Jeremy Tanner Life in Boulder: Every day an adventure.

The Social Network That Beats Twitter AND Facebook

I talked about contact management applications last week with a friend who does Business Development, it seems many people’s communications have shifted to various social tools (Facebook, Twitter et al.) This is fine and many are fully on-board the “Wave of the future.” I’m not convinced. I’ve found an more effective social network than either Twitter or Facebook. The downside, it’s pay to play, costing me upwards of $70 a month. The up side? It’s 10 times larger than Twitter and Facebook combined. It’s the cellular network. Your telephone. Too many underestimate the value of a phone call. You know that your message reached who it needed to and you get instant feedback. It requires nothing more than a handset and service. It has privacy settings (If it’s not a good time, don’t answer!) You can text one or many privately. Recently had to find a source on short notice: colleague sent a Twitter @ message, I picked up the phone. GAME OVER. “Phone calls don’t scale” Perfect! The limited amount of hours in everyone else’s day is what keeps them from being able to talk to the same people I do. Inability to call thousands makes receiving a call / text message somewhat special. I’ve met people I’ve liked immediately, but even then, making friends and building relationships requires putting in time. In romance if you can’t meet face to face, you take it to the phone, why should your other meaningful interactions be any different?

Why aren’t you on the phone?

Where The Fun’s At

Where The Funs At from Andrew on Vimeo.

Announcing “Where The Fun’s At”, a show that Andrew Hyde and myself will be making. WTF@ for short. This sprung from the both of us wanting to make more videos. Andrew I’m sure needed to justify last week’s purchase of the Canon 5D Mark II (After only a short time hands-on, it’s my favorite gadget of the last year. Jared has one you can play with on the cheap, don’t touch it unless you’re serious though, the check will start to write itself for you.) There’s a few reasons as to why I’m involved. I want to be more comfortable on video. I’m looking to improve my writing. I’m learning to be a more effective communicator. I have a few ideas that are perfectly suited for a video show. Making videos is a great way to accomplish these. WTF@ is tongue in cheek enough and sounds more interesting than “The Jeremy and Andrew Show” So there is is. We have a lot of ideas as to what the show will become, but before that,

What would you like to see?

PostScript: Andrew’s Thoughts on the matter…

You Owe Me Nothing (My Twitter Policy)

In the realm of electronic communications, you owe me nothing. Not a follow-back on Twitter, not a response to an @ reply, not an answer to my emails. You don’t even have to pick up the phone when I call. Counterpoint. It goes both ways. Earlier while talking Twitter with a few friends, I realized that I have no published Twitter policy. I’ve recently seen a few disappointments that stemmed from users not setting expectations for communication with them. I do not follow everyone back who follows me on Twitter. When I follow you, it’s because your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. It’s not a ploy to get you to follow me back, that’d make me a spammer. I follow missrogue, dickc, gruber, badbanana, Armano one-way because they have consistently excellent streams. Not being followed back on Twitter isn’t an indictment of our relationship, I have plenty of dear friends who I don’t follow. Twitter’s not a great place for conversation, for those I’m a bigger fan of friendfeed, facebook and the phone. I can’t take all of Twitter unfiltered and the only filter Twitter allows is Follow/ Don’t follow. “Follow me back on Twitter so we can talk.” Is bordering passive aggressive if there’s multiple other ways to contact me. I make myself available over email, by phone and on facebook.

Note: This works for individuals. If the Twitter account is for business / customer service, it may be better to follow all back and use monitoring tools. That way, all your customers feel listened to and have an additional means of contacting you (direct message), always a good thing. The downside, all those aggregate streams coming in make keeping up with the tiny newsletters that you ARE interested in impossible. That’s the trade.

Who are you on Twitter for?

I Don’t Want to do Anything This Year

I’m only three weeks into the new year, that means there’s still plenty of time for navel gazing introspective posts. 2009 is the year that I don’t want to do anything. This does not mean I’m looking to be a slacker, completely the contrary in fact. It’s just that in previous years I’ve wanted to write more, wanted to take more photos, wanted to travel more, wanted be a better friend. Sometimes things worked out. Sometimes they did not. I don’t want any of that this year. I will write more. I’ll work to become a more effective communicator. I’ll speak at more conferences. I’ll be organizing more community events. I’ll work more with video. (New weekly show TBA this weekend) I’ll share more pictures. Wanting is one step removed from wishing. Making a list of wants / wishes without resolve is a roadmap to disappointment.

Are you wanting, wishing or working?