Many of you, like me, use both Twitter and Facebook. But given the disparity in numbers, many more are on only Facebook and not Twitter. Thus, my rationale for sharing my Twitter tweets (which I use more) to my Facebook status updates, so that both my Twitter followers and Facebook friends can see my latest finds — a large %age of my updates are links to goodies I find. (I do have my Twitter Facebook app configured so that my twitter @replies do not get posted to Facebook.)

I didn’t want to be insensitive to my friends on Facebook; I’ve recently asked them if I should continue feeding my Facebook status updates with my latest tweets, or keep the two separated. The results ended in a close heat, by a margin of 9 votes, more of my friends wanted to keep my tweets connected!

The wisdom of the crowd is split on whether you should or shouldn’t have social networks connected with mirrored content. My counsel: be considerate of your Facebook friends, yours may be more Twitter-averse.

Here are comments that came in during polling season, for your reference, to assist you in making an informed decision about how you might use your Twitter and Facebook accounts:

KL: “It annoys me when people post to both twitter and FB because I have to see the same thing twice. Then again, I don’t follow many people on both twitter and FB so in practice this isn’t really a problem.”

TL: i think ideally you want to separate fb and twitter because they are different mediums with different purposes and circles (no google+ pun intended). so tweet certain things and fb post other different things. but who does that really?

i think the reality is that most people are heavier users of either one or the other. so it’s probably the minority that would see your posts duplicated on twitter and fb (and previously buzz)

KH: i think connecting different social media platforms is a great invention! =)

SM: i don’t know about ‘overwhelmed’, but i tend to prefer separate streams…

RM: Only because every one else says this.

WS: And I like to read them here too!!

LL: selective tweets is a good option so it doesn’t flood your fb

VS: it is a question I’ve wrestled with myself. At the moment the “time” issue is the determinant…I don’t have to do independent posts. When that changes, I will probably split the information.

MM: I also use the Selective Tweets. I appreciate the option of determining which tweets come to Facebook.

SK: I’m probably not a good one to ask, because I port all my tweets over to Facebook. Using Selective Tweets is too mentally taxing. I don’t have time to parse whether a tweet is “appropriate” for Facebook or not. I just know that everything I post on Twitter shows up here on FB, and that’s fine. Two different audiences (for the most part). Different conversations take place around the same content. It’s all good. That’d be my vote, keep on keepin’ on.

SS: I’d say go with your instinct, your gut feel. I like the way you think and reason!

SO: I would vote for Disconnect if it wasn’t for the parenthetical addendum. Its for strategic reasons I advocate separating them, not because I am “easily overwhelmed”

LS: Pile it on! I love reading your stuff.

DI: I say disconnect them! Why follow on facebook & twitter if both have same content?

CM: I use selective tweets. I think that works best also!

JR: I follow you on twitter. plus you can use selective tweets.

BW: I see all your Tweets on Twitter, so I wouldn’t need to see them here too. But, if it’s easier for you, I don’t mind them in both!

BR: Use select tweets so updates appropriate for FB can still be brought over. [re: what is appropriate?] Things that you think your friends might comment on as well as just less than twitter. Things w/o hashtags too.

What counsel would you add about whether or not to connect Twitter to Facebook?

Now, It’s also possible to connect things the other way, so your Facebook status updates get automatically posted over to Twitter. When do you think it’s better to connect it the other direction?

In over 5 years of twittering, here’s some things I’ve noticed and/or learned:

• When a new technology is launched into the public, there’s no guarantee that it’ll flourish into mainstream adoption nor that it will keep growing its popularity and audience base (i.e. SixDegrees, Friendster, MySpace).
• Social media is about the people, not the technology, nor the “superiority” thereof. When I first used Twitter, there wasn’t much going on there because there weren’t people there. The wisdom of the crowd had not yet figured out valuable ways to use real-time updates. Journalists were among the earlier to use it, along with some ham-radio-like amateur hobbyists. Hashtags were a later invention/ innovation.
• Twitter is much more valuable because it is an open platform in the public, rather than being behind a virtual wall a la Facebook. I know there are millions more people on Facebook where people are connecting with friends and being fans of brands/people they like. Twitter lets me get near-real-time news, jump in (and out of) conversations, and connect with total strangers and meet new people in ways that Facebook doesn’t.
• The life span of a tweet is shrinking as it’s become more mainstream. Used to be able to search tweets back to 3 weeks, now the twitter search engine goes back maybe 3 days. The technical requirements needed to run twitter is undoubtedly costly, and all the more so with more usage.
• I love new things and exploring what could be next. This isn’t a “first mover advantage” for me, since I am not doing this to look for opportunities to monetize or to grow a business, though it has indirectly been an asset in my paid work. (Do you have a suggestion for how to get paid to for exploring? I’d love to hear it!)

