Social Media

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  Building43

• Make Your Hard Work Pay Off by Submitting for the SxSW Accelerator Showcase

  mgreer

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:54 am

  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen some really amazing startups that were built out of someone’s house.  Two or three guys get a vision for something no one else has built before and stake their livelihoods on people appreciating that idea. Chris at South by Southwest clued me in on a good opportunity for impressive startups to get the geek cred and nurturing they deserve.  The SxSW Accelerator Event is an opportunity for companies to showcase their emerging technology product and/or service in front of industry leaders while participating in the 2010 Microsoft…

• The Gillmor Gang Archive – 05NOV09

  Rob La Gesse

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, Phil Windley, Chris Messina, and Craig Burton — convene Identity Gang ‘09. Recorded live Thursday, November 5, 2009.

• The Gillmor Gang

  Rob La Gesse

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am

  Welcome to The Gillmor Gang – now with video!  Join the Real Time conversation on FriendFeed in the sidebar to the right.  This will allow your comments to show in the sidebar here.  Use the hashtag #gillmorgang and we’ll aggregate that content here, over time.

• Google HTML5 canvas element in action

  Robert Scoble

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:37 am

  Patrick Chanezon, developer advocate at Google in Mountain View, Calif., gives us a tour of some of the coolest examples of HTML5 now being developed — including a feature called canvas. He also explains the code behind what you’re seeing. HTML5 is the next major revision for hypertext markup language. Although development completion is years away, elements of HTML5 — including canvas — already are being woven into Web browsers. Here are links to the demos in the video and more about HTML5 canvas: Seesmic Web — http://seesmic.com/app/ 9elements —…

• Web developers can’t sell

  Michelle Greer

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:36 am

  I used to work at Dell selling computers to the consumer market. This is the trenches of selling. I could tell you about how your flat panel monitor would reduce eyestrain and cut down power usage and why a Centrino processor would make your computer run cooler and, therefore, extend the battery life. I dealt with hardcore geeks and some of the least technically savvy people on earth. Needless to say, it was a learning experience. I’ve also sold ecommerce software to mom-and-pops and to the likes of the Barack Obama campaign and Crutchfield. That means I’ve had to explain what CSS is to a…

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  TechCrunch

• YouTube Is Falling Apart Again

  Erick Schonfeld

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:37 pm

  The ads are destroying YouTube. At least this one is. It is a video ad for sustainable energy company from Spain called Acciona. Yeah, I had never heard of them either. The video starts with this Euro-dude in a suit starting to blow up and crack apart like he’s made from plaster. Halfway through, the actual video player crack in half, and all of the surrounding parts of the site shake and fall away, while an annoying voiceover is saying something about rebirth. I don’t know, maybe it makes more sense in Spanish. The visual effect is interesting, but feels like a gimmick since…

• Marissa Mayer Chosen As A Glamour Magazine Woman Of The Year

  Leena Rao

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:30 pm

  Google’s Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer was recently profiled in a Vogue Magazine article that offered a in-depth glimpse into the exec’s lifestyle, loves, career and fashion preferences. Now, Mayer has been named as one of Glamour Magazine’s 2009 Women of the Year. Joining Mayer on the list are a variety of female powerhouses and icons including Maya Angelou, First Lady Michelle Obama, Susan Rice, Euna Lee and Laura Ling. Mayer has been frequently profiled in business and technology publications over the years, but it’s also nice to…

• The Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway #Crunch

  Michael Arrington

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:53 pm

  If you’re a Twitter freak and think that a dedicated Twitter device is just the thing for you, read on. This week we saw the launch of the TwitterPeek, a cute little device built by Peek that will do just about anything you want it to do, as long as all you want it to do is access Twitter. It won’t surf the web. It won’t make phone calls. It won’t support third party apps. But it most certainly does run Twitter. You can get it in black. Or, if you want to show a little flair, you can get in in cyan. For some crazy reason I wanted one. A friend bought me one that I will…

• Gowalla Hops Onto Android Via The Mobile Web

  MG Siegler

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:09 pm

  Up until now, if you wanted to use the location-based service Gowalla on the go, you had to have an iPhone. Today, that expands to Android. But rather than building an app, Gowalla has extended support to Android using the mobile web. This works because Android’s browser is closely tied to the device and is able to access location information, which is vital for Gowalla. The goal is to extend this mobile web support to BlackBerry and a few other location-aware devices in the next week or so, co-founder Josh Williams tells us. As a small team, Gowalla, like its rival Foursquare,…

• textPlus 2.0 Hits The App Store For Free Texting

  Daniel Brusilovsky

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:26 pm

  textPlus, a text messaging app that’s powered by GOGII, has just hit the App Store. textPlus lets any iPhone or iPod Touch send free text messages to any cell number by using in-app advertising to cover its costs. There is no limit on how many text messages you can send per month, it’s just a matter of getting WiFi, 3G or an Edge connection. GOGII was one of the first companies that was funded by iFund, the partnership between venture capital firm KPCB and Apple, which was announced at the Apple SDK roadmap event. With version 2.0 of textPlus, GOGII is announcing the availability…

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  ReadWriteWeb

• Straw Man Argument About Enterprise 2.0 Doesn't Fly

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:05 pm

  Dennis Howlett got the attention of the Enterprise 2.0 community today, with his continued skepticism about "social" technologies and their place in the business world. Here's a quote from his post entitled Enterprise 2.0 - the non-debate: "Why am I not surprised? I've argued for years that the notion of anything that has 'social' attached to its moniker is about as welcome as breaking wind in a spacesuit." Sponsor While Howlett makes a few good points in his post, we think that he's making a straw man argument - that the Enterprise 2.0 community is somehow involved in a big lie. The reality…

• Clicker: A One-Stop Shop For Online Video (1000 Invites)

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  Finding specific online videos from TV networks and independent producers can often be a daunting challenge. Some TV shows are on Hulu, some can only be found as paid downloads on iTunes or Amazon and some are only available for streaming on the network's and producer's own sites. Clicker wants to change this by making it easier to find shows from TV networks, music videos, and web videos from across the Internet. Clicker is currently in private beta and only available in the US. The company gave us 1000 invites for our readers. Read on to find out how you can get yours. Sponsor Clicker…

• Layar Tells CNN: Augmented Reality Will Be Second Only to Voice On Phones

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pm

  When you've got a global audience, maybe it's good to make sweeping, ambitious statements. Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald, co-founder of Augmented Reality browser company Layar, was interviewed by CNN today and took the opportunity to claim that AR on phones is going to be so big in the future that only voice will be more popular. Maybe. Many people in the Augmented Reality world are rolling their eyes at Layar's incredible media exposure. They worry that relatively simple implementations of this technology paradigm will create such a bubble of hype that software developed over decades will suffer…

• Remixing Via iPhone: 5 Tools for the Pocket DJ

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  In 1906 John Philip Sousa criticized the gramophone saying, "These talking machines will ruin the artistic development of music in this country." Nevertheless, because Sousa did not forsee user-generated culture proliferating alongside "mechanical music" he could not have been further from the truth. Not only have machine technologies aided in musical development, but there are a variety of mediums to choose from. While audio engineers may scoff at the idea of making music on the iPhone, there's no denying that a number of options exist for the pocket DJ. Below are a few tools to get you…

• Seesmic Web Gets Lists and Geolocation

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:49 am

  Seesmic just announced the launch of Twitter lists in its browser-based Seesmic Web Twitter client. Earlier this week, Seesmic released the first desktop Twitter client with support for lists. Despite Seesmic's best efforts, Brizzly managed to become the first company to release a web client with support for lists earlier today. Seesmic Web offers another first for web-based Twitter clients, however: support for Twitter's geolocation API. Sponsor Lists With Auto-Updates In Seesmic's web interface, users can now simply hover their cursor over profile pictures and a menu will appear. This menu,…

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  Mashable!

• POLL: TweetDeck Trounces Seesmic Desktop in Reader Vote

  Barb Dybwad

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:41 pm

  We’ve had a number of close calls here during our Web Faceoff series, but this wasn’t one of them. This week we pitted TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop against each other in a bar room brawl for favorite Twitter client. Now, the results are in. Whereas last week’s Windows 7 versus OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard battle was a close one, with Windows 7 going the distance to outlast the current Mac OS, this week’s showdown had a big winner. …and TweetDeck was it, with a full 71% of the vote (3294 votes) as compared to Seesmic Desktop’s 23% (1055 votes). Six percent or 260…

• iPhone Coming to Verizon in 2010 [RUMOR]

  Adam Ostrow

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:21 pm

  Many signs point to the Apple and AT&T agreement that makes the latter the exclusive carrier of the iPhone within the US coming to an end within the next year. For starters, non-exclusivity has been profitable for Apple in other parts of the world. Moreover, even AT&T’s CEO acknowledges the deal won’t last forever. And while Verizon might be all about showing off what Droid does right now, a new report suggests it could become the first carrier other than AT&T to offer iPhone on American soil, starting in the second half of 2010. According to a report obtained by Apple…

• DocVerse Puts Google Docs-Like Collaboration Inside Microsoft Office

  Ben Parr

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pm

  This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: DocVerse Quick Pitch: DocVerse brings the collaboration functionality of products like Google Docs to the 600 million users of Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Genius Idea: Collaboration is a key to success in any business, especially when you have a scattered team that needs to work on documents constantly. There are already a lot of options,…

• FishVille Launches on Facebook; It’s Like Underwater FarmVille

  Barb Dybwad

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:56 pm

  We were sort of surprised to discover how many of you proclaim your love for FarmVille, the social farming sim game from Zynga. We reported that the company had trademarked the name FishVille last month, and speculated that an aquatic derivative of the wildly popular social game might be in the works. And indeed it was, with FishVille launching in beta today. It’s a bit of a late contender to the aquarium games space, with Happy Aquarium, Fish World and My Fishbowl all getting a head start. Nevertheless, Zynga has enough clout in the social games space to make FishVille a quick winner…

• 5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers

  Megan Berry

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:23 pm

  Megan Berry is an evangelist for Mobclix, the industry’s largest mobile ad exchange, working on social media and marketing. She also blogs at The Huffington Post and the Mobclix blog. You can follow her on Twitter as @meganberry, or through the @Mobclix handle. Unsure about mixing your iPhone with wine? Well, if you’re a true vinophile, the iPhone is an amazing device to keep you more connected to your wine. The following list of top wine apps on the iPhone will convince you that mixing the two is worth the risk of spilling some pinot noir on your phone. Like wine itself, these…

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  Altimeter Group

• Wanted: Your opinion on book titles (Part 2)

  charleneli

  27 Oct 2009 | 11:16 am

  Previously, I asked for help in naming the book, and we’re done to the wire in terms of finalists. I’m hoping you can take two minutes to complete a very short survey on our title possibilities. I realize that asking an audience of people who are pre-disposed to being open is probably not the most scientific way to do this! So taking a page from  Tim Ferris, I’m also running the title possibilities against specific search keywords to see which ones get the most clickthroughs. I’ll post the results from both the survey and the search engine test shortly. Book Title…

• International examples of “open” organizations and leaders needed

  charleneli

  27 Oct 2009 | 10:51 am

  I’m wrapping up work on my next book “Open” and am in need of a few examples of organizations and leaders outside of North America. In particular, I’m looking for examples of organizations that have put in place more open information sharing or decisions making processes or technologies, and as a result, have seen substantial business impact. In particular, I’m interested in learning how they went through the journey of letting go of control, and in the process, transformed the relationship they have with customers and/or employees. Here are a few examples: -…

• Social Search: Customers Influence Search Results Over Brands

  charleneli

  22 Oct 2009 | 9:42 am

  This post was collaboratively written (in real time) on a wiki by Charlene Li who maintains a focus on Leadership Strategy and Jeremiah Owyang, who maintains a focus on Customer Strategy. Together, we’re covering the convergence of emerging technologies at the Altimeter Group Twitter brokers a deal that offers search engines Microsoft Bing and Google Search access to their real time data streams.  Also, Facebook, offers up public status updates to be searched and served up to Microsoft’s Bing.  This trend towards micro media requires companies to pay attention to the real time and…

• Can you control your customers?

  charleneli

  15 Oct 2009 | 6:09 am

  I just received an interesting email promotion for an upcoming conference. At the top of the email, in big bold letters was this: “It’s time to take back control!” Now that definitely caught my eye, as I’m writing a book about being open. That’s because the number one concern I hear from executives — and especially  marketers — is how out of control they feel these days. Here’s some more text from the email: “Reaching today’s consumers is more challenging than ever. Both savvy and wary of marketing, they control when, where and how…

• Revealing Google’s Stealth Social Network Play

  charleneli

  7 Oct 2009 | 8:37 am

  This post was collaboratively written on a wiki by Charlene Li, who maintains a focus on Leadership Strategy and Jeremiah Owyang, who maintains a focus on Customer Strategy. Together, we’re covering the convergence of emerging technology at the Altimeter Group. Google has quietly been launching a social network right under our own chins.  No, it’s not about Google extending Orkut, a social networking platform they developed a few years ago, or growing Google groups, or even launching their own version of a twitter. Instead they’ve been releasing small bits of social…

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  SmartBrief on Social Media

• How remote employees can build community

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Employees who work remotely can use social networks, both online and off, to ensure they are getting enough human contact to  -More- 

• Employers are split on traits of texting generation

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  The generation that grew up on text messaging, chatting and holding multiple conversations at once is growing up, and some be -More- Are You Managing Keywords to CTR Alone?5 Tips to Make You More Effective with Your Ad Dollars This complimentary guide and webinar cover: - How to manage large keyword lists - How to make profitable decisions using deep-funnel metrics - How to close the revenue gap with micro-conversions Download Now

• Air America turns to social sites to engage listeners

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Talk radio can use social media to increase its fan base and stay relevant in a Web-focused world, Air America Media's Jen Ne -More- 

• The big re-tweet

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Like sharing great articles, ideas and resources on Twitter?  -More- 

• Honk brings social media to car buying

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Honk is inviting users to bring along their friends when they go car shopping on its site.  -More- 

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  Everywhere | Social Media Marketing and Content Development

• Blogworld Expo Co-Founder Explains BeatCancer Success

  erica

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:33 am

  Video on NBC.com From San Diego to the rest of the world: Rick Calvert with Blogworld Expo 2009 explains the success of the #beatcancer movement in social media after its launch at the annual event in Las Vegas October 16. View more news videos at: http://www.nbcchicago.com/video.

• Agency Sets Guinness World Record with Social Media Campaign

  erica

  28 Oct 2009 | 1:30 pm

  By in Tanya Lewis in PR Week ATLANTA: In less than one week, Atlanta-based social media marketing agency Everywhere conceived and executed a one-day pro-bono campaign that raised more than $70,000 for four nonprofit cancer organizations. The effort also set a Guinness World Record for the most widespread social network message in a 24-hour period with 209,771 mentions on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. The campaign ran from October 16 at 9am PST to October 17 at 9am PST during the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas (October 15 -17). Guinness World Record spokesperson, Stuart Claxton…

• #Charity

  erica

  28 Oct 2009 | 8:15 am

  By Pat McCarthy on The WOMMA Word The Twitter phenomenon is still developing and one uplifting use of the microblogging site has come to light, charity. There have been several charitable campaigns that used Twitter’s viral nature to generate awareness and piles of money. World records were broken when #BeatCancer was unleashed for a 24-hour period. eBay, MillerCoors, and Genesis Today pledged one cent for every tweet with the hashtag. Other social media platforms have found ways to benefit charities as well. Fun little games that allow users to buy credits have been used to raise money for…

• Social network updates a friend to charities

  erica

  27 Oct 2009 | 1:30 am

  By Niala Boodhoo and Bridget Carey in The Miami Herald If you’ve had a friend suggest lately that you become a fan of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida, you’re not alone — it’s part of a new strategy by the local nonprofit to get involved in social media. In six months, the group has created thousands of fans and even seen individual giving increase since it established a presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Richard Kelly, 42, the vice president and chief operating officer, dabbled in Facebook for a few months to get an idea of what he calls the…

• #BeatCancer Breaks Twitter Trends and Sets Guinness World Record

  erica

  21 Oct 2009 | 10:00 am

  By Angela on BlackWeb 2.0 EVERYWHERE, a Social Media Marketing and Content Development firm based in Atlanta, GA set a record October 16-17th for the most widespread social network message in 24 hours. According to Radian6, the official online monitoring company, the phrase #BeatCancer set the record with 209,771 mentions on Twitter, Facebook and blog posts. This translates into an estimated number of impressions generated during this 24-hour period at over 100 Million. Attendees at BlogWorld & New Media Expo, which featured some of the biggest names in social media, were asked to send…

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  Social Media Today

• What The Phoenix Suns Can Teach Your Brand About Using Twitter

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am

  More marketers are recognizing that social media brings value to their brands’ marketing efforts. And along with the interest in social media comes questions, like: What kind of information could w...

• Social Media Today Talks About the Facebook Era

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 am

  Sandwiched between her flight from Madrid and for Hong Kong, Clara Shih CEO of Hearsay Labs and author of The Facebook Era, Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences...

• Google Adsense Now Paying in Kenyan Shillings

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:11 am

  Kenyan bloggers and website owners are now pleased to note that they can receive their Google Adsense earnings in Kenyan Shillings. This was not the case previously and many website owners had dificul...

• If anonymity is no longer needed, let’s ditch the witness protection program

  5 Nov 2009 | 1:41 pm

  I asked a question of the Social Media: Engage panel at Internet Summit ‘09 about 30 minutes ago and since that moment I’ve been thinking about online anonymity. People seem to hate it. When I bl...

• Is Social Search a threat to SEO?

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:33 am

  I think it is. And I tweeted so  yesterday.  And the reason is obvious. What is SEO about? Ultimately, it is about one thing: the ‘website’. It’s about making a website and its pages discoverable, r...

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  ProBlogger Blog Tips

• Six Ways To Make More Money As An Affiliate

  Darren Rowse

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:15 am

  By Johnny B. Truant I’m going to go out on a limb and say that affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money online. You don’t have to create a product or develop a service, you don’t need huge amounts of focused traffic the way you do with AdSense, (I started using AdSense a year ago and just recently passed the $100 minimum payout), and you don’t need to do a ton of advertising or SEO to make it work. All you really need is an audience to whom you can refer products and services. Of course, the above statement is true in the same way it’s true that you…

• The Paint By Numbers Guide To Artful Blogging

  Darren Rowse

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:15 am

  A Guest Post by Greg Hayes from Live Fit Blog. Do you subscribe to the idea that blogging is an art form? I do. Britannica Online defines art as “The use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.” If you’re a blogger, then by definition, you most certainly engage in the following activities during the creation of content: Creative Writing Web Page Design (Aesthetics) Idea Development (Novelty) Social Media (Shared Experiences) When we start our blog, we read the A-list bloggers, and they repeat the…

• 14 Types of Stories You Can Tell On Your Blog

  Darren Rowse

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  Yesterday we explored WHY stories can be such a powerful communication tool on your blog. Today we’ll look at 14 types of stories that you might like to try on your blog. 14 Types of stories can you tell on your blog Personal Discovery Stories – tell how you discovered a lesson. These stories show your readers how similar you are to them and also might give some practical advice on how they might learn from your experience. Stories as Analogies and Illustrations – tell a story that on the surface has nothing to do with your topic but which illustrates a principle that is relevant.

• Why Stories are an Effective Communication Tool for Your Blog

  Darren Rowse

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  As I write this it is the first Tuesday morning of a new month and I’m sitting in a local coffee shop going through my ‘start of the month routine‘. It involves a large lattè (everything else hinges on this) and some delving into my blogs metrics to see how they’ve been performing. While I do keep track of the traffic stats of my blogs each day I like to set aside an hour or two at the start of each month to go a little deeper and do some more analysis of trends on my blogs – I find that when I do this I notice things that I can build on to continue momentum on…

• Thesis Theme for WordPress Upgrades to Version 1.6

  Darren Rowse

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am

  One of my favorite WordPress themes – Thesis – has in the last week released an update with some pretty cool features. My strategy with blog design is like this. I generally aim towards a completely customized blog design that will give my blog a distinct look and brand – but before I work towards that I almost always start with a more affordable option because I like to test to see whether the blog is going to work or not. As a result I’ve always been on the look out for great themes and when Chris Pearson and Brian Clark started DIYthemes and released the Thesis…

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  Scott Monty: The Social Media Marketing Blog

• What's a Brand to Do?

  29 Oct 2009 | 9:03 am

  Say you work for a brand. Customers have more access to you than ever - and you've got a wealth of choices as far as channels go: traditional marketing, online & interactive, gaming, mobile, social media, etc. But for your customers that are interested in interacting online, what do you think they want from you? And what should you do when you connect with them? Look no further! eMarketer Daily has very helpfully published a piece on Lightspeed Research's "Global Web Index." What do customer want from the brands they love? Information, mostly (well, after a good discount, anyway).

• Recent Twitter Statistics

  28 Oct 2009 | 6:50 am

  The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released some statistics about Twitter and other similar services that Americans use to post updates about themselves. The bottom line? About one in five Americans uses such a service.Click here for a larger image.Another interesting phenomenon is that we're seeing more young people using Twitter now. There have been anecdotal reports that young people were shying away from Twitter, but we can see the hard numbers here:The median age for Twitter is now 31, while MySpace is down 26 from its previous 27 in May of 2008; and Facebook has risen…

• No Kidding

  21 Oct 2009 | 9:21 am

  I originally wrote this over a year ago, but I think it deserves another go around, as there seem to be even more social media "experts" out there. Please add your suggestion to the comments section or on Twitter with the hashtag #smbulb and let's see how many responses we can get. Stop me if you've heard this. Yesterday, I asked a question on Twitter - one that Joseph Jaffe rhetorically asked on his blog - I posed it as a joke and asked for responses. The question was: How many social media experts does it take to change a lightbulb? My original answer on Joe's blog was: "309. One to come up…

• Why Apple & Google Win - and Your Company Doesn't

  10 Oct 2009 | 7:03 pm

  It's all about usability.      Common sense dictates that the easier something is to accomplish, the more readily it will be passed along. What information do you ask your customers to submit? And of that, which is really necessary? Less is more.   Courtesy of Stuff That Happens.   Posted via web from The Full Monty

• Don't Waste My Time

  4 Oct 2009 | 9:19 pm

  I'm perfectly capable of wasting it myself.   According to a recent poll by Ruder Finn, 100% of the people on the Internet go online to pass the time. But what other activities do they say they primarily use it for?   For those of you interested in the social space, 92% want to connect with others, 76% wish to discuss, 72% aspire to be part of a community, and 56% desire to influence others, and 52% hope to activate support. Those are pretty strong numbers.   Especially when you compare them to the percentage of people who wish to manage finances, comparison shop or join a…

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  CenterNetworks

• Google Maps Gets A New Layer — The NYC Subway

  Allen Stern

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:18 pm

  Last year Google got cozy with the MTA with the launch of transit directions inside of Google Maps. Today the Google Maps team has announced the launch of a new layer on Google Maps that displays all of the NYC subway routes directly on the map. There have been many mashups that created something similar in the past but now the subway lines are displayed directly on the map. So far I haven’t been able to find any errors in the lines and/or stations. I am sure my fellow railfans will find any errors this weekend. The new subway map lines also work on the mobile version of Google Maps.

• Startup Jobs – November 6

  Allen Stern

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:33 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 Job: Web Designer at Investor’s Business Daily More Jobs: Product Support Manager at Patch Experience Lead at HUGE Interaction Designer at GravityTank Front End Web Developer at Gucci Executive/Senior Web Producer at Scholastic Employers – Join other top companies on the CN Job Board. Post your jobs today – only $10 CenterNetworks Partner: Check out CloudContacts for your business card…

• Where Did CityFlitz Car Sharing Go?

  Allen Stern

  5 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm

  We first covered Canadian-startup CityFlitz last September. We learned about the car sharing service via the FreshBooks blog. CityFlitz is a car-sharing service offered in Canada. The concept of car sharing, popularized by ZipCar, is based around many people sharing a bank of cars. I use ZipCar about once a week and think it’s a great service as they take care of everything and I just pay for the hours I use the car. CityFlitz tried a more involved business model than ZipCar employs. CityFlitz wrapped each of their cars with advertising and then only charged members $1/day to use the…

• Today’s Startup and Entrepreneurial Updates

  Allen Stern

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:39 am

  Here are today’s startup updates – congrats to the world champion NY Yankees – 27th series title, 1st in the brand new Yankee Stadium. If you are reading this on the feed, click inside and check out the new CN logo. How to Boost Ad Revenue: Speed is Your Secret Weapon – BuySellAds Drop.io Outlook Plugin Release – Drop.io I’m starting out in Email Marketing. Should I buy an email list? - Toddle Alice makes it even easier to find the best price – Alice Dropbox is to Ubuntu as eucalyptus is to koalas - Dropbox CenterNetworks Partner: Check out…

• Enough is Enough…Stop Blaming Wordpress

  Allen Stern

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm

  For over a decade I was responsible for posting financial documents either online or, before the Internet, to a variety of reporting sources. One thing was absolutely clear…post early and it won’t be pretty. Financial documents have associated post times and if the content was to be posted early (or late), it could affect the financial markets (e.g. stock trades, etc.). I can’t even count how many times I had to be up at midnight or later to make sure content went to the correct sources at the precise time. Not once did I enter a client document into any CMS system early…

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  Publishing 2.0

• High-End Brand Publishers Need to Sell Scalable Premium Ad Solutions, Not Commodity Ad Space

  Scott Karp

  26 Oct 2009 | 9:26 am

  Newspaper online advertising has not benefited greatly from the recent upswing in online ad spending, according to the New York Times and most of the recent newspaper company quarterly results. This is no surprise because most newspaper websites sell SPACE for commodity advertising — display ads and classifieds — and thus are hard pressed to compete with ad networks that specialize in selling commodity ad space by the megaton (or giving it away for free, in the case of Craigslist). Back when newspapers where the only game in town for ad space, they could charge whatever they…

• Content Doesn’t Matter Without the Package

  Scott Karp

  16 Sep 2009 | 8:25 pm

  In response to the launch of Google’s Fast Flip, I observed that Google is correctly focused on creating a new user interface for news, when most media companies are not. A lot of people responded that Fast Flip is not an innovative or effective UI for news — which may be true, but that misses the point entirely. It doesn’t matter so much whether Google succeeds or fails with this particular experiment. What matters is that they are trying to solve the right problem. The challenge for media companies is not to figure out what to do with their content — content in and…

• What Google Understands About the Future of News and Publishing That Publishers Do Not

  Scott Karp

  14 Sep 2009 | 5:37 pm

  Google knows a lot about the future of news — more than many publishers. It’s evident in Google’s new product, Fast Flip, which allows news consumers to “flip” through news stories. What’s striking about Fast Flip is that Google is innovating precisely where publishers used to lead innovation. Fast Flip is a new package for news. The publishing business has always been about packaging content. Newspapers. Magazines. Newsletters In digital media, on the web, the news package is now a function of software — which is why Google is innovating precisely…

• The Briefing: Start at Y Combinator, finish at EveryBlock

  Ryan Sholin

  17 Aug 2009 | 1:54 pm

  It was a busy Monday morning in two corners of the hacker journalist community: EveryBlock is acquired by MSNBC, and Y Combinator announces a “request for startups” to address that whole “future of journalism” question hanging out there in the open air. Want to catch up? Start here: Msnbc.com acquires local news Web site MSNBC.com | August 17, 2009 Ryan Sholin says: MSNBC acquires Everyblock. This brief includes a reminder that they bought Newsvine some time ago. Not a bad stable of news sites to have around. Tags: Media & Journalism, EveryBlock, msnbc, Adrian…

• What I Read Today: Facebook Buys FriendFeed Edition

  Scott Karp

  10 Aug 2009 | 5:17 pm

  Why Facebook Wants FriendFeed GigaOm | August 10, 2009 Scott Karp says: Om Malik calls it “the problem of plenty.” Facebook is trying to solve it by acquiring FriendFeed. Will news orgs compete? Facebook Takes FriendFeed To Take On Twitter TechCrunch | August 10, 2009 Scott Karp says: M&A, as always, is driven by startups building what incumbents should have but couldn’t. karaswisher: Now That There’s FaceFeed, Does That Make Twoogle More Inevitable?: http://bit.ly/fET9I Twitter | August 10, 2009 Scott Karp says: Winner – Best FF/Facbook Post Title mathewi:…

• 
  Marketing Voices

• Twitterville: Author Shel Israel Discusses His Book

  podcast_info@ConnectedSocialMedia.com (Jennifer Jones)

  26 Oct 2009 | 1:12 am

  Shel Israel and I sat down at his house and talked about his latest book, Twitterville. So far the book is selling really well, and is on a path to sell at least as well as Shel’s first book, Naked Conversations. Shel feels Twitter has had a transformational impact on the lives of millions. His book delves into stories of businesses, individuals and others who have used Twitter successfully. Related posts:Using Social Media Tools To Launch A Book: Pam Slim Author And BloggerSocial Media Worldwide: Shel Israel’s PerspectivePerspectives From Guy Kawasaki: On Twitter, His Book: Reality Check…

• Guy Kawasaki On Twitter Strategies For Building A Huge Following

  podcast_info@ConnectedSocialMedia.com (Jennifer Jones)

  19 Oct 2009 | 12:01 am

  The legendary Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author and Twitter aficionado talks about the strategies he uses for gaining incredible numbers of people following him on twitter. More than 180,000 people are reading his tweets as of October 2009. He talks about how there is no correct or incorrect way to use Twitter despite the challenging criticisms he gets from his followers on his strategy. He uses Twitter mostly promotionally just to build Alltop, a company he co-founded and loves dearly. Guy talks about how he is a broadcast network—more like PBS– as he educates…

• BlogWorld and New Media Expo – Las Vegas 2009

  podcast_info@ConnectedSocialMedia.com (Jennifer Jones)

  6 Oct 2009 | 11:31 pm

  From Connected Social Media: BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s largest social media conference is coming to Las Vegas October 15-17, 2009. The over 280 speakers includes keynotes by: Guy Kawasaki, Kara Swisher, Chris Brogan, Laura Fitton, Jeremiah Owyang, Scott Monty, Brian Solis, Wendy Piersall, Ted Murphy, Chad Vader, Don Lemon, Leo Laporte, Joanna Drake Earl, Kevin Pollak, and Jay Rosen. The 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, beginning with the exclusive “Social Media Business Summit” conference on October 15th…

• Social Media Is Like Air Says Business Marketing Expert Charlene Li

  podcast_info@ConnectedSocialMedia.com (Jennifer Jones)

  30 Sep 2009 | 12:01 am

  Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group and formerly the key social media analyst at Forrester Research, talks to Marketing Voices about the latest trends in social media and marketing. Charlene provided these insights: 1. Social media will be like “air.” It will be everywhere and used by everyone. No one will be afraid to use the tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter—sharing information will be second nature. 2. Every employee can be a marketer. From the manufacturing floor to the executive offices of large and small companies, everyone in the company will be using social…

• Social Media Use By The Navy Today

  podcast_info@ConnectedSocialMedia.com (Jennifer Jones)

  7 Sep 2009 | 12:32 am

  Dennis Hall, founder of Avere Group, a multimedia company and also a volunteer who coordinates the public affairs offices of the 7 military services, sat down with Marketing Voices at the Woodside Bakery and talked about the status of social media in the Navy today. With diners buzzing in the background, we talked about how the Navy is using Facebook, YouTube, and Ning to build communities for the navy recruits and others. It is helping keep thousands of people connected in this tough wartime. Related posts:A Candid Perspective From Fighter Pilot Lieutenant Luis DelgadoSocial Media Tools For…

• 
  JasonKeath.com

• Simply Remember to Take It Offline

  Jason

  14 Oct 2009 | 12:34 pm

  We all know real world relationships are the goal of our networking. We talk to people a world away online. We form relationships with people all over the country on Twitter. But the real tangible benefit of these relationships, personal and business, happens offline. It is important to not get stuck inside of social networks and the virtual interactions they make so easy. Take the conversation to email, call someone, meet them for coffee. When you go to conferences or visit other cities, look for people from your online networks there. Experiences within social media are most engaging when…

• Social Media: The Bad and The Ugly

  Jason

  11 Oct 2009 | 9:09 pm

  In response to Patrick O’Keefe’s ManagingCommunities.com post on his BlogWorld Expo Panel “Social Media: The Bad and the Ugly”. My ugly social media is simply the knee jerk attack responses that I seem to see more and more of each day. I try not to be negative at all online outside of customer service complaints. But especially when a more constructive response or the offering of a solution would be a better response. I hope more people will decide to stay positive when reacting to individuals and companies that are making a strong effort to enter the social media…

• 4 Free Tickets to Social Media Business Forum

  Jason

  8 Oct 2009 | 8:55 pm

  Social Media History Trivia October 9th, 1pm EST Follow @jakrose for questions Random draw from the first 5 correct answers wins a ticket for each question 4 Questions 4 Free Tickets to Social Media Business Forum (October 23rd – Durham, NC)

• Traveling Twitter Design Firm

  Jason

  6 Oct 2009 | 7:06 pm

  DriftingCreatives.com Interview Martin & Gavin just graduated from Texas A&M University and are designing their way across the country. On the road for 4 months now, they are fully transitioned from recent graduates to full on traveling design firm. It is a pretty great testament to the power of social media. Two strangers can travel across the country, city to city, and make a living building a new business. All through the connections they kick off through Twitter. I wish these guys luck as they finish up their trip and look forward to how they use their lessons from the road.

