SMX Social Media + Charity Party = Networking to the Next Level
Sep 27, 2007 by Chris Winfield | Conferences and Events
In a little over 2 weeks (October 16th & 17th) some of the brightest minds in the social media world will be converging on New York City for the first ever SMX Social Media conference which is being put on by Danny Sullivan and co-chaired by Neil Patel. I am speaking on the first day as part of Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites panel along with Neil and Tamar. Here’s a quick overview of the panel:
Digg, Netscape, Reddit, Newsvine and others allow community members to share and rate news stories. They are primary news sources and influential outlets that must be considered by marketers. But don’t expect to post your old-school press release and get a good response! Learn how these sites work and how to best tailor your message for maximum visibility on them.
So why should YOU come to SMX Social Media? You are going to learn a ton about social media, that’s a guarantee. Here’s why:
SMX Social Media is a two-day show where marketers will learn to harness the power of consumer engagement. It covers how social media sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Netscape and others are serving a new and growing audience that wants to discover information based on community interests, voting and sharing.
But beyond the actual learning that you can do at the sessions, you will have an opportunity to network with some of the biggest players in the social media space and make a ton of contacts. One of the most important parts of being successful at social media marketing is your contacts. Other people who are involved and can help you out. Where else can you hope to find such a concentrated group of people who are actively participating in social media? I would be shocked if you don’t leave with at least 10 great contacts and those contacts can be the difference between your content getting 2 links/300 visitors and 2000 links/100,000 visitors.
In the vein of being social and kicking the networking off the Internet Marketers of New York (a group which I am very proud to be a part of) is throwing a charity party the night before. The party is being thrown to raise money for Leukimia and Lymphoma Society and is being sponsored by my favorite directory BOTW. This party will be a great time (ask anyone who went to the one before SES NY) and will be an amazing place to grow your network even before the actual conference even starts! Here are the details:
$40 Donation to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
Monday, October 15, 2007
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Town Tavern Bar & Grill 134 W. 3rd Street and 6th Ave.
This event is open to all Internet marketers and all food/drinks are being paid for by Best of the Web so that your donation goes directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.
And for anyone who is on the fence and hasn’t registered for SMX Social Media yet – here’s an incentive. Use the code SMX10offSM to get 10% off your registration. I hope to see you there!
Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!
Bookmark this post:
Asmallworld.net: Online Social Networking Goes Upper Crust
Sep 26, 2007 by Jake Matthews | Social NetworksAsmallworld.net is a social networking site where membership is by invitation only and is intended to have members of only the most elite social spheres around the world.
Would you like to join this network? If so, have your diplomas and financial info at the door folks. Do you have a first home on
Founded by Erik and Louise Wachtmeister, and currently headed up by Joe Robinson (President and CEO), this social network is poised to grow, so long as the user experience keeps pace with their promotional work. Financial and promotional/PR related name backing confirmed by Harvey Weinstein and other media and entertainment names should go a long way to developing the registered user numbers. The network currently boasts approximately 150,000 registered users. If they really want to keep it cache, the site should remain small in terms of registered users.
With most members earning over $250,000/year, networths may not be through the roof, but the network is a good fit for marketers and advertisers of major luxury brands; think
A September 6, 2007 New York Times article wraps things up nicely regarding the overall mission and progress of this network. I agree with Pam Danziger who was quoted in the NYTimes article that for truly wealthy people, time is the greatest luxury and the truly wealthy “are not going to waste it hanging about on a social networking site.†I believe Pam is referring to “Old Money†types who are likely not to be found in such a site – or any other social networking website for that matter. Based on some of the commentary flying around, Asmallword.net may be geared more to the “New Money” set. People are already using it for party promoting and outright business networking which is the last thing that the truly wealthy and old money types feel like doing with their time.
It will be interesting to see where things go with this site now that they are really pushing the PR.
Lastly – a brief note to Mr. Robinson and his site team: The press page on the site lacks global site navigation. It would be helpful to allow a site visitor to have full navigation on the site at all times. The back button did not work from there either. It will also help with organic optimization purposes long term. I was using Firefox when visiting the site.
BTW – I’m still waiting for my group of “socially connected friends” to send me an invite. YOU know who you are and you know my email address 
Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!
Bookmark this post:
The top two social news website, Reddit and Digg have their differences. Even though Digg is more popular, Reddit might have the edge right now due to these four cool features (you might not have known were even there).
What’s Hot Now
Reddit’s main page is a lot different from Digg’s. Reddit’s main page stories are all current stories based on the amount of points it has and the time it was submitted. So, if you submitted a story first thing in the morning and throughout the day it only received 10 points, the chances of it being on the main page at night is very slim, but if the story has 100 point it’s a whole different story. Once your story on Digg reaches the homepage, that story can be moved off the homepage within a couple of hours, due to the ongoing stories reaching the same page as yours. It would be great to see a section on Digg for “what’s hot now.â€
Recommended
Reddit tracks the stories you upvoted and then find users with similar voting habits as you and puts it onto one page called, recommended. That’s where Reddit will try and find stories you might like based on your interests. Reddit will then get to know you more and more and will become better at finding you stories that you might like. The more you vote, the better your recommended page will be.
Commenting and voting ads up or down
Like Digg, Reddit too has ads on their site, although Digg has had ads for much longer than Reddit. Reddit gives you the ability to discuss and vote on each ad. Under each ad it says ‘reddit this ad‘, thats where you would go to comment on the ad. For example, if you hate ads that move, you can tell the whole community how you feel. And if the ads are really cool and you don’t mind them on the site, you would be sure to actually upvote the ad.
Clicking on that will then take you to the screen below, where you can then vote and comment on the ad.
Stats
Reddit has a page on their site called the stats page, where you can see the top karma gainers of the day and week. In Digg’s case it would be how many homepage stories you have. Digg did have this feature a while back, and each user had a rank next to their name on the stats page. Christopher Finke has made a webpage with the top 100 users (and top 1000 users) which is updated weekly. This page is a great way to identify the top users on Digg and is also a good way to get some media attention or to give tips to new users of the site.
There have actually been some rumors going around that some of these features might be coming true for Digg. So keep those fingers crossed!
Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!
Bookmark this post:
MicroFacebook? Microsoft in Talks to Buy Facebook Stake
Sep 24, 2007 by Chris Winfield | Microsoft, Social Networks
Microsoft has approached Facebook in recent weeks and the two companies are in talks about Microsoft making an investment in the social-networking startup. Microsoft’s investment would give them up to 5% in the company and that would value Facebook at $10 billion or more according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Microsoft’s approach to Facebook in recent weeks with proposals to invest in the fast-growing site is part of the software giant’s effort to catch up with the Internet rival Google. If successful, Microsoft’s talks with Facebook could give it an up-to-5% stake in the closely-held startup—a stake potentially valued at roughly $300 million to $500 million, the people familiar with those talks said.
The article states that this is likely to lead to another battle with Google, who has also expressed interest in Facebook.
Last year, Microsoft and Facebook signed an exclusive advertising deal that allows Microsoft to serve ads on Facebook. That agreement covers only the U.S. and expires in 2011, but the companies are discussing whether to extend it for a longer period and expand it beyond the U.S. sources said.
In July, Microsoft signed an exclusive advertising deal with Digg, another hot social network. Google was the previous provider for Digg and this was looked at as a “win” for Microsoft.
One question that needs to be asked here is: Where is Yahoo in all of this? A year ago they were looked at as the front-runner to acquire Facebook for between $800 million and $1 billion but the talks broke down. And now there is no mention of Yahoo which seems to be the norm lately….
Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!
Bookmark this post:
Some things are easier to do than others when manipulating type. Here is a quick tutorial on how to transform and distort your type in an easily scalable way with a vector mask.
This works on the same premise as distorting or transforming a basic shape. When you convert a text layer to a shape a vector mask is applied to it and ables you to make many transform functions. Very quick, very easy, very effective.
Step 1. Create a new layer with your text on it. Experiment with various widths and styles. For exaggerated distortions I find that a thick or Bold Condensed type form works best.
