Pluralitas Non est Ponenda sine Necessitate

For those non-Latin speakers out there, you are asking yourself right now, what the hell does "pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate" mean? Literally, it means "plurality should not be posited without necessity." It's a theory made popular by 14th century friar, William of Ockham, and is better known as Ockham or Occam's Razor.

Why am I thinking about 14th century friars and Latin phrases about plurality and necessity on the day after Thanksgiving you ask? The short version of the story is that my friend, Kyle Flaherty, recently shared a great post with me by analytics wizard, Avinash Kaushik. Avinash writes a well known blog called -- get this -- Occam's Razor. After reading his lengthy, but thought-provoking, post on social analytics, it got me wondering about the inspiration for the name of his Avinash's blog.

Now I think it's mandatory that we all learn about Occam's Razor at some point in high school or college but of course that, along with billions of other pieces of knowledge that don't fit into our everyday lives, somehow fell out of my head along the way. But after reacquainting myself with this concept of seeking the "simplest answer," I've been thinking a lot about streamlining my work and personal life these days. In particular, slimming down my information sources and my day to day work flow.

I wrote about taking steps in this direction several weeks ago following my brief retirement from Twitter. But the place I've really fallen down is on keeping up with my Google Reader. I know some people like Bob Scoble have abandoned their readers altogether but I realized the other day that there are a dozen blogs, mostly written by friends, that I haven't been keeping tabs on as closely as I would like. And the reason was because their quality content was getting drowned out by the 50 plus other blogs that I was keeping in my Google Reader, many of which contributed to my reader consistently registering 1,000 unread posts mark.

Maybe I'm unique in this fashion (although I doubt it) but thinking about 1,000 unread posts is just too daunting. Instead of going in and chipping away, I tend to ignore my Google Reader and thus miss out on dozens of great posts by people like Kyle, Peter Kim, Rachel Happe,  Tim Walker, Greg Verdino and others. So in a fit of "pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate" (which is really more about the concept of "the simplest solution is usually the correct one), but inspired me to "simplify" or slim down my reader to about 15 blogs.

The result is a much more manageable, 137 posts, all of which I was excited to read. The downside is that I will miss out on the good posts on ReadWriteWeb, ChrisBrogan.com and the HBS blog. But the way I look at it, it's better that I read a few blogs all the time then have lots of great blogs that I never look at.

What about you? Are you able to keep up with it all? If so, how?

Can you judge a book by its cover?

The title of this post asks, "can you judge a book by its cover?" You can when the "cover" is the front page of someone's Twitter account and you're judging whether to follow them. That page contains an avatar image (usually the person's photo), a short biography (no more than 160 characters long), a link to the person's home page (or company, blog, LinkedIn profile, etc.), and -- crucially -- the most recent 20 tweets that the person has sent. You can click through to see more tweets in batches of 20, but if you follow many people on Twitter, doing that often takes more time than it's worth.

And there's the rub: if you want more people to follow you on Twitter, you have very little time to make a good first impression on them . . . but many ways that you could string landmines of the "Don't Follow Me" variety across their path.

Recently four heavy Twitter users -- Meg Fowler, Jim Storer, Aaron Strout, and Tim Walker -- got to talking (on Twitter, of course) about the poisoned words, phrases, and other cues that automatically signal "Don't Follow" for them. The end result was that the four decided to bang out a joint blog post that talked about best practices in not following based on not liking the proverbial "cover" put forth by fellow tweeters. Here's what we came up with:

Tim Walker's "not follow" strategy

• “MLM” (multi-level marketing). I’m sure that somewhere, some nice person who does MLM could explain to me how it’s not a veiled Ponzi scheme. Until then . . . you’ll pardon me if I continue to think of it as “a veiled Ponzi scheme.” No thanks.
• Tweets that include “buy followers” or “hundreds of followers” or anything else in the “get lotsa followers!” genre. I try hard to earn new followers by being relevant, interesting, funny, and personable. The idea that you would buy yours in bulk -- much less promote that process -- disgusts me.
• Political ig’nance. I follow people of all political stripes, from all over the world. But if you have to wear your politics on your sleeve, and if your politics are of the knee-jerk type (again, regardless of your leanings), I just can’t stand to follow you.
• Calling yourself a “visionary” or “expert” or (shudder) “guru.” It’s much better to say you’re a “marketing veteran” or “experienced sales leader” or whatever. Let *others* call you a visionary.

