Just funny: Jimmy Fallon doing a Neil Young Cover of Pants on the Ground

funny!!!

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Here is link to my post of the original on The Next Web’s Shareables site: The Best Rap Ever: Pants on the Ground

Oh no! Facebook Goes After Seppukoo!

For me, this is more funny than bothersome.  However, I guess if you’re Facebook then hearing about a service that lets people ritually kill off their accounts is something you want to discourage.

It’s so bad that Facebook has issued a cease and desist letter to the folks at Seppukoo.

Here is the info from the Seppukoo homepage:

Seppukoo.com is under attack

Les Liens Invisibles wants to inform everyone that on Dec. 16th, Facebook inc., after it has blocked any attempt of seppukoo from this website and has blocked/deleted all seppukoo.com information into the whole facebook network, has now threatened legal action against us in order to stop the suicide pandemic.

Curiously, Facebook lawyers appeal to the user right to privacy to annihilate our facebook unsubscribe service.

The Seppukoo.com staff rejects every false pretence about phishing or malitious use of personal datas and pubblically invites Facebook’s developers to meet us and see in first person what kind of informations we save and how we care of them.

Les Liens Invisibles is now considering all the possibilities to come back ASAP. Thanks to all the people who are supporting us in this moment.

Read the full cease & desist from Facebook.

Updates (Dec. 22nd): “The “Les liens invisibles” group will delete all of the information on the www.seppukoo.com website only if the owners of such information request it, but not if facebook does so.”

Read the full reply.

If you want to stay updated, please, subscribe to our newsletter, and we’ll keep you posted.

Here is a video that they’ve provided that walks you through deactivating your account on your own.

However, that’s probably not as satisfying as a ritual suicide. Plus, with using Seppukoo their  “how to” page says you can reactivate your account, “3. reactivate your Facebook account just logging again to Facebook (boo!!!).”  If you can reactivate, what’s the rukus about?

This is the first I’d heard of Seppukoo, so I hope Facebook realizes they’re giving this site press.  I also hope that they don’t decide to go after the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine simply because it cracks me up. Check this out from their FAQs:

What shall I do after I’ve killed myself with the web2.0 suicide machine?

Try calling some friends, take a walk in a park or buy a bottle of wine and start enjoying your real life again. Some Social Suiciders reported that their lives has improved by an approximate average of 25%. Don’t worry, if you feel empty right after you committed suicide. This is a normal reaction which will slowly fade away within the first 24-72 hours.

Social media suicide should be a choice!

Update: January 4, 2010 – Alex over at The Next Web, where I also write, published a post about this. Yep, Facebook has also gone after The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine.

That’s just crappy.

Here is a link to that post: Facebook Bans Ye Olde Web 2.0 Suicide Machine – No Account Killing For You

More links:

• Mashable: Facebook to Seppukoo: Die
• Webnewser: Facebook to Seppukoo: Cut It Out

Social Media Predictions for 2010 from TrendsSpotting.com

Here is a good presentation by the folks over at TrendsSpotting: TrendsSpotting’s 2010 Social Media Influencers – Trend Predictions in 140 Characters

Like last year, they’ve asked a group of social media professionals and influencers to give their predictions on what will happen with social media in 2010.

I’ve also written about this for The Next Wave site and will update with a link once it’s up.  However, it’s relevant to my little corner of the social media world, so here it is:

What interesting are the comments at the end of the TrendsSpotting post.

1. The trends predicted for next year aren’t that different from last year:  “Across many of these predictions, we have identified the following trends suggested to influence 2010 Social Media: Mobile, Location, Transparency, Measurement, ROI, Privacy.”
2. Not much has changed in the predictions, “Reflecting on 2009 predictions – not much has changed in expectations.”
3. Also, 2009 fell short of the lofty predictions of last year, “We conclude that 2009 did not meet its expectations.”

Twitter Sociology

This is just exciting because I sat in on Liz Pullen’s seminar during the Social Media Camp at Internet Week New York 2009.  What I didn’t notice was that Jolie O’Dell from Read Write Web posted an interview that she did with her later in the day.  The Social Media Camp is how she got on my social media radar, and I started following her on Twitter after that. I got a link to it today via the @Twitter_Tips stream.

