What are Social Media & Social Networking?Social Media is online media (text, audio, video, imagery, interactive) with a ‘strong participatory element’

Social networking refers to the activity of these users, connecting, sharing & discussing social media

Attributes of Social Media• Interaction-based

• Two-way communication

• Flatter, more direct access & communication

• Open, interoperable, easily shared information (RSS, software APIs allow other web, desktop, and mobile apps to interact beyond the browser)

Concepts & Trends

OpennessExamples: Creative Commons, Open Source, etc.

InteractionDiscussion, relationships, reputation, conversation

Interoperable & “Mashable”RSS is a universal data format that enables web apps to talk to each other, or be viewed & repurposed in other ways.

Nearly every successful Web 2.0 media leverages RSS in some way.

RSS readers: Google Reader, NetNewsWire (Mac), Newsfire (Win), myriad others

Because of their open nature, the trend is for networks, apps and services to have “hooks” or open standards (such as RSS) that allow them to work together. “Mashable” refers to the ability to combine web services (such as Google Maps) with other data to produce new (and often unintended) applications, like the indispensable EspressoMap.

Social Media 101 Presentation

R. Allan White | Thursday, March 19, 2009

What’s “Web 2.0” Mean?“Web 2.0 encapsulates the idea of the proliferation of interconnectivity and interactivity of web-delivered content. Tim O'Reilly regards Web 2.0 as the way that business embraces the strengths of the web and uses it as a platform.” Really a internet-biz buzzword, coined after the big DotCom Bubble bursting of early 2001.

Essentially, it moved the more social and interactive aspects of what could be done with web browsers into the mainstream with truly useful web applications.

Rich Metadata: the Semantic WebMetadata simply means “data about data”.

All content - online and off - is being described (text and sometimes voice), discussed, tagged (folksonomy), geotagged (GPS) & organized by the masses. Examples: Google Earth, Flickr, iPhoto ’09’s face recognition.

Google Juice!Google finds conversations and overlapping relationships between sites and trends “interesting”, therefore more highly ranked. Critical in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) calculations, particularly when ad revenues are a factor.

Identity 2.0Web 1.0: nobody knows you’re a dog on the internet.

Web 2.0: Everyone knows your name! People want to know who they’re talking to – and people are happy to share.

Identity is a white-hot topic for developers & users right now: Facebook Connect, Cliqset, OpenID, Gravatar, Sxip;

Amazon “Real Name” reviewers and commenting systems like Disqus, Intense Debate et. al. are also an expression of this need.

Personal“The day of the expert is over” — direct access to people, no intermediaries.

MobilePhones aren’t just for calling anymore, but represent a distinct “platform”. In one sense, mobile social networking (web, voice, text) is the most social of all. Explosive growth in this segment, particularly in developing countries (the US actually lags in mobile broadband and tech).

Social Media 101 Presentation

R. Allan White | Thursday, March 19, 2009

User activitiesThe “Social Technographics Spectrum” (Forester Research 2008) describes behaviors of different types of social networkers:

Social-networking sites/productsLPA’s mass evangelism is focused on cities, the largest population centers. Reflecting that principle, we may wish to target the most popular social networks; which ones are those? Answer: it depends on where you are.

Here’s a great article listing sites by popularity, with nice ‘heatmaps’ of popularity by country.

The following listed are examples - there’s dozens of smaller ones in each category, and a great deal of feature and attribute overlap.

Social Media PortalsFacebookOnce it opened beyond college, it never looked back. Already the most popular in Canada, it’s set to take the lead in the US in 2009. Facebook is a technology leader with its Applications (web apps that live in Facebook) and initiatives like Facebook Connect, which allow other sites to use one’s Facebook profile.

• More than 175 million active users

• More than half of Facebook users are outside of college

• The fastest growing demographic is those 30 years old and older• More than 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Inactives• Not participating in social

media currently

• Question: why is that? Are they not online, or is social media intimidating?

• Examine the trend: inactives are dropping. Social media is much “friendlier”. Q: how many grandparents are using social media?

Spectators• Read blogs• Listen & watch podcasts

• Read online forums related to their interests

• Read customer ratings & reviews (e.g. Amazon.com book reviews)

Joiners• Maintain their profiles on

one or more social networking sites

• Visit and view social networking sites

• Are willing to sign up for news aggregators or use RSS

Collectors• Social Technographics

spectrum

• Use RSS feeds to read web content

• “Votes” for web sites

• Adds tags or other metadata to sites, web pages, or other media

Critics• Social Technographics

spectrum

• Post ratings/reviews of products or services

• Comment on blogs, forums, & online communities such as wikis

Creators• Social Technographics

spectrum• Publish a blog or web pages

• Upload videos they created• Upload audio/music or

podcast they created

• Write articles or stories & post them

• Manage discussions about their content

Social Media 101 Presentation

R. Allan White | Thursday, March 19, 2009

LinkedInExample of a niche social network. Business-oriented, based on trust networks

MySpaceVery popular worldwide and with younger audiences. Allan’s least-favorite place on the internet. However, very intense activity. Story: John Sowers’ Fatherless Generation has nearly 30,000 ‘friends’ on Myspace, with many powerful stories being shared.

Status Updating ServicesTwitterThe king of Status. What are you doing, in 140 characters? Mobile-flavored, flat-field, real-time. Link: The Beauty of Twitter.

Media Sharing ServicesFlickrFlickr’s use of Creative Commons licensing (better usage terms) has drawn users looking for imagery. Good social features, too.

YouTubeThe King of Video, YouTube recently surpassed Yahoo! for searches, behind only Google (which bought them last year)

Blogs & Publishing ServicesBlogs are social media platforms run by individuals or corporations. From the words “web+log=blog”. Examples: Blogger.com, Wordpress, TypePad, Expression Engine (Allan’s fave). Blogs are becoming social media aggregators (bringing in media, updates, RSS, etc. into one space).

Link Sharing & TaggingArmies of users tag (a “folksonomy”, sort of the opposite of top-down classification systems) and classify sites and other online media. Examples: Del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit.

Values that succeed in the social media space:• Sincerity & authenticity

• Individual focus; real names are attached to content. This relates to Identity 2.0 (broad usage)

• Community - connecting with overlapping & related community groups. Location-based and location-aware applications enable real-world connections in the area. Examples: Beer & Blog, Invisible Children

• Mission: Causes that are global, local, or individual/personal

Want to learn more? Check out Allan’s links tagged with “Social Media”.

Social Media 101 Presentation

R. Allan White | Thursday, March 19, 2009