Social Media News 3/15/10

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sigh. Guess what mega-huge interactive conference is happening right now in Austin? SXSW. Guess who didn’t get to go? Me… a social media blogger that blogs weekly on social media news, and I couldn’t be at the single most important interactive conference of the year. Yeah… It’s ok. At least I can pretend #fakesxsw.

(That’s “South By Southwest” for those of you who do not speak geek.)

Big News from SXSW

Universal Check-in App Confirmed: Brightkite’s Stealth Service - RWW

Big Changes Are Coming to Digg: More Power to Publishers, Less Power to Top DiggersRWW

Twitter’s New “At Anywhere” Platform Allows For Deeper Integration Into Third Party SitesTechCrunch

Sneak Peek: Rhapsody’s Upcoming iPhone AppWired

SXSW: Pandora in the Car Could Kill SiriusPC World

Foursquare and Rival Geo-Location Games Find Lots of Love at SXSWDailyFinance

SXSW Feeds

CMS Wire SXSW News and Articles

Wired SXSW News

Mashable SXSWi

Social Media: Strategy

9 Killer Tips for Location-Based MarketingMashable

Exploring Why Social Business Will Drive 21st Century EnterprisesSocial Computing Journal

4 Ways to Effectively Use Social Media as a CatalystMashable

Why User Competency Matters in Social DesignMashable

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

More Droids Sold In First 74 Days Than iPhones – Nexus One Sales Very SlowTechCrunch

PayPal Launches Revamped iPhone App, Teams With Bump For Phone-Tapping Money Transfers - TechCrunch

Digital Advertising

LivingSocial Raises $25 Million to Take On GrouponMashable

Hitwise: Facebook Hits No. 1 In U.S. – MediaPost

What Kind of Brand Associates With Chatroulette?: French Connection Offers Shopping Spree to Winner Who Hooks Up Using the Webcam Chat RoomAdAge

Twitter Expected To Take The Wraps Off Its Advertising Platform Today – TechCrunch

Internet Trends

How Twitter and Facebook Make Us More ProductiveWired

A Short (and Personal) History of Social Media: Why It’s Important to Consider the Boring Basics That Keep Things SustainableAdAge

Why Wikipedia Should Be Trusted As A Breaking News Source - RWW

5 Ways to Use Google Wave for BusinessMashable

Foursquare Hits 347,000 Checkins in a DayMashable

Reuters to Journalists: Don’t Break News on TwitterMashable


Social Media News 3/1/10

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

March 1st brought joy to many Facebook users, a date which marks the end of Facebook app Notifications. Apps on Facebook are no longer able to send updates via Notifications, which are now reserved mainly for friend activity. Find out what alternatives app developers now have at this Mashable article.

Twitter and YouTube are also rolling out new features. On Twitter, the new “Be Found On Twitter” feature allows users to opt-in to share their email address and/or phone number, making it easier for contacts to find them. For YouTube, it’s a massive redesign that will improve the user experience by adding a video queue feature and improved playlist design. The redesign also includes the release of an AutoPlay feature, which will allow YouTube to be consumed more like TV, allowing the user to sit back and just watch one video after another in a push model rather than the current pull model. Find out more about these releases under the New Features heading below.

Have you heard of Chatroulette?”  The latest fad of social media, Chatroulette is a video chat service which will randomly pair you to another video conferencing user. It’s a bare bones interface with minimalistic functionality- basically just two web cam windows and a chat room. The site connects users to complete strangers, there is no way to control who will pop up on the other side. Some believe that Chatroulette will become as popular as Twitter, though it’s not the first interactive video conferencing site, and probably won’t be the last.  I don’t think Chatroulette will be able to go mainstream without significant investment and added functionality. If the interest continues to increase, there’s a good chance that established social networking platforms like Facebook will adopt video conferencing as a new feature, which may kill Chatroulette before it has a chance to get out of the gate.

Want to know how your brand compares to your competitor in social media? Try uberVu Compare. A freemium social media comparison tool, Compare is a new product from uberVu that performs a side-by-side comparison of two brands based on their social media performance. It could be considered overly simplistic for veteran social media analysts, but this a great tool for a quick snapshot of social media presence.

