Posts Tagged ‘Social Networking’

In July I wrote a blog post titled 10 people you should follow on Friendfeed. The list detailed the top 10 people I find the most interesting, according to Friendfeed’s statistics. This time around I’m highlighting 20 more people that I find interesting, and I think that you will too. The post in July was mainly social media/tech people on FriendFeed. This list gives you the best of both worlds on FriendFeed, techie/non techie, and a little something for everyone.

1) Robert Scoble

Short Bio: Robert is a husband, father, blogger, technical evangelist and author. Scoble is best known for his popular blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. He currently works for Fast Company as a video blogger. There is a reason why Robert is the most followed person in social media.
Topics: Technology, Social Media, Social Applications, Software, Startups
Web: http://scobleizer.com/

2) Mona N

Short Bio: Mona in her own words, “I’m just a regular girl addicted to: Social Media, the Internet, Star Wars, LEGO, and anything with a power switch + USB.” Mona is considered the Queen of FriendFeed, and I happen to agree. Mona is one of the main reasons why FriendFeed is fun, and will achieve mainstream success. Mona posts funny, weird and creative things.You will never find a dull moment when surfing her feed. Subscribing to Mona is a requirement.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Legos, Toys, Twitter, Bacon, Food, Odd, Funny, Applications, Interesting. A little of everything.
Web: http://pixelbits.wordpress.com/

3) Mark Wilson

Short Bio: Mark has been coined the male version of Mona. Like Mona he posts entertaining, odd, funny and  interesting content. Mark like the rest of us, is a die hard FriendFeeder. He loves FriendFeed so much  that he ” want’s to take it behind a middle school and get it pregnant.”
Topics: Music, Odd, Funny, Interesting. His interests run the gamut.
Web: http://markwilson.wordpress.com/

4) Mark Dykeman

Short Bio: Mark is a married IT professional with two children from New Brunswick, Canada. Mark is a very  articulate deep thinker who writes extensively about social media and technology. Mark also guest posts often on Louisgray.com and Mashable.com
Topics: Social Media, Social Applications, Communication, Technology
Web: http://broadcasting-brain.com/

5) Rob Diana

Short Bio: Rob is a software engineer, a husband and a father. Rob writes about social media, technology  and general programming. Rob created and developed Yacktrack.com. He also guest posts on Mashable.com and Louisgray.com
Topics: Social Applications, Social Media, Technology, Software, Programming
Web: http://regulargeek.com/

6) Kyle Lacy

Short Bio: Kyle is an energetic graphic designer who hails from Indiana. Kyle writes about social media and branding. Kyle breeds life on FriendFeed at night. Paired with Mona he is one of the driving forces of the FriendFeed night crew.
Topics: Social Media, Branding, Marketing
Web: http://www.kylelacy.com/

7) Carlos Ayala

Short Bio: Carlos is a technology and multimedia expert from New York, currently residing in Florida. Carlos posts entertaining, odd and interesting things. He also has great taste for Hip Hop and Classic Rock.
Topics: Technology, Random, Funny, Interesting. A little of everything.
Web: http://friendfeed.com/cma3

8 ) Edythe

Short Bio: Edythe Aka Polly R, resides in California.  Last I checked she held the record on FriendFeed for most likes. If Edythe likes it, you know it must be good! She posts entertaining, and interesting things
Topics: Funny, Interesting. A little of everything.
Web: http://friendfeed.com/furry

9) Michael J. Cohen

Short Bio: Michael is an active FriendFeeder and technology buff who resides in Florida. Michael posts a good mixture of entertaining and interesting content.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Interesting. A little of everything.
Web: http://325i.org/

10) Dobromir Hadzhiev

Short Bio: Dobromir is a web designer and marketing consultant from Bulgaria. Dobromir is one of my human news filters. He constantly shares, stumbles, diggs, and discovers great technology and social media related content.
Topics: Technology, Social Applications, Social Media, Design
Web: http://friendfeed.com/dobata

