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You are Always On

(author unknown) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:05:36 PDT

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Chris comes through once again with super-solid advice.

This post by Doug Meacham is interesting. It reports on a Twitter exchange between Doug and Best Buy CMO Barry Judge, where Barry comes off as a bit harsh and off his game. The comments in the post are the best, and there’s a great perspective shared by Scott Monty of Ford.

I’m not going to analyze the exchange further myself. Instead, I’ve got a few pointers for people who find themselves as the stewards of their company’s brand, regardless of their level (intern or CMO).

You Are ALWAYS On

As representative of the brand, you are always on. The lights, camera, action started when you lit up the social channel. People judge the whole experience, not the best moments. That said, here are some thoughts for when moments come up where you feel a little sub-par, or when someone catches you off-guard.

Here’s one way to consider approaching the problem resolution that leads to these kinds of issues.

Step away from the mic. Services like Twitter aren’t magical. We type into them. If you’re feeling a bit heated, take a step back. Speed of response is important, but so is level-headedness. Take a break for a moment. Step away.
Disarm. It’s one of the best things Stephen Covey ever taught about human relations. When someone’s on the attack, accept that they see things differently. Embrace that. It also relates to the fabulous method, the three A’s: acknowledge, apologize, act.
Apologize. Don’t necessarily assume blame, but apologize for the other party’s frustration. Restate what he or she has shared with you. “I’m sorry for your frustration. It sounds like you feel unheard.”
Offer an offline connection. In social-media-based customer service, one of the most important shifts is to move into a more one-on-one medium like phone or email. There are two reasons: 1 is that it’s more personal ; 2 is that logging an entire customer service resolution in real time on the web isn’t always useful to either party.
Engage the right people for the job. You might not be the right person to bring resolution. Don’t hold onto a problem for a long time before you realize this. Move all issues through internal channels, so that the people who can resolve the issue get involved quickly.
Check back a few days after resolution. A nice move is to connect with the person who raised the issue a few days after it has been resolved (whether or not this was to the satisfaction of the customer, it shows that you care). If the problem is taking a while to resolve, a mid-solution check-in isn’t bad, either.

This Could Be You

There are plenty of days when I know better than to jump into Twitter or start lashing out on blogs. I’m human. So are you. We all let the world get to us from time to time. Don’t be so quick to judge or to take the high-and-mighty response. There’ll be a day when your chips are down.

As more and more of us are finding our way into the role of trust agent for our organization, in some regard or another, I predict we’ll have more and more experiences like the one Doug chronicled. Hopefully, we’ll have tools in place to help us be human and friends to keep us sane in the mean time.

Say cheese.

Photo credit Saquan Stimpson/monstershaq2000

Apollo 11 Moon Landing: A YouTube Timeline

(author unknown) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:29:53 PDT

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There's nothing worse than a type-o in bold, h2 font.

Forty years ago, on July 20th, 1969, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first human beings to set foot on the moon. The Apollo Program, though, was a decade-long project involving millions of dollars, thousands of scientists, and constant competition with the Soviet Union. The result was one of mankind’s most remarkable achievements.

We felt compelled to find some way to pay tribute to the 40th anniversary of when man first stepped on the moon. We showed you last week How To Experience the Apollo 11 Moon Landing in Realtime, but we’re taking it a step further, by taking you step-by-step through that mission utilizing YouTube as a medium. This is the Apollo 11 mission, from Kennedy’s famous speeches to Apollo 11’s recovery, in the form of YouTube videos.

1. “So single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind”

While the Apollo Space Program owes its creation to the Dwight Eisenhower administration, who were seeking a way to follow-up the Mercury Program. However, it’s clear that President John F. Kennedy was the one to launch the Apollo 11 mission and thrust the U.S. into the space race.

While his “We choose to go to the moon” speech is more famous, he truly launched the Apollo initiative at a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961.

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

2. “We Choose to go to the Moon”

One year later, on September 12th, 1962, President Kennedy made his historic “We choose the moon” speech at Rice University, where he laid out his case and his vision for man reaching for the stars.

3. Liftoff

Say hello to the Saturn V rocket, which pushed out about 7.5 million pounds of thrust for just a few minutes. That was more than enough time for the second stage to engage and for Apollo 11 to exceed escape velocity.

4. Apollo 11 Command Module Computer

A quick look inside Apollo 11 on its trip to the stars…

5. Apollo 11 Lunar Module Undocking

The lunar module, Eagle, separated from the command module, Columbia, once it was close enough to begin the descent to the moon.

