Fabian Pattberg



Tag Archives - twitter

The Social Media experiment is over

Several days ago I started my own little experiment to see whether it is useful for me to go without using Twitter and Google+ for a month. The point was to see whether my productivity of providing daily blog posts will increase or not. Today, 2 days after starting this experiment (!), I can say that this was a stupid idea. I will now start updating both social networks again.

These are my three key learnings:

Social Networks are indispensable for blogging and bloggers

My first conclusion is that for bloggers social networks such as Twitter and Google+ are indispensible. I started to notice that yesterday when I was looking for a topic to write about. One of the best sources of information / news to write about are social networks. RSS feeds and newsletters are good but social networks  in addition to these sources just make a better basis for blogging.

Social Networks are essential for connecting to like-minded people

I missed the connection to my followers and friends via the social networks. And that started on day 1. So I had to change this. We need socialisation as humans. Social networks are playing a part in my socialisation with friends, colleagues and family.

My own productivity only depends on my smart scheduling

The last and most important learning from this experiment was that the involvement in social networks does not really influence my productivity in writing blog posts. It all depends on the proper scheduling. And I have to adjust mine to publish a daily blog.

So let the tweeting and updating on Google+ commence. :-)

My Social Media experiment – No more Twitter and Google+ for a month

I have decided to conduct a social media experiment. I will not use Twitter or Google+ over the next 4 weeks and instead fully focus on writing daily blogs on CSR / Sustainability and various business topics. The intention is to find out whether I will be more productive that way. Productive in this context means that I am writing more often and create better content. I also want to find out whether this daily writing will be able to replace the social media networks I have built up over the past years to create more dialogue on my blog.

This probably goes against all good social media best practice but I believe that anyone writing a blog should primarily focus on this blog and not on social media networks to promote this blog. But prioritization seems do fade away with the now endless possibilities to tweet, do status updates, share blogs and on and on. From now on, for a month, my source of great CSR / Sustainability news and information will be my RSS feed only.

The noise of our social networks is getting too much

I feel that the noise you create by participating in all possible social networks, is in the long run more distracting than helping to bring you blog to the next level. I also have the increasing bad feeling that the use of social networks does not really offer a useful additional platform for my blog anymore. For me these days, while running a business with 7 people, Twitter and Google+ are mostly time-consuming activities that do not present enough value for the time I spend on it because my customers are not active on Twitter or Google+. I also feel that Twitter and Google+ are mostly used by all sorts of people and organisations as showcasing platforms without much dialogue.

This is my view and the reason for this experiment. What do you think about this? What is your view?

My latest Twitter updates now as a designated page

I am always trying to improve my website. Today I wanted to let you know that you can now view the latest 15 of my Twitter updates on a designated page here on my site. This is the direct link to the Twitter update page: My Twitter Stream. For me Twitter is an extension of my blog and a great way to connect and share  information with likeminded people from across the globe. I hope you will find these updates useful.

If you have any feedback on how to improve this page or the overall website please let me know. And please connect with me on Twitter. It would be great to hear from you: Fabian on Twitter.

Twitter is the most popular Sustainability / CSR Social Media channel

Last week I conducted a poll aimed at identifying the most popular Social Media channel for your Sustainability / CSR topics. The result was unambiguous really.

Twitter is the most popular Social Media channel for Sustainability / CSR topics.

These are the results in numbers:

  • Twitter with 73% (40 votes)twitter Twitter is the most popular Sustainability / CSR Social Media channel
  • Facebook with 11% (6 votes)
  • Google+ with 15% (8 votes)
  • LinkedIn with 16% (9 votes)
  • Other with 7% (4 votes)

What does this mean?

Two main messages really.
(1) If you are intending to communicate any kind of Sustainability / CSR message, the Social Media channel you should use as your primary channel is Twitter.
(2) Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ are alternatives but at this point not really considered as useful as Twitter.

What are your thoughts on this result? All views are welcomed.

Poll: What is your favourite Social Media Channel for CSR / Sustainability topics?

I decided to conduct regular polls on interesting CSR / Sustainability topics during 2012. The plan is to do a new poll every 3 weeks going from Sunday to Friday that week.

This is this weeks poll:


Thank you for participating and I will publish an analysis of the results once the poll has closed here on my blog.

