Twitter is undoubtedly great for quick updates, for people running political campaigns, for instance (with tweets flying around with hyper or even manic frequency). However, when it comes to deeply understanding an issue, a technology, or an entire industry, you can’t beat having content-rich resources that have been shaped by thoughtful writers and readers … resources that are well-organized and helpfully displayed using Web tools.
Free news aggregation and link-sharing tools that have been developed for personal use (i.e., the “my page” phenomena), can also be used to compile information found by various people on a specific subject, for ongoing use by the group. Whereas my personal del.icio.us page has lots of categories of links/resources that many of my colleagues won’t care about, a Purpose-Built del.icio.us page, in contrast, is not about me … it’s about the subject and can be created for a team. (Forgive the high-mindedness of the term “Purpose-Built” … it’s a popular name for it.) An example: key articles and Web pages on the subject of “fuel conservation” related to a public relations mission, all organized by sub-categories.
Take it a step further and maximize the dashboard thing. Get all your news aggregation sources (via RSS) aggregating in plain site on one consolidated page. No, wait, check that, make it multiple pages accessed by tabs on one page. That’s Netvibes.com … it’s free, and can include Twitter, your Facebook or other social media activity, your retail passions, Web-based e-mail accounts, etc.
We’ll be talking more about all of this at the seminar Digging into New Tech Topics: Where and How to Maximize Web Research that Dawn Yankeelov and I will be presenting on Monday afternoon at the 2008 PRSA International Conference.
David Gordon Schmidt, vice president, Public Relations Services, Smith-Winchester, is the author of Word Currency, a blogging community that focuses on message development within the technology and broader B-to-B business worlds. Dave also has a “retro” side: he owns a collection of haunted record players that will be coming to life right after the Conference (on 10/31).
Join Schmidt along with Dawn Yankeelov for Digging into New Tech Topics: Where and How to Maximize Web Research at the PRSA 2008 International Conference: The Point of Connection, on Monday, October 27, 2008, in Detroit, MI!