Social media is supposed to be about communication, but do people listen to you when you use the medium?

Followers, friends, connections, buddies, whatever-they’re-called-on-LinkedIn (sorry, I just can’t bother with it)… whatever they’re called on whatever services you use, they’re not what you think they are. Chances are, they’re not listeners – and you need them to be.

Let’s use Twitter terminology from here. There’s a huge difference between a follower and a listener. A follower is a statistic. A follower is merely a part of a tally found on your Twitter page. A listener is engaged. A listener takes the time to read what you put out there. A listener may not always answer your call to action, but at least he hears your call to action – a follower doesn’t.

There are lots of ways to ensure that you have a great follower-to-listener ratio. Be personable. Be passionate. Be likable – or at least notable. Be witty, funny or thought-provoking. Be interesting.

How do you ensure that nobody listens to you? Here’s two examples. Both of these people started following me, and I always check out the streams of those who follow me before following them back (or not).

On the left, someone who never interacts, and updates his status with the most inane, boring statements someone could make. On the right, someone who only ever retweets other people while occasionally posting tech headlines that are readily available from places like TechCrunch or Mashable.

Don’t be these people. More importantly, let’s send a message that this is the wrong way to use the medium by not following them back – even if you’re planning on ignoring them. Accounts with 20,000 followers that look like the above examples only encourage others.

So there’s that. Are you working to turn followers into listeners?

When the iPad was first released—has it really only been 3.5 months?—I railed against it for being nothing more than an oversized iPod Touch. I didn’t see the value of it, I didn’t see where it could fit between a smartphone and a laptop (especially if the smartphone was an iPhone and the laptop was a Macbook Pro).

The screen was too small. There was no camera. The screen wasn’t the right aspect ratio, wasn’t true HD. No multitasking. Awkward to type on. Goofy name. You know the list. You’ve been hearing it since the device was announced back in January.

But then a funny thing happened. Apple sold a few million of ‘em. People in the really real world, not the bizarre faux-world that tech journalists tend to inhabit, started to give their opinions about the iPad. By and large, people love this thing. The lack of multitasking that all the tech bloggers said would kill the iPad? Didn’t matter. Remember how all the ‘experts’ said this thing was going to be a disaster?

I was down on it for less common reasons. I didn’t care that it couldn’t multitask because I was used to that on my iPhone. I didn’t care that there wasn’t a camera because I can count on one hand how many times I’ve used the camera on my Macbook Pro. The main reason I wasn’t sold on it was that I simply couldn’t imagine where and how I would use it if I already owned both an iPhone and the aforementioned Macbook Pro.

When the reports started coming in from real world users, I started to change my mind. I started to realize that a 9.7″ device could work really well in my life; I could velcro it to the wall in my kitchen for referencing recipes, I could use it to read any book ever written to my kids at night, I could use it in the car for maps like I do with my iPhone, only larger. I could do all these things with my Macbook, but mine is the 17″ model – velcro is out of the question, it’s awkward to read on while laying in bed next to the kids, and there’s no 3g access built-in, so maps in the car aren’t possible. These are only a very few of the many uses I came up with.

I started to really warm up to the idea of getting an iPad. Then I got the iPhone 4.

Now I’m back to swearing off the iPad… temporarily. You may have heard about the iPhone 4′s “Retina Display” – the device has 326ppi (that’s pixels per inch) and it looks amazing. It’s got cameras. It’s got multitasking. It’s got a lot of things that people have been bitching about for a long time. What do you think the odds are that this stuff isn’t going to be in the next iteration of iPad?

The display alone is worth the wait, to me. These things ain’t cheap, after all. I’ll wait until the announcements come for the next version of iPad – probably either before Christmas this year or early next year – and I’ll make a decision then. If there’s no retina display, no major hardware upgrades, maybe I’ll just go ahead and get one then. But if those hardware improvements are coming, I’ll feel pretty damn great about not spending my $700 on a first generation iPad. It’s not like I need one… right?

A good writer posts updates like this to Twitter:

A poor writer would have phrased it:

Some people act like jackasses on our forums and then they’re like, I’m a subscriber! like that makes a difference. lol. asshats.

Jason Snell is the editor for Macworld magazine, and a good writer. The internet has lowered the standards of communication; it’s nothing new, but as more and more people participate online, it seeps into our culture. I’m fighting back. There’s no better way than by making an effort in my own life and setting a good example.

