In this video Michael Stelzner interviews Lisa Stone, CEO and co-founder of BlogHer, the leading cross-platform media network created by, for and with women social media leaders.
Lisa tells the story of BlogHer, the fifth largest blog network. She also shares insights and tips for successful blogs and current trends for women bloggers.
Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:
How blogging changes the voice of women
Why blogging is the perfect tool for women
Why you should find a community when you start blogging
Facebook is the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users. As of April 2010 an estimated 41.6% of the U.S. population had a Facebook account.
Facebook, in one of the world’s most widely anticipated IPOs, or initial public offerings of stock, filed papers to raise at least $5 billion and begin to sell stock this spring.
The filing was made online with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington. If all goes as planned, it likely will take until May for Facebook stock to begin trading on a stock exchange.
Mark Zuckerberg reportedly decided to go public once it became clear that the company had become too big to keep its finances private. By going public, Facebook loses some of its mystery and some of its cool, having to declare profits and losses, and answer to shareholders quarterly. But the company will have access to new cash and can use the value of its stock to acquire other companies and to reward its employees.
Below is a brief summary of Mark Zuckerberg’s letter to the shareholders. He calls their corporate culture the ‘Hacker Way’. This company culture demonstrates how companies are not the same as they were before – especially online companies. Theculture is different, theway of doing things is different, themindset is different, the competition is different. It’s a whole now different playing field at a whole new different level.
“Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.
And we think this is a good way to build something. These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits.
By focusing on our mission and building great services, we believe we will create the most value for our shareholders and partners over the long term — and this in turn will enable us to keep attracting the best people and building more great services. We don’t wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money, but we understand that the best way to achieve our mission is to build a strong and valuable company.
This is how we think about our IPO as well. We’re going public for our employees and our investors. We made a commitment to them when we gave them equity that we’d work hard to make it worth a lot and make it liquid, and this IPO is fulfilling our commitment. As we become a public company, we’re making a similar commitment to our new investors and we will work just as hard to fulfill it.”
The Hacker Way
“As part of building a strong company, we work hard at making Facebook the best place for great people to have a big impact on the world and learn from other great people. We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way.
The word “hacker” has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers. In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I’ve met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.
The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.
Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once. To support this, we have built a testing framework that at any given time can try out thousands of versions of Facebook. We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.
Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.”
Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.
To encourage this approach, every few months we have a hackathon, where everyone builds prototypes for new ideas they have. At the end, the whole team gets together and looks at everything that has been built. Many of our most successful products came out of hackathons, including Timeline, chat, video, our mobile development framework and some of our most important infrastructure like the HipHop compiler.
To make sure all our engineers share this approach, we require all new engineers — even managers whose primary job will not be to write code — to go through a program called Bootcamp where they learn our codebase, our tools and our approach. There are a lot of folks in the industry who manage engineers and don’t want to code themselves, but the type of hands-on people we’re looking for are willing and able to go through Bootcamp.
The examples above all relate to engineering, but we have distilled these principles into five core values for how we run Facebook:
Focus on Impact
If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. It sounds simple, but we think most companies do this poorly and waste a lot of time. We expect everyone at Facebook to be good at finding the biggest problems to work on.
Move Fast
Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. However, as most companies grow, they slow down too much because they’re more afraid of making mistakes than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly. We have a saying: “Move fast and break things.” The idea is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.
Be Bold
Building great things means taking risks. This can be scary and prevents most companies from doing the bold things they should. However, in a world that’s changing so quickly, you’re guaranteed to fail if you don’t take any risks. We have another saying: “The riskiest thing is to take no risks.” We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time.
Be Open
We believe that a more open world is a better world because people with more information can make better decisions and have a greater impact. That goes for running our company as well. We work hard to make sure everyone at Facebook has access to as much information as possible about every part of the company so they can make the best decisions and have the greatest impact.
Build Social Value
Once again, Facebook exists to make the world more open and connected, and not just to build a company. We expect everyone at Facebook to focus every day on how to build real value for the world in everything they do.
Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. We believe that we have an opportunity to have an important impact on the world and build a lasting company in the process. I look forward to building something great together.”
There is an analogy to skate boarders & snow boarders in their approach to trying something just to see what happens, pushing limits, going outside the conventional boundaries. The take way from the Facebook approach to business & to our personal lives, is to strive to be “bold, outrageous & authentic“ to quote Patty Walters, http://improv4life.blogspot.com .
For more information, visit Comet Studios Web Design & Development, www.CometStudios.net
For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.
Tell them you are their constituent, and you oppose SOPA and PIPA. (see link below)
Why?
SOPA and PIPA would put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn’t being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines. SOPA and PIPA would build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.
In a world in which politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, Wikipedia — and sites like it — cannot survive.
Congress says it’s trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the “cure” that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they would fatally damage the free and open Internet.
Do you need some “proof” that Social Media Marketing can help your business?
Are you not scheduling time for your blogging because you question the value?
Are you interested in taking your Social Media Marketing to the next level?
