Goodbye IT

Yesterday, I had a colleague that sat in the audience as Apple unveiled a series of applications targeted for the education market.  In the midst of the announcements, this colleague tweeted the phrase “Goodbye IT“.  He later clarified the tweet, explaining that the tools introduced would relieve Information Technology from hosting and providing services for the dissemination of educational content, as oppose to the complete dismissal of products and services that Information Technology offers their respective organizations.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time I’ve heard the rumblings about the demise of organizational IT departments.  Some may recall an article that Nicholas Carr penned for the Harvard Business Review that proclaimed that “IT doesn’t matter”.  In Carr’s later book “The Big Switch“, he states that, “In the long run, the IT department is unlikely to survive, at least not in its familiar form.”  He goes on to explain, “It will have little left to do once the bulk of business computing shifts out of private data centers and into ‘the cloud.’  Business units and even individual employees will be able to control the processing of information directly, without the need for legions of technical specialists.”

Echoing this idea, Bill Clebsch – Vice President of Information Technology Services for Stanford University, recently spoke at the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education seminar and bluntly pointed out technologist have “living off it’s assets.”  Clebsch points out that mobility and cloud computing adoption lessens the demand for IT assets and as a result changes the expectations of IT.  He continues that IT can no longer rely solely on their technical skill sets.  Clebsch predicts the viability of IT will be in its ability to be a service broker as oppose to a service provider.

As a 15 year veteran of Information Technology, much of this is hard to take in.  At the same time, the signs of this tension is ever present.  In my own experience I see a greater scrutiny by other departments related to the services and products that IT has traditionally provided.  This scrutiny includes the funding models required to operate IT  as well as the service catalogs that IT maintain.   Sustainability is a question that comes up in conversations at all levels of the IT organization.  Can we sustain the myriad of applications that customers want or the devices they prefer to use?  Can we sustain funding enterprise infrastructure components to support legacy workflows and processes?  Can we fund investments in untested innovative technologies?  Can we sustain the mantra of doing more with less?  It would appear the focus on sustainability is masking the broader question associated with being able to survive change.

 

Headshots

"Me in the Mirror" by johnny z.

On a daily basis, I use a desktop application called TweetDeck to check out my twitter account.  In addition to seeing what is being said by those I “follow“, I’ve also setup keyword searches for my organization, the associations I’m apart of, as well as conferences/seminars I have or will be attending.  In addition to seeing what people are tweeting, the application shows me the pictures of the tweeters (assuming they’ve posted one).  I’ve been struck over the last several days how odd some of these pictures are.  The composition of these pictures run the gantlet from furry animals, self-portraits in the mirror (flash optional), pictures of cartoon, sports, or music icons, or my favorite the photo where someone else has been cropped out.  While I’m well aware that most individuals aren’t thinking about self promotion or how these images are impacting their professional aspirations, I can’t help but wonder why would they choose these images.

Almost ten years ago, the creative services department for my organization arranged for professional headshots be taken for all employees.  The vast majority of the workforce was surprised by this effort, and many question the intent for the headshot.  The director of marketing, at the time, explained that they wanted headshots to share with media outlets and the company’s own website when a story ran that referenced employees.

To day, headshots are more widely used than just for celebrities and aspiring theater majors.  According to Miles Austin, in an article titled “You Need a Headshot If You Want to Make an Impact”, one recruiting outfit he interviewed indicated that “a 70% increase in response rates after a photo is added to a profile.”  Apparently the mediums leveraging headshots today are those of social media.  Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc, all have the feature to add a photo.  The question is which photo to choose.  The answer for those who leverage social sites for professional purposes is simply a headshot. This sentiment is echoed by Adam Koller with Marah Creative, in a blog post entitled “if you are in business, you need a good headshot.”  Adam states, “If you are a professional anything, you need to have a quality photo that represents you and your brand” (emphasis mine).

But the reality is that good headshots aren’t cheap and the process can be lengthy.  First you schedule a sitting, then you grab your choices of clothing, and on the day of the shoot you spend 60 to 90 minutes, dropping between $200 to $450 for the session.  Then you wait for a couple of weeks while the photographer works his post-production magic to “retouch” the pictures.  So many of us on the frugal side of things opt for the DIY (Do it Yourself) Headshot task.  But are we taking the time to really do it justice.  No the quality won’t be professional, by it shouldn’t be amateur either.

Nancy S. Juetten, with Nancy S. Juetten Marketing Inc, offers the following advice in an article entitled, “Self-Marketing Tip: Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Foot with a Do-It-Yourself Headshot.”

• pay attention to lighting
• use a neutral colored background (be at least 3 feet from the background, preferably 6 feet)
• makeup should be, and use more blush than usual as not to appear too washed out
• hair should be neatly styled
• Clothing should be timeless with solid, medium to dark,  business attire
• Posing should be set so your body is away from the camera with your head turned to look into the lens, arching your back and with your shoulders back as well
• Framing is critical, from the breast plate up, capturing a couple of inches of background above the subject and wide enough to include the shoulders

While these recommendations may not capture your zany side, with bold prints and shaggy scruff, the question is whether it captures who you are as a professional.  The reality for me is that I’m not a professional photographer, but I’ve spoken enough at conferences and had sufficient requests for a photo during interviews, that I wish I had one headshot at the ready that not only could I provide it when asked, but that I could use with the various online social sites.

 

Online Social Presence … Generosity

The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.

This quote is attributed to 1921 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Albert Einstein.  As we continue the discussion on an Online Social Presence, I wanted to spend some time thinking about theme of generosity.  As we think about our personal professional brand, as we look at the ways and means to package and deliver our expertise, it may be easy to assume that all the focus is inward, but this would be misleading.  The reality is that a thought leader has to have followers, and to generate followers requires intentional efforts to garner the attention of others.  For this reason it is imperative that we be generous with our time, attention, affection, and acknowledgment.

Often generosity is associated with charitable giving.  To that end, I find it interesting that according to “Philanthropic Statistics” published by the National Philanthropic Trust…65% of households give to charity and to that end, charitable giving accounted for 2.1% of the US gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009.

While generosity can manifest itself via charitable giving, online or off, being generous can include so much more.  As I instruct my own children, being generous starts with sharing.  This sentiment is echoed by Chris Brogan, who stated to the New Media Atlanta gathering in 2009 that we need to “learn how to share vs hoard.”  To Chris point, our angle should not be monetizing what we share, rather the opportunities that develop because we are sharing.  Brogan points out that 98% of his stuff is free each day on his blog.  His interest is in the lead generation that occurs because of what he puts out on his blog.

As I mentioned in my previous post on conversations, Big Businesses are wrestling with how to effectively engage social media.  They are also evaluating the how to be generous as well, just like the rest of us.  In his FastCompany article entitled “A Sentiment Detector That Reads the Social Web for You“, David Zax quotes Mike Spataro, VP of Enterprise Client Strategy for Visible Technologies … “98% of consumers are surprised and delighted that someone is trying to help them, and don’t think it’s like Big Brother trying to steer them.”  This quote is applicable to those of us who are trying to establish an online presence, with the simple advice, be helpful.

In the February 2009 article “Generation G” on Trendwatching.com, the author suggests that “sharing is the new giving”, and goes on to explain how “sharing a passion … have replaced ‘taking’ as the new status symbol”.  So what are some ways that we, as online professionals, can put sharing into practice?

Make recommendations … Lewis Howes, in his article, “7 Ways to Market Yourself on LinkedIn“, states that one of the best ways to, “give to others would be to make recommendations” on LinkedIn.  He goes on to suggest that we should recommend others without asking or expecting a recommendation in return because the benefit is the impression we leave with those we are recommending, “it will give them a refreshing feeling about you and they’ll want to be helpful in return.”  But recommendations don’t just occur on LinkedIn.  Posting reviews and/or recommendations on Amazon, iTunes, UrbanSpoon, etc provide excellent opportunities to “pay it forward”.  If you had a good experience at a certain establishment good, tweet about it, post a Facebook status update, in other words share it with your friends.

