As people continue to use mobile devices for computing, more and more apps are getting into the location-aware game. Services like Twitter and Pegshot and new social location games like Foursquare and Gowalla are making use of location combined with commentary, photography, and personal status. Oh yeah, and Facebook now has a check-in API. Read More
My friends Rich Nadworny and Nicole Ravlin put on an occasional event in Burlington Vermont called “Social Media Breakfast.” These events are awesome because they bring interesting business speakers to Burlington. This past week they did it at lunch instead of breakfast. The guest speaker was Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation.
The topic of Mitch’s presentation was, of course, social media. I took notes on my iPad using a mind-mapping app called iThoughtsHD. The map, as an image, is below. Green is for examples, little Flags are product/network mentions (thankfully scarce) and little targets are things I thought were especially interesting. The map in outline form is at the end of this post.
For a larger version of this Mitch Joel presentation mindmap, click the pic.
Some of the things Mitch Joel said that really made a lot of sense for me: Read More
It’s a real challenge to find clear distinctions between observations and commentary in online media. The web is littered with blog posts that are opinions, repackaged opinions, and responses to repackaged opinions. Now don’t get me wrong, I love good analysis and commentary. But it’s always good to get the full and complete source along with it.
My “Follow Friday” this week is a guy who always does a great job of this.
In the whole Observe/Orient/Decide/Act (aka OODA Loop) strategic method, being clear on what’s an observation and what is someone’s analysis or commentary is critically important. For those who can find meaning in original research, finding original research and data is critical for making meaning and informing better decisions.
I first started paying attention to Eric Bryn after meeting him at an Inman Connect in San Francisco a number of years back. We were at a vendor party, the place was packed and loud. But we quickly got into talking about web analytics and how traffic data can be put to work in the real estate industry.
Eric was one of those guys who not only got this stuff, but was already doing it and thinking it. Later during the conference I saw him on a panel discussing A/B testing and ways to optimize a home page in a sort of live “real estate site makeover” kind of thing. His comments during that session were spot on.
But what ultimately makes Eric a great person to follow is his ability to find original research online, tease out a few worthwhile insights and then provide a link to the original research. For those of us who are tired of getting pre-chewed opinions on the usual suspects of research and white papers, Eric’s ability to find solid research and willingness to share is a goldmine.
There are, of course, a lot of ways to follow Eric Bryn. I recommend, first and foremost his blog (it’s one of very very few that get directly emailed to me whenever there’s an update), Real Estate Relativity. Given that Eric’s blog is filled with references to research papers, the blog should be of value to those in industries that aren’t real estate.
Other ways to follow Eric Bryn:
You may have noticed that Thoughtfaucet got a new homepage. For the next week I’m sending visitors to my most viewed page to a site that isn’t on Thoughtfaucet.com. Why? Read More
A collection of Dogsharks® short animations titled, cleverly, “Dogsharks” will be showing at Germany’s Prix Jeunesse festival as part of the Media Bar and Discussion Pool. Thoughtfaucet’s Gahlord Dewald did the animation and much of the music work in collaboration with Dogsharks creator Robert Wurzburg.
These animations are part of a long collaboration between Dewald and Wurzburg in exploring the branding of the children’s media brand, Dogsharks. The collaboration has included work in puppet theater, animation, musical composition and improvisation, story and branding. Thoughtfaucet is, understandably, psyched to have participated in working with Wurzburg’s creation. Read More
We’ve been reading and creating a lot of chatter about “social media” for the past few years. And for the past year it’s been incessant non-stop cacophony about Twitter and Facebook and gurus and is-blogging-relevant-anymore and Foursquare and so on. Non-stop.
In all that chatter it’s been easy to miss the point of social media. The whole point of social-anything is that we all do something together. Social technologies are there to assist collaboration between people. Even if that collaboration is just to have a barbecue together.
If I had to choose whether I wanted to focus on understanding the nature of collaboration vs understanding the nature of social media I know which one I would choose.
A lot of my time is spent trying out and playing with new technologies to see how they might fit into my clients’ businesses. Here’s how I keep “collaboration” separate from “social media” in my work. Read More
We all know that just because we find images online that we like, that we aren’t entitled to just use them. Just because it’s on the internet, doesn’t mean it’s free. If you want to use a photograph you find online for your project, you need permission from the copyright owner. If not, you’re breaking the law.
Getting permission to use a photograph can take a lot of time and, depending on how you want to use it, can be pricey as well. Stock photography is often priced based on the number of times the image is going to be seen. And online your image could be seen a lot so prices can get up there. Read More
Dale Chumbley is a real estate agent in Vancouver, WA. But, since I’m not looking to buy or sell near Portland, that’s not why I follow him. And even though I do a lot of web strategy work in the real estate industry Dale isn’t a client (in fact, I should probably pay him consulting fees) so I don’t follow him for that either.
I follow Dale because he’s an awesome example of endurance and perseverance in social marketing. In any web marketing tactic that requires continued or repeated activity, Dale is there doing it to the fullest and he just doesn’t stop.
Remember those cool daily mugshot things people were trying out? Remember how people couldn’t keep doing them and gave up? Or how they just changed their clothes and background and shot them all in one day? Dale Chumbley is, as of this writing, on his 652nd mugshot. That’s tenacity.
Another example of his tenacity, is his approach to the “365 Things to Do” meme. You’ve probably seen these pages pop up on Facebook “365 Things to Do in YourTownHere.” Lesser town curators abandon them after the fifth day or so. Dale is, as of this writing, on day 86 on his Things to Do in Vancouver WA project and I’m sure he’ll make it all the way through. Oh yeah, and he incorporates video into that as well. Once he starts stuff like this he just keeps going.
Dale does a lot of this social media marketing stuff without over-strategizing. I asked him once how long he spent planning out his 365 project, making an editorial calendar and so on. He said “I didn’t. I heard about it on a Monday and I started doing it on a Tuesday.”
What makes a lot of his stuff successful is that he knows his own work habits and is able to incorporate his social media marketing into his daily routine. For example, he does all the video for his 365 project on site, including uploading and posting. He shoots it with his iPhone, edits it with ReelDirector while sitting in his car, and then goes on with his day. Learning how Dale Chumbley does all this is the main reason I follow him.
Here’s the checklist of a few reasons you might want to follow Dale Chumbley as well:
Follow Dale Chumbley on:
You’re redesigning your website. You’ve got a lot of webpages. Since your content is awesome and people like it, there are tons of backlinks. Your new site design is going to be a major overhaul of the information architecture, not just a simple layout and graphic design change. There’s a little voice in the back of your head whispering about SEO. This post is going to give you a checklist for doing this in a sane manner.
This post includes an in-depth review of the relationships between search engine optimization, web design and information architecture. If you just want the quick checklist, skip to the end. The background material is there because all three of the topics (SEO, design and IA) change with technology and society. It’s good to have a grasp of the foundations so you can adapt to future changes. Read More
Where to start? Importance and viability in digital strategy.
One of the biggest problems with implementing a digital strategy is figuring out where to start. This gets even worse when there are many options. And let’s face it, there are always many options. Do you focus your efforts on your search engine optimization or do you throw yourself at building a mobile app? Do you spend your time getting up to speed on social networking or do you start a video blog? Read More »