I think I have seen it all or in this case heard it all and then they come out with a Twitter song! This is awesome!
The Twitter Blessing
August 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I was just reading this morning on Techmeme the various sites that are discussing the closing down of the URL shortener service Tr.im. I then came across a post written by Robert Scoble called, "Twitter’s platform shortcomings." I have written a number of posts about Twitter here and we are seeing the company mature and grow before our eyes like a child. Sometimes a child makes poor choices and sometimes they make us proud, but when I read things like the Twitter "blessing" and I have to cringe a little. Blessing exerts some connotation of power, and with power comes great responsibility as we all know. We see companies like Facebook with this same type of power and the same feeling of the hair standing on the back of my neck continues. I must echo Robert’s sentiment here when he states:
OK, most of you probably never have used tr.im to shorten your URLs so they fit into Twitter. But I did. I liked the URL better than bit.ly, which is the service that Twitter has “blessed.” Oh, how I hate Twitter’s “blessing.”
Pete Cashmore, of Mashable has another quote in his post that gives me the feeling all over again:
“…we just can’t justify further development since Twitter has all but annointed bit.ly the market winner.”
That from the Tr.im closing statement. That is far too much power for one company, but I know that is part of doing business. Google carries the same type of power and I have heard the likes of Michael Gray talk about the wielding of their power and how they can arbitrarily damn some sites and rise others to the heights of heaven. I use that metaphor because that is nearly godlike in its functionality. Google wants to be for good but not for evil and I suppose your definition of good and evil depend quite a bit on the way the ball bounces for you or against you. In this case it seems that the ball has bounced against the folks at Tr.im.
We see applications come and go and in this particular instance it has implications that might hurt people in one camp over another. To pick and choose who wins, who loses and how the game is played is far too much power in my opinion to give to companies. The FTC is dabbling in the game with blogging and "sponsored conversations" and I would assume that some constituents will be contacting their authorities for some regulation of companies that have the power to bless.
Photo via polishamericancenter.org
Tags: Twitter, Techememe, Robert Scoble, Corporate Responsibility, Google
Social Media Strategies Don’t Matter – It’s All About The Execution
August 4, 2009 By 4 Comments
I have been writing this blog post for the last 5 years. No, I haven’t been actually writing this post for that long, but I have been preparing to write this post for nearly that long. You see I have been a strategist a long time in Internet years. I have put many of those strategies together, and I am happy to say that many of them actually worked, but I must also say unfortunately, some of them and I should say more than I care to admit have probably failed. I tried most of these ideas and “campaigns” on my own company and used myself as the test subject. I have always tried them in my own marketing, advertising and public relations and as I said, some work and some don’t. This post is not about the “try” or “the idea”, but the execution.
Many colleagues out there are expert strategists. Many charge a pretty penny to come up with a strategy. In fact, I too charge for that, and some would say (you know who you are) not nearly enough, but that is for a another post. There are some great plans drawn out on the whiteboard of board rooms, and there are some bar napkins that I would like to have in a shadow box case as many of our greatest companies started there. My company in fact was sort of started as a dare I think one night after having had too many drinks. Having a good job and a stable company to work for, why would I ever jump into the entrepreneurial pool? I blame the alcohol.
“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
All of us have the best mousetrap. That is our strategy. We have the best way things can be done and the way that they should be done according to our extensive research and study. For my extensive study and research, (please see the archives here for a start) I have tried and failed and taken those ideas that have been most successful. Some of it is still theory after all social media has been around less than some of my young children. Given what we know of facts and how they are applied to each circumstance, all of the strategies seem to be close to the same Plan A or Plan B depending on which consultant or agency you happen to speak with about your company and needs.
I have noticed a trend based on some of the ideas and strategies implemented. When companies are happy with a certain strategy it is only after the execution stage. Most of them are all excited and gung-ho when the strategy is discussed and laid out in front of them, but the truly satisfied are not such until after the plan has been put into place and the results come to fruition. Be it as simple as starting a company blog, setting up a comment policy, providing a podcast, or research on community outreach and providing that service and seeing your first conversion, the elation comes when the plan is executed. It can be even more rewarding when a multifaceted and long and expensive journey has been commenced.