Share about others … Reid Carr’s article on FastCompany.com entitled, “What Should CEOs Tweet? 7 tips to Become More ‘Socially Active” recommends that CEOs “tweet your team’s accomplishments … identify key players and give them a shout out by their twitter name.”  To Carr’s point, we should share what others are doing.  Chris Brogan suggests employing a 12:1 rule, “talk about other people’s stuff 12 times to each time you talk about your stuff.”  With in Twitter, there is something called a “retweet” which Jimi Jones explains, in his article “Measuring the Power of the ReTweet“, “These are sent by those who really feel that the original Tweet has value to be shared…”  If you find something you find valuable, share the value with others.  The benefit is two fold.  First others are exposed to a potential new source of good information.  Second, your own credibility is enhanced as someone who shares value.

Share your thoughts … In her article “Can You Be Personal and Professional in Social Media“on GigaOm.com, Dawn Foster suggestions that we, “think about the value that you can offer”.  Our observations, insights, and experiences can be valuable to others, just as we acknowledge the value ourselves. As Mike Phillips states in his article “8 Reasons You Should be Blogging“, “by sharing your ideas online you become part of the community instead of one of the countless spectators.”  One of the potential benefits of sharing your thoughts, is that you could be identified as a source of values by others.  Being a source of value has many payoffs, but it starts with sharing.

I’ll be honest, when I think of social media, generosity isn’t the first descriptor that comes to mind.  It wasn’t until reading Shel Isreal‘s book Twitterville, did I start to really think about the power of generosity that the social web offers.  I thought it was significant enough to include the notion of generosity to the conversation of what it means to have an online social presence.  Hopefully you will join me in sharing more.

Online Presence Strategies … Conversation

Chris Brogan is the co-author of the book Trust Agents.  During a presentation Chris gave at New Media Atlanta in 2009, he made a statement that struck a chord with me, and one I’ve heard echo many times since.  Chris stated, “connect before you need it … people typically start looking for a job when the get fired … make connections and keep them warm until you really need them.”  Understanding the need to connect, and practicing the art of connecting are two completely different things.  As we continue the discussion of an online social presence, the next logical step following be visible, and be listening is the step of be conversational.

At some point in a discussion or dialogue, you may feel the urge or compulsion to add your two cents.  Knowing how to and whether what you have to say is pertinent may be intimidating.  This is true whether this is a water cooler conversation, business meeting, or online discussion.  At one level we each individually need to answer the simple question, why are we wanting to speak?  Is it to be noticed?  Are we looking for clarification?  Or do we have have something of value to contribute to the conversation?

Group dynamics play into this discussion, because each of us have certain levels of comfort that assist in managing our willingness to engage.  I know when I’m with a group of buddies, I do not wrestle with decisions of when to speak, what to say, or what my motivation is in engaging the discussion.  In contrast, when I’m at a conference or large meeting, with many people I’m not familiar with, I wrestle with this questions regularly.  At some point anonymity can be the worst enemy to effectively engaging in a conversation.  In these situations, we have to be willing to put ourselves out there, muster the confidence that despite how uncomfortable we may feel what me want to contribute may be valued by the others around us.

One of the first steps to be conversational is to comment on the things we have been listening to.  As we’ve read blogs and understood the etiquette and context, we should be better equipped to pen our thoughts in the comment section.  As Aliza Sherman wrote in the article “Revisiting 10 Golden Rules of Social Media” for GigaOm, “if you’ve listened thoughtfully and have something valuable to share, your participation will be welcome.”  Commenting can occur on other people’s blogs, groups within Facebook or LinkedIn, as well as tweets.  Regardless of the locality or service, actively participating by posting a comment is a significant milestone in one’s online presence.