One point in their discussion that I think is very interesting is Twitter trying to distance itself from being defined as a social network.  That’s a bit odd because it is a social network.  It’s a micro-blogging social network. However, with the shift from being able to search bios and follow people who might interest you based on their location or based on their interests or causes they support, you get their suggested users list of celebrities or other notable people.  The problem is with people who have a huge number of followers, Twitter is primarily used as just another broadcast network.  There are many types of broadcast networks.  Honestly, the celebs that I follow I don’t pay much attention to.

This is particularly so regarding the ones who only tweet inspirational quotes. It’s not original. I can and do look up inspirational quotes when I need them. BTW, who made you Gandhi? Following is such a passive sport that, even for the celebrities cut from pretentious cloth, I can do it without much disruption and there is that hope that they’ll say something insightful. Some do from time to time and stay on my list. However, after one too many inane bits of information there are others that are simply not broadcasting anything interesting and I just stop following them.  Again, their follower numbers are so big that it’s no loss to them and there is no loss to be because there wasn’t a conversation or interesting information.

In contrast are the people who have something interesting or informative to say.  I look forward to their tweets.  Also, there is the social network function that comes into play.  I do converse with some people. Most of these people I know.  Others I converse with because we share an interest.  I have juvenile diabetes (insulin dependent or type 1), so I tap into and converse with other diabetics.  I talk to people in NYC.  Of course, I converse with people in the social media field and other bloggers. Those are all social networks that I’m a part of and that Twitter helps me maintain on some level.  It’s a bit disingenuous to ignore that level of social interaction.  Twitter is used for many things including social networking, business promotion, broadcasting, etc.

It’s so interesting that people are smart enough to look at the sociological implications of social media independent of the ROI analysis.  Granted there is, of course, a place for ROI in the context of business.  However, everything ought not be based on profit.  Social media is also fun.  It’s bringing people together in a new way.  It’s interesting to see what people do with it and also how people react.  I’m usually most amused by the Luddites who see social media as a harbinger of all that’s bad with the world. Having sociologists take it serious and analyze it in-depth also validates my like of it and involvement with it.  We all like to be validated from time to time.

Resource:

Tweepsearch – allows you to search Twitter bios.

Social Media: New Year’s Eve Style

Well, at least they’re on it. However, there is no way on this Earth that you’ll catch me in Times Square this New Year’s Eve. It’s already insanely cold out there.  That’s the beauty of social media!

I don’t have to be there. If you will be there, bring your iPhone!

The Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment aren’t dropping the ball when it comes to incorporating social media into the upcoming New Year’s Eve celebration, as they will offer a six-and-a-half-hour Webcast via TimesSquareNYC.org, Livestream.com/2010, or Facebook.com/TimesSquareNYC, as well as on a special site for iPhone users, The New York Times‘ Gadgetwise reports.

The Webcast will follow five separate story lines and cover the international participants, the history of Times Square through photos, the story behind the bloggers and other information, and viewers will be able to post photos and comment via Twitter and Facebook, according to Gadgetwise.

Twitter’s Trending Topics 2009

Just in case you’re curious Twitter has tracked the trends of 2009. However, I think it’s a bit early for Abdur and crew to publish this stuff as 2009 isn’t quite over yet. Who knows what news might emerge in the next couple of weeks. I’m sure it’s already planned that they’ll run the numbers again.  So, assuming that we can roll out of the rest of 2009 with nothing but boring news days, here are Twitter’s Trending Topics 2009.

News Events
1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09

People
1. Michael Jackson
2. Susan Boyle
3. Adam Lambert
4. Kobe (Bryant)
5. Chris Brown
6. Chuck Norris
7. Joe Wilson
8. Tiger Woods
9. Christian Bale
10. A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez)

Movies
1. Harry Potter
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek
6. True Blood
7. Transformers 2
8. Watchmen
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. G.I. Joe

TV Shows
1. American Idol
2. Glee
3. Teen Choice Awards
4. SNL (Saturday Night Live)
5. Dollhouse
6. Grey’s Anatomy
7. VMAS (Video Music Awards)
8. #bsg (Battlestar Galatica)
9. BET Awards
10. Lost

Sports (Teams, Events, Leagues)
1. Super Bowl
2. Lakers
3. Wimbledon
4. Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)
5. Superbowl
6. Chelsea
7. NFL
8. UFC 100
9. Yankees
10. Liverpool

Technology
1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES
6. Palm Pre
7. Google Latitude
8. #E3
9. #amazonfail
10. Macworld

Hash Tags
1. #musicmonday
2. #iranelection
3. #sxsw
4. #swineflu
5. #nevertrust
6. #mm
7. #rememberwhen
8. #3drunkwords
9. #unacceptable
10. #iwish

Repost: How to Engage your Facebook Fans

It’s been over a month. I know! Over a month.

