Buzz Meter – The Buzz Bin

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.

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.

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.

By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Buzz Meter, Social Networks, mobile, social media | Tagged buzz, Facebook, Jason Falls, mashable, MySpace, Twitter | Comments (18)

Dec 1 2009

5 Whys Jog Actionable Listening

December 1, 2009 – 12:03 am

I can pay to listen. I can listen for free. I can “monitor,” even. I can pay others to listen for me. I can lurk. I can engage.

There have been some great posts on the tools for listening. The list for both paid tools and free tools is ever-expanding, it seems. If I want to latch onto the latest and greatest, I only have to visit Alltop or check Twitter. Recently, for instance, Crazy Egg caught my eye. How sociable? is also really interesting in that I can view my brand as “mentions” across the web. But with all the focus on listening, is there enough focus on doing something about what you are hearing?

Looking for Answers (www.freedigitalphotos.net)

Jason Falls took on the subject of listening, posting on “The Five Ws of Social Media Listening” in August, where he also noted a favorite of mine from Michael Brito about active listening on the social web being overrated.

It all reminds me of an old riddle I’ve loved since I first read it in a book called “Five Frogs on a Log: A CEO’s Field Guide to Accelerating the Transition in Mergers, Acquisitions And Gut Wrenching Change” by Mark Feldman and Michael Spratt from Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left?

If you answered “1,” you aren’t listening deep enough, perhaps. The answer is “5,” since there’s a big difference between deciding and doing. I still smile almost every time I think of this little riddle because it was a particulary apt way of stating the challenges of a merger or an acquisition. There is often so much attention paid to the decision and the “doing” of the deal that the doing of the integration, etc. often goes wanting.

It’s the same with listening, whether you call it active or not. Maybe we should embrace another way to look at ”why.”

It’s called 5 Whys. It is a great process to move listening from just listening to doing something about what we hear. It’s been practiced by Jeff Bezos at Amazon, and it is a good tool for us to use in our social media listening (thanks, Pete Abilla for the Amazon example). Credited to Sakichi Toyoda, founder of Toyota, the 5 Whys are most often seen in the context of industrial processes, but the same persistent asking of “why?” could go a long way to getting beyond the surface in social media measurement.

For example – “The car won’t start,” my (son/daughter/wife/husband) says (Wikipedia example): Why? – The battery is dead. (first why) Why? – The alternator is not functioning. (second why) Why? – The alternator belt has broken. (third why) Why? – The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and has never been replaced. (fourth why) Why? – I have not been maintaining my car according to the recommended service schedule. (fifth why, probably the ”root” cause)

Remind you of conversations you have had with clients or bosses? Can you think of some 5 Whys from your work in social media? Could the 5 Whys be a useful tool in getting deeper into your listening and monitoring? Would a shift to “actionable” listening be a possible outcome from using this discipline in your work? And, if we couple the Actionable with the other two “As of Metrics” that are talked about in the measurement world, we’ll make our measures Accessible and Auditable.

Some very progressive organizations might even open up the three As to the outside world, pushing ROI and transparency even farther down the path we’re on. Wouldn’t that be interesting?

By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Blogging, Branding, Buzz Meter, Internet Marketing, Social Networks, market research, social media | Tagged 5 Whys, Alltop, Bezos, community, Crazy Egg, How Sociable, Jason Falls, Listening, measurement, metrics, Michael Brito, monitoring, Peter Abilla, social media | Comments (4)

Apr 30 2009

Buzz Meter: ensembli

April 30, 2009 – 12:00 pm

Early adopters and the Web 2.0 savvy have fully embraced their RSS feeds through their Google Reader, Bloglines or other services. Yet, RSS is not as widespread and mainstream as it potentially could and should be. ensembli, a ‘smart’ RSS tool, takes a different approach than some of the prominent RSS feeds with the goal of enhancing the everyday citizens’ online experience.

ensembli indexes RSS feeds and filters them through “relevance engine” based on a peer review, multi-agent software system (MAS). ensembli’s real power is in understanding what type of content individual users are interested in. Similar to how Pandora provides a relevant stream of music based on preferences, the more someone uses ensembli — reading, discarding and ignoring content – the more relevant the content ensembli delivers.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive:

ensembli provides more relevant, useful and current social content than other standard browsers. It is also beneficial in that it delivers top content from across the web, rather than the finite number of blogs in an RSS reader. Additionally, a problem with RSS feeds is the amount of content that builds up over time. ensembli eliminates this by providing only top relevant content on a particular interest/search terms. Another wonderful feature is that as your interests change – say from the presidential election to a new found focus on environmental issues – ensembli will quickly adapt with you. Ensembli also has useful built in features such as the ability to tweet stories, and – like standard RSS feeds – the ability to read stories directly on ensembli, or click-though to the original post. Stories are also organized based on interest and prioritized by personal relevance.

