MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over

Social Networks and the Net Generation at Work

Mar 15, 2009 Blogs, Books, Customer Service, Digital Marketing & Metrics, Internet General, Marketing & Communication, Microblogging, Social Bookmarking, Social Media

When I joined the workforce e-mail was pretty standard as a method for communication and the Internet was commonly used for research purposes. But, in the early days of email many business owners and managers did not allow e-mail in the offices for fear that their employees would not get any work done, they were concerned over how to manage, store and capture e-mailed information, and of course they grappled with security issues surrounding e-mail. Today, business owners and managers have realized that e-mail has increased the speed of business communication, and concerns over data capture and management as well as security have largely been overcome.

Social Networks Stats and Facts

There is a new tool that has caused much consternation and hand-wringing for IT Managers and business owners – social networks and social media.  A new report by Nielson puts social networks ahead of e-mail in online activities according to a recent article in the Globe and Mail.  Neilson found that 1 in 11 minutes online is spent on a social network or blog site, bringing social networks and blogs to the fourth most popular activity following search, general interest portals and software manufacturers. More telling is the growth seen by social networks during the period of the study (Dec 2007-Dec 2008) which saw between 1.4 and 1.9% growth for the top three activities versus an incredible 5.4% for social networking.

There are 150 Million active Facebook users and a recent research study from Pew Inernet shows that 11% of online adults say they have used the social network Twitter. A Netpop report shows that 7 Million people in the U.S. are contributing to content online and that social networking sites have grown a whopping 93% since 2006!

Despite the growth in the use of social media and social networks specifically, many corporations have decided to bury their head in the sand and hope it goes away, much like they did when e-mail came on the scene. Instead of facing the issues these companies have decided to simply block employees access.

Blocking Access

The concerns for social media are similar to those in the 1990s when e-mail entered the workplace: productivity, data capture, privacy and security. The approach the same – block, refuse access, refer employees to old technology (oddly in the case of social media it is often e-mail!). But this is short-sighted, unrealistic and a passive approach that will eventually (if not already!) be seen as anti-productive.

Let’s look at the concerns companies have regarding social media:

Productivity: This has to be the most ridiculous of the reasons. 1) If employees want to be slack off all they need to do is go stand by someone else’s desk, go for a smoke break, chat at the water cooler, close their eyes and have a snooze. Let’s face it if you can’t trust your employees are doing their job…then you didn’t hire the right people or they are bored, unchallenged or unempowered. 2) If employees are allowed to use social media they can actually become more productive! (More on this in next post)

Data Capture/Management: Many social networks are easily followed, stored and saved. People have clearly moved beyond this issue with e-mail – and this can be accomplished with Social Networks. Ownership can be overcome by businesses as well by contracting space on sites for block of space that would be under control of the company as suggested by Salesforce.com precedent. Another alternative is to set up internal IM systems, social networks and Wikis for use with Internal Communication. While this does not help customer and vendor communication it can allow employees some use of tools that will help productivity while maintaining data security and capture.

Privacy and Security: This is a biggie, and closely related to data capture and management. Panic has ensued amongst business owners with regards to data privacy and corporate secrets. And, of course it can be an issue as more and more employees spend time on social networks discussing their lives (which includes work) with Facebook status changes, LinkedIn profiles, and of course the tweets on Twitter. Companies obviously want to limit and retain close control over sensitive company information, at the same time they also must find ways to engage and communicate directly with their customers (or risk losing them). As social media becomes increasingly interconnected and more customers EXPECT companies to be active on social networks it will become inadequate to simply block social media sites and use URL filtering. Instead companies can help alleviate the privacy and security (and avoid potential lawsuits) issues by creating policies and educating employees on safe data handling. (Note: There are also IT tools available on the market to help monitor, examine historic patterns of leaks and discover and eliminate malware that have in the past been issues with some Web 2.0 sites). Privacy and security is an issue whether your employees are using social media or not – but a easy to understand policy, and a central contact for questions related to privacy and security can help companies avoid future issues.

Net Generation at Work

Companies that decide to limit or block use of social media are not only unnecessarily limiting their communication with their customers through online methods, they are also forfeiting the chance to discover new tools for collaboration within the organization. By closing the company off from social media they are also driving away younger employees who are looking to work for companies whose culture fits their life and ideals.  Don Tapscott in his book Grown Up Digital says the “Net gener [age 18-32] arrives at work, eager to use his social networking tools to collaborate and create and contribute to the company. For starters he’s shocked to find that the company’s technological tools are more primitive than the ones he used in high school…And they are surprised, perhaps naively, to learn that corporations have antiquated ways of working.” These same Net Generation workers can, if given a chance, show companies how to collaborate in new ways more effectively and efficiently. But, these workers don’t stick around long according to Tapscott – they usually only last two years before moving on. Which is too bad since Tapscott’s research shows that those companies that embrace the Net Gen norms perform better than those that don’t..

This generation, of which I am a part of (well I missed it by a month…), view life and work different from other generations according to Tapscott – and that view is defined by 8 characteristics or norms: Freedom, Customization, Scrutiny, Openness, Fun/Entertainment in life and work, Collaboration, Speed, Innovation.

Tapscott definies these characteristics as they relate to work (summary):

Freedom: Net Geners expect to mix work and their personal lives, and this includes choosing when and where they work. They want flexible hours, the ability to telecommute, and other services that make their lives easier.

Customization: They want employers to treat them as individuals and this means giving them learning and development opportunities that are right for them. They want an adaptable work environment, job descriptions that are project based and customized, flexible benefits,  and more frequent discussions on their contribution to the organization.

Scrutiny: How we search for jobs has changed and how we research the company before we make a change has as well.  According to Grown Up Digital 60% of Net Geners check out a company before accepting a job offer. They want to work for companies that are transparent, share information, and have integrity. Tapscott says: “Young people respond well to management integrity…there is greater loyalty and lower turnover, and employees are more likely to do the right thing.” (For example more likely to get their job done even if they take a break to check Facebook, and more likely to hold company secrets sacred and follow company privacy policy).

Collaboration: Net Geners want to work with other people and collaboration is how they get stuff done. To them the workplace should be less about hierarchies and departmental silos and more about connecting with others to solve a problem. Using social networks, social bookmarking, Wikis, aps like LinkedIn Huddle Workpaces or Virtual worlds (Second Life) to meet, collaborate, plan, and execute.

Fun/Entertainment: Fun and work go hand in hand for this generation – they don’t need to be separate. Cultures that allow employees to have a little fun at work end up with more productive staff. We all need a break before diving back into another round of work – and if surfing on a social network is that little bit of fun – why block it?

Speed: This generation is used to speed and instant responses. Why not? We no longer have to wait for dial-up or snail mail! For Net Geners red tape is frustrating, feedback should be in real-time and bureaucracy can mean doom in the market. They use social media tools such as Wikis and IM to speed up communication within the workplace.

Innovation: This is a fascinating point Tapscott makes: “If video games taught this Net Generation anything, it’s that every problem has seemingly endless solutions” and so this generation is looking for new ways to their jobs, to be innovative in their workplace, to challenge status quo. Many of these young workers bring their knowledge of social media to the work place creating new communication channels, building collaborative work systems, and finding new ways to solve a business problem.

In the End

Social media such as instant messaging, blogging and social networks have gained ground as communication tools outside the workplace by leaps and bounds, and it is only a matter of time before they, like e-mail before them, become necessary and an acceptable part of the work place.  The concerns for productivity,  data management, and security and privacy are valid – however they can be overcome by education, corporate policy and new IT tools. Ultimately, if a company hires good people they will need less process and bureaucracy to police the space – as the employees in an open and empowered culture will be more likely to use social media tools wisely. Through using social media in the workplace employees will find new ways to harness collective knowledge, collaborate, and create ways to communication effectively internally and externally.

As always  – connect on Twitter and Google Friend Connet (right hand side). And, if you enjoyed this content – subscribe!

Images from Stocl.xchng (bigevil600, brokenarts, glennpeb)

Popularity: 100% [?]

Tags: facebook, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World HC, linkedin, socia, Social Bookmarking, social media, social network, twitter, Work

#GNO with @jessicaknows: A Summary of Twitter’s Girl’s Night Out

Jan 7, 2009 Advertising, Blogs, Books, Consumer Brands, Digital Marketing & Metrics, Microblogging, PR, Search Marketing, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Web Analytics, social networks, word of mouth

Jessicaknows

I missed some of the #GNO (Girls Night Out) discussion on Twitter last night so I went into Twitter Search and read the discussion. As always, it was a bit of a dizzying conversation last night – trying to keep up with the multitude of posts. So, it was difficult getting all the tips from @jessicaknows during the discussion.

I tried to pull as much as I could into this compilation. I hope this helps others as well.

Attracting PR Peeps for your Blog

A lot of participants were interested in reviewing more products and wondered how to go about doing this more often.

@jessicaknows said that she doesn’t think that there is a magic number with regards to traffic on your site in attracting PR. She noticed a lot of attention once she had about 20,000 monthly visitors to her blog. However, she suggests if you write about the products you are passionate about the PR folks will follow.

My two cents: She is absolutely correct, while the PR people will look for an engaged community the numbers may not matter as much if you are passionate and are considered an “influencer”. In this case, your review would simply be the tip of the iceberg. An influencer will tend to spread “word of mouth” throughout a variety of networks online and offline -giving a lot of added value to the campaign – beyond the blog post.  I hope to write more posts on books in 2009 since that is my passion. I don’t have 20,000 monthly visitors – but I have already received two books for review in the past. (Dan Ariely – Predictibly Irrational and Don Tapscott – Grown Up Digital)

Use Social Media to Build Your Own Community

@jessicaknows suggests that you pick 3 social media tools & be consistent use them everyday. She uses three social networks: Twitter (obviously), Facebook and LinkedIn. She also uses StumbleUpon for bookmarking regularly. She uses LinkedIn to connect with lots of PR folks, and mom owned business she can partner and work with in the future. On Facebook she prefers to “friend” people she knows in real-life and friends she has met on other social networks (Twitter for example). For users concerned with privacy and sharing with virtual friends she had a great idea to have a user profile for personal use and a Fan Page for your business/blog/website. While the Fan Page will show you as an author, “fans” will have to request to be a friend in order to see your Facebook profile.

My two cents: I post all blog posts to Twitter and Facebook. I try to avoid using the robot when I have the time by personally summarizing the newest post in my status/tweet.  Twitter is also a great place to promote DIY or How To Posts to people who are looking for specific help. I use Tweetburner to track click-through, which can give me an idea of how successful the tweet/status was. Note – don’t just do self-promotion, make sure you tweet other content outside of your own that you think your followers will find value in.

I have just started using StumbleUpon but I have definitely seen some traffic to my site through my profile. StumbleUpon allows you to find “friends” that have similar interests to you which is a great way to find new and interesting websites. Stumble others and perhaps they will Stumble you. All about Karma!

Couple other thoughts on Social Media:
- Use Video to promote your site by placing your URL in videos posted to YouTube
- Participate in Forums and Discussion groups in your topic area
- There are niche Social Networks that you can be involved in TwitterMoms, ClassyCloset and more…Create a profile and participate in the community
- Comment, comment, comment on other blogs. This is an easy way to promote your blog on other similar sites, and show some love to other bloggers.
- Try to link to other bloggers in your blog posts when possible. Give credit where credit is due, and share great information with your community.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

There was a great discussion around SEO last night during the #GNO.  There were folks on all ends of the spectrum – from questions such as “What is SEO?” to helpful tips from experts. @jessicaknows suggests that this is an important part of driving traffic to your website. For Wordpress bloggers she recommends the SEO Plug-in, and she has signed up for SEOBook training to get up to speed on SEO.

My two cents: Having attended SES Toronto last year, I am a believer in SEO for building traffic to your site. I use All-in-One SEO Plug-in for my WordPress blog. I use H1, H2, H3 headers where possible in my blog posts, and try to include Keywords without sounding “canned”.  SEO is great, but you also must use Analytics to compliment your SEO work.  If you aren’t following your stats you won’t be able to measure your success, see what is working and what isn’t, and see where you might have holes. Your Analytics program can also tell you before you start SEO efforts what Keywords are driving traffic to your site, and later on you should follow data for trends in keywords and content that you may not have noticed otherwise.