• Speaking with Bank of America and LendingTree

  Jason

  2 Oct 2009 | 11:49 am

  I was lucky to join local Social Media professionals from Bank of America (Brian A. Wright) and LendingTree.com (Nicole Hall) last week for the local Interactive Marketing Association. It was great to hear the unique perspectives from these two financial players and the challenges they face. Overall, I was impressed by how savvy many of the attendees were. It was a great mix of interactive pros from E-retail to NASCAR to Fortune 500. David Wells not only caught the whole thing on video, but took out some of our key points (with Timestamps, wow). Oh, and he has an audio download. Check out the…

• 
  Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

• Cool Tool: screenr - Screencasting How to Add Text to Your Twitter Background

  ME Liz Strauss

  4 Nov 2009 | 5:29 am

  Screencasting Fast and Easy Screencasting is recording actions on the screen with narration. It’s a great way to show people how. What it says it does: allow screencasting without software. How well it does that: screenr is easy and intuitive. Size the capture screen to the website you want to discuss. Click the record button and record. Pause if you want. Then wait, a few minutes for it to process. Embed the screencast in your eCourse, download the video as MP4, upload it to your You-Tube channel, and watch it on your iPhone! Send it to Twitter. Post it on your blog. It’s free…

• Why Can’t We seem to Keep Things Simple?

  ME Liz Strauss

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  A Guest Post by Kyle Lacy I was asked to write this guest post about the power of simplicity in blog design and honestly, I was at a loss for words. What does it mean to have simplicity in blog design? Are we discussing the concepts of the layout design? Or a universal view of all things blog? I am not here to talk about the back-end coding of a blog, the rules of user interface design, or minimalistic thoughts on design…but the ability to give your readers the easiest way to read your valuable CONTENT. It is easy to say that the simpler the design the better. I mean… look at…

• Trusting Ourselves, Structure Damage, and Recovering

  ME Liz Strauss

  2 Nov 2009 | 5:12 am

  A Project Post by Liz Strauss and Kristi Daeda I’ve been working on a special project with Kristi Daeda, an awesome friend, writer, and career counselor. Our project will take many forms for people working on true trust and business relationships. Right now we’re working on breaks in our trust and world view. We’ve named them structure damage. What Is Structure Damage? It can happen when the world seems most in order. Suddenly, without warning, someone or something pulls the rug out of from under us. Trusting what’s next can be hard. Structure damage occurs when we are…

• Thanks to Week 210 SOBs

  ME Liz Strauss

  31 Oct 2009 | 7:32 am

  Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Let me introduce the bloggers who have earned this official badge of achievement, and the right to call themselves Successful Blog SOBs. I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs. They take the conversation to their readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger. I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on. Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community. Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award…

• What Jim Ericson Had to Say About Corporate Trust …

  ME Liz Strauss

  30 Oct 2009 | 6:37 am

  A community isn’t built or befriended, it’s connected by offering and accepting. Community is affinity, identity, and kinship that make room for ideas, thoughts, and solutions. Wherever a community gathers, we aspire and inspire each other intentionally . . . And our words shine with authenticity.

• 
  chrisbrogan.com

• Interview with Mike Myatt

  chrisbrogan

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:46 pm

  Mike Myatt is Chief Strategy Officer of N2Growth, a business that deals with branding, coaching, leadership management and more. Mike was also kind enough to buy many copies of Trust Agents, which made me wonder: what kind of a guy buys a ton of books to help a guy out, without wanting me to go and speak at some event or something? Mike just wanted to see things go well with our launch, and for that, I’m grateful. I asked Mike some questions about his business and where he sees all this going. Here’s our interview: You help coach CEOs on leadership and related issues, and…

• How to Think Of Blog Posts

  chrisbrogan

  5 Nov 2009 | 4:26 am

  The secret to blogging every day is a blend of three things: discipline, practice, and ideas. That last part is usually what I find people asking me for help with, so let’s talk about that today. Ideas don’t just grow on trees. But, you do have to harvest ideas the way you’d pick apples. Why? Because they’re everywhere. Here are some of the ways I find ideas. How to Think of Blog Posts Answer questions. You get emails with people asking you for your thoughts on X. Write the post instead of just replying to the email. Take pictures. I see strange things out and about.

• Wiring Up Business- Two Channel Social

  chrisbrogan

  3 Nov 2009 | 10:14 pm

  Let’s imagine you’re a small or medium sized business and looking to use social software to improve communications on many fronts: support, service, marketing, etc. If you chose to use a service like Twitter, for instance, for some of this communicating, I can see the need to have a two-channel mindset: one public and customer-facing and the other private and business-facing. On the public channel, you’d talk with customers and prospects about the business, including everything from support help to promotional opportunities, to general good will. On the other channel,…

• Trust Agents- An Introduction

  chrisbrogan

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:39 am

  I can’t say thanks enough to John Spiropoulos for his great video project from my trip to Southern California to spend time with Brandtailers. These videos he made are amazing. Pay attention to the quality John put into them more than the content itself. I mean, I’m flattered and pleased, but also pay attention to how John did what he did. I think he’s top shelf. You? If you can’t see the video, click here.

• Thank You Amazon-Thank You Friends

  chrisbrogan

  3 Nov 2009 | 4:28 am

  Yesterday, Trust Agents was named a Top 10 Book by Amazon.com, thanks in great part to YOUR kindness by ordering it. In just over two months, the book has made the New York Times Bestseller’s list, the Wall Street Journal Bestseller’s list, the top 5 sellers on Audible.com, and now the Top 10 Business & Investing books of 2009, according to Amazon. I consider every one of those successes to be yours. You did all the hard work. Julien and I just typed. Thank you for what you’ve done to make the book successful, and for believing in us. For those of you who haven’t…

• 
  Logic+Emotion

• A Conversation Worth Sponsoring (Thank You To The Art of Shaving)

  David Armano

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:35 am

  When Aaron Strout approached me about participating in Movember (through the Movember foundation which facilitates donations for Mens health issues such as testicular cancer), I was a bit apprehensive. I mean, I do a lot of talks/work with clients and it's hard to be taken seriously with a 'stash that came out of nowhere. I also thought about how much work it would take to hit up my network and raise funds for a great cause. It's never easy to ask people for money. Then the "marketer" in me started thinking. Wouldn't there be a brand out there who would want to get involved with this? What…

• 15 Top Social Media Agencies [del.icio.us]

  darmano

• How To Create Advocates For Your Business

  David Armano

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am

  So what is customer advocacy anyway? Well for starters, they don't have to be your customers—they can be any part of your entire constituency. Employees, business partners, friends—you name it. But here's the point. You need them more than ever. Right now, if you are planning social initiatives, your biggest challenge is going to be manpower. Someone has to do the listening, the outreach, the customer service, the participation, the engagement with others in the ecosystem. Some parts can be automated (such as an algorithm in a listening tool technology), but many other parts require…

• Six Social Media Trends For 2010

  David Armano

  3 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Originally posted on The Harvard Business Review blogIn 2009 we saw exponential growth of social media. According to Nielson Online, Twitter alone grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month. Meanwhile, Facebook continued to outpace MySpace. So what could social media look like in 2010? In 2010, social media will get even more popular, more mobile, and more exclusive — at least, that's my guess. What are the near-term trends we could see as soon as next year? In no particular order: 1. Social media begins to…

• 4 Myths about blocking Internet access in the enterprise | Capping IT Off | Capgemini | Consulting, Technology, Outsourcing [del.icio.us]

  darmano

  Cap Gemini encourages companies to allow access to social networks while blocking it themselves

• 
  trendsspotting blog

• For a Better (Digital) World

  Taly Weiss

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  In a beautiful thought-provoking project of Jonathan Harris (creator of We Feel Fine – one of the first social web emotion visualization projects), Harris shares some touching  personal insights with artistic inspirations relevant to a digital world. In this “World Building in a Crazy World” – Harris suggests 1-2-3 principals for a world building idea – “a universal idea executed simply, with an element of play, nostalgia or beauty”. Enjoy. Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

• Halloween through Location Based Applications

  Taly Weiss

  1 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  Google Latitude or other location based applications working through mobile phones can let you track your kids whereabouts during Halloween.   Aside from tracking, many of those applications can be used (note privacy concerns) for sharing the Halloween experience. Locations of retailers selling costumes and decorations can also be found by using applications as Poynt. To improve the Halloween experience, Zillow.com, have created a Trick or Treat Housing Index, which presents the top-five neighborhoods to maximize candy harvesting. The index uses four equally weighted data variables: Zillow…

• Google Wave: Invite Led Viral Campaign

  Dhivya Subramanian

  22 Oct 2009 | 2:24 pm

  Search Engine giant Google, has shown the world how it is reshaping the way communication happens over the internet with the soft launch of Google Wave. And it has done so in a way it knows best – through invite based viral marketing. The internet witnessed tremors of excitement when 100,000 exclusive invites to Wave were sought after by surfers who were curious, passionate, and addicted to Google. A sense of Déjà vu is hard to avoid. Google sent out similar invites when it launched Gmail in 2007, to build hype. Privileged invites led marketing has been a potent weapon that Google has…

• New ppt Slides: Consumer & Market Trends during Recession

  Taly Weiss

  19 Oct 2009 | 5:11 am

  TrendsSpotting.com has released a slides presentation on its new published report:  Consumer and Market Trends during Recession – Cross Industry Research. Enjoy. Consumer & Market Trends during Recession – Cross Industry Research Report by TrendsSpotting.com View more documents from Taly Weiss. Click here to learn more about the report - Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

• Is the Recession over? Research Suggests American Consumers aren’t Buying it: Cross–Industry Research Report by TrendsSpotting.com

  Taly Weiss

  9 Oct 2009 | 5:15 pm

  Quoting Bloomberg, (July 26 2009) “The worst U.S. recession in five decades probably eased in the second quarter (2009) as trade and government stimulus mitigated the damage from declines in housing, inventories and consumer and business spending”. President Obama is similarly optimistic declaring that “the worst may be over in the economic crisis”. Is it really? Are there signs of consumer recovery? In this TrendsSpotting report we follow the main consumer markets and consumers’ behavior indications for the year 2009. To better understand how Americans are adjusting their buying…

• 
  Blog World Expo

• 5 Things Your Spouse Won’t Understand About Blogging

  Thinking of getting into blogging? I hope you have a good support group at home. It's especially helpful if your spouse is someone who "gets" blogging and social media. If not, be prepared for lots of questions. 5 Things Your Spouse Won't Understand About Blogging 1. Why you spend so much time ...

• BlogWorld ‘09: How Does Your Light Shine?

  [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtoP4a6ABDU[/youtube] Thanks and good karma sent out to the following for providing the images for this slideshow: Lara Kulpa Keith Burtis Ben Sparks Denise Wakeman Reem Abeidoh

• Sponsored Conversations: Selling Out or Another Way to Make Money Blogging?

  When I first began blogging five or six years ago, there were plenty of arguments over whether or not bloggers should use ads on their blogs. Those who did were considered sell outs. Then the "make money online craze" hit and everyone was posting ads on their blogs and all ...

• BlogWorld ‘09 One Week Later: Thoughts from Around the Blogosphere

  [caption id="attachment_1521" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Dinner on opening day: Lara Kulpa, Darren Rowse, Angie Shwartz and I "][/caption] One week after the BlogWorld and New Media Expo, life returns to normal. We're rested. We're over the "BlogWorld flu." We've hugged our kids, snuggled with our spouses, and did massive loads of laundry. ...

• An Open Letter To All From Blogs With Balls and HHR Media

  To the illustrious attendees of Blogs With Balls 2.0: We at HHR Media felt that by Tuesday, your BwB 2.0 hangover and double-vision would be mostly gone, and those of you (of which there were a few) who missed plane flights as a result of your excessive "conventioneering" shall we say, ...

• 
  Building Communities Through Social Media

• Hawaii Tech 5.0

  NEENZ

  13 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am

  Launched with purpose on January 1, 2010 — Hawaii Tech 5.0 is a history of research, science, and technology development in Hawaii’s emerging innovation industries.  HT5.0 will serve as... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Hawaii Elections 2010

  NEENZ

  13 Oct 2009 | 2:45 am

  The historical campaign and election of Hawaii born and raised, President Barack Obama set the stage for what will be one of the most exciting election seasons. Hawaii Elections 2010 will capture the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Hawaii Traditions

  NEENZ

  12 Oct 2009 | 2:55 am

  While researching for Hawaii Tech 5.0, our team discovered a void — so we filled it. Hawaii Traditions: Traditions, Values, and Culture…Hawaii Style acknowledges everything good about the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Social Media Tool: MyAlltop

  NEENZ

  29 Jul 2009 | 12:55 am

  Disclosure: I am the Chief Evangelist for Alltop For those of you familiar with social media and Alltop, you’re probably wondering how or why MyAlltop can be considered a social media tool. The... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Top 20 Social Media Geeks in Hawaii

  NEENZ

  25 Jul 2009 | 2:28 am

  Lists, especially “Top Lists” are always open to discussion and debate because everyone has different opinions. It’s these differences in opinions that can make the world go round,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 
  idaconcpts

• How Does Twitter Spam Happen?

  damiandavilarojas

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:38 am

  Some application developers request access to your Twitter account in order for their applications (e.g. Pandora, Mashable, TweetMeme) to work. Here is an example of the application TweetMeme asking you to grant it access to your Twitter account: After granting an application access to your Twitter account, it will be included in your list of Twitter connections. Here is a screenshot of TweetMeme having access to a Twitter account: Twitter Spam happens when application developers abuse that access that you have granted them to your Twitter account. How do you get rid of Twitter Spam? Follow…

• 4 steps to Get Rid of Twitter Spam

  damiandavilarojas

  4 Nov 2009 | 11:49 am

  On the past 2 weeks, I have received a lot of Twitter direct messages (DMs) with offers about “making money with Google” or “make $500 a day online”. It appears that I am not the only one. These Twitter direct messages are not only annoying but they kill in less than a second all the reputation that we took so hard to build through our tweets. 4 Steps To Get Rid of Twitter Spam Step 1: Login to your Twitter account at http://twitter.com/login Step 2: Go to http://twitter.com/account/connections. Here you will see all the applications that have access to your account.

• How to check if your Google Analytics is installed properly

  damiandavilarojas

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:32 pm

  Installing the Google Analytics code into your website is simple as I showed earlier on the post about how to install Google Analytics a a real state brokerage website. This clear step-by-step guide can be applied to any kind of website. (Note: the  website used in the article is currently under renovation.) Why do we need to check if Google Analytics is installed properly? Because you might be missing on key analytics data from your site! Consider this discussion thread recently posted at the Google Analytics group in LinkedIn: The page in question is http://www.contek-office-tech.com. The…

• How Facebook does E-mail Newsletters

  damiandavilarojas

  23 Oct 2009 | 12:38 pm

  On 10/23/2009 Facebook sent out an e-mail newsletter titled “Ads Manager Announcement” to its Facebook Advertising users. This newsletter is a great example of how to implement permission marketing, how to avoid the brochure mentality, and how to do seamless product placement. How to Implement Permission Marketing Click here for a full explanation of e-mail permission marketing. Facebook provides its users with a check-box so they can decide whether or not to give you permission to contact them. Here is a list of the Facebook ads e-mail notifications: Facebook is asking its users:…

• What Online Marketers Can Learn from Online Educators

  damiandavilarojas

  22 Oct 2009 | 2:04 pm

  A MBA degree is a highly coveted degree for online marketing practitioners because it backs up our professional practice. However, throughout our MBA education we are hardly exposed to a field that is very relevant to our practice: online education, also known as educational technology. The field of Educational Technology (ET) explores the potential use and impact of learning technologies in a variety of contexts, and  determines good practices of curriculum design and technology integration. Educational technology programs such as the Master of Educational Technology at the University of…

• 
  Scobleizer

• Techmeme vs. Twitter lists? (UPDATE: vs. TechCrunch list)

  Robert Scoble

  2 Nov 2009 | 1:12 pm

  I love giving Gabe Rivera grief, founder of Techmeme. But I do love Techmeme. I read it every day. But now that we have Twitter lists, I’m finding I read Techmeme differently. Why? Well, TechMeme has a Twitter account. So, when something gets added to Techmeme it gets added to my tech news list. (By the way, refresh the list every minute or so and you’ll see just how much news this industry generates). But something else is also on that list: 492 other news sources! So, now you get Techmeme AND you get a large diversity of news that you can’t get on Techmeme. Which is…

• Louis Gray’s “five stages of early adopterism” chart

  Robert Scoble

  2 Nov 2009 | 11:24 am

  One of my favorite posts Louis Gray ever did was this one where he explained the stages early adopters go through as we use a product. He explained how early adopters go through five stages of using a product starting with discovery and ending with migration. Right now I’m in the “migration” phase with FriendFeed and the “entitlement” phase with Google Reader (actually, thinking about it, I’m in the migration phase there too). But some tools and services get to restart the loop. Twitter did that for me in June. What happened in June? Well, I had an…

• The chat room/forum problem (& an apology to @Technosailor)

  Robert Scoble

  1 Nov 2009 | 11:17 pm

  I’ve been doing online communities for more than 20 years, starting in 1985 when a friend had a BBS. One thing I’ve noticed over and over again is that chat rooms and forums start out fun and then devolve over time for various reasons. But in 2000 I discovered that blogs had the opposite effect. They got more interesting over time. Why is that? I call it the chat room/forum problem and I think I’ve discovered the cause. See, in a chat room no one is in control. But usually some small group starts one. They are interesting at the start. I remember when a small group of us…

• Developers: the best smart phone platform is?

  Robert Scoble

  1 Nov 2009 | 9:32 am

  I was talking with Loic Le Meur, CEO and founder of Seesmic, the other night and he was saying that he’s running his business by looking at the numbers, not listening to the hype. He told me that the iPhone isn’t the only platform out there, although he admitted that it gets 95% of the hype (er, discussion in community) because nearly every influencer has an iPhone and knows that it’s the best one out there. Even the hot new “Droid” phone doesn’t quite measure up in reviews. He says that he’s forcing himself to use a Blackberry, for instance, even…

• Twitter’s lists make Chris Brogan feel bad

  Robert Scoble

  31 Oct 2009 | 7:06 pm

  Chris Brogan wrote that Twitter’s Lists make Chris Brogan feel bad. Why? Because he sees them as exclusionary. Chris doesn’t like that lists exclude people, by their very design. Here, look at my list of programmers. It excludes me. That makes me feel bad, according to Chris Brogan. Except, well, I’m NOT a programmer so why should I be on a list of programmers? I can’t STAND this attitude that everyone should be included in everything. I should NOT be on a list of golfing greats. Heck, I’ve never even played the game, but let’s say I played. Are you KIDDING…

• 
  PR, Social Media, and Marketing Mentor ?

• 2009 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Awards Submission Deadline Extended to Thursday, September 10th

  Each year, the Society for New Communications Research presents the prestigious SNCR Excellence in New Communications Awards. The deadline for application submissions for this year's awards has been extended from September 7th to Thursday, September 10, 2009, to allow applicants who are away for Labor Day Weekend to finish and ...

• Some Social Media Humor for Summer Vacation…

  Occasionally in social media training, some humor is called for, and The Onion Newsfeed video clip above takes on the big issue of search engine privacy rights—specifically, while using the ubiquitous Google—and gives us a tour of "Google's Opt-Out Privacy Village." And then, there's this HubSpot spoof on Twitter ...

• 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. ...

• 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 ...

• 
  Social Media Explorer

• Three Tips For Social Media Management

  Jason Falls

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  I sat across the lunch table talking to Craig Bruenderman and Sam Gracie of ResonantVibes.com yesterday, talking about their community of electronic mix music producers and fans, smiling at what I heard. These are young, tech-oriented entrepreneurs, immersed in all the code and programming most of us fear. They use social tools to build their business around. They’re digital natives. What did they say that made me smile? “How do you choose which social networks and channels to focus on?” I heard the same thing from a small business owner in LaGrange, Ky., last week. I heard…

• The Dangerous Waters Ahead

  Jason Falls

  4 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  The era of the social web has given us unprecedented access. We can see more about each other’s lives, know more about each other’s daily routines and find each other easier now than ever before. We have access to what would have been millions of dollars in software applications and platforms now, too. But they, in turn, have access to us. Our lives, not just our computer programs, have become open source. And we plod along, going with the flow and accepting the fact that the creepy guy from junior high is now commenting on our Facebook pictures. We’ve mostly grown wise to…

• What Social Media Monitoring Won’t Get You

  Jason Falls

  2 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Companies, brands and their respective marketing and public relations managers are clamoring to know what people are saying about them on the web. I would offer that social media monitoring has been the single-largest technology-based industry boom in the last 10 years, though search engine optimization firms might win that title. Image via Wikipedia On a parallel path, Facebook has surged past everyone else to emerge as the go-to social network. Brands grabbed up profiles, then group pages, now brand pages. Some still have all three. (You probably ought to move to the brand page exclusively,…

• What The Wall Street Journal Has, Few Will Match

  Jason Falls

  30 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am

  Mediaweek magazine puts together a “Digital Hot List” each year of the websites or companies they see as having the potential to wow the web world. Their list never seems to be much of a surprise, especially when you consider Google, Facebook and Twitter are sort of default entries, but there’s always one or two on it that raise an eyebrow. This year it’s the Wall Street Journal’s website, WSJ.com, in at No. 8. Yep! The website property of a traditional media outlet is on Mediaweek’s Digital Hot List. And no, it’s not a joke. To further perplex the…

• Shave My Goatee For Male Cancer Research

  Jason Falls

  28 Oct 2009 | 9:01 pm

  A funny thing happened on Twitter last night. David Armano and I got into a (light hearted and fun) discussion about the two of us being sexy bitches. (I know … silly, but bear with me here.) Somehow the notion of me shaving my goatee to raise money for a good cause came up. So, I’ve decided to support Movemeber, the male cancer awareness movement, by pledging to you that if we can raise $1,000.00 by Nov. 15, which I will donate to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, I will shave my goatee. Sure, it’s a small personal sacrifice (I’ve had my goat since roughly 1977), but…

• 
  The Social

• Going rogue? Palin bans gadgets, reporters from speech

  Caroline McCarthy

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:40 pm

  The former Alaska governor joins a tradition of controversial politicians stoking up more press criticism by attempting to avoid it in the first place. Originally posted at News - Politics and Law

• Facebook: We're going after scammy ads, too

  Caroline McCarthy

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:38 pm

  The social network reinforced in its developer blog that it's taking an active stance against the companies that have been getting bad press recently for deceptive advertising.

• Offerpal Media mess gets stickier

  Caroline McCarthy

  5 Nov 2009 | 2:54 pm

  The company is involved in at least two suits with upcoming developments. In one, it sues a competitor. In another, a plaintiff alleges he was ousted as a co-founder.

• After onstage spat, Offerpal replaces CEO

  Caroline McCarthy

  4 Nov 2009 | 4:51 pm

  Departing CEO Anu Shukla says the offers-and-surveys company has been hunting for a new chief exec for "many months," but the timing is a little suspect considering recent media scrutiny of its business model.

• Beatles catalog comes to USB

  Caroline McCarthy

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:29 am

  It's a USB device shaped like an Apple, but that's in reference to the Apple Corps publishing company, not anything founded by Steve Jobs. Originally posted at News - Digital Media

• 
  Online Community Report

• Social CRM Virtual Summit - November 11th, 2009

  3 Nov 2009 | 3:56 pm

  We’re proud to be sponsors of Lithium’s online conference Social CRM on November 11th. The Social CRM Virtual Summit is a five-hour online conference, which includes webcasts by industry leaders in an interactive exhibit hall, a resource center with extensive materials for download, and a virtual networking lounge to chat live with speakers and prospects. Bill Johnston will lead a session on Best Practices: Community, Strategy and Planning with Joe Cothrel of Lithium. Their session includes discussions on: Defining and creating a community strategy by working with organizational and…

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  @NowSourcing.Com » Blog

• Plurk Community: You’re Doing it Wrong

  Brian Wallace

  2 Nov 2009 | 7:36 am

  Image via CrunchBase I remember when Plurk first came out.  At first glance its user interface was different but once you got to spending some time on the site, it was pretty cool.  As luck would have it, Plurk also came around when Twitter was having some of its worst downtime in history.  Take that, and some nifty enhanced features (conversations on one page, ability to share images and video, dancing bananas and it seemed as though Plurk really could have taken over the microblogging space. But it didn’t. Why? I would offer that Plurk ultimately didn’t listen to its…

• Facebook Share Released: Facebook Takes on Digg and Tweetmeme

  Ariela Ross

  29 Oct 2009 | 3:22 pm

  As Facebook comes in to become one of the largest population groups in the world, it still finds its own flaws. Thanks to what can easily be assumed to be the influence of other social media sites, such as Twitter and Digg, the folks at Facebook have added yet another new feature. Facebook Share allows a member to post a link/video/image to their wall that they find interesting or useful. Beyond spreading the content around to a broader audience, Facebook Share keeps track of the exact number of times a link has been “shared.” Depending upon the amount of friends that are active…

• Homeless But Not Humorless

  Admin

  22 Oct 2009 | 8:18 am

  While visiting Austin, Texas, I came across this ingenious sign being utilized by a homeless man. Judging by the fact he had set this sign down and was instead using a second sign he’d fashioned, the one pictured here may just have been too snarky for the passersby.

• BREAKING: Twitter Translate Launches

  Ariela Ross

  21 Oct 2009 | 4:32 pm

  The Twitter Translation Community project is up and running! Now, thanks to your fellow Tweeple, you will soon be able to have Twitter in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, which are in addition to the currently implemented Japanese and English. The announcement for this project was made earlier this month on the Twitter blog. Since this is a community deal, Twitter needs you to chip in and do your part. If you can fluently read and write in a second (or third or fourth) language, Twitter Wants You! It looks like the FIGS are taken, but there are definitely more tongues in the world than…

• The New Community Rules: Add to Your Toolbelt

  Brian Wallace

  20 Oct 2009 | 6:59 am

  The New Community Rules is one of the latest social media books out there, written by Tamar Weinberg.  Tamar and I are friends and enjoy debating the finer points of social media.  While we don’t always agree she has outdone herself in this book. New and experienced marketers alike are sure to gain some bits of new knowledge,  and this book can be used as a reference manual in approaching new social networks  for the first time. One of my major criticisms of most social media marketers is that even when they are not just full of hot air, they tend to be one-trick ponies.  Meaning…

• 
  The Internet Strategist

• Build Your Blog

  27 Oct 2009 | 1:45 pm

  We are knee deep in the basics of blogging! click hereto retweet In my last few posts we covered what a blog is, and the benefits of blogging as a technique to boost your business. If you've decided you'd like to blog, or if you just want more information before taking the plunge, there are a few more steps, namely: what are you going to blog about (this one's kinda important) how will you set up your blog how will you market your blog Deciding what you'll write about is clearly a highly subjective decision that goes beyond our scope for today (although maybe a good idea for a future feature?

• Blogging's 11 Big Payoffs pt 2

  12 Oct 2009 | 2:00 pm

  click hereto retweet From the comments and emails I've received, the benefits I described in the first half of Blogging's 11 Big Payoffs have hit home but also helped you think of new ways that your blog can help you build your business. I liked the issue raised in a comment by SaveMoneyCostCutting from last week. Sometimes it is a fine line between too much marketing and just enough. It is important to establish a position on this that will work based on what you're selling and to whom you're selling it. There's no one-size-fits-all on that one. Blogging is a tool you can use creatively to…

• Blogging's 11 Big Payoffs

  5 Oct 2009 | 9:34 pm

  click hereto retweet In last week's article I discussed what a blog actually is and its relationship to both your business and to your regular Web site if you have one. The purpose of blogging in general, is usually to establish and/or support an existing brand with an understanding of how that brand generates revenue. This week, as promised, I'm getting into the real payoffs. Why does it make sense to spend hours of time each month, writing content, then giving it away for free and if that's not enough, even more hours marketing that free content to make sure people will know it's there?

