Will Apple Buy Twitter? Nah

There's a lot of speculation buzzing around the usual channels that Apple is considering buying Twitter for around $700 million. I gazed off into the distance, frowned and rubbed my chiselled handsome chin for a few seconds while pondering this rumour -- and I think it won't happen.

Here's why.

1) Twitter still has a long way to go yet in its development, and the guys that created it will be kicking themselves in a few years when it's worth at least a few $billion;
2) To sell out now is an admission that, well, Twitter really couldn't make any money after all;
3) Apple likes to control its own apps through the channels it chooses and allows -- I think Twitter is too much of a wild card. It's past the "early adopter" stage now = once Oprah joined, and Mr. Demi Moore [lucky bugger] gained over a million followers, then even more developers are going to start grabbing the API and taking it into a whole world of new directions that might make Apple a tad uncomfortable;
4) I don't see an iTweet device in the near future ... but just in case, I went to buy the domain name and of course, it's already gone;
5) Google would offer more.

Disclaimer: I have no stats, leads, insider contacts or other real research to back up the above statement. But just to prove I'm a good sport, my parrot Herb has agreed to dance for you on my webcam if Apple DOES indeed buy Twitter in 2009.

How To Get Your Name Mentioned A Lot In Social Media

It's not that hard to gain some good exposure in social media these days. Every day tons of new people join the fray, and via services such as Mr. Tweet or WeFollow, they can find you and follow you if they believe you add value.

A lot of these services can be a pretty lazy way to get your name RT'd a million times. Follow Friday is another good example of getting your name in front of new followers, via someone else's recommendation.

Why not organize a Tweetup or an Unconference in your area? You'll meet @yourfriends face to face in a sea of laptops, possibly at a university or pub, and as the organizer, your name will be the HOT TICKET for a while -- until somone hijacks the #hashtag, organizes their own event and steals the limelight. Ah well, social media is a fickle beast.

Or, write a best selling book ... and then you have carte blanche to blog semi-nonsensical social media nuggets of wisdom such as, "Start a network. Be the network. Do it. What's stopping you?" or "If we all just listen, then who's doing the talking?" People lap this up, and it will be linked to a million times.

Give back, but -- HELL NO! -- don't take. Spend all day tweeting, blogging, webcasting, chatting and pinging your help, advice, thoughts, top 10s ... until .. oh s**t! ... it's already 5 p.m. and I haven't done any work! But at least you'll rise in the search engines as a social media guru.

As a last resort, you can always be a consultant and teach people all the above.

Why Social Media Consultants Should Be Scared

I'm discovering that a lot of companies/clients still aren't aware of social media. That's good news (more biz opps for consultants) and bad news (they are missing out on more biz opps for them).

I don't think we've reached the tipping point yet, but I can envisage this conversation:

"Hi there. I'm a consultant. Need some help getting started with social media?"
"Nah, got that covered thanks. What else can you offer?"
"Umm."

Apart from being the shortest new biz pitch in history, that also shows that even though we think this "gravy train" (for want of a better disrespectful phrase) is going to last for ever ... it's not. What other skills do you have? Can you write? That's always handy. Can you do research? That's useful too.

If you concentrate on only one discipline then you are going to get left behind. It will probably be sooner rather than later, actually.

Curveball

I got thrown a bit of a curveball yesterday that sidetracked me for a day, and it's something I may want to discuss in the future -- we'll see.

As of today, I had coffee with my fellow entrepreneur and signed off on some equity in a very cool green start-up that we'll be launching soon. Will blog it once we get closer to the alpha stage.

Totally Biased Heritage Toronto Advert

My wife is the director of communications at Heritage Toronto, an excellent agency that works very hard to make sure old Toronto is given the respect it deserves.

Tomorrow they start their season of FREE walking tours. Check it out.

Yet Another Pointless Post About How To Use Twitter

[Social media "experts" would charge $1,000s for this info, but in the spirit of social media, I am giving it away for free. Please pass it around, and yes, I am appearing in a city near you soon.]

1) Go to http://www.twitter.com/
2) Search for the box that says "Get Started -- Join!"
3) Join.

Deep breath. You're in. Start tweeting to your heart's content.

You'll start to discover a lot of blog posts about which people you should follow? ... should you follow someone if they follow you back? ... is it OK to talk about your brand? ... do a greater amount of followers mean you're popular?

Yes and no on all of the above. The thing about Twitter is you shouldn't follow anyone's specific advice about how to get value from it.

So you only have 10 followers? Are they all loyal customers who buy from you on a regular basis and you like to chat now and again? -- Great! It's working for you!

Do you have BIG FAT ZERO followers, but you follow a load of people? Do you learn something from their tweets about how to make your life, or your business better? -- Great! It's working for you!

"Don't do this." "Don't do that." Blah.

Just do.

The Ten Social Media Commandments

Thou shalt not auto-DM me with free offers when I follow thou;
Thou shalt not kill your brand in 24 hours by offending thy mommy blogging community;
Honor your customers and engage with their needs;
Thou shalt not make of yourself a false avatar;
Thy will not covert your neighbour’s friends on Facebook;
Thou shalt not steal useful tweets without an RT;
Thou shalt nor bear false witness to YouTube comments such as "BigDawg pwned yo mom!";
Remember thy Follow Friday to keep it social;
Thou shalt not take the name of the Fail Whale in vain;
Thy will not blaspheme in blogs on how Twitter can make gold, it is a false prophesy.

Earth Day Canada

Five Reasons Social Media Is Like Curry

1) People are a bit nervous to try it at first;
2) You can start off slowly, get a taste for it and then attempt the stronger stuff;
3) It's good for sharing;
4) You'll get differing opinions on different types of dish;
5) It just won't agree with some people's tastes -- but they'll swallow it anyway.

... and a bonus 6) It's really hard to determine what the "return" on your investment will be.

I Don't Want To Be A Twitzophrenic

So, here's the deal. I have a personal Twitter account @johncarson that I've cultivated and followed/been followed by some very cool people. Use it every day, listen, learn, talk, pass RTs around etc. All good.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I am now involved in two start-ups (actually, one is more of a website) that [fingers crossed] will be launching soon. I grabbed the Twitter names so they're safe.

Now, I am deciding whether to actively start using those separate new accounts when the sites launch -- pros: branding, clarity, transparency / cons: starting from scratch -- or, stick with my personal Twitter account and go into transparency mode whenever I chat about the two new sites. There are some people that I've built relationships with since joining last year, and I'm reluctant to begin all that again.

I look at the great work someone like @RichardatDELL has done, and think that might be the way to go. Then I think, if Richard left Dell, what would he do with that very specifically-named account. Would he keep it for his next role (awkward for, say, HP if they hire him!) or would he start from scratch?

Any advice? Please tweet me or post in the comments for others to read too. Thanks.

Facebook: The Electric Friendship Generator

GreenOunce

Need opinions please. If you heard of a start-up called www.greenounce.com, what do you think it would be about? http://bit.ly/uSsf

Case Study: Private School Learns To Embrace Social Media

I originally wrote the following article for this site: http://www.edsocialmedia.com/2009/04/case-study-upper-canada-college/

Upper Canada College (UCC) is a private boys school founded in 1829 and located in Toronto, Canada. It is widely regarded as one of the premier schools of its kind in North America, with a student population of around 1,040 day boys and 90 boarders.