My apologies, but I’ve been busy working, and that’s an excellent reason to be busy

Part of the work I do is social media management, I thought this was an interesting enough presentation to share. There are a few small grammatical errors in it, but the basics of what they’re discussing is good enough to overlook the small kinks.

Check it out:

Facebook becoming big friend of small businesses

I thought this was an interesting article. I’ve been running on both cylinders, so I saved the link so I could post it here. The title captures it. Facebook is a friend to small businesses. You really don’t need it if you’re a large brand. However, even large brands see the value of having Facebook fan pages. If you’re a small business and you’ve got to realize that Facebook now has not just college students. Facebook now has your friends, your parent’s friends and, much to the dismay of many, your parents. The bottom line is your customers are on Facebook and they actually join Facebook fan pages.

Facebook is a virtual gathering place where people can catch up and talk. A lot of that time is spent sharing links and talking about their favorite things. If they know a business they like is on Facebook, it’s very likely they’re support it as a fan.

Here is a story from the LA Times about how this is working for one business.

 

Firms are building fan bases on the social networking website and using it to connect with customers.

Charles Nelson, president of Sprinkles Cupcakes, manages the Beverly Hills company’s pages on Facebook and other social media websites. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times / October 14, 2009)

 

Charles Nelson, president of Sprinkles Cupcakes, the Beverly Hills baker to the stars, doesn’t have a Facebook profile. Nelson, who works seven days a week, has no time for chatting online with Facebook friends.

But Nelson is logged on to Facebook all the time. That’s because more than 70,000 people have declared themselves fans of Sprinkles’ Facebook page, which has its own “vanity URL” at www.facebook.com /sprinkles.

Each day on the website, Sprinkles announces a secret word, such as “ganache,” or “bunny,” or “tropical,” or “love,” and the first 25 or 50 people to show up at any of its five stores and whisper that word get a free cupcake.

“On Facebook, we can ask our customers what’s the next location they want,” Nelson said. “What do they think of our next flavor? It’s an amazing way to communicate with our fans.”

Facebook is not just for friends anymore. The free social networking site — blocked in many workplaces as a potential time-waster — is increasingly becoming an inexpensive marketing tool for small businesses.

Sprinkles is among a growing number of mom-and-pop businesses taking advantage of a relatively new program on Facebook, one that allows them to claim their name, become visible even to folks who aren’t on the site, and stay in close contact with their customers. The business, in effect, can act like any other person on Facebook, posting status updates and seeing what its fans are doing.

Facebook doesn’t break out figures for small businesses but says it has 1.4 million business “pages,” with an average of 100 fans per page. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in a speech in New York last month that every day, 10 million people become fans of pages. (Many of those pages are for random concepts, such as the beach, or laughter, or even one called “I don’t sleep enough because I stay up late for no reason,” which has 3.5 million fans.)

Businesses need to go where their customers are, and increasingly these days, that’s on Facebook and other social media sites, analysts say. More than 300 million people have signed up for Facebook, and half of them visit the site every day.

“Over the past two years, we’ve seen this increasing uptick in businesses realizing that their customers are on Facebook,” said Tim Kendall, Facebook’s director of monetization product marketing. “If they can create a presence in Facebook that allows customers to connect with them, it can be a way to strengthen that connection and also to find new customers.”

Plenty of other sites are also wooing small local businesses. The review site Yelp, Citysearch and a host of Yellow Pages sites are all making a push.

And typically, businesses don’t stick to one site such as Facebook. Instead, they spread their presence across the social media landscape, including MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. Increasingly, these sites connect with one another so that a status update on Facebook becomes a tweet on Twitter, or a blog post could be pushed out to several sites.

“Companies don’t have a lot of resources to create their own website,” said Jeremiah Owyang, a social media analyst at Altimeter Group. “Using these sites where the customers already are in their communities makes a lot of sense.”

