Social Media News 3/15/10

Sigh. Guess what mega-huge interactive conference is happening right now in Austin? SXSW. Guess who didn’t get to go? Me… a social media blogger that blogs weekly on social media news, and I couldn’t be at the single most important interactive conference of the year. Yeah… It’s ok. At least I can pretend #fakesxsw.

(That’s “South By Southwest” for those of you who do not speak geek.)

Big News from SXSW

Universal Check-in App Confirmed: Brightkite’s Stealth Service - RWW

Big Changes Are Coming to Digg: More Power to Publishers, Less Power to Top Diggers – RWW

Twitter’s New “At Anywhere” Platform Allows For Deeper Integration Into Third Party Sites – TechCrunch

Sneak Peek: Rhapsody’s Upcoming iPhone App – Wired

SXSW: Pandora in the Car Could Kill Sirius – PC World

Foursquare and Rival Geo-Location Games Find Lots of Love at SXSW – DailyFinance

SXSW Feeds

CMS Wire SXSW News and Articles

Wired SXSW News

Mashable SXSWi

Social Media: Strategy

9 Killer Tips for Location-Based Marketing – Mashable

Exploring Why Social Business Will Drive 21st Century Enterprises – Social Computing Journal

4 Ways to Effectively Use Social Media as a Catalyst – Mashable

Why User Competency Matters in Social Design – Mashable

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

More Droids Sold In First 74 Days Than iPhones – Nexus One Sales Very Slow – TechCrunch

PayPal Launches Revamped iPhone App, Teams With Bump For Phone-Tapping Money Transfers - TechCrunch

Digital Advertising

LivingSocial Raises $25 Million to Take On Groupon – Mashable

Hitwise: Facebook Hits No. 1 In U.S. – MediaPost

What Kind of Brand Associates With Chatroulette?: French Connection Offers Shopping Spree to Winner Who Hooks Up Using the Webcam Chat Room – AdAge

Twitter Expected To Take The Wraps Off Its Advertising Platform Today – TechCrunch

Internet Trends

How Twitter and Facebook Make Us More Productive – Wired

A Short (and Personal) History of Social Media: Why It’s Important to Consider the Boring Basics That Keep Things Sustainable – AdAge

Why Wikipedia Should Be Trusted As A Breaking News Source - RWW

5 Ways to Use Google Wave for Business – Mashable

Foursquare Hits 347,000 Checkins in a Day – Mashable

Reuters to Journalists: Don’t Break News on Twitter – Mashable

Social Media News 1/25/10

I’ve made a change to SMN that I hope will be helpful to you. Instead of listing news articles by source, I’ve listed this week’s set by topic. This should help bring a little more context to the list, and allow you to skim the headlines faster to find the news that most interests you. And as a bonus, it will improve my blog’s SEO. I would love to hear your feedback, let me know if this is better.

A pizza shop in New York has discovered how to generate a lot of social media buzz and sell more pizzas from it, without having any corporate presence in social media. Read about Crocodile Lounge and their strategy here. The key is to craft a compelling story that people will want to share. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but if you want social media to work for you, offer something of value.

Be sure to check your Twitter stream this Wednesday, as rumors have been swirling that Apple will officially announce the iSlate tablet, or possibly the iPhone OS 4.0. Other rumors have claimed that Apple will end its exclusivity with AT&T for the iPhone, and make the announcement at this event. The invitation-only Apple event is said to be held in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this Wednesday at 10am pacific.

I love the Intel ads. But I love Intel’s “Value Point System” even more. Developed with media agency OMD, Intel has developed a points system for website interactions that allows it to measure the effectiveness of its advertising.  This is web marketing genius, read about it here.

