Using Social Media To Work For You

July 21, 2011 By

Social Media has transformed the way we live. However, with so many social media tools to chose from, whats the best method in using them?

The internet used to be a boring place. Content was led by small amounts of webmasters, and dial-up connection took an age for you to find what you were looking for. Broadband and web 2.0 changed everything. Not only did web visitors have the entire internet a heartbeat away, but suddenly they could create the content themselves! The world of social media had been born.

Firstly though, what is social media? Social media is a communication tool that allows website visitors to create, share, and engage. This might be with videos (such as YouTube or Vimeo), images (such as Flickr or Picasa) or communities of networks (such as Facebook or Twitter). The list of social media tools really is exhaustible:

social media2 Using Social Media To Work For You

Social Media Flower

So with so many social media tools, how do you know what’s best for you? Well firstly, who is your audience? If I aim to engage with mainstream – but maybe slightly less tech savvy – users, I’d use Facebook. For business professionals, LinkedIn. Twitter for techies and Flickr for positive amateur photographers. You get the picture right? Put simply, you use the tools which aim at your required audience.

So, you’ve found the required social media tools specific to you – what next? You might want to dive in – but hold back for a second. You might have all the energy to update a hundred different websites now, but will you still have it in six months time? Probably not. Instead, why not pick only your key social media websites now and run with them – you can also add extra’s if you find it manageable. This allows you to engage better with your audience, maximising your time and effort.

For example, I only use three social networks; Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (though I’ve been trying out Google Plus). Sure I’ve have Tumblr and Flickr accounts but, to be honest, I hardly use them. Updating these three social media websites is manageable. Facebook is for the majority of my friends, LinkedIn is to manage my professional contacts, and Twitter is to manage my more frequent updates, and also for my more tech savy friends. Each has a specific purpose and it is practical to manage.

social media11 Using Social Media To Work For You

Social Media can be Confusing

So, what can you take away from this:

  • Pick your social media tools carefully by looking at what your audience use already.
  • Don’t overwhelm yourself by tackling too much too soon. You’re better of doing one thing well, than many things badly.
  • Engagement, engagement, engagement. Content is certainly king, and the more engaging you do, the more content is available on social media sites, linking back at you.

As a final point, I just want to mention TweetDeck. This integrates with all my social media sites and is used as a centralised tool for updating each. It’s particularly useful for sharing different topics on different social media websites. Give it a shot.

Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts on social media – or maybe have something to add? I’d love to know. Feel free to contribute a comment below.

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My First Thoughts on Google Plus

July 11, 2011 By

I got an invite to Google Plus today. These are my initial thoughts on the new social network.

Today Giles Thurston very kindly passed me a Google Plus invite. I’ve been excited about Google Plus since its announcement, so this was great news! It’s obviously still in it’s infancy but I want to list my initial thoughts on Google Plus, what I like about it, and what I’m still to be convinced on.

Google Plus Features1 My First Thoughts on Google Plus

Google Plus

So the first point that stood out was its similarities with Facebook. The three column layout with a central stream seemed very similar! But hey, that’s what we expect from social networks right? Sites like Bebo had a similar layout and going radical would surely just confuse members.

So where does Google Plus differ and stand out?

  • It’s got a very clean look and feel to it’s interface. This is in a very similar manner to Google’s own search engine .
  • The circles looks fantastic. Facebook get a lot of stick for this. Sharing different levels of content with different groups. Google Plus does this through different “circles” of friends, allowing you easily to share different content with different people.
  • Google Hangout. OK, I haven’t tried this yet. However an area for multiple webcam chats should be very interesting, and when I have a couple more contacts will give it a shot. Bye bye Skype!
Google Plus is still very young, and it has only a fraction of the features that I’m sure it eventually will have. However the early signs are good. It is familiar to Facebook, but has some key twists. If it can integrate with other Google products and, most importantly, gets the volume of members it needs, I’m sure Facebook will have some competition in the next couple of years. Check out a video demo of Google Plus below:

If anyone else would like a Google Plus invite, please just reply  below with your name and email address. I’ll aim to send an invite out to you as soon as possible.

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Facebook will never charge

May 31, 2011 By

There is a lot of people out there claiming that Facebook will charge users to use the social network in the future. This post is why it won’t.

