Technology, Community, Relevancy: The 3 Social Pillars

Why do some social sites thrive while others fail? Why do you find some networks have you dedicating hours every day to participate, while others couldn't get you to raise an eyebrow? And why don't your friends see with you eye to eye on what the best services are, even after you've told them about your favorites time and again? The more I am exposed to new sites and social services, it becomes clear to me that there are three core elements that need to be solved to deliver a killer social service - and falling short in just one can mean rapid closure. Meanwhile, even if all three of these core elements are solved for one person doesn't mean they are solved for everyone.

These three core elements? Technology, community and relevancy.
(Though not always in that order)

Technology

Social service users want to have a flexible array of features that let them accomplish the task at hand quickly, without the user interface getting in the way. Members of social sites want the reassurance that they are working with a leading network that provides high quality tools, keeping pace with industry developments, and not growing stale with age.

If sites do not utilize current technology, not even the most ardent fans can expect to keep loyal, especially as they are reminded of alternative functionality through their ventures on the Web. In this case, solving for a strong community, even with good relevancy, is not enough.

Community

Community can be measured in terms of both quantity and perceived quality. Only the rarest of early adopters wants to participate in a social network that doesn't have any members. Without debating what came first, the chicken or the egg, successful social networks require an active community that will deliver a regular stream of updates - keeping the service fresh and vibrant. On other occasions, visitors to a social site will find the existing community does not meet their needs, as they may have little in common.

Even the most targeted sites with top technology can fail without an evangelizing community to keep it alive. And one man's perfect community is another man's "mob", so just because it works for you doesn't guarantee runaway success.

Relevancy

While most of the talk around social services focuses either on technology or how to grow communities and customers, simple relevancy cannot be overlooked. The most "sticky" communities are those that center around a specific topic or group, no matter how esoteric. From the mommyblogger movement to sports or automobile discussions, being on topic is a must for growing a network.

Without the site's content or community being relevant to potential new users, they would not be likely to want to engage, barring the often misguided belief that the individual could "drag" along a critical mass of friends or followers to have serious impact on the topics being discussed.

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When sites hit a two out of the three pillars, it is little better than only focusing on one of the pillars. There are precious few social services that can gain significant traction for the masses, without needing to target specific communities or derive a specific niche relevancy. And we have seen way too many sites have an interesting group of engaged people, only for the technology to look near abandonment, taking the form of a 90s-era social bulletin board or forum.

While Facebook and Twitter have much of the minds' eyes out there right now, there are many other social networks that are seeing strong engagement, tucked away due to their niche focuses. From the team of blogs at SportsBlogsNation and their resulting communities to small business sites like Ecademy, communities are building with relevancy, and some strong technology - helping them to be survivors in a world littered with failures.

I am looking at a lot of social networks these days. I am seeing frantic e-mails from slowing and dying communities asking what is next. There are some new ones I am quite fond of - but they are usually ones that solve for 2 of these 3 issues, requiring some serious help to take them to the next level. If you are manufacturing a social site, or even if you are just a frequent user, think about these three pillars: Technology, Community, Relevancy. Is the site meeting those needs, or is it falling short?

Inefficiency of Interaction Driving Need for Social Leverage

"It is a complete joke how we interact with people on the computer right now," believes Brad Feld of the Foundry Group. With multiple devices and scads of Web services needed to consume information and engage with others on the Web effectively, Feld and other venture capitalists are looking for ways to fund the next generation of companies and products designed to leverage social connections, reducing information overload and enabling simpler collaboration in the enterprise. In a keynote panel at the Defrag conference last week, five venture capitalists explained how they thought they could help companies take advantage of social experiences that are being forged, which, if successful, could supplant the way we discover information today.

Today's Web is one that is largely search driven, leading to Google's position as both king and king maker. But Union Square Ventures VC and principal Fred Wilson said that much of the information we discover and the links we click on are coming through social experiences, instead of from search or navigation. Taking advantage of this activity woul be a logical extension for companies, and therefore, for VCs looking to enable it to happen.

Roger Ehrenberg of IA Capital Partners, whose fund is behind BlogTalkRadio, Mashery, TweetDeck, Bit.ly and many other services, said that despite advances, the Web continues to have a problem of finding relevant information, and identifying people who would be potential connections. Social leverage should enable you to tap into the knowledge of your peers to bring the information to you, at your own pace.

"It's an opt-in world, and you can let people in as they deliver information," Ehrenberg said. "When you look at all this information you are receiving, you need to build in filtering."

As I have often stated, I believe "there is no information overload", or at least, there can't be without your explicit permissions. Feld argued that the perception of information overload is due to individuals' approach to how they consume data, more so than an increase in total data.

"We are stuck with a rigid set of distribution models," Feld said. "You can be rigid or disciplined about one type of information, or you can let whatever comes at you come at you. The computer has to get a lot smarter about what to do with all that stuff, and it needs more adaptability. We are in an era over the next decade where there will be a fundamental shift."

Over the last 20 years, Fred Wilson has said he has already seen two major shifts in communication. In the 1980s, as he started in the venture capital business, events would lead to business cards, which led to hours on the phone chasing deals. The 90s brought e-mail and the ability to hit an estimated 10 times as many people. Blogging then let him reach more than 10,000 people a day, which he called "a different interaction model."

"I still see the deals I want to see and I can see better deals because of it," he said. "E-mail is a heavy interaction model, which is a lot of work, but a blog post is easy for me... I don't even use the phone any more."

Feld and Wilson have found ways to adapt to the changing dynamic to continue their efforts in business, but with so many others feeling an information onslaught, lacking proper filters to reduce the noise, this too sets up the potential for new solutions and new services.

"The biggest opportunity is the opportunity in the enterprise for social leverage," said Jim Tybur of Trinity Ventures, "There are tons of opportunities for that to permeate throughout business. There is a place where e-mail and social streams can coexist effectively."

Social Networks' Traffic Stabilizes, Facebook Nears Yahoo!

Facebook Up Slightly, MySpace and Twitter Flat to Down
Despite November being nearly half over, the monthly traffic statistics from October have just been released by Compete.com, and it looks like there are no major surprises in the social networking arena. Despite the recent improvements and continued hype, traffic to Twitter.com decreased slightly, by 2 percent, month over month, tracking at the level it saw in June of this year, and lower than the previous three months. Facebook, the #3 site overall worldwide, behind only Yahoo! and Google, climbed more than 3 percent, to almost 129 million, while MySpace stayed steady around 50 million unique visitors (15th overall).