Too often, people go to a conference alone, get all jazzed about an idea, but have the hardest time getting the idea across to the others since the people back home didn’t hear and experience the conference. Talk about hitting the brick wall. Yeah, there’s some value for getting inspired and/or recharged. There’s so much more value when you can take ideas home to implement and turn it into reality!

That’s why I love the way Sticky Teams 2.0 is encouraging teams to come. Registration fee is $269 (early bird rate ends 9/2) and the registered person gets to bring 2 others for free! And the conference organizers, who I got to meet earlier this week, are anticipating the event to sell out soon. Only 130 seats left at the time of this writing. (Aside: I like seeing that real-time seating countdown.)

And, I’ll be there myself. I’m doing a breakout session on social media –

DJ Chuang | How to Go from Potential to Mastery in Social Media
There’s more to social media than putting a Twitter and Facebook icon on all your communications. But it doesn’t have to overwhelm you or take up all of your time. Learn how to increase your social media proficiency, become the master of your online reputation, and expand your ministry impact worldwide.

Would love to connect with you there! And in addition to my session, you might also want to hear Mark Driscoll and Larry Osborne

The big digital art installation is a moderated twitter display called #matterspirit. The visual image below will be projected onto a wall and on display during the opening reception. (If we could acquire the use of a projector for the entire duration of the show, which runs thru mid-June, the twitter tweets would be projected for 4 months instead of 1 evening.)

Here’s the tech notes on how to project a moderated twitter feed for a live event ::

• Moderation: We’re using TidyTweet.com to moderate and selectively approve tweets with the hashtag #matterspirit. Since we’re at a Christian college, unmoderated tweets wouldn’t be kosher.
• Displayer web app: The tweets are displayed using VisibleTweets.com using the “letter by letter” animation.
• LCD Projector: Epson EX71 Multimedia Projector. This projector is lightweight and versatile. I think it’s a way better way to go than an HDTV – get a bigger image and portability, and not be stuck to one place on a wall.
• Computer. A standard-issue desktop computer, one of the stations at the library, connected to the internet, is connected to the VGA port on the projector. Open a web browser to j.mp/matterspirit and go full screen. Voila.

There are many online tutorials that gives simple step-by-step instructions on how to register & sign up, how to setup your profile, and then how to start finding and connecting with people. Essentially, social networks are all about connecting with people.

There are basically two kinds: video tutorials and text-based tutorial articles. Here are tutorials for the 2 most popular social networks:

Facebook

Facebook 101 – tutorials by GCF Learn Free

Quick Start Guide: Six Steps to a Facebook Page For Your Business (@ zebworks.com)

[video] How to Use Facebook: Video Series (@ ehow.com + Expert Village)

[video] Quick Easy Tutorial on Creating a Facebook Personal Profile

Twitter

How to setup a twitter account (@ twitip.com)
Mastering twitter in 10 minutes or less (@ twitteroid.com)
Twitter quick start checklist (@ shaynepacker.com)

Howcast.com’s tutorial: how to use twitter

Twitter tutorial – getting started

cf. Top 7 Twitter tutorials on YouTube + 30 Essential Twitter Tutorials for Newbies and Experts

This will get you started! As you get some practice navigating around each of these web apps, you will soon be ready to develop your strategy. That’ll be next.

The next 2 stages of this blog series will be: strategies, and news & trends.

I’ve found my use of twitter to evolve over time, and here’s 2 tweaks I’ve made recently:

1. I follow more people and removed my 10% ratio cap. I used to follow no more than 10% of my number of followers, thinking I’d catch tweets of interest on my home feed. That’s not possible with 500 follows, much less 200, really.

