How can you organize those who support your issue/cause/candidate/business/product/service? Hopefully this edition of The Second Cup will help clear a bit of that up.

Facebook Pages vs. Groups: Which do I use?

Longtime Facebook users will remember a time when Groups were the only way to organize people with similar interests on Facebook. As time has passed, the Groups system has become more or less obsolete with the creation of the Facebook Pages system. Groups now look more like pages. However, with recent updates made to Groups, it is worth revisiting the differences between Pages and Groups, and which you should use when promoting your business on Facebook.

Kikin Personalizes Search By Tapping Into Your Social Graph

This week brought news that Google and Microsoft are now incorporating Twitter into search results, solidifying the importance of incorporating social media content into search results. And startups like OneRiot have also recognized the value of tapping into the Twitter stream for search. Startup Kikin is doing the same with its newly launched plug-in. Once installed, Kikin will integrate content from social networks (like Facebook and Twitter) and other social sites (like Amazon, eBay and YouTube) alongside results from search engines (like Google, Bing and Yahoo!). So if you search for chocolate labs on Google, Kikin will provide a pane of YouTube videos of chocolate labs and a Twitter stream of mentions of chocolate labs.

Twitter/Facebook Will Soon Dominate the Web, Not Google

Sean Parker, a managing partner at Founder’s Fund, gave an interesting talk today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The key to it is simple: Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and eBay will dominate the web going forward. One company of note that won’t? Google. Why? Parker believes we’re shifting from the first phase of the Internet, which was dominated by what he calls “information services” These are companies like Google and Yahoo. But next up to dominate the web will be the “network services” like Facebook and Twitter, he believes.

BART Checks In on Foursquare for Mass Transit Promotion

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) in San Francisco has just made history as the first transit agency to partner with Foursquare, the location-based application and game that we think has the potential to be as important as Twitter (they also just launched 15 new cities). We’ve already seen local businesses take the plunge, offering up special location-based deals that Foursquare automatically serves up to users as they check-in, but now BART is getting in on the action to encourage more public transit use.

And just because it's awesome:

Full Circle In Sight As Inventor of the World Wide Web Signs Up For Twitter

Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee, credited for inventing this little thing called the World Wide Web, has signed up for Twitter in a move that could potentially rip a hole in the time/space continuum. The British computer scientist, engineer and MIT professor apparently got on Twitter yesterday just before he entered into a conversation with Tim O’Reilly on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit.

I know Monday was a social networking edition of TSC, but I found some particularly interesting branding articles today. It just so happens they're all about Twitter.
HOW TO: Create a Branded Version of TwitPic

More and more brands are starting to use Twitter, whether it’s to promote new products or connect with customers. The only problem that some brand marketers have with using Twitter is that it can be difficult to have a conversation around links or media files.
This is why Vitrue, a social media management company, has created “Twitter Pages” as a new part of its Vitrue SRM Product suite. Think of Twitter Pages as a branded TwitPic for companies and brands that want to share media or links with fans.

TweetMixx Launches Branded Twitter Channels

TweetMixx, the newly launched service from social voting site Mixx that allows you to find relevant links on Twitter, is venturing into new territory today with the launch of TweetMixx Channels. The service basically lets brands, celebs and companies consolidate their Twitter traffic and mentions on one page.
TweetMixx Channels features branded, customizable pages, with the brand’s current Twitter feed, tweets and updates from fans, and links relevant to content about the brand, company or topic posted automatically. The tool also serves as a tracking and monitoring tool for mentions and conversations about a brand taking place on Twitter.

And breaking from the norm a little bit, here's a slide show presentation rather than an article:
Twitter Personal Branding

Mobile Web Is Taking Over the World (and Other Internet Trends)

Mobile Internet usage is on the rise. Apple’s share of the mobile smartphone market is only going to increase. AT&T’s mobile data traffic has increased by 4,932% over the last three years. There will be over 1 billion “heavy mobile data users” by 2013.
These are just some of the stats that were shared with the audience at the Web 2.0 Summit today in San Francisco. Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker led a speedy and high-charged presentation over Internet trends. The data and stats packed in her 68 page presentation is nothing short of mind-boggling.

