Networking effectiveness starts with a positive personal attitude and an understanding that successful networking is built on a spirit of giving and sharing and not of bargaining and keeping score.
I love the last line in the quote above. It’s like, dude…if you’re networking simply to see how many connections you can get, please! But if you look at networking as a conversation and a relationship - it can be more sucessful or at least more fruitful.
I think of it like all these guys (Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanus) who try and see how many Twitter followers they can aquire or facebook friends. (And I understand they are looking at more as marketing than networking.) But they are definitely not engaging people in two-way conversation, they cannot keep up if 10,000 Twiiter-fans and facebook friends are asking for help.
I think of it as more art than science myself, but there are definitely formulas to success.
We’ve been having fun at e-Me looking at all the different expanding furniture YouTube has shown.
It got me thinking that we need to build software like this. It’s not that everything you write has to be the end all be all for every single application - but we need to be a bit more flexible when we build applications and especially web applications.
Now I’m sure Zuckerberg and the techs over at Facebook were not thinking expanding tables when they build “the facebook, but dang…it does seem to have some hidden expansion built in.
OK, I’ve got to go build a web innovation platform - now where did i put the table saw.
I found a post at Times Online talking about how some of the bigger social networking sites are dropping membership:
Could the party be over for the big social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo? Last month it emerged Facebook had suffered a 5% drop in members since December, according to Nielsen Online, the web analyst.
So the real question is are people move to other social networks or are they quiting the “scene”? The article speculates that people may be doing less posting because of the fear of party photos getting out. I disagree with that - the younger generation, in my opinion, is less concerned about their private vs. public image…I think they just feel like it is their image.
The story also talks about the almost impossible job of deleting a facebook profile. It appears you can deactivate - but not delete. That makes it uncomfortable for users who want to disconnect from the site.
Either way, it appears the honeymoon may be wanning and we have to deal with the reality of some of these sites. There is so much benefit to be had with the how interactions can happen - but it really about sites figuring out how to best mesh with the conversation and make it easier and better.
A post from the Register (note - strong language) is touting Facebooks slowdown.
Facebook has suffered its first drop in monthly users, according to numbers from web analytics outfit Nielsen Online.
Five per cent fewer people in the UK visited the site in January compared to the previous month. A total of 400,000 seem to have become bored with the social network and didn’t bother to return.
Hmmmmm…if this is accurate and continues, it will be interesting and see what is next.
Networks are the new distribution channels
Media used to be about controlling monopoly distribution channels. On the web, the network is the new distribution channel, and it can’t be controlled in the same way by a single media company. But there is huge power in networks. Just ask Google, the first media company to harness the network.
The most successful media companies will be those that learn to how build networks and harness network effects. This requires a mindset that completely contradicts traditional media business practices. Remember, Google doesn’t own the web. It doesn’t control the web. Google harnesses the power of the web by analyzing how websites link to each other.
Tom’s Comments:
Yes, yes and give me second helpings please.Wow – how accurate is that?I say again:“The most successful media companies will be those that learn to how build networks and harness network effects.”That may be the best sentence of the whole article.
People are more powerful than institutions
Media used to be about institutions — nameless, faceless brands. But on the web, people are empowered. Individuals matter more — but they matter most when connected as a network. Networks of individuals will transcended traditional media company and media brand divisions. (The last bit is a combo of principles #1 and #2)
The most successful media companies in 2008 will be those that empower and create networks of individuals — both outside and inside their corporate walls.
Tom’s Comments:
I like this as well.With an emphasis on the “empower and create networks of individuals — both outside and inside their corporate walls”I think media has to embrace this concept.We have to understand that this is global and mobile.Lots of people “get it”.
The best content comes from many sources
So many people use search engines on the web because they understand intuitively that search gives them access to ALL the content on the web. Most media companies are still limited on the web to delivering their own content. In the age of limited distribution channels, this made sense.
But on the web, where consumers can access any content from any source, and where high-quality content sources continue to proliferate (on top of all the garbage), media companies cannot serve consumers well just by delivering their own content.
