Understanding Users of Social Networks If the ongoing social networking revolution has you scratching your head and asking, "Why do people spend time on this?" and "How can my company benefit from the social network revolution?" you've got a lot in common with Harvard Business School professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski. Only difference: Piskorski has spent years studying users of online social networks (SN) and has developed surprising findings about the needs that they fulfill, how men and women use these services differently, and how Twitter—the newest kid on the block—is sharply different from forerunners such as Facebook and MySpace. Addressing network failures "Online social networks are most useful when they address real failures in the operation of offline networks," says Piskorski. They can address some basic search failures: "It's hard to know what my friends are up to, but online I can catch up with them quickly." Online social networks also can improve people's ability to use offline social networks as "covers."
039;s June 2009 Trend Briefing covering FOREVERISM The INTERNET OF CARING THINGS means connected objects that serve consumers' most important needs: physical and mental wellbeing, safety, security, oversight of loved ones, and more. You're probably already familiar with the innovations that have blazed an early CARING trail. The Nest smart thermostat*, NIKE fuelband and Fitbit, for example. But now, as consumer demand and technological capacity converge, the INTERNET OF CARING THINGS will evolve in exciting new directions. Check out the examples below – divided into five categories of CARING – for a glimpse of these... * Indeed, just after we first wrote about the INTERNET OF CARING THINGS in December 2013, Google placed a USD 3.2 billion bet on it with their purchase of Nest Labs.
How to: Follow Hundreds of Tech Analysts on Twitter With 3 Clicks I may be a scruffy, untrained blogger but I can still appreciate the work of traditional professional technology analysts. SageCircle is an analyst analyst firm, they track the analyst industry. Their emails and podcasts are an inspiration - dense with information and loads of fun. (If you like that kind of thing.) SageCircle has been maintaining a list of tech analysts with Twitter accounts and the list is now up to 724 active users. Visit this link and you'll find the first 500 analysts on the list. Then at the top of the page you'll see a bit.ly link to part 2. Think this sounds like a bad idea? Thanks a bunch to Carter Lusher of SageCircle, @carterlusher, for building and maintaining this list. Want to do something to help, yourself?
DR Special Report: The Leader of the Caribbean Pack Thrives Despite Safety Worries Caribbean CRM Central By Karina E. Cuevas The Dominican Republic continues to hold the title of the Caribbean’s call center champion, edging out rival Jamaica and earning continuing praise from major in-country providers. With over 65 call centers, it is the second industry in growth after tourism, generating 40 percent of revenue for the overall DR economy. The call center industry has created around 22,000 direct jobs and there are hopes that as many as 100,000 new jobs will be added in the next five years. Rodolfo Salazar, America’s Marketing Director for Stream, says the DR is a key part of Stream's Nearshore services strategy In 2008, $7.2 million was driven from services exports and the country attracted $2.8 million in investments. An Affinity Play“Our affinity with the United States of America as well as location and telecommunication infrastructure are benefits aside from the low costs for the industry,” says Veronica Ogando, Investment Promotions Specialist for CEI-RD. Wages Remain Stable Karina E.
Sean Parker: Twitter/Facebook Will Soon Dominate The Web — Not Google. Sean Parker, a managing partner at Founder’s Fund, gave an interesting talk today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The key to it is simple: Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and eBay will dominate the web going forward. One company of note that won’t? Google. Why? To be clear, he thinks Google will stay huge and relevant, but it’s dominance will go down because collecting data is less valuable than connecting people, he said. He went on to talk a bit about the social networking space, which is significant because he helped found Facebook. Parker noted that data portability is a red herring. He went on to say that Friendster was not a fad, it failed because of the failure to scale, not because of poor product execution. Parker also talked a bit about why it’s not always the best products that win. Also of note was that one of Parker’s slides talked about the few networks Google does own, like Orkut. Update 2: Here’s the full slide deck of Parker’s presentation.
Exclusive: Discussing the Future of Facebook with CEO Mark Zuckerberg There’s a lot happening at Facebook these days. From advertising to payments, search to mobile, platform to privacy, Facebook has teams working on a spectrum of products to serve the company’s 200 million active users – 100 million of which log in every day – in the years ahead. Since Facebook was founded in 2004, it has repeatedly evolved to make it easier for people to share and consume information in trusted and more efficient ways. Facebook has always focused on establishing real identity and user profiles, and that identity continues to be foundational for all of the company’s products and monetization plans today. In late 2006, Facebook created the now-famous News Feed, making it easier than ever for users to keep track of friends’ activity on the site. Facebook then launched the Facebook Platform in 2007, enabling thousands of developers to leverage Facebook’s data to create a new wave of web applications with deeper social context than had been possible before. Why?
TweetMixx Launches Branded Twitter Channels TweetMixx, the newly launched service from social voting site Mixx that allows you to find relevant links on Twitter, is venturing into new territory today with the launch of TweetMixx Channels. The service basically lets brands, celebs and companies consolidate their Twitter traffic and mentions on one page. TweetMixx Channels features branded, customizable pages, with the brand’s current Twitter feed, tweets and updates from fans, and links relevant to content about the brand, company or topic posted automatically. The tool also serves as a tracking and monitoring tool for mentions and conversations about a brand taking place on Twitter. Companies can create a customizable branded page with a vanity URL and can designate an “Insiders” tab within the channel which has a list of Twittering employees or users associated with a company. As we’ve said in the past, TweetMixx faces competition from TweetMeme, a popular engine for Twitter link discovery.
Microsoft Ad Portrays Bing As Economy's Savior -- InformationWeek Spot evokes controversial Willie Horton campaign to link Google with recession. Stealing themes from the world of political advertising, Microsoft on Wednesday rolled out a new television ad for its recently unveiled Bing search engine. The one-minute spot starts with dark, foreboding images of a failed economy -- foreclosure auctions, rising gas prices, unemployed workers, and the like -- and veiled references to rival Google. "We don't need queries and keywords if they bring about questions and confusion," it adds in apocalyptic tones. The ad then transitions to more optimistic themes and images and introduces Bing as a potential savior. By visually and viscerally associating its rival with collapse and anarchy, Microsoft is borrowing tried-and-true techniques from political campaigning. Some credit the ad for derailing Dukakis' candidacy. Bing.com features links to specific search categories, such as news, videos, shopping, maps, and travel. More Insights
Social networking for business: plan less for less pain Computerworld Australia - Productivity loss, information leakage, and defamation of fellow employees are all enough to get us fired from our jobs, unless, of course, it is done under the guise of a social network for the enterprise 2.0. Slideshow: Where IT pros do their social networkingSlideshow: 12 tips for safe social networking Businesses are beginning to grapple with the emergence of a culture of IT self-service among employees and the savvy leaders will harness, rather than hinder, the use of external hosted applications, including social networking, according to a group of IT professionals. Speaking on a panel about social networking for business at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney, representatives from insurance company AMP, consulting firm Deloitte and IT analyst firm Forrester Research, agreed that rapid adoption of external applications by employees is here to stay so the challenge is how to leverage this culture shift. "The business case proved itself.