Month: October 2008

blog, blogging, social media, social media creation, social network

Social Media Primer

Christa Avampato

I spend so much time on-line that I have grown into one of those people who thinks everyone on the planet understands and appreciates the power of social media. I’m deluding myself. Many people are not involved and know next to nothing on social media. So if you’re looking to learn a bit more about social media, or know someone who’s interested in learning more, here’s the contents of my Social Media Primer, hot off the presses:

A Social Media Primer
(This list is by no means comprehensive of all the channels of social media, but it’s a good start)
October 31, 2008

Blog Search Engines:
Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com/
A search engine that utilizes the power of the top five internet search engines. Also know as “metasearch”.

Technorati
http://technorati.com/
As the leading blog search engine and most comprehensive source of information on the blogosphere, Technorati indexes more than 1.5 million new blog posts in real time and introduces millions of readers to blog and social media content.

BlogCatalog
http://www.Blogcatalog.com
BlogCatalog is a social community for bloggers and one of the largest blog directories on the internet.

Google Blogsearch
http://blogsearch.google.com
Blog Search is Google’s search technology focused on blogs. Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice. Your results include all blogs, not just those published through Blogger. The blog index is continually updated, so you’ll always get the most accurate and up-to-date results. You can search not just for blogs written in English, but in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Swedish, Malay, Polish, Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog, Turkish, Vietnamese and other languages as well.

IceRocket
http://www.icerocket.com

NBCNY
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/
Just released in BETA this week, this site strives to be a one-stop shop for news on a variety of social media platforms.

Blog Publishers that you can search:
Blogger (owned by Google)
http://www.Blogger.com

Typepad
http://www.typepad.com

Moveable Type
http://www.Moveabletype.com

Twitter
http://www.twitter.com
(micro-blogging)

WordPress
http://www.wordpress.com

Wikipedia
http://www.wikipedia.com

YouTube (owned by Google)
http://www.youtube.com
(video blogging)

Hulu (owned by NewsCorp. and NBC – being hailed as the new YouTube)
http://www.hulu.com

Helium
http://www.helium.com/
Every day, this diverse community shares information on everything from politics to parenting advice, to pop culture, to the environment and more. You’ll find Helium rich with quality content, different points-of-view, and expert insight.

DailyMotion
www.dailymotion.com
Dailymotion is about finding new ways to see, share and engage your world through the power of online video. You can find – or upload – videos about your interests and hobbies, eyewitness accounts of recent news and distant places, and everything else from the strange to the spectacular.

Metacafe
www.metacafe.com
Metacafe is one of the world’s largest video sites, attracting more than 25 million unique viewers each month (according to comScore Media Metrix). They specialize in short-form original content – from new, emerging talents, and established Hollywood heavyweights alike.

Piczo
http://www.piczoinc.com/
Piczo empowers teens worldwide to creatively express themselves, build personal communities, and share ideas and experiences with their friends in a safe online environment. Since its launch less than three years ago, Piczo has grown to roughly 10 million monthly unique visitors and over a billion monthly page views solely through the viral efforts of loyal members. Rave reviews from these members claim that Piczo is unmatched in the control, ease-of-use, and flexibility it offers them when building their websites.

Piczo’s customizable content, colorful graphics, glitter text, video, and photo tools spotlight member creativity without requiring technical skills. Members share their life stories with friends by designing their sites with multiple pages featuring photos, graphics, videos, music, comment boards, games, and more. Each site can be linked to other friends’ sites and users can interact with them and their friends, and meet new people online. And, the “first of its kind” Piczo Zone allows members to share their customizable content with the rest of the Piczo Community.

Yahoo!video
http://www.video.Yahoo.com

Google video
http://www.video.google.com

Sharing Technologies
Del.icio.us
http://delicious.com/
Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage, and share web pages from a centralized source. With emphasis on the power of the community, Delicious greatly improves how people discover, remember, and share on the Internet.

