Grounded In Reality

Four weeks ago, Facebook, with 25 million users, launched a new strategy to be a technology platform where anyone can build applications for social computing–with one clever caveat, that all third-party applications, if approved, will be routed through Facebook’s servers. This, together with the carte blanche rights to monetize these applications through ad dollars, are good causes for businesses to revisit their social networking strategy.

Marc Andreessen has a brilliant analysis of the Facebook Platform. Here are my three cents concerning the business implications of Facebook applications:

1. Ease of use: It’s amazingly easy to add applications with a single click, and like widgets, applications serve a single, non-ambiguous purpose. Q: What campaign initiatives might be communicated in such a compact, eye-candy fashion?
2. Applications are intelligent: Because they have to be pre-approved by Facebook, my applications are linked to and have access (with my permission) to the information that I have previously shared. Q: How to build on this consumer behavioral data and design a targeted, personalized campaign?
3. Naturally viral: I am cued to new applications that my friends have added thanks to updates from the News Feed. (Think of News Feed as a wire service for what my friends are up to.) In other words, applications come recommended by “word of mouth” as friends observe each other. Q: What’s a meaningful, mention-worthy application that makes the user look good (think ‘Live Strong’ bracelet) among friends?

Additionally, having likely learned from MySpace, Facebook has provided easy-to-use privacy settings for all applications.

InformationWeek wrote an interesting article this week about the latest generation of college grads entering the workforce and what technology they expect to be made available while on the job.

I can vouch that there have been times I was not allowed to access technology  necessary for me to be fully capable of doing my job…with a Google Toolbar being the simpliest of things.

IDC research numbers show(ing) that 45% of companies have workers blogging, 43% use RSS feeds, and 35% of companies have employees using wikis.

What’s interesting about that, according to Susan Feldman, VP of content technologies at IDC, is that the study also showed that IT managers and executives largely didn’t know any of this was going on.

It is understandable that a company would have progam downloading banned from users, but there should be a policy in place for requesting access to relevant sites/downloads.

She (Susan Feldman) told InformationWeek that with Web 2.0 technologies increasingly becoming part of people’s social lives, they will demand that it be part of their work lives, as well. And a lot of companies may have this new technology inside their firewalls that they simply don’t know about.

“We’ll have to deal with the reality of people coming in and using tools that aren’t in the firewall,” said De Beer. “Web 2.0 empowers users beyond creating content. It’s about how we interact. For the next generation, it will be about mass collaboration, using social networking.”

In my opinion, things will morph.  Just as companies had to create ‘blogging policies,’ they will also have to create other Web 2.0 poilicies. 

Check out “The complete Web 2.0 directory”

The site can help you to get an overall view of the different Web 2.0 tools and survey the scene of online communities.  Maybe you know the directory, maybe you don’t – but I think it’s impressive.  Remember to use the tags!

Kristian Levring Madsen
GCI Mannov, Copenhagen

Recently, a Danish Ph.D. student, Malene Charlotte Larsen, made a list of perspectives on youngster’s online social networking. The list is extensive and contains 35 perspectives all in all. The perspectives differ a lot from the materialistic perspective to the democratic perspective.

Below I have listed a few of them:

1. The Consumer Perspective
Social networking sites are money-making machines creating a need for added value among young people causing them to spend all their pocket money on extra features such as VIP profiles, widgets, gifts for friends and so on.

10. The Branding Perspective
Social networking sites are places where young people learn the mechanism of branding and learn to sell and brand themselves in a positive manner.

11. The Network Perspective
Social networking sites are places where young people learn the crucial importance of being able to network which they can benefit from in their future professional life.

I like the idea of a list like this. I like (and dislike) a lot of the perspectives. Some of them are real and some are simply opinion. But I’m wondering - are they specifically Danish perspectives? Some of the perspectives are generic, but how about no. 21 The Time Consuming Perspectives or no. 22 The Anti-social Perspective? Are they culturally bound? Does an American and South African teenager or teenage parent share these perspectives?

