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April 26, 2007

Is John Edwards in your Top 8?

When I logged into my MySpace account this weekend and saw that one of the “cool new users” happened to be Barack Obama, I immediately thought MySpace had totally missed the boat by focusing entire MySpace pages on the 2008 Presidential candidates.

On first glance, most people tend to think that the average MySpace user is a young teen, making the idea of promoting voting online pointless for those who still have a few years to go. But that’s just on first glance. According to a report from comScore Media Metrix last fall, more than 68 percent of MySpace users are over 25, making the concept very important to “upwardly mobile” Internet users in today’s all-digital society.

The “MySpace Impact” section is the holding area for all of the 2008 candidates, ranging from Hilary Clinton to Mitt Romney. And while the idea of seeing a MySpace page for a 60-year-old governor might seem, well, weird, Romney’s page is packed with links to all other related social network sites, YouTube promo clips, and a MySpace-created contribution button. And even Obama’s page gives users “I Support Barack” images for their own blogs and MySpace profiles.

With so many tools for the 30-somethings to help show their support for a favorite candidate, I can’t help but wonder if the MySpace Impact initiative is the new bumper sticker for the blogosphere? Until I figure that out, I'll work on getting John Edwards to be my Twitter friend.

P.S. MySpace is very aware of their younger users who are civic-minded. The “Declare Yourself” page helps users, of all ages, find out where to how, how to vote, and why they should vote. Looks like voting is the new black.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 04:53 PM
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April 20, 2007

Seth Godin set to visit Ann Arbor

In case you haven't heard, author and entrepreneur Seth Godin will be in Ann Arbor, Mich., this May to speak about his new book, The Dip. Make sure to check out Connect in Ann Arbor for all the details, including the story of how this group was able to bring Godin to Michigan.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 03:18 PM
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April 18, 2007

The importance of accurate web design

By Melanie Seasons

Yesterday, around 10:30 a.m., CNN identified the Virginia Tech shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old English major from South Korea. Released with the article were three of the victims' pictures, including one of the first students killed, Ryan Clark.

Clark's picture was shown along the left side bar with the caption, "Ryan Clark, a resident assistant reportedly killed at the dorm where the first shooting occurred, was described by a friend as a "happy person."

But when scrolling down to bottom, a link to the top story showed Clark's picture next to the caption, "Shooter identified as classmate." A bit misleading, no?

To accommodate web culture, online news sources like CNN and MSNBC are making an effort to become more visually stimulating by including tons of graphics and videos to accompany articles. But with these stimuli come more accountability on account of the editors and designers to double and triple check all aspects of a web page.

Someone at CNN eventually caught the mistake and by 11:30 a.m., a photo of mourning students had replaced Clark's picture.

Ambiguous headlines and captions can be a rather common aspect of journalism. Sometimes they make us chuckle (think Jay Leno's "Wacky Headlines"), but in Ryan Clark's case they also have the potential to ruin a reputation.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 11:18 AM
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CNN turns to I-Reporters to cover breaking news

Before Monday’s tragedy at Virginia Tech University, CNN’s “I-Reports,” an attempt to venture into “TV 2.0,” asked readers to become citizen journalists by submitting photos and stories on a variety of topics, ranging from the new Coney Island amusement park development to the benefits and distractions of working from a home office. However, I-Reports quickly became firsthand accounts of the violence taking place in Virginia all day Monday as CNN sought media from the students and faculty on campus.

CNN readers can view an online gallery of submitted photos, many from cell phone cameras, from its I-Reporters, as well as the now-infamous video of gunshots on campus captured by Jamal Albarghouti. The photos now range from vigils happening in Blacksburg, to news conferences from local police officials. With the ability to subscribe to the I-Reports news feed, readers are instantly updated on the latest from VTU.

The I-Report feature on CNN is just another reminder of how any “average Joe” can become a member of the media in today’s information-ready society. Thanks to CNN’s “toolkit,” even the most novice of photographers, videographers and bloggers can perfect their skill and share their eyewitness accounts with the world.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 10:10 AM
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April 10, 2007

Lov.li reinforces niche social networking

Just after I said last week about how the last thing I needed was another social networking site, I quickly joined Lov.li, a community site aimed at bringing together artisans and crafters.

