Archive for May, 2009
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 31st, 2009
Lots of new media reasons to be cheerful this month.
Microsoft has a new offering the promises to change the way we search the Internet. Its called Bing and is still under wraps so we’ll have to wait and see if it will better the mighty Google.
Not to be outdone, Google also has a new offering in beta. Google Wave promises to change the way we communicate and collaborate on the web.
Make your own book with Blurb and BookSmart.
Have fun with your desktop at Bump Top.
Twitter tools: Untweeps (get rid of anactive users), Twilert (Twitter keyword listening tool) and Just Tweet It (another Twitter directory).
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 29th, 2009
Our last podcast of the week is with David Watts. David is Notary Public, not exactly the kind of industry one might expect an avid Twitterer to come from but David is carving a Twitter niche and using the micro blog to drive awareness of what he does, to connect with potential clients as well as to keep up to date with topics that interest him. It was a pleasure to have him join me for the Out-Smarts podcast today.
[audio:http://www.out-smarts.com/podcast29.mp3]
Podcast: Download
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 28th, 2009
I can’t believe our Twitter podcast marathon week is almost over. In our penultimate cast today, we talk with Sue Clement of Success Coaching. Little did I know earlier this year when I encouraged Sue to start using Twitter as part of her marketing mix that she would take it to heart. I should have known better! In a few short months she has built a following of over 1300 “Tweepl” and is deriving many benefits from using Twitter to listen, learn and to get the word out. Hear how she puts Twitter to good effect.
[audio:http://www.out-smarts.com/podcast28.mp3]
Podcast: Download
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 27th, 2009
Our Twitter podcast marathon takes us to Langley today, where realtor Teri-Lyn Conrad is using Twitter to stay connected. Teri loves Twitter and is a true advocate of social media. Listen to our conversation to hear how Twittering has benefited her, both from a business and social perspective.
[audio:http://www.out-smarts.com/podcast27.mp3]
Podcast: Download
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 26th, 2009
Its day two on our Twitter podcast marathon and today I am joined by Sue Sinclair of Raspberry Kids. Sue is the Chief Executive Mom at Raspberry Kids, an online purveyor of fresh, healthy and fun products for little ones.
In the space of a few short months Raspberry Kids has built a following of over 2000 friends on the micro blog network. Listen and learn how they went about doing so.
[audio:http://www.out-smarts.com/podcast26.mp3]
Podcast: Download
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 25th, 2009
This year Twitter has grown from 6 million users at the start of the year to over 16 million today. Given its phenomenal growth (also know as the Oprah effect), I thought it would be a good idea to do a podcast with some local business people, talking to them about their experiences using Twitter. The initial idea was to have one podcast but this has morphed and I’ve decided to post a podcast a day all week. It has turned into a podcast marathon (our first and maybe our last – we’ll see how it goes!).
The first podcast is with Marc Smith from Amuse Consulting an entrepreneur I met at a recent BNI event. Marc’s company helps people and businesses organize events of all kinds and from what I hear they do an amazing job. He’s been using Twitter for a few months and is obviously getting a lot out of the experience.
Listen and enjoy!
[audio:http://www.out-smarts.com/podcast25.mp3]
Podcast: Download
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 25th, 2009
Worried that your good work could be plagiarized or that someone’s going to steal your thunder on the Internet and not reference your writing appropriately? There’s a solution to every problem and this one comes in the form of Creative Commons. An offshoot of a US non profit organization , Creative Commons was founded in 2003 with the help of the University of Ottawa Law and Technology Program and theCanadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
The service allows you to license your work easily and at no cost. With various different license offerings based on how much freedom you want to give people to use your writing and in which forums, Creative Commons steps you through an easy process to find the right license and then you simply download some HTML to your web-site and your covered like so:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License
People using the works are then morally and legally obliged to use them accordingly (or not at all if you so choose). Whether or not people act appropriately remains to be seen and there’s also the issue of the global reach of the Internet with different laws governing different jurisdictions but if this plagiarism is a concern for you then Creative Commons is definitely a step in the right direction to protecting your work.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 20th, 2009
Coldplay is arguably the biggest band in the world right now. They have embraced social media and are being highly effective in using it. Here’s how:
Their website is very highly visually appealing, strong and effective – at the core of every successful social media campaign is a great site or blog to send people to.
They are using the right forums – Coldplay are active in Twitter, MySpace , Facebook and YouTube but I couldn’t find them on LinkedIn (for obvious reasons). There’s no point trying to be active in every single forum, pick those your audience is using on focus on using them effectively.
They add value – this weekend’s free download of “LeftRightLeftRightLeft”was really smart. Not only did they add value and make people feel like they care but they also collected millions of email addresses (over 3.5 million at last Tweet) in the process giving them even more direct contact with fans. Always look to give the gift of information (or in this case music) and add value for your audience – make them feel good.
Transparency – after a poor start on Twitter (they got lots of flack in the UK for having a PR person Twittering for them) their posts now seem to be somewhat personalized – mainly by Guy. But its hard to tell whether he’s really the real Guy…. One criticism – they could try to be more social and interact with their community rather than simply posting. On Twitter as with an social media forum its important to be who you say you are.
Inclusive rather than exclusive – unlike many celebrities on Twitter who only follow celebrities back, Coldplay are actually following a few thousand fans.
So if you are thinking about using social media, take a look at Coldplay and learn a thing or two from them. And you might want to download the music when you are at it, its well worth a listen.
Adding Value
In the right forums
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 15th, 2009
The to blog or to email question reared its lovely head again this week so I am reposting this blog article from a while back. The answer is of course that you need to do both. Read on….
A blog and a newsletter are two distinct tools with different attributes, each suited to a different audience and useful for building awareness in distinct forums.
A newsletter is best used to keep in touch with those youre already have an established relationship with such as clients, prospects, partners and so on. Its a great way to keep your company fresh in their mindset and remind them of what you do.
A blog on the other hand is better for getting the word out to an untapped audience. Blogging allows you to introduce your core services or products to a wider audience whilst reaching your customer and contacts if they so choose. A blog has the added bonus of building links and increasing traffic.
Theres another key difference between the two and that is that one is push the other pull. A newsletter pushes out your announcements and news to the audience whether they like it or not (which is why its best for existing relationships otherwise it risks being spammy). A blog on the other hand is a source of information that people choose to go to to read or subscribe. Its less intrusive and has more buy in (and therefore is more likely to be read).
If you are asking this question because of limited funds and have to make a choice, first consider where youll get the most bang for your buck. Existing customers are far easier to build business with (assuming you did a good job first time round) than folks you dont know so if you have a lot of those go the newsletter way. But if you are starting from scratch trying to grow a new business and establish your website a blog is the way to go.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 14th, 2009
Its been another trying day for Google users with slow gmail connections, problems with searches, analytics and lots of #googlefail posts on Twitter.
For the second time this year the Internet dominater has frustrated its users. In February Google was panned because Gmail failed for several hours leaving users stranded with no way to access email. At the time the company said it was because of an error at one of its European server centres.
Out-Smarts is a virtual company, we rely on online tools and services like Google to run our business. When Gmail goes down our productivity is effected and we are just one example. How many other companies worldwide are affected in this way and how much does this down time costs? Lots of dosh I would sat.
This time, Google says it was a traffic routing error. Here is the response taken directly from their blog:
Imagine if you were trying to fly from New York to San Francisco, but your plane was routed through an airport in Asia. And a bunch of other planes were sent that way too, so your flight was backed up and your journey took much longer than expected. That’s basically what happened to some of our users today for about an hour, starting at 7:48 am Pacific time.
An error in one of our systems caused us to direct some of our web traffic through Asia, which created a traffic jam. As a result, about 14% of our users experienced slow services or even interruptions. We’ve been working hard to make our services ultrafast and “always on,” so it’s especially embarrassing when a glitch like this one happens. We’re very sorry that it happened, and you can be sure that we’ll be working even harder to make sure that a similar problem won’t happen again. All planes are back on schedule now.
Posted by Urs Hoelzle, SVP, Operations
I can only say that if I was flying from New York to San Fran and the flight I was on ended up routing through Hong Kong, I would wonder what kind of crazy, screwed up airline I was flying with and I would choose never to fly with them again. With Google I don’t really have that choice. What’s more, at least when my airline makes a mistake they usually (not always but usually) offer some kind of compensation. Google only offers a rather pathetic analogy. Thanks Google.
Apparently all is hunky dory again and its business as usual with Google search now. Which is just as well because the Google cam is in the area and I want to check out the new view.
More on the subject:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/164904/google_says_outage_caused_by_traffic_routing_error.html
http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2009/05/14/google-disruption-sets-web-users-atwitter/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10240875-93.html
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/its_down_the_day_google_stood_still.php
