“And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.” - from the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”

If Mary = online technology, then the Lamb = Mashable. If you want to be in on everything in Web 2.0 from the beginning, subscribe to the Mashable feed. You’ll get a bite of information about everything happening in the tech world. You can skim 98% of it quickly, and you can click on a link for the other 2% that really applies to you. Very useful tool.

One feature that you will regularly find some gems in is the Mashable interview. Mark Hopkins goes all over the Web 2.0 landscape to find great, useful information. Some examples of what Mark presented at Mashable in the last week of March:

JamBase: 10 years online, a database of 1 million listings, the original social network for live music lovers & producers. Interviewed the owner of JamBase on how a long-time website adapts to the constantly changing social media.

FriendFeed: Mark talked with FriendFeed founders, Paul Buchheit and Bret Taylor about their new FriendFeed API service.

crowdSPRING: a virtual marketplace to find the creative talent to do any digital job you can think of. Mark interviews Co-founders Ross Kimbarovsky and Mike Sampson to find how they have taken the idea of sites like GetAFreelancer and eLance to a whole new level.

Tremor Media: a video advertising company targeting mid- to large-size publishers. Jason Glickman, Tremor CEO, talks about the challenges of video advertising.

Kidzui: New browser targeted for kids age 6 to 11, Mark interviews AJ, his 6-year-old son, and has him play with the browser for an hour and give his thoughts and experiences.

If you want a wide-view lens capture of Web 2.0, go to Mashable and get their feed. It’s a must.

The first Open Web Awards hosted by Mashable was a success. The awards night was a bit late since the winners were already announced last December 21, 2007. But still, it was a success and I’m hoping this won’t just be a first.

The conference was held yesterday January 10 at sunny San Francisco, California at the Palace Hotel. The whole Social Media and Web 2.0 community has finally got to recognizing the best of the best. A total of 250,000 votes were cast. Next year, I am certain it’ll be bigger— more nominations, more finalists, and hopefully more sponsors so the prizes will be bigger.

Here are the winners of Mashable’s first ever Open Web Awards.

1. PEOPLE’S CHOICE
Mainstream and Large Social Networks
Netlog

Applications and Widgets
WidgetBucks

Social News and Social Bookmarking
digg

Social Search
facebook

Sports and Fitness
SPORTME

Photo Sharing
VOIS

Video Sharing
Kaltura

Start Pages
iGoogle

Places and Events
myspace.com

Music
PANDORA

Social Shopping
ZliO

Mobile
Google Mobile

Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks
cafemom

3. JUDGE’S CHOICE
Mainstream and Large Social Networks
facebook

Applications and Widgets
Flock

Social News and Social Bookmarking
digg

Social Search
Mahalo

Sports and Fitness
ESPN

Photo Sharing
flickr

Video Sharing
YouTube

Start Pages
netvibe

Places and Events
Meetup

Music
last.fm

Social Shopping
woot!

Mobile
twitter

Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks
FilmCrave

Websites like facebook and digg are lucky to have been awarded twice. I agree more with the Judge’s Choice than with the People’s Choice though.

Congratulations to the winners! Here’s to a more successful and social Web 2.0 and Social Media in 2008!

I just had to read it. Mashable wrote a blazingly funny blog post on New Years Eve about tech blog celebrity Robert Scoble’s foray into Perez Hilton airspace. The blog post was not only glaringly funny, but hellishly true:

The rank and file of the world could care less about our ramblings on the nuances of technology. They want to know if Britney Spears wore panties today.

And you know what? The folks that care about Spears’ panties vastly outnumber the folks who care which video sharing site got funded this week.

Just like with Old Media, advertising agencies know this, and only care about one thing: ROI. What is the return on the investing dollar? How many dollars do I have to spend advertising tampons, t shirts and air freshener next to Britney’s crotch before someone in the audience buys them?

In other words, social media is not necessarily about bytes off the big Apple, but more about the pickle down south on Spears. I’d have to agree.

Sex sells, but this blog post isn’t about sex. It’s not even about how well sex sells. Because everyone knows that. What matters in social media is that the great unwashed Internet masses thrive on the celebrity, innuendo, a hint of sexual naughtiness, and good humor of bad taste. So how does this relate to social marketing? Easy.

Every time you write a blog post to market your business, think about what people want. If your target audience would rather gawk at USB ports than peek at naked chicks then you don’t need Britney Spears’ panties. But if your target audience consists of the masses who like asses then what Spears is wearing may be immensely more important than what Scoble and TechCrunch are swearing to. In other words, strip down your content to the bear naked necessities that will appeal to people’s deepest senses - and show us your titles. Oh my god, show us your titles!

Yes, titles sell. If you read this blog post to see what I had to say about Scoble and Britney Spears’ panties, thinking that maybe the big Bob got a whiff, then you are simply proving what marketers have always known to be true. Was it what you were looking for? Likely not. But I got your attention didn’t I? And, by the way, that was the point.

I like predictions. And I usually like Mashable. But two days ago the largest social media website in the world made its predictions for 2008. Talking about lame.

The most interesting preduction for 2008 was that some old media organizations would go out of business because “they’re just too big to make the transition to New Media adeptly, and almost all their efforts have been moves in the wrong direction.” But there were no specifics on this prediction. Only the prediction that it would involve “two major record labels.” Really? Geffen? EMI? Which ones exactly?

