Mar 8 2010

Is Trust In Twitter Misplaced?

March 8, 2010 – 6:53 am
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Now that Twitter hype is starting to cool off a bit, marketers need to take the time to evaluate the real value of this social network. First of all, Twitter offers a great place to talk with technologists, marketers, journalists, select stars and cause-activists. However, it’s not that great of a social network to reach buyers (h/t Valeria Maltoni).

Delving deeper, social media whiz Jeremiah Owyang recently compared Google Buzz, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. His analysis compared the networks from a perspective on where customers already are. His one liner on Twitter, “Has opportunity to become utility-like infrastructure, but not a destination.”

John Bell recently wrote that Twitter is a great communal location. It’s also not that great of a place for much more beyond great mass public events a la Mumbai, Iran, etc., and micro community chat center.

Now, we have well discussed the growth of mobile media and its importance to the future. Here, Twitter shows more promise. Recent ComScore usage reveals 4.7 million mobile “Tweeple,” but Facebook still rules with 25 million mobile users.

All in all, Twitter has solidified its place in the social network world. At the same time that place seems to be one of public chatter and quick timely movements. If your community is out there, this is a great place to be.

It’s also definitely not the only social network to maintain a presence on. Now more than ever, communicators need to be in touch with their communities of interest and be present where they are. Not where the hype engine tells you to be…

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)
Mar 5 2010

The Trust Veneer Problem in Social Media

March 5, 2010 – 1:32 pm

Yet another trip. Yet another lost bag.

Finding Trust Amid the Crowd

I am increasingly aware of the challenges businesses face in earning real trust, and this week I was left (without a change of clothes) to ponder yet again just what is going wrong in this regard. My airline can’t get me and my luggage to the same place at the same time. My car has a mind of its own about braking and acceleration. My bank sees the issuance of credit cards as an opportunity to get in my pocket for more fees. Can the fall of capitalism be far behind?

I used to feed empowered by Tweeting about such things or writing a letter to the president of the offending company, but I’m just getting weary and resigned to a more old-Soviet-style capitalism (or is that socialism?). You know: learn your bag isn’t where you are; go find ”the line;” trudge up to a counter to be confronted by a disinterested clerk…things we used to poke fun at Eastern Bloc countries about.

So, in a triumph of form over substance via technology, I can now be told that my bag is resting comfortably in a plane’s belly in Chicago (when I am in Phoenix) and that the fix for my accelerator can be made in two months, but I’ll have to make a separate appointment for the fuel line problem that could cause a fire to occur at any time. And wait… the good news is that I can make the appointments online!

Trust is getting lost the deeper we move into the ersatz “connectedness” of the social media world. The importance of the things that can’t be seen from the ticket line when we are conducting our transactions — the intangibles – are even more key to differentiating these days, but peace of mind and confidence and trust and seem to slip farther away for many companies, even as they increase attempts to connect to their audiences.

Edelman’s research for the Trust Barometer seems to disagree with this on the surface, but amidst what the research touted as an increase in trust recently (who could forget 2009?), there was this killer point: 70 percent say that businesses will revert to old, bad habits once the crisis is over.  As my grandfather used to say of a neighbor who betrayed trust between outpourings of neighborliness, “I trust that man about as far as I can throw him.”

Here’s the plea (and I’m looking in the mirror on this one). Let’s all of us who are involved in marketing soon get over the shiny object of social media. We have created a way to hear customer feedback, and we have used it to solve problems. We have created communities around products and services. These are only good things if they contribute to genuine, solid change instead of the veneer of change.

The trust veneer has developed some significant dings. People are thinking that we can’t solve the issues we face. They are marching in the streets to protest programs that deliver healthcare to uninsured fellow citizens. They are saying that government should take control of executive salaries. They are worried that their financial advisors are getting rich at their expense. Whether we work for Obama or for Ms. Smith on Main Street, the importance of building and maintaining trust has never been greater.

