Yesterday was Twitter Tuesday so I figured it would be good to make today WooMe Wednesday. Yesterday afternoon I spoke with Stephen Stokols, the CEO of WooMe, an online casual speed dating platform. I’ve tested out the platform with my friends before and I have to admit that it’s pretty entertaining. I also had the opportunity to check out the WooMe Facebook application called WooMyFriends.

The application enables your friends to make video introductions to friends of theirs that you are interested in dating. It’s a pretty cool application but unfortunately none of my friends are using the app so I haven’t had the opportunity to test it out. Currently the WooMe website has over 250,000 registered users. They’ve seen rapid growth given their launch toward the end of last year.

The company is backed by “Niklas Zennström’s (Skype Founder) Atomico Investments, the original investors in Skype (Mangrove Capital), and Klaus Hommels (Europe’s Investor of the Year, 2006).” The site continues to prove itself as a great platform for meeting people. One of the cooler features of their Facebook application are the video introductions that you can send via messages. It’s a pretty cool application and I’m sure it will be successful. Learn more about their company in my podcast with the CEO.

 

 Interview with WooMe CEO, Stephen Stokols [22:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Current TV posted a pretty entertaining video about social networking wars:

Over the past couple days I’ve been speaking with people more about the business of blogging. Ultimately blogs are a tremendously challenging business. You need to post as much as possible and you need to break news stories on a regular basis if you plan on getting to the top. Frequently you also need to play dirty to reach the pinnacles of success. There are handsome rewards for the best bloggers but the space available to the best is limited.

If you take a look at the top blogs on Technorati, very few have managed to get top advertisers sponsor their site. Huffington Post, the top blog according to Technorati, appears to be one of the lucky few that has obtained large advertisers. The rest for the most part have failed in this regard. So why do big brands consistently stay away from event the largest blogs on the internet?

I would say posts like this one by Mike Arrington would be one of the primary reasons large brands stay away. Mud slinging and straightforward slander. A statement such as “Cook was directly responsible for scaling Twitter, and he very much failed in his job” by Mike Arrington is not only opinion but it’s completely false. Compare the downtime of Twitter to the downtime of MySpace during their peak growth periods and you’ll see substantially more uptime for Twitter.

In “Cult of the Amateur” (which I have been quoting frequently as of late), Andrew Keen sits down with Al Saracevic, the deputy business editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. Keen asks Saracevic, “What do you think distinguishes bloggers from professional journalists?” His response was that “In America, bloggers don’t go to jail for their work.”

On a daily basis bloggers lash out against others and make false accusations which traditional journalists stray from. Is this freedom of speech? Of course but there is definitely crossing the line and the decision of bloggers as a whole (I have done so myself) to show their willingness to make slanderous statements about others is why big brands stay away.

Not all blogs participate in such behavior though. I have met a number of journalists that have started their own blogs with the intent to grow them big and they typically don’t make false accusations. In the world of blogging, lashing out against others attracts links and makes headlines. In the world of journalism, it attracts lawsuits. Until there is a standard for “citizen journalism” and bloggers as a whole, lines will continue to be crossed and the leaders will continue to play dirty.

It’s the nature of the game. While unfortunate, it has become a fact of life. Do you think there should be some sort of certification or standard created for blogging?

Finding your voice is the bane of most people who try to write. Years of proper education teaches them to forgo personal identity to lean towards proper grammar and cookie-cutter writing styles. This is in fact the reason many people have trouble with social media.

Branding and marketing in the social media realm is simply an extension of your natural voice. Regardless if you branding yourself or a product your voice has to come through, if you are branding a product with social media a little personification never hurt anyone.

Finding your voice can be difficult, especially if you are not use to writing in less than formal style, this is where a PR/Marketing professional can help. While we can’t write a blog for you or tweet for you we can help push you in the right direction.

