Me and Leah Culver (Pownce). Nice face, me.
Me and Kevin Rose (Digg) making the same stupid face.
Blaine Cook (Twitter) speaking in front of a broken Twitter.
The “How to Launch a Web App in 40 Minutes” panel (from left to right: Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch; Blaine Cook, Twitter; Kevin Hale, Wufoo; Matt Mullenweg, WordPress; Leah Culver <3, Pownce; Gary Vaynerchuk, Winelibrary.tv; Kevin Rose, Digg; Carlos Garcia, Scraplog; Cal Henderson, Flickr; Ryan, Carsonified)
Social network fatigue. If you’re reading this, you might already have it.
Ask yourself, “How many social networks do I belong to?” Do you have a Facebook account? Digg? Twitter? Last.fm? Flickr? Are you tired of having to log in, create your profiles and rebuild your friends list on each one of them?
Then have no fear; Social graphing and OpenSocial are here.
The idea behind the new Google technologies are that all users should be able to share their information (pictures, friends, profile data) throughout all of their networks. OpenSocial will allow networks to sync with one another, and share content across previously closed lines. Think of it as RSS for profiles.
Take FriendFeed as an example. Upon adding me as a friend on FriendFeed, you’ll be able to see my recent activity on my blog, my Twitter, my Digg, and so on and so forth.
A major focus of this conference is in the cooperation of all developers in this movement. The actually technology is far above my head (something about an hCard?), but the speakers are making it seem fairly simple and there are lots of heads nodding in the audience.
It’s undeniable that this technology will shape the future of the web. It will impact how nearly everyone operates on their current social networks and will change the way people interact with one another.From a WOM perspective, social graphing technology is a Godsend. Think of it this way. I’m active on nearly 10-15 social networks, but my friends may not be aware that I participate on any others. Through the technology, they’ll be able to see my status updates and profile edits on all networks at all times. It exponentially increases the consumption and distribution of content, and ensures that people spend even more time interacting with one another online.
I love this conference.
Me and Matt Mullenweg (WordPress)
So I’m here! Blogging live from the Future of Web Apps Conference in Miami.
First things first - the weather is amazing. I had a taxi driver complain about how cold it was last night; it was 65 degrees. I wish I had brought my bermuda shorts.
The conference started around 9AM this morning with a session on “Creating Passionate Users” presented by Kathy Sierra (Sun Microsystems). The former game developer spoke about providing users with an experience that stretches beyond just playing with cool online tools.
Kathy spoke about the user experience in the alpha/beta phase, arguing that developers should actually watch the facial expressions of testers as opposed to reacting to the written reports. She made a very strong case in saying that you can tell so much more from one’s face than you can from a survey. Kathy suggested videotaping the faces of these testers to show a development team.
She also recommended building in a “WTF?!” button into online destinations. How many times have you logged in to a brand new site to find yourself completely lost? With more and more complex tools launching each day, it’s easy to get confused and lose yourself along the way. Therefore, Kathy suggested that a menu option like “What do I do now” or “I’m lost” offers a different level of understanding to the user than a “FAQ/Help” button. I’m a big fan of the whole idea.
Matt Mullenweg (WordPress) is speaking right now. He just said “It’s amazing to look at the numbers and see that on the night of a big democratic or republican debate, there’s a site called ‘Icanhazcheezburger.com‘ that gets more traffic than the political blogs.” I’m not sure of the context in which he said this, but I do love me some LOLcats.
I’m going to sign off for a little bit because this laptop is searing the tops of my thighs.
Here’s the view I had this morning when I walked out of my hotel:
Cuz I’m goin’ to Miami!
I’ll be blogging live from the Future of Web Apps Conference later today and all of tomorrow. You can follow me here at mghwom.com, and on Pownce or FriendFeed.
Scheduled to speak at the conference are all of my favorite internet superstars….Kevin Rose (Digg), Leah Culver (Pownce), Matt Mullenweg (WordPress), Cal Hendersen (Flickr).
So keep checking back for updates from my trip to sunny Florida.
Digg.com is just wrapping up it’s first ever town hall webcast.
Hosted by Digg founders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose, the virtual townhall was born out of some growing concerns among the social voting site’s users. For an hour and a half, the two tech idols sat and answered user-submitted questions that covered everything from the newest algorithm changes to spam issues.
At its peak, the Ustream webcast had somewhere around 1,900 viewers. There was also a live chat set up at diggtownhall.com (not sponsored by Digg) with some of the site’s most popular users participating.
For those of you who missed it or had trouble streaming the feed, here are some of the highlights from Jay and Kevin’s answers. I know I missed some, so feel free to add them in the “Comment” section.
1) “Super-users” do not exist. There’s apparently no such thing as a Digg user with super Digg or Bury powers, as has been speculated over the past few months. However, there’s always an administrator or moderator on duty to uphold the site’s Terms of Service.
“We rely on the users to police the site; not secret moderators,” Jay said.
