This applies to all social media.

I cannot be alone in the frustration of having a good discussion, and wanting to reference back to it later for information, links, or to show someone else.

But do you think they have built a way for me to see what *I* have commented on? Not what I have shared with others, but what I have contributed to. This may not have been such a big deal with Facebook as everyone was just sharing what they had for breakfast, or twitter (once it has search this will be fine). But Google+ has lots of heated, lengthy debates, allows formatting, almost a micro blogging platform, but there is no way (other than notifications) to go through and find what you have commented on or contributed to.

Secondly, if I +1 a web page, or a post, or a comment, they should all be stored *in the same place*. It should be a referencing system. At the moment it feels as though they don’t know whether it is a ‘read later’ device, a ‘like’ device, or a ‘marketing’ device. Make up your mind and make it work.

Thirdly, this also applies to bookmarks. I thought Stashmarks might have solved my problem, but it doesn’t appear to be working for me (more on that later). But surely, as my computer downloads the data for a page, it stores all that data, at least in the session? So why, when I type some random words from a page, does it not show up in the history? Why can I not find a page I looked at *today* ? Or at the very least, since I closed my browser? I know I know storage, so what, I have to reboot Chrome a bit more often. I’d make that sacrifice.

I spend too much of my time retracing my steps to find information. Someone should be automating it, and making money off providing that to me as a service.

So I came across Fiber Topic the other day, probably from one of my RSS Feeds. The premise is “A shirt each day, inspired by what’s happening.”

Really, what could go wrong?

How about the fact that the reason why topics and trends are so important, is that they change and merge, grow and evolve? 

How about the fact that once you physically produce something, it is a waste if not utilised fully, and no one will want to once the trend is over? 

How about the fact that this will only be popular on such a small scale, I have no idea how it would ever make enough money to justify its investment?

The whole point of a trending topic is that is changes. It engages interest for a short period of time, in a time and space context, then disappears. The attention spans of most people these days is simply not long enough to remember why a trending topic was even cool a week later.

I wouldn’t wear a twitter trending topic on a tshirt in public in Brisbane. I wouldn’t have done it in London. Twitter is fine and all but it’s NOT REAL LIFE. People on the street wouldn’t “get it”. So what would be the point? Elitism? That’s only for serving egos, which won’t be served because no one will know what you are on about they will just think you are dumb.

It seems to me a bit of a waste of production capacity, an unsustainable product to be produced for the hell of it. I guess that is something western society is very good at.

P.s Fiber Topic responded to my tweet as per below, which is a great indication that they are open to this type of criticism. This is why I love startups, they just “get it”. Doesn’t mean I think this particular idea is any good, however I do of course wish them the best of luck.

So this should be pretty straight forward. Don’t ask, don’t give. 

It kind of defies logic as to why they may want to do this. Do they want to read my text messages as well? Forgetting whether or not Facebook and other social media is a private system, I really do believe that if you have used privacy settings and ensured that information is not available publicly, then you cannot be held accountable to a potential employer for your private discussions. It’s not enough to say “If you wouldn’t say it in the street, don’t say it on social media”.

I use Facebook to connect with family. Often I will share posts only with my family members. I would be happy to do this around the dinner table, if we weren’t so geographically dispersed. Does that mean the employer could ask to tape record a meal? Where is the line?

It is also confusing from a standpoint of, WHY. Anyone asking for your private data should be accosted with this question. If a potential customer, or the general public cannot see your drunken pictures from last weekend, because they are hidden, they why should it have any effect on your ability to do your job properly?

To me, it just smacks of sheer lack of understanding as to how social media works on the behalf of these companies. I’m happy for an employer to see any information which I make public on social media. That is why I make it public. My personal thoughts which are shared only with friends are just that, personal. Stay out of my social media!

Do you have a decent reason for asking this question? I’d like to hear it.

So I’ve been delayed on this blog post a couple of days, sorry! I’ve got a couple cracker drafts in wait, but life has taken over.

Sunday I took a very rare day off and checked out Google+’s hangouts. All I can say is, how amazing. Chillout with a bunch of people you don’t know and talk about whatever comes to mind? Isn’t that what social media is all about? We discussed films, and life, and work, and love. It was great. Made some very fantastic friends and I’m really keen to get to know everyone a whole lot better. Who knew someone from Minnesota could be so intriguing, or that I would have an almost identical music collection to someone from Melbourne!

