Got a wish? Post it on Wishood and it may come true. Wishood is a site which connects people who wish with those who grant. On Wishood you can share all your heart desires, create a wishlist, and other members may make your wish come true.

You can wish for professional help in finding a job or you can wish for people to help stop global warming. Wish for anything you like. Even if that wish is “unrealistic” such as “I wish for world peace”, it can still open up a nice discussion on the topic. Like in other communities, helping others with their wishes draws more attention to your own wishes and by granting the wishes of others, you can increase the chances of making your own wishes come true.

Wishood has just relaunched their new site and the interface is very user friendly. Here are some of the more interesting wishes I’ve stumbled upon:

“My wish is that wishood.com will be bigger than myspace.com and make everyone’s wish come true because if people spent as much time granting wishes on wishood.com as they do on myspace.com the world would be a better place…”

http://www.wishood.com/Wish.aspx?w=2182

“I wish I could drive a train. I’d love to ride for fun but I also long to be a real train engineer. I want to show my son that I can be somebody…that wishes really can come true.”

http://www.wishood.com/Wish.aspx?w=1890

“I wish more people would help save the rainforests. One easy way would be for you to Adopt-an-Acre with the Nature Conservancy.”

http://www.wishood.com/Wish.aspx?w=1878

The only thing I would suggest to Wishood is to think about creating more incentives for people to get involved. For example, creating contests to see who can help other members get their wishes, or creating a ranking system whereby those who grant wishes receive higher rankings.

Lastly, I wanted to include a video created by Lior Katz, the Founder of Wishood and Gil Rimon. If you remember, these are the guys who brought us Supermarket 2.0. So here is Baby 2.0: What if we had to register baby names the way we register domains?

Technorati tags: wishood, wish, wishlist, myspace, global warming, rainforests, lior katz, gil rimon, supermarket 2.0, baby 2.0, youtube, web 2.0

Hi everyone, I finally bought my own domain and moved my blog over here.

I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like to during this past week due to all the technicalities of moving my blog, so please forgive me.

I’d like to send out a special thank you to my friend Liat Adir who created my new, fabulous logo.

Technorati tags: blog, blogging, blonde 2.0, ayelet noff, wordpress, liat adir

Last night I attended Jeff Pulver’s Facebook Social Networking Party. This was Jeff’s real-time social networking “experiment”, bringing together all his friends from Facebook who are in Israel and giving us a chance to get to know each other.

We all wore stickers with our usernames and I finally got a chance to meet many of my Facebook friends offline which was a real treat.

This was a great idea and I hope the first in a series of such events. I’ve already heard rumors of a few more such “experimental” networking events being planned by other people. We are all involved in so many different networks, so it’s nice to get the chance to meet our contacts offline as well.

Here are some pics from the event:

Technorati tags: jeff pulver, facebook, social networking, israel, party

With the growing power that social networks are gaining, we’re seeing a lot of companies and figures leverage the popularity of these networks to gain exposure for their brands. Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, and John Edwards have all been vigorously spreading their campaign messages on Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Friendster and Second Life. Many companies such as: Apple, Joost, Nike, Adidas, Nikon, Nintendo, just to name a few, have also been using the different social networks to speak to and understand their customers.

Yet many marketers just don’t realize how to use the enormous potential of these social tools correctly. Twitter, MySpace, etc. all constitute channels that marketers can use to communicate with, and better understand their customers’ needs. Yet instead, many marketers view these platforms not as a way to better understand their customers by interacting with them, but as a means of reaching their target audience and spamming them to death with dull content. Whether you are a public figure or a company, here are a few tips on how to market and build your brand correctly using social tools:

1) Create a profile

It’s important to have a profile on a few of the most popular social networks out there. Profiles allow you to share information about your brand, with the rest of the world. Remember to be genuine and open. The more genuine your profile, the more it will appeal to people. Also, the more customizable the profile, the better. Customization allows you to add backgrounds and color schemes that match your brand.

