Category: social media

My pitch for a new Facebook feature

This idea came to mind on my birthday last year. I was anticipating to scroll down through pages of fabulous birthday wishes on Facebook. Such long list of greetings are a phenomenon that didn’t happen before (at least not to people who didn’t have the starlike status of Justin Bieber). So I thought to myself, “How wonderful would it be if these friends could attach to their messages contributions to a common birthday gift!”

Now, I realize you might see me as a wildly ego-centric person. Yet I am certain I am onto something here. Yes, I am talking about a Kickstarter project for making birthday wishes come true through Facebook.

Let’s do the math together. A November 2011 research shows that the average friend count on Facebook is 190. Ok, maybe not all of these people are true friends. They probably include a few acquaintances, peers you small talk with during coffee breaks in the office or distant relatives you have never really met in person. Let’s say half of these 190 people will be willing to send you a few dollars to purchase a birthday gift that you have longed for. Here again, Facebook would not expect them to contribute the same amount of money. Your best friend from high school might contribute $35, while a colleague you get along with could just send $5. Let’s be super conservative and assume the average sum per friend would be $5. Then you have $475 which you can use to buy a bicycle, get on a hot air balloon or even go on a mini vacation somewhere!

Aside from being utterly delighted with big birthday gifts, I am fascinated with the scale of something like this. On Facebook, you have a network that cares about you (or so we hope) and that is now coordinated to achieve a common goal. Various social movements have demonstrated the power of coordination through virtual social networks. Why not take this in a direction that can bring us joy on a very personal level?

Photo credit: marjoleinknuit

Facebook Marketing Gone Wrong

You know a company isn’t doing Facebook marketing right when someone else clicks the “Like” button on your behalf. It’s actually surprisingly invasive and upsetting. Or at least that’s how it felt when it happened to me.

Earlier this summer, I had the chance to attend Identity Fest, an electronic music festival sponsored by a whole bunch of popular brands, among which Skullcandy, Rockstar Energy Drink and Heineken. These companies were trying to attract the attention of the audience in different ways–by giving out free stuff, displaying large posters near the stage and placing their logos all over the place.

There were also a lot of booths, but my friends and I were instantly drawn to one that was promoting the movie “Our Idiot Brother.” The two promo girls inside were busy. They were offering folks the opportunity to get their photo taken against, what I assume was, a movie-related backdrop. You could put some accessories on and make faces at the camera. It seemed fun! What is more, after the photo was taken, you could post it on Facebook, thus making sure all your absent friends regretted not being there. ;-)

So we went for it. After our picture was taken, and we laughed over our ridiculous poses and faces, we got a little bit upset. Using an iPad, we posted the picture on Facebook but were strictly guided by one of the girls (the other one was busy taking other people’s photos).

“So you can post it on your Wall,” she told me. “And then if you could just ‘Like’ our page, that would be great,” she added.

I had posted it on my Wall, which was my original intention, but I hesitated to “Like” their page. I hadn’t seen their movie. What if I didn’t actually like it? I am not going to lie to my friends, family and co-workers.

While these thoughts were running through my head, the lady rushed to press the “Like” button for me. It’s not a big deal, one would think, but for some reason I felt exploited. I knew that the first thing I was going to do once I got home was to un-Like their page. And guess what, I don’t want to watch their movie at all.

In this case, the border between creative and obtrusive marketing seemed pretty thin. Have you had similar experiences with Facebook?

Start the Presses: From Content Management to Social Media

There is at least one place in Boston where you can immerse yourself in both journalistic terminology and engineering language—the Hacks/Hackers meetups. That is exactly what a roomful of new media enthusiasts did this week at the Boston Globe.

On Feb. 22, Hacks/Hackers Boston held a panel to discuss the future of news sites with some of the people building cutting-edge technologies. The panel participants included Dries Buytaert, Drupal’s creator, Adam Gaffin, founder of Universal Hub, Andrew Phelps, reporter for WBUR, and Austin Gardner-Smith of Pinyadda. Muckrock.com’s Michael Morisy was moderating the session.

Content Management Systems (CMS) and their evolution was the first topic the four entrepreneurs and journalists tackled. What has changed about CMS and how can it better address our needs? Gardner-Smith pointed out the importance of better distribution and integration of more social features in the content creation process. The panelists spent some time discussing the current CMS inability to manage ad-hoc content production before Buytaert took the conversation to another realm: mobile. He emphasized the importance of building your site for different viewing experiences. “If I was to start Drupal from scratch,” Dries said, “I would built it for mobile first.”

The question of mobile was on the table for a big portion of the panel. The consensus among the publishers was that one needs to first examine how viewers were accessing the content. While WBUR is making strides on the path of mobile content optimization, for instance, it is very aware of the fact that their audience is still very much visiting the site in the traditional way. The majority of WBUR’s traffic, Phelps noted, was not coming from smart phones and iPads yet. Their visitors were predominantly using computers and that was the reading experience WBUR would focus on improving.

Once that idea of how people access your content was brought up, it was hard not to mention one of the biggest referral sources for news organizations, Facebook. The discussion quickly jumped to social media and its usage not only for distribution purposes, but also for generating a conversation. The panelists agreed that Twitter was not great for threaded conversations between more than two people. Many mentions, retweets and no hashtags make it hard to follow an ever-evolving story. On Facebook, Phelps said, a story sticks around longer. If people “like” it or comment on it, it will surface to the top of the news feed and become relevant again. “People are likely to participate if they see someone else is participating,” he said. In that way, Facebook has become their preferred platform for building a dialogue based on shared stories.

Clearly, the panel tackled a range of topics, starting with CMS and shifting to mobile optimization and social media. But ultimately, there was one overarching question the panelists were trying to wrap their minds around. “It is all about keeping up with the Web,” Buytaert said. “And the Web as we know it is exploding.”

European Tech StartUps Take On Crowdsourcing

TechChrunch Europe recently reported that 16 startups were selected to compete at LeWeb’s competition in December 2010. As the biggest tech conference in Europe,  Le Web will definitely draw public attention to the 16 lucky sites. Four of them highlight well the element of crowdsourcing user content and making it meaningful.

Waze is a social mobile application that provides real-time traffic information. As written on the site itself, it offers up-to-date maps “based on the wisdom of the crowd.” It is run by a community of drivers from different countries. For example, when I selected to check out the traffic situation in Bulgaria, I saw the map of my home country and the following message appeared, “The driving community in Bulgaria has only recently begun developing, so it’ll take a bit of time until waze begins to deliver its full value in your area.”

TinyPay seems like a mix between Twitter & eBay. It is a web service that allows you to quickly sell items. You see a small thumbnail of the product for sale and when you click on it, you are able to share the listing on social networks, see where the seller is located, leave a comment and purchase the item with PayPal. The site also features “trending items.”

Paper.li allows users to turn Twitter feeds into a daily newspaper. From my academic research earlier this year, I found out that social media will increasingly be used for news exchanges, and this new platform reinforces my conclusion, emphasizing the importance of community-driven newsgathering.

Garmz was one of the start-ups that made me go, “Wow.” And not because it introduced a necessarily new idea–but because it introduced some form of social change, wrapped up in a beautifully designed site. It is a platform that allows you to start your own fashion label and participate in selecting the winning models by voting. “If a design is successful, Garmz handles the complete production, at zero cost and risk for the designers.” The mission and the platform seemed to have blended in an exquisite selection of fashion designs.

The notion of crowdsourcing and sharing is fueling tons of great community-driven projects and start-ups. Can’t wait to hear who the winner at Le Web’s is going to be!

Three Google-backed Sites that Blew My Mind

Have you ever wondered what types of start-ups Google would back up? Now is the time to satiate your curiosity and learn about some hidden gems in the new media landscape.

The industries represented in the Google Ventures portfolio come as no surprise. They range from software engineering and payment services to companies involved in scientific research and energy consumption. But three of the featured start-ups fascinated me the most:

English Central & the Power of Languages

English Central is language learning software that uses interactive (and current) video to teach English. As a non-native English speaker, I thought the platform was engaging and very intuitive to use. What is more, it makes the process of learning languages fun and enjoyable. I only wish they could develop it for other languages too.

Recorded Future & the Impulse for Predicting Trends

Recorded Future is an analytics engine that plays with the concept of predicting the future. It uses existing information online and creates a scientific approach to mapping trends. It is definitely a fun way to visualize data and rationalize the occurrence of certain events.

