Ahhh… It’s a new day, and there’s yet another 3rd party developer jumping on the Twitter train…

TwitPub is a 3rd party developer that is leveraging Twitter’s infrastructure to monetize tweets through subscriptions. TwitPub is run by AdExcel Online Networks Sdn. Bhd., which is based out of Malaysia. TwitPub operates a bit like a premium SMS subscription (though not on your mobile) – users pay to subscribe to the private tweets of content owners/ publishers.  The idea is that content publishers sell access to their private tweets, which can contain information about any number of topics (daily horoscope, finance alerts, music news, etc… anything – you get the idea).  (more…)

Today, I’m excited to launch SocializeMobilize.com.  On it, I’ll be publishing articles about social media, web 2.0, mobile, and mobile and web convergence.  You’ll also find all of the legacy content from my former blog, socialmedia.vox.com, which I started in 2006.  Under “services” tab, you’ll find more information about me and the consulting practice I’ve been running since 2003.

Why did I start a new blog when I already had one?

In 2006, I started a blog about social media and mobile on Vox, a community powered, free blogging platform run by SixApart.  I originally started blogging as an online experiment, prompted by conversations I had with colleagues at SplashData, who I met while consulting at Palm, Inc.  SplashData made a mobile blogging platform that was acquired by SixApart, and they encouraged me to try Vox, which had just launched.  Interested in the socialization of the web, and curious about blogging, I used Vox as a way to express my thoughts and start conversations about web 2.0 and, occasionally, mobile convergence. (more…)

Xobni (Inbox spelled backwards), officially opened to the public yesterday.  If you use Microsoft Outlook, it will change your life…  Xobni is a utility for Outlook that analizes your email – things like:

• Who emails you most and when
• Who responds fastest to your emails
• Who you respond to fastest

Xobni makes it easy for you to find files you’ve exchanged via email – regardless of where they’re buried within the thousands of emails in your inbox.

Besides being a really valuable productivity tool, it turns your inbox into a social network.  Without having to type a thing, in two clicks, you can initiate and send an email to anyone in your “network” (i.e. anyone you’ve exchanged email with).  There are also pre-populated notes that enable you to:

• Ask a friend/colleague for their phone number, or
• Request time on a friend/colleague’s calendar – Xobni pulls down data from your calendar and inserts your availability into an email… You can even customize what days/times you want Xobni to search for your availability.

Downsides?  I hate to admit it, but Xobni is actually making me like using Outlook!  The only thing I dislike about Xobni is that it’s not available in more places.  You can’t use it on a Mac or or web-based mail systems like Gmail (sigh).  There is no mobile application or WAP compatability, so it doesn’t work on a mobile phone.

What would I like to see in the future besides broader availability on other email platforms?

• More control over email templates… I’d love to be able to create my own email templates.  For example… “Thank you” emails that I can send to people that, say, had me to dinner, or who I invited to a party.
• Integrations to my favorite web sites. For example… I’d like to be able to set-up an evite from within Xobni and send it out to everyone on my network.  Even better, I’d like Xobni to track my interactions on all of my favorite social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) AND multiple email accounts AND IM AND phone calls (i.e. with a mobile integration)
• Group/ List functionality – that is – the ability to set up groups of people and have the ability to email them all at the same time. (i.e. my “best friend group” my “project X group”, etc.)
• Greater integration with Calendars and Address Books.  For example, I’d love to see the scheduling template be more interactive and actually allow a user to book time on my calendar, without me having to enter the time into the calendar, upon receiving their reply to my email.  I’d love it to work like Outlook invites work… Allow recipients to click on one of the available times listed in an email and automatically book it.

Yep – I think I’m love.  Get it, and it will change the way you look at your inbox.

Last night, I partied with the IT team at Genentech at Full Spectrum 2008.  It was an awesome event.

On the one hand, it was a typical tech party (note: Dr. Spock and Neo).  On the other hand, I’ve never seen an IT team embrace Facebook with such vigor…

And, as an added bonus, there there were glow-in-the-dark dancers on roller skates, casino games, and at least 4 simultaneous games of “Rock Band” (the video game) going at a time…

Thanks to Paul Lanzi for the invite and the photos.