Digg
http://www.digg.com
Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by the Digg community either directly on the site or by clicking on the Digg icon at the bottom of many news articles. Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. There’s also a conversation that happens around the content.

Reddit
http://www.reddit.com

Stumbleupon
http://www.stumbleupon.com
A relative newcomer to the scene of sharing technologies.

Yahoo!Buzz
Http://www.buzz.yahoo.com

Buzzup
http://www.buzzup.com
Caters mostly to the Tech community

Sphere.com
http://www.sphere.com
Provides a way to pull a thread through a variety of different articles and platforms on a specific topic

Mixx
http://www.mixx.com
Allows you to connect to others with interests similar to yours, or to create your own niche network

Newsvine
http://www.newsvine.com

Blogmarks
http://blogmarks.net/
A mashup of a reader, bookmark bank, and a social network. You store URLs, tag them, and then are able to share them with the network

Social Networks
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com

MySpace
http://www.myspace.com

BlogHer
http://www.BlogHer.com
The largest social network of women bloggers

Gather
http://www.Gather.com

Linked In
http://www.linkedin.com

Blogcatalog
http://www.blogcatalog.com
This is a social network for bloggers

Helium
http://www.helium.com/
This is a social network of self-described “experts” and “thought leaders” in a variety of fields. Largely a community of writers.

Bebo
http://www.bebo.com/
Largest social network in Europe

Hi5
http://www.hi5networks.com
The third largest social network in the U.S. behind Facebook and MySpace. Very young company, though growing quickly. Strong emphasis on Spanish-speaking countries and Hispanic US population. Recently featured in Fortune:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/13/technology/hempel_hifive.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008101512

Ning
http://www.Ning.com
This is a network of social networks where you join niche networks (or start one) based on common interests. Recently featured in Fast Company:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/nings-infinite-ambition.html

Reader / Aggregator:
Readers and aggregators allow you to “bookmark” blogs you want to keep up with by subscribing to those blogs’ RSS feeds. The feeds populate your page in the reader and then you log into the reader to read the new posts on the blog you follow.

Bloglines
http://www.bloglines.com

Blinklist
http://www.blinklist.com

Blogmarks.net
http://blogmarks.net/

career, friendship, relationships, work

Mixed signals

Christa Avampato

Another update from my friend, John, the extremely talented graphic designer whom I spoke about in a post last month. He’s still plugging away on his huge amount of work to get his projects off the screen and off the ground. It’s slow going, but he’s making progress. Or at least he was until today. And his story from today is a good example of why alignment matters. (Regardless of what John McCain says, I’ve never seen two mavericks make a good team.)


John has been working away on his enormous projects for several clients. On occasion he needs sign-off from his boss (let’s call him Tom) and his boss’s boss (let’s call her Barb). Trouble is that those two aren’t aligned on the artistic direction of John’s projects. (I’m getting nervous just thinking about what’s coming next.) So today, he discovered that Barb hadn’t received some mission-critical information from Tom, who was conveniently out today – the day of the deadline. Ouch. So not only did Barb call John to find out the whereabouts of Tom, but she also gave him direction on his #1 project that was entirely contradictory to his Tom’s direction from earlier this week. 

After a flurry of emails back and forth with Tom copied on them, Tom starts to reply and put in his two cents, arguing with Barb. John was hoping to back away slowly and leave Tom and Barb to fight it out. No such luck. So while John was working away all day under Barb’s direction, Tom essentially ignored that work and did his own thing. In essence, John would have had a more productive day if he had stayed home and hid under his bed. (I’m not suggesting that that would have been a good idea – merely making the comparison to demonstrate what a complete waste of time all of John’s work was today.) 

To add insult to injury, Tom then called John to walk through his (Tom’s ideas) that he wants to present to Barb tomorrow morning with John’s help. And then, when Barb cancelled tomorrow morning’s meeting with Tom via email, Tom shouted a very loud and inappropriate expletive and proceeded to complain about Barb, wanting John’s support. Good grief – Tom needs to watch the movie Saving Private Ryan where Tom Hanks says to his soldiers, “always remember to complain up.”       