Monday was a day of business deals and a university quiz. Some exciting work coming up for Australasian Mutuals Institute based down in Sydney which I have been fervently working on. A quiz for my Business Analysis third year subject which went down a treat, considering I’ve done BA work for many years some of the questions were very ‘textbook’ oriented. I need to ensure I read that thing in order to get them right, I fear.

Tuesday, today, has been a day of more work – specification writing in particular. This is something I used to do frequently and being in an office, headphones on, it was easy. Nowadays, working from home it is alot more difficult. The distractions abound and it is hard to get into the right frame of mind. With that realisation comes the requirement for a desk and a proper monitor. In good time, I’m sure.

I have also been preparing wholeheartedly for an interview tomorrow morning. I will not, obviously, divulge too much information but I am excited. I failed to receive an interview by this company last year as I was overqualified for that particular position, so I think I am in with a good chance to get this one. I will, of course, update everyone as to how that goes.

For now I leave you with Voxer. Probably the best app I’ve come across this month.

The example is kinda weird. I’m sure you *could* use it for that. I use it for short voice messages with friends. It works surprisingly well for this. Pictures and text are supported also. The 3G seems to upkeep one side of the conversation and WIFI on my end. So great for sending random voice messages to make someone smile. Different to a phone call. And if the other person can’t talk they can still hear your and text back. The only problem is, it drains the battery so watch out.

So crossing fingers I will find the time to post again tomorrow. That is, if Draw Something doesn’t steal all my time

It is very difficult for people who are highly connected like you and I to comprehend the idea that a business is unaware of the web at large.

But that is exactly what alot of small businesses face. They know it is an exploitable arena full of possibility, but they also know from the countless public blunders (QANTAS, Coles etc) that they need to be super careful in what they do and how they are perceived online.

This brings benefits for people like myself who are well aware of the marketing and business aspects of social media but also have had time to developer communities and almost a sixth sense about how things are going to be perceived. This is the kind of work I love doing and would really love to get into more.

Answering the kinds of questions like:

What benefit does advertising on Facebook give me, over adwords which someone else set up for me years ago? (hint: massive targetting and customisation potential)

You mentioned Google+, what is it? What do we do on it? (hint: for the time being, have a presence, build a small network and presence and see)

We’re a small company, should we bother with Twitter? (depending on your company model, b2c YES, b2b NO not right now)

Also the other common question is how much should we spend on all of this. These types of clients are not large enterprise with 100K to throw on a project. They are likely to want shortcuts, they are likely to want extremely high value for money and are also sensitive to cost changes. This is the most interesting part of my job. 

How do you take two hours a week, and make social media work without having the client’s intervention (they don’t have time to burn on it either). Where are you going to invest that two hours in order to ensure you have the most maximisation of efforts? How are you going to ensure increase in the ultimate goal (increasing revenue) in order to increase your social media budget in the future?

That is what I am experimenting with Wish me luck!

So a funny thing happened. I read a useless article about how Google+ has “nothing to offer over Facebook” and businesses should “ignore it”.

Wow.

So I wanted to highlight some of the cooler features of Google+ that most blogs have ignored (or not done their research in).

Ripples!

Ripples give information back about the spread of a public post. So you can very easily see (if you are targeting and measuring your feedback, which you should be doing!) where your post has gone, who and what kinds of networks it ends up in, and view/post on those additional shares as well.

It also provides additional information below this, of which the most interesting is language (usually). Whilst this particular post doesn’t have a great language influence, some I have seen have been a significant split. This could lead to or indicate a requirement to post in multiple languages to your network.

Saved Searches!

You can easily conduct a search on your keywords or product name, by typing it into the main search box, and hitting save when the results come up. You can drill down by place, by type (page, post, people, sparks, etc) and by people just within your circles or everywhere. These saved searches are on the left hand side of every Google+ page.

So if you want to check everyday, any mentions of your product (so you can respond appropriately), then they are just a click away.

Searching hashtags and keywords!

Yes! Hashtags and keywords do exist on Google+. They are automatically set as a keyword/tag when using the # symbol and are clickable on all posts. So if you spot a hashtag for a great photography idea, clicking on the hashtag will bring you to that search instantly, and allow you to save the search as well.

(Note: some information has been removed)

Helpful tips!

This post on Google+ has links to pretty much everything you should need, however there are weekly updates to the code so some of it may be out of date: https://plus.google.com/107644358609610512624/posts/ZsTupFZHXWg

Keyboard Shortcuts!

