The Common Thread

With the release of Humanize, I’ve been invited to be a part of several new Twitter Chats. I’m starting to really enjoy them, though they do have their limitations. A twitter chat is made up of three things: a hashtag, a specific time, and a host. In the association world, the primary chat is the weekly #assnchat, hosted by Kiki L’Italien (yes, for those of you who are new, it is actually called #assnchat, which stands for Association Chat). It’s Tuesdays at 2pm. At that time Kiki starts tweeting, adding #assnchat to her tweets so people can start following the conversation through a twitter search. Other twitter chats I’ve been following lately: #swchat (Social Workplace Chat, Thursdays 4pm eastern) and #leadershipchat (Tuesdays 8pm eastern).

I will admit, though, that engaging in twitter chats has taken some getting used to. Part of it is obvious and easy. The host asks questions throughout the chat, and then the participants answer them and respond to each other. But when the chat gets large, the volume of tweets grows, and it becomes hard to follow along. Then on top of that, I’m trying to figure out how to respond to a complex conversation in a sentence or two that is less than 140 characters. Here’s how I manage it all to make the most of twitter chats:

Use TweetChat. This is a site where you can log into your twitter account and add the hashtag you’re following and then all you see on the screen is the stream of tweets on that hashtag. You could do the same with a twitter search, but the best part of tweetchat is that it automatically adds the hashtag when you post something. Remember, with each tweet you have to add the hashtag or others on the chat won’t see it.

Strategic RTs. With lots of people saying interesting things, you don’t have to say it all yourself. Re-Tweet (RT) the good ones right when you see them. I find it interesting to watch which tweets get re-tweeted the most. It helps define the flavor of the chat.

Embrace the Constraint. I know it’s hard to say intelligent things in only 140 characters sometimes, but I embrace that constraint rather than feel limited by it. I take more time to post my tweets, because I force myself to be clear using fewer words. I don’t stress out that the question I’m responding to  is no longer visible on the stream. I take the time to get clear. I’ve enjoyed developing this capacity.

Build relationships. Twitter can feel pretty random at times. People follow me every day, and I follow new people every day, and for many of them, I never really get to know them. But the real value of Twitter (learning) is enhanced when the relationships grow, and chats are a great way to get to know people a little better. The people I follow on these chats are often the people I engage with more on a regular basis.

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I was at the ASAE Technology conference this week, and from the opening keynote to several of the sessions I attended there was a key theme when it came to association technology: mobile.

I actually lost track of the many different sources on the huge increase in accessing the internet via mobile devices, but I think we’re at the point where if you need the proof, your behind the curve. Use of smart phones is going through the roof. Use of PCs to access the internet in some cases is actually going down. The desktop use won’t go away, of course, but if you’re ignoring how your web presence interacts with mobile devices, you’re in trouble.

But the point about mobile internet use that really stuck out for me came from the opening keynote, delivered by Luke Wroblewski. He pointed out that the constraint of a smaller screen has required web designers to have some discipline in their design. They have to limit what they show, forcing them to focus on what matters. This is Southwest Airline’s home page on the web:

A little distracting and all over the place, don’t you think? And this is what their mobile version looks like:

Let me be honest. I like the mobile one. I like that it just gives me what I need. I like that it doesn’t give me a lot of choices. In fact, as a general theme, I’m growing tired of choices. The institutions that will gain my loyalty are the ones who are both smart enough and bold enough to offer me fewer choices.

That’s no easy task. Offering fewer choices requires some really brutal clarity. That’s something that many organizations simply don’t have the discipline to achieve. But given the explosion in mobile use, I think we all better get on the clarity bandwagon too.

Check out the very cool “takeover” of ASAE’s already very cool Acronym blog by the Young Association Executives. It is a project of the YAE Committee, and in full disclosure, I did some work with them over the last year (though not about the blog takeover), so I am already a fan of this group. Thanks, Aaron Wolowiec, for the kind words about my work in your post during the takeover.

I have a couple of different reactions. First, as an expert on generational diversity, I want to point something out. Young people are smart. They know how to write. They know how to think. They understand organizations, and they have a lot to contribute. The posts on Acronym make that clear, though I did not need convincing. Unfortunately, I think too many people do need convincing. I hear it when I talk on the subject–people complaining that young people don’t know how to write or can’t articulate clearly. Honestly I find examples of that across all generations.

Second, I love this tactic for a blog. One truism for blogs is that it is good to mix things up. If you write the exact same kind of post, with the same tone, and the same structure, day after day, you’ll likely lose some readers. I am a regular reader of Acronym, but I loved this sudden flurry of new voices. It brought me back to the blog.