Recently in Misc Category

Posting has been light here lately, but I have a good excuse, really. I've just gone through 30 demos in a comparison of 23 social media analysis platforms, from Alterian to Whitevector and including all the usual suspects. Now, I'm in the testing and writing phase of a comparison report that will be available in a few weeks. I'm getting hands-on with a lot of software, so blogging, tweeting, and even lunch are taking a back seat to the project.

The focus this time is on software that's designed to support social media capabilities in a multi-user, multi-project environment (which describes most companies and agencies). While asking the usual questions about features and coverage, I'm noticing interesting trends:

• Tools are aligned with the 5 modes of listening; not all platforms try to do it all.

• At the high end, companies are getting serious about social media analysis as enterprise software, adding features that address IT interests like user administration, security and system integration.

Nose. Grindstone.

In my copious spare time, as they say, I'm also working on an analytics unconference—mostly because it will be an event I want to attend. We're not quite ready to announce the details, but the wiki gives the general idea.

I've been busy behind the scenes, but some of my contacts missed the news. If you saw the not-quite-announcement on my not-exactly-secret vendor mailing list, you know what's going on. If you didn't—and your company sells social media analysis products or services—let's get you on the list.

A better way to keep in touch
When I set out to find all of the companies that monitor or measure social media in 2006, I thought I was researching 20 or 30 companies. Today, the database includes more than 170 companies, and it's become impossible to stay in touch through individual emails. To better manage the volume, I set up a mailing list for my vendor contacts.

This is not a client newsletter (that's later). This is my tool for staying in better contact with over 200 vendor contacts around the world. I'm replacing scattershot conversations with a more systematic way to include everyone in what's going on at Social Target. I'll use this list to share:

• New research projects to participate in
  
• Requests for information for the Guide to Social Media Analysis
  
• Case-study requests
  
• Questions to support specific client projects
  

The first big announcement went out three weeks ago. If you missed it, let me know, and I'll send you a personal copy.

I had seen a review of The Decline of Men earlier, but when I read Robert Rosenthal's interview with Guy Garcia for Ad Age yesterday, it made me think. About things I have learned and things I want my son to know. So while the 25 things meme circulates endlessly on Facebook, let's do something different: five manly things I can do and will pass on to my son. Tag, I'm it.

Male-targeted reality shows such as "Ice Road Truckers" and "The Deadliest Catch" tap masculine nostalgia for a time when physical brawn and bravery—not PowerPoint and spreadsheets—defined manly work.
—Guy Garcia

1. Might as well start with the basics. I can start a fire without using paper or chemical accelerants.

2. I can empty and right a canoe that has capsized and filled with water without first moving to shallow water.

3. I can build a pasture fence, from digging the post holes to stretching the wire with one of these. Not all work shows up on the résumé, you know.

4. I am installing my own hardwood floor, starting with removing the old underlayment and repairing weak sections of the subfloor.

5. I can carry on an informed conversation on current events, whether we're talking about bank bailouts, Pakistan's increasing instability, or the local school reassignment situation.

Tagging David Armano, Mack Collier, Mark Hopkins, Marshall Kirkpatrick , and Jake McKee, just in time for your Friday Fun posts.

Paul Dunay (@PaulDunay) mentioned this morning that he's developing a "ctweet" list of company chiefs on Twitter. If your card says something like CEO, COO, CFO, CMO or CIO, Paul wants to add you to his list. Which reminds me. Are we connected on Twitter (@gilliatt)?

This is a bit off-topic for me, but as it's not possible to have your eyes open for five minutes without seeing another reference to the economy, I have to say it. We have officially reached the point where metaphor is hampering, not aiding, our understanding of events. Especially as commentators speculate about what may be next, the language they're using to simplify—or to avoid concrete predictions?—is adding to the fear without adding to understanding.

Analysis Hits the Wall
I lose track of which talking head on TV ended his comments with "or things will really go over a cliff." What does that mean, really? It's the analytical equivalent of shouting "boo" in a crowded bank. If you're going to predict, make a prediction.

Let's not even get into the many variations on "worst [fill in the blank] since the Great Depression." True, but is it helpful or just inflammatory?

"But I was taking the metaphor literally"
Howard Lindzon—one of several in-depth finance sources I've started reading—advised readers this morning to "keep your powder dry." I think I know what he means in context, but it's a troubling choice when some people are applying that advice literally.

Yes, It's Hard
Just by reading about current events, we're all becoming finance experts and macroeconomists (maybe just a little). Complicated and opaque transactions are a big part of why we're in this mess, and the consequences are playing out on a global scale, so of course it's hard to figure out. A lot of people will never understand what's happening (which won't stop them from forming opinions, of course).

People who traffic in news and opinion are going to look for metaphors to simplify, but I'd like to see them exercise more care in avoiding the choices that incite fear while failing to explain. The colorful descriptions of what might happen, in particular, need to be toned down. Specific, literal descriptions (and predictions, if you insist) are scary enough.

If you want to come up with a dozen creative ways to say the same thing, stick to covering sports.

At last look, 30% of sales of the Guide to Social Media Analysis are outside the United States (as are half of the companies profiled in the Guide). Making international contacts is one of the more fun parts of tracking social media analysis companies. It's nice to see that a global scope is good for business, too.

Beyond the small thrill I get out of traveling the world virtually, international coverage is just not optional—especially for supporting clients who do business globally. The need shows up in some recent questions:

• Client: "Does anyone monitor social media in [langage]?"
  Yes. Whatever language you're looking for, someone can handle it for you.

• Investor: "Is there a company in France measuring social media?"
  Sure. How many do you want?

• Vendor: "I'm going to be in [city in a distant country], is there anyone there I should meet?"
  Yes. I'll introduce you.

You know how a rocket works. You point it where you want it to go, light the fuse and stand back. If it's a big rocket, you stand farther back.

You know what a rocket is good for. It moves stuff really fast, around the world or into space. It burns lots of fuel and money in the process.

You know that a rocket would be helpful if you wanted to put a satellite in orbit or explore the planets.

You know to hire a rocket scientist when it's time to design your rocket and plan the flight to take a specific load to a specific point in space.

What else do you need to know?

Don't let the underlying complexity of something useful stand in the way of learning its value. You don't have to know how to build it to understand how to use it.

Photo by Steve Jurvetson.

It's been quiet here lately, because behind the scenes, I'm in the final steps of updating the Guide to Social Media Analysis. If I'm counting correctly, it looks like the new edition will include 62 companies—double last year's count. So I'm seeing a lot of company web sites as I collect the information I need, and I keep running into a few familiar roadblocks. How many of these can you find on your company's site?

1. Dusty web site
   Have you updated your web site recently? Is your last press release more than a year old? Is a 2005 copyright notice sending the wrong message? If nothing is new in the last year or two, how will first-time visitors know you're still in business?

2. WWW required
   Is it really necessary to make me type four extra characters? Decide on whether your web site will be www.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com, but both should work. I don't care which you pick, but too many sites return an error if I leave off the www. Tell your web guy to look up redirect; it's not hard.

3. No news feed
   Set up an RSS feed for your news page(s). It makes things so much easier. The point of your press releases is for people to read them, right?

4. Broken news feed
   A broken news feed is worse than no feed at all, because it sometimes tricks me into thinking that I'll get updates. If you have a feed for your news page, make sure that it matches the content on the page. If you change your web site in a way that breaks the old feed, communicate the change to subscribers.

   Tip: Subscribe to your own feeds to see what your subscribers see.

5. Our founder, Anon E. Mouse
   An About the company page that doesn't tell me the name and location of your company makes you look very small-time. The name of the company that provides a service shouldn't be a secret. Hiding the names of the people behind the company isn't a lot better.

6. Don't touch that logo!
   I include company logos with their profiles, and sometimes I need to get it from your web site. Please don't make me use a screen capture. If your logo always appears on a gradient background, I'm not going to be able to make it look good.
   

Quickly fixed, but this was funny. As I was writing my previous post about the AP mess, I went to their web site and clicked on the stories highlighted on the front page. The result was an error page stating that the requested page was forbidden. For a moment, it looked like they didn't even permit their own site to link to itself!

Once you find your way in, the AP site is a reasonable source of news. They might want to work on that front door, though. A casual visitor to their site won't find their advertiser-supported news site.

This is my new unconference shirt. During my session at BlogCarolinas, a participant who wasn't getting much out of the session tweeted that it was not tweetworthy. Actually, he said more than that, but that's not my point. The point is: next time, I'll have this shirt, and it's going to make a difference.

(For those unfamiliar with Twitter jargon, tweetworthy simply means worth mentioning on Twitter. Much of BlogCarolinas was tweeted—written about on Twitter.)

How the shirt works
If my session isn't tweetworthy, the shirt will provide fair warning. If it is tweetworthy, it may be because the shirt reminded me to stay in touch with the people in the room to make sure what I'm saying is relevant to them. I'm counting on the latter outcome.

No need to look it up. Here's the tweet that inspired the shirt:

Session on metrics @blogcarolinas boring me. Not tweetworthy. Bureaucratic theoretic marketing goblydegook. Irrelevant to practical actions.
—kev097

I'm just hoping it will be tweetworthy this time. :-)

Disclosure: I used this episode to explore the retail side of CaféPress. If you buy the shirt, I'll get a small markup.

Update: Proof it's friendly now.