Verizon Stores & Best Buy Have Blackberry Storm 2 Dummy Units, Launch Imminent?

We just got word that Verizon Stores are now receiving their BlackBerry Storm 2 dummy units and training is finally available for retail associates. All that should mean that the Storm 2’s launch date is quickly approaching. November has been the target date for a while now, but with stores already prepping for the launch, availability will probably be early in the month.

Blackberry Bold 9700: Coming Soon to T-Mobile and AT&T

RIM has just officially announced its newest flagship “traditional” BlackBerry (meaning it has the BlackBerry keyboard crackberry addicts know and love): the BlackBerry Bold 9700.
The 3G, Wi-FI capable GSM phone will be heading to carriers around the world in the next few weeks, making stops at both AT&T and T-Mobile in the United States.

White House's Battle with Fox News Comes to the Press Pool

The White House battle with Fox News, which Fox's direct competitors have already been forced to cover, has now become a press pool question, via another competitor—ABC.
Helen Thomas, the New York Times and The Nation have all declared the fight a dumb one. But the administration tried to infuse it with strategic importance this morning:

White House Cites Opinion Shows as Basis for Fox News Complaints

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday pointed to two top-rated opinion shows on Fox News as the reason why the Obama administration has castigated the network as an illegitimate news organization.
Gibbs weighed in on the controversy after several top White House advisers have gone on other channels to criticize Fox News' coverage of the administration, dismiss the network as the mouthpiece of the Republican Party and urge other news organizations not to treat Fox News as a legitimate news station.

And a special little "haha.. wait, what?" article:


Obama's team again rips Fox News - but says aides will appear on shows

Fox News is an important voice in American politics - but just don't call it fair and balanced, top White House aides said Sunday.
President Obama's advisers chose napalm to fuel the feud on the Sunday talk show circuit rather than making peace with a TV network the White House and its supporters consider red meat for red states.

CIA Invests in Social Media Monitoring Firm

If someone told you that the CIA was spying on you by way of your Twitter updates, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, or Amazon reviews, you’d probably chalk it up to a conspiracy theory.
But today we’re learning from Wired that the CIA’s technology arm In-Q-Tel has invested an undisclosed sum in Visible Technologies, a firm that provides software to companies like Microsoft for social media monitoring.

How Local Politicians are Using Social Media

Former Speaker of the House of Representative Thomas “Tip” O’Neill famously said that “All politics is local;” and social media is making that more true than ever before. It used to be that most of us couldn’t point out our local representative, councilman, alderman, or public advocate if we tripped over him or her, but that’s starting to change, thanks to social media helping us raise our civic literacy levels and altering the way politics are done. We now expect our local representative for our state or town Assembly or Senate or Council to connect with us on a more personal level. And it’s happening.

Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Others Outline Support for Net Neutrality Rules

This week, the FCC is expected to reveal the details of its Net Neutrality plan, which Chairman Julius Genachowski has discussed numerous times over the past month.
Now, a coalition of 23 of the world’s largest Internet and technology companies are formally offering their support for the new rules in a letter to the Chairman, posted to the Open Internet Colaition website.

Before I begin, a rather large caveat: anyone who bills themselves as a “social media expert” is not, under any circumstances, to be taken seriously. Just because someone got 30,000 followers in 2006 by using some churning software doesn’t mean they have any idea what in the hell they’re doing. I’m not a social media expert. If using Twitter, Facebook, Digg or Del.icio.us is difficult, then you’re got myriad problems I can’t even begin to address. They’re just different ways to have the same conversation. The hard part is using all the different platforms effectively, efficiently, and with real results. I’m not a social media expert, I help people do what they already know more effectively. Let me say it again: I’m not a social media expert.

I recently sat down with a freelance client of mine (who did give me permission to use this story) to talk about their social media strategy. They’re nice folks-smart, good-natured and the have an excellent line of services. Unfortunately, they started that whole social media/networking/marketing thing with no idea what they wanted out of it. You know it goes; someone’s friend/colleague/relative/babysitter says “z0mg dude u need Twitter you’ll be rich lols.” So they get on Twitter, and what happens? They post “_______ is now on Twitter!” and when they don’t get 1200 followers in the next hour, they stop using it.

