Category Archives: ramblings

daily life, thoughts, and ramblings

5 Secrets of Highly Effective Twitter Users

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There’s no way to guarantee success with a Twitter campaign, but you can stack the odds in your favor by following some simple tips to vastly increase your effectiveness. Here’s how to get the most bang for your tweet…

[ via 5 Secrets of Highly Effective Twitter Users ]

You can go read their suggestions. (I might add, “6. If you write articles about twitter, include a link to your twitter account.” But, that is just me. I’m sure Inc. didn’t give Minda Zetlin a say in the matter.)

Personally, I’d stick with:

  1. follow whoever you want – there is no “follower strategy”
  2. listen
  3. be helpful

And a bonus biased comment: twitter is social, social is relationships, if you need a strategy to your relationships something is broken.

What would it look like to graph your attention?

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Chris has got me pondering what an attention graph would look like, after reading his thoughts about Internet, Social, Interest, Taste, Financial Trust, Local, and Endorsement graphs.

Maybe, in an attention graph, the nodes are attention sources, and relations are time? But then, the relations would have to be measured in a zero-sum game?

I’m still just thinking out loud here, so I’d love someone smarter than me to help out in the comments.

email with intention and purpose

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Trudging my way through my inbox this morning, I encountered an email newsletter product update announcement that I actually enjoyed reading. The message didn’t even matter. The experience was everything. Sadly, this joy was an unexpected sensation.

In theory, there is no dfference in time or cost for good communication over poor communication. One way or the other, you are simply typing words and paragraphs. The distinction arises from the willingness to execute with intention and purpose.

These intentional form and format decisions caught (and kept) my attention:

  • branding consisted of a top centered logo
  • no other visual noise
  • singular purpose to the email
  • describes very concisely each step I should take
  • informs me there will be more detail below the signature
  • very personal thank you for reading
  • signature block with very basic strategic info to stay in touch
  • more detailed information below the signature
  • solid headings for each section
  • higher than average spacing between blocks of content

Maybe someday I’ll come back and share more thoughts on each of these points.

Lifetime Customer Value

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Yeah, so, I’m a geek, and this is hawt.

<network>
<item object=”connection”>269</item>
<item object=”density”>0.101</item>
<item object=”betweenness”>0.225</item>
<item object=”closeness”>0.700</item>
</network>

Someday, remind me to talk to you more about my obsession with Lifetime Customer Value (LCV). And if you are a geek and want to get a head start, check out userlabor.org and portable contacts.

Apparently 1 small step is better than 0 huge steps

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Profound huh?

Of course it isn’t. That’s just simple math, or physics, or something. Whatever it is, it isn’t deep. But, I needed to say it out loud to myself.

I’ve been sitting on a blog post for 3 days now, because I’m trying to say too much. It has three parts, and each part has 3 main points and a follow up question with a chart. Well, not really, but it feels like that is what it is becoming. It also feels likes something I want to avoid. Which is sad, because when I wrote down the draft title, I couldn’t wait to write it.

Time to split that post into three smaller ones. Did I mention I’m addicted to iteration?

twitter lists: discovering connections where they might otherwise go unknown

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Just discovered another reason why lists are awesome:

@brianshaler/favorite-sf-peeps

I love Brian Shaler. He is a creative with tenacity. (A great combination, by the way.) And, if he likes someone, then that is reason enough for me to want to know them. Thanks to this list, I just realized there are five people I want to meet (and one I would love to know better).

I’m proud of your information linking abilities, now what are you doing?

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A couple of things have been picking at scabs on my mind:

  • At a recent SVASE event Steve Blank asked whether people were evangelizing the religion or practicing the religion. (mp3)
  • There are a shit-ton (not sure if that’s metric or not) of links and quotations on twitter.
  • “Wanted to buy a book at SFMOMA this morning, but realized I want to *do* instead of *read* in this season.” [tweeted]
  • “My ONE defining metric: does it improve a real-life relationship?” [tweeted]

Before I start connecting all these dots, do you have any to add?