“Crowdsourcing” is a still a hip buzzword. Grogger is a new platform that allows you to crowdsource your blog content. Mash together the words “group” and “blog”, what do you get? A “Grog”! For people that believe two heads are better than one, Grogger is an appealing tool that allows a community of users to write, edit, and vote on blog content. For more details, read the TechCrunch review.

New Features

Be Found on Twitter: Connecting Our Dots in the Social GraphRWW

Twitter Comes To YahooPC World

YouTube Redesign Keeps You WatchingRWW

Facebook to Say Goodbye to App Notifications on March 1stMashable

Chatroulette

Did Chatroulette Just Launch the Interactive Video Conferencing Boom? - AdAge

Chatroulette, by the NumbersWSJ Digits

Social Media: Strategy

Most Super Bowl Ads Don’t Go ViralAdAge

Vitrue Adds Facebook ‘Wall Apps’ To Social Platform – MediaPost

Compare Social Media Performance Head-to-Head with uberVuMashable

Oh Yeah, Well I’m Going To Twitter You! – MediaPost

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Scribd Makes Push Into MobileMediaPost

Consumers Are Pushing Up Sales of SmartphonesYahoo! News

Digital Advertising

Measure the Web Like TV and Brand Advertising Will FollowAdAge

Sources: Twitter Ad Platform Quite Google-Like – MediaPost

Display Ads Stimulate Search, Confirms Eyeblaster Study – MediaPost

Internet Trends

Social Networking In Matters Of Life And Death – MediaPost

Grogger: A New Platform That Lets You Crowdsource Your Blog’s ContentTechCrunch

E-Cards Are Dead… Except on Mother’s DayRWW

Time Spent on Social Networks up 82% Around the WorldBrianSolis

How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student EngagementMashable

Facebook to Take 30% Cut of Developers’ Facebook Credits RevenuesMashable


Social Media News 2/22/10

Monday, February 22, 2010

It’s back! Social Media News has been on hiatus for a couple weeks, as my client work (and spending time with my Valentine) always comes first- but I am getting back on track with this week’s update.

In the social media sphere, change happens in a blink of an eye. While I was on break from blogging a lot of big things happened in this space, most notably the release of Google Buzz. The buzz about Buzz is that it’s Google’s latest life-streaming social media portal. Like Twitter and Facebook, Buzz allows users to keep in touch with friends and by sharing status updates, links, photos, and more.

Is Buzz a formidable threat to Twitter and Facebook? Maybe, but probably not. Buzz is integrated with Google’s email platform Gmail, and I’m guessing Google thought that would be a good way to gain immediate adoption en masse. But for many internet users, email use is in decline as social media use continues to rise. If Google had released Buzz two or three years ago it could have gained real traction, but unfortunately many would-be early adopters have already abandoned their Gmail accounts in favor of Facebook messaging (which is moving towards a full webmail service, code named Project Titan).

Also while I was off the grid, I missed a couple of birthdays. Flickr and Facebook both turned six years old this month.  That’s a pretty long time in Internet years; do you think they’ll make it another six?

Google Buzz

If Google Wave Is The Future, Google Buzz Is The PresentTechCrunch

Google Buzz: What It Means for Twitter and FacebookMashable

Google Will Ask Buzz’s Early Adopters to Confirm Privacy ChoicesWired

Google Buzz May Help Its Rivals More Than ItselfMediaPost

Facebook

PayPal and Facebook Credits Will Play Nice After AllMashable

The Fun of Facebook MeasurementGilligan on Data

Facebook Moves Towards World — Not Just Social Networking – Domination -MediaPost

Social Media: Strategy

5 Ways Airlines and Hotels Can Drive Revenue with Social MediaMashable

HOW TO: Deal With Negative Feedback in Social MediaMashable

How Much Blog Would a Blogger Blog If a Blog Chucked Its Comments?MediaPost

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Official Twitter App for BlackBerry Looks Really GoodMashable

Fashion Show Goers Purchased Clothes Straight From the Runway Using a BlackBerry AppGizmodo

Motorola Backflip Will Be the First Android Phone on AT&TWired

Digital Advertising

Online Video Gets an Ad ExchangeAdAge

Live TV’s Alive as Ever, Boosted by Social MediaAdAge

Pre-Roll Video Ads Still Hated, Here to StayAdAge

Beyond the Badge: Big Media Brands Strike Foursquare DealsAdAge

Internet Trends

How Social Media Is Changing the Super BowlMashable

Walmart Buys Vudu, Jumping Into Online Movie RentalsWired

School District Halts Webcam SurveillanceWired

It’s Official: Google Can Sell Power Like a UtilityWired

Checking In, Checking Out [a great article summing up the latest location-based mobile/social apps] – MediaPost