I had a bit of good counsel for John, after his long and weary day.  The line “self-preservation is a full-time occupation” kept running through my head as I listened to his story. The name of the game here is documentation, communication, and concentration. Keep track of everything that’s happening so there is a clear record of sign-offs, communicate to all parties equally so everyone has the same information, and concentrate on getting the job done that needs to get done and that John has the ability to control. It’s not easy to be Switzerland, but it John’s case it may be the only way forward.
blogging, charity, customer service, environment, New York City, social media, social network

Make it easy for me to participate

Christa Avampato

See that blog post just below entitled, Root for Your City? I didn’t write it – not a single word of it. A handful of clicks and it was posted for me. American Express ran a program called “Root for Your City”. 8 cities across the country are competing for the largest share of 1 million tress to plant in their cities. By using my Amex cards (I am now up to three of them as of yesterday!) at participating stores and restaurants, I am contributing to the effort in my city.

I went to the site after receiving a customer email (1st click) and clicked on the button “RootforNYC.com” (2nd click). After arriving on the home page for the contest and learning a bit about it I clicked on the button “Spread the Word” (3rd click). There was a tab titled “Post to blog” (4th click). I checked the “Blogger” button (since my blog is hosted by Blogger), entered by username and password, clicked “sign-in”, and then click “post” (5th, 6th, and 7th clicks). That’s it. Done. Posted up to my blog with a link to the contest’s site and a pretty picture. A clean, easy to follow, aesthetically-pleasing process. (It was so easy that I felt like I was visiting a site designed by Apple!) Now that is service.

This tiny event was a big lesson for me. In this day and age of messaging and the need for mass participation, the organizers of events, efforts, and campaigns need to make participation easy. Companies need advocates now more than ever. Give a customer a good experience and they’re with you for life. This is the age of customer service, when finally customers are given their due as valuable, cherished members of a company. And the companies that will come out ahead when it is all said and done are those that not only call their customers kings and queens, but treat them like that as well.

Life

Root for Your City

Christa Avampato
Help bring the largest share of a 1 million-dollar tree-planting grant to your city. You could make an amazing difference in your community simply by using any American Express® Card at participating businesses from Sept 22 to Oct 31, 2008.
friendship

Friendship

Christa Avampato

After 36 hours in D.C. for our second 6-month club – a semi-annual get-together with my classmates from business school – I am compelled to think about friendship on the Amtrak train home.  The power of it, the necessity of it, and what it means to call someone my friend. 

I think of friendship mostly as an energy play. A friend gives me energy, makes my life a richer, larger experience. My friends are my teachers, my counselors, people I can celebrate with, cry with, laugh with. They expand my views and they help me conduct my life with grace. They spur my creativity and my ambition. 
My friends share my victories and help me bear my failures. They are an unfailing source of support and guidance. Their demographics vary as widely as their interests and geographies (and this is by design.) I am humbled by the abundance of friendship in my life. 
I’ve also been thinking about friendship in the context of these tough times we are now experiencing. We’re only going to get through this difficult economy (and the last bitter months of the George Bush presidency) if we band together. This is the hour when our ability for fostering friendship will be tested. Anyone can be a friend in good times; it’s those who can help us transform a difficult situation into a worthwhile experience that are truly worth their weight in gold. 
There is a lot of talk about hope these days and while hope is not a strategy, it is an effective tool. My friends give me hope that tomorrow will be better; that eventually, with persistent efforts, we will be stronger and wiser – together. That hope coupled with the powerful support friends provide is going to make me a better person and this world a better place to be.      
business, career, change, education, friendship, learning, work

How do you know when you’re done?