6. “The Eagle has Landed”

The Lunar Module, after a thorough check from Houston, made its descent. It wasn’t long until it landed on the lunar surface. The callsign of the lunar module changed from Eagle to Tranquility Base, and Armstrong uttered his famous line:

7. One Small Step for Man…

“…One Giant Leap for Mankind.”

8. Apollo 11 on the Sea of Tranquility

This montage and collection of high-resolution photos from the spacewalk are just something else to behold. It’s a complement to the grainy videos of the Apollo 11 mission.

9. Apollo 11 Re-entry

This is what the on-board camera saw during re-entry. Could you imagine re-entering the atmosphere after being on the moon?

10. View of Earth from Apollo 11 During Re-entry

This is why you go to space. This is why I want to go to space sooner rather than later.

11. USS Hornet Recovers the Apollo 11 Module

The USS Hornet, an Essex-class aircraft carrier, were the ones to pick up the module and its astronauts. President Richard Nixon was on board to welcome the astronauts back to earth (although they were quarantined until they arrived in Houston). She was decomissioned in 1970.

BONUS: Digitally Restored: The Apollo 11 Mission

On Thursday, July 16th, NASA released digitally restored footage of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. This video, restored by the same people who restored Casablanca, provides a clearer-than-before look at the world’s most historic space mission. Unfortunately, the fabled lost moon tapes with the highest quality recording of the mission, look to have been lost forever.

Reviews: YouTube

Tags: apollo 11, moon, space, youtube

I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain! US Taxpayers to Congress and Barry…

(author unknown) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:37:25 PDT

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This graph says a lot.

This looks like it will leave a mark if you ask me. But hey let’s spend a LOT more money! Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

Looking at historical data always gives a great sense of perspective (in this case, table 2.1 from the White House site). The graphic below represents the remarkable increase in spread between individuals and corporations when it comes to the burden of funding the federal government. This doesn’t include other sources like social security payments, excise taxes and other sources – just plain consumers and businesses, Econ 101.

Zero Hedge

I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain! US Taxpayers to Congress and Barry…

Pierre Legrand — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:12:08 PDT

This looks like it will leave a mark if you ask me. But hey let’s spend a LOT more money! Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

Looking at historical data always gives a great sense of perspective (in this case, table 2.1 from the White House site). The graphic below represents the remarkable increase in spread between individuals and corporations when it comes to the burden of funding the federal government. This doesn’t include other sources like social security payments, excise taxes and other sources – just plain consumers and businesses, Econ 101.

Zero Hedge

Driving To Hell…Republicans Have To Understand That We Don’t Want To Get There Slower! We Want To Go In The Other Direction!

Pierre Legrand — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:56:43 PDT

Politicians from both parties have done their part to drive this country to hell. Some party has to stand up and say turn this bastard hell ride around! Third party? Maybe if no one else can stomach taking on Goldman Sachs and the rest of the financial industry that has taken over our great country. But it sure would be nice if it were the Republicans instead. After all what do Republicans owe these bloodsucking vampires? Goldman Sachs and others spent a fortune getting Obama elected.

Can the Economy Recover?

There is no economy left to recover. The U.S. manufacturing economy was lost to offshoring and free-trade ideology. It was replaced by a mythical "New Economy."

The "New Economy" was based on services. Its artificial life was fed by the Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates, which produced a real-estate bubble, and by "free market" financial deregulation, which unleashed financial gangsters to new heights of debt leverage and fraudulent financial products.

The real economy was traded away for a make-believe economy. When the make-believe economy collapsed, Americans’ wealth in their real estate, pensions and savings collapsed dramatically while their jobs disappeared.

The debt economy caused Americans to leverage their assets. They refinanced their homes and spent the equity. They maxed out numerous credit cards. They worked as many jobs as they could find. Debt expansion and multiple family incomes kept the economy going.Can the Economy Recover? by Paul Craig Roberts on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent

On Being Divisive

(author unknown) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:35:02 PDT

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The same thing used to happen to me at Mashable.

Somewhere along the way, I’ve become a divisive figure. And I’m fine with that. If everyone likes you, you’re probably not saying things that are very interesting. And all that.

Hey Windows developers please save my data to the cloud

StevenHodson — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:19:09 PST

There’s a lot of talk going on about the cloud and how it’s going to change how we use our applications and save our data. Well I’ve got an open request to any Windows developer who want to play around with Azure and Windows Live – I’ll even be the guinea pig for you. Come up with a way for me to save my critical data to the cloud and have it happen seamlessly, constant and in the background.

