Social Platforms & Social Media In Business

Last.fm, the social music platform that was acquired by CBS Interactive has made itself available for those accessing the web via Windows Mobile.

According to Mashable they could be coming to iPhones as early as next week as well:

Macworld Expo ‘08 launches next week in San Fransisco, California. The rumors of what we might expect to see have already circulated plenty as to what we can expect from Steve Jobs and Apple.

Here’s another: In a letter that was posted on Wikipedia (and then pulled), it seems that the iPhone will be getting quite a bit more attention from third-party supporters. You can add to the list Last.FM.

The popular audio streaming site is making a real push lately into the mobile space. Yesterday came the news that they have released a version of their application for the Windows Mobile platform, and now this rumor that it will be appearing on the Apple produced, iPhone.

Got an iPhone and want to twitter using a slick interface. You might want to check out Hahlo. It rocks.

Hahlo is an iPhone-styled interface for the great Twitter service, and it is built upon their simple API.

All you need to use Hahlo is a twitter account. Your login details are not stored by hahlo.com, they are saved in a cookie to allow access to things such as your direct messages, and enable you to update your status directly from hahlo.

Via: Colin Devroe

Sometimes I get annoyed at people’s 47 mile long facebook profiles. They take so long to load and sometimes they even bork my firefox. I try to avoid the place as much as possible. Well hopefully before spring we will have the chance to clean it up according to AllFacebook, who says that a Profile Clean Up Tool is on the way.

Facebook has posted about a new profile clean-up tool that they will be launching in the coming weeks. Following countless complaints about profile clutter and application overload, Facebook has developed an application similar to the Windows desktop auto-cleaner. The application will automatically keep Facebook’s applications as well as the top 12 applications that you have installed on your profile.

All other applications will be automatically deleted. Say goodbye to the “long-tail” of applications. I have a feeling that there will be significant backlash from a few application developers that are unhappy to see their user base drop drastically. Additionally, the number of applications that you can display by default in your profile will be limited to 12 applications. Rather than displaying all applications it will now display 12 and display a link that says “Show Extended Profile.”

Chris Garrett one of my Twitter friends has written up a great introduction to Twitter aimed at the blogging community but this is also applicable to all of us as well.

Here’s a quick tease of his article:
If you haven’t tried it, Twitter is a kind of online messaging system. It is like a group chat where you post 140 character messages or “Tweets”. You can post links or just text. URLs get converted into TinyURLs if they are beyond a certain length or you can paste short URLs from the service of your choice. WordPress plugins and online services make hooking up your blog feed easy, so every post you make goes to Twitter as a URL.

Just like with other social sites, you add contacts and other contacts add you. Once you have a few followers discussions form. You direct messages to an individual using the @ prefix, eg. “This message is just for @chrisgarrett”. Everyone gets to see these that are following the sender, but these messages appear in the “Replies” tab so you get to see all the replies made to you, regardless of if you are following the sender (optional preference). There is also a DM feature for private messages.

LinkedIn has issues 8 Tips for Productivity within the LinkedIn Network. I believe I’ve done all these things but I might take a quick few minutes and double check.

My personal favorite on this list is getting your vanity url. You just have to get it. I mean what’s the point of having a LinkedIn profile if you can’t SEO the heck out of it?

According to the Second Life Reuters presence Showtime has a hit inside Second Life. And me not being much of a Second Lifer I have normally found the place to be a ghost town which isn’t a bad thing. But apparently it works for some corporate presences.

Unlike so many corporate presences in Second Life, “The L Word” sim is no ghost town. The virtual home of Showtime’s cable television show buzzes at all hours with activity, full of avatars chatting and dancing.

Together with its developer, The Electric Sheep Company, Showtime won a technology Emmy this week for its work inside Second Life. The award was one of three scored by the virtual worlds industry, along with MTV’s Virtual Laguna Beach and Second Life creator Linden Lab.

Via Reuters

Bebo has finally opened up it’s social networking platform for developers to create applications similar to Facebook Applications, I wonder if they will have a similar or better level of success as folks have had on Facebook.

This is a big day for developers. The Bebo platform has just launched for all developers. Get ready for the massive influx of new applications launching on the platform within the first few days. I will most definitely launch my own applications as I’m sure will all other developers that previously had successful applications. This is also a great opportunity for those that didn’t experience the same success that a select few experienced on the Facebook platform.

Via The Social Times

Twhirl has made my return to Twitter much more enjoyable. I enjoy Twitter to stay connected to friends, geniune ones, and co workers that interact with on a daily basis. Not just random folks I’m looking to evangelize. I like to use Twitter to deepen relationships not fluff them up or use it as a status symbol. It’s about being more real. I like Twhirl in that it allows me to be more effective with the time crunch I suffer from daily.

twhirl is the latest Twitter Client I’ve come across using the Adobe AIR package. AIR makes it possible to run the same code on both Windows and Mac (others?) which I like. I hate finding some cool app and it only be for one system. As a developer, I use Windows, Linux and a Mac and I like finding tools that work on all three systems, which is rare. Adobe’s AIR is a step in the right direction.

via Twitter Hacks

Profy, a blogging application developed in Russia just launched an Alpha version of its hosted product which I could see becoming very popular in business and enterprise circles. I think many of its cooler features are already being developed by folks inside the WordPress community, and Vox would also be a similar product from SixApart.

Profy has finally launched our very own blogging platform in alpha. We have been developing it here in Russia for more than a year now and the alpha release is a very important step. We were sitting and waiting nervously for the first reviews after the embargo was lifted and I think I will post links to some of the first reviews here to cordially thank all the bloggers.Crenk was the first to break the story though I was a bit disappointed to see our press release almost unchanged. But you need to stick to using language from press releases when you want to break news and be the first.

I’ve known about Alpine Access for about 2+ years. I previously worked in a few different call centerish like atmospheres and both of them in Colorado and from networking with folks in this industry I’ve been following them off and on for a few years. They are a work at home call centric company. The majority of their employees are work at home folks who network utilizing a social networking platform to stay in touch and communicate. It’s called HiveLive.

Here’s what HiveLive says about themselves:
There’s a new model of business that isn’t about convincing people of your messages, value, or position in the marketplace. It’s about allowing your customers, employees, and partners to create those messages, determine that value, and help you get to that position. It’s about getting them excited about what you’re doing because they’re a part of it…because they’re at the very center of it.

The core concept is for clients, and employees to network and add value to the company. Alpine Access is a success story in creating a new way to work and utilizing a social platform to enable them to grow their company.