Christa Avampato

For the first time on this blog, I am writing from my Blackberry. Now that the full internet is always in my pocket, I have no excuse for not writing everday on this blog. The formatting may not be pretty, but I hope to keep the wit and insight constant despite this very tiny keyboard. Luckily I have tiny fingers. What I would really love is a peripheral full-size foldable keyboard that plugs right into my Blackberry. Maybe I need to contact the innovation head honcho at Blackberry and make that request.Now onto the topic of the day: knowing when you’re done.

With all of the demands placed on employees at work these days, it’s easy to understand how they are staying at work longer, physically and or virtually. In this economy, endless preparation is the name of the game for many. However, similar to student exam preparation, there is a point of diminishing returns. It’s similar to that old pithy line of “How can I ever miss you if you never go away?” Too much of a good thing is, well, no longer a good thing. This is true of almost everything in life, work included.

But with employees being pushed by managers in so many ways, how are we supposed to know when to call it quits? We could always do more, so how do we judge that fine line where more is less?

My dear friend, Ben, is a successful defense attorney. And because his expertise is criminal defense, he must be 100% prepared for every argument that could get thrown his way by the prosecution. Despite the fact that we recite the principle “innocent until proven guilty”, we rarely live it. I mean did anyone for a single moment believe that the “masterminds” at Bear Stearns were innocent before tried? I certainly didn’t, though I am a self-admitted hopeful cynic.

Ben has a very cool barometer of knowing when he’s done prepping for a case. It’s so good I considered stealing it as my own original thought for a very brief moment. Then I remembered I would be stealing from a highly-educated, best in class attorney who’s truly one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. Despite his humility and generosity, stealing IP from him seems unwise. And on occassion he reads this blog, so I would surely be caught. So please consider him fully-credited for this idea: prepare until your nervousness gives way to bordem. That’s the point at which all of your best thinking and lightbulb moments are exhausted.

So for today here is my own version of Letterman’s top 10 list – the top signs that I’m bored (aka – how I know when I’m just over it all):
10.) I begin to think about when I’m going to eat next
9.) I begin making multiple to-do lists in my head that have nothing to do with what’s in front of me
8.) I start humming audibly
7.) I start looking at my watch every 30 seconds
6.) I start thinking about how spot-on Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin is
5.) I begin to wonder about the opportunity cost of doing what’s in front of me rather than doing something more “fun”
4.) I feel a nap coming on (even though I have chronic insomnia)
3.) Watching cartoons seems like a better use of my time
2.) Thinking I’d rather clean my bathroom than do the work in front of me.
1.) I realize I haven’t been paying attention to anything that the person in front of me has said for the past 10 minutes.

charity, child, childhood, children, health, healthcare, philanthropy

March of Dimes Petition for Preemies

Christa Avampato

My friends over at the March of Dimes have put together a campaign to address the health and well-being of the tiniest members of our communities. They put up a beautiful post on their website and I want to share it with all of you:


Petition for Preemies

My best friend just gave birth to her first child – a baby girl named Milana.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to share in my best friend’s happiness!  But to be honest, I’m also a little nervous. That’s because Milana was born prematurely, and babies who are born preterm face special health risks.

Milana isn’t alone.  In the U.S., 1 in 8 babies are born prematurely. In fact, more newborns die from premature birth than any other cause. That’s why I signed the March of Dimes Petition for Preemies.

The Petition for Preemies will help give all babies a healthy start by putting public officials – and all Americans – on notice that it’s time to focus on the growing problem of premature birth.

Show your support by joining thousands of other moms in signing thePetition for Preemies. If you’re a blogger, write a post about this issue or put our purple widget or button on your blog. Get information about how you can help more babies come into the world healthy.

Thankfully, Milana is home now and doing just fine.  Let’s help more moms have healthy babies!

Want to lend a hand in the effort? Sign the petition:http://www.marchofdimes.com/padpetition/index.aspx?a=1&z=1&c=1&l=en

art, education, family, friendship, music, possessions, technology, wealth

Taking stock of what I’ve got

Christa Avampato

This month, Real Simple Magazine ran a column by author Merrill Markoe who wrote the books Walking In Circles Before Lying Down and The Psycho Ex Game. Hmmm…I don’t recall ever meeting her though it appears that she has her finger on the pulse of my life. Most of my ex-boyfriends aren’t psychos per say, though a few of them have turned out to be so odd in the end that I am left scratching my head, wondering what I ever saw in them. But I digress…


Merrill’s column details the fires in Malibu, California last year when she had to nearly evacuate her home and grab a few precious belongings to pack in her car. She considers what the belongings she chose to save say about her and her values. She is a deeply witty, self-deprecating writer – my favorite kind! – and her column had me thinking about what I’d take with me if I could only pack up a carload of belongings.

There are the items that must go with me without a doubt – my phone, my Mac, my external hard drive, my digital camera, my IBM laptop (merely because that machine saw me through my two years of graduate school for which I am intensely grateful), my ipod, the jewelry box my mother gave me, a handful of photographs, particularly those of my grandmother and one of my brother, sister, and I when we are all little and playing in my grandmother’s backyard. 

If there’s room, I’d stash all of my books and take them with me though if I can only have a few, I’ll take Me Talk Pretty One Day autographed by David Sedaris telling me that he’s so proud of me (though I have no idea what for), Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott, Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom, Three Cups of Tea, my autographed copy of Moving to Higher Ground by Wynton Marsalis, Dreams of My Father by (Future President) Obama, Hotspots published by Conservation International because it was signed by all of my friends there, A Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall, Women Who Run with the Wolves, Orbiting the Giant Hairball from my former boss, Bob Giampietro, who taught me how to thrive in a corporate environment, 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal, and Yoga: Poetry of the Body because one of my very favorite essays, “Winter” by Nina Zolotow, is in there. No fiction book made the cut…hmmmm…..what does that say?

I’d love to bring along my grandmother’s rocking chair and sewing machine though that may be a bit ambitious given their bulky size. I’d definitely grab the knit shawl my mom made for me for my birthday, the teddy bear I bought for my grandmother while I was in college (she sat on the couch watching TV with that teddy bear every day up until she passed away because she said it made her feel less lonely.) I’d take the heart-shaped ornament with the word “Sister” inscribed on it, given to me by my sister at her wedding.

My Snoopy Snowcone Machine, in the original box, is a must-have as is a framed painting of a woman dancing with a rose given to me by Kaye Ballard. I’d also snatch the two water colors I purchased in Prague just after September 11th on my first trip to Europe. My poster of Sunset Boulevard signed by Petula Clark needs to come with me, as does the watercolor I painted that is a replica of the last greeting card my grandmother sent to me before she passed away. 

Cruising into my kitchen, I’d snag my crockpot, deluxe blender / food processor, and two magnets that read “Be Nice or Leave. – Thank You” and “Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere” (A classic!). Everything else can stay. 

Bathroom – not much I’d salvage in here except my Sonicare toothbrush, my Dr. Greenfingers First Aid Kit, the purple vase from my dear friend, Blair, and my birth control (that stuff is EXPENSIVE!)

On my way out the door, I’d grab my black leather jacket, the purse my mom made for me that earns me a multitude of compliments every time I use it, a scarf my friend, Amy, bought me in Paris, my favorite jeans, my lockbox of important papers, the Chinese silk robe given to me by Petula Clark (I’ve never worn it though it serves as a reminder to me of what a true class act that lady is), my Tibetan prayer beads that hang above my front door, my swimming goggles that I learned to swim in just after my 30th birthday, the tiny birdhouse wind chime my mom gave me when I was in college, and the Coach leather bag I take to work everyday. And three more pieces of art – one of orca whales that I purchased on a solo trip to Alaska, the cloth painting I purchased in Soweto, and the painting of a monster in the forest given to me by the Crayola Factory. If there’s any more room, I’ll grab my two diplomas – the very small one from Penn and the very large one from UVA. Oh, and my passport.       

