Facebook Week

I am also looking forward to reading more about Facebook during the Facebook week at Mashable.

http://mashable.com/2009/03/30/facebook-week/

24 Things Going Extinct

I like this article in that it forecasts or speculates things that will go away or become extinct.  I am sad to see most of these go, but that is probably because I am more of an old school sort of guy.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977641082&grpId=3659174697253781&nav=Groupspace

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.

Monetizing Social Media II

Here is another article discussing the same topic as below.  The basic premise is that advertizing alone will not generate enough to keep the business alive.  I tend to agree, which is why I like the twitter model.  But, I may be naive in this manner.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13326158&CFID=48835061&CFTOKEN=90444495

Monetizing Social Media

This is a good article from a familiar blog.  They have added a new perspective beyond the usual Facebook and Twitter observations.  The author suggests that Apple with it's App Store has found a way to monetize 3rd party sources.  I agree, but is the App Store a community where teens hang out and adults converse.  Continuation of common thought leads to simple adds like those you find in Facebook.  These may eventually support a portion of Facebooks budget, but something more needs to come from it.  The author suggests that Twitter will be introducing accounts that can be paid for in the hopes that businesses will take this on.  I think the Twitter model actually has some merit.  Businesses will soon see that they want to use Twitter internally, but without sharing with the world for competitive reasons.  Businesses will want to implement their own Twitter for quick brainstorming and the gathering of virtual and naturally formed groups within the enterprise.  This sort of application could foster Intellectual Property gathering or Root Cause determination or simply new innovative ways to solve problems.

http://mashable.com/2009/03/28/monetize-social-media/

Earth Hour a Success

For those of you not sure what Earth Hour is there is a good comment on the last Earth Hour post that describes it.  As for last night from 8:30 - 9:30, timezone by timezone, nearly 4000 cities in 88 countries turned off non-essential lighting as a statement that we must do act on climate control now.  I have read that the response however has changed from street parties to street protests. 

Earth Hour Game

You have to try this game out. You will be addicted immediately and your kids will want to play also.

http://lightsout.earthhour.org/lightsout/

Chris Barger @ GM

Chris is the Director, Global Communications Technology at GM. He has a great attitude and outlook about his work at GM. I recommend having a look at the link below describing his inteview by Shel Holtz, complete with video on his responses to questions.

http://www.simply-communicate.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=910

Social Networking within the Enterprise

It seems that March has been the month of social networks and business mashups. As expected there are many applications and useful ways for the enterprise to benefit from social network and media. Now of course this has been a long time coming, in fact the Wall Street Journal reported on this in the summer of 2007. Here are a list of ways that business is using social networking and media.

• Employee collaboration
• Online marketing
• Product development
• Support services
• Business contacts
• Linkage of business to social media about the business
• Recruitment of contestants
• Public relations
• Learning tool
• CRM
• News feed

Believe it or not, these are examples from news articles that were published in the month of March. The following blog is a nice summary and source of links to the actual articles.

http://blog.sewardinc.com/2009/03/26/social-networking-watch/

Not surprising but Twitter and Facebook are among the most commonly mentioned social networking tools. As reported earlier Twitter has grown 1,382% from Feb. 2008 to Feb. 2009 (CNET March 19, 2009) with now over 7 million members.