I recently wrote a post on SocialMedia Networks’ blog about the importance of creating user intent when developing a social application.  Creating user intent ensures that beyond getting a large number of installations of your social application and seeing it spread virally, that you’re creating a reason for people to use your application regularly. If people use your application regularly, you’ll increase the amount of advertising inventory you’ve got available to sell to social advertising networks and therefore increase the amount of revenue you can earn through advertising on your social applications. You can read the post here.

In addition to consulting for SocialMedia Networks and Covered Communications, I now consult for ShoZu Inc., the leading provider of mobile social media services that connect mobile consumers with their online social networks, personal blogs, photo storage sites and other Web 2.0 properties from their mobile phone.

ShoZu allows users to engage with social media from their mobile phone, making it easy for them to keep in constant contact with preferred social networking services from the handset.  ShoZu is a light weight, mobile application that allows users to publish photos, videos, comments, status updates, blog postings and more to their favorite online sites …in one click or less. With it, you can:

• Publish to multiple sites with one click (pictures, video, metadata, geotags, etc.)
  
• Subscribe to content feeds
  
• Blog
• Make new friends
• Discover new communities
• See what friends are up to
  

ShoZu already works with most of SixApart blogging solutions, including Vox, TypePad, and Live Journal.  (My colleague “Jambo” at ShoZu is a fellow Voxer, and you can check out ShoZu’s blog here).

ShoZu also works with Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, WordPress, BBC, Kodak Easy Share, and a ton of others (click here for the full list).  And, the app is pre-loaded onto a ton of mobile phones.  ShoZu just released a new version ShoZu 3.3, which is available for download from your mobile browser or by clicking here to go to the self-provisioning website.

I’m working ShoZu to bring more social networking properties on board.  If you’re a social networking site that would like to integrate with ShoZu, please email me.

SocialMedia Netoworks just hit the 1000 mark, with over 1000 Facebook applications per day running on the Appsaholic network and making money for 3rd party developers.  Check out teh lates blog post I wrote on the topic at: SocialMedia Network’s Blog.

Check out the latest post I wrote on SocialMedia Network’s blog.  The post is an interview with Dennis Yu, SocialMedia’s resident SEO and advertising expert.  In it, Dennis explains the basics of social advertising, especially as it relates to SocialMedia Network’s Appsaholic.

Check out the new blog post I wrote for SocialMedia Networks about social advertising.

Yesterday, I started a 2 month, part-time consulting gig with SocialMedia Networks, a leading provider of social network services including a large and growing network of applications across Social Networking platforms.  SocialMedia’s flagship product, Appsaholic, currently available on Facebook and MySpace makes it easy for independent software vendors (ISVs) to manage, market, and monetize the applications they distribute online. In other words, SocialMedia helps developers buy and sell advertising space inside their application, cross promote their applications, and more.

A couple of weeks ago, SocialMedia announced that it secured Series A financing of $3.5 million. The investment was led by Charles River Ventures, with additional investors including: Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and Jeff Clavier, founder and managing partner of SoftTech VC.

In the next couple of months, I’ll be getting Developer Relations up and running, writing the company blog (which is very good already), and working closely with Julia French from Covered Communications, who I’ve been working with over the last several months on marketing and business development projects for other clients.

If you’re a developer on the SocialMedia Network or are interested in joining, please drop me a line to introduce yourself!  And, check out SocialMedia’s blog
in the next few days (I’ll post a link on my vox blog when I do my first post).

In my last post, I talked a bit about what the decreasing value of the dollar means for social media start-ups.  Yesterday in Tech Crunch, there was an interesting article on who is “winning” and “losing” as a result of the dollar on the slide.  It is well worth a read, offering an interesting and valid short-term perspective on the impact of the fluctuation of the dollar.

I hope that we’re only seeing a short-term devaluation that will turn around in 2008 with the promise of a change of administration (and hopefully war and economic policies), but if I’m wrong, the number of “losers” (to use Tech Crunch’s term) will increase.   By way of example, most of the 3rd party mobile developers I’ve worked with abroad do business in Dollars but have to pay rent, expenses, etc. in Pounds or Euros, and they’re feeling the pinch.  If the dollar’s downward spiral continues, this could mean a decrease in innovation and/or an increase in cost of goods worldwide.

In addition, anyone (like me) who is based in the US but does business with companies abroad and/or frequently travels abroad is feeling the pinch with increased operating and travel costs.  I could go on (and on), but I’m feeling a little nauseous thinking about it, so I’ll continue to think optimistically in the hopes that things improve (or that I find a way to get paid in Pounds!).

If you’re a blogger, aspiring journalist, or market researcher listen up.  Mashable is paying its users to write “Top 10” review posts between 600 and 1300 words, talking about web-based products in a particular category. Click here to learn how it works.  This seems like an interesting (and inexpensive) way for Mashable to generate new content, and a good way for aspiring reviewers to build a portfolio and make a few bucks in the process.  If your top 10 ends up on Mashable, post a comment with a link to the review on this blog.

I’ll be interested to see if this idea takes off with other sites.  If you know of any sites that are offering similar offers, add a comment. If you’re a non-VOXer, feel free to email me, and I’ll post your comment manually.