Happy New Year To You!

Yes, 2008 is over and another odd year has arrived.  In other more exciting news, we’ve just completed our first year of blogging @ Things Worth Talking About.  Despite a lot of hectic schedules and tight projects, we managed to publish 153 posts over the last 12 months.  Averaging 3 posts per week, bushmanbill, myself and several guest bloggers wrote the bulk of the posts.  We also improved the design of our blog, have added some valuable auxiliary content, and have integrated other social media tools into our mix.  Yes, yes, I know, I might break my arm giving myself a pat on the back. What can I say, blogging is sometimes a tough habit to stick with. Luckily, we’ve developed the habit of blogging and have kept the vision (for the most part) when it comes to growing our megaphone in the digital world.

It is also true that wisdom is gained from experience and growth occurs from mistakes.  We’ve made mistakes this past year, but I’ve been very happy with the level of productivity and support I’ve received from my team.  This spans outside of our blogging efforts into other facets of our service offering.  Our team has really grown this year, out of diversity and also out of tremendous success.  With each hill that we climb, we become more confident in ourselves, in each other, and in the value of our mission.  In a low-trust world, we focus on the relevant, the valuable, and the lasting to achieve results for ourselves and our clients, each goal at a time.

We want to continue to publish interesting and relevant content via this blog and aim to stay focused around our core competencies and passions, namely social media, social & environmental causes, new media, new marketing, outsourcing, and globalization. We also may reduce the quantity of posts, as we focus in on producing and publishing only the most remarkable, relevant and focused content as possible.  If you’re interesting in contributing or have a recommendation or request, please do contact us.  We’ll be doing more social site reviews in the coming year, as well as talking about the happening events and vendors that are adding value in this space.

In 2009 we also aim to solidify our events section, keeping tabs on relevant events around the areas just outlined above, worldwide.  Furthermore, our upcoming Digital Directory will be a clean, usable, and valuable directory of digital professionals.  Listings will be granted upon editor approval on a first come, first save basis.  Basic listings are free and premium listings are only $25 per month.  We will only be selecting and recommending a limited amount of vendors and freelancers, aiming not for the biggest digital directory, but the best.

The new year is here and we will only be selecting a very limited number of clients this year, probably less than 5 or 6.  We’re working on some exciting projects and want to really enhance our quality, output, and credibility in this new year.  The economy may be rough waters, but we believe if we’re good enough, we’ll always be worth the investment for our clients and that this economic landscape is the perfect time to expand, hire more people, and fuel our growth and success in this field.  We’re fast coming up on a decade in business, so it’s imperative we continue to make solid headway in the new year.

Additionally, in late ‘09 I’ll be formally announcing the release date of a revolutionary new global business-to-business platform.  I’ve been working on the foundation to this concept for the last five years and we’re hard at work on a global social directory that will connect buyers and sellers across the world, promoting world peace, global collaboration, and strengthening individual country’s economies as well as the global economy.  Our site will be just as valuable to the buyer as to the seller, with a feature set chock full of revolutionary features weaving social networking, search, and a directory.  Outsourcing is a multi-billion dollar industry with a bad rep and we intend on opening up global collaboration in a powerful, easy, and intuitive manner. The three things that stand in the way of outsourcing are risk (or perceived risk), ignorance, and communication (or lack thereof) and we believe our platform can and will address each in a remarkable way.

Until next time, HAPPY #*%! NEW YEAR TO YOU, TOO!

If you’re up for a good read, take a look at Mashable’s HOW TO: Grow a Startup 300% in 3 Days? SocialMedian Tells All.

The title is bloated, but the article is important for at a few good reasons:

• People are the heart of any worthwhile business model (See also: Happiness as a business model)
• Listen to user feedback and actively do something about the feedback you’re getting
• Change should not be implemented lightly. Or slowly
• Forget traffic. You’re nothing without engagement
• Always build a good user interface. Always.

Here’s a quote from the interview to get you started:
“Goldberg has stated several times, “Our model at SocialMedian has been:  small, fast, and listen to users.” You have probably noticed that you do not see any advertising or many press releases plastered all over the major news sites. Essentially, SocialMedian has been built through its user base. The only “press coverage” you tend to see are reviews from various blogs, including here on Mashable.”

I’ve used the site long enough to know that

• SocialMedian actually pays attention to user feedback
• They take change seriously
• Once prioritized, changes are implemented quickly

The next two posts are going to outline what it takes IMO to get a successful social media campaign started so that it can keep going on its own.

The list is based on three pieces of literature and I’d like to tell you a little bit about so we can establish some context:

The first is the article from Alternet, The Growth of Talking Points Memo: A Case Study in Independent Media, which has gone from teeny-weeny personal blog to independent media empire (which is what every well run blog really is). The article is an in depth case study of how technology & journalism can work well together. We can dabble about the semantics of “journalism” later.

The second is a list of Dos & Don’ts for building software productively from NASA’s Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL). I first came across the list in Steve McConnell’s Software Project Survival Guide, which has an excellent summary of the whole list. The next two posts were inspired by, and lean heavily on this list.

In short, the SEL list lays out the foundation for building sound software. And it works well: it increased the quality of their software 10 to 20 times at the same time it allowed SEL teams maintain comparable productivity levels.

Not only is software one half of the social media landscape, it is also the platform where online relationships are built on. It’s not too difficult to see how faulty software can affect the quality of the relationships (think Facebook vs. Myspace).

The third is Seth Godin’s best book yet, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. It’s hard to describe & communicate the potential of the Internet + people & the good ideas they keep coming up with. At it it’s most basic, this is what social media does and Godin puts it all into perspective in this book.

The main ideas in the book that have to do with the following posts are:

• Movements: the only way viable way to turn customers into fans is to start a movement. The fire of revolution dies, people get tired of causes, but movements are a head thing and it’s hard to throw those away. Just ask any Obama fan (better yet, ask a Bush fan and if you are that Bush fan, please let me know).
• Platforms: Movements need a platform, a place to call home. TPM, Google and Apple (to some extent) are places like that. These days, the Internet has the platform part covered so virtually anyone can start their own movement or ind one that fits into the context of their lives.

Admittedly, not much of it is new: the same people that are online are the same people you run into at the coffee shop or at home so the basic rules still apply. The Internet is just another context for these relationships.

Click on the numbers to read the 2nd & 3rd post in the series.

The following is a guest post from Bob Sale and if we had our way, there will be more to come from him.

In order to illuminate why social networking sites such as Myspace might be misleading to employers, let me paint you a mind picture:

You’re an employer.  You received a resume that caught your attention because it was really good……a little too really good.  You become suspicious and decide to research the person’s personality by googling their name.  You type in Rob Jansen into the search engine and up pops two profiles of Mr. Jansen.  One is on Myspace and one is on Linkedin.   Because HR is the only department allowed to access Myspace at work and because you love taking advantage of the advantage to have advantages, you look at the Myspace page first.  At first glance of the page, you think, “Woah! This must be a mistake.  This isn’t Rob’s page.  This page belongs to Donny Drinksalot.  You glance up at the URL that reads Myspace.com/Robjansen.  O.k. it is Rob’s page.  You start to browse the page to learn more about Mr. Drinksalot.  After some very intricate detective work, you conclude that Rob is an alcoholic, womanizer, and has a weird infatuation with Rosie Odonnell.  Then you remember the Linkedin page.  You check it.  You find out Rob has some pretty influential contacts, and he knows Joe Snodly.  You and the Snodster had a pretty wild time in Boring, Oregon two years ago.  You contact Joe and ask him about Jansen.  After talking to him you decide to give Rob a chance.  When you ask Donny Drinksalot why his myspace page is so risqué, he replies with confidence:

Rob:  “Mr./Ms. (your last name here),  I know I don’t speak for myself when I say there is a difference between my social life and my work life.  If everybody acted the same with their friends as they do at work, everybody would have a 168 hour work week.  I believe in having two social Networking sites.  My Myspace page is for my clan, My Linkedin page is for my plan.   And if you were at work two years ago when you were with the Snodster, You would have never done what you did with a latex glove and a baby elephant sticker.”

You:  Nicely put Rob. Nicely put.

It’s clear the Internet is changing our world as we know it and we’re starting to see a significant shift in the balance of influence. American politics is slowly starting to wake up to this reality and only time will tell where we go from here.

But being submersed in the drama of American politics makes it really easy to forget about what’s going on elsewhere. This month’s issue of Wired changes that with a story on what social media’s doing to slowly crack the tightly controlled structure of authority in Egypt & the Middle East:

Back in March, Maher and a friend launched a Facebook group to promote a protest planned for April 6. It became an Internet phenomenon, quickly attracting more than 70,000 members. The April 6 youth movement — amorphous, lacking a clear mission*, and yet a bull’s-eye to the zeitgeist — blossomed within days into something influential enough to arouse the ire of Egypt’s internal security forces. Maher is part of a new generation in the Middle East that, through blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and now Facebook, is using virtual reality to combat corrupt and oppressive governments. Their nascent, tech-fired rebellion has triggered a government backlash and captured the world’s attention.

The article also ends with an interesting line of thought:

But Maher isn’t tortured. No one can say why his treatment in custody is more lenient this time around. One possibility is that, lacking specific orders to beat or harm him, his captors in Alexandria just went easy.

There is another hypothesis, though, one that many people familiar with Egyptian politics have suggested: Maher’s star has risen. His real-world profile is now high enough that torturing him could backfire, inspiring countless networked young people to take action. The last thing Hosni Mubarak needs is to turn this Facebooking regular guy into a full-fledged hero.

In a seemingly unrelated event, my favorite news website online, Socialmedian, is releasing an election widget with the Washington Post today:

The http://election.socialmedian.com site aggregates news and user-feeds related to the election and enables users to join in the election coverage and discussion.  We created this site with The Washington Post to enable people to track all the election news from thousands of news sources as well as from Twitter feeds, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, and more all in one place, and (importantly) to join-in and add their own feeds from their favorite sites to provide user reports leading up to and on election day.

You can see what looks like to the right and although It’s not election day just yet, it’s never a bad thing to get a feel for what’s underfoot going into the election, so play with it (click “Join In” on the widget if you’re not a member) and let the games begin! (follow me at follow bushmanbill when you sign up).

*If the whole thing sounds “amorphous” & “lacking a clear mission” to you too, read Seth Godin’s latest book (aptly named Tribes), which is all about movements, what their made of, the things that happen to make tribes possible to begin with and how to keep them going. In what amounts to one long essay that goes by all too quickly, Godin explains the situation and then presents the opportunity:

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It’s our nature.

Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they’re enabling countless new tribes to be born—groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming.

And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?

If you’re looking to gain a strong handle on social networking methodology, these resources are for you:

• This recent Social Networks Research Report by WildBit is worth downloading.
• MediaShift, a great new media blog published by PBS created an excellent guide to social networking online.
• Should your business be on Facebook? – an article by CNNMoney
  

Not into social networking? Prefer blogging? Then check this good read on being insanely useful in order to make your readers come back.