Simon Salt is CEO of marketing communications company the IncSlingers. He writes for www.simonsalt.com and Dad-O-Matic

You use Twitter, email, IM and even your phone to stay in touch with your world. Maybe your office uses services like Yammer for internal communication. But once you are done tweeting, emailing and instant messaging, you have to do actual work.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could at least use those tools to help you get some of that work done? Xpenser, developed by Trastr Inc, allows for a number of different tools to be utilized to keep track of expenses. Here is how to use Twitter with Xpenser to track them:

Get Started!

Getting started is simple. Go to Xpenser, create a free account, and add your Twitter account (no password required). Then add Xpenser to your list of following, which will let you send direct messages to that account, e.g. D Xpn Taxi $15.00 #clienttrip. This automatically updates the expenses for the category clienttrip. The same can be achieved through the use of IM, email or SMS.

Track Multiple Clients and Expenses

If you are on a multi-leg, multi-client trip, you might want to ensure that the right client is billed the right expense. To do this you go to the “Reports” tab, enter the name for the new report – ClientABC, ClientXYZ, VegasConference, whatever you decide to name them. You can decide to make one of the reports the “default” report, which means that all new expenses that are untagged will go into this report.

Keep Track of Mileage

Xpenser has a conversion feature which enables you to keep track of your mileage. It can be accessed from the “Keywords” tab, where you can set a pre-determined rate of conversion. Imagine a realtor driving from appointment to appointment throughout the day. Now, instead of having to write their mileage down for each appointment and then get back to the office and calculate their mileage expense, they can simply use their smart phone and Direct Message Xpenser on Twitter with the number of miles for each appointment as they arrive: D Xpn 23 miles Jones house.

As long as the message includes either the word mileage or miles, Xpenser will convert the number of miles into a cost based on the preset conversion rate. It then enters it into the account that you specified, and if you don’t specify an account it will go into the default account.

Everywhere Else

If you’re not interested in using Twitter to create expense reports, Xpenser also supports instant messaging, email, text/sms, and voice. There is also an export to Freshbooks feature, and through partnerships with Jott and Dial2Do, voice recording is available in the US, Canada, and 17 other countries, allowing users to simply “call in” their expenses. In addition, the web interface allows you to edit previous entries or make new ones, export to excel, Quicken, MS Money, and Freshbooks.

So, would you manage your expense reports on Twitter?

Simon Salt is CEO of marketing communications company the IncSlingers. He writes daily at www.simonsalt.com and weekly at Chris Brogan’s parenting blog Dad-O-Matic, and is also an avid Twitter user. He is focused on dragging traditional marketers into Web 2.0 before the arrival of Web 3.0. He loves to help out and volunteers his time and knowledge whenever asked. He is Director of Technology for the Austin Chapter of the AMA and is currently working on a Twitter guide for all users.

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Today is the last day of the year with all odd digits: 11-19 (or 19-11 if you’re so inclined). Thought you’d like to know.

• Facebook has found a way to turn its platform into profits by rolling out a Verified App program—$375 per application application. App application…. Ahem. Per year.
• Now that we’ve got that out of the way, on to the rest of the Googly news. Still looking for its nonsearch monetization sweet spot, Google is adding ads across its web properties including image search and news.
• Tired of the way Gmail looks? Good news: Gmail is getting themes. Soon.
• And in case you were wondering what kind of traffic you get from a PR 10 website (You know—Google’s homepage?), Read Write Web looks at the case of the G1 link. Wonder if Google Chrome’s gotten the same boost now that it’s occupying the coveted spot. . . . But whatever happened to that “magic number” of 28 words on their “pristine homepage”—you know, their reasoning behind not linking to their privacy policy on their homepage?

Pilgrim’s Partners: Is a blogger attacking your company without you knowing? Monitor your online reputation with Andy Beal’s Trackur–try it for free!

The world has changed a lot since January 31, 2008. In case you’ve just tuned in, here’s a quick recap of the last nine and a half months:

• Microsoft makes an unsolicited bid for Yahoo.
• Yahoo stocks make a serious jump.
• Yahoo really thought it over, but decided to go with a search ad deal with Google instead.
• Google dropped Yahoo.
• Yahoo stocks take a serious dive.
• Yahoo dropped CEO Jerry Yang.

Yep, that’s it in a nutshell. Despite Yahoo’s initial rejection and later renewed-then-foundered courtship with Microsoft, rumors have persisted that Microsoft is still interested in purchasing all or part of Yahoo.

Microsoft disagrees. According to MarketWatch (via), at the annual shareholders’ meeting, CEO Steve Ballmer said:

Let me be as clear as I think I’ve tried to be publicly. . . .

We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo. I’ve said that a bunch of times. Somehow some people have gotten confused nonetheless.

We did our best. We thought we had something that made sense. It didn’t make sense to them. We’ve moved on.

But perhaps he doth protest too much—especially when he follows that up with saying that purchasing the search portion of Yahoo is “interesting.”

The WSJ and Seattle PI (via) also report that Ballmer says he’s open to a “search collaboration” with Yahoo.

What do you think—is a Microsoft-Yahoo “search collaboration” a good idea? And what would it look like?

Andy Beal will host his next Online Reputation Management Workshop in Las Vegas on January 14th, 2009. Register before December 1st and you’ll save $300! Book now, space is limited.

