Web 2.What?

Foursquare: Is it really a game changer?

As 2009 ended, like usual, we saw tons of blog posts and speculation about what’s in store for 2010. One common theme (that had even been hinted upon long before the end of the year) was “geo-location based apps” such as Foursquare, and now contender Gowalla.

While I definitely see a huge untapped potential for local businesses to take advantage of. At this point I don’t think Foursquare will be the next Twitter. From my perspective, there are a few growing problems with the tool.

• Scalability – I think I was one of the first 50 or so users in Ottawa when Foursquare was launched here. I *loved* it! I used the handy web tools to find all my Twitter and Facebook friends and I already knew many of the other users. However, as it grows, the happy community feel is diminishing. Also unless you’re checking in over 200 times a week (which, even as a highly social person, I find that completely ludicrous) you don’t even have a chance at making the top 10 anymore. The competitor in me has lost interest.

  Also, a recent Tech Crunch article claims that appealing to a mass audience means compromising quirky features that appealed to the original geeks who embraced it. Douchebag badge anyone?

• The annoyance factor – As I mentioned above, Foursquare allows you to import your Twitter followers and add them as friends in Foursquare. So that begs the question, why do so many feel the need to tweet their every Foursquare activity?

  This seems to be creating a counter-Foursquare movement by Twitter users who are fed up with the “spammy” foursquare updates. (With very smart people like Judy Gombita leading the way, see her passionate interview on one of my favourite blogs – MediaStyle)

• And now what? – The reason tools like Twitter and Facebook have been so successful is the sense of empowerment they provide to users. Facebook allowed us all to re-connect and better stay connected to old friends and past acquaintances. Twitter taught us a new and powerful way to communicate and network in 140 characters or less.

  But Foursquare does what? Enables stalkers to function more efficiently? Yes, it’s really cool when you check in at an event and find other people there as well, but Twitter already does that via hashtags, and has a much larger user-base. Foursquare has a lot of ‘hey that’s really cool’ elements to it, but nothing that is going to set of bells in our heads and make us feel like we couldn’t live without it.

For the record–I am an avid user of Foursquare. It’s fun and I definitely see staying power potential, I just don’t envision it as the next big thing anymore. What do you think?

The Tipping Point Experiment

Cory Darby pinged me on Google Chat last week & told me about this little experiment based on Gladwell’s Tipping Point. A cute and interesting, not to mention inspiring, story I thought I just had to share…

In Cory’s words:

Recently while sitting in a local Tim Horton’s coffee shop, I started reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. The style of the book was very interesting, but as it was applying the principle of small things leading to epidemic changes, I was a little skeptical. Particularly with examples used–that were not focused on internet successes I could relate to, but more on real life examples of how STDs can spread, crime rates, etc.?

In other words, a more direct impression of what I thought of the book eight pages into it was, ‘This book is full of bullshit.’ I was determined and now I had a mission to prove this theory of small things can lead to an epidemic wrong. I decided to put the very foundation of what the book was backing to the test. I noticed the Haiti donation box at the store’s front where the cash register was, I had intended to donate to the cause but hadn’t done so yet…

I called over the store manager and asked if I could pre-pay the coffee for the next few customers. The manager was fine with the idea and I agreed to donate $110, or 82 medium coffees. My mindset was, ‘If the book is correct than my small good deeds to others should lead to a widespread of good deeds and specifically, I had figured the likely outcome is they’d donate to the box at the cash register.

I had predicted that a handful of people would donate when they found out their coffee was free, I mean, they had the money already in hand when and the box was directly in front of them…

What happened next was mind blowing and honestly, caught me entirely off-guard. The book’s principle of small things leading to epidemic change was proven because of the 82 people who got a free medium coffee 65 of them ended up donating.

I estimate it was roughly equal (if not greater than) myself directly donating the $110 to the box but the key thing is now 82 people have a story. The experiment allowed me to ‘double dip’ because I was able to donate indirectly exactly what I could have directly donated, provided 82 people with coffee, potentially changed 82 Canadian lives and gave those 82 people a story that I hope spreads the good will to others.