(A side note: When I'm not busy blogging, I'm usually making crafts for a craft fair I help plan in Detroit every summer, which I then, in turn, blog about.)

Having launched just a few months back, Lov.li is already earning "blogosphere cred" from noted sources, such as CRAFT magazine, the sister publication to tech-heavy MAKE, as well as famous D.I.Y. business owners, like Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club in Austin, Texas.

Lov.li allows users to not only create profiles to find other like-minded makers, but has a selling component to it, too, which could be a big selling point for some who find indie-powerhouse Etsy too crowded.

I was impressed with Lov.li right away. When I gave my address to find out "where I was, " I was immediately paired up with someone who matched my same interests. And they couldn't have more right on; I was paired up with one of my friends in metro Detroit.

As generic sites like MySpace begin to see fallout, I see niche sites like Lov.li brining more and more people in. Because while I don't have lots left of myself to spread in the blogosphere, I'd gladly spread any leftovers with a bunch of crafters.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 04:15 PM
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April 05, 2007

Presidential Campaigns and Pay-Per-Click Advertising

By Kai Blum

Pay-Per-Click advertising is an extremely efficient and highly customizable way to directly target potential voters. Ads are triggered by certain keywords – in this case primarily the names of the contenders - and the advertiser pays only if a user clicks on the ad. Ads can be targeted geographically, by state, county, city as well as by language (English/Spanish). Changes can be made within minutes.

The three leading Republicans are all running Google ads, bidding on their own names as well as on the names of their competitors. On the Democratic side, John Edwards and Barack Obama seem to bid only on their own names. That seems like a waste of money to me, especially if your campaign website is on top of the organic search results anyway. Why waste your money if you can have those clicks for free? Hillary Clinton’s campaign seems to realize that. They currently don’t run Google ads at all, at least here in Michigan.

It will be interesting to see if the political Pay-Per-Click ad campaigns will become more aggressive in tone and in bidding strategies as we come closer to the primaries and the presidential election. I also wonder if any campaign will take advantage of Google’s and Yahoo’s rotating ad features to quickly and efficiently test different slogans and messages before applying them to the entire presidential campaign.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 04:52 PM
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April 02, 2007

Here are 5 reasons to use Google ads as personal ads

By Kai Blum

Has anyone tried to use Google ads as personal ads yet? I don’t know, but it would make a lot of sense, because they are very similar in format to printed personals. Now, add some advantages:

1. By choosing the right keywords to trigger your ads, you can easily find people with the same interests.
2. You can target a very specific geographic area.
3. You can target people who speak your language.
4. You only pay, if someone clicks on your ad.
5. You can set up an awesome landing page with lots of information about yourself that potential mates can access immediately.

Let me know if you tried this after reading my post, and invite me to the wedding.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 02:08 PM
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Drinking the Twitter Kool-Aid

Much to my chagrin, I joined Twitter last week so that I can find out what my co-workers ate for lunch or what they’re listening to on their iPods.

Am I the only one who’s not officially sold on Twitter? (I already blog, have a Flickr account, mingle with former classmates on Facebook… I don’t know how much me there is to go around on the Internet.) Maybe not.

Andrew Keen called out Twitter’s hype in a post on The Great Seduction:

Calling Twitter a "mini-blog" is like describing a stunted flea as a "mini-flea". There's nothing intellectually more insignificant than a blog and Twitter is simply a multi platform bulletin board which enables people to express themselves.

Following that thought, the Spokesman Review (subscription site) had this perfect review of Twitter:

Remember the Seinfeld episode in which Jerry and George pitch NBC "a show about nothing"? At one point Costanza asks a network executive, ‘What did you do today?’

• ‘I got up and came to work,’ the exec replies.
  
  

• ‘There's a show!’ George exclaims. ‘That's a show.’
  
  

  That's also a Twitter.

I can see why the site is addicting (constantly wanting to know what your friends are doing, the current theme of blogosphere), but if instant messages, text messages, and “old-school” phone calls just aren’t enough, I don’t know if Twitter will satisfy all your needs. After all, there are just some things my friends are doing that I’d rather NOT know about.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 10:37 AM
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