Maybe you’re a fan of Google’s Grand Central phone controller. Maybe you also happen to be a Mac addict. So how do you match those two loves into one? Vocito, that’s how.

Savvy to your Mac OS X desktop and things like Address Book, Automator, and the third-party engineered QuickSilver, Vocito manages your management of the multiple phone numbers in your life within slick fashion. In a manner of speaking, it makes easier a process that’s already been quite easy. Way easier, you might say, even if its job is technically more complex.

You could of course use Vocito much the same way you would the browser-based application - albeit doing so within a more Mac-like enclosure. Nothing stops you from heading straight down the usual road.

Open Source Power to the Nth Degree

But power users in the Mac realm might consider that a sheepish use of code. Address Book integration is convenient enough, yes. Yet Vocito’s support for Automator and AppleScript actions, as well as Quicksilver commands, takes things to another level. Really, if you wish, you can manipulate the application without drawing your hands away from your keyboard.

For the most part, Vocito lives a pretty non-ostentatious life on your computer. So long as you can tolerate the presence of a favicon-sized menu bar button sitting astride your clock, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and audio control features, it’ll be at the ready while keeping largely out of the way.

And that’s presumably how many Grand Central users choose to operate the service, making Vocito an ideal candidate for extending your virtual phone switchboard to your Mac desktop. Wonderfully enough, the download is Tiger- and Leopard-compatible with both Intel and PowerPC support. It’s also entirely open source.

Limited GC Beta Access Puts a Cap on Vocito’s Debut

The only immediate downside is that Google is holding Grand Central under a limited beta restriction, disallowing any immediate sign-ups, which I imagine a good number of folks interested in Vocito will be looking for. A forum has been established for people to voice their thoughts and concerns.

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Mobispine, the mobile services developer already responsible for introducing a $1.99 self-titled iPhone application for RSS news junkies, has debuted a white-label option for wireless carriers to deliver to subscribers seeking classic MMS utility from their devices. Just short of an extension of the iPhone’s standard SMS software, Mobispine’s offering is something that just might fly.

Media Sharing Apps Aplenty, But Still No Real MMS

As iPhone users have known since the App Store’s launch, there are already many ways to send MMS (multimedia messaging service) data from the device to Web users. The Mail and optional Facebook applications are just two avenues. And a pseudo MMS service for iPhone, called Flutter, gets iPhone users into mobile-to-mobile.

But white-label - and ultimately carrier-branded - MMS software is something Mobispine seems to be breaking new ground with. True MMS software just does not inhabit the iPhone world. And if any operators are to convince Apple of the efficacy of bringing such an option to the platform, it is the selection of wireless carriers around the world who are partnered with Apple that will make it happen.

Is the White-Label Angle the Golden Ticket?

Nothing’s certain, mind you. Though Mobispine says it is “confident that operators will find the service easy to use and profitable with an opportunity to expand messaging usage, improve subscriber retention and increase revenue,” adoption is something that has no guarantee. But things in the world of SMS and MMS are very much about uniformity. Mobispine appears to offer the latter option.

We’re eager to see who bites first.

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Many people decorate their workspace with pictures of their families. Often, these photos serve as a good conversation piece. But, what if you could have a life-sized cutout of your kids, playing sports? That’s where StickyFan comes in.

The service lets you upload a photo of your kid (or really, anyone, but the focus is on child athletes) and then order either a huge cutout or a poster. Cutouts can be up to 6 feet tall, while posters are 24” x 36”. Stickyfan offers its own photo editing tools, and sends you a proof of what your cutout will look like within 24 hours of submission so you can approve it or request changes.

Of course, some might look at placing a life-sized cutout of your kid in your office as a bit gratuitous, but I’m sure plenty of child athletes would love to have one for their room. After all, life-size cutouts and posters of professional athletes have always been a staple of kid’s room decorations. StickyFan is also doing some smart marketing, offering youth sports leagues an opportunity to utilize the service for fundraising.

Meanwhile, since my youth sports career peeked around age 12 and I have no kids of my own yet, I’ve taken the humble measure of ordering a life-sized cutout of myself on top of a mountain:

Andrew Warner is an Internet entrepreneur and the founder of Mixergy.com.

Tim Ferriss’ relationships with bloggers helped him reach the New York Times bestseller list with his book, The Four Hour Work Week. I recently called Tim to ask him how to market to bloggers. Here’s what he taught me:

Start before you need something

“I reached out to certain bloggers as far as a year in advance of the book being published,” Tim told me. By building his connections ahead of time, he never had to start a relationship with a blogger by asking for a favor.

Meet bloggers in person

Tim started building his relationships face to face. “The least crowded channel for meeting high profile bloggers is in person,” Tim said. “Email is the most difficult, the most crowded… I’m a top 1,000 blogger, not a top 100 blogger, and I get hundreds of pitches by email every week. Most of them I don’t even see because my assistant declines them.”

Don’t be a promoter

Nobody wants to get to know a guy who does nothing but promote himself. “Your job is to convince them of the messenger, not the message,” he told me. “Don’t try to push your message until you establish yourself as someone they’re willing to listen to.”

