Posts Tagged social media

The Real Value of Twitter: Three Predictions for 2012

Posted by Paul Holmes in advertising, internet, politics, social media on February 26, 2009

People who enjoy micro-blogging on Twitter include a group I’ve already pretty clearly identified.

Computer Geeks
Marketing Types
Egomaniacs
Social Butterflies

(I’d include myself in all 4 to varying degrees.) There’s a few others along the same lines.

Others will reluctantly sign on, because they feel they need to – for business or what not. But there are a whole lot of other people in the world who will not use “Twitter” as we know it. Not EVER.

Prediction #1 is that the actual percentage of broadband-capable, English-speaking people who actually “use” Twitter will probably land somewhere between 5% and 10% by 2012. (More may sign up, but many will not “use” it, per se.)

Here’s where things get very interesting, though.

What Twitter has done is built a giant database of all the the thoughts and interests and passtimes of hundreds of thousands of people – a giant, freaky database of humanity. Better still, they are recording history as it happens, and new data will continue to flow like a streaming river of collective human thought.

I think of the Star Trek borg “hive mind”, only in this case complete and utter chaos (as per every other aspect of humanity), instead of order and assimilation.

THIS is where Twitter gets exciting for me (not just because I love Star Trek), but because THIS is a goldmine of data, ready for churning and sifting.

And some people wonder how Twitter is going to make money. Ya, right.

Prediction #2 is that most of the 90-95% of the world that won’t be using Twitter as we use it, will be using it indirectly, accidentally or unknowingly. They will be using applications and websites that churn through the Twitter data stream of human gobbly-gook – without even knowing it. This was the sort of thing I was thinking when I wrote the Tweeteries.com website (and I’m only just scraping the surface of the possibilities).

This data stream is powerful and valuable. Twitter knows this. Most people, even Twitter “power-users” haven’t quite realized this just yet, as they go about their day Tweeting stuff. Assuming Twitter management are as smart as I think they are, the people at Twitter are not going to try making money from charging their users (like this hilarious notion that they would start charging for corporate accounts). Instead they will make money from the database they have created, and BUCKETS of it.

Prediction #3 is that whoever owns Twitter in 2012 will be making a hell of a lot more money than whoever owns FaceBook.

UPDATE: FaceBook announced twitter-style features on March 4th, 2009. This is a potential game changer and may destroy prediction number 3 in one swoop.

Disclaimer: most of my predictions about most things have been wrong. (But I still think I’m right about this stuff.)

database, egomaniac, social media, star trek, twitter

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Social Networking – MySpace

Posted by Paul Holmes in advertising, internet, politics, social media on February 20, 2009

Q: What does MySpace have going for it?

A: It is well established, as the first-to-market social network. It has hundreds of thousands of users. It is owned by News Corporation, which (in “normal” economic times) gives it pretty deep pockets.

Q: What does MySpace have going against it?

A: Almost everything else.

I am one of those 30-somethings turned off by MySpace because of its early reputation.

Nonetheless, I finally joined – mostly just to educate myself about it.

These are my immediate thoughts.

It’s (still) ugly.
It’s crowded.
I could not find any useful applications that integrate other social networking tools into your profile (i.e. Twitter).

It’s easy to pick on MySpace, so I don’t want to sound like one of the usual folks. Until a week ago, I honestly never even looked at it for more than a minute or two.

MySpace has much going for it in that they are well established, and drew a crowd early on. If they want to beat FaceBook in the long run, though, they need to start being smarter. I can imagine there are numerous “legacy” issues as they try to take an application built in one “era” and transform it into the new “era”, and all the distractions this creates – compared to FaceBook who understood the business model, and did it right the first time.

I won’t say MySpace is useless, or that it doesn’t have a bright future. But I will say that it has many issues to overcome if it wants to be relevant in this new social media era.

I will also say that I have no intention of using it seriously any time soon. Then again, I’m not the main target audience.

facebook, myspace, social media

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Social Media for Business – LinkedIn Wins!

Posted by Paul Holmes in business, social media on February 16, 2009

It seems some prettier graphics were done recently to graphically show a demographic study on social media from July 29, 2008.

While these stats are a little dated, they strongly reinforce what I was saying last week about LinkedIn.

Every businessperson should have a LinkedIn account!