I worked there on a contract from June 2007 until May 2008 as the College's Acting Communications Manager. It was my job to write and produce the monthly e-newsletter, Connection, and to write and edit the monthly alumni publication, Old Times. I also wrote news for the College's website, press releases, helped the Advancement department with brochures and its fundraising efforts and also liaised with the press as required. It was an excellent experience.

There was one communications strategy missing that I thought UCC definitely had to pursue: social media. After 178 years(!) it was time for the College to embrace Web 2.0. More of UCC's advocates were online, including parents, students and donors, and the Communications and Advancement team thought it was very important to engage with them in this way, alongside the traditional direct mailings and brochures.

The UCC community is made up of many facets, not least the graduates. They are known as "Old Boys" by the College. The Communications and Advancement team has a very comprehensive database to keep in touch with Old Boys, and holds regular reunion events in Canada and around the world.

I am a very big LinkedIn fan -- been using it since it launched -- and knew that creating an Upper Canada College Alumni Group was the first step. It took minutes to set up, a few days for approval from the LinkedIn administrators and the best part? Zero dollars.

We promoted the new group in Connection, Old Times and various other school brochures. That got the membership off to a brisk start, but online word of mouth soon spread too between the alumni, and to date, there are 328 members of this group. It's also been a boon in helping graduates connect with current students using the UCC Common Ties Mentorship Program; the career-focused nature of LinkedIn was a natural fit for this initiative.

The Group has an "invite only" policy, and new members have to be approved by an admin that is familiar with dealing with the Old Boy community.

The next phase was to set up the Upper Canada College Group on Facebook. Again, it took minutes to set up with no cost involved. We promoted it in all the usual channels as mentioned above, but because of the "fun" nature of Facebook and the amount of students that use it, this approach was extremely successful -- there are now 909 members.

The Communications and Advancement team has used this group to great effect, sending out reunion and social event invites, helping Old Boys to reconnect with each other and announcing current news about the College.

As with all Web 2.0 concepts, there were some detractors, and some "unsavoury" Facebook groups had also been set up that mentioned UCC. With social media tracking tools, it was easy to find these and engage with the creators to request that they be toned down, if not closed. Some admins agreed -- some did not ... but at least we knew who was saying what about the College.

For example, when the College announced that it was contemplating ending the boarding program, a tradition that had stretched back to the school's founding, a groundswell of differing opinions erupted on Facebook. We monitored those conversations, directed people to send their opinions to the College's Boarding Task Force via a dedicated e-mail, and collected these as part of the official outreach. In June 2008, the Board of Governors announced that the boarding program would be retained and revitalized; I like to think that the decision was based not wholly on Facebook feedback, but at least in part.

We also created the Upper Canada College video channel on YouTube, and to date, the 11 videos -- ranging from recruitment drives, to student music to fun sketches -- have achieved nearly 15,000 views. Not bad for zero investment; just a passion and commitment to using Web 2.0 as an added strategy to reach the community.

The comments are monitored, and have to be approved by an admin before being published. We didn't see this as censorship, but the simple fact that strangers posing under false names and slurring the College was detrimental to the community feel that we’d worked hard to build.

These initiatives were recognized by our peers, and in 2008 UCC was awarded The Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education’s 2008 PRIX D'EXCELLENCE Bronze Award for Best E-Innovation in University Advancement and also the Council for Advancement and Support of Education 2008 Circle of Excellence Bronze Award.

The Race Is On!

I've decided to throw my name in the hat and join the race to beat @aplusk and @cnnbrk to be the first with a million Twitter followers.

If I can just acquire around 998,789 new followers to @johncarson in the next week, I think I can just squeak in!

Green Is The Word, Is The Word That You Heard, It's Got Groove, It's Got Meaning

I've always been a hippy ... a hug-a-tree kind of person, but haven't really pushed the boat out much as an advocate, apart from selling raffle tickets for an animal protection charity when I was a kid.

So, exciting news. I had a coffee today at my new office in downtown Toronto and met 1/3 of a new, green tech start-up. I say 1/3 because the other 2/3 was off in Europe, and the 3/3 is now me. I have been offered equity in return for handling the PR and communications strategy around this new venture. I hope that social media will play a big part.

I believe it is a very cool concept, and one that is long overdue in this world of Car Company Big Cheeses flying to their bailout hearings in their private jets. People losing their homes and paying taxes to help the big financial institutions.

All I can say is that there will be trees involved. So, get ready to hug a few and make the world more tolerable.

He Blogs ... And He Scores!

I think it's great that Toronto has a mayor who blogs about TFC games on Facebook.

Smak My Pitch Up

Gina Mom pitched me via Twitter about SmakNews, "a social media platform for 'women only,' where you can find the latest scoop on the 'who's who' and 'what's what' of celebrity, fashion and great buys." It launched on April 5, and I am assuming -- and correct me if I'm wrong, Gina -- that the site thrives on people enjoying smackdowns with celebs, hence the name?

It looked interesting; a Digg-style concept of voting for gossip, blogs and user-generated content. I signed up to try it out, and chose the user name johncarson, all well and good, got a confirmation e-mail:

Hello, johncarson. Your account at SMAK News has been successfully set up. Please keep the below information for future reference: Username: johncarson Password: (password choosen when registered)

So, I went back to SmakNews and tried to log in. Wouldn't let me. "Error! Incorrect username and password." Tried again, in case I'd typed it wrong. Same error message.

OK, I thought, give it a chance and use the "Forget Password?" option ... which I hadn't forgotten ... but reset it anyway. Got an e-mail with a new temporary password, and tried to log in again. Wouldn't let me. "Error! Incorrect username and password."

So, I gave up. Smak on the wrist to them!

What Will Replace Social Media?

I do my best musing when I'm stuck in a boring situation and have no choice but to fire up the old brain cells: the treadmill, in the shower, getting my hair cut. So, as I was sitting in the chair around 30 minutes ago getting my monthly buzz cut -- #3 on the top, #2 on the sides -- I thought about the Google Alerts I've been getting for years.

I have quite a few set up, including one for mentions of my favourite band, Pink Floyd. Even though, unfortunately, they won't tour again, I still like to read news and comments about them. The little snippets of info and conversations arrive in my inbox, and I scan them to see what's being said about the band. All cool.

So, my point is, that's been an available service for years. It's social media. I monitor the Internet looking for those mentions of a brand -- oops, I mean band -- and then talk about it with other people, or blog about it, as I am now.

Someone, in the last few years, uttered those immortal words, social media, and a whole new movement was born, encompassing everyone from nervous newspaper barons to excited PR agencies. Now everyone can jump into social media and get involved, if they want to.

But, this is now. It still has a way to go before people start to omit the words "social media" in front of their strategies, job titles, workshops, webinars ... there will be no need to specifically mention it. It will be built in.

So -- and thanks for bearing with me on this theme! -- once people get restless, they will start to label the NEXT BIG MOVEMENT as, let's face it, we all want to be early adopters, or at the cutting edge of communicating with each other.

What will replace social media?

And, on a totally but kinda related FYI, I just downloaded Google Toolbar version 6, and now, when you open a new tab in Internet Explorer 8 (yes, flame me) you get a choice of "most visited sites" similar to Google's Chrome browser. Very useful; saves me at least six seconds of my very, very precious time writing blog posts and getting my hair cut.

