As tragic as today was because the world lost both a TV icon and a pop superstar, it’s a testament to how much people *really* trust social media tools. If you were following along on Twitter, you may have also heard that Jeff Goldblum, Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt all died as well. Celebrity doomsday is here! But alas, all rumours. There were even rumours of MJ’s death being instigated by Iranian officials..
Is social media going to kill the mainstream media? Obviously not, if you sift through the search results, everyone was skeptical until it was reported by major outlets. Especially as the tool becomes more popular, the byproduct is really more crap-which means we still very much need to rely on traditional media to tell us what’s really going on.
This is certainly an issue that warrants more research & analysis. What do you think? Do you trust what you hear first on Twitter?
Just a quick note to let you know about a new event happening in Ottawa-Wired Wednesday is brought to us by the good folks of Red Wire, out of Toronto. Wired Wednesday is all about bringing together local entrepreneurs together to speak, pitch, and network. Sounds like good times!
It only makes sense to make the first post of 2009 about what’s ahead this year for social media. Please add your input, as I’m really just providing a few jumping points. Maybe at the end of the year, we can look back and see how well we did.
1. Twitter will hit critical mass
And no, I don’t think it has already because many of my friends still gave me odd looks when I mention my “tweeple” or that I’m heading to a “tweetup.” However, in 2008 Twitter had so much momentum and I think it will just keep growing. Also I think Twitter may start trying to monetize. Not sure how, though, ads? Any other ideas?
2. “Personal branding” will have more clout
I have been telling my friends all year to get online and start building their personal brands. Start a blog, an online portfolio, get on Twitter, ‘professionalize’ your Facebook profile, etc.
Now with words like ‘recession,’ and unemployment at an all-time high, finding a job is much more about marketing yourself. Companies are going to be faced with increased competition for positions, and you can make yourself stand out by showing your ability to change with the times and demonstrated initiative.
3. 2009 will be the year of meaningful metrics
With budgets tightened and staff skimped, many companies will turn to social media to maximize ROI–this is nothing new, but the tools to measure success need improvements. I track the traffic to Web2dotwhat.com using three tools- Google Analytics, Feedburner and Clicky. Sadly all three report different numbers (not sure which is correct, but I think Clicky is most accurate). Those who have a really good understanding of metrics and analytics will be in a great position to help others. I for one hope to see an easy-to-understand/use tool aimed at PR/marketing folk for blog tracking.
4. Content quality will become the crucial element
Right now, if you are publishing any sort of content, if it’s not blatantly terrible you’ll probably get traffic, comments, new subscribers, conversions, etc. However this year I think quality will trump quantity as the noise ratio out there is just getting too high. When hiring someone to produce content, make sure he/she has solid communication and writing skills, as well as an expert understanding of the medium.
5. It’s all about you, forget about me
I don’t mean literally! But there’s still a lot of “me, me, me” content out there, when it should be “you, you, you.” While this concept is certainly nothing new, it desperately needs to be put in practice. If you’re not sure what I mean, find a site you like and read through it, is it speaking to YOU, or is it talking about ME (or we)? Chances are, if you like it, it’s probably speaking to you. If you think the content comes across as cocky or arrogant, it’s probably speaking about itself. As competition steepens and budgets deplete this will be more important than ever.
So what do you think? Am I accurate? Do you have other predictions to add?
Dave Forde over at Profectio has initiated a contest to find out who is Canada’s most influencial man and woman in social media. Voting closes at midnight Dec. 31.
I am extremely honoured to have been nominated as one of Canada’s most influential women in social media, but I do feel like I have a lot more to do before I’d be worthy the title. So I’d love your support but I also acknowledge there are many other fabulous women on the list who certainly do deserve it! Also I’m super happy to see someone from Ottawa on the list, though I wish I had been paying attention during nominations because there’s a few other Ottawa gals who should most definitely be there. (@Suzemuse and @zchamu come immediately to mind)
As for the men, there’s quite the list. I actually haven’t decided who to vote for because there are so many great choices. (And a few Ottawa folks too–9 by my quick count!) So what are you waiting for, go vote!
It’s no surprise where I sit in this debate. One need not look further than the address bar! We all type it the same, but some say it differently, so please answer this poll and let me know which you say. AND if you’re really passionate about it, please drop a comment and make your case!