Social Media News 2/1/10

Monday, February 1, 2010

Apple’s iPad was the biggest news last week, drawing attention from every corner of the web. Within minutes of the announcement, hype turned into hysterics as the jokes started pouring in. Apparently #iTampon was the third most trending topic that evening. Many see the Maxi- I mean iPad as a huge threat to existing eBooks like the Kindle. I’m not so sure about that. Yes the iPad has a full color LED display, but one very important feature of a true eBook is eInk. This is a low res, black and white display with a low refresh rate that reduces eye strain, making the screen more like reading printed paper. To me the iPad is like a glossy magazine, but the Kindle is like a simple black and white novel. The bookworms that consume the most eBook content are going to stick with Kindle, and the iPad will appeal to people looking for a Netbook first, eBook second.

Interested in measuring ROI from your Facebook efforts? That’s about to become a little easier when Facebook rolls out its new conversion tracking tool. Facebook announced the upcoming feature at last week’s OMMA Social event in San Francisco. MediaPost embedded video from the discussion on this article.

Proctor & Gamble is officially in favor of social media marketing, embracing Facebook in particular and encouraging its brands to do the same. I found it interesting that in the article reporting on this topic, AdAge felt it was necessary to quote Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation for P&G, with contradictory remarks from 2008. This one caught my eye:

“Who said this is media?” he said. “Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

With this quote AdAge is perhaps trying to demonstrate a riff in P&G’s ranks, though the remarks were said over a year ago and I have the suspicion that it may have been out of context. Whether McConnell supports social media marketing or not, this is a great quote with a lot of truth behind it. We can’t treat social media as advertising, it’s an entirely different kind of game. Ignite’s Jim Tobin was on the same wavelength in a recent Web Trends episode when he said, ”The web is the worst place in the world for interrupting people.”  I couldn’t agree more.

Facebook

P&G Embraces Facebook as Big Part of Its Marketing PlanAdAge

Facebook Now Has Yahoo In Its Sites, Already Bigger In Pageviews (ComScore)Tech Crunch

Facebook Develops Conversion Tracking Tool: What’s A Fan Worth? – MediaPost

Why Your Boss Hates FacebookReadWriteWeb

Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook [STATS]Mashable

Foursquare

Does Foursquare Have A Douchebag Problem? - Tech Crunch

Will Foursquare’s Users Say ‘Bravo’ for Bravo?ReadWriteWeb

Social Media: Strategy

Web Trends Talks Social Media Marketing with Jim Tobin [VIDEO] - Ignite Social Media

MediaPost’s OMMA Social SF 2010 [VIDEO] - MediaPost

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Apple IPad Charges at Kindle and NetbooksAdAge

Apple vs. Amazon: The Great E-book War Has Already BegunMashable

Firefox for Mobile Makes Its DebutMashable

AT&T Will Spend $2 Billion To Improve Wireless NetworkMashable

Digital Advertising

Study: Consumers Are Not Annoyed by Ads on FacebookAdAge

Why Most Digital Ads Still Fail to WorkAdAge

Internet Trends

Apple’s Tablet and the New Splintered WebAdAge

Proof the Splinternet is realGroundswell

Google Exec: We’re Here to Help NewspapersAdAge

Yahoo and the AP Reach a New Deal – But What About Google?ReadWriteWeb


Social Media News 1/25/10

Monday, January 25, 2010

I’ve made a change to SMN that I hope will be helpful to you. Instead of listing news articles by source, I’ve listed this week’s set by topic. This should help bring a little more context to the list, and allow you to skim the headlines faster to find the news that most interests you. And as a bonus, it will improve my blog’s SEO. I would love to hear your feedback, let me know if this is better.

A pizza shop in New York has discovered how to generate a lot of social media buzz and sell more pizzas from it, without having any corporate presence in social media. Read about Crocodile Lounge and their strategy here. The key is to craft a compelling story that people will want to share. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but if you want social media to work for you, offer something of value.

