Radio Free Feedback is our musical experiment, featuring musician friends, up-and-comers we can help highlight, observed acts of musical lunacy and more. We will occasionally feature musicians in our offices as well as out on the road, sometimes themed and sometimes just jamming. If you’re interested in being featured or hanging out, contact us through the info at the bottom of the page or click here.
Radio Free Feedback 1: Tune in Wednesday, March 10 at 6pm (and look for videos after) live on UStream!
-Dean (@dbrowell) on behalf of the Feedback crew, old and new
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:
Facebook Pages & Google Real-Time Results:
This week, Google has started including Facebook Pages in their real time search results. Google announced this via status update on Wednesday, stating that “Public status updates from Facebook Pages now in real-time search: http://bit.ly/6YpCdy More about Facebook Pages: http://bit.ly/aYnAxf 04:10 PM Feb 24, 2010.” As of now, Facebook’s public user updates are not displayed on Google, but Twitter and MySpace updates are.
Rickroll Removed—and Brought Back:
This week, the original Rickroll video was removed…and then brought back. Earlier this week, the original “rickroll” video was removed from YouTube due to a copyright violation. The removal of the ever so popular (with over 30 million views) video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” caused a bit of a stir over the internet. But not to worry…it’s back! It was mistakenly flagged by someone and is back of for your viewing pleasure…or displeasure
Facebook Patents the News Feed:
Facebook has patented the news feed! The patent, which was awarded to Facebook on Tuesday, gives Facebook executives the rights to “dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network.” This could have serious implications for other social networks. Read more about the patent and what it could mean in this ReadWriteWeb article.
What Not to Do with a Twitter Account:
If you’re going to invite people to follow your company on Twitter, you might want to make sure you give them the right Twitter handle. As Mashable reported this week, Denny’s Restaurant Chain made this mistake on their eat-in menus by inviting customers to “Join the Conversation” and follow @dennys on Twitter. The problem? @Dennys is the Twitter handle of a Taiwanese Twitterer named Dennys Hsieh, not Denny’s official restaurant account. Oops!
Who’s Using Social Media?
Well the largest 100 of Fortune 500 companies are. As Mashable reported, a new study completed by PR firm Burson-Marsteller, found that 79% of Fortune 100 companies use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or corporate blogs. 2/3rds have a Twitter account, over 50% have a Facebook fan page, 50% have a YouTube channel, and 33% have a corporate blog. The article also stated that There are a bunch of other interesting stats in the study — including proof that consumers actually do like to engage with companies via social media, making all those channels worthwhile.
This article, “‘Millennials’ an always on, texting generation” and it’s subsequent sub-headline, “Technology’s role is key distinction for those born after 1980, report finds” is worth the read, if you’re cautious of the hype. This article, and a few recent ones like it from USAToday and others, is on the money, but just because Millennial’s think technology is their defining trait doesn’t make it exactly so.
Every generation might arguably exclaim that technology in some way defines them, especially in eras following massive booms in industrial progress (cars, planes, plastics, microchips). What we need to be careful of is stopping the introspection there (and to be fair, it’s the rest of this article, from , “It’s Not Just About Gadgets” onward that does better service). It’s how Millennials USE technology and how it affects their perceptions and behavior that truly defines the unique traits. It’s not as though other generations aren’t utilizing the same technology. (Arguably, “technology” shouldn’t be the unique trait of a generation at age 25 unless that kid was born in a vat and their parents weren’t.) I know 30 and 40-something executives that are as much a slave to their Blackberry and iPhone as any teen is to their texting phone.
Also, be careful to note they say the Millennial is anyone born after 1980- that’s a huge 30-year swath… I’d say 1980-2000 and be cautious enough to note that there are some radically different concepts of authenticity and privacy among those being brought up now vs. those 30 years old right now.
Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest and coolest social media tools? YES. If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. Anna JEFF AND DEAN searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way. Here are my OUR picks of the week, hosted by Dean Browell (and EXTRA CREDIT POINTS to those who identify where our intro noise reference comes from):
Robble Robble:
One of the funniest critiques of the Foursquare “check in” craze we’ve seen… As people Tweet that they are at a location, PleaseRobMe.com aggregates those check-ins to make the point that you just admitted you aren’t home.
