It’s no surprise where I sit in this debate. One need not look further than the address bar! We all type it the same, but some say it differently, so please answer this poll and let me know which you say. AND if you’re really passionate about it, please drop a comment and make your case!
My justification is pretty simple… You don’t say “Google[POINT]com do you?? Dot dot dot. It just sounds better.
Just a quick post to give you a sneak peek at what I’ve been up to and what you might expect to see coming up here on Web 2.What?
Well, those are my excuses for not blogging more often. I am trying to post at least 3 times per week, but I’m sure you’ll understand I don’t just want to post garbage for the sake of posting!
Also I’d love your suggestions for how I can improve this blog, or what you’d like to hear about that’s not being represented elsewhere. Please drop a comment or email me at kelly(at)web2dotwhat.com!
Photo by emdot on Flickr.
If you pay attention to some of the social media buzz out there, surely you’ve already heard of Plurk. Plurk is like twitter, but takes it a step further by laying out posts on a visual time line and when you want to reply to someone’s post, instead of the @username, you can actually drop down someone’s message into what can best be described as an IM chat box and keep the conversation going. Anyone–fans or friends–can jump in as well. It’s hyper-interactive, and a lot of fun.
Now I’m certainly not ready to give up Twitter–I worked hard to build up my followers–but I could definitely keep coming back to plurk, and that’s because on top of it all it they build another dimension of fun in with your Plurk Karma. The more you post, the more karma you earn, and when you invite people into plurk you earn more karma–this point is key because any type of social site’s success depends on it’s ability to continuously expand. And we all know friend referral is the best way to do that. Anyway, what does plurk karma do? Earns you cool stuff of course! The more karma you get, the more you can customize your profile. As well you earn new and cool smileys. These obviously become “Cool” status symbols and those of us who don’t have them yet are just dying to get them!
So, if you dare, give plurk a try, and don’t forget to add me as your friend!
PS-Are you on Plurk? What do you think about it? Have you not tried it yet? Why not? Keep the conversation going below…
I’m almost embarassed to admit–but I’m just reading the Cluetrain Manifesto now. I’ve long known about the book, and specifically that it is about how the Internet has changed the way business works. Nevertheless, it’s an inspiring book and reaffirms a lot of the theories I’ve always believed, and I’ve also learned some new stuff too. There are two big takeaways I want to emphasize right here and now:
Despite the fact that this blog IS (mostly) about the tools, the whole concept and ideals behind social media are not. It’s about better communication because people are now able to connect, grow, learn on their own, at a faster pace than ever before. And businesses need to adapt. Those who’ve grown accustomed to ‘old’ marketing often dismiss terms like social media, user-generated content etc as a passing fad, or just another tool for the marketing toolkit, but it’s really so much more. Personally I’ve never been a fan of “interruption marketing” or broadcast media, simply because as a consumer, I hate tv commercialsand the fact that over 50% of my magazine is ads and especially those ugly flashing banners on site, they’re all in my way and wasting my valuable time. However, I love when a brand engages me with a fun flash game, or sends me emails with exclusive offers I can pass along, or even follows me on twitter and participates in my (sometimes) silly conversations. I really love it. And while some believe the old marketing is a necessary evil, I don’t. I’m done with it, before I ever really got started…
I started my career as a PR girl working in the email marketing biz. Like marketing, PR often gets a bad wrap, but for different reasons. I was always taught the key to PR was respecting your audiences and giving them exactly what they want in order to acheive your goals and objectives and that honesty, ethical behavior and transparency are absolutely essential. It makes perfect sense to me, and I saw it as very relatable to email marketing, which is probably why it was so easy for me to understand, embrace and tell others about. (BTW I still blog about email marketing, over at Tamara Gielen’s Be Relevant! Blog)
By “it” I mean the fact that “mass marketing” is no longer effective, that employees are a company’s greatest asset and that open, honest and personal dialogue between a company and its customers is the new key to success (these are the points Cluetrain Manifesto is really driving home). I’m only now realizing the reason I get all this social media/online stuff is that as a teenager I was secretly a big geek–on newsgroups, IRC, early bulletin boards, etc. I loved that I was able to learn and get to know people potentially on the other side of the world. I’m super curious by nature and the Internet has always been my portal to ‘the rest of the world’ outside the suburb I grew up in. Now though the tools have evolved and changed greatly, although Facebook and MySpace and the likes have brought these things into the mainstream, really it’s all the same. In fact, in 1999 I joined a local nightlife website which became my obsession for years, it was membership driven, had bulletin boards, the ability to ‘friend’ other users, share photos and toggle event attendance… It *was* a social network, and it was a huge part of me, before I even knew what the term social network was!
Ok, wait, back to my main point here. The point about companies getting “it” has been proven 100 times over. Take Google for example - have you ever seen a Google TV ad? What about banner ads? How did YOU here about Google?(My mom actually told me about it!) What about its slogan ‘don’t be evil’ and have you taken a peek at the Googleplex lately? It’s pretty obvious Google has evolved into the type of company that embraces new ideals brought on by the communications shift, and I don’t have to tell you it’s working for them. Consequently, not only is Google bringing in bazillions of dollars ever quarter, it’s got hundreds (probably thousands, actually) of brand evangelists walking around–employees that is…Who doesn’t love working with those who absolutely love their jobs?
I haven’t posted in a while, so please excuse my wacky tangents. My time for blogging is tighter than ever, and the hardest part is finding inspiration for writing (I could write for hours on end, so long as I’m inspired)… If you have any great topics, ideas, or suggestions, drop me a line at kelly(at)web2dotwhat.com or, of course, comments are always open!
Ok, I realllly should have a smart phone, but I’ve been putting it off in hopes of the iPhone *finally* making it’s way to Canada… Well now Canadian company Research in Motion has announced its new BlackBerry Bold — likely a worthy rival to the iPhone. Unfortunately it will only be available on the GSM network, which means I’ll have to get back with the certain wireless provider I despise, but I think it’ll be worth it. (Same deal with the iPhone anyway) If anyone has heard anything about the Bold yet, please drop a comment and let me know, I’m very interested!
Here’s a full story about the Blackberry Bold…
PS- Sorry for the hiatus, I took a week’s vacation in Cali, and much to my dismay I had to pay daily for a WIFI connection! While I did cave (three times) I was so overwhelmed with my inbox and feeding my twitter addiction, I didn’t make time to post. However, I’m back and hoping to contribute here and over at Be Relevant! more often!
Ok there’s hundreds of fantastic blogs out there that I would love to link to. However, so far I’m doing a bad job of getting around to it. So I’m going to spin this into a social activity and ask for your help on building my blog roll.
In the comments, let me know which blogs you think belong on my blog roll. Please feel free to drop your own blog URLs, so long as it’s relevant to what I’m talking about here, I’d be happy to link to you! (Also, if you enjoy my content and want to return the favour and link back to web2dotwhat.com, I don’t mind)
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