• To Blog or Not to Blog

  29 Sep 2009 | 1:24 am

  click hereto retweet Outside of the fact that you happen to be reading one right now, I find that there are lots of smart, business savvy folks out there who when placed in the position of having to explain, strategize or build a blog (or decide if one should be built at all) are at a bit of a loss. Blogs are usually easy for most people to recognize but harder for folks to define. When I hosted a free class on the subject (as I do from time to time) it "sold out" (in the way only free classes can!) the room filled to capacity. Even those who can sort of describe a blog, often find it hard to…

• Building Your Tribe - 6 LinkedIn Success Studies (final/part 3)

  21 Sep 2009 | 2:00 pm

  click hereto retweet The last 2 posts I've written have focused on featuring real businesses that have created highly successful social marketing strategies using LinkedIn as a key element. I started the series with an overview of LinkedIn concepts, then moved into a guide for creating your LinkedIn profile, followed by a list of the 11 most powerful LinkedIn tools for small businesses. Finally, I outlined 6 core strategies that small businesses use to leverage LinkedIn for building a tribe and covered the first three: Building a live community (LinkedIn tribe part 1) Business development…

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  Social Media Marketing

• Which Twitter Lists Define You?

  Naomi Trower

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:07 am

  I need your help in developing my Twitter Lists. As you know, Twitter Lists are the hottest topic in social media right now. I have read several articles on how to define my lists, however I want to hear YOUR feedback. Which Twitter List Defines You? What Category Would Make You Hold Your Head Up High? I have seen some funny names for twitter lists: “Too sexy for their shirt” and yes someone added me to that list. I was super honored to be included on this list: “Entrepreneurs on the fast track” with a number of people following that list. Which leads me to an…

• Welcome To The World of SocialNomics

  Naomi Trower

  1 Nov 2009 | 6:31 am

  This is an AMAZING video of the shift in social media today. I have no more words to add but WOW!!!!! Need I say more??? Naomi Trower Real Estate Broker Premier Equity Group, Inc. Real Estate Social Media Marketing “Teaching Professionals Social Media” Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Share this on RedditBuzz up!Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponShare this on TechnoratiShare this on MixxShare this on FacebookTweet This!Email this to a friend?Share this on LinkedinShare this on FriendFeed

• Happy Halloween! Greek Goddess of Social Media

  Naomi Trower

  31 Oct 2009 | 2:28 pm

  Ok, I do NOT claim to be the Greek Goddess of Social Media. That just happens to be my Halloween costume for this year. I decided to go all out this year and dress up by the urgings of some of my Twitter buds. I decided this was mostly going to be a picture post of some of my favorite Halloween pics that I found across the web and my own digital camera. Here is a picture of me anticipating tonight’s fun adventure with my kiddos. I was really happy with this costume eventhough it was my 2nd choice. My 1st choice was sold out and it was just as beautiful. It is costumes such as these that…

• Real Estate BlogWorld & BlogWorld Expo 2009

  Naomi Trower

  18 Oct 2009 | 10:30 am

  What a rollercoaster week for me! I was making every effort to attend BlogWorld and Real Estate BlogWorld Expo 2009. My kids started to get sick and I thought “Oh no, Dad just won’t do while Mom is away!” So I started stuffing them with vitamin C and OJ all week. They were starting to get better and I was looking at airline tickets every 5 minutes. Then the unthinkable happened…My husband got sick! UGH! My main babysitter was going to be incapable of taking care of the kids. My backup babysitter, Nana, already had plans to go out of town to none other than VEGAS but…

• How To Use Twitter Lists

  Naomi Trower

  17 Oct 2009 | 7:26 pm

  Twitter has finally released their new Twitter List Feature. However, it is only being released to a certain amount of users. You will need to check your Twitter account often to see if your account has been activated before you can start using the feature. It will be obvious that your account has been activated because you will see the list feature on your account. You can view this Twitter List demo video by Mari Smith which she recorded live at BlogWorld Expo 2009. It gives you an idea of how you can use this new feature. Of course, there will be a follow-up post here at Social Media…

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  FactoryCity

• And the monopoly goes to…

  Chris Messina

  31 Oct 2009 | 10:10 am

  I’m not a great fan of patents, not because I’m against innovation, but because I don’t believe the patent system (especially in the United States) has kept up with, or modernized, in a way that actually encourages the widest possible public benefit at the lowest cost in the least amount of time. In other words, what we’ve learned from open source is that different types of competitive pressures in transparent markets can do as much if not more than centrally conferred monopolies over a given idea, implementation, or design. Furthermore, the process by which the rights…

• On brand consistency and BHAGs

  Chris Messina

  2 Oct 2009 | 9:37 am

  Ryan Stewart — a platform evangelist for Adobe — wrote a post resentful of Google Wave’s hype — and lamented the lack of similar interest and enthuasism for rich internet applications (RIAs), writing that Adobe, just [doesn’t] seem to encourage the visionary demos, the ones that make people rethink how they’ll communicate and interact. The resulting discussion was worth a read, especially comments by Brian Lesser. While one of the arguments was over whether Wave could be built with Adobe technologies, that’s the least interesting part of the conversation. As Ryan points out,…

• Video of my talk: “Identity is the Platform”

  Chris Messina

  2 Oct 2009 | 12:12 am

  I’ve posted the video that Brynn shot of my talk. Slides are available here. Of course, it’s purely coincidental that I used Pownce to illustrate my story of the “death of a web app”, since it was relaunched yesterday at TypePad Motion — without any of the relationships that were lost when the service shut down.

• Identity is the platform

  Chris Messina

  1 Oct 2009 | 6:37 am

  These are the slides from my talk at the Mindtrek conference in Tampere, Finland today. I admit that there are some controversial things in this talk, but if I don’t say it, I don’t know who will. So, for the purpose of understanding this talk, it’s worth keeping in mind that I mean “OpenID” in a much more expansive way — not limited to the purview of the features of the protocol today, but as an effective, comprehensive competitor to Facebook Connect. As well, I’m working out what I really mean by “Identity as the Platform”, but my five…

• Umair Haque’s Awesomeness Manifesto

  Chris Messina

  21 Sep 2009 | 12:35 pm

  I don’t always agree with Umair Haque, a Harvard economist, though many of his ideas resonate with my own experience on the web. And I can imagine that much of his message comes across as rather radical to his audience, so I’ll cut him some slack if he has a tendency to wax revolutionary when he talks about the social web. Still, I find his “Awesomeness Manifesto” actually useful, if only because it’s an argument against innovation as we commonly think of it. His point echos a common refrain among many of the web’s independent progeny of late (consider Tim…

• 
  JessicaRandazza

• Social Media: Customer Service or Marketing?

  Jessica

  5 Nov 2009 | 4:10 pm

  After a brief conversation last night with Mona and Kristy about social media being silo-ed into marketing or customer service, I was feeling frustrated interested in the general consensus on social media was for the non-PR/Marketing folks. Mona believes that is and should be utilized as a customer service tool, and as a public relations practitioner…well, I disagree. But, because I’m open to listening to argument, and checking out a different perspective (in case I just happen to be wrong, which may or may not happen more often than I’d like), I looked for a second opinion…

• Find Me on Four Square

  Jessica

  2 Nov 2009 | 11:33 pm

  I have to admit, I’ve become obsessed with Four Square. For months and months I held off on downloading the application. I watched my friends check in and compete against one another, and I resisted. Why sign up for another time suck? And the truth was that I didn’t get the appeal. But a few weeks ago I got curious and headed over http://foursquare.com to see what all the fuss was about. People use foursquare to “check-in”, which is a way of telling us your whereabouts. You’ll find that as your friends use foursquare to check-in, you’ll start learning more…

• Act 1: Scene opens. Personality lacking blog enters.

  Jessica

  25 Oct 2009 | 4:37 am

  Everyone has an opinion, and unfortunately people are allowed to think whatever they want. It’s just you might not always agree with them or want to hear what they have to say. And after my most recent blog post, a number of family, friends and colleagues all decided to provide their thoughts. (Scene opens. Me on my computer at work. Doing, well, work. IM from a peer I know from the online space pops up.) Random Peer: Well, Jess, I just read your blog, and I have to say. It’s pretty….um. Bo-ring. I just e-mailed you what you wrote and what I think you should write. You need…

• Easy (and not sleazy) Three of Social Media Ethics

  Jessica

  22 Oct 2009 | 1:53 pm

  Social media is fluid and dynamic. It’s always changing. Each day a new professional industry is logging into the online community to disseminate their messages/information. The natural consequence is that social media will evolve. With the influx of diversity and fresh perspectives growth is inevitable. As social media marketers, we all want to keep the online community a trusted place for our consumers where we can share our honest brand messages. It’s up to us to make sure what we’re disseminating is ethical and in the best and serves the public good. To keep social media…

• Dipping in the Company Ink?

  Jessica

  19 Oct 2009 | 9:10 am

  When I was 16, I worked with my high school sweetheart in our small town’s coffee shop. We met there the summer before my senior year, he was already a couple years out of school, and soon after meeting we fell deeply into teen angst filled love. We coordinated our schedules to always work at the same time (having someone you’re crushing on at work certainly makes the work day more pleasant). fell for him because of mad latte graphic skills Our relationship lasted into the following summer and when the pressure of me moving away for college started to mount, our adolescent love…

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  ManagingCommunities.com

• Social Media Business Forum: One Day Only: Today in Durham, NC

  Patrick

  23 Oct 2009 | 1:00 am

  Conferences, conferences, conferences! Well, after IZEAFest and Blog World Expo, this should be my last one for a while. Social Media Business Forum is today at the North Carolina Central University School of Education in Durham, North Carolina. I’m going to be on a pair panels during the first half of the day. From 9:00 AM [...]

• See Me at Blog World & New Media Expo 2009!

  Patrick

  15 Oct 2009 | 1:00 am

  photo credit: Nick Bastian Tempe, AZ Blog World & New Media Expo starts today at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. If you’re coming, I’d love to meet you. I’ll be around during all conference hours (here’s my BWE sched), but there are three scheduled events that I’ll be taking part in. Friday, [...]

• Announcing the Winner of the “Social Media: The Bad and The Ugly” Blog World Expo 2009 Conference Pass Giveaway

  Patrick

  13 Oct 2009 | 11:00 am

  On Sunday, I launched the “Social Media: The Bad and the Ugly” Blog World Expo 2009 conference pass giveaway, offering up a free full access pass to Blog World & New Media Expo (a $1,195 value). To win? You had to come up with the most interesting blog post about a trend in social media [...]

• “Social Media: The Bad and The Ugly” Blog World Expo 2009 Conference Pass Giveaway

  Patrick

  11 Oct 2009 | 11:19 am

  photo credit: Nick Bastian Tempe, AZ Update 2: The giveaway is now closed! Winner to be announced shortly. Update: The pass has now been upgraded to a Full Access pass! On October 16 at 4 PM in Las Vegas, I’ll be speaking at Blog World & New Media Expo on the “Social Media: The Bad and The [...]

• IZEAFest at SeaWorld 2009 Recap

  Patrick

  8 Oct 2009 | 1:06 pm

  From October 1-4, I attended the IZEAFest conference at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. It was somewhat of a last minute booking because I was lucky enough to win a pass from Table for Five and be able to share a room, for the first three nights, with my unbelievably gracious friend Wayne Sutton, who was [...]

• 
  Bokardo

• Is Twitter Successful?

  Josh

  21 Oct 2009 | 3:52 am

  The big question everyone has with Twitter is, and the very first one that John Battelle asked Twitter CEO Ev Williams when he interviewed him yesterday, is “What’s the revenue model?” And the answer Ev gave is exactly the same one they’ve been giving for a year now, which essentially is: “We’re not focused on revenue. We’re focused on growth”. When you hear a CEO say something like that, you know a lot of people’s reaction will be “They’re doomed. They’re a flash in the pan. They’re not successful yet, etc”.

• Communicating Value through Cause & Effect on Fanfeedr

  Josh

  17 Sep 2009 | 5:36 am

  A few months ago we held an event called Testcase at Betahouse in Cambridge, MA where we asked four startups to come and user test their web sites with local folks who showed up. Despite the super informal user testing method we used, we clearly saw that each startup struggled with communicating the value of their service. This is a common problem…founders have a really awesome idea but it just isn’t communicated to people clearly. One of the startups, Fanfeedr, was in super-early alpha at the time. The primary finding from testing their site was that people didn’t…

• Feature Development in Action: Broadcast Stream Messages in Socialcast

  Josh

  21 Aug 2009 | 6:20 am

  In which I describe how we discovered the broadcast stream message feature in Socialcast. One of the guiding principles of interaction design is to support existing behavior. This means to figure out what is already happening, what activities, tasks, and interactions people are already doing, and build support for them into software. This may not seem like a glamorous way to approach design, but from my experience it’s the fastest way to make people happy. Let them do what they already do faster/better/easier, and then you’ll have their attention in order to push the envelope…

• Using your Sign-up form as a Qualifier

  Josh

  19 Aug 2009 | 9:26 am

  In many industries people pay lots of money for a qualified lead. A qualified lead is a person who has expressed interest in a product or service and meets general buying criteria. For example, my neighbor told me that in the real-estate business agents often pay 1% of a resulting home sale for qualified home buyers. If someone can send an agent a home buyer who is serious about purchasing and eventually purchases, that referral is worth several thousand dollars. I recently ran across an interesting way to qualify people using sign-up forms at monotask.com. Monotask is a yet-to-be-released…

• No Sign-up Necessary (the strikethrough method)

  Josh

  18 Aug 2009 | 6:59 am

  Two apps, Posterous and SignApp, have a novel way to communicate how easy it is to start using their product. I call it the strikethrough method. It’s a simple feature: the designers simply cross out one of the normal, expected steps of getting started with the service. On the home page of the site they show the usual, expected step of creating an account and then put a red line through it. Easy. Here it is on Posterous: Here it is on SignApp: Notice that striking through text actually adds information to the sign-up page that doesn’t need to be there. By informing people they…

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  SOMEWHAT FRANK

• My first sign of @Geekend2009 as I arrived in Savannah

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:41 pm

  My first sign of @Geekend2009 as I arrived in Savannah

• Bond Opens Up PayPal X Conference

  4 Nov 2009 | 8:29 pm

  Bond Opens Up PayPal X Conference

• Naveed Anwar (@nanwar) closes out day of PayPalX

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm

  Naveed Anwar (@nanwar) closes out day of PayPalX

• "The wallet has changed."

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:15 pm

  “The wallet has changed.” - Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly) at #ppxi09

• Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly) wants to see cooperation...

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:06 pm

  Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly) wants to see cooperation between services (i.e. service mashups) for ordering pizza

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  Community Guy - Jake McKee

• Visit us at the Social CRM Virtual Summit

  Jake McKee

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:57 am

  Ant’s Eye View is sponsoring a pretty cool event next week. It’s all virtual and it should be all awesome. From the official AEV blog post, here’s the details: This year there have been a lot of online discussions on Social CRM – what is it? can it work? who is doing it? Now is the time to hear from the informed and thoughtful on how Social + CRM enable new business opportunities. The Ants are proud to be a sponsor at the Lithium Social CRM Virtual Summit on Tuesday, November 11 – the largest online conference for Social Media and CRM professionals. The Social CRM…

• Apparently I’m a Supergenius

  Jake McKee

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  If you’re a fan of awesome conferences and events, never pass up a chance to go to one put on by Andy Sernovitz. He’s a master of the fun time. Andy invited me to speak about my LEGO experience at Word of Mouth Supergenius in December, and it’s sure to be one hell of a good time. Here’s the official event description: Word of Mouth Supergenius is where you’ll learn to be a fantastic word of mouth marketer with 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors. You’ll learn practical, hands-on techniques to get started, grow your…

• The Amazon community team is hiring

  Jake McKee

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:45 am

  Sometimes a job description comes across the Community Guy Jobs Board that I simply can’t help but share it’s so cool. As a long time Amazon fan (I remember when the site was a solid tan background and only sold books), I’ve been so very impressed with the way their site and their community efforts have developed over the years. It’s disappointing that they don’t get more credit for the sheer volume of community/social features each and every page of their site has. If you’re looking to be part of an impressive team and an impressive product, check out this…

• Community Job Openings Update

  Jake McKee

  8 Oct 2009 | 5:24 am

  Times are tough, no question about it. If you’re in need of a new gig and are interested in community development work (which I assume you are if you’re reading this blog), be sure to check out the Community Guy Jobs Board. It’s free to use both for employees and employers, and has quite a few tasty new openings. Here’s a quick run down of some of the latest jobs. Good luck! Customer Service Manager Hollywood, CA Community Manager for a B2B IT Community Austin, TX Program Manager (Word-of-Mouth / Social Media Marketing) New York, NY Social Media Program Manager…

• Using your eyes to listen

  Jake McKee

  7 Oct 2009 | 3:08 am

  My Ant’s Eye View colleague, Jennifer Hughes is blogging at the AEV blog and her first post is awesome! What I have learned is – online listening to your customers is about reading. There is no tool that is going to eliminate the need for you to truly listen to your customers. The tools just make it quicker, easier, and even a little fun! Listening only to influencers will not tell you what your customers are saying. You need to listen to all discussion on different media types (forums, blogs, tweets, tags). Forum discussions can give you a very different view than blogs alone. Be…

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  123 Social Media

• Business Development Blogs, social media helps connect the dots

  Barry Hurd

  13 Oct 2009 | 10:50 am

  We have a lot of different readers on this blog, so to appease the business development professionals who visit regularly I wanted to highlight some bloggers who are dedicated to selling. If you want to brush up on your selling skills, all three of the following authors can give you some both great strategies and helpful tactics for enhancing your results. Brian Carroll’s B2B lead generation blog. Brian does a good job detailing where basic business points overlap with emerging online tactics. His articles cover some new insight and useful reminders to double-check what you already have…

• Social Media for Business Development

  Barry Hurd

  13 Oct 2009 | 10:25 am

  Have you ever thought about what information the web retains and keeps about you, your favorite subject or the person you just shook hands with at a recent social event? This conversation is not about topics today, but the “topics of every day” that have been recorded. Imagine for a moment that everything you say and do has been recorded. Every single conversation. Every place you have visited. Every person you know. In many ways it is scary, yet the information is still there… and the data is growing every single day. Knowing how this vast resource affects business…

• Using social media cost effectively

  Barry Hurd

  8 Oct 2009 | 11:21 am

  On a daily basis, our team is asked about the most effective uses of social media. A common question: “Isn’t it all free?” Yes. The tools are free. You can log into Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. They are all free. The knowledge and talent in using the free tools however… is not. Like many other trades, the tools that define social media are very affordable and often free. Painters make $100k works of art with $5 brushes Carpenters create million dollar homes with $10 hammers Accountants change billion dollar hedge funds using simple calculators In this mindset: having…

• Social Media Evolution, how things change.

  Barry Hurd

  6 Oct 2009 | 5:20 pm

  As a professional speaker I need to constantly remind myself of how communication has changed so quickly. Knowing what types of catalysts can provoke sudden changes in an audience is often the key to relaying a message. As an exercise in piecing together some emotional and generational images, I wanted to see if I could relay some of the changes we have experienced in just 10 to 20 years. This is a three minute presentation (maximum) that defines how I see the world of human communication shifting. Please let me know what you think! Social Media Evolution

• Social Media with the Washington Auctioneers Association

  Barry Hurd

  6 Oct 2009 | 10:22 am

  I had a wonderful opportunity to present the hot points of social media with the Washington Auctioneers Association. In a strange way, auctioneers are one of the nearest versions of real world social media: they collect groups of people interested in specific objects, use a variety of techniques to motivate the audience, and lead them to the action. While standing in-front of a crowd and asking for bids may seem essentially simple, the association opened my eyes to the types of talent and character you need to have in order to succeed as an auctioneer. I heard such qualities as trust, honesty…

• 
  Brian Solis - PR 2.0

• Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

  brian

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:02 am

  Source: feministingEach year at Blogworld Expo, Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra presents The State of the Blogosphere as one of the event’s prestigious keynotes. For those who are unfamiliar with Technorati, it serves as a directory and search engine for the blogosphere as well as a benchmark for the ranking of blogs worldwide.While there has been much discussion about the relevance and even demise of blogs as the statusphere and micro updates gained traction in addition to earning prominence in the mainstream spotlight, the reality is that blogs are a vital ingredient to the media…

• RT @Twitter: New Retweet Feature Goes Live

  brian

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:29 pm

  Source: TwitterThis is breaking news at the moment, therefore this post will update as new information trickles in.Twitter is making good on its recent promise to introduce new features to bring users back to Twitter.com.Similar to the way that it rolled out Lists, Twitter is incrementally releasing its new Retweet feature initially previewed in August 2009.As described by @Biz, co-founder of Twitter:Retweet is a button that makes forwarding a particularly interesting tweet to all your followers very easy. In turn, we hope interesting, newsworthy, or even just plain funny information will…

• Social Media Influencers are not Traditional Influencers

  brian

  5 Nov 2009 | 4:19 am

  SourceGuest post by Damien Basille, follow him on Twitter | Read his blogAs more and more brands are moving all of their ad spend online, defining how influence affects their return on investment is necessary and must be done as soon as possible. While some are making inroads to define these calculations many are overlooking the fact that influence affects everything. Without factoring in the real issue of different types of influence you run into a number of problems, for instance focusing on one group of influencers over another or getting broad sweeping numbers instead of knowing exactly…

• The Future of the Embargo

  brian

  3 Nov 2009 | 4:25 am

  CreditIn media and blogger relations, PR typically wields two powerful tools to help boost the effectiveness of pitching and potential placement of news: the embargo and the exclusive.In the case of an exclusive, a story is usually packaged prior to official release for one particular writer, fully understanding their style, nuances, and audience. If the story is accepted, it is not pitched to any other media outlets until after the story runs. The benefit for PR is that it can bank on the publishing of a guaranteed, high profile story. The advantage for the reporter is that they maintain a…

• Twitter Releases New Widget for Lists

  brian

  2 Nov 2009 | 7:14 pm

  Twitter recently expanded its new Lists service to users network-wide and in doing so, injected a sense of excitement, confusion, and also utility. Lists represent a significant milestone for Twitter as it transcends asynchronous conversations and and broadcast messages into a form of intelligence gathering, education, entertainment, and news.Twitter Lists are also stirring controversy as many believe that it sets the foundation for a new level of establishing a metric for influence. Whereas prominence was measured by the number of followers as well as the friends-to-follower ratio, now the…

• 
  Social Media Marketing Strategy, Tactics, and Tools

• Chess and Business

  Jacob Morgan

  7 Nov 2009 | 12:20 am

  If you have been a reader of this blog for a while then you know that I’m a chess lover.  In fact, I named my company Chess Media Group after my passion and interest for chess.  I have always applied chess concepts and principles to various aspects of business and personal life.  The ability to think ahead and to develop creative strategies is something (among many things) that is synonymous in both chess and in business.  If you don’t play chess then I highly recommend that you learn how; once you start playing you will quickly see how you can take lessons and concepts…

• There’s More to Social Business Than Twitter and Facebook

  Jacob Morgan

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:57 am

  Call it Enterprise 2.0 or social business, the semantics don’t really matter here.  The point is that we are seeing a shift in how organizations are functioning internally and how they are interacting with their consumers (externally).  We’re going to get into this in much greater detail in upcoming posts but for now let’s start off with the basics. There are essentially two social business challenges that companies must face; internal and external.  Internal challenges can be things such as supply chain inefficiencies or lack of internal knowledge sharing.  External…

• Is Enterprise 2.0 a Crock?

  Jacob Morgan

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:50 am

  UPDATE: Just want to make a quick note here and say that the conference itself was great; filled with lots of valuable information, interesting companies, and intriguing discussions.  This post isn’t about the conference, it’s about the approach that companies have towards the E2.0 shift…carry on. I’m at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in San Francisco for the past 2 days and after speaking with and listening to many large organizations talk about it both publicly and privately I’ve come to believe that E 2.0 is complete BS.  Let me clarify that, I believe that E…

• Chess Media Group Partners With Biz 360 and I Join the Biz 360 Advisory Board!

  Jacob Morgan

  3 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  I’ve been hinting at some exciting news over the past few weeks and I’m finally ready to announce what that news is.  Two exciting things have happened; the first is that Chess Media Group has partnered with Biz 360, the second is that I am now on the advisory board for Biz 360.  I’m going to explain what both of these things mean in a minute but first wanted to say how I excited I am for both the partnership and the advising opportunity.  I had a chance to spend some time with Brad Brodigan (the CEO  of Biz 360) and after chatting about where he wants to take his…

• The Technology Problems With Social Media ROI

  Jacob Morgan

  2 Nov 2009 | 12:02 am

  A few weeks ago I wrote about some of the business problems or challenges that exist with social media ROI.  Today I want to address some of the technology challenges.  Keep in mind that I’m not a very technical person so if you have something you want to add or contribute to the post please let me know.  Note, we are mainly talking about enterprise size clients. Customer tracking There are many companies that have a solid online presence, in fact many of these companies have hundreds of thousands of online connections, but the trouble is being able to understand how to bring the…

• 
  Dan Zarrella

• Interview with Craig Newmark: How the Craigslist Meme Spread

  Dan Zarrella

  30 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

  One of the most ubiquitous and disruptive websites to emerge in the last 10 years is Craigslist. Impacting industries from real estate, news paper classifieds, careers and auctions the site has for the most part remained entirely free to use. A great example of organic, word-of-mouth spread I’ve always been interested in how the meme of Craigslist spread from city to city to become one of the most popular uses of the web. I was lucky enough this week to get a chance to ask the site’s founder, Craig Newmark a few questions about exactly that. Here are his answers: Dan: I think the social…

• Weekends and Afternoons Show the Highest Twitter CTRs

  Dan Zarrella

  27 Oct 2009 | 4:18 am

  Want more clicks? My new data suggests that you should Tweet your links in afternoons, evenings and on weekends. Continuing the study of Twitter clickthrough rates I started last week, I added over 100 more of the most followed Twitter accounts to my database and indexed click data on over 20,000 bit.ly links Tweeted by those accounts. In all of the data below, I measured CTR as the number of clicks a link received, divided by the number of followers the sending account had on the day it Tweeted it. As I noted in my other post, this number can be over 100% due to ReTweets that may use the…

• Modeling ReTweet Dynamics

  Dan Zarrella

  26 Oct 2009 | 6:39 am

  Earlier this year I read a paper called “Modeling Blog Dynamics” in which they propose a method of modeling the spread of links through the blogosphere using zero-crossing random walks and exploitation vs. exploration applied to a logical flowchart model: The authors suggested that the model could be used in influence maximization algorithms which aim to identify key, influential individuals in a given social network for the purposes of viral marketing. I was intrigued by the possibilities and have been tossing around a possible flowchart model of how individuals decide to ReTweet…

• Want More Clicks? Tweet Less

  Dan Zarrella

  21 Oct 2009 | 3:40 am

  Tweet Much? Don’t Expect a High CTR. New data I’ve been working on seems to indicate that the more frequently you Tweet links, the fewer clicks you’ll get. I’ve been working towards a statistical model of how an individual makes a decision to ReTweet a specific Tweet and in that process, I came across an interesting problem: before someone ReTweets something, they have to notice it. If you’re anything like me, you’re only able to actually read a small percentage of the total activity in your friend’s timeline, which means that very few of the Tweets I’m technically…

• To #SaveReTweets, Make Sure Everyone Knows How to ReTweet

  Dan Zarrella

  19 Oct 2009 | 6:11 am

  I wrote a little while ago about how Twitter’s plans to mangle ReTweets with its Project ReTweet, and the danger that poses to the crowd-invented functionality. After having several conversations on the topic and wondering what we could to do save ReTweets, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only thing to do is make sure that everyone knows how to ReTweet the original way. Then, once (or if) Twitter goes ahead with Project ReTweet, we can all continue to use the old format. If you like ReTweets, help save them by spreading this post around to ensure that everyone understands the…

• 
  Bazaarblog

• New home means more collaboration

  Ken Saunders | Chief Financial Officer

  5 Nov 2009 | 9:58 am

  This blog post is guest-written by Kathy Smith-Willman, Director of People Operations at Bazaarvoice. The best thing about the new Bazaarvoice office isn’t the ergonomic chairs. It isn’t the panoramic views of the surrounding hills, or the 50,000 square feet of space, either. The best thing about the new office is that it was custom designed to fit our company culture. A huge part of that culture is openness. Bazaarvoice employees communicate openly and honestly with each other and managers, collaborating for better ideas. And the new office has taken this collaboration to another level.

• Intern Blog Series | Marketing intern turned full-time hire

  Ken Saunders | Chief Financial Officer

  4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  This blog post is the first in a series highlighting Bazaarvoice interns. It is guest-written by Tara DeMarco, Marketing Intern at Bazaarvoice. If you’re thinking about applying for an internship at Bazaarvoice, there’s no better way to learn what to expect than to ask an intern. Harrison Yeager started his marketing internship at Bazaarvoice in January 2009. After a semester full of hard work, great experiences, and free snacks, Harrison joined the team as a full-time hire in the marketing department. He sat down with us to answer a few questions about Bazaarvoice, his internship, and…

• Bazaarvoice named Retail Systems’ Technology Vendor of the Year

  Michael Osborne | Sr. Vice President of Worldwide Sales

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:18 pm

  We’re excited and humbled at the growth we’ve seen in the UK, as we’ve only been there since 2007. On Friday, October 30, Bazaarvoice was named the 2009 Technology Vendor of the Year by Retail Systems magazine. The competition was tough, with eight finalists vying for the title, including several huge, well-known UK providers. This Award comes on the heels of rapidly accelerating company growth in Europe. Of the UK’s top 50 UK online retailers, 34 have reviews on site, and we’re happy to say that 19 of these are Bazaarvoice clients. As our sales and implementation team grows in the…

• Announcing BrandAnswers! New Channel Marketing Tool Enables Brands to Answer Questions Inside Retail Sites

  Mike Svatek | VP of Product Strategy

  2 Nov 2009 | 8:04 am

  Today we launched BrandAnswers, which notifies manufacturers when shoppers have questions about their products across our network of retailers. With BrandAnswers, manufacturers have a whole new way to impact sales across the channel. Watch a quick video about BrandAnswers here. We’ve seen that answers to customer questions on a site can drive sales – PETCO’s Answer Den case study showed a 72% increase in conversion. JC Whitney saw that answers decreased product returns on 80% of products with answers had a lower product return rate, with an average 23% decrease in return rates for these…

• Bazaarvoice helps out at Fall Service Day

  Brant Barton | Co-Founder and VP of Business Development

  30 Oct 2009 | 6:25 am

  There’s no better excuse to get out of the office on a Friday than to help out the Austin community. 15 Bazaarvoice employees volunteered last Friday at what was the largest Fall Service Day ever, with over 400 volunteers from the Austin high-tech industry in attendance. The event, hosted by the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas, resulted in 2,500 hours of service at Zilker Park, amounting to $50,000 in free labor. As part of the Bazaarvoice Foundation, our commitment to serving the community, the Bazaarvoice team constructed a “Rain Garden” in the park’s botanical…

• 
  Rajesh@Blogworks

• Social Media Wiki; factors impacting social media adoption

  22 Oct 2009 | 10:59 pm

  A couple of weeks ago, Shubhodeep Pal, a student of Singapore Management University - SMU reached out to me with an interview request, as part of an ongoing non-profit project for the university, where, in Shubhodeep's words, "students who take the Comm215 course, Digital Media Across Asia, are required to build and expand a wiki that deals exclusively with the digital media landscape across Asia. By the end of 2009, we aim to create the first social media map of Asia." The wiki has existed for a bit and there are other mentions of Blogworks from earlier and there are 3 interviews that have…

• Walk into illumination this Diwali

  16 Oct 2009 | 9:49 pm

  Here's wishing all of you and your families a joyous Diwali from all of us at Blogworks. May you walk into illumination this year. I loved this picture by Sankarshan on first sight. He is amongst the most wonderful people I know and what a great couple Runa and he make :). These are the things on my mind right now: One Two Three Have a wonderful day and a great year ahead. Cheers

• Social Media Marketing Triads - Slide-deck

  1 Oct 2009 | 5:51 am

  I just converted my Social Media Marketing Triad post into a slide-deck and put it on Slideshare. Even before I knew what was happening it has found its way to the home page and into featured posts. Thought I will share it here: Social Media Marketing Triads - version 1.1View more presentations from rajeshlalwani.

• Aegon Religare Star Child TVC got a potent mix of E Factor and Messaging

  1 Oct 2009 | 3:36 am

  I have earlier written about the E Factor in advertising, combine it with cutting edge messaging and you've got a winner. Most parents try everything to ensure that their children are able to live their dreams, unlike many that they themselves could not. You know anyone who didn't grow up dreaming of becoming a movie star/ rock star/ star cricketer/ footballer? I don't. Powerful insight converted into a memorable an interesting series. Don't you love these 2 TVCs from Aegon Religare? I am sure there others in the making... Enjoy. One of my colleagues suggested that the message "ताकि…

• Love marriage; arranged wedding.

  21 Sep 2009 | 7:43 pm

  I haven't yet gotten over the frenzy of last fall - when I got married - and the wedding season is upon us again. Weddings, are a burgeoning industry in India, with its size estimated to be Rs. 1,90,000 crores according to this story. Interestingly, even as more and more of our youth marry for love, the Wedding ceremony, and associated celebrations, clearly continue to remain an 'arranged' affair - with the bride/ bridegroom managing to influence very little in terms of: Size of the wedding/ expenses Guest list Rituals - compounded in inter-caste and inter-religion weddings Or even how much…

• 
  Rahaf Harfoush » Blog

• Happy November 4th!

  Rahaf

  4 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm

  November 2008 It’s incredible how much can change in one year. At this time last year, I was working as a volunteer on Barack Obama’s New Media Team in Chicago. It was Election day and everyone was wound up tight with anticipation, excitement and fear. I had spent the last few months working with some of the brightest minds in digital media and strategy and it all came down to this day. In celebration of that historic win, I am sharing some of my personal videos of my time at the campaign. Sharing Some Down Time: Everyone on the team worked long hours, 7 days a week. It was nice…

• Good Reads: Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel (PART 1)

  Rahaf

  14 Oct 2009 | 1:54 pm

  Since I’ve been spending an increasing amount of time on planes, my Kindle has become my absolute favorite thing. I was quite eager to get my hands on a copy of Mitch Joel’s new book “Six Pixels of Separation.” I first met Mitch at the SES Toronto 2008 conference where I heard him speak on a panel. He was also the first IDEA NINJA that I profiled! I am happy to announce that I officially consider his book a Foushy Good Read! The Book:  (Via Amazon) Is it important to be connected? Well, consider this: If Facebook were a country, it would have the sixth largest…

• Article in the Times&Transcript

  Rahaf

  13 Oct 2009 | 2:04 pm

  An article from the Times&Transcript The laughter and the note taking, the applause for making some of her remarks in beautiful French, and especially the rousing standing ovation at the end of her speech all said Rahaf Harfoush had connected with the more than 250 people who came out to the Delta Beauséjour to hear her yesterday afternoon. Enlarge Photo GREG AGNEW/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT Rahaf Harfoush, new media strategist and former Obama campaign team member, chats with Mayor George LeBlanc yesterday during the Intelligent Communities Summit in Moncton. But the best praise for her…

• Yes We Did to be translated in Spanish!

  Rahaf

  30 Sep 2009 | 8:40 am

  I have some amazing news! “Yes We Did” will be published in Spanish in early 2010! I am so excited to go back and promote the book over there - Spain was one of my favorite places that I’ve visited this past year. This is the third foreign language that has been purchased, the other two are Japanese and Simple Chinese. It is now also available for the Amazon Kindle. Also a very special thanks to everyone who has emailed me to let me know how much they liked the book. It is such a thrill to receive each and every one of your notes and never fails to brighten my day. Over the…

• JK Wedding Dance - The Evolution of Viral Marketing

  Rahaf

  16 Aug 2009 | 11:04 am

  By now, many of you might have seen the the JK Wedding Dance, the latest viral video to hit the web. The video shows couple Jill and Kevin’s creative spin on the traditional entrance of the bridal party at their wedding. Set to the song “Forever,” by Chris Brown (incidentally who was recently charged with assaulting his then-girlfriend) the video soared to instant popularity online. Even traditional media picked it up including CNN and Good Morning America. Here’s the video below: Now the interesting thing is that I have been hearing rumbles about the authenticity of…

• 
  Soshable

• The Twitter Paradox: Why it will likely fail sooner or later

  JD Rucker

  20 Oct 2009 | 10:37 am

  The doom and gloom crowd has been predicting Twitter’s demise for years. “Where is their revenue model?” “It goes down too much.” “Spam is taking over.” “WHERE IS THEIR REVENUE MODEL?” After 2 years of defending Twitter, I’m starting to question whether or not I was wrong and they were all right. Marketers, Spammers, and Bots, OH MY! When Twitter first started making it’s mainstream push around a year ago, the percentage of tweets with links in them was very low. It was possible to get 10k clicks on links tweeted by…

• Branding, Viral Videos, and Rum

  JD Rucker

  15 Oct 2009 | 11:53 am

  YouTube has been a valid social media marketing tool for a long time. Many companies are now starting to realize this. Others are starting to re-realize this. Here is an example by Bacardi. The video itself is from 2007, but they are re-introducing it and its Halloween theme this month. It works on so many levels and fails on one level. First, the video: First, the successes… It Tells a Story The last thing you want to do as a business trying to advertise a brand or a product is talk about the brand or product from the beginning. People are leaving television and getting more and more…

• Car Dealer SEO – Onsite vs. Offsite

  Richard Valenta

  15 Oct 2009 | 10:13 am

  On the heels of the Driving Sales Executive Summit and the JD Powers convention, two thing is still clear in the automotive industry – car dealer SEO is at the top of the priorities lists and information about proper SEO is still being debated. This post by Richard Valenta couldn’t have come at a more opportune time: Offsite SEO vs. Onsite SEO – It’s All in the Follow-Through Search engine optimization (SEO) has found steady footing within the automotive industry as dealers adopt cost-effective solutions for their marketing needs. Nearly every automotive marketing…

• Driving Sales Executive Summit: Car Dealer Social Media

  JD Rucker

  13 Oct 2009 | 11:47 am

  The 1st Driving Sales Executive Summit in Las Vegas, NV, is being held 10/13-10/14 in the Hard Rock Casino. Here is Jared Hamilton opening the event: For more information about Automotive Social Media, read more of this blog.

• Digg Porn. Apparently, it’s acceptable now.

  JD Rucker

  23 Sep 2009 | 6:32 pm

  Digg is known for definitively dropping the “ban hammer” on those who post content that includes nipples. Apparently, the rules have changed. This screenshot from a video has been modified to a PG-13 level, but the original video does include visible nipples that are not-so-hidden. While I have nothing against the submitter (nor anything against the video) I feel the double standard here. The content was pretty darn funny, as the nearly-4000 Diggs clearly says, but it just doesn’t belong on Digg. Read more about Digg on the Social Media Blog.

• 
  Brains On Fire Blog

• Ideas VS the opportunity to make them happen

  Eric

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:21 am

  I’m sure that in our relentless pursuit of internet wandering and entertainment (er, inspiration), that many of of us have already seen the Volkswagen sponsored Fun Theory project. If you’re not familiar, they have a simple and powerful idea: This site [thefuntheory.com] is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. And that idea looks like this: It is always refreshing to see creative and talented people use a unique lens to look at and re-think conventional activity. It’s even more encouraging…

• Writing inspires thinking.

  Robbin

  5 Nov 2009 | 9:40 am

  Scott, the name tag guy, gave me this great line awhile back. I use it often. “Writing is basis for the creation of all wealth.” Sorry, Scott I can’t remember who said that but I love it. Love it! Think about that sentence and let it sink in for just a moment. “Writing is basis for the creation of all wealth.” There is an enormous amount of writing going on in our industry, so much so that it sometimes makes my head hurt. But perhaps more important than writing, we have a mountain of learning going on. I am learning from everyone who takes even one minute to respond to my occasional…

• Dear Creatives, co-created tools are the ones that get implemented

  Spike

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:01 am

  Greg came back from a talk he gave a couple of weeks ago where he presented about bringing word of mouth marketing and identity development together. Having world-class designers in our midst (I’m not one of them, so I can brag on them, okay?), we’re always curious to see how other creatives react to the idea of co-creating online and offline materials/tools for a word of mouth movement. And, ultimately, the question arises: “How much of what you present gets actually implemented and produced?” Creatives ask this question because most traditional shops are used to…

• Paranormal Word of Mouth

  Geno

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:46 am

  Another Halloween has come and gone and sadly with it goes the yearly bubble of scary movies. It was refreshing this year to see a surprise movie come forward “Paranormal Activity” and have huge success. A couple of us BOFers are wanna-be ghost hunters, so we were attracted very early on with Paranormal’s trailers and the indie feel, and the limited release. Blair Witch here we come… Paramount/Dreamworks bought the $12,000 movie after a few movie festivals a year ago. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that a giant like Paramount would do a smart slow it down marketing campaign with…

• Why You Don’t Need Social Media Consultants

  Spike

  2 Nov 2009 | 7:45 am

  You can’t swing a tweet these days without hitting a social media consultant. Those kids are EVERYwhere. You can usually find them traveling in packs and holding events where they talk to one another and tell each other how great they are. Good times. Good times. But you know what? If you listen REALLY closely to their advice, you start to realize that most of it you already know. Because you have all the basic tools you need: Your humanity. Your ability to communicate with people around you. And your intuition. Because when you think about it, using social media is just a natural…

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  Web Marketing by Mark McLaren and McBuzz Communications

• WordPress Security: Create a New User and Delete the Default “admin” Account

  Mark McLaren

  3 Nov 2009 | 10:02 pm

  This post tells you the simplest way to improve security on your WordPress website or blog. Recently there was a big security scare for WordPress users. A “worm” (a form of automated malicious software) was traveling around the Internet trying to break into unsuspecting WordPress users’ sites. Even high-profile bloggers like Robert Scoble were caught without adequate file and database backups in place. Scoble lost a bunch of posts, and said he felt less certain of WordPress as a result. But the fact is, Scoble should have backed up his site. At the very least, he should have…

• Is Yahoo! Determined to Remain a Web 1.0 Company?

  Mark McLaren

  27 Oct 2009 | 11:17 am

  Yahoo! announced in April that it would shut down its free website service, GeoCities, despite the fact that collectively GeoCites websites get over 10 million unique monthly visitors. This week it made good on the promise. The decision to shut down GeoCities rather than sell it or do something more creative like partner with another business to keep it going is short-sighted, and, in my opinion, sends the message that Yahoo! is willing to put profit before customer satisfaction. It’s probably driven almost completely by the desire to show a profit in the short term. That would explain…

• WordPress, Premium WordPress Themes, and the General Public License (GPL)

  Mark McLaren

  13 Oct 2009 | 12:07 pm

  Of the millions of WordPress users, I’d bet that less than 20% understand the significance of the General Public License (GPL), especially when it comes to premium WordPress themes (custom themes that you pay for). I say this with confidence because only recently did I get a clue myself. This is an excellent video made from a series of interviews with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. Matt Mullenweg gives an overview of the GPL and how it benefits WordPress, why WordPress is licensed under the GPL, how the GPL fosters innovation, affects themes and plugins, and creates value. Here is a…

• My 5 Favorite “How to Use Twitter for Business” Posts

  Mark McLaren

  8 Oct 2009 | 1:48 pm

  The series called “How Not to Use Twitter” is rolling along. I would love your contributions. Meanwhile, on a more positive note, I’ve been thinking about ways to introduce people to Twitter. Laura Fitton has a new book for “beginners” - which is about 90% of us! Twitter for Dummies. There are literally thousands of Twitter how-to’s online. Here are my favorites, in no particular order. I’m hoping to get your suggestions about more. Rowse, Brogan, Stelzner, Owyang, Walling of ReadWriteWeb - these are all some of social media’s best and…

• Review of Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation

  Mark McLaren

  22 Sep 2009 | 2:26 pm

  Over on the Social Media Club Seattle website, they have posted my review of Mitch Joel’s new book: Six Pixels of Separation. Here’s a taste from the review: Today building an online brand is something anyone can do. In fact, even if you are not online, your brand is being created for you by the search engines and by other people who are. The tools that social media superstar Chris Brogan has used to create one of the most successful online brands ever are available to everyone, and most of them are free. In this new media ecosystem, some business strategies that used to work will…

• 
  a thousand cuts :: adam cohen's blog

• The Marketing Hot Seat: Marc Meyer

  adam

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:24 am

  Marc Meyer is one of the few folks who agreed to participate in the Marketing Hot Seat I haven’t had the pleasure of actually meeting in person.  I hope that changes soon.  If you don’t know Marc, his blog is a continual source of thought provoking discussion in social media.  With his experience consulting in both social media and search, his background provides a powerful combo.  Marc is also the co-founder of hashtagsocialmedia, a series of amazing chats over Twitter with folks who are making a big impact in the industry. Below is Marc’s answer to the Marketing…

• Social Media Monitoring: A Glimpse At the Future

  adam

  2 Nov 2009 | 8:18 pm

  Warren Sukernek shared this presentation recently and it hit home on a variety of fronts. As we spend time with clients working through social media monitoring, we find more and more examples of how it’s not a precise science.  Sitting side by side with folks who work every day in detailed web analytics who continually look for ways to optimize PPC spend, our social media team has experienced first hand many challenges outlined in Marshall Sponder’s presentation.  Some points that resonated strongly: Sentiment analysis today is too much like Quantum Physics There is a…

• The Social Media Landing Page Phenomenon

  adam

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:16 pm

  As social media channels become outposts for companies, their websites need to keep up.  The big challenge: the two concepts are diametrically opposed.  Build a compelling, optimized website to bring customers (and potential customers) to you, versus establish social media outposts to go where your customers are.  Enter the new art and technique of the Social Media Landing Page (SMLP for short).  The SMLP is a bridge between the two, both to add legitimacy to social channels like a Twitter account but also risking pulling customers away from your website.  Companies who establish these…

• The Marketing Hot Seat: Aaron Strout

  adam

  28 Oct 2009 | 7:08 am

  Of the folks who agreed to participate in The Marketing Hot Seat (all of them marketing practitioners in some form), Aaron Strout is the only one who is currently a CMO.  At Powered, Aaron is in a position to talk with peers on a regular basis about justifying the ROI on community. I’ve gotten to know Aaron over the last few years, before he became a Boston-to-Austin transplant, and he was one of the first ten people I started following on Twitter in mid-2007.  Several months ago Aaron asked me to participate in the Experts in the Industry Series (many of the Hot Seat contributors are…

• Social Media Is Not Right For Your Business If…

  adam

  22 Oct 2009 | 7:32 am

  …you don’t like to listen to your customers. …your company mantra is “It’s All About the Revenue” and not “It’s All About the Customer (the Revenue Will Follow).” …your product is known to annoy or frustrate customers, but you don’t really think their gripes are legitimate. …you don’t like to listen to your employees, and getting employees to change their thinking is impossible. …you outsource 100% of your marketing, sales and customer service functions. …you think that you have…

• 
  Studio Notes by Shai Coggins

• … and The Boy Can Play Music!

  Shai Coggins

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:37 pm

  About the same time last year, I shared with you the story of my son’s beginnings as a music learner. Yes, just a little over a year ago, he started taking piano lessons after asking us a few times if he can learn to play an instrument. Back then, my husband and I didn’t know how he’d take to the whole idea of doing piano lessons and practices. But, we figured that since he was showing some interest, we might as well encourage him to try. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing all the way due to a variety of reasons. But, in spite the fact that he had to change schools,…

• Style Studio: A Smile for Spring!

  Shai Coggins

  30 Oct 2009 | 7:34 am

  It’s the people who make you smile that matter most. Who cares about those who try to wipe them away? Just keep smiling anyway. It’s amazing how different emails can make you feel different things within a matter of minutes. Recently, I’ve had the strange experience of receiving a series of emails from different people under varying circumstances that had contrasting effects to my emotions. The first lot of emails made me seethe and weep. The other lot of emails made me smile. Even laugh out loud. Feel excited. All the emails were coming within minutes of each other. If anyone was…

• Oh, Goodies!

  Shai Coggins

  23 Oct 2009 | 4:10 am

  So, I’ve been thinking about 52WoC. Partly because I’m thinking of our remaining tasks, and partly because I’m already preparing for our 10th – and final – 52WoC Party. As some of you veteran 52WoCers might know, that party will cover task numbers 45 to 52. Yes – our last 8 tasks. And, all who take part in these tasks will be included in our last 52WoC Party. Currently, we’re running 52WoC#46: Share Your Video! (no entries for this yet ). But, here’s the good news: I’ve already started collecting some giveaways for the party! My plan is to…

• Pause, Live

  Shai Coggins

  21 Oct 2009 | 5:07 am

  When someone you care about gets hurt or sick, no matter how many ideas, plans, or dreams you might have, everything gets put on hold. That’s sort of how it felt like the last few days when my eldest child ran high fevers and complained of stomach pains. He was taken to the doctors a couple of times before finally going to the hospital yesterday for some tests. Thankfully, after a shot of IV and some meds, The Boy’s health started to improve. He is not 100% yet, but he seems to be on the mend. We got back on home ground this evening. What a relief! Unfortunately, this scenario has…

• 60 Days in Action – Or, How to Get Things Done {Thoughts on Writing and Filmmaking}

  Shai Coggins

  16 Oct 2009 | 6:39 am

  Now that I’ve shared my 60 Days strategy with you, I think I ought to come right out of hiding about my pre-occupations. You see, in order to let you know where I’m coming from and how I came up with the 60 Days Plan, I actually had to put it in to practice before I shared it here. After all, how embarrassing would it be if I shared with you a 60-day strategy that never gets past its 60th day, right? Well, okay, I’m not quite on the 60th day yet – officially. I only wrote down the 60 Days to Something Plan on the 1st of September. But, I’ve pretty much been…

• 
  terrainnova.org

• Commoditizing live content

  Dimitris

  5 Nov 2009 | 3:46 am

  Image by Monica’s Dad via Flickr As I said in my previous post, Greek TV channels most sought-after content is live events (sports, music etc) which cannot be found elsewhere (neither in competitors nor online). Securing licenses for such content turns out as a major asset for such providers – and I can imagine that this holds not just for Greece but any and all countries. So what would it take for this last castle, which offers possibilities of monopoly to a single (or a few) providers, to fall? What would allow even live events to escape from the stranglehold of large, existing…

• Live content matters

  Dimitris

  2 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am

  A few months back I was talking to a guy who works at the Greek subscription channel Nova and he was telling me that the content most sought after by TV channels is none other than the coverage of live events. In Greece this means mostly football and basketball games and perhaps to a lesser extent other sports and music concerts. Image via Wikipedia And there’s good reason for that. As broadband use and torrents’ downloading increases any type of content other than live offered by the provider can be found online. Films can be downloaded, news and information can be found in many…

• Question search engine

  Dimitris

  29 Oct 2009 | 3:15 am

  Image by Oberazzi via Flickr These days, if you think about it, it’s super easy to find the answer to pretty much any question we can think of – perhaps excluding very exotic and obscure issues. A simple search engine query is all it takes. If you allow for asking questions to other individuals (who might be keepers of such exotic information), email and the social media are also relatively simple tools to employ when getting answers. So if it’s not about having the answers, what is it about? Often, it’s that we don’t know the questions themselves. Picasso said…

• “I hate Mozilla”

  Dimitris

  26 Oct 2009 | 6:56 am

  Well, perhaps ‘hate’ is a bit too strong a word but just as I was taking a break from work today I bumped on this. Raindrop UX Design and Demo from Mozilla Messaging on Vimeo. Mozilla Raindrop aims to become a ‘unified inbox’ for all your online activity. Now that’s hardly a new idea and way too many attempts have been made to address the issue of information overload from the constantly increasing number of sources these days. But here’s the thing with this particular announcement. My instinctive reaction was ‘Ok, where do I download it?’…

• Enabling content shortening

  Dimitris

  23 Oct 2009 | 2:38 am

  Image by CCiYn via Flickr In my previous post I wrote about how information can be broken down to its components. Following that, these components can be summarised and the summaries combined again to create a shorter and perhaps easier to digest and spread piece of information. So, if this ‘analysis, summary and combination’ approach is a good idea, what would be the best way to implement it on existing bodies of information – e.g. blog posts, news articles and other passages on the web? Most probably a number of methods can be combined. For example, the author of the text…

• 
  Bare Feet Studios

• Social Media Events: New School or Old School?

  Roxanne Darling

  28 Oct 2009 | 12:33 pm

  Even though we have these amazing, 24/7 ubiquitous connections taking place on the social web, IRL (in real life) conferences are still booming. I think that many of us still long for those face to face connections, even more so now that our networks have blown way past the indications of Dunbar’s number. He he. This is an opinion piece about things I see happening in the social media space, in short Twitter-sized sound bytes. I am imposing that limit on myself as I am short on time today. With #podcamphawaii & #socialmediaclub we have open tents, everybody’s welcome. (My…

• Social Web Bootcamp – Time to Get in the Game

  Roxanne Darling

  26 Oct 2009 | 9:32 am

  Does it feel like 1999 all over again? Remember when you didn’t think you needed a web site because you had a brochure? Confused by all the hype surrounding blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook? Then Social Web Bootcamp is for you. It’s a one day program that takes you from the 30,000’ view of how things work all the way down to live demos for creating a blog, a Twitter account, and setting up your social networking identity. Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 Time: 9 am – 4 pm Place: ING Direct Cafe – 1958 Kalakaua Ave, Honolulu, HI A decade ago when the internet was really…

• How Do Logos Matter to You?

  Roxanne Darling

  21 Oct 2009 | 8:21 pm

  At a recent meeting of the Hawaii Chapter of the Social Media Club, I talked briefly with Dr. Bill Haig of Power Logo Design about the shifting sands of brand credibility and how that gets created and managed. He has a successful business and several white papers on the specialty of “credibility based logo design.” He has found it can increase conversion rates by two four times on the home page. He emailed me today talking about how this impacts social web brand building and I offered to create a poll. So here it is after the jump! Please add your vote and share your comments with…

• Get Daily Inspiration & Help Rox Get the Good Mood Gig

  Roxanne Darling

  9 Oct 2009 | 10:46 am

  Vote for Rox to win the Good Mood Gig from SAM-e I have entered the contest to win a 6-month blogging gig to write about “good moods” for Nature Made and their natural mood supplement, Sam-e. No product endorsements required. Seems like a perfect opportunity to share aloha with the world. Voting is open and I am off to a late start. Can you help me get ahead? It’s easy! Just vote for me once a day until Oct 30. Please tell your networks too. I am offering you a daily inspiration and email reminder message to help me out. It will come from Bare Feet Studios. This is a…

• Is it easy to tell if you are a scammer or straight-shooter?

  Roxanne Darling

  7 Oct 2009 | 12:31 pm

  The social web has made it so easy for people to connect with each other and have a voice at the table like never before. Last night at a tweetup here in Honolulu, I met Larry Heim, CEO of HonBlue. This was a Tweetup Treat, as Larry and I do not normally travel in the same circles. Later back at home I could Google him. Then find his LinkedIn profile on the first page of Google’s results. Then click through to a known company here in Honolulu. “That was easy!” Contrast that to a situation this past week. I was approached (via several urgent phone calls over the weekend), to…

• 
  Social Media Marketing

• What's a Brand to Do?

  Scott Monty

  29 Oct 2009 | 9:03 am

  Say you work for a brand. Customers have more access to you than ever - and you've got a wealth of choices as far as channels go: traditional marketing, online & interactive, gaming, mobile, social media, etc. But for your customers that are interested in interacting online, what do you think they want from you? And what should you do when you connect with them? Look no further! eMarketer Daily has very helpfully published a piece on Lightspeed Research's "Global Web Index." What do customer want from the brands they love? Information, mostly (well, after a good discount, anyway).

• Recent Twitter Statistics

  Scott Monty

  28 Oct 2009 | 6:50 am

  The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released some statistics about Twitter and other similar services that Americans use to post updates about themselves. The bottom line? About one in five Americans uses such a service.Click here for a larger image.Another interesting phenomenon is that we're seeing more young people using Twitter now. There have been anecdotal reports that young people were shying away from Twitter, but we can see the hard numbers here:The median age for Twitter is now 31, while MySpace is down 26 from its previous 27 in May of 2008; and Facebook has risen…

• No Kidding

  Scott Monty

  21 Oct 2009 | 9:21 am

  I originally wrote this over a year ago, but I think it deserves another go around, as there seem to be even more social media "experts" out there. Please add your suggestion to the comments section or on Twitter with the hashtag #smbulb and let's see how many responses we can get. Stop me if you've heard this. Yesterday, I asked a question on Twitter - one that Joseph Jaffe rhetorically asked on his blog - I posed it as a joke and asked for responses. The question was: How many social media experts does it take to change a lightbulb? My original answer on Joe's blog was: "309. One to come up…

• Why Apple & Google Win - and Your Company Doesn't

  Scott Monty

  10 Oct 2009 | 7:03 pm

  It's all about usability.      Common sense dictates that the easier something is to accomplish, the more readily it will be passed along. What information do you ask your customers to submit? And of that, which is really necessary? Less is more.   Courtesy of Stuff That Happens.   Posted via web from The Full Monty

• Don't Waste My Time

  Scott Monty

  4 Oct 2009 | 9:19 pm

  I'm perfectly capable of wasting it myself.   According to a recent poll by Ruder Finn, 100% of the people on the Internet go online to pass the time. But what other activities do they say they primarily use it for?   For those of you interested in the social space, 92% want to connect with others, 76% wish to discuss, 72% aspire to be part of a community, and 56% desire to influence others, and 52% hope to activate support. Those are pretty strong numbers.   Especially when you compare them to the percentage of people who wish to manage finances, comparison shop or join a…

• 
  The Relationship Economy

• An Agency For Agencies?

  Jay Deragon

  7 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  This entry is part 31 of 31 in the series Social MediaI received the following message from a connection through Linkedin.  Hello, My latest position at an ad agency came to a close this week, as the company went out of business. I am forwarding you my LinkedIn profile in hopes that you or someone you know may be aware of job opportunities in advertising, marketing or social media. This request made me think about the “Agency business” and why is might be failing for those unaware. Advertising agencies are known for the creative skills in creating images and messages that get…

• Can You Explain Social Media?

  Jay Deragon

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  This entry is part 30 of 31 in the series Social MediaHow many times have you been asked “Can you explain social media to us?“  Then you have to think about how to explain the entire (r)evolution of the internet and its present state.  Try doing that and you’ll lose most people’s attention. It has been said that “pictures speak a thousand words“. As a consultant I have always found that if you can provide a picture illustration and a simple story to explain something very complex then you have helped a client understand something they need. Given the…

• Is ROI Input, Process Or Output?

  Jay Deragon

  5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  This entry is part 13 of 13 in the series Social Media ROIIt seems that online and off line conversations are consumed with measuring the ROI from social media.  Much of the dialog is a waste of time and focused on the wrong thing. Yet organizations seem to be demanding a measure of ROI from this thing we all call social media. All businesses represent a system of inputs, processes and outputs. Most businesses measure output, or results and said measures are purely financial results. The irony is that results do not tell you what may be wrong with the process or the inputs into a process.

• Why You Shouldn’t Use Social Media

  Jay Deragon

  4 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  This entry is part 12 of 13 in the series Social Media ROIUsing social media just because everyone else is does not mean you should, at least not yet. Before jumping into all the chatter and all the advertising organizations would be better served by asking themselves a series of questions. Finding the answers to the questions will require you to “think” about critical issues which will have serious impacts on the use of social media. First you need to understand what it should be used for vs. what it shouldn’t be used for. To answer these questions you must think about how…

• Does Web Growth Blow Your Mind?

  Jay Deragon

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:20 am

  From Anthony (Tony) Tjan is CEO and founder of Cue Ball, writes :5 Mind Blowing Web Stats: Total Sites Across All Domains August 1995 — October 2009: Mind-Blowing Web Stat #1: 40,000-fold increase in the number of websites in 15 short years. If the number of approximately 5000 websites in 1994 is correct and that we are now part of some 200 million plus websites today, then we’ve experienced a stunning 40,000-fold increase in number of websites. How’s that for a growth rate? It also helps explain why Kevin Ham, a Canadian Internet entrepreneur, is minting money from the domain…

• 
  EveryJoe » Social Media

• Why Networking is Good for your Business

  Anna Farmery

  29 Oct 2009 | 8:58 pm

  Business has always been a personal experience as it is people selling, buying, dealing with people. Social media has helped business hugely to connect on that personal level with the investment now being time rather than money. If business need a reason to invest in social networking then look at this fact “According to Brand Reputation, 84% of the consumers they surveyed are more likely to look for online product reviews than they were just a year ago” That fact is powerful enough as you realise that Google is your primary advertising tool but then if you add “And those…

• 5 Tips On How To Use Social Media Wisely

  Kim Beasley

  28 Oct 2009 | 8:32 am

  When using social media, there are a few things that one should keep in mind when connecting with others. Being able to use social media wisely is very important. Image: SXC.hu To help you think about a few things when using social media, I have created a short list below: Respect others and don’t SPAM with links. Don’t always push information our to people, connect with others by responding to others. If you come across helpful information, be willing to share it. Be open to answering questions that you friends may ask. Look at ways where you can automate or manage your social…

• Online Shopping Across Borders

  Anna Farmery

  27 Oct 2009 | 10:14 am

  I have always thought that the internet was the ultimate source of The World Being Flat….I have enver thought about barriers to trade. Therefore I was intrigued to see a Europa press release regarding the trading between EU nations. Just look at this phrase “only 7% of people shop online cross border. Although 50 percent of European retailers are online, only 21% sell in other Member States.” The online testsshowed that “the transaction was blocked 6 times out of 10. In the case of some computer and electronic equipment the failure rate reached 8 times out of 10. Only…

• Does Twitter Really Cost Business?

  Anna Farmery

  26 Oct 2009 | 10:13 am

  A recent survey highlighted by the Telegraph shows that Twitter may be costing UK business £1.38bn!  The survey shows that More than half of office workers use sites like Twitter and Facebook for personal use during the working day, and admit wasting an average of 40 minutes a week each. One in three of the 1,460 office workers surveyed also said they had seen sensitive company information posted on social networking sites, leading to fears about how workers use the internet. Philip Wicks, consultant at Morse, the IT services and technology company who commissioned the survey, said the true…

• Carnival of Social Media

  Anna Farmery

  25 Oct 2009 | 11:13 am

  Here are this weeks articles which you have sent BuzzNetworker to help the community with their social media and social networking Jason Small presents Top Facebook Fan Pages: 25 Most Fanned Pages posted at Social Media and The Big W, saying, “A review of the top 25 Facebook Fan Pages produced by businesses with insight into the best practices used.” Anna presents Who is at the centre of your world? posted at The Engaging Brand Rick Sincere presents Exposing the ‘Twitter Gap’ posted at Rick Sincere News and Thoughts. Madeleine Begun Kane presents The Price Of Facebook…

• 
  Ignite Social Media

• Under the Dome - Stephen King's Newest Novel is a Social Experiment

  Jeremy Griffin

  28 Oct 2009 | 7:57 am

  I'm a fan of Stephen King, even though I find some of his work to be a bit daunting and overwhelming, he is still one of the greatest literary giants of our time. There's really no denying that. His stories are often gruesome and bone-chilling (Cujo, Carrie, The Shining), and some are even heart wrenching and beautiful (Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption). Others are epic works that encompass entire lives and worlds (The Stand). Now, King has embraced the power of social media and adapted a new way of storytelling by sharing peices of his latest story, Under the Dome, all over the world.

• Don't Like the New Facebook Feed? Here's How to Change it Back

  Jim Tobin

  26 Oct 2009 | 7:04 am

  If you don't like the new Facebook news feed, where the top ranked news is shown Share first, and you have to click over to see your live feed, here's how to change it back. Open the "More" Link on the Left On the upper left hand side of your page, under the Facebook logo, click the small "more" link.                     Move Status Updates to the Top Drag the "Status Updates" to the top, above News Feed.                         Still a bit erratic... In…

• How to Handle Negative Reviews

  Olivia Hayes

  22 Oct 2009 | 2:54 pm

  In one of my recent blog posts, I touched on the idea of social review tools and how much I believe in the idea of customer reviews. It sparked a fair amount of conversation about the power of reviews, especially negative reviews. I sort of touched on a similar topic when I wrote this blog post on how to deal with negative blog comments, however, negative reviews are a different kind of animal. In order to illustrate a few best practices for negative reviews, I’ll use a personal example. My parents own a restaurant, which is, of course, subject to the reviews of customers online on…

• 10 Ways MySpace Can Avoid Oblivion-An Open Letter to MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta

  Jim Tobin

  20 Oct 2009 | 8:38 am

  Dear Owen, Since you moved over from COO of Facebook to become CEO of MySpace, you’ve certainly made a lot of changes to the company. You've let one-third of the staff go. Your entire executive team is new. Reports are that you're removing walls between cubicles and hanging white boards. That's all well and good, but the problem with your network is with your network. It's not the sales person, or the cubicle walls. We need to see physical changes to the way your network works. As a marketer that represents large brands who use social networks (and often pay handsomely to do so), here…

• Update: Good Mood Gig Breaks 100K votes, 700 Applicants

  Anne Brannon

  20 Oct 2009 | 6:09 am

  As many of you already know, early this month, we launched the Good Mood Gig Talent Search with our client Nature Made SAM-e Complete ®. We kind of thought that a new laptop, $5,000 per month for 6 months, and the chance to share your infectious good mood with the world might be an enticing offer - thankfully, we were right! In case you've been missing out so far, here's a recap of what we're offering: a 6-month blogging contract with our team here at Ignite Social Media where you'll join us as part of the Nature Made SAM-e Complete ® outreach team to blog daily about how you maintain…

• 
  SocialButterfly

• Building a Web Site: Easy as 1, 2 OR 3?

  Alex

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:14 pm

  Today, I heard that fundamentally there are three main purposes of a Web site: 1) informational, 2) transactional and 3) community-based. AnInformationalWeb site is one that is primarily a resource. A transactional Web site has a desired action, which is usually associated with e-commerce. And lastly, a community-based Web site is one that is designed to encourage people to interact, network and share. I’m not one to put things into boxes and draw hard boundaries, but at first I liked this concept. It’s simple. It’s easy. But, after pondering for a second, I got to thinking:…

• Why Advocacy Is an Important Social Marketing Tool

  Alex

  1 Nov 2009 | 6:54 pm

  Concerned about obesity? Either personally or within your community? You are not alone. One way to combat obesity is by promoting and advocating for more fruit and veggie consumption. Your mother may have always told you to eat your fruit and veggies. If so–consider yourself fortunate. According to new data from the CDC in the first ever State Indicator Report on Fruits and Veggies, more us need to dish up. The CDC report provides information for each state on how many fruits and veggies people are eating and importantly, it highlights three key areas within communities and schools that…

• Where Have All the Social Products Gone?

  Alex

  28 Oct 2009 | 7:39 pm

  The debate between marketing and sales is not an old one. In fact, we’ve looked at this debate here at SB before. But one thing both sides can agree on: is that both have a relationship with products and services. Thus, if we are talking about social marketing, you don’t have to go far before you start wondering: Where are all the social products? I’m not the first to ask this question, as I was inspired a bit back by Bill Smith of AED who challenged us social marketers to balance the scales more between the promotion side of marketing and the product side of marketing. And…

• Just in–Causewired’s Tom Watson Will Join Us and #read4change

  Alex

  1 Oct 2009 | 9:58 pm

  The other week, I announced a new way for us book lovers to connect in a fun and meaningful way–through an online social change book club named #read4change. After a week of collecting votes, and a battle between Allison Fine’s Momentum and Tom Watson’s Causewired, Causewired came out on top and will be the first book we discuss. Bonus What’s better than friends, social media and books? Imagine getting to go to your book club–and the author shows up. That’s right. Tom Watson has agreed to join us and be available for our comments, feedback and our…

• Who Pooped in Your Cereal?

  Alex

  29 Sep 2009 | 9:53 pm

  Sometimes, you have bad days. When those bad days hit, those are the days you could use some inspiration. Yesterday, I woke up and was inspired. This image is taken from Franke James’ book “The Real Poop on Social Change.” In it, James delivers an important message regarding awareness vs. behavior. It’s an excellent read, and it’ll take you less than five minutes. (Warning: The text below is a bit provocative, but I think is presented just right–especially in the context of the whole story. One more reason to read it…) Hope the image brought a smile…

• 
  Debbie Weil's BlogWrite for CEOs

• What Does “Writing 3.0” Mean to You? (Quick Poll)

  debbie.weil@gmail.com

  5 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pm

  Choose an answer and click Vote. Then you’ll see the results. Interesting.

• No Punditry: Just Exploring Twitter Lists

  debbie.weil@gmail.com

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

  No need for me to wax expert on Twitter's new List feature as Mashable, TechCrunch and many others are doing that. (Here's a video showing how to create a List.) Frankly nobody is an expert yet. We're all curating (creating lists, culling them, joining others, etc.). Here's my round-up of Washington DC tweeps whose 140-character musings I find useful or entertaining. Women I will point out that the number of lists featuring smart women in tech or social media is very cool. Examples here and here and here. Listorious notes lists tagged women and social-media-divas and all-the-geeky-ladies.

• Fall Leaves: Stop and Look

  debbie.weil@gmail.com

  25 Oct 2009 | 8:29 pm

  I have this thing about trying to get the perfect picture of fall leaves. This was on a rainy day, taken with my Canon G10, a great all-around small camera. Below is another pic I snapped with my iPhone with blue sky behind the trees. Both were taken in my neighborhood from almost the exact same vantage point.

• Sneak Preview: an Updated Site Design and New Logo

  debbie.weil@gmail.com

  21 Oct 2009 | 5:58 pm

  If you're not interested in Web site design, stop reading right here. If you are... take a peek at my redesign by the clever folks at Viget, featuring an "illustration" of yours truly as well as my new logo with the @ sign, designed by the talented Erick Anderson. Erick won the logo contest I ran on Genius Rocket. More on that later. I've gotten positive and negative feedback on the illustration. Mostly negative. So we've decided to put a headshot there instead. (Below is a very rough mock up. We're still fooling with the background colors.) The illustration is an interesting idea.

• Next Best Thing to Attending BlogWorld Is Visiting the Home Page

  debbie.weil@gmail.com

  13 Oct 2009 | 10:14 am

  You've heard about live blogging, video streaming and live tweeting from an event. Don't forget a good old-fashioned home page crammed with content to make you wish you were there. I can't attend BlogWorld this week in Las Vegas (I spoke at BlogWorld '07) but anyone can learn a ton about this high octane event by visiting www.blogworldexpo.com. On the home page are preview video interviews with keynote speakers like Guy Kawasaki, Kara Swisher and Scott Monty, links to the Twitter page (transparently written by conference organizer Rick Calvert), an active Facebook event page and Flickr photos…

• 
  HorsePigCow

• Oldie but Goodie: Marketing in the Post-Cluetrain Era

  missrogue

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:52 pm

  I noticed that posts from 2003-2006 have completely been lost (except for Google Cache), so I’ll post a few of them that are still pretty applicable. This one is from January 18, 2006 when I was working at Riya.com (no longer around): A good marketer is a Community Advocate This means that you speak for your community to your company, not vice versa. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Well, it is. Marketing isn’t the same as sales. It is the job of business development, sales, the C-suite, etc. to keep marketing on a path so that they can make money. Marketing drives forward with…

• The Disintermediation Era

  missrogue

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:19 pm

  It must suck to be the middle-man today. Everywhere they turn, it’s bad news. Democratization this. Circumventing that. There was a point not that long ago that the middle-man provided great value. The record companies brought music to the masses. The media created channels for the news to get through. The Blockbusters of the world housed thousands of movies for people to rent. Telephone companies laid the lines for us to connect with one another around the world. But now these middle-men are our modern villains – using every desperate trick in the book to hold onto customers…

• A quote to keep me grounded

  missrogue

  4 Nov 2009 | 4:23 pm

  “No matter how you feel today, things will be different tomorrow.” Dr. Nicely (my former therapist) told me that. It was powerful. For the days when everything seemed to be gray and nothing was going well, I had faith that tomorrow would be better. And on the days where I was as high as a kite, it kept me grounded and nimble and never too blinded by my euphoria. I pretty much say it to myself every day and it always feels positive to me.

• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

  missrogue

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:08 am

  So as any of you who visited HPC yesterday know, it was attacked by a malware hosting site. I’m not sure how they do it, but somehow they get in and implant iframe code to serve up malicious software for unsuspecting visitors. I think it may have been a security hole in WordPress combined with my own laziness around passwords (now fixed). Either way, it wasn’t a good day and I spent many hours cleaning out this bad code and trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Many hours were also spent by Ivan Storck (of Sustainable Websites – my host), William Dodson (from OBX…

• Confessions of a 36 year-old woman

  miss rogue

  2 Nov 2009 | 9:04 am

  I decided to sit down and record my trepidation/enthusiasm for being a 36 year-old woman in this changing, odd world of gender. Tell me if you relate, disagree or have something to add. _____ ADDED NOTE: The point here isn’t to flatter me (have received the ‘you have nothing to worry about’ comments from many men) – I say right in the video I feel like I look young and attractive – the point here is that ‘middle-age’ is a truly liminal, odd place to be…ESPECIALLY as a single, accomplished woman. It feels like it’s between REAL ages and not…

• 
  Technosailor.com

• Will the Real Tech Community Please Stand Up

  Aaron Brazell

  30 Oct 2009 | 11:39 am

  Our world today is diluted. The lines have blurred. Everyone has bought into this concept of community – that everyone has something for everyone and we’re one big happy family. Specifically, the concept of the “technology community” which is a term that has come to mean anyone who has a blog, uses social media or Twitter and engages online in some way or another. Though this has been a trend that is akin to the frog happily boiling in an ever increasing pot of hot water, the reality struck me today as I saw this Wall Street Journal article about how Facebook and…

• Payola, Extortion and Market Correction

  Aaron Brazell

  19 Oct 2009 | 12:52 pm

  For the last two weeks, I’ve been mulling this concept of market correction as it pertains to the web. There are a variety of stories that have been related, in addition to signatory bubble characteristics that I have observed for some time, but it’s all coming into a lot more focus as time has gone on. A market correction is an economic term describes a natural occurrence when a certain market sector becomes “over sold” or hyperinflated, or when a sector becomes irrelevant to the market and is put out of its misery, or re-capitalized. It is a “coming to…

• The Aaron Brazell Train Keeps Rolling

  Aaron Brazell

  6 Oct 2009 | 9:39 am

  This post is quick and dirty. Sort of a braindump of sorts. I just want to get it out there as I’m coming in to land with the WordPress Bible and doing a delicate dance of travel, and final deadlines. I’m sitting in Orlando International Airport and processing a lot of thoughts. Saturday, I gave my first keynote at IZEAFest which is an event that is, at it’s core, an opportunity for bloggers and online marketers to extend their reach online. My talk was about Influence and is loosely based around the 8 Traits of Highly Effective Influencers post I wrote back in March. My…

• Congress Moves to Rein in Illegal Wiretaps

  Aaron Brazell

  28 Sep 2009 | 8:08 am

  The JUSTICE Act, short for the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts Act, was brought to my attention today. The JUSTICE Act seeks to put constraints on the Bush-era USA Patriot Act and FISA Act Amendment which drove national security efforts here at home post-9/11. In the past, I have been a very vocal critic of the previous administration and their liberal assumption of power not explicitly granted to them by the Constitution. Namely, the use of these powers was, in my book, impeachable offenses. That Administration has come and gone, but the PATRIOT Act and FISA…

• The Washington Redskins Crowd-sourcing Their Games

  Aaron Brazell

  18 Sep 2009 | 8:16 am

  A week before the start of the NFL 2009 season, Cincinnati Bengals Wide Reciever-turned-parttime-kicker, Chad Ochocino, tweeted to his fans that he was going to delete his Twitter account due to strict NFL rules. Of course he didn’t, and Ochocinco, always a showman, used it to deliver more buzz around his ego. However, the NFL rules around social media are draconian and many inside the league know this. Earlier this month, they released an updated policy that bars players and their agents from tweeting up to 90 minutes before or after a game. Members of the press are not allowed to…

• 
  Marketing Roadmaps

• FTC Guidelines on Endorsements: Analysis of the Examples

  Susan Getgood

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:01 pm

  As promised here is a brief analysis of the examples that pertain to social media and blogging in the revised FTC Guidelines on Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, published on October 5th. These revised guidelines take effect on December 1, 2009. My previous posts have covered the broad  issues under public debate about the guidelines, and I’m not going to revisit that material here.  This is a dive into the examples. If you have questions about the guidelines, Blog with Integrity is holding a free webinar next Tuesday November 10th at noon featuring special guest Mary…

• More on FTC endorsement guidelines re: free speech and journalism

  Susan Getgood

  29 Oct 2009 | 10:52 am

  When the proposed FTC guidelines for commercial endorsements and testimonials first hit the blogosphere last May, I did an analysis of the pertinent examples.  I did a quick re-take earlier this month when the final guidelines were published, and promised to update my analysis  for the new or changed examples. I’m still planning to do this update, probably early next week in preparation for Blog with Integrity’s next free webinar on November 1oth featuring Mary Engle, FTC associate director for consumer protection. In a town hall format, Mary will answer the community’s…

• A little integrity with that PR, please

  Susan Getgood

  22 Oct 2009 | 8:51 pm

  <rant on> I’ve got more than a few posts pending, including part 2 of my analysis of the published FTC guidelines on commercial endorsements and an update on Blog with Integrity, but today I received an email that demanded immediate attention. As many of you know, I collect bad pitches. I use them here on the blog and in my workshops. Someday perhaps they will even make it into a book about community engagement. I get a few myself (and for some reason more lately), but the best source of pitches — good and bad — are my friends and readers. Today’s example, from a…

• Good advertising makes all the difference: Ad Club Hatch Awards

  Susan Getgood

  9 Oct 2009 | 12:26 pm

  Advertising. It is often said that consumers don’t like or pay attention to advertising. Not true. What consumers don’t like is BAD advertising. Lazy copy. Poor targeting. Offensive stereotypes. We also don’t like crummy products. No matter how good the ad, it cannot make a crummy product excellent or a dangerous product safe. Regardless of what they say on Mad Men. We do like — even love — good advertising. Ads that tell a story. Make us feel. Make us laugh. If we’re in marketing, make us wish we’d thought of that. Tuesday night, I was privileged…

• Updated analysis of FTC guidelines, part one

  Susan Getgood

  8 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

  Monday,  the FTC published the final guidelines  for endorsements and testimonials. Nothing terribly surprising, although I was pleased to see some additions to the examples about blogging and word of mouth marketing that made things much clearer. [Full text of the changes to the guidelines (pdf) as submitted to the Federal Register. I’m updating my May analysis of the proposed guidelines in two parts. First, in this post, some general comments about the final guidelines. Next — either Friday or Saturday– a detailed analysis of the sections relevant to blogging and social…

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  VisInsights

• Your Customers are Talking - are You Listening for Social Media Conversations?

  Blake Cahill

  30 Oct 2009 | 4:08 pm

  Happy customers are often equated with innovative and growing businesses. Companies have long understood that the key to maintaining customer happiness and loyalty comes from listening to where and how customers are talking about specific products and services, and in turn, creating a customer-centric organization. Once companies can leverage customer insight, they can take steps [...]

• New Study: Consumers Expect Brands to Engage with Them in Social Media

  Blake Cahill

  22 Oct 2009 | 4:34 pm

  Well, is that really anything new? Haven’t consumers always expected attention and respect when they walked into a retail store or when they called a companies contact center? The rising chorus of social network users (4 out 5 US adults online interacted with a social site in ‘09 - Forrester) continue to up the expectation [...]

• Search & Social Convergence (Part 2) - Microsoft’s Bing Announces Partnerships and Integration with Twitter & Facebook

  Blake Cahill

  21 Oct 2009 | 4:35 pm

  Huge news today at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco as Microsoft announced deals with micro-blogging service Twitter and social network leader Facebook to integrate their real-time feeds of updates into the Bing search engine. The Twitter feeds have already begun appearing in Bing search results as part of a beta program, while the [...]

• The Search & Social Wars Heat Up (Part 1) - Google Sidewiki Launch

  Blake Cahill

  21 Oct 2009 | 4:26 pm

  Recently, Google officially launched a new feature/tool call “Sidewiki”  that allows consumers to post, share, and promote comments on a side bar of websites if they are logged into a Google account. While it is too early to determine if this new wiki feature for consumer comments will take off, I would encourage marketers and [...]

• The Convergence of Search & Social Media

  Blake Cahill

  15 Oct 2009 | 2:39 pm

  Last week some very interesting data and a report were published by comScore, GroupM and M80 (both great agencies that VT partners with BTW) that indicated that searchers are also more likely to keep a brand in mind if they have seen a combination of paid search ads and social media. The research revealed that [...]

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  Emily Chang - Designer

• Thirty Conversations on Design

  Emily Chang

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:51 pm

  Thirty Conversations on Design 30 of the world’s most inspired creatives answer two straightforward yet incredibly complex questions: “What single example of design inspires you most?” and “What problem should design solve next?” Via Brain Pickings on PicoCool

• Kidrobot Desktop Icons

  Emily Chang

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:41 am

  Add a little Kidrobot to your digital world. Customize your computer with these new, free Kidrobot desktop icons of their toys.

• 110409 Twitter Lists

  Emily Chang

  4 Nov 2009 | 10:32 pm

  I took a screenshot of the Twitter lists following me at the moment.  Undoubtedly, the “listed” number will be used as another metric of social influence, but that’s not what I find intriguing.  It’s the self-curated/created nature of lists that I like.  It’s been insightful, humbling and amusing to see what lists I’m added to.  It’s also a great way to discover new users to follow. Every self-curated list creates another taxonomy to the wide world of Twitter.  I’ve got to find some time to make more lists of my own. Full screenshot below.

• Web Open Font Format Moves Ahead

  Emily Chang

  2 Nov 2009 | 5:50 pm

  From Ars Technica: Efforts to bring advanced typography to the Web have reached an important milestone. Type designers Tal Leming and Erik van Blokland, who had been working to developing the .webfont format, combined forces with Mozilla’s Jonathan Kew, who had been working independently on a similar format. The result of the collaboration is called Web Open Font Format (WOFF), and it has the backing of a wide array of type designers and type foundries. Mozilla will also include support for it in Firefox 3.6. WOFF combines the work of Leming and Blokland had done on embedding a…

• Frank Stella’s Adelante

  Emily Chang

  2 Nov 2009 | 1:59 am

  Adelante (1964) by Frank Stella painting | metallic powder in polymer emulsion on canvas Saw this again in person on Saturday at SFMOMA. One of my favorite paintings. The lines are made from the negative spacing between the polymer. Gorgeous in its subtlety.

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  The Social Customer Manifesto

• The Laws of VRM

  Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

  5 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pm

  In conjunction with this week's Internet Identity Workshop, a number of folks including @dsearls @deanland @joeandrieu @judico @juliangay @dariusdunlap and others have been thinking a lot about ProjectVRM.  As part of the conversations, an activity this group was doing was trying to distill down to its essence what "makes" something "VRM" (or VRM-like, at least).  We came up with a couple of core concepts, the first of which is that in a system that is VRM-ish, the following holds true: "VRM Law #1: The individual is the point of integration." In other words, instead of myriad…

• Thought of the Day: Single-Sign Off

  Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:51 pm

  Lots of folks have looked at integrating online identities, and there are various types of "single sign-on" (cite) systems around.  Thought experiment for today:  what would single sign-off look like?  In other words, what would happen if an individual had the ability to conceptually "unplug" from the Network?

• Customers Take Back The Beep

  Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

  28 Oct 2009 | 9:44 am

  A good case study in how a customer can start a snowball rolling that effects vendor change.  Back in August, David Pogue of the NYT went on a tear to get the major telecom providers to eliminate (or at least give customers a way around) the voicemail instructions that are given every time an individual calls her own, or someone else's, voicemail.  It doesn't sound like a big thing, but at 15 seconds per, times millions of calls, it adds up to a whole lot of wasted customer time and money (in the form of minutes) in a hurry.Here's the story.

• Should Customers Control Their Own Information?

  Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

  27 Oct 2009 | 5:02 pm

  Cross posted from 1to1, where Ginger Conlon and the 1to1 team were kind enough to allow me to guest post. Original is here.--Should Customers Control Their Own Information?by Christopher Carfi Information about us--our actions, our activities, our current "status," and the like--are increasingly public, shared...usually willingly...on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. However, a number of current trends and issues highlight that we, as customers, may want to take a more active role in managing those bits of social information (and much, much more). As more of our information moves…

• Backstage with the Google Wave team

  Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.

  15 Oct 2009 | 8:24 pm

  Had the chance to have a great conversation with the Google Wave dev team today.  Here's the audio and the full chat transcript.

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  Broadcasting Brain

• The danger of letting your enemy define you

  markdykeman

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:02 pm

  There’s a powerful, useful way to draw attention to your words.  Just define who your arch-enemy is and then start unloading with both barrels.  Continue the relentless assault.  If you’re lucky, your arch-enemy is one of the undead and just keeps getting back up.  Then you knock him (or her) down again, inflicting mortal damage.  And then they get back up again and…  you both win, because everyone loves a good fight. I may be unobservant or naive, but I can’t really say that I have an arch-enemy, not a person anyway, especially since the little red headed guy…

• Uncategorized – the post unleashed

  markdykeman

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

  This will probably turn out to be a stream-of-consciousness ramble about various things.  EDIT:  this post is written in a satirical/sarcastic style, so it shouldn’t be taken too, too seriously.  OK? Twitter Lists This new way of slicing and dicing your Twitter content is the way to listen to the 412,331,310 other Twitter users that you don’t listen to today.  Or, rather, you would if you could hear them among the multitudes.  They were made from the same substance that went into the last few nails that were hammered into FriendFeed’s coffin.  Or something like that. I…

• Observations on social media and political issues

  markdykeman

  1 Nov 2009 | 7:04 pm

  There’s an interesting political issue in my home province that is seeing some use of social media.  It’s making an interesting case study.  Given the overlap between a relevant political issue and the use of social technology, I think that this is a case study worth following. Background The event that I referred to in my previous post became official last Thursday.  In summary, my province (New Brunswick) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to sell the vast majority of its power utility to another province (Quebec) in exchange for debt relief and a five year guarantee on…

• The power of social media to prevent change

  markdykeman

  28 Oct 2009 | 5:23 pm

  At the moment I’m pondering a situation happening in my home province.  I don’t want to get into too much detail about it at the moment because there are few specifics.  It boils down to our provincial government (think state government if you live in the US, Australia, or some other similar government structure) planning to announce a decision that will potentially be unpopular with many residents of our province.  This decision will affect every single resident of this province. This is the type of government decision that could bring about a big change in the status quo…

• Merlin Mann on creative work and not forgetting yourself

  markdykeman

  26 Oct 2009 | 5:58 pm

  I’m of two minds about one of Merlin Mann’s latest videos (disclosure:  I’m a big fan of Merlin’s ever since he answered one of my questions on CBC’s Spark Radio show and he commented on my blog.  Well, before then, too.  But a little attention goes a long way, what can I say?) Here’s the video.  My thoughts are below: Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now) from Merlin Mann on Vimeo. SPOILERS BELOW: On one hand, I think Merlin’s got a great message in this video and it’s well worth listening to.  The core…

• 
  Koka Sexton dot Com

• I Fell In Love With My Roku

  Koka Sexton

  17 Oct 2009 | 8:47 pm

  I got a Roku from a special someone after visiting their house and being in complete amazement over the technology. I’ve had a Netflix account for several years. First I was crazy and would get 3 movies at a time, rush to watch them all and mail them back to get three more new movies in the mail. I even started adding movies still in the theater in my queue just to get the DVD once it was released. I don’t get to the theater very often so DVDs were the only way to stay on top of the best flix out there. Netflix has had the “Watch Instantly” feature online for a while.

• Concordian Interview

  Koka Sexton

  27 Jul 2009 | 11:39 pm

  Last month I met with a writer for a local Concord Ca. paper called the Concordian. The Concordian has been around a really long time. I should have asked the date they started. I couldn’t find it on the website.The paper was mailed to everyone in the city. It was a free monthly newspaper that talked just about our not-so-little city. Not to be confused with the local blogs like Mayor of Concord or Claycord that fill the internets with news. Recently the paper has had to stop the mailings but still prints thousands of copies and places them in Concord, Pleasant Hill and surrounding…

• 60 Days at Paragon Software

  Koka Sexton

  27 Jul 2009 | 1:46 pm

  After starting with Paragon Software Group in June I have been able to gain a lot of traction internally with my coworkers as well as build on the momentum of creating a better more efficient channel sales experience.Using the principles I developed while writing the Channel Sales Playbook, I have been able to hit the ground running with the new company. In fact, I may be updating the Channel Sales Playbook or putting together a new one just to give a more detailed set of actions that I have tested with positive results. (In my non-existent spare time) Besides the channel stuff, I also have…

• 5 of the Best Twitter Apps I Can’t Live Without

  Koka Sexton

  12 Jul 2009 | 5:42 pm

  After my initial addiction to Twitter, I started becoming fascinated by the growing amount of Twitter applications that were being developed. One of the suggestions I had made about how Twitter can make money was that they charge a fee for validated API applications. I don’t know if they started charging but the recent ‘validation’ of Twitter applications makes me feel much better about using services that I have to identify my credentials through. Between getting my breaking news updates and talking to friends, Twitter has become a staple in my life. I want to share some of…

• Ohhh…Shiny! My new desk is ready

  Koka Sexton

  3 Jul 2009 | 11:52 pm

  I have been wanting a new desk for a long time. I have been using my wife’s desk that she had in college ever since I got back from Iraq. Do to the nature of my work and the fact I’m addicted to my computers, I spend more time than I care to admit at my desk working, writing or playing Bejeweled. When we moved out of SF and into the burbs, I wanted to throw out the old one and start in the new place with a new shiny desk. The old desk was nice but it was small and didn’t have a lot of storage options. I wanted something bigger but we had said that when I got a new desk it…

• 
  Marketing Profs Daily Fix

• Paul Williams: Catch More Fish With The Right Lure, In The Right Waters

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:30 am

  A couple of fishermen are hanging out in their local bait shop. One has a new product idea for out-of-town visitors. Sell a lake map and fishing lure combo. Take specific fishing lures and tape them to the different lakes on the map. This way the out-of-towner will know the proper bait to use at each particular lake, and will lead to a more successful fishing experience. If you're at Watermans Reservoir and want to catch a Northern Pike, you need a spinner lure. At Worden's Pond after Jackfish? Use a fish-imitation lure or cut bait.* Here comes the business segue... We marketers and business…

• Gavin Heaton: On Generosity and Grace

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:35 am

  We are marked each day by the casual collisions that are the artefacts of our existence. There are phone calls, messages and the relative anonymity of online interactions. And in the search for connection, communion or community, we thoughtlessly mistake message for meaning, words for action and interaction for friendship. It’s a confusion of intention – and we are the poorer for it.When I began writing my blog I did so with no expectation of return. Like a long-dead star, I felt that I was emitting the weakest of signals with no hope of a destination. The gravity of my expectations was…

• Ann Handley: What's New: Introducing Our New Mobile Marketing Newsletter

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:28 am

  You know the end of every calendar year brings a bounty of blog posts and articles carrying business predictions for the New Year? Year after year for the past several years, pundits have prognosticated the rise of Mobile Marketing. And then year after year, it has failed to live up to its promise. Instead, Mobile seems stuck on the sidelines, perpetually benched. But with recent developments in the mobile space, it seems the prediction is now (finally) reality. I’ll even go out on a limb and make my own prediction: Mobile Marketing is here to stay. That’s why we’ve just launched a new…

• Suzanne Lowe: Digital Versus Paper: What's The Future For Professional Services?

  4 Nov 2009 | 5:50 am

  In the past several weeks, I've encountered questions about the effectiveness of digital marketing versus paper-driven communications. A recent WSJ piece "Marketers Still Prefer a Paper Trail," asserts that people are motivated to go to a Web site to buy when they see an item in a catalog. Some of my marketing communication friends tell me that their professional service clients are producing print newsletters in addition to (and in some cases, instead of) digital newsletters. They say, "my clients' clients are so overwhelmed with emails that they actually appreciate print newsletters!" It's…

• Kathy Bushman: Still Questioning The Value In Social Media

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:04 am

  I had the pleasure of attending the Social Media Business Forum (#smbf) that took place October 23rd in Durham, NC. It’s the first event that was put on by Jeff Cohen, Wayne Sutton, and Ryan Boyles of OurHashtag, and Kipp Bodnar of Howard Merrell & Partners. They are passionate about teaching business people how to benefit from using social media and are responsible for many of the social media events and tweet-ups in the “Triangle” (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) North Carolina area. Jeff Cohen told me that they recognized a real need for business people to be educated on social media and…

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  Digital Trends

• Why Calling is Better than Text Messaging for Men and Women that are Dating

  Leif Iverson

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:32 pm

  In what situations should you call the person you’re dating rather than send them the message in a text or email? The fact of the matter is that men and women are calling each other less and less—but with good reason—with so many other easy forms of dropping a memo with your latest fling. We get the dish from senior editor at Cosmopolitan .com, Christie Griffin, on why breaking the dating world’s digital barrier is more important than it used to be.

• LG’s New Chocolate Phone: The LG BL40 Goes Global Today

  Dena Cassella

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:26 pm

  LG Electronics announced the worldwide availability of its new LG Chocolate phone, also known as the LG BL40, with content from James Cameron's Avatar movie embedded on the new Chocolate phone itself.

• Gstar 2009: The Future of Video Games and the Video Game Industry

  Dena Cassella

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm

  Video game enthusiasts rejoice: Gstar 2009 the video game industry's exhibition show will reveal the best online video games, 2009's best video games, and the future video games to come.

• Best Digital Cameras: Top 10 Digital Camera Reviews and Ratings

  Dena Cassella

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:36 pm

  We rounded up the ten best digital cameras and some great digital camera reviews. Check out our selections from top digital camera manufacturers like Canon, Nikon, Leica, Fujifilm and more.

• The 10 Hottest Smartphones of 2009

  Greg Mombert

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pm

  With this year coming to a close we decided to roundup the best cell phones of 2009. From the Palm Pre to the lastest and greatest BlackBerry models we showcase all the best smartphones of 2009.

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  Janet Fouts

• Thesis Just Gets Better and Better

  Janet

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:22 am

  I am so stoked about the new version of the Thesis theme for Wordpress. I’ve been hand coding or tweaking other themes for years and Thesis made that a whole lot easier when it came out, but this new version just rocks. Sure, you might want to do some advanced tweaking using hooks or bring in some custom PHP code or widgets and I can help you do that, but with Thesis we can set up a spiffy custom design for a whole lot less than we could before. Take a look at the video below and I think you’ll see why I just love the new Thesis. I’ll be moving this site over to Thesis…

• Are Tweedledee and Tweedledum on Your Twitter List?

  Janet

  3 Nov 2009 | 9:57 am

  I’ve been waiting to wade in on this whole Twitter lists discussion so I could watch and see what people do with it. I already use my own lists extensively in Tweetdeck and Seesmic to sort my connections into more easily manageable groups and I really don’t use the Twitter web site that much, so what’s the point right? There has been huge discussion over segmenting, and even “curation” of lists as a way to manage the flow of information and create channels. Chris Brogan talks about marginalization as one of the possible results, Scoble points out the sheer…

• SV Business Development Week- Listen!

  Janet

  28 Oct 2009 | 8:06 am

  Any of my clients or connections can tell you how often I stress the importance of listening. Listening to your network for opportunities, listening to social media networks at large for mentions of you, your product, the competition and areas of interest so you don’t miss opportunities to engage, solve problems or just to simply say thank you. Not to mention new learning opportunities! Listening is one of the most important skills you can learn, no matter what your business is. All that listening can be time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be if you get organized about it. On…

• Google Rolls Out Social Search-Will You Use It?

  Janet

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:54 am

  Google made it’s new “Social Search” public today (I was just talking about this on the GameChanging show on BlogTalk last night). To set it up you’re going to need to log in to your Google account and enable social search in Google Labs. Once you’ve got it activated and you’re signed in to your account you can do searches and see “Results from your social Circle”. So you’ll see Tweets, blogs, links from people you know on the bottom of your search results. You can filter down to just the social results by selecting “Social”.

• Social Media Coaching

  Janet

  26 Oct 2009 | 9:33 am

  When people ask me what I like most about being a social media coach it’s a tough question. There’s so many things I love about what I do. I meet the most amazing people, get to learn about what they do, how they look at their business and find ways for them to reach out to new clients, build their brand and establish themselves at the center of their own networks. I show them how this stuff works and that means I get to learn about new tools and networks as they come out so I can find just the right fit for each client. It may seem mundane to some, scary for others, but for me…

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  SocialTimes.com

• Bebo Games Official Launch: The Next Frontier for Virtual Goods?

  Kristen Nicole

  4 Nov 2009 | 12:09 pm

  Bebo Games has officially launched this week, with the company reporting successful numbers for developer and user interest. Bebo Games are offered through several partnerships with game developers, and the top-down approach taken by AOL-owned Bebo means a more uniform game experience for end users. What Bebo has done with its game platform is integrate it with several of its existing features, such as chat, messages and other forms of notifications. This means that users can do things like challenge other users to a game directly from their chat window. It also means that developers have…

• Social Media Success In 1 Step: Education

  Nick O'Neill

  3 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pm

  A new report published by eMarketer today suggests that one of the best ways brands can capture the attention of internet users is by “providing relevant news and analysis” as well as providing “new ideas and thinking”. In other words, brands need to educate the user. By providing educational content, the theory is that internet users will reciprocate by providing support to the brands that educate them. The one flaw with this survey? When was the last time that a human could rationally explain why they purchased something? Robert Cialdini’s “Influence: The…

• There Are Now 8 Million Google Friend Connect Communities

  Nick O'Neill

  3 Nov 2009 | 10:58 am

  In an interview with Xconomy, Mussie Shore, one of the developers behind Google Friend Connect, says that “8 million communities have formed with Friend Connect”. What do those communities consist of? The same widget which shows up in the sidebar of this site. The number is massive considering that Facebook Connect is now on “tens of thousands” of websites. I’ve written about the service extensively since it first launched and as of now, it’s being hailed as a great success. Friend Connect Powers The Long Tail It’s an amazing number: 8 million…

• Is Digg Becoming Irrelevant?

  Nick O'Neill

  29 Oct 2009 | 8:05 am

  If you have a lot of traffic, you instantly get a large valuation in the internet industry but what if your service stops working as it’s supposed to? Digg had a novel solution to the social discovery issue: let users vote on the articles they like most. It’s an effective model however it is most effective at doing one thing: determining what content its community likes most. Want to know what the general web likes or what various segments of the internet likes? You won’t be able to find that out with Digg. Community Moderation Is Crowd Sourced Editorial What’s the…

• The Future of Social Media Monetization, Part II

  Ro Choy

  28 Oct 2009 | 6:54 am

  Editor’s Note: This post was written by Ro Choy, Chief Revenue Officer of RockYou. In this series, Choy will address the future of social media monetization, focusing on the potential of platforms such as Facebook and the ability for third parties such as RockYou to create their own platforms and monetize a multi-faceted approach to social media marketing. (See part 1 here) The Future of Social Media Monetization While performance and brand marketing have been long-standing online business models, virtual currency has recently captured the most interest of both developers and users…

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  Webware.com

• Popular iPhone movie app flops on BlackBerry

  Jessica Dolcourt

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:57 pm

  Flixster's Movies app just isn't up to snuff on BlackBerry. Originally posted at The Download Blog

• Opera Mobile 10 beta browser: First Look video

  Jessica Dolcourt

  6 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  Even if you don't have a Nokia, Samsung, or Sony Ericsson phone, you can preview the latest Opera Mobile browser for smartphones. Originally posted at The Download Blog

• Google trying not to cross 'the creepy line'

  Tom Krazit

  6 Nov 2009 | 10:23 am

  When it comes to the tricky balance between providing comprehensive information and freaking people out, Google says it tries to stay on the good side of the "creepy line." Originally posted at Relevant Results

• Integrated retweet on its way to Twitter

  Don Reisinger

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:43 am

  Social network says it has a started a limited rollout of its retweet feature. The new button will work much the same way the "reply" option works.

• Mozilla's e-mail group looks toward the cloud

  Stephen Shankland

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Mozilla Messaging, while about to release the Thunderbird 3 desktop e-mail software, also is turning its attention to cloud computing with its Raindrop project. Originally posted at Deep Tech

• 
  BIZ GROWTH NEWS

• Dublin Twitterville Tweetup With Shel Israel Thanks To @Twtvite

  Krishna De

  3 Nov 2009 | 9:54 am

  I’ve always wanted to find an excuse to use the great Tweetup platform of Twtvite after I saw an invitation for an event that my friends Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson were organising for a Tweetup in the US. Today I tested out the platform when creating a Tweetup invitation for an event with another Shel – this time Shel Israel author of the new book Twitterville. Long time podcasting pal, Adrian Moss, who I met a few years ago at the Corporate Podcasting Summit where we were both speaking,  dropped me a direct message on Twitter some weeks ago to say that his company Parity…

• Facebook Changes Groups To Build More Buzz On Your Home Page

  Krishna De

  20 Oct 2009 | 9:49 pm

  Are you a member of a Facebook Group or an adminstrator of a Faceboobook Group? Then you are going to see some dramatic changes when you take a look at your Group this week (did you know there are currently over 45 million Facebook Groups?). Until now, Group activities have been isolated to the group page. This week Facebook have made changes to Facebook Groups – changes are being rolled out across all groups over this week if you don’t see the changes yet. In summary: Facebook Groups will now look similar to PagesFirst, we revamped the design for Groups so that they look similar…

• Sunday Business Post: Out On Your Own Conference for Entrepreneurs, 21 October 2009, Dublin

  Krishna De

  19 Oct 2009 | 9:16 pm

  Are you thinking of starting a new business? Then an event that is taking place on the 21 October 2009 hosted by the Sunday Business Post is a must for you – especially as the investment is just €25 per person. The programme starts at 8.45am and closes at 5.15pm. The conference promises to cover areas including: Tips for surviving an economic downturn Entrepreneurship and business planning Creative marketing on a shoestring Funding your start-up company and getting your pitch right to investors guiidance if you are thinking of investing in a franchise. Speakers include: Sean…

• Burson Marsteller Social Media Use in the Fortune 100

  Krishna De

  19 Oct 2009 | 5:56 am

  via slideshare.net The adoption of social media by the Fortune 100 companies was recently researched by Burson Marsteller. In summary the research found that: 54% of companies were using Twitter 32% of companies had a blog 29% of companies are using Facebook. Of the companies only using one social media platform, 76% of them were using Twitter, 14% were using Facebook and 10% had a blog. Of the companies using two social media platforms, 64% used a blog and Twitter and 36% are using Facebook and Twitter. The research identified that Twitter is being used primarily: to distribute news and…

• Are you addicted To Facebook And Twitter?

  Krishna De

  14 Oct 2009 | 9:31 pm

  via retrevo.com When do you Tweet? When driving, at work or on vacation? A recent Gadgetology study by consumer electronics shopping site, Retrevo.com found that most people check Facebook and Twitter a couple of times a day. 27% of respondents to the survey who are under 35 years of age however are checking Facebook more than 10 times a day. The survey also found that that 36% of people under the age of 35 often use Facebook or Twitter after sex – men being more likely to do this than women – and iPhone users are three times more likely to do so than Blackberry owners. The…

• 
  Techipedia | Tamar Weinberg

• Apple Gets More Serious About Using Twitter, but Why it Doesn’t Matter

  Tamar Weinberg

  22 Oct 2009 | 6:16 am

  Apple, the company behind aesthetically pleasing hardware that keeps fanboys drooling, has recently joined Twitter. If you take a look at any one of their four accounts, you’ll notice one thing: they’re not using Twitter to converse but to broadcast. Effectively, they’re porting their press release information to the wide open, and perhaps going a little more granular by featuring content specific to elements of iTunes. First, I’m going to say kudos to Apple for trying involve themselves in the world of social media. I’m going to stop there, though.

• What Chris Brogan and Gary Vaynerchuk Have in Common, and What You Can Learn from it

  Tamar Weinberg

  19 Oct 2009 | 6:45 am

  If you’ve been abreast of the strides and developments in the marketing space in the last few years, you’d know about both Chris Brogan and Gary Vaynerchuk. Both are incredibly popular public facing success stories with very strong brands, traveling often to make public appearances at a variety of conferences and venues. But while that’s a common trait about both marketers, that’s only the end result. It’s in the way that both Chris and Gary got there that is important. Let’s explore their characteristics and see how you can apply them to build your…

• The Nightmare Public Relations Professional and How to Stop Him

  Tamar Weinberg

  29 Sep 2009 | 6:09 am

  This is a guest post I wrote for new media and PR expert Brian Solis, but I also wanted to share it with my readers. Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge just published an excellent book, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations. It’s a must read for any PR professional moving into or active in this space. As bloggers, we’ve all experienced it: the completely off topic pitch. After pouring blood, sweat, and tears into our blog that clearly is known for addressing a specific subject matter, we get an email from a public relations agency that takes us for someone completely…

• Content Aggregators are Killing Content Creators

  Tamar Weinberg

  23 Sep 2009 | 6:00 am

  This is a guest post from Josh Schnell, founder of Macgasm.net and web developer. Somewhere down the line, an exploitation has to occur in order for a financial profit to be realized. This is no less true for the world of social networks. Networks like Digg, FriendFeed, and Facebook are seeing huge growths in value, but the little guys, the ones actually providing the meat and potatoes for those operations, rarely see a nickel. Let’s be honest for a second here. The major “Web 2.0″ and social networking technologies that have been created in the last several years have been…

• Creating Passionate Customers: Brand Evangelism and What it Means to Your Business

  Tamar Weinberg

  26 Aug 2009 | 6:06 am

  Last week, I wrote a piece on brand building for Forbes.com. With permission, I am publishing the unedited version here. Today, marketing your business for free may seem to be an unattainable process. But with social media marketing, it doesn’t have to be. The only investment in the act of marketing on the social web is time and energy. Thankfully, you don’t have to go at social media marketing alone. Engagement in a process called brand evangelism is one beneficial strategy to get your brand known and to help spread your message. Brand evangelism is a word of mouth marketing…

• 
  Stay N' Alive

• Does Twitter Have An Internal iPhone App?

  Jesse Stay

  7 Nov 2009 | 12:15 am

  A while back I was surfing the Twitter developers wiki and noticed 2 interesting images uploaded by Ryan Sarver, Twitter’s Platform Project Manager.  One of the images looks like a very rough status message entry screen, with a toggle button for Twitter’s new geolocation feature.  This same feature just launched in read-only mode on Seesmic’s new desktop app yesterday.  The second image is what looks like a screenshot of an iPhone screen prompting the user to enable Geolocation, taking the user to their Geolocation settings to enable it on a user’s account. Then,…

• Twitter Hires Another Facebook Veteran

  Jesse Stay

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:04 pm

  According to Twitter’s Team list, Brian Sutorius, who, according to his Facebook profile, was previously on Facebook’s Platform Policy team, is now Twitter’s newest API Support team member.  After the loss of Alex Payne moving to more operational roles, and Chad Etzel, who was on a contract basis with the team, Sutorius joins the likes of Ryan Sarver and Doug Williams in the Support role.  Twitter’s API Support team are in charge of managing the Twitter development mailing list and ensuring the Twitter API is managed properly. Sutorius worked since July of 2007 on…

• Screenshots Emerge of the New Twitter Retweet Feature

  Jesse Stay

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:19 pm

  Nick Shin just wrote me mentioning he has the new Twitter retweet feature on his account, @marketwire.  He wrote about it on his blog which you can read here.  It would appear it works very much in a similar way to how Twitter original mentioned. To start, users with this feature will have a message at the top of their stream mentioning they have the new features.  Each Tweet in your timeline on Twitter.com will have a new “retweet” icon that appears similar to the “reply” link when you mouse over a Tweet.  When you click on it, you are asked if you want to retweet…

• Paypal Pays Off With Paypal X Innovate Conference

  Jesse Stay

  4 Nov 2009 | 10:55 am

  Paypal has spent awhile now planning a conference for developers which they would be able to announce their new Paypal X developer platform for flexible payments.  I’ve talked to Sudha Jamthe, in charge of many of their social media promotion efforts for awhile now, and I know they’ve really been looking forward to this event.  I must say their planning and preparation for this event have truly “paid off”, as audience reaction has been spectacular, many stating on Twitter that the event was one of the best events they’ve ever attended, others saying it was…

• Ebay Suggests Identity API – Can They Do it Alone?

  Jesse Stay

  4 Nov 2009 | 10:36 am

  Ebay’s CTO, Mark Carges, today announced at Paypal X Innovate plans by Ebay, Inc. to begin incorporating the Paypal login process as an identity platform for consumers to eventually open up to developers.  The platform, Carges said, aims to use the existing Paypal login ID which includes address and phone number verification, bank account attachment, and more to identify individuals as real people.  He stated Paypal already goes through great lengths to protect these users’ identity, suggesting this was a natural move towards identity in the cloud. The move makes sense, but…

• 
  Debs' Blog - technology changes humans don't

• Cocktails, cupcakes and food for thought..

  Debs

  2 Nov 2009 | 5:36 pm

  A quick note to say thanks to Brady, Bre et al - for another great Ignite event.  Cupcakes were gorgeous and the talks were a blast.  I even got to express four years of "alley vs valley" in a compact 5 minutes! Thanks to Sean, Sam, Jeff, Howard and Sarah for the inspiration! NYC Tidbit: The classy theatre venue for last nite was a favorite haunt well over 10 years - it was a second run moving theatre [pre netflix, itunes].  You youngins may ask what the heck is a second run movie theatre? Back in the day movies that had been out for a few months would disappear into…

• Slides: What is The Future of Business?

  Debs

  11 Sep 2009 | 12:29 pm

  The Future Of Business by Altimeter GroupView more presentations from Charlene Li. Thanks to everyone who took the time to join our call yesterday to learn about our approach to the Future of Business [yes, it's a bit grandiose but we aim high!].  Charlene, Jeremiah, Ray & I all have a strongly held passionate belief that the future of business involves a 360 degree integrated approach involving lots of shifts and changes. The real interesting stuff happens when we view new tools and technologies not in isolation but in the context of the behavioral, sociological, cultural, …

• Seven years of reflection

  Debs

  11 Sep 2009 | 12:24 pm

  Once again, as I have for the past four years, I woke up incredibly early, my subconscious prepped for a quiet solitude of sunrise reflection. I exchanged my annual phone and text messages with my fellow volunteers as I have every year on September 11th and then went about my day.  Eight years is an emotional eternity and yet a blip in historical perspective - the world moves on and the event is a now a political pawn. The experiences of those who lived through the day are shared privately vs publicly and perhaps that is as it should be. I am always saddened by America's lack of history and…

• Deb Update: Joining Altimeter Group!

  Debs

  27 Aug 2009 | 9:28 am

  This morning I begin a new chapter in my career - I have joined the Altimeter Group as a Partner running the Innovation Practice.  I am super excited to join forces with Charlene, Ray  and Jeremiah - three extremely accomplished individuals!   In the short time in which we have been working together I have already seen how our experience and knowledge provide a 360 view of the emerging technology landscape and how it impacts business and society.   My work life began in the early 90's when the Internet/Web first made it's presence known both culturally and economically.  I was smitten…

• A fun new project for 2009

  Debs

  21 Aug 2009 | 3:19 pm

   One of the joys of being independent is I get to work with a variety of people on a variety of cool projects.  So at the same time I get to work with a company the size and scale of P&G on loads of innovative stuff, I also get to work with start-ups like My6sense on Digital Intuition  and a group of brilliant animators on a way cool new animated series called The Gloomers. When development on The Gloomers began - the economy was in a much different place - now that we are all belt tightening the shows may take on an entirely new these...stay tuned! In tough economic times - reminding…

• 
  Social Media Mom

• Good Eating on Any Budget

  Ariela Ross

  28 Oct 2009 | 12:34 pm

  While there are dozens of official reports about the economy improving, the general population has yet to feel the effects of it. With unemployment rates hanging in the double-digit percentage points, it’s become apparent to the average family that it is time to modify their budget, and not in the desired direction. Going shopping these days, you may see some sort of common pattern. The department stores and ‘non-necessity’ stores are drastically marking down their prices. The same, however, does not go for grocery stores. Grocers are marking up prices, only to put them…

• The FTC is Now Playing Ball with Bloggers

  Holly Ord

  6 Oct 2009 | 7:05 am

  If you’re a blogger that receives any kind of payment, whether in the form of cash in exchange for writing a blog post or in the form of free products you’re reviewing on your blog, you are now subject to following new guidelines put into rule yesterday by the Federal Trade Commission. For the first time in 29 years, the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising has been amended and specifically targets new media outlets which includes not only blogging, but also Facebook and Twitter. If you have not yet been introduced to the new 81-page document…

• National Grandparent’s Day Twitter Party

  Holly Ord

  8 Sep 2009 | 10:18 pm

  National Grandparent’s Day (September 13th) is one of the most overlooked and neglected days of the year. While I’m sure more people recognize the day much more than other “national days of celebration” like for instance, Flag Day or Secretary Appreciation Day (no, I’m not making this up,) National Grandparent’s Day is one of those days that a great deal of people do not even know exists in the first place. Because of this, Grandparents.com and MomSelect have teamed up to kick off a celebration for Grandparent’s Day by holding a Twitter party. I have a unique…

• Freaked Out About Finances? You’re Not Alone

  Ariela Ross

  3 Sep 2009 | 4:55 pm

  You know that feeling, where your heart starts beating faster, you feel like you can’t breathe, and you just want to avoid the reality? I’m not talking about an anxiety attack, but about getting freaked out when checking up on your finances. You are definitely not alone, even if I’m the only other one with you. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been very independently minded, even from childhood. I even held a job of some sort since the age of 10, cooked, cleaned, looked after others… but I was never fully financially independent. With the opening of my first bank…

• Follow Friday

  Teeg

  28 Aug 2009 | 7:37 am

  I love the idea behind Twitter’s #FollowFriday. Introducing one friend to other friends feels natural, like attending a party where you know everyone and bringing a friend around to meet everyone. The problem on Twitter is that the idea isn’t always the same as the implementation. Receiving a list of people without any description doesn’t tell me much; it especially doesn’t give me a reason that I’d enjoy getting to know the person. A while back I decided to do my own version of FollowFriday. Instead of posting a list of people with perhaps a short description, I…

• 
  Quick Online Tips

• Local Search Advertising: New Dimension For Small Businesses

  QuickOnlineTips

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:15 am

  Guest Post by Donny Gamble A couple of years ago, local search advertising was defined as online search advertising which is made through mapping websites, local internet yellow pages, local search engines, and classified ads websites. The purpose of conducting a local online search is to rely on information collected from online sources to execute an offline transaction. This type of search is extremely important for small entrepreneurs and small businesses. This is simply because it is almost free as it only requires a small budget to make a successful advertising campaign. The small…

• 3 Different Types of Keyword Research

  QuickOnlineTips

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:26 am

  Guest article by Pradeep. All bloggers and web marketers know thatkeyword researchis important for success of the blog or website. However many people new to internet marketing (even some veterans) make the mistake of assuming that process of keyword research is the same for all websites. In this article I shall explain the different types of keyword research that can be used, the tools that may be utilized for the purpose, advantages and disadvntages of each method and how to select a method for your own website. I shall be explaining the concepts using examples from the second hand goods…

• Google HiStory Video

  QuickOnlineTips

  1 Nov 2009 | 12:15 pm

  Have you seen this Google Story video which quickly tracks the Google history over the last 11 years from Stanford to Mountain View and around the world, featuring different products, starting with BackRub (Search) up to Google Wave, StreetView and Chrome. Looking for more details on Google History? Read the key milestones in Google’s development and how Google started in a garage and reached the browser of every web user. You can also view the Google Timeline for an interactive version of Google company history. Must Read Related Articles Google Browser Sync for Bookmarks, History,…

• Blogger Alert: Official US Daylight Saving Time Change

  QuickOnlineTips

  1 Nov 2009 | 9:24 am

  US Daylight Savings Time changed today! Official Time changed across New York to San Francisco, and bloggers need to be aware and modify the time they send out their blog articles … the clock rolls back an hour for daylight savings at 2 a.m. Image by Samantha Daylight Savings Time Change So what is Daylight Savings time? Daylight Saving Time (or summertime) helps get more light out of the day by advancing clocks by one hour during the summer. Well the Daylight saving time in most of the United States ends at 2 a.m., local time, on Sunday, November 1  (every year on first Sunday in…

• 5 Out-of-the-Box Keyword List Strategies That Work

  QuickOnlineTips

  19 Oct 2009 | 4:33 am

  Guest Article by Edward Khoo There are dozens of keyword selection “strategies.” All you have to do is Google keyword strategies to get 50,100,000 search results the day of this writing. That is over 50 million hits on a very narrow, industry-specific subject, but it makes a good point. Anybody – everybody – working in the web space, from site owners to W3 marketing gurus, has a theory about keyword selection. The diversity of opinions offers up another point: there is no one way to select the perfect set of keywords. The fact is, keyword optimization is more art than…

• 
  Take A Peck

• Speaking at York College

  Jason

  27 Oct 2009 | 12:48 pm

  I had a great time at York College and was thrilled to have the opportunity to speak on a panel in front of about 250 sports management and business students last night as part of their first ever professional panel and charity event. Thanks to Erik Eitel for inviting me to speak (and picking me up from DC) and thanks to Madeiline Ludt for driving me to the BWI airport this morning.They both helped put together an awesome event. I also want to thank Dr. Tim Newman, the Coordinator of the Sport Management Program at York College for recommending me to Erik and sharing some of his time with me.

• Interview With Group Story Co-Founder George Junginger

  Jason

  22 Oct 2009 | 5:51 pm

  Last night I had the pleasure to interview George Junginger, who is working on a new startup called Group Story, along with his business partner, Geoff Hamrick. Group Story puts a new twist on photo books for groups of people who have been at the same event, on the same sports team, or share some other common bond. Instead of having one standard book for the entire group, Group Story enables people to pick and choose photos and customize pages so their books match their own experiences. Since Group Story is an NC-based company and since I’ve known George for a little over a year now, I…

• Top 3 Takeaways from BlogWorld

  Jason

  19 Oct 2009 | 6:56 pm

  I got back from BlogWorld in Las Vegas last night. The event was great and the people were amazing. But I’m glad to be home. Four nights in Vegas is equivalent to like 15 nights in other places. You can see some of my notes here and here. Also, you should check out a series of video interviews I did with 10 really smart people talking about their visions of a killer mobile+social app. If you still can’t get enough of my face, you can watch a short video of me being interviewed by Lewis Howes, a star speaker, entrepreneur and author. I learned a ton and met some awesome people at…

• My Top 3 Takeaways from 2009 Inbound Marketing Summit

  Jason

  12 Oct 2009 | 10:27 am

  I had an awesome time last week in Boston for the Inbound Marketing Summit. Chris Brogan, Justin Levy and New Marketing Labs put on an excellent event. Great people, great ideas, great venue (Gillette Stadium)–overall a great event (yes, that was a lot of great). One of the most interesting moments during the conference was when video guru Steve Garfield had everyone with a recording device take part in an experiment. We all shot video all the same time, and were encouraged to post it online somewhere. Steve believes (and he’s right) that the revolution in video is due to the fact…

• October Events

  Jason

  6 Oct 2009 | 10:21 am

  I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Not because I want to, but because I have to and work is crazy (but awesome) right now. I just wanted to let you know about some events I’ll be attending this month. I love meeting new people, so if you’re going to any of these events, drop me a line here or on Twitter so we can connect. Here’s my schedule: Inbound Marketing Summit – October 7-8 in Boston BlogWorld – October 14-18 in Las Vegas Social Media Business Forum – October 23 in Durham Speaking at York College – October 26 in York, PA I hope to see…

• 
  PR-Squared

• 4 Ways to Build Relationships with Web Content

  Todd Defren

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:04 am

  This is a guest post by Shannon Paul (find her on Twitter, too).  A prolific online personality, in her “day job” Shannon is the communications manager for PEAK6 Online. On the PR/marketing side of the equation we know good products go unnoticed without proper promotion, but we’re often reluctant to make the same admission about content. If it makes you feel better, I’m not going to blame this problem on the proliferation of new channels of communication brought on by social media, etc. But, please know that great content does not market itself. Rather than going on…

• “Too Smart For Your Own Good?”

  Todd Defren

  4 Nov 2009 | 4:03 am

  I’ve written more than once in the past about the need for marketers to avoid Shiny Object Syndrome and, more recently, to Think Organically when it comes to Social Media. Guess what?  Not everybody reads my blog. As we have found ourselves increasingly competing not just against PR firms but against different types of marketing agencies, e.g., advertising, marcomm, branding, we have on occassion lost the bid because the Other Guys wowed the underinformed prospect with the snazziest aspects of Social Media. Will these happy-shiny approaches work?  Likely not.  But after you’ve spent a…

• Stop Building Microsites?

  Todd Defren

  2 Nov 2009 | 4:20 am

  Many brands will use a microsite – a single-purpose li’l website – to serve as a landing page for a new advertising/branding/marketing/social media campaign. This FEELS like it makes sense. Most brands are too “big” to allow a one-off campaign of any sort to dramatically affect their official corporate website … yet, corporations spend enough $$$ on such initiatives that they want to maximize the investment; and, for fans of the newly rolled-out campaign, a microsite is a handy, utilitarian place to show off more multimedia assets, aggregate conversations related to the campaign,…

• Is Social Media Too Boring for Advertising Industry?

  Todd Defren

  26 Oct 2009 | 12:14 pm

  I’ve met with several advertising executive honchos in recent weeks, from agencies large and small.  The topic?  No surprise.  Social Media.  These advertising execs are gung-ho about Social Media; it is generating cool, surprising and lucrative new opportunities for their agencies.  But as the “campaign” becomes the “commonplace,” challenges rear up…   Here’s the gist of our conversations with the Ad Agency executives: Advertising Exec: “Thanks for coming by.  We know you guys ‘get’ Social…

• Be Back Soon

  Todd Defren

  21 Oct 2009 | 7:08 am

  I am working on a number of responses to RFPs that easily rank in the “OMFG” category, in terms of both the caliber of the prospective clients as well as the level of work required by the responses themselves.  A good problem to have, and I am not complaining. But as you may already have noticed, posts to the blog and even Twitter have slowed considerably. Until I can get back to a more regular schedule, I leave you with this quick, fun video created for our clients at Movember, by the director of the recent hit ZOMBIELAND. Movember is dedicated to raising awareness of the perils…

• 
  that canadian girl

• The thrill of the ride & Making your own luck

  Vero

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  It’s rare that I start a blog entry by apologising for the radio silence – but it’s also rare that I go nearly an entire month without blogging – so please accept my apologies for going a month without publishing anything. It’s certainly not for lack of things to write about, that’s for sure. The past few months have been some of the most exciting of my life; self-employment is in full swing and Pepsmedia is doing great, we’ve had two fabulous holidays (first was a quirky narrowboating trip with friends, second was a relaxing two weeks in Canada to…

• Your Call is Important to Us: Why customer service must improve

  Vero

  5 Oct 2009 | 3:38 am

  When I started writing this, I was waiting, seething, for someone at Hewlett Packard to pick up the phone to answer a query I had. As I waited, I had to grit and bear, listening to the second most annoying hold music I’ve ever heard. HSBC wins for the worst hold music hands down – I even recorded it last time I was on hold for what felt like a century, so that I could share the pain with you. In HSBC’s defence, I don’t usually have to wait very long with them, but when I do, I get a hell of a twitch. As for HP, there was no excuse for the lengthy wait times I…

• Community building means making members feel special | Community Building

  Vero

  21 Sep 2009 | 7:34 am

  Members of your community do a lot. You rely on them to make the community a success. You can influence the direction of your community, you can influence its content and you even have an influence over the type of members you want in the community. However, when it comes down to whether your community is going to be successful, your members are all that matter. You need to not only attract members that will help your community grow and continue to develop, but you need to keep them. You can do this by making sure they feel special. via communityspark.com Community Spark has turned out to be…

• LiveScribe Pulse pen: Where were you all my life!?

  Vero

  4 Sep 2009 | 1:13 am

  As an early birthday present to myself, I bought a Livescribe Pulse Smartpen earlier this week. It arrived yesterday and I’ve just been blown away by it so far. The pen improves on regular pens in two key ways: It registers anything that is written on paper, effectively scanning my handwriting as I go, which means that as soon as I get back to the computer, the pen transfers it to the LiveScribe software for future reference. It records all audio in the room, which means I can take a few headline notes without writing down every single piece of information. Back in university, I had…

• Ten Simple Steps for Dealing with the Tech Illiterati

  Vero

  21 Aug 2009 | 4:22 am

  Every office has them; the people who seem to freeze as soon as they’re exposed to new technology. They throw their hands up at the first sight of anything wrong with their computer, always assume it’s “been hacked” and furiously click the mouse or bash at their keyboard louder rather than look for the virus-scanner that’s slowing down their machine to a glacial pace. They’re the tech illiterati. I must have a friendly personality because, while I’m not in the IT department by any means, I seem to be anyways have been a first port of call for tech…

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  jeff lanctot

• This blog

  Jeff Lanctot

  3 Nov 2009 | 9:50 am

  As you’ll notice, I haven’t been updating this blog for some time.  The best place to follow me is on twitter @lanctot.

• The Economy and Digital Advertising

  Jeff Lanctot

  27 Oct 2008 | 12:41 pm

  I was preparing a post regarding the impact that the struggling economy is having on digital marketing.  Then Connie Loizos of Reuters save me the time by running an interview we did last week.  She covered off on a broad [more...]

• Razorfish Publisher Summit

  Jeff Lanctot

  27 Oct 2008 | 12:12 pm

  Every year Razorfish hosts an event to thank the media publishers with whom we work.  It’s a great opportunity to give our partners a look behind the curtain of our business, which helps the publishers to better service our shared [more...]

• Ad Network Consolidation

  Jeff Lanctot

  29 Jul 2008 | 1:06 pm

  Earlier this year, I wrote about the consolidation of spending on ad networks.   We’ve seen increasingly concentrated spending over the last several years, with the top five ad networks (by AA|RF spend) earning 71% of total ad network spending last [more...]

• Quote of the Day…

  Jeff Lanctot

  29 Jul 2008 | 12:27 pm

  From Brian Morrissey:  “so we have learned twitter is excellent for earthquake news. cue web 2.0ites predicting imminent death of NYT.”

• 
  The Responsible Marketing Blog

• Channel strategy: What you need to know now

  Patrick Byers

  27 Oct 2009 | 12:31 am

  By Herman Kwik, Ph.D. When I work with entrepreneurs or inventors who are excited about their new products and eager to get busy “marketing,” I often have to urge caution – for two reasons: Because when they say “marketing” they really mean “selling,” and that’s a different operation altogether. Because entrepreneurs don’t always consider the sequence of events necessary for “marketing” to be properly deployed. In launching a new product—as opposed to offering a service—there is one strategic element that is rarely given its proper due: deciding on the…

• The 7 Keys to Responsible Marketing in 2 Minutes

  Patrick Byers

  21 Oct 2009 | 12:31 am

  Want to know what Responsible Marketing is about but don’t have the time to read our white paper on the topic? Well, here’s “The 7 Keys to Responsible Marketing in 2 Minutes,” featuring the characters you’ve grown to love (or hate) in our Responsible Marketing web shorts. View on YouTube There ya go—with a video that short, now everyone has time to learn about Responsible Marketing. Share away. Subscribe to this feed.

• Climate hype? Where there’s hype, there’s $

  Patrick Byers

  15 Oct 2009 | 4:37 am

  For Blog Action Day, I started crafting a post regarding the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December, but then I realized, hey, this blog is supposed to be about Responsible Marketing! Here’s an interesting Google Earth tour on the topic. Right after I’ll get to my real post. View on YouTube Okay, so I’ve decided it’s time for me to get something off my chest. You see, I’ve been called a tree-hugger. A green-weenie. And most recently, an “eco-lib.” Whatever. Sticks and stones and all that. I doubt I’ll convince anyone reading this blog that…

• We’re going to need to talk about your TPS reports

  Martin Pierce

  8 Oct 2009 | 10:14 pm

  By Martin Pierce Ah, ah, I almost forgot…I’m also going to need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too. Mmmmmkay? Thaaaaaanks! We here at Outsource Marketing like to think that our office culture doesn’t resemble that of our good friend Bill Lumbergh’s Initech. But we do relate. Don’t know who Bill Lumbergh is? Never heard of Initech? Then you haven’t seen Mike Judge’s 1999 cult masterpiece “Office Space.” You don’t know what you’re missing. Here’s the trailer: View on YouTube A couple months back we took time out of our busy schedules to have a little…

• Responsible or not? Audi’s “Do Your Part”

  Patrick Byers

  6 Oct 2009 | 5:39 am

  It ain’t so easy being green. Unless, of course, you buy a clean diesel from Audi. That’s the message of this Audi A3 “Do Your Part” advert: View on YouTube I get the idea: Show you can be environmentally responsible without having to put yourself out. You can have it all. Here’s one point of view from @motorad666 on Twitter: If ads are supposed to make you want to buy stuff, the Audi A3 Clean Diesel ads are working on me, and I should know better. Good work, VBP. And the counterpoint from @markapennington: bike riding: green. bus riding: green. buying an audi:…

• 
  Web Strategy by Jeremiah

• Insights for CMOs: Writing Column For Forbes

  jeremiah_owyang

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:28 am

  I’m very thankful that Forbes has extended me an offer to be a regular contributor discussing emerging technologies for the evolving customer strategy. CMOs are hungry for information. Marketing leaders are finding that they have to quickly evolve as the media and marketing landscape is quickly changing from emerging technologies like social tools.  As a result, they are hungry for what’s next, and how they can get ahead of the curve –with minimal risk. This regular monthly (or more) column on the Forbes CMO network (@ForbesCMO) isn’t reporting, but instead will marry…

• People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: Nov 6, 2009

  jeremiah_owyang

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:02 am

  Things appear to be picking up in the economy, and I’d like to continue to recognize those moving in the social media space. I’ve started this post series (see archives) to both track and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks: Mike Pascucci leaves AAA Mid-Atlantic, and accepts the job of Social Media Strategist with Ektron, a Content Management System (CMS) company based out of Nashua, NH. Find him on Twitter at @mikepascucci. Kingsely Joseph leaves Salesforce and joins Digital Chocolate an…

• How Facebook’s Open Strategy Shifts The Roadmap for Corporate Marketing and Support

  jeremiah_owyang

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:20 am

  Bold Strategy Bolsters Users, Developers, and Brands In a recent meeting at Facebook HQ, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Facebook is opening its doors to share roadmaps, data, and it’s experience.  This strategy shifts attention towards Facebook.com as a sole destination, and towards a distributed network to the open web.  Looking deeper, these impacts should shape your corporate web strategy as you re-allocate resources for application development, prepare for Social CRM, and prepare your corporate webpages to become “Facebook Fan Page” enabled. To Combat…

• Quicktake: The Impacts Of Google’s Social Search

  jeremiah_owyang

  31 Oct 2009 | 5:02 am

  Currently, search results serve up content that is popular –but not necessarily content that is accurate or relevant to your needs. With Google’s Social Search feature, it will serve up results based on a users’ specific contact list, here’s how it works: Using the recently launched Google Profile product, users will be able to add their name, then list out the various social networks they are part of. Google goes to work and finds out who’s your friend in those social networks, then applies it to it’s search algorithm. The end result? Search queries now…

• Behind Closed Doors: What’s On the Mind Of Chief Marketing Officers

  jeremiah_owyang

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:45 am

  We attended the Forbes CMO Summit in sunny Palm Beach, to learn what’s on the minds of executive marketing leaders. The conversation from this group regarding social was more sophisticated, which Charlene and I don’t think is reflective of most chief marketing groups we speak with. What’s unique about these Forbes CMOs? Perhaps they are more progressive, well read, and tuned into the rapid changes coming. In consideration to attendees of this event, I won’t be giving any specific individual quotes, (this wasn’t a media event) but instead, I’ll focus on the insights related to…

• 
  Jon Burg's Future Visions

• forget tech, think behavior

  Jonathan Burg

  25 Oct 2009 | 8:55 am

  Twitter, YouTube and Facebook may not be the platforms of tomorrow.  We may move on, just as we moved past Second Life, Friendster, AOL Chatrooms, GeoCities and MySpace.  Marketers and agencies that focus on the platform will need to reinvent as our online behavior matures and shifts.  Smart marketers, agencies and brands are not focusing on platforms or current opportunities, they are looking at the behavior driving users and consumers to, within and around these platforms.  Today's tactic has to become tomorrow's strategy.  And tomorrow's strategy cannot be about a shifting platform,…

• how do you excite?

  Jonathan Burg

  16 Oct 2009 | 9:38 am

• a new take on short-form disclosure

  Jonathan Burg

  6 Oct 2009 | 10:21 am

  The industry is abuzz with the FTC's first steps into social.While social pundits have long been advocating the need for full transparency and self-imposed ethics, disclosure statements often feel disruptive within the context of the conversation.  As a result, an alarming number of social participants fail to properly disclose their relationship with brands.  This includes not only celebrities and mommy bloggers, but agency social leads, social consultants and brand marketers.  We need a better, comprehensive way to disclose both our relationships and the nature of these relationships…

• free isn't free : 3 dimensions of Free

  Jonathan Burg

  30 Sep 2009 | 7:41 am

  This whole free meme is pretty hackneyed and sooooo "three weeks ago" but given some recent experiences, I thought I would share some perspective.When there is scarcity, Free is a blessing.  It's 1999, you're in college and you want music.  You're tight on cash and you want an mp3, so you hop onto Napster.  Sure, the first three files you downloaded sounded horrible, but the fourth was the perfect rip.  You waded through the junk to get to gold.  Because there was a scarcity.When there is perceived freedom, Free is an expectation.  We expect pretty much all of our online content to be…

• the writing on the wall : the case for social ROI

  Jonathan Burg

  22 Sep 2009 | 11:01 am

  If you live, work and breath social, you probably believe that it is core to the future of marketing.  Justifying that belief by say, demonstrating Social ROI however, is a bit harder.  Justifying a commitment and ongoing investment before proving that ROI is even harder.The writing is on the wall.  Interruptive advertising is in decline.  Content can earn People trust and listen to their peers.  Brands can now be like peers.  So we should learn to market like people, right? Here's the issue: the C-Suite doesn't read the writing on the wall, they read the ink on the balance sheets. …

• 
  Crenk

• Feedly: The Best Browser RSS Reader

  Dean Sherwin

  7 Nov 2009 | 2:22 am

  I though I’d share with you guys an RSS reader that I started using recently called Feedly. Basically it’s and add-on for most browsers including Chrome and Firefox which combines all your RSS feeds into one incredible place that by far surpasses generic readers such as Google. Here is a screenshot: What I like most about is that it also combines other services such as GMail and Twitter into the same package so you’re getting all of your information in the one place instead of having several tabs open. It’s free and its easy to set up once you have installed it as an add-on. Click…

• Google Open Sources Its Own Development Programs

  Dean Sherwin

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:29 am

  It’s a great day when Internet giant Google open sources the programs it uses to build well-known favourites such as GMail, Docs and Google Maps. It announced on its blog that it will be making a lot of it’s own development software available to developers all over the world. This release comes as Google are undoubtedly upgrading their own tools especially with the upcoming launch of Google Wave. The first of the three tools they released is called Closure Compiler which helps developers trim down code and optimize it for better performance. There is also a plug-in for Firefox released…

• Dual Monitors: Why You Should Set Them Up

  Dean Sherwin

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:10 am

  The vast majority of people have a single monitor. Even suggesting adding a second would baffle them. ‘Eh, why?’ they might ask while staring at you as though you just landed in a spinning saucer. Here’s my answer. ‘Because productivity is increased, desktop size doubled and it looks AWSOME’. For those of you who follow me on Twitter you’ll have noticed that I spent an hour last night hooking up a second 19” monitor in my office. As I write this post I currently have Microsoft Outlook and Trillian Astra running on the spare screen with my whole laptop screen available for work.

• Facebook and Twitter to Fight SPAM… again

  Dean Sherwin

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:51 am

  SPAM is one of my pet hates. In fact I think that everyone reading this hates those annoying e-mails, comments left on our pages, tweets and clearly misleading advertisements that promise you a months salary in a few hours. I really, really hate SPAM. It’s useless and in this day and age it achieves nothing with its instantly recognisable language format, strange links and oh yeah, the promise of a few million bucks for transferring money. Twitter and Facebook hate SPAM too. At the same time, both of them published posts to their blog that clearly announce plans to go  on the offensive…

• Twitter Peek Offers Lackluster Appeal

  Luis Sandoval

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:43 pm

  Back in the early 90’s there was this song, “Things That Make You Go Hmmm…”. It’s this song that I sadly have to reference when mentioning the Twitter Peek. Unlike the song that had some redeeming qualities this doorstopper is the clunkiest piece of technology I’ve seen yet (a disclaimer, I do not own one). This product is made by Peek. The same company brought you the horrors that were the Pronto Peek and the Meet Peek. I’m not sure why I would want any of these devices since my smartphone does it all, and when I’m not at my mobile, I’m…

• 
  Confessions of an eBiz Junkie

• The Transforming Enterprise

  Len Devanna

  3 Nov 2009 | 3:10 pm

  Things have been a tad busy of late, and I've been neglecting my blogging duties - Sorry for that. If it's any excuse, I've been working all-out with a very talented bunch of folks to help deliver this, this and this. Which reminds, with this now in the past, I really have to start working on my presentation for this. If you haven't been following, EMC, Cisco and VMware today announced the Virtual Computing Environment coalition. The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and have given me an opportunity to witness firsthand the transformation of the traditional…

• Innovation Day at EMC

  Len Devanna

  14 Oct 2009 | 11:16 am

  I have the absolute pleasure today of participating in EMC's Innovation Conference. It's hard to imagine a year has passed since our last event. As I type this, I sit in our Santa Clara facility (California) watching a live broadcast from Bangalore, India where EMC CTO Jeff Nick is opening the days ceremonies. Santa Clara is but one of 13 satellite sites across the globe participating in the days activities. Breakthrough thinking, adding value to our customers, adding value to EMC, improving the industry at large and identifying ways to further encourage innovation are all among the criteria…

• New FTC Guidelines and Social Marketing

  Len Devanna

  7 Oct 2009 | 1:48 pm

  On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission approved revisions to the guidelines it gives advertisers on appropriate use of endorsement and testimonial ads. The update includes new examples to reinforce the notion that connections between advertisers and endorsers (connections that may not be obvious to consumers) must be disclosed. These are timely updates with the continued emergence of word of mouth marketing via the social web. From my point of view, this is a welcomed update. We continually work to understand the online behaviors of our audience. Peer to peer content continues to be among…

• Are your ears burning?

  Len Devanna

  9 Sep 2009 | 7:37 am

  Anyone every ask you if your ears were burning? If so, it means they were talking about you in some fashion or another. I often wonder in what context my name came up? Was it good or bad? Who else was in on the discussion? Imagine if I could have a tool that let me know when such conversations were taking place... Letting me know when I'm being talked about and in what vein... I'd use it - you? Readers of this blog know that we're focusing energy on driving awareness and subsequent proficiency within the 2.0 world across our global employee population. No small feat. We've used channels like…

• Cool Opps at EMC

  Len Devanna

  8 Sep 2009 | 9:08 am

  Two really cool opportunities still posted on EMC.com that are likely of interest to readers of this blog. Strangely, links to each results in 'cookies disabled' errors for some so I wanted to duplicate the content here. If interested, use the Requisition ID below to find the relevant opp and submit your credentials. BusinessDocumentumLocation(s)US - California - PleasantonTitleSocial Media ManagerRequisition ID44934BRJob DescriptioncLet’s face it, information and people are the most important assets companies have. EMC’s Content Management and Archiving division is revolutionizing the…

• 
  Chris Saad - Paying Attention

• Twitter Lists and Tags

  Chris Saad

  30 Oct 2009 | 7:58 am

  In my previous post (written 5 minutes ago) I talk about Twitter Lists in relation to shared namespaces (Hint: They are not in a shared namespace). Another under-reported fact, however, is that lists are also Tags. They are a great way for Twitter to learn how Twitter users are perceived and grouped (As a side note, they are also great for people to see how other people perceive them – one of my favorite lists in which I am listed: @chadcat/unreasonably-talented haha). One could easily see an algorithm that can determine accurate APML data about each user not just by looking at their…

• Twitter Lists and Namespaces

  Chris Saad

  30 Oct 2009 | 7:40 am

  A very important fact that seems to be getting little to no coverage at the moment about Twitter Lists is the issue of namespaces. Twitter’s number one asset is its control and allocation of namespaces. Those little things we call ‘Usernames’. @chrissaad is not just my Twitter Name, it is a short form addressable identity that concretely links to my Twitter inbox any time someone uses it in a Tweet. Addressable, convenient namespaces that can be used in a sentence like this are so interesting and important that facebook went to great lengths to copy them. Nothing on the open…

• Stalqer – Viral Loops and Network Effects

  Chris Saad

  27 Oct 2009 | 11:20 pm

  Today a company I am advising has launched in the press and will soon be available in the Apple App Store. They are called Stalqer and, as Techcrunch writes, they are basically Foursquare on steroids. I think that’s a pretty good description. The fact is, however, the most impressive thing about Stalqer is not what it does but how it does it. Rather than approaching acquisition and retention of users like any typical app , it uses data portability, viral loops and network effects to on-board and engage users on an ongoing basis. Not enough app developers consider this when engineering…

• You get what you deserve

  Chris Saad

  6 Oct 2009 | 10:42 am

  Lately a number of my friends seem to be having great wins and making their mark on the industry in awesome ways. When I first moved out to Silicon Valley (starting with a short trip in 2006) I already knew (by reputation) many of the names and personalities that made up the ecosystem. I read them on blogs, listened to them on podcasts and generally admired their work and learned from their ideas. Once coming out here, I got to know many of them personally. Some let me down, others surprised me with their generosity and still others became wonderful friends. I’d like to highlight just a…

• 5 Things you need to know about Social Media Marketing

  Chris Saad

  25 Sep 2009 | 1:36 pm

  Someone recently asked me to give them the top few tips I could think of about Social Media Marketing. Here’s the first 5 things that came to mind. Conversation is not a buzzword They call it a ‘conversation’ – the meaning is literal - not figurative. Someone speaks, you listen, and you respond appropriately. You try to add value to the dialogue not shout your message. The most common mistakes people make in social media are the same mistakes they make at a dinner party. They don’t listen. They don’t add value. They don’t have something interesting…

• 
  Managing the Gray

• 7th Son – A New Kind of Marketing

  C.C. Chapman

  27 Oct 2009 | 5:49 am

  My good friend J.C. Hutchins new book hits store shelves today called 7th Son: Descent. You should buy many copies of it for every science fiction and thriller lover on your Christmas list! But, today I’ve got something special for you. A special free 10 chapter PDF of the book for your downloading, reading and sharing pleasure. Click on the book cover to enjoy. What I love about this is that is just one part of all the new things that JC is trying around marketing this book. It is being published by a major publishing company, but JC wanted to keep trying new things like this (with…

• When in Doubt, Disclose

  C.C. Chapman

  20 Oct 2009 | 5:40 am

  Blogworld Expo was a lot of fun, but it seemed that every other question in any conversation was, “So what do you think about the FTC announcing they will be fining bloggers?” If you haven’t read about this there is plenty of coverage and here is the actual announcement. For me, it really is simple and not that big of a deal because I personally have always made sure to disclose any relationships. What the ruling means to me is that the people who are NOT doing this will hopefully start doing it or will be fined. I’m not sure the government needs to get involved in…

• Buckets

  C.C. Chapman

  9 Oct 2009 | 5:46 am

  Fresh back from Inbound Marketing Summit Boston 2009 and I’m filled with a lot of energy. The people, the conversations and the learning all filled me up and I’m ready to go. While at the conference I took part in a panel (that should be online soon I hope) and gave a presentation called “There is a Hole in the Bucket” that seemed to really resonate with people and I wanted to talk about it on the show since many of you could not be there and I’m not sure when the video of the speech will actually hit the web. Here are the slides I used to go along with my…

• Personal Price Tags

  C.C. Chapman

  18 Sep 2009 | 5:44 am

  Every person that creates content of any type online is an “influencer” in my mind and it is to you that I’m speaking today. More and more brands are looking to engaged with influencers both long term and for individual programs and I think that too many people are selling themselves short when they take part in these programs and I want each of you to start thinking more about what I am calling a Personal Price Tag. Also, here are the links to the upcoming events that I’m going to be attending. I hope to see some of you there! ANA Conference Inbound Marketing Summit…

• Campfire and Hard Work

  C.C. Chapman

  9 Sep 2009 | 5:26 am

  As you can imagine, life has been a bit busy around here since we made the big announcement about Campfire acquiring The Advance Guard. It is a big change and an awesome one and I finally get to share some thoughts with you about it. I also wanted to talk about hard work and the advice I gave a recent college graduate who was looking to land a job with a public relations firm. It was a simple answer, but the right one. I also talk about a great post from Derek Sivers on only saying “Hell Yeah!” that is already changing how I approach things and why you might want to think about…

• 
  Robin Good

• Facebook Business Guide: How Companies Can Utilize Facebook Pages For Social Media Marketing - Part 1

  The Advance Guard

  4 Nov 2009 | 3:34 am

  Did you know Facebook is a great tool for your business? Is your company utilizing the new features of Facebook pages to do social media marketing? If you are not yet leveraging the power of social media to boost your sales or engaging your customers, it is time you seriously take action on this front. Photo credit: James Steidl Facebook was originally conceived as a place to stay in touch with lost college mates. Time has passed since then, and now Facebook has become the largest social media in the world by far, with more than 300 million active users and a reported growth of 513.7% in the…

• Video Editing Software: Comparison Guide To The Best Consumer Video Editors Under $100

  Daniele Bazzano

  2 Nov 2009 | 12:50 am

  Are you looking for a video editing software tool that will not empty your pockets? Do you want to spend less than $100, but still get more than basic video editing? In this MasterNewMedia comparison guide you will find the best consumer video editors on the market under $100. Photo credit: Warezgen These affordable video editing software tools are a step above of those free video editing tools that are very simple to use for basic video editing purposes, but are far away from professional solutions like the AVID suite or Final Cut which allow you to customize every single detail of the video…

• Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Oct 31 09

  George Siemens

  31 Oct 2009 | 2:11 am

  If you are interested in finding out the key media trends, the events and the new communication technologies that are shaping your future, in this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, explores and reports on new fascinating stories and insights and their impact on learning, work and society. Photo credit: Robert Mizerek Inside this Media Literacy Digest: Social Media Time - Nielsen's research states that 18% of time spent online is spent on social networking sites and services. Social Search - Google just announced Social Search. The service helps you "to…

• 
  Dosh Dosh

• How to Achieve Your Goals by Changing the Way You Surf the Web

  Maki

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:38 am

  Everyone has their favorite way of using the internet. Many of us search to find what we want, click in to a specific website, read what’s available and click out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s efficient. We learn to tune out things we don’t need and go straight for what’s essential. This goal-oriented way of surfing the web is largely based on short-term results. For example, finding facts to write a blog post, doing a comparison before making a purchase and reading a news site to find out what’s happening right now. If you do all…

• An Essential Marketing Principle: Give Before You Try to Get

  Maki

  18 May 2009 | 12:31 pm

  Experts have talked about this before. How many times have you read about the importance of ‘adding value’ for your audience? How many times have you read about ‘building trust’ with your readers/prospects?  Many, many times. You know it well. Every marketing guru has spoken about this topic. I’m sick of hearing it. But it STILL bears repeating. Because some people still don’t get it. What’s the underlying principle for successful online marketing, selling or networking? The art of giving before you try to get. Before you get something from…

• Twitter Marketing: Why You Don’t Need to Mass Follow Users

  Maki

  22 Apr 2009 | 10:34 am

  A few days ago Twitter announced on their status blog that all Twitter users are only allowed to follow a maximum of 1000 people a day. This rule was designed to cut down on ‘follow spam’, the act of following many Twitter users in order to get them to follow you back or click on your links. When combined with the already existing limit based on follow ratios, this means that it will be more difficult for marketers or self-promoters to rapidly increase their Twitter follower count by following many people. The old days of following thousands of users a day to…

• Ad Swaps: A Smart and Easy Way to Get Free Traffic

  Maki

  15 Apr 2009 | 4:48 pm

  After yesterday’s post on marketing without search engines, I decided to follow up with a strategy you can use to get quality free traffic. One of the easiest ways to get visitors to your web site is to spend money. Nothing is more effortless then paying for traffic. But if you can’t afford it or don’t want to pay, there’s an equally simple but free way to get traffic: ad swaps. An advertisement swap or ad swap is simply an arrangement where you agree to put up someone else’s ad on your site or email newsletter in exchange for them doing the same. The goal of an…

• Marketing Your Website Without Search Engines

  Maki

  14 Apr 2009 | 12:09 pm

  I’m not old enough to remember what the internet was like without search engines. Apparently, there were lists of web-servers: they were manually updated and publicized in news updates like this. And then the search engines came crawling, indexing and sorting out pages. As the web expanded with more users and businesses putting up websites, search engines became an essential way to immediately find information. There’s a common saying: build your site for visitors, not for search engines. A famous Google webmaster guideline asks the question: “Does this help my users?

• 
  Metz, The Social Concept

• Now We Are Four

  Adam Metz

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:42 pm

  Today is a big day. Metz Consulting has hired events-marketing veteran Valeria Kholostenko as our first-ever Director of Sales. Her bio is here: Key benefits for our clients are: Jason, Melissa and I will have faster turnaround times on client strategy deliverables Faster turnaround times on client case studies Valeria can serve as your dedicated point of contact for scheduling If you’d like to chat with Valeria, give her a ring at 888-565-METZ.

• Join Us At Supernova! ($200 discount, free hotel room)

  Adam Metz

  2 Nov 2009 | 12:47 pm

  We’re heading to the Supernova Conference on December 1-3 and would love for you to join us! If you’ve never been to this show before, this is the year to check it out – the discount code METZ should also give you a $200 discount, which never hurts. We consider Supernova a really special conference, because it’s one of the only places where we see government, tech and green businesses finally sitting down to put their heads together. Supernova is definitely a top notch conference for networking, and there will be a great mix of large and small businesses, and policy makers…

• Social Customer Management Quiz For Hospitality Brands (eHotelier)

  Adam Metz

  19 Oct 2009 | 9:18 pm

  We just published our first article in eHotelier, and it’s a quiz on social customer management. To see how much your hospitality brand knows about managing customer data from the social web, click here .

• 3 People Who Have Shaped My Career

  Adam Metz

  15 Oct 2009 | 9:16 am

  I know, I know, this is another one of my deeply reflective “Jackson Browne” posts. I just received my first Boss’ Day card a few days ago, and I was really touched by it. It was so cool – it played BTO’s ““Takin’ Care of Business”. Everyone has two or three formative people in their careers, and I was fortunate enough to have three. These three people taught me really, really valuable skills, and were patient enough to put up with my meshugas, for quite a while. 1. Steve Winandy, CDW Computer Centers – Plain and simple, Steve taught…

• Sage Quietly Launches Social Media Integration Into ACT! 2010

  Adam Metz

  8 Oct 2009 | 8:51 am

  It’s always exciting when a brand that’s primarily known for enterprise resource planning (ERP) software like Sage comes out with a product aimed at helping small businesses succeed on the social web. The brand has also published a basic guide to the social web, aimed at small business. In the 10-page PDF, the bottom-half of page 8 details how Sage has added basic social-media integration into their ACT! software, but no product-level details of the integration are included. ACT also launched a YouTube channel about one month ago. So, the good news is that small businesses (10…

• 
  Des Walsh dot Com

• Launching New Talk Show on BlogTalkRadio

  Des Walsh

  29 Oct 2009 | 4:35 am

  “Des Walsh & Friends” show to launch on BlogTalkRadio I’ve been thinking for a while now about having another go at starting my own show on BlogTalkRadio and when I checked my account there yesterday I was a bit startled to realize that the last effort was a couple of years ago. In the meantime I have endeavoured with my China-based colleague, Lonnie Hodge, to put out a regular show about China, China Conversations, but our efforts on that particular platform, while successful to a degree, were thwarted technically: much as we loved the basic BlogTalkRadio setup and the…

• Believing Popular Myths About Twitter Could Cost You Money

  Des Walsh

  26 Oct 2009 | 8:39 pm

  Why smart business owners cut through the noise and get the Twitter business case I’ve been thinking about the comment I heard yesterday morning from an otherwise quite smart presenter on morning television, to the effect that everyone who goes on Twitter gets addicted to it and that’s why she is not on it. I didn’t get the exact words – let’s face it, who hangs on every word from breakfast television? But I suspect that that presenter’s views on Twitter, if repeated in a local book club or at a barbecue would not be regarded as exceptional. From a business…

• Joining China Global Speakers

  Des Walsh

  25 Oct 2009 | 7:27 pm

  In the past couple of years, since having the privilege of moderating a panel on blogging at ad:tech Beijing, I have been actively engaged in developing my business interests and connections with China, in association especially with my colleague Lonnie B. Hodge, and with that seeking to deepen and broaden my understanding of the complex world of modern China. This month I have had the distinct honour of being invited to join China Global Speakers and have accepted. Thank you Helen Zhang and colleagues. I trust you know I will do my utmost to live up to the confidence you have shown in me.

• links for 2009-10-15

  Des Walsh

  15 Oct 2009 | 3:02 am

  Des Walsh dot Com — Social media strategy + business coaching Succinct, persuasive argument for using Facebook "fan" pages for marketing (tags: Facebook+fanpages socialmediakeys social-media) louisgray.com: Technorati Roars Back To Life After Self-Imposed Slumber On the eve of BlogWorld Expo 2009, a sometime darling of the bloggerati, Technorati, is entering a new phase. Whether that will constitute "roaring back to life" as Louis Gray opines, who knows, but at least it's good to see the Big T not caving in but fighting back (tags: Technorati blogging blogs…

• Recommending Typepad for Business Blogs

  Des Walsh

  14 Oct 2009 | 10:33 pm

  Typepad has great features for business blogging and no shortage of success stories Here’s a paradox: yesterday I posted on Thinking Home Business about how to set up a WordPress.org blog I use WordPress as the platform for most of my blogs but I freely recommend Typepad as a serious option for business blogs. WordPress is not the only option I’m willing to risk occasioning some confusion, because while the WordPress technology is amazing, I don’t want to even think about how long it took me to get comfortable with installing and managing WordPress sites. In fact, I’m…

• 
  Zac Johnson: Inside the secret life of a super affiliate

• Breakdown of a Profitable Facebook Ads Campaign

  Zac Johnson

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:27 am

  With the latest backlash of articles coming up on TechCrunch about deceptive and scammy ways to make money on Facebook, I wanted to provide you with a full breakdown on how to create a successful CPA Facebook ads campaign. Step and step details on a campaign I had running months ago. The best way to do this, is by looking over an old campaigns that I have on pause and aren’t running anymore. A lot of the offers I have on pause are still available, but I never went on to monetize them enough to bring in a higher ROI. This campaign in particular is just under a year old, but the offer is…

• Does Billboard Advertising Work?

  Zac Johnson

  2 Nov 2009 | 9:59 am

  On my way to New York City a few times, I would drive by and see one of Gary Vaynerchuk’s billboards for his Wine Library TV web site. The first time I saw it, I was pretty amazed. I then saw the ad a few more times in different spot over the next few months. Last Friday I went to a New Jersey Nets vs. Orlando Magic Basketball game, and as we pulled into the parking lot, I saw a huge billboard for Gary’s new book, “Crush It“. I couldn’t beleive he had another billboard… and even more on the odds of seeing it at the stadium parking lot. I’ve always…

• Free Tickets to the SuperBowl in Miami

  Zac Johnson

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:37 pm

  The NFL season just kicked off, but that really just means you have more time to find out how you can earn big and walk away with free tickets to the SuperBowl in Miami, FL. Last week I wrote about the new “Live Like a Super Affiliate Charity Contest“. There has been a lot of excitement around the promotion, but many were upset it was only for “new” affiliates. ClickBooth was listening, and that’s why they’ve put together one of the best affiliate contests yet! Forgot odds and random winners, this contest is based solely on your skillz to pay the billz!

• Win a HD Canon Camera from SponsoredTweets

  Zac Johnson

  29 Oct 2009 | 10:44 am

  Last month Sponsored Tweets held a “SupaTweeta Referral Contest” which was awarded to their top affiliate that could send them the most new sign ups over the course of a month’s time. The prize was a $3,000 vacation to Dominican Republic. Since I’ve been an avid user of Sponsored Tweets, I put some effort towards being their top referral. By month’s end, I sent them over 400 new sign ups and won the vacation prize. Ted Murphy (founder of Izea) decided since the last promotion went so well, they would like to do it again. Now it’s your turn to win!

• Top Company Logo ReDesigns in 2009

  Zac Johnson

  25 Oct 2009 | 8:00 pm

  What’s more important… the product or company branding? In the beginning stages, the product or service will make the company famous, and possibly give that company a recognizable world wide logo. On the flip side, once that company is massively successful and is a globally recognized brand, anything they throw out to the public will be quickly noticed and expected to be of high quality. A few months ago I wrote about The Art of Company Logos and Branding.On a related topic, GraphicDesignBlog wrote a post on recent logo redesigns for 2009. Once again, just like in my previous…

• 
  Andrew Chen: Futuristic Play

• Are social gaming offers scamming users? A detailed analysis of Techcrunch’s Scamville article

  Andrew Chen

  2 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am

  omg she’s getting scammed by a duck! Techcrunch on social gaming scams As everyone knows, Techcrunch recently published a provocative article called Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem of Hell. Most people will have already read this article, but just to summarize, Arrington argues the following: Social gaming companies (particularly Zynga) are making their revenues in a “completely unethical” way Users are getting scammed by the offers There’s harmful cycle where the scammiest companies earn more revenue, then buy more ads, then scam more people Similarly, some…

• How Facebook could clean up the offers industry

  Andrew Chen

  1 Nov 2009 | 11:55 am

  If Facebook doesn’t clean up the offers industry, then this guy will As a quick follow-on of my last post on How social gaming offers create value for everyone, it strikes me that what the industry needs to survive for the long-term is for one of the big players to break out of the stalemate of zero information sharing, and start advocating for sustainability. Why all the advertising and leadgen companies hide their information One of the big problems for the advertising and leadgen industries is the massive lack of information sharing between different parties. The reason is that…

• How social gaming offers create value for everyone (not just Facebook, Zynga, and Offerpal)

  Andrew Chen

  1 Nov 2009 | 11:28 am

  The happy meal is the quintessential version of great product bundling How offers add value There have been a lot of conversations about the evils of offers in social gaming, and one thing that’s getting lost in the conversation is the potential for offers to actually generate value overall. Ultimately, offers are about “product bundling” and it adds value to the economy the same way that any product bundling adds value – by giving people more of what they want, often for less. And naturally, some configurations of different bundles are more effective than others, as…

• Building lifestyle companies versus VC-backable startups: Is it walk before you run?

  Andrew Chen

  27 Oct 2009 | 5:37 pm

  Small profitable companies versus VC-backed startups I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend centered around a key question that’s come up a couple times before: How transferable are the skills you learn from building a small, profitable company versus doing a VC-backable startup? This question came up because part of his life plan was that he wanted to do a “real” shoot-the-moon type startup at some point in his career, but before doing that, he wanted to work on a small profitable company so that he could learn more about the process. We had a discussion…

• How helpful is venture capital experience to building startups?

  Andrew Chen

  27 Oct 2009 | 5:08 pm

  My experience in venture capital As I’ve blogged about before (though quite a while ago), I spent some time at Mohr Davidow Ventures as Entrepreneur-in-Residence – for more about what that job is, read here and here. A couple years before that, I had spent some time at MDV in their Seattle office, towards the end of the dot com bubble, as an analyst/intern. Both experiences were a ton of fun, and I justified the ~3 years in venture capital where I could have been starting companies as an education that would help me later on. Now, a couple years later, I thought I would reflect a…

• 
  Jeff Pulver

• Not Another Twitter Conference [Spark Series, Episode 2]

  jeff

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:43 pm

  "This video shadows the group at Jeff Pulver’s #140conf in Los Angeles:" Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

• Announcing the Nov/Dec #140conf NYC Meetup

  jeff

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:40 pm

  When: December 1, 2009 5:00 PM Where: 3LD Art & Technology Center 80 Greenwich St. (between Rector and Edgar Streets.) New York, NY 10006 The next #140conf NYC Meetup will be taking place on December 1st from 5 to 8 pm and will follow the same format as the previous #140conf Meetups. This Meetup is sponsored by: feedtrace Schedule: 5:00 - Registration / Networking 5:30 - Jeff Pulver, Welcome / A look at the State of NOW - twitter and Tanzania and the #twitterKids (@melissaleon and @ajleon) - Video Recap / Reflections from #140conf LA (@ssmirnov) - twitter and XM Sirius Radio - twitter for…

• Roger Smith Hotel explores twitter at #140conf LA

  jeff

  4 Nov 2009 | 8:27 pm

  Watch all of the Roger Smith Interviews over at: http://www.rogersmithlife.com ------------------------------------------------------------ Upcoming #140conf Events: Nov 17 - London Dec 1 - NYC #140conf Meetup May 4-5 2010 - #140conf NYC Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver

• #140conf London Update: Attend #140Conf in London on 17 November

  jeff

  4 Nov 2009 | 10:21 am

  When I look at the schedule for the upcoming 140 Characters Conference: Exploring the State of NOW, taking place in London on 17 November, the first word that comes to my mind is diversity. Over the course of just one day there will be 31 sessions presented on the O2 Indigo stage, covering a diverse set of topics including: Reputation, Brands, Education, Media, Small Business, Sports, Public Safety, TV, Music. and a lot more. Thinking of attending? NOW would be a great time to Register for #140conf London Some of the 60+ people who will be speaking at the event include: Alberto Nardelli…

• Hank Wasiak @ #140conf LA

  jeff

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:25 pm

  Hank Wasiak (@hankwasiak) - Executive Producer and Co-Founder, The Concept Farm "From Mad Man To Twitteraholic: Time To Change The Way We See Social Media." - October 28, 2009 at 140 Characters Conference, Los Angeles. Photo taken by: Jeff Keni Pulver Tags: 140conf, social media, 140 Characters Conference, twitter, Hank Wasiak

• 
  brandflakesforbreakfast

• this week at Plaid

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:12 pm

  Here's what happened this week at the greatest agency in all of the land:Some costumes arrived for a production that's in house. Long story, but we're stoked to have another costume around the office for a couple of days.We shot a screen test for something top secret for someone that we can't talk about. We're bursting at the seams wanting to share the details, but for now we'll have to tell you that it's been a load of fun hanging with someone in tv, and getting a unique perspective on that side of the entertainment industry.Our skateboards arrived for the Bordobello event! This is an…

• bringing twitter to the classroom

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:43 am

  W. Gardner Campbell, director of the Academy of Teaching and Learning at Baylor University believes that Twitter can be a valuable resource in the classroom.Imagine a classroom where students can tweet their questions and comments on the subject matter, projected on a screen at the head of the class. Imagine students having access to that stream after class, for additional discussion and additional input. Sound far fetched? Actually, that's exactly the scenario that exists at SXSW (above) and other conferences. Why not bring the same level of communication and information to students? Some…

• when is it ok to start your xmas campaign?

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:33 am

  AdWeek has some interesting poll results from a survey about when it's socially acceptable to begin your holiday advertising campaign. (I saw my first Christmas display this year mid-October!)According to the poll, if you wait until Thanksgiving, 77% of the population won't hate you. Thanks, Jim Cioban

• twitter = second youngest of all social networks

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:24 am

  ReadWriteWeb has some super interesting perspective on the population of the socialverse. When you look at the median age of each social network's audience, here's how they line up:Twitter: 31MySpace: 26LinkedIn: 39Facebook: 33The report also shows that Facebook is getting older, as the retirement class continue to flock to the network. They also report that Gen Y is warming to Twitter - 37% of those 18-24 now use Twitter when only 19% did back in December 2008. Celebrities? Because their workmates are doing it? Who knows. What we do know: LinkedIn is for the super old. ;)

• how to introduce the carbon economy

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:14 am

  To promote the upcoming Carbon Economy Summit in Washington D.C., the visually brilliant team over at XPlane put together a clip that demonstrates the importance of the task and the opportunity that lies ahead. Beautiful, important work.

• 
  /Message

• Twitter Filters and Fonters: Static Lists and Dynamic Agents

  Stowe Boyd

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:20 pm

  I have only fooled with Twitter's list a bit, but I am starting to get an insight to how they could allow me to fine tune the early warning system and social hot tub that Twitter principally is for me.Yes, I have created a handful of lists, but mostly they have only a cursory few names in them. But then, I realized that there is a subset of Twitter accounts that make sense to relegate to big static contextual buckets, and to unfollow them. I am doing that with non-individuals, like software companies, airlines, news outlets, and food wagons. Why does this make sense? My interest in what…

• The Sum Of All Fears: The Social Business Naysayers

  Stowe Boyd

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:37 am

  My old friend Dennis Howlett revels in the role of doubting Thomas, perhaps more than anyone I know. His most recent screed has been attacking the Enterprise 2.0 meme, and by implication, those that are espousing it. His initial foray was entitled Enterprise 2.0: what a crock, and he basically attacked the notion that E 2.0 has anything going for it. Personally, I find Howlett's argument unconvincing, but then I look at it differently. In my experience (and I have been working the field long before E 2.0 came about) metaphors are lies, since they overemphasize some characteristics and leave…

• Social Business Epicenter: The Website

  Stowe Boyd

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:46 am

  I set up a website for the Social Business Epicenter, the new conference I am working on with Jeff Pulver. Check it out, subscribe to the mailing list or the RSS feed for updates.

• Bettween: I Like The Idea, But...

  Stowe Boyd

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:08 am

  First time I tried the app, tracking chatter with my pay, @euan, and he and I have have had just too many tweets since we started. I hazard this will be unusable for anyone with a long history, since the tool has to hit the Twitter server to get at the data.

• The Future Of Money: Conclusions

  Stowe Boyd

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm

  At the end of a series of interviews and an equally wide exploration of new thinking on the future of money, I find my thoughts line up pretty closely with those of author Neal Stephenson in a 2005 Slashdot interview: [via interviews.slashdot.org] 7) Money - by querencia You've obviously spent a lot of time thinking about money lately. Is there anything going on in the modern world with monetary systems (barter networks, for example) that you find particularly interesting? What do you see on the horizon with respect to money?Neal: Actually, what's interesting about money is that it doesn't…

• 
  My Test Box: Web Software Reviews

• Joomla Open Source Content Management System Version 1.5.15 Released

  Srikanth AD

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am

  The Joomla project has recently announced the immediate availability of its new release,  Joomla 1.5.15 codenamed “Wojmamni ama mamni”. The key features and changes made in this release include, Security Two security issues were fixed in this release: Moderate Priority – Core – Front-End Editing. Low Priority – Core – XML File View. Components Allowed search to use the Itemid of the current Menu Item Removed unnecessary quotes in search results Fixed problem when using relative URL’s in editor with SEF enabled. Fixed formatting problem in Category List layout with Internet…

• Winners of the Envato Marketplace Contest

  Srikanth AD

  3 Nov 2009 | 5:08 pm

  Recently we have reviewed some of cool stuff from Envato.  Some of the popular Envato marketplace sites are ActiveDen, ThemeForest, GraphicRiver, AudioJungle and VideoHive. The Envato marketplaces are a family of niche web sites which allow professionals to buy and sell digital items such as Flash files, website templates, WordPress themes, videos, music, code and more. Envato marketplace now has over 240,000 members worldwide, and is a hub for tens of thousands of digital items available for purchase with hundreds of new items being added everyday. Along with the review we have also…

• phpBB Open Source Forum Software Version 3.0.6 RC 4 Released

  Srikanth AD

  2 Nov 2009 | 1:38 am

  phpBB one of the popular open source forum software’s, which we have mentioned here,  has recently announced the availability of the fourth release candidate for the next release – phpBB 3.0.6. This fourth release candidate contains mostly regression fixes. The following things have been changed since 3rd Release Candidate: Fixed cache issues in feed generation. Include default language in data to send for statistical purposes. Revert “Parse multiline url title for [url] BBCode tag” because it introduced different bugs. Fix sql_create_table (table creation) in db…

• WP iPhone: WordPress 2 is now available in the App Store

  Srikanth AD

  28 Oct 2009 | 8:04 pm

  Automattic, the team behind WordPress has just announced that WordPress 2 is now available on the App Store. What’s new in version 2? A new, more efficient user interface that makes it faster to switch between comments, posts, and pages. Various user interface refinements and bug fixes New Comments interface, with Gravatars and the author URL shown in the comment list Passwords are now stored in the keychain Posts are now automatically saved and restored if network connection is lost during publishing Added persistence, so the app re-opens in the blog you last used Added an interface for…

• BuddyPress Updated to Version 1.1.2

  Srikanth AD

  27 Oct 2009 | 9:06 am

  BuddyPress has been recently updated to version 1.1.2. It’s now available via an automatic upgrade or as a manual download. This is an important security release and fixes two vulnerabilities found in version 1.1.1. To stay protected it is essential that you upgrade to this version of BuddyPress regardless of the version you are currently running. Briefly, BuddyPress is a set of plugins and themes, which can be used to extend the functionality of  Wordpress MU and bring social networking features to a new or existing installation. These suite of plugins can be used either independently…

• 
  David Binkowski

• Twitter Integrates with Google, Bing and Yahoo! - Now What?

  29 Oct 2009 | 9:21 pm

  Twitter finally lands a few business deals, but at what cost?

• Truth in Advertising

  9 Oct 2009 | 6:30 am

  Last week Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending, networking, connecting and speaking at the Type A Mom conference in Asheville, NC. Kelby Carr did an amazing job and I was proud to bring my clients to the conference to help support the blogging community.One of my panel sessions was called "Working with Companies", moderated by the lovely and talented Lucretia Pruett, aka GeekMommy. She and I spent quite a bit of time together discussing the industry and where it's going, but I'll save that for another post. The session was a split between a moderated discussion by the panel and an…

• Contest: Vote for my SXSW Panel

  18 Aug 2009 | 6:20 am

  I tweeted this earlier but if you go vote for my South by Southwest panel - and I make it - I'll take you with me. No joke, I have set aside marketing budget and will pay your travel (hotel, flight) and ticket. How can you enter?Click this link to the SXSW Panel picker, then retweet it and you're entered to win. You can enter every day, as much as you'd like until the voting ends.

• What the Twitterfication of Facebook Means

  14 Mar 2009 | 8:06 am

  Facebook unveiled their new home page Wednesday and I have to say - it's awfully Twitteresque. The center well, or "stream", of content on the page is now an ajaxy, auto-updating time line of your network's status updates. The language at the top has changed as well, from "David Binkowski is" to "What's on your mind?". (Twitter's call to action has always been "What are you doing?")I think this signals a "game over" for Twitter for several reasons. I'm not saying they're going under, but the site will never achieve the sort of growth MySpace or Facebook have, and without a suitor it's…

• FTC takes on blogger compensation, among other things

  28 Jan 2009 | 2:30 pm

  Brandweek has a heads up on some interesting developments going on at the FTC. As you know, the EU implemented some rules back in 2007 regarding fake bloggers and astroturfing, with fines and possible jail time as a consequence for engaging in devious practices. Don't look now, but the FTC is looking to take actions regarding endorsements, including paid and earned blogger relations campaigns:For consumer testimonials, the general rule is that an advertiser cannot pay or otherwise compensate a person to give an endorsement without disclosing the material connection. Bloggers who receive…

• 
  COMMETRICS

• 2010 trends: Data and mobile communication

  Urs E. Gattiker

  4 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  When it comes to data services, social networks, cloud computing, mobile and music, market concentration is constantly on the rise. Could this mean the burst of another bubble, once again requiring taxpayers to foot the bill? Below, we discuss this from a Web 2.0 perspective. In the meantime, to keep up with our latest posts, why not just enter your email below to get the information first? Your email:  2010 will bring more players: Defend your turf! Once upon a time, Nokia released a mobile phone that was basically re-sold by various operators in numerous countries and any subscriber…

• Very useful links: White House to Google Groups

  Urs E. Gattiker

  1 Nov 2009 | 9:15 am

  Every week we tweet about a lot of fascinating stuff, highlighting great content that is of interest to social media folks and corporate bloggers. The best way to keep track is by simply following us on Twitter. If you already follow too many people to keep track of, however, this weekly compilation provides you with our top tweets for the previous seven days. Our top stories include how the White House switching its webpage to open source for security reasons, some interesting trends in Web 2.5/3.0, why Google Groups is not a success for users, and how luxury brands are failing social media…

• 4 rules for social media success: Luxury brands

  Urs E. Gattiker

  28 Oct 2009 | 10:45 pm

  Do 400,000 Twitter followers or Facebook friends equal even one sale? This is an important issue because the luxury industry is embracing social media by increasingly streaming shows live on the web, for example (e.g., Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen), tweeting at all hours and investing heavily in corporate blogs. One of marketing experts’ great misconceptions is that social media is not effective for luxury brands. Below we share some recent discussions with a client recently. Problem: Websites are too boring for the Facebook generation As does our client’s…

• Very interesting links: BarCamp to Morgan Stanley via eBay

  Urs E. Gattiker

  25 Oct 2009 | 10:30 am

  Every week we tweet about a lot of interesting stuff, highlighting great content that is of interest to social media folks and corporate bloggers. The best way to keep track is by simply following us on Twitter. If you already follow too many people to keep track of, however, this weekly compilation provides you with our top tweets for the previous seven days. Our top stories include how GM is innovating but failing the ultimate test with eBay, what is happening with Web 2.5 or 3.0 - some interesting trends from Morgan Stanley, why you cannot miss BarCamp Rapperswil 2010 (2009 was definitely…

• 3 golden rules for best practice: LinkedIn and Xing

  Urs E. Gattiker

  21 Oct 2009 | 11:13 pm

  Recently a successful entrepreneur and client of ours asked whether he should join LinkedIn and/or Xing to boost visibility and help his business. Here are some of the thoughts and ideas we discussed. How to do it smarter ==> Put up bio, start connecting – NOT We recently came across a LinkedIn Discussion started by Gilbert suggesting that everyone should read How to make the most of your LinkedIn presence. Having read this post, my client said, “I fail to see how this will help our people sell our product to industrial buyers.” I explained that his current and…

• 
  Six Pixels of Separation

• Marketing Is More Important Than You Think

  Mitch Joel

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:26 am

  Do you think that this is a Blog about technology? Others have said it's about New Media. Some have even suggested that it's about what's happening right now in the world of Social Media. The truth is that this Blog is about marketing. It's about how your business connects in a world where everybody is connected. It's also about how your messages are created and spread. We no longer have the luxury of communicating to consumers as we see fit (mostly through the muscle of mass media), because now there are many online channels where thousands (actually millions... actually billions) of people…

• Is All Of This Social Media Making You Hungry?

  Mitch Joel

  1 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pm

  I was stuck, and it was my own fault. After a long flight delay, I found myself in New York City, walking toward one of the most challenging places in which to find a healthy meal: Times Square. Beyond pizza, hot cashew nuts and a pastrami sandwich bigger than my head, I had no idea where to turn. So I turned to Twitter and sent out a request to my online community for a healthy, fast and fairly priced meal. I wasn't expecting much. Maybe "What? Are you saying that the Carnegie Deli is not fat-free?" But within a few minutes, I had the information I needed and, based on multiple…

• Tweetbait

  Mitch Joel

  1 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am

  In the old day (like two years ago), linkbait was one of the best ways to get recognition, attention and comments for your Blog, but things are quickly changing. Several months ago, I sat down with Avinash Kaushik and recorded an audio conversation for my Six Pixels of Separation Podcast. Kaushik is the author of Web Analytics - An Hour A Day, a Blogger  over at Occam's Razor and the Analytics Evangelist at Google (I'm also proud to call him a friend). In that conversation, he announced that his new book, Web Analytics 2.0, would be coming out (in fact, it's available this week!). In Web…

• The Post-Recession Consumer

  Mitch Joel

  31 Oct 2009 | 6:55 pm

  John Gerzema is the co-author of the book, The Brand Bubble. He spoke at TEDx KC about what the Post-Crisis Consumer will look like. These 17-minutes will make you think differently about how you sell and market - especially when you consider that your consumers are no longer the same people they were prior to the recession: TEDx KC - John Gerzema: The post-crisis consumer. Tags: brand bubble consumer john gerzema post-crisis consumer recession ted ted talks tedx kc

• 10 New Business Books Worth Checking Out

  Mitch Joel

  31 Oct 2009 | 5:43 pm

  There have been a bunch of new business books launched recently. The stack on your night table is about to get a whole lot higher. Here are ten new business book that are worth checking out right away: Connected - The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler. Many people are calling this the online social networking book for the TED crowd. I've just started to dive in and it's some high-brow thinking (in the best possible way). Crush It! Why now is the time to cash in on your passion by Gary Vaynerchuk. I finally got to…

• 
  Chris Pirillo

• Perfumania Coupons

  coupons

  7 Nov 2009 | 12:45 am

  This weekend Perfumania has a special coupon code for 15% off: Perfumania – 15% off Purchase + Free Shipping w/ $65 Purchase using coupon code ENW15 (exp 11/8/09) Perfumania already takes up to 90% off clearance fragrances and products, with prices starting at only $2. They also have free shipping on orders $65 and above. Use the coupon to get some great deals on fragrances including: 15% off ATTITUDE For Men By GIORGIO ARMANI, only $50.99 (retail $69.50) (pictured) 15% off JORDAN For Men By MICHAEL JORDAN 3.4 oz Cologne Spray, only $17.42 (retail $78.00) 15% off WHITE DIAMONDS For…

• Kipling Coupons

  coupons

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:17 pm

  This weekend Kipling has a special Buy One Kipling Handbag, Get One 50% Off Sale (exp 11/8/09) that can be combined with their current coupon: Kipling – $20 Off $100 + Free Shipping using coupon code KIPNOVA (exp 11/15/09) …for some amazing deals on handbags. Here are a couple sample deals to get you started: Buy 1 Rita Medium Shoulder Bag for $72, Get a 2nd bag for $36 + $20 off using coupon code KIPNOVA = Final Cost of $88 for 2 bags + Free Shipping (savings of Buy 1 Alvar Shoulder Cross Body Bag for $68, Get a 2nd bag for $34 + $20 off using coupon code KIPNOVA = Final Cost of…

• Google Goes Sesame Street

  Chris

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:57 am

  I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that Google is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street this week. A few days ago, Big Bird graced the famous search engine’s page. Next up was the Cookie Monster!! (Who doesn’t love cookies?). Today, I see Bert and Ernie smiling out at me. What’s up next? Will we see Elmo tomorrow? Personally, I vote for Grover. Grover was always my favorite. While it’s whimsical and fun to remember our childhoods every time we load Google, some people are quite upset over this celebration. One of our community members…

• Walmart Coupons

  coupons

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:58 am

  Walmart.com is now offering pre-orders of the Top Ten Upcoming DVDs for only $9.99 each + Free Shipping. Titles include Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation, Star Trek, Night at The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Four Christmases and more. Amazon has the same preorder movies for a penny more, but you have to purchase at least $25 to get Free Shipping. Of course you don’t have to pay sales tax in most states, while you do with Walmart. Unfortunately in Washington state we have to pay sales tax at Amazon, so Walmart is the better deal for me.

• Chris Brogan and Julien Smith – Rise of the Trust Agents

  Chris

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:35 am

  Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed How did Scoble do it? What made Perez Hilton so much more successful than People magazine? How do emoticons change the way we do business on the web? Join Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, authors of the book Trust Agents, for an exploration of how the human circuitry goals of Chris Pirillo might possibly be accomplished in the coming months. Chris Brogan is a ten year veteran of using social media and both web and mobile technologies to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Chris speaks, blogs,…

• 
  Common Craft

• Video Licensing: The Business of Permission

  leelefever

  28 Oct 2009 | 12:18 pm

  Almost anyone can make a video and put it online, but there are relatively few good models for earning a living from online videos. We've been experimenting over a couple of years and believe more than ever that video licensing is a model that has huge potential. The Current Options Of course there's the advertising model.  A video is made, it attracts eyeballs, eyeballs are distracted by ads. A tiny percentage of people click the ads and the video host and video owner make a bit of money.  It can certainly work and we've experimented with it, but it can be a long, hard slog. For…

• 2010 Census "Count on Change" - Explained by Say It Visually

  leelefever

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:57 am

  Say It Visually!, a member of the Common Craft Explainer Network, recently published this video that explains the impact of the 2010 Census on communities and focuses on encouraging participation among people of color. This format is a new one for Say It Visually and it's great to see them taking video explanation in new directions. I think the hand-painted style fits really well with the voice-over and music by Keb'-Mo'. It has a heart-felt feel that may have been hard with animation. What do you think?

• A Simple Index Card Says it All

  leelefever

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:30 am

  Jessica Hagy at Indexed, says it perfectly:  

• Where Goldfish Come From

  leelefever

  23 Oct 2009 | 11:17 am

  A couple of months ago, I presented a 5 minute presentation at Ignite Seattle called "Where Goldfish Come From" that is based on my experience growing up as a son of a goldfish farmer in North Carolina.  The Ignite series happens around the globe and each presenter has 20 slides that display for 15 seconds each, and auto-advance.  It's a challenge to make it work, but I enjoy it. Here's the video: Learn more at BlueRidgeKoi.com

• Zombies in Plain English - Protect Your Brain this Halloween

  leelefever

  15 Oct 2009 | 8:12 am

  It's that time again folks.  If you're worried about your brain this Halloween, Zombies in Plain English can help!

• 
  Reality Overlaps

• Cybermom and the Eyes on the Back of the Head

  3 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pm

  1 Farmville Gift request."Who could be sending me a gift request at 3 in the afternoon?" (Nevermind that I'm on FB at work.)Tevel Rachmany has sent you a violet hay bale.(Opening up text chat in FB) "You are supposed to be doing homework, not playing Farmville!""Ok"Tevel Rachmany is offline."That was too easy. I wo