There are people I know who would be horrified at this ratio

I don’t know if you use Twitter, but it’s really quite remarkably useful. More so back when it did the updates to your mobile phone, before they stopped all that here in the UK - but even so, still a really cool bit of social technology.

If you haven’t encountered it, you just briefly update with what you’re doing right now, or what you’re thinking about, or whatever. 140 characters or less. Sort of like a microblog. And you can keep track of what other people are up to. It’s called ‘following’ them.

And there’s a bit of an etiquette that goes along with it. You’re sort of expected to follow the people that follow you. Only I tend not to. Too much information inwards for my liking.

The Dubber approach to Twitter use
I’ve tried adding and subtracting people based on different criteria - and I’ve recently come up with a 3-step filter which goes some way toward explaining why I currently have fewer than 20 people whose updates I receive.

1) Are you a person?
My first criteria is that you not be a website or an organisation. This is not how I want to receive your marketing material, press releases, PR or news. I may get it in other ways, but this is not what I choose to use Twitter for. You have to be a single, individual human being.

2) Have we had a drink?
Okay, it’s not enough for me to just know who you are, or know you to say hi to. My latest rule is that we have to have had a drink together. It can be a coffee, a beer or whatever. If we have sat down (or stood around) and chatted over a beverage of some description, then chances are I want to know what you’re up to now. And, if you’re nearby having a drink now - I may wish to know about that too, with an eye to joining you there.

3) Do you talk about real things?
I’m not making a distinction between fiction and non-fiction here. What I want to know is whether you are just going to be your job or your role as a blogger. For instance, if you’re a rock star, and all you talk about is rock stardom, then I’m not that keen. If you’re a new media blogger and all you talk about is websites, then meh. But if you’re a mobile phone salesman and you talk about what your kids brought home from school, an amazing book you just read, a cause you’re interested in, and some puzzles of the universe you’ve been thinking about (as well as tips for mobile phone use) - then I’m in.

There are people I know who meet the criteria for #1 and#2 - but they use Twitter to only talk about their chosen topic. That may be fine for all the other people who follow them - but for me, that’s why I read their blog. And those people tend to be quite relentless about Twittering about their topic, their blog or their chosen singular identity. Dozens of tweets a day.

Give it a rest.

In my mind, Twitter is for behind-the-scenes, personal and ‘real’ things. This is why I hardly ever send news updates about online music developments using that medium. It’s more about stuff I’m thinking, stuff I’m curious about, stuff I’m doing or just stuff.

If it’s relevant, important or on-message, then it’s not for me.

If I phoned you, and said ‘Hey - what are you up to?’ and you said ‘Well, the latest development in the field of typography is…’, I probably wouldn’t call you again. But for me - that’s exactly the social communication territory where Twitter lies.

I much prefer ‘Well, the kids have just painted the cat blue, and I’m trying to find somewhere to eat tonight that doesn’t suck or cost too much’.

Further filtering
I’m tempted to add more criteria - like ‘Do you post between 1 and 5 times a day?’ (my favourite regularity: not too verbose, but with something to say every day) and ‘Have I learned something from you in the past month?’ - but those criteria are virtually redundant with the list that I’m left with anyway.

Most of my Twitterbuddies are fascinating people from whom I’m always learning new stuff - and with only one or two compulsive twitterers (you know who you are) and a couple of virtual wallflowers in the mix, the balance of posts is about where it should be.

Missing persons
There are still people who tick all my boxes but who I don’t currently follow. If that’s you, could you please give me a nudge? I pared it right down to 5 follows a while back while doing a social media spring clean and still need to put a few things back where they belong.

Bad form
I’m aware that this is not accepted practice for Twitter usage, but it’s how I’m using it. I’m sorry if this excludes you, but I’m probably subscribed to your blog’s RSS feed, if that’s any consolation…

__________________________________

I’m also very aware that I “owe” a couple of blog posts here about the trip to Hamburg and the Shambala music festival. I may or may not get to those… but in the meantime, you can put the story together in pictures on Flickr:

The Hamburg collection

The Shambala set

Today I finally crossed the long-elusive 3000 subscribers mark on New Music Strategies. I’m very happy about that.

My site New Music Strategies has been going for a good couple of years now. Nearly three, I think. Slowly, over that time, I’ve been building readership.

I don’t look at the stats that often, but there’s usually between 500 and 700 unique visitors a day, which I’m pretty pleased with.

