Archives for 2008

Mashable Open Web Awards 2008 Preparing for Winners

With over 35,000 nominations already, the 2008 Mashable Open Web Awards are already bypassing the votes from the inaugural awards last year. With only two days to go until the nomination process closes and the voting proper begins, the nominees are taking shape.

With 26 categories this year, there are more chances than ever that the smaller names and players can be recognized. This is the beauty of the Mashable awards – everyone has a chance.

If you haven’t voted yet, the timeline is drawing near for your final nomination:

11.59pm PST on Sunday November 16.
02.59am EST on Monday November 17.
07.59am GMT on Monday November 17.

Once the nomination phase closes, the votes will be tallied and the finalists announced for the first round of voting. If you haven’t nominated your favourite web application, blog or tool, now is the time to do so. You can use the voting form here.

(Of course, if you wish to vote for me, all votes are kindly accepted via the preset voting widget in the sidebar). 😉

Full details of the nominees moving forward into the finalist stages will be announced Tuesday November 18, with voting starting the following day.

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For Those About to Bob – We Salute You

Okay, so sue me for being an AC/DC fan. But hey, what a classic song! Apart from being a slight spin on words of the Aussie rockers’ classic, though, it’s an apt description for all the Bobs in the world. Confused? Here’s why.

I read Chris Brogan’s latest blog post today, which told the story of Bob (not his real name). The basis of the story is that Bob engaged the customers of the company he works for by interacting with them online.

This was via a forum, and Bob found that the customers in question loved the fact he was communicating with them. It was as if the company he worked for really wanted to know what their customers thought.

However, Bob’s company found out about his online conversations and senior managers weren’t happy – despite the fact Bob was putting the company in a hugely positive light. I won’t give you all the details – Chris describes it far better in his own inimitable style, and I’d highly recommend reading it. Suffice to say, it was the example of another company not getting social media.

Why is this? Why do so many companies, small and large, fail so miserably to get what could be one of the best promotional tools they could ever have? Is it because they don’t understand it? Or is it because they just see it as a waste of time because there’s no tangible return on investment (ROI)?

A good friend of mine has an interesting view on ROI in social media. Chris Kelly, a new media marketing expert working at 77Academy, offers his viewpoints from a marketer’s perspective. What makes Chris’s views even more interesting is the fact that, despite being the traditional type of professional for whom ROI is everything, Chris acknowledges that this isn’t the way to go.

In one of Chris’s recent blog posts, he talks of how businesses – and marketer’s in particular – are getting it wrong by approaching social media from an ownership perspective. While it would obviously be simpler for businesses to understand social media if there was a tangible ROI to work from, this won’t happen for the simple fact that social media doesn’t work this way.

It’s about connecting with your customers, and helping them make decisions. Not telling them how to make these decisions, but offering the knowledge and tools that will help them to decide instead.

You want to sell your latest gardening supertool to the masses? Get online, meet your audience, listen to what they’re saying and converse. As a human being. As a person. Not as a corporate entity who reads everything from an autocue.

The companies that get this idea will be the ones that benefit. They’ll be the ones that employ guys like Chris Kelly and listen to consultants like Chris Brogan. The others? They’ll be Bob’s employers – though for how long remains questionable. After all, it’s easier to change companies than it is to change mindsets.

But I’m sure Bob has already figured that one out.

Why Jason Calacanis is the Ultimate Twitter Fail Whale

I don’t like openly criticizing people, but Jason Calacanis is the equivalent of the Twitter fail whale.

Now I’ve mentioned Calacanis in this blog before, and actually stated that while he may not be my cup of tea, I did find his “never-say-die” approach was better than a negative one. However, all that has changed and for the award for the human version of the Twitter fail whale, Jason Calacanis takes first place.

Why? Simple – his recent actions have shown him to be a pretty shallow creature.

Never one to back off from blowing his own horn, Calacanis recently had to let 10% of his employees go due to the current lack of advertising in the online market. Calacanis is the CEO of Mahalo, a “human powered search engine” that needs advertising income.

At the time, Calacanis stated, “It’s my responsibility to make this hard decision and I don’t take it lightly.” He also mentioned, “We’ve got a significant amount of cash on hand… The net result of this effort is we are giving Mahalo another year…”.

Reading that, you may feel that this is the difficult and upsetting decisions that many CEO’s have to make when times are tough – to keep the company going, sometimes people have to be sacrificed. It’s not pleasant, particularly for those let go, but then if the company can survive and then re-employ at a later date, it’s a decision that has to be made.

You would have thought that. Until you learn that Jason Calacanis is picking up a new $109,000 Tesla Roadster this weekend. Until you learn that Jason Calacanis is boasting about picking up his car and asking his Twitter followers if they know any media types that would be interested in going along to record the pick-up.

If Calacanis was really interested in the best interests of his company and his employees, then he wouldn’t be wasting $109,000 on a frivolous purchase. Yes, even in times of difficulty businesses still need to spend money to try and keep the business going. Yet this is normally for new IT systems that can improve performance, or core company-specific needs.

A $109,000 sports car? I don’t think so.

So enjoy your new car, Jason. Enjoy the “fresh from the showroom” smell and the adoring looks in the mirror. For when your company goes through even tougher times and you have to lay off more employees – the people who really make your business – at least you’ll have a nice car to drive to your computer to send out another sob story.

So, congratulations. For the inaugural Twitter Fail Whale Award – Jason Calacanis, come on down.

You Know You’re NOT a Social Media Guru When…

This post comes from Susan Murphy. It’s a nice follow-on from my post about what makes a social media guru.

Like Danny, people who brag about the fact that they are social media ?experts? or ?gurus? often irk me. Calling yourself an expert or a guru does not automatically make you one.

After all, guru status is a lot to live up to. Imagine having to spend every day on the top of a mountain, prophesying about the awesome wonders of social media, keeping your believers continuously captivated, as they hang on your every word.

That’s a lot of pressure!

I thought it might be amusing (well, for me, anyway) to put together a list, in the style of “You Know You’re a Redneck When…” by Jeff Foxworthy. So, Danny has kindly provided me with a forum to do that (Thanks Danny!). Here goes…

You know you’re NOT a social media guru when…

Your Twitter profile description says “Social Media Expert Guy” but your profile picture is of you with no shirt on.

Your blog’s About page would win the Buzzword Bingo jackpot every time.

Your “Areas of Expertise” list is 3 pages long.

You regularly throw flaming Tweets out at anyone and everyone who “Qwits” you.

You think that the best way to “reach out” to your public is to send mass unsolicited emails about your new startup/podcast/e-book/insert-product-here.

Your signal to noise ratio is equivalent to trying to listen to a Norah Jones song on your iPod during a Limp Bizkit concert.

All of your online profiles talk about your expertise in social media but your blog is about the crazy antics of your 12 cats.

Your “10 Things You Must Do to Get Into Social Media” list mentions Facebook, Flickr and Twitter in at least 9 of the steps.

The reality is, those that call themselves gurus ultimately seem less credible in the eyes of others. This often becomes apparent once their followers start to ask them to do real work. Suddenly, they are unable to live up to the high expectations they’ve created. Like not being able to provide any real, tangible value. Or, not being able to back up their claims or expertise.

The point is, these people call themselves experts expecting that the title alone will make them experts. If what they are really after is that elusive “guru” status, they will probably never get it.

However, by engaging with people on a human level, building their audience by making genuine connections and, perhaps most importantly, being open to continuous learning and growth, they will more than likely have other people singing their praises before long (and with much less effort, I might add). In the end, it’s not about being the best at social media; it’s about just being genuinely involved in social media.

It’s when others start to call you an expert and a guru that you’ll know you’re doing something right.

* Susan Murphy is a partner at Jester Creative Inc, a new media production company based in Ottawa, Ontario. She blogs about social media and life in general at Suzemuse. Susan can be found on Twitter as @SuzeMuse.

How to Take Social Media into the Mainstream

For anyone reading this blog, it’s a pretty good chance that you’re already social media-savvy. Whether you found it through a Twitter link, a blogroll, Technorati or similar means, I’m guessing that you know about the benefits social media can offer.

(For anyone else that arrived here by mistake – well, I thank your error and hope you’ll stick around!)

And therein lies the problem. If you did use one of the methods I mentioned, you’re already a social media user, which is great. But for each one of us that “gets” social media, there’s another 10 that don’t.

(By the way, this figure hasn’t been scientifically proven – I just like round numbers).

This is the problem that social media needs to overcome if it’s ever to be taken seriously. There are some great people out there helping to spread the word about social media, both for personal and professional use. But there needs to be more to help the medium into the kind of acceptance the Internet now has with everyone.

One of the main issues is that there are just too many social media sites, applications, tools and more that it’s all too easy to get lost when you first jump in. No-one likes to be the guy that made the wrong choice – just ask Betamax video or HD-DVD early adopters.

What’s needed is a standard format for the different tools available. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want to see a monopoly of social media any more than you do – but figures prove that something is much more likely to enjoy success the easier it is to use.

Instead of having multiple microblogging platforms like Twitter, Pownce or Plurk, etc, have one main platform to work from. Differentiate the users by offering categories, if you like, that helps them find like-minded users more easily.

Have three main social networking sites – Facebook for people, MySpace for music, LinkedIn for business. Integrate some of the better features from other sites like Bebo and FastPitch and make these three sites the one-stop shop for whatever field it covers.

Combine the best of Stumbleupon and Delicious to offer a bookmarking site that truly does drive traffic to your website or blog.

These are just some ideas to bring social media to everyone. The biggest stumbling block for people and businesses is simply confusion as to what social media offers. Having so many platforms doesn’t help. Narrowing all the current options down into a more manageable resource would go a long way into negating this confusion.

I’m not saying it’s the ideal solution – but it’s got to be better than the mish-mash that’s currently out there, no? What do you think – are there too many social media platforms or is all this choice a good thing?

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