I received a great deal of email from folks who had thoughts on my previous post, MySpace is Finished. Unfortunately, I wrote something that generated a lot of interest and my database craps out on me causing the comments not to work. But I do appreciate the people who took the time to drop me an email with their thoughts, thank you. Since others could not see all the emails I received and all the questions that were raised, I thought I would post a follow up.

Several emails I received said pretty much, “MySpace is free and you get what you pay for.” This I find very hard to agree with. Even though we do not pay to become a member of MySpace or any other social network for that matter, we as users give MySpace something far more valuable than a few dollars. We give them our time and attention. Think about the amount of time people spend within the MySpace walls and community? For a business that makes their revenues through online advertising, there is nothing more important. And for that reason alone, MySpace should have a singular focus on delivering the best user experience possible on their site for their members. In my opinion, not only does MySpace not deliver a good user experience, the web site has terrible navigation, atrocious look and feel and more error messages than a beta version of Windows Vista. How does a web site expect to continually grow when the product your selling, your web site, is broken to say the very least?

MySpace even after continued attempts has non-stop spam going through every facet of the web site. There is no enforcement or pro-activeness to try to stop the deluge of profile, comment and email spam. All of this adds up to only one thing, a terrible user experience.

What this says to me is that MySpace is forgetting who is truly important to them – their members! Because without you and I and the millions of other members coming on daily and updating our blogs, adding new content to our profile pages, sending emails to friends, etc, etc. They have no business.

Now let’s look at this in another way. I am assuming most of my readers are marketers. MySpace recently announced a new targeted advertising program that they call “Interest targeting” which they will be pulling content from members profiles and based on what that user has written on his page, MySpace will tailor ads towards that content. This should not come to a big surprise to anyone as everyone is moving into that direction. I guess my question is what type of company would actually take advantage of this service or for that matter any other MySpace service? Even if, my target market were youths as a CEO of a company would I be willing to risk having my brand being advertised on profile pages that could have a picture of a half naked woman on it or a guy with a picture of a swastika? Who would be willing to jeopardize their brand by advertising on MySpace?

This time I am hoping comments are working.

Technorati Tags: MySpace, social network, online advertising

I think one of the biggest challenges that companies both large and small are wrestling with at the moment is how to better engage with their customers. I think for many companies they are beginning to realize that the old stick your head in the sand and hope it goes away technique is just not working out and even more importantly, I think they are realizing that discussions and conversations are going to be taking place online about their company, products and services whether they get involved or not. Now that many are coming to this realization, the question is how do they go about engaging these online conversations while of course still protecting their brand and company?

At one time, I was under the belief that many of these companies don’t get involved out of pure apathy and lack of understanding. There might be companies out there that this is true, but as I have been working with larger and more established companies over the last couple of years, I have begun to realize that there are many other more complicated reasons on why companies are not engaging more with their customers online.

One of the issues that I have recently seen first hand take place is the risks that specifically larger companies take when engaging with people online whether it be in blogs, discussion boards or social networks. Unfortunately, we live in a litigious world which in layman’s terms means that you can be sued by anyone for absolutely nothing. And even though many of these suits are baseless and eventually thrown out of court, it still costs companies a great deal of money defending themselves from these lawsuits. I was having a discussion with a client of mine and he said something that stuck with me in regard to getting involved with these online conversations happening about his company.

He said, “There have been so many times that I have read something that I dearly wanted to respond to, but before I do, I need to weigh how much it will cost my company if someone sues us based on what we say compared to the any type of reward our company would receive from posting a response.”

It’s an interesting issue, one with many different facets to it.

So I have been a bit lacking lately when it comes to my posts as well as me responding to other people’s comments. I apologize for that and am absolutely going to try to do better. I thought I would start off the week with a question where hopefully can stir some great thoughts and debates.

I am doing a speech in front of the Charlotte chapter of the American Marketing Association on October 10th and I thought I would get your input and ideas as I put together what I want to say for my presentation. If you are in the area, please feel free to attend, I would love to see you.

So here’s the question. Is it a good thing for companies to try to engage their customers online? Does the good outweigh the possible repercussions that could come from it? And finally what are some of your ideas on how companies can engage online with their customers?

