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Twitter releases location tracking

Posted on Mar 10, 2010 by Dennis Driscoll in Social Media

Twitter releases their location tracking capability. Now, you can turn the “location” on and your followers will be able to see your location.

With little bit of work with Twitter API and Google Maps API you can visually represent your Twitter location on Google Maps. Pretty awesome functionality, not so sure about people’s privacy though.

Social Media and Small Business

Posted on Mar 02, 2010 by Peter Ellis in Advertising, Social Media

I was browsing the web today doing some research. I was looking to find some case studies about social media and small business. Application of social networking in every day small business operation. Pretty much trying to find some solid data/stats on this subject.

Every web design, pr and advertising agency today will tell you that you must have the Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (now also Google Buzz) accounts to expand your brand online.

Each type of business’ utilization of social media networking is different, especially the integration of social networking and search engine optimization is existing marketing and advertising plans.

Long story short, this is what I stumbled on (no pun intended=):

From Mashable

The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business looked at the relationship between social media and small businesses and found that the technology adoption rates in the U.S. have doubled in the past year from 12% to 24%.

The data comes straight from the university’s third installment to its Small Business Success Index report and is based on a December 2009 telephone survey of 500 small business owners. Adoption rate calculations are compared against a baseline report conducted in December 2008.

The study concludes that one nearly one in five small business owners are integrating social media into their business processes — Facebook and LinkedIn were the most popular sites. In fact, 45% of surveyed respondents even believe their social media initiatives will pay off financially in 12 months or less.

As the graphic below details, the small business owners who are using social media are primarily engaging in social media through company pages (75%) and status updates (69%) on Facebook or LinkedIn. What’s especially intriguing is that a much smaller percentage of respondents — just 16% — are using Twitter as a customer service channel.

Another interesting notion is that small business owners now believe social media can help them on the lead generation front, and that is the primary motivating factor for engaging in these new customer service channels. So while half of surveyed respondents found the time it takes to use social media sites more daunting than expected, 61% are still putting in the hours and making active efforts to identify new customers.

Clearly social media has become a valuable tool for small businesses, but we’re especially curious to see how Twitter adoption rates fluctuate over the time. While we expect more small businesses to use Twitter as a customer service channel in the year ahead, as it stands, Facebook and LinkedIn have become the predominant platforms for small business owners.

Tips for Non-Profit Online Communities

Posted on Feb 13, 2010 by Peter Ellis in News, Social Media, Web Design

From Mashable, view original post

So much conversation about social networking revolves around Twitter and Facebook, but in actuality these networks are just the tip of the iceberg. From general networks like Wiser Earth and Care2, to cause specific networks like PickensPlan and the Sierra Club’s Activist Network, there’s a hotbed of social activity occurring in private communities. Non-profit oriented networks use a wide variety of social tools to foster community, including their own white label communities.

Non-profits use white label platforms like Ning to connect with their communities. Ning serves 1.6 million networks (see Mashable’s Six Ways to Use Ning post). “What we’re seeing organizations and non-profits use Ning for is to develop a deeper layer of conversation and engagement with their supporters and advocates,” said Ning’s Morgan Seal. “Their memberships are those that are looking for a more contextual social experience around the things they care about most.”

Here are five tips for non-profits considering their own white label community.

1. The Cause is the Purpose

The cause is the purpose of the network. Don’t build a network for your organization’s website. The mission of the site needs to revolve around the general common bond a non-profit has with its stakeholder community.

“I feel we may be successful because we deeply believe in the importance of community and what it does to people touched by diabetes,” said Manny Hernandez, president of the Diabetes Hands Foundation, which runs the 13,000 person TuDiabetes network. “We have seen so many people come back to us and say: ‘I have had diabetes for X many years. I felt so alone. I never knew there were SO many people who felt exactly like me.’”

2. Listen

Listening to your community remains a core social media principle. When considering building a cause or organization-specific network, listening can be critical in driving community requirements for function and content.

“I think it’s imperative to have a good ‘listening and monitoring’ plan in place to see what their stakeholders are doing online in public spaces — basically to figure out what their audience’s capacity is for collaboration and collective action online in general,” said Maddie Grant, Chief Social Media Strategist for Social Fish. “They should then be able to figure out whether that activity could translate to engagement in their own community site.”

3. Choose a Platform that Serves Your Community’s Needs

Some networks enable privacy; others integration with larger networks. Still others offer great information sharing via wikis. When considering the many white label community options avalaible, try to understand what your community’s needs are before setting up shop.

“Our community had a unique need for a secure and private space where Iraq and Afghanistan veterans could connect with one another, share stories, offer support, and know that the people they’re interacting with share many of the same life experiences,” said Chrissy Stevens, Communications Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). “We spent months assessing our options for starting a white-label social network, and Ning was the only platform that offered the right combination of privacy controls, quality user experience, easy administration and customization, and ongoing support.”

4. Offer Great Value to Your Network

The classic community mistake is to use a network to drive information out into the public as opposed to creating a compelling experience for members. Sometimes that means getting out of the way. Providing value includes a dynamic environment where members interact and drive conversation, participate in activity they can’t find on general social networks, and receive acknowledgment.

“A social network needs to deliver value. I don’t think that you should be sending the members links to your research and reports 5 times a day,” said Holly Ross, Executive Director, NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network. “A theater company may be able to serve its patrons by providing a social space for the patrons to discuss play writing, set design, and/or the latest shows from the company.  A health organization may serve its clients by giving them a space to talk to and support one another privately.”

5. Use the General Networks as Beachheads

It’s smart to include Twitter and Facebook functionality in your general strategy. In many ways, there’s a larger conversation occurring and the general networks can serve as beachheads to bring people back to your network. Conversely, integrating Twitter and Facebook allows for people within your network to talk about your activities in the larger context.

“Even though we run our own niche social network, we are heavily engaged on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn,” said Steve Ressler, founder of GovLoop. “Plus, we speak a lot at in-person events where lots of government folks attend.  This draws a lot of our membership and engagement.”

“They are in a way their own communities, but we are OK with the fact that not all conversations that start through our Twitter account or our FaceBook page end up on TuDiabetes or EsTuDiabetes,” said TuDiabetes’ Manny Hernandez. “Put another way, people will have conversations where it’s most convenient to them and groups creating online communities need to be mindful of this.”

Google Buzz is released

Posted on Feb 10, 2010 by Peter Ellis in Social Media

A few days ago, Google announced their latest attempt to crack into the social media market with their own social network, Google Buzz.

Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It’s built right into Gmail, so you don’t have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there’s always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. Google focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don’t have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you’re sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.

This is the official view from Google’s Blog showcasing the new social network standard from Google: