Author Archive for kenekaplan

Pearls of Wisdom Come From Mind Crunching Reality

Published
by
kenekaplan
Feb 4th ago
in Jeremiah Owyang, Tech and Web 2.0
. 1 Comment

Lots of talk about Microsoft’s $44.6 Billion bid for Yahoo!  Most of it focuses on search and online advertising.  But I bet we’ll start hearing more about the social computing value of Yahoo! and how its people have been excerising their brains and buying plug and play social media assets for many years now.  Flickr, Upcoming and del.icio.us are a few names in teh Yahoo! family of aquisitions.  These tools help people interconnect their online activities form photo sharing to bookmarking articles to managing their calendar of fun community activities.

In a Forrester Research blog post by Jeremiah Owyang on this subject, I really liked this pearl of wisdom about the future of media companies:

A new definition of media.  My colleague Charlene Li has written before about the transformation media companies are undertaking due to the rise of social computing.  As syndication replaces aggregation, a media company becomes one which assembles an audience, not necessarily a firm which creates content (think Facebook v. CNN).  In light of this acquisition, I’d add one more dimension to this observation.  With Yahoo gone, the two remaining online media powerhouses:  Google and Microsoft are both technology companies.  These are firms who specialize in creating tools and innovations to facilitate the user experience of the Web and marketer access to customer data.  I think this acquisition signals for both marketers and media firms that the trend of Left Brain Marketing – a data-driven approach to marketing – is irrevocably changing who we call a media firm.  Tomorrow’s media companies are technology innovators who can connect audiences with marketing messages, not content creators.

Here’s Charlene Li’s Growndswell take on the bid.

Declare Independence

Published
by
kenekaplan
Feb 4th ago
in Music
. 0 Comments

This is a cool, trippy, Orwellian or Brazil-like music video from Bjork I saw on Cindy B’s Pownce site.  I first heard Bjork in my musical depths of college at Chico, where I loved Bob Marley, Bauhaus, Sister’s of Mercy, U2, Cure, Mazzy Star, Clash, Circle Jerks, This Mortal Coil, Pixies, NWA, Public Enemy, P-Funk, Digital Underground, PIL… and yes, even The Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igOWR_-BXJU]

Social Media Guru Steps Up for Network Solutions

Published
by
kenekaplan
Feb 4th ago
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments
A Twitter king gets interviewed by Shel Israel. That’s the gracious, observant Shashi Bellamkonda.
clipped from redcouch.typepad.com
The very fact that Network Solutions realized that they need a social media person is a positive step toward joining the conversation. We got over the first milestone–getting people inside the company to understand the challenges and the power of social media presence. I have been part of discussions to open new ways for customer communication (blogs, forums).
We have been using Communispace as a social media tool for a few years and now we’re taking steps in mainstream social media.

Twitter Vote for Favorite Super Bowl TV Ads

Published
by
kenekaplan
Feb 3rd ago
in Jeremiah Owyang, Twitter, Social Media, Events, TV and Media
. 8 Comments

Jeremiah Owyag ignited a Super Bowl Twitterthon and many are stepping in to use social media to engage more with the Super Bowl. Join the fun and Twitter your take on the TV ads hitting you on Super Bowl Sunday.

Instructions below and pre-game buzz here.

There’s just three steps:


1) Sign up: Get a twitter account, got that? Good.

2) Send your vote to @superbowlads: When we’re watching the game in real time, simply send a reply to superbowlads. I created this Twitter account just for this virtual event. Reply to the superbowlads account, name the commerical, and give it a rating of 1-5 stars, 5 being the best.

examples:

“@superbowlads That Pepsi commercial was funny 4 stars”

“@superbowlads The Hillary Clinton advertisement was bunko 2 stars”

“@superbowlads Bud-wise-er, that was so 10 years ago, weak. 1 star”

3) See what others rated: You can then see everyone who’s rated the ads by doing a search on any of the Twitter search tools, I like Terraminds. See this example, it’s showing all the people who have replied to superbowlads.

