Speak with Conviction Poem (Video)

I want to thank Socratoad on Amplify for sharing this. As a Toastmaster and someone who is interested in public speaking and quality speech I absolutely love this poem. What a great reminder to all of us.

Tags: Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Public Speaking, Ronnie Bruce
Posted in Amplify, Public Speaking, Video | Comments

Interview of Eric Goldstein CEO/Founder of Clipmarks/Amplify (Podcast)

I had the opportunity to interview Internet entrepreneur Eric Goldstein founder/CEO of Clipmarks.com and Amplify.com. Eric is not your traditional technology innovator; his entrée into this industry is the result of his appreciation for conversation. While growing up in Long Island Eric’s family would often have discussions around the dinner table where he would learn and appreciate the value of different opinions and ideas. Ultimately this led Eric to pursue a career in Law.

About 10 years ago the foundations of Clipmarks.com were originating in Eric’s mind. By 2004 the site was launched and evolved to be a community that he is very fond of to this day. There was one small problem with Clipmarks from the internet entrepreneur side of things, the model was not scalable. Eric was forced to make decisions that would provide insight into his character. Despite the suggestion of at least one potential investor Eric opted to keep the Clipmarks community alive and create a new scalable site – Amplify.com.

The emphasis on conversation is still the driving force but the new site has scalability in its DNA. Amplify was officially launched in 2009 without much fanfare. Eric realized that if a site was to succeed it had to be viral, so there was no hype, no pre-launch party, no balloons, advertising or marketing push. The site was officially launched by about a half dozen employees and family members. Amplify has since proven that it can grow organically and viral with the number of posts and users growing substantially month over month. As of the interview there were approximately 800 posts per day on the Amplify.com website.

When we talked about the priorities of the site evolution, Eric mentioned that the feed portion of the site will be undergoing an overhaul. It will not come as a surprise that the overhaul is intended to further improve the quality of the conversation. After the overhaul is completed it is likely that support for pushing the content you create on amplify.com to other blog sites such as Wordpress or Blogger. Presently you can choose (via checkbox) to push your content to:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Friendfeed
• Tumblr
• Posterous
• Plurk
• Diigo
• Delicious
• Clipmarks

When the blog integration is complete it will allow most users to rely solely upon Amplify.com to generate their content. This will really be quite an achievement.

I will be following Amplify.com very closely both as a user and a fan of their technology and conversational approach. For me 2010 is the year of the conversation, and that extends from Social Media, Family, Work, Blogtalkradio, and face to face meet-ups. While we were wrapping up the show Eric and I agreed that we would explore having another conversation down the road perhaps where some of the users of the site will call in and interact.

Listen to the entire Interview

Tags: Amplify.com, Blog, Blogtalkradio, Entrepreneurs, Eric Goldstein, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Podcast
Posted in Amplify, Interviews, Podcasts, Technology | Comments

On not waiting for others to make things happen (podcast)

Here is a podcast I recorded this morning over at Cinchcast.

Tags: Happiness, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Podcast, Tips
Posted in Inspiration, Podcasts | Comments

3 Surprise Benefits of Amplify.com

I was posting to a discussion about Amplify being a “better Posterous” and decided I would share it here on my blog also for the people who follow my blog. I basically moved from “living” on Facebook and Twitter to Amplify this week. I still access Facebook and Twitter in fact in ways the move has enhanced my experience. Here is the post, there is a link after to the original thread if you want to see what others have said.

Wow great discussion! The hook for me that exceeded Facebook, Twitter, etc. was the fact that there is a GREAT community interaction and the site is absolutely unique in what it can do right now. Of course over time I am sure the team here (and elsewhere) will work to innovate and disrupt but I hope that amplify will continue to build on the strength of the conversation portion. Prior to making Amplify my home, I bounced between Facebook and Twitter. For me this was a really simple shift because I can still selectively engage those audiences but also just casually share the stuff that I read throughout the day.

There are some special things about Amplify for me that I had not anticipated at all, and would have stuck around anyway:

1. I made some great Quality friends quickly (the site attracts energetic, kind, supportive and savvy people).
2. I had a big increase in my mentions and interaction on Twitter. (Go figure!)
3. It encouraged me to use a couple of other sites a little more (sites I was basically passively updating already via ping.fm) Friendfeed, Posterous.

In summary Amplify is a site were individuals of all skill levels can effectively communicate without being forced into a closed system (like Facebook). In my view it has the most important aspects of Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed right now. It will also truly “amplify” the effectiveness of your message, ideas and experience.

A bit long winded and worthy of a blog entry on my site, let the ctrl+a, ctrl+c begin! <EOM>

See this entire discussion.

Tags: Amplify.com, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Amplify, Facebook, Social Media Strategy, Twitter, community | Comments

With an Abundance of tools my Internet use evolves (podcast)

Today while exchanging some tweets with @simbeckhampson I recognized that my social media and web footprint has evolved over time and in the process different tools have been useful for different things:

1. Facebook is where most of my real life friends are. I also find it more personal interaction wise.
2. I get news from Twitter, share news and interesting info. More informal interaction wise.
3. Blogtalkradio has opened up a nice niche for conversations with interesting people.
4. Cinchcast – I love to call in and get ideas out while driving then I share it later.
5. Youtube – I am big on screencasts and moving towards more personal messages (videos of me mixed in)
6. Amplify – I am making new friends, sharing more what I am reading more and selectively share to FB, Twitter, etc.

