Social Software Explored

Recently my mom not only asked me to join her on Facebook (or maybe more likely she asked to join me on Facebook) she also created a Twitter account and posted “@notronwest I lost your number can you call me?” (as her first post ever) She recently took down her Twitter account when I told her not to follow me there cause she wouldn’t understand a word I said but, I think she is pretty serious about Facebook.

Facebook and Mom - matched made in ??

Not unfamiliar territory for most of us but I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the expectations a mother should have should one of her offspring decide to connect on social media sites (like Facebook)

1.) Don’t expect to understand everything that your offspring says. We are in a different world now and for some of us the language is different. I am not talking about words like “wicked” or “phat” or other social slang - I am talking about Doppelganger, Pandora, Hipster … words that have real connotation but are best described to those that don’t understand with a role of the eyes.

2.) Don’t pretend to understand everything that your offspring says. Nothing worse than a “hip” mother sharing their favorite 60’s Pandora radio station link on your Facebook wall.

3.) Don’t take anything that your offspring says or does personally. What you get on Facebook is sometimes easily taken out of context. This is a relatively new medium for most of us and we ourselves are trying to figure out the right way to use it. We may (and often do) say something that isn’t quite politically correct or goes against the morals you taught us. Remember that sometimes we drink before we update Facebook and therefore can’t be held completely responsible for our actions. Unconditional love - right?

4.) Keep your distance. Let it come to you (and it will). Eventually, over time, you will understand that less is more. Again you are gaining a unique view into your offspring’s life. One that you were never afforded before. Imagine what you would have thought should you have bugged the bedroom when I was 10 and had my friends over for a sleepover or gasp when I was 16 and my girlfriend and I … well you get the picture.

5.) Get involved but don’t offer advice (not online anyways). We are past that stage in our lives (most of us anyways) where we don’t want your advice. We get it - your smart - you’ve been there and done that. Most of us don’t want our friends to see that we are still attached at the hip - I mean were in our 30’s for goodness sake - if we can’t demonstrate that we have figured it out by now we will never make it.

6.) Don’t be surprised if we call less and post more. We are creatures of the net. Our jobs and home life have equal parts human contact and digital contact. If we feel we can get our point across or have our questions answered online - that’s where it will happen. It doesn’t mean we won’t call - ever - just not as much.

7.) This is a huge opportunity - don’t blow it.

Oh - and by the way - we love you!

Uncategorized facebook, Mom, social media, Twitter

Bill Gates is on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/billgates) . Yay! (really?) I find it quite amusing that in the first 3 hours he demonstrated the real power of Twitter - Open Connections in a Real Time World.  Take a look at his second post:

RT @RyanSeacrest: Just got a call from cnn. here are the final numbers raised from last nights show.. for unicef + american red cross $8 … about 6 hours ago from web

RT @RyanSeacrest: here are the final numbers raised from last nights show for unicef + american red cross $8,944,956

RT @RyanSeacrest: here are the final numbers raised from last nights show for unicef + american red cross $8,944,956 [double it - call me]

Uncategorized Bill Gates, social media, Twitter

What Facebook chooses to do with your content in the coming months/years will unequivocally determine its fate. Period.  I really could stop the post here and we could all move on but for some of you that have been reading and I suggest the following:

1.) Facebook Change of Policy: Why You Should Care

2.) How do You Feel About Facebook Owning Your Content?

3.) Zuckerburg On Who Owns User Data On Facebook: It’s Complicated

lets spend a minute to talk about the possibilities.

What if Facebook did sell your photo to and advertiser and they made a commercial which sold a product which made millions and Facebook got half.

What if Facebook took your idea that you posted in your note and sold it to a VC company who turned your idea into a multi-million dollar product which in turn made millions for Facebook

What if….

The list goes on and if you read Mona’s examples you may be left with an uneasy feeling that you should be protecting your information.  You might even go so far as to stop posting pictures, and notes and comments for fear that your information will be sold to the highest bidder.  You might even become an ultra  radical and remove your profile from the site and start an "I Hate Facebook" Bebo site.  Go ahead, its a free country.