Yes, We Can See You

I really liked Mitch Joel's blog post yesterday about the fact that you're probably online, all the time, even if you think you're not. That's a pretty scary thought to some people.

Having worked online in some capacity or another since 1997 when I put myself out there with Kibbutz Volunteer -- yes, had some anti-Jew flames (I'm not, for the record, but why should I need to mention that?) and community forum hack attempts -- I'm pretty comfortable with how I handle myself online. It's the old cliche: would I be upset if anything I've sent into cyberspace appeared on the front page of a newspaper?

Nope.

Of course, there's some Facebook pictures of me dressed up as a giant ketchup bottle on Halloween, or enjoying a pint at my local with some friends giving me "rabbit ears" -- but, c'mon, if that hurts me as a person, or somehow implies that I'm not good at my job, then, well ... you're probably not the right employer or client for me. No offense. John has a personal life, and John has a professional life. Sometimes the lines blur a little, but not to the extent where it's worrying.

Obvious tip #1. Buy your own personal domain name now. Make it your central hub, personally or professionally. Take charge of yourself online. Others may be doing that, intentionally or not, so balance that out and let people understand that you know we can see you. Here you are. Represent yourself, your work, your interests and life (if that suits you).

Obvious tip #2. Realize that what you do online, those forums you flame people in, those e-mails that you send, those tweets that you submit, those photos you upload to Facebook, those dodgy sites that you frequent ... all those bits and bytes are travelling through someone's server. You are being tracked. Your IP address is stored somewhere. There is a permanent record of your online presence. So, make it count -- don't lie awake at night wishing you'd never clicked that publish button.

As I keep banging on, Web Who.0 began a couple of years ago. People are the killer app now. You're the content. Make it count.

PostRank Discovery Engine Beta Test

Carol Leaman, CEO of AideRSS, sent me a beta invite today to test out the PostRank Discovery engine, their new blog discovery site. I know it's beta, but there's some weird glitches that need to be ironed out.

The screenshot above is the top 5 ranking blogs for the search term "social media." I can understand Mashable and ReadWriteWeb being in there, but where's people like Chris Brogan?

So I found his details:

For some reason, his blog is listed as grasshopperfactory(?) and he has an engagement mark of MINUS 28%! We all know that Brogan is known for engaging with people online, so not sure why it reads as a minus number.

So, thought I'd search for someone else in the social media space: Dave Forde.

His name popped up OK, but it wouldn't let me click on it and check out his details, or subscribe to his blog. A one-click option would have been useful. Maybe I'm being too critical, and it was only launched today, but the overall experience seems pretty useful once the bugs are ironed out, and the rankings become more stable.

New Biz From Old Connections

You really never know when new business is going to come from old connections. NEVER burn bridges. Connect connect connect.

Example 1: I have done/am currently working on some promotional copy for Upper Canada College. Via that connection, another private school in Toronto pinged me and asked for some social media advice, so I spent the last few hours putting together a "shopping list" of choices for them. They've already dipped their toes in, but the potential is so much greater, they need more!

Example 2: I knew Ian Kelso from my days as editor of Silicon Valley NORTH back in 1993. Started connecting again last year when I was at GCI, and attended a few Interactive Ontario networking drinks. Got chatting to a Russian tech company about football (soccer to the locals). Anyway, lo and behold, got an e-mail out of the blue last week -- "We're launching a new venture, need some PR, thought of you." Cool. Had a brief Skype call to Russia a few hours ago and chatting more tomorrow.

Example 3. I worked at Beer.com a few years ago, and we featured an interview with an actress from a very famous film, although you wouldn't recognize her under all the special effects! Anyway, lo and behold part 2, I got a LinkedIn message today from her publicist -- she's starring in an upcoming horror series and they need to get the word out. So I am going to suggest some ideas there.

This all goes to show why it pays to make as many connections as you can, even if, at the time, it only seems if the other party is getting something out of it.

Karma baby!

Working On A Personal Project

I've been working with a couple of friends on a new website to launch very soon, hopefully at the end of April. I won't even call it a start-up. So far, we've invested $50 into it.

But, the excitement factor is what appeals to me as to whether there's a need for this site. And whether people will love it or diss it. I think it's better to try it and see what happens, than forever have regrets.

Ninja Follow

You know the story. You go to an unconference, meet a lot of great unmarketers, and then want to connect to them on Twitter. But you have a ton of @social @media @guru @names that you need to follow, and are feeling pretty lazy in entering each one.

Ninja Follow wants to ease the strain. Just enter your Twitter user name and password, add the @names to the text box (comma separated), and -- voila! -- Ninja Follow will follow them for you, or let you know if you already do. Because we forget sometimes, right?

The page is pretty sparse of info, but Whois told me these guys may be the creators.

Where The Fees Are

In recent times I was invited to sit in on a meeting whereby a vendor was unveiling a new advertising campaign. It wasn't that bad, not groundbreaking I thought.

What got me was that it took FOUR people from the vendor to unveil one piece of artwork. I think one was an intern and didn't even say anything. So, factoring in the cab ride from their office, the 30-minute unveil, and their cab ride back, you can bet it was a billable two hours.

I heard that this particular campaign was allegedly costing someone $19,000! That is crazy fees.

I sincerely hope for a future whereby we see an explosion of smaller agencies with a core of around five people that just hire freelancers and consultants, as needed, on a project by project basis. More nimble, faster to react, cheaper for the client, more work for talented people who may not be employed full time with benefits.

And yes, I am biased, as I currently work as a consultant.

Rick Roll You Can't Close Is Great For My Traffic

On April 1, 2008 -- a year ago -- I blogged this about the Rick Roll that you can't close. It was the fad at the time, so I jumped on the bandwagon for SEO reasons. It's not even up any more due to the guy running out of bandwidth.

Anyway, it's now #1 on Google and the reason most people come to my blog. FAIL! Or is it?

OMG! I Actually Made Some Money From Social Media!

I'm shaking with excitement as I write this!

Here's the story: I wasn't happy with the rankings that my website was achieving in the search engines, so this morning at 5 a.m. I tweaked the meta tags and some of the content to include some social media phrases.

I decided to add ones that I thought people would be looking for now, especially as social media is getting extremely popular. Some of these included, "Britney Spears gets on Twitter and it becomes a circus," "How to set up a Fan Page and encourage fans to actually stick around," "Video of the ShamWow guy cursing out a lighting technician who mistakenly walks on set," and "Chris Brogan weeps as he admits using a ghostwriter for the last three years."

Wow! Just wow. I checked my Google AdSense a few minutes ago and my site stats had hit the roof! It's absolutely amazing.

As the fake client in Harold the Jewellery Buyer's video says, "It was so easy -- now I'm ready to shop!"

Don't Be A Social Media Expert. Please. Don't

There are a lot of brain surgeons, calligraphers and armadillo breeders out there who can rightly be called an "expert." They have trained for years, have the experience and impressive credentials to back up their claim.

There are 277,000 Google results for "social media expert" and over 44 MILLION results for social media expert. (I did two searches, as the former is specifically looking for that phrase, especially if it's used in a job title.)

So, a few days ago I threw out the question: Do we need to add the words "social media" to job titles these days? The way things are going, clients who need some PR or communications work, expect the agency to include some social media strategy as a given. I wonder if it gives them some comfort -- or stomach knots -- if the person dealing with their account is a social media "expert"? Why does that person feel the need to add the E-Word?

