The Steve Rubel Lifestream

Insights on emerging technologies and trends.

Search

Tags

Video: Engaging Employees in the Age of Streams

Pete Cashmore from Mashable calls 2010 the year of digital distraction - and he's spot on. The deluge of information is only going to increase, which is going to make reaching people harder than ever. Mark Evans recommends focusing on quality not quantity - which is something I have started to do.

While so much attention focuses on just what the Attention Crash means for consumers and marketers, there's another story looming. Companies will also need to fight the internal and external noise just to engage their own workforce.

Earlier this month I spoke at the Edelman Change and Employee Engagement Summit on this topic. I offered three potential solutions, which are summarized here, In addition, you can see more in this nine minute excerpt from my talk. 

Has your company changed the way it communicates with you?

Loading mentions Retweet
4 Comments

Google Prioritizes Real-Time Results Over Official Twitter Accounts

It used to be easy to find an official Twitter account. You'd go to Google, type in the name of the company or celebrity or product and the official (or squatted) Twitter account using that proper noun came out on top. Not any more.

As of this writing if you Google up any company name or celebrity - even a dead one - and also include the word Twitter, Google will now prioritize a real-time stream of results over the official presence. This basically bumps anyone down slightly who was hoping to set up a Twitter account for SEO. A gallery of examples follows. 

Oh and it's not just big names either. It applies to me as well.

       
Click here to download:
Google_Prioritizes_Real-Time_R.zip (321 KB)

Loading mentions Retweet
5 Comments

As the Decade Closes, Has RSS Faded Too?


The decade is coming to an end. And with it, so has the era of feeds too faded - though you can argue it never got off the ground. Even with real-time technologies like pubsubhubbub, RSS today feels slow and it's clear its best days are behind it. Feed reading, like blogging, feels "very 2005." I wasn't convinced until recently, however.

Until a few weeks ago, this die-hard techie was clinging to Google Reader like a disco maniac might his eight-tracks. I felt like the last hold out; the guy still dancing to the Bee Gees when everyone else had gone punk - and maybe I was. 

Now, however, slowly but surely I am moving more of my consumption out of RSS and into the Twitter stream. Twitter, not blogs, long ago became the focal point for reading and conversing around news for many. So it's natural, as this report on Read Write Web indicates, that most of us who were even using RSS readers to begin with have ditched them and have moved to tracking news in the stream instead. And we're not alone. According to Forrester, eight percent of US online adults post and read updates on Twitter at least monthly.

Personally, this is something I resisted for three reasons: a) I like full text feeds, b) there was a lack of organization/lists and c) Twitter remains very dependent on "now," making saving and digesting information at a later date in a Tivo-like way all the more difficult. That all changed with the advent of Twitter lists. 

Nowadays I am bringing it all into Gmail, which other than my corporate email account is my sole productivity and social Ginsu Knife. I already publish to my Posterous-powered lifestream site via email. Couple that with Twitgether, a full-blown real-time Gmail Twitter client, NutshellMail for tracking social network interactions like replies and Listimonkey to bring me Twitter lists every hour via email (pictured above), my Google Reader is starting to get lonely.

How about you? Are there any die-hard RSS users out there who have not succumb to the stream?
Loading mentions Retweet
tags:
70 Comments

Twitter Is... Well, You Know

Confused about Twitter? Maybe we all need to simply spell it out just like they do on the Monitcello web site...


Loading mentions Retweet
6 Comments

Search the Live Web with Two Simple Bookmarklets


I have become addicted to Google's new real-time search feature. It's an incredible window onto the world's psyche. However, it's somewhat lacking in one small way.

By default, Google doesn't serve up real-time results for most searches. It only does so for topics that are in the news or the conversation zeitgeist. For example, as of this writing, a search for the phrase "Google" doesn't turn up any real-time results. Compare this with any of the terms listed on Google Trends, all of which will automatically feature real-time results. 

If you want to easily access Google real-time results for any query, all you need is two simple bookmarklets.

The first bookmarklet once triggered will reveal the latest status updates from Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook and others. If you select text on a page it will automatically pull it into a query. If you don't select any text, the bookmarklet will pop up a box for you to enter a query.
javascript:x=escape(getSelection());if(!x)%7Bvoid(x=prompt('%20-%20Google%20Real-time%20Updates:',''))%7D;window.location='http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=en&tbo=1&output=search&tbs=mbl:1&q='+x
The second bookmarklet is broader - it pulls in all real-time results from blogs, news sources and Twitter and like the one above will work on pre-selected text or a new query.
javascript:x=escape(getSelection());if(!x)%7Bvoid(x=prompt('%20-%20Google%20Real-time%20Search:',''))%7D;window.location='http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=en&tbo=1&tbs=rltm:1&q='+x
Both bookmarklets should work in various browsers. I tested them in Safari and Firefox. All you need to do is create a bookmark with the precise URL listed above. (For some reason I can't get javascript code to link properly on Posterous, otherwise I wold have done so.)
Loading mentions Retweet
18 Comments

Three Observations from Le Web

Earlier this week I attended Le Web in Paris. It was my first time at the conference. Loic and Geraldine Le Meur did an awesome job bringing together a mix of Americans and Europeans for what, as far as I can tell, is the only truly global Internet industry event. Here are my three takeaways coming out of Le Web...

One of the great untold stories is just how much Facebook and Twitter are growing off-site. Facebook announced they reach 60 million through Facebook Connect. Meanwhile nearly half of Twitter's activity takes place away from Twitter.com - they reported. Both platforms are quietly becoming a social operating systems for the web, not just their own sites.

Second, nowadays no two people see the same Internet. This was a key point that Facebook made, saying that we increasingly discover online content not just by algortihms but via the "lens of friends." Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd brought this to life through rich, moving stories. Google's Marissa Mayer went a step further saying that the future of news is a "personalized news stream." This trend has major implications for marketers and PR pros who are accustomed to reaching everyone the same way - it's simply not possible anymore.

Finally there's a ton of energy around the live web. It feels like everyone from Google to governments gets its import. Perhaps Queen Rania of Jordan summed it up best when she said: "real time is the new prime time."

Le Web was a great conference. If you can, I recommend trying to go at least once. Not only was the content good but the networking was too. I got to meet many European startups that are all quietly innovating.

Loading mentions Retweet
11 Comments

How Twitter is Rewiring My Brain - and Maybe Yours

These days - perhaps a function of my lifestyle - the mobile device is becoming my primary content reading and browsing tool. This is slowly changing my habits and I wonder if this is part of a larger trend.

With the advent of Twitter lists, I find myself dipping in and out of the stream to catch up not only on news but blog posts from friends and companies whose products and services I use or have more than a passing interest. However the changes in how I interact with media go deeper than news.

I am an avid reader. Each year I read several dozen books - exclusively nonfiction (call me boring, it's ok).

Where I used to finish one book before picking up the next, nowadays, I keep a virtual shelf of books on my iPhone and dip in and out in Twitter-like bursts of time. This could never work for fiction but it suits me fine.

So Twitter is definitely reconditioning this 40-year-old toward a new way of living. How about you?

Loading mentions Retweet
25 Comments

Gifts for Those Who Have Everything... the Cloud

My AdAge column this week covers three cloud services you can buy as gifts for the digerati in your life: Evernote Premium, DropBox and GigaOm Pro...

The holiday crush is on and the clock is ticking. But what do you get the geek or coworker in your life who has (or wants) everything? How about something intangible: a web-service subscription.

Over the last few years, as I have moved more of my life into "the cloud," I have started to rely on a handful of such services. They keep me in sync, in the know and in touch. Here are three that passed my "30-day test."

Loading mentions Retweet
3 Comments

Friendster Relaunches

It was nice to get an email from Friendster today about their relaunch, detailed below. I wouldn't count them out. You never know who can make a comeback today. Just as it's easy for a site to come out of nowhere and dominate, it's equally possible that an existing player can find their footing again. Worth watching...

Loading mentions Retweet
4 Comments

Taking Brainstorming to the Twitter Hive

Jeff Kirvin is open sourcing his novel by turing to Twitter (the hive) to help. I bet this will become even more common going forward...
"But because I was too close to the source material, I couldn’t think of another way to do it. So I asked Twitter.
jeffkirvin
How would you kill something that had nanites in its blood that repair damage (injuries, aging) almost as fast as they happen? #research"

 

Loading mentions Retweet
0 Comments
Steve Rubel

Steve Rubel

Steve Rubel (bio) is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman - the world's largest independent PR firm.

He is charged with helping clients identify emerging technologies and trends that can be applied in marketing communications programs. He also explores these topics on his lifestream site, a monthly Forbes.com column and in a bi-weekly AdAge column.

Steve can be reached via email at steverubel@gmail.com.

Note: Everything posted on this site is Steve's personal opinion. It does not represent the views of Edelman or its clients.

Follow steverubel on Twitter

My Other Sites
               
Subscriptions