11) Tamar Weinberg

Short Bio: Tamar is a freelance writer and internet marketing consultant, specializing in viral marketing, and social media. She is a Florida native currently residing in New York. Tamar has written for numerous blogs, including Lifehacker.com and Mashable.com on a variety of subjects, from tech to travel.
Topics: Social Media, Viral Marketing, Technology, SEO. A little of everything.
Web: http://www.techipedia.com/

12) Susan Beebe

Short Bio: Susan is an IT professional from California, currently residing in Rochester, New York. Susan shares a good mixture of technology and social media content. Susan knows a thing or two about IT!
Topics: Social Media, IT, Technology. A little of everything.
Web: http://friendfeed.com/susanbeebe

13) Justin Korn

Short Bio: Justin Korn is a 30 year old web developer, blogger and photographer from Pennsylvania, currently residing in San Francisco, California. Justin’s core passion is photography. I would consider his photography far from amateur. He closely follows in the footsteps of the legend, Thomas Hawk.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Web Development, Photography
Web: http://blog.justinkorn.com/

14) Erhan Erdogan

Short Bio: Erhan is a blogger residing in Turkey. Erhan blogs about technology and emerging web 2.0 start ups.  He shares a good mixture of social media and technology related content.
Topics: Social Media, Social Applications, Technology
Web: http://friendfeed.com/erhan

15) Rahsheen

Short Bio: Rahsheen is a father,blogger, bodybuilder, singer/songwriter/rapper. You can’t label Rahsheen. The only label Rahsheen needs to see is a record label contract. You can expect an assortment of material on his feed. He blogs about technology, social media, applications, and his personal views on a just about anything.
Topics: Social Media, Social Applications, Technology, A little of everything.
Web: http://sheenonline.biz/

16) Shey Smith

Short Bio: Shey is a graphic designer who was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada. Shey blogs about design, social media, social issues and technology.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Design, Sports
Web:http://www.sheysmith.com/

17) Nice Fish Films

Short Bio: Michael Wright is a film producer from California. Michael is an active FriendFeeder who’s feed always has something worthy of looking into. Topics: Interesting. A little of everything.Web: http://nicefishfilms.com/blog/

18) Chris Baskind

Short Bio: Chris lives in Florida and is an environmental writer and the Publisher of Vida Verde Media, a green lifestyle company. He’s also a regular contributor to EcoTech Daily. If you want to go green, then I suggest subscribing to Chris.
Topics: Environmental
Web: http://chrisbaskind.com/

19) (Jeff)isageek

Short Bio: Jeff is a married blogger from Kansas. Jeff blogs about social media, software, social applications, and gaming, just to name a few.
Topics: Social Media, Social Applications, Gaming, Technology, Humor,
Web: http://www.jeffisageek.net/blog

20) Duncan Riley

Short Bio: Duncan Riley is a married, father, blogger and technologist from Australia. Duncan wrote for techcrunch.com for a period of time. Duncan currently owns and operates inquisitr.com, a blog that provides a relevant mix of tech, pop culture and odd/ funny news.
Topics: Social Media, Technology, Humor. A little of everything
Web: http://www.inquisitr.com/

Kyle Lacy recently wrote a posting asking, when does a subscription turn into a relationship?

While I don’t think there is a simple answer for this question, relationships offline should be formed and encouraged. People that I follow through online social media, I follow because our interests are pretty much similar. There are at least several dozen or so people I network with online, that given the chance, I would network with offline. Communication online using tools such as IM, FriendFeed, Twitter is good for maintaining what’s going on or what is missed, but nothing beats talking shop in person.

The Internet is what connects us all, but it’s also the same thing that divides us all. Most relationships formed online probably never make it to the offline stage. I have not seen any data on this, it just seems logical. We are all bound by our geographical and financial limitations.

Friends that I have been developing and have a  repore with online, I have been making an effort to network with offline. While I look forward to these opportunities, I am bound by my geographical and  financial constraints. Most of the people I network with online, do not live in the state of Florida, much less the United States. In my circle of networking, there are about 3-5 individuals within a 60 mile radius.  Granted if the economy was in better shape, it might kick start people driving more and flying. With the rising costs of air travel and gas, online relationships for the most part will remain online unless local, if there is a will.