I’ve never been that bad when it comes to abuse of the language, certainly never egregiously so. I’m making a commitment to higher standards, regardless. I don’t want to be perceived as boorish by anyone.

On Tuesday, [Conde Nast] announced it would resurrect Gourmet magazine, the celebrated food and travel publication the company discontinued in October, as an iPad application called Gourmet Live.

via Gourmet Magazine Revived for the iPad – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com.

In the comments of this article, Leucas wrote:

“Other than some fancier UI, IPad apps for magazines are just glorified Web pages”

Exactly. I’m always perplexed by those in the tech media who gush over magazines being ported to the iPad (or its inevitable rivals). The further away from the print version they get, the closer to being a website they become. And what is so inherently special about a website?

I was recently introduced to Blackbird Pie, a pretty slick method of quoting Twitter updates. Bloggers who wanted to quote Twitter updates have had two options: get a screen capture and post the image or quote the update in plain text with a plain text link to it. The former was a bit of a hassle, the latter was a bit boring, visually. With Blackbird Pie, we can have the style of posting a screen cap and the ease of copy/pasting plain text (links included).

The benefits of quoting Twitter updates in this fashion should be clear. From an SEO point of view, having text on the page rather than a screen cap is a plus. You’ve also got live links in there as well. If you’re quoting yourself, as I am here for the demonstration, you’re promoting your Twitter presence with a live link and a link directly to the update which users will appreciate.

Get the Blackbird Pie Bookmarklet

The most effective way to generate the code you need to display the quoted Twitter update is to use a browser bookmarket, available from Publitweet. The premise is simple: drag the bookmarklet into your browser’s bookmarks bar, and when you visit the page you’d like to quote, push the button. Copy and paste the resulting code into your website. Easy!

There is also a WordPress plugin for inserting Blackbird Pie code, but I found it to be overly tedious. Rather than giving us a simple button in the Upload/Insert menu on the Edit Post tool, we’re required to use shortcodes. If you’re going to go to Twitter to get the ID of the update anyway, why not just use the browser bookmarklet and get the code immediately? Until the plugin streamlines the process of inserting the proper code, the bookmarklet is the way to go.

I’ve noted before that I really don’t care who follows me on Twitter. Spammer, scammer, porn bot, marketer, whatever – I don’t care. That doesn’t mean I don’t notice things in my follower list, though. I gain new followers infrequently enough that I opt to recieve emails from Twitter telling me when someone new follows me. I notice.

I’ve been using Twitter for just over three years. In that time, I’ve amassed about 950 followers. Now, I’m not foolish enough to believe that I’ve got 950 people paying attention to me, but the number is what it is. Over the past day or two, that number has gone up by over a hundred, putting me at 1,075 (at the time of this writing). Three years, 950. Less than three days, another 125 – and growing.

Now, I’d like to say that it’s due to something that I wrote here or something that I posted somewhere else, but the truth is that every single person who has followed me in the past couple of days has been the result of my joining the 30 Day Challenge. All of the “people” who started following me have around 5,000 followers, they’re following about an equal amount, and they have anywhere from 0 to 100 tweets. That’s right, zero tweets. Some of these people racked up 5,000 followers without tweeting a damn thing.

Do I care if they’re following me? Nope. Nothing’s changed in that regard. Will I follow any of them back? Hell, no. These people provide no value. They’re all – every single one of them – pitching various internet get-rich-quick schemes. You have to be either brain dead or one of them to follow any of them back. Come to think of it, I’m not sure those two things are mutually exclusive.

Update, June 10th

Interestingly, nearly all the followers I picked up have disappeared. I don’t know if it’s because Twitter deleted their accounts (possible, even likely) or if it’s because they all simultaneously figured out that I wasn’t going to follow them back. Either way, they’re gone now.

I think I’ve come up with a good answer to the question isn’t switching to a Mac hard?

It’s not hard; it’s not hard at all. It looks a little different. You need to get used to having the close/minimize/maximize buttons on the top left. You need to get used to having the menu bar at the top of the screen, not at the top of the window. But really, the two operating systems are, for the average user, very similar. Here’s my short answer; feel free to use it whenever someone asks you about switching to a Mac.

Switching to a Mac isn’t like learning Japanese when you’ve spoken English all your life. It’s more like, you’ve spoken English all your life, then you move to New York.

…at least, for TweetDeck users.