Twitter

Marketers’ Use of Twitter Goes Beyond Just Tweeting - Brandweek

The Twitter Suggested Users List Is Dead: Great News for Mainstream Users - ReadWriteWeb

Twitter Launches Location-Based Trending Topics – Mashable

Bill Gates Surpasses 100,000 Twitter Followers in 8 Hours – Mashable

Seesmic Look Tries to Take Twitter to the Masses – Mashable

Social Media: Strategy

Crocodiles and Free Pizza – Daily Sense

The K-factor Lesson: How Social Ecosystems Grow (Or Not) - Social Computing Journal

The New Social Gurus - Brandweek

4 Ways Social Media Budgets will Move in 2010 - Ignite Social Media

Clorox Seeking Attorney to Oversee Social-Media Programs – Ad Age

Facebook Starts Rolling Out Post Insights – Mashable

Social Media: Consumer Electronics

Apple ‘Tablets’ Sniffed by Analytics Are More Likely iPhones - Wired

R.I.P. iPhone Exclusivity – PC World

Apple’s Secret Cloud Strategy And Why Lala Is Critical – TechCrunch

iPhone Coming to All U.S. Carriers? [REPORT] – Mashable

Digital Advertising

Inside Intel’s Effectiveness System for Web Marketing - Ad Age

Double Fusion Brings Ads to PlayStaion 3 - Brandweek

Internet Trends

Life after Windows: What happens to tech if Microsoft dies - Yahoo! News

Why is Google Afraid of Facebook? Because Social Networking Could Soon Pass Search - ReadWriteWeb

The Era of Location-as-Platform Has Arrived - ReadWriteWeb

Search Engine Usage Soared in 2009 - PC World

Study: Mobile Web Beats Mobile App – Media Post

Bing, Google, And The Enigmatic T2: The Race For A Complete Semantic Search Engine – TechCrunch

Study: Internet radio reaching 32% of households, e-readers are hot – CrunchGear

Social Media News 1/19/10

What will Google and Apple go head-to-head on next? I think it’s going to be geographically sensitive ads. Apple submitted a patent which details how the iPhone could potentially pick up location-aware ads and apps for immediate and automatic download. Google was awarded a patent which teases real-time digital ads overlain on billboards and signs seen from Google Maps street view.  It’s really interesting that news of these patents got picked up by the media in the same week.

Another thought to ponder is what does local, on-the-go mobile advertising mean for the likes of Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla? Will one of these location-based social networking portals discover a new revenue model in location-based advertising?  Maybe, maybe not. Leave a comment and tell me what you think. Each day, we’re moving closer to having our digital content on any screen, at any time, at any place. Marketers need to keep that in mind.

Many bloggers and industry analysts have pointed to how our society uses social media in a time of crisis.  Haiti, of course, has seen a huge reaction in social media- the devastating loss and suffering has touched people from around the world. Like most people, I’m sure, I first heard of the news through my social media channels. And through social media, the Red Cross has raised an astounding $5 Million towards their rescue effort in Haiti. Below is a special section about the reaction to Haiti in social media.

Haiti & Social Media

The Earthquake in Haiti, Social Media, and Me: A Personal Reflection (Ad Age)

Red Cross Raises $5,000,000+ for Haiti Through Text Message Campaign (Mashable)

President Obama Finally Tweets – For Haiti – In Third Person (TechCrunch)

Haiti Earthquake Disaster: Google Earth, Online-Map Makers, Texts “Absolutely Crucial” (Fast Company)

Tweak the Tweet: New Twitter Hashtag Syntax for Sharing Information During Catastrophes (Read Write Web)

Mashable

Why Social Media Isn’t for Everyone

Local Faceoff: Yelp vs. Foursquare vs. Gowalla

Tech Crunch

YouTube Helps Vevo Overtake MySpace Music In The U.S. (Plus, Top Ten Music Properties)

Fast Company

iPhones Might Get Automatic Location-Aware Ads

Ads in Google Maps Street View: A Sign of Things to Come

Channel Web

Facebook Offers Free McAfee Software To Users

Google Docs Play Intensifies Cloud Storage Competition

Yahoo! News

P&G floats selling products on its own website

Apple may wipe slate clean for new tablet computer

Read Write Web

Google Plans to Upgrade Old Billboards in Street View

Twitter’s Growth Slows Dramatically

Blogs and Other News Sources

Google Docs gets file uploading, but no direct desktop sync (Ars Technica)

Netflix on Wii Won’t Challenge Microsoft, Sony (PC World)

Google Wakes: Dreams of Internet openness in China appear to be a fantasy (Forbes.com)

Google begins replying to more Nexus One complaints (Computer World)

