We liked Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic post about making real connections with people through the Internet. Well, the post was about a bunch of things, but the connections are what I’m focused on at present. From our first online exchange with Amitai we realized that we were in the same neck of the woods…physically and virtually. Our worlds quickly collided in a most enjoyable way when Amitai proposed a fun dinner with Shannon and me. Of course, the great power of the Internet is that it opens up new relationships and enriches our interactions. We meet people in places we’ve never traveled to and connect with people of diverse backgrounds. We rally around points of common interest, often ones we’d be unlikely to quickly unearth if we were to meet at a party or even learn about from working side-by-side. Online, we get to talk with each other in all different types of ways.
Blogs are supposed to be interactive, and they are. But we’re particularly interested in our new blog widget from Meebo, it’s the instant messaging window on our blog on the right sidebar. The service is called MeeboMe. Meebo launched earlier this year as a multi-client, browser-based instant messaging tool. That’s a mouth full. Let me decipher the geek speak. It allows you to connect to your AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Gtalk and other IM accounts all at the same time AND all from a browser window. There are other software programs that do this but you have to download and install them on your computer. That’s fine for some but many companies prohibit employees from installing even a simple application like Yahoo! Messenger on their work computer.
When I first tried Meebo during their initial launch I found the browser-based software to be a bit unreliable and I stopped using it after a week. Of course, the dynamic trio responsible for creating Meebo have been hard at work refining their program and launching the new MeeboMe instant messenger for blogs. It picked up tremendous word-of-mouth recently and is really taking off.
Meebome is all about making your blog even more interactive. Finding additional ways to begin a discussion with a reader, potential customer or jobseeker from your blog. While recruiters and hiring managers have a variety of opinions about receiving IMs at work - I think that if you invite readers to IM you regarding job opportunities, right from your blog - that’s powerful - practically making your blog a daily virtual open house. Regardless of how you feel about IM - there is a tremendous upside to being able to interact live with a blog author, as you read and consider their latest posts. It won’t likely replace blog commenting but it will add a communication channel that didn’t exist before. The phone, e-mail, and commenting will continue on but, from here on out, we’ll look forward to talking live with you on instant messenger right from our blog. Go ahead, reach out and meebo us, I mean talk to us.
technorati tags: meebo meebome wordpress widget
EXCELER8ion is where Julian and Shannon Seery Gude write on Social Media, Interactive Marketing, Technology and Internet Business Topics. 
4 comments ↓
As usual, brilliant post up to the point that I had to go beyond the widget and do something with the code! Is this how you guys generate consulting fees - fix neophytes blogs?
I am putting a post together as we speak that talks to the challenges associated with the interactivity of blogging - for example: if someone comments, no problem, you moderate - or not as the case may be – and the conversational thread develops. But if someone replies by email - off-comment if you will - that communication now becomes privileged and possibly compromises the original post and subsequent thread perhaps. What about meebo messages? Are they published in real time for everyone who has an account to chirp-in on? Are they private conversations? Is the log available within the post for archiving? Or, is this as I think it is, IM in another place for you and me to chat in private? If so, I’m missing the point. Where is the value?
Amitai
The value is that it’s about the *instant* in instant messaging and it’s contextual. The conversations are private. Yes, we could talk to each other on a regular IM client but that would miss two key points: that the multitudes that visit your site don’t have your IM address (even if they did or you put your IM address on your site it still isn’t in your face, at your fingertips, and contextual. Now, what meebo should do is add a button on the widget so the author or reader can post the IM thread as a comment.
If you give Shannon a un/pass to your Wordpress Dashboard - she can put the code in the sidebar for you
Julian - OK. I may need Shannon’s help getting my property tarted-up a bit but adding anything to it because of the multitudes that visit would be complete waste of time! As long as you guys come and visit from time-to-time, that’s enough for me. And as for IM as new channel for the two of us, nah. Let’s go eat.
Amitai
is an ‘In Blog’ contextual IM client that for recruiting, would allow job seekers that are reading your blog to immediately interact with you right at the point of sale so to speak. You can read more about this here. Promotion and Syndication. Promoting RSS feeds or the receipt of your content via email – however the reader wants it. As well as adding humanizing elements such as Flickr or YouTube elements. Increasing the use of popular tags
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