Organizing Twitter with hashtags

January 28th, 2009 • 11 comments
Tags: hashtags, tagging, twitter

The use of hashtags is a valuable skill for serious Twitter users. They aren’t really very difficult to grasp and use, and they really pay off. The challenge is to educate as many people as possible about the use of hashtags so that their use becomes more widespread, and they will be more valuable to everyone in the community.

You may have seen a user include a number sign (#) directly followed by a word in one of their tweets. This is a hashtag in use. The user is tagging his tweet with that word. These tags are linked by most Twitter clients to the search page for that word which will find for you other tweets with the same tag. This is often used in the case of large events. Livebloggers create a hashtag, inform others, and use it on every tweet that is related to the event. For example, the hashtag for the inauguration was #inaug09. Keep in mind there is nothing magical about that particular tag except that it links to a search for other tweets with the tag included. The tag could just have easily been #inauguration; in fact, it was. Some users decided on the tag #inaug09 while others used the tag #inauguration. I would probably favor the former since it is a little shorter while still clear, but one is just as valid as the other.

There is no process associated with creating a hashtag. Just include it in a post, and it is created. It’s value will come mostly from others using it. However, even if you are the only user to ever use a hashtag, it can still have immense value. My wife (her Twitter is @tiffypooh in case you’re wondering) was recently captivated by the We Are One inaugural celebration. She could have wasted space in each tweet to specify the event she was tweeting about, or she could have left it ambiguous and just included the information she wanted to get across. Instead, she created a hashtag (#weareone) and included that in every post. Not only was this a way to organize Twitter as a whole (at least if others used her tag), but it was a short way to let her readers know what she was talking about. This eases the pain of having to duplicate so much information in each little 140-character message.

Here is my suggested use of hashtags. This is a pretty open-ended concept so there are certainly other ways to use it. Use them however you wish, but if you don’t know what to do with them, try following these steps:

1. Check to see if there is already a hashtag for your topic. Hashtags become more valuable as more people use them. Don’t create a hashtag unless there aren’t any for what you’re talking about or you really think the ones that exist are terrible. If a good one exists, simply write your post and include it somewhere. If a hashtag does not exist…
2. Come up with a good hashtag for your topic. It should be short but easily recognizable even by a user who hasn’t been told explicitly its meaning.
3. Introduce your hashtag by telling your followers what it is for and asking them to use it in their messages on the same subject. Be sure you actually include the hashtag in this message.
4. Write your tweets on the subject and include the tag. You may include it in the context of the message like this: “I’m so excited about the #weareone inaugural celebration!” Alternately, you may just want to tack it on to the end like this: “The mix of people and performers is so ecclectic. I love that so many different people are excited! #weareone”

Hashtags are incredibly useful They are currently used only by a small percentage of the Twitter community. Luckily, a small percentage of the Twitter community is quite a lot of people. This means you can still get a lot out of using tags both in your own tweets and to find topics you want to see on Twitter.

If you like this post, please follow me on Twitter @ twitter.com/raddevon. For more posts like this, subscribe to the raddevon.com RSS feed (or maybe you only want the Internet category feed).

chi.mp invites for the best 5 comments

January 26th, 2009 • 10 comments
Tags: chi.mp, identity, Internet, openid, Social Web, web

Chi.mp is a service that aggregates your online identity merging your activity from Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, and others. They are also an OpenID provider which means, upon registration, you will automatically have a single login for the multitude of sites that support OpenID. I will give away a chi.mp invite to each of the 5 readers who leave the best suggestions of geeky things you’d like to learn how to do. This could be something like installing a Linux distro or configuring port forwarding on a router, or it could be a little more hardcore like tweaking the CSS in a WordPress theme or something geekier still. Make sure it’s related to gaming, the Internet, or tech in some way. I’m not going to post any cross-stitch patterns. (Sorry!) Please leave your e-mail address intact (I have a plugin that will obscure it from harvesters). While you’re here, check out some of my other posts and subscribe if you like what you see. Thanks!

Update: One of the invites has already been claimed. Four still remain!

Digg founder and CEO address problem of “power users”

January 23rd, 2009 •
Tags: backlash, digg, interview, Jay Adelson, Kevin Rose, reddit, social news

Digg.com is an excellent resource for the hottest content on the web. In recent weeks, there has been something of a backlash amongst the Digg community over a major problem many users perceive: “power users” gaming the system. Digg allows users to post stories. Then other users may vote for a story (“digg” it). As a story receives diggs, it has a higher chance of making it to the homepage where it will immediately see a major traffic surge. As such, front page real estate on digg is a highly valued commodity. This is a highly simplified explanation of how the site works as there is a complex algorithm that determines a story’s front-page-worthiness, but this is the gist of what is happening.

Many users feel that a small percentage of users have a much better chance of hitting the homepage with a story even if another user broke the story first. In my estimation, this is largely true. It seems that some users are able to exploit their networks to force their stories to the top. This brings about a couple of questions. First, is this even a problem? These power users have done something to build the networks they have. Should they not be entitled to use them? Secondly, if this is a problem, how can it be fixed? Is there any way to prevent the system from being abused while also maintaining its democratic nature?

Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson talked to the LA Times and addressed these and other issues. Below is an excerpt from the interview in which they directly address the problem of “power users.”

A lot of Digg users seem to complain about the high percentage of front-page stories submitted by top users. Should the average user realistically expect to be able to get a story to the front page, or should they understand that it’s way more complex than just pressing “submit” and crossing your fingers?

Rose: You have to realize that out of the tens of thousands of stories that are on the Web, we only promote 100 to 130ish a day. So your shot at getting on the homepage is already pretty small. Then you have to look at, who are the people that are the taste makers and the ones that are living and breathing this stuff, and the first to find a story and submit it -– there’s a certain dedicated core group of users that are out there doing that kind of thing.

But every single day we promote people on the front page that have never had a story up there — people who managed to find a really unique, strange article that no one else has seen before.

Adelson: Or if they break news –- there are lots of first-time promotions from people who found or submitted a story at the moment of publication. If that happens, that person might get promoted first, just because it’s the first version of that story.

But how would anyone notice the submission if it was from an unknown user?

Adelson: They see it in the Upcoming sections. There’s another section of Diggers combing through the new submissions.

Rose: They also get the recommendation based on who that user is and who they’re tied to.

Their friend network…

Rose: Yeah, but even if they don’t have a friend network, it’s linked to their “similar user” network. That’s where the recommendation engine is. So let’s say you’re digging a story on the Audi R8 — and you don’t have any friends on Digg, but you love Audi R8 stories. We’re going to know that and spread that story to similar diggers, and they’ll see it when they go into the Upcoming section.

And that’s where we’ll be going in the future -– we’ll be providing a more customized view of our front page, and promotion at a different level to different interest groups. So if my mom comes in and she’s huge into cross stitch, she should have a place where she can submit a story and it’ll spread to all those similar users. Where we’re going will be a more personalized experience that everyone can participate in -– not just a certain niche like we have today –- we want to expand it into smaller niches.

Be sure to check out the full interview at the LA Times.

It seems to me they don’t really perceive this as a problem at the moment. Hopefully, the new measures to prevent duplicate submission will allow some of us mortal users to get stories on the page when we do in fact submit them first, but I don’t really see the power users digging articles they would rather submit themselves. I think Digg is about power for them, and, even if they see that a story they want to submit is submitted by someone else first, they will be unlikely to Digg since there is no benefit to themselves.

I have actually noticed this phenomenon myself and have moved most of my activity in the social news space to reddit. It seems much less susceptible to these problems. I have had a couple of stories hit the front page there with zero network.

Post your thoughts in the comments. What are your favorite social news sites? Do you believe power users are gaming Digg and ruining it for the rest of us?

Share the net with FriendFeed

January 20th, 2009 •
Tags: friendfeed, google reader, sharing, Social Web

Reposted from me.raddevon.com.

Google Reader is a fantastic app. It is the perfect way to wrangle all those cool web sites your following into one easy location. I am able to take in far more information much more quickly and efficiently than I could by visiting each individual site. Google Reader also offers a sharing feature that allows user to easily broadcast their favorite items to other Reader users in their Gmail contacts list. Recently, Google added the ability to provide notes making the sharing even more robust. However, I now find myself re-sharing friends items with replies to their notes or my own notes or even e-mailing them a story they originally shared to give my two cents. As is the way of the web, there is a better way to carry on a conversation surrounding web content… and you don’t even have to ditch Google Reader to get there!

It’s called FriendFeed. It’s intended purpose is as an aggregator for the many social sites typical addicts (like you and I) participate in on a daily basis. That’s flickr, twitter, Netflix, Disqus, digg, reddit, YouTube, brightkite, del.icio.us, last.fm, Facebook, and LinkedIn, among others. However, the most important supported service for the purposes of this post is Google Reader.

For many of it’s supported services, FriendFeed is very selective in the content it chooses to add to your feed. In Google Reader, only your shared items will make it to the feed. It would be a bit overwhelming if all of everyone’s items were posted. Since only shared items make it, you will get only the best of your friends feed items.

Once you have configured FriendFeed to link to your Google Reader account, FriendFeed will periodically check for shared items and add them to your FriendFeed. You and your FriendFeed subscribers (Unlike twitter, when you add a FriendFeed user, you have “subscribed” to them.) will have the opportunity to interact with shared items in a number of ways: by commenting on them, liking them, or re-sharing them. The comment system is really where it’s at. In Google Reader, sharing is a one-way affair; I share an item (with a note if I so choose) and you look at it. In FriendFeed, I may share an item which can then foster an entire discussion around it by way of the comments. The commenting isn’t over after the initial posting. This is really a groundbreaking new facet of sharing Internet content.

FriendFeed has features that foster community. When you first get started, your page will be barren, but you will soon start to find friends as with other social networks. You can use the friend recommendation page to quickly find like-minded people to connect with. You may also browse the rooms which are spaces where users may share items with others with similar interests. You will find a room for Apple-loves, for gamers, social media buffs, and just about any other group you can think of. Feel free to create rooms around your own interests and start sharing.

On its surface, FriendFeed appears to be a very focused feed reader that delivers only your friends’ activities online. However, it is a fantastic community built around the wealth of content published daily on the Internet. Jump in and start talking! Also, be sure to subscribe to me!