Special thanks to:

Bill Liao, for getting me into business and his life changing book ‘Stone Soup’.
Brett Wilson , for being such an amazing role model for me.
Malcom Gladwell, author of ‘The Tipping Point’, the book that changed my life in eight pages.”

ALI’s Social Media for Government Conference: Edmonton Jan 25-28

If you noticed it’s been quiet around here, one of the (many, *sigh*!) reasons is I’m speaking next week at the Advanced Learning Institute’s Social Media for Government Conference in Edmonton.

It was a last minute opportunity I couldn’t pass up… And fortunately I have a last minute opportunity to pass on to you as well. If you’d like to attend the conference (and can swing it in a week!) you can save 50% on your registration by mentioning my name!

Register here!

If you are attending, please let me know. I’ll be speaking on the topic of using social media to initiate change in Government (aka become a Gov 2.0 social media champion) and using case studies of people actively doing exactly that in government. Hope you can make it!

A much needed re-design… What do you think?

If you’re reading in an RSS reader, please click through and have a look…

Seriously, I’m feeling a huge sense of relief. When I chose my previous theme (Bella) over a year ago, I loved the look of it, but had issues from the start. Most notably it was difficult to customize and often loaded painfully slow. I only found out a couple weeks ago from a tip from a reader that my titles were flash-based, which can not only crash your browser, but sucks for my SEO.

To be honest, I hate choosing a new Wordpress theme. It usually takes me hours upon hours, as I’m really picky, but indecisive. Also I like to customize my themes and make them really feel like ‘mine’. But my HTML/CSS skills are getting a little rusty, so I at least need a theme that’s well organized and easy to figure out, which my previous one was definitely not.

Also, I discovered this time around that not all themes will work. A few months ago I installed the Mainstream theme by Woo Themes. Very modern, clean and customizable… However when I activated it, it was a mangled mess. I was discouraged. Yesterday I found a similar theme I loved, called Charade, by HTML Rockstars. Again though, I activated and it was a mangled mess. After tweeting my frustrations, I was told it’s likely because the theme was developed for a previous version of Wordpress and may not work on newer ones.

Ready to give up and just shut my blog down (seriously, I get really worked up over this!), I continued to search through recommendations of sites from my Twitter followers, and eventually found this theme–Producer. I love it because it’s elegant, clean and attractive right ‘out of the box’, however it also has tons of configurable options, and easy to work with CSS files.

So hopefully, I’m sticking with this one for a while, and over time I hope to customize it and really make it mine. I’d love to know what you think and I’m open to any suggestions you may have. After all the look of my blog is really for your benefit.

Also, here’s a list of sites to find Wordpress themes, courtesy of my awesome followers:

• Top WP Themes – Thanks to @Jkozuch
• A list of where to find WP themes – Thanks to @meshwerk
• Smashing Magazine – (Lots of great design info in general, love this site!) Thanks to @christaggart
• Blog Oh blog – Thanks @statikpulse
• Best WP themes – Thanks @markmaloney
• Woo themes & Studiopress – Thanks @FrancescoCerv

So please, leave a comment with any feedback. And I’m certainly not looking for an ego-stroke here. I’m wondering if you think the text is too small, or if the archives are too difficult to find, or if the red makes you feel angry and want to leave, whatever pops into your head. I’m going to maintain a wish list of tweaks for me to make whenever I have the time (which is not often enough!) So I appreciate any feedback you may have.

Networking in the New Year with IABC Ottawa

Just a quick note to let you know the Ottawa Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators is hosting a ‘Networking in the New Year’ event next Wednesday. If you’re in communications and looking to learn more about a specific area, there will be designated experts on hand to answer any questions and talk with. There’s also going to be food, so you won’t leave hungry either!

It’ll definitely be worth the price, but book before Sunday, Jan. 17 for the early bird!

Register now!

(disclosure: I sit on the board of IABC Ottawa, but that doesn’t stop this from being a great event!)

