mel’s being held to ransom, can you help get her back?

here’s the winner of the random video competition…

mel tells us all of the entries were great, but there was something about the dancing that appealed to her in this one… don’t understand why that could be.

anyway, one miiiiilllllion dolla or the smile gets it!

my name’s mel, short for melanie. i am a girl, this means that i smell of roses, have long hair, pretty nails and like all things pink. i just so happen to love all things geek too. that is all. enjoy.

you’re all awesome, have a fantastic thursday and don’t forget to wear that smile with pride!

so… this morning, i took the liberty of asking those great twitter folks what the first four things they opened in their web browser in the morning. mine are simple, gmail, twitter, facebook and 4mations to check what’s been going on overnight. the answers you gave were quite interesting and only go to prove that google rule the world! lol.

1. gmail
2. google reader
3. twitter
4. facebook
5. google analytics
6. basecamp
7. skysports
8. own website
9. bbc
10. igoogle

the other sites, which all drew include delicious, techcrunch, randommel (bless your hearts!), flickr, online banking, google calendar, google docs, times online, lynda.com, forums, wikis, google alerts, magicseaweed, freelanceswith.com, visto.com, phpmyadmin.

on a completely different topic, i’ve had too much coffee today already and am a little over-excited about those interweb fairies again. i’m thinking that i want to do more with my site - post more regularly and mix it up. I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP. i’ve considered life casting (but my life isn’t all that interesting), i’ve considered product reviews (but i kinda love them all) and so i’d love to hear from you what YOU would like to see - after all, it’s all about you. i’d really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave your comments below.

thankyou mucho xxx

the title of this post is a bit misleading, i’ll admit to that now - i believe the complete opposite, but it got your attention didn’t it?

bear with me as i write as i think, probably a little out of order and lots of personal views, often too strong, maybe too passionate… but this stuff makes me tick, so i’m hoping you’ll make allowances…

i was having a conversation with a friend yesterday and it struck me that far too many people think anyone can successfully build a community - there’s not too much to it right? interact on facebook and you’re most the way there? you couldn’t be further from the truth. think of it in wallpapering terms (i warned you this was random) - for a smooth effect there’s a hell of a lot of preparation that needs to go into it… you can’t just slap it up and hope it sticks. what do i mean? well funny you should ask…

research

research, research and research some more. i can’t stress how important this is. you need to know your offering inside out, know the community inside out and don’t be afraid to think big.

sure, everyone needs to be realistic at some point, but don’t be afraid to dream… don’t restrict yourself to creating something that’s achievable - why settle for something that’s okay when it could be amazing. the web is a fabulous place but in order for it to keep getting better, we need people to push the boundaries, to question existing standards and to reach for more. be one of those people.

think about what might be possible, who might be interested, where those people communicate and how, what tools are currently offered and what could be improved, what reach do you have, who could help, what do your community value, what can you provide that is different, fresh and new?

testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

in a world where beta is often just a get out clause for a product or service that’s already finished and shiny, this is still incredibly important. of course, it wouldn’t be sensible for you to put yourself out there in a totally unfinished state, but to the same extent, i can’t stress how important it is to build in user feedback to your product. by listening to your users and incorporating their suggestions and recommendations, you’re giving ownership and allowing them buy-in.

asking for feedback is pretty pointless if you never get together with the team to review - infact this can be more detrimental than not asking for feedback in the first place. communities mean handing over power to your users and if you’re not comfortable with doing that, i hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re not ready for a community yet.

not all feedback will be a quick fix and plenty won’t always be welcome (especially if it’s costly) but you need to remind yourself that the site/product is for them and not you. it’s your responsibility to give your users what they want.

fuzzy warmness

set yourself goals. so often i hear social media described as fluffy and, well, quite frankly it makes me boil a little inside. no you might not be able to set financial goals against each of your actions, but there are plenty of things that you can measure. for example:-

it’s time to step up, to bring something to the web, to look after your community - after all, as soon as you have one set of eyeballs reading your blog - you have a community and it’s your responsibility to look after them?

food for thought? i hope so…