29 July 2008

On the Road Again...

I'm traveling again so posting will be light for the rest of the week. Spending some time reaching out to parent bloggers again - but unlike my friends in social media marketing, who seem to think bloggers exist to write about how fabulous the brands they're promoting are, I'll be engaging parents on important health issues. So there.

Best of luck to MediaCzech, who is heading to DC to mix it up in politics and blogging.

28 July 2008

Best stuff on the interwebs right now, according to ME

Time for another installment. This stuff is all from last week, but it's still very good. It's not that I'm lazy, I just don't feel like doing much.

Will Big Pharma Get Littler in HIV Research?
by Elizabeth Pisani

Helping the Almost-Journalists Do Journalism by Dan Gillmor

Ten Surefire Ways to Wrestle Insight from that Pile of Data on Your Desk
by KD Paine

Green Market Research in Six Easy Steps
by Leah Edwards

Report: No Redeeming Qualities to Hank Steinbrenner by Bill

Social Media Overload? MSNBC and Sloppy Journalism
by Mark Story

And you should read basically anything at Chris Blattman's blog - he's just really smart.

25 July 2008

YouTube Celebrity

Caught this on Crooks and Liars.

Seems those ordinary (or semi-ordinary) folks making YouTube videos have taken another step into the pop culture consciousness - a music video from Weezer. There's even a YouTube montage with snippets from the original videos that inspired the band.

24 July 2008

Watching the Watchdogs

Seems CBS has some egg on its face thanks to the blogosphere once again - but this time it's the liberal political blogs on the attack. And this one will not go away. CBS messed up and the best thing they can do now is acknowledge the mistake, apologize, and not do it again.

This is only the latest example of how blogs from the left are holding the traditional (no, we shouldn't call them "mainstream" anymore says Markos) media's feet to the fire. Before the blogs were calling out Katie Couric - someone who is by no means recognized as a conservative - they were focused on Andrea Mitchell's latest comments. One of the most common questions asked on Professor (and former Clinton Administration official) Brad DeLong's blog is "why oh why can't we have a better press corps?"

To be honest, this is what I value most from the political blogosphere. I really don't rely on bloggers for political opinion - I worked on Capitol Hill long enough to have my own opinions and ideas about politics and policy. (Wow, did THAT sound snobby.) But I need facts on which to base those opinions, and I rely on journalists to report on those facts. That's a hard job - and the simple truth is nobody is perfect and nobody is free from their own bias. I like that the fact-checkers now have fact-checkers. And frankly, at least the blogger is up-front about his or her own political bias.

It's funny - I often get the impression that journalists don't like being held to the scrutiny to which they subject their subjects. Many journalists have long sought to minimize the role of bloggers in this regard - I've already written about corporate media's five stages of grief - but there's at least a handful of good journalists who think that journalism has to adapt to the new age of accountability that social media has helped deliver.

We hear the term "citizen journalism" quite often, but I don't think this is what political bloggers do. They're generally consumers and not producers of journalism. It's just that today's consumer is more educated and discerning, and has the ability to talk back.

You know, "It's Not a Lecture."

(You want some blogs that look at journalism, go here. )

23 July 2008

Behold, the Power of Mommybloggers

No, this isn't another post about BlogHer.

This week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced a large package of non-controversial bills wrapped into a single "omnibus" piece of legislation and placed it on the Senate calendar. Ordinarily this wouldn't get much attention, but the legislative history of each individual proposal makes Senator Reid's action a very, very big deal.

Each provision in the omnibus had fallen victim to a "hold" by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK).

I have some personal experience with this tactic. When I worked for a Senator several years ago, I helped write a piece of legislation called the LEADERS Act that would provide federal support for small business incubators based in academic settings. It was a bipartisan bill and passed unanimously through committee.

The bill was put up for passage by "unanimous consent." Within minutes it cleared the Democratic side, but one Republican Senator - someone who was allegedly upset that my boss opposed confirming a controversial judge from that Senator's home state - objected to the unanimous consent request, effectively "holding" its passage for reasons that had nothing to do with the merits of the bill. He wanted to send my boss a message - "there are political consequences for voting against one of my people."

I was upset because I thought the bill was - and still is - a very good idea. But I understood that's the nature of politics, that my boss' opposition to that judge was an important issue, and the quiet-if-not-quite-anonymous hold is one of the most guarded traditions in the Senate.