Without a doubt the single most important thing to remember when it comes to any form of social media is that you need to know what you want to get out of it. Are you getting a Twitter account to drive traffic to your website or to keep tabs on your competitors? Are you making that Facebook page to try and get a sneak peak at upcoming trends among your customers, or for advertising? What you want out of social media shapes your entire approach. If you don’t know what you want to get out of it, you’re not going to get anything out of it.

What you want to get determines how you go about getting it. This is where having someone who knows what they’re doing on staff or retainer can help. What can Facebook do that Twitter can’t? What do you need to do that neither of them can? What other social platforms are out there that fill your needs? Notice that nowhere in here does it say to pay someone $1,000 to set up a Twitter and Facebook account for you.

The fact of the matter is that great content, products or services do not market themselves, nor do they beget a great social media presence. All require strategy, planning, and dedication.

Very little of this is original, but all of it is germane to any situation you come across, be it in the business world, the political world or your personal life. If you'd rather watch than read, it can basically be summed up in this two-minute video.

The 80/20 Rule

Pardon my French, but this whole "meet me half-way" thing is total bullshit crap. We're barely three years away from the apocalypse, and we're still looking at business/political/personal relationships the same way we always have. Web 2.0 (when am I allowed to stop saying that?) and the viral explosion of social media have given the business world a swift kick in the back and pushed us all a lot closer to altruism that we are probably used to.

I'm going to use Twitter as an example, because I probably spend more time each day on Twitter than I do standing up. There is no quick way to get a million followers on Twitter. In fact, the faster you get those million followers, the more likely it is that (A) you're already famous; (B) none of the million followers actually give a hoot about anything you have to say, or (C) both. Probably C. Even after you get them, now what? Twitter isn't handing out checks based on your follower count. If they were, I would've cashed in my account for rent long ago.

My point is, people can tell what your intentions are; before (the good old days?) you used to be able to be a downright nasty person and still be relatively successful, provided you could hide the nastiness until you had people underneath you to unload it on. Nowadays, if your job has anything to do with public relations, marketing, sales, the internet, or even just computers in general, chances are anything negative you say, do or think will wind up online. Somewhere. Forever. That's what brings up the 80/20 rule. Stop approaching every situation trying to see what you have to gain from it. I do quite a bit of freelance web design work, and I specialize in WordPress design and PHP development. Do I try to work it into every conversation? Do I leave my business card with every person I come into contact with? No, because they don't know how awesome I am care. Stop being in something for yourself and start just being in it.

If you start giving 80 percent in all your interactions, you'll see that that 20 percent will start paying you back in spades.

80/20 In Action

I'm not saying this to pump myself up or make me feel good about myself, but I can't think of a better example. When I start using Twitter, I remember I got all excited about the prospect of having thousands and thousands of people listen to what I had to say. Not that I had anything to say at the time, or any idea about how to get what I would eventually have to say out to the general public, but I was young and I let my naïveté get the best of me.

Unforunately for me, I approached everything from the 50/50 perspective - I'll help you out but only if you help me out. I'd unfollow someone if they didn't follow me back within a day or two. I'd retweet an article but if I didn't receive some sort of acknowledgement from the original author, I'd be loathe to retweet another article from them. That's kind of embarassing, but its the truth. I was an idiot and had no real idea what I was doing on the social media scene. I thought I was awesome because I had 40 followers and was following 150 people.

Gradually and through various means I was introduced to the basic concepts behind the 80/20 rule. I began retweeting articles not because I thought I could get some sort of recognition from the author but because the article was genuinely informative or helpful to me. I followed people because I wanted to know what they had to say, not because I thought they might follow me back.

One of the biggest things I did was actually joining in the conversation, but more on that later. I stopped trying to use Twitter for some purpose that doesn't even mean anything in the end (getting followers) and instead started using it for what it was meant to be used for (connecting with people). I've had more followers than friends for longer than I can remember, but that doesn't even matter. What matters is that I'm giving my 80%, and its coming back in spades.

