Image by sparktography

I used to buy CD’s but now listen to Spotify and Internet radio channels like Limbik Frequencies.

I used to buy comics from a bookstore, but now read Savage Chickens.

I used to order magazines and a newspaper, but now read RSS and blogs and Twitter and… well, the Web.

I don’t try to hide my “killer ideas”, but I spread them to the web and see how people may take them.

I don’t lurk in the shadows saying “I could do that”, and watch others achieve great things. Instead I participate. Thus I don’t even possess ‘jealousy’, that warm comforting feeling, anymore.

“You can buy it for you to own” as they say in the Spotify’s advert, isn’t thing I consider familiar to me anymore. It’s just because I don’t want it to be mine.

So, what other things are still out there not to be possessed?

VR is the one responsible of Finnish railway system, and it tends to be late rather often. I don’t know if they are paying attention in the company, but people are talking and this “being late” is already a public joke. Google “vr taas myöhässä” (in Finnish “VR late again”) and you get many pages filled with news and people talking about this. I say this, if there was some other company that would get this kind of bad publicity, it wouldn’t stand a chance i the markets.

And for you people out there saying “You shouldn’t complain too much, instead you should be happy at least having trains!” I say this; if a customer pays good money for something, he or she should get value for it.

The train tickets aren’t free and last time I was late from a meeting over half an hour – not to mention that at that same day my girlfriend’s train was late over an hour. People have schedules and it may totally ruin them if you never know what’s going to happen.

I talked with this one guy during the train trip and he said he’s been doing a lot of traveling with the trains and in some point the trains were more often late than in time. This is unacceptable.

But I won’t stand here just throwing rotten tomatoes, as it seems it’s somehow impossible keep the trains on time in this country, I’ll offer VR a free advice. Straight from a social media user.

Start sending regular Twitter updates

Please, start informing us better if the train is late. Tell us which train, where and how long approximately.

The first thing someone’s going to say is “not that many use Twitter in Finland”. Well, maybe they would start if there was something tangible like this.

The second thing someone will say is “Well, how could they tag the trains, there’s so many of them?” Well, you could use hashtags with train ID’s like “Train #IC922 is off schedule 15 minutes” or “Train #IC922 standing at Pasila station because of a mailfunction”.

Hell, we could do this by ourselves. The tools are there, anyone can start using them for our mutual benefit. People could start updating to Twitter if on a train that’s going to be late, for example: “markoteras: #VrJuna #IC164 late 20 minutes”. The example could be from is from my last trip, but unfortunately I didn’t think of this then.

Someone could also say “But how about if someone starts sending fake updates about the trains?”. This is the same danger with every network, but the community will take care of people like this. And they will ban people and IP’s on Twitter.

Do you happen to have a better idea or a site already gathering this kind of information? Because Service alterations at www.vr.fi are too stiff way to handle these kinds of rapid changes and why not use these tools when they are there just waiting?

This is a question I’ve been pondering a lot lately when I’ve cleared to many people what I do for a living. Could a simple deduction practice help to determine this?

So am I a,

1. Creative Director?

This is something I even printed on my business card, because at that time it sounded this is what I do.

But in order to be a director, shouldn’t you be having people to direct, right? Well, first of all, I work through networks, and my job description varies a lot, so simple Creative Director [although it sounds good and very mighty] doesn’t do the trick.

2. Just a “Creative”

Well this is most definitely an ambiguous term in a time when everyone and everything is somewhat “creative” or “innovative”. So, no thanks.

3. Social Media Expert?

I find this term a bit hilarious, but I had to put it here in order to make a statement: If there’s someone telling he is a social media expert, don’t believe him. At least too easily.

There are people who understand a lot more about the current web than others, but there are also some of those who try to open up for you a Twitter account or a Facebook Fan Page without really making it clear what it all means.

I would be most cautious about how much we can currently understand what will become of this early mess that we call social media, social web or whatever.

