I’m Back.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention the term “Internet Hatorade” per Matt McDonald’s expert suggestion. It’s safe to say that I guzzled some major Internet Hatorade back in May. It’s out of my system now, thankfully.
I decided I hated the Internet for a couple weeks. I think I just needed a break from all this crazy stuff. Between being sick, then feeling tired from being sick and generally being in a pissy, anti-social mood, I was just like, “Eww, Social Honeycomb is gross. I hate you, Internet.” I don’t unplug enough (ever?), so it all hit me at once, and I took my break.
But I’m back. Hello, Internet. Can we be friends again?
But I’m Feeling Anti-Social!
When talking to a friend tonight about how sick I’ve been feeling lately, he asked, “Is there anything more than feeling sick? You are getting me worried–you haven’t even blogged for a while.”
It’s just funny how we become so immersed in the content we create and the communities where we participate, that if we don’t make some noise for a few days, people wonder where we go.
I’ve been feeling really sick for the past few days, and the extra energy I’ve had hasn’t really been going into Social Honeycomb. And isn’t that part of the beauty of blogging? I have no deadlines, no one to report to, no editorial calendar to contend with… If I’m feeling like poo, I have the luxury of just being lazy about producing content.
I’m on my couch, watching the SYTYCD auditions and gagging at food commercials. I’m going to be fine, but that’s what I’m doing while I’m feeling anti-social and sick-like.
Boo the conversation, boo participation, boo anything that requires more focus than just lying here doing nothing.
I’ll be back and nice when I’m healthy, yo.
Women dot Alltop dot Com
This isn’t really breaking news, but I wanted to do what I said I’d do: share that Social Honeycomb is part of the Alltop network. Guy Kawasaki is at it again, exciting people on the Web. If you haven’t checked out Alltop yet, you should take a look. There’s some really great content organized into a wide variety of topics (Get it? All topics? All the top stories?) on the site. For some unknown reason, Social Honeycomb made the cut and has a spot on the Women topic page.
So go, poke around, find something new… You know the deal. This is just another great way to find and join invigorating conversations.
If You Can Make It There… PodCamp NYC 2.0
Sup friends? I’ll be at PodCamp NYC 2.0 on Saturday at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn. I will probably want to capture you in some way. No, not in a trap, silly! But I’m gonna get you in a photo, video or Utter while we’re having fun at camp. Deal?
I’m looking forward to seeing a bunch of good friends and to turning some pre-lationships into REALationships this weekend. If you see me around, please say hello. See you there!
Because There Aren’t Enough Ways to Stalk What People Are Saying on Twitter…
There are about 47.3 billion Twitter apps to break down what people are saying, who they’re saying it to, where they’re saying it and how popular they are for saying what they say. But there’s always room for more, right?
I’ve seen some of my Twitter friends like Geoff Livingston, Greg Verdino and Matt Dickman talking about Tweet Clouds recently, so I checked the site out. It’s a cool way to visualize your most tweeted words.
What I find interesting as a PR person is that you can see the terms arguably most important to people as well as who they’re talking to most often. This gives us insight into who our influencers are and what things and people are central to their conversations. Tweet Clouds could end up being a visually interesting and useful way to get a better snapshot of who people are on Twitter.
Try this out. In the meantime, here’s my Tweet Cloud:
I Hulu, Do You?
I don’t know what my problem is. I got my Hulu beta invite back in December, and I never really used my account until recently. I don’t know why I waited around neglecting my access, but I’m glad I finally got on board. Oh, and don’t worry–if you never got an invite, it’s all good. Hulu came out of private beta on March 12, 2008 so now you can (and should) sign yo’self on up.
For those of you who aren’t already using Hulu, it’s a place to watch TV and movie content online. Why do I like it? You can create a “queue” of videos which acts sort of like a DVR function, so you can have your content ready and waiting for you when you want it. The video quality is great on my MacBook Pro, and Hulu makes it easy to watch your content in different ways. You can watch shows and movies directly in the Hulu tab of your browser or you can pop the content out into its own window. This is good if you want to resize the video box or minimize other distractions, with the additional option of muting and dimming the light on the rest of your browser. There’s even an embed feature so you can share your online videos–in their entirety or as a selected clip. It’s all very simple, with a pretty UI to boot. I must admit, I’m a fan.
Hulu’s gotten all sorts of press over the past year, in everything from Fortune and BusinessWeek to Wired and PC World. And of course, the blogosphere has buzzed about the service as well. Hulu’s got the sticky and the buzz part down. I read this morning that Hulu may be jumping from my laptop to my mobile phone in the near future. As someone who gets antsy if she hasn’t touched her phone in the past 30 seconds, I’m interested to see where this goes and how it looks once it’s implemented. When and if Hulu is available on my iPhone, you may see me on the bus or the train in Boston, giggling at Michael Scott or gasping at Jack Bauer.
Now I know not everyone likes Hulu, and some prefer other online video sites like Joost and Fancast. If you want to watch TV shows or movies online, where do you go? What do you think of Hulu now, and what value might the service bring to your mobile content consumption? Online video, nom nom nom.
