Filed under: Facebook, Facebook Application, Facebook Apps, Facebook Beacon, Facebook Social Ads, Online Privacy, Social Meda, Social Networking, Social Networks

Last fall I was hit by the double whammy of hearing about the Facebook Beacon drama while at the same time having my Facebook experience being turned into getting bitten by Werewolves, being asked to join mundane groups, and then noticing absolutely no activity on those groups that I was actually eager to join. The allure of Facebook wore off as easily as it had captured me.

That’s because, at least in my opinion, the creators of Facebook, didn’t make the right adjustments in what would best be described as user experience as they perhaps should have. Perhaps that would have been to difficult to accomplish, but I do think it had an overall negative effect.

And the whole Beacon thing infuriated me. Who the hell was Facebook - and their retail partners - to jointly decide they would let my friends on Facebook know what I just purchased?

Now with MyDataIsMyData around, and with the fact I’m both using and meeting others for business purposes, Facebook is making a comeback. I’ll never trust it, and I’ll use it more judiciously, it’s finally back on my radar.

No Comments » Posted on April 19th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: British Executives, Social Network Services, Social Networking, Social Networks, U.S. Executives

According to Neville Hobson, “only 18% of executives from participating UK companies see blogging and social networking as valuable, compared to 50% of US businesses questioned.” Very sad indeed. Via NevilleHobson.com. More info:

  • Companies in the UK are lagging behind foreign counterparts in getting up to speed with social media, with 22% of participants claiming that they are still “learning”, compared with a global average of 18%. Only 9% of UK businesses claimed to be at the “experimentation” stage.
  • 23% of respondents blame a lack of senior management commitment for the slow uptake, while 36% say it is due to a lack of skills. However, budget restrictions were not seen as hurdles in the UK, compared with a 10% global average.
  • Viral marketing in social networks is also disregarded by UK companies and, according to 25% of UK executives, viral campaigns have very little brand impact. In contrast, three quarters of US executives believe the opposite.

No Comments » Posted on March 25th, 2008 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: AOL, America Online, Bebo, SNS, Social Network Services, Social Networking, Social Networks

America Online owns quite a few very popular and very profitable music, teen, and gossip sites, TMZ for instance, that we marketing and PR professionals and uber-geeks scoff at. Well, I think AOL makes good investment devisions. I also think that they do a good job of not over-branding their possessions as being AOL. Bebo is another one of those super-popular but under-coveted Social Networking Services that are probably under-valued (cheap at $850 million) and more stable, less fickle.  The opposite of Facebook, which, which popular, is over-valued, under-profitable, and could implode in the model of MySpace.  Here’s the poop about the purchase, via c|net.

In an unexpected move, AOL has acquired social-networking site Bebo. The price tag: $850 million in cash.

Rumors had floated over the past few months that Bebo, which has over 40 million members, was up for sale. Reports suggested a $1 billion price tag, but there were few hints as to potential buyers. Though Bebo had already partnered with AOL’s AIM messaging client to facilitate friend-invite interoperability between the two services, even the most creative blogger speculation didn’t seem to point to AOL eventually buying the social network.

No Comments » Posted on March 13th, 2008 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Abraham Harrison LLC, Abraham Harrison Staff, Social Meda, Social Networking, Social Networks

Just read a nifty ClickZ article about that survey I recently blogged about.

From that, a quick rant. Here’s a cut an paste from the end of the article;

While brands are certainly coming around to the idea of social media, agencies should be careful to manage expectations, cautioned Nail.

“Clients, particularly the slower-moving clients, want best practices,” he said. “They want proven models.”

That’s not always realistic. Whether it’s video sharing, social networking sites, or micro-blogging, “clients want to get into it, but want guarantees, want the cookie cutter approach,” he said. “That’s not going to happen.”

How true.

It can be a precarious path we’re on in social media. We’re often dealing with clients - or angencies that represent them - that would rather not get into this social media thing. But they’re realizing that they have to. And they want it to be as painless as possible. Cookie cutter, plug ‘n play. But that’s not what it’s about.

Just like the rest of marketing related practices.

No Comments » Posted on March 3rd, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: 2008 Elections, Cult of Personality, Election Strategy, Political Strategy, Polling Data, Polling Strategy, Popular Culture, Social Graphs, Social Meda, Social Media Index, Social Networking, Social Networks, Social News, Twitter

I’ve been looking at the graph that Twitter has given us for candidate mentions on Super Tuesday.

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The first thing that jumps out at me is the dominance of Barack Obama. The entire time he is the most mentioned candidate. At no time throughout the entire day is he overtaken by anyone else. What does this mean? I’m not sure. Is it because of popularity or is it because of the newsworthiness of his candidacy? Obviously, it’s some sort of combination.

What’s also interesting is the person with the second highest peak: Mike Huckabee. He’s been dissed by the mainstream media ever since New Hampshire. To me, that’s a combination of my belief that the mainstream media can’t relate to a evangelical Christian, along with the GOP delegate assignment system of winner take all. He’s done better in votes and on Twitter than most would be willing to give credit.

Hillary and McCain show no strength. That’s particularly for Clinton. You’d think she’s be mentioned more often in discussion regarding Obama. Pehaps this shows she, in comparison was a non-entity.

Here’s a telling stat that may show why:

Barack Obama has 6793 followers and he is following 6661 people.
Hillary Clinton has only 627 followers and is following 0 people.

Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nobody.

I’m not saying that this is why she is likely to lose the nomination, but I will say it does reflect an overall approach and mentality - a top-down mentality - that has just about killed her chances to be the next president of the United States.

1 Comment » Posted on February 27th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

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