My SEO for Marketers post is a good SEO 101 for new comers, and watch next week for my Google Analytics Series for Bloggers. Also, take a peak at my “learnings” from my analytics a little while ago

Blogger Relations and Onsite Details

A lot of blogger etiquette and on-site promotional ideas were brought up during the discussion, here are some of the points:

• It is all about helping others: @jessicaknows says “I establish relationships by learning about other ppl’s goals & what they’re all about & then introduce to each other”. This includes helping to promote blogs she believe in the most through her sites. I love this quote from her “it’s so easy…the key word is SOCIAL…use the “have a friend, be a friend” mantra in business and you can’t go wrong”
• Write often, and be consistent. She tries to write daily if she can. Obviously that isn’t feasible for everyone – but I know if I blog 2-3 times a week my traffic remains higher than if I blog 1 time a week. Perhaps that is just a no-brainer.
• Encourage conversation and open up channels for two way conversation.
  
• Show personality in your posts
  
• Offer Blog giveaways (check out @jessicaknows 15 days of Marketing Post on Giveaways)
• Attend offline events (Tweetups, Conferences)
  

For those of you who were at Girl’s Night Out – did I miss anything? Any other hints and tips to encourage traffic?

Popularity: 36% [?]

Tags: #gno, blogging, girls night out, jessicaknows, marketing & communication, promotion, seo, traffic, twitter, Web Analytics, web traffic

My Top 15 Web 2.0 Sites

Nov 24, 2008 Blogs, Consumer Brands, Marketing & Communication, Microblogging, RSS, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, social networks

In no particular order, these are my favourite Web 2.0 site. These sites allow us to collaborate, share, and communicate with others.

Facebook: I never would have reconnected with so many people if it weren’t for Facebook (perhaps that wouldn’t be a bad thing!) How else would I know that a former co-worker I no longer keep in touch with has had a baby, that a high school friend is a terribly annoying Zombie, and someone I only know briefly from University has an incredible need to invite me to parties I will never ever go to. Of course I also wouldn’t have met up with a few old room mates for coffee and been able to catch up with some other friends who continue to have lots of common interests with me!

>LinkedIn: LinkedIn is another social network, but this one is unique as it appeals to people interested in professional networking. You won’t find Vampires or Scrabulous on LinkedIn, but you will find professional groups, job postings, and the ability to connect with people in your field of expertise or future employers! Post your profile including your career history and start finding your network.

Flickr: A great way to share photos with friends, family and the world. Tag anyway you like, and receive comments from people who view your work. You can of course create sets/albums, and share your “photostream” on many social networks beyond Flickr. Flickr also allows you to make your albums private.

Del.icio.us: Not only can I now take my bookmarks to any computer I happen to be on, I can easily share with family and friends the links I think they will find useful. As an added bonus I subscribe to key “tags” that interest me: “wordofmouth”, “socialmedia” etc. My bookmarks used to be a long list of random unorganized sites, now they are categorized under multiple groupings making them easy to find when I need them.

Slideshare: Looking for inspiration? Want to share your brilliant presentations? Share slideshows with friends, colleagues or the world. You can also add sound and create your own “webinar”. Post your presentations on Slideshare then embed on a website, or share on social networks easily. Slideshare is great for collaboration, and sharing knowledge at the workplace ond beyond. If you have attended a recent conference (especially on tech) – there is a good chance the slides are posted here.

Google Reader: Google Reader is the bane of my existence and the love of my life. A plethora of information, and a suck of my time. It makes it so easy to subscribe to wonderful content…that I keep subscribing to more and more. Leaving me little time to read them! I have just recently re-organized and I think I have found a way to master the information overload. Watch for a future post. If you love blogs – I recommend Google Reader as your aggregator.

YouTube: Hours wasted here! I love YouTube. I have posted videos (of my son – for the joy of his grandparents), and I have watched videos, and taken my favourites and embedded them in my blog. How great is that, watch, create and share!

Books: Living Social: Being a book lover I immediately added the Visual Bookshelf application on Facebook. (now called Living Social: Books), Books: Living Social allows you to see what friends are reading and reviewing, catalogue your own books (want to read, reading, and have already read!) A great “social” way to find new books to read. Living Social also has other interests you can add to your Facebook (Myspace and Bebo) profiles: Television Shows, Movies, Beer, Video Games, Restaurants, Albums.  And, they just introduced a new widget for your blog or social network

Google Docs: Google Docs which includes a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Form creator, and Presentation program are perfect for collaborating at work or at school. Forget the messy “tracking” changes, or e-mails back and forth with suggestions for changes – make real time changes whenever you want in Google Docs. You can even work on the document at the same time as one of the other team members.

