Matt Singley | Social Media Optimization

Since I was exposed to a very similar theme across three different conversations today, I think I should comment on something that I see brewing.  It seems that the centralized internet as we know it is now objectionable.  Google can get you anything you want, all you need to do is ask.  YouTube can show you anything you want, just search (Oh, and if you didn’t know, YouTube is controlled by Google).  There is a massive advantage to having everything centralize…it is fast and accessible.  Of course the downside is that it is essentially monopolized data.

Three separate people who don’t know each other brought this up with me today, in three separate contexts.  All three expressed a desire to decentralize is some capacity, whether it be media, search or something different. (more…)

My friend James Whatley of SpinVox fame recently had a chance to try out what I believe to be the future of mobile presentations: a micro laser projector from Microvision. The fine fellows at Mobile Industry Review give us a look at an incredible product; imagine a projector that fits in your back pocket, plugs directly into your mobile device and sends a full sized image up to a screen or wall.  If you have ever presented to a group using a 25lb projector attached with too many cords to your laptop, then like me you would be quite anxious to get your hands on one of these.

Check out this 6:50 video, it is simply incredible.  Although this projector seems to be a bit of a novelty now, I believe that in just a year or two they will be commonplace, the demand for these will skyrocket.  Beyond this projector, the United States seems to be lagging far behind much of the world in the use of our mobiles, something that I am sure will change over the next few business cycles.  I’m looking forward to doing more with my mobile and less with my standard laptop.

The Microvision Mobile Projector from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Last.fm today announced its launch on the Android platform, offering an ‘on-the-go’ music application enabling users to access all the best of Last.fm from their mobile phones. Features include similar artists and genre-specific streaming radio stations, personalized streaming radio, up-to-date concert information and the ability to track users’ listening habits to their Last.fm profile. The launch of Last.fm on Android marks the latest step in Last.fm’s expansion into the mobile music space. The application is available for download through the Android Market.

Last.fm Now On Android

Using the Last.fm application, users can listen to streaming radio stations such as personal recommendations, similar artists, and genre-specific tracks. Users can also share tracks with their friends on Last.fm and stream other users’ stations. The new ‘Background Playback’ feature enables users to listen to Last.fm’s streaming music while accessing other programs, such as email, without interrupting the music experience.

Last.fm users can view an on-the-go version of their personal music profiles that includes mobile versions of Last.fm Charts page and Artist pages, with biographies, tags, similar artists and top listeners, all optimized for the Android platform. Users can access Last.fm’s Events listings to browse artists on tour, search for events, view Last.fm recommendations and view mapped directions to music venues.

“We are thrilled to bring Last.fm even further into the mobile music space with the launch of this app. The Last.fm service on Android enables our listeners to use virtually every Last.fm feature on their mobiles,” said Martin Stiksel, Last.fm Co-Founder. “It truly is a ‘to-go’ version of the site. Last.fm on Android takes the mobile music experience to the next level.”

Last.fm on Android follows Last.fm’s successful launch on the iPhone and iPod Touch last year, as well as integrations with Vodafone, T-Mobile, and the Three/INQ1 Social Mobile in Europe. You can find more information on the app at Last.fm.

Since I just wrote about two different tech events happening in LA this week, on Wednesday and one Thursday, I thought a primer on how to not only survive but succeed at these would be good.  There really are some simple things you can do to prepare yourself to hang out with hundreds of geeks to make the most of your time and theirs.

