Mind Meld - Social media opinions

CMS for social networks

Roger — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:55:05 +0000

Great post Jeremiah. You bring together two key features of the online environment, social networking and CMS. As I see it, given the diversity of CMS vendors, it is inevitable that some of them will start to move into developing social features. It seems to me a no-brainer to build into legacy systems; since social features are basically CMS-driven with additional bells and whistles. That said, it may be more cost-effective to buy social features and shoe-horn them in rather than develop them in-house. That will be a challenge for the managers. White label vendors will have to build for easy integration. A vendor will opt for those solutions that integrate easiest with their legacy systems. Competition dictates that those white labels offering the simplest route will win.

Original post June 30th, 2008 6:53 am

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/30/social-software-here-come-the-cms-vendors

Consoligation and SMPR

Roger — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:15:32 +0000

Hi Jeremiah,

Thoughtful and erudite post! You are right of course that consolidation (or aggregation) of social media will be necessary for effective message management.

So services such as FriendFeed are important and will continue to evolve as competitors emerge.

However, this trend overlooks one of the fundamental purposes of social media, to enhance connectivity among groups that share specific concerns or interests. So the need to consolidate is opposed by the trend to fragment.

Your colleague Charlene Li has written around this topic, and I wrote about it in my blog a couple of months back. http://snipurl.com/25gcl

My sense here is that one size can never fit all. FriendFeed will serve a purpose and some businesses may use it in place of SMPR. However, in other cases, such as B2B, SMPR will remain necessary, particularly in more fragmented markets.

Original post June 27th, 2008 5:15 am

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/10/how-brands-will-use-friendfeed

Blogging negatively

Roger — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:23:29 +0000

Darren, I agree with 99% of what you write, but here I’m with Jenn. I think that avoiding negativity for the sake of keeping up appearances (questionably traffic) is counterproductive. It goes against the ethos of blogging, which is to express a personal viewpoint. To have a persistently rosy polyannish perspective is surely unrealistic for any topic. You say that “There’s nothing wrong with an occasional negative Rant.” Right. But to be consistently calculating about it is disingenuous at best, if not dishonest.

I do get your point. For example, I love Twitter and devote a blog to it. So when Twitter is down or seems poorly managed, it’s hard to take a stick to it. But tough love is sometimes necessary.

Passion will keep your blog alive, whether or not it’s positive. More important than trying to keep a positive spin is to stick with the basics that you have previously so well articulated on Problogger: keep posts timely, to the point and relevant. And above all speak from the heart.

Original post June 25th, 2008 3:19 am

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/06/25/becoming-a-negative-blogger-how-to-let-your-blog-go-7/

Competing socially

Roger — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:55:48 +0000

Hi Chris, great post as always.

An essential part of the mix in determining a social media strategy is a competitive analysis. Part of strategy is understanding what else is out there–what you’re up against.

If your competitor has a social media presence, how does it present? Does it comprise a stand-alone social network, blogging or forums? Does it use open source or a custom solution? Does the competitor have a presence on Twitter, or popular social platforms such as MySpace or Facebook? If the competitor has a significant social media presence what is your value add or differentiator?

Original post June 24, 2008 @ 8:54 am

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/social-media-strategy-the-planning-stage/

The Social Graph

Roger — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:23:22 +0000

Chris, great post, as always. Thoughtful and erudite. Of course, Google and MS, among others are interested in the “social graph” — the landscape of how folks are connected through various social media platforms. Charlene Li at Forrester has some interesting thoughts, and I blogged about the tension between consolidation and fragmentation a while back. Your piece offers a useful perspective on this unfolding , evolving technology.

Original post June 18, 2008 @ 10:22 am

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/threading-the-social-needle

Twitter versus Plurk

Roger — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:43:59 +0000

Yup. There’s no way Plurk will succeed without the API and, moreover, its adoption by the developer community. Its open API has been one of the strengths of Twitter, greatly extending its functionality.

