Changing the Way We Talk

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

There’s a great xkcd comic where the character says, “I feel like I’m wasting my life on the internet,” to another character. So they go out into the world, seeing an impressive mountain view they pause to take it all in.

Then the character goes, “and yet all I can think is, ‘This will make for a great Livejournal entry.’”

Live for any length of time in the social media world and you start thinking differently about how you communicate. Walk outside your door and you’ll think, “I should really take a picture and post it to my Flick’r.” Or “I should really Twitter this.”

It reminds me of the story I heard on This American Life of a man whose whole job is to map out the sidewalks in New York. He recounts how now, even on vacation when he’s away from work, he can’t help but notice the sidewalks and comment on them.

How about you? Have you caught yourself thinking about a blog post you need to write or a Twitter you need to send when you step away from the computer or technology?

Bookmark to:

by Tabitha Smith | May 16, 2008 | social media users

2 Comments

Podcasting in Plain English

Bookmark to:

by Tabitha Smith | May 15, 2008 | Podcasting

A Bug’s Life on Twitter - Interview with Twitter Novelist Nick Belardes

I recently had the opportunity to interview Nick Belardes about his Twitter novel, “Small Places“, which is about breaking life into small pieces. I’ve been following the story for a couple weeks now and thought I’d ask Nick some questions about this new way of story-telling.

Tabz: Tell us about the premise of Small Places…

Nick: It’s a very compartmentalized love story tailor-made for twitter.com. People, jobs, lives, thoughts, all tucked away at times in the compartments of lives we lead. “Small Places” takes that idea to an extreme by imagining everyday problems in micro-form, in bug-like terms, in tiny thoughts, bits and pieces. A life is revealed piecemeal, slowly, as if your friend is text messaging you a story about himself and taking a month
or so to do it.

Bookmark to:

by Tabitha Smith | May 14, 2008 | New Media, twitter

7 Comments

What is the Tribe?: The Power of Social Media ‘Friends’

Recently my co-blogger (and friend) Jessica wrote an article on the ‘The “Corporification” of Humanity”, outlining her concerns that social media is turning individuals into corporate brands by having huge social media “friends” lists that turned out to be nothing more than ‘fans’ and ’social media stalkers’.

While I can see her (and Technosailor’s) point. I respectfully disagree that this is something that social media has created. Individuals have always had circles of friendship - each circle becoming larger as you move the level of their knowledge and involvement in your life.

First, there’s your “closer than a brother” friends, who are always there for you and will drive 1,000 miles to pick you up when your car dies. These friends are rare and hard to find.

Bookmark to:

by Tabitha Smith | May 13, 2008 | social media users

3 Comments

Webkinz’ Third Anniversary

If you haven’t heard of Webkinz, it’s the social media/computer game/stuffed animal craze that’s like taking Second Life, Tamagotchi pets, Beanie Babies and casual gaming, putting them in a blender and making it all extremely kid-friendly.

Today is Webkinz’ third anniversary, and they have special celebration type things “in world” so I thought it’d be a good time to write about it.

I bought my first Webkinz a couple months ago after hearing Podculture rave about them for almost a year. The basis is pretty easy. You buy a stuffed animal and get a special code for your pet to enter the virtual world.

In world you get to set up your own room (and buy additional rooms for your house). You’re given virtual money (KinzCash) and some special items based on your character. Since I had a black cat I got a black cauldron bathtub, and a couple other furniture items. But, that’s not all. There’s also an arcade (where you can play casual games for KinzCash), a Clubhouse (where you can chat with other members, I’ll talk about this more later), an ‘Employment Office’ (where you can do ‘jobs’ - along the minigame idea - for more KinzCash), a couple stores (to buy things for your rooms) and much more.

The kid friendly part comes in chatting. You can only select specific phrases when you chat with other members. This keeps kids from giving away personal information and gives parents added piece of mind. As far as I know there’s no good way (unlike Club Penguin where’s it’s easy to get around the rules) to break the limitations. This makes it a great first “social site” for kids.

There’s a lot of different types of activities to keep you busy and interested, plus the extra motivation to log in each day. I even like the stuffed animal design. They’re very soft, and perfect size for cuddling (bigger than Beanie Babies). All in all, a great site and fun and relaxing for adults as well as their kids. I will warn parents though, there’s built-in motivation for buying additional pets. So if you don’t want to spend a bunch of money (pets are around $6-12) collecting all the animals, maybe you should steer clear.

Bookmark to:

by Tabitha Smith | April 29, 2008 | social media, social networking

1 Comment

The “Corporification” of Humanity

In a world that accepts corporations as individuals in the eyes of the law and these same corporations are transforming their sterile image to become even more human, has this same social mediaized world transformed individuals into corporate figures? So large, that they themselves loose the humanity?

In an article earlier today, Technosailor questions of the validity of “friends” as a social term to denote loose acquaintance and casual colleagues.

Aaron asks,

“On Facebook, how many of your friends are really friends?

I have over 2000 followers on Twitter. How many of them know my real name without looking?

How many events do people with significant online personal brand go to where people know who they really are?

Or is brand all that really matters in friendship?

Is it more important to have presence? Or relationship?
What do we do off camera, and who really knows?

If a tree falls in the middle of the woods, and everyone sees the tree online, did it really happen?

Do you find more value in spending time with four people or forty?

What does technosailor mean to you? Aaron Brazell?

Food for thought. Questions to be answered. Have we hurt our human experience or helped?”

