The For Immediate Release (FIR) Podcast recently covered the release of Google Sidewiki, a browser plugin that allows you to add and share comments on any page on the web. The service comes bundled with the enhanced features of the Google Toolbar (available for Internet Explorer and Firefox, but notably not Google Chrome), allowing you to open a sidebar next to any page to see previous comments and add your own.

Commenting on web pages has become a part of our online lives since being popularized by the growth in blogs and has been adopted by many web publishers for other types of content. Google Sidewiki extends this feature beyond the reach of web publishers, allowing visitors to comment on any page across the web (as long as you have Google Sidewiki installed).For instance, here are the comments on Microsoft Bing, a major Google competitor in the search space:

(See actual page)

This tool raises a number of issues such as comment moderation and ranking (Google says it uses automated scripts and the nebulous measure of authority for this), and the ability of web publishers to control commenting on their pages. However, I’d like to center on one issue that is by no means restricted to Google Sidewiki but is definitely highlighted by this service. That is the issue of comment and feedback proliferation.

Proliferation of commenting systems

As was pointed out in the FIR podcast, there are already a number of ways of sharing comments on content. Let’s highlight some of these:

• A website’s own commenting system (as ships as standard with most blogging platforms)
• Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Posterous, etc.
• Comment networks like Disqus
  
• And now browser-based systems like Google Sidewiki

Will Google Sidewiki be the last entrant into this space? Probably not. The upshot is that it becomes increasingly difficult to monitor these conversations and the multiple threads that can roll out of them. These systems are by their very nature distributed and autonomous. If, for instance, a comment thread grows on Google Sidewiki, someone browsing through the Disqus comments on a blog page who doesn’t happen to have Google Toolbar would remain blissfully unaware of this.

The problem has been around for some time on social networks. For instance, there are a number of services that allow you to post to Facebook from Twitter, so your Tweets appear to both audiences. Now if a Tweet that appears on Facebook attracts a number of comments, these aren’t passed back to your Twitter followers. So although your original missives are shared across the networks, the ensuing comments and conversations are not.

No easy solution presents itself, largely due a lack of standards when it comes to this form of communications. Going back to that earlier example, comments on Facebook are a completely different format and can be much longer than a reply on Twitter. Now throwing Google Sidewiki into the equation complicates the situation further, given that this system is browser-based and not strictly web-based.

So whilst Google Sidewiki throws up an enticing proposition (that of being able to comment on any page across the web), it really adds to the growing problem of comment system proliferation. Are we just building ourselves a fresh new Tower of Babel where online streams of conversations grow up in isolation of each other?

More on Google Sidewiki

Install Google Sidewiki
Google Sidewiki and Google Wave integration (VB SEO)
Google Sidewiki vs Brands in Public (Tim Aldiss)
Google Sidewiki explained (Search Newz)

The excellent For Immediate Release (FIR) Podcast recently highlighted the launch of Brands in Public, an interesting project from popular marketing/communications author Seth Godin. Brands in Public sets up social media profile pages for brands with content aggregated from social media content from all the normal suspects across the web (blogs, Twitter, forums, news, etc.) – making it available in one handy location. There is also a section of the page that allows you to comment directly on the brand.

As an example, here’s the homepage for Home Depot:

(see the actual page)

Released last week, the service did draw some ire around the original plan to post pages irrespective of whether or not brand owners consented. In addition, brand owners have to pay Brands in Public $400 a month for the privilege of excercising editorial control (including moderating comments) over their pages. Seth has since relented and Brands in Public is now opt-in.

There has been a lot of discussion around this project primarilly discussing the ethics and what this could mean for brands and their online presence. I’m interested in focussing on one aspect: that of brand ownership.

Brand ownership

One thing Brands in Public highlighted is just how easy it is to set up a page focused on a brand you don’t own and populate it with the wealth of social media content that exists out there.

So brand owners better beware! If these pages are tied together into networks (as Brands in Public has done by tying up with Seth’s already well-placed Squidoo site), they will rank highly for brand searches on Google and the other major search engines. In effect, Brands in Public takes some control of the online brand image away from brand owners.

In terms of the creation of these types of pages, as was pointed out on the FIR podcast, you too could be a Seth Godin and go ahead and use services like Netvibes to mock-up similar pages very quickly with little expense. This raises the issue of brandjacking, something which anyone who was involved in the wild west of domain registration 10 years ago is no doubt aware.

However, in this instance the social aspect introduces a new dimension. If such systems become highly popular, brands can end up in an uncomfortable position and may find themselves having to relent to the crowds.

Brand owners already find themselves dealing with similar issues around brand pages on Wikipedia. The difference in this case is that a collection of social media soundbites has the potential to become much more emotive: the intent of the medium isn’t to be instructional or informative, it’s to display conversation in all its vibrant tone and color. If the crowds dictate they want these village square-like properties that allow them to pillor brands, how far can brands go to limit this, before they are accused of trampling established netiquette? If the conversation around your brand heads southwards, how exactly should you react?

Regardless of the ethics of this, if these types of aggregation pages become more prevalent, companies are going to have to consider this aspect of their web presence and find a way to deal with it. Pleading brandjacking may fall on deaf ears as lack of participation is viewed by your prospects and customers as a sign of defensiveness.

Whlst Brands in Public has brought this issue to the fore, regardless of whether it survives or not, I don’t believe we’ve heard the end of this subject.

More on Brands in Public:

Squidoo Backs Down On ‘Brand Campaign’ As Many Are ‘Not so Happy’ About It (TechCrunch)

Launching Brands in Public (Seth’s Blog)

Squiddo, Brands in Public & the risks of aggregation blackmail (Dan McCarthy)

Tweetdeck, one of the most popular Twitter desktop clients, has recently rolled out a new edition which now features a directory of Twitterers to follow. Topics include ‘Sports News’, ‘Environment’, ‘Technology’, ‘Business & Marketing’ amongst others.

The service is particularly useful for newer users of Twitter who are still trying to figure out the technology: the directory makes it easy to instantly follow top Tweeters in these fields. This is how the Tweetdeck team describe the service:

Think of it as a TV Guide for Twitter channels.  Simply browse the directory by topic.  You’ll find everything from music to news and sports to travel.  When you find the perfect group for you simply click ‘Add to TweetDeck’ and the column will magically appear in your TweetDeck.

There are a few pieces to this which I’m still not clear on, such as who decided which profiles are included in the directory and whether this will be updated over time. At a stretch you could say this directory gives a competitive advantage to those listed on it.

There are a bunch of other new features in this release including enhanced Facebook posting and support. So if you haven’t already, download the latest version and see why Tweetdeck is the most popular Twitter client out there.

I had an illuminating discussion with Delphine Remy-Boutang (@DelphRB), who is a social media marketing manager at IBM. She has run some successful social media campaigns and has pulled together some great slides evangelizing the use of social media for B2B marketing.

One of these presentations contained the following Twitter strategy:

(Credit for the information on this slide goes to Ogilvy)

There can be some real advantages for segmenting your Twitter strategy along these lines:

• You can micro-manage your audience (eg. customers only see product release information, and not events aimed at prospects)
• You can task different parts of the organization with running separate channels
• You may choose different Twitter tools and clients based on the audience (eg. event coverage could be handled through Tweetdeck whereas you might want in-depth social media monitoring tools for crisis management)

I’d say there are some caveats around this approach. The biggest being that this only really makes sense in larger organizations. If you have a smaller ecosystem or there’s only a few of you to manage Twitter, you may just want one handle that pulls all these functions together. In this case segmentation doesn’t make sense.

Another issue to be wary of is ending up with silos for each of these segments. There may be instances where you need to cross-pollinate and share information. For instance, what happens when customer support questions end up being directed to the Product Promotion channel? You need to have an effective way of routing these Tweets back through to the support organization. This problem isn’t confined to just this strategy or Twitter, but rather a larger problem symptomatic of our markets turning into conversations.  It is often marketing departments who monitor these conversations, but marketing may not be best-placed to engage. Organizationally, we need to resolve these problems if we are to effectively communicate in these emerging channels.

For me the strongest message implicit in this strategy is this: we shouldn’t just think of a Twitter channel of another way of broadcasting our marketing messages. Sure, this is one facet of Twitter communication, but there is a much wider picture which we need to take into account.

If you work in a large or distributed enterprise and are tasked with finding the members of your organization who are bullish about the use of social media, you may have realized just how tricky this can be. In these days, where company communications are slipping further away from the centralized model and into the hands of employees, there is no easy way to locate those employees who could be your best advocates.

If your organization is anything like the ones I’ve worked for, these individuals often fall outside the traditional folk who have handled corporate communications: PR, product marketing, field marketing, etc. Working in the B2B tech space, many new communicators are popping out of the cadre of young developers entering the company. We as communicators/marketers can play a great facilitation role: imparting comms training to willing subject matter experts. Problem is finding these people.

Step up Tweepsearch

Tweepsearch is a very specific Twitter tool: it just searches Twitter profiles. This makes it particularly useful for finding those folks on Twitter who are affiliated with your organization. Eg. for IBM, here’s a sample of the Twitter profiles the service throws up:

The service lists the number of followers, to give a sense of the degree of influence, and the number of updates which gives an indication of the level of commitment.

Next step is to isolate those handles that look most promising and start contacting them directly.

Other uses of Tweepsearch

This isn’t the only use of this service: a topic search can help locate those people on Twitter who share your interests. You can also search by geography if you want to find those who Tweet on the subject of your locale.

So, go ahead and give Tweepsearch a whirl. Let me know if you find new uses for this interesting tool.

Working in social media around the Valley, it’s easy to fall into the trap of turning into a geek groupie. The digital glitterati are everywhere and, yes, because we live in a world of social media, they are omnipresent (regardless of what your social network of choice might be). You can spend hours on Tweetdeck watching the lives of industry pundits unfurl. It’s the virtual equivalent of a medieval court with a number of well-placed nobles (read industry pundits) throwing out scraps to the courtesans in their wake.

