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Good post Greg. Yes, it’s true not many people know about lists. The reason? Because Facebook never sold the value as a list where you can actually include Pages as well. They always talked about “Friends lists” which were strategically created so you can create the list of friends that can actually see all your updates without restrictions let’s say and just show those “more public” updates to the rest. With this move they hoped to tackle the privacy issue questions but didn’t work very well.nThe idea is very logical and sounds great on paper, but the truth is that people don’t use them…

Hey Greg,nnLists are a great idea. Like Twitter, you can tune out a bit in all the noise. Categorising is a way of sorting them. But do you think people will tend to stay looking at one list? nnIt always seems to be the way that Google ‘like’ their advocates to spread the word for them. It’s free and effective.

I’ve had lists created since I found out about them months ago and was delighted when I discovered that Pages could be added to it. Really handy to have, I can jump between the relevant ones as I need to.

yea Greg, mobile! I attended an event in Naas where a well known organisation announced to over 200 people what they were doing and how they were moving forward promoting themsleves. Shiny new website with blog and Facbook and Twitter …..yawn. I stood up and said ” What about your mobile marketing plans? You mean you are not even developing a mobile website?” ” Haven’t even condisered getting a keyword to standard rate text number for advertising purposes?” nThen I asked the audience “How many people have been on Facebook and Twitter in the past two days?” 8 out of about 200 people put up their hands. nThen I asked “How many people here have been on their mobile in the past 3 hours?” n —Everybody put their hands up.nI said “I rest my case” and sat down !

Thanks Greg, very useful tip

Thanks for sharing your story Peter. Whilst most people in Ireland have mobile phones, I am not sure that as a nation we have embraced the Smart phone yet. For Eg. With only about 25% of the 1.7 million Irish Facebook users using mobile devices to view Facebook or post updates. That said it is the future and every website needs to look at becoming mobile enabled.

Thanks Elaine:)

Very often it is the hidden gems that are the most valuable;)nnAnd even if everyone knew about Facebook lists…you are right very few would use them. However once you get into the habit of organising your feed into lists….well I wouldn’t go back to only relying on the regular newsfeed.

Another great post Greg, you have taught me so much about social media…. thank you

Thanks Todd. I too am a big fan of Hootesuite.

I agree that blogging is rarely hard facts, but I think part of Christina message that even opinions need to be supported. nnYou mention that you always ask yourself “what is the other side of this that I’m not being told or shown?” In other words, you bring a healthy skepticism which is great. nnYou also identify that not everyone asks themselves these questions when reading blog posts, instead accepting what is being said on blind faith. nnWe both agree that this is not a good thing. nnThe result, we can’t or shouldn’t depend on our readers to do that. nnMairead the reader is the exception rather than the rule, hence some responsibility must then fall to Mairead the blogger. This is especially important where a blogger or blog has influence, and where more readers trust what’s said.I have made mistakes in this regard, and will probably continue to do so, but that’s entirely different from me thinking that I am nor responsible or that I am somehow not likely to do so. I have a duty to be able to support in an evidential way what I say.I would also suggest that great out of the box thinking is ultimately down to a person ability to bring together rational from seemingly distant place, and present it in a way that more people will understand?

Great comment and insights Joseph, thank you for adding to this discussion. nnBloggers are people, politicians are people, and people are often motivated by the wrong stuff, I agree!nnThe danger with becoming influential, whether it’s online or otherwise is that if enough people keep telling you that you’re great or you know it all etc… you may very well start to believe your own BS. nnYou stop asking yourself the right questions, because popularity begins to quickly blind your reasoning.nnI think intelligent human beings realise that popularity is only truly useful in the context of positive change. nnPopularity for the sake of popularity tends to end badly, in that the same people that will believe or follow you blindly are then the very same ones that will turn on you for very little reason. They followed for what you represented, rather than who you were and foolishly you fell for it nnI agree strongly with your point on bloggers merely initiating conversation, but perhaps that carries greater responsibility? it is a much more powerful thing to ask, someone a great question than to give them the answer?

Blogging has a lot to offer the world, but in turn… it also can be a bit of a plague on us all to have opinions so freely shared. nI’m not a fan of mommy bloggers who make their niche being mean. And there are tonnes of them!

