Is something going on with Facebook?
Naw, I'm just kidding. I read the news reports: apparently, one can now own a piece of the third largest nation in the world, Facebookistan, for $38...no, wait: $40...no, wait: $42.50...no, wait: $47.33...well, you get the idea.
No matter, when you stop about and think about it you have to be in awe of an idea that can rise from the brains of nerds in a dorm room (albeit a Harvard dorm room) to the largest public stock offering in the history of tech stocks. Not bad for an idea concieved as a way to meet chicks online.
So, okay, clearly it's Facebook week along the InterWebs (and everywhere else) and Facebook DAY in the financial markets (NY Times and Reuters are both living blogging & video...actual FB trading to begin at 11 a.m. EDT).
The good news is this has everyone talking about social media. The bad news is most of the conversation centers around advertising, selling ads on social media platforms.
That's all well and good - gotta pay the bills somehow and advertising makes the commercial world go around - but the essence, the very core of social media remains conversation and community building.
But we can't seem to talk about social media this week without talking about advertising on social media so here's an interesting little diddy from Business Insider as reported by Wordstream: advertising reach on Facebook doesn't come close to advertising reach on...oh, well...let's say Google.
Step up to the window, folks, time to place your bets. It's almost post time!
Facebook is expected to set its final price for a share of stock late Thursday, expected to be between $34 and $38 per share, maybe higher, according to some sources.
But, wait, amid all the ongoing and building ga-ga around the Facebook IPO, the media's amazing fascination with the shiny object came this news two days ago: General Motors will pull its $10 million Facebook advertising budget.
Wait...what? General Motors was spending $10 million on Facebook ads? Facebook ads? Really? Why?
Seriously, what possible benefit could General Motors derive from buying Facebook ads? (Aside, maybe, from a little brand building...but $10 million worth?)
See, here's a little problem with social media: we tend to get all excited over the new tools and forget how they might best be used. A brand new power drill comes along and we all go Tim Allen on its ass and, well, drill holes which leave us only with drilled holes.
Perhaps you've read about it, the newest social platform to make the increasingly crowded social scene.
But Wander seems to be, well, wandering around the InterWebs looking to land in about a month.
Those who sought early admission to this newest social platform have begun receiving tease emails, with an invitation to post a photo of some spot around the globe they'd rather be.
What is Wander, exactly, you ask? Good question. The answer is: no one really knows. Wander co-founder Jeremy Fisher says the new social platform will be a way to see the world through others' eyes and adds it will be a combination of Tumblr, Pinterest, Yelp, Tripadvisor and Foursquare.
Okay, clear as mud so far. Let's wait and see what emerges. It is blessed, so far, with tantalizing photos, dreams of escape and more than a touch of clever about it. And I can tell you this much, too: I followed instructions, posted about a place I'd like to be and what I'd like to be doing there, duly Tweeted that new Wander post...and...immediately drew some retweets and conversation. Interesting, indeed.
NOTE: Wander seems to want one's physical location when one signs in. Good luck with that on this ancient laptop!!
Pssst...you...yea, you! C'mere...have I got a deal for you.
See that" Your most recent Facebook post? Yea, the one about your Aunt Lucille and her new boy toy? Yea, that one. If you have an extra $2 Facebook will give it some extra algorithm love and send it way higher on the visibility meter.
That's right, Facebook is testing in New Zealand an extra little deal where you pay Facebook $2 per post and it will boost your post's visility and rank.
Not interested? No? Well, maybe you are if you're a business trying to push a particular message to Facebookistan or you have a special promotion to push to your Facebook fans.
"Step right up, folks...for a measly two dollahs, I can get you discovered on the Facebook thingy."
Lord only knows what might happen if this catches on. Look out Aunt Lucille! You were warned.
Still think social media won't play a major role in health care in the future?
Let's get a second opinion: health care organizations - hospitals, doctors - will be required by 2015 to include social media in normal, day-to-day operations if they are going to continue to recieve Medicare payments.
The requirement is part of the mandated move to electronic health records, part of the overall health care reform effort that will reduce costs and create better outcomes.
