Ok. So... Twitter. Some get it, some don't. Some think it's revolutionary, some think it's a fad. Some think it's a great social media tool, some think it's abject garbage. While I do have an account(@patricksays- don't follow me or anything...), and send the occasional tweet out into the twitter ether, I really use it to sate my shameful hunger for celebrity gossip and general shenanigans. OH EM GEE KIM KARDASHIAN AND REGGIE BUSH BROKE UP AGAIN??? LINDSAY LOHAN IS OUT OF THE NUT HUT??? KANYE CONTINUES TO BE THE MOST ARROGANT BEING ON THE PLANET??? Thank GOD all that's cleared up.
Now to give myself a little credit, I also follow friends, which for the most part is enjoyable. Do I NEED to know that you're the mayor of your local Starbucks on foursquare? No. But whatevs. All in good tweety fun.
Of late, I've begun following more politicians- or at least reading their timelines. With a slew of nationwide elections upon us, politicos and their camps are furiously attempting to reach out to as many people as possible (I've gotten more campaign calls than I can stomach). And what better way to do so than letting people know exactly what they're thinking/ doing right when they're thinking/doing it? Oh twitter, why you so smart?
After hours of exhaustive research and tireless data compilation, I've arrived at my irrefutable result (see equation below)-
Now, of course, there are variables that can change that equation and its outcome- lack of tweets, super lame tweets, not enough followers, et al. But in a time when the disconnect between the younger generations and those who represent them in the government is not so much a fissure as it is the Grand Canyon, I think it shows at least an attempt to "get with it." Am I basing my political beliefs on someone's twitter? Of course not. But I do appreciate the effort. I really do.
All politics aside, this new book, published by the team who developed the brand for Obama's '08 campaign, is a beautiful piece of work, and full of insight into the decisions that shaped its look and feel. This is a must-read for anyone who takes brand building seriously. Look here for a PDF version.
Seriously. Gotham vs. Optima? The type geek in me knows who's winning that battle.
It seems that despite the constant apologies and rollbacks, Facebook is still inclined towards the "do first, apologize later" mentality when it comes to adding new features. Their recent "places" rollout has been marked with the usual privacy concerns. The only official response to the outcry from privacy groups is this video detailing how to opt out of the new location-aware feature.
While I appreciate Facebook's doggedness to push features through to their users, I mostly appreciate the fallout and drama that results. (and like Bill, the beautiful charts and infographics) We'll definitely be keeping our eye on this one.
I don't have a home phone number. Haven't had one in five years. Haven't really needed one... except when I am working from home and I have marathon conference calls and I feel my mobile minutes slipping away.
And so, I always hoped for a way to make calls from my computer at no cost. Between Google Talk and Google Call, you've got the bulk of what makes Skype appealing - except Google is free (for now).
Google, if you are listening, connect Google Talk to Google Voice for free and I will stop writing about how you are the devil. I promise. Also, as a friendly FYI, you should start coming up with better names for these products... you've got Google Voice, Google Talk and Google Call. It's confusing.
Pete Cashmore from Mashable is one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter. Most of the 106 people (for today) that I'm following are friends or friends of friends that are in the music industry. Mashable is my multiple-times-a-day reminder that Twitter can offer something interesting and refreshing and educational outside of the world of shameless self-promotion. Maybe I should reevaluate who I follow, but I'm a total sucker. I love knowing what's going on inside the small bubble of people that I follow, maybe a little bit too much. I check Twitter on my phone all the time. Frankly, I'm addicted. It's embarrassing. I consider myself a worldly, social, and tactful person, but I will undoubtedly check my Twitter at every chance I get. If I'm sitting on a park bench, I'll check my phone instead of taking in the world around me. If I'm sitting on my couch watching a movie with a friend, I'll grab my phone and check Twitter like, every 10 minutes. Even worse is when I get a text message. The second that red light starts flashing on my phone, I just have to know who is trying to get ahold of me. It could be important! Or, even better, it could be something funny! I have very witty friends.
Coming full circle, Mashable posted something yesterday that spoke to me. The tweet was, "Stop Being Rude and Put Away Your Phone, the Digi-World Can Wait." I ended up reading the full article on CNN, and agreed with everything that was said. I absolutely hate it when you go out to dinner, and the person you're with places their phone on the table before even putting their napkin on their lap. I also hate when people check their phones as they're shuffling along the sidewalk, going noticeably slower then everyone around them because they're not paying any attention to the real world (I do this too). So, I'm a total hypocrite. I guess I always knew that it was ridiculous and obnoxious to prioritize your phone over your company or daily tasks, so there was no epiphany there, but the one thing that this article made me realize is that sometimes I actually like being separated from my phone. After the initial shock and anxiety wears off, not having a phone in my hand at all times is incredibly refreshing. It's rare, but when it does happen, it's fabulous. So everyone, "stop being rude and put away your phone, the digi-world can wait." It's true! I just tweeted about it.
Let's break that down. Something Awful is an internet forum whose members pride themselves on "awful posting" and can be filled with stuff you want to keep your kids away from. Like 4chan, it can be one of the darker corners of the internet. A "goon" is a member of Something Awful. Space is the final frontier.
Fully translated our statement reads: An internet forum is launching one of it's members into the final frontier.
