The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future.

April 19th, 2012 • Allgemein
Tags: Experimental, Facebook, Future, Ideas, People, Prediction, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Tech, Tools, Trends, Truth, World

From the great article ‘The Jig is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future‘ (The Atlantic)

‘It slipped into parody late last year with the hypothetical app, Jotly, which allowed you to “rate everything” from the ice cubes in your drink to the fire hydrant you saw on the street. The fake promo video perfectly nailed everything about the herd mentality among startups. Its creator told me to watch for “the color blue, rounded corners, SoLoMo [SocialLocalMobile], ratings, points, free iPads, ridiculous name (complete with random adverbing via ‘ly’), overpromising, private beta, giant buttons, ‘friction-less’ sign up, no clear purpose, and of course a promo video.”

And then, the hilarious parody ate itself and my tears of laughter turned to sadness when the people behind the joke actually released Jotly as a real, live app.’

Here is the original video. Isn’t it ironic? Revolutions always eat their own children. Did anyone say google Glass?

Jotly, the Ultimate App for Sharing Everything with Everyone (Psych!)

Googopoly. The Future of Search and Social.

April 4th, 2012 • Intelligence, Knowledge, Media, Reports, Search, Strategy
Tags: Facebook, google, google plus, Insights, People, Prediction, Presentation, Report, Reports, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Study, trendstream, World

The problem with the artist formerly referred to as Social Media is – besides many other things – that it is in the agency business commonly understood as some crazy shit that you stage on Facebook to win a Cannes Lion in the end.

That of course is wrong. Specifically if you take a look at the rarely talked about opportunities of intertwining the worlds of search and social.

A while ago I had the pleasure to get to know Tom Smith, founder of Trendstream, the company behind the GlobalWebIndex and the great Wave studies conducted on behalf of McCann.

Tom’s following presentation, given at the International Search Summit in Munich, discusses the idea of what he describes as the ‘Googopoly’, where Google has risen to control most of what we see and do online.

Even though I doubt the relevance of google Plus I found Tom’s key takeaway extremely smart: It is not just about google+. It is about how google cements its position with a multitude of tools like Chrome, Android and many others in order to enforce search thinking into anything that’s social nowadays.

Great presentation. Thanks to We are Social for the link…

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Now That Makes Sense: ‘Why Didn’t You Like This Ad?’

März 8th, 2012 • Ads
Tags: Advertising, Facebook, Funny, Media, Social Networks, Truth

Facebook’s 1 Billion. Right Before the Mayan Apocalypse.

Januar 13th, 2012 • Trends
Tags: chart, Facebook, Social Networks, Strategy, World

Silicon Alley Insider’s Chart of the Day. iCrossings says Facebook will probably reach 1 billion users sometime in August 2012. Hardcore.

 
Read more at http://ghen.sl/yz6v84

Klout. Why It’s not a Metric for Influence.

Dezember 20th, 2011 • 2 comments CRM, Tools
Tags: Analytics, Influence, Klout, Metrics, Social Infliuence Marketing, Social Networks, Tech, Tools, Truth

My colleague Heather – Strategy Director at StrawberryFrog here in Amsterdam – has posted quite an interesting article on her personal Quest for Klout.

This is the story:

A little over a week ago, a comment was made by a client responsible for social media that they would expect someone offering advice on social media to have a higher Klout score than themselves. I wasn’t in the meeting, but one of our art directors made the comment “Wait until you meet our head of planning. She’ll give you a run for your money.”

When my colleagues return and tell me about the meeting we go online and compare Klout scores. Mine is 40. The client’s is 51. I’ve never paid any attention to Klout before this but they insisted I try to do so and get mine up. So I connect my Facebook account. Then Foursquare, Instagram, Google+ that I never use, and LinkedIn (that ought to take care of this competition). And then I simply put attention into all of these networks. After 24 hours my score had gone up 6 points. By the end of the week I was at 53 and it seems to have leveled off there. But that’s still 2 points higher than the client’s.

We had a bit of a conversation about Heather’s challenge with her client. Of course it was just a game but an interesting one as the client really defined Klout as a crucial metric that really describes Influence.

The problem? If you are all up for lifting your Klout score all you have to do is to basically connect every social profile you have and get retweeted constantly. In the end you get something like this (which basically says nothing but…wait…MY KLOUT SCORE IS HIGHER HEATHER!!!! ):

Klout does not get tired to pretend it is the standard when it comes to influence metrics in the social web. It’s true: if it comes to asking how to measure influence somebody will mention Klout pretty quickly. Or in other words, I think Klout did a great job in making people believe they can measure influence. I think they can’t. My reason? Klout does not measure influence. It measures blah blah.