Meg Fowler's "not follow" strategy (cross-posted on "friend" Gradon Tripp's blog)

Love it, Tim.

• For me, it's more about "who do I need to block around here?" Because no one likes to be spammed. So if I see any of this in your bio and/or first 20 tweets...
• Requests to "follow me back!"
• Promotion of affiliate programs
• Actual affiliate links as the link in your bio
• Any mention of followers ("I can get you followers!" "Get thousands of followers!" "5,000 followers and growing!" "This program will get you followers overnight!")
• "Make money online (from home, easily, doing practically nothing, overnight, with my system, etc.)"
• Promises to "generate" anything: money, cash, followers, success, creeping rashes...
• Promotion of tooth whitening programs (Seriously?)
• A mention of your Twitter Grader Rank
• Mention of "Sponsored Tweets"
• Mention of your "Twitter eBook FREE JUST CLICK HERE"
• Presence of "69" in name (or "Shelly Ryan" as your name... poor, poor real @ShellyRyan)
• Rockstar/Maven/diva/coach/thought leader/guru/expert/pro/maverick
• Porn-star-like attributes in avatar or links (Nudity, actual sexual acts, clear intent to seduce me with something other than words)
• Requests to click through to "see your profile"
• Googly-eyed "Twitter Basic" avatar (upload a photo, PLEASE)
• @ing people the same link OVER AND OVER

Jim Storer's"not follow" strategy
I've never auto-followed anyone, which at this point means I've vetted (to varying degrees) nearly 3,500 people. Until recently you had to click through to a person's/bots profile page to get the skinny on who they are. Now some of that info is available in the new follower email, but what I look for is the same.

• Following to Follower % (you're following dramatically more people than follow you) - If this is too imbalanced there's something fishy and I'm not biting.
• # of Updates to Followers/Following #'s - In the last six months I've started to see a lot of people with 5k+ followers/following and less than 100 updates. That suggests you're just using a program to rack up followers and that just wrong (IMHO). I'm not interested in being another notch on your bedpost.
• If your bio includes any of the following I'm not interested: "more followers", "make money", "expert" (at anything), "MLM" and everything else Tim, Meg and Aaron came up with. I trust them.
• If the words you chose to describe your pursuits in your biography are overly loquacious I will not be inclined to follow you back. Get real... use real words and tell me who you are.
• If you haven't written anything in your bio and/or you haven't added a photo, I'm not following you.
• If you have zero updates how am I supposed to know what you're going to talk about? I'm not listening until you start talking.
• If your last few updates are repetitive and too self-promoting, I'm not interested in seeing that day to day. I already saw what you have to say when I was checking out your profile.

Aaron Strout's "not follow" strategy

The upside and downside of going last is that 1) all the good stuff has been said but 2) it leaves less stuff for me to say. Out of the list above, I'm probably the most lenient of the four. Like Jim, I've never auto-followed (but have considered it) so that means that I've hand followed back nearly 9,000 people (yup, that's a lot). However, I have a few basic rules that I follow:

• In most cases (not all), I like seeing a picture. If someone is obviously a n00b who looks to be figuring things out, I'll cut 'em some slack. Otherwise, they don't make the cut.
• I need a bio. Is it too much to tell me what you do?
• I also need a tweet or two (unless they are a friend of mine and then of course they get the free hall pass)
• No "get rich fast, affiliate or "let me sell you some shit" in the bio or last few tweets."
• One I get stuck on a lot is the news feed/blog title posts. These really depend on follow ratio and quality of the tweets. It also is up to my mood. If I'm hand following 40-50 people, these folks usually make it in. If it's 4-5, not so much.
• I will follow ANYONE from Austin (pornos excepted)
• Oh yeah, I don't follow webcam girls or known pornos.