If our most prized possessions are a reflection of our values, what does this jumbled list say about me? Well, clearly there are a number of strong women who have made a significant impact on my life, particularly my mom and my grandmother. I deeply value my travels and education, and want to be surrounded by reminders of those experiences. I care about the environment. Art is a source of inspiration for me. And when it comes to appearance, I care only about the bare essentials (meaning, I’m most concerned about my teeth. These suckers were expensive and paid for by my Uncle Tom when he footed the bill for my braces. I think of him every time I look at my teeth, which is many times a day!) Technology is a big part of my life, and my life is easily transportable. I value my career. 

When I look around my apartment at what would be left after all of my favorite possessions are gone, I see some furniture, clothes, some small appliances. Though not much else, and truly all of that stuff is easily replaced for a very small amount of money. I guess I have weeded the garden of my life, stripping away nearly everything that is not essential. For one thing, I live in a 400 square foot studio. Though more importantly, I did cut back significantly on my possessions after I graduate school because I could only afford to take two car loads worth of items I could carry myself. (Movers and moving more items than that was cost-prohibitive for a recently graduated student moving to New York City without a job offer in hand.) Everything else had to find a new home in Virginia. It was an exercise in taking away all the non-essentials so the essentials could speak, and be saved. 
cancer, charity, children, cooking, design, food, philanthropy

Cupcakes for a Cause

Christa Avampato

That delightful time of year has arrived again: the leaves are changing, the air is crisp, and we can stuff our faces with the sweet, yummy goodness of cupcakes while doing some good in the world. The annual celebration of Cupcakes for a Cause kicked off today to benefit Cancercare for Kids. For the remainder of this week you can help the organization by picking up the goods at local bakeries around the country, all conveniently listed by state on the causes’s website.

Watching your diet? No problem. For every e-cupcake you send through the site, $1 will be donated to the charity, up to a cap of $10,000. You have some controlled functionality to design your own virtual cupcake or choose from a selection of beautiful stock designs. I’ve been happily sending them out this evening to family and friends and it’s almost as much fun as baking them myself.

So what are you waiting for? No time like the present to gobble up some cupcake goodness and help a worthwhile charity, all in one delicious bite.

Business Week, economy, job, multi-tasking, New York Times, simplicity

Growing by Shrinking

Christa Avampato

We’re in the midst of watching our economy contract. These are frightening times, uncertain times for many people. I was inspired by Nicholas Kristof’s column this week as he attempted to find a bright spot in all the gloom that is filling our news channels and our own minds. I was flipping through Business Week and saw an ad for IBM with the following headline in bold type: “Sometimes Growing Starts With Shrinking”. How can we connect Kristof’s ideas and the IBM ad? 

Aside from our economy, I have been thinking about examples of shrink leading to growth. The ipod – making our music libraries physically shrinking from 100’s or 1000’s of albums, tapes, and CDs into one powerful device helped Apple find new life. The same can be said of many electronics such as cell phones and computers. 
 
Let’s consider travel. There have been a myriad of articles that encourage travelers to select a few key cities for a vacation and take in all they have to offer rather than doing a whirlwind trip and only skimming the surface of many cities. It creates more powerful and lasting memories, not to mention providing for some relaxation – the whole purpose of many vacations. 
Another example that struck me was all of the research being done now on multi-tasking. By attempting to do many things at once, it turns out that we do all of them more poorly than we could if we focused on one at a time. I notice this all of the time at work as I’m trying to balance a whole host of projects and objectives. Some studies even show that a lack of focus caused by multi-tasking increases stress levels, worsening general health levels, and lowering IQs.    
Now consider our economy: Think about the benefit of shrinking our spending to increase our savings. Barry Schwartz talks about shrinking the number of options we consider as a means of being happier with the choices we make. And then one of my favorite mantras can bring an immeasurable amount of peace to your life: simplify, simplify, simplify.
All of this is meant to show that shrinking isn’t always bad and can even be good for us if we’re willing to put aside our belief that bigger and more always equals better. Sometimes doing and having less provides abundance in ways we never expected.