We’ve all seen them. Facebook Groups such as “Stop Facebook charging £14.99 a month” and “If Facebook Charges A Fee We Will Discontinue Using It” seem to attract hundreds of thousands of naive and less tech savvy Facebook users. In the same way chain emails did 10 years ago, these groups genuinely convince Facebook visitors that they will have to ditch their beloved social network for a monthly fee. However, with music giant Spotify cutting down its free music services, and driving dedicated users to pay monthly subscriptions, could Facebook actually make a similar change?

mark zuckerberg facebook1 Facebook will never charge

Mark Zuckerberg has always strongly pushed Facebook away from “the norm” business decision, e.g. monthly charges

In reality, no, not a chance in hell. The Facebook and Spotify models are completely different to each other:

  • Facebook offered a free social network to build up a user base. They then offered their huge set of members to advertisers, generating large amounts of revenue. Their only costs are staff and servers, and so, they make very large profits.
  • Spotify also offered free music streaming to build up a user base. They also then charged advertises to sell their products to their user base. However, on top of staff and servers, Spotify had to pay record companies every single time you played a song! This meant they were selling their free service at a loss and were not making large profits.

So Spotify had no option, they had to push their monthly subscription fee to boost much needed revenues.

So why don’t Facebook do this? Two key reasons. Firstly, it would simply kill their business. Facebook relies on a vast user base to maximize its healthy margin with advertisers – remember Spotify sold this at a loss. This means, unlike Spotify, they simply don’t need to make risky business move that Spotify have. Secondly the business orientated social network LinkedIn is getting closer and closer to its IPO. Most in the internet industry see this as a case study for Facebook and its own future flotation. This flotation is currently estimated at something ridiculous like $50 billion. This would give Facebook outrageous sums to spend on anything they want, and they simply won’t need short term gain elsewhere.

facebook will never charge1 Facebook will never charge

Facebook will never charge

So, Facebook will simply not risk its single most important asset – it’s sheer volume of site members – to get a short term financial gain with monthly subscriptions. It’s finally got decent revenue pouring in the door, and has a future IPO windfall to look forward too. Don’t give your friends and family ammo to mock you by following these groups. You know I’m right!

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The Social Network: Review

November 25, 2010 By

Below is a review on The Social Network film.

After work, a couple of weeks ago, I dragged Sarah to see The Social Network in Oxford. This is the film based on the true story of how Facebook was founded and was both very interesting and very insightful. More than this however, it is a genuinely enjoyable movie, filmed and acted well.

The film starts back in 2003, at Harvard University, with Mark Zuckerberg and friends creating Face Mash – a website allowing you to compare which girls they displayed were hotter – after being dumped by his girlfriend. The film follows Zuckerberg and co, as they move from Face Mash to Facebook.

The Social Network 11 The Social Network: Review

The Social Network

The three main characters are Zuckerberg, Sean Parker, and Eduardo Saverin. Each of them are pictured here alongside the actors playing them (Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield). Zuckerberg, is obviously the talented programmer and founder of Facebook. Parker, the extroverted party animal, founder of Napster, and commercial guru. Finally Saverin is the business major from Harvard, cautious and sensible.

the social network1 The Social Network: Review

The Social Network: actors and real life characters below – (left to right) Zuckerberg, Parker, and Saverin.

The main story revolves around three parties, and their lawyers, all arguing over ownership of Facebook. Zuckerberg is in one corner, Saverin in another, and the Winkelvoss Twins in yet another. The story rolls between past events and the current boardroom, and lawsuit, they are in. You get an insight into the creation of the leading social network website with over 500 million users. Betrayal, extreme determination, and ruthlessness doesn’t even start to describe this story. Check out the trailer below.

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Common sense on the internet

August 8, 2010 By

This post is on a rather unfortunate episode for Gillian McKeith, Twitter, and lessons learnt.

One of my favourite bloggers on the BBC website Bill Thompson wrote an interesting piece on being careful what you write on the internet. The piece revolves around some famous names being caught on twitter saying some rather unfortunate things. The best example is from Gillian McKeith and an argument she supposedly got into with a fellow tweeter. I find this funny for two reason; firstly Gillian McKeith annoys me greatly, and secondly this comes back to another piece the BBC did last week on a similar subject.

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Twitter Follow

The story in question was all about a chap who had harvested details from 100 million users on facebook. The BBC jumped at this and argued Facebook was not doing enough to secure the information written by its users. While I would never argue safety isn’t important on the web, to me, this is just another jibe at social networking in general. Facebook have gone over this several times and beefed up their security rights in doing so. The Gillian McKeith example shows that people write rather foolish things on the web from time to time but surely you can’t hold the web companies in content for this? Web 2.0 works well because it allows the user to generate the sites content. At the end of the day there needs to be a large dash of common sense while contributing to the web, and sorry to say, but if your not happy with that your probably better staying away from it.

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