12.10.07

Pluck hooking up media outlets with social networks

Posted in Internet Business, Software and Web Apps at 1:32 am by Administrator

from yahoo news / reuters

Pluck hooking up media outlets with social networks

By Robert MacMillan 30 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online media syndication company Pluck Corp said on Wednesday it would give traditional media companies the ability to link their Web sites to online social networks like MySpace and Facebook.

The move would allow people to leave comments on news Web sites that then show up on their social network profiles, allowing the traditional media outlets to reach people where they are spending increasing amounts of time on the Internet, said Pluck Chief Executive Dave Panos.

This is important to media companies that are trying to build up their online audiences as they lose readers and advertising revenue for their print editions.

“If I comment on a story about the presidential primary, the story itself is going to be noted on my Facebook profile, and so is the comment I made,” he said.

Companies using Pluck’s technology include USA Today publisher Gannett Co Inc (GCI.N), Discovery Communications, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, Runner’s World publisher Rodale and Better Homes & Gardens publisher Meredith Corp (MDP.N).

“People are interested in sharing experiences around news,” said Jim Brady, executive editor of The Washington Post Co’s (WPO.N) Web site, washingtonpost.com, which also is participating.

Brady said that could build up more loyal readers for the Web site while exposing the Post’s news to many of Facebook’s 55 million users worldwide. MySpace, owned by News Corp (NWSa.N), has about 110 million users worldwide.

“We’re not trying to be Facebook or MySpace,” he said. “By giving ourselves a hook into the bigger social networks, it allows us to get more pollination.”

The move allows traditional media companies to associate themselves with popular social networks whose members — typically younger than the average newspaper reader — are considered the most valuable to advertisers on- and offline.

“If you’re a media company, you’re now attracting more users to your site,” Panos said. “For them, I think it’s about reaching a broader audience, and maybe a younger demographic.”

Reuters Group (RTR.L) (RTRSY.O) which made a $7 million investment in Pluck last year and has an undisclosed ownership stake, also is a participant.

Media companies will be able to link up with Facebook starting in the first quarter of 2008, Pluck said. Networks that are part of Google Inc’s (GOOG.O) OpenSocial technology for independent software developers — which includes MySpace as a member — will be able to use Pluck’s technology by mid-2008.

(Editing by Carol Bishopric)

I am glad to see so many social network deployments these days. Competition keeps things healthy. Hopefully we will all benefit from multiple companies pushing various software for social networks and they will all keep getting better and better. We are currently testing a few social network platforms for various clients of different sizes with different needs. There is also much talk around the shop about sharing information among the social networks. You can see this similar goal being developed with google’s open social, and the openid platform. Of course avoiding end user privacy issues is always a concern, but making things easier for end users to log into and use the various social sites and choosing which information to share or keep private and semi private is going to be of paramount importance.

12.09.07

Colleges Create Offbeat Videos to Try to Build Web Buzz

Posted in Internet Business at 9:15 pm by Administrator

We love to see more niche markets getting creative with public relations, and using newer media to get an unusual message out is just the kind of thing that colleges should be doing. It’s a young hip demographic, certainly viral videos will be more effective online than any amount spent on print advertising. The social aspect of college should be a focus and getting viral videos spread through social networks may get groups of students interested.

From the wired campus blog:

These days colleges’ PR offices are creating more and more videos to promote campus events and get their institution’s name out. And some have tried to adopt the lighthearted or edgy tone that seems most popular on YouTube.

The collegewebeditor blog has been tracking such efforts, and today they point out an unusual holiday video created by the University of Maryland at College Park.

Connie Chung, an alumnus of the university, makes a cameo appearance, but the star is the college’s mascot, Testudo, leading students and staff members from across campus to gather for a holiday photo. The overall feel seems something out of a Disney film, and somehow it seems long, even though it’s only two minutes. It’s too soon to tell whether it will be the next big viral video — so far the version on YouTube has only been viewed a couple hundred times.

Last month, the blog featured a roundup of quirky promotional videos featuring college presidents, highlighting various presidents jumping out of planes, answering questions on a late-night TV show, or riding a motorcycle. None of those have been blockbusters either, though.

12.07.07

It’s serious if you admit to your relationship on Facebook - and other social networks

Posted in Internet Users at 9:18 pm by Administrator

From yahoo news / reuters

For college students, if it’s Facebook, it’s love

By Joanne Kenen Tue Dec 4, 7:20 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the Facebook generation, love now comes with a drop-down menu.

