Digital Influentials: Welcome to The Machine (2010)! - Cory Treffiletti - MediaBizBloggers

On behalf of all the Digital Influential's that have a hand in this column may I wish you a warm welcome to 2010, or what I lovingly refer to as "The Year Of The Machine".

The phrase "Welcome To The Machine" can generate many different images for people, but in my eyes it rekindles memories of the classic Pink Floyd album "Wish You Were Here". That's the dual theme for this week; "Welcome To The Machine" that is digital media and "We Wish You Were Here", for those of you that are missing the boat!

2010 signals our entrance into a new decade and this decade will bring about the inevitable; that online will become the number one medium for advertisers and consumers alike. Just think what happened in the last ten years, from 2000 through 2009. We shifted quite dramatically from Y2K fears to the world evolving into one big data cloud! Smart-phones are the norm and net-books the size of a Hardy Boys novel are all the rage! It's safe to say that once marketers understand the investment they're making and the impact they can truly have if they do it correctly, that the chips will fall and Television will no longer be alone upon the mountaintop. The Machine is rolling along and the forward momentum can no longer be stopped.

This week's column we focus on just a few of the companies and services we've uncovered recently who're leading the charge and driving the machine. They may be small now, like "two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl", but they're on the right trajectory for growth!

Have you ever needed a personal assistant to let you know about a conference call and keep you on schedule, but realized you can't afford one? If so, check out POKETY POKE (http://www.poketypoke.com/). Cody Duval called it out this week and it's great! Register and send them your conference calls via email and 5 minutes before the call they send you an email and then call you on time with the conference call already lined up! It's like a digital concierge for conference calls!

Is it sometimes hard to tell, "heaven from hell, blue skies from pain"? If so, I'm really sorry about that… but once you get past telling "a green field from a cold steel rain" you should check out LISTORIOUS (http://listorious.com/). Listorious pulls together all the best Twitter lists and makes it easy for you to sign up and follow them. Managing Twitter lists is a blessing and a curse because they can make it easy, but where do you start? You start at Listorious!

Are you "running over the same old ground? What have you found"? I found GOWALLA (http://gowalla.com/). The location-based app space is hot right now with players like FourSquare, and here comes GoWalla into the fray, providing a way to share your location and discover things to do wherever you may be. The category is quite interesting to me and I'm excited about the potential for local advertisers, so check them out and see where they go.

Ahhh, email groups. "Remember when you were young? You shone like the sun"! Well, email groups have become a bit bland, until the arrival of GROUPLY (http://www.grouply.com/). Email has been a pretty stagnant area of the web for a few years now, but Grouply is trying to reinvigorate the category by making groups sexy again! Now your groups can have social features that integrate them into the rest of your day!

From the world of the iPhone apps… I can't possibly go without mentioning the new PEARL JAM app. They put together a great one, and they regularly cover "Interstellar Overdrive" (not on the same album, but still Pink Floyd nonetheless). Also check out WINE.COM and TAXI MAGIC – you make the connection!

That's it this week; rock on and enjoy the Machine!!

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.

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