The Web Uncovered

If you look to the right of this post you may notice a little box standing out.  This is the Google Friend Connect Social Bar.  While Google Connect thus far hasn’t proven to be much a useful tool, the Social Bar is an interesting concept.  Essentially this box allows you to see which of your contacts are visiting the same sites as you.  Also, it can reveal people who visit the same sites as you.  Essentially it can help you build a social network around the websites you use, which has a definite value added that other social networks have yet to address.  

Want to add the Social Bar to your website?  Google makes it rediculously easy.  You simply go to their Friend Connect page and edit the look of your Social Bar.  When you are done they give you custom javascript code, which you simply input in your website code, according to where you want it placed.  It doesn’t get much easier than that!  This is a great tool for those also working to build community around their website.  While it may not be the most useful tool at this point, the underlying technology is definitely something we will be seeing more of.

Last Week, there was an interesting article in the Washington Post regarding “new laws to save journalism.”  Bruce Sanford and Bruce Brown co-wrote this article, where they proposed that journalism can be saved by creating laws that support the industry, which they claim is being murdered by the internet.

While their article is an interesting discussion, it seems completely lined with folly.  First off, they equate the industry of journalism with print, which is a huge oversimplification.  What journalism needs is better business model to adapt to the changing technologies, not stronger copyright laws and antitrust exemption.  The philosophy taken by Sanford and Brown is as bad as the recorded music industry during the past ten years.  As record labels kept their head in the sand, industry outsiders dominated online distribution, like Apple and Emusic.

Matt Cutts, a google employee who blogs regularly on such topics, commented on this article saying:

“Last week I was on vacation down in Florida and I had a chance to tour Thomas Edison’s winter vacation home. The tour guide told us that Edison wired his house and switched on electrical lighting in 1887. Then the tour guide leaned in and quietly mentioned that it took 11 years to install lights in the rest of the town. Why so long? Because the townspeople were worried that cows would stop giving milk.

“I believe good journalism is critically important to a well-functioning society. I love newspapers, magazines, and the journalists that they support. But I disagree with Bruce Sanford and Bruce Brown, and reading their piece reminded me of those townspeople sitting in the dark, afraid to switch on their electric lights.”

As Twitter adoption increases, it will become less of an extension to other social networks people use, and more of a platform of its own from which others utilize their structure.  One such example of this is Magpie.  Magpie allows Twitter users to submit their account to Magpie to be occassionally used for ad tweets.  This allows the user to approve specific ads, and limit their frequency.

But the blog SEO Smarty poses some good questions.  For instance… Would engaging in this hurt your following?  Does it dilute Twitter itself?  Will Twitter block this service, as they have yet to monetize Twitter?  Such issues will likely contribute to a lack of adoption by Twitter users, even if advertisers find it worth their while.

While Twitter has seen a huge explosion in use, one must ask, who is using it?  The common assumption is that the Millienials, teens through mid 20s, are the users, as they are the most active segment in social networking.

The Shocker:  While 99% of people ages 18-24 use social media, only 22% use Twitter.

On Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim blog, he break it down further:

Of the 22% that do use Twitter:

• 85 percent follow friends
• 54 percent follow celebrities
• 29 percent follow family
• 29 percent follow companies

The Takeaway:   While Millenials do use Twitter for social networking, and even following their favorite actors or musicians, it seems that companies may have to evaluate if it is really worth their while to promote on Twitter.  For many, it would be time, energy, and money better spent elsewhere.

Twitter has become increasingly popular as a news source.  While microblogging is anything but content rich, it’s true value added is in its ability to be up to date by the minute.  While in most cases this is not very important to people, there are situations where by the minute is imperative.

There supposedly was a situation at the Twitter Headquarters in San Francisco where the world earthquake spiked as a keyword.  The staff was perplexed, until the earthquake shook their office less than a minute later.  The Tweets were faster than the earthquake!  Less dramatic examples of this can be found.  One is how today many people are following and tweeting about the California State Supreme Court decision regarding Proposition 8.  A lot of Californians are anxiously awaiting to hear what the decision will be.

The larger rammifications of this has dual consequences.  First of all, people will be less likely to turn to print when knews finds them in real time, rather than seeking it out on their own.  The downside is that is drastically changes the business model for traditional print, and even online publications.  Furthermore, a societal side effect would be that news would become less analytical, and much more decontextualized.  Anger towards this technology may be the only  thing that Neil Postman and Rupert Murdoch have in common.

Besides the tried-and-true recommendation or reference letter that runs about a page and is mailed (or, sometimes, emailed), there is now a new breed of recommendation “letter”: brief personal and professional endorsements on business and social networking sites such as LinkedIn.