BryanSays.com » Social Media

Posterous wants to be like Tumblr with Post.ly

bryan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:06:19 +0000

Posterous has done a relaunch of their URL Shortening site Post.ly. This site was used previously to shorten URLs from your posterous blog before sending to Twitter. Going to http://post.ly did not have this slick interface in the past. Now you can interact with the site directly as a quick and easy way to post to Posterous and Twitter.

This new simplified site’s look is a complete 180 from the normal posterous site seen below:

This may be an answer to the simple look and feel of Tumblr, posterous’s direct competitor. Is this article written by Peg on Tech, one of the reasons for Tumblr’s popularity is the landing page is much less cluttered. Here is a quote from the article about Tumblr’s landing page:

Sign up is dead simple. Can you imagine the conversion rates they get out of that page? Moreover, they have one of the best taglines of any service: the easiest way to blog. What else is there to explain? They don’t brag about features like “like”, “reblog” or (ugh) “tumblarity.” Tumblr is the easiest way to blog. Anyone, your mother included, can understand that.

Posterous with their new Post.ly page is trying to bring that simplicity to them as well. Techcrunch has an article on the announcement. I personally have a tumblr and posterous account. I seem to use posterous more because I like their feature set. I will definitely give this a try and see if I like it better than using their main site.

First Guest Podcast

bryan — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:51:09 +0000

Did my first guest podcast, well actually my first podcast of any kind. The podcast was the Average Joe Show, hosted by Corey Charette and Ward Miller. It was a pretty entertaining show. In this episode we discussed the following news stories: sickness from BBQs, toy gun store robbery, long hair suspension, Army mom refuses to go, McGwire used steroids, Spider-Man 4 is a no go, and a sex robot. Ya we covered a varied array of topics. Give it a listen here.

Thanks again Corey and Ward for the opportunity and I hope to be on more shows in the future.

Leo Laporte Documentary

bryan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:53:22 +0000

This documentary was featured on the Inside TWIT blog but I had to share it with my friends and readers as well. If you don’t know who Leo Laporte is, you can’t call yourself a Technology geek. No biggie, thats what wikipedia is for. Leo runs a very successful podcasting network known as TWIT (This week in Tech) but he prefers to call them netcasts. Leo says,

“I’ve never liked the word podcast. It causes confusion…people have told me that they can’t listen to my shows because they ‘don’t own an iPod’.”

Speaking of netcasts, that is his tagline on the bumpers to his shows “Netcasts you love, from people you trust.”

The documentary below is done by Michael Sean Wright and Marc Ostrick where they traveled to the “TWIT cottage” in Petuluma, CA. This is part of The Spark Series for eGuiders. They are exploring what makes Leo stand out in this new frontier of media. Leo Laporte has a huge following on the internet and he is doing this with a small staff and a modest budget compared to his TechTV days where it used to cost millions to do what he’s doing today. Leo also give his take on technology in general, Net Neutrality, and explains the joys of doing his show now versus what he did with traditional media. You will also get a small look behind the scenes of TWIT is run. I have always been a huge fan of Leo and the ex-TechTV personalities. A great little film about a tech culture icon.

U2 and YouTube Live

bryan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:30:47 +0000

Last night U2 broadcasted their concert at the Rose Bowl via YouTube. It was a huge event and pretty impressive show. The video quality was surprisingly good for a webcast. It seemed to be a space themed concert with an a little David Bowe “Ground control to Major Tom” to start off the show. They even had a moment where an interview played from one of the astronauts from the International Space Station played over their “Bubble Screen.”

This is yet another example of a musical group embracing technology and its many advantages to reach a huge audience. Millions of fans were able to access U2 from across the globe for FREE! You were able to experience one of your favorite bands from the comfort of your home and planted to seed for new fans in the process.

Besides just YouTube, they used the power of social media to get the word out with the help of twitter and facebook. Their page contained “crawlers” similar to other sites like ustream where people could tweet straight from the YouTube page about the show bringing in a global audience. I know this because I watched this twitter crawler go across the screen as I watched and noticed people from Israel, Japan, Mexico, Philippines etc posting in.