I was at a media function last night sponsored by the Washingtonian (loved the mini-burgers by the way) and I was chatting with a media pro about how we PR types help with social media. I came up with a quick list of five things and I figured I would share them with all of you.

1. Speak Don’t Write

I am not saying throw grammar and convention out the window, but if you have problems writing try recording yourself saying what you would like to write. Then transcribe what you said and clean up the grammar.

2. Don’t Try and Be Funny

Trying to write something funny is the second hardest thing to do in writing. If you try to be witty and clever while writing and fail, you will sound like an idiot.

3. Don’t Write as Someone Else

This is the hardest thing to do in writing. Trying to write in someone else’s voice is harder than beating up Chuck Norris. This is why writers have a gift for creating conversation and critics rave about the writer when he or she is discovered.

4. Don’t Lie

Try not to lie in your writing. Many people try to ‘talk things up’ when writing because they think they can use a creative license. Social media will eat you alive if you get caught being creative with the truth.

5. Consult a Pro

Find a PR/Marketing pro and ask them what they think, we are here to help. We love giving out advice and tips to anyone trying to work in social media. Personally I have a passion for social media and love sharing ideas and tips with anyone who will listen.

That’s about it. I figure I missed a few tips, I was watching the CAPS game last night so I was a bit distracted. If you have any tips on finding your voice in social media share them with me. I would love the help!

This morning Peter Kafka broke the news that Blaine Cook, the lead architect at Twitter, is out for good. This news follows up a weekend of substantial issues and then this morning, Mike Arrington revealed that Orli Yakuel, a fellow blogger, had all of her direct messages revealed on the site. She was then forced to close her account.

According to Peter Kafka, Blaine Cook left because his partner was moving to the United Kingdom to pursue her career. Not sure why Blaine would leave one of the hottest startups in the Valley but it makes sense that personal issues could conflict. I would have tried to work something out where I was part-time in England and part-time in the Valley but then again, I don’t know all the details of what went on.

As the demand grows for Twitter the need for experienced engineers increases. Today also marked the launch of Twitter in Japan. The site also comes with advertising at the top of sidebar. Tokyo was already one of the most popular cities on the site so it makes sense that they’ve decided to launch there. Among all the problems comes a little bit of success with this recent launch. I wonder how it will impact Twitter downtime if they experience similar growth that they are experiencing domestically.

(P.S. Today is no longer Twitter Tuesday so I won’t be only writing about Twitter but figured this was news worthy information)

Around the country people are discussing how they can build more entrepreneurial communities that in some ways represent what Silicon Valley has. While each city has its own uniqueness the bottom line is that we want companies and entrepreneurs with more funding, investors that are willing to take risks and media that boasts about the local companies. Frequently the only thing that’s lacking is an echo chamber that can amplify the signal of that city on a national scale.

So how can your city duplicate things that are going on in Silicon Valley and San Francisco while retaining its own personality? The answer is simple: build an echo chamber. So here is how you can build an echo chamber for your city and avoid businesses resembling the “web 2.0 social media eyeball-collecting applications,” that “don’t want to worry about boring details like revenues, and hope to either flip to Google for an early $20 million or get that Facebook billion-dollar valuation” as Robby Russel describes.

