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
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.
There is something to say about getting a handwritten note in the mail. It may go back to the day when I was a young boy and we actually walked a mile to get the mail and it was so rewarding just to find that you had a letter from someone. My mother would read the letter as we walked back home. Or it could be that it is special when someone takes the tie to sit down and labor out a thoughtful note and spend the money and time to make sure you get it. Either way, it is an art I think that is slowly going away with new technology and how we can just update our status or send a quick typed out email with LOL typed into 6 times.
I was reading through an article on Spiegel Online International and an 
An old friend of mine is stepping down from 
I am not sure that anyone in the tech world has written about 
We are beginning a season of acquisitions and mergers it seems as we hear today with 
It used to be that in order to be seen as an influencer or to be really taken seriously in your niche or genre, you had to be on someone’s blogroll. Being added to a blogroll gave you some credibility and it also helped you get read by others in your group. You got to be one of the cool kids if you were recognized on a blogroll. The goal was to get listed on a blog roll by someone with lots of readers as well. It also helped you get read by others, or it helped your voice get heard. Being on a blogroll was the gold standard.
I am not yet an expert, but I am trying to learn to be an expert in my area. This is why I read experts. I pay attention to what they are doing and I learn from them. If I listen and store away what they are providing me I garner wisdom. I read people from all walks of life, I read from the marketer, the advertiser, the public relations person and yes, the baker and candlestick maker. All of the people I read and learn from provide me a path to the knowledge about how I can help other businesses.
I have been doing an inordinate amount of reading and testing and looking and feeling and all the other things I try to do to get a handle on the state of the economy and how social media fits in with marketing, advertising, public relations and all of it, and I had in my mind what I would call an epiphany. It may not be that much of a game changer to some, but to me it boiled a large amount of fertilizer into what I would refer to as the heart of the matter. People like
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