Alltop

[chrisbrogan.com] Alltop Launches Version Two

Posted: 19 Sep 2008 01:44 PM PDT

I’m a big fan of Alltop. If you’re looking for great new reading material, besides my Rockstars page, I’d REALLY recommend Alltop. It’s the new magazine rack for the Internet. I love that it’s so easy to use. I love that you can find lots of great niches topics there. autism.alltop.com , dads.alltop.com, that kind of stuff.

If you’re in marketing and PR and you need to reach someone in a specific community, you could find the folks you need to reach at Alltop. It’s not just for fun. It’s a tool you should be using. Looking to start new content for a niche? Pay attention to who else Alltop has already found for you.

Congrats to Guy Kawasaki and the team.

The Media & Social Media Series: The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jason Falls 11 Aug 2008 | 3:00 am
Table of contents for The Media & Social MediaThe Media & Social Media Series: The Cincinnati Enquirer Today begins journey through a topic of interest for me I think will prove extremely valuable to you as well. In September, I will lead a session at Blog World & New Media Expo on the topic of traditional media and how they can use social media to combat disappearing audiences, staff cutbacks and plummeting profits. My friends at the Social Media Club Louisville August gathering will get a sneak peek at the presentation one week from today as well. As I prepare, however, I will be…

MetroMojo Unveils New Features, White Label Solutions

Jason Falls
8 Aug 2008 | 3:00 am
I spent the morning recently with Keith Ringer and Chuck Burke of MetroMojo.com. The parent company of LouisvilleMojo.com, one of the first, and to my knowledge most successful, local social networks, MetroMojo has repositioned itself as a white label social networking solution. The biggest difference between MetroMojo and others? Proven scale and long-term experience. With LouisvilleMojo.com hitting 50 million pageviews per month and serving as a sandbox-type test platform for the feature set, clients of MetroMojo’s platform can rest assured features will scale and servers will be able…

Ad:Tech Chicago: Can We Please Stop Preaching to the Choir?

KatFrench
7 Aug 2008 | 9:16 am
Remember the Deanna Carter song from a few years back, “Did I Shave My Legs for This?” There were a few points during this week’s ad:tech Chicago conference when I was thinking “Did I brave air travel for this?” Overall, I was somewhat disappointed with ad:tech Chicago, billed as “The Event for Digital Marketing!” (Be sure to remember that exclamation point, guys! Good copy needs more exclamation points!) To be fair, thanks to issues with the afforementioned air travel, I missed most of the first day, arriving just in time to catch Clay…

What Would You Name Wrigley Field?

Jason Falls
5 Aug 2008 | 3:00 am
Forgive the post about a project and client I’m close to, but this is worth sharing. The Jim Beam Team has dreamed up a Mad Libs-type story generator to help us attract names for our petition to have the Sam Zell and the Tribune Company not sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field. The gist is to come up with the most asinine, funniest or even dumbest corporate name that might grace Wrigley Field should Zell sell the rights. You generate a fake news story with your own comedy writing and send it to friends. I sent all my Cubs fan friends a headline that said Wrigley would become Liquid…

United's new TV campaign. Effective or not so much?

Drew McLellan
11 Aug 2008 | 6:58 pm
The airlines are in trouble, people complaining about flying, yours truly gets stuck in an airport or has a flight get canceled every time he turns around, and the hassle factor has never been worse. Oh yeah…they're now charging us for just about everything. I expect the pay toilets to be installed any day. We all know the airlines are struggling. So if you were the VP of Marketing for United, what kind of commercials would you ask your agency for? What would be your key message? Check out these two new United spots and tell us what you think. This first one is…

Help a reporter and help yourself

Drew McLellan
11 Aug 2008 | 12:21 am
Peter Shankman is a smart cookie. He's created a network of reporters which I'm sure is growing every day. He's also creating a mailing list of PR folks, business owners, marketers etc. who would be good sources for those reporters. Do you see Peter's brilliance? He's a media match maker. 3 times a day, he sends out an e-mail with reporter's requests. If you fit the bill, you contact the reporter directly and you or your company may enjoy the glare of the media's bright lights. Help Out A Reporter (HARO) only works if people show a bit of self-restraint. If you…

Age of Conversation 2008 cover unveiled!

Drew McLellan
9 Aug 2008 | 2:37 pm
While Gavin and I are editing away…we thought you might like a sneak peek at this year's Age of Conversation cover. Thanks to David Armano for reprising his role as cover designer!

Steve Farber's new book comes packed with a challenge

Drew McLellan
9 Aug 2008 | 9:20 am
When people ask me about the benefits of blogging, I can recite quite a list. But one of the top items on that list is the amazing people I can now call my friends, thanks to meeting them via the blogosphere. I loved Steve Farber's books long before we became friends. At MMG, we give his books as gifts. We practice his LEAP philosophy at the office and I strive every day to be an extreme leader. So, I'm elated that book #3, Greater Than Yourself, has a launch date. (March 3, 2009 but you can already pre-order a copy.) I remember talking to Steve about this…

Steve Carell on Bad Advertising (Josh Klein)

Drew McLellan
8 Aug 2008 | 9:00 am
Drew's Note: As I try to do every Friday, I'm pleased to bring you a guest post. Meet another marketing thought leader who shares his insights via the blogosphere. So without further ado…Josh Klein. Again. Enjoy! In the movie, Anchorman, there's a moment when the character played by funny man Steve Carell becomes so overwhelmed by the volume of the conversation - and the lack of attention being paid to him - that in a desperate plea to have his voice heard above the din, he shouts, "LOUD NOISES!"Steve knows about bad advertising. We all do.And yet so much…

Back in Black

servantofchaos
8 Aug 2008 | 3:12 am
While we are still hard at work bringing the book together, crossing the Ts and dotting the Is, I thought I would share with you the cover design for The Age of Conversation 2. Courtesy of David Armano (again), this striking design should stand out nicely on your bookshelves. And yes, very soon, the Age of Conversation will be back in black. Rock on.

Contacting Other Authors

servantofchaos
19 Jul 2008 | 6:14 pm
Bizarro-email-hellOriginally uploaded by icarusjj From time to time you may receive emails from other Age of Conversation authors. Indeed, you may, at some stage wish to send them all an email. As you may expect, we respect the privacy of all contributors to the Age of Conversation. As such, we have a policy of NOT sharing email addresses or mailing lists.However, if you do want to reach out to Age of Conversation authors, you can do so via the Age of Conversation Facebook group. And while this does include authors as well as interested participants, it at least allows individuals the choice…

Feed Your Monster

servantofchaos
3 Jul 2008 | 6:10 pm
Feed Your MonsterOriginally uploaded by hyku Douglas Karr has taken the blog roll or all the Age of Conversation authors and turned it into a handy OPML file that can be imported into your feed reader. So now you don't have to go to the trouble of visiting each and every one manually. You can download it here » Download aoc2.xml .

Meet the '08 authors

Drew McLellan
29 Jun 2008 | 9:19 pm
The releases are signed, the chapters have been submitted and now, the editing has begun. In the meantime, meet the Age of Conversation '08 authors — 237 of them in total! Here they are: Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer,…

The Wheels Are In Motion

servantofchaos
22 May 2008 | 6:10 am
CogsOriginally uploaded by idreamofdaylightAs expected, we have been inundated with chapters and are now methodically going through each email, checking our list, counting words and updating our status sheet. Obviously with such a large number of contributions, it takes some management!Our process is looking like this. When we receive your chapter you will receive a confirmation email from Drew or from Gavin and Drew. All we are saying is that we "received it". Then, your document is uploaded to Google Docs where it is checked for word length. We also check that you have a title and that the…

Does the Thrill of the Chase Make PR Obsolete?

Steve Rubel
12 Aug 2008 | 5:03 pm
As a relatively high-profile blogger, I get to see things that others in PR, even those who blog, don't experience. One of those is my Gmail inbox. It's my barometer for how the public relations is adapting in this era of change. The forecast? We're smack dab in a cat five hurricane. Every day I am deluged with hundreds of PR pitches. They come from everywhere: startups, big companies, competing PR firms and, occasionally, from people inside Edelman where I work. I read all the emails but delete 99.99% of them. I don't even respond. I feel bad about it, but they're so off base I can't even…

New York Times Flags Print Edition Stories

Steve Rubel
10 Aug 2008 | 2:37 pm
The New York Times recently made a small, but important change to stories they post on their web site. If the story made it into print, at the bottom they include a tiny footnote that says where it ran and when. For example, the footer on this piece on video games notes: "A version of this article appeared in print on August 10, 2008, on page AR1 of the New York edition." This kind of context is helpful not only for readers, but PR pros as well. The major monitoring services like Factiva tell you where a story ran, but Google News does not. Now it's easier to tell. Most publications don't…

Amazon Adds Universal Wish List

Steve Rubel
10 Aug 2008 | 1:58 pm
Amazon.com's Wish List feature has been around a long time - over 10 years in fact. However, recently the e-commerce site expanded it with a new feature called The Universal Wish List. Using a simple bookmarklet (drag this to your bookmarks) you can now add any item to your list from anywhere on the web. As you can see from the image above, I was able to use the tool to add a Brett Favre jersey from NewYorkJets.com to my wish list. Once it was there, the new item basically acts like a bookmark, taking me back to the original site where I found the product. Wish lists are one of the earliest…

How Newspapers Can Turn Problems Into Profit

Steve Rubel
3 Aug 2008 | 4:49 pm
A few weeks ago I wrote about the perfect storm facing print media. Robert Scoble started a similar thread on Friendfeed over the weekend. This week in my AdAge column I look at the same trends, but this time through the lens of potential solutions to the problems. Newspaper publishers are facing a perfect storm thanks to three megatrends: rising inflation, America's growing green conscience and disruptive technology. To succeed in this era of great change, they need to think about how to make lemonade out of these perceived lemons. Unfortunately, so far, they haven't. Here's my advice.

MarketingAge Profile

Steve Rubel
1 Aug 2008 | 8:13 am
Marketing Age magazine, which is published in Ireland, ran a profile of me in their July/August issue where I talk about my role within Edelman Digital, how I use RSS to keep in the know and trends in social networking - including Friendfeed. The article is not online. However, If you're interested, they have graciously given me permission to share it here. The full PDF is here or you can simply click through each of the images below, which are up on Flickr.

Stand Up to Cancer

Howard Greenstein
12 Aug 2008 | 5:38 pm
Almost everyone has had Cancer touch his or her life. I’ve had a mother-in-law, grandmother, and 1st cousin fight and beat cancer, and I’ve seen the damage that it creates in their lives, and the lives of those around them. I lost a stepmother to cancer as well. I’m writing today about a pro-bono effort I’ve been asked to take part in*, along with my friends at Weber Shandwick, to raise awareness of the Stand Up to Cancer campaign going on. SU2C is the short name and the tag for this effort. SU2C is a multi-party effort started out of a group of Media Executives who are trying to…

Social Media Now 8.11.08

Janet Fouts
11 Aug 2008 | 10:06 am
Social Media Now 9-11-08 Here’s a bit of what’s going on in social media of late. Feel free to add your own links in the comments section, or send us you suggestions for the next issue of Social Media Now. Chris Brogan shares his best advice about social media. The Dontgo movement showed that the Republicans can get social media and they used social media channels to help build their “revolution”. Then they showed they didn’t get social media when they started banning posts from the Twitter feed as “inappropriate”. After some fast thinking they now…
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Vote for your favorite SXSW panel!
Kristie Wells
8 Aug 2008 | 8:32 am
The SXSW panel selection process opened this morning, and several of the Social Media Club Advisory Group members have pitched presentation ideas in the hopes of sharing their experiences with you. If any of these topics move you, feel free to cast your vote for one, two or all of them (listed in alphabetical order): Against All Odds-A Media Literate World: The new “Media Literacy” means understanding the facts, context and perspective of content. When you share, modify, or comment, this shows who you are online and in society. The public record of your search and attention stream…

4 Missions, 4 Projects: Social Media Club Gets to Work

Chris Heuer
5 Aug 2008 | 11:55 am
With the creation of the interim advisory board/group, it was my hope to gain some new momentum and secure a real commitment from industry leaders to collaborate for our collective benefit. From the coverage and feedback we received, it seems that we did that part well. Now we need to turn that energy and attention into some collaborative action. So a few people in the interim advisory group have agreed to step up and help lead some initial projects. In looking at what is most important to us, it would seem most appropriate to focus our efforts on the four areas of our core mission: Expand…

Recap: What is the biggest ethical issue we face in Social Media today

Kristie Wells
31 Jul 2008 | 11:58 am
I recently posted this ethical issue question that was brought up during the kick off meeting of SMC Los Angeles and received some interesting feedback. This responses below have been shortened, to read the responses in their entirety, please check out the original post for the top half, the others came via Twitter responses. What is the biggest ethical question we face in Social Media today?: Vijay Goel, M.D. - Impact anonymity has to impact the digital reputation of others, especially where they have not opted in to that discussion. SeLiNa - Firms who misrepresent themselves online and try…

Educational Models And Learning In The Digital Age: What Is Connectivism And What Makes It So Special

George Siemens
9 Aug 2008 | 2:48 am
What is connectivism? If you were to ask Wikipedia without paying too much attention you would discover that this unfamiliar word originates right here in Italy. Photo credit: Clix "…at the beginning of the 21st century in Italy, where is known as Connettivismo. It originated in Italian science fiction as an initiative of a group of writers, bloggers and artists. The name is derived from the imaginary doctrine that connects the specific knowledge of other disciplines, as introduced by Canadian science fiction author Alfred Elton van Vogt." (Source: Wikipedia) But connecitivism is also…

Online Collaboration Tools - New Technologies And Web Services - Sharewood Picnic Aug04 08

Robin Good
4 Aug 2008 | 2:00 am
Ready for another cool set of online collaboration tools? Need to manage your online team, send instant messages to the group or do a quick and effective video conference? This week web collaboration toolkit includes new instant messaging tools, a tool for creating wiki projects, and a cool project management technology and more. Photo credit: Tom Denham Here the web collaboration tools selected for you this time : TokBox AIR: Have video conferencing on any machine with Adobe AIR environment Goober: Instant message with people while having VoIP conferences and sharing files AtWiki: Create…

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Aug 2 08

George Siemens
2 Aug 2008 | 1:03 am
To understand the times and changes we are going through, it is necessary to keep scanning the horizon for changes and new emerging patterns. Looking only at your close, surrounding community and environment doesn't help you see beyond your existing assumptions and prejudices. Photo credit: RGBSpace To ride them you not only need to scan deep and wide outside your familiar comfort zones, but you need to have enough bravery to test, expose yourself to some of these new media and technologies as much as placing under critical questioning many of your well established assumptions about how…

Advertising 2.0 Model: The Brand Ambassador

Robin Good
1 Aug 2008 | 4:07 am
The Brand Ambassador is an advertising model that leverages the authority and credibility of online personalities to create a powerful direct marketing strategy. A respected followed authority, a blogger or small publisher targeting a specific audience niche can be a much more effective vehicle for marketing communication that the most expensive advertising campaign. We do not trust brands anymore. We trust individuals: friendly, familiar authority figures with who we feel great affinity. These are the people we trust and those from which we would always welcome honest suggestions and tips,…

Online Collaboration Tools - New Technologies And Web Services - Sharewood Picnic Jul28 08

Robin Good
27 Jul 2008 | 11:50 pm
Don't know how to send large files? Want to send private notes to other people? Need to manage projects or to have video conferences with your team? This week Robin and I have discovered eight fantastic online collaboration tools that can really answer your questions. Check them out! Photo credit: Kuzma Here the selected online collaboration tools for this week: StreamFile: Send any file up to 2GB to any email address Teamness: Assign tasks, share files and manage your team online PalBee.com: Have video conferences with up to 10 people Appswave: Video conference, instant message and share…

Buzzword Bingo

Dean Hunt
12 Aug 2008 | 4:21 am
Did you know that using the word “Testimonial” on your web page can lower your conversion rates, destroy your google quality score, and put off potential buyers? It is true, and many of the big names have spent tens of thousands testing it. But why is this the case? Well, for a start it acts as a sort of stop-word… but more importantly, and here is the kicker… “testimonial” is a marketing term. In no other industries will you find the word testimonial used. You may see “customer feedback”, “reviews”, “thoughts” etc……

Life Bombing With Google

Dean Hunt
8 Aug 2008 | 4:04 am
As you all know, a lot of changes have occured in my life recently, and I find myself in a new country, making new friends, joining new clubs, and going to new places. As a wacky experiment, I decided to create a technique that initially I called authority site exploiting. Now, I have been secretly playing with this, and today I have some amazing results to show you. You may know that the previous blog post was about my upcoming trip to watch Muse play a live gig at Marlay Park in Dublin. You may also have wondered why on earth I would even bother sharing such details with you at DeanHunt.com…

Muse Live - Marlay Park - Dublin

Dean Hunt
7 Aug 2008 | 4:28 am
I am going to be away for most of next week, as I am going to watch my favourite rock band… MUSE. They are playing at Marlay Park in Dublin and I have booked a nice hotel in Dublin to enjoy the experience. If you would like to also come and watch Muse play, then email me and perhaps we can meet for a beer during the gig. moc.liamg|80tnuhnaed#moc.liamg|80tnuhnaed If you live in or near Dublin, and fancy meeting to talk about business, marketing or anything else, then send your request to the email above, and I will try and make time. I apologise for the lack of updates on the blog recently, I have been…

What Is The REAL Purpose Of The Bed and Breakfast Guestbook

Dean Hunt
1 Aug 2008 | 2:18 am
Welcome to another addition of ‘Seeing The World Through a Marketer’s Eyes’. Today I am going to be talking about the guestbook that is found in bed and breakfast and some smaller hotels. I am currently staying in a b&b, and each morning I see guests being asked to sign the guestbook. It was only this morning that I started to wonder… What is the point of the guestbook? Don’t get me wrong, I know what it does, I have been brought up seeing them, but what are the tangible benefits for the owner? Useful Feedback? I could understand it if was designed to improve…

Change Is Underrated

Dean Hunt
29 Jul 2008 | 2:15 am
I believe it was the singer Cheryl Crow who said “a change will do you good”, and by crikey, how right she was. During the weekend, I reaquainted myself with my best friends in the UK, and we went out for the night in Manchester. The following day my career was mentioned, and one of my friends found videos on the Internet of people claiming to be Dean Hunt, then he found an article I wrote for the UK’s leading newspaper. To which he said “Dean, you have changed”, in a negative tone. Now, I know that mainly he was joking, but I also know there was more to it than…

The First Cyberwar and Social Media’s Role

Larissa Fair
13 Aug 2008 | 10:15 am
There is some speculation on the Web that the Russian attacks on Georgia were very strategically planned. Planned in such a way that Olympic fever and vacation schedules were bound to overtake coverage (or, even appearance of concern) of the conflict. NBC seemed more worried about stopping Internet leaks of the opening ceremonies than reporting on the attacks. Google even came under fire with accusations of erasing information from maps of Georgia. The New York Times reported that before any physical attacks occurred, cyberattacks crippled Georgia’s Internet infrastructure. A nasty DDOS…

PR Week’s Dreaded Todd Defren Match Up

Geoff Livingston
12 Aug 2008 | 9:01 pm
Some of you may have been following the PR Week Blog Competition. In a nasty twist of fate, the Buzz Bin got pitted against friend and PR Prodigy Todd Defren and his PR Squared blog. Well, I can tell you we are not too thrilled at this pairing! Upon reflection, we decided to pull a classic Washingtonian PR move and endorse Todd to win the PR Week Blog Competition. Here’s why: And by the way, you can do more than just vote. You can support Todd with your own “In Todd We Trust” apparel! Visit the Todd store here! Original Todd Image by David Alston. If someone actually buys…

Social Media Does Do More Than It Claims

Qui Diaz
12 Aug 2008 | 6:43 am
Jeremy Pepper has requested that consultants prove that social media works - that it can be used for good. Calling out a dozen of some of the most well-known and influential in our flock, he points out what these folks (all men, as an aside) haven’t done and/or should be doing by way of affecting change for a particular cause. Now, I’ve also called pros to task on using social media for good, too. But it’s unfair to assume that social media at large and the people Jeremy listed aren’t doing good things. Consultants don’t live and die by their social media…

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire!