Don’t join the crowd

Top bloggers can be mobbed at events. Instead of joining the crowds, Tim got to know the people behind the top bloggers. The first time he met Robert Scoble, Tim said, “You know what man, everyone wants to talk to you. I don’t have a really good question for you, so I’m not going to hassle you.” And he got to know Robert’s wife and coworkers instead.

Be part of something bigger

Instead of pitching his book, Tim talked to bloggers about a trend that his book related to: outsourcing as a way to save time. When he called them, he’d say, “Here’s a concept or phenomenon that I think would be fun to talk about with your readers.” He told me that bloggers would often give him credit for the idea, and when they mentioned the name Tim Ferriss, they “inevitably linked to my page or my Amazon book page.”

Do you know any other tips for promoting to bloggers? Add them to the comments.

Andrew Warner’s last internet company was a big stinking failure and he had to shut it down. To keep from having a company collapse again, he’s interviewing as many Internet successes as he can. You can hear his interviews on Mixergy.

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Today is BlogDay. Your Top 5 Undiscovered Blogs?

Online music and its controversies are unavoidable, and with no end of hunger for access to tunes, the market has been an evolving battleground. With mavericks (in the non-Palin sense) like the aptly-named Grooveshark seeking to take a bite out of things, it’s refreshing to know that some services are using a lateral method — a “blue ocean” approach, you might say.

SoundCloud is one such service. Previously in invite-only beta, SoundCloud launched publicly in October. The service lets you “move music fast & easy. The platform takes the daily hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals.”

Anyone can sign up for a free SoundCloud account that includes five track uploads a month. They’re already distinguishing themselves by simplifying the process of sending demos to record labels, something which has historically been done by sub-optimal “attach an MP3″ email or form submission. I’ve done a lot of multimedia compilation, and all those extra steps to sort files gets tiring and dampens the joy of listening.

Beyond the usual…

Here’s where it gets really exciting: SoundCloud is exceptionally blissful to use. Not just pretty, but practical. Beyond the usual AJAX and Flash touches that reduce page reloads and imbue a sense of sheen, there are helpful features that are often found on desktop music apps but seldom on web ones.

For example, after a song’s uploaded, you can tap BPM (Beats Per Minute). Part of the reasoning behind this is because SoundCloud has started holding remix contests, where knowing the tempo is essential to syncing parts, also known as “stems”, with others. Even better, you get a true waveform with your beautifully embeddable widget — a pleasure to navigate, especially if you’ve ever been disappointed by all the pseudo-volume meters and fake waveforms out there (which is a Flash dev’s inside joke in some circles).

Even the upload process is a pleasure. While there’s no batch uploader yet — which would be highly time-saving for musicians with large catalogs who’ve upgraded to the somewhat confusingly-named “PRO Max” account @ €60/month — the uploader is as close to a practical flow as I’ve seen: you use a standard browser to select a file, a progress bar with countdown appears, and there are a few required fields.

Not just MP3s are uploadable: WAV, AIF, AAC, FLAC and OGG are supported. This is great news for professionals concerned about lossless fidelity. If desired, you can add genre details, and being forward-thinking, they’ve included Creative Commons as a licensing choice. The only unfriendliness I came across was getting a weird “(-280)” error after uploading that I wasn’t able to reproduce.

Feature request: as your music collection builds, it’d be great to mass-set permissions. And keywords should be clickable to find other stuff tagged similarly, as the similarly orange-and-purple Jamendo allows.

If you run a site and want to accept music, you can embed a SoundCloud DropBox in your sidebar, as Synthtopia has done. The first time I saw it, my first reaction was to drag an MP3 from my desktop to it — unfortunately that didn’t work, as it’s really just a button you click to get to the standard upload form. Nonetheless, I’ve noticed more of these popping up, suggesting they’re catching on.

What about the social aspects of SoundCloud?

You can add timed comments to a track, which is handy for calling out highlights like “OMG THIS BREAKDOWN ROX!” A few video-sharing sites like Viddler have a similar feature, and it’s not unlike adding markers or hit points in a full-fledged DAW.

You can choose whether your uploaded tracks are public or private. Interestingly, even if you’re on a free account, I discovered you can go above the five tracks/month limit by uploading to your own or other people’s DropBoxes, and I’ve asked SoundCloud about how this is intended to work. There’s a public gallery of Hot Music and Latest Tracks, and mandatory social networking features like adding friends are present. In this Rickroll Era, even MC Hammer is getting in on the fun:

And suitably, when they can’t build their own solutions, SoundCloud piggybacks on complementary companies, using Seesmic for video blog comments and Get Satisfaction for support. I’ve also noticed they have a running Flickr stream of photos tagged “soundcloud.” Observing what other companies SoundCloud is aligned with gives glimmers into their philosophy on creating community. I haven’t extensively tested their help yet, but have seen numerous positive experiences.

Kudos to SoundCloud for their excellent screencasts. They communicate well and compel you to try it out firsthand — with so many sites competing for your attention, a good video tutorial can really “sell” you what it’s all about in a couple minutes and drive your decision to get started.

3 things to look out for:

1. SoundCloud touts their API for plugging in custom apps to their tech. Well-documented, open APIs helped spread Flickr and Twitter’s popularity, so it’ll be intriguing to see what it does for this burgeoning audio service.

