Questions about Social Media that You Were Afraid to Ask…..2

So now you have made a decision on the platform you wish to use.  At this point, depending on your age group, the next question that springs to mind is either “How to I build a bigger network of friends after I have already linked to the twenty people I regularly interact with” for the younger set…..or “How do I make sure my profile is visible to those I want to view it, but hidden from those I don’t want to view it”.

 

The first question is easier to answer and depends on what your interests are.  Most social media platforms allow you to form and join groups centered around your interest.  Joining such a group will allow you to interact with like minded people within the same platform and if you want, to invite or be invited as a “Friend”.  I know of people who like the game, Pet Society on Facebook and play it every day.  As the “wealth” of your pet is dependent on how many people within your network also play this game, the larger your network of players, the better.  To ensure their network grows, they post on the Pet Society forum that they are open to accepting friends.  A friend of mine went from 25 friends on Facebook to 363 friends in less than a week…..the balance of “friends” all being players.  A female friend of mine got a similar number of new “friends” just by posting a sexy picture of herself on her profile.  It drew friend invites from men like honey to bees.  There was a study (I forget from where) that found that people on social media sites with more than 200 friends are narcissistic though!

 

The second question is a little harder to answer and is also dependent on the sites you use.  The first question you have to ask yourself is what you want from being part of this social media network.  If the aim is just to link with people you already interact with frequently in the real world, then it is probably worth blocking your profile from being seen by others.  If you want to reach out to those whom you know from a long long time ago, then I would suggest putting sufficient information on your profile to identify yourself, but not so much that it could be embarassing.  I like the way Facebook does it.  It only shows your name, picture and how many mutual friends you have.  If you don’t recognize the picture, odds on its not the person you know.  By tightly controlling your profile information, you effectively limit the number of people you can reach out to.  In the minds of some Social Media users this is sacrilegious, but the truth is I would recommend such an approach for new users who are testing the ground and especially for younger users who may have less maturity and understanding of how to handle certain degenerates who proliferate on these sites.

 

There are many studies done on social networks (the offline/real world kind) and every study I have read states that a normal person can develop deep relationships with at most 180 – 200 people at any one time.  On Social Media sites, this is actually lower.  It may appear counter intuitive, but the need to maintain your profile online to a wider contact group actually leaves you less time to interact significantly with more than about fifty people at any one time.  As with all social networking, the there is always a depth vs breadth tradeoff and only you can determine what balance you want to strike.

Questions about Social Media that You Were Afraid to Ask…..1

I have had many interactions with groups of people in the last year on the subject of Social Media Networking.  The number one question I get at nearly EVERY meeting is “How do I/we/my company/they/my dog/my cat/etc…. make money from Social Media”.  Because thats so commonly asked, thats not the topic of this posting.  Instead, I thought to post on questions that people pose to me either when no one else is around or through email or even, in one case, through his dad (I jest not).  There are five common questions that people are afraid to ask (at least in Asia) when in a group.

This post will deal with the most common one….“What Social Media Networking platform should I use?”.  This is not exactly the phrasing, but its the gist of the query.  Its not as obvious as it may seem.  There are several factors to consider:

1)  What are most of my friends using?

2)  How do I interact with them?

3)  How do I know I am doing the best that I can?

The answer is not obvious and is actually dependent on where you operate.  In the US, some will tell you MySpace or Facebook, in Brazil and India, Orkut, in other parts of the world, Hi5 or some localized platform that caters to the language.  So even while Facebook has 175 million users as of end 2008 (I’m betting at least 30% are people adopting multiple personas on Facebook) and MySpace is a close second, the choice is not simply a matter of Facebook or MySpace.  I believe that the biggest consideration is what most of your friends are on.  After all, the main reason for Social Media Networking is to connect with friends.  Language is obviously a show stopper, but that aside, if most of the people you know are using Orkut then it makes little sense to build up to significant a profile in Facebook. 

Secondly, how do you interact with your friends?  If you want to show them pictures of your holiday on your Social Media profile and have them look at it there instead of boring them to death showing them slides over dinner, then you need to choose a platform that supports this (most do).  At a basic level, most platforms provide the basic interaction functions of messaging, picture libraries, comments and basic security functionality that allows limited viewership to specific groups in your contact list.  More sophisticated plugins are available such as games, tests, etc…..on some sites like Facebook.  

The third component is maybe peculiar to Singapore.  I know the sentiment is prevalent globally, but so far, I have only heard the concept taking the form of an adjective in Singapore.  The term is “Kiasu” and is derived from a Chinese dialect Hokkien to denote someone who is afraid to lose out.  You know, those morons who stand in line for opening day tickets to Star Wars, etc…..  The fear is that having invested time and energy to build a profile and network on one platform, they find that another platform offers them so much more but are too “unmotivated” to switch their whole personas over.  Well folks, welcome to the real world.  No one can predict what social media platform will make it or not.  Just two years ago, MySpace was the biggest thing around, now its Facebook, who knows what it’ll be later.  The only way is to stay current on developments within Social Media and keep testing new services that come out.   
In case you were wondering….I use and create content on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, WordPress and Blogspot.  I have accounts with MySpace, Youtube, SlideSorter, Ortuk, Socialtrak, Ning, Flickr, Picasa, etc…..but seldom update my profile there.

