Socialmedia

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling the strain of the onslaught of information brought about by social media tools. even though I’m sure I qualify as an information junkie, increasingly I feel that I’ve surpassed the limits of the amount of information I can consume.

In trying to tackle overload and meltdown, two modes that seem to be part and parcel of our digital social communications, I tried to return to some common sense, something I think we’ve almost left behind as things move so quickly around us. Here’s what I’ve come up with, and I welcome your ideas as well.

1. Pare down. You do not need to join more than a few social networks to do most of what you need to do in your work. what are the core networks you use on a daily basis? Which ones can you live and work without? my shortlist: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook — not necessarily in that order. for my work, these three are critical. the rest I can ignore and not feel my work — or life — will suffer.
2. Turn off. how many pings do you get per day? how many are just “good to know” versus “mission critical?” and how many make you think “now why do I care about that?” Turn off the ones you don’t care about. now turn off the ones that are just “good to know,” because I’m sure you cannot point to one that has totally changed your business or your life. those are the ones you usually either come across anyway or someone you know and trust sends to you. Frankly, I’ve been shutting off all pings except for the ones that say “go there now” or “do this in 10 minutes.” those are reminders, not invasions of my limited brain space.
3. Designate time. if you are checking your emails, Twitter, Facebook and the rest of your networks more than several times daily, you are being controlled by your impulses to check, check, check to make sure you haven’t missed anything. Trust me, you’ve missed a lot of things, but you’ve also missed nothing at all. if it isn’t your job to monitor the social mediasphere for a client, you’re falling into the trap of “always more and never enough.” Remember that we all survived quite well before tweets and updates. be discriminating and methodical. Dawn Foster covered this topic in “Do You Need to Keep Up with Social Media.”
4. Filter Better. We’ve covered many filtering tools to bring the firehose of social information down to a more consumable flow including more recently “Filtering the Social Web with ShareThis” and “Stay Informed: Topic-based Reader Roundup.” But a good noise filtering system doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got the madness under control. Filtering tools can bring down the noise decibels a notch or two but often we tend to fill our filtering tools with a never-ending list of keywords and search terms, so the end result may be a bit more targeted but no less overwhelming. Narrow your searches terms to a few mission critical terms, and be more specific to cut through the clutter.
5. Step away. if you find yourself consumed with your social networks and endless updates, push the computer away and step away from your desk. Go for a walk. have a conversation with someone face-to-face. Read a book or a magazine. Write a to-do list with pen and paper. have a snack (healthy, of course). Eschew bits and bytes for tangible atoms.
6. Go cold turkey. if you’re really struggling with managing your information intakes, just stop. Go a few days completely disconnected. No cheating. Pay attention to life. Listen to people. quiet the roar of the firehose. Don’t worry, you won’t just survive. You’ll thrive. Then return to the social web refreshed, with newfound perspective.

None of us will die without social media. But life could pass us by if we let it take over our lives.

How do you stop the social media madness in your work and life?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Social Media in the Enterprise

While this document is intended for journalists and others working at Reuters, we think info pros will find it interesting and potentially useful.

From WebNewser:

Reuters published its guidelines for reporting via the Internet and using social media, stressing transparency in using social media, including mentioning affiliation with Reuters and stating that opinions expressed are personal, as well as clearing the use of social-media sites with managers, and breaking news via the wire rather than via Twitter or other sites.

The WebNewser article goes on to provide a thorough overview of what the guidelines contain.

You Can Access the Reuters Document Here

Section 1.5 (it’s just a few sentences) Offers a Few ideas to Determine if a Report is a Hoax.

Do a reality check. does this information fit within the bounds of what was expected? Any wild divergences are a clue you may be viewing information in the wrong context. Do a reality check. does this information fit within the bounds of what was expected? Any wild divergences are a clue you may be viewing information in the wrong context.

Sounds very similar to what an info pro would say.

Section 2.1 Basic Principles

The distinction between the private and the professional has largely broken down online and you should assume that your professional and personal social media activity will be treated as one no matter how hard you try to keep them separate. You should also be aware that even if you make use of privacy settings, anything you post on a social media site may be made public.

Section 2.3 Twitter Policy
The document spends a large chunk of time discussing Twitter. for example:

Section 2.3.6

Can I Break News via Twitter?

As with blogging within Reuters News, you should make sure that if you have hard news content that it is broken first via the wire. Don’t scoop the wire. NB this does not apply if you are ‘retweeting’ (re-publishing) someone else’s scoop.

Section 3

Online Encyclopedias

Online information sources which rely on collaborative, voluntary and often anonymous contributions need to be handled with care. Wikipedia, the online “people’s encyclopedia”, can be a good starting point for research, but it should not be used as an attributable source. Do not quote from it or copy from it. the information it contains has not been validated and can change from second to second as contributors add or remove material. Move on to official websites or other sources that are worthy of attribution. Do not link to Wikipedia or similar collaborative encyclopedia sites as a source of background information on any topic. More suitable sites can almost always be found, and indeed are often flagged at the bottom of Wikipedia entries. it is only acceptable to link to an entry on Wikipedia or similar sites when the entry or website itself is the subject of a news story.

