Here’s a great article on the next generation of Social Media courtesy of Jim Nichols and IMedia Connection:
“If you said “social media” to a marketer 18 months ago, chances are they’d have thought exclusively of social networks. No more. We’re seeing social capabilities incorporated into virtually every digital experience. This has brought opportunities and dilemmas for marketers. I say dilemmas because lots of brands got online by pounding to fit a broadcast-shaped peg into an interactive-shaped hole. They developed one-way websites, banners, and search programs. Social media analytics tools are showing us that this model had many flaws.
But as more and more brands embrace social for the two-way offering it is, it’s important that we keep abreast of major news in the segment.
This article is designed to give marketers some highlights of what new initiatives, offerings, and companies appear to have traction. It’s not for the social “expert.” Rather it’s geared to the generalist who wants a survey of some of the more important and interesting developments.
Without further ado, check out this summary of social developments divided into four “buckets”:
Facebook Open Graph and the socializing of content sites
Facebook’s new Open Graph (OG) initiative is a means of adding value for its members across the web while simultaneously enabling content publishers to offer social features. In OG’s launch week, more than 50,000 sites incorporated OG components. Many of those implementations were small, such as adding a “like” button embedded in content. But here are some of the ways it’s being used on a grander scale:
Pandora is leveraging Open Graph to facilitate the sharing of music and discoveries between friends. Capabilities include:
•See a list of friends who use Pandora
•See which artists and songs are “liked” by friends
•Import Facebook pic into your Pandora profile
•Listen to friends’ stations
•Get music suggestions based upon music you “liked”
The Huffington Post has socialized its content by offering a “Hot on Facebook” module, a “what your friends are reading” module, and a “like” button on most stories.
Newspaper sites are incorporating a sort of “your news” box that lists the latest “news” you have received on Facebook. Here’s the version on The Washington Post’s website.
Yes, Facebook’s hit some roadblocks and hurdles over privacy. Assuming it gets past those, Open Graph will make profound changes in how we consume content.
Promoted Tweets debut
The big news on Twitter is Promoted Tweets. These are sponsored tweets that appear in the Twitter Search results.
Twitter announced Sponsored Tweets and its charter sponsor list (Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America) in April. More recently, Twitter altered its terms of service to ban the Twitter platforms and third parties from embedding sponsored tweets into users’ tweet streams. Twitter shared this rationale:
First, third party ad networks are not necessarily looking to preserve the unique user experience Twitter has created. They may optimize for either market share or short-term revenue at the expense of the long-term health of the Twitter platform. For example, a third party ad network may seek to maximize ad impressions and click through rates even if it leads to a net decrease in Twitter use due to user dissatisfaction. Secondly, the basis for building a lasting advertising network that benefits users should be innovation, not near-term monetization.
UnFacebooks and user control
Partly as a response to concerns about Facebook’s privacy missteps, a number of alternative social networks are attracting attention. From tech blogs to Elle.com, the UnFacebooks are a popular story. Of course Orkut, MySpace, and Friendster are also trying to capitalize on Facebook’s stumbles. But here are some new sites getting play:
Diaspora: Billing itself as “an open source personal web service that will put individuals in control of their data,” Diaspora is the brainchild of four NYU students and has raised more than 20 times its initial funding goal. The idea behind Diaspora is essentially opt-in, versus the major social sites’ opt-out approach. It is working feverishly to get everything going this summer.
Pip.io lets users define different “rooms” of people that they want to share information with. Users can also define if they want one- or two-way communications with their rooms.
A self-described “social operating system,” Pip.io is clearly trying to be more than a social net. When you visit, make sure you are using Firefox or Chrome, not MSIE.
Story of My Life is a new platform enabling members to tell stories in a variety of media and make them private or public. I love the idea of letting more people tell the stories of their lives. And not just in words.
Does it sound like a blog platform to you? Yes, but the community features make it more than that. And it’s really more about defined stories than a stream of consciousness.”
Small Business Trends
