Quick Thoughts on Google Buzz
Okay so when Google started pushing Google Profiles the other day I knew that they were laying the foundation for something social, and it wasn’t going to be Orkut on steroids, insert sarcastic giggle here. I went ahead and setup my profile a few weeks ago, you can find my profile here…
Turns out my assumption was correct, Google launched Buzz this past week inside of Gmail, which I thought was a little odd of a way to launch at first, but after giving it some thought, it was probably a pretty stealth way to roll the product out. I know a few people that didn’t even notice the link on the sidebar until I showed them, and one person totally missed it and didn’t know about Buzz until they hit the internal landing page that slapped them in the face once they had logged into their Gmail account.
Turns out Google had all of their ducks in a row in one regard prior to releasing Buzz onto the mainstream, they even have a wireless version of Buzz that they are promoting. Setting up Buzz was pretty easy for the most part w/ one huge exception that might have only affected me, but it was annoying nonetheless…
The Problem Connecting Sites to My Buzz:
When I went in to setup my sites w/ my Google Buzz I first thought that surely they would just bring over the sites that were connected to my Google Profile page that I had created a while back, but that wasn’t the deal at all. I had a list of sites that I could connect initially, like my Blogspot, Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, Digg, and YouTube just to name a few. I set these accounts up, although I haven’t used Blogger in forever. Underneath these sites I had 5 or 6 more sites that I could “connect”, none of these sites were my blog? I found this odd and sat here scratching my head for a few minutes trying to figure out how they got the list of “suggested sites” that were my options. These websites were actually sites that I had built for clients, and I had them listed and verified inside of my Webmaster Tools account, where I record their sitemap links, etc.
I thought to myself for a moment that if maybe there was some way to delete these suggested sites that I would eventually work my way through the list of 800+ sites that I have in Webmaster tools until I got to my blog and I could do it that way. Well, that wouldn’t work because I wasn’t able to do anything but add a site, couldn’t remove it from the “suggested” group of sites.
I went into my Webmaster tools account and went ahead and verified my blog (surprised I hadn’t done this a long time ago). Once I did the verification process I went back into Google Buzz and clicked on selected sites again and noticed that my site was now in the list so I added it that way.
What a headache! I think it would have been much more efficient if users Buzz feed was originated by the sites that are connected to their Google profiles. I am sure that Google had a reason for doing this but for the life of me I can’t think of why they would do it that way.
Now, here’s another dilemma I encountered. While I was able to add Friendfeed as one of my connected sites, I got to thinking, if I connect all of these other sites to my Buzz, why would I need FriendFeed connected to my Buzz? Wouldn’t that be overlap and duplicate content in my feed? I opted to disconnect my FriendFeed from Buzz. I still haven’t been able to get my Delicious links connected to my Buzz either. Kind of makes me wonder if Google even wants third parties involved w/ their Buzz stream… Has anyone else encountered the same issues that I have? What am I missing??
Do We Need Another Social Network? And from Google??
It’s no secret that Google has attempted to get into the social networking business before, their Orkut product never really got wings for some reason, and I honestly think Google has known this for a while, which is why they never gave it a big push. If you are unfamiliar w/ Orkut, here’s my profile you can checkout…
While Google Buzz is being labeled a Social Network, I don’t really see it as a “social network” like Facebook or Twitter. In fact, I see it being more of an aggregator, sort of like what FriendFeed is. I think eventually Google wants to be the place where you can plug in all of our “social properties” and content feeds. If I was Google, that’s exactly the direction I would be looking as well, but I think they are going to have to package it a lot differently.
One component of Google Buzz that I did notice was that you can add friends more or less by “Following” people. This component gives it the “social networkish-ness” but that’s honestly about all I have seen in that regard. Friends can comment on other friends posts, etc. I guess it’s sort of like Facebook w/out all of the Farmtown…
In Conclusion…
I don’t want to sound like I am down on Google Buzz, because as I mentioned earlier, I think that they have the right idea. I just found the initial setup phase of joining to be somewhat frustrating and still don’t have my account setup w/ all of the sites that I want to connect but will live with things the way they are for now.
