James McGovern on the evolution of blogging

Writing in his Enterprise Architecture blog, James McGovern makes an interesting and disappointing observation about the state of blogging.

Recently, I have noticed much of my stimulus has changed. The blogosphere is moving away from conversations and towards simply using it as a platform to communicate thinly veiled media relations sanitized press releases where all forms of communications are void of conversation.

I have no problem with marketing people adopting blogging and other social media tools.  But it drives me up the freakin' wall when I see exactly what James McGovern describes.  Ultimately, those who treat social media as a collection of new tools for the same old crap will fail. Good riddance.

Read: Enterprise Architecture: From Incite comes Insight...

 

Technorati Tags: blogging,social media,marketing,James McGovern.

The New Honesty...?

In a post on her small business blog, Rochell Paul admits to not yet using Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, and that's fine -- though I have to admit that I'm surprised that a small business blogger would be entering into the SM game this late. But that's not what I want to talk about.

What I want to talk about is this quote from her post:

We all need to understand that a major part of Social Media is transparency. Honesty. The idea that we are open and honest about our role, and intentions.

Of course, I agree completely with that statement. Who wouldn't? But I guess I'm just a bit flummoxed that this honesty and transparency business is treated as such a strange new idea in Web marketing. The Cluetrain Manifesto raised this issue a decade ago. I don't mean to single out Rochell in this; the information she presents in her post is worthwhile, and she is very upfront in her admission of social media newbie-osity. And she's certainly not the only blogger to address the issue.

But the big, obvious question is: why do honesty and transparency attract so much attention in the currently relentless discussion about social media? Why are honesty and transparency treated as innovative marketing concepts? Why do some people and some organizations struggle with those ideas? What does this say about "conventional" marketing practice?

Of course, Twitter and Facebook and other social media tools aren't immune to the kind of dishonesty and opacity that can make conventional marketing so annoying. So maybe posts like Rochell's deserve more credit than I'm giving them. Human nature being what it is, maybe we need to be reminded again and again that honesty is good marketing practice, that it's good, period.

Read Rochell's post: Twittering with honesty: being who you are on Twitter and Facebook

Your Friends List: Does Size Matter?

 

What is the most effective use of Social Media as a marketing tool?  With regard to your list of friends, does size matter?

A recent article in The Economist (see Primates on Facebook) offers some interesting insight into Facebook usage and its correlation to the Dunbar Number, which suggests that the human brain is capable of maintaining connections to at most 150 people.

In the Economist article, Facebook sociologist Dr. Cameron Marlow offers some interesting statistics on the number and nature of the connections people make on the wildly popular social networking site:

Dr. Marlow found that the average number of "friends" in a Facebook network is 120, consistent with Dr Dunbar's hypothesis, and that women tend to have somewhat more than men. But the range is large, and some people have networks numbering more than 500, so the hypothesis cannot yet be regarded as proven.

What also struck Dr Marlow, however, was that the number of people on an individual's friend list with whom he (or she) frequently interacts is remarkably small and stable. The more "active" or intimate the interaction, the smaller and more stable the group.

Thus an average man—one with 120 friends—generally responds to the postings of only seven of those friends by leaving comments on the posting individual's photos, status messages or "wall". An average woman is slightly more sociable, responding to ten. When it comes to two-way communication such as e-mails or chats, the average man interacts with only four people and the average woman with six. Among those Facebook users with 500 friends, these numbers are somewhat higher, but not hugely so. Men leave comments for 17 friends, women for 26. Men communicate with ten, women with 16.

After reading this I could not help but think, yet again, about Matt Dickman's insightful explanation of the difference between conventional Web marketing and effective Social Media marketing. 

In Redefining reach; the new marketing equation, Matt describes conventional Web marketing as a process that relies on sending a message (let's call it what it is: spam) to 1 million people in the hopes of reaching 1000. Effective Social Media marketing is about personally reaching out to "100 who influence 1,000 who influence 10,000 who influence 1,000,000."

Matt Dickman's equation, Dr. Marlow's statistics, and the Dunbar Number add up to a something significant, a powerful message to those who see Social Media as nothing more than a new flavor of the same old process. We're on to something new, something that requires a real, personal connection to real, individual people, not just a big list of anonymous targets.

So the bottom line is that the size of your friends list isn't important. It's all about the quality of the connections you make, and what you do to maintain those connections. It's very definitely not business-as-usual.

 

Technorati Tags: social media,facebook,marketing,dunbar number,the economist,Cameron Marlow,Matt Dickman

A Future for Newspapers

Amid all the recent coverage of financial troubles at various newspapers, WSJ columnist L. Gordon Crovitz offers this:

One reason most media companies suspended normal business practices online, such as seeking subscription revenues, was a misinterpretation of one of the most powerful observations of the Information Age. When author Stewart Brand coined the expression "Information wants to be free," he focused on how technology makes it cheap and easy to communicate and share knowledge. But the rest of his quote is rarely noticed. This says, "Information also wants to be expensive." The right information in today's complex economy and society can make a huge difference in our professional and personal lives. Not having this information can also make a big difference, especially if someone else does have it. And for valuable information, online is a great new way for it to be valued.

I have subscriptions to the print editions of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, though I most often read them online. My belief in and support of grassroots, social media-style journalism notwithstanding, newspapers still have a vital role to play, and I will happily pay for information that has value in my life.

Like any other business, however, newspapers must constantly strive for innovation in how they address the needs of their customers. If newspapers meet those needs, they should charge for that service. Their slice of the pie may be smaller, a factor that has already reshaped the industry and will continue to do so. But in age when we are awash in information, much of it of little consequence, the value of good information is at a premium, a premium that I'll happily pay.

 

Read the WSJ article: Information Wants to Be Expensive - WSJ.com

 

Technorati Tags: newspapers,wall street journal,L. Gordon Crovitz,new york times,cleveland plain dealer.

The Medium Ain't the Message

In a recent post about Twitter's inevitable infiltration into enterprise IT, RIA Developer's Journal blogger @strukoff hits on what has been my longstanding soapbox issue regarding the corporate use of social media:

But as with blogs, Twitter is now part of the enterprise IT discussion as well. Sure, most corporations blog about as creatively and effectively as members of the National People's Congress or the NCAA. But don't blame the medium, blame those who use it ineffectively.

My contribution to the Cleveland Social Media Club's upcoming eBook addresses this issue in  depth. 


In the meantime, read @strukoff's entire post:
SEO or SOA: Twittecdotes (Part II) | RIA Developer's Journal

Technorati Tags: socialmedia, blogging, twitter,