alhir (an active and supportive member of this blog's community) shared with me an email he'd received telling him FasterFuture is ranked No7, globally, for publishing by BlogRank.

BlogRank claims its algorithms are better than anyone's etc etc. If you want to know more about the methodology try here.

What I should point out is that it only tracks 20,000 blogs at the moment. I'm sure there are plenty of worthy publishing blogs which should be appearing. Scott Karp's Publishing2.0 springs immediately to mind.

Anyway - we'll be happy with the No7 spot for now. Thank you magic algorithm.

Still happier with a personal recommendation from one person who cares to another one that also cares though, to be honest ;-)

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Social media by the numbers

FasterFuture nestles at number 33 in the latest top 116(?) of UK Marketing Blogs as derived from the Adage Power 150

So yaboo sucks for me? Nah, seriously, this is a very literal example of being made greater by the sum of my connections (the more of you who visit, link here, follow me, talk to me... the higher we rise) so are my connections.

And while speaking of charts (terrible link...) here's Mark Earls on what the death of Michael Jackson tells us about ourselves (in the Spectator).

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Your content at risk: A credit crisis for the co-created web

There are reports that flickr may be in trouble. Well, it is owned by Yahoo, so maybe we shouldn't be too surprised.

When loic le meur (he of Seesmic fame) heard this he wondered outloud (on twitter) if he should start backing up his years of images.

This is the social web's equivalent of a failing bank scenario.

We have invested our content in it and now we're fearful that we might have been better off stashing it under our mattresses. We're worried if the bank fails, our investment disappears. (Image courtesy Travis Truman)

When we contribute content that we value, in the joint creation of a site such as blogger or flickr, we not only insist on retaining ownership of our content (traditional media companies really struggle with that bit), we need confidence that this content will be stored safely and not evaporate over night. Just as we do when we hand our cash to a bank.

In both cases we hope to create a little extra interest for ourselves along the way and recognise that our service provider has to find a way of making a return on their investment (the platform or bank) in return.

If Flickr were to fail, how would that change your online generosity?

Of course, Flickr would not be the first to disappear, taking our treasured content with it. But it would be the first co-created giant of the social media age to tank.

Imagine the holes it's sudden desctruction would leave across millions of websites and blogs... there would be one on this blogpost, for a start.

Is Flickr is too big to fail? Given the interconnectivity of the web, can anything which stores and shares be allowed to fail?

Perhaps it is time for a bail out strategy - time for a global institution to guarantee our content investments are protected, the assets safely transferred and made accessible to us in the event of failure - so we can reinvest them elsewhere if we choose.

There are some regulation issues opened up by this, such as, do you have to comply with T&Cs of the bail-out guardians in order to have your web service covered? Who gets to set the rules? etc

But without some kind of guarantor does the web face a credit crunch all of its own where we as investors of our content start becoming more wary about who we will lend it to.

Let's not underplay this. These loans are the very reason businesses from twitter to facebook, wikipedia to google can exist at all.

The web has grown through peer-to-peer content creation and distribution. We contribute on the understanding we can always get it back (which at least means access it online and share it with others).

As we increasingly rely on the cloud for our storage requirements, the providers of those clouds will have to come up with protection for lenders which include exit/bail-out strategies whether lightning strikes or financial storms come.

What kind of terms and conditions would restore your confidence as a contributor? What terms and conditions would you find acceptable as a platform creator?

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My favourite five bloggers

Here's an interview with yours truly, published in the Pakistani Spectator.
Because they asked. And I could.

They asked me to list my top five bloggers... oh dear, a recipe for getting in trouble with the other 100+ I would heartily recommend without hestitation... (see my recommended blogs, left hand column, to even out the love)

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I owe it all to you - seriously.

As this blog teeters on the brink of a 100 ranking on Technorati (it was 99 last time I looked... hoping the trend is up!) I'm thinking of suitable ways to celebrate this with you. Every link here and every visit has contributed to that ranking - so it's fair and right that you share in this small success.
The best way I can think of is to compile one huge list of links-out to those who have linked here.
Technorati tracks some of this, google some more. But some (eg) I just may miss.
And at the top of the list I want to place the blogs and sites that include fasterfuture on their blogroll or list of recommended links in any way.
I want to make sure I haven't missed you and get the opportunity to return the favour in my own 'recommended blogs' list (see left column).
I work on the theory that if you're interested, you're likely to be interesting.
So if that's you, don't be shy, please add a link in the comments below.
And if you've linked here in any other way, share this, too.
Many thanks.

Google Customized Search - search for social networks?

And while we're talking about the explosion in social networking - is google customized search (just launched, and see an example in the left hand column) the google response?
Anyone know if you can get it on your mobile yet?
I left the one on this blog open so anyone can contribute sites to help hone the returns. Have a try!