The Social Media Landscape FOR SALE!

The Social Media Landscape FOR SALE!
Posted by on Apr 1, 2011 in Social Media | Comments Off

It looks like it has finally happened. Everything we know now is about to change.

Can any ONE person own the Social Media Landscape?

If you’re the highest bidder on this eBay auction you will be:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120706045641

Social Media Landscape Update

Posted by on Oct 19, 2010 in Social Networking Sites | 1 comment

As you can obviously tell, I haven’t posted on here for a little while.

I have a couple of updates I need to inform you about.

You will notice the comments have been removed.  I was using a different service for comments but for some reason it wasn’t working properly.  People said they were leaving comments but nothing ever showed up.

While using that comment service, spammers were continually leaving spam messages, even though the service didn’t show them, they were there.  So when I removed the service, there were over 3,900 comments.  Mostly Spam!

I couldn’t go through and read every one and weed out the bad and keep the good.  It would have taken A LONG time, which I didn’t have.  What I did was purge the comments database to start anew.

SPAM

I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.  There were great comments and conversations, especially about the current series of Small Business posts.

So I ask you and encourage you to write and comment.  I am not using a service anymore.  I have added some security and Anti-SPAM measures so it should be smooth sailing.

The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is updates to this blog.  They are resuming, now that everything has been fixed on the backend.  I’m sorry for the delay.  A lot of the comments were from people who wanted the next blog post in the series.  It will be up shortly.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions, would like to contribute an article or be a guest author, or if there are any specific subjects you want covered.

Social Media Landscape by Fred Cavazza Redux

Social Media Landscape by Fred Cavazza Redux
Posted by on Aug 21, 2009 in Social Media, Social Media Tools, Social Networking Sites | 0 comments

Following last year’s first version of my Social Media Landscape, I am induced to publish a new version to sync with the market’s latest evolutions. And I a not the only one: The Conversation Prism v2.0.

This new landscape is now spitted into four main usages (expressing, sharing, networking, playing) and is structured around social platforms which ambition is to cover each user’s needs.

Social Media Landscape (redux)

Social Media Landscape (redux)

The large size version is here : Social Media Landscape (redux).

Four Main Usages

The various tools and services displayed on this landscape are listed bellow.

1. Expressing tools allow users to express themselves, discuss and aggregate their social life:

2. Sharing tools allow users to publish and share content:

3. Networking tools allow users to search, connect and interact with each other’s:

4. Playing services that now integrate strong social features:

From Social Networks to social Platform

At the center of this landscape we will find former social networks, which have evolved to progressively integrate more and more functionalities and morphed themselves into social platforms. The notion of ‘platform‘ is particularly relevant since those network have the ability to host applications (mostly the one you find on the four main usages).

We can split social platforms into two groups: The First Generation which have been existing since more then 5 years and gather between 50 and 200 millions of users (Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, Orkut, Skyrock, Hi5, Windows Live…) and The New Wave of social players which have a similar offering and a fast growing audience (between 20 and 50 millions users – Netlog, Imeem, Piczo, Lexode, Hyves, Buzznet, Xanga, Zorpia…).

I won’t enter in the debate to foresight which platform will grow faster or which will appeal the most to youth audience but I anticipate a rough competition for Facebook which is stile experiencing cash flow problem by sticking to the advertising model while those new social players have integrated micro-transactions and premium membership in their business model.

Google and Yahoo! are still absent from the social scene (wait, maybe not…)

You will also notice in this landscape the discretion of Google and Yahoo! which are ‘only’ represented by services that did not managed to break through the social scene (while being strong references, Blogger, YouTube, FlickR cannot be considered has dominant social platforms). Let’s be honest: MySpace and Facebook decently steal the spotlight from Google and Yahoo!.

Wait… maybe not if you consider Google as a being in a much more favorable situation with lower-level services like Gmail (one needs an email to register Facebook, right?) or Google Maps (can you count the number of social services relying on Google mapping tool?). Add to this there current cash situation and it leaves them plenty of time to sharpen their social strategy (Maybe by buying Twitter or FriendFeed, or booth!).

The same is true for Yahoo! which can rely on a massive user base (still outnumbering Facebook’s one) and essential social bricks like Delicious, Yahoo! Pipes, MyBlogLog and the promising Fire Eagle.

Did I mention Microsoft? Yes, Microsoft, those guys behind Hotmail, MSN and Windows Live. Ignoring them would be a big mistake and Mark Z. was more than happy to welcome them in FB’s capital.

From this pint of view, I expect a very thought battle around authentication services (Facebook Connect, Google Accounts…) allowing social platforms to exist outside of their boundaries and to export their members’ social graph. Big players like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have to emphasis their legitimacy as historical web players to keep control over their users.

I strongly recommend you to pay attention to those different services (yes, there is a life outside Facebook) and I shall meet you next year for a third version!