4. Digital Native

I could also be called digital media native, but it’s not quite selling and most likely there aren’t too many people who even know what that means. And in the end it’s more a description than a profession anyway.

5. Digital Media Agent

I tried this for a week, but the word agent sounds like I’m a movie agent, or something from the James Bond saga. Yes, I’m investigating things and sometimes wear a suit, but that’s about it. No Walther PPK, just a Mac, sorry.

With this description I wanted to be considered someone who connects people with digital media.

Epilogue

I believe that new times need new descriptions. We didn’t say ” Metal horse” when the car was invented.

So what am I then? Like I’ve always said that I don’t want to categorize people or to be categorized too heavily [that can prevent self development and growth], but sometimes it’s just something that you have to do in order to make other people understand what you do for a living and where your professionalism could be helpful.

So currently I’m using the title Social and Digital Media Coach. This for two reasons,

2. Because I don’t want to be mixed with the label “professional” or “expert” too strongly. I believe the things in social media to be flexible and something that you need to consider with your client or whoever you are working with. You know, together, and not from your professional ivory tower.

And this is how I want the process to be, because that’s the only way to make people understand the new possibilities the web can actually offer. Possibilities that go far beyond than just simple status updating or Fan Paging.

EDIT (after much reasoning): I have to admit that I was wrong; there’s no one definite term I could currently use. There’s just situational terms and being a creative person I just cannot lock myself up with one.

So yes, unfortunately the term “Creative” that I’m mocking up there is a good term, and so is “Trainer”. So let’s keep with these for a while.

This is something that we all of course know in the basic level, but don’t often remember it before we again find ourselves in a situation where someone is acting differently that we usually would.

This is crucial for us so-certain-of-everything social media professionals to understand. People tend to use social media services differently and there’s really not a one real way to do things. It’s also creative and refreshing to speak with different people about them using social media, because you always hear about new ways you haven’t thought before – some are ‘good’ and some not that good.

So, instead of telling people how, we should make them more often ask the question why. Why do you do certain things with certain services in social media? And the reason cannot be simply “because one has to be there”.

This eventually comes to the need of having a strategy, which I think is as important with one’s personal success as with company’s. In these speedy times we tend to forget the reason, the goals behind our actions.

Here’s a simple checklist of thoughts to think while surfing in the wave of social media. These aren’t specifically social media related. I believe these are things that everyone who wants to achieve something should once in a while to ask themselves.

What am I trying to achieve with my current actions?

If I’m posting to my corporate Twitter account about how I’m “Doing a project”, does anybody care, really?

But posting “Contemplating a project for teaching #e-learning in rural schools in #Africa” instead [and maybe even using hashtags for helping people easier to find these topics], tells much more about you and your intentions and people who might be interested about e-learning and Africa might find you and start follow you – and if you are lucky, want to ask you more about these things. So remember to tell more about that issue in the future.

How’s my message?

We tend to sound different to ourselves than to other people. Ask someone, your friend, your partners, your customers or your mom; How do I seem/sound/feel like to you?

But once again, it’s up to you do you listen or not. Not everyone’s opinion matter and if you feel like your doing the right moves, stick with them.

Continuity (i.e. sticking with the story)

We are living in a story based society, or at least that’s what they are telling us everywhere. In a way that’s true and has always been with human beings from the dawn of times, but one has to really think what’s the story to tell.

One of the biggest benefits of continuity in your messages is that people tend to remember patterns better, instead of just single portions of different information. Also message that is lined with the previous ones “adds up” to the story being built – with a word “story” I don’t necessarily mean something fake or invented by the Creative Department.

How does being social benefit me?

What is the benefit of you blogging? Does it relieve your creative ambitions, is it just for fun, do you want to share your thoughts about your field of profession or show how good picture you can take?

If you can’t find any reason at all, you should really ask is blogging for me? But, here one should be cautious: It doesn’t necessarily mean that blogging is useless for you if you can’t think why to do it.

