A few weeks ago I was standing on the sidelines to cheer on a couple of friends running the Chicago Marathon. They both did very well!
While I was waiting for them to pass, I snapped this photo on my iPhone 4 of a guy wearing a tutu, which just seemed comical in the context of the race.
I uploaded it shortly thereafter from my iPhone to Facebook. Within minutes, a friend of mine spotted my Facebook post and commented, “I know him! That’s awesome!!!”
She tagged him in the photo, which notified him instantly. He responded, “I would have stopped to pose if you asked. What mile were you at? Thanks again for getting it. It’s fantastic.”
We had a bit of conversation and are now friends. This breaks my rule of Facebook friendship, which requires that I have spoken to you in person for at least 60 minutes, but I felt like making an exception.
I have to say as long as I’ve been on Facebook, this is one of the crazier small world moments I’ve had. With more than 45,000 people running, I took four photos and got one of someone two degrees of separation from me. And with Facebook, in a matter of hours I was connected with him.
Maybe oddballs just run in similar circles and another oddball caught my attention.
As we enter an age of facial recognition technology, things like this will become more commonplace. In this case, however, I’m not sure what tech could have recognized the tutu guy.
We have a double feature for you lucky viewers this Friday! Here we have TWO staff meeting videos for you to enjoy. The first, we were able to do a successful update on the third quarter figures and activity. Unfortunately, we had a bit of an issue with mixing our metaphors.
Then the changes to Facebook happened. Let’s just say we had one staff member who didn’t take it very well.
An old college friend who avoids social networks addressed an intriguing problem recently:
“I’ve just decided what it is I don’t like about Social Networking… it’s the idea that it, when push comes to shove, my people can bury your people… Please, tell me I’m wrong, that the end result doesn’t allow those with the most connections to dominate society further for their own benefit at the expense of those with the fewest connections. Much like the rich vs. the poor struggles of yesteryear, only now we can rise above money – look, it’s purely about fame and how well you’re liked.”
As an indirect middle finger to bullies of the past who gained advantage by physical body size, bullies in the social networking world are often the geeks! One of the reasons people are racing to Google+ is that it’s easier and more natural to organize friend groups based on the way humans naturally organize themselves rather than feeling like you’re a database admin trying to maximize the efficiency of a friend database.
Somewhere deep within Facebook are the tools and settings to make sure the people you care about show up before the “bullies.” Also, perceptions are skewed when Facebook’s algorithm tends to give people exposure simply for talking more rather than saying something you’d necessarily care about. Google+ Circles seem to move this in the right direction by making it easier and more intuitive to share certain info with specific groups.
I’m not 100% sold on Google generally, as it often behaves as one of the biggest bullies out there. I think all of this is perhaps the greatest social experiments we’ve ever witnessed, certainly the most public. And like all things, once our fascination with the technology wears off we can just get back to being people. Until then, I agree that human nature seems only to fight against the true potential of this technology: to bring us together and make people more efficient and benevolent. It unfortunately tends to provoke paranoia, greed, and ego as well.
Humans and other primates are intoxicated by celebrity. Social media has elevated many of us to a level of semi-celebrity, but still lends power to those with means and connections above the masses. I’m not sure this will ever change, as I do believe it’s part of our very nature, for better or worse. I share the dream of technology enabling collective good, but feel that we are quite far from fully realizing it.
Well, maybe. There were reports on Sunday that the data which Facebook provides directly to advertisers were showing a drop in “active monthly users” of almost 6 million, over the month of May. Now, Facebook provides these numbers to advertisers with strong caveats. Facebook says the the information “provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn’t designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook.” However, they do line up with several other reputable third party indicators, as reported by Insidefacebook.com. Other indicators however, report the opposite. Of course. What is certain is that Facebook’s growth in the US has been slowing. And another Insidefacebook.com article discusses how once a country’s Facebook usage reaches about 50% of their population, growth seems to taper off.
The reasons for this are all speculation at this point. But when I heard about it I immediately thought of two people I know who recently deleted their Facebook accounts. (The one who tweeted about it humorously above I don’t know personally – he’s a web cartoonist.) I didn’t see any numbers for account deletion, only active monthly user decline, but I think they must correlate. And I think some of this is tied to an inevitable Facebook backlash by those who feel compelled to use something that they resent for whatever reason (privacy, security, wasting time, etc). Not that I think Facebook is going anywhere anytime soon. Nor do I think it’s going to go the way of Friendster or Myspace. Although I’m not sure I would wager money on that either.