2. Copycats of their design by other sites. SoundCloud’s taken the usual “Web 2.0″ staples (starburst graphics, share-this buttons) and done an exemplary amount of going further and leading by unique example. But even if you can bite their style, you can’t steal their community.

3. Will SoundCloud’s freemium business model succeed in the long run? They currently don’t accept PayPal, but say it’s “coming soon.”

Give SoundCloud a go and share your experiences in the comments. Have a fave site that combines the best of substance + style? Let us know!

Torley amplifies your awesome with the useful and fun. He loves life, wife, and watermelons. You can check out his music at Torley.com

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Sometimes you read something about a company or a business that simply gets it more than others. OK, so we know that in most cases Google does that. Sometimes they do it in ways that still amaze and make one say “Huh, that makes good sense.”

Fresh off the mantra from several folks at PubCon to embrace traditional media, an article appeared in today’s Journal that exemplifies that strategy by, you guessed it, Google and one of the most unlikely traditional marketing powerhouses, Proctor & Gamble. These two titans of their representative media strongholds have met in the middle in a unique way. They swapped employees. Both were bright enough and daring enough to recognize that they needed to know more about the “other side”.

I can’t urge you enough to read this article in its entirety. Rarely do I read something and throughout keep saying, “Holy crap, that is cool!” This one did that. It was pretty fascinating to read about the various “Aha!” moments that occurred on both sides of the aisle because there was actual sharing and learning taking place. While the new v. old media struggles that occur in public are often contentious this one appeared to be collegial. It’s when this type of environment exists that real growth takes place. Also, real learning occurs and relationships start. I suspect that we will be reading about this partnership and innovation between “Googlers” and “Proctoids” (by the way, P & G, this nickname for your employees is a bit uncomfortable for obvious reasons) for years to come.

Here are some of the high points:

• P & G’s complete ignorance of the power of mommy bloggers and how that could impact Pampers sales. Of course, that gets a real “Duh!” from search marketers but Google seemed smart enough to not insult the traditional folks but aid them instead. Kill’em with kindness, I guess.

• P & G’s willingness to allow their flagship brand, Tide, to be put in the hands of YouTube amateurs following their successful TV ad with a talking stain. (Note to you online only types; while you might laugh at the sales of laundry detergent you probably would envy the $3.5 billion (with a b) a year in annual sales it generates).

There’s a lot more. We as search and internet marketers should be reaching across the aisle more because if the deep pockets of a P & G have yet to embrace online, what about the rest of the traditional marketplace? Imagine helping these folks with efficiency and effectiveness during this economic climate. What an opportunity.

Go get’em.

Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com - Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Local review site Citysearch has announced an overhaul to its mobile and web sites. Now in beta, Mobile by Citysearch adds enhanced features for mobile users, and the new website integrates more local and social aspects.

Mobile and local have always been a good match, but the implementation of this natural pairing hasn’t fully “arrived.” Mobile by Citysearch, however, is a good step along that path. The new site is designed to be compatible with whatever mobile device you use, including content layout and using your phone’s default navigation (thumbwheel, touch screen, etc.) for a more intuitive UI.

Citysearch has long been available through mobile phones—two years ago, they added mobile search to their site as well as local business listings via text message.

Rather than just making the website readable on a mobile phone, however, the new Mobile by Citysearch better integrates mobile and local. Its new design makes reading and even creating reviews from a mobile device easy and makes popular website features mobile-friendly. The new mobile Citysearch is also integrated with text messaging, allowing users to text reviews, directions and ratings directly to mobile phones.

The Citysearch website has also been redesigned. New features enhance not only the interface but the access to the site’s reviews and other information. But the new site is more than just prettier. An enhanced back end allows for even more focused local searches—down to the neighborhood level, instead of just the metro area.

The new Citysearch also integrates social media better—including the seldom-mentioned Open ID rival, Facebook Connect. The integration with Facebook is one of the best applications of social search so far. If you’re signed in to Facebook (currently or using a permanent session), Citysearch will highlight your friends’ reviews of local restaurants. (Image from Read Write Web.)

Finally, the new Citysearch is sure score points with local business owners—it prominently features owner comments alongside editor and user comments. It also is added enhanced features for videos of local businesses through a partnership with Brightcove.

Users will be able to upload their own photos and videos early next year.

This redesign comes just a few days after some bad press for Yelp, a rival local review site. Yelp is alleged to have offered to remove or move down negative reviews of local businesses for a fee (and there’s even some allegations they took the money without actually moving the reviews, doubly unethical).

Yelp has been gaining momentum against Citysearch’s popularity recently, but Citysearch’s new features and Yelp’s bad press might combine to reverse that. What do you think—are the new features cool enough to get your “vote” (traffic)?

Via 1, 2, 3

Mashable is proud to announce that voting has begun in the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards, a unique opportunity for the most accomplished websites and services to receive international recognition for their achievements.

During the nominations round, we received over 43,000 verified nominations. We narrowed down this huge pool to the 10 most-nominated sites and services in each category (where 10th place was a draw, we allowed more than 10 nominees in that category).

VOTE NOW: One Vote Per Category Per Day

Now it’s time to vote for your favorites in the first of two voting rounds. You can vote for one company in each category per day until midnight on November 30th. There are 26 categories. Get voting!

Mashable Open Web Awards

Feel free to embed this widget on your own blog or website by clicking the “Grab This” button! For a timeline, rules and information on our 100 blog partners, please visit the Open Web Awards site.

Top Tip For Nominees

You got through? Congratulations! Did you know you can create a custom version of our voting widget above to post to your company blog or website? Just visit the Open Web Awards Widget Creator and check the box to preset a category or company. This means your fans only need to enter an email address to vote - simple!

Start Canvassing for YOUR Candidate!

Want others to vote for your favorite site? Of course you do! Why not leave a comment here and on any of our international partner blogs encouraging other readers to add their support? The more you promote your candidate across these blogs, the more likely it is for your site to proceed to the finals!

OWA Sponsors Love The Web

The Open Web Awards is made possible by our sponsors. By supporting the Open Web Awards, these companies reward and encourage innovative web technologies. We can’t thank them enough for sharing our passion: building great web companies.

Platinum Partner

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Gold Sponsors

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YouTube was built in no small part by users uploading copyright clips of British comedy group Monty Python. Ok, it was built by users uploading copyright clips of lots of different media outfits, but nonetheless, the group’s influence on the video sharing site has been huge.

This week, they’ve decided to get a piece of the action for themselves, creating an official channel on YouTube so there are “No more of those crap quality videos you’ve been posting. We’re giving you the real thing - HQ videos delivered straight from our vault.”

The channel features dozens of skits from the original show, which include advertising that Monty Python hopes you’ll click on to “soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.” The group further explains the new YouTube channel in the clip below:

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Alisa Leonard-Hansen is a Senior Social Media Analyst within the strategy group at iCrossing. She can also be found blogging at both the iCrossing Great Finds blog and her own blog, The Web is Social.com.

With speculation around how you should monetize mostly a topic of conversation within the tech community, it always surprises me that a marketing perspective isn’t thrown into the mix. After all, it’s marketing dollars that you (and just about every other online entity) are relying on. So, taking a digital marketing perspective, I thought I’d throw a few thoughts into the discussion.

Note: this is not intended to be a “how to use Facebook to develop a social marketing strategy” discussion, but rather the intent is to explore how you could build a business model around your rich user data given what marketers desire in terms of effective marketing and what they’ll pay for (effective marketing= happy marketers who spend more $ on what works).

Your focus is flawed

So, you have one thing right: marketers pay to reach consumers, and the more targeting a platform can offer, the more marketers are willing to spend because of the promise of greater ROI. There is one flaw in your approach, however: you have been entirely focused on monetizing Facebook.com itself.

Now, while it may seem counter-intuitive, you ought to focus on monetizing your rich user data, and not necessarily the site itself. Wait–isn’t that the same thing? What is she saying? Just hear me out: You are not a content platform. You’re a communications utility, and while you’re a platform for UGC, you don’t provide a rich content experience. Users aren’t on your network to experience any kind of particular content–they are there to connect with friends and to essentially store personal data (whether they consciously know this or not).

Although some could argue that explicit and implicit user outputs (all that stuff you see in your newsfeed) IS the new “content,” we still have yet to see that this kind of UGC can be successfully monetized through advertising (translation, ROI for ad spend around UGC tends to be low).

Now, marketers have deployed lots of successful marketing initiatives within Facebook, but a majority of these involve leveraging your free Business Pages to drive conversation and engagement (read: free marketing). You’ve had it in your heads that if you let marketers set up free Business Pages, and draw in communities of brand enthusiasts who “Fan” these Pages, you can then upsell these brands into media buys. But the problem is that while great for engagement initiatives and fostering conversation around a brand (great for marketers!), Facebook is still not an optimal place for ad-spend, no matter how much attention is aggregated there. ROI from your ad spends tend to be relatively low for marketers. Again, it goes back to user intent and behavior.

So what should you do?

Essentially, Facebook is this giant data storage silo. It contains consumer data nearly as valuable as the credit card companies have (the kind of data marketers would pay nearly through the nose to have). It’s user data, not the dot com itself that you should consider your golden ticket.

Now, before anyone starts jumping up and down about the notion of “monetizing user data”– I’m not advocating that private user data be mass-harvested and sold ad hoc to marketers. Rather, what I am suggesting is that with the dawn of Facebook Connect, there may be a viable, ethical way to leverage this user data.

With Facebook Connect, you can essentially create a content network (and note the launch partners, major media companies) that could also support an ad-network. So now, with a Facebook Connect-enabled content/ad network, you have the holy grail of targeted advertising: contextually relevant content experience AND the kind of granular targetability based on user graph data that made the initial promise of social networks so huge for marketers. Basically, participating FBC sites could not only sell targeted ad inventory based on their content, but based on Facebook’s (opt-in) user data as well. This would not only give marketers what they want in terms of targeting, but you would get a cut of the ad revenue for being the arbiters of that valuable graph data.

Of course, even without a potential FBC ad-network, Facebook Connect helps brands and publishers provide a socially enhanced experience for their customers with a lower barrier to adoption than current one-off branded social networks. Not to mention, FBC enables the potential to drive a lot of new traffic to their site as a result of opt-in user actions (including purchases) being broadcast through the Facebook network.

There is also the opportunity for e-tailers to capitalize on social graph data as part of their merchandising model. The benefit of graph data to the e-tailer includes the implicit endorsement of products by your users whose purchases are broadcast to their Facebook friends (again, only if the user opts-in to have their actions published), driving significant traffic, tapping into the power of consumer advocacy, and providing a more socially enhanced and user-friendly experience. Given the significant value this kind of data offers, you could leverage some kind of rev-share program for supplying this graph data to e-tailers (but again, users would have to opt-in!).

Create a value exchange!

Now, this brings me to one last point that my dear friend and brilliant colleague Ben Bose has suggested be baked into all of this– a value exchange for the end user. If it’s consumers’ graph data that is benefiting both supplier/marketer and Facebook, then it should also work for the benefit of the consumer. Perhaps users may be assigned “influence” scores based on their network, and the degree of influence they have over that network. These influence scores could earn them rewards– not unlike our credit card rewards. Of course, some services already have types of user rewards, including ThisNext and imeem, but this is something that could be propagated to a much larger degree with initiatives like Facebook Connect.

Yes, there are many counterpoints to these ideas, including the argument that open Web enthusiasts (myself included) would pose around the idea of Facebook (or MySpace) being proprietors of graph data versus users themselves. But rather than examining the differences between FBC and true data portability, this was a look at possibilities for Facebook Connect as a means to increase Facebook revenue.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, danleap

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StoryTlr, a project that enables you to create a simple event-based timeline of your photos, videos and tweets, has received several significant updates in the past few days, and suddenly - although the authors themselves insist that it’s a hobby project and not a “real” startup - it feels like a full featured service with some very interesting usage possibilities.

StoryTlr is a slightly different take on the lifestream concept. Let’s say, for example, that you went on a vacation this past weekend. While you were there, you took some photos and videos, tweeted some tweets, sent some mails, changed your Facebook status a couple of times, and so forth. StoryTlr lets you take all this stuff and create a story in the form of a slideshow, which is a wonderfully nice way to see what happened in chronological order. Even better, after this past update, you can embed your story anywhere, for example your blog. You can see an example of one such story here.

I think that this concept will appeal to many users who are sick of being able to update dozens of services telling everyone what they’re up to at any given time, but when they try to revisit their memories a couple weeks later, they simply can’t find them. StoryTlr is event-based; when something important happens to you, you can create an event and it’s listed on your StoryTlr page under the “stories” tab, which makes it easy to find (presuming, of course, that you’ll go easy on the stories and not create thousands of them).

StoryTlr also functions as a standard lifestreaming application. Under the “lifestream” tab on your StoryTlr page you can find a diary of your daily activities; if this is what you’re looking for, you can find it on many similar services like FriendFeed or Profilactic. StoryTlr’s strength, however, is in its event-oriented approach and the lifestreaming part is just sugar on top.

Other new features at StoryTlr are theme customization, which includes changing a theme’s colors or even the entire CSS; Facebook, StumbleUpon, Vimeo and Tumblr support, as well as full data import, which means that StoryTlr will try to fetch all the data from a particular service, like Twitter, if possible. Put it all together, and you’ve got a serious competitor to Tumblr and other lifestreaming applications; the simplicity of the idea behind it will probably win over many users who just want a quick, smart and easy way to share their stuff online.

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Personal finance service Mint has added a new feature for those who simply have to know what their entire net worth is in every imaginable situation. Users can send a text message containing the words “Balance” or “Bal” to shortcode “MyMint” (696468) and they’ll receive info for savings, credit, and loans they’re tracking on Mint.

The folks at Mint have been busy, adding several new features after leaving beta in October. Finance, economy, money; these words are on everyone’s lips these days, and though it may not be in a positive context, Mint is definitely riding the wave of heightened interest in personal finance.

Other features recently added to Mint include a 401(k) management center, portfolio asset allocation info, and the ability to compare your investments against major indexes such as S&P and Dow Jones.

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Real estate site Trulia and interactive media company 1020 Placecast have partnered up to deliver better targeted ads on Trulia, using location information and a number of other factors.

When a user searches for real estate in a certain location on Trulia, Placecast adds its magic, using algorithms that add demographic, psychographic and geographic data points to the equation. The result, ideally, is a very precisely targeted advertisement. Or, as Alistair Goodman, CEO of Placecast, says: “Once we know the place a user is interested in, we can derive a lot of useful insights about what kind of consumer they are, and then serve them a very targeted ad.”

Car rental company Avis-Budget is already participating in the program, and according to Trulia, their ads on the site perform “strongly relative to other publishers.”

This summer, Trulia raised $15 million to expand their advertising network. It’s nice to see them putting the money to good use after only three months, but the real estate business is not the best to be in right now, and their diminishing traffic (according to Compete) proves this. Still, if Trulia’s hyper-localized approach to delivering ads works, and if their ads perform significantly better than the industry average, it’ll be money well spent.

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Two bits of interesting news on the Facebook front this evening. Nick O’Neill at All Facebook noticed that the social network has created additional ad inventory for sale on their sidebar, and we received details on the Application Verification Program that was announced earlier this week. 

Both signal a move by Facebook to get serious about utilizing as much of their highly used social network to bring the company closer to profitability.

Platform Reloaded: What Does That Mean?

Facebook gave us some information on what they meant when they issued their statement of guiding principles for developers to get their apps verified, which they later copied out to the developer blog. Adam Ostrow more or less pegged the gist of it when he wrote up the news Monday:

“So what does it take to get your application verified? Facebook has published 10 “Guiding Principles,” with the central themes being that apps should be “Meaningful,” “Trustworthy,” and “Well-Designed.” It also takes $375…”

“Essentially, coupled with the current fbFund finalists, Facebook is resurrecting the platform, which has been largely hidden to passive users (folks who ignore the apps completely) since the social network rolled out its redesign. It’s all been very methodical – first, bury the applications under a special tab on user profiles, then, dole out funding to the best app developers, and finally, offer everyone else a way to get their apps back in the game.”

In their missive today, they clarified that you don’t need to be verified to exist on the platform (you know, the one that almost no one goes to since it’s been hidden by the re-design), but it will “encourage users who might have been hesitant before to now try these applications.”

This very closely mirrors the somewhat controversial setup that MySpace has in place with its application platform - just about anyone can design and implement an app on MySpace/OpenSocial.  The ones that pony up to be featured developers, though, are the ones with the monster pageviews.

Facebook Wants to Sell to You

In another move that some might describe as MySpace-ish, they’re increasing the amount of advertisements seen on every page. As of Tuesday afternoon, spotted in the wild were displays of a three-ad setup (seen to the right), instead of the normal two ad setup.

They’ve been steadily increasing number, presumably to keep pace with the ever increasing average page-length, and the number might be variable (since some reports still say that certain users only see one ad on most pages).

Nick O’Neill puts it in context with some other recent Facebook monetization moves:

The company has been doing an increasing number of ad tests over the past couple months including the addition of video ads which have shown up on the homepage with increasing regularity. It’s a small change but it has the potential to boost their revenue. 

While it might sound slightly critical to continually compare some of these moves to “sounding like something MySpace would do,” in reality, it might be the smartest move for Facebook.  Between the two, Facebook might be growing quicker and have a much more impressive valuation.

On the other hand, though, MySpace is the social network that’s in the black (and has been there for quite a while).

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Citysearch, the popular local events and review site owned by IAC, is getting a big makeover tonight. The site is expanding to become “hyperlocal” – creating listings for more than 75,000 different cities, adding social features through Facebook Connect, and launching an enhanced mobile experience. Initially, the new features will be available on a separate beta site, where they’ll be refined before going live early next year.

In integrating Facebook Connect, Citysearch is perhaps the most interesting example so far of what’s possible with data portability. The beta site allows you to login using your Facebook credentials to write reviews, and also track what other Facebook friends are doing on the site.

In other words, without registering for a Citysearch account, you’ll both be able to leave reviews of different places on Citysearch, as well as see what your friends are recommending. Those reviews are also broadcast back into Facebook, in turn allowing you to read your friend’s Citysearch reviews from your Facebook News Feed. Meanwhile, Citysearch is also expanding their mobile offering, allowing users to submit mobile reviews based on the new hyperlocal listings.

Ultimately, Citysearch is getting a much needed makeover in order to compete with up-and-coming competition from the likes of Yelp, who has long offered user reviews of very local locations. The Facebook Connect integration is also interesting, and offers Citysearch an opportunity to get lots of viral traction on the social network. In a sense, with how huge Facebook has become, it’s also a bit like OpenID – the barriers to entry on Citysearch have been vastly reduced by eliminating required registration, and the site can expect to see a big uptick in user review volume once the Facebook Connect integration is pushed live.

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Just one day after the announcement of Jerry Yang stepping aside as Yahoo! CEO, Forbes magazine takes a look at the 5 Biggest Mistakes Yahoo! made while hitting the skids as of late. The article reads a little like an autopsy on a live body. Sure Yahoo! is struggling to survive in the exhaust of Google and others cleaning their clock in the race to control the net (for now) but is Taps necessary just yet?

The article ‘interviews’ several Yahoo! staffers in what appears to be some kind of odd lunch time ambush since most of these ‘interviewees’ were carry their lunch or some kind of boxes. We heard things were different at Yahoo! but now we have some insight I guess. Of course, with 1,500 layoffs looming these folks may be gathering their belongings in anticipation of a trip to the HR department soon.

The five main reasons for Yahoo!’s stumble as cited by these mysterious employees were:

1. Projects started but never completed. Apparently it was de rigueur for the company to start something and then let it fade out with no results. Honestly, I have to say that this is not just a Yahoo! problem but if the number of these projects was excessive that can kill resources and morale.
2. Whiffed on Google. Remember when Yahoo! had a chance to buy Google in 2002 for a mere $5b? How different might the world look if that had gone through.
3. The Terry Semel effect. Missed out on Google and started media initiatives that have crapped out for the most part.
4. Google beats Yahoo! to DoubleClick. Another real ‘woulda, shoulda, coulda’. These are the kind of things that keep Yahoo!er’s and Jerry Yang up at night.
5. The Microsoft acquisition shuffle. I think there is a pattern developing here ……..

Other possible causes of the current state of unrest are the current economic conditions (which holds no water since Google seems to be doing fine, thank you) and the big killer of any business: indecisiveness. Lower level employees were quick to point upstream on this one saying that upper level execs weren’t instilling a lot of confidence in the rank and file.