Access the Complete Set of Reuters Social Media Guidelines

Access the Complete Reuters Handbook of Journalism

Source: WebNewser; Reuters
Hat Tip: P.W.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 and is filed under Information Literacy, Resources for Educators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Dominos Pizza Tests World’s 1st Social Media Affiliate Widget

Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 11:31am by Linda Buquet

What do you get when you combine the world’s love for pizza, social media and affiliate marketing? the Dominos ‘Social Affiliate Tool’.

Saw this in the news yesterday and thought it was a brilliant use of affiliate marketing for the masses. the Dominos ‘Social Affiliate Tool’ is available through the Affiliate Window affiliate network and I believe this may only be an option in the UK right now, but it’s still very interesting.

Domino’s Pizza trials world’s first ‘Social Affiliate’ tool

Domino’s Pizza is claiming a world first by trialing a new ‘Social Affiliate’ tool, a widget that combines social media and affiliate marketing.

The tool enables anyone with a personal web space, such as a social network page or blog, to host advertising from nominated brands.

It aims to complement more orthodox affiliate marketing strategies, which use ‘professional affiliates’, by enabling any consumer to promote products or services within a framework of designated brand guidelines.

*Advertising Disclosure Policy*

Link to this Entry | Discuss in the 5 Star Forum | Related Entries: Affiliate Marketing | SEE COMMENTS BELOW

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Benedict XVI, the first pope with his own YouTube channel and presence on Facebook, is urging Roman Catholic clergy to use social media to communicate with parishioners and reach those outside the church.

“Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis,” the Pope declared in January in preparation for World Communications Day in May.

But the Catholic Church, including the Orlando Diocese, has policies that take the “social” out of social media. Parishes that use social media, such as Facebook, are instructed to disable the comment functions of those sites.

The Orlando Diocese’s rules for the use of social media, enacted in August after six months of study and debate, expressly prohibit blogs because they imply two-way communication that encourages responses from the public, said Carole Brinati, Diocese spokeswomen.

“Blogging is ‘I can comment on that,’ and that is what we don’t allow,” she said. “Some people feel that is shortsighted, but that is our policy.”

The purpose of the pope’s push for social media is to get the church’s message out to the people in as many ways as possible. It’s not intended to spark debate; invite opinions and opposing points of view; or open a dialogue between church leaders and parishioners, Brinati said.

Churches have been riding the social-media wave for some time now. Many denominations reach out — either through their own Web sites or sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

“In some sense there is a tension between social media and traditional, hierarchical organizations like the Catholic Church,” Pogorelc said. “With social media, everyone has a voice and can say what they want. In the system of the Catholic Church, more weight is given to the key spokespersons — the bishops or leaders of the church — and what they say.”

Some of the Catholic concerns about the rudeness, anger and inappropriate commenting that take place on some blog sites is not typical of Facebook, which is built around like-minded “friends,” experts contend.

Posted by JOSH GRANT-YOUNG/For The Tribune Posted 2 hours ago

WELLAND — Toronto Mayor David Miller doesn’t lie when he says he is “always up front.”

Miller, 51, visited Niagara College’s Welland campus Thursday to speak to print journalism and public relations students about his experiences running the largest city in Canada.

While the job would seem to wear down many politicians, Miller candidly engaged the audience, telling jokes and drawing cheeky cartoons of the Toronto transit system.

Miller touted his career of environmental and social-justice commitment and discussed his “authenticity” while running Toronto.

“I’ve always taken a different approach. People want authenticity.”

Referring to his early career in politics, Miller became involved with the New Democrat Party, a party with whom he “shared many of the same ideas.” He was first elected to Toronto council in 1994 and became mayor in 2003. He successfully ran for re-election in 2006.

When campaigning, Miller focused on city transit and environmental concerns, which he carried into his mayoral term. Miller reversed previous setbacks he felt were due to Mike Harris’s provincial government-funding cutbacks to the expansion of Toronto’s transit system.

Miller noted that in 2003 city transit was operating vehicles that were 24 years old. The situation for Toronto was so grim that the city imported scrap parts and vehicles from Montreal, vehicles originally destined for Cuba.

However, Miller currently has models that offer handicap accessibility and a greener method of transportation in the city. Miller gives credit to the amalgamation of the Greater Toronto Area, without which he believes a superior transit system would not be possible. As well, the possibility of light-rail construction in Toronto linking neighbourhoods across Toronto and an increase in bike paths stands to improve transportation in the near future.

Miller spent the latter half of his speech discussing the virtues and vices of social media technology, an issue that reared its head March 10 when his office sent out a press release notifying the public Miller was expected to make an “important” announcement that an additional $100 million dollars was discovered in the city budget. The release was widely criticized by the press, who expected a personal announcement such as his resignation. Miller faced an interview on CBC he called “bizarre” and the lack of research on the part of the pundit “pathetic.”

“I’ll come back,” he joked with the audience.