•11:00 AM
Today I am going to chat about another site or two or three. And check their progress over the coming months too.
This week I have paid visits to many of the ol' standbys in the social media crowd, plus a couple of ones I had not had the chance to investigate in the past. Tumblr, Boxee and Tweeples. All are based on having friends. And it appears web 2.0 is keeping up with that cliche; you know what they say about friends, right? "You can never have too many."
At the rate social media is growing on-line, it seems McDonald's will have its own social media networking forum soon enough, and then we can all be friends with McDonald's...hey if it comes with coupons, they may strike gold! I am sure.
Let's start with Tweeples: It opened for Beta last fall. It is a network for Twitter users; it gives individuals the opportunity to expand their profile beyond Twitter's current interface. It has some of the same functionality as FaceBook (although without the vortex-losing days of your life to sending out lil garden patch mutants); look to see who has viewed your profile, invite friends, send emails, post pictures and a bio, post events, form and join groups (track Twitter groups too), run your own tweetups (off-line human to human twitter meetings); you can also see who is currently logged in on the home page (usually a handful of people). And you can create a blog post there too. They have a newsfeed on the home page highlighting members latest activities, and who is friends with who; plus if you so choose, it will even show who you are NO longer friends with. Not very socially PC really. ;-)
An exciting twist on function: You can see who was recently logged in to Tweeples and maybe it will forecast who is going to be logged in tomorrow? Sorry, I digress. The point is what is the point to this site? Can't really see any biz benefit, except to give you another place for search engines to find you. People you interact with on Tweeples are more than likely already talking to you on some other social format...and yes, like FaceBook, there is a place for businesses to create a profile too. My opinion, it can't hurt to join....but, don't know how much return on your time invested it will bring you right now.
Tumblr...let's roll the dice here. Post whatever you want here on your Tumblelog (their form of a blog). What you ate for lunch, quick pic of the guy you yelled at in traffic this a.m., the rant about too many social media sites, etc... Or in Tumblrs own words: Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. This is a blogging site with social media capabilities.
The question is why post any of this here? You get your own url. Mine is: 13degreez.tumblr.com (although you can customize with a REAL website name, just follow their instructions). And if that isn't enough excitement, you then can customize your "blog" in color, shape and even give it mood lighting too. I do like that you can import all of your feeds from elsewhere to your home page (just another part of the web you spin with connections), including many widgets that will allow items such as Twitter and YouTube on to your page. I also am able to invite ALL of my friends once again to another social media site. And it will also offer up some really COOL people to follow; as opposed to those who sit in dark corners with the sole light of their laptop flickering, just ruminating over which virtual drink to get drunk on as they figure out how to become more popular in a virtual world. Ahem...
I think Tumblr is worth a whirl, at least put your information on there and if you have NEVER started a blog, why not start there. There are pros and cons basically built on personal preference as to choose this site over blogger or wordpress or even typepad.
And if you have a MAC or Linux, go to Boxee. You can use it as an aggregate of all media and online applications.(If you have Windows, the beta is coming out soon).
I am on Windows for now