Finding that communication 'Sweet Spot'

Since I got my iPhone, I’ve been experimenting with some new things. Im trying to be a bit more mobile-friendly and see just what I can do via the phone. Im also thinking more about ‘streams’. Because of that, I’ve been tweaking some things.

So first thing is I’ve tweaked my blog theme a bit. The previous theme was aesthetically really nice, but the flash-based top 3 stories located at the top gave me trouble – especially from a phone. With the current theme, I can continue to post at home, or I have the option to post while on the go. WordPress has a nice iPhone app that lets me do updates as well as delete all the SPAM that I’ve been getting recently. This theme is also a bit easier to read on a small screen.

Second thing is communication streams. Steve Rubel is someone who is big on lifestreaming and communicating in streams. I thought I might change my blog to be more like a Tumblr site, or a lifestreaming site, with every Twitter post/Delicious link/status update aggregated onto it, but I think its a bit too much for my home page. I’ve had some test-post blogs and tweets today and will continue to tweak until I find that communication sweet spot..

The other thing I’m still wrestling with is the 46alpha Facebook Fanpage. Im having to separate some posts into professional, some into personal, and I have some that just overlap into both. It would be easier to have just one, but Im not sure if I want to flood all my personal friend/family contacts with a large number of communication and professional-type posts. I don’t mind merging my personal and professional life at all, I’ve just been trying to be courteous to those who are digitally connected to me.

So if you see some test-posts, commo checks, etc over the next few days, just bare with me. Im just trying to find the best solution.

Image downloaded here.

What's under the hood?

Some info to share on my recent migration from Ning to WordPress. About a year ago I really got into Ning because at the time offered everything that I wanted in a ‘blogging’ platform. It offered the ability to blog, create forums, groups, have members, videos, photos and a number of other things all in one space. Flash-forward a year and it’s time to make some changes.

So here’s what under the hood of the new site:

• Self-hosted WordPress blog
• Video channel on Youtube (still migrating content to it)
• Photos on Flickr
• My news off Netvibes
• Feedburner
• Odiogo for my audioblog
• Friendfeed for my Lifestream
• Twitter as my only microblog (I had 2 other Twitter accounts and a dozen other microblogs cross-posted on with Ping.fm)

So here are some of the reasons I moved off Ning:

1) Cost. Ning charges $5 a month to have your own domain name, $25 a month for no ads, and $25 a month for no Ning promotional links. Thee are also some additional premium services which I did not use. Considering all the Ning sites out there, and many of them having some premium services, that’s quite a nice little business for them. I just spent $60 for a domain name and a years worth of hosting from GoDaddy.

2) WordPress’ flexibility has improved. Even 1-2 years ago, I knew that WordPress was the best blogging platform after trying all of the major ones out there. At the time it just didn’t seem to offer everything I wanted. Probably a combination of my increased knowledge, better themes, and better widgets, and WordPress now can do what I want.

3) Ning is not for blogging. I did a post on this back in February. Ning is more like an intranet and the blog platform is for people within the network.

4) Specificity. Finally, my posts were becoming more and more about the military.  Social media and the Army has had a slow start but the momentum has picked up. A year ago  did not feel comfortable being out here as ‘Major Mike Nicholson’. Today I have no issue with doing it and have been increasingly moving towards it anyway. There are tons of social media and communication gurus out there in the world of corporate communications. I just want to now take this and apply what I know specifically towards a more specific segment.

Still have some work to do and expect there will be some minor tweaks along the way, but so far I’m happy with the move.

**Photo taken off of Dirk.Jan’s photostream