"Have you even read my online Internet blog?"

Here's a YouTube video that hits it right on the money. And let me be the first to enshrine this phrase into Google's cache, since nothing comes up yet: "Have you even read my online Internet blog?"

Though I've spoken at social media events for PR Newswire, LA Town Hall and the Havard Business School Assoc. of Southern California, I've conscientiously avoided the title of "social media guy". Here's why (warning — explicit language):

lolz, "Make your check out to TwitBookBlogGuru.com"

UPDATE: it's meme time.

LinkedIn's new Profile Organizer

If you've ever needed to compile a unique list of candidates, prospects, or professional contacts, LinkedIn just launched a bookmarking feature called Profile Organizer — check out the video I produced for the product below, and read more about it on LinkedIn's Blog, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, or WebProNews.

A re-Virb in the mix? (UPDATE)

It's high time someone spread a little pixie dust around magictown, because Virb keeps threatening to release a Beta 2 sometime soon and nobody's seemed to notice.

For those that aren't in the habit of donning every new social network, Virb is like MySpace if it didn't suck, or if it were designed by Apple, or if it had any ethic for user interface or basic aesthetics. Beyond an eye for elegance, Virb gives users the keys to the site by enabling HTML/CSS customization and allowing users to turn off other users' annoying customizations. If you're tired of going blind looking at MySpace glitter wallpaper, this is a good thing. Actually, nobody's really on MySpace anymore, so maybe this isn't a concern. But hey, in 2005, it was crazy annoying. I guess the 2008 equivalent is app overload on Facebook.

One of these landing pages was designed.

I recently talked to Virb's CEO Brett Woitunski about the site, and was amazed to find that Virb has a membership of about half a million, managed by a staff of about five. To compare, Facebook has 67 million members, while MySpace alleges a network of 229,577,923 (at press time). Consequently, the Virb clientele has an air of online aristocracy, a small community of design-minded people who care enough to put a little code into their public profile.

Virb was built on the success of Brett's initial web venture, PureVolume. The distinction between the two is sort of yin and yang: Virb is a social networking site with a music component, while PureVolume is a music site with a social networking component. The latter, built with sweat equity, now turns enough profit to float Virb during its startup phase. Both operate on an advertising model of revenue, and PureVolume offers a limited subscription service for its music members. It's been praised as a great avenue for indie bands to build an audience, and like Virb, it's a pretty place to scout new music online.

Now a year after initial launch, Virb hints fleetingly on its blog about a relaunch:

Starting next week, we will be posting the sign up process for the first phase of the Virb 2 private beta. I'll forego all the details at this moment and will post them alongside everything next week. Simply wanted to send out an update to let you know the end beginning is near!

This was two weeks ago. Virb's enthusiastic niche is surely fermenting over the upcoming release, though we don't know for sure since comments are disabled on the post. Whenever they drop do the bomb, I foresee good things, because they have the best model for a social network out there. The young company has engaged some talks from record companies and big media, but at this point, they'd make an easy steal for whatever incumbent monolith is light on the Web 2.0 front. With MySpace the property of NewsCorp, Facebook in Microsoft's hip pocket and Bebo bought out by AOL, I can only see Virb and/or PureVolume being snatched up wholesale by old media. Gannett, for one, is on the prowl.

But if there's one thing I despise, it's bloggers making self-informed prophecies about corporate buyouts. Who cares who's watching? Let's just hope if any money does take notice, they'll have the nerve trust the young bucks who built it to scale it, too. In the meantime, enjoy the boutique community while it lasts. Because scale is the end game of social networking. And right now Virb is like the amazing local band that you're hoping no one discovers. But it's only a matter of time.


UPDATE (3/28/08): Virb announced a private beta sign-up last night. Avid Virbers can sign up to test the new beta. Invitations will be sent out over the next few weeks. See coverage on Mashable here.

Hey MySpace narcissist!

The Christian Science Monitor called you out today, in Has Generation Y overdosed on self-esteem?:

The "all about me" shift means much more than lots of traffic at self-revelatory websites such as YouTube and Facebook. It points, says the study's author, to a generation's lack of empathy, its inability to form relationships – and worse ...

For some, the study validates their suspicions of educational and parenting techniques that put undue emphasis on the positive: tot-level self-esteem boosterism, luxury-as-necessity entitlement, and what one calls "instant fame-ification ...

... feeling good about oneself without demonstrating competence, he adds, does lead to narcissism.

Damn those tot-level self-esteem boosters. I knew it would come to a generation of virtual mirror gazers and instant celebritites when they could say nothing but "Good job!!!!" to their tots.

Is narcissism a new thing? The eponym comes from a classical Grecian prettyboy, so it's been around awhile, and all the holy books specifically reference social networking. The Koran says, "surely Allah does not love any self-conceited boaster on Facebook" (Luqman 31:18), the Bible says "In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a MySpace fool" (NIV, 2 Corinthians 11:17), and the Bhagavad-Gita says, "Shameful and vain. Existing for himself, Self-concentrated, serving self alone, No part hath he in aught; nothing achieved, ever gazing at his own Friendster profile pics" (Chapter III, 56).

Has it been a generational thing before? Consider the timeless prose of Kraftwerk from 1977, back when Generation Y were being conceived: "The young man stepped into the hall of mirrors / Where he discovered a reflection of himself / Even the greatest stars / Discover themselves in the looking glass ... We are showroom dummies". Right?! "Trans Europe Express ... Trans Europe Express ..." I think that's relevant, but I'm thrown off by their unwitting parody of German philosophy.

While online tools have given the anyman an edge in the pursuit of self, a quick survey of history's rulers confirms the long, winding chain of tot-level self-esteem boosters. King David, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Attila the Hun, Napoleon, Hitler — good or bad, I think they were all enabled by a parent who told them they were capable of anything. Narcissism is certainly a driving factor, but it's a free moral agent, guided by the principles of its carrier.

I've come to wonder if even art and love amount to narcissism. With art, we produce essentially a graphic profile of ourselves and our thoughts for all to see ... throughout history. More of ourselves to admire throughout the centuries. In the case of love, we search endlessly for what? Someone who thinks, loves, and appreciates just like we do. We want a mirror in a partner. What the Bleep Do We Know? pointed out the irony of falling in love with someone else: we're falling in love with ourselves — which we see in that other person.

The real question is, should we be concerned at the toxic levels of self-love brewing on social networking sites? I don't think so. It says in Proverbs, "Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control" (NIV 25:28). But my profile pics are pretty good, and as of today my profile has had 18851 views. I see no downside to this equation. Wait, what were we talking about?

Oh yeah, Kraftwerk. They were so awesome. "Endless endless ..."