ScobleizerTV - The Half Life Of An Online Conversation

This is an insightful perspective on how long conversation subjects last today by Robert Scoble. "Our systems are making the half life of a conversation shorter and more difficult to search and find" and "Comments increase the half life of any given conversation" are important concepts to understand as blogging and micro-blogging evolve. The power of the comment is growing everyday in the subject half-life conversation equation.

As more corporations consider entering the social media marketing arena, they must understand these concepts. Social Media only works if you are persistent and consistent. As the half life of the conversation grows shorter and shorter, it is the deployment of personnel, not financial resources, that become the most important component of a social media marketing strategy. This causes increased complexity in the integrated marketing planning process because the brand is now relying on employees to not only be strong executioners of the plan but also as content developers and deployers across the social media ecosystem.

Keeping employees engaged in this process can end up being the most challenging. Everyone is excited during the first 3, 6 or 12 months, but after that the process of constantly having to develop new, compelling content or having to search for relevant posts, positive to the brand, and making comments often becomes burdensome. That is why it is important to develop incentives, awards and recognition so that they know the work and process are valuable and valued.

Finally, the shortening of the half life of the conversation also poses challenges to search. Finding the important content and the context surrounding it are currently very difficult, as Robert Scoble points out in his video. If search services can help to increase the half life and thus add more value back to the conversation, we all will benefit. Some conversations truly need to have a longer half life, others not, but the community, as it should, usually has the final say through selection and prioritization by commenting, posting, tweeting, texting, vlogging, blogging and searching.

Take about 12 minutes to watch this video and think about where this is all going.

My Resume As Interpreted By TagCrowd

So, now that I tried it with Wordle, thought I would look around for other word cloud services. Here is another interpretation of my resume from TagCrowd:

award brand business campaign com corporate customer development driving efile electronic executive filing generated global gov including industry interactive irs launch led management marketing media million model network presentations press process product program project redesign returns revenues server services site social software strategic strategy systems tax team technology web www

created at TagCrowd.com

My Resume As Interpreted By Wordle

I decided to have some fun and enter my resume into Wordle to see what it would make of my career. See below for the results. If you want to have some fun, copy and past your resume into Wordle to see how it interprets your career.

Mobile's Role in Eighth Mass Media

This is an excellent presentation on the power of social media and the networking effect.

Mobile's Role in Eighth Mass Media

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: mobile media)

New Wordle Poster Based On del.icio.us Tags

Here is another cool Wordle I created based on my del.icio.us tags.

TAG - Technology Association of Georgia Speaking Engagement

I will be speaking at the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008 in Atlanta, GA. The topic is "Consulting 2.0 .... it's all about the customer." The discussion will focus on the following statement:

"The proliferation of Web 2.0 tools is in top gear, countless number of platforms are available out there. Early adopters of these tools are practically creating a new type of “digital divide”, those who are in Web 2.0, and those who are not."

Should be an interesting panel and conversation.

Web 2.0 Summit 2008 - Kevin Kelly Video - Web Past & Future

Kevin Kelly delivers insightful perspective on the past and future of the Internet. All data will be shared, stored in the global machine, accessible by all with sharing adding the power. A take on Charlene Li's quote of "social networking will be like air" could go "information will be like air." This is a very cool concept and opens all types of entrepreneurial, strategic, service and product opportunities. Take 15 minutes to watch this thoughtful video.

The Break Up - www.bringtheloveback.com

Charlene Li showed this video during her presentation at Google on Social Media and its impact on marketing. It is a good, quick view on that changing relationship. Advertisers need to engage with consumers, not interrupt the conversation. Microsoft commissioned the development of this ad.

Authors@Google: Charlene Li - Social Networks Will Be Like Air

This is a fantastic presentation by Charlene Li on the latest in social media marketing. She makes excellent points about the future of Social Networking and Media - "they will be like air" - completely surrounding and embracing us.

More on Charlene Li can be found at:

The Altimeter Group

Charlene Li Blog

And The Altimeter Wiki where she lists social media resources (consultants, agencies and thought leaders):

The Altimeter Group Wiki

A Wordle Interpretation of the Social Media Ecosystem Explorer Blog

I tried out Wordle today. See below for what it made of my blog:

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

Excellent Professor Michael Wesch, Kansas State University, presentation on the Anthropology of YouTube.

Josh Bernoff, Forrester Consumer Forum 2008 and Social Media's Rapid Growth

I attended the Forrester Consumer Forum 2008 in Dallas, TX last week and had a great time being a sponge soaking up the insights, strategies and information. I also spent time listening to Josh Bernoff discuss the dramatic growth in social network and social media use over the last year. Insights on his most recent research report can be found in this Groundswell blog post - New 2008 Social Technographics data reveals rapid growth in adoption. I also spent time listening to a couple of Josh Bernoff's presentations and sat down with him for a face-to-face discussion on potential social media efforts for our Calphalon brand.

Here is a quote from Josh Bernoff's blog that clearly articulates the incredible trajectory of social media and its influence:

"Looking at the US data, the big news in 2008 is that, not unexpectedly, social technology participation has grown rapidly. Inactives -- people untouched by social technologies -- have shriveled from 44% down to 25% of the online population. Spectators -- those who read, watch, or consumer social content -- have ballooned from 48% to 69%. If you think social technology is about to become a universal phenomenon, we just handed you a nice little bundle of evidence."

It is an amazing time to be a part of the rapidly changing interactive marketing landscape...and the entire marketing landscape.

Atlanta Web Executive Rountable at Newell Rubbermaid

On November 6, 2008 I will be hosting the Atlanta Web Executive Round Table (AWERT) at Newell Rubbermaid's new headquarters in Atlanta, GA. I will be discussing Newell Rubbermaid's social media marketing efforts related to our Graco and Rubbermaid brands. Looking forward to meeting Atlanta area interactive marketing and ebusiness leaders. Attendance expectations are high with an estimate of 30-40 attendees.

Global Brands: Social Media Pays Off

I had the pleasure of being on a panel of Social Media experts from Coca Cola, UPS and CNN recently. An article was written about the panel on MediaPost's Online Media Daily website - Global Brands: Social Media Pays Off. Each of us has a very different competitive environment we are dealing with. I found CNN's environment to be the most competitive as they can see where they are leading or falling behind everyday on TV. Fox, ABC, NBC or CBS could try a new Social Media tactic each day that will fail, succeed or completely change the playing field. Speed and agility in constant motion with your competitors watching every move.