Tag Archives: social

Mobile providers and device manufacturers are finally realizing the importance of platform marketplaces, and the necessity for nurturing good relationships with members of the developer community. In the past two weeks we’ve seen a handful of initiatives being announced from AT&T, Blackberry, T-Mobile and Verizon. They all have something in common–they’re making some big promises for the developer community, selling them on greater access to their respective customers.

This all comes shortly after Apple announced it had reached the 1 billion mark for downloaded apps through its own mobile marketplace, which features products for just the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Yes, that’s a lot of apps. And it’s a lot of money for Apple, as well as the creators behind the downloaded applications. As more mobile network providers shift their revenue generators from voice calls to data plans, such marketplaces only make sense.

There are several factors involved, contributing to this trend. At the core is the fact that mobile and PC devices are blurring their distinctive lines, creating a device that’s all-encompassing for just about every one of our media, entertainment, work and communication needs. That means that the mobile industry itself needs to be able to continuously shift gears, because it won’t be a service for just voice calls and basic data plans for much longer.

A major driving force in the need for mobile apps has also been the permeating presence of social networking, which easily carries over from mobile to PC devices, and from the virtual to the real world. In the past three years we’ve seen mobile integration for social networking sites limited to basic photo sharing and status updates to an unlimited number of features you can use for the main actions on these sites.
The socialability of mobile applications has also evolved to include games and many other types of apps that were once present on social networks. These marketplaces on social networks and mobile devices are making it easier for applications to bridge the gap and spur the conversion of mobile and PC devices.

Having a strong platform marketplace is going to be key for the future of all the mobile networks. It ties in with the growing virtual goods trend, the support of the developer community, and the ability to meet the demand of consumers. This all goes towards stimulating a certain economic niche which will only grow in size and customization, making mobile platform marketplaces all the more important in the near future.

by Brian Solis

Following my trip to Hamburg for the Next09 conference, I flew to Stockholm Sweden to serve as one of the keynote speakers at Disruptive Media hosted by Annika Lidne and Bjorn Falkevik. It was an incredible and inspiring opportunity to meet and learn from the catalysts who are changing the media and communications industry in Sweden. Fellow new PR and social media pioneers Steve Rubel and Chris Heuer also joined me.

Extending the discussion of the Social Economy I reviewed during Next09, I explored the separation of the “Me” from Social Media and the advantages of a holistic practice of concerted listening and ongoing observation to shape our participation in the Social Web.

Collectively, we all share the need to discover who we are and why matter to those with whom we wish to connect. But, we should also share a common desire to rise above the noise and establish a formidable and valuable online presence and defined human network that transcends from the online world to the real world.

Why is anyone better off for following or friending us?

As a digital society, we are individually investing in our social capital spurred by unconscious and also deliberate acts that unknowingly convey complacence and fuel an ambition to acquire notoriety and recognition.

Self-importance versus self awareness…

While we are captivated by the ability to broadcast through the statusphere and in the process, procure friends and followers, we loose sight of the true opportunity represented by the Social Web. It’s not the ability to share what we want, when we want. It’s not the rewards of popularity and the illusion of fandom. This is a chance and a means to forge a network of influence based on the expertise and knowledge we amass and share.

Social Capital isn’t the currency of The Social Economy after all, it is merely a stature that is representative of what we share, the relationships we earn, and the perception others form based on our participation and contribution in social networks and IRL (in real life).

Attention has officially emerged as the portal to the Social Economy and in order to capture it, we must create or share content so intriguing, relevant, and thoughtful that it forces action and ideally triggers a response.

Content is still king and therefore information symbolizes the true currency of the Social Economy.

Twitter, Facebook, TweetDeck, FriendFeed, Seesmic, PeopleBrowsr, Tweetie, et al, have emerged as our attention dashboards. It’s where we share, update, consume, and learn. We click away and return based on the content that flows through our timeline.  It’s the ideas we share, the personality we portray, the stories we tell, the individuals we spotlight, and the dissemination of the things that inspire and teach us that increase our chances of capturing attention to connect and motivate.

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?

Sometimes we benefit from the art of practicing restraint in order to breathe in the essence of the community we wish to galvanize. The Social Web is not a right, it should be embraced as a privilege. In the end, we earn the attention and the relationships we earn and nurture.

We must transform how we participate and engage online to shift from talking “at” people to investing in the collective consciousness of those communities we wish to influence, foster, and promote.

We must believe we have something to learn.

We must have something of value to share.

None of this is Social “Me”dia, it’s about the journey we share and not the destination. This is our time to contribute to a more meaningful and mindful future of media and communications. Our culture and societal values are ours to define – for better or for worse. The question is, whether or not we take responsibility for the social physics that shape its direction and governance.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Chris Heuer

Annika Lidne

Paula Marttila

Henriette Weber

Björn Falkevik

Brian Solis

Pictures of Stockholm, Sweden…

Please visit my albums on Flickr for more pictures from Disruptive Media and Stockholm Sweden.

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by Brian Solis

I’m just returning from my trip to Next09 in Hamburg Germany where I had the privilege to serve as one of the event’s keynote presenters among a cast of some of those whom I most revere. During my session, I discussed how the event’s theme, “The Share Economy,” equated to the Social Economy and the laws of diminishing attention.

We’re constantly struggling and learning how to discover and in turn, personify our place within the perpetually evolving social universe.

It is the ongoing saga of bridging the distances between who we are and who we want to be and furthermore, manifesting this presence outward.

I believe we are creating our online persona with every status update, tweet, video, picture, review, comment, and post, we share. We’re forging networks through a fusion of traditional relationships and friendships and also contextually – following and friending those whom we admire and respect based on their ideas, vision, and experience. It’s how we share, discover and learn. The nature for how we view and establish relationships is evolving before us and eventually we will change how we interact based on the contextual network we’ve built. Most of your “friends” don’t care about your profession exploits. Concurrently, your peers and professional contact are not better off for knowing anything about your personal endeavors.

There will be a collision and ensuing fallout.

What’s next?

Multiple Personality “Order.”

Don’t be surprised if eventually, if for only a short time, we maintain multiple online personas in the networks that are important to us as a consumer and also as a producer.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story:

Next09

Andrew Keen

Stowe Boyd

Chris Heuer

Andrea Vascellari

Brian Solis and Dennis Howlett

Nicole Simon, Tobias Kaufmann, Martin Recke

Stephanie Frasco

Stowe Boyd, Matthias Lufkens, Dennis Howlett

Pictures of Hamburg and other things that caught my eye:

For more pictures from Hamburg and Next09, please visit my album on Flickr.

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by Brian Solis

Artists, musicians, and those representing them have access to an unprecedented infrastructure for communicating with influencers, fans, promoting and monetizing art, and also building communities – without the need for traditional labels and publishers.

While there’s much talk about Social Media, specifically Twitter, Ning, Facebook, and Myspace, consider the reality of the rapidly emerging landscape for mobile social networks and the overall platform supported by cell phone users worldwide. It’s only going to grow and eventually expand upwards right into the hot, ultra mobile computing category dominated by netbooks right now.

What’s the hottest phone +  mobile Web device right now? You guessed it, the iPhone.

With just over 1 billions apps downloaded, the iPhone represents a huge opportunity for artists to connect with fans while empowering them to act as ambassadors to those with whom the connect with IRL (in real life).

Good friend Paige Craig reached out to let me know about a company he recently invested in, Mobile Roadie. It is a platform for any band or musician to build and manage their own iPhone app, quickly and easily. In minutes, Mobile Roadie provides a powerful connection between artists and fans. The app provides a bridge to sell music, alert fans to about upcoming shows, and communicate directly with them. Plus, the app will help list the final product in Apple’s App Store for fans to download.