With regards to the platform Twitter, the use of the “retweet” button can be an effective way to be conversational.  Essentially the “retweet” action indicates the original tweet was something you found interesting, compelling, or engaging and as a result you desire to share it with others.  Chris Brogan calls this action of retweeting “a very powerful trick inside twitter”, especially when you consider Chris’ 12-to-1 rule which he details, “talk about other people’s stuff 12 times to each time you talk about your stuff.”  To Chris’ point, be conversational doesn’t require that we start the conversation.  It also doesn’t mean that we have to build on the conversation.  It could simply mean that we expand the audience that is listening to the conversation.

There may be occasions when your interests or passions are not represented online through blogs, tweets, LinkedIn Groups, or Facebook pages.  On those occasions, it may require that you will have to start the conversation.  Lewis Howes is a former professional football player, who has successfully leveraged LinkedIn to create new business opportunities.  In an article on his website entitled, “Seven Ways to Market Yourself on LinkedIn“, Howes suggests that one way to market oneself is to start their own community. Howes offers that creating a LinkedIn group, “may be one of the best ways to get your message out there and the most powerful way to leverage LinkedIn.” If starting a LinkedIn group seems a little daunting, maybe starting up a blog is more compelling. In the “State of the Blogosphere 2010” report published by Technorati.com, 57% of the bloggers who responded indicated they, “blog to share their expertise and experiences with others.”  Blogs can be a very effective mechanism to demonstrate one’s expertise.  Brian Solis, in response to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere article commented in a FastCompany.com blog post, “Blogs are the digital library of our intellect, experience, and vision.”  Solis goes on to emphasize the difference between blogs and Twitter, “with Twitter, we are simply competing for the moment. With blogs, we are investing in our digital legacy.” If a digital legacy isn’t compelling enough to start blogging, maybe Mike Phillips‘ article on his site EatSleepSocial.com entitled “Seven Reasons You Should be Blogging” will solidify the rational to start a blog.  My own favorite reason is “demonstrate your thought leadership-don’t just be a sheep”.

Once others have taken notice of our efforts to be conversational, we must be willing to continue the conversation by responding to those who follow, connect, and comment.  It’s not enough just to make a statement and then fade back into the woodwork.  Once we’ve crossed the threshold, we need to be ready to continuity engage in the conversation.  This lesson is visibly being played out within social media today as Big Businesses and Big Brands are struggling to understand how to successfully leverage the online social environment.  The way we show the world that we are active online is as much associated with what we say as it as how we connect and respond to others online.  In a keynote that Gary Vaynerchuk gave in August of 2010, he stated it simply, “pay attention to what people are saying … answer the questions”.  Simply answering the questions demonstrates posed can be very effective in continuing the conversation and enhancing one’s online presence.  Books like Twitterville, Open Leadership, even Crush It! all denote case studies and success stories how Big Brands have won over naysayers by simply engaging them, answering questions, and responding to individual comments.  As Vaynerchuk so colorfully says it, “Care…be patient, let the relationship develop…invest in people.”

I suspect, it wasn’t that surprising that joining a conversation followed listening.  Hopefully articulating the various modes, mediums, and ways to join the conversation and carrying on the conversation has been thoughtful and meaningful.  I hope I’ve lived up to the tag-line in my twitter account … “Technologist who is looking to add value to the conversation”

Does Tweeting = Message Delivered?

Earlier today, my organization began noticing some curious issues associated with our wireless network and wireless attached devices connecting to external sites.  It is one of those problems that takes time to quantify the problem  before we can begin looking for a resolution.  After I came back from lunch, I was checking twitter and noticed a colleague had dispatched  a tweet about problems with the wireless network several hours before I checked twitter.

This brought to mind the age old question, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Or in my instance … if someone directs a tweet to someone, and they aren’t online, is the message delivered?

When I did see the tweet, my first reaction was to question why this colleague felt twitter was the appropriate medium to dispatch the information.  Email, phone, text message, or face-to-face conversation all seem to be more viable methods to communicate this message to me.  My second reaction was why would this person feel the need to broadcast this message on a shared medium.