FriendFeed and Posterous Decline - While Twine Plunges
Where one saw more movement was in the lower tiers, as FriendFeed continued its descent following the Facebook acquisition, shedding nearly 7 percent of visitors, dropping below the 700k mark, from a one-time peak above 1 million, and Posterous dropped more than 12 percent, showing just under 1.2 million visitors. Twine, which once peaked above 2 million, is now just over 120,000.


Yahoo!'s Slow Decline Comes as Facebook Rises Toward the #2 Spot
Facebook's slow but steady growth actually has them looking less in the rear view mirror, toward companies like Twitter (who scored 23 million uniques vs. Facebook's 129 million) and more at the big gun right ahead of them - Yahoo!, which continued its slow descent, dropping just over 1 percent, to 135 million unique visitors. In fact, one more month with the same trajectory would have both networks tied at about 133 million visitors, so we could see a change in placement come November.


Google's Position at #1 Remains Unchallenged (Shown With YouTube)
Unsurprisingly, Google reported in at #1, again, counting almost 150 million unique visitors in the month, according to Compete (which in my opinion is probably low). In addition, the company's YouTube subsidiary tracked just under 85 million unique visitors, good enough for the #5 position worldwide on its own. GMail continued its climb to another 9.3 million visitors, up 98% from this point last year.

Surprisingly, GMail's position is more than 3 times higher than that of Hotmail.com, which has even been surpassed by Apple's Me.com MobileMe e-mail offering. Me.com sported 3.5 million visitors, growing 98% year over year, contrasted with Hotmail's 2.5 million, which decreased 7 percent, according to Compete.


LinkedIn Stays Hot - See Versus Twitter
Interestingly, during the recession, with high unemployment, LinkedIn.com traffic increased 3.3 percent in the month to 15.5 million unique visitors, up 89% on the year. Monster.com, the massive job site, tracked in with 41.5 million unique visitors, good for #20 in the world, up 47% on the year.

Some other sites of note:

• Apple.com traffic tracked at 21.4 million, compared to 15.5 million for hp.com and 13.4 million for Dell.com.
  
• Digg.com traffic decreased less than 1 percent, up 57% on the year, good for 43 million uniques.
  
• Technorati.com traffic was flat, with only 2.8 million unique visitors.

Disclaimer: Compete statistics are known to be imperfect, but they are always interesting.

Attacking the Web's Beverly Hills and Schenectady Problem

Not too long ago, every new site you joined on the Web forced you to provide a daunting array of details about you in order to join. Full pages of pull-down menus asking about your date of birth, your marital status, your home address and other information was standard. But over the last few years, with advents such as OpenID, OpenSocial, Facebook Connect, and more recently, Twitter OAuth, personal identities are becoming portable - letting you sign in with a dedicated login to a new site, and reducing your need to store yet another password.

Kevin Marks, vice president of Web services at BT, formerly of Google and Technorati, relayed at the Defrag Conference this afternoon that under the old way, companies, after accumulating a high number of users, would often find they had an extremely high number of users responding they lived in either Beverly Hills or Schenectady, New York. Why? Because they were saying their zip codes were either 90210 or 12345. They were lying - sick of answering page after page of personal data for yet another Web site.

In the years since, thanks to efforts like OpenSocial, we have seen the rise of Web standards that interoperate, letting you pass along your personal information and credentials to new sites without having to create yet another user name and password.

"Over the last two years, we worked out the sanitization of protocols, so it could fetch things from one site to another," Marks said. "In that time, OpenSocial is up to 1 billion users. There are sites all over the world who are using this."

Marks broke down the solution to the real identity problem into four pieces:

• Me
  
• My Friends
  
• What We Do
  
• The Flow

Tools like OpenID and WebFinger solve for "Me", Portable contacts, through the unification of the Vcard specification, solve for "My Friends", activity streams solve for "What We Do", and new protocols like AtomPub, PubSubHubbub and Salmon are solving the "Flow". As you know, I have been a big proponent of tools like PubSubHubbub, Salmon and tools like Facebook Connect and Twitter OAuth, as they not only pass along data between sites, but also make data pass between sites more quickly. And while they are causing what could be considered a revolution, it is happening through the simple evolution of activity that is already happening.

"All these standards are empirical standards," Marks said. "We first did this with microformats. We asked what people are doing already, and agreed we would do the same thing."

Now, if you do tell companies you live in Beverly HIlls or Schenectady, New York, there's a greater chance that you really do, and maybe we'll believe you.

Video: Trends and the Future of Social Networks (With TurnHere)

Morgan Brown of TurnHere and I sit down to chat about social networks, business and trends. All three videos were recorded earlier this summer.

Video: Leveraging Social Networks to Build Web Traffic

Courtesy of YourBusinessChannel, filmed while in the UK with Ecademy, some of my comments on how being active in social networking can aid business and Web sites' search engine visibility. (Apologies for looking and sounding tired. I was.)

I Don't Want To Hear About Distributed Conversations Any More

This morning, Google introduced a feature called SideWiki for Google Toolbar users that lets people add comments and annotations to Web sites. This is not a new approach, and it has been tried with varying lacks of success in the past, as most people without an agenda don't want to spend time marking up third party Web pages. But as predictable as rain, we again see people railing that there is potential for this service to take even more control away from bloggers and site administrators in terms of how their content is positioned, or where the conversations should take place.

Led by Jeff Jarvis, who simply said "Danger" and echoed by others, including Steven Hodson of the Inquisitr, who called it "a bad idea - very bad", the same stories I thought we had beaten into the ground almost 18 months ago in the Shyftr debacle are coming back - even after more than a year of a greater level of distributed conversations, as comments are now strewn all over the Web - not centralized on the originating blog.

Jarvis says: "Google is trying to take interactivity away from the source and centralize it," and adds "It takes comments away from my blog and puts them on Google. That sets up Google in channel conflict vs me. It robs my site of much of its value."

In parallel, Hodson says: " Sidewiki is nothing short of an attempt by Google to take control of the conversations that happen on blogs... It takes away one of the most important parts of a blog – the conversation – and locks it on the Google."

Here we go again.

Let's stop kidding ourselves. The battle for control over conversations and the silo of discussions is done. Any blogger who believes that they can control the conversations and prevent discussions in far-flung social networks is deluding themselves. And yet, every few months, a new innovation, be it comments in Google Reader, or something like this, freaks the old guard out.

Jeff and Steven's comments are mirrored by Josh Schnell, who in a guest post for Tamar Weinberg on Techipedia cries out that Content Aggregators are Killing Content Creators.

Here's the reality: Conversations have moved to where the reader wants them to be - and the best content creators shouldn't care if they get to have conversations on their content in any of these networks. The best content creators and the best Web brands shouldn't care about what people may say on their SideWiki, any more than they should panic over reviews that happen on Amazon's Marketplace or in the iTunes store. People are entitled to their opinions and their commentary, and any further efforts to try and force people to have these conversations in a single place should be extinguished.

In April of 2008, I once asked, "Should Fractured Feed Reader Comments Raise Blog Owners' Ire?" and apparently, some people continue to be ticked. But we need to evolve. That's why there are new services like Echo, who famously declared the death of comments and the new version of Disqus, which also aims to pull in reactions in real-time.

Mark Hopkins of the SiliconAngle sees beyond the scare tactics and recognizes that SideWiki is much more and not just about "stealing conversations". He says:

"The fact is that in the golden age of the social web, conversations will spring up more and more places outside your silo, with or without you. You can work to leverage them or you can get upset."

Congratulations, Mark, I'm proud of you. Now, it would be fantastic if more people would evolve and move forward instead of crying foul about the way it used to be.

Find Similar People and Interests With Simler's Microblogging Platform

One of the most challenging issues with today's social networks is rapidly finding people who share the same interests. As you migrate from network to network, you can find commonalities between platforms, but the most likely route taken to gain a base of connections is an import of your friends from a different network, forcefully pulling them with you - even if they are not interested in the same things you are. A new invite-only network called Simler is trying to solve that issue by connecting people with the same interests - resulting in a fast-moving stream containing conversations on topics you like and enabling you to find people you may soon like, with many features you've grown accustomed to on other networks, from FriendFeed and Twitter to Google Groups and old-school discussion boards.


Simler Connects You Based On Your Tags to Conversations
At the core of Simler is the service's reliance on tags, which help to organize discussions. For example, you can start conversations on basics, such as Apple, "Spotify" and "Baseball", or branch out to other popular topics, including "Grammar Nazis" or discussions around TV shows like "Mad Men" or "Arrested Development".


As You Add Friends, Simler Recommends New Possible Connections
Posting new entries to Simler is a lot like starting a new tweet in Twitter or a native entry in FriendFeed. It doesn't contain photos, but also doesn't stop you at a mere 140 characters. The entry, like in FriendFeed, can be responded to in line, and active conversations pop to the top of your Simler. It's likely that those active in the conversation will be similar "or Simler" to you, and you can see, by clicking through their profile, if you share the same tags of interest. The more shared tags, the more likely you are to find value and get connected.


One Active Conversation on Simler With Multiple Comments
You can make comments on any Simler conversation, even if you haven't selected that topic as one of your tags. You can browse the tag directory alphabetically, or find the most popular discussions, and get started. And once you make a comment or make a new post, you will get notified on the site, or by e-mail, letting you know if anybody else added a comment and extended the thread.


Two Simler Posts In the "Apple" Forum

Some of the More Active Tags In Simler
Simler, featuring much talent from Portland, Oregon, was just recently discovered (and covered) by Silicon Florist's Rick Turoczy, also found Simler moved the needle forward, making the site more about the subjects of the conversations than on the people themselves. He says, jokingly, I hope, "I mean, if we didn’t want interactions, we’d all just start blogs."


Notices From Simler Come In Through the Site Or On E-mail
Talking about things with friends is fun. Talking about topics you are interested in is more fun. SImler hopes that its network can enable you to discover new friends via shared interests. It will take some time for the site to grow en mass for this to happen, but it is extremely easy to use, and just makes sense. It has some good polish, and despite some slowness, the site works as advertised.

As for getting in yourself, each new Simler account comes with 10 invitations. Half mine are gone already, so I have five left. It would be fantastic if you would openly share your own invites in the comments here and get people into the site. Once you do, you can find me here: http://simler.com/user/louisgray/

This September, I'm Headed to London to Speak With Ecademy

If you promise not to tell anyone, I'll let you in on a little secret. I've never been outside North America. Despite having lived three years in Guadalajara, Mexico at a very young age, the rest of my life has been spent locked up in the United States. I've never even been to Canada. I haven't gone to Europe, to Asia, Africa, Australia... you name it. Traveling has never been my thing. But this year, at least one of those will be crossed off the list, for I'm headed to London in September to talk to a room full of professionals looking to learn more about blogging, social media, and how to take on the new world or real-time information flow. A guest of Ecademy, and its founder, Thomas Power and his wife, Penny, a full day's agenda is set to take place on September 17th, which I am really looking forward to - even more so than flying East over the Atlantic Ocean.

In the last few years, I've gotten to know Thomas a bit through seeing him on the social networks, primarily including FriendFeed, Twitter and Facebook, in that order. But in parallel, Thomas has developed his own business-oriented social network, called Ecademy, which, if his own connections are any indication, is more than 50,000 strong.


Thomas Power and the "Law of Big Numbers"
Thomas, who recently put up an interesting video on YouTube showing why he chooses Quantity over Quality, has made some choices when it comes to Ecademy. There are a tremendous amount of options for connections, messaging, direct blog posting to the site, but yes, it's not the most polished and doesn't have a glitzy Web 2.0 look. But the network is full of fervor, of people who are eager to learn - as I have especially found once he introduced me, and I gained more than 8,000 contacts in the space of two weeks.


My Ecademy Profile: Connected, But Raw
A small subset of these connections are going to meet with me on September 17th to start with the basics and then race through what should be a jam-packed day. If you are in London and would like to attend, you can find the event here:

http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=meeting&mid=28677
(Disclaimer: Thomas' description of me is very positive - and I didn't write my bio)

The full agenda for September 17th (GMT) is below.

9.30am Registration and Networking

10.00am - 12.00pm Morning Program

• Harnessing the new world of real-time
• How to use RSS Feeds, Google Reader, Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook and Socialmedian

12.00 - 2.00pm Lunch and Networking

2.00pm - 5.00pm Afternoon Program

• Participating and Broadcasting
• Blogging
• Microblogging
• Social Aggregation
• Best Practices
• Tips and Tricks
• Using these tools for business
• Keeping your business and personal identities separate
• What is oversharing?
• Quality over quantity

I am looking forward to the opportunity. If you are interested in my speaking on these topics, or any close to it, for your group, you know how to reach me. If the opportunity is incredible enough, like Ecademy, I'll travel the world to be there.

10 People To Follow On FriendFeed For The Month Of July 2009

By Mike Fruchter of MichaelFruchter.com (Twitter/FriendFeed)

This is the eleventh edition of the monthly FriendFeed to follow member list. Louis Gray has done a superb job covering for me for the past three months, and has kept the tradition alive. That's one of the reasons I naturally invited Louis to partner with me on it many months ago, and to keep the list going on his blog instead of mine. While I have been a FriendFeed evangelist since the day I joined, Louis is an even a bigger one. This list is intended for new members of FriendFeed as well as veterans, as a guideline to follow unique and contributing members of the FriendFeed community. It's these people and the ones previously highlighted that you can find below who truly make FriendFeed what it is, a vibrant social community.

Previous FriendFeed members to follow lists can be found for the 2008 months of, July, September, November and December. You can find the 2009 follow lists for the months of, January, February, March, April, May, June.

1) Amani

Short Bio: Amani is currently the Director of Sales & Marketing at Marina del Rey Marriott in Marina del Rey, California. With over 12 years of hands on experience and industry expertise in hospitality, sales, marketing, e-commerce, web 2.0, blogging, micro-blogging, technology and social media, he can propel any company to the next level. He is currently seeking a Director of Social Media/Online Community Manager role, any companies hiring?
FriendFeed: Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog

2) Bruce Lewis

Short Bio: Bruce is a Boston resident and software developer. He has been playing with code since his MIT days going back to 1997, possible earlier, but thats all I could track down in research. He is also the creator of the hybrid blogging/photo-sharing site OurDoings.com, a site I gave a glowing review to back in January. Bruce will be speaking about OurDoings at the upcoming Boston Lisp Meeting on July 27, 2009.

FriendFeed: Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog

3) Jason Pollock

Short Bio: Jason is a filmmaker, writer, and activist who currently lives in my old hometown of Brooklyn, NY. I first came across Jason on Twitter or FriendFeed, and shortly thereafter discovered his story. Jason is the definition of grass roots marketing, he is using Twitter to spread awareness about his current film The Youngest Candidate with the hopes of getting the film picked up and distributed, something I'm confident will happen any day now. He is a key influencer on Twitter with close to 60,000 followers. He also adds a significant amount of value on Twitter by re-tweeting informative and resourceful links. Jason extends himself to quite a few social platforms, but always makes time for Friendfeed.

FriendFeed: Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog

4) Jeff Douglass

Short Bio: Jeff is a Washington DC resident, who I believe spends quite a bit of time in Japan for work. I assume ths based on his feed. Jeff is a unique FriendFeeder, although a mysterious one as I could not locate hardly any bio info on him. Jeff would make a great double agent, he could already be working for the CIA and we just don't know it. All kidding aside, I have been following Jeff on FriendFeed I believe since I have been a member. He always shares interesting and useful content. I particularliy like the photos of the Japanese food he takes when in Japan. Who doesn't love Sushi?

FriendFeed: Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog (NA)

5) Jeff Henderson

Short Bio: Jeff is a Sr. Mechanical Engineer at KLA-Tencor who resides in San Jose, California. Jeff is also a semi-professional photographer. His feed is one that never gets boring. Where else on FriendFeed could you find a Matchstick Oil Rig? Jeff has some fantastic photographs on his blog linked below, but I would like to start seeing them shared more on FriendFeed!

FriendFeed: Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog

6) Michael Hocter

Short Bio: Michael is VP of Application Development at Countrywide Financial Corp in Los Angeles, California. I have been following Michael ever since I joined FriendFeed. Just like Jeff mentioned above, Michael is an avid photographer, he takes black and white photography to a new level. I think that if he could make money from it, it would be his first profession. Michael and his wife are also expecting a baby boy in November, congrats! We cant wait to start seeing baby pics on FriendFeed.

FriendFeed:Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog

7) Owen Greaves

Short Bio: Owen runs his own company, Owen Greaves Consulting. He resides in British Columbia, Canada. Owen has a passion for technology and uses it to his advantage when consulting with clients. With over 15 years in management and technology consulting, Mr. Greaves is an I.T. professional who is a jack of all trades. He blogs about technology and social media and its impact on businesses. He is passionate about what he does, something I admire and respect.

FriendFeed:Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog

8) LAG

Short Bio: LAG aka Lawrence ("Larry") Green is the Corporate Web Director at Landor Associates in San Francisco, California. LAG is a web developer and writer, he is also a jack of all trades when it comes to web development and web marketing. Creativity is LAG's middle name, the clients at Landor are privileged to have this guy working on their creative and digital strategies.

FriendFeed: Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog

9) Madhav Tripathi

Short Bio: Madhav is a college student residing in Ahmedabad, India. He also blogs about technology and social media at techshali.com. I don't know that Madhav ever sleeps, because as soon as I share content into FriendFeed, he is usually the first to like it. He has become a great filter to finding informative content on Friendfeed. He hasn't been blogging long, but he is consistent, and has the drive to blog every day, that's to be respected. I expect him for him to be a top tech blogger in India someday, keep with it!

FriendFeed: Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog

10) Wayne Sutton

Short Bio: Wayne is a social media rock star. The definition of social media in the dictionary is Wayne Sutton. Wayne is an active blogger, podcaster, and overall technology evangelist. Wayne has a respected following on all the social media networks, including Twitter with close to 27,000 followers. Wayne spends a tremendous amount of time involved with social media and community building. He attends numerous Tweet-ups and he blogs daily about new social media applications, and hosts a weekly podcast show with his partner in crime Kipp Bodnar. If you are not following Wayne, you are missing a lot, that I can guarantee.

FriendFeed:Subscribe | What they like | What they comment on | Blog

Read more by Mike Fruchter at MichaelFruchter.com.

Google Reader "Likes" Find the More Shy Blog Readers

Since Google Reader introduced new social aspects to their popular RSS reader last Wednesday, there have been a number of reactions to the additions - most specifically around their introduction of a "like" feature, enabling readers to essentially give a "thumbs up" to an article, as they can on FriendFeed, Facebook, Socialmedian and other networks. But those people who are claiming the exposed likes are cluttering the interface are missing the point completely. The likes functionality not only is a lightweight way to flag a story of interest, but it's a tremendous way to help blog authors and readers find others who may have been keeping a lower profile - those who don't also blog and link your way, and those who don't visit the site to leave comments.

Every single blog post that flows through Google Reader now has the option to be shared or liked. And if a post is liked by somebody, Google Reader shows how many people have liked it across the network. Clicking on the number, such as "4 people liked this" exposes who liked it and a quick mouse over any of the names presents you with a short summary from their Google Profile. So not only can I take pleasure in the fact that people I already know are reading and liking some of the same articles I am, but I am finding new people who share similar interests, and finally cracking the mystery of who actually reads my blog.

I didn't know Hannah read my blog!

Jeff's a local guy - sounds cool...

