WebProNews

Tag: Social Media

  • What Does Path Have to Offer vs. Facebook and Others?

    This week a new photo sharing social network received a great deal of attention. It’s called Path and has a pretty impressive list of names backing it. These include Ashton Kutcher, Ron Conway, Kevin Rose, Keith Rabois, Dustin Moskovitz, Marc Benioff, Gary Vaynerchuk, Steve Anderson, Tim Draper, Joi Ito, Fadi Ghandour, Matt Cohler, Sam Lessin, Bill Randuchel, Karl Jacob, Paul Buchheit, Ruchi Sanghvi, John Couch, Michael Parekh, Claudio Chiuchiarelli, Maurice Werdegar, Don Dodge, and Chris Kelly. 

    You probably recognize at least some of those. Oh, and its co-founders are Dave Morin (Senior Platform Manager at Facebook), Shawn Fanning (Founder of Napster) and Dustin Mierau.

    Path is touted as "the Personal Network that you access on an iPhone". Essentially, if you use an iPhone, you can take pictures, tag people, places and things, and share with up to 50 people. We had a couple questions about the service. For one, who is the target audience of this? Facebook has over half a billion users, an adequate photo sharing tool, and a recently announced way to share things with only the friends of your choosing. Smartphones typically let you take pictures and share them via Facebook or other channels, including email. Plus none of these are exclusive to the iPhone.  Though to be fair, it looks like they do intend to support other devices in the future.

    Matt Van Horn, VP, product development for Path tells WebProNews the target audience is "Anyone interested in sharing the memories along the path through life." 

    Fair enough. 

    What is the advantage of Path over just emailing a picture to the people you want to see it? "Many of us carry a camera phone, and our photos tell the stories of our lives," says Van Horn. "Path is a place to be yourself and share life with close friends and family. Path allows you to capture your life’s most personal moments and share them with the 50 close friends and family in your life who matter most."

    So I guess if you want to share a photo with 50 people rather than a few or your whole social network of friends, Path is an option. Of course so is Facebook’s Groups. 

    Ok, so Path is simply an alternative to Facebook photo sharing. According to NPR, Morin (who is also CEO) said Facebook has just become too big, too public, and that you really don’t want to share everything with hundreds of friends. 

    Again, Facebook has addressed this with recent features, but I guess this is targeted at the people that don’t pay attention to all of that stuff or still don’t feel comfortable with Facebook when it comes to privacy. This is somewhat understandable, as the lack of regard for privacy reputation Facebook has (despite efforts to improve this) has been a hard one for the company to shake. This has become evident yet again as Facebook announced its new messaging and email service this week. 

    Then you still have the people out there that just don’t use Facebook. There are some. Then again, Facebook isn’t the only other option. You have dedicated photo-sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa web albums.  Nothing wrong with having another option though. It will be interesting to see how Path develops.

  • Who’s Got the Time for All This Technology?

    Who’s Got the Time for All This Technology?

    In a recent article, we asked how business owners and CEOs can keep up with new technologies and strategies in the digital age. It’s a topic we discussed with a few people at Pubcon in Las Vegas. 

    "The pace of change is frightening," New York Times tech columnist David Pogue told us. "In the last three or four years…it’s becoming overwhelming for me. I mean, it’s my job. I eat and breathe keeping on top of tech, and people will say ‘what do you think of…’ something I’ve never heard of and everyone else has, and it’s like oh my god, now I’m behind. So I don’t have any idea how a CEO is supposed to keep up."

    "Obviously there’s people like me and websites, whose job it is to filter stuff for you, and bring to you what’s important," he added. "That would probably be one way to do it, but I think it explains why in general business is always behind the curve." 

    A similar subject also came up in a conversation with well-known consultant Chris Brogan, who says, "What I look at is, I try to stay with a product or sale solution mindset, and I say, ‘Is there a reason this is gonna add to what I’m working on right now?’ and if I go try this new social network, is that likely to be where my new target audience is gonna be?"

    "Honestly, it’s really interesting," he adds. "Everyone’s always chasing the new thing. I think you go backwards and look at the old things. I’m amazed at who’s not searching inside eBay or who’s not searching inside of Amazon or whatever…who’s not really working their email marketing lists, as opposed to just beating it over the head with automated stuff."

    That’s a great point. The rate at which all of this stuff comes out is unreal, and a lot of people try so desperately to stay on top of the latest and emerging trends, that they leave behind proven and established opportunities. 

    "I think with time management, you just have to keep going with the mindset of what you real goal is, and keep paring away," says Brogan. "It’s like I’m a priest and I give absolution all the time. I’m always like, ‘You don’t have to try Quora just because everyone’s always inviting you to it.’ I haven’t said yes to that invite yet. I’m sure it’s gonna be great. Whatever. You know what? I stopped reading TechCrunch and Mashable because my friends will tell me when something really cool’s coming. I read their sharing of TechCrunch and Mashable, because then I get the story I really care about."

    Brogan is certainly not alone, which is why social search is bound to become much more integral to the way people interact with information on the web (good news for Microsoft, given its recent deal with Facebook to integrate social data into its search results). 

    "So then the other thing with time management is – I keep telling people this – in the Internet space, there’s more work than there is time in a day, and there always will be," Brogan adds. "If you don’t put the gate down and you don’t say, ‘Time is up,’ it’s you. It’s your doing. You know, if you’re missing out on family life, it’s your choice."

     

  • Marketing and Personal Implications of a Facebook Email Service

    Rumor has it that Facebook will unveil its webmail product on Monday. That means look out Yahoo Mail. Look out Hotmail, and more interestingly in the grand scheme of things, look out Gmail. 

    > Update: Read today’s article on the announcent of @facebook.com

    I was going to wait until the official announcement from Facebook on Monday to talk about this, so we can get all the real details about what this will entail, but as long as the cat’s out of the bag, we might as well talk about what this might mean. 

    What would a Facebook email address mean to you? Comment here.

    Should Google Be Worried?

    According to unnamed sources cited by TechCrunch, the company will announce what it is referring to internally as its "Gmail killer". It would appear more than obvious who the real target is here, and if Facebook plays it right, Gmail, which reportedly has about 170 million users, may be in a world of hurt up against Facebook’s more than half a billion. 

    As the tech community still awaits Google’s next social moves (the "social layers" they’re supposedly adding to existing products) Facebook appears to be going straight for what is arguably Google’s greatest social asset. Gmail is the main hub of communication and social activity in the Google universe. If the need for that is eliminated by Facebook, where many of these users are already spending a great deal of their online time anyway (as well as building their real social circles of real world friends), what will they really need Gmail for? 

    A lot of sites require you to give an email address to sign up for their services. This is one reason that social networks can’t replace email. However, when a social network offers that email, it’s a different story. 

    Why Facebook Email Could Be Useful

    Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz makes some interesting points about what a Facebook webmail service could mean. "Remember that Facebook’s mail is rumored to have external mail client access as well as its dedicated webmail interface," he writes. "It will be easy to have it in every single gadget you own."

    "Moreover, it’s not only about separating what is important and what is not," he later adds. "Their tracking data could allow them to do other things, like prioritizing mail from the person who just became your fiance or lowering the priority of that ex who keeps mailing you. They can also let you enable easy filtering options to automatically prioritize your mail and file it into separate boxes. The possibilities of using your social interactions to enhance the mail experience are endless, and I have no doubt that Facebook will exploit all of them to your (and their) advantage."

    Facebook Trying to Become Email?

    Such a move by Facebook is not entirely unexpected. This has been rumored for the better part of the year, but it is still somewhat curious, considering comments made earlier this year by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who basically called email all but dead (a point we argued with rigorously  in this article). 

    Facebook knows how important email is. Or is the company simply trying to phase email out? If they can get everyone using Facebook email, the way they’ve gotten so many to use its service in general, they can begin to control the way that feature works, and could conceivably just merge it with other features to the point where people just find themselves using "Facebook" to communicate and sign in everywhere. Is Facebook trying to BE email? 

    This will never happen completely (meaning they will never get EVERYBODY), but if the email feature gets the kind of adoption Facebook in general has, it might be enough to where it doesn’t make much difference. Right now, technically not EVERYONE is on Facebook, but for all intents and purposes, everyone’s on Facebook. 

    There will no doubt be plenty of privacy concerns about this, for the simple fact that Facebook has drawn so many in the past. It doesn’t matter how well they actually do honor privacy with this. Some people will just be too nervous to completely commit all their private email information to Facebook. 

    It will be very interesting to see how Facebook email affects email marketing, particularly if the type of thing Diaz is talking about comes to fruition – relevance/priority of messages determined by social interaction. 

    An Unlimited Amount of Useful Features?

    One positive thing about having your email right in Facebook is that it would eliminate the problem of having to check both your email and Facebook separately. There are already various integrations where you can do these things from a single place, but having it all compact right in Facebook could be a more attractive experience for a lot of users. 

    Another potentially positive aspect of Facebook email could be the sheer amount of features that that users could gain access to. If you were able to utilize different apps built by third-party developers to change the functionality of your inbox, that could be very powerful. 

    Gmail users love Gmail Labs – when Google launches new experimental features – but imagine having the whole Facebook developer community building different features for your inbox that you can turn on and off. It could make for a much more personalized and customized experience, allowing users to make their inbox as useful as possible.  

    It Makes Sense.

    In many ways, Facebook email would make a lot of sense, in the same way Facebook payments make sense. You’re already signing into things all over the web your Facebook account, this is one more thing to add to the mix. 

    As long as you are able to take your messages with you, should you be want to close your Facebook account, there are a lot of potential advantages. We don’t know if this is the case or not, however, at this point. This is why I initially wanted to wait for the actual announcement. 

    Either way, here’s some ideas to chew on over the weekend. We’ll no doubt be discussing this more next week.

    Would you use a Facebook email service as your primary email account? Let us know.

  • More Americans Accessing Internet And Social Media For Medical Advice

    More Americans Accessing Internet And Social Media For Medical Advice

    Americans looking for medical advice are visiting medical websites, social media sites, and online communities in greater numbers than the websites of pharmaceutical companies, according to a new survey from Accenture.

    More than two-thirds (68%) of Americans go online for health information, and just 11 percent access a pharmaceutical company’s website to find information about a medical condition compared the the majority (92%) who access other online resources more frequently.

    “Pharmaceutical companies that embrace innovations such as social networking and communications via mobile devices and integrate and align their communication strategy across multiple channels will be positioned to have a much greater influence on their patients’ choices and consequently, realize significant increases in revenue, profitability and sustained competitive advantage,” said Tom Schwenger, global managing director for Accenture’s Life Sciences Sales & Marketing practice. 

