AriWriter

From One to Two and Back to One

Ari Herzog — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:59:13 +0000

Columns, I refer.

Why must your blog be designed with two or three columns? Everyone’s blog looks like that! I keep experimenting with a single-column look and I keep nixing and changing it. I think it’s time to keep the single view, don’t you?

I awoke this morning to a 2-column design at AriWriter. I will sleep with this current look of a single column.

The sidebar content, albeit with elements truncated, is at the bottom of this page.

Chris Pearson, developer of the Thesis theme for Wordpress that powers this blog design, explains some of the background and reasoning for why I did what I did:

I wrote about the importance of minimalism 15 months ago–before I shifted it. Now, it’s back. You like?

-- Thanks for reading From One to Two and Back to One at AriWriter

Why Joining 38,943 People is Bad

Ari Herzog — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:05:03 +0000

Copyblogger is among the blogs I’ve read for about 18 months. Not every day, not every week; but it’s always among my list of subscribed and go-to sites for useful advice. I’m a Brian Clark groupie.

His writing aside, I don’t approve of his focusing on the number of people following him on Twitter as a reason why you should, too.

Browsing through some of the people who are currently following @copyblogger, there are more sincere people like Marko Saric than unsavory characters. But by focusing on the aggregate and not selected testimonials, there is a greater chance of an assumption, such as what this blog post is about.

The caveat is by linking his blog to the real-time number of people who follow him, Brian is directly suggesting you should follow those people, too. After all, if you click the link to “join us,” you’d be grouping yourself with everyone else.

Still with me?

Join john1b1 and follow copyblogger

If someone like John Betholly with a nondescript Twitter username like john1b1 or James Christopher with roadrunner1416 or Traffic Gambit appeals to you, then follow @copyblogger right here.

I’d argue the people who follow Brian opt to do such for their own reasons. Don’t follow Brian because of what other people do. Don’t follow Brian because I suggest you do. Follow Brian because you want to.

However, if you’d be more swayed to click a link because 38,000 other people are in front of you, then ignore my advice and click the link.

-- Thanks for reading Why Joining 38,943 People is Bad at AriWriter

Will Social Media Pay Off?

Ari Herzog — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:01:46 +0000

I’ve lived a double online life since June 2009.

Over the past four months, I’ve maintained two blogs–this place where you read my strategies and tips on social media marketing–and another site where I write more sporadic but no less prolific about my campaign for city council.

In cahoots with my campaign blog, I built campaign outposts on Facebook (here) and Twitter (here). With increasing intensity every week, and then every day, I focused more on the campaign social media sites than my so-called business ones.

At at the end of the day–Election Day–the people who go the polls will determine my fate on the city council January 1. There’s no denial social media has played a part in recent months, but to what extent, the next 21 hours will tell…

-- Thanks for reading Will Social Media Pay Off? at AriWriter

Reviewing Twitterville

Ari Herzog — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:05:05 +0000

“Wherever you live, chances are you think your government could do a better job,” writes Shel Israel in the opening sentence of chapter 13 of Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods.

Shel explains the background to the book’s title, published earlier in 2009, in the introduction, some 200 pages earlier:

Twitterville connotes a certain homey, small-town feel, a place where you meet people you know as you stroll down familiar streets. These are people with whom you share common friends, interests, and ethics. When you meet a stranger here, chances are you have mutual friends or interests.

While Twitterville has millions of people in it, and is growing faster than the world’s largest megalopolises, it still feels cozy to most of its residents and visitors. It still feels safe for the most part.

This is due, in my opinion, to Twitterville’s most important characteristic, something I have named global neighborhoods. . . . Twitter lets us behave online more closely to how we do it in the tangible world than anything that has ever preceded it. And we find neighborhoods that suit us. If we love to talk about politics, we can find many neighborhoods where everyone cares just about that. The same with hummingbirds, cooking, sports, or needlepoint. You can find a neighborhood where you can hang out to learn and share and chat about the topic.

You can join as many or as few as you like. These are global neighborhoods, yet they are small and personal and cozy at the same time that they make your world far bigger.

Reacting to popular complaints about government inefficiency, apathy, and corruption, Shel believes citizens should look to Twitterville for best practices in transportation, law enforcement, and disaster response.

