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Now that I’ve committed myself to reading more regularly and posting reviews and thoughts (from the books I read) on this blog, I thought it would be worthwhile to collect all the books in one place. So I’ve launched a very simple Instigator Blog Bookstore. It’s powered by Amazon.

I’ve also added a permanent link in the sidebar to the bookstore, and a widget to display some of the books.

These are books that I’ve read (and enjoyed) or plan on reading soon (and know are good). I won’t throw books into the bookstore that I’m not 100% confident you’ll gain value from (but you can’t come back to me for a refund … just saying!) And the focus of the bookstore is very much the focus of this blog: startups, entrepreneurship, business, social media and marketing — all mixed into one crazy bag.

Enjoy!

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Tracking event hashtags on Twitter has grown a ton in popularity over the last few years, ever since Twitter exploded at SXSW. It’s easy to do using Twitter Search by inputting the hashtag for the event. It’s not a perfect system – sometimes there’s too much noise, spam creeps in, etc. – but it’s still a decent way of getting real-time news about an event. (Suggestion: If you use Twitter Search include “-RT” in the search criteria so you eliminate all the retweeting activity that takes place.)

But is the real value in following event hashtags about catching up on real-time news?

Not really. Ultimately people will write blog posts (w/ more in-depth analysis) summarizing the conference you’re tracking, and you can use that as a way of catching up. And as valuable as real-time data is, tracking a very busy conference is overwhelming and distracting.

The real value (and fun) in following event hashtags is discovering new people to follow and build relationships with.

Events are great for discovering intersecting interests. They’re great for seeing who is active in a specific field or around a specific topic, and because of all the concentrated Twitter activity taking place in a short period of time, you also get a good sense of who knows who and how people are connected.

In the last couple of days I’ve followed two events – Social Recruiting Summit (#srs09 + #socialrecruiting) and 140 Characters Conference (#140conf). During that time I followed 50+ people at least, and many of those people reciprocated. Each one was actively using Twitter, and I was able in a very short time to gauge their interests and value (to me as a follower).

Event monitoring via hashtags and Twitter will improve. I know there are companies working on how to distill the best information from hashtags (with the main use case being for events), so that you can track the best tweets in real-time and reduce the noise. That’s great, and I look forward to seeing those solutions emerge, but at the end of the day, the real value is in discovering people to follow with mutual interests, who can provide you with meaningful value (and of course vice versa.)

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Blog Carnivals are a great way of increasing traffic, getting links and building your audience.

I started a Blog Carnival of Entrepreneurs at Startup Spark which is still going strong today.

Although I don’t always remember to submit my posts to blog carnivals (a simple reminder in my calendar would do the trick!) I’ve gone through a few recently, and wanted to mention them:

1. Carnival of Small Business Issues
2. Carnival of Entrepreneurs #35

   Janet Green writes a great post on marketing to women and the need for companies to move from a focus on selling products to building trust. This is the first time I’ve read Janet’s blog, but I found her style great – she’s to-the-point, keeping emotions near the surface, but also detailed and precise.

3. Best of Web 2.0

   My favorite post is A Guide To Promoting Your Blog Through Guest Posts. Most people will tell you there are many advantages to guest writing. I recently jumped into the action myself at Pronet with a post on social media alternatives to digg.

4. Carnival of the Capitalists

   I enjoyed Wally Bock’s post Career Development: Things You Should Know About Yourself. I don’t like to spend too much time on introspection, but go ahead and ask yourself the questions Wally asks, and see what comes of it.

5. Carnival of Blogging Success

   The highlight for me: What Kind of Web Publisher Are You? Matt uses a food analogy (fast food vs. home-cooked meal with love) to look at the type of content you’re publishing. It’s a funny way to look at issues that are important to bloggers. And this is particularly topical with my recent post on whether or not we’re ready to all be media outlets.

6. Personal Development Carnival
7. Carnival of Bloggers Helping Bloggers

   Tim King contradicts Brian Clark on how to become a better writer. Tim offers 7 steps, one of which includes watching TV!

   I also enjoyed this post: Passionate Power, Selecting Your Blog Niche. It’s a good reminder that picking a niche is critical to blogging success.

No matter what your blog niche, there’s likely a blog carnival for you. If not, you can always start one.

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When Copyblogger steps up and says, “Hey! Participate in this project. I am, and it’s worth it…” people listen. Including me.

Blog Action Day is set for October 15, 2007. On that day, the organizers hope everyone talks about one issue: the environment.

“Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.”

The initiative is the brainchild of Leo, Collis and Cyan Ta’eed.

