You are what search reveals about you. If it doesn’t show up in a Search Engine it probably won’t get very much traction. Reality online is very fractured right now, people have so many different points of presence it causes motion sickness trying to update them all. Cross posting solves the problem of updating multiple content streams, but how do you respond to comments and feedback from each stream without checking them all?

All of these are very valid questions i wish i had nice simple answers for you. What we need is a dashboard. A Social Dashboard that takes your content streams, weighs them as you see fit and provides feedback from each channel in one interface. Why weighted content? My twitter stream contains all manner of inane comments, i still want people to know where to find me if they would like to converse there, but in the grand scheme of things my twitter content on any normal day would snow a regular blog post under by their shear volume. This is a problem, and ultimately why platforms such as friendfeed and plaxo fail to hold my attention.

Unlike most posts where i propose an answer i don’t have one for you here, i don’t even have a place to start, but the first step in solving a problem is to bring it into the harsh light of day. Quite simply i can’t follow everyone, update everything and maintain my sanity without loosing focus on the good content out there.

Social media is what you make of it. I am happy to share my experiences with you and tell you how i went about creating blogs, designing logos when i get a chance or whatever. but the true dirty little secret is that there is no right way to do it.

First A bit of demystifying for consumable Media. Twitter is a social network where you can either produce or consume just as easily and in the same page. People need to ignore the “experts” if you don’t feel like sharing “What You are doing” then you don’t have to. I would suggest it would be more fun and entertaining if you did but i won’t fault you for not wanting to join into the discussion.

I often times feel that I am on the outside of a discussion and that I sit waiting for a way into the dialog happening. Its one of the reasons I’m not as active as i used to be in any forums or email lists. I feel that I miss too much in my travels to add meaningful content. But with twitter, and so much else this is a bad attitude. No matter who you are you have something to add to the discussion, you aren’t interrupting if you interject one tweet a month, even if it is about a fantastic tuna sandwich you just had. You are adding to the larger lunch/dinner narrative, no one has the right to judge your culinary adventures. One of my biggest problems is a lack on confidence in my own information, or the value of the content i produce.

The only reason I share that little thought is because i think there are a lot of other people out there with the same fear. We can face it down together.

The one thing that the Internet doesn’t lack for is people willing to sit and pontificate on ANYTHING. once you get me started on a topic I can run for days, but my biggest hurdle is fitting it into the discussion at large. When do i stop talking, when should i add extra detail. Take anyone who considers themselves an expert with a grain of salt.

“I’m an Expert Witness because I say I am” Don Henley ~ Garden Of Allah

When it comes to producing content such as blogs and podcasts i am a firm believer that if you are going to do it you should try to do so with style. So any guides or posts i put forth for your consideration should be taken in that light. Podcasts should be easy to listen to, and blogs should be easy to read. They don’t have to be as a rule but if you want others to appreciate the effort you put into making the post / episode what it is then you need to consider ways of improving those areas.

hopefully this post found someone out there who may have been reticent in posting, producing or recording. Please let me know if you start doing so so I can check it out as well.

Consider this, before I started my podcast I hated the sound of my own voice when recorded, I just finished episode 317 of my podcast, it takes time to get over your fears.

Be fearless and have fun!

Sports is a polarizing area to discuss, no matter which way your approach the subject. On whole people generally have three different reactions to the very existence of professional sports.

1. Fans: People who follow at least one team, diligently if not fervently
2. Casuals: People who will watch a game if its on, or support a local team if they’re doing well. But its not a high priority
3. Disinterested: People who either can’t understand the fascination with the pastime, or lament the wasted money and energy that goes into their enjoyment.

As with anything there is a good deal of gradation in each of the categories. Fans can range from the mild cheering if they catch a game on TV to the incredibly devoted who have mortgaged houses to pay for season tickets. The disinterested can also range from those who h0nestly don’t care a lick one way or another, to the violently and boisterously opposed to the very existence of the organizations.  As with most things the bulk of the population finds themselves as casual or moderate on the scale.

Digital Self vs Tactile Self

Depending on the social network you travel in in real life you may or may not have a chance to interact with groups of people cheering during a sporting event. It can be quite an experience and the noise of the crowd can sweep normally calm introverted people up in its wake. You need not be a super fan to yell scream and boo with reckless abandon, you just have to have a couple people near you leading the way.

Online there can be two schools of thought as to how people show their affiliation, some people find themselves more open about their devotion, while others are afraid of alienating other teams fans. Sports is about conflict and on some level most people understand this and relish the chance at an encounter with an opposing fan. Online anonymity only extends so far, and the more people become familiar with you the less likely they are to behave badly. Notice on Bulletin boards and blogs where anonymous or un-moderated comments are allowed there is a much higher frequency of trolling, ie people lurking beneath the surface of a discussion only to pop up to spout incendiary comments.

However in Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace the level of civility in the conversation is raised. You interact with these people and choose to friend or follow them based off of the value they add to your conversation. the more value you place in the conversation as a whole the less likely you are to go off message, spouting obscenities or derogatory comments, if that is something you wouldn’t normally do.

More and more our Digital selves are becoming extensions of the tactile selves.  Online actions have repercussions in real life, and while you may be excited that your team is doing well, most people who recognize the long lasting legacy of online content withhold the true comment gems  for offline use only. As a result the dialog between fans of different allegiances stays cleaner, and in the end more fruitful for all parties involved.

The one thing left to consider is how you appear to those who have disdain for professional sports in general, more often than not they will remove themselves from the conversation, by unfollowing or ignoring you until such time as you regain your sanity. If you provided enough value in your interaction outside of the contest then they might come back. If you were an obnoxious boar as a fan, then they are probably a little less likely to come back around.

The disinterested have a low threshold for acceptance of fans, more often than not they feel put upon that their tax dollars go to fund stadiums they don’t want, their media coverage is canvased by millionaires they don’t care about and their town swept up into frenzies by a pastime, that is alien or even wasteful to them. These people are much less likely to deal with your fan foibles in virtual space, when they can cleanse their content stream by eliminating your chatter about topics uninteresting to them.

Sports as a whole has been reduced through explaination as a way of controlling the masses through distraction and escapism, or on the other hand has been identified as a unifying force in civic pride. Love them or hate them they seem to be here to stay along with their inflated salaries and opulent venues. The one thing that you can’t argue is that love them or hate them they can change the way people interact and observe each other a good deal. Be conscious of that fact, and enjoy the ballgame, or not. Its your choice.