8 posts tagged “robert+scoble”

It seems as if Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer just doesn't understand social networking. Robert Scoble - former Microsoft employee and co-author of Naked Conversations - covers the issue deftly. His thoughts may remind you of your boss. Here's one quote from Ballmer reported in The Times:

"I think these things [social networks] are going to have some legs, and yet there’s a faddishness, a faddish nature about anything that basically appeals to younger people."

Yet Ballmer, who will never live this down, may not be quite so naive, says Matthew Ingram, given Microsoft's recent talks with Facebook and what happened to eBay/Skype.

While Ballmer plays dumb, the likes of Yahoo are making real progress.

Need a compelling case for your business to have a Facebook precence? How about Paul Walsh's argument for using the system as a shop window. Hugh MacLeod agrees, and so do I - and not just because this cartoon of his is an all-time fave.

And with Facebook passing 30 million users last week, that tipping point for businesses can't be too far away.

Update: Here's Scoble's take on, among other things, the importance of Facebook.

A great celebrity death match is on following Web guru Jakob Nielsen asserting that people should write articles and not blogs. Robert Scoble has taken umbrage, however, expressing surprise that anyone is listening to a guy with an uglier webiste that his own!

Handbags aside (check out the later comments to Scoble's retort) the issue of short posts versus longer articles is a valid point of discussion, and it's worth reviewing both sides as Debbie Weil does.

Robert Scoble has answered Shel Israel's SAP Global Survey, bringnig together again the two authors of Naked Conversations.

Given that the survey has another couple of months to run, I am sure that more interesting opinions will come out. It's a great project to witness unfold as the answers are truely fascinating and the people Shel is actually asking to answer the survey  - such as Tom Rafferty and Kami Huyse (whose rather fine Corporate Blogging 101 piece I just linked to yesterday under 'Resources') - is a who's who of social media.

That's one of my two favourite lines from the most recent series of The Apprentice, and I can imagine the HR rep from an undisclosed large corporation thinking just that when they let an employee go for appearing on Robert Scoble's blog show. Robert's take on the matter reinforces some key points about blogging common sense that we all should take on board.

Most companies that blog have a coporate blogging policy. This affords both the company and the individual a degree of cover. If you are considering putting together you own guidelines, then here are a few examples of company policies highlighted in Naked Conversations:

• Plaxo
• Nelson Publishers
• Sun Microsystems
• IBM
• Harvard Law School
• Fellowship Church
• Feedster

Lucy Kellaway's succinct advice aside Robert Scoble has his own Weblog manifesto, which is actually updated in the book but not yet on his blog.

Many companies allow their policies to be developed and signed-off by their blogging community. This approach is inclusive, demostrates an understanding of the system and gets people a little used to blogging in the first place. Maybe give them (and managers) a first draft to start with as it is easier to comment when you have something in front of you.

At a recent Simply Communicate/Ragan Communiations two-dayer on social media/engagement, we were bombarded with lots of 'killer' applications. How do you stay not too far behind the curve (forget with it)?! One way - tune in and find a gem of a post like this from Robert Scoble's blog: Something you should pay attention to.

Now, I'm not going to try and stay up to date with the very latest stuff (not what this blog is about) but I was wondering if there was any easy, quick way to incorporate video into this - Kyte TV might be it. Look out for the RSSM TV channel - becasue it's not enough to find something to write about!

There's a Yellow Pages ad running at the moment that talks about acting as soon as you think of something - so i am linking now to an article by Dare Obasanjo on Why Facebook is bigger than Blogging found through Robert Scoble's Scobleizer becasue I read a great piece recently about the difference between Facebook and MySpace that I wanted to link to but couldn't find again!