I agree.

Remember when I wrote about the world’s first Twitter press conference via the Israeli Consulate? Or, more recently, when I wrote about a government conference I attended in Washington, D.C. and selected tweets that encapsulated its momentum?

Citing the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system for its innovative use of posting video and blog content across its @SFBart feed, to the reporting of arrest information from the Boston Police at @Boston_Police, to hundreds of municipal, state, and federal government individuals and agencies, Shel indicates through profiles and interviews that it is clear Twitter is progressively being used as a proving ground to react to citizen complaints and calm public fears.

Recent tweets by the LA Fire Department

Recent tweets by the Boston police

Want to read more about Twitterville? Click over to Shel’s blog that served as the template for his book and continues to be where he writes about Twitterville characters and case studies.

Disclosure: I am mentioned in the book’s acknowledgments for my input.

-- Thanks for reading Reviewing Twitterville at AriWriter

Twitter Grading Over 30 Days

Ari Herzog — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:10:51 +0000

One month ago, I explained why applications like Twitter Grader were meaningless, including the following example:

Twitter grade of @ariherzog on October 2 - Click to zoom

Returning to twitter.grader.com/ariherzog now, I see:

Twitter grade of @ariherzog on November 1 - Click to zoom

Let’s see what happens in another month.

-- Thanks for reading Twitter Grading Over 30 Days at AriWriter

iPhone, uPhone, We All Scream For..

Ari Herzog — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:17:07 +0000

Have you heard the one about the 3-year-old and the iPhone?

The Boston Globe shares the following video report:

Call me a critic, but how is this news? Kids have always preferred flashy objects over dull ones. How is bubble wrap — the translucent-like film — anything but dull in comparison?

Perhaps the better analogy is giving a kid an iPhone with an application that builds sandcastles, then asking the kid to use a pail and a shovel at the beach. Guess which will be more dull?

-- Thanks for reading iPhone, uPhone, We All Scream For.. at AriWriter

Social Media: Banning vs Blocking

Ari Herzog — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:02:08 +0000

I am sorry I have to write this but it appears some of the leading technology journals are unable to agree on the difference between a ban and a block. If I didn’t know better, some editors might think the two verbs are synonyms.

The facts

On October 6, 2009, IT staffing firm Robert Half International released the results of an independent survey of 1,400 chief information officers that 54% of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees ban access to social networking sites.

From the press release:

CIOs were asked, “Which of the following most closely describes your company’s policy on visiting social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, while at work?” Their responses:

Prohibited completely – 54%
Permitted for business purposes only – 19%
Permitted for limited personal use – 16%
Permitted for any type of personal use – 10%
Don’t know/no answer – 1%

“Using social networking sites may divert employees’ attention away from more pressing priorities, so it’s understandable that some companies limit access,” said Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology.

“For some professions, however, these sites can be leveraged as effective business tools, which may be why about one in five companies allows their use for work-related purposes.”

In response

Mashable: More Than Half of Employers Now Block Twitter, Facebook, MySpace

Wired magazine: Study: 54 Percent of Companies Ban Facebook, Twitter at Work

Turning to Merriam-Webster

The dictionary kings define the intransitive verb, to ban: : to prohibit especially by legal means ; also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of

The transitive verb, to block, is different: : to make unsuitable for passage or progress by obstruction b archaic : blockade c : to hinder the passage, progress, or accomplishment of by or as if by interposing an obstruction d : to shut off from view e : to interfere usually legitimately with (as an opponent) in various games or sports f : to prevent normal functioning or action of g : to restrict the exchange of (as currency or checks)

I’ll presume the blocking proponents, like Mashable, are using the “d” clause.

Which is it?

Ben McConnell calls it a ban, echoed by Mario Sundar. Neither define the corporate actions as blocking, typically indicative of security or privacy concerns.

Bans carry the potential for reversal without massive IT infrastructure changes, which blocks insist. In the above study, the companies opt to prohibit their employees from accessing the sites. That option can be reversed tomorrow, so how’s it a block?

-- Thanks for reading Social Media: Banning vs Blocking at AriWriter