Posts Tagged: Editor’s Take

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19
Apr 10

“Open database of places”: Could it be true?

Since social media landed on the radar of business marketers, one of the toughest challenges has been how to keep up with the latest tools and platforms. It wasn’t long ago that I was charged with building my former company’s MySpace strategy. Man, that skin was something else. Today, marketers are faced with more opportunities than ever — but directing resources toward all of them is near impossible. So what do we do? Some of us bet on the front-runners; some us gamble on the new kids on the block; and some of us build our own networks.  Nearly all of us, though, are hoping for a universe where data is shared across platforms, allowing business to engage efficiently and effectively. The lead story in today’s SmartBrief on Social Media examines the possibility of such a system in the white-hot location-based services sector.  Erick Schonfeld’s back and forth with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley suggests that a shared database of places may not be impossible. Crowley calls a “Facebook Connect for places” an “amazing” opportunity that will be “fixed by next year.”  Next year? That would be impressive. If such an open database were to come to fruition, it seems plausible that it could start in the location-based area. These are, after all,  physical locations, not virtual spaces. What might be built could serve as a shared atlas, complete with rich data on users, businesses, transactions, reviews. The possibilities are exciting for developers, end-users and, of course, businesses. While we seem to be hearing more great case studies of companies leveraging location-based social services (which, incidentally, I’ll be covering in my session with Foursquare’s Tristan Walker at the upcoming Social Media Success Summit ), the truth is that the vast majority of businesses are still struggling to leverage these services — partially because the usage and data is so splintered. If Crowley’s prophecy proves correct, and an “open database of places” were to become a reality, would you (as a marketer) be more likely to engage with location-based social services? Image credit, Maica , via iStock

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“Open database of places”: Could it be true?

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15
Apr 10

Are you happy with Twitter’s new direction?

There’s no doubt about it: Twitter is growing up. After a year of explosive growth paired with a total lack of strategy, the news coming out of Chirp seems to suggest that the micro-blogging platform wants to step its game. As we note in the lead story of SmartBrief on Social Media , the company has sketched out its future in more concrete terms than ever before. Metadata for tweets, @anywhere functionality and better location-aware features made headlines this week — but those announcements all felt anti-climatic to me. These are things Twitter should have been doing all along — in most cases, they’re things other social networks already do. The announcement that it was going to provide more robust access to user data, however, got my attention. Twitter’s simplicity makes it a powerful tool for research. It could tell us so much about ourselves and about how we interact with each other. The Library of Congress is acquiring Twitter’s archives for exactly that reason. Normally, social-media research makes me nervous, but I think that because Twitter is a broadcast tool, it makes a better candidate for academic work than most networks. Twitter is meant to be public, meant to be shared in a way that other networks just aren’t. It’s coming as close to a public record of what the world is talking about as we’re ever likely to see — and I think Twitter is smart to capitalize on that. But what do you think? Are you happy with the announcements coming out of Chirp? What initiative are you most excited about? Are you worried about Twitter being turned into a research engine? What other directions would you like to see the network explore? Image credit, M. Dykstra , via Shutter Stock

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Are you happy with Twitter’s new direction?

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14
Apr 10

What will growing diversity mean for social media?

Keeping up with changing technology is a big part of being a social-media enthusiast — but we have to be careful not to let the allure of new gadgets distract us from the ways in which people are changing. The Internet will become larger and more diverse over the next four years — and that may be good news for social marketers , as we note in the lead story of today’s SmartBrief on Social Media . For some businesses, these demographic shifts may make more of an impact than mobile networks, augmented reality and geo-tagging put together. Yet as I’ve noted in the past, tackling diversity can be a minefield for business. Companies will have to come up with more-evolved social strategies if they’re going to stay on top of the ways in which the Web is changing. Advertisers have gone through shifts like this — realizing the growing buying power of children, for example — but they’ve never had to make the transition in a social environment, where engagement can spread like wildfire and every misstep is magnified. How will increasing Internet use among minorities change social media? How should marketers respond to this trend? What companies are already doing this well? Image credit, maxstockphoto , via Shutterstock

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What will growing diversity mean for social media?

