The Power of Hyperlinking

I spend a certain amount of time each week teaching individuals how to do something, which to the my good readers here, which will seem pretty basic - teaching them how to hyperlink their personal profiles in an email message.

Yes.

Copying a hyperlink.
Highlighting text.
Right clicking.
Selecting "Hyperlink"
Pasting hyperlink.
Testing hyperlink.

I've created blog posts about it on our internal social networking site.
I've shown how you can copy/paste another person's profile URL and change the URL for them.

There is power in adding a hyperlink to an email - especially if it is to your profile. It is actively ensuring others know you've created something (even if it is as simple as a photograph, a couple of movies, an industry designation, and an alma mater.

Part of building your brand is advertising it. Passing it around - like a business card.

Chris Brogan has a good blog post about using FriendFeed to share videos, URLs, comments, tags, bookmarks, and other content with others on your business teams. I commented that right now, I was really focused on some of the more preliminary components such as adding a hyperlink to an email. I shouldn't settle for the now but should continue to strive and push people to move beyond what they've always done.

Remember when email was introduced to organizations? Internet? Voicemail? IM?

The role of education includes not only those with the budget to support collaborative and social media initiatives in the enterprise but also those on the ground who have much to gain by talking 1:1 about how to hyperlink their name in an email.

My social bookmarking manifesto - DRAFT

I'm guilty.

Guilty of sending 'round interesting tidbits, links to tools, relevant research reports, and other gems I get in my feeds to a variety of people in my organization. I'm a librarian, a sharer, and someone who is cognizant of social currency. I read widely and have a general interest and curiosity in almost anything. Sometimes, I think I'm like that squirrel gathering up nuts for the winter - except I'm more apt to make sure others have access to those nuts and I'm not hoarding them all to myself.

Sounds good, hunh? Then, why am I guilty?

I'm relying on email to deliver this content. Everyone has email; not everyone subscribes to feeds via RSS; not everyone "gets" tagging; not everyone enjoys exploring.

I'm sick of email.
Sick of sending it.
Sick of getting it.

But...
I still want to share.

So, I've had a del.icio.us account back when there were actual ".s" in the name of the social bookmarking site.

Why wasn't I using that to amplify the neat things and relevant content I found?

Because others weren't using it.
Because it was outside the firewall (wouldn't want others to know what I was reading about collaboration, social networking, web 2.0 tools - folks might put 2 and 2 together and automatically know what my organization was up to :) )

No more.

I sent out a "proposition" to the key folks I tend to bombard with neat stuff. Here's a clipping of what I sent:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All:

I email reports and external resources to many of you on a variety of topics:

· Enterprise 2.0
· Web 2.0
· Productivity
· Collaboration
· Innovation
· And just plain cool stuff

The formula I came to this point is thus:

increased awareness (the screams of “too many emails”) from many of my colleagues
+
a desire to manage both my time and be respectful of your time and inbox
+
my increased desire in “eating the dog food” around using these tools most effectively
=
Equals – a Proposition

My del.ici.us account will be the place where I keep, store and amplify external items (including Forrester items) I would normally send to you.

I already keep and store a variety of tags – I’m going to be experimenting with a way to import links into our internal social networking site; however, don’t hold breath b/c I’m no programmer.

Taking advantage of the amplification can work in a couple of ways:

1) You can subscribe to feeds of interest: http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/achitwood/web2.0%20for%20Web%202.0
2) You can visit these feeds of interest http://delicious.com/achitwood/web2.0
3) You can provide me with your del.icio.us account and ask that I “push” interesting items to you
a. They’ve recently changed delicious (no periods…) and made it very easy to send items to people. You can even see what items I’ve sent to others – e.g.

If you opt for #3, please share with me your del.icio.us username + the things you want.

I’m never going to stop sharing; however, I want to share when/where/how/what it is valuable to you!

(Double points for folks who can smile at the fact that my manifesto about
reducing email is transmitted to you all via email.)

Let me know your thoughts, concerns, etc. Love to hear it. If I should create a deck or a more organized plan for you to leverage with your teams, let me know – happy to do so.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, since I've sent this out, I have receive zero response.

Of course, I sent this out via email, so the irony is quite tasty.

I need to make sure that I can stick by what I said - already this morning, I had three items which I wanted others to see. Instead of putting them in email or forwarding, I'm tagging them in delicious. Wish me luck, folks, because I'm probably going to have to change more than my clients here.

Sap-o-Meter - Slate's got it all covered!

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