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rickmans's posterous

Rick is on a day to day basis working on social media (strategy) cases for several (Fortune 500) clients. He lives and loves social media, helping people and enterprises in using social media in a way that adds value for them. He also gives guest lectures at several universities to make students aware of the impact social media will have on their life in general and on enterprises in particular in the near and not so near future. Is he a geek? Well… yes. A geek with a social life though. Even one with a wife and a young son, who’s first English words were ‘Social media’.

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Posterous is the only good thing you can do with e-mail

Besides an easy introduction to social media for the digital illiterated, e-mail is also a service that is not blocked in most offices or countries (while something like Facebook or YouTube is often blocked). E-mail to certain domains is hardly ever blocked, and at almost every device that has an internet connection you will have the possibility to send an email to Posterous and distribute your content.

But still: it's e-mail. So it's a bit uncool.

via capgemini.com

Posterous: being cool by using the uncool

A week ago I had mixed feelings about Posterous. And now I know why: Posterous uses a way that distributes its content that is uncool. Simple: sending email is not something the cool kids do, everybody is sending email daily. Therefore my first feelings about Posterous was that it was totally uncool. We are struggling with immense amount of emails (with only a small percentage that is really useful) and than there is Posterous, a new service that seem to be email centric.

However by using such an uncool medium as email, Posterous is cool. It is a really easy way to send your content to a lot of networks. Everybody can email, and email is not a service that is blocked in most offices or countries (while something like facebook or youtube is often blocked). I still think Posterous is a bit uncool, however it is a brilliant way to post to all your networks. Email to certain domains is hardly ever blocked, and at almost every device that has an internet connection you will have the possibility to send email.

Hello email world, bye email world

Hello Twitterati, twexit, good morning Twitterteers etc etc. That seems to be normal behavior on microblogging sites and other social networks. I am not going to tell what you should or you should not do online, that is completely up to you, since the Internet is about you and all the individuals there are and there are no rules. However, do you do exactly the same thing with a medium such as email? First thing in the morning: send an email to wish all your colleagues and friends a very good morning, or send them all an email that you are offline for the next 10 minutes. I guess (and hope) you don't do that. I know the mediums differ, however your Twitter account has often a bigger reach than your email.

But some are doing this on Twitter, why would you want to do that? Off course wishing everybody a beautiful morning is great (like wishing everybody in a bus a very good morning), however does it add value after doing that 20 times in a row? And than the other thing: telling people that you are exiting Twitter (the twexit tweets), why would you even want to do that? Will be people end up in utter distress if you won't tweet back in a few minutes? No probably they will think that you are offline, even if you did not tell them. Or do you also enable your auto responder in your email as soon as you leave your email client alone for 10 minutes?

So think before you tweet, does it add value? Your tweet is send out to all your followers and that number is often larger than the number of people you meet in real life in one week. It adds more value to personalize your wishes for a beautiful good morning (and people will appreciate it more if they are the one who get such a personalized greeting). Mentioning that you are not online for a few minutes or hours? Sorry but nobody expects you that you will be online 24/7 so there is no need to notify everybody that you are not online anymore. In case you are afraid that you miss something: you will miss things anyway, you do not have the time to read everything. If it is really important the news will reach you anyway, same goes for urgent matters of your friends, if it is really urgent they will find you, independent of the medium.

Well I go offline for a few minutes, have to do some shopping...

Mixed feelings about posterous

In a way I do like Posterous, however I still have some mixed feelings about it. It is a great way to have a central distribution platform that mainly is driven by emails. However I don’t know if I need / want such a platform. The only way to find out, is to try it for a few weeks. The concept is great, but I really do not know yet if it fits me.