My friend Rohit also is rallying people to engage online in new ways with the Super Bowl.

Connecting’s Getting Easier

Published
by
kenekaplan
Feb 3rd ago
in Twitter, Facebook, Social Media and Web 2.0
. 0 Comments

When I joined Intel in 2000, many people were speaking in code. Not HTML, AJAX or C++, but using acronyms in between other English words. The English words…sure I got most of those, but BMK, FSB, SERP? WTF?!! One acronym I got immediately was that email from Andy Grove with these three letters: NFW. I think a simple no would’ve provide more brevity, yet surely less passion.

We’re all hearing about API and other social computing jargon (that’s what it is for many of us) about how we’ll be able to better interconnect our social media and social networking tools. For me, Facebook started the mad rush. Everyone’s creating applications that allow you to use things like Twitter, Wordpress, Clipmarks, Flickr and other programs while you’re inside Facebook. It allows you to syndicate or unify the many Web 2.0 tools you use. I LOVE THIS STUFF!!

That’s why 2008 will be a year where we all find new reasons to use new socially juiced programs and fuse them together so we can aggregrate and feed content, but more importantly…so we can grow our social graph = connect to our friends and contacts through any social computing program we use. Unifying and empowering every tool you use at any particular time. Everything, everyone at your finger tips.  Better connecting, feeding and growing our social graphs.

Here’s a geeky video from Google describing what’s going on under the hood, driving new possiblities thanks to Open Social and the wonders of API (sure, we’ll have to tackle the ethical/privacy issues over time):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabCylbapuM]

will.i.am Music Video Embodies Best of Social Media, Social Networks

Published
by
kenekaplan
Feb 3rd ago
in Facebook, Social Media, video, Politics and Music
. 1 Comment

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHA_ZTvOgUM]

I saw this posted in Facebook from Social Media measurement guru Katie Paine.  This will.i.am music video is a great example of an artist being inspired to create, share and connect with his friends to mash media, skills and passion together into an expression of the times.  Here’s how the video is described by drsmarty08.

According to will.i.am, founding member and frontman of Black Eyed Peas, the “Yes We Can Song” was inspired by Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and especially the speech Obama gave following the New Hampshire primary. He states, “It made me reflect on the freedoms I have, going to school where I went to school, and the people that came before Obama like Martin Luther King, presidents like Abraham Lincoln that paved the way for me. . . .” Dylan says, “The speech was inspiring about making change in America and I believe what it says and I hope everybody votes.”

The music video includes excerpts from Obama’s speech and appearances from several celebrities: Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Adam Rodriquez, Amber Valetta, and Nick Cannon. “I’m blown away by how many people wanted to come and be a part of it in a short amount of time. It was all out of love and hope for change and really representing America and looking at the world,” will.i.am said.

Lessons From Sharing the Davos Experience

Published
by
kenekaplan
Jan 29th ago
in World Ahead and Intel
. 0 Comments

My Intel pal Chris was loaded up with a digital still and video camera and a long list of “hey, try this…and this..and this if you can.”  She was super busy helping all three of Intel’s top execs attending the show, but she busted out her social media chops.  She blogged a few times from Davos and got two other key Intel people to begin blogging for the company:

Sure the blog posts and videos offered snapshots of how Intel was participating with the event, but what seems most valuable was the chance to meet so many people doing great things — from the International Herald Tribune and BBC to Jeff Jarvis, Robert Scoble and Michael Arrington (here’s a photo Chris took).

jarvis_scoble_aringtondavos2008b.jpg

It helps knowing that when you go into a huge event like Davos, you’re not going to accomplish everything you set out to.  You might miss a few things, but what’s most important is giving time to the right things.  Liveblogging is a full-time job that is fun, but takes devotion and many skills:  production, online tools, writing, people and interview skills.  It’s OK to capture what you can, share what you can while one the scene then come home and share more stories after the event.  That’s what we’ll try doing for Davos — putting videos on YouTube and The World Ahead group on Facebook.

