* The second-annual Social Media Week is underway in five cities around the world.  If you’re reading this post from New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, or Sao Palo, you still have time to register and attend one or several high-quality events between tonight and Friday.

* In making the case that Facebook could become the world’s leading news reader, Marshall Kirkpatrick includes and explains this nugget: “Partial feeds are good for readers.”  On Facebook? Agreed. In an RSS reader? No way.

* Marcel Santilli is a talented social media and design guy here in Austin whom I’ve just started working with on some visual projects for the Social Media Breakfast series. Using some of Callie Richmond’s brilliant shots from our event in Austin last week, Marcel put together a collage and video (also below). Great stuff!

[RSS and e-mail readers: You may need to click through to the original post to see the embedded video]

[RSS and e-mail readers: You may need to click through to this original post to see the embedded video above.]

* Speaking of the Social Media Breakfast, the mega SMB during SXSW Interactive that I whispered about a few weeks ago is ON.  If you’ll be in Austin for “South by,” please mark down late morning/early afternoon of Sunday, February March 14. Venue, time, and program still to come.

* So the iPad won’t serve as the ultimate device for creating content. I’m OK with that. It’s still going to disrupt the heck out of how we consume media, and present “legendary” opportunities for sales and marketing. I can’t wait.

* Like Dan York, I’m stuck on the Foursquare fence. Yes, it’s fun having an ambient awareness of my social media pals and trying to unseat them as mayors (my current quest is to knock Terry Melle from his mayoral perch at Hill Country Bible Church Northwest). But … I don’t know that the gameplay is enduringly compelling (following “Bravolebrities” isn’t exactly my thing, for example). There has to be something more, right?

Share This

Zena Weist knows a thing or two about building and implementing social media strategy for big brands, previously with EMBARQ (outstanding case study!) and now with H&R Block.

That certainly means Zena will have plenty of “social wisdom” to dispense when she comes down to Austin this March for her second SXSW Interactive. But what else is she hoping for from the conference? Here are Zena’s Great Expectations in the latest installment of our “SXSWi 2010 Voices” series.

“Inspiring Conversations. Club House SMC. Connecting. Integrated Media Case Studies”

About Zena
Zena Weist is the new social and interactive media director for H&R Block.

Blog: Nothin’ But SocNet
Twitter: @ZenaWeist

Share This

Tweets linking to specific posts on BryanPerson.com haven’t displayed in the comments stream–until now.

Thanks to the updated BackType Wordpress plugin, which I’ve just installed and activated, “interesting” tweets only (not sure how this filtering will play out) back to my content will start appearing beneath the referenced posts.

You’ll also see a widget box at the bottom of every post allowing you to send an instant tweet about what you’ve just read.

This is a test drive, but let’s see how it goes!

Share This

Austin’s Jason Ford checks in as the Voice No. 5 in our ongoing “SXSWi 2010 Voices” series. Here are his Great Expectations for SXSW Interactive this March:

“Learn. Make connections. Introduce folks to FeedMagnet. Have a blast!”

About Jason
Jason Ford is an Austin-based entrepreneur and founder of the startup, FeedMagnet*. We like to bump into each other at coffee shops!

Twitter:  @JasFord
Website: Jason-Ford.com

* Disclosure: I am currently testing a free FeedMagnet pro account for my Social Media Breakfast site (not yet public).

Share This

* Len Kendall and Daniel Honigman launched an interesting collaborative blog on New Year’s Day: the3six5’s posterous. Here’s how they describe it:

“Every day for 365 days, a different person will write an entry about their experience that day. It doesn’t have to be about a specific topic, the key is that it somehow relates to what is happening in the world that day and how it relates to them.”

There are still some open dates for contributors later in the year, and I hope to snag one.

* The imaginative Pepsi Refresh Project starts accepting submissions tomorrow. If you have an idea to help your community, it could be worth as much as $250,000. Certainly worth brainstorming about.

* Speaking of brainstorming, that’s what I’m doing this week and next for a possible mega Social Media Breakfast gathering at this March’s SXSW Interactive. For one of the world’s biggest gatherings of innovators, geeks, entrepreneurs, and practitioners, I’d like to think we can organize a thought-provoking event to move the social media industry forward. Stay tuned.

* I’m not the only one dreaming big for SXSWi. Austin pal Tim Walker is considering a pep rally–a pep rally!–for his session on social media and sports. I’ll bring the bullhorn.

* Is open online collaboration and crowdsourcing putting a damper on innovation and turning our brains into “World Wide Mush“? Mitch Joel considers the question.

* Just how drastic was the digital advance for consumers in the recently concluded decade? Forrester’s Josh Bernoff has the numbers. (Disclosure: My employer, LiveWorld, is a former Forrester client).

* If 2010 is indeed the Year of Mobile, then ensuring your website is mobile-friendly should be near or at the top of your to-do list. Stumped on how to get started down that path? The Online Marketing Blog has a post with 9 good tips.

Share This

Jeff Cutler has broken the rules. And in the process, he’s added a whole new wrinkle to the “SXSWi 2010 Voices” series!

Asked to share his Great Expectations for this year’s SXSWi in exactly 10 words, Jeff gave me the 10–and then added detailed explanations for each of them.  That only made sense, as Jeff put it to me by e-mail, because his 10 words were “obscure and obtuse … [his] bailiwicks.”

It’s a good explanation, and I’m expressed by Jeff’s creativity…so the full entry stands! Here it is.

A vignette for the SXSWi 2010 by Jeff Cutler

1. Memories. Too frequently we fail to breathe and take account of ourselves in the moment. I’d be lying if I said I did this more than .0612943% of the time. But it’s still a hope.

