{"id":816,"date":"2008-12-30T05:14:09","date_gmt":"2008-12-30T12:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulgillin.com\/?p=816"},"modified":"2008-12-30T05:14:09","modified_gmt":"2008-12-30T12:14:09","slug":"816","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/816\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best of '08"},"content":{"rendered":"

From my weekly newsletter. To subscribe, just fill out the short form to the right.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At this time of year, many publishers and bloggers do one of two things: look ahead at the future or back at the year just ending. Since Joe Pulizzi<\/a>, Fast Company<\/a> and iMedia Connection<\/a> did a great job at social media predictions, I thought I\u2019d rummage through my digital archives and offer my completely unscientific list of what made this year special for me.<\/p>\n

Best Social Media Tool <\/strong>– That’s easy. It’s Twitter<\/a>, the super-simple, deceptively powerful micro-blogging service that has people sharing their lives in 140-character increments. If you still don’t get Twitter, I feel your pain, but anyone who wants to practice marketing in the new media world needs to get with the program. If you need help, I’ll get on the phone with your people and tell them why it’s so important.<\/p>\n

Best Social Media Disaster Story<\/strong> — Johnson & Johnson’s well-intentioned Motrin video turned into a PR nightmare<\/a> thanks to — you guessed it — Twitter. To its credit, J&J earnestly listened, but the marketers\u2019 failure to anticipate negativity and their eagerness to respond too hastily made this a bigger problem than it had to be.<\/p>\n

\"\"Best New Face<\/strong> \u2013 Chris Brogan<\/a> blew out of the pack to become one of the world’s top bloggers thanks to his prodigious output and shrewd self-promotion. He’ll soon hit 30,000 followers on Twitter and the 14,600 subscribers to his blog are a thing of wonder. I don’t know when the guy finds time to sleep. I’m fortunate to work with him on the New Marketing Summit <\/a>conference and have a chance to learn from his success.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best Book<\/strong> \u2013 Groundswell<\/em><\/a> by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li broke new ground by attempting to apply research and metrics to social media marketing. The book also told some great stories. Conflict of interest prevents me from choosing my own Secrets<\/em> of Social Media Marketing<\/em><\/a>, but that shouldn\u2019t stop you from buying it!<\/p>\n

Best New Software Application<\/strong> — In the ranks of software that tries to bring order to the barely contained chaos that is Twitter, TweetDeck<\/a> does the best job I’ve seen.<\/p>\n

Best Fall to Earth<\/strong> \u2013 Forrester reported that corporate enthusiasm for blogging was beginning to wane. That\u2019s not surprising; most big companies do a lousy job of it<\/a>. Expect retooling and new growth in the new year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong>Best Viral Marketing Success<\/strong> \u2013 Cindy Gordon told just seven people about Universal Orlando\u2019s plans to launch a Harry Potter theme park. Word of mouth spread the story to 350 million others in a matter of a couple of days. David Meerman Scott has the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Best New Product <\/strong>\u2013 The Apple iPhone 3G became the first true mobile Internet device and sold 3 million units in its first month<\/a>. Expect plenty of new competition in 2009, which is only going to be good for consumers.Nokia has yet to play its cards.<\/p>\n

Best Podcast<\/strong> \u2013 In the archives of the MediaBlather<\/a> program that I do with David Strom, there were too many good interviews to choose just one. Among my favorites of 2008 were Mommycast<\/a>, Brains on Fire\/Fiskars<\/a>, IDG\u2019s Pat McGovern<\/a>, Eric Schwartzman<\/a>, Shel Israel<\/a> and Brian Halligan<\/a> of HubSpot. I think the most interesting podcast I listened to all year was Schwartzman\u2019s interview with search-engine optimization expert Russell Wright<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most Useful Blog Entry<\/strong> \u2013 Interactive Insights Group created a superlist of organizations using social media<\/a>. You can find practically any case study on the Web by starting there. We have yet to hear what Tamar Weinberg<\/a> has up her sleeve, though! Her 2007 superlist<\/a> was a thing of beauty.<\/p>\n

Best Article on the Media<\/strong> \u2013 The International Herald Tribune<\/em>\u2019s \u201cWeb Ushers in Age of Ambient Intimacy<\/a>\u201d explained the visceral appeal of Twitter and Facebook with admirable clarity. Eric Alterman\u2019s epic examination of the collapse of the newspaper industry<\/a> in The New Yorker <\/em>was magnificent in its detail and insight.<\/p>\n

Best Just For Fun<\/strong> \u2013 The most popular item in my newsletter is the squib about some crazy new Web resource we\u2019ve found. Here are two of my favorites of 2008:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>People always celebrate success, but they don\u2019t give enough credit to really creative failure. Thank goodness, then, for The Fail Blog<\/a>, a photographic tribute to failures big and small. Don\u2019t look at this site in the office. Your colleagues will wonder why you\u2019re laughing so hard. And don\u2019t, under any circumstances, view it while you\u2019re drinking milk, if you know what I mean\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Buddy Greene is the Yo-Yo Ma of the harmonica, and in this amazing clip from a Carnegie Hall concert<\/a>, he will change forever your impressions of the capability and range of this tiny instrument.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From my weekly newsletter. To subscribe, just fill out the short form to the right. At this time of year, many publishers and bloggers do one of two things: look ahead at the future or back at the year just … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4,5,6,7,8,10,14,15,16,17,18,20,22,23,26,31,1,32,33],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sTy95-816","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}