How-To Internet by Wired

Dying to crash a party via Twitter? Do you want to promote your band using Myspace? Ever heard of a "Google bomb"? The latest issue of Wired has answers to these questions and much, much more. The third-annual collection of how-to wikis is chock full of both humorous and practical Internet applications that will teach you everything from filtering private information on Facebook to becoming the top Geek in your niche.

Once you've figured out how to rule the online domain, I recommend checking out this timeline from Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV, whose 80,000 vlog fans forces him to keep up this grueling schedule:

• 12 hours, 12 minutes responding to email
• 4 hours, 24 minutes sleeping
• 3 hours, 1 minute taking meetings
• 2 hours, 29 minutes commuting
• 1 hour, 14 minutes connecting to fans via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Pownce, YouTube, Viddler, and winelibrarytv.com forums
• 25 minutes reading blogs
• 24 minutes eating
• 22 minutes producing vlog

Just a reminder - remember to come up for air (and sunlight).

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Main_Page

Speaking the Employee Language

If any company job page could make me want to work for them based on their message alone, it would be this one from Avenue A/Razorfish:

"You dream in digital. You're fluent in the technologies that define our world and passionate about the way they're shaping our future. You're a communicator. A creator. You understand how the Web connects us, and you want to shape the conversation. You're a restless innovator. You're not only waiting for the next big idea to happen, you're making it happen. You're a unique talent, a visionary, an experimenter, and you're looking for an environment that lets you shine. In other words, you're just our type."

Finally, a company that is really speaking the prospective employee's language. This description is like stumbling upon a horoscope -- even though you know it is the product of careful crafting and advertising-style copy, it makes you feel like you're being spoken to directly. It says, "they're talking to me! I'm a restless innovator. I'm looking for a place that will let me shine!" And isn't that the truth?

I know I am.

What The F**K is Social Media?

This is a great slide presentation! I don't think that I will share it "as-is" within my agency, but I plan on discussing some of the main points to help overcome some of my co-worker's reluctance to engage in social media. I especially like the idea that "the old communication model was a monologue" and "the new communication model is a dialogue." PR professionals should keep this in mind before they decide to pitch.

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Social Media - will it be made up of atoms or stories?

While reading the Young PR blog, I came across a post showing a photo of a New York Library street tile. On it, there is a quote by Muriel Rukeyser, who said, "The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."

As my engagement with the online world has been increasing at a rapid pace, I have started to contemplate the impact that social media will have in my life and the way we take in information and communicate it to others. I find myself wondering, will our interaction with social media help us to create stories or will we merely consume tiny atoms of ideas?

Consider this daily routine: Open a browser. Click to Twitter. Myspace. Facebook. Track an RSS feed. Read a blog or two -- or 20...Get lost in the network. Sound familiar? Even talking about all of the social networking platforms sounds disjointed. As entertaining and informative as blogs and social networks can be, they can also turn into Internet channel surfing, leading to nothing more than distractions.

And then there are those blogs that inspire you and prompt you to contribute to the discourse. There are the exciting moments when you think (in the back of your mind) how amazing it is to be connected to people all across the world who want to discuss the same little threads of conversation that you do. There is a sense that the Internet has an endless potential to connect us and take communication to the next level.

Connection should be at the center of all communication. It is the motivating factor behind telling stories, sharing photos, listening to your friends' latest band-discovery, and understanding what's going on all over the world. Telling stories about who we are, what we desire, where we go, when we have new information, and why and how we are here is the reason we create social networks in the first place. Applied to social media, a mission of creating connection will make the atoms fade into the distance and the stories come to life.