Join the discussion, what does a social brand, like Scoble, Gaping Void and the rest, really mean to you? Is this human corporitization a mere manifestation of physical life idols, similar in nature to the Madonnas, Chers, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of the world? How many “real life” friends do these individuals have, versus the casual fans who call themselves friends?

Bookmark to:

by Jessica Hasson | April 28, 2008 | social media, social media users

6 Comments

Slouching Towards New Hollywood by Removing “Pod”

NewTeeVee has posted an interview with Ron Bloom, CEO of Mevio, explaining his company’s decision to change its name from PodShow. His main point is that podcasting is cool, but “podcasting was associated with amateurs… When in reality podcasting is an incredibly effective platform for delivering episodic content fresh off the press.”

This is part of a trend to create “new Hollywood” in new media, but removing the idea of “pod” in podcasting. This can be seen in several realms. The conference, “Podcast Media Expo” is now known as “New Media Expo”. Many popular ‘podcasts’ don’t even breath the word ‘podcast’. And now places like Podshow are changing their name (and their image).

My thoughts? “Pod” has always tripped up the general population. As a podcaster myself I know so many people who never tried podcasts thinking they needed an iPod. And for many generations pod means ‘pod people’. In general this culture shift in new media I think will be helpful for more people bucking against traditional forms of media (TV, publishing, radio). Where we wind up in the shift is anyone’s guess, but if more creative people can deliver their content to more people, I’m all for the change.

Bookmark to:

by Tabitha Smith | April 24, 2008 | Podcasting

SMX - Social Media Marketing by the Experts

Just got back from SMX, and it was great to meet a lot of people there. I’m sure we’ll have a lot of blog posts and reactions, but I do want to give a HUGE shout out to the organizers. It was very interactive, tech saavy (other than there not being very many power outlets for laptops, but that’s probably more of a hotel thing than anything else) and I really enjoyed myself. All the staff were very helpful and responsive, and I like that. If you’re considering going to an event, do so!

Bookmark to:

by Tabitha Smith | April 23, 2008 | conferences

1 Comment

Trash Talking in the Social Media World

Yesterday afternoon I attended SMX’s panel on People-powered search. It featured Jason Calacanis, from Mahalo, who (once again) seemed to tick everyone off.

I do love controversy, don’t get me wrong, I believe it’s good for debate. Keeps the conversation moving and challenges people’s conceptions. What I don’t believe is trashing something to make you and your company look better, but it happens all the time.

Think about TV ads. “Tired of those trashbags that are IMPOSSIBLE to tie? Buy our bags with built in drawstrings!” Or the “their burgers are put under a heat lamp, ours are made fresh to order!”

The tactic is the same. In order to get the person spending the money to buy from me rather than you, I diss what you have to offer.

I see this happen a lot in the Social Media monetizing world. Two of the favorite things to attack are SEO experts and PR firms. One of my favorites are the “but we’re a social media firm, we understand social media, unlike traditional firms.” Okay, that’s great, but HOW do you understand social media? WHAT do you understand? And do you really have that much hate for traditional firms?

For a long time the model in cyberspace was “to succeed you must be a hater.” Much like emo kids who hate mainstream music, new media “celebs” were all whining about everything. It’s really tiring to remember who hates what and when. Lets change the focus. Lets celebrate what we can offer without tearing down the other guy.

Unless, of course, you want to be seen as the emo guy in the corner who hates everything. Then, more power to you.

Bookmark to:

by Tabitha Smith | April 23, 2008 | SEO, SMX, Search Technology, TSmith

2 Comments

Welcome to Social Media Blog Carnival!

Welcome to the April 18, 2008 edition of social media blog carnival.

Aaron Brandon presents Mail From Other Planets? posted at Aaron Brandon.

Jackson Kern presents AC Forum 2008: Marketing Humanitarianism | Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Causes: The Alternative Channel Blog posted at Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Causes: The Alternative Channel Blog, saying, “We have reached a period of fundamental alterations in the world of social media. Join us!”

general Web 2.0

Laksh presents The Story of Stuff - Massive Fodder for Thought! posted at Musings.

Charles H. Green presents Web Trust 2.0 vs Web Trust 3.0 posted at Trust Matters, saying, “When does web trust become web 3.0 trust?”

social media sites

Robert Phillips presents What the Heck is Radio Marketing? posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

avk presents BurnMyCar - Popular Cars posted at BurnMyCar.com, saying, “BurnMyCar is digg-like service for sharing car’s photos and rating of most impressive ones by community. I hope our service could be intersted for your blog readers .”

Social Media Strategy

D. Singh presents Social Media Marketing: Lessons from a Matchmaker posted at Internet Marketing Blog, saying, “Match.com has created a Facebook application which pulls user data from a Facebook profile and, with help from Match.com’s algorithms, identifies potential matches. 99 cents unlocks the user data and contact info for those matches.”

David Godwin presents Is Brand Exposure in Social Media really “Advertisement” posted at “Don’t Be Boring” Blog, saying, “Thanks for consideration!!”

Jordanv presents 08NTC: Why You Shouldn’t Have a Twitter Strategy posted at Connection Cafe.

Cindy King presents You Might Have More Options To Develop Your Business Internationally Than You Realize posted at Get International Clients.

Kavit Haria presents 10 ways to think like a great musopreneur posted at inner rhythm: fresh music strategies.

Kavit Haria presents A music PR strategy posted at inner rhythm: fresh music strategies.

Jordanv presents How to find Influencers, and if you can’t find any, how to make them posted at Connection Cafe, saying, “How to find and cultivate influencers for a company, organization or nonprofit to drive results online and create passionate community advocates.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of social media blog carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: social media blog carnival, blog carnival.