Facebook #2 in Visits, #1 in Attention/Engagement:
Maybe this whole social media thing is just a fad… But probably not. Looks like it’s truly becoming what the web just is in some ways. Facebook just overtook Yahoo for the #2 spot for website with the most visits and if you’re looking at pure attention and engagement it’s already #1.
PR vs. Social Media:
Kevin Smith’s embarrassing Southwest Airline problem turned into a he-said-she-said that proved doubly embarrassing for the airline who not only erred in their original judgement against Smith, but in multiple attempts to clean up their mess online. It exemplified the power of the Tweet and the helplessness of PR spin when up against social media. Need a better example? Richmond has it’s own going on right now.
The last few weeks has not been kind to three of the world’s most innovative tech companies, but one could argue: you did it to yourself.
The big three in question, Apple, Google and Facebook, all had relatively good news to share (iPad, Buzz, and a new look for Home, respectively), reasons to be happy and new products and features. There was no Toyota-like tail to tuck between legs and no reason to think that by traipsing out in front of the crowd that there would be anything but cheers. That is, unless they had actually asked anyone outside their company ahead of time about what they were about to do. Maybe then they’d have a glimpse of the near-future.
Underestimating Your Undercut The reception to Apple’s iPad has oscillated between wide-eyed wonder and, “you’ve got to be kidding” with a dash of, “looks cool but I’m reasonably sure that’s for old men.” But this story is not about the iPad itself. In fact while you still get some mainstream media Twittering on the tablet, the real critique is going on about the Flash debate. Both onstage and off Apple has been sharpening its sword to go after the Adobe Flash issue, swearing by the constant crashes and closed system it presents, hoping to migrate the universe (or at least Apple-controlled space) toward a Flashless existence. However by trying to point at that pot the kettle can also be seen and the closed-system of Apple’s world, combined with their want to control everything has been on a different stage for all to see. It’s been the theater equivalent of the curtain opening too early and seeing the director strangling a dramaturge.
What has secrecy wrought? In an era where people try and keep things tight-lipped, the iPad and Buzz were no real secret. We knew Apple and Google ether were or would drop something like these things at some point, but they obviously maintained a vice-like grip on details. Too bad, because once we got past the, “okay, that’s what we thought” stage, the internets converged on what was actually presented and pounced like a pack of wolves.
The death of the Beta Test?
And when Google reached a swollen, wounded hand up from the fray, what was so astonishing was that a company that should completely know better, that had usually teased out features to anyone who would have them via Labs for years, had beeneaten completelyby thecrowd. How bad was it? A company like Google was having to make face-saving changes to Buzz before the ink had dried on their own press releases. There were performance problems, privacy flaws (serious ones) and more.
Look, when there’s even a reality show where the prize is to be a game tester (no matter how sad that concept is) there is at least a transparency now about the product development process that can and should include some amount of user beating before things go to market. Again, it’s not like these products were secret to begin with.
Great News! We All Use Your Service & Know How Bad It Performs Which brings us to Facebook. Seriously. By now you should know better than anyone. Never mind that they eased in their new look complete with some very bizarre choices (Video is hidden under photo? Huh?), what was happening under the hood was even more disturbing. Debuting before the Super Bowl meant that the News Feed issues that accompanied the big game could be masked by the high-volume of users (right?) – but when the News Feed problems persisted into the week after, we all smelled an issue. Worse still, it looks like Facebook has been trying to monkey with the problem by adding a strangely draconian solution, the, “oh by-the-way-we-haven’t-been-showing-you-your-friends” revelation that most of us have been limited to seeing only a fraction of our friends in the News Feed lately – and Facebook picked which friends. Meanwhile administrators have noticed that some Pages have gone unpublished and then suddenly published again and we have all witnessed strange slowdowns in updates, views and communications with other services. Really Facebook? I know you’re big now, but this is an awfully systemic bunch of bugs. You never gave us a FailWhale to look at, you just make us think you’re working right until we notice things aren’t updating. At least I know when to leave Twitter alone.
