Community

An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

On Twitter: Always Add Value

My flock of Twittersheep

I find it hard to believe that as recently as six months ago, I was dismissing Twitter as a pointless ripoff of Facebook’s status update, without any of the extras that make Facebook a “real” social network. From what I’d seen, it lived up to its negative reputation of mindless updates about eating lunch, waiting in traffic and unimaginative opinions on the pop culture distraction of the moment.

(Note: I’ve certainly been guilty of the latter, though in relative moderation; I vow to NEVER live-tweet a whole episode of American Idol!)

When I decided to start using Twitter for more than updating my Facebook status, and began to actively seek out quality tweeters in the publishing and media world to follow, I had a revelation.

The image above is from Twittersheep, “a word cloud generated from the bios” of the 200+ people currently following me on Twitter. The emphasis on “writer”, “media”, “book” and “marketing” tells me that I’ve tapped into the niche I was looking for and am, theoretically, adding value to that niche as the majority of my own tweets match up with those keywords. In fact, the number of people following me spiked dramatically a few weeks back during the Tools of Change conference, largely as a result of my following along on Twitter and adding my two cents to the conversation.

I’ll often throw in a little something about politics (check out @nprpolitics), pop culture (@Latinoreview), sports (@matthewcerrone), or how much I want to stab someone on any given day, but I expect the same additional personal spice from those I follow, too, as long as their primary focus remains on publishing, or in some cases, my peripheral interests.

Twitter is not for everyone, but I find the precision required to get your point across in only 140 characters without resorting to “text speak” a particularly inspiring endeavor that’s useful in many other forms of communication, from email to poetry. I’m actually rather surprised at the number of poets I know who dismiss it, especially slam poets, instead of rising to the challenge and turning it into a new creative form.

Beyond poetry, though, there are niches were it is an invaluable social networking tool, a perfect complement to blogging, an in-the-moment StumbleUpon, and absolutely nothing like Facebook or LinkedIn.

Publishing is definitely one such niche.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Peter Shankman on the Future of Social Media

When my CEO sent me a friend request on Facebook last year, I had to rethink how I was using the site.

When Facebook changed its Terms of Service earlier this month, before quickly backtracking in the face of a growing uproar, I started to rethink my approach to social media overall.

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation/Q&A with social networking guru Peter Shankman — who suffers from a self-described extreme case of ADOS (Attention Defici- Oh, Shiny!) and an abundance of eccentric charisma (one of his many claims to fame is as the original creator of the “It Sank. Get Over It!” t-shirts) — and while it was targeted to PR professionals and focused on his terrific Help a Reporter Out initiative, there were a lot of general marketing-related takeaways that I found interesting.

I wish I had taken notes, or live-Tweeted some of his comments, but I was so engaged in the moment that I didn’t want to be distracted by trying to share it with others!

PR is the most effective form of marketing and, these days, we’re all marketers at some level, no matter what our actual job title is or income bracket we’re in. We’re all influencers, and while our respective tribes might be small, through social networking we have exponentially more individual power than ever before. It’s something publishers are slowly realizing, though some might argue, much too late.

Shankman spoke a lot about Twitter, but went beyond the usual hype of it being the platform du jour, offering some excellent tips on communicating effectively that were just as applicable to email, telephone and in-person communication. We’re bombarded with an average of 17,000 separate demands on our attention every day — from family and co-workers to email to “don’t walk” signs —  so getting to the point quickly is crucial.

On Twitter (he’s @skydiver), brevity also happens to be a requirement: 140 characters to get your point across; always add value to the stream.

ie: don’t just Tweet “I’m eating yogurt.” Instead, Tweet “Pinkberry has 50% off coupons all day, today only.”

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Three Tips for Curating the Community #TOC

communities already exist by Will Lion
communities already exist by Will Lion

This week’s Tools of Change Conference ended yesterday and even though I wasn’t in attendance, thanks to the laudable efforts of several Tweeters (@thewritermama, in particular), I felt like I was there the whole time. As is typically the case after a good conference, I’m simultaneously mentally exhausted and recharged by the ideas and opinions that came out of it.

Three specific takeaways really stood out for me and have been rolling around in my head all week:

1) It’s all about the tribe; everything else is secondary.

2) Technology is the icing and, many times, vanilla is just fine as long as the cake is good.

3) Publishers need to think more like community organizers.