Apparently no longer.

Senator Reid has apparently decided to call out Senate Republicans in general, and Senator Coburn in particular, for political obstruction. I think it's a bit risky - after all, Democrats have "held" non-controversial bills as well and this tactic invites a tit-for-tat response from the Republicans, probably in the form of an amendment to the bill that includes non-controversial items "held" by Senator Reid or any Senate Democrat up for re-election this year.

Regardless, this is the kind of inside-baseball political stuff that Senate nerds like me see as a sea change within the world's most deliberative body. And as I look at the list of proposals in what Democrats are calling the "Coburn Holds" package one very important provision stands out:

The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act.

The package contains a number of bills with "star power," like the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, or are essentially re-authorizations of laws that get done within the normal course of Senate business, like the Overseas Private Investment Corporation reauthorization. In short, many have that extra political or bureacratic nudge to get them noticed and passed. But the MOTHERS Act really doesn't.

So how does a bill that helps one of America's least powerful political constituencies (moms with postpartum depression), named after a woman no one ever heard of, get on the Senate Majority Leader's radar and on the list?

Mommybloggers.

OK, one in particular - Katherine Stone of Postpartum Progress, who has been banging the online drum and organizing bloggers on this issue for some time now and has worked with a non-profit to organize and submit an online petition to Congress. In short, Ms. Stone has demonstrated to the United States Senate that there is an interested and important constituency for this legislation, and those who support it will be recognized. Plus passing the bill is the right thing to do.

It's clear that Senator Reid isn't doing this because Katherine Stone told him to. He's scoring short-term political points while getting some good ideas passed. But it's obvious that Stone's efforts helped Reid and the Democrats understand that people want to see these bills passed, and helped convince him this tactic is worth the risk.

There are some important lessons to be learned here. First, sometimes all it takes is a little effort and organizing - plus some political opportunity - to overcome the legislative inertia the Senate often displays.

Second, that organizing can be effective even if it's done primarily in the online channel - businesses can use social media as a primary component of their government relations efforts, if they do it right. The key is to understand the community you're working with, identifying the leaders within it, building relationships with them, building and sustaining a coalition of support, and motivating individuals to act at the right time.

Finally, the nature of the Senate has changed, emphasizing transparency and process - ironically, the values that are promoted most in social media. Holds are no longer anonymous and the worst abusers of the hold won't be tolerated. It will take some time for politicians to get used to the new rules here and those who understand them best will do well.

22 July 2008

"Hello, My Name is Jessica, And I Am a Facebook Freak."

I'm excited that more members of my social media team are entering the blogosphere and establishing a presence online. The latest is Jessica Savage, who like Sallie can also be found on Twitter (@jcsavage) and is starting a new blog project of her own - I'll leave it to her to develop an appropriate roll-out plan but I'm looking forward to much reading and linking.

Jessica is an avid user of Facebook and wanted to share some experiences about anti-social behavior on the popular social network. I hope to see more contributions from Jessica, Sallie and others on my team - here or wherever they choose to rant.

Hello, my name is Jessica, and I am a Facebook Freak. After a few years of using, I have over 700 friends. I cannot start my work day until I’ve “checked in.” Thank goodness I have a boss that if not supportive of, at least understands that behavior.

I consider myself a Functioning Facebook Freak, though: I have rules, and processes.

- I make sure I’m tagging interesting, flattering photos at least once a quarter. Each has a cute, witty caption for my readers’ enjoyment and is tagged appropriately.

- I do not sign up for Facebook applications that require me to send them to other people, unless they are for a charitable cause. If chosen, I stagger my invite list: I only send a few invites out at a time, and I don’t send applications to people that I’ve just become friends with.

- Despite what the 700 friends might suggest, I don’t friend strangers. I spend lots of time looking at the “you might know” list, but rarely friend the people on it. As far as I can tell, Facebook generates that list from who’s been tagged in photos with your friends.

My pet peeves involve those who do not follow the rules above. Which is why I was so annoyed this morning at Jack Skater. Jack “friended” me Friday, but did not have any pictures on his profile. That name did not ring a bell, so I messaged him and asked him how we knew each other. He sent the following, verbatim, in return:

"I only have one Pic and I dont think we have [met;] me I am adding people so they can read my Poetry and quotes thats all this profile is. It is to get my Poems out there and hopfully read and commented on so I dont put my pics up. I am keeping this one strickly Poetry[.]"

