Danny Brown

podcaster - author - creator

Insights

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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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.

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.

Remember, Remember, the Month of Movember

So I’ve already written a quick introduction to Movember – the charity event during the month of November that highlights prostate cancer. Here’s a little more information, direct from the site itself.

“Movember (the month formerly known as November) is a charity event held during November each year.

At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants, known as Mo Bros, have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustache, raising?money?and awareness along the way.

Movember culminates at the end of the month at the Gala Part?s. These glamorous and groomed events will see Alex Trebek look-a-likes battle it out on the catwalk for their chance to take home the prestigious Man of Movember title.

While growing a Mo is left to the guys, Mo Sistas (women that support their guys or just love Mos!) form an important part of Movember with their powerful feminine touch, by recruiting Mo Bros, helping to raise funds and attending the highly anticipated Gala Part?s.

But it’s not all fun and games, so why the extreme behaviour?

Which ever way we look at it, men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy for men is five years less than females.

The obvious question is why?

Men lack awareness about the very real health issue they face.? Many feel they have to be tough – “a real man” – and are reluctant to see a doctor about an illness or to go for regular medical check ups.

The aim of Movember is to change this attitude.? Make men’s health fun by putting the moustache?back on the face of men worldwide and raising some serious funds for prostate cancer.”

As you can see from my ugly mug here, I’m all clean shaven and ready to go. I’ll hitting the donation trail both online and offline over the next 30 days. If you want to support me, please go to my registered Movember page at the official site and make your donations, either via credit card or Paypal. It doesn’t matter how much – every little helps.

This is a great cause and I encourage everyone to take part in whatever way they can. And don’t forget to check back here in a month to see the results of my caterpillar growth!

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Interview on Comet Branding Radio and Other News

One of the great things about social media is the people you meet and connect with. From curious newcomers to social media experts and everyone in between, it’s truly a medium for everyone to connect and discuss. Next week I’ll be involved in the discussion side of things when I talk about the social media press release on Comet Branding Radio.

One of the foremost branding and communications firms in North America, Comet Branding combines traditional branding and marketing with social media and all that has to offer. Their radio show has included the likes of Brian Solis, Jennifer Leggio and others and looks at how to build brands using traditional PR, social media, eco-friendly approaches and more.

The founder of Comet Branding, Al Krueger, kindly offered an invitation to discuss the social media press release. I’ll be appearing with Jason Kintzler, founder of Pitch Engine; Todd Defren, Principal of Shift Communications; and Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing at HubSpot. It looks set to be an interesting discussion – I hope you can join us.

In other “special appearance” news, myself and fellow social media advocate Susan Murphy recently collaborated on a guest post at the blog of author and Emmy award-winning former CBS corespondent David Henderson. This came about after our responses to one of David’s posts on social media and its perceived non-effectiveness in business use. It was an enjoyable partnership and my thanks to David for extending the invite – you can read the guest post here.

Finally, I just received confirmation that I will be a blog partner for this years’s Open Web Awards, or Webby’s. Run by the good folks over at Mashable, the Webby’s recognize the major innovations in web technology. There are 26 categories, and nominations run between November 5 to November 18 2008. The actual voting will take place between November 19 and December 15 – make sure you stop by.

I’d like to thank everyone for inviting me to take part in these events and discussions, and I’m looking forward to hearing and sharing the views of some of my peers and contemporaries.

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