Honorable Mention Speaking of Twitter, you’re on notice too for falling down so much. What is it, 2008 again? Please go make some revenue so we can have more dependable servers and can see “Old Posts” again.
Solution? I can’t believe this is something we should have to tell some of the most respected (and social) companies in the world but: LISTEN. Roll it out, stress test it. Privacy test it. Don’t just let mock-ups speak for you, let your product roll around in some hands. In some of these cases we’re talking about some very obvious issues: philosophies of privacy, basic volume-handling, old arguments with renewed ammo. We know the excuses. “But it crashes Safari!” “But it’s exactly what we need!” “But we’re free so don’t complain!” Screamed with all the rigor of Gollum’s, “It burns usss!” We appreciate you’re not thrilled with our response, but don’t pat us on the head, just listen and change.
By now a large portion of Facebook users are seeing the new homepage redesign as it is slowly rolled out to everyone.
While it is cleaner and makes more productive use of the top bar (at the same time making it thinner) it tucks and tweaks some features. I won’t go as far as to say things have been made hard to reach, but rather placed in some locations that we’re not quite used to. In at least one instance I’ll point out though, one feature has been peculiarly hidden.
Here’s the new bar:
Note the icons now near the Facebook logo representing Friend Requests, Messages, and Notifications. (Try and look past the fact that the “Messages” icon is more reminiscent of what most iconography uses for “chat” functions.) These icons bring your Friend Requests and Inbox interaction to closer parity with Notifications, where a drop-down gives you a preview of what’s waiting for you and a red-number indicator of new items.
At all times you can still get “Home” and to your profile with the righthand links.
Right, but where did my “Friends” go?
This is a harder question to answer. In some ways, finding friends and seeing lists is simple, living in the lefthand column like this:
But very quickly those of you who use Friends Lists may notice that from here you can’t get to that page where your friends were all lined up next to your lists and you could easily edit who was in what lists, etc.
So, where is that page now? It’s accessible in the drop down on the upper right- under “Account.”
There you’ll find, “Edit Friends,” as well as all of your other preferences, settings, privacy options and more. Convenient that they are all grouped like that, but odd that I can do an awful lot with my friends as individuals and lists over on the left-hand except for access this one page.
Let’s look at that left-hand list again:
Some of these are redundant considering the same icons live in the top bar. But it looks like one big one is missing: where’s video?
Here it is:
It’s under… photos? This would be the most boneheaded navigation change in my opinion. As strange as the Apple/Mac reality that iTunes (a music program) plays video but iPhoto does not. Video needs its own icon. Period.
Strangely enough in this lefthand menu you can’t delete or move around every icon – only some of them. (I can get rid of Ads & Pages if I want, but not Games?)
All in all, most of the new changes make logical sense, but they’ll still take some getting used to.
Interesting how it takes polarizing viewpoints to sometimes find the more nuanced center. Richmond BizSense’s Aaron Kremer, with the unsurprisingly shocking title, “Why I still hate Twitter” recounts how he went from being booed about his stance to proving himself right. (Meaning: he went from “hate” to “still hate.”)
Full disclosure: I use Twitter. I am not always a very frequent user and I tend to go in spurts based on subject, speaking with audiophiles during Bonnaroo season, consumer electronics around CES, social media news and my adventures in fatherhood pretty constantly. Also, I sometimes advocate the use of Twitter by businesses when it is appropriate. There are lots of reasons to dive in if your targets are there, and especially if their influencers are (the latter being the most important when you consider Twitter’s recent effect on SEO and that many Twitterers send their posts to Facebook as status updates, further making a Tweet sail to readers). Similarly there are many reasons you might not want to engage in Twitter, from a lack of targets to time to engage and more.
I applaud Kremer’s tackling of the subject and his courage to dive in despite his publicly unpopular preconceptions. What I find strange is the way he set up his test case. He followed only 50 people.
After stopping at 50 people he concludes:
My study is complete, and it’s just as I thought: a waste of time and completely useless for business unless you want to reach lots of marketing people.
Now, if you just look at the top 50 Twitterers in Richmond according to Twitter Grader, you’ll see that it is filled with marketers. That’s a complaint I have of Twitter in our town as well, but it’s the price you pay for being a major southeastern city with one of the nation’s top advertising agencies – the marketing culture will be early and voracious adopters.
