The Jury is Still Out

I like to think of myself as an early adopter of technology. My teenage daughters think I am a bit of a technology geek and I have to admit they may be right. So when Google launched the Google + Project I was one of the first in line to get in.

Perhaps I have not spent enough time there, or maybe I need to give it a few more months. I am struggling to make Google + a part of my online life. The reasons for me are simple and may just apply to you too.

I already have a social profile that is extensive, by my standards anyway. I use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Blogger. I have a Tumblr account that I have yet to use and I check in on FourSquare semi-regularly. I have tried many different tools to post content and I like things to be simple. Adding what has appeared so far to be a redundant social network has been far from simple for me.

Admittedly, my biggest challenge is my own, Google + has not yet become a habit for me. Facebook is easy to start using, it is simple and I connect with my family and friends here. LinkedIn is great as it allows me to connect with colleagues in a professional way and share business/professional content that person friends may not be that interested in. Twitter has a different role in that I follow people I have never met and learn from their content.

I get the feeling that Google has tried to bring the features and uses of these three networks together in Google +. I can group my connections in to “circles” that define how I know them and what content I want to share with them. The challenge I have is that I have no family members using Google + so that “circle” is empty. I have a large number of co-workers, a few friends and many twitter followees. All of the people in my circles are in a twitter list (or two).

Maybe with the first API release earlier this month to developers there will eventually be third party applications to push content and I will have more success embracing the new network. Until then I will continue to look for the value in Google + and hope that it does not turn out to be Google -.

In the mean time feel free to connect with me on any of the social networks I frequent, especially Google +. Let me know if you need an invite and I will be happy to send you one!

Privacy and Social Media

Lately I have been hearing more and more about Facebook and its privacy settings, and how everyone is up in arms about it. I just don’t understand what all the commotion is about. I should preface what follows with the fact that I work for a social media monitoring company and that this posting reflects my personal views only, and that I am not speaking on behalf of my employer.

For the most part I am a fairly guarded and private person. In conversation I often choose to answer a direct personal question with a vague and ambiguous reply, as I have always believed that my privacy was important. It may seem odd to some then to learn that I have had a Facebook presence since 2007, I have been on LinkedIn since 2009 and I have recently taken to Twitter and blogging. Heck, I even use Foursquare on my iPhone and link that to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.

I have always been protective of my social presence and my personal brand. I am very selective with regards to what I post to my status updates and my tweets. So it should not be a huge surprise to anyone that when I read that specific aspects of my profile can be seen by everyone who has a web browser my reaction is a genuine “so what?”

Let me explain. I use the different social platforms in different ways and for different purposes. After all, that is what they were intended for.

My first (and only) rule of social media is that my Facebook page is my personal space, family and friends only. Occasionally a friend of a friend, if I met you at least once and it seemed like we shared some commonality. A friend of mine summed it up best: “To be my friend on Facebook you have to be someone I would sit down and have a beer with.” That is a good rule of thumb if you ask me. I have the ability to “untag” a picture of myself if I need to but have never had to exercise this right. I don’t care what the public can see because I have only updated what I am willing to share. My profile is not locked down so people cannot see it, they can only see what is there, what I am willing to share with the world.

I use LinkedIn for business and professional development purposes. If I have ever worked with you I will connect with you. In fact if anyone sends me a request to connect I will accept it, regardless of how I know you or even if I have never you. This is my professional arena where I belong to global groups and share knowledge with people I have never met in hopes that it helps all of us perform in our jobs better. My Facebook and LinkedIn accounts are not connected in any way, and I see no reason that they should be.

Twitter resides in the delicate space between my personal and my professional worlds, and yes this is where the two worlds collide. I work in social media so I have an understanding that it is important to be diverse, informative and entertaining with my tweets. It is also important to engage in conversations not only professionally but also personally. I also need to be sure athat I do not become a megaphone for my employer or any other cause as that is not conversation.

My goal is not to amass a specific number of followers, but to follow people I respect personally and/or professionally. Some tweets entertain me, some educate me and others keep me up to date with what friends and colleagues are doing. Hopefully my tweets accomplish the same those that follow me.

So if you really want to protect your privacy, be sure to check your security and privacy settings. Not the ones on Facebook, the ones you use to filter what you are posting and commenting. You know the ones…they are the same filter settings we use every day when we meet someone on the street that we haven’t seen in a few months. I believe the technical term for them is common sense.

The Problem I Have With Statistics

I used to joke that 87.35% of all statistics were made up on the spot.  The truth is that it is more like 72.91% and yes, I just made that one up too.

Recently I transitioned to a new role with a new company in a new city. I could say that 100% of my life is new but that is not 100% accurate. I have the same two children, I drive the same car and I use the same brand of deodorant. What I am saying here is that a statistic is just a number, and that a number needs to have context to have meaning.

Every day we are all inundated with a statistic about something. Political polls, television ratings, the percentage growth of a company and the demographics of facebook users. What do all of these numbers mean and how are we supposed to make sense of them? It all depends on your point of view.

If a political leader’s approval rating goes from 33% to 36% the data gets “spun” by supporters that the approval rating increased 9% and detractors say 64% disapprove of their opponent. Both are right but the messaging around them is in contrast.

When a company is young and it grows revenue by 200% (or more) this sounds like an excellent investment opportunity – is it? More data is required and I hope we all realize more questions need to be asked in this situation.

What about all of the statistics flying around about the world of social media? Facebook has 500 million users and the fastest growing demographic is 55-65 year olds. Really? How many were there last year and how many are there now? If there was only one million in this group a year ago and now there are nine million it is still less than 2% of the total user group. It is an 800% increase, which is a fantastic growth number but it does not tell the entire story. Since I like to make up stats these are fabricated for illustration purposes – I am sure there are more than nine million users globally in this demographic.

This is my first blog post so as soon as someone reads it my readership has increased infinitely, nothing like setting the bar high!