The bottom line, I think eventually if Google is persistent, they can grow Buzz into something cool that will rob other networks like Facebook and Twitter of face time, but it’s going to take some work. I am advising my clients if they have the time to get their profiles setup and to start adding their sites to Buzz but not pushing it as something they need to do urgently…
Stay Tuned…
I think that the next edition of The Cotton Club might include some discussion regarding Google Buzz so be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes so you don’t miss it.
In case you are unfamiliar w/ Google Buzz, here’s some info I found on the Google Blog:
We’ve blogged before about our thoughts on the social web, steps we’ve taken to add social features to our products, and efforts like OpenSocial that propose common tools for building social apps. With more and more communication happening online, the social web has exploded as the primary way to share interesting stuff, tell the world what you’re up to in real-time and stay more connected to more people. In today’s world of status messages, tweets and update streams, it’s increasingly tough to sort through it all, much less engage in meaningful conversations.
Our belief is that organizing the social information on the web — finding relevance in the noise — has become a large-scale challenge, one that Google’s experience in organizing information can help solve. We’ve recently launched innovations like real-time search and Social Search, and today we’re taking another big step with the introduction of a new product, Google Buzz.
Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It’s built right into Gmail, so you don’t have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there’s always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don’t have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you’re sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.We’re rolling out Buzz to all Gmail accounts over the next few days, so if you don’t see it in your account yet, check back soon. We also plan to make Google Buzz available to businesses and schools using Google Apps, with added features for sharing within organizations.
On your phone, Google Buzz is much more than just a small screen version of the desktop experience. Mobile devices add an important component to sharing: location. Posts tagged with geographical information have an extra dimension of context — the answer to the question "where were you when you shared this?" can communicate so much. And when viewed in aggregate, the posts about a particular location can paint an extremely rich picture of that place. Check out the Mobile Blog for more info about all of the ways to use Buzz on your phone, from a new mobile web app to a Buzz layer in Google Maps for mobile.We’ve relied on other services’ openness in order to build Buzz (you can connect Flickr and Twitter from Buzz in Gmail), and Buzz itself is not designed to be a closed system. Our goal is to make Buzz a fully open and distributed platform for conversations. We’re building on a suite of open protocols to create a complete read/write developer API, and we invite developers to join us on Google Code to see what is available today and to learn more about how to participate.
We really hope you enjoy the experiences we’ve built within Gmail and for mobile phones. If you want to learn more, visit buzz.google.com. We look forward to continuing to evolve and improve Google Buzz based on your feedback.
If you are already using Google Buzz, I would love to hear your comments about the product.
I have only had 48hrs with the product and I will admit that there might be a lot about the product that I am totally missing.
EP:005 – The Cotton Club Podcast
Keith Crawford and I recorded Episode 2 tonight of The Social Radar podcast. Tonight Keith was gracious enough to allow me to start out the show w/ a rant of my own regarding Facebook’s lax privacy in regards to wall posts from applications to profile pages. This is something that I will never understand, especially realizing the cluttered path that MySpace went down to their demise.
We also discussed some Lifestreaming practices that are good for both individuals and businesses that utilize social media. Keith also offered up an awesome definition of Lifestreaming as opposed to what can be found in Wikipedia. After briefly touching on the hot topic of Geo-location / Geo-social applications we went right on into our weekly run down of our favorite new iPhone applications.
Again, we are still in the process of getting everything setup in iTunes for The Social Radar but we hope to have that very soon so that all of our loyal listeners can subscribe. In the meantime, here’s a brief overview of what we covered on tonight’s show:
In the second episode of The Social Radar Podcast, hosts Cotton Rohrscheib & Keith Crawford discuss a wide variety of topics related to Social Media including a rant by Cotton regarding Facebook’s recent lapse of privacy concerning applications posting to profiles, an awesome definition of Lifestreaming from Keith as well as a need that is not presently being met by todays geo-social applications. As usual the guys also run down some of their favorite iPhone applications to close out the show.
Programming Note: My guest host, Keith Crawford, and I have decided to no longer use the name, The Social Radar, for our podcast. I am publishing our previously recorded episodes to The Cotton Club Podcast for those of you who have requested them.
