Socialsama

So InsideFacebook and Allfacebook.com are continuing to tout facebook’s growth and in some cases the relative stability of monthly active users for social applications as evidence that the new redesign has only meant good things for app developers, facebook, and the world in general. However, as I have mentioned before, the only applications which have benefitted from these changes are the quiz apps which I guess were already making great use of the feed forms and LivingSocial which keeps making people fill out little lists (not actually all that different from the chain letter demanding 25 things about me). Great. Those apps are just wonderful.

Meanwhile, I have searched high and low for comment about app/widget developers Slide and RockYou and I haven’t seen anything since this latest redesign. The AllFacebook blog actually had a post that does mention that their apps have declined significantly in monthly active users (MAU), but then they go on to claim that since MAU across all apps are flat since the redesign, then the redesign didn’t really hurt app developers. But come on – how many more lists can I make on Facebook and give a damn? I’ll say it, since no one else seems to on the internets these days: Slide and RockYou are screwed. Kiss the $100M+ VC money in them good bye.

OK – I promised a facebook PAGES post, but something got stuck in my craw over the past couple days about Twitter.  I have been using the service more and more and trying to learn from the folks who seem to have had success with it.  Currently I am following about a dozen or so people, maybe twice that.  Of those, the ones I find useful breakdown into these categories:

1. A business relaying crucial information about their operations or special promotions (e.g. JetBlue)
2. A business providing useful information to me and presumably other followers which is tangential to their day-to-day ops but important to their field (e.g. thinkwell)
3. A shameless link sharer/relayer/marketer who doesn’t add much value in each post but does tons of them and every now and then it is useful – it is like someone has done some searching for me
4. My friends sharing actual interesting comments: nickbart and wellsoliver about some stuff they are reading, others updating what they are doing when
5. Complete and utter crap largely from some corp exec/gen y types who seem to think that I should care about their sushi dinner or scenery in Napa (I won’t name names here, I am just going to de-follow).  This garbage is about ½ -3/4 of the feed, once I subtract out the folks in (2)

These categories suggest to me at least that twitter could be used for marketing and customer communication and keeping in light touch with friends (I realize this is not earth shattering analysis).  It also suggests to me twitter usage will have to mature considerably, otherwise the noise ratio will just become too high.  To those folks in (5), please remember, you don’t REALLY have something to say to thousands of people multiple times per day.  In fact, you don’t have something to say to thousands of people.

Facebook’s recent redesign also resulted in a number of changes to the ways applications interact with the Stream and how Fan Pages are now Pages (who does this product marketing? Dave Morin? Sorry, but this nomenclature is really difficult for the rest of the world. You know what the first thing people see when they go to www.socialagency.com? Our home PAGE. Then they navigate to other PAGES. Interestingly, the web had this system of calling everything PAGES for a few years before Facebook came along and started calling business profile listings in their system PAGES. OK – end rant. Jackasses. OK – really end rant). Now applications can’t put items into the Stream (which used to be the newsfeed which kind of exists but no one sees it…uh-oh, feel another rant coming on…holding back) without direct user interaction. E.g. to put a story on the Stream, the app must pop up a dialog which specifically asks the user to place the story. Now some might think this is better b/c now every user action that makes it to the Stream has been explicitly authorized to be there by the user. But from an application developer’s perspective, it is miserable. In the past, an application could post to the newsfeed after the user took some sort of interesting action on the app, but did not have to put a glaring popup in the user’s face. Those actions could have occurred in a variety of places in the use of the app. In my view, this change will result in 1) a gradual decline in the number of apps able to make use of forcing users to send messages to the stream, 2) more users blocking more apps from their stream entirely, 3) a reduction in meaningful app usage overall on Facebook. If the only apps that are successful are the ones that constantly exhort the user to post to their stream, and those are largely characterized as list builders and quiz apps, then fewer and fewer people will take them over time – they will just get boring (at least I hope so, b/c I really don’t care what rock band from the eighties you are – no, really I don’t – don’t do it, don’t post the results of that quiz to your stream – don’t). Ah, this post is too long now, so I don’t have room or time at the moment to get into all my thoughts on the Fan Pages -> PAGES (I have more than the screaming above), so I’ll post again shortly.

We haven’t said much about the Facebook redesign and the other changes in functionality. In short, I don’t care for the redesign. I get Twitter and the need for people to broadcast inanities at all hours of the day (I know, Twitter can be used for much more than that). But I just don’t/didn’t use Facebook in that way. Seeing what an acquaintance ate for breakfast this morning simply doesn’t start my day off the right way. I forget where I saw it, but Facebook makes a very good CRM for your friends. Great way to keep up, see the major events in people’s lives, offer condolences when warranted. And I would be willing to stay on all day to occasionally stumble upon such info. But I always found the statuses to be the least compelling aspect of the site. Now they are the most prominent. I know that Facebook has introduced all sorts of filters to block unwanted Stream spam, but frankly, since they introduced the spam to me (unlike Twitter where I have done it to myself) I am a little pissed that I have to go create a whole bunch of filters – which will likely mean that I will eventually miss one of those big life events that I was using Facebook to stay abreast of in the first place.

I think it is great for Facebook to move fast and innovate – they have to in order to make sure they don’t get eclipsed by some other service just as they overtook MySpace. But as nature shows us, not every evolutionary change is a positive one. This one is bad.

I am not the only one who has reacted this way. The following sites had plenty to say:
Facebook Haters reach a million strong

Top 10 Missing features of facebook redesign

Facebook goof cripples controversial homepage poll
There were many, many more where those came from.

