And what a year it has been. I am grateful for all my awesome friends and colleagues. Hope you enjoy these shots from the many industry conferences and networking events I attended this year. Thank you all for your support. Have an awesome holiday and successful 2008.
I look forward to seeing you next year!
Every week Lisa Picarille, the Editor-in Chief of Revenue Magazine and Shawn Collins, the Co-founder of Affiliate Summit host the leading affiliate industry podcast, Affiliate Thing . Last Wednesday, while Shawn was at Affiliate Summit London, I served as substitute co-host. Our guest was Heather Paulson, long-time affiliate marketing veteran, who recently launched her own company, Paulson Management Group. The Affiliate Thing Ladies Show was a blast to do. Please click here for a listen.
BTW – when deciding to pay homage to my favorite childhood show, Charlie’s Angels, I specifically went old-school. (A dedcication to my cute little twin sisters who spent years running around the house with me, dressed up in our mom’s cloths, with water guns in our little black purses. Yes, I ALWAYS had to be Sabrina). FREEZE!
Back to my social media musings. Each one of the “tools” in my Fab 4 have their pros and cons. Fred Wilson recently pointed out that email within Facebook and LinkedIn can be frustrating. He’s right. Email on Facebook is really just a form of IM. Would you reach out to a colleague with a “real” professional issue, strategy, idea or in-depth project in a long IM (with music)? I think not. The the whole “approval to forward” on LinkedIn…what a pain.
However, instead of comparing apples to oranges, I prefer to just appreciate each apple or orange for what its worth. I’m fairly utilitarian when it comes to these things: If it’s valuable, I will use it. Now, that’s not to say that the value proposition is static. Things change; this is the LIVE WEB after-all. And, I surely don’t need two apples (Think – Pownce and Twitter)!
But instead of a point-by-point comparison, I wanted to share my TOP 10 REASONS WHY I LOVE FACEBOOK (for now)….
10. I get to start my day with a few friendly pokes. 
9. I get to add a song to an email if I want, thereby adding another layer of communication strategy on to my note. Again, this is really one-to-one IM. You can’t cc: anyone as far as I can tell.
8. My good friend from college who lives in MALTA just connected with me. Along with skype, Facebook makes keeping up my international friends and colleagues a heck of a lot easier (and cheaper).
7. When I “facebook” with my teenage niece and nephew, I feel ultra cool, and assure myself that I can keep up with the kids.
6. Birthdays are a snap! No additional reminders required.. It’s all right there. I can’t wait until my birthday on Facebook (October 3rd, btw…)
5. A lot of the people I know and work with are there. Not all, but a lot. In addition to working with affiliates, customers, partners, friends and family – I can also meet new colleagues and explore bus dev opportunities.
4. For NOW – it is a lot less ugly than MySpace and has less spam. Let’s see how that evolves. I already saw one flashing, vegas-style ad. Yikes.
3. Groups make life easier for a social butterfly like me: Chris Brogan has been quite prolific on the topic of why he moved Grasshoppers group off Facebook and onto Ning. For that group in particular, Ning rocks. For more amorphous collections and/or events, I think the volume I’ll get on Facebook is the way to go. Example – being a good alumna, I formed groups for my graduating classes for high school and college. I always get pulled into helping with reunions. Facebook will make planning a reunion or other general gathering a lot easier. That is.. if people keep logging in.
2. FEED ME SEYMOUR: It’s all about THE FEED!!! I love the feed. What a good way to quickly scan and see what’s goin’ through the collective consciousness. After all, this is a marketing TOOL. Great for branding, exposure and reach! This topic warrants an entire post. Ask Scoble how many people join groups after he joins them. The feed works.
1. My avatar doesn’t have to fly!
