Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Tool Tip: How To Share Information Easily on Twitter

Little did I realize that my ranting about powerpoint templates yesterday would end up on Mashable today in a post called Twitter Professors: 18 People To Follow for A Real Time Education by Lon S. Cohen.

Recently, I've been asked by some folks about how they can get more followers quickly.  One of the tips I've passed along is something I try practice everyday.   Be helpful, share what you know freely, and don't just promote your own work.

A few months ago I had the pleasure having dinner with Kevin Gamble, Beth Rainey, and Ann from Extension.   I met them two years ago when I did a webinar called "Ten Steps To Extension 2.0"   Kevin and I started to share RSS reader tips and habits and he pointed to Feedly an RSS reader that gives you a magazine layout and makes it easy to share links from your reader.  (See this review from Mashable).

It makes it easy to post to Twitter or bookmark finds from over the 1000 blogs that monitor.  I figure why hoard the good stuff I find? 

What's your routine for sharing information on Twitter?
What tool do you use?

Filtering Your Feeds: Marshall's Yahoo Pipes Screencast

Are you using RSS to listen, but want to know how to fine tune your listening skills?   Go no further than this excellent screencast from Marshall Kirkpatrick.

Why would you ever want to use Yahoo Pipes you might be wondering? Let's say that you have mastered using an RSS reader like bloglines or google reader or event NetVibes to read feeds.   And you've integrated reading feeds from blogs and web sites into your daily routine.  And let's say that your social media radar includes using "persistent search"  (plugging in some key words into technorati search or blog search engine and subscribing to it via RSS). 

Now, let's say you've been doing that for months, but  you're finding that your persistent search feeds are casting too wide a net and you're getting a lot of information that you're not interested in reading.   That's where Yahoo Pipes can really help you.

Here's an example of a Yahoo pipe that Marnie Webb put together that tracks nonprofit technology resources. To filter it further, Marnie used AIDERSS to filter the pipe to create the NPTech Popular Yahoo Pipe (with inspiration and help from Marshall)

What are some ways that you are fine-tuning your social media listening skills?  If using google alerts and blogreaders are great entry steps, how do you take your listening to the next level?

RSS Beginners Guide and Video

Michael Pick recently posted this entertaining how-to video about RSS for some client work he was doing for a social RSS application called "Feed Each Other."  I just love the retro clip of the women with her remote control.

His RSS Guide for Beginners is an absolute gem!  A must-read for anyone trying to explain what RSS is and why one should use it. 

I'm also so honored that he joined my Facebook Cause for the Sharing Foundation too! 

Moving Listserv Email from Inbox To RSS: A Few Steps Closer

Photo by SCFiasco on Flickr

A great big thank you to Ryan over at PICnet for this hack -- I can now move my NTEN Affinity Groups emails over the reader.  This, of course, assumes that haven't reaced the point of RSS reader overload and I can successfully shift my email reading habit. 

RSS Overload and Google Reader Stats

Nedra Weinreich of the SpareChange Blog left a pointer to comic this in a comment on my post about RSS as coping tool for Information Overload!  Just had to blog it!  It would make a great presentation slide!

It kind of says it all. 

I've been reflecting a lot on my RSS reading habits lately and how I organize (or don't) my RSS feeds in the reader.   Right now, I organize into sub-folders by topics I'm following.   I'm about to create a folder called "Circle of the Wise." inspired by Vicky Davis's post.  I'm going to identify 10-15 feeds out of the 240 in my collection that I find the most inspiring, causes me to think, or gives me ideas for blogging. 

I've been using bloglines for about two years now and am really comfortable, particularly with my work flow for reading and blogging.  These two tasks very connected, but must be kept in balanced.   I'm hesitating making any change for fear of becoming even less productive while I form new habits.  I also hate that feeling of anxiety that happens when you don't know where to click and you're under deadline pressure to get something done.  I hate not having the opportunity for reflection when you're crazy busy and overwhelmed!