 

"Wow, Phil, that’s a pretty bold assumption!" is what you might be saying right now. And if you were, you'd be correct. If you weren’t, well, that’s boring and doesn’t really fit into my narrative.

For those of you who may just be venturing into the tech world or less technically inclined, RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a means of being notified of changes in a site’s content. It is most often used so a user can subscribe to a blog, and through the use of an RSS reader (I use NetNewsWire) catch every update without having to actually go to each individual site. RSS subscribers combined with monthly page-views is the gold standard in determining how widely read a blog is, and from that how much the blog owner can and should charge for advertising space.

Is it hypocritical for me to say that Twitter is killing RSS while subscribing to over a dozen RSS feeds myself? Probably, but I’m okay with that. It’s a slow death - rest assured, however, RSS will be gone in the next few years.

Shouldn’t Facebook Have Already Killed RSS?

Before determining why and how Twitter will be the death of RSS, it’s just as important to determine why other social media - namely Facebook - haven’t done nearly the damage Twitter has. The primary reason is the fundamental difference in how Facebook and Twitter operate. Facebook has a strictly binary structure among its users - you are friends or you aren’t. There’s no in between. We have twice the number of choices on Twitter - I can follow you, you can follow me, we can each follow each other or there can be no connection.

But what does this mean in terms of RSS feeds? Well, let’s say I subscribe to TechRepublican. No additional action is required on Meghann’s part. She doesn’t have to approve my subscription, she doesn’t have to specify whether or not I get notified of updates. It just happens through the magic of the interwebs. It’s much the same on Twitter. I can follow @MeghannParlett and no additional action is required on her part. Now every time she says something, I can be aware of it unless she takes the initiative to block me. (I hope she doesn’t, though - that’d make it pretty hard for me to send her these articles.)

While Facebook may have something on the order of 200-250 million (active and inactive) users worldwide, there’s really not much you can do with it outside of Facebook. Sure, there’s applications for the iPhone and the BlackBerry (I recently removed mine), but what else is there besides those? On the Twitter side, we have Twitter itself, Adobe AIR applications like the one I have open right now - TweetDeck - as well as TwitPic and who can forget bit.ly, my URL shortening service of choice.

Obviously there are fundamental differences between Twitter and Facebook, and these are just a few. Everything from their monetization strategies to their privacy considerations to the demographics of their user base is different. It is precisely these differences that led Twitter on the road to destroy RSS.

Why is Twitter Killing RSS?

RSS exists for easy syndication of content. Why else would it be Really Simple Syndication? Twitter allows anyone whose proven they’re worth the attention (through a large following, among other things) the ability to immediately expose thousands and sometimes millions of people to content, whether it is theirs or someone else’s.

If Newt Gingrich sees a video or reads an article he wants people to know about, the first place he goes will not be his blog. Don’t get me wrong, it will still be posted. It will still be read and it will still be distributed through his RSS feed, but that’s not going to be the first thing he does.

I think this July 6th post shows that Twitter has replaced blogs as the first place someone goes to post new or important information. With the ridiculous number of third-party Twitter applications like Twitterific, TweetDeck, or TwitterBerry, someone can be notified literally to the minute when their friends tweet and can immediately go to that link. I know that saying Twitter is killing RSS is quite a thing to assert, but let me ask the skeptics something:

When’s the last time you got an RSS update on your phone?

Social media is more often than not the best way to meaningfully connect to a large number of people. That’s not surprising when you consider that in the US alone there are more than 14 million Twitter users and 75 million Facebook users. If you want to have an active, vibrant social network that listens to what you say, what you do, and who you support, it’s important to be aware of what you do and probably more important what you don’t do.

I’ve put together a list of nine ways to destroy your social network – some are obvious, like not using it in the first place, and some are less obvious, like limiting what applications you use and how you use each one. Most of these are serious, a few are somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but they all hold true. Let’s get right down to it!