1. Create a linking love fest - The first trick to building an echo chamber is to act like nothing goes on outside of your city. That’s why with every post you write, you should be linking to bloggers in your city. Create a list of all local bloggers that are in your city that talk about similar topics (even if not identical) and find a reason to start linking to them.
2. Make everyone blog - They say it takes a town to raise a child. I would say that it takes a city to create an echo chamber and the center of that echo chamber takes place on the blogs. How does this differentiate from a linking love fest? Not everybody blogs and it’s your community’s duty to make sure everyone starts writing so with every opportunity you have make sure that you find out what the people around you are blogging about and if they aren’t blogging make sure they begin.
3. Build central station - One of the largest challenges for cities looking to unite is the lack of unity. Building a central place with job listings, discussion, links to community members and resource guides is extremely important. If people outside of the city don’t have a single place to see what’s going on in your city, then there is no way to convince them that there is a lot going on.
4. Make up lingo - This is an awesome way to build buzz for somebody in your city while also putting your city on the map. Example: “Web 2.0″. People still have trouble describing what it is because it took Tim O’Reilly 5 pages and a chart to explain what it is. People still don’t know what it is but thousands of people still flock to Web 2.0 Expo and Web 2.0 Summit every year to find out more about it. Have one of your people come up with a phrase and have everyone in your city’s blogs start using the phrase on a regular basis. The more people use it, the more it becomes ubiquitous and finally your city has coined a phrase.
5. Make the media listen - If your local media companies aren’t paying attention to what’s going on in your community, make sure they start listening. Contact them at every opportunity and let them no what’s going on. If nobody is doing PR for your community then the mainstream outside of your community knows nothing about it.
6. Talk about your community - Publicity is the battle of noise and whoever is making the most noise frequently gets the attention of others. There are local companies that are creating new innovations everyday and while the same thing is going on in Silicon Valley, most people know about the Valley but don’t know what is going on in your community. Tell the world as much as possible about where you live and the companies that shape your community. It honestly doesn’t even matter what your opinion of those companies are it just matters that you are talking about them.
7. Promote local events - Is your city made up of a bunch of bloggers that sit behind their computer and write all day and have nothing else to do? No! There are events taking place around the city everyday and many of them pertain to your industry. Get out to as many events as possible and make sure that you promote them heavily. How do you this? Blog about the event, take photos, upload the photos to your blog, Flickr and Facebook. Put tags for all the pictures, etc and then go and bookmark those photos on social bookmarking sites. Everybody needs to know that if you are looking for a fun time, your city is where it’s going on. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at photos of events going on in other cities and have wished I was there. The same thing happens to the people in other cities and they are going to want to come to come visit your community.
8. Make others feel like they missed out - Anytime something happens and people aren’t there, tell them they missed out. This way they have to come the next time. Even if the event had only two attendees, you need to make people feel like they are missing something. If you paint a picture of a community for others, then the community will slowly begin to build itself in their minds even if it doesn’t exist. Grab random people and take pictures with them, especially attractive people. Like I said in the last rule, you need to make people feel like they missed out on an awesome event. Take pictures of people having fun or looking like they are having fun and you are good to go!
9. Support Others - Even if you think somebody is wrong, it doesn’t matter how wrong they are as long as they say it convincingly. Promote those that you think that make convincing arguments even if you disagree. It shows connection within the community. It doesn’t matter if others think you and the people you are supporting are wrong, all that matters is that they hear you. Take every opportunity to support those in your community no matter how ridiculous their arguments are (this is for all communities outside of political communities).
10. Be a Superstar -Building the echo chamber requires that everybody in the community is a superstar in their own right. Be optimistic, help connect others and take every opportunity you have to support others when you can. Building an echo chamber requires the help of a city and everybody in it. That’s why you need to take every opportunity to help not to hurt. If you have nothing good to say then go move to a different city in another country far, far away (just joking). Seriously though it is your duty to help your city, so help it.

There are plenty of other ways to help but this is a great way to get a headstart. Once you begin living by the 10 commandments of an echo chamber city you are well on your way to helping build the next Silicon Valley in your town! While it won’t be the same as Silicon Valley, it will be a loud city that people around the country know about and that’s all that matters.

I decided to continue making this a Twitterful Tuesday and post yet another post about Twitter. I just read a post by Sam Lawrence about the current Twitter search tools available. He mentions that for some reason Twitter statuses aren’t showing up in Google. I would argue that the primary reason for this is that there aren’t enough microblogging services. In contrast to blog search which searches multiple platforms a Twitter search would be branded.

