How do you follow people on Twitter?

So you can imagine it was interesting when I read an article on CNN from founder of Mashable, Pete Cashmore, on this very topic. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Pete at a variety of tech events, and a celebrity in his own right, is naturally a down to earth guy. Nevertheless, the article he wrote discusses how Twitter has altered the focus on specific celebrities and news agencies in their suggestion methods and now offers up categorized lists based on general interests.

Does this work any better?

Pete Cashmore seems to think it’s a step in the right direction. I’m inclined to agree, but I still feel like the suggestions are not people I would communicate with on a regular basis. More than likely I’m going to seek out local thought leaders and conversation instigators. Why should third party developers be the ones I turn to for niche suggestions, I think Twitter could be of great service if they did that from the start. Many new Twitter users are not typically well versed in the world of social networking, so third party developers are foreign to them. They make not seek out the latest Twi-(put your own ending, everyone else is) that can help them find specific people. Their only base of reference will be the suggestion lists.

So yes it’s a good first step, but perhaps more can be done. Pete Cashmore states that celebrities might see their follower numbers start to slow down due to this categorizing done by Twitter, and perhaps they will. Ultimately if people want to follow celebrities they will seek them out anyways. Personally, as much as I love celebrities, I’m looking to connect with real people that I can carry real conversations with.

What are your thoughts?

• Social Networking with 6rounds Expands Online Community – November 4, 2009
• Mashable: Non-stop Technology & Web News – September 13, 2008
• 10 Twitter Hashtags to Live a More Frugal and Sustainable Life – October 27, 2011
• JP Morgan Didnt Invest in Twitter – March 3, 2011
• How to Handle Several Twitter Accounts – September 19, 2010

Twitter De-stablizing Celebrity Presence originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Nsyght is a social search engine.

o not just offer up social search possibilities, but also offer up some great discovery methods for new content. When I first discovered Nsyght, it reminded me of an earlier company I reviewed called Worio which was a discovery search engine that had a lot of great social community aspects.

Nsyght offers social search via information based on the following networks: Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Flickr, Last.fm, Vimeo and Delicious. The unique aspect of gathering information from all of these sites is that users can create a social graph which is the true strength of this social search. The social graph is information pulled from all of your friends on the above listed networks, whether they are signed up with Nsyght or not, but because it’s information revolving around you, it’s graphed.

The graphs are definitely amazing, informational, at the very least interesting to view. Being able to distill information is a powerful resource as more and more data is being collected online and going through it can be extremely difficult. The recommendation engine is extremely powerful since it’s not just important to know who you know already, but who also might be in your line of interest to connect with.

Nsyght has some powerful legs to move on, and users that create their own profiles are going to get lots of information. I’m interested to see how this network plays out.

• Social Networking with 6rounds Expands Online Community – November 4, 2009
• Is Foursquare the Perfect Crime? – February 19, 2010
• Twitter De-stablizing Celebrity Presence – January 30, 2010
• Foursquare Fans Check-in via Desktop with FoursquareX – January 17, 2010
• Seesmic’s Acquistion of Ping.fm Secures Future Goals – January 5, 2010

Nsyght Offers Real Time Social Searches originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

It’s not uncommon to find communities where apathy has set in and people just don’t seem to care. Alternatively there are communities where the inhabitants take their voice to the streets, airwaves, online, anywhere that can give them a platform to be heard. CitySourced.com is now a way for you to take your civic engagement online, but more than that, you can be mobile and capture your concerns the moment they become a factor.

CitySourced.com offers users an iPhone app and a web app that allows users to report civil issues of serious concern (potholes, graffiti, trash, snow removal, etc.). Their mobile app is simple and easy to use and allows you to capture media and send your concerns straight to City Hall.

It’s meant as a positive collaboration tool between the community and the powers that be to enact change, and develop stronger ties with their constituency. It’s also an innovative approach to engage a new generation in taking part and sharing their concern in a way that is easy for them by using devices they already likely own.