1. Be uninvolved

A recent study shows that essentially, most people who use Twitter don’t really use it at all. Almost 86% post less than one tweet a day. 21% have never posted a single tweet. 94% of users have fewer than 100 followers and 92% follower fewer than 100 people. The whole point of social networking is not just to build a social network but to be an active participant.

2. Be involved for the wrong reasons

Most Twitter users are older, better educated and more sophisticated than the average Facebook or MySpace user. Because of this, chances are the average Tweeter (Twerson?) is a little insightful. If the only reason you’re tweeting is to try and cash in on your following—and unless you’re Gary Vaynerchuk, chances are that’s not happening anyway—people will be able to tell. The only way to build a following is to provide useful, timely information and be part of the larger discussion.

3. Ignore the larger discussion

Twitter is a reciprocal environment. If all you’re doing is posting links to your blog, that’s great and some people will probably read them who wouldn’t have before; however, that’s not the purpose of the network. Help people out, offer advice and perhaps most importantly of all don’t be afraid to crowd-source a few things every once in a while. One guy even wrote a book using nothing but crowd-sourcing.

4. Limit your scope of activity

I mean this not in terms of which network you’re on but how you use each network. A few weeks ago I had a question that could only answered by one person, let’s call her Sally. I sent Sally a direct message (DM) over Twitter because that’s how we met, although we are now also connected through several online networks. Two or three days went by, so I sent a reply to her @username. Another day or so and finally I send her an e-mail telling her to check her DMs on Twitter. Her response: “Oh, sorry! I don’t do that on Twitter. What’s your question?” Sally’s a smart girl, and probably posts 25+ original tweets a day, but she’s missing out on a huge area of her social network. Now this doesn’t mean you need to send as many direct messages as you do original tweets and re-tweets, but at least be aware they exist.

5. Limit your scope of involvement

This I do mean in terms of which network you’re using. Are you on Facebook? Twitter? Maybe even MySpace if you’re after that coveted 11-14 demographic? Personally I think one of the most under-utilized social networks is StumbleUpon. You basically bookmark sites and broadcast those to other members of the community. There’s simply no easier way to show people what you’re looking at every day (without tweeting it every day).

6. Be unprofessional

This just goes without saying. You’d be hard-pressed to find a tweet from myself, any of my followers or anyone I follow with profanity in it. Facebook used to be restricted to college students and photos of them drinking. Now, people actually care about what goes into their profile and how others perceive them. Don’t say anything on a social network you wouldn’t want to say to your boss and have your mother overhear.

7. Treat your social network like a dating website

This entire post is assuming you have a business, a viewpoint or an opinion you want to get out there. Anyone who would be interested in one or more of those three things does not want to see you flirting with the girl from work or that ex-boyfriend from high school. Just don’t. While social networks definitely blur the line between our personal and professional lives, the line still exists.

8. Complain for the sake of complaining

This ties in very closely with being unprofessional, but it definitely deserves its own point. If you are pointing out a flaw in something, be constructive about it. There’s nothing gained on either side by you simply tearing something—or someone—down in front of your audience. There is a big difference between “OMG I hate my boss so much” and “Any tips for getting my boss to listen to my ideas more closely?”

9. Be ungrateful

If someone is taking time out of their day to show an interest in your business, your idea, your political views, or your candidate, don’t you think they deserve a thank you? Just don’t fake it (see #2).

Conclusions:

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, here. Social networking is not acting like you’re at a job interview 24/7. It’s also not a party. You should have fun, be yourself, and get your message out there – the people your message connects with will be naturally drawn to you.

 

Site Editor's Note: Please welcome Phillip Copley to the TechRepublican Contributor community and feel free to leave your feedback in the Comments section.

A little background information on Phillip:  Phillip is the Assistant Director of IT for Pennsylvania Legislative Services, where he is in charge of new product development. In his spare time, Phil is a freelance web designer, Mac addict, and Twitter evangelist. In his previous life, he worked as a Victory Director for the Pennsylvania GOP during John McCain presidential campaign. Phil can be seen blogging at PCDC or tweeting at @pcopley.