 Christopher Butler Strategy and Resourcing Hi, I'm Chris. I've been working at Newfangled since September, 2004. | Chris Butler's Blog |
 | Subscribe to this blog Click this link to view blog as XML. View a list of all Newfangled blogs >> Subscribe to all Newfangled blogs >> |  | Search Chris' blog |
Audiocast: Our Human Footprint
April 10, 2008 at 3:00 pm by Chris| One of today's On Point programs was titled Our Human Footprint. It was definitely worth listening to, as it included guests Elizabeth Vargas, co-anchor of ABC News "20/20" and host of the National Geographic Special "Human Footprint," Dr. Eric Sanderson, associate director of the Living Landscapes Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society and co-creator of the Human Footprint Map, and Colin Beavan, also known as blogger "No Impact Man," he and his family conducted an experiment and tried for one year to leave no carbon footprint on the planet. Update: 04/11/2008: Here's another good blog on environmental issues: DotEarth, from the New York Times. |
Tags: audio blogging environment
 |  |  |  |  |  |
April Fools, 'Net Style
April 4, 2008 at 8:30 am by Chris| Eric thinks that RSS has ruined the tradition of April Fools pranks, but this guy shows that the 'net made his prank so much more real... ...speaking of April Fools, this has to be one, right? |
Tags: social-media blogging newfangled
| | | | | |
Corporate Blogging Policies
March 26, 2008 at 4:00 pm by Chris| A recent story about how Cisco has gotten in to hot water over a high
profile blog maintained by one of its intellectual property advisors
has prompted many companies to consider their policy in regard to
corporate blogging. The blog, which is now somewhat locked-down,
is called "Patent Toll Tracker," and was kept by Rick Frenkel to
chronicle issues related to patent litigation. Apparently, several
patent lawyers involved in a case against Cisco have filed a libel case
against them after Frenkel revealed his identity and affiliation with
the company. Cisco has released a statement affirming that they will be retaining Frenkel though re-thinking their corporate policy. One particular quote has been making its way across the 'net already: "If you comment on any aspect of the company's business or any policy issue the company is involved in where you have responsibility for Cisco's engagement, you must clearly identify yourself as a Cisco employee in your postings or blog site(s) and include a disclaimer that the views are your own and not those of Cisco."Seems pretty common-sense to me... After all, it's just the right thing to do. I mentioned this idea toward the end of a previous post I wrote about using blogging to build your online reputation. Corporate blogging is an opportunity to connect with potential and existing customers in a positive way, even if to address negative feedback. It is not a good method to attack competition, react against upset customers, or act subversively. That's the thing about the internet- the truth will come out, and if you've got something to hide, it won't be pretty. Update: 03/28/2008, Regarding the truth coming out on the 'net, and it not being pretty, check this out. |
Tags: strategy blogging
| | | | | |
Social Media Matters When it's Personal
February 19, 2008 at 4:00 pm by Chris| I've written before on the benefits of blogging and maintaining your online reputation. Here's a recent post from Communication Overtones, titled "Social Media Only Matters When It's Personal" which states, "People care deeply when someone helps them out of a hard spot or makes their life easier. If your gizmo or social media service can do that, then you will earn loyalty and gratitude." It's worth reading. |
Tags: social-media strategy blogging
| | | | | |
Blogging and Brands
February 14, 2008 at 4:00 pm by Chris| Eric at SmashLab has just posted another great article at his ideasonideas blog. This one is on blogging and brands, and is worth the time to read. Read it here > |
Tags: strategy design blogging
| | | | | |
New York Times Blog Logo Designs
February 13, 2008 at 10:00 am by ChrisI mentioned before that the New York Times was on a roll with its blogs. Many of them really have great articles, and their logo's are nicely designed, too! Out of their 52 total blogs, here are a few that stand out with nice logos (I don't read all of them).