I am known for providing a sports metaphor now and then and this is not much different so I apologize for this ahead of time if you hate those. If I draw a play in the sand and at the snap of the football all goes to hell in a hand basket, the best laid plan pf x’s and o’s is not going to get me points on the board. But when you truly make a plan, draw out a play and then deliver the ball to the end zone, all are happy and we get to celebrate with high fives all around. Seems pretty simple. The problem has always been execution. As consultants or strategist are you executing your plan? When was the last time you were in the end zone?
Tags: Social Media, Better Mouse Trap, Emerson, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Consulting, New Media
Diversity in Hawaii
June 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment
One of the things that most of the local people here discuss is its diversity. Many of the differernt cultures all come together be it tahitian, polynesian, portugese, japanese, chinese or other ethnic backgrounds, they all have their own language, philosophy and look. The same goes for resorts, hotels and other places we have been staying at here in the Hawaiian Islands.
Some resorts are more into amenities like soap and lotions and spas, whereas others are more into the resort itself with, where it is located and what things you can do while there? It has been interesting to note the different corporate look and feel so far between the Royal Hawaiian we stayed at our first night, the Grand Hyatt and now the Marriott. Each has its own corporate culture underlying the Hawaiian experience. I have had some very nice things about each of the hotels and some not so nice things, but that is after all the diversity I speak of.
As bloggers we have a different approach to our experience. We are not just here to relax and have a good time but weare also here to create and produce some qaulity content. I for one have been trying to live stream my experience and have my viewers go along for the ride, but that has proven nearly impossible since I have not been able to stay connected to the Internet for more than about 10 minutes at a time. I actually received a nasty note from the Marriott as it thought I might be producing questionable content using their lobby Wifi. Huh? I’m promoting your hotel and resort…questionable? Not everyone is into the experience of blogging yet but they will be soon enough. After all the Marriott does have a blogger.
I am now thinking that bringing my own Wifi with a broadband card is the way I should have gone. That is of course until we go today to visit a volcano where even "my network" cannot reach.
Tags: HawaiiHTA, Marriott, Grand Hyatt, Royal Hawaiian, Travel, Connectivity, Diversity
One By One Media Heading South For The Winter
February 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Perhaps that is not as much of a migration as it is a business trip for me. I am headed to Miami tomorrow to speak at Wordcamp Miami and attend BarCamp Miami and Future of Web Apps ’09.
I will be speaking at Wordcamp Miami as I did in Las Vegas on "Blogging for A Living", it is a presentation that I have given a number of times and therefore I wont have to prepare more than my usual, but more importantly, and perhaps more fun I will be doing a live radio show from BarCamp Miami courtesy of my client i-Lighter.
You can follow along and be a part of things as well. My show Social Mediasphere via Blog Talk Radio will have the live coverage of the event. This is my first try at doing a live radio show, although I have been on Blog Talk Radio live while I was at Blog World Expo last year.
I’ll be interviewing attendees, speakers and whoever might happen by the table. I have been sent some podcasting equipment and I will be hopefully not embarrassing myself with my non-technical skills. You can join in on the fun. I want to have as many people participate as possible.
After the fun on Sunday at Barcamp Miami, I’ll be attending the fun at FOWA ’09 or the Future of Web Apps.
This event has some real dynamite personalities that are speaking at the event and hopefully I will get a few of them to stop by and be a part of the live radio show as well. This show will be done on Blog World Expo Radio via the Blog Talk application as well so I would really enjoy it if you participated. I will be live blogging the event as I can via the Blog World Expo Blog so stay tuned.
Tags: Barcamp Miami, Wordcamp Miami, FOWA ’09, Future of Web Apps, i-Lighter, Blog Talk Radio, Blog World Expo, Blogging, Social Mediasphere, Blog World Expo Radio
Hosted Blogging Applications; Another Example Why They Are Not For Me
February 6, 2009 By 1 Comment
I am constantly finding reasons why I am not a proponent of hosting blogging plans. I am a WordPress supporter yet I don’t recommend hosting your blog on WordPress.com, and in spite of the Google mantra of doing no evil, I tell many to run away from Google’s application Blogger. In a recent article by Tech Dirt regarding Google’s unilateral deletion of blog posts I get another piece of the puzzle that causes me to continue my preaching. In the post, they indicate:
An RIAA source says that the group sends Google a list of URLs it doesn’t like, and Google “then deals with the problem.” Google says that it notifies bloggers after their posts have been taken down, in accordance with the DMCA. But it should hardly be surprising that many of those affected say they’ve gotten no such notice, nor that the offending material was either legally posted and/or supplied by the labels themselves.
I have always been a strong advocate for owning my own content. Be it good or bad content it is still mine. I have heard the stories of whole blogs being deleted that were around for years and all of the data that was in that blog being lost to a black hole never to be seen. I am just not that trusting of others with my blog. I am not keen on the idea of Google being able to subjectively judge a post and remove it without any due process other than an alleged email or notice they sent. Sure it costs a little extra than just the URL and some specialty template, but paying for hosting and controlling your own destiny is something that is worth the price.
Something Smells Phishy – The Twitter Hacker
January 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I was multitasking when it happened. When I mention the idea of multitasking, I mean serious business. I was once looked at by my old boss as someone that could teach ADD to a rock.
I was looking over my emails for the day and saw I had an inordinate amount of Twitter followers. I attributed the large amount of people recently using Mr. Tweet. I knew when I left the house to spend Sunday afternoon with the family at the pool I would have a number of emails to respond to when I got home. After supper I logged in and saw a few emails from people that told me the bad news. My Twitter account had been compromised. I had looked at my Tweetdeck and tried to send a message, it was also not working. The password changed on my account and the ability to send messages stopped. I had been hacked by a spammer. The irony of this was, I was on the lookout for spammers as earlier in the day I had tweeted about this very thing.
I tried logging into Twitter from the regular account on the application itself. I couldn’t. I needed to reset the password. Then I noticed that twitter themselves had indicated that the spammers had attacked many other people as well. The picture you must be wary of is on the Twitter blog and a copy of that I have posted below.
I had fallen prey to this because I wasn’t paying attention to what was happening. I was entering new followers from email and didn’t pay attention to what I was doing and found that I had fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book. I gave someone my password and login not realizing I had done so. Then I had left my house giving them access for a long time. The worst thing that could have happened. I always suggest people change their passwords on a regular basis just for this purpose. I’m the last guy that should be in charge of passwords. Just ask my assistant. She always gives me a hard time. Actually if she wanted she could probably hack my bank account and everything else I have that requires a password. I’m hoping we can come up with a new way of logging in to our accounts in the future. I am ready to install the retinal scan after this last episode.
In the meantime, if you find that you have been compromised like I have, please change your passwords immediately. Then when you feel safe and that your accounts are okay, change your password again. To those of you that had to deal with my account being hacked by these bad guys, I apologize. I hope that my Twitter credibility will hold up after this latest craziness. My thanks to the folks at Twitter for the quick response to this and for making it so we victims of this can keep things going. They responded quickly to this and should be commended. This was accomplished on a Sunday following a holiday. That is customer service at its best, and protection of their customers at its finest.
As of the time that I posted this they are still trying to work the scam and they will be getting into more and more accounts. I am not sure what is being done to help prevent this other than getting suers to recognize when there is a problem. I hope that they can get that taken care of. In the meantime, if you see a message from anyone with a twitter login page, please ignore it.
UPDATE: Pete Cashmore seems to think this is a rite of passage for Twitter. You have made it when your site gets Phished.
Update 2: Here is a picture of the screen shot taken from a follower that received a message from me. Thanks @ghozali at http://andyghozali.info/
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