Bogart & Bergman

Recently, while watching Casablanca for what must be the 4,538th time, I had occasion to start pondering the connection between the availability of culture and how that has affected society in general. I remember an occasion in the 1980s when my parents, returning from a trip to New York to our home in rural Cape Breton, brought with them the hardware to set up a satellite dish in our backyard. Among the necessary pieces of hardware was a VCR – top loading, with a remote control connected to the unit by a long wire. Cutting-edge technology which soon made me the envy of my friends in high school, as I was able to watch MTV back when they (believe it or not, kids) played music. My friends would supply me with blank videotapes to fill with videos – in those days, pushing “record” and walking away overnight was sufficient. No matter what was on the tape, it was the experience of being able to see new media in its infancy that my friends and I appreciated more than anything. There were the odd hour long music video programs on the air, but nothing could compare to having six whole hours of your very own music videos to enjoy over and over again.

It was the memory of being able suddenly to revisit programs again and again that got me to thinking about cultural memory and how we relate to our own culture through digital media. Once upon a time, you would go to a movie, or catch the late show on television, and the memory of the film stayed with you to a greater or lesser extent – it wasn’t possible (barring repeat showings) to watch films at will. Unlike music, which has been commercially available since the first cylinders with raised pins were used to reproduce the same music over and over again sometime in the 9th Century, the relatively youthful art of moving images were for a time ephemeral, and the messages they conveyed were carried and delivered to a public that absorbed them and remembered them as best they could.

Film, like other popular media, are reflections of the times in which they are produced; there will not, I am confident to say, be a remake of Birth of a Nation coming to the local multiplex anytime soon. If we look at films as cultural documents as well as works of art their importance in conveying social conventions, morals and mores to the public cannot be underestimated. As I watched Casablanca, however, I began to wonder what effect the availability of cultural products would have on memory, socialization and the learning of culture. The ability to choose freely (or not to choose) from thousands of cultural artifacts with significant collective meaning is a boon to historians, but if such important cultural touchstones are so readily available, why do we need to retain or absorb the messages within them? If the significant lessons of culture are contained as subtext within (for example) our dramatic performances, are these lessons cheapened by the ability to watch them on demand, or for that matter, consciously avoid those elements of the cultural mosaic that we disagree with?

We are all the result of our culture; you are the sum total of every experience, every interaction, every event that has happened to you right up until the moment you sat down to read this. The single largest influence on us from the perspective of acclimatizing us to the society we live in is our parents: without them, we wouldn’t begin to classify the world, which initially is divided into two categories: “NO” and “EVERYTHING ELSE” – those things we may not touch/do/say and those we are allowed to. The process of learning to be a member of a society continues throughout our lifespans, both formally and informally, through parents, school, peers and exposure to the media. In the past the potential exposure to media was limited; we generally speaking had the same small number of cultural products to choose to absorb or emulate. Now, given that the sheer volume of cultural capital that we have access to has grown so fast, it is not difficult to choose our influences to reinforce our worldview and ignore those cultural influences that cause us discomfort. We can create a comfortable ‘niche’ for ourselves where everyone speaks the same language and has the same views and opinions. We are all able to silence the critics at will according to our own set of beliefs and values. The ability to ignore and actively shut out dissenting opinion or challenges to our own personal status quo is unprecedented, and troubling. Taking away the need, or at least the perceived need, for logical, substantive debate is dangerous and potentially disastrous. If we can choose which elements of culture to internalize and ignore the rest based on nothing more than personal preference, we are at a dangerous place – not just politically, but societally. It’s like being able to purchase a mirror that reflects you at your best and ignores your flaws no matter how noticeable they are – it is not particularly useful to prepare you to go out into the world. What’s most troubling is not that we have the ability to create our comfortable niches, but that we may not even be aware that we are doing so.