With profiles on the Facebook social networking site (http://www.facebook.com/) almost de rigueur on college campuses, students can define their relationship status with menu choices ranging from “married” to that perennial favorite, “It’s complicated.”

“It’s complicated” could also describe the emotional calculations people in their late teens and early 20s make as they decide whether their relationships are what they call “Facebook-worthy.”

For Stephanie Endicott and Marcus Smallegan, first year students at George Washington University, announcing to the world that they had found love in a college dorm was a no-brainer.

“It was important for me to share this with my friends since I’m so far away,” Endicott, attending school 3,000 miles

away from her home in Maple Valley, Washington, said as she clasped Smallegan’s hand on a park bench on the campus.

“Neither of us had been in a really good relationship before and ours turned really good really fast,” added Smallegan, who had posted a relationship on Facebook once before, only to have that girl move out of state and break up with him via a text message on his cell phone.

Some of their friends, however, have had less harmonious Facebook experiences. Both Endicott and Smallegan know of other college students who thought they were in a relationship — only to have it all blow up when they tried to link their two Facebook profiles as a couple, an option that requires the consent of both parties.

“It was this major emotional crisis breakdown,” Smallegan said of a close friend at a Midwestern university who was heartbroken when her cyberlink was rebuffed by a young man who thought they were “just friends.”

Not all students post their relationship status. For some, it’s a matter of privacy. For others, it’s all about marketability.

“I have NEVER changed my Facebook status — it has always been single, even when I started to get involved with girls. I think it’s better this way, until you are VERY serious, because people look, people talk, etc., and unless it is super-serious it can ruin any chance with any other girl!” one young man, who asked that his name be withheld to avoid alienating his current and many ex-girlfriends, wrote in an e-mail.

But for many couples, being “Facebook-worthy” confers a status on a relationship.

When a couple was “going steady” in the 1950s, the young man might have let his girlfriend wear his Varsity team sweater or given her his fraternity pin. But the 1960s swept aside those rituals. Now the Facebook link has become a publicly-recognized symbol of a reasonably serious intent short of being engaged or moving in together.

“For those in a relationship, the theme that kept echoing was that Facebook made it official,” said Nicole Ellison, an assistant professor of telecommunication and information studies at Michigan State University who has studied social networking sites. “That was the term they used. And when the relationship fell apart, when you broke up on Facebook, that’s when the breakup was official.”

Facebook even produces a little red broken heart icon when a couple splits up.

Duke University student Adam Zell concurred. “Putting it on Facebook made it official,” said Zell, who had a “serious sit-down relationship talk” with his girlfriend last year after two or three months together. They made a joint decision to put “in a relationship” on Facebook, and link profiles.

Dave Berkman, who does mental health counseling at the University of Wisconsin clinic, finds that some students feel compelled to define themselves on a Facebook page, or to compulsively update their status over and over again.

“People are beginning to use it more than phones, more than text messages, more than instant messaging, even more than talking in person,” he said. “It speeds things up. People are prone to define where they are so they can show other people (online).”

If Facebook can certify a relationship, it can also destroy one. Ellison in her research learned of one young couple in a “Facebook-worthy” relationship. But he cheated with a young woman who naturally looked up his Facebook profile. When she saw he had an “official” Facebook girlfriend, she contacted the other woman.

“Then the two of them were in cahoots to make this guy’s life miserable,” Ellison said. “So if you are in a relationship and it’s listed on Facebook, don’t cheat.”

(Reporting by Joanne Kenen; Editing by Eddie Evans)

I know there have been many other social network dramas played out on Myspace and other social networks for similar reasons stated above. For a while there was even an internet service that would alert you to changes in a person’s relationship status. I have seen many a drama started up by comments from friends and people who change or don’t change their relationship stats to single, or dating, etc on myspace and other social networks myself.

What sort of ad agency does an entrepreneur need?

Posted in Marketing at 12:58 am by Administrator

From the Tennessean Newspaper in Nashville, TN:

Sunday, 10/14/07
What sort of ad agency does an entrepreneur need?
Answer: One willing to take a few chances to help an owner score big

By RANDY MCCLAIN
Business Editor

Jeffrey Buntin Jr., the 34-year-old president of The Buntin Group, has seen the Nashville advertising agency started by his dad in the 1970s guide the accounts of some of this area’s and the nation’s most entrepreneurial companies.