As such Google doesn’t want to actively promote another brand. I would say Google has somewhat of a conundrum on their hands. In blogging, the platform you use to push out content doesn’t really matter because that content ends up on various websites. Contrast this with Twitter which for the most part has content centralized in one location (with an API that enables you to extend it elsewhere). If Google is going to start search microblogging search service, other competitors are going to have to gain some traction.

Currently I don’t do much search through twitter but I’d definitely use it for finding information on specific topics. It’s also a great way to find links related to a topic. In a world full of infinite content, Twitter is a useful tool for finding timely information. Do you think that there would be any benefit to developing another search tool for Twitter when Tweetscan already does a great job? How do you search through Twitter?

Today must be Twitter Tuesday because this is the second post in a row that I’ve written about Twitter. Twitter has become a necessary part of my blog. Since Twitter began acting funny over the weekend my blog saw a relatively substantial decrease in traffic. One commenter this morning said that he had unsubscribed from my feed and was now completely reliant on my Twitter feed to update him of new posts.

While I think he is a rare case, Twitter has been driving an increasing amount of traffic to my site. I previously wrote about Twitter etiquette and some people said that linking to yourself in Twitter is annoying and not proper etiquette. In a guest post on Problogger, Chris Brogan explains how he uses Twitter to promote his blog. He suggests asking questions rather than simply posting the title of his article.

This model has appeared to gain traction throughout the Twittersphere (not sure if that’s a word). Also, simply posting about your blog is not a good model because people get tired of following. A large percentage of tweets should be part of the conversation. I try to keep promotional tweets limited to blog posts but at this point it has been necessary to tweet about my posts. Have you found it necessary to tweet about your blog posts? Do you think this practice is poor form?

Mike Arrington has a post up about how Twitter may not have to survive downtime. He argues that he is now locked into his network on Twitter and that downtime can’t prevent him from using the network. For many users (myslelf included), over the past few days the updates of many friends haven’t been appearing in their Twitter stream.

Definitely not the end of the world but it has had an impact on usage. Conversely, if you take a look at the most recent Alexa chart, the site has been growing at a greater than average pace recently so it doesn’t appear to be stopping user uptake. At this point the real question is if there is another microblogging service that can take over Twitter. While there are sites like Pownce, Jaiku and Friendfeed, none of them have been successful so far at gaining as much user adoption as Twitter.

The only service that I can currently foresee taking over Twitter is Facebook. Users on the site are absolutely addicted to status updates. They update their status regularly and check in on what their friends are up to. The only thing currently lacking is the ability to reply to other users’ status updates. If Facebook added a similar service as Twitter it would instantly stop much of Twitter’s growth. Most of the people I’m connected to on Twitter are already on Facebook and I am connected to them there as well.

While the hole discussion is much ado about nothing, I figured I’d throw in my two cents. Do you think there are any other services that will be able to compete with Twitter?

Late last year an iPhone version of Facebook was launched and received a ton of positive user feedback. Jake Marsh just released a video of MySpace for the iPhone. The applications looks amazing but the one thing that I don’t understand is how Jake plans on accessing a user’s inbox. Additionally, according to the demo displayed below you can access band music from the application. I’m not quite sure how this works because the songs aren’t technically accessible via the API and the URLs are not accessible via the page source code.

Jake now has over 12,000 Twitter followers thanks to this video becoming a hit on Digg. Jake Marsh decided to create his own API for MySpace using screen scraping. If this application is for real, Jake will more than likely have his app acquired since he is doing most of the work for MySpace. There are a lot of great features and it’s a duplicate of the iPhone application developed by Facebook. This is highly impressive and it would be great if other platforms produced something similar.

I think the real breakthrough will come when each of these platforms begin to offer mobile platforms in which applications can run. While Facebook already offers a mobile platform it is highly limited. I have a feeling that we will see a lot more applications developed for mobile as the standards for mobile applications become much simpler and phone begin to offer better interfaces for users to interact with.