Watching Bill Gates’ keynote from CES 2008 reminded me of how important it is to work with people you not only like but also that bring out the best in you and compliment your skills.  Gates is a technology genius, but he didn’t put together this ‘mocumentary’ alone.  This is the work of marketing genius:

Speaking of Bill Gate’s forthcoming last day in the office, I thought it might be fun to dredge up a little something that I saw on the Late Show a couple of years ago:

At the end of November, I published a Dear Abby-esque post on Plaxo Pulse.  In it, my friend, Paul emailed me to get my opinion on Plaxo Pulse, and I didn’t have many (okay, ANY) positive things to say about it.  So, it was with great amusement that I read Michael Arrington’s post on TechCrunch this morning – Plaxo Flubs It.

I’m all for companies that creative to solve challenges, but not when they infringe on the privacy of others or the terms of use that other companies put in place to protect their users/customers.  I’m continually amazed by how many people and companies (especially in the world of web 2.0) are willing to cast ethics and good sense to the side to benefit themselves in the short term.

Wouldn’t it be great if instead of letting rogue product managers run wild finding ways to benefit their customers to the detriment of innocent bystanders, more web 2.0 execs started standing up for what the internet should be about – making the world a better place?!  As those first Google employees used to say,”Don’t be evil.”

With all my talk in earlier blogs about the benefit of companies employing a social media strategy, I thought that it would be a good idea to review a product that enables companies to build their own social media empire.  Yesterday, I had the opportunity to see a demo of a great new product from Social Platform LLC: Social Platform Enterprise 1.2.  Just released last week, this product does what it says on the tin- it is a highly extensible, modular platform which allows enterprises to build a customized social media infrastructure – complete with integration into key social media sites like Blogger, Live Journal, WordPress, and soon, YouTube and Flickr.  The platform effectively allows companies to develop a social networking hub for their constituents.

Social Platform Enterprise is highly customizable and integrates well into existing systems.  Social Platform and their clients work together to tailor a solution to meet business goals – i.e.: identifying features, branding, integration points, etc.  With the current release of Social Platform Enterprise 1.2, the average implementation usually takes between 30-60 days and costs about $15,000 for a basic site. Clients typically pay about $1,500 month for hosting and services.  The resulting product is a unique, scalable, hosted, managed social media solution, which allows an organization’s constituency to interact with each other and the organization in a more meaningful way.  The code and presentation layer are separate, so clients can make edits, using almost any HTML editor.  In the future, President and CEO Eric Schlissel tells me that they’re planning to release an “Express” version of the platform in Q1 2007, which will be an out-of-the box solution for customers who are looking for a less customized solution that is easy to set up without consulting expertise.

One of the biggest selling features of this platform is the openness and its ability to integrate well with existing systems and popular social media sites.  The plug-in architecture and open API, combined with the fact that modular software updates are included in the cost of the product, mean that that the platform is scalable and can grow with an organization’s needs.  Plus, Google Analytics is incorporated so that clients can measure what levels of traction their social media efforts are producing.

There are several other key advantages of Social Platform Enterprise 1.2 including:

• The ability to integrate community, ratings, and rewards: create member profiles and member groups and conduct polls of specific groups of constituents. Offer rewards to members for their participation in forums or their evangelism on other websites.  The ability to allow for member rankings.
• The ability for members to communicate and collaborate. Clients have the option of integrating content management systems, wikis, member-to-member messaging, and target communication channels (which allow client to speak to members with a specific profile. E.g. a certain number of reward points)
• Security features are built in, and clients can decide which level of security they want for their social media sites. There are automatic security updates, a secure admin area, and the possibility for secure sign on for users.  Plus, because the resulting sites are hosted and managed by Social Platform, there is a private hardware and a private network

In the next rev of the product, Schlissel expects several improvements including:

• Payment Options for All System Features
• Ecommerce, Auctions, Classifieds
• Expansion of Web Services
• Integration of Third-Party Software
• VOIP, IM
• Widgets

To see the results of Social Platform in action, check out one of their first clients: Omotion.  If you’ve got any comments on Social Platform, please post a comment on this blog. The demo looks good, and I’m eager to hear feedback from others who have interacted with Social Platform generated social media sites.

*Note: I don’t get paid to endorse products. I just review new social media products as I see them, when the opportunity arises.

Check out the post I wrote on SocialMedia Networks’ blog about how social application developers can maximize their advertising revenue returns.

I recently wrote a post on SocialMedia Networks’ blog about how corporations are using social networking platforms to replace or suppliment their intranets.  In this post, I raise questions about how companies will use social media sites to their advantage and what this means to those of us who want to use social networking sites for personal reasons.  Check it out here.

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.