I am not decrying the fact that culture in many forms, including film, is so widely available. It is an absolute delight to be able to have so much entertainment and art available at my fingertips. I do think, however, that those of us who are associated with the sharing of information and the dissemination of culture online or in any other new medium have a responsibility to ensure that we let people know about the breadth of experience available on offer. As human beings, it is our responsibility to continually explore what it means to be human and to share that experience for the benefit of our fellow citizens. Part of that is holding a mirror up to society that accurately reflects the good and the bad. We need to engage in reasoned debate and share informed opinions about our culture rather than succumbing to the ‘shrillocracy’, or the rule of whoever shouts loudest. We need to take responsibility for letting people know that there is more to experience and that disagreement can be constructive. Culture in all its forms, particularly the artistic or creative, is the mirror that is most reflective of the times in which it is produced. Let’s do our best to facilitate and encourage the exploration of culture, and thereby create an understanding of the meanings that lie beneath the surface of the cultural looking-glass.

Photo by Kris Krug.

“Ok, now what?”

It’s the question that nearly everyone asks when they’re beginning their journey across the social media channels.

They stand at the edge of the impossibly vast digital expanse with its incredible complexity and they wonder how to proceed.

Or, put another way, they sit in front of their computers watching the cursor blink back at them, and they hesitate.

*

This is understandable.

This is a natural response to the strange adaptation that’s required for many people who want to make the transition from traditional communications to the use of social media.

The web is the place where all of this communication happens and the social media channels are like highways leading from place to place, person to person, across the web.

It can be intimidating for many people to think that they have anything to contribute to the super-abundance of information, opinion and content that is being created and shared across the internet at any one time.

The key to overcoming this moment of doubt and hesitation is to proceed by engaging people and/or content on the web that interests you.

Photo by Kris Krug

*

But what does it mean, all this talk of ‘engagement’ with people and ‘content’?

Does it mean that I’m supposed to punch somebody in the face or post embarrassing high school-era photos of friends whom I have not seen in 15 years?

Short answer to both questions: no.

What ‘engagement’ means is that you can take a piece of content, share it, write about it, respond to it, or otherwise make a contribution to the general conversation that piece of content happens to be a part of.

By doing that you are pushing that content – and your name, your language, your unique point of view – further across the web where others can discover it and possibly do the same.

And if you’re not contributing to or sharing a piece of content that someone else has shared you should be creating original content and sharing it with the communities of friends, followers and associates that you cultivate in those same social media channels.

*

Photo by Kris Krug

We use the term social media channels because these channels take information or content from a place where it originates to end points across the web where it is seen, shared, commented upon, mixed with other content, and propelled further across the web.

This is the magic alchemy of viral potential.

Content that is good enough, or lucky enough, or weirdly relevant enough, gathers momentum across the web because people are enthusiastic enough about that content to share it with their networks in such a way that the enthusiasm builds and it gets shared again and again.

This viral nature of some content is the result of the opposite of hesitation. It is the result of people participating in the social media flow and influencing their networks with the content that they share.

The viral nature is merely the result of a groundswell of people contributing their small bit to the overall conversation.

*

Photo by Kris Krug

So if you’re sitting there staring at the edge of the blinking cursor on your computer screen wondering what to do next, let me tell you, it’s easy.

Search for the things or people that move you, that make you enthusiastic, personal, professional, experimental, whatever it is that you’re looking for, and engage that content or those people.

Contribute. Participate. People are waiting for you without even knowing it.

And if you got it in you create some original content and share it with your followers, friends and acquaintances, then do it!

But get out there and participate with the web. It’s called social media for a reason.

It’s the only way that you’ll learn what to do next.

"It's an older code, sir, but it checks out."

Recently I have been tracking ways that I can become more efficient and mindful in my various daily tasks whether it’s in my home life or at work.

I’m also very interested in helping Monkeytree and our clients work and collaborate together easily and more directly.

One can be forgiven for thinking that this would be a fairly routine task in our day and age.

Surely if Richard Branson can take tourists into space then someone has developed an online platform that makes sharing workspaces easy, intuitive, and inexpensive.

That makes sense doesn’t it? Shouldn’t it?

To say that I have been frustrated in my attempts to find a solution to the problem of locating and using a digital workspace that can be shared across platforms and allows for document tracking and storage would be an understatement.

But maybe I’m asking too much. I usually am.

Like that time with the basket of popcorn shrimp at Chuck E Cheese.