    Accenture According to the survey, 69 percent of respondents expect pharmaceutical companies to provide information about the medical condition or illness for which they are taking drugs. To address that expectation, Accenture believes pharmaceutical companies must not only provide the right information, but upgrade their websites to create a more dynamic, interactive experience.

    “The survey results clearly show that pharmaceutical companies must adopt a better understanding of their patient behavior through sophisticated analysis in order to fully capitalize on how patients interact with social media channels and websites,” said Schwenger.

    “With only 11 percent of survey respondents saying they most often use a pharmaceutical company’s web site to seek information about an illness or condition when looking online, pharmaceutical companies have a tremendous opportunity to better connect with patients through multiple digital venues in addition to their own website.”
     

  • Distinction Between Email And Social Networks Eroding

    The popularity of social networking services, along with changing demographics and work styles, will lead 20 percent of employees to use social networks as a main business communication tool by 2014, according to a new report from Gartner.

    Monica-Basso With Facebook expected to launch its own email service on Monday, analysts at Gartner seem to be right on target.

    “In the past, organizations supported collaboration through e-mail and highly structured applications only,” said Monica Basso, research vice president at Gartner.

    “Today, social paradigms are converging with e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and presence, creating new collaboration styles. However, a truly collaborative, effective and efficient workplace will not arise until organizations make these capabilities widely available and users become more comfortable with them. Technology is only an enabler; culture is a must for success.”

    While microblogging is reshaping enterprise communications, business communications are evolving. Newer employees will enter the workforce with a predisposition to communicate via a social network, but they will use e-mail in parallel.

    “The rigid distinction between e-mail and social networks will erode,” Ms. Basso said. “E-mail will take on many social attributes, such as contact brokering, while social networks will develop richer e-mail capabilities.”

    Vendors such as Microsoft and IBM will add links to internal and external social networks from within e-mail clients and servers, making services such as contacts, calendars and tasks shareable across e-mail and social networks. By 2012, Gartner said contact lists, calendars and messaging clients in any smartphones will be social-enabled applications.

    Collaboration is slowly moving to the cloud, and Gartner analysts expect to see steep growth rates for sales of premises- and cloud-based social networking services. Organizations will use hybrid models where some services live on-premises and some are in the cloud. Gartner predicts that the percentage of e-mail accounts on cloud services will grow to 10 percent by year-end 2012, up 7 percent from 2009.

    From a vendor’s perspective, the market is consolidating around Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM), the two market leaders. Gartner forecasts that by 2012, RIM and Microsoft will own 80 percent of the enterprise wireless e-mail software market.

    “The reality is that mobile collaboration will increase for all categories of workers, and organizations can either take the lead, or be led by their users,” said Ms. Basso.

    “The most progressive organizations won’t be afraid to explore the innovative communications and collaboration models enabled by new devices and social services allow their employees to generate innovative ideas by experimenting with them.”

     

  • AOL Announces Email Redux Ahead of Expected Facebook Email Announcement

    Facebook is expected to make an announcement today that could have a huge impact on the email industry, but AOL made an announcement first. The company has unveiled a preview of a new version of AOL Mail, which it’s referring to as "Project Phoenix."

    "Email remains one of the most vital communication tools despite all of the new sites and apps available to consumers today," said Brad Garlinghouse, President of AOL’s Consumer Applications Group. "There is still so much innovation to be done in the space and Project Phoenix is just the beginning. We see a huge opportunity to disrupt email in a big way. AOL is the company that brought everyone online, and now we’re making it simpler and more enjoyable to be there."

    The company explains the new features (from the announcement):

    Quick Bar – makes it easy to quickly send emails, instant or text messages and even update Facebook and Twitter via Lifestream directly from the inbox. Smart View – prominently displays important information like maps, attached photos and files, and conversation threads on the right hand side of the inbox so users can see relevant details and files before they even open a message. Email aggregation – makes it is easy to receive and send messages from almost any provider, including GMail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail, right inside your AOL inbox. Single-click search – makes it easy to search across any folder and all email accounts and instantly refine the search by clicking simple options that appear dynamically next to the search results. Free access to premium service – includes customer support for each email account along with unlimited storage, a choice of POP or IMAP email service, and support for email attachments of up to 25MB. 

    Project Phoenix by AOL Mail from Team AOL on Vimeo.

    If it were just AOL releasing a new version of its email service, it’s hard to say if the world would really bat an eye, but with Facebook expected to make an announcement in this space, it really shows just how significant email still is in the realtime, social media and increasingly mobile, location-based world we’re living in. 

    Don’t get me wrong, AOL is already a significant part of the email space, and I don’t mean to take anything away from that. My first email address was AOL, and many people still use the service, but Facebook represents a newer communication channel, and by entering the email space it would seem to indicate that even an emerging leader of the web (one that is now going toe to toe with Google itself in a variety of capacities) recognizes how key email is. Email is social.

    In fact, recent research from Gartner seems to suggest that the distinction between email and social networks is eroding. Not only is Facebook’s announcement likely to contribute to this concept, but there are already plenty of inbox-social media integrations in existence (including AOL’s Project Phoenix). Google even launched its most recent attempt at a social network (Buzz) right in Gmail, and still plans to add unspecified social layers to other products (which will be connected by the Google [or Gmail] account). 

    What’s going to be really interesting is how marketers adapt to the merger between email and social media. Many are already adapting. Social is becoming commonplace in email marketing, and those who aren’t utilizing social will likely find themselves behind the curve if this trend continues. 