Currently, there are over 2,200 blogs participating. You can too.

I’ve already got my thinking cap on in terms of how the environment fits into this blog. There are any number of directions to go, and it will prove very interesting to see how people extend their own niches into the subject matter as well.

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Most social bookmarking, social media and social networking sites allow you to include a thumbnail image (or avatar) to go with your profile. For example, when you submit a story on digg, your image appears with it.

The best example is MyBlogLog. It grew to huge success, in part because it showed people’s faces. For the first time you could see who was visiting your blog.

Most people take a thumbnail image of their face and use that as their avatar. You can see mine to the right.

But as Cheezhead points out, those images are essentially small banner advertisements for you. He provides an example on his site, where The Employment Guide uses a small logo instead of a face. It’s a great example of trying to differentiate oneself from the crowd.

In the past, MyBlogLog allowed animated avatars, but a few months ago those were removed. They became too distracting and annoying.

But lots of people are getting creative with their avatars. And we’re seeing more people talk about standing out with unique ones.

Tamar Weinberg recently wrote: 11 Tips to Enhance Your Digg User Experience (and Hopefully Bring You Front Page Fame).

Tip #1: Distinguish Yourself by Choosing an Avatar.

So how important are avatars on social media, networking and bookmarking sites?

Apparently important enough that people steal them.

One of digg’s power users is Muhammad Saleem. He’s all over the blogosphere, with his own blog, writing at Pronet Advertising, and guest writing at Copyblogger.

Take a look at Muhammad’s avatar:

Now take a look at DiggChainey’s avatar:

They’re nearly identical.

This makes me laugh and shake my head at the same time. According to Muhammad this has happened to him before, and he changed his avatar to the one he’s using now. I wonder if he’ll be forced to change again…

We all build up our personal brands through the use of social media, networking and bookmarking sites. Those brands are tied to our names, but also to our images. While it’s clear that people are thinking more seriously about their avatars and using them to promote more than just their own face (which can be a good thing), stealing an avatar is in horrible taste. It’s an attempt to leech from someone else’s personal brand. It diminishes the value and openness of the social media community. And it’s a colossal waste of time.

What do you think?

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Secretly, we all want to be on top. Luckily, there’s a secret to staying on top that works every time.

It’s your friends.

Friends don’t let friends drive drunk, but they do let friends stay on top.

Of course, we’re talking about staying on top of what’s going on in the world, and staying on top of the information glut that exists online. You got that right?

You’re in the middle, but so is everyone else

We all live in the center of our own universes. Our contacts exist all around us, from our closest friends and advisers, to those a few levels out.

One of the key values of social networking is the information flow that comes in. Maintaining a good quality network is the best way of ensuring critical information bubbles to the top and reaches you.

There’s certainly no shortage of content out there. After all, we can all be media outlets, whether we’re ready or not. And no amount of software or technology is going to save us from the information glut

People help people

What’s most fascinating about social networks and using people as filters of information is when your network interlinks with the networks of other people. And subsequently, those distant networks become your network.

All of our networks are interlinked. But we can choose to ignore that. We can stay close-minded and focused only on the closest circle around us.

But how much valuable information do we lose because of that?

Our network can be a great filter of information. We can validate bits of information we get from distant parts of our network with closer parts. We can use information gained from one part of our network to benefit another part.

Micro-Media Steps To The Fore

And this is where the value of micro-media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) comes to the forefront. Micro-media is the perfect tool for staying in tune with all of your network. It’s a great tool for information gathering and sharing quickly. It’s perfect for catching waves of conversations and trends, so you can see what comes to the top.

All of the information out there can be overwhelming. But through your network – from your best friend next door to a distant, online contact you’ve communicated with solely through Twitter – your network is the ultimate information filter. Enjoy the ride on top.

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We’re all media outlets. We’re all media channels.

That’s the siren call of many in the blogosphere; the people focused on democratizing media, taking down walled gardens, and building community.

But Mat Balez is sounding alarm bells over the idea that each of us can be media:

I know, on the surface, bringing the freedom and power of the press to every voice imaginable seems very democratic, empowering and ideal. But we cannot simply champion the ushering in of this new media landscape without pause and consideration of what it means more broadly for our culture, the future of journalism and, to cast the net as wide as possible, our ability to make sense of the world around us.

People are thinking about how the new media landscape affects everything around us. There’s plenty of interesting discussion and debate over citizen journalism and sites like NowPublic and NewAssignment. We’re not diving into the new media landscape completely blind.

But it’s all such a mess!