The Almost Solutions:

Internet-based solutions providers are like hawkers at the carnival. They’re difficult to ignore and are often peddling gadgetry with no observable long-term purpose.

Here’s some examples of what I’m calling The Almost Solutions. These are products that were either recommended to me by others or things that I found in my research.

In each case, these solutions had some good things going for them but ultimately lacked some fundamental elements.

I’m interested to know if other people have the same or different experiences with these solutions.

Basecamp:

Basecamp!

“Have you tried Basecamp?”

This is the first thing that everyone says when you tell them that you need a digital workspace. Everyone!

And that should be enough to tell you that the field for shared digital workspaces is not being occupied by the Visionary Unit of Internet Engineers.

They’re busy working on the next Angry Birds app.

Basecamp is ok, tho. I shouldn’t be too hard on it. I know that a lot of people use it for their businesses and one-off projects.

For me, it seems non-intuitive, clunky, and it’s lack on integration with Google or anything else makes it extraneous to my workflow.

As my colleague Andrea put it once, “Nobody will end up using it because it’s just another thing that everyone has to remember to sign in to.”

She was right.

BuddyPress:

BuddyPress

The good thing about Leaps of Faith is that when you take them you’re unlikely to break anything vital.

As an advocate for WordPress and a fan of building sites using WooThemes templates like Canvas, I embraced the idea that I could build a private social network that operated behind the public face of Monkeytree Creative dot com.

It was paradise in my mind. A handmade digital workspace accessible to all the Monkeys 24/7 that piggybacked off our main site.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, a lot.

Firstly, I didn’t have the technical chops to do it properly. Building, maintaining the site would have consumed a lot of time, and that’s before training my colleagues, to use it.

If it worked.

There was the matter that I could not find much documentation from other organizations like Monkeytree who had used it successfully.

Add to that articles like this one that expressed serious concerns about the present and future of BuddyPress from a technical point of view and I became skeptical enough to walk away from it.

Hyper Office:

Hyper Office

Good old Google. We’re always just a few keystrokes away from all of the answers to all of our important questions.

And so I turned to the search engines for help. They provided links to many collaborative solutions.

The best of them all was something called Hyper Office.

It had all of the bells and whistles, including early morning phone calls from sales representatives in Maryland.

It had wikis and forums and mobile synching. It could even synch to Outlook!

And yet, it wasn’t enough. Where was the synching across platforms and the Google/cloud integration? It seemed designed to create simple workspaces for companies usuing native Microsoft products and workflows and not creative collaborative businesses.

I could be wrong, tho. I didn’t stick around past the free thirty day trial to find out.

And that’s without even talking about their pricing. Which, for our company, is prohibitive.

The List Making Device and True Collaboration:

I was talking to a designer friend of mine the other day on the phone about my predicament.

I said to her, “I need some sort of list making device.”

And she replied, “I think it’s called a pen, Sean.” And she laughed.

Of course she was right. It’s much easier than it sometimes seems to solve these problems by opening our eyes to the simple things around us.

The Immortal Daryl Zero

As the immortal Daryl Zero once said;

“Now, a few words on looking for things. When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all the things in the world, you’re only looking for one of them. When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, you’re sure to find some of them.”

So, I shouldn’t have been surprised when I received the best ideas for solving my problem by just looking around.

*

Almost immediately after this conversation with my friend about a listing making device I came across clues and recommendations for pieces that I suspect will end up leading to the solution that I am looking for.

The truth of the matter tho is that the solution will be a collaboration of separate tools all together. And the solution will be evolving all the time as new products are developed and new relationships are formed with people who do things a little bit differently.

For instance, the clearest way forward to help Monkeytree develop a sharing platform is to figure one out for myself and in the past few days friends have recommended some very interesting online tools to help me.

Darren Barefoot of Capulet Communications uses something called Remember the Milk in his own life and work.

Other friends of mine, jewelry designer Ashley Winnington-Ball, and librarian Heidi Schiller, recommended Evernote and Todoist respectively.

Each of these recos seems like an excellent suggestion and they’re built not only to help people organize their time and ideas, but also have options to share and collaborate with others.

Unlike some of the other options described above these tools don’t try to be everything to everyone.

