Open Social Networks: in the “Air”
With the chatter today around Google’s Friend Connect code being announced, there’s a wealth of new optimism for the notion of “open” social networks… where social networks become the fabric of the web, not the “walled gardens” we’re forced to manage separately with different logins, passwords, connections and feeds.
Charlene Li, Forrester Research, blogged of that notion last March, when she projected that this day would come - that technology would open up the networks to share information: “ubiquitous Internet access and the servers to enable real-time social graph access.” You can’t get more ubiquitous than Google giving away social connectedness to any web site for free.
Google’s description of Friend Connect:
Attract more visitors. Visitors bring along friends from social networks like Facebook, orkut, and others to interact on your site.
Enrich your site with social features. Choose engaging social features from a catalog of gadgets provided by Google and the OpenSocial developer community.
No programming whatsoever. Just copy and paste snippets of code into your site, and Google Friend Connect does the rest.
As they opened up the world of web analytics to “the rest of us,” so shall they open up the world of social networks to any organization interested in implementing social networking features. And these are important features like inviting friends to connect, vote and easily share the information already out on millions of web sites. For example, again from Google:
- An academic site - Discuss and review articles in context with colleagues and the broader community. Filter the discussion to colleagues only, or widen your view. Forge connections with new participants whose comments seem particularly insightful.
- A shopping site - Read expert reviews and tips right next to the camera you’re thinking of buying, and find a friend who has already purchased the same item.
(Note: they’re not shipping the code yet, but they are taking preview release participants here.)
How do we get ready for this brave new world? In many ways, both large and small. I’ll tackle the first (large, but simple) step today.
Track your digital reputation.
Old Joke: You shouldn’t Google yourself too often because you’ll go blind…
New Reality: Frankly these days, you’re blind if you don’t Google yourself often.
1) Set up persistent searches so a free RSS reader - like Google on the low end or Attensa on the high end [Attensa offers search of 18 different social networks/search engines] - will keep an eye out for online mentions on the following:
Your name/your company name/your product names… it’s quite simple to do - here’s proof:
2) Once you set up the search, check your results (you can get the feed results delivered into your Outlook inbox from Attensa) at least a couple times a week (if you’re not active in the blogosphere/social network) or more often if you are.
3) You’ll be able to train Attensa (they’re a client of mine) to know the difference between “Janet Johnson, the FL realtor,” “Janet Johnson, the former Congresswoman,” and “Janet Johnson, the marketing strategist” over time.Simply tag, check or delete the results and, depending on the relevancy, Attensa will will learn which instances to serve up first, below:
After all, millions of conversations are going on every moment of every day. More likely than not, some are about you/your company/your products. At that point, you can enter into the conversation and manage your online reputation actively.
Knowledge is power. These tools are free. From this point forward, it’s incumbent that you know…
a fitting way to end a day that started with a seminar called “social networking for the creative business.” i’m definitely having the top of my head blown off these days! thanks for these nuggets…
Re: “enter into the conversation and manage your online reputation actively.”
This is really where I struggle with Web X.0. I am not disputing marketers need to keep a close eye on what is going on in the marketplace and what is being said, but we can only be so responsive (especially in product management, where development times can be significant, but the same could be said about core marketing messages that must be consistent over time so as to build equity).
In my experience, consumers have no idea what complexity is masked from them - let’s call them “morons” to make a point. How can you manage a conversation with these people?
It would be like me telling a car manufacturer to add a cupholder to the gearshift. I have no idea what I am talking about, but is sure sounds cool and surely I am qualified because I drive cars.
Should the car manufacturer engage me in a conversation? I suppose you could say yes, but at some point the volume becomes unmanageable and the noise factor unworkable.
Furthermore, as Seth G mentions, most consumers can’t articulate what they want/need (and will be willing to pay money for) - it isn’t until a brilliant visionary creates the next iWhatever do they say - “Hey, that is exactly what I want! Let me give you my credit card number!”
In summary, there is no shortage of data out there. It sounds like a possible use of this Open Social Network technology is to attempt to corral this data into some cloud of actionable information, but I am (obviously) skeptical…..
Hey, Craig,
I know you’re approaching this from a very smart, methodical point of view. You have a well-developed research-juiced mind, and a product management outlook. I’m with you re: data volumes and manageability.
That’s one reason I like Google and other search companies behind opening up these networks with tools. The more they understand people’s searching/voting/sharing behaviors, the more we’ll be able to hone our business intelligence to capitalize on it.
And, even if 1% of the information you’ll find will be of use, the law of large numbers means that within that 1% you’re likely to find a nugget that you didn’t already know… and these days, competitively, the 1% brilliance is exactly what might turn your eWhatever into the next iWhatever and take off.
I love it when you’re moved to comment. I always learn something from you. Keep the healthy skepticism, it keeps me from taking off from the earth entirely. (Irrational exuberance? Mostly hot air…
Wow, thanks for the compliments. I would have expected you to instead point me to an article like this one: The long tail of online interaction (which I found ironically enough using my Google Reader) which has gems like:
“There’s only a handful of real alpha users, your lead customers, and then there’s this huge mass of people who are just barely interested enough in your product or service to sign up. How you make a whole out of that kind of crazy distribution is hard for businesses to grapple with, but is one of the essential skills for taking advantage of this stuff.”
and
“communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.”
and my personal favorite
“creativity is an import/export business, that often what looks to one person like a really creative person is in fact simply a member of a different community who can import ideas that originated in that other community.”
Delicious references, thank you. I couldn’t agree more…
Whoops, my bad…. Guess that is what happens when I make up random names.
Kevin, your “Robot Sperm” post was sincerely hilarious. Glad we connected. Cheers.