Angela Merkel’s Klout Score is only one point higher than my own. British Prime Minister David Cameron is even less influential than I am. And do you think this comparison makes sense? No, I don’t think so either. Because we all know Klout does not work that way.

My problem with Klout is simple: Klout defines itself as the ‘Standard for Influence‘. Sometimes – in more humble moments – as the “standard for Online and Internet Influence”. As a Strategist interacting with marketing clients (such as Heather does) this is just fine print when it comes to explaining if we are able to measure success.

“It’s simple, isn’t it?”, Klout is the metric for influence. And even though we all know that real influence cannot be split into an online influence and a real world influence…and even though we all know that unless I become German Chancelor or British Prime Minister I will never be as influential as two Politicians mentioned above…and even though I know that if I go on vacations tomorrow without tweeting for two weeks my Klout score will half: we still seem to accept it as a metric for influence.

Klout is not a metric for influence. It is something like a counter that tells the world how many e-mails I sent or how many telephone calls I answered yesterday. Oh…of course it turns that into a nice info visual and awards me a ridiculous set of badges (I am a “Klout OG”).

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China. Ogilvy’s ‘Social Media Equivalents’ in China 2011.

Oktober 17th, 2011 • 2 comments Social
Tags: Agencies, China, Media, Ogilvy, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Tools, Touchpoints, visual, World

Ogilvy China has re-created the well-know Conversation Prism to show some of the Chinese local platforms thriving in place of major international equivalents. Practivally the diagram is actually as useless as the original Conversation Prism (‘Did anyone ever look at this diagram of 250 platforms to find the right one for his purpose?’) but it nevertheless gives you a good understanding of the vast Chinese digital landscape.

Do also check out Ogilvy China’s study ‘Connected’ on digital marketing in China.

via Penn Olson

The New Facebook. A Morning with my updated Privacy Settings.

Oktober 2nd, 2011 • 3 comments Allgemein
Tags: Facebook, People, Philosophy, privacy, Social Networks, World

One week after f8 – and I am still shocked of the general public acceptance of Facebook’s ‘frictionless sharing’ – and that as a marketing guy. I should actually be sitting on the bridge of Planet Death Star watching all you pathetic Earthlings getting data-sucked now. But as ususal – nobody cares how much ownership over our data we have just lost.

I started my own little exploration through my ‘new’ Facebook privacy settings (No 2 is only relevant for you if you have the new FB profile, No 1 is not).

Frictionless sharing – from ‘Public by default’ to ‘Private does not exist anymore’

So whoever talks about privacy – he usually belongs either to the school ‘Full Privacy by default’ or ‘Public by default’. Jeff Jarvis for example does not get tired to explain how crucial it is that we build our world by virtually defining, tagging, constructing objects and interactions. And that is why we need to be Public by default. In other words: We sign out if we do not want to transmit stuff instead of i.e. signing in to getting public with certain status updates.

But: Believing in a free web society in which everyone collaboratively constructs a virtual world is as realistic as believing in free globalized markets: it is a fiction that is constantly corrupted by the interest of a few. And Facebook has just presented some of their concepts for our brave new world – a world in which you can not sign out of being Public anymore. Simply because it is too complicated.

Unfortunately Facebook makes it almost impossible to sign out of the new ‘frictionless sharing‘. Example: I have 314 apps installed (Yes, 314 – as I said, I am an online marketing guy).

All of these apps do certain things. Maybe I have signed up to Nike+ on Facebook, or Slideshare, or twitter…there are many reasons why I may have installed one of them a while ago. And yes, I have approved most of them to pull certain data: my birthday, my profile pic, or other information from my profile.

But I did approve anything like ‘Yes, dear third party software – you can now post in my name’. But exactly this is a new setting in your Facebook profile since last week. And it is pre-approved by default.

Sharing the songs I listen to may be annoying to one or the other. But Facebook has just allowed 314 applications to post in my name whatever these pieces of software want to share.

There must be a button to turn this function off for all of them at once, right?

Nope.

Facebook allows to disapprove this propery. But you cannot disapprove this function for all 314 apps at once. Facebook forces you to click through all 314 apps individually to remove this.

eWeek claims that this is no problem. Because you can easily change the settings for what your friends see

Facebook pointed out that people who subscribe to its social applications will have complete control over whether they’re info is shared or not.

That is to say, the automatic sharing is on by default in the social apps, but Facebook allows users to control whether their app stories are seen by their friends at all times.

This is like walking around with a black box that constantly documents and transfers your data while its manufacturer asks you not to worry as it does not tell any of your friends.It is  not a proper response to the basic problem. The problem is not just what my friends see or what I actively share with the world. The problem is that currently 314 Facebook applications are allowed to document my life and per default are allowed to act in my name. What the F, Facebook?

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This Morning’s Hot Shit. The new Facebook Features.

September 23rd, 2011 • 1 comment Experimental, Social, Social Business, Strategy, Tech, Tools
Tags: Facebook, Semantic Web, social network, Social Networks, Timeline

My new Facebook Timeline has arrived. After yesterday’s f8 announcement (great overview here) I really think we are about to see the ‘profound changes’ that mashable talked about yesterday morning.

Hacking Facebook to set up Timeline is a rather simple. Techcrunch has published a handy DIY guide this morning. But only I am currently able to see my timeline right now.

What it does is really to replace my profile with a nice, interactive biography on one page. The Timeline stops everytime Facebook identifies important steps in my life. My sister’s birth certainly was one of these events (even though at that point I didn’t necessarily agree). And I am invited to upload baby photos of her. Cheesy and nice.

Timeline is a new, pretty cool metaphor that really adds a new perspective to Facebook. Facebook as a lifelong diary – well actually…a living diary. Long term not just super-today.

But there is much more that I find interesting.

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Dear google. google+ is getting a bit boring.

September 7th, 2011 • 1 comment Allgemein, Social, Tools
Tags: google, google plus, Social Media, Social Networks, Tools

Hi google.

I guess it wasn’t your intention. But I have to say google+ is rather boring right at the moment.

Yes, I know. When you sent out the first g+ invites everyone was extremely positive. It felt a bit like complimenting a rather slow kid for the nice picture it has sketched. And yes, a lot of people really, really wanted an invite.

Fast forward two months: I still really haven’t figured out why google Plus is meant to be a revolution. Interface-wise it is a good hybrid between Facebook and twitter. And yes: the Circles concept is a nice iteration to social networking as well as its likely future search relevance.

But a revolution looks different. Particularly as the most interesting stuff that’s happening on google Plus is exactly the same stuff that’s happening on all the other platforms.

Right now the google+ party…

• almost exclusively consists of Social Media Gurus, Personal Coaches, and bizarre Small Businesses who don’t want to be late adopters again (‘this time I won’t join it 5 years too late’)
• derives its right to party from the claim that it offers better functionalities than other platforms from which it has stolen its concepts – I still haven’t figured out how a Skype-like functionality should motivate me long term
• gets more and more intolerable due to its real name policy
• still has not communicated when it is likely going to be more exciting

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Consumer Love. IBM shows how not to ask the right questions.

August 15th, 2011 • Reports, Social, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Facebook, IBM, Media, Prediction, Presentation, Report, Research, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Strategy, Trends

IBM has just published a study called ‘From Social Media to Social CRM‘ (PDF download). I first liked it because it was not boring. It did not repeat the same old shit that you read anywhere else. In fact…it seemed quite uncomfortable and innovative. At first.

So at first some of the study’s claims did not sound very surprising, nevertheless heretic for many people in the industry. IBM found out that most people are not so much into learning about your next campaign on social networks. They are actually almost exclusively interested to meet their friends. And pretty much the only reasons why they friend a brand – according to IBM – is VOUCHERS.

Yes. All of us hate these types of relations.

Who wants to date a girl that only spends time with you because you pay all the restaurant bills?

IBM has got an explanation for you why you spend time with this girl (the social consumer): Simply because you want to think the girl loves you.

Businesses are three times more likely to think consumers are interested in interacting with them to feel part of a community. Businesses also overestimate consumers’ desire to engage with them to feel connected to their brand. In fact, these two activities are among the least interesting from a consumer’s perspective.

Consumers are willing to interact with businesses if they believe it is to their benefit, feel they can trust the company and decide social media is the right channel to use to get the value they seek. That value could be in the form of a coupon or specific information. Engaging with a company via social media may result in a feeling of connectedness for consumers – an emotional, intangible gain – but the wish for intimacy is not what drives most of them.

I agree with the latter claim even though IBM streamlined the study to make sure everyone understands VOUCHERS as the key consumer desire. How? By benchmarkting the girl’s (social consumer’s) top reasons why she dates you compared to your top reasons why you date her. The result could not be much different. And yes: According to this study most of her top reasons to date you are connected to restaurant bills.

So does that mean all of us should forget about investing into next year’s social activation? Definitely not.

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