One of my favorites sharing form Davos was Loic Le Muer, who spent a week in Davos at the World Economic Forum doing some great video blogging. Here are some highlights from interviews Carl Lavin, Michael Arrington, Rani Radd, John Markoff, Danah Boyd, Jeff Jarvis and Arvind Desikan.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igcO_a4Q6_k]

What are You Sinking About?

Published
by
kenekaplan
Jan 28th ago
in video and Marketing
. 0 Comments

Even when the theme is as big as language, sometimes it all comes down to one word.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYDwLqHartQ]

Behavior Trending Back to Einstein Aphorisms

Published
by
kenekaplan
Jan 28th ago
in Social Media and Marketing
. 0 Comments

Great stuff from Max Kalehoff’s blog Online Spin.   The human behavior trend pendulum swings back to Einsteinian inspiration.

1.      “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” So why not cultivate imagination? Why not seek it out when screening new hires, or emphasize it in professional development, or cherish it when problem-olving?

 2.      “A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.” What really are you trying to achieve? How well is your mission defined? Perfection of everything else is meaningless if you and your organization don’t know where you’re headed. This is where leadership begins.

3.      “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” This is an ideology of humbleness, selflessness and authenticity. Embodying this ideology creates longer-term, competitive advantage. Value to customer is what really matters, not whether you’re successful. You’ll end up successful if you create value.

4.      “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” In an increasingly quant-driven marketplace, it’s easy to obsess on what you can count and disregard the rest. This paradox contributes to the confusion of aims mentioned above. To be successful, it’s critical to find alternative means of codifying and leveraging the important things you can’t count.

 

5.      “Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” Perhaps violence is less relevant in most businesses, but size and complexity are major problems. For reasons I can’t explain, marketers too often get obsessed with size and complexity — as if they’re desirable. The fact is they’re the opposite, and they’re offensive jabs at our most precious assets: time and attention. Marketers may not see this, but customers do. Customers delight in simplicity and efficient use of space and time.

 6.      “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” This is true for internal employee communications, as well as customer communications. Master your subject matter so you can confidently pick the language, concepts and style that communicate with the greatest ease and efficiency.

7.      “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” Mistakes and losses should actually be rewarded. Fear and low tolerance for mistakes breads stagnant cultures and boring products.

8.      “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” When you enable passion, you drive focus, cultivate mastery, leverage spontaneity, foster creativity, build intuition and live toward mission. The dots connect, clarity emerges.

9.      “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” Truth is paramount, but carelessness with what is small is a window into how one may handle anything large. The small stuff matters.

10.  “Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.” Same for marketing and business in general. Need I say more?

Latest Social Media Press Release

Published
by
kenekaplan
Jan 27th ago
in Social Media and PR
. 0 Comments

I found this today on Paul Gillin’s blog:

The press release evolves again Maggie Fox’s Social Media Group, which is one of the most innovative boutique agencies specializing in new media marketing, has developed a new version of the Social Media Press Release (SMPR), which was pioneered by Shift Communications in 2006.

The SMPR differs substantially from the traditional press release, which is often long, detailed and inflexible. The new format emphasizes many points of entry, so that journalists and bloggers can pick and choose the information - and the media - that they wish to use. The latter point is important. With so many media outlets today using images, audio and video to tell a story, the traditional press release doesn’t meet their needs very well. The SMPR makes room for story-telling through whatever media the publisher wishes to use. It requires more work on the client end, but should result in much better results.

Another innovation in this new version is its use of popular back-end services like YouTube and Flickr to host content. This means that people can find the information through search engines as well as via the press release.

Maggie has made the template available for anyone to use under a Creative Commons license. She has a more detailed explanation here. Or you can just download the template in PDF format.

This has been a stop and start and stop topic for my team since March 2007.  Hope this year we have better luck.  This is not a big complaint, because our team was able to turn on some other very cool features like a Chip Shot section for mini updates tailored for journalists and tech bloggers.