Twitterposter and Measuring Influence
November 28, 2007
A few weeks ago, an application called Twitterposter made a splash in the Twitter community. Twitterposter is an interesting Twitter API application that purports to display the relative influence of Twitter users. The problem is that it uses the number of followers as it’s measure of influence.
We need to stop getting caught up in raw numbers as the measure of anything significant. How many followers do you have on Twitter, how many friends on Facebook? Those numbers are not what really matters. It’s not how many people are following you, but more who is following you. What is the real influence power of those following you and are you even saying anything interesting or worthwhile?
Technorati Tags: Influence, Twitter
The Connected World 13
November 24, 2007
On this podcast, I talk about kids and technology, specifically related to my experience with my daughter. I explore what it means that kids are getting so involved in online virtual worlds like Club Penguin and Webkins.
Won’t You Be My Fanboy?
November 8, 2007
The new Facebook social advertising platform puts forth the concept of “fans”. You can signup to be a fan of a participating brand. Technically, this is a little like a brand forming a Facebook group, as some have already done. But this takes it a step further and allows the brand to distribute to you ads and viral Facebook apps.
It all feels a little forced to me. Usually fanboys evolve organically. A product or company get popular and people of like interest form together to talk about that brand or product and some reach full fanboy status. But it all happens without influence from the brand itself. It’s organic and driven by the customers. The brand just has to stay out of the way.
Here, brands are trying to create fans out of whole cloth. Are there really going to be Clorox fanboys (fangirls)? It’s just not a product that lends itself to that and I don’t think it’s the kind of a thing you can force. It would make more sense to me to indicate your current interest level in certain product areas. If I am in the market for a new car, than I would actually appreciate hearing from car makers and I should be able to open myself up to that. When I am no longer in the market for a car, I can close down that channel. Here, in real new media fashion, the consumer is in control of the advertising pipeline. I decide when and how to open the faucet and for how long. Many ad systems try to guess what your interested in based on your age, demographics or by the content of what you read online. But why guess, why not let me tell you directly?
Social Media Ad Glut
November 8, 2007
Om Malik nails it on his latest blog post about the coming advertising glut in social media. Om asks, how much is too much? Facebook and Myspace have announced new social advertising initiatives as well as a recent forecast that US online ad spending with double between 2007 and 2011.
So indeed, how much is too much and are we going to find ourselves as over advertised and marketed to as we are in the current mainstream media? So far new media has found itself relatively light on advertising and marketing. But as ad banners on websites become ever less effective, online marketers are looking for new and better ways to get to customers.
Maybe the key question is now how much advertising will there be in new and social media because marketers will always beat a path toward customers and more and more of them are showing up on social networks, but how good the advertising will be. How intrusive and impersonal will it be? We talk so much in new media about engagement and conversation. New media marketing is supposed to be different than old media marketing and this is to be our saving grace in the new world. But has the old guard now rushing into new media really learned this lesson? Will these new platforms embrace and encourage the new ideas of new marketing, or are we moving back into the frying pan from whence we came?
Brilliant Talk by Larry Lessig
November 6, 2007
This talk given by Larry Lessig at the 2007 TED is absolutely fantastic and right on. Brilliant stuff and a must watch.