Lior Haner

Absolutely - Aram Zucker-Scharff

I almost said no, because janitors and other people don't really deal with customers, do they? But then I remembered the lady who cleaned my hotel room. She said hi and asked if she could make my stay better. Made my feelings about Sheraton go up. So, everyone affects the brand and everyone is customer facing and everyone can affect our understanding of what the company does, or help us have a better experience with it. - Robert Scoble

Yes. It makes them easier to contact and simpler to manage. - Tyler Hurst via twhirl

Robert: I'd argue that janitors and cleaning staff aren't outward-facing employees. - Kevin Fox

Kevin: I'd argue that they are. Everyone comes into contact with other human beings and they all represent the company in some way every day. If you hire great people all the way through your organization, you won't have to worry. If you hire idiots, then I'd worry about this stuff. - Robert Scoble

No. Most outward-facing employees are already outward-facing and present in the ways they need to be by default. Plastering them on a billboard for people unrelated to see, or opening them up personally for disgruntled customers to stalk... seems to be going a bit far. - abacab

I would say it depends. If you have a sales team with 100 people why not a blog for the team and then each individual member can blog. 100 blogs is maybe taking it a bit far? - Sofia

I think its should be up to the employee. - John P. Kreiss

I am torn right now. Ed and Steve are right. I like the smartphone but it does have so many limitations. Is it so wrong to want one device that does it all well? ;-) - Mathew A. Koeneker

It depends on the content I suppose as well as the mode of operation. Writing long e-mails on mobile devices, coding, or doing creative work is certainly not worth doing on smartphones. But taking and e-mailing pictures and video, transmitting location data, bar-code aided pricing comparing, and other sensor-aided activities are where smartphones seem to shine. I think this may balance out the consumption vs. creation equation over time. - Dion Hinchcliffe

I definitely want some sort of bar code scanning app. It would make shopping on a budget much easier. - Mathew A. Koeneker

Mathew, check out http://compare-everywhere.com/ for Android, it's getting really good reviews for doing bar code scanning price comparison. - Dion Hinchcliffe

Depends on what you are creating. - Kevin

Dion: Thanks! - Mathew A. Koeneker

I Agree with Kevin it really depends what you're creating and what device you're using. If you're referring to photos/video and you're talking about the iPhone or Blackberry mobiles then I understand, but if you include Nokia Nseries devices in the equation it changes all together. Nseries are great at capturing photos/video and then uploading them to your blog or Flickr especially the N82, N95 8GB, N96, N93i, etc. (basically the models with 3 Megapixel cameras or higher). If you're talking about text input for writing blog posts or long E-mails then probably a device with QWERTY keypad will work best for example, Blackberry mobiles or Nokia Eseries mobiles such as the E71. I'm very curious what smartphone/s you were referring to when you dismissed them as not being good at creating content? - LonelyBob via twhirl

@LonleyBob I use a Treo 755p which has the qwerty that I like. I would like to see a better speech to text app than is out there as I can talk a lot faster than I can type. - Mathew A. Koeneker

think it depends on your actual device as has been discussed here already ... the iPhone is absolutely a consumption focused device. Apple made very clear hardware decisions which make that a reality. The Nokia gear as @lonelybob mentions is considerably stronger on the creation side and something I concluded <http://www.atmasphere.net/wp/a...> quite a while back in my comparison of the N95 and iPhone. Nothing has really changed since ... - Jonathan Greene

the iPhone-powered laptop might be what you are looking for: http://www.gizmag.com/the-olo-... - vijay

smartphones are great for creating when you're not at your computer (ie. when you're in the real world) - William Stewart

Hey Robert broke twitter ... no wait, it's just twitter's way of saying, "Welcome Home"~!! - Susan Beebe

What's Alex done to Twitter? Alex? Robert is saying you broke twitter..... - WorldofHiglet

I really don't think it's your fault..... this time. :) - JCLeftie

http://friendfeed.com/e/4df2dc... - Tanju Yıldız (mavisland)

Awesome blog title -> "Twitter went down as soon as Robert Scoble landed in SF" - AJ Batac