SCVNGR & the Fun of Games

SCVNGR is a gaming platform that invites people to visit places and perform certain tasks in order to win points. Recently, it drew tons of attention in the blogosphere as well as in mainstream media. I like it because it is based on the concept of games and entertainment, two activities people always want to be part of.

Did you see something else in the Google Ventures portfolio that grabbed your attention? Share it in the comments!

Photo credit: Jeremy Brooks

The Times’ Scoop perpetuates gatekeeping power

We are made to believe that we are the gatekeepers of new media—the ones who blog, upload videos and share on social media. It is all up to us! Or at least until editorial power crawls in through the cracks of the wall separating old and new media.

Last week, The New York Times announced that it is launching The Scoop, a free iPhone application through which Times will recommend favorite restaurants and bars. Some argued that this application will create competition for Foursquare, the leader in location-based social media. “The New York Times Fights Back against Foursquare and Yelp,” read an article in The Next Web.

But can this Times product really compete with loose social platforms like Foursquare? No, I would argue. Innovative Web 2.0 environments open themselves to community judgement. You go to a place, you recommend it, you write the review, and thus you add a personal flavor to your network’s experiences. But who is going to write the recommendations for The Scoop? A New York Times restaurant critic and a dining editor.

I am not sure how people will react to the Times’ new tool. Loyal readers will probably dig it. Others might notice the gatekeeping element in the service and approach it with caution. Why caution?

Because it is a step backwards. The Times will let readers contribute to the application by submitting events to thescoop@nytimes.com. Sounds a lot like a letter to the editor. But why go through a gatekeeper when now you can make direct recommendations? How is this application leveraging the opportunity to better use feedback channels?

I am sure many will enjoy reading the well-written lines of The Scoop. But if you read between the lines, you might get the real scoop— gatekeeping will continue to be part of the new media realm.

Photo Credit: DaveAustria.com

How the digital ecosystem redefines our perception of time

One thing my friend’s aunt who has cancer has been talking about recently is how people measure time based on their work schedules. You are either at work or off work, and this seems to be the only way people define time. Until today, that is.

With an increasing number of people working and finding entertainment online, our perception of time is rapidly changing. Technological innovation has tempted us to take up work tasks in the small hours of the night and engage in non-work related activities during regular work hours. In other words, the artificially erected barrier between time for industrious occupations and spare time has be shaken.

According to a 2004 research published by NIOSH, employees in America work the highest number of hours annually compared to those in other countries. In the U.S., one would work about 350 more hours per year than one would in Europe, the study showed.

Yet that doesn’t mean all Americans work from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m on weekdays. In fact, a 2004 Work Schedules and Work at Home survey showed that about 30 percent of wage and salary workers “have flexible schedules on their primary jobs.” The digital ecosystem contributes to this elimination of strict work schedules and reinforcement of a different perception of time.

The continuously blurring line between fixed work hours and leisure activities is one reason that newspapers are facing a crisis. As economist Hal Varian noted in a blog post for Google, news is increasingly consumed in a work environment while the print press remains an activity for one’s leisure time. In the past, readers flipped through their papers in the mornings and evenings, outside of  the professional space. But today, when breaking news stories and controversial Op/Ed pieces are only a click away, readers can scan them duirng work hours.

Social networks have also helped redefine our notion of time and space. Facebook and Twitter, for instance, definitely contribute to the intersection between one’s professional and personal identities. For many, it has become increasingly harder to keep one’s private persona at home.

The work bars emerging across the U.S. today have become a spatial demonstration of this redefinition of time. They illustrate the blurring line between home and work, leisure and work in a very palpable manner. The coffeehouse, a place historically associated with recreation and  casual chats, now hosts visitors engaged in work projects. Thus, the work bars remix the traditional office environment with spaces for relaxation.

The digital ecosystem, redefining established work habits and familiar spaces, is undoubtedly changing our perception of time. The question is, how do you like this change?

Photo credit: ToniVC and T ART

Three Ways to Nurture Evangelism Marketing

Look around carefully and you will probably see that evangelism marketing seems to be sprouting like snowdrops in March. People recommend services and products to one another all the time. But how do businesses leverage these opportunities?

As in another evangelism marketing experience I recently had, yesterday a friend of mine introduced me to a local acupuncture center. She essentially became a salesperson for the People’s Acupuncture Clinic in Amherst, MA—she told me all about their service (multiple times), scheduled an appointment, drove there and back and was even willing to pay for my visit.

It is a funny feeling to recognize such evangelism marketing in your friends. But that is the way friendships work—people who are close to you recommend personalized services and products to make you happy. Yet it is curious to see how businesses take advantages of such word-of-mouth opportunities and build on that human impulse to share positive messages.

Here are three ways in which the People’s Acupuncture Clinic nurtured its existent evangelism marketing:

Bring A Person, Get A Free Service

The acupuncture center had a policy according to which each patient could bring a friend and get her/him a free treatment on Fridays. That is what my friend and I did. As an existent visitor to the clinic, she brought me. So the acupuncturist inserted filiform needles in my hands free of charge. It was a pretty relaxing experience, actually!

Pay Extra Attention to The Newcomer

I received twice as much attention from the receptionist and the medical practitioner as my friend did. Probably due to the nature of their work, they explained the procedure in detail and encouraged me to ask questions. Above all, they made me feel welcome  and important.

Create a Platform for Conversation

On our way out, the receptionist pointed out to the whiteboard hanging on the wall with a Facebook logo drawn on it. “You should check it out,” she said referring to The People’s Acupuncture Clinic Facebook fan page. They use this platform to generate dialogue among patients, give healthcare tips and receive genuine recommendations.

So how do other businesses nurture evangelism marketing to create a positive buzz around their brand?

Photo Credit: ben matthews :::

Pair the right media with the right message

When youth unite to bring social change in their communities, it feels like spring is coming. You see a new life rising from the hard land to blossom into florets of fresh ideas. Today, spring came at the Youth Media Summit in South Hadley.

One of the workshops at the Summit showed a movie of unprivileged youth from Bronx, NY advocate for their rights to high-qualtiy education resources. The students are demanding a good home for their loved school, the Leadership Institute. Naturally, media strategies play a critical role in their initiative.

Juan Antigua, the workshop’s facilitator and also a member of the youth advocacy group, explained the importance of pairing the right media with the right message. Media should be used in accordance to one’s specific goals, not just dumped in the public sphere.

“What type of media strategies to use for specific issues?” Juan asked, pointing to a list of opportunities—press releases, blogging, social networking sites, films, music, art. For recruiting purposes, for instance, social media lends itself an effective platform to organize youth. Popular blogs, on the other hand, tend to capture the attention of local media. Longer video projects will connect the specific community with a wider network of organizations with similar goals and interests.

Ultimately, multiple media channels complement one another and thrive in an ecosystem. That is why executing them in isolation cannot bring sustainable change.

Sure you can join social media as a baby

You probably have at least one friend who has been uploading photos of her baby on Facebook. Pictures appear of the toddler’s first steps; videos show the toddler’s first words. As the child grows, you might get introduced to her new outfits and kindergarten friends. Unknowingly, the baby has been on social media since her birth.

That’s the topic my college friends were heatedly discussing over lunch the other day. They insisted that every person should be allowed to make a conscious decision about whether or not she wants to participate in the social media culture. Interestingly enough, that is not what parents think.

“All I wanted was to avoid being one of those annoying parents who post photos of their kids on their own page,” wrote parent Joel Stein who created a separate Facebook account for his 3-month-old son this summer. Facebook, however, disabled the page since members under 13 years old cannot join the social utility. Naturally, Stein was angry that he had lost all the posted information and had to restore it for families and friends.

Similarly, many parents have expressed an interest in creating a social network for their toddlers. Totspot, for instance, is a Web site for parents and families to share photos, videos and milestones of their babies. Like Facebook, Totspot has a news feed and nurtures a community. “Just like Mom and Dad,” the site reads, “junior gets a profile on TotSpot, complete with status updates, real time updates in an activity stream, and a beautiful assortment of themes.”

But it is not just like mom and dad. Mom and dad can make conscious decision about what their status should be, who they want to be connected to or what pictures they like or dislike. By creating a separate junior profile for them to use, they are extending their own presence online.

Don’t get me wrong—I highly appreciate the value of community photo-sharing sites, and avidly use Picasa, Twitter and YouTube. When it comes to kids, however, don’t we have to take a step back and think about the repercussions of our actions?

Photo credit: amberlynnlane