Common Challenge

Getting a ‘comment notice’ e-mail from Mashable today got me thinking - it clutters my inbox, but also it helps me track the conversations I commented on (disqus and co.comments were not very helpful with that). So I clicked the included link and followed this conversation. It served mashable at least one page view, and probably some more from other people that commented the story (thus it’s effect could be expotential instead of linear). So using the simplest possible tool Mashable helped me engage into conversation and also helped itself by increasing revenue.

Modelling it for the rest of the web-world, we should focus on helping our users interact with our content - simple RSS is not enough anymore (although it probably could be used here as well if I had an auto generated channel for posts that I commented on) - as it brings users only once. You need mechanisms that constantly remind your users that the conversation (interaction) is on, and they should take part in it.

Seek balance though - if you push too much on your users they might stop coming back at all. Give them an instant opt-out to any incoming information (but don’t cut the whole stream, just one thing that’s not currently appealing) and keep the total interaction at a reasonable level (thus reducing the overeat effect).

Photo credit (cc): afroswede

In time of mass Internet adoption, free product and capital flow, we came to believe that the world is small. The possibility of doing business with customers being thousands of kilometers away and instantly getting in touch with people we barely new 5 min ago creates an illusion of being in the same room with the whole world. Digg, Facebook, Twitter, ubiquitous blogs and e-commerce - it really makes The Global Village a fact. Actually, having a video call over Skype with my friend in the UK feels pretty much the same as actually inviting him to my place. And of course I can get to know pretty much everyone in the world in less than 6 steps. So the world is small after all.

Really?

Recently I discovered that commenting posts on blogs like Techcrunch or Scobleizer (an important part of socially-aware-web-individual’s daily activities) only makes sense if you can be one of the first 20 commenters. Then someone actually reads what you wrote. To be one of the first 20 you have to read the post pretty much right after it’s online. When it’s fresh. The other observation I made is that my Twitter feed dies about 12pm - I only use Twitter to track the bloggers I’m interested in, and they, well - go to bed around that time. On the other hand - it’s most active around 8-11pm, and that’s the time when I should go to bed.

The world today is not 3D (unfortunately). It’s 4D - time being it’s fourth dimension. And the web is making me more and more aware of it. Unless you, just like RTM inventors, have “Interesting sleeping patterns” it’s hard to keep up with Pete Cashmore or Louis Gray. And we of course do not want to drop dead because of our work or blogging. The problem is not as simple as ‘not being in Silicon Valley is not cool’ or that you need to drink beer with A-list bloggers to get some buzz about your company. It’s influencing every part of doing business over the web: PR, advertising, customer service, invoicing (was it this month or next already?) - creating problems everywhere. We can deal with them, maybe using Internet Time, but they’re still there for thousands of businesses and bloggers around the world. Anyone about to solve them all?

Now, I have decided to really immerse in all social trends on the web. That means I just got an account on… twitter(!). Ok, I know I’m a bit behind, but this is (kind of) my point. Do we (social web-apps developers) really have to use everything that is on top right now? Do we have to set up an account in the just-released-so-hot-new-service? Because it definitely takes more time than an average web-worker can afford.

The answer, as one of my university professors usually said, is probably same as always: It depends. For instance, in our team of 3, I’m the one responsible for (among making coffee, running with papers and other super-important stuff) marketing & PR (whoaa - do we need PR? - yes we do). That means reading tons of blog posts, twitts and other junk every day. But it’s supposed to be 2 way communication, if it’s to cause us any good, so I also have to get to know some people. And Twitter is one of the places I can stalk them (yea!) and communicate with them (haven’t figured that one out yet…). For instance, Robert Scoble is following me on twitter 9 minutes after I started following him - maybe if I shout loud enough he’ll hear me and mention us in one of his posts (no, I’m not naive enough to think it’ll work this way, it’s just a rhetorical figure).

The conclusion: I don’t know if Twitter will work for us, but as web entrepreneurs we have to BE on the social web, not JUST work there - if we want to be heard. And for me it means setting tons more of accounts and trying services I (sometimes) think are complete rubbish.

And BTW, you can follow me on Twitter HERE>>.

Update:

I also set up an account on Blip.pl, polish clone of Twitter. You can stalk me here.