EP:001 – The Cotton Club Podcast
I finally got around to recording my first installment of The Cotton Club Podcast this evening. My guest co-host for the show this evening was Keith Crawford, you may know him as @tsudo on Twitter. This initial podcast was just a test run to see how things work so that when Keith and I get ready to launch another sideline project called The Social Radar in the very near future we can hit the ground running.
Please keep in mind that this is my first go at podcasting, the quality and content should get better over time. Despite the fact that I have invested in an awesome setup from software to microphones, the audio of me talking didn’t turn out very well at all. You can hear Keith great, and that’s probably a good thing since he is a lot cooler to listen to. 
The topics we covered on Episode 001 of The Cotton Club were as follows:
- Geosocial Applications (Gowalla, Foursquare, Brightkite, Loopt)
- iPhone Applications (Dragon Dictate, Where R U?, Evernote, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Mytown)
- Social Media Predictions for 2010 (Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed)
- Methods for Archiving Thoughts for Blog Posts (Friendfeed, Wordpress, etc.)
- Crazy Story of The Week from Hell
- NASCAR Withdrawels
- Central Arkansas Refresh Meeting – January 26th (Nick Brewer presenting on PODSCMS for Wordpress)
Thanks for tuning into my first show, I promise it’s going to get better over time, so please bear with me. If you want to subscribe to The Cotton Club Podcast, you can do so on iTunes.
Production Note: The audio at the beginning of the recording isn’t very loud, a few minutes into the recording I finally managed to get it adjusted to where you could hear me a little bit better. Please bear w/ me, this is a work in progress.
Some Personal, Business, & Development Goals for 2010
The other day I was looking over my personal goals that I had set going into 2009. I feel really good about what I was able to accomplish in 2009 but unfortunately there are still a few things that I am going to carry over into 2010.
This is not to say that 2009 was a bad year, in fact I would say that 2009 was probably one of the best years I have had in a long time, especially in terms of business and personal development.
Personal Goals for 2010
I have set some pretty high goals for myself personally going into 2010 as compared to what I set for 2009. I have learned that I respond well when I put pressure on myself. Hopefully by setting the bar high I will be able to motivate myself to another level personally.
- Private Pilots License: One of the goals that I had for myself coming into 2009 was to get my pilots license. While I did manage to get a few lessons in I didn’t really devote a lot of time to accomplishing this goal. I am going to try to put forth a little more effort this year to get my license. I have checked into some classes offered by UCA for private pilot certification.
- Business Networking: One of the things I am most proud of in 2009 was helping to organize the Central Arkansas Refresh user group. I reflected on the #Refresh group a few weeks ago and gave some insight into how it all came together. Basically social media powered the group, but the group itself and our monthly meetings allowed me to make some awesome business contacts in the Central Arkansas area. I hope to continue growing my personal network in 2010 through outlets like the #RefreshCA group as well as attending various conferences.
- Speaking: I was fortunate enough to have been asked to speak at couple of events this past year on a variety of topics, primarily interactive marketing and social media. I really enjoyed being a part of these events and I hope to continue to take advantage of these opportunities when they present themselves.
- Diversify: While my passion is, and always will be, the internet, I plan on becoming involved in a few areas outside the web in 2010 as well. I have a lot of irons in the fire right now and I am not ready to make any announcements regarding any projects or anything just yet but I can assure you this, whatever business deals I get involved in 2010, they will strictly be sideline projects. I plan on staying actively involved doing what I am doing until I retire, these side projects will just hopefully help me retire a little bit sooner.
- Run in a 5k: Another one of my goals coming into 2009 was to become more healthy but I obviously didn’t do as well in that department as I would have liked. Hopefully I can do a lot better job in 2010. In order to push myself toward this goal I am going to try to run in at least one 5k this year. I haven’t decided on where or when yet, but after the first of the year I am going to start running and try to make this happen by at least the end of the summer.
- Build my Personal Brand: In a lot of ways I have already been building my personal brand by blogging here at The Cotton Club and by staying pretty active on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but I am going to try to take things to another level in 2010 by adding some exciting new things. One of the things that I will be adding is a podcast. I haven’t worked on the specifics just yet as to how often it’s going to be released or even when the first episode will air but I can assure you that it will happen in the first quarter of 2010.