Negative:

Many bloggers share thoughts about a broad variety of topics. For example, a sports blog will not focus only on soccer, but will also cover baseball, hockey, etc. As a result, RSS readers often receive stories that individuals would find interesting, but would likely not search for directly. This ability to receive trusted information from divers sources is one of the great benefits of RSS feeds, and, because searches are based on predetermined topics, is something that ensembli is unable to provide.

Conclusion:

Many people are unable to give their RSS feeds the attention they’d like to during the workweek. Moreover, many people are not familiar with the benefits or feel intimidated by RSS feeds. ensembli is great for current, relevant information for those short on time, or for those less Web 2.0 savvy. This service, in combination with a traditional RSS feed for blogs deserving consistent reads, offers a great way to stay informed on the latest news.

By Mike Nelson | Posted in Buzz Meter | Tagged Buzz Meter, ensembli, social media, Web 2.0 tools | Comments (1)

Apr 23 2009

Buzz Meter: Ping.fm

April 23, 2009 – 10:35 am

Ping.fm is a straightforward service, allowing users to post to multiple social networks from a single dashboard. The service provides users with multiple ways to post updates and URLs, and advanced customization that allows users to pinpoint exactly which social network a message is delivered.

This service supports over 30 social networking sites including Flickr, Twitter, Plurk, Linkedin, FriendFeed, WordPress, Diigo and Facebook. Users can update their social networking profiles using mobile phones, SMS, MMS, Instant Messaging, email, and third party applications such as iGoogle, Facebook and Twhirl with one submission.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 2 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: The Ping.fm’s user experience and functionality is great, and the ability to update from virtually any device to any social network makes pinging your friends mobile and fast. Additionally, Ping.fm stays up to date with the latest social platforms, allowing users to grow their social presence across multiple social networks quickly. The customization options are also useful, as often times different social networks are associated with different audiences. For example, a person’s Yammer and Facebook networks will likely receive quite different messaging.

Negative: In order to act as a single social posting hub across multiple platforms, Ping.fm removes users from the social network, thus, making the experience less social. Unlike TV, the power of social media is in its ability to create a two way conversation. To engage in conversation, share ideas, and have a dialogue, not blanket the web with one directional status updates. Ping.fm is not a strong listening social platform.

Conclusion: Given the importance people and organizations place on having a broad social presence – and the time it takes to keep these multiple social networks alive and rich with updated information – Ping.fm’s service is occasionally valuable. However, engagement in conversations is vital, and therefore Ping.fm may be limited to those instances when social media can become a one directional plateform: For example, upon return from a trip and posting photos, or during busy periods when time does not permit full dialogue but providing status update are important.

By Mike Nelson | Posted in Buzz Meter | Tagged Buzz Meter, Ping.fm, Web 2.0 tools | Comments (2)

Apr 16 2009

Buzz Meter: Diigo

April 16, 2009 – 9:20 am

Diigo, where information, knowledge and community come together, is essentially two services in one. Its primary function is being a social bookmarking service. However, because people are relatively definable by what they read and bookmark, Diigo also integrated a social networking platform that allows users to find and interact with others with similar interests.

As a social bookmarking service it offers many features that other popular bookmarking services provide, such as easy tagging from the toolbar, recommended tags, and search capabilities. But Diigo goes further, allowing users to highlight and comment directly on web pages, and it allows users to organize tagged features into an interactive list. This list is then played as a slideshow with one mouse click.

Diigo makes social bookmarking truly Web 2.0 with social search and networking based on an individual’s tags, bookmarks and annotations. Diigo will also recommend bookmarks and other Diigo users that share similar interests. Additionally, users can see what content their friends have bookmarked and commented on, and Diigo even pulls out the bookmarks and groups for which you share a common interest.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 3 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: The interactive slideshow is a useful feature. It allows retrieving and sharing online research, including highlights and annotations, effortlessly. After importing tags from other bookmarking sites, or starting from scratch, users can easily send and share messages and content, join groups of interest, meet and collaborate with others, participate in forums, and view current hot topics. All this – along with Diigo’s advanced search capabilities – makes finding, discussing and sharing online content a breeze. Additionally, keep your eye out for the version of Diggo, which should be hitting the Web in the next couple of weeks.

A few of the features to look for include: A major UI change, more intuitive design, improved search and cache feature, the ability to upload screenshots for your bookmarks, and improved user interaction.

Negative: Del.icio.us generally is the first social bookmarker people think of. As a result, Delicious organizes more tags and information. For example, a Del.icio.us search for soccer generates 65,660 bookmarks, and the same search on Diigo generates 706 results. Additionally, Diigo, though it recommends similar tags, does not intuitively include them in a search. For example, a search for soccer does not intuitively include futbol unless a post is tagged both soccer and futbol.

Conclusion: When it comes to bookmarking, Diigo clearly offers a number of useful features not found on other bookmarking services. And having the additional social aspect provides users with a great user experience and improves search. All this makes transferring your bookmarks to Diigo a smart idea. However, because much of the power of a social bookmarking site is in how much data has been bookmarked and organized, until more people convert to Diigo, it will not be the most useful bookmarking search tool available.

By Mike Nelson | Posted in Buzz Meter | Comments (3)

Apr 8 2009

Buzz Meter: TwitterGadget

April 8, 2009 – 8:40 pm

There are a lot of great Twitter applications available, but Twitter in your inbox? TwitterGadget makes it easy to monitor your favorite Twitter users and personal messaging from your iGoogle homepage, Gmail account, or directly in your browser. Created by LOGIKA Corporation, this Web 2.0 tool allows you to post status updates and conduct searches without opening additional tabs. View your complete stream or only select individuals, send @ replies, and direct messages (DM), but there are several additional features that make TwitterGadget extremely powerful.

TwitterGadget offers a built-in search that allows users to search by keyword or hashtags, profile statistics of individuals in your stream, and keyboard shortcuts.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: Beyond providing your basic history, TwitterGadget provides symbols and emoticons that can be added to tweets. Accidentally tweet a typo or a broken link? You can go back and delete it! Other great features include the advanced settings, which lets you personalize color and sound options. TwitterGrader also allows you to hover over shortened URLs to reveal the full URL. And, the quick retweet feature and built-in URL shortening service makes spreading content a breeze. Most importantly, the keyboard shortcuts are incredible time savers.

On a user experience level, the AJAX based TwitterGadget operates extremely smoothly. And TwitterGadget is easily installed, takes no software, and requires creating no new passwords.

Negative: After adjusting the settings, Twitter streams are automatically updated every three minutes, or they can be updated manually. Not having real-time updates can make having a fluent conversation difficult.

Conclusion: Using TwitterGadget is seamless, provides a significant level of personalization, saves times, and improves user experience. Users can tweet in a cleaner environment with built-in search. Once TwitterGadget becomes real-time it may be the best Twitter application available, if it’s not already!

By Mike Nelson | Posted in Buzz Meter | Comments (0)

Apr 2 2009

Buzz Meter: KickApps

April 2, 2009 – 11:10 am

Would it benefit you or your company to have a social network? KickApps, one of the most powerful social networking platforms available, makes it easy to create and manage a robust, fully customizable social network on your website.

KickApps is a white label self service platform that runs on its own servers. Going beyond the social networking basics of allowing customizable profiles, friending, video and photo sharing, chat, and message boards, KickApps also allows users to upload their own content, interact on blogs, and use a programmable video player. Additionally, its powerful widget builder simplifies syndicating content. It also has applications that can interact with a content management system.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: The service is open and free for anyone to set up with no advanced system requirements. Additionally, the KickApps Site Styler makes creating and monitoring social content extremely easy for anyone, even those new to development. For those accustomed to working on the back end, the KickApps Affiliate Center (AC), a web based management and reporting tool, provides advanced features. Designers are able to use DNS masking, HTML, CSS, Java, and the KickApps APIs to develop social networks that integrate seamlessly with existing sites. Additionally, the KickApps App Studio allows anyone to easily develop widgets, directing outside users to the personalized community.

From a user’s standpoint, creating a personalized account and navigating the many features is fast and simple.

Negative: KickApps does run non-offensive advertisements on its hosted social networks. There is an option that allows users to pay to remove these advertisements. The cost of this service is based on the popularity of your social network. Another drawback is that DNS masking is not as seamless as if the social network was hosted directly on your website’s server.

Conclusion: The importance of user generated content is escalating, and stakeholders are expecting to have a social web experience. KickApps provides an excellent, easy to use and cost effective way of creating an integrated social network on your website.

By Mike Nelson | Posted in Buzz Meter | Comments (4)

Mar 26 2009

Buzz Meter: Socialpoint

March 26, 2009 – 9:56 am

User-generated content and conversation is the driving force behind the evolution of Web 2.0. Keeping up on what’s being said and by who is a demanding, important task. Enter Samepoint.com.

This tool seeks out the continuous stream of online discussions, converting them into permanent web pages. SamePoint then aggregates these conversations in a single location. It also provides a tag cloud for each article, and offers searches for all social mentions or particular categories.