Social Media News 1/4/10

Welcome to the year “twenty ten!” Make sure you start the year off right by reading this article about the grammatically correct way of saying “2010.” Or, check out www.TwentyNot2000.com

In this first edition of Social Media News, I want to talk about a growing fad called FourSquare. The user base of FourSquare pales in comparison to say Twitter, but I’ve touched on the geo-location social networking service in a few blog posts (the first one in my 9/11/09 post), and I believe it’s definitely worth taking notice.  FourSquare allows registered uses to “check-in” at restaurants and retail establishments, or any place that has a physical address, and the service will allow users to keep track of their history and the whereabouts of their friends. Currently, apps are available for iPhone, Android, and now PalmPre.  The user with the most check-ins will become the “Mayor” of that establishment, a designation that holds little value other than bragging rights.

Restaurants hip to social marketing are now exploring FourSquare promotions, such as giving discounts to their Mayors. Today, yours truly has been crowned the Mayor of Dunkin’ Donuts, and here’s hoping I can get a free coffee out of it! FourSquare promos can be used as a free distribution channel for coupons and discounts, and also spur competition between potential Mayors- who are probably your biggest local brand advocates.

Remember when I mentioned Google Caffeine way back in an August blog post? Probably not, so here’s a refresher. Google has been working on “secret project” called Google Caffeine to update how Google finds content on the web by improving the search algorithms. Though the average user won’t notice a huge difference, it’s important to note because it does change how Google indexes news and social media. Read more at TechCrunch here.

I’m an AT&T customer, and I hate AT&T. So I’m very pleased to share this snippet of AT&T’s folly in social media during the brief hours iPhones were unavailable on the AT&T website:

Something worth noting is AT&T has a responsive, stellar public relations team that uses a Twitter account, a YouTube channel and a Facebook page to interact with the media and consumers. The story could’ve been defused in a matter of minutes with a clear, believable explanation. Instead, AT&T used its PR to respond with an empty statement, leaving the world guessing the reasons for the suspension of iPhone sales in New York.

Read the full article– AT&T: The Communications Company That Failed to Communicate in 2009.

Ad Age

What We Can Learn From the Top Viral Videos of 2009

Gmail Points to Possibilities of the Coming Data Decade

Planning Your Next Move in Ad Land

Fast Company

What Can We Expect From the Consumer Electronics Show?

Uh-oh — Robots Can Learn and Generalize

Geotagging’s Seasonal Danger: Burglary

Is Google-AdMob Deal Bad for Consumers and Apple?

TechCrunch

Cheap Beer If You Check-In… Or Just Tweet

At Foursquare Venues, the Mayor Eats For Free

Google Is About To Get Caffeinated With A Faster Search Index

Privacy Theater: Why Social Networks Only Pretend To Protect You

Meebo Launches Self-Serve Meebo Bar, Takes A Look Back At Its Big Year

World Map of Social Networks Shows Rise of Facebook

Blippy Already Showing Off $1 Million Worth of Your Credit Card Purchases

The Rumors Are True: We Spend More And More Time Online

Mashable

In 2010, Your iPhone Could be a Credit Card Reader

REVEALED: The 100 Most Social Brands of 2009

BROWSER WARS: Google Chrome Overtakes Apple’s Safari

Foursquare Launches on Palm Pre

HOW TO: Do Almost Anything Online in 2010

Wired

AT&T: The Communications Company That Failed to Communicate in 2009

Boxee Beta Is a Web Video Streamer’s Dream

MySpace Replaces Embedded Imeem Playlists With Ads

Reports: AT&T Stops Some iPhone Sales in NYC (Update)

Blogs and Other News Sources

Google Nexus One Sold Directly and Only by Google, Officially Supported By T-Mobile (Gizmodo)

Apple Dominates Social Brand Ranking (Brandweek)

Social Media News 11/7/09

Welcome to the Social Media News double-hitter! This week’s post will also cover last week’s headlines in social media. For the first time since I’ve been writing the Social Media News, I missed last week’s recap due to illness as well as being out of town. So here’s a two-for-one post to make up for it.