Business Goals for 2010
My partners and I had a great year in 2009 despite the economic downturn that plagued the nation. We managed to pick up some great new accounts as well as further refine the focus of our business. I would like to build upon some of the products and services that we had a lot of success with this past year. Here’s the list of business goals I have put together so far…
- Email Outsourcing / Archiving: I have blogged a lot the past few months about our premium email products and archival solutions because a lot of attention has been placed on regulatory compliance in a lot of industries. I think that we have a very competitive solution that will continue to do well for us in 2010.
- Shared & VPS Solutions: Over the years my partners and I have made a tremendous investment in our hosting infrastructure. Today, thanks to virtualization, we are able to provide VPS, or virtual private server, solutions to development firms for a very competitive rate, even on a national scale. I am going to try to make an effort to promote our hosting solutions a lot more in 2010 than I did in 2009.
- Ministry Web Solutions: This past year we launched Powersite ministry solutions to showcase our web design and development packages geared toward churches or non-profit organizations. We have had a great response so far from the Powersite launch and I hope to continue that momentum going into 2010.
- Social Media / Interactive Marketing: My partners and I had a lot of success this year steering a lot of our clients into the realm of social media. We also saw some tremendous results from our efforts. I hope to make social media an even-more integral part of what we provide for our clients in 2010.
Development Goals for 2010
I didn’t do a lot of custom application development this past year so I have come up with some goals for the upcoming year to get me back into the development mindset. Here’s what I have come up with so far…
- Develop 2 iPhone Apps: I have two ideas that I think could be profitable, I just have to finalize my project parameters and complete the markup models for each project, which I should be able to do by the first quarter of next year, then I have the rest of the year to familiarize myself with Objective C programming and knock these projects out.
- Develop 2 Wordpress Plugins: I also have two ideas for Wordpress plugins that I want to release in 2010. I already have started coding on both of these projects but haven’t had the spare time to devote to wrapping them up. I typically code on these types of projects after hours in between client projects. Hopefully I will find the time in 2010, stay tuned to this blog for info on both of these plugins.
- Develop 2 Web Applications: I also have two web applications, both geared toward the agriculture industry, that I should be able to launch in 2010. Both applications are 75% complete, I am just waiting on some regulatory guidelines to be handed down by a few more states and then I can wrap everything up. I won’t go into a lot of detail about these apps right now but will when we finally roll them out.
- Develop a MODx Project: My business partner Greg primarily works in MODx while I develop most of my projects in Wordpress. While both solutions are great for content management, they are both very different in terms of their core foundation. I would like to develop a project this next year in MODx so I can become more familiar with it’s operation and functionality.
2009 Review: Huge Year for Facebook (Poll)
Going into 2009 I think we all knew that social media was going to transform the web as we knew it but I don’t think that any of us expected it to explode into the mainstream as fast as it did. The 3 big social networks, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace all entered 2009 with some impressive numbers already but by year end, I bet they were just as surprised as we were. In this year in review post I am going to focus on Facebook and some of the changes that we witnessed from them this year…
The Facebook Connect Rollout
Facebook expanded their social network domination by rolling out Facebook Connect in a big way this past year, I blogged several times on this topic, you can find those posts here. In a nutshell, Facebook Connect allows Facebook users to authenticate themselves on external websites with their Facebook accounts, therefore taking their identity with them to external websites. This has rapidly become a preferred method for authentication for users that don’t want to manage separate logins for every site or web service that they use. This functionality gave Facebook another huge boost in surpassing MySpace, in my opinion, because of the openness of their connect platform versus MySpace’s.
Facebook Design Changes
2009 also saw at least two design changes to the user interface for Facebook. These updates were met at first with opposition but I think eventually they were accepted. Here is a post I did back in March regarding one phase of their rollout that affected their home, profile, and activity streams. Facebook pages also underwent some changes, I blogged about those edits here if you are interested.
Changes to TOS (Terms of Service)
Some other big stories for Facebook this past year had to do with their TOS (Terms of Service) changes, I blogged a few times on this topic if you are interested, see here and here… For the most part I think that this was a whole lot to do about nothing, but I do know of a handful of people that disappeared forever as a result of these changes.
