Earth Hour - does it mean I have to turn off my laptop too?

As I was reading an article about Earth Hour on Advertising Age featuring an interview with John Sintras, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group, I couldn't but wonder how hard it must be for technology junkies to imagine an hour without the precious technology?
I mean, I think even I got teary eyed thinking about having to say goodbye to my laptop screen for an hour. This post doesn't really have the usual links to some new widgets or latest news but rather was written with the purpose to get everyone thinking for a second about how dependant most of us became on our Tv's, iPhones, computers and etc.

I mean I personally spend almost the entire day on the computer lately. Not necessarily because I don't have friends - I do and miss them so much. However, the first thing I do when I come to the office in the morning is tun on the computer and work - I can't really do my work on paper. Once I am off work and arrive home - my laptop is on to check mail, again do work and write papers for school.
Maybe for the Earth day, I can just turn off the lights and leave my computer on, or use it as a perfect excuse to go out for a coffee with a friend. Papers can wait for an hour!
How dependant on technology are you?

iSearch?

Not according to Danny Sullivan as he explains why in his article"Why Apple Won't Be Launching a Search Engine Any Time Soon". Apparently, after Google became too competitive, their relationship with Apple went down the drain. For a while Apple and Google seemed to be partners, however, after Google came up with its' own browser and then phone platform, Apple started seeing them as competition.
It is possible that Apple would want to go to the next level and come up with its' own search engine. However, according to Danny, it is not likely due to the costs it would take to do this. Furthermore, Apple would have to do an incredible job to be able to compete in this field with Google. I actually agree with Danny and think that Steve Jobs won't take that risk...at least for now.

FDA to regulate social media

In recent article titled "Big Pharma Urges FDA to Adopt new rules for Web Marketing", Rich Thomaselli describes how Big Pharma has been addressing FDA to basically start approving search results and "marking" them with a stamp of approval when it comes to pharmaceutical websites - promotional technique.
Based on research done by Pfizer, only 22% of the search results about 8 of Pfizer's products were regulated by FDA.
As different organizations will start trying to regulate relevant to them parts of Internet, the debate about where to draw the line is bound to happen. Where does the freedom of self-expression crosses the well-being of public. I personally think that in this case, when potentially harmful drugs can be misused - the more control the better. However, it is hard to interpret the true motives of pharmaceutical companies - are they concerned with public health, are they trying to protect their brand names and ensure that some cheap copy of their drugs doesn't ruin the trust for their products, or do they want more control over the distributors and revenue channels?
In general, regulating Internet in any way is a tricky topic. On one hand, there are illegal activities that most of us would want to prevent (like child pornography), however, there are definite cons that come with the power over tracking and controlling what users can and can't do.

Craving for personal touch

    Since I rediscovered YouTube for myself, I've been posting quite a bit about its' life and community. It also made me think back to the beginning of Web1.0, it's growth, transformation, development over time and finally Web 2.0.

I am not sure if everyone experienced this, but when e-mails and forums gained strength and became a day-to-day thing, replacing hand written letters and in a lot of cases phone calls - a lot of people, especially older generations started to panic. The notion was the fact that people were distancing themselves and using all these "digital" innovations, losing real contact - in general communicating less on personal level.

I have to agree that most of us got caught up at first in all the e-mail hype and started to get too lazy to pick up phones.....
but this is not true in regards to the current situation.
"Add to friends", "Comment", "Subscribe", "Share"......I can go on - we can't wait to get in touch and connect with users, viewers and customers. Sharing our thoughts and getting updates on how our friends are doing, building business contacts and joining communities became an everyday MUST for most.
More importantly is that this drive to communicate doesn't stop on on-line, it progresses into the real life.
There are multiple get-together - weather flash mobs or conferences - that people attend to meet in person and get the feeling of the community.
This post was greatly influenced by a video of a Flash Mob done last year at the Planet Hollywood in Vegas. It was organized by a quite a few vloggers I've mentioned in a previous post (ShayCarl, LisaNova, KassemG...etc). This video is really a representation of how an on-line community can translate into the real world, which plays an important role in sustaining that community. This particular Flash Mob is only one example of numerous gatherings and events that are being organized regularly by users not only on YouTube but other networks. To be honest, this video makes me feel warm and fuzzy because in a lot of ways on-line community is very accepting of everyone and a lot of people from just confused kids to aspiring artists have a chance to find their voice and create amazing content other can view and discuss.
As if this post wasn't long enough - I feel it is important to throw in a little psychology in it as a conclusion. At the end of the day - humans are always looking for a place/group to belong to - it is our nature. Therefore, even when Internet offers us a comfortable setting of our homes to talk to others, we will always strive for personal contact. On-line communities offer an amazing place to start networking/sharing with many opportunities for communication that is never limited to on-line!

Viral Videos - it can bring you up or plunge you down.

Viral videos present an amazing opportunity for companies or even individuals to get viewers, customer, followers and just in general get the word out. A couple of days ago I started thinking - is there a such thing as a bad viral video? For a second, I thought - how can viral video be bad? I mean, if it gained so much attention and went viral isn't that the definition of success?-No. In recent months I've been exploring YouTube in more depth - it's community and the way things work. One thing I saw multiple examples of is - fake viral video can seriously harm company's image.
They definitely can gain a lot of attention but most of the fake viral videos, especially if company tries to cover it up - is frowned upon by most YouTubers. Some of the most prominent influencers (mostly vloggers) on Youtube actually devote quite lot of time discussing these videos and making fun of them at best.
Sarah Perez wrote an interesting blogpost Fake Viral videos: Is this Good Marketing? talking about this very topic and demonstrating a few "viral failures".
I believe that if a company decides to make a viral video they should be cautious about the reaction it will evoke and be prepared for the fact that they will not have any control over how it will be interpreted and discussed.
Furthermore, I think every company needs to identify itself. They don't need to shine a huge logo of the company throughout the video but  a link to your website at the end of the video can be a good idea. This way you may avoid people getting frustrated thinking you are trying to TRICK them.

User-friendly Youtube

Have you ever sent a video to your friend or used one of those videos in a presentation? - I am sure you have. One thing I've always found annoying is that out of a 10minute video, you might want to show just 30 seconds but don't know how to do it...
Here is the way! - I found a very helpful list of urls that you can make use of without getting a degree in video production. Makeuseof.com highlighted top 10 URL Tricks to make sharing and watching Youtube videos easier.

In your opinion, what other things would be useful when using Youtube.

Social Media is...

We talk so much about Social Media...but how do we explain it to people that might not understand it? - friends, family - who are not necessarily familiar with the concept. I Googled "Social Media" to see what will come up. After sifting through dry, long explanation of what it is, I found a video - Social Media In plain Language. This is a great video to make the main purpose and concepts of Social Media clear and understandable to pretty much anyone.

Are you catching the Wave? I mean GoogleWave.

I am sure almost everyone have heard about GoogleWave by now. Not everyone has access to it yet since it is in the Preview mode, but more and more gain access. The other day, I was invited by a friend and took a peak into Wave world.

I have to admit - I realy like it! Simple yet clear and user friendly layout makes it easy to navigate through.
If I had to describe it, oh wait that's the whole point of this post, I would say that it is the best of MSN messanger and GoogleDocs combined.

In short, Google allows for editing and sharing your work with others in real time.

I am still very new to the whole thing and have a lot to explore. If you would like an invite to try GoogleWave yourself (I have a limit of 8) or found some new feature or application for it - share with me in comments!

Customer is always right! - Right?

ABSOLUTELY!

Many companies are in denial that this rule still applies! It seems they hope that intricate phone menus ("Press 2, press 8....Please hold, your call is very important to us...") and "procedures" available for customer support will hopefully make a person reluctant to fight for what he or she believes to be an unfair treatment or bad service. Unfortunately, it does work at times but I think customers of any company should realize that they are even more powerful today than a few years ago.

You know those buzz words "networking" and "social media"? - well those are not just cool gadgets to share your latest pictures and news with friends - those are the new ways to get your message across, loud and clear. Today in E-Marketing class, Paul Cubbon mentioned a story of a housewife whose washing machine broke and company did nothing to fix the problem. In short, after expressing her dissatisfaction with company through social channels like Twitter, a competitor of this company offered their product as a compensation. This in turn made the original company take responsibility and fix the broken appliances.

From my own experience with HP, I got a taste of real power and reach of one of the most basic networking tools - forum.
Once hard drive of my laptop died a year on a dot that my warranty expired, right at the end of semester with all psychology papers, I did not hesitate to contact the customer service and after being denied any assistance for 3 times I decided to change my approach.
Along with writing a letter to CEO, I joined HP forum and posted my story and started actively participating in that "community".
Two weeks later, I received a call asking to send in my laptop for hard drive replacement.
The main point I am trying to communicate is as a consumer - you need to stand up and voice your opinions. You should feel even more confident than before, that you will be heard because of opportunities to network through social media tools.
For companies - it is vital to remember that someone is always talking and you need to be listening to make sure you are staying on top of your development as a company, as well as player in a competitive market.

"Social media guru" - a real profession or just a cool nickname?

In a recent article by Brian Morrissey on Adweek, Brian brought up an interesting discussion about social media and current possibilities that are opening up for professionals in that area.

Brian refers to a video "The Social Media Guru" that portrays a social media professional who is trying to convince a client in his abilities to use social media to immediately improve client's business by throwing out Web 2.0 terms left and right.
The video is sort of a mockery of how many so called "experts" try to take advantage of current buzz of social media and persuade companies in the importance of using social media for their businesses by solely opening up a series of accounts on Facebook, Twitter and...there is a long list.
Nevertheless, there are variety of individuals, and now organizations that specialize in working with companies to utilize social media tools in order to gain awareness, attract new customers and achieve other goals a company might have.
Main question posed in the article is if there is a viable long term business opportunities for such individuals and organizations. This article left me with an impression that Brian thinks that businesses of this sort are not going to last.

However, I think that in terms of competition - there is always going to be a need for improvement. I mean, people come up with new strategies, channels and tools to reach out to consumers on weekly basis and same will keep happening in terms of social media tools and ways to optimize their success.

Companies will need to stay current and up-to-date on latest trends to be able to successfully compete in any market.
Come on, do you really think the list of websites/communities/social media tools like Diggit, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, delicious (OK, I am tired typing them out) will stop expanding anytime soon? - I don't think so. Even though, many will fail, there still will be plenty left for companies to require people who will know not only how to use them but actually make them useful.