Monday, March 30

• Facebook: 3 wall posts
• Twitter: 2 new followers
• StumbleUpon: No activity

Pretty much what I expected for a Monday. I have the day off today, so I am going to go ahead and "super-nerd" it. That means blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, and even Stumbling on the go. Wish me luck. Also, if anyone needs anything from IKEA, let me know.

Phase IV

Here we go. The final week of the experiment. I will be stepping it up this week with a whopping five tweets, follow five new people, subscribe to five new stumblers, review five new websites, and as always, update my Facebook profile. Thanks for staying with me, it seems to be working out as expected with some pretty staggering returns. Five updates per day is quite a bit. The work during Phase III was pretty hectic as it was with three. It is certainly a full-time job. I find this unbelievably exciting. This is a job that didn't exist five years ago.

So, who fills this position. You knew these kids in high school. I will call them the "social nerd." You know, that hipster-type that happens to be really interesting and funny and people seem to hang on their every word, but happen to have some knowledge of technology. "Knowledge" might not be the right word. Let's use "love." I know, it is a strong word, but how else do you describe it. It is not that they are 100% computer nerds, but they get excited about a new piece of software, or a new way to use a new technology. I use "new" a lot, but you know these are the kind of people who claim that the original Nintendo is the greatest system of all time. The throw-back is important. Maybe that is how they use the nerdyness to relate to people. Let's get back to the concept of "new" and I will go ahead and separate that term from "cutting-edge." It is not on the social nerd to necessarily develop the next big technology, but to use it in a new way. Facebook is a good example; a true social network meant to connect people to eachother. It seems like a simple step, but a profound one to use it to connect businesses to the users. Let me explain the "how" and "why" this works in one sentence. And please quote the hell out of me.

"The business is a user."

You all have a Facebook account, most of you have a Twitter account, even some of you use StumbleUpon (in the "correct" way) and you know what they are for and how to use them. It is NO different if you are doing it from the perspective of a giant corporation. That is why it works. Pretend the corporation is a person who talks the same way a person talks. People don't want to connect to big businesses, they want to connect to people who have something interesting to say. The social network presence of the business is then concentrated into one position, one person, one social nerd.

Phase III Wrap-Up #4

Total Activity

I thought this might be an interesting graph for your guys. It shows the daily activity of the 3 sites. As you can see mid-week is usually the high-traffic days (Wednesday and Thursday). It may be more clear by the end of next week, but it is looking good that my hypothesis might be correct. The networks have certainly responded to my increased involvement. See you tomorrow for the start of Phase IV.

Phase III Wrap-Up #3

Total Popularity

Phase III Wrap-Up #2

Phase III Popularity
(Facebook starts at 0)

Phase III Wrap-Up #1

Phase III Activity

Friday, March 27

• Facebook: 1 wall post, 2 event invites
  
• Twitter: 2 new followers
• StumbleUpon: No activity

So, bad news: I had to fire my editor and I sincerely apologize for any confusion caused by the incorrect date on yesterday's post.

Twitter is still holding strong, thank goodness and I have been following some extremely interesting Twitterers. ...Twitteri? ...Twats? StumbleUpon is still bust and Facebook remains about the same. Also, you may notice, this is the end of Phase III, so you can expect some graphs to be up soon.

Thursday, March 26

• Facebook: 4 video comments, 3 wall posts, 1 person liked my status
  
• Twitter: 1 new follower
• StumbleUpon: No activity

Facebook is back on top, but Twitter is still getting some activity. Still no love from StumbleUpon. I think the majority of people don't realize how much can be done with StumbleUpon. I use it for habitual stumbling as much as the next guy (32,525 stumbles to date), but I also use it to review websites I like, find people with similar interests, etc. Don't get me wrong, injecting thousands of random websites directly into my mind-vein like it's heroin has its place, but as any addict will tell you, the connection with fellow junkies is the heart and soul of a good habit.

Wednesday, March 25

• Facebook: Tagged in 2 videos, 8 comments on videos
• Twitter: 4 new followers
• StumbleUpon: No activity

I've checked the videos, I can't find myself in either of them, so I'm not sure why I was tagged. Yes, it is shameless that I would count it in this experiment, but rules are rules. Now Twitter is a different story. I am actually getting real numbers up there. I hope people are actually reading the tweets and checking out this blog. It has been crazy since the MIT Enterprise Forum on Web 2.0 so I think a lot of the activity might have something to do with that.

Still no love from StumbleUpon. It might be too early to tell and I won't have a solid answer until the end of Phase IV, but getting subscribers to your interests might take a bit more than reviewing websites and giving thumbs ups. We shall see.

Tuesday, March 24

• Facebook: 1 person liked my status
  
• Twitter: No activity
• StumbleUpon: No activity

Not much going on, but I have a feeling it will pick up soon.

I attended an extremely interesting talk last night hosted by the MIT Enterprise Forum of Chicago about Promoting Your Business Using Web 2.0. Moderated by Flashpoint CEO (my boss) Howard Tullman and featuring panelists Jason Fried, founder of 37signals.com and Harper Reed, CTO for Threadless.com. In short, Twitter is a hell of a resource, Digg has become an unusable joke, and as, always, CONTENT MATTERS! "It helps that we have something to sell." Unlike far too many social network possibilities in which all revenue comes from ads. The panelists discussed how using Web 2.0 content can revolutionize traditional eCommerce firms.

Monday, March 23

• Facebook: 1 wall post
• Twitter: 1 new follower
• StumbleUpon: No activity

Not bad Twitter. Facebook could step it up a bit. StumbleUpon, FALL IN!!! Busy day yesterday, so I could not spend much time promoting my internet popularity. I did have a chance to meet the DP of WALL-E, so I guess it was worth it. Keeping up with the three-a-day schedule of Phase III has been a bit of a chore, but not too bad so far. I never thought I would say this, but I'm going to anyway. It is getting hard to find the time to spend on the internet. There, I've said it. I can't take it back now.

Now, brave audience(?) you have nothing to fear. I will stay diligent with my plan.

Phase III

Today marks the beginning of Phase III. Everyday I will be updating my Facebook profile, following three new people on Twitter, sending three tweets, subscribing to three new people on StumbleUpon and reviewing three new websites. Things are picking up after Phase II so lets see what happens when I triple my activity. As always, if anyone would like to suggest ways to better the experiment please comment. Also, looking for followers on this blog, if you are interested.

Phase II Wrap-Up #3

Total Popularity

Phase II Wrap-Up #2

Phase II Popularity
(Facebook starts at 0)

Phase II Wrap-Up #1

Phase II Activity

Friday, March 20

• Facebook: 2 wall posts, 1 new message
• Twitter: 2 new followers
• StumbleUpon: No activity

Well folks, this wraps up Phase II of our little experiment. The graphs are on their way so stay tuned for some hard core comparison action! That sounded kind of weird and I apologize. Anyway, enjoy the data.

Thursday, March 19

• Facebook: 3 wall posts, 2 people liked my status, 1 event invite
• Twitter: No activity
  
• StumbleUpon: No activity

Sorry to be posting this so early. I have a full day tomorrow and won't get around to much blogging. Anyway, in an obvious response to Wednesday's post, Facebook stepped up its game. If you are curious, my status that got so much attention was, "In Soviet Russia blogs write you!"

Proving once again, that content matters. Telling people what you ate for breakfast over twitter is no match for a solid Yakov Smirnoff line.

Wednesday, March 18

• Facebook: No activity
• Twitter: No activity
• StumbleUpon: 1 new subscriber

Surprisingly nothing from Facebook, but StumbleUpon got its first hit! Phase I seems to be shaping up to be a bust. Lets hope that with a little more activity in the next 2 weeks we can pick it up. Thank you to everyone (anyone) who has been reading so far.

Tuesday, March 17

• Facebook: 1 event request, 1 other request, 1 new message
• Twitter: no activity
• StumbleUpon: no activity

Not much going on this very fine Tuesday. However, the warm weather and sunshine does quite a bit to take my mind off the web.

As well as updating my Facebook profile, I have been diligently tweeting and reviewing websites with StumbleUpon. If you are curious to see what I have been into lately, I both Tweet and Stumble under the name 'shildner'.

Monday, March 16

• Facebook: 1 comment on my status, 1 event invitation
• Twitter: 1 new follower
• StumbleUpon: no activity

I got a new follower on twitter today. After only one day of Phase II, it looks to be paying off. Surprisingly, Facebook has remained about the same.

On another note; I was stumbling a bit and stumbled on this blog! Someone gave me a thumbs up! I can dig (not digg) that.