The Buntin Group, marking 35 years in business this fall, has worked with Cracker Barrel, John Deere, Dollar General, golf pro Jack Nicklaus and others.

Buntin, who now heads the agency, said start-up companies in search of advertising help should look for advisers that can provide more than just flashy slogans or clever commercials.

“We say to potential clients, select someone who wants to be your business partner, not just your ad agency.”

Buntin’s take is that it makes sense to pick an agency that can weigh in on long-term strategy and help an entrepreneur better define his or her target customer.

“The idea is to establish intimacy with your audience, to understand what they want, not just to sell them a product,” Buntin said.

It’s easier to think big early: “In the early stages of a business, there’s an opportunity to think of a new company as a brand, not just as a means of delivering a product. We ask clients to think of the brand, ‘why.’

“There’s a purpose or a mission behind every brand. It’s alive and authentic and it helps when you’re able to put it into words,” Buntin said. “For an entrepreneur, the ‘why’ is what they wake up every morning thinking about as they’re brushing their teeth,” what drives them in the business world.

Companies can get it right from the outset or they can evolve.

Servpro, a clean-up and restoration franchisor, has been based in Gallatin, Tenn., since relocating there from the West Coast in the late 1980s. It started years before that as a painting company and morphed into a maintenance firm that worked with insurers to clean up after fire and water damage.

But in more recent years, the Buntin Group client evolved to work directly with homeowners in addition to the commercial insurers. Servpro now targets individual consumers who need big clean-up jobs after storms or other mishaps.

The brand — reflected in Servpro’s identifying slogan — is: “Like it never even happened.”

Reaching out to homeowners was a big change in strategy, but it helped Servpro keep growing, Buntin said. The common thread all along was “about restoring control,” he said. “That thought process allowed them to diversify and accelerate overall growth. It provided brand clarity.”

Trust your intuition or partner with someone whose intuition you trust: Entrepreneurs generally have a sixth sense about the direction their business should take, but “they’re also more willing to embrace risk,” Buntin said.

Don’t fret about starting small. You can still clobber larger competitors with deeper pockets and bigger budgets.

“Being a challenger brand is more about mindset than the dollars in someone’s budget,” Buntin said. “The key is to know your audience deeply, and to know them as people.

“It’s not enough to have a megaphone and talk loud. You want to build a three-way dialogue,” something that lets the customer talk back to the brand, while also spreading the word about the product or service to others who think, behave and spend like they do.

It’s a new world of delivering messages, Buntin said, and even more-established companies can benefit by thinking of customers differently.

One example: Goodyear hired Buntin’s agency some time ago to study women as tire buyers. Goodyear wanted to learn how to market to a customer that its brand at one time hadn’t truly embraced.

“Even established businesses can launch into a new entrepreneurial era,” Buntin said.

Business and marketing are all about thinking in win and outside the hum drum box in our opinion. Glad to see the are others out there following a similar path.

12.06.07

Google Making Street View Anonymous

Posted in Internet Users at 8:59 pm by Administrator

Google Making Street View Anonymous

from yahoo news / PcWorld

Robert McMillan, IDG News Service Fri Nov 30, 2:50 PM ET

In the face of ethical concerns, Google is considering changes to its Street View Google Maps feature that would protect the privacy of those it photographs.

When Street View is rolled out in Europe, Google will alter Street View photos to make sure that faces and license plate numbers are no longer visible, and the company is also thinking about doing the same with the U.S. version of the product, said Jane Horvath, senior privacy counsel with Google.

Developed by Immersive Media, Street View lets users click on a city street and then see a panoramic photograph of the area. The pictures are taken by special 360-degree cameras roof-mounted on Volkswagen Beetles that cruise around town, constantly snapping photographs. The photos are often so clear that people on the street can be identified.

Soon after its May launch, photographs of scantily clad women and men apparently entering adult book stores or strip clubs appeared, and privacy advocates complained that the Street View was invasive. Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kevin Bankston was photographed by the service and was among those who complained.

Google responded by creating a way for people to remove their photos, but in many other countries the company will have to take the more aggressive privacy measures. “In other jurisdictions… like Canada and the E.U., when we launch our product there, we’ll be under an obligation to ensure that faces are not recognizable, nor are license tags,” Horvath said at a Thursday discussion at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. “As we launch those products we will be thinking within our product teams whether this is something that we’d like to do within the U.S. also.”

