Web two point oh

Social networking, APIs, Twitter, Facebook, and all that kind of thing

Predictions for 2010 – revisitedDecember 20th, 2010

So, how accurate was I with my predictions last year?

Twitter will still be just as popular, and might get a source of income
If this graph is accurate, then Twitter is still growing. And did they find a source of income? Well, I guess promoted tweets count

Mobile apps will be big, with more services and brands creating apps
Did I get this right? I’m not so sure. The world seems to be going iPad, which I didn’t count on

Rupert Murdoch will try and start charging people to read news online
Another tricky one – we don’t know

Internet streamed media will take one step closer to being at the quality it needs to be, both from the point of view of the user and the broadcaster
There’s certainly not been a shortage of announcements of internet streamed media – with announcements such as Youview and Radioplayer this year. But are they better for the user..?

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Review: mflowMarch 29th, 2010

mflow

It’s a mixture between Twitter, Spotify, and iTunes. Simply, it’s Twitter for music, and it’s pretty cool.

Keep an eye out for invite codes (they aren’t hard to find – just keep an eye on twitter), and check it out. It might sound naff in a “what, another music/twitter mashup?” way, but this one has legs. It’s a great way to hear music recommendations and suggest music yourself

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Predictions for 2010January 15th, 2010

A little late, but my predictions in technology for 2010:

Twitter will still be just as popular, and might get a source of income
Twitter isn’t going anywhere soon, and they’ll need to find a sustained source of income at some point. I think this year might be it.

Mobile apps will be big, with more services and brands creating apps
Because of this, it will start to become normal to rely on cloud/remotely hosted services for more everyday things, or storing data they normally wouldn’t on their phone, such as using the Tesco iPhone app for a shopping list rather than paper and pen.

Rupert Murdoch will try and start charging people to read news online
It won’t work. Hat-tip to those at Media Guardian.

Internet streamed media will take one step closer to being at the quality it needs to be, both from the point of view of the user and the broadcaster
People started to take streaming TV and radio seriously in the last couple of years, mostly thanks to BBC iPlayer. But I think in 2010 we’ll hear more from those solutions trying to get streaming TV and radio in one place.

I’ll see how wrong I was in 12 months time!

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Marketing yourself online as a performer (part 2)June 19th, 2009

The last in a two part series discussing modern online marketing techniques for performers

In my previous post I spoke about how getting a web presence, and not just a website, was important if you are a performer, and looked into getting a website, a blog, and getting on Facebook. This time I’ll be looking at Twitter, Youtube, and getting a long term relationship with your developer.

Get on twitter

Twitter is the hot new social network, with the likes of Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Paul Daniels and even Keith Chegwin waving the twitter flag. It’s a bit like the status bits of Facebook, allowing you to answer the question “What are you doing?”. But it’s a lot more than that, with people being able to follow you and talk to you, and allowing you to talk back. Twitter allows you to be more out there and converse with your fans, and of course tell them what you’re doing. Trust me, when you’re world famous like Stephen Fry, the papers will just *love* the news that you’re stuck in a lift!

Get on Youtube

Youtube isn’t just about people posting illegal copies of TV shows, there’s also a growing amount of legal content published by the performers themselves. Monty Python took the step of doing this, and by publishing clips of their old TV shows their DVD sales have gone through the roof

A significant number of performers are also creating content especially for youtube, with Penn (of Penn and Teller) releasing short Penn Says rants regularly, Teller making & Teller, and David Mitchell also releasing short films. A local children’s magician in Manchester has jumped on Youtube intelligently, creating short “how to” videos for children to learn simple tricks to impress their friends

Get a web developer

A web developer doesn’t just sit there putting text and graphics together in Photoshop and Dreamweaver; a large part of their job is to find the best solution to your problem. The industry is growing at an incredible pace, with more and more exciting things being done with websites and on the web in general. Performers are finding themselves using twitter, having fans on facebook, and even selling t-shirts and dvds online; and a web developer can help with that.

If you stick with your web developer and keep a long term relationship with them, then they can help you along this path. Keep in touch with your web developer, keep up to date with what they’re up to (chances are they’ll have a blog to publish news of their latest work or any exciting stuff they’ve found), and don’t forget them at Christmas!

Your relationship with your web developer shouldn’t end once your site is online — work with him or her to keep the content fresh and always be on the lookout for new things you can do. When the next big thing comes out, jump on it, and ask your developer to help you out

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Marketing yourself online as a performer (part 1)June 5th, 2009

The first in a two part series discussing modern online marketing techniques for performers

Nowadays it’s increasingly important if you provide a service — especially as a performer — to get yourself online, not just a website but on the increasingly growing networks available on the internet. When it comes to being online it’s no longer a case of “if you build it they’ll come”, you have to go to them. It’s not as hard as it first seems, but in my biased opinion it’s important

Get a website

First things first, get a website. If you know how to create your own and if you don’t have much of a budget, then by all means go ahead and create your own. But if your sole income is through magic, you should seriously consider getting the services of a professional web developer. They’ll be able to find the best solution to suit you and will help out with the tricky and mundane stuff such as hosting and getting high on google rankings without using dodgy techniques.

Get an easy to remember address such as yourname.com (I personally recommend 123reg, they don’t cost the earth and won’t hold it to ransom later down the line) and put it on your business card

Get a blog

If you have a gig next month, or if you’ve won an award or competition, tell the world! Set yourself up a blog and link it to your website. WordPress is by far the best blogging platform out there and will have you publishing within minutes. If you’re comfortable with all things tech you can download the software and set it up on your own server using its famous five minute install, and if you’re a technophobe WordPress have a free hosted solution which will do it all for you — and it’s so easy it takes about five seconds to set up.

Get on Facebook

Facebook is one of the world’s biggest online social networks, with over 200 million active users. And these users like to join groups and share their lives with each other; you can take advantage of this by setting up a fan page. An average user has 120 friends, so when they become a fan of you they’ll be telling 120 people how great you are.

The fan page will also let you set up events to tell everybody about your upcoming gig, let fans talk to each other and discuss how great you really are, and more importantly let you talk to your fans!

Next time

Next time I look at youtube and twitter

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