...But You Can't Hide

An Australian court ruled this week that if a defendant cannot be found, Facebook is now a viable medium for tracking them down and serving court papers.

As you put your digital fingerprints online, you are leaving a permanent bunny trail of data behind. Not only are online actions irreversible, but they are making staying hidden more and more impossible. Everyone can make one of two choices about their digital fingerprint:

Option 1: Your online actions are unguided, unplanned, and unorganized. You forget that people are watching you and are forming a picture of who you are based on your online activities.

Option 2: You make an effort to create a purposeful picture of yourself online. As Jeremiah Owyang points out, Google search results are the new business card. When people search you, they can often put together a pretty good picture of what you are about. Not only can you not stay hidden, but now you must carefully craft what you want a 6-second picture of yourself to look like, as well as a more thorough investigation.

A few ideas to consider:

• What does your MySpace/Facebook/[insert social media community] profile say about you to potential employers? Your blog readers? Your extended family?
• Do you own www.yourname.com?
• Do you make it easy for an employer or company to get a quick picture of what you are about? A more detailed picture?
• Are any of your non-actions (or poor choice of actions) making you hidden or unqualified from certain opportunities?
• What are you going to do in the New Year to position yourself for success?

You cannot hide. But you can chose how you want to be seen.

Top Albums of 2008 - One List To Rule Them All

I have seen at least 15 different "Top Albums/Songs of the Year" lists this past week. Rolling Stone has several, Spin has their version, and there are even all the charts for top sales (digital and physical). While these types of lists used to carry more weight for readers, I don't believe they matter as much anymore.

In an increasingly user-generated content world, we can all become writers or content producers. We all have opinions and we love to share them. Instead of relying on the old sources for what is "hip" or "best" in music, we make our own picks and then interact with others to further develop the lists. We will still read the old lists for ideas, but if our favorite album isn't on it, we'll either go looking for one that agrees with us or we'll just create our own. We no longer have time for set-in-stone top albums lists; we need something we can interact with, something that has life to it.

Imagine an interactive community based around the "Top Albums of the Year." The main function of this community would be for users to create a "Top Albums of The Year" that complied all into one place. Everyone's opinion would matter and be calculated into one single list. The living list could be viewed as a whole but also could be sorted based on country of user, sex of user, genre of music, etc. The community would work on a single-entry voting system that would help to avoid rabid fan-boys from sitting on their computer for hours just voting for Fall Out Boy or Miley Cyrus. An interactive community like this could easily be turned into a way to find new music, rally fans around a band that was deserving, or showcase your opinions (not to mention, make money for the music industry). Giving users an incentive to share their lists and interact would help to keep people coming back and checking how it had been developing. When the clocks flipped over to Jan 1 12:01AM the list would lock in and be announced within the next week.

What do you think? Good idea?

Leaner and Meaner in 2009

Over the past week, I didn't have the internet at my house. No Twitter, no RSS feeds, no Facebook, no email. And it wasn't the end of the world.

I realized that there were many things that I spent time on that were unnecessary. There are so many ways to get wrapped up and consumed in our social networks and internet habits that we ultimately waste a lot of time. Not having the internet for a week (in the evenings) reminded me that I don't need to refresh my Twitter page every minute to read what everyone is saying. I can improve the way I use my time.

Once better systems are in place to measure the impact of social media efforts and the mainstream more readily adopts them, will those social media efforts be lean and mean enough to be worth it? To improve the ROI of social media, it is going to become very important for us to get rid of the factors and habits that waste our time.

I want to hear your plans to "cut the fat" from your online activities in 2009. Suggestions?

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5 Tips For Brands On Twitter

Today we have a special guest post from Ben Nesvig:

Mashable brought up a great topic last week about brands and Twitter. It is my belief that brands do belong on Twitter, as long as they are using Twitter responsibly. If I have praise or beef with a brand, I want a representative from the company to hear me out. How can brands tweet responsibly?

A five step process for brands who want to engage on Twitter:

5. Show transparency. Put your first name in the bio section. Let Twitter know who is running the brands account. An ideal Twitter photo for a brand would include the Twitterer and the brand logo.

4. Do not rush out to follow 1,000 people right away. Utilize Twitter Search and start off by following people who praise your brand and give a personal response to those who have complaints or comments. Twitter isn't an ad campaign with a deadline. It is a marathon. Learn to walk before you run.

3. Do not turn your Twitter account into an RSS feed for corporate news. Consumers don't care about everything that happens at your company. Give corporate news only when it is relevant or asked for.

2. Show personality. Each tweet shouldn't look like it was approved by a committee. Twitter gives you an opportunity to show the human side of your company. If you represent a large brand, this is especially important.

1. Make your Twitter account about the consumer, not your brand. Respond to their criticisms and comments. Care about their feedback, which means responding to complaints and suggestions personally. Also, give them coupons or discounts on your products. Gary Vaynerchuk often gives out free shipping to Twitter users. Think about what your brand could offer.

Twitter can be a great place for companies, but it can also be a medium for them to abuse. Twitter is an incredible tool to show that your company cares about its customers. Comcast got it right, why can't your company?