Ben Wills

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Social Media Books I Picked Up from Twitter

Yesterday, I asked the Twitter folk for recommendations of Social Media books to check out.  I got a lot of great recommendations, all of which I ended up buying if I didn’t already own it.A couple of people were interested in the book list I ended up with, so here it is, in no particular order:

• The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media
• Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership
• Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
• Smart Start-Ups: How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Profit by Starting Online Communities
• Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
• Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business
• Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
• Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
• Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules
• Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back

 I also picked up a more fundamental view of the underlying changes that are happening:

• Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become

 Finally, some Social Media books I’ve read that I think should be on this list for potential purchasers:

• Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online
• The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
• The Wisdom of Crowds

Let me know if you have any others that you think should be added to the list!Twitterers who helped contribute:

• Richard Sedley (richardsedley) - Richard Sedley
• Jason Peck (JasonPeck) - JasonFPeck.com
• Ryan (theRab) - MobThink
• Kelly Feller (kellyrfeller) - ArmChair Marketing
• Tim Dineen (TimDineen) - Exposure Online
• Lee Odden (leeodden) - TopRank Online Marketing

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Twitter as a Proof of Concept, and the Earthquake in China

When I try and explain what Twitter is to people, a blank stare usually follows. Next is: So how do they make money?

The best response that I can come up with (ie: it ends that thread of the conversation) is that it’s a proof of concept and that they’re still trying to figure out their model and their users are still trying to figure out the value offering.

I keep seeing the value proposition of Twitter coming up here and there.

At Blog Carolinas, Andy Beal gave a great example of how a family could use a private account to send text messages to everyone at once with updates/questions like “I’m at the grocery store. Does anyone need anything?”

When I was on a road trip last fall, we Twittered (with almost no followers) for recommendations of what to do in Seattle. 20 minutes later, we were told exactly where to go and what places to see. Without that type of connectivity, that night would have been one of the more average nights, rather than one of the craziest nights we had on the entire trip.

BrightKite seems to have potential at giving new value to Twitter’s base functionality. By utilizing text messaging and online messaging at the same time to distribute real-world locations, it’s certain to add a whole new dimension of functionality to Twitter’s offering. I’m already seeing Twitter messages scroll by of random meetups that wouldn’t have happened if BrightKite hadn’t been used. (Speaking of, anyone have an extra invite they want to send my way?)

Today, an earthquake at 7.8 on the Richter Scale hit China and Beijing today, in what has already killed thousands, and is sure to be even more devastating than we currently know. Robert Scoble points out (still waiting on a source for this) that the USGS was three minutes behind the first Twitters of the earthquake, which you can see here.

It will be interesting to see what pieces of the Twitter puzzle get brought together and what comes of it in the next couple of years. It obviously has a significant value proposition. Hopefully, we’ll see a revenue-generating model that suits users, developers, and companies.

Friday, May 9th, 2008

Have Band, Not Label

This was too fantastic to not pass along. I’ve copied this verbatim from a friend:

problem: you’re an unsigned band and you can’t afford any camera equipment to make your music video.

solution: use britain’s network of cctv cameras and the freedom of information act.

the get out clause - manchester’s stars of cctv