Phase II

Today begins Phase II of my little experiment. Every day I will be updating my Facebook profile, following one new person on Twitter, sending one tweet, subscribing to one new person on StumbleUpon, and reviewing one website or blog.

Let's hope we get some people reading this thing. I would love to see some comments on how I can make the experiment more effective.

Phase I Wrap-Up #2

Phase I Popularity
(Facebook starts at 0)

Phase I Wrap-Up #1

Phase I Activity

Friday, March 13

• Facebook: 1 photo comment
  
• Twitter: No activity
• StumbleUpon: No activity

The comment was on a photo that was over a year old. Granted, it is a pretty good photo.

Well, Phase I is officially over. Not really much internet love (not the dirty kind) this week. I will throw up the stats this weekend and start Phase II on Monday. I hope my imaginary readers have a wonderful weekend. Go drink some green beer!

Thursday, March 12

• Facebook: 1 ad from something called SuperPoke
  
• Twitter: No activity
• StumbleUpon: No activity

It took a bit of effort to navigate the new Facebook look, but I think the single ad is all I picked up. One more post for Phase I! Thank god! I realize that I am writing this for no one which is kind of soothing in a way, but next week I can start promoting and maybe I will get some more action. Also, I know y'all are big fans of graphs so I will try to get one or two of those up this weekend.

Wednesday, March 11

• Facebook: 1 new message, 1 friend request, 1 event invite, 3 comments on photos, and 1 wall post. Woot!
  
• Twitter: No activity
• StumbleUpon: No activity

What's up Facebook? Here's the scoop on all the recent buzz I've been getting: the message was about an event in NY (I don't live in NY), I know the kid who wanted to be my friend so I accepted (I'm a pretty nice guy), the event I was invited to was the same as the one I got the message for (screw New York... also, screw "Game Night"), although I was in all the photos commented on, only one directly concerned me (it was from my girlfriend), and the post on my wall was something about watching the Watchmen sex scenes with my girlfriend's family (yes, it was as awkward as you think).

Twitter and StumbleUpon are feeling a bit left out, so let's see if next week we can start boosting some of their numbers.

Tuesday, March 10

• Facebook: 1 comment on a photo I was in (the comment was about a Pizza which was also in the picture)
• Twitter: No activity
• StumbleUpon: No activity

So, Facebook got a hit. Granted, it had nothing to do with me, but worth noting. The pizza was pretty good.

I guess I also should mention some other stats that just occurred to me. You may be curious on what my current record is on these sites. I am certainly not new to any of them, but who is?

• Facebook: you don't need to know how many friends I have
  
• Twitter: following 4 and have 5 followers
  
• StumbleUpon: 7 subscribers and written 8 reviews

Let me know if anyone wants more info that they might think is important to the experiment.

Monday, March 9

• Facebook: No activity
• Twitter: No activity
• StumbleUpon: No activity

Pretty much what I expected for most of this week. Remember, I am doing absolutely nothing on these sites right now; no friending, following, reviewing, etc.

On a side note, I checked the amount of times I have Stumbled and I am clocking in at 30,690! So, I have that going for me.

Check back tomorrow for Tuesday's results.

The Plan

I suppose I should start with the purpose of this thing. Over the next month I will be tracking my internet popularity compared to my involvement in the social network community. Here’s the plan:

After a week of recording my ‘normal’ popularity rate* I will begin Phase 1. Every day I will be updating my Facebook profile, sending one tweet and following one more person on Twitter, and reviewing one website on Stumbleupon. In Phase 2, I step it up to sending three tweets, following three more people and reviewing three websites per day. Facebook will continue to be updated daily. Phase 3 involves sending five tweets per day, following five more people on Twitter and reviewing five more websites for Stumbleupon.

This blog will be updated daily as well and I will provide a weekly wrap-up after each phase. (Expect graphs)

Please feel free to stumble and/or tweet the heck out of me and this blog, but while I appreciate your Facebook friend requests, I probably will not accept unless I have at least shaken your hand.

Enjoy!

Countdown

Here is the plan:

• March 9th - Blog is active, I will post the "business plan," and the control week will be recorded. This week, I will not be taking any steps to promote my popularity and should provide a good representation of my unaltered internet presence.
• March 16th - The experiment begins. I will be posting daily updates on my progress and expect a weekly wrap-up at the end of each week.
• April 12th - The experiment ends and a final analysis will be given.

Wish me luck!