Social networking jumps the shark...or maybe the pig

I'm a big believer in both bacon and niche social networks. But Bacon Lovers' Talk is too much, even for me. Anytime you see the phrase "Join the Bacon Community!" it's time to close the browser.

Two great presentations from The Secret Diary of a Bonafide Marketing Genius

How do you become a bonafide marketing genius? You create great, irreverent, comprehensive presentations like “What the F**K is Social Media?”

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And what else do bonafide marketing geniuses do? Every now and then, they share great, irreverent, comprehensive presentations from other marketing geniuses, like Paul Isakson's "What's Next in Marketing & Advertising?"

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Hat tip: PR Squared

Rhymes with "Dork Invaders"

Not content to sit by while Barack Obama gets all the kids' votes, the McCain campaign has introduced a new Facebook app called "Pork Invaders." Maybe I'm wrong, but it may not be the best idea for the last hawk standing to remind people of his fondness for bombing the crap out of stuff.

Hat tip: AdRants

They should call this feature "Facebook"

Classmates.com proves once again that they're great at both asking members to pay for stuff available for free everywhere else and offering "new" features that have been around elsewhere since 2002.

Improve your social (media) skills

If you're looking for a great overview of how marketing on the web is changing, look no further than the new white paper from Vancouver's smashLAB, "A Primer in Social Media." Although only eight pages long, it packs in several great examples of social media hits and misses, as well as some basic terminology and recommendations. It's a short read that's long on good information--and best of all, it's free.

Not convinced niche social networks are for real?

Then maybe you should check out this 790-member Ning network for people with a medical condition you've probably never heard of.

More about how niche networks are moving from macro to micro here and here.

Hat tip: Cool Site of the Day

More proof that British accents make everything a little funnier

Yeah, Facebook is kind of like this.

Hat tip: AdRants

Classmates.com: social NOTworking

Yes, I've ranted about Classmates.com before, but they just keep asking for it. Today, I received an e-mail from them with the following subject line:

Important announcement from Classmates, Anthony

Now, about the only "important" things Classmates could say at this point would be:

1. We've decided that our site is really lame and we're shutting it down, or

2. Hey! We've finally realized that in a Facebook world, no one is crazy enough to pay to read e-mails, see photos, or browse their friends' profiles. We're dumping user fees and going to an ad supported model.

But that wasn't their "important" news. Instead, here's what they had to tell me (emphasis and redness theirs):

Want to talk with people from Salem State College? Now you can! For a limited time, post your thoughts, opinions, and news on Classmates message boards—for free.

So, let me get this straight: I can, for a limited time, do something for free that I can do for free and for an unlimited time on just about every other social networking site?

Facebook Chat beta tester discusses pros and cons (mostly cons)

I'm a big believer in the power of social networks, and I'm convinced we're seeing a shift in preference toward IM over e-mail. Now, the Personal Branding Blog reports, those two worlds are colliding in a big way, with this month's launch of a Facebook Chat beta. Does this tester like what he sees? Well, not all of it:

I can see there being problems with the new IM feature. People or stalkers will have an easier path to harassing others. Also, don’t you think we already know enough about people and when they are online? Now you are going to let us follow people and contact them at free will! Anyways, any move you make on Facebook will be shown to your network and those outside of your network, so try and set privacy and be careful of this new IM feature.

Do you share these concerns? If you're a Facebook member, do you plan to use Chat?

Bonus coverage: Facebook's Josh Wiseman on the Chat beta

Niche social nets better for advertisers, AP story says

Today's Journal Gazette includes a great AP story on the shift from macro to micro social networks. A sample:

MySpace, Facebook and, to a smaller degree, Bebo may be getting most of the attention, but social-networking sites geared toward hobbies, sports and other specific interests – alongside those targeting certain age groups, ethnicities or diseases – are finding growing success as supplements to the larger online hangouts or even as replacements.

In addition to benefiting their members, these niche networks also benefit advertisers by providing them with access to a targeted audience, which in turn allows the sites to charge a premium for ad space:

As the larger sites struggle to capitalize on their diverse membership, the specialty sites believe they can offer advertisers a smaller, but passionate audience for which they’d be willing to pay more – as much as 10 times more...

So the next time you're considering buying ads on MySpace or Facebook, dig a little deeper. If you've done an adequate job of defining your target audience, there may be a better choice out there.