Managing Twitter-induced multiple personality disorder

Have you found yourself with multiple twitter accounts? Perhaps you’re managing a corporate account for work and a personal one, or one for a specific purpose, for an event or whatever else. The reality is twitter-induced multiple personality disorder is real, and it can happen to you…

I’m now at four accounts. My personal one which is obviously the most used. My corporate account, for MediaMiser, that is strictly PR/measurement focused, OttawaTweetJobs – which is simply a twitter-powered local job board, and OttSMbookclub which will soon just auto-post the feed from the Ottawa Social Media Book Club site.

Although each is clearly defined (at least in my mind) I still run into problems. I miss the simple days when I had only one account, but change and progress is good, so we carry on.

So I’m definitely not perfect at managing multiple accounts, but here are my tips to prevent multiple accounts from driving you crazy:

• Use a good app for multiple accounts: This will likely depend on your own preferences, for example, I’m not a fan of Tweetdeck, but everyone else seems to be so it may be right for you–definitely explore your options first. My favourite is Tweetie for Mac (I also use Tweetie for iPhone). Unfortunately it’s not available on a PC. Mashable has a list of 25 multiple account Twitter apps, so I suggest you start there and find one you really like.
• Have a clear purpose for each account: If you have multiple accounts covering similar content you may be unnecessarily splitting your audience. However there may be a bit of overlap. Since my background is PR, it’s obviously something of personal interest, but fits better with my corporate account. If I find something I really like for both accounts (and audiences), I’ll simply retweet myself from one to another. However don’t do this too often, it’s a little weird.
• Clearly define shared accounts: If you aren’t the only one using a Twitter account (shared corporate accounts are common) make sure you and the other contributors define your roles within the account. Also I’m a firm believer in making personal connections, even in a corporate account so identify each contributor via the bio or a custom Twitter background and consider signing each tweet with initials.
• Consider if it’s really necessary: If you own your own business and are certainly not leaving it, you may have one account for both your business and personal life. I mean, if you’re like most entrepreneurs, your personal and professional life probably go hand in hand. The reason I have separate accounts is there’s a strong possibility I’ll leave my job one day and the company will lose the relationships and followers I’ve built up. But if it doesn’t make sense, keep it simple.

Do you have any other helpful tips? Have you run into Twitter-induced multiple personality disorder? Tell me about it here!

Send High Five Canada to the Olympics

Samsung is running a contest to find a few pairs of “mobile explorers” to send to the 2010 games in Vancouver.

Among the entrants are Derek and Elise. Derek is a friend of mine who I worked with several years ago, and who graduated from the Algonquin PR program the year after I did. However, I’m not asking you to vote for them because he’s a friend, they’ve clearly put a lot of work and effort behind this campaign and they definitely deserve the vote.

Please see their entry video here and vote 5 stars. In addition to the video, they also put together a whole campaign behind the entry. After you’ve voted, take a look at the site and I’m sure you’ll want to throw your support behind them as well.

Good luck Derek & Elise!

New social media events in Ottawa

There’s been a few new events popping up here in Ottawa, so I thought I’d throw up a little update with some details:

Ignite Ottawa – Thursday, Nov. 12
Ignite is a series of five-minute talks on just about anything. The event started in Seattle and now is hosted in cities all over the world. The first-ever Ottawa edition already has a fantastic lineup including SuzeMuse, Adele McAlear, Nick Charney and others. I’ll be there & hope to see you too, but hurry there’s only 20 spots remaining!

Connect the Dots – Thurs. Nov 12 & Friday Nov. 13
This event is designed to connect all leading women’s networking groups in the Ottawa Region and provide an opportunity to NETWORK, COLLABORATE, BE INSPIRED and GET MOTIVATED.

Case Study Jam – Thurs. Nov. 19
Another first event in Ottawa. Case Study Jam is all about real, practical case studies involving social media. Whether successful, in progress or failed, all stories are welcome.

And of course, all the old favourites are still happening, including Third Tuesday, with Trust Agent co-author Julien Smith on Monday, Nov. 30, and Social Media Breakfast, coming up Dec. 3 with Collin Douma.