I’m glad you mentioned ‘Duty of Care’. Due Care theory is part of responsible marketing and similar to Contract View (duty to comply, duty of disclosure, duty not to misrepresent, not to coerce, etc.) – It’s based on the idea that consumers and sellers do not meet as equals. In the case of blogger and reader – the blogger knows something that the reader may not. Due Care View suggests that consumers base their decisions on the expertise of the manufacturer. Soooooo, does the reader base their decision to believe in the written content, based on the ‘expertise’ of the blogger? nnnI believe that we do have a moral duty to write what is correct in our own minds. That we have the power to change someone’s mind, view, belief and knowledge base; and that this means we have an obligation to the reader. This duty also suggests that our readers are vulnerable nto our posts.n

Hi Joseph….The comment in response to Niall above would be worth reading in response to your own.nnnYou do make a strong point about not always realising what we’re saying, and that it may be incorrect. My partner has a saying ‘The best lies are based on the truth.’ You can lie well if you think its not a lie. In digital terms – you don’t see the ‘poker face’ , so it’s much easier to lie or write untruths.n

I’m picking my battles today nnLots of people blog but not everyone is blogging. I know of course what you meant, in that more and more people appear to be blogging so…. nnAt the same time I would argue that many people that should be are still not. nnI don’t like to generalise, it’s rarely helpful! but I think that these people who should but aren’t roughly fall into three categories:nn1) Those who don’t understand it’s value, lack of education n2) Those who lack confidence, fear that they don’t have something valuable to sayn3) Those who fear getting found out, having to deal with blogging’s conversational nature would risk showing I’m not as good/important/smart as you think I am.nnMy point is that many who blog are blogging for the wrong reasons, I agree (see Joseph’s comment below) And many of those that could probably use blogging in the most positive and effective way, are still not! The question for me is, how do we get them to? nn

Totally @lindsaydianne:disqus .Not a fan either. There’s a fine line between having and sharing an opinion, and shoving it in someone’s face.n

Thing is as consumers we can just as easily bounce right back off the page and on to some other one.n

This is a super post Tina, and the comments are just as informative….

Hi Peter,nnCan you tell me more about the item you commented on (keyword to standard rate text number for advertising purposes?”)nHow do I go about doing this?nnMany thanksnAdriann

Hi Sian, you’re becoming such a wonderful interviewer & well done to Adriaan for letting us see inside their strategy for Twitter. His story about the Pattern Festival and the TV crew is such a great example for what can happen. 

Thanks Helen – I thought the same as you and am very lucky that the hotel is just down the road from me

Thanks for the suggestion Claire – always good to know when something works well. We’ll definitely pop down next time you are visiting – I know the way well so don’t need the app

I want to visit this hotel now, Adriaan seems like a nice bloke! They should start a blog I can really see that improving things even more. It’s got me thinking now about who else has used Twitter successfully. I’ve only been reading up about the disaster stories of late – time to be more of an optimist.

This is a real positive
interview for the hotelier industry. It shows how power social is
becoming and how you can adopt it as part of your working life (tweeting
while serving).

As a novice, I started following @cliffhousehotel to see how to behave on Twitter & Adriaan is a great example to use. Plus, very generous in terms of his interest in followers and fellow Tweeters. I think Twitter is building a great community in West Waterford. Thank you for the interview Sian (p.s. you are a good Twitter example as well)

Wow Sian Such a Wonderful hotel some of the content is good and i really enjoy to read this post and also see nice images. Thank you for share this information.

My pleasure, Niall.

My pleasure Elaine – look forward to welcoming you to the wilds of West Waterford soon.

Thanks Helen – appreciate your kind comments and your follow. Adriaan

Thanks Christina – #thepoweroftwitter! – we need positivity to survive this recession! And it’s thanks to the likes of Sian who provided the mouthpiece for us to tell the world about how we operate. She was a great interviewer and made it easy to tell my story. Adriaanbartels

Yay!! Looking forward to it

The cheeky brother I’ll buy you lunch there next time you’re visiting

Great article…thanks for all the relevant information, its nice to know other people are not using the hard sell on Twitter.

Thank you for the post – I went from using this resource one year , to contributing in the next . It’s been teaching me in so many ways in the last year . Glad I found it and the community it has developed . A benchmark for any community management I embark on in my own capacity in the future