Technorati Tags: engage with their customers, online conversations

Happy Monday folks. I hope all had a good weekend. I had a glorious weekend as finally after months and months of anticipation, football arrived back on Sunday’s! Life can now begin again for many of us.

During the NFL season, one of my favorite things to do on Sunday’s is hang out and watch football, bust on friends about football and pretty much just take in hour after hour of football. It’s a great life I know. Anyhow, during yesterday’s games, I saw something interesting that I thought I would discuss.

I live in Raleigh, North Carolina and over the last week or so, the news stations here have been consumed with a tropical storm named Gabrielle. This storm had the same odds of hitting us bad as I have hitting the lottery, but even though the odds of this storm even making it to shore let alone coming up here were slim, the news stations I guess had nothing else to report so they rode Gabrielle until she was dead and buried.

On Sunday, the storm came as close to the NC coast as it was going to get and the only weather it brought was some rain to the coastal towns which they along with us needed. No big winds, no hail, no flooding, just your ordinary run of the mill rain shower. HUGE news I know. Yesterday as I was hanging out watching football, I was amazed to see that not only once but several times, the local TV stations here broke INTO football coverage to pretty much tell us that absolutely nothing was going on.

I was amazed that there were a couple of news directors actually saying, “Let’s break into network coverage so that our “meteorologists” could report that the coast is getting rain and for 99.9% of our viewing area, we will see absolutely no change in the weather whatsoever.

“We are interrupting your regular scheduled program to tell you that we have absolutely nothing to report. The storm that we hoped to God would come a shore unfortunately did not, so um, there is nothing to worry about and the sun you see outside your window should stay just like that, well, I guess until it is time for the sun to go down…..”

As I was watching these idiots trying to be relevant, I was wondering, what happens when there actually is some kind of weather emergency? How much trust will I have in you when in times that I do not need you, you chose to stick your nose into my life? It reminds me of the boy who cried wolf. After the boy falsely cried wolf a couple of times, people did not believe him when he actually was telling the truth.

What do you think? Am I making a mountain over a molehill here?

I have been real remiss of late that I had not mentioned a brand new buzz network that has launched by a frequent commentor here and a friend, Antman.. The Ant has put together a real interesting network that has a wide range of categories and interests that is totally focused on creating and developing buzz for you and the areas that you are interested in. I was lucky enough to be allowed as a beta tester and where this could go has endless opportunities.

The site is still in Beta, but the Antman has allowed the beta testers to invite more people to come and play and see what you think. I have taken the initiative to invite the people who regularly comment here to give Cre8Buzz a try. Many of you should of already received invites from me. If you did not receive an invite and would like one, just add a comment to this post that you want one and I will send you out one immediately.

Jason Calacanis declared on his blog “Facebook bankruptcy“. Overall his post is a rant about how he is too popular and all the requests he gets is keeping him from actually doing things. Jason also decided to turn off comments on his blog.

You know as I was reading his post, I was thinking of those movie and rock stars who for years wish and work their tails off to make it big. All they want is the fame and the fortune and then one day they actually attain their goal only to complain about how they have no time for themselves and how hard it is to be famous. Boo hoo. Isn’t life cruel.

Come on Jason, please. Is there someone at your place holding a gun to your head making you accept friends requests, forcing you to send emails? I don’t really care about the Facebook thing, if Facebook is not your bag than delete your profile and move on already. What I do take issue with is you shutting off comments to your blog. You should know better than most of us that blogging is about community. It is about giving the opportunity for anyone no matter who they are to let their voice be heard. By you shutting off your comments, you are shutting the door on the community that you have worked damn hard to create these many years.

“If you do have a blog and don’t want to take the time to fire off a blog post in response to this then, frankly, how valuable is your comment? The benchmark for responding to my blog is now starting your own blog and writing a post.”

Ah, I see, so now unless you have a blog, an individuals thoughts, opinions and comments are not valuable? Coming from a true innovator like you Jason, this kind of statement is embarrassing to say the least. I agree with you Jason on one point, you are bankrupt, morally bankrupt. So enjoy yourself in that ivory tower you constructed my friend. We shall see what happens in the future when all those requests and comments stop coming, you think your attitude might change then?