The most success media companies will be those that offer consumers links to the best content on the web, not just their own content (and also those media companies that harness the “power of the link” — related to #1 and #2).
If media companies don’t do this, Google and other web-native aggregators will (and already do).
Tom’s Comments:
This is a close second as to best concept.Content does come from many sources and I think media companies are having a hard time figuring this out.Media needs to realize that we USED to be the information provider of choice…why?Because we were the only way to get some information.
Now, information has much more reach and flow.Anyone who has access to the internet can be a publisher.Take blogs, podcasts and numerous video sharing sites…people are the sources of content.This is about the relationship…not the content.
Search still rules
Search is currently the most powerful force on the web. Any media company that fails to embrace search, does so at their own peril. Search is, at least for now, the new newsstand.
The most successful media companies will be those that harness the power of search. The New York Times made perhaps the most striking acknowledgment of this reality by basing the decision to kill TimesSelect on the need to increase search traffic by exposing all of their content to search engines.
Tom’s Comments:
This is my only point of contention.I don’t think search is king.I think community is king.I would bet most people do not find a lions share of their content consumption via search…I think they find it from others recommendations.
This would backup my “community is king” statement.People want to do what the cool kids are doing.It’s our nature.
Advertising must create value
Google turned search advertising into the most profitable media business on the web by following the basic principle that advertising must create value for consumers. Search advertising is so powerful because the ads are relevant and USEFUL.
The most successful new advertising models will be those that create huge value for consumers, not those that manipulate users or violate their privacy (i.e. be like Google, not Facebook)
Tom’s Comments:
This is pretty good.And as far as facebook is concerned…wow.If you have not been part of that – you need to check it out.They ads on facebook are a train wreck.If this doesn’t kill them, Google’s open social may.
So we shall see - thank you Scott for sparking my interests on this one!
Facebook is turning to their own platform and community to help translate the site into other languages. The company has launched an app called “Translations,” that is a community effort to make the site available in your language of choice. The goal, according to Facebook, is to make the site “available to everyone, everywhere, in all languages.”
In a post from the Tech section of the New York Times “Entrepreneurial Journalism in the Facebook Age” Saul Hansell brings up some good points:
Every now and then, I meet someone idealistic and perhaps foolish enough to want to embark on a career in journalism. Until recently, my advice was largely the same as anyone had given for many decades: Find a gig where you can write — a small town paper, freelancing for an alternative weekly, a business trade publication (my route). If you’re good, the story went, you would find you way to bigger publications and forge a career.
Today, it’s hard to give that advice, when the economic underpinnings of all those places you were supposed to be trying to work for are so shaky. Is there any good advice other than to learn how to trade mortgage-backed securities? I’m not sure that that opening an account on Blogger and hoping for the best will pay the rent.
This is truely an interesting time - it seems the “old media” giants are starting to wake up.
It seems to be a great time to be starting out in journalism. Just don’t ask advice from anyone who has been in the business for more than five years.
Most of what I share about how to blog I’ve learned by doing, usually by trial and error. The same can be said as it applies to growing traffic to my blogs over the years.
A blogger named Paul Francis went to the trouble of gathering Facebook user data via an advertiser tool that facilitates audience targeting. He pulled user numbers for the top countries, broken down by male/female.
Social Media Today had a short article called “Get a Facebook Strategy” which had some interesting numbers:
According to data on Alexa:
• 1/3 of all web visitors in August 07 visited MySpace
• 1/7 of all web visitors in August 07 visited Facebook
• 5 of the top 10 sites in the world are all Web 2.0 sites
• ½ of the top 30 sites are all social networking sites
And also ideas on social networking strategy.
In general, you need to think of these social networks as a way of people interacting with your own brand so why not leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs back to your brand by using widgets from other applications to dress up your Facebook profile!
Image from WikipediaFrom a post today from Jonathan Farrington’s blog called “Are You Really An Effective Networker?“