Earning the !

I attended the Fort Wayne AdFed lunch today, which featured a presentation by Clint! Runge of Archrival, a "youth branding agency" in Lincoln, Neb. Let's start with that exclamation point: yes, it's really there at the end of his first name. When I first saw it I thought it was some cheesy gimmick that he used as a substitute for doing anything worthy of an exclamation point.* However:

1. Turns out that it's the name his mother gave him (or at least that's the story he's telling, which makes it much more palatable than if were just a cheesy gimmick), AND

2. This guy definitely deserves an exclamation point or two

Why do I say that? Well, a few takeaways from his presentation which focused on marketing to millenials/gen Y:

- If you're a Gen Xer (like me, and Runge), you're A LOT different than a millenial. So while you might think you can predict what they'll like since you're fairly close in age, you can't. Don't try. Instead, TALK TO THEM. Listen to them. Find out what they like, and why. And then...

- Be authentic--and you can't fake authenticity. Milenials won't even glance at a marketing message that seems contrived. They're not immune to marketing, but it has to speak their language and respect their low tolerance for artifice.

- Increasingly for everyone, but certainly for millenials, the cell phone is the "first screen," much more important to them than a computer. Marketers should be thinking well beyond simple web pages to consider how their content will translate to a mobile world.

- It's no longer true that cool starts on the coasts and moves to the center. Because of technology, what's cool in New York and L.A. is cool in Fort Wayne and Lincoln, Neb. pretty much simultaneously.

- Millenials want to be part of something bigger than themselves, which helps explain their connection to causes like the environment and the Barack Obama campaign, as well as the growth of social networks

- Niche social networks are capturing more and more of millenials' attention. I was already convinced of that, but it's good to know that I'm not alone.

- Urban gaming is on the rise. And I wish I had thought of Pacmanhattan. So does Runge, but the difference between him and me is that...

- He did come up with National Collegiate Rock Paper Scissors Tournament, which I only wish I had come up with.

All in all, pretty exclamation point-worthy stuff, and a good use of an hour or so, even on a really busy day.

*This would be the typical Gen X skepticism/vitriol rearing its ugly head. Just so you know.

Communication resources from YLNI Leadership Institute

Earlier today, I facilitated a YLNI Leadership Institute session on communication, and I promised the class I'd provide a list of resources--things I mentioned throughout the day and resources supplemental to the class. So, here they are. For those of you who attended, thanks for your participation, and good luck with the remaining sessions.

Articles and books
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
“The Brand Called You” by Tom Peters
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
“Employers Cite Communication Skills, Honesty/Integrity as Key for Job Candidates,” National Association of Colleges and Employers
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath
Your Call is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit, by Laura Penny

Blogs (Misc.)
The Daily Dose (Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce/Nicole Wilkins)
Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball (Brian Spaulding)
The Good City (Jon Swerens)
Good URL Bad URL
“The Newbie Guide to Blogging” from Lifehack.org
Seth Godin's Blog
SoundBite Back

Employment Communication
“36 Beautiful Resume Designs That Work” by JobMob
VisualCV.com

Instant Messaging
Google Talk
Meebo
Yahoo Instant Messenger

Listening
“8 Ways to Avoid Conversational Narcissism” by Hello, My Name is Blog

Online Classes--FREE
Communicating Across Cultures from MIT OpenCourseWare
English Grammar in Context from LearningSpace
First Year Chinese from Utah State University
Spanish 1 from MIT OpenCourseWare
Spanish: Espacios públicos from LearningSpace

Presenting and PowerPoint
“70+ PowerPoint and Presentation Resources and Great Examples” by meryl.net
Create Your Communications Experience
“Deliver a Presentation like Steve Jobs” by Carmine Gallo
“How NOT To Use Powerpoint” by Comedian Don McMillan
“Really Bad PowerPoint (and how to avoid it)” by Seth Godin
Six Minutes: Public Speaking and Presentations Skills
Toastmasters

Productivity
“The World's Most Organized Man” by Joe Kita

Reference
Definr.com
OneLook Dictionary Search
Visuwords
Wikimapia
Wikipedia

Social Networks
Smaller Indiana
Facebook
LinkedIn
Ning

Tools
ACPL card
Bubbl.us
Dragon Naturally Speaking
Flickr
Google Reader
Google Pages
Jott
PDF Hammer
PDF Online
YouTube

