This post is coming with mixed emotions for me. On one hand, I’m super excited to be able to tell you my news, but on the other hand, it’s kinda sad. image: sxc.hu On Monday morning, bright and early, I will be heading off to my first office job in almost nine years, which means that I will no longer be able to write for b5media. I’m amazingly excited to have been offered, and accepting, the position of Director of Marketing and PR for an incredibly interesting start up in Vancouver. I’ll be able to tell everyone more about it soon, but I have to get my messaging down first! I’ve really enjoyed sharing news, my opinions and best practices in social media with you all. It was you who helped make BuzzNetworker the... [Read more]

Did April Fool’s Day come early and I just wasn’t told? How can this possibly be real? (emphasis mine) We don’t have a description written for this yet, but the job is to be a “high touch” point of contact at Twitter for the burgeoning number of celebrities on the service. We want to make sure they’re happy, using the product effectively, etc. This person is probably pretty junior (it won’t pay a lot) but hopefully familiar with working with “Hollywood types.” They should be tech savvy enough to answer questions and solve basic problems (though they can fall back on our tech support). And they should definitely present themselves (and the company) well on the phone and in person. They should... [Read more]

In a new report by Gartner Analysts, they’re stating the obvious: social computing/social networking is a force to be reckoned with from a customer relationship management standpoint. Do companies really not know this yet? Image: Sxc.hu I do have to rememeber to rein in my skepticism when I read things like the Gartner report and remember that I’m considered one of those early adopter types. I’ve been preaching the need for companies to use social networking for CRM, and brand building for approximately two years now. The Gartner report predicts that more than 60% of Fortune 1000 companies will have a form of online community that can be used for CRM purposes, but also thinks that more than half of the companies who do will... [Read more]

All of the changes Facebook has made recently haven’t been enough for me to want to close my account out, but this new one might just be the final straw. Face.com is launching Photo Finder in Facebook, which will find and tag pictures of you and your friends with face recognition. Photo Finder (Face.com) We’re about helping people find photos, and as a first service we’re releasing a Facebook app called Photo Finder, which scans public photos in your social network and suggests tags for untagged faces. It’s a great way to find photos of yourself (or your friends) that you never knew existed, and stay up to date with your friends latest pics. [source ] There are, of course, some privacy concerns around this application, and while... [Read more]

And that’s really not a good place to be, or, if it’s a rumour, not a good rumour to having going around, with little to no rebuttal to be found. Across the board, for me at least, social networks have almost entirely replaced my google searches. When I have a question, instead of googling the answer, I ask Twitter. Image: sxc.huNine times out of ten, someone in my network knows the answer, and frequently, more than one person knows and they’re all willing to share that information. With that kind of knowledge base at my fingertips, what happens to Google going forward? Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield has issued a report, primarily about Google and MySpace. In the report, Greenfield reiterated a contention he made... [Read more]