Pimping a new book Vaynerchuk says 99.5 percent of social media experts are clowns

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  • Posted 738 days ago

Over at TechCrunch Gary Vaynerchuk who is considered to be one of the social media rock stars came out with a pointed observation about the whole social media expert space

In essence, businesses need to better understand how to use social media and how to apply an authentic human touch while doing so. Vaynerchuk thinks current efforts are abysmal. “”99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns,” he says, continuing with “we are going to live through a devastating social media bubble.”

Well DUH!, I’ve only been saying the same thing for the past couple of years.

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It’s been awhile…

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  • Posted 778 days ago

It’s been awhile since I either wrote about anything to do with social media (per se) or even posted anything here.

Well the first part was taken care of yesterday and while it isn’t posted in full here you still might find it some interesting reading. Here is the opening couple of paragraphs of The modern Great Gatsby Syndrome and the coming Social Perfect Storm:

It’s been interesting watching the world of change that is happening in places like Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and other countries in that region and how social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are being used.

It has also been interesting to watch the discussion among the digerati of how services like Twitter and Facebook have influenced our changing society; and regardless to which side of the importance scale you might fall there is something much more subtle happening and it’s not restricted to places like Egypt.

Yes, these social media services are important and in a lot of ways extremely subversive; which is why governments around the world are worried, but they are just the tools being used by a fast growing part of our society that wants change.

We aren’t just talking about countries being imprisoned by dictators either as these self same tools are being used by regular people as a way to have a say in the political processes of democratic countries; and often with growing success.

It is easy for us, here in our comfortable homes and with our fun toys, to slough off Facebook as nothing more than a destination point for wannabe farmers and Twitter being the cyber warehouse of pointless 140 characters being spewed forth endlessly. However, the youth of places like Egypt and Tunisia have shown us that these tools can also be used to reach the disenfranchised and ignored to give them a platform from which they can lay the groundwork for change.

You can read the whole posted over at The Inquisitr.

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This reminds me of Michael Arrington

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  • Posted 855 days ago

I don’t know why but every time I have looked at this image by Steffen Winkler I am for some reason reminded of Michael Arrington from TechCrunch.

via Cuzine

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Facebook in 2011 – Flatline

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  • Posted 862 days ago

It’s been interesting watching all this hoopla around Facebook and its insane valuation – which is based on nothing more than all the data we blindly give them everyday.

Facebook is undoubtedly the current golden boy of social media, or rather social marketing, and Zuckerberg deserves all the kudos he is getting for convincing us all that we “need” Facebook in our lives, managing our social presence on the Web.

The question is – just how long can Facebook maintain this forward growth?

Of course everyone is talking up the recent investment from Goldman Sachs, to the tune of $1.5B, and how this is obviously leading to an IPO for Facebook; not to mention the probable internal pressure from employees looking to become the newest web millionaires. Douglas Rushkoff in a post at CNN had some interesting things to say about this investment and how it is an indicator that Facebook is turning from a rising star to a fading one.

Now, it’s Facebook’s turn. This week’s news that Goldman Sachs has chosen to invest in Facebook while entreating others to do the same should inspire about as much confidence as their investment in mortgage securities did in 2008. For those who weren’t watching, that’s when Goldman got rich betting against the investments it was selling.

This time, Goldman is putting up some millions of its own — as if this skin in the game means they couldn’t be up to their old tricks. But the commissions and underwriting fees Goldman is earning for selling that other $1.5 billion of private Facebook shares could be enough to offset the cost of their own investment. And bets against Facebook could be leveraged any number of times.

Either way Goldman Sachs comes away the ultimate winner.

Well I’m a lot less eloquent than Rushkoff so I’ll say this this nice and simply.

At some point in 2011 we will begin to see Facebook begin to flatline.  Growth will stagnate and if a newer cooler social media hub comes along it could actually begin to decline; but it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon – it is too big for that.

2011 will be the peak year of Facebook.

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Wrapping up some loose ends of 2010 and looking to 2011

There is no denying that 2010 was an interesting year for me where a lot of things changed. For much of the first part of the year I was still caught up in the whole social media and did a lot of writing here about the subject.

