Archive for July, 2007
Not talking about Facebook…a tale of social networking
July 31st, 2007
It seems everyone is either talking about, or trying to avoid talking about, Facebook at the minute, so I’m steering clear of the subject.
Even the Guardian’s technology section reported on a brief outage at Facebook today, which probably resulted in a huge surge in profitability as the UK’s workforce caught up with work, rather than their friends.
But enough of Facebook, today I will mostly be talking about…hang on, here’s another example; Facebook posts a job listing for a stock administration manager and suddenly the company is floating, as reported by The Times.
This ‘leap’ causes Peter Thiel, Facebook board member and PayPal co-founder to confirm that the earliest Facebook would file for an initial public offering would be 2009, “and hopefully not until significantly after that”.
He then went onto propose a figure for Facebook: “It would take a significant sum to gain the management’s attention. If we got an offer from someone of $10 billion, we would probably listen to them. I don’t think we’re going to get that offer, and we’re not going to solicit.”
Well I think he just did, and sure enough, the figure is everywhere.
Anyway, I’m not talking about Facebook. The point I wanted to make, was in relation to the effect social networks are having on digital music.
The BBC reports on a digital music survey from Entertainment Media Research, confirming a whole host of interesting stats including:
- 53% of people actively surf social networking sites to find music.
- 30% said they went on to buy or download music that they had discovered on a social network site.
The survey also suggests that the number of people illegally download music tracks has risen, from 36% in 2006 to 43% in 2007. Not a huge rise, and the survey doesn’t go as far to suggest a link between social networks and piracy, but does clearly confirm social networks are effecting music consumption.
I would go further. I think the issue is much wider than just music, social networks are having a considerable effect on the way we purchase and communicate, both as individuals and as organisations, in all sectors.
Furthermore, those that thought this effect would only be relevant to techies and bloggers are quickly realising that simply isn’t the case. Take Facebook as an example, I’m continually surprised by the people that pop up on it, people who I thought would have no interest in Facebook, and ping, there they are - poking me. Perhaps that’s the most interesting point; social networks are driving the population online, the various apps act as a magnet and the simplicity keeps them coming back.
We now have a situation where the usage and understanding of social media, in all its forms, is growing consistently. Combine this with widespread access to the web and a new eagerness to join in, and By Jove! I believe we may just have something.
The second dotcom boom may well have a different ending to the first.
Getting behind-the-scenes of the media
July 30th, 2007
Stephen Armstrong, writing for MediaGuardian, has beaten me to it today with a thought piece on how TV programmes about the media are increasingly becoming hot property.
I’ve been pondering the same idea myself recently, with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip airing this week, and other fictionalised insights into the media such as Dirt starring Courney Cox and Lipstick Jungle by Sex and the City’s Candace Bushnell, also in the pipeline.
It seems a warts-and-all look at the media is increasingly what people want to see, and I still firmly believe the catalyst was 7/7 2005, when citizen journalism took on a life of its own around the London bombings.
The media industry has always positioned itself as sexy, cut-throat and exclusive - but three years ago a crisis situation broke down some of these barriers, and mobile and social media technology enabled citizens to access it from the inside.
To quote from the MediaGuardian article…”I think in part this is about television’s reaction to the internet,” says Mark Olsen, who writes about TV for the LA Times and Interview magazine. “There is a desire to include the audience, to give them a sense that they are insiders, and that they know what’s going on behind the cameras.”
The public want more access - uploading mobile video clips, or writing their own blog etc, is no longer enough. There seems an insatiable appetite for transparency in the media, and TV at the moment is responding to this need.
This is not just the age of social media - it’s the age of media, full stop!
Facebook - did he or didn’t he?
July 25th, 2007
Mark Zuckerberg, or Mr Facebook, has been accused of fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets, by his former employers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of ConnectU.
They allege that Mark Zuckerberg stole their site’s software code while he was working for them on a project called Harvard Connection, creating a social network for Harvard university’s students.
In the suit they claim Zuckerberg was asked to complete software and database work on the site before they graduated from Harvard in June 2004.
According to the suit this never happened, and in an almighty claim they have demanded ownership of Facebook!
Let’s put this into context, ConnectU has 70,000 users, while Facebook has 52 million. Facebook launched 3 months before ConnectU, and Facebook was the subject of a $1bn approach from Yahoo! in the not too distant past, a valuation that has significantly risen due to the increasing popularity of the service.
You have to ask yourself, if ConnectU are right, and Facebook is based on the same code, what has Zuckerberg done to make Facebook so much more successful?
I don’t think Facebook will be unduly concerned by the eventual ruling.
MediaGuardian has the full story.
YouTube video debate: success or flop?
July 24th, 2007
It’s a risky idea using YouTube to host a presidential debate, and last night’s experiment certainly had its flaws and frustrations…but if one good thing came of it, it’s the realisation that there’s a global and active online community who wants to make a difference to politics.
The CNN debate enabled Americans to pose questions to presidential candidates through short YouTube videos. Nearly 3,000 videos were submitted - an impressive response in light of the disinterest that plagues global politics today.
Only 39 videos were selected for the two-hour debate, and there seems to be conscensus in the blogosphere today that many of the best videos were left out. But no suprises there!
The candidates did a great job of dodging direct answers, which in my mind was the single most disappointing result of the debate. We all know this happens in Question Time, but a YouTube debate should by its nature demand more transparency and honesty. Clearly the candidates have some learning to do on the behaviour of social networks, and how to go about building authority with their online audiences.
Finally, I leave you with a YouTube video from Faint Starlite, aka Esther, who sums up nicely why American youths don’t care about politics as much as they should.
Social media releases, PR stunts and Facebook makes an acquisition…a week in review
July 20th, 2007
It’s been a busy week at Liberate Media, I know, I know, we’re all busy…But between a hectic travel schedule, announcements, meetings and a few surprises along the way, the blog posts have dramatically dropped off this week - bad Lloyd and Wendy!
Therefore, I thought I would do a quick round-up of some of the issues that attracted my attention this week.
PR Week reports that 75 per cent of journalists would prefer to receive media-rich press releases than a standard email or Word file attachment. To confirm, a media-rich press release is one that links directly back to a website where journalists can access additional information, images, video or sound clips, graphs and statistics. This supports the movement towards social media releases, which we at Liberate Media are following avidly.
The research comes from software designers Glide Technologies, and I’d be interested to hear any direct experiences or opinions from any journalists that are reading this post. Although this may not be possible as the piece also confirms that most of the surveyed journalists do not receive such releases on a regular basis.
PR Squared has the full story.
Sticking with PR, and relating directly to the image attached to this post, hats off for this supreme PR stunt linked to the opening of the Simpsons movie in the UK.
The story broke at the start of the week, and as you can see, the Cerne Abbas giant in Dorset has a new neighbour in the shape of a doughnut-toting Homer Simpson. Brilliant.
The BBC has the full story.
Finally, Facebook, (did you spot the new widgets BTW?) has made its first acquisition in the form of web-based operating system start-up - Parakey, the latest project from the founders of Mozilla Firefox.
The purchase will boost Facebook’s open source strategy, allowing developers to write applications that can be shared by Facebook users.
The Times has the full story.
That’s it for the round-up, onwards to the weekend, we’ll be back on track next week.