More searching lately for good resources on Web 2.0 and the effectiveness of various social networking methods has uncovered a couple of interesting sites. Sharing....

Inside Social Games: This site says it's mission is  "Tracking Innovation at the Convergence of Games and Social Platforms." I'm very interested in the posts of virtual or in-game currency. That can be an effective way to reward participation. My question is what rewards can users buy with their currency... or what kinds of rewards really give users an incentive to participate and currency. And I'm wondering what non-gaming social networks can learn from social games.

Social Networking on Mashable.com: The name "Mashable" confused me for some time, but I think I finally got it. One of the strengths of Web 2.0 is the ease of integrating content from different sources ... mashing it, to use geek speak. Their "social networking" category focuses on what's happening with the big-name social sites. Their successes and missteps can help the rest of us. Since they are techies, the discussions can become a bit technical. The key is to read between the lines.

What's interesting to me is how much discussion is dominated by the big names ... Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed. But my gut is that the real power of Web 2.0 is in smaller, focused communities. I'm off on a search for churches that are doing a good job with social networking. Will keep you posted.

I am so excited for the folks at Messiah Lutheran Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. This week, we launched their new web site. So far, the reviews are positive as we continue to fine-tune the site. Working with Pastor Eric Murray and Administrative Kristin Kennedy has been delightful. Kristin and I were roommates back in college, and it's always fun to spend time with her... even if it's via email and telephone. The old web site was hardcoded HTML, which made it difficult to update. The staff and volunteer leadership had specific goals: Read more >

I've been reading a lot of Seth Godin's blog these days. For all of the talk about new trends in marketing, especially Internet marketing, Seth's messages provide a consistent foundation that is becoming more and more helpful to me... which is why what I'm going to say next may sound odd. I think Seth missed a key point in today's blog posting titled "Is viral marketing the same as word of mouth?" While I'm hardly qualified to disagree with Seth, I think he omitted why word of mouth and viral marketing are different. Seth says:

Word of mouth is a decaying function. A marketer does something and a consumer tells five or ten friends. And that's it. It amplifies the marketing action and then fades, usually quickly. ... Viral marketing is a compounding function. A marketer does something and then a consumer tells five or ten people. Then then they tell five or ten people. And it repeats. And grows and grows. Like a virus spreading through a population. The marketer doesn't have to actually do anything else. (They can help by making it easier for the word to spread, but in the classic examples, the marketer is out of the loop.) Read more >

It has been a while since I posted on this blog... But that doesn't mean I haven't been writing up a storm in the last two months! In fact, I've been writing more regularly than I have in quite a few years. The reason: I was participating in a program taught by one of the most recognized Internet marketing teams on earth.

No, I have not fallen down into the world of spammers and black hats... although I have seen a few of them. I wanted to learn more about how some web developers are able to pull in hundreds, thousands, even millions of visitors using some very specific techniques. Read more >

The Drupal content management system is amazing... It's very flexible and easy for non-techies to use. Here's a tutorial on how to create a story in Drupal. I'm using the St. Ignatius Martyr web site, which I set up, but the basic process applies to any Drupal web site. Read more >