2) Network

Become an active member of the community. Connect with other members. Go through different profiles and see who interests you. Add them as contacts, send them messages, and leave comments on their content. You should also start/join groups, participate in forums and chats that relate to your brand. This will show everyone that you’re really a part of the community, and not just there to promote your brand. Remember to engage in conversation with the people in your community and not “sell” to them. Talk TO them, not AT them. Make sure you read comments that have been left on your profile and react to them. Never be rude to someone even if that person disagrees with your views. Turn debates into something positive.

3) Keep it fresh

In order to get users to remember your brand, you’ll need to actively update your profile, upload pictures, videos, blog posts. Be creative! This will spark a continued interest in your brand and keep people coming back for more. Keep your profile interesting and fresh.

4) Widgets

If you create an exportable widget with content related to your brand, you are encouraging people to place the widget on their profiles or sites, allowing them to expand the recognition of your brand. It’s always better to have a widget which will add some value to those who place it on their own pages, like the MyBlogLog widget for example.

5) Promotion

Promote your various profiles on your main site and offer RSS feeds for them

Simply placing your profiles on every social network isn’t enough. You have to do some PR for them through strategic tagging, linking, and having others point to them, in order to spark the viral potential of your brand.

In conclusion, social networks provide a powerful tool for you to engage with the world. We are living in an age that marketers could only dream of. Never has there been a better time to spread your message to the public. Make sure you do it right.

Thanks to Mandy for the pic.

Technorati tags: branding, social tools, social networks, community, barack obama, hilary clinton, john edwards, twitter, myspace, youtube, friendster, second life, apple, joost, nike, adidas, nikon, nintendo, videos, blog, widget, mybloglog, promotion, rss, tagging

The guys at CommonCraft have created this great video explaining in plain english what social networks are all about:

Technorati tags: social networks, commoncraft, video, instructional, youtube

Peter Himler wrote a very interesting post about how marketing campaigns can reach a saturation point where they begin working against the business goal,rather than advancing it. He used the iPhone campaign as an example:

“…we’re left with the iPhone’s pre-release paid TV spots that permeate “The Daily Show,” and elsewhere….With all the free, gushing attention, why continue to run the ads? In my opinion, the ongoing paid campaign could produce a public backlash. I mean who on this planet has not reached an iPhone saturation point?”

This is so true. It made me think of all those Mc Donalds and Coca Cola commercials I am so sick of watching. After watching those ads so many times, I don’t have the desire to run out and get a hamburger and coke when I see them, but rather to change the channel. For marketers, it is as important to know how to run an effective, aggressive promotional campaign, as it is to know when to scale back a little on advertising.

Another interesting post I read is Jason Linkins’ article which talks about how non-traditional news sources stood out in their iPhone coverage.

He writes:

” One remarkable example was Justine, from Justin.tv, who hit the Mall of America armed with a camera on her hat and a pursebound Sony VAIO. She was bringing on-the-scene reports via blogging and vlogging, uploading photos to Flickr, and connecting with Twitter users for comments and assistance. That’s one person, fully mobile, operating across four platforms in near instantaneous fashion, and connecting to and with the people on the scene in a way the mainstream news cannot.”

Its amazing to see how news is covered on the internet these days in real time, in a way that was never possible before. I’ve previously written a related post regarding the coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings by students and staff.

Speaking of web 2.0 coverage, I’d like to thank Steve Rhodes for the above pic which he took in front of the San Francisco Apple store the night before the iPhone launch. Steve has a lot of amazing pics from that day on his flickr.

Technorati tags: publicity, promotion, peter himler, saturation, marketing, iphone, advertising, mcdonalds, coca cola, jason linkins, web 2.0, justin.tv, blogging, vlogging, flickr, twitter, steve rhodes

The industry and media hyped up the iPhone like no other gadget in modern history. Last week, when the product hit the shelves, shoppers ran to purchase and stood in lines for hours. Frankly, I must say I am a bit puzzled.

As Aner Ravon writes:

The iPhone is supposed to change the industry, yet it uses yesterday’s technology.

1. EDGE is a different name for horrible browsing experience. The only equivalent I can think of is a scooter engine trying to pull a Rolls Royce.