Search the web, what other people in your field of interest or profession are doing, ask your friends who are “socially fluent” so or ask a professional.

Use common sense

If you don’t know what to do in the web in some situation, ask yourself, how would you act in real life?

I’ve now faced a couple of times questions like “Who should I recommend in LinkedIn?” or “Should I go comment to someone’s blog if they have said something about me or about my company?”.

Think these in terms “Would I recommend this person in my normal life, is he or she worth it, do I really know her enough?” or “Do I want to show as a company that I care what people say about me?” and if it’s something good they’ve said “How would I feel if a company that I have praised in my blog would all of a sudden thank me directly in my blog?”.

Be polite

The web is currently a place easily get kicked in the head for small things or even nothing. But those who will answer to this kind of behavior with politeness and reason, are those to eventually survive another day. The web has a long memory and people are often more forgiving than people even consider themselves to be.

Like I wrote in the beginning of this post, if you can invent X variations of how to use social media tools, listening to others may get you to a whole different place, 10 times. So why not learn from others.

I’ve been using a Nokia n97 mini about a week now so here’s a short review on that. Not going too deep into the device specs, one can always read them at Nokia’s site or from other tech blogs.

What I like

It feels quality. Flipping the top works like it supposed to and I like the keyboard, although the buttons may be even too sturdy. I also like how easily it works overall. Was pretty light to start using it, but I’m a bit of a tech freak so can’t say how my grandmother would do with it.

Clicking the touch screen usually also works fine and there’s not that many nuisances [but, see the "What I don't like"].

What I don’t like

Of course it’s understandable if you have many apps on the same time, your battery isn’t going to last too long. But it’s still boring if you have to charge it daily, as you have to with n97 – maybe there’s something one could do with tweaking some hidden energy saver menu, but haven’t dived that deep to that so can’t say. I usually put the device to the wall when I’m going to sleep so it doesn’t really matter that much, but one day I forgot to do it and in the middle of the day the device just died.

Also I don’t like how some of the touch screen things sometimes work, like for example scrolling. There are times it feels that I really have to hit the screen in order the device to realize I want to activate scrolling. On some apps it works really good [like in Gravity, see below], but in the device’s own menu it sometimes gives a little cough.

And also I happen to have a thumb size of a potato and when I’m trying to hit the scroll bar I sometimes hit something else I shouldn’t have, like someone’s status update in the native Facebook application.

About OVI and Syncing

If you want to sync OVI with the device you get good instructions from OVI during syncing. Well, not exactly, but almost.

When you are doing the syncing with the service it gives you instructions that take you half way there; with the instructions you can get the OVI work and signed in to the service, but there were some problems with syncing the contacts with the device.

This wasn’t because of the help being vague, but being totally wrong in some point. The right options are in a different place in n97 mini’s menu and you have to do a lot more in order to get them working.

Fortunately [in a way] there has been other people suffering with this, so I found help here: http://www.n97fanatics.com/sync-with-ovi-on-the-n97/ Thanks Timi!

Two apps I’m using on n97 mini

Here’s a few words about two apps I’m currently using on n97 mini. I haven’t used them too long so I’ll write longer reviews later.

Snaptu

App to use your different web services like Facebook, Twitter [multiple accounts], Google Calendar/Gmail, RSS etc. with the mobile.

It’s OK, but in my opinion some oddities with the UI and again my potato thumb doesn’t like those rather small hotspots and too sensitive touch! Also, what’s with the pixelated n97 desktop icon?

I’m currently using this to read my RSS blogs and news, and for these this works OK.

Gravity

I’m not taking sides, but for using Twitter with my mobile, I like this one’s UI better than the previous one’s.

The touch screen scrolling feels firm, there not that many accidental clicks and it looks rather stylish too. Using it to Twitter, Twitter search and you can also have groups based on search terms.

