Digital Influentials: Cewebrity Stalking Is On The Rise! - Cory Treffiletti - MediaBizBloggers

Remember all the news about how the web is wrought with tools, cookies and services that invade your privacy? Well, maybe privacy is over-rated! After all, with so many tools and services out there to provide you with ways to follow, emulate and report out on your everyday actions who needs privacy! The web, as a self-publishing platform, is the ultimate in ego. It allows anyone, at anytime, to broadcast anything to anyone. Basically privacy is a thing of the past if you're a netizen of the present.

It all started when average people started building websites, then blogs and then everything went crazy with the development of GAWKER STALKER(http://gawker.com/tag/stalker/). Gawker made stalking readily accessible for the average American, and celebrities were immediately being followed everywhere. But then came Twitter and the rest of the social media revolution and all of a sudden celebrities began telling people where they were and what they were doing, so stalking became sooo 1999. Now it's called "following". This issue, we decided to have some fun and find out all the ways people are finding to digitally "follow/stalk" their favorite people in their favorite activities outside the world of celebrity. It's the cewebrity stalking edition of the Digital Influentials!

Maybe you own a new up and coming social media tool and you're looking for VC funding? Then review VENTUREMAPS (http://venturemaps.co/). VentureMaps allows you to uncover the investors in your area, or other areas of the US. You can get right down to the name of the people that you should be pinging, and it's an interesting way to do so. Consider this a VC-stalker-starter!

Maybe entrepreneurialship (yes – I made up that word) isn't you're thing and you just want to make money the old fashioned way – by investing it. Then check out KACHING (https://www.kaching.com/). Kaching provides you with a way to follow and connect with investment managers about how to make money in the market. You can monitor the actual trades of professional money managers, and mimic their moves, thereby creating wealth (if they're any good). It's a social application for stalking money managers – sounds like fun, huh? I can already see the final scenes of American Psycho in my head.

If you're an aspiring musician, but don't know where to begin, start your day with BREAKOUTBAND (http://alpha.breakoutband.com/). BreakOutBand is a social tool for creating music with other musicians regardless of location, age or any other defining facts. You can start a band online, and gain traction using social media. It's an interesting way of creating your art virtually, though not quite stalking I guess. It does feel a little similar in a way I just can't describe.

Maybe you need to know how many people are stalking you (errrr, following you) in the Twitterverse? Then check out TWITTERCOUNTER (http://twittercounter.com/). Twittercounter provides a tool for tracking your impact, graphing the growth of your followers and measuring re-tweets from your username, all in a simple, easy to use fashion. I entered my info and realized that not enough people are stalking me! Now if I could just tweet something of value, I might see the hockey stick graph that I wish I could see (and don't forget to follow me on Twitter at ctreff)!

If you know how many people follow you, and want to know what impact you have, then check out the tools available from PEER INDEX(http://www.peerindex.net/). Peer Index provides you with an index based on authority, activity and audience, giving you an idea of where you stand in the influence eco-system. It may not help your digital ego to see that you rank so far down the list, but for those of who are goal oriented, it's a fun set of data to review! See the impact you have on the stalker community.

In the world of iPhone and iPad apps, none get much cooler than the two that I wanted to point out this week. First off, and as no surprise, check out FLIPBOARD for the iPad. FlipBoard turns your social media stream into a magazine, making it far easier and more fun to review Twitter and Facebook than in the standard manner. It's not a stalker tool, but even stalker's have down time right??

For the iPhone, the must have app is TUNEWIKI. Tune Wiki acts as a music player, much like your iPod, but it displays the words while you listen (which is something you can do while waiting outside your stalker-obsession's apartment building). For the first time in my life, I know the words to Yellow Ledbetter and it makes sense!

That's it for this week. Oh, and please be sure to realize that the opinions expressed in this column do not condone or approve of stalking in any way. If you are a stalker, you are a freak and you should probably get a life ;-)

Talk to you in a couple of weeks!!

Cory Treffiletti is President and Managing Partner for Catalyst SF. Cory has been a thought leader in interactive marketing and advertising since 1995. Cory can be contacted at cory@catalystsf.com.

Read all Cory’s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Digital Influencers - MediaBizBloggers.

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