Potpourri

• A framework for measuring social media
  "Here's a framework for measuring social media: 1. Attention. The amount of traffic to your content for a given period of time. Similar to the standard web metrics of site visits and page/video views. 2. Participation. The extent to which users engage with your content in a channel. Think blog comments, Facebook wall posts, YouTube ratings, or widget interactions. 3. Authority. Ala Technorati, the inbound links to your content - like trackbacks and inbound links to a blog post or sites linking to a YouTube video. 4. Influence. The size of the user base subscribed to your content. For blogs, feed or email subscribers; followers on Twitter or Friendfeed; or fans of your Facebook page."
• Twelve best practices for online customer communities
  being armed with this information is NOT, however, a license to start yet another niche online social network for your brand
• Strategies for Making Video Ads Go Viral
  summary: seeding (organic and paid) and syndication; nevermind the quality of the content i guess
• book: Born Digital - Understanding the first generation of digital natives
  "The first generation of “Digital Natives” – children who were born into and raised in the digital world – are coming of age, and soon our world will be reshaped in their image. Our economy, our politics, our culture and even the shape of our family life will be forever transformed. But who are these Digital Natives?"
• Woman to Woman, Online
  NYT: "Sites aimed primarily at women, from “mommy blogs” to makeup and fashion sites, grew 35 percent last year — faster than every other category on the Web except politics, according to comScore,
• Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond
  from marshall kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb, "It can be hard to convince leadership that working with social media doesn't mean they've been paying you to catch up with friends on Facebook. You've probably heard some of the objections. But there are ways you can respond. Here's a list of common objections, along with suggestions for countering them:"
• Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond

from marshall kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb, "It can be hard to convince leadership that working with social media doesn't mean they've been paying you to catch up with friends on Facebook. You've probably heard some of the objections. But there are ways you can respond. Here's a list of common objections, along with suggestions for countering them:"

NYT: "Sites aimed primarily at women, from “mommy blogs” to makeup and fashion sites, grew 35 percent last year — faster than every other category on the Web except politics, according to comScore,

"The first generation of “Digital Natives” – children who were born into and raised in the digital world – are coming of age, and soon our world will be reshaped in their image. Our economy, our politics, our culture and even the shape of our family life will be forever transformed. But who are these Digital Natives?"

summary: seeding (organic and paid) and syndication; nevermind the quality of the content i guess

being armed with this information is NOT, however, a license to start yet another niche online social network for your brand

"Here's a framework for measuring social media: 1. Attention. The amount of traffic to your content for a given period of time. Similar to the standard web metrics of site visits and page/video views. 2. Participation. The extent to which users engage with your content in a channel. Think blog comments, Facebook wall posts, YouTube ratings, or widget interactions. 3. Authority. Ala Technorati, the inbound links to your content - like trackbacks and inbound links to a blog post or sites linking to a YouTube video. 4. Influence. The size of the user base subscribed to your content. For blogs, feed or email subscribers; followers on Twitter or Friendfeed; or fans of your Facebook page."

• All Politicking is Local: How the Obama Campaign is Using Technology to Change Elections on the Ground
  Ed Cone's four part series: Part One, The Ground Game: Open Source vs Closed, sets up the big themes. Part Two, Local Area Networks: How the Obama Campaign Works on the Ground, looks at a group of volunteers in small-town North Carolina. Part Three: Connecting the Campaign: How the Democrats Built Their Network, looks at the plumbing and wiring behind the scenes. And Part Four, Going Mobile: Texting and Twittering in the New Ground Game
• Polling Web 2.0’s Presidential Debate Hubs
  good summary of the major political buzz monitoring hubs (twitter, Hack the Debate, C-Span Debate Hub, MySpace MyDebates, RealScoop)

good summary of the major political buzz monitoring hubs (twitter, Hack the Debate, C-Span Debate Hub, MySpace MyDebates, RealScoop)

Ed Cone's four part series: Part One, The Ground Game: Open Source vs Closed, sets up the big themes. Part Two, Local Area Networks: How the Obama Campaign Works on the Ground, looks at a group of volunteers in small-town North Carolina. Part Three: Connecting the Campaign: How the Democrats Built Their Network, looks at the plumbing and wiring behind the scenes. And Part Four, Going Mobile: Texting and Twittering in the New Ground Game

• CBS Gets a Rude Lesson in Citizen Journalism - Advertising Age - Digital
  If you let users upload unmoderated content, be prepared for some of it to be of naked people.
• Vice Presidential Debate LINGO Cards
• Hungry for Obama
  awesome pyramid scheme for good

awesome pyramid scheme for good

My front pocket, though, not my back pocket, because that's where I keep my iPhone. My iPhone that's now like my own red phone (or should we say, blue phone), to Obama HQ. With the campaign's very first iPhone application, Obama '08, I've got super-easy access to campaign information at the tap of a finger.

Released on Sept. 28 but officially launched today, the app has seven main functions: call friends, get involved, receive updates, news, local events, media and issues. Each of these makes participation in the campaign, at increasing levels of engagement, ridiculously easy. Oh yeah, and it's pretty, too.

The highlight of the app is the Call Friends function. Simple enough, it just pulls all the contacts from your address book, lists them in priority order with key battleground states at the top. Designed to encourage you to call your friends in these key states and stump for Obama, it then tracks who you've called and reports the stats (just number of calls) to campaign HQ. There's then a tab to track stats and you can compare the calls you've made to those made by supporters nationwide. As of this moment, there have been 54 calls made. It's stupidly easy and politically smart since we know it's conversations with people they know that is most likely to convince undecideds.

So imagine you're taking a test drive of this app and you decided to call your Aunt Edna in Pennsylvania. What do you do when she asks you what Obama's policy is on education? No need to fumble for words, you can look it up, right from the app. Between the News, Media and Issues functions of this app, you have nearly instant access to all the information you might need to answer the questions that the person on the other end of the line might be asking you. Not to mention, it's great for those impromptu arguments that arise at bus stops and bars -- you can make your case by showing the latest video of Obama talking about the issues.

I hate to be just another techopundit lauding the Obama campaign for its innovative use of technology, but I can't deny I'm impressed with this app.

Check it out yourself: Download the Obama '08 iPhone app (link opens iTunes).

If you let users upload unmoderated content, be prepared for some of it to be of naked people.

• Print and Paste These Excellent (and free) Obama Posters
  Print and paste them around. Created by friend of EchoDitto Young Hahn.
• Your YouTube video: Hot or Not?
  Check to see where people are leaving your YouTube video. When the bar goes up, viewers are watching that segment again and again, and when the bar goes down viewers are moving on.
• 15 Minutes of Fame: Lean and mean with WoW - WOW Insider
  Using Warcraft and a treadmill to lose weight. Pretty awesome.
• Google Blogsearch Relaunches as Techmeme Killer, Across 11 Categories

Using Warcraft and a treadmill to lose weight. Pretty awesome.

Check to see where people are leaving your YouTube video. When the bar goes up, viewers are watching that segment again and again, and when the bar goes down viewers are moving on.