I look forward to the opportunity to network offline if it’s within an hours driving distance. Kyle Lacy recently informed me he is coming to the state of Florida. Kyle is becoming very popular on FriendFeed, and overall seems to be a stand up guy. Like myself, he shares the sames interests and passion about social media. Kyle is definitely someone I would network with offline. Threfore, we came up with the idea of a West Palm Beach/Miami FriendFeed Meetup. This will be a great opportunity to meet and network offline with FriendFeed members. This of course is all geographically dependent. I will post more in detail about the meet up in the next week or two. Anyone who lives in Florida is welcome to attend. Venue is yet to be determined at this point.

Moral of the story, if you see an opportunity to network offline, seize it. Social media should brings us together online and off.

In the quest towards becoming early adapters, we often sign up for anything and everything.  It seems every other day there are new services launching. Most of us feel we need to stake an early claim within that service just in case the it actually takes off. While a few make it, the majority fade away into web 2.0 oblivion.

It has become a requirement to establish an account on some of these services. It helps you further extend your personal brand, and it also gives you more visibility in the search engines. These are just two solid reasons. There is nothing to lose by establishing an account with all of these services, and everything to gain. At the very least, think of these sites as micro blogrolls. The profiles you establish with all of your correlating friends and your links to all of your web 2.0 services, is essentially what I call “passport blogrolling.” Most of these services only allow for one link, which is usually your homepage url. Having more link placement is great, but I’m just fine with having one solid link back to whatever my brand might be. From a marketing perspective, services that do not allow for some sort of profile creation with outbound links should be avoided.

I’m usually a sucker for any new shiny social media toy. I will usually sign up for anything with a web2.0 name and functionality. However, the repetitive task of finding your friends from the various social networking sites and adding them yet again to another new shiny service begins. Until OpenSocial is adapted and widely used, it’s not exactly an easy task finding all those friends spread across multiple networks. The lack of interoperability between the social networks, makes me even less inclined to spend the time searching for those friends. The ability to find and add friends via address lists from email accounts has become useless. I do not have the email address of more then half the people I interact with online.The quickest way I have found for finding my existing friends from sites such as FriendFeed, is to look for a popular friend and early adapter such as Louis Gray. Through his profile I can always find a good core of our mutual friends and begin to add them to my passport profile. There are a few hundred or so friends I can not locate. This is why now, more then ever, I will continue to network and invest my time in only one or two sites, and/or applications in their respective social spaces. Most of these new shiny toys in the end, end up becoming only shiny badges for blog sidebars.

Last week I decided to stray from the herd on FriendFeed. My mission was to spend five days getting to know the people that I follow better. For five days I only commented, liked and shared content of individuals in my member circle. For the most part the experiment was a success. My mistake was only doing this for 5 days. In actuality I should of did it for 30 days. This would of exposed me to more members in my circle who are not active on FriendFeed every day. Five days limited me to only those who were on FF at the same time as me. Thirty days would have given me a broader experience.

It was an interesting five days. The first day was the most challenging. I spent the night before loading a fresh new Google reader account. This was filled with 80 rss feeds from members that are subscribed to me. These feeds are from members who I seldom interact or engage with on FriendFeed. The non stop, flowing river on FriendFeed is partly to blame.  The rest is due to their low activity on FriendFeed, or activities that simply do not interest me, such as streams of twitter or britekite broadcasts. I figured 80 blogs was enough to supplement my social consumption for 5 days. The problem I often ran into was finding new content. The majority of blogs were not regularly updated for days, even months. I’m partly to blame. I should have clearly stated I was looking for blogs with a higher update frequency. I often had to resort back to my, most recently analyzed trusted Google Reader to fill the void. That was easy because the majority of the content I already share on a daily basis comes from members that are in my member circle such as, Louis Gray, Steve Hodson, Corvida to name just a few.