In 2009, Success Magazine posted results of a survey they conducted on “preferred methods of communication.”  Todd Smith, founder of Little Things Matter, posted the results of this survey on his blog.  Of the 950 respondents, email and face-to-face were the preferred methods of communications (40% and 39% respectively).  The phone was a distant third with 13 percent.  Social media and text messaging rounded out the list with 5% and 3% respectively.  Mr. Smith’s point in referencing this information is that we should be intentional in our efforts to communicate with others and use the avenues that the person we are communicating with prefers.

From my stand point, if I had received an email from my colleague, I would have seen the email in a more timely manner and could have responded to the message quicker.  The experience does bring to light some interesting conversations regarding the pervasiveness of social media as well as the recognition that not everyone leverages the tools in the same manner.

Online Presence Strategies…Visibility

When I achieve the moniker of “middle management” I started looking for resources to assist in transitioning into my management role.  Maybe you’ve been in a similar position, where there is no “formal” career mentoring program.  I found a group online which offered many resources including regular effective & compelling podcasts.  The group is Manager-Tools and their suggestions & advice were actionable and clear cut.

One show that caught me off guard was one focused on the pearls of social networking.  The crux of the forty minute show cautioned that effective executives shouldn’t let “controllable negatives” hurt them.  Their point was that the images, updates, links, & associations on social sites are indeed digital records.  When we are tagged or host “private” material on these sites we essentially pollute or contaminate the professionalism we tout in other venues.  The podcast hosts reference Murphy’s Law of Facebook which explains, the one thing you don’t want someone else to see, they will see.

Fast forward a couple of years, and this group publishes another podcast that literally endorses & urges its listeners to be on LinkedIn.  Now the reason for this relative about face stems from a Fortune Magazine article where the executive of global recruiting for Accenture stated that in the coming years he expected 40% of his hires to come from social spaces  (liked LinkedIn).

Maybe it’s the realization that big businesses are coming, if they aren’t already there, to a social space near you; that prompts an engagement with social web or consider the value that social centric services have to offer.  Regardless of the motivation or rational, most of us should acknowledge that there is something to the incredible growth of social networking.  Given the low barrier of entry, I’m confident that there are opportunities ripe for each of us within the spectrum of the social graph.

Before trudging headlong into uncharted waters, there are certain considerations we each should contend with related to the social ecosystem.  The folks from Manager-Tools are correct in their attention that we should treat the digital record with respect and professionalism.  This starts with certain attention paid to ourselves and our social presence.  Visibility is a key strategy to be evaluated.  How companies, colleagues, partners, clients, customers, etc will recognize us should be vetted.  To that end, I wanted to share some suggestions…

1.  Use Your Real Name.  Sites like Facebook & LinkedIn this is pretty easy.  However places like Twitter and blogs have encouraged cute naming conventions.  While your CB handle or self-proclaimed nickname from college might be unique, only those with inside knowledge will correlate you & the nickname/handle.  Despite how astute you may be tweeting interesting thoughts or insights, the inability of outsiders to make the digital link to your professional persona hinders it’s effectiveness to get you noticed.

2.  Use a photo, preferably a quality photo.  Many people are visual learners, and are more adapt at recognizing a face before they can place a name.  To this end, including a photo or head shot goes a long way to make who you are with what you are saying.

3.  Complete the bio.  Whether this is your education, career history, & summary statement on LinkedIn or a brief description on Twitter, give those  curious a little about yourself.  Incomplete information may be perceived as a negative, this person is unorganized or unable to complete tasks.  It’s like submitting a report without your name on it, when the instructions clearly guided the submission etiquette for where &  how to identify the person who was submitting the document.

4.  Provide a link or call to action.  Without coming right out and saying “want more information?”, a link or URL to another site, blog, or landing point provides a call to action for those interested in learning more about you.

5.  Be consistent across platforms.  For those of us who are expanding our social footprint this is critical.  Using the same picture and name are two key elements to being consistent.  If you use LinkedIn, Twitter, & have your own blog, all three should have consistent bio, name, & pictures.  This will give those navigating through these spaces a sense of congruity and reinforces who you are as a professional.