In a recent (and very entertaining) interview with Stephen Colbert, Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, says that Twitter is focused on building “value”.  He said that Twitter will be focusing on extending its real-time communication network worldwide and adding more features to its platform.  Biz stated that Twitter will be experimenting with a revenue model by the end of the year.  He compared Twitter’s business maturity with that of the Google.  The big difference that I see between Google and Twitter is that one can argue that the Twitter community is the vast majority of Twitter’s intrinsic value. For instance, more than 70% of the tweets come from a third-party application that leverages Twitter’s APIs. Google, on the other hand, did not have this reliance on an outside development community. One can also argue that this development community was the key driver of growth for Twitter. As one saw with the recent Facebook betrayal of their development community, trust is hard to win back. Facebook’s hyper-growth was a direct result for them opening their platform to a development community in May 2007.

Although, I still have a hard time truly understanding “Tweeting”, especially in the b-to-b sphere, I agree with their approach (since I can think of no others).  The users of social media are a fickle bunch and introducing the monies is the beginning of the end of <insert any Web 2.0 product here> to them — “The man just took over…this shit is toxic.” Wait till the Google buys them out…

Eat your heart out, Technorati!
Technorati Profile
Woohoo!!

One of the things I tell customers and clients and everyone about corporate blogging is that blogging for the company should really have only some content directly related to the company itself.  Bloggers should stay away from exclusively blogging about their own products and how great their company is.

So I am breaking that rule again with this post.  Significantly, I pretty much broke that rule with the last post as well.  I suck.

That all said, I wante to talk a bit about a project that we did for Cisco Systems:

Edgequest 2 in action

Cisco has always been known for cutting edge and quality technology, and the same goes for its marketing department. For a few years, Cisco has engaged in outside the mainstream customer outreach, creating viral marketing campaigns and new touch points with its customers. For EdgeQuest 2, we took an existing asset of Cisco’s marketing and moved it into several social networks. By adding features such as Challenge, Social Leaderboard, and Invite and by placing it in the context of Facebook, Bebo, Orkut, and MySpace, we gave the EdgeQuest 2 game an entirely new audience. Previously, the game was trapped within Cisco’s website and available only to those who already new about it. By linking up with existing Cisco groups on each of the networks and promoting growth within them, we enabled Cisco to continue its success in finding customers in unique ways and places.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

So in the post below, you will see our first foray into the world of “Social Shows.”  This serialized drama is going out to all parts of the web world:

• The video is syndicated to YouTube, Yahoo, Revver, Crackle and a few more video sites
• A facebook app shows the video on that SN platform (http://apps.facebook.com/spiritstheseries/)
• A corresponding MySpace app will launch shortly
• And the shows are available at their own minisite at Spirits: The Series
• Advertised by a widget showing a summary episode

What we have here is a prime example of what we call 360 degree marketing; the makers of this show are reaching their customers in every way possible, while bringing them a content rich and exciting new experience.

The first “Dear Ken” in a new series of social networking Q&A from ordinary Meg the Mom’s and Jed to Jedi’s out there who are crossing the chasm into social media. If you have a question, we’ll filter it, pass it around the office for a laugh and try to answer it for you.  Please feel free to send your questions to me at ken@socialagency.com. There are no stupid questions only stupid peoples.

Dear Ken,

I have a question regarding facebook etiquette: I’ve recently received a few “friend” solicitations from people I knew in junior high or high school — names of people I would soon rather forget than have to think about or look at their family photos (including one from a boy who was my first “boy friend” and just the thought of him makes my stomach turn with regret). Should I just ignore their “friend” requests? Will that send bad karma my way??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,

Regards,

B

Dear B,

I share your pain, as many of us do.  The good and the bad of social networking is that people, even old flames that make your stomach turn, can track you down (I’ve probably been that guy).  The short answer is to hit the “Ignore” button.  No message will be sent to the solicitor (sender of the friend request for the non-lawyers out there).  If another request is sent, my advice is to repeat the previous step: Ignore.  They should get the picture…if not, then send a firm yet cordial message through the “send a message” option on the friend invite to the solicitor stating your “social networking friend” criteria. Here’s an example:

Dear Ken,

It’s great to see you on here and I hope all is well.  I have received your friend requests but unfortunately due to personal and professional obligations, I limit my contacts.  Thank you for understanding - FREAK!

Regards,

B

I would drop the “FREAK” part when you hit send.  To recap, here’s some simple advice:

(1) Decide your friend criteria

Are you a Facebook ho? And accept all friend requests.  Or do you want to set up a friend criteria.  Sooner or later you will have to choose the latter. I had a great conversation from a “mom” perspective with my wife and her cousin about this. Cousin Madge put it in simple terms, “I befriend them on Facebook if I feel comfortable enough with showing my kids’ pics to them.”

(2) Get familiar with the privacy settings

On Facebook, go to your Profile > Settings (on the top menu) > Privacy settings.  This is key.  You can control who is allowed to see what is on your profile, who can search for you, and how you can be contacted, and control what stories about you get published to your profile and to your friends’ News Feeds.  You can release the H-bomb of social networking, block an individual from all communications.  If there is no privacy settings for you, I suggest you not use that social network.

(3) Categorize your friends

Even with a friend criteria, you should attempt to categorize your friends - “High school friends”, “College friends”, “Co-workers”, “My kids’ friends’ parents”, etc..  This will allow you to set different privacy functions for each group.

One more piece of information to help formulate a “deny” tactic.  If you delete a friend, no message is sent to that person notifying them of the delete.  The friend will lose all privileges to view your profile etc. and have to go through the “friend request” process again once they notice you are no longer on their friend list.  This is a passive-aggressive approach but it works for some out there.

It’s good Karma to have a friend list with whom you want to communicate with.  Good luck B.