You may have heard the buzz as of late, but the myth that ‘journalism is a dying industry’ is being directly challenged by The New Yorker magazine – on a platform that is partially blamed for thwarting the long-form journalistic style. The platform: Facebook.
For a limited period of time, The New Yorker Facebook fan page is featuring a “Fans Only” reading section that will feature a full-text version of “Farther Away”, a story by acclaimed author Jonathan Franzen. As of right now, the text is only available to magazine subscribers in print and through The New Yorker website. The hitch - to access the “Fans Only” section you have to be a Fan – or in Facebook lingo – “Like” the page.
The New Yorker is a of the publication that primarily keeps its content behind a pay wall whereas most sites provide content for free. This is an interesting move on their part. An article on the site Poynter.org revealed that there isn’t a technical plan about increasing engagement on the company’s Facebook page via an interview with spokeswoman Alexa Cassanos. However the goal was to increase Facebook fans who are actually fans of long-form journalism. I like The New Yorker’s take on the balance of quality vs. quantity…in this case it’s a mixture of both.
This feature came on just after Facebook created a page just for journalists, to promote the industry becoming more active on Facebook. As of now the page has almost 40,000 fans and receives a decent amount of engagement. The comments however surrounding the announcement of The New Yorker’s efforts were received pretty negatively from a page that is supposed to be close to the target that The New Yorker is reaching for:
We will see what The New Yorker plans next as they seemed quite vague on the subject. Until then, if you excuse me, I have some reading to do.
It’s finally happened! For those of you who have a Facebook fan page but are regularly frustrated with the inability to take the page outside of itself…well wait no more! Yesterday Facebook revamped its fan page layout and settings. Fan pages now are treated very similarly to a Facebook profile, a move that may have been made to try to steer those away from creating profiles for companies versus fan pages.
The changes will take place across all pages in early March, however you have the option to update now (we just got so excited we had to do it ASAP!). If you are as impatient as us and wish wish to peruse Facebook in the new fan page type of way, here are a few things you should be aware of when updating your Facebook page.
You’ll notice a few additions/changes to your page’s Settings section. One that I was extremely excited about was the opportunity to comment and post as yourself or as your page (and not just on your page).
See how we did it!
Another change is a more prominent display of fan page photos – they are displayed in a featured horizontal slide show on the top of the page. A great way for marketing the media that Facebook users interact with the most! As of now there aren’t any display changes with video.
Finally, a use for adding pages to your pages’ Favorites! They are much more prominently displayed – perhaps one day you can see some of the shared content between the pages to showcase their compatibility, but one step at a time. The new pages also display the page Administrators’ profiles on the top corner of the page.
Take note that when you use Facebook as your fan page, you can always go back to your profile with an easy drop down option located in the top right corner of your Facebook screen.
So there you have it! Facebook has made so many changes over the past year, but I have to say, this is the one that I’m the most excited about. Have you switched over to the new page set-up yet? Let us know what you think!
Until recently, if you had been browsing Facebook in a Starbucks, using their wifi, anyone else on that network could have stolen your Facebook identity using free and easy to use tools. For instance, the Firefox plugin Firesheep listens on unsecured wifi networks for the cookies that sites like Facebook use to keep you from having to login after each click. When it finds one it allows the user to start browsing Facebook as if they were you – with one click! Someone with bad intentions could then change your password AND set the email address associated with your account to their own.
Firesheep isn’t meant to be used for nefarious purposes, although it could and probably is being used that way. It was meant to shed light on the problem of browsing sites like Facebook over unsecured networks. And it seems like Facebook has directly responded to the recent fervor about that. You can now set Facebook to automatically encrypt all communication between your computer and their servers. I would recommend anyone to do that immediately. Turn it on by clicking “Account” in the upper right hand corner in Facebook, then “Account Settings”, and then “Account Security”. Make sure the box under “Secure Browsing” is checked, and then click “Save”:
This will keep anyone from hijacking your Facebook account over an unsecured wifi network. Other websites you visit may still leave you vulnerable. If you’re unsure, don’t use it – especially if any sensitive information is involved. Look for the padlock icon in your browser – it varies between browsers but is usually near one of the corners. That means a site is secure. For complete security you would need to set up an encrypted proxy for all traffic on your computer, which is too involved and situation-dependent to get into here. If you’re curious check out this Lifehacker article about it, or email us at info@astekweb.com.
Mobile marketing has changed a lot in the past couple of years. Geo-targeting uses your smart phone’s GPS to find out where you are, allows you to “check in” to a location, and deliver targeted messages to you based on that information.
