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[GUEST POST] Listening & the pattern

Author: Laura
October 14, 2008

Dan Rockwell is a User Experience Researcher at Lextant.

[BACK STORY: I met Dan at BarCamp Ohio and started following him on Twitter. Then I started listening to his soundbytes on Utterli. One of his messages really resonated with me, and I asked him to guest post here on the topic of "getting" social media. Thanks, Dan!]

Anyone who’s watched a few hundred movies (like we’ve all done) knows that feeling of “oh yeah, I know what’s happening…” It’s that twinge of you “guessed it;” you know what’s going to happen next. You’ve seen the pattern, you’ve added it up. You feel a bit smug a first. Sometimes you look to see if anyone else figured it out. It’s a natural thing really and, lets face it, we love that feeling of “oh yes, we get it”.

For anyone following the buzz around social media these days, that feeling is like a constant hum your head, a subtle but noticeable nudge that you, yes, you,.. you get it. Sad part is, it’s often hard to share that joy of seeing the pattern in social media with folks on the outside of it. Folks that don’t get it. You’re right back in that movie theater, trying to convince a friend that in that one scene where the bad guy does X, you knew that was going to happen. Of course if they didn’t get that subtle nudge, that trace of the pattern that you got, well, here comes the debate. At this point, you can’t really win; after all it’s just a movie. However, with social media, you just can’t afford to lose. It’s far too important.

At first, I thought I was a bit crazy. I started seeing all kinds of interconnected events unfolding, small at first, larger over time. Patterns unfolding in my head. Naturally, I’m more drawn to folks that get the same nudge I get over social media. My “ah ha’s” resonate better with them. They get it too; there’s less resistance to the big idea and more of an open embracing arm gesture to bring it on. We iterate on ideas faster, all thinking in the same vein of sharing, learning, expressing, embracing, interconnecting and more.

But then there’s all those folks I know on the sidelines, looking at me as if I’m nuts. It’s understandable at times. It looks like a massive waste of time, all this twittering, blogging, social networking, social bookmarking, media creation, vlogging, super poking?!–for what, what’s the big “ah ah?” Folks on the outside of social media see time loss, that’s the biggest blank in their heads. They need to understand the real value of why are you doing it, because right now, all they see is time… disappearing.

The first mistake you can make when attempting to get a friend or co-worker to see the pattern is to threaten them with weight of it. I call this the “warning;” it never works and it’s a sure fire way to demotivate someone. Giving someone the “this will happen, you can’t escape it!!” mentality never works, you’ve seriously dropped the ball. In general if you back anyone up against a wall they will resist you to no end and logic goes out the window. So you can’t force someone to see what you see–you have to go back to that movie setting. What would the hero do? Well, a smart hero would do his/her research and find connections between your friend and the “ah ha” pattern.

You’ve got to make a bridge over into their world. Find a point where their life could be just a tad bit more interesting if they knew about the pattern. Then jump on that bit and show them how it could really benefit them.

You need to tap into what I call “universal truths,” whereby the pattern of social media helps all. We hear one of these truths all the time right now in social media marketing. Listening is a universal truth. You really can’t go wrong with listening. Today, everyone, and I mean everyone, is connected to the web is some way. Our lives, kids’ lives, businesses, products, markets, you name it, it’s all connected there on the web. You can go for a broad inquiry and collect a ton of data, or you can scale down to see the finer bits in between.

Once you get a taste for listening to the web, the hive mind of the planet connected by a billion bits of fiber, you can start asking it questions. Using tools like Google Insight Trends, Search Twitter or blog search tools, you can veer away from the beaten path of marketing speak buried in websites and plow into the mind of your customer.

So, big deal? Well the big deal is that people are in the system. Tap into the hive, think with it, and you’ll find it. Google is just the start really, the first place you go. If you want more real time knowledge, you go to Twitter or a blog search engine and start getting closer to the source.

Now you’re probably thinking, “oh man, this is work, I’ve already got a job.” Well, wrong again. Social media is smarter than that. The hive mind continually iterates itself and RSS is about the coolest thing fueling that hive mind. TweetBeep uses RSS to bring your twitter to you. Stop visiting 5 to 10 blogs a day and visit one with Google Reader and RSS. Subscribe to what you’re interested in, and it all comes to you.

Listening is very powerful. You start to eavesdrop on a 1000 conversations online. Who are all these people talking about…? Oh that person is reading the same book I’m reading, hey they do what I do, go to the same places I go, wait a sec that guy is from Brazil and he’s into what I’m into. Physical barriers are gone, this isn’t plain jane website exploration…you’re in the hive now–learn, absorb, see the pattern, iterate.

Once you start listening you’re ready for the next step–participation. Then you can roll into validation and tracking, one of my favorite aspects of the web. It’s all recordable, traceable, you can see your net effect online. Did an idea resonate, did a concept stick, change, iterate, improve, try again, all within half the time you’d think.

You have to listen, somehow. Odds are you’re doing it now, but you just haven’t leveraged the web and the hive chatter isn’t part of your iteration process. You may still add it up over time, but a little more data couldn’t hurt. Of course even the researcher in me debates that concept a tad. If you’re all about a vision, you must follow that vision, if you want more ideas, go get more ideas, and that means ya gotta listen.

Start listening, and start seeing the pattern. You’ll benefit and it won’t cost you any more time than you spend wondering what people are thinking with traditional methods.

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RSS, Part II: Why your library web site needs a feed

Author: Laura
June 26, 2008

RSS iconI am assuming that, by now, you have a RSS reader/aggretator of your own and you now understand why RSS has begun to control information flow on the Web.  Because of RSS, many people don’t even have to go to actual web sites any more.  And many don’t.  When you can get all your favorite stuff served up to you on a metaphorical bed tray with a rose in a crystal vase, why bother going to the grocery store and cooking?