“We feel the breath and depth of sources we’re mining, combined with the ability to parse results by social media type, [and] our unique search result features are helping to make us the number one site for online reputation management searches,” says Richard Krueger, Chief Conversations Officer.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 2 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: Frequently, standard search engines do not find user-generated conversations, as they are dynamic and constantly evolving. Samepoint provides a useful way to follow the conversation in a centralized location, and makes it easier to know what’s being said, track top influencers, and participate. Additionally, the real-time search results and the Q&A section keep you on top of the conversation. Also useful, the positive/negative words mention provides a basic level of a conversation’s sentiment, and each article’s large tag cloud saves time by providing users with an overview of the article’s topic before reading it in full.

Negative: Samepoint is still in beta form. It does not search all social sites and does not pickup all conversations in the sites it does search. Therefore, results are not comprehensive. Additionally, other monitoring sites evaluate relative social performance, and real-time analytics on searches, a useful feature not found on Samepoint.

Conclusion: Given the growing demand for tracking online conversations and reducing spam, the competition among social search engines is growing. Socialpoint is user friendly and beneficial; as it refines its searches it will become an even more valuable Web 2.0 tool.

By Mike Nelson | Posted in Buzz Meter | Comments (0)

Mar 19 2009

Buzz Meter: Social Mention

March 19, 2009 – 2:00 pm

Tracking conversations is a big part of using social media. Lots of online tools help with monitoring, but very few have the capability to search across all social media tools. Enter Social Mention.

Social Mention is a “real time search engine.” This tool searches through user-generated content across different types of social media such as blogs, microblogging services, comments, news, events, videos and bookmarks.

Social Mention also provides more than search results: A social rank score, based on popularity, is given to each search. The rank includes the time of the last mention of the search term as well as how often the search term is mentioned (i.e. Obama was mentioned every 26 minutes). The amount of online content generated from different sources is also populated and shared. Users can also search the RSS Feed and compile all search results in a CSV/Excel spreadsheet. A tag cloud of related terms is also included.

Popular social media sources Social Mention aggregates results from includes:

Google blog search
Twitter
Delicious
FriendFeed
Flickr
Digg
YouTube

Buzz Meter Ranking: 3 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: Individuals and especially organizations can monitor their online presence using Social Mention. The amount of information this search engine provides – across different sources – is very valuable. The search engine is very organized and easy to use. Additionally, Social Mentions helps organizations engage with their stakeholders.

Negative: Similar to all other search engines, Social Mention might not catch everything. If an organization wanted a comprehensive view of their online presence, a secondary check in other search engines or tools is necessary.

Conclusion: Social Mention is great to use for quick searches. In a recent study by Nielson Media, more marketers are planning to increase spending in social media this year. Social Mention will definitely help organizations learn if they’re leveraging social media to their advantage.

By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Tagged search engine, social media, social mention | Comments (4)

Mar 12 2009

Buzz Meter: Everywun

March 12, 2009 – 9:30 pm

Badges are often used to promote events or show affiliations to group or campaigns. Everywun is a new movement that enables people to support great causes with the use of social media. It supports five different types of causes: animals, environment, education, health and poverty.

Everywun uses credits as their form of currency. Upon registration, you receive 100 credits. The more credits you earn, the more you can spend in the Everywun store. There, you can redeem those credits for the impact you want to make, i.e. planting a tree. Actions you can take to support your causes are adding a badge to your Facebook, blog or website; answering trivia questions about your favorite cause, invite friends to join the Everywun Community, participate in a volunteer event, and join the Everywun Volunteer Team as a Campus or Community Leader. For every click on your badge, a donation is made by a corporate sponsor of Everywun.

This philanthropic movement also calls businesses to take action. According to Everywun, 85% of Americans change brands to brands if they are affiliated with a nonprofit. Additionally, 70% of Everywun’s profits are donated to charity!

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: This movement encourages everyone to be philanthropic – regardless of age. Both individuals and organizations can use this tool to help support causes near and dear to their hearts for free. The different types of actions make philanthropy even more fun and provides a platform for learning about the different causes.

Negative: Everywun only focuses on five types of causes and selects nonprofits based on CharityNavigator.org. If your charity is not registered on the site or has low visibility, chances are it won’t be in the Everywun Store.

Conclusion: A great movement for philanthropy. Many people feel like they have to hold back or stop supporting their causes because of the current economy. Everywun shuts any excuses for not giving and allows people a fun alternative to support causes through promotion, word-of-mouth and volunteering. Everywun uses social media for social good and I encourage you to do the same.

By Marinel Mones | Posted in Buzz Meter | Comments (2)

The Buzz Bin

Buzz Meter: Ping.fm

Buzz Meter: Diigo

Buzz Meter: TwitterGadget

Buzz Meter: KickApps

Buzz Meter: Socialpoint

Buzz Meter: Everywun

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