The next post will be on the question of “Now I have a Profile on a Social Media Platform….how do I protect myself??”

Facebook Stream – Twitter beater or Waste of Time?

Mark Z, the founder of Facebook recently announced the launch of Facebook Stream, a service that would allow Facebook users to obtain real time updates of their friends’ activities in Facebook.  Having failed to buy out Twitter, this latest strategy is obviously designed to take them head on….if you can’t buy ’em…..beat ’em at their own game.

But there are fundamental differences in the two services that lead me to believe this is another one of Facebook’s mis-steps.  Just taking myself as an example, I keep a bare bones profile on Twitter.  The aim of that service in my mind is to connect with groups of people who might be interesting and who might in turn find me interesting.  I follow Barack Obama, some consumer brands, etc….to get sound bite updates of whats going on.  Obviously there are some people I do know who follow me and whom I follow, but their updates are of less interest to me!

My Facebook profile though is different.  My connections on Facebook all have a more substantial social link with me than those on Twitter.  Though there might be nothing embarrassing on my profile, I do not easily accept friend requests from people I do not know unless there is some reason for the request (eg.  we play the same game on Facebook).  I cannot imagine transferring all my Twitter contacts to Facebook and while I have used security settings on Facebook to group friends and keep them out of some parts of my profile, I think its way too much of a hassle to do it just for the same privileges I already get with Twitter.  Besides, my Twitter posts are automatically updated to my Facebook profile by FriendFeed.

I can understand why Facebook wants the Twitter customer though.  While I log into Facebook maybe three times a day, my Twitter connection is on all day, and I can post and receive on my mobile.  Imagine the marketing information Facebook can collect from me if I maintain an almost full time connection….to say nothing of the marketing crap they can push out to me in real time.  I think the convenience of a single sign in vs the inconvenience of a mass of marketing messages pushed out to me is a poor trade off and I will maintain separate accounts.

 

Tong Hsien-Hui

http://twitter.com/hhtong

Still trying to figure out Twitter

A lot has been made of Twitter, the social media platform that allows what is termed as “micro-blogging”. For the three people out there who have never heard of it, Twitter allows you to post status updates of not more than 140 characters (including spaces) long. Its somewhat like the status updates in Facebook and more recently, LinkedIn.

 

However, unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, thats all Twitter has in terms of functionality. You can obviously follow someone else’s Twitter or have your own Twitter followed. I’m still trying to figure out why there is a claim that Twitter will soon overtake Facebook and MySpace as the predominant social media platform. I’ve used it, read reports on it, read reviews on it, read the business plan, etc…..and yet I am still uncertain of its commercial or social value. Recently it raised US$35 million in a round of funding…inspite of having no revenue and maintaining a headcount of 29. Sure, Academy Award nominees and attendees such as Ashton Kucher were reportedly updating their Twitter while the Awards were going on, and sure, Obama is on Twitter, constantly updating the rest of the unwashed masses on his latest policies (usually links ), but at the end of the day, after taking away all this hype, if Twitter were to become a paid service or accept advertising money, where would the users go? Also, with their 140 character limitation, how much real information can be transferred in this manner?

 

I read of Twitter supporters claiming that they get the latest information updates via Twitter and that they couldn’t live without it. Isn’t that the internet in a nutshell? Our attention spans have become so short that we can only assimilate twitters and no longer have the patience for thoughtful, well researched articles. It panders to our need to be popular and have people follow our every move online or share our thoughts (albeit in a soundbite). Honestly though, are our lives so shallow and meaningless that a service like Twitter can become the next poster child of the Social Media revolution?

 

I was speaking with a business owner yesterday about Social Media and he swears by Twitter saying that he communicates with his customers on Twitter and that it has helped him grow his business. That said, his business has yet to breach the US$100K in revenue per annum and is some way from being profitable. Then isn’t the opportunity cost of the time he spends “communicating” with his Twitter followers very poor with respect to what he COULD be achieving if he spent more time on his business itself? When put to him, he acknowledged spending more time than normal on Twitter and communicating when he should have been at the factory floor supervising production throughput. His Twitter addiction has also seen him cut down on visiting customers overseas (obviously the time spent in an airplane and the deadair on Twitter is too much for him). So then, is Twitter a tool for his business or a hindrance to his growth? I think only he can answer that question.