It was a great concert. Alot of the favorites were played along with songs from the new album. Don’t worry if you missed the live broadcast I’m sure it will be rebroadcast at least another day. I can’t wait to hear the stats on how many people were reached worldwide when YouTube stops the rebroadcast and we tally all of the status updates from Twitter and Facebook. I’m sure some records were broken last night.

U2 is already a huge worldwide band but they maintained or increased their elite status. I hope that more artists follow this path of broadcasting live for free like this. It won’t replace the act of really being at the concert but its a great complement and a good way to build followers and increase music sales.

Below are more pics and screen captures from the YouTube stream:

Post Events Free Online

bryan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:25:29 +0000

This blog post is based on a project I did for a local museum to help them promote some of their upcoming events for free. The examples in this post will be based on their events. The five websites I will be reviewing are craigslist, upcoming.org, eventful, zvents and facebook. I will outline the pros and cons of each service as well as what sets them apart. Keep reading to see the reviews.

Craigslist.org

Craigslist is the grand daddy of posting events and classifieds for free online. When the site first started, there was only a handful of cities supported. Fast forward to the present and craigslist has sites in every state and major city in the US and different countries across the globe. The reason for success has alot to do with the freedom you get with the service. Anyone can post an ad. You don’t even need to sign up for an account. The fact that the majority of their services are free has also contributed to their success.

PROS:

Availability Nationwide and in most metropolitan areas and some rural.
Ease of posting an Ad. Probably the easiest of all services listed.
Very simple non-cluttered design.
Ability to post events anonymously.

CONS:

Its biggest plus is also a negative. Because its so easy to post, alot of the content is spam.
No way to add photos, maps, calendar links,etc to events without knowing html.
No social buttons to promote your event.
No way to add comments.

Craigslist is great place to post simple events and helps get the word out. It has become the defacto standard when it comes to events and classifieds. If you are planning an event or get together definitely post to craiglist first. The only piece thats lacking is the social aspect. That is why when promoting an event, make sure and cast your net big and use as many sources as you can.

Upcoming.org

Upcoming hasn’t been around as long as craiglist but it does boast an impressive list of features. Upcoming is a Yahoo property and as such, you will need to have a yahoo account to post events and post comments on the site. You don’t need an account to search for events though.

PROS:

Ability to post direct link to ticketing pages.
A lot of venues are already added in their system.
Maps, Calendars, Print, Email and RSVP links are provided.
You can add your own images to the event page easily.
Users can post comments to events page.

CONS:

Unlike Craigslist, you will need a Yahoo account to post events.
They didn’t have my venue for the local museum. Had to add it manually.
More prominent in the bigger cities. Didn’t have alot of events listed for my mid-sized town.
To post links inside the description, you will need to know HTML.
Can only post your event to one category.

Overall I am pleased with the features included with Upcoming. You get a lot for free. Being able to add multiple images from your computer is a big plus. I think the ability of people to RSVP for the event is also a big plus for the event coordinator. The other added bonus is the “buy tickets” link where you can post a separate link to the ticketing portion of your site.

Eventful.com

Eventful is another new player to the scene of free events online. Their service is a lot like Upcoming in many ways but it has a couple more bells and whistles, as well as paid services to promote your event.

PROS:

Ability to add pictures to your posting
Can add simple HTML to the description.
Can add your event to 3 separate categories
Seperate area to add links to such things as your website, ticketing site, reviews, sponsors, etc.
Countdown widget you can customize and use on your website.
Ability for vistors to post comments

CONS:

Cannot add events anonymously, you will need an account.
When you signup it automatically opts you in for email newsletter.
To promote your event there is an additional fee such as email marketing or higher search results on their site.

Zvents.com

Zvents seems like it has the least amount of features compared to Eventful and Upcoming. It has the standards such as adding a event description, map, keywords, website links. It just seems like its lacking alot of the basic features you get with the other services listed with the except of craigslist. There is a premium version of the site which adds the ability to add photos, videos, more links, a branded website, business logo, and stats. They have some sort of tiered pricing which starts at $49.95.