1. Bring plenty of business cards.  I know, business cards are so old fashioned, just simple ink printer on paper.  Remember paper? It’s what we used to use before PDFs.  You may think that when you meet somebody new you’ll transfer info via mobile phone or some geeky Star Trek mind meld, but no…the best way is still with a business card.  Sometimes I’ll be talking to a group of 3 or 4 people, and after we introduce ourselves and chat for a bit the group naturally dissolves and moves around the room.  Always be ready to hand somebody your business card, and ask for theirs.  It’s the best way to keep track of who you meet, and frankly, you never know who you may end up wanting to do business with later.
2. Bring a pen, preferably a fine tipped Sharpie.  Pens are the archaic partner of paper.  I use a pen to make notes on business cards that I get from people, and to scribble things to others that I give my business card to.  I recommend a Sharpie because sometimes people have glossy cards, and sometimes other pens just don’t work.  Sharpies rock my world.
3. Bring gum or mints.  I know you think your breath smells great, but after a couple of Gimlets and the free stuffed mushrooms, I assure you that it does not.  I’m a fan of Wintergreen Altoids myself.
4. When you meet somebody, listen to their name.  You do it, I do it, we all do it…you meet somebody and 10 seconds after they introduce themselves you cannot remember their name.  That is just downright embarrassing.  I think this happens mostly because people you are thinking about what the other person is thinking of you when you meet…you focus more on your name and introduction than theirs.  Stop it.  I’ll tell you what they’ll think when you forget their name in three heartbeats…they will think you are a schmuck.  So, forget about yourself and really focus on them for the few seconds that i takes for them to say their name.
5. Don’t drink too much.  If you are there to make some future business connections, trust me…you’re not going to get the account when the potential client sees you on Flickr doing keg stands and wearing a lamp shade.  If you want to be the life of the party, you may want to excuse yourself early and head down the road to a local hangout.
6. Have your elevator pitch ready.  That isn’t to say that you have to sell something, but you should be able to tell somebody else what it is you do, or want to do, in less than 30 seconds.  Ideally if you can get this down to less than 15 seconds you are more likely to have a better conversation.
7. Mingle.  I’ve been to events where I simply didn’t feel like being there.  I was by myself and it seemed like everybody else was with a group of their best friends.  This is rarely the case, there are plenty of people looking to connect with others.  So, be approachable and come out of the corner.  I’m guessing you have some great things to share.  If all else fails, come find me and say hi, I’m always happy to talk.  I’m the bald, ugly guy that’s hiding in the corner. ;)
8. Don’t belittle the host or any of the sponsors.  I say this because I’ve heard it done.  You never know who you are talking to or who is listening.  Hey, it’s their party, if you don’t like it…leave.
9. Have fun! This should probably be the first thing on the list because it’s the most important. Even though you are at a tech event to listen to speakers, find out about new technology and network with other geeks you should make sure you have fun.  Honestly, the fact that we get to play with gizmos and stuff on the internet all day long…that’s fun! The events should be fun too, so don’t be so serious.  Lighten up and have a good time.

I had a couple more thoughts, but as I like to buck trends I didn’t want to make this a top 10 list. I’m no Chris Brogan, but I’ve been to my fair share of tech meetups.  So…I hope to meet you at a tech gathering in Los Angeles or San Francisco soon.  If you really want to get my attention, send me an @ message on Twitter, you know I’ll see it right away and we’ll connect for real.

There are so many blogs on the web that it’s hard to know where to go to get good information, and thousands of new blogs are added every day, making the choices seem limitless.  There are some “must read” sites however, and one that you should certainly have in your RSS feed is Mashable.

May I sweeten the deal a bit (or sour it depending on who you ask)…I have recently starting contributing articles to this incredible community that has hundreds of thousands of readers.  You can find my first post about Pandora vs Last.fm here and my most recent about how to use Google Reader here.  The first article, a head to head about online streaming music services, was a blast to write, and the comments lit up!  People get fairly passionate about their POV with music and services, and it turned into a great conversation.

Go check out Mashable, there are some incredible articles on the front page right now, and the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards are still taking votes. Naturally I would love to hear from you in the comments section, but being the incredible community of writers that it is, I strongly encourage you to go drop some comment love on the other articles too!

My hands have a mind of their own when I’m working on my keyboard.  While my fingers quickly fly over the keys when typing up an email, a tweet or a post, sometimes I misspell something.  Oh, and by sometimes I mean often.  I type most of the day, and though I try to catch errors, even spell checker and a second (or third) look at the material doesn’t always work for me.  Let’s forget about spelling and grammar for a moment…what about facts?  Nothing on my computer has an automatic fact checker, and I’ve been called out a few times on errors that I have made.  Of course I’ve only made a few in my 36 years so this isn’t a common problem, but for others it might be. ;)

There is a fresh new product on the market called gooseGrade.  I was exposed to them initially at BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, and soon I found them (or they found me?) on Twitter.  Yes, always Twitter.

This brave new app may be the end of me.  You see, we (that is, me the writer, you the reader) have just entered a new phase of our relationship.  Not only can you comment on my posts, but now you can carry a big fat red sharpie with you while you read, not unlike your mean 4th grade teacher.  If I mess up…with spelling, punctuation, grammar, facts…you can correct me and grade me.  My glory or shame will be in a shiny red widget in my right sidebar, showing the world that I either passed or failed. All you need to do is click on the gooseGrade widget at the top right of my page, log in, and correct away.  Please, try not to smile so much while pointing out the error of my ways.

“All pages begin with a gooseGrade of 100 – a perfect score. Each time a reader suggests a correction, the writer’s gooseGrade is lowered. When the writer takes action – that is, when they choose to either accept or decline the reader’s suggestion, the writer’s grade is restored,” Founder & CEO John Brooks Pounders explains. “gooseGraders – that is, readers who suggest corrections, are also awarded a gooseGrade, based on the percentage of times writers choose to accept or decline their suggestions, which discourages gratuitous correcting,” (from gooseGrade Press Rooom).

