Why You Should Be Reading Facebook at Work (Pt 3)

We started by looking at why various social media platforms can constitute a vital and valuable part of your business intelligence stream. The principle is that default ways of reading Facebook, Twitter and Google+ may not suffice, but that if you're committed to finding the valuable content, there are ways to get it.

 

This installment looks at how you can use Twitter to be on top of the news at about the same pace as professionals at major news outlets. The two secrets you need are:

• Understanding hashtags
• Using the right tools

Why You Should Be Reading Facebook at Work (Pt. 2)

There is a great deal of value available to us at Facebook and from what people tell me, most of us are leaving the money on the table.

Here's what I mean.  Facebook is more than just a cheerful little place to see our friends' baby pictures.

It's actually a vigorous marketplace and news source.  But you won't get that experience by simply logging in, and scrolling down the default news stream.  Where you get the power is when you start reading what you want, and when you add meaning to your social media graph.

Don't worry, you don't have to dredge up your recollection of Boolean Algebra to do this.  There are some very simple (and logical) actions you can take to make your social media graph more accurate and useful. There are also some simple actions you can take that get you to the pot of gold hiding in the Facebook update stream.

Let's talk about how to get there with Facebook.

Why You Should be Reading Facebook at Work (pt 1)

Okay, so we're all grownups here and we each want to fulfill the promise we made when we took our jobs. What promise? Well, I can't really speak for you, but I'd guess that it amounts to something like: Because of what I do, this team will succeed. It's up to each of us (with varying levels of input from the boss) to determine what that looks like.

So it's easy to relate to the time you spend reading Community, or your email as a part of that. Both of those sources carry important information about what the team needs to succeed. You might even consider that reading Wall Street Journal or listening to NPR's Marketplace is a contribution.

But did you ever consider that what you might read on Facebook, or Twitter, or on Google+ can also be a contribution to that picture?  You see, those platforms (when you know how to read them) each contain a steady stream of insight into what's happening in the marketplace, what's happening to our customers, and what's working in business.

Evernote is Clearly Serious

Of course the web has changed how we read news.  For many of us, the newspaper is rare, and television news doesn't deliver the depth of quality of information we demand. While there are as many ways to read the news now as there are Starbucks shops in a downtown financial district, it seems that a number of common threads have emerged.

Just from a sampling among our friends, we find that common approaches to reading news include Google+, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, and Yahoo. The two latter options present news items curated by an editor and laid out in a more formalized structure.  The three former options occur more organically, with news items presented by circles of friends sharing the articles that interest them.

Where Next? How About Here!

My friend asked me the other day, "what do you think will be the next big social media influence? I'm hoping to find the next Facebook before it gets big."

After more consideration, I thought that the question we should be asking ourselves is how well we use the networks we already inhabit.  You see, the well established networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ -- all of which have well over 100 million subscribers) are vital to business and media communication strategies.  If we fail to use these tools well, then seeking out the 'next hot platform' will not work any better. The endeavor simply dooms us to being participants in the "Red Queen's Race."

Vital questions to ask are:

Infographics and the Rise of a New Intellect

I'll be honest. I love infographics every bit as much as the next hungry information consumer. I adore the snapshot presentation of facts that gives me a glimpse of the impact and reach of certain phenomenon. (In fact, I'm producing a science show for kids that uses this approach very heavily.)

BUT -- I also know that one must be careful to check the underlying facts and the methodology with which the picture in an infographics is assembled. There is an old saying that "figures don't lie, but liars can figure." If you also consider the timeworn saw that "a picture is worth a thousand words" you can deduce that liars who can figure AND who can create infographics have 1000 more ways to lie!

Here's one from an article I saw recently.

Following the Discussion

Over the time that online discussions have been around, there has been an evolution in the way we read things. Near the dawn of "social media" the metaphor required that you first find the right discussion, and then you could see what people say. (This was the way it worked in the BBS and "discussion forum" days.)

The current fashion is to start with the people (presumably that you know and trust) and then delve your way into the discussions (which, presumably would be the ones of interest to you). We progressed from "who's talking about my topic" to "what topics are on my friends' minds?"

The mechanism that allows us to use the topic or idea to discover people, and of course to explore the ideas themselves is the #hashtag. Here are some of the things we've learned about the use (and abuse) of the hashtag.