I haven’t seen any news of the release at the time of writing…

Original post 2008-06-12 06:34:30
http://mashable.com/2008/06/10/plurk-api

Good post, thanks. I agree that the debate is not about one versus the other. These services are different, will appeal to different demographics and will evolve in different directions. Maybe one will come to dominate, as Google emerged to dominate search (there are parallels in the evolution of this technology). But another possibility is a consolidator function which will allow a user to microblog one time and send that to all the various applications.

Original post June 12th, 2008
http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/social-media-blogging-tips/twitter-vs-friendfeed-vs-plurk

Wasting Twitter

Roger — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:22:03 +0000

Great post, Darren, thanks.

You’re right of course, anything can be a waste of time if not used appropriately.

And it’s probably that preconception that inhibits new adopters of Twitter more than most.

And it’s that impression that some people have when they first try it which causes them to leave.

But like any tool, which is what Twitter is, you need to learn how to use it before becoming effective.

Twitter’s simplicity works against it in this regard. Many people think because it is so simple, that there’s nothing to it—that there is no learning curve. Wrong!

Chaos theory teaches us huge complexity can emerge from the simplest initial conditions (as I have mentioned in several blog posts and comments). That is what has happened, is happening and does happen with Twitter.

Users need to get their heads around this complexity and navigate their way through it to realize what a profoundly important tool Twitter has become.

Original post June 6th, 2008 2:21 am

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/06/06/twitter-is-a-waste-of-time

Using Twitter to promote your blog

Roger — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:22:01 +0000

Interesting post, thanks Scott.

I like the experimental approach. From my own experience, Twitter is a useful promotional tool, but it should not (for the moment) be the only one in the mix. My own website, which is primarily about Twitter, started in April. I have used a variety of channels to promote the blog including commenting on other blogs, placing a link on Wikipedia (quickly removed!) and posting on Twitter. Of course, I have also focused on SEO by tagging appropriately, using relevant outgoing links, etc.

To date, I am finding that Twitter provides about 10 percent of my traffic. It’s early days yet, but I think the bottom line is that bloggers need to use a range of promotional tools, of which Twitter is one.

Incidentally in a recent post on my own blog, I discuss my findings that a majority of the top Twitter users are bloggers. Clearly, they are getting mileage out of Twitter.

Original post June 4th, 2008 at 6:21 am

http://www.manvsblog.com/2008/06/03/the-twitter-effect

The social media/CRM juncture

Roger — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:55:39 +0000

Good post, Jeremiah, thanks.

Business exploitation of the social media/CRM juncture is inevitable. As marketplaces fragment (with increased product diversification and personalization of customer experience) the only way enterprise will be able to stay ahead is by increasing customization of product. But how to leverage social networks to develop leads? One solution, which I blogged on a while back, is Kaleidico. In fact they promise the end of conventional CRM through their app SalesTwit, in which sales can connect directly with leads through any media, at any time, any place. This seems to fit the linkage model you’re proposing. But we’ll have to wait and see whether the solution is succesful in the long run.

Original post June 3rd, 2008 7:55 am

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/03/when-social-media-marries-crm-systems

What's captology?

Roger — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:44:59 +0000

Good post Lee, thanks. It mirrors where my thoughts have been for some time. The technology is there (aside from Twitter issues recently!), in at least being able to provide a meaningful user experience. The problem, as you rightly point out, is adoption—getting users to adopt a technology. For example, most people don’t see the point of Twitter (or other social network) until they begin to use it. So the non-users need to modify their mindset to a point where they will at least try the technology. “Don’t knock ‘til you’ve tried it,” is a long worn adage, that fits most appropriately. The science of behavior modification is “captology.” One of the leaders in this space is BJ Fogg at Stanford: http://www.bjfogg.com/ His site and linked sites are well worth a visit if you are interested in this topic.

Original post June 3, 2008 at 10:42 am

http://equintconsulting.com/enterprise-20-behaviors