A Huge Year for Growth
Facebook is the king of the mountain in terms of users with over 350 million. Of the 350 million Facebook users, 50% of these users are active on a daily basis. The word Facebook can be heard on just about every newscast you watch everyday as well as an appendage on the marketing materials for just about every major company out there, this probably hasn’t hurt Facebook’s growth one bit. Here are some additional statistics provided by Facebook, some of this is extremely interesting:
Here are some additional statistics provided by Facebook:
- More than 350 million active users
- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- More than 35 million users update their status each day
- More than 55 million status updates posted each day
- More than 2.5 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
- More than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
- More than 3.5 million events created each month
- More than 1.6 million active Pages on Facebook
- More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
- Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
- Average user has 130 friends on the site
- Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
- Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
- Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
- Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
- Average user becomes a fan of 2 Pages each month
- Average user is invited to 3 events per month
- Average user is a member of 12 groups
- More than 70 translations available on the site
- About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
- Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
Facebook is Finally Profitable
For someone not familiar with how the web operates, this next point is probably going to come as a shock. Up until 2009 Facebook had not ever turned an actual profit. Yes, the company grew, but it’s growth was a direct result of angel investors that were able to get in on the ground floor of this emerging fireball. I did a blog post back in September where I discussed Facebook’s announcement that they were finally profitable if you are interested.
Incorporated into Search Engines
When we learned back in September / October of this year that Bing and Google were planning on adding social media to their search results I think a lot of us already saw this coming. While it’s really early to predict how Facebook is going to play in terms of the search equation at this time, I think we will learn a lot more about that in 2010. I did a few posts in relation to this topic here and again here if you are interested.
Facebook Usernames & URL’s
Facebook launched Usernames and URL’s this past year for both users and businesses inside their network. There was a silent goldrush as companies battled to secure their Facebook vanity urls. This “goldrush” just solidified Facebook’s position as an online marketing outlet for corporations in my opinion.
What’s Next for Facebook? Marketplace?
I think that a couple of things are going to be big topics for Facebook followers in 2010. One of these issues will be privacy controls. Facebook has already implemented some changes to their privacy controls in 2009 but I think we will see some even more detailed streamlining on tap for 2010. I think that another area worth watching for 2010 is the Facebook Marketplace, I posted on this topic recently if you are interested, I suspect that as Facebook rapidly approaches an IPO the marketplace will be one area that they will focus a lot of their efforts.
Head to Head w/ Twitter?
Personally, I still don’t see Facebook and Twitter as direct competition to one another, so I won’t weigh in on any strategies Facebook might have for going after Twitter, but I will say that their recent move to get into the URL shortening market has me scratching my head wondering why they would want to venture into that direction.
Developers, Developers, Developers…
I think that the openness of Facebook API will further encourage developers to roll out more fun and useful applications for the network. Since I am not a heavy application user in Facebook I don’t have any predictions as to what kind of applications just yet, but I suspect there will be a Farmtown on Steroids that all of our mothers can’t live without at some point in 2010.
What About FriendFeed?
One last thing to watch for in 2010 from Facebook is FriendFeed. This past year we saw Facebook purchase this company, and for the most part a lot of us inside the industry slapped our hands on our foreheads and asked “why??”… FriendFeed is an extremely popular social aggregator / network that has tremendous user loyalty. It will be interesting to see what Facebook does with this purchase. I blogged about the purchase of FriendFeed back in August if you are interested…
In closing, please take a second to let us know which social network you will spend the most time inside 2010. Also, I still maintain a pretty active presence on Facebook, if you are a Facebook user be sure to add me as a friend…
Open Letter from Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook is still amazing in terms of it’s growth. This morning I took a few minutes to read Mark Zuckerberg’s open letter to the Facebook community regarding the future of Facebook. Sounds like they are putting a lot of emphasis on networks (from a regional standpoint). This is one area that I think they have needed to work on for a while now.
They are also hoping to do a better job of simplifying their privacy controls, which if any of you have ever worked with will know that there is a lot of room for improvement. Another thought to ponder each time you use your Facebook account to login to an external website, Facebook has successfully grown from being a social network to much, much, more.