Facebook

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot the Facebook app! It’s pre-installed and gives you updates regularly to the desktop. The UI is rather simple, but one thing I was missing was that it should give you some indication if people have replied to updates or other threads you have written. Now there seems to be none and it’s boring to try to hunt them manually.

Still, I feel this is a better way for occasional updates and visits to FB, than the one for example in n95.

Conclusion

Used n97 mini a week and a half now and there hasn’t been that many situations where I wanted to throw this to the wall. Guess that summarizes it well? Like we all know; a device and user experience is good when you don’t have too much to cry about, right?

Lately I’ve come across many interesting and helpful applications and services in the web. Thanks to all who have gathered and shared these! Here, I’ll pass them on:

1. The Open Source Toolbox For WebDesigners
   A large list of everything a web designer may need.
2. 7 website mockup tools
   Thanks to Matthew for collecting these. I’m currently trying out the Balsamiq which I was introduced by a friend of mine, and I got to tell you that it’s so sweet that I’m even considering getting the full version. Try it out at www.balsamiq.com. Available as web and desktop versions.
3. 30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook
   Not all of them are that good or useful, but for example there’s even one light, but good CRM application that can be used in Facebook. So if you’re using it for doing business with people, you may want to check it out.
4. 50+ Really Cool Twitter Mashups
   I guess the name already says it all.
5. 14 Applications for Project Management and Collaboration (+ one more)
   Thanks to Webdesigners Depot for this one, and to a friend passing it on to me.  Here’s also one more I’m currently trying out called Doit.im. Usage for more like light task management program than to manage large projects.
6. 25+ Ways to Manage Your Online Identity
   Thanks to Mashable.com
7. 40+ Ways To Access Your Computer Remotely
   Thanks to Mashable.com, again.
8. KnowEm
   If there’s no other use for this service, you can at least find many social media networks which you probably didn’t know even existed.

Hopefully these are useful to you.

Imagine a situation where you are cloned 10 times and every time I visit my favorite spots in the world, you would be there shouting the same things all over again. This is how I sometimes feel, when thoughtless people hit the automate button in Social Media Services and Sites.

Think for a second: isn’t it even more stupid if you have pretty much the same contacts in those different sites and you are shouting ‘Just woke up, gonna read the paper and then take a poo’. Everyplace I’m looking you are there with your poo.

And so what if the contacts were different? All people don’t like to hear about your things from Facebook, which I feel is often more personal media than lets say Twitter.

I think that services like Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed etc. are still different services and you look lazy to me if you are spamming the same message to all of these all the time. In my eyes the effect of your message is diluting.

Another thing that I dislike is screwing up your own blog or other site’s public feed with your automated feed where you have everything from Twitter to Facebook to Digg to Flickr and beyond, status update after another.

The information I wanted to read from your blog, or from some site’s public feed meant to serve more as a feed for your blog posts, is now ruined and I won’t return there, perhaps forever.

So thanks a lot Mr and Ms SocialGuns AllBlazing. Next time when you have your loaded Friendfeed Revolved and you feel trigger happy, take the headphones off, listen to others for a second and remember this old cliche: less is more. Think before you act.

Thanks, we’ll be seeing in the webs.

Arnold's Conan sword at his Office

Image from Arnold’s TwitPic

Of course I’m now writing about Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California. I had a bit sleepless night the other night and just happened to begin to surf in Twitter when I accidentally bumped into his Twitter account.

It was so funny to read through his Tweets, the status updates from garage sales etc, and at the same time I begin to feel how social media sometimes at its best can make the world seem a bit smaller, closer and more horizontal place.

Let’s face it, Arnold himself most likely has more urgent things to do than Tweet about every move he makes, but the way how a political figure can tend to people and point messages to those he has visited is really a cool way of communication and talking back to your followers. For example, when there’s an update like ‘Can’t wait to see the CA garage sale!’ and then a picture in Twitpic of it, it can really make people feel, if they follow Twitter of course, closer to Arnold and like his visit had some meaning.