Hospitals and doctors - accountable care organizations - will need to entice or encourage patients to use social media if they are to qualify for Medicare payment incentives. Penalties will actually go into effect by 2015 if health care organizations have not tried to encourage patients to use social media to access electronic health records.
Jennifer Dennard, Social Marketing Director for Atlanta-based Billian's HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com, writes in Health Care Collective the second stage of the overall converstion to electronic health records requires docs and hospitals to promote patient involvment in electronic portals for medical data.
"It’s a marketing concept not unlike that used in traditional consumer areas," Dennard writes. "Connect with consumers online, establish trust and credibility with those fans/followers, and then make them evangelists for your product. Eventually, their fans, followers and family members will also become your customers."
We really shouldn't be surprised the biggest debate among social spacekateers these days comes down to: words vs. pictures.
Are words more engaging in the social spaces or do pix & videos attract the most attention and drive the conversation?
Ever since Gutenberg first smashed ink into paper in the 15th Century and some monk came along and said, "hey, that would be prettier with this vegetable stain sketch," the debate has raged: words vs. pictures. Colored ink only made the debate more intense. Jump to the 20th Century when moving pictures became the rage; spoken words of the radio seemed to render the printed word obsolete and, shortly thereafter, moving pictures on a little box in a family's living room rendered the radio old-fashioned. Lord knows, USAToday came along and turned the newspaper world upside down with short stories, lots o' photos and brightly-colored shiny objects.
Birgit Pauli-Haack, Relevanza co-founder, and Darius Joseph, members of the Small Business Resourece Network, will co-present this summer a series on using social media in business.
The Small Business Resource Network is part of the Small Business Development Center at Florida Gulf Coast University.
The three sessions will offer detailed guidance and advice for small businesses just now getting into the many layers and opportunities in the social media space.
The short version is:
June 21, 2012...Topic: It All Begins with the Blog
July 19, 2012...Topic: Facebook for Business.
August 16, 2012...Topic: LinkedIn and Google+ Pages.
Presentations and Q & A will be posted after each event on this blog.
To register for SBRN events please see the website: http://swfl-sbrn.posterous.com for announcements.
Celebrating Small Business Week, SBRN will also sell ticket to all 3 events for a special price at the SBRN Tradeshow: Thursday, May 17, 2012 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm, Hilton Garden Inn - Airport,16410 Corporate Commerce Way,Fort Myers, FL 33913. No cost, please RSVP
Take a look at this video. It’s astonishing. It reads the RSS feed of our blog and converts it to voice, uses the graphic that we used for illustration to create a visual collage accompanying the text. The music was selected when we created it. Video here:
The Wibbitz team has found a great way to hide the complexity of their innovation behind an easy- to-use interface for the video. After a few clicks you are provided with a copy/paste embed code you can use on your website. For now, this service is in beta and provides a limited feature set for publishers. If you are a publisher and, let’s face it, any website owner has to think nowadays as a publisher, creating a video makes your news even more interesting.
See and read more at our Social Media Technology blog on Tumblr.
Curation...curation...curation.
Just as the social media universe seems on a never-ending path of expansion so, it seems, one of Mr. Newton's laws is also continually at play with the effort to also contract. Put all my sources in one spot, reduce my experience down to a single URL or dashboard or app.
And so it goes.
Curations sites are all the rage, these days. What with Wavii hitting the universe, Prismatic and others. Circa is not far behind.
In an effort to stay relevant, Storify announced earlier this week a new way to post entire Twitter conversations - at least for the "cool kids" crowd sipping the iPhone, iPad Kool-Aid, by teaming up with Tweetbot.
"Fantastic conversations happen all the time on Twitter," says Storify co-founder and CEO Xavier Damman. "But no one sees them unless they happen to be following both people involved and be on Twitter at that time. Now, thanks to the best Twitter client for the iPhone and iPad, you can capture and share those conversations with Storify."
Or...you can see Twitter conversations the old-fashioned way: "search" or hashtag. Just sayin'
These companies and the folks who run them care about creativity in business and a spirit of enterprise. That's why they're willing to give time, talent and treasure to supprt and promote the Distinguished Entrepreneur of 2012 project and banquet. Read more about here...or, simply, scroll down this page.