Be sure to check your Twitter stream this Wednesday, as rumors have been swirling that Apple will officially announce the iSlate tablet, or possibly the iPhone OS 4.0. Other rumors have claimed that Apple will end its exclusivity with AT&T for the iPhone, and make the announcement at this event. The invitation-only Apple event is said to be held in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this Wednesday at 10am pacific.

I love the Intel ads. But I love Intel’s “Value Point System” even more. Developed with media agency OMD, Intel has developed a points system for website interactions that allows it to measure the effectiveness of its advertising.  This is web marketing genius, read about it here.

Twitter

Marketers’ Use of Twitter Goes Beyond Just TweetingBrandweek

The Twitter Suggested Users List Is Dead: Great News for Mainstream Users - ReadWriteWeb

Twitter Launches Location-Based Trending TopicsMashable

Bill Gates Surpasses 100,000 Twitter Followers in 8 HoursMashable

Seesmic Look Tries to Take Twitter to the MassesMashable

Social Media: Strategy

Crocodiles and Free PizzaDaily Sense

The K-factor Lesson: How Social Ecosystems Grow (Or Not) - Social Computing Journal

The New Social Gurus - Brandweek

4 Ways Social Media Budgets will Move in 2010Ignite Social Media

Clorox Seeking Attorney to Oversee Social-Media ProgramsAd Age

Facebook Starts Rolling Out Post Insights – Mashable

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Apple ‘Tablets’ Sniffed by Analytics Are More Likely iPhones - Wired

R.I.P. iPhone ExclusivityPC World

Apple’s Secret Cloud Strategy And Why Lala Is CriticalTechCrunch

iPhone Coming to All U.S. Carriers? [REPORT]Mashable

Digital Advertising

Inside Intel’s Effectiveness System for Web MarketingAd Age

Double Fusion Brings Ads to PlayStaion 3Brandweek

Internet Trends

Life after Windows: What happens to tech if Microsoft diesYahoo! News

Why is Google Afraid of Facebook? Because Social Networking Could Soon Pass SearchReadWriteWeb

The Era of Location-as-Platform Has ArrivedReadWriteWeb

Search Engine Usage Soared in 2009PC World

Study: Mobile Web Beats Mobile AppMedia Post

Bing, Google, And The Enigmatic T2: The Race For A Complete Semantic Search EngineTechCrunch

Study: Internet radio reaching 32% of households, e-readers are hotCrunchGear


Social Media News 1/19/10

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

What will Google and Apple go head-to-head on next? I think it’s going to be geographically sensitive ads. Apple submitted a patent which details how the iPhone could potentially pick up location-aware ads and apps for immediate and automatic download. Google was awarded a patent which teases real-time digital ads overlain on billboards and signs seen from Google Maps street view.  It’s really interesting that news of these patents got picked up by the media in the same week.

Another thought to ponder is what does local, on-the-go mobile advertising mean for the likes of Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla? Will one of these location-based social networking portals discover a new revenue model in location-based advertising?  Maybe, maybe not. Leave a comment and tell me what you think. Each day, we’re moving closer to having our digital content on any screen, at any time, at any place. Marketers need to keep that in mind.

Many bloggers and industry analysts have pointed to how our society uses social media in a time of crisis.  Haiti, of course, has seen a huge reaction in social media- the devastating loss and suffering has touched people from around the world. Like most people, I’m sure, I first heard of the news through my social media channels. And through social media, the Red Cross has raised an astounding $5 Million towards their rescue effort in Haiti. Below is a special section about the reaction to Haiti in social media.

Haiti & Social Media

The Earthquake in Haiti, Social Media, and Me: A Personal Reflection (Ad Age)

Red Cross Raises $5,000,000+ for Haiti Through Text Message Campaign (Mashable)

President Obama Finally Tweets – For Haiti – In Third Person (TechCrunch)

Haiti Earthquake Disaster: Google Earth, Online-Map Makers, Texts “Absolutely Crucial” (Fast Company)

Tweak the Tweet: New Twitter Hashtag Syntax for Sharing Information During Catastrophes (Read Write Web)

Mashable

Why Social Media Isn’t for Everyone

Local Faceoff: Yelp vs. Foursquare vs. Gowalla

Tech Crunch

YouTube Helps Vevo Overtake MySpace Music In The U.S. (Plus, Top Ten Music Properties)