Unfortunately for the E-Word people, social media is changing constantly. Fortunately for everyone else, social media is changing constantly. So that means, the minute you think you know *everything* about it ... guess what? It just changed! So, how can you be an "expert" now?

Granted there are a LOT of people who understand a LOT about it -- and you all know who they are if you hang around in the social media goldfish bowl long enough -- but these guys are constantly learning from each other, swapping tips and strategies, meeting offline at events and recommending other people to follow.

I honestly can't think of one social media "expert." If anyone can claim that right, feel free to contact me and make an offer for this domain name. I bought it on a whim, but now wonder too if domain names with "social media" in them are stating the obvious?

Man, I love this stuff.

Twitter Replaces "Replies" With "Mentions"

Twitter has now replaced the "Replies" tab with what it calls "Mentions." Now, you can find all references to your Twitter name even if it doesn't appear at the beginning of the tweet.

This is one enhancement I've been waiting for.

Twitter Needs Someone To Be A VIP Concierge

Twitter is looking for a full-time person to engage with celebrities on Twitter, make sure they're happy and also to encourage new ones to start tweeting. Won't pay much (by Twitter's admission) but could be a sweet gig.

Apply here.

HT: TechCrunch.

Welcome To The Isle Of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a small island off the south coast of England. Cold, rainy England.

What To Tell Your Mum About Twitter When She Phones

"Hi mum, yes, believe it or not that funny sleepwalking dog video from Aunt Mabel can screw up your computer. It's called a virus. And no, she probably didn't send it either, that's a spam bot. No, not a spam hotpot.

"OK, where were we? No, mum -- Twitter is not full of twits. So, what is it then? Hmmm. Good question. Put it this way: we're talking on the phone together right now. We're catching up and swapping our latest news. Twitter is exactly the same ... with two differences.

"Firstly, you write your updates instead of talking about them. Secondly, anyone can listen in, and they can respond too if they want. Don't worry mum, if they're like the nosy old guy across the street who talks about his cats all the time, you can block them from seeing your conversation. And you know what else? If you really get to like your neighbours, you can follow them and see what they're talking about. And they won’t mind. Yeah -- I knew you’d like that part!

"OK, I know you're keen to start chatting to people, but slow down a bit. You talked for too long then. There's a word limit on each piece of the conversation. In fact, mum, it's only 140 characters to be exact. Don’t panic, you'll learn to get to the point.

"And you know that gossip you like to pass on over the garden fence to Mrs. Scratchett. Guess what? That's called a ReTweet. It's a great way of spreading some news, and someone else gets the credit. You may even get noticed on Fridays if someone recommends you as a Follow.

"So, mum, do you understand more about what Twitter is now? Great. Now can you please pass me to dad, he wanted to know how to make some beer money off social media.

"Hello? Hello?"

Captain Obvious, Third Office On The Right

Do we need to add the words "social media" to job titles these days? Isn't it a given? Just throwing it out there ...

PitchEngine Gets First Investor

A simple status update on Facebook: "PitchEngine just inked first investor. bootstraps loosened, engine refueled. sky's the limit."

Great news for PitchEngine and its founder, Jason Kintzler. I've been touching base with Jason on and off since last year when I looked at PE for some client needs. He's a decent guy and always responds in a prompt fashion. I'm curious to see what's coming down the line for PE with the extra funds.

That brings me to the issue of mixing my social media contacts. I am linked to Jason (and a few other bloggers, influencers etc.) on Facebook. But there's only about eight people in that "professional friends" group. When I add them, I mention the fact they'll see photos of me with silly hats on and a pint in my hand. If that doesn't scare them off, then they're in my (online) personal life.

I only have professional contacts on LinkedIn and Twitter, with a few exceptions. The friends who aren't on those two networks won't mind me saying that they "don't get it," "see no value in it" or "haven't checked it out yet." That's cool; they are all very successful and happy people in their own careers, and don't really need to be on a social network.

But that doesn't stop me trying to introduce them to that world! I believe once they dip their toes in, it will be like a light dawning and they won't look back at how useful these activities can be.

Until then, I'll see them on Facebook and everyone else on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We Don't Need No Education, We Just Need Some Follows

[Apologies to Pink Floyd for the lame pun attempt above.]

The Guardian reports on a story that British kids "will leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication." This is an excellent move by all those concerned in drafting the proposals.

Stories abound of students using out of date textbooks and reference works, so by the time they enter the workforce they are already behind. This seems a bold move to introduce the kids to new forms of communication, such as social media, at an early age so they can familiarize themselves as soon as possible.

People Are The Killer App

I just read Jason Baer's interview with Beth Harte, and saw her quote: "@bethharte: It's about the 'who' not the 'what.' People want to connect with ppl."

As I said in the comments section ... "Finally!" I was referring to my post back in December 2006 about Web Who.0. Just now, at 12:17 a.m. (I am a night owl) this thought struck me:

PEOPLE ARE THE KILLER APP. (Yes, caps lock for me shouting in realization.)

Social media is just the software really. It has no life without its users. Sometimes you get a successful reboot, or sometimes the Blue Screen Of Death, but when something really great happens, then people are the one app that will always be needed, no matter what comes along in this exciting wave of transparency, immediacy and community.

Press that On Button and install some People into your daily life.

It's Not The Size Of Your Twitter That Matters

Important stuff first. Had a great meeting this morning at Fran's greasy spoon with a LinkedIn contact. He owns a design company and has a roster of non-profit clients needing some social media help, so I "pitched" my services over a relaxed brunch. I love those types of meetings = informal chat, get to know each other, see where it goes. If nowhere, at least the coffee was great!

Next up, Dave Fleet has a really good list of Canadian government departments using Twitter, some missed opportunities sprinkled in there too. Working with Ontario's Ministry of the Environment at the moment, I like the way things are going. It's time.

Finally, there's no other way to ask this, but how does your Twitter penis measure up to mine?

CP24 Viewers Don't Use Twitter Much

I watched CP24 (Toronto's local news channel) at lunchtime today; they were discussing Twitter, its uses, pros and cons etc. There is a poll on the website that I voted on, but was astounded by the low numbers of CP24 viewers who use Twitter -- only 10%, from (as of writing) 3,567 votes.

That really surprised me as I thought Toronto was one of the social media hubs in North America. I know that Facebook has a large chunk of Torontonians, and that people are still finding their feet with Twitter, but still ...

Or am I too expectant? Anyway, screenshot below and here's the link to the poll.

Senior Vice-President Of Space Invaders

What a cool job title if it was real! (And maybe -- unofficially -- it was for Toshihiro Nishikado, circa 1978, the lucky developer of the game at Taito. Must have been great going to work on the world’s most popular video game at the time.)

So, job titles in this social media day and age. Chief Engagement Officer? Not new, but has a nice ring to it. Social Media Manager? Hmmm, not so good -- no one in social media wants to feel like the conversation is being “managed” or “guided,” however subtle.

More specialists are being sought in this field as companies feel the urge to jump on board, listen to their communities and get involved. What is an apt title though? Social media will be here for a while, but if not, and there’s a new fad on the scene next year, who wants a job title that might be out of date in 12 months? Is it better to be specific when calling yourself a Social Media Specialist to ensure you are relevant for the here and now, or do you play safe and plan ahead, go a bit more generic, say Digital Media Specialist? [My most recent title was picked for me, full disclosure.]