I’ve just installed the latest update to the venerable Twitter client, version 0.34.2. Apparently, the 0.34 line was released back in March, but being as far ahead of the curve as I am, it’s like I’m behind it. Actually, I am behind it. Well, whatever. The software just told me today that there was an update, so it’s new to me. <shrug>

Significant to this release is the addition of Global Filters, a feature that I’ve been praying for since I started using the software eons ago (in internet terms, anyway). What makes Global Filters so powerful is the ability to filter out tweets according to their source. Previous filter efforts in TweetDeck limited users to filtering by tweet content.

One of the loudest complaints I hear from people is that FourSquare updates on Twitter bug them. Well kids, here’s your out. Start using TweetDeck.

TweetDeck - Settings -> Global Filter

I’m not one to complain too much about FourSquare, what really bugs me is blog headlines that are forced into my stream via TwitterFeed. With the new TweetDeck Global Filter, I can hide them. Of course, this means I won’t see 95% of what Jim Kukral posts to Twitter, but that’s okay. I’d much rather read what Jim cares to write himself than what TwitterFeed puts out in his name. Those tweets are far, far more valuable.

On the flip side? If you really like FourSquare, TweetDeck now has integration with both that service and Google Buzz.

Warning: there is some suspiciously guru-ish lingo and ideas coming up. Sorry. I’m not a Twitter guru. I’m not a social media expert. Anyone that tells you they are is a douchebag. I just had an idea that might be fun, one that I’m going to try myself, and I thought you might be interested.

What’s Twitter for, exactly? The answer, in varying degrees, is different for everyone. Some use Twitter for true social interaction; they send lots of @ replies, and engage in actual conversations. Some use Twitter an an announcement platform; they don’t have very many conversations and/or tend to post very little other than headlines from their blogs. Some use Twitter as a marketing tool; while they may have some personal interactions, they’re there simply to pitch their products. Businesses often use Twitter as a channel for customer support, which is great.

Regardless of how you use Twitter, there is an underlying truth: if you engage with your followers, and with the people you’re following, your experience will be more rewarding. Even if you use it as an announcement platform, having the occasional conversation with a follower can turn that follower from a person who might be marginally interested in what you’re tweeting into a loyal customer. If you’re all about the social interaction aspect, then my challenge might be a little “yeah whatever” for you, but who knows? Let’s see what happens.

My challenge is simple.

Send an @ reply to everyone you follow.

That’s it. Interact. Have a single conversation with everyone you follow. Following Kevin Smith? Send him a message. Following me? I’d love to hear from you. Even if you’re following a company that doesn’t really do @ replies, send ‘em a message anyway. This isn’t about increasing your follower count (because I’m not a social media guru/expert/douchebag), this is about finding some value in your use of the platform. There is value in having a conversation with someone, even if it’s not related to selling that person a product or service.

If you’re following only a couple of hundred people, it shouldn’t take very long. If you’re following 50,000 people, well, that’s ridiculous. Stop it. People with half a brain know that you’re not really paying attention to all those people anyway.

Hell, I don’t even follow people back that follow me if I see that they’re following thousands of people… I’m not interested in bumping up someone’s follower count, I’m interested in interacting with people.

Are you?

You know what would be awesome? This:

.text-right { text-align: right; }
.sidebar-text { font-size: 1.2em; include: text-right; }

See what I did there? Now, how is that helpful? I mean, it would surely be just as easy to type text-align: right rather than include: text-right. Where I think it’s helpful is in dealing with things like this:

.rounded-1em {
              -moz-border-radius: 1em;
              -webkit-border-radius: 1em;
}
.rounded-right-1em {
              -moz-border-radius-topright: 1em;
              -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 1em;
              -moz-border-radius-bottomright : 1em;
              -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 1em;
}

If all you wanted to do was round one side of a box (which I do, actually) do you really want to type all that out? What if that’s your site’s motif? Do you want to type that out for your content box, your headings, your subheadings and all the other elements that need it? You could set up a bunch of rounded corner classes with names like .rounded-right-1em, .rounded-right-2em, .rounded-left-1em, etc. All your other classes or IDs would be simpler to edit down the road. And, okay, I know – copy and paste, right? But come on, that’s not exactly the most elegant solution.

In most programming languages, you can nest functions within functions. This is kinda like that. Being far from an expert, if there this kind of functionality is already available in CSS (or if there’s a suitable workaround), I’d love to hear about it – please let me know in the comments!