
All of this stems from the South Park episode #201 which is also why there are still 4 FBI men outside my office every morning. The world is crazy.
http://bit.ly/9lwVou #FAs we all know, Facebook has run into some serious issues in the last few weeks with the rollout of a number of new features, and the new Community Pages are proving to be no exception.
Over 6 million Community pages were created in mid April around activities, such as Taking a Nap or Hiking. These pages are populated primarily with content from Facebook members that is determined to be public information, but without user approval. On many pages, there is also a tab with a definition taken from Wikipedia and a listing of your friends who "like" this Page.This is bad, really bad. The man’s name in question is “Harman Bajwa” — Remember his name is literally Harman...Read more...
http://www.tribbleagency.com/?p=6676Although this article (http://bit.ly/4IRvTy) has a sensationalist subhead, there is only one line in the article that relates to that statement. I quote "our research shows that even more than Twitter, people are using social network status updates -- mostly Facebook -- for these same sorts of connections."
This is a theme I've been exploring for a couple of months now. Here's my original post from Nov. 11: Is Facebook the inevitable social portal? http://tinyurl.com/yjgv9ppPut simply, Twitter is going to go away. It's easy to figure out how to use it, but most folks can't figure out why to use it. Having been on twitter for almost two years, I love it but I notice the adoption rate over that time, despite Ashton Kutscher, is nothing compared to the rise in Facebook users. People get Facebook..it's about friends. Twitter is about business.
I have no doubt that Facebook will absorb all of Twitter's functionality soon; they just incorporated the retweet feature. And doubtless, everyone on Twitter already has a Facebook page. In fact, one person I follow, Matt Singly (@mattsingley) who has 32,000 followers on Twitter, posts to both Facebook and Twitter simultaneously.
That is the future.
We will tire of maintaining multiple tools. When I can port my fellow Tweeters to Facebook, and maintain those connections there, I will do so, I just hope I'll be able to retain the conversations and friends I've met on Twitter, because they represent a very diverse amalgam of brilliant, educated, humorous people and and I will miss them if they go away completely.
December always brings year-end reviews and prognostications for the future, and it seems this year everyone is writing about the rise of social media, highlighting what's good and what's bad. And one threat that seems to be universally touted is the intimacy experienced through this digital interaction is replacing or undermining real face-to-face personal relationships. As a fairly regular social media user, I do not agree, but I don't plan to extol the benefits of social media in this post. Rather I'd like to provide evidence that social media is not replacing real social interaction, but rather exists nicely along side it, and in fact, even enhances it. And I have proof.
1) The attendance at museums, especially evidenced by this week in NYC, is certainly not declining. The lines at the MOMA to see Tim Burton's drawings and at the Met to to view Samurai Art were staggering. In freezing temperatures, people stood outside for over an hour just to mingle with thousands of others and view two dimensional non digital images. I saw the same lines at the skating rink at Rockefeller Center. Granted it's the holiday week but still people are not staying home. Impressive. No social media required. 2) Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, holiday travel is always the lead story on the news as in "more people travel on this day than any other." And why? Because going home to family for the holidays is wonderful, and cannot be replaced by skype, twitter or facebook. But you can share those moments with family that could not be there if so inclined. 3) This holiday season the Kindle was the most gifted Amazon product ever. And while this may not directly relate to being social, it proves people still want to be engaged with long form communication and richly woven stories longer than 140 characters, and not just watch YouTube videos or comment on Facebook posts. Hooray. 4) And last but not least, I find I'm actually able to stay in touch with more people than ever, people who's email addresses have changed, or who have moved and neglected to send out their new phone number. And I think we've all reconnected with folks from our past --like our old boyfriend from that summer long ago --that we might otherwise have lost touch with.All of this is simply proof that social media is not replacing the real thing, but I think keeping us closer. So on this eve of a new decade, I wish everyone a wonderful very social new year.
This new theory, from Kevin Kelly at The Technium, holds that "a creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson,
performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans
to make a living."
My artist husband Campbell Laird (http://www.campbelllairdstudio.com/#/home/) has actually managed to do just this. Through his own paid advertisements and collector "fan" base whom he contacts through newsletters, and now Facebook and Twitter, he has removed the gallery from the financial equation and has over 1000 True Fans.
The benefits are numerous..control over his career and direct contact with his collectors. But his "work" has doubled, to include promotion, outreach and of course all finance issues. He has managed to juggle these very diverse skills but it is not easy. And although it sounds like fun to have all this power, it is certainly not for the faint of heart.But one thing's for sure, it wasn't even possible 10 years ago, so carpe diem!
http://bit.ly/cHNwcA new found altruism?
It's interesting how social media has affected brands and their marketing initiatives Has anyone noticed?
Because the hard sell doesn't work any more, because you can't merely push a campaign at consumers and hope they notice, because the days of MadMen marketing kings are gone, there is a new altruism in companies this holiday season..and it's being ushered in through everyone's new communications channel, social media.
Now companies can't wait to prove how charitable they are in order to generate awareness, and social media is providing them the tools.
Lands End is supporting a used coat drive in Boston (http://www.bigwarmup.com/), Travelocity is promoting carbon offset, (http://bit.ly/8HedMs) Stella Artois is selling environmental awareness (http://www.youtube.com/user/stellaartois), Starbucks is supporting World Aids Day (http://bit.ly/4RrTW7) and Coke is turning Copenhagen into Hopenhagen (http://bit.ly/4GcI8u). It's truly wonderful. The US consumer accounts for approximately 83% of all charitable donations and it's a great thing if corporations want to increase their percentage too.
Thanks Facebook!