In the past, everyone knew what the CEO, President, Vice-President and intern did -- the titles were in daily use, and everyone got used to the hierarchy. But now, there are more Conversation Analysts, Community Managers and Social Media Strategists around. Can people pick and choose their own, or will the market level out and we all agree on titles?

Be realistic, choose wisely … or you could be yesterday’s Senior Vice-President of Space Invaders.

It’s Hip To Be Square

I’ve been working with Echo Communications for a couple of months on a consulting basis. They are involved with the social media PR for Nissan’s new car, the Cube. I haven’t worked on this account; it’s being handled by Tony Chapman at Capital C.

Jennifer Wells at the Globe and Mail gave it a cool mention today.

I’m giving it a shout out as it’s interesting to see how the landscape is changing as more brands move away from traditional PR, or, at the very least, automatically consider social media as part of their strategy. It’s not the latest fad any more ... it’s here, it’s staying and it’s very exciting.

So guys, if you have your blog monitoring set up as I expect you do: Good luck!

Make Money In Social Media On April Fool’s Day

Toronto, April 1, there are three consultants telling you how to make money in social media, once they’ve charged $25-$35 for tix.

Registration does include one free drink: mine’s a Margarita with a large pinch of salt please!

http://toronto.iabc.com/events/eventDetails.asp?EventID=77

Please Do Not Summon The Fail Whale

Questions, Questions, Give Me No Answers, But To Cut A Long Story Short I’ve ... Started Blogging Again

I was out shopping this morning and an old guy stopped me on the street and asked: “John, why on earth did you stop blogging on a daily basis? Why?” I thanked him for his question and went on my way. It did get me thinking though.

Why did I stop blogging? Actually, I didn’t. I just wasn’t writing so much here; most of my blogging was at GCI Canada’s blog (which has since been taken down, shame) or commenting on other people’s blogs ... which to me is still blogging, as I put as much thought into my comments as I do my own personal posts, otherwise what’s the point, right?

So, today I am back with a vengeance, serving this blog’s readers (hi mum) with the regularity they deserve!

I started Make Johnny Cash back in November 2006 after getting laid off, and used it in two ways: (1) to promote myself and document my job search, and (2) because I started the Beer.com blog (which has since been taken down, shame) and missed writing my thoughts every day.

So, I intend to write about Web 2.0, social media, the Internet, networking, cool people/companies/tech, curries and anything else that takes my fancy.

Today, I am kicking that off with a hat tip to a blog that has flown under the radar for a while, but gives a nice kick in the pants to the social media scene, and all of us that live in that little bubble. Let me introduce The Drama 2.0 Show. No idea who writes it, but there’s humour, insight and some swear words too, so it’s NSFW if you have a text to speech gadget on your computer at work.

This week alone, targets have included Andrew Keen, Michael Arrington and yesterday’s subject, Gary Vaynerchuk. As the writer says on March 12: “This is the shit you won’t find in Mashable.”

How true.

You Left Me, You Really Left Me!

Apologies to Sally Field for today’s title, but it seemed to fit in well with the theme of knowing when to un/follow someone -- not just in Twitter -- but in social media in general. It’s usually the case of full steam ahead in the beginning, adding people left, right and centre, only to find that … hmmm … people start to drop like flies after a while.

I’ve been using Qwitter for quite a while now, and it seems to work very well. It sends an e-mail update when a follower leaves you. And it also mentions the particular tweet that (possibly?) caused them to leave. I had two people depart after I tried to find a sad trombone sound. I mean, who couldn’t use a “Wah Wah Waahh” every now and again?

The upside is that new followers come in and take their place, so in the end the numbers even out. And the great thing is that the whole un/follow process means my Twitter community is constantly refreshing itself organically.

As mentioned before, I find a lot of value in following people that might not be in the social media or PR world. It brings a whole new raft of ideas to the table in learning how they become successful in their respective industries. Too much inward looking into the same fishbowl gets pretty boring and can make you stale.

Steven Hodson looks at the other angle: Could social media implode from too many friends?

He asks the question: “At what point does having all these friends become just ridiculous b******t because we really don’t know who these people are and for the most part we don’t care just as long as they follow us back?”

I can see Hodson’s point, but I thnk he is using “friend” in the wrong context. I have very few friends on Twitter or LinkedIn. I call friends on the phone and be social; I don’t need to see that they are having a coffee in Starbucks in 140 characters or less, or that they’ve updated their profile to say they now work as a director of marketing = I already know! If they really are a good friend then I probably bought them the coffee or provided a reference for them in their job hunt.

People too often mix up friends with colleagues with contacts with acquaintances (the latter is the most appropriate in defining the social media community: a. Knowledge of a person acquired by a relationship less intimate than friendship; b. A relationship based on such knowledge; c. A person whom one knows).

Friendships can take years to cultivate; acquaintances can take minutes.

Two New Clients

It's been an exciting couple of weeks for my freelance biz. I am now working on some projects for Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Silver Recruitment.

TinyURL Permanent Link

I just used the TinyURL custom tag to good effect: http://tinyurl.com/socialmediaconsultant

And The Winner Is ... (No, Not The Oscars)

It's always fun to take a break from work, especially with caption contests, and I got a nice surprise today here:

http://thenextweb.com/2009/02/20/facebook-tos-turnaround-caption-winner/

(All in jest, Facebook!)

Hanging At PodCamp Toronto With Some Cool People, Simple As That

Today I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time some people at PodCamp Toronto who I have been following for quite a while in the social media space: Chris Brogan, Mark Evans and Danny Brown. In particular, Brogan's presentation was very entertaining ... the jokes, chair kicking and free books he gave out to the audience just some of the highlights.

Each presentation was 30 minutes, tops. I actually prefer that format to the longer time slots as it keeps things snappy, the presenters have to get to the point and -- to me -- it seems to fit better with the "here and now" of social media.

People wandered in and out, sat on the floor, good-naturedly heckled and I found it to be a great networking opportunity, more so than mesh actually, although that was that a cool event too.

And the best part, it was all free. It's on tomorrow too.

What Google Says Can Make Or Break Your Career

My former colleague asked if I'd like to be interviewed for Computer World Canada, and here it is. Part 2 and 3.

Is There An Echo In Here?

So, as much as I enjoyed working at UCC, and will always help those guys out, the latest two-month gig ended last Friday, and now I am in a new role as social media / PR consultant for Echo Communications. Just launched our new blog here.

I had a coffee with proprietor Jodi Echakowitz a few weeks ago, liked her plans and ideas, we're on the same page regarding social media -- and this all stemmed from a LinkedIn connection.

There you go, the work IS out there, you just have to go out and find it. Don't let the media's doom and gloom scenarios get you down.

2009 Gets Off To A Nice Start

I haven't posted for a while as I put all my blog energies into this while I worked a seven-month contract at GCI Canada. Social media is the way I'd like my career to go if possible.

Currently doing freelance editing and communications for Upper Canada College. Got a great hit in Torontoist today for an event tomorrow night. Also have Candice Batista coming along to interview Severn Cullis-Suzuki for her show too.

Danny Brown was kind enought to mention a link of mine in his blog; Danny always writes intelligent commentary and is a "must-have" in my RSS reader.

As always, check http://www.socialmediagod.com/ if you need some help with projects!

My First Social Media Press Quote

Thanks to Marty Fahncke, I got my first quote in the press on social media. Small steps...!