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9
Apr 10

What does the Kyrgyz revolution say about social-media engagement?

Does a Twitter topic need to trend to have an impact? Is a topic less important if it has a deep resonance for a smaller group of people — instead of the other way around? If those seem like silly questions to you, think about the way the role of social media in the Kyrgyz revolution is being portrayed by many media outlets. In the lead story of today’s SmartBrief on Social Media , Evgeny Morozov compares the Kyrgyz revolution with the Iranian revolts of last summer. He argues that because Kyrgyzstan is less important on the world stage, Western media is less interested in the drama unfolding there. “In short: why is there no Twitter revolution in Kyrgyzstan? Because there is no one to hype it up.” He also notes that the platform is being used differently than it was in Iran — less a tool of organization and more a broadcasting mechanism. Yet it would be a mistake to think that Twitter isn’t an important of this story just because it doesn’t neatly parallel the events in Iran, notes Sarah Kendzior. “The tweets, blog posts, and news articles written by people in Kyrgyzstan — often with great emotion and care — are dismissed because they were written for people in Kyrgyzstan. But for whom, may I ask, are people in Kyrgyzstan supposed to be writing?” In other words, it doesn’t matter whether the whole world is watching The conversation is important to its intended target: the Kyrgyz people. Now think about your own social-media efforts. Are you obsessed with getting on Twitter’s trending topics? Making it onto the front page of Digg? Becoming a YouTube sensation? Those are all perfectly worthy goals. But they’re not the only goals. If you’re reaching the people you need to reach — and more importantly, if you’re really affecting them, then its not as important if someone outside your target demographic hears about you or not. When you start your own revolution, ask yourself, who are you doing this for? Is it just for the attention of strangers? Or are you trying to make a difference in your community? The answer to that question may dictate your entire strategy — and determine whether you ultimately regard your campaign as successful. Does a social-media campaign always need mass awareness to be successful? What are some examples of campaigns that triumphed by creating deep engagement with a small population? Should campaigns decide at the outset of a campaign if they’re aiming for mass exposure or fan engagement? Image credit, Jesus Cervantes , via Shutterstock

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What does the Kyrgyz revolution say about social-media engagement?

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8
Apr 10

What will it take to make Twitter great?

It’s amazing how quickly our ideas of convenience change. Think about the early days of the Internet: Remember dial-up modem noises and sluggish connections? Remember those clunky, almost paleolithic Web pages?  Remember how maddeningly useless early search engines were? I don’t know about you, but I was totally blown away by it all. Sure, it could tough to navigate, but using the Web was so much more convenient than heading to the mall, the library or the post office to run errands that I didn’t even notice all the technology’s many shortcomings. Would I go back to that world now? Not a chance. Now think about Twitter. Sure, it’s all kinds of convenient and useful, but it’s filled with little imperfections we’ve trained ourselves not to notice. In the lead story of today’s SmartBrief on Social Media , Fred Wilson does an admirable job of reminding us of all the little hoops we jump through just to make the service work the way it should. Wilson is calling for a killer app to take the network to the next level. But I think first we need to get a network that recognizes what level its users are actually on. We don’t need a killer app. We need a killer network. Friendster gave way to MySpace, which passed the torch to Facebook. Each of these services improved upon the stability, popularity and feature set of its predecessor. So how is that Twitter has stood unchallenged on the field of micro-blogging for more than three years? The platform is unreliable, ungainly and seems patently uninterested in making life easier for its users. Why is it still dominant? How much longer can that last? The obvious answer is say that Twitter’s user base is too large. But then, no one thought a college-only network would someday unseat MySpace. My guess is that whatever unseats Twitter will come from a similar niche market. Wherever it comes from, it will build on the mistakes and the omissions Twitter has made. Users shouldn’t have to rely on killer apps to get the most out of a platform; the platform needs to evolve to meet the users’ needs. If Twitter hasn’t addressed its own shortcomings by the time competition does pop up, it may never get the chance. What do you think? Is Twitter lacking a killer app? Does the network need a total overhaul? Would users be better served by a competing network? Image credit, kovacevic via Shutterstock

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