Trends. Statistics 2. Meetango. Seven sites that connect trekkies | Webware. If you saw "Star Trek" over the weekend , you might be wondering how you can use the Web to connect with other fans. It's not as hard as you might think. From Ning social networks to Facebook groups, there are a variety of ways to connect with "Star Trek" fans around the world. Social "Star Trek" Star-Trek If you're a Twitter fanatic, the Tweetworks Star-Trek group might be worth checking out. It's not a vibrant community--there are just a few dozen members--but it's the largest "Star Trek" Twitter group on the Tweetworks network. "Star Trek" Facebook group The "Star Trek" Facebook group is the place to go if you're a real "Star Trek" fan. "Star Trek" MySpace page The official "Star Trek" MySpace page is a must-see for any "Star Trek" fan.
Star Trek Online Though the site is designed for the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), Star Trek Online, its forums are one of the best places to connect with other "Star Trek" fans. The Top 3. Eight great applications win the Forrester Groundswell awards. By Josh Bernoff Today at the Forrester Consumer Forum we announced the winners of the Forrester Groundswell Awards. As I mentioned after receiving the entries, there were some fascinating and, more to the point, highly effective social applications in the 78 entries we got. It wasn't easy to pick the best, since there were so many good ones.
But, of course, we did. While we used several criteria, the most important was: did the application prove it delivered on business value. To see the complete list of winners and finalists, click here. Listening. By Schwab and Communispace In January 2007, Charles Schwab worked with Communispace to launch their “Money and More” private online community made up of 350 25-to-40 year old Generation X non-Schwab clients. Talking. By Chevrolet and Weber Shandwick Chevrolet, along with Weber Shandwick, set out to support the launch of the 2007 redesigned Chevy Aveo with a focus on college students. Energizing. By NetShops and PowerReviews Supporting. Managing. What is SocialSpace? - Help Center—Knowledge Base and FAQ. Keeping Momentum in Social Media. By The Staff of the Corporate Executive Board While many companies are enticed by social media, most struggle to sustain successful initiatives, particularly when it comes to utilizing new mediums to mobilize their workforce.
Companies recognize social media's potential as a powerful tool for internal communications and thus move forward yet fail to get the anticipated employee-participation levels. Launching a new corporate social media platform typically involves a flashy marketing campaign, excited e-mails, and intranet notifications to help create an initial "pop" in participation. But that excitement can quickly die down if employees don't really see what is in it for them. Making this failure even more acute, Corporate Executive Board research shows that employees mobilize around people, not companies—especially in an environment of uncertainty and corporate mistrust. . Humanize anonymous peers. . Increase access to the platform. . Make it easy to use and relate to. A Guide to Recommender Systems - ReadWriteWeb. We’re running a special series on recommendation technologies and in this post we look at the different approaches – including a look at how Amazon and Google use recommendations.
The Wikipedia entry defines “recommender systems” as “a specific type of information filtering (IF) technique that attempts to present information items (movies, music, books, news, images, web pages, etc.) that are likely of interest to the user.” That entry goes on to note that recommendations are generally based on an “information item (the content-based approach) or the user’s social environment (the collaborative filtering approach).”
We think there’s also a personalization approach, which Google in particular is focused on. We explore some of these concepts below. In a recent post, Xavier Vespa of the blog HyveUp analyzed 3 different approaches to recommendation engines on the Web. A couple of years ago, Alex Iskold outlined what he saw as the 4 main approaches to recommendations: 15 Top Privacy Policies, Analyzed - ReadWriteEnterprise. We all know no one reads privacy policies. What do the top websites really include in them? In its mission to get anonymous public data, The Common Data Project a New York City-based non-profit, is on a mission to eliminate the barriers that privacy policies pose. In a new report, they analyzed ten of the most popular Web properties on the Internet, and several more emerging ones.
Here's how what they put in their policies affects your privacy, and how other enterprises can imitate their best practices. Regardless of any similarities or differences within policies, one thing is absolutely clear: tons of data is being collected about you, though some of it may already be incidental enough to be private (such as the popularity of search terms). Privacy is certainly not an issue limited to the Web, but it facilitates the nearly limitless ability to gather data by the boatload. Policies Analyzed Common Themes Private Data Not Covered By Policy Yes, that's right. Reasonable Expectations. B.L. Ochman's blog: A Tale of Two Contests Using Social Med. By B.L. Ochman Two current contests involving social media are a study in contrasts in the ways companies are rushing – like lemmings, it often seems – to jump on the social media bandwagon.
