First off, the FTC can go to hell because both these apps are free.* Second, I have to confess that I haven’t necessarily used either of these a whole lot, but I will because they’re awesome (I’ve played with them enough to know).
I found out about Posterous through my boss (who you should all get to know, as he seems to find everything). The gist is that you e-mail Posterous whaever you want and it automatically posts, like a blog. It can also automatically post to Twitter, Facebook, WordPress or pretty much anywhere else you can think of. You can start to imagine the journalism/reporting implications from here. My boss passed along this story about TwinCities.com using Posterous to basically power all their UGC for a couple specific events. They explain it all way better at the link, so I’ll let you read about that there. You should also check out Posterous’s FAQ, which will impress upon you how easy and all-encompassing it is.
The "Read Later" button at the bottom saves to Instapaper.
I just signed up for my Instapaper account this morning; it, too, is extremely simple-yet-useful. Looking at something you want to save for later? Click the little “Read Later” bookmarklet and the page you were looking at saves to your Instapaper account (which you don’t even need a password to sign up for). Now I know this in itself isn’t entirely revolutionary—we’ve all got RSS readers, Delicious accounts or whatever that can fulfill this basic function. The difference is that this is all Instapaper is built for, which makes it a little more user friendly. There are also free and “pro” iPhone apps, which will allow you to read your posts offline, and, if you’re a Tweetie 2 user, T2’s browser lets you save posts directly to Instapaper (see inset).
I’ll admit that Instapaper is a bit of a…luxury item. It’s sort of like having a separate bag for your shoes instead of just jamming everything into your suitcase. But we’re talking about a Web/mobile app here, not material goods and physical space. I’ve actually been using it to help filter my Google Reader—I’ve cherry picked which posts I want to read, put them in Instapaper and “Mark All As Read’ed” the rest.
If I discover any new tricks for these two gems, I’ll post them here.
*Aside: I think anytime anyone blogs about a product just for the sake of telling people about the insane coolness of said product (not because they have a commercial stake in it), the blog should be prefaced with the general formula of that sentence.
Here’s how I’ve been dealing with my writer’s block of late:
- Doing nothing. I sit down to write, with the best intentions of actually doing so, but I just end up surfing around the Internet looking at relatively useless Wikipedia pages (no one’s traveling through time anytime soon).
- Reading. I once heard that when writer’s block hits, one should become a voracious reader to rouse creativity. Indeed, a lot of ideas I get for this blog are found by reading other blogs, but nothing has prompted anything more than a comment here and there.
- Tweeting. I’m on Twitter almost every day just out of a sheer need to stay connected. If anyone’s still calling that “microblogging,” then maybe that counts. Point is, I’m maintaining a Web presence.
- Brushing my teeth with my left hand. I’ve heard brushing with your non-dominant hand spurs brain activity. It also keeps you from going too hard on your gums.
(More tips appreciated.)
I think what writer’s block really comes down to is an inordinate amount of stress over the failure to come up with something original. That, combined with the rapid-fire, constant-updates nature of the Internet, compounds writer’s block into more of a problem than it used to be. My deadline is now and I haven’t come up with something in three days? FAIL.
"Lost" and the current state of journalism: More in common than you'd think.
Note: Don’t read this unless you’ve watched through Season 5.
Here are some of the roles that would be filled:
The Print Business Model = The Airplane: Things seemed to be going fine until all of a sudden, it plunged out of the sky and smashed into the ground.
Our Current Predicament = The Island: No one really knows what this place is or what’s going on, but we know we want off of it.
A Profitable Business Model = Civilization: We’re really not sure how to get there and every attempt to do so just leads us back to the island.
The Recession/Newspaper Debt Crisis = The Smoke Monster: Occasionally pops out of the jungle and eats someone.
Social Media Networks = The Dharma Stations: Once we found one of these things, they started popping up all over the place. Now we don’t know how we’d live without them.
Twitter = The Numbers: Type in X amount of characters several times a day, or suffer the consequences.
Old Media = Jack: Best plan to save us involves going back to 1977 and “fixing” things (re: blowing up the island).
Curmudgeonly Old Editor = Ben: Convinced he’s doing the right thing, no matter how wrong it actually is.
Newsroom of Said Curmudgeonly Old Editor = The Polar Bear Cages: You’re not leaving unless you escape or somehow convince Ben to let you out (good luck).
Multimedia-savvy reporter = Daniel Faraday: Has a few good ideas about how to make it off the island, but is still just as likely to get killed as anyone else.
Neighborhood Bloggers = Rose and Bernard: These people get along with most everyone because they seem to be the only ones who doesn’t have “too much stuff going on” to pay attention to the less prominent people on the island. They’re fine with just staying there.
Some News Organizations = Charlie: Fought heroically, but ultimately died.
Some Other News Organizations = Nikki and Paulo: Got too wrapped up in small issues that didn’t apply to the larger predicament and died like morons.
seattlepi.com = Jack’s dad, Locke’s dad, Locke, Eko and all the other ghost people: They “died,” but they’re not really dead.
Columbia Journalism Review’s “Reconstruction of American Journalism” Report = Sawyer & Crew Traveling Uncontrollably Through Time: So much information in such a short span that my nose is bleeding and I think I might die.
Successful Web operations (HuffPo, TPM, etc.) = The Oceanic Six: They made it off the island. Not sure how long they’ll manage to stay off the island, but they made it.
The Future of Journalism = The End of “Lost”: Everyone has a theory about what’ll happen and they’re probably all wrong.
I figured my online wardrobe was due for an update. I’ve been wanting to switch to a blue-centered theme for a while. I know it’s not insanely original, but until I have the time to fully customize my site on the WordPress.org platform (which is in the long-term plan) I thought this would be best. Three reasons:
- People see blue and they think “hyperlink.” I don’t think I was really gaining or losing anyone with the brick red, but conventional wisdom says blue-toned hyperlinks are the best from a usability standpoint.
- Aaron Hockley said The more customization the better. Even if you’re just running WordPress.com (versus the installable WordPress.org, which offers much more customization), you should customize your theme as much as possible so it doesn’t look like 10 million other blogs. I’m a big proponent of developing a voice and personal brand online and your overall Web aesthetic is part of that.
- Blue is probably my favorite color, despite the fact that I always claim my favorite color is red. I think something like 90 percent of my wardrobe is blue. My mom always suggested I dress in blue when I was a kid because I have blue eyes and I guess it just stuck. I don’t know why I feel the need to carry this over to my blog, but here we are.
I’ve also applied the colors to my Twitter page—like I said, you should apply your brand across the Web.
Yesterday I talked about what not to do, so today I thought I’d point to a few Seattle-area journalists who are using social media the right way. To be sure, there are a ton of social media-savvy journalists in the Seattle area, but Mónica Guzmán, Linda Thomas and Jenni Hogan are three of the most visible and they each have a unique approach and voice within the community.
@moniguzman | seattlepi.com blogger/reporter/everything
Mónica is one of the best community builders in Seattle. She was hosting Tweet-ups when there was still a print version of the pi (or is it P-I still?) and before the term “Tweet-up” was in common use. I wish every reporter conducted herself with the openness and “come out and say hi” attitude that Mónica has.
Social media doesn’t work if you’re not actually social and that point ought to be emphasized for journalists. If newspapers are going to act like the defenders of the public, the public ought to know who these people are and be able to interact with them, right? Civic-minded citizens (you know, the ones who actually follow local news) have a right to question their leaders and they have an opportunity to do so at city council meetings and such. If you’re a newspaper, where’s your meeting? The street goes two ways, too—there’s story fodder to be had when you sit down with your readers.
@TheNewsChick | Freelance
Link curating is like shopping: Anyone can go to Target and buy a bunch of crap—it takes an interior designer to pick out stuff that will work together and work with the room that it’s going in. In that case, Linda Thomas is the Christopher Lowell of Seattle journalism and news.
If you locked me in a room with one Twitter feed for a week and said “You can only have one source for those three things” (Seattle, journalism and news—they encompass the whole of my personal and professional life) I’d pick Linda. If you haven’t yet latched on to the idea of link curating, click Follow and learn from this woman.
@jennihogan | KIRO TV traffic anchor
I think Jenni Hogan might secretly be a robot. The volume and speed of her Tweets are so great that it’s hard to tell when she stops working or sleeps. Nearly everything she does on camera, behind the scenes, on location or socially among other Seattleites is documented on Twitter. Hypersocial is how I’d explain it and I’d almost go so far as to say follow her example to an extent (if you can keep up the same pace, go for it).
Her Twitter stream isn’t exactly newsy—or at least it leans more toward being social than reporting news—but that works for her. I get my news on the Internet and I can’t name another traffic reporter in Seattle. What’s that worth to Jenni and KIRO? Any time my commute takes longer than normal (and this is Seattle, so, hey), her Twitter feed and KIRO’s Web site are the sources I’m checking to figure out what was going on (it may be of equal importance to my audience).
First of all, congratulations to TechFlash on their one-year anniversary. The blog has been a staple of my “Tech” folder in Google Reader for the better part of the past year and I’ve gotta say, there’s something nice about getting global tech news from a local brand.
Their anniversary got me to thinking about how “lesser” brands have the potential to eclipse their parents. This sounds bad, but it’s not necessarily (think of what all the third party apps have done for Twitter).
Quick history lesson: TechFlash originated at seattlepi.com, where current TechFlashers (uh, for lack of a better term) John Cook and Todd Bishop blogged. As I understand the story, the two of them went to P-I brass with a proposal to share in the revenue of their hugely successful blogs and when the P-I said no, Cook and Bishop took their proposal to the Puget Sound Business Journal—and thus TechFlash was born.
Obviously there’s a lesson to be learned there in retaining your talent. But there’s also something to be said for PSBJ’s acquisition of Cook and Bishop’s brand.
I’m not really familiar with the Journal’s reputation in terms of Seattle journalism sources, but I know they exist and I’d imagine they enjoy a respectable readership base among the Seattle business community. So acquiring TechFlash had to take some level of humility. Rather than simply offer Cook and Bishop jobs, PSBJ recognized the duo’s inherent talents and acknowledged that “maybe these guys can do something bigger than our brand” (and why not own a piece of that, rather than compete with it?). Where the Business Journal focuses solely on Puget Sound, TechFlash focuses on tech companies in and around Seattle—companies that concern millions of people all over the world. In other words, TechFlash’s niche is tech geeks; PSBJ’s niche is Seattle businesspeople … and guess which one has the opportunity to drive more traffic, more often?
Think PSBJ cares that TechFlash is a little more well known? Not when X percentage of TechFlash readers are clicking PSBJ's link.
The takeaway: Don’t be afriad to let some person or imprint of your brand be bigger than the brand itself. Art Thiel mentioned at the Future of News conference the other week that one of the reasons sports outperforms news on most sites is that sports appeals to more than just the local base (imagine the guy in Chicago who has Matt Hasselbeck as his fantasy QB). For the record, I don’t know that TechFlash outperforms PSBJ, but I’d be willing to bet it does. Whatever the case, PSBJ is advertising itself on all of TechFlash’s pages (see inset) and probably getting a nice little kick in traffic—that’s the idea.
While we’re at it, forget about acquiring a brand. Everything PSBJ has done with TechFlash works just as well for what you already have. Certain sections of your site outperform other sections, so reward those that perform well by giving them more exposure and a greater opportunity to germinate. If those “sub-brands” find success, use that to promote what you consider your flagships (re: the PSBJ bug on TechFlash).
One last thing that bears repeating: Recognize who your true talents are and do whatever you can to hang on to them. The cost to start publishing and charging for ads is virtually zero, so if you’re going to let someone walk, make sure the cost of competing with him is less than what it would cost to retain him.
WordPress.com now has mobile themes and you don’t even have to do anything. Yeah, I know, I need to make the “dot org” jump (and install the WPtouch mobile plugin), but for the time being, this is a great feature and a huge upgrade.
I don’t know how many people read my blog on a mobile device, but at least now if they want to, they can do so in an aesthetically pleasing and functionally enhanced way. (While we’re on the subject, why doesn’t Mashable redirect to a mobile site?)
Anyway, I love this and I blogged this post from my phone, in honor of the new feature.