If you have answered “yes” then you need to read on!
I have been teaching clients about the virtues of Social Media Marketing now for quite some time, often with great resistance. Most of the clients complain about “not having enough time”, “wasting time in blogging”, and they lack the understanding of what Social Media Marketing can really do to help their business.
We all have the same amount of time, it is really what we choose to do with our time that is the real issue. I understand the resistance completely. We all get caught up with work, home, family & life’s pressures, so making time to blog just slips by the wayside for some of us. Making time for blogging maybe the best investment in your business marketing strategy.
Do you want to increase your income, sell more products/services & receive revenue even when you are not working?
Would you like to be paid by sponsors for just writing about what you love?
Well then perhaps you should read this article about how an Alaskan mom, started blogging and now supports her family from her passion.
“Just over two years ago, Ana White wasn’t quite sure what a blog was. Today, she runs her own rapidly growing destination, drawing nearly three million page views every month. Successful professional bloggers aren’t hard to find, but a few things are remarkable about White’s success: She writes a do-it-yourself carpentry blog.”
The most interesting arena in social media today is the fine line between customer care and marketing. With the rise of engagement marketing, it’s questionable whether “social media marketing” is, in fact, marketing. The most savvy companies are realizing that, in order to gain trust and relevance, their social media activities need to be led by customer champions, rather than marketers. My prediction is that this realization will grow widespread in 2012, social media marketing is really Relationship Marketing/Reputation Management.
Here are some predictions from experts in the field.
#1. Strategic marketing in social media.
#2. Photo & Video social networks will expand.
#3. Real time marketing will allow for businesses marketing opportunities to meet users needs.
#4. YouTube will provide a social experience that should be part of your marketing strategy.
#5. Regularly creating unique content becomes essential: create new unique & relevant content & be consistent in publishing new content.
#6. Business will outsource content creation to keep up with the social media marketing strategy.
#7. Convergence of social & mobile activity on mobile devices: a significant amount of the online activity that consumers previously conducted through a computer and traditional web browser will now be done through a smartphone or tablet. Some of this activity will migrate from browser to native applications, but much will be done through a mobile browser.
#8. Blue-collar blogging revolution spreads across the country like wildfire.
#9. Rise of the media specialist: media specialists will be required to have a 360-degree view of social media
How do you see 2012?
For more information, visit Comet Studios Web Design & Development, www.CometStudios.net
On October 5, 2011 we took the evening off from our computers, TV & cell phones to celebrate our anniversary. Just before going to bed, we decided to look at the Apple web site to watch the latest video on the new IPhone 4s that we are wanting to buy.
I was overcome with sadness & emotion when I saw the front page picture of Steve Jobs. Steve’s death triggered an outpouring of emotion in me, for a man who helped shape the digital age.
While I was aware of his health condition & his leave of absence from Apple, it just never sunk in that one day he would be gone, especially so soon. Several hours after reading & listening to news reports on Steve’s passing, we drifted off to sleep with recollections of how Steve Jobs has changed our lives. Since then, I have not been able to think of anything else and am drawn to write about how Steve Jobs has affected my life.
I did not know Steve Jobs personally, even though I worked for Apple as a service provider & later a trainer, but like millions of people around the planet I knew him through his company & products and have been a devoted fan since 1984.
My first experience with Steve Jobs’ company was when I was involved with a photography studio in Palo Alto where we were hired by Apple to photograph the “Lisa” computer. The people on the shoot from Apple Computer suggested a possible trade for part payment for services. The studio had been photographing computer chips & tech related equipment & packaging for some time. When we asked what we would use the computer for if we had one, someone suggested it could be used for recipes, writing & business purposes. We just could not see ourselves ever needing such a “box”, and passed on the opportunity, not knowing how significant Apple would play in my future. During the next few years, I made many trips to the Apple campus, soliciting photo assignments & becoming fascinated with the Apple company culture.
Just two years later & many more photo shoots with technology products of all kinds, we were inundated with technology examples in the studio’s portfolio. Then I saw the 1984 Apple Computer ad in the Super Bowl. This ad changed my life & I knew then I was going to be a part of this revolution. I was hooked immediately and knew this was the start of a long-term relationship. Little did I realize that it would take me 10 years before I would actually own an Apple computer.
From 1990 to 1993 I was working in Comet Studios architecture studio, designing without computers, yet knowing they were to become part of our future. We knew that when we computerized the studio it would only be with Apple computers.