The whole thing reminds me of this TED talk by Clay Shirky on "cognitive surplus" and how we could utilize the existing communities online to accomplish grand tasks. It's not clear how much involvement Something Awful had in the whole thing. It looks like it was mostly a place to raise some funds, post pictures of the progress, and generate conversation about the project. Still--what had previously been the domain of governments and millionaires is slated to be accomplished by ordinary Danish citizens in less than a week.
Some organizations are already starting to take advantage of their audience's eagerness to help with authentic tasks. Galaxy Zoo and Moon Zoo by a group of astronomers put humans to work identifying things that computers can't do reliably.
Is there something you've been trying to do but are constantly saying "where are we going to find the time?" Why not let your audience/users/constituents do it for you?
Here's the premise: while social media might be great as a promotional tool, can it be a product? If you've got something unique, shouldn't you be able to charge for it? Why should celebrity twitter stars such as Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa give away free access to their lives? Yes, it builds a fan base, but once you've got those fans hooked, don't you think that they might pay for more "exclusive" access? I bet they would.
But you don't have to be on the A-list to possibly monitize your social networking. Couldn't agencies make access to an exclusive social network (and exclusive marketing/creative advice) a benefit of being a client? Couldn't conferences use exclusive attendee/presenter social networks as a value-add and an incentive to sign up? Couldn't service providers like plumbers, electricians, and even doctors provide (for a fee) access to a network where their customers/patients get personalized help and exclusive assistance?
It's not that odd of a concept. After all, we've got "membership" retail establishments like Sam's Club and BJ's. There are a growing number of "boutique" medical practices that don't take insurance but offer highly-personalized services. And heck, private clubs have been with us for eons.
Some may say (and have, in the comments section at ClickZ) that this "destroys the idea of social media." Others have argued that this approach is akin to paywalls on newspaper sites (an approach which seems to fail in most cases). Others simply object on the basis of "information wants to be free."
I don't disagree with any of those points. Why should I? We're not even arguing the same thing.
Destroying social media? I'm not saying that ALL social media should go to a pay model. Far from it.
People don't want to pay for information? Not even the same argument. The reason that people don't want to pay for news is that for the most part it's become a commodity that anyone can get for free. And it's not true that all newspaper paywalls have failed: the Wall Street Journal continues crankin' along pretty well with a pay model. Why? Because they have exclusive and unique content. You can't get it anywhere else. If you want it, pay for it. That's a lot different than paying for a slightly edited version of a wire service story you can get thousands of other places online.
As for the "information wants to be free" argument, I think I've written enough (here and other places) to make a case that I agree. Information is difficult to contain...just ask the Pentagon and WikiLeaks. But what we're really talking about here isn't information as much as a service: access to an expert or access to a network that can't be digitally duplicated.
And maybe that's the bigger lesson to learn from this idea: if something can be digitally duplicated so that the copy is indistinguishable from the original then it's very difficult (if not impossible) to monitize it over the long run without adding value in some way (ease of use, customer-friendliness, the good feeling that you bought something rather than stole it). On the other hand, if something can't be copied--access to an expert, physical objects, access to a network, trust, goodwill, etc.-- than it is possible to make money from it.
It all comes down to one of the basic principles of economics: things that are abundant are worth less than things that are scarce. And we certainly ain't got no shortage of social media right now. Making yourself more scarce, putting up the virtual velvet rope, might be the way to monitize what you're giving away for free right now.
I'm a sucker for pretty maps, and when they're funny they're even better. Today's link is the 2010 Social Networking Map., which is an update of XKCD's classic "Map of Online Communities" from 2007. Some highlights: look for the Drunk Pictures Mountain Range, the Bay of Tags, and the Former Kingdom of MySpace.
We've always know what users say and what they do are often not the same.
There are many reasons for this phenomenon. According to Jacob Neilsen, users make up stories to rationalize behavior, and they are pragmatic and concrete (they can't imagine how something that doesn't exist is going to work).
I would like to add one more reason to Jacob's list: People have an uncontrollable urge to please; they naturally want to tell you what they think you want to hear.
According to Neilsen, users shouldn't tell you howto design something (pulldown vs radios, black vs red, etc), instead, user interviews can be most "useful when you want to explore users' general attitudes or how they think about a problem. After getting this info, it's your responsibility to design features that address the problem (and to test prototype designs of those features to ensure that you got them right)."
If you've directed a mobile device at idfive.com recently you may have noticed you were served a version of the site optimized for your smaller screen. If you'd like to check out the mobile site on your PC, you have but to point your browser towards http://m.idfive.com.
When we started the project it was quickly determined that there were two ways to approach the project. On one hand we could simply create a mobile/handheld style sheet that would reskin our existing content for those devices. On the other we could re-focus the site on the tasks mobile users were likely to be trying to accomplish. We decided to take the second route and provide visitors with the ability to switch between the two versions of the site in case they were after something on the desktop version.
So what sorts of things did we think mobile users would be looking to accomplish? Most mobile devices are used for communication so we started there, providing general contact information as well as a directory of current employees and their contact information. Visitors can use the map page to plot (mostly) accurate directions to our office from anywhere in the world providing they have some flavor of GPS functionality. (cell triangulation, wi-fi triangulation, traditional gps.) You can also get links to our latest blog posts which is a great resource for passing the time on a train or reading with your morning coffee. Or maybe you're in an all day meeting researching job opportunities--you'll find those on our mobile site too.
The mobile web is still experiencing exponential growth and we have plenty of ideas about how you can do a better job serving that audience. Give us a call and let's talk mobile.
