Archive for January, 2009

Posted on January 27, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Recap of Facebook's Technology Tasting event; OpenStreams API announcement. Plus How to sync Plaxo with Facebook screencast.

Today Mark Zuckerberg, Dave Morin and the Facebook team held a Technology Tasting to make a few announcements. Here’s a list of the big news from Facebook.

1. Mark Zuckerberg, a short Facebook history lesson and the direction of Facebook.

2. Dave Mornin talks about Facebook OpenStreams news, developor access to api/mysql.

3. Chris Messina announces Facebook openness.

4. Plaxo team announces they are in a Facebook open relationship. You can use friend connect to sync and connect your Facebook data.
Screencast how to sync Plaxo & Facebook

5. Adobe Air Facebook Desktop App announcement. You can get it here: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=79988352130

6. Seemic Desktop with Facebook demo from Loic You can get it here: http://desktop.seesmic.com

7. Microsoft Demo of accessing FaceBook photos from Windows 7 from Brian Goldfarb

8. What facebook is doing with Openid update from Luke Shepard. Use Facebook as your real world identity and openid accounts, coming soon.

9. Dave Recordan, from OpenID talking about how openid has evolved over the years.

10. Dave Mornin closes.

You can also watch video clips from the event here:

Basically Facebook is moving towards more openess and is opening the stream (your wall, status updates etc).

What do you think about the Facebook news today? Excited? Worried about your data? Is this a stab at Twitter? Blah? Let me know in the comments.

Posted on January 19, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

I have Crocs around my neck & why social media might sell you a pair. How to manage a national brand.

Last weekend, I attended the Chicks Who Click (CWC09) conference in Boulder, Colorado. Don’t let the name fool you, the conference featured some of the smartest women in social media, marketing and entrepreneurship.

Photo  by GirlOnTheBand

It was organized by  Denise Smith a marketing and events specialist and Gwen Bell a brand manger, a few men were in attendance also. One of those gentlemen was George G. Smith Jr. ,Crocs social media specialist.  If you’re not familiar Crocs, then take a look at the picture below and I’m sure you have seen a pair of Crocs somewhere. 

Photo by Zé Eduardo

If you didn’t know, Crocs is based out of Boulder, Colorado and it was truly a win for them to send George to the Chicks who Click conference. As Crocs social media specialist,  George was frequently asked questions about brand management, using social media to engage in various online communities and deal with the thousands of people who say “I hate Crocs” online everyday.

 

Another big plus for Crocs was sending George to the conference with a lot of swag. I’m talking buttons, cell phone cases, stickers, pouches and more. It doesn’t end there, everything George was wearing during the conference was made by Crocs and conference organizer Gwen Bell had a pair of “hot” red Crocs boots that most of the ladies attending the conference were wowing over.

Photo by cr8tvjen 

Needless to say, Crocs was well represented at the conference, and everyone who attended, if they had a negative opinion of Crocs before they attended CWC09, they left with a positive one. 

So how is Crocs using social media? For one, they have George G. Smith Jr., a young smart, funny, (see Baby Got Back karaoke video by George) who “gets it” . George is on Twitter as @georgegsmithjr, and is very active in listening and engaging with people who are having conversations about Crocs on Twitter. But George is not just using Twitter, hes has some social media listening tools (I’m not going to reveal) setup to know when anyone is mentioning Crocs on the web, plus he’s blogging and participating in Facebook groups, even a few that may surprise you such as the “I Dont care How Comfortable Crocs Are, You Look Like A Dumba**” group with over 1.3 million members“. Ouch!  How does George deal with a such a large community with groups that either love or hate Crocs?

Well, rather than me try to tell you everything I’ll let George tell you. While in Boulder, Colorado I had a chance to interview George about Crocs and social media while we visited Lijit’s office (thanks @tarable). Here’s a list of questions I asked George about Crocs and social media:

• So how do you manage the brand of Crocs when you have people who love them or hate them? For example someone tweeted: @trixie360 yeah, why does he want to uglify America? This country is already obese and ignorant… do our shoes have to be hideous too?
• How did you become the crocs social media maven?
• What is your favorite pair of crocs and color?
• As Crocs being a national brand and a non tech company, what challenges do you face explaining to everyone the value of social media to people within your corporation who don’t get it?  For example: @YannR on Twitter was talking about why Crocs doesn’t blog. What’s the reason behind that?
• If you could build the ultimate Crocs social media campaign with an endless budget what would you do first, and which existing social network would you try to reach first and why?
• You have your twitter account that you’re active on; Will you begin using the @Crocs Twitter account soon or do you think it’s more about building the personal relationships with individuals representing the company versus the company tweeting?
• Why would you suggest  other non tech companies to get involved with social media?
• What would be the number 1 reason you would tell someone why to buy a pair of Crocs?

 The interview.
 

 

I must say that I’m really impressed with George and what Crocs has allowed him to do with their brand. If you own a national brand take note of what it takes for your company to use social media:

1. If you don’t get it, hire someone who does.
2. Make sure the person who’s representing your brand is passionate about your product or company
3. Understand the tools, the communities and how to participate in them
4. Use offline meetings/conference to build your brand and support your local community
5. Listen to and engage to both positive and negative feedback about your brand online.
6. Have fun and enjoy what you do.

Just in case you didn’t catch the end of the interview, I made a promise to George that for the entire year of 2009, I’ll wear my black Crocs badge/iPhone case at every meetup or conference I attend (I have Crocs around my neck).

 

Thus starting “my Crocs 09 tour” flickr group.  So if you see me at a conference or meetup let’s take a picture for George. Here’s me and Peter Shankman from HARO. Next stop for my Crocs? The inauguration.

Need help understanding social media? Contact me.

Posted on January 17, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

What makes a successful twitter iPhone app? A tweetie screencast video review. My 5th most asked question: What twitter app do I use on my iPhone?

If you’ve visit my F.A.Q section then yes I skipped #3 or #4 but I’ll get to those later but #3 will be how I got so many twitter followers and #4 will be who created my twitter background and the history of twitter backgrounds. Keeping with the twitter theme here my 5th most asked question is “what twitter iPhone app do I use on my iPhone.

Before tweetie was released I was using the iPhone web app Hahlo mainly because the amount of people I’m following on twitter and the other iPhone applications were hanging on loading my twitter public stream and my replies. Then a few weeks ago my good friend @Ocell told me about tweetie and I’ve been using it ever since. Tweetie is made be atebites and can be downloaded from the iTunes here [app link] Here’s a screencast demo of tweetie.

A few other notes about successful twitter iPhone apps:

Remember to keep it simple and clean – one of the reasons why twitter works is that it’s simple.

• Separate the replies from the direct messages and public tweets. I love twitterrific but this is one of the biggest complaints I hear about the app.
• Make the app have some PEE, that’s stands for Popularity EnhancEr. – One trend about successful iPhone apps is that it either shoots, farts or is a flashlight and tweetie does two out of the three

• Monetize it. – tweetie cost $2.99 and just look at what tweetdeck a popular desktop twitter air app has just received VC funding.

What is your favorite iPhone twitter app and what desktop twitter app do you use?

Posted on January 15, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Talk Social News Episode 19 Video: A look back at Social Media in 2008 and Kipp and Wayne's predictions for 2009

Note: This show was recorded prior to Macworld 2009 and CES 2009 so news from those shows is not included, but will be discussed on future episodes.

With 2009 getting started we launch our first video episode! We dicuss the major changes in technology and social media in 2008 and look forward and make our prediction for what is ahead in 2009.  Did you agree with us? Let us know what you think! Please leave a comment or send us you thoughts on Twitter: @kbodnar32 and @waynesutton.

What do you think is going to be the next big thing in mobile, social networks and/or technology in 2009?

Posted on January 5, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Talk Social News #18 Allen Stern of Centernetworks.com & CloudContacts. TechFuga, embargo & macworld

Happy New Year everyone, we’re a little late but Talk Social News returns with an exciting interview with All Stern of CenterNetworks.com & CloudContacts. Allen was gracious enough to do a second interview with us and it’s just as good as the first one. Allen is an entrepreneur, blogger, consultant and his blog Centernetworks.com was recently listed as one of the top 6 blogs to read for information on social media. For more information about Allen & CenterNetworks.comhere.

The interview: Talk Social News Episode 18 – length 57:12 download or click to play:[audio:Talksocialnews-0018centernetworks.mp3] Subscribe to podcast in iTunes:

Other segments of the podcast:

The what to blog:

New tech news site: http://TechFuga.com

In the fail of the week:

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch on Death To The Embargo

News of the Week:
Steve Jobs Health and MacWorld rumors

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Thanks for listening!