If you are looking at business applications of social media, you are probably familiar with one of the number of Twitter handles around which much of the readership revolves: @jowyang, @scobleizer, @guykawasaki, @mashable and of course, Mr @shelisrael. Many of us, if we’re honest, with our retweets and attempts at drawing them into the conversation, have the not-so-hidden desire to emulate them.

To a degree rightly so. This field is largely a meritocracy and most of these folks have gotten to where they are by proving their mettle. However, last night, one of the cadre voiced dissent. Shel Israel, presenting at an SNCR event promoting the launch of his new book Twitterville, proclaimed ‘we are not the influencers’. Shel made an impassioned plea to get out there and follow anyone with passion and relevance within your sphere. If you’re a company, look first at your customer base and employees (Lionel Menchaca and the Dell story of customer engagement is one of the featured case studies in the book). The core message: don’t just go after the social media influencers, ie. don’t blindly get pulled into a herd mentality.

This, however, sparked the most lively debate of the evening. The fact that the cult of celebrity transfers so well to Twitter (check out the number of followers for @britneyspears or @stephenfry if you don’t believe me) does suggest that even as we move away from a broadcast medium like TV, at heart we still need our media royalty. The masses will follow the few.

If I understand Shel correctly, he is calling for us, as social media and communications experts, to really move away from that old broadcast model and explore the small pockets of communications these new social tools open up. Unfortunately somehow the conversation got derailed and this point was not revisited before the event closed.

Shel’s point resonated with me as I know I’m as guilty as anyone of spending time analyzing the strategies industry bigwigs and analysts put forward, mesmerized by the latest technologies and trying to figure out which social media monitoring tool will give me the biggest bang for my buck. How much am I missing? That social media monitoring tool is important, but its nothing unless there is commitment to really listen and react to the conversations it uncovers.

An immediate step I’ve taken is to set up some search channels in Tweetdeck around our core brands. For those Tweets I can’t deal with, I can parcel them off in the relevant direction within the organization (mainly product marketing). Even though I’m no subject expert in the technology I market, there’s no reason why I don’t engage with this crowd, eg:

• Explore ways to wire them closer into the organization
• Plough them further for information on their applications and what’s working well
• Tie them into our partner organization that offers beta versions and exclusives to the privileged few

Just to name a few ideas. A practical way to use Twitter where it works best: to engage at the personal level.

So, if Shel doesn’t mind, I can steal his mantra and say, ‘go – stop reading this blog and find your real thought leaders out there’. The unsung heroes within the company ecosystem you discover on Twitter will prove the worth of your social media efforts.

With the speed of development in the social media space (especially that ever-growing corner that pertains to Twitter), it’s difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. When this announcement first hit last week, my initial reaction was, to be frank, that this is just a bit of a gimmick. The news was thus: Bit.ly, the popular URL shortening service… wait for it… just got shorter.

As reported on the mighty Mashable, Bit.ly launched j.mp, offering the exact same shortening service, but now with a discount of two characters. Oh, and you don’t need to worry about this being a separate service: it’s nothing more than a redirect. So if you have a bit.ly url you suddenly find putting the squeeze on your 140 chars, just switch out bit.ly for j.mp. But really, how important is this? At the time, it got banked to the back of my mind and I moved on with my life (well, that bit of it that doesn’t belong to Twitter).

And then, last night I found myself with the problem this service is designed to fix. My Earth-changing Tweet was two over the limit. Within seconds, I amended my bit.ly link and Tweeted on unabated.

Just to spell this out, here’s an example of how this works:

Before:
http://bit.ly/Z8EDw (a whopping 19 characters)

After:
http://j.mp/Z8EDw (weighing in at an impressive 17 characters)

Oh, and for you naysayers who think a mastery of letters would get you round having to use this service, beware: there will come a time when you may hve 2 eat ur own wrds.

All we need now is someone to crack a way through that pesky ‘http://’. Someone needs to get in bed with Twitter (Bit.ly, are you feeling slutty enough for the job?) and take the throne as the URL shortener of choice, allowing us to free up a further seven characters that the http garbage takes up.

The XLR8R music mag ran a piece earlier this year explaining how minimal house DJ Richie Hawtin has developed a custom application to take his tracklisting as he’s playing and post this on Twitter. What better example of a musician using social media to engage with his fan base?

Hawtin has been on the cutting edge of the house and techno scene for the best part of the last 15 years (at least), pushing dance music in new directions. Hence fans of Hawtin are often left wondering ‘just what was that track?’. Now, with this custom application wired up to the tastesetter’s Traktor DJ software, Hawtin is able to answer that question in real-time. Information from the tracklisting within the software is piped out to Twitter:

(Richie Hawtin on Twitter)

Taken a step further, you could see how DJ’s could add links to those artists/tracks (or even, depending on how commercial they were feeling, add ‘buy now’ links) and generate more interest around the music they are playing.

At a time when the music industry has managed to alienate much of its online fanbase, could it adopt strategies such as this to bring music-listeners back into the fold?