I just updated the background on my Twitter profile, and thought it might help to share some of what I learned in the process. Here’s how my new Twitter background looks:

Recreating this look (or a variation of it) is VERY easy, if you’ve got Photoshop. You really don’t need to pay someone to do it for you to get a decent result.  Here’s how I created mine: (more…)

I live tweeted the Verizon Developer Conference today in San Jose.  It was a well-organized event – and as an added bonus, it was free!  There were a lot of familiar and friendly faces at the event, which was also great.  I live tweeted the highlights of the devcon today.  For those of you who still haven’t figured out Twitter, I’ve posted my relevant tweets from the event below.  To see my first tweet of the day, start at the bottom of this post. (Note: Excuse any spelling errors…I’ve kept each of the tweets as-is.) (more…)

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the value of social media monitoring tools in brand and marketing campaign management.  Having now demoed a number of social media monitoring solutions, I’ve realized that while there are a lot of great tools out there, there is still a lot of opportunity for product improvement – especially around mobilization and social media response. (more…)

UPDATED 7/31/09: Below, you’ll find a list I compiled of mobile developer relations professionals on Twitter.  It’s interesting to see how many mobile companies are starting to use Twitter to engage with their developer communities.  The most prolific developer relations tweeps seem to be from Windows Mobile (which lists Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as communications channels on its site), the  Symbian Foundation (which has devoted a whole page on its website to list its Twitterers), and Motorola’s MOTODEV (which also runs communities on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn).  Twitter is rapidly becoming a great way for developers to aggregate the latest news and information about the various developer programs they participate in, without having to separately check in with each mobile developer community site. (more…)

These days, for every inspiring story that I hear about a mobile independent software vendor (ISV) / developer that’s “raking in loads of cash” through Apples’ App store, I hear a handful of stories from mobile ISVs that are trying to dig themselves out of the red.  While the press is focused on the “iPhone Gold Rush,” I’m hearing of a disturbing number of mobile ISVs that are struggling…badly.  Over the last couple of months, I’ve had conversations with an increased number of mobile start-up execs who by day are attempting to dig their ISV out financial crisis and by night are pinging their social networks, quietly looking for a new job and complaining that the mobile industry is “broken”. (more…)

Over the past few months, I’ve received an increased number of LinkedIn ‘connection’ and Facebook ‘friend’ requests from people I don’t know and with whom I don’t have an obvious mutual connection but often have common professional interests.  I assume that these requests are coming from people who read this blog, as the increase started when I transitioned my old blog from Vox to WordPress and added the social icons you see in the right banner, linking to my public profiles… But, I don’t know for sure, as the requests rarely include a note. (more…)

EnStream LP (a mobile commerce joint venture owned by three of Canada’s three largest mobile operators – Bell Canada, Rogers and TELUS) recently launched Zoompass, Canada’s first wide-reaching mobile payment service.  With it, Canadians can securely request money from friends, solicit money for joint gifts, pay for goods and services and more – all from their mobile phones, using a pre-paid account, which can be linked to a credit card or bank account.  What’s so cool about this service is that it creates a common standard for mobile money transfers and interoperability across all major mobile phones running on Canada’s major mobile networks including Bell, Rogers, Telus, Fido, PC Mobile and Solo Mobile. (more…)

Yesterday, in researching the list of The Europas’ (TechCrunch Europe Awards) nominees for my last post, it hit me – there are still a lot of start-ups with great products that just don’t understand basic marketing.  Without calling anyone specific out on their mishaps, here are the top 5 basic marketing lessons you can learn from some of the The Europas’ nominees’ mistakes: (more…)

TechCrunch recently announced the nominees for The Europas, the awards ceremony celebrating technology innovation in European companies, to be held in London on July 9th.  I was excited to learn that one of my clients, ShoZu, was nominated for the Best Mobile Application in EMEA (shameless plug: you can vote for them in this category here).

While browsing the list of The Europas nominees, I noticed TechCrunch doesn’t provide company descriptions or links to each company’s website or page on CrunchBase.  I can’t imagine anyone besides the guys from TechCrunch and maybe a few VCs being intimately familiar with all of these companies (and I can’t imagine anyone besides me being interested enough to research such a long list).  So, to help you make a semi-informed decision before voting, I’ve done some company research for you.  Below you’ll find URLs, descriptions and CrunchBase listings for The Europas tech company nominees (Note: I have not included descriptions for the VC or founder awards). (more…)

The University of Massachusetts (UMASS) Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research recently completed a longitudinal study on how Forbes Magazine’s list of the US’s 200 largest charities used social media in 2007 (their first year studying the topic) vs 2008.  The charities interviewed include well known names like Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Catholic Charities USA, Habitat for Humanity International and Easter Seals.  This research represents one of the first statistically significant studies of its kind, and it shows that in 2008, big non-profits were “leading both corporations and universities..in their familiarity with, usage of, monitoring of and attitude towards social media.”  (more…)