Matthew May, author of In Pursuit of Elegance – Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing,  wrote a good post on the subject recently, offering a roadmap for moving from the rational to the emotional in people with whom we are trying to engage beyond the veneer. He suggests zeroing in on several questions: “Will this waste my money?” (economic); “Will this work reliably well?” (functional); “What will others think of me?” (social); “Will this somehow be painful?” (physical), and ”Will I think poorly of myself?” (emotional).

Putting yourself into the minds of others with these questions (and keeping them in mind for yourself) will go a long way toward improving real trust by true engagement. These are the heartfelt questions not often articulated, but always in mind as people relate to one another.  Make it your business to answer them for your customers and others with whom you want trusting relationships.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)
Mar 4 2010

Singing the Praises of the Twitter Hashtag

March 4, 2010 – 8:35 am

Photo courtesy of Gidzy

By Jenn Riggle

In order to effectively use Twitter, you need the right tools. And for me, it’s TweetDeck and hashtags. 

You’ve probably heard your friends or colleagues complain that Twitter can be such a time drain. But as we all know, there’s No Pain, No Gain, and you need to invest time and energy in order to be good at anything (let alone social media). The good news is that using hashtags can make Twitter more manageable so you can spend your time more efficiently and ultimately, reach the people you want to reach.

Here’s what you need to know: A hashtag is any word in Twitter that is immediately preceded by the ‘#’ symbol (a.k.a the hash). While seemingly a simple thing, hashtags can transform your Twitter experience by allowing you to separate the wheat from the chaff so you can focus on the information that’s important to you.

There are four basic reasons why people should use Twitter hashtags. These include:

  • Finding a virtual community – Whether you’re a hospital trying to find a way to connect to your community or young mom trying to find other parents on Twitter, hashtags can help. Most cities or regions have their own hashtag (for examples #RVA is the hashtag for Richmond, Va.). By using this hashtag, hospitals can mark their tweets as being relevant to Richmond residents. By the same token, a young mom can conduct a search for #parenting to find out what other parents are saying on Twitter. If you’re using TweetDeck, you simply create a column and type in the hashtag of your choice. This will allow you to track, in real time, what people are tweeting with this hashtag, making it easier for you to join the conversation.
  • Reaching your audience – Hashtags are like zip codes – they help make sure your tweets go to the right people. With the constant flow of tweets being sent out every day, it’s easy for your tweet to get lost. By attaching a hashtag to your tweet, you increase the chance that the right people will find your post, which will help you attract new followers and foster dialogue.
  • Locating information – Hashtags are an easy way to search Twitter by topic. By saving a hashtag search in a column on TweetDeck, it makes it easier to track what’s being said about a certain subject. To be included in this group, simply include the same hashtag in your tweets. Geekpreneur has some great tips on how to use Twitter hashtags to tweet more effectively.
  • Promoting an event – It’s common practice for event organizers to create a hashtag so people can live-tweet what they learn during the conference. Not only does this help event organizers promote their event, it allows people who aren’t able to attend to keep track of news from the conference. In a lot of ways, it’s more effective than Second Life as a way to virtually attend a conference.

So how do you pick a hashtag? Probably the easiest thing to do is go to Hashtags.org or Twubs to discover which hashtags are being used, which ones are most popular and whether people have posted recent tweets with these hashtags. This information will help you determine whether you want your post associated with a particular hashtag. I think you’ll eventually find a couple of key hashtags that you’ll use on a regular basis and these will become the ones you follow.

Another question you should ask yourself is whether you should create your own hashtag or use an existing one. If you’re planning to create your own, remember to keep it short since you only have 140 characters per tweet. However, I’m a big believer in using existing hashtag if it already has a following. 

Words of Wisdom

It’s important to note that you can have too much of a good thing. If you use hashtags in all of your tweets or use multiple hashtags in one post, you can look like a spammer. It’s better to use them sparingly and only when you want to mark you tweet as having information that will interest a specific audience. According to Persistence Marketing, you should never include a hashtag that isn’t related to the content of your tweet.

There’s also a relatively new phenomenon called hashtag hijacking, where people “crash the party” by posting disgruntled tweets using an event’s hashtag. While this doesn’t have direct impact for most people, it’s definitely should be on the radar screen of event organizers.