 

For me, I maintain my Twitter account, but its not linked to my phone nor will I update it more than a couple of times a day. Of course once I see real value in it, I may change my mind. Good luck to the guys at Twitter….

Tong Hsien-Hui

Facebook won’t let you remove dead relative’s page

Facebook seems to be putting their foot in it quite a number of times in the last few weeks.  Wonder if this is what we are to expect in the coming years from them.  I read this post on The Consumerist website where a sister complained that Facebook refused to remove her recently deceased brother’s page after a formal request from her to do so.  Other sites like Myspace had no problems doing so.  Apparently Facebook wanted to keep the page up so that they could memorialize it and allow visitors to post their comments.

While I can see a certain validity in that approach, Facebook has to understand that death and how relatives of the deceased deal with death will be different.  I too find it insensitive that they claim to know better than the next of kin how to deal with the person’s profile.  If a formal request is made by the next of kin to remove their page, then they should do so without further discussion.  This isn’t a complaint for goodness sakes.

I wonder if this lack of maturity on the part of Facebook in dealing with recent events can be classified under growing pains or whether its a symptom of the relative youth and inexperience of the founder.  Their approach of “We know best” is irritating to most of the online community and given the number of choices we have, they had best understand that the same rules of sensitivity apply in the online world as they do in the real one.

Tong Hsien-Hui

Link:  http://consumerist.com/5157481/facebook-wont-let-you-remove-dead-relatives-page-per-policy

Does Facebook own our information?

There has been an uproar in recent days about Facebook’s recent changes in their Terms of Service.  The gist is that there is a concern that Facebook not only owns the rights to all information posted by users on their platform including photos, videos, etc….but also owns them even after the user has closed his/her account.  This article was posted on the site of the New York Times yesterday.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/technology/internet/17facebook.html?_r=1

I suppose the question most of us have is what Facebook will do with the information.  There is a fear that in the event someone with a Facebook account makes something of his or herself, previously posted embarrassing pictures or videos posted might be used or sold even if taken off the site.  While there is obviously a possibility that the terms could be exploited as such, I really doubt that Facebook are the “evil” that Google envisaged.  More probably, Facebook intends to use information derived from user interactions and sell it as marketing information.  Much more lucrative and legal than outright blackmail. 

That said, their ownership to the rights to pictures and videos posted on their platform is somewhat curious.  It would be reasonable for Facebook to own certain rights to reproduce it in their marketing collateral, but their current direction seems more extreme than that. 

As of now, Facebook has issued a statement denying their intention to exploit this information, but more pertinently, they have not agreed to amend the terms as yet.  It remains to be seen what is going to happen if this issue blows to the extent where large numbers of users start to close their Facebook accounts.  I for one will refrain from posting more pictures on their platform for the forseeable future till things are clearer.

 

Tong Hsien-Hui

Do we need a new Internet?

This was the title of an article in the New York Times published on Valentine’s Day.  The link is here http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/weekinreview/15markoff.html?_r=1.  The gist of the discussion is whether it makes sense to ditch the existing internet in favor of one with more control points and greater security.  In effect, to gain entrance, one would need to register and have their identity confirmed before being allowed in.  The current ability to remain anonymous online will no longer be possible with this new internet.

The issue is one that has been debated for some time and in fact I refer to it in my earlier blog post on how the Government could takeover the internet.  The question really is how acceptable will this be to the current users, and if not, why not?  I can’t really see how a responsible person who wants to use the internet for responsible activities and penning his thoughts could possible be against such a move.  That said, if the country in which the person resides does not allow certain liberties, then he/she would be similarly restricted online.  In effect, the online world becomes a mirror of the offline world.  In a more tightly restricted internet, the controls put in place by the law can be enforced easily.  It is still currently possible, but at great expense in time and money.  The benefit obviously is that it will be harder to perpetrate online scams (I’m not so ignorant that I believe a more tightly controlled internet will eliminate ALL crime) and that people will put in more thought and consideration before posting inanities on blogs, commentary, etc…..  It will also be easier to police the darker aspects of the internet such as child pornography, etc…..

In general, I am in favor of an internet that offers better security and would be willing to surrender my anonymity to partake in a more thoughtful network.  Having said that, I do realize that most people would not.  The internet in its current incarnation offers them a release from the real world and the one being touted is too much a mirror of the real world for them to like it.  So, while I see great benefits of such an action, I believe that it won’t happen anytime in the next ten years.  I mean, the UN can’t even agree as a body on some simple issues.  How do they plan on establishing a global change on the internet?  All it takes is for one or two countries not to accept the new conditions and everyone would flee to their servers and set up shop there from which they can go rogue.

As a sub thought, I seriously question how many of the 174 million Facebook users are unique users.  I know of many many friends who have more than five IDs on Facebook by registering with five different email accounts for a variety of reasons.  Could the growth of Facebook effectively just be the same users registering the new IDs?

 

Tong Hsien-Hui