The Social Media Landscape Part 7 of 7 with Adam Baird

Posted by on Jun 24, 2009 in Social Networking Sites | 2 comments

The Social Media landscape is a very interesting one. It comprises of 10 key elements and all of them can be used, and are being used, to help generate and maintain sales for small to medium sized businesses.  In this 7-part blog series, I am going to give an over view of the 7 elements you need to be using as a bare minimum.

  1. Publish
  2. Share
  3. Discuss
  4. Social Networks
  5. Microblogging
  6. Lifestream
  7. Livecast 

The other three, virtual worlds, social games and MMO (or Massively Multiplayer Online game) can also be used, although not essential. 

So, let’s keep the focus on the big 7 and help you get your Social Media skills & understanding to a whole new level.

 “Livecast” The Social Media Landscape – Part 7 of 7

Qik , Justin.tv  and Ustream.tv  are the three most popular Livecast hosting systems. I want to make it clear that they are all free to use! Can you believe that? FREE! No complaints from me, onward…

What is Livecast?
Livecast is the internets answer to live TV. Viewers all over the globe can view your webcam broadcast live. Viewers can watch the screen and hear your content just as they would on television.

Qik is a mobile based Livecast system. Picture this for a moment… you’re at a seminar and you bump into the most interesting person you have ever met – you wish you could record an off-the-cuff interview with them quickly – so, what do you do? Whip out your internet enabled mobile phone and wham! Start streaming a quick Q&A session live for your prospects, customers and business partners to see.

Ustream.tv is my favourite Livecast system and I use it at least weekly to communicate with prospects, customers and business partners. A live video stream is the ultimate in personal contact when it just isn’t viable to be there in person.

I am going to be broadcasting the first Social Media Landscape discussion live using Ustream.tv in a few hours time.

Click here to register with Ustream and then rsvp to the Livecast.

How is Livecast good for business?
Livecast allows you to interact with distant customers in a way that has not been possible until now. Given the economic challenges businesses are facing at the moment, you can soon be the favourite supplier of breaking news in your indusrty by hosting livecast presentations.

The monthly team meeting, board meeting or product launch can now be done at little to no cost and I am sure your prospects, customers and business partners will be into that!

Livecast allows for easier interaction and lowering overheads - two goals that most businesses have. 

This is just a basic overview of the Lifestream element of the Social Media Landscape. As this element becomes more widely accepted in the business world, you will see new and exciting developments to make it a whole lot more useful.

So there you have it, some food for thought on the Lifestream element of the Social Media Landscape. 

I trust you have had fun learning the Social Media Landscape through my 7-part blog series. Going forward, over the next wee while, I will be demonstrating & tutoring you, in more depth, how to use Social Media to make your business more money.

Please subscribe to this blog and make sure you don’t miss exciting future blogs.

Adam Baird

Uncovering the Social Media Landscape

The Social Media Landscape – Part 6 of 7 with Adam Baird

Posted by on Jun 17, 2009 in Social Networking Sites | 0 comments

The Social Media landscape is a very interesting one. It comprises of 10 key elements and all of them can be used, and are being used, to help generate and maintain sales for small to medium sized businesses.  In this 7-part blog series, I am going to give an over view of the 7 elements you need to be using as a bare minimum.

  1. Publish
  2. Share
  3. Discuss
  4. Social Networks
  5. Microblogging
  6. Lifestream
  7. Livecast 

The other three, virtual worlds, social games and MMO (or Massively Multiplayer Online game) can also be used, although not essential. 

So, let’s keep the focus on the big 7 and help you get your Social Media skills & understanding to a whole new level.

 “Lifestream” The Social Media Landscape – Part 6 of 7

FriendFeed and SocialThing are the two most popular Lifestream websites. Both achieve the same result, however, I would run with FriendFeed as it seems to have a whole lot more business focused users.

What on earth is Lifestream?
Lifestreaming is a procedure used to combine all of a Social Media user’s favourite information into one, easy to manage. Basically, controlling the stream of information that now controls your online life.

If you’ve been taking action on the information you have learned from the first 6 parts to the Social Media Landscape blog series, then you will, by now, have a number of different websites, accounts and systems that you are using – right?

Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Digg, Flickr and a couple of others that you will learn about in part 7 are all able to be managed in one place.

How is Lifestream good for business?

It’s not going to create any more leads or generate any more sales; however, it will improve your efficiency online. Instead of having to check, scan through and read multiple different systems, you can take care of all your Social Media interaction in the one place.

Compared to the huge level of experience I have learning about, using and understanding the previous five elements of the Social Media Landscape, Lifestreaming is relatively new to me. The upshot of it is that it makes sense, saves time and allows you to spend more time on income producing activities.

This is just a basic overview of the Lifestream element of the Social Media Landscape. As this element becomes more widely accepted in the business world, you will see new and exciting developments to make it a whole lot more useful.

So there you have it, some food for thought on the Lifestream element of the Social Media Landscape. 

Come back for the final part of this 7-part blog series real soon or even better, subscribe to this blog and have the next post emailed to you when I hit “submit”!

Adam Baird

Uncovering the Social Media Landscape

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