Remember: Twitter is like a marathon, you have to be in it for the long haul. So take it one tweet at a time.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)
Mar 1 2010

You Can’t Run From Problems

March 1, 2010 – 12:50 am

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In the new world of communications, everything’s public and conversations happen with or without your organization (image by Martino). We know this. Yet some companies (and people) seem to hide from their very public problems, perhaps a condition of 20th century PR techniques.

You can’t run from the mirror. If anything online media shows us, somewhere down the virtual path you will find a community pond that will shine that crystal clear reflection of you. Just like private life.

That’s why smart companies acknowledge and engage stakeholders about their problems. They note where they think they are wrong, acknowledge larger implications, factually address the matters, and correct matters. In some cases, companies/brands cease operations until they can address perceived wrongs.

There was no better case of this than SeaWorld’s comprehensive crisis PR last week. The company engaged first and foremost (see Scott Monty’s analysis). But more than that, SeaWorld did not run from the accidental death. It quickly brought in outside experts to ensure trainer safety, and won’t continue full shows until a complete evaluation was performed.

This is straight forward engagement. What a refreshing difference when compared to Toyota, who tried to ignore its problems.

Others try to wash away their problems by “cause-washing” them, or simply brushing them off as business (the personal equivalent is “I’m just human”). When problems aren’t acknowledged and followed by a sincere attempt to address the wrongs, trust erodes. And in the 21st century trust increasingly drives brand value.

The networked economy caused by peer-to-peer media means problems won’t go away. The only question remains will executives corporate communicators change general practices, and start addressing their problems head on.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in communications | Comments (1)
Feb 25 2010

Sitting on the Fence: Twitter or Facebook

February 25, 2010 – 6:00 am
Photo courtesty of Dawn - Pink Chick

Photo courtesty of Dawn - Pink Chick

By Jenn Riggle

I have a confession to make – I’m not a huge Facebook fan.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have lots of friends who love Facebook. They’re always telling me how it’s changed their lives, making it easier to keep up with high school and college friends. By the same token, organizations have done a great job to use their Facebook pages to create virtual communities and develop closer relationships with consumers.

And Facebook has definitely established critical mass. According to a Slate posting, “Facebook has crossed a threshold—it’s now so widely trafficked that it’s fast becoming a routine aid to social interaction, like e-mail and antiperspirant.” Yet for some reason, it just doesn’t speak to me.

So I thought I’d take a critical look at the two social networks and try to iron out my feelings:

With 150 million users, if Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria. It continues to grow in popularity, with the fastest-growing groups are Gen Xers nearing age 40 and Baby Boomers – the latter seeming to join as a way to see photos of their grandkids. Most use Facebook to share real-life experiences, whether it’s photos or videos or updates on what they’re doing. It also offers a variety of features and functionalities, including games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, applications and quizzes. And the majority of Facebook relationships seem to be formed in the real-world, whether they’re friends from high school or college, family members, colleagues or neighbors.

However, for organizations/businesses, Facebook is a strategic tool, allowing them to create fan pages and online communities where it can communicate directly with consumers. In addition, Facebook ads provide an inexpensive and targeted way for organizations to reach people online.

While I’m not a Facebook fan, I see its value for others – like eating Brussels sprouts.

Twitter, however, seems to appeal to a different group of people. It’s popular with adults the ages 35 to 49 years, 62 percent who use Twitter at work (and 35 percent from home). While Facebook users seem to be people who want to re-connect with old friends, Twitter users seem people who want to share information and ideas. Most (but not all) of these relationships are formed online by people deciding who they want to follow or by developing lists. Essentially, people can use Twitter to “create” their own communities.

Twitter is built for speed and unlike Facebook, doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles (it’s hard to include those in 140 characters). According to Brian Solis, Twitter usage peaks on Mondays and Fridays (although there’s solid usage on Saturdays), again hinting at the high number of business users. And according to a new study conducted by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), Twitter is the fastest growing social media channel among the Fortune 500 companies.

