TweetDeck’s Presence Felt In Twitter Redesign
Twitter rolled out a major redesign last week and announced brand pages at the same time. While the brand pages announcement is by far the most exciting part of this, we’ll have to wait to see their full implementation since they’re available only to mega-brands at the moment. You can read all about the redesign here.
You’ll remember that Twitter purchased TweetDeck earlier this year, and at the time there was much hand-wringing over what Twitter would do with its new toy. Theories ranging from a complete shutdown of TweetDeck to a shelving of the popular 3rd-party service were flying around. Then, the redesign happened and we have an answer to the question of what Twitter will do with TweetDeck. The answer? Harness that team’s ingenuity into making the Twitter site and mobile apps a real choice for power users. The designs are strikingly similar; from the “compose” button all the way down to the fonts, the TweetDeck’s teams fingerprints are all over this.
For the longest time, many people (I among them) argued that the worst part about Twitter was its own webpage and its mobile apps. When Twitter purchased TweetDeck in May for the low, low price of just $40 million,functionality was a big reason I thought they were making the move. Twitter’s functionality was a reason many used services like TweetDeck; and many still do. The gap is getting smaller though, and I’ll predict that within the next year, TweetDeck will simply be known as either Twitter Web/Desktop App. It’s all the same company now, so TweetDeck shouldn’t care about what it’s being called and Twitter SHOULD want to have its name all over power-users preferred app.
A few other things I’ve noticed:
- Your Real Name Matters - Rather than your username, Twitter is displaying the name you’ve given them as the prominent identifying text. That’s bad news for spammers, because they just got even MORE obvious. It’s fantastic news for those whose name is their brand; freelancers really benefit here.
- Twitter Is Going After 3rd Party Apps - Seesmic, HootSuite and other popular 3rd party apps have been put on notice by this redesign. What Twitter did isn’t all that different than what the Angels did last week in signing Albert Pujols. Twitter went and got the big free agent name to help them win; and that free agent just smacked a huge home run.
- Twitter Is Morphing Into A News Aggregation Site - I’d love to say I thought of this, but the good folks at Poynter thought it first. I’ll paraphrase a bit of what they have to say, and I’d encourage you to click through and read that article. The new Discover section is huge. It’s a personalized news wire and what you tweet is much more important now as each tweet is embedable. Tweet with care and compose those in a way that encourage people to use them on their blogs and elsewhere.
What about you? What do you think of the redesign? Love it? Like it? Hate it? Think I’m off my rocker? Let’s hear it in the comments.
Why I’m Proud To Proclaim I Quit Klout: A Response to @JasonFalls
In response to Jason Falls’ post yesterday.
Jason has made some very valid and accurate criticisms here. I’m sure there were many people whose feelings were hurt because of the change in Klout’s algorithms. I didn’t really care that mine went down, and while I will admit to liking the fact that I had a score of 60+ before the change, my ego or professional self-worth has never, and will never, be attached to Klout or any other kind of online social ranking method.
Know why I quit Klout? I wrote about this when I did it, but allow me to reiterate. I have no problem with Klout, as long as people have agreed to have their online presence measured by Klout. The fact that the company was creating profiles for people who hadn’t signed up for the service worried me. Again, I’ve LONG said that your online privacy is your responsibility, not any company to whose services you subscribe, but the catch there is you’ve agreed to their terms of service.
As for my deletion of my Klout account making it more difficult for those using Klout correctly; tough cookies. Tell Joe Fernandez to stop making profiles of people who haven’t agreed to allow Klout to track them and get back to me. When Klout tells me someone like Shonali Burke is influential about the Kardashians, I find it more than a little difficult to take seriously.
There are real reasons for deletion of a Klout account. Will I sign up for Klout again in the future? Probably. I think it’s absolutely a step in the right direction, and they’re blazing a trail in social media measurement. Until I feel like Klout takes itself seriously, (e.g. no longer creating accounts for people who didn’t create them; taking transparent steps toward an end in gaming the system, etc.) I won’t be back.