Within the time frame I established of five days, I allowed myself to steer away from the herd, and roam into uncharted areas. I dug deep into this focus group of blogs. The Discovery phase was the fun part. I often found myself looking through pages and archives to find the gold nuggets I was looking for. The nugget had to shine or at the very least spark some sort of interest, and make a connection with me. I ended up finding and learning some great things about the people I follow, as much as one can through a blog or FriendFeed. Michael Nielsen explained to me, Why the world needs quantum mechanics. Bill Sodeman wrote on how to Fix the DNS security hole with OpenDNS. Andy Brudtkuhl had his Twitter account deleted for no apparent reason. Daynah Introduced me to the creative world of scrap booking. I also learned Mona has an obsession with bacon. These are just a few of the examples that I otherwise would not have discovered, and most likely would have floated by me in the river.

Discovering new blogs and content was one aspect of it. On FriendFeed I actively looked for members in my circles online, and took part in as many conversations as possible. My liking of content was more selective, and I geared it towards the members in my circle that are often overlooked. It’s amazing how much great content is hidden on feeds that are seldom seen on FriendFeed. I tried as much as possible to shine some light on these hidden treasures. Sharing through Google reader and using the FriendFeed Bookmarklet helped shine some light on these feeds. The power of foaf also works in mysterious ways. For the five days I turned off foaf, this slowed the river down for me, allowing me to focus on my member circle with more clarity and less disruption.

Overall for the 5 days it was a success. My level of engagement on FriendFeed was more enlightened and fulfilling. I also have found a few silent members that I need to make sure I follow a little more closely. If anything has come out of this little experiment, it’s the new faces that now appear on my radar. Not just a one time fly by anymore, but they now have become reoccurring blips on my screen.

Five days has given me limited results. I plan on keeping up with this experiment for at least 30 days for a more thorough analysis. Stay tuned.

The criteria for staying active in social media can be defined and interpreted in many different ways. This leads me to the foundation first, contribution. The frequency at which we contribute, dictates the level of our activity and inactivity in social media.

Measuring an individuals level of activeness can be based on the mechanisms we use for participation:

Communication:

• Blogs
• Micro blogging
• Presence applications
• Message boards
• Social networking sites

Collaboration:

• Wikis: Wikipedia
• Social bookmarking
• Social News sites

Multimedia:

• Photo sharing
• Audio sharing
• Video sharing
• Life streaming
• Podcast

I was curious to hear what applications people use to contribute and stay active in social media. On Friendfeed I asked, “What are the social media applications you use the most?”

Top applications used among commenters:

• Friendfeed
• Facebook
• Myspace
• LinkedIn
• Google Reader
• Disqus
• Del.icio.us
• Twitter
• Plurk
• Flickr
• Brightkite
• Last.fm
• Stumbleupon
• Wordpress
• Youtube

I stay active in a multitude of ways. These are the core applications I use. Some are linked to my services, so you can judge for yourself how “active” I am.

Creation:

1. Blog (wordpress powered)
   

Discovery:

1. Google Search (blog & web)
2. Google Reader
3. FriendFeed Google Shared Room
4. Toluu
5. Wikipedia

Bookmarking:

1. Diigo

Discussion:

1. Disqus
2. GTalk
3. FriendFeed

Distribution:

1. Google Reader
2. Twitter
3. FriendFeed

Networking:

1. Facebook
2. FriendFeed

Last night I blogged about 10 people you should follow on Friendfeed. This morning when I awoke and checked my email, I was pleasantly surprised. My inbox was flooded with 70+ new subscribers. 70+ new editors, who for the most part, (I) think share a majority of the same interests as I do.  As you have become my editor, I now have become yours. I think we share a majority of the same interests in technology and social media, presumably that’s what prompted you to subscribe to me. Surely it could not have been my distant side profile picture, or my last name which sounds like a curse word some of us might use too often. Our connection for the most part is an excellent example of silent social networking.

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This silent type of social interaction is a crucial element needed to make up a well balanced social echo chamber. On Friendfeed we do this mainly by liking a participants contributions, and sharing and re-sharing their content, usually through applications such as bookmarklets or Google Reader. One more example would be a type of online rating star or vote system.