    For now, email marketing still trumps social, when you’re talking about one against the other. Read here for some thoughts on the implications of a Facebook email service on marketing (as well as just personal use).

     

  • Why Email Marketing Still Trumps Social

    Social media has been at the center of marketers’ attention for years now, as many still grapple with finding their ideal strategies. There’s no question that social media has opened up many new doors, and should not be ignored. That said, email marketing is still one of the most effective channels.

    Have you had more success with social media or email marketing? Comment here.

    WebProNews recently had a chat with Chris Brogan at the Inbound Marketing Summit, and while most of the discussion centered around online video, email marketing came up, and some pretty good points were raised.

    As our own Michael McDonald noted, “Social’s great, but not everybody goes to Twitter everyday, and maybe I have Twitter and Facebook, but not LinkedIn…but all of these people have email, and they check that every day.”

    “I’ve got a stat like that for consumer brands,” said Brogan. “93% of people have a daily opt-in relationship with at least one consumer brand. 15% on Facebook. 4% on Twitter.”

    “93% of people say, ‘I would like to get mail from this company every day…15% Facebook. 4% Twitter,” Brogan reiterated. “…and there’s no age skew in that. It starts at age 13, I think, in the study. And it’s young people just the same…maybe don’t want to be friends with Coke, but they do necessarily want the deals…”

    “Send me an email, and tell me, you know, if I can get a deal on Mello Yello this week…” Mike agreed.
    (more…)

  • StumbleUpon Launches Discovery App For Android

    StumbleUpon has introduced StumbleUpon App Discovery, a free beta feature of its Android app that suggests mobile apps based on users’ interests.

    "Currently, discovering apps from the over 100,000 apps available in the Android Market is limited to keyword-based search features," said Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon CEO and co-founder.

    "With StumbleUpon App Discovery, users can now find applications that are personally recommended to them and in many cases would previously have gone unnoticed."

    StumbleUpon-Android StumbleUpon App Discovery is included in the free StumbleUpon mobile app for Android. Using StumbleUpon’s personalized recommendation technology, StumbleUpon considers each user’s app preferences, as well as those of a user’s friends and like-minded users, to recommend specific apps. Users simply click "Install" to download any app discovered through StumbleUpon.

    To try the free StumbleUpon Apps Discovery feature, download the StumbleUpon mobile app for Android by visiting the Android Market on your phone and searching for "StumbleUpon." Current users of the StumbleUpon mobile app for Android can expect an automatic product update.

  • Location-Based Services See Light Use

    Location-Based Services See Light Use

    Four percent of online adults use a service such as Foursquare or Gowalla that allows them to share their location with friends and to find others who are in their area, according to a new report form the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

    Location-based services such as Foursquare or Gowalla are significantly more popular with younger internet users; eight percent of online adults ages 18-29 use location-based services, significantly more than online adults in any other age group.

    Wireless internet users, unsurprisingly, are also more likely to use location-based services, especially those who connect to the internet with their cell phone. Seven percent of all adults who go online with their mobile phone say they use a location-based service, as well as 5% of all wireless internet users.    

    Location-Based-Service

     Pew found location-based services are similar in some ways to status updating services such as Twitter.  Status updating services have grown in popularity over the past few years, from 6% of online adults saying they had used such a service in August 2008 to 24% in September 2010.

    Internet users who use social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace and those who use status-update services such as Twitter also have relatively high levels of location-based service usage:

    *Among online adults, 62% use a social networking site such as Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn. Of these social networking site users, 6% use a location-based service.

    *24% of online adults use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or to see updates about others. Ten percent of these status update site users use a location-based service, over twice the rate of the general online population.

     

  • Yahoo Expands Connected TV To Europe With Samsung

    Yahoo and Samsung have expanded the availability of Yahoo Connected TV to 26 countries in Europe, bringing the total to 39 countries globally.

    Yahoo Connected TV on Samsung televisions allow people to access video content on YouTube, view headlines and videos on Sky News and Bild news, view photos from Flickr, find travel deals on Teletext Holidays, shop on eBay, play games from PlayJam, create a personal channel of music videos on Putpat, or connect with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

     

     

    “Europe is at the forefront of interactive TV, and together with Samsung we are increasing the availability of Yahoo Connected TV,” said Rich Riley, senior vice president and managing director Yahoo EMEA.

    “Yahoo connects consumers to the information and services they love regardless of the device. We’re delivering the right Internet-connected TV experience across Europe and opening up a new and robust channel to publishers and developers looking to bring their services into millions of living rooms.”

    The extended partnership with Samsung is the latest step in the global distribution of Yahoo! Connected TV, which is currently in use in 135 countries. Yahoo and its partners will continue to bring the TV Widget experiences to more televisions and other consumer electronic devices in the near future. 
     

     

  • No Real Social Media Plan? Try Starting With This.

    Coming up with a social media plan isn’t always the easiest thing to do for businesses. There are so many factors that come into play, even beyond the landscape of communities that actually exist. For example, business leaders need to ask questions like: How much time should be spent interacting with social media sites? How many people should be representing the company on social sites? How much of their time should be dedicated to it? Should it be the full-time job of one person? The full-time jobs of more people? Only part of the job for a lot of people? Etc. Etc. Etc. 