Leaders in the geo-targeting space include Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt (plus LooptStar). They are similar in many ways, but each offers a different twist on an increasingly familiar theme. They enable local businesses to find and attract consumers in new ways, such as offering coupons or special offers to regulars based on how many times they’ve come in. Like many start-ups, none have mastered the monetization aspect of mobile marketing, but there are clearly endless opportunities here.
In order to give people incentive to use the apps, various forms of social “rewards” are used that essentially turn exploring your city into a game. We are social creatures, and while some of these rewards may seem meaningless or frivolous, there is an attraction to them as they create an element of social status within communities. A large part of the appeal to people in large cities with lots of friends is to make sure you never miss the action, but I believe the jury is still out as to the real social value of this once the initial allure wears off a bit.
While this isn’t intended to be an in-depth review, I’ll discuss some interesting distinctions of each:
Foursquare – I’ve been on Foursquare for about a year now. It’s been amazing to watch the database of local places grow since it depended on the community to enter locations. Now it’s rare that I go somewhere that isn’t already there. The person who frequents a location the most becomes the “mayor” and some establishments give benefits for that position. You collect virtual badges for achieving certain things, like being in a place with at least 50 other people (Swarm) or hitting 4 clubs in one night (Crunked). You get the idea. Foursquare made a gamble by creating a new database of locations and friends, but it seems to have paid off. The most compelling thing about this is the special offers that are based on your location. When you check in somewhere, the app will tell you if there is a nearby special, or one at the place you are (a free drink for 10 check-ins for example). While Foursquare has exploded in the past year, I haven’t seen a congruent explosion of the specials offered by businesses.
LooptStar is a spinoff of Loopt, which was historically a more informational type of app. Their new entry enters the “rewards” space more heavily. The thing that LooptStar does that I believe will give it an advantage is use Facebook Connect to leverage the largest existing social network rather than wait for everyone to find their friends on yet another new one. They were later to the game, but I believe this will give them an edge in the long run. In LooptStar you become a “boss” rather than a “mayor.” But the rewards look to be more tangible than FourSquare.
Gowalla benefits from being on all major mobile smart platforms, including Blackberry and Palm. They also rely on partnerships with existing travel-related services to offer “trips” and share those with your friends. While Foursquare provides community tips based on your location, Gowalla focuses more on directly exploring your friends’ favorite locations to learn more about what they like rather than the community at large.
All of these apps feature basic sharing with your Twitter and Facebook feeds to let people know what you’re up to. Yelp has entered the space by adding check-in to its feature set and you can bet that Google is going to be all over this with its massive business database and Android mobile platform. The problem these sites have is that they have established brand and culture that make it harder to break into new areas.
While this space is fascinating to watch, it still has a long way to go. The apps depend largely upon smart phones such as iPhone and Android, which represent the minority of the mobile market. Also, I feel that any app that requires you to actively check in to a location rather than simply knowing where you are is going to appeal more to geeks and early adopters than the majority of people. It can be very distracting to interrupt your social experience. “Wait guys… I have to check in here first…”
What’s the alternative? Remember Minority Report, when Tom Cruise’s retinas were scanned everywhere he went? In that version of the future, you didn’t even need a device to tell the network where you were. Cameras were so ubiquitous that they knew anyway. Scary? A bit. Possible? You bet.
How do you Google? Chances are you start most of your Internet research at Google.com. You might also have a Gmail account or use Google Calendar to manage your life. And it’s a safe bet you’ve used Google maps and have your own opinion about the street view trucks making sure everyone can see your house. But there is much more to Google than meets the eye.
Google is many things to millions of people. What started as an innovative way to search the Web back in 1998 has grown into one of the world’s largest and most successful companies, now delivering results for more than one billion searches every day using its highly guarded secret sauce. Put simply, Google is what makes the Web usable.
Recently Google has taken great strides to integrate its numerous products and services into a suite of business applications called Google Apps, which can help you with corporate email, shared calendars and documents, groups, websites, and video.
The services are all Web-based, which means you don’t have to worry about servers, maintenance, etc. Just make sure you have a Web connection, get through the basic set-up, and you’re good to go. All the services are seamlessly integrated with each other at a fixed low per-user cost. Google even provides a handy cost savings calculator if you’re using Lotus or Exchange.
As much value as the Business Apps give you, Google’s free apps can deliver even more value. I encourage you to look into:
Google Analytics to see how your Web site traffic is doing to improve marketing strategy
Google Alerts to have industry or brand-related articles and comments delivered right to your inbox
Facebook Makes the World Smaller During the Chicago Marathon 
This post was featured in ePiphany, Astek’s Monthly Newsletter | 
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