This is a great example of how, and why this medium can be so powerful. This example being so virtual, still in some ways feels remarkably personal. The last phase of this new partnership is discovery. I get to discover close to 70+ new content feeds, flickr feeds, blogs, bookmarks etc. In addition to new content, we both introduce each other to thousands of FOAFS who we otherwise would never have known existed. 

Thank you new Friends, I look forward to seeing all of you on Friendfeed.

On Friendfeed, I am currently subscribed to 190 people. This post lists the top 10 people I find the most interesting, according to Friendfeed. If you share the same general interests in social media as I do, you should consider subscribing to their feeds. If you are currently subscribed to me on Friendfeed, then you should already be seeing there feeds courtesy of Friendfeeds FOAF feature.

1) Louis Gray

Short Bio: Louis is a 31 year old technology blogger, and as of recent, father of newborn twins. In his day job, he works in corporate marketing for a Silicon Valley technology company.
Topics: Web 2.0, Social Applications, RSS, lifestreaming, Aggregation, Twitter, Friendfeed
Web: http://www.louisgray.com/live/

2) Hutch Carpenter

Short Bio: Hutch is a reformed banker and MBA who has been in the technology industry since 2000. Hutch recently left BEA Systems, where he did product marketing for its suite of Web 2.0 apps for the enterprise: wikis, blogs, mashups, widgets, and social search.
Topics: Web 2.0, Social Applications, Social Media, Enterprise, Friendfeed
Web: http://bhc3.wordpress.com

3) J. Phil

Short Bio: J. Phil is the webmaster of scribkin.com,”The site where code and culture converge”. The site focuses on social applications, social media bookmarking and networking sites, as well as creating primers on Web 2.0 applications.
Topics: Social Applications, Social Media, Social Bookmarking, Friendfeed, Twitter
Web: http://www.scribkin.com

4) Mitchell Tsai

Short Bio: Mitchell was a child prodigy who began college at age 10. He is currently retired. He was founder and CEO of DotCom Director, a venture capital accelerator that invests in and/or raises capital for technology companies.
Topics: Start-Ups, VC, Social Media, Social Applications, Friendfeed, Photography, Travel
Web: http://spiritualbusinesscompanions.blogspot.com

5) Franklin Pettit

Short Bio: Franklin Pettit is a South Carolina software developer. His blog was recently “Louis Grayed.”
Topics: Microblogging, Firefox and Extensions, Web/Social Applications
Web: http://www.fpettit.com

6) Charlie Anzman

Short Bio: Charlie Anzman runs SEO and Tech Daily. He is a skilled, SEO, SEM consultant.
Topics: Start-Ups, SEO, Analytics, Web 2.0, Social Applications
Web: http://anzman.blogspot.com

7) Steven Hodson

Short Bio: Steve Hodson is the webmaster of winextra.com. Steve is a die hard technologist with over 20 + years experience in the computer industry. Topics: Web 2.0, Web/Social Applications, Social Media, Friendfeed, Twitter Web: http://www.winextra.com

8 ) Tim Hoeck

Short Bio: Tim Hoeck is a coder, highly skilled in most programming languages. He currently works for a technology corporation, as a technical support trainer.
Topics: Analytics, Social Bookmarking, Mashups, Aggregation,
Web: http://timhoeck.com

9) Sarah Perez

Short Bio: Sarah has been blogging about technology since 2004. She had worked as an I.T. professional up until recently when she became a full-time professional blogger. She now works full time for the website Read Write Web and Microsoft’s Channel 10.
Topics: Microblogging, Social Applications, Social Media, Social Bookmarking, Friendfeed, Twitter
Web: http://www.sarahintampa.com

10) Mark Trapp

Short Bio: Mark is a IT manager for a graphic design company located in NY. Mark adds tremendous insight, and thought provoking commentary.
Topics: Culture, Politics, Social Applications, Social Media, (Mixture of topics)
Web: http://friendfeed.itafroma.com