2) The site currently receives 26 million unique visits per month.
3) Since launch, the site has received over 200,000,000 Diggs.
4) There is an anti-gaming system in place to detect and remove spam from the Upcoming sections of each category. But there’s no auto-bury feature currently built into the site.
5) Digg is adding several forums across the site that permit users to discuss site issues and/or talk about topics that interest them (i.e. Tech).
6) The site will continue to hide the list of those users who Bury each story. But they will be adding in a listing of the number of Diggs and Buries each story receives.
7) They are working to fix the long broken “Search” functionality.
8 ) Neither Kevin or Jay seemed to be concerned with how the “Shout” functionality currently works, so it doesn’t sound as though we’ll be getting any changes there.
9) Neither Kevin or Jay would comment on the site being for sale.
10) The site is open to the idea of having more focus groups for the testing of new features on the site. They’ll be discussing this more at the next town hall session….
…which just happens to be on May 28th.
All in all, it was a really nice webcast that addressed a number of growing questions/concerns that were on top of many Diggers’ minds.
I have to say that Jay and Kevin did a really superb job in opening up the lines of communication with their users.
It was just a little over a month ago when a minor revolution was taking place among Digg’s most powerful users. A select group of Diggers were unhappy with changes that were being implemented at the site, and complained of a lack of communication from the support team.
But, thanks to a willingness to engage in a free-flowing dialog with their users, Kevin and Jay seem to have quickly put out a fire that was still smoldering.
As with all popular web destinations (especially ones that appeal to the more tech-savvy crowd), it’s impossible to please everyone. However, Digg’s founders have really made a concerted effort to keep the communication flowing and seem to be taking a number of the users’ suggestions into consideration.
As word of mouth marketers, tonight’s town hall a prime example of a company recognizing that their customers are their most valuable assets. Without a steady user base and support from their most passionate loyalists, Digg.com would just be another tadpole in the Web 2.0 pond.
Nice work, Digg.
Our Word of Mouth division is growing faster than Abe Vigoda’s nose hairs. So we’re looking for some dynamic and knowledgeable folks to add to our team.
If you or someone you know may be suffering from a word of mouth and social media addiction, please forward a résumé along to me.
And be sure to check out our latest and greatest job posting here:
My MySpace page is boring.
I don’t have a tiled background. My “About Me” section is not what most people would consider “interesting”. And you won’t find any glitter graphics on my page.
But I have to be honest - I kind of like it that way.
There’s nothing that I hate more than clicking on someone’s profile and being bombarded with animated gifs and funky sized images of their favorite actors and actresses. I think it looks cheesy and creates an automatic sensory overload.
But that’s not to say that I’m completely close-minded when it comes to adding new features to my page.
Enter Social Vibe.
Social Vibe is a site that gives its members opportunities to become ambassadors to their favorite brands by adding “support” buttons to their social networking profiles.
Here’s how it works: Users sign up for the site and select from a number of major brands (X-Box, Nike, Apple) that they wish to endorse. They then have the ability to grab a clickable brand logo and paste it onto their public MySpace or Facebook pages.
Users earn points for the amount of time that these buttons remain on their pages. These points can either be used to select from a number of brand-related prizes or donated as cash to a cause of their choice (i.e. Arts and Culture).
There’s also a social networking platform built right into the Social Vibe site, allowing users to connect with one another, share photos and do all the other good stuff that the kids these days are doing.
I’ve had a couple of buttons pasted on my MySpace profile for about two weeks now, and have earned somewhere around 50 points. I’m not eligible to buy anything with my points yet, but I’m still pretty stoked that I’m on a track to earn prizes by doing virtually nothing.
The site brings an innovative means of bridging social media with web advertising and word of mouth recommendations to the table. Just think of the number of targeted impressions and click-throughs that these social network buttons have the ability to garner. Not to mention the countless opportunities that these brands will have to tap into their Social Vibe fan base in the future.
The only real issue I see in Social Vibe’s model goes back to the beginning of this entry: it’s hard to find many social networking profiles that aren’t junked up with Zombie applications, huge graphics of cats jumping up and down or gigantic images of Johnny Depp. So, I’m going to assume that many of these “support” buttons are going to lost in the mix.
But, in the long run, that doesn’t really matter. These companies are developing a relationship with consumers that will last far beyond the life of their social networking buttons. They’ll quickly build up a long list of ambassadors that they’ll be able to reach out to for anything they may need in the future.
So, for now, I’m sticking with Social Vibe because I think it’s pretty cool and it would take effort on my part to get out of the program now.
I’ll let you know if and when I start picking up some prizes!
As you know from my previous entries, I’m not crazy about contests. I think they’re overused, do little to boost a brand and rarely produce the long-term results that clients desire.
But I just came across a solid contest launched by Google, and couldn’t resist blogging it out. It’s a perfect model of how a well-designed contest can really enhance an established brand and get a foot in the door with a new, younger audience.
Doodle 4 Google challenges students (grades K-12) to design Google’s new homepage logo. It’s based around the theme of “What if…”, encouraging students to present their vision of their future.
40 contest finalists from around the nation will receive a trip to the company’s coveted headquarters in Mountain View, CA, and the winner will have their logo posted on the Google homepage for a full day. The winner will also receive a $10,000 scholarship, and their school will be rewarded with a $25,000 grant towards the establishment or improvement of a computer lab.
The contest builds off of the company’s custom of regularly changing their homepage logo - a long-standing tradition that internet users seem to eat up like candy hearts. Here’s a glimpse at today’s Valentine’s Google logo:
Google is the undisputed king of the web, and knows that few (if any) companies can even begin to compete with the foundation that they’ve built over the years.
And that’s exactly why this contest makes so much sense. Google is establishing a rapport with an audience who will increasingly turn to the internet for all of their needs, and building loyalty from the ground up.
I’d venture to say that most people stay faithful to the brands that they grew up with (I still drink Hawaiian Punch, and I don’t even like it), so getting an “in” with potential customers at an early age is a very smart move. It’s truly a short-term contest with long-term results.
From a word of mouth perspective, this contest has more legs than a centipede. Just think of the WOM opportunities that arise from breaking into this high-energy group with mouths that rarely stop running - students taking their Google pictures home to show their parents, decorated logos pasted all around school hallways and in lockers, teens uploading their artwork to Flickr.
There’s even a “Spread the Word” section in the Doodle 4 Google microsite, allowing students and parents to share the contest details with their teachers and school administrators.
Now some may argue that marketing to young school kids may be somewhat unethical. They’ll say that companies should have little to no place in a school environment. But you cannot rationally criticize a contest that’s designed around promoting creative thinking and the arts. What’s better than having a classroom full of enthusiastic kids using their imaginations to come up with something original and artistic?
Additionally, Google’s education-related products (search engine, free email, Google docs) are an invaluable asset to any level of student. I’d be singing a different tune if this was a contest sponsored by a sugarcoated, marshmallow cereal company, but we’re talking about Google here. I don’t even know what I would do without them in my life. Use Yahoo!? I don’t think so.
Right now, I’ve got my 11-year-old brother working on a wicked version of the logo with my head as the first “o”, and I think he’s got a good shot at taking the gold. In any case, tell your kids and their teachers about Doodle 4 Google - they might be able to get 2nd or 3rd place.
I love you, Google. Happy Valentine’s.
Here’s wishing all you WOMMers a very Happy Valentine’s Day!
I’ve licked all of the buffalo wing sauce off of my fingers, so I can finally type this without worrying about screwing up my keyboard: this year’s Super Bowl commercials were more disappointing than blowing your team’s perfect season in the last 2 minutes of the game.
Yeah sure, there were a couple of funny ones, but where’s the controversy? Where’s the excitement? And what the hell was Sales Genie thinking?
This year’s Super Bowl commercials fell way short of what we’ve come to expect. For as long as I can remember, the commercial breaks were filled with nonstop laughter and fun. This year, we got to see a grown-up version of the chubby kid from Nickelodeon’s Salute Your Shorts wearing electrified nipple clamps. And there’s just nothing funny about that.
Let’s face it - if you’re going to spend millions of dollars running a 30 second spot, you better be damn sure that you have an ad that people are going to be buzzing about. I don’t care whether it’s controversial or something that’s stupidly clever (i.e. Whasssssssssssssssssssssup), please just do something different!
That being said, the commercials weren’t all bad. There were a few shining moments, and times when I couldn’t help but LOL.
So, in case you ran to the bathroom during the game, here’s my wrap up of the best and the worst ads from Super Bowl XLII.
The Best
1. Tide Pen
2. E-Trade
3. T-Mobile
The Worst
1. SALES GENIE (there really wasn’t any competition with this one)
2. Carlos Mencia - Bud Light
3. Sobe Life Water
You can watch all of last night’s ads at MySpace.
And finally, I wanted to give a shout out to fellow a Digger, Kina Grannis, who won the Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl Contest. She scored a record deal with Interscope, and her song “Message from the Heart” was featured in a commercial during the 1st quarter of the game.
For those of you unfamiliar with Kina, she recently filmed herself singing a tribute to Digg, entitled “Gotta Digg”. The song quickly made it to the front page of Digg, with many calling for it to be the official theme song for the voting site.
She’s got a bright future in front of her. And I have her song stuck in my head.
Mashable is running a Favorite Web Apps contest, and my entry (Pownce) is one of the top 10!
If I win, I’ll receive one of four tickets to the Future of Web Apps Conference in Miami, where I’ll be rubbing elbows with the tech elite, including Kevin Rose (Digg), Leah Culver (Pownce), Carl Henderson (Flickr), and Matt Mullenweg (WordPress).
So, click here, register if you need to and vote for Pownce!
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