I am going to tell you why you shouldn’t though

Content is King

First of all everyone at Facebook knows that as long as there is fresh new content by new users each day - people will continue to show up.  The content (which some people are losing site of) is the only thing that Facebook has going for it.  From pictures, to status updates and comments.  From videos and links to (yes even) those stupid Bumper Sticker requests.  Its all good.  Facebook has more content then it knows what to do with and that’s why they are wrestling with how they handle it.

The recent updates to the TOS is really just a sneaky way for Facebook to value its site.  Advertising sucks and will continue to suck as users become more savvy towards old school marketing tactics.  Although there is still some value in the number of people that visit a site its the information that is placed into this site which ultimately holds this thing together.

Erich Schonfield sums it up like this:

When you share your data with someone else, whether it be an email or a photo, it becomes their data as well. You cannot normally rescind data you share with other people in an e-mail. So why should a social network be any different?

And I for one agree. Facebook is a digital history book of all your interactions (good or bad) with all of the people that participate in your network.  If that digital history starts to get holes in it the site loses its luster.  The changes are an insurance policy to investors and suitors which Facebook will use to improve its valuation.

What If?

So back to the what if.  Well what if one day Facebook started to use your content for profit with or without your knowledge.  What would you do?  You would do the same thing that everyone else would do.  You would leave.  But before you left, you would leave your mark.  You would tell your friend, your friends friend and anyone else who would listen.  You would start a group.  You would reach out to advocates and you would tell them your story.  You would inform them that Facebook has used your content and is now profiting and that you got nothing.

It will become easier and easier for ordinary people to be heard.  The walls of communication have been knocked down.  Facebook knows this.  They understand this very well.  They don’t want you leave and if they are going to put this at risk then they will fail.  Miserably.

Up to know Facebook and I have an agreement in writing and one in principal. Until either of these agreements are broken I think we are safe.  And if any of you think that its hard to re-build something like Facebook - think again.

Update (2.18.2009): Facebook posts this message at the top of the home page today:

Terms of Use Update

Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.
If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

Hmmm… thank you for validating my point. No need to worry.

Uncategorized Content, facebook, social media, TechCrunch, TOS

I have been wanting to right this article for a few weeks (er months) now.  It has to do with the changing face of marketing especially around advertising.  Particularly with how things get sold. The article which sparked my interest was actually written late last year and posted on Business Week.  It is entitled: “A Modest Blogging Proposal” The article talks about a growing trend in the blogging world: “pay per post”.  The idea being that a company can pay an important or well followed blogger to essentially influence readers by writing good things about a product or its company.  In the early days of Social Media an idea like this was outlandish and preposterous.  No good blogger would ever write anything that was either untrue or tainted simply to satisfy a sponsor.

In “The Tipping Point”, Malcolm Gladwell speaks of the power of influential people and challenges, that perhaps it is only a few influential people who “tip” the scales of modern day consumerism.  He tells a a tale about Mavens, Connectors and Salesman and how they can control the most innocuous fads such as the growth of Hush Puppies as the trendiest of trends.  His story and others like it have forced me to think about why we buy and how that has changed over the years.

Influences

We all have influences - the TV, the World wide web, magazines, radio, newspapers. They all play some sort of role in how we make decisions.    Without marketing and advertising many of the products you buy (even consistent products) wouldn’t exist because you wouldn’t know about them.  Those 10-15 pages in the front of almost every magazine with full page ads are there to influence our choices and display branded images that we can relate to.  Without this form of advertising you would have to see a product in use or more likely you would have to hear about it from someone you knew.

A lot of how we buy however is influenced by other people: friends, families, co-workers. What if we erased marketing and advertising and didn’t have sites like Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Twitter and every other social network around (eek sounds like the dark ages to me).  Without any marketing, advertising or social networking we would essentially be back to the way it was at the turn of the century, at least in the minds of a product owner.  Consumers had little knowledge of anything outside their local network which if they were lucky stretched a few towns separated by a few miles at most.

