BLUF- Read these things if you want learn about Social Media. Bookmark this page if you to come back, because it will be updated. Don’t just read the email because you’ll miss the follow up discussion.
My list of the Top 10 Social Media Guides covering the state of the art for business. Included with each is my own personal Take away: which is the one thing that I learned or re-learned from that posting.
Blogging 101 by Susan Getgood- download the 56 page PowerPoint of the presentation she recently gave at SOCAP (Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business) International Symposium in Boston. Take away: Social media sites that aggregate ratings, like Yelp or TripAdvisor, have the most impact. I’m more likely to listen to the combined opinion of 25 people over the rantings of 1 angry customer.
Tweeting for Companies 101by Tara Hunt - includes sections on; Good Examples of Corporate Tweeters, Stuff to Tweet About, and How to Tweet Without Losing Your Soul. Take away: Balancing, Promotional tweets, with Personal Tweets, with Conversational Tweets.
A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon by Dosh Dosh - Simply one of the best blogs out there, IMHO. Dosh Dosh lists some great ideas you can use here for much more than just StumbleUpon. Take away: Try using tags that are more general and less specific; with examples.
48 Social News Websites again by Dosh Dosh - This post includes screen shots of all 48 websites! That kind of attention to detail explains why it’s such a great blog. Take away: this webpage has a list of over 380 social news sites. Most of them are a waste of your time: they are riddled with spam…
How Do I Get Placement On Blogs by Jason Falls - This example story/ almost pitch is a perfect example of the state of the art in approaching Blogs and Bloggers today. Take away: I’m NOT ASKING HER TO BLOG ABOUT IT! I’m merely asking if she’ll try it.
17 Social Shopping Sites by Social Media Trader - A useful chart that gives demographics on the 17 top sites covering age, sex and traffic of these increasingly important social comparison sites. Take away: No one my age shops for anything- lol.
Evaluating New Social Media Networks by CIO Insight - A wonderful primer for your evaluation of social networking technologies and new vertical nets in your neighborhood. Take away: Does it shift power from institutions to people?
AllTop Social Media - This Guy who’s kinda interested in Social Media, from what I can gather is involved in this site that lists the best of each genre in most popular online subject areas. What’s his name? He’s named after a motorcycle I think, but I can’t think of it right now… Take away: You ain’t noth’n till you’re listed on AllTop. And you’ll notice this blog isn’t there…YET!
75 Suggestions Best Practices & Resources for Digg by Derek Edmond [Late Addition]- An awesome resource with fantastic tips and links to great tools and other ideas for digging your way to gold. Take away: Don’t keyword stuff your titles or descriptions (traditional, old-school SEO tactics are not advised)
This list is entirely subjective and there are certainly those who will think the list is missing some important posts- let me know in the comments. You see, this is the web and I can “Do it Wrong Quickly” and then fix it.
BLUF Anti-Spyware vendor Kaspersky Lab successfully being sued by spyware creator because it removes their spyware!
It seems that spyware creator Zango is suing Anti-Spyware vendor Kaspersky Lab because their software removes Zango’s spyware! Zango claims that removing their spyware from someone’s computer damages their business relationship with that consumer (well duh!) And the stupid broken US Justice system is siding with Zango by letting the suit go on.
The National Business Coalition on Ecommerce and Privacy (I hate them just from the name) is siding with Zango. I find it very interesting that the Coalition doesn’t operate a website. Silly me to have thought that an organization concerned with Ecommerce would have a website! I guess that would require them to publicly state their purpose and goals. According to Media Post; The Coalition’s members include major companies like Eastman Kodak, JP Morgan Chase and Experian. Perhaps one of them can explain the organization?
Zango has been successfully beaten by the Federal Trade Commission. Here’s the kicker, the Sub-Title of the Zango article on the FTC’s web site is:
[Zango] Will Give Up $3 Million in Ill-Gotten Gains for Unfair and Deceptive Adware Downloads
When was the last time you heard the government say “Ill gotten gains” about anyone? Let’s face it, the FTC has a lousy record of successfully prosecuting anyone for anything. If you’re so bad that the FTC successfully got you to pay $3 Million in fines, well you’ve got to be extra horrible Zango.
