30 Stories about Reinventing Manhood

Following on from the inspiration work around ManWeek – Gavin Heaton and Marky P got together with 30 of us men (and women) to publish The Perfect Gift for a Man – 30 Stories about Reinventing Manhood which aims to get men talking about their feelings in a bid to help prevent male suicide in Australia.  It also includes another of my stories, along the 29 others.

The facts are in: and young men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women.  The other fact is, you can try to help. Please use this book as a guiding light for those who might need it, or as Gavin said today, even those who mightn’t.

I am so proud to be apart of this, and can’t thank everyone enough for the support with the original post (Return to Colombia – A story about being adopted) and for the chance Gavin and Mark gave me to tell another story.

The book is available as both a soft cover book ($44.95) and an eBook ($14.95).You can buy the soft cover through Blurb - http://bit.ly/manbook or the eBook from The Perfect Gift for a Man website - http://bit.ly/manebook

Sydney Bicycle Film Festival 11-15 November 2009

The marvelous Scott Drummond is one of the producers of the Sydney Bicycle Film Festival.  Scott’s also the man who put me on the right track to getting my very first fixie.  See above.  So – where am I going to be this November? The Sydney Bicycle Film Festival – tickets are now on sale – so here’s something to get you started:

• Get a $48 season ticket to the films, which works out at $6 a session, which means one feature length film and around 15 short films. Where else on planet Earth can you get to see so much film for such a tiny price? Nowhere!
• If you’re feeling tight and want to only buy some stuff, then absolutely don’t miss out on the opening night gig at The Factory in Marrickville. It’s Bridezilla, Jonathan Boulet, Deep Sea Arcade and Lions at Your Door (of whom Sweetie from Three Point Turnz is a member) all for $20, which is, again, insanely good value, especially seeing as it will be the first gig Bridezilla play after they launch their debut album on 7th November.

Why you should pay attention

Because here is a community who understand what I love most: Passion, Value and Expertise. How? By creating a celebration of bicycles through Film, Art and Music.

What the fuck has your brand done lately?

A framework for youth marketing

Recently I was asked to present at AIMIA’s latest digital media event: Getting Inside Gen Y.  Along with Julian Cole, Emily Copeland and Dan Pankraz, I was in the best of company as we discussed our experiences in marketing to our own generation.

• Julian: the man to make sense of the world demonstrated the effective way of breaking down market segments
• Emily: one of the most comprehensive and well backed presentations I’ve seen – all great insights
• Dan: such a massive amount of experience was awe inspiring as he took us on a remarkable journey

Inside I’ve make reference to Zaana Howard, who wrote one of the best posts here around Social Media and Leadership – and I think it really resonated well with people in the audience.  Gavin Heaton also featured with solid reference to his PLAY Framework.  Gavin has inspired me to do so much and I really think is a leader and veteran in this space.

3 Lessons in Gen Y is just the beginning of some bigger youth marketing things I’ve been working through, and I continually come back to the importance of context, derived from what I believe to be two of the most powerful online tools we have: Search & Social Media.

Without context, it’s hard to know value, and difficult to convey story.  And with out these: you’re just somebody’s mother telling Gen Y what to do.

Social Media Presentation on Interface Design

Christian Crumlish is one brilliant guy: is curator of the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library, a director of theInformation Architecture Institute, a member of the Open Web Foundation, and co-chair of the monthly BayCHI program.

He also put together this awesome presentation.  What do I like about it so much? It’s well thought out, simple and actionable.  He’s taken the necessary steps beyond the fluff, over-worded bullshit and integrated with the very foundations social media is built on.

Everyone who works with or in social media should remember his principles.

I spoke to Ben at the beginning of this year about his thoughts of the digital industry, and from where I sit, it seems the industry has continued to be as dynamic as ever.  And one common theme we’re seeing is the importance of measurement and meeting business needs – it’s not about the activity, the shiny bits: it’s about the results: and the strategic, planning and execution skills required become more important than ever.

Ben, do you think the digital space has started thinking more commercially? Is this purely in light of the GFC, or do you think we’re all starting to grow up?