My PR Bucket List
Inspired by Arik Hanson, Justin Goldsborough and Heather Whaling, I’ve decided to put together my own PR bucket list. Traditionally, I don’t have goals for my career as defined by most. There’s not a particular job title I want to hold. I don’t have an idea in mind for a salary number that would make me feel as if I’ve “arrived”. There’s not a particular client I want to land. That said, after some thought, I think these are some things I’d love to shoot for. Two of these probably aren’t feasible in any way (#3, #5) because I’d have to be employed by the University of Iowa and it’s doubtful I could ever convince my wife to move to Iowa City; and Rage Against The Machine is likely kaput forever (WHY CAN’T YOU JUST GET ALONG WITH THE BAND, ZACH??!!!!). Without further ado, my Top 5 for my PR bucket list:
- Secure the opportunity for a client (or myself) to sing the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley Field
- Advise a Major League Baseball franchise (stole this one from Hanson; but it’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a while)
- Conduct media relations for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes during a Rose Bowl trip
- Do press for a non-profit I either work for or that is a client that has secured a 7-figure donation/fundraising event
- Manage the press for Rage Against the Machine’s reunion World Tour
How about you? What’s on your PR bucket list?
Why I Quit Klout
Influence. In the world of digital marketing, influence is a currency quickly becoming almost as valuable as actual money for brands. Who is an influencer in this brave new world? How can you measure influence? These are questions that have spawned several different services aimed at putting a number on influence. The most well known of these is Klout. An ongoing debate has raged for a while now, centering on how you can put a single number on influence. And whether or not you should actually lend any credence to that number.
Recently, Klout changed its algorithm causing some scores to go up, some to go down, and everyone to question just what was going on. I’ll let others break down the nitty gritty of that. I want to tell you why you’ll not find my profile on Klout anymore. I was inspired to delete my account by Danny Brown‘s post earlier this week. That’s not to say his post is what drove me to delete my account; more like the final point in an argument. I’ve long said that you are responsible for your online privacy, however, that premise assumes that you signed up for an account on a site. If you agree to someone’s terms and conditions, you don’t have a whole lot of room to talk.
Klout has been pulling information for a very long time about people to determine their score. However, these people hadn’t signed up for a Klout account. This information is public info; tweets, Facebook posts/comments etc. but there’s something about a company using that information to create a profile on their site without permission that crosses a line in my mind. That’s the main reason why I quit Klout. I’ve attempted to defend Klout in the past to a certain extent, but I can’t in good conscience do that anymore.
Klout’s goal is an admirable one; trying to make online influence easy to understand and measure. After all, comparing numbers between 1 and 100 is pretty easy. However, many marketing and PR pros had begun to look at a Klout score as a be all/end all for online influence. Ignoring potential sources because their score was under a certain number or even refusing to interview certain candidates because their score wasn’t high enough. If the algorithms were more transparent, I might be able to buy that but Klout remains far too easy to game. An example: I’m from Iowa. I tweet/post CONSTANTLY about the Iowa Hawkeyes. Yet, I was more influential about hurricanes than about Iowa when I deleted my account; and I had no idea why.
I still think Klout has a place in the discussion of online influence, and I’ll probably be back at some point in the future once they get everything straightened out. I’m rooting for Klout. I hope this whole mess is a bump in the road and they are able to accurately and reliably measure online influence in an easy manner some day. What do you think? Will you be sticking with Klout? Are they being shady in your mind? Let’s hear it in the comments.
Weakness
Photo via Felix Montino; Flickr Creative Commons
I’ve been thinking about weakness lately. It’s something I struggle to pinpoint within myself. That’s not to say I’m not weak. I’m not sure I could even lift 100 pounds right over my head. The hardest question for me to answer in any situation is, “What’s your greatest weakness?” It’s really a contradictory question, isn’t it? What’s your strongest weakness? It’s been such a tough question for me before that I completely blew a job interview on that question once. I basically said I didn’t know. I had no answer. And I’ve come to realize something about myself since then.
My greatest weakness, is also my greatest strength. It’s my ego. I have a monster ego, believe it or not. It is something I have to fight every day to keep in check (there’s a reason I use so much self-deprecating humor). It enables me to believe in myself and to work to achieve the success I so greatly desire. It can also put me in positions that have me out on very thin ice. You see, I do believe we have to think we have the power to do anything we want. However, we also have to understand that we won’t be great at everything we try. We have to understand our limitations; that’s what truly enables us to succeed. What is your greatest weakness?
Blue Key Campaign: The Forgotten Homeless
When we as a community discuss problems in society that need solving there are many that come to mind; education, hunger, homelessness, and a hundred others that could be listed. There’s one problem in our global community that ties many of these other problems together: refugees. Facts such as 43 million refugees worldwide (that’s nearly the size of New York and Texas combined); and 41% of those people are under the age of 18. 11% of those are under the age of 5.
But that’s just something to tug at your heartstrings, isn’t it? Those facts and figures don’t really bring home what
Abdullah Khadija in the tent at Choucha transit camp that she and Omar share with another family. Photo © UNHCR/A.Branthwaite
kind of crisis we’re dealing with, does it? A number isn’t a person, it’s a statistic. The Abdullah’s from Mogadishu, Somalia. Those are people. And their story is heartbreaking. Four years ago, Omar and Khadija fled from the violence in their homeland to Sudan, then to Libya, and now to Tunisa.
Their daughter, Rayan, was sick and the couple unable to support her, so they sent her back to Mogadishu to live with her grandmother. Their story is fraught with danger, hunger, frustration, and violence. But those things aren’t the central theme. Hope is. The hope for a better life, wherever that may be.
You can be a part of that hope. USA For The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (USA for UNHCR) has launched The Blue Key Campaign. For just five dollars, you can make a difference in the lives of people like the Abdullah’s, and get a nifty Blue Key Pendant to wear to show your support for this cause.
When you think of refugees, don’t allow the horror of their situations be what defines them. What defines them is what defines all of us; the hope for a better life and the struggle to attain it. Please check out The Blue Key Campaign blog, the USA for UNHCR’s YouTube channel, consider the five dollar donation to the cause and changing your avatar on Twitter or Facebook to the Blue Key leading up to World Refugee Day on June 20th.
Helping St. Louis
Generally speaking, I’ve never been a fan of the city of St. Louis. I could go into the reasons, but frankly, right now, it’d be neither funny nor appropriate. An F-4 tornado ripped through the city on Friday night, devastating parts of St. Louis. The part you know the most about is Lambert International Airport, but entire neighborhoods were leveled. Tweets about the destruction were a constant in my feed all weekend.
My good friend Justin Goldsborough wants to help St. Louis get back on its feet, so he’s started a campaign to raise money for the relief effort there. I could try and duplicate his eloquent post about it, or I could just link you to it and encourage you to give. Since I’d fail miserably at the former, I’ll do the latter.
The FCC and Its Lack of Communication
Going about my daily Twitter rounds, I noticed the Twitter algorithm decided I should be following the FCC’s account. Being the media geek that I am, I happily clicked on the link, curious as to what the Federal Communications Commission would be tweeting about. Surely it is engaging regularly with the companies it is charged with regulating, or better yet the media consumers it is charged with having their best interests in mind in its rulings. Right?
That link goes to who the FCC is following. Care to take a guess? You’d assume that it would be following companies such as Comcast, NBC, CBS, Time Warner, Clear Channel; you know. MEDIA COMPANIES. In case you didn’t want to click on that link earlier, here’s a quick look at who (or what to be more precise) the Federal COMMUNICATIONS Commission is following:
How many FCC-relevant accounts can you pick out?
I’ll buy that the FCC needs to follow at least SOME of these accounts. The White House, Senate, House, Open Government Iniative. What I can’t buy is the FCC not interacting with anyone, or paying attention to the industry it is charged with regulating. Did I mention that picture above is the entire list of who the FCC follows?
