Posts Tagged: internet

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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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14
Apr 10

Social media careers: Education and experience are a winning combination

SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social media practices and issues. Last week’s poll question: A number of business schools are adding courses on social-media marketing. How important a role does education play when hiring someone to manage your company’s social-media engagement? A combination of education and experience is ideal. 55.42% Education is important, but it’s not the only thing that matters. 22.89% I would consider only candidates who had real-world experience. 19.28% Education is the most important factor. 2.41% I guess the answer to this question was obvious, education combined with real-world experience trumps any other combination. (Of course, isn’t that the case with any type of job?) Like many of you, my social media “education” was learned via on-the-job training, often combined with additional “homework” in trial-and-error. While I’m excited to see colleges and universities include coursework (or even degree programs) on social media, I believe there are aspects of this discipline that do not lend themselves well to a classroom setting. For example, because social media is ever evolving, textbooks will be outdated almost the moment they are printed. Instructors will have to be committed to staying on top of industry trends, virtually in real-time. (Of course, the underlying tenets and principles would remain the same.) The aspect that most excites me about this is that it provides evidence that social media has, indeed , become a career path. More and more, companies are adding social media managers as part of their marketing/pr communications teams. Job boards are replete with listings of positions that contain the term “social media.” Even President Obama is looking to hire someone . Let me leave you with a couple of questions: Do you see a need for social media to be taught in the classroom? If so, what types of courses should be included? Paul Chaney is the Internet marketing director for Bizzuka , author of “The Digital Handshake” and a member of the SmartBrief on Social Media Advisory Board .

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9
Apr 10

Marketing Products and Services Through the Use of Social Media – TransWorldNews (press release)

Marketing Products and Services Through the Use of Social Media TransWorldNews (press release) Social Networks provide a single location on the internet where a user can go and hang out, rather than having to travel from one different website to the ... Advisors skeptical of US social media site Advisor.ca Next Generation Social Media: Bringing the World Together TransWorldNews (press release) all 5 news articles

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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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7
Apr 10

Poll: Readers skeptical on use of location-based social networks

SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social-media practices and issues. Last week’s poll question: Are you currently using location-based social networks such as Foursquare, Gowalla or MyTown? I haven’t started using them, and I don’t plan to.  43.84% I haven’t started using them, but I’m interested. 25.36% Yes, I regularly check in to places I go. 15.94% I’m using them, but not frequently. 14.86% I’m somewhat taken aback by the strong response from those who say they have no plan to use location-based social networks such as Foursquare or Gowalla. It causes me to wonder if the response is based on a lack of knowledge about their use in a business context, whether the respondents represent more of a business-to-business orientation, or whether it’s a lack of interest in newer forms of social networking altogether — or none of the above. My take on these new platforms is that they can have great relevance for retail-oriented bricks-and-mortar businesses, and perhaps that’s stating the obvious. Less apparent are the soon-coming benefits to using geolocation, many of which have yet to be discerned. As participation increases and people adapt the use of  these apps to better suit their needs, I expect to see more benefits accrue, within the retail and business-to-business spaces. As Daniel Ionescu puts it : “Facebook wants to know, ‘What’s on your mind?’ Twitter asks, ‘What’s happening?’ But that’s getting old already. The burning question for the next wave of social networking is, ‘Where are you?’” We don’t yet know the impact of that question on business, but I’m betting it’s significant. Perhaps a good follow-up question to the one above should be, “What business benefits do you see location-based social networks providing?” Why don’t you go ahead and respond now by leaving a comment. Paul Chaney is the Internet marketing director for Bizzuka , author of “The Digital Handshake,” and a member of the SmartBrief on Social Media Advisory Board .

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