Is Social Media A Fad 

Monday, July 21, 2008

UPDATE: On July 14th Summize was purchased
by Twitter for around $15 million.

There are a number of Twitter conversation search engines out there and I
have tried nearly all
of them. When I came across Summize a while back I approached it with a
few key evaluation criteria in mind for what makes a great Twitter search
engine:

1. Real time polling for new tweets
   
   
2. Logical tie-ins to Twitter (send to Twitter, links back to messages,
   etc.)
   
   
3. RSS subscriptions
   
   
4. Good up-time (not hard to do compared to Twitter itself)

Reader
poll results; what medium has the most influence?

Social media is not an island,
it's a high-power engine on the larger
marketing ship.

Social media isn't the end-all-be-all, but it offers marketers unparalleled
opportunity to participate in relevant ways. It also provides a launchpad for
other marketing tactics. Social media is not an island, it's a high-power engine
on the larger marketing ship.

Ask yourself, what would you do differently if you knew exactly where
your customers were?

Geo-tagging - Now that the device knows where you are, it
can add geo-tagging information to almost any data you collect. Shoot a photo at
the Grand Canyon and upload it to Flickr and Flickr will pull the geo
information and place the photo on the right place on the map. Send a message to
Twitter and it could update your location to the nearest city name or even the
exact location you're standing (creepy I know).

Proximity Awareness - Think about the possibilities of
Facebook knowing where you are and where your friends are in real time.
Facebook's iPhone app could alert you when any of your contacts are within 1/2
mile of your location. You could private message them to see if they can meet up
or send them an SMS message.

For marketers, you could create an application (that people opt-in to by
installing it) that allows them to receive promotions and offers whenever they
are within a radius of a store. If Starbucks hasn't done this already I am not
sure what they're waiting for. Users could adjust their radius or disable the
messages at any time.

Mobile Commerce - This goes hand-in-hand with proximity
awareness and is very powerful for marketers. The iPhone will allow easier
commerce transactions to happen in a more trusted environment. From the
application store to mobile song purchases, if you are serving up relevant,
geo-targeted messages you can now follow that through purchase with micro
transactions. This takes mobile messaging to a new level of effectiveness for
marketing organizations.

Localized Search Relationships - Using search on the iPhone
is effortless. Now, however, add in the location where the user is standing.
Instead of searching for Chipotle and having to scan for the one near you, the
phone will present you the closest location, give you the phone number and offer
directions (which works like a car's GPS system with turn-by-turn options).
Refer back to mobile commerce and apply that to search that is local and it's
another way to drive business and conversions.

So, what do you think? More and more devices will surely follow suit. Are you
ready for location? What value can you add to your customers that would help
them adopt your product or service? What can you do before the competition to
really set yourself apart?

• 
  

  Publishing employee-generated content that shows the real soul of
  the company and tells the stories that make the company what it is.

  
  
• 
  

  Using photo, video, audio sharing sites to help those stories come
  to life.

  
  
• 
  

  Using RSS to distribute this content outside of the corporate
  career site.

  
  
• 
  

  Having real FAQs sections where candidates can ask questions, get
  real answers, and have this exchange be indexed and searchable for others.

  
  
• 
  

  Evolve the definition of “relationship marketing” to include
  building and cultivating your candidate community on your career site through
  real two-way exchange of information.

  
  
• 
  

  Encourage recruiters, hiring managers (all employees really) to
  seek out potential hires and build relationships within online
  communities.