Wikipedia: Have you ever been at a party or a get-together and a random trivia question pops up. Invariably someone says “google it” and out pops a laptop or mobile device. Someone looks up Piranha eating habits, or the origin of the carnival, and likely one of the first search results is Wikipedia. The best example of the “wisdom of crowds” has to be the collaborative Wikipedia. Just look something up – or contribute.

Twitter: This is the social network / blogging platform I wish I had more time for. For the uninformed please read my Twitter 101 post. Twitter asks the question “what are you doing now?” and you “tweet” using 140 characters or less to share with your followers just what is on your mind. It can be as menial as what you are eating for breakfast, or as mind-blowing as breaking news. People share stories, news, links of interest, and opinions on everything from coffee makers to politics. Twitter has even become an avenue for businesses to offer customer service. Search for people in your neck of the woods or people that share common interests. I follow people all over the world!

Adium: I recently added Adium, a chat application for Macs to my computer. With Adium I can log into all my IM accounts with one program. I have it set up to log me in to MSN, ICQ, Gmail, and even Facebook chat.

Skype: My son would likely forget what Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kim looked like if it wasn’t for Skype. They live in another country and so it is rare that my three year old gets to see them in person. Skype allows them to see each other and chat for free! We also talk to his grandparents (and great grandmother) this way! His grandmother was able to read him a bedtime story from Nova Scotia. How neat is that! Hey, even Oprah is using Skype.

Friendfeed: Friendfeed allows you to bring all your “feeds” together. Create a newsfeed by sharing what you are doing on Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and others Web 2.0 sites. Follow your friends activities and comment on any of them! There are also “Rooms” where members can share on a particular topic. You can subscribe to your Friendfeed in an aggregator so you never miss a beat.

Wordpress: Where would I be without Wordpress, the platform this blog is built on!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Tags: delicious, facebook, flickr, living social, twitter, youtube

Google Analytics

Oct 3, 2007 RSS, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Web Analytics

MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over Again has been live for almost 3 months now. Since the start I have used Google Analytics to track traffic to my site. I also use Feedburner to understand how my site is used through RSS aggregators such as Google Reader and Bloglines.

In the last three months in order to publicize my site I have:

1. Shared my site through my Google Reader Shared Items (learn more about Google Reader from my previous post!)
2. Posted my site to Del.ici.ous (Start Social Bookmarking – check out Social Bookmarking 101, and 201!)
3. Added my URL to Facebook profile
4. Added notes on Facebook about my new blog and new posts (3 times). Currently I only import my Mommy Blog to my Facebook profile
5. Occasionally linked to my blog from Twitter (If you aren’t Twittering…why not?
6. Had my IM message as http://www.megoagain.com/
7. Added my blog to directories such a Blog Catalog, Blogorama and Technorati
8. Talk about it constantly to anyone who will listen
   I have not made a huge effort to publicize my site outside of my circle of friends and virtual acquaintances, but I am pleased with the traffic to my site! If anyone has other ideas of how to “share” my blog – please post a comment!

So the results so far: (for those of you who get thousands of hits a day…don’t laugh..I am just starting out!)

- Total visits 650
- 58% are returning visitors

- Visitors are from all over the world:

71% Canada
16% US
7% UK
6% includes Australia, Israel, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Germany, India, Lithuania, Malasia, Switzerland, Russia, Japan, Ukraine, United Arab Emigrates, South Korea, Finland and Mexico

- Based on the Network Location I have had visitors from:

Conair (since I work here that makes sense!)
General Mills
Loblaw Companies Inc
Canadian Bar Association ( I believe that is one of my friends)
Air Canada
Bank of Nova Scotia
Canadian House of Commons
Cargo Jet
Grace Maternity Hospital (Halifax)
Landscape Ontario
RIM
TD Bank
Playboy
Edelman PR Worldwide
and more…

Traffic has come from direct (41%) or referring sites (44%). Search made up 15%.

- Direct (41%)
- Blogger (17%)
- Google (15%) -
- Facebook (7%)
- Other referring sites 20%

Most popular posts:

- A Stock Issue
- New Concept Loblaws
- Productivity at the Workplace

If I look at my Feedburner stats (which honestly I don’t really understand…other than it should help me determine who has subscribed to my site through an RSS reader) – I have anywhere from between 11 and 21 subscribers – the majority who use Google Reader.

www.megoagain.com

Popularity: 5% [?]