_______________________________________________________
Step 2. With the type layer selected go to Layer/Type/Convert to Shape.
_______________________________________________________
Step 3. Now you can go to Edit/Transform Path/and choose any of the transform functions available. This will create a working vector mask path that will make the transforms smooth and scalable. For this example Skew was used with a bit of Distort on the left side corner.
_______________________________________________________
Step 4. When you are happy with your transforming go to the Layer Palette and right click on the Vector Mask thumbnail for the text layer. Now select Rasterize Vector Mask.
Thats it! Play with the various transforming functions with this technique, you will get clean crisp lines and it is a much more functional method to use than say just Rasterizing the type right off the bat.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!
In Today’s Internet Landscape, Age is Really Just a Number
Sep 24, 2007 by Chris Winfield | Business
Every time that I see one of my younger cousins or nieces/nephews I implore them and their parents to get them involved with the Internet right away. Forget having to work at a supermarket for their after school job (nothing against this – I did) but they can be working right from their house, earning good money and more importantly learning skills that will prove invaluable later on. And in many instances companies are looking for younger people to help them understand what their customers want and in many cases market themselves online. This is why I got my 16 year old cousin Kayla involved with my company.
Last February, the Wall Street Journal profiled a bunch of top users from different social networks in a story titled The Wizards of Buzz. The person that got a lot of people’s attention was Adam Fuhrer, not only because of his mastery of Reddit but even more impressive was his age:
On Reddit, one of the most influential users is 12-year-old Adam Fuhrer. At his desktop computer in his parents’ home in the quiet northern Toronto suburb of Thornhill, Mr. Fuhrer monitors more than 100 Web sites looking for news on criminal justice, software releases — and the Toronto Maple Leafs, his favorite hockey team. When Microsoft launched its Vista operating system this year, he submitted stories that discussed its security flaws and price tag, which attracted approving votes from more than 500 users.
Adam was also profiled by the Toronto Star in March:
Adam is also a member of an Internet vanguard which is helping, through its own naïve enthusiasm, to impose structure on a rapidly expanding, increasingly chaotic Internet universe.
“At the beginning, I didn’t think anyone would vote for my articles,” he says. He was quickly proven wrong, as he climbed user charts and stayed there for months. When the Wall Street Journal, in a story about the Net’s most influential players, recently revealed his age, there was a furor online.
“Is Adam Fuhrer fictional? Is someone at the WSJ playing with our heads?” wrote one user, laprice. “Don’t believe a word of it,” wrote jamal, another user. “BUT he is 21, not 12.”
An understandable, if entirely incorrect, assessment.
Recently I have spoken to Adam and he knows more about many of the social networks (especially Reddit) than most people. I have seen him on Digg, he knows what people want and knows how to deliver it. And he’s 12. Age is really just a number though.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!
Bookmark this post:
Sometimes I wish I was a movie star simply because I would have more occassions to wear gowns. I don’t even watch that many movies. But if I did have a chance to wear one gown this year it would have been this one from Oscar De La Renta. I loved it when I saw it on the runway, and it still looks amazing when on a real life person too.
So lovely. Sigh….
I decided to head on over to the site to take a look at some more gowns, and it seems that the folks in charge of Oscar’s website need to rework the homepage a bit.
When searching for “Oscar De La Renta” the first result is a link to the site (great!), however it is pointing to the error page you recieve when you do not have flash installed. I clicked on it blindly, and went to that page and got stuck. There are no links from that page at all to anywhere on the site. I am imagining the little Google spider finding the site, getting confused because there does not appear to be a robots.txt file, and getting sent over to this error page.
I know enough to delete everything and get myself back to the url, but I would be really curious to see what their bounce rate is. I know many people that would actually fall within their target audience who would not know how to get to the homepage from that screen. (Hi mom!)
Searches for other luxury brands like Lanvin, Chanel, Givenchy, and Jean Paul Gaultier do in fact bring me to their flash homepage without any redirects. I find each of these sites annoying however, since it is impossible to bookmark something that you like, the url never changes no matter where you are on the site, and hitting the back button brings you to the homepage where you have to start making your way to what you were looking at all over again.
