Can you explain that twitter crap? Sure.

Every so often on my Facebook account, I get a friend of mine asking about the funny shorthand for my status messages.  For example, last night I was twittering on about an event I was at (or going to):

If you are still in NYC, a group of us are heading to #nxne from @nwc. Send a DM to join us...

And my friend replied:

Dude, what the heck does "#nxne from @nwc" mean anyway? You always post stuff like this that just make no friggin' sense. Can't you just use plain English?

Sure - I can, but just like the shorthand language kids developed for beepers back in the late 80's and early 90's, SMS texting has taken the format and expanded on it.

And since twitter is somewhat like blogging (in a very short 140 characters per message), combine the sensibilities of SMS texting with comment blogging grammar and you get the 'at' and the 'hashtag' formats.

At Format (@name)

Born out of the need to have a dialog with commenters on a blog post, the 'at' convention (@name) has been co-opted by twitter to allow for an easy response back to an individual to talk with someone in an open communication platform.  And since 140 characters requires some for of simplification, the @ symbol has been used to symbolize the designation for a name.  In the twitter case, it means to convert @name to http://www.twitter.com/name .

Usually, the name is the login or twitter ID for a user on twitter, so if you follow the link to the twitter site, you will see their thread of discussion on the page.  When used in the context of a discussion (in reply to), it usually means the person is discussing a topic with someone.  In the case above (@nwc), New Work City (a coworking location in Manhattan) maintains a twitter account where announcements are made.  As more brands migrate onto twitter, the brand takes the twitter name and uses it much like they would with a URL or a blog name.

Hashtag Format

Since the twitter namespace can only support so many names, and since events or ideas are usually not as permanent as brands or people, another convention got created using a different character, the hash, number or pound symbol (#) depending on your preference.  As quotes from the Hashtags.org site:

Hashtags was designed to accommodate the real-time news community. We provide analytic reports and indexing features to allow users to track what's happening now.

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.

So, in the case of the #nxne code on the first status message, an event was created in NYC in response to the South by Southwest event by others in the city who did not get a chance to go to SXSW (or in hashtag lingo, #sxsw).  The event, called North by Northeast, was a gathering at a cbar in the East Village.  And to communicate you were going, you ended up - on your twitter messages or status messages, using the event's hashtag - #nxne.

So why all the lingo?

Simply put, it is easy to communicate with a shorthand, and you need someway to thread your discussions when you are talking in a very noisy space.  Imaging you were having three or more conversations in a party - you are able to distinguish your conversation by addressing each individual by name (@name) and use the topic noun to distinguish which topic you are talking about (#name) with whom.

So, when you are tracking a feed page (either on your homepage on twitter, on friendfeed or on Facebook), you can see the threaded discussions and distinguish what people are talking about And, if you are really adventurous, consider using the Search feature at twitter.com (search.twitter.com) and put in your favorite @ name or hashtag.

  

Twitter purchased a company (Summize) that built our a live tracking system that allows you to see the feed discussions on any search query you want.  So, if you want to watch the discussions going on about SXSW (for example, #sxsw), you were enter the hashtag into the query box and watch the discussion.

More information?  Just check out my twitter feed at twitter.com/sanford

How do I blog? What are the rules? What should I do?

In the last five years I have been doing "social media marketing" (yes, a dreaded marketing term!), I have gone to a number of events where I continue to hear the same questions asked over and over again - specifically, "How do I blog?"

It is a funny question, since answering the question usually corresponds to the real question: why are you look to blog?  Specifically, prior to now, you were not blogging.  Now, you are interested in blogging.  Why?

Usually, the answers fall into a couple of responses.  

• My company wants to get more people to our website with a blog.One of my favoriate answers here - especially since there is an assumption that by driving people to the website will be a positive action.  My question is always "how does more people to the site improve your business?"  If this has a direct effect on your business in terms of dollars and cents, then blogging may be to your benefit.
  
