TotSpot and InternshipRatings.com at Web Inno 18
I was gabbing a lot at Web Inno last night, so I didn’t have too much time to take video. Luckily, I did manage to capture Michael from TotSpot and the Lauren/Stephanie dynamic duo of InternshipRatings.com with the Flip.
TotSpot is a scrapbook-like social site that allows parents to safely share all things “my cute kids” with friends and family. I obviously only got a really brief overview, but the site seems cute and certainly of interest to new and eternally excited parents. Thinking back to some of the choice photos from my early teen years, I’m thinking my parents would totally use this site to blackmail me… But oh, how I would get them back. Check the footage:
InternshipRatings.com wasn’t presenting at the event, but I’ve really enjoyed seeing Lauren Grunstein and Stephanie Gurtman, two Boston University students, take an idea and run with it over the past year. I met these two at last year’s PodCamp Boston 2 and since then they’ve launched their site and are seeing a fantastic level of participation from students across the country. The premise is that students go on this site and rate/tell all about their internship experiences at various companies across various industries. The site also serves as an advice hub for students curious about internships and career paths. Take a look:
This post can also be found on SHIFT’s blog http://snackablepr.com. (And yes, it’s important to know what people’s favorite snacks are.)
Social Networking Wars
Sometimes I feel a bit like the guy in this video. If you haven’t seen it yet, I hope you enjoy some giggles.
If it were you, what social networks would be chasing after you?
Happiness
Everyone has bad days. Days when you question yourself and you feel like you just suck at life. I know I’ve been spending a lot of time blogging about communities on Twitter lately, but I have another example of this network coming together with kind words. I recently had an unhappy day and reached out to my community on Twitter, asking for inspiration and ideas about how to “happify” myself.
Susan Reynolds saw my happiness thread a couple weeks ago and requested that I write a post about the suggestions people had for me on how to feel happier each day. Here are my favorite responses:
@shonnoll says exercise
@thattalldude says listen to happy music
@mindchaotica and @linkedmn say to remember that things could always be worse
@cambeck says to become Joseph Jaffe
@iAlbert says to take a walk and be around nature
@geoffliving says happiness is an inside, spiritual job that external things can’t determine
@vanhoosear says learn to accept and let go
@podcastmama says to be kind to yourself, allow yourself to change your mind and get enough rest
@Paisano says to help people every day, engage in random acts of kindness and take naps
@jackvinson says to make a gratitude list
Building relationships and cultivating communities is central to our jobs as PR professionals and social media evangelists, and sometimes we get to see the strength of these social groups in ways that truly show how meaningful this stuff can be. Being a real person is SO important on the social Web. Asking, helping, advising, suggesting, being there for others. For me, I’m finding that being real and being happy go hand in hand.
If you have any suggestions of how to be happier, please post them in the comments section. Maybe we’ll all find some new ways to feel happier day-to-day.
Facebook Chat is Here, Ridiculous
Facebook’s chat feature launched today. In my opinion, we all have PLENTY of chat and conversation options separate from Facebook and this new feature is just redundant. I already have AIM/iChat, GChat/GTalk, ooVoo, Skype, Twitter and SMS that enable me to have real-time conversations with my friends. Facebook was never about that for me. It’s a place to store and share information–including the contact information I choose to display for the conversation-enablers mentioned above. I won’t say that I’ll never use this new Facebook chat feature, but I maintain that it’s ridiculous and unnecessary.
Below is my reaction. What’s yours?
Social Aggregators: FriendFeed vs. Socialthing!
When I explain FriendFeed and Socialthing! to my non-social media friends, they think the general idea is pretty cool. A place where you can aggregate the updates from your favorite social communities? Very nice. Borat style.
I recently got a Socialthing! invite from modern journalist and friend Brad King and signed up for FriendFeed at the same time. I’ve been using these two services side by side to see what I think and get a flavor for what the buzz is about. Although the case can be made that each service is bringing users a unique solution, so far I’ve been using them the same way.
Initial feelings: I like the Socialthing! UI much better than the look and feel of FriendFeed. The Lifestream thing is working for me. However, I have a lot more social networks aggregating in FriendFeed, making it much fuller as a one-stop shop for checking in on what my friends are up to. I don’t think I’d choose one over the other at this point. The thing is, I’m not sure that I even like mixing up all my networks in one place, even though social aggregators are so hot right now.
There’s something familiar and comfortable about going to each distinct site to find that separate content. I know what to expect from each different network and they’ve all become like favorite hangout spots for me. These social communities are not just about contributing and absorbing the content my friends are creating, but about the experience of going to a comfy, cozy place I’ve come to enjoy.
Do you find tools like FriendFeed and Socialthing! to be useful for you? How do you use these services?
Twitter: Get Well Cards 2.0
So, I spent last night in the hospital, where I found out I have a UTI (don’t get any ideas, it isn’t from what you’re thinking) and a kidney infection in my left kidney.
When I tweeted this last night, I had no idea I would receive such an outpouring of kindness, concern and get-well wishes from my friends and followers. Waking up in the middle of the night and seeing your messages made me feel almost as good as the Percocet did. Really, it was heartwarming. There is no way I could ever properly thank you all.
