Ed Justen

The last two follows I’ve received on Twitter, are both businesses. They use logos in their profiles, and have profile links to their company website. They are New Hampshire-based companies, which is cool because I live near the Granite State, and some of my social networking and consulting activities take place there.

Both companies offer services related to what I do. They are either monitoring my feed as competition, or they value, in some way, the thoughts I express through the various channels.

What bugs me though, is that there are no personal faces on these two Twitter profiles. No faces, and no names. This is a bit shocking to me. If someone is passionate enough about their business, brand, or work, to make the effort to build a Twitter following, why wouldn’t they want their name and face associated with the business?

To me, the strength of the Twitter meme is the personal connection; I don’t care if I’m one of 5000 followers, when I read your tweet, I feel like you are talking to me. And because I can see your smiling face when I read your inspirational message, I feel a connection.

The blogosphere is filled with advice on how companies can adapt and use Twitter as a customer listening medium, marketing tool, or conversational channel. Millions of pixels also shout out the branding advantages that Twitter offers. Most opinions I’ve read say that a company should send tweets under the company handle, but place a picture and name of a live person in the profile, or vice-versa. This seems like an excellent practice.

The two companies referred to here are Micro Arts, and Boost Training. I mention their names with the hope they are monitoring their names using Google alerts, and will find this blog post.

I’m not mad or upset at them for not associating a live personality with their profiles, but as I move forward advising individuals and small business on social media trends and practices, I’d like to know their reasoning, if any, for not doing so.

So what do you think? Should a company associate a face with their Twitter profile? Have you ever advised against this practice? Lets hear about it in the comments.

Plenty of bloggers have debated whether to look forward or back as the new year approaches. Some like to focus on revelations of the past 12 months,  while others eschew past history and make predictions about their space for the upcoming 365.

Theme, thesis, hub, pivot, emphasis, issue, cornerstone

Recognize these words? They are all synonyms for something I’ve rarely had in my life: focus. If anything, 2009 became the year that I developed focus, and 2010 will be a year to refine that focus.

My gaining focus is not because of any revelation or moment of great clarity. My focus developed because I have spent the last two years talking to people about their goals for learning computer tasks.

“I’d like to build a website,” begins the conversation.

“Really,” I say in response, “what is the purpose of the web site?”

Cue blank stare, then “Well, I have an idea for a business,” the learner says.

What follows is another 20 questions about goals, messages, and audiences, much of the discussion new to the aspiring web entrepeneur. Literally, we talk for 20 minutes before we open the program for building web pages.

The more I did that with customers, the more I realized that I never did it for myself. So I looked at different areas of my life, and started asking questions. For example, I decided this year to start looking for a condo to be financed and purchased by myself (first time in nearly 20 years, mind you).

Do I want a condo or a townhouse?

Is this something I’ll stay in for a while or use as a short-term investment?

What town or area do I really want to live in?

Condos in my price range are extremely limited in features, what features are important to me?

You get the idea.

In August I attend a social media conference for the first time, and find I am woefully unprepared to even talk to someone while sitting at a table for lunch. But being around all those well-connected social media thought leaders inspires me, and I decide to take six months to evaluate my knowledge and capabilities, and define what it is I do.

The end result? Well, I won’t bore you with details. Lets just say I’m in the fourth month of that six-month evaluation. I’ve discovered much about the space, and about how to define my role in it, but there is discovery yet to be made. In February, I’ll assess what I’ve found, and define the next steps.

Arts and culture
Over the past few years, I’ve blogged about various trips to the opera, fine arts museum, and other activities. While these cultural junkets have been few and far between over the last few years, I’ve decided that in 2010, they will occur at least once a month.

That will take some research and pre-planning on my part, but in keeping with this year’s theme of refining my efforts to focus, I think I am up to the task. I even started a spreadsheet targeting one music or art event per month (how’s that for using my computer skills).

So there it is, a quick survey of my personal growth over the last year, and view of what I hope to accomplish in 2010. What say you friends, bloggers, tweeters, and social media colleagues?

Conference back channels have moved front and center – with a vengeance.

For those who don’t know, a back channel is the sub-conversation going on among members of a conference speaker’s audience. Conversations that used to occur as hallway banter now take place on Twitter, the popular microblogging service widely used on laptops and  mobile devices.

Birth of the back channel
The back channel gained prominence during the 2007 SXSW conference, as attendees used Twitter to notify friends and colleagues of key session points and topics during the day, and after-parties going on into the night. Twitter clients had yet to be developed, so most conference-goers were monitoring the stream on cell phones and laptops. The messages added value to the experience, as audience members tweeted confirmation of salient points, or appended the presentation with dialogue of their own.

But what started out nearly three years ago as value-added instant communication, has now turned into a forum for critique, and in one case, downright harassment.

The first notable back channel revolt occurred at the 2008 SXSW conference when veteran Fox News and Business Week correspondent Sarah Lacey lobbed softball questions to a reticent Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. In fairness to Lacy, it was most likely her friendly conversational interview style that drew the crowd’s ire, and Zuckerberg’s reluctance to open up. Regardless, the 23-year old billionaire didn’t bite, and the audience started tweeting a serious revolt.

Emboldened by what they were reading on their laptops and mobile devices, audience members started heckling Lacy’s questions, even breaking into a cheer when Zuckerberg (who was not monitoring Twitter comments) balked at one of Lacy’s feckless queries. Frustrated with the lack progress, Lacy turned questioning over to the audience and served as moderator for the remainder of the session.