Twitter’s new List feature has been the talk of the town in social media during the past two weeks.  I first made mention of the new feature in the 10/23 SMN post.  Since then, there’s been thousands of articles and blog posts written up about Lists. Some of my favorites are these: Twitter Lists:  FAQ and Strategies, Twitter Lists and Real-Time Journalism, 4 Ways News Organizations are Using Twitter Lists, and The Brilliance of Twitter Lists and Suggestions for Improvement.  Twitter Lists are fantastic for grouping tweeps based on interest or profession, organizing various Twitter streams into topic categories, and allowing users to quickly access specific tweeps without having to be a follower. More over, an unexpected benefit from Lists is the creation of another way to judge popularity, authority and/or influence of every Twitter user: each Twitter profile displays how many times a user has been “Listed”.  In addition to how many followers one may have, the number of Lists that a user has been listed on gives us a quantitative value of their Twitter social status.

Lists have been praised as the most useful improvement ever made on Twitter. However, the TwitterPeek is a new gadget hailed as one of the most useless Twitter tools of all time. The TwitterPeek is a small, smartphone-sized device meant for one thing, and one thing only: connect you to Twitter. It doesn’t do anything that just about any smartphone can’t do, and I believe the price tag is a little steep for a one trick pony: $99 for six months of service ($8/month after that), or $199 for a lifetime service plan. I much rather have a new Coach wallet, thanks.

On Wednesday Apple announced that it’s iTunes App Store has reached 100,000 iPhone apps. But as ReadWriteWeb reports, new data from AppsFire reveals that of those 100,000 available apps, only about 20% of them are currently used. The other 80% of apps are not actively installed on iPhones, iPods or iTouch devices. Classic 80/20 rule. Click here for the long-tail graph from AppsFire.

Following the news of Bing and Google’s deals with Twitter to include tweets in search result a few weeks ago, Google announced a new Google Labs experiment its calling Google Social Search. Here’s the idea: you create a social graph on your Google user profile by linking all of your social networking accounts like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed as well as Google products like YouTube, Picasa and Blogger. Once your social graph is complete, information from those networks will be integrated into Google search results.  When you search Google for a product, service, destination, or anything else, recommendations and comments from your friends, family and other contacts would be displayed alongside the normal Web results on the search page. In this way, the Google search engine becomes a recommendation engine. If this idea becomes mainstream, it will be a game-changer for SEO and SEM marketers, as organic search listings will compete against word of mouth from the user’s social circle. Watch the demo video and get all the details straight from the Google blog, and be sure to check out this great article from ClickZ: Social Media, Meet Search.

Ad Age

The Two Faces of Facebook

Social-Media Pranksters Had Fun With Walmart’s Caskets

TechCrunch

NBC Prepares For The Winter Olympics With Silverlight, HD Video, And Facebook Connect

Facebook Share Adds Live Share Counts, Analytics

Apple Has No Sense Of Humor. Luckily, Google Does

MediaPost

Research Brief: Twittering To Keep Current

Consumers More Willing To Share Brand Info On Social Networks Than Previously Thought

Mashable

4 Ways News Organizations are Using Twitter Lists

Twitter Lists: Frequently Asked Questions and Strategies

WOW: Facebook Adding Half a Million New Users Every Day

Twitter Lists: Frequently Asked Questions and Strategies

Killer Facebook Fan Pages: 5 Inspiring Case Studies

LinkedIn Is Getting a Redesign [Pics]

Pizza Hut’s iPhone App Has Generated $1 Million in Sales

Google Dashboard: Now You Know What Google Knows About You

Blogs and other news media

Twitter lists and real-time journalism (CNN)

Social Media, Meet Search (Click Z)

Vegas Hotels Trade Rooms In Exchange for New Twitter Followers (BlackWeb 2.0)

Introducing Google Social Search: I finally found my friend’s New York blog! (Google Blog)

The TwitterPeek is a Peek that tweets (CrunchGear)

TwitterPeek: The Twitter-Only Gadget Destined for Extinction (PC World)

iTunes App Store: 100k Apps, But Only 20% Are Being Used (ReadWriteWeb)

Google’s Creepy Social Search (PC Mag)

E-Mail Marketers Don’t Get Mobile Marketing (Mobile Marketing Watch)

Blinded by the Tweet: Don’t let social media infatuation blue TV and video (MediaPost)

The Brilliance of Twitter Lists and Suggestions for Improvement (The Next Web)