PROS:

Site is easy to navigate
Events are easy to configure
Has the basic features of the other services mentioned
Ability to add performer to the event.

CONS:

Can not add images unless you purchase a premium package.
Can only add one link to your website for free, additional links are in the premium package.

Facebook Events

Facebook Events is another way events for free. This makes a good supplemental way to reach more people for your event but i would not make this my main focus since you are limited to those on facebook for exposure. Its true you can post a link to your event that the public can see, but they can not participate in discussion or RSVP unless they have a facebook account.

PROS:

Has most of the features of other services mentioned.
Ability to add photos,links, etc.
The popularity of facebook to help spread the word.

CONS:

Must be a Facebook member to participate and RSVP.

In summary, to get the best “bang for your buck” so to speak, its best to use a combination of services. Try out some of these services and see which one works best for you. You may want to even poll some of your guests and find out where they heard about the event so which one is getting you the most exposure. Use some of these services’ website features to help get the word out.

Lazy Feed Preview

bryan — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:00:12 +0000

Lazy Feed is a new web app still in ”invite-only beta” that basically aggregates feeds and stories based on trending keywords and topics that you add yourself. I was lucky enough to score an invite code from Louis Gray in a friendfeed conversation. Not sure what topics to add? Don’t worry the site can connect to some of your social sites to grab your most popular keywords and tags as a base. They currently support 4 social sites: twitter, flickr, delicious, and blogs. Once all of your topics are imported from these sites, you can manually add your own topics as well.

The wow factor with Lazyfeed is the real-time aspect of the site. Once you have added all of your favorite keywords, you will see the topics move up and down the page depending on which topic is receiving updates. Once you select a topic from the left hand column, you can view the results in the middle, browsing column. The newest content will always be at the top. The content will be summaries of each story and you can click on each to get an expanded view. You can even click the Save button to save the article for later viewing.

This service seems to take its cues from sites like google reader but it also tries to set itself apart by being based on topics rather than individual RSS feeds. The site is still in beta with more features in the works, I’m sure. I like the simplicity of the site and how the newest content gets pushed to the top. The real-time updates can be paused if you rather take your time when reading the stories. I would like to see options to share the content with other services. Right now its more of a closed system.

Below is a video which shows a demo of the site’s features:

If you’re interested in trying out the service let me know and I have 2 invite codes to the site. Fare warning about these codes, they are not guaranteed to work. I took them from a public spreadsheet so no guarantees.

Facebook eats Friendfeed

bryan — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:27:08 +0000

I’m sure if you are active on the internet, you know one or both of these power players. Facebook of course is the mother of all social medias at the moment with their suggested 250 million user base. They are the current big dogs in this industry. Friendfeed on the other hand, is a relative new comer to the market launching back in 2007 by a couple of ex-google programmers. Their service is feature rich and many of the features you see now in facebook first started in friendfeed like the “likes.” It was announced today that Facebook officially bought friendfeed.

The reason for my title of “Facebook eats Friendfeed” because I thought of the praying mantis analogy. This merger is just like that of a female and male praying mantis. Facebook is the female mantis luring in the male, friendfeed for sex. The male does his deed and inseminates the female and when the deed is done, the female says thanks for the goods and eats the male!

Its been stated that Friendfeed will live on independently of facebook but the spirit of the site is lost. No longer will they be making features to enhance the experience for the users of friendfeed but the best will wind up on facebook. I’m a user of both systems and I have to say I spend a lot more time on friendfeed vs facebook. Facebook will always be a place to catchup on old friends and see what their up to but I feel my experience was richer on friendfeed. I agree with Robert Scoble (one of friendfeed’s biggest evangelist) that:

“FriendFeed’s community was geekier and more fun, for me. No (or almost no) celebrities, very few jerks, lots of engagement that I don’t get on Facebook, and no spammers.” Robert Scoble

What do you think about the new Facebook/friendfeed acquisition? Do you think its a win for social media or a power play from facebook to go after twitter? Leave me a comment below.