Janet Rothstein, who runs a jewelry shop in Beverly Hills, used a company called MerchantCircle as her gateway to the online world, and she has since obtained a Facebook vanity URL for her page, where she has 63 fans. Having an online presence in so many places increases the odds that when someone searches on Google, they will find her.

Facebook is increasingly finding itself a rival of Google. It believes it can offer more relevant search results because the content is coming from people you know and trust, especially in the hotly contested field of local advertising.

“We are naturally really well-positioned to create a lot of value for local businesses,” Facebook’s Kendall said. “When you think about how you learn in the off-line world about local businesses and services, which cafe, which dentist, you learn a lot of that from the people you trust and are friends with. Facebook is able to streamline that process a bit.”

Yet Google remains the king of search, and Facebook says its pages frequently turn up in the Google search results.

That’s important, said Avichal Garg, a former Google employee who now owns PrepMe, a Palo Alto company that offers online test preparation.

His Facebook page drives traffic and sales because “it ranks well in search and people use search for companies they haven’t done business with before,” Garg said in an e-mail, noting how Facebook has brought in about 5% of his new business. “Facebook is a trusted domain so people click on it and when they see the faces behind the company name, they know we’re legitimate.”

“Having the vanity URL and presence on Facebook and Twitter really help,” Garg said.

Social media help companies take control of “the Google resume,” said Adrian Lurssen, a vice president at JD Supra, an online legal site based in Marshall, Calif. When people search for your company — or for what your company sells — you want your site to turn up in the first 10 results, or the first page Google delivers.

Nelson of Sprinkles agrees. Fans of his cupcakes (actually, his wife, Candace, is the pastry chef) shower Sprinkles with praise — and word-of-mouth buzz. Their Facebook friends all see when they comment on Sprinkles’ page. “You’re looking for customers but you’re really looking for advocates,” Nelson said. “We’ve never had paid advertising in five years of being open.”

business@latimes.com

Addicted to Twitter? How About TwitterPeek!

Are you just addicted to Twitter? Well, if so, maybe TwitterPeek is for you! This is the world’s first dedicated Twitter device.  What “dedicated” means is it only sends and receives tweets.

Oh…

Um, what?!!!

Okay, I’ve got to say this is probably the most underwhelming product I’ve heard about in awhile. I just love Twitter now that there are a ton of people on it. I joined in 2007.

However, I’m a Blackberry-carrying, ÜberTwitter-addicted, multifunction sort of gal. I’m the person sitting on the bus reading through her tweets, laughing and replying.  It’s better than dealing with the surly mass of humanity that lives in Manhattan. Also, using Twitter while commuting is usually both informative and entertaining because I follow some pretty smart and funny people.

However, a device that only sends and receives tweets?  I’m not too sure about that. One of the things I do a lot is move on to the link sent in a tweet. If you’re using TwitterPeek, you can do that. Also, it only only allows one Twitter account. Um…okay. (Details taken from TwitterPeek’s FAQ page.)

The TwitterPeek folks base their theory that there is a market for this on the Rapleaf’s study that says 65% of tweets are sent from the web.  From that, they conclude that most people are “stuck” using Twitter on the web.

But, but, but…wait! I’m NOT stuck. I’ve got Seesmic Desktop, a free-standing Twitter client, or PowerTwitter, a web-based Twitter client, running when I’m working on my computer, and that’s pretty much all of the time. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a smart phone. It simply means that I’m more likely to tweet when I’m taking a break from work than when I’m sitting in a taxi.  Usually, if I’m in a taxi, I’ve got Google Maps up and running. There has got to be more numbers and research that show a need for a product like TwitterPeek.

The device costs $99, and that includes 6 months of free service.  After that, it’s $7.95 a month or $199 for lifetime service.

That’s another question – is Twitter the IT service for the rest of our lives or in a couple of years will something else have taken its place? (Just the fact that I posed that question should tell you my answer.)

I just don’t know about this one.  I wish them luck (and, hell, by posting this, I’m spreading the word for them.) We’ll see if it takes off.  I know I just don’t have a need for something this basic.

Check out this video of Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky on Jimmy Fallon’s show. Joshua demos the TwittePeek for Fallon and his audience. Their laughter seems to indicate that they’re thinking the same thing I am about this one.  However, maybe there is a demographic out there that really does need this.  If you’re one of those people, I’m glad to have shared this info with you.  Now get yourself to Amazon.com and happy tweeting!