I guess the wider economic issues caused some people to think commercially as they needed to to keep the lights on and retail staff. Still, there’s a difference between thinking commercially in a strategic sense and thinking commercially in ‘needs’ sense.

People like Peter Bray, have recently moved to a more integrated approach to digital (with traditional) – do you think this is becoming more common in the space? It was one of your strongest recommendations, and one I entirely agree with.

I can’t speak for Peter Bray (having never met him) … but speaking to people who are smarter than me, there seems to be some momentum towards truly skilled cross media planners and strategic minds and more links between the areas of planning and trading. So you’d assume if the people thinking this way are running agencies it’s not too long until actions are put in place to make this a reality. Digital in isolation doesn’t make much sense for me … great ideas come out of robust communication strategies and the ability to think broadly. You’d think in a couple of years the idea of a digital only strategist would be redundant.

Any thoughts on Search for the future? It’s something I’m becoming more involved with, and I’m eager to hear your thoughts on what the future might hold here.

As an area it’s still very important … measurement will evolve and we will move forward to search and associated data becoming a real barometer of the rest of the comms mix. It’s a rare form of media that is both a distribution tool and an insights one.

And finally, what should the industry be paying attention to in the next 6-12 months?

Whatever is relevant and important to their business and clients. For me, I am interested in better measurement across channels that leads to better decisions. Better ideas.

A look at the biggest lulz in town: internet memes

“Imma let you finish” Kanye’s outburst at the VMA Awards – started something big: a meme.

Sure, you get your lulz – but where’d it all come from? I jumped on the chance to speak to Heather Snodgrass, Mark Pollard and Julian Cole about what they thought.  There’s already the domain and social collaboration site: I’mma Let You Finish – in fact, Mashable just produce the Top 10 I’mma Let You Finish list.

Between them, these two pick up more memes than anyone else I’ve seen.  Previously I’ve talked about a few more of my favourites including LolCats, Fuck Yeah Sharks and of course, Charlie The Unicorn. Make sure you don’t miss out on the Internet Meme Guide or the Internet Meme Database either.

So how did this begin? And where will it end? JC and Heather let me know:

Seriously, WTF did the word meme come from? and what does it even meme. i mean, mean?

Heather:

I personally like to think it came from the way Beaker on Sesame Street communicates. The poor bastard is always so confused and lost and you don’t know why it’s funny, it just is.

In actuality, though, it’s a Greek-derived term adopted by Richard Dawkins in ‘The Selfish Gene’ to describe the role of evolution on the transfer of cultural information and ideas between people. I’m going to stick to my Beaker theory, though. I find it a lot more romantic and doesn’t make my brain hurt when I think about it.

Kanye: did he know what he was about to do? Positive or negative?

Julian:

I do not think that he knew he was making a meme. I think that it is probably not helping him out either because people are bringing up the idea on and on

I actually do not think that the kanye meme will last very long, I think it doesnt not have the longevity of previous memes like lolcats

Heather:

Kanye is, historically, an attention whore. He bitched about Justice’s video beating his at the 2007 European VMAs, and I think he probably knew to a certain extent that what he did was going to steal the ‘spotlight’ so to speak.

What he didn’t count on was how darling Taylor Swift is. The music industry knows this — she’s a sweet young girl from Pennsylvania, who hasn’t ended up in rehab and seems fairly well-adjusted for someone who’s been exposed to as much as she has at her age. If you aren’t on Team Taylor, you too, in Obama’s OTR words, are a jackass.

Maybe, had Britney Spears had a video good enough to beat out Beyonce (hahaha!) and he’d done the same thing, she’d have probably pulled out an umbrella out of her bedazzled one-size-too-small unitard and beaten his stupid ant-tracked head to a pulp. Then we would have ended up with a celebrity death-match sort of meme. It was always going to happen, unless someone put a muzzle on him. Which would have ended up as a meme, etc etc.

Mark:

I don’t think so. Probably a cocktail of pre-event anxiety, a huge centre-stage ego, a brain explosion, maybe a reaction to some people thinking he’s been tamed by The Man, and whatever he was on at the time… that oxygen stuff.

Memes: why do we love them so much? Does everyone love them? or are they just some silly thing us internet obsessed do?

Julian:

We love online memes because eveyerone can get involved. in alot of cases you just need paint skills and you can get involved

Heather:

In the past, there’d be a couple of internet nuts sitting at the dinner table with their friends who were, say, bankers and solicitors. One internet savvy kid would be laughing their ass off because another one of their kind had quoted the USPS “Put yourself in my shoes” meme, and the rest of the table would be asking themselves why they kept invite these assholes out for dinner, the ones who’d continually quote esoteric shit from the internet that doesn’t even make sense. To those of us who worked on the internet, the ultimate appeal was the inside joke.

Now, everyone is on the internet. There are bankers who spend more time on the internet than people who work on the internet do. People get fired for updating their Facebook status at ‘inappropriate’ times. There are journalists write articles based solely on quotes passively sourced from Twitter, for God’s sake — and for those reasons I’d say that memes have finally gone mainstream and are well on the way to jumping the shark.

What’s been your favourite all time meme?

Julian:

lol cats cause it was the first big one and it has had the legs to keep going on for a long time. But I also think that Keyboard Cat has to be one of my favourite

Heather

Such a tough one — I could watch the ‘Hilter/Downfall’ meme for hours, given half the chance. Demotivational posters are always uplifting when you’re having a bad day or at the hands of an incompetent superior. “Emails from an Asshole” is great value and so is “Fuck Yeah Sharks!”, but I think my all-time favourite is that terribly hilarious “Eyebrows Are Important” email that grows exponentially every time I see it.

What’s the importance of memes on the internet today? Are they significant at all?

Heather:

I think it’s three fold:

1. it gives people with the inability to express themselves the chance to do so in a constructive, creative way,
2. we can finally understand how cats communicate,
3. it makes the lives of cubicle monkeys everywhere just a little bit brighter.

Julian:

They make some people a shit load of moula, Ben Huh (google him) has been able to monetize memes.

they are significant cause they can act as social objects which can help strengthen relationship between two individuals

Mark:

Yes, what’s great about memes is that they are as significant as the people of the internet make them. They have a life of their own. Everybody wants to make one; some want to be one. The concept of a ‘meme’ deserves its own song.

As for me? I love the way memes can join people and bring them together for a few laughs. It’s clever and creative and it has an amazing snow ball affect on the humour itself.

What skills do I need to get into social media?

Tips on becoming a Social Media Stormtrooper

Remember the old HTML Goodies website? Remember?? Ah well. Maybe not.  It’s still there, still churning out 1 million visitors a month.  I found it sometime ago – at the same time I started learning HTML back in 97/98 – back when tables and frames were all the rage. And no body seemed to mind just how deep your navigation was. Or so we thought.  Regardless, this is a site with a deep history.

The important thing about this tale is that this is where the digital space started for me. HTML Goodies was a tutorial started by some guy named Joe Burns – who took me through from fonts to frames in the original HTML primers.  There were no rule books around then about how to get into digital – it all just evolved, and that’s really where I feel this whole social media space is at now.

The social media agency I work for is now at a point where we’re looking to hire our next social media coordinator. And the most common question is all around what skill sets we’re looking for – which ultimately defines where I see this space heading (writing something longer on that now).  Feel free to contact me about the position too (suit junior or graduate).

So hope this helps business and social media job seekers alike.

My intentions here aren’t to write a mantra, or a fucking stone tablet for social media skill sets – it can, and it does change between businesses, clients, agencies and needs!  And no, I’m not the first to write about how this all fits together, fellow Social Media Stormtrooper Matt Granfield wrote a piece for MarketingMag.

Three key areas we’re looking for:

• Research & Reporting: deep research skills – not only undertake both qualitative and quantitative research, but be able to record and present meaningful information and insights
• Technology: a strong understanding of emerging digital technology to develop solutions that are both strategic and practical – and incredibly dynamic
• Communication: an exceptional ability to communicate via a wide range of digital mediums, including written; verbal and visual

Yes, you can get much, much deeper and with this comes an understanding of user experience, community drivers and technical developments. And we feel that by breaking it into these three key areas, we’ll have the most effective skill set as a part of our team.

So, my advice?

• Start doing social yourself for the things you love (music for example)
• Set yourself goals, think about being creative, interesting and useful
• Fail often, fail fast: and learn

Thoughts?

On Social Media: We come from the knowledge management family rather than marketing – to enable social learning – recognising people learn most and best from conversing and sharing experiences with like minded others.

On Design: Design permeates everything and is laden with a history and a future.

On Leadership: Leadership in this environment of social media and knowledge management is all about recognising and respecting that everybody has a story.

- Zaana

This week I talked about the elements of leadership and had some great traction with a number of Tweeters including Zaana Howard, who was kind enough to not only respond with her own insightful blog post, but was also kind enough to take the time to share with me (and now you) some really valuable insights into not only social media, but also knowledge management, learning  and the importance of story and design.

The shot above is one of Zaana’s own artworks (linocut), and is a self portrait of herself at 5 years old (a photo, fairly sure she’s at least 6 now).  The quotes above were my very favourites, and below, you’ll read a perspective on this space like none before.

Who are you, what do you do?

I have been mistakenly called Zanna, Barbara, Howard, Nada and Dana but most often am mistakenly called Zena (followed by Warrior Princess). Some call me a knowledge manager, others a librarian, an artist, a generalist, a designer, a typical Gen Y or a combination of titles. I have been called off the wall, a hippy, worldly, artsy, a forever student, and on occasion been known to be funny. I am mistaken for vegetarian more often than not (although it is my natural inclination to be one) and find it difficult to keep the same haircut for more than a couple of months. I am an Apple supporter (this seems to mean something) and can no longer use non Apple notebooks properly. I talk a lot about going to Sweden and am known for my accessories featuring trees.

In terms of work, I am at CPA Australia in the Knowledge Exchange team working primarily in the social media and online environment to connect our diverse and global membership. We come from the knowledge management family rather than marketing – to enable social learning – recognising people learn most and best from conversing and sharing experiences with like minded others.

What inspires you?

Design – in every aspect, from conception to completion, the people and the stories behind the ideas. Design permeates everything and is laden with a history and a future. At the moment I am particularly inspired by how design and creativity can influence the workplace particularly in the areas of innovation, leadership and organisational effectiveness. Reading much on design thinking, human centred design, and play in the workplace and following the likes of IDEO and Dan Pink.

Biggest lesson you’ve learned to date?

Look up! We so often look down to see the immediate steps we are taking, and look ahead to see what is coming up but so seldom look up to what is happening above us (both physically and metaphorically). How often do we walk through the city and look at all the tops of the buildings rather than the window shopfronts? There is a lot of history above the windows and much that can be learnt and deciphered. Some of my best discovery experiences have been when I have looked up – it’s amazing what you can learn about the environment you are in and how different the world appears – even after you look down again.

Do you think Knowledge Management and Social Media are complimentary? What role does Leadership play?

Definitely. Knowledge management is very much about making what people know visible and enabling the transfer of that knowledge to others (thinking of Charles Leadbeater saying ‘we are no longer what we own, we are what we share’). Social media tools allow people to connect far more easily than ever before. They provide mechanisms for people to discover one another, meet and discuss their knowledge and experiences in the online environment (which may also be carried over in real life). The conversational and informal aspects of social media allows this visibility and transfer to occur more naturally online – with a much larger and diverse audience – enhancing the possibilities for social learning and new knowledge creation.

Leadership in this environment of social media and knowledge management is all about recognising and respecting that everybody has a story. Assume nothing. We ask so few questions and so need to value people individually, discover their story and recognise the potential in everyone. When you see this in action – where someone’s potential is brought to the fore – and what can happen it is truly inspiring and results directly from great leadership.

One piece of advice you have for anyone interested in leadership?

Observe, question, learn – the best lessons are in observing both terrible and amazing leaders and discovering what leadership attributes you aspire to and the kind of leader you want be (and just as importantly what you don’t want to be).

Do we follow to be led?

Almost 12 months ago I was stepping into the differences between leadership and management.  That’s only really half of the scenario. What about the people you’re leading, the people you’re trying to guide, maybe even transform?  Do they/we have some kind of onus or accountability to the equation? Or are the best leaders the one who can overcome any inter-personal obstacle?

At present, I’m really not too sure.  But I did really enjoy reading 10 Ways to be a Great Follower – some of the points really resonated with me. Mainly around the being an optimist and embracing change – too often I’ve come to interact with those who do not see any glint of hope in what they’re doing.  Grown adults sulking and delivering the silent treatment to managers, colleagues and friends: only to wonder why (very loudly in some cases) why nothing is changing or improving.

If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, or if something is frustrating you beyond belief, I think it’s so important to try and take the steps to over come it.  Too often I see people spiral into a negative charge that snow balls out of control.  I use to be quite the same: you get caught up in the anger because its easier and less confronting, but you never achieve a thing. Not a fucking thing.  If you’re not willing to try to achieve anything; then wanting to achieve it will bring you no closer.

In saying so, maybe today I’ve learned that to be a good leader you need to make these things apparent: don’t hide from the feedback and concerns of those around you; but rather embrace them as you would embrace them being led.

Maybe the qualities of great leaders and great supporters aren’t so different?

By providing a platform of understanding and embrace, you’re doing a large part of what you can to be led, and likewise, a large part of what you can to lead.

What do you think?

Lamborghini names a special edition Gallardo after their test driver

A very moving story from a very famous brand.

He has long been revered as one of the many legends surrounding the world’s most uncompromising sports car brand Valentino Balboni, a remarkable test driver with his own personal cult status. Automobili Lamborghini now presents a model in his honour and bearing his name the Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni.

There’s something about this that I really like. Maybe it’s the story. Maybe it’s the hope that not all jobs leave you feeling souless.  I really like Balboni’s comments about being a ‘represenative of Lamborghini’ and how important that is to him; as well as in endless gratitude to the company for  what they’ve done for him: a monument.

Love what you do. Do what you do with passion. If not, change.

Ever wanted to make games for a living?

I only met Nic this year, and already I can tell what a brilliant man he is.  Not only is he the CEO of his games company, but he’s also incredible strategic about life and work. A really stand out for A Digital Perspective.

What do you do?

I am the Creative Director and CEO of a new games company based in Sydney. My typical day sees me waking at about 7, playing some World of Warcraft until about 8:30 at my desk and starting work between 8:30 and 9am. As we are still quite small my day to day work involves pretty much all aspects of our business such as designing our new games, liaising with media contacts to generate good press and having meetings with our various team members to see how the projects are going.

My core responsibilities are the management and finance of our projects as well as the art and design of them. This means that I have to manage my time effectively to ensure that our team has all the information they require to keep working while also leaving time for me to plan our future projects and the various PR related tasks I have to keep track of.

Biggest lesson you’ve learned?

There is a lot more to running your own business than just having a great idea and releasing it!

Best moment in your career?

Having Pop chosen as a launch title for WiiWare in the Americas and being part of the launch event in San Francisco.

You’re a qualified architect: how was this lead to you being the head chief of your own games company?

I have always been a really big gamer however during school it was never discussed as a career option. It wasn’t until my final years at University studying architecture that the Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 came out. Both of these games consoles introduced the concept of 3d worlds and gaming to the public. I realised at that point that my architecture training could really apply to this industry as my skills were already in building 3d spaces and worlds.

I have been working in games since 1998 and was most recently a lead designer at EA games in London. During 2006 my partner was asked to move to Sydney to set up a new business and it was at that point I decided to leave EA and set up my own games company. The advent of the internet has pushed games into the online space and now with each console providing online stores for purchasing games I thought it would be a great time for a start-up to explore that space.

We were approved by Nintendo to develop for Wii in 2007 and completed our first game Pop as a launch title for their brand new online games service WiiWare in May 2008.

What’s your best piece of advice for anyone who wants to do what you do?

Learn your trade well and don’t give up. It is very hard work and the majority of companies fail for either being too ambitious or not completing a project. Finishing things is very, very hard but it is the only way you will move forward and gain respect.

If you could tell the industry one thing?

Selling games and applications for 99¢ is not a business model it is insanity. People are now paying more for milk and bread than great content. If we believe in our medium we need to start charging prices which reflect the quality of and hard work which goes into the great content we make.

Social Media: Shift this.

Everything is changing.  The way we interact, learn and process.

What are you trying to shift?

I was giving a social media training session today – and I kept coming back to three key things when planning social media:

• you must listen to communities
• you must understand emerging technologies
• you must be remarkable, compelling when communicating
• you must be human

It’s a creative strategy. It’s a combination of many business functions (comms, marketing, PR, customer service, management, technical, digital); social media is about sharing your passion, value or expertise.

You, and everyone around you need to know what success is. 

I met JK while doing some social media work for PayPal – a really down to earth guy with a wealth of experience. What I really respect JK for is his attitude to life and work – something we all can take a piece from.  He’ll join the others in my digital perspective series.

What’s your day job? And how long you been in the marketing biz?

Alliance and Vertical Marketing Manager for PayPal Australia  -10 years

What do you do when you’re not on the clock?

I like to golf and recently had a little girl so she keeps me plenty busy when I get home.

Biggest lesson learned so far?

Personal – Nothing is more precious than family.  Business – Always due your due diligence and involve the right people in your projects

Favourite memory of your career?

All the fantastic people I have worked with through out my career

One message for other marketers out there?

Understand finance and business operations as well as your core marketing concepts. Always be up to date read the paper or go online and read at the beginning and end of each day.

There’s nothing I can possibly add to this to ever fully articulate how beautiful this story is. Regardless of the state of the world, the latest technology and the next big thing: we’re human. Don’t ever forget.

A truly moving piece of story telling, a very arcane art form: this is beauty.

Big thanks to Katie for sharing.

I think it’s a strong example of Social Media can be used to support events, and also demonstrated what’s necessary to become a part of a community and provide value and expertise.

Hope you all find this useful and learn where I learned.

If you ask someone a question you get an answer, if you observe someone’s behaviour, you get an insight.

So happy with the result. This blog is just over 2 years old, and hope to continue it for much longer. It’s always interesting to think about what would happen if I changed the tone of it later on though. There’s definitely something with my name as the URL being linked to social media, marketing etc. My career as an astronaut might have be under a pseudonym hehe.

Big props to Juju for putting together the list, and massive congratulations on his placement as number 3.  This is a global list!

Some advice for Young Professionals

YPBLOGS has just reached 200 blogs.  Every blog participating on the site was manually added and today I’m talking to Alex Fisher – who has managed to talk to all the bloggers at least once, and is keen to meet and talk with more.

When did YPBLOGS start?

YPBLOGS started November 2008.

What inspired you to start YPBLOGS?

A combination of things inspired me to create YPBLOGS.com.  I had been running an organization for Young Professionals called Young Professional Connection, had been blogging for a few years, and had seen a couple other sites that were playing around with aggregating blogs.  In reality, though, everything was floating around in my head and I actually woke up one morning with an idea for a site called YPBLOGS.  I was determined to execute the idea and by that night I had programmed a working prototype.  A week later I launched.  A month later I had 50 blogs contributing to the site.  We’re now heading past 200 sites and 11,000 articles!

Your dvice to young professionals out there getting started?

Be persistent, work hard, and focus on being creative.  All three of those traits are super important towards creating a productive career in something that really interests you.

What’s been your biggest achievement to date?

My first thought was being invited to be interviewed on the NBC TODAY show in NYC for a wearable computer I built.  In reality, though, my biggest achievement really is making the transition to starting and running a successful business from the ground up earlier this year after having worked in numerous other companies the past 10-15 years.

So what does the future hold for you?

I’m growing my Digital Media & Technology Consulting firm, Commercial Progression (http://www.commercialprogression.com), into a national consultancy.  We have clients in 3 U.S. states so far.

3 Steps to Picking the Right Social Media Measurement Tools

1. Understand business outcome
2. Identify the social media activity
3. Analyse the relationship between social media activity and business outcome

Then pick a tool.

I cannot stress enough how important it is though, to understand that relationship between social media activity and business outcome. That’s where the expertise is, that’s where the ROI is.

Which tools do I use to measure social media?

This would have to be the most asked question of the lot – but honestly, it’s like asking how long is a piece of string. Last night I presented at Social Media Club Sydney (slides and notes now available) and still there was a call to look at which tools.

Which one are essential to me? Google Analytics and Bit.ly for starters. For sentiment? Use a fucking person.

Katie Chatfield has done a presentation to look at some of the tools available – and you’ll instantly see how overwhelming it can be. But that’s ok – because you need to know what you are valuing first, and look at the tools  last.

measurementcamp also published another list of social media tools you can use:

1. Addictomatic A cool search engine that aggregates rss feeds into a nice visual dashboard
2. Blogpulse Blog search engine with conversation tracker tool
3. Boardreader Search forums and message boards
4. Boardtracker Forum search engine offering instant alerts
5. Buzzmonitor Embeddable widget showing recent instances of your search term
6. Compete.com Comparable site metrics for any website
7. Del.ici.ous Social bookmarking engine. Search by tags and subscribe to feed results
8. Facebook lexicon Searches facebook walls for words and phrases
9. Google alerts Email updates of key search terms
10. Google insights Compare search volume over time
11. Google trends Compare search term trends
12. Howsociable Gives a social media score for your brand, with email updates of your score.
13. Ice rocket Blog search engine with results rss feed
14. Newsflashr News search engine, presenting results in nice dashboard
15. Sphere Related content widget
16. Summize Search for keywords in ‘tweets’.
17. Technorati Blog and social media search engine
18. Twing Discussion board and forum search engine
19. Twingly Spam free blog search engine
20. Twitturly Track what urls people are talking about on twitter
21. Xinu Shows how well your site is performing across different metrics. Also gives a site diagnosis.
22. Quarkbase Fricking cool mashup tool
23. Twitter Grader Enter your twitter username to get your grade and ranking
24. Twist Graph Keyword trends in Twitter. Very cool.
25. yExplore Not strictly social media, but easy access to see inbound links to a page.
26. Trendpedia Excellent blog search engine that graphs results over time.
27. Website Grader Not completely sure how accurate, but cool tool anyway!
28. Yahoo Pipes Err, yeah, can’t believe I missed this off in the first place.
29. Socialmention Real time UGC search engine, with social rank
30. Bit.ly and Cli.gs – analytics for your tiny urls.

Building a Bridge Between Brand and Markets

We’re paying attention to a-list bloggers, from technologists to moms to lifestyle to politics and everything in between and forgetting or ignoring the magic middle, those bloggers who actually inform and interact prospective customers.

We’re blindly jumping into social networks and engaging with the “avatars” tied to keywords instead of identifying and recruiting those who can help us create valuable, thriving communities that support the exchange of pertinent information.

Tastemakers and trendsetters are the new influencers, but their roles in affecting consumer behavior are not derivative of the Social Web. Instead, these tastemakers and trendsetters who individually contribute to a more influential public are now readily discoverable courtesy of the search boxes and APIs that facilitate their recognition within the communities of consequence. Social Networks, blogs, microblogs, and all other forms of people-powered platforms provide a looking glass into the interaction between consumers and also the ability to discern the level of authority each one possesses.

You’ve heard it time and time again; “People do business with people they like.”

While that’s true, they also spend money on products that help them do something that they couldn’t do before based on existing needs and desires or frustrations with current experiences. Therefore people are looking for answers, not necessarily friends. They’re seeking societies where they can learn, share, and contribute. And they’re using the tools, channels, and networks to connect with one another.

Listening counts for everything nowadays and it’s by and far the easiest step in embracing and ultimately leading the transition from an introverted organization into an extroverted, community-focused human network.

It sets the foundation to not only listen and respond on the front lines, but also it necessitates the modification of the entire infrastructure to adapt to the real world needs of customers and the insights they choose to share.

This is a privilege and an opportunity.