SouthEast Texas Tweetup

bryan — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:39:35 +0000

If you saw in a previous post, I have moved away from big city lights of the Dallas Texas Area to the small town of Lumberton Texas. I have been here for a little over 2 months now and I needed something to connect me with this new area and the people in it. I looked around online for organizations like I frequented in Dallas, similar to the DFW WordPress Group and nothing really popped out at me. Well I happened to see someone post on twitter about a Tweetups in different areas of the country and thought that would be something interesting to bring to the SE Texas area.

What is a Tweetup?

Another blogger sums it up best on his blog:

The Tweetup is when the digital turns into face-to-face, 140 characters into a meaningful conversation, a recognizable position on a blog into an ability to listen.

Who came to the Tweetup?

We had a total of 6 people in attendance. We even had a reporter from the local newspaper; Humberto Martinez, who was there working on a story about how people in the area use twitter.

What did we talk about?

Yes we did talk Tech, but that is not all we talked about. The discussions varied in scope and size. We talked about our favorite TV Shows, local restaurants in the area, and what we do with our free time. I asked those in attendance if there was anything else like this and they all pretty much said no. I felt fortunate to be starting something new and fresh in the area.

What’s Next?

I hope to have another Tweetup in a month’s time. I don’t know if I will have it at the same location or not. I will bring it up to the twitter verse and see what they think. I would like to try different locations around South East Texas so we can get a variety of people involved and also so I learn more about the area I live in now.

Below are pictures of the news article Humberto Martinez wrote for the Beaumont Enterprise.

Online Version of the News Article

To join the South East Texas Tweetup just follow @Setxtweetup on Twitter. I’ll post updates via twitter as they come in.

Thanks to Justin Yarbourgh for the pics. He runs a blog of his own at http://www.jrtblog.com/

Weekly Tweet for Week of 9.21 – 9.28

bryan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:59 +0000

09/28

It maybe a little too early for this but had some pumpkin pie with lunch. hmmm love pumpkin pie! #
Couric-Palin Sketch–too funny! http://tinyurl.com/3zfsub #

09/25

@kyle1point0 Didn’t know you did video art. Pretty sweet. #

09/23

Heroes starts in 1 hour! If your Central Time that is. #
@mrdat Does that mean you’re attacking my rows right now? #
@loiclemeur home page is igoogle #

09/22

@cstricklin Fifth Element is one of my all time favorites! #
Having my new favorite breakfast item. Egg-in-Toast. http://tinyurl.com/4b9qq5 #
Doing a little twitter cleanup. Removing people I don’t know or those I have no I idea why I followed. #
@dvdquotes Meet the Fockers #
Ok down from 229 to 195 following. A little more manageable. #
Just got a new book called “Blogging Heroes” which interviews the top 30 bloggers of the world. http://tinyurl.com/bloggingheroes #
@mrdat when are you going to change your default avatar? come on you’ve been using twitter a while now ^_^ #
@jowyang Is your dallas event public or private and where is it going to be? #
@fred7man I can let you borrow it when I’m done. #

09/21

Grabbing a bite to eat then going to the Angelica to watch Transsiberian. #
@sparekarma TransSiberian was a good film. Sarah actually picked a good one this time. I would give it a 8.6. #
@briancline What did you think of Transsiberian? I just watched it tonight at the Angelika in Plano. #
@geektyrant Thanks I did enjoy the film. I was shocked since my wife picked one I liked. I’m glad I watched the trailer afterwards. #

Tweets on 2008-09-18 & 17

bryan — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:59:59 +0000

A friend at work bought me a lucha wrestling mask from mexico so I had to try it on! http://www.vimeo.com/1756674 #
@kevinrose crap need to reinstall Half-Life 2. #
@fred7man The internet is a great tool when used properly. #
@fred7man wow u are a great dad. I would be watching tv right…wait I am. #
Watching a docudrama on PBS called Einstein’s Big Ideas. Very facinating stuff. #
Time to watch me some fringe! #