So what's your strategy? Who do you or don't you follow? Share your tips in the comments below.

photo credit: library.cornell.edu

Thoughts on Brands Engaging on Twitter

Today I was putting together some thoughts for one of our customers who is thinking about getting started on Twitter. As you know, I'm a big fan of not trapping information in an e-mail so I've posted a cleaned up version of my recommendations below. Obviously there are probably 100 other things to think about but I didn't want to overwhelm. If you want to add in the other 94, I won't stop you (that's why God invented comments).

For starters, I'm bullish on Tim Walker of Hoover's online "Twitter primer" deck since it's so chock full of great recommendations. Tim's deck is more of a "how to get started/what you should think about" for individuals but there are tons of valuable lessons any business could learn as well.

Also, I thought it might not hurt to provide a list of 40 well-known brands on Twitter that friend, Jennifer Van Grove, put together for Mashable. Considering the fact that it got 200 comments, I'd say it did its job.

Without further ado, here are some Twitter best practices for that I’ve amassed from my nearly two years (and 15,000+ updates):

• Be human. That doesn’t mean that you have to tell jokes or swear but it does mean that you should talk to people on Twitter like your customer service reps or store reps would talk to customers. Try to avoid using this as a corporate broadcast system.
• Follow all real people back. Yes, it will be hard to keep up with everyone over time (there are tools that can help you manage this process, like Tweetdeck). For one, this shows that you care about having a conversation with your constituents and two, if people want to direct message you (many will to ask customer service related questions), this is the only way they can reach out to you privately.
• Make sure you LISTEN. Twitter search is a great way to see who is saying what about your brand (and your competitor's brands). You might consider following back anyone that mentions you. DO NOT lash out at folks that are talking negatively about you. Reach out to them privately if possible (via direct message). If they aren’t following you, let them know that you’re available to discuss the matter if they’d like to take the conversation offline.
• Engage in the conversation. Ideally, the conversation involves topics that are germane to your company. However, don’t be afraid to support social causes or pat other companies or people on the back that are doing the right thing.
• Measure, measure, measure. There are a couple of ways to do this. For one, track all of the URLs that you publish using a service like Budurl. Second, keep track of your follow growth rate (look for spikes around big announcements, offers, etc.). Third, watch for inbound traffic that you drive to your site. You might also want to keep an eye on the "velocity" of conversation around your brand i.e. keep an eye on the rate of daily mentions of your brand on Twitter search.
• Keep up your momentum. One of the worst things you can do on Twitter is set up an account, tweet a couple of times and then let your account sit fallow. Try to commit to updating at least a couple of times a day (and don’t just point back to your site). This should be easy if you look at the URL next to “Listen” as there are already conversations going on about you that are begging for you to engage in.

Is your brand using Twitter? If so, what types of results are you seeing? Feel free to share in the comments below.

Image courtesy of SoloSEO

Experts in the Industry: Tim Walker (22 of 45)

Tim Walker, editor & blogger for Hoover's; journalist, historian, & speaker, is not only one of the smartest guys I know, he's also a huge Red Sox fan. If you know anything about me, you'll understand what a huge plus this is for me. Interestingly, Tim and I had followed each other for several months on Twitter before finally meeting in person a few months back at one of Bryan Person's Social Media Breakfasts (Tim was the main presenter during that morning's breakfast). Since then, Tim and I have had a chance to get together for a few coffees and most recently, lunch at Quality Seafood (a great choice btw).

Two quick comments before we move onto Tim's answers. One, Tim requested that I use a picture of him that I took with my iPhone from one of our group coffees because he felt like it captured the essence of who he was. Two, Tim of course went in and decided to answer some of the questions that folks posed in the comments of my original Experts in the Industry post.