Obviously, we shouldn’t be surprised that a government entity is a bit out of touch with what it’s supposed to be doing. So, ending my soapbox rant, I’d like to offer the FCC some free advice (which I’m sure will be taken to the highest levels of the organization):
- Follow more relevant accounts. In addition to the above media companies, follow accounts of those covering the media business world. That includes journalists, bloggers, PR people, entrepreneurs; anyone with a stake in the industry. Especially those that are WORKING in the industry. Full disclosure. I used to work at a radio station owned by Cumulus. I was let go on February 6, 2009. Mere days later, Lew Dickey was rewarded with a $500,000 bonus. I am still somewhat bitter over my exit from the radio industry.
- Interact with more people. At the time of this writing, the first @ reply to someone that is outside the organization (disallowing RT’s of other government agencies), happened on March 16th. That’s a long time ago in Twitterville. This is not a broadcast medium. You HAVE to engage with people for Twitter to have any value to your organization. That includes Dan’s Dog Emporium and the FCC. Besides, how can the FCC know what’s best for American citizens if it isn’t TALKING TO THEM?
- Explain. Many of the FCC regulations and rulings are written in legalese. I understand why and have no problem with that being the case. Use Twitter to explain to the rest of us that don’t speak legalese what’s happening so we can form an opinion of some sort and then engage with you about what’s happening.
Another Example of @Shonali Burke’s Kindness
Shonali has agreed to me being a regular contributor to her outstanding blog Waxing Unlyrical. I’m VERY excited about this as you might imagine. She is someone I owe a great deal of my professional knowledge to, and learn from on a weekly, if not daily, basis. I’ll be talking about communications/PR/marketing topics on a monthly basis to begin. I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity; especially since it puts my writing and thoughts in front of a much larger audience.
Thanks to Shonali for the opportunity. My feelings are best described by this picture:
Because I'm tooting my own horn, you see.
Don’t Search For Your Four-Leaf Clover
My best friend from high school posted this on Facebook this morning:
If you find a four-leaf clover, you have entirely too much time on your hands.
I, like I’m sure you do, found that highly amusing, chuckled and moved on with my day. Something happened though. I couldn’t get that quote out of my head. I started thinking about people who just sit and wait for good luck to drop into their laps, convinced that simply because people like them, the opportunity they’ve always dreamed of will appear out of the blue. Believe me, I wish that’s how the world worked.
I’m fortunate enough to count many people as friends and family, and to have a great professional network. That said, I’ve worked very hard to attain the reputation that I have, which I believe to be a good one. That reputation has landed me more than one connection, and to date has landed me three jobs. While one of those (kind of) landed in my lap, the other two involved the typical hiring process. The big factor in all three though was my reputation. What others said about me, or what the company already new about me, is what got me the job. That’s not sitting around and waiting for good things to happen. That’s working hard on your personal brand and excelling at what you are doing right now.
If you’re actively looking for that four-leaf clover, that magic person or moment that is sure to launch you to the top of trending topics on Twitter for the next week, you’re wasting your time. There’s only one time-tested solution to success and that’s hard work. I know. I hate it too. It’d be so much easier if that magic solution dropped out of the sky, but any “magic bullet” that appears is usually the product of an incredibly long and difficult journey. Twitter. Facebook. McDonald’s. Hell, Home Depot. These successful enterprises didn’t happen because someone all of a sudden said, “Oh my! That’s the best way to sell tile and hammers I’ve ever seen in my entire life! Here’s a billion dollars and the Atlanta Falcons!”. Decades (or in Facebook and Twitter’s cases, years), are why these are household names.
Don’t waste your life looking for a four-leaf clover when you can MAKE your own four-leaf clover. Now, because it’s St. Patrick’s Day, a video from my favorite Irish-tinged band. The Dropkick Murphy’s:
Comments About My Ruminations