|
Tags: design blogging
| | | | | |
Get Yourself Out There
February 11, 2008 at 2:30 pm by Chris
Brian Solis says that lack of comments means lack of influence, but I say don't expect a ton of comments unless you are approaching A-list (or even B-list) status. In fairness, Solis also says that "measuring the success of a blog based on the amount of comments is just lame," and I completely agree. In fact, according to Jakob Nielsen's study, 90% of online community users are lurkers, meaning they read but don't comment, while only 9% contribute a 'little' and 1% contribute actively. While this study is not specific to blog comment participation, it's likely that the principle is applicable though the numbers may have a "+ or -" factor. This means that the majority of your blog readers will probably not be commenting on your posts anytime soon.As is obvious to anyone who reads this blog, I don't get a ton of comments, so this isn't going to be one of those "I did it and so can you!" posts. Like Brian Solis says above, comments are not always going to be the best judge of the current success of a blog. However, there is always room for improvement, and as readership increases, so, too, should commenting. So, my blog has a way to go. There just is no magic wand to use to instantly get lots of traffic to your blog. There are ways to gradually increase the amount of activity on your blog, but to do it, you've got to get yourself out there. Establish Your Hub The first step is to give readers a way to find your blog. If you already have a website that gets some traffic, your blog can be integrated into your existing site's structure. If your blog is your online hub, you can use your profiles on various social networks to point readers your way (to learn more about this, see an earlier post titled Is that Really You?). Read Other Blogs to Stay Informed Next, you'll need to find and start reading other blogs that deal with the same topics that you deal with on your blog. Being familiar with the larger conversation is crucial to both gaining readers and being properly informed on those subjects that you plan to write about. Use a feed reader (we like Google Reader) to subscribe to the RSS feeds for these blogs and get into the habit of reading through your feeds daily. If you've come to the determination that blogging is important enough to your web strategy to actually create one, you'll also need to realize the importance for making time to read other blogs. Once you've done that, you'll probably find yourself asking how anyone could possibly keep up with the amount of information delivered via RSS to their computer every day. Here's how. Leave Comments, but don't spam. Finally, reading other blogs will help you stay informed, but it won't help you to get noticed. Remember, at this point, you're just lurking (not that there's anything wrong with that!). However, at some point you'll probably have something to add to the conversation that's happening in the comment threads of the blogs you're reading. That's a good thing, and you should do it. Most blogs allow you to add links to your comment, so if you have a blog post or webpage that is relevant to your comment, this is your chance to share it with the community. The more you participate by sharing insightful and valuable comments, the more you'll be able to share links without spamming the other readers of the blog. Participating in this way is crucial for developing recognized authority in regard to your area of expertise. (In the spirit of conversation, here's a link to a blog post which asks how bloggers interact with comments. The comments thread to the blog is a fairly good indication of people's varying opinions on how to interact with comment on their and others' blogs.) Then What? Once you're off and running, there are several other strategies you can employ to get a sense for how your blog is doing, including setting up an RSS feed for search results for your name or your company's name online. If your blog has become a significant part of your online strategy, being aware of your online reputation will become more and more important. It will also give you a chance to respond quickly to those blogs that have noticed and mentioned you (for positive or negative reasons). |
Tags: strategy software blogging google
| | | | | |
New York Times Blogs
February 8, 2008 at 3:10 pm by Chris| Does anyone else agree that the New York Times is totally on a roll with its blogs? Check them out here. |
Tags: design blogging
| | | | | |
It's All About Skimming
February 7, 2008 at 11:00 am by Chris
Mark and I recently had a chat (of which you can read a transcript on his blog) about how anyone could possibly keep up with the amount of information delivered via RSS to our computers every day. Every day you gasp? How about every hour!? I mentioned to Mark that one of the most important skills to develop (I can't believe I'm calling this a skill, but...) is to be able to skim through that information well. Good skimming means that you can quickly scan an article and determine if its content is relevant to you, then either decide to read it more closely or file it away for future reference, and maybe even share it with a friend who will find it interesting while you're at it. If you can't skim well, you'll never keep up!Skimming might not be necessary if everyone blogged in the same manner. Think about it: if every blogger decided to post one substantial and high-quality post a week, readers would have more time to digest the information. We'd probably have to subscribe to fewer blogs in order to feel like we're keeping abreast of things, too. However, this is just not the reality. Even magazine and newspaper columnists, who have traditionally written daily, weekly, or monthly columns, these days keep blogs on which they post several times a day (if not several times an hour). This is is just the pace at which information moves now. However, because there is so much information being passed back and forth, it's likely that much of it won't be relevant to you. Unfortunately, you won't know one way or another unless you start sifting through it.  If you take a look at my Google Reader trends (see image above), you'll get a better sense of what I am talking about. Notice that over the last 30 days, I read (skimmed, more likely) through 4,715 feeds- that's around 157 feeds a day! You can tell from the chart that most of my feed reading (skimming, again) is done earlier in the morning. This is a good time for me to catch up on this stuff before my phone starts ringing. Good thing I'm a morning person... Also, notice that some of the feeds I subscribe to update between 10 to 40 times a day! Granted, some of them are from fulltime journalists who are paid to do it, but this gives you an idea of the pace and frequency I mentioned above. Believe me, my job keeps me plenty busy, so I don't have time to settle down and really read all of this content- and I wouldn't really want to, either. Remember, much of it is not going to be relevant to me. But, some will be very relevant to me, so if I don't skim through all of it, I won't find the 'some' that is worthwhile. 
One last point. Most people who value reading (myself included), will be initially disgusted by the notion of skimming as a means of staying informed, especially when it comes to content that is professionally relevant. In this regard I think two ideas are important. First, blog content is meant to move at a faster pace, so reading a blog post and reading a book are going to be very different experiences. Blogs will not render books (actual books or ebooks) irrelevant anytime soon. This is a good thing. While ideas can be batted around in blog posts and stimulate lots of conversation, books are still needed to present ideas in a well developed and well researched manner. Second, the accelerated pace of blog post publishing is similar to that of book publishing. In fact, statistics from 2004 show that a new book of fiction is published in the United States every 30 minutes. And that's just fiction. Only in the United States. In 2004! This is why a recent book titled How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, by Pierre Bayard, shouldn't be scoffed at. Bayard points out that the only way for anyone, especially scholars, to keep up with the amount of information being put out there is to simply be aware of what's being published, because let's face it, you can't read it all. He even points out that sometimes it's more important to be aware of how a book fits in to the larger trends/mood/zeitgeist (wow I've used that word twice in one week on this blog) than to have actually read it. Have I read Bayard's book? No. ...His point, exactly! If skimming is legit for books, it had better be legit for blogs. |
Tags: software books blogging google
| | | | | |
Tech Talk on Privacy and Social Networks
January 31, 2008 at 12:00 pm by Chris
On the subject of privacy, I recently heard this podcast from the New York Times. Listen here > |
Tags: social-media audio privacy blogging
| | | | | |
My Favorite Audiocasts and Videocasts
January 24, 2008 at 8:00 am by ChrisNews Flash! We just added a new member to our project management team, Jason Adams. Among his many significant geek-cred claims (his Facebook status as of this writing was 'is sorting comic books') is his love for audiocasting. You can subscribe to his here (I haven't listened yet, but I have a feeling that when I do, I will like it). I mentioned audiocasts a while back in a post called The Internet Breathes New Life into Radio!, but aside from recommending one of my favorites, RadioLab, I didn't really mention any others. So with that, here is a list (in no particular order) of my current favorite audiocasts and videocasts (by the way, I use the words audiocast/videocast rather than podcast just to avoid showing preference to one particular player over others...):
MAKE Magazine: MAKE VideocastMAKE is a quarterly magazine that deals with all sorts of do-it-yourself messing around with technology. It claims to be "the first do-it-yourself magazine dedicated to the incorrigible and chronically incurable technology enthusiast in all of us." http://blog.makezine.com/archive/make_podcast/index.xml 
Mysterious UniverseThis one was a bit of a risk to put on my list. Mysterious Universe is a weekly audio cast that brings "the latest news from beyond the mainstream;" think of it as if Fox Muldur from the X-Files was actually a real guy and did an internet radio show with complete sincerity. So, I enjoy listening to this one while maintaining a decent level of skepticism. http://feeds.feedburner.com/mysteriousuniverse 
Meet the PressThis is the weekly NBC broadcast featuring moderator Tim Russert interviewing newsmakers from all over the world. http://podcast.msnbc.com/audio/podcast/MSNBC-MTP.xml 
The New Yorker: Out LoudThis is a weekly conversation between Michael Specter and various New Yorker writers about the latest articles and features from the magazine. Topics are all over the map, but always fascinating. http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rss/feeds/newyorker_outloud.xml 
NPR: Fresh AirHosted by Terry Gross, this daily audiocast covers issues from politics to contemporary arts in an "intimate conversation" format. http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=13 
NPR: On PointThis has been one of my favorites for several years now, and is probably the primary way I keep up with current events. In fact, I love this show so much I even called in once (yes, I am that guy)! Hosted by Tom Ashbrook, the show airs twice daily covering topics from politics to art and literature. Each Friday features a 'week in the news' show with Jack Beatty, editor of the Atlantic Monthly. http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510053 
PRI: Living on EarthLiving on Earth is a weekly news and informational program about the world's changing environment, ecology, and human health. LOE sends its correspondents all over the world producing excellent stories that you'd never hear elsewhere. One of the highlights of this program is its excellent sound production- not only will you hear the voices of the reporters speaking from the rainforest, but you'll hear the rustling of insects, screeching of monkeys and birds, and the rushing of rivers. Lots of fun. http://www.loe.org/podcast.rss 
Science TalkBrought to you by Scientific American, this is a weekly show covering the latest in the world of science and technology, hosted by Steve Mirsky. One highlight is the weekly feature, called 'Totally Bogus,' in which Mirsky mentions several stories and challenges listeners to identify which one is totally bogus http://www.sciam.com/podcast/sciam_podcast_r.xml 
Slate ExplainerThis is a short daily audiocast in which the Explainer team investigates and finds the answers to questions that everyone is sure to be asking. Recent questions have been "Will the interest rate cut affect me?" and "But I Don't Want a Rectal Exam! (ok, that last one isn't a question, but it was the title of the show). http://www.slate.com/podcast/id/2129874/ 
This American LifeThis weekly broadcast from Chicago Public Radio is hosted by Ira Glass and brings a theme-driven show in several 'acts,' each with first-person stories from everyday life. http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/talpodcast 
RadioLabHosted by Jad Abumrad and science correspondent Rober Krulwich, RadioLab brings intricately produced shows where "science meets culture and information sounds like music." That's actually a really good description. This broadcast is unlike any other that I have heard! http://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab If you have any audio/videocast recommendations or favorites, leave them in the comments! |
Tags: audio blogging
| | | | | |
Alert! Serious Blogging in Progress
January 22, 2008 at 9:30 pm by Chris| In case you haven't noticed, our fearless leader, the Prez, the big cheese, our very own Mark O'Brien has jumped in head-first to the world of blogging and he's going nuts! Let Mark's enthusiasm be an example to us all! |
Tags: blogging newfangled
| | | | | |
Building Your Online Reputation
January 17, 2008 at 10:00 am by ChrisIf your website is already or is becoming a significant part of your marketing or operation, it is going to start to be more and more important that you are aware of your online reputation. The internet has many venues for individuals to voice their opinions and concerns about your product or service, so it's going to be to your advantage to be aware if your name is being praised, or dragged through the mud. If you're not sure how to do this, here are a few suggestions:
The first and probably most important thing to do is set up an RSS feed for search results for your company name online. If your are familiar with subscribing to RSS feeds, this is a pretty simple maneuver. If you're not familiar with this, start by reading our Web Smart newsletter, RSS: When the Web Comes to You. Since blogs are one of the most likely formats to find current consumer feedback, go to Google blog search and search for your company name (also, read another of our newsletters, Blogging: The Bedrock of Advertising 2.0- it covers just about all of what I'm dealing with here and more). Depending upon your name, some of the results will not be related to you. That's ok- you can filter through these quickly. What you want to catch are the correct ones, so you may want to include some other terms if appropriate. Notice that on the left column of the search results page, there is an RSS feed for your search. By subscribing to that feed, you'll now get an alert every time your query is used in a blog somewhere. Even if blogging is not a part of your online strategy, being in touch with blog activity that is related to your company is essential for both building your reputation, and repairing it if it's damaged. Since you now get these handy alerts, you can respond to posts related to you promptly. For example, if you see an article that is recommending your product or service, or describing a good experience with your company, you can quickly view it and add a comment of your own thanking the blogger for their post. This communicates to everyone involved that you value consumer opinion, and are willing to submit to a certain level of transparency to interact with customers or clients. Keep in mind that time is of the essence, so if your comment is vastly outdated compared to the original post, its visibility will be pretty low. This kind of activity can really help to build your reputation, even if the blog search feed you've subscribed to is not specifically related to your company name. It could even be topical (i.e. searching for 'agency web strategy') so that you can contribute your expertise to the general conversation that's occurring online. On the other hand, if your reputation is being damaged through blog activity, this gives you the opportunity to either correct false information, or apologize if the criticisms are accurate.
Update: 02/05/2008: Here are a couple of blog posts from the HubSpot blog about blogging: 10 Commandments of the Blogosphere 5 Tips for Efficient Blogging |
Tags: strategy books blogging
| | | | | |
Free People Employee Blog
August 24, 2007 at 3:35 pm by Chris| My sister-in-law is a designer at Free People. They have a blog here. |
Tags: design blogging
| | | | | |
The Internet Breathes New Life into Radio!
July 18, 2007 at 9:00 pm by Chris
Many that know me as an Project Manager at Newfangled probably do not know that I actually studied and received my BFA in film-making at RISD. I ended up in that course of study mostly due to my passion for audio recording and experimentation, and a hope that film-making would give me a context to apply that passion in diverse ways. (How I ended up working in web-development is a winding tale indeed, just like the one that explains how I actually began my time at RISD by declaring Painting as my major! What was that all about???)Though my days are not spent working and exploring audio technology, it still remains an interest of mine. In fact, I believe that one of the greatest things to come out of internet technology has been the revitalization of radio as a creative and educational tool. Really, using the word radio at this point is a bit of a misnomer, given that those cool podcasts we listen to are not delivered via radio waves. However, many of them still find a home on the actual radio, so, for now anyway, Radio lives! But, it really is the internet that has made radio an even stronger and popular media format by giving us the ability to access programming that would have been easily out of range when we relied on radio towers to receive it. Case in point: while living in Malaysia, I was still able to 'tune in' daily to one of my favorite NPR programs, On Point. I even called in to the program using Skype! Ah, the glories of technology... Speaking of NPR, while podcasting has created a means for anyone to create audio programming, it seems that public radio groups like NPR, PRI and American Public Media have really taken it to the next level. Some of the programs sponsored by public radio are not only creative, interesting, informative and inspiring, they even take their craft to an art level. This brings me to my hidden agenda in writing this post: I really want to recommend Radio Lab, a weekly show produced by WNYC that creatively explores scientific topics that make for informative and accessible education for anyone at the same time as being an exhilarating feast for the ears. (Did I really write that?) This show is produced with a level of imagination and quality that I haven't experienced in any other audiocast. Recent shows have included 'Mortality,' 'Memory and Forgetting,' 'Zoos,' 'Sleep,' and 'Who am I?' Check this one out- it's too good to miss! |
Tags: audio blogging
| | | | | |
RSS