What if we really did erase marketing and advertising? How would you even know that a product existed? Really, in a nut shell marketing and advertising is a few people (or companies) that decide which products and brands will sell.  What if marketing and advertising wasn’t the only way you could find out about a product?   What if we had a network of people (at our fingertips) that could help us make these decisions?  At the turn of the century you could picture a few people riding from town to town with carts or wagons selling products that solved this problem or a new product you have never seen that could be used to clean dirt off a pan or your clothes (yikes another scary vision).  But is that essentially where we are?  Full circle?  A few influencers using this new medium to distribute their ideas and thoughts?

Enter Social Media

The ultimate result of the debate spawned by the article “A Modest Blogging Proposal” was this:

…we came to the realization that few bloggers see any conflict in being paid to write a post, even if payment comes from the same company being reviewed.

Hmmm… bloggers who don’t make money on their blog turn to sponsorship by companies who can’t use traditional means like television and magazine advertising to sell products because nobody is listening.  Hmmm…scary.

This is where I feel Wayne had us all beat - back in 1992:

Benjamin: Wayne! Listen, we need to have a talk about Vanderhoff. The fact is he’s the sponsor and you signed a contract guaranteeing him certain concessions, one of them being a spot on the show.
Wayne Campbell: [holding a Pizza Hut box] Well that’s where I see things just a little differently. Contract or no, I will not bow to any sponsor.
Benjamin: I’m sorry you feel that way, but basically it’s the nature of the beast.
Wayne Campbell: [holding a bag of Doritos] Maybe I’m wrong on this one, but for me, the beast doesn’t include selling out. Garth, you know what I’m talking about, right?
Garth Algar: [wearing Reebok wardrobe] It’s like people only do these things because they can get paid. And that’s just really sad.
Wayne Campbell: I can’t talk about it anymore; it’s giving me a headache.
Garth Algar: Here, take two of these!
[Dumps two Nuprin pills into Wayne's hand]
Wayne Campbell: Ah, Nuprin. Little. Yellow. Different.
Benjamin: Look, you can stay here in the big leagues and play by the rules, or you can go back to the farm club in Aurora. It’s your choice.
Wayne Campbell: [holding a can of Pepsi] Yes, and it’s the choice of a new generation.

In short, when you have 20K+ people listening to almost every word you say (like @davewiner, @scobleizer, @techcrunch, @guykawasaki and many others - http://www.twittown.com/friends/topfollowers_1 ) its hard to not imagine the above scenario.

Fortunately, I don’t see it quite like that.  Sure you will see some of the people in that top list influence decisions (knowingly and unknowingly) and you may also see some of those people in that list take money for services rendered.  But what you won’t see is the change in the fundamentals here: we are all connecting at an alarming rate using common platforms like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc…. and by connecting on these common platforms we are removing the need to rely on traditional means for purchasing decisions.  Some will be swayed but the smarter ones will realize that there’s a choice.  And that choice will come from trusted individuals in a wide circle of friends that have no geographic boundaries.

Uncategorized Marketing, social media, targeted advertising

When I think about what Twitter has done (and continues to do) I can’t help but think about XML and what being "Standards Based" means to the evolution of our human (and non-human) communication.  What XML has done for the Web I am in no doubt convinced Twitter (or something similar) will do for communication.

Another way to look at it is to think about SMTP.  It is just a protocol.  When I was in college we could plug-in to our VAX system and send e-mail to other people in the world.  That quickly evolved to desktop clients like Netscape 2 and Eudora (I know that there were many others).  Eventually, we saw a growth in servers that could handle millions of E-mails a day and what we are left with now is essentially Free E-mail for everyone (thanks Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and the like).  All on top of an agreed upon framework - SMTP.

Twitter is a framework.  Twitter is not: IMing, Texting, Friending, Linking, Time wasting.. its a framework. And frameworks let us build bigger and better things easier.