My justification is pretty simple… You don’t say “Google[POINT]com do you?? Dot dot dot. It just sounds better.
Just a quick post to give you a sneak peek at what I’ve been up to and what you might expect to see coming up here on Web 2.What?
I’ve been reading Groundswell, perhaps why it’s so quiet around here since I just can’t seem to get my nose out of it! Almost done and a full review will come shortly.
Been loving Nathania Johnson’s blog Social Media Butterfly, who–I will admit enviously–posts much more than I do. Be sure to check it out.
I went out to the first Social Media Breakfast in Ottawa, and not only had a fantastic time but was able to meet some twitter friends in real life. Exciting! Also, Adrian of DNA 11 (a company which makes art out of DNA) presented about how his company leveraged social media channels to make it into some impressive mainstream media.
Have you tried a real social media monitoring tool? I have been testing, demoing and talking to all sorts of folks in this essential area. So far I’ve already reviewedInfegy’s Social Radar. I’m still testing it, but soon I will write about Radian6.
As always I’m hopelessly addicted to Twitter, so be sure to follow me. I’m also dabbling in Plurk, if you’re a little more adventurous. Also, I’m on FriendFeed but having a hard time really getting into it, please drop a comment and tell me why you love FriendFeed so I can perhaps see the light!
Well, those are my excuses for not blogging more often. I am trying to post at least 3 times per week, but I’m sure you’ll understand I don’t just want to post garbage for the sake of posting!
Also I’d love your suggestions for how I can improve this blog, or what you’d like to hear about that’s not being represented elsewhere. Please drop a comment or email me at kelly(at)web2dotwhat.com!
If you pay attention to some of the social media buzz out there, surely you’ve already heard of Plurk. Plurk is like twitter, but takes it a step further by laying out posts on a visual time line and when you want to reply to someone’s post, instead of the @username, you can actually drop down someone’s message into what can best be described as an IM chat box and keep the conversation going. Anyone–fans or friends–can jump in as well. It’s hyper-interactive, and a lot of fun.
Why will it stick?
Now I’m certainly not ready to give up Twitter–I worked hard to build up my followers–but I could definitely keep coming back to plurk, and that’s because on top of it all it they build another dimension of fun in with your Plurk Karma. The more you post, the more karma you earn, and when you invite people into plurk you earn more karma–this point is key because any type of social site’s success depends on it’s ability to continuously expand. And we all know friend referral is the best way to do that. Anyway, what does plurk karma do? Earns you cool stuff of course! The more karma you get, the more you can customize your profile. As well you earn new and cool smileys. These obviously become “Cool” status symbols and those of us who don’t have them yet are just dying to get them!
I’m almost embarassed to admit–but I’m just reading the Cluetrain Manifesto now. I’ve long known about the book, and specifically that it is about how the Internet has changed the way business works. Nevertheless, it’s an inspiring book and reaffirms a lot of the theories I’ve always believed, and I’ve also learned some new stuff too. There are two big takeaways I want to emphasize right here and now:
1. It’s not about the tools.
Despite the fact that this blog IS (mostly) about the tools, the whole concept and ideals behind social media are not. It’s about better communication because people are now able to connect, grow, learn on their own, at a faster pace than ever before. And businesses need to adapt. Those who’ve grown accustomed to ‘old’ marketing often dismiss terms like social media, user-generated content etc as a passing fad, or just another tool for the marketing toolkit, but it’s really so much more. Personally I’ve never been a fan of “interruption marketing” or broadcast media, simply because as a consumer, I hate tv commercialsand the fact that over 50% of my magazine is ads and especially those ugly flashing banners on site, they’re all in my way and wasting my valuable time. However, I love when a brand engages me with a fun flash game, or sends me emails with exclusive offers I can pass along, or even follows me on twitter and participates in my (sometimes) silly conversations. I really love it. And while some believe the old marketing is a necessary evil, I don’t. I’m done with it, before I ever really got started…
I started my career as a PR girl working in the email marketing biz. Like marketing, PR often gets a bad wrap, but for different reasons. I was always taught the key to PR was respecting your audiences and giving them exactly what they want in order to acheive your goals and objectives and that honesty, ethical behavior and transparency are absolutely essential. It makes perfect sense to me, and I saw it as very relatable to email marketing, which is probably why it was so easy for me to understand, embrace and tell others about. (BTW I still blog about email marketing, over at Tamara Gielen’s Be Relevant! Blog)
2. Sadly, though the book was written nearly 10 years ago (eons in Internet years…) So many companies still don’t get it.