These aren’t all the tools I use, for me the key is really the data that comes in via Email. I need to re-evaluate my use of Google Reader and RSS also for incoming information. Here is the podcast that was inspired by my conversations with Paul:

Tags: Blogtalkradio, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Podcast, Tips, Twitter
Posted in Amplify, Blogging, Facebook, Podcasts, Social Media Strategy, Tools, Twitter, Wordpress | Comments

Sharing old Content with New Friends (Video)

I’ve made a lot of very cool new friends over at Amplify.com. Consider this part II of my Amplify series. In this video I do a demonstration of sharing content on Amplify and realize that they have not seen a lot of my choice old content yet so I need to build my Amplog over there.

Tags: Amplify.com, Amplog, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial
Posted in Amplify, Video | Comments

Allow me to introduce Amplify my new Favorite Internet App (Video)

Today I discovered an app that I can confidently say is one of the most under-hyped web 2.0 apps I’ve come across. I happened to be searching for something on google and one of the results was at amplify.com. When I got to the content I was very interested in what I saw, it was like Friend Feed meets Alltop. For best results I recommend using this with Mozilla Firefox.

Why is this a Killer Web 2.0 App?

1. You can easily share entire pages or snippets of pages via a number of channels.
2. It does all of the heavy lifting including tagging your content, yes it generates suggested tags!
3. Includes a social component and feed similar to Friendfeed.
4. Provides the ability to include categories to better organize your content.

Sharing snippets or pages via a number of channels

By allowing you to configure Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, and a number of other services you have the ability to share the message with the audience that you think it is most appropriate for by simply checking or unchecking the box next to that service. You can uncheck the twitter option for example if you want to add some hashtags you can come back and share with Twitter after you post it. It also has integration with bit.ly that allows you to track the URL’s that it parses and shares with the various sites you choose. For me the flexibility here is really helpful. If I’ve been busy on Facebook for example I might give those users a break and share it with Twitter. I don’t send everything everywhere, that is a decision we all must decide fits our needs best.

Check out my Amplify Page.

Heavy Lifting and Tagging Content

So many of us out here in internet land are lazy, we don’t always want to think about brands, messages and SEO. Sometimes we just want to post something and share it with our friends without consideration of how it will play out strategically for the next 90 days. For some of us tagging articles is the web 2.0 equivalent of heavy lifting. Someone was wise enough to figure this out and there are suggested tags generated automatically for each article or snippet you amplify. Yes!

Social Components and Friendfeed Like UI

I’ve noticed a lot of people on Friendfeed say not so nice things about Twitter. I can understand it, Twitter is like the wild west of the internet. It can be chaotic, it is very fluid and loose. Friendfeed is very structured and user friendly. Most importantly Friendfeed offers the right mix of features to make it very comfortable for social media savvy people to communicate. Amplify delivers this level of comfort and familiarity to the novice or pro alike.

Categories Better Organize Your Content

I discovered this option after I recorded the screencast for this post. I am definitely not about perfection and my screencasts, podcasts and writing will indicate that if you’ve followed me very long. So lacking the retention of a perfectionist I did not go back and add the category information to the video but it really is great to have it.

You will be cooler than all your friends

You can be cooler than all your friends, I cannot imagine how this site will not catch on. It has the most important criteria:

• Ease of use – it doesn’t get much easier
• Social – Check!
• More features – Check!
• Tags – Check!
• Categories – Check!
• URL Shortening/Tracking – Check!

Welcome to my favorite new Web 2.0 App:

Tags: Alltop, Amplify, Friendfeed, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Killer App, Web 2.0
Posted in Amplify, Social Media Strategy, Technology, Tools, Video | Comments

4 Step Custom 3D Tag Cloud Page Using WP and Cumulus

This is an instructional video on how to create a large or customized tag cloud on an individual page on a Wordpress based website. The concept is relatively simple:

1. WP-Cumulus is a Plugin/Widget, install the plug-in first.
2. Customize WP-Cumulus on the Widget Page any size/colors.
3. Viewing the source of your page you will grab the code to.
4. Create a new page and use the source code from step 3.

Tags: Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Tips, Wordpress
Posted in Technology, Video, Wordpress | Comments

Being Social Beyond Social Media

While driving to meet a friend for coffee to discuss some upcoming business plans I was reminded how important social interaction is to me professionally and personally. I personally find what I refer to as analog networking and social interaction to be very rewarding. I have really come a long way in this regard from the IT guy who was content to sit behind his keyboard and interact mostly through IRC, Email and IM. Now I just couldn’t see living any other way, the connections I make with people inspire me to give that much more, to work that much harder and remind me of the important things in my life. Here is the Podcast I recorded while driving to my coffee appointment.

Tags: Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Podcast, Social
Posted in Podcasts | Comments

2 Important Reasons to Use Facebook Re-Tweet

This morning I woke up and while scanning Twitter for news I noticed @Mashable has an article about a Facebook re-tweet feature. This is kind of a big deal for Facebook users but many Facebook users aren’t also Twitter users so I knew it would be useful to do a screencast to demonstrate the feature and talk about the benefits. The two reasons you should use it:

1. To provide the person who original shared the content credit for their efforts.
2. To encourage your friends to become fans of similar content that interests you.

Here is a screen cast demonstration of how to use the feature:

Tags: Facebook, Joe Hackman, Joesgonesocial, Re-Tweet, Tips
Posted in Facebook, Twitter, Video | Comments