Not that I’m surprised by it because it was just a matter of time, but I didn’t think that Twittering in the medical environment would occur so soon. Surgeons from Henry Ford Hospital posted real-time updates with how the operation of removing a cancer tumor from a man’s kidney was going using Twitter. Pretty fascinating. However, I don’t know if I’d volunteer myself to be the one being Twittered about. =\

There’s more to social networking in a business environment that need to be accounted for and I’m so appreciative that Seth Godin has summed it up perfectly in his Q & A session video. We’ve all heard it a million times, but it’s about quality and not quantity of who is in your network. Unless you have a relationship with substance behind an alias or screen name, it’s all a facade – one that means little to pretty much nothing.

I love Godin’s reference to the internet as a “giant cocktail party.”

Exactly one week ago, I had the privilege of speaking at the 6th Annual I.T. and Web 2.0 Venture Forum at Rice University about Bubblevine. Although it was a long and busy day, I really enjoyed my time participating in the event. I met a number of great people and listened to some great company presentations and guest speakers.

my badge

As I’m sure you all have noticed, Mac and PC are openly going head to head with each other through their branding efforts. It all started with the playful Mac commercials stereotyping PC users as being old-school and boring. However, the once playful and light-hearted commercial bits have left the building and seems to have joined forces with the dark side. In this Mac versus PC feud, it is Mac that appears to be making the direct and aggressive attacks against its opponent. What happened to the easy-going persona we all fell in awe with?

Before anyone starts to judge me for my seemingly pro PC entry, I want to put it on the table that I am neither pro PC or biased for one operating system over the other. I’ve grown up using Windows and truly opened my eyes to the experience of the Mac not too long ago. As I own both a PC and Mac, I couldn’t tell you which one I would prefer to own if I were in some hypothetical situation where I had to make a daunting decision to only own one. They each have their pros and cons, which makes it difficult to choose. This is why I own both – to get the best of both worlds. (You can have your cake and eat it too!) I’d go into more detail about which aspects of the operating systems give me butterflies in my stomach, but that would deserve an entire blog entry to itself. These are just my observations and surface-level thoughts. =)

Going back to what I was previously saying, Mac looks to be on the offense. It wasn’t until recently Microsoft decided to retaliate by defending their image by revealing that real PC users are diverse and don’t fit a stereotype or mold. And from what Mac’s most recent commercial, “Bake Sale” tells me, they don’t seem to be too pleased with it. Watch a few of their latest videos and see for yourself.

On the flip side, I think Microsoft is making a healthy effort. This video sums it up nicely.

I’m glad to see that Microsoft is finally being proactive about their brand management because they needed it. With Microsoft’s “The Real PC” campaign, you get to see a real human aspect of its users which is a very refreshing. Microsoft is also encouraging people to get involved in this effort by uploading your own PC videos, which could be selected to have aired on TV.

I find the whole Mac and PC rivalry highly entertaining and interesting. It’s something I’ll be watching closely to see how it all unravels.

While the idea of Social Media has become a fairly mainstream concept in the startup, internet and technology realm, it seems as though it is finally making an entrance in other industries. In other words, the value of leveraging various online tools such as social networking, social bookmarking, blogging, and etc. are receiving the acknowledgment they deserve for the tremendous amount of influence it can potentially spawn.

The following video below demonstrates and explains how Social Media plays an integral role in marketing and driving business.

An important lesson to note about Social Media is keeping in mind and paying attention to how it is utilized to enhance marketing within the business scope. Many times, I’ve noticed that people place too much effort and weight on tactics. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not undermining the value of any tactical execution because it’s arguably a necessary component of any successful marketing attempt, but there’s more to maximizing Social Media tools than just posting a video onto YouTube, creating an email campaign, writing a few blog entries and submitting a couple of articles to Digg. It’s vital to be aware that each Social Media tool has its own unique personality, environment and sense of community. What this means is that as a modern day marketer, you need to understand the culture of each Social Media micro-world to see how involvement with it will ultimately affect your business marketing goals. You want to know why partaking in some type of Social Media will move you closer to your goal, so that you have the knowledge to do other things to help achieve the aim.

I view Social Media as if it were a watch. It has many moving parts, with gears of different shapes and sizes but each that have their own purpose to tell time. Some gears work more than others, but if one gear breaks, big or small, the entire time-telling breaks as well. In Social Media management, you’re going to find that some tools have a greater value to your operation (which is a-OK) and the beauty of this is to find a balance in all of it. The objective is to effectively listen to and monitor your target audience and cater to what they want and looking for. You need to formulate a Social Media campaign that makes sense to your audience and the people you want to reach out too. Translation: Each Social Media campaign will be unique for every company.

