Socialized

DECEMBER 6, 2009

I read a blog post today that recommended people forget what they learned in school about writing, and instead, write like they speak, and from the heart. It went on to suggest throwing out the rules of language, not worrying about grammar and spelling, and more. I used to work at an artificial intelligence company that made foreign language translation software.

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Real Estate Microsoft Software Class 193

Socialized

JULY 23, 2009

In response to the madness of Twitter Follow Friday, I’m going to try something new that I call my “Fab Five to Follow Post.” Instead of tweeting dozens of random Twitter IDs with no context or explanation, I’ve decided to pick five of my favorite Twitter people and explain why I follow them, and why you might want to as well. Vruz is my good friend Horacio from Uruguay.

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Twitter Avatar Tumblr Blogger 190

Socialized

OCTOBER 26, 2009

I have a lot of rules I’ve imposed on myself, in everything I do. I won’t use a postage meter, for example, because I think an envelope with a stamp is less likely to be thrown out. I also have a lot of rules for how I use Twitter, so I thought I would share them. I was very deliberate when I wrote “rules for how I use Twitter.” These are the rules I’ve established for myself.

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List Twitter Digg Publishing 189

Socialized

JULY 3, 2009

You’re at a conference, the wifi is good, and you’re excited about live tweeting the next speaker. But have you ever wondered whether it’s “OK” to copy and publish someone else’s words and ideas? If you were at the movie theater, neither the studio nor the theater operator would permit you to videotape portions of the movie to post on your blog. On the other hand, the art of critical commentary goes back to at least Shakespeare’s time, so it’s definitely established both in common practice and i

Fair Use 184

Fair Use Web 2.0 Guidelines Policies 184

Socialized

JULY 15, 2009

A YouTube video by a musician upset at United Airlines for breaking one of its instruments has reached nearly 3 million views in just a few days, and is creating a lot of buzz in social media circles. United Airlines led the musician on a year-long goose chase for reimbursement, and finally told him “no.&# The airline reversed its decision and said it had resolved the issue, according to Times Online , last week, “one week and 2 million views&# after the posting of the video.

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Case Study Airlines Study Blogosphere 182

Socialized

AUGUST 22, 2009

I went to journalism school, which just might make me a “better” blogger. Here’s why I think so. First of all, I learned to write in the “inverted pyramid” style , which says “start with a lead that exposes the most important elements of the story first, and then work down the page to aspects of the story that are of decreasing importance.” It’s a simple way to organize my writing.

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Journal Blogger Eventful Research 178

Socialized

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Everyone knows e-mail is dead. It’s been replaced by Facebook, Twitter and online collaboration. Well, not exactly. And a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal didn’t say so either. In fact, it indicated e-mail use was growing, just not as fast as social network adoption. And MySpace is for “young people&# right? Nope. Though the available data conflicts, there is nothing to indicate that MySpace users are predominantly younger than users of other social networks, and if anyt

Social Media 176

Social Media MySpace Journal Collaboration 176

Socialized

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

What if the preferences for your favorite social network allowed you to pick one or more “blackout days” during which you could not log on? Could you get by for a full 24 hours, or more, with no access to Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed or any of your other favorite social media tools? (And you can’t cheat and use TweetDeck to access Twitter. The API would be shut down, too.).

Social Networking 174

Social Networking Tweetdeck API iPhone 174

Socialized

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

Location-based services — applications that “know” where you are and can use that information to connect you with people, places and things — are one of the hot new classes of social media applications. Basically, a location-based application allows you to check in almost anywhere on the planet and broadcast that information. Generally you can post a note, or a photo, at the same time, associating it with the location.

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Foursquare GPS Social Media iPhone 173

Socialized

DECEMBER 28, 2009

This morning’s Network World offers a list (also published in Computerworld ) of five “must-read&# social media marketing books and suggests it’s “time to get smart with these 5 essential books.&# I’m very pleased my book, SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate , is on the list, and Computerworld writer Todd R. Weiss says this “well laid-out book is full of great references.&#.

Social Media 170

Social Media Handbook Collaboration Review 170

Socialized

AUGUST 1, 2009

Technorati ’s new Twittorati (launched July 7, and not last week as some sites are reporting ) will feature tweets from what Technorati thinks are the top 100 bloggers. This gives Technorati its coveted “business model&# (everyone wants to be the Digg of Twitter), but it has numerous shortcomings in terms of presenting users with useful and interesting content.

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Technorati Features Netvibes Aggregator 167

Socialized

DECEMBER 30, 2009

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA ) is seeking public comments on its Ethics Code until January 5. If you are involved with any business use of social media (which includes blogging), you should review the code and make suggestions. For some, the business ethics of social media present a quandary. Organizations like the WOMMA, and federal regulators like the FTC and the EU are trying to make ethical (and legal) behavior easier with codes of ethics, new regulations, etc.

Comments 162

Comments Guidelines Blogger Review 162

Socialized

NOVEMBER 7, 2009

I recently posted my Brief List of 53 Twitter Rules , guidelines for how I choose to use Twitter. I got a great response, and one person commented they liked Twitter “because there weren’t rules.&# There are all kinds of rules, formal and informal, from a multitude of sources, that we follow every day, often without thinking about them. Some of these are legislated, and some of them simply come from community values.

Communities 162

Communities Twitter MySpace Social Networking 162

Socialized

OCTOBER 12, 2009

A piece on Forbes.com titled Are You Practicing Proper Social Networking Etiquette? suggests. “creating rules to cope with the ever-expanding reach of modern communications has just begun , but will be shaped largely by individuals and organizations, not top-down decrees from a digital Emily Post.&# (italics mine). The article goes on to ask, “(is) it wise to accept a colleague or higher-up as a ‘friend’&# on a social network?

Social Networking 162

Social Networking Web 2.0 Questions Issues 162

Socialized

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

Remember AOL ? And the plethora of free AOL CDs that filled your mailbox, were inserted into your favorite magazines and maybe even offered at the dry cleaner and the auto parts store? I think Facebook is on its way to becoming the next AOL. Just without CDs. Chris Hall published an interesting post titled Is Facebook Today’s Internet ? Chris contends that Facebook today is similar to the Internet itself circa the 1990s: Everyone’s clamoring to get on.

Facebook 162

Facebook MySpace API Policies 162

Socialized

AUGUST 14, 2009

When “pitching&# social media marketing and communications initiatives to management, there is a tendency to overestimate the potential response rate based on the sheer number of people on the Internet. Internet World Stats , for example, estimates as of March 31, 2009, there are 1,596,270,108 people online worldwide. That’s right, over 1.5 billion!

Social Media 162

Social Media Statistics Campaign Data 162

Socialized

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

Twitter can’t seem to make up its mind whether to serve up the traditional “fail whale&# graphic in the event of a system problem: or this abbreviated, non-fail-whale version: (I received both of these today.) Maybe each indicates a different type of error. Would you miss the fail whale if it retired? (I’m not talking about the end of system errors, just the fail whale as a mascot.

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System Eventful Types Social Media 160

Socialized

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

I’ll be participating Wednesday, September 23, 2009 from 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM (PT) in a panel discussion titled Brand Management in the Social Media Jungle. We’ll talk about the opportunities and risks of managing a brand in the world of social media. Here’s a full description of the panel. If you’re in the Silicon Valley, I hope you can come out: Bloggers and Tweeters Are Devouring my Brand.

Social Media 160

Social Media Brands Forums System 160

Socialized

DECEMBER 14, 2009

About a month ago, I wrote about my five social media predictions for 2010. Based on the comments the piece received, I’ve updated it and Talent Zoo published it this morning. Social media and careers are covered by prediction #6: “In 2009 we saw a couple of interesting surveys by respected organizations indicating that recruiters are increasingly using or planning to use social media to find and investigate talent.

SocialText 157

SocialText Social Media Foursquare Microsoft 157

Socialized

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

LinkedIn and Twitter announced last night that LinkedIn will now be integrating Twitter updates with LinkedIn user accounts. @LinkedIn tweeted early this morning “Learn how you can link your LinkedIn and Twitter accts together! [link].&# @LinkedIn even changed its Twitter avatar to mark the occasion. Reactions on Twitter were mixed, and Read Write Web was not impressed.

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LinkedIn Twitter Avatar Feed 157

Socialized

DECEMBER 14, 2009

A recent “ study ,&# and I use the term loosely, attracted a lot of attention with its finding that iPhone users are delusional. “Released&# by a Danish organization “Strand Consult,&# the study uses, among other things, a list of faults of the iPhone that users have had to force themselves to overlook, (citing the earliest models whenever possible) to make its point.

iPhone 154

iPhone Consultant Study Course 154

Socialized

OCTOBER 15, 2009

I was reviewing my Twitter follower list this morning and came across a potentially disturbing account tweeting what appears to be someone’s private information. I reported this account by sending a Direct Message to @spam on Twitter. The service doesn’t seem to have any overt mechanism for reporting Terms of Service violations, though apparently, if enough people block a certain account, Twitter may decide to suspend the account.

Twitter 150

Twitter Privacy Report Social Networking 150

Socialized

OCTOBER 7, 2009

I recently gave a talk at Golden Gate University titled Career Development & Job Search in a Social Media World. I talked about social network etiquette, the strategy behind building a network of professional associates, how to present one’s self online, and what recruiters are looking for, and what they hate. I’ve posted the slides, with notes, on SlideShare.

Plaxo 150

Plaxo Social Media Social Networking LinkedIn 150

Socialized

JULY 17, 2009

This morning, looking at what the Santa Cruz Sentinel is doing on FriendFeed , it occurred to me that I might be looking at the newspaper of the future, here today. FriendFeed gives the Sentinel all of the functionality a Web 2.0 enabled newsroom needs. The paper (how’s that for a term describing an online news outlet?) can quickly post a steady stream of news items and photos.

Web 2.0 147

Web 2.0 StumbleUpon Flickr URL 147

Socialized

OCTOBER 1, 2009

What is a brand, and, as caretaker of your company’s brand, how does social media affect you? The 1922 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines brand as: 1 : an arbitrarily adopted name that is given by a manufacturer or merchant to an article or service to distinguish it as produced or sold by that manufacturer or merchant and that may be used and protected as a trademark. 2 : one having a well-known and usually highly regarded or marketable name.

Social Media 145

Social Media Brands Radian6 Banking 145

Socialized

JULY 7, 2009

Social media just got faster. Immediacy is one of the Six Valuable Attributes of Social Media. We’ve recently had an obsession with brevity in the form of Twitter, and shortened URLs for example. The ability to communicate about something as it happens, as opposed to hours or even days later, is a big part of the appeal of social media. And the iPhone 3GS and Posterous represent the latest advances in real time communications.

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Posterous Social Media iPhone Smart Phone 145

Socialized

OCTOBER 22, 2009

I am among a number of people who have had list functionality added as part of Twitter’s beta rollout of the new feature. Twitter is promoting the feature at the top of the home page with: Lists are timelines you build yourself, consisting of friends, family, co-workers, sports teams, you name it. You’re part of a small group receiving this feature, so don’t tweet about it yet!

Yammer 140

Yammer List Microblogging Twitter 140

Socialized

JULY 30, 2009

Did Edith Wharton foresee social media and its implications? Of course Marshall McLuhan did. And what about Einstein? Surely when Shakespeare wrote, “We are advertis’d by our loving friends,&# he was explaining that a social networking strategy based on true friendships, or at least their online equivalent, will lead to a more rewarding experience.

Social Media 140

Social Media Social Networking Course Strategy 140

Socialized

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

More and more users are getting Twitter’s new Retweet feature. Beta users see a banner at the top of the home page indicating they are part of the rollout: A Retweet carries the new Retweet double-arrow icon and a count of how many times it has been retweeted. When a user clicks “Retweet,&# all formatting is handled by Twitter, and the Retweet is published without opportunity for editing.

Features 133

Features Twitter Publishing Social Media 133

Socialized

OCTOBER 24, 2009

Recently I noticed a Twitter hashtag that was short, made sense, and was even fun to use. I’m talking about #crushit, the hashtag associated with Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book — wait for it — Crush It! This is a rare instance of a hashtag that has a one-to-one correlation with the thing it identifies. It’s also just plain fun to use and say.

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Hashtag Twitter Groups Groups 133

Socialized

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Update: Bill Barnett pointed out in a comment Oct. 22 that the 8th bullet point below does indeed refer to recurring tweets. Thank you, Bill. There have been many reports that Twitter has “announced&# that recurring tweets would become a Terms of Service Violation. Several blogs, including the SocialOomph blog , have posted the following text: Recurring Tweets are a violation no matter how they are done, including whether or not someone pays you to have a special privilege.

Twitter 133

Twitter Press Release Report Training 133

Socialized

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Today I went into Border’s and practically talked a guy into buying my book. I was with my wife and daughter, and as we generally do when we visit a book store, we went to the business and marketing section to make sure my book was in stock. My wife found it, took it down from the shelf, and turned it facing out to make it easier to locate for knowledge-hungry book buyers.

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Marketing Buy Social Media Conversation 133

Socialized

JULY 3, 2009

AcrossAir , developers of the TVGuide.co.uk iPhone app, have introduced Nearest Tube , a 3D Augmented Reality (AR) app for the iPhone that overlays a tube map on live video to help users quickly find the nearest tube station. There’s a brief “demo&# on YouTube: The application, available only to Apple iPhone 3GS users, further cements the iPhone’s role as the great enabler for advances in mobile computing.

iPhone 133

iPhone Startup Applications Apple 133

Socialized

OCTOBER 16, 2009

I discovered last night that Twitter is not simply blocking recurring tweets as reported elsewhere , they’ve actually implemented filters that physically block recurring tweets. I was using Tweetie , an iPhone Twitter client. I copied and pasted a previous tweet and tapped “Send.&# The tweet did not appear on my timeline, so I tried it again directly from Twitter and again it didn’t show up.

Twitter 124

Twitter iPhone Course Report 124

Socialized

OCTOBER 6, 2009

On September 23, I was a panelist at a Silicon Valley Brand Forum event Brand Management in the Social Media Jungle: Bloggers and Tweeters Are Devouring My Brand. Video highlights and a few other goodies, including a Social Media Dashboard presentation by Steve Farnsworth, have been posted on the SVBF’s web site. Tags: Social Media brand branding Cisco Corporate Communications ebay Electronic Arts Socialized corporate communications eBay Social media.

Blogger 124

Blogger Brands Forums Social Media 124

Socialized

AUGUST 17, 2009

Randy Cohen, “the Ethicist&# for the New York Times, responding to an educator’s inquiry about Facebook ethics, wrote : “…when these students gave her access to their Facebook pages, they waived their right to privacy. But that’s not how many kids see it. To them, Facebook and the like occupy some weird twilight zone between public and private information, rather like a diary left on the kitchen table.&#.

Privacy 124

Privacy Education Report Facebook 124

Socialized

JULY 17, 2009

3.ly, aka Threely , is a fairly new entrant in the URL shortening game, and so far, I really like it. The most obvious benefit is that Threely makes shorter URLs, 15 characters vs. 18 characters from is.gd , which I believe was the previous title holder for shortest URL shortener. Two characters is a big deal, particularly if you’re angling for Twitter RTs.

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URL MySpace StumbleUpon Twitter 124