Twitter, URL shorteners, and why sometimes less is less

Originally posted at http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/Twitter-URL-shorteners-and-why-less-is-less.

Many Twitter users use URL shorteners to, well, shorten URLs. It's not uncommon for URLs to be beastly things, barely human-readable, and often near or in excess of the 140-character Twitter limit by themselves. URL shorteners have been around for a number of years, from the venerable shrinkster.com and TinyURL.com to the more recent (and shorter!) bit.ly, to becoming a white-label service offered by many organizations including nytim.es and goo.gl to the next stage of shortening: http://➡.ws/ 

As of today, though, any URL longer than 20 characters will automatically be wrapped in the Twitter URL shortener, t.co. The http:// and top-level domain take up 10 characters by themselves, meaning that it would be a short URL indeed to survive t.co-ization. 

So who cares about this anyway? Well, part of the issue with any URL shortener is that if the service goes down, so do *all* the links shortened with it until the service is back up. It's one thing if the URL shortener you use goes down - you can always pick another one. Not so if Twitter or t.co go down. 

It will also be more difficult to determine where a link goes. While some tools will unshrink the URL, or will even preview the target page, not all of them do. Twitter claims it is making the change to reduce the number of redirects to malware etc. but it's not at all clear that this is any better. 

It also brings a certain amount of provenance into play. Since even shortened URLs are reshortened, the only way an organization will be able to prove what link they originally sent will be to do it manually and introduce a complicated process for capturing the original URL and the original Tweet. 

Many services also allow for vanity domains, such as bit.ly/wilkinsontwitter, that can be easier to remember for users, much like a 1-800 number that spells something like 1-800-TWITTER. T.co doesn't offer this today.

Finally, and possibly the crux of the matter from Twitter's perspective. URL shorteners are also linked to analytics. Many services offer analytics around when URLs were clicked, referrers, whether links were retweeted, etc. At some point these capabilities will likely be available from Twitter, but it means being locked in to some extent and it could require payment to access those analytics in a consistent way sometime in the future. 

I don't know that there is anything to be done about it today; Twitter's developer blog indicates that at some point this will be done for all Twitter links. But this type of walling the garden and locking users into fewer capabilities is not something that is good for Twitter's users. Organizations that use Twitter in an official capacity should be aware of this and start thinking about the ramifications to their campaigns - and their information governance program. 

Selected social media governance resources

Note: Originally posted on the AIIM Communities blog at http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/Selected-social-media-governance-resources. 

 

Here's a list of some of the social media governance resources I have found useful. Some of them are very specific to the organization or to a particular sector; some of them are better than others. If you know of others you think are good, please note that in the comments. And of course we'll be adding to this body with the Governance track of our Social Business Virtual Event on September 8, 2011. 

 

“How Federal Agencies Can Effectively Manage Records Created Using New Social Media Tools”, Patricia Franks, Ph.D., IBM Center for The Business of Government, 2010

Link

 

"Best Practice Study of Social Media Records Policies", ACT-IAC Collaboration & Transformation Shared Interest Group, March 2011 

Link (PDF)

 

Guideline for Outsourcing Records Storage to the Cloud, ARMA International, 2010

Link

 

ANSI/ARMA 18-2011, "Implications of Web-Based, Collaborative Technologies in Records Management"

Link

 

FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-06, "Social Media Websites: Guidance on Blogs and Social Networking Web Sites", January 2010

Link (PDF)

 

“Electronic Records Management: Blogs, Wikis, Facebook, Twitter, & Managing Public Records”, Washington State Archives, September 2009

Link (PDF)

 

“Managing Social Media Records”, U.S. Department of Energy, September 2010

Link (PDF)

 

“Guidance on Social Networking”, Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records, June 2010

Link (PDF)

 

NARA Bulletin 2011-02, “Guidance on Managing Records in Web 2.0/Social Media Platforms”, October 2010

Link

 

“A Report on Federal Web 2.0 Use and Value”, National Archives and Records Administration, 2010

Link (PDF)

 

Compliance Building Social Media Policies Database

Link

 

57 Social Media Policy Examples and Resources

Link

 

Web 2.0 Governance Policies and Best Practices

Link

 

Social Media Governance policy database

Link

 

“Analysis of Social Media Policies: Lessons and Best Practices”, Chris Boudreaux, December 2009

Link

Twitter, information overload, and social filtering

Originally posted on the AIIM Communities at http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/Twitter-information-overload-and-social-filtering. 

Over the weekend I crossed the 2,000 followers mark on Twitter. More to the point, I follow 742 people. Some of them tweet rarely if at all, but I'd guess the average is around 5-7 tweets per day. That means that my Twitter stream is around 3500-5000 tweets/day and I think quite a bit higher than that at times. 