 

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Bloggers Expect to Get Paid for Reviews!

I have to admit that monetizing my blogs has always been something I wasn’t too keen to do.  However, I’m in the minority on that issue.

There have been many people attempting to profit in one way or another from blogging.  There is nothing wrong with that.  In fact, blogging helped me realize that I did want to make my living writing and working on web-related projects.  So don’t misunderstand me. I’ve got no problem with blogs that have ads on them.  I’ve got no problem with bloggers being paid in their area of expertise.  I have no problem with most ways bloggers now make a living from their writing.

However, I do think there is something very wrong with getting paid for reviews UNLESS you disclose that you’ve been paid.  A review gives the impression that it’s an unbiased opinion based on someone trying a product or service.  That’s why reviews by reputable sources are blind reviews.  The business has no idea they’re being sized up.  When money is exchanged for a review there your objectivity is compromised.  I want to know if a reviewer got paid because, if they did, I don’t care about what they have to say. Well, it seems that many bloggers weren’t disclosing that they were being paid. This got so bad that the US government recently passed law requiring bloggers to disclose that they’ve been compensated for a review.

I think this is essential because social media is the new barber shop, hair salon or white picket fence.  People would talk about the butcher or the car shop and let friends know whether to go to these businesses or not.  Now online spots like blogs are the places where people talk and exchange opinions. If you’re a blogger and you’ve built up an audience that trusts you, what you have to say on a product or service has value to them. I know that a few recommendations for places I’ve written about have generated comments and probably customers for a few places.  I didn’t expect to benefit financially.  I just expected to spread the news of a great space, product or service.  However, both bloggers and businesses realized this influence could be used for mutually beneficial profits.

Well, with the economic slow down and this new law, some of the reviewing for pay action has dried up.  I say rightly so.  If a company pays you to review a product or service, it’s a advertisement. You very well might really like the product or service, but I want to know that you’ve been paid to talk up something.  Like it or not, you’re a paid representative when you do that and it needs to be disclosed.

It’s sort of funny to be that some people seem to be genuinely out of sorts that they’re not being readily paid to “recommend” things now.  It’s sort of like the presumptuous blogger who had the nerve to try to blackmail George Smith at BlogHer 2009 to get a pair of Crocs.  What the idiot blogger didn’t realize was as easily as she could bad mouth him, well, duh…he could bad mouth her.  He said as much, and she slinked away. Even if the relation is reversed, it’s the same with being paid to review a product.  Getting paid to talk something up or getting a pair of Crocs to not spread bad stories, is still compensation. Aren’t we glad that George stood up to this woman’s bullying?  I’m also very glad that bloggers are being forced to let people know they’ve been paid to review something.

Here is a piece on the top from MediaBistro’s PRNewser’s blog.  I’m glad they get it.

Blogger Complains Because Companies Want “Free” Reviews

By Joe Ciarallo on Nov 03, 2009 05:01 PM

ProBlogger, the popular blog that teaches one how to make a living off blogging, published an interesting guest post from a former beauty/fashion blogger. In the post, the blogger talks about how she was so excited to do “product reviews” and get all sorts of free stuff sent to her by companies.

She even signed an $8,000 deal with, “a large pharmaceutical company to write six posts for them to try educating readers on the benefits of their product…the only thing I had to do was to get the copy reviewed by the pharmaceutical company to ensure that I wasn’t using any medical words in the wrong way.”

But then the economy took a turn for the worse and the blogger’s freebie parade slowed down. What did she learn? People were actually asking her questions like how many unique visitors her site had and to send links of recent, relevant coverage before sending products. That didn’t work out, so the blogger got into another niche, “healthy eating and healthy lifestyles,” which she said worked out much better.

“One company (which manufactures supplements) that contacted me to send products for review also wanted to know how much it would cost to sponsor spots on my site. They actually wanted to pay to have banners on my site and not only receive a free review!” she said.

Um, free review? Companies aren’t supposed to pay publications for product reviews, or to influence them. Although it does happen. This post, in essence, sums up the difference between how media has traditionally worked: build audience/content, sell advertising against said audience/content – versus how it is unfortunately working for some bloggers: the content is the advertising.