The Night Geoff Livingston Partially Took Off His Shirt
You’d think that a girl who just graduated from college would easily be able to out-party a bunch of seasoned marketing pros, right? Not so, my friends, not so.
Blogger Social 08 was a huge success. I only experienced the swanky Saturday night party, but as you can see from the hundreds of pictures, compiled HERE in the Blogger Social 08 Flickr Group, everyone had a great time all weekend long.
Between meeting new people, jagerbombs, the Beast, Joseph Jaffe’s nametag becoming even more famous than he is (if you can believe that), a moving moment when crayon and My ooVoo Day presented a check to The Frozen Pea Fund, fabulousness, devil horns, peace signs, prom pictures, Geoff Livingston showing off his “Chinatown Gang” tattoo and all the moments in between, the weekend was wonderful for all who had the good fortune of attending.
It was so nice to shake hands with and hug some of the people I’ve been getting to know online. All the “preunions” were great. Steve Woodruff wrote a great post today with his takeaway thoughts from the weekend. I agree with him–events like these seem to stir and inspire us, shining light on what we as a group can do with our media, networks and technology in the future. Steve sums it up:
The best thing we can do is what we’ve been doing all along - creatively collaborate, care for those in need, welcome newcomers, share ideas, and enjoy each other’s company. The “message” of new/social/relationship-driven media will spread of its own, because we now have the tools to billboard ourselves, our ideas, our collaborations - on an open stage.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this event a success. I was honored to be in your presence and look forward to the next time we can all socialize in person again.
Photo credits: Matt Dickman
Tool I Love: HubSpot’s Website Grader
(Disclosure: HubSpot is a SHIFT client.)
As an entry level PR professional, I spend a lot of time in the trenches scanning, tracking, compiling, reporting, monitoring… You get the picture. I’m sure the other newbies out there know what I’m talking about, w00t. It’s part of the job, and even though it’s sometimes tedious and time consuming, this stuff is important to our clients and supportive for our account teams.
A tool I’ve been using in my scanning and monitoring work is Hubspot’s Website Grader. Since Technorati isn’t all that comprehensive or reliable on its own when it comes to ranking and scoring blogs, I love that I have this tool to help me give meaning to the content I track. Why does this service rock? From the Website Grader home page:
Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.
I like that the grading doesn’t just give you a number or a score, but that it shows you how the tool derives that number (AND how to better optimize your content if you want to improve your score). Website Grader pulls from different resources like Technorati, Google Page Rank, del.icio.us and Alexa (not to be confused with this Alexa), and gives you a table-view snapshot of your results. So simple. It helps people like me to explain the authority of certain blogs as opposed to others with easy-to-understand evidence supporting my recommendations. I love this tool.
If you have been tasked with scoring blogs, have you used Website Grader? What do you think?
What’s That? Oh, Nothing…
A little creativity presented in the right way really rocks my socks. While so many of us are trying to figure out how to leverage Twitter as a business tool or how to add measurable value to the tweetversation, Dave Delaney and Tim Coyne are taking it in a different direction.
I’ve listened to the hilarity on the Nothing Show before, so when I found out I was being included in an episode (with Veronica Belmont, no less!), I was hopelessly excited. What’s the Nothing Show? Dave and Tim each choose a Twitterer to portray and then pick random tweets to turn into a silly conversation that essentially is about nothing.
Twitter is obviously a useful tool for a lot of us, but it can be a source of humor and light-hearted fun, too. Thanks to Dave and Tim for including me in the Nothing Show–so flattered and still giggling.
What’s in Your Social Media Handbag (… or Man Purse)?
Not sure if you’ve noticed yet, but I’m a girl. A girl who is into “girly” things. Things like glitter, makeup, shoes and shimmer. Yet, here I am, hanging out in this dude-filled social media world and working in the tech PR industry. Spaces not exactly known for their sparkle and lip glossiness. And that’s more than fine with me, but in my opinion–and I know at least a few ladies who would agree–there might not be enough metaphors that capture how we chicks think (read: shop and accessorize).
So, here it is. Not a social media tool kit, not a social media tackle box, not a pair of social media Wrangler jeans. Me? I have a social media handbag, thanks.
In my social media handbag, the essentials are my Twitter, Facebook, ooVoo, Skype, del.icio.us and Google Reader. These are like my phone, T pass, credit card, lip balm, license and keys. Every girl has her essential items she needs to survive away from home–the things you use all the time and can’t live without. But then you’ve got the extra stuff that you just like having with you. You don’t always take these things everywhere, but you usually have them around just in case. For me, that’s Flickr, Utterz and Seesmic. My mini mirror, tissues and umbrella. Guys, I know you sometimes wonder what the hell we need these handbags for, but trust me, girls get what I’m talking about. And I mean, this could be taken in a variety of ways depending on your accessory personality–you could have a social media man purse, social media evening clutch, social media fannypack…
Girls, this is how I conceptualize my social media “stuff.” I’m a visual thinker. And I like pretty things.
What’s in your social media handbag?
