My Google Reader and What I'm Willing to Broadcast
Yesterday I tweeted:
Nothing worth sharing in my Google Reader this morning. That is pretty rare.
I had a couple of blogging friends ask about that tweet. Specifically, they wanted to know why I didn't think their posts were worth tweeting yesterday.
Let me explain.
There are three questions I consider when I tweet something from my Google Reader:
- Is this an article that will benefit those who subscribe to my various social media feeds? Will it give them information they need to make decisions about the direction of their organization and company.
- Is this an article that will help my subscribers know a bit more about me? All my online feeds are a digital fingerprint. Does this article give my networks additional understanding of who I am as a person?
- Do I think this article is important enough to spend my social capital to broadcast it to my networks. That is, I understand this article isn't something my networks are typically interested in, but is it so important that I'm going to broadcast it anyway?
A post doesn't have to have a 'Yes' to all three questions before I post it. In fact, it only has to have one 'Yes.'
I read many articles every day that I enjoy and that make me think. Not all of those benefit my network, say something about me, or are worth the social capital to broadcast. That isn't bad, nor are those articles bad.
What about you...do you broadcast every article you read? What filters do you use to evaluate what you do broadcast? Do you know your networks well enough to know what will benefit them?