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it. 

I touch every aspect of social media on behalf of Hoover's (blogging, tweeting as @hoovers, shaping our social-media strategy, etc.); I'm good at it because I'm highly verbal, highly extroverted, permanently interested in other people, and -- thanks to my background as a Hoover's industry analyst -- well-informed about the broader business world.

 

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing? 

In terms of my whole career, I was moderating listservs and serving as a user-group administrator in the 1990s. In terms of my current role at Hoover's, I moved into it two years ago, after six years as a Hoover's industry editor and a couple of years of writing a personal blog. (In other words, by that point they knew what a motormouth I can be.)

 

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why? 

My heart says Twitter, because I love it so and because I think its leaders will figure out the business model eventually; my head says Google, because that's just the smart way to bet. (I'm mindful of the possibility that those could amount to the same thing if Google buys Twitter. If that happens, watch out.)

 

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect? 

Paul Farmer of Partners In Health, by far.

 

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why? 

Not if it were just about toothpaste. As you and I have discussed before, a toothpaste community might work best if it were really a moms-and-families community, and I spend a lot less energy in that direction than my wife does. But there are consumer-oriented communities I would join, on the basis of my own interest in what the merchant is doing. (Example: I love my local wine shop and would gladly participate in a social network around it.) 

 

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom. 

I'm constantly thinking about how the social media affect the working lives of "ordinary" people -- by which I mean cubicle workers who aren't immersed in social media like we are. The #1 online social medium for these people is e-mail.

 

The overarching problem of e-mail, at least as most people use it, is that it interrupts workflow. By and large, the best work in any field is done by people who aren't multitasking -- and in fact there's a very good neuroscientific case that multitasking actively inhibits the human brain from doing its best work. So I worry that Twitter and the other social media, for all of their obvious and non-obvious benefits, are exacerbating our pandemic of multitasking.

NOTE: THERE WERE SOME ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS THAT FOLKS ASKED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THE ORIGINAL POST. TIM CHOSE TO ANSWER THESE AS PART OF THE BONUS ROUND:

 

Do you have a favorite Social Networking/Social Media medium, application or site? If so, why that one? 

Twitter, because of the free-flowing discussions there, and because of the chance for serendipity to lead you to new people. I've made many friends in my time on Twitter, and not just "online friends."

 

What does 'Social Media' or 'Social Marketing' encompass? 

Two very good questions in one (which is what I would expect from the mind of Alex Jones). First, I'm adamant that social media is not synonymous with marketing -- and in fact I suspect that in the long run its explicit use for traditional marketing will be one of social media's minor aspects.

 

Second, as I've elaborated in various forums, I believe that the online social media we chatter about today are just extensions of the many different social media that have existed for millennia. Insofar as they bring people together, all the means (i.e. media) of human communication are social. Face-to-face talking is social media, as is a handwritten letter or a telephone call. Yes, these new online social media have amazing technological aspects that make them worthy of special study, but they don't represent a fundamental shift in the desire for people to communicate and connect emotionally with other people.

Which non-social media industry person do you follow and why? 

There are many. My favorite bloggers ever are Kathy Sierra (to the point that I just think of her as being on hiatus from blogging, because I can't stand the idea that she'll never come back to it) and John Scalzi (because he's just that smart, that witty, that self-deprecating, that cocky, and that much of a smartass).

 

My favorite living writers of any type -- whose work I "follow" in the sense that I buy every book of theirs as it comes out -- are Michael Lewis and Michael Chabon.

It would be interesting to ask these folks which of their peers who are being interviewed most inspires their work. 

Wow, I have several personal friends on this list, plus many others whose work I admire. But among those listed, the "dean" in my mind is Doc Searls. As for why . . . dude, he's Doc Searls.

 

How many folks do you think will read other's answers before answering themselves?

I've been reading the replies as they've been published, but as I type this that means only the first four responses. (I thought this question was highly appropriate, coming from the ex-professor!)