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Building43
Gary Vaynerchuk and the wine family business

building43

2 Jul 2009 | 12:50 pm

Gary Vaynerchuk’s dad moved to the U.S. from Belarus with nothing in 1978, and built the Wine Library in New Jersey into a business that sells $50 million in wine a year. Now Gary is making the Wine Library into a global brand through his video show and efforts on Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed. In this video at the family store in New Jersey, Gary talks with Robert Scoble about how small businesses can use social media tools to build a brand online. It’s not too late, Gary says. “It is so much earlier than people think!”
Small business part 2: Counseling and training

J. Bruce Hughes

1 Jul 2009 | 8:05 am

Editors note: This is the second article in a three-part series on starting small businesses that will be posted on Wednesdays. In the first part of this series, I described the general types of help available through Small Business Development Centers. One of the most valuable services that many SBDCs offer is individualized counseling. Counseling Once you are signed up as an SBDC client, you will typically begin a series of meetings with your assigned counselor. The counselor can identify local professional service providers such as attorneys and accountants who are small-business…
StockTwits builds vibrant community on top of Twitter

building43

30 Jun 2009 | 11:22 am

Howard Lindzon is an investor in Twitter, but he saw a way to make an even bigger investment play: he’d turn Twitter into a filtered chat room for discussing stocks, aka StockTwits. We visit him in New York and he shows how to build a business on top of Twitter and discusses some of the things he’s learned. “We make Twitter better,” he says in the interview.
The “Flashy” future of TV

building43

26 Jun 2009 | 6:48 am

Adobe is bringing Flash to set-top boxes. Here Anup Murarka, director of technology, strategy and partner development for Adobe Systems, shows off how Flash can be used for everything from a cell phone to a large screen HDTV and gives us a taste of the future of television.
Small businesses’ not-so-secret weapon

J. Bruce Hughes

24 Jun 2009 | 8:05 am

Editor’s note: This is the first article in a three-part series on starting small businesses that will be posted on Wednesdays. What if there were a nationwide network of offices with paid, full-time counselors to help you grow your business in revenues, profitability, and size? What if that advice was free? Map of SBDC locations Well, the secret is out. Such a network exists, and as you can see in this map, where each of the Small Business Development Centers in the U.S. is represented by a red dot, it’s a big network. Usually, all you need to do to receive these services is to…

TechCrunch
The Infamous 2009 LimeWire Pizza Fiasco

Michael Arrington

2 Jul 2009 | 3:08 pm

July 1, 2009 - the day the music wars started in earnest. Last night the guys from Dovecote Records, a small music label based in New York, were hanging out at their local bar. Employees from file sharing startup LimeWire showed up to have a party. There was confusion over the ownership of some pizza, and a riot almost ensued. From the Dovecote Blog: Woman: “Who the FUCK are you? And why are you eating our pizza?” Kosuke and Paul look confused. Kosuke: Are you joking? Is this a joke? Woman: No this is definitely NOT a joke. I want to know who you are and why you’re eating our pizza.
Twitter Makes Hashtags More #Useful

Leena Rao

2 Jul 2009 | 2:14 pm

You may have noticed that Twitter has started hyperlinking hashtags. Those are words preceded by a “#” which denote what the Tweet is about and makes it easier to search for Tweets about specific topics and events. For instance, try searching for #realtimecrunchup. Now that they are hyperlinked, when you click on a hashtag, you are led to the search result page for the specific hashtag. Others have been implementing this; FriendFeed (big surprise) has been doing this for awhile. Some of the Twitter clients, including the desktop versions of Tweetie and Seesmic Desktop also provide…
One More Thing: The New Facebook iPhone App Will Allow Video Uploads

MG Siegler

2 Jul 2009 | 1:37 pm

Yesterday, we wrote about what Facebook was planning for the next major release of its iPhone app, version 3.0. The big update will contain 15 new features, probably none bigger than the addition of event management to the app, finally. But there was one thing Facebook developer Joe Hewitt didn’t mention yesterday, and it’s a big one: Video uploads from the iPhone 3GS. Hewitt just started working on the feature yesterday, thinking it would be something that would come in the next release, after this one. But he was surprised at how quickly he was able to get it up and running and…
Google Blog Search Takes Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Jason Kincaid

2 Jul 2009 | 12:51 pm

Last fall Google launched a revamped version of its Blog Search, converting the site’s frontpage into a automated news portal similar to sites like Techmeme. It has its fair share of issues (for one, it’s subject to the same problems of automated grouping as Google News is), but it was a step in the right direction for the site. That said, it has been missing some key features. For one, there hasn’t been a good way to track breaking news stories as they happen — generally stories only pop up as they gain momentum and are written about by multiple sites, which can take…
FriendFeed Makes Its Search Results Real-Time Too

MG Siegler

2 Jul 2009 | 12:23 pm

Ever since its redesign a few months ago, FriendFeed has been one of the standard-bearers of the real-time web. That’s because while a lot of sites claim to be real-time, FriendFeed is one of the few that actually updates continuously as data comes in. Starting today, any search you do will also get that same real-time treatment. Enter any query into FriendFeed’s search box and you’ll see a constantly updating stream of items related to it. It works for advanced searches too. Best of all, it also searches through comments left below items. And these results can even be…

ReadWriteWeb
Iran's Mobile SMS Up & Running; Will Twitter Start to Lose the Green Hues?

2 Jul 2009 | 4:08 pm

According to a report today from the BBC, Iranians are able to text message one another for the first time since the day before the presidential elections. SMS service, which political dissidents had used to spread messages and organize protests, has been restricted since June 11, causing many Iranians to use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social sites to broadcast and communicate. Sponsor The BBC report stated that, according to Iranian news outlets, SMS capabilities are now unblocked but that users are experiencing massive technical problems. Some messages as old as three weeks were…
How FriendFeed Could Become the Ultimate Social Media Tracking Service

2 Jul 2009 | 3:25 pm

FriendFeed, the multi-network activity aggregator co-founded by GMail creator Paul Buchheit, announced today that it has entered the crowded field of real time search. FriendFeed was already the best way to learn what early adopter social media users were saying about any topic across blogs, Twitter, delicious and other diverse social media sites. If FriendFeed wants to step it up to the next level and challenge business-class conversation trackers, we believe there are four steps the company needs to take. We think that would make a whole lot of sense. In fact we think that if real time…
eMusic Users Revolt Over Latest Changes

2 Jul 2009 | 2:06 pm

Since yesterday, eMusic, one of the world's largest subscription-based music retailers, features music from Sony's catalog in its store. Most users on eMusic subscribe to the service because of the eclectic selection of independent music it offers, and very few users were excited to hear that eMusic was going to make major changes to its service, including raising the price per song just in order to give its users access to mainstream music that they were not very likely to be interested in. While eMusic did a fine job at communicating the basic changes to the service, it didn't reveal the…
Google Updates Blog Search - Where's the Innovation?

2 Jul 2009 | 1:24 pm

Google just announced a number of changes to its blog search engine, Google Blog Search, but none of them will knock your socks off. RSS feeds for search queries were added, something that no self-respecting search engine of dynamic content would be without. Hot search queries and recent posts from popular blogs round out the slight redesign of the Blog Search home page. While many different Google projects push the envelope with features and interface innovation - users are excited just to see Blog Search make catch-up moves, since it's a sign that the product is still breathing at all. No…
Rupert Murdoch: Facebook is Just a Directory

2 Jul 2009 | 12:19 pm

Rupert Murdoch, the 78-year-old CEO and chairman of News Corp., just gave a revealing interview to The Street's Dan Freed. In this interview, Murdoch argues that the latest head-count reduction at MySpace was necessary because the number of employees at the company had grown out of control. In addition, he also told Freed that he wants the site to be very different from Facebook, which, in his eyes, is nothing more than a directory, while MySpace is a place "to find common interests, share music, that sort of thing." Sponsor In the same interview, Murdoch also says that he has no idea how to…

Mashable!
10 Ways to Find People on Twitter

Josh Catone

2 Jul 2009 | 2:35 pm

Twitter is all about facilitating conversations, but until you’re following some people, it’s just a blank page. Once you find people to follow and talk to, however, Twitter becomes exceptionally useful. You can share thoughts, ask questions, get updates about news, music, brands, and businesses, and discover helpful links and information. Finding good people to follow, especially for new users staring at a blank page the first time they log in, can be a bit daunting, though. Thankfully, there are a number of ways you can find people on Twitter. Here are ten sites you can use to…
Unknown Lifeform in North Carolina Sewer: A Monstrous YouTube Hit

Pete Cashmore

2 Jul 2009 | 2:01 pm

With 3.3 million+ YouTube views in the past two days, the video “Unknown Lifeform in North Carolina Sewer” (below) is taking the web by storm, becoming the most viewed video this week and beating out a performance of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The clip, which shows an alien-looking life form living in a North Carolina sewer, was posted along with a claim that it was extra-terrestrial life. Today mainstream news has taken notice and corrected the myth: the video is indeed real, scientists say, but the strange creature is very much a terrestrial phenomenon. News14 writes: Ed…
FriendFeed Adds Real-Time Search Results

Adam Ostrow

2 Jul 2009 | 12:47 pm

Social activity aggregator FriendFeed, which re-designed earlier this year to show updates from friends in real-time, has just extended that same functionality to search. Now, when you search for a given term – like “Michael Jackson” – you’ll see updates from FriendFeed users stream in real-time in your browser. Just as on your homepage, you can hit “pause” on the real-time results, which, after a few minutes of staring at items about Jackson being shared, is definitely a needed feature if you’re actually attempting to keep up with a topic. After hitting pause, FriendFeed will…
Google Blog Search Gets More Like Other Google Search Tools

Adam Ostrow

2 Jul 2009 | 12:24 pm

Google Blog Search has just added a few features that users of other Google services are likely familiar with. First, you can now subscribe to any topic via RSS or Atom, like you already can do in Google News. This means every time there’s a new story in the “Technology” category, or more specifically a search term like“social media” you can get that update pushed to your RSS reader. There’s also a new iGoogle gadget if you’d rather access the topic or search term via iGoogle. The Google Blog Search homepage now also features a “Hot Queries,” which, is similar to Google Hot…
GoDaddy Wants You to Go Twitter

Adam Ostrow

2 Jul 2009 | 10:50 am

Ideally, your brand has the same name across all of the social sites you use, and, it matches your domain name (for example, we’re mashable.com, twitter.com/mashable, and facebook.com/mashable). Realizing this fact, popular domain registrar GoDaddy has integrated Twitter registration into its domain manager, allowing you to see if the Twitter username that matches your URL is available, and if so, register it. The target here is GoDaddy’s small business users. The company explains in the tool that you can “Join today and start “tweeting” about your next sale, when…

CenterNetworks
Yahoo Mail is Down

Allen Stern

2 Jul 2009 | 4:29 pm

I’ve been a happy Yahoo Mail user forever and to the best of my memory, I don’t ever remember the service being down. As of 7pm Eastern this evening, Yahoo Mail has not been functioning. The few times that I’ve received an error, a simple browser refresh fixes the issue - but not this time. The error message remains even when switching over to the very old “classic” version of Yahoo Mail. There are lots of people on Twitter who have also had issues accessing the mail service. As always, please report in if Yahoo Mail is down for you.
BillFlo Discusses First Year Learnings

Allen Stern

2 Jul 2009 | 3:51 pm

As an entrepreneur, it’s always interesting to read about lessons other startups have learned as they move on their journeys. Paperless invoicing startup BillFlo has just hit their one-year anniversary and have put together a list of some of the lessons they have learned. The lessons include: Customers don’t tell you what they want Remember your company values Startups are a fu**ing roller coaster Biases are dangerous It seems nearly every entrepreneur I speak with has one learning in common — that is startups are roller coasters. If you’ve posted your learnings, leave…
Fresh Web Jobs - July 2

Allen Stern

2 Jul 2009 | 6:19 am

Below are some of the latest jobs posted on the CenterNetworks Job Board. Subscribe to the CN Jobs feed and get all of the latest Web industry jobs delivered directly to you. Featured Jobs: Technical Director at Your Majesty Project Manager at Modea Technical Services Analyst - New York at Google Senior Brand Strategist at Red Lever Inc Creative Director at ABC News Senior Brand Strategist at Red Lever Inc Traffic/Production Manager at JWT INSIDE Front-end Web Developer at GOOD Employers - Join other top companies on the CN Job Board. Post your jobs today
Breaking/Exclusive: Microsoft Adds 3rd Twitter Message!

Allen Stern

2 Jul 2009 | 5:22 am

Last night while winding down and watching Ask This Old House, I was alerted to an important post by MG Siegler (MG writes for Techcrunch). The post noted that Microsoft Corporation is now tweeting (that means they are posting up to 140 character messages on the Twitter service). This is huge news! Microsoft’s competitors like Google and Sun and Oracle and Zappos are already tweeting so it’s huge news that Redmond is now on their game too. MG then went all Columbo on us by explaining the stats on the Microsoft official twitter account. He notes that only 1,000 people were…
Tumblr Launches Photosets

Allen Stern

1 Jul 2009 | 12:51 pm

NY-based microblogging service Tumblr has announced a new feature today: Photosets. Photosets takes a bunch of photos and creates a Flash-based slider/photoshow of the photos. You can either upload photos or link out to other photo locations (flickr, photobucket, smugmug, some porn site, etc.). Additionally you may link your photo of your dog willy to his twitter page. Unfortunately it does not appear that there is any option to embed a photoset outside of the originating Tumblr site. This could be a great way to get Tumblr content further along the Internet highway as long as the photoshow…

The Altimeter by Charlene Li
Redesign and logo for Altimeter Group

Charlene Li

22 Jun 2009 | 5:54 pm

It's with great excitement that I'm beta launching a redesigned web site at www.altimetergroup.net today. I welcome your feedback before I port the main altimetergroup.com site over to the new design on Friday. The site was designed by Horn Group, a digital communications agency (disclosure: Horn Group is a client and they were paid for their work on the site). The goal of the site is to provide more information about Altimeter, the services being offered, and also be a home for The Altimeter blog. My favorite gee-whiz feature -- the rotating tag cloud sphere on the home page. A big shout out…
Would you invite 16 bloggers to spend 24 hours with your company? The Navy did.

Charlene Li

14 Jun 2009 | 5:18 pm

(I previously wrote an intro and link post about the bloggers who went on the USS Nimitz.) When the Navy issued the invitation for 16 bloggers to spend a day on the USS Nimitz, I thought there had to be string attached, or that the Navy wanted to use us bloggers as propaganda spreaders. But hey, I'm used to people pitching me and trusted myself to be able to figure out the real story behind the Navy "story". But surprisingly, there were no pre-conditions, no restrictions on access other than to safeguard our well-being. The schedule was packed with organized tours to different parts of the…
Nimitz Blogger Embark: Intro Links

Charlene Li

14 Jun 2009 | 4:05 pm

At the end of May, I joined 15 other bloggers for a trip on the aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz which was about 80 miles off the coast of San Diego. Which meant that we had to fly on and off the carrier. And yes, it was a pretty amazing to experience to get caught by a wire and catapulted off the carrier. But my longest lasting memories will be of the amazing people I met. I will be writing a few additional posts with more details, but below is a quick overview as well as links to the content from the other bloggers. The trip was initiated by Guy Kawasaki, who last fall made a similar trip…
Microsoft Bing's focus on decisions is smart -- but not a Google killer

Charlene Li

29 May 2009 | 12:42 am

Apologies for the long title, but I wanted to get one thing across before diving into my review of Microsoft's new search engine Bing. (The site was announced on Thursday at the All Things Digital conference and will be available June 3rd. I was given a pre-launch briefing and have had access to a preview site.) Bing is not a Google killer. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing, and in fact, I think Microsoft is taking a pretty darn smart move by focusing on being a "decision engine". Here's why. Bing's goal is to improve the search experience, and it does that well overall in an incremental…
Where I'll be in May and June

Charlene Li

11 May 2009 | 3:43 pm

I'll be speaking/traveling to the following events and cities in the next few months. Hope to catch some of you in person. You can find a full list of my future engagements on my Calendar page. May 12, 2009: Women Who Tech TeleSummit, "Breaking Through the Digital Ceiling". This is a particularly passionate topic for me. This is an online event and this single panel is a bargain at $10!! The entire TeleSummit will be available as a podcast if you can't make it. Other panelists are Lynne D. Johnson, Fast Company, Susan Mernit, Consultant, Connie Reece, Every Dot Connects and Social Media Club.

SmartBrief on Social Media
Mich. bans tweeting from the jury box

1 Jul 2009 | 10:00 pm

Michigan's Supreme Court has decided that jurors cannot use Twitter, send text messages or search Google during a trial. -More-
A social marketplace for fashionistas, designers

1 Jul 2009 | 10:00 pm

"Sense of Fashion" hopes to connect designers, consumers and the fashion-forward. -More-
Twitter applies to own "tweet"

1 Jul 2009 | 10:00 pm

Twitter is trying to trademark "tweet," the verb used to describe posting on the microblogging site. -More-
Nike integrates social media into grants

1 Jul 2009 | 10:00 pm

Nike is taking its community philanthropy online by offering $650,000 in neighborhood grants through social media. -More-
SmartBrief will not be published Friday

1 Jul 2009 | 10:00 pm

In observance of Independence Day in the U.S., SmartBrief will not be published Friday. Publication will resume Monday. -More-

Social Media Today
Do our Marketing Metrics Undermine Long-Term Brand Value?

2 Jul 2009 | 1:51 pm

Several weeks ago, I wrote a rather long diatribe about the marketing world's obsession with short-term sales metrics (Restoring Marketing and Finance Balance: How Marketing Can Save the (Corporate) W...
Right Place, Right Time - Free

2 Jul 2009 | 7:17 am

One of the things that you probably learned by hanging out with me here at Conversation Agent is that I tend to bring together a lot of ideas in a short space, show you how those ideas are connect...
iPhone users prefer mobile web over print newspapers

2 Jul 2009 | 12:14 am

You could read a number of things into this, but Comscore and admob has released a study showing that iPhone and iPod Touch owners use their device more than they read printed newspapers and (for iP...
Roundup : Twitterslurp, Tweetboard, Twitlogo, Dial2Do, Tweexchange

1 Jul 2009 | 11:47 pm

Twitterslurp - a drop.io API app that creates a keyword Twitter stream, with a list of users and stats for your website, see an example at the Personal Democracy Forum created by the Bivings group. ...
On Social Media And Culture Shift

1 Jul 2009 | 10:17 pm

Successful adoption of social media is far more cultural than operational. The difficulty in social media, contrary to frequent discussion, isn’t in how to use the tools or the tactics. It’s not a...

ProBlogger Blog Tips
Feedburner Add Customizable Subject Lines to Email Subscriptions

Darren Rowse

2 Jul 2009 | 7:38 am

One month ago I wrote an open letter to Google/Feedburner suggesting that it might be time to add some more features to Feedburner - particularly the ability to customize subject lines of those subscribing to a feed via RSS. It seems that they’ve been hard at work on that very feature. Today I logged into my Feedburner account and noticed this in the ‘Email Branding’ area. Yep - it’s the feature we’ve been waiting for! All you need to do now is add the tag ${latestItemTitle} into the subject line and it looks like you’re set to have new subject lines on…
Win an Omni Bean Bag Worth $149 in the Next 48 Hours at @ProBloggerDeals

Darren Rowse

1 Jul 2009 | 11:50 am

Today’s ProBlogger Deal is simply - follow @ProBloggerDeals on Twitter and you’ll automatically go into the running to win the ultimate blogger’s chair - the Omni Bean Bag Chair from SumoLounge. You’ve got 48 hours to enter! Valued at $149 USD the Omni Bean Bag Chair comes in a range of 10 great colors, measures 4.5’ X 5.5, is made from rip-proof and easy to clean nylon and is filled with high quality beads which will stay fluffy for ages! Can’t you just picture yourself lazing around with your laptop on your knee in this baby? To win the Omni chair - simply…
8 First Step SEO Tips for Bloggers

Darren Rowse

1 Jul 2009 | 7:13 am

“What are the first steps to optimizing my blog for searches?” - question submitted by @monedays using the #pbquestions hashtag on Twitter. Much has been written on the topic of search engine optimization for bloggers - but let me give you a few basic first steps: 1. Content is King The quality of the posts you write is the single most important factor when it comes to Search Optimization on a Blog. I suspect others will argue differently but as I look at my own blogs success in the search engines I’d say that this has been the number one factor. Quality content that helps…
Should I Quit Blogging?

Darren Rowse

30 Jun 2009 | 7:30 am

Image by -nathan “Should I quit my blog and start Lifestreaming, Videocasting, Social Messaging/Networking etc?” There’s been another round of ‘blogging is dead’ posts doing the rounds of late and as a result I’ve had a number of emails hitting my inbox over the last week from bloggers asking if they should stop blogging. Here’s some of the advice I’ve been sharing: Blogging is not dead - it’s evolving. You should be evolving too (read Blogs are Out of Beta, But Bloggers Should always be in Beta) Keep being useful, keep solving problems…
How to Manage a School/Blog Balance

Darren Rowse

29 Jun 2009 | 2:55 pm

This post was written by Aditya Mahesh, founder of AMBeat.com, a complete resource for entrepreneurs complete with advice articles, start-up profiles, interviews, news analysis, and more. Common wisdom suggests that academics are always chief in importance. Students, at least those here in the United States, are told time and time again that extra-curricular activities, whether it is a sports team or clubs, always come after academics. Student entrepreneurs and bloggers have a tendency not to follow this rule of thought. Throughout my high school and college experiences, I have always been…

Publishing 2.0
Wordpress & SocialVibe: Blogging Gone Good

Robert Young

15 Jun 2009 | 11:05 am

New York venture capitalist Fred Wilson is one of the most prolific and renown bloggers on the web. And if you go his blog, avc.com, you’ll notice that (like most blogs) he runs advertising to generate revenues. But what many of you may not know is that all the proceeds Fred generates through his blog goes to charity. What a concept!! You blog for a few minutes each day, and presto! You’re supporting your favorite charity! Now, imagine if millions of people did this… imagine the impact we could have on the world. Starting today, if you’re a blogger who uses…
Why we link: A brief rundown of the reasons your news organization needs to tie the Web together

Ryan Sholin

11 Jun 2009 | 10:24 am

Originally posted at BeatBlogging.org, a resource for journalists using social networks, blogs, and other Web tools to improve beat reporting. Whenever I talk with news organizations of any size about linking to sources, resources and journalism that originated outside the walls of their newsroom, two questions come up: How and Why. Well, conveniently enough, I work for Publish2, and we build tools that help answer the question of How. If your problem is that systems make adding links directly in the text of your story a difficult task, let’s solve that by adding links in widgets, sidebars,…
Retraining Wire and Feature Editors to Be Web Curators

Scott Karp

2 May 2009 | 10:22 am

If the wire editor and feature editor roles are becoming obsolete for print newspapers, as Steve Yelvington persuasively argues, then those editors should be retrained — or retrain themselves — as web curators. Rather than become obsolete, these editors could become essential to their news organization’s future on the web. Steve observes: On the Internet, we have no need of wire editors; if we wish to have wire content on our websites, we can plug in AP Hosted News, or run a full feed of AP Online or some similar product from another service. But with everything on the…
Collaboration can’t cure #swineflu, but it can fight filter failure

Ryan Sholin

29 Apr 2009 | 6:41 am

Perhaps you’ve noticed a bit of activity online the last few days related to a certain not-quite-pandemic bug that’s going around. Swine Flu. Or, to put it in microblogging terms, #swineflu. The wonderful thing about the ease of communication online is that anyone can start a discussion, carry it on, pass along information, retweet it, forward an e-mail, leave a comment on a blog post, or bookmark a page in a social way. The problem, of course, is that when millions of people are desperately looking for solid, clear information, that’s when it can be the most difficult to…
Joining Publish2: Ryan Sholin, Greg Linch and Howard Weaver

Scott Karp

23 Apr 2009 | 2:25 pm

Today we’re announcing three major additions to the Publish2 team — journalists whose stellar reputations speak for themselves: Ryan Sholin joins us next week as Director of News Innovation. Greg Linch is the winner of the Publish2 Future of Journalism Contest and will join us in the fall as our Producer. Howard Weaver has joined our Board of Directors. Get the full scoop at the Publish2 Blog.

Marketing Voices
Social Media Tools For Small and Medium Sized Businesses: Taleo Insights

Jennifer Jones

30 Jun 2009 | 1:38 am

Given the recession, and the proliferation of small and medium sized businesses, I spoke to Duncan Egan recently, the Senior Director of Marketing for Taleo, an on-demand talent management solution company. Egan knows tons about small and medium sized businesses and told me the social media tools he finds most effective are Ning, Twitter and Facebook. He tells me that Ning is great community site platform and discusses how to use Facebook and Twitter so they leverage each other. Related posts:Insights Into Using Facebook And LinkedIn CorrectlyIntuit Builds Community Using Social Media…
Admiral John Miller Aboard The USS Nimitz Gives Dramatic Briefing To Bloggers

Jennifer Jones

21 Jun 2009 | 11:29 pm

One night while on board the USS Nimitz, and sitting in Read Admiral John Miller’s “office”, the bloggers and I listened while he explained the important role the USS Nimitz, the strike group and the Navy play. Admiral Miller explained to the group how the Nimitz was ready to go on a deployment, and he describes where they could go and the role of the Navy in other parts of the world. The sounds of the fighter jets taking off and landing provides interesting background audio. The podcast is 12 minutes. Related posts:Bloggers Embark: USS Nimitz Plans To Receive 16 Podcasters, Bloggers…
In the Mess Hall with Petty Officer John Hardy: Insights About His Life In The Navy

Jennifer Jones

15 Jun 2009 | 11:37 pm

It’s 7:30AM on our second day on the USS Nimitz and the 15 bloggers and I joined lots of the enlists for breakfast. After eating eggs, bacon and juice, I captured Petty Officer John Hardy for a short conversation. Petty Officer Hardy has been in the navy 10 years, and is a maintenance worker repairing guns and the aircraft. From Grand Rapids Michigan, Hardy joined the Navy to get a college education and grow up with more opportunities. He talks to me about the challenges of his work as well as his travel to Dubai. Photo credit of mess hall: Guy Kawasaki Related posts:Learning Navy &…
USS Nimitz Interview With Lia Reynolds - Corporate Staff Judge Advocate For Carrier Strike Group 11

Jennifer Jones

8 Jun 2009 | 12:31 am

At midnight while on board of the USS Nimitz, I caught up with Lia Reynolds, the Corporate Staff Judge Advocate. She’s been in the Navy for 12 years, and her “primary client” is the US Navy. She’s in love with her work, and is happy to not work in the world of corporate law. She sees herself with the Navy for at least another 8 years. Related posts:Admiral John Miller Aboard The USS Nimitz Gives Dramatic Briefing To BloggersIn the Mess Hall with Petty Officer John Hardy: Insights About His Life In The NavyA Candid Perspective From Fighter Pilot Lieutenant Luis Delgado
A Candid Perspective From Fighter Pilot Lieutenant Luis Delgado

Jennifer Jones

6 Jun 2009 | 12:41 am

With amazing candor, Luis Delgado, talked to me about his most intense thoughts as a F-18 pilot. Flying off the USS Nimitz at night into a pitch blackness that can scare him so much he screams into his mask, Delgado admitted to me that he feels like he “dies a little death every day”. Delgado loves his work, but has such tension that he suffers from insomnia. He admits that these feelings are not unusual for fighter pilots, and that the Navy cannot really train the pilots to deal with the fear, but can only hope that they can learn the skills to get the job done. Talking to him made me…

JasonKeath.com
Is Your Coffee Profanely Good?

Jason

29 Jun 2009 | 2:41 pm

I don’t even drink coffee, but this tempts me to try some to make sure I still don’t like it. Mystery Engages Appearing to tape over some key vowels really gets your mind moving… “did someone have to censor this ad?” or “was it a mistake?” Making people think about something or feel like they are breaking a rule will always engage them. At the Enterprise 2.0 Conference last week in Boston, I was talking with a new friend about how she got some stickers from one of the vendors but was told “not to tell anyone or give any away”. Even though she…
Giving a Voice to the Neglected

Jason

16 Jun 2009 | 8:45 am

The power of word of mouth travels fast when the story is compelling. This is a very pure concept. Whether it is a mom complaining about a brand she once had trust in or a citizen protesting his country’s election results, the tools of the social web have leveled the playing field. And it is a beautiful thing to behold. It is no longer an elite few that chooses what media we consume. We all see that daily. The value of a compelling story can project it around the globe in seconds. These same tools that allow many us an amazing marketing channel can be even more powerful as the amplified…
Make Them Dance

Jason

15 Jun 2009 | 7:59 pm

Whether they know why or not, if you make them dance, you are half way there. The video below is of one solitary guy dancing at an outdoor concert, obviously being filmed because his dancing was far from ordinary. By the end of the 3 minute video the awkward dancer has caused a full on riot of viral dancing. It is truly amazing to watch, and as others have said, a great metaphor of social media and viral marketing. The lesson? Be remarkable and passionate about what you do. If it is genuine, others will watch, some will join in, and the movement will grow.
Copywriting, Social Media Skills

Jason

2 Jun 2009 | 6:35 am

Jim Mitchem is a copywriter and advertising professional in Charlotte, NC at smashcommunications. Smash is a real advertising agency operating in a virtual work environment. Copywriting and Social Media Copywriting is one of those careers that most people don’t understand. That’s ok, most copywriters don’t understand it either. One day we may be tasked with developing a tagline for a national appeal to millions, and the next we’re writing a mission statement for a local mom-and-pop. In the past, traditional advertising has provided a range of passive media for…
New ‘Quirky’ is Crowdsourcing on Crack

Jason

1 Jun 2009 | 8:33 pm

Kluster is a cool crowdsourcing community that launched at TED 2 years ago and fosters community collaboration on a unique level. Members submitted problems, suggested solutions, and voted to guide the creation of all kinds of products. It was wide open, with little direction, creating everything from copywriting to website design to industrial design and more. Since then kluster has tried to focus on more niche collaboration communities and today their newest effort, quirky, went live. Quirky is focused on industrial and product design, and takes design collaboration to a new level. Creating…

Liz Strauss at Successful Blog
Hearing the Conversation

kathryn

2 Jul 2009 | 5:57 am

Blogs tell stories. There are different elements within a blog that make people care about your blog. Joel Kelly would suggest these are “the story, the content and the offer”. All of this makes sense but, what happens when the story you’re trying to tell isn’t the one people hear? What happens when the conversation that occurs as a result of your story isn’t the one you were hoping would happen? People are commenting but totally missing the point of your story? You were writing about X and the conversation that happened was all about Y. It’s always…
Saying No With Authenticity … When No Becomes Yes Unexpectedly

ME Liz Strauss

1 Jul 2009 | 5:48 am

Don’t Agree to What You Can’t Do On Monday while waiting at DFW, I got a back channel message from @LisaDJenkins saying that a friend and potential client had asked for social media help in an area that “wasn’t her thing.” The message said, “Could I recommend you?” I checked it over, saw a nice fit, and said yes. A relationship started … I haven’t met the client yet, but I’ve gotten to know Lisa pretty well. I wanted to know more about her and what she was doing. Her follow up email and the recommendation she sent her friend were…
The Mic Is On: We’re talking with Lisa Jenkins about the 1st Days of Her Business!

ME Liz Strauss

30 Jun 2009 | 4:59 pm

It’s Like Open Mic Only Different Here’s how it works. It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME. The rules are simple — be nice. There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it. Guest Host: Lisa D. Jenkins Starting Out Can Be Scary The first steps in starting an Internet-based business might be…
Online Culture: Is Your Definition of Real Life Out of Date?

ME Liz Strauss

30 Jun 2009 | 6:29 am

In Real Life I keep encountering the phrase “in real life.” People use it often to talk about the offline culture. Most of probably first heard that phrase as small children. Our families use it to help us differentiate between fantasy and reality, fact or fiction. It’s education curriculum — a skill essential to literacy and critical thinking — teachers help children sort real versus make believe in schools all over the world. Out of school and grown, we rely on that skill to navigate information and relationships — to identify competence, credibility,…
Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: It’s Lisa’s 1st Days of Business Without a Boss!

ME Liz Strauss

30 Jun 2009 | 5:17 am

JOIN US TONIGHT AT 7PM Guest Host: Lisa D. Jenkins Starting Out Can Be Scary The first steps in starting an Internet-based business might be thrilling. They’re also the scariest. We’ll be talking tonight with an entrepreneur who’s making the transition to becoming her own boss now. Oh, and bring example links and bring some perspective! The rules are simple — be nice. Do be nice. –ME “Liz” Strauss Related article What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

chrisbrogan.com
Glynne Soaps- Beer-Flavored Soap and Online Presence

chrisbrogan

2 Jul 2009 | 3:41 am

That soap in the picture came from Glynne Soaps, who evidently knew that I stunk. This one was a soap made partially from the biproduct of beer, and yet, it was very clean and wonderful. They also gave me a bar of Bug Off soap, which supposedly keeps the bugs away. (I didn’t really test it well, but it smelled nice, and I wasn’t bothered too badly by bugs, given all things.) But you know this site, and I’m not going to review soaps. What I am going to point out is their web presence. Glynne Soaps has built a @glynnesoaps Twitter account with many thousands of followers. They…
I Believe Mark Cuban is Right

chrisbrogan

1 Jul 2009 | 5:44 pm

The whole “Free” debate is alive and well, thanks to Chris Anderson. Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell have weighed in, and right behind them, Mark Cuban put out this piece. I want to skip down to the part where my head started nodding like a bobble-head: Newspapers are also catching flack for saying they dont want their content openly distributed. On this point, they are correct again. They should have complete control over where it is distributed. They should have the ability to choose where it is offered for free. Not only should they have this control, taking back this control…
The Value of Wonder

chrisbrogan

1 Jul 2009 | 3:30 am

Sometimes, just sometimes, we should step back from what we’re doing (marketing, writing, selling, customer service, whatever!) and think about wonder. And by wonder, let’s think about those moments when we see or experience something that makes us breathe in deeply, and then causes us to pause and just be there. In life, there are moments like this when we think about our child’s first steps, or that surprise party your wife threw you that truly and utterly surprised you. Maybe it comes when you travel. Now, look at what you do in a given day. Not much of it is inherently…
Strategic Blogging and Some Tactics to Nail It

chrisbrogan

30 Jun 2009 | 3:30 am

Once you get past the “should my company be blogging” hurdle and into the “okay, so now what?” part of the race, the next question you might find yourself facing is, “What should I be doing to marry my blogging to my business goals?” If you’re in charge of making blogs deliver a business value to your organization, here’s some thoughts to consider. (Note: this is a business-minded post. You can use blogs however you like.) A Strategy is the Path You Choose to Take Before we dive in, just realize this: strategy is a word that’s rarely used…
19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day

chrisbrogan

29 Jun 2009 | 12:20 am

If you’re looking to establish your online presence, and build relationships, it’s not the kind of project where you show up, build your profiles, friend a few people, and call it good. It’s a lot like tending the farm. Here are seven particular “chores” you could do every day that should prove beneficial to your online interests. Twitter Find seven things worth retweeting in your general feed and share. Reply to at least five things with full responses (not just “thanks”). Point out a few people that you admire. It shows your mindset, too. Follow…

Logic+Emotion
50 Successful Open Source Projects That Are Changing Medicine [del.icio.us]

darmano
When Ambient Intimacy Hits Home

David Armano

29 Jun 2009 | 9:47 am

If someone had told me that Megan Porter had been killed in a terrible car accident, I'm not sure that things would have connected for me. But as I got the news that it was @megapixel (her Twitter name), I knew immediately. Even brief exchanges like the one above about weather or a common favorite cocktail, (we both like dirty martinis) is memorable via Twitter's system of real time dynamic signals. Ambient Intimacy is a fascinating sociological phenomenon and in this case can be quite sad. I didn't know Megan, but felt like I knew something about @megapixel. Anyway, my thoughts go out to her…
Debunking The Myths of Social Media

David Armano

29 Jun 2009 | 9:22 am

Moving forward I will be contributing to the Harvard Business Review when time permits. My first contribution is up, you can view the entire article here. Below in an excerpt:"There are a few considerations every organization needs to consider when developing their blueprints for their own unique social media design. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, there are few things you can plan for as you review the many options before you. Here are three to consider:Seeding. As you plan your approach for designing your social system, take into account that you'll have to invest to grow your…
Is The Hub And Spoke Model Adaptable?

David Armano

26 Jun 2009 | 9:31 am

We've been doing a bit of thinking on how organizations can re-design themselves as social systems which produce emergent outcomes—that is, results which move business forward and tend to emerge in an organic fashion. Twitter's growth due to end user innovation, an open API, and other drivers are an example of this. When I first wrote about Twitter in Businessweek back in 2007—I called it an "ecosystem"—that's because it is. It's a living, breathing organization with thousands of nodes in place which facilitate real time dynamic signals. In my new role, I was recently able to take a…
#e2conf Tuesday - a set on Flickr [del.icio.us]

darmano

Photos from the Dachis Group Tweetup in Boston

trendsspotting blog
Android’s Hype Cycle: Will Netbooks Revive It ?

Apurba Sen

2 Jul 2009 | 10:27 pm

It’s almost the time to review Android . We had earlier reported that Google’s announcement on Android raised lots of doubts & ambiguity over the web. Moreover this much touted “iPhone 2.0″ competitor demonstrated relatively low effect on web. Last September T-Mobile launched the world’s first Android-powered mobile phone in partnership with Google & recently the software giant expected that around 18-20 phones from 8-9 manufacturers on the market worldwide will be based on the Android operating system. Riding on the hype Android’s US market share on…
Digital Consumers are Brand Minded Targets

Taly Weiss

29 Jun 2009 | 5:24 am

Millward Brown research was conducted onWPP’s BrandZ brand equity global database. Findings show that, on average, digital* consumers have a 15 percent stronger relationship with brands than non-digital consumers. Strongest brand relationship was found for the airline brands where digital consumers’ brand relationships were nearly twice as strong as those of their offline counterparts. Other key categories where digital consumers had stronger relationships than non-digital consumers included IT hardware and software (48 percent stronger), credit cards (33 percent stronger) and…
QR Codes and Real Time Marketing – Trends Review

Taly Weiss

20 Jun 2009 | 10:15 pm

Introduction: QR codes used as mobile tagging has started in Japan (2003) and since are implemented in several fields of mobile marketing world wide. As marketing applications their uniqueness stems from their Quick Response orientation which allows customers to access real time information. The QR code process: Mobile users, taking a picture of the code or reading it with their cameras, trigger an action leading to content download, a message or link. QR Codes – Trends Review: QR codes are offering endless marketing opportunities. Today – with the remarkable growth of mobile…
Behavioral Economics: Social Norms and Recession Adjustment

Taly Weiss

12 Jun 2009 | 2:43 am

I was happy to meet Dan Ariely yesterday, the known behavioral economist, author of the best seller book “Predictably Irrational” and to discuss with him some of the implications derived from his research studies. Out of many insightful studies I wish to present two subjects which I believe to hold many implications for today’s business environment. The first presents the power of social norms. The second evolves around immediate and delayed gratification, and to my perception can conceptualize much of the consumer behavior observed in times of economic recession. I. The Cost of Social…
Search Assistance Research: Refining Search Patterns

Taly Weiss

7 Jun 2009 | 3:50 pm

TrendsSpotting has recently discussed the trend in which over the years people have extended the number of words used per search query. We have also addressed the existing gap between user’s search needs and search results. A Penn State researchers analyzed and followed the search sessions of nearly 1 million Web searches to detect patterns of query reformulation and create models to predict them (and by that help create more advanced search engines). Key findings: The search terms in 22 percent of queries were reformulated or changed to more precisely convey the information for which…

Blog World Expo
The Speakers Lineup Taking Shape For 2009: A Quick Update

All this week I have been working with the staff here to get the lineup of speakers put together for the event and we are just now after pouring through the many submissions and proposals sending out the emails of those that have been accepted as part of our curriculum ...
Why it Pays for Brands to Monitor the Social Networks

Last week I publicly wondered whether or not brands should monitor the social networks, this week I was able to prove my point. I'm not smug about it though, just happy there are folks who get it. A few days ago I tried to upgrade my cable service and was displeased ...
David Lee at Wetoku Interviews Me

Yesterday BlogWorld Exhibitor and Wetoku VP of sales David Lee asked me a few questions using their new video service. It was pretty lag free and despite both of us having lousy web cams the quality looks pretty good to me. That is except for both of us having a ...
CEO’s Are Actually “Social Media Slackers?”

Looks like the biggest big-wigs of the biggest companies in the world might just have some explaining to do. The world is shifting every day to a much more "socially networked" world, and everyone from your grandparents to your grandchildren are jumping on board and taking part. That is, everyone ...
Can’t Make it to BlogWorld? 5 Ways You Can Still Be There in Spirit

The BlogWorld and New Media Expo is a wonderful celebration of networking and learning, a place where bloggers can talk about their favorite topic and know others will get it. Not all who are feeling the love can attend conferences, however. For many the airfare, lodgings fees, entry and other ...

Social Media Portal
Lance Armstrong to blog from Tour de France

1 Jul 2009 | 5:00 pm

Exclusive Tour de France content online from Lance ArmstrongLIVESTRONG create behind-the-scenes look at Tour de France with content from Lance ArmstrongWorld champion cyclist Lance Armstrong will be updating Tour de France fans throughout the 22 d...
Playfish instals 100m games on Facebook, Bebo and MySpace

30 Jun 2009 | 5:00 pm

Playfish delivers 100 million games in 18 monthsSocial gaming company Playfish Games sees over 100 million games installed in 1.5 yearsPlayfish, the London based social games company has today announced that over 100 million of its games have been...
Nimbuzz to offer VoIP calls out of 3G or wi-fi range

23 Jun 2009 | 5:00 pm

Mobile IM application Nimbuzz partners Voxbone in new VoIP agreementMobile instant messenger application Nimbuzz offers users VoIP calls out of 3G or Wi-Fi rangeNimbuzz, a mobile instant messenger application, has today announced a new partnership...
VideoEgg and Six Apart to offer additional ad revenue to bloggers

23 Jun 2009 | 5:00 pm

VideoEgg and Six Apart offer additional ad revenue to blog publishersPartnership between VideoEgg and Six Apart offers bloggers additional revenue through AdFramesRich media advertising network VideoEgg has announced a partnership with Six Apart t...
MyGamma translation tool opens door to minority mobile advertising market

18 Jun 2009 | 5:00 pm

MyGamma translation tool opens door to minority mobile advertising marketBuzzCity launch MyGamma community led translation tool to reach mobile advertising’s long tailWireless community provider BuzzCity has unveiled its new translation service ac...

One By One Media
Twitter About To Open A Can of Tweets

Jim Turner

1 Jul 2009 | 1:17 pm

I am wondering how this will play out but I just had an opportunity to read through a TechCrunch article by Robin Wauters where it was uncovered that Twitter, Inc. may begin reaching out to people that are using Tweet in their applications or in their businesses and asking that they refrain from the practice. This seems to me to be a day late and a billion dollars short. I can’t understand how they are just now thinking of trademarking in as little time as May of 2009 the word Tweet. What other words have they asked be trademarked? What law firm sold them on this idea? Surely…
How Does Listening Convert?

Jim Turner

26 Jun 2009 | 5:12 am

I have been talking about 2009 being the "Year of Listening". This may be a little ahead of its time as we are still getting sign on for the idea that social media as a doctrine is even worth the space or tab for the business plan or model. I think that social media gives an opportunity to do more listening and less shouting. I even do this in the real world. I tend to sit back and gather intelligence in a situation before I ever enter into the discussion or argument or whatever might be the mode of communication at the time. I get more accomplished by first hearing what…
Why Robert Scoble Is A Better Blogger Than Me

Jim Turner

25 Jun 2009 | 9:14 am

I have been traveling quite a bit lately and that has caused me to get seriously behind on a large amount of work that I need to accomplish. I have finally caught up with my email inbox which usually hovers around 60 unread messages at any given time, which usually equates to the amount of Twitter bios I need to read to approve or discard. I began digging into the RSS feed readers (yes plural) that I have disregarded that have been so overwhelmed that many of the search feeds I have for the likes of “business blogging” and “social media consulting” are defaulting…
Living in a Facebook World?

Jim Turner

24 Jun 2009 | 1:22 pm

For a long time I have been touting that we all live in a Google world. We cannot seem to leave our house without first checking directions on Google, or order Chinese food without getting the local menu and number from Google, etc. Many companies have come to us and asked, "How do we get on page one of Google’s search results?" That has been the mainstay of my presentations about why companies need to get into blogging and other forms of social media. I have yet to figure into the mix, Facebook. Reading the article today that Wired put out about the "Great Wall…
Nuts About Social Media

Jim Turner

12 Jun 2009 | 11:29 am

I have been trying to figure a way to work into the mix some of the businesses I visited and met while I was out in the islands and one of the things I thought of for the people at Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory was to allow them to talk about the processing of their delicious snack and how it is packaged and sent out to the various parts of the world. I thought about how they could get a blog to their site to describe each of the seasons of growing, and harvesting, and also more importantly making their already open to the public tour a part of their everyday broadcast to the social media…

Scribkin
My Real Fake iPhone 3Gs

Phil Glockner

17 Jun 2009 | 9:14 pm

Of course, once I got home I immediately upgraded my iPhone 3G to the latest 3.0 firmware. After the interminable download, sync and install process, I got my first glimpse at the new front page. Almost immediately, I noticed that I not only had a battery icon, but also the percentage of battery power remaining! My first thought was that it was a new feature of the OS. I was pleased, but not completely surprised, because I had a bit of a secret. You see, once upon a time I used a jailbreak on my phone. It was a heady time for me, running two apps simultaneously, recording video with Qik, and…
Default Font

Phil Glockner

13 Jun 2009 | 12:45 pm

We have had our web experience controlled by the sites we visit for so long that for a lot of us, the web browser defaults no longer even come in to play when controlling what the text on a web page looks like, except in the case where we want to override whatever choice the site we are visiting has made. This isn’t a rant. I actually think, by and large, that this is a good thing. CSS (or Cascading Style Sheets) allows precise control over the overall look of web sites, and when you are trying to walk that line between clean and detailed, CSS can be the razor that keeps your site from…
New Theme, New Thoughts, Less Fluff

Phil Glockner

13 Jun 2009 | 7:52 am

I haven’t been doing much writing recently. Anywhere. After an extremely fun couple of months writing for ReadWriteWeb (thanks again for making that possible, Richard! Your team is absolutely the best folks to work with!) I found a full-time job working for CyberSource, working on the operations/support piece for a new product they (we) are developing for electronic payment processing. Sounds boring, doesn’t it? In fact, I am learning and applying new technologies at a prodigious rate. I’m using Linux admin and deployment skills that, frankly, have gotten a bit rusty in the…
Three Weeks In and Still Kicking

Phil Glockner

24 Mar 2009 | 6:09 pm

I’ve been criminally lacking on updating this blog since taking a writing position at ReadWriteWeb. I admit it. But I do have an idea about the direction I want to take this blog, and hopefully, if I keep plugging at it, people will find it to be useful. However, I’m mostly writing this today for two reasons: To figure out if writing a post will ‘reboot’ my broken FeedBurner feed into working, and To gloat a little about just how much I’ve been blogging over at RWW recently. Of The First Part So, starting with the Google FeedBurner issue. I have no idea…
What Has Two Thumbs and Writes for ReadWriteWeb? This guy.

Phil Glockner

2 Mar 2009 | 7:00 am

Last week, literally out of the blue, I got an email from Richard MacManus, founder of ReadWriteWeb. He said that the blog had an opening for a news blogger, and would I be interested? Say no more, I replied. I am just a bit more than slightly interested. In fact, I was thrilled. So, after setting some timetables and learning the ropes, I can finally announce that I am RWW’s newest daily news blogger! I will be providing the tech and new media communities updates every weekday afternoon. In fact, I’ve already begun, you can already check out my very first RWW post here. We slipped…

Building Communities Through Social Media
So Much More Hawaii, What’s Next?

NEENZ

19 Jun 2009 | 6:14 am

It’s been two weeks since the official So Much More Hawaii tour ended, and everyone — bloggers, public relations representatives, marketers, writers, taxpayers, opinion formers —... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
So Much More Hawaii Tweet Ups!

NEENZ

27 May 2009 | 5:14 am

The So Much More Hawaii Team will be visiting Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island in 8 days! Many have been asking me about a “schedule of events” and with Puka Shell Tour Guides for... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
So Much More Hawaii Puka Shell Tour Guides

NEENZ

27 May 2009 | 4:41 am

In late April, just before leaving for Chicago, Alltop received an inquiry from Christine Lu of Cilantro Media to develop a partnership for the So Much More Hawaii tour. As I discussed my strategy in... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Creating Your Own Opportunities

NEENZ

27 May 2009 | 2:19 am

In June of 2007 I read a news article in the Honolulu Advertiser about Ryan Ozawa livestreaming via his Palm Treo 700p. I became intrigued and began researching on the internet to learn more about... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
So Much More Hawaii Tour

NEENZ

25 May 2009 | 4:46 pm

The So Much More Hawaii website officially launched early this morning signifying the much anticipated, first ever social media tour sponsored by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. There has already been... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Scobleizer
Really Secret Scoble

Robert Scoble

2 Jul 2009 | 2:50 am

After we had our Building43 launch party I wanted to explore more why small groups of people are so much better for actually learning something. By the way, Michael Sean Wright put together a neat little video of our launch party. He’s the one who produces Peter Himmelman’s awesome show on Tuesday nights. Anyway, we’ve found that if you are throwing a party, somewhere around 200 people is the right number (or fewer). I’ve been to quite a few TechCrunch parties with 800 or so, and they just aren’t as satisfying. This holds true for weddings, too. I’ve been…
How @loumongello turned vacation at Disney World into riches

Robert Scoble

2 Jul 2009 | 1:33 am

I love hearing stories about how people turned their passions into a career. Lou Mongello used to be a lawyer, but he kept going back to a childhood memory: his family kept taking the family to Walt Disney World in Orlando. He turned taking his own family there into a hobby and later quit his job as a lawyer and now has a media company that publishes books, CDs, magazines, and does a weekly radio show, er, podcast, about Walt Disney World. Very popular stuff and he is hitting a monetizable audience: traveling families who will spend lots of money. Some things I learned in my interview with…
Calling my mob: #realtimecrunchup is next week @techcrunch

Robert Scoble

2 Jul 2009 | 12:44 am

Steve Gillmor has been hard at work putting together an interesting day for those of us who are interested in the real time web. The speakers lineup includes founders and executives from Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, FriendFeed, TweetDeck, Meebo, WordPress, Seesmic, Virgin America, Tweetmeme, Qik, and more. But that’s not what will make this interesting. In between all the interesting panels about APIs and search and Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Mike Arrington and I will pit our mobs against each other. Or, more realistically, have a discussion about what he sees as a…
Bing Tweets! *

Robert Scoble

1 Jul 2009 | 4:07 pm

TechCrunch and others are saying that Microsoft’s Bing search engine is adding Tweets soon. Microsoft has finally figured out the strategy to compete with Google. Cut Google where they are weak. Keep cutting. Bing! This strategy is winning. Google is losing market share and hasn’t yet figured out how to respond. Hint to Google: your UI is stale. Your search results are, while getting faster (FriendFeed and Twitter posts are now getting into Google within a few minutes) still not real time and you haven’t shown any real time leadership. But where’s Yahoo? Carol? Hello?
What was Scoble doing on an aircraft carrier? @flynavy knows

Robert Scoble

1 Jul 2009 | 2:57 pm

It’s been just about a month now since I stepped off of the USS Nimitz. Well, was flown off, more accurately. I took a month off to let is sink in just what I was there for. It is SO easy to hype up such a trip right after you get back. And I did over on Twitter and FriendFeed. But I wanted to do a blog post about what I remember of the trip. Not a long one. Enough words have been written by others to occupy your reading time for hours. More on that later. But just a short one. Here it is: young people rock. I remember standing by myself watching pilot after pilot flying aircraft onto a…

PR, Social Media, and Marketing Mentor ?
Join us at NewComm Forum and Inbound Marketing Summit in San Francisco!

The 5th Annual New Communications Forum April 27th - 29th, 2009 The Marriott Hotel, San Francisco, California I just wanted you to know that there are still a few seats available for next week's NewComm Forum 2009. Don't miss this special opportunity to participate in a highly-interactive, exclusive gathering of the most notable ...
Flutter

OK, I haven't posted here for a while, due to being SO busy, I've barely had time to eat, sleep or recuperate from one of those annoying seasonal colds that seems to drag on while you're doing everything else. So, even though social media is central to my work (the ...
Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 — Where is the Web Going, and What is the Semantic Web?

Sometimes, the best way to learn about something is without using words. Here's a creative example of a video explaining the difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0, by the clever Not in Words producers: Now, back to words and some basic drawings, as we move on to Web 3.0 and beyond. ...
Tell Us Your Social Media or Social Networking Story…Looking for Innovative Uses and Results

Happy New Year to all our new and loyal readers! I really appreciate that you stopped by for an eggnog and a chat in the first week of 2009. I've decided that one goal I have for this blog is to ask you more often what topics or questions YOU ...
Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) Call for 2009 Fellows—Applications Accepted Until December 29, 2008

December 1, 2008 – Palo Alto, California – The Society for New Communications Research, a global nonprofit think tank dedicated to advanced research and education on the latest developments in new media and communications and their effect on business, culture, and society, is pleased to announce a Call for 2009 ...

Social Media Explorer
Newspapers: Stop Hiding Behind The First Amendment

Jason Falls

30 Jun 2009 | 3:00 am

Jason Falls I’m proud to say the first legal action that may (I have my fingers firmly crossed) smack newspapers right across the face for allowing their website commentors to post anonymously could stem from a case developing here in my home state of Kentucky. Kymberly Clem, a student at Eastern Kentucky University, is suing the Richmond Register and an online commentor known as 12bme for defamation. Clem was kicked out of a mall in August of last year for allegedly wearing a dress that was too revealing. She bought it at the same mall the day before. The commenter claimed on the…
The Economy of Free Is Stupid

Jason Falls

29 Jun 2009 | 3:00 am

Jason Falls There’s a lot I love about the Web 2.0 culture. Open source platforms and the abundance of free tools and technologies available to us all are chief among them. But there is also a fair amount of insanity in those approaches that I fear is creeping up on us. The inspiration for this post was a conversation I had with a friend the other day who said, “I love my DVR. I haven’t watched a commercial in months.” When I asked him how long he expects to still be watching his favorite shows, he looked puzzled. “The avoidance of those commercials means those…
Can Social Media Help Your Business?

David Finch

26 Jun 2009 | 3:53 am

David Finch Social media is more than just a buzzword. There are opportunities and measureable results that it offers that can be extremely beneficial to companies of all sizes. While Facebook and Twitter may be included it’s more than that. Many times people get so caught up in the tools that little time is spent talking and strategizing and about what social media can actually do. Tools are great if you know how to use them, but at some point the tools need to have purpose. It’s where there is no purpose that abuse becomes the end results. I often hear small to mid-size…
Protect Yourself With LifestreamBackup.com

Jason Falls

25 Jun 2009 | 3:00 am

Jason Falls By now you know I review tools, programs and services related to social media. The ones I really like, I mention often and even devote entire blog posts to. Now I’ve run across one that I believe so passionately about, I wanted to be a part of it. As such, I must disclose that the tool I’m about to tell you about is one I have a financial stake in. Frankly, I hope that conveys the sense of urgency and importance I’ve placed on it. LifestreamBackup.com went live recently and offers a subscription-based service to automatically archive your content from blogs,…
Is Corporate Social Media Poisoning the Well?

Kat French

24 Jun 2009 | 3:00 am

Kat French Geoff Livingston’s controversial “Social Media Is Dead” post has had me thinking a lot lately about the future of social media and my personal place there. Unlike a lot of social media professionals, I’m not taking offense at the thrust of Geoff’s post, which as I understand it was not about whether or not social media is going to continue to be a communications channel. It was about whether or not it was still in the “lifecycle of adoption” phase that’s his vocational sweet spot. I really think the infographic sort of said it all:…

The Social
Report: Guilty verdict overturned in MySpace suicide case

Caroline McCarthy

2 Jul 2009 | 2:26 pm

Lori Drew, the woman convicted of using a hoax MySpace profile to harass a teenage girl to the point of suicide, was acquitted by a Los Angeles judge on Thursday, Wired reported. Judge George Wu overturned Drew's guilty verdict, which was issued in November, saying that if Drew had ...
Ad industry groups agree to privacy guidelines

Caroline McCarthy

2 Jul 2009 | 9:27 am

A coalition of advertising industry trade groups have agreed on new guidelines for privacy related to behavioral targeting on the Web. Officially released on Thursday and expected to go into effect early next year, the set of principles concern what advertisers can do with personal data collected in order to ... Originally posted at News - Digital Media
Court: MySpace not liable for offline assaults

Caroline McCarthy

2 Jul 2009 | 5:26 am

Social-networking sites and other Web services can't be held liable in a sexual assault on a minor that stemmed from a meeting online, according to a ruling in a California appeals court that consolidated a number of complaints against MySpace on behalf of teenage girls and their parents. Reuters ...
Facebook cleans up its privacy controls

Caroline McCarthy

1 Jul 2009 | 10:34 am

Revamped privacy settings are coming soon to Facebook. The social network's privacy controls had gotten so sprawling that they were distributed across six separate pages and 40 different settings, according to a conference call the company held on Wednesday. "These can add up and pile up and not be ...
Is Twitter freaking out over 'tweet' trademark?

Caroline McCarthy

1 Jul 2009 | 6:23 am

Is Twitter getting possessive of its own name? Maybe. A developer building an application using Twitter's API was told via e-mail that Twitter took issue with the user interface of his application, allegedly very similar to Twitter's own, as well as his use of the word "tweet" in ...

NowSourcing
Should I Advertise on Bing?

Don

2 Jul 2009 | 8:12 am

credit: BusinessInsider.cm Bing can be portrayed as a search marketer’s best friend or biggest annoyance. Agencies, who typically charge based on percentage of media spend, hated Live/MSN search because it had relatively no search volume, which meant no media to spend, which meant no fees to charge. It also has the hardest user interface to properly setup ad groups, took the most time to manage, and probably has the most quirks like {param} settings and a bunch of other baloney that 95% of the people don’t know how to use. But then this rebranded search engine came out called…
NowSourcing to Appear on Bido.com

Brian Wallace

1 Jul 2009 | 10:58 pm

I’ll be the guest speaker at Bido.com tomorrow, July 2nd at 1pm EST. We’ll be talking about social media and domaining, an interesting crossover that you certainly don’t hear about every day. Please join us and you’ll be able to chat with me one-on-one for the hour. If you don’t already have an account: Log on to bido.com Click “Register” on top right of screen Once logged in, go to the page for the day’s auction. Click the blue “chat” tab located under the purple bar the reads “Next Auction: …”. Then click…
The ABCs of PPC: How Much Should My Clicks Cost?

Don

24 Jun 2009 | 6:00 am

Image by labnol via Flickr It’s not uncommon for me to meet people who are interested in getting started with paid search, but have no idea how to get started. That’s usually why they come to me in the first place. More often than not, there is one question that trumps all others right out of the gate: How much can I afford to pay? It’s one of the toughest questions in search marketing, and it usually comes from a conversation that goes something like this: I can spend $500 each month on advertising on Google and other search engines. But, what do I set my bids at?
Double the RSS Subscribers? Thank You, FriendFeed!

A. Ross

18 Jun 2009 | 6:01 am

The popular real-time feed aggregator, FriendFeed, can bring a bit of traffic to a blog. As of today, FriendFeed’s Kevin Fox has announced it is adding its subscriber count to the number of RSS subscribers. Site admins should start seeing a spike, possibly very significant, in the amount of RSS subscribers to their feed. It will show up in the statistics as “friendfeedagg”. NowSourcing is one of those prime examples, as you’ll see in the image below: NowSourcing subscribers, sorted by RSS reader used. Although this amounts to a substantial ‘bonus’ of…
Import Analytics Goals into Adwords

Don

17 Jun 2009 | 3:36 pm

Image via CrunchBase Big news just came out from the Google Adwords blog. Now you can import your established goals in Google Analytics over to your Adwords account. This means that you won’t need to separate Adwords conversion code anymore. The blog post specifies this is ideal for using the Google conversion optimizer, which gives Google control of your keyword bids in order to make sure your conversions come in at a specified CPA. (Before this can be activated a campaign needs to have 30 conversions within a 30 day time span). I’m not a big fan of this approach, but if…

FactoryCity
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 at the height of cynicism

Chris Messina

17 Jun 2009 | 11:15 am

I shat on Opera yesterday, and I did the same thing to Mozilla a couple years ago, and while I’m not about to go headlong into another tirade on Microsoft, I do have to point out why this contest out of Microsoft Australia is, actually, as stupid as it sounds (contrary to what they’d have you believe). First, my memory isn’t so short as to have forgotten that it was Microsoft and their browser (Internet Explorer 6) that held back the web for so many years. Second, promoting a contest that is based on the very same problem that lead to IE6 stifling innovation on the web is…
Thoughts on Opera Unite

Chris Messina

16 Jun 2009 | 4:52 pm

I met today’s news about Opera’s new initiative — called Unite — with a mix of shock and awe. On the one hand, I was sickened by the lack of analysis from the echolalic blogger news corps. It appeared that Opera PR had successfully reached out to all of them, shoved a news release down their throats and waited to give them the go-ahead to regurgitate it on their blogs, using the same screenshots, same content, and differing only in the pithiness of their post titles. Of course, I could have gotten the same depth of analysis from half a dozen tweets. Maybe they long ago wrote…
Facebook usernames and the battle over your digital identity

Chris Messina

9 Jun 2009 | 5:32 pm

Techmeme is buzzing with the news that Facebook is finally going to provide custom usernames — and hence web addresses — for its 200 million users. The land grab begins in just over three days at facebook.com/username/. If Dustin Moskovitz were dead, he’d be rolling over in his grave. For those of you who don’t know who Dustin Moskovitz is, he’s one of those infrequently mentioned co-founders of Facebook that prevented Facebook from offering usernames or friendly web addresses (so-called “vanity URLs” in the industry) from the beginning. It was his insistence…
In defense of microformats

Chris Messina

7 Jun 2009 | 8:51 pm

I’d never received an Open Letter until Alan Morrison posted one earlier today in response to an interview I gave to Straight.com about microformats and the (lowercase) semantic web. For the sake of completeness, here’s what he wrote: Chris, judging from your interview in Straight.com, you seem like a thoughtful guy. But you don’t seem to understand that the Microformat and Semantic Web folks aren’t that far apart. You cite the prevalence of non-standard HTML to support your contention that we’ll never use ontologies. But in the same article, you say the…
The Fall of Vidoop

Chris Messina

5 Jun 2009 | 4:31 pm

When I left Flock in 2006, I blogged the occasion, having helped start the company by contributing a vision for what I thought the web needed: a social browser. When I was laid off from Vidoop last month, I didn’t so much as tweet about it. The circumstances were different this time. But because the lack of information coming from the company is disappointing (if not frankly irresponsible) it seemed time that I wrote down my recollection of what went down. Joining Vidoop I joined Vidoop just over a year ago, in May of 2008. To be honest, my initial impressions of the company…

ManagingCommunities.com
Community Members Are Sort of Like Customers… Except for the Always Right Thing

Patrick

1 Jul 2009 | 5:05 pm

I just sent a very frank, but polite message to a member who contacted me, mentioning a piece of spam that was posted on the forums, but using it to say that even with spammers like this, I have time free to bother good members who are trying to help (not his exact words, but [...]
Should I Republish the Old Episodes of The Community Admin Show?

Patrick

26 Jun 2009 | 8:03 am

From November 18, 2005 through January 20, 2007, I hosted The Community Admin Show, a podcast about random community management related issues. I tackled all sorts of issues, talked about resources and even had some fun features, like what we can learn from Jack Bauer and Dr. Gregory House about community management. Another great part of [...]
Dealing with Suicide On Your Online Community or Forums: How You Can Help and Protect Everyone

Patrick

22 Jun 2009 | 1:29 pm

As a community manager or administrator, the situations we have to deal with are as varied as life itself. For all talk about the online and offline worlds being different, at the end of the day, they have more in common than they do dissimilar. Unfortunately, this is not just the fun, easy parts of [...]
Ask Hunch: Should I Become a Forum Moderator?

Patrick

17 Jun 2009 | 3:10 pm

So, I was taking a look at Hunch, a site created by Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, that claims to be a “decision-making tool that gets smarter the more you use it.” Out of curiosity, I punched in the word “forums” to see what would come up. The first result was “Should I become a forum [...]
Blog World Expo 2009 20% Off Discount Code: IFROGGYVIP

Patrick

15 Jun 2009 | 11:42 am

A few days ago, I mentioned that I would be attending Blog World Expo 2009 in Las Vegas from October 15-17. I’m happy to say that I’ve got a coupon code to share that will save you 20% off of the current rate. When purchasing through their site, use the coupon code IFROGGYVIP. Their rates [...]

Bokardo
Speaking at Refresh Boston tonight about designing in a recession

Josh

25 Jun 2009 | 4:43 am

Having recently returned from An Event Apart Boston, I have lots of new design ideas to think about and explore. But one idea kept rearing its ugly head in conversation after conversation I had there: the economy. The economy has reached those of us working on the Web. I think we were insulated for a while, since building software is so important for business these days, even when your business isn’t doing that well. Many people even see building a great interface to their product as a way out of the downturn…if they can provide a fantastic user experience then they can increase…
Designing with Psychology in Mind (AEA slide deck)

Josh

24 Jun 2009 | 4:27 am

I’ve just returned from speaking at An Event Apart Boston at which I gave a talk called Designing with Psychology in Mind. The event was top notch (as you may have heard) and I’m extremely honored to be among the distinguished speakers. Thankfully, the conference coverage was excellent. Jeremy Keith wrote up a great set of notes (including notes for my talk). Two attendees created tweet tracker called A Feed Apart and another person created a great visualization called A Seat Apart. Yes, it was that kind of conference. So here are my slides. I’ll probably give a similar talk…
Designing for Sign Up (video & slides)

Josh

11 Jun 2009 | 3:54 am

I realized the other day I hadn’t posted about my Designing for Sign Up talk from my trip to Webstock back in February (amazing conference, btw). Well, the Webstockers have gotten the video up, and here it is…enjoy! (You can also grab the slide deck over at slideshare) Joshua Porter at Webstock 09 from Webstock on Vimeo. In case the video streaming is choppy, you can download the video from the Webstock web site in several formats.
Usage Lifecycle: What are your user’s exit points?

Josh

10 Jun 2009 | 6:32 am

Exit points are the critical points at which you lose valued users. Are you keeping track of yours? Andrew Chen, who writes the excellent blog Futuristic Play, has a nice post explaining exit points, those point in which people decide to leave your product/service/app: 25 Reasons People Stop Using your Product Exit points really resonate with me because they are clearly part of the Usage Lifecycle, the lifecycle that users go through as they use your product or service. What makes the lifecycle useful is that it focuses us (the designers) on the major hurdles of use such as sign up, getting…
Writing Microcopy

Josh

9 Jun 2009 | 6:11 am

The fastest way to improve your interface is to improve your copy-writing. I remember the first time I realized how much even the smallest copy can matter in an interface. It was on an e-commerce project at UIE for which I had created a checkout form asking for billing information. I had coded up a system to notify me when an error occurred (even if people can overcome the error it was very helpful to know when one occurred). I kept getting notifications of billing address errors…it turns out that transactions were failing because the address people were entering didn’t match the…

SOMEWHAT FRANK
Wolfram Alpha Co-Founder Interview

Frank Gruber

29 Jun 2009 | 2:46 pm

Last week I traveled to the Midwest to Champaign, Illinois to speak to a group of entrepreneurs about building brands and social media as covered by the Champaign News Gazette and to host another TECH cocktail. The event was sponsored by Wolfram Research which is based in Champaign and has been creating products like Mathematica for over 20 years. Wolfram Research recently received quite a bit of buzz on TechCrunch, GigaOm Network, ReadWriteWeb and Mashable among others for the launch of the consumer facing product called Wolfram Alpha. Wolfram Alpha is a the computational research engine…
140 Conference In More Than 140 Characters

Frank Gruber

28 Jun 2009 | 6:10 pm

Two weeks ago I was able to take part in the 140 Conference hosted by Jeff Pulver in New York City. I was pleased to be among the characters at the event which brought together Twitter users from a number of different walks of life and geographic locations. While there were a number of highlights at the event I think my biggest takeaways were as follows: Twitter is about love as people share their thoughts and assemble an army of supporters online and off Twitter is the ultimate social recommendation feed reader and start page for many Twitter's text messaging capabilities make it a powerful…
iPhone 3GS: First Impression

Frank Gruber

23 Jun 2009 | 3:35 pm

After making my second stop to the Apple Store in two days, I finally got my hands on an iPhone 3GS. My first attempt was unsuccessful because the AT&T network was down. So when I returned the next day, I decided to go with the white 32GB version since they were out of the black. I figured I could use the extra 16GB over my last iPhone 3G since I would most likely be taking advantage of the iPhone 3GS's video capabilities. In order to purchase the iPhone 3GS I had to get yet another AT&T contract. This annoys me. The FCC needs to step in to stop the monopoly that Apple and AT&T…
Filtrbox Launches Hot Twitter Influence Tool

Frank Gruber

12 Jun 2009 | 2:28 pm

How important is influence on the Web? My friend Micah Baldwin recently called Influence the New Hotness. I agree, Influence is hot and it is nothing new though the currency has changed. Just a few years back the most important currency was incoming links to your website, now it is real-time re-tweets via Twitter or "likes" on Facebook's news feed. The social tools today are enabling people to influence the Web via real-time communications. With Twitter being a hot tool that is empowering people to influence others, I was curious to see just how influential I am on Twitter. Thanks to Filtrbox…
iPhone Push Notifications Tested Via AOL's AIM

Frank Gruber

11 Jun 2009 | 11:25 am

Apple will soon be launching of the iPhone 3.0 operating system and part of the new system is a push alert notification feature as highlighted at WWDC 2009 this week. Push Notification is the system developed by Apple to remedy the fact that the iPhone won’t allow third party applications to run in the background due to security, battery life and performance concerns. Push notifications are will enable certain tasks (like IMs) that come to your phone even when that application isn’t running.TechCrunch recently tested Push Notifications using AIM the new 3.0 iPhone software. Watch the…

Collective Thoughts
Is Being Social Online Enough?

Mark Laymon

29 Jun 2009 | 5:45 pm

Although I have had these thoughts about this many times before, I never placed pen to paper to convey my thoughts. I began this version of this post while sitting outside of Laidoffcamp/Freelancecamp in Miami. I was watching the afternoon monsoons about to come down on me. I was sitting alone in a garden of hedges and walkways watching the passersby. Everyone seemed to be busy buzzing by. The cool breeze just washed in from the approaching rain. I can feel the electricity in the air. The energy created by everyone that attends social gathering of large magnitude is incredible. The energy…
Blogchat Review - Categorizing and Tagging Blog Content

Brian Wallace

26 Jun 2009 | 8:28 am

What is a #blogchat? The idea of group learning has fascinated me since high school when I realized how much faster and better I could prepare for a test if I studied with friends. Maybe that’s why when I happened upon the first Plurkshop last spring, I was hooked. And then when I heard Mack Collier (of The Viral Garden and the new MackCollier.com) was leading a weekly workshop on blogging, I knew I had to check it out. Perhaps, like me, you’ve been to workshops where someone “leads” (ie has complete control of the conversation) and the only real communication that…
Gender Differences In Social Media Participation

Ryan

14 May 2009 | 8:34 am

“I think women put more emphasis, focus and time into their social media browsing than men. Men seem to be very ADHD with social media, jumping from news story to story, whereas I’ve noticed women take slow time and incorporate what they read more into their daily life and lifestyle planning.” Loren Baker, Search Engine Journal A great thing about social media marketing is that you literally get a first-rate, hands-on education in human anthropology. You learn what moves people. You learn what people want. You learn how to tug at heartstrings and drive emotions to their…
Social Bites - Like Sound Bites But Different

Tim Nash

20 Feb 2009 | 2:10 pm

We are all used to “Sound Bites” - a short few seconds of words which are normally taken out of context to create sensational headlines. Few people realise that speech writers have for years worked on developing speeches to include a couple perfect “sound bites” for use by others. Of course while some social media is audio based we are much more likely to rely on humble text to create a “social bite”. What Is A Social Bite? A social bite is a short piece of text to describe an article, post or idea which is easy to understand and easy to distribute through viral…
The 3 C’s of Twitter

Brian Wallace

16 Feb 2009 | 3:00 am

Many of you have heard of the 3 P’s of marketing: pills, porn, and poker. They are the bane of most people’s online existence, as we are constantly bombarded with seeing these kinds of “offers” being sent to our spam filter. Enter Twitter. As you know me by now, I like to look at the positive things in life. And after navigating through Twitter for some time, I’ve found that Twitter has the 3 C’s: 1 - Cats: Sometimes a good lolcat can put you in the right mood. We can work endlessly on a killer blog post and a funny cat pic and caption will beat the…

Community Guy - Jake McKee
JOB ALERT: VP, Social Media Sales

Jake McKee

1 Jul 2009 | 9:57 am

Andy with GasPedal just let me know that he’s posted a cool job opening on the Community Guy Job Board for a VP of Social Media Sales. We are looking for a proven membership recruiter/salesperson to pursue and persuade Fortune 1000-type companies to join our communities. You can learn more about GasPedal by visiting http://www.gaspedal.com, http://blogcouncil.org, and http://www.damniwish.com. This is a BtoB sale to companies in the social media business — but it’s also a relationship-building exercise, because our product is a long-term community membership. You need to be…
Hodgman: Obama is the first nerd President

Jake McKee

24 Jun 2009 | 8:36 am

If you do any public speaking, be sure to watch this video. John Hodgman is an amazing (and hilarious) storyteller and his presentation shows it.
Why is a lack of knowledge cool?

Jake McKee

22 Jun 2009 | 8:56 am

Last week I was reading this article about Secretary of State Clinton talking about Twitter’s role in the Iranian elections. Overall, it’s an impressive statement of the role of social tools on the world stage. But one part had me thinking all weekend: “We promote the right of free expression,” the chief US diplomat added. “And it is the case that one of the means of expression, the use of Twitter is a very important one, not only to the Iranian people but now increasingly to people around the world, and most particularly to young people,” she said.
Word of Mouth and Small Business

Jake McKee

18 Jun 2009 | 2:34 pm

Having successfully made it to Seattle, I’ve been caught up in the haze of work, two year old, and unpacking. What better time to point out a guest post I wrote a while back over at the GasPedal blog. Since it’s summer, it’s time to talk smoothies. — The medical community might tell you that blended fruit and ice don’t actually contain any addictive qualities, but I’m not convinced. I’m physically unable to pass a new smoothie shop without stopping to sample the wares. I can’t see “smoothie” on a menu without feeling a longing. Last week I downloaded the…
The McKee family is Seattle bound!

Jake McKee

27 May 2009 | 7:18 pm

If you follow me on twitter (@jakemckee) you know that I’m in the midst of pretty big life change. That’s right, after 6 years in Dallas, our family is moving to Seattle! When Sean and I created the new and improved Ant’s Eye View in January, we wondered if it made sense to have us geographically spread out so that we could more easily service regional clients. But almost immediately it became obvious that we needed to be in the same physical location. After all, the Wonder Twins can’t active their powers if they can’t fist bump their rings. Not to say that…

123 Social Media
Social Media Training: Trauma Room or Wellness Program?

Barry Hurd

2 Jul 2009 | 10:37 am

While attending a SMC Seattle event Tuesday night (which comes back into my article at the end), I was questioned by the “101″ statement that plagues social media professionals: “Isn’t it free? What makes social media so difficult to learn?” This question is one of those that can only be answered by a question. “If you were injured, would you operate on yourself?” Probably Not. You may have heard that statement from other industry professionals. Yet the questioning answer does not define the whole idea when compared to social media. In the real world,…
Social Media Profiles - avoiding brand death

Barry Hurd

1 Jul 2009 | 9:31 am

On the professional front, many individuals and companies are finding a lot of challenge with professional social media profiles. If you want a healthy brand online, first sit down and create a social media strategy that is in alignment with your short and long term goal. Having a coordinated plan to the way you interact with the vast online realm will increase your benefit across dozens of interaction points. Before going out and registering a name, think about it. The name you choose will be with you FOREVER. For individuals, your name is probably a pretty easy item to decide on. It usually…
Reputation Management with Your Name, the ultimate keyword

Barry Hurd

19 Jun 2009 | 10:55 am

As I prepare some of our upcoming whitepapers, I wanted to share some tidbits of tactical wisdom for my professional readers. Everyone online is saying “put yourself out there” to help build personal brand and have a healthy online presence, but few are giving real focus to what you need to be looking at. Read this short detail and then go to Google and check yourself out online. Once you have, do some preventative self-promotion through blogs, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook OR continue educating yourself by reading the related articles below. So why is my name the ultimate…
Search Engine Tools, useful resources

Barry Hurd

17 Jun 2009 | 2:22 pm

This is a list of some of our favorite FREE search engine tools. The ability to understand how keywords relate to traffic, along with the strategic business decisions to make sense of that information is critical to defining how you (your brand and company) appear to online audiences. Remember that tools only provide metrics, they do not create the strategy behind why you may want to rank high for a certain keyword or how you will convert a visitor who finds yours information. If you are looking for current topics on search engine optimization, check out the alltop search engine directory…
Visualizing Twitter for Business - defining beginning conversations

Barry Hurd

15 Jun 2009 | 11:15 am

Too many professionals jump on Twitter and then accordingly stop using the service based on one thing from my perspective: a lack of understanding. It is not that Twitter is the “ultimate tool” , “PR Killer” or anything like that. Twitter is pretty useful: if and only if you can wrap your brain around new ways of communicating with your audience. If you are planning to use Twitter for professional purposes, you need to have an established target when you join a conversation. If we draw a comparison: imagine for a second that you just entered a masquerade party where…

PR2.0
Tweet This: Twitter Trademarks Tweets ™

brian

2 Jul 2009 | 11:29 am

Credit One of the more interesting, albeit not necessarily press-stopping, stories making the rounds in the blogosphere and Twitterverse currently is sure to make you scratch your head or raise your eyebrow in bewilderment. Twitter officially applied to trademark “Tweet” on April 16, 2009 according to Robin Wauters at TechCrunch. The confusion erupted when developers received the following email (h/t to Andy Beal) In its post, “May the Tweets Be With You,” Twitter explains its position this way, “as the ecosystem grows there is also the possibility that confusing…
Unveiling the New Influencers

brian

29 Jun 2009 | 6:55 am

Traditional influence has followed a systematic top-down process of developing and pushing “controlled” messages to audiences for decades, rooted in one-to-many, faceless broadcast campaigns. Personality wasn’t absent in certain mediums, it was missing from day-to-day communications. For the most part, this pattern seemingly served its purposes, fueling the belief that brands were in control of their messages, from delivery to dissemination, among the demographics to which they were targeted. It scaled very well over the years, until it didn’t… Unbeknown to many companies, a…
Top Media Outlets

brian

26 Jun 2009 | 3:28 am

Source While social and citizen media expand in influence and reach, we can’t ignore or neglect the prominence, credibility, and authority of traditional media – no matter how dearly we’re enamored with shiny new objects. BurrellesLuce recently published its 2009 Top Media List for 2009, which includes newspapers, blogs, consumer magazines and social networks. I’ve included all but social networks below as the rankings are outdated and inaccurate. I’ll publish an updated list shortly. Top 100 U.S. Daily Newspapers Rank, Newspaper, Daily, Sunday: 1 – USA Today,…
A Pictorial History of Twitter’s Rise to Pop Culture

brian

23 Jun 2009 | 5:21 pm

Every now and then I discover something that is so captivating, that I have to stop what I’m working on to share it with everyone I know. This is one of them. For those veterans who continue to define Twitter’s role in how we communicate, share and learn, those who have recently made its acquaintance, and those just finding their stride, we all linked through common threads and context that pique our curiosity, stimulate our quest for adventure, expand our networks beyond our real world network, and feed our desire for attention. We contribute to the expansion of the…
Social Media is Rife with Experts but Starved of Authorities

brian

22 Jun 2009 | 6:57 am

Perhaps Lewis Carroll was peering into the looking glass when he wrote “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.” In it, we were introduced to Tweetle Dum and Tweetle Dee, a curious duo that always shared a fruitful, entertaining, and complementary conversational exchange even though they always agreed to battle each other. Some suggest that the significance of Alice’s encounter with the twins explores how curiosity leads to the unknown and therefore, may not be worthy of pursuit. It’s just not safe right? These encounters either remind us why we’ve created a comfort…

Social Media Marketing Strategy, Tactics, and Tools
Using Social Media to “Socialize” Existing Marketing

Jacob Morgan

30 Jun 2009 | 1:43 pm

Part of what a lot of companies are looking for in the social media space is to be able to integrate social media into their existing marketing efforts. Before this can happen the company really needs to understand what their current marketing efforts. I know this sounds intuitive but a lot of marketing is a “black box” for organizations and marketing “just is”. I’m working with a client on socializing their existing marketing and integrating social media into their existing marketing efforts. I thought I would create 2 off the cuff examples of how…
Use TubeMogul to Distribute and Track Your Videos Online

Jacob Morgan

29 Jun 2009 | 4:37 pm

The amount of time that people are spending watching online videos is increasing, as is the amount of videos that are being created online. When most people think of online video they think of site such as youtube, metacafe, viddler, vimeo, etc. which are all great online video sources. As we move toward more mass adoption for video, statistics and analytics are going to become more crucial. This is why I want to encourage anyone that is going to get involved with video to use TubeMogul. After I got a bunch of interviews at a Wordcamp event that I attended in San Francisco I wanted to…
People You Should Follow on Twitter and Social Media that You Probably Don’t Know About

Jacob Morgan

27 Jun 2009 | 10:39 am

I’ve been meaning to write a post like this for a while. It’s great to follow the big name people and celebrities out there but there are a lot of extremely sharp and smart folks out there that definitely don’t get enough credit. One post definitely does not do justice so I’m sure I am going to have several follow up posts. So without further adieu here are some of the people that I think you should definitely get connected with. Christopher Peri Chris runs a site called Perivision.net and is by far one of the smartest people I know, not just from a technical…
What You See Versus What Your Customers See, Dominos WTF!

Jacob Morgan

25 Jun 2009 | 12:02 am

I found this on Digg a few weeks ago and thought it’s a great example of what I’m referring to. Recently Dominos started aggressive marketing campaigns for a new product of theirs called the Dominos Pasta Bread Bowl (on a side note, I’m a bit of a health nut and looking at this things makes me feel uneasy, but that’s beside the point). I’m sure you have all seen commercials or ads for this new bread bowl, if not, let me remind you what this so called food item looks like…according to Dominos. mmmm delicious right? So this product looks great after…
Business Vocabulary You Should Know

Jacob Morgan

23 Jun 2009 | 12:18 am

With all of the new social media and marketing terms floating around the web it’s easy to lose track of the actual business terms that we should be using when talking about…business. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking to a business or talking to someone about business, at the end of the day you need to remember that it’s still about BUSINESS. This means that if I ask you about ROI and you respond in terms of links and traffic that I can tell you’re a bit nuts (or drunk). Having said that, I decided to put together a little list of some business terms…

Dan Zarrella
The Linguistics of ReTweets

Dan Zarrella

1 Jul 2009 | 6:01 am

I’ve done a bunch of research into the characteristics of ReTweets in an effort to understand what makes them viral. ReTweets are the first entirely observable and analyzable viral content spreading mechanism in the history of mankind and as such they offer an unparalleled window into what makes humans spread ideas. Over the past few weeks I’ve begun delving into much deeper analysis than I have in the past with more advanced tools and a much larger dataset. At present I have a database of over 10 million ReTweets and I’ve gained access to Twitter’s new streaming API…
Find Your Twitter Psychological Matches

Dan Zarrella

23 Jun 2009 | 5:58 am

I think the most powerful potential feature of a system like TweetPsych is its ability to match people based on their cognitive processes, so I’ve added two features to the still beta TweetPsych. People That Think Like You When you generate a profile for yourself or someone else, TweetPsych will also show you a list of 5 users who it believes share similar psychological characteristics. This matching is not done topically, therefore the other users you’re presented with may not Tweet about the same things as you. These users come only from the list of users that the system has…
Psychological Profiling Via Twitter

Dan Zarrella

15 Jun 2009 | 5:59 am

This weekend I was playing with a bunch of different linguistic analysis methods to better understand ReTweets, and while I uncovered a ton of cool new data which I’ll be sharing a little later this week, I also came upon an idea I think is pretty awesome, probably groundbreaking, and definitely worth Twittering about. Communication is a window into a person’s mind, and the way a person talks can tell you a lot about how they think. Linguists have developed two methods to decoding the written word into a meaningful profile of a person’s cognitive processes. One method is…
How to Get ReTweets: The Presentation

Dan Zarrella

2 Jun 2009 | 6:31 am

The internet has accelerated social communications and memetics more than it has fundamentally changed it (though it has altered some of the selection pressures on individual memes, namely around memory retention and expression). It has also, through mechanisms like Twitter and specifically ReTweets, made the exchange of cultural units much more open to quantitative analysis and testing. Through the keyhole of ReTweeting I believe it is possible to get a glimpse of the answers to the larger question of why and how humans spread information in a way that was never before possible. I’ve…
Twitter’s Suggested Users are Less ReTweetable

Dan Zarrella

29 May 2009 | 5:51 am

I spoke at the 140 Twitter Conference this week and during my panel Robert Scoble asked me if I had any ReTweets-per-Follower (RTpF) data on users listed on Twitter’s official suggested users list. I didn’t but I realized it would be a very interesting data point to look at. I looked at the roughly 200 suggested users and compared them to the 200 most followed users not on the list. Since many of the suggested users are the most followed people on Twitter, they had a much higher average number of followers. However when I looked at the average number of Tweets-per-Day (TpD) posted…

Bazaarblog
It’s 100 degrees. Are you ready for Christmas?

Chad Bockius | Director of Product Marketing

2 Jul 2009 | 4:02 am

Bazaarvoice provides customer reviews for more than 60% of the IR500 – the nation’s top internet retailers – so we start thinking about the holidays in July. We continue to see that reviews help drive holiday sales, and now’s the time to start. Holiday shoppers read reviews. Last year, 80% of holiday shoppers read reviews while deciding what to buy. It’s important to build review volume now, so shoppers find all the information they need on your site come shopping season. In November through January, reviews served surges over 140% for the year – 3.6 billion reviews were viewed in…
See what your customers are saying – literally.

Sam Decker | Chief Marketing Officer

1 Jul 2009 | 9:12 am

Our friends over at Free People had some exciting things to say about Wordle – a visual representation of keyword frequency on your site. One of our Community Managers, Lisa Tu, used Wordle’s “word cloud” generator to create a graphic word collage of Free People’s Ratings & Reviews. The more a word was used, the bigger it appears in the collage, creating a fun visual of what Free People’s customers have to say about the brand. Words like “love,” “cute,” “great,” and “dress” showed up most frequently in Free People’s reviews. The collage shows how Free…
Bazaarvoice employees educate each other through Tribes

Sam Decker | Chief Marketing Officer

30 Jun 2009 | 4:03 am

One of the many unique elements of our culture here at Bazaarvoice is our formation of tribes. Bazaarvoice employees are encouraged to bring their personal interests into the workplace, forming “tribes” to educate and learn from their coworkers. One such tribe in the works now is Financial Peace University, a twelve-week course in personal finance and debt management. Designed to help participants eliminate debt and save money, FPU teaches through guided video lesson plans designed to facilitate discussion. Led by Bazaarvoice team members who have graduated the program, participants share…
Econsultancy conquers America

Sam Decker | Chief Marketing Officer

29 Jun 2009 | 1:00 am

This blog post is guest-written by Jacob Salamon, Bazaarvoice’s European Marketing Manager. Econsultancy, the UK’s leading source of insight on digital marketing and e-commerce, has been a partner and resource to Bazaarvoice in the UK for over two years and is now launching its US office in New York City, so we sat down with Rebecca Lieb, Econsultancy’s Vice President of North America. Look for more insights in the coming weeks in this three-part blog series. Q: I understand Econsultancy has recently opened a New York office to service e-commerce professionals in the United States. …
Bazaarvoice hires at happy hour

Brett Hurt | Founder and CEO

26 Jun 2009 | 1:56 pm

This post was guest-written by Kathy Smith-Willman, Director of People Operations. At Bazaarvoice, when we hire, it’s about much more than just work. Sure, job skills are absolutely essential, but it’s also important to have fun. As we continue to (thankfully) grow our customer base, we need more Community Managers than ever, so we had a happy hour last week at a local watering hole here in Austin. Dozens of our employees spread the word via their Facebook and Twitter accounts (as well as through our own), and we had more than 100 attendees! Community Managers (our version of Account…

Rajesh@Blogworks
Fun Poll: Are you a guy, and cook? Take the poll. Girls can leave comments

19 Jun 2009 | 11:34 pm

See results by clicking the 'continue reading' link below...
Cleartrip resolution of a neo-influencer complaint is a case-study

16 Jun 2009 | 12:44 am

I cringe every time I read the words #FAIL , #boo or thus like on Twitter, from users who might just have given a cursory glance to a tool or barely used a service. This is someone's brand we are referring to, a brand that's dear to someone; a service in whose creation someone has put a lot of time, effort and money. How easy it is for us, to sit at a distance and boo, setting someone up for failure, without sometimes giving the other party time/ opportunity to make amends on genuine gaps. I find that on one side social media gives opportunity consumers to transparently share feedback, on the…
Mythologic (more like Folksologic this time) episode 2: Baloo, the Miser.

15 Jun 2009 | 8:30 pm

This one is really a simple folk tale from a book by Children's Book Trust that I recently bought. The comparisons just flashed in my head based on a client engagement earlier that day. Keeping with the text in original form, I have kept the language simple. Read on... The rules: Translating from source - the original is in Hindi- I will use text in colour brown Rest of the text, by me, little as it will likely be, in colour black :) Baloo, a trader, lived in Gujarat. So stingy was he with money that he didn't like spending money even upon himself, leave alone others. Coming back from work…
Recent Podcast interview with Kamla Bhatt featuring yours truly and Anurag Batra

15 Jun 2009 | 12:57 am

Driving to work this work morning, I was listening to this recent podcast by my friend Kamla Bhatt "Social Media in India, what's missing" where she interviewed me and Anurag Batra, Managing Director, exchange4media. I thought I should share it here... Some of the points we discussed: Social Media environment in India How do Indian marketers see Social Media, is there a disconnect at the top Will corporate blogging takeoff in India? RoI of Social Media Are marketers lazy? Misplaced focus on tools Social Media and Bollywood Much more...but why don't I just let you listen in to the discussion…
Financial Express - Brand Wagon features India Social Media Report

15 Jun 2009 | 12:34 am

Last Tuesday's (9 June 2009) Financial Express featured findings from the India Social Media Survey Report - Edition 1 in its Brand Wagon section. Here is a JPG of the coverage. View image

Rahaf Harfoush » Blog
#IranElections & Acts of Corporate Good (Pt1)

Rahaf

21 Jun 2009 | 12:56 pm

It is evident that the role of social media and digital communications play a critical role in sharing information during environmental disasters or times of political unrest. These tools help spread information, share news and level the playing field in a way that (at least for now) traditional governments can’t seem to stop, and not for lack of trying. Using social media sites to organize and mobilize groups of people is nothing new. What I am finding particularly intriguing as I watch the Iranian Election crisis unfold, is how some of these social networks are making decisions as…
YES WE DID Book Launch - Thank you!!

Rahaf

14 Jun 2009 | 5:48 pm

I can’t believe that last week I officially launched Yes We Did! What an exciting week it has been for me. I started out the morning of June 4th as the Keynote Speaker for the MARCOM conference where I did my first official book signing. It was so completely surreal to see so many physical copies of the book and to have people want a signed copy. It made me feel giddy and so excited! It was also a weird coming of age feeling as the conference took place in the same ballroom that I had my highschool graduation in. Basically, I gave the keynote standing about 20 feet away from where I…
A little video from spain…

Rahaf

11 Jun 2009 | 2:58 pm

I just got back from a whirlwind trip promoting YES WE DID, and sat down to answer some questions about the book, politics and life in general from the blogging team of Nuestracausa (which means Our Cause in Spanish), a website dedicated to helping empower young people use collaborative technologies in order to participate in the political process. Pretty cool! You can take a peek here: Coming up: An interview on BNN, and photos from the official YES WE DID booklaunch party at Rotman!!
New Kindle…meh.

Rahaf

22 May 2009 | 12:38 pm

When I first heard rumors that Amazon was releasing a new Kindle I was annoyed because I had JUST gotten my long awaited Kindle 2 and was appalled to think that Amazon would dare introduce a new version so soon just to spite me! I was tormented with stories of touch screens, color screens, and pretty much every imaginable feature short of shipping Jeff Bezos to read to you himself. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out the Kindle DX was just…bigger? Meh. I was puzzled. This was the new version? Lame. You can’t even fit it in your purse like my sweet and thin Kindle 2!
Upcoming Event: Book Launch June 4th, Toronto

Rahaf

6 May 2009 | 10:49 am

If you’re around on June 4th you should definitely swing my the Rotman School of Management and celebrate the launch of Yes We Did, the book that has consumed my life for the past six months! Not only is this a big milestone for me, but I am really looking forward to seeing my friends and family. I’ve been in Geneva now for about two months and still miss them like crazy! So what does the evening have in store? The event will be hosted by Alexander Manu (Author of Everything 2.0) and Don Tapscott (Author of Grown Up Digital) I’ll be giving a brief presentation on some of the…

Soshable
Diggbar View Counts Are Back (sort of)

JD Rucker

30 Jun 2009 | 9:40 pm

As Digg works to perfect its service and enhance one of it’s latest features, the Diggbar, they have re-added a nice component that was taken down shortly after launch: view counts. Well, they’ve sort of brought it back. Looks like it’s still in beta or development or something because as of right now, the counts are way off. (more…)
A Retweet is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

JD Rucker

29 Jun 2009 | 3:33 am

Listening to Guy Kawasaki is always a joy. Regardless of whether you agree with what he is saying or not, he is always both thought-provoking and entertaining. The Alltop co-founder is a living legend in the world of social media and startups and is a must-follow on Twitter for budding marketing professionals. During a recent speaking engagement in San Diego, Kawasaki had his normal flurry of quirky, intuitive pieces of advice that struck home with most in the audience. One thing in particular he noted was that “today, a retweet is the sincerest form of flattery.” While I often…
Social Media Strategy: Hire, Outsource, or DIY?

JD Rucker

19 Jun 2009 | 2:15 am

Social media has officially become a business. Many in the industry would argue that it’s been a business for years, but until recently it has been very hush-hush and hidden in the shadows. If you were to count the number of people claiming to be social media gurus, experts, marketers, or strategists a year ago, it would have probably been in the hundreds. Today, it’s in the tens of thousands. Scanning Twitter and Facebook alone is evidence of this, and they are only a small part of a true strategy. As huge corporations, home-office startups, and everyone in between rushes to…
Twitter and Blogging, Tips and Tools

JD Rucker

14 Jun 2009 | 6:09 am

“Every blog should have its own Twitter account.” WHOA! Slow down. If EVERY blog had a Twitter account, the site would be “over capacity” constantly. Some web hosts claim 99.99% uptime. Twitter would be at 99.99% downtime considering there’s more blogs on the Internet than atoms in the known universe. With that out of the way, let’s first say that “every” to me clears out spam blogs, boring blogs, worthless blogs, and blogs about bacon or politics. Hopefully, this blog doesn’t fall into any of those categories other than the…
The Best Digg Tools, Reality Edition

JD Rucker

2 Jun 2009 | 6:24 am

One of the best parts about my job is that I get to talk to a lot of the top users over at Digg. This is important because the Digg algorithm is always in a constant state of tweak (a statement that can be construed properly several different ways). It changes as fast as, if not faster than, Google and other search engines. Two questions always pop up with either me asking top users or other users asking me: “What does it take to get to the front page?” The answer has two parts: time and tools. We can go into the time issue later, but for now, let’s assume that you…

Brains On Fire Blog
Seriously.

Spike

2 Jul 2009 | 8:01 am

This is just a reminder to you, me and everyone else that, as our friend and former Marketer-In-Residence, John Moore likes to say, “I don’t take myself seriously. But I take what I do very seriously.” It’s a great motto to live and work by: Don’t take yourself seriously. Stepping away from Twitter and SM for two weeks was refreshing. And to come back to it again has really opened my eyes that I need to revamp who I decide to follow. Because there are SO many marketers on there that take themselves far too seriously. The inflated egos are incredible in that…
You have permission to change the system.

Spike

1 Jul 2009 | 7:15 am

I had such an amazing time in Australia (sharing at AMPLIFY for AMP) and New Zealand that it’s been difficult to wrap my head around the entire experience. So instead of trying to put it all down at once, I’ll write about it in bits and pieces as it comes to me. This ah-ha moment comes from Roger Dennis, a consultant in New Zealand and super-smart guy I met at the event and had lunch with one day. Among the great conversation, Roger revealed a tool that he uses to help encourage and activate advocates is a business card-sized tool that has one simple message on it: “You have…
What’s Your Answer?

Justine

30 Jun 2009 | 4:28 am

It’s time for our annual checkup. That time when we take Fred Reichheld’s advice to engage the people we touch to help us grow and continually improve. We are asking you (yes, YOU!) “The Ultimate Question.” So please take a moment to click on this link and take our very brief, anonymous survey. If you received this link in the email, then you won’t need to take the survey via the blog… it’s all the same survey. Thanks again to all of you who help keep the fire going. We love you all!
Influencers and Sweat Equity

Spike

29 Jun 2009 | 7:39 am

On a plane home from Sydney (more on that to come) this weekend, I pulled out my trusty Moleskine and flipped through to land on a page of notes that I took when I spent time with Rob Morris. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you’ll know that Rob is one of the founders of an organization near and near to our hearts here at Brains on Fire: Love146. Rob is inspirational when he speaks to large crowds or when you have dinner one-on-one, but the note that caught my eye was this: “Will influencers give you sweat equity? No. But the PASSIONATE ones will.” That’s…
Demographics, Psychographics… Autographics?

Justine

26 Jun 2009 | 4:02 am

I’ve recently delved into Habit, by Neale Martin. Every once in a while you come across the right book at the right time - a perfect confluence of ideas. Just the right perspective for a problem you’re working on. It’s probably not a revelation to anybody that there’s a big mismatch between the “why” consumers will give you and what’s really going on in their brain that’s driving a certain decision. Neale does a nice job of introducing one of the culprits - our habits. Those automatic behaviors that we do without even thinking about them.

:: a thousand cuts :: adam cohen's blog
Display Advertising Shows Signs of Life

adam

29 Jun 2009 | 11:28 am

I always like to capture ideas and campaigns here that really catch my eye and provide inspiration. Here are two banner ads that challenge the notion that this industry has nothing left in it. They show that the right mix of creativity, humor and humility for the knowledge an end-user has about the space can create a vibrant ad. Most importantly: they engage better than, well any other banner ad I’ve seen. I’d imagine, like me, anyone in the interactive marketing industry would look at both these and say, “I wish I’d thought of that.” Pringles First…
How Twitter and Social Networks Can Make History

adam

22 Jun 2009 | 9:14 am

Every once in awhile a video comes along that inspires thought and challenges assumptions. This video of internet guru Clay Shirky speaking as part of the TED series is no exception. From the advent of the printing press to modern community platforms, Shirky uses stories from China, Iran, the Obama campaign, and other political uprisings to demonstrate the power of Facebook, text messaging and Twitter to make a real impact. This is worth the watch. (Thanks to David Armano for sharing this on Twitter. Feed subscribers please click through to see the video). Related Posts…
Why Everyone Should Fly Virgin America

adam

8 Jun 2009 | 1:08 pm

OK, this is one of those “you won’t believe me until you try it” moments. (For some it’s a “I’m not surprised, welcome to the club” moment). I had a client presentation opportunity come up in Los Angeles and dreaded booking the 6 hour flight from Boston. VirginAmerica to the rescue. On top of a relatively cheap fare and no line at Logan airport in Boston, the following points demonstrate VirginAmerica’s smart response to business travelers: Fast and reliable wifi ($12.95 for a day, but worth every penny to be connected). AC power…
The First Day of School

adam

3 Jun 2009 | 10:31 am

Nerves. Jitters. Fear. Anxiety. Exhilaration. All elements that make the first day of school unique and memorable. My dad recently went through a similar first - branching out on his own as an enterpreneur to found Marketing Essentials International. Fortunately he’s got forty years in the photography business to leverage, including nearly two decades at Polaroid, twelve years as the CEO of Hasselblad, a startup during the dot-com boom and most recently as head of Rangefinder Publishing (organizers of WPPI, the well known industry event for wedding and pro photographers). …
How to Show The Value of Twitter In 2 Minutes or Less

adam

27 May 2009 | 5:10 pm

Twitter is not a service that will appeal to everyone. Allegedly 60% of Twitter users leave after the first month (although this doesn’t include those who switch to desktop apps like Tweetdeck). I’d argue it’s because they only have Oprah and Ashton Kutcher showing them the ropes and need some better guidance; Twitter is intuitive to use but not to build a network or get the most value out of it. Here are some simple steps to show someone the value of Twitter. Pick a topic the person is passionate about. Go to http://search.twitter.com and run a search on…

S Studio by Shai Coggins
Bliss List of the Moment: 290609 Edition

Shai Coggins

29 Jun 2009 | 6:19 am

It has been a while since I last created my bliss list of the moment. So, I figured it’s time for a new and updated version. Actually, I wish I’m able to write more bliss lists more often. I realise they’re wonderful tools for practicing “blissology” (yes, in conjunction with my word-of-the-year, bliss). And, of course, they’re great reminders of the good things in life. So, here you go… Completing my first semester of grad school - When I first wrote my “bliss list”, I was just starting my return to Uni. I can’t believe just how…
Look of the Week: 250509 (Another Late One!)

Shai Coggins

18 Jun 2009 | 4:35 pm

It’s my final week for the first semester at Uni, so I’m extremely time-challenged at the moment. That’s why I haven’t been online all that much lately. Blogging and social networking just have to be put aside for the time being as I try to complete mountain loads of assignments and final assessment presentations. Yes, I can’t believe I’ve just about completed a full semester back in grad school. It has been exhausting and stressful, but exciting and fulfilling all at the same time. I’ve met some really interesting people and learned heaps. And,…
Celebrating Friendships

Shai Coggins

10 Jun 2009 | 4:21 am

Friendship is a very strong theme for me lately. Of course, I’ve always valued friends. But, for one reason or another, I have been thinking about the whole thing a lot lately. Partly because I’ve been meeting a lot of new people through my graduate studies — and partly because I’ve been reconnecting with some old friends. And yes, there are a few other matters on friendships that have come to my attention recently. So, I’ve been pondering about what makes people click as friends… what makes friendships last… how do friendships work… can men and…
Geek Chic Fantastic

Shai Coggins

4 Jun 2009 | 6:13 am

So, I’ve been trying to avoid online shops lately. Well, I’ve been avoiding most shopping, really - other than the grocery variety. But today, I caved in and visited Etsy. Yes, I’ve just about survived it without any damage to my bank and Paypal accounts. But, I did find this section on Geek Chic Gift Guides and I just know that I’ll be in trouble one of these days. Well, how can I resist Geek and Chic combined?! Anyway, these are the Etsy items/shops that are bound to hook me in some time… Laptop Sleeve with Strap - annyandme ->> Love this! IF I ever buy…
From the School of Life and Change

Shai Coggins

1 Jun 2009 | 5:53 am

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” -Viktor Frankl My world has been through a lot of transformations over the years. This is even apparent in my life online over the last decade. I first joined the web primarily to seek connections… friendships. And, to explore the possibility of sharing my writing to a wider audience. Within the first few months of being online in 1997/1998, I started to get writing jobs (both paid and gratis) while I was still living in Manila. It was such a rush. I then turned all my passion for…

Bare Feet Studios
KnowHow Café: Where smart people go to get smarter about the social web

Roxanne Darling

26 Jun 2009 | 11:11 am

We have the antidote to yesterday’s post on how to learn what you don’t know! We are launching a new business that is all about training. We’ve helped out clients be incredibly successful on the web over the past 14 years, and we want to share this knowledge with others. We also want to do it for a lower price than our private hourly rates and we want to be able to reach many more people. Because our phone keeps ringing (and that takes us away from actually building the site!) we are holding some live classes here in Honolulu in the interim. Please join our mailing list to…
The Social Web: Learning to Use a New Tool

Roxanne Darling

25 Jun 2009 | 3:56 pm

The social web is full of free information. Many people forego formal training in favor of copying what they see others’ doing. We sometimes do this ourselves—once you have a strong base of knowledge in a specific area, it is quite reasonable to look at others’ tips or code and be able to reverse engineer them quite successfully to meet your own goals. But when you are new to something? It’s like a child copying their parents: a lot of it sounds right, but fundamentally you don’t want that kid building your house. The best teachers know how to explain to you the…
Hawaii Restaurant Association Links and Resources

Roxanne Darling

22 Jun 2009 | 10:27 am

The Hawaii Restaurant Association is holding a 90-minute seminar today (at 9 am and repeated at 2 pm) on “Social Networks: What it’s all about” to help its members and other businesses here in Honolulu understand about Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks. I will be speaking, along with Mark Johnson of logicspin and menumill. I’d like to give a shout out to Alan Hoki and Chrissy Mitchell of the Hawaii Restaurant Association for pulling this seminar together so quickly and to Morton’s Steakhouse for hosting us all. I’ll also be moderating a panel of…
Join us at Social Media Club Hawaii Chapter

Roxanne Darling

9 Jun 2009 | 10:59 pm

The Social Media Club is an international organization with over 40 active chapters, whose goal is to develop and support best practices in the use of social media. The Hawaii chapter was launched in October 2008, in conjunction with Podcamp + Wordcamp Hawaii. The Hawaii chapter meets on the second Friday of each month. The next meeting is June 12th. Be sure to check the web site for details on the upcoming event. www.smchawaii.org Please join the mailing list of you would to receive meeting announcements. You can unsubscribe at any time and your email will not be sold or shared. Email…
Hawaii Officially Dips Toes in the Waters of Social Media

Roxanne Darling

7 Jun 2009 | 11:14 pm

Many thanks to the Pacific Business News and the Star Bulletin for covering the recent So Much More Hawaii fam tour with mainland bloggers. I started this writing as a comment on PBN, but I have a rule that when my comments exceed two paragraphs, I move the conversation over to my blog for clarity and for support. (Plus, the Star Bulletin did not allow comments on Ms. Schaefer’s article and PBN does not allow links in their comments – both of which limit the conversation and tend to make me a little grumpy.) As I understand it, this blogger trip is not the first time Hawaii…

Social Media Marketing
Talk About Transparency!

Scott Monty

2 Jul 2009 | 6:02 am

When you've flown, how many times have you ignored the safety instructions? We've all heard the same boring routine over and over, and let's face it - if you don't know how to fasten a seatbelt, you probably shouldn't be flying alone. Air New Zealand has done something to ensure they'll have your attention: they've made a safety video where the flight attendants are wearing nothing but body paint. See if you pay attention to the entire announcement now. That's what Seth Godin would call remarkable. How is your company being remarkable - and most importantly - making it easy for people to…
The Herculean Effort to Stop Ignoring Customers

Scott Monty

30 Jun 2009 | 5:36 am

The Herculean Effort to Stop Ignoring Customers via The Buzz Bin by Geoff Livingston on 6/30/09Note: this is somewhat of a guest post by Geoff Livingston. I saved it to my Posterous page with the intent of bookmarking it; evidently, it resulted in a posting to my blog here. Full credit goes to Geoff. If social is but a channel, then the real issue for companies lies in embracing feedback from their most important stakeholders: Their customers.That was the focus of the Forrester Customer Experience Forum last week in New York City (photos here). Organizations struggle with corporate barriers…
Are Your Priorities Screwed Up?

Scott Monty

29 Jun 2009 | 6:35 am

The recent news of Michael Jackson's death has a lot of people rattled. When an icon of that stature passes, it's natural for a whole generation of people to reflect on nostalgic times, pine for what could have been, and think about lessons for our own lives.In this case, I couldn't help but be struck by a similarity between Michael Jackson's status and that of some so-called social media "rock stars."I've always been a little hesitant to anyone self assigning expert or "rock star" status. To me, experts are deemed so by others, after an individual has put in plenty of hard work and…
What Matters in Most Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

Scott Monty

22 Jun 2009 | 2:40 pm

We all know that people trust people like themselves the most, and that "real" friends are more influential than online contacts. But how does this shake out, exactly?According to a recent Mintel study cited by eMarketer, people who bought a product based on a recommendation did so based on this breakdown:And while you'll see that bloggers make up only 5% of the recommendation source, for those of you who have resources tied up in blogger relations programs, this is not some sky-is-falling panic to get you to halt your efforts. On the contrary, how many friends, relatives, spouses/partners do…
I've Been on a Calendar, But I've Rarely Been On Time

Scott Monty

17 Jun 2009 | 4:59 am

#hotmen And to prove it, I'm late with this blog post.A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the never predictable, always thoughtful Dave Delaney with a scheme that I can only describe as hairbrained inspired. I've known Dave to go to bat for individuals before, raising money for good causes. Many were local businesses or colleagues, but Dave's passion always rang true and led him to success.So that's where the latest idea came in. Dave decided to plant his tongue firmly in his cheek and ask a number of us (18, to be exact), to pose for the Hottest Men on Twitter Calendar. No lie.But if it were…

The Relationship Economy
Will Social Media Revolutionize American Government?

Rick Duvall

2 Jul 2009 | 9:21 am

A true renaissance of human potential is now possible above and beyond anything we've ever hoped or dreamed of. Social media allows the best and the brightest to collectively collaborate on solving the problems that pose the greatest threat to our freedom and to our welfare.
Why Am I Paying More For Ads?

ttnilsen1

2 Jul 2009 | 7:00 am

No, the future of 'Pull Marketing' involves one-on-one engagement with your audience and those audiences you hope to build (or 'pull') into a meaningful conversation. And yes, conversation can and does convert into currency for the bottom-line. Again, why don't advertisers simply "give me the ad money" to buy their products? Sounds far fetched. I am working on the solution
Which Planet Are You From?

Jay Deragon

2 Jul 2009 | 3:13 am

How could they? They do because they don't know the difference. Simply put they lack the knowledge and understanding that the "market as changed" and they wonder why profits are down. Instead they waste time, money and effort. Please kill the waste.
Is SM In Product Marketing Important?

ttnilsen1

1 Jul 2009 | 7:00 am

This little thing called 'Social Media' has concurrently flourished and will fill the gap you expect to regain in the years ahead.
What Advertisers Don’t “See”

Jay Deragon

1 Jul 2009 | 5:00 am

You'd be surprised how appreciative people will be. Appreciation spreads fast by word of mouth. Trust the consumer and you'll win. Trust the consumer and you'll win. The reason you can't see it is because you are looking through an old and dirty window.Get it?

Buzz Networker
How Facebook Creates Engagement

Anna Farmery

2 Jul 2009 | 10:54 am

Facebook has been a true phenomenon - no doubt. When you look at the Facebook stats page it puts into context how much people want to share, how people are seeing the web as part of their real world community. Average user has 120 friends on the site More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide) More than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day More than 8 million users become fans of Pages each day More than 900 million photos uploaded to the site each month More than 10 million videos uploaded each month More than 1 billion pieces of content…
Create Online Magazine Rack

Anna Farmery

1 Jul 2009 | 10:30 am

Alltop is a great site for finding great blogs and also to find people with similar interests. They have now introduced MyAlltop which allows you to “to create a “personal, online magazine rack” of your favorite websites and blogs“. It is your chance to create your own profile page and add your favourite feeds so that people can see more about your interests and also for you to create a hub into the world of your interests. For an insight you can check out Tony Hsieh of Zappos Myalltop page here. In a way it is like Google Reader meets blogging - go grab your name as (yet)…
Increased Internet Usage

Anna Farmery

30 Jun 2009 | 1:09 pm

Do you spend more time on the internet? I know I do. My usage has changed drastically from purely gaining information to entertainment, communication and of course yes, still information. Social networking has been a large part of my usage and a post over at MediaPost shows some interesting internet research In the past three years, the average U.S. adult has nearly doubled their daily use of the Internet as the average U.S. adult spent 2.1 hours per day online in 2006, compared to 3.8 hours in 2008 The Internet now represents 32.5% of the typical “media day” for all U.S. adults…
Social Networking for Business

Anna Farmery

29 Jun 2009 | 1:49 pm

Social networking is always associated at the individual level but now there is Weebiz which is a social networking community for business. It describes itself as “a global business center that connects your company to its business relations, promoting your products and services as well as helping you find what you need to succeed” It is a really interesting concept asbusiness has often worked through relationships between people - I remember doing many deals on the golf course!So why not a social networking site for companies. The site allows you to promote, to find potential…
Teens and the Internet

Anna Farmery

27 Jun 2009 | 8:21 am

Nielsen has produced a report on teens and the internet in an attempt to throw light on some of the myths which surround internet usage. You can download a free copy of the report here. It has provided some interesting insights namely Teens are NOT abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more TV than ever, up 6% over the past five years in the U.S. Teens love the Internet … but spend far less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online. Far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes. Teens watch less online video than most adults, but the ads…

Ignite Social Media
Ignite Social Media Turns Two

Jim Tobin

2 Jul 2009 | 12:38 pm

Happy birthday to us! We launched this blog on July 2, 2007 as the first public face of our new company. One visitor showed up. Not sure how s/he found us. Two years and a couple hundred thousand visitors later, we're having a lot of fun. We've built a team (around 20 of us right now), written a book on social media marketing that made 3 Amazon best seller lists, had a lot of fun and, best of all, worked with some great clients. Thanks to our clients! Clearly there is no second birthday with no clients. Special thanks to (in approximate order of joining with us): Detroit Renaissance…
From Interactive to Social Websites

Olivia Hayes

30 Jun 2009 | 2:16 pm

Two of the most commonly confused concepts in social media are the idea of “social” versus “interactive.” Simply put, interactive means that there is stuff for people to do on your website beyond just reading. There are levels of interactivity, and for today’s post, I’m going to use Kashi’s highly interactive website as an example. Making something social implies that there is a heavy emphasis on the actual sharability ( I think I just made that word up, so don’t forget to give me some backlinks for it) of the content. The two concepts…
Social Media Example #18: Rubbermaid

Christian Sullivan

26 Jun 2009 | 4:01 am

Number 18 on our list of 26 Social Media Marketing Examples is Rubbermaid. I was pretty excited about researching Rubbermaid because I’m secretly an organization freak! I love buying new organizational supplies and finding ways to organize anything and everything. An organized house makes for an organized life - too bad I don’t use that same motto with my car or desk at work. Rubbermaid.com Back to our social media example. Let’s jump right into my observations and recommendations, shall we? The Rubbermaid site is primarily focused on ecommerce. Each individual link a)…
Windows rolls into MySpace with free music: Behind the scenes

Jim Tobin

24 Jun 2009 | 8:31 am

Starting today, our client Windows is rolling out a new program as a way to debut their new Windows MySpace profile. In a nutshell, Windows is subsidizing your downloading of over 1,000 songs from a selection of bands featured on ReverbNation.com. It's an interesting marketing program, but it also helps the artists get paid in a new way for their work. Windows gets some visibility in terms of ads, and the fan gets lots of free music, legally, thereby discovering talented new bands they might not otherwise know about. At Ignite Social Media, we developed the concept with ReverbNation (who…
How to Make Social Media Marketing FAIL for You

Jeremy Griffin

24 Jun 2009 | 5:39 am

Everybody loves social media, right? Now is your chance to get in the game and show all those other brands just how things are done in the social sphere when it comes to marketing. Here are a few tips to make sure you get the most for your money, because after all, social media is a cheap add on to any existing campaign, and you probably don't need to put much thought into it. Make a Viral Video This one is EASY. Just make something funny and put it on the YouTubes. Tell a few of your friends about it and they are sure to pass it around. It doesn't matter if your video does…

SocialButterfly
Social Marketing as a Solution

Alex

30 Jun 2009 | 2:59 pm

We all like solutions, right? We’ve heard them talked about, seen some of them unfulfilled or seen them not live up to their potential. But all the trials and errors mean that much more when a solution works. I invite you to read Barack Obama’s remarks about the Social Innovation Fund from earlier today. The Social Innovation Fund is a proposed solution to identify the most promising, results-oriented non-profit programs and expand their reach throughout the country. The Fund has four main objectives, including: Catalyzing partnerships between the government and nonprofits,…
A Look Back: My First Twitter 10

Alex

9 Jun 2009 | 7:49 pm

Friend and colleague Jeffrey Levy, in conversation the other day, said he went back to the beginning….of his days on Twitter that is, to see who he first started following. So, I did the same. It caused me to reflect on my own Twitter activity. Therefore, without further ado, my first Twitter 10: (take-aways listed afterwards) 1. @misslacey123: Lacey is the one who got me on Twitter. We are both Mizzou J-School alums who have re-located to the great DC. She mentioned it one day as her and her colleagues at PBS were starting to explore it. At first, I was a little skeptical. But…
Twitter Bios: Experts Versus Beer

Alex

7 Jun 2009 | 10:22 pm

What you say in your Twitter bio makes a difference. You get 160 characters to describe yourself, share an outlook on life or to define your work. If you’re curious what others say, you are not alone. Through some fancy Google search queries, the folks at Twitter Truth were able to discover that the following words were mentioned in Twitter bios: “Twitter” =14,300x ‘SEO’ = 4,980x ‘Beer’ = 20,300x ‘Expert’ = 4,060x ‘Democrat’ = 311x ‘Republican’ = 872x ‘Liberal’ = 1,130x ‘Conservative’ = 2,280x ‘News’ = 49,100x ‘PR’ = 8,420x ‘New…
Social Marketing Bulletin–List of Change, Local Public Health and More

Alex

4 Jun 2009 | 7:56 pm

It’s been awhile since the last Social Marketing Bulletin, but all the more reason to get on with the show. The Bulletin includes items that encompass social change, social marketing and social media: 1. FEATURED: “I Know. I Took the Test.” I chose this initiative because it encompasses social change, social marketing and social media, as well as public health, non-profits, and government 2.0. What is it? The cross-collorative effort to recognize National HIV Testing Day on June 27th from AIDS.gov, the CDC, the White House’s Act Against AIDS campaign and other work by…
Dear May 2009 Graduate, Here’s 40 Reasons to Still Study Journalism

Alex

3 Jun 2009 | 9:31 pm

I am completely biased in this post because of my own studies in journalism. That said: Newspapers are downsizing. Jobs are being cut. The journalism field is in the midst of a re-invention. Despite the landscape and view people may hold when they think of today’s journalism, enrollment in journalism school has INCREASED! Recently on the Mizzou Mafia’s list serv (we do exist), an alum wrote about her frustration when a prospective freshman asked her about a career in journalism. She just felt like she couldn’t encourage the girl to go into a field that she felt was losing…

Debbie Weil's BlogWrite for CEOs
Sweets and Tweets: Free Cupcakes, Social Media and Crowdsourcing Almost Everything

debbie.weil@gmail.com

8 Jun 2009 | 7:08 pm

Update: SOLD OUT! You can now follow us on Twitter at @SweetsandTweets. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winning blog design for our event series. The next Sweets and Tweets is Thursday July 9, 2009 at Baked & Wired in Georgetown. Genius Rocket is sponsoring. Venture capitalist, entrepreneur and politico Mark Walsh will speak about crowdsourcing almost everything. Space is limited and tickets are going fast gone. Online Event Registration - Powered by http://www.eventbrite.com
Forrester’s Groundswell Creates a Social Technographic Profile Widget

debbie.weil@gmail.com

29 May 2009 | 3:49 pm

Very cool. Based on the social technographic framework laid out in Groundswell.This is also cool because it illustrates how you can market with useful sharable "content" and sell without (being too obvious about) selling. Note the link to the $749 report you can buy, etc. .
Re the FTC and Bloggers: It’s a Brave New World But Old Rules of Disclosure Still Apply

debbie.weil@gmail.com

28 May 2009 | 12:31 pm

Illustration (and caption) below by the talented Ming Zhuang at Medill’s Graduate School of Journalism. On the one hand, it’s a brave new world where bloggers represent a new and unfettered publishing channel. One that enables us to consume new points of view and smart thinking without the third party filters of an editor or publisher. This is a good thing. Some of these bloggers have developed a large following and have become influencers in their own right, just as popular columnists for mainstream newspapers can influence public opinion. This is where the "on…
Redux: Have You Googled Yourself Lately?

debbie.weil@gmail.com

21 May 2009 | 12:33 am

I’m re-posting an entry I wrote 5 years ago. It still applies. Back then, Googling yourself was a relatively new concept. Now, it’s a truism that Google results are your home page. Posted May 19, 2004: "Google yourself." That’s today’s pithy two-word tip from personal branding guru William Arruda. As he puts it: "Being Googled reveals how visible you are on the Web, and visibility (at least among your target audience) is critical to successful personal branding. Your Google results also become useful data points for those who are looking to make…
Why FriendFeed Is the New Must-Have For Your Social Media Toolbox

debbie.weil@gmail.com

14 May 2009 | 3:35 pm

It's happened overnight. Actually, in the past two weeks, since FriendFeed announced a redesign of their site. Suddenly everybody is subscribing to FriendFeed (I've noticed a significant uptick in new followers) and it's looking like the new "it" tool in the social media toolbox. Here's why: 1. FriendFeed has made it easier to find and subscribe to other FFers See the graphic below. It takes a couple of clicks to get to this screen (don't know why they've made it so hard to find). Once you do you can click the Twitter icon, for example, and quickly find out which of your Twitter…

Technosailor.com
White House Unveils an IT Spending Dashboard

Aaron Brazell

1 Jul 2009 | 9:55 am

During the run up to last years landmark election, then-candidate Barack Obama made a promise to appoint a federal Chief Technology Officer to oversee the federal IT infrastructure and data. In our primary endorsement of Obama, we said: In the wake of 9/11, a glaring weakness was revealed in the FBI’s technology infrastructure. That has not been addressed. As one with first hand experience working for both the Department of the Navy and Health and Human Services, I can attest to technology tone-deafness. One candidate is proposing the creation of a CTO position to ensure that all government…
The [Non] Value of Friendfeed

Aaron Brazell

26 Jun 2009 | 1:44 pm

Over the past year or so, I’ve fiddled around on Friendfeed. Sometimes actively, sometimes passively. The notion of aggregating all social content into a single place is an enticing value add to anyone who spends time on multiple services across the internet. As I’ve thought about the value of Friendfeed and it’s potential to be a market disruptor, I’ve come to realize it’s not. I operate much like other “non personal” brands do. I monitor reputation, mentions, links and traffic. I make decisions based on what will help me get more business for my…
FTC to Close Loopholes in Blogger-Marketer Relationships

Aaron Brazell

22 Jun 2009 | 8:40 am

Late last night, I came across an AP article that indicated a long awaited smackdown was coming from the FTC regarding paid reviews on blogs. Digging deeper into the article, it seems that the issue is not so much paid reviews as it is proper disclosure and verifiable claims. In the blog world, we are subject to increasing amounts of “freebies”, particularly as our individual or demographic influence grows stronger. Companies want to get involved and get bloggers on their side, spouting their reviews and influencing opinion. As a disclosure, I participated in a Sears promotion,…
How Location Based Services Saved My Life

Aaron Brazell

18 Jun 2009 | 11:15 am

Sitting here in Automattic offices in San Francisco, I find myself lovingly caressing my Blackberry which, for a short time yesterday, I believed was separated from me for good. Turns out I lost it the night before and was having phantom spasms over not having it in my pocket to check email, twitter or do other activities I would normally engage in with my long-time partner and friend. As I arose from my grogginess yesterday morning, my first instinct was to reach for my Blackberry to ascertain important overnight occurrences. You know, such as what drunken text messages I might have sent or…
Personal Branding

Aaron Brazell

12 Jun 2009 | 12:40 pm

An interesting thing happened a few months back. Geoff Livingston, the organizer of BlogPotomac, asked me to be on a panel about personal branding at the BlogPotomac event. The irony of the whole thing is that I have a personal brand of sorts, but also resent the idea as a whole. I accepted the invite wondering how the heck I’d shape the conversation to be productive. The problem is that personal branding tends to be self serving. The people who you can identify as “personal brands” also tend to be the same people that require the love and attention of others. Even if they…

The Harte of Marketing
PR has never been truly authentic

Beth Harte

30 Jun 2009 | 7:22 pm

Yes, yes, I know you’re all running to get your pitch forks so you can pull a Marie Antoinette on me. Hear me out… The definition of authentic is pretty simple: not false or copied; genuine; real I have been thinking about this a lot and recently had a few conversations with folks where I actually said it out loud. One of those places was the O’Reilly Twitter Boot Camp. I was sitting on a panel with Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Marla Erwin (Whole Foods), David Deal (Razorfish), David Puner (Dunkin’ Donuts) and someone asked a question (honestly, I forget what it was) and…
Outputs, Outtakes, Outcomes…Oh, my!

Beth Harte

29 Jun 2009 | 7:45 pm

There’s been a lot of buzz around measuring the ROI of social media here and other places and it seems to come up a lot during the #pr20chats (PR 2.0 chats on Twitter). Sometimes measurement is a deadly sin (lack thereof) and sometimes it’s seen as a holy grail (can’t get there). Whichever it is, it’s not limited to social media…measuring ROI is also a huge issue for marketers and PR folks too. Measuring marketing, PR and social media can be relatively simple if you have a plan. And the plan is probably the hardest part, especially getting consensus…
The Seven Holy Grails of Public Relations 2.0

Beth Harte

25 Jun 2009 | 6:44 pm

In our little social media world we always talk about what organizations are doing wrong and the seven deadly sins that are made when it comes to PR 2.0, but not about what they get right. [And I say 'little' because, let's face it, PR 2.0 isn't mainstream yet.] There are lots of PR pros working hard to get it right every day and when things come together, there’s an amazing sense of accomplishment and success. But all too often, it’s short-lived and overshadowed. So then, what are the seven holy grails of PR 2.0? What is it that we continuously strive for like we’re King…
The Importance of Community & Marketing: I am joining the MarketingProfs Team

Beth Harte

24 Jun 2009 | 5:59 am

You’ve probably figured this out by now… being a part of a community (on and offline) is very important to me. Whether that community is a made up of peers, customers, friends, or advisors it doesn’t matter. The beauty of being a part of a marketing community is that the members are typically equally passionate, they care about the profession and everyone has something of value to offer. Sure we all come at marketing with differing perspectives, experiences and practices; we often have strong debates about the future of marketing; and we often question where trends are…
One Year Blogiversary: Thank You!

Beth Harte

22 Jun 2009 | 8:06 am

Last week marked the one-year anniversary for The Harte of Marketing and what a year it’s been thanks to so many amazing people! When I first started THoM I really didn’t think anyone would read it, let alone care about what I had to say in regards to marketing, PR and social media. With so many other well-established and great blogs out there I almost considered not blogging at all but, I hated Twitter at the time (imagine that?!) so microblogging was out. And, apparently, my thoughts are too verbose for 140-characters (i.e. I talk too much). My blog is a place for all the ideas swirling…

Favorite {fvrit} Blog
UPDATED: Google, Privacy and Your FICO Score

28 Jun 2009 | 3:52 am

I just read an article over on Media Post, evidently Google is testing the ability of using consumers FICO scores within it’s content network to help advertisers target consumers with good credit (high FICO scores). I think Google has gone a bit too far in invading consumers privacy and consumers confidential credit records. It makes me very glad that I froze my credit with the big three credit reporting agencies. Consumers need to be aware that their credit is being inspected by Google and then put in front of advertisers. I hope regulatory-wise this comes back and bites Google square…
MagicJack – What’s the Big Attraction?

28 Jun 2009 | 3:42 am

I’ve seen the TV commercials for MagicJack Ad Nauseum. For the life of me I see no real value in the product, MagicJack comes across as a cheesy “As Seen on TV” product. I understand the basic technology as it is a USB voice over IP (VoIP) telephone device. It’s not much unlike Vonage. My main concern is that MagicJack is only as reliable as a consumers internet connection. I would hate to think someone gives up their landline, has no cell phone and needs to dial 911 for an emergency and their Internet connection is on the fritz. Quite scary if you ask me. From a novelty standpoint…
How Did Acer Make it to the #3 Spot? Can You Say Wal-Mart?

28 Jun 2009 | 1:38 am

I guess it isn’t so much Wal-mart as it was putting Acer products in a wide array of consumer retail stores. I am sure that Wal-Mart is one of the bigger sellers of Acer computers such as laptops and Netbooks. I admit the few times that I have been in Wal-Mart I have drooled over the Acer netbooks, they offer a lot of horsepower and features for a computer retailing for less than $250.00. The New York Times and Best Engaging Communities both have good write-ups about Acer’s push to the number three spot in the computer building industry. Both stories are well worth a read. For many years…
Amazon ECS Name Change to Amazon Product Advertising API, Authentication and Some Things You Need to Know

21 Jun 2009 | 3:02 am

I guess I am lucky I know people that head up what is currently known as Amazon ECS (formerly AWS). There is more going on with ECA than just a name change to Amazon Product Advertising API. While I won’t divulge my sources at Amazon, due to the fact they get too much email already, I will touch on a couple of items that developers and/or site owners need to be aware of. Amazon is making changes to how applications connect to the Product Advertising API (formerly ECS / AWS). The new authentication requires each request to be signed, whether it be using a Secret Access key, x.509 certificate…
We Are Doing Something Different with PR and Advertising

19 Jun 2009 | 4:56 am

As most website owners know banner and other types of advertising are way down. The major Internet destinations garner more than 70 percent (or more) of online advertising sales leaving small website owners to fight over the remaining 30 percent. It’s tough being a small web publisher. In it’s heyday we made out like bandits on advertising revenues. However over the last several years ad revenues had slowed to a mere trickle. My company owns and operates several Internet destinations, mainly in the graphic design and 3D content niches. We have great reach and offer great branding…

Marketing Roadmaps
More on FTC guidelines and impact on bloggers

Susan Getgood

30 Jun 2009 | 11:30 am

Recently Word of Mouth on NH public radio interviewed Rich Cleland, Assistant Director of the FTC’s Advertising Practices bureau about the revised guidelines on endorsements and testimonials that are expected to be approved this summer. Liz Gumbinner from Cool Mom Picks and Mom-101 provided the blogger’s perspective. There really wasn’t anything new or unexpected. I’ve written about this topic as has Liz. What was nice was to actually hear it directly from the FTC rather than filtered through another source like AP or BusinessWeek. Here’s my takeway from the…
Blogger Relations: Where has all the creativity gone?

Susan Getgood

27 Jun 2009 | 10:17 am

There are two principal components of successful outreach strategy. For simplicity’s sake let’s call one Execution and the other Content. Execution is all the tactical stuff – targeting the appropriate bloggers or reporters, getting the details right — the simple things like name, blog name, email address, following through appropriately, sending review or sample product promptly. Execution is the HOW. Content. That’s the pitch, the message, the story, the program. Content is the WHY. As in why should I care? Your pitch better answer that simple question straight…
Do you WANT advertisers to lie to you?

Susan Getgood

22 Jun 2009 | 8:16 pm

Today, an AP story about the FTC’s review of the guidelines for testimonials and endorsements and a John Dvorak PC Mag column about same stirred up the blogosphere a wee bit, although the scintillating *yawn* news of Jon & Kate plus 8 minus 1 seemed a potent distraction. While the spate of coverage leads me to wonder if the FTC is getting closer to announcing the new guidelines — the AP prefers to lead, not lag, the news — nothing was announced today. Apart from the fact that it is officially summer, nothing has changed since the last round of posts and articles on the…
Marketing Roadmaps (and me) around the blogosphere

Susan Getgood

18 Jun 2009 | 10:04 am

I’m testing Social RSS on my Facebook Profile, and need a new post quickly to make sure it posts a new entry to the Wall, so you lucky readers are being treated to a list of places around the blogosphere where I have appeared or contributed in the past couple months. Enjoy! Diva Talks! Blog Talk Radio podcast. Toby Bloomberg invited Liz Gumbinner (Mom 101, Cool Mom Picks) and me to talk about the best ways to reach out to bloggers. Especially parent bloggers. Open the Dialogue, MWW Group’s social media blog – Guest post on the differences between bloggers and journalists…
My Facebook Page Experiment, initial results

Susan Getgood

17 Jun 2009 | 7:53 pm

With all the hullaballoo about Facebook Pages, I thought it was time I experimented with one for myself. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, there are a few instances where it may make sense for a blogger to have a Facebook Page. One is for a multi-author blog such as Snapshot Chronicles Roadtrip, the family travel blog I launched about eight weeks ago. Each author can be an admin, use his/her own Facebook following to help build the brand and share the load of adding unique content — beyond just the blog posts that get fed automatically. I’m still experimenting but I want to…

VisInsights
Interview with Brian Solis “Putting the Public Back in PR”

Blake Cahill

1 Jul 2009 | 11:39 am

While on a recent trip to San Francisco, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brian Solis who founded and runs PR2.0 to discuss his new book “Putting the Public Back in PR”. We had a interesting dialogue not only about his new book but also about his perspective on how organizations are adopting [...]
FTC Getting Closer to Weighing in on Social Media Marketing

Blake Cahill

8 Jun 2009 | 1:49 pm

Proposed changes on the horizon to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines could further impact social media marketing while radically altering some marketers practices of using third-party spokespeople for online brand marketing. Michael Lasky, a senior partner at Davis & Gilbert LLP, a New York law firm that specializes in advertising and communications law says “Agencies [...]
Some Very Interesting Stats about Twitter Gender Breakdowns from HBS Study

Blake Cahill

2 Jun 2009 | 2:03 pm

Bill Heil and Mikolaj Piskorski from Harvard Business School recently published a study looking into the phenomenon known as Twitter, examining the activity of a random sample of users and comparing their findings to other social network statistics. Many call Twitter the “giant echo chamber” but there is some very interesting data in this study [...]
Marketers Seek Alternatives to Traditional Media Channels Amid Recession

Blake Cahill

1 Jun 2009 | 3:29 pm

As another major corporation files for bankruptcy, marketers search for more cost-effective methods to combat difficult economic conditions. Down are spending in television, magazines, radio, and newspapers while social networking and word of mouth are most likely to be increased. The latest ANA Brand Building Survey shows social networking and word of mouth activities likely to [...]
The Future of the Social Web - Interview with Jeremiah Owyang

Blake Cahill

5 May 2009 | 1:56 pm

It’s been about a year since Forrester hired Jeremiah Owyang where he has been developing his platform/niche from a research perspective while serving and educating many a Forrester customer about the rise and impact of Social Technologies on brands and companies. In his latest report, Jeremiah lays out some of his predictions about the “Future [...]

The Social Customer Manifesto
Convergence in B2B and B2C Mobile Marketing?

Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

1 Jul 2009 | 6:59 pm

(A recent column I wrote for Mobile Marketer.) On the surface, there are stark differences between business-to-business marketing and business-to-consumer marketing: audience size, volume of sales and magnitude of purchases. But as mobile becomes ubiquitous for connecting with customers, are we starting to see a convergence between the two?I would contend that the answer is, yes – if we have the courage to think creatively and move beyond the already-tired clichés of mobile marketing such as text campaigns and mobile couponing. In fact, with a bit of creative thought, the…
Jeanette Gibson from Cisco on Governance

Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

23 Jun 2009 | 2:02 pm

How Cisco looks at social media from a governance perspective, as presented by Jeanette Gibson (Director of New Media, Cisco Corporate Communications). The slide reads: Be Respectful, Be Mindful, You Are Reponsible, Abide By The Rules, Add Value, Be Honest, Be Yourself
Smartphones Changing the Network

Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

20 Jun 2009 | 5:35 pm

New post up at SupernovaHub: "Smartphones Changing the Network." The key bit, from analyst NPD, via Geek.com: "The smartphone category grew its share of the overall mobile phone market six percent annually, having jumped from 17 percent in the first quarter of 2008 to nearly one quarter (23 percent) of the entire mobile phone market. According to Rubin, this serves as clear indication of the rising popularity of the smartphone category that, by many analysts’ estimates, is already reshuffling the entire market."Read it.
The Social Media Maturity Model - One Perspective

Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

19 Jun 2009 | 2:18 pm

The folks over at DestinationCRM asked for some initial thoughts on the Social Media Maturity Model. First, definitely check out Josh Weinberger’s post from June 1 to get the lay of the land. It’s a good guide to the graphic and to the experiment they're conducting. Next, kudos to Lisa Boccadutre on fitting a whole raft of information into a very small space. The information density on this piece is astounding, in that in two pages there are points about time frames of market uptake of social media, capability changes over a five-year horizon, strategic evolution, treatment of…
Corporate Blogging Roundtable

Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

18 Jun 2009 | 3:17 pm

The folks from the German-American Business Association were kind enough to invite Mark Finnern (SAP), Jennifer McClure (Society for New Communications Research), Vassil Mladjov (Blogtronix), Mark Simmons (SixApart), Mario Sundar (LinkedIn) and myself to participate in a televised roundtable discussion entitled "Successful Corporate Blogging."Here's the setup:Blogs are changing the way companies are listening and reaching out to their customers. This televised panel of media experts is aimed to give insight in how to use blogging as a successful marketing communications strategy. Sample…

Broadcasting Brain
Are you ready for your digital legacy?

markdykeman

25 Jun 2009 | 4:05 am

Our words, images, video, and audio files will be around for a long, long time. To me, it seems very likely that the digital content we create through all forms of social media, Web pages, forms, etc. which are indexed by Google and other search engines will be around for an indefinite period of time. I can see at least some of this content being available in some form for decades. Many of us have young children (mine are both under the age of ten) who aren’t as adept with Web functionality as teens and adults. Many Web users are teens and Gen Y types who haven’t yet started…
Get brainy

markdykeman

14 Jun 2009 | 7:54 am

Think. Question. Extrapolate. Theorize. Experiment. Analyze. Make something new and cool. And don’t be afraid to ask questions.
How to turn a PC user into an Apple fanboy

markdykeman

10 Jun 2009 | 3:48 pm

Image by videogioco What would it take to make North Americans yield to the conventional wisdom of most countries and start calling soccer by its more widely used name: football? How do you make a life-long Coca Cola drinker switch to Pepsi? When does a Boston Red Sox fan learn to love the New York Yankees? Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Where is the tipping point at which an influencer can have an impact on our beliefs, tastes, thoughts, and behavior? The answers to these questions are the equivalents of the Fountain of Youth, the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Midas Touch to marketers…
Why one guy is quitting social media and why this is important

markdykeman

6 Jun 2009 | 4:01 pm

Jay Cruz, a Broadcasting Brain reader and a great blogger in his own right (see Tape Noise Diary), has written a thoughtful and insightful post about why he is drastically scaling back his social media participation in Why I’m Quitting Social Media. Here’s an excerpt from his post: Lets not fool ourselves. The web is mostly for entertainment. (Or, The Internet is for Porn) Everyone supposedly knows this, but pinpointing the distraction is actually harder than people are aware of. When you read a book, watch tv, or consume other type of media, you do it for a purpose. Most of the…
Developments on the home front part 2 - wake up dude!

markdykeman

3 Jun 2009 | 5:58 pm

In my last update I mentioned a health issue that I’m dealing with. Don’t worry, it’s nothing life threatening or anything like that, but it is a bit life-changing. I figure that it’s worth discussing because my experience may be valuable to you. No this is not an image of me Image by marvin L But first a bit of background: I have had problems with drowsiness for years, probably for longer than I realize. There are certain situations which sometimes, but not always, lead me to start dozing off. Some of these things are relatively benign, like, saying, sitting on the couch. Others…

Koka Sexton dot Com
My Computer Caught the Swine Flu

Koka Sexton

1 Jul 2009 | 9:02 am

As if I didn’t already have enough to get done, I found out last night that I somehow got a computer swine flu virus. Well, that’s what I’m calling it anyways. Now it doesn’t look like my computer is going to die but it’s definitely not doing well. I realized I had a virus/malware/rootkit when I typed something into Google and when I clicked a link, Firefox sent me to some completely different site. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t smoking crack so I did this a few more times. Yes, I was infected. The worst part is that the virus is completely random. Now…
Paragon Software - My New Disaster Recovery Software Gig

Koka Sexton

10 Jun 2009 | 10:15 pm

Early in March, I was let go from Acronis software. Probably for the best because I got hired to build their Channel Program but the company had so much channel sales conflict I wanted to puke. I fought the good fight despite the company selling their product direct. Being out of a job is not very fun. Especially for a guy who has been working in some aspect since he was 15 yrs old. I kept myself busy redesigning some of my other sites, working with some companies on a project basis and most importantly, I got to spend a lot of quality time with my new boy. I wasn’t sure what I was…
Super Geek Land - My Geeky Passion

Koka Sexton

10 Jun 2009 | 10:00 pm

I’ve owned the domain for a couple years and couldn’t find myself to let it go. The idea for the name came from a drunken night with some friends where the conversation of Geek Porn came up. Maybe you had to be there but the idea was that geeks didn’t watch or look at conventional porn, they like to check out motherboards and computer components. Something about Super Geek Land just seemed like gold. Without any ads or push on my part the site was actually generating a small amount of money on it’s own. All from organic search traffic. Can you guess what the search…
FriendFeed Explosion

Koka Sexton

8 May 2009 | 10:04 am

Whats going on with FriendFeed? FriendFeed is a service which, instead of layering a meta-network on top of all your other social networks, will create a news feed incorporating them all much like the Facebook news feed. It’s an idea that isn’t too difficult or bothersome for social network users to adopt. The site has been around for a while but in recent weeks I have been seeing a lot of activity on my profile that I hadn’t seen before. FriendFeed aims to be a one stop shop for all your social networking updates and news items. The four founders were all team members at Google and…
SOCOM Sales Redesign

Koka Sexton

30 Apr 2009 | 9:02 pm

Tweaking my websites and blogs is actually really fun for me. I love finding a new theme and getting into the code to make it my own. Since my online sales tips blog hasn’t had a real refresh since February 08, I spent some time making it look a bit more clean. I used the same theme as HyperLocal Edge since it seems to be my new favorite. SOCOM Sales started off as a way for me to blog about my journey as a sales person and has morphed into a blog that covers a bunch of different topics. I was getting such a great responce to the site through comments and emails that I even wrote a…

Marketing Profs Daily Fix
Paul Barsch: Why Capacity Management Matters to Marketers

1 Jul 2009 | 7:19 am

In a challenging global slowdown, the world seems awash in capacity. Scans of major business publications show airlines reducing flights, companies furloughing or firing employees, and manufacturers closing plants. If you agree that it appears there is more unused capacity than demand, why should capacity management matter?It would seem in the “Great Recession,” capacity planning and management should be a minimal consideration. In fact, capacity utilization for many industries is at an all time low. For example, from January 2008 to January 2009, according to the Financial Times, the…
Ann Handley: B2B According to Me: The Winners

30 Jun 2009 | 7:47 am

Attendees who blogged about the MarketingProfs B2B Forum (and let us know about it) had the opportunity to win a pass to our Digital Marketing Mixer this fall in Chicago. Well, the votes are in, and here are the winners!We looked for blog posts that talked about the 2009 B2B Forum in Boston, and awarded recognition to posts in five specific categories. (Details of the contest are here.) Before I get into the winners, let me just say Thank You to all who contributed. All of the posts were truly great, and the staff here loved pouring through them all. But as your mother always told you, you…
Ted Mininni: How Can Supermarkets Truly Differentiate?

30 Jun 2009 | 7:46 am

Good question, isn’t it? Have you ever found yourself in a mall store and due to being in virtually the same environment as every other store, and being surrounded by virtually the same merchandise, have you had to step back outside the store and glance up at the sign to ascertain which store you’d ambled into? I’m willing to bet most of us have at some time or other. What about supermarkets? That’s why a recent BusinessWeek article dubbed, “Supermarket Strategies: What’s New at the Grocer” didn’t grab my attention at first. The subhead under the title did: “From…
Paul Dunay: Social Search: Could It Be a Google Killer?

30 Jun 2009 | 7:45 am

This morning I typed into Google the search term: VoIP (which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol) and I got 64 Million responses. 64 Million!! How archaic is that?Does Google have any idea how long would it take me to go through 64 Million responses? One day we are going to look back at the days of searching and getting 64 Million responses to anything and equate that to a Commodore 64 or Betamax tape. I know, I know the point is Google is trying to bring me the best responses to the term in the first few pages (if not the first page). But the best responses according to who? Why don’t…
Beth Harte: A Grand-Slam for Denny’s?

29 Jun 2009 | 11:33 am

Have you heard about the Denny’s Allnighter? What about the Denny’s ‘Creature Comforts’ campaign? No? That’s okay; I didn’t either. It’s probably a sign of the times that I am too old to appreciate staying up until 2AM and heading to Denny’s for some grub after a night out. That said, I do remember trips to Denny’s many moons ago that included a cranky waitress or waiter who hated us being there (okay, so we were a bit wound up) and food that was, well, not a grand-slam by any stretch. Sound familiar? My, how times have changed! Who knew that Denny’s has been serving up…

Digital Trends
Life Hacks Lifehacker.com

2 Jul 2009 | 4:10 pm

Life Hacks LifeHacker.com - We talk with Kevin Purdy, senior Editor at Lifehacker.com about some of the latest Gmail hacks, the scoop on the new site called GDGT.com, and some of the pros and cons of Google Voice. Read | Permalink | Linking Blogs | Podcasts
RIAA Wins Copyright Ruling Against Usenet.com

2 Jul 2009 | 12:05 pm

The Recording Industry Association of America has won a summary judgement against Usenet access provider Usenet.com on a wealth of copyright infringement charges, including direct and vicarious copyright infringement, as well as inducement of infringement. Although the judgement is hardly a surprise, Usenet.com had been using every means at its disposal to forestall the inevitable, including sending employees out of the country to make them inaccessible, destroying data, and failing to turn over materials. "This decision is another example of courts recognizing the value of copyrighted music…
Mac Security Expert Identifies iPhone SMS Vulnerability

2 Jul 2009 | 11:30 am

At the SyScan security conference being held in Singapore this week, Macintosh security expert Charlie Miller has outlined an SMS-based vulnerability in the Apple iPhone that could let attackers listen in on calls, access the GPS unit to locate the phone, execute arbitrary programs, and even let the phone participate in distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks against other Internet sites via the Internet. Miller didn't go into significant detail on the exploit, although he planned to discu Read | Permalink | Linking Blogs | Computing
Online Advertisers Pledge Transparency on Tracking

2 Jul 2009 | 11:00 am

In a move to avoid having their industry subject to more regulation and legislation, a coalition of online advertisers have pledged to support a set of "self-regulatory principles" that will offer greater transparency to consumers about what information in collected about their online activities and how that information is used; the participants also pledged greater transparency and protections for information about children and data that could be used to identify individuals. The broad industry pledge is in part an effort to stave off criticism from privacy advocates, government regulators,…
Battlefield 1943 to Invade Xbox 360 and PS3...For Just $15

2 Jul 2009 | 10:15 am

Electronic Arts has announced that Battlefield 1943, its latest WWI-themed first person shooter from subsidiary studio Dice, will launch as a download-only game on Xbox Live (on July 8) and PlayStation Network (on July 9) for just $15. The first-person shooter builds on the award-winning Battlefield 1942 and takes players into four Pacific battles (Wake Island, Iwo Jima, Coral Sea, and Guadalcanal). And the game comes with a community challenge for social gamers: to work together on the Coral Sea battle to reach 43 million kills across both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Battlefield 1943…

Janet Fouts
Tim Ferriss on blogging

Janet

1 Jul 2009 | 7:47 pm

Tim Ferriss did a presentation at WordCamp SF this year that really was just plain useful. “How to build traffic without killing yourself” is the title of the video. You should watch it.
Do you need Kwout?

Janet

1 Jul 2009 | 2:28 pm

Because of the way I work, I’m forever looking for more efficient ways to take clippings from the web and share them with my networks. I recently wrote about Evernote, which really has made it easy to save information on multiple devices. I use Skitch to annotate screen shots, and Amplify to quickly clip some content and share it on their service so others can comment on it. kwout pulls a lot of the best features of some of these apps together in a bookmarklet that enables clipping images and text, but the cool part is you can clip a screen shot of a set of links and kwout converts the…
Do you need a corporate social media policy?

Janet

29 Jun 2009 | 10:55 pm

I’m a big fan of a corporate policy for social media for any business no matter how small. Unless there’s only one person who will be handling your social media efforts you need to set some guidelines in place. Now, by this I don’t mean you have to write a huge document that strangles any hint of spontaneity from your team. Quite the opposite. A corporate policy lets them know what they need to know to communicate the company message effectively, and what they should and should not do. People are more comfortable knowing the rules I’ve encountered staff on many…
Social Media Referral Network?

Janet

21 Jun 2009 | 10:04 pm

Recently I had a meeting with a top ranked sales person who wanted to understand what social media could do for his company. Now this guy is an old hand at sales and he told me most of his business leads came from referrals. He has a network of over 2,000 people that he carefully maintains with phone calls, emails, lunches, sales calls and sharing his connections to help the network thrive. He’s spent 20 years nurturing his relationships and they’ve paid off quite well. After 5 minutes he understood the power of social media. “OH, so it’s a big referral network!”…
What do your Tweets say about you?

Janet

15 Jun 2009 | 12:29 pm

Leave it to Dan Zarella to come up with a new way to analyze your Twitter stream. His research reports on social media and viral content are enlightening, and the tools he’s produced for Twitter and link attraction are just awesome. TweetPsych uses two different analysis algorithms–Regressive Imagery Dictionary and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) to create a psychological profile for you based on your last 1,000 tweets. Type in a username and TweetPsyche comes back with a profile of cognitive, primordial, conceptual and emotional content of your Tweets. Granted, if you re-tweet a…

The Social Times
Bigpoint Launches Seafight on hi5 Game Channel

Kristen Nicole

1 Jul 2009 | 7:30 am

Online game portal Bigpoint is launching a game called Seafight on hi5’s recently revealed Games Channel, making it immediately available in 20 languages. Play the game on hi5 here. The realtime fantasy adventure game is among Bigpoint’s most popular. The Flash game will be made accessible for all hi5 users without having to install a seperate application. So far the supported launguages are English, German, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Potuguese, Romanian, Russina, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. Seafight is the…
Meebo Ramps Up Ads with New Partner Network

Kristen Nicole

30 Jun 2009 | 8:07 pm

Meebo, the chat widget tool, had already launched its own ad network some time ago. Now the company is launching ads on its own partner network, with Toyota being the first marketer to advertise. With 85 publishers signed up for its partner network, Meebo is enabling brands to run ads on a larger scale directly through Meebo’s company, with the same results they’ve grown accustomed to on Meebo.com. What’s this really mean? In Meebo’s long-standing effort to expand its own network, web presence and visibility, the integrated communication tool has launched several tools…
Invites for TwiFeedback, in 140 Characters or Less.

Kristen Nicole

30 Jun 2009 | 1:02 pm

Twitter can be a great way to gain feedback from customers, clients and consumers of your product or service, as many brands like Comcast are well aware. But if you’re looking fr a more direct and dedicated way to leverage the Twitter community for brand feedback purposes, a new tool called TwitFeedback is looking to make it drop-dead simple for you to do so. Managed through a widget, visitors to your website can say in 140 characters what they think of your product or service. If the concept of garnering feedback directly from your site sounds familiar because of a certain side tab…
Offerpal Teams with Tapjoy for iPhone App Monetization

Kristen Nicole

29 Jun 2009 | 9:58 am

What could make iPhone app development and monetization a more seamless operation? Combining the two to create a one-stop-chop-shop. Offerpal Media has partnered with Tapjoy to present such an offering. As part of Tapjoy’s Software Developer Kit for iPhone apps, developers can choose to optimize monetization options through Offerpal Media. It’s a package deal that covers some of the most important bases for iPhone app developers. For Tapjoy, the inclusion of Offerpal’s monetization platform means that the company can offer a range of new features for its own clients. This…
Motorola Karma is Socially Aware. Groovy.

Kristen Nicole

25 Jun 2009 | 7:51 am

AT&T’s 3G network is being used for yet another socially savvy mobile device; the upcoming Moterolla Karma QA1 is curvy, compact and socially aware. The phone will have quick access to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, JuiceCaster and more. From Motorola’s perspective, the idea of a mobile device is to support communication, no matter how it occurs. That’s a good point of view to have, considering the dominance of Apple’s iPhone, and the multimedia support mobile devices need for creating, sharing and consuming content. With what appears to be a main tab for social…

Webware.com
Google App Engine misfires

Tom Krazit

2 Jul 2009 | 3:40 pm

Technical difficulties forced Google's Web application hosting infrastructure off the air for about four hours Thursday morning. Customers who run their Web applications on Google App Engine were forced idle Thursday by a series of issues involving "elevated Datastore latency and error-rates, as well as elevated serving error-rates," according to a Google employee posting in the Google App Engine Downtime Notify group spotted by Techcrunch. A Google representative acknowledged the downtime and apologized for the outage. "Today at 8 am PT datastore access for App Engine applications was…
Microsoft: Bing needs to improve when news breaks

Tom Krazit

2 Jul 2009 | 12:34 pm

One of the biggest news stories in years caught Microsoft's Bing a little off guard. The flood of traffic on the Internet following reports that Michael Jackson had been rushed to a Los Angeles hospital last Thursday, where he later died, has been well documented: Google at first thought the surge was an attack on its servers. Microsoft released statistics Thursday indicating it, too, witnessed a surge in traffic related to Jackson, but admitted that Bing News could have done a much better job delivering relevant stories during the two or so frantic hours in which searches went through the…
Google finally sued by makers of Finally Fast

Tom Krazit

2 Jul 2009 | 11:29 am

Google has been sued again by a company mad over the use of its trademarks as keywords, but this one comes with a twist. Ascentive, the company behind those incessant "Finally Fast!" PC support ads, became the latest Google advertiser to sue the company for allowing advertisers to purchase ads using trademarks they do not own as search keywords. It will have to get in line behind Firepond, Rescuecom and several other companies challenging Google's policy, recently expanded to allow some companies to use trademarks they don't own in the text of their ads. Ascentive takes its suit a step…
Google Toolbar for IE speaks your language

Seth Rosenblatt

1 Jul 2009 | 5:51 pm

Updated July 2 at 10:30 a.m. PDT: The full list of supported languages has been added to the bottom of the story. Toolbars have long been an effective way for software publishers to add several features to a browser at once, and the Google Toolbar has long been among the most popular of these. Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer introduces revamped translation tools, giving users one-click powers of conversion over many languages. Google Toolbar for IE now offers one-click page translation.(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET) The toolbar now detects your default language setting and…
Bing brings out the tweets

Tom Krazit

1 Jul 2009 | 4:26 pm

Twitter messages from prominent writers like All Things D's Kara Swisher are now in Bing search results.(Credit: Bing) Microsoft is trying to get a leg up in the real-time search wars by adding Twitter messages to search results. Bing will now surface results for certain celebrities (leading to the odd pairing of search guru Danny Sullivan and American Idol host Ryan Seacrest in the same sentence) when users search on their names and "twitter," the company announced Wednesday afternoon. It's not indexing all of Twitter, instead picking "a few thousand people to start" and using Twitter's…

BIZ GROWTH NEWS
Guidelines For Blogger Outreach: Gary Vaynerchuck Case Study

Krishna De

26 Jun 2009 | 12:36 pm

How do you connect with influencers online? And does it matter if that person influences just 2 people or 20,000 people? Well that was the subject discussed today on the For Immediate Release live show hosted by Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz. The following article summaries the live conversation. If you just want to read my summary guidelines for blogger outreach go to the end of the article. This is a very long article and for the benefit of some readers who may not be interested in the full story, I have split the post - so click on ‘continue reading’ if you want to access the…
SEO Blogger From Wordtracker: Key Word Research For Your Blog Posts Just Got Easier

Krishna De

24 Jun 2009 | 4:56 am

Many businesses are discovering the benefits of business blogging to help them get found in the search engines. And increasingly more and more customers and consumers are turning to the search engines to research products and services before they make a decision to purchase. When we write our articles so that we increase the chance of being found online we need to consider the key words what we use. From today, determining those key words when blogging just got a whole lot easier thanks to Wordtracker who have just released a plug in for Firefox called SEO Blogger. It is free to install and…
Music, Art, Dance And Drama At Waddesdon Manor, 28-29 June 2009

Krishna De

24 Jun 2009 | 4:24 am

Note: This blog post is relevant if you’re in the south of England and is being posted as a favour to my good friend and colleague Mark White. My children love to sing and dance and I am always on the look out for new places to visit and activities for them. Recently they enjoyed a great afternoon learning circus skills – here you can see my youngest learning how to spin plates which is a life skill I think we all need! One event that I wish I could take the children to on the 28 and 29 June 2009 is taking place at Waddesdon Manor near Oxford (England). The Manor itself is a National…
LinkedIn Referrals: When Do You Reject A Request To Connect?

Krishna De

22 Jun 2009 | 8:53 am

As your network grows on social networking sites, you will no doubt find that your time online will increase if for no other reason than responding to the requests to connect and answering questions from people in your network. Within LinkedIn one of the requests you may find is that people ask you to connect them to people in your network or even people one or two degrees of separation away from you. In my LinkedIn for Business workshops we discuss case studies of what makes for an effective connection and referral request. I am noticing however that I have had an increase in the number of…
Greenhouse Limerick Social Media Workshop Review By Mary New of Papercocktail.com

Krishna De

21 Jun 2009 | 10:39 pm

Earlier this month I was delighted to gift a free scholarship to the the Greenhouse Limerick Social Media workshop. The winner of the scholarship was Mary New of PaperCocktail.com Wedding Stationery Specialists based in County Wicklow. Her business was established just 5 months ago. Here is Mary’s guest blog post and a review of the event: As someone new to the world of social media, I was delighted to receive Krishna’s De’s scholarship to the Greenhouse Blogging and Social Media for Business Seminar at The Absolute Hotel in Limerick on Saturday 13th June 2009. The event was organised…

Stay N' Alive
Reason #552 to Be on FriendFeed: Real-Time Search

Jesse Stay

2 Jul 2009 | 1:24 pm

I’ve talked in the past about how I read your blogs. I rarely subscribe through Google Reader any more - I read all of your blogs through FriendFeed. Therefore if you want me to read your blog, I strongly suggest taking the first step of importing it into FriendFeed. Well, if that weren’t reason enough, FriendFeed just gave you even one more reason to import your blog and other social data into their site: real-time search. If you’ll look down in the lower-right sidebar of this blog, you’ll see an example of it in action - every mention of “realtime”,…
Going on a Staycation

Jesse Stay

1 Jul 2009 | 1:26 am

Photo Copyright Stay N’ Alive Productions, LLC “Stay”cations in my family aren’t just for vacationing near home! This Tuesday, July 7, I’ll be packing up my stuff and heading on a road-trip with my family to Boston Massachusetts where my parents live to stay with them about a month. The goal is to visit with family, see my new nephew soon to be born any day now, my twin nieces in New Jersey, and just to get out of Utah for a short bit. Having lived overseas and out of state most of my life, I crave traveling so it will be a good trip. While I’m out…
Come Follow Me on Facebook

Jesse Stay

28 Jun 2009 | 11:07 pm

Starting tonight, any Facebook Public Profile Page (that’s Page with a capital “P”) with over 100 subscribers has the opportunity to select its own vanity URL. While it hasn’t had the hype from the blogosphere that we saw from the previous private Profile vanity URLs, it does seem to be having a large effect, as Facebook has slowed down tonight, even more than when the private Profile vanities were released. Get yours now while you can - you can reserve yours for both your Public Pages and private Profiles via the http://facebook.com/username link. Please comment…
Mob Wars - Tomayto, Tomaahto…

Jesse Stay

28 Jun 2009 | 7:52 pm

Since today seems to be a slow news day and some sites seem to be anxious for traffic I thought I’d put my hand into the ring for a piece of that traffic (hey, at least I’m being transparent). Let’s start by saying I really like Mike Arrington, founder of TechCrunch. Quite honestly, I gained a new respect for the way he handled and explained the misunderstanding which happened between him and Leo Laporte on a recent (and possibly the last) episode of the Gillmor Gang. I do think he is a genuinely nice guy with good intentions and an amazing brain for business - I highly…
How to Push Sync Calendars and Contacts to Your iPhone Using Gmail

Jesse Stay

27 Jun 2009 | 1:05 am

My friend, Phil Burns, recently wrote a very rare blog post citing a discussion this morning at the monthly Utah CTO breakfast, hosted by another friend of mine, Phil Windley (former CTO of Utah). Burns stated his concerns with the “anti-Microsoft people” (which I am not, nor am I anti-Apple or anti-Linux) and the fact that they were complaining about how hard it was to automatically sync all your contacts, calendar, and mail on their phones from services such as Gmail and other 3rd-party services. Burns’ (I’ll call him by his last name here so as not to confuse…

Social Media Mom
Avoiding Twitter Spammers

Teeg

1 Jul 2009 | 6:06 am

It is a well-known and much lamented fact that twitter attracts spammers. When I first joined twitter, it felt like a small town. Perhaps everyone didn’t know everyone else, but at most people were one or two degrees removed. As long as someone didn’t come in and try to add the whole community at once, people were patient with newcomers. And even most of the better known twitter users would respond back if you asked a question. Utopias never seem to last long though, and unfortunately spammers soon discovered twitter. The first spammers were easy to spot, they’d be following…
Dear Twitter, Please Fix Your @s

Teeg

25 Jun 2009 | 6:13 am

Once upon a time, twitter had no @s. If you wanted someone in particular to see your tweet, you used their name and hoped they’d catch it. Then people started using @ in front of the name so others would know who the tweet was directed to. Twitter saw it, and thought it was good. Then Twitter decided to multiply the goodness and allow @ to link to a tweeter’s page and added a link for people to see their own @s if they wanted to check. And it was still good. Then Twitter decided to allow people a choice of whether they wanted to see others @s or not. And some chose to see and…
Thoughts on Attending the First Social Media Breakfast - Tech Valley

Teeg

22 Jun 2009 | 6:32 am

As a stay-at-home Mom (SAHM) who homeschools and does social media consulting as well, one thing I’ve discovered is that online social media is only part of the story. The rest is meeting people in real life. There’s something about matching a name to the actual person, shaking a hand, or giving a hug to a friend you’ve never met before that makes relationships Velveteen Rabbit real. Which is why I was so disappointed over the past year as social media conferences came and went and I couldn’t get to any of them. It’s also why I was so excited when Patrick Muldoon…
Happy Father’s Day to Special Social Media Dads

Ariela Ross

21 Jun 2009 | 5:52 pm

Let us take a moment to recognize all of the worthy fathers out there. Happy Father’s Day, gentlemen. You have the great opportunity to be a role model, a source of good humor and crazy tales, and fulfill the title of Daddy. Social Media Mom may provide a haven for the mothers out there on the Internet, but we never forget our partners in parenting. Some amazing Social Media Dads have made their mark on here as well, so let’s pay a little tribute and appreciation to a few #1 Dads. Chris Brogan - Author of ChrisBrogan.com, a blog about community and social media Doriano Carta - Aka…
Social Media Mom Adventures

Ariela Ross

18 Jun 2009 | 7:40 pm

Who doesn’t love a girl’s night out? Natasha D’Souza of EyeSee arranged a fun evening for the hard working moms of social media. While it was not so easy for most of the ladies to get away from their responsibilities, many did, and they had a great time. The EyeSee blog posted a slideshow of great social media venues for like-minded mommies to meet at online. One of those mentioned was Social Media Mom, and we’re honored to be part of that list. A prime directive of this site is to encourage productivity and overall provide a haven on the web for you. Social Media Moms…

Quick Online Tips
Buy Twitter Followers: 100,000 for $3479

QuickOnlineTips

2 Jul 2009 | 12:27 pm

What is the secret to increase Twitter followers? You can easily buy Twitter followers for a few dollars. As huge twitter follower counts represent prestige, some of them might actually be bought. uSocial twitter follower service lets you actually buy Twitter followers. I checked their prices and a starting package will get you 1000 twitter followers for $87 to a new or existing account in 7 days. You can buy 10,000 twitter followers for $372.75 in 45 days. So you want more…. How about 100,000 Twitter followers – that is sure to make you famous on Twitter. You can spend $3,479…
How to Create Cool Usernames

QuickOnlineTips

2 Jul 2009 | 7:08 am

Guest post by Srikanth Username has many important qualities, it instantly represents you. If you join a social networking site, then you need to have a cool username to gain focus and visibility. Username should be creative, unique and should be able to represent you in all means. Consider Twitter for instance, people look at your username before looking at your profile, so it should also attract users to your profile to become popular on social networking sites. For email you have to choose a simple and short username such that people can remember it easily. Think creative when you are…
Top Brands Introduce Extra Large Ads

QuickOnlineTips

1 Jul 2009 | 11:23 am

What are extra large ads for you – 768×90px or 160×600px banners? Well XXL extra large size advertisements went live on top websites like CNN, New York Times as consumers continue searching for content between the ads. I spotted this huge Mercedes ad on New York Times Online Publishers Association announced that several popular members, whose sites reach 68% of the total U.S. Internet audience, have begun offering the three new larger new ad units, namely The Fixed Panel: 336 wide x 700 tall, remains constant as the user scrolls to the top and bottom of the page The XXL Box:…
5 Best Sites to Get Answers to Your Questions

QuickOnlineTips

1 Jul 2009 | 9:50 am

Guest post by Dee Barizo The Internet is a rich resource of information on all things imaginable. But while you can just key in a query on the Google search box, you are not sure you would get the right information. This is especially true if you are looking for answers to specific questions. And because of search engine optimization, you’re not sure if the site at the top of the result page is there because it’s genuinely helpful, or if it’s simply there because it’s the best-optimized webpage. Here are five resources that you can use to get answers to questions. 1. Mahalo Answers…
12 Easy Ways to Extend Mobile Phone Battery Life

QuickOnlineTips

30 Jun 2009 | 12:09 pm

Guest post by Srikanth How to increase your mobile phone battery life? Most of the modern mobile phones come with good batteries, which last for years if used according to the manufacturer instructions. Nowadays most of the mobile phones can support various applications and programs that are useful to us. However, we must note that these applications are energy hungry and use up the battery power faster, adding to this, most of the people ignore to turn off some of the functions in the mobile phone that use power. Usually modern lithium-ion battery can power your phone for days in standby…

Take A Peck
TruFan - Platform for Local Fan Communities

Jason

24 Jun 2009 | 1:21 pm

In case you missed it, yesterday TruMedia Networks launched TruFan, a social media platform for local sports fan communities. The platform will power fan communities in 122 markets and you can check out SawxHeads or CeltsHeads for sample communities that live on the TruFan platform. The platform includes standard community features such as profiles, blogs, pictures, and videos, as well as a ticket marketplace (powered by AceTickets.com) that enables fans to buy and sell tickets. Very cool idea with the ticket marketplace, but I wonder about the long-term viability due to ticketing agreements…
How the AVP Could Leverage Social Media

Jason

26 May 2009 | 1:55 pm

I apologize for the lack of updates recently - I took on a new job a few weeks ago as social media manager for eWayDirect, which offers multiple marketing services on a single platform built around a robust reporting structure. The job is definitely a challenge as I’ll be helping them 1) build their branded community platform 2)work with clients on how they can use it and 3) help build their own brand online, but it will be fun. I still plan on staying up-to-speed with things in the world of sports and providing information about the intersection of sports and social media. Please…
10 Reasons Why Sports Organizations Should Use Twitter

Jason

23 Apr 2009 | 6:28 am

If social media is the tools, opportunities and conversations that enable mass two-way or multi-way communication and information sharing, then Twitter is the #1 tool right now that allows for direct, real-time interaction between people. Twitter is a very powerful connector and enabler. It enables JoeSportsFan in Philly to connect with JimSportsFan in New York and discuss the NBA Playoffs…in real-time, on their iPhones, while they’re both watching from their favorite sports bars. And then an unlimited number of fans can join the conversation or just see what is being said. There…
My Notes from the 2009 CSRI Conference

Jason

20 Apr 2009 | 1:56 pm

On Thursday and Friday last week I had a great opportunity to attend the 2009 College Sport Research Institute (CSRI) Conference in Chapel Hill. The conference brought together some of the brightest sports minds, students and faculty to discuss issues facing college sports. I really enjoyed meeting Jeremy Bloom and hearing about his ordeals with the NCAA. Others such as Jay Bilas, Dick Baddour, Bernie Mullin, John Gerdy, Amy Perko and Andrew Zimbalist provided valuable insight on a wide range of issues. I also especially enjoyed meeting Tim Newman (Coordinator of the Sport Management Program…
Keep Sponsors Happy with SponsorshipPRO+ Presentation Software

Jason

10 Apr 2009 | 10:14 am

The Challenge: Teams and properties often include a lot of different assets in packages for sponsors. Signage, radio and TV spots, other media, experiences, tickets and more and the impressions, ratings and other metrics can be difficult to keep track of. When sponsors ask for results at the end of a season or after an event, you need to be able to tell them exactly what they got and what the results were to ensure that they are happy with what they paid for. The Solution: SponsorshipPRO+ presentation software I was fortunate to speak with Tom Stipes recently about his company and its…

PR-Squared
Scenes from a Social Enterprise

TDefren

1 Jul 2009 | 6:31 am

What are Social Media evangelists looking to accomplish? We talk a whole lot about humanizing the corporation, but when we do so, we tend to think in terms of Customer Service and Marketing. Is that all there is to it? These questions came to mind during a recent dinner hosted by Jeff Dachis, former head of Razorfish and now founding father of Dachis Corp., which has attracted stars like Peter Kim and David Armano (whom I sat next to during the meal; the dude is not only smart but fairly hilarious). Dachis Corp. is talking about “social business design” as its core concept: “the…
You Scare Me

TDefren

30 Jun 2009 | 7:22 am

Unfortunately I can’t get into specifics, but recently SHIFT has been very lucky on the newbiz front. We’ve been invited to respond to RFPs that we’d only dreamt about a year ago. And we’ve won a few, against giant & savvy competitors. All of which still feels unimaginable. Don’t get me wrong — we’ve been whacked by the recession. And, more importantly, I am not sharing this cryptic bit of good news in order to brag. Just the opposite. I am trying to inspire you. These victories have made us more bold. We no longer feel the sense of inferiority that dogged us as…
Evangelism is a Slog

TDefren

26 Jun 2009 | 7:42 am

I am lucky that my circle of friends includes many of the Social Media industry’s most enduring innovators. We meet for coffees, dinners, brainstorms, dealmaking, etc. Inevitably the talk turns to the state of Social Media in general, and its adoption (or lack thereof) within large corporations. At this point in the conversations, opinions start to diverge. Some thought leaders are encouraged to see that Corporate America is no longer ignoring Social Media, and look forward to seeing seismic changes happen – even if they occur incrementally. Other brainiacs are…
Do You Believe in Second Chances?

TDefren

25 Jun 2009 | 7:37 am

Thinking back to, oh, let’s say 1998 … you probably had experience using RealPlayer, the media player from RealNetworks. Maybe it came bundled with your PC. Maybe you were needed to download it in order to watch a BBC clip online. Unfortunately, though it has many happy users, the RealPlayer of yesteryear gained a reputation for bloat that aggravated most users. What if I told you that our clients at RealNetworks had all the necessary Social Media and User Interface epiphanies a couple of years ago, and worked diligently to make RealPlayer rock? What if I told you that the new…
Let Me Use It

TDefren

24 Jun 2009 | 6:12 am

This week, our cool clients at Alice.com had their big launch. Alice is probably best described as a cross between Netflix and Target: it’s a subscription shopping service offering great prices and free delivery on non-perishable items like toilet paper, shampoo, etc. Yesterday I spent a fair bit of time flogging for Alice on Twitter. We have over 70 clients, and yet you have rarely seen me throw out more than a single tweet or two about them. What made Alice.com different? They let me use it. Alice execs insisted that I sign up for the service as a…

that canadian girl
The Guardian Crowdsources the MPs Expense Investigation: Giving Idle Hands Direction

Vero

18 Jun 2009 | 1:20 pm

I’m fascinated by today’s effort by The Guardian to crowdsource investigation of the MPs expenses. My interest isn’t in the topic investigated, really. While I agree that MPs need to be brought down from that Lala land where they can expense duck houses for our hard earned tax money to pay, I do feel that it has somewhat turned into a witch hunt. The time and energy spent by auditors and journalists to establish who should be burnt at the stake first could have been used in much better ways. So The Guardian came up with a solution; use those idle hours we spent faffing…
Summer love: Jack & Rose in the garden

Vero

17 Jun 2009 | 2:14 pm

If you’ve come here tonight looking for brilliant marketing insight or the usual stuff, you may be disappointed. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for fluffy-tailed kitty cats frolicking in the garden, then you’ve come to the right place! Click here to view the embedded video. This is what summer should be like If you’ve not yet met Jack and Rose, here’s what they were like at the age of nine weeks old.
Ten Tips to Avoid the Heat This Summer in Your Home and Your Business

Vero

10 Jun 2009 | 12:58 am

It’s entirely possible that Britain has had the only three days of sunshine it’ll get this summer, and while I’m writing this, it’s monsoon weather out there. Regardless, summer is an interesting time for anyone working running a small business, so here are a few tips to beat off the heat both in your home office and in your business. Keep your house cool First let’s look at a few tips to keep your house from heating up during the day: 1. Setup fans to make the air circulate Rather than just letting air blow towards you, setup two fans along a…
Spring brings change to Pepsmedia.com

Vero

3 Jun 2009 | 2:44 pm

With many years of moonlighting and now nearly a year under my belt working full time for Pepsmedia, we felt lately that it was time to refresh our site to reflect the shift in what we’ve been doing for our clients. Much of my time this year has been focused on strategic planning for blog & social media campaigns, in-house coaching and brand monitoring, interspersed with some gorgeous blog and website designs. So far, it’s been both the most enjoyable and the most challenging experience I’ve ever faced. Many people ask me whether I regret choosing this economic climate…
Five Years of Blogging: Giveaway Winners!

Vero

22 May 2009 | 6:54 am

Earlier this month, I announced that I was giving away five fun gifts to celebrate my blog’s five years. Each of the gifts represents an aspect of my personality and what I’ve been blogging over the years; Geeky, funky, practical, foodie and artsy. (No, they’re not five of the Seven Dwarves, before you ask) It’s taken me a bit longer than expected to pick winners. Who knew cats would be so adverse to making choices! (Seriously, they either fell asleep on the papers or tried to eat them…) So with no further delays, here are the winners: Geeky: The ticket to the…

The Responsible Marketing Blog
Walmart’s sustainability efforts impress

Patrick Byers

12 Jun 2009 | 3:21 pm

Like a lot of people, I’ve had my doubts about Walmart’s sincerity when they’ve talked about sustainability. No matter their green claims, I can’t get past the fact they sell more cheap stuff from China than anyone. In contrast, Patagonia is a poster child for sustainable business. Given the above, the following interview with Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and 1% for the Planet is a bit of an eye-opener: My favorite quote: Every time we make a decision that’s right for the planet, it makes us more money—and they are convinced that they can also do…
Create a culture of appreciation with social media

Patrick Byers

10 Jun 2009 | 5:12 pm

I spoke at the Recognition Roundtable today here in Bellevue, a group of mostly HR people from major companies located here in the Pacific Northwest that are looking for ways to encourage and support recognition within their respective workplaces. In the session, I shared— Why this topic should matter to every marketer What social media is How social media can help build a culture of appreciation, with a few examples How it helps improve employee responses to six of the 12 Questions from First, Break all the Rules A few options for building social networks for the enterprise…
How Ford made me reconsider my auto buying habits

Patrick Byers

27 May 2009 | 3:12 pm

I’ve owned dozens of cars, and like a lot of people, most have been Japanese or German. So when I turned in my leased Honda and started the hunt for a new hybrid, I drove the Toyota Prius, Camry and Highlander Hybrids, the new Honda Insight and a Lexus RX 400h. The Prius felt underpowered The Camry was nice, but felt too much like the Accord I’d just turned in The Insight was loud and somewhat disappointing And the Highlander Hybrid was so close in price to the Lexus, I chose the latter of the two But the events of the last week have me second-guessing myself, and I have…
How I use social media

Patrick Byers

22 May 2009 | 12:00 pm

I was honored to be interviewed by Kenji Onozawa over at Seattle Social Media Profiles on Wednesday, the results of which can be found in the above video, along with his Q & A in this article. Kenji asked me a bit about social media, Responsible Marketing and one of my passions, using social media to create social good. A few things covered in the article include: Why I like social media How I utilize it The one thing that mainstream population should know about social media My social media “wow” moment Give it a gander, and if you live in the Pacific Northwest, make sure you visit…
Chocolate covered grasshoppers get people talking

Patrick Byers

14 May 2009 | 1:55 am

Yesterday, I received a lumpy mailer from a company I’d never heard of. Normally I give unsolicited mail about the same amount of consideration you probably do—a few seconds. But since it was, well, lumpy, and delivered via FedEx I opened it. Here’s what I found: On one side, it says “Yes, these are real grasshoppers. They’ve even been approved by the FDA of Thailand.” On the other side: You’re a risk-taker, a dream-realizer. What’s left to do that you haven’t already done? Eat a grasshopper. They’re farm raised, covered in chocolate and rich in…

Web Strategy by Jeremiah
Facebook’s Awkward Adolescence

jeremiah_owyang

2 Jul 2009 | 6:21 am

Facebook is undergoing pubescenct changes in the next few years –from a private pre-teen to a public facing member of society –that’s what I told USA Today. Facebook initially made it’s promise to be a private community, but realizes it must now be more public to compete with the open web. Expect more awkwardness for the social network and it’s users’ over the coming years. What are the indicators that Facebook wants to grow up and be public? Previous settings allow members to allow their profile page to be public and therefore findable by search engines.
As Brands Continue to ‘Pollinate’ the Social Web, Expect Corporate Websites to Aggregate

jeremiah_owyang

1 Jul 2009 | 3:44 am

Brands are pollinating the social web with easy-to-share features like Sharethis. As conversations splinter across the web, brands must prepare to aggregate those same conversations on their corporate website. As a result, the trusted conversations will centralize back on product pages. [Trusted conversations have fragmented to the social web --shifting the balance of power to communities] Social Pollination: Brands Currently Spreading to Communities Why: Brands are trying to let their corporate and social content spread to many different communities in Facebook, Twitter, Email and others.
Is Blogging Evolving Into Life Streams?

jeremiah_owyang

26 Jun 2009 | 6:45 am

Top Bloggers Spend Less Time Blogging I’ve noticed a gradual change in what we know as blogs when Scoble and Shel wrote the book on Naked Conversations. Both of them are now focused on micromedia: Shel has an upcoming book on Twitterville, and Scoble spends more time promoting Friendfeed than his own blog. Secondly, I just learned that Edelman’s top blogger Steve Rubel has retired his traditional blog, and it’s now a life stream, which aggregates content from any source. Of course, I don’t need to mention that many of the top 100 blogs all look like mainstream media,…
Report: Companies Should Organize For Social Media in a “Hub and Spoke” model

jeremiah_owyang

25 Jun 2009 | 2:51 pm

I often get asked by brands: “How should we organize our company for social media?” or “Which roles do we need”, or “Which department is in charge”. So for our latest report (clients can access all the details) answers just that, it has data and graphs about spending, brand maturity in the social space, which department ‘owns’ the program, and how companies are organizing. Companies organize in three distinct models For this post, let’s focus in on how companies are organizing. There are three basic models that I’ve observed and…
Where Your Facebook Pictures and Friends are Featured, “Prototype Experience” Provides A Social, Contextual Video Trailer

jeremiah_owyang

22 Jun 2009 | 8:31 am

Remember early Jib Jab cartoons where you’d manually upload your own photo and that of your friends? Now, it’s much easier with just a few clicks to Facebook Connect. Last week, I had dinner with Chris Pan (linkedin, twitter), Head of Brand Solutions at Facebook, who pointed me to a new social interactive marketing advertisement for a video game called “Prototype”. Upon accessing the site, Prototype Experience, (try it for yourself) you’ll be prompted to login with your Facebook account. After a rather lengthy loading period (it’s worth it, hang tight)…

Jon Burg's Future Visions
new rules (rant)

Jonathan Burg

1 Jul 2009 | 4:10 pm

The PeopleYOU aren't an influencer. WE are.You aren't a social guru because you have an opinion and a voice. You're someone with an opinion and perspective, and we welcome your participation in the dialogue. Gurus are people with extensive proven experience delivering real results. Gurus don't claim to be Gurus.The IndustryBrands can't control the message or the format. Brands control their own voice, at best.All media is sociable. But that doesn't make is social-worthy.Social-worthy isn't worth jack if it isn't discovered.ROI isn't just about sales, but sales sure help.Social isn't a…
Social? Think BIGGER

Jonathan Burg

25 Jun 2009 | 8:59 pm

Lots of people talk about the future of Social, a lot. Probably too much, myself included. But this post isn't about Social, media, or the platforms where we talk (this isn't a post about Twitter).I want to talk about transition. Transition from a traditional model with deep proven channels at risk, to a new and as-yet undefined model. Revenue will change. Your value will change. Your infrastructure will change. Your business will change.This isn't about PR or the Agency, this is about business. This is about how you make money today, tomorrow and the day after. This is…
college vs kindergarten

Jonathan Burg

22 Jun 2009 | 7:23 am

Inspired by Auren Hoffman's post here.In college we learned to think critically.In kindergarten we learned to play with others.In college we learned to write properly.In kindergarten we learned to communicate efficiently and make friends.In college we learned to write a proper 20 page paper.In kindergarten we learned to communicate our vision with simple finger paint.In college we learned to research.In kindergarten we learned to experience.In college we studied the philosophy of management.In kindergarten we learned the value of teamwork.In college we learned the value of professionalism.In…
Is SocialSpark Spam?

Jonathan Burg

16 Jun 2009 | 8:42 pm

Let's take a step back. In theory, all advertising and marketing communications that don't belong in their placements are ineffective. Good messaging organically fits the dynamic in which it is delivered.The ethicacy (and possible legality) of sponsored posts that fit is a matter of great debate.But the value of sponsored posts that have do not fit is a joke. These posts will not perform for the marketer and will diminish the value of the blog and the blogger to their audience.With that in mind, where does SocialSpark fit? Firstly, SocialSpark vets their bloggers and has set some…
journalism hasn't changed

Jonathan Burg

15 Jun 2009 | 6:00 pm

Journalism hasn't changed. Journalists with integrity, strong communications skills and compelling perspectives will be successful, no matter the platform.The platform has changed. The styles have changed. The formats have changed.But just because you can tweet and blog doesn't make you a journalist. It makes you someone who can enter information into a form or box.Tweeting, blogging, Facebook, Ustream, iReport... these are tools and platforms for communications. Journalism isn't a tool, it's a skill. And that's all I have to say about that.

Crenk
Monitoring your Search Engines Positions

Augusto Alvarez

2 Jul 2009 | 10:39 am

If you are a geek blogger like me, you would know that the having a good ranking within the most important search engines it is a big deal if you are trying to promote your blog. KPMRS (Keyword Position Monitoring Report Service) can help you with that by monitoring constantly the page rank you have with Google, Yahoo and Bing. How to use it is very simple, you don’t even have to be registered to receive any result, you can query and get some instant results about your site and a special keyword. The free registration can also give you: Email Alerts (when position changes or when a…
Yahoo! Release Google Chrome Add-On

Dean

2 Jul 2009 | 8:48 am

Google and Yahoo! Are the two main search engines in the West. The two have been around long enough for everyone to use them instinctively without much regard to competitors. Seriously, if you want to know something you either Google it or…uh, ‘Yahoo!’ it. Now, Yahoo! have released an ad-on of their Delicious affiliate site for Google’s Chrome Internet browser. This is one of the first updates to become available since Google first released Chrome. Up until recently the browser was considered by many developers and programmers to be unstable and unsuitable to develop add-ons for.
Creating Fast, Good and Easy Websites with Moogoo

Augusto Alvarez

2 Jul 2009 | 6:09 am

Do you feel like you need a website and you have no money to create one? And you are not a developer nor a web designer to do it yourself? Well I’m pretty sure that the your next step should with Moogoo. Moogoo is the quick choice to take when it comes to design easy and very acceptable websites and it only takes a few moments to complete. You will have several options to add different type of functionality to your site, so it won’t be the same static content. Besides doing all the design work, you can find more features: Free option available and with interesting features. Payed…
Stimator: How Much Is My Blog or Website Worth?

Steven Finch

2 Jul 2009 | 5:48 am

Back in February we did a quick review about a new web service called Stimator. Stimator is a real website valuation estimator. There are six major factors involved in the calculation: Top Level Domain – Stimator take in account the strength of a TLD. Financial - It uses Yahoo Finance to get all data needed to perform the variations of the financial market. Real Sells – The service was built to delivery real results (at least the most possible ones). The math used to determinate a website value was study using real website sells such as: Sedo, Sitepoint Marketplace etc. Web Factors –…
Dell Developing Android-Based Mobile Internet Device?

Will Wilson

1 Jul 2009 | 1:17 pm

The Wall Street Journal reports that Dell has been developing a Mobile Internet Device (MID) based on Google’s Android operating system. The device is reportedly slightly larger than Apple’s iPod touch, with which Dell’s offering would presumably compete in many respects should it eventually be released. Another person who was briefed on the company’s plans said Dell may begin selling the device later this year, though this person said the plan could be delayed or scrapped entirely. The development effort is one of the first experiments by a big-name PC maker in a…

Confessions of an eBiz Junkie
Are You Encouraging Innovation?

Len Devanna

25 Jun 2009 | 4:49 pm

I don't think it matters if you have 10 people in your company or 10k. Your employees are your most valuable asset.We've talked at length on this blog about the power of harnessing the social computer... The power of connecting people who otherwise wouldn't be, the power of enabling everyone to have a voice, and encouraging open-sharing of ideas for global collaboration on scales like we've never seen before.It's powerful stuff, and we're watching it transform our company first hand.So I get a nice reminder yesterday that it's again time for our annual Innovation Conference. Don't read that…
Welcome New EMC Bloggers

Len Devanna

11 Jun 2009 | 3:39 pm

But a little housekeeping first. Friends, May was a tough month. If I could only monetize the frequent flyer miles and hotel award points, I'd be blogging from my own private island in the Pacific.With all of the activity last month, I'm taking a much needed week off next week and will be completely unplugged... Assuming I can actually handle being disconnected for any period of time. Let's see if I can do it.On to more important topics...I'm thrilled to introduce to you the latest additions to our EMC Blogging Corps. You can find the whole lot of us over at the Community Section on…
EMC World 2009 - Recap & Thank you

Len Devanna

28 May 2009 | 1:58 pm

I'm delayed in getting this post up... Last week was an absolute whirlwind. I returned home and slept for about three days straight, and have since been paying the price for a week out of the office.This was my first EMC World event. To say I was blown away would be the understatement of the year. What a great show! Despite a tough economy and tougher travel budgets, about 7k passionate folks showed up and made it one heck of an event. The energy and the passion from this crowd was simply amazing. I also got a behind the scenes look at what makes these events happen. A HUGE shout out to the…
Please, Help Save Nick

Len Devanna

22 May 2009 | 11:12 am

Nick Glasglow is an EMC employee from our Pleasanton, CA. office. In March, he learned that he has leukemia and is in desperate need of a bone marrow donor to help save his life. Such stories are always tragic, but Nick's is especially so as he's a mere 28 years old.We need your help. Please consider being added to the National Bone Marrow Registry. I did so myself this past week, and it took a matter of minutes. Too often we don't take the time to act on such things until they hit close to home. I think we can all be a bit more proactive by signing up for such registries, donating blood.
Friends of EMC World - Peter Ross and Studio E

Len Devanna

21 May 2009 | 4:44 am

More cool information to share from EMC World Orlando... I sat down with Peter Ross to learn more about Studio E - EMC's exclusive customer reference community where customers connect with other customers from across the globe. Check it out...

Experience Manifesto
Picnic Salon - Connected Cities

David Polinchock

29 Jun 2009 | 3:52 pm

Kevin Slavin, Area Code. Always one of my favorite speakers! Heimet, German word kind of like your home or the place you belong. Nostlagia was defined by Hoffer if mid-1600's and was originally a sharp diagnosis that was about soldiers who missed their homes and it was a step before suicide. Now, nostagia has moved from spatial to temporal. This is due in large part to the fact that we're not moving as much. In 2005, 84% of Americans didn't have a passport. 57% will live in their own state/city. Kevin's work is now what connects the physical to the digital. Showing a game by NYU students…
Picnic Salon - Collaborative Session

David Polinchock

29 Jun 2009 | 3:51 pm

Carolien Gehrels, Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam. They have a great program called "breathing spaces" that connects vacant spaces with artists, entrepreuners, etc. Having recently been there, I can attest to the fact that they really do use their spaces in interesting ways. Russel Shorto, NY Times Magazine, author "Island at the Center of the World." Discussing the history of New York and Henry Hudson's exploration of what is now the Hudson River. Hudson was actually trying to find a way to the far east and, although that didn't work, his exploration of the Hudson got people in Amsterdam to want…
Picnic Salon - Intro Session

David Polinchock

29 Jun 2009 | 2:12 pm

Just getting started at the Picnic Salon here at the New Museum and right now, they're having some internet issues. Thankfully, I've got my trusty Nokia 9500, so I'll still get some posts up during the day.We're getting an overview of our topics right now and seeing some cool demos of real time, location based programs. One was www.mynameise.com which I think I've covered before. But I'll certainly get some more info since the creator is here. Also just saw some cool demos of real time, motion-controlled editing experiences call SenS IV. Once I get back online, I'll include links and videos…
27 Jun 2009 | 8:17 am

David Polinchock

27 Jun 2009 | 8:17 am

They've announced the summer concert series here in Montclair at Brookdale Park, so if you're looking for something fun & cheap on a Friday night, this is it! We've gone to many of these concerts and we always have a great time. It's a picnic dinner, kids running around and good music under the stars. What more could you ask for? We'll certainly be at the July 2nd show and I'm really psyched to see Chuck Mangione as well. If you're in Essex County, NJ, you'll find a concert nearby. If you're going to go, let us know and we'll look for you there. Here are the dates for Brookdale Park. Other…
PICNIC - PICNIC Goes New York

David Polinchock

24 Jun 2009 | 4:38 am

I'm very excited to be a part of the PICNIC Salon being held here in NYC next week. Amsterdam is one of my very favorite cities and it's events like PICNIC that help make Amsterdam the creative city it is. My experience at PICNIC two years ago introduced me to some great work being done around the world and I certainly look forward to attending PICNIC again in the future. During this workshop, we are being asked to participate in one of three discussion tables: The Augmented Cities table is all about how our cities can be enriched with virtual services and entertainment that merge with the…

Paying Attention
How do you feel?

Chris Saad

28 Jun 2009 | 11:12 am

I was playing with my iPhone earlier today and I remembered a notion we’ve all spoken about. For some reason, though, this time I pondered it a little longer than usual. It feels wonderful. The iPhone interface feels authentic, polished, robust and reactive in a way that few other software interfaces do. Many Apple interfaces do in fact. I started thinking about other examples of this and I’ve come to realize that todays users seem to be rewarding feeling over function in their software. Google, FriendFeed, iPhone OS, MacOS, BaseCamp, Omnifocus, Flickr. These are all applications…
A conversation about impending World Peace

Chris Saad

21 Jun 2009 | 9:58 am

A friend and I just had a wonderful 1:1 chat, and I wanted to share it here (with her permission). She asked me to remove her name because she thinks she was off her game – I think she’s crazy – but I will respect her request none-the-less. Please excuse the raw nature – this is a straight copy+paste chat log from Adium. Also, for clarity, my timeframe for this world peace is not days, weeks or even decades. There are also all sorts of things that can screw my assumptions up. But this is an interesting thought exercise none the less. 9:11 – My Friend: Chris,…
Scaling Caring? Seriously?

Chris Saad

18 Jun 2009 | 8:59 pm

When I heard about Gary Vee’s talk at #140conf was titled ‘Scaling Caring’ I though “Seriously? That’s stupid”. I just watched the video. I was wrong. Maybe in the wrong hands that could have been a stupid talk, but in Gary’s hands it, like everything else he does, was a fun, insightful and earnest attempt to open people’s eyes to what’s in front of them. The talk actually touches on what Jeremiah and I were blogging about recently. Jeremiah had asked the question ‘Can people scale along with Social Media’. In other words, can…
Social Media is Dead

Chris Saad

13 Jun 2009 | 1:08 pm

It isn’t SOCIAL media, it’s never been SOCIAL media. It’s always been PERSONAL media. My friend Jeremiah just wrote a post about Social Media scale. He posses the question, how is it possible for those with growing audiences (or indeed celebrities) to really scale up their social media interactions? He highlights the fact that most of our social media idols are actually using ghost writers to write books, tweets, emails and more. I would argue that this these idols outsourcing their social media are missing the point. They are trying to scale up one-to-one interactions to a…
Facebook Vanity URLS are not what you think

Chris Saad

9 Jun 2009 | 1:19 pm

Facebook has announced that they are about to release vanity URLs. What most people don’t realize is that this move, while interesting, is not really about vanity URLs at all – it’s actually about addressable identity. One of Twitter’s key advantages in the race for dominance over internet identity is their growing namespace of what I call Addressable Identities. What are they I hear you ask? An example of an Addressable Identity is being able to write ‘@chrissaad‘ and have the system and users understand that it is a direct and concrete reference to me.

Managing the Gray
Chris Anderson Interview

C.C. Chapman

24 Jun 2009 | 11:06 am

I was very psyched when the opportunity to interview Chris Anderson here on Managing the Gray came up. Special thanks to my friend Kevin Smokler for making the introduction. Photo by Joi Ito Chris and I got on the phone to chat as we were both getting ready for Father’s Day weekend and I had a fun chatting with him about all the different things he has going on. Sure, he has the new book Free coming out on July 7th, but I wanted to talk about everything else he does as well. We got to talk about robots, the future of magazines and the publishing industry. Links mentioned on…
Moments

C.C. Chapman

19 Jun 2009 | 6:14 am

I’ve been a big fan of Ze Frank since I first heard about it, but I honestly never thought he’d directly inspire an episode of Managing the Gray. But, I watched a video of a presentation he gave and it really hit home for me. Today is really a straight from the brain to microphone type of episode. I had just finished being on national radio as an guest on the Doug Stephan show and that as well gave me the urge to put out a podcast. Links mentioned on today’s show include: Ze Frank’s Webstock 09 Presentation Webstock Ze Frank Doug Stephan Podcasters Across Borders…
Death to the Term Mommy Blogger

C.C. Chapman

17 Jun 2009 | 5:32 am

Before someone reads that title and never listens to the episode the point of today’s Managing the Gray is to say that there are a lot of people involved in parenting outside of people who fit into the typical little box of “mommy bloggers.” I think Dads are getting the short stick and I think that there are more women out there who are parents, but they create content in other areas. I don’t see the term going away anytime soon but I wish the singular focus on it would! This might be the closest thing to a rant that you’ll ever here on the show. *grin* Links…
Small Towns and Teaching What You Know

C.C. Chapman

9 Jun 2009 | 6:23 am

I apologize for the silence around here while I get my software problems solved. It feels REALLY good to be back here on Managing the Gray. Topics on today’s show include: My “Social Media is a Small Town” presentation Digital Content Newfront 2009 Current’s VCAM (Viewer Created Ad Model) Ubercaster Eric Rice Media Hacks Thanks as always for listening to the show and we’ll be back real soon with all new content. Hope you come back soon!
Passion is Contagious

C.C. Chapman

5 May 2009 | 5:51 am

I recently gave a presentation in Memphis talking about how more brands need to start leveraging the passion of their consumers in their campaigns. I had a lot of people ask me to talk more about the slides who couldn’t be on hand to see the presentation so today I discuss them here. Special thanks to Christopher S Penn from Marketing Over Coffee for a great comment he sent in for the show as well. Passionate about Managing the Gray? Then I encourage you to leave a review in iTunes telling others.

Robin Good
The Value Of Trust In The Attention Economy: Influence Is The New ROI

George Benckenstein

1 Jul 2009 | 2:29 am

Do you know why trust has gained so much value in the attention economy? Bombarded by an increasingly complex life, by more news and information, by marketing and sales calls of all kinds, people are increasingly "on-the-move" and with less and less time to devote to anyone specific thing. They are rushing from a website to another, from a conversation to another. And this is why their attention has become more valuable than gold these days. Photo credit: Iurii Davydov In the era of social media, traditional marketing channels are tricky venues to promote your product. Consumers are…
Self-Publish Your Book: Guide To The Best Self-Publishing Services

Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano

29 Jun 2009 | 5:13 am

When working with a traditional book publisher, you, the book author, give up a large degree of editorial control, and many times you have little to no input into the design and layout of your book, its distribution, and its marketing approach. Self-publishing allows you, the writer and author of a new book, to publish, print and distribute at a very low cost physical books on your own, bypassing at once the traditional, established publishing houses. Photo credit: Tom Perkins As a matter of fact, the key distinguishing characteristic of self-publishing is the absence of a traditional…
Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Jun 27 09

George Siemens

27 Jun 2009 | 1:50 am

Media Literacy moves from recognising and comprehending information to the higher order critical thinking skills such as questioning, analysing and evaluating that information. (Source: OFcom) Photo credit: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner Inside this Media Literacy digest: Attention and Distraction - Educators and trainers face competition for attention from mobile devices and social networking services. Social Media: Trends and Implications For Learning - ...explore emerging technological and related research trends from a perspective of social and networked learning theory. Failing New Grading…
Online Video Advertising: Business Market Guide

Internet Advertising Bureau Digital Video Committee

26 Jun 2009 | 4:00 am

Video advertising is one of the fastest-growing opportunities online today, as well as one of the most promising online advertising formats. The emotional draw of the television experience, consumers’ adoption of broadband, and subsequent change in Internet content, capabilities, and consumption all contribute to driving this growth. Photo credit: Kheng Ho Toh and Ron Chapple Studios mashed up by Robin Good Despite the surge in interest in digital video by both the consumer and advertiser, there are still many components of video advertising that are confusing, making the need for standards…

Metz, The Social Concept
REPRINT: Premise Liability and Social Networking: The DOJ's Changing It's Position

Adam Metz

2 Jul 2009 | 9:20 am

This is the first time I have ever run a re-print of a previous post, but in light of last night’s MySpace (Communications Decency Act) decision , I think this is worthwhile. This was a huge piece that I wrote one year ago about platform liability. ——- I love my [former] company’s legal team. They’re fast, fair and funny. (Perry and Eric, you guys rock.) To try to keep up with them and to serve my clients’ evolving needs, I frequently keep pace with some serious social media law blogs. In light of the horrifying suicide of Missouri teen Megan Meier, the…
The CMO Social Web Strategy Short Reading List

Adam Metz

30 Jun 2009 | 4:59 pm

Amazon.com Widgets Frequently, I get asked what books executives should read who’s just getting going on the social web. We made a bookstore to guide executives who are trying to get started. But the CMO is a special kind of executive. It’s a guy or gal who is probably really strapped for time, who needs a super high-level overview. So, we really have to pare down this list to the bare essentials for a CMO. You can grab copies of these books from the widget above. Here’s where I’d start. 1. Groundswell: I put this one first on the list because it’s short enough…
Why Facebook’s New Fan Model Is Total Crap [1]

Melissa Chen

26 Jun 2009 | 10:45 pm

Facebook prides itself on, and we the users, embrace it for its emphasis on privacy. We use the platform as, essentially, an online social directory, where we interact strictly with those who are in our existing networks. We have access to a lot of very detailed and personal information on Facebook — information that many would only feel comfortable sharing with those who they know personally, not the whole world. This level of privacy is very different from that of Twitter, where it’s perfectly acceptable and even encouraged to follow new people, to build a new network, to find new…
Social Media & Distributed Commerce For Apparel Brands

Jason Levy

25 Jun 2009 | 3:19 pm

Next Tuesday evening, we’re hosting the second event in a series of social media strategy events for apparel industry executives. This seminar will focus on Social Media and Distributed Commerce strategies for apparel brands. At this event, apparel brands will learn how to: Delineate criteria to choose a strategic consulting team for their structural social web strategy Decide what is structural social web strategy and what is tactical strategy Understand relevant key performance indicators and best practices for distributed commerce The panel will be moderated by well-known t-shirt…
What is it worth to get 69,458 Friends?

Adam Metz

24 Jun 2009 | 1:34 pm

C-level stakeholders clients (CMOs, EVPs, etc.) frequently ask our team to help them quantify the value of marketing “touches” on the social web. Let’s say that 2500 people read your branded blog, weekly – what’s that worth? Well, let’s step back 9 years and cost things out using an older digital marketing/outreach paradigm: email. What would it have been worth in the year 2000? If you’d had 2500 people receiving your email weekly (assuming the same “open” rate as your blog is currently being read), you’d be spending about $300 per…

Des Walsh dot Com
links for 2009-06-30

Des Walsh

30 Jun 2009 | 11:02 pm

What’s next Christpher Penn on what's next in social media, decentralization coming to social networks, importance of email lists, trust, and making awesome products (tags: socialnetworks technology email)
Social Media in the Public Sector: Workshop Presentation

Des Walsh

26 Jun 2009 | 1:12 am

On Monday last I spoke in Australia’s national capital, Canberra, at a Government 2.0 workshop. My subject was “Why parliamentarians and public sector managers need to participate actively in social media”. I used some slides to illustrate particular points: Gov20canberra0609 View more documents from Des Walsh. The video of the presentation is here: Public Sphere: Government 2.0 – Des Walsh from Kate Lundy on Vimeo.
BlogWorld & New Media Expo Early Bird Closing

Des Walsh

25 Jun 2009 | 7:26 pm

It’s that time again. BlogWorld & New Media Expo early registration rates are about to cut out on July 1st. BlogWorld & New Media Expo, held in Las Vegas, has been a highlight of each of the past two years for me. It is such a great gathering of people who are actively involved, or otherwise interested in learning about, blogging, podcasting and video blogging. There is an amazing lineup of speakers and topics and a wonderfully diverse group of people attending – by no means just a gathering of geeks (not that there’s anything wrong with that). BlogWorld & New…
Government 2.0: Policy & Practice

Des Walsh

20 Jun 2009 | 7:42 pm

I’m off to the national capital, Canberra, tonight for the all day event at Parliament House, Government 2.0: Policy and Practice. As indicated in a previous post, I’m speaking on the subject: Why parliamentarians and public sector managers need to participate in social media. The sub-head is: briefings and slide shows won’t cut it. I plan to live blog the event with the help of Coveritlive and am embedding the code for that here. I’ll switch it on in the morning. In the meantime you can register to be reminded when it goes live. Planning to have some other colleagues…
Speaking at Government 2.0: Policy and Practice

Des Walsh

16 Jun 2009 | 12:42 am

Got the word this morning that I’m scheduled to speak at the Government 2.0: Policy and Practice event next Monday in Australia’s national capital, Canberra. The fact that the event is being held within Parliament House makes me feel doubly appreciative. This is the event I posted about a couple of weeks ago as Open Government Camp and Social Media. Because I’d thought of the event till now as something of an upscale barcamp, I think I’d been feeling fairly relaxed about the idea of speaking, if I happened to be chosen out of the array of people offering to speak. Now…

Zac Johnson: Inside the secret life of a super affiliate
WP Touch - Free Mobile Wordpress Theme

Zac Johnson

1 Jul 2009 | 11:26 am

Using your phone for internet access and web browsing is becoming a daily rictual for more and more people. On my previous phone, an LG Voyager, I was able to view most web sites… but it was terrible for high intensity sites and even some blogs, especially my own. Not only did some sites take forever to load, but many areas and functions weren’t even accessible. Now that I have the iPhone, my web experience is a thousand times better… but there is still room for improvement! When trying to pull up ZacJohnson.com, it took a decent amount of time longer to load than other…
Real Case Studies from The Winners Circle

Zac Johnson

29 Jun 2009 | 3:27 pm

There are always new make money program and gurus out there pushing new products with ridiculously long sales pages, which then leads to the sale of some crappy ebook. The problem with most of these ebooks, are they are written from someone who has already made all of their money, and they basically leave you in the dark on any actual case studies, or how you are to get started. My friend Gyutae Park from Winning the Web, just went live with his new coaching program, “The Winners Circle“. Compared to other mentorship and training programs, this one is actually pretty cool because…
Best Alternatives to Making Money with ReBill Offers Outside of Flogs

Zac Johnson

24 Jun 2009 | 6:16 am

After writing the “Ten Lessons Learned from Flogs & Rebill Offers” article, several comments were posted, along with many direct emails received. In response to that original post, this guest post was written by Todd Armstrong (Sr. Affiliate Strategist at ClickBooth). Todd is a Sr. Affiliate Strategist in the Email and Search Marketing division at ClickBooth and has been with the company over 2 years. He comes from a marketing background, and specializes in direct marketing techniques. We would like to thank Zac for addressing this ever- increasing concern within the affiliate…
Ten Lessons Learned from Flogs & ReBill Offers

Zac Johnson

22 Jun 2009 | 9:03 am

Every couple of years there is a new marketing craze that just takes over, and is marketed every where. Years ago it was banner ads with games, to make the user click. Then it was email submits… now it’s the flog craze. A “flog” is a fake blog that is created to sell a product (usually CPA), and provides fake testimonials to entice the visitor to purchase the product. The flog craze is happening all over, because it is working so well. Affiliate marketers are building convincing sites, buying mass traffic on CPM/CPV, and making hefty ROI with commissions in the $40+…
How To Do It Better

Zac Johnson

20 Jun 2009 | 11:36 pm

It’s not always the smartest, most funded or largest companies that succeed, but instead, those who do it better. Why are some affiliate networks better than others? The same reason why landing page A performs better than landing page B. To continually test and put forth the effort to do better than the competition, is the key to success. iPhone 3G S vs. Flip Video TechCrunch just wrote an article about how the new iPhone is going to destroy the Flip Video camcorder. The massive growth and attraction over the past couple years were phenomenal for the Flip Video. They found a way to make…

Chad Barr
Testimonial from Dr. Alan Weiss

Chad Barr

1 Jul 2009 | 6:32 pm

Below is a powerful video testimonial I’ve been fortunate to get from Alan Weiss, which is something you should consider doing with your clients.
Chad Barr Interviews Dr. Pat Lynch

Chad Barr

30 Jun 2009 | 9:13 am

In this podcast, Internet strategy guru Chad Barr interviews Dr. Pat Lynch, the president of Business Alignment Strategies, Inc. In this interview we cover topics including appreciative inquiry, the biggest obstacles executives face, things the best companies do well, accountability, and Team in Training, the fundraising arm of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click below for podcast to start and now also on iTunes Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents © Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.
Blog Anywhere Anytime

Chad Barr

27 Jun 2009 | 8:04 am

If you have an iPhone and a blog I recommend you purchase the BlogPress app from iTunes. It is a great application which will enable you to post directly to your blog from your iPhone. So now there should be no excuses for you or for me to post such interesting threads which I am doing from my iPhone right now. The landscape keyboard and cut, copy and paste which I use for my signature below are awesome additions as well. And attaching photos is a piece of cake. Even my dog Noodles agrees since you can see him wagging his tail. © Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.
What’s In a Name?

Chad Barr

27 Jun 2009 | 5:19 am

My wife and I just went to Moxie which is one of our favorite restaurants in the area. We noticed a new item on the menu, the Mediterranean Sea Bass which was highly recommended by our waiter. It was an outstanding dish we both agreed. When chatting with the waiter and commenting on his superb recommendation he said: “You know, when we had it on the menu as the Bronzini Fish, we could not sell any. So we’ve changed the name to the Mediterranean Sea Bass and we can’t keep enough in stock.”
What’s Your Website Saying About You?

Chad Barr

26 Jun 2009 | 4:45 pm

The power of the internet is that it is ubiquitous – which can be a good thing if you are maximizing what your website says about you and your business. Does yours reflect Walking your Talk and Talking your Walk? Often times during my seminars I ask for volunteers to allow me to demonstrate their sites effectiveness. Most cringe and avoid any eye contact with me. You can almost read them silently say: “please, not my site.” In fact, that may be just the reason why many become our clients since they know that they need to invest in getting their talk and walk in sync. Your…

Andrew Chen: Futuristic Play
Matt Humphrey of Bumba Labs on User Retention Curves

Andrew Chen

30 Jun 2009 | 10:48 am

The multiplicative nature of retention Retention metrics, like viral marketing, have a powerful multiplicative approach that makes them important to optimize. This is an often-overlooked metric that is easily sacrificed to the Great God of Viral Traffic I wanted to dig into this issue a bit more, and give my thoughts on how your retention numbers can be an incredibly powerful method of driving up total traffic numbers to your site, not just the user acquisition piece. Matt Humphrey from Bumba Labs on user retention curves A frequent collaborator of mine, Matt Humphrey, has often referenced…
Dear readers, should I keep the automatic weekly Twitter links?

Andrew Chen

27 Jun 2009 | 3:18 pm

I’ve been auto-posting all my tweets on my blog. I’m curious what people think about it – useful? Or not? Take the poll below, and please leave comments if you have extended thoughts: Should I keep the auto-posting weekly Twitter links?(polling) Thanks for the feedback!
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-22

admin

22 Jun 2009 | 9:00 am

Here are some links I posted to my twitter account over the last week or two. You can follow me on Twitter if you like these! Many are work unrelated. RT @sgblank: Lies Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves http://www.steveblank.com don't let this happen to you. # GReader share: The "Hidden Cost" of Privacy http://bit.ly/O9qdi # GReader share: Why Continuous Deployment? http://bit.ly/18QaPD # GReader share: Chris Anderson’s Counterintuitive Rules For Charging For Media Online http://bit.ly/Ojs5c # GReader share: Michael Lewis http://bit.ly/Xlhwc # GReader share: Dina Goldstein's…
Why metrics-driven startups overlook brand value

Andrew Chen

18 Jun 2009 | 9:34 am

The perils of ignoring brand value The nature of internet marketing makes it easy to have a highly accountable, metrics-driven view – but companies that are highly metrics driven easily overlook hard-to-measure issues like brand and user experience. The reason is that when all product decision-making is run through metrics-driven reports, soft things like “Brand” show up as costs, but never as benefits. This leads to systematic erosion in many “soft” but important factors, like customer experience, brand value, and “love.” And ultimately you need all…
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-15

admin

15 Jun 2009 | 9:00 am

Here are some links I posted to my twitter account over the last week or two. You can follow me on Twitter if you like these! Many are work unrelated. GReader share: Flixel, a free Actionscript library for building complex games without Flash http://flixel.org/ # GReader share: Datablindness http://bit.ly/uYdFE # GReader share: What do American girls like? (crowdsourcing stereotypes) http://girls.yury.name/ # GReader share: Entrepreneurs on Twitter http://bit.ly/3TgJJ # GReader share: New Planetarium Projector Promises 16x 1080p Res, Might Pressure IMAX Format http://bit.ly/dMgIP # GReader…

Social Gears
Chart of The Day: Facebook Blows Past 300 Million Uniques

Stephen Fells

25 Jun 2009 | 4:10 am

Contributor: Stephen M. Fells As a business owner I constantly look at the numbers but have always felt that on their own they are useless. Perspective is needed, specifically I ask “What is the trend?” Looking at last month’s sales, new client numbers and profit are all very interesting but seeing if they go up or down relative to the previous month, quarter or same period last year is far more valuable. It’s why the following chart is of particular interest. News Corp recently announced it was cutting almost 30% of it’s MySpace workforce. This ComScore graphic…
The Joy of Online Book Clubs

Stephen Fells

23 Jun 2009 | 8:35 am

Contributor: Stephen M. Fells Book Clubs is a joint venture between Social Gears, LLC and Rusty Weston, founder of Third Set Media. This video provides an overview of the application and how to best use it.
Twitter Search In Plain English

Stephen Fells

18 Jun 2009 | 6:42 am
SNReach to Discuss Rapid Sales Growth Potential in Social Networks at Facebook Marketing Forum

Stephen Fells

16 Jun 2009 | 10:17 am

Los Gatos, CA – June 16, 2009 — SNReach, Inc., leaders in revenue growth and marketing analytics through social networks, announced today that it will discuss corporate success via social network analytics at the “Facebook Marketing Breakfast,” which will be held Thursday, June 18th in San Francisco, California. The event, hosted by Inside Facebook, will feature presentations and attendance from companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Microsoft, Nokia, Intel, Shutterfly, and VISA, and will focus on providing brands and marketers with a deeper understanding of…
Facebook Vanity URL’s - Get ‘em While They’re Hot!

Stephen Fells

15 Jun 2009 | 8:23 pm

Contributor: Stephen M. Fells It’s now possible to get your own Facebook vanity URL for example: http://www.facebook.com/stephen.fells If you have a Facebook profile keep an eye out for the notice at the top of your ‘home’ page. It will look something like this: Vanity ‘page’ URL’s are not yet available but keep an eye open for them to. Why? Facebook already offers great organic SEO for individuals profile pages. Add a unique URL and you have another opportunity to appear very high in the search results, for free. Who’s going to register…

Jeff Pulver
Congratulations to the Ben Gurion University of the Negev Class of 2009:

jeff

1 Jul 2009 | 8:45

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