I don’t think we’ll lose any major record labels. Maybe a few indie ones, but those are the ones who are using new media successfully. The old record labels may not be using new media real well, but they’re still billion dollar corporations. Their old media ways haven’t failed them yet. There still hasn’t emerged any one dominant new media music producer. Can you name one? I can’t. And if you try to share your recordings with your friends online you’ll get sued and go by way of Napster. So I’m not sure where Mashable is coming from on this one.

That said, I have a few predictions of my own for 2008:

1. Another recording artist will self-publish online to great success and beat all new media records
2. Facebook and MySpace will continue to make news, but not in a good way
3. Podcasting will finally come into its own
4. A few Hollywood strikers will form an online media company and shoot the bird at their TV-world producers once and for all
5. Mashable will continue to write great blog posts, but will occasionally write one that is just plain lame.

Let’s make 2008 the year of social media, shall we?

(Source) Venture capitalists are already looking around to see what they can fund in the way of original content, as evidenced by the news FunnyOrDie.com just got $15 million, and writers are banding together to see what they can launch. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that three striking writers have joined up with a former MTV exec to start a web series called “The Void” for the WorldWide Biggies studio.

Hollywood writers love to socialize. They also love to write and if they’re not going to get paid for doing what they love from wealthy Hollywood producers then they’ll just go elsewhere. What would any self respecting content producer do?

But they’ll soon discover that the economics of online business is different than the Hollywood business-as-usual mindset. The bright side is that Internet citizens love to be entertained. They just don’t like to pay a whole lot for their entertainment. But they made need to. If creative television writers can create great entertainment for the Internet for a fraction of the cost, they can sell many more units for less cost and keep a higher percentage of the profits. There is potential to make even more money than they could make working for “the man.”

That’s the beauty of the Internet. It’s got a built in social networking. It’s also got a built in content development mechanism. The two things that Hollywood writers love and adore. They may not need their producers after all.

Today, Mashable posted about 5 websites they’re sick and tired of writing about. Quite frankly, I can’t blame them on any of them. Interestingly, 3 of them are video sites. Which tells me that video is hot right now.

Seriously, if the No. 1 social media site on the Internet is tired of writing about these websites then they must be popular, right? They must be so popular that they’re being talked about - a lot. Then you should be there.

I’m talking about YouTube, Joost, and Hulu. These are by no means the only three video sites online, but they are evidently three of the most popular. And video is hot. It’s getting hotter. So you should be marketing yourself through video. And there’s no better time than now because video is only going to get hotter.

And if you do a lot of video marketing, you can have your videos mashed at Mashable. Anyone at the most popular social media site online can view your videos right there on your profile. It’s powerful. Check it out.

A new Internet video show will soon begin airing and use people like you and me to make it interesting. I know this because I read it on Mashable. I have no way of knowing whether the show will be successful or not, but at first glance the concept seems pretty cool. The idea is that one person will challenge everyone else to do something. The first person who videotapes themselves doing that and gets it into the hands of the show’s producers will then direct the next person to do something else. Sounds like fun.

I don’t know all the ways the show’s creators have used to market the show, but I can tell just by reading about it that at least the concept is cool. If I were marketing the concept, here’s what I’d do:

1. Build a website that hypes it up big time - They did that. But it’s a pretty bland website. It doesn’t say much. All I know is I will be entertained and I will be the entertainer. Huh? Give me some details, please.
2. Next, I’d seek out the influence of heavy weights - Like Mashable. With their 5 million monthly page views and 136,000 feed subscribers, I’d say they’ve got a real heavy weight. I hope they didn’t stop at just one.
3. Press release - I’d write a killer press release and distribute it online to the top press release distribution websites for the greatest exposure.
4. I’d start a blog - And write to it every day about how exciting it would be for everyone to participate in my new project.
5. Social bookmarking - I’d use social bookmarking as a tool to spread the message.
6. Social networking - I’d join every social networking site I could find and make lots of friends, inviting them all to participate.
7. Viral Video - Since this site is a video show, I’d create a viral video to distribute on YouTube and other video sites hyping it up. I’d show scenes of people doing crazy stuff and inviting their friends to do it too. I’d really make it look desirable.

This show has a lot of potential. Marketing it has even more. When it comes to viral marketing, you have to get crazy.

Mashable has introduced a new section of its website called Web 2.0 Marketplace.

The Marketplace allows anyone to go online to buy, sell, or trade websites that offer Web 2.0 services or to make deals regarding the services themselves. If you are in the Web 2.0 market - that is, you want to buy a domain name or website in this niche area or you have one to sell, or you provide services regarding Web 2.0 - then you might be interested in connecting with others of like mind.

The Web 2.0 Marketplace offers the following sections for networking:

• Websites for Sale
• Websites Wanted
• Jobs Available
• Jobs Wanted
• Consulting
• Blogger Jobs
• Bloggers for Hire
• Platform/Software Providers
• Facebook Developers
• Events
• Domains for Sale
• Seeking Funding

In addition, Mashable will allow you to request a category not listed. Now the only question is, Can you define Web 2.0?