I assume this means that marketers are testing the waters to see if they can capitalize on Twitter’s success, but they’re breaking one of the rules of social marketing. Social marketing only works when you have something people actually want, you have to add value (I hate that term but it fits). The best example I can think of is Dell. The only way this medium will last is if people are enjoying it.

A new trend is emerging. Unfollow everyone and start over. I just learned about it last night. At first I bristled against this but after giving it some thought I think its brilliant. The whole point of social media is to connect with people online. If you aren’t saying anything that I want to listen to, then why would I maintain the connection? Loïc Le Meur unfollowed everyone in his Twitter account yesterday, and is slowly adding people back. Its beautiful. Its the equivalent of hitting the refresh button. It preserves the value of Twitter for him. The alternative is to ditch social media altogether, and where’s the fun in that?

I don’t have 23,000 followers, so I probably won’t need to do this anytime soon, but I’m also not following everyone that finds me. If your Twitter account has become unruly then this could be just the trick to set things right. I promise I won’t be offended if you drop me, there’s a chance that I’ll unfollow you.

I have been blogging for six years now, and have also created accounts on just about every social site that I could find. I have loved Flickr since day one, it is THE place to share and peruse photography. And, it meshes with my blog perfectly. Facebook took me a while to warm up to, but now I love it. I enjoy keeping up with the daily lives of my friends, and I’ve even regained contact with some that I had lost touch with years ago. Twitter is even more fun. I’ll admit that it took me months to understand the point, much less embrace it. Now I’m addicted, I love it more than ice cream.

What I’m saying is that I ‘get’ blogging, and I also ‘get’ social media, and there (currently) is no site that makes me want to give up my blog (whether I have 2 readers or 50,000 isn’t the point). What’s more, I’m not going to stop reading blogs. My Bloglines account is loaded with dozens of RSS feeds that I check almost daily. Some are friends, some are blogs with tips for saving money or that provide social commentary, but I love all of them. If one of them drops I’ll go looking for other blogs to enjoy.

If I feel this way about blogging, then there are others. And if a community of people aren’t going to ditch their blog and want to read others, then blogging is certainly not dead. The fact is that Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, etc do not replace blogging, they enhance it. Conversations that happen in more social spaces generate ideas that get explored on blogs which prompts further discussion… and on the cycle goes. Besides, if marketing sites are still publishing a guide for blogging, then what about it is dead?

Blogging is not dead. Blogging is doing just fine.

The answer will be different for every blogger, but everyone that contributes to a blog will need to have something to write about. Its not easy to come up with something meaningful to say on a regular basis, so its good to have a collection of tools to ‘prime the pump’ when its your turn to contribute. Here are a few of the steps that I take when coming up with ideas.

Do Interesting Things. Get out and interact with the world around you. If your blog is a company blog, then get involved in the community within your industry. Attend happy hours, go to conferences, find out what others are talking about and who the forward thinkers are. What do you think about where the industry is headed? Do you agree with the forward thinkers? As a professional within you industry, your opinion counts, and someone is interested in hearing it. Your blog is the place.

If its a personal blog then take up a new hobby and write about what you’re learning or experiencing as you go. Set a goal such as losing weight or writing a book or running a marathon, and blog about your progress.

Be Social. Blogs are a social medium. One method of making yours interesting is for you to be social. Go to concerts, join a book club or start a group around one of your favorite things. Do anything that will prompt you to interact with people. A long time ago a friend of mine started a bread pudding club. Once a month they’d get together at a restaurant that serves bread pudding for a meal, and, of course, dessert. I thought that was a cool idea. When you get to your computer write a review of the concert, or about how you tricked Richard into eating a spoon full of wasabi, or why your movie club is done with Coen brothers movies. Lets face it, people are interesting. A lot of ideas come to me just by being social.

Have An Opinion. People like knowing what others think about stuff. Tell the world what you think. People want to know why you refuse to use anything other than an iPhone, or why you refuse to buy one. Have you been a long time Black Crowes fan, but hate Chris Robinson’s solo work? Tell your blog why. If you collect anything then you have an opinion and your readers want to know about it. When I was 6 my Dad gave me a Bicentennial quarter, and I thought the drummer on the back looked cool, so I started collecting them. I still do. If I get one as change I’ll go out of my way to not spend it. At last count I had $28.75 worth of Bicentennial quarters.

Keep Tabs. As I’m going throughout my daily life, I try to think about things that would be interesting for my readers. Good ideas often come from random events in daily life, a commercial that I think is witty or entertaining, my response to a commentary that I heard on the radio or a conversation that I overheard in the grocery store. As these ideas come to me I make a mental note. Next time I’m near my computer if the idea is memorable then I blog about it while the memory is fresh.

Read Blogs. Create an account with Bloglines and get in the habit of subscribing to RSS feeds as you surf the web. As you read what others are writing about you’ll pick up a few ideas for your blog. When I feel like writing, if I don’t already have an idea, I’ll open Bloglines and peruse the new posts. If someone has an idea that prompts a response or that I think I can add to, then I do. I write the response on my own blog and link back to the original article. I try to find at least one or two new blogs to subscribe to each month, and I limit myself to 20 feeds at a time, so as new ones come in, the less interesting ones have to go.

Only Write About Things That Interest You. This is important. If you want your blog to be interesting for your readers, then it must first be interesting for you. No one wants to read something that the author didn’t want to write. Web citizens are sharp people, they’ll see through the text that you aren’t into the subject, and they’ll move on to another blog. Find something that you’re passionate about, write about it on your blog, and eventually the readers will find you.

The Secret Weapon. Sometimes its time to write and I have no idea what I’m going to write about. Its times like this that I lean on the web. There are a handful of sites that are useful for prompting ideas. Digg and Slashdot usually have something that’s interesting, so I start there. Lately Twine has been helpful in finding things that interest me. StumbleUpon is also good at presenting material that I like. Lately I’ve been using Blogstorm’s Hot Topics, and I like it.

True confession. When I started this post I had no idea what to write, but I’ve made a commitment to myself to update this blog at least twice a week. I surfed the web for 15 minutes and found Chris Brogan’s post on 100 Blog Topics, and boom, this post was born. See, the system works. Go forth and blog.

Within the past 3 or 4 months I have become increasingly addicted to Twitter. I didn’t get it at first, because if you aren’t following anyone, and don’t have any followers, then it isn’t very interesting. But the more people you connect with, the more fun it becomes. Now Twitter is one of my favorite spots on the web.

About a month ago I came across the profile of Henry Rollins, then John Cleese. This morning I decided to see what other celebrities have embraced Microblogging. I believe that these are the real profiles of these individuals. I’ll update this list if I come across any more. If you know of others, or find out that any of these are fake, please post comments.
Edited March 24, 2009.

• John Cleese – British actor and comedian, was a prominent member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
• Chris Cornell – rock singer. Cornell was the lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave.
• Snoop Dogg – rap artist and actor.
• Fran Drescher – television actress best known for her role in The Nanny.
• Jimmy Fallon – actor and comedian. He got his start on Saturday Night Live and is now the host of NBC’s Late Night.
• MC Hammer – pop artist who is most famous for a dramatic rise to and fall from fame in the 1990’s.
• John Hodgman – actor famous for his role as ‘PC’ in the Mac commercials.
• Dave Matthews – lead singer and namesake of the Dave Matthews Band.
• Dave Navarro – rock guitar player that has played with Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails and more.
• Shaquille O’Neal – pro basketball player, currently with the Phoenix Suns, but he’s also played with Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.
• Trent Reznor – the main guy behind Nine Inch Nails.
• Adam Savage – one of the main guys from the show MythBusters.
• William Shatner – actor best known for his roles in the original Star Trek series, and more recently in Boston Legal and the Priceline Negotiator commercials.
• Britney Spears – Pop singer, drama queen.
• Brent Spiner – actor best known for his role as Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• George Takei – television actor known for his roles in the original Star Trek and Heroes.
• Wil Wheaton – movie actor. Has had roles in Stand by Me, Toy Soldiers, Flubber and many others.
• Patric Wilson – drummer in the alternative rock band Weezer.
• Steve Wozniak – cofounder of Apple.

Enjoy.

Bill was the primary speaker, and he was probably the more confident speaker between the two. He raised a few great points about Google’s shift to including news, videos and social media items in search results, indexing flash content and search within search. He also made a personal comment about flash content that I happen to agree with, that flash developers make sites that are annoying to everyone but the person that developed it. I completely agree that the medium (flash vs html vs ajax vs …) needs to be chosen based on the message and the content, not the other way around. I would have loved it if he had taken this line of thought further, but this probably wasn’t the proper forum for that conversation.

Brian was also great. He didn’t speak as much, which is unfortunate because I appreciated his thoughts as well. While discussing the use of social media he made the point that each site (Digg, Twitter, Facebook, etc) becomes its own community, and if someone is going to use that medium then all efforts really need to be tailored to that specific site. Digg users respond differently to a story than Facebook or Sphinn or Reddit users would. Very insiteful. To claim that you’re an expert in all social media is too broad to be meaningful.

I also met a few folks from other agencies around town. I particularly enjoyed visiting with the event host, Paul Bradshaw of Full Orange Films. All in all, I really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to attending future events.