The app provides the ability to share music, pictures, videos, albums, and upcoming shows. Artists can stream music and link to iTunes. Fans can connect with each other with the integration of a fan wall.  Mobile Roadie also links outside profiles from within the custom application. It also provides stats to help analyze performance and opportunities to improve the design.

Building an app is usually expensive and arduous process. With Mobile Roadie, the distance between you and your iPhone-equipped iPhone brigade is only $399 to start and $29 per month thereafter. More details and answers are on the company’s FAQ page.

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by Brian Solis via PR 2.0

Following the solo media vs. traditional media race that led Twitter into both relevance and irrelevance, the result is that the carefully guarded community and its unique culture are now permanently altered – for better or for worse.

According to estimates sourced by Engadget Editor-in-Chief Ryan Block, Twitter grew by 1.2 million users simply as a result of the “Oprah-effect.”

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler also explored the process for estimating Twitter’s path into the mainstream.

1.2 million

So, how many new users really joined Twitter as a result of the celebrity-fueled popularity contest?

I’m not sure the answer truly matters. If we explore it from a sociological perspective, I believe that the culture of Twitter has been introduced to a significant event that may indeed shift interaction and behavior overall.

Going into the race, estimates pegged the active userbase anywhere between 5 – 8 million. Now post race and the Oprah-effect, over 1 million people were introduced to the service guided by a “follow me” mentality. This “overnight” expansion represents a potential 10-12% saturation ratio. These new users will participate and build communities around them based on their interpretation of the network as framed by those whom they follow. Remember, we are measured by our last 20 tweets or updates within each social network. Take a look for yourself, www.twitter.com/insertusername

It is what it is. The real question is, what do you want to get out of these connections?

In the end, we are still responsible for creating our own experience within the community and that is one of the true advantages and rewards of Twitter. We foster and cultivate individual ecosystems that bind us contextually.

Competing for Attention

Perhaps what is most interesting and prevalent is the behavior transformation in content consumption that is taking place in “Twitter time” and it’s establishing a new world authority. For many of us, we’re migrating away from destinations and potentially RSS readers as well as our primary source of news, relevant information, pleasant distractions, and trending topics. We’re quickly focusing on Twitter, Facebook News Feeds, FriendFeed and the statusphere as our highly curated and personalized attention dashboards.

As content publishers, producers, and creators, we need to acknowledge, understand, and embrace this critical disruption.

Let’s take a look at Twitter as an example. Before the April’s madness of follower contests, Comscore reported that Twitter had experienced a new record of 9.3 million visitors in March, which represented a 131% jump.

As you can see, the growth curve is practically vertical. And, we’re sure to see yet another surge in growth when April numbers are released.

However, Comscore is also observing what I believe to represent the hope and potential future for traditional media.

When they examined the percentage of visitors to Twitter who also visited the top online news brands and compared it to that of the total U.S. Internet audience, they discovered a strong level of overlap. The result is that the average Twitter user was often 2 and 3 times as likely to visit the top online news brands as the average person. For example, while 17 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience visited CNN.com in March, more than double that percentage (38 percent) of Twitter users did so.

Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and active online social interaction breathe new, and measurable, life into great content where it’s hosted, simply by connecting it to the potentially attentive people where and how they are currently engaged.

This is the Statusphere, a new ecosystem for sharing, discovering, and publishing updates and micro-sized content that reverberates throughout social networks and syndicated profiles, resulting in a formidable network effect of viral activity. It is the digital curation of relevant content that binds us contextually and through the statusphere we can connect directly to existing contacts, reach new people, and also forge new friendships through the friends of friends effect (FoFs) in the process.

In order to compete for prominence in the future, we must first compete for attention where and when it’s captivated. While we contribute to the evolution of new media and the supporting cultures within each network, we are responsible for what we contribute and what we gain from the interaction. We earn the relationships we deserve.

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