  
• I want to show I am an expert at .  Blogging will help, won't it?
  Yes - and no.  If you are trying to show your IQ about specific topics, you had better add value to the conversation, or people who come to your site and see your posts (and are not impressed by them), you may turn off.  And you will need to grow into the blogging - you are not Ernest Hemingway in the first three posts.  Or first three months.  But doing something is always better than nothing.
  
  
• I want to engage others on the web.  Blogging does that for me, right?Yes - and no.  Truthfully, this assumption is based on the idea that people will come and speak to you on your blog.  But, if you are not speaking on their blog, why would they want to speak to you?  It is somewhat like opening a store in the middle of a cornfield - if people do not know of it or you have done no marketing, why would anyone know it is there...or care?
  

But, for all intents and purposes, there are a couple of concepts that you should keep in mind when choosing to blog:

To attract traffic -- blog within a space/theme - focus matters

Blogging is not about one great blog post, it is about building a lot of commentary on topics you care about or want others to know you care about.  Google has become the arbitrator of what means what - think about what you do today to find the "answer".  We used to rely on scholarly editors to publish encyclopedias and books on topics, but know google and its ubiquious PageRank are "calculating" what means what.

If you are going to attract people for a specific "thing" (think black hole), you need to first build a solid "mass" of content.  Google recognizes two things simply - concepts and freshness.  If you continue to publish on specific concepts - frequently - google will begin to notice you.  And when others are looking for "answers" to their questions to google, it might provide your posts as a potential answer.  As people begin to find your post answering their question, then google begins to notice and increase your rank on the organic listing.  

TAKE-AWAY: publish frequently on concepts that you want the blog to be known for - if you are attempting to drive traffic for those concepts.

To drive traffic -- chat on others blogs - be social

I used to get into arguments about why was it called "social media" - as in, isn't all media "social"?  In the strictest sense, yes.  But social media is not about simply publishing and assuming others will consume - it is about engaging in a discussion with others off your blog and on theirs.  Instead of assuming the standard Field of Dreams concept ("Build it and they will come"), the goal is to share in the love - or link love.  

First off, if you want to blog, find articles in the world and comment on them.  Specifically, find the Permalink (usually the link that points directly to the blog post you are commenting on) and use it in your copy.  Specifically, discuss the topic you or the other blogger is posting about (e.g. the cost of living in NYC) and then use the concept (cost of living in NYC) as the words that you link via for the bloggers post.  Add a link to the words (like here) and then discuss the post.  

Why does this matter?  Because google looks at your post and sees that you linked the concept "cost of living in NYC" to someone's post.  Since you are backlinking to the post, google thinks the post corresponds to the concept and you are helping the other blogger.

Second, you need to speak to the other bloggers.  And specifically - comment on their blog about their topics.  Think about the joy you get when someone comments on your blog - doing the same for others, with honesty and integrity, will generate positive "karma".  And, if you have included a link to your blog when you put your name on the comment, more than likely the blogger will check out your blog - and maybe comment about it.  Again - all about being social.

TAKE-AWAY: share in the link love, and the community usually shares it with you too.

To be understood, make sure computers can read it too -- use a solid blogging platform

One thing that people did not understand before the push of CSS (cascading style sheets) was that there is a difference between form/content and style.  In "coding up" the web pages, content would get lost in the style (e.g. italics, bold, font size).  Now, when we read the content, with the style embedded in it, we see what is important and what is not.  Computers do not.  They want things marked off - saying what is a header for a section, what is a blockquote (not important to the thread of the encapsulting paragraph), and so on.

Blogging software like Moveable Type, Wordpress, and Blogger all offer you structured formats/tempaltes to publish your posts that are search engine friendly.  By being structured, google can assess what you are writing about and categorize it for when others are looking for the "answer".

TAKE-AWAY: use structured platforms to help take the programming complexity away.

I will provide more insights later - including how to actually start a blog and publish it beyond your own domain.