Fast Company

iPhones Might Get Automatic Location-Aware Ads

Ads in Google Maps Street View: A Sign of Things to Come

Channel Web

Facebook Offers Free McAfee Software To Users

Google Docs Play Intensifies Cloud Storage Competition

Yahoo! News

P&G floats selling products on its own website

Apple may wipe slate clean for new tablet computer

Read Write Web

Google Plans to Upgrade Old Billboards in Street View

Twitter’s Growth Slows Dramatically

Blogs and Other News Sources

Google Docs gets file uploading, but no direct desktop sync (Ars Technica)

Netflix on Wii Won’t Challenge Microsoft, Sony (PC World)

Google Wakes: Dreams of Internet openness in China appear to be a fantasy (Forbes.com)

Google begins replying to more Nexus One complaints (Computer World)


Social Media News 01-11-10

Monday, January 11, 2010

Nerdy fact, today’s date is a palindrome. Ok, moving on.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the yearly international tradeshow of the Consumer Electronics Association held every January right here in Las Vegas. It’s a pantheon of gadgets, computers, cameras, phones, TV’s, network technology and everything in between. At this year’s event more than 2,500 technology companies introduced over 20,000 new products, drawing 120,000 industry professionals from around the world. With more than 5,000 reporters, analysts and bloggers in attendence, the web is flooded with news coverage. If you have some time, explore social.cesweb.org, CES’s own social media aggregator.

With so much coming out of CES, this could have been a really long post. But it’s not going to be. Despite all the cool things I saw and heard from CES- 3D TV’s, a camera with a social sharing tool, a toy helicopter that you can control with an iPhone, a phone with a built-in digital protector… there’s no way I can feature all the important, new and geeky toys that relate to social media. It’s just overload. More and more, our everyday consumer electronics are becoming more social. Check out how MoSoNex is bringing your favorite social networking sites directly to your TV- this company was named Honoree for the Best of Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering in the category of social networks.

Media Post

Quantcast: Mobile Web Growing Fast

Apple Acquires Quattro Wireless In Mobile Ad Play

Google Hails Nexus One As Convergence Device

Losing Argument: Study Finds Spam Works For Weight Loss Pitches

TechCrunch

FriendFeed Clone Cliqset Upgrades Real-Time Platform With Sharing, Groups And Firefox Add-On

Songbird Lands Deal With Philips, To Come Bundled With Millions Of Portable MP3 Players

Denied AdMob, Apple Buys Competing Ad Platform Quattro Wireless For $275 Million

Mobile Ad Impressions On Android Double Since October

Photocheck.in: A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Foursquare Check-Ins. Or At Least One.

Nexus One Coming To Verizon And Vodafone, First Of A “Series Of Devices”

What Happened To bit.ly’s Market Share?

The Other HP Slate Runs On Android

Mashable

The Twitter Flatline: Why Doesn’t Twitter Grow? [STATS]

The Connected Car: Ford Introduces MyFord Touch

Vimeo to Launch Support for 1080p

Samsung to Launch App Store For HDTVs

DivX TV: Online Television, No Box Required [VIDEO]

Xbox 360’s Full-Body Motion Controls: Coming This Holiday Season

New Tweetdeck for iPhone Brings Geotagging and Maps

Foursquare Changes the Game … Literally

CES 2010: Google Nexus One & Apple iSlate Cast a Shadow

Blogs and Other News Sources

Social Media Marketing Becoming More Strategic (Social-Media-Optimization.com)

MagicJack’s next act: disappearing cell phone fees (Yahoo! Tech)

MSNBC Buys BreakingNews.com to Go With With @breakingnews [UPDATED] (ReadWriteWeb)

Facebook’s 1st CTO Launches His Next Company [Screen Shots] (ReadWriteWeb)

Congratulations CES for becoming the hottest, consumer advertising buy on the planet (Trenchwars)

CES: The Network Is Our Top Priority, AT&T Says (Digits WSJ Blog)

Despite Risks, Internet Creeps Onto Car Dashboards (New York Times)


Social Media News 1/4/10

Monday, January 4, 2010

Welcome to the year “twenty ten!” Make sure you start the year off right by reading this article about the grammatically correct way of saying “2010.” Or, check out www.TwentyNot2000.com

In this first edition of Social Media News, I want to talk about a growing fad called FourSquare. The user base of FourSquare pales in comparison to say Twitter, but I’ve touched on the geo-location social networking service in a few blog posts (the first one in my 9/11/09 post), and I believe it’s definitely worth taking notice.  FourSquare allows registered uses to “check-in” at restaurants and retail establishments, or any place that has a physical address, and the service will allow users to keep track of their history and the whereabouts of their friends. Currently, apps are available for iPhone, Android, and now PalmPre.  The user with the most check-ins will become the “Mayor” of that establishment, a designation that holds little value other than bragging rights.

Restaurants hip to social marketing are now exploring FourSquare promotions, such as giving discounts to their Mayors. Today, yours truly has been crowned the Mayor of Dunkin’ Donuts, and here’s hoping I can get a free coffee out of it! FourSquare promos can be used as a free distribution channel for coupons and discounts, and also spur competition between potential Mayors- who are probably your biggest local brand advocates.

Remember when I mentioned Google Caffeine way back in an August blog post? Probably not, so here’s a refresher. Google has been working on “secret project” called Google Caffeine to update how Google finds content on the web by improving the search algorithms. Though the average user won’t notice a huge difference, it’s important to note because it does change how Google indexes news and social media. Read more at TechCrunch here.

I’m an AT&T customer, and I hate AT&T. So I’m very pleased to share this snippet of AT&T’s folly in social media during the brief hours iPhones were unavailable on the AT&T website:

Something worth noting is AT&T has a responsive, stellar public relations team that uses a Twitter account, a YouTube channel and a Facebook page to interact with the media and consumers. The story could’ve been defused in a matter of minutes with a clear, believable explanation. Instead, AT&T used its PR to respond with an empty statement, leaving the world guessing the reasons for the suspension of iPhone sales in New York.

Read the full article– AT&T: The Communications Company That Failed to Communicate in 2009.

Ad Age

What We Can Learn From the Top Viral Videos of 2009

Gmail Points to Possibilities of the Coming Data Decade

Planning Your Next Move in Ad Land

Fast Company

What Can We Expect From the Consumer Electronics Show?

Uh-oh — Robots Can Learn and Generalize

Geotagging’s Seasonal Danger: Burglary

Is Google-AdMob Deal Bad for Consumers and Apple?

TechCrunch

Cheap Beer If You Check-In… Or Just Tweet

At Foursquare Venues, the Mayor Eats For Free

Google Is About To Get Caffeinated With A Faster Search Index

Privacy Theater: Why Social Networks Only Pretend To Protect You

Meebo Launches Self-Serve Meebo Bar, Takes A Look Back At Its Big Year

World Map of Social Networks Shows Rise of Facebook

Blippy Already Showing Off $1 Million Worth of Your Credit Card Purchases

The Rumors Are True: We Spend More And More Time Online

Mashable

In 2010, Your iPhone Could be a Credit Card Reader

REVEALED: The 100 Most Social Brands of 2009

BROWSER WARS: Google Chrome Overtakes Apple’s Safari

Foursquare Launches on Palm Pre

HOW TO: Do Almost Anything Online in 2010

Wired

AT&T: The Communications Company That Failed to Communicate in 2009

Boxee Beta Is a Web Video Streamer’s Dream

MySpace Replaces Embedded Imeem Playlists With Ads

Reports: AT&T Stops Some iPhone Sales in NYC (Update)

Blogs and Other News Sources

Google Nexus One Sold Directly and Only by Google, Officially Supported By T-Mobile (Gizmodo)

Apple Dominates Social Brand Ranking (Brandweek)


Social Media News 12/28/09

Monday, December 28, 2009

Welcome to the end-of-the-year edition of Social Media News! Below you’ll find lots of links for reviews of 2009 and predictions for 2010.  These are just some of the ones that I believe are important- you can find many more at just about any news site that covers social media. Some bloggers say 2009 was the year of Social, others say 2010 will claim that title.  Either way, this is an exciting time for social media, and the new year promises to bring a lot of innovation and change.

With all of the new technologies and innovations that have been crafted for analyzing social media to date, this Ad Age article points out a simple but often over-looked metric: the shared link. Link tracking can reveal what is the most desired content of your website, who are your biggest brand advocates in social media, and what informational channels are the most influential. Here’s an eye-opener from the article:

While verticals and brands vary, upward of 20% of traffic to many websites now arrives via shared link, and this traffic is growing and valuable. Indeed, the shared link is emerging as the essential unit of measure, the increasingly relevant currency.

Just to touch on some of the biggest news this week: the FTC is investigating the Google/AdMob deal, the Apple tablet is rumored to debut in January, Pepsi has decided to fund a social media campaign instead of advertising in the SuperBowl,  and for the first time ever, sales of eBooks surpassed real books.

Happy New Year!

Mashable

Digital Revolution? Kindle Ebooks Outsell Real Books on Christmas

The Year in Review Captured on a Google Wave [VIDEO]

5 Ways Social Media Changed Fashion in 2009

Pepsi to Skip Super Bowl Ads in Favor of $20M Social Media Campaign

Social Media Experts Make Their Predictions for Trends in 2010

Apple Tablet With 7″ Screen Coming in January [RUMOR]

Ad Age

What Studying Your Links Can Teach You About Your Marketing

Twitter At A Crossroads: Audience Growth Won’t Be Enough in 2010

Brand Week

Many Small Firms Forgo Web Sites

Top Digital Trends of 2010

Facebook to Surpass MySpace in Ad Revenue

Blogs And Other News Sources

2009: Year of the Social Network (PC World)

Consumer Groups Try To Block Google Purchase of AdMob (Yahoo! News)

Get Started With Google Wave (Wired)

Radian6 Sentiment Analysis Review – Does Natural Language Processing Work? (Ignite Social Media)

Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: The Real-Time Web (ReadWriteWeb)

How Social Could Disrupt Search (Social Computing Journal)

The Value of Sharing: Social Engagement (ShareThis Blog)


Social Media News 12/21/09

Monday, December 21, 2009

I wish I came up with this term.  Guest blogger Judy Shapiro wrote about social media and building awareness at Ad Age, and describes creating “Content Campaigns” to help focus social efforts across multiple channels. What a ingenious concept. She writes, “This approach puts the value on content as an audience builder but in a very strategic way.” Be sure to check out the rest of the article.

Also from Ad Age, an awesome article about geo-targeted mobile marketing. If you need a quick primer on the key players in this field, Garrick Schmitt (a VP at Razorfish) has developed an informative who’s-who list, including Foursquare, Yelp, and Gowalla.

How would you like to rent movies from YouTube? The world’s largest video sharing site is in talks with major movie studios and is exploring a new paid subscription model. The service would be a new way of generating revenue, as YouTube currently makes its money through advertising. Get the details from this article at Reuters.

To many, online forums and bulletin websites are so 1990’s.  However, three ex-MySpace executives are currently working on a project called Gravity, which TechCrunch describes as an evolved form of forums and groups. Check out the article which includes a video of the founders as well as some screen shots. Gravity will be an important startup to watch. It’s not a direct rival to Google Wave, but it might have more utility than Wave to more users; and it’s not the answer to real-time search, but it may prove to be the closest solution yet, as Gravity is interest-centric and will provide detailed analytics on interests and conversations. Plus, the group has raised $10 million in funding. Read more here.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone. My Social Media News gift to you, 5 Ways to Connect With Santa on the Web. Happy New Year!

Ad Age

How Marketers Use Online Influencers to Boost Branding Efforts

What the Trend?’s Top 50 Twitter Topics of the Year

Social Media’s the Little Engine That Can Build Awareness

The Future of Geo-tagged Marketing, Now

Two Questions Every Marketer Should Ask Its Social-Media Agency

Brandweek

American Apparel Grabs YouTube’s Long Tail

Consumer Appetite for ‘Three Screens’ Grows

Pharma: Socializing in a Straightjacket

Tech Crunch

Facebook Passes Aol In The U.S.

Expensify Leaves Beta, Continues To Take The Suck Out Of Expense Reports

Appolicious Lands $1.5 Million For Social iPhone App Directory

Exclusive: Ex-MySpace Execs Launch Gravity Into Private Beta

Google In Discussions To Acquire Yelp For A Half Billion Dollars or More

Blogs & Other News Sources

Report: Twitter Made a Profit in 2009 (ReadWriteWeb)

Blogger Integrates With Amazon Associates (Official Blogger Blog)

13 Types of Posts that Always Get Lots of Comments (ProBlogger)

YouTube Looks At Subscriptions, More Ad Dollars (Reuters)

Google may Anger Phone Makers – Or Inspire Them (Reuters)

Twitter Reveals Most Discussed Topics of 2009 (Mashable)