They just keep it simple by helping you to figure out how best to collaborate with your colleagues, family, clients, etc…

That seems sensible to me.

I realized that there’s no package that can answer all of my needs nor the unique needs of my colleagues and clients.

And that’s why we call it the web. Because it’s the connections that matter. Each person arriving at an interaction with others using the tools that work best for them and adapting along the way.

We can make this work by staying open to what works best for us and adapting the tools that we choose as we learn from others and experiment along the way.

The Evolution of a Monkey

Dave Mercer: In Situ.

As the newest Monkey I’d like to say hello to my colleagues and friends, as well as our clients. It is truly a pleasure to be associated with all of you and I look forward to bringing my background in Sociology and Adult Education to the Monkeytree team.  I am especially proud to be the company’s representative in the Toronto area.

I come from many years in government service, having spent nearly 10 years working for the government of Nova Scotia – the last few with the Higher Education Branch of the Department of Labour and Advanced Education (LAE). I’ve been fortunate during my time in government to have worked for both the Department of Health and the Department of Education.  In fact, thanks to departmental restructuring, I went to work one morning working for Education and returned home as an employee of LAE – the easiest transition I’ve ever made.

Transitions as a rule can be disruptive and can prove either positive or negative in the long run. Earlier this year I made the decision to give up my secure position, leave Nova Scotia and move to Toronto to work with one of the most exciting and dynamic groups of individuals I have been privileged to associate myself with. Talk about transitions! Truthfully, I have not regretted a single moment of this adventure.

Civil service work can be rewarding and fulfilling. Opportunities abound to expand your skill set and your knowledge base if you are willing to step up and accept the challenge. On a good day, you feel satisfaction at having done something substantive and positive for your fellow citizens and your province. I participated in a variety of different initiatives during my time with government, from helping to create the Wait Times Monitoring Project website while at Health to helping to amend legislation and create regulations for the Degree Granting Act.  This helped me understand regulatory processes at the most demanding and structured level.

Eventually, while working in the field of higher education, I became the person people came to from other branches if they were looking for advice on legislative or regulatory matters. I am not a lawyer, but I derived what my colleagues considered a perverse pleasure from rolling up my sleeves and digging through legislation and regulations. I was actually given a citation by the Department of Justice for my work on legal issues! Eventually I became the Health Education Strategist for the department, advising the Minister and Deputy Minister on matters related to post-secondary health professional education.

Although I achieved great successes and enjoyed a great deal of respect for the work I was doing (including chairing a national committee on entry-to-practice credentials), there was something missing. Ironically, politics can be one of the biggest downsides of government – too often decisions are made based on popularity rather than merit. There were several actions taken on this basis that convinced me that a career in the civil service wasn’t for me.

When the opportunity arose to join Monkeytree Creative I was elated and jumped at the chance. It was all the best parts of what I feel strongly are my most developed skills: researching, writing and interacting with people – and all of this is combined with the opportunity to learn from some of the best and brightest folks I have encountered. The ability to face a new challenge every day and to continue to develop relationships and knowledge was too good an opportunity to miss. I was also ready for a major transition in my personal life.  I always had a fondness for Toronto (I was born and have family here) so this was the right time for me to move to the GTA. I knew I would miss my friends and colleagues back in Halifax, but this was the moment so I made the move at the end of October.

David as he appears via skype.

I have since settled into a great place in the city and am in love with my neighborhood. I am happy to be here and happy to be working on a project where I get to design a policy framework to support a project that is developing an online curriculum for disaster responders.  The people I have met are from all different walks of life and areas of expertise. I never leave a meeting without learning something fascinating.

We say here on the website that we like working together and that is undeniably true. For my part, I hope to help extend our repertoire beyond what is usually expected from a group of consultants. I am obviously not alone in pushing the boundaries of our knowledge and skills, but I hope what I add to the mix adds value for us as well as for our current and potential clients.

I look forward to contributing to the site and to the group, and I look forward to bringing my enthusiasm and knowledge in solving problems and creating innovative solutions. Let’s get started!

Dave (The Marmoset) Mercer

Twitter Mobile Screen Capture

This info is fresh from the oven so be careful because it’s hot to the touch.