I am not alone

Sep 27, 2007 RSS, Social Bookmarking

Last night was the first class in the E-marketing Certificate offered by the CMA (Canadian Marketing Association). In my new role as Marketing Manager, I am now responsible for the websites for the Kitchen Division. I am thrilled at this, because as my loyal readers will know I am slightly obsessed with anything to do with social media and the internet.

I have, since I started reading blogs, and playing with social media – been tirelessly promoting it to friends, colleagues and family members. I don’t do this because I like to hear myself talk. Nor do I enjoy the belittling remarks made by others – like yesterday “Michelle and her little forums or whatever…” I do it because I truly believe that as Marketers, or indeed anyone who works with products or services (or with the products/services of their clients) has a duty to at least understand new technology, what it enables us (aka consumers) to do, how it changes the way we communicate and blah blah blah. So my story to my friends, colleagues and family members has been:
- Learn to use RSS
- Play with Social Bookmarking
- Try Twitter
- Use Facebook…
- Read some good blogs (I have a list for you to start with on the side…)

Last night Michael Seaton – the teacher (from Client Side Blog and Podcast) said it best – he said that these are the tools of the trade, a toolkit so to speak. He talked about blogs and how you could learn a lot just by reading a few key blogs.

So now I know that I am not alone in how I feel about digital and social media. In fact, there was an entire class ready to learn and take it back to their respective companies – just as I hope to do with what I learn. Friends and colleagues, forgive me, but I must persist in my constant rambling about this “stuff” – as so many of you call it. Maybe one of these days I will convert someone…(other than my mother – mom you are just too much of tech-aholic)

That is why I started MEGO to begin with.

www.megoagain.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

Social Bookmarking: Top 30

Aug 12, 2007 Social Bookmarking

eBIZ MBA just posted the top 30 Social Bookmarking sites. If you aren’t familiar with at least 2 of the top 10 – you really need to wipe the dust off your monitor.

1. Digg
2. Netscape
3. Technorati
4. Del.icio.us
5. Fark
6. StumbleUpon
7. MyBlogLog
8. reddit
9. Kaboodle
10. Slashdot

For the full list visit eBizMBA.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Social Bookmarking: 201

Aug 12, 2007 Social Bookmarking

Two days after I posted my Social Bookmarking 101 article – this appeared in my feeds from Mashable. from Common Craft. It will explain Social Bookmarking visually

Enjoy!

www.megoagain.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

Social Bookmarking 101

Aug 7, 2007 Social Bookmarking

Some of my readers likely already know what social bookmarking is, some of you may already frequent Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia or StumbleUpon, but I suspect there are a few of you who are thinking “social what?”

Most of us bookmark our favourite websites, we go to the “Bookmarks” menu in our browser and click “Bookmark this Page”. We also spend a lot of time copying and pasting URLs into emails to our friends – “Hey, check out this hilarious video” or “Read this, he is right on the mark!” Social bookmarking combines these two tasks into one, and so much more.

In social bookmarking, users store links to web pages that they find useful – just as they would in their browsers “bookmarks” or “favourite” menu. However, these link lists are either accessible to the public or to a specific network, meaning other people with similar interests can view the links by category, randomly or by tags.

Tags: An Introduction

Tags are a popular topic on this blog it seems! So, what is the big deal with “tags”? With the quantity of information being added to the web everyday we have arrived at a point where the content simply exceeds the ability of anyone to categorize or index it all! The task of processing all that content poses an overwhelming problem – how do you maintain a taxonomy to accommodate the pace at which new content is produced. Solutions are emerging as technology advances- and one such solution is Tagging. Tags categorize the information by the use of informally assigned, user-defined keywords. By harnessing the power of the large network of humans using the Internet – anyone can contribute to the categorizing of the net – we are able to build and refine the taxonomy as the need arises.

This type of tagging, also known as folksonomy is used on numerous online services including Flickr and Del.icio.us. The key to these systems is that it is collaborative and open – there is no rigid taxonomy. Users can assign whatever tags or labels that they want. To the organized this type of open categorizing might seem more like chaos. With no one controlling the tags, users will obviously develop multiple terms for the same thing. For example if you want to find web sites related to cars you might have to look up “cars” and “automobile or for the city of Toronto you might have to look up “Toronto”, “T.O.” or “GTA“. Of course by looking up “GTA” you will not only find websites about the “Greater Toronto Area” but websites about the game “Grand Theft Auto”. But, as Chris Anderson stated in The Long Tail:

“These probabilistic systems aren’t perfect, but they are statistically optimized to excel over time and large numbers.There designed to “scale” or improve with size. A little slop at the microscale is the price of efficiency at the macroscale.”

