Posts Tagged social media
Social Media and San Francisco
Posted by Paul Holmes in business, internet, social media on February 24th, 2010
I started thinking about San Francisco, as I was planning to go to WordCamp San Francisco this year (and I organize WordCamp Victoria).
I have also been one of the organizers for Social Media Club Victoria, and SMC has it’s global home in San Francisco.
We already know that San Francisco is the center of the universe for social media, but I had no idea just how much so. Here’s a short list of companies based in that part of the world (you may have heard of a couple of them):
- Facebook (Palo Alto) – Facebook, FriendFeed
- LinkedIn (Mountain View)
- Google (Mountain View) – Buzz, Wave, Blogger, FeedBurner, Google Connect
- Yahoo! (Sunnyvale) – Flickr, Meme
- Digg
- Automattic* – WordPress.com, PollDaddy, IntenseDebate, Gravatar, Akismet
- eBay (San Jose) – StumbleUpon
- Posterous.com
- Ning (Palo Alto)
- Technorati
- Flixster
- Plaxo (Mountain View)
- Photobucket
- Seesmic
* Automattic claims to be from everywhere, but I included them on this list because a large number of their people are based in the San Francisco area.
New York has a few companies that have made an impact in the business – Vimeo, Tumblr, Meetup.com, and Foursquare to name a few.
For science fiction geeks, San Francisco is also the headquarters for both Skynet (Terminator), and Star Fleet Academy (Star Trek).
Which social media companies did I miss? Add to the comments.
What is Social Discovery?
Posted by Paul Holmes in business, internet, social media on February 18th, 2010
What the heck is Social Discovery? I’ve seen the term thrown around here and there, but only in passing.
After a chance meeting with Dan Martell on a rainy afternoon in Las Vegas on January 17th, the light bulb suddenly appeared!
I am convinced “Social Discovery” will become an integrated component for every serious marketing department in the world within the next year.
The term itself is nearly self-explanatory:
- “Social”, as in “Social Media” (yes, “Social” is the new “it” adverb).
- “Discovery”, as in “discovering” where people are, and how they are using social media.
As Dan explains it, every business has a client list – and these days, that means a list of e-mail addresses. As companies roll out their social media campaigns, the most important people they need to connect with are their clients who are using social media.
Dan is very active with a social discovery startup called Flowtown.
You probably haven’t heard of Flowtown, and Dan explains that this is on purpose. They don’t want to garner too much attention while they refine their product. But you will start hearing a hell of a lot more about this company very, very soon.
What Flowtown offers is a complete, automated social discovery product, launched in late October.
Their target market includes small businesses, and has a very low starting price point. They even have a “free demo” version available online right now.
I’m excited about the whole concept of “social discovery.”
Dan and I chatted at length about the possibilities in this sector. Could software make appropriate connections automatically? Can it find new, valuable connections automatically, and keep them tuned into your companies channels (in a useful, non-annoying way)?
Could software check to see which platforms people actually use, and what their interests are there. Perhaps somebody uses Facebook for finding love on lonely Friday nights, and might feel awkward if you suddenly ask them to fan your Facebook business page. Perhaps somebody uses Twitter, but strictly for the purpose of stalking celebrities.
At this point Dan started telling me fascinating things about “Social Lead Scoring” and metrics, and my head was spinning.
Dan lives in San Fransisco now, but he cut his teeth in Canada. In Moncton he started, and later sold, a successful development firm that boasts a pretty impressive list of clients.
I was impressed with Dan Martell, and enjoyed our lunch together. He is very professional, confident, and successful, yet modest, inquisitive and personable. While I was walking with him at the Affiliate Summit conference in Las Vegas at least a half dozen people came up just to say “hello”. While such attention comes to those who are successful, it also confirmed my previous hunch – that he’s a pretty swell guy.
Top 10 Social Media
Posted by Paul Holmes in blogging, business, personal, social media on December 1st, 2009
I have written various articles on social media in the past, and a few people have asked what my favourites are. The following list is not “the best”, nor specifically “the best for application X”, rather my favourites – those I enjoy using or gain specific benefit for using.
10. Ning’s (like Your Canada)
Ning is a really cool product that allows you to launch your own social networks around specific themes. Your Canada is an example of one I launched to add a social component to our popular Your Canada website.
9. FriendFeed
Everyone was getting excited about FriendFeed, the ultimate social media collaborator. It’s a cool tool because it let’s you tie all your social media activities into one stream. It can be a bit overwhelming though, so I find myself using it sparingly these days.
8. YouTube
Anonymity is still the name of the game on YouTube. As a result, you get poorly spelled and otherwise idiotic comments on videos all the time. This is too bad, given that it otherwise is the best place for exposure, and the tools to connect people socially are actually pretty good. The social aspects of video are still developing, and I suspect a number of other sites may take the lead in “social video” while Google focuses YouTube more on commercializing what they have (and doing this primarily by pushing sponsored videos, vs. an advertising model). Some to watch include Vimeo, DailyMotion, 12seconds.tv, Ustream.tv, blip.tv, and about a few dozen others.
7. Flickr
Yahoo! has one product that kicks ass and totally owns it’s vertical, and that is Flickr. Flickr is the best social medium for sharing photos/images. Picasa is Google’s alternative, and it is OK. A few others are Photobucket and Flixya, but they are a long way from successful at this point.
6. Digg
The DiggBar has revolutionized Digg (much to the chagrin of the ol’ skool Diggers). I use it all the time, and am a bit of a Diggaholic now. It’s a great tool for sharing interesting stuff you find on the web. It also has some great integration tools to very easily share “Dugg” stuff on Facebook and Twitter. I use Digg every single day.
5. Instant Messaging
Three years ago this was number one (followed by blogging and online forums). Three years ago, I did 100% of my instant messaging using MSN Messenger. Two years ago, 80% was MSN and 20% was GoogleTalk. Today, 50% is Facebook, 30% is GoogleTalk and 20% is MSN. As always, ICQ and AIM are 0%. Instant messaging is still a great way to get ahold of people in a hurry.
4. Blogging
I love to blog. I have at least 5 blogs I update regularly, and I love posting comments to other people’s blogs (which is what makes it a social medium). I also love WordPress; I am a total convert to the platform. I even organized a WordCamp in Victoria a few weeks ago, which was tonnes of fun.
3. Facebook
I was a Facebook holdout for ages, but have grown to like it. I like it because almost everyone I know is there. The platform itself is annoying sometimes, and frustrating at others, but they have the critical mass, so it remains a tool I continue to use, even if I use it despite itself.
2. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is great for business. At a recent presentation I gave at the University of Victoria to all of their business students, I asked several hundred students how many of them were on Facebook, and almost every hand went up. I then asked how many were on LinkedIn, and about 5 hands went up (I think a few of those hands were faculty, too). This is ashame. LinkedIn is a great tool for business, but also for career building. The guy sitting next to you in class today might be CEO of some big corporation in 10 years. Stay in touch and add them to your network on LinkedIn. I’m not sure if I got through to them or not.
LinkedIn is easy, passive and a great way to introduce people. It’s sort of like a virtual business mixer, but doesn’t require you to smile and dress nicely.
1. Twitter
Even people who love Twitter make fun of it. Twitter is an amazing tool for connecting with people and getting a message out. Through the power of the retweet, your potential network is huge. That conference I organized back in #4 above – I used Twitter as the primary medium through which to promote it, and over 100 local (and international) people showed up. Not too shabby for something people love to make fun of.
Loading ...I’ll review my list every once in awhile as my tastes change. It’ll be interesting to look back in the future and see what has changed.
I can already say that “FriendFeed” used to be much higher up the list, and I expect there is a good chance Google Wave and Foursquare will appear here in the next year or two. The influence of mobile and video (and mobile video) should introduce a few new angles to the equation, too.
A few others that I use that didn’t make the top list are Plaxo (11), Yelp (12), Identi.ca (13), Vimeo (14), Meetup (15), SlideShare (16), MySpace (17), and StumbleUpon (18). I have profiles on a few others, but don’t use them much.
I’m always happy to connect with people I know on any of these networks, see my social media links in the right column to link to my profile, or visit my Contact page.
AURP Conference 2009
Posted by Paul Holmes in business, social media on October 20th, 2009
I am delighted to be speaking at the AURP Conference in Vancouver tomorrow, on the topic of using Social Media in the promotion of technology parks.
I was actually a bit surprised that social media wasn’t being embraced more by technology parks around the world, especially given their propensity for “technology.” More importantly, social media is an excellent opportunity to further some of the underlying goals these parks strive for:
- Creating a technology center of excellence
- Developing a hub of innovation
- Connecting people with ideas
What better way to “connect” people than using social media?
As just one example, in researching for the discussion, I discovered that only 11 technology parks in the world have Facebook fan pages — and most of those are quite underutilized. I do hope some of the ideas I have prepared will encourage the participants to take a fresh look at what social media can do for them, and more importantly for the companies that reside in their respective parks around the world.
For those who are interested, these are the slides I am using for my presentation:
Will Social Media Replace E-Mail?
Posted by Paul Holmes in internet, social media on October 14th, 2009
I tend to think not, but here are two very good articles making the case either way.
What do you think?
Is Social Media a Fad?
Posted by Paul Holmes in internet, social media on August 19th, 2009
Social Media Interview with Michael Allison
Posted by Paul Holmes in business, internet, social media on August 12th, 2009
I had the pleasure of lunch today with my old friend and social media connoisseur, Michael Allison.
Michael had the idea of interviewing me for his blog, and I thought that sounded like a great idea, so I interviewed him as well. Mostly for my own practice, but also because Michael has a wealth of knowledge on the subject.
Design for Social Media: Best Practices
Posted by Paul Holmes in social media on July 15th, 2009
Just wrote an essay on the best practices for skinning social media sites on the IdeaZone.ca blog – file formats, sizes, tricks and so forth.
Enjoy!
How do I add an employee to my Company Profile on LinkedIn?
Posted by Paul Holmes in social media on June 23rd, 2009
Finally LinkedIn is allowing anyone to create a company profile. Adding a company is easy.
However, when we created a company profile for IdeaZone.ca, it wasn’t obvious how to add all the staff to the company page.
Where’s the Add Yourself button, or the Add An Employee button? In fact, there isn’t one.
Here’s how you do it:
- The employee of the company logs in to their own LinkedIn account.
- Go to “Profile”.
- “Edit” the “Current” employment record with the company in question.
- Click on “Change Company”.
- Begin re-typing the company name, and a drop-down menu will appear with your company in it. Select the name from this drop-down box.
- Click on the blue “Update” button.
Tah-dah, you are now added to your LinkedIn company page.
It’s quite easy, but not at all obvious.
The Affirmation Society in the Information Age
Posted by Paul Holmes in internet, politics, social media on June 21st, 2009
Can millions of young fans be wrong when they declare that the Jonas Brothers are the greatest music group in the history of the universe?
Of course they can. But they won’t believe you.
Why? Because they have received instantaneous affirmation of their belief, and can do so anytime their faith might be swayed.
Not by music experts, writers, community leaders – but affirmation online by millions of other fans, most of whom they don’t know, nor ever will.
Not terribly important in human history (for anybody but the Jonas Brothers and their benefactors), except when you translate the same human reality to other realms and endeavours: politics, science, religion.
Was 9/11 an inside job? Is global warming a serious, human caused phenomenon? Did Jesus get married and Father several children?
The new answer to all these questions and more is: Whatever you’d like to believe. Any answer you’d like, you can virtually guarantee instant affirmation.
The culture of affirmation used to be described to us by our leaders, media, politicians and opinion-leaders as the social domain of the strange and the perverse: racists, conspiracy-theorists, child-molestors, UFO abductees, etc.
The Internet has changed all that.
What are the consequences of mass affirmation, and how do we evolve as a society from here?
Perhaps we will transcend, as humans often do, into a new, more educated, media-savvy and otherwise street-smart society.
Or, perhaps we’ll devolve into a society of affirmed self-righteousness, until it ultimately descends into societal collapse, or human extinction.
It’s food for thought.
Next time an otherwise intelligent person comes to you with some crazy idea, as seen on the Internet, send them this article, and have them answer the question.
In the meantime, go Jonas Brothers – the greatest musicians ever!!
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