So, if anyone from Oscar De La Renta (or any of the brands above) is actually reading this, I would be happy to go through your site and help you out. A little tweak here and there is all you need. You can pay me in gowns, and invitations to places where I can wear them. 
Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!
Bookmark this post:
1) Today Digg will be rolling out a major update to make the site into a much more “social” environment. I did a complete write-up on the changes in an article for Search Engine Land. The main enhancements are going to be:
- Increased friend capabilities.
- â€Shouting†and “postingâ€.
- Enhanced profiles.
Read: Digg to Get Truly “Social†With Major Update Today
2) Netscape Social News is officially dead. Long live Propeller. We talked about this last week and its now official. Netscape has redirected their homepage to netscape.aol.com and the social news site is now live at Propeller. The site looks almost exactly the same (save for the new logo):
Read more about the changes at Netscape’s blog: Propeller lives!
3) Yesterday I was at Goldman Sachs’ Communicopia conference (with my friend Brian Prince who runs one of the only directories that is actually worth submitting to) and Rupert Murdoch was talking about the targeted ad program that MySpace was launching. Basically they will be using personal details contained on users’ profile pages and blogs to sell highly targeted advertising. Read more about it here with the AP’s coverage.
4) Rupert Murdoch side-note. During his conversation yesterday he got to the subject of Facebook and their lack of privacy standards. He was basically saying that they had yet to put in place all of the control that MySpace had (to keep out predators, etc). Here was the quote of the day from Rupert:
Bookmark this post:If you want to stalk a young girl – it would be very easy to do it on Facebook.
More text style tips! Text styles are a great way to get away from the same solid color on a background and add some subtle ‘pizazz’ to the type.
For this tutorial we will need a photograph or an illustration to go behind the text that we will be applying the style to.
Step 1. Place your photo on the first layer and create a new layer for the text. Use a large font and fill it with black.
_______________________________________________________
Step 2. With the text layer selected apply a new Layer Style of Inner Glow to it. Select black as the color for this and set the Blend Mode to Multiply.
_______________________________________________________
Step 3. Click back on the Blending Options for the layer in the top of the layer style selections under the word Styles. The default settings will change if you change these. After you change them it will say Custom. Under Advanced Blending lower the Fill Opacity down to about 10% or less.
You can apply other layer styles to this but that is the core steps to achieve this effect.
There you have it! A very simple text style that you can use.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!
Bookmark this post:
Highlighted Chrome Style for Text: Photoshop Tutorial
Sep 13, 2007 by Patrick Winfield | Design, TutorialText styles are always a great way to get away from the same solid color on a background and add some flair to the type.
Text style is used to further express the mode of a piece. Chrome could be considered mechanical or cool. This technique can be applied to text, an object or shape to add a cool chrome effect.
Step 1. On a new document created a letter in white on a darker background with a large point size. I am using 287 points and the font is Myriad Pro.
_______________________________________________________
Step 2. Go to Layer/Rasterize/Type.
_______________________________________________________
Step 3. Hold down Control and click on the Text Layer. This will select the outline shape of the letter.
_______________________________________________________
Step 4. Go to the Channels Palette and create a new channel and fill it with White. Now De-select the layer and go to Filter/Blur/Guassian Blur with a Radius of 8.
_______________________________________________________
Step 5. Repeat the Filter but this time use a setting of 4 for the radius.
_______________________________________________________
Step 6. Click on the Type layer and go to Filter/Render/Lighting Effects. Use similar settings to the example shown. Be sure to use ‘Alpha 1′ for the Texture Channel.
_______________________________________________________
Step 7. Go to Image/Adjust/Curves and enter settings close to the one shown or whatever you feel looks best.
_______________________________________________________
Step 8. With the Chrome in place it is time to add some highlight by going to Filter/Render/Lighting Effects and using a Directional Light. Use the settings in the example.
_______________________________________________________
Step 9. Just re-size the letter down and add a subtle Drop Shadow and your done!
Don’t forget to subscribe to the 10e20 RSS Feed!
Bookmark this post:
