Your thought is probably the same as mine.  “Oh geez… Another social network.”  I agree, there’s too many.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, we’re in a spot in internet-time now where the bar to entry has been lowered and anyone can come in at anytime.  Sometimes the stuff will work right, sometimes it won’t.  And yet it pays to be an early adopter on some of this stuff.

Yep, I tried Google+ too, but I don’t use it that much.  Simply because the API hasn’t been worked into the services that I use to post a lot like Ping.fm.  So I have to actually remember to post stuff on G+ and I often don’t remember.

Even though it seems there’s something new ever day to jump on board with, I do wonder if there will be a “Walmart” in social networking.  Will we still be on Facebook in 10 years?  It can happen.  Nobody can compete with Amazon.  But then again, Amazon is just a store.  It’s a place you go when you need something and not if you don’t.  So we have less invested in it than we do a social network that we’re spending a lot of time on.

The other thing about a new social network is that you often just transfer over the friends you already have to a new system.  Doesn’t seem like a good use of time.  And right off the bat that’s something I kind of like about Chime.in.  The first message they send on the site isn’t “invite all your friends!” even though that is available.  They immediately focus you on finding new people to communicate with via interests.

Right now it’s very much a sharing site.  Pix, videos, links, yadda yadda yadda.  We’ve seen it all before.  It’s way less focused on conversation and more into “look what I found.”  Digg meets facebook?  And it’s more of a “follow” idea like G+ than friending.  So the connections seem even more tenuous.

The big turnoff I saw as soon as I logged on was that most of the posts were from brands.  I like Mashable.  But I already get an RSS feed.  Do I really need another feed from them?  Or SitcomsOnline for Pete’s sake?  Since brands have more invested in being able to push content out, they’re always going to be the first ones to jump in.  And I thought it was good of Google+ to hold them off a little bit to let regular people gain some traction first.  Unfortunately they waited too long and brands are starting not to care now.  But I saw very few posts from regular people on Chime.  Have to see if how that pans out.

So anyway, if you’d like to check it out you can visit my Chime.in profile. Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think about it.

Phil Johnson
http://www.RoadsideAttraction.com

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Pretty sure I’ll be back to being an audiobook guy again soon.  90% of the podcasts I’ve been listening to are headache inducing.  Now, keep in mind, I’m listening to those classified as “comedy”.  I put that in quotes, because I’m hard pressed to find the comedy in a lot of them.  And I’m not fishing around in the ether.  I went to iTunes and download a bunch of the top rated shows.

Picture this… A morning radio show with no budget.  Or maybe a bullshit session with your friends over a beer at your house, where everything is funny, but if you try to tell the story later it inevitably ends with “well I guess you had to be there.”  That’s most comedy podcasts.  And I was there listening, and it still wasn’t funny.

Good lord, one of them had 3 guys that constantly talked over each other.  Couldn’t understand what was going on half the time.

As any comedian will tell you, there’s a difference between telling a funny story and riffing with your friends in the living room, and actually creating professional comedy.  That’s why you constantly some poor schmuck whose friends told him he was hilarious at parties bombing on stage at any given open mic night.

But many of those same comedians are doing the same thing with their podcasts.  And some of these people, no kidding, I absolutely adore on stage.  Some of the funniest comedians I know.  And the podcast turns into, “Well, we’ve got an hour of talking to do.  Let’s just keep talking.”

One reason I’ve never done a podcast of my own is because I’m just not opinionated enough to fill an hour of jabber every week.  It takes me two years to write and hour of comedy and a year to write 4 or 5 songs.  That’s because I throw away A LOT of material before it gets near a stage.  I wouldn’t be any less picky with a podcast.  But I don’t think one podcast a year would be a big hit.

And now there’s the phenomenon of live podcasts done at venues.  Essentially people paying to see a few people sit around and shoot the shit for an hour.  On other words, these comedians have taken what used to happen backstage before and after the show and actually make money with it.

I’ll admit, they are good at developing their communities.  Catch phrases galore and plenty of inside jokes and self-referential stories.  People get hooked on that and don’t realize that there really isn’t much of substance happening.

Strangely enough, the two comedy podcasts I’ve found that I actually like so far, have very little comedy in them.  but they don’t attempt to.  Marc Maron’s WTF podcast has amazing interviews with a variety of comics.  For me, as a comedian, it’s invaluable to hear interviews like this.  He gets deep into their careers and psyche to see how they came to be where they are.  Fascinating, and rarely a laugh.

I’m also enjoying Adam Corolla’s podcast.  Also not funny, though they often try.  Corolla has created his niche as they guy that can expound upon just about any subject for a few minutes and sound like he knows what he’s talking about.  Even if he doesn’t.  He’s the Cliff Claven on broadcasters.  It’s what everyone else is trying to do and not achieving.

So they’re not all bad.  But a lot of them are.  And these are people that are making at least part of their living doing this.  So my lesson learned is that just like the music charts, sifting off the top is a shallow experience with not much quality.

Next I’ll be getting out of the comedy listings to see what else if out there and hope for something useful.  Not giving up yet, but boy those audio books are looking good again…

Phil Johnson
http://www.RoadsideAttraction.com

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And what does a mother tell her child how to deal with it? “If all of your friends exposed every mundane detail about their personal life to the world, would you do it too?”

Apparently so.

My girlfriend isn’t on Facebook.  Back in the day, if I wanted to poke her, I had to actually walk into her office and poke her.  It usually just irritated her.

I feel bad for the people who come onto Facebook and don’t know anyone.  Either they’re just a loner or their friends are late-adopters.  At least MySpace gave you your first friend.  Tom was like God and loved all his children equally.  Facebook just says “No help here loser.  You better know someone before you get here.”  It’s like walking into a party where you don’t know anyone.  Except there’s no punch bowl to hang out by.

Song of the Day: Rumpalicious Booty Shaker (click to stream)
This song is about that night club that you always hear about, but no one you know has ever been too. A seedy place where the beats pump hard and the dance floor is full of sweaty, horny people. A place where the darkest corners hold the naughtiest vices of the flesh. And, at the door, is our protagonist inviting you in for the time of your life. Will you go?

Don’t forget to get your 8 free song downloads by filling out that little form on the left!

Phil Johnson
http://www.RoadsideAttraction.com

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• Does ANYBODY Still Use MySpace???

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The Viral Loop is a collection of case studies of companies that rocketed to the top using viral loops as promotion. Everything from Tupperware to Hotmail to Facebook. Viral loops are easy enough to understand. The created products that aren’t much good unless your friends are doing it too. So you spread the word.

And a lot of the company backgrounds are interesting. There’s a lot of background intrigue covered here, but mostly stuff you can find in other books. It makes a good primer for each company’s story though.

The problem I see is that most of the companies profiled are reaching a maturation stage. And the things they didn’t to kick start their virality won’t work as well now. Like RockYou posted six times on MySpace and took off from their with thousands and millions signing up for their service. Not exactly something that will work these days.

He does go into the new ad unit of “time” rather than clicks and that’s very interesting. I would have liked to have seen profiles on some up and coming companies and what they’re doing right now to grow their business. There’s a few profiles of companies that didn’t work out, like Bebo. But I really wanted to see what didn’t work about businesses that didn’t make it. That’s way more educational than “Omidyar publicized AuctionWeb (Ebay) on Usenet groups and what’s-new sections of websites.”

This book is not a waste of time, but not all it could be either.

Phil Johnson
http://www.RoadsideAttraction.com

PS… I’m all viral too.  Go get your free downloads and http://www.roadsideattraction.com/8-free-songs and then cough on all your friends and spread it to them too.

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Now, this article may just sound like a whiny rock star at times, but he has some valid points. It is expected of celebrities now to open up their lives to these public portals. But at some point you’re going to end up with weirdos, stalkers, and idiots ruining the experience.

The bigger you get, the more people hate you.

I think two things have happened with an artist’s relationship to their fans with the social media revolution.

It has begun to portray celebrities as regular people who have flaws just like everyone else. And that’s a good thing. But it also makes people feel like they can say anything to you without consequence. See Jamie Kennedy’s “Heckler” movie for another example.

As a less famous artist, I have to stay involved in this stuff in order to seek out and gain new fans. And I’m fine with that. I’ve been fortunate to not have too many weirdos yet. A few, but nothing serious.

But I think it will be interesting to see where artist/fan relationships go in the future.

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