And Kris knows Digital Syndication and RSS! Awesome.
It's well known that a small percentage of content consumers take action on the content, aside from passively reading it. And as the social Web has evolved, the options to respond to posts have diversified. In the last few years specifically, we have seen a reduction in linking from blogs to other blogs, and a move away from comments on the initial site and more to aggregation services like FriendFeed and Facebook, or even away from comments altogether, instead to ReTweeting - essentially the act of forwarding links to your social connections on Twitter.


Google Reader Is Seeing a Boom In Connections Over the Last Week
The comment has also evolved to include sharing and liking. I act as an information filter to the hundreds of people who read my shared items blog and in turn hundreds of people's shared items blog come my way. And following FriendFeed's lead, as Rob Diana pointed out, the advent of likes makes flagging an article as simple as clicking the "like" option, a move Google Reader has now followed. This lightweight option means that the quiet multitude of readers who to date has not chosen to leave me a comment on the blog just might find a like more palatable - helping me learn who they are, and, assuming their Google Profile is complete, find out where else they are active.

If the argument against likes is simply an issue with the user interface, that's fine. UI is relatively "easy" to alter and improve. But if the argument is to eliminate this new way of interacting with content, then that is certainly a losing battle. You cannot force readers to do what you want them to on your terms, and the more flexible programs are in terms of letting content consumers take action, the more likely it is that more of them will. I am enjoying checking out the likes on my Google Reader items and finding new people I really should know better - even if they are shy.

Venture Capitalists, But In Text Form

On Monday night, during a blogger briefing, I struck up a conversation with Dave McClure (he being the Master of 500 Hats) around the process of blogging, and participating in those social networks where we have put our energy. And during this exchange I said something that I have long held as a driver for me, but hadn't yet quite articulated in this way - that as a blogger and technology enthusiast, be it for hardware gadgets, software or Web services, I sometimes take on the role of a venture capitalist, investing not my own money, as I have little, but instead, my focus, my words, and my time.

Venture capitalists are wooed constantly by companies looking to get off the ground, or to gain a push to the next level, be it greater visibility, higher market share, or profitability. And the VCs have to make a choice. Not having unlimited funds, they need to determine which companies, markets and individuals can get access to those dollars. The VCs, based on their own expertise, their analysis of the products' future, the potential market and the products' uniqueness, invest a percentage of their available portfolio, and then push to help make those investments a success - often helping to connect the founders with partners, customers, or providing guidance through board positions and personnel.

Similarly, whether as bloggers, social media participants or technology acquirers, we too are bombarded with choices. With limited funds ourselves, and limited hours in each day, and limited opportunity for attention, we have to make choices as to which products we will buy, which social networks we will embrace, and which companies' services we will use or cover. And while many bloggers aim to be as impartial as possible, keeping a journalistic line to avoid 'favorites', we all have a bias. And some of us wear our hearts on our sleeve, clearly choosing this route, as I told Dave, of being "venture capitalists in text form".

On Monday, Dave and I talked about the array of social networks vying for our time, and he told me that he had once tried to evenly split his time between a handful, but eventually focused on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. While not shutting off his data flow to other networks, he simply stopped using them, picking up his chips and moving elsewhere. Meanwhile, in my role more as an angel investor (in text form) than a late-stage investor, I am more willing to make more aggressive investments in a wider array of smaller services just getting off the ground. And I will make those investments of my time, not always because I think they are going to be the most popular products of all time, but because I see they have the potential to be the best - even if I know that this potential means my bet is of higher risk, for my chosen solutions have a higher chance of closing and washing my investment away.

If you have read this blog for long, you will know that there are some services I really believe in - ones that I have selected based on their merits, and ones that I choose to invest my own time in to use personally, and to cover often. And should they 'pop' and become successful, leaving my little realm and moving on to the larger stages, like we saw with Socialmedian and TweetDeck last year, I won't get rewarded monetarily in any way, but am rewarded to know that I had some impact, and that I saw a real return on the investment to see people and products I invested time in have their success come to fruition. It's likely the same reason that Mike Arrington, at TechCrunch's 4th birthday party, which I attended, highlighted the fact that many in the room had gone on to make a lot of money since debuting on his blog, more than he focused on his own success. Even if he didn't gain monetarily directly from their success, as a VC (in text form), he had a member of the family graduate.

Not every investment will be a winner. Some of the products I've really liked (on paper anyway) have already closed. Some have flatlined or not gained the momentum I had hoped they would. But just like in the world of VCs, it only takes a few home runs to make the whole thing profitable. I'll keep writing and you watch where I invest my time and my words.

Status Search: Updates from Your Social Graph on Facebook, Twitter

Status Search: http://www.statussearch.net/
We used to value a search engine by its sheer size. How many pages did Google or Yahoo! know about in their crawling of the Web, assuming that the engine with the largest number wins, offering a greater percentage of the Web's content in their database? But there is room for small too - helping you to find data from much more close-knit groups, like your connections on social networks. A new search engine called Status Search, in early beta, returns only results from friends' updates on Facebook and Twitter - the idea being, of course, that you are finding information from trusted sources, and therefore, potentially higher relevancy.

Status Search, created by Elad Meidar and Lior Levin, is not looking to be yet another real-time search engine in the ballpark of Twitter Search, OneRiot or Twazzup. Instead, it is just focused on friends' status updates. And this means that every single answer you get on their engine is from a connection you have made.

The initial product supports both Facebook and Twitter, but support for LinkedIn and MySpace connections, for starters, is also planned.


Status Search Results for "Movies" In My Networks

Status Search Results for "Sleep" In My Networks
Instead of leveraging the "real time" buzzword, Status Search hits another one - the "social graph". As is common with sites that are using social graphs at their center, the product helpfully suggests you look for things such as where to eat, what movies to see, what books to read, or even if there are parties.

Unsurprisingly, when I searched my connections, I didn't find too much on eating and drinking. I did get a few positive hits on movies that had just been watched, and I always found responses when looking for more techie items, like Google or Twitter.


Status Search Results for "Google" In My Networks
The results with Status Search are accurate, and personal. But as the site is just getting started, I found queries to be slow, and found responses from Twitter typically overwhelmed those from Facebook. It also isn't clear how often the updates are polled, or how far back their database goes, as I was surprised when some queries found no results or many fewer than I had anticipated.

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention that FriendFeed also lets me search my social graph, seeing more than just status updates, but also shares, blog posts and video, from just my friends. But Status Search isn't trying to pull in anything else but status updates, so they are laser focused. You can also set up alerts, so you get e-mailed every time a keyword is mentioned in your social graph. Alerts can be sent immediately, or daily, much like BackType, TweetBeep, and Google News Alerts.

To search what the world is saying on Twitter, Twitter Search is the right product. If you want to search what just your friends are saying over multiple social networks, Status Search could be a clearer, quieter, alternative.

Don't Tempt the Online Mob. They Come Bearing Pitchforks.

There's no need for me to recap Twitter's two-day flub as you've already seen it 40 different places. What's most interesting to me about the entire situation is the rapidity of how the user community turned on the service and its founders in response to what was a relatively minor change that was confusingly and sloppily addressed. The response, which loudly came from all corners, mirrored that of previous blowups, which have also included Facebook and Digg as victims - the first around its terms of service and Beacon, and the second, around its blocking of illegal series of numbers that could unlock DVD region codes. Even Google Reader faced a backlash last year from users who expected a different interpretation of what friends were and who could see what.

See also:

• May 2, 2007: Unpopular Opinion: Digg Revolt Is a Bad Precedent
• December 26, 2007: Google Reader Blinks, and the Mob Wins

Every single case dealt with a Web 2.0 service driven largely by user generated or selected content, where the mob was reacting to changes handed down unilaterally from a seeming all-knowing company, without first communicating potential changes, or accurately foreseeing downstream effects. And in most of the examples (Google Reader being practically the only exception), the service had already chipped into its balance of goodwill, leading to a strained relationship with a vocal minority of users, setting the stage for the much larger backlash that was to come.

Did the services that made mistakes and got roundly slammed deserve the punishment? If you ask the users, the answer is yes. In today's world, the online communities that have been built around these popular products have a sense of entitlement, not just to specific features, but that they will be made a part of the process, spoken with and not just spoken to. And if they feel they have been wronged or lied to, all hell can rain down on the company or the individual bearing the broken message.

To me personally, the change in @replies for Twitter was frustrating and annoying, but what ticked me off was more the way in which it was delivered. As with the company's previous comments about following many users being "disingenuous", this week's move seemed like they were once again telling us of a right way and a wrong way to use their product. That their blog post was backtracked upon and respun as a product issue and then a technical issue made us feel lied to, and the team, despite having what by all means is a very successful product, disappointed us again.

Here's the thing: Before I get slammed (again) for being a FriendFeed apologist and/or Twitter hater... the truth is not so black and white. I think Twitter is great for what it is supposed to do - send short messages and help broadcast information quickly. It is now a utility, like e-mail, and we're all assumed to be there. But I, and many others, continue to get frustrated when we see the system and its people fall short of what is an amazing potential. You can have hundreds of millions of users, but the experience itself is diminishing, and the management seems disconnected, in a way that makes them look like they are in love with the latest celebrities to sign up and less enamored with us rank and file who evangelized their product the last few years, pointing out both the good and the bad as it came.

Similar too are the stories of those previously stabbed by the mob. The Digg fanatics believe strongly in their ability to push favorite items forward, and potentially upset the balance of the new world media. Facebook, once deemed a safe place for friends and family to congregate online, found itself on the wrong side of privacy choices and business. Google Reader wrongly hoped that those you e-mailed in GMail would be fine to share your RSS favorites with. In each case, the users believed in the product, wanted it to succeed, but disagreed strongly with the latest moves, and they would not give up until their voices had been heard and made impact.

Designing new products and services, and adding new features to existing ones, is very difficult to do in public, especially when you are trying to walk the fine line of placating existing users while attracting new ones. Twitter, in a flash point of popularity, is especially vulnerable due to the fact their own product, as also are Digg and Facebook, could be used by users to fight back. Did Twitter or Facebook or Digg lose users permanently due to such heated battles? Probably not for long, but the scars do linger, and the trust factor that might once have been there is gone, or at least damaged enough that the mob will keep their torches at the ready, waiting for the next time they're needed.

The world of product development, on the backs of user content, is changing the way people expect to participate. And when they aren't treated as equals, or they are talked down to, people are taking it very seriously, and there are more platforms for conversation than ever, with more people to reach than ever, so any service who is in this space who expects to make even "small settings updates" should strongly think of their potential impact and be ready in case things start to go wrong - fast.

Inbound Marketing Summit Video: There Is No Information Overload

Think you are getting crushed by Information Overload? Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to present at the Inbound Marketing Summit, talking about how to find signal in the noise. Video is below.


Found courtesy of Justin Levy:
There Is No Information Overload - Louis Gray - Inbound Marketing Summit

Also, get the presentation from SlideShare:
There Is No Information Overload

Social Media Outposts: Maintenance

By Mike Fruchter of MichaelFruchter.com (Twitter/FriendFeed)

This is a continuation of last week's post regarding creating social media outposts. The first part was creating outposts or as I refer to them, tollbooths. The core objective is for organic search engine traffic, and reserving the brand's identity on the given social networks I have chosen. It's no secret anymore that social media optimization works and it works well with regards to search engines. In the previous post, I outlined my reasons for choosing the social media platforms, today I will delve into maintenance, which is basically updating the outposts.

Maintenance starts with automation:

Automation is key to making this work. My outpost task is for commercial use, so it's not a viable option for me to manually update all of these outposts. Some of the outposts will have to be manually updated, but the majority of them will be automated. I will be covering some of the tools and features for automation that I use in this post.

Blogger:

Since I will be using multiple Blogger.com accounts for this task, and updating the majority of these blogs at the same time, the solution is post by email. This works because the blogs I will be updating are going to be receiving the same content. This also works with Wordpress blogs.

I simply create a mail list with all the distribution blogs post to email addresses. Using Outlook or Gmail, I compose the blog content. The subject of your email letters will be the titles of your posts, and the body of the emails will be the posts themselves. To include an image in your post, you can attach an image to your email. You can also use plain text or HTML when composing your posts via email.

Twitter:

To send status updates to Twitter, I will be using TweetDeck. I prefer TweetDeck because of the ability to group my followers, and because nothing comes close to it, at least for a Windows client. TweetDeck also allows you to post status updates to Facebook. There is one drawback though, presently you can not use multiple Twitter accounts on TweetDeck. This is a major hurdle as I will need to be updating multiple Twitter accounts at the same time. Seesmic would be better off for this task because it supports multiple Twitter accounts and grouping. Both of these are desktop AIR apps and are memory hogs, so there are plenty of other solutions for posting to Twitter. Eventually the clients will be taking over these Twitter accounts and will have their own preferences on how to post to Twitter. Most of these clients are not too tech savvy, and in speaking with them, the majority of them are used to using a browser for everything. Using Twitter.com to post will probably be the road they take.

Facebook:

For updating the Facebook fan pages I will be using a few of the built in options as well as using a few applications. For my objectives, I'm only concerned with automation for videos, status updates and notes. There are a ton of Facebook applications you can use for customizing your Facebook fan pages. Read this Mashable post for a good starting point. Spend some time browsing the application directory for a full sampling of all the current Facebook applications.

Status updates:

There are a few Facebook applications that will do this using your Twitter account's RSS feed. One that I have been testing out is RSS Connect. You can also use ping.fm to update your fan pages too. There are a few other tricks to do this, but either one that I mentioned should be suffice.

Notes:

This will be done by using RSS. Simply add your blog's RSS feed, set it and forget it.

Importing video:

Videos for the fan page will be imported in from our YouTube channel. You can either upload them manually to your page or use YouTube Video Box or YouTube Box for automation.

Importing photos:

I do this manually, as I want to be selective on what photos I add to the fan page. I suspect there is probably an application for this. I also allow on the the fan pages for tagging and adding of photos by fans.

Create custom boxes:

With basic HTML knowledge you can use Static FBML to create custom boxes to cater to your fan page needs.

MySpace:

This outpost will be pretty much bare-bones. Its only purpose will be for branding and vanity url purposes. I will customize the layout, upload a few target videos, link back to my central hub, fill in some profile data and that's all. The application gallery is very weak. While there is an option to export blog postings made on Myspace, I did not find an application to import RSS feeds into Myspace. MySpace is the weakest link in my outpost strategy, again only being used as a branded outpost and that's all. Set this one and forget it.

YouTube:

YouTube will be used for the main video hub. All videos are uploaded to YouTube through YouTube.com first, then distributed to all the outposts. There are tools to create videos and upload them to YouTube directly, I prefer using their website to do this. With our YouTube channels, the first thing we did was customize our channels.

1. Log into your YouTube account. Click the yellow "Edit Channel" button.
2. Set up your channel information - website URL, profile picture (88x88) and description.
3. Within Channel Design scroll down to "Advanced Design Customization". Set background, link and border colors.

If you are looking to automate the YouTube upload process, a good site to use for this is TubeMogul.com. TubeMogul will allow you to send videos to YouTube as well as Viddler, Vimeo , and a whole slew of other video sites.

One tool that does it all is ping.fm:

You can use ping.fm to pretty much update all of your social networks. Ping.fm supports over 40 social networking platforms. I have tried it out in the past and it works pretty well. One word of advice is not to cross your streams. The last thing you want to do is have double or triple updates of the same message broadcasted across your social networks.

That's pretty much the tools of the trade that I recommend and or use for updating my outposts. I'm still pretty much old fashioned and prefer manually updating the majority of my content, but when it comes to bulk and that's what this project is, these tools, once set up, save a lot of time and effort. In the end, it's all about working smarter not harder.

The next post, part three, is not necessarily about outposts, but more on brand monitoring and a big part of that is monitoring the social media networks for brand mentions. Stay tuned...

Image by Rejar under Flickr CC

Read more by Mike Fruchter at MichaelFruchter.com.

FriendFeed Simplifies Joining Process from Twitter, Enhances Syncing

Twitter's rapid growth alongside increased adoption by public figures, celebrities and practically anyone who wants their message heard has not come in a vacuum. Many of the millions of tweets being sent each week are flowing downstream to various social networks, including Facebook and FriendFeed - both of which offer a more diverse content sharing set, including photos and video. But despite the expanded options by both networks, including the ability to "like" items and participate in threaded conversations, some Twitter users have balked - citing complexity. On Tuesday, FriendFeed took a major step to simplify the joining process for Twitter users, giving them a much-needed kick-start into what many people, including me, are using as their central nervous system for social activity.

Twitter users who are don't yet have FriendFeed accounts can head to www.friendfeed.com, and by leveraging Twitter's new adoption of OAuth to let third party applications connect with users while not demanding they turn over their password, can join FriendFeed almost instantly by clicking the Twitter icon. Once granted access, FriendFeed will automatically find all your Twitter contacts already using FriendFeed, and will import your Twitter profile and avatar - essentially replicating the personal elements of your Twitter account, but in a new place with more flexibility.


The New Joining Page Features a Twitter Icon

OAuth Connects Your Twitter to FriendFeed

Just Say Yes to Get Connected
Meanwhile, for existing FriendFeed users, their remains the option to find friends who are connected on other services, from Facebook, as has been in place since FriendFeed's debut, Twitter, Yahoo!, Hotmail and GMail, by using the "Find Your Friends" option.

A few months ago, when the company first introduced synchronization capabilities with Twitter, I had added more than 2,000 new contacts. But as both services have grown, I found more than 1,000 more of my new Twitter followers were already using FriendFeed, and I synched up again this evening, adding them to a group I call "Twitter Clone".


See Those Friends of Yours From Twitter on FriendFeed
As of this evening, of my 8,932 Twitter followers, 3,974 are using FriendFeed - good for about 45% of the total. I somewhat jokingly told the other nearly 5,000 that they are either bots or too stubborn to get on a site that has become a major hub for information discovery, sharing and discussion.


I Get All Synched Up
While it's fun to talk about who is going to buy who, or which service is going to kill the other, the fewer barriers that are there to help novice users transition between the two sites, the greater the adoption will be. FriendFeed is not naive enough to fight Twitter head on, but they are doing a solid effort to capitalize on the total growth of social media - of which they are playing an increasing role.

See also Zee's earlier coverage of the announcement on TheNextWeb:
With 1 click Friendfeed introduces the art of conversation to Twitter

Nombray Aims to Be Your Personal Brand's Central Web Presence

Many aggregation services take your personal content from the wide variety of social services where you are active, and put them all on their Web site - such as Socialmedian, FriendFeed and most recently, Facebook. Nombray, taking a different approach, looks to take all your data from those sites, and aggregate them on yours, essentially combining your blog, your resume, your LinkedIn, Twitter and other services in one location. And if you don't already have a Web site, they let you buy a new domain and get started. The result is a one-stop destination that features your content in tabs.

Upon signing up for Nombray, you are asked to import data from the major social Web sites. The service comes pre-loaded with Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter, for starters. And should you want to highlight a different site, just enter the URL, such as that to your blog, your Delicious bookmarks, your FriendFeed profile, etc. and it too can be added.


Adding different services through Nombray
The service is very flexible. Though I am not sure I want to replace my louisgray.com brand with something "Powered by Nombray", I liked the fact I could point these new tabs to the RSS feed from the service, or to the public page itself, offering visitors a clean look. And yes, you can of course select one of the many themes that are provided, to give your Nombray page a personal spin.