I dug a little deeper into the numbers, and discovered:

Most notably, 10.3% of LinkedIn users are under 25. This compare to 65.5% of MySpace users and 66.3% of FaceBook users. Consider that most successful businesspeople (aggregate) are over 24.
While there are more men then women on LinkedIn (57.9%), this is also true of business (yes, this is changing, but if LinkedIn was launched in 1951, 98.3% of members would be men). But what all the editorial on this study seems to have missed is that the younger the demographic, the more on par the groups become (55% are male in the 25-34 age group; 51% in 18-24). If you consider that females are more likely not to specify their gender, the “Unspecified” column might actually put females in the majority in the budding young entrepreneur age groups (which, we are told, is the way the entrepreneur curve is actually going).

Yes, LinkedIn has far fewer users than FaceBook, MySpace, and probably even Twitter (if Twitter doesn’t have more now, they certainly will by March 3rd at 7:14pm PST).

Yes, LinkedIn is a lowly number 4 by traffic (after Twitter). (And probably destined to fall in the “stats”, I would guess, as other social media networks rise.)

All this said, I would still argue that it is and will remain the dominant force in the best social media niche, “business”. And it’s niche is not “internet business” or “geeky business” – just “business”.

This niche also means it has far more opportunities to become profitable. I doubt FaceBook and MySpace make a profit (yes, even despite the irritable number of ads on MySpace); and Twitter hasn’t even really tried to make money yet.

demographics, linkedin, social media

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“The Globe and Mail Test”

Posted by Paul Holmes in internet, personal, politics, social media on February 12, 2009

In politics I have developed messaging plans, formulated targetted advertising, conducted web campaigns, been responsible for media relations, and managed local campaigns of all kinds. In my business I consult with companies on their branding and advertising strategies regularly.

There is one rule which should be common sense in this day and age. It states:

“If you’d be embarassed to see what you’ve said on the front cover of the newspaper the next morning, THEN DON’T SAY IT.”

In Canada, we affectionately call this “The Globe and Mail Test.” For years, I’ve been telling clients the same thing applies (even more so) to e-mail.

Now that social media is exploding, we must also (quickly) extend this same rule to the new medium. In fact, this medium could prove to be most embarassing of all. You can save a draft of your e-mail and delete it later. But when you fire off an angry (or stupid sounding) “twitty tweet” to somebody publicly, it’s immediately part of your personal public record.

Now don’t get me wrong. I think these new tools are fantastic, and the opportunities to use them effectively are numerous. Just use them wisely!

For an example of how not to use social media, click on this link.

advertising, branding, globe and mail, media relations, public relations, social media, twitter

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Social Network Usage Stats

Posted by Paul Holmes in business, internet, personal, social media on February 11, 2009

I was “tweeted” a fantastic article about social network stats released by compete.com.

There were a few non-surprises in it, however.

First thing, FaceBook has now surpassed MySpace in the U.S. as the number one social network. This should surprise nobody. MySpace had such a terrible reputation that most adults avoided it (I know I did). Now that adults have jumped onto social networks, they have jumped on to FaceBook. I think it’s fair to say we’ve reached “critical mass” there, and FaceBook has won the “generic social network” battle (at least for now).

Non-surprise number two is that Twitter jumped from 22nd to 3rd. Twitter has caught on with lightning speed. I finally took the plunge a few weeks ago, and have quickly become a tweetaholic. First of all the micro-blogging concept is very cool, then there are some neat “viral effects” you can encounter, practically in real-time, and then there are the fancy things you can do with your feed.

Tip #1: Every company out there today should register their twitter.com/their_company_name right now!

This said, I do believe it will level off at some point. This doesn’t mean I think Twitter will completely go away – in fact, it still has tremendous growth ahead. It’s here to stay for a long time, but it will level off in a year or two as the novelty factor subsides. (Of course, who knows what other cool things are just around the corner – either with Twitter or elsewhere, which could easily change the game.)

Non-surprise number three is that LinkedIn jumped from number 9 to number 5. LinkedIn has played a shrewd game of connecting business people. If they maintain that focus, they’ll never be the “catch-all” network, but they will be the defacto “business network”, which, frankly, will give them a far better revenue model for the future than the generic advertising (or, gulp, user-pay) model that FaceBook and Twitter will struggle with for awhile.

Tip #2: Every businessperson should have a LinkedIn account.

I believe the model is already taking shape: people do their friends, family, political, club, and knitting-circle networking on FaceBook, and they do their business networking on LinkedIn. Think to the future, and ask yourself: Do you really want to bother your business associates with pictures of your kid’s graduation?

Go through the rest of the list and check out some of the other sites that are there. Mostly niche stuff, which is cool if you are interested in those niches, I suppose. I’m going to have a bit of a sniff through and report on anything I find that proves interesting.

I am curious about the ranking’s absence of “Social Bookmarking” sites (I presume they didn’t look at these in the same category, which is fair game).

Also, the inclusion of 360.yahoo.com, but no mention of Google or Microsoft (which both have their own Social Networking tools). I suppose Google and Microsoft, because they haven’t changed the URL on their tools, cannot separate out the “search traffic” from the “social networking traffic”, so didn’t quality for the list.

(Note: I would have embedded the classic SNL MySpace skit here, only NBC is so backwards that they don’t have a YouTube channel, and the only site that has it doesn’t stream outside the U.S.)

facebook, linkedin, myspace, social media, twitter

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More Live.com Grief

Posted by Paul Holmes in internet, social media on February 10, 2009

So I went to delete my old Live.com account. After struggling to find the option, I finally found it, and closed the account … almost.

It came up with an error message reading:

One or more paid services or a Microsoft Points account is linked to your account. To close this account, make sure each service is canceled and your Microsoft Points account is closed. Get help with this.

“Get help with this” was linked to a dead link. I came across alot of dead links and broken functions on Live.com, like the link to where to close the account in the FAQ.

I checked “Microsoft Points”, and I did not have an account there.

I read the FAQ for “paid services”, and found an article on why an account might not delete. None of the options applies to me. I’m pretty sure I’ve never paid Microsoft for any of these services.

Then I remembered that I used to have a hotmail account a long, long time ago. I went to login, and sure enough, it was there – spam and all. I’m not sure if it was connected to my other account or not, but I figured it can’t hurt to close this account. Right?

Uh, sure.

It wouldn’t let me close the Live.com account until I closed the Hotmail account. When I finally found the way to close the Hotmail account, it told me I needed to activate my account first. Uh, OK. So I did this. Then I immediately selected to close it again. Then it said:

To close your Windows Live Hotmail account, you must first cancel your billing service. Go to Microsoft Account and Billing Services at https://billing.microsoft.com.

So I did. And this site said that I didn’t have any billing services.

So I started off wanting to close one account, and instead of somehow managing to do so, I discovered I have 2 I want to close (I have 3 all together), and I cannot delete either of the 2 I tried to close.

If I didn’t know better, I’d presume that a bunch of Smart Alec’s at Microsoft got together and did all this as a joke to frustrate people like me.

Anyway, I’m moving on from Microsoft and Live.com (for now). What a ridiculous system.

hotmail, live.com, microsoft, social media

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Live.com / Microsoft Social Networking

Posted by Paul Holmes in business, internet, social media on February 10, 2009

We all know that Microsoft wants desperately to get into the game on Social Networking (I suspect that, one day, they will buy FaceBook or LinkedIn – maybe both). Anyway, they have been doing similar stuff for a long, long time. I have been using “Messenger” since at least 2000 (“MSN Messenger” came out in 1999, and they renamed it to “Live Messenger” in 2005).

So I had a look at what they had done so far, out of curiousity, to compare to FaceBook and such.

They did have a pretty cool thing called “Spaces”, which I used to use. Most of it can be replicated in FaceBook, though, and since most of my friends are on FaceBook, I had to leave the spaces page “public”. Herein lies the problem for Microsoft. If none of my friends are using it regularly, how do I keep things private between me and my friends? Answer: I use FaceBook. I deleted my “Spaces” page a few weeks ago (even though Microsoft’s solution was, in my humble opinion, better laid out than a FaceBook page).

I used to change the messenger “Personal Message” box a few times a day to something that seemed witty and charming (like me). I discovered that all these old messages were on my live.com public profile – Microsoft was publishing this stuff! Ack. Egad. Zoinks. I used to put stuff on here that I would never put on FaceBook, and it’s not even public. I spent 20 minutes deleting months of crap.

I also tried to replace my photo, but it didn’t work for some reason.

Finally, I updated my e-mail address to my new one. This is when all hell broke loose.

First of all, understand that I do business using Messenger. I have for years. I closed one of my largest sales ever in an “instant message”. This is an essential business tool for me.

Live.com warned me that it might take 2 hours for my Messenger contacts to appear online – that was perfectly fine at 10pm. So, I waited a day and a half. In the support archive I found, it said it could take up to 48 hours. So, I waited another 3 days. Nothing. I tried adding a new contact in Messenger, no go. I tried re-adding an old contact. Nada. I tried using another program (Pidgin) - still nothing. As far as Messenger functionality, my account was dead. I even tried changing the e-mail address back to what it was. You guessed it – zilch. Draw 2-Xs on that account.

I looked for some threads on fixing it – I searched Google (and Live.com for that matter). Nothing. Was I the only one having this problem? Maybe.

Anyway, I wrote a message to Microsoft through the support links, and, after I submitted it, I got the message that they do not respond to this “feedback”.

Finally I have added a new Live.com account, and re-added all my Messenger contacts. What an ordeal.

After all this, I’m not feeling particularly motivated to try out Live’s social networking tools.

I had a look anyway, and given FaceBook’s corner on the market, I don’t see a compelling reason to use Microsoft. They have a shot at fame, considering the legacy users of Messenger. Unfortunately, as one of those legacy users, my experience was a nightmare. If this is the “standard” experience, they won’t get too far here. But I’ve been wrong before, and Microsoft has deep pockets. If they don’t buy FaceBook, they’ll undoubtedly buy some other successful social networking websites.

Lesson of the Day: Do not EVER change your Live.com e-mail if you use Messenger.

facebook, live.com, messenger, microsoft, privacy, social media

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Social Networking Primer – LinkedIn

Posted by Paul Holmes in business, internet, social media on February 5, 2009

I actually joined LinkedIn before FaceBook, in early 2007. I figured as a “professional”, I needed to join the “professional” social network, and leave FaceBook to the teenagers. I am now of the opinion that BOTH can be useful, personally and professionally.

My focus this week, however, is LinkedIn. As a long-time lingerer on LinkedIn, I was intrigued by some of the features that are now available, and started toying with them a little bit.

My Profile

First thing I did was update my LinkedIn profile. Some of the information was dated, some was poorly written, and some was just wrong.

Tip #1: When selecting your website(s), use the “Other” option. I noticed that the websites under any other categories didn’t show up on your public profile (a LinkedIn bug, perhaps). Furthermore, for search engine optimization, it’s probably better to have a real name as anchor text, versus “My Website” or “My Blog”.

LinkedIn also really pushes this “Profile Completeness” business, which they define as follows:

Your current position (easy)
Two past positions (this makes sense for people who remember you from…)
Your education (this is embarassing)
Your profile summary (write one, and write it well, think about keywords)
A profile photo (I now use the same one on FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter)
Your specialties (write it well, think about keywords)
At least three recommendations

Recommendations

I wrote a recommendation for one of my connections; it’s pretty easy. With 41 other connections, I shouldn’t have a problem writing a dozen more. Don’t have 41 contacts? Find them by searching (LinkedIn will mine your email account for you). Once you have a connection, check their connections. Never add people you don’t know, but I’m always surprised at how many I do know!

I also requested recommendations from others. I considered the following when requesting:

Is my contact a well-known, trusted contact?
Are they skilled at writing?
Will they do it out of the goodness of their heart?

Consider also that writing good recommendations not only gives a boost to your client or colleague, but also draws attention on their profile to your profile. Furthermore, if you write a nice recommendation, they may just be inspired enough to write one about you!

Applications and Geeky Stuff

As a computer geek, I wanted to know what sort of RSS stuff I could do. Not much, apparently. Forget about Twitter and FaceBook tie-ins (the competition, I suppose).

What I did manage to do is create a fancy link on my contact page.

Also, I managed to pull my WordPress blog (this one) into my LinkedIn profile page (the “Full Profile” only). This was one of 10 applications they list on their site. I suspect there are more cool features like this to come.

Groups

Next, it was on to “Groups”.

Every time I added a contact, I’d end up defaulting to some “easy” connection option (like “Friend”), when in fact it didn’t define them particularly well. I realized that most of my connections come from some existing group or another. But LinkedIn doesn’t let you just type the name of your group in your invitation, you actually have to select an “existing”, registered LinkedIn group.

That got me thinking. At least a dozen of my connections are contacts through the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. But they had no group. So, I e-mailed the Chamber and asked if I could set up a group for them, and they didn’t have an issue. That was the hard part.

Tip #2: You must have image files for your group. They don’t explain what they are for, so I will. When setting up a group, make the 100×50 logo a small but complete “official” logo with name, and the 60×30 logo the image only (the name always appears next to the image file on LinkedIn, and 60×30 is way too small to read anything from). Another issue with the group logos is that LinkedIn sometimes has a blue blackground and sometimes white. We went with a white background (which means it looks bad when the blue one comes up).

Premium Membership

I had a look at the “Premium” membership options with a serious consideration of paying for extras. I discovered that they start at US$24.95 per month. I think this might be a good idea for “hard-core networkers”, but I’ll give it a pass for now.

That’s all I have on LinkedIn for now. Stay tuned for more Social Networking Primers to come.

business, facebook, greater victoria chamber of commerce, internet, linkedin, networking, search engine optimization, social media

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