Back in the late-90s, I founded a poetry reading series here in New York City called “a little bit louder” (now known as louderARTS) that you can read about in Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’ definitive history Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. (Chapter 19 is my favorite!) In the four years I ran it — as curator, host, accountant, and occasionally even poet — I learned a lot about community organizing, and most of that experience is directly transferable to one of the primary themes of TOC, building communities around content.

Here are three fundamental tips for curating a community, whether it’s artistic, political or vegetable gardening:

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Building Communities Around Content #TOC

Today kicked off the Tools of Change for Publishing Conference here in NY, and while I wasn’t able to attend, I was following it throughout the day on Twitter (#TOC), particularly via the Tweets of @annmichael, @RonHogan and @thewritermama, the latter of whom practically transcribed what appeared to be the highlight of the day: Building Communities Around Content.

It’s a topic that’s become Priority #1 for many publishers, books and magazines alike, as well as more marketing-savvy writers, and it’s one I have both a personal and professional interest in, too.

Touching on everything from defining one’s community, to determining ROI, to leveraging the natural inclination to form tribes, this session alone was probably worth the cost of admission for most attendees, and it would have been a great opportunity for someone from Portfolio to be standing outside selling copies of Seth Godin’s Tribes!

There were two particularly interesting points raised that piqued my interest enough to retweet, the first of which was right out of Tribes:

@annmichael the social infrastructure of the community is much more important than the technology infrastructure #TOC

@RonHogan #toc what kind of Return On Attention are you offering readers?

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Party Like A Rock Star

Party Like A Rock Star He heard the music most of us tune out without realizing, marched to a beat mere mortals couldn’t comprehend. A rock star, literally, Peter of the Earth conducted life-giving electricity through those he loved and strangers alike, in random bars and nightclubs and open mics and windswept beaches in the dead of winter. To know him was to question your own commitments, to understand life was meant to be lived, treated like an empty dance floor with a DJ who takes requests. To be uninhibited unrestrained unleashed. Those who can, dance. Those who can’t, write…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

COMMENT: Buying Habits…and How to Change Them

First, read Ed Cunard’s post criticizing the Independents’ Day campaign (read the comments, too), then read my intro to yesterday’s On the Shelves. Both got me thinking about the comics I currently buy and enjoy, how they compare to what I was buying and enjoying this time last year, and offered a bit of insight into why my to-read pile is growing out of control.

In the comments to Cunard’s post, I mention a conversation I had the other night:

…about the cyclical nature of comics buying, how some of us move from nostalgia/habit to experimentation to comfort, while others get locked into a particular mode, by choice or lack of awareness. Where I think I’ve been shifting into comfort mode recently, only buying comics I enjoy regardless of what genre or publisher, this Independents’ Day is a great idea for those stuck in nostalgia/habit mode.

Ed and others have issues with the Independents’ Day idea, some valid, some overly nitpicky. In the end, though, I’m a believer in taking action, and if there’s a group of fan/creators who see the ID campaign as a rallying point that will inspire them to taking action, more power to them. IMO, it’s similar to The Hive, except the ID campaign focuses on the Direct Market while The Hive is attempting to look beyond it. Both are valid concepts with great intentions, and you could nitpick either of them to death if you have nothing better to do, but they can really only be judged by their end results.

Anyway, the buying habits thing jumped out at me in the midst of all of this as I’m on the verge of drastically overhauling my pull list. Again.

When I started this blog, I was on the fringes of “nostalgia” mode, enjoying some of the stuff I remembered from my youth, but starting to seek out new things to read. Overwhelmed by the variety of comics on the racks every Wednesday, I did what I do in mainstream bookstores when I’m looking for something new: I browse until I find something that strikes my fancy. Sometimes it’s the author; sometimes it’s the back cover copy or a blurb from a writer I like; sometimes it’s the cover image itself (though that’s more often a turnoff than an inspiration, especially with genre fiction). It’s certainly never the publisher. In fact, of my favorite writers — Larwence Block, Matt Ruff, Carl Hiaasen — I have no idea who publishes their work, nor do I care.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

COMMENT: Who Cares About Journalism?

The response to yesterday's article reminds me a bit of how minorities often tend to be more accepting of a lesser quality product made by one of their own, simply happy to have something they can relate to. (ie: UPN comedies, Wayans brothers' movies, Hudlin's Black Panther, etc.) Because there's such a lack of real journalism in the comics industry, anything resembling it becomes worthy of praise.

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