Sep
01

Social Network, Meet iTunes

by Feedback

Casual Internet users, we apologize.  If you had difficulty accessing your favorite websites or email at approximately 1pm EST this afternoon, it was surely on account of the swarms of music geeks, Apple fans and tech aficionados (Feedbackers are required to be all three!), all huddled in front of their computer screens, anxiously awaiting the semi-annual revelations from our turtleneck-and-jeans wearing oracle of smart, stylish gadgetry, The Steve.  Among the many involuntary ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ over streamlined iPods, updated software packages and a revamped AppleTV, was an added feature to iTunes 10 that makes so much sense, we may instantly wonder how we ever lived without it. Get a load of Ping…


Steve Jobs described it as ‘Facebook and Twitter, meet iTunes’.

The capabilities of Ping include:

  • Social music discovery: you can share music you’re listening to and see music your friends are listening to
  • Follow and be followed: you can follow, and be followed by, friends and artists
  • Share your thoughts and opinions
  • Custom song and album charts: See top 10 lists customized by what your followers are listening to
  • Over 17,000 concert listings: You can see upcoming concerts, and share concerts you are attending
  • Easy integration with the iPhone/iPod Touch
  • Available immediately

Our first thought? “Sorry, MySpace.  It was nice knowing you…”  Our second thought: Could anyone but Apple do this? Doubtful.  When you have over 160 million active accounts already using iTunes, it’s easy to see how this could catch on.  And before you cite Facebook’s half-billion users, consider that iTunes number doesn’t include the millions who download the software just as a music player/organizer/podcast feeder and never buy anything.

From the following screenshots, you can get a look at Ping, and see that it integrates seamlessly with the iPhone/iPod Touch.

The first screen shows an artist’s page, own-able by the performers themselves, which you can easily imagine would be a boon to the fan relations of all acts, big and especially small:

Next, the individual profile page, where you can share your musical taste with your friends and followers, even showing them what shows you’ll be going to.  This represents a tremendous opportunity, again for artists, but also for fan meetups and peer networking:

Finally, the ubiquitous “feed” page, where you see the most recent updates from the people you follow, what they’re listening to and what they’re buying:

Still think “how did we live without this?” is a bit hyperbolic?  Let us know your thoughts while we furiously refresh the iTunes download page.

- Thomas (@thomasmcdonald) & Anna (@alucas9)

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Aug
20

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week (08/20/10)

by Feedback

Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way. Here are my picks of the week:

Facebook Places:

On Wednesday evening, Facebook announced the much anticipated new feature, Facebook Places. Places allows you to share your location with current users by checking in, and see if anyone has checked in nearby. Places is now incorporated into to Facebook iPhone App or can be used by visiting touch.facebook.com

Foursquare After Places:

With over 500 million users on Facebook being introduced to Places, many are wondering what will happen to Foursquare, the leading check-in application. Well, if the day after Facebook’s announcement is any implication, Foursquare will be fine. Thursday Foursquare had its biggest sign up day ever. We must keep in mind, though, that this was probably due to the buzz over Facebook Places (and the mention of Foursquare as the leading competitor in many articles).

Twitter Tales:

On Tuesday, Twitter launched a new feature called Twitter Tales. Twitter Tales highlights people and companies that use Twitter and “Help make Twitter awesome”. They started with a life, community, and humor section, where they have already shared 3 stories. If you have a tale, you can email Twitter at tales@twitter.com.

ShopKick:

A new mobile application called Shopkick became available this week. Shopkick is like the shoppers Foursquare. Checking into participating stores gives you kickbucks, which can be used towards promotions and rewards such as gift cards, music etc. Best Buy plans to roll out shopkick’s in-store mobile couponing system in 257 stores by October 1, 2010. Other participating companies include American Eagle, Sports Authority, and Macys. The bad news is, right now it is only available in 4 major markets.

YouTube Charts:

YouTube released a new feature this week called YouTube Charts. For those of you who want to keep up with what’s trending on YouTube, this will be a great tool for you. YouTube charts showcases the top videos trending on YouTube and you have the option to see the most viewed, most subscribed, or most liked videos, within the time period of today, this week, this month, or anytime.

-Anna (alucas9)

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Aug
13

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week (08/13/10)

by Feedback

Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way. Here are my picks of the week:

The Official Tweet Button:

Third-party Twitter-sharing tools now have their own official competition. This week, Twitter launched an official tweet button, which lets you easily share links from the website you’re on directly with Twitter. Just as we’ve grown to expect with other tweet sharing services – when you click the tweet button, a pre-populated box including brief text and a shortened link, will appear. Something different: Once posted, Twitter may recommend accounts for you to follow based on the news story you shared (such as the site account and reporter of the article you shared.)

MySpace’s Makeover:

MySpace has completely redesigned their homepage – & surprise! It looks similar to Facebook. A sneak peak was given to some users this week, and will be available to all MySpace users on August 16th. Changes include a stream (aka newsfeed), friend recommendations, birthday reminders, & “My stuff” (events, photos, videos, etc.). Too little too late?

Minor Changes To FourSquare:

Small changes to Foursquare this week include:

  • Superusers, mayors and venue owners can now see the location of recent checkins and enter an exact latitude and longitude to move a pin to it’s exact location.
  • Tips now include an option to add a link directly from the venue page.
  • Privacy wise, if you aren’t sharing your location, you can have the added comfort of making sure – the “Current Location” link now has a bar explaining that your location is not being shared.

Bye Bye Facebook Page Sidebars:

Changes are coming to Facebook Pages. If you are an admin of a Page, you may have even been prompted to review your Facebook Pages to make any edits before the new layout arrives. This new layout will not include sidebar boxes, and will have narrower tabs. The change is set to occur on August 23, 2010, with the goal of having cleaner, easier to navigate pages.

Bonus Reading: Can Google Get Social Networking Right?

My final pick is about an article I read this week called Can Google Get Social Networking Right? It is about Google’s innate want to create a social network and compete with the likes of Facebook. They want this in part because they want to remain the authority on online search, and social networks are collecting commercially valuable data that Google cannot access. But this article delves into the ‘can they do it’? They have successful social tools such as YouTube. They’ve had unsuccessful attempts such as Wave and Buzz. But, with the recent purchase of Slide, and their investment in Zynga, one can only wonder if they are attempting, and if they will succeed at creating a social network. Just something to think about.

-Anna (@alucas9)

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Jul
25

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week (07/23/10)

by Feedback

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week from Lake Tahoe:

This week, Facebook reached 500 million active users: http://bit.ly/9alenK. See the breakdown of these users here: http://bit.ly/cYM8uY

Amazon.com announced that kindle books are now outselling hardcover books: http://bit.ly/bLC3gu

In similar news, Netflix announced this week that more users are watching streaming videos than regular DVDs: http://bit.ly/9DIw0M

SCVNGR added a new feature this week called “social checkins,” which allows users to check in simultaneously by bumping phones together: http://tcrn.ch/bD7xkf

There is now a social network for kids 6-13. Togetherville is a social network which allows children to build their “neighborhood,” but only with parent supervision. Parents must checkin for their kids via Facebook Connect: http://bit.ly/9gpiGS?

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Jul
02

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week (07/02/10)

by Feedback

Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way. Here are my picks of the week:

Apple Addressed iPhone 4 Reception Issues:

Those who are lucky enough to have the iPhone 4 and unlucky enough to have reception problems along with it may soon have a solution…sort of.  Apple has admitted that the formula they use to calculate signal strength is “totally wrong.” Basically, this issue could cause a person to see 4 bars on their phone when they are actually in a poor service area. Apple is now going to follow AT&T’s recommended formula and will offer a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. This new software will be available for free for the new iPhone, as well as the iPhone 3Gs and 3G.

Hulu Plus:

The online television website Hulu is now offering a paid subscription for additional episodes.  The subscription will cost $9.99 a month, and will offer more episodes of shows to viewers. The tagline for this new service, called Hulu Plus, touts “More wherever. More whenever. Than ever.” Recent episodes from ABC, NBC, Fox & other network shows that were always free will still be of no charge to viewers.

New Facebook Stats:

Facebook has released some new interesting stats, the most astounding being that Facebook users spend 16 billion minutes on Facebook every day. A cumulative 16 billion minutes every day. Other stats include that 50% of active users log on to Facebook every day, about 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States, and more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices (and these users are twice as active.)

New Facebook Photo Feature:

Facebook is testing a new photo feature this week. This feature uses facial detection technology to make the photo tagging process easier and faster. Facebook also mentioned that there will be more photo features to come. View the official Facebook blog here: http://bit.ly/9j3kdh

Google’s News for You:

Google has revamped Google news by making it more customizable and sharable. This new feature, called News for You, tries to make the Google News homepage relevant to each user. You can go to the news homepage and edit personalization options to customize what subjects you want on your homepage – such as business, health, entertainment, or any subject you want to add. This new feature also makes it easier you to share stories on social networks.