My Twitter crackdown this week

I was looking for a specific Twitter update at the end of last and it took me ages to find it. This made me realize that I am simply following to many people on Twitter in order to have a good overview to find what I was looking for. I followed 3000+ people and 95% where people I did not really know or which had a lot of automated updates from their websites, etc.twitter My Twitter crackdown this week

I therefore decided to review my whole list and started unfollowing the people and organizations I felt did not provide me with continuous interesting information on CSR / Sustainability and Social Media.

It nearly took me all week to go through the list one by one but I am now seeing the updates from the people on Twitter I want to see without the large amount of noise from all other people and organizations constantly promoting their work or websites.

This is a huge problem with Twitter I feel. When I browsed the web to see whether this is something other people did, I realized that mass unfollowing is becoming common practice these day.

This is a most recent article on this topic: Unfollowing to become common practice

I am now done to around 200 people and it feels good to finally have control over the Twitter updates I am reading instead of focusing on lists and luck to find what I am looking for.

The international CSR Twitter and blogosphere

I was kindly invited by a business friend of mine to talk about the relationship of CSR, Twitter and the global blogosphere at the CSR 2.0 conference held in Warsaw today. My presentation was a short one (6 slides only) but I hugely enjoyed the opportunity to share my experience regarding Twitter and blogging in relation to CSR.

This is the presentation (shared on SlideShare):

The current Social Media Network dilemma & advice

WIth the arrival of Google+ , Google’s answer to Facebook, the choice which Social Media Network to use just got more complicated (Link to the Google+ News)

With so much choice these days we are are clearly left with the dilemma which Social Media Network best fits our needs and wants. Here is what I am doing and would recommend for the time being.

 

Twittertwitter The current Social Media Network dilemma & advice

This is still my absolute favorite network to share information on. To me it seems that Twitter is also maturing at the moment. Most people I connect with on Twitter know what they are talking about and have been on Twitter for a while now (i.e. know what they want from this Network). This is a good sign for the quality conversations and interaction in my view.

My advice: Use Twitter as your number one Social Media Network. There is no better alternative out there at the moment.

 

Facebookfacebook logo The current Social Media Network dilemma & advice

I like Facebook and when I started to share more business related information a few months back, the feedback I got was and still is pretty mixed. For me the big question with Facebook is whether I am not annoying all other friends with this business information when they are expecting more of a personal note. Facebook is intended to be more personal after all.

My advice: Use Facebook mainly for personal connections. A way to differentiate networks is not really possible at the moment.

 

LinkedInlinkedin logo The current Social Media Network dilemma & advice

LinkedIn is a great site to host your online CV if you want to call it that. But I am not using it other then as an automatic outlet for my Twitter updates. LinkedIn in my view is the classic example of a great Social Network that is not being used enough from my side at the moment unfortunately.

 My advice: Use LinkedIn on a limited basis at the moment. It is great for your personal CV, etc but not really for engaging a wider network of people you do not know so far.

 

Google+googleplus logo The current Social Media Network dilemma & advice

Google+ is the new player in town. I have managed to get in while it is still in the testing phase and must say that I really like it. It is much simpler and “cleaner” in comparison to Facebook. The idea I have once Google+ is open to everyone, is that I will use this Social Media Network as my second CSR / Sustainability information outlet next to Twitter and limit my Facebook updates to purely personal updates.

My advice: Signup with Google+ and start creating your professional so called “Circles”. I am sure Google+ will be successful. Once more people sign up, you will see that it is a Social Media Network which will enable you to share relevant information for the intended networks at a click of a button.

Visibli – Better Social Media analytics

I have been looking for a good way to measure the usefulness of my tweets, blog posts and resources on my sites for quite a while and I think I may have found the best solution yet after testing Visibli for a few days this week.visiblilogo Visibli   Better Social Media analytics

Visibli is an interesting service that quote ” helps companies and content creators expand their digital audience, and promote their products through shared links.”

The most useful elements in my view are:

  1. The fully customizable so called “Engagement Bar“.
  2. The easy integration into WordPress blogs and your Tweetdeck desktop application.
  3. The detailed analytics. Not to simple and not complicated.
  4. The possibility to sign in using Twitter, Facebook and with a normal registration.

Here are some more details on the main elements of Visibli in the press kit: http://visibli.com/presskit

All in all this look to be the best free of charge social media analytics tool on the market at the moment. I would encourage you to test it as well if you use Twitter and/or Facebook in a business context and like to know what is being clicked on, by whom and which stories are most popular.

Disclaimer: Visibli is not a customer of mine. I just found the service really useful. :-)