Last night and today, Twitter was my mailbag of get well cards, minus the cheesy artwork and envelopes. And the best part about these “cards” is that they’ll never get lost or thrown out. I was really blown away by how many people reached out just to say they were thinking of me. Below is just a smattering of goodness (edited together very poorly) from some of the wonderful, caring people in my Twitter network:
To everyone who tweeted and sent DMs, you helped me so much when I was feeling terrible. I can’t thank you enough: @skalik, @caseysoftware, @britrock, @pamelump, @dmitrigunn, @jdeverter, @nathansnell, @whojaybe, @rondean, @beckymccray, @ariedana, @taxman45, @etesla, @bruno1378, @jentaro, @jpostman, @cechastain, @conniereece, @susanreynolds, @profr, @timcoyne, @davedelaney, @theburbblog, @dougmeacham, @nazgul, @lisaa123, @ikitty, @tibbon, @alexa, @sbspalding, @jackhodgson, @bigtc, @mattjmcd, @sarahwurrey, @robertcollins, @ialbert, @podcastmama, @vanhoosear, @repcor, @albertmaruggi, @jyarmis, @techpickles, @mobasoft, @bpolensky, @dartagnan373, @disruptive, @strutting, @amyyen, @gregverdino, @hooeyspewer, @travis9to5, @cspenn, @jaffejuice, @uberrob, @jayberkowitz, @chelpixie, @spiver and @tdefren.
Social Media Vocab: Friend
The word “friend” is thrown around a lot in the socnet space. What is interesting to me is that the new definitions sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are creating seem to be spilling over into everyday life (yes, outside of social networks). Variations like “de-friend” “friend me!” and “friend request” aren’t just buzzwords on social sites–I hear them spoken aloud all the time. It’s strange. I mean, since when do you meet someone and formally request her friendship? It’s not like a proposal or something. Oh yeah, before you request my friendship, maybe you should ask my dad for permission first… So, so weird. In my opinion, the definition of “friend” has undeniably and permanently changed.
Tonight I deleted 90 “friends” from my Facebook network. I was at 1,097 friends. In my opinion, that’s pretty absurd. I don’t have that many friends! A lot of the people in my Facebook network are acquaintances, friends of friends, classmates, teammates, colleagues, family members, exes… MOST of those 1,000-something people aren’t even my friends in the traditional sense of the word. But the meaning of the word “friend” has changed, so if we met once at a party or worked on a project in class sophomore year and are connected on Facebook, I guess we’re friends. Weird, huh?
Earlier this evening, I asked my Twitter network to define the word friend. Below is a screen shot of the results:
These are some pretty good definitions, I think. But I’m not sure what a friend REALLY is anymore–all I know is that the word “friend” has been distorted because of social networks and it is often used in ways that do not reflect what we all grew up believing friendship to mean. It’s not a bad thing, necessarily–just different meanings for an old word.
Are we friends?
Now it’s your turn to take a stab at it. Give me your definition.
Boston Tweetups + Security Conferences = Fun
Last night I had the pleasure of attending another Tweetup here in Beantown. Ah, I love me a good Tweetup. The night, which started at Fajitas & Ritas and led us to FELT and Good Life’s Vodka Bar, was full of great conversation, new friends and footage captured on Alexa Scordato’s MacBook Pro (coming soon).
There’s something about the people who use Twitter that inspires a fun, electric energy at meetup events. It seems there’s never a dull moment, and I always end up learning new things. At this particular Tweetup, I met Jennifer Leggio (@mediaphyter), Raffael Marty (@zrlram), Dmitri Gunn (@dmitrigunn), Adam and Sophy O’Donnell, Kee Hinckley and a bunch of other movers and shakers in the security industry who were in town for the SOURCE Boston conference.
Topics of conversation ranged from security compliance standards (how cool is it that I got to bring up SOX and PCI outside of work?!), to what, if anything, can or should be done to correct malicious online behavior among teens and college students, to glitter MySpace layouts, to Danny, the door guy at Good Life, being a seriously cool dude.
Thank you to Bryan Person and Joe C for being cool cats and making the night awesome.
Greg Verdino Shares Seana Mulcahy’s Musings on “Brand Loozrs”
I think Seana succinctly gets to the heart of a widespread issue that marketers and PR people are facing right now. It truly is not enough to use a tool just because it’s available and people are saying it’s the next big thing. Put the tool in the context of your brand, find out why it can work and make it work for you in a meaningful way. Thanks to Seana for a great post and to Greg for sharing her gems.
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Sociological Public Relations
There are tons of social networks on the Web. Tons.
As a PR practitioner, I can look at these various networks as resources and brand conversation opportunities. Full of people who are connecting for a purpose and open to meeting like-minded or interested individuals who understand why they’re there in the first place.
As a (structural functionalist) sociological thinker, I can look at social networks as nebulous, fragmented subgroups integrating themselves into the societal population on the Web in meaningful ways. It’s the idea of organic holism–each network is a functional organ in the overall body of the social Web.
If we combine these two ideas, I think we get something really powerful. Function, connectedness, purpose, opportunity. The more we understand and live up to the social, human aspects of public relations on the Web, the bigger and better our opportunities will become.
A noun is a person, place, thing or idea, right?
Public relations, n.
Which is it?
