As I sat down for my daily morning reading at my local coffee shop I pulled out my phone to checkin on Foursquare. It was no surprise when the app crashed. What was a surprise – the notification that appeared when I reopened. I was being asked if I wanted to report the error and improve Foursquare. An interesting approach by a company that gets hundreds of advertisement and business requests EACH day and admittedly can’t keep up with the flow. Yet, they are working on it. As of last week it came to light Foursquare has been hiring help to manage the influx of requests. I applaud the tie-in of error reporting, but wonder how it will be handled among an already overloaded crew. Even if the feedback is automatically tracked, what’s the gameplan Foursquare? Frustrations have become fairly prominent among the market I exist in – but admittedly we all love the Foursquare game.

Flowtown is a fantastic source for infographics. I rely on their efforts for breaking down occurrences in the online social space. One of their more recent items addresses which companies are the most social. The results are intriguing butI saw an immediate flaw.

To preface, when I was in the Finance world there existed a method of scaling objects, up or down, to start from the same level. So to determine performance of a security, let’s say, you would not place more weight on a security because it had a larger market cap, number of outstanding shares, or other measure of size. You operated purely based on an equal plane where performance was unbiased. The metrics they use in the below graphic are based on average number of friends, average number of tweets, number of followers, and followers per employee. Thinking about this for a moment you would expect the largest companies who have a social presence to lead…and they do. There is no mention of Zappos, the hot social media example, or any other “smaller” business currently using their social presence more effectively than some of these corporations. It starts with Microsoft and ends with Coke. That preface stated. Have a look:

Haven’t heard of it? You will soon enough. As the team claims, by this fall. Next question. “What is it?” The short answer: cloud based personalized sharing spaces, or seeds, that operate within the latest peer to peer security, GPG. (GPG is an upgrade from the older – circa 1991 – PGP (pretty good privacy) authentication.) The result is claimed full integration of social networks based on what you and only you choose to share. Comes at a great time when privacy is all the rage..err…concern with Facebook.

Having raised 1809% of their modest $10,000 goal on Kickstarter the group of four clearly has made a solid initial impact. Donations are a big indicator. Lots of people will support your cause verbally, but call them to action and only a fraction will dish out the cash. Based on this I presume there is a wide base of support since $180k + has been raised; meaning there exists an even larger support base that didn’t speak up yet (read: throw down cash).

What I like best about the approach is the empowerment of the public. Diaspora is essentially saying “with your – the public’s – funding we will bring a new form of social media into existence. We are doing this together, for all of us.” Well how can you not be excited? Especially with social media speculated to only be in its infant stages.

Here’s the team’s pitch video. Surprisingly undetailed for such a boom in funding. More info found via the link under the video.

Diaspora blog: click here

Fantastic illustration of author Dan Pink’s speech on what motivates us. Think you already know what motivates you? Me? Others? There are some surprises that you might not expect.

I particularly love the quote, “pay people enough to take money off the table.” You have some assumptions here about the capabilities of your employees, but if your employees aren’t capable and passionate towards the goal of your business, they shouldn’t be your employees.

If you’re on a time crunch skip to 5:08 and watch the rest, but I highly suggest the whole video.

I’m a huge proponent of everyone everywhere having their own blog. Here’s 5 reasons why.

1. All those thoughts in your noggin can benefit others
Whether you decide to share your expert advice on a little-known topic or discuss your latest fishing ventures, others will benefit from the words you express. Not everyone will, but that isn’t your concern. Two quick points. First, there is a power in collective thinking. Blogs are about presenting a topic, some ideas, knowledge, or facts, and then feedback. It opens a door of communications. Much like in real life, someone can present an idea and perhaps those surrounding will respond, but maybe they will only listen and soak the words in. Second, there is the unknown, unseen effects of sparking thoughts in another. If you start discussing the gaps in a theory, you’ve set in motion thoughts in someone else’s mind. They will never be the same because of what you shared.

2. Clear your head
Sometimes we are thinking of something and it’s inhibiting us from moving forward. It could be very clear or underlying, but getting out the thoughts that spring to mind is helpful. We certainly have outlets for short blurbs – aka Twitter and Facebook – but for lengthy ideas blogging may solve your problem.

3. Force yourself to learn/assist yourself in learning and remembering
Some of you out there are lucky to have fantastic memories. I am not one of those people. I work very hard to remember things that I read or think about. Except for numbers. Numbers tend to stick. It’s a sickness really. Anyway, writing things down is a clear aid in remembering a topic. Both writing on a topic and doing background research to gather your content is an even better way.

4. Networking
No one can find you if you are not able to be found. Too philosophical? If you want to get out and meet people who have interests similar to you, then write about it online. Develop a web presence and a whole new world around your topic(s) of interest will start to appear. I’ve met some great people since launching this site and my photoblog, because of my interest in social media and, more broadly, how we think and connect with each other. Your contacts are waiting.

5. Help Others
Chances are that your blog will/does revolve around a set topic. Whether or not you write often, you will slowly gain a following. That group of individuals will find your writings useful – be it humor, intellect, facts, whatever. They will come to benefit from your writings and you should be proud of that. Unless you aren’t currently online writing. In which case, you should start a blog. Some free options include Wordpress, Blogger, and LiveJournal.

I sent out a tweet a few weeks back asking readers what topics they would like to see me write about on my blog. Twitter user @alyeasandovar requested a listing of all the abbreviations one might find used on Twitter. As I promised, here is that list:

@username = Used to reply to username
D @username = Direct message
DM @username = Direct Message
URL Shorteners = a way to make shorter links for fitting into tweets, also used for tracking analytics on how many clicks you receive – bit.ly, ow.ly, tinyurl, Nanourl, etc.

RT = Retweet
BTW = By The Way
FB = Facebook
FF = Follow Friday (#FF) – used to promote Twitter friends on Friday’s
Followers = Twitter members that follow your updates.
FTF = Face to Face
FTW = For the Win
Geotag = The geographical location of you/your message.
Hashtag (represented by “#”) = Adding categorical metadata to your tweets by using the # tag – a way to make your tweets more searchable.
IC = I see
IMHO In My Humble Opinion
IM = Instant Message
IOW = In Other Words
IRL = In Real Life
JK = Just Kidding
K = Okay
LMAO = Laughing My Ass Off
LMK = Let me know
LOL = Laugh out loud
OH = Overheard
OMG = Oh my god or oh my gosh
OMW = On my way
PLZ = Please
PWN = Own
ROFL = Rolling on the floor laughing
RU? = Are you?
R = Are
Tweeps = Your fellow Twitterers
Tweeter = A user of Twitter.
Tweeting = The act of posting on Twitter.
Tweets = Posts on Twitter by Twitter members.
Tweet = Twitter updates
Twitterer = A user of Twitter.
Twittering = To send a Twitter message.
Twitterverse = The Whole Community of Twitter
TY = Thank You
UR = Your
U = You
wOOt! = An expression of joy or excitement.
WTF = What the f***
WTH = What the heck
YR = Your or Year
YW = Your welcome

Have any others to add that you see regularly?