But the metric that I’ve always been most interested in is the number of subscribers to the blog. People who think what I say is interesting enough to get it delivered to them in their feed reader. I was delighted when I hit the 2,500 mark back in May - and I’m thrilled to have finally passed the 3,000 mark today.

So I thought I’d note the occasion on my personal blog where the target is a much more modest 200 readers.

You can subscribe to New Music Strategies here. I wrote an article about RSS feeds here, where I called it “the most useful technology to come about since the invention of email”.

If you’re new to reading blogs through a feed reader, then I’d recommend using Google Reader. It’s really simple and easy to use - and it will transform your web experience.

Hooray!

I did a radical de-friending exercise on Facebook last night. I went through the list of people I’m connected to and realised it was far too long, and that it made the site less than useful.

Unfortunately, I was a little over-zealous. There were some people who were kind of attached to being my friend - and one or two people that I removed in error.

If that’s you, then I apologise - and I have drafted the following letter in response to the couple of complaints that I have received:

Hi,

Apologies for that - I’ve been doing a big clearout of friends in MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and a couple of other social networks. They’ve become unmanageable simply because I’m connected to so many people.

I did the same a while back with Twitter - going down from following 500 people to following 5. I’ve crept back up again to about 25, but I’m trying to keep the information flow light.

My criteria was people I work with, people I’m related to, and people I go and have a drink with. That’s pretty much it. That drops me down to 80-odd from the 400+ I was at on Facebook.

Unfortunately, unlike Twitter, ‘friendship’ can only happen two ways on Facebook. There are lots of people who follow me on Twitter that I don’t follow. But on Facebook, you can only connect reciprocally. If I don’t follow you, you can’t follow me.

I had a feeling this purge of mine would step on a few toes, and I certainly don’t mean to offend anyone. My expectation is that over the next few weeks, I’ll end up re-adding a bunch of people (though I’ll be more selective this time around - I had people added who were complete and utter strangers to me).

But to be honest, I don’t actually use Facebook that much, except to check in and run down the list of people I know and see what they’re up to - then grumble that they’re not on Twitter, which is so much better at that sort of thing.

Then I look at their photos, and grumble that they’re not using Flickr, which is so much better at that sort of thing.

Then I look at the two groups that I’m a member of, and grumble that they’re not self-contained online communities, blogs or Ning sites - or at the very least, Yahoo or Google Groups, which are so much better at that sort of thing.

And finally, I look at my Inbox and grumble that these people haven’t sent their messages to my email, which is so much better at that sort of thing.

I go to Facebook because I have to - because that’s where people are. And every now and then on all my social networks, I’ll do a radical pruning. But just as in gardening, sometimes when you do a radical pruning, you inadvertently chop off a flower.

In this case, that was you - and I’m adding you back to rectify this error. Sorry to signal any sort of rejection. It wasn’t at all intentional or directed at you.

Delighted to have you as my Facebook friend.

If this applies to you, please by all means go back to Facebook and re-add me. It wasn’t a personal slight. It was just a spring clean. Talk to you soon.

Related articles by Zemanta

• AtomKeep Syncs Your Social Network Profiles [Social Networks]
• You Can’t Patch a Social Network
• You Are Not My Friend

Looking for someone smart and motivated

I’ve had quite a few enquiries about my graduate intern opportunity, and I’m going to be closing the doors on applications very soon. The first day I’m conducting interviews is Monday next week and I have some great candidates lined up.

However, I seem to getting people mainly from web development and music industry. A couple from design. I’m really hoping to get applicants from marketing, business and PR if at all possible, because the tasks I have in mind are more suited to that particular leaning.

That’s not to say that the people I’ll be interviewing won’t be perfect for the role, but that it will rely on them having characteristics unrelated to their specialist backgrounds. Whereas a marketing graduate with a little bit of online experience will immediately be in their element from day one.

If you know of anybody who might be suitable for this opportunity (especially if that happens to be you), then please send them my way.

Tasks include:

1. Managing content and liaising with website contributors
2. Promotion and marketing
3. Email correspondence and lead generation
4. Instructional writing for style guides and handbooks
5. Uploading online content (Wordpress)
6. Data entry and online retail
7. Managing and analysing online advertising campaigns
8. Research and information management

More information here.

Top 5 recent changes to 5alist

Make your own Top 5 list on 5alist