Street View maps are available for 15 U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

In the U.S., Google can legally publish photographs taken in public places without securing permission from people who happen to pop up in the shots, but this practice violates privacy laws in many other countries.

And even if it’s legal, some may still be uncomfortable with the photographs, Horvath admitted.

“It’s sort of that ‘ick’ feeling that something makes you feel uncomfortable,” she said. “Our products are not static and we’re always open to changing them to make sure our users feel comfortable and trust us with their information.”

“I think this calls into question the whole idea of whether privacy is something that needs to be regulated by law or if there’s this other concept of privacy that we need to look at, which is the right to autonomy.”

Glad to see that google is making some changes to account for privacy with people. Theere has been much debate about google’s (and other search engines and internet sites) disregarding privacy for users in many ways. Something positive with internet user privacy is always good to read.

12.05.07

Online Protests force Social Network Facebook to change

Posted in Internet Users, Opinions / Rants at 8:59 pm by Administrator

Protests force Facebook to change
From the BBC News - UK

Facebook members have forced the social networking site to change the way a controversial ad system worked.

More than 50,000 Facebook users signed a petition calling on the company to alter or abandon its Beacon advertising technology.

When Facebook users shopped online, Beacon told friends and businesses what they looked at or bought.

Many considered the data sharing to be an intrusion that exposed them to more scrutiny than was comfortable.

Privacy please

In response to the demands, Facebook’s 55 million members will have more control over whether data about what they do online is used for Beacon.

Before the changes, Beacon was an “opt out” system and many complained that they missed the chance to avoid using it when it was introduced in early November.

Now Beacon will be an “opt in” system that only tracks data if explicit permission is granted to Facebook to do so.

More than 40 websites, including Fandango.com, Overstock.com and Blockbuster, signed up to use Beacon software on their webpages and report what Facebook users did when they visited.

Snoozing child, AP
Beacon embarrassed many doing Christmas shopping online
Activist site MoveOn was at the forefront of protests against Beacon and set up the petition to gather signatures on 20 November.

“It also says a lot about the ability of internet users to band together to make a difference,” said Adam Green, a spokesman for MoveOn.

Facebook apologised for its actions via a letter on its website.

“We’re sorry if we spoiled some of your holiday gift-giving plans,” read the letter. “We are really trying to provide you with new meaningful ways, like Beacon, to help you connect and share information with your friends.”

Industry commentator Om Malik said Facebook users had to be certain to opt out completely from Beacon otherwise Facebook would still collect data from partner sites - even if that data was not shared more widely.

The changes to Beacon may not be the last that Facebook has to make to the technology.

Two rights groups, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy, are believed to be compiling a complaint to the US Federal Trade Commission about it.

People sure are funny. I wonder how long it took to get those 50,000 facebook users signatures for a petition. Now consider how long it takes to get a petition for other important things like local law changes, or political issues. Perhaps people will see the power here and we can look forward to faster changes in other aeaof life with social network technology helping to lead the charge. Perhaps Digg will begin to incorporate on site petitions for things.

12.03.07

Store adds new dimension to online shopping

Posted in Internet Business, Marketing at 4:56 pm by Administrator

From Retuers

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Consumers looking to avoid crowded malls and the tedium of online shopping can now shop in a virtual 3-dimensional store.

Specialty retailer Brookstone Inc. opened the virtual doors to its 3-dimensional store, which combines a Second Life-like visual experience with real merchandise customers can buy.

“The 3-D brings that fun part of shopping back. When you go into a physical store, there is that sort of energy around ‘what am I going to find?’ and there’s always that discovery process,” Greg Sweeney, a vice-president at Brookstone, said in an interview.

The virtual store replicates the look and layout of a real store. Customers can move through the aisles and browse and zoom on products using a mouse and keyboard. Detailed information is available by stopping in front of an item.

“We think it really appeals to a younger audience for us, a demographic probably 25 to 40… because of the almost gaming nature of it,” said Sweeney.

Certainly those adept at navigating through a virtual world will find the environment familiar. For new users, it will take some getting used to, Sweeney added.

Brookstone.com will still offer its wares in the conventional way, but offers the 3-D store as an alternative.

“It really helps the evolution of the internet shopping experience,” said Sweeney.

(Reporting by Naomi Kim; editing by Patricia Reaney)