Monthly Archives: January 2010

How I Use Google Wave

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Reading this great article about Google Wave by Chris Brogan made me think it would be a good idea to share my own views about the latest piece of the Google Puzzle to become unveiled (well, there have been others but this one seems like the most relevant new tool to come out of Mountain View, CA in a while!)

Like most people you can talk to, Google Wave has been a tremendous help in collaborating remotely with others in project work. Specifically, working with David Edelman around the World Diabetes Day USA initiatives last year became A LOT easier thanks to Google Wave. We’d both be on Wave and speaking through Skype as we wrote on the same wave, creating content together, correcting each other on the spot, literally crafting the entire campaign while saving ourselves rework, follow-up emails and tons of replies/replies/replies.

So, in that respect, conference calls and meetings can turn into work sessions, increasing productivity big time. By having users be on the same Wave they can be more on the same page (that came out a little cheesy!)

What are the big shortcomings I am seeing with Google Wave?

  • It’s still a bit rough on the edges: it’s definitely still an early adopters space, kind of like Twitter back in 2006-early 2007. So not too many people (at least not ALL people) are there, which makes it challenging if you want to collaborate seamlessly.
  • It still is very isolated from the rest of the Google suite of products. The two specific products that I MISS seeing it connect with are: Gmail and GTalk. Connecting it with Gmail (notifications about updates on Waves, etc.) is a no-brainer to me (I don’t mean easy to implement, but valuable to the user). Connecting it with GTalk, supporting video and audio while being on the same wave would make the use of other complementary tools like Skype or iChat unnecessary, since you have all you need to host your collaborative work session within Google Wave.
  • Bots that let you do interesting things within Google Wave besides straightup content co-creation are still a mystery to most. Getting by useful Wave Bots (such as the bot that lets you tweet from within Wave) is still more of an art than something structured, reminding me at times of the dark early days of the web, back in 1994-96, when directories like Yahoo! were the way to find good sites…

In the meantime, while Google Wave continues to evolve and become more robust, check out this useful 101 put together by LifeHacker, to help people make the most of Google Wave.

Add a Tweetmeme Button to Blogger

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Since it took me a bit to figure out (it’s more straightforward to do in WordPress, not surprisingly), here are the steps you need to follow to add a TweetMeme button to Blogger:

1) Insert the Tweetmeme code as explained here. Before you start banging your head against the wall, note the subtle checkbox (thank you Blogger!) you need to check to uncover the Widget Templates:

2) Then, you want to customize the username that appears by default when people click on your newly inserted Tweetmeme button. Nothing against @tweetmeme, but follow these steps to switch it to your own Twitter username (askmanny, in my case)

Save and VOILA!! Happy tweetmem-ing!

Make Beth Kanter's B-Day wish a reality: help send 30 Cambodian Kids to School

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It’s an understatement to say Beth Kanter is a legendary person: Beth has touched so many lives on- and offline. She is committed to empowering nonprofits to use Social Media to power Social Networks for change.

I had the honor of meeting her during the Day of Service at NTC 2009. The first things she did was ask that I sign her copy of Ning For Dummies… I was floored!

This is a woman that is followed by more than 300,000 people on Twitter and she wanted to have her copy autographed. THAT is how Beth is! A humble person who is committed to help everyone!

Today, in her  53rd birthday, Beth once more has a selfless wish: to help send 30 Cambodian kids to school. To do so, she needs OUR help, of course! From her birthday blog post:

Make my birthday wish on Facebook come true! Donate $10 or $53 and help Cambodian children.

And don’t forget to wish me happy birthday on Twitter too: Happy birthday #beth53! Let’s send Cambodian kids to school: http://bit.ly/beth53

PS  The Sharing Foundation has raised almost $23,000 on Facebook.  If my birthday campaign can bring the total to $25,000 by my birthday, I’ll kick in $530, $10 for each year.  If my birthday campaign can bring the total to $28,000 by my birthday, I’ll kick in $53 for each year or $2800.

So, go ahead spare $10: they can go a LONG way to help send Cambodian kids off to school.

AND BETH, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM ALL OF US!

Thoughts on the Wibiya Toolbar

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I just installed the Wibiya toolbar on TuDiabetes. You can see it in the footer of the site on this screenshot:

Seems like a great way to integrate the other social media components into your network on Ning. We’ve only added so far the following applications:

I was curious as to who else is using it, what apps have you added to it and why?

Update (Jan. 12, 2009): The Wibiya bar was shortlived. Due to privacy concerns expressed by some members of TuDiabetes, we removed it.

Bilingual Facebook Pages: Share with people in their own language

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Back in November 2009, Facebook launched a VERY useful feature, letting admins of Fan Pages publish based on location and language. Since fans of Diabetes Hands Foundation page are a mix of both, English (2/3) and Spanish (1/3) native speakers, in spite of our best efforts to talk to them in their own language, whenever there were automated wall updates (such as the ones that result from blog feeds or simply accidental posts), there would be those folks that would get upset about the blip and complain: “¡¡¡Español, por favor!!!” if the post was in English or “I don’t understand Spanish!!!” if the post was in Spanish.

The solution from Facebook means you have to stop and choose your target language (or target location, if the post is relevant only to a certain geography) before you click the Share button. But the targeted messaging and the satisfied fans your page retains as a result are well worth the extra click! Try it!

Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves

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Great starting point to make sense of viral business growth

Adam Penenberg first entered my radar in 2008, when an interview he wrote about Gina Bianchini (co-founder of Ning, a platform that lets you create your own social network) was published in Fast Company. In it, he also interviewed Marc Andreessen and introduced the rest of us to viral loops, showing how Ning was growing virally by virtue of a “double viral loop”: every social network creator is a user and every user is a potential network creator. At the time of this review, there are nearly 2 million social networks on Ning.

Penenberg breaks down Viral Loop in three parts: Viral Businesses, Viral Marketing and Viral Network. In the first part, he walks the reader from the original viral models (Tupperware and Ponzi schemes); through a fascinating story of the first online expansion viral loop which led to the introduction of Andreessen’s Mosaic and, later, Netscape too; and wraps up with a detailed explanation of Ning, how it accomplishes its viral growth and the elements (technical and cultural) that make viral businesses possible.

The Viral Marketing part, shares stories of Hotmail and the Diet Coke-Mentos Geysers video among others, giving interesting insights into accomplishing viral growth through marketing. The Viral Networks part takes up almost half the book. It dedicates individual chapters to the most successful networks that grew virally: I only wish he had dedicated more space to discussing Twitter.

It was very interesting to read how initial stiff competition between PayPal and eBay (two of the companies covered) resulted in the latter buying the PayPal (dubbed as “the first stackable network” by Penenberg), after eBay attempted to go against them with their own flavor of the service. Viral Loop closes leaving the door open to the future, discussing the search for a new ad unit to adequately fit the new space of viral networks and privacy matters in this new era.

Although I felt there was a missed opportunity to discuss more in depth about the importance of interactions between users (there seemed to be more emphasis on just number of users alone), if you want to understand of how companies like Ning, Facebook and Paypal have grown virally, this is a great starting point. Another title I recommend in connection with this one is Sarah Lacy’s Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, another great title that complements Penenberg’s book very nicely.