I was just reading a very interesting article on Mashable about MySpace.com. It’s an interview with MySpace’s Co-Presidents Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones. I’m not going to go into what they say about their plans for the platform, as the article does a much better job than I could do here in a sentence or 2.

But it got me thinking about how so many people view Myspace as dying, or passe, and would never view it as a viable platform for their (social) marketing plans.  This is such a huge mistake. What they are confusing are their own personal preferences for a platform for themselves, for a viable platform that may be just right for their customers and audiences.

One of the things that we do at Biztegra when creating a strategy for a client is look at hundreds of platforms to find the ones that are right for a client (it’s not just about Facebook and Twitter).  Couple that with the fact that in reality, MySpace gets a HUGE amount of traffic / unique visitors. While less than half of Facebook’s levels, it’s also more than double Twitter’s for January 2010 (according to Compete.com – view the graph on compete.com). At 50 million unique visitors (give or take), there are tremendous opportunities on the platform.

To me, the message is that when you are casting a marketing net, especially when talking about Social Media Marketing, do 2 things:

1. Take yourself out of the mix. It’s not about you, it’s about your customers and your business. Your customers have already identified themselves somewhere, and there may just be more opportunities to work with those platforms to create some very interesting marketing programs.

2. Continously do #1 above. Check to make sure you aren’t putting yourself back into the mix.

Kind of what you would do for any marketing program. Right?

So, where are you currently running your Social Marketing programs, aside from Facebook and Twitter? Let me know, I’d love to talk to you about what you are doing.

In case you missed the Webinar I did February 2 on social media marketing, you can view it here. To attend the full 1 day workshop that’s mentioned go to www.socialmediastrategyworkshops.com

Here is the second video from BarcampSWFL. If you don’t know what a Barcamp is, check out my earlier post from last year’s BarcampMiami, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. And if you’re a blogger, you should also seriously consider WordCamp, which is focused on Wordpress.

BarcampSWFL 2010 Part 2 – Video
Uploaded by murrayiz.

Attended another Barcamp this past weekend. I love Barcamps – the energy and people that you meet make it an incredible experience.  And the beauty is that people who are passionate about a topic get to present about that topic, people who otherwise may not get the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience.

I”ll have another video posted shortly.

Yesterday, I had to put together some video of some of my presentations for an organization that I’ve begun discussions of partnering with on some initiatives. Had to keep it under 10 mins for YouTube, only had a very short time to create it (about 2 hours), so the clips are cut pretty short, and are fairly randomly chosen. But here it is:

Would love to hear what you think!

If you still think that the world has not been dramatically shifted with the emergence of Social Media, Web-enabled phones, and Time-shifted television: On my ride home this evening, while stopped at a light I did what I always do: looked at Twitter (again, I was stopped – I put the phone away in a little compartment when I’m actually moving).

Saw a tweet from someone that I follow who said that someone they follow was going to be on CBS World News tonight for something they were doing. I didn’t have time to click through to the site, as the light changed.

Clicking on my bluetooth (the phone had been put away at this point) I called my wife and asked her to DVR the news for me. (I actually used the word ‘tape’ which just shows how old I am).

She did, and when I got home, I fast forwarded through the program, but did not see anything resembling the topic. But I was able to go to the CBS News Web site, where I noticed that I could watch the entire 60 Minutes episode that I had missed last night – gotta remember that.

Still couldn’t find the story. Got back on Twitter, and searched for the main term in the post, and found a slew of tweets about the fact that the story had not been run. Found the Website via one of the tweets, and found out what the fuss was about.

Think about that – saw it on my phone – at a click of a button called my wife – at a click of a couple of buttons she ‘taped’ the show – and then a couple of mouse clicks later found the main content that the segment was about. Try that 5 years ago. That quickly. and 5 years from now, this will be an anachronistic story of the olden days.

The world, along with our TV viewing habits, has timeshifted.

BTW, the story was about Lemonade, a movie of people who got creative with their own lives after being laid off.  A very cool project.

Oh, and up next: the story of my 10 year old son, and how he created his own blog, chose and installed a theme, added widgets, and is now learning CSS to modify the design. We have not seen anything yet. Give it 10 years. (see my earlier post about how different his world will be).

I recently presented my view on Social Media/Marketing to a local group of travel and meeting planning professionals here in South Florida.

From the cutting room floor: some outtakes that did not make it into the first video from the TweetUp. Probably shouldn’t have made it into this one also.

Last night I attended a Tweetup sponsored by the Palm Beach Post, held at Brio Italian restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. It always amazes me at the diversity of people and professions that attend events like this – from marketing and social media professionals, to people who do social media for the sheer pleasure of it. There were chefs, entrepreneurs, lawyers, government officials, journalists, photographers, realtors. What a great networking opportunity. If you’ve never attended one, you should definitely consider it.

At one point someone took my camera and put me on the other side of it. And my favorite part was my conversation with Frank Cerabino, Palm Beach Post columnist, which is always a fun experience. To see that part, you will have to watch the video to the end (or just skip past the first half or so of it).

Enjoy! I know I did! And there’s more than enough footage to create an outtakes video.

On Friday (10/23/2009) I attended the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association’s (SFIMA) Nautical Networking Event (NNE). This an annual event (some would say the premier event for marketers in South Florida).  Having been on the SFIMA board for a number of years, I guess I have a soft spot for both the organization and the NNEs. Top marketers from all over South Florida, Florida, and the rest of the company attend, and all have a great time.  Some of the people that I met during the evening can be seen in the video below. Some I’ve known for a while, some I just met.