Wave goodbye!!

Just hearing it on Mashable that Google is dropping Wave.

Wave, developed and supported by Google, was ........ well, i'm not quite sure exactly what it was.  It kind of was a, well, ....... erm....... a social thing.  To be honest i am not quite sure what it was, as it seemed to try to be a lot of things at once without actually being really good at a core function.  Friends did use it to collaborate with each other, but we are talking hardcore geeks and nerds.

Google described Wave as

Wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.  A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.  A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

I got an invite to Wave and logged on late last year.  

I was totally flabbergasted by it.  It meant nothing to me. 

I am only one part geek/nerd, so the most of Wave was wasted on me as i struggled to come to terms with it.  It lacked an intuitive interface.

And so i gave up quite quickly on Wave.  And now it looks like so is Google.

Better luck next time guys.

Social media brand ambassadors

I just came across this little piece at Dennis Wolff's staffing and recruitment blog.   Although it is focussed on Canada and social media interaction there, it can be reflective of its use in Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK and Ireland.  

So what does it say and what does it tell us?

Well the piece is entitled, 'How to use social media participation to turn your employees into ambassadors for your own brand' which kind of gives it all away.

What any organisation really wants is for its employees to become advocates for its services or products. This is as true offline as it is online.

Dennis states that 

The lines between public and private, personal and professional have become more and more blurred; with Generation Y joining the workforce, this trend can only intensify.

Organisations need to learn to love the social media phenomenon or risk alienating their own employees who enjoy social networking.  If done right employees can become enthusiastic brand ambassadors and feel much more connected to their organisation.

Social media is one more platform for interaction and relationship building, one that is growing.  Facebook now has now hit 500 million.  

Facebook, Twitter, google buzz, NING, etc are all ways to help build relationships.  They should not be ignored as a fad.  At one stage telephones, then mobile phones and computers were fads.

Total Politics is looking for your vote!

You don't have to vote for me (though that would seriously massage my ego!) but i would encourage you to vote.  

Northern Ireland has a number of very solid political commentary blogs that sit right across the political and social spectrum.

They should be encouraged.  Open debate and ideas being flung at us from the comfort of a bloggers sofa is not to be sniffed at.

UPDATE
It has been kindly pointed out by  Dilettante that the poll has in fact closed. As off 31 July. 


I am a numpty who needs to read the rules more closely. Doh.