2nd April 2007

Are you "Tag Drafting?"

Ok, I think I coined the phrase…but certainly not the activity.

I’ve been playing more and more with it via Technorati tags, Delicious and now I’m actively looking forward to tagspace.   I’ve been tagging my content since I launched this blog…now I’m trying to be more consistent about tagging other content I like.  I’m curious how you might be using Tagging?

I really like the notion of "Tag Drafting" as an efficiency and effectiveness tool - the analogy here to racing.

From Wikipedia:

Drafting, or slipstreaming, is a technique in sports racing where competitors align in a close group in order to reduce the overall effect of drag or fluid resistance of the group. Especially when high speeds are involved, drafting can significantly reduce the average energy expenditure required to maintain a certain speed.

Drafting is usually to reduce wind resistance and is seen most commonly in bicycle racing, car racing, and speedskating though is occasionally used even in running. Some forms of triathlon allow drafting. Drafting is sometimes seen in swimming as well, particularly in "open-water" swim events where competitors are not separated into distinct lanes.

In cycling, the main (largest) group of tightly packed cyclists in a race is called a peloton, while cyclists riding in straight-line formation, each (but the first) drafting behind the one in front of him, is called a paceline. Drafting can be cooperative, in which several competitors take turns in the lead position (which requires the most effort and energy consumption). Or, it can be competitive or tactical, where one competitor will try to stay closely behind another leaving him or her more energy for a break-away push to the finish line.

So, what is Tag Drafting?  It’s really the same concept:  how I can I reduce the resistance to discovering useful information in territory others are already covering? To me, it falls into two categories:  Topic drafting and Author drafting.

1)  Topic drafting:  This allows me to go to a social bookmarking service like Delicious and "draft" on a topic that others are also interested in and actively tagging.  This seems a far more relevant way to discover new information on topics of interest than a search engine.  Search gives me everything, whereas this will give me just the info others thought "tag-worthy."  Example:  Let’s say you are like me and interested in Web 2.0.  Go to delicious and search web2.0 (done for you). Once you have registered on Delicious, you can even get an RSS feed to content users are tagging with Web2.0 (not recommended at this volume, but you could).  There is a lot of content here, but I think easier to explore than the 220M results found with live search.  More useful yet is creating Tag Bundles (Web2.0 + Social).  Keep playing - find the right tag bundle for you/your topic, grab a feed and draft for a few weeks and tell me what happened - The good, the bad and the ugly.  I’m trying this with the following Tag bundle:  Web2.0 + Social + business.

2)  Author drafting:  I like this even better.  In this approach, you are finding a fast "rider" you already know tags topics you care about and you are "drafting" behind them.  Here are some people I draft for Web 2.0: Bobreb, Alexbarn & leelefever.   Want to draft me?  Here are two topics to follow:  Web2.0 and BBQing.  Now I haven’t been at this as long as others, so I have work to do, but hopefully this gives you the general idea of the power this can have.

So, tell me what you think.  Try it out.  Start tagging and then start drafting!!  Have other cool techniques for leveraging social bookmarking…fill me in!!!!

Sean (aka seanodmvp at Delicious)

Popularity: 15% [?]

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 7:50 am and is filed under Business Strategy, Influencers, Social Media, Word of Mouth, web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 18 responses to “Are you "Tag Drafting?"”

Why not let us know what you think by adding your own comment! Your opinion is as valid as anyone elses, so come on... let us know what you think.

  1. 1 On April 7th, 2007, Process of Change : A Microsoft guy that gets it... said:

    […] discovery. Sean’s blog is right on target for me and this post describes the value of tagging, or “tag-drafting” as well as anything I’ve ever […]

  2. 2 On April 7th, 2007, said:

    […] discovery. Sean’s blog is right on target for me and this post describes the value of tagging, or “tag-drafting” as well as anything I’ve ever […]

  3. 3 On April 8th, 2007, Lee said:

    I really like “tag drafting” as a way to describe how people will increasingly use sites like del.icio.us. It’s all about discovery and creating a unique and specific method of finding the gems as they flow by you.

    In some ways, social networking is built on the idea of author drafting. In a large social network the information coming out of the community is huge and broad. By marking members as friends, you can filter the noise of the network into a trickle that relates only to the content produced by friends.

  4. 4 On April 8th, 2007, Tagging vs Dewey Decimal... « Community Group Therapy said:

    […] 8th, 2007 Just a quick follow-up to the recent post on Tag Drafting.  I’m not sure who sent this to me…ironically it was not tagged content at the […]

  5. 5 On April 16th, 2007, Process of Change : The tools of flow and the value of community said:

    […] how we’ve done it. We built some tagging services and a social bookmarking service on top of them (here’s another link on social bookmarking). If the term social bookmarking is new to you it is worth you time to check it out. Obtaining […]

  6. 6 On April 16th, 2007, said:

    […] how we’ve done it. We built some tagging services and a social bookmarking service on top of them (here’s another link on social bookmarking). If the term social bookmarking is new to you it is worth you time to check it out. Obtaining […]

  7. 7 On April 17th, 2007, Online "Brand Management:" Good? Bad? Or it depends? « Community Group Therapy said:

    […] you are “Tag Drafting” me, you already found this article in The Seattle Times from about a week ago.  It […]

  8. 8 On April 26th, 2007, Community interview posted... « Community Group Therapy said:

    […] tag-drafting as a way to follow the thinking of the great information mavens […]

  9. 9 On April 28th, 2007, Social networking to pass adult sites on the net!! « Community Group Therapy said:

    […] I was going to blog on this a bit more thoroughly this weekend, but turns out someone has been tag drafting some of my delicious tags:)  Awesome!!  Props to Sue at Mobile Technologies in TAFE for a […]

  10. 10 On April 29th, 2007, Reuters missing the point on web 2.0 participation rates « Community Group Therapy said:

    […] time, the fairly easy contribution of tagging and rating arguably brings the greatest value (think Tag Drafting).  It seems that today the thick community contributors get all the props!  Well, […]

  11. 11 On May 29th, 2007, Visualization of Tag Drafting... « Community Group Therapy said:

    […] 29th, 2007 Awhile back I introduced the notion of Tag Drafting as a way to think about adding efficiency to online information consumption…via topic […]

  12. 12 On August 7th, 2007, Social Bookmarking Made Easy « Community Group Therapy said:

    […] August 7, 2007 If you’ve read my blog for awhile (or heard me talk), you’ll know I’m a big fan of social bookmarking.  A few months ago, I talked about the notion of Tag Drafting.  […]

  13. 13 On October 1st, 2007, Bas said:

    Wow, interesting idea. Could you indicate where you first heard about this?

  14. 14 On October 1st, 2007, Bas said:

    Or did you originate it? :-)

  15. 15 On October 1st, 2007, sean said:

    I’m sure I didn’t originate the concept, but at least thus far I will claim credit for coining the term/phrase in this context. Glad you like it.

  16. 16 On October 2nd, 2007, Tag drafting « Bas to Bulgaria said:

    […] Posted on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 by Bas Just came across a very interesting notion called “tag drafting”. Most of us are familiar with sites […]

  17. 17 On October 2nd, 2007, Bas said:

    I guess you’d appreciate my tip on using del.icio.us that I posted right here:
    http://baslife.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/two-web-20-tips/

  18. 18 On November 16th, 2007, A guide for those that are new to this blog… : Community Group Therapy said:

    […] Are you "Tag Drafting" […]

Leave a Reply

rss posts
  • Categories