Yeah. Nice work Scoble ;) I bet you brought some Chinese twitter virus back home - Dennis Bjørn Petersen via twhirl

And, being that you're Scoble, you're still able to Tweet about it. - DocileWalnut

Another Blame Scoble meme? - Roberto Bonini

It went down right as I ran my auto-follow script for SocialToo - it's probably my fault ;-) - Jesse Stay

Googel reader having problems as well... you must not have read all your feeds and now they have an out of memory error - Ian D. Nock via twhirl

Half of it was right. And I'm not posting this from Twitter. ;) - Chris White

Time will tell, but I think it was correct decision. - imran

It's made you one of my favorite bloggers, if that makes you feel any better about it. If you weren't heavy on the social exploration I probably wouldn't read. - Daniel J. Pritchett

what outcome were you going for? - zach

From my perspective, yes. It's a much more interactive and broader experience for all. - Kevin C. Tofel

The right decision from which perspective, Robert? Did you increase "eyeballs?" Revenue? Both? Other? - Mark VandenBerg

I like FriendFeed and Twitter, but don't see how they compare to developing thoughtful, deeper blog posts. Really, I think FF and Twitter have their place, and I love them as well, but that place is certainly not a replacement to blogging. - Michael Krigsman

I think yes. Most folks can read twitter 100% of the time -- blogs are scanned. You tend to link to good stuff from twitter and have good headlines. - Ted Simpson

No question about that. In the past, websites were static compared to blogs. Now blogs are static compared to microblogging services. - Berci Mesko

I think only you can be the judge of that. We're all beginning to look at blogs as sort of the core of our outreach, so I'm not sure investing time in microblogging elsewhere is an either/or question. You are you. Your blog and social media network are simply extensions. If you're happy with your business model and continuing to grow, what's the problem? :-) - Chris Baskind

Mark: Revenue? Didn't change much. Eyeballs? Well, I have almost 21,000 followers here that I didn't have at the beginning of the year. Zach: I just saw that FriendFeed was going to be one of the most interesting new services of the year. Seeing how it was on the screen at the Chinese BloggerCon I think I picked the right services. - Robert Scoble

I consider FF as blogging in many ways and more interesting than a blog. - imran

You certainly moved the ball forward for the two companies. And if you think they're a vital part of the "internet plumbing", you absolutely made the right decision in helping to secure their futures. - Christopher Galtenberg

I've shut down my blog for the time being. Not getting the interaction out of it, the way I'm getting out of experiences on FF and Twitter. I think if you want more conversation online, the blogs (for now) would not be the way to go. - Helen Sventitsky

are the 21K followers different from people who followed your blog already? if so that is in increase. if not then the eyeballs are moving from your blog to friend feed. - Jonathan Jesse

Just wondering. Thanks, Robert. - Mark VandenBerg

My twitter lives alongside my blog in the sidebar, and I keep track of all my tweets by feeding it into a lifestream stored on my server. i think that's the key, as the two platforms, microblogging and blogging, work nicely together. - C. K. Sample III

@Michael great thoughts on blogs allowing for deeper thought development. that greater development, might lead to more meaningful discussion on FF then what may occur in the comment section - Jonathan Jesse

Also, check out Twitemperature if you like Twitter. Tells you whether you're hot or cold based upon what you've tweeted and how it ties into online trends and community: http://twitemperature.com - C. K. Sample III

It's a good question -- I've been thinking (and writing a bit) about the question of a blogging / microblogging balance. My working theory: that going forward the most successful bloggers will be strong microbloggers, and vice versa. - Eric Berlin

Robert, then I have a wunderbar über wonderful idea for you! You know, you can trust me :) - directeur via NoiseRiver

YES YES YES YES YES YES! - Susan Beebe

There are plenty of people up at blog-level covering "the scene". You're on the ground with people as they're trying things, talking about what's missing, what they need, what they like and don't. I think this is a good place for a tech-head to be. But blog posts to send signals up and out to the other tech-heads, reviewing your time embedded with the troops, will still be vital for growth of the net. - Christopher Galtenberg

No =) The audience for the standard blog delivery system is different than a hyper-conversation micro-blogging system. While these services are great with interactivity, they do not generate useful long term content in most cases due to short posts (usually under 120 characters) and basically being a link farm rather than useful content. The initial "posts" are not as in-depth as a typical blog post, and the comments are often "me too" type of responses as well. Balance your tweets vs. your blog posts =) - RAD Moose

I found I moved too much of my activity to Twitter and FriendFeed - I have tried to return to more blog postings, since I do have a community of readers that is only there. - Richard Akerman

Hard to say. Who are you, again? :) - Matt Tuley

Yes, I've heard little about your blog posts, but I've heard plenty about you being very open & active on social sites. That kind of interaction with your audience is a refreshing change and I'm sure it helps your reach (though I'm sure that's not what you meant). - Cains

Honestly? You put you in front of me. I would not have gotten to the blog as often, as I've seen you here. Just too much to read. - Ed Shaz/NextInstinct

I personally miss the longer/thought out posts that used to appear on your blog. While I don't think that using FF/Twitter has been a bad thing, and I know that you don't have time for *everything*, your more "editorial" and reporting style of blogging is missed. - drew olanoff

Cross posting of comments between blogs and friendfeed would be an interesting development. - Andrew Leyden

Jonathan: I think I've gained a good percentage of new people who found me here on FriendFeed. That's why I have more followers here than, say, Michael Arrington does or Leo Laporte do (and they should have WAY more, because of the size of their audiences). - Robert Scoble

I ask myself the same question often regarding whether I should spend so much time on social media sites instead of just writing content on my blogs. What I don't think I realized is that I'm still creating valuable content at all of my outposts that are still ultimately leading to my blogging hub. I think its been well worth it. - Mark Krynsky

@Andrew WordPress has a nice plugin to link to FriendFeed activity. Unfortunately for my platform (TypePad) I don't know of an equivalent. - Richard Akerman

ppl will follow you anywhere on web i think, but this is the best place to folllow you. - imran

I find FriendFeed to be more engaging, but it would be nice to gauge the amount of traffic a post on FF gets. - Spencer

the #friendfeed, #twitter, #socialmedian instantaneous replies, directs, and comments distributed throughout feed aggregation access points establishes a better communication channel for your voice - shayne catrett

depends. did you sacrifice blog content & share it on FF/Twitter? - I stopped blogging about useless junk since I can simply throw that stuff up on FF or Twitter now. Less frequent are my blog posts, but more quality, at least I think - Enrique Gutierrez via twhirl

@Richard if you can migrate to Six Apart's Movable Type 4, they have a widget for FF -- in fact, I'm going to be trying to get it running on my blog tonight - Woodrow Jarvis Hill

Here's how you get your answer: (1) Go get some sleep. You just got back from China! (2) Wake up and look at the likes/comments on this item. (3) Compare those numbers against responses to your best blog post this year. - Bruce Lewis via fftogo

It depends what you're after. Knowing you, it was the right decision - twitter and friendfeed are like a quickfire conversation, here there, lots of input, changing topics all the time. Blogs are the considered discussion...or lecture. Different methods of communication, you choose which one you prefer. - Rachel Clarke

Blogging is more of a one-way street, FF and Twitter are interactive. It's pretty obvious they are the natural evolution and successor to web collaboration. - Tyler Hurst via twhirl

Absolutely. FriendFeed and Twitter are so much more interactive and personal than blogs. I'm liking the transition to more personal mediums. - Mark Martinez

Add one more who simply wouldn't follow you regularly if not for ff ... No other method gives the constant positive reinforcement and active conversation - David HC Soul

For those using a blog for SEO and drive quality links to their retail or commercial site, the answer would be no. However, I personally find it difficult to follow all my favorite blogs in a timely manner, ever on a reader. So for me, Twitter & FF is a better avenue to follow your messages. - Rick Bucich

Less smack talk about Twitter on this thread (any?) than FF smack on Twitter. Me senses some insecurity about the topic from those not yet FF-savvy. - Christopher Galtenberg