Learning these tools is about habit change and habit change is uncomfortable unless you make the time for reflection.  It is most likely the discomfort that newcomers to blogging, rss feeds, or these other social tools may feel initially and it's always good for me to feel this first hand....

I came across a post by Kevin that describes a newly launched feature in the google reader that gives you some statistics about your RSS reading habits.  It could be useful a self-reflection exercise.   I had given Google Reader a whirl when it first appeared about a year ago and it was too alpha.  So, I was encouraged to give it another try.   There are some aspects of the reader I really like, but not enough to disrupt my whole workflow when I'm crazy busy and stressed out anyway ...

RSS As Information Coping Tool

Drawing from my "Information Coping Skills for Humans" workshop circa 1999

I've been doing Internet skills training workshops since 1995 and way back when I used to do one called "Digital Literacy" which was all about how to use email, listservs, and Internet search functions.   I used to include a segment on "TechnoStress" in which I had people create drawings that represented their stress as a way to do some small group discussion.  I'd also cover stretching and RSI and how to avoid it ..(in the UK, I made a Freudian slip and called RSI - RSS by mistake ..)

I'm finding that some people's initial reactions to RSS is "OMG, information overload!"  Of course, I showed people my bloglines and 233 feeds, but I also told them that I didn't start off with that many and I also give myself permission not to read everything all the time.  I also do everything on this list as well.  I started off with 5 blog feeds and as I discovered other blogs or resources, I added them gradually.    As someone who was trained as a musician, it is the way I used to practice etudes - start at adagio and gradually work up to allegro. 

I'm discovering that I'm finding RSS so efficient that I find email annoying.  I have a really good spam filter (Spam bayse), I use rules/filters to direct project related email and listserv email to folders, and am fairly good at "zeroing" out my inbox.  I also use Google desktop search and search when I need to retrieve.   I've also become quite aggressive with people who I am working with and colleagues who send me chit chat email to get on my IM list.  (changing habits is another story). 

I complained about this in the UK during the Social Media Session and Paul Henderson (photographed above) and he mentioned that you can use bloglines to read your listserv email!!

The description:

You can create an unlimited number of special Bloglines email addresses that are tied to your Bloglines account. The email addresses show up as subscriptions in your My Blogs page, and email sent to those email addresses appears as new items.

When you create a Bloglines email address, a subscription is added to your account. If you unsubscribe from that subscription, the email address becomes invalid and mail sent to it will bounce.

Email subscriptions are great for announce-only or broadcast mailing lists that don't provide RSS feeds. They are also useful as temporary email addresses.

I have in the past tried to access email from listservs that had RSS feeds.  For example, a few in google groups.   I stopped doing it because you couldn't see who the email was from and had to click through to read the message.    I just set up a few as tests.  I hope this sets me free.

I was considering doing a quick and dirty screencast, but while browsing my feeds I noticed that one of my favorite bloghers Amy Gahran (the photo above was taken at BlogHer when we finally met face-to-face) had written about this very topic. (We've done this a lot over the past year or so)   Anyway, she has some terrific advice on this topic here.

I also want to point you to Vicky Davis's piece on avoiding information overload with RSS --- There is excellent advice for newcomers to RSS.  The article answers these really important human questions:

• So, how do you select your circle of the wise? (Circle of the wise - how many feeds you'll read)
• How do you keep from being overwhelmed?
• How do you fit it into your already overfull day?

She begins with how do you ever fit in reading feeds?   Vicky talks about the elephant joke.  I always liked the saying - you never eat an entire salami whole -you cut it into small pieces.  She reads her feeds in little snippets of the day.  I do this myself and I've found having my bloglines on my treo and being able to read while in the car waiting in carpool line to pick up the kids or standing in line at the grocery can be make waiting fun!

She also gives some great advice about how to choose which feeds you read.

Do you change your RSS Subscriptions As Often as You Change Your Socks?

There was a quick exchange about nonprofit blog traffic the other day and someone mentioned that building traffic takes time, "particularly from RSS subscribers who must be convinced that the blog is worth investing the time to read and therefore subscribe."