The difference to follow or not to follow is whether someone can DM me or not. When I want a better chance of catching tweets from people I want to keep tabs on, I’ll use a twitter list. When I want to listen in to a convo, I’ll do a saved search on a hashtag and/or keyword.

2. I’m using my main twitter @djchuang for more replies and convo’s. I used to keep my tweets limited to retweets, making announcements, and sharing links + resources + quotes. These would be more obviously valuable to 1,000s. Yet, to only do the above makes it too much of a one-way broadcast rather than a two-way conversation.

I’m now more actively replying on @djchuang as I think there’s definitely value to the conversations too, for both the replied and others listening in. The conversational tweets don’t have to be bumped to my personal twitter.

Yes, twitter can be used as a real-time broadcast feed of updates and announcements; twitter conversations make it even more valuable.

How has your use of twitter evolved?

[aside: while composing this post on iPhone didn't save draft, thus this is shorter than it coulda been]

I’ll be there with the Verge Social Media Team, providing live coverage via various social media channels, and the team members’ websites + blogs + networks will host on-going conversations in a distributed fashion after the event.



The Verge team blog will link to all the latest — including announcement of the live video feed of main sessions. Live twitter tweets on twubs (below) + use official hashtag #verge10 + follow @djchuang247 for my live tweets.

Other intel’ about Verge ::

• [ Wednesday 2/3 @ 7:00pm ] #verge10 Tweetup, Kerbey Lane Cafe
  (13435 Hwy 183 N Ste. 415, Austin, TX)
• Deidox — great short films of compelling stories — is the official sponsor of the Cafe/Coffee Shop. They’ll have a booth and will be previewing several Deidox films, and giving away free Deidox DVD’s.
• [ Friday 2/5 @ 5:00pm ] World Vision Gospel Quest Dinner, BBQ Dinner by Rudy’s, Cost: $10. Limited seating.
• [ Saturday 2/6 @ 10:45am ] International Justice Mission Brunch with screening of new documentary, Cost: $10. Limited seating.

The lil’ Flipcam caught a few sound bites of our (on-going) conversation about mentoring — watch video:

So, what is mentoring anyways? And what about coaching? discipleship? spiritual direction? friendship? apprenticing? training?

While I believe there is a lot of semantic overlap between all of these terms, I think the various definitions & different expectations of what is being asked of a mentor can result a big disconnect. Literally, a disconnect where a person declined a request to be a mentor. Maybe that’s (1 reason) why it’s hard to find a mentor. To contrast, my coaching friend Kirk describes mentoring as “someone who has resources to help you in a specific area.”

And, Kyle remarked on his blog about this dinner conversation and he was left wondering, “am I a good dinner conversation? What do the other people think of me?” For the record, I thought that was a great dinner conversation, better than good, and the food was delicious too.

I’ll be hangin’ out at the Pan Asian North American Student Lounge, located at The Holiday Inn Select St Louis Downtown in between sessions.

Follow @urbana09 for official announcements. Follow me @djchuang247 for live tweets. The official hashtag to use is #urbana09 according to the twubs.

[update] here are 4 videos I’ve posted via YouTube from #urbana09:

1. When people post a tweet in the Chat Live window and click “Say”, my twitcam URL will be added to the end of their tweet. That’s a very infectious viral way to get the livestream URL out to the masses. But, to the unsuspecting viewer, it’s an unexpected surprise. And, it cuts down your character count from 140 to 95. Tip: abbrv8.
2. When or if I reload the web browser window, then I can’t go back to broadcasting on a previously-activated twitcam URL, because twitcam instantly stops recording and starts archiving the video. You cannot pick up and continue livestreaming. So if you tweeted a URL, and people were still jumping in, you’ll have to send out a new URL. In other words, these twitcam URLs are one-time livestream use.
3. Every viewer that wants to chat has to have a twitter account. It’s one more step that occasionally I don’t want to hinder the viewer with. I think it’s Ustream that has a config option to allow or disallow viewers to type the chat room without having to register. Viewers can watch without chatting, though that’s much less interesting.

And a side note. By having the chat room melded with a twitter account, it can quickly clutter up the twitter stream. Just what we need *sarcasm* : more side chatter to welcome the fail whale because we miss it.