2. Side-loading only? You mean I need to connect my phone to the PC again? wasn’t it all about mobility?

3. Camera without zooming? Are we back in 2003 and nobody told me?

Jeff Pulver adds:

When I heard that in the United States in order to use an Apple iPhone I also had to be a subscriber to AT&T Wireless, I said No! It is not that T-Mobile has the best coverage (or the best service) but in principal, I am not in favor of any vendor whose device is locked into a certain service provider. What ever happened to my freedom of choice? I hope AT&T is paying Apple enough money to cover all of the sales they are losing from customers who have relationships on other carrier networks who would have also purchased the device if the AT&T phone service wasn’t a requirement.

What’s your take on the iPhone? Regardless of all the criticism, I must say that Steve Jobs and Apple have done an amazing job in marketing their product, so hats off to them for that.

Thanks to Andy for the pic.

Technorati tags: iphone, aner ravon, jeff pulver, apple, at&t, t-mobile, steve jobs

Looking for ways to enhance your web 2.0 experience and simplify your life? Here’s another great video by Michael Faneca I found this week on 5min regarding the best Web 2.0 toolbars:

Technorati tags: web 2.0, toolbars, 5min, instructional, video, michael faneca

A few days ago I received the following comment on my blog:

“Hi, Added a new value add to my blog this weekend - a news widget from widgetmate. I always wanted to show latest news for my keywords in my sidebar. It was very easy with this widget. Just a small copy paste and it was done. Great indeed.”

This comment was posted under my WeFi Makes Connections Easy post and has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. Tip to the people who are trying to market this product: If you’re going to market something. Do it right. Adding spam comments to posts that have nothing to do with your product, and sending the exact same email to my inbox a day later is not the way you want to go.

Blogger doesn’t offer an option to detect spam comments. The only options you have are to add a captcha to prevent automated spam or to moderate the comments, but I find that this takes away from the value of an instant response and I don’t want to resort to this solution. I think Blogger could do better. The least it could do is see if similar comments were posted to a particular blog multiple times, or use the Akismet model.

I did a little research on the topic and found that other bloggers have also received similar comments from Widgetmate. It’s remarkable to me how big Google which is supposedly such an active spam fighter can be defeated by some small time spammers that are using cheap marketing technics to promote their latest product.

I am interested to hear from you guys if you also received the same post.

Thanks to Naomi for this pic.

Technorati tags: commenting, blogging, blogger, widgetmate, widget, marketing, spam, akismet, google

Yesterday I attended the Blogference, an international bloggers conference featuring different seminars and panels on topics such as: How to become a successful blogger, new tools and applications for bloggers, legal implications that concern blogs, how to become a podcasting pro, how to produce low-budget internet TV shows, and blogging ethics. Hosting the seminars were some of the most prominent figures in the blogosphere, such as: Om Malik, Kent Nichols & Douglas Sarine, creators of Ask A Ninja, Jessica Ann Coen, formerly from Gawker and now http://www.jessicacoen.com, Justin Kownacki, producer, director, and creator of Something to be desired, Andrew Baron, creator and producer of Rocketboom, Anton Nossik, CBO of SUP Company (a partner of SixApart for LiveJournal project), and more.

I especially enjoyed Om Malik’s seminar where he gave us all a few good tips on how to create an interesting and popular blog. He discussed the importance of updating your blog on a daily basis, writing about topics which you feel passionationately about, and replying to those who comment on your blog. Om told us that he spends at least 20% of his day going over comments left on his blog and replying to them. And here’s another little tip for you: He mentioned that any individuals trying to catch his attention would be wise to send him a personal mail, explaining to him in a short paragraph what their company’s activity is and showing him that they are regular readers of his blogs and not just trying to “score a point”.

Later that evening, iDrink held a cocktail party for the Blogference attendees and others involved in the internet industry in Israel.

Here are some pics from the Blogference

(taken by Niv Calderon)

Blogference mania

Om Malik

Douglas Sarine, Ask A Ninja

Kent Nichols, Ask A Ninja

Pics from idrink

idrinkers

Om & Lior Katz from Wishood

The Twitter shirt

Technorati tags: blogference, blogosphere, podcasting, blogging, internet tv, om malik, ask a ninja, jessica coen, something to be desired, rocketboom, idrink, wishood, twitter, israel