Mat’s not completely wrong when he writes:

Simply put, this means that the multiplying social media tools at our disposal just make it too brain-dead-simple for anyone to pollute the channel to the detriment of everyone else in the system, effectively sending the SNR [Signal-to-Noise Ratio] to near zero. The implication is that soon it becomes impossible to tease out the “good content” from the “noise” and we’re left listening to static on the line.

There is a ton of noise out there. And the mechanisms to filter that noise aren’t great.

Having said that it’s also very easy for those of us living in the tech/Web 2.0 world to emphasize this problem more than others. Our niche is the loudest out there. We’ve got an untold number of sites tracking tech news. On any given day you can visit GigaOm, CenterNetworks, Techmeme, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Valleywag and read the same stories. They publish unique stories too, and each has its own perspective, but there’s certainly tons of overlap.

We’re early adopters of everything: Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, etc. Suddenly, everyone is talking about micro-content. We’re now onto MicroMedia.

It’s all overwhelming but…

None of it is really bad.

And all of it is very niche. As early adopters we get to bang our heads against the wall and figure out what works. We get to overwhelm ourselves, destroy our attention capacity and move on. And in the process no one is really harmed too severely.

You still have a choice

Not all content is created equal. We know that. But there is an audience out there for almost everything. People like all sorts of stuff. Take country music for example. I could live without it, but millions of raving fans would not be too pleased.

It’s pretty easy to turn things off. You can reclaim your attention and set personal standards for what you’ll consume and how involved you’ll be.

Exploration and Testing work

It’s important to have a balanced approach to things. Anything to an extreme is problematic. Moderation is key. But you don’t get serious advancement by playing it safe. We need to be exploring all aspects of media, social media, micro media, etc. Someone has to push the envelope, including the development of new technologies. So we play at the edge. That includes figuring out ways of organizing data and content more effectively, to help cull what you feel is noise (cause remember: One person’s noise is another person’s front page story on digg…)

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Lots of people love the beach.

Tall people. Short people. Fat people. Skinny people. Bronzed beyond George Hamilton people. Deathly pale people.

There’s just something about stripping down to the bare necessities and letting it all hang out. The interesting thing about the beach is that no one seems self-conscious. It’s rarely flattering and in some cases downright disturbing. Watching a flabby guy in a bright green thong parade across the hot sand just doesn’t do it for me. You?

What is it about the beach that allows many of us to discard our outer shell of clothing, and with reckless abandon allow our least attractive parts to bounce about willy nilly? What, indeed…

Expose Yourself on the Beach

I recently spent a day at the beautiful Parc Jean Drapeau – 5 minutes from the heart of Montreal.

It’s an amazing location: beautiful water, sand, BBQ and great play areas for young kids. It’s amazing how few Montrealers know about it, because it’s the closest thing to a tropical vacation spot that we’ve got. And it’s the closest thing to a vacation I’m going to get in the next couple years…

While at the beach you can’t help but notice the flesh. Lots and lots of flesh. But no one cares. People are exposing themselves in a very, very personal way…and no one is covering up. It’s not all Baywatch models either; every shape, size, culture and creed hangs at the beach.

It makes me think about blogging. (Say what now?!?!)

Expose Yourself on Your Blog

Whether you like it or not, blogs are personal. They wouldn’t work otherwise. Of course they have a business purpose; just like social networks, blogs can be used in a hundred different ways for professional reasons. But business is personal, and blogs have their roots in an open, conversational, relationship-building style.

So if a blog is personal and professional, where do we draw the line?

How much of your personality goes into your blog? How much do you expose?

It might depend on the topic. News-focused blogs won’t have as much room for personality. But most of us write blogs as a means of establishing our personal brand, building meaningful relationships and growing our businesses. There’s lots of personal “stuff” in there.

Chris Brogan exposes himself a great deal on his blog (and through Twitter, Facebook, etc.) He talks about his work and his personal life. Following Chris is more than just a learning experience; it’s a personal experience.

Don’t Show Me Everything, But Keep It Real

Exposing yourself doesn’t mean revealing every detail of your personal life. It does mean you need to approach blogging with an authentic voice. Overly crafting your message can siphon off too much personality if done incorrectly. The information you’re providing might be valuable but the delivery becomes staid and distant.

Your blog should drip with your personality. You should feel free to include personal stories as a means of truly connecting with your audience. The more you expose, the more your audience will as well; and that’s how community is built.

So feel free to be a beach. (Or at least enjoy it!)

photo by pocketshoot.

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The A-list debate rages on. Every couple of months it rears its head as people argue over whether the A-list exists and whether it remains relevant.

In this latest installment, Hugh MacLeod is arguing that social networks and social networking tools (Facebook, Twitter, Pownce) have given people more power and ability to build their own groups, and not be as reliant on A-listers as hubs of attention. I think blogs already gave people that power; there are plenty of “networks of blogs” and “blog communities” that are thriving without A-list support. You don’t need links from A-listers, nor will they suddenly turn you from a zero to hero overnight. But…

The A-List does exist.

The A-List is relevant.

What people miss (on both sides of the argument) is how the A-list is relevant.

The A-list is made up of tech-focused, early adopters. If you’re in the tech business, running a Web 2.0 startup, hoping to generate buzz and build key relationships in places like the Valley, then being in-tune with the A-list and being able to reach the A-list has value. Having Robert Scoble promote you, your business and your product will help. It’s not the “be all and end all” but it will help.

The A-list, within the tech community, has the power to create lots and lots of buzz.

That can be useful.

But for most people (since most people in the blogosphere aren’t starting Web 2.0 startups) it’s not relevant.

For me, that’s the end of the argument. It’s a question of relevancy. It’s a question of strategic value. Not celebrity, not hero worship, not “who has the most friends in every social network.”

The A-list exists.

The A-list is relevant…for certain people, under certain circumstances.

Where we all go wrong is that too many people believe that being connected to the A-listers will be of real value to them. In reality, it won’t.

In Tony Hung’s world, the A-list matters a great deal. He lives and breathes Web 2.0, reports on it and the relationships he builds with A-listers can help him further his own goals (whatever they may be.) And Tony points out the obvious, which I agree with — some people are more popular than others.

For Brian Clark, the A-list is irrelevant. In his brilliantly titled post, Blogging is Dead (Long Live Value Blogging), he says he’s thrilled that tools like Twitter and Pownce exist, so all the banal “stuff” people want to write about (like what they’re having for lunch, etc.) moves to those mediums, and blogging is left to those that, “…provide true value by teaching, informing and offering unique perspective are thriving.”

Fair enough, I’ll buy that argument. There’s no question that quality blogs are thriving in a huge way, irrespective of social networking tools. And I don’t see a time in the near future where we won’t have quality blogs growing bigger and bigger audiences. No amount of social networking tools will change the value of blogs.

But Brian’s focused almost exclusively on blogging. And in that case, he’s right, you don’t need the A-list for your blog to be successful. On the other hand, if you’re trying to launch a Web 2.0 startup and you’re hoping to get mentioned on TechCrunch, get Jason Calacanis as an advisor, and generate lots of initial buzz, then the A-list becomes much more important.

Some people will always be more popular than others. That’s how the world works. And in some cases it’s worth being buddy-buddy with the popular kids. And in other cases it doesn’t matter. Each of us has to decide whether it’s really worth it or not, and go from there.

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LinkedIn is a business networking tool that works well for a couple of things. For starters, it’s good for staying in touch with people. You keep track of who you know and what they’re up to. Secondly, it works well for recruiting.

Some time ago, LinkedIn released LinkedIn Answers, which allows you to pose questions to people within your network or a greater audience. At first I didn’t pay any attention to the functionality, but I started receiving questions from people.

• What is the best RSS reader for a Blackberry?
• How would you implement a staff-wide networking program?
• What would you like to be able to see and do on a local community website?
• Jobster.com: Has anyone used this site and if so, what do you think of it?

You’re not obligated to answer, but if you have an answer, it takes all of 2 minutes to reply. I believe all the answers are made public, and a discussion can ensue.

I’ve asked 2 questions recently, and in both cases I received very quick and good responses.

It amazes me how quickly people respond. I’m certain had I emailed all of the contacts and asked the same questions, the response would have been slower. Why? Because people tend to ignore mass emails, or feel overwhelmed by email to start (which I completely understand!) And although your LinkedIn questions will get sent to people via email (they receive a notification), somehow it feels different, it doesn’t feel like a mass email (or email at all), and so people respond.

LinkedIn Answers works great for referrals.

For general purpose questions, most people will search Google. But when you need a reference or referral you want to go to people you trust; i.e. your LinkedIn network. I recently asked via LinkedIn, “Do you know any videographers in San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, Boston or Toronto?”

The response was immediate, from people I trust. I now have a bunch of videographers to contact. (Incidentally, I’m still looking for more if you know anyone!)

It took approximately 2 minutes to submit the question, and I received 15+ responses in less than an hour.

LinkedIn scored big-time with this feature. It’s useful and sticky. Plus, it’s fun.