But, we also have a bit darker side to this all. When you really think of it, is this kind of Twittering just a clever game to make people like you more and thus get you more votes when the time comes? Not just in Arnold’s case, but overall with political Twitter accounts.

When you are in Twitter and write ‘I do this and that’, people tend to feel that you are actually talking to them [and not your Twitter expert of communications]. I’m not saying that people always actually believe so to be, but they may sometimes feel so. So in this case I have to question; can this be just clever mind manipulation of the next level or really a genuine conversation channel?

I don’t have answers for these, it’s too early for that, but I can say this: the situation puts more challenges on how attentive we have to be with messages we get from media.

I’d like to be optimistic and say this kind of communication makes things better, but I also believe that we have to work for it to do so. When there’s a new medium of using information, it always means that there’s also a new instrument of using power. And when there’s an effective new instrument of power, there’s most likely people trying to exploit it.

I don’t want to use Arnold as a bad example here, it just happened to be his account that I stumbled on when I thought about these things. I actually respect what he has achieved, no matter how some people may laugh at him. Show me another person who has won almost everything there is to win in bodybuilding, has done a career in acting with an impact that will stay most likely forever [just a single 'I'll be back' already did it, which is actually also an achievement of some kind] and is now a Governor of California. And this all as a foreigner.

And by the way, I also think having the sword in his office is a cool thing.

I have done wrong and I’m ashamed: I have wasted my messages to Twitter and created noise pollution. Or so it seemed to me as I was reading some of the posts in SocialMediaToday about how to tweet and act in the so-called Twitterville [god I really hate these Twitter word Twariations].

So if you believe to be as impolite as I am, here’s two rather helpful links to posts that I’ve found useful on how to use Twitter in a good manner. These apply for regular people and for businesses too. Now what I’m thinking, should I tweet this rather short Friday post or not?

Social Media Today:
Eight Twitter Habits That May Get You Unfollowed or Semi-Followed by Augie Ray
Twitter Style Guide by Sherry Main

If you are more interested about your cyber manners, here’s Twetiquette‘s Twitter profile to provide more Twinformation on how to Oh, behave!

While the huge Social Media monster keeps getting bigger and bigger with new services and applications, smaller symbiotic concepts related to services like Twitter keep popping up like mushrooms in the rain. What will become of these and will they make profitable business or stay as a hobby for people who like to create these things but can’t do it in their current work?

I became to think of this when I encountered a service twtbizcard, in where you can generate your own Twitter business card and send it to your followers. Sounds stupid? Well if you think of it, doesn’t it also sound a bit stupid to cut down trees, make paper out of them, design a business card on it, print 500 pieces of them and when suddenly your phone number changes and you’ve only shared about 50 of them, you have to get new ones? Isn’t this stupid? Is this ‘sustainable’.

I’m not saying that everything in the Web will or should replace those in the real world. I’m more suggesting that these are substantial things to consider as ‘the future way’, not something childish or irrelevant.

This is all very interesting. Just a while ago Inside Facebook wrote about how Facebook is expanding its Gift Shop. A thing like Facebook gift may sound again a bit stupid. “Who even buys those silly things?” you may ask. But, like I wrote earlier that Not having a revenue model is the new pink, I believe this is just the beginning of something bigger. This goes by the book, form from smaller to larger. That’s why I think services like Fruugo aren’t doing their concept creation with the terms of the new world.

You cannot pop up a community from nothing when you want it. It’s like growing a plant; you need to take care of it, feed it with right nutrition and follow it grow bit by bit.

I believe in all online business, we’re currently living interesting times. It will not take much longer when today’s webservices have grown bigger and are the giants of tomorrow in creating real online revenue, not just living with angel money.

I again like to remember Google. It was just a search engine, what is it now? An undefined giant. Twitter, most likely in the beginning of its life span, is now already much bigger as a community, so what might it be after 5 years if everything goes as well?