But that top 50 list is also filled with Kremer’s media competition, local businesses and more. Lists curated by other Richmond media sources peg hundreds of frequent local Twitterers, the majority of which aren’t marketers from what I can tell. A new local business, presumably the target of BizSense, seems to join Twitter every week. Here’s two different lists by RichmondGL that contain nearly 900 Richmond Twitterers.
So it’s a statistical marvel that in three months he, “did not find one helpful piece of information that I could use for a news story or even something that made me smile.” I’m not sure what three months he was on, whether he saw the way Richmond took to Twitter during the Ukrops sale, Flying Squirrels, or if he ever noticed that every morning Twitter spreads links of his news stories. Maybe it takes a lot to make him smile.
His comments on the experience, or more pointedly his comments on his opinion (he doesn’t actually detail his experience past a few sentences) belie a focus only on his strange sample of the Richmond scene. He claims it’s for “teens” and yet Richmond teens are minority of our local Twitter culture – I would venture to guess that the local pet culture online is even a stronger presence.
The good news is, Twitter is just a potential channel, just like BizSense and email publications are. Many local entities have found regional, state and national benefit using current internet culture as a driver for sales. I think I just expected a more thorough (and less inflammatory) “study” by BizSense considering they are a publication based in that other medium used by teens, “email.”
UPDATE: I think everyone should see for themselves what his “study” looked like here. Certainly there wasn’t any Tweeting for three months straight (not even consecutive months) and his last Tweet was in October of last year. Only twenty-nine Tweets total, most in June and July, one in August and then the four in October. No conversations with other people. More to his blog post’s point, here’s his list of 49 he followed.
I’m not sure which is more hilarious, that we’re debating the usefulness of a tactical medium, or that we’re doing it on something tagged, “blog” on the website of an email newsletter of news story links, where all of the respondents have written short-form responses while standing agape and pointing at this horrible Twitter concept full of short form responses that frequently link to blogs, news stories and newsletters.
If the signal of a medium is to be judged against the noise, I’m pretty sure BizSense doesn’t want to have that fight inside the realm of email.
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 (and 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:
This week, YouTube completely redesigned their video pages and video player. YouTube has simplified their pages, making it easier to view videos, as well as discover new ones. They have also done away with the five star rating system, replacing it with a “like”/“dislike” option. They have also made it easier for you to share videos on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc. For more detailed information on the new format, read this Mashable article.
Firefox 3.6 Released:
On Thursday, Mozilla released the newest version of their search engine. After months of beta testing, Firefox 3.6 is officially live for everyone to try. Updated features include speed, ease of personalization (with personas), and better performance. To learn more watch this video. To download go here.
Facebook Developer Communication Change:
This week, Facebook announced a change that could affect your email inbox. On Wednesday, Facebook granted developers the ability to communicate with app users via email. As of now, you have to opt in to receive emails from developers. In turn, Facebook is also reducing the functionality of the notifications bar, making a transition from application-to-user notifications to direct-to-user email updates.
Twitter Username Grab:
Unused Twitter user names could soon be up for grabs. Twitter told thenextweb.com that they are planning to release inactive and deleted usernames. For example, if an account hasn’t been updated for 6 months, which Twitter’s policy states as an inactive account, it could soon be available for the taking. Twitter has not released a date for when these usernames will be available.
1/3 of US Internet Users Post Status Updates Once Per Week:
According to new data from Forrester Research, 1/3 of internet users post status updates (via sites such as Facebook or Twitter) once a week. As this ReadWriteWeb article points out, 59% of US internet users are now using social networks. The data further details that of U.S. adults online, 24% are creators, 33% are conversationalists, 37% are critics, 20% are collectors, 59% are joiners, 70% are spectators, and 17% are inactives.
