According to a recent article on Mashable, Twitter might begin to offer companies the chance to create Facebook-like brand pages, on which brands could create a more useful space than simply a link-less profile page.
Does Twitter even need to offer this capability? Isn’t the simplicity of Twitter one of it’s benefits?
I would say yes to both questions. Twitter, although growing exponentially, needs to create more ways to monetize their service. Although, I have seen great success with Twitter promoted accounts, the value of promoted tweets and promoted trends is still in question in my humble opinion. Even if the brand pages allow for working links and a more interactive experience with the page, I feel Twitter is moving in the right direction.
As for the simplicity of Twitter, I do believe there are ways to setup a more robust brand page without interfering with the functionality users are accustomed to on Twitter. Just as brands offer pages on Facebook, where users may or may not interact, Twitter has to opportunity to do the same.
As a digital marketer, this type of news is always exciting to me, but what do you think?Tweet
Online privacy is a major issue in the social media landscape these days. What we have witnessed in the past few months has brought the privacy issue to the forefront. I suppose it all started with Google’s implementation of personalized search in 2009. Even though Google had been monitoring and compiling user behavior for quite some time, personalized search raised red flags for many Google users. In reality, the results we receive from personalized search are not so different. As long as the information is not sold to third parties, I am all for receiving more relevant search engine results.
The launch and privacy issue with Google Buzz deserves a blog post of its own, so I won’t even go there now.
Foursquare is another application that raises the same types of concerns but at a much more “local” level. Websites, such as PleaseRobMe.com scared many would potential users away from Foursquare. The PleaseRobMe website garnered so much attention and a strong response from Foursquare that it no longer publishes its list of vacant homes.
Foursquare has become a phenomenon. Its user count hit the one million mark in just one year, while it took Twitter 2 years to reach the same level (though Twitter now has over 100 million worldwide users). I must admit that I was a hold out early on when it came to Foursquare, as I recently mentioned in a blog post compiled by fellow team leads of AREA203‘s new media team. Since then, I have become an avid user and see the huge potential for brick and mortar businesses that choose to participate with Foursquare. The recent announcement regarding Pennsylvania’s partnership with Foursquare is a perfect example of the advantages provided by Foursquare. As an early hold out myself, I do understand the concerns of people worried about the location-based information published on Foursquare. A word of advice: just like Facebook, I suggest only “friending” people on Foursquare whom you know or converse with in the social realm. Just be smart about it.
Alas, the big daddy of privacy concerns today is most definitely Facebook. Facebook’s privacy changes created a mass backlash from the Facebook user community, so much so that Facebook was forced to make changes to the usability of the privacy settings platform. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg released a video on May 26 describing these changes:
Personally, I understand why Facebook would want its user community to be more public (which is a direct reaction to the explosive growth and public nature of Twitter), but I do believe the backlash could have been avoided had Facebook taken a more proactive approach by announcing and clearly defining the changes before they were launched. For me, Facebook is a tool for me to interact with a small group of close friends. For that reason, any information I post on Facebook is visible only to my friend list and no one else.
With the privacy issue so prevalent now, I would love to hear what your thoughts are.Tweet
I just came across this video on YouTube entitled “Social Media Revolution.” I have seen similar presentations about the future of internet, population and communications growth, but this is the first clip I have seen directly addressing the importance of social media marketing. Some shocking stats are presented, well – shocking if you aren’t in the know. The world is changing. It is becoming a necessity for any advertising or marketing campaign to involve a robust social media strategy.
This video goes out to the man that told me a couple months ago that “Twitter is a fad and will go away just like that ‘Spacebook’ thing that Rupert Murdoch bought.” I’m not saying Twitter will be around forever. In fact, I don’t think we have seen anything yet. Enjoy!