By “it” I mean the fact that “mass marketing” is no longer effective, that employees are a company’s greatest asset and that open, honest and personal dialogue between a company and its customers is the new key to success (these are the points Cluetrain Manifesto is really driving home). I’m only now realizing the reason I get all this social media/online stuff is that as a teenager I was secretly a big geek–on newsgroups, IRC, early bulletin boards, etc. I loved that I was able to learn and get to know people potentially on the other side of the world. I’m super curious by nature and the Internet has always been my portal to ‘the rest of the world’ outside the suburb I grew up in. Now though the tools have evolved and changed greatly, although Facebook and MySpace and the likes have brought these things into the mainstream, really it’s all the same. In fact, in 1999 I joined a local nightlife website which became my obsession for years, it was membership driven, had bulletin boards, the ability to ‘friend’ other users, share photos and toggle event attendance… It *was* a social network, and it was a huge part of me, before I even knew what the term social network was!
Ok, wait, back to my main point here. The point about companies getting “it” has been proven 100 times over. Take Google for example – have you ever seen a Google TV ad? What about banner ads? How did YOU here about Google?(My mom actually told me about it!) What about its slogan ‘don’t be evil’ and have you taken a peek at the Googleplex lately? It’s pretty obvious Google has evolved into the type of company that embraces new ideals brought on by the communications shift, and I don’t have to tell you it’s working for them. Consequently, not only is Google bringing in bazillions of dollars ever quarter, it’s got hundreds (probably thousands, actually) of brand evangelists walking around–employees that is…Who doesn’t love working with those who absolutely love their jobs?
I haven’t posted in a while, so please excuse my wacky tangents. My time for blogging is tighter than ever, and the hardest part is finding inspiration for writing (I could write for hours on end, so long as I’m inspired)… If you have any great topics, ideas, or suggestions, drop me a line at kelly(at)web2dotwhat.com or, of course, comments are always open!
Ok, I realllly should have a smart phone, but I’ve been putting it off in hopes of the iPhone *finally* making it’s way to Canada… Well now Canadian company Research in Motion has announced its new BlackBerry Bold — likely a worthy rival to the iPhone. Unfortunately it will only be available on the GSM network, which means I’ll have to get back with the certain wireless provider I despise, but I think it’ll be worth it. (Same deal with the iPhone anyway) If anyone has heard anything about the Bold yet, please drop a comment and let me know, I’m very interested!
PS- Sorry for the hiatus, I took a week’s vacation in Cali, and much to my dismay I had to pay daily for a WIFI connection! While I did cave (three times) I was so overwhelmed with my inbox and feeding my twitter addiction, I didn’t make time to post. However, I’m back and hoping to contribute here and over at Be Relevant! more often!
Ok there’s hundreds of fantastic blogs out there that I would love to link to. However, so far I’m doing a bad job of getting around to it. So I’m going to spin this into a social activity and ask for your help on building my blog roll.
In the comments, let me know which blogs you think belong on my blog roll. Please feel free to drop your own blog URLs, so long as it’s relevant to what I’m talking about here, I’d be happy to link to you! (Also, if you enjoy my content and want to return the favour and link back to web2dotwhat.com, I don’t mind)
If it was Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcett then yes…
Just a quick note to let you know about a new event happening in Ottawa-![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=23f15614-5d57-476e-85fb-1a69e5df90e8)
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Just a quick post to give you a sneak peek at what I’ve been up to and what you might expect to see coming up here on Web 2.What?
Ok, I realllly should have a smart phone, but I’ve been putting it off in hopes of the iPhone *finally* making it’s way to Canada… Well now Canadian company Research in Motion has announced its new BlackBerry Bold — likely a worthy rival to the iPhone. Unfortunately it will only be available on the GSM network, which means I’ll have to get back with the certain wireless provider I despise, but I think it’ll be worth it. (Same deal with the iPhone anyway) If anyone has heard anything about the Bold yet, please drop a comment and let me know, I’m very interested!