Here’s the letter in case you missed it:
It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.
To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information. Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we’ve built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.Facebook’s current privacy model revolves around "networks" — communities for your school, your company or your region. This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.
Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China.However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.
The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.
We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we’ll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.
Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we’ll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.
We’ve worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone’s needs are different. We’ll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you’re sharing with online.
Thanks for being a part of making Facebook what it is today, and for helping to make the world more open and connected.
Mark Zuckerberg
The By-Product of Social Media Becoming a Buzzword
If you work in the web / interactive marketing industry you have no doubt had to sit your clients down and have the social media talk. The whole social media buzzword comes up in just about every conversation these days. Something that I have found myself having to do is to debunk a lot of pre-conceived notions as to what social media can bring to a customers bottom line.
While I agree that there is no better tool for getting the message out there, it still all comes down to the message. If a clients message is not as good as their competitors message, or their product or service description is lacking, it’s going to get pointed out a lot quicker in a user generated content environment than it is anywhere else. Now, this is not to say that all of our clients have bad products or services, let’s just say that they have a great product or service but they don’t do a good job “selling” it in an interactive environment. I will go as far as to say they might have an awesome product but are promoting it with dry white-papers or boring static content and product pages that, frankly, no one wants to read. Adding social media to the mix is just going to irritate the problem instead of making it better…
I think that before pushing existing content onto the social spectrum, a close evaluation should be done to see if the information on hand is in tip-top shape. This blog post comes on the heels of another post I recently launched where I talked about how Social Media has caused a lot of us in the industry to stop preaching the basics of web2.0 to our clients, primarily blogging.
As I mentioned earlier, I find myself debunking a lot of myths about Social Media with people that I talk to today, and this is probably partly my fault, I talk about it a lot. Probably because as long as I have been in this industry, no greater tool has come along for pushing content and building an audience, but losing sight of the fact that social media is a tool has given a lot of businesses the idea that they can just plug into it and boom! overnight success!! This is not the case.
Granted, having a presence in the social realm should be a top priority for any business, regardless. I always tell clients that the conversation is going on anyway, you may as well have a voice, but it’s the voice (aka your message) that needs to be right on target and where you focus your efforts.
As I watch clients sit there as we discuss social media I can’t help but notice their wide hopeful eyes, and misleading clients is something my partners and I would rather get stung by hornets than do, so we are cautious as we go into our spill to emphasize that it’s all going to come back to what they are already doing. If they are doing a terrible job promoting their brand right now, it’s going to be compounded by adding social media. They need to re-evaluate the basics before going into any type of social campaign…
I see this wide-eyed hopefulness that we have to debunk, or rain on, as one of the biggest byproducts of social media becoming a buzzword.
Blogging is Foundational, Social Media a Tool
While everyone is out spreading the gospel of social media I have found myself spreading a slightly different message lately. Now, don’t get me wrong, social media is an awesome tool for running a marketing campaign, I am on board completely with this, but it is just that, a tool. Social Media is not the answer, it’s the delivery mechanism. I feel that while everyone is serving up the social media cool-aid, we (as an industry) might not be doing our clients any favors by not preaching the basic fundamentals of web2.0, specifically blogging.
While it is true that there is no greater way to build an audience than Social Media right now, I still feel that once you have accumulated this audience you have to “entertain” them, for lack of a better word. By “entertain” I am not referring to song and dance, or anything like that. Your social media audience, whether it be on Facebook or Twitter, has chosen to align themselves with your brand for a particular reason, whatever this reason is, they obviously expect to hear more about it or interact with others about it.