Writing
Daily Writing Tips
Grammar Girl
Journal Gazette Letters to the Editor
The Lonely Writer (e-book) by Geoffrey Hineman
News-Sentinel Letters to the Editor
Synonym.com
Thank-You-Note-Samples.com
“Why Writing Like a College Student Will Kill You Online” by Copyblogger

Misc.
“Did You Know 2.0” from Shift Happens

Twitterpated

I don't see myself jumping into the Twitter pool anytime soon, but this video at least makes it easy to understand. If you've been thinking about starting a blog, or you're just looking for an easy way to communicate glimpses of your day to the outside world, Twitter may be a good place to start. (And if you're looking to communicate instructions to an audience, you could do a lot worse than a video like this.)

Hat tip: The Marketing Technology Blog

FWF membership up 800%

O.K., so it was just network founder Scott Howard and me on Fort Wayne Forum as of Monday. But still, it's interesting to see that 14 others have decided to take part in Scott's little experiment. One thing Scott has done to make FWF unique is that every member has "administrator" privileges, making it truly open source. The members are in control.

So what is Fort Wayne Forum, you ask? It's anything you want it to be. And that's what makes micro social networks pretty intriguing.

Scott Howard launches Fort Wayne Forum

Yesterday, in a post about The Board on journalgazette.net, I challenged someone to start a true Fort Wayne social network on Ning.com. Well, less than 12 hours later, blogger and frequent SBB visitor Scott Howard had the Fort Wayne Forum up and running. And it looks great--you can upload photos and videos, and you can even host an RSS feed page on your page.

This is Scott's baby, so I'll leave it to him to discuss his vision for the FWF. I'll expand upon something I mentioned yesterday, however: I think micro networks are the next stage of social networking, and there are a lot of good reasons to connect with people who you already have something in common with (a common hometown, for example). Why would you want to be on another network if you're already connected to LinkedIn or Facebook, for example? Social networks are moving from an "or" to an "and" phenomenon--instead of being on Facebook or MySpace, you can be on multiple networks that reflect your interests. The great thing about Ning.com is that allows you to manage everything from the same hub. I'm currently connected to Smaller Indiana and Fort Wayne Born to Run on Ning, and now I can pop over to the Fort Wayne Forum in just one click.

As the image above suggests, I made good on my promise to join the new network right after it was launched. Now it's your turn: just visit the Fort Wayne Forum, set up a quick profile, and you're in. You might be the last of three people to join. But maybe not. As Scott suggested in his comment yesterday, "Let's see what happens."

The Board reboots, leaves social networking opportunity up for grabs

The Board, the community discussion board hosted on the Journal Gazette website, relaunched last week with a few new features, at a new location. I've spent very little time on The Board, mainly because the conversation there seems dominated by a few people with the same old guns/abortion/religion rants where no one learns anything and everyone goes home mad.

Despite this considerable flaw, The Board seems to be doing pretty well. According to an e-mail I received from the Journal, the old Board had more than 9,800 members-- not too shabby, considering the size of Fort Wayne. However, I think it's probably grown about as big as it's ever going to get, and I see the relaunch as a big missed opportunity. Why? A couple of reasons:

• The name. "The Board" is pretty lame, and it does nothing to define who it's for and how that's different. Why not something Fort Wayne specific? "The Fort Forum," maybe? The relaunch would have been the perfect time for something different, but that window has closed.
  
• A lack of true social networking features. Discussion boards are a little...well, boring. What people seem to want is the functionality provided by sites like Facebook with a more manageable size and scope. The future of social networking appears to be micro networks that link people already connected through geography, work, or common interests (more on this topic here). One great example is Smaller Indiana, the recently launched social network specific to the Hoosier state that "makes creative people and innovative ideas easier to find." With a little extra work, then, The Board could have evolved into a true social network, which undoubtedly would have driven more traffic to JG website and created a more robust online community. Instead, it's just a discussion board. And while that's probably good enough for some of the people who were already members of the Board, it's not enough to create the buzz The Board would need to grow.
  

Here's a challenge to someone out there with more time and technical knowledge than I have: go to Ning.com and start your own "Fort Wayne Forum," or whatever you want to call it. It won't cost you anything, and the worst that can happen is that no one will join. (Actually, I'll join, so the worst that can happen is that only one other person will join.)