The social media landscape continues to shift and bubble. Disruption and innovation are the new normal as everything on the web is constantly being refreshed, updated and further developed.

We see this every day in the little changes that Facebook makes to our friendstream, or that Google makes to our email inbox or analytics reports.

Today Twitter announced that they’re making some big changes at their site Twitter.com and to their mobile app.

Ok, alright, I’ll say it: “It’s about time!”

I have always been puzzled by the plain design and the lack of features available for people who use twitter.com so I’m very excited to see the new site and the app.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening and some personal thoughts on it.

The Mobile App:

The mobile app was released today and I have downloaded it to my iPhone.

Some very interesting changes to the design  and layout that make twitter more streamlined and focused.

Twitter's Relaunched Design Focuses on 5 Active Icons

First, Twitter has decided to focus it the app’s useability around 5 key areas with corresponding icons: Home, Connect, Discover, Me and, of course, Tweet.

Some initial thoughts on the 5 key areas:

Home: Nice and clean and readable. Good smooth scrolling. Engagement functionality looks good for RTs, replies, favorites and such.

@Connect: Seems to be Interactions, Mentions and new Follows. This is an interesting way to see who you’ve recently interacted with, who has added you to a list or retweeted you, or otherwise engaged your account.

#Discover: Recent news, trending topics or specific hashtags or keywords filter. Again, good clean integration of filters that allow you to follow the info most relevant to you and your life. This should be an excellent development for Twitter users of any level of experience.

Me: Here’s where you can check out direct messages, manage your lists, review your saved searches, adjust your settings and even ‘switch accounts’ for those of you who are like me and managing several different twitter accounts at one time.

The process of adding an account is super simple, too!

Tweet: Not much change here but some nice integrations with mentions, hashtags, geo-location and photo/video.

The new twitter app seems to be a winner at first glance and I’m happy that it came along when it did as I was beginning to approach increased frustration levels with my Tweetdeck app.

Talking About the Website, Twitter.com:

Twitter is about to launch a fresh version on their main page that looks like it takes all the improvements to the mobile app and brings it to your desktop.

Check out the video and get out your telescope.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Talking About Brand Pages:

Google Plus dragged its feet on this and lost a lot of initial love and leverage but Twitter seems to be arriving at the right moment with new design options for brands to display their own style within their own pages.

TechCrunch did some great work on this. Check out their thoughts here.

Below is a screen capture of what a new brand page might look like. Pretty slick!

New Designs for Brands on Twitter. Looks pretty slick.

Note: All graphics, screen captures and much of the information in this blog post came from TechCrunch articles written by Eric Eldon and Eric Schonfeld. Thanks, guys!

Sean Cranbury, Culture Monkey

What an excellent surprise to open the Vancouver Province newspaper this morning, and discover an article featuring our very own Sean Cranbury!

The article focuses on the 2011 Giller Prize and Sean’s involvement in promoting the award, the BC writing community in general, and the Giller Light Bash that the W2 café is hosting to broadcast the awards on November 8^th.

Sean is a tireless advocate for the BC Arts and Publishing community through his involvement with W2, and has become a well-known name in the Canadian arts community.

Check out his weekly show “Books on the Radio” which can be heard every Wednesday at 1:30 on CISF 90.1 FM (for all you Vancouverites).  Of course, you can also find him on various social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter (@seancranbury), or email him at sean@monkeytreecreative.com.

Monkeytree is proud to have Sean as one of our key consultants and it’s great to see him get the recognition he deserves.

Way to go Sean (or should we call you culture… monkey now?)

Sean reminds me, when I forget, that a blog is only useful when you actually write something in it.  At the same time, I’m not sure blogging is something I’m going to enjoy.  I write prolifically, but I’m picky about sharing what goes on in my head.

