Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Alquma25 — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:08:32 -0000

nice.
Thanks,
Trabajo

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

laptapos — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:58:06 -0000

I tried to spend atleast 4 hours a day on twitter for 7 days and the ROI is too bad. People tend to not click on links provided by others on twitter. The description is too short for the link to be click. And you can't overcommunicate with others through @replies because it can annoy others.

But guys, you can follow me on twitter.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Agile Cyborg — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:36:35 -0000

Blogs fing rock. Slam period.

140 char info- yawn. Streams of meaningless verbal hash- entertaining. I dig it. K?

But something about life requires a resounding richness tool for dispensation. Blogs do this. Blogs do this like nothing else.

All the big name mind spewage are as elusive digital farts when condensed onto a Twitter stream which is why they have to fing work so hard.

Twitter the easy crap. Blog us the grails.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Bob Starr — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:22:57 -0000

Great post, Robert! I think the social medium you are embracing is the future. Blogs will always have their place but the movement of real-time "tracking" of people's actions is clearly becoming a necessity especially in the tech industry. While there's always a balance to be found (you're right, you don't post as much which is unfortunate) the immediacy of information (for those of us able to track it throughout the day) is powerful to say the least. Numbers don't lie. No intervention necessary IMO.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Arno Grbac — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:59:30 -0000

I'm relatively new to Twitter, surrounded by a few hundred people, and even at such a low number, I'm struggling with the transient nature of the information stream.

I can't spend all day looking at the Twitter-ticker, and if I don't, I miss things that I may care about. It seems that the more people I follow, the less value I'm able to get from Twitter (more noise), but the more people follow me, the greater my perceived social IQ. Am I the only one feeling this way?

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Navdeep Singh — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:07:00 -0000

Robert,

I am curious and like learning things. I have been aware of your existence since you worked in Microsoft, and probably read a few dozen blog posts over the years. All memorable, but so what...

In 2008, I ended up following you, because @scobleizer kept invading my twitter stream (same goes for @guykawasaki), and I was missing half the conversation...so I followed, and this is what I learn (apart from the tech stuff):
* You want to get smarter
* You will talk to anyone to get smarter
* You kid likes building lego (qik)
* You like peaceful pictures
* You like meeting people before/during/after taking peaceful pictures
* You like to change you mind (anyone around for a drink/oops changed my mind)
* You take the safest option, based on public opinion
* You like to do it in a way that creates (mild) controversy.

So, I guess, yes, twitter and ff has allowed to get me to know the man behind the name, and I also subscribed to your blog, but I don't read your blog any more.

So what are you going to do for 2009? I expect that you will listen to the comments here, pull back for a few months, experience withdrawal symptoms, find a new toy to play with, and reinvent yourself again for 2009. If I were you, I would capitalize on the money/advertising/endorsement, cash in and get out. You're not getting any younger.

Oh, and you have encouraged me to be more forthright, honest and outspoken on my blog too.

All the best, Scobleizer..

Navdeep.

P.S. Then next time you are in the UK, I will give you a call.
P.P.S. Love your Twitter Idiot Land post

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Gail Gardner — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:56:02 -0000

There is a lot to be said for temporarily focusing on FriendFeed and Twitter to build a following of readers, then returning to longer blog posts knowing that those readers will be sharing your ideas on your behalf. It could even be said that would be a very wise strategy - in hindsight or foresight!

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

ChangeForge | Ken Stewart — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:40:32 -0000

Robert, you always know how to create a headline. In my very humble opinion, you have done very well in both endeavors. You go where the meat is, so to speak. I would suppose there is some concern over negatively impacting your revenue stream, but if you can quantify an extended reach, as Louis suggested, the perhaps there is a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow!

I think you are demonstrating that there are many sides to the proverbial coin. Neither is right or wrong, and you have quite accurately captured solid points and their counter-points.

I will say from the perspective of a social media novice, Twitter and FriendFeed have made you more accessible to "Joe Sixpack" ;-) Thanks for that at least.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Gary Denness — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:25:36 -0000

Why blog OR friendfeed? And would be good. I'm sure your blog should be your primary service, with friendfeed and twitter supporting it.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Bruce Achterberg — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:16:12 -0000

Robert,

"A leader goes first."

Only you know whether or not what you're doing is right, and even then, you can be wrong. But that's not what makes a leader useful. What makes a leader useful is optimism—your belief in the potential you envision.

Your belief in the potential you see allows great things to happen and rallies people to a different future. Whether it's a "better" future is hard to say, but leaders are there to inspire people to make change, and "better" usually comes with change.

I'm wired for leadership, too, and I can see great potential in the direction you seem to be heading in. I see the possibility that you see, but perhaps others do not.

If you believe in what you're doing and you know it is right, keep going. Be prepared to fall flat on your face. That's the price you pay for forging a new trail. Sometimes you'll find a new land, filled with treasure. Sometimes you'll wonder off a (not-very-steep) cliff and end up battered and bruised.

That's the price a leader pays, and he pays it willingly, because he can clearly see that, if what he envisions _does_ happen, the world will be better in some way.

Nothing you do here can be detrimental in the long-term. If you fall off a cliff, you will learn from it and it will be educational. If you find treasure, then what you originally saw will be validated and you will be called a visionary.

When both paths lead to a win, the only question left is "what do I want to experience right now?"

Then go do it, and if needed, find a way to make it work.

-- Bruce

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Alan — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:11:47 -0000

To rev an old saw, "size [and numbers of followers] is not everything"- more a question of the (?) qualitative value of this activity to others and yourself. Multiple answers.

I'd consider also what is the longer record you will have of what you did- if you have 8 years of blog posts, you have a searchable, linkable archive. Old tweets fall off the edge...

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

scouter01 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:16:51 -0000

And I thought it was complicated to just be bloggin on myspace. Yep, Im still new at blogging.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Mike — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:45:48 -0000

come back to blogging. i am the non-tech type that your adverts desire. i actually removed you from rss feed for a while b/c there was nothing here. i wont go chasing the conv in ff & twitter or wherever. i just dont have the time b/c i have other stuff to do.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Vincent van Wylick — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:11:11 -0000

truth be told, I always attributed your decreasing blogging to your video-work, back during the (was it pre?)fastcompany-days. It's so much harder to index that kind of stuff through Techmeme et al and feels pretty incompatible with this whole blogging thing anyway (whereas you can skim text, you can't really skim video).

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

danielmcvicar — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:33:34 -0000

pls write mmore blogposts. :)ok? twitter and friendfeed klutter and your posts let me enjoy some thoughts. am I over 140 characters yet?

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Christopher Coulter — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:43:21 -0000

I think it's a good thing, keep the sociopaths offa the blogs, isolate them on virtual islands, where they can tweet and yap all day, not messing up Google and other engines with inane fluff.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

toivo — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:06:47 -0000

it is not an insult but .... you are just crazy. in a _bad_way. you could just write short (140ch) posts on the wordpress as well. you could just have different layout per post or category.

http://wordpress.org/extend...

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

ian in hamburg — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:05:52 -0000

Twitter is getting cluttered with newsfeeds and other crap, and will soon be taken over by the corporations and the marketers. Yuck.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

francinehardaway — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:57:33 -0000

I invited a bunch of people to Friendfeed yesterday from Twitter and got a lot of pushback. Most people who don't do this for a living can only concentrate on one service. Keep blogging.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

AndyBeard — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:52:22 -0000

Your blog traffic isn't down as much as mine, but then I haven't blogged at all for 6 months (that doesn't mean it is time to unsubscribe though)

Friendfeed isn't Quantified, but Scobleizer and Fastcompany.tv are.

Seems to me there is a huge correlation between Robert Scoble driving traffic from his BLOG to Friendfeed, and their traffic as estimated by Quantcast.

http://www.quantcast.com/pr...

Friendfeed really need to get Quantified.

At Friendfeed, my feeling is you are a big fish, ok a whale... in a very small pond. Sure you can help grow that pond and influence it, but it is very hard to grow it from within.
I tried that when in the games industry, growing first a CD publisher then a dev studio in Poland. It was a constant uphill battle.

Alternatively you are in the fortunate position to be able to grow from the outside. You can still be a part of the community. Send your likes at the same time as your old shared feed (no one mentioned the influence you played growing Google Reader)

You are such a huge participant in FF, but for some reason you don't have the FF comment widget here on the blog, there are a number of alternatives.
Just by participating with FF in that reduced capacity, but from here on the blog, you will have a lot more chance to grow it from without.

How much additional time you spend on FF/Twitter really depends on how you want to manage your time, but there are many aggregation methods that can be used to pre-filter.

Fastcompany.tv will benefit from Scobleizer being front row rather than FF - it doesn't matter how good the content is without people seeing it.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Dave Martin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:25:48 -0000

Robert, continue to be true to yourself no matter the rants of the crowd. You have built a following for a variety of reasons including your tireless dedication and hard work. Let me suggest the obvious: a great many have come to enjoy this multichannel "living out loud" that you do so very well. Keep on keeping it real and doing so in ways that you find rewarding. Please accept my sincere best wishes for continued success in 2009.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

JCLeftie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:43:40 -0000

Robert,

Part of the issue is that we are becoming more of an ADHD society on a daily basis. I agree with the others that have stated you should try to balance both your blog and Twitter/FriendFeed. At the end of the day, you should consider a blog post summary (to share with those who don't hang on your up-to-the-nanosecond updates). Not a regurgitation, but what you learned or achieved throughout the day, and what you can use out of it for tomorrow and beyond.

I think THAT is what people are looking for.

Jamie

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Pete — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:39:26 -0000

Robert - I left a similar comment on TechCrunch also. I unfollowed you on Twitter a couple months back because I found myself constantly scrolling through your tweets. As someone who is focused on working and family life, there is no way I can parse your endless stream of Twitters into something coherent. A lot of it is @ replies, as if Twitter is your replacement for IM. Maybe this is where you see the value.

You should also factor the "quality" of your followers into your analysis. You may have 22K followers, but my guess is that a vast majority of those people followed you and Guy Kawasaki, etc., because someone told them to follow you when they joined Twitter. It's common wisdom (why, I have no idea) to start on Twitter by following the high volume tweeters.

Pete

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Wendy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:22:36 -0000

Quantity does not equal quality.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

Daniel — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:13:36 -0000

I actually miss your blog. I'm not into the whole twitter/friendfeed thing.