But what if it's successful? What skills might you learn, and who might you meet? The only way to find out is to try. If it doesn't work out, you can always become a member of The Board or the Fort Wayne group on Smaller Indiana. But wouldn't it be cool to start a group of your own instead?

What's next? Free e-mail?

I've posted before about how Classmates.com just doesn't get it. And then yesterday I see this banner ad:

In a world where I already can access a "gazillion" photos for free on Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, etc., etc., etc., why is this news? I guess for a company that still charges people to read their e-mail, this seems pretty revolutionary. It's not.

Social networks moving from macro to micro

On Thu., the BBC reported that Facebook experienced its first drop in UK users last month:

Users fell 5% to 8.5 million in January from 8.9 million in December, according to data from Nielsen Online.

This was the first drop in user numbers since July 2006 when Nielsen began compiling data on the site.

Nic Howell, deputy editor of industry magazine New Media Age, said the site was no longer as popular among its core audience of young people.

"Social networking is as much about who isn't on the site as who is - when Tory MPs and major corporations start profiles on Facebook, its brand is devalued, driving its core user base into the arms of newer and more credible alternatives," he said.

Some of this, of course, is just a normal result of the phenomenal growth of macro social media networks. (What goes up, after all, must come down.) And as the Beeb explains, it's also a backlash against the corporatization and decreased exclusivity of the macros. But despite the mention of "Tory MPs" above, this isn't just a UK phenomenon. There's something larger at work here: it's part of a shift in preference from macro social networks like Facebook and MySpace to micro social networks that link smaller groups of people with real-world common bonds.

I'm already part of a few such networks, including two hosted by Ning.com: Smaller Indiana and Fort Wayne Born to Run. Both offer significant advantages over macro social networking sites (even though the Ning interface has its flaws), including their specificity (the first is for Indiana's "creative class"; the second is for Fort Wayne runners). My guess is that the macros slowly decline as users look for the social networking equivalent of "bricks and clicks"--an ability to enhance both the online and F2F ends of relationships, in forums that are manageable and specific.

I think this shift is analogous to what we've seen happen with TV. Facebook and MySpace are like the broadcast networks, offering all things to all people depending on when you tune in. Micro social networks, conversely, are like cable, offering very specific programming for a very specific audience. We'll still use both, but the niche networks will get an increasing share of our attention.

"Communication isn’t a fad": Ochman on social networks

What can social networking do for your company? Quite a bit, says blogger extraordinaire B.L. Ochman--as long as you don't treat it as some kind of magic bullet. Ochman's entire post is worth reading, but here's the excerpt that got my very specific attention because of its relevance to everything from advertising to crisis communication:

Communication isn’t a fad. People young and old use these tools and pass along information in a casual way because this way of spreading information is now part of the culture.

Yet corporations are still expecting a static website with no feedback mechanism, banner advertising, multi-million dollar Super Bowl ads, top-down messages, and over-saturated search engine advertising to pass for communication. Then they wonder why their marketing doesn’t drive sales.

A company that has open channels of communications that include social media tools has the opportunity to interact with online influentials. But they need to speak in a human voice, to answer and ask questions, to provide information. Because in a crisis, only a company with open lines of communication can be heard. Companies that participate in social media will have the opportunity to be heard and perhaps believed.

I commented on Ochman's blog, and I'll share the spirit of my comment here, too: if you're in marketing or you're an executive of any type, there's only one way to truly understand how social networks work: join one. Sure, it might seem a little awkward to be the only adult at the kids' table, but you can't fully understand what's going on unless you're in the middle of the action (and you'll be surprised how many adults are on board, most of whom are fairly normal). I'm 38, and I'm a Facebook member--primarily so I can provide my clients with a first-hand view of how social networks are shaping consumer perceptions. And like most things, I've learned much more about social networks by immersion than I would have by simple observation.

Social networks aren't going away, but they are changing. If you want to know how they're changing, and how that affects your business, you have to be willing to jump in.

Fort Wayne Smaller Indiana group launched

I’ve started a Fort Wayne group on Smaller Indiana, the social network that brings together “creative people and innovative ideas” from across the Hoosier State. If you work in communication, marketing, or advertising, I’d encourage you to visit the site--and sign up, if you like what you see.