    No matter how much time and how many resources are spent on your brand’s social media presence, more can always be done, so many will have to find they have to be selective in areas of participation and time spent. If your budget and time aren’t as restricted, you can build an enormous social presence around the web in the places that matter. Just remember, more can always be done. We at WebProNews certainly have plenty of room to expand and improve our own social strategy, and chances are you do too. 

    So, with all of that in mind, here are some ideas you can use to build your social presence. 

    Twitter

    1. Post regular Twitter updates everyday. That doesn’t mean spam or post them constantly all day long, but there should be enough regularity to where your followers know you’re there and don’t forget about you. That said, don’t talk just to talk. Have something valuable to say. If you produce content, share your links. Some may not think it’s a good idea just to pump out your own links on Twitter, because it’s "about the conversation", but the way I look at is this: if someone is following me, they’re probably interested in what I have to say. If I’m writing articles, those are in essence, what I have to say. That doesn’t mean that it’s not about the conversation. 

    2. You should engage in conversation on Twitter. Start conversations that don’t necessarily pertain to your own links. Listen to what others are saying, and join conversations with them, regardless of if they are directly related to your brand or not. 

    3. Monitor your brand. Respond to @mentions (good or bad). Respond to direct messages. 

    4. Post pictures and videos using services like TwitPic, TwitVid, Yfrog, etc. These things can help humanize your brand and increase engagement with others. They can be conversation starters. People like visuals. 

    5. Create relevant lists. Create lists of other Twitterers that can provide value to others. You don’t necessarily have to, but it might be a good idea to create a variety of lists for subjects related to your niche. If you have a car blog, for example, you might have a list of car brands, a list of other car bloggers, a list for mechanics, a list of auto part vendors, etc. 

    WebProNews on Twitter

    Facebook

    1. Have a Facebook Page for your brand. If you’re running a business, you need a Page, not just a personal profile. What you do with your personal profile is up to you, but your page should be up, and it should be promoted. 

    2. Post regular updates throughout the day. Just like Twitter, I see nothing wrong with sharing links to your content here if you write articles or blog posts. I should note that this should be actual helpful content though – not just posts about why people should buy your product. Nobody wants to be a fan of a page that does that. 

    3. Respond to comments on your Page. Get involved in conversations. 

    4. Update your photos and videos. You don’t have to use third-party services for this on Facebook. 

    5. Experiment with landing pages for your Facebook Page. It doesn’t have to go right to your wall. You can direct fans to any information you want to provide. 

    6. You can use "notes" to put blog-style content right in Facebook should you choose to do so. 

    7. There is a virtually unlimited number of Facebook apps. Look for ones that might be able to add value to your page and get people engaged in a helpful way. This will also take some experimenting. 

    WebProNews on Facebook

    YouTube (and other video sites)

    1. If you create videos, you need to have them on YouTube and other video sites/networks. This is key for getting your videos out to a wider audience. 

    2. These sites are also communities. Respond to comments and subscribe to others. Make friends in the communities. 

    3. Push subscriptions to your channels. Keeping people subscribed means keeping them engaged as you continue to produce content. This can help build a following. 

    4. Even if you don’t create your own videos, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get involved in conversations and comment on others’ videos. 

    5. You can create "favorites" lists of videos that can be helpful, even if they’re not your videos (similar to the Twitter lists).

    WebProNews on YouTube

    MySpace

    1. MySpace may not be the current flavor of the week, but make no mistake – it’s still got a lot of users. Makes friends on MySpace with like-minded individuals and businesses, and expand your network here. 

    2. Like anything else, keep up with your comments and direct messages, and engage in conversation on and off your own page. 

    3. Have a professional-looking design for your page. 

    4. Highlight your best content. 

    5. Update your page regularly with new status updates, blog entries, videos, etc. 

    Google Buzz

    1. Update Buzz regularly throughout the day with links and general conversation. Basically, treat it similar to Facebook or Twitter. 

    2. Engage in conversation on and off your own Buzz posts. 

    3. Spend some time making your Google Profile (which is connected to Buzz…and appears in Google search results) the best it can be. Provide links to your other profiles. 

    4. Integrate other options that are available and applicable to you (Google Reader sharing, Picasa photos, Orkut, etc.)

    5. You can apply these to other networks like LinkedIn and FriendFeed as well. 

    Digg, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon, etc. 

    1. Share links to others’ content on social bookmarking sites like these regularly. This will help you build a following. 

    2. Have buttons to make your own content easy to share on these sites. 

    3. Engage in conversations in the comments of links you share and links others share on these sites. 

    4. Become friends with others like-minded and interesting people on these networks. 

    Forums

    1. Find relevant topics in forums that are also relevant to your business and get involved in existing conversations. 

    2. Start your own relevant conversations. Don’t just get in there and link to your content. It’s tacky and people will see through it. You can often provide your link in your profile anyway. 

    3. If you have built up enough credibility in a forum, you might be able to share a link of your own from time to time in a legitimate fashion, like for example, if you wrote an article on the topic being discussed that helps to answer a question that is being asked. 

    4. The more actively you engage in useful conversation, the more credibility you will gain, and you can come to be looked upon as an expert in your field. 

    Blogs

    1. If you have a blog, keep up with the comments. Respond and stay involved in the conversations. If people disagree with you, which they often will, don’t make a big deal about it or try to prove them wrong. You might just be driving them away. Keep it constructive. Respectfully disagree and maybe elaborate on why you stand by your position, or if they change your mind, maybe tell them you hadn’t looked at things that way. 

