Time is a finite resource. The time people are now spending on G+ (or turntable.fm, or Namesake, or any other hot new service) is, almost certainly, time taken away from Twitter, Facebook, etc. You’ve probably spent a considerable amount of your own time building and engaging on those services. And now your fans – and you – are turning at least some of their attention elsewhere.

You can’t be everywhere at once. Neither can your customers, fans, clients, etc. You can try… but in spending so much time trying to build and maintain your presence on the various social services you can end up neglecting your own site.

And that’s a danger.

Your own site is the one place where YOU control the content, the context, and – perhaps most importantly – the list. If your Twitter or Facebook or Blogger account were wiped out tomorrow, could you easily reach or recreate all those followers and fans? No.

Even with apps to help, it’s just much easier to tweet than to blog. I get that, and am as guilty of it as anyone. The social services make it incredibly convenient to post a photo, thought, or video. Apps like TweetDeck and HootSuite make it even easier by letting you post to multiple services at once.

I’m not advocating that you stop doing that. In fact, I’m a big proponent that businesses, artists, etc. should be, within reason, where their fans are, and not try to force customers to come to them. Having said that, there will always be another service, another app.

Your only constant online is the content that YOU own and control: your site, your mailing list. Reward those who do visit your site/blog with exclusive content or offers, with being the first to get exciting news (via your blog, RSS, mailing list) before you post it elsewhere. Make sure the content there is as rich and valuable as what you post elsewhere, and you’ll always be able to reach your core base regardless of whatever services they (and you) use.

What are your strategies for managing the shifting social media audience? Please add them in the comments below.

• Mashable gathers ten of the most extraordinary Tweets ever, from the very first one (by co-founder Jack Dorsey) to a marriage proposal to the infamous 2008 single-word tweet “Arrested” that arguably first brought Twitter to the mainstream media’s attention.
• Many people choose to follow a vegetarian/vegan diet for political reasons (animal cruelty, big-business farming). But the best reason might be the one uncovered by the The China Study. This multi-year research undertaken by Oxford and Cornell found, quite simply, that people who eat a plant food diet and avoid animal proteins and fats will minimize and/or reverse the development of chronic diseases. Sound good to you?
• This Skittles commercial is either really clever or really bizarre. Maybe both, actually.
• Del Harvey, the leader of Twitter’s trust and safety team posted a brilliant, succinct piece on the importance of using strong passwords, and using different passwords for different sites. Too much trouble? Probably not as much trouble as getting your online banking or email hacked. And those Facebook memes that have you put your birthplace as your status? That’s a no.
• The most interesting thing to come out of SXSWi, as far as I’m concerned: Hashable’s info-packed infographic on the who, what, when and where of people connecting during the show.
• Enrique Iglesias is going on tour with Britney Spears this summer. Oh wait, no he’s not.

But one aspect of how they measure has me a bit flummoxed.

Namely: your Klout score is determined, in part, by how actively your followers engage with you. That is: how often they reply to you when you post, address questions or comments to you, retweet you, add you to lists, etc. The more actively your followers engage with you, and the more of them who do so, the more influential you’re determined to be.

Makes sense, right?

But what happens when followers abandon or rarely use their accounts? According to ManageFlitter.com, a whopping 510 Twitter accounts that follow me (but that I don’t follow back) haven’t tweeted in at least a month. And if they haven’t posted in a month or more, they’re not interacting with me or with anyone else.

In other words, over a quarter of the accounts following me are highly unlikely to interact with me, regardless of what I tweet. But there’s nothing I can do to stop them from following me, unless I go through and manually block each of them.

So even though I have no control over who follows me, the fact that 27% of my followers aren’t really using Twitter likely counts against me (or you, or anyone else in a similar circumstance) when it comes to measuring online influence. If I could somehow remove the inactive accounts from following me, the percentage of the remaining followers who DO interact with me would be a larger piece of the pie, and (in theory) my Klout score would increase.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not hung up on my Klout score. Mine’s actually pretty good, as far as I’m concerned. I’m raising this as more of a general question about whether there’s a fly in the ointment if Klout (and similar influence measurement services) hold users accountable for the actions of their followers, even though users can’t control who’s following them.

Do Klout and its competitors figure this into their algorithm already? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

1. Include Twitter names on the name badges. Not everyone tweets under their real name (some use nicknames, some tweet under company names). Not everyone uses a headshot as their Twitter avatar. Having an (optional) Twitter name as well as a real name on the badges will enhance the networking your event purports to foster.

2. Provide ample charging stations/power strips. Will press and bloggers be there? Do you want attendees to live-tweet? Then make it easy for everyone in the general seating area to charge phones, laptops, etc. (not just those at the perimeter tables). Batteries won’t make it all day; you’ll either lose the exposure you’re seeking, or lose your audience as they flee to an outlet. The 140TC conference had power strips under every row of seats back in 2009 (thank you, Steve Broback and the Parnassus Group!), so it’s clearly doable. Just. Do. It.