Nevertheless, I was sitting in a coffee shop in downtown Toronto last week, having coffee and conversation with a friend who I have a great deal of respect and affection for.  We were talking about the many ways a person can get their voice out if they feel something they’ve written has value.  He actually had his little black book with him (not THAT book, although I imagine he has one of those somewhere too).  If you’re a writer, you know which book I mean – the one where you scribble thoughts and ideas that strike you as interesting, where you jot down sudden inspirations or random passages that come to you on the bus or while you’re people-watching in the park.  We all have those – I tend to have about five at a time, and usually forget what I’ve written in them for days, weeks, even months on end.  Nevertheless, those books are an important appendage to anyone who’s a writer.  I actually found myself ‘keeping score’ of the number of times he felt I said something worth writing down.  (Four)

Regardless, as we were talking, I asked him if I could flip through his book and read some of his ramblings.  Now I recognize that this was a very cheeky and perhaps downright rude question – especially as I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be nearly as forthcoming with my own raw thoughts.  To his credit, he only hesitated momentarily before pushing the book my direction and allowing me free reign.  I admit it – I was impressed.

The whole experience got me thinking.  His willingness to share his work with me, without pre-tense or explanation, made me squirm a bit.  And after I jotted a reminder to reflect on this whole experience down in MY little black book (which at this stage in life, is actually a very unsexy spiral bound notepad with lined pages), I came to a few conclusions:

1)     Putting your writing ‘out there’ (when it isn’t commissioned, requested or assigned), requires a certain willingness to be vulnerable.  It means opening yourself to criticism, argument, maybe even disdain – sometimes with people you really desperately want to impress.

2)     You have to trust that when you do send your words out into the universe, people will respond to them honestly – and you might really love what they have to say, or you might not.  You don’t get to pick.  I can do this with work that isn’t personal to me – but I struggle to do it with anything or anyone that really matters.

3)     There are a million people out there who write and blog.  In the past fifteen years, ‘writer’ has become a title claimed by anyone who can string two or three words together and call it brilliant.  And those of us who actually make our living this way need to stick up for ourselves.  There are some lousy writers in the blogosphere, writing a lot of really bad stuff.  Surely I can at least MATCH, if not improve upon, some of the improper grammar, bad sentences, incoherent thoughts and overdone academic prose.  On the other hand, those individuals are actually demonstrating their ability to be vulnerable, and I’m not.  So really, what gives me the right to criticize?

4)     The older we get, the more we protect our reputation, our identity, our thoughts, our ability to be vulnerable.  Sitting beside this twenty-something wonder, who’s open to possibilities and unafraid to share his thoughts, reminds me that I really should spend more time with twenty-something wonders!  I hope when he’s forty, he comes to the same realization.  I’m going to focus on some sixty-somethings next, because I imagine their vulnerability is of a totally different kind (any volunteers?)

My final thoughts in all of this are quite simple.  If we Monkeys are going to expect those we ‘work with and for’ to sustain a blog… if we’re going to ask them to come up with fresh, new content… if we’re going to expect them to be vulnerable to their audience and post their opinions or ideas… then we really need to be brave and take that step ourselves.

Perhaps blogging will never really be my thing.  But I will do it.  Because Sean says I have to.  And because I’m inspired by what you can gain when you’re willing to be vulnerable and trust that what you throw out into the universe will be valued, nurtured – and maybe even occasionally admired.

The Legendary Fail Whale is Increasingly Rare

Welcome to the first installment of the new weekly column we’re calling ‘Talking to n00bs about Social Media.’

These weekly installments will feature real questions from real people about how to use social media and just what the heck is going on around there anyway.

It’s a big topic and there’s lots to discuss, so let’s just get right to it.

The first series of questions concern twitter and come from Shannon in Vancouver.

1) I noticed right away that Twitter is definitely not Facebook. As someone who works in the non-profit community, I would like my Twitter be more representative of this and keep my Facebook fairly personal. Is this the right way to go, or do my social media outlets need to be joined at the hip?

Twitter is definitely not Facebook and that is a very good thing for a whole bunch of reasons. One of the fundamentals for anyone using social media is to recognize that you set the limits for your participation, you choose who to friend/follow and how you’re going to interact with them.

If you want to keep Facebook for your personal life and use twitter for other interactions then do it. That’s a great distinction to make. What I like about your decision to use twitter in a specific way is that it immediately provides you with a focus. You can always come back to Facebook for work purposes later, it’s not going anywhere, as Google+ will tell you.

So forget about Facebook for now, here’s the deal with Twitter: it’s a filter.