My Nombray Page - In the Blog Tab

My Nombray Page - In the FriendFeed Tab

My Nombray Page - In the Flickr Tab
Upon visiting the new Nombray site, you can navigate the different profile pages by clicking each tab, and Nombray promises the new site is extremely tailored for strong search engine optimization (SEO), helping you raise your presence in Google and other engines with the details you would like to show.

You can find my personal Nombray here: http://www.nombray.com/users/305

Lunch.com Opens Up, Connecting Similar People Through Reviews

Outside of Facebook and MySpace, a growing number of Web fanatics are getting social and sharing their likes and dislikes in a number of new networks - including Likaholix, which launched earlier this year, and the new Lunch.com, which emerged from beta this evening. Based on information you provide the network, Lunch.com connects users with similar interests, hoping you can find good content through peers - focusing primarily on rich reviews and a collection of facts, essentially taking the best of Yelp.com and Wikipedia.

When you open an account on Lunch.com, the site asks you for your spheres of interest (like Technology, TV and Music), and then prompts you to suggest favorites in each category, including TV shows, bands, albums and the like. Based on these entries, you then further refine your profile by rating suggested items on a -5 to +5 scale (higher being better). The more data you select, the more likely it is that you will find other Lunch.com users like you and therefore possibly discover content and helpful reviews.


Entering My Profile Data to Lunch.com

Saying What I Like More or Like Less
The site takes some elements of Delicious or MyBlogLog, letting you browse popular tags, and drill down into the rich content pushed into the service. Click through to Books and you will find popularly rated and reviewed items, as wella s related tags, like Nonfiction, Politics and Biography. Choose Electronics instead and you get the option to review popular items such as the iPhone 3G, MacBook Pro or Bose(R) Headphones.


Top Tags on Lunch.com
As you rack up activity on Lunch.com, you accumulate an ever-higher number of reviews and other users can rate your review as "Helpful", "Thought Provoking", "Fun to read" or "Well Organized". (See this iPhone review for one popular article.)


Lunch.com Updates Activity In Real Time
And like with most sites, you can connect and "follow" other users, which will become relevant as you determine how high your similarity score is. A higher similarity score, like on Toluu and other comparative products, is determined by the level of overlap you have. Interestingly, Lunch.com also not only shows top contributors by total activity, but also a "Recent Activity" feed that in real-time is updated as reviews flow in. One of the fastest-flowing items in the site is a feature called "ExhilaRATE", which lets you further refine your profile by rating items up or down, like the "Top Movies of 2008" or "Favorite Sportscasters.


One of My Reviews on Lunch.com
As usual, you can find my profile at the "louisgray" ID, here: http://www.lunch.com/louisgray. Maybe you'll even like my review of the BabyBjorn Infant Carrier." I said it was a must if you want to be mobile and carry your baby.

Creating Social Media Outposts

By Mike Fruchter of MichaelFruchter.com (Twitter/FriendFeed)


Roll-Your-Own Social Media Campaign: Outposts

I recently started a new job at a software company. One of my responsiblites is creating and launching an effective organic SEO & social media strategy for our customers. Our customer base deals primarily with the auto industry, not the keenest when it comes to marketing on the Internet, much less social web. The majority of our customers spend their advertising dollars on print, TV and radio ads. This strategy for the most part works well, as it's locally targeted to a geographical region.

My main objective with this task is primarily for search engine purposes only. Creating back links and outposts. Brand monitoring is also another objective. This is a roll-your-own strategy tailored for the three objectives I mentioned only. Educational training on social media comes later. These type of clients are salesmen who are on the sales floor all day long trying to move product, and often these clients will have an employee assigned to the Internet division, but that employee usually does not know the first thing about Internet marketing. Their sole task is updating online inventory and responding to Internet requests. These are the employees who will require ongoing training about Internet marketing and more specifically social media marketing, engagement and interaction. More on that on a future post, but lets get started.

Think of outposts as a sort of toll booth. This is the analogy I'm making here. It's pretty much the same in real life. On the Internet there are many toll booths for many destinations. You need to own and operate that toll booth, instead of your competitors.

1. Reserving and creating the brands name online, aka vanity urls.

The first step is creating accounts on the major social networking sites. All I'm concerned with at this point is Twitter , Facebook , MySpace , YouTube and blogging. Blogging for this objective will be using Blogger.com, eventually leading to in house blogs as well as hosted on the brands website using WordPress. I need to reserve the brand's name on these networks for search engine traffic, but equally important is to keep them out of the hands of name squatters and potential competitors. I'm not concerned about the smaller social networks, they can come at a later point if needed.

Why choose Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Blogger and YouTube?

Blogger:

• The ability to create dozens of blogs utilizing targeted keywords.
• Easy to use with no learning curve.
• Vanity URLs
• Google juice
• Marketing
• Branded outpost

Self hosted WordPress blogs will eventually be the main informational hub for consumers

Twitter:

• Real time search capabilities.
• An API we can hook into to pull and post data.
• Consumer interaction, engagement & lead generation.
• Broadcasting inventory, specials, etc.
• Vanity URL & tweets are indexable by search engines, Google being the prime target.
• Branded outpost

Facebook:

• The ability to create a public branded fan page & vanity URL
• Public pages are indexed by search engines. Google being the prime target.
• Consumer interaction, engagement & lead generation.
• Rich multimedia environment.
• Branded outpost

MySpace:

• Vanity URL
• Public pages are indexed by search engines, Google being the prime target.
• Multimedia environment, primarily will be used for video/photo purposes only.
• Branded outpost

YouTube:

• Vanity URL
• Distribution hub for videos created in house.
• Ability to create a custom channel.
• Embeddable share options for videos and soc nets.
• Indexable by search engines, great for Google juice.
• Branded outpost

2. Creating consistent brandable outposts.
Now that all these accounts are created, it's time to turn them into outposts. Remember an outpost is used for driving traffic back to your central hub. The hub in this case is the brands website.

• Outposts need to be streamlined and most importantly consistent across the board.
• Corporate contact information, banners, logos and URL name should all be the same.
• Outposts always link back to the central hub.
• Always use targeted keywords in profile information.
• Goal is to achieve uniform omnipresence on all outposts.
• When information is changed on the central hub, it needs to be reflected on the outpost.
• Link back to all your outposts. Always remember main emphasis is on the central hub.
• Encourage following and fans on your outposts and always follow back.
• Keep the outpost fresh with content as often as possible, this is key for search engines.

That's part 1 of this roll-your-own strategy. Outposts are relatively easy to set up and maintain, and are key for organic search traffic. Part 2 will cover maintenance of the outposts and will also dive into brand monitoring.
Image by thetruthabout under Flickr CC

Read more by Mike Fruchter at MichaelFruchter.com.