I’m aiming to be at most of these events and hope to see you too.

Oh yea, one more thing, Scott and I have also revived the Ottawa Social Media Book Club–where we gather informally to talk about social media books. Check out our new site and send us your feedback!

Three big mistakes I’ve made (and what you can learn from them)

Some say you should never show weakness–but I disagree. Part of what makes me good at what I do is that I have made mistakes before and I’ve learned from them. As well I *still* make mistakes and still learn from them. And I’d love for you to learn from some of my mistakes as well. (Feel free to share your own and I’ll learn from you too!)

When I started using social media in a business capacity, I was straight out of school. I fully admit, that in some ways I went about it in the wrong way. Fortunately it was early enough in the game to a) still get good results even if I made mistakes and b) for me to learn from what I was doing and correct it moving forward.

Mistake #1: Blending personal and professional

Although I’ve long been an Internet junkie and geek at heart, when I started using social media at work I never thought about the benefit to me personally. So I tied everything I did to my company name. For example, my LinkedIn URL has “cardcomm_kel” in it and likewise my Digg, Delicious and Technorati user names all involve ‘cardcomm’ which was the short form of cardcommunications, a company that was since acquired and no longer in existence (although the web site is still up if you want a slice of history!)

Lesson learned: If you are using social media sites on behalf of your company, create your own personal account (although disclose your work relationship if you’re using it to promote work stuff) and a separate company account only when the situation warrants (For example, on Twitter I manage my own personal account and our company account) but for sites like Digg or delicious, you probably just need your own.

Mistake #2: Lack of Strategy

When I started the cardcommunications blog, my reasoning for it was “all of our competitors have blogs, why don’t we?” At the time blogging for business was still relatively new so I got away with it, but of course it would have been more efficient if there was a strategy in place from the beginning. Now for business any new endeavour has a strategy, whether it’s a formal document or just some notes scribbled on a pad somewhere–there are measurable objectives and a strategy, but it’s always flexible of course..

Lesson Learned: Get your strategy down first and save a lot of time and headache. Don’t get caught up in the hype of new tools, figure out your own business value first.

Mistake #3: Not doing what you love

Particularly in a community management role, it’s *so* important to love what you do. Have passion and speak from the heart and it’s a lot easier to succeed. I’ve left a few great jobs because I just wasn’t passionate about the subject matter, and moving forward I know that it’s easier to succeed when the passion and love is there.

Lesson learned: Figure out what you love, and do it.

What is Gov 2.0?

Although the term was thrown around a lot at this year’s GTEC, Tim O’Reilly was the only one who thoroughly—and inspiringly—defined what it meant.

Given that I don’t work in IT, or in the government, I felt a little like a fly on the wall at this conference (that brings together leading experts from all levels of government to collaborate on what citizens want with a technology focus). However what drew me to it was Tim O’Reilly and he did not disappoint. One thing I really wanted to take away was a better understanding of “Gov 2.0” and what it really means.

The funny thing about buzzwords is the more they are used the more meaning they lose. Even the term Web 2.0 has many different meanings depending on who you ask. Since O’Reilly is at least partly responsible for defining the term, I have a hunch he knows what he’s talking about.

So what exactly is gov 2.0?

O’Reilly suggests it involves the following:

• Citizen contribution and collaboration
• use of social media
• transparency
• new methods of procurement
• cloud computing

And what it all means is positioning government as a platform for citizens to build upon and help make better. The current model, which David Kettl explains is “government as a vending machine;” we put money in, and receive services in return. Straight foward, but is it effective?

The problem, O’Reilly states, is that the cost just keeps going up. An alternative model—that embodies the government as a platform idea—is to throw the door open to partners (i.e. citizens) and provide the data for them to collaborate and improve services. This would enhance efficiency and curb spending. It’s the gov 2.0 model.

I’m excited to see if this is adopted in Canada. Obviously our biggest concern (as usual) is privacy… Which, of course, someone asked about during questions. O’Reilly responded by quoting Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems who said: “you have no privacy, get over it”

We’ll see how it goes I guess.