Morpho Designs

Social Awkening: The Bookshelf or the Coffee Table?

November 15th, 2008 | by Mitchell Allen |

Photo by defrost.ca

I’ve been writing a fair number of posts about social media. I never expected to come up with a new way to use it.
Now, I’m not saying I created this concept. In fact, what I’m about to describe happens all day, every day on social media sites.

I Wrote Something!

I use Twitter. At least once per minute, someone will send a message like this:

Just updated my blog: 5 Reasons to (not) Drink Coffee, http://snipr.com/5k4xb*

If I want to follow along with that blog, I have several options:

• Add it to bloglines.com
• Stumble it
• Add it to Feedly via Firefox
• Bookmark it in Firefox
• Tag it with my PhraseExpress *cool autotext keyword

While any of these will link the blog to my thought space, they are not really effective at pushing future posts onto my radar scope.

The Bookshelf or the Coffee Table?

When I consider the large number of blogs that I have found interesting, I realize that they fall into two categories: authority and personality.

Blogs with personality are saved using the same bookmarking schemes that I use for authority blogs.

The problem is that authority blogs are more like reference books. I’ll keep them on a bookshelf until needed.

Personality blogs are like my favorite magazines. I want to keep these on my coffee table, within easy reach from my comfy sofa.

This Blogger is Cool!

I’m going to start following bloggers on Twitter. Whether you are an authority or a personality, I’ll be more likely to read your post for the simple reason that I’m on Twitter far more than I’m on Feedly or Bloglines.

If I don’t follow you yet, Six Degrees of Separation, Cosmic Karma or Google will probably connect us, somehow. That’s how I found @UMLGuy, who inspired my post, Racing Around the Office.

I’m not advocating that bloggers start tweeting about every single post. I think that just seeing your regular tweets will be enough to prompt a visit now and then. After all, magazines don’t need to put their entire table of contents on the cover!

Coffee Table Rules

Although reference books can languish, forgotten, on bookshelves, old, tired magazines get tossed out.

Here’s where Twitter beats the pants off of feed readers like Bloglines and Feedly. I don’t have to literally sweep a ton of unread posts into the “Mark All Read” trashcan. Nor do I have to cancel any subscriptions. I simply ignore the tweets!

Browsing the Magazine Rack

I’m continually looking for fresh stuff. While checking the games and entertainment directory on JustTweetIt.com, I discovered Never Unplaying, a blog written by @tailsmarik.

I also check out some of the @ links, whether I see them on Twitter or on blogs.

Becoming a Discriminating Reader

Twitter is what it is and, sometimes, there are just too many tweets flying by. Third-party tools like TweetDeck and Twhirl are indispensable for managing my Twitter experience. In particular, TweetDeck allows me to group my followers, while Twhirl gives me a great pop-up notification of tweets. I’ll probably switch to TweetDeck, because of this:

Good looking out, @iaindodsworth!

Blow Ins that You’ll Read

I love serendipity! I just came up with this today, so I wanted to see if one prolific writer, Jessica Hagy was on Twitter. Her blog does have a Twitter link; she is @jessicahagy.

Here’s what makes her cool: her blog is printed on index cards.

The serendipitous part involves one of her tweets:

So, Jessica, if I’m not too late, here is my idea.

Check Out This Magazine!

Follow me.

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* This was a fabricated example, I hope Lodewijk van den Broek doesn’t mind a little linky love.

Stumble It!