A word of warning … consistency doesn’t mean you copy & paste updates and all your information to each social location.  The reality is that each service has audience differences to be taken into account.  The subtle differences match the consistent information about who you are speak volumes on how adept you are in communicating .  If managing multiple social sites is too much work, then pair down the sites you maintain.  Doing one thing well is better than cloning the effort without specific attention paid to the destination audiences.  For me personally, it’s annoying to see someone tweet something and see it appear on their LinkedIn status and Facebook update unabridged.  As a audience member, it make me want to reduce the mediums I listen to or associate with this person.

Before you start broadcasting, pay attention to how you will be recognized.  To some extent we all want to be visible, but we each should do our homework to ensure our messages correlate to our image.  These details can pay dividends later on.  Once set, these variables are somewhat static.  Our attention and energies can then be appropriately focused on how we engage others in the social environment.

Online Social Presence

A couple weeks ago I attended the Storage Network World conference in Grapevine, Texas.  At this event one of the presenters challenged each attendee to stand up and meet two people in their immediate vicinity that they didn’t know.  Lucky for me, I knew no one, so I reached across the table and introduced myself to one of the gentlemen that was sitting at the same table I was sitting at.  This gentleman was a CIO for a large health resource group in the DFW area.  After asking where I was from, the next question I was asked took me by surprise.  This well dressed CIO inquired about my “online presence“.  I hesitated for a second and responded that I tweet more than anything else when it came to by profession as a technologist.

This question has lingered with me for the last couple of weeks.  As chance would have it, as I pondered the implications of this question and the session this gentleman conducted later in the week about leadership, I was presented an opportunity to talk about social media for a conference to be held in April 2011.  I knew immediately what I wanted to talk about, “Strategies for an Online Social Presence.”

Notice that I’m not as interested in an online presence, but I’m convinced that there is a social aspect that quantifies this presence.   From my perspective, static, out-of-date, and historical presence is not an online presence.  A web page, blog, or even a social media lurker is not an online presence.  Having a resume uploaded to Monster two years ago does not count.  Having a Facebook account that is locked out to your professional colleagues or a LinkedIn account that you haven’t visited in the last six months does not count.  The social qualifier means that you are a regular visitor and contributor.  You are not only being seen, but you are regularly interacting with others online.   In my opinion, this constitutes an online presence that is  social.

Why should you use social media?

In April, I’m slated to be one of the presenters at the annual ACUTA Conference to serve on a Social Media panel to discuss why and how to use social media as an IT professional.  Over the course of the last couple of months I’ve scoured the web-o-sphere looking for materials to support the idea that IT professionals should be leveraging social media.  The only problem is that most of the articles, blog posts, tweets, etc are focused on branding, messaging, and promotion.  They take a very “marketing” centric approach, whether it’s individually or corporately, and present reasons or rational of why social media is the new avenue to customers, fans, or constituents.  While I believe these references have merit and some application can be made for “joe the IT professional”, I’m struggling to find the statistics or smoking gun that confirms my position that social media is a viable community for your average IT professional.

My own indulgence in the social media arena came about because I heard others talking about twitter, linkedIn, facebook, etc.  Curiosity brought me to the table, and my willingness to try it out has kept me engaged.  In the subcommittee I serve on for ACUTA, I’ve received the moniker as the “twitter expert” because that’s a medium I’ve chosen for professional stuff.  I follow several folks who talk about IT stuff I’m interested in and I often tweet about articles I’ve read or items I’ve seen that I believe is relevant to the broader IT professional ranks.  I concede there is a rhyme and reason to my activities, but it’s more something I’ve decided upon-intentional use.  I did not read it in a “how to book”, although I did listen to others who share similar opinions in how to leverage the medium.

On the other hand, I’ve chosen to limit Facebook activities to more personal or private interactions.  Via Facebook I share with friends more than colleagues, and I’m conscious about security measures when professional contacts “friend” me on Facebook.    For LinkedIn, I try to keep the details listed as current as possible, but I don’t “live” there.  As a co-worker phrased it to me, “LinkedIn is for when you are looking for a job.” And since I’m not actively looking, I’m not there much.