The Changing Face of PR

Update

I haven't written a blog entry here for a while, reason being all my energy has gone into my day job. I love the social media world, and learn something, or make a new connection, every day.

So, time to join the start-up world: myself and two trusted friends have been working on a cool new site, soon to be launched. Very excited as I believe there is a niche for it. Details coming soon ...

Dorm Room Biz

I'm all for people trying to start a business for themselves -- one thing I have plans for in the future, working towards it!

So, a quick plug today for Dorm Room Biz. Check them out, I might win some stuff, it's a totally selfish act ;-)

Heard on Peter Shankman's HARO.

Coming Soon To A Website Near You

I am back in the entrepreneurial kick again, and purchased yet another domain name a month or so ago. A couple of my trusted friends are working with me on the idea, so hopefully it will pan out. Can't give much away, suffice to say that it will involve helping people.

Daniel Needs A Job!

I've never met the guy, but as my own blog proves, he is someone after my own heart -- so give him a job!

http://gottagetajobnow.blogspot.com/

Whyless Network

I bought a domain name last year with the aim of setting up a social network to help people. Ning offered that free option, so today I launched the Whyless Network.

If you work for a charity, need help, food, clothing, or just want to boost your good karma, then please consider joining the network. Give hope, not a poke!

http://www.whylessnetwork.com/

Please Send This To At Least 007 Friends

Triiibes Members LinkedIn Group

I signed up early for Seth Godin's Triiibes social network, and getting a lot of value from it. I took it a step further today and (with Seth's OK) started a Triiibes Members LinkedIn Group so people can connect on a more professional basis:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/162640/5F6B721E6F1A

Book Details A Real Life Story Of The Kibbutz World

My friend Adam Segal interviewed me about my time in Israel spent on a kibbutz and the resulting book. Click the link below.

http://www.canadasisrael.ca/?p=243

Do Ya Feel Lucky, Punk? Well? Do Ya?

Easier to find me now.

1) Go to Google.
2) Type john carson blog or john james carson.
3) Hit "I'm Feeling Lucky."

My Website Got Dugg ... Sorta

A website called Matador Volunteer linked to my kibbutz volunteer website, and just by chance, it was listed next to the Digg box with 696 diggs, so my traffic has shot up today.

http://matador.org/10-volunteer-opportunities-for-free-travel/

World's First Twebinar

I attended the world's first Twebinar today. My thoughts?

You can read them on my company blog here:
http://blogs.gcigroup.com/fineprint/2008/06/26/twebinar-1/

Wordle

The above image is a tag cloud I made from my resume using Wordle. I like it a lot.

You can click here to see the full version.

New Media Douchebags Explained

Shouldn't laugh. But I did.

In Good Company

I haven't blogged for a while at Make Johnny Cash as I've been busy blogging here.

Hey, I'm A Social Media Maven!

In Muscat, the Sultanate of Oman.

http://arunrajagopal.com/2008/06/04/are-you-that-guy-or-that-gal/

Little Geeks

The PR agency I work for does pro bono work for a good cause called Little Geeks. It was set up by Canadian tech journalist Andy Walker: http://www.andywalker.com/.

Little Geeks is a philanthropic organization and registered Canadian charity that collects, refurbishes and re-distributes donated home computers to children in need. These computers are given free of charge, and are coupled with an Internet connection at the child’s home.

On June 12 from 3 p.m.-7 p.m., The Little Geeks Foundation will hold an event and give refurbished computers, complete with Windows 2000 and Microsoft Office, to 100 families of underprivileged children, free of charge. This event, the first of many to come, is one way the Foundation is reaching toward its 2008 goal of 1,000 PCs delivered to the homes of the families that need them.

The event will be held at:
St Andrew’s United Church, 117 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 1A9

People with a child in need of a computer, can visit http://www.littlegeeks.org/ to register. Once qualified, recipients will be contacted by a member of the Little Geeks staff to attend this event and pick up their free computer.

Twitter's Business Model

Brian Alvey thinks he has cracked Twitter's business model. Genius!

http://www.brianalvey.com/news/2008/05/25/twitters-business-model/

A Chance To Be On Seth Godin's Next Book Cover

Seems like a cool opportunity.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/05/a-chance-to-be.html

It Ain't What You Do It's The Way That You Tweet It

I've had some more thoughts on the way Web Who.0 is going since my last post on the subject.

My contact list is growing steadily, and I've found it very useful recently in finding experts in a given field as part of my work. People are very approachable if you treat them as a busy person, with respect, and be succinct in what you need from them. A link? Referral? Advice? Just ask -- the majority will get back to you in a reasonable time frame; sometimes immediately if they're monitoring their own and/or company's name.

I love the interaction of the Internet. Someone mentioned PR being chained to a desk all day. It's not, really. I am looking out the window on the world, but strolling around the Web Who.0 and talking to people, swapping ideas, giving help, soaking up knowledge, picking brains, offering intros to my network for others. It's addictive.

So, if anyone wants to get in touch fast, here's a recap:

Freelance: http://www.johnjamescarson.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johncarson
Twitter: http://twitter.com/johncarson
Microsoft Messenger: kibbutzvolunteer@hotmail.com
Good old e-mail: makejohnnycash@gmail.com

John,
Running around inside a server somewhere near you.

Mesh 08: Enterprise = My Customers Shared

Day two of mesh was better than the first for me, as more of the sessions I attended were relevant to my work. The overall theme that came across was that customer satisfaction is paramount, no matter what business you are in, or starting up.

I came up with a formula to summarize that: e=mc2. (Sorry, Einstein.)
That stands for: Enterprise = My Customers Shared.

The point being that everyone in a company is facing the customer now. Not just the people on the end of a call centre line, the marketing department or the sales clerk. We -- whatever business you are in -- all face the customer, and should have the leeway from the Big Corner Office With Windows to interact with them, and make sure they're happy, without checking if it's OK with 10 levels of management, and oh yeah, I'll get back to you about that next Wednesday.

Some great people I met or listened to at mesh day two included Lane Merrifield (Club Penguin co-founder, makes sure every single customer inquiry gets a personal response from a real human being), Ali Asaria (makes sure that a handwritten note goes out with every order) and Garrett Camp (co-founder of StumbleUpon, still follows the same values now as he did as a start-up in Calgary).

Companies to keep an eye on: Enomaly, Overlay.TV and GigPark (co-founder Noah Godfrey was the publisher of Dose back in the day).

All in all, mesh 08 was an excellent event and a great networking opportunity.

Mesh 08

Opening day of mesh was great. Sold out. I've never been surrounded by so many people Twittering at once, or checking e-mails -- it was like a BlackBerry convention.

Got to listen to and/or chat with a number of cool people, including Michael Geist, Colin McKay (aka Canuckflack), Rachel Sklar and AmberMac.

Day two tomorrow.

Nice To Win An Award Part 2

My former boss e-mailed me today; my team won the Council for Advancement and Support of Education 2008 Circle of Excellence Bronze Award. Cool!

Marcel LeBrun, CEO, Radian6

I attended Third Tuesday Toronto this evening, and over a nice pint of Guinness, listened to some interesting and informative talks on how to monitor social networks.

One of the speakers was Marcel LeBrun, CEO, Radian6, a provider of social media monitoring tools. He said something along the lines of the company replying whenever they see their name mentioned in the blogosphere or social media space.

I thought that was very interesting, hence this post as a virtual invite. Marcel, if you come across this in the next few days, please feel free to add me to LinkedIn. David Alston is in my network too and it would be good to connect.

Tomorrow, I'm spending two days at mesh, should be cool.

Bloggy Award Review

Just found out that Make Johnny Cash got reviewed by a site called Bloggy Award, and got ... drumroll ... 8/10. Not bad, considering I'm not a full-time blogger. (I did get 10/10 for reading enjoyment which is nice.)

Click the image for the review:

Toronto Star Editors Asleep At The Switch

The last line is priceless. They feel the same way I do about clebrity gossip.

http://torontolife.com/blog/spectator/2008/may/15/toronto-star-editors-asleep-switch/

Bob Ross Is Back For A Cause

An example of how a parody can help a cause. Seems like a joke at first; watch till the end for the message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKcMfQrqC7I

Who's Mikey Boots?

"Who's Mikey Boots?"

I always remember that question from a college friend back in 1993. I was telling him about "my kibbutz" experience, and he misheard me, having no idea what a kibbutz was. I pointed him to my site and hopefully educated him.

Those two years I spent in Israel were great, fun, life-changing times for me, so it was nice to be interviewed about them for The Media Line recently.

Here's the article.

New Month, New Job

My contract was coming to an end at the College, so after an excellent year of working there, I moved on, and today started work at GCI Group as Senior Digital Media Specialist in their Toronto office.

It's an exciting opportunity, and I'm looking forward to it.

Facebook In Reality

This is what happens when Facebook turns up at your door. So true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrlSkU0TFLs

Does Anyone Know If Money Laundering Pays?

I got an e-mail today inviting me to be a money launderer. Does anyone know if it pays? Dental plan too?

"We are looking for canadians who would like to work from home in an administrative support function for businesses. I have a large amount of funds on numerous bank accounts which needs to be laundered. I need your help to do that. Many of our clients are small businesses and executives who are busy and on the go. Your job will be to: 1) Process payments and disburse to payment officers under you. 2) To send weekly reports on status of payments of transactions. Administrative Assistants can work full or part time."

I'm glad there's a part-time option as I'm already busy with my arms-dealing business.

CaseCamp Toronto 7

Really wish I could attend CaseCamp in Toronto, but I have a leaving drink the same night.

How Social Networking Could Kill Web Search As We Know It

A very interesting prediction from a "tuned-in venture capitalist" who says that we will be using our social networks more frequently in the future to find the information we seek.

I think it may happen too, actually, but not quite yet. How many of you have asked your friend on Facebook, "Hey Paul -- check out my photos of the trip to Vegas, and by the way, what's the capital of Denmark?"

OK, that's a stretch, but Google is still my first choice for finding information fast. The first result may not be what I'm looking for, but it generally leads me around the Web until I do find what I need. I love digging deeper into sites, checking out Whois.sc for extra leads about who is up to what, and generally using my gut instinct to know when it's all smoke and mirrors.

It's all about Web Who.0 baby!

Here's Tomorrow's News Today: Churnalism

"The Churner Prize (churnerprize) is now following your updates on Twitter."

Yes, I got an e-mail today that The Churner Prize is following my updates on Twitter. Notice how I just cut and pasted the above statement, again? That's called Churnalism, and it's when hacks are too lazy to research their stories and just copy what's out there already.

"The Churner Prize is brought to you by a crack team of UK journalists and, um, the odd churnalist."

That's lifted straight from their site as I'm currently on a deadline ... to get to the pub before last call, so haven't got time to research the people behind the The Churner Prize and find out whether it's kosher. [Legitimate; permissible: "consolidating noneditorial functions of the papers, which is kosher" (Christian Science Monitor).]

I copied that from Answers.com; only took a few seconds, pretty easy.

Great for traffic. Just goes to show you gotta be in the right place at the right time.

Grow A Pair

An excellent post from Rick Segal. Not working out? Grow a pair, step up and sort it out.

http://ricksegal.typepad.com/pmv/2008/04/when-you-apolog.html

[Disclaimer: I know Rick. Listen to the guy. He makes sense.]

John Carson
makejohnnycash@gmail.com

Nice To Win An Award

My team has been pushing the e-strategy at the College for a while, so it was nice to hear today that we won The Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education's 2008 PRIX D’EXCELLENCE Bronze Award for Best E-Innovation in University Advancement.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

[Snip from another site starts ...]

Have you ever wondered how much a Google employee makes?

Well this data isn't extremely easy to find, if you don't believe me just search Google. However, here is some interesting statistics.

Google Programmer in Phoenix - $174,000/year
Google Programmer in California - $197,000/year
Google Programmer in Chicago - $222,000/year
Google Programmer in New York - $242,000/year

[... Ends]

I'm curious how that stacks up to Facebook employees, and what sort of perks they get. Anyone got any info to share? Even anonymously?

http://www.cherryav.com/articles/technology/30-The-Googlenairs.html

Gels Gone Wild, Fake UFOs And Zero Budget

I have a lot of crazy ideas for videos, but zero budget, so tend to make them myself. Here's a couple I made for a laugh just to see if I could get some traffic to my website.

The Clearest Fake UFO Video Ever
I took this video last summer on my patio, with a pan lid and some string. No script, cheap digital camera, and no CGI used at all. (I know, it's hard to believe, it looks so real. Believe.) I stuck it on YouTube, Metacafe and Revver. It's had nearly 19,000 views so far from those sites, which is not bad for 20 seconds of bad filming. It's also been picked as the "fakest UFO sighting clip" by this site, which helps my traffic too.

Gels Gone Wild
I made this in 50 seconds with no production value whatsoever. The Girls Gone Wild creator (Joe Francis) was in jail, and making the news, so I knew people would be searching for that term ... and would make spelling mistakes in their searches. Lucky I had the props and technical know-how to get all the right camera angles on this one. Over 5,000 views, with my website URL front and centre. [Disclaimer: All the gels in this video consented to being shown, and signed consent forms.]

My point is that anyone these days can make a video, stick it on the Internet and drive traffic to their site. Just seed it in the right places. Not rocket science. It's fun too.

Secret Microsoft / AOL E-mails Found On Yahoo Search!

I've been following the Yahoo bidding non-war with interest, so thought I'd do a quick search on Yahoo itself to see what else I could dig up. I was quite surprised at the search results that came back.

Click on the image for the shocking results:

Meet The Internet Stars

The Star Wars Kid, Numa Numa Guy and Dramatic Gopher are all "stars" that had millions of views on their -- sometimes unintentional -- videos.

South Park, in its usual fashion, features some of them when the kids try to collect what they think is owed to them at the Department of Internet Money. Hmmm ... think I know that place! [insert knowing winking smiley icon here, I refuse to.]

Meet The Internet Stars

Quite Possibly The Fakest Viral Attempt Ever

Take two terrible actors, an obvious plot, throw in some gratuitous lingering shots of the company's name and you have the fakest viral video I've seen in a while.

What are you doing? What are you doing?

This Rick Roll Just Keeps Rolling Along

The Rick Roll. The viral joke of 2008 so far. I've been caught a few times, with links disguised as other things, such as "cool photos of my trip!" or "check out the sales figures for Q1!" or "here's a great recipe for muffins!"

[One of those is a lie by the way.]

