Danny Brown

podcaster - author - creator

Journal

The Mashable Open Web Awards 2008

As the largest blog focused exclusively on social networks, Mashable has the envious position of a captive audience that listens to and respects them. Five million page views each month would suggest online users agree. Therefore, their annual Open Web Awards are much sought after and awarded to only the most deserving recipients.

Recognizing the major innovations in web technology, there are 26 categories overall. These include mainstream and large scale social networks, blog plug ins, wiki and many more. Now it’s almost time for the 2008 awards.

Nominations for the categories will begin on November 5 and remain open until November 18 2008. At that point, the first voting rounds will begin a day later on November 19, and last until December 15. The votes will then be tallied by polling partner Polldaddy with the results announced shortly thereafter.

The Open Web Awards 2007 received over a quarter of a million votes, and with double the amount of blog partners this year – 100 as opposed to last year’s 50 – it looks as if that figure will be topped with this year’s awards.

The nominations will be made public on Wednesday November 5. As an official blog partner for the awards, I’ll be bringing you all the latest news as it’s announced – from nominations, to People’s Choice Awards and more. It promises to be a great end to the year for the social network arena – I hope you stop by for the news as it happens, or check out the main Open Web Awards site itself.

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Discussing Social Media with… Tara Joyce

A little while back, I sent out a request via Twitter asking if anyone would be interested in being interviewed for a discussion on social media. With the medium meaning so many different things to so many people, as well as how it can be used, I was interested to hear the views of the people I connect with.

My original plan was to run a “round table” style of blog post – raise the questions and then have a mix of views as the responses. However, the answers I received back were all excellent, and showed why social media is the mix of interesting people and views that it is. So, I decided individual posts would be far more effective in an on-going series of interviews.

Sharing her views today is Tara Joyce, founder of Elastic Mind Content Solutions, offering small businesses help with building and improving their websites. My sincere thanks to Tara for taking the time to reply and share her views. To connect with Tara, or find out more about her, please visit her blog Rise of the Innerpreneur.

If someone was to ask you for your definition of social media, what would it be?

Using the web to share and gain knowledge.

What is your reason for using social media?

A desire to communicate with a group of people I could not as easily connect with using traditional media.

Do you feel that social media is being used to its maximum effect?

No, not yet. But give it time. The idea is still in its infancy, in both it’s acceptance and use globally and in its evolution as a communication platform. This is only the beginning. But a big criticism I have in its efficiency today is that it is too disjointed. Too many different applications.

What social media tools or applications do you use? Why these ones in particular?

To be honest, I’ve signed up for more than I know. But the ones where I see value are: weblog (wordpress), microblog (twitter), social networks (biznik – prefered, linkedin – obligatory, micromagnate, Behance), Wikis (wikipedia, greenwiki), social bookmarking (delicious, stumbleupon), Music sharing (Last.fm). I belong to Reddit and Digg too but I still haven’t found value.

Where do you see the future of social media, both in general and for you?

More mass collaboration for the betterment of the environment and society. A further funneling and aggregating of the too-many-to-count and easy-to-forget applications that currently exist and are floundering. A new social trend replacing the old social trend called ‘FaceBook’…

Are businesses effectively using social media? If not, what can they do to improve?

Depends on the business. Some don’t even know what it is or simply dismiss it. Others are more adaptive and have embraced it. My advice for a business in regards to thriving in social media is ‘be helpful’ and ‘be authentic’.

What do you feel are the best and worst features/uses of social media?

Best – the ability to quickly and easily connect with like-minded people. Worst – the fact that you have to join and use an application before you can determine that it has no value; couple this with the fact that there are far too many applications and not all are created equal.

  • You can find more “Discussing Social Media with…” interviews here.

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Monitor your Twitter Niche with Monitter

As social media goes from strength to strength in both popularity and acceptance, it’s becoming increasingly clear that businesses are looking at how to get a handle on using it effectively. CEO’s and top-tier management are (slowly) realizing that they should be using social media – the problem is that too many decision makers don’t feel there is any real justification in allotting time to the medium.

For any marketing, PR or advertising teams in a business with this kind of reticent management, it can be particularly frustrating. As a social media user yourself, you know just how effective it can be as a promotional tool. Try telling your boss that, and it’s not so easy. Thanks to Monitter, your task may have just gotten easier.

Monitter is a Twitter application that allows three streams of real-time comment (Tweet) information to be fed to you as it happens. The way it works is simplicity itself (and it’s always the simplest things that work best!):

  • Type in a keyword or phrase at the top of each column
  • Hit return

You’ll then be fed live streams of Tweets from Twitter users around the globe relating to the keywords used. The potential of this is obvious. Say you want to know if your business (or any of its key personnel) is being discussed – simply enter the company (or person’s) name.

Or you want to know what’s being talked about in your niche industry – again, any Tweets relevant to it will be displayed as they happen. What business wouldn’t want that kind of knowledge?

From crisis control for PR teams to feedback and ideas for marketing teams – Monitter is one of the first apps for Twitter that I’ve come across that I feel offers businesses the excuse they’ve been looking for to jump into social media. Yes, there are others out there – TweetDeck is a good example – but for simplicity and effectiveness, Monitter gets my vote. Check it out for yourself.

Discussing Social Media with… Eric Guerin

A little while back, I sent out a request via Twitter asking if anyone would be interested in being interviewed for a discussion on social media. With the medium meaning so many different things to so many people, as well as how it can be used, I was interested to hear the views of the people I connect with.

My original plan was to run a “round table” style of blog post – raise the questions and then have a mix of views as the responses. However, the answers I received back were all excellent, and showed why social media is the mix of interesting people and views that it is. So, I decided individual posts would be far more effective in an on-going series of interviews.

First up is Eric Guerin, co-founder of SmartMarket Movie, offering marketing tools via the medium of online video. My sincere thanks to Eric for taking the time to reply and share his views. To connect with Eric, or find out more about him, please visit his profile at SmartMarket Movie.

If someone was to ask you for your definition of social media, what would it be?

Social media for me are tools, interfaces & websites where you as an individual can seek to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in various social media networks.

What is your reason for using social media?

I own a small virtual business creating online marketing videos. Participation in various social media communities allows me:

a.? The ability to promote my business through social media community engagement

b.? Extend the reach of my business outside of my local region to compete on a national level

c.? The ability to promote my customers products or services to people who trust my opinion

Do you feel that social media is being used to its maximum effect?

No, I feel that there are a select few people who understand the opportunities for engagement by using social media and how to go about utilizing it correctly. I think with time more and more businesses will begin to see what prospects are available by taking part in social media.

What social media tools or applications do you use? Why these ones in particular?

I have tried many different social media tools. The ones I have settled on were largely because they were the ones I was the most comfortable with and the tools where I saw the majority of my potential customers engaging. I utilize Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon, Furl and Reddit for social bookmarking but am really only active and engaging with people on Digg. As a video producer I am active and launching videos weekly on almost all of the video sharing sites including YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo! Video, Revver, Viddler, Metacafe, AOL Video and Dailymotion. For everyday tools I blog, comment on other blogs and I use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Where do you see the future of social media, both in general and for you?

I think as more and more people start to utilize social media in their daily lives it will become more and more effective and accepted by the main stream masses.

Right now there are a select group who are utilizing what it has to offer but as that group starts spreading the word the acceptance of social media will grow. As for me, my usage of social media will definitely grow and refine as I see more and more applications for what I do and opportunities to engage in communities.

Are businesses effectively using social media? If not, what can they do to improve?

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t feel most businesses are effectively using social media. Most jump in like they would with an advertising plug and without looking to connect with the community first. Then they assume that social media doesn’t work so they abandon it.

What do you feel are the best and worst features/uses of social media?

The best features of social media are the opportunities for engagement in various ways across all of the different social media websites/applications. People feel like they get to know you on a somewhat more personal level by reading your updates, watching your videos, etc. So, as a business, they are more apt to remember what you do, particularly when you allow your personality to shine through in your social media involvement.

My pet peeves with social media are when I get direct message sales pitches through Twitter or get invited to some online game that gets passed around on Facebook because “if you invite 5 friends you get a new ____” so people just choose 5 friends, or all their friends, and just forward it on.

People need to know and understand who they are communicating with first before they start sending invitations to games some of their Friends are probably not interested in or sending direct sales pitches to people they don’t even know. One thing I know for sure is that cold-calling DOES NOT work in social media.

  • You can find more “Discussing Social Media with…” interviews here.

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Make Sure Your Blog Isn’t Breaking the Law

The next time you post a blog, you might just want to take a minute and consider whether or not it?s breaking any laws.

Far from being just a harmless medium for posting thoughts and opinions, there are many legal issues that you have to keep in mind not only as a blogger but as a reader as well. From copyright issues to slander and libel, not to mention the problems comments can cause ? there?s more to blogging than just throwing a few sentences together.

For example, if you?re a business blogger and you?re posting an opinion on the latest business news from a company or organization, you have to make sure that your post is based on fact. If you have an error in there, you could find yourself facing a lawsuit (although more than likely, most companies will settle for an apology and correction).

Depending on your post, you could also be liable for a libel or slander claim ? so make sure you know what you?re talking about and you have the facts to back it up.

Copyright infringement is also a hot potato, especially with the ease that blogs can be picked up by external sources. This can be down to your RSS feed, or something as simple as your blog turning up on social media sites like Digg or Technorati. The next thing you know, your blog is appearing elsewhere online. While this can be beneficial as far as links back to your post (which helps your ranking with the major search engines), it doesn?t help if you aren?t being credited and the post is being passed off as someone else?s.

Of course, the flip side of this is if you use sections of other people?s blogs without crediting them as the source. Sure, it?s nice to bring a news story to a wider audience, but make sure you link back to the owner ? not only is it professional and courteous, it could save you a big copyright theft case.

Another surprising area where you need to watch what?s going on is the comments area on your blog. While the legality of who is responsible for comments left on a blog is still a little patchy, the general consensus is that the company hosting the blog is responsible ? after all, they are the ones allowing comments to stay public.

Therefore, any defamatory or hateful statements will be blamed on you if you leave them for everyone to see ? the best idea is to moderate all comments and post the ones that you feel don?t break any ethical, moral or legal issues. You can even place a disclaimer on your blog stating that all comments are approved at the discretion of the blog owner.

At the end of the day, blogging is a fantastic medium for sharing both personal and company news quickly and efficiently. This doesn?t have to change ? just make sure that the next time you?re about to open up to the rest of the world, it?s not going to end up being the last post you make for a long time.