Perhaps, order appears out of the chaos.

Del.icio.us: The Basics

For the purpose of this blog post I am going to focus on Del.icio.us simply because it is the one I use. I have recently started using StumbleUpon but I will leave that to a future post. Del.icio.us allows you to import your current bookmarks, which means if you have bookmarks at home and work you can merge these favourites and access them from any computer.

Once you have registered you will be invited to install Del.icio.us buttons and menu onto your browser. The buttons make it a one-click process to add any website you want to your Del.icio.us bookmarks.

Import Your Bookmarks
By visiting the “Settings” page (top right hand corner) you can at any time import your bookmarks from your browser. The instructions on how to save your bookmarks will differ by browser. Essentially you will have to export your bookmarks as an HTML file and then import that file into Del.icio.us. You can edit these bookmarks, add notes, and tags. You can also delete them.

Add New Bookmarks
With your Del.icio.us browser buttons you can simply click on the “TAG” button to add a new bookmark. For example let’s say I am going to tag “Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things” . A window will pop-up :

The URL will already be listed, and often so will the Description (if the site had previously been bookmarked). All you have to do is add your notes and your tags that will help you find the URL later (or to explain the website to friends). So for Boing Boing you might use:

Description: A directory of the weird and wonderful
Tags: blogs culture

For pages that have already been bookmarked by others you will be given a list of suggested tags or “popular tags”. Once you have started bookmarking – it may also give you “recommended tags” a list pulled from your existing list of labels.

Share Your Bookmarks
If all Del.icio.us did was save your bookmarks so that you can access them from anywhere – it would be a cool app – but mediocre. That is, of course, not all you can do! Just by posting a link and tagging it you are sharing it with other Del.icio.us users. (You can make links private too – just visit the “Settings” section for details on how to do this.)

If I want to share this hilarious video, (Warning: I think it is funny, Anton says its annoying) called Fast Food Freestyle. It has been saved by only 8 people (apparently not too many people think this is amusing). If I wanted to share this with my network as I am tagging it I will be given the opportunity under “Your Network” – where it will list people in my network – and I just click to share! If , however, you want to share a link that you have already bookmarked you will need to click on “edit” by the URL link, this will bring up the basic fields: URL, Description, and tag. For some reason you need to go to the bottom of this box to “Full-screen edit” – in order to bring up the “Your Network” list. From here find your friend and click to add them. I sent the link to my brother the blogger over at OMOVO – so Jeff did you think it was funny?

Find New Bookmarks
For example you want to find out more about the television show Heroes. You can find bookmarked sites a few different ways:

• In the upper right hand corner type “Heroes” and choose Del.icio.us – click Search. This will show you a list of sites either tagged “Heroes” or with “Heroes” in the title. It will also show you a list of related tags (tv games series nathan/peter television) so that you can continue your search.
• Set up a “Subscription”. At the top of the page click on “Subscriptions”, then on the right hand side (bottom of the blue box) click “edit”. On this next page there are two fields “tag” and “Only from this user”. In the tag field type “heroes” and subscribe. You could use the “only from this user” if you happened to notice a user that had similar taste and you wanted to make sure you kept up -to-date on their Heroes bookmarks.

You can of course just browse

• Browse your network, just click on the top where it says “Your Network”. This will bring up the latest bookmarks saved by your network of users. You can scan page by page using the bottom bar “earlier/later”. Or on the right hand side you could simply choose the user name you are interested in browsing.
• I have a subscription set up to find bookmarks on “wordofmouth“, if I happen to see a URL I like, I could also check out other bookmarks the user has posted – just by clicking on their user name. I can then browse through their bookmarks.
• At the top right hand side of the page you can click on “Popular” for the hottest bookmarks, or “recent” for bookmarks just tagged by other users.
• You can also start at the homepage and browse through the “Hot list” and “Tags to Watch” section.

So, start sharing your bookmarks!

Join my network (click on the right)
Subscribe to my Del.icio.us Feed

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