Topics:
Choose a tag
Friendster < MySpace < Facebook < Google+
Let’s all admit that people get tired of these environments after a few years, and starting from scratch elsewhere is something people are willing to do. Especially now that these services are allowing you to take your data with you to the next social network, it’s only a matter of time for the next network after Google +
SMI provides social media intelligence, insight and news for business executives. Case studies, opinion and best practice research. This is a great little presentation on social media blunders in the past few years.
The other day I was talking to a friend who is in the process of starting up a business. It is an event-production business, and, from the brief conversation we had, was primarily going to be referral-based. She wanted a website, and found someone who was willing to give her something for free or cheap.
The problem is, she didn’t like their work! So she asked me if I would be willing to change and tweak it once it was finished. I thought for a second, and then told her bluntly: “You are heading down a bad path.”
Why? Because she would be putting a great deal of time into getting a product out there that wouldn’t be the best it could (and should) be. Because the money and time she does have should be spent on getting referrals and business going. Because what’s the point of making a website that won’t be updated and will have to be redone in a year?
So I told her a radical idea: “You don’t need a website right now. Use free services to promote your business. They are out there. The web is a different place than it was just a few years ago.” For a referral-based business on a shoestring budget, I gave her the following suggestion:
So that’s that….you can use all these free services to get started and turn your business idea into a perfectly humming machine, where you are connecting with people via Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook until the time, and money, is right for a custom website. Then we’ll talk…. 
The Triumverate - Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook
If anyone has read Daemon and FreedomTM by Daniel Suarez you’re now thinking of a new world order where the constant real-time voting, interactions, and contributions into a virtual social network govern the way a real life society functions. A new world where power is truly in the hands of the people and not the “ambiguous few”. If you haven’t read these books and enjoy true sci-fi that imparts your sense of philosophy, ethics, and society, I highly recommend it.
In this adaptation of the near future, people have a “social score” based on their trade, the level they have achieved in their trade, and rating by others. For example, in this world I’d be: a level 22 information architect with a 4 out of 5 rating from a base of 143 (totally made up example). It’s my social circle itself that gives me raises and praises.
Your probably reading this thinking of all the lawsuits and litigations that might ensue from the principles of defaming. You might get uneasy thinking that anyone can anonymously give you a rating that anyone (including your mother) can see. You could think of those who would game the system by cheating to give themselves an advantage and their competitors disadvantage.
I for one, am intrigued.
First, I’ve always been fascinated by what people think of my actions. Am I really the good guy that I think I am? I might be surprised.
Secondly, we all grow and adapt from feedback from our surroundings. If I did something that might have hurt someone else, I’d like to know so that I could try not to do the same in the future. It doesn’t help me if no one tells me how I just made them feel uncomfortable. Similar systems are already in place in company’s HR departments with 360 feedbacks and performance evaluations.
Finally, if I am doing something questionable and know that anyone can make public, I might be quicker to give apologies and also be more aware of my actions overall. There are a few people I can think of who should be more aware of their actions.
Where it stands today. I believe society has to be weened into this way of thinking. In fact we are being weened into it. There are a few sites that are introducing the concept (maybe you’ve heard of them):
On LinkedIn you can give “recommendations” to others. This is like a letter of reference. Useful and powerful, but ultimately you can only say good things. You can also “like” people’s comments and follow people and you can “pass” or degrade the comment.
On Facebook you can “like” artifacts that people post such as photos, comments, or objects that exist.
Twitter is a social rating system whereas the more people who follow you the more useful your twits are perceived to be.
eBay sellers have a rating system that increases or decreases their trust from buyers. This way you won’t pay someone who has been rated poorly in the past.
Ratemyprofessor.com does just that. Students can give college and university professors a review. This can potentially help students pick and choose classes. I wonder if administrative staff put any weight to this “user feedback”.
Unvarnished is in public beta and is seemingly the closest thing so far to the world Daniel Suarez created. It uses Facebook connect to rate people over a variety of categories. There’s been many controversy over this one: MSNBC, SMSEO, LATimes. The funny thing is all these sites are criticizing a rating site by giving it a poor rating.
It seems that the world is not be ready for something like this at the moment. I’d like to believe it’s a tool that would slowly help us create a better society. It will cause more contention in the beginning just as most new ideas do. I am curious to see the implications and hear the thoughts of people as me move forward into this area. Especially since we are all rating each other in more ambiguous ways.
Feel free to comment.
Photo credited to ~Milk-Cream
Mashable just put up an exclusive article from their Twitter sources that the Twitter button will be launched this week.
The Tweet button will count tweets, retweets, and shares across Twitter. Similar to Facebook like, the Twitter button can be added to any webpage with only a few lines of code.
Here’s the new trailer for the Facebook movie, The Social Network.
The director is David Fincher (Se7en & Fight Club). Aaron Sorkin (Sports Night, West Wing & Charlie Wilson’s War) is the screenwriter, and in my opinion, the guy can do no wrong. So I will be seeing The Social Network when it hits theaters in October.
Stay tuned for the sequel: The Social Network 2: Rise of Farmville
I’ve been looking for something like this for a while.
What the hashtag?!?! is a social encyclopedia for hashtags found on Twitter.
At the time of this post the site is tracking 14,329 hashtags for 5,099 users.
Although #LW is not listed and I’d really like to know what it means. Someone please tell me.
Happy hashtagging!
Facebook has been releasing some pretty cool new features lately. I’m sure that by now you’ve seen their “Like” button pop up on some of your day-to-day websites. If you have a website or blog of your own, perhaps you’re interested in adding this button to your own site to help boost traffic.
Facebook Developers have a simple Like Button widget that helps make this possible with little effort.
But how about WordPress posts? If you’re developing or customizing WordPress themes on your own, you probably know by now that posts require a special universal code to pick up the URL.
The widget spits out a pretty basic iframe code (this is the most basic layout with no options):
<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=URL" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>
Which looks like this:
In the above code, I generated code with “URL” in the generator’s box labeled URL to Like. To make this compatible with WordPress, I’ll replace the URL with the following code after I already generated it:
<?php echo rawurlencode(get_permalink()); ?>
Your code will look something like this (again, stripped of all options):
<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php echo rawurlencode(get_permalink()); ?>" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>
Note that if you insert the WordPress code into the generator, the characters will not convert over, this is why I changed it after the fact.
After you’ve generated and customized your code, insert the iframe within the have_posts() loop in your theme’s single.php file and you’re good to go.
There were no kicks or punches thrown between the two heavyweights just a whole lot of user traffic. And the most visited website on the Internet goes to (drum roll please……) the Social Networking GIANT by the name of Facebook. You might have heard of it.
Today Facebook pushed passed Google to be the number visited website in the Internet. I know that I helped Facebook reach this lofty goal and honestly it just makes sense. I mean Google.com is cool with its one text field and “I’m feeling lucky” button. But for the past 6 months my order of internet operations when I want to veg, find news, or just distract my mind a bit, has been facebook.com, mediatakeout.com, slickdeals.net and then Gmail.com (sorry Buzz you have not won me over).
I can always count on my Facebook friends to share the latest weather report, news headlines, funny videos, and updates on their lives. So I completely understand why Facebook is now number one. Furthermore, I believe tomorrow’s internet user’s patience will become even shorter (if that’s possible). The quickest way I can get my information in short blurbs…with videos and links to reference, if I want, the better. BUT there is only one caveat. After I get updated on the thunderstorm that caused the power outage at Mike’s house, I can briefly look through my friends latest albums, scan status updates to found out who is bored, happy, or mad, and when I am done with that I can play the ridiculously popular game (trust me I don’t play but my wife is addicted) Farmville…all with in a 3 minute time frame.
BTW – We agree
Peter Shankman, the founder of Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and The Geek Factory, gave the people at the NJ Business Marketing Association a great talk on how he thinks about and uses social media to make his businesses successful. Thank you Peter, thank you BMA and thank you fellow Lwer Derrick, Christine, and David for attending with me.
Here’s what I took away from the talk
Grow your personal brand
Peter was big on the individual. Businesses don’t do business with people. People do business with people. Your business is a reflection of the people that run it. He wants everyone to develop their personal brand through social concepts like texting (twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc.), phone calling, and (yes) snail mailing notes. A quick side note on snail mailing notes. Last month we were hiring for project managers the people who are standing out in my head are the ones to followed up with a personal hand written note. Its all about doing something different to capture the minds of people. So go forth and start building your personal brand, its going to define you in the future.
Plan for backup??!!?
Peter made a great point stating that he was always told to “have a backup plan”. Why? Why not concentrate on a the plan for success? It’s better than concentrating on the plan for failure. My take is that when you have to plan for failure, what you are planning is costly thus increasing its risk. In Peter’s world (and ours) big things evolve from small things. Start small, start fast, and start now.
Information is free
The world as we knew it was broadcasted to us from only a few sources. Print, radio, and television were all broadcasted from a few to many. The internet is making information free and creating a many to many relationship. Breaking news doesn’t come from CNN anymore, it comes from twitter. In this world we are creating views of the world at the exact moment it happens and sharing that view with people all over the world.
Ask your customers, how they want to get information
There is so much information out there and so many ways to take it in. We listen to podcasts on the commute into work, we read blogs with the morning coffee, we check facebook status when we come home and sit down. We have developed routines of digesting information. So how do you get your information to your customers? Ask them. Talk to your customers often and ask them how they would like to get your information.
Peter says the Social Media is having other people do public relations for you. Here are is 4 fours of social media:
Again thank you Peter for the great talk.
Upload your resume