The difference between the two in a nutshell: one contest says “tell us why we’re so great” and the other says “show us why you love your dog.”Dear agencies and CMOs: I’ll probably never know why so many brands try this ham-handed “what do you love about us?” Approach, but unless your brand is one people are absolutely nuts about, they’d rather talk about themselves and their pets than talk about the many wonders of you. The grand prize in the Cutest Dog Competition is a cool million dollars. Old Spice has 20 challenges, ranging from make a video in which you “Spell Swagger on chests at game” to make a video of “the unveiling of a public street, avenue or boulevard that has been officially named “Old Spice Swagger”.
HOW TO: Build the Ultimate Social Media Resume. Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog. Social media resumes are important for attracting hiring managers directly to you, without you having to submit your resume, blindly, to them. The problem with submitting your resume online to job postings is that most job postings aren't even vacant, might not exist, and 80% of jobs offers are received through networking. With a social media resume, you're able to paint a completely different portrait of yourself for hiring managers and customize it to reflect your personal brand. With the inclusion of various multimedia elements, sharing options, integrated social networking feeds and the same elements you'd find in a traditional resume, you are better equipped for success. Social media has allowed us to reverse the recruiting process.
Here is the social media resume process: 1. Options for websites Options for blogs 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Skittles Site Receives an Extreme Social Makeover. Many companies are starting to realize that whatever content they offer online still can't match the various social media offerings out there, where the community contributes to the whole. Few, however, have taken it so far as candy maker Skittles, which replaced its entire homepage with its Twitter stream.
The only thing that's left is a widget-like navigation console in the upper left part of the screen, but lo and behold: instead of pointing you to some company PR nonsense, it sends you to the Skittles entry on other popular social destinations: Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr. I'm not sure about the implementation: the navigation console, even when minimized, takes over an important portion of the screen; I'd prefer a StumbleUpon-style top bar. I love the idea, however. While this approach is uncommon when it comes to corporate websites, it's already happened elsewhere. More brand resources from Mashable: Charles Schwab. How Doctors Are Using Social Media. The History and Evolution of Social Media. Social media has become an integral part of modern society. There are general social networks with user bases larger than the population of most countries.
There are niche sites for virtually every special interest out there. There are sites to share photos, videos, status updates, sites for meeting new people and sites to connect with old friends. It seems there are social solutions to just about every need. In this article, we’ll review the history and evolution of social media from its humble beginnings to the present day. Precursors to Social Media Usernets Usenet systems were first conceived of in 1979 by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis.
Usenets have no centralized server or dedicated administrator, setting them apart from most BBSs and forums. Group sites such as Google Groups and Yahoo! BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems) The first BBSs came online in the late 70s. While there were legitimate BBSs, most were at least somewhat involved in illicit, illegal, or other shady practices. Online Services. Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and E. Seeking stats for 2009?
They are being compiled on this updated post. Stats on social networks are important, but I’m going to need your help in creating a community archive, can you submit stats as you find them? I’m often asked, “What are the usage numbers for X social network” and I’ve received considerable traffic on my very old post (way back in Jan) of MySpace and Facebook stats, even months later. Decision makers, press, media, and users are hungry for numbers, so I’ll start to aggregate them as I see them An industry analysts’ perspective on web measurement: To be clear, my employer Forrester doesn’t provide specific numbers about social networks like Compete, Comscore, Nielsen or others, we conduct our own surveys on user/brand behavior, opinions, and technographics, so I’m often asked for these numbers by press. Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008 All Social Networks AdultFriendFinder Bebo BlogHer Digg Facebook Gather Hi5.
What's Your Favorite Brand of 2009? #openwebawards. Open Web Awards Nominations will remain open until 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, November 15th. Submit your nominations here. Social media has not only transformed how we communicate with each other, but it has even changed how we, as consumers, interact with brands, companies, and agencies. The old forms of customer service and customer relationships have been challenged by the direct and open access that Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media services have sparked. That's why the #OpenWebAwards for Brands, Startups, Companies, and Agencies are so intriguing. It provides us a chance to recognize the companies that are leveraging social media in extraordinary ways. This year's honors in the Brand category are diverse, including Best Brand use of Facebook, Best Corporate Blog, Best Brand Use of Twitter, and Favorite Social media Gadget.
Luckily for you, there are a ton of choices. There is no shortage of brands, startups, companies, or agencies to nominate for this years awards. R/GA: Digital AOY 2008. Stepping into R/GA's New York headquarters, a visitor notices, amid the general bustle of a busy shop, the beautiful, sometimes haunting images on the walls. They are pieces from Bob Greenberg's personal collection of "outsider art," created by the institutionalized.
"What I find in outsider art is the opposite of what I find in the digital world: no compromise and complete expressive freedom," Greenberg wrote about the collection, in a book published a decade ago. Indeed, Greenberg's choice of art is the inverse of how, in his own idiosyncratic way, he has crafted R/GA's place in the evolving world of brand building. Rather than pursue the kind of singular creative representations that dominate traditional advertising, the 60-year-old R/GA founder and CEO has thrown the agency headlong into a collaborative process that results in integrated digital platforms for clients. "There's a couple different directions agencies will have to take," says Greenberg. Nike+ is just the start. Matrix: The Four Social Support Strategies « Web Strategy by Jer.
At the Altimeter Group, I cover Customer Strategy, which encompasses not only marketing, but also support, expect our discussion to grow as social technologies impact the whole enterprise. The Social Support movement is afoot (see opportunities), and more companies will be connecting existing marketing and support systems with the social web. Many companies, like Comcast, Wells Fargo, Intel, BestBuy, JetBLue are responding to customers and in some cases, supporting them in near real time.
The challenge is that these teams are unable to scale, even a support team of ten full time folks at Comcast will have a hard time responding to all customers in all social channels. As a result, expect companies to resort to scalable ways to respond to customers, such as: The Four Social Support Strategies 2) Employee Based Support: Employees Respond to Customers Many companies are assigning people in their support or product teams to respond to customers in the social web.
6 Ways to Use Ning for Business. David Spinks is the Community Manager for Scribnia, where the world's bloggers and columnists are reviewed by their readers. He also blogs at The Spinks Blog about business, careers and professional communities. There is an almost overwhelming number of options on the social web for businesses to create and participate in communities. You hear a lot about Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter communities, and even LinkedIn Groups; but businesses have another option when looking to build a community online that's often overlooked despite having nearly 40 million users: Ning. Ning allows businesses to create their own off-site social network for their brand’s community, and participate in existing conversations with the communities they are looking to engage. Here are 6 ways businesses can put Ning to work. What is Ning? Creating a social network on Ning or participating in networks already popular on the site are great ways for businesses to add value and connect with potential customers. 1. 2. 3.
6 Ways To Protect Your Brand With So. Editorial Tools. Know how to use Microsoft Word? Then you’ll feel right at home with Sitecore CMS. Sitecore lets you: Easily edit content with a familiar editing environment. Sitecore’s Microsoft Office-style “ribbon” interface lets you use the skills you already have Simply click on parts of the website in your browser to start editing right on the page Simplify your job with features like Favorites and Automatic Content Cleaning that save time and ensure accuracy and consistency Find problems immediately using Sitecore’s spelling and accessibility checkers Keep Your Content Fresh Easily and Efficiently According to an analysis by eMarketer, the average adult spends 2.5 hours per day or roughly 18 hours per week online.
Unfortunately, the average amount of time a person spends on an individual webpage is only 56 seconds according to The Nielsen Company. Turn Customers into Advocates with a Website that Compels Brochure Sitecore CMS Webinar Get to Know Sitecore CMS 6 White Papers Choosing the Best CMS. On Hiring for Social Media Roles – Get It Together, People. Kristina Halvorson on Content Strategy for the Web. The Last Campaign: How Experiences Are Becoming the New Advertis. B.L. Ochman's blog: 10 Things Social Media Can't Do.
35 social media KPIs to help measure engagement | Blog | Econsul. View-all-whitepapers :: Razorfish. Winners of the 2009 Forrester Groundswell Awards. 10 of the Best Social Media Tools for Entrepreneurs. HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI. Social Media Time Management: Selecting Tools | Brand Elevation.
Twitter Cluelessness : The World. Web 2.0 Square. Brand Solutions « Buddy Media. UserName Check - Thwart Social Media Identity Theft, check Usern. Social Media Marketing Applications - 10 Proven Ideas - Online M. YouTube Launches Real-Time Discussion Search and Tracking. Five reasons corporations are failing at social media. Social Graph API - Google Code. Social Media Business Council. 18 Essential Tools for Every Word-of-Mouth Marketer. 2009 Tribalization of Business Study | Deloitte LLP | Ed Moran. The 10 commandments of social optimisation (#SOCOP) | Blog | Eco.