Steve Rubel recently announced “So Long Blogging, Hello Lifestreaming,” indicating he was going to “direct all of my online publishing energies to one hub, The Steve Rubel Lifestream, plus several spokes, e.g. the social networks and platforms where I participate (e.g today that’s Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook). You can read more why here.”

The influence and popularity of Twitter is undeniable, but I have always thought of Twitter as a “pointer site.” Most of the best tweets are not really 140 characters in length. They tend instead to point to lengthier articles and blog posts elsewhere.

I’ve recently been spending more time using FriendFeed than Twitter. I also have been using Posterous and think it is awesome, and I strongly recommend it as part of the standard social media tool kit. Posterous lets you post nearly any kind of information, including dozens of file types, directly (and nearly flawlessly) to your blog via email. I used it recently to post an ad hoc podcast on this blog, using the new iPhone Audio Memo app to record and then emailing to my blog.

I won’t go so far as to say it’s a gimmick for Steve to declare he’s done blogging, (who could blame a PR pro from doing something for its PR value), but I do think it’s an attention getter and I am not sure it makes sense. The best value I can offer is through thoughtful, reasoned analysis, and detailed posts on social media tools, applications and ethics. If all you want to do is share thousands of links a week, which is certainly one way to be informed and connected, you can go 100% lifestream, but otherwise, I strongly advocate the good old fashioned blog (who thought blogs would become passé?) as the place for where the best original content is still going to be published.

Tags: Steve Rubel, Lifestreaming, Life Streaming, Posterous, Death of Blogging

I was involved in some (very brief given the triviality of the topic) discussions about the etiquette and formatting for the “RT” or retweet tag on Twitter. I think most current uses are unnecessary. The only time I use “RT” in an update is when republishing an original thought.

The intent of the RT tag, according to most people I have discussed this with, is to “give credit” to someone for the original content, but I would argue that a link to someone else’s blog post or news article isn’t original content in the first place and so the “courtesy” is an empty one. And in a 140-character world, those three characters (RT plus a space) could be put to much better use.

Update: Props to PR Newswire for this very complicated quintuple RT, five “RT” tags in a single tweet. Very nicely done!

Tags: RT, retweet, etiquette

Was just looking at my Google Analytics and saw that 94 page views of my post on using Twitter for business communications came from a Sept. 7, 2008 post on the New York Times, Small Business, Shifting Careers blog.

OK, so it’s not the New York Times, it’s the blog, and it’s a guest post, and my name and company name are omitted, but thanks for the link. And even though I detest the term, I am referred to by Sarah Milstein as “best practices,” so I guess I should be flattered.

The top tier business press always turns to Socialized for the latest in social media news, tips and tricks.

Tags: Joel Postman, socialized, quoted, New York Times,, blog, sort of, Sarah Milstein

Rayanne Langdon, Miranda McCurlie and Megan Ramsay, my good, good friends at Centennial College in Toronto, published a podcast interview with me on Utterz.

The production values are great, especially given the way we produced this. I recorded a series of Utterz (short audio posts), and the girls, standouts in Gary Schlee’s ground breaking Online PR program, stitched the whole thing together and added some cool music. I did get a little defensive about the “what makes you a social media expert?” question, and I’m up on my soapbox about social media ethics, Twitter and microblogging.

Tags: Gary Schlee, Megan Ramsay, Microblogging, Miranda McCurlie, podcast, Rayanne Langdon, social media ethics, Socialized, twitter, utterz

This morning, Utterz, a social network that promises to let “anyone post instantly to their blogs, online journals, and social networks with voice, video, picture, and text right from their mobile phone,” launched a new web site, and upgraded its offering with extended functionality including a conversation threading feature designed to let users more easily find and track conversations of interest, and local support in 17 countries for the company’s moblog (blogging by mobile phone) technology.

I had the opportunity to speak Friday with Michael Bayer, the CEO of Utterz, and Sim Margolis, product and community manager for the company, about the update.

Users can already direct Utterz to a particular channel, such as sports or entertainment. On the new site, users will be able to add threading to engage with the community to facilitate group conversation and bring a much “richer conversational experience.”

Michael told me he wants Utterz to be seen as offering the most choice for users. “You can create these mashups of voice, video, pictures and text and turn them into Utterz. And we’re empowering people to choose how and where and when they communicate. We want to make it really easy for them to use the tools they want to use,” he said.

When I first tried Utterz, I was actually overwhelmed by the range of media and device types available, but as I used it, it became clear why this range of choice matters, and amounts to more than “bells and whistles.”

With Utterz, you can post from your desktop or from any mobile phone. Video Utterz can be created from an existing file or, with the new site, using a webcam. Audio Utterz can be created from the PC microphone, an existing audio file or by simply calling the Utterz moblog phone number and recording an Utter through your phone. It can then be auto-posted to Utterz and any of a number of blogging and microblogging environments. One of the key barriers to executive blogging in particular is the time commitment, and I think the Utterz mobile phone integration is a huge advance in this regard.

I recently did a study of a number of microblogging tools including Utterz, Seesmic, Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku and Tumblr. I was in a café trying out a few tools. I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t have a webcam for my PowerBook, and if I did, I wouldn’t disturb the other patrons of the café by recording there live. So I stepped outside and called the Utterz moblog number and recorded an Utter. The interface was simple and quick.

As Sim explained it, “Utterz gives you pinpoint control over voice, video, pictures and text in any combination; and where it gets posted. You can decide all that from your phone.”

With the new site, every reply to an Utter becomes an Utter, and threads will include replies. Sim says Utterz’s threading employs a unique interface to let users “navigate into an interesting conversation and zero in on interesting threads” which they can then follow by “highlighting, expanding and collapsing.”

The folks at Utterz gave me some screen shots for an early look at the new site design:

Utterz has also expanded mobile phone support with local numbers in 17 new countries. The conversational video field might be getting a little crowded, with several entries, like Seesmic, jostling for the top spot, but Utterz is definitely a top contender and a company to watch.

Tags: moblog, utterz, threads, threading, video, audio, jaiku, pownce, tumblr, twitter, seesmic, michael bayer, sim margolis