-Anna (@alucas9)

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0
May
05

Feedbacks Favorite Moments @ ROFLcon II

by Feedback
Dean Browell, PhD (@dbrowell) and Anna Lucas (@alucas9) discuss their favorite moments at ROFLcon II:

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Apr
16

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week (04/16/10)

by Feedback

Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest and coolest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. (& if the answer is yes, leave a comment with your favorites). I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way.

Here are my picks of the week:

Twitter Ad Model:

A day before Chirp, Twitters Official Developers Conference, Twitter finally introduced their ad model, unveiling Promoted Tweets. It is essentially ordinary Tweets that businesses & organizations can purchase. Promoted Tweets will appear at the top of Twitter for certain search terms (chosen by advertisers), and will be labeled as promoted. Initial advertising partners include Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America.

Chirp, Chirp:

Twitter had more items to unveil at Chirp, including:

  • @anywhere is now live
  • Twitter plans to launch their own link shortener
  • Twitter is adding places to their geo-location feature
    • Users will be able to see which Twitter users have “checked In” & when, and will be able to see opinions of the location
  • Stats released by Twitter show that 75% of all Twitter traffic & 60% of all Tweets come from third party applications

Facebook Ad Update:

A day after Twitter announced their ad model, Facebook added an option to promote a Page post. For page owners, you now have the option to promote a status update or post. Directly under the post you want to create an ad for, you can select the promote link, and will only be charged if someone becomes a fan or clicks on your page from the ad.

Google Archives Tweets:
Google added a new feature to make it easier for us to search Twitter archives. As Google announced, this feature allows you to “zoom to any point in time and replay what people were saying publicly about a topic on Twitter.” You can go to “show options” on Google’s search results page, and select “Updates” to try this new tool out.

Library of Tweets:
Who else is archiving Tweets? The Library of Congress. The made this announcement via Twitter, tweeting that “Library to acquire ENTIRE Twitter archive — ALL public tweets, ever, since March 2006! Details to follow.”

-Anna (@alucas9)

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Apr
04

Get To Know The Craft Brewers Conference Storytelling 2.0 Panel (Chicago 2010)

by Feedback

Dean will moderate a special panel in Chicago this weekend. Details below from AleWhale.Net:


Storytelling 2.0: Social Media is a Conversation
Craft Brewers Conference 2010 in Chicago, IL
April 10, 10:45am in Ballroom V (Sheraton Hotel & Towers)

A lively panel at the 2010 Craft Brewers Conference featuring Sean Lilly Wilson, Erik Lars Myers, and Charlie Papazian, as moderated by Dr. Dean Browell.

It’s time to stop thinking of Twitter, Facebook and blogging as simple extensions of your press releases. Storytelling 2.0 will help you discover your own unique voice and connect, build and bond as you talk with—not at—your fan base.

Get to Know:


Also On Twitter:

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Apr
02

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week (04/02/10)

by Feedback

Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest and coolest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. (& if the answer is yes, leave a comment with your favorites). I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way.

Here are my picks of the week:

YouTube Redesign Rollout:

On Wednesday, YouTube rolled out a major redesign. The actual interface was revealed two months ago, & this week, the redesign was rolled out to millions of YouTube video viewers. Mashable describes the new YouTube as leaner and less cluttered with simplified navigation.

Facebook- Fans to Like:

This week, Facebook announced that they will be changing the way they ask users to connect with a page by replacing the word fan with like. So, instead of becoming a fan of a Page, you will be able to like a Page. This was announced on Monday by alerting Facebook advertisers that “fan” buttons will be replaced with “like” buttons on ads.

Twitter Homepage Change:

Twitter has completely changed their homepage. So now, Along with the search box and sign in or sign up information, Twitter’s homepage shows a sample of who’s on Twitter, what they’re tweeting about, and what big topics are being discussed.

Facebook Community Pages:

This week, Facebook has added an option for users to create Community Pages. A page falls into this category if it is an unofficial page, i.e. not for a company, brand, or public figure. So for example, if you want to create a Facebook Page for records or old radios, you’d use a Community Page. If the Community Page you create gets enough fans, it will be adopted and maintained by the Facebook community.

iPad Coming this Saturday:

For those of you eagerly awaiting the iPad, you may be in luck this weekend. On April 3, the iPad hits Apple stores. Wi-Fi only iPads go on sale this Saturday in Apple stores and select Best Buy stores. & As one would expect, iPad apps are now live on iTunes. The Wi-Fi & 3G capable iPads will be available later this month.

-Anna (@alucas9)

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