So What Does This Mean?
I came upon an interesting theory about how people “self-herd” in social media. Web 2.0 is based on “human 1.0 characteristics” because people look for people like themselves in social media. We can do this by becoming an organization’s fan, “friending” people or by creating virtual communities.

I’ve read posts from Tired or Inspired and Language and ICT that compare Facebook and Twitter, and they unanimously, chose Facebook over Twitter because it offers a richer online experience. I agree with them, Facebook has interactive features that people and organizations want. It also makes it easier to create regional initiatives and communities. However, there are others, like ProBlogger, who are de-friending people from their Facebook accounts to help create a barrier between their personal and professional lives.

But being realistic, there are only so many hours in the day and you have to choose how you’re going to your time. After all, you can’t be everyone at once – although with social media, it sometimes feels that way.

Like Robert Frost, I choose the road less traveled. As a news junkie, I love the fact that Twitter helps me find people who share similar interests and who can point me to information I would never find otherwise.

However, I’ll continue to persevere with Facebook and hope that someday I’ll have a change of heart. Although, I’m afraid I’d bore my friends with talk about my travails balancing work, swim schedules and endless repairs on my old home.

Are you a die-hard Facebook fan? I’d love to hear how you’re using it. Maybe it will help me change my mind.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)
Feb 22 2010

60,000 Droids a Day Keep the Apple Away

February 22, 2010 – 6:10 am
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Right now it seems every company wants to build an iPhone app. Yet given that 60,000 Android phones ship every day, one has to wonder how much longer Apple will have a lock on shiny object syndrome du jour (image by Andrew Mason).

That’s roughly 5.4 million a quarter, and the numbers continue accelerating to rivalingl iPhone shipments. Android shipments will only continue increasing as we see more devices hit the market. Further, globally carriers have now come to recognize Google Android’s presence as a tour de force.

Rather than open up it’s operating system, or allow manufacturers to license the Apple OS, or even releasing a new phone, Apple seems to be relying on reactive techniques. The word Android has been banned from applications being developed for the iTunes store.

Whether or not a mobile application fits into your strategy is one thing. A second evaluation critique for communicators now must include platform.

Unless Apple does something drastic quickly, it’s likely to find itself second in smartphone OS shipments by year end. That means Android applications will become the hot platform. Given the saturation of applications (more than 100,000) that are already in the Apple store, Android may be a quick way to generate mobile traction by being first. At least in the near term.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in mobile | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (17)
Feb 19 2010

PGA Shanks Tiger Woods Decision

February 19, 2010 – 2:49 am

Eventually, it had to happen. Tiger Woods had to speak in “public” about his, uh, situation.

But, did official golfdom have to provide the venue?

Tiger Mounts Comeback

Tiger Mounts Comeback

Enough has been said about Tiger to fill several PR crisis communications classes, and the true, sad fact of this matter is that too many of us still care too much about his plight. The most troubling aspect of the whole deal, aside from the obvious family matter, is that his catting about has cost golf, the game, a great deal. And, the money contributed by the tour to worthy causes, estimated at over $100 million by CNN, will similarly diminish, taking many recipients into this messy wake, as well. Oh, and this doesn’t even count the multitudes of ticket scalpers and corporate hospitality providers who have suffered a recession on top of the recession.

The reward for this family-professional golf-charitable cause demolition derby? The PGA invites him over for what Jeff Shain of the Los Angeles Times writes today is probably one of the most highly anticipated mea culpas since President Bill Clinton’s.

This is a bad PR move for the PGA. Even if, as TMZ reported, the association’s leader made a bit of a blunder in commenting on Woods’ rehab circumstances, that little slip should NOT have caused him to feel obligated to agree to this show/apology.

It’s understandable that the PGA is a bit nervous about their sugar daddy staying away from the game any longer, and the, well, commerce of the thing just may have figured a little bit into this decision to host the first of Tiger’s public amends. But, the public relations value to Tiger of delivering this monologue at TPC-Sawgrass has to be balanced against the lack of any real rationale (except commercial) to allow it to happen in one of the homes of professional golf.

The better solution would have been to welcome Tiger back with open arms after the apology. The apology could have been staged in a major arena  or in a rehab center closet and still would have received worldwide coverage, questions allowed or not. The crisis for Tiger Woods is not the PGA’s crisis, even though his economic impact on the game is significant. And, if the public statement backfires, as James Moore suggests in his Tiger Woods’ Dumb Advisers commentary in The Huffington Post, then the PGA and Tiger both lose.

Without Tiger, there is still the game, and I can only wonder if the Royal and Ancient at St. Andrews would have hosted such an affair from their vantage point of over 100 years of governing the game. I hope not.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)
Feb 18 2010

Are Hospitals Tilting at Windmills Searching for Social Media ROI?

February 18, 2010 – 6:30 am
Photo courtesy of John-Morgan

Photo courtesy of John-Morgan

By Jenn Riggle

How do hospitals measure their social media return ROI? Or are they tilting at windmills and trying to fight an imaginary foe like Don Quixote. Too often, we find ourselves counting the number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers or the number of people who viewed YouTube videos, trying to justify engagement in social media.

However, the bigger question is whether hospitals can afford not to engage. Here’s why:

  • Share of Voice  

No hospital can allow a competitor to be the only healthcare voice in the market. Why should you allow your competitor to dominate a market – even if it’s a virtual one? An important rule of thumb: if your competitors are using social media, you need to be there, too. Approximately 60 percent of adults and 75 percent of youth (ages 15 to 24) go to the Internet to find health information, so it’s important for hospitals to be able to reach people wherever they are on the Internet – whether it’s on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook or the Web. Not only does this allow your hospital to find new ways to connect to the community, it also helps position your clinicians and administrators as community leaders and health experts.

  • Search Engine Optimization  

Last year, both Google and Bing signed deals with social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, to include them in their real-time search results. This can be a bit of a double-edged sword for hospitals. While updating your Twitter or Facebook page will improve your hospital’s search rankings, it will also be easier for people to find tweets from people who are complaining about the customer service in your Emergency Department. So now, more than ever, you need to know what people are saying about you online.

  • Improve Customer Service  

The fact that people can easily update social media sites from their Blackberries and iPhones presents new challenges for hospitals. We’ve heard a number of stories about how hospital communications people have seen an angry tweet from a patient who thinks they’ve been waiting too long in the Emergency Department and have spoken to the patient and helped address the problem. There was a recent case where an angry wife tweeted about her husband’s ER experience after a heart attack. And while no one wants to see negative information tweeted, it provides hospitals with an opportunity to fix the problem and hopefully, the person will be relieved and use social media to let others know how the problem was resolved.

  • Reach Younger Healthcare Consumers  

Hospitals tend to focus their marketing dollars trying to reach the Baby Boomers. Not only are they the largest generation, they are also reaching the age when they are using more healthcare dollars whether it’s to replace achy joints, have cardiac procedures or do a little cosmetic surgery. However, Gen Xers and Millennials also need health services (and will be healthcare consumers in the future) and social media is proving to be a good way to reach them. Research shows that social media has influenced nearly 40% of hospital or urgent-care center patients, with more than half of 25-to-34 year olds reporting they are influenced by it. In addition, forums and discussion boards were a major influence on 20 percent of the 25-to34-year-olds who recently made a hospital visit for maternity reasons.  

  • Develop Closer Relationships with Patients  

KevinMD.com writes that half of Facebook and Twitter users are under the age of 34 and rely on the Web for most of their information. It’s possible that as this group ages, they will go to social media first to answer their health questions, rather than schedule an appointment with their doctor. So it’s important for doctors to think about how they use social media and e-mail to answer questions and put news into perspective. It would be a perfect way to address patient healthcare concerns about changing policies about when women should have mammograms. 

  • Crisis Communications

During the Fort Hood shooting earlier this year, Scott & White Healthcare in Temple, Texas was one of the hospitals to treat the victims. Even though they had just received approval to establish social media sites for their hospital, they have become an example of how to effectively use social media during a time of crisis. Ed Bennett’s blog, Found in Cache, has a great interview with Steven Widmann, director of web services at Scott & White, who talks about how Scott & White used social media to help manage the flow of information during this crisis. They made extensive use of Twitter (@swhealthcare) to provide a continuous string of updates with everything from Emergency Department access, operation status and re-tweets from the Red Cross. In addition to Twitter, they also used a blog and YouTube to keep everyone informed.Talk about baptism by fire! But it’s proof that hospitals can use social media to provide up-to-the-minute updates during a crisis.

  • Find Blood Donors

There are lots of examples of how hospitals have used social media to find blood donors. Puget Sound Blood Center has organized two blood drives using social media. Their Tweet-up Blood Drive 2.0 reached people via Twitter and allowed people to sign-up via Facebook. Coney Island Hospital used a Facebook application that allows people to fill in their personal information and blood type. If the supply of their blood type runs low, people are contacted with a request to make a donation. For those who don’t have a Facebook account, people can register on a dedicated Web site, MySpace, or cell phone network.

  • Promote Your Service Lines

Too often, social media seems to be operating in a silo and isn’t integrated with an organization’s marketing and business goals. In order for it to be successful, hospitals need to develop a plan and find ways to integrate social media into their existing marketing plans. Doing things like posting videos, creating a Facebook application, live-tweeting during community events, educational sessions or during surgery (provided it’s an area of specialty for your hospital). In addition, Aurora Health “live-tweeted” during a knee replacement surgery to help promote its orthopedics service line, which generated 20 inquiries about knee surgery, 14 who actually had the surgery performed.

Once a hospital agrees to engage in social media, the next challenge is to decide how the process should work. We all know that hospital marketing teams are pulled in so many directions, dealing with the crisis du jour and promoting the hospital’s various service lines, that it would be easy for social media to be one more item on their daily to-do list.

We’re working with hospitals to help them identify ways to make it easier for them to embark on social media campaigns. I’d love to hear what you’re doing to engage internal experts and bring original content to your efforts.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (16)
Feb 15 2010

Google’s Great Buzz Gamble

February 15, 2010 – 12:12 am

In 1944, the ABC — comprised of the remnants of the NBC blue network — launched to compete with NBC (Red) and CBS. Last week marked the very loud and controversial launch of Buzz to more than 175 million Gmail users. After almost a week to digest the launch, I’m starting to think Buzz is Facebook and Twitter’s ABC.

At first glance, I wanted nothing to do with Buzz and literally turned it off. The increased amount of bacon (social network email, akin to, but not quite spam) simply disturbed me. Then there were the incredible privacy issues. The overall intrusiveness and Google’s audacity to force a severely flawed opt-out service on me was really annoying.

buzzimpact.jpg

What changed my mind? A) Consider the incredible impact Buzz made right out of the gate. You need look no further than the above screen capture which shows my Mashable column from Friday. Buzz links outpace Facebook links.

B) Google responded quickly to privacy concerns and changed Buzz within 72 hours. The latter demonstrated to me how serious Google is about making Buzz work. Google wants the pageviews from a major social network… It’s about advertising, folks. And while some say search is Google’s core competency, I’d argue it’s Internet advertising.

Statistics reflect the changed opinion. A new major social network has been born… As much as I could do without it personally, I cannot afford to ignore Buzz.

How Will Buzz Impact the Market?

Is Buzz for real? Yes, there’s little doubt. But none of us, not even Google, knows how this will play out. Here are a five points that I am watching closely.

1) How will Buzz impact the social network landscape? Like Jason Falls, I don’t see Buzz as a Facebook or Twitter (or MySpace) killer. Competitor, yes. However, there are so many people using social networks, in my opinion I think this will simply compete for share not kill one or the other.

Each major network has functional strengths and weakness, which will cause some people to migrate to one network or another. One thing I don’t see is use across all three. People are getting social network fatigue, and carving out more time for a social network isn’t likely.

2) How many Gmail users will bail on Google? To create the mass network capable of competing with Facebook and Twitter out of the gate, Google made all of its 175 million Gmail accounts Buzz users. Further, even upon initial complaints, Google will not decouple the two. It’s an opt-out privacy afront for many.

While it’s inevitable that some Gmail users will love Buzz, others will say no, and some will leave Google service altogether. As Corey O’Brien said on this Buzz Post, “Google forced Buzz upon mainstream users, who aren’t as willing to put up with the ‘growing pains’ that early adopters are.” We’ll see how much Google cannibalized itself.

3) What will happen when the apps come? We’re talking about a one week old social network making this kind of impact. But what will happen when the Seesmics, mobile apps, and all of the other clients come to play? Traffic will increase. Dramatically.

4) How will the mobile factor play out? One of Google’s other major plays in 2010 is the mobile Android OS, which is battling the iPhone for Internet smart phone market share. It’s no coincidence that Buzz has location based mobile functionality integrated into its functionality from the get-go.

BuzzLunch.jpg

With GPS location and mobile client searches that let you see what’s happening locally, Buzz instantly differentiates itself from Facebook and Twitter. And that’s going to create a mass social network that caters to the fifty-five percent of Americans that connect to the Internet wirelessly (Pew Internet & American Life Project).

Which brings to mind the increasingly powerful mobile social network FourSquare. Specifically, does it move from an attractive, fun app for your phone to a must purchase for Facebook or Twitter? Whatever happens, Facebook and Twitter mobile functionality will need to increase to stay competitive.

What are your thoughts on Buzz? Or if you’d like, let’s find out together. Here’s my Google profile address.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Buzz Meter, Social Networks, mobile, social media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (17)
Feb 12 2010

Sharing Awe

February 12, 2010 – 2:45 am
I’m often asked by clients just what it takes to “go viral” or “get a million views.” It’s really quite simple, it appears. All you need is awe.
Courtesy SXC

Courtesy SXC

There is nothing more interesting than human relationships and responses, even in the virtual world, and humans use relationships to spread happiness. The British Medical Journal said that social networks may spread happiness from person to person after studying almost 5000 individuals for 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study. Happiness in this study was shared through close relationships (spouses, family, neighbors, group members),and seemed to spread more readily than unhappiness through the network. Generally, happiness spreads to those nearer the center of a network better than to those on the edges –  like a virus. So first, dear posters and sharers, spread happiness where you can. Positivity is a pre-requisite to experiencing awe.

In some interesting recent research, University of Pennsylvania researchers studied The New York Times list of most-e-mailed articles, according to science reporter John Tierney, and over six months, analyzed thousands of articles. Jonah Berger and Katherine A. Milkman found that people like e-mailing articles that struck positive themes, and also noted that intellectually interesting subjects stimulate sharing.

People, it turns out want to share articles that inspire “awe.” If your product or service or point of view contributes to or creates overwhelming feelings of wonder or admiration, you are well on your way to gaining traction in your social network. It’s a tall order, for sure, but just think if we started our conversations about our latest and greatest thoughts, services or products with the question: “Will this inspire awe?“  For my own protection, let me admit that this post will be at least one step removed from awe, but it does point out just how high the bar is raised for the truly viral event in the social networking world.

Virality is a challenge, of course, in that many expect “new” or “improved” or “different” or even “surprising” to drive the conversation. Seems they don’t. “More emotional stories were more likely to be e-mailed, the researchers found, and positive articles were shared more than negative ones,” Tierney writes. Longer also bested shorter, it appeared. (“Surprising,” by the way, did help, but there were factors in the most shared that exceeded mere surprise.)

I like the idea that we ought to hold up “awe” as the hallmark of something worthy of sharing. As authors Berger and Milkman suggested, an awe-inspiring subject prompts us to view the world in a different way. It opens up our minds. The “Awe Rule” could put me out of business, too, on some fronts, but at least I minght not have to read as many posts about the sleeping habits of Facebook friends.

Take a look at this research, and ask yourself how you can contribute to awe today. I’m damned if I can think of another post for next week that fills the bill, but I’ll be working on it.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (3)