The beauty of Twitters the framework is quite simple:

1.) All messages are routed through a single server, or in this case a cloud of servers.

2.) Discovering, connecting and communicating with individual people is stone simple.

Conversations are open

Since everything goes through a single point of entry and there are ample API’s you get an amazing effect.  Take a look at Monitter.  Type in any three words and you get a glimpse of every conversation in the recent past and present where those words exist.  What is amazing here is that you don’t have to know any of them.  You hear conversations going on around the world.  The US government paid millions (maybe billions) for a similar service - it was called Carnivore.  Twitter enabled this for far less and in far less time.

Framework is key to growth

Twitter started out as a simple website where you could go and communicate.  It really wouldn’t have grown to where it is now without a strong API.  In a short time (about a year and a half) hundreds of desktop and mobile applications sprung up.  Allowing you to post, read and connect on Twitter.  You can equate this growth with the same growth of e-mail after Netscape 2 launched.  Not surprisingly, most people didn’t do to well interfacing with green screens and the desktop interface that Netscape 2 provided allowed more people to send e-mail easily.

We see the same thing happening now with applications like Digsby, TweetDeck, Twirl, iTweet (and many, many more).  Without these applications - Twitters proliferation into the mainstream would not be possible.  Look at it this way.  If Twitter were to try and develop a single interface into Twitter that satisfied every user - they would go broke.  They would need 100’s of developers and it would take forever to release new versions.  Undoubtedly, they would never provide just the right interface.

With a published API Twitter does what they do best - manage Twitter and provide framework enhancements (in the form of API’s and services).  With those API’s developers can develop many different applications that allow people to communicate on the Twitter network.  Each application slightly different then next.  Each providing a unique experience which is capable of capturing many different users’ desires.  So in effect what Twitter gets is an army of developers guaranteeing that Twitter stays alive.  Without Twitter and its framework - TweetDeck dies.

Where is this going?

What we are seeing now is that intelligent entrepreneurs are beginning to extend the framework of Twitter to offer services on top that were not part of the initial Twitter framework.  Take TwitPic for example.  Twitter is only a text based system - there was no thought in the design (or at least in the first iteration of the service) for external document support.  However, since Twitter has published an API websites like TwitPic can piggy back on top of the service and provide easy integration between Twitter and a Photo hosting solution.

No one really knows what is going to happen with Twitter but if you think about some of its quintessential qualitie s it is nothing more than a protocol. An open conversation protocol which will be stretched beyond its limit someday - just like e-mail is today.  The defining moment in Twitters place in history will be when applications available to the mainstream public offer services on top of the framework and the users of consumers of the services are ignorant to the fact that Twitter is the underlying architecture.  Much like most mainstream people today couldn’t even tell you what SMTP is or what it stands for or that they should curse it.

And I doubt anyone made any money from the development of SMTP.

Uncategorized Digsby, social media, Social Networking, TwitPic, Twitter, Web2.0

A recent article was published by a very famous (and well liked) blogging network yesterday that really irked me in a way that is requiring more of my effort.  I guess it is a good thing and ultimately I am quite happy that they posted this article because it has fueled a thought I have had for sometime:

I am sick and tired of “non-targeted” advertising

I don’t really care if all of the product and marketing directors know everything about what I buy and read on the Internet.  Truly I do not.  I have nothing to hide and I would release my data under full disclosure if the following qualifications were met:

1.) No one comes up to me on the street and says to me “Hey wanna buy a new mic stand for RockBand” (I like playing RockBand)

2.) I don’t get a flood of e-mails from marketing departments asking me if I would like to test drive the new VW CC (I own a VW Passat)

3.) My information about me is not connected to me in any meaningful way (e.g. I don’t want marketing people to know that I am really Ron West and that I live at 57 Gro…. - ooops)

See in my mind I am just a number - a thing - a buyer/seller in this consumer driven market and the data for what I buy, sell and talk about is really just data.  It may describe my habits and what I am interested in but it is not me.  I want to remain FaceBook profile #66004104.