As a New Yorker, (I live less than 8 miles from Ground Zero) I’m concerned by the dependence we have on computers and our abysmal failure to protect them. I feel that it’s everyone’s duty to protect your computer from being taken over by someone with malicious intent. It is inevitable that a cyber terror attack will come. And organizations with shortsighted self serving, “it’s not my duty to protect your PC” attitudes that insist on allowing this kind of activity to continue should be publicly condemned and ridiculed.
So do your part and help to publicly condemn and ridicule The National Business Coalition on Ecommerce and Privacy. If you are a part of a company who is a member of the “Coalition” voice your objection. If you are in need of anti-spyware, consider Kaspersky Lab because they will need deep pockets to help them with their legal bills. In other words- DO SOMETHING! Don’t just let this kind of crap go on.
BLUF: Watch the video. In the 21st Century we are not what we own, we are what we share. This is quite a big idea and will take a little while to sink in.
So I got lost surfing the net this morning. Oh, don’t look at me like it’s never happened to!
Anyway, I wandered across this excellent blog by Dave Henderson, eponomously titled… Dave Henderson’s Blog and I discovered this excellent post with a video that tells the entire concept of the Age of Conversation…
So this guy Charles Leadbeater, spoke at TED and writes a blog which I’m going to be reading from now on. (I’m just hoping to go to TED sometime soon, much less speak there.)
This video is what a video needs to be in my opinion; enthralling, entertaining, informative and successful in delivering the message.
Did you learn anything? Tell me about it in the comments, in other words join the conversation!
The Age of Conversation 2008
And speaking of conversations the Age of Conversation 2008 is shaping up and I’m working on my contribution. And I’m not alone, check out these world famous co-authors:
PS: My new friend Tim McHale Editor of Madison Avenue Journal, (we met a Blogger Social) has asked me to write for the Journal. I hope Tim doesn’t regret his decision, I’ll try to be good >;-). Look for my stuff there next week and I’ll keep you updated here.
1 Good Reason the world doesn’t need Facebook Chat:
My First Facebook Chat Was Spam!
Below is the complete text of my first Facebook Chat Session using the just released Facebook Chat Feature. Let me set the stage for you:
A lazy Saturday morning, nearing 11AM I’m poking around on the net and happen to have Facebook open. I’m surprised to receive my first chat request from someone named Nay. I have 645 Facebook Friends, not a huge number but enough to make them not all known to me. You can only chat with people you are friends with. So obviously Nay and I are friends but unfortunately that’s about all I know about Nay. Until that is, I receive the following message:
Nay
hi
how are you?
10:53am Chris
hi, i’m fine
10:54am Nay
that’s good
please visit www.freerohingyacampaign.org
10:55am Chris
so you’re just chatting me to pump your cause? In other words- SPAM?
10:56am Chris
you there?
10:56am Nay
oh! really sorry
10:57am Chris
you should be.
10:57am Nay
i doesn’t mean that i am pumping you
10:59am Nay
anyway, sorry again for bothering you
take care , bye
have a good day
Now it does appear that Facebook is taking precautions, I think. You can’t use separate Instant Messaging software with the system. And it is closed to all of the FB applications, but there is no indication if that’s permanent. On the other hand it could just be that they are releasing features gradually because you can’t chat with more than one person in a single conversation. So to have a 3-way chat you have to play monkey in the middle. And you can’t block any of your friends from sending you a chat- although they say they are working on this feature. And you can’t review older chats after you close the window- so if you want a record of a FB chat you need to save it immediately.
I guess my question is does the world need yet another online chat application? I don’t think so. (that’s another blog coming soon) Tell me what you think…
BLUF: Maria Carey, the US Secret Service, eBay, Twitter accounts, and why aren’t you doing more with Social Media today? If you don’t your competitors will.
Some dork has decided to sell his Twitter account complete with thousands of people who follow him. And people are up in arms over this. He’s selling “my friendship” on eBay. What’s a community worth?
Let’s see how do I deconstruct this in a level headed dispassionate business manner?
Get a f#$%ing life people!
These people behave as if they own his friendship. It’s the same as saying- my town owes me because it’s “my” town. Or, Maria Carey loves me because I love her! (wouldn’t that be nice!)
I am going to demonstrate my love to Jodie Foster by Shooting the President of the United States. I’ll bet that I have a whole bunch of Secret Service types looking at this blog right now. (Hee, hee; enjoy the Maria picture, boys, it’s just for you. My web analytics are going to be interesting this month
That’s the idea here- If I follow you on Twitter, Link to you on LinkedIn, Friend you on Facebook, etc, etc… Then you owe me!
WTF?
OK, that was fun! Now here’s the business aspect: Engaged people take ownership. They want to be a part of the thing that has become a part of their lives. So stop thinking about writing a blog, or becoming active in social media, and all of the other Web 2.0 stuff. And start doing it!
If you’re not writing a blog or connecting with your “people” your friends, then you’re not getting it. And if you’re not getting it, chances are are competitor who does get it, will eat your lunch.
Tanks for reading,
Chris
PS: Dear Secret Service, I don’t want to shoot Mr. Bush. That would put the Great Satan, Mr. Cheney in charge, which would undoubtedly be worse for all of us.
Since I blogged about the Bloggers Social, which most of my readers don’t likely care about, earlier this week I figured I’d stay in the personal vein with this post and get it all out of my system.
I’m in the final throws of finishing a major rebuilding my master bathroom. Now I’ve completely rebuilt that tiny (not so tiny anymore) room into a fantastic oasis in our home. And my wife Joanne who with infinite patience waited for me to complete it, has designed an incredible space.
Her most unique design idea was to take our old dining room sideboard that had been originally designed as a china cabinet and convert it into a bathroom vanity. It is a stunning place that the pictures don’t do justice for.
I’m very proud of the work because we did every single piece of it, the plumbing, electrical, framing, drywall, tile- everything! And it’s turned out fabulous!
And let me tell you the tile was a real be-atch! Diagonal on the lower wall, with a tile chair rail and square on the top and floor. We tiled from floor to ceiling. And it looks incredible!
And the shower is a dream- huge and spacious with the handle near the entry door and the shower head at the other end. That’s so you can turn on the water and let it warm up without getting wet.
But you want to know the coolest part? I put a plug in the medicine cabinet so you can leave your toothbrush in there to charge with the cabinet door closed. No little glowing lights on the counter. There’s also a plug under the sink so I can plug in my shaver too.
The thing that keeps my wife happy is the whirlpool tub. We’ve not had that kind of luxury before and it’s really fantastic.
So if you don’t mind now I’ll excuse myself to go take a bath-Ta, Ta…
BLUF- Animoto a free or really cheap service that takes a boring collection of photos and turns them into a really cool video with music. If you’ve got a bunch of pictures of people at an event or something similar this is without a doubt the way to show them to people.
So I went to the Blogger Social 08 this weekend and had an incredible time meeting the most amazing people in the universe. And no, I’m not exaggerating, I’ve met nearly everyone in the universe and this group was the best! Anyway, I digress sorry. So we went on this great New York harbor cruise. And I came up with this nerd joke and took pictures of everyone (in the bs08 group) on the boat. After the cruise I went home about 4 PM and I knew I only had a short time to play on the PC before I had to head back into the city for the diner at 6PM.
Now I had seen this video created by CK Kerley and this one too. And CB Whittmore suggested that I check out Animoto. So with 2 hours to kill, and wanting to put the photos up for the group to share I decided to try it out.
WARNING- mildly technical content ahead. I got the photos out of the camera and onto my hard disk. Then I realized that I needed to shrink them in size so I used Irfanview that I’ve mentioned before. I used the batch function to resize 46 photos in one quick job. It took Irfanview less than 30 seconds!
Next I uploaded the 46 photos to Animoto which only took a couple of minutes. And then I had to choose music. I checked out their music selections and decided I should have something better in my library. Then I decided after wasting 15 minutes that some of their canned techno stuff really would work best.
So back to Animoto’s music choices and I selected something up beat then I hit the Create Video button. Now here is my only complaint with the service. I choose the Free 30 second short video first. And it created a video that didn’t have all of my pictures in it. They should tell you that before you wait the 10 minutes or so it takes to create the video. Or even more importantly after the video is created. If I wasn’t paying close attention I would not have noticed.
After the first attempt I purchased a $3 unlimited video, (only $3 bucks- this is so cool!). Then I edited the first video and made a new one. The second video turned out great. I wrote a quick blog post, tongue firmly planted in cheek and posted the video.
Next I changed my clothes and ran off to the evening’s festivities. My only frustration was that the video couldn’t be viewed on an iPhone or Blackberry. But this is not the fault of Animoto, it’s the fault of Apple and RIM.
In about 1 hour I had signed up, uploaded 46 photos, created and then recreated the video and posted it on my blog. For this accomplishment Animoto is amazing!
However, the story doesn’t end there. The next day, I spent a little time playing with Animoto again, because I realized that I’d left out a few photos, (including yours truly!) So I had to upload new pictures and remake the video again. Then I tried the YouTube option and that also worked like a charm.
It was simple and straight forward. I have to say that the makers of Animoto have done an excellent job of creating an interface that is simple, direct and easy to use.
And please remember that I have no connection with Animoto at all (yet, call me- OK?). I had never used the service before Saturday. I found my entire experience to enjoyable and simple with stunning results.
Animoto is One Good Way to show off your otherwise boring pictures!
As an SEO I know the importance of tracking your visitors. If you don’t track them how can you know what they came for? How do you know what will make them want to come back again? So it is vitally important to track your visitors, but how can you translate that to Meatspace? I found an excellent opportunity to track the Blogger Social Team while on the New York Harbor Cruise.
However, this weekend I’ve made a fantastic new breakthrough in visitor tracking- Cookie Tracking of Live Visitors in Meatspace! And I accomplished this amazing feat on a boat cruising in the New York harbor!
“No one to my knowledge had ever successfully cookied every visitor to a live meat space event in this manner before!” said inventor Chris Kieff.
Now I had a compliant crowd of Bloggers who were all willing to accept cookies. Now some of them were concerned over whether it was a Persistent Cookie or a Session Cookie. I carefully assured them that it was a Session Cookie, however it may actually turn out to be Persistent depending on how long lived it is on the net. That will remain to be seen.
And so without Further Adeu here is the video proof of this successful technological triumph!
Special thanks to Lori Magno for helping me to conceive of the concept, and to all of Blogger Socialites who were so gracious to “accept my cookie.”
The last one ducked. Ha. Ha. Thank you ladies and germs.
The Inaugural Bloggers Social is happening this weekend in New York City. I’ve alerted Homeland Security that 80 bloggers will be congregating in the city, but they declined to provide extra security.
I have to say that I’m really excited at the prospect of spending some quality time with such a talented group. This is in many ways a fantastically diverse group coming from something like 8000 countries. See if your home town is represented:
I can honestly say that I’ve not looked forward to something as much as I’m looking forward to this in a long, long time. (Don’t worry my wife never reads my blog.)
What are a bunch of bloggers going to talk about? Well…. DUH!
Oh you mean besides the premiere of Battlestar Galactica & Cyber-Sex? Beats the crap out of me! I guess that part of the conversation I’ll just zone out.
This is the second part of this blog post. It’s generally accepted that you should read Part One before you read Part Two but in this case it’s not terribly important. So you can do what you want, (as if you needed my permission to do that anyway.)
BLUF: Check out your big “F” and see what your visitors are going to see first on your blog. Remember every link that you put on your blog or website is cataloged by Google, etc.
Last week I talked about a couple of points I want to expand upon here. First, that every link on your page matters to the success of your website. And second is that you should understand how people view web pages so you put the most important information (to you) in the most viewed position.
Every Link on your Page Matters
Let’s begin with a little basic SEO; The base currency on the web is links. Google et. al. count the number and types of links you get from other websites to judge the importance of your site. The best kind of link is a text link like this: The Best Blog on the Net!
Now you can imagine that Google was swamped by the “Black Hat SEO’s” out there. Once they realized this, they then went out and built “Link Farms“. I’m not going to bore you with the details but there is real Electronic Warfare going on out there. As I write this Google appears to be winning but the tide of battle is fickle and can turn at any moment.
While this interesting why does it matter to a blogger or website owner?
Simply that every widget that you add and every link you choose to include in your blog (or website) is measured and cataloged by Google etc.
