Wordsupply: Writing, Publishing, and Social Media Services

iPad Roundtable

David McClintock — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:31:23 +0000

I do some editing and copywriting for a computer-book publisher, Pragmatic Bookshelf, but I was pleasantly surprised when its magazine editor, Michael Swaine, asked me to comment on the iPad for PragPub magazine, just a day after Steve Jobs’ announcement.

Click here to visit the PragPub Web page, where you can download Issue 8 in PDF, epub, or mobi.

“This is an Age-of-Aquarius moment for publishing,” I say. “Authors will have more freedom (and some expectations) to realize those multimedia dreams of the 90s.”

Catch this and a few other pithy remarks from me—along with some eye-opening comments from the luminaries assembled for the roundtable.

Facebook Pages: Where Fans Count

David McClintock — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:59:03 +0000

In a post on MediaBistro’s PRNewser (Nov. 30, 2009), Joe Ciarallo cites a study by Sysomos that asserts that only 23% of Facebook pages have more than 1,000 fans.

On Facebook, brands and bands and other organizations can create a page account that draws fans rather than friends. Fans of a page subscribe to its news items and can post on the page.

The Wordsupply page has just joined the 95% of sites that have more than 10 fans. (Become a Wordsupply fan on Facebook—update your status and help us break 100! :o)

But even for B2C brands—which may seem more likely to draw numerous fans—it’s tough to lure Facebookers away from the comfort of their Home page news streams.

The pages with the most fans feature celebrities and universal ideas like “Flipping the Pillow Over to Get to the Cold Side,” which boasts 2.9 million fans.

But rather than be discouraged by these stats, we are intrigued. Millions of people are using Facebook, fanning pages, joining groups, reading news, and spreading the word. Whether you work as an individual or organization, offering a service or a product, you must create a page and offer your stream.

You can create a page yourself—and claim your brand name: Just go to Facebook and follow the instructions to create a page.

(And if you need help, Wordsupply is ready to start the news stream and keep it flowing!)

Michael Wesch’s Web 2.0 Video

David McClintock — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:04:41 +0000

Professor Michael Wesch created the following video – it’s “Web 2.0 in five minutes” – using “CamStudio for the screen captures and Sony Vegas for the panning/cropping/zooming animations.”

Beyond the content itself—remarkably current for a March 2007 release—we should study this use of media. It represents an emerging (if not “new”) way for businesses and thinkers to present information.

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)