Perhaps someone should teach young Skater the idea behind Social Media. Why would I care about what he’s written if he won’t share something about himself in return? I spend countless hours trying to make my profile cute and interesting, and he can’t bother being honest about who he is?

Poor Skater, I actually feel bad for him. I might be a Functioning Facebook Freak, but he’s clearly too self-concious sharing his poetry with people that actually know him on his “real” profile, for fear of… who knows.

Is this just me taking Facebook too seriously, or would/does this annoy you, too?

18 July 2008

Lurching Out of the Basement

Occasionally I still like to crack wise to clients and potential clients about my role in social media, and explain to them that I deal with the people who "live in their parents' basements, wear pajamas and eat cheetos all day, writing rants on the internet." It usually brings a chuckle and then I explain to them that the stereotypes couldn't be more wrong.

A few months ago, someone flipped a switch in corporate America. Mommybloggers are suddenly the most awesome juggernaut of marketing prowess in human history. Now the head of the Democratic National Committee and essentially every Democratic politician in the country decides to genuflect before the bottomless ATM we call the liberal blogosphere. Not to be outdone, conservative political types are organizing online and the traditional political media takes notice.

This didn't happen overnight. These conferences have been happening for years. It's just that now people are noticing. And frankly, there are still a lot of people out there who are still trying to figure them out. For example, there's this piece on political blogs from the LA Times written by two professors from George Washington University:
Political blog readers tend to read just a few blogs. About 40% of them named only one political blog they regularly visit, and 90% said they read four or fewer blogs.

They also tend to visit blogs that share their viewpoint. Think of such blogs as their red meat. Indeed, 94% read only blogs on one side of the ideological spectrum, with 90% of liberals and 90% of conservatives sticking to like-minded blogs. Self-proclaimed "moderates" don't blog shop either, with 89% exclusively reading either liberal or conservative blogs.

To determine just how polarized blog readers are, we constructed a measure of political ideology by drawing on blog readers' attitudes toward stem cell research, abortion, the Iraq war, the minimum wage and capital gains tax cuts. Using this measure, we then arrayed respondents from left to right. Here's what we found.

Readers of liberal blogs were clustered at the far left, and readers of conservative blogs were bunched at the far right. There was little, if any, overlap between them on these issues. The two sides have less in common politically than, say, liberals who watch PBS and conservatives who watch Fox News.
The GW study strikes me in some ways as an outlier. First, the survey took place in 2006, and in blogosphere time that's ages ago, and my gut says things have changed considerably in that time. In my experience those who read blogs read many more than four regularly. And while many readers have a clear world view, they are more than willing to read blogs from other points of view - if for no other reason than to have something to complain about.

I also found it interesting that the bloggers on the left asserted that their positions on the issues the GW professors selected were consistent with "mainstream" views. "Extreme" is in the eye of the beholder, and I think those sorts of statements add to the stereotypes we see toward bloggers.

The issue to be wary of here is that in many ways these communities are converging. Perhaps not political left and political right, but even there you'll see situations where the two communities will work together on issues like net neutrality. Again I'm thinking of mom as that cross-cultural discussion driver - people who have diverse interests and are active in all of them. So much of this is happening online and the technology tools are maturing to the point where it's easy to participate in multiple discusisons in different communities.

So the companies that spend their time shoving brands in front of moms need to be aware that mom voices her concerns about the issues those companies face as much as she talks about the products those companies sell.

16 July 2008

Top 10 BlogHer Expectations/Goals From a Rookie

As odd as this may sound to some, I've found something even better than going to BlogHer 08 this year - spending time with my wife and newborn baby. I've asked a few of the cooler moms at the conference to be on the lookout for a young colleague of mine, based in Sacramento - Sallie Boorman, who like many of the hipsters in her generation can be found on Twitter - she's @SallieB.

Sallie is very excited to be part of the conference. I asked her to share some thoughts about attending BlogHer 08, and she was kind enough to let me share them with you here.

Top 10 BlogHer Expectations/Goals From a Rookie

I have less than 30 hours until I leave to drive to ‘the city’ to go to BlogHer 2008 and the voice in my head keeps thinking, “omg I am so nervous, what if no one likes me?” and “I have not even figured out what I am going to wear yet!”

Outside of the nerves over trivialities like how many pairs of shoes are too many (7…10??), BlogHer has got me feeling anxious. Not only am I a rookie this year to BlogHer, I don’t even blog.

What the heck would make me think I should be going to BlogHer?

Here is my driving reason -- my day job is as a PR and communications professional. Now before you dismiss me as one of “those,” let me tell you that nothing makes me want to puke more than when organizations misunderstand the culture of social media. As a sort of ambassador of social media in the corporate world, I am attending BlogHer to learn as much as I can. Not so I can recommend bloggers to corporations or sell things, or pick up new clients, but so I can take back the knowledge and communicate the culture and etiquette to organizations that want to engage (respectfully) online.

With that being said, here are some of my expectations for BlogHer ‘08 and some of my goals as I join the ranks as a Rookie.

EXPECTATION: Social and information overload. With the impending migration of thousands of smart women to San Francisco, I am expecting to be overloaded with names, social activities, immense amounts of information, and several conflicting emotions. While I am hoping my head doesn’t spontaneously combust or my brain start to cry, I plan on following the sound advice I have heard from others writing on BlogHer and that is to take some time to unwind from the conference, and digest the information, and collect my thoughts at the end of each day. Thanks A Mommy Story for the much needed and appreciated guidance!

EXPECTATION: The ear muscles will get a good workout. I expect to be not talking too much, and listening more. After all, I am a self professed rookie, and what better thing for a rookie to do in a room full of smart people than to listen and take note?

EXPECTATION: Expecting to be dumbfounded, and often. There is SO much I have yet to learn, and I know at this conference someone is going to be talking about something I had no idea existed, or how to even pronounce it, or what it even does. I am positive I will have many notes that state mostly “look this up” or “check this out.”

EXPECTATION: Fantasmi-Swag. Oh, the glory of so much conference swag.

EXPECTATION: Find support. I hope that I can connect with other conference goers who will be supportive in my quest to be brave, try new things, and get over my own fears when it comes to engaging in the online world.

GOAL: Operation “Twinkle Toes.” I have an unhealthy love of shoes and the Westin is located dangerously close to my beloved DSW in Union Square. Who needs lunch when you can head down a block and do some mid-conference shoe shopping? I hope to have some accomplices on this mission.

GOAL: Be a sponge. I am looking at BlogHer purely as an educational opportunity. I am here to learn, learn, learn. I want to go and immerse myself in the gloriousness that is the BlogHer culture, and soak everything up. I am looking to the gals at the conference to share their stories and experiences with me and educate me on the ways of the BlogHer jedi.

GOAL: Stop freaking out. About what to wear, if anyone is going to like me, if I will be the only one attending alone, and if I am not smart enough. Strangely enough, this fear/anxiety has also hindered my goal to start blogging. Everyone has to start somewhere, as Jory Des Jardins reminded me in her post.

GOAL: Get inspired. Get brave. I am looking at becoming inspired to try out my own creative ideas and starting my own blog, which for many reasons I have been hesitant to start.

GOAL: Becoming the Change. I’m fortunate to be in an interesting position in my job where I get to be what I call an online ‘native guide.’ My goal at this conference is to equip myself with roadmaps, tools, relationships and the knowledge that will help me to navigate and guide groups respectfully through this newer online culture jungle.There is a decided gap in how bloggers feel they are treated and how PR professionals think they are doing in this space. Believe me, I hate it when people scrunch their noses when they hear the word ‘PR’ just as much as bloggers hate being pitched bad pitches.

As Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see.” Big movements start as small changes. I for one want to see a better understanding of the social media world and better guided relationships between bloggers and organizations. What better way to continue the dialog of understanding, than to embrace and become the change.

10 July 2008

09 July 2008

Blog Rankings Are Stupid

I noticed that wikio came out with its monthly list of blog rankings, and I along with about 70 other people dutifully saved it in my del.icio.us links, despite the knowledge that such rankings are only marginally useful. I know that KD Paine may have the market cornered on measurement, but I'll just add my voice to the chorus that insists it's RELEVANCE, and not these arbitrary RANKINGS, that should matter the most.

Case in point: #37 with a bullet on the wikio list is something called the Liberal Blog Network. I read a ton of liberal blogs and I had never heard of this one. And as you can see, it's not a blog at all - it's a collection of RSS feeds hosted at Feedburner. There's no relevant content, just an email address if you want to add your liberal blog to the list of feeds. Now, there may be value in a mashed-up liberal RSS feed - after all, I built a smaller one at Virtual Vantage Points - but a less-than-scrupulous PR flack can now make the case that getting "placement" on a very small liberal blog somehow scores you a "Top 40 placement" as well, without any additional effort. I mean no disrespect to the person putting together this mashup, but I really don't think getting placed in this RSS feed puts your content in front of the hundreds of thousands of eyeballs one assumes you get with a "Top 40 blog."

Even the ranking engine di tutti ranking engines, Technorati, can be very misleading. Yes, you can be pretty sure that Technorati's top 100 list is probably filled with blogs that a lot of people link to and read. But there's a reason I don't spend time worrying about my "authority" or "rank" or whatever they call it this week.

When I started writing this blog, Technorati said my authority was in the teens or something. Then I wrote an open letter to mommybloggers everywhere, and I started writing about Facebook's problems with banning breastfeeding pics while allowing pro-anorexia groups, and my authority shot up a gazillion points in a week. To this day, the most common search terms people use when they come to my site via Google are "breastfeeding pics" or "anorexia pics."

GROSS.

So I stopped writing about breasts, and eventually Technorati said I was a nobody again, even though Sitemeter and Feedburner said my visitors and subscribers were increasing.

Then I write up a few interviews with very cool people and I build a mashed-up RSS feed of "enviro-tweeters," and suddenly Technorati decides I'm the it-girl again for a day.

Here's the thing - not much of this blog is written with large audiences in mind. It's usually geared toward particular online communities - which is what social media is really all about. So when I write something that sustainability advocates might like, I let them know via the channels that work for them, such as the environment room at FriendFeed. I don't worry about people who don't care about that content. Or when I want to reach moms, I could use Twitter or Kirtsy.

If people link to me and Technorati goes ga-ga for my blog, fine. But it's a byproduct of what I'm doing, and not a goal. But people who pitch me (yes, I get pitches too) because my Technorati authority is whatever are missing the point.

Personally, if you're looking for a good list of "top" blogs, check out Alltop. They don't hide the fact that they're subjective, and they don't try to be anything other than a cool "magazine rack for the Internet." They also group blogs by relevant content.

So when corporate clients ask for a number of visitors or some kind of stats to see where they've been "placed," I tell them it's better to build relationships with the right people and the links or "placements" they covet may follow. Because that killer Technorati rank may very well disappear in a week.

08 July 2008

Seven Million Songs

I got tagged by Patrick Micka asking me for seven songs that are influencing me right now. To be perfectly honest, the only songs I'm listening to are the ones that help the baby sleep, and I try to keep baby stuff relatively private, or at least off this blog because it's supposed to be all social media and stuff like that. Music just doesn't rank on the priority list. Sorry.

Yes, I'm lame, I know.

I'm not going to just cop out on this, however. Last February Tech Crunch provided a rundown of social media /music sharing sites. I've used Pandora and Finetune. They're squarely in the "if you like that, you might like this" category that is designed to build an actionable and potentially profitable marketing profile of your tastes, but they also have some interesting social features. My Pandora stuff can be found on my FriendFeed stream, but for some reason Finetune isn't there. I think you'll find seven artists there I think are innovative and interesting, and the way those tools work, I can hear something new every day. So I'll see your seven songs and raise you seven million.

OK, so I'll pass this on to Mark, Maria, Chris, Kyle, Erika, Valerie and Chag.

I just started reading Chag's Cynical Dad and let's just say this post really resonated with me. Plus he has "song of the day" at the end of his posts so he could probably rattle off a list.

07 July 2008

I'm It

It's summer and the blog memes are running wild - I've been tagged by Mark Story and Patrick Micka. I guess I'll bite on the link bait. Here's my answers to Mark's questions. Answers to Patrick will come soon...

4 things I like about summer: spending time with my wife and son outdoors, the red sox, grilling, and the tomatoes, basil & peppers we're growing in the backyard

4 favorite vacation destinations: the Amalfi Coast, the Outer Banks, San Francisco, and Fenway Park

4 favorite summer foods: grilled cubano burgers, grilled zucchini, sliced & grilled yukon gold potatoes covered with olive oil, parmesan cheese, black pepper & scallions, & grilled corn on the cob

4 concerts not to miss: dixie chicks - say what you will about their politics but they're amazing live, norah jones, U2 and Bruce Springsteen (never saw him live but everyone swears by it)

4 things to avoid during the summer: drunk rednecks with fireworks, bugs that bite, the emergency room & salmonella

I'll try to tag blogs I haven't linked to before, and apologize in advance if they're not into this sort of thing:

Brad Levinson (his new blog, not the beta stage)
Preston Koerner (same thing)
Chris Baskind (not sure if this is his thing, but we'll see

03 July 2008

Business Lexington is On The Air

My favorite publication in Lexington is back on the air. You can see all the features at the Smiley Pete TV YouTube Channel. I thought I'd share this feature on the documentary, "Two Million Minutes."

I share Tom Martin's appreciation for the irony in the fact that the day Two Million Minutes was screened in Lexington, the city council voted down a proposal from the mayor to create a public-private partnership that established a scholarship program for local kids who want to study Science, Technology, Engineering or Math in college. When one considers this on top of the state legislature's terribly short-sighted cuts in higher education (this was also published in Business Lexington), you can see that we're going in the wrong direction here.

The folks at Business Lexington and Mayor Jim Newberry really get it - investment in STEM education is critical to the future of the city and the commonwealth. I'm shocked more people don't see this.

02 July 2008

Social Media and the Crisis in Zimbabwe

For those of you who only get news from American sources who think "foreign news" is whatever Amy Winehouse is doing right now, Zimbabwe is a country of about 12 million people in Southern Africa. It's known for its rich mineral deposits, beautiful places like Victoria Falls, its high poverty and HIV rates, and its ruthless leader, Robert Mugabe. On March 29 the country held general elections and most impartial observers concluded that the opposition party, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, won a clear majority. The "official" results, released by Mugabe, declared that no party won a majority and a run-off vote would be required on June 27.

Leading up to the run-off, the country has seen a systematic campaign of intimidation and violence, including the arrest of Tsvangirai, who ultimately pulled out of the run-off to prevent further bloodshed. Today the western world has tried to convince other countries in Africa to refuse to recognize the Mugabe government and find a diplomatic solution to transfer power in a way that reflects the will of the people. These efforts have had limited success.

Not surprisingly, the best coverage of the crisis in Zimbabwe has come from inside Zimbabwe. But it's come from bloggers. I'm particuarly impressed with Sokwanele's efforts to map incidents of violence at the blog This is Zimbabwe. You can follow Sokwanele on Twitter for breaking news, and it's amazingly good - when Twitter's working, of course.

Global Voices Online had been following and linking to some of the more noteworthy posts, but that's dropped off a bit. There's been a lot of commentary about Zimbabwe at Open Democracy, and thankfully not all of it is from the Western intellectuals' perspective.

01 July 2008

Meta-Green Tweeting...

Big Kudos to Kim Woodbridge for taking the Green Twitter idea she had to the next level, taking the opml file she created and the twitter RSS feed I built and pushing each through a cloud generator and comparing the two clouds:
There is quite a difference between the clouds. The cloud for Green Blog feeds is primarily about environmental issues wheareas the cloud for Green Twitter feeds contains tags for a variety of topics. The second cloud, however, gives insight into the personalities of the tweeters interested in the environment.
Seriously, you should check it out.

I touched on this a few months back when I took 5 "social media guru" types and did kinda the same thing. It's also related to what we do at Virtual Vantage Points - taking the discussions of the top bloggers in one online community and examining it over time, or comparing that discussion with that of another online community (like US liberals vs. US conservatives, UK Labour vs. UK Tories vs. UK Liberal Democrats vs. UK Greens, etc.), but VVP focuses squarely on blogs right now (though that may change) and applies subjective analysis from prominent political thinkers.

But Kim's clouds are important because they show how people in the sustainability community use social media tools differently. It's not all the same conversation. I'm taken by the diversity of expression via twitter vs. blogs. Now, maybe if we just took the twitter streams of the bloggers we'd see a more similar cloud, but I don't think so since that's what I did with the social media types. It seems to me that Twitter is used for different purposes and with different results. And it also seems to me that you learn a lot more about the green bloggers by following them on Twitter.

As the marketing/PR crowd starts pitching people via twitter we should keep these fundamental differences in mind.