    2. Take the time to participate in conversation on other relevant blogs. You can basically think of blog comments as mini forums. The same rules pretty much apply. 

    Photos

    1. As I said, people like visuals, especially current users of sites like Flickr and Picasa. Update photo sites regularly. Again, this can help humanize your brand and even open you up to different audiences. 

    2. Participate in conversations in comments on and off of your own photos. 

    3. Promote your presence on these sites. On your own site/blog, maybe have some links pointing to these accounts.

    The Right Person/People for the Job

    1. You want to make sure you have the right person or people representing your brand in all of these communities. You don’t want someone that doesn’t really understand your company’s vision or position  to be out there giving people the wrong impression. 

    2. Whoever is representing your brand should have a grasp on current news and strategies related to what your business provides. In other words, they should be knowledgeable. It wouldn’t hurt for the people involved to have a designated amount of time each day just reading news. 

    Finally, just keep everything up to date and current. Don’t let profiles go sour. Don’t let comments, questions, and messages sit there to rot. You’ve got to keep up with it all. So, with that in mind, don’t bite off more than you can chew in social media. Look at how much of this you actually want to do, and plan time and resources accordingly. 

    This is by no means all that can be done. There are plenty of other communities I didn’t mention, and probably a great deal more strategies that I didn’t touch upon. I think the things mentioned in this article should be a good start though. 

    What did I leave out that you would add? Please do so in the comments. 

  • Yahoo Mail Goes Social With Facebook and Twitter

    Yahoo has launched Yahoo Mail Beta, which the company boasts is twice as fast and offers more social networking connectivity from directly within the inbox.

     Users can opt-in to try Yahoo Mail Beta.  The new mail service allows users to view and share updates from Twitter and Facebook without having to leave the inbox. An automatic slideshow feature allows people to see photos and videos from sites like Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube from within their email messages.

    “Online communication tools are an important part of people’s lives—whether they’re connecting with their friends and family, sharing pictures and videos, or keeping up on news across social networks,” said Blake Irving, chief product officer, Yahoo.

     

     

    Other highlights of Yahoo Mail Beta include:

    *A new email search feature that allows users to navigate, sort, and narrow search results by sender, attachment file, date, or folder location.

    *Improved instant messaging and texting along with using third-party apps all within the inbox.

    *Improved spam protection and a consistent email experience on desktop, mobile and tablet devices.

    During the Beta period, Yahoo says it will update and add new features to Yahoo Beta Mail. Users can switch between the new and old versions of Yahoo Mail. The new service is available in 25 markets globally.

     

  • MySpace Gets Reborn, With Emphasis on Entertainment

    MySpace announced its new redesign along with a new suite of products today. These, the company tells us, will "redefine the company as a social entertainment destination for Gen Y." We’ll see. 

    "Myspace is creating a rich, highly-personalized experience for people to discover content and connect with other fans who share similar interests," MySpace Director of Corporate Communications Laurie Spindler tells WebProNews. "The entertainment experience spans music, celebrities, movies, television, and games and will be available through multiple platforms, including online, mobile devices and offline events." She says the new MySpace will empower users to:

    – Discover and engage with Myspace’s broad array of content, including original and exclusive programs and content from around the Web.

    – Express, collect and display their creations and interests on their profiles and through sharing tools.

    – Connect to other fans with similar tastes.

    The New MySpace

    “This marks the beginning of an exciting turning point for Myspace. Our new strategy expands on Myspace’s existing strengths – a deep understanding of social, a wealth of entertainment content and the ability to surface emerging cultural trends in real time through our users," says CEO Mike Jones. "Myspace is unique in that it is powered by the passions of our users, who program the site by expressing interests, sharing tastes and knowledge around particular topics, and scouting out up-and-coming subcultures. This is the just the first step and there will be many more features, programs and improvements to come."

    The suite of products includes: "Topics," "Content Hubs," a "Personalized Stream," "Recommendations," "Right Now on MySpace", a "Discovery" Tab, a "My Stuff" Tab, and Badges. 

    For "Topics", MySpace has over 20,000 entertainment-related pages organized around specific topics which include aggregated info from news sites and blogs. Content hubs are places for movies, TV, and celebrities that include trending articles, news, videos, photos, etc. The personalized stream learns what to feature based on user preferences and habits. The Recommendations feature recommends relevant topics and other fans. "Right Now on MySpace" shows trending content in real time and spotlights recently added music and videos. The "Discovery" tab combines videos that friends are watching with trending content. The "My Stuff" tab features personal profiles, videos, photos, and other uploaded content. Finally, badges reward curators and fans for social activity around entertainment topics. 

    With all of this, MySpace is launching a new brand identity, including a new logo that’s been seen for weeks now. 

    The New MySpace Logo

    The new MySpace begins rolling out today in beta, and will be available to all users by the end of November, according to Spindler. New users will have immediate access to the beta site. 

    Will the new MySpace entice you to use the site more? Let us know what you think. 

  • NASA Holding Tweetup For Space Shuttle Launch

    NASA said today it will give 50 of its Twitter followers the chance for a closer look at the next space shuttle mission during a Tweetup Tuesday, November, 9, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center. Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch on an 11-day mission to the International Space Station on Nov. 1 at 4:40 p.m. EDT.

    NASA-Space-Shuttle Those who take part in the Tweetup will tour the center; view mission control and astronauts’ training facilities; and speak with managers, flight directors, trainers and astronauts. The participants also will meet the team behind the tweets on @NASA and @NASA_Johnson.