I actually like this idea.  gooseGrade did a survey about reader satisfaction of blogs as they relate to these categories, and the results show pretty strongly that clean, well written and well edited blogs make you smile more than those full of problems.  That shouldn’t be too surprising.  In this world of user generated content, I think the addition of user generated correction is appropriate.  Of course I have to wonder…were the guys behind gooseGrade hall monitors in middle school? What have we done to incur such UGC wrath? Ha ha…brilliant, gentlemen.

So now I have one more thing to feed my neurosis…what is my gooseGrade today? Those of you that love to comb my articles for mistakes and email them to me, this is like a day at Disneyland for you, and there are no lines at Magic Mountain.  Have at it…read, mark me up, and enjoy your red sharpie.

You can go to gooseGrade and sign up now for free.  Install it on your blog.  C’mon, try it!  The whole process only took me a few minutes. Also, there is a small chance that I want an opportunity to go grade your page after you grade mine…

I read an interesting review at Venture Beat about yet another Twitter API service.  Yes, there are dozens and dozens (hundreds? probably) of services that tap into the Twitter API to do a lot of different things.  Qwitter actually has some use I think.

MG Siegler says that he “doesn’t like this idea at all”, and I understand why.  It can actually create a bit of angst to try and guess why somebody stops following you on Twitter.  Qwitter can single handlely cause Twitter insecurity, “why did she quit following me?  Did I say something to offend her?”  Once you sign up for Qwitter, when somebody stops following you via Twittter you will get an email that tells you their Twitter screen name and your last tweet before they quit.  So if you type “I have feelings of insecurity, I think that people don’t like me” and then somebody quits following you, you will get notified. Ironic, huh?

I agree with Siegler if this were just for self-abuse, but I can actually see a useful purpose for this service.  If you are a company, or if you are building a brand (and many social strategists on Twitter are inded building their own brands), then you can use this as an amazing focus group.  You already know that when you talk about the iPhone your follower count goes up.  What happens when you talk about politics?  Maybe you lose followers.  Qwitter will show you what you said just before they leave.  

Personally, I think this is amazingly useful.  I signed up right away, and although I won’t obsess about a follower coming and going, it will be interesting to see if there is a trend as they do follow and unfollow.

If you are the type that live and die as your blog stats rise and fall, this probably isn’t a very good tool for you.  Let’s be honest, Qwitter will leave you sobbing on a daily basis, and probably end more than one friendship.  However,  if you think you can behave yourself and absorb a good dose of market reality that can reveal some very good information, go sign up.  I would love to hear what you think.

It’s too late for me, save yourselves.  I recently bought the AT&T 8525 (which I do love), but I’m struggling with the corporate big brotherness of AT&T.

This article lays it out pretty clearly…they ARE watching what you download.  They WILL find you.

"AT&T is going to act like the copyright police, and that is going to make customers angry," she said. "The good news for AT&T is that there’s so little competition that where else are the customers going to go?"

So…you iPhone junkies that are just about to drop 6 bills to get the ultra-slick squawk box…does this information slow you down at all?

BTW, I use Zune Marketplace for ALL of my downloads, so I get everything I want legally and quickly.  This policy doesn’t personally affect me, but I am POSITIVE it will affect some of my readers.  You know who you are. ;)

I upgraded my phone today from the Cingular 8125 to the AT&T 8525.  I’m pretty excited about it.

It has the same design idea but is much more streamlined.  More buttons (which is good IMHO) and a rounded case.  It’s what is under the hood that got me to switch.

The 3G data stream is in theory much, much faster than the old system.  It should reach low-level DSL speeds.  So far I haven’t seen that to be the case, but I’ve only had it for a couple of hours and haven’t really put it through the ringer.  Also, the TeleNav on board GPS is excellent.  I haven’t figured out how to sync it up with my Bluetooth yet, but it should do so okay when I am not so tired and can actually put two thoughts together.  It will give me real time driving directions via audio and map.  I’m pretty excited about that feature (we’ll see how the maps are in Mexico…heheh…)

The upgrade to a 2MP digital camera is nice also, although I’m not a heavy camera user.  Maybe I will become one.

Here is the sweet spot for me…the price I got it for.  When I called in they said it would be full retail because I was only 8 months into my current contract.  When I went to the store I got it for much less than that (thank you salesman who shall remain unnamed in case you were playing games with the system).  Once I sell my 8125 on eBay, the total package will have cost me about $50.  Not bad for a new phone.  Not bad at all.

Michael was kind enough to hook up direct push right away, so I’m fully mobile after very little work.  How sweet it is…

I’ve recently signed up with Spin-my-blog from SpinVox. & I think it’s a fabulous idea. I can call a specific No. anytime I want from my cell phone or another phone leave a voice message & it converts all to a blog text how sweet is that?

Voice-to-Screen messaging – powered by SpinVox