Your Data is For Sale (sort of)

You can read the post that irks me here but let me point out a few of the important details: (Well first let me start off by giving you the all important title)

Facebook Plans to Make Money by Selling Your Data

C’mon - really do you have to put it that way.  I agree it got my attention - prompted me to read and comment - and I am now writing about it but - ok that title is genius.  But the problem lies in the text:

Starting this spring, companies will be able to selectively target Facebook’s members in order to research the appeal of new products through a polling system called Engagement Ads as demonstrated at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

…

If the Telegraph report is correct, Engagement Ads have had a massive tweak; companies will be able to pose questions to and receive feedback from selected members in real time based on user information that Facebook provides.

Ok that statement “selected members” please - that is misleading.  If we were in the court of law I would simply say “I object your honor” and he/she would say “Sustained”. Then I would ask for the statement “selectively target Facebook’s members” stricken from the record - and the judge would agree again.

Facebook is not going to give companies the ability to target Ron West or any of my friends.  Facebook is not even going to allow companies to target profile #66004104 or #40034994 or any other profile because if you log out of Facebook and you type in the following URL: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=660041048&ref=name you know what you get? Nothing.  A login box.  Would Facebook be stupid enough to allow Pepsi or Coca Cola or any other company in to see that data? No.  That would be just plain stupid.

What Information is For Sale?

Ok - so now for the “shocking” news (at least for some of you):

YOUR DATA IS ALREADY FOR SALE

Well at least your likes/dislikes are already being used to drive advertisements.  Take a trip around Facebook.  Look at the ads in the right hand side of the page.  Notice anything peculiar?  I do.  They are all targeted to information about me.  Especially about where I live.  “Foreclosures in Massachussets”.  One of the commenter’s on the ReadWriteWeb blog post even commented about he is targeted by his sexual preference.

Take a look at the following public information about advertising with Facebook found here:

Target your exact audience with demographic and psychographic filters about real people. The targeting page defaults to people age 18 and older in the United States, but you are encouraged to modify this to reach the most appropriate people for your ad. Be sure to reference the top of the page for an estimate of the number of people who match your criteria. For more information, check out our FAQ for definitions of each target filter.

And if you actually read your EULA agreement (you do know what the EULA agreement is right?) you will see that the data you enter is not only yours but it also belongs to Facebook.  Check out some inserts from the Privacy Policy found here:

Facebook may use information in your profile without identifying you as an individual to third parties. We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or movie and personalizing advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you Facebook. We believe this benefits you. You can know more about the world around you and, where there are advertisements, they’re more likely to be interesting to you. For example, if you put a favorite movie in your profile, we might serve you an advertisement highlighting a screening of a similar one in your town. But we don’t tell the movie company who you are.

We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Facebook Platform developers and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile. Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your profile (e.g., removing photo tag links).

…..

We do not provide contact information to third party marketers without your permission. We share your information with third parties only in limited circumstances where we believe such sharing is 1) reasonably necessary to offer the service, 2) legally required or, 3) permitted by you.

So - why am I so fired up? One reason and one reason only - misinformation. I believe that the post by ReadWriteWeb was designed to get people fired up (it worked) and by not providing some of the facts actually misguided lesser informed people.  Isn’t this the reason we are migrating from the Media best now which is governing the mainstream?

Uncategorized advertising, Blogging, Data Security, facebook, Marketing, ReadWriteWeb, social media, Social Networking

One of the largest complaints a majority of citizens here in the United States have today is that for whatever reason they don’t really have the opportunity to make a difference.  Especially when it comes to the political actions of the very government which is designed to serve us.

During Abe Lincoln’s great Gettysburg Address - he stated that our government system is a one that is

… of the people, by the people, for the people …

Today the “by the people” really can only occur during election years (theoretically).  I know that I can write a letter to my congressman or go door to door to get signatures on a petition - I am fully aware of the chain of command.  The problem is - that not only does this type of message take long to deliver (unless you are personal friends with a congressman) the message is a one way message.  No one but my congressman (and probably not even the congressman but rather a deputy director or associate) will see this message.