So why should you use social media?  While I can’t find empirical evidence that supports my claims, I believe social media is the latest evolution in communication vehicles that keeps folks informed.  Just ten years ago, listservs function in this space.  Now a 140 character tweet that includes a link to a blog provides similar features and potentially has a broader reach because it doesn’t require a user to “subscribe” to a service.   For me, social media offers a large resource pool that includes folks, ideas, and locations that I would have never considered as a source.  Social media demonstrates the power a single voice can be heard by those who active listen.  The opportunity to tap into this vast resource of experiences, opinions, references, and ideas with little investment is simply gold.  I don’t need to a marketing genius, or a big corporation to appreciate the opportunity that awaits on social platforms.  I simply need to be curious enough and savvy enough to  work the interface to filter the content that is most applicable to me.

In my efforts to find a reason why you should use social media, the only reference I found was a tweet from an attendee of the Educause annual conference in Denver this past November.  The tweet read … “Interesting Twitter tidbit from #educause09, ’employees who use social media in the workplace (ie. work-related content) are often leaders.”  Sounded reasonable enough.

Twitter vs Email, the Noise Coefficient

It was just eight months ago that I was standing a mobile learning conference when a colleague told me that “we were tearing it up on twitter.”  This was my first introduction to the micro-blog service and I’ll be honest, I had no clue what my colleague was talking about.  While I don’t pretend to be a Twitter expert, I do see this medium as an opportunity to gather and share information.  As part of one of the estimated 18 million users that eMarketer predicts will be tweeting by years end, my philosophy is to “bring value to the conversation.”

However, not everyone shares in my optimism that there is value to be derived from twitter.  I recently had a discussion with my staff about utilizing twitter in some fashion as part of the tool sets utilized to support a university network infrastructure.  Questions arose during this conversation whether this would replace something we currently use.   Other comments during our brief discussion centered around concern the amount of noise we would  subject ourselves to.  The “noise” comment struck me as odd and to that end I decided to conduct a non-scientific research project comparing twitter to email.  My assumption was that email is noisier than twitter, simply because we have some control over the amount of tweets we can see.

During the week of September 27, 2009, I polled the number of email messages I received versus the number of tweets from folks I’m following.  Obviously the experiment was non-scientific as I only surveyed my own activity, and I have not reference point to determine if I’m a “normal” email or twitter user.  At the end of the week, I had received 464 emails and only 106 tweets by folks I was following, referenced me, or sent directly to me.  What I found as significant was that of the 464 emails I’d received during the week, 80.8% of these were either marked as spam or I deleted.  I should note that if I receive a message that I want to keep I tag it and then file it away.  So over 80% of the email messages I receive in a given week are what I would consider as “noise”.

The point of this excercise was to demonstrate that as Internet users, we are already equipped to manage “noise”.  To quible about the amount of “noise” that twitter might offer seems a mute point when we recognize the amount of “noise” we are already accustom to via email.  Couple this with the recognition that as twitter users, we can determine whom to follow, which gives us control over the amount of “noise” we are exposed to.

I will concede the point that twitter and the practice of “real-time status updates” can be daunting.  Two professors at Rutgers University recently identified in a research project that 80% of twitter users were “meformers” or individuals who “use the platform to post updates on their everyday activities”.  The research also indicated that “meformers” had significantly fewer followers than their counterparts who use the platform to share informational updates like links to news articles.  Another study from research firm MarketingProfs, suggests that the motivation from many twitter users is learning new things and getting information in a timely manner.

To conclude, I don’t necessarily believe “noise” is an actual deterant from utilizing twitter.  While there is a potential for information overload, I believe there is an opportunity to find valuable nuggets in the midst of these tweets.  It may be like looking for a needle in a haystack, so the question is whether the value of the found needle outwieghs the labor to find the needle.  My experience is that yes, the value justifies the labor.