    "The Tweetup attendees will get to visit the home of mission control during one of the last two scheduled shuttle flights," said Stephanie Schierholz, social media manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

    "In addition, they will get to share their experience of the excitement of human spaceflight with their followers around the world."

    Registration opens at 10 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Oct. 26, and closes at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 28. NASA will select participants randomly from those who register online.

  • Does Urgency Matter More in Email Than in Social Media?

    Flock, creator of the social web browser, sent WebProNews some interesting findings about the social media habits of consumers. One finding we found particularly interesting was that based on responses to a survey from the company, 74% say they feel pressure to respond to emails within a day, while only 52% feel the same about Facebook postings. Even more interesting is that only 26% feel that way about responding to personal tweets on Twitter. 

    Why do you think people place such a lesser amount of emphasis on timeliness when it comes to Twitter? Share your thoughts here. 

    Here are the findings the company shared:

    – 93% feel their relationships with others have stayed the same or improved because of their interaction with friends and family through social media.

    – The majority of respondents feel pressure to "keep up" with their online communications, particularly with email where 74% stated they should respond that day while 52% felt the need to reply immediately to Facebook postings. Surprisingly, only 26% saw any need to reply to personal tweets on Twitter.

    Twitter Messages Aren't treated with the same urgency as email or Facebook

     – 64% of respondents feel stressed at some point to keep up with online social media

    – 60% said they do most of their communicating on social sites from their home while just 17% accessed social media at work. Teachers do not have to worry as only 2% said they tweet or post from school.

    – 89% have signed up to one-ten social networks/apps with 11% interacting with more than ten.

    – 28% have over 500 contacts with 31% spending 11-20 hours a week communicating with their friends and family.  9% spend over 60 hours per week on social media.

    – 49% of respondents use social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and social applications like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Shopkick (excluding email) to communicate with others more than 50% of their time.

    – Social media is on the rise in business with 72% stating that they use it for communications with business contacts.

    What you do with this information is up to you, but it’s clear social media is becoming an increasingly popular avenue of communication, not just among consumers, but among businesses (not to mention between consumers and businesses). However, at this point, if you have messages that require timely responses, it’s looking like your best bet is still communicating through email. 

    Of course this will certainly depend on the person you’re communicating with. Still, I think it’s safe to say that most people, particularly in business, will still be checking their email fairly regularly. From a business perspective, I’d make a habit out of timely communication no matter what the channel. 

    I would suggest putting a little more emphasis on subject lines, whether you’re communicating by email, Facebook, or Twitter. People are more likely to open your message if the subject is enticing and/or relevant to them. If they open, they’re one step closer to responding. 

    What is your preferred channel of communication: email, Facebook, or Twitter? Let us know in the comments.

  • Influential VC Firm Creates $250M Social Fund

    Entrepreneurs who are interested in creating social apps and services may be in luck.  This afternoon at Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced the creation of the $250 million sFund Initiative designed to assist some individuals.

    Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Zynga’s Mark Pincus, and Comcast’s Brian Roberts were all on hand to lend support (along with John Doerr and Bing Gordon of KPCB), which may be an interesting sign of the sFund Initiative’s importance.

    As for some details about the sFund itself, an official statement explained that it "will provide financing, counsel, and relationship capital for a new generation of entrepreneurs to deliver on the promise of the social web."

    Otherwise, the sFund will invest outside the United States, and it’s not necessary to be in any way "connected" in order to submit a business plan.  Applicants just need to piece together a market overview, technology overview, product description, business model overview, and description of their team.

    Then all of the info can simply be emailed to [email protected].

    KPCB partner Doerr predicted, "We’re at the beginning of a new era for social Internet innovators who are re-imagining and re-inventing a Web of people and places, looking beyond documents and websites.  There’s never been a better time than now to start a new social venture."

  • Consumer Reports Introduces iPhone App

    Consumer Reports Introduces iPhone App

    Consumer Reports has introduced a new app for iPhone users,which provides access to ratings, recommendations, brand reliability,  and buying advice for appliances, electronics, children’s products, car care, and home products.

    The app, called Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper, is available for download for $9.99

    The app allows users to research purchases by scanning the UPC barcode; searching for the make and model; or browsing through  Consumer Reports expert Ratings.  The information includes model comparisons, user reviews, the CR Best Buy, and CR recommendations.

     

    Consumer-Reports-iPhone

     

    “The new app puts the power of Consumer Reports in consumers’ pockets when they are shopping, allowing them to access Ratings, compare prices, locate better-value retailers and share recommendations with friends," said Jerry Steinbrink, vice president, Publishing, Consumer Reports.  

    "This newest delivery system nicely complements our suite of media offerings."

    *Features of the app include the ability for iPhone users to:

    *Shop online or shop locally:  find the best deals online or at nearby retail stores.

    *Share deals or product ideas with friends and family via email or Facebook .

    Consumer Reports said it is currently working on a version of its app  for Android.

     

     

  • Social Media: Power to the People?

    The keynote at BlogWorld this morning was an interesting one, looking at how new media has changed the landscape of politics. Mark Penn, former Chief Messaging Architect for President Clinton and Karen Hughes, former Chief Messaging Architect for President Bush discussed the power blogs and social media have had on shifting elections and public perception. 

    Penn discussed a surge in independence and how we are no longer living in a "red and blue" country. We’re seeing the parties themselves dividing and new movements emerging among both Democrats and Republicans. "There’s a wave of discontent," says Penn. 

    To say the least. 

    Penn and Hughes

    Blogging and social media have given the people a voice. As more and more people have turned to new media, more have been able to consume a wider range of content and opinions, respond to it (in a way that others can also see and possibly benefit from), and spread it. Because of these things, there is more power in the hands of the people than ever. Anyone can go online and say anything they want and be heard. 

    That’s a very powerful thing, but as Hughes points out, it’s not without its negatives – primarily, the incredibly quick spreading of false information. "Speed is essential," she says, adding that you have to jump in because things get reported and repeated. 

    On the flip side, however, new media has enabled instant response. It’s essentially reputation management. Brands face this all the time. When it comes to politics, there will always be plenty more people to stand up for the brand (or bash it). But again, that’s the voice of the people.  News consumers have more viewpoints to look at to help them  form their own. 

    Other concerns Hughes voices include anonymity and the dehumanization of people via the technology. 

    One interesting comment from the audience: social media is just enabling the spread of propaganda on both sides. What do you think?

    Another interesting audience comment: "You’re not pundits anymore. We get our news from sources we trust."

  • New York Times Launches Full Content For iPad App

    The New York Times today introduced its NYTimes App for iPad, which replaces its Editors’ Choice App.

    The new app has more than 25 sections of Times content, including more videos and photos; breaking news alerts; and improved section and article navigation.

    The NYTimes is free for now and available in the App Store, but that will change when the Times launches its pay model next year, requring an iPad app subscription.

    Four sections of the app are available at download including Top News, Most E-Mailed, Business and Video. To access all other sections, users log in with their existing account or register within the app to create an account.

     

    NYTimes-iPad

     

    “More and more, our readers are connecting with The Times across a variety of platforms, and we are developing products that allow them to engage with our content in a meaningful way," said Yasmin Namini, senior vice president, marketing and circulation, The New York Times Media Group, and general manager, reader applications.

    Features of the NYTimes App include:

    *Streamlined navigation – a popover section listing allows for smooth navigation between sections. On article pages, a navigation bar beneath the article allows users to swipe through and select other articles within the section.

    *Share options – share articles, videos and multimedia with a full set of tools, including Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

    *Share options – share articles, videos and multimedia with a full set of tools, including Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

     

  • Survivor Creator: What Kind of Idiot Changes a Successful Format?

    Mark Burnett, an executive television producer behind shows like Survivor, The Apprentice, The Shark Tank, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, and many others (he was even behind the MTV Movie Awards where Bruno landed on Eminem), took the time today here at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Vegas to draw some parallels between his  experiences in television and searching for success in new media. 

    Frankly, he almost painted something of a doomy picture for those aspiring to find such success, discussing how truly hard it is to succeed. Success is unpredictable,  but "the unpredictable nature is the creative driver" he said. He says shows like Survivor or American Idol are so successful in part to their unpredictability. You  don’t know who’s going to get eliminated from week to week, compared to a show like CSI or House, where you generally know that the main characters will probably not die. 

    Interestingly enough, it’s that same unpredictability that helps shows like Survivor and American Idol thrive in the social media universe. People get excited about who will win and who will lose, and they frantically discuss every week, all week, before and after and during the show. 

    Mark Burnett Talks Social Media from BlogWorld

    Burnett says you can never be certain who you should marry, whether or not you should start a business, or whether or not you should change jobs, but most people that  find success start out not knowing if their ideas are going to work. Basically, you’ve got to be willing to jump in and take a risk. Of course not all of your social  media endeavors will be all that risky, but I think the main message here is that you shouldn’t be too afraid to take a chance. 

    That said, Burnett does not recommend making drastic changes to successful formulas. "You have to be careful," he says. "What kind of idiot changes a very successful format?" 

    Burnett is a self-confessed "mental midget" when it comes to social media, but he says, "I’ve become very aware of how important it is."

    "The social, electronic media world makes me feel stupid," he later added. "…I’m just trying to keep up."

    Now he’s working on a TLC show about Sarah Palin’s adventures in Alaska, which they let Steve Garfield announce via his YouTube and Twitter accounts to watch the power of social media. 

  • NASA And Gowalla Partner On Virtual Search For Moon Rocks

    NASA has partnered with Gowalla to create new ways for people to learn more about space exploration and the agency in general.

    The partnership populates Gowalla with NASA-related information and four virtual items — moon rocks, a NASA patch, a spacesuit and a space shuttle — that can be found at agency-related venues.

    “NASA’s partnership with Gowalla is a creative way for us to reach out and share information about what the nation’s space agency is doing," said Bob Jacobs, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

    NASA-Gowalla

    Gowalla users who virtually "check-in" at NASA-related venues and places of discovery via their smart phone have a chance to find the four agency virtual items which can be traded for other items, dropped in locations or kept in their vault.

    Anyone with a Gowalla account who collects three of the four items will receive a special pin in their Gowalla Passport. In addition, the first 100 people to collect three items will win the special edition NASA+Gowalla Map: Search for the Moon Rocks by JESS3, a creative agency that specializes in data visualization.

    The partnership enables a NASA account and an account for astronaut Mike Massimino linked to the agency’s primary Twitter account, @NASA, and Massimino’s Twitter account, @Astro_Mike. NASA and Massimino also will drop virtual items for users to find and collect throughout the nation.