And, while it is possible to type on this smartphone, blogging thoughtfully does go so much better, and faster, on a full size keyboard.

To glance back at my week, look at my instablog http://daily.djchuang.com and my 24/7 twitter feed http://twitter.com/djchuang247

My upcoming multi-site road trip next weekend triggered my exploration on what to do with my online content. You might call this “content segmentation.” Here’s where my content is now being posted:

djchuang.com – my personal blog here will remain the place where I write out my more lengthy color commentaries on my eclectic thoughts and personal feelings

twitter.com/djchuang – @djchuang is my main twitter feed with updates primarily covering the topics of faith and culture, and joining in on related conversations

twitter.com/djchuang247 – @djchuang247 is my new twitter feed with updates that will be reveal glimpses of my personal everyday life and more extensive commentaries and sound bites during conferences I attend

daily.djchuang.com – this is my tumblr-powered daily blog that’ll mix mostly a photo blog and an audio blog, with occasional deep-dive event live-blogging

facebook.com/djchuang – this connects me to a smaller circle of people. If I instinctively recognize the face or name, I’ll accept a friend request. If not, sorry.

friendfeed.com/djchuang – this will get you everything in my lifestream, including blogs, tweets, yelps, delicious, flickr, youtube, etc.

I also contribute to these blogs as a part of my professional career life:

• L2 Foundation blog – relevant items to develop leadership and legacy for Asian Americans
• Books @ Leadership Network – Practical innovations from books that leaders are reading
• Digital @ Leadership Network – church tech blog for non-techies
• Learnings @ Leadership Network – what innovative churches are doing
• Multi-site Church blog – informing & equipping churches to reach people at multiple locations

I’ve heard not everyone wants to read everything I have to write or comment on everything, particularly some of the inane personal things I’m doing at the moment, to which I even say to myself, “so what?” I’ve even had one person _block_ me on Twitter just to make sure he doesn’t get my too-frequent updates — when all he had to do is unfollow me.

All of us have to be selective on what content we’ll subscribe to, filter through, follow, or manage. No offense taken if you choose only a portion of my lifestream.

[photo credit]

• PeopleBrowsr – wowwie! this is the swiss-army knife of twitter apps.. dices & slices & everything.. even things I’ve never thought possible.. I think of it as the web-based Tweetdeck.. plus, it’s an ultimate dashboard for twitter and also other social networks too, e.g. facebook, plaxo..
• FriendOrFollow – enter your username, no login required, and sort your lists as following, fans, and friends.. avatar-based sorter
• MyTweeple – login with username and password, sync with twitter, then manage followers and friends with follow / unfollow / block
• TweetBuddy – “promoting the ethical acquisition & management of Twitter followers”.. login for TweetBuddy Prune Tool to manage following, followers, and two-way follows.. Prune Lite lets you see your lists without using your password.. I dont’ like how the developers identity is hidden.. a newer design would be more inviting..

There are a bunch of other web apps in the follow management category at the Twitter Fan Wiki. 2 other web apps that look really useful for house-cleaning: UnTweeps [unfollow tweeps who have not posted recently] and MyCleenr [rids inactive accounts that you're following].

got to worship on sunday at cross timbers… celebrate a friend’s birthday + chinese new year simultaneously… breakfast w dave lee (harvest community church) later this morning…

connected with 100+ people at innovation3, a 1-time-only 1-of-a-kind event; saw bloggers and twitterers generate so much buzz that it showed up on top trends in twitter search page.. amazing how much content & conversation #i3 packed into 26 hours.. Bent Tree Bible Fellowship one amazing host w excellent people who provided vital help; so generous, so collegial..

spontaneously used 3 web tools for tech breakout session, where 2 of 3 presenters couldn’t make it, and @cynthiaware and @kentshaffer masterfully pitched in; we used skype video call, ustream, and tokbox, over wifi, with at least a dozen laptops online in room too, and no bandwidth problem, 60+ joined us online with only a real-time twitter announcement… this session coulda easily been its own conference…

will write more on a real keyboard later… one regret: didnt get to eat at Little Sichuan, oh how i like it hot & spicy..