What are your thoughts? Does a mobile app such as what CitySourced.com is offering compel you to take your community duties more seriously? Chime in and let us know what you think.

• Real Estate Professionals Join Online Community – November 22, 2009
• Personally Publish Self Works with Lulu – January 1, 2010
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• Waving Hard? You Need WaveNut! – November 23, 2009
• Streaming Music Online Via Browser – November 15, 2009

Take Your Civic Engagement Online originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

It was earlier this year that I reviewed an online community for pet lovers, and in that time span since, we’ve seen online communities pop up around the internet for just about any specific niche thinkable. Ning is a popular niche community building site, and in that popularity we’ve seen interests mix, people network, and relationships build. The arena of real estate is one such niche that is getting it’s online community presence established thanks to BiggerPockets.com, where investors, professionals, and afficionados come together to talk shop.

Locally, where I live, real estate agents have taken the social engagement philosophy seriously and have taken their properties to the web in words, video, and photos. Some have seen higher levels of success, but overall the experience has been a boom to business. BiggerPockets capitalizes on such individuals by allowing them to gather to chat, exchange, and explore ideas they have.

Four categories covered on BiggerPockets are:

1. Knowledge
2. Networking
3. Dealmaking
4. Marketing

With almost 43,000 people connecting on BiggerPockets, something is working right.  The market for real estate professionals has grown and many turn to it as their secondary or primary source of income. Communities like this allow for these individuals to grow and develop new ideas that they can use to increase their success.

If you’ve seen your own professional status increase due to a certain niche social community, let us know!

• Take Your Civic Engagement Online – November 23, 2009
• Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication – November 6, 2009
• Personally Publish Self Works with Lulu – January 1, 2010
• Linkedin iPhone Update Offers More Functionality – December 29, 2009
• ScreenToaster Joins Screencasting Competition – December 15, 2009

Real Estate Professionals Join Online Community originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Social networks as they exist depend on the number of friends you start off with and thus you expand your network based on your existing network and grow from there. For many, not having an online presence makes it heard to start a social network when there is no online network to utilize to start. For many this can be frustrating and for many becomes the reason why they do not adopt the social scene. What if there was simply a network that didn’t rely on existing friendships and paired you with new people based on your profile to participate in unique shared experiences?

• Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication – November 6, 2009
• Social Media Revolution – September 6, 2009
• Save your Photos, Videos and Documents in one Place with PhotoRem – November 7, 2010
• Free Black Icons Set for Social Media and Twitter – September 12, 2010
• Social Media Demographics – July 9, 2010

Social Networking with 6rounds Expands Online Community originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

There are a lot of bad websites out there. A lot.

Websites with 8-bit graphics seemingly ripped from Atari games, with laughable copy errors that immediately diminish credibility, and with such awful usability that you need a Dr. Phil intervention to calm down after surfing through the third-rate portals.

This is one reason I co-founded VOIS.com (pronounced VOICE), or Virtual Outsourcing is Social. Not only can VOIS’ collaborative approach to completing projects produce superior results – from slickly branded and intuitive websites to fun, traffic-churning widgets – but it can also make it more affordable for businesses.

Don’t get me wrong; this is not the business owners’ faults. As a blogger for a major food website, I can say first hand that these are good people with the best of intentions. But just because someone knows how to make donuts, pizza or surfboards, it doesn’t mean they should know how to create a compelling online storefront. And hiring expensive firms on retainer often isn’t a workable business model for small and medium-sized businesses, or even larger firms that don’t have the bandwidth to handle their current business needs.

That’s why VOIS seeks to connect clients with expert Web professionals – from designers to developers and copywriters – to work on a project basis. What separates us from other business match-making platforms is that we allow and encourage the clients and talent to get to know each other first by exploring robust online profiles and messaging back and forth.