So, I won't try and deceive you. Here is a link to a Rick Roll. I'm not disguising it. Just don't click it, you will regret it. But you will learn the words to Never Gonna Give You Up ...

www.internetisseriousbusiness.com/

UPDATE JANUARY 17, 2009: A lot of people are coming to this blog because of the Rick Roll. I am keeping the link up above in case the creator brings it back. In the meantime, you may enjoy the Benny Hill version here too:

http://james.nerdiphythesoul.com/bennyhillifier/speedup.php?id=oHg5SJYRHA0

UPDATE NOVEMBER 26, 2009: Thanks to Joe Scatamato for alerting me to this Rick Roll you can't exit easily:

http://www.rickrolling.com/

Also, this demonstrates how I can get website traffic from popular items of the day. I can do it for you too on a freelance basis, click here for more info.

Twitter

Finally got on board Twitter; curious to see if I get hooked on this. Very cool that I snagged my name at this late stage ...

http://twitter.com/johncarson

I Hate The Fact That I Bothered To Research I Hate Sarah Marshall!

I've seen a lot of posters on the back of Toronto buses proclaiming, "I hate Sarah Marshall!"

I smelled a viral, so I visited the website: http://www.ihatesarahmarshall.com/ -- it looks like a blog, cool, someone really does hate Sarah Marshall, and bothered to tell the world.

I then went to IMDB and found this, so I suspect it's just a promotion for a new film: Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Interesting enough to get me to learn more about it, so it's done its job.

Beer.com Seems To Have Gone A Bit Flat

The Beer.com relaunch took place a few days ago, and as the site’s former managing editor, I’d like to give my opinion on the new redesign. Unfortunately, I think they have missed a great opportunity to make it one of the best sites on the Net.

For starters, just the domain name itself is one of the most sought-after URLs out there. People search for it, link it, type it in their browser, stumble upon it. It’s worth millions in itself, and all you get now when you go there is very annoying scrolling percentage numbers of who likes what out of 10.

“The most exciting features we introduced with the new Beer.com are the abilities to comment and rate the content, so we encourage you to do that.” You mean, like Digg has been doing for years? I don’t see that as exciting.

The word I got is that six people were locked in a room with a plentiful supply of beer and snacks and told: “Revamp the site in a month.” That sounds like pressure to me, and not a very conducive way to plan, design and relaunch a major website. I wonder what the parent company -- dthree Inc. -- were thinking in setting such a deadline?

The fact that there’s three “Place Your Ad Here” boxes on the home page is not a good sign. Might have been cool to get some sponsors in place first.

My previous boss left the company a few months ago, and now I understand a former intern called Chris Balon is in charge of Beer.com -- that’s a swift promotion, and I wish him luck.

One suggestion I have for him is to bring back Virtual Bartender, the smash hit viral sensation that made Beer.com famous. For the life of me I can’t find it on the site; I might have missed it, but some of the comments from users reflect that omission too: “Please tell me that you guys didn’t do the STUPIDEST thing possible and got rid of the Virtual Bartenders? Please tell me that you aren’t that brain dead.”

A message from the Beer.com team says that they have a lot more planned for the future. I sincerely hope so, because it’s a shame what the site has turned into.

The Chance To Get Free Face Time With A Top Canadian VC

Rick Segal is a Canadian VC, very smart, and -- best of all -- very accessible. He doesn't sit in an Ivory Tower behind a fortress of minions. I got to know him when he wrote a column for me a few years ago at Silicon Valley NORTH about how to get funded, what start-ups should look out for, term sheets, that sort of thing.

He has just announced a series of FREE VC Roundtables across Canadian cities starting April 14, and asked me to help spread the word. I'm happy to do so. [I'm not getting paid with any kind of commission, by the way. I just think it is a golden opportunity for start-ups to pick Rick's brain for a few hours. As they say, space is limited!]

Here's details snipped from the site, with a registration link at the end:

Something's missing in Canada's tech community -- the chance to informally interact with VCs, learn about what it is exactly that they do and how the funding process works.

The VC Roundtable series aims to fill this gap, by hosting small (free!) get togethers across Canada's major cities where Rick Segal, JLA Ventures Partner and VC blogger (http://ricksegal.typepad.com/) will walk through what getting involved with VCs is all about.

What To Expect:
25 attendee limit
Informal/Free
About 2 - 3 hours in length
Information on VC/Angels and the process
Sample Term sheets, documents, business plans, PowerPoints
Example Pitch or Pitches to show what's interesting/good/bad
Lots of time for questions

What A VC Roundtable Isn't:
Demo/Startup/FooBar/Camp/Conference/MESH/MASH
VCs trashing your ideas
You trashing somebody else's ideas
Hours of PowerPoint slides

What You Will Leave With:
An understanding of the VC world as I see it (and I am a user group of one!)
A good set of reference documents/examples/materials
Some of your top of mind questions answered
A better feel for the VC industry and if raising third party capital is right for you

Click here to register.

28 Days Later ... Or Maybe Longer!

My journalist friend went for a job interview on January 3 at one of the largest Canadian media companies.

It went well, and he was called back for a second interview. That went well, too, and he was called back for a third. Cool.

Then, nothing. Not a peep. He had to call the company himself last week to find out that he hadn’t got the job. WTF?!

Why are companies so disrespectful to job-seekers by leaving them in limbo for so long, and then not even give them the courtesy of at least an e-mail to say they haven’t been successful?

Don’t put up with it. Don’t be a job-hunting zombie, shambling along with the others, seeking that elusive call-back. Don’t wait 28 Days Later -- call them first!

Two Words

Made a new video to promote my site, hope to get some traffic. If not, at least it was fun to make!

Two Words

John James Carson Dot Com

It's been an excellent eight months in my current role at the College. I have learned a lot about communications, and made some great contacts in the business.

I talked a while back about starting my own freelance business, so today launched my new website, www.johnjamescarson.com.

As you can see, it is very simple in design, but serves its purpose.

My current contract ends in July 2008, so I don't want to rest on my laurels. I want to see if all the knowledge that I've gained in the last 12 years of working in the media can turn into a full-time freelance business next year. This is the starting point.

Mission Accomplished

Today I accepted the position of acting communications manager at Upper Canada College, a great opportunity at one of the most prestigious schools in Canada, if not North America.

I always look for something new I can learn in every role I take on. I now have the chance to add communications and PR skills to my resume, work with a very dedicated team and also use some of the Web 2.0 experience I have to help UCC raise its profile. I get to write a lot too, something I missed quite a bit at my last job because I am a writer at heart.

So, my job search comes to an end. Until maybe July 2008 when the contract ends, but I'll cross that bridge next year.

Big question: Did this blog help me get a new job? In a word... No.

Did it raise my profile, increase my chances of finding a new job? Yes.

At the end of the day I found a job because of people I know who contacted me out of the blue. But the blog did not actually lead to that. It was fun to do -- especially the Metro article and being on CityNews TV -- but once I started taking on more freelance work, it got too much to keep up.

It was easy at the start when a lot was happening, job interviews and so on, but I found it harder to maintain as nothing different was really happening in my routine after a while once I had paying clients to put first.

Anyway, all that's just a personal insight. It was fun and I've decided to keep it open in case I want to continue it as just a regular blog. That way I have no pressure on myself to write stuff, only when I feel like it.

So, thanks for all the links, e-mails, flames and encouragement -- and thanks for reading!

Cheers,
John.