3. Don’t compete with your own show. The Ahmanson auditorium is not sealed off from the hallway dividing it and the lobby; lowering the mesh curtains between them doesn’t block out sound. DO NOT SET UP PRESENTATION TABLES IN THE HALLWAY, OR PERMIT CONVERSATIONS THERE, WHILE THE CONFERENCE IS UNDERWAY. The audience can hear you (quite clearly, in fact). The speakers can hear you. It’s distracting, it’s indiscreet, and it’s disrespectful.

Come to think of it, points 1 and 2 apply to organizers of any social media-related event. (And all this, of course, builds upon my Attention Conference Organizers post of a year ago.)

OK, rant over… unless you, dear reader, have something to add? Leave it in the comments.

Power Switch photo by Tom Raftery. ‘Shh’ photo by (cup)cake_eater.

Login at Quora.com. Click on “Settings” in the upper-right nav bar.

On the Settings page, look for the section on the left called “Email Settings.” Expand each area by clicking on the blue “view settings” link next to it, and uncheck everything for which you don’t want to be emailed. (There are lots of boxes to uncheck, needless to say.) Make sure you click Save when done.

All of the auto-follows aren’t a best practice, needless to say; nor is the automatic population of email notifications. Both should require affirmative user consent. But unless and until Quora rights those wrongs, this should help stem the tide.

Of course, you could also just delete your Quora account altogether… I haven’t taken that step yet, myself, but may get there soon.

Rhetorical question. Of course you wouldn’t.

Then why do people do that on Twitter? It’s absolutely cringe-inducing at best, and results in unfollows at worst. Is that the impression they want to make?

Yes, Twitter can be a good vehicle for (self-)promotion. If someone really unique or amazing (your celebrity crush, a leading authority, a respected journalist) praises you it’s ok to repeat it as a point of pride. It’s fine to single out noteworthy plaudits that others have heaped on a client or project.

But I’ve seen people who literally re-tweet every mention, compliment, or “Follow Friday” shout-out they receive. It’s annoying and unnecessary. For one thing, we’re already following you, so presumably, we know you’re all that and worth following – yes? For another, it comes off as boastful and needy. Neither of which are desirable attributes in my book.

If you want to thank someone for their kind words, do it as an @ reply or via DM. Reciprocate with a compliment of your own to them. But don’t do it as a retweet disguised as thanks. Please.

Rant over. Thanks for reading. What are your thoughts on the topic?

It doesn’t merely tout its rooms, rates, restaurants and entertainment offerings, thank those who do so, or respond to feedback.

Rather, the Twitter stream strikes me as a complementary extension of the property’s overall branding: self-confident; interested in a wide swath of (smart) popular culture; unafraid to extol the virtues of others’ brands and accomplishments; playful; fun. They tweet about art, architecture, film, food (and not just their own restaurateurs), drink, music, and more. Some recent examples:

In short, by telling us what IT likes, the Cosmopolitan is subtly suggesting why WE might very well like IT as well. That’s refreshing and clever. To whoever’s behind the feed, and the overall marketing strategy, I say “well done.” If the property itself is as creative and entertaining as the marketing – and from early anecdotal reports, it is – I’m sure I and many others will have lots of fun there.

Links:
Cosmopolitan LV Twitter Feed
Cosmopolitan LV website

Found on Twitter via @meganberry, @adamstober and @joefernandez.

View the original at flowingdata.com.

Photo by Look Into My Eyes

Some time ago, when I was an executive at a production company, I ran out to do a weekend errand in grubby clothes, no makeup, hair pulled back. Not my proudest sartorial moment, but I was in a hurry. Needless to say, I ran into my CEO’s wife in the store, and was mortified for her to see me in such a state.

I had an epiphany then: “If you don’t want someone to see you looking that way, don’t go out looking that way.”

This same lesson holds true when we venture out online. When you say something in an electronic form, it will be indexed and stored and searchable later. The context, however, will be lost, and something that’s funny in response to someone else’s tweet (for example) may look mean, or bigoted, or just idiotic when viewed on its own.

Peter Shankman touched on this in his recent blog post Five Ways Not To Screw Up Your Next Networking Attempt. He wrote,

…in the end, we’ll only have one network — It’ll have everyone in our lives, both business and professional, and we’ll have to be smart enough to know that what we post can be seen by everyone, forever.

We’re not all going to run for office or run a company. Life is messy sometimes, and we all deserve to have fun, blow off steam, and be ourselves. That’s no excuse not to be constantly vigilant about what we tweet or post or blog. Because our current or future bosses, employees, customers, vendors, family and friends are going to be able see it.

Is that how you want to be seen?

My client and friend Curt Smith is one of dozens of celebrities contributing to the wonderful TwitChange auction, the proceeds form which will build housing for orphans in Haiti.

What each celebrity is donating, at a minimum, is to follow, retweet and/or mention the winner of their bid on Twitter. Some are “packages,” meaning the celebrity will do all three for the winner.

Some are donating “mega” or “bonus” packages. Curt, Alyson Hannigan, Pete Carroll and others have offered to personally call the winners of their auctions.

The celebrities involved include musicians, actors, athletes, executives… truly something for everyone. It’s a great idea for a great cause. Check it out soon, as bidding ends on Saturday!

Welcome To TwitChange.