Friday, April 25, 2008

Reply Channels

Every once in a while, when I'm in a music rut and being lazy, I will just ask people for recommendations on what I should be listening to. Yeah, everybody does that, I know. But want I find interesting is the different modes in which the recommendations come in.

Take today for example... I tweeted (or is "twittered"?) the following:



Need some new music... what do you guys suggest?


Because of the multiple status broadcast and aggregation tools I use, that message found it's way to my Twitter account, Pownce account, Facebook status, FriendFeed (and other lifestreaming sites), and a number of other channels.

What I found interesting where the multiple modes of response I received.

  • public @replies via Twitter
  • direct Twitter replies
  • posts to my Facebook wall
  • private (inbox) messages via Facebook
  • messages from friends with links sent from their music site of choice
  • comments on a number of lifestream aggregators (to where my tweets get published)
  • instant messages
  • emails
  • and I'm guessing that I get some more recommendations from people via comments on this post

I find it to be a very interesting (and growing) phenomenon. What do you guys think? What's your preferred channel?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Typically, I will reply by the same means I saw the message. If I were on facebook, I'd post on your wall; if I saw it on twitter, I would tweet back. I think it's easiest that way. (unless of course I know the person would prefer to receive, or check particular place sooner...)

jherskowitz said...

John- but would you publicly tweet back or direct tweet? Would you post to wall on FB or via site mail?

Anonymous said...

Lifestreaming & Reply channels!

I really appreciate how you articulated the points on receiving electronic social responses, the array in which they arrive, and then put it in context with the related articles. It broadens the topic nicely.

Reduction is the word that comes to mind when thinking about all this.

While paying attention to these behavior shifts lately -- It has been very apparent that well built social utilities with mobile integration is evolving how we communicate rapidly, and is reducing the use of e-mail and online communications applications for social communication.

I like that my e-mail boxes are now more heavily used for whatever I subscribed to for official notifications, attachments, directives, etc. (work, school, payments, bills, alerts)

My IM's through traditional popular applications have dramatically reduced in terms of social use. Again - great for quick transactions on information, but not where I primarily prefer to communicate my points or learn from people online.

What's interesting is that although people do post their contact information - email, mobile, IM, address -- I see new communications coming about -- as you mentioned through lifestreaming with status updates, notes, and other posts. These communications are powerful, self-published expressions that are rapid, archived (if you choose), and highly interactive to whatever audience selected. (publish / choice)

My weekend speculation is that this shift in behavior over the last few years, and as it progresses to the mainstream -- either has or will have an impact (less usage) on companies that possess, and control popular IM platforms at the very least. I think e-mail generated from all these neat utilities will increase, but the importance or popularity of e-mail for social use may also reduce.

Change & Choices are good. And I think what it comes down to -- is the simple and profound power of authentic personal publishing the web promised us all way back.

After all that -- How I respond or reach out electronically to someone is customized to that individuals preferences & abilities and how they match mine.

BTW -- I recommend some Johnny Cash and Tom Petty for the weekend.

Wookie said...

When it comes to sharing my thoughts, I like to do it publicly, unless it will cause any negative emotions. When you said Music recommendation, bam you got my response on strands because I am like John, reply where I see it. If you asked about a controversial subject, I'm not sure if I would even reply electronically. Face to face is what i choose over anything.

Unknown said...

Dude, you are WAY to connected! I was going to say "whatever happened to plain old email" but I think that might date me a bit.

I wish I had the spare time to keep up with all these new-fangled ways to keep in touch with everyone. If I did, I'd probably so something useful with it like take piano lessons, or learn a new language, or clean my house.

At what point will people's heads (or fingers) start to explode? Again, I know I'm seeming old, but doesn't is seem like we're now oversaturated with ways to stay connected?

jherskowitz said...

Shawn: Wow, that sounds *exactly* like the debate I have with my 65 year old mother recently about the concept of email. Where instead she said "whatever happened to the plain old telephone". And someone else may say "what about plain old IM". Or someone else "what happened to plain old MySpace messages"? Or "whatever happened to plain old Latin". :-)

Unknown said...

:P

I figured you'd retort with something such as that. ;)

Seriously, though, I have no problem with new technologies (ok, maybe a LITTLE problem with SOME new technologies), but it's the shear volume of technologies that people are expected to keep up with nowadays.

OMGOMGOMGMG!!! I don't have a Facebook account! I don't Twitter! How am I supposed to keep up with what's going on? Truth is, I keep up a good number of friends through new(ish) technologies, whether email, IM, or blogging. Could I keep up with more if I Facebook'd and twittered and lifestream'd and whatnot? Sure, probably, but what would the quality of those relationships be? I guess I've always been the kind of person who forged a small amount of relationships, but forged them very strongly. Having all these technologies isn't really very conducive to that. I guess I'm just not a networking type of guy, so these new techs don't appeal to me. or maybe I'm a luddite in disguise as a Java programmer.

Long live the LP!

Anonymous said...

Were you planning on sharing any of these recommendations? 'cause I could use some new music too ;-)