I must admit that I don’t know the answer to this. But from a communication and marketing point-of-view, it would be valuable knowledge when determining target audience outreach.  With this knowledge viral campaigns and other forms of online communication could be optimized to fit the (global) market they are aiming for.

And I’m sure that with so many social networking sites – there MUST be a lot more perspectives than only 35. When I know them, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, feel free to help.

Kristian Levring Madsen
GCI Mannov, Copenhagen

My observation is that most pr pros rationalize away the act of monitoring as beneath them.  In the past, monitoring is typically reserved for the junior staff and/or a third-party vendor; while measurement dashboards and executive summaries are the critical slide wares that pr pros arm themselves with for client briefings.

The rub is that today’s half-second news cycle is forcing us to get our hands dirty and wrestle with raw data gleaned from the trenches.  This is because of the (1) lack of a comprehensive monitoring solution (2) speed at which online reputations are made or broken by digital influencers (think Apple & Engadget).

The business case for near real-time, online monitoring (blogs, forums, social network, etc.) is that:

1. You need to find a blog or learn more about a specific blog or digital influencer.
2. You need to monitor an issue to determine if it is escalating.
3. You need to understand online conversation and identify influencers and engagement opportunities.
4. You need to manage online reputation 24/7.

Your monitoring goals are likely four-fold:

1. Amplify the positive
2. Resolve the negative
3. Correct misinformation
4. Understand the conversation in order to join the dialogue

I’m not thumbing my nose at monitoring partnerships (we need them) or debasing the many bright minds working on comprehensive monitoring solutions (GCI works with several preferred monitoring vendors), but rather suggesting that online reputation monitoring needs a new approach in the digital age.

There will come a time in the near future when online monitoring will be as structured and methodical as traditional media monitoring; in the meantime, be ready to jump into the fray of online monitoring to help your clients make sense of the digital information overload.

Sweet Moses! You cannot imagine the joy I felt today when I was catching up on Perez Hilton and came across a post about Ab-fabulous himself, Mr. Ryan Reynolds…and the Huffington Post.  Of course, of course – I will repeat that. Ryan Reynolds, an actor best known as Van Wilder and formerly engaged to the rock-your-face-off Alanis Morrisette, BLOGGED for the HUFFINGTON POST. Check it out here.

I braced myself to bare utter embarrassment for the public ridicule Mr. Reynolds would surely face…until I kept reading. Not only can one of my favorite Canadians throw down some serious and tight sarcasm – the dude can write!  Assuming he didn’t have some chimp scribe for him, the post shows he harbors a serious level of personal concern for society’s focus.

In fact, Mr. Reynolds downright rocked my world with his blog.  Here’s why: Not only can he spell and put together coherent sentences (let’s face it, half of Hollywood is lacking a GED, so my expectations can’t really be that absurd), but Reynolds is getting gritty and having fun doing it.

This makes me wonder – could this lead to a new phase of celebrity sponsorship – having a notable celebrity spokesperson quite literally blog on a formidable forum like the Huffington Post whilst extolling the virtues of your clients’ product, service or social movement or representing it in personality?  All grit and humor aside, transparency in the case of a celebrity spokesperson blogger would be absolutely paramount.  Not that Mr. Abs, I mean, Reynolds, was pushing a product, per se, but he does successfully divert readers’ attention to something more substantial and impactful than competitive eating.

So as you’re watching the news this summer, and come across fluff pieces about competitive eating contests at your small-town fair, heed the words of Mr. Reynolds: Remember the starving children in Darfur.  (perhaps a new twist on the popular jab of guilt uttered by mothers nationwide)

In closing, I humbly ask you to count your blessings as you enjoy a full dinner this evening.   And if you’re charged with pitching a competitive eating contest this summer, please, please, for the love of everything holy – just don’t.

Hot dog, anyone?