AOL Instant Messenger: On The Outside Looking In
When AOL Instant Messenger, better known as AIM, first hit the online world in 1997, it took off like wildfire. While AIM wasn’t the first instant messaging application, it was by far one of the most popular and widely used. Whether you used it to stay in touch with friends or as a way to meet new people, AIM not only impacted our culture at the time, but it also laid the groundwork for future social media powerhouses, Facebook and Twitter.
With features like file transfer, emoticons, and the always amusing/irritating ‘warn’ button, AIM attracted groups by the masses. Still, that was then, and this is now. The reality is that AIM can no longer compete with the Facebook and Twitter’s of the world. The once teacher, has now become the student. AOL’s inability to monetize off AIM consistently has continuously been put to question and it seems like its now or never for AOL’s once popular application. (more…)
Why You Can’t ‘Dislike’ Facebook
When Facebook first started, Mark Zuckerberg intended it to be used as an online simulation of real-life relationships. To his credit, Facebook has become just that. From relationships to catching up with friends, Facebook has taken networking to new levels. Still, Facebook has a ways to go if it intends on being a true online representation of real-life.
The biggest complaint of which is the ability to dislike content on Facebook. Although Facebook allows you to ‘like’ content from your friends, they don’t have an option to ‘dislike’ something. The question then becomes what do you do if you find something so offensive that ‘hide content’ just doesn’t work for you?
Facebook Isn’t MySpace
No matter what the public says, in the end, Facebook will have the final say on how they want their social network to function. With that said, one of the most important things that Facebook considers when they introduce new features, such as their new Facebook privacy policy, is not only how it will affect users, but also their brand. (more…)
The Social Media Superhero
Answer the following questions with a simple Yes or No:
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The only way you can fly is in an airplane.
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You know where and what everyone is doing thanks to Facebook.
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Your leather belt is the closest you’ll ever be to having a utility belt.
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The Fail Whale cowers in your presence.
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The only way you will look like Wolverine is if you don’t shave.
How Will You Engage Your Community?
An important part of a companies brand is how they engage their community. Your community can help you climb to new heights, but can also bring you back down to earth. With consumers becoming less receptive to brands that market themselves through traditional forms of marketing such as television and print, companies have begun to embrace social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook as powerful tools for engagement. As the number of companies using social media continue to rise, companies must be prepared to answer the question “how will you engage your community?”
This past week I was able to listen and interact with some of the great minds in social media at the Social Media Marketing Strategies Conference. Some of the big names included keynote speakers MC Hammer and Ian Schafer, as well as Rohit Bhargava [Digital Strategy & Marketing, Ogilvy], Michael Bissell [President, Conquent ], Jun Loayza [President, SocialMediaMarketing.com], Brian Solis [Principal, PR2.0 & FutureWorks], and Shiv Singh [VP & Global Social Media Lead, Razorfish]. From the event I was able to learn about the direction of social media and more importantly, the growing role it will play in a companies success. (more…)
Your Career And Social Voyeurism
When you apply for a job, one of the first things that employers will do is take a look at your resume. Traditionally, this along with a face to face interviews were the steps to getting a job. With the ability to now get information within seconds, traditional steps to getting a job are being substituted by other methods. What it says on paper is no longer enough information for employers. With information becoming easier to gather, employers want to get as much information as they can on possible candidates. Using sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, employers can now find out when you first started a job, who you know, as well as other information you may not want them to know like where you went last night or that ‘one crazy night’ during college.
Mind If I Stalk You?
Launched in early 2004, Facebook is now the 3rd most visited website according to Compete.com and has not only helped users reconnect with old friends and make new ones, but sparked a new culture that can be described as “social voyeurism.” Another word that I have heard used to describe it is “social network stalking.” While many argue that it is unfair for employers to use your Facebook account as basis for being qualified for a job, what people need to realize is that whatever you put online becomes part of the world wide web. Privacy is a myth. No matter how much privacy you put on your Facebook account, there are ways for employers to get that information. From companies having current employees already in your network to ‘dummy’ accounts that friend potential candidates, for one to believe their Facebook accounts are private is wrong.
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Help! Technology Stole My Childhood
Whether it’s texting a friend or downloading the newest song off iTunes, being a kid has changed drastically. Gone are the days of waking up for Saturday morning cartoons and in are chatrooms and spending hours watching YouTube. It can be argued that technology has made our lives easier and enables us to accomplish more, but to say that technology has improved life all around is far fetched.
Do you remember when you would wake up Saturday mornings and watch The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or go over to your friends house for a sleep over and get excited when you could stay up past your bedtime? You may not remember all the details, but you do remember how much fun it was to be a kid. As a kid you worried about when you would lose your next tooth and whether you would get the ‘nice’ teacher at school. Nowadays, kids have different priorities and different agendas.
To give you an idea of what kids know and do now, I asked some 11 year olds the other day if they knew what “Monopoly” and “Jenga” was to which they responded no. When asked if he knew who Britney Spears and 50 Cent were, they knew immediately. 11 year olds don’t know popular board games, but do know pop sex idol, Britney Spears, and rapper 50 Cent. Do you see something wrong here? Kids are growing up too fast and technology has a huge part in this.
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The Hour The [Social] World Stood Still
For some, in a matter of moments, the words plastered across the screen as shown above meant the world was at a stand still. For the hundreds and thousands of Facebook ‘followers’ and ’stalkers,’ site maintenance of the Facebook site means trying to find something else to do while tirelessly refreshing the Facebook page in hopes that Facebook is able to finish fixing there site after only 2 minutes.
Today after speaking to a some friends, I realized just how attached some people are to Facebook. Facebook has become not only a social phenomenon, but also a cultural one.
For college students, Facebook has become a class in itself. Spending countless hours looking at friends photos and there updates has become a daily activity. Finding out something about that girl in your Chemistry class that you’ve been dying to talk to has never been easier. When asking my friends what they are doing, “facebooking” is a common response.
It is easy to see why when Facebook closes its site for maintenance, users all around the world feel lost for the few hours it is down. When you look at what Facebook has done, they have assimilated themselves into peoples lives by making life easier.
How is life easier?
No, Facebook cannot do your dishes or clean your room, but Facebook can help you stay connected with friends, co-workers, and help you network. Facebook can notify you of events, sell or buy items from the “Facebook marketplace” and even help you remember your friend’s birthday.
The social world is dominated by sites just like Facebook. The melding of these social ‘tools’ into people’s everyday lives has not only made using these sites daily tasks but in some extreme cases, necessary.