I challenge that notion applies to all folks who use RSS readers, but I don't have any firm research to stand on.  I'm not so sure of all RSS readers are so rigid in their subscribe behavior because I notice quite a bit of "churn" in my own RSS sub stats - yet I retain a loyal readership!

I get the feeling that a segment of RSS readers subscribe and unsubscribe to blogs as often as they change their socks.  It's not that their are promiscuous  It's part of their normal behavior.  I think the act of subscription may be a little more impulsive versus thoughtful.  Or  maybe some people subscribe and then if they discover that the blog sucks, they unsubscribe. 

I wonder how patterns of behavior differ based on learning styles, Myers Briggs Profile, demographics or technical skill?   

Reminds me again that there is a lot we don't know about RSS reader habits. A while back, I was obsessing about this and read through this report:  Pew Internet and American Life Project Report titled "Bloggers: The Internet's Storytellers"  from July, 2006.  Didn't find much, although there was a footnote to another source for data, a 192-page master's thesis on bloggers and their audiences by Amanda Lenhart.  (A pdf version can be found here.)  In fact, I emailed Amanda Lenhart who now works at the Pew to query re: RSS readership habits.  Here's what she told me:

There's very little good research out there about the impact of RSS readers and the number of readers who engage with blogs in that way -- its actually a major problem for all types of websites offering RSS feed--there's a big mystery as to how many readers those feeds actually represent, as well as the "quality" of those readers -- are they just skimming? Cherrypicking certain posts/feeds? or do they click through?

So, here's another poll designed to learn about RSS subscription behavior.  Are you promiscuous with your RSS subscriptions?  How much do you think about whether or not you'll read a blog before you subscribe?  Do you take a leap of faith and figure, well if that one brilliant post that caught my eye was rare .. I can always unsubscribe.  Do you subscribe to blogs for life or change often?

My RSS subscriptions are always fluid.  I review, change, add, delete, etc. I do have a few that I must read, but not all. I also don't care whether I haven't read all of them all the time either.

Confession: I'm a car slob too.

Today, I gave someone a ride in my car and I had to apologize for being a car slob.  I have some good excuses - have young kids who eat in the car, I'm too crazy busy to clean it up, it has almost 100,000 miles, etc.   

Well, I'm also a tagging and rss slob.   I'm not going to put the link in to it - but tagging and rss encourages my sloppiness.   I need to change my habits and be a little more neater and thoughtful. 

• Only stuff you need to find later or think is really fantastic
• Try to clean up delicious tags for stuff like mispellings, etc. - perhaps this might need some regular maintenace
• Think about your categories and try to be consistent
• Do a radical weeding of you bloglines - unsubscribe from any that you don't find real value in reading anymore.  Reorganize the folders in bloglines.   Try to find meta feeds or teach yourself how to use the tools to splice together feeds.  This is my next personal learning area ...

Here's an excellent article from Alexandra Samuels on tagging tips.

Newsgator Note

One of my personal resolutions for 2006 is to be less sloppy with tagging and organize my rss feeds. 

I use newsgator for my Cambodian feeds and wanted to consolidate and organize in bloglines.  So, had to figure out if there was a way to export them from newsgator and import into bloglines.   You have to save the "OPML" file from program onto your hardrive and then upload/import it into the other.   However, I had a heck of time finding how to do that in newsgator because the interface isn't intutitive or I'm stupid.

Luckily they have fairly quick email tech support.  Here's the instructions for later.

To export your NewsGator Online OPML:

1) Sign in to NewsGator Web Edition.
2) Click the "NewsGtor Manager" tab.
3) Click "Edit Locations".
4) Under "NewsGator Web Edition" click "OPML"
5) On this page you will see your OPML URL.  Right-click on it and choose "Save Target As" to save the file to your computer.  Make sure you save the file with a .opml file extension.

If you're OPML is marked as "Private" which is the default, you may be prompted to enter your NewsGator Online user name and password.

One thing I hate about these two RSS readers is that you can easily organize on the fly which means I need better discipline.

And, in the event I want to export bloglines opml files someplace else.