Read more about the Lacy/Zuckerberg session here.

Senator 2.0
Back channel conversations are not limited to tech conferences, though. In a notable example that Twitter is more a part of the mainstream than some people think, several congressional representatives from both houses and both sides of the aisle went on a “decorum be damned”  spree and tapped out partisan Twitter comments during president Obama’s quasi state-of-the-union speech in February. The flood of tweets streaming out of the capitol might have gotten more press, had it not been for the famous “You lie!” protocol breakdown by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.

The back channel moves forward
The most recent case of back channel mutiny took Lacy’s SXSW experience one notch further. Thanks to a confluence of circumstances at November’s Web 2.0 Expo in New York, Danah Boyd, a veteran public speaker who holds a Ph.D. from Berkeley, failed to quickly capture the audience’s attention during her session.

The Twitter back channel revolted against Boyd in a much quicker fashion than with Lacy, but there was a stark difference in the two presenters’ episodes.

Whereas Lacy conducted her interview in front of a curtain backdrop, Boyd’s talk took place in front of a giant video screen scrolling the Twitter stream. As she spoke, every back channel comment showed up on the screen behind her. And as the session wore on, the tweets got nastier, including a few comments that would qualify as sexual harassment had they occurred in the workplace. (Boyd addresses the comments, the cause of the session breakdown, and pines for future civility, in a very frank and personal blog post here.)

Taking charge of the back channel
Several blogs have recently taken note of the back channel reactions, and now concern is rising about how future conference organizers, session leaders, and speakers will handle the flow. New Zealand based presentation trainer Olivia Mitchell guest-posted a blog entry on this topic, entitled “Three Stages of Presenting with Twitter,” on the blog of Twitter for Dummies author Laura Fitton.

Mitchell suggests that presenters take control by using timed Twitter breaks during presentations, a friend or co-worker to serve as a Twitter monitor, or new plug-ins for both PowerPoint and Keynote, that automatically tweets key points as you click on a specific slide.

So, what’s your back channel story? Are you a presenter that has had to deal with a not-so-positive Twitter stream? As a conference participant, do you think the back channel adds value, or just serves as another distraction? Lets hear about it in the comments.

Anyone who has had regular interaction with me over the last few years knows about my lifelong, torturous, relationship with music. For most of my adult life, I was a full-time musician, first performing nationwide for corporate events, fairs, and festivals, then spending two full decades as an active duty and reserve military musician.

At one point, I counted myself proficient on five different instruments, and played in as many groups as I could. The genre didn’t matter; classical, jazz, rock, country, I wanted to play everything, everywhere, all the time. I spent two years majoring in music before embarking on this playing career, and while I never did complete a degree in music, I now possess a master’s degree level of knowledge in music theory, harmony, and ear training. My performance technique however has declined over the years, and today I am often amazed at what I used to be able to play.

My long retirement from music began when I first moved to the Boston area in 1998 to attend school at Salem Sate College. My intention was to put the horns away for good, but I needed to play in the state’s National Guard band in order to keep tuition benefits, and when the college’s music department got wind of my experience, they recruited me to play in their ensembles. Between school and the Army, I made a few contacts, and the gigs stayed constant.

I finally wrested myself from music’s hold a few years ago, when I retired from the National Guard band.

My current “day job” does not fit well with a musician’s lifestyle, so I have not actively sought any gigs over the last few years, but an opportunity recently surfaced that allowed me to dust off the horn and put the chops back to work.

Sandra Fowler was chairperson of the Communications Department at Salem State, as well as my academic adviser. In my time at the school, she became a mentor and friend, offering advice during some challenging times during my stay at the college. In 2008, Dr. Fowler succumbed to cancer.

To honor her memory, a scholarship was established in Sandy’s name, and the current Communications Department chair has put together a yearly fundraising concert, featuring not professional singers, but instead, talented members of the college’s faculty, and staff.

I was originally asked to play behind two of the faculty members, who performed a great rendition of the James Taylor/Carly Simon version of Mockingbird. I inquired about playing my own a-cappella solo, which was accepted by the show’s producer. At the rehearsal I was asked to accompany another soloist, and at the actual performance, I agreed to play behind a rockin’ country-tinged duet.  I also sang in the full cast’s final tribute song, Seasons of Love, from the long-running Broadway play, Rent.

For my solo, I played an improvised version of Carlos Santana’s Europa. The haunting melody is a longtime favorite of mine, one I’ve always wanted to perform, but never, before this, had the opportunity to do so.

The event was great fun. It was nice to reconnect with some friends and acquaintances that have fallen by the wayside, and it was nice to be in a performing environment once again. While I doubt that I will be seeking out any gigs in the near future, I’m thankful I was asked to perform for this one.

How would YOU like to Facebook and Twitter for a living? It could happen, as more and more companies, large and small, begin to post recruiting announcements  for online community managers and blogging staff.

Sounds cool, right? Well, not so fast. After analyzing a few recruiting adverts for social media staff positions, online community expert Amber Neslund points out that many companies are missing the mark when it comes to recruiting and hiring social media staffers. Read her insight here.

My question is this; if they miss the mark in recruiting and hiring, how on earth are they going to implement a social media plan?

Not all is deficient on this front though. Amber points out in this follow-up post that some enlightened companies understand that social media staffing is in its infancy, and that growing pangs could parallel social media growth and presence.

How about you? Do you think you have the social media chops to apply for one of these positions? Let’s hear about it in the comments.