The Progress Bar

Connecting the threads between emerging technology, media, identity, progress and bars

How to Build a Killer Social Network: Understanding and Optimizing Social Media

By David Evans on Jul 2nd, 2008

The Progress Bar read by people interested in emerging Internet marketing, technology, social media, reputation, virtual environments, blogs, the Boston Internet scene and much more. If you like what you see you should subscribe to my RSS feed or via email in the sidebar. Thanks for visiting!

I am definitely going to this event. If you’re around Boston on the 21st and interested in learning more about social media and building social networks, this is right up your alley.

On Monday, July 21, 2008, the Social Media Club Boston will be teaming with the AMA Boston to present a session on social networks. Join these two groups for “How to Build a Killer Social Network: Understanding and Optimizing Social Media.”

The event will start with a keynote presentation by John Moore, senior vice president and director of ideas and innovation at Mullen Media Hub. The presentation, in his words, will focus on “Social Networking 201″ — it assumes you know a little already about, for instance, LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace, but need to understand how to use them to reach customers, partners, employees and other important audiences. Following John’s keynote, Chris Brogan will lead a lively panel discussion exploring this topic in more depth. Panelists will include folks from Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as a few other social media-savvy folks, and they will discuss how to:

  • Build an effective personal network based on relationships, not just numbers
  • Manage the shift in media spending from traditional vehicles to online communities
  • Keep pace with the rapid changes in the world of social media

Join us at Boston’s newest hotspot, The Exchange Conference Center, located on the waterfront in Boston’s historic Seaport—with delicious summertime appetizers from Legal Sea Foods.

Date: Monday, July 21, 2008
Time: 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Free hors d’oeuvres from Legal Sea Foods. Cash bar.
Price: $35 for AMA Members; $60 for Non-Members; $25 for Students.
Place: Exchange Conference Center, Boston, MA 02141

Tags: -

The Brains Behind the Image Fulgurator

By David Evans on Jun 29th, 2008

A few years ago they figured out how to shoot audio ads into our personal space. Now an art student has come up with a way to insert text ads into digital photos. This is fascinating and highly repulsive at the same time. Behold the Image Fulgurator.

The Image Fulgurator is a device for physically manipulating photographs. It intervenes when a photo is being taken, without the photographer being able to detect anything. The manipulation is only visible on the photo afterwards.

In principle, the Fulgurator can be used anywhere where there is another camera nearby that is being used with a flash. It operates via a kind of reactive flash projection that enables an image to be projected on an object exactly at the moment when someone else is photographing it. The intervention is unobtrusive because it takes only a few milliseconds. Every photo another photographer takes of an object at which the Fulgurator is also aimed is affected by the manipulation. Hence visual information can be smuggled unnoticed into the images of others.

Tags:

Join the Marketing 2.0 Group

By David Evans on Jun 29th, 2008

Francois Gossieaux has created the Marketing 2.0 group on Ning. I joined up today, amazing to see how far Ning has come in such a short time. See you in the forums and make sure to leave a comment on my profile.

Tags:

Facebook Enables Ad Rating

By David Evans on Jun 17th, 2008

ratingfbads.jpgAccording to ReadWriteWeb, Facebook has quietly added the ability for users to vote up or down on ads. RWW rightly calls the majority of advertising on Facebook crap. I couldn’t agree more. I spent the day giving thumbs down to the majority of the ads I saw. The lack of targeted, relevant advertising is stunning for a company with a valuation north of $15 billion.

Geo-targeted ads, where the content of the ad is specific to your zipcode, are quite common these days. Unfortunately the lions share of geo-targeted ads are limited to dating sites. The ad you see here is somewhat relevant. I’m single and in my 30’s, but the next ad could just as likely be for hair-loss.

One thing I have noticed lately is that social networks about fishing have showed up more often. I guess I have fishing mentioned somewhere in my profile. However, I’m disappointed that I talked about going fishing on Cape Cod at least a dozen times on Facebook and not once did I see an ad with an offer local to the Cape. Talk about a lost opportunity. I purchased a ton of fishing gear before the trip, and not one dollar was earned via a web ad. Yet ads for hot women in Boston show up daily because that’s where money is in the eyes of advertisers.

How much of this can be attributed to the lack of mature targeting services on Facebook? We know their application interface leaves a lot to be desired for developers. I’ll have to take a look at what information is available to advertisers.

Soon I’ll be talking about how social networking profiles contain a wealth of information about members that isn’t being fully utilized for targeting purposes, intention and attention-based marketing. This is what’s coming next in the world of social media and online advertising.

Tags: -

Fake Jerry Yang

By David Evans on Jun 17th, 2008

This is brilliant. Fake Steve Jobs brings in Jerry Yang as a guest poster.

Tags:

Associated Press charging $12.50 to quote five words

By David Evans on Jun 17th, 2008

Making Light says:

The Associated Press … published a web form through which intimidated parties can give the AP money in return for “permission” to publish as few as five words. In this spirit, I will shortly be putting up my own Web form through which people can PayPal me money in exchange for my promise to not blow up the moon.

The Blogger backlash is going to be enormous. I cannot begin to voice how broken this model is. There is a middle ground similar to music licensing that is going to have to be worked out. Until then, the blogosphere is going to revolt. TechCrunch has already banned AP stories.

Tags:

Bunker Hill Road Race

By David Evans on Jun 16th, 2008

A few years ago I ran the Bunker Hill 8k road race. My time was 48:15 and average speed was 9:43. I ran it again yesterday and my time was 37:56 and average speed was 7:38. Progress!

Tags:

North Shore Technology Council Social Media Panel

By David Evans on May 28th, 2008

I just got back from speaking at the North Shore Technology Council. The esteemed David Cutler organized a crack panel of social media experts and we enjoyed talking to council members about all things social media.

I was in stellar company: Chris Brogan, Mark Doerschlag and Jim Dowd rounded out the panel, all smart guys doing amazing things in the social media space. I really enjoy speaking with business owners trying to make sense of the web 2.0/social media world and hope we gave them something to think about as they go back to their companies to talk about social media initiatives.

Tags:

White Label or Private Label Social Networking Vendors

By David Evans on May 19th, 2008

Web strategist Jeremiah Owyang is preparing for an upcoming report to help segment out the many vendors in the White Label or Private label social networking industry. Essentially, these companies allow brands to create their own social network (like Facebook) for customers, partners, or employees.

Are you a decision maker for corporate websites? Maybe you’re a web strategist, a web architect, a web marketer, or a web developer in marketing, Jeremy wants to know what you think is important.

Tags:

BlackBerry Curve Destination Alcatraz Scavenger Hunt

By David Evans on May 12th, 2008

RIM did a cool BlackBerry promotion this weekend in Boston. I signed up with a friend for Destination Alcatraz., which took place over weekend at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

What is the BlackBerry Curve Challenge: Destination Alcatraz? Good question! You will be tested in a scavenger hunt-style race where you’ll need to test your physical and mental muscles in a series of challenges, in order to complete the race. You will be given a series of locations with different challenges at each point; it is up to you to choose the order in which you complete them. The team that completes the most in the shortest time will win the challenge! Get ready to hit the streets for the BlackBerry Curve Challenge: Destination Alcatraz!

The scavenger hunt took 5.5 hour, featuring 12 locations including Fenway park, bunker Hill Monument and Harvard Square. My legs are still sore.

I would do the event again in a heartbeat. Scavenger hunts are a great way to learn thing about Boston even I, after living here on and off for almost 20 years, never knew.

Tags: -