You might think that RSS is still only in the realm of early adopters and geeks.  Sorry, folks, it hit the mainstream long ago.  How do we know that?  At least a couple of worldly clues: firstly, NPR used to hide their RSS feeds at the bottom of the page.  They now are in prime viewing territory in the “Services” sidebar (and there are a lot more shows/topics that have feeds than before).  Secondly (and maybe this was the biggest wake-up call for me), Ebay created feeds for buyers, sellers and searches.  Want to know if that vintage lunchbox comes up for auction?  Don’t keep checking Ebay; get the RSS feed of the search delivered to you daily.

Maybe not everyone uses a feed reader or even knows what RSS is yet.  But that doesn’t mean people aren’t using it!  If you use services like iGoogle or MyYahoo, chances are very high that you are getting newsbytes, horoscopes or other information using RSS.  It might not be labeled as RSS or have any cute orange icons…but I can practically guarantee that RSS is the technology behind those services.  Information distributed by RSS can be shaped by third-party applications into many shapes and forms. Portal sites like these excel at it.

Back to what I mentioned earlier–RSS enables people to not have to visit a web site. Granted, I’m a geek.  But I started to think about this a bit as I was writing.  I currently subscribe to over 100 different feeds.  And I tried hard to remember the last time I visited any web site on a regular basis (not including those that I work on for OPLIN, and Facebook…yes, I do Facebook.  No, I don’t want to be poked.)  I couldn’t.  I realized that, if a web site doesn’t have an RSS feed, it’s probably not on my radar.  I doubt I’m alone in this.  I’m busy, and trying to keep up with the flow of information coming out of both the library and technology-related industries every day.  If a site can’t make it convenient for me to keep up, I can’t afford the time.  And time is the true currency of the Web.

So, you’re a geek who subscribes to a ridiculous number of feeds.  What does this mean to me, Laura?

  1. Get a feed for your site, and for all of the areas of your site that update frequently.  Don’t give people like me (or who use portal services like MyYahoo) another excuse NOT to get your content.
  2. If you have a dynamically-generated web site (run from a database on the back end), then your system may already have the ability to generate a feed built in.  [OPLIN PLUG:  Looking to upgrade to a new, dynamically-generated, 21st century web site for free?  Contact me at meanlaura@oplin.org.]  If you don’t, or are running an older generation static site (see plug, above), you still have some options.  Check out services like Page2RSS.  They can automatically generate a feed for a given page.  It’s not perfect, but better than nothing by a long ways.
  3. Check out this article:  Reasons Why Your Site Needs to Publish a News Feed (note the copyright is 4 years old…hint hint.)
  4. Don’t do anything that updates regularly on your site?  Are you sure?  Do you generate lists of new books or magazines, or new DVDs?  Events?  Storytimes?  All great and useful RSS fodder.
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First things first: RSS

Author: Laura
May 16, 2008

RSS (usually standing for “Really Simple Syndication”), is crucial to your career.

No, really, I mean it. After all, if you’re a librarian, keeping up with information and current events is your job.

Think of it like this: New stuff happens all the time. In technology, new stuff is happening every minute. Who can keep up with all that?? Nobody. (And, if they tell you they can, they’re lying…bet on it.) The best most of us mere mortals can do is try to keep up using an RSS aggregator, more commonly known as a feed reader. We subscribe to information feeds from our favorite sites, and all of the information from those sites comes directly to our feed reader. We don’t have to check a site to know if something new has appeared; it comes to us. Would you rather pick up the pizza or have it delivered? I thought so. Especially if you want different pizzas from different pizza shops all at the same time.

Do you only check one single website regularly for news? Then you can skip RSS. For the rest of us who are making heroic attempts to stay informed, here’s how it works:

  1. There are literally hundreds of different kinds of feed readers. Make your life easy. If you already have a Gmail account, use Google Reader, which integrates right into it. Otherwise, get a Bloglines account (or a Google Reader account, you don’t have to use Gmail). Both are free and extremely easy to sign up for. Did I mention free and easy? Ok, just checking.
  2. Go to your favorite site. Look for something that looks like this:
    <–Standard RSS icon

    (Alternatively, it might be a button that says “Subscribe” or “XML” or “RSS” The picture you see, above, is the techically-correct icon, but not everyone has figured this out yet. Be patient.) Keep in mind that not every site or blog has an RSS feed available. There’s a way around that, but that’s for another day.

  3. Click the button, whatever it looks like. DO NOT PANIC.
  4. Depending on what browser you use, you will see either something that looks like an orderly list of the latest news from that site, or you will see XML code. It doesn’t matter what it looks like. All you care about is the URL of the page you just landed on. Copy it.
  5. Go back to your feed reader. Somewhere, will be a link that says something like “Add subscription” or “add feed.” Click it. Paste the URL you just copied into the field that asks for the URL. You will likely be asked for other things, like if you want to keep it private (so other people can’t see you subscribe to it.) Choose whatever you’d like for these other settings. You can always change them later. Click the final “submit” type button, and now you’re subscribed to the RSS feed for that site.
  6. The new items from that site will now be available via the reader. You should see the name of the feed appear in the list (usually to the left), and chances are good that the title is in bold and there’s a number next to it; the number tells you how many unread items for that particular site.
  7. Repeat for other sites and blogs you want to keep up with. Need some suggestions? Check out the blogroll to the left of this post. (The main OPLIN site will have RSS after June 30, but the rest all do now).

Still not getting it, or want to fine-tune your understanding? No problem. Check out “RSS in Plain English” from Commoncraft:

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