Polluting Your Blogs Comment Stream

Techcrunch features an excellent article today that discusses how the integration of Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook, etc. reactions into comment threads on blogs can kill the conversation by dramatically increasing comment volume.  Here is the key point:

Instead, there is endless, pointless repetition; conversations emerge, peter out and then re-emerge 50 comments later with new participants who haven’t noticed that the same issues were discussed 50 comments ago.

I couldn’t agree more.  We experimented with integrating Twitter mentions with our blog comments a few months ago and it made our comment threads incoherent.  If you want to track mentions of your article on Twitter or elsewhere, I think the best practice is to use something like the Tweetmeme button and keep comments completely separate from Twitter reactions. 

Twitter and News Organizations

Twitter Yields Uneven ROI for News Organizations Using Automation, Curation, Interaction

Poynter looks at the different approaches news organizations are taking as they experiment with Twitter. My take: we’re in the early days here and still a ways away from establishing best practices for how the media should and shouldn’t use Twitter.

Transparency Site Lets Idahoans Track State Spending

The Bivings Group this week launched OurIdaho.com , a site by the Idaho Freedom Foundation aimed at increasing government transparency in Idaho by displaying the state’s expenditures.

The site is broken into state expenditure records and employee salary records. State expenditures are documented for the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years, with backlogs to come.

The salary data includes state annual, weekly and hourly salaries from various cities, counties and school districts across the state. Data is added as it is gathered.

Ouridaho.com has gotten press coverage in Idaho based on one city’s refusal to include employee’s first names in salary records. Officials from the city of Coeur d’Alene claimed including first names reveals employee gender, a detail not required by the Freedom of Information act.

“Idaho code indicates very clearly that gender doesn’t have to be disclosed,” city attorney Mike Gridley told the Coeur d’Alene Press, according to 2News.tv. “We’ve honored that statute.” The city eventually agreed to release the first initials of employees, but the matter has not yet been settled.

Although this is the first government transparency site developed by The Bivings Group, other states have taken the lead.

Other private companies run the research and development behind the Kentucky and Nevada sites, while the state governments themselves in Kansas, Missouri and Texas run their own sites.

Latimes.com: Before and After

On the heels of an overhaul of their print product back in October, the Los Angeles Times launched a redesign of their website a week or so ago.  I like the new www.latimes.com a great deal from a usability standpoint.  The new sites prominent, simplified horizontal nav bar is a huge improvement over the more complicated content structure present on the old site.  And while I’m sure some will find the black and white design unexciting, I think the palette evokes the print product and makes it easy for the eye to focus on the content.  This is a nice improvement.

Check out the screenshots below to see how the site has changed.  Click on the images for full before and after shots.

The Content Bubble

So you’ve set up your Facebook Fan Page or Twitter profile and now you’re stuck wondering what to post.

They say content is king, and this holds true. You would be doing yourself a disservice by simply posting content without taking some time to think about the community you want to build.  With the wealth of information available on just about every niche, you can create a valuable social network that people will want to follow.

This is something I like to call the content bubble.

This idea probably isn’t revolutionary, but it has helped when explaining to clients how to fully utilize content on their social networks. Basically, you start thinking about content outside of your immediate subject.

For example, lets say you have a Facebook Page for your Italian restaurant (one of my favorite foods btw).

Now your first impulse may be to use the page as a bulletin board. But, before you send a flurry of links about the menu specials, consider your subject. Italian food = Italy, and there is much more to Italy than just your restaurant.

So lets start building your content bubble:

• Italian food has a rich and incredible history. Share this in your feed.
• What region of Italy does your restaurant represent? Are there stories and facts which you can talk about?
• Highlight specialty dishes.
• Share some links about all the different grades of olive oil.
• Who doesn’t want to know more about Italian desserts?
• Go on YouTube and find some relative videos to post.
• Talk about how certain ingredients became known. How is ricotta cheese made?
• What about Italian songs or music?
• Spotlight some famous Italian chefs.
• Explain how all the different types of pasta come about.

Getting the idea how your content bubble can grow?

In this example, the Facebook page doesn’t focus on only the restaurant. It covers Italian history and culture. Now you are providing value while also broadening your readership. This can help with word of mouth which may lead to more potential customers.

Build yourself up as a resource and you’ll start seeing the benefits of an effective content bubble.

So what do you think? What suggestions would you make?