I can’t tell you which Social Media tools are great and worthy, because frankly they’re all good in their own right (and new ones are sprouting daily). But I will share with you that an effective Social Media campaign will be one that fosters a pleasant user experience that provides all the stuff (information, links, videos, online gadgets, advice, podcasts, blogs, people and etc) that they’re looking for and might be interested in all readily and easily available.

Social Media management isn’t about managing your audience, but managing the tools to fit what your audience needs and wants.

Now that we live in a highly sophisticated world of saavy internet users, it’s faux pas for companies and organizations to not incorporate modern marketing strategies along with their traditional marketing methods.

I’ve played with numerous typing programs in the past, but none like TypeRacer. I have never in my life have been so addicted to a game, especially a typing one. Not only do you brush up on your typing skills (you have to be accurate in spelling, capitalization and punctuation), it’s a lot of fun because you can play against friends.

This was my shining moment: 1st place and 100 wpm!

]]> http://www.monicayoo.com/2008/05/16/i-haz-got-typing-skillz/feed/ 0 http://www.monicayoo.com/2008/05/05/natuba-got-techcrunched/ http://www.monicayoo.com/2008/05/05/natuba-got-techcrunched/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 04:19:24 +0000 Monica Yoo http://monicayoo.wordpress.com/?p=66

How exciting – Natuba and TechCrunch finally crossed paths! It really is a great photo sharing site, although I have to admit my Natuba experience could probably be a lot cooler if I had an iPhone. It does some fun stuff that my Treo is unable to do. I have two options – 1) be content or 2) give in to the iPhone. I think most people would encourage the latter. =p

Bubblevine is a project I have been working on for a while now and it’s very exciting to have it go live!

The idea for Bubblevine came about at the end of my junior year in college when I noticed how much stuff (perfectly good stuff) was being thrown away all because students didn’t know what to do with it since they couldn’t take it home with them. Walking down the halls of various dorm buildiings, it was fairly common to see piles of bookshelves, lamps, TVs, bean bags, toasters, futons and other items by the dumpster. I remember thinking to myself that there must be hundreds of kids on campus that need stuff like this to furnish their apartment and dorm room. This is the magical moment where I decided to start my own little project to create a website that fosters a campus community where college students can buy stuff and sell stuff with one another.

There is also one other reason I felt inclined to pursue Bubblevine, and that’s safety. Before there was any other alternative, most students resorted to Craigslist. Although the site works, the downfall to it is that you have no idea who’s house you’ll be going to pick up the bargain deal, what their neighborhood is like, how far the place is in relation to you (until you Google it) and the flip-side, you have no knowledge about the person who will be coming to your doorstep to pick something up. During my college years, my experience with Craigslist has been less than awesome – and I’ve had several. There are two specific instances I vividly remember. The first one was when I thought I found a great deal on a TV. It wasn’t too far from me, so I said, “why not?” Not being a San Antonio native, I naively drove into a pretty sketchy part of town. I came out OK, but sometimes I question if it was really worth it. Another not so great experience was when I drove out to the other side of the city for a dinky desk. = All of this could have been avoided had something like Bubblevine existed. I would’ve appreciated a tool like it while I was in school, because there was probably someone a few streets down or even next door who would have been more than willing to sell me their stuff.

On a different note, the site is currently open to a few schools, but once it gains a little more popularity we’ll expand the list.

Here are a couple of videos to watch:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAX1JBY-8Jc]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxQzf1rJe3Y]

If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to promote, feel free to contact me. =)

…and in the spirit of it, I thought I’d post something mildly mushy and cute. I came across this video a while back and even still, I think it has a catchy tune. I <3 YouTube.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWPzxVMQU8g]

You’re probably thinking, “Lady in Red?” Is that a Chris DeBurgh reference? It is. However, this blog entry will have a different spin on ladies in red.

In case you didn’t know, today is National Wear Read Day.

The Heart Truth—a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease—created and introduced the Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 to deliver an urgent wakeup call to American women. The Red Dress reminds women of the need to protect their heart health, and inspires them to take action. National Wear Red Day promotes the symbol and provides an opportunity for everyone to unite in this life-saving awareness movement by showing off a favorite red dress, shirt, or tie, or Red Dress Pin.

One of the best ways of taking precautionary steps to lead a healthier lifestyle is simply by being aware. Today, I’m showing my support by sporting a red turtle neck. Will you?