Mike Nelson
12 Aug 2008 | 6:20 am
The Viral Garden’s Mack Collier takes a deeper look at how companies use enthusiasts to promote their brands with a business blog. Highlighting Phil Mooney’s Coca-Cola Conversations blog, Mack explains what a good promotional blog does. He also explains why other companies may be interested in following Coca-Cola’s lead. Companies should consider what type of company they are before diving into a social media campaign. Lisa Braziel suggests that companies must consider their product, their willingness to cross boundaries, accept change, and ability to give back more than they take from…

Hitchhiker’s Guide to Social Media: Internet Fame

Geoff Livingston
11 Aug 2008 | 2:23 am
You may become Internet famous in social media. What does that mean, and why should a corporate marketer care? So you can become one of the cool kids, of course! And who doesn’t want to be a rock star? Simply act like a wild, crazy, heroin-addicted drunken pirate, respond to everyone, and get lots of love online! Then you can have tons of social network friends, get asked to speak at lots of echo chamber conferences, and maybe even make a little scratch! Not bad! Especially when the parasocial benefits start rolling in! Of course, as an organizational communicator may want to hire…

And the Inbound Marketing pass goes to…

Greg Verdino
13 Aug 2008 | 6:43 am
Last week I mentioned that I would give away one free pass to the upcoming Inbound Marketing Summit, and asked interested readers to comment and let me know why they'd like to attend. Little did I realize how difficult it would be to pick a recipient. Next time around I think I'll just pull a name out of a hat. But at the end of the day (the day being yesterday) I did make a decision. Before letting y'all know who will be attending Inbound Marketing Summit, I'd like to say a few words about why this was so hard for me. (If you're impatient to know who the lucky guy or…

5 social media principles from 3 social media gurus

Greg Verdino
11 Aug 2008 | 3:11 pm
This week's issue of Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers newsletter features part one of a two part conversation about what works in social media marketing, what doesn't and just how big a shift new marketing represents for most corporations (read: really freakin' big.) Larry and Janet Roberts (aka Second Lifer EvansMom Goodspeed) interviewed Steve Rubel, Amanda Watlington and me about everything from how we define 'social media' and changes underway in the blogosphere to where social media fits into the marketing mix and how you might think about measurement. With Steve, Amanda and…

Sean Tiner's innovative art

Greg Verdino
8 Aug 2008 | 6:00 pm
Sean Tiner created and published this awesome portrait of me, along with an equally awesome portrait of Hugh Macleod, in a post entitled "Innovators." He caps it with a pretty smart-sounding (for me, at least) quote that comes from an Inbound Marketing Summit press release:“[For some companies] change can be deadly; for others, it can become a distinct competitive advantage, but you need to recognize the trends and technologies that are affecting the way we do business and understand how to leverage them to drive bottom line results.”Thanks for this, Sean - I'm…

Dealing with the elephant: Incremental change

Ryan
11 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am
This is the second post in a short series I’m going to write about the business model for online news before I go back to my usual divisive blathering about how to avoid bureaucracy and feed trolls. The starting point, the givens in the equation, are listed here. Suggest what I should tackle next using the Skribit widget in the sidebar of my blog. “Elephant Mud Frolic” by Intrepidation on Flickr. If you read the post I wrote last week about building better business directories on news Web sites, you’ll notice a few things about the approach I’m taking to talking…

Interview: Chris Krewson on changes at Philly.com and the Inquirer

Ryan
8 Aug 2008 | 10:47 am
Last night, I took an unceremonious break from my self-imposed Romenesko diet. I had seen a stream of tweets and blog posts and shared links about something that sounded crazy coming out of Philadephia. The word going around, more or less, was that the Philadelphia Inquirer was going to hold stories back from the Web, Philly.com, until the stories were published in print. Here’s the memo from Managing Editor Mike Leary, as posted on Romenesko, that started all the action. It includes this: “Beginning today, we are adopting an Inquirer first policy for our signature investigative…

Dealing with the elephant: Build a better business directory

Ryan
7 Aug 2008 | 1:22 pm
This is the first in a short series I’m going to write about the business model for online news before I go back to my usual harangues at editors and rants at reporters, among others. The starting point, the givens in the equation, are listed here. Suggest what I should tackle next using the Skribit widget in the sidebar of my blog. Product Placement: Elephant Car Wash by Ricardo Martins on Flickr Let’s get down to business. My goodness, do you pay a vendor for some sort of business directory full of aging addresses and phone numbers and little else? Honestly, I know you do.

The business model is still the elephant in the room

24 Jul 2008 | 6:01 am
As much fun as it is for me to make clever lists and shout from the hilltops about what I think your news organization should be doing, how they should be doing it, and why they should be doing it, no matter what argument I (or anyone else) has in favor of a certain technology or against a certain methodology, the broken business model of newspapers remains the giant elephant in the room. Big 5 - Elephant by TheLizardQueen on Flickr Let’s start with a few different angles on the state of the news business. I’m not saying that all of these are absolute truths, but I am saying…

The stenography ends here

Ryan
22 Jul 2008 | 9:39 am
A few takeaways from this morning’s presentations at the Knight Foundation meeting today in Chicago: The stenography ends here. The days of chasing cops and government down for raw data (crime blotter, etc.) to parse into 8 inch stories is coming to an end. Everyblock and the Sunlight Foundation are a good start. More projects that extend these efforts to get government to make raw digital data available are an essential step to newsroom reorganization. New media tools are (just?) a means to an end, but ignore the trends at your own peril. While it doesn’t matter which video…

ASAE 2008 Here I come!

13 Aug 2008 | 5:57 am
As I am tearing my hair out trying to get all my [stuff] together and finish all my association work and get everything ready for our YAP party and get my nails done and launch my own business and pack and everything else before I head off to San Diego, I thought I would pause for a moment and, as promised, give you another wee round up of things you need to know as you get ready to head west (or south, if you are already west).Here's my original schedule post.Here's a few others' - Jeff, Elizabeth, Jamie. You'll notice there's a wee bit of repetition, as we're all bloggers and therefore all…

My NTEN Chat 8/12/08

12 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am
Last week's NTEN Office Hours chat was awesome! We had a great discussion about wikis and how to try and get people to participate more in them - perhaps give artificial deadlines, or specifically purposeful tasks. My favorite takeaway advice was that we should all "leave a trail of wikis" - in other words, if you use them all the time, others will get it and use them too.Then, we were lucky to have Chris Brogan , uber blogger and the ultimate "hot professor that everyone has a crush on" stop in the office, and with whom we continued the wiki discussion as well as got the scoop on his Project…

My homework assignment

11 Aug 2008 | 6:07 am
On Friday, I asked if you would compare and contrast Brian Solis' "Conversation Prism" and Matt McDonald's "Definitive Explanation of Social Media" graphic.So I did my own homework assignment and thought about these over the weekend, and here's my take. I tend to think simpler is better, so it seems to me that Matt's actually may be more helpful - especially since there are new social sites cropping up all the time and you could tear your hair out trying to place them all in the prism - which actually misses the point.Because these graphics are only important if you can use them to show how…

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Branding in a Recession
BL Ochman
13 Aug 2008 | 3:56 pm
I love Tom Fishburne's cartoons, and his point of view. He drew this cartoon in response to the recession will bring disaster, gloom and doom talk so many companies are engaging in now. And I couldn't agree more with his recommendation: "… the key is to keep your cool, avoid the temptation to drastically cut budgets, and take a fresh look at your brand in the light of the recession. Rethink the role your brand can plan for your consumers now." All content copyright B.L. Ochman, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, with the attribution: By B.L. Ochman, What's…
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Links for 2008-08-12 [del.icio.us]
Don't worry about the numbers :: BtoB Magazine I'm quoted in Paul Gillin's article on social media marketing costs. Official Gmail Blog: We feel your pain, and we're sorry How to contact Google (but not get a human) if you need to reach them. Doh. how would that work if email is down again? Have a coke and a pink slip, Shel Holtz the best action would be to help those affected find jobs.
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Benny Bix Ochman Labradoodle in "This is the Life"
BL Ochman
12 Aug 2008 | 7:55 pm
All content copyright B.L. Ochman, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, with the attribution: By B.L. Ochman, What's Next Blog, and a link to the post
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Companies Not Answering Emails for Days, Weeks, Even Months
BL Ochman
12 Aug 2008 | 3:54 pm
Speed is the name of the game online. We expect fast access to information, news, and answers. Yet, many big companies take as long as four months to respond to customer email - if they respond at all. According to the Angie's List website, more than 650,000 consumers use it to find high quality contractors, service companies and health care providers. Yet, on two different occasions, it took them as long as six business days to respond to an email asking a question. Both times, the email from them began "Thanks for writing in. I’m sorry it took me so long to reply." The social bookmarking…
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B2B BtoB: Don't Worry About the Numbers -I'm Misquoted in a Stealth Interview
BL Ochman
11 Aug 2008 | 4:07 pm
By B.L. Ochman UPDATE:: Ellis Booker informed me in email that the misquote is being corrected on the BtoB story. The link now leads to a correct quote. UPDATE: Ellis Booker, Editor of Crain's BtoB and BtoB's Media Business emailed "If you feel strongly about this, I'd encourage you to write a Letter to the Editor (please, 75 words or thereabouts)." He also noted that the author is Paul Gillin, who has commented and apologized in the comments below that he misquoted me. Dear Ellis and Paul: What I want is an online correction. I've got the misquoted in a stealth interview blues again. This…

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Global Neighbourhoods
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My thoughts on Chris Brogan & Personal Branding
shel
12 Aug 2008 | 11:02 am
Chris Brogan has been writing up a storm on social branding and any of us can learn a good deal by following his series on it. But I have to admit that I have a basic disagreement with some of his observations in his most recent post. He writes: "personal branding is noise. It’s talking about one’s self instead of talking about something that’s useful to others. But another way you might look at it is that personal branding is leverage: once you know me, you start to build a relationship with me. Once we have a relationship, I can share even more with you." Although I believe…
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China, the Olympics & Tibet
shel
12 Aug 2008 | 9:25 am
My wife and I were at a house party Friday at 8:08 pm on 8/8/08, the moment the Chinese determined would be the most auspicious to open ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics. As we joined other guests around a 63-inch HDTV, I could not help but marvel that elsewhere in the world the same events were being watched. Somewhere in a Kenyan village, I pictured an inexpensive cellphone being passed from hand-to-hand to watch the same images we were seeing in this comfortable San Francisco home. I am told this opening ceremony, and parade of athletes is the most watched event in history, eclipsing the…
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Intel to sponsor my Social Media Global Report
shel
10 Aug 2008 | 10:12 pm
I am very pleased to announce that Intel will sponsor my Social Media Global Report starting immediately. Formerly, the SAP Global Report, the new GM Social report will begin with new episodes within the next week and will run approximately once weekly. It will continue to feature Q&As with people who are changing their businesses or culture with social media tools. Started in June 2007, there have been 103 SM Global Reports so far. I have talked with a diverse group of people in 33 contries. They've ranged from Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Computer who talked about why…
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Why I'm late to embrace Shiny Things
shel
7 Aug 2008 | 1:06 pm
Why Thomas Hawk is my iPhone Canary. [Thomas Hawk at work. Photo by Shel] I sat smugly this morning reading Thomas Hawk's compelling five reasons not to upgrade to the new 3G iPhone. I stroked in comfort my the one I obtained in the quaint old days of September 07. Still works works fine. The battery lasts me up to three days. It has a killer app that lets me actuall talk in real time to another human. Thomas reminded me of why I…
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Social Media Global Report: Frank Eliason, Comcast Cares
shel
5 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am
Does Comcast Really Care? Frank Eliason sure seems to. [ Frank Eliason, the Comcast Cares guy on Twitter. Photo from his file.] Between the time I requested an interview with Frank Eliason and the time I got his answers to my questions, he was profiled by the NY Times and USA Today. Frank is the Comcast Cares Cares Twitter guy and right, now, that is a hot story, hot because a cable company is generating a chorus of happy customer voices a cable company that has an historic record of finishing at or near the bottom of many customer satisfaction survey…

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CHRISTOPHER S. PENN
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The Death of America’s Favorite Brands
Christopher S. Penn
13 Aug 2008 | 5:23 am
The Death of Brands Something is killing off brands in America. Perkins. Uno’s. Marie Calendar’s. Fresh Mex. Bennigan’s. Steak and Ale. Who killed these brands? Private equity. Over the past decade, private equity funds have bought up popular brands and essentially stripped them of assets by issuing debt, borrowing heavily against them, then keeping the proceeds. Imagine dating someone, maxing out all their credit cards, keeping the cash or goods, and then dumping them. That’s the corporate equivalent of what’s happening to a lot of brands that we know and love…
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Spam is a market signal
Christopher S. Penn
12 Aug 2008 | 2:16 am
Here’s a thought. What is the killer app online? How would you measure such a thing? I’ll throw this out there: follow the spam. Spam = unsolicited commercial bulk messaging. Spam is a mass market play. Paraphrasing the words of Matt Mason (of the Pirate’s Dilemma), spam is a market signal. Why? Spam follows the money. You need massive quantities of people (who preferably don’t know what they’re doing online) to make spam work, since it probably has a conversion rate in the hundredths of a percent. Likewise, spam requires a marketplace where a minimal amount of…
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Why pro conferences are different than PodCamps and why neither is better
Christopher S. Penn
11 Aug 2008 | 5:37 am
Image via Wikipedia Why pro conferences are different than PodCamps and why neither is better Some interesting discussion this morning on the differences between PodCamps and pro conferences like the Affiliate Summit, which I’m speaking at on a panel on Tuesday, August 12. A difference to highlight, from the registration page of the Affiliate Summit: PHOTOGRAPHY, RECORDING & VIDEO TAPING: Sessions may be photographed, recorded and/or video taped by Affiliate Summit. By your attendance, you give Affiliate Summit permission to be photographed, recorded or videotaped and agree to the…
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The Strangest Ninja Garb Ever
Christopher S. Penn
6 Aug 2008 | 6:46 pm
Hat tip to Stephen K. Hayes for this gem from Japan. Who knew? Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, please consider subscribing for free! Get this and other great articles from the source at www.ChristopherSPenn.com
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Ninja Power Move - How Your iPod Can Protect Your Mind
Christopher S. Penn
5 Aug 2008 | 8:48 pm
Ninja Power Move - How Your iPod Can Protect Your Mind I want to share something with you that might be helpful for protecting you from the worst negative influences in your life - the ones that originate in your own head. See, in ninjutsu, there’s a mental framework we use to describe four classes of responses in the basic self-protection curriculum, based on four archetype elements. There is… … Earth energy. This is the energy of confidence, standing your ground, neither giving way or seizing gains. You protect as an immoveable barrier to whatever seeks to harm you.

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Go2Web20.net
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Qrowd
Remix the WebQrowd is a start page, where all the structured data now on available on the web can be mashed together and displayed in customizable widgets. This empowers users with a new level of customization, whereby data can be extracted, combined, and converted into meaningful information that can be displayed in customizable formats. http://www.qrowd.com | More on Go2Web20.net
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Koornk
Social Toolkoornk is your personal shouting place that lets you stay in touch with your friends via short, quick messages. It works the other way too. And all you have to do is tell your friends (and the world) what are you doing at the moment. http://www.koornk.com/ | More on Go2Web20.net
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Raanker
Raank your WorldRaanker is a place that enables its users to create, vote and share all kinds of Raanks and PhotoRaanks with the community. Everyone can share experiences, preferences and knowledge with other raankers. http://www.raanker.com | More on Go2Web20.net
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Privnote
Private NotesPrivnote is a web tool that you can use to send private notes over the Internet. Send Notes that will self-destruct after being read. If you send a note and suddenly regret having done so, you can click the link yourself which will destroy the note and prevent the receiver from reading it. https://privnote.com | More on Go2Web20.net
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Alefo
Build your StartPage the way you wantAlefo lets you take any portion of any website, and add it easily to your personal homepage: Select the site shot you like, and capture a shot of any part of it. http://www.alefo.com | More on Go2Web20.net

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Social Media
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Q&A with founder of ReelChanges.org
JD Lasica
13 Aug 2008 | 2:47 pm
In May I wrote about ReelChanges.org, a new nonprofit venture that promises to herald an era of viewer-funded documentaries. Since that time, the site has gained considerable traction, partly driven by the tenacity of its founder, Hal Plotkin (a former journalist at the San Francisco Chronicle), and partly because of the sheer power of the idea. Last week Hal wrote a post about the positive reception to the site in the documentary filmmaker community and the site's partnership with Spot.us, an even newer effort that aims for the audience to financially support community and…
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Did McCain plagiarize Wikipedia today?
JD Lasica
11 Aug 2008 | 3:28 pm
CQ Politics: Did McCain Plagiarize His Speech on the Georgia Crisis? Not a big deal, but interesting that McCain's staff who do it, given the candidate's computer illiteracy.
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Audience-centric film events
JD Lasica
11 Aug 2008 | 12:45 pm
Just got this word from Lance Weiler, a filmmaker and co-founder of two free events in the SF Bay Area this weekend: From Here to Awesome Theme: "You Are the Festival Programmer" When: Friday, Aug. 15, 8 pmWhere: The Mezzanie and Mint Plaza, 444 Jessie St., San FranciscoWhat it is: a discovery and distribution festival that is programmed by the audience. Audience members will use their mobile phones to program a night of free festival screenings. It's theater on demand and you're in control of what screens. Admission: To secure your free ticket visit…
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All of us, the arbiters of news
JD Lasica
11 Aug 2008 | 2:40 am
David Carr in the NY Times: All of Us, the Arbiters of News. Well, yes. Excerpt: On Friday, NBC spent the day trying to plug online leaks of the splashy opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in order to protect its taped prime-time broadcast 12 hours later. There was a profound change in roles here: a network trying to delay broadcasting a live event, more or less TiVo-ing its own content. Consumers have no issue with time-shifting content — in some younger demographics, at least half the programming is consumed on a time-shifted basis — they just want to be the ones doing the…
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Awaiting the Facebook attitude adjustment
JD Lasica
11 Aug 2008 | 2:02 am
Natasha Chart at MyDD: Awaiting the Facebook attitude adjustment.We've all heard hand-wringing over what will become of the facebook generation when their drunken college-age (And you don't have to go to college to do stupid crap at that age, which seems to be getting older all the time, if you know what I mean.) facebook pictures come up in middle age. Anyway, that's my guess. That people who've grown up in more of a public fishbowl, without the fictional veneer of respectability, where it's shameful to admit nearly universal indulgences, will give less of a damn about stupid non-issues and…

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Gauravonomics Blog
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Urban Indian Subcultures: My Placeholder Hypothesis on the Indian Cultural Mainstream
Gaurav Mishra
7 Aug 2008 | 7:13 am
I first asked: are there any subcultures in urban India that go beyond religion, caste, class and language? (tweet) Then I realized that before I try to understand Indian subcultures, I’ll have to first ask: what is (the mainstream) Indian culture? (tweet) So, I asked my friends on Twitter – So, what is (the mainstream) Indian culture? Bollywood? Cricket? Weddings? Hindi soaps? Divisions wrt religion/caste/language? What else? (tweet) Dina Mehta, Rajesh Lalwani and Harshil Karia responded that in a country as complex as India, there can’t be a dominant mainstream culture…
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Live Mint Article on the Use of Social Media by Corporate India
Gaurav Mishra
7 Aug 2008 | 5:23 am
My social media consultant friends Rajesh Lalwani, Dina Mehta and Rajiv Dingra were recently interviewed for a very well-researched story in Live Mint about how corporates in India are engaging with social media. Here is a quick snapshot of social media usage by Indian corporates based on the article and my own understanding – - Financial services, travel, telecom and consumer product brands are the most active users of social media in India, apart from online brands. - Most Indian brands skip the first two steps in the “Listen -> Understand -> Engage” model and start with…
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Urban Indian Subcultures: What is a Subculture?
Gaurav Mishra
6 Aug 2008 | 9:13 pm
I have received some interesting responses to my query — are there any subcultures in urban India that go beyond religion, caste, class and language? But even before I try answer that question, I need to answer another: what is a subculture? Let’s start with culture first. Culture is the way of life for an entire society, the sum total of the lifestyles of its individual members. To understand a society’s culture, you need to understand how its members form their identities — from the things they own, the experiences they have, the relationships they share, and the…
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Are There Any Subcultures in Urban India That Go Beyond Religion, Caste, Class and Language?
Gaurav Mishra
5 Aug 2008 | 8:56 pm
As the Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University, I’ll spend the next year studying how social media in BRIC countries will be used differently from the first world countries and the implications this will have on how individuals and institutions in these countries engage with social media. Inspired by Grant McCracken’s post on how trend-hunting is meaningless unless it is rooted in a deeper understanding of the underlying culture – it is precisely when “culture above” resonates with the “culture below” that things “take,” that innovation has…
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Rajesh Jain: How to Monetize Digital Media in India
Gaurav Mishra
2 Aug 2008 | 10:54 pm
Veteran Indian entrepreneur Rajesh Jain on why mobile will be the key to monetize digital media in India – Content in the digital space needs to focus on Mobile, Mass and My (M3) and Now, New and Near (N3). On the Internet, the only revenue stream is advertising. On the mobile, one can create multiple monetization streams - from not just advertisers, but also subscribers, merchants and enterprises. The first step towards monetization involves creating services that touch people multiple times a day. On the Internet, Search has done this very effectively. On the mobile, I think it will…

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OnDemand Beat
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A Tour of IBM Mashup Center
Ameed Taylor
11 Aug 2008 | 11:22 am
In conjunction with the recent release of IBM Mashup Center Version 1, IBM has posted a series of videos on YouTube that give both high level and detailed looks at Mashup Center. These videos are useful in comparing the overall look and feel of IBM MashUp Center with solutions from some of IBM’s more established mashup competitors like JackBe and Serena and IBM partners like Kapow Technologies. The video below is a detailed overview of the environment of Mashup Center.
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IGLOO Ices Corporate Social Networking
Ameed Taylor
6 Aug 2008 | 11:07 am
Kitchener, Ontario based IGLOO’s foundation began with a not-for-profit research centre called the Centre for International Governance(CIGI) founded by Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIM) In 2003, CIGI, created a free online research network called IGLOO (International Governance Leaders and Organizations Online) that connected researchers, practitioners and educators around the world. By 2008 Igloo.org had further evolved into a for profit firm with a focus on creating On Demand Corporate Social Networking software with Web 2.0 tools for content management,…
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Zuora Disrupts OnDemand Subscription Billing Industry
Ameed Taylor
31 Jul 2008 | 3:37 pm
One of the highest profile “spinoffs” to date in the Software As A Service Industry, Zuora aims to disrupt the OnDemand Subscription Billing Industry just like Salesforce.com disrupted the software industry a few years ago. Based in Redwood City, Zuora provides a OnDemand solution that automates and simplifies online subscription billing services. Zuora’s flagship product is Z-Billing. Z-Billing is a fully integrated Billing as Service Platform that offers features that are critical to On Demand subscription based businesses such as advanced pricing models, integrated…
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Steve Staso Discusses Sun’s Cloud Computing Initiatives
Ameed Taylor
25 Jul 2008 | 8:45 am
Had an opportunity to have a short interview with Steve Staso about Sun Microsystems Cloud Computing Initiatives at the recent Structure 08 conference in San Francisco.
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MindTouch Deki Adds Enterprise Integration To Wiki Platform
Ameed Taylor
23 Jul 2008 | 12:07 pm
Mindtouch announced today a new version of its Opensource collaboration and collective intelligence platform. The new version of Mindtouch Deki, “Kilen Woods” introduces new data connection and enterprise integration tools to what is already a very robust Wiki platform. Aaron Fulkerson, co-founder and CEO, said that: “MindTouch Deki has evolved into a powerful platform that is the connective tissue for integrating disparate enterprise systems, web services, and Web 2.0 applications, and enables real-time collaboration and collective intelligence - dynamic data collection and…

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GigaOM
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Countdown to 4G: Who’s Doing What, When
Stacey Higginbotham
13 Aug 2008 | 4:06 pm
As the iPhone has shown, carriers are going to have to upgrade their mobile networks to handle the increasing amount of data traffic that will come from users surfing social networks, YouTube and heaven knows what else while on the go. Just please don’t do it while driving. So for those reading about the promise of 4G networks such as LTE or mobile WiMAX, here’s a look at each carrier’s launch plans and when (or if) you can expect to see up to 100 Mbps down on your mobile network. AT&T: The nation’s largest network in terms of subscribers, AT&T plans to use LTE…
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Is the Cloud Right for You? Ask Yourself These 5 Questions
Joe Weinman
13 Aug 2008 | 2:05 pm
Is cloud computing right for you? For the fledgling startup, the appeal of the cloud is obvious. Given how easily an entrepreneur’s vision can be stymied by a lack of technical and operations expertise, leveraging an Amazon EC2 or Google App Engine could provide the only viable option. But what about large enterprises that not only have an in-house technical staff to do their bidding, but existing data centers and deep pockets? Stacey has already identified issues with some cloud providers, such as security, reliability and portability. However, assuming they are all resolved, are there…
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How Many Ports Does a Set-Top Box Need?
Stacey Higginbotham
13 Aug 2008 | 11:44 am
Following a petition filed with the Federal Communications Commission by Intel and Verizon requesting that Ethernet ports be required on the backs of set-top boxes, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association have come out in favor of an open standard such as Ethernet (or even better, the tru2way standard developed by the cable companies) but against any sort of federal mandates. The trade group filed an ex parte filing with the FCC last night in which it argued that industry groups could work together to figure out how to deliver digital content without any pesky government…
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Mobilize 08: More Speakers Added, Early Bird Special To End Soon
Om Malik
13 Aug 2008 | 9:12 am
We are working hard to prepare for our Mobilize 08 conference scheduled to be held on September 18 in San Francisco. You already know about Rich Miner (Google), Padmasree Warrior (Cisco Systems) and John Roese (Nortel). Today we are adding more awesome speakers to our growing lineup: * Scott Richardson - Chief Strategy Officer of Clearwire * Fred Kitson - VP, Applications Research, Motorola * Marc Davis - Chief Scientist of Yahoo! Connected Life. We are going to announce a few more in coming days including some candidate for fireside chats. Stay tuned, and if you haven’t bought your…
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Can Nvidia Play with the Big Boys?
Stacey Higginbotham
13 Aug 2008 | 6:52 am
Despite reporting a second-quarter loss last night, due in part to costs associated with the faulty packaging on some of its chips placed in thousands of laptops, Nvidia still has a plan for semiconductor domination through the GPU. But if it wants to execute, it needs to accept the realities that come with stepping into a competitive market. The earnings call shows Nvidia still has a lot to learn. In yesterday evening’s call, CEO Jen-Hsun Huang admitted to a $196 million charge because of problems with its GPUs in some laptops. He also talked about some pricing mishaps that occurred as…

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The Virtual Handshake Blog
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On tapping the talents of the unemployed and in transition
David Teten
13 Aug 2008 | 12:36 pm
Lately, I have been thinking about the unemployed and underemployed as a pool of talent. I’d argue they are one of the most undertapped economic segments. Of the global working population, 6.3% is unemployed. In the US, the long-term unemployed are better educated, older, and more likely to be professional workers than the mean unemployed population. These workers are particularly held back by age discrimination and high wage expectation. I am reasonably familiar with this market because a key component of the Circle of Experts‘ strategy is to tap the knowledge…
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Building a business by leveraging the talents of autistic people
David Teten
13 Jul 2008 | 12:19 pm
I recently learned about an entrepreneur with a very clever business model: Thorkil Sonne, founder of Danish software testing company Specialisterne. The 55-person firm’s clients include CSC, Microsoft, and Oracle. Specialisterne claims to be the world’s first company focused on leveraging the unique talents of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Sonne started the company in large part to ensure that people with ASD—including his own son—would have employment opportunities. ASD, the most common form of autism, affects close to 1% of the population, but…
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The Fine Art of Shilling, Or How NOT to Do Social Media Marketing
Scott Allen
25 Jun 2008 | 8:23 pm
Comment spamming is bad, shilling is worse. Why? Because automated filters detect 99% of comment spam. The spam filter here on The Virtual Handshake Blog has caught over 750,000 spam comments in the past couple of years. But shilling… shilling is hard to detect and often goes unnoticed the first or second time. Someone leaves a comment… a decent, on-topic comment… but then at the end throws in the mention of some product or person that has little, if anything, to do with the post on which they’re commenting. And then you get a second post a week later from a different…
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Escape 9 to 5 - Free Teleseminar Series Starts June 5
Scott Allen
4 Jun 2008 | 12:13 am
Entrepreneurs — looking to grow your business? Starting this Thursday, June 5, you can learn some of the most current techniques for growing your business in the Escape 9 to 5 Teleseminar Series. I love what the organizer, Melissa Gerdes, has to say about the series on the registration page: Why are we doing this? It’s simple. We love our lives and we love helping other people experience the realities of entrepreneurship. So we want to see the wonderful life you create for yourself. (Mostly, we do it because it’s fun.) The teleseminars will be held on various weekday…
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Social Web Aggregation - The Next Killer App, Part 1
Scott Allen
15 May 2008 | 11:56 am
Remember the good old days? Back when you had to log on to one email system at work and then at night dial up your favorite BBS’s one by one, replying to all of your emails while you were logged in? (I’m showing my age - if you don’t actually remember that - just use your imagination) But then along came the internet and the idea of a universal email client — one application from which you could handle all your email across multiple servers. And you didn’t even have to be online to read and reply to email — you could do it at your convenience. Remember…

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Brent Csutoras
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Going to SES? Spend an Evening With the Best of the Best
Brent Csutoras
12 Aug 2008 | 7:09 pm
If you are going to be at SES next week in San Jose, CA, then you should plan to come to the Internet Marketer’s Charity Party that Todd Malicoat and Lauren Vaccarello have put together. We all come to these conferences to accomplish two things, learn as much about online marketing as we can and network […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Twitter Limits Following to 2,000
Brent Csutoras
11 Aug 2008 | 1:25 pm
Twitter has always been looking for better ways to combat spammers and it appears they have recently added a new measure to combat one aspect of gaming. User can now only follow up to 2,000 friends before being limited and receiving this error message. I noticed this over the weekend when working on one of my accounts. […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Got Digg Captcha… Don’t Worry
Brent Csutoras
7 Aug 2008 | 9:36 am
Yesterday I noticed, as I am sure a number of people noticed, that Digg was requiring me to enter a captcha to comment or shout on the site. Now before you get upset or mad about seeing a captcha on your Digg comments or shouts, remember that captcha is not new to Digg and if they […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Marketing on Twitter Gets Easier With Tweet Pro
Brent Csutoras
5 Aug 2008 | 6:28 pm
Over the last 6 months there has been an amazing growth in the use of Twitter. It has gone from something that people thought had no value to something almost everyone is using on a daily basis. With that increased popularity we have seen the release of numerous Twitter tools and applications. There are complete Twitter […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Brent Csutoras: Social Media Interviews
Brent Csutoras
3 Aug 2008 | 8:13 pm
I was searching around today and noticed an interview video I had not see in some time. It got me to thinking that I should probably gather them all together and put them in a post so I can find them when I need to in the future and also so anyone interesting in seeing them […] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

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Sphinn: Hot Topics
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Word Visualization on Search Marketing Blogs
13 Aug 2008 | 12:42 pm
Lee Odden writes "Lists and ranking resources can be tough and controversial. A while back we ranked top blogs on the topic of search engine marketing (SEO and PPC) that publish their RSS subscriber counts via Google's Feedburner. With changes in31 Vote(s)
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The 10 Duplicatable Habits of Successful Diggers!
13 Aug 2008 | 11:43 am
Want to be successful on Digg? Why not do exactly what the most successful Diggers are doing. Manish details 10 of the habits of successful Diggers. Good read!28 Vote(s)
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Forget Community. Forget Conversation. Business Blogging Is About SEO.
13 Aug 2008 | 10:51 am
Your business is a data-driven machine. You live and die by leads and sales. You don't have time for unmeasurable, time-consuming concepts like community and conversation. Fine. Forget community. Forget conversation. There's a far simpler, far40 Vote(s)
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How to Rid Subpages & Avoid Penalty
13 Aug 2008 | 9:44 am
SEOs come across this problem very often: what is the best way to get rid of lots of website pages without loosing rankings or getting into any sort of penalties? The problem may be associated with: * moving the site to a new domain; * c31 Vote(s)
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Really Boring Products That Rocked in Social Media
13 Aug 2008 | 9:31 am
Brent Csutoras writes, "One of the most frequently asked questions we get while speaking on social media marketing at conferences is "how can something boring be successful in social media? Well there is really no product, service, or topic that can30 Vote(s)

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E-consultancy
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Q&A: The New Football Pools’ Dominic Starkey on its digital revamp
13 Aug 2008 | 6:21 am
The last few years have seen football pools operators’ once-massive audiences dwindle as the popularity of the lottery and online gambling has soared. But Sportech, the company which now owns the main pools players Littlewoods, Vernons and Zetters, is attempting to see their luck turn. Last month saw the announcement that it would bring all three brands into one website - footballpools.com - as well as the launch of radically different digital strategy centred around ‘social betting’. The company has also been investing heavily in content, improved analytics practices and new channels…
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How else can Google ascertain relevancy?
12 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am
Google was a pioneer in the search world for ranking websites based on incoming links as well as content. But which other measures could the search giant use to evaluate relevance? Apart from the top level 'links' and 'content', which we know affect placement, online marketers use experience and testing to work out the other things Google looks at when ascertaining the relevancy of web pages for search terms.
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Did Exxon Mobil get 'brand jacked' or did Twitter users get 'punk'd'?
12 Aug 2008 | 12:45 am
Did you know that Exxon Mobil has "supported local NGOs in Angola and Indonesia to develop their capacity to effectively partner with multinational companies"? Or that "Exxon Mobil has spent over $13m in the Save The Tiger Fund since 1992"?
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Can anyone compete with Google?
11 Aug 2008 | 2:25 am
July saw the much fan-fared launch of Cuil (pronounced cool), which so far, to many in the industry, hasn’t quite lived up to the hype. Billed as a potential Google killer and dubbed the “world's biggest search engine”, the initial response has been lukewarm, with mixed reviews from many of the industry.It certainly didn’t help that the site went down shortly after launch and that general first impressions certainly haven’t put Cuil in the same league as Google (or Yahoo and MSN for that matter).
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The Web Week in Review
8 Aug 2008 | 1:29 am
Everybody's working for the weekend but before you leave work for the weekend, here's a wrap-up of the news that caught my eye this week.

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Go Big Always
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Enterprise UI Summit Profile: Salesforce.com’s Craig Villamor
sam
6 Aug 2008 | 7:22 am
This week I’ll be profiling a few of the people attending Jive’s Enterprise UI Summit, which is Thursday & Friday in Aspen. What are you focused on at Salesforce.com? I manage the Platform UI Design Team at salesforce.com. Our team is focused on designing interfaces for the force.com platform that allow our customers to administer, customize, integrate and build applications to meet their specific needs. Is there such thing as an Enterprise User Interface? What does it mean to you? It’s all about context. The lines are blurring between the consumer and the enterprise, but at the…
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Enterprise UI Summit Profile: Thomas Vander Wal
sam
6 Aug 2008 | 6:59 am
This week I’ll be profiling a few of the people attending Jive’s Enterprise UI Summit, which is Thursday & Friday in Aspen. What sort of Experience Design trends currently have your attention? The one that has a lot of my attention are graduated interfaces, which offer simple offerings with a lot of help to those who are new to the tools and or features, but as they have regular experience and use with the tools they get more features and functionality. This is particularly helpful for those who are heavy contributors or helpful with answering others questions. Is there such thing as…
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Enterprise UI Summit Profile: SAP’s Natalie Hanson
sam
5 Aug 2008 | 6:47 am
This week I’ll be profiling a few of the people attending Jive’s Enterprise UI Summit, which is Thursday & Friday in Aspen. What are you currently focused on at SAP? My title is Director of Business Operations. I have been working at SAP for over ten years, and for more than half of that time I have been working on implementations of SAP software internally. For the past few years I have been focused on our intranet, for which we won the Norman Neilsen Top Ten Intranets last year. Now that the implementation is fully operational and integrated into how our employees work, I am…
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Enterprise UI Summit Profile: Google’s Mandy Sladden
sam
5 Aug 2008 | 6:35 am
This week I’ll be profiling a few of the people attending Jive’s Enterprise UI Summit, which is Thursday & Friday in Aspen. What are you currently focused on at Google? I am currently the lead designer for Google Sites, a new wiki tool launched earlier this year based on the old Jotspot product. We give people tools to collaborate and share information while expressing their own personalized style. Is there such thing as an Enterprise User Interface? What does it mean to you? I don’t believe there should be a distiction between a Consumer and an Enterprise UI, but in reality…
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Enterprise UI Summit Profile: Laura Fitton
sam
5 Aug 2008 | 6:13 am
This week I’ll be profiling a few of the people attending Jive’s Enterprise UI Summit, which is Thursday & Friday in Aspen. What Enterprise Software topics currently fascinate you? Microsharing. I’ve experienced and watched others experience some deceptively powerful, profound changes in their lives, career, productivity and network through applications like Twitter. We’re focusing our resources now on determining the use cases, best practices and business results when you take that to a much broader group of people. These lightweight, engaging communications harness the…

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Grow Your Wiki
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Join me in Brighton, UK, 3-4 September for Wiki Workshops
Stewart Mader
13 Aug 2008 | 2:47 pm
I’ll be in Europe in early September for WikiSym 2008 (Porto, Portugal - 8-10 September), but before I get to Porto I’ll be stopping in the UK to give a workshop in Brighton. Evening Gathering - 3rd September On 3rd September from 7-9PM, the Whuffie Club is holding an evening gathering at The Werks (Map). I’ll conduct a short session on wiki use in organizations, answer questions, and then we’ll have a mixer afterward. Sign up for 3rd September Workshop - 4th September On 4th September at 9:30AM, I’ll be conducting a half-day workshop at The Werks on Effective…
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Grow Your Wiki - Deutsch: New German-Language Edition
Stewart Mader
12 Aug 2008 | 2:30 pm
The announcements continue! I’m extremely pleased to announce the launch of Grow Your Wiki - Deutsch, the german-language edition of Grow Your Wiki. The first german-language article is already available, and looks at the 5 Differences between Wikipedia & Enterprise Wikis. Martin Seibert and Matthias Rauer of //Seibert/Media in Wiesbaden, Germany are generously providing translation of my english-language articles into german, and will also be posting the german-language articles on the //Seibert/Media Weblog. Visitors to Grow Your Wiki from Germany make up the second largest group…
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About the new Grow Your Wiki website
Stewart Mader
12 Aug 2008 | 12:47 pm
Alongside the public launch of my consulting business, Grow Your Wiki, the website is sporting a refined new design. In fact, you’re looking at it right now! Here’s what’s changed: The right sidebar has been given a new visual treatment, with graphics that match the green and dark grey colors in the logo and titlebar. Blog readership, and options to subscribe by RSS or Email are now grouped at the top right. If you aren’t already subscribed, there’s no better time to do it than now! Below that, information is grouped in 8 sections: Consulting, Speaking, Books,…
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“Grow Your Wiki” Grows into Specialist Consultancy
Stewart Mader
12 Aug 2008 | 12:30 am
Today, I’m taking the wraps off something I’ve been working on for a long time. Grow Your Wiki is growing - into a specialist consultancy focused on organizational wiki adoption. This is as much a launch of something new, as the continuation of something I’ve been doing for a long time. I built my first wiki in 2003, for science curriculum, and building The Science of Spectroscopy showed me the amazing capability of a wiki to bring information to life, and get people more deeply involved in its creation, growth, and use. Since then, I’ve been working with organizations…
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Diplopedia: An Internal Wiki for Diplomacy - and Lunch!
Stewart Mader
8 Aug 2008 | 11:56 am
In An Internal Wiki That’s Not Classified Noam Cohen of the New York Times shows how a wiki has changed a common US State Department practice: In the past, said Stacie R. Hankins, a special assistant at the United States Embassy in Rome, when the ambassador prepared to meet an Italian political figure, the staff would e-mail a memo about the meeting and attach biographies of those who would be attending to be printed out. Today, she said, they still produce the memo, but “now they attach a link to the Diplopedia article” — Diplopedia being a wiki, open to the contributions of…

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Feverbee
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I love this, Dell launches DigitalNomads
Richard Millington
13 Aug 2008 | 6:39 am
Dell really is a company that are getting Social Media so perfectly right at the moment. I have no doubt it will pay off in shareholder terms for a long time to come. Yesterday Dell launched a new online community, www.digitalnomads.com. Like it's name, it's a community site for people who seek freedom from the office, to come and connect with each other.I think this is brilliant for six reasons. It ties in perfectly with the company. It's not a community about Dell, it's a community about working remotely. They have some superstars involved to help launch it. They've…
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I value my online presence at £55,000
Richard Millington
13 Aug 2008 | 5:55 am
Nobody would pay £55,00 for my online presence, but that's how much it's worth to me. You will value your online presence a bit higher. If my social media presence vanished today, it would take me over a year to build it up again. It takes me an hour or two a day just to maintain it. But it's worth it.Through social media i've managed to build connections with people who wouldn't have given me the time of day on the phone. It's almost worthwhile starting an insurance company for the top names in social media, you never know when Google or Wordpress might shut you…
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Would you sponsor a star business thinker?
Richard Millington
8 Aug 2008 | 1:43 am
I thought Thierry Henry was a brilliant footballer, but he didn't inspire me. Al Pacino is a great actor, but he also fails to inspire me. I haven't been inspired by any mainstream celebrity in a long time. Today's celebrities have so little influence on me I wonder why they still endorse products way out of their sector? So who does inspire me? Great business thinkers.Great business thinkers are more visible than ever. We can relate to people in the business world more than any movie star. Traditionally, these great business thinkers would be reduced to a new book every few years…
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How I became Nelson Mandela
Richard Millington
7 Aug 2008 | 6:33 am
Hello, I'm Nelson Mandela. I registered a Twitter account in his name. I picked Nelson Mandela, but many others were available, including: HughGrant, MattDamon and MorganFreeman. Some of the Ftse100 companies were free too. Here is my point. You can't protect your brand name online. If NelsonMandela was registered then I could've picked NMandela, Mandela, NelsonM, Nelsieboy etc…If those were all taken on Twitter, I could've used Plurk or Jaiku. I could've registered NelsonMandela.typepad.com or on wordpress or blogger. I could've posted comments as him on any number…
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89
Richard Millington
4 Aug 2008 | 11:02 pm
89. That's my final count. That's the number of separate people I have communicated with today. 3 mobile phone calls 6 Texts 2 Skype voice chat 1 Skype text conversation 11 on Instant Messenger 8 people on Twitter 21 e-mails 7 in a forum 11 on Triiibes 13 separate blog comments 4 Facebook messages 1 Suspect Washing Machine Repairman 1 Unimpressed girlfriend This is a conservative tally. It neglects people who read my blog, or follow me on Twitter, but didn't share a unique communication with me today. It's also a lower number than usual, I didn't leave the house today. I really have no idea…

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FaceReviews: Facebook Applications Reviews and Facebook News
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Facebook Kicks Out Some Cool News Feed Filters
Rodney Rumford
13 Aug 2008 | 1:51 am
Facebook news feed gets a new level of filters. Facebook just rolled out new control features on the newsfeed. You can now filter your newsfeed content by application (i predicted this was coming), and your fiend lists. I have my friends broken into over 20 different lists based upon how I know them, what they do, company, etc. So when I apply the filter of a friend list that is from list X my newsfeed is instantly filtered and populated with all the great stuff from these people. This just plain kicks butt. When I saw this work I jumped out of my chair and screamed YES! I can also easily see…
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Dell Eats Twitter’s Lunch With 22 Twitter Channels
Rodney Rumford
12 Aug 2008 | 10:52 pm
I authored a blog post earlier tonight about how I could not quickly or easily find a human from Dell on twitter. My readers were kind enough to remind me about richardatdell I reviewed his tweets and it sure looks like he is doing a bang up job of listening, responding, interacting and really using twitter quite well. Kudos to Richard! With over 1500 followers, following almost 1600, and nearly 2700 updates; it is fair to say Richard really embraces the twittersphere on Dells behalf. Notice the balance of followers to following ratio? It is indicative of someone that uses twitter as a 2 way…
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33 Brands That Suck on Twitter
Rodney Rumford
12 Aug 2008 | 6:01 pm
Brands That Suck on Twitter: I don’t write this post to be mean spirited; I write this post to simply call attention to brands and companies that are totally missing the boat and not listening on twitter where millions of conversations are happening everyday. Do companies think about or even care what people are saying about them, their products or services on twitter? If they don’t, then they are about to be rudely awakened soon enough. Brands and businesses have a huge opportunity to reach out & extend their brand and create evangelists. There are over 20 business use cases…
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25 Startups Using Twitter
Rodney Rumford
12 Aug 2008 | 1:35 am
Twitter has many business use cases. We have documented over 20 different uses cases. Many smart start ups are using twitter to help their businesses gain traction, engagement and awareness. These startups are building their brand and creating a positive user experience and embracing evangelists; which is giving them an edge over their competitors. They all have leveraged some of the following aspects of twitter in varying degrees: * Product updates * Feedback loops * Creating evangelists * Listening to marketplace * Announcing news * Having conversations * Extending their brands The best…
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Facebook Olympics App by Sun
Rodney Rumford
7 Aug 2008 | 4:17 pm
My Picks Beijing 2008 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Facebook Olympics App by Sun adds a whole new dimension to the Olympics. You can easily select who will get the bronze, silver and gold medals. It then tallies points and has a leaderboard. It adds a nice dimension to the Olympics and makes me feel like march madness all over again. This is a great example of a brand embracing facebook ecosystem with a useful, fun and engaging application. I am glad to see a prominent brand like sun embrace he ecosystem with an application that people will really appreciate. I predict a few hundred thousand if…

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Daily Blog Tips
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Now I See Why the WordPress Image Align Feature Was Not Working
Daniel Scocco
13 Aug 2008 | 3:04 am
There is one WordPress feature that was introduced with version 2.5 that always made me curious: the image alignment feature of the “Add media” editor. Why? Because it never worked! I knew that I was probably doing something wrong, but since I didn’t have time to find it out, I just kept choosing “none” as the alignment, and then I would manually insert the right, left or center alignment attribute on the image tag. Then last week when I was submitting one of my themes for the WordPress Themes Directory I got a message saying that since version 2.5 WordPress…
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The Art of Writing Catchy Articles: 11 Simple Tips
Daniel Scocco
12 Aug 2008 | 10:34 am
This is a guest article by Rajat Bhadani. 1. Content is Important: If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them - George Orwell It’s like good storytelling – your writing needs to guide your audience into what you want them to think/perceive or they will create a picture on their own which might not be necessarily what you originally wanted. 2. Read Well: If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write - Stephen King The more you read, the more ideas gets generated…
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The Trends of Online China
Daniel Scocco
12 Aug 2008 | 5:21 am
As I opened my email account this morning I came across a pitch from a guy that wanted me to take a look on some handboook his company had published. Rarely I cover the stuff people send to me over email (else that is all I would end up doing here, since I get some 3 or 4 every day…) but the title of this one got me curious: The Handbook of Online China. I went to check it out and it revealed itself to be a slide presentation with many useful and fact-dense images and tables. If you don’t know, China is already the country with the largest number of Internet users, and by far the…
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What Is A Blog?
Daniel Scocco
11 Aug 2008 | 8:33 am
This is a group writing project. If you want to take part, read on! It is 2008; do we still need to ask ourselves what a blog is? I think so, and for two reasons. First of all we still have many misconceptions about blogging floating around the web. Pretty much every week I get at least one email from someone asking if I believe blogging has a future. My answer is always “as long as the Internet has a future, blogs do too.” You will see why I answer that below. You also have countless articles being published every week where the author suggests that blogs are obsolete, and that…
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Gmail Tip: How To Browse Only the Unread Messages
Daniel Scocco
9 Aug 2008 | 4:55 am
If you are anything like me, you probably have dozens of unread messages sitting on your Gmail account. I try to keep my inbox zeroed through out the week, but sometimes you just can’t handle the amount of incoming messages. Other times you leave some messages unread on purpose, because you know that you are only going to need them in the future (that happens when you run a contest or a competition, for example). Now when I first started using Gmail, I would run through all the previous pages in order to find those unread messages. Needless to say it was a boring and time consuming…

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Poetslife: A Z-List Blog
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True Reporting on the Afganistan War
Bruce Curley
3 Aug 2008 | 10:48 am
Casablanca, 1942Rick: If it's December 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York? Sam: What? My watch stopped. Rick: I'd bet they're asleep in New York. I'd bet they're asleep all over America. The Washington Post, NY Times, Los Angeles Times, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, ABC and the 95% of the media that is liberal (if we are to judge by who their owners and reporters are giving money to in this Presidential election as well as by their bias as they "report" each day) have misreported the truth about Afganistan and Iraq year after year.But when AP put out a story about a remote American military…
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Tornado Emergency Exercise
Bruce Curley
2 Aug 2008 | 10:52 am
To help test our local emergency response services, I was a volunteer victim in a County-wide (Carroll County, MD) disaster exercise on August 2, 2008. The scenario tested was a tornado touching down on a family picnic at the Farm Museum of Carrol County grounds. The Carroll County Office of Public Safety ran the exercise. Hey…life is short…death is soon…be good, work hard, and love…even when it hurts…
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Aqua City Resort
Bruce Curley
31 Jul 2008 | 5:50 pm
Aqua City Resort, a green, aqua world of spas, geothermal, and children's water park is:Blog of the owner, Jan TelenskyFacebook page of Jan TelenskyAt The Centre Of Europe A full member of the European Union since 1st May, 2004, and a state in its own right since its velvet divorce from the Czech Republic in 1993, Slovakia sits at the very heart of Europe where West meets East. Bordering Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the Ukraine, this small mountainous country is home to around five and a half million people. The predominantly Catholic Slovaks are famously hospitable,…
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Knol: A Unit of Knowledge
Bruce Curley
31 Jul 2008 | 11:05 am
If you Knol what you're doing, know this: Knol is the way to do it. Scientists, doctors and researchers seem to have taken a shine to it. Here is Google's descripiton:Knols are meant to be authoritative articles, and, therefore, they have a strong focus on authors and their credentials. We feel that this focus will help ensure that authors get credit for their work, make the content more credible.Knol has simple web authoring tools that make it easy to collaborate, co-author, and publish.It has community features as well: Your readers will be able to add comments and rate your article, and,…
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Soaps, Goats and Skin
Bruce Curley
11 Jul 2008 | 5:36 pm
Breezy Willow Farm and Evening Shade Farms hand-create soap, moisturizer, and lotion products that help the largest organ of the body, skin, last longer and enjoy greater health. I highly recommend both. They make their first-rate products from plants they grow and goats they raise on their farms.My favorites include: Blackberry Sage soap, Sandalwood soap and the Jasmine Absolute, the Ewe Are Marvelous Organic Body Lotion, and the Handmade Felted Soap (a soap wrapped in wool that is especially good for people with arthrites who can hold onto it due to the wool wrap).Breezy Willow Farm, West…

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PandemicBlog
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Social Networking is Not Just for Teenagers Anymore
Patrick Everett Tadeo
13 Aug 2008 | 8:38 am
A few years ago, the idea of gathering online to meet people who shared your passions seemed weird, because, for one thing the conception was you’d only find other geeks online. But these days, more and more people from different demographics are going online through social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook - sites where people create their own profiles, add other users to their list of friends, and share photos. But lately, online social networking has taken another step and has been moving offline into the “real world,” with people using these sites in new ways to recruit…
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Social Media Marketing is a Means, Not an End
Matt Peters
11 Aug 2008 | 6:30 am
A couple of weeks ago I hired a contractor to build my new house. I was very excited because this will be my first house and I have the luxury of building from scratch. I interviewed numerous contractors, determined to find the right one for this job. After all, building my house is just about the most important thing to me right now. I want it to be perfect. After weeks of interviews, I settled on the contractor that I trusted to build the house I want. About a week after I hired him, the contractor called me at work and asked me to meet him at the build site on my way home. So, at around…
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Viral Marketing: Is it the Flu or are we Infected?
Juan Gutierrez
8 Aug 2008 | 5:42 pm
Viral marketing, a colloquial name given to a subset of social media marketing, is growing like a wild weed. Traditional marketing giants like Unilever and Comcast, to name a few, are increasingly active in using the SMM tools to promote their brands and interact with consumers. One has to wonder: is it just a flu or has the virus spread so deep as to become a reality? I firmly believe we are on the way to a pandemic (sorry for the self-promotion), and SMM will rule modern marketing. Yes, we are infected (in a good way) and there is no vaccination. However, I still feel the virus is just…
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Social Marketing and Social Media Marketing, Continued…
Matt Peters
7 Aug 2008 | 1:09 pm
Introduction On August 5th I wrote a post about the confusion surrounding the traditional meaning of the term “social marketing” and the varying ways that it is currently being used in many circles. The idea for the post came from Mike Kujawski’s post entitled, “The Difference Between Social Marketing and Social Media Marketing,” so here again I give him a proverbial shout out. (NOTE: for any who want to read a fantastic post on the traditional meaning of social marketing, check this out.) The reactions to my post were astounding, not because of their number, but…
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Social Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing
Matt Peters
5 Aug 2008 | 6:22 am
I stumbled upon an interesting post today that got me thinking. The post is titled “The Difference Between Social Marketing and Social Media Marketing,” and it can be found on the blog of Mike Kujawski. It’s not a new post, but it raises one of my favorite topics: nomenclature. I found it via a tweet by the author today saying, “Wishing people would stop confusing Social Marketing with Social Media Marketing once and for all…” Back in June, Brennan White wrote a nomenclature post about the definition of viral marketing and described our viewpoint on the…

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Nate Ritter
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How to Build Community
nate
10 Aug 2008 | 5:58 pm
My friend Amber, owner of Minty Fresh Design, just wrote a short article about her little community. She just moved to a tiny little town in northwest Washington and loves it. In the post, she mentions a poster titled “How to Build Community” which I thought was pretty relevant for those of us who help, manage, facilitate or build communities online. Take the physical suggestions and modify them for online communities and you’ll end up with one of the coolest and tightest communities possible. Oh, and Fat Burger’s motto is pretty relevant here too -…
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Google Has a New Trend/Keyword Tool in the Shed: Google Insights
nate
6 Aug 2008 | 9:15 pm
Today I found a post from Lifehacker which quickly mentioned a new tool in the Google shed - Google Insights. The above image should look familiar to you affiliate marketers and 30 day challengers. For everyone else, this is a simple Google Trends graph, which is pretty and nice. But, Google Insights took this up a notch. Here’s a few other screenshots: Now, run along and start your new campaigns you little marketers. Have fun. Do good. »Test an HDTV in your home, then keep it.»Free Dinner for 2
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How To Be Proactive in Your Customer Service
nate
25 Jul 2008 | 8:56 am
Proactive Customer Service “Customer service is a necessary evil”. As I listened to my (now former) boss utter these words, I couldn’t help but think of the opportunities we had just lost. The C-level executives (CEO, COO, CIO) I’ve been privileged enough to spend some time with in my years as an employed grunt have proven to be valuable. It wasn’t that they taught me much about how to run a company. They were much too busy for that. No, these executives explained to me how people who are working in the company that don’t make them direct profits are…
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Meet Your Heroes (or get new ones) At HeroCamp!
nate
21 Jul 2008 | 12:37 am
Every now and then you come across people who are heroes. They might be a high school teacher who taught you how to think properly about the world or they might have saved a life. There are so many “ordinary” heroes in our midst. Each one does extraordinary things. Why? Don’t you want to meet these people? I do. That’s why I’m going to be at Hero Camp in October. If you were looking for inspiration, Hero Camp will be where you can find it. Will I see you at Hero Camp too? Don’t forget that some of the biggest heroes in my book are actually planning this…
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Finding Meaning in the Pérénees
nate
19 Jul 2008 | 7:48 am
You may have noticed the frequency of posting here has dried up a bit. That’s because my wife and I have been traveling around Europe for the past few months. Lately, we’ve been spending some time in the shadows of the Pérénees mountains, separating France from Spain. It’s definitely a beautiful place to sit and reflect - something we just don’t do enough of in the big city we usually spend our time in. But, with all the time in the world and nothing to do in our little village (the locals don’t even give it the courtesy of calling it a “town”), we…

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sarahintampa
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I Did A Bad, Bad Thing
Sarah Perez
11 Aug 2008 | 11:10 am
I bought an iPod Touch. Now, you may be wondering why a social media enthusiast like myself is out there buying a iPod Touch instead of an iPhone, and the truth is that it came down to cold, hard cash. The problem was that both my husband and I have a T-Mobile account and neither of our contracts are up until February of next year. So in order to get an iPhone, I would either have to pony up the full asking price of the phone ($600) or pay the termination fee ($200) and then purchase the iPhone ($200) with the new AT&T contract. While the second option seems the most reasonable, both my…
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Friday Fun: New Scripts To Pimp FriendFeed & Feedly
Sarah Perez
8 Aug 2008 | 4:01 am
FriendFeed Better FriendFeed is a new Greasemonkey script based on the work done by Duncan Riley and AJ Batac. Basically, it’s a bunch of great FriendFeed scripts in one. With Better FriendFeed, you can do the following: Add and remove custom tabs to FriendFeed simply by specifying the URL and/or favicon UR Activate Cleaner FriendFeed to make everything a little "prettier" Configuration is located at Tools->Greasemonkey->User Script Commands->Better FriendFeed The script creator notes that you should probably disable any other FriendFeed tabs scripts before installing…
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Lots of Data on Social Media
Sarah Perez
6 Aug 2008 | 9:31 am
When I was researching my RWW post this morning: “According to Study, Half of U.S. Adults Use Social Media,” I came across a pretty great slideshow on social media put out by Universal McCann (see below). There’s a huge amount of data in there, so I thought it was worth sharing. Enjoy! Universal Mccann International Social Media Research Wave 3 view presentation (tags: socialmedia research social media)
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My Gmail Inbox Is Filled With Spam Linking to Google Groups
Sarah Perez
5 Aug 2008 | 8:41 pm
You certainly have to hand it to the spammers – they are nothing if not resourceful. I have no idea how they’re doing this, but lately I’ve been getting tons (and I mean tons) of spam in my Gmail inbox. Not my Spam folder but my actual inbox. Although my email address is publicly available, it wasn’t until recently that I’ve actually seen spam in my inbox – usually, the Gmail spam filter kept most of it out of sight. Well, no more, it seems. The latest tactic appears to be using Google’s own Groups to bypass the spam filter. I guess Google doesn’t like to block links to their…
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Posty: Now Smaller With Identi.ca Support
Sarah Perez
1 Aug 2008 | 10:53 am
Other Adobe AIR clients have had trouble competing with Twhirl thanks to that app’s overwhelming popularity among Twitter users, but a little app called Posty has a shot. That’s mainly due to the fact that it offers the ability to multi-post to a number of services in a manner that’s similar to how HelloTxt or Ping.fm operate. Today, there’s a new version of Posty that fans of this app will like even better – especially since some of the most requested features have now been added – most notably identi.ca support and a new, smaller size. The full feature list of this version…

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louisgray.com
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I've Taken a New Advisory Role With ReadBurner
13 Aug 2008 | 1:09 pm
If you've been a long-time reader of this blog, you'll know that one of the most frequent topics I've discussed is that of RSS readers, and innovative tools to determine "hot" or most popular items - either on a broad measure, or by specific topic or vertical. One of the most fun stories to follow, for me, this year, was the stealth debut of ReadBurner, followed by its rapid ascension into visibility, its later changing hands and continued efforts to add new features and make it a standard for determining the best content across the Web.As of today, I'll be taking a more direct role in…
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Identi.ca and the Power of Microbranded Communities
12 Aug 2008 | 11:19 pm
By Jesse Stay of Stay N' Alive (Identi.ca/FriendFeed)Identi.ca, the open source and Federated microblogging platform, could very well put Twitter out of business as other businesses begin realizing how they can adopt it. I think the answer could very well be in the "group Twitter" concept that everyone keeps talking about and the fact that Laconi.ca, the code that powers Identi.ca, makes this very easy for anyone to do. I realized this today when Jay Ridgeway was able to show how to set up a simple Federated instance of Laconi.ca in just 7 steps. The idea behind "Federation" is that I can…
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For My Next Trick, Watch This Comment Disappear!
12 Aug 2008 | 7:00 pm
By Cyndy Aleo-Carreira of Shakespeare I Ain't (E-mail / Twitter)There appears to be an interesting trend appearing more often on FriendFeed: comment moderation. Users have been able to moderate comments on their own FriendFeed threads for as long as I've been using the site, and most use it to remove any spam that makes it through and trolls. But increasingly, I've seen incidents where thread owners are using the moderation feature to control the conversation and remove comments that are contrary to their stances on an issue.This form of censorship online really isn't anything new; many…
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MyBlogLog/FriendFeed Integration Fouling Up Google Vanity Searches
12 Aug 2008 | 5:24 pm
Practically every blogger performs regular "vanity searches" to see if they were mentioned on the Web. Some use Technorati, others, Google Blog Search, or Twitter Search. And Google has made it very easy to get alerted via e-mail if your name has been mentioned out in the blogosphere. But recent efforts by MyBlogLog's "New With Me" feature, integrated with FriendFeed, have resulted in an overflow of useless updates, whether you're searching for yourself, or anybody else active on both sites, adding a flood of noise to what used to be actionable search results.My pre-saved Google Blog Search…
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Disqus Takes Commenting to the Next Level
12 Aug 2008 | 3:06 pm
Over the last few months, no blogging comments engine has received as much attention, or gained as much perceived blogger momentum as has Disqus. While alternatives exist, Disqus' clean interface, tracking capabilities and the team's aggressive approach to customer support have begun to make them the alternative to standard blogging comment engines from Blogger, Wordpress and TypePad. As I previously documented, moving to Disqus has greatly improved the interactivity between me and my readers over the last few months, and I remain extremely optimistic about the company's ability to gain…

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SheGeeks
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TinyTwitter Gets Pics and GPS
Corvida
13 Aug 2008 | 8:24 am
TinyTwitter is a Twitter application for Windows Mobile phones and Crackberries. It’s one of the best Twitter apps for WinMobile and the one that I prefer to use on my Motorola Q9c. Today, the devs of TinyTwitter have pushed out a great new update with one feature I’ve been waiting for since I saw it on Twittelator for the iPhone: TwitPic integration! Now you can append pics to your tweets instead of emailing them. The second update includes Geolocation. So if your phone has GPS you can now share those ridiculous longitude and latitude numbers that no one really knows how to decipher…
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Be Careful What You Buy In The App Store
Corvida
12 Aug 2008 | 11:50 am
Boing Boing has recently written up an article about a very serious concern for people who buy apps from the iTunes App Store. Apple does not refund the money on apps that they pull from the store. According to the post, one customer tried to receive a refund from Apple for pulling the NetShare Tethering app. Apple issued the following statement: All iTunes purchases are final, and I am unable to refund you for the app. You will need to contact NetShare directly, as this is there [sic] product and we can do nothing with it. And you call Microsoft greedy…. Way to go Apple on great customer…
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Why Are “We” More Willing Than Mainstream?
Corvida
12 Aug 2008 | 9:41 am
After reading a ton of articles today, I pondered one thought, why are we more willing than mainstream to sign up for a bunch of services that they aren’t? We’re Everywhere! We’re on everything. We’re everywhere, and we don’t really care that our every action is published for the entire web to see. In fact, we encourage it through our usage of various services. We sign up for the latest, the hottest, and the best beta services. People think of us as the Matrix or something! While we drone all day about this service and that service,…
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Scaling Web 2.0 – Reaching The Limits
Corvida
12 Aug 2008 | 9:21 am
Last week Twitter implemented a limit on the number of people you’re allowed to follow. I’ve seen numerous numbers, but the common limit seems to be 2k users. While the limit is a work in progress, that’s a lot of (hopefully) great conversation to go around. However, for major players in the web game, or those who are rapidly approaching the 2k follower limit, will this cause you to switch services? Helping Out: Tips On Staying Below Twitter’s Limits To help myself not go over the limit, if I’m subscribing to anyone’s blog updates via Twitter, I’ll…
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Arrington Wants To Stroke Me, My Ego That Is
idonotes
11 Aug 2008 | 12:34 pm
While she was not looking, I figured a little guest blogging by Corvida’s partner-in-crime, IdoNotes (and on Twitter) was required. So here I am. Mainly when Michael Arrington offers to stroke my ego in a recent TechCrunch article. The main point of his article was the following, and is the focus of my rant in return: We need a Fake Follow on Twitter and a related Fake Subscribe on FriendFeed…. The entire point is to reduce the stress to reciprocate friendship unless you actually want to. I really like watching what people have to say, if they say something important. …

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Broadcasting Brain
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Another virtual hero - Rex Hammock
markdykeman
13 Aug 2008 | 4:18 am
EDIT: the phrase virtual hero is a reference to this blog post: I’ve only recently discovered Rex Hammock (at RexBlog.com), but I’m really enjoying his ability to say a lot without using needless words. Here is an example: All God’s children are media companies: The New York Times is asking, “Is Google a Media Company?” That’s a question debated on this blog for at least four years. For fun, I used to argue Google was not a media company. But, of course, they are. So are you. So am I. We’re all media companies now. The next link is to a longer piece, but it’s…
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I am a Google Reader junkie
markdykeman
12 Aug 2008 | 4:25 pm
Google Reader has definitely become my RSS reader of choice. I like its ability to show everything in one big stream of feeds in reverse chronological order. At this point, I’m only using Netvibes, my previous favorite, for some podcast subscriptions and a few other off-topic subscriptions. I’ve only recently begun using the Shared Items functionality in Google Reader, but I’m liking it more and more. FYI, here’s a snapshot of some of my Google Reader activity:
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Words of wisdom from the blogosphere
markdykeman
12 Aug 2008 | 9:11 am
Steve Spalding provides a very important life lesson for everyone, especially those of us in social media, blogging, creative work, etc. From the post: Learn to be patient. Learn to be patient in everything that you do. Learn to be patient when life is looking up, and learn to be patient when everything is going south. Learn to be patient because nothing you do will ever be easy and patience is the only skill that is guaranteed to pull you out of the muck. Well said, Steve.
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The Numbers Guy on six degrees of separation
markdykeman
11 Aug 2008 | 9:16 am
Carl Bialik’s Wall Street Journal blog The Numbers Guy takes a look at the whole six degrees of separation phenomenon that I discussed at length a couple of weeks ago. In my posts, I discussed ways to eliminate degrees of separation between individuals, mainly through the Internet or Web. Carl looks specifically at the Microsoft Messenger experiment of June 2006 which tried to calculate an average degrees of separation between Messenger users. The Messenger study arrived at a value close to 7. If you believed news reports this week, you’d think that the six-degrees theory — first…
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Thought for the week - read a book
markdykeman
11 Aug 2008 | 2:00 am
Do yourself a favor this week: read a book. Don’t read an eBook, don’t use an online viewer like a Kindle, don’t read magazines or articles. Read a book. It can be fiction or non-fiction. You can know the material intimately or not at all, but the latter is preferable. Try to read every word on every page. Don’t skim, don’t scan. Read. Take some time to think about what you’ve read. At the end of the week, you can take some satisfaction in knowing that you: a) spent less time online b) exercised your brain differently c) quite possibly…

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socialutions
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Is It We The Peoples?
Jay Deragon
13 Aug 2008 | 5:38 am
The construct of our virtual community has people learning to unite around common causes, topics and the conversations abound. History has shown a pattern of power shifts fueled by conversations united, focused and pointed at specific desires for change voiced by the collective peoples. Today the web is enabling a stronger unification of voices whose influence is reaching epic proportion. Whether the voices speak to global issues of concern, corporate behavior or reactions to the news of the day, threads of conversations by the people stream without boundaries and build momentum of influence.
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What Is The New Exchange?
Jay Deragon
12 Aug 2008 | 2:36 pm
The exchange of information about anything, everything and anyone is growing at exponential rates. Never before has mankind been enable to “exchange” so much information so rapidly and with so many people as today. This exchange brings a variety of new dynamics, new markets and the possibility of a new economy with different measures. In an early post titled Competing for Our Conversations? we expressed: Our conversations are representations of commerce. Commerce follows value and value is created from knowledge. Where ever you find conversations that add value you find an…
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Where is The Market Wisdom?
Jay Deragon
12 Aug 2008 | 2:36 am
Ever wonder what is being learned from the social web?Is there any sign of new wisdom? Anything new being learned?If so where is this wisdom in the marketplace? According to a CMO Council survey of 800 senior marketers, 37.6 percent of respondents say annual budgets will not change in 2008, while 33.1 percent expect to increase spend by up to five percent, and almost 10 percent say their budgets will grow between six and 10 percent. Only 7.6 percent expect to see budget increases greater than 11 percent. Last year 52.6% of global marketers had budgets that equaled less than 4% of revenue and…
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How Profound is It?
Jay Deragon
11 Aug 2008 | 2:16 am
All this “social stuff” is creating a transformation of knowledge, management, media, technology and individual choices. The prevailing cultures that are driving all business must undergo transformation in order to survive. In order to understand a transformation one must look from the outside in. The transformation is profound and driven by collective knowledge shared, gained and applied. Profound Knowledge of the Networked World is the never ending process of learning the dynamics of Socialutions and applying the learning to the creation of new knowledge Profound Knowledge is gained…
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Turned UpSide Down?
Jay Deragon
10 Aug 2008 | 3:24 am
The term media has many different definitions. Published media is any media made available to the public. Mass media refers to all means of mass communication. Broadcast media refers to communications delivered over mass electronic communication networks. News media refers to mass media focused on communicating news. Media meshing refers to the act of combining multiple independent pieces of communication media to enrich an information consumer’s experience. New media refers to media that can only be created or used with the aid of modern computer processing power. The history of…

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Ryan A Graves.com
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Hello world!
admin
9 Aug 2008 | 12:01 am
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
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Threadless CTO Harper Reed @ Spreenkler
Ryan Graves
6 Aug 2008 | 8:58 pm
Tonight I attended Spreenkler, the monthly networking event in Milwaukee, to hear Harper Reed the CTO of Threadless and skinnyCorp speak. The talk was really cool with a very open format. Harper & Threadless engineer, Scott Van Den Plas, gave a great talk about the culture at Threadless and how it is possible to keep a start-up culture at a company of 60+ that is well past the start-up category. “Hey duck…(4 paint balls splash your monitor)“, is not an uncommon scene around the office says Harper. “It really is fun but we get our shit done.” When a company…
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From ‘The Wolrd Is Flat’
Ryan Graves
6 Aug 2008 | 5:23 am
I’m currently reading The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman. This quote really stood out to me this morning and is interesting to think about…I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts on this. “In China Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In the US Britney Spears is Britney Spears, and that is the problem.”
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Ryan G TV #17 - Redecoration
Ryan Graves
5 Aug 2008 | 9:19 pm
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BarCampMilwaukee3
Ryan Graves
5 Aug 2008 | 5:14 am
BarCampMilwaukee3 Planning is underway for BarCampMilwaukee3 (aka BCMKE3) which is happening in the Fall of 2008. Here’s the critical details you need to know. Date: October 4th/5th 2008 Location: Bucketworks Start time: 10am Saturday October 4th End time: 5pm Sunday October 5th Pre-party: October 3rd, 2008 - Location TBD

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Everyone's Blog Posts - PitchEngine
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Are Good Old Boys Loosing?
Jay Deragon
The recent disclosure of John Edwards affair has dominated the news lately. Originally disclosed by The National Enquirer the story is now being covered by every major news outlet on the planet. The New York Times reported : “It was the encounter that would unceremoniously hoist former Senator John Edwards’s extramarital affair into full public view: a visit last month with the woman and her baby in a hotel room in Beverly Hills, Calif., where Mr. Edwards was confronted by reporters for The National Enquirer as he tried to leave the building.” On the Sunday night Fox News show…
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What is the appropriate length for a blog post and how frequent should bloggers post?
Martin Diano
What is the appropriate length for a blog post and how frequent should bloggers post? Opinions and anecdotes are sought for an upcoming article focusing on these two thorny issues, of which there is no apparent unanimity in the blogosphere. Please include links to any third party citations and statistics if there are used in support of your opinion and/or anecdote. The comments selected for the piece will include full attribution and a link to your blog (if you are a PR agency/publicist a link your client's blog). Respond directly by email to: moc.liamG|onaiDnitraM#moc.liamG|onaiDnitraM Deadline for submission is…
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Defining PitchEngine
Jason Kintzler
It hasn't been a week yet, but the alpha testing for PitchEngine is humming along nicely. Your feedback has been very helpful and we continue to make tweaks in response. In just a few days, we'll be adding some new features and taking PitchEngine to public beta status. Before we do, I wanted to clarify some details, and more importantly reinforce my commitment to changing media relations for good. What is PitchEngine? First, what PitchEngine is not: - A distribution or wire service for traditional press releases. - A news vetter. Your releases don't go through an approval process. Currently,…
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Can I keep this up?
Gee Ekachai
Well, as you can see, I've added Pitch Engine, in addition to a few other PR-related sites and social media apps I dived into in the past few weeks. I like tweetdeck pretty well. And now I've unlocked my Twiiter's updates, I have bunch of followers! I have no idea how that happened. But I have to admit that I found a lot of useful info from some tweets. The question is, how can I keep this up?
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It's 3 a.m. are you checking your email?
Gee Ekachai
That's the cute headline of the AOL news release on July 30, 2008. According to AOL annual Email Addiction Survey, 46% of email users said they're hooked on email (up from just 15% last year) and 51% check their email four or more times a day. One in five said they check their email more than 10 times a day. Yep, I am among "one in five" addicts!

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THINKing
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Stop The Funeral
Harry Hoover
13 Aug 2008 | 6:12 am
Email is not dead, no matter what you have heard from other sources. So, let’s stop the funeral right now. I was talking about this last night with a friend whose brother is interested in starting an email program for his small business. My advice: start the program from a customer retention perspective. More on this in a moment. This much maligned business communication tool has its merits, even if it has been misused by misdirected and even malicious marketers. Just because a bunch of spammers are clogging in-boxes everywhere doesn’t serve as a death knell for this solid…
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Fighting For The Middle Ground
Harry Hoover
12 Aug 2008 | 5:45 am
No organization will ever have 100 percent approval. There will always be roughly 30 percent of a constituency against what you are doing and 30 percent happy with where you are going. The battle is always for the mind of the middle, the undecideds. Public relations - when practiced correctly - can help you win the middle ground and even smooth the ruffled feathers of those against you. Ikea in Red Hook, Brooklyn is a PR case in point. The story as reported in Reveries, Panic and resistance have given way to acceptance and even some grudging praise, as the new big-box Ikea store in Red Hook,…
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Dusty Archives - August 2008 Edition
Harry Hoover
11 Aug 2008 | 5:17 am
If I must say so myself, we have posted some very good articles here in THINKing over the years. So, from time to time I dredge the archives for items you may have missed. Here is this month’s edition from the Dusty Archives: Top 17 Media Relations Links Six Tips For Perfect Email Pitches Great Employees = Passionate Consumers RSS 101 Advertising Is Dead. Long Live PR bookmark to:
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THINKing Is Knocked Out
Harry Hoover
9 Aug 2008 | 6:56 am
Photo By loura (Flickr) Congratulations to Rohit Bhargava and his Influential Marketing blog for moving ahead in the PRWeek Blog Competition. He won against us 51% to 49%. Here are the rest of the winners as reported in PRWeek: (A) Round one - ended Wednesday, August 6, midnight Digital Influence Mapping Blog defeats Your PR Guy 51% to 49% Pit Bulls and Labradors defeats PR 2.0 51% to 49% * - The score was knotted 50%-50% at 11:59 EST - the score then went to 51%-49% Pitt Bulls at 12:05 and stayed that way at 12:10, at which time PRWeek called the competition. Unfortunately, a screen grab was…
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IMHO
Harry Hoover
8 Aug 2008 | 12:50 pm
IMHO, the op-ed piece still presents an excellent opportunity to organizations to make their point in the court of public opinion. In a PRWeek article entitled, Op-Eds Remain Window To Influencers author Rose Gordon tells us, A review of nearly 400 Op-Eds penned by academics in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Newark, NJ’s Star-Ledger, found that the vast majority of the opinion pieces agreed with the editorial position of the paper in which they appeared. The study showed, for instance, that 93% of the Op-Eds reviewed in The Times agreed with the paper’s editorial…

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Digitalia | Internet Marketing Blog by Firebelly Digital | Indianapolis Indiana
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2008 Summer Olympics Embraces Online Video and Blogs
Duncan Alney
7 Aug 2008 | 1:47 pm
Starting tomorrow, NBC will stream 2,200 hours of live events across 25 sports on NBCOlympics.com. Compare that to Athens four years ago when less that 100 hours of video was shared online. This year users will be able to watch up to four live streams at a time - without the interruption of TV commentators as NBC is hoping to see bloggers serve as analysts. Users can even sign up for email or text message reminders that will alert them 30 minutes prior to their desired programs starting time. Many of the Olympians will also be taking to the Web themselves to share their thoughts and photos…
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Is Government Behind on Social Media?
Duncan Alney
4 Aug 2008 | 3:58 pm
Not too long ago a US Senator described the Internet as a “series of tubes.” So I’m not terribly surprised that Congress seems to be the last place to embrace social media outlets as a communication tool. Case in point: The Franking Commission , a committee designed to oversee mailings by members of Congress, currently has rules that “prohibit members of Congress from posting video on a Web site with commercial or political advertising, or the use of taxpayer-funded resources to post outside of the House.gov domain”. What does this mean, you ask? Simply, that video of…
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Internet Marketing Strategy: Social Media and Consumer Voice
Duncan Alney
1 Aug 2008 | 3:11 pm
Just read this in the Society for New Communications Research: 81% of consumers believe the blogs, online rating systems, and forums give them a greater voice, less than 33% believe that businesses listen to what they have to say 74% of respondents based purchase intent on other’s experiences shared online 59% use social media to vent customer care experiences More validation for our stance that companies/organizations should utilize internet marketing, specifically social media, to be a part of customer’s & constituent’s conversations. - Duncan Alney
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Socialmedian Launched Public Beta Today
Duncan Alney
31 Jul 2008 | 1:37 pm
Socialmedian, a new social news network founded by former Jobster CEO Jason Goldberg, opened its website to the public today. The site is made up of many News Networks, each based around a topic (like “iPhone”), a set of related topics (like “social media and Internet marketing”), or a particular grouping of people (like “marketing directors”). Join the networks that reflect your interests to discover and share information with other people like you. Socialmedian’s members can create and join News Networks on any topic – allowing people with common interests to easily discover…
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Things That Make For Good Viral Videos
Duncan Alney
29 Jul 2008 | 8:02 am
Since camera phones and Flips have brought video creation capabilities to the masses, video clips are being spread at an increasing rate every day through email, instant messages, text messages, blogs, video sharing sites, and word of mouth. Its certainly not out-of-the ordinary to watch one or several videos in a day (for us Firebelly people anyway - that get to be analysts as part of our daily routine). The DNA of viral videos seems to include humor, creativity, unusual encounters, amateur news, and general shock value. Production values can range from broadcast quality to downright poor -…

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ConverStations
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Zemanta is Your Blogging Assistant
Mike Sansone
12 Aug 2008 | 8:10 am
I've been using Zemanta as an browser-embedded blog assistant for quite some time. It helps me find relevant images and outgoing When I'm working with folks on my computer, they "ooh" and "aah" at how many resources Zemanta offers up as potential add-ons in the form of images and relevant links. Images: Relevant images from sources such as Flickr, Wikipedia, and Daylife - all with Creative Commons licensing. Links: Relevant links from authors, blogs and websites whose publishers also use Zemanta. Important to note: If you use Zemanta, your articles will appear in those lists so others can use…
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Quotes n Notes: Mediocrity
Mike Sansone
11 Aug 2008 | 6:19 am
"A mild-mannered message - delivered to a mild-mannered audience - will deliver mild-mannered results." Mike Wagner In other words: Mediocrity plus Mediocrity begets Mediocrity. Too many speakers / bloggers / teachers / preachers get stuck in the middle, trying to please everyone. The end result is lukewarm. If they love you (your message), there exists passion. If they hate you (your message), there exists passion. The middle? Pretty damn near apathy. Kathy Sierra had this great image from her post, Be Brave or Go Home Much of the timidity probably comes…
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Going Long, Long Distance and Lifelong Learning - Dialing 8
Mike Sansone
8 Aug 2008 | 6:53 am
At Joyful Jubilant Learning, they are working on the series, Learning From 8. Without a doubt, 8 is my favorite number. I wore No. 8 in baseball, No. 88 in football. Dialing 8 was a short series I did (and should kick off again), highlighting posts from various writers that go deep and last long. Here's the intro I wrote for those posts:In hotels, Dialing 8 was calling long distance. In baseball, Dialing 8 is a home run. In blogging, Dialing 8 is a set of posts from a blogger that I find lasting long and being strong - the cornerstones.Update: The JJL team has been doing their own versions of…
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To Do, To Be, To Cause - Follow the Bounce
Mike Sansone
2 Aug 2008 | 6:02 am
A couple of years ago, I wrote about my To-Cause list as a compass for my To-Do list. The To-Cause list still works (the To-Do list….still working on it:-)), but I'm about to add a To-Be list. My buddy, Steve Farber recommended Karen Salmansohn's The Bounce Back Book recently. I've dug Karen's previous work, so I picked this up immediately and have been burning rubber through the pages since. Tip # 35 is one I'll immediately put into play" "Don't just write a "To Do" list. Write a "To Be" list. Karen asks, "What kind of person will you have to become to get through tough times and snag all…
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Another Day at my WWW Office
Mike Sansone
1 Aug 2008 | 12:33 pm
I got to the office early, as usual. Another day — another Panera. This one, in Lone Tree, Colorado, somewhere between Denver and Colorado Springs. While the Central Iowa Bloggers were gathering in heavy numbers back at Panera U, I had a quiet start in the atrium setting here. While the day started slow in conversation - that was a good thing for the to-do list. But you know me, it didn't stay quiet for long. A young lady sitting in front of me with laptop humming was approached by another woman with this question: "Do you know what a blog is?" Think my ears perked…

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Social Media Marketing
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A New Day
Scott Monty
5 Aug 2008 | 2:56 pm
I'm very excited about tomorrow. We're trying something a little different at Ford for our 2009 Model Year media day. I've only been on the new job for three weeks, so this isn't necessarily the most robust program, but I'm proud to say that we're including a number of bloggers.My belief is that bloggers - the new influencers - should be treated just like media, as they're publishers, they've got communities that care about what they think, and most of all, they're real people with real opinions. I wanted them to be able to get the inside scoop that traditional journalists are privy to.In…
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A Little Plaid Goes a Long Way
Scott Monty
5 Aug 2008 | 3:37 am
I'm a little late with this post (as I am with a number of posts - I apologize for that; my life is getting back on track after the move to Michigan). But it's something I wanted to bring to your attention.As I mentioned in April, the team at Plaid was planning their 2nd annual cross-country trip, heralded as Plaid Nation. Done with their usual style of humor and irreverence, this is a social-media-meets-face-to-face campaign that's worth noting.If you're not familiar with what Plaid Nation is, it's 5 people from Plaid (an ultra cool and fantastic agency to work with - I had the pleasure of…
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Advertising Age Hopelessly Stuck in the Past
Scott Monty
3 Aug 2008 | 5:48 am
I've had it with AdAge.com. Don't get me wrong - they've got great content and are always exploring trends and issues in the advertising and marketing world in the way that few other publications can or do.But for all of the space they give to digital marketing, it's clear that they just don't get it. I suppose I can't fault them; they're a publisher that, like every other publisher these days, is concerned about revenue. But as they try to protect their position and demonstrate effectiveness to their supporters, I think AdAge is missing the bigger picture.And just to show that I'm not using…
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A Guy Walks Into a Bar…
Scott Monty
24 Jul 2008 | 3:06 am
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 with the idea, three to turn it into a strategy, five to execute it, and 300 to influence someone else to do it."Naturally, responses to my question were far better than my lame punchline. Here are some examples of what I received:@mncahill: 14,465 to twitter about the need for…
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Two for the Price of One!
Scott Monty
21 Jul 2008 | 6:00 am
I'm very happy to share the news that two of my favorite social media consultants will now be under one roof: Social Media Group, headed by Maggie Fox, is acquiring Livingston Communications, which is run by Geoff Livingston. This will make SMG the world's largest independent social media marketing consultancy.Both Maggie and Geoff have been friends for quite a while - I think Maggie was an early commenter on my blog and a regular correspondent - and Geoff has been on my radar for more than a year, especially with his trip to Boston and the release of his acclaimed book Now Is Gone.Social…

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Diary of a reluctant blogger ;)
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Yay!
13 Aug 2008 | 10:18 am
Excuse me while I take thirty seconds to pat myself on the back…Bmart points out that I am in the top five association blogs according to Technorati. This blog will be one year old on August 21. So, I'm thinking that's not bad going :)Step 2: take over the world. Anything's possible!
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ASAE 2008 Here I come!
13 Aug 2008 | 5:57 am
As I am tearing my hair out trying to get all my [stuff] together and finish all my association work and get everything ready for our YAP party and get my nails done and launch my own business and pack and everything else before I head off to San Diego, I thought I would pause for a moment and, as promised, give you another wee round up of things you need to know as you get ready to head west (or south, if you are already west).Here's my original schedule post.Here's a few others' - Jeff, Elizabeth, Jamie. You'll notice there's a wee bit of repetition, as we're all bloggers and therefore all…
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My NTEN Chat 8/12/08
12 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am
Last week's NTEN Office Hours chat was awesome! We had a great discussion about wikis and how to try and get people to participate more in them - perhaps give artificial deadlines, or specifically purposeful tasks. My favorite takeaway advice was that we should all "leave a trail of wikis" - in other words, if you use them all the time, others will get it and use them too.Then, we were lucky to have Chris Brogan , uber blogger and the ultimate "hot professor that everyone has a crush on" stop in the office, and with whom we continued the wiki discussion as well as got the scoop on his Project…
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Yo fellow Alltoppers
12 Aug 2008 | 5:50 am
Alltop now has a Facebook group, for us to hang out and be social together. Nice way to meet some other bloggers!
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My homework assignment
11 Aug 2008 | 6:07 am
On Friday, I asked if you would compare and contrast Brian Solis' "Conversation Prism" and Matt McDonald's "Definitive Explanation of Social Media" graphic.So I did my own homework assignment and thought about these over the weekend, and here's my take. I tend to think simpler is better, so it seems to me that Matt's actually may be more helpful - especially since there are new social sites cropping up all the time and you could tear your hair out trying to place them all in the prism - which actually misses the point.Because these graphics are only important if you can use them to show how…

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Principled Innovation TV
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3 Video tips from A-List Bloggers
4 Aug 2008 | 9:37 am
Check out these interviews of Robert Scoble, Corey Doctorow (BoingBoing) and Erick Schonfeld (Techcrunch) over on Problogger. They contain great advice should you want to get into video blogging.
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RIP Randy Pausch
25 Jul 2008 | 7:14 pm
Here's the background story about this amazing teacher, who died today at age 47. His "Last Lecture", given as a roadmap for his children once he was given a terminal cancer diagnosis, has inspired millions. Here it is again for you.
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Here's a cool nonprofit using social media
18 Jul 2008 | 2:07 pm
The Rainforest Action Network really knows how to take full advantage of the resources out there.Here they are on FacebookHere's their Youtube channelHere's their Flickr site QuickTime | Flash | Ogg Share by: vPIP Embed (copy & paste): close
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Hulu
14 Jul 2008 | 12:38 pm
If you are not familiar with Hulu, check it out. They have a channel on Business Book Briefs. They are short videos about Business books, put out there by BNET. Here is one about The Back of the Napkin.
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Friday Funny: Social Networking Wars
4 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am
Thanks to Lynn Morton for the find.

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RyanSpoon.com
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Google Analytics New Front Door… Is Broken.
Ryan Spoon
11 Aug 2008 | 11:22 am
Google Analytics seems to have launched a rebranded, new front door. And it seems not to be working. Clicking on the new “Access Analytics” button starts a several second process that results in a redirection error. Clicking on the “News” section links off to the Google Analytics Blog… which also doesn’t work and results in an error: “The connection has timed out. The server at analytics.blogspot.com is taking too long to respond.” For a free product, downtime can (and should) be expected - but this going on 30 minutes now (at least). Maybe I…
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Improving the iPhone’s Contact Management Product
Ryan Spoon
10 Aug 2008 | 11:14 am
While at dinner two nights ago, the four of us around the table started talking about our new iPhones… which we had all traded in blackberries for. After some apps were showed off and the general ‘cool factor’ wore off - we talked about how painful it is to sort through the contact album… which really is the root of how the iPhone operates as a phone. At the most extreme end, Vinny (of Synthasite) showed how it takes 20 seconds to load his contact list (which has 4,500 entries). Now that’s absurd on a few levels… but even my album of 500 contacts takes 5-10…
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Fantasy Football 2.0 Via My Blog - You In?
Ryan Spoon
8 Aug 2008 | 4:04 pm
I’ve written a fair amount about sports and the web… and some of my most active feedback / commenting has come through those posts. So I’d like to try something: organizing a fantasy football league through this blog and its readers. The rules will be relatively straight forward - Standard draft. Live in San Francisco for any of the techies who live here. Those not in the Bay Area can conference in. - 10-12 teams depending on interest / feedback - Each team / manager (or more likely his / her company) will be profiled on this blog - League will be managed through ESPN…
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Facebook is Gunning for Twitter & FriendFeed - I Might be Converting
Ryan Spoon
7 Aug 2008 | 11:30 pm
I love Twitter. I’ve come to love FriendFeed. And I really love my new iPhone 3G. And I’ve never been a huge Facebook user. All of these come together thanks to Apple and my new iPhone. After installing the Facebook App (which now has 1,000,000+ unique users by the way), I’ve slowly become more attracted to the Facebook Feed updater than to the Twitterific App. I still don’t fully understand why, but I do understand the three following points: 1) My network seems to be updating their stream more regularly through Facebook than through Twitter 2) I actually know all of…
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Why Toyota’s Scion Campaign Resonates with the Social Web
Ryan Spoon
7 Aug 2008 | 11:03 pm
While watching TV, I just came across the latest Toyota Scion television campaign “United by Individuality” and it strangely tied up several of the last week’s conversations for me. While at SpaceCamp and through over various other email exchanges / phone calls, I’ve engaged in several discussions about what makes virtual worlds like Gaia so popular… and their business models so effective. The answer is captured very well in Toyota’s campaign, which screams, “individuality!” If the fabric of the social web is about tying personalities and…

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Web 2.0 & Social Media
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What’s Web 3.0?
moc.yentihwnaed|naed#moc.yentihwnaed|naed (Dean Whitney)
13 Aug 2008 | 7:29 am
Web 3.0 is commonly associated with semantic web technologies. Semantic web is all self-describing data defined by facets, predicates and authority… listing to the experts at MIT discuss the… Dean Whitney is an executive at Digitas where he helps leading brands develop internet solutions specializing in Web 2.0.
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Slantly Opinion Polls
moc.yentihwnaed|naed#moc.yentihwnaed|naed (Dean Whitney)
1 Jul 2008 | 7:50 am
Consumer voice, user generated insight, word of mouth, whatever you want to call it - what’s the use of a web page if it doesn’t engage the viewer in a way that is meaningful? Slantly is… Dean Whitney is an executive at Digitas where he helps leading brands develop internet solutions specializing in Web 2.0.
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5 Enterprise 2.0 solutions for the workplace
moc.yentihwnaed|naed#moc.yentihwnaed|naed (Dean Whitney)
11 Jun 2008 | 9:31 pm
Web 2.0 and social media technology is adding tremendous value in the workplace. Enterprise solutions for collaboration and social networking in the workplace are lagging far behind, work groups are… Dean Whitney is an executive at Digitas where he helps leading brands develop internet solutions specializing in Web 2.0.
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5 great crowdsourcing solutions to let Web 2.0 work for your business
moc.yentihwnaed|naed#moc.yentihwnaed|naed (Dean Whitney)
7 Jun 2008 | 12:32 pm
The Web 2.0 technology brings together people from around the world to do more than just socialize. Crowdsourcing is a way to put them to work and innovative companies are creating great ways digital… Dean Whitney is an executive at Digitas where he helps leading brands develop internet solutions specializing in Web 2.0.
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Agencies lack Web 2.0 technology expertise
moc.yentihwnaed|naed#moc.yentihwnaed|naed (Dean Whitney)
29 May 2008 | 11:54 am
Small multi-disciplinary teams are proven to build the best web experiences. Agency segmentation of creative, media, marketing, technology often makes it impossible to build effective online… Dean Whitney is an executive at Digitas where he helps leading brands develop internet solutions specializing in Web 2.0.

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Content Nation ™ - Latest Articles
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Chapter 8 of The Book: The New Survival - Content Nation Redefines the Future of Humanity
28 Jul 2008 | 11:29 am
This is a really, really neat chapter to have written. What is the future of civilization in a world in which social media begins to dominate publishing? Well, this brings up the more basic question: what exactly is human civilization? I have come to realize through my research that the adaptation to our natural environment called civilization is a tool for survival as much as the bows and arrows of our early human ancestors were adaptations to their natural surroundings. At the heart of this adaptation was a key tool: publishing. The centralized publishing of early civilizations enabled…
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Chapter 7 of the Book: The New Society - Content Nation Redefines How People Live Their Lives
17 Jul 2008 | 8:58 pm
How does social media impact society as a whole? Far more than some of us may imagine. When everyone's a publisher with the ability to scale globally, the world changes. It challenges the very nature of many institutions. What happens when a tsunami takes more than 240,000 lives and the people of Content Nation equipped with today's social media publishing tools respond more effectively than governments? What happens when you can invite anyone from around the world to the scene at your local coffee shop or pub? What happens when markets really ARE global conversations on Facebook or…
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I'm Talkathon: Why Some Marketers Have Such a Hard Time Doing Altruism
16 Jul 2008 | 7:16 pm
As you can probably tell by my low profile I am deep into book -cranking mode, but to tide you over here's a tidbit on a recent new development in Chapter 7, which covers social media's impact on society: The folks at Microsoft , having done some research on the impact of altruism on the marketing value of a company's brand, decided recently to do a nice thing: they decided that for a limited time they would donate to charity a portion of the ad revenue every time someone used their Windows Live Messenger instant messaging product or their Windows Live…
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Late to the Dance: Google's Lively Tries to Bring Sim Living to Web Contexts
9 Jul 2008 | 10:01 am
Google's new Lively virtual reality platform is now available, a stab at helping Google to find a place in the expanding world of virtual worlds. In its just-up form it's not surprisingly a work in progress - Windows-only compatablity, a thin inventory of virtual looks and gear and apparent problems with memory management and networking - but there's enough to see that this is a different kind of play from other simming environments. Like the popular IMVU service Lively is not an entire alternate world with limited real estate and the ability to travel from one "place" to…
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Chapter 6 of the Book is Up: The New Politics
7 Jul 2008 | 10:03 pm
How do you write a book chapter on social media in politics? Carefully. Chapter 6 of Content Nation was a lot of fun to write, but it took a lot of weighing of different examples from around the world to come up with stories that were both compelling and politically balanced. But somehow I think that I've managed to pull it off. I mention no one's political party directly (only one indirect reference to parties at all), I talk about terrorism without using the word "terrorism," I talk about political freedom without using the word "freedom" - it's a big world out…

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Direct Marketing Observations
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Visualizing Social Media Part 2
emersondirect
13 Aug 2008 | 2:13 pm
I had such a good time with the visualization of what we all do, what we evangelize, what we learn and what we share on a day to day basis that it seemed like a good idea to show you a few more graphical representations of the space: Here is Deborah Schultz’s version of the social media ecosytem Then there is Fred Cavazza’s Social Media Landscape Next is Deirdre Breakenridge I know its tough to see, but it was a huge file. Or perhaps you can relate to this? Although, I always like David Armano’s visuals. Which ones make sense to you? What should be obvious is the…
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7 Social Media Visual Representations
emersondirect
12 Aug 2008 | 8:34 am
I’m a visual person, so I want you to be too. With that being said, I think it’s interesting to look at the many different types of graphical examples of the social media space. The first graphic I want you to see comes from Lorna Li’s post on 6 Steps for Creating a Social Media Marketing Roadmap & Plan It’s interesting to note that her bubbles do not connect. They merely float around each other. Does that work for you? The next is from Susan Scrupski’s post Circles of Expertise in 2.0 for Biz I like hers since they are interconnected, but I think that in…
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The Conversation As Transaction
emersondirect
11 Aug 2008 | 8:50 am
I recently read a post titled The social media expert, Who is he? in which Jacob Morgan espoused on the question we all have been asking each other as of late and that is, just who is the social media expert? But an interesting thing happend while reading some of the responses to Jacob’s post, someone wrote that the conversation, or that the interaction on social networks, could end up being monetized or transactional. I’m not sure how it went from talking about social media experts to dovetailing into monetizing social networks but it certainly gave me pause to ponder…
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My Wordle
emersondirect
7 Aug 2008 | 6:59 am
Found this thanks to Chris Brogan. The site Wordle allows you to create word clouds of your blog content. Check out my content. Interesting to see what i write about.
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Social Media Platform follow up
emersondirect
5 Aug 2008 | 6:36 am
I appreciate everyones comments and was made aware of a post by Jermiah Owyang from Forrester in which he compiled a pretty comprehensive list of white label or private label social networking platforms. Maybe this will help clarify things. I was looking at a very specific group of social media platform providers and not necessarily open source social media platforms or ready made solutions such as Ning. However, this does not mean that I am discounting the other players in the social media platform landscape.I just think that we need to segment them a little bit better since each offers a…

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The Engaging Brand
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The Engaging Leaders Phrase Book for Employee Engagement
Anna Farmery
13 Aug 2008 | 9:40 am
The words we speak say so much about our style, say so much about whether we truly have people at the heart of our management style. Here are 10 examples of leadership phrases that put the employee at the heart of your communication. Remember feeling valued is rarely about pay - assuming the pay is fair, it is about engaging with the value of the mind What are your ideas about…..? What are you thinking, what are you feeling about….? I would value your opinion on….? How can I help you achieve your dreams or goals? What obstacles do we need to remove together…? Tell me more about…? I…
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Podcast 184 - Engage Through Spoken and Written Words
Anna Farmery
12 Aug 2008 | 3:56 am
Show 184 of The Engaging Brand leadership and marketing podcast is ready just for you. To subscribe or listen on your PC now - both for free, you don't need to download anything - all explained at the end of the post. Don't forget to try GoToMeeting for your 30 day free trial! Today I talk with Frances Cole Jones, founder of Cole Media Management, who has just written the book How To Wow. You can find more resources at the How to Wow website. We cover Why research on clients and customers is so important. Engagement is an aggregate of small, simple steps. How the word 'You' is so…
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The Most Important Factor of Engagement?
Anna Farmery
11 Aug 2008 | 12:36 pm
…..the answer lies in the question. To engage, what you do and what your say, simply has to be MEANT. No matter how much money you spend on cultivating brand engagement, either internal or external, will not work unless you do it from the heart. That is why small things like a smile, a thank you, a few moments of your time…create engagement….as long as they are seen as genuine. So to determine how to encourage people to engage with your brand, first work out what is the meaning of the brand, what do you "mean" to convey. Then secondly do it! Simple…really. The only complex bit is that…
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Let People Prove You Right, The Power of Belief
Anna Farmery
9 Aug 2008 | 6:58 am
It was 1978 and I was feeling sad, walking round the golf course with Dad. I hadn't really started playing then, just watching Dad "hack" his way round the course. He turned and asked "What's wrong?"I said that my elder sister seems to have ways of earning money, whereas me…and she had earned another five pounds this morning. I suggested it wasn't the money, I just felt like a kid.Dad turned and threw one of his men's, full length golf clubs at me and said "No worries - here's a ball (worst one in his bag!), if you can drive the ravine (about 150 yrds carry), you…
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Humans are creatures of habit (even on the web)
Anna Farmery
8 Aug 2008 | 2:02 pm
As I finish off some social media research I am musing on how people, in general, are creatures of habit - I know this is a general statement but… People started in villages or small communities. Then people craved more, built and moved to cities to find the gold at the end of the rainbow. Now more people are tired of the hustle and bustle, the lack of intimacy and returning to the country or at least the suburbs - despite a longer commute. Mmmm funny how the internet follows the same principle. It started with small communities spread across the web, then came the emergence of all the…

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Going Social Now
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SXSW Interactive Panel Picker. Vote for me. I'll reduce taxes!
Shiv Singh
11 Aug 2008 | 10:29 am
The SXSW Interactive Panel Picker is now open. I've submitted a proposal and if you think its interesting, please vote for me. Here are the proposal details and the link to my entry. For some theorists, this is the biggest deal since radio. How can and how will the largest brands in the world harness social influence via portable social graphs? With primary research into social influence behavior and big brand case studies, this presentation will make your head spin.Cast your vote if this sounds interesting. I need all the help I can get. And just kidding about the taxes. Also support the…
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Avenue A | Razorfish to develop new Social Media Offering
Shiv Singh
6 Aug 2008 | 7:24 am
Today we made an exciting announcement to develop new social media advertising offerings in partnership with Pluck. The offering, code-named AdLife, will inject social media features like customer comments and user-generated content into digital advertisements such as banner ads or microsites - in effect, turning mainstream ads into social media opportunities distributed across the digital world.What's so special about this? It brings together two major trends on the web - firstly consumers are more influenced by their peers than by any traditional forms of advertising. Secondly, nothing…
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What's an automaker's social media mindshare?
Shiv Singh
20 Jul 2008 | 2:22 pm
A friend of mine, Ashley Laing has started a new blog covering social media. In one of his first posts, he compared the "social media mindshare" of the major automakers to their market share using social bookmarking tools like Digg and Reddit. The analysis gets interesting when Ashley breaks down the social media mindshare into three categories bookmarking, commenting and rating. The results conflict with a recent report from Forrester on how successful the automakers are in social networking marketing.Now social media mindshare is definitely not a measure of success but using the premise…
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Companies need Social Media Czars
Shiv Singh
20 Jul 2008 | 1:00 pm
Last week I was quoted in an Adweek article that discussed how large Fortune 100 companies are starting to hire new kinds of leaders to help them navigate the social media space. Talking about Ford, Intel and Pepsi, the article discussed the trend towards hiring social media czars that coordinate social media efforts across the organization within and beyond the marketing departments. I believe it is just a matter of time before most organizations either have dedicated roles like this or push their employees (or specially identified employees) to go through a social media boot camp of…
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Interview at Marketing Voices on Peer Influence
Shiv Singh
19 Jul 2008 | 7:37 am
I was interviewed by Jennifer Jones at Marketing Voices on Social Influence Marketing recently. You can view the video clip below. Your browser does not support JavaScript. This media can be viewed at http://www.podtech.net/home/5253/social-influence-marketing-its-all-about-your-peersI delve into how marketers should best use peer influence to their advantage and where I have seen peer influencers have the greatest impact.

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Stage Two Consulting
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Don’t Be Good, Be Great!
Jeremy
13 Aug 2008 | 11:24 am
I’ve written before on the importance of understanding competitive differentiators, a post where I made several comments about how having a good user interface (UI) isn’t enough to compete. I thought I’d circle back to the topic and add some more thoughts. First and foremost - having a good UI is important and really can make or break a product (TiVo vs Replay, Slingbox vs LocationFreeTV, iPhone vs every other phone ever made). Part of the question at hand is when your UI is an essential component to building a great product. Google, for example, launched with a fairly…
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Why Does PR Suck? Blame the Internet
Jeremy
12 Aug 2008 | 10:20 pm
Once upon a time there was an easy world where the word “media” had less than a few dozen definitions. We consumed our news in the mornings from our papers, in the evenings from local and national outlets, and on the weekends in the pages of magazines. Then the Internet reared its ugly head and virtually every established industry was disrupted. But I’d dare say virtually no sector was impacted by the Internet as much as the various content industries were (or should I say are?). Huge publishers now do battle with individual bloggers to create compelling content and attract…
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Update your software. Fix your dog.
andrew
25 Jul 2008 | 3:28 pm
I ran into an old friend not long ago, and as she palmed her 1G iPhone I asked her how she liked it. “I love it! she replied, “It’s like I’m in a relationship and it just gets better because Apple is always giving me updates!” It got me thinking. Too many companies (Apple included, with Leopard and MobileMe) are patching/fixing software instead of updating it to be more valuable to consumers. The above Microsoft Update is an example of something most of us have grown so accustomed to that we hardly take the time read them anymore–I can’t remember the last…
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Client News: 12seconds.tv launches today
David
24 Jul 2008 | 8:26 am
Exciting news for 12seconds today, they’re announcing their new public alpha. 12seconds is a video status platform for sharing moments from your life. Use a webcam or video-capable cell phone to record and share videos up to twelve seconds long. If you want an invitation to join the alpha, inquire here. This was an instance where we felt a press release was unnecessary. As many people have discussed, the traditional press release is not the only way to communicate company news. I certainly agree with Brian Solis that “the press release is far from dead,” there are many uses…
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Client News: Spleak adds 3 new content hubs
David
22 Jul 2008 | 10:18 am
Spleak Media Network, based here in San Francisco, announced some big news this morning - the press release went out on PRWeb this morning at 9AM. Three new content hubs have doubled the size of the Spleak network; GameSpleak (gaming), StyleSpleak (fashion) and TVSpleak (television) have joined the list, each with their own network hub. Previously CelebSpleak (celebrity gossip), VoteSpleak (politics), and SportSpleak (sports) were the topics of conversation across the Spleak network. All of the them are accessible at www.spleak.com, though of course most users create and consume content…

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Mighty Interactive
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Fire Eagle released today
Eric Reid
13 Aug 2008 | 11:29 am
Yahoo’s version of BrightKite - Fire Eagle - finally went live today. I am still toying with it, so I don’t have anything useful to share just yet. Except that Brightkite does let me send my updates to it, which is nice. Otherwise, so far, it’s hardly a replacement for my beloved BK, but we shall see.
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The Importance of a Good Paid Search Ad
Ellen Stevens
13 Aug 2008 | 10:02 am
While I was adding Mighty Interactive on LinkedIn yesterday afternoon, I came across this Google paid search ad: Pay per click (PPC) advertising can help to effectively promote your company in 95 characters or less (25 character headlines and 70 character descriptions), to people actively searching for the product or service your company offers. The fact that this PPC ad does not mention: The type of company (besides that it is online) The service or product the company provides A strong call to action specifying what a visitor will get or needs to do once they click on the ad makes this ad…
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An Update on Invalid Clicks and Click Fraud
Ellen Stevens
12 Aug 2008 | 9:58 am
For the past couple years, some of the most read about news in the paid search community has surrounded invalid clicks and click fraud. Many of our newer clients are unaware of what it is, and how we, as an agency, combat it. They hear about click fraud and invalid clicks, and then rush to us to ask how we can protect them from those extraneous charges, and how to find out who is clicking multiple times on their ads. Here is a great blog post directly from Google to help define invalid clicks and click fraud, and even invalid impressions. Since click fraud and invalid clicks became buzz…
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Facebook Worm, Part 3
Eric Reid
11 Aug 2008 | 9:50 am
Yet more news on the Internet worm that would not die. Have any of you been hit by this? Can you leave us all a message on what went down? If you can, thanks. The latest from Justin: “ <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable;…
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Facebook Worm, Part 2
Eric Reid
8 Aug 2008 | 9:39 am
As I wrote yesterday, our IT Manager warned us of a Facebook worm that is making the rounds. Below is an e-mail from him with updated information on this: <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;}…

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The Common Sense Web… A Blog
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A subtitle change for my blog… highlights from Seattle Tech panel on Acquisitions
Chris Treadaway
13 Aug 2008 | 2:33 pm
Minor, low priority housekeeping matter today… but I thought I'd explain. I changed the subtitle of this blog from "Making sense of Web 2.0 technologies, and what it all means for the future of work and play" to "The reality of Web 2.0 entrepreneurship and building new technologies from someone in the middle of the action." I thought the change was necessary given my primary interest (Web 2.0 entrepreneurship) and the fact that new technologies are pretty well covered by popular press and the blogosphere. It isn't to say that I won't make observations…
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Telemarketers, Twitter, and the critical nature of Permission Marketing
Chris Treadaway
11 Aug 2008 | 3:21 pm
Seth Godin had it right with his underrated 1999 book Permission Marketing… people will let you contact them through any barrier as long as they want you to do so. Take for example two things that happened to me recently: - I received my fourth call in the last 10 days from "Mobile Solution" (the douchebags at phone number 978-570-2394) with a recorded offer for satellite TV. I want satellite TV about as much as this guy wanted it… but perhaps what is worse is that I've asked these folks several times to take me off their call list.- I got a Tweet from…
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A Primer on Hyperlocal
Chris Treadaway
11 Aug 2008 | 1:10 am
Hyperlocal is perhaps a leading contender for “buzzword of the year” in Web 2.0. New companies and startups have latched on to the phenomenon, and you’re seeing more and more coverage as time progresses. First, what is “hyperlocal?” I’d contend that it is any application of Web 2.0 concepts to local, long-tail businesses. Many early definitions of the term have been focused on changes to media, but I think hyperlocal trends are a lot more profound than that. My old friend John Cooper, a wireless industry consultant in Austin, has been…
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A Mini-Epiphany on the two types of people in the startup world
Chris Treadaway
6 Aug 2008 | 9:02 pm
I usually take a half hour or so for a 2 mile swift walk in the afternoon when I have time for a quick break. Half an hour is good to clear my head & get me back on track for a few hours until I spend a little time with my wife in the evening. Today I was thinking about the typical struggle that occasionally occurs between an early stage entrepreneur and a venture capitalist… or at least people who would identify themselves more with one than the other. Specifically, I thought about a few interactions with a variety of folks who I consider to be my closest friends… some in…
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Quick Hits - August 6
Chris Treadaway
6 Aug 2008 | 9:10 am
More random observations on Web 2.0 developments over the last week or two: I think Google has perhaps gotten too cute with Adwords. I tried publishing some ads there recently for some keywords where nobody was advertising. My ads never saw the light of day because Google wanted $5/click… for ad space with tons of inventory and no bidders. Back in the day, if nobody was bidding on a keyword, you could get it for a nickel. I can't decide whether or not I think this maximizes their revenue or keeps them from making millions by scraping nickels off the sidewalk. I know there haven't…

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TwitterStars.com
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Twitter Break is Over…
Mark Davidson
11 Aug 2008 | 2:38 am
“Twitter break is over. Back to slaving in the hot, dark, social-media mine that’s hidden 5 miles beneath the surface of the earth’s crust.” 04:13 PM August 05, 2008
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The Path to Salvation
Mark Davidson
7 Aug 2008 | 9:52 pm
Guest Blog Post by junkdnafiction The late autumn evening air filled the monk’s lungs with a chill the fire around which he sat was unable to dissipate. The heavy-handed presence of evil he had experienced since entering the woods surrounding this mountain village had not bothered to conceal itself from him. “The hellspawn has devoured four of the village’s young women in the past two weeks, leaving their desiccated bodies to drip from trees. It feasted on their innards, rend the meat from their bones…” The village elder lost himself in his recollection,…
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Tweet Up Blood Drive
Mark Davidson
4 Aug 2008 | 3:33 pm
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Is That Ping You Hear an Enemy’s Destroyer?
Mark Davidson
3 Aug 2008 | 4:15 pm
I recently started toying around with Ping.fm. I belong to a lot of social networking sites and I have a pretty strong understanding of each. Understanding how social bookmarking, social networking, and social conversational sites can be used effectively is my job. I only actively use a very few social networking sites for my own personal use. The rest I have so that I can advise my clients on how they might use them to their benefit. To die with one`s sword still sheathed is most regrettableMiyamoto Musashi, circa 1645 I held off on exploring Ping.fm for a bituntil last night when I found…
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Twitter Followers Like Guy Kawasaki…
Mark Davidson
2 Aug 2008 | 9:55 pm
Many years ago, back in 1990, I was at a local book store and purchased a copy of Guy Kawasaki’s The Macintosh Way—The Art of Guerrilla Management. Many books have influenced me over the years, however, The Macintosh Way is one of only a handful of books that has changed me. To this day, I’m not sure whythe secondary title is The Art of Guerrilla Management when clearly it’s a book on product marketing. The Macintosh Way introduced a number of key concepts that I still carry with me and are now so integrated into my thinking, they’ve become a part of who I am. Doing…

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A New Marketing
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Weekend Hootenanny
Matt
10 Aug 2008 | 5:37 pm
Hey Gang. Just wanted to take a quick second to say thank you for taking the time to stop by and check this out. I really do appreciate it. Now on to the fun! Social Media on Alltop! I’m really excited about this. Late last week I was chosen by the good people over at Alltop to be a part of their Social Media section. I’m pretty honored to be in such esteemed company. They’re the big guns, people. Age of Conversation 2! So pumped for the new AOC! Hopefully you’ll all rush like wild-people to pick up a copy when it comes out. And then immediately hit up my chapter…
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A Definitive Explanation of Social Media
Matt
3 Aug 2008 | 8:26 pm
If you want Wikipedia’s definition of Social Media, you can find it here. I like the definition and I think it’s accurate, if slightly long winded. But if someone asked me what social media is, personally I’d reply with “Social Media is any new web tool or technology that connects people.” I’ve been thinking about it a little more and essentially, all social media can be broken down into 3 simple categories. Socially Created Content A lot of what comes to mind when people think “social media” is really just the Socially Created Content piece.
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Buckshot
Matt
16 Jul 2008 | 7:38 am
At this point I’m sure the difference between strategy and tactics is pretty clear. What’s not clear to a lot of people (apparently) is that just any bunch of tactics is not a strategy either. Think of it like a shotgun full of buckshot. Sure all the pellets are roughly the same size/shape and are flying in the same direction, and yes they have roughly the same goal (to wreck house on whatever is in it’s way). But that’s as far as it goes. No single pellet knows what any of the others are doing, none of the pellets ever work together or support each other. No pellet…
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Of Bubbles and Double-Edged Swords
Matt
14 Jul 2008 | 7:25 pm
Alan Wolk, The Big TT, is on a roll. Today he put a great post together on the “tiny bubbles” that we all seem to live in. He points out that while most of us are on the front edge when it comes to social media, new marketing, and web 2.0, the majority of internet users (and your target marketing probably falls in this range) really aren’t. I completely agree that we need to be aware of more than just what exists in our little space, and anything less would be a disservice to our readers, peers, clients, and profession. However, for New Marketers and Web Futurists such as…
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5 Slump Busters
Matt
23 Jun 2008 | 10:18 am
Phillies 2nd Baseman Chase Utley is slumping hard. The perennial all-star was in the middle of a great season, and then all of a sudden, things weren’t going his way. I’m sure you know the feeling. Maybe not belting home runs in a major league ballpark, but going into a slump, having the wheels come off, or just generally falling apart. Also like Utley, you probably also realize that it’s not the end of the world. Just like anything else, there’s going to be ups and downs, good times and well..not so good times. And the truth is, whether you’re cooking, blogging,…

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The Brand Box
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The Plurk Brain Trust
12 Aug 2008 | 9:05 am
Today, I was stumped.I was suffering from writers block for the blog. It happens. So, I threw out a Plurk to my friends asking about what they'd like to see here.The discussion that ensued was a rapid-fire, but deep well of information and inspiration.My very public thanks to friends Deb Robison, Sonny Gill, Te-Ge Bramhall, Justin Whitaker, Mack Collier, Eddie Soto, Donna Tocci, Naomi Meredith, Connie Bensen, Mao de Mao, Amie Gillingham. You guys - along with all of my connections on Twitter, Plurk, and everywhere else - are the very definition of community.So, stay tuned for a new post…
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Are your social networks too scattered?
11 Aug 2008 | 6:34 am
On Plurk, my friend Kellye Crane pointed me to a social map that Brian Solis of PR 2.0 did for his online presence - both the places where he maintains a presence, and those where he's simply in touch or aware. Check out his post about it here.So naturally, it got my gears turning. Since social media is so much of what I do and breathe every day, I'm pondering where the perfect fulcrum is to balance having a social presence with being so completely decentralized that you can't give any one community it's due. Brian says:The truth is that we are embracing new tools because they’re are either…
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ASPCA: Marketing For a Cause Gone Awful
7 Aug 2008 | 9:46 am
I'm a huge animal lover. I have two rescue dogs, two rescue cats, and would probably have a houseful if only I had acreage.But I cannot watch the ASPCA commercial that's been on the air now for several months. (I'm embedding it below, but I warn you that it's hard to watch, and might be near impossible if you're an animal lover. I had to stop it playing on YouTube just so I could copy the link. If you're sensitive, might just skip it and take my word for it.)It's been running on the Food Network, which is a favorite TV destination of mine. This whole thing is awful to me for two big…
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Blogs from the Social Media Fishbowl
7 Aug 2008 | 5:27 am
A few days ago, I was asking around on Twitter and Plurk about social media people's must-read blogs. After a good influx of responses and requests to share, here we go! I'm happy that while some of these are old favorites, a few were new to me. And of course this is not an exhaustive list and isn't meant to be definitive; these simply represent the 25 that were mentioned most often (most more than once).Some focus on PR, some on marketing, some on a blend of everything. Please add yours in the comments, too.1. The Buzz Bin by Geoff Livingston2. Chaos Scenario by Cam Beck, John Herrington and…
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25 Reasons Social Media Can (Should?) Be Anyone's Job
4 Aug 2008 | 8:07 am
Social Media is still a new thing to many people and companies, so I’m thinking optimistically - even aspirationally - here. There are most certainly companies that are ahead of the curve with the way they’re allowing social media to be an undercurrent of many aspects of their business. Here, 25 ways that social media can apply to lots of different job descriptions, no matter what you’re in business to do. Add yours, too, in the comments!Marketing and PRThis is the obvious category, of course, since these are the folks responsible for crafting, managing, and communicating the…

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Rahaf Harfoush
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Exclusive Interview: Video Blogger deported from China for Taping Protest
web
12 Aug 2008 | 5:44 pm
I first heard about this story from New Media Jim via Twitter. Blogger Noel Hidalgo, also known as Noneck, was in Beijing as an independent journalist and blogger when he came across a protest in Tiananmen Square by a group called Free Tibet 2008. When he was spotted filming the protest, he found himself shoved up against the wall and detained by Chinese security. Five hours later he was deported, with the flight home credited on his credit card courtesy of the Chinese Police. Here is his video below, which already has over forty thousand views. As you can see, the protest seems pretty tame…
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My 2.0 Life: Five Sites to Use When Moving to a New City
web
10 Aug 2008 | 10:46 pm
I have some exciting news, as of September I will be relocating to Chicago for three months to work on some cool projects- which I’ll be able to talk about very soon! Now I’ve never been to Chicago and was faced with the daunting task of figuring out a place to live, etc. Thankfully, the Internet came to my rescue, and I found some pretty great sites that I thought I’d pass along to anyone who finds themselves destined for an unfamiliar city. I’m going to be writing about my experiences in moving to a new city in terms of leveraging social media to find a place, meet…
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CommandN- Episode 143: Twitter, Paris Hilton & Eating your Feelings
web
9 Aug 2008 | 12:13 pm
Hey Everyone! Here’s the latest installment of CommandN with my friend Amber Mac. Direct Downloads H.264* MPEG4 iPod Video AVI WMV MP3 headLINES NBC takes the Olympics online Paris Hilton for President? Sweet deal for Daily Candy Sony bets on Rocketboom Wifi in the sky Twitter targeted by malware attacks techTIPS YamiPod Senuti Winamp iPod Plugin Lifehacker webPICKS Freedom cookthink
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The Foush joins Alltop.com!
web
7 Aug 2008 | 5:39 pm
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon Alltop.com, a really kick ass content aggregator that groups collections of stories across a variety of topics into individual alltop sites. (So for example: environment.alltop.com or marketing.alltop.com) I am pleased to announce that The Foush, will available on SocialMedia.alltop.com! What is AllTop? They have an extensive listing of categories, just about anything your information-addicted little soul could dream of. You can see the headlines from all of these sites at a glance, giving you, the time-restricted reader, the ability to quickly take a broad…
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Seriously? PETA uses brutal crimes as platforms for Ads.
web
5 Aug 2008 | 5:14 pm
I was really disturbed to read this article on the PETA Blog. Apparently, the people over at the animal rights advocacy group saw the brutal (and frankly horrifying) murder of a Greyhound Bus passenger as an opportunity to draw attention to cruelty against animals. Last week, Canadians were shocked to hear about the tragic death of Tim McLean, 22, who was on a Greyhound bus headed to Winnipeg when he was attacked and beheaded by another passenger. I was particularly chilled by this crime as during my university years I frequently commuted on Greyhound buses, and like McLean would get on the…

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NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network -
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Let's Get Tactical, Tactical
Holly
12 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am
In our quest to use social media to build a social media curriculum for the sector, our WeAreMedia project has already involved more than 65 people. You've been contributing articles, photos, videos, and mindshare toward a common cause. Over the last few weeks, our focus has been on social media strategy, or the bigger picture concepts an organization should tackle before worrying about the tools themselves. We have covered how to know if social media is a good fit for your organization, strategy mapping, meeting resistance, storytelling, engagement skills, and ROI.(If you haven't…
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You Just Need 52 People Who Can Donate $500
Holly
12 Aug 2008 | 9:07 am
You heard it here first! In last month's NTEN Connect, we pointed you to the campaign of Sean Tevis, a Kansas man running for the state legislature. Today, Sean was profiled on NPR's Morning Edition. Told that he would have to raise about $26,000 to be competitive in his race, Sean set to work canvassing door to door. Eventually, he raised — wait for it — about $25. Then, he had an epiphany: use the internet. Sean built a site that no professional campaign adviser would have dreamed of approving: a site for geeks. His first content was a cartoon titled "Running for Office:…
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Kellogg Action Lab: Making Change Means Taking Risks
Holly
11 Aug 2008 | 4:50 pm
Flickr Photo: Happy DaveLast month, I led a workshop on social media for some Kellogg grantees in Washington DC. Reflecting on what I learned at that workshop definitely informed the workshop I led for another set of grantees in Dearborn, MI at the end of last week. This time around, we stopped more frequently to talk about the tensions that social media adoption raises for organizations: How hard it can be to open your organization up to negative comments; Shifting from a nonprofit that creates content to a nonprofit that creates experiences with its content; What it means when the…
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NTEN Member Online Round-Up: Could NTEN Members Rock More?
Annaliese
8 Aug 2008 | 2:51 pm
Flickr Photo: Caro WallisI've come across a lot of things this week from and about you rocking NTEN members. The thing is, it's not just a lot of activity — especially for AUGUST — it's the kinds of things you guys are doing and saying that's so impressive. Here we go: Peter Deitz's Social Actions launched a DonorsChoose.org plug-in for WordPress, which is very cool. I heard about it because Amy Sample Ward not only blogged it, but uses it, as well. The Humane Society's Carie Lewis is profiled on the NetSquared blog. She's leading successful fundraising and…
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Successful Social Media Campaign: Tweet Up Blood Drive
Annaliese
8 Aug 2008 | 1:07 pm
NTEN Member David Neff, from the American Cancer Society in Austin, Texas produced this video to document a recent Tweet Up Blood Drive he helped organize through his local 501 Tech Club and Social Media Club. Well done, David. And congratulations on leading new donors to the blood banks!

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Internet Marketing - The Stratius Blog
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Watch the First Online Olympics
internet marketing by stratius
12 Aug 2008 | 7:25 pm
The last Olympics definitely had some online flavor to it, but live events? That didn’t happen. The Beijing Olympics is the first truly online Olympics, in the sense that the Obama Campaign is the first presidential campaign to really use the internet. It has happened before, but no where near this scale or value of product. I remember growing up and being so enthralled by the 88 and 92 Olympics. The main media back then was some prime time replays and newspaper clippings. I remember our family would keep track of the medal count by cutting it out of the newspaper every day. I…
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Obama to Announce VP by Texts to Supporters
internet marketing by stratius
10 Aug 2008 | 3:14 pm
The Obama Campaign continues to impress in their utilization of new media in this campaign. Here is the exact twitter announcement from the Obama Twitter bot: Announcing the VP candidate sometime between now & the Convention by txt msg & email. Text VP to 62262 or visit http://my.barackobama.com/vp Its pretty genius when you consider the immediate benefit he gains. One of the most valuable, after pieces of information in their campaign right now, will be given straight to their supporters. Its a great way to empower the supporters. Its right down the Obama “change” road.
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10 Free Methods to Better Blog Traffic
internet marketing by stratius
9 Aug 2008 | 8:06 pm
As we build out the initial character of The Stratius Blog, I am going through the motions of some simple internet marketing steps that I always put in place when launching a blog or website. These steps are the easy ones, the free or very cheap ones that anyone can do to take care of initial design, SEO, and Social Media efforts. These steps can go a long way, over the course of a couple weeks, towards giving you some good initial traffic. Make sure your content is good and they will keep coming back. Improve your design - Customize your header and graphics, use pictures in your posts,…
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Keep them Secret, Keep them Safe
admin
7 Aug 2008 | 1:06 pm
AtomKeep is a cool new online service that has a definite need for the truly integrated online users. AtomKeep connects to all of your social networks, job board accounts, professional listings and syncs them. One update, no fuss. I am still exploring its usefullness, but so far I am pretty impressed. There are a couple networks I am on that they have yet to include, but besides MySpace they have all the majors. And not including MySpace is much more likely MySpace’s fault and not theirs. My favorite use is the Job Boards integration. Allowing users to sync their social and professional…
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Congress Gets Social
admin
3 Aug 2008 | 12:34 pm
Social Media is fast approaching market saturation, or at least it seems that way. Facebook and Myspace have become mandatory for the young, mobile and even Corporate America. The Obama campaign has certainly made it a mandate that all future major political campaigns have a Social Media or New Media Director. Next up? Our Congressional Leaders. Qik (live internet video via cellphone) received a nice share of coverage today from First Congressman John Culberson when he used Qik to interview House Republican lawmakers and gain some insight on the discussion about rising energy costs and gas…

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PsyBlog
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Elevator Psychology and The London Underground
Jeremy (PsyBlog author)
7 Aug 2008 | 9:52 am
This vintage 'Candid Camera' style video of people in an elevator is a great illustration of the power of conformity. In fact the reaction of the last victim seems almost too perfect to be real:There's actually a real-life version of this set-up on the London underground system. Most of the lifts down to the stations let people in one side and out the opposite site. But sometimes they swap it about and it is like a 'normal' lift where you get out the same side you went in. A sign usually lights up above your head to tell you which door will open, but often only a few people notice it. So the…
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Six Degrees of Separation: Do We Really Live in a 'Small World'?
Jeremy (PsyBlog author)
5 Aug 2008 | 1:29 am
Six degrees of separation? Online maybe, but not necessarily offline.Arguments about the interconnectedness of human society have received a shot in the arm with the publication of a new study of 30 billion instant messaging conversations between 240 million people around the world. Microsoft researchers claim their results support Milgram's idea that each of us is only 'six degrees of separation' away from anyone else on the planet.1It was back in the 1960s that social psychologist Stanley Milgram found that he could send a letter to a random person in Nebraska or Boston and have it reach a…
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7 Myths of Crowd Psychology
Jeremy (PsyBlog author)
1 Aug 2008 | 2:19 am
"The mass, whether it be a crowd or an army, is vile"~Benito MussoliniHow do you imagine an archetypal crowd of people - say at a concert, a sporting event or a demonstration?If you picture an irrational, spontaneous, suggestible, emotional and even potentially dangerous group then you are in good company. Sociologists David Schweingruber and Ronald Wohlstein have found this view of crowds is promoted by many authors of introductory sociology textbooks. Indeed the idea that crowds demonstrate bizarre, almost pathological behaviour was championed by eminent French sociologist Gustave…
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How Beliefs and Values Influence What Tastes Good
Jeremy (PsyBlog author)
30 Jul 2008 | 6:49 am
Sausage roll anyone? Why meat means power, and (for some) power is tasty.'Meat is murder', or so the vegetarian's rallying cry goes. But according to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, meat also means social power, and, for some, it's the power that really tastes good.In this study, conducted by Michael Allen at the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues, participants were lied to about the contents of sausage rolls they were tasting.In some conditions they were told they were tasting real beef sausage rolls when actually they eating a vegetarian alternative…
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Are Boys Better Than Girls At Maths?
Jeremy (PsyBlog author)
29 Jul 2008 | 1:36 am
Answer to a maths question one confused (or perhaps brilliant) child gave in a maths exam.Think back to your school days and conjure up an image of the archetypal maths-whizz: striding ahead of the rest of the class, solving problems with ease, clearly destined to be a mathematician, physicist or engineer later in life.Chances are that person was not female, and considering how few women occupy the top spots in maths-based professions, your memory is probably accurate.Explaining this disparity between men and women has been the source of considerable controversy. Former President of Harvard,…