Then at some point during the later part of the year I became very disillusioned with the endless cycle of back-patting and circle jerk atmosphere that existed around the social media blogging world. In a sense I found myself adrift and not sure of where I was heading. Granted I still have my writing gig at The Inquisitr (thanks Duncan for a great job) but there is part of me that still wanted to have my own ‘space’ however Shooting at Bubbles; and its concentration on social media, just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

During this period I started writing more at WinExtra and after a little while I realized just how much I missed writing about actual technology, and the Microsoft world that I had spent so many of my years working in.

So I made the decision to step away from S@B, and social media, for awhile and basically reboot WinExtra. As we start the new year of 2011 I realize that this is a decision that I am glad I made even though it is like starting over all over again and all that entails.

Along with that I started a new project with my good friend Sean P. Aune when I split off the Braindead Techcast to its own home on the web, as well as fine tuning the shows we are doing. Needless to say all this makes for a crowded day and as hectic as it might be I am loving it.

At this point I thought I would give bit of a round up of what my various projects are and what I am hoping for in the future.

The Inquisitr

Of course this isn’t my project but rather a great blog run by Duncan Riley where I have the freedom to write about anything that interests me whether it be tech related or not. For that I am grateful to Duncan for bringing me on board three years ago now.

WinExtra

This has been, and will continue to be my main project, since the reboot this year. It is where I; and some great writers like: Paul O’Flaherty, Pierre Szwarc, and Holden Page, write about Microsoft and Windows related stuff.

It is also the home of our video effort Daily Brief, which is the daily news type show that Paul and I do together where we discuss the Microsoft headlines of the day. You can also see the show, along with other videos done by us at WinExtra.tv

I have a lot of hopes for WinExtra even though I really suck at self-promotion. Heck I had to be talked into the new donation promotion by Paul, as well as getting him to write up the post about it. I realize this is a weakness of mine but I cringe even at the thought of auto tweeting new post announcements but I also know that this is something that has to change.

Braindead Techcast

This project is a result of the podcast that started here with Sean P. Aune but I decided that it deserved it own home and brand. It hasn’t been an easy move and like WinExtra it is much like starting all over again.

While we started out with a full five shows a week both Sean and I came to the conclusion that this was going to be too heavy a workload, especially considering this was almost a whole new project, given our other obligations. so we decided to concentrate on the three most popular of the shows and to make them pretty well individual shows; with their own domains, under the Braindead Techcast Network banner.

These shows are:

Moronic Mondays – http://www.moronicmondays.com

Cool Stuff Wednesday – http://www.coolstuffwednesday.com

Techmeme Friday – http://www.techmemefriday.com

All the shows are also available at the main Braindead Techcast domain. It is still early days but both Sean and I are committed to the project and are working on a roadmap for the project.

Braincell Soup

Now this isn’t so much a project as it is a place to chill out with stuff that has nothing to do with tech. Besides tech, my other passion is beautiful artwork, photography and music and Braincell Soup is where I post stuff along those lines.

Unfortunately, due to my other projects and obligations, my updating the site has been sporadic at best but interestingly enough visitor counts have been increasing. As things settle down and WinExtra gains ground I fully plan on trying to get back into updating the site if for no other reason that to chill and enrich my soul.

Shooting at Bubbles

And this brings me to where this all really started – this site.

I still don’t think much of social media, or rather social marketing, but I also realize that it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It is still a subject that interests me, and even though I am not overly positive about the whole space, I think there still needs to be a voice out there willing to question and call bullshit when need be.

This was my original intent with this site and one that will be the guiding principal of the site. While I won’t be jumping back in full force I will probably increase my posting – no promises though.

End point

2010 was a hellva year and one I have no regrets about regardless of the decisions I have made. I have a lot of hopes for 2011 even though there are still changes, or improvements, I will have to make.

For those of you still hanging around you have my gratitude and as we go forward in 2011 I hope you check out my other projects and continue to read this blog.

Thanks everyone for a great 2010 and let’s have a great 2011 together.

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