What The Heck Is A HuffDuffer?
December 21, 2009
What is Huffduffer?
Shortcut for illicitly inhaling (huffing) toxic chemicals? Nope.
New version of Duff Beer featured on the Simpsons? Not quite.
As a longtime fan of podcasts, there’s something that podcasting definitely hasn’t had – an easy way of sharing or having a fun discovery tool. It’s always been a difficult process as well as social aspects have been lacking. Unless you’re lucky enough to have an aficionado tweet or status their favourites on a constant basis, it can be hard to find new stuff.
Here’s where Huffduffer comes in. It’s a silly name, but it actually means something, unlike most cutesy names of the Web 2.0 ilk – it’s the pronounceable way of saying HF/DF, which is an actual term which is a triangulation method that uses two or more radio receivers to find the location of a radio transmitter. Very apropos for it’s task – finding podcasts.
So of course, I’ve signed up. What does it do? It makes your very own personal podcast feed. That’s right. No muss, no fuss, you drop the MP3 file links in, and voila. People can subscribe and find the newest stuff you’re interested in (a tip – if the link has tracking code on it by someone like podtrac, leave it in – it’s important so that the creators know how many people are downloading and how).
I’m not thinking this is for “cardinal” feeds – which are the basis of the content – but great as “adjuncts” for fans or maybe if you’re a network highlighting the best clips or shows in your network. You can add tags, a description, and see others who are HuffDuffing (Either one of the key sounds, huff or duff, when shortened, are going to be unfortunate shortened terms – “I Huffed That?” Either you’re doing something that kills brain cells or referring to The Hoff, David Hasselhoff. And I’m not sure what “I Hoffed It” would mean. Feel free to expound in comments).
The power is in taking audio content – in podcast form or not – and creating something useful, a soundscape of the things you like or you think others would – and then using the ubiquitous RSS format to distribute that information.
I must admit, as someone who likes good user experience, I really appreciated their signup process. that alone should be copied by others. It’s got a great screen that I had to share below that speaks in.. *gasp* human speak. You can click the image for a larger version.
Sharing integration is not complete with other services such as Facebook or Twitter as of this writing but there is the ability to link and embed, and there is a Firefox plugin and the iTouch mobile experience works well (haven’t had a chance to look at it on a Blackberry, but it’s a well done mobile site – you’ll be using cut and paste for this one so far until there’s a better way – and frankly, on the iPhone with it’s walled gardens, Huffduffer being a mobile site experience might just be the best way to go).
The ability to add in-depth with the notes is really valuable, too. It gives the potential for much more context and content usually only found in blog posts, or it also can be a short blast. I’d suggest being a bit descriptive if you like something and want to turn others on to it.
As to the traditional podcast feeds, it creates an iTunes-acceptable (not submitted to store but able to subscribe to anyway) feed as well as your standard RSS feed for iTunes, Google Reader, Firefox, or whatever else. Then, you can subscribe to the feeds of your friends and find the new stuff that they like.
In short, it’s a simple site that I could see in the future having a lot of potential for sharing, comments, etc. Simple disqus integration might be nice in the future, to make podcasts a much more social experience with commenting in easier ways as many podcast sites and blogs have very poor comment support.
It’s not perfect, it’s obviously new, but I think it’s a good step in the right direction to make podcasting more social.
Check it out at http://www.huffduffer.com and subscribe to my HuffDuff here.
Detroit’s Ultimate Social Media Bar
April 20, 2009
There’s a bar that’s “got” the core concepts of social media from the beginning, better than most companies and establishments – but there hasn’t even been a Tweetup there.
The place embraces all the tenants of social media; but doesn’t as a part of a contrived strategy but just because it is simply the best thing to do.
How does it do this?
- It encourages conversation. The bar is round, not square, so that you can have a conversation much easier. I’ve met so many new friends – and had great memories with old ones – in part due to the conducive nature of the layout to conversation. No awkward leans; and it’s way easier for a group of three or four to have a chat at the bar without getting a table; and that’s really important when meeting new people.
- It helps others out. The story NPR had told, about helping out another local pizza business by buying ALL of it’s inventory it’s first night and then promoting it at THEIR bar, is fundamentally what social media is all about. Promote each other with reckless abandon, and the results will come back to you.
- The Park Bar found a niche and stuck to it. The Park is a little out of the way, just a block off of Foxtown and a block off of Grand Circus Park, tucked away across from what was once a beautiful building. But, it, next to Cliff Bells, has carved out a great niche of being great for bringing new people around for AND as a beloved spot for us locals. It doesn’t try to be Hard Rock; it doesn’t try to be Hockeytown; it is what it is.
- It is loyal to it’s community. You can’t turn on the TV for a non-Detroit sports team, plain and simple. You can ask, but it’s not going to happen. It’s community is Detroit, and that’s how it is.
I think the lesson for us all is that none of these social media tenets or ideas are new; they’re very old but wrapped up today in slick ajax and a bubbly font. In short, the Park Bar has found success using the ideals of social media, and it doesn’t even have a Twitter account.
(Photo Sourced from the Park Bar’s MySpace Page)
E-Mail Newsletters Are Still Relevant
March 22, 2009
I’m not one to throw out the old completely for the new, especially when it works.
One of the most successful underpinnings of providing the opportunity for videos or other content to go viral is the email newsletter (after all, we can’t guarantee virality, but we can do our damndest to allow for the opportunity to it occur).
You should value and respect every one of your subscribers, and not waste their time. Entertain and inform them, so that they’re looking forward to hearing from you.
Some ask me – isn’t a blog the same as an email newsletter? Well, it’s really not.
Although email newsletters do allow for some response, they’re not as conversational or anywhere near as two-way as a blog. And best practices probably means not hitting “send” to your five or ten thousand person email list every single day (unless it’s a very special case, such as a media outlet, but that is another discussion entirely). Not to mention, you’re interrupting people with email, so you have an even higher value proposition to meet in order to engage your customers or potential customers.
So what are some key things that I still folks miss in 2009? Let’s go over them quickly so that you, too, can get the most from your email newsletter.
1) No tracking. At least in aggregate, get an idea of what links your users are clicking on, as well as open rates and time open. This is important for you to know what is actually making an impact with your readers. After all, this is a results-oriented business and just assuming what people want is very dangerous to your pocketbook as a course of action.
2) No text-only version. There’s a ton of email clients that are set at various businesses or mobile devices that prefer the text-only version, and it’s important because you don’t know at what point or how someone is going to view your email.
3) No text at all. If your stuff is valuable, people keep it around and then are going to search their inbox for your message. If you’re one of those all-image newsletters, it might be hard to find you without the perfect subject line.
4) The subject line is crucial. There’s only a few words, if that, to make an impression on folks to give them the information they need to make a decision on opening the email. A bunch of formalities and then the meat is not going to work as effectively. Give’em some relevant sizzle to get them to buy your email steak.
5) It’s about them, not you. Give value to get value. Ask yourself, before you send, why does the reader care about this?
What are your tips and experiences? Have additional questions? Share below.
Jon Zemke From Metromode Joins Us At The Studio To Talk About A Project
January 23, 2009
We’re glad to have Jon Zemke in the studio, revealing his beta site project and talking about the stories people don’t want you to see. Total run time, 8 minutes, 16 seconds – and 20 minutes from completion of recording to “air time.”
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Your Weak Password Is Putting Your Business At Risk
January 8, 2009
There’s been a string of reports of various hacks of web 2.0 services, or individual services. Whether it’s Twitter, Ning, etc, I’m hearing many reports that, as I had in a Twitter conversation with @kenburbary, It’s “the year of the miscreant.” (By the way, if you want tips to avoid Twitter phishing, jump here to his blog).
So let’s get very serious about passwords BECAUSE 2009 IS the year of miscreant. Deadly, business serious, and I’m going to sound tough but the message HAS to sink in.
With all of this sharing comes a responsibility to yourself. I know, it stinks you need to have a more difficult password, but here are some facts:
1) If your password is ANY word in the dictionary or a name alone, it is much easier to be hacked. There’s a thing called dictionary attacks where robots/scripts/etc try every english word.
Knowing this information now, you are being negligent to your business if you use a dictionary word password (especially without anything to mess it up, like numbers or special characters interspersed) and putting your business and your personal brand at risk of hackers; not to mention the time to re-create any assets that live there.
2) Depending on the age or software of the online service, some passwords are case sensitive, some aren’t. If you can, USE CASE SENSITIVE passwords as well to increase your security.
3) The longer your password, the better. Seriously. Do nothing under 8 – nothing we have is less than 16 characters. Mission critical stuff is 64 characters (we have a CD for that – after all, if a hacker/miscreant has physical access to your machine, you’re probably toast anyway).
4) User gibberish. It’s hard to remember, but like a bank account number, you’ll eventually get it. Go to http://www.grc.com/passwords and get yourself a unique, up to 64 character one.
5) Don’t give out your password to anyone. I don’t give out my password to any of the Twitter services; sure, it’s just Twitter, but it’s a very bad habit. Some of these things could easily be started knowing that many times, people’s passwords are the same for everything they do, including more serious things like their online banking.
6) Every time something wants a password, question it, even briefly:
- What is this service asking for my password?
- Why is it asking for it?
- Is it really the service or program I think it is?
- Do I trust it? And how do I know I can trust it?
Unfortunately, even with all of this, you not alone can prevent these things. As the hack of Twitter showed, bad security practices are done even at the top level of many sites. Listening to podcasts like Security Now! (where many of these tips are adapted from), I’ve learned that some banks, because their websites are only web front ends to an ancient mainframe, are only 8 characters, non-case sensitive, even if you put in more!
But doing some practical things, like outlined above, can significantly reduce your chances of being hacked. Compromising sites today is less about technology and much more about social engineering and taking advantage of the trust we seem to have.