If that congressman is supposed to make decisions based on his/her constituents then this current system needs a boost.  Especially with over 300 million people equally guaranteed a voice.

In comes Social Media!

With Twitter, Blogging, FriendFeed, SocialMedian or any of the other Socially aware sites out their today (and coming in the near future) we are hopefully seeing a radical change to this paradigm of communication.

I have been turned on by a rather amazing phenomon which was started in late September/Early October by the makers of Twitter.  They created a special site called Election 2008 (http://election.twitter.com) which gave site visitors the ability to view real-time Twitter “conversations” happening all over the world.  It was truly remarkable and has lead to some more open sites like Monitter and TweetGrid which allow you to monitor the conversations on any topic.

So while I sat there yesterday listening to the 3 CEO’s of our great auto industry grovel for cash to withstand this economic downturn - I couldn’t help but notice Senator Dodd flipping back and forth between ‘auto industry’ and ‘auto bailout’ on www.monitter.com with his iPhone - tilted oh so slightly as to “pause” the stream when an interesting question arose from the community.

We truly do live in an amazing time.  Truly historic.

Uncategorized Auto Industry, Bailout, Blogging, Monitter, social media, Twitter

In 2004 here was the status of some the now more prominent Social Media sites:

• Digg - didn’t exist (launched late 2004 December)
• Reddit - didn’t exist (started in 2005)
• Propeller.com - didn’t exist (started in 2006 by Netscape now owned by AOL)
• Slashdot - started in 1997 (this site mostly focused on technology)
• Treumers - didn’t exist
• StumbleUpon - didn’t exist
• SocialMedian - didn’t exist

(thanks for the list)

A New Information Channel

Now with the advent of Social Networking sites like Ning, a whole new era of information distribution has emerged.  A lot of the discussions that I have gotten into lately is about misinformation of the public.  Not the ignorance of the public but the flat out misinformation. In most cases some of these people that are misinformed are downright intelligent.

Take into consideration that although most of the mainstream media floats to the left, there are specific news stations (fox for example) which can also lean to the right. Other than sites like FactCheck.org, most sites are “interpretations” of the information.

The definition of a Social Media on Wikipedia (while it may differ from site to site) is

… the use of electronic and Internet tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with other human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences.

It is the method of interaction which offers the most interesting change here.  Although there is no guarantee that the use of Social Media will be free of biased information, it presents a single channel comprised of information from both sides of the line.  In addition, the information is presented with collaboration tools (such as comments and forums). Good community action has proven to elevate the conversation beyond one persons opinion or view.  In most cases, the post or article simply introduces an idea or a viewpoint, the conversation which occurs after allows for mediation and fact checking.

SoMe Election 08

It is sites like SoMe (Social Media) Election 08 which drive this point home.  Built on the Social Networking framework of Ning it allows users to post content about the upcoming election.  Any content.  As a member of this site (it’s free by the way) you can post:

• Photos
• Videos
• Blogs
• Discussions
• Links
• Events

You can even chat with other users who happen to visiting the site at the same time.

This particular site focuses heavily on the presence, power and effectiveness of media on the Presidential Election and accepts all viewpoints.  No one person has the power and while it is slow going right now it represents the type of change Social Media can bring.

What a site visitors gains out of this type of interaction is a more well rounded view of the issues (or information).  Not that they aren’t subjected to bias views, but since all views are expressed at once, it is easier to see both sides of the debate - which is required when making a decision.

Uncategorized blog, election, media bias, social media, Social Networking, SoMeElection08

I have been testing out brightkite lately and I really only get to work with it if I am traveling (which I happen to be doing this week).  I was in Logan today when I saw an interesting site.  A woman traveling with me (someone I did not know) was also traveling with her dog.  She had on a very interesting “Baby Bjorn” style doggie carrier.  One that strapped around her back like a backpack.  I thought it needed to be posted so I took a picture of it and posted.

Immediately, I sent it to brightkite hoping I would get some discussion out of it.  I then received a notice back from brightkite stating that they could not post my picture.  Being that brightkite is a rather new startup (and probably small in size) I thought that it would not be unlikely that my photo was censored  because it was of a picture of someone I did not know (I am surel that the woman would not be happy knowing I took a picture of her and posted it for others to comment on).  I waited a bit and then posted it again - with a different comment which was less descriptive and didn’t lead to any conclusions about my relationship with this woman (or lack there of).  It took.  So clearly, it was a glitch (or was it).

GPS based privacy(automated)

So then I got to thinking about the iPhone (which I do quite a bit) and specifically about the GPS capabilities of the phone.  Many phones have GPS (my BlackJackII for instance does).  But when you put so many people on the same framework (millions of them) you can start to see paths towards mass acceptance and change.

I started thinking about how this situation with the dog lady could be governed better with technology and I came up with this idea:

Phone users taking pictures in public places would be required to register the  capture range for each of their photos/movies and privacy concerned individuals (with GPS enabled phones) could be notified when they may be appearing within a phone.  If the privacy concerned person would be notified when a picture they were in was posted to a public web site.  They would then get a link to that post, and have the ability to “flag” that photo as inappropriate and the original owner would be required to take it down.

Not saying we need to do this - but it might allow those individuals who are concerned about public exposure a means to handle that when they are either  intentionally or accidentally included in a photo posted to a public web site.

Uncategorized Brightkite, flickr, iPhone, photos, privacy, social media, Twitter

No doubt things are changing - the question is really has it changed?  Did you spend the last 4 (or more) years of your life studying a field that just did a complete flip?  What types of companies are looking for marketing “geniuses” whose college pedigree reads “Graduated 1995″?

I posted this on Twitter a few hours ago and I could not get it out of my head:

“If you are in marketing and you don’t use FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace and/or you don’t blog - get out. The field  will be passing you by soon”

There is still time (I think). When I see companies like the Undercurrent popping up it makes you wonder what value traditional marketing brings now a days.  Undercurrent is hiring “mavens” to spread messages with a virtual interview through a blog post asking you questions like “How would you spread a viral video”.

When I think about this I get scared.  Not because I don’t think that these types of things are cool (because I do) - but because there are a millions of marketing professionals out there who are going to lose their  jobs.

Remember door to door Encyclopedia Salesman (great book about that by Herman Miller - Death of a Salesman). Yeah - if your dad was one of those back in the early 80’s you know what I am about to ask - “Where is he now?”.  Replaced that’s where.

Tree falls in the woods…

How about the “Million Dollar Homepage” - do you remember that?  Here is the significance of that “experiment”- if you did not hear about this before it was posted on CNN, Time Magazine or any other mainstream media - it probably meant that you were already out of the picture.  This is the funny thing about where we are right now - there really will be an “in” and “out” crowd.  The reason this will happen is because there are information flows on the Internet that travel virally and if you aren’t near anyone that catches it (understands it)- you won’t even know it happened. In this case - a tree will fall in the woods and those near it will hear it and unless you talk to them you won’t know.

So when you think about the people that heard about the Million Dollar Homepage through non-traditional networks you begin to see where things are.  Those people have been entrenched in networks where information like this travels and they are essentially 2 years (plus) ahead of you - seriously.  This is how people like Michael Arrington has made his recognition - he is in the know - in an unfathomable way - point in case.

There was a great post today by Jeremiah Owyang which addressed where most corporations are on Social Media.  If you have not come to terms with what Social Media means and you have not come up with a plan to work that into your marketing plans than you better get a move on.  That 20 year old 1st year marketing college grad is suddenly looking a bit more attractive than you.

So for those that don’t have your bearings - here are some terms that your competition are going to be very familiar with shortly:

• Viral Loop
• Viral Networks
• Double Viral Loops

There is still some time - if you hurry.  Good thing this is all documented and you understand the basics.  Good luck.

Uncategorized Blogging, facebook, Marketing, social media, Twitter