Granted, Twitter offers an excellent opportunity to push content to your audience but when used by itself it only allows you 140 characters to get your message across. Now, I realize that a lot can be said in 140 characters, for instance, coupon and promotional codes can easily be tweeted, but there are always going to be instances where you need more than 140 characters. Without going into a lot of examples, let’s just say you have a new product that you are planning on releasing. You want to push this product information out to your subscribers but it’s impossible to describe with 140 characters, this is not uncommon. It’s widely accepted today to post a shortened URL linked to a blog post with details about this product such as it’s specifications, proposed release date, pricing information, etc. It is for this reason that I find myself emphasizing to clients over and over that blogging is foundational to most campaigns and not so much the social aspect. Yes, we are going to use social media to push your content out there but it’s the content itself we are pushing…
Getting Past the Idea that Blogging is Different…
While the concept of blogging is not hard, a lot of companies wrestle with it when they finally get around to implementing it. I know because I see it everyday. In fact, I have been talking with a close friend recently who has had a corporate blog for several years now and has wrestled with pushing it because he comes from the old school where it’s either published content (web pages) or white papers (pdf’s) that are both carefully worded and lengthy. After talking on the phone for 2 hours one night we determined that the whole informal perspective of a blog post is what he is wrestles with the most. I carefully worded my response to him to let him know that the whole informal thing that he is wrestling with is just the new language of the web.
Now, do I think that white papers or static content on the web is going to go away or become less important? No. I think that there will always be a place on the web for formally worded, static content.
But… just like how Nirvana came along in the 90’s and made it hard for Poison to sell records, blogs and user generated content have forever changed the way we research products and brands… (I am pretty proud of this analogy for some reason!)
Here is a real-world example, I am currently in the market for a digital video camera. I had a few brands in mind so I have naturally been on their websites to see what the technical specs were, but when it comes down to brass tacks I go out and read blog posts that others have written about these products. It is here that I get the big picture. I also don’t think that Apple shows you how to jailbreak the iPhone on their website either, but there are people who have bought the iPhone just to jailbreak it and make it do certain things that they have seen others talk about on their blogs.
With this being said, I hope you can see the point that I am trying to make. The blog is foundational and should be thought about as the center spoke on the wheel of your campaigns. Now, keep in mind that I am well aware of the scenarios where blogging is not foundational, some of these I mentioned earlier, but a lot of our clients will never find themselves in these scenarios based on their business models. It’s our job as consultants to ready our clients with the tools they need for success. It is for this reason that I am going to be pushing a few posts out over the next few weeks that deal directly with the business of blogging.
The By-Product of Social Media Becoming a Buzzword…
On a sidenote, by social media becoming such a strong buzzword, a lot of clients are inquiring about it. I think it’s good to be a realist and debunk a lot of myths regarding social media when talking to clients who sit there with hopeful eyes as you discuss Facebook & Twitter. This is one thing that my partners and I try to do when we meet with our clients and the topic of social media comes up. We emphasize that, yes, in some cases amazing things can happen, sometimes almost overnight (we have seen this first hand), but it’s important to stay grounded and not put all of your eggs into one basket. Something else that I try to emphasize that while we might not be re-assuring you that you are going to do great things w/ your social media presence, it’s extremely important to have this presence regardless, the conversation is going on anyway (probably more on this topic here…)
Thoughts on Facebook Marketplace
This morning I had someone call me and ask me my thoughts on Facebook Marketplace. I remember reading about it but hadn’t honestly spent very much time in the app so I went out and took a look.
I have to admit that I think the idea is genius, Facebook could do really well from this, after all they have built the user base, and certainly have the traffic, but I am a little concerned about the format. While pretty much anything related to Facebook is impressive in terms of numbers, heck the Farmtown people have even cashed in, I think that the direction the Facebook Marketplace should head is towards what Ebay has done so well for years, possibly integrating Amazon’s model as well.
Another avenue that Facebook could explore with this marketplace application could be the payment processing market, I know that there has already been a lot of speculation regarding this but I think it’s worthy of mention because if and when it happens, it’s going to be big.
The current Facebook Marketplace model was put together by a company called Oodle, here’s some info from Facebook’s blog back in March about what they are doing…
Today, we’re launching Facebook Marketplace powered by Oodle—and adding even more functionality so you can easily create, share and respond to listings. Facebook first introduced the Marketplace application on Facebook Platform in May 2007 as a way for people to post classified listings on the site. Marketplace helps people buy and sell furniture and household items in a trusted environment. Late last year, Facebook turned to Oodle for its expertise in online classifieds, and Oodle has built an entirely new version of Marketplace focused on giving people a place to buy, sell or give things away to the people they know.