Click-and-mortar, web-driven start-ups have also had to change their game plan, and VOIS was developed for these businesses, too. With start-up capital tougher and tougher to attract, it’s no longer feasible for someone to hire developer and a CTO, build an infrastructure from scratch, then roll out and ramp up a product. I’ve met many people who have burned through $500,000 before looking at a more cost-efficient way of doing things.

And I really feel VOIS is that new way of doing things. We’re keeping VOIS wide open in terms of the scope of projects we accommodate – no niche focus or specialized tunnel vision. This will help us attract more users and offer truly turnkey solutions for our users.

So as the VOIS community grows, fueled by this added interpersonal dimension, I look forward at seeing some truly amazing work forged through the power of online collaboration. In other words, no more bad websites, or half-completed start-ups that could have been the next big thing.

In fact, I think VOIS is the next big thing.

• iPhone App Reviews for Social Media News – March 2, 2009
• Build Better Relationships with Zentact – January 7, 2009
• Attack Of The Music Communities – April 8, 2008
• Washington Post Facebook Social Reader News Application – November 26, 2011
• Hong Kong Apple Store Tour – October 3, 2011

Stop Dreaming – Start Doing With VOIS originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

A solution, however, is afoot. Zentact, brought to us by among others, Eric Marcoullier of MyBlogLog fame, aims to collate your contacts into one place and allow you to share bits and pieces as you browse.

After signing up and adding in a few personal details, you can simply import your contacts from Hotmail, LinkedIn, Gmail and Outlook via a CSV address book and after a few seconds, they are on your system.

Next, and I highly recommend this, download the Firefox extension, all will be revealed shortly.

Now, the genius part. Each contact is taggable with their likes and dislikes and when a web page which has tags that match your contacts, if you installed the extension, a smart little box will flash up in the top right hand corner of your screen with the list of contacts who’s interests are relevant to the site. You can then send them a link and be merrily on your way. Remember, social.

Now the one down side to this is that if you have hundreds of contacts, it takes ages to go through them all tagging away. I’d recommend doing it bit by bit, adding tags as you go – this will take longer but does two things:

It lets you see who you will really be sharing with – there’s no point in having 300 contacts if you only ever talk to six of them regularly anyway, which means you can quickly identify those defunct e-mail addresses you’ve not used in years or people who don’t share common interests.

Secondly, it makes the whole process a lot smoother – you may like a tag binge, but frankly I’d rather be spending my time actually looking at what I came to see rather than typing in long lists of keywords, especially ones that are tricky to spell.

Now, it will take a while for you and Zentact to get to know each other, but the more contacts you tag and the more sites sites you send, the better Zentact becomes at recommending what is suitable for whom. This is a great service and especially suitable for anyone who is on a lot of social networks but can’t quite keep up with what is going on with who. Now you can build your relationships easily and stay in touch better.

We are lucky enough to have a handful of guest invites so you can try the private beta version of this site and tell all your friends about, which you can get by clicking here. Incidentally, you can tell your friends about it via Zentact and you can then invite them to join in this most social of networks.

• Crenk Interviews… Zentact – January 7, 2009
• Attack Of The Music Communities – April 8, 2008
• 3 Sites for Digital Holiday Cards – December 2, 2009
• Social Networking with 6rounds Expands Online Community – November 4, 2009
• Stop Dreaming – Start Doing With VOIS – March 12, 2009

Build Better Relationships with Zentact originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Myspace – Myspace is the king of all social networks and is leading the way in the music space. Everyone knows how myspace works, you sign up for a profile and then your able to upload 4 songs to your profile. Simple yet effective, because of how many artists are on the system. Additionally, myspace will be launching a new music feature in the coming months.

Bebo – Bebo who just got acquired by AOL for $850 million, is a big player in the social networking space. Currently, they are 3rd in the USA but leading the way in UK. The has the ability for bands to customise their profiles, and can even add songs to their profiles. However, doesnt have a music player at all and is very limited in so many ways.

Last.fm – Last.fm is a service that is growing every day. It is a service that keeps track of what music you listen to, and then helps you discover new music based on your preferences. Last.fm can be used to find new music, listen to music you already like, and get in touch with people who have the same taste in music as you do, discover new gigs in your local area. Last.fm also allows artists and labels to upload their own music and videos and promote them for free. As far as im aware only selected artists can now actually receive royalties from Last.fm when their music is played via their site.

Purevolume – Purevolume is probably the oldest music social network of the lot in this article. It has a sleak design and it is tailored just for artists. Unlike most other social network there arent poor quality ads all over the place and Purevolume is actually still strong when it comes to traffic stats and user participation. The site itself is still missing several features that are need by artists, but the overall feel is still top notch.

Imeem – Imeem is a new social network which allows artists to upload their music and actually make royalties via plays on the Imeem site. Currently artists need to have an agreement with Snocap, so that Snocap can track the amount of plays done on Imeem and then Imeem pays artists a percentage of the advertising revenue they receive.

MOG – is a social network that helps you “discover people through music and discover music through people”. Basically MOG makes it easy for you to find new music to listen to by using custom filters and personalized suggestions. The site is very similar to Last.fm, but has a few twists in their algorhythm. MOG also provides users with reviews, news and streaming audio. MOG also features a music TV that continuously broadcasts videos taken from YouTube.

iLike – iLike is another service that is similar to Last.fm, but has a nice twist that allows you to also organise your music. It lets you share music libraries with your friends, browse and sample their most played songs, and compare your compatibility scores. iLike will also send you music recommendations directly in iTunes.

JamNow – is a social network aimed at musicians that allows them to create audio content online in real-time. JamNow isn’t a site that simply makes you “post and listen” to audio content: its platform enables real-time music collaboration and lets you schedule live jam sessions and listen to musicians that are playing right in that moment.

Haystack – is all about finding new music through your friends and the people you think are taste makers or cool. You can browse music, pictures, videos and reviews of artists as well as build your own profile and personalize it with images and videos. They encourage artists to sign up directly or even through their labels.

Sonific – is a social network that offers a great way to promote your music, if you are an artist. It lets users put a free music widgets with your music on their sites and promote it to their own audiences, for free. In exchange, Sonific users get free music to use and listen to (download is not permitted) and make their site look cooler – while you get free advertising for your music.

Sellaband – is a music social network that turns the fans and listeners of bands into their producers, asking them to invest in a band or artist they support so that they will be able to get a recording opportunity. Every single investor that supports a successful band will take home a small cut of the profits made by them. Artists not only get financial support but also share 50% of the ad revenue coming from the free downloads of their music.

iJigg – is a online community that lets you comment on music and share songs. You can rate music and influence what becomes popular, as well as upload your own music to share it with the community and make new fans. You will need to decide whether to open a “listener” or “artist” account, which will give you access to different features (e.g. listeners can download free mp3 of their favorite music, while artists can upload their own music).

Flotones – is a monetized social network for artists and their fans. The best features is the ability to promote and distribute content via mobile phones. For example a band can do ringtones and mobile wallpapers. After registration you will be able to promote your content at your gigs and even on your social network profiles. You’ll be asked to sign a contract before getting paid.

Overall:

Out of the list above i think the key sites to sign up to are Myspace (overall largest reach), Purevolume (music specific), Last.fm (but only if you have royalty agreement with them), Imeem (royalty collection on streams and growing in traffic) and Sellaband (potential to receive investment money).

• Build Better Relationships with Zentact – January 7, 2009
• Music Startups Musicians Should Use on a Daily Basis – March 19, 2011
• Soundcloud Growing Past One Million Users Globally – May 18, 2010
• Digital Music Distributor RouteNote Signs Three New Online Music Stores – Deezer, Napster, Thumbplay – January 29, 2010
• Personally Publish Self Works with Lulu – January 1, 2010

Attack Of The Music Communities originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook