Posts Tagged ‘citizens’

« Older Entries

“Must-Try” toolkit of Social Media Citizen Vol. 1

July 14th, 2009

toolkit

After a very positive response to  “The “Must-Have” Tool Kit of Social Media Citizen“  post on SocialMediaToday.com, I’ve decided to continue sharing the lists of tools which can add value, help to organize or just to put a smile on your face while browsing within the social media waters. Some of them might be not new , but  still worth mentioning and trying . I don’t believe that you will be bothered to read a long review about the service/tool so just included the slogans which are meant to reflect what the product/service does or stands for. Did they get it ? Ok just try it yourself !!!

 

Media platforms & Social Networks

https://www.blellow.com/- “What are you working on?”

http://www.shoutem.com/ – “Your own microblogging community”

http://alltop.com/ – “All the topics, all the time”

 

Tools & Apps

http://www.peoplebrowsr.com/ – NO slogan,  so we’ll call it – “A set of online tools for Social Media Citizens” :)

http://www.widgetbox.com/ – “Roses are red, Violets are blue, I dig widgets don’t you?”

http://www.blogpulse.com/ – A toolkit from Nielsen BuzzMetrics.

 

Just for Fun

http://www.blippr.com/home – “Good reviews come in small packages”.

http://www.noovo.com/ – “The simplest way to discover and share everything interesting”.

http://www.bukisa.com/ – “Share your knowledge, Earn money”.

Comments »

Posted in Tools

Tags:

“Freemium”

July 9th, 2009

Just wanted to share this Google Talk with Chris Anderson from Wired. I really loved the discussion about  the free economy and the concept of “freemium” .  It seems like all major websites has adopted or trying to adopt this business model and I really believe in it – first of all, it is good for  us (Social Media Citizens) as most of the things comes for free, secondly, it might provide healthy profits for the service providers  i love to make them competitive in the market. So in two words it is a WIN-WIN.

Comments »

Posted in Consumer Behavior, Social Media News

Tags:

Social Media Citizens news: Surprising new data from Facebook

July 7th, 2009

Hi, just some quick news on the table. Well, the last data from http://www.insidefacebook.com just confirms the point made in my earlier post about Social Media Citizens (“Gen X + Gen Y = Social Media Citizens?“). The usage by the age group differs minimally, even though the adoption seems to be a bit slower for older generations.

Comments »

Posted in Case Studies & Reports, Consumer Behavior, Social Media News

Tags:

Social Media Citizens news: Facebook Now Growing by Over 700,000

July 3rd, 2009


“While Facebook has been growing at around 300,00 to 400,000 active users per day for most of the last three quarters, its growth rate seems to have again significantly increased in recent weeks to around 700,000 to 750,000 new users per day based on data we are tracking from Facebook’s advertising tools.” – http://www.insidefacebook.com/

Well that’s quite interesting news. It means that the growth is not slowing down for FB as a lot of people were predicting in the recent months. It seems that amazing Twitter growth had no impact on FB expansion plans. Way to go ! Here are some interesting stats from the report:

  • 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day (13 million did per month at the beginning of the year)
  • 8 million users become fans of Pages each day (up from 2.5 million per day at the beginning of the year)
  • 10 million videos are uploaded each month (up from 4 million)
  • 900 million photos are uploaded to the site each month (up from 700 million)
  • 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week (up from 15 million per month)
  • 35 million active groups exist on the site (up from 19 million)
  • 2.5 million notes created each month
  • 30 million users access Facebook each month through a mobile device

Comments »

Posted in Social Media News

Tags:

Gen X + Gen Y = Social Media Citizens?

July 2nd, 2009

Recently I read quite a few posts identifying the differences between gen Y and gen X. I agree that there are some real differences between generations as such, even though I believe that it is not right assumption to target them as two completely different consumers’ groups, especially to do that on Social Media Properties. Why?

In my opinion these 2 generations are not that different and actually have quite a lot in common. So called “Digital natives”, “Millennials”, “Generation Y” represents tech-savvy, success driven, self-confident, independent but community-minded people, who according to Tapscott are quicker and more tolerant of diversity than their predecessors. Even though, they are not the only ones who understand the technology adapt well to the new mediums. Some of the “Digital immigrants” arguably might have even bigger influence on the on going changes in the market as they are aware about the changing situation and they have the power, knowledge and resources to influence this phenomenon.

That’s where the term of “Social Media Citizens” comes in. It defines people united by the inspiration for sharing and engagement, for which the age difference is just another opportunity to learn from each other, not in fact to behave in some different way.

These eight norms identified by Tapscott just confirm my assumptions as most of the points are clearly relevant for Social Media Citizens from both generations:

  • They value freedom and choice in everything they do.
  • They love to customise and personalise.
  • They scrutinise everything.
  • They demand integrity and openness, including when deciding what to buy and where to work.
  • They want entertainment and play in their work and education, as well as their social life.
  • They love to collaborate.
  • They expect everything to happen fast.
  • They expect constant innovation.

Therefore, when planning SMO strategy marketers should really consider this target group, who are very likely to be the “evengalists” of the brands and not blindly follow the assumptions supported just by the age difference.

Comments »

Posted in Consumer Behavior, Trends

Tags:

Digital Britain – a winding road to the future

June 17th, 2009

Digital Britain report has generated quite a lot of buzz within the UK, as everyone  are concerned what’s going to happen to this important sector and nobody knows what to expect from the government regarding the future developments and regulatory policies. The Core Facts discussed in the report are:

  1. Universal access to today’s broadband services by 2012
  2. Next Generation fund for investment in tomorrow’s broadband services
  3. Upgraded mobile networks
  4. National Plan to improve Digital Participation
  5. Robust legal and regulatory framework to combat Digital Piracy
  6. Support for public service content partnerships and revised digital remit for Channel 4
  7. Funding options for national, regional and local news
  8. Programme of Digital Switchover in Public Services.

There are different opinions mentioned in the press, but generally it seems that everyone welcome the plans detailed in the report, especially companies. I as a social media citizen really support government’s efforts and initiatives to react to the changing  technology and media environments, even though I can not understand some of the decisions proposed by the government. Digital Piracy – that what really bothers me! As social media citizens we are united by sharing and I am bit suspicious about the plans and proposed frameworks to fight this problem. Don’t get me wrong I understand that this is a “Problem”, but the old ways of tackling it by banning and cutting people from internet just doesn’t seem right. I hope that European Election (EU Parliament) where Pirate’s Party (party related to Pirate Bay) have won a Swedish seat and had quite a big support in Germany, showed for European governments that people are hoping for a change and that the old systems of licensing and copyrights protection which were created at the beginnings of the last century can not and should not be adapted today.

The government should be a body to inspire discussions between the company and consumer regarding the new models of digital sharing – and not only a tool of the company to enforce the consumer to comply with sometimes unreasonable laws?

Comments »

Posted in Case Studies & Reports

Tags:

The future of Online Video

May 14th, 2009

Was watching  Paul Sagan (Akamai, CEO) comments about the future of on-line video  and couldn’t agree more that online video still haven’t reached its highs, but it is nearly there. All these video services on the net like  YouTube, iPlayer  and others are redefining our habits, but in my opinion there is more to come. People still are getting familiar  with the idea of filming themselfves or communicating through video conversations or interacting with the video itself. The technology is here (3G, Facebook video, Joost) , but it takes time to get comfortable with it as video presents  new level of transparency on the net. Maybe that’s why people are still texting on each others wall’s rather than posting video comments as it is much more personal and real. I bet that’s why the video service  like Joost (where you could comment on videos in the real time) didn’t grow as expected, as people  were still getting familiar with idea of sharing (what and why to share?) on the net and opportunity to blog or comment live just seemed a bit frightening and came too early. But situation is changing – services like 12seconds.tv and ustream.tv proves that ordinary people want to be seen and heard online without any hiding  under the keyboard.

Comments »

Posted in Trends

Tags:

I dreamed a dream.. or How to create a successful viral video?

May 7th, 2009

As Susan Boyle sings I dreamed a dream … Well I dreamed a dream too – I dreamed that this blog would become a place to hear the new changing voices of people (generally known as “consumers” :) by exploring their likes/dislikes and interactions with the world around them. Well that’s what the marketing is all about – understanding the life of the customer and tailoring products or services to make this existence experience better and more fulfilling. Anyway, back to the point, after seeing Mrs. Boyle, I have watched quite a few viral videos (well at least a few hundreds) recently in order to understand what makes them so great and what the key magic tricks of becoming viral are. So after this little research of the videos and comments about them if I have to write some keywords or to make a Top 5 list, it would be:

  • Fun
  • Extraordinary/Controversial
  • Real life experience
  • Uplifting and Hopeful
  • Satisfying – after a good or bad experience

Well it’s not a genius list, but it seems that these themes (or very likely combination of these themes) are repeating themselves over and over and creates value for consumer.

As viral marketing is becoming more and more popular and going mainstream with brands like T-Mobile, Samsung and Burger King spending some serious money on it marketers begin carefully tracking theses initiatives. Here are the main viral charts on the net:

Comments »

Posted in Consumer Behavior, TOP lists

Tags:

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter

March 19th, 2009

This year is definitely a year of Twitter. The blogosphere has been obsessed by this powerful micro–blogging platform for the last couple of months and it seems there is no end for the discussions. Almost every major media blog or portal has expressed its views about the challenges and opportunities created by Twitter. The opinions differ, but it’s quite clear that Twitter is here to stay and there is not much left to do but to embrace its powers and use it for your own goals. To be honest I’m not the biggest fan of Twitter, because sometimes I find it difficult to follow the conversations on it, nevertheless, I can not ignore the fact that the amazing growth of Twitter makes it a brilliant place to catch new ideas and trends floating around in the ocean of tweets. Anyways, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been following the conversations about the twitter for a while now and have gathered some really interesting ideas and useful lists of best tools and apps on the twitter so just though I’m going to share them with you:

Tools and Apps on Twitter:

99 Essential Twitter Tools And Applications

Twitter Toolbox: 60+ Twitter Tools

Twitter Apps wiki

Twitter Tools

47 Top Twitter sites, services, software and tips

7 Best Twitter blogs and apps

The top 20 Twitter applications

About Twitter:

What’s Twitter good for, anyway?

Twitter’s Analytical Business Plan

Taking risks with Twitter

Twitter-is-peaking

BTW if you have some more interesting links to add pls leave them as the comment and I will modify the post accordingly. Cheers!

Comments »

Posted in TOP lists

Tags:

The Technographics Profile Of The UK Consumers

March 9th, 2009

At the heart of social media strategy lays company’s knowledge and willingness to understand its consumer. The correct identification of Technographics profile (the classification proposed by Forresters research) can be a vital element of success, saving the time and money by targeting the right people with the right tools at the right time. The Forrester research has been monitoring the US consumers applying this classification for a few years (US Technographics), but surprisingly there were no existent research about the social media consumers’ distribution within the UK. So one of the goals of my research was to identify and discuss this distribution in order to get more details about social media environment in the UK. So here we go:

uktechnographics

The detailed analysis of the UK technographics you can find here (Chapter 4, p 49) and below you can see some interesting points from that analysis.

technographicsuktable

Btw – if you are interested in more detailed info, I actually wouldn’t mind sharing the raw data from the survey for the right aim.

Comments »

Posted in Case Studies & Reports, Consumer Behavior, Social Media UK & EU

Tags: