Tom is everyone’s first friend on Myspace. He co-founded Myspace in 2003 and has over 130,000,000 friends. Today, Tom sent a bulletin to all his Myspace friends. One of Tom’s friends lost his dog. Tom sent a picture of the dog and the owner’s email address to all his 130MM friends.
More people will receive the photo of the missing dog than actually living in Los Angeles!
I’m going to say this at risk of sounding like a drama queen. Check out this Zig Ziglar’s Podcast on “Selling with Enthusiasm. Be patient through the 10 second introduction. Now, listen to that guy’s voice. It’s not Zig, it’s one of Zig’s crew. That is the scariest voice I have ever heard.
It’s the voice that says, “everything is great. Why, my family is juust perfect.” It’s the voice I think of Stepford Wives & Edward Scissorhand. I imagine this recording could be installed in a doll sitting in one a salesdesk somewhere in the blah, USA.
My favorite line:
“Please don’t tune us out if you don’t consider yourself a sales person.”
*image citation: http://tinyurl.com/y5vxr8
It may have started with reality tv.
Suddenly, the everyday became compelling content.
Cheaper tools like digital and video cameras made it easier than ever to record life.
New distribution networks like Myspace and YouTube made sharing personal content simple.
With all these changes, has the idea of compelling content changed too?
I think so.
50 years ago, what were most pictures of?
Smiling families & landscapes…
Now what are most pictures of?
Digital liberates us to create an entire new kind of art…
It’s become less about waiting for the right moment to appear and more about recording every moment and editing until the right moment surfaces.
I read a post to a list serve recently.
It said, “I’m on my honeymoon but I will find time to podcast with my wife from the hottube.”
Podcasting on your honeymoon? Why not.
I think needing to feel connected at all times is an addiction.
Perhaps no one was listening to the podcast.
It was still significant to the podcaster.
What’s happened to our ability to decide what is significant?
When every moment is preserved, when all history is saved, will we long for a time when we couldn’t remember?
One of the thing that surprised me is that on the first day of school, 3193 freshmen reportedly had an account. This was over 85% of the entire freshman class, and many had been using the Facebook for many months.
Bonus reading*** Rhythms of Social Interaction: Messaging within a Massive Online Network
Send me your favorite blog entry this week to feature.
- A small bird will drop frozen dead
- From a bough
- Without ever having felt sorry for itself.
D.H. LAWRENCE, Self-Pity
St Andrews Square, 2:33 am in the Snow
Originally uploaded by jdw.
This website has video lectures from the most respected universities in the world. It’s remarkable that content this good is actually free.
Here’s an effective way to research any topic or trend online.
1. Create an account with an RSS reader, I suggest Bloglines.
2. Subscribe to top blogs. Find them using Technorati and the blogrolls of your favorite bloggers.
3. Select a blog within bloglines. In the right hand corner, click on the link entitled ‘subscribers.’ Browser through the readings of other bloglines users to find new sources.
4. Create RSS alerts using Google, Reddit and StyleFeeder.
5. Create RSS feeds from Del.icio.us tags. Simply enter: http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/(tagname) and subscribe to the feed with your bloglines account. You’ll be the first to receive news about that tag.
6. Subscribe to the Del.icio.us accounts of smart people who write on the topic that interests you. For example, Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion’s Del.icio.us account is public and excellent.
7. Use Del.icio.us tools to identify popular tags and trends.
I use this process to create a knowledge center for every new topic I research.
The Wave is one of Los Angeles’ top rated radio stations. It is also one of the most admired smooth jazz stations in the country. They target a 40+ demo, and I just came across their Myspace page. Their friends include on air personalities and the musical talent they play. Of course, a few listeners as well. Even though they only have 150 friends, I think it’s cool they are using Myspace to reach their listeners.
Let’s welcome them to the neighborhood.
Have you bookmarked the del.icio.us/popular page? Completely worth it.
Two of my favorite posts today:
I was at the Armani story today in Italy. Japanese, British, Italian tourists, all well dressed, were handling expensive clothing, priding themselves on their style. Here’s what I made me laugh.
Do you know what song the Armani story was playing? “Do your chain hang low,” buy Jibbs. I think it’s amusing that inside the Armani story, the music highlights the fashion, and outside the Armani story, it’s gang-banging music. I wonder if anyone was listening to the lyrics.
“Do your chain hang low
Do it wobble to the flo
Do it shine in the light
Is it platinum, Is it gold
Could you throw it over ya shoulda
If ya hot, it make ya cold
Do your chain hang low
Is that your chain!?
Bout 24 inches is how low I let it hang
How bout the ride n let the diamonds smoke off the range
Just by the chain you can tell the big kid do a stain
You know the name!
Is that your chain!?
Bout 24 inches is how low I let it hang
How bout the ride n let the diamonds smoke off the range
Just by the chain you can tell the big kid do a stain
Im off the chain!”
This isn’t an isolated occurance. I’ve heard 2-pac at French restaurants and Nirvana at fashion shows.
I’m in Rome to speak to the National Association of Broadcasters on new media. One of my favorite things to do in a new country is find differences between it and New York. To be honest, without sound, people looked and moved the same as they do in New York. Little kids play video games; Beautiful women wave to oversized men; the stylish and bold wear puma sneakers, jeans and sports coats.
The Mcdonalds, however, is quite different. Near the Spanish steps, the Mcdonalds is more family gathering place than fast food joint, filled with festive noise and good ole American joy.
Perhaps the biggest difference, at least the most apparent one for me, is to be without a mobile phone for a week. I’m having to call and check messages. I can’t change my plans on the fly. It’s so very 1998.
Rome seems as connected as any major American city, integrating the virtual world with the every day. I know that should I need to learn about the city, I could reach out the blogging community–a AAA card of sorts, and find myself in like-minded company.
I often speak about the great values of the blogging community. Here’s a story to illustrate this.
I’m on a few email lists for bloggers. People exchange their ideas and their passions for all things blogging. Every time I have a technical issues, or a cool observation to share, I know that I can ask the community.
Yesterday, a blogger I did not know, posted something very personal to the blogging group. His 22-year-old daughter just died. He submitted a link to pictures of her. I was really moved by the way this group of ‘strangers’ reached out a fellow blogger, in sympathy and support.
I believe in this.
Every major online advertising & marketing conference was at Ad Tech. Few people in attendance might have actually heard of Second Life, and in a year, I know that will change in a big way. Second Life’s chief marketing officer, and a lead designer, were stationed at a table the size of a school desk. They were friendly and casual, showing their product demo and answering questions.
I came away with the feeling you might have if you saw U2 at your local pub before they were huge.
My partner said something wise today. I’d like to share it with you.
“It’s not what you say that counts; it’s what people hear.”
I’m at Ad Tech New York today. Even though this is the online advertising industry’s major conference, I found that the exhibitors marketing techniques were very basic. Things like: enter to win a drawing for an iPod, spin a wheel for a prize, or free candy in their booth. I expected exhibitors to use text messaging, or integrated creative messaging to reach people in their industry, which is famous for bringing new ideas to clients.
After hearing certain keywords, “seo, sem, landing page, BT, segment, CMS, ” all my conversations started to sound the same. It was only the exhibitors who used real words to talk about who actually cut through the verbal clutter.
The people who have the tools first determine much about the way they are used.
Take the the content producers on the internet. How many of the content producers share a social, cultural or economic background?
Even though there are different clusters of content producers, ranging from teenie bopper to senile video blogger, the early adopter crowd share much in common.
For example, what if You Tube’s video clips came primarily from North Africa, or the religious right was the first to use podcasting.
The new media narrative might have changed dramatically.
Imagine how different it would be video blogging, podcasting, Second Life, etc. launched in a fascist regime.
I believe that at the heart of many of these new tools is a new media community with a core set of governing values. And even though blogging, podcasting and video producing are now main stream (thank you Mac, You Tube, cheap tech., etc), the founding values of the group that introduced these technologies determined the underlying ways we socialize, produce & consume media online.
All the major web social networking sites are producing widgets. What bling did for the rap game, widgets are doing for the new media space. I wonder about the widget revenue model. People might feel differently about posting a widget if it came with advertising, unless they had some input about which ads were featured.
Here’s a great blog post on widgets.
I’ve noticed a trend in some community forums. People include every possible way to reach them after signing their name. It’s almost as if providing more ways to be reached is a status symbol. Some common ways people give to reach them
Skype
AIM/Google Talk
Myspace
Flickr photostream
Facebook
Blog(s)
Second Life
Web site
Blip.TV
just to name a few…
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