While it may seem all doom and gloom there are still hopefuls on campus. There is a new cloud computing initiative that many are saying can help turn the corner. There is still plenty of brain power at the company and there are some strong offerings like Yahoo! Mail and Finance that keep rolling along.

OK, Pilgrims, let’s hear it. What is going to happen to Yahoo!? Where will they be in a year from now? I suspect that there may be a few strong opinions floating around out there. Let’s hear it.

What is social media, and is social media actually media in the traditional sense of the word?  This is the question Jeffrey and Brian Eisenberg take on and try to decisively answer at their marketing firm’s company blog.

They say it is disingenuous to call any of the various things we in the punditry business refer to as types of New Media as any type of media, since the fundamental nature of what we call New Media is communicative, and older forms of media are simply places for content to be surrounded by advertisements.

From Brian’s post:

“The biggest problem I have with the term “social media” is that it isn’t media in the traditional sense. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the others I don’t have the word count to mention aren’t media; they are platforms for interaction and networking. All the traditional media — print, broadcast, search, and so on — provide platforms for delivery of ads near and around relevant content. Social media are platforms for interaction and relationships, not content and ads.”

Jeffrey cites something by AdAge that quotes Ted McConnell from Procter & Gamble Co marketing:

“I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory,” he said. “Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

“You can do really amazing things. But I’m not so sure I want to be targeted like that. … I don’t think everything every consumer says to someone else and writes down is somehow monetizable by the media industry.”

It makes sense in terms of the viewpoint he’s trying to get across here to think of it as a different type of media.  Certainly, a recurring sentiment I hear from commenters and pundits around the blogosphere is the distaste for the term “social media” as something overly broad.

That doesn’t mean, though, that the term doesn’t make sense.  As I commonly say, when the blogosphere loses its way in its quest for proper semantics, it helps to have a sense of history, both of the term and in this case, the media business as well.

What is Media?

A quick look at the definitions of media probably won’t clear things up, as there are more definitions to the term than I expected. When you look at it in context of the terms “new media,” “old media,” and “social media,” there’s some implied context. The media part of that doesn’t refer to the message, but the methods by which that message is conveyed.

This means the newspaper, the television, and the radio when you’re talking about Old Media.  Moving forward into New Media, it starts with blogs and podcasts and authorship-centric tools like Twitter, YouTube and the other variants of online video and microblogging distribution.  

Social Media is a term that encompasses the platforms of New Media, but also implies the inclusion of systems like FriendFeed, Facebook, and other things typically thought of as social networking.  The idea is that they are media platforms with social components and public communication channels.

These are how I use the terms, and how I see others use these terms. I’m not claiming that these are the only proper usages of these terms, but if you use these for your guidelines, you probably won’t make any embarrassing faux pas at the next MashMeet.

In Media, Is the Product the Message or the Audience?

The Eisenbergs were right on one thing: the term social media means something different to the participants and the producers than it does to the marketing people. 

It’s the job of those in marketing to see dollar signs everywhere. That Old Media top to bottom thinks of their industry as nothing but giant dollar signs should be obvious to savvy media observers.  Liberals love to criticize Fox News Channel as being a mouthpiece for Republicans (as conservatives love to criticize the rest of the media for being mouthpieces for Democrats), but it’s clear that a lot of that media bias which exists only exists for their financial incentive.

When it comes to Old Media, the news itself isn’t the product for sale.  The product for sale is the audience. The news process is just something that exists to consolidate that audience into a package. That’s why, despite the integrity that journalists of all stripes often have, the editorial direction of an organization can seem guided by their purse-strings (or at least something other than their veracity).

In New Media’s humble beginnings, money wasn’t really involved in the equation.  Bloggers and podcasters imagined that at some point in the future, there would be a time when their art form would be widely considered to older forms of media, and that there would probably be great financial incentive somewhere for them to make it a full time profession.  As someone who was a participant in that culture I can attest that the bulk of blogging was done for, as Kevin Rose puts it, the love of it.

Does That Mean It’s Immoral to Monetize Social Media?

Perhaps, if you ask Dave Winer. Obviously, I disagree.

Obviously, the top tier of blogging and podcasting has moved up a notch and is edging back towards the business underpinnings we see in traditional media structures, but tools and platforms that fall into the category we define here as “social media” have taken up the slack.  Users at Digg and FriendFeed and YouTube all routinely create mountains of content with little to no financial incentive at all for most users.

If you’re a marketer or entrepreneur, it’s important (I think) to approach aggregating and monetizing social media with at least a little bit of appreciation for its roots and culture.  Whether it’s the incidental tweet or a masterpiece uploaded to Flickr, a little bit of the user’s soul and identity goes into creating that content.

I’ve exposed a wide variety of innovative advertising methods here during my tenure at Mashable, and each one has had at least one or two commenters that object to their creations being held up as purely instruments to make money with. I don’t think that the majority of ‘Net users are pinko, anti-capitalistic, commie bastards, but when they put a bit of themselves out there only to see others take the lion’s share of what money, they feel a bit abused.

It isn’t that the user and content creator (no matter the scale) doesn’t want to be targeted and marketed to - it’s that they don’t want to feel like a mule for someone else’s message. They don’t want to have their work be a trojan horse for someone else’s ideas, be they marketing or ideological in nature.

When designing systems and advertising schemes: that, I believe, is the most important factor to keep in mind.

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