Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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This blog started as a supplement for my Economics of Information course at MIT. However, it has expanded beyond that purpose and certainly should not be interpreted as official MIT views.
Thanks Eliot for the refresh of the video video posted by Erik few days ago. Posted some thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWith no doubt, as said in the video, the big question here is not if we do social media but "How well we do it ?"
Let's see how well will David Fincher's movie "The Social Network" do on .. social media networks ... I found very curious that the communication campaign was not taking place on Facebook (i.e. the site it is about in the movie).
As “Nothing becomes ever real until it is experienced” (John Keats, 1918)… to be followed with the number of tickets sold, after Oct, 1st.
http://mashable.com/2010/09/24/social-network-movie-myspace/
Social media is not a fad but any social media site can be sutituted by new type of socail media any time. So I can say Facebook can be a fad.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that Social media can overwhelm search service? My answer is 'Never' since socail media is just good contents of search sevice.
Can social media be profitable someday? I can say 'Yes but is not better than search'.
Social Media is definitely not a fad.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent book I read about social media and their impact on society is “Here comes everybody” by Clay Shirky. The book, which is subtitled, “the power of organizing without organizations”, explains how social media (and the web in general) are improving the ability of people to form otherwise-latent groups.
Another aspect that I find very fascinating about social media is their impact on journalism and publishing.
Journals’ bundle of articles for some people is now less interesting than the bundle of newspapers/blogs articles that they get from their friends through Facebook, Twitter, etc...
I totally agree: “we don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it”.
I love this video, but this post was somewhat of a softball. I think you will have trouble finding someone in our class who thinks that social media is a fad.
ReplyDeleteHuman beings are social animals and social media is a new medium through which we can continue to be true to our nature, but in new, fascinating ways.
I don't think Social Media is a fad... as Paul says that's sort of an outdated thought that anyone could think it will disappear. However, it's still proving difficult to monetize. YouTube, for example, has yet to be a profitable business despite it having millions and millions of videos and users. It will be interesting to see how long these companies can sustain themselves. There is no doubt social media will remain but I am not sure it will always be the same players.
ReplyDeleteAnd just to make a comment on Giacomo's comment about how social media is impacting journalism and publishing. I think there is a limit to this. Certainly the idea of community is changing journalism, but again, someone has to pay journalists (I doubt we as consumers want a "volunteer" news corp) Social Media therefore is really being used by publishers as a marketing tool... to push out content as a way of bringing people back to their site which they then can monetize. However, over time, it will be interesting to see how the business models evolve and how social media platforms can help monetize their users for publishers.
Great video - I am a big fan of the idea of social search, even though I think it works better in some areas (e.g. restaurant recommendations) than others (e.g. searching for details on a medical condition).
ReplyDeleteAlso, one interesting aspect the video did not touch upon was the increasing use of Social Network IDs across the web: http://mashable.com/2010/07/07/multiple-identities-infographic/, contributing to a world wide web in which the divide between social networks and the rest of the web fades. Would be interested to hear what people think about this: is this trend a good or a bad one?
Paul very precise mentioned that humans are social beings and no matter how the world evolves we always will try to integrate advanced socialization tools in it.
ReplyDeleteAs envisioned by Arthur C. Clarke, a popular science fiction author, in May 1970 a small computer would allow both data transfer and video conferencing around the globe. The social aspect had been one of the basic drivers for the modern computer and world wide web progress. So, the forms which social media takes may be fads, but they continuously evolve. Hence, their fleeting behavior distinguish themselves from trends, which evolves into a permanent change.
I completely agree with Amanda. While many individuals participate in social media, it is important to ask why they do it and what value they obtain from it. Only then can a company develop a social media strategy and campaign capable of reaping benefits (or mitigating damages) that are caused by social interaction on the web.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I think Giacomo and Amanda bring up relevant points with regard to journalism and content development. Without question, social media will impact how we consume content, and winners will be able to reach consumers on a variety of relevant levels. That being said, having a rock solid social media strategy will not be a substitute for desirable, effective content.
Too often, companies take broad brush strokes to develop presence on Facebook, Twitter, etc., without asking what it means to have a "friend" or a "follower." Without understanding what your customers are looking for, it is very difficult to provide it in a clear, digestible fashion.
I completely agree with Amanda. While many individuals participate in social media, it is important to ask why they do it and what value they obtain from it. Only then can a company develop a social media strategy and campaign capable of reaping benefits (or mitigating damages) that are caused by social interaction on the web.
ReplyDeleteToo often, companies take broad-brush strokes to develop presence on Facebook, Twitter, etc., without asking what it means to have a "friend" or a "follower." Without understanding what your customers are looking for, it is very difficult to provide it in a clear, digestible fashion.
New Age Marketing people strongly believe the untapped potential of social media marketing tool to feel the opposite. More and more companies have adopted such a trade as an integral part of marketing strategy.
ReplyDeleteweb based membership software
Social media is here to stay. In fact, it is actually making a leap to internal corporate environments. Some call it Social Business Media.
ReplyDeleteThere is a whole generation of vendors and applications that are going to deliver Facebook like features to corporate intranets. In fact, in the next 5 years, a lot of corporate intranet sites are going to look like facebook. Check out Jive - http://www.jivesoftware.com/