Technorati Tags: Jason Calacanis, Facebook bankruptcy, Facebook, community

So I have been tagged twice one from Matt and one from Bob. Bob, I am very sorry it has taken me this long to respond. The tag is posting 8 random things people may or may not know about me. So here it goes:

1. When I was a kid, I got off a tour bus in Florida without my relatives which they did not notice. I sat on the curb for a half an hour until the bus came back for me. The entire ride back the driver was making fun of me. To this day, I would love to kick that drivers butt!

2. The first concert I ever went to was when I was 13 which my friends and I camped out for tickets. It was to see Genesis at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. We camped out overnight for them and got the second to last row on the very top section of the stadium. Mom dropped us off and picked us up. Awwwww…

3. My father once threw me through our garage. Yea not against, but literally through it.

4. A day after graduating high school, a friend and I jetted off and traveled throughout Europe. It was bar none the best time I have ever had in my lifetime.

5. I drink Fruit2O water like crazy. I love the stuff. I usually drink 3-5 containers a day easily. Oh also, even though it is named “Fruit2O” a take off of H2O, I call it “Fruit2.0″ (pronounced Fruit two dot Oh). I do it pretty much because it really annoys my fiance.

6. Every summer since I was very young until a teenager, I went to camp. I started in the youngest bunk and went up to junior counselor. I never realized just how amazing that place was until I got older.

7. I love to BBQ. In my humble opinion, nothing tastes better than when it is barbecued.

8. I am counting down the days until NFL football begins again. Life begins in September!

Ok, that is my random stuff. I guess I need to tag some folks. Here you go, you be tagged:

• Adam
• Jeremy
• Jake
• Meg
• Jennifer
• Ryan
• Alex
• Nathan

This morning was the official launch of Age of Conversation, a book written by over 100 bloggers from all across the globe. I was lucky enough to have been given an opportunity to write a chapter in this book and I am very excited to read what the other 100 or so bloggers came up with. I have already placed my order this morning for both a hardcover, paperback and an e-book.

All proceeds minus printing costs will go Variety, The Children’s Charity. The prices and how much goes to this charity are as follows:

e-book: $9.99 ($7.99 going to charity)
paperback book: $16.95 ($8.10 to charity)
hardback book: $29.99 ($8.55 to charity)

For more information, please check out the official Age of Conversation blog. You can order both the e-book as well as the printed books through Lulu at Lulu.com/ageofconversation. If you order the e-book, you can download it and start reading immediately after purchase.

You can also check out a Google Map that was created that shows where each author is from.

Once people have a chance to download and read it, I would love your thoughts and opinions.  Thanks for your support.

Technorati Tags: Age of Conversation, bloggers

I’m a ponderer and I was hoping you my fabulously intelligent Hipster readers would be interested in pondering with me… My ponderable today is about blogging. As bloggers, what are we looking for? What do we need and what do we want? I think each one of us began to blog for many different reasons. Whether that be for fame and fortune or just somewhere that we can share our thoughts. For me personally, I started blogging for one reason, but fairly quickly, I continued blogging for a much different reason, community.

This blog along with sites like MyBlogLog have given me the opportunity to meet and befriend people that I would of never had the opportunity to meet let alone have fabulous conversations with. It’s been amazing and it’s something that as I get older and hopefully wiser, I have come to realize just how precious this community and these conversations actually are.

Think of what technology has given all of us the opportunity to do. Just yesterday, I was introduced right here on this blog via a comment to an incredibly interesting woman named Ryan who through our conversation we discovered that even though I live in Raleigh and she in Boston, we grew up about a mile from each other. I am using the term “grew up” loosely as I grew up and then she was born as I am considerably older than her.

Now the reason I am bringing all this all up is that even though blogging is exploding each and every day, I believe that we as a community are dramatically under served. Even with the technology available and a whole lot of players in this market, I still don’t think people truly get that it is not always about subjects or interests, it’s about THE CONTENT and THE PEOPLE! What do I mean by this? There are blogs that focus on subjects that from the outside looking in, I would probably not have any interest in. But for one reason or the other, I took the time to truly read what some of these amazing bloggers are writing and now I cannot get enough of them.

Let me give an example. There is this amazing woman named Jen who writes a couple of different blogs. One is called Goodness Graciousness and the other is The Art of Intimacy. Now just from those titles, what would was your first impression? Mine was Chick Flicks! A place where women talk about love and how their men don’t cuddle with them enough, yada yada, yada… Now just being honest, for me personally, I think I would rather have my teeth removed with a rusty wrench than read this, but as usual I could not of been more wrong. Instead Jen writes these wonderfully personal as well as incredibly interesting articles that read like they came right from her heart and landed directly onto the screen. Content and People…

It’s amazing what we as individuals can do and I believe that when we as individuals can get together in a community, there is no limit to what we could accomplish. Though right now, I feel like there are things that are missing to enable us to do that.

So here is my ponderable that I would like your help with. I want to be able to have a better and stronger community. I want to be able to get better and more specific feedback on what you the reader likes and dislikes. I want to be able to keep track and stay abreast of what you my readers/fellow bloggers are writing about each day with the limited amount of time that I have available. I want an easier way to communicate to you both individually as well as a group.

What do you want? Am I off on my thinking or are there things that you would love to have that would allow your voice to be better heard as well as being able to find and hear other voices easily and quickly? I am asking you to join my ponderable and offer your thoughts. There are no wrong answers in Ponderableland, unless you ask me to vote for you for the Best Blogger Award.

Alright, here we go.. Sit back, take a deep breath, relax and join my ponderable and share your thoughts. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: Hipster, pondering, ponderable, blogging, bloggers, community, MyBlogLog

An interesting thing happened yesterday that I wanted to get your opinion on. I received a comment on this blog that read:

“That cartoon is funny, espcially the PH with the ghostbusters sign through it. Like you, I am competing in the Bloggers Choice Awards, although not in the same category. I hope my email is not an intrusion.

Anyway, I would like it very much if you would go to URL and vote for me for best _____ blog and best overall blog as well, if you feel my blog is of a high quality. I really think I have a legitimate shot at winning. If you are open to spreading the word, that would be cool as well.”

Now this comment was left from a blogger who has NEVER commented on my blog before. I do not know this person and have never been to their blog. I really felt like the author was just going from blog to blog trolling for votes and that this comment was nothing different than the thousands of other comment spams that I and every other blogger get everyday.

So I immediately deleted his comment and posted the following comment:

“I have removed your comments from the site which is the first time I have ever done this. I think you are pretty sad to come to someone else’s blog and beg for votes for your blog… Grow up and realize that begging and spamming will not get you where you want to be.”

Needless to say, the blogger in question was not particularly happy with my response. He sent me several emails questioning my “hostility” and why I was so mean. 

I tried to explain to him that blogging is about creating and developing relationships and coming onto someone’s blog that you do not know and have no relationship with and immediately start promoting your blog and asking for votes is nothing more than comment spam, in my humble opinion. I added that if he does with other blogs, he will get similar responses. He of course, disagreed.

What do you think? Is my thinking wrong here? Was I too hostile? I would love to hear your opinions.

Technorati Tags: blogger, comment spam

A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to write an article for an upcoming book called, “The Age of Conversation“. This great idea was the brain child of Gavin Heaton and DrewMcLellan.

A hundred or so bloggers were asked to write no more than one page on anything we like that had to do with the “Age of Conversation”. What made this project especially appealing was ALL of the books’ proceeds will be donated to Variety, The Children’s Charity.

I was notified that the release of this book is about a week away. The cover of the book is the picture highlighted above. The book is going to be available for purchase via an e-book or hardcover. I will keep you apprised on when the book has officially been released.

I am very excited about this for a couple of reasons. I think this is a wonderful idea that benefits a great charity, but also, you cannot find a better or more eclectic group of bloggers than the 100 or so they got together for this book. I can’t wait to read what everyone has written for their articles and I am just hoping mine does not totally suck compared to some of these incredibly talented writers.

I will definitely post information on how to purchase the book when it is released. In the mean time, I have listed all of the bloggers who have participated in this book below.

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Mindblob (Luc)
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Bob Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
Kofl Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Pollinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman

Technorati Tags: The Age of Conversation, bloggers