In 1994 after attending Macworld in San Francisco, we bought a Power Mac Quadra 800, finally transitioning into the digital world. The idea was that my husband & I would share the computer for our work in the architecture studio. After one day of “sharing” we bought our second computer. Sharing a computer was not possible, unless we took shifts while the other person slept. The day our second Quadra arrived we spent 8 hours straight learning some of what the computer could do. After 8 hours I reluctantly pulled myself away for a brief moment to use the bathroom, then rushed back to learn more. We were consumed with our exploration. From then on everything I cooked was burnt, as my focus was on my computer’s ability to multi-task & not on my inability to integrate computer time & domestic time. Time just flew by when we were working on the computer and we learned to eat burnt food. We were addicted and we knew it. Sometime in the weeks after becoming “computerized” & after spending 16 hour days absorbed in our computers, I was showering and accidentally dropped something and exclaimed out loud “Command Z” & was so startled by the lack of response from the dropped item, only to realize that a computer command of “undo” was not possible in regards to dropping something in “real” life (non-digital life). Yes, I was obsessed.
I installed photos of the ocean on my computer “desk top” even thought we lived less than 1,000 feet from the ocean. I spent more time looking at my computer than I did at the view.
During that year we discovered the Internet, not literally, of course. It was 1994 & we were living on the remote northern California coast with online dialup provided by the only Internet service provider, MCN.org
We attended every conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco to see demonstration of Apple products & later just to hear Steve Jobs speak. We learned architecture software, graphic design software, office & bookkeeping software & everything we could get installed in our computers. In 1995 I was learning html from a virtual university where people from around the world would log on & deconstruct web pages in order to learn html (web page code).
In April of 1996 we registered CometStudios.com domain name & built our first web site for the architecture studio. I knew my path was to create web sites. I went on to create many web sites in the coastal community. In 1997 we got involved with an online start up company. I was involved with the web user experience strategy, information architecture, navigation design, interaction design, visual design, production and web training.
After working with companies around the country from a virtual office, we moved to San Francisco in 1998 to be at the heart of the Internet revolution. During the time I started working in the digital world (Apple fans from the start) I knew that I wanted to teach web design and become a speaker at conferences & conduct corporate training.
From the year 2000 through 2004 I spoke & taught at conferences around the country: Seybold Seminars- San Francisco & New York, HOW Design Conferences, Internet World Chicago, ADIM2001, Santa Cruz Technology Symposium and Exhibition, Web2000, Cisco Systems, Adobe User Conference, UCSC- SJ Mercury News Ecommerce Conference, & Adobe /Apple Road Show. I taught web design/usability at San Francisco State University Multi Media Department & at UCSC Extension in Cupertino. I conducted web training for major corporations in the San Francisco Bay Area & around the country for many of the fortune 500 companies. I traveled with Adobe & Apple doing demonstrations of web software on Macs, wrote a book: “Adobe GoLive 6 Classroom in a Book” & worked 24/7. This was the Internet era.
When I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in late 2004, I was burnt out on traveling and tired of speaking/motivating large groups of people. By then, most designers knew how to create websites and most businesses were online & if they were not, then they would never be. I now viewed Apple conferences online and followed all the tech changes from my PowerBook. I did miss “talking tech”, having tech friends & being at the pulse of “everything tech”, as Santa Fe had a slower pace and I was settling into the city different.
Looking back over the years I can’t imagine a life now without the technology we take for granted: my laptop computers, Skype, the IPhone, IPad, IPod, the Internet. Everything I know now comes from the use of computers via the Internet & everything I do revolves around the products Steve Jobs has created to make it possible to communicate.
Steve Jobs created great products that deliver great user experiences that all interact with one another. He emotionally charged the human/object interface, to create intimacy with an object embedded with emotion, feeling & passion in a technology industry that is normally drab, cold & mundane. His products are about function, quality & great design. Steve Jobs represented by example, a whole world that anything is possible for future generations to build upon.
Steve Jobs was not just a corporate figure-head. He was a true visionary that inspired greatness. He inspired not just brand-loyalty, he inspired a way of life. Mac users have a different kind of loyalty that no other brand has been able to achieve. Those that have the misfortune to not be a Mac user, do not understand the depth of emotion that is carried with the Mac user experience. To them Apple products are just products. But for the Mac fans, it is a way of being, thinking, feeling, doing, while using great products. These “products” are the most intuitive, beautifully designed pieces of mass-market industrial design of our age.
For me, Steve’s death marks a passing as significant as John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King & John Lennon.
Steve was an “insanely great visionary” in my time, who transformed not just my life, but all our lives… forever. He encouraged us to think differently, to act boldly & with passion.
Steve inspired us to become more, to dream, & as President Barack Obama said:
“By making computers personal and putting the Internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world. The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”
Steve, you are insanely missed, already! You are in our hearts & lives forever. Many blessings to you, Steve, & to all of us.
For more information, visit Comet Studios Web Design & Development, www.CometStudios.net
President Obama, wrote a wonderful statement on the passing of Steve Jobs:
“Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.
By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.”
For more information, visit Comet Studios Web Design & Development, www.CometStudios.net
Sad news that Visionary Steve Jobs of Apple computer has died. President Obama said it best:
“Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.”
Steve’s legacy will live on for generations to come. Steve, you changed my world for the better. I will always be a loyal fan. Many blessings to you & to all of us who have been touched by your genius.
For more information, visit Comet Studios Web Design & Development, www.CometStudios.net