2. Connections. I have NEVER (notice the capitalization), N E V E R ! ! ! ! Been part of a community that accepts people for who they are more than the social media world. Not the snooty press people (who I adore), nor the advertising geniuses (who all have god complexes and who I also adore), or even my closest friends from high school and college (I adore them too). Social media event bring out the quirky best in people and I am pumped to experience those connections again.

3. Schwag. Anyone taking part in this series is a blasphemer and a heretic and a witch…most likely…if they don’t reveal that free stuff (food, henna tattoos, hard drives, video cameras, Ford Flexes) are on their bucket list for SXSWi.

4. Seriously? Ten things? OK.

5. Knowledge. I really like to think I’m smart. I’m not. I just surround myself with brilliant people who have the patience to explain complicated stuff to me. Aside from Steven Hawking who no longer returns my calls, the rest of you have been fantastic and I expect and hope to get great info and insight from the conference sessions at SXSWi this year.

6. Money. As a professional journalist and social media pro, I think it behooves me to see if GamePlan Hayden, Greg Verdino, Aaron Strout, Robert Scoble, AOL and Mashable, Google and others want to buy my brain power. I will sell it to them gladly. All they need to do is feed me…a lot. And pay for my annual Tour de France journey to Europe.

7. Energy. Not in terms of switchgrass or corn syrup or even malt beverages. But I’m looking for–and expect to find–the organic energy that comes from a moveable feast of techies. I want to chat with Tom Merritt and Molly Wood and Gary Vaynerchuk and Steve Garfield and Julio Fernandez and Chris Anderson and anyone who might be able to spark an idea or further my motivation to live, breathe and work in the social media space.

8. Perspective. Without stepping into the fishbowl, you can’t tell what is going on with people who are literally off the deep end. I want to hear the fringe tell me about how they solved the mysteries of life by using social oomph or how Rippol.com is going to change the video landscape or even how Twitter is going to be purchased by Mike Langford and Tweetworks and then folded into an app that runs on a refurbished Apple Newton. I want the odd stories to inspire me to listen harder and learn more.

9. Booze. ‘enuf said.

10. Future. The model in this piece has been one-word bits, but I would say THE future if pressed for accuracy. I think the brains at SXSWi are the future. They are passionate and happy and giving and great. I want to glimpse the future here and then have the joy of living it. And maybe this one thing–the future–encompasses all the other things I’m looking for this March.

About Jeff
Jeff Cutler is Boston-based writer, content creator, and Twitter teacher. He made a splash at his first SXSW Interactive last year as part of the Innovators’ Road Trip.

Twitter: @JeffCutler
Blog: Jeff Cutler’s columns, essays, and opinions

Share This

Choosing and using good images is an often-overlooked part of blogging.

And that’s a shame, because compelling photos and other visuals can make your posts far more interesting and memorable.

If incorporating meaningful images for your posts is something you either hadn’t considered, or that you struggle with–as I sometimes do–here are three blogs and bloggers worth studying:

C.C. Chapman

It helps that C.C. takes brilliant photos and has a full collection of his own work to choose from. But what really impresses me about his blog-post images is how personal they are. C.C. is a creative and emotional guy, and that always comes through in his photo choices.

Ben Arment – History in the Making

Ben is one of my new favorite bloggers. He’s a masterful storyteller who likes to mix artful headshot closeups or stunning venue panoromas into his posts. The text entries themselves are usually brief–typically just a few paragraphs–but they’re chock-full of insight and questions to think about. And when Ben’s words are accented with such thoughtful images, they also ensure I come back to his site (or RSS feed) again and again.

Sam Lawrence – Go Big Always

Sam doesn’t blog often, but when he does, he makes an impression. His big, bold, and arresting images are a big reason why. That “Norman Naysayer” character in the graphic above is still burned onto my brain some 15 months after he first blogged about it.

Share This

Annie Boccio, who would have joined me on a SXSW Interactive panel all about Facebook had our proposed discussion been selected (we’re not hanging our heads, though!), is up third in our “SXSWi 2010 Voices” series.

Here, in 10 words, are Annie’s Great Expectations for what will be her second SXSWi:

“Learn something new, fun with great friends, eat some BBQ!”

About Annie
Annie Boccio is a web-presence consultant and designer at Pixel Currents.

Blog: banannie
Twitter:@banannie

Share This

Introducing a new segment on the blog today: Tuesday Tidbits. Here are five items that have caught my attention in the last 24 hours:

* Hard to miss the Apple Tablet fever these days. And hard to bet against it.

* Todd Defren is already delivering plenty of attitude on his blog–in a good way–in 2010. Exhibit A: today’s post on “no guarantees” in social media marketing.

* Chris Christensen (in photo at right), my LiveWorld co-worker for 10 more days, was one of the lucky ones testing out Google’s Nexus One before its official release today. His balanced review indicates there’s plenty to like about the smartphone out of the gate. 

* Speaking of smartphones, just how up to speed are you on mobile marketing? Creating a mobile version of your website and blog is good first step.  But there’s plenty more to come in what could emerge as”the year of mobile.” 

* Podcasting is far from dead.

Share This

Thanks to the magic of the MobilePress WordPress plugin I’ve installed, BryanPerson.com should now look a whole lot nicer on your mobile device.

Above are a pair of screenshots of the site that I captured on my iPhone. Neat!

What I like about MobilePress:

* Text is easy to read and the pages load quickly.
* Photos render well.
* I have the option to overwrite the title and description tags just for mobile versions of the site.
* Bonus: The default color scheme matches my blog’s just pefectly!

This edition of MobilePress (1.1.4) hasn’t been fully tested with my current version of WordPress (2.9), so there may be some pages that don’t render perfectly. But overall, I’m certainly pleased. Hope it works for you, too.

Share This