The NEW Wisdom of the WEB!

The most recent cover of news week read, "Putting the 'WE' in WEB!" The article associated with this exciting headline is in respect to SOCIAL SOFTWARE! It discusses the change in online trends, and tells the tale of the early days of social software, such as, my personal favorite, Myspace, and flickr!
By Steven Levy and Brad Stone
Newsweek
April 3, 2006 issue - A little over two years ago, even the most sensitive entrepreneurial radar could not pick out two pairs of people on opposite ends of the West Coast starting companies that would make plenty out of nothing. In Santa Monica, Calif., dot-com survivors Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson were hatching the idea of taking on biggies like AOL and Yahoo with a Web site consisting only of stuff that people would bring to it. And up in Vancouver, B.C., married collaborators Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake were just figuring out that the online game they were developing might work better as a way for people to share their digital photos with each other.

Now both fledgling companies are leading a charge of innovators making hay out of the Internet's ability to empower citizens and enrich those who help with the empowerment. The southern California guys head MySpace, the prime hangout for 65 million (mostly young) people, and thousands of rock bands, movie stars and marketers begging for their attention. Canadian-born Flickr, by building a 2.5 million-member community solely around a passion for sharing photos, has become a poster child on how a well-executed Net effort can make big changes in people's habits. Welcome to the new tech boom.

Oh, and unlike the old boom, where entrepreneurs couldn't get to the IPO broker's office quick enough, these crafty duos have already taken the money and stayed. Yahoo has snapped up Flickr to bolster the portfolio of services it offers to its half-billion users. And the new owner of MySpace is that wild and crazy (like, um, a fox) digital punkster, Rupert Murdoch—hedging his bets on what might be the next Net-powered media upheaval.

(I borrowed this from newsweek! Clearly, I am not a writer, and this could not possibly have been written by me!)
There is more to this article, which can be found at www.newsweek.com!

What does all this mean?!

I am excited! I am hoping that soon enough, Myspace may become a publicly traded company, at which time I will become very rich!!! SEE...Social software is marketing itself! If the stock sells (and IT will!), profit can be wonderful!

When this company becomes publicly traded, the simple act of people keeping in touch with other people, in the most amazing, yet most simple form, will make money for many! Picking the companies early is important (thanks dad)!

SOCIAL MARKETING..........for teachers?!

It is true, social software is designed to keep the procrastinators procrastinating, and those laden with boredom excited about the next moment they will have to sit before their glowing box, and enjoy the lives of others!

Beside the social and marketing aspects that I have discussed, there is another important form of marketing taking place on places such as Myspace, ratemyteachers.com, ratemyprofessors.com, ratetheteacher.com, and many more. That’s right, if you haven’t guessed it already; social software is taking EDUCATION and marketing to a new level!

Considering myself a relatively honest person, I admit, I have rated my teachers on MYSPACE! [See the image below]


For college students, this is a wonderful form of marketing! Not only can students make an educated decision about which professors they definitely want to have in college, but myspace can generate revenue by showing banner ads (which I have cut out of the above placed image)!

As for the other sites…I have looked at them, and quite frankly, I think they are WONDERFUL! I was so excited, and bored, that I went on and rated almost every single teacher that I have ever had (since freshmen year in high school, that is!).

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
IS this a good way to sell students on particular teachers?
IS this a good way to gain impressions for advertising messages displayed on social networking sites?

Blogging for Product Promotion!

IF you can consider Bloggs to be social software, which I DO, you will agree, for any company incorporating an Integrated Marketing Communications plan into their marketing strategy, blogging is a great way to stir up some talk about a product!

I feel that bloggs are a useful form of social software! By setting up a blog for a product, companies can encourage users to engage in discussion about their products, providing beneficial feedback, and, of course, completing the communications model.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Is blogging a form of social software?
Do you operate a personal or business blog to keep intouch with others?
IF a company had a blog related to a specific product that you use, would you post comments, or engage in discussion with other product users?

Social Software and Sales

Due to a recent death in the family, I have been having difficulty coming up with things to post. MY mind has been wandering and it has been making it difficult for me to think. For this reason I turned to the bloggs!

I ran a search on bloggspot for social software and marketing, and I found an interesting article that I wish to share with you. HOwever, there will be no questions for you to answer. Just give me an opinion!

Very interesting read. It's great that Hamid disclosed so much information. I worked at a firm in the past where a client came up with an idea for a free online promotion. (David probably remembers it more than I) They had to kill that promotion overnight after 1000's (10,000s???) of orders came in creating a logistical nightmare. Some free promotion sites posted it on their message boards and it spread like a virus. Thank goodness it wasn't our idea. :) This was waaaaay back in the day before Digg, blogging, etc. I'm not even sure if Google was around then. I can't imagine that client doing the same promotion when considering today's blogosphere.

This post came from jemos.com (http://jemos.com/2006/03/17/SocialMarketingExperimentSelling13MOfSoftwareIn3Days.aspx)

I have been attempting to convince you, the readers, that marketing through social software is a great idea. This information seems to prove the theory!

MYspace GROUPS?!

So called groups on social software services are no more than a bunch of people! WRONG!

I am a member of several myspace and facebook groups. I, as I am sure you do as well, only join groups that I can associate with, or find interesting. This, however, does not mean that I live for these groups, and spend all my free time talking to people from them!

For marketing, groups located on social software are a wonderful tool! What better way to reach a target market then to send out a message to a group corresponding with the product for sale.

There are many ways to market to social software users!

WHAT DO YOU THINK are some good ways to market to social software users, (aside from the ones I have mentioned)?

Sellers Voice

My most recent friend acquisition on Myspace is Sellers Voice! Another wonderful service catering to the eBay community. Sellers-Voice allows eBay sellers to ad a vocal track to their eBay auctions, making it impossible for buyers to miss the important details.

This wonderful product is being marketed on Myspace! The account manager for their Myspace marketing added me as a friend, possibly because I am in an eBay club on Myspace.

The service has 2080 friends on Myspace. As I have always mentioned, the friends of friends effect is taking par. Those 2080 friends have other Myspace friends that see this Sellers-Voice, and are possibly intrigued.

This leads me to think of one more way to target specific demographics. What groups do people belong to on FaceBook and Myspace?

My Facebook list is a mile long, and grows whenever I have nothing better to do! I get messages from group leaders about things that may be happening on campus. I may or may not check these things out!

What do you think?

Is targeting advertisements on social software through groups a good way to market products or services, such as Sellers-Voice?

If you received a friend request from a product or service that was a member of, or sponsored by a Myspace or Facebook group to which you belong, would you accept the request?
Would you look at the product and deny the request? (you - the target demographic are still VIEWING the ad!)

Even though you may not wish to see the ad for the specific product, you may have seen it anyway!!! Do you remember things like this, or do you not even look, and ignore these types of requests?