Blog Day 2005

I think I contributed some good links a few days ago. Check out my Blog Day post at the Security Awareness Blog then scroll down a bit to see my top 40 subsciptions in FeedDemon.

blogday, 3108, Guerrilla Marketing

Social Networking - Does it work?

I've started and stopped this post more times than I will admit this year. But I finally want an answer. From 2001-2004 there was a craze sweeping the internet almost as fast as the blog culture. It was social networking. Ryze. LinkedIn. Friendster. Ecademy. Orkut. Spoke. etc.

The craze was focused on connecting with as many contacts as possible so that one day, when you really need to find someone, there would be a one or two degree of separation betweem you and them. All you needed to do was to ask your contact for an introduction. What a cool concept. I bought in hook, line and sinker in 2002-2003, starting with Ryze. But by mid 2004, and after the total bust of the Google Orkut site, it all died down as far as I was concerned.

I've kept up with Ryze and LinkedIn. I like them the most. Ryze has a great interface and is more interesting socially. Their forums are highly effective. LinkedIn is the best contact site though.

My LinkedIn account has more than 90 connections and my degree of separation is pretty darn good. However, it failed me last week. I needed a quick connection after amazingly finding the exact person I needed to contact about a certain project. I sent the message to contact number one on Thursday and I called him to cheat the system a bit and make sure he was going to send it through. No problem. Well, by Friday nothing. So I withdrew the request and went to contact #2 and asked him for help. Over the weekend, nothing. By Monday, I withdrew that one and sent my final plea to contact #3.

On Tuesday morning, when I started working on the project, I found that all of the messages had gone through. LinkedIn never confirmed this with me. HOW EMBARRASSING! Thanks LinkedIn.

So my question is, does social networking work for you? I personally know people that have started consultant shops based on their thousands of connections. They either use the social network as a personal sales tool or they act as middlemen connecting the right businesses to businesses.


social networking, LinkedIn, Ryze

My top 40

So many bloggers are making a big fuss over the recently released Top 100 or 500 lists, I thought it might be a good idea to come up with my own list, not just a blogroll.

What do I read in FeedDemon everyday?

By the way, I did complain that the Security Awareness Blog should have been listed in the Top 500 list but Scott Johnson at Feedster didn’t have a response to my whining.

Seriously, these aren't just links to good sites, this is what I read everyday in FeedDemon. I scan the headlines, read the synopsis and decide whether or not to read the entire post - Just like my high school History teacher, Mr. Carney taught me how to read the newspaper every morning.

Here are my 40 subscriptions listed by category:

Miscellaneous

Lifehacker

Just For Small Business

Ask Crabby's Gazette

St. Petersburg Times - Tech Times

Business Blogging

Website Content Strategy | Sally Falkow

800-CEO-READ Blog

Blog Business World

Blog Tips – ProBlogger

BloggersBlog.com

Blogging Pro

BLOGthenticity

Dana VanDen Heuvel

debbie's blog

Fast Company Now

hyku | blog - Josh Hallett

Slacker Manager

Vaspers the Grate

Computer Security

secureme

digg / security

digg / technology

Geek News Central

Schneier on Security

Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger

Security Awareness for Ma, Pa and the Corporate Clueless

Slashdot

Speaking of Security

Marketing and PR

a shel of my former self

Buzz Marketing with Blogs

Canuckflack

Duct Tape Marketing

Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants

Marcom Blog

Marketing Catalyst

Media Guerrilla

Micro Persuasion

Musings from POP! Public Relations

PR meets the WWW

PR. Differently

Rob Frankel - Branding Expert

Seth's Blog

Top 100 Blogs, Guerrilla Marketing, FeedDemon

New Books on My Shelf

I picked up two books in the mail this week from 800ceoread.

The first is "Rules of the Red Rubber Ball" by Kevin Carroll.

The second is "Bag the Elephant!" How to Win & Keep BIG Customers by Steve Kaplan.

Thanks CEORead for putting me on the Perfect Book Club. The last book they sent was "All Marketers are Liars" by Seth Godin. It was a great read and I couldn't agree more with his premise.

I'll let you know what I think of the new books. See the cover art below for each book.

Bag the Elephant

Rules of the Red Rubber Ball

FS/ISAC Launches Online Learning Center

RESTON, VA and SEMINOLE, FL (August 11, 2005) – FS/ISAC wants its members to be “security aware” in the battle of end users against the rising tide of computer security threats. In an effort to provide its members training in a fast and cost-efficient way, the Financial Services ISAC has opened an online Learning Center in partnership with The Security Awareness Company and Trusted Learning Corporation.

The FS/ISAC Learning Center is open to the public with basic security awareness courses starting at $3 per student. New and upgraded members to FS/ISAC now receive Learning Center credits to be used for free courses and the creation of customized private learning centers.

Read the rest at Business Wire.