Best Book on Social Media Use Ever!

In the ceaseless torrent of endless content being pushed across the web in all languages all day every day Twitter acts as a kind of magnet and filter for the content that you’re interested in and/or the people that you’re interested in hearing from. It’s a personalized stream of information, links, anecdotes, jokes and interactions delivered in 140 characters.

You’re in control of who you’re following and how you’re interacting with them.

The trick is to identify people and organizations that you’re interested in following, then to find them on Twitter and follow them.

This is the on-going magic of Twitter. There’s an endless number of interesting people online who are worth following and you should never be afraid of following new and interesting people, nor from culling the dead-weight of non-Tweeters, self-promoters and slugs from your stream.

It’s your stream, keep it clean. As they say.

Identifying people and organizations to follow strategically is a whole other post but here’s the short-hand: start local, start with the thought-leaders in your area and your sector and grow from there.

By following these people you will see with whom and how they interact online. This is how you learn. Follow the people that the thought leaders retweet or are always conversing with. Expand your network organically in this way.

Listen, interact, learn, participate, think about it, repeat. That’s the beginners mantra.

Lastly, there’s three things that I recommend that you do.

a) Learn how to use Twitter Lists.

b) Read Mashable at least twice a week.

c) Buy the Networked Non-Profit by Beth Kanter and Allison H. Fine. Don’t think about buying it, go buy it! The best book yet written on social media period and full stop. (Step away from the microphone Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel and Seth Godin.)

Follow Beth Kanter and Allison H. Fine on Twitter… and Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel and Seth Godin. Pay attention to what they’re saying and doing.

2) I read a Globe&Mail article last summer discussing community building online–they discussed in detail Twitter etiquette. Times change fast, so what are the top 5 “rules” for Twitter?

Stop reading the Globe and Mail!

George Armstrong loves Twitter!

Just kidding. I enjoy the Globe and I read it every day. Their Leafs coverage is excellent.

Times change and nothing changes at all.

This is why we still read newspapers, to remind ourselves that everything is just the same as it’s always been and yet there’s a whole bunch of new things happening (there’s a Leafs joke in there somewhere).

Twitter etiquette is based on the same common sense and respectful behavior that you use in real life when speaking to friends and strangers.

Here are 5 things to remember when participating in conversations on Twitter:

a) Support other people’s good ideas by retweeting them to your followers. Always attribute links and quotes to the person that you got them from. It’s always about them and rarely about you.

b) Eighty / Twenty. Most of the time you spend listening and engaging others in a kind of freeform conversation based on knowledge exchange, fun and open interaction. The smallest amount of time that’s left over is available for you to tweet about your own projects, work-related stuff, stuff that you are being paid to talk about.

c) Follow your curiosity. What do you want to know more about? Find the people who talk about those things and follow them.

d) Follow your passion. Post things that you think are cool, fun, inspiring. Learn to use #hashtags creatively.

e) Breathe. Twitter can become really engrossing. Don’t forget to put it away and go get some fresh air from time to time.

3) The more you follow, the faster your feed moves. Since Twitter is much more ‘real-time’ than Facebook, how often should I be tweeting so that I don’t get lost in the shuffle?

Twitter is the Ornette Coleman of Social Media Channels

Welcome to the slipstream.

Twitter is a great example of the limitlessness of the web and how, really, attempts at control are futile.

Twitter has never met a boundary that it could not circumvent.

Lots of people will give you advice about ‘social media management’ and a great deal of this advice will revolve around ‘time management’ and etc…

This is fine, though it’s not for everybody, and over time as you become better at understanding how Twitter and other channels function and relate to one another you’ll develop your own way of participating.

Developing a more rich relationship with twitter and your followers requires the use of a twitter application like HootSuite, TweetDeck or something like that. HootSuite is a local Vancouver product and lots of people swear by it but I prefer TweetDeck myself.

These applications allow you to see various streams and accounts on one screen and you should always have your twitter client open, functioning in the background of your work, during the day. From time to time you should check the streams to see what’s happening, who’s tweeting, what interesting information is being shared.

Some sense of control or management comes with time but most importantly you need to figure out how your streams work, when they’re most active, how you’re participation affects your day and how much you’re willing to contribute.

Keep an open mind.

Right now you’re in the prime-time n00b phase of your social media arc. It’s a great time to watch and learn.

Good luck!

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What do you think of my responses to Shannon’s questions? Please feel free to add your comments or ideas in the comments below.

Also, if you have any questions please send them to me at sean at monkeytreecreative dot com or post them below.

Thanks!

Photo Courtesy of Intersection Consulting.

If you’re like me the past few days have been troubling. And not just because I took Chad Ochocinco in my fantasy football pool.

The past few days have been troubling because it’s almost officially autumn. That means that the dog days of summer are behind us and, like the kids that walk in packs past my windows in the mornings and afternoons, we need to refocus on the work at hand.

No more endless sunshine, no more vacation responses in our email box.

This is a great time for any organization to take a look at its social media strategy and make plans for the fall and winter seasons. In many ways this is the busiest time of year for many people and that makes it the best time for you to take a new approach to your communications.

Here are five simple ideas to help you refocus your social media strategy for Fall and Winter 2011:

1. Keep it Simple: Focus your efforts on a few channels and set some simple goals for each channel. Do you want to do a better job of driving people to your website via Twitter or Facebook? Are you trying to leverage your YouTube channel with your clients or potential customers? By identifying a few simple goals and building a plan based around those goals you’ll be able to measure your success better and not get bogged down by larger, more complicated strategy.
2. Listen/Respond: Many people’s first impression of social media channels like Facebook and Twitter is that they’re strictly out-going communications channels. They’re often assumed to be instruments that only add clutter to the communications landscape, but this is not necessarily true. It’s certainly not true for people and organizations that understand the true power of these channels. And that true power resides in the ability of people and organizations to ‘listen and respond’ to what people are saying on the web. Make it a priority to follow interesting people, thought leaders and your competition in these channels. Pay attention to what people are saying, then engage them in a conversation. Listen more, talk less.
   
3. Make it Real: When you’re out there in the social media channels making friends and following conversations take the time to identify a few local people whom you’d like to get to know better and invite them out for coffee. Or pay attention to any meet-ups, unconferences or informal get-togethers that you may become aware of. Get out there and meet real people. Take your online relationship into the real world. It can make all the difference.
4. Experiment: Look around at what some other people and organizations are doing with their social media strategies and borrow their best ideas for your own campaign. Sharing is at the core of any good social media strategy, so don’t be afraid to borrow things that are working for others. And while you’re borrowing from others take the time recognize that what works for others might not work for you or your organization. Failure is the only currency that buys us wisdom. Don’t be afraid to experiment. It’s the best way to learn.
5. Have Fun: Life is way too short to take social media seriously. And, more importantly, once you start to take your social media strategy too seriously, the whole thing is likely to fall apart. Bring positivity and a sense of humour to the social media channels and you’re guaranteed to succeed.

Go out there, make some new friends, gain some new clients, follow the thought leaders in your industry and have a little fun!

If you follow these simple ideas I think that you’ll find your experience with the social media channels and your metrics will reflect a positive turn.

What do you think about these 5 ideas? Do they work for you? Have you got other suggestions for a refreshed social media strategy? Let us know in the comments below.

Monkeytree Creative Director, Andrea Burton, has written an excellent piece for the most recent issue of Common Ground Magazine.

The essay is titled, Health Workers Lead Alternative Medicine Use, and it examines the emerging popularity of complementary and alternative medicine among health care professionals.

This natural progression will continue to as more patients take greater control of their health care regimens and as greater awareness of these treatments continues to be spread across the internet and other venues.

This news is particularly relevant because the Dr. Rogers Prize Colloquium is being hosted in Vancouver on September 23.

It “will examine how four Canadian clinics are currently integrating CAM with conventional medicine,” Andrea asserts in her piece, noting that “[t]he $250,000 Dr. Rogers Prize celebrates the contributions of leaders and trailblazers who have dared to pursue new and unfamiliar approaches that fall under the expansive umbrella of “complementary and alternative medicine.”

Sounds amazing.

Great job, Andrea, and good luck to the four clinics who are vying for this prestigious and lucrative award.