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. 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:
Haiti Relief
Since disaster struck Haiti this Tuesday, with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, social media has become a huge mechanism for disaster relief. Here are some ways social media is involved in helping:
- There have been over $5 million in donations to the Red Cross for Haiti, via Text Message
- Facebook pages and groups have rallied support, such as Facebook’s new Global Relief Page
-Google donated $1 million to Haiti Ground Support
- Word of mouth spreading via Facebook and Twitter users
Google Considers Pulling out of China
In December, Google’s infrastructure was attacked. The attack, which originated in China, was an attempt to hack email accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google has now decided to take a new approach to China. At the risk of having to pull out of China altogether, Google has made the decision to no longer censor results on Google.cn. Read the full Google Blog post here.
I’m with COCO
Last week was all about bra color on Facebook; this week, it’s all about CoCo. You may have heard the rumors that NBC was going to move The Jay Leno Show to later in the evening, pushing back the Tonight Show and The Late Night Show. Conan O’Brien wasn’t the only one upset by this decision- his fans have taken to social media to spread their disapproval. “I’m with CoCo” is a Facebook Page dedicated to supporting Conan regardless of what happens with the network…and it already has over 150,000 fans.
Growing Matters
Growth matters to Facebook, which is trying to expand our friend lists. This week, Facebook has made the automatic friend finder front and center on your news feed, showing three of your current friends who have used this feature, in attempt to get you to use it too. Growth also matters to Twitter, which is defending their growth. On Monday, Mashable posted an article showing stats on how Twitter hasn’t grown for several months. On Tuesday, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams tweeted about how usage is on the rise:
“Across all metrics that matter, yesterday was Twitter’s highest-usage day ever. (And today will be bigger.)”
Facebook Criminal Caught
In other social media news, the “Facebook criminal” has been caught. Craig “Lazie” Lynch escaped from a minimum security prison in September 2009, where he was serving a seven year sentence for burglary. After his escape, he taunted police on Facebook by posting pictures and status updates while on the run. It is not known whether Facebook lead to his arrest, but Lynch was apprehended in England on Tuesday night. When he escaped, he had 199 fans, and now has over 11,000 fans. He also had a Page, which has since taken down by Facebook, that had over 40,000 fans.
This week has been all about the Consumer Electronic Show & since technology marries so well with social media, my Picks of the Week are going to be all about CES. Taking a look at the latest and greatest gadgets gives us an idea of where the industry is heading, and gives us many more verticals to incorporate our love of social media into.
Social Circle:
See what’s generating buzz at #CES with social circle. This cool site shows tweets, photos, articles, and more- all relating to CES. There’s a dropdown tab on the site (upper left hand side) that has 4 different categories: Outlook, People, Images, and Timeline. It’s a great way to keep track of what people are seeing & saying about the Consumer Electronic Show.
The Best of CES:
Gizmodo is continuing to update this article on “The Best of CES.” The article highlights some of the best gadgets featured at the Pre-Pre-Pre Show (Monday), Day Zero (Tuesday), Day One (Wednesday), Day Two (Thursday), Day Three (Friday), and so on. With so many gadgets at CES, it’s nice to have highlights of some of the coolest all in one place. Also check out a photo album of the 10 best gadgets chosen by CNET.
Social Media is Big at CES:
Facebook & Twitter may not have an official presence at CES, but according to CNBC, social media has a large presence on the floor at CES 2010. Many of the TV’s, game consoles, and mobile phones that are being displayed are illustrating how social media works with their devices.
Trends at CES:
The show won’t be over until Sunday, but there are already some trends emerging from CES 2010. ReadWriteWeb’s article highlights trends in three categories: Televisions, Automobiles, and Augmented Reality. DigitalTrends.com has also highlighted their Five Top Tech and Gadget Trends at CES 2010: 3D, LED & Connected Television, Tablet PCs and Netbooks, Portable Projectors, eReaders/eBook Players, and Streaming Media Extenders.
Some of my favorite Gadgets:
- Slates- I’m looking forward to these tablets, ideal for travelers, because they can be used as a reading device, computer, or T.V.
-See through Screens- Transparent screens have garnered a lot of attention at this year’s CES- with computers, phones, and media players all sporting the see through look.
-Internet In Cars- A new trend at CES is the ability to access the web from your car dashboard. “My Ford Touch” is incorporating Twitter (and internet radio) into their dashboard. You can have tweets read aloud, as well as send tweets all via voice control.
-What are your favorite CES gadgets? Leave a comment with your picks!