If you previously had the Marketplace application installed, you’ll continue to see it bookmarked on the Applications tab in the lower left hand corner of your screen. And if you have an active listing in Marketplace, you’ll be given the option to transfer it to the new Facebook Marketplace powered by Oodle. You’ll be able to access the Facebook Marketplace powered by Oodle from the Application Directory, as well.
We’re also excited to introduce new features including Sell for a Cause, which allows you to donate the profits of the items you sell to over a million participating charities including UNICEF, the Sierra Club and local organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco. For instance, I’m selling some of the toys that my kids have outgrown to support the Samaritan House, a local charity in Oodle’s hometown of San Mateo, California, that supports programs for families in need. If every person on Facebook sold something for just $1, we would be able to collectively raise over $175 million for causes around the world. In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out even more functionality and categories, so please be sure to let us know how we’re doing.
How Google’s Social Search Works
Google announced their new Social Search product this week on their blog. Google Social Search is still in the experimental phase but it looks promising. Once you factor in Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, and a Blog, most of us publish a lot of content. Some of this information can be useful to others, and even though they are connected to you socially (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and subscribe to your blog, they currently aren’t able to pull up this information very quickly. In the case of a web search, it’s highly unlikely your posts are going to show up on the first page for whatever topic they are looking for, but this is where Google Social Search is going to come in handy.
Here’s a scenario where this could be pretty helpful. Let’s say I have dinner at a great Mexican Restaurant in Little Rock and I post a note to Twitter raving about the food. Let’s also say that a few of the people who follow me on Twitter reply to me with favorable reviews of their own. Follow me so far? Okay, let’s also say that 2 months later one of my friends is thinking about trying this restaurant but hasn’t talked to anyone who has been. He does a quick Google Search for the Restaurant to see some reviews and my Tweet shows up in his search results! Since he knows me as a trusted source, knowing first hand that I have excellent taste when it comes to food, a good review from me is going to trump any review website that he would have ordinarily based his decision on…
Here’s a better description from the Google Blog as to how the social search feature is going to come in handy:
Your friends and contacts are a key part of your life online. Most people on the web today make social connections and publish web content in many different ways, including blogs, status updates and tweets. This translates to a public social web of content that has special relevance to each person. Unfortunately, that information isn’t always very easy to find in one simple place. That’s why today we’re rolling out a new experiment on Google Labs called Google Social Search that helps you find more relevant public content from your broader social circle. It should be available for everyone to try by the end of the day, so be sure to check back.
A lot of people write about New York, so if I do a search for [new york] on Google, my best friend’s New York blog probably isn’t going to show up on the first page of my results. Probably what I’ll find are some well-known and official sites. We’ve taken steps to improve the relevance of our search results with personalization, but today’s launch takes that one step further. With Social Search, Google finds relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the bottom of your search results. When I do a simple query for [new york], Google Social Search includes my friend’s blog on the results page under the heading "Results from people in your social circle for New York." I can also filter my results to see only content from my social circle by clicking "Show options" on the results page and clicking "Social." Here’s a good video demonstration of Google’s Social Search:
All the information that appears as part of Google Social Search is published publicly on the web — you can find it without Social Search if you really want to. What we’ve done is surface that content together in one single place to make your results more relevant. The way we do it is by building a social circle of your friends and contacts using the connections linked from your public Google profile, such as the people you’re following on Twitter or FriendFeed. The results are specific to you, so you need to be signed in to your Google Account to use Social Search. If you use Gmail, we’ll also include your chat buddies and contacts in your friends, family, and coworkers groups. And if you use Google Reader, we’ll include some websites from your subscriptions as part of your social search results.
To learn more about how Social Search works behind the scenes, including the choices and control you have over the content you see and share, read our help center article or watch this video:
This feature is an experiment, but we’ve been using it at Google and the results have been exciting. We’d love to hear your feedback. Oh, and don’t forget to create a public Google profile to expand your social circle and more easily find the information you’re looking for (including that New York blog).
If you are interested in testing the Google Social Search Experiment, click here.
Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Social Search: I finally found my friend’s New York blog!