“/” to Search,
“J/K” to toggle up/down posts,
<SPACE> to scroll down,
Shift+Space to go up the stream,
<ENTER> to Comment,
TAB, then ENTER to submit comment after posting.

Google Chrome Extensions!

Hangout Canopy: Shows all public hangouts, you can join in on any of them. Great for building your network, particularly if you are a sociable kind of person (you should certainly try to be!)

Google+ Translate

Extended Share for Google Plus - To share with all your other networks

Google+ Tweaks - To change the layout/design to suit

Side Note

All the elements of the page are on page load. So if you are changing circles in one tab, and updating in another, your circles wont update until you manually refresh the page. This can be a minor annoyance, just refresh the page.

So if you follow me on twitter or Google+ you will notice lately that I have been strugging with Adobe After Effects. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a graphics kind of person. I am certainly not an After Effects person either, as I have learnt!

One of my clients (MacroHealth) are heading to the Hong Kong International ICT Expo in April. They have been requested a video to play on a loop as advertising during the conference. So of course, they turned to me for help. There are templates out there, and throw in some words and some pictures, and away we go, right?

Oh how wrong I was.

After a few weeks of completely fumbling around, and generally messing it up, I turned to Twitter and tweeted that I needed someone to do a quick After Effects job. I had no response, no retweets. Was pulling my hair out wondering what to do next.

Then I had a tweet from Scott Gordon. “Checkout my portfolio”. Ooh. OK. So we ended up connecting via email and skype, and Scott was willing to help us out, which was great.

Oh we are the client that people tell stories about. Our logos weren’t a high enough resolution. Our movies were jerky and awful (more of my work, you can tell). I didn’t know exactly what resolution I needed the output in. The entire time, Scott has gone over and above every single expectation and requirement and the end result is absolute joy.

This isn’t just another rave about a person or company doing work. 

This is the story about how social media helped one small business (Scott) fulfil the immediate, difficult, complicated needs of another small business, halfway around the world. I’ve already recommended his work to anyone who will listen. And some that wont

So cheers Scott, you are going to make the trip to Hong Kong all that more worthwhile for a small geospatial business based out of Brisbane.

Scott’s Website

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9omuc-57XTw

Now let me preface this by saying I don’t believe I am in anywhere near the situation these guys are in/have been in. I’m doing a few dinky jobs here and there and the stress levels are pretty low in comparison. I cannot imagine what it would be like with VC money to perform to and employees to pay.

It is a difficult subject I will try to write both objectively about and with sensitivity. There seem to be a few common themes throughout these blog posts (below, for your reference):

• Isolation
• Excessive Stress
• Negativity/Rejection
• Fear of failure

Now with isolation, this I can understand. You have a vision, you know exactly where you need to be, and want to be, and you are working toward it. But no one can do this on their own, so they bring in help. So you are physically surrounded by people, but none of them are actually inside your mind helping you to achieve exactly the same goal. The thought that they could be taking your vision in the wrong direction can be paralysing, let alone causing some pretty serious levels of despondency.

Overstressed seems to come with the territory. Long hours, little sleep, little reward, often not eating well/exercising, compounded with the other factors leads to very high stress levels. Friends wither away without ever fully understanding why you cannot devote 100% of your time to them. Family is upheld, if you are lucky and make it a serious priority. As it is said with little irony on youknowyoureastartupfounderwhen.com:

You spent more time in front of your computer in the last 12 months than sleeping, eating, exercising & socializing combined.

Negativity/Rejection is different from fear of failure. Negativity/rejection is an outside force exerted on us by others. From testers (it doesn’t work), family (why don’t you get a real job), friends (why don’t you come out anymore), to others in the industry (your product sucks, get a real idea, you should have built it in/using X). It often comes in barrages, feeling as though you may as well give up now, because no one else will ever “get” it.

Fear of failure comes from within. The fear that you will never achieve the vision that you have held onto. Fear that the work you have put in, the sacrifices you have made will never bear fruit. This is terrifying, and can cause complete shut down for days if you dwell on it too much. By shut down, I mean literal shut down. Not being able to get out of bed. Not showering. Not eating. Not answering your phone. Drinking problems. Not functioning as a productive member of society kind of shut down.

Whatever the root causes, depression is mostly caused by a chemical imbalance brought upon by not having an individuals physiological needs met. It is important to realise that nobody is superhuman. We are all individual human beings and have fundamental requirements to be met in order to keep a balanced mental state and live a productive life.

Is it overachievers that put too much pressure on themselves to do better that are driven to startups in our industry which causes this burn out? Or is it the nature of the beast? I would hazard a guess from previous experience that overachievers are drawn to push themselves to the levels of the four factors identified above that cause them mental confusion and depression like symptoms.

One thing is for sure, we can never achieve true success by sitting in front of the TV after doing our 9-5 job that we have been doing for the last 10 years. Is it worth it? I’ll leave that one up to you.

For reference:
Article written with the assistance of my friend Jared Yochim, who is currently doing his Bachelors in Psychology.

Articles that inspired this post:
Fighting micro-burn-out
Sad, Tired, and Alone: My Ongoing Battle With Startup Depression
Depression, Burn Out and Writing Code

More information on depression:
How Anti-Depressants Work
Depression: Causes and Treatments

This isn’t going to be a rant, promise.

I want honest feedback about possible reasons why a recruiter/organisation would not want a technical person running the team. I am genuinely perplexed as to how they can envisage that to be a good thing.

There seems to be this notion that someone who is technical, has no soft skills to speak of. So you are either technical (in which case, a team lead) or non-technical, where you become a Project Manager.

My background… I worked my way up at Samsung Communications Centre, something like 6 weeks from receptionist to Project Manager. I learnt absolutely everything I could about PABX systems, the software, and VoIP. I learnt about telephone lines, data services, packages and products. I learnt how to program up the systems that the engineers installed. I learnt how to train disinterested customers and make learning fun. I qualified within the training program to install phone systems. I’ve done similar at all my project management roles as they moved into software and web.

This allowed me to make the right decisions on behalf of my client, knowing full well that my decisions weren’t going to be completely overturned by a technical mishap. It allowed me to know when I needed to ask for more information from the client, and it allowed me to know when I didn’t know.

Surely, if you don’t have this intimate technical knowledge, you are merely a transporter of information. The client asks a question, you ask the technical people, and you relay it back. You may as well be a well managed email system.

I had a boss once, who asked whilst we were on the tube in London, about why on earth I was doing “Java” at university. I replied “Because our custom CMS that we build is Java based, so surely that will assist me in having a greater understanding and appreciation of its abilities and limitations?”. His response? “Don’t bother being technical”.

I think it is of utmost importance that I have technical knowledge. I need to have business knowledge about the client’s industry as well. I may not be as well informed as either sides, but consider it a venn diagram, the Project Manager role (whatever you want to call it) in the middle, managing both sides of the equation. One thing is for sure, I will continue learning in whatever challenge I am tackling until I know enough to gain both respect from the team I am managing and do my job successfully. How could you not?

P.s I make it clear here that I am not a coder/developer/engineer by trade and I am not exceptionally technical. 

Why do we design online processes the same as offline processes?

I know it seems simple. Client wants a calendar on their website. Everyone knows the following attributes of a paper calendar:

1) Month View
2) Important activities are written in the dates
3) Activities spanning more than 1 day are usually highlighted or spread across the dates
4) Days and Dates are clearly displayed

So you merrily go along and code that up and the client is happy, they have a calendar. Job done.

But what they really actually wanted was a solution to graphically display their events in a way that increases bookings. Or maybe the user wants to schedule tweets efficiently and quickly. It is this last example I will use (as it is easier to provide screenshots for):

So from the above, I can select the date really easily. It’s the 12 of this month, I can chose any other day but as long as it is in *this month*. So when it gets to the 31st of March, and I want to schedule tweets for the following day, it requires me to have an extra click. I know, its 1 click. Who cares? I do. You should. 

Now I am never going to schedule a tweet to go out yesterday, because it will just go immediately. The calendar option should be showing me four weeks from today’s date. Or some other arbitrary amount in the future. In terms of which month is it, simple colour distinction could indicate this. Or a line break.

This theory can be extended elsewhere. What about filling in a form? Why are they always linear? Alot of organisations simply translate their paper based forms into online forms, and that is the job done. You should be collecting as much information as possible in electronic format from what you already know, insinuating the information that matters alot less, and make asking the remaining questions Fun/Interactive/Easy for the user.

I know I’ll be shot down by the “The design of this works, it has X statistics against it in our testing yada yada” crew. But I don’t care. The reason why it works is because we aren’t innovating, we’re copying. If you still want to fill in a linear form with 100 questions on it in 10 years time, flame me all you want.