I got thinking about this when I started up Windows Live Mail this morning and the fact that in the past I have probably lost more mail data from either hard drive failure or upgrades that got borked. I’m fed up with it and while there are commercial options for things like Outlook there is nothing that I know of for the newer versions of the Windows default email client.

Here’s the scenario of what I would ideally like. Install the app. Point it to where ever on the cloud it has to go (my SkyDrive, Mesh .. where ever). Hit the Do Your Thing button and have it disappear. What it would do then is automatically sync my data with the cloud as it changes – simple as that.

Then when I need to restore that data for whatever reason click on the Get My Data Sucker button and have it do its thing. Simple. By saving and restoring my data I mean all of it. The address book, the program settings, the rules I’ve painstakingly set up … I mean everything. The only caveat – don’t give me a bunch of pain in the ass buttons to deal with because there is no need. simple one button operation – that’s it.

Let me know when you’re ready for some testing.

[pic courtesy of LOLcats]

The Power of Opaque Selling

(author unknown) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:33:15 PDT

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This is a perfect example of a great post with a horrible title.

Some friends and I recently organized a trip to Las Vegas. We were able to find great hotel rates for Friday night, but published Saturday night rates were crazy expensive. So we turned to Priceline, and within minutes we had a 5-star hotel for Saturday, on the Strip, for a fraction of the lowest listed price.

Priceline, Hotwire and vacation packages from offline and online travel agencies can offer prices that are dramatically lower than published rates without cannibalizing revenue because they are opaque selling channels. Opaque selling makes some part of a purchase non-transparent to the consumer (such as which hotel, what time the flight will leave, what products you are buying) so that the probability of revenue cannibalization is dramatically reduced. While opaque selling creates incremental revenue for airlines, hotels and car rental companies, can it work in other industries?

Fukubukuro — “Lucky Bag”

Fukubukuro, a Japanese New Year’s Day tradition, puts opaque selling to work in shops across the country each year with retailers packaging an unknown collection of things into “lucky bags” and offering them at various prices. The idea is that the retail value of the bag is much greater than the price, but the catch is that you don’t know if you want what’s in it.

Just about every retailer in Japan participates in this tradition. While it started as a way to clear out last year’s inventory, it’s now as much about promoting retail shops as it is about opaque selling. Japanese friends of mine describe Fukubukuro much in the same way eBay fanatics describe bidding for an item — as a game-like addiction.

When Apple opened its Union Square retail store in San Francisco in 2004, it offered lucky bags for $250 with the chance to win the then-new iPod mini. The bags were said to contain 7-8 items with a retail value of $600-$1,000.

Why Opaque Selling Works

While the seller of a product or service would ideally like to charge the maximum price a buyer is willing to pay — the goal of price discrimination — the seller doesn’t actually know what that maximum is. And the buyer has no incentive to tell, as anyone who has haggled with a car salesman well knows.

So sellers create segmented offerings as a way to get at least some customers to pay more. For example, airlines offer first-class seats at a dramatically higher price per unit of space consumed — the buyer gets more space and the prestige of flying in first class and the airline gets an order of magnitude higher revenue per customer for the same flight — often 10x more.

Other techniques include charging a high starting price and then lowering price through age-based discounts (movie tickets for kids and senior citizens), channel-based discounts (online vs. offline), volume discounts (frequent flyer programs) and geography-based pricing differences (enterprise software).

Even with all of these techniques, the market clearing price for products often leaves a seller with excess inventory — open seats on a flight, for example. The marginal cost of that inventory is often so low that it is usually possible to sell it for a profit, but doing so means that people who would have bought the product at a higher price will now pay less and aggregate revenue will decrease. By selling a hotel room through a bundled vacation package a seller dramatically decreases the likelihood that she is cannibalizing her revenue — especially in fragmented markets.

The Opportunity

At the end of each day, many shops toss perishable items. Why not offer lucky bags? At the end of a season, many clothing retailers push their inventory to outlet stores under the assumption that forcing consumers to drive out of the way will prevent the cannibalization of sales, even though such outlets are increasingly located near major metropolitan areas. Why not find an opaque channel instead? The same thing goes for consumer electronics, video games, and so on. The Amazon.com Gold Box has daily deals — why not turn the Gold Box into the Amazon.com “lucky” box? It would offer consumers killer deals, it would be fun, and it would offer Amazon and its suppliers an opaque selling channel.

Fukubukuro aside, would opaque selling work outside of travel? I believe that it can. After all, the fundamental economic drivers of opaque selling in travel exist in many other industries. Less transparency isn’t always such a bad thing.

Mike Speiser is a Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures. His thoughts on technology, economics and entrepreneurship will appear at this time every week.

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A Challenge to Climate Change Skeptics

(author unknown) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:53:08 PDT

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I'd take this bet in a heartbeat if I qualified, but I'd refuse to use the daily high/low. That's a rigged number to use. The daily average is more accurate - the high may only hit that level for a minute or two, but it still counts... whereas the average is a more accurate number to indicate where the temp sat for the majority of the day.

But then this is 538... they know how to manipulate numbers like nobody's business.

John Hinderaker at the popular conservative blog PowerLine reports that it's been cold, cold, cold in his home town of Minneapolis, Minnesota, going to far as to compare it with "The Year Without a Summer", 1816, when global temperatures were abnormally low as a result of the eruption of Mount Tambora:

I don't think things are quite so bad this year, but if something doesn't change pretty soon 2009 may go down in history, in some parts of the U.S. at least, as another year with barely any summer. Here in Minnesota and across the Midwest, temperatures are abnormally cold. I don't know whether the phenomenon is world-wide--data that will answer this question have probably not been assembled, and may not be honestly reported--but the current low level of solar activity suggests that the cooling trend could indeed be universal.

Indeed, it's been pretty cool in Minneapolis for the past couple of days; the temperature hasn't hit 70 since midday Thursday. But has it been an unusually cool summer? No, not really. Since summer began on June 21st, high temperatures there have been above average 15 times and below average 13 times. The average high temperature there since summer began this year has been 82.4 degrees. The average historic high temperature over the same period is ... 82.4 degrees. It's been a completely typical summer in Minneapolis, although with one rather hot period in late June and one rather cool one now. (Note: actual high temperatures can be found here and historical averages can be found here.)

Selective memory is a powerful thing. I'm not particularly when the fact that it's cool or rainy in your hometown one afternoon became subject for worthwhile blog material, but you have started to see this all the time on certain conservative blogs, probably led by the example of Matt Drudge.

Therefore, because I'd like to see more accountability on all sides of this debate and because I'm tired of people who don't understand statistics and because I'd like to make some money, I issue the following challenge.

You are eligible for this challenge if:

1. You live in the United States and provide me with your home address and telephone number (I will provide you with mine) and,
2. You are a regular (at least once weekly) contributor to a political, economics or science blog with an Alexa traffic global ranking of 50,000 or lower.

The reason for the latter requirement is because I want to be able to shame/humiliate you if you back out of the challenge or refuse to pay, as I'd assume you'd do the same with me.

The rules of the challenge are as follows:

1. For each day that the high temperature in your hometown is at least 1 degree Fahrenheit above average, as listed by Weather Underground, you owe me $25. For each day that it is at least 1 degree Fahrenheit below average, I owe you $25.
2. The challenge proceeds in monthly intervals, with the first month being August. At the end of each month, we'll tally up the winning and losing days and the winner writes the loser a check for the balance.
3. The challenge automatically rolls over to the next month until/unless: (i) one party informs the other by the 20th of the previous month that he would like to discontinue the challenge (that is, if you want to discontinue the challenge for September, you'd have to tell me this by August 20th), or (ii) the losing party has failed to pay the winning party in a timely fashion, in which case the challenge may be canceled at the sole discretion of the winning party.

Any takers? You can reach me by clicking the 'Contact' button at the top of the page.

Republicans game Google: Worst Failure Ever = Obama Administration

(author unknown) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:43:18 PDT

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Take a look around at the coverage this time around vs. the last time around. Bloggers covering this got in on the action and linked "miserable failure" to the Whitehouse. Now, you'll see, almost no one is doing that. Also, compare the response time this time around to last time when it comes to Google acting.

Alls I'm saying is that it's annoying as hell the bias in the tech world from time to time.

Republican activists have successfully “Google bombed” Google, managing to have the Obama Administration appear as the first search result for “worst failure ever.”

A Google bomb (or “link bomb”) is Internet slang for an attempt to raise the ranking of a given page in results from a Google search, often with humorous or political intentions. It is achieved by gaining enough links on the said term to the targeted page, although Google announced in 2007 that it had found a way to supposedly stop Google bombing taking place.

We’ve tried locating the source of the Google bomb without success, although word of the Google bomb spread through Republican/ Conservative sites and forums including Free Republic Saturday US time.

If you want to check it out, type “worst ever failure” into Google to obtain the result. Google has been pretty quick in the past to crack down on Google bombs, although given it’s the middle of the weekend as we publish this story, you might have until Monday before it disappears.

Justin.tv streams child porn: industry crackdown coming?

Duncan Riley — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:00:11 PDT

The mainstream live video streaming industry has always struggled with content control. Unlike pre-recorded content which can often be filtered at the point it is uploaded, or close there to it, live content can only be moderated if a complaint is received and the person in the stream is caught in the act.

We’ve learned from a reader that Justin.tv this week streamed child pornography featuring 13 year old girls. We are in receipt of pictures and a comment stream that back that observation up to a point, however I would note for the record that none of the pictures we receive show nudity…as the act of receiving and viewing the said images would be illegal in Australia, even when sent for journalistic purposes. We would note that our tipper was appalled by what he stumbled upon on Justin.tv as well and has made no effort a far as we are aware to capture the parts of the video that would constitute child pornography.

According to out tipper, at around 10pm July 14 a number of 13 year old girls streaming live on Justin.tv were being asked to take their clothes off or were hit on by around 800 viewers. Here’s one of the initial screen shot:

After some time the girls started to flirt more with the people in the chat room, and that’s when the nudity started. According to our tippers, the 13 year old girls flashed their breasts. These images do not show them doing that, but do show one girl stripping, and another posing in a suggestive fashion.

I’ve not asked Justin.tv for comment because I know this isn’t a problem restricted to them alone, and to their credit (and what I would note would have been the standard response) they suspended the account some time after the child pornography went to air based on an internal complaint system (they nearly all exclusively work this way.)

Some providers are more prone to this sort of content than others though. Stickam has long been know for its scantily clad young girls as this screen shot taken early Sunday US time shows:

Sites that attract a younger demographic tend to have the issue more: Live Universe has it, but you rarely if even see this sort of content on Ustream.tv. The problem then is knowing the age of those on screen: the porn industry has a record keeping requirement for age verification, something seemingly not required by streaming video sites.

What is clear though is that the live video streaming industry faces far greater risks from carrying child porn than it does in its constant fights against pirated content. Laws may offer some protection for these companies today, but laws can always be changed, and hosting naked 13 year old girls isn’t a good look for any company. A crackdown seems likely and it’s just a matter of when it will happen.

Bloggers: Punch Harder!

(author unknown) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:36:27 PDT

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Some good meta-analysis.

Ryan Tate has the best post intro so far this year in the latest edition of Gawker-playing-Valleywag:

Remember when blogs were going to be fiercely independent firebrands who, purified of old media insidery stench, would pull no punches against traditional power structures? So much for that. Today’s laptop media is shaping up to be nothing but lapdogs.

The post is really about TechCrunch releasing those Twitter documents, and the rings on the water. I don’t care about that, old news, and really a lot of noise for typical journalistic behavior.

Yes, that’s right. Michael Arrington did what thousands have done before him, but on a blog rather than in a newspaper. So who cares?

Lots of people, as it were, which brings us back to Tate’s intro to the Valleywag post.

Lapdogs, is that what we are? The feared blogosphere that would turn old media out of business, the hold nothing back hardcore journos 2.0, has it come to this? To fearing the giants, to playing by the rules, the same rules we spat on from the barricades, to not sticking the finger to The Man.

Of course it has.

There is no way to run a business if you keep being a nuisance to everyone. And after all, there’s no real point of making oneself more uncomfortable than necessary.

So you get some leaked documents, some background information, something unofficial. Either you publish it, and risk relationships with advertisers and PR people that you’ve gotten too close to, or you don’t and everything’s dandy.

Withholding leaked documents and doing nothing is the cowards way out. Publishing them straight out, however, isn’t necessary the solution.

The middle ground, and the journalistic take on the situation, is to get digging using the leaked information, to start asking questions and build a story around it. No one got the Pulitzer by publishing a leaked document, I’ll tell you that. Dig, then dig deeper. Companies and PR reps will refuse to comment, they will spit platitudes and quote official standpoints.

Either you stop there, or you move on. Either way, you’ll end up with a story thanks to the pressure you could apply, or with the choice of wether to release leaked information or not?

So bloggers, I urge you to move forward, to punch harder, to speak up. Got a chance on an exclusive story? Take it, run it, and don’t stop just because a potential partner is squirming. A journalist wouldn’t if he knew his business, and neither should you.

Possibly Related Posts

find your liked items in Google reader

Lu Tao — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:28:16 PDT

find your liked items in Google reader http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/like

Twitter Today: What are you… pushing?

(author unknown) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:49:02 PDT

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This has to be the most arrogant and annoying list of Twitter best practices I've ever read. Hands down. And there's a lot of those types of posts out there that I find annoying. This takes the cake, though.

Who is this guy again?

Do you remember what Twitter looked like this time last year? Probably not – the vast majority of the users on the site today weren’t around this time last year. Things have changed dramatically over the last 7 months. For many, Twitter shouldn’t ask, “What are you doing?” Instead, they should change it to…

Don’t get me wrong – the primary reason I came to Twitter was to get exposure for my blog posts. I’m generally a social person and I do (did?) enjoy the interaction I was able to have with people across the world or down the block, but the noise levels on Twitter are approaching an intolerable level.

Twitter’s growth has been astounding. This has been well documented by many sites, but this graph from Compete clearly visualizes the sheer explosion that started earlier this year:

In the early days of Twitter’s explosion back in January through March, the site still had a sense of “pureness” in that the conversation was more centered around “What are you doing?” rather than “What are you pushing?” We had several campaigns that were extremely successful because fewer people posted links. A normal stream would have 3 or 4 links out of the 20 tweets visible on a single stream refresh. Most of our campaigns and blog links would get between 3k-5k clicks. “Twitterbait” posts like 14 Twitter Personality Types could get 30k or more from Twitter or related sources like popurls and Tweetmeme.

Today, over half of the tweets on many users’ streams are links. Of those, a good portion of them are spam. As a result, it’s tough to get 1,000 clicks even if a celebrity or high-follower account tweets it and dozens of people retweet it.

One would believe that this is bad news for social media strategists, marketers, spammers, and everyone else who wants to use Twitter for exposure. For 99% of us, yes, it’s bad news. I prefer to see it as an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity – now that it’s no longer easy to build up a lot of followers and tweet links for exposure, those who know how to create strongly followed accounts, network, make friends, and use a better Twitter strategy will rise to the top. The challenge – coming up with that better Twitter strategy that makes my clients’ and my links more likely to heard through the noise.

Bloggers: What are you pushing on Twitter?

This is going to ruffle feathers. If you’re a blogger, don’t use automated Twitter posting tools for your new blog posts. There, I said it.

Post manually. The auto-posting tools save you 34 seconds. (I know this goes against what I said in Twitter Blogging Tips and Tools, but I’ve seen the light)
Use a good shortener. We prefer su.pr.
Craft the tweet to get exposure. “Just published a new blog post…” or “Reading…” – won’t cut it. Talk to people and be sincere. What is true about your post that can fit in 90 characters or less (to leave room for the URL and retweets) that would compel people to read it?
If you can get a good number of retweets, put the Tweetmeme button on your post. It counts the retweets and can add credibility to the post if it gets a lot. If you don’t have the followers, readership, or accounts to get a large number, put on a retweet button that doesn’t display the numbers.
If a post is boring, don’t tweet it. If it’s a vanity piece or something that would only be appealing to your normal readers, there’s no need to waste a Tweet on it.

Social Media Strategists: What are you pushing on Twitter?

This is a little tougher for me to post since, well, my firm does social media strategy. Still, there’s enough companies in the world who need our services and despite the fact that social media marketers, consultants, gurus, mavens, and other strategists seem to be popping up every day, we tend to feel that we can compete with anyone (even if we give them our “playbook”).

Avoid spammy clients. Your credibility is more important than a quick buck. If your potential client wants you to push spam through social media, find your least-favorite social media guru on Twitter and refer them. Quality and integrity are the most important aspects of this business.
Network. One tweet won’t cut it. Ten retweets probably won’t cut it. Between email, gtalk, skype, and even Twitter DM, create a list of users who will do an occasional retweet by request.
Give more than you take. If you want to get your links retweeted, you need to retweet often. This is important – a retweet is the sincerest form of flattery. For every tweet you do for a client, there should be dozens of retweets, comments, mentions, and interactions that you’re having with others.
Conserve your tweets. Many would argue that the more you tweet, the better. I personally believe that the better you tweet, the better. Again, quality over quantity when it comes to tweeting. If you don’t have anything important to say, respond to, or retweet, keep the noise low, the chatter limited, and the engagement high.
Did I mention “avoid spammy clients”?

Marketers: What are you pushing on Twitter?

There are hundreds of thousands (millions?) of accounts that are pushing porn, MLM, Forex, Acai berries, affiliate links, and all kinds of other spam. They need advice as well:

Leave Twitter.
Go back to Facebook and MySpace.

That’s not to say that ALL marketers are spammers and should leave. If you or your company has legitimate posts and products to push, refer back to “Social Media Strategists” above or hire a twitter marketing firm.

* * *

Read more about Twitter Marketing on this social media blog.

WhuffaokeLA Photos

(author unknown) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:35:05 PDT

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What the hell?

Tara Hunt (aka missrogue), is taking over-sharing on the road to promote her latest book ‘The Whuffie Factor‘. Let’s see, Recreational Vehicle, check. Integrated Karaoke, check. Debauchery distribution channels, check and mate.

Here are some photos by Wm. Marc Salsberry from the Los Angeles tour stop.

In classic LA style the RV arrived late

Wuffaoke pit stop at Paige Craig’s beach house

Tour groupie Karen Hartline and gracious host Paige Craig

Author and lounge singer Tara Hunt

Tony Adam takes a break from baking to indulge his other passion, grilling

Marla Schulman has some nookie with her whuffie

Singing their heart out until the cops politely as them to stop

SEE MORE PHOTOS

The secret is out: Why Nokia and Sony Ericsson are getting their butts kicked by Apple

(author unknown) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:31:44 PDT

Shared by Rizzn
Here's the problem with this premise - Nokia isn't getting it's butt kicked by Apple. In fact, Nokia is killing it, and Apple is just barely making a dent in marketshare.

Sony Ericsson just reported a $300 million loss for the second quarter of 2009 and Nokia reported a 71% decline in profits for the same period. Times are tough for the (shrinking) mobile giants.

Gee, wonder why…? Let’s start this off with an illustration:

Yes, ALL those cell phone models in the top picture are from just ONE mobile maker: Sony Ericsson. And Nokia has a similar number of models.

The above image reveals the huge contrast between Apple’s iPhone strategy and that of the traditional mobile makers. Apple has “one phone to rule them all,” while Sony Ericsson and Nokia have a gazillion models to try and cover every little market segment imaginable.

Here’s what’s wrong Nokia’s and Sony Ericsson’s current approach:

Giving consumers too many products to choose from just creates confusion.
It’s simply not cost effective to have that many different cell phone models; not from a marketing standpoint, not from a product development standpoint, and not from a production standpoint.
Having one unified, consistent platform makes it easier to provide a compelling user experience.
From a third-party developer perspective, the iPhone with its consistent interface and features is a no brainer (not to mention the infrastructure in place to push out those applications).
Both Nokia and Sony Ericsson are careful to also cater to budget-conscious consumers. Apple only has its relatively expensive iPhone. But guess what? Apple does have a budget option after all: older models of the iPhone. So they are slowly seeping into that end of the market as well.

We were discussing this over lunch today because Sam Nurmi (Pingdom’s founder and CEO) was amazed at the total inability of both Nokia and Sony Ericsson to adapt to an evolving market. And it’s not like he doesn’t want them to do well; he’s Finnish-Swedish so he has emotional ties to both companies (Nokia being Finnish and Sony Ericsson Swedish). Those loyalties hasn’t stopped him from getting an iPhone, though.

We want these companies to do well, so consider this an open letter to both of them. Nokia and Sony Ericsson, if you’re reading this, can’t you see that you’re shooting yourselves in the foot with your current strategy?

We’re not saying that you only need to have ONE cell phone model, but how about abandoning today’s hit-and-miss tactics and focusing your considerable resources and expertise on just a couple of strong projects with a clear strategy?

If you did that, then Apple would have reason to worry.

Ignore That Scary MSNbot, It’s Just The Friendly BingBot - Unless It Attacks!

(author unknown) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:58:04 PDT

Shared by Rizzn
Come on, get a clue, man. Problems like excessive crawling of your site, going through and ignoring robots.txt rules, or causing other failures from crawling parts of the site that shouldn't be crawled.

Microsoft has a post today on its Bing Community blog alerting website owners that they may start seeing a lot of pings from the user agent “msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)”. Not to worry, they say, despite the scary MSN Web 1.0-name, this is just the BingBot, crawling sites, doing its indexing job.

While Microsoft has updated the bot’s version number (from 1.1), it isn’t changing the name, it notes. But what’s interesting is the part of the post from Microsoft that reads:

We do not anticipate any problems related to our increasing emphasis on MSNBot 2, but the unexpected can’t always be avoided, no matter how hard you try! As such, we wanted to preemptively alert folks to the most effective way to report bot and crawling issues to Bing’s support team in case they arise.

Problems? What sort of problems? Is the BingBot going to become self-aware, Skynet-style? Microsoft gives no details. I’m scared.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Twitter Clips Hundreds of Followers from High Profile Accounts

(author unknown) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:48:42 PDT

Shared by Rizzn
This happened to me as well. It essentially knocked off the meteoric growth and put me back on the same growth curve I was on two weeks ago.

It looks like Twitter knocked off about 300 followers for dozens of different accounts, including Chris Brogan, Dave Winer, Robert Scoble, Jeremiah Owyang and yours truly. Perhaps the database was recompiled? See the gallery that follows this post.

Personally, it's not a big deal to me (I am grateful for every follower I have!). I just spotted the anomaly when I was giving a client a demo of the Twittercounter product.

Anyone have any insight here?

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Slouching Toward a Coddled and Toothless Blogosphere

(author unknown) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:42:57 PDT

Shared by Rizzn
Ryan makes a good point. I like it when solid, cynical analysis comes from Valleywag.

Remember when blogs were going to be fiercely independent firebrands who, purified of old media insidery stench, would pull no punches against traditional power structures? So much for that. Today's laptop media is shaping up to be nothing but lapdogs.

Then again, even a poodle will bite once in a while.

Take the TechCrunch dust-up. The tech business blog sheepishly negotiated with Twitter Inc. the release of internal company documents it received, unsolicited, via email. It was tech bloggers who lead the craven charge, excoriating TechCrunch for daring to run anything at all. On Twitter, several of Arrington's tech elite colleagues said he deserved to be literally spit upon. John Gruber of Daring Fireball called Arrington "a very sad excuse for a man" in a post that garnered strong agreement from longtime newspaperwoman Kara Swisher at All Things D, who added, "there should be no difference between Web 'journalism' and the old-fashioned journalism." Except of course, Swisher was only demonstrating just how different the two are.

This episode's Woodstein was as distraught as anyone to see their dear friends at Twitter burned. TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington wrote: "I wish this had never happened."

But of course, as at least two media lawyers have pointed out, old-fashioned journalists have been utilizing information obtained in violation of both laws and legally-binding civil agreements for years without this sort of ethical outcry. As far as the law goes, it is legal to use such information to journalistic ends, within some fairly wide parameters.

Yet blogs, especially tech blogs, lash themselves oh-so-closely to their sources. TechCrunch is hardly the only example. The diverse and vibrant collection of blogs that track Mac rumors routinely cave to cease and desist letters from Apple, because who wants to end up like the teenaged publisher of ThinkSecret, bullied into submission by Apple for reporting legitimate news about Apple products, news that was proven accurate and was gathered no more nefariously than the stuff that turns up regularly in the Wall Street Journal?

Who wants to be trashed by a spoonfed CNBC reporter , or have your (eventually proven accurate) sources called "illiterate"-sounding by a blogger, for contradicting Apple's company line on the health of its CEO?

This is how journalism dies. Not with a bang, but with a series of favors and quiet surrenders.

(Top pic: Alison McNeill of bub.blicio.us and "Gadget Guy" consultant Dave Mathews engage in a typical in-depth interview at a TechCrunch party last year, via Flickr)

Making a Living in Online Video

(author unknown) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:57:33 PDT

Shared by Rizzn
I wish there were more success stories with the title "making a living in online video" that included indy content producers that were bootstrapped efforts.

I had drinks the other night with Miles Beckett at the Pink Taco in Century City. After a few Mexican Beers and some great service from some of the friendliest Models/Actresses/Waitresses in Hollywood I was able to get some valuable information out of one of the few producers who is making a living in online video.

Miles Beckett and his business partner Greg Goodfried are the guys behind the Internet phenomenon lonelygirl15. They also gave up professional careers (Miles was a doctor. Greg was a lawyer.) to pursue the creative rewards of online video. The interesting thing about Miles and Greg is that not only are they pioneers in web video with their own projects, they are also guides for hire when it comes to helping other content creators figure out the online video space. With some smart partnering they managed to take the success of LG15 and raise $5 million to start their digital studio EQAL. Now they are helping known brands like CBS, Paula Deen and event Anthony E. Zuiker the creator of the hit TV Show CSI navigate this new digital space. Miles and Greg understand what it takes to build an audience and an emotionally engaged community. Something that everyone in this space will have to learn soon or they won’t be able to make a living in online video.

Anthony E. Zuiker,CBS,Century City, Greg Goodfried,lonelygirl15,LG15,making a living in online video, Mexican Beers,Miles Beckett,Paula Deen,Pink Taco,Pink Taco in Century City