 

I do a lot of public speaking and sometimes I will relate that statistic to people, typically followed by my statement that given the irrevocable choice between email and Twitter, I'd choose the latter in a heartbeat and with no regrets. 

 

Many of those people then ask, often with a stunned look on their faces, how on earth I manage to keep up with 3500+ tweets when many of them struggle with "only" 100+ email messages per day? 

 

I have two answers. The first answer is that Twitter, like many other social media tools, should be seen not as a glass to drink from but a river to dip a toe into when time permits. Lots of tweets are inane, irrelevant, superfluous, too cryptic to understand without context, etc. So I don't try to drink the entire river that is my Twitter stream. 

 

The second and more on-point answer proceeds from the first. When I make the river analogy, the next question is often "but don't you miss things that way?" In other words, how could I defend dumping email and then not reading all my tweets - it sounds like a recipe for missing really important stuff. 

 

My answer to that question and to the broader use to me of Twitter lies in the concept of social filtering. The most significant value I get from Twitter is from posts that link to longer-form resources like blog posts, infographics, white papers, event announcements, and the like. It's certainly possible that I might miss The Greatest Blog Post in the World - but it's not likely because of the way social filtering works. I have eclectic interests but I've cultivated enough of an information ecosystem on Twitter that when something good comes up, I'll see it several times in my Twitter stream as people retweet it or comment on it. 

 

This also has the additional advantage of separating the really interesting stuff from the more mundane: if I see  a post by, say, Chris Walker or Laurence Hart, I generally try to make time to read it. But when I see something that they both retweet, I know there is some good stuff there. And when I see it also get ticked by Cheryl McKinnon,Lee Dallas, Peter Monks, Patrick Lujan, and others in the ECM blogosphere, I know it's going to be exceptional and I'll often stop what I'm doing to take a look at it. 

 

The other thing is that I always keep an eye on my mentions and my direct messages, both of which serve as rough analogues to email messages in the Twitter ecosystem. So between my filtering and my social filters it's highly unlikely that I'll miss anything of any real impact - and because my interests and information sources don't overlap 100% with any given person I follow, the likelihood of seeing something that I wouldn't otherwise have seen is dramatically higher. I've been calling this serendipitous discovery and it's the other major value I find in Twitter - almost every day I see examples of people I should follow or read as an outcome of this approach. 

 

A final thought to tie this into social business. If you had a tool like Twitter that let you follow people you work with and get their updates, and could also follow others in the organization that you don't work with on a daily basis, and could leverage social filtering and serendipitous discovery, what new ideas, products, and services would YOU come up with?

Updated speaking calendar

Just a quick update to my public speaking engagements.

• February 8, ARMA Cincinnati
• March 22-24, info360 (inc. AIIM 2011), Washington, DC
• April 14, ARMA Twin Cities
• April 28, ARMA Amarillo
• May 12, ARMA Boston
• May 19, ARMA Central Iowa
• May 22, MER 2011, Chicago
• Oct 17-19, ARMA 2011, Washington, DC

I've also submitted, but not yet heard back from, the following:

• April 26-27, ARMA Houston
• June 1-3, GTEC, Washington, DC
• June 20-23, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, Boston

As always, I will post my presentations to my Slideshare account and the official AIIM account once they are complete. Want me to speak at your event? Send me a note. 

2010 in review

This has been an unusual year for me in a couple of ways. I changed jobs and focuses, withdrew substantially from social media to rethink my usage of it and the various tools, and had some interesting personal issues that I won't elaborate on here.

Director, Systems of Engagement, AIIM International
In November I left Access Sciences, a leading Houston-based vendor-independent ECRM consulting firm, to join AIIM. The position will involve bringing products and services to market to further the mission of the association. More specifically, AIIM has been working with Geoffrey Moore to determine the "Future of ECM" and the immediate focus is on what Moore terms "Systems of Engagement" and what comprises a large part of what AIIM and others call "social business" - social media tools, processes, roles, and strategies. It's an incredible opportunity to help shape how organizations "do" social media and I think my background in information management, like AIIM's 65+ years of experience in the same, bring a unique perspective to this.

What this means is that I likely won't be focusing as much on the pure records management/information governance stuff as I had been. There will still be some of it - in fact, I am delivering a webinar for the ARMA Dallas chapter on January 11 on "Managing Web 2.0 Records." But it's not going to be my sole or primary focus.

This might also have ramifications for my ARMA (and ICRM) colleagues. Historically there has often been tension between AIIM and ARMA for good or bad reasons depending on who you ask and what day it is. But at the local chapter level the associations often work together quite well. I am hoping that my background serving on the ARMA Board of Directors from 2007-2010 and my past and current role at AIIM will make it easier for the two associations to work together where it makes sense. And while the ICRM is a separate legal entity from ARMA, the relationship between the two is close enough and important enough that I probably won't get involved formally with the ICRM other than as a member in good standing.

With regards to my speaking and writing, nothing has changed. I will still be vendor-neutral and strive to provide informative, insightful information to anyone who will consume it. I'm still an information management professional, still a certified records manager, and still both opinionated and always scanning the horizon to identify and understand the next thing.

Speaking and writing
I published one major article this year, on professional development for the RIM practitioner, in Information Management Magazine. You can find the article on ARMA's website - the link may require you to log in.

I also had the fortune again to speak at a number of events, local and national, this year.

Local. I spoke at 19 different local events this year, mostly for ARMA chapters but also for a few others. Included in those figures were a webinar for ComplianceWeek Magazine as well as full-day seminars for ARMA Atlanta, ARMA Chicago, ARMA Metro NYC, and ARMA Baton Rouge Lafayette. My focus this year was in three main areas: email management, social business/Web 2.0, and professional development.

National. On the national scene, I did a preconference and a breakout session at AIIM 2010; a preconference and a panel session at MER 2010; and a Leadership session and a breakout session at ARMA 2010. This was my first year attending or speaking at MER and I found it every bit as good as described. I look forward to going back next year - more details in my next post.

Some personal stuff
This year I also turned 40. I never considered myself to be very introspective, so I'm not going to fill your browser window with lots of soul-searching and ruminations. But I did decide that I needed to shift my focus in some areas that weren't working for me to things that would. I am in a position now to make some of those changes and have started to do so already; hopefully my colleagues will find them positive changes when next we interact. :)

Memberships. 

In addition to my AIIM, ARMA, and ICRM professional memberships, I have also joined the ASAE and Social Media Club and am about to rejoin the National Speakers Association. And you can always find me on your favorite social networking site: 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jessewilkins

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jessewilkins

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jessewilkins

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/jessewilkins

Foursquare: http://foursquare.com/user/102013

Hope you had a great 2010 - here's looking forward to an even better 2011!

Reintroduction

Just a quick note to share my updated contact information.

Work email: jwilkins at aiim dot org
Perm email: jwilkins13 at gmail dot com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jessewilkins
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/jessewilkins
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jessewilkins

Changes

Today is my first day at AIIM. 

Let me back up a bit. I have left Access Sciences to join AIIM as a full-time employee. This was not a change that I anticipated or took lightly - Access Sciences is a wonderful organization filled with smart, dedicated people. I am grateful to Janice Anderson and Anne Tulek for having given me the opportunity to work there since April 2007. 

Why the change? It's no secret that I've been interested in the role of social media in the enterprise for a number of years. I've gotten the opportunity to write articles on how to manage these tools as records and I've developed workshops ranging from lunch meetings to full-day seminars on effective use and management of social media. I've had the pleasure of meeting a number of folks in this space at the defunct Office 2.0 conference, the always-forward-thinking Defrag conference in Denver, and other industry events. 

I've noticed that there are lots of discussions about how to "do" social media from the perspective of the individual user of the tools and with a focus on commercial tools. There are some folks talking about the enterprise perspective, but not nearly enough of them. And it's only been recently that anyone has addressed the need to manage some of the outputs of these tools in a consistent fashion. 

AIIM recently brought in Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm, to help it determine where the industry is headed and how to position itself accordingly. Some of the results of this work can be found at http://www.aiim.org/futurehistory or http://www.slideshare.net/jmancini77. In a nutshell, the idea is that for its entire existence AIIM has been the association for "Systems of Record" (SOR) - those places where content is stored, secured, managed, accessed, and published. But systems of record aren't enough. Organizations are increasingly collaborating in a non-document-centric way. Instead, collaboration takes place through LinkedIn, and Yammer, and many other tools that don't always lend themselves to management via SOR. 

Organizations are turning to what Moore calls "Systems of Engagement" (SOE). These systems have their roots in consumer technologies like Facebook and Twitter, smart phones, and geolocation-enabled services. Organizations are successfully using these tools to scale their engagement with customers and partners; enable their communications with rich media and location and presence awareness; and engage customers where they are, on their time, through tools they are already using. My role is to help organizations determine how best to leverage SOEs to drive collaboration and engagement with their customers, partners, and constituents.  At the same time, my background in SOR will help those organizations to ensure that they use SOEs in a way that is defensible and that meets applicable compliance requirements. 

It's my first day so there is some fuzziness over exactly what this will look like. But I think it's an exciting time to be in this industry. I look forward to restarting this blog post and to starting the work required to make this a success.