Will Knott

Right now, freezing at the keyboard in my geansai gorm, I should be making slides and a talk for Barcamp Cork II. The talk is a HCI look at Twitter and twitter applications and interfaces (but I’m enjoying the data mining of the survey too much). However I’ve noticed something from that data.

I’ve asked people why they use particular twitter applications and interfaces.  In the process of discovering that people don’t always answer the question you ask, I’ve collected a few stories about why they use twitter.

Some use twitter for marketing purposes. Social media monitoring either for themselves or for their clients.

Some use twitter, Jaiku or other micro-blogging tools for a quick response to questions.

But most people seem to use it to stay in contact with friends. With their Tribe.

Think about it. Are you a sports fan, or a fan of a particular team in a particular sport? No one is a fan of GAA but not a team, but they are a fan or their club and county (even when their club is in a different county).They can admire another team, but they are fanatics for their own. Their tribe.

A fairly lonely sport like cycling has a community? Cyclists look to each other. Sometimes look after each other on roads when they encounter each other. Even as strangers, as their bike identifies them as being of the same tribe. Help will be offered. Tips will be swapped. A spare tube will be ‘lent’.

Going to a Barcamp, an un-conference identifies you as being of a tribe. A technical minded, or technology loving tribe. A tribe identified by their laptops, mp3 recorders and gadgets. A tribe allied with web 2.0 and a love of problem solving. Help will be offered. Tips and urls will be swapped. A spare cable will be lent.

And then we have the Jaiku versus twitter debate. Almost everyone in Jaiku is bi-textual, but there are tribes, groups, clans etc. Everybody wants to belong, be part of something bigger. Be part of a grander scheme. And one which makes person to person contacts. Everyone wants to belong, even if its to a school clique.

The older, traditional tribes; church, local neighbourhoods and work are disintegrating. So new tribes are forming.

And once a tribe is identified, it will be marketed to. (Buy Burma Shave).

take care,
Will Knott

Last week I wrote about a different approach to creating your CV or résumé. This week I’m looking at companies that look for employees in a different way.

Image via Wikipedia

While you could have a “jobs” or “careers” page on your website, if your business works closely with social media techniques then it makes sense to take the approach of Edgecast media and advertise your position in a blog post. Its an approach which can also be used if media is not your main business. You could even advertise the job on FaceBook. In practice it’s not that different from advertising you position in the old fashioned way. (But it might get you some takers.)

There seems to be an alternative, Seth Godin brought it up (pictured right), and it seems to be one that Aaron Strout of mZinga is looking at. Namely don’t send in a CV or Résumé (either in the post or as an attachment). Since they ale looking for a community-centric person person, contact them via Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn or what ever social network they both use (its not clear if he willing to join a new social network just to look at a job applicant. I really should do more in making one). Then (or beforehand), blog about why you should get the job. I presume that they have media monitoring in position (or at the very least, Google Alerts).

Unfortunately for me, the job is in Burlington, MA, USA. But it is an interesting way to pick someone. Essentially it is a try before you decide exercise, which ends up benefiting both parties.

However there is a downside to all this. As Virginia Miracle explains, it is very time consuming. I suspect that if the person’s profile and blog is interesting, you could stay there far too long.

But is anyone trying this technique on this side of the Atlantic. Did anyone try this in Europe let alone Ireland? And how did it work out?

take care,
Will