An opportunity?

Was observing my daughter on the computer this afternoon. She was actively Facebooking with friends logged onto FB, while at the same time actively texting on her phone with those that were not logged onto FB. This seems like one of those situations that should be made easier. Sort of like when we all had several devices on our hips that eventually were merged into the modern day cell or smart phone.

I know there is the ability to update facebook and get facebook messages through SMS on a cell, but for some reason that feels difficult and may take longer than it really needs to. Or maybe this all that needs to happen.

What are your thoughts, keep in mind not everyone has a smart phone so those really cool FB apps for phones are cool, but not available to everyone.

Twitter updates and cool links

Over the last few weeks a few bits of news regarding Twitter has caught my eye. I have to start with a posting from Mashable on Twitter visualization. Try some of these out; Social Collider, Just Landed, and Twitt3D. These tools are all trying to visually show the connectivity between tweets through time and people. Sometimes you have no idea what your tweet may trigger. These tools attempt to show you what was triggered. I am not completely sure about this but I think the official term is social graphing. Being a very visual and picture oriented person these graphs have serious meaning that can be very beneficial in understanding communication.

By the way did anyone notice that last week Twitter updated the following and followers pages? The change is very positive and useful. Good job Twitter!

Relationship Symmetry

This was a new topic for me, but a simple one to consider.  It is also an interesting way to categorize various networks out there.

http://bokardo.com/archives/relationship-symmetry-in-social-networks-why-facebook-will-go-fully-asymmetric/

The idea is that a relationship in a social network can basically be one-way or two-way.  Today in Facebook relationships are two-way or symmetrical.  This means that for you to be my friend, I have to be your friend.  There are personal reasons to desire this that also lay the tone of a symmetrical relationship network.  An asymmetrical relationship network is essentially one way.  You can be my friend or follow me without me having to be your friend or follow you.  Twitter is exactly like that and lends itself to a tone that is more public. 

This seems like a cool topic that would be interesting to analyze in actual relationships outside of the computer.

Social Media Expert, is a what?

Clearly, and for some time now, there is a position in the organization that requires Social Media expertise.  However, what does that really mean?  What is a Social Media Expert.  This link discusses that topic.   

http://www.smoexpert.com/what-a-social-media-expert-should-be

As always common sense plays a big role in the answer.  This article points out how the expert needs to be an intelligent people person able to engage in topical discussion.  They must also be able to understand the variety of social media tools and how to use them.  Finally, they must be able to determine and describe marketing value with respect to social media.  It is this final expertise that I have discussed before around monetizing social media.  This will be a hot topic/trend over the next 12-24 months.

Frictionless Communications

Yesterday my eyes were open to the future of information communication and collaboration. While reading tweets from my some of my favorite techie tweeters I learned that Apple was about to host a special meeting for the press to announce the new iPhone OS 3.0. Lance Ulanoff a tweeter I was following was attending the meeting and decided to start blogging live on the event (complete with pictures). I was following Lance and others on twitter and his blog (http://live.appscout.com/2009/03/apple_iphone_os_30_announcemen.php). All in all this was very fun and I actually felt like I was learning new information real-time.

The point I am making is that in the advent of social media, which started with blogging, and has now advanced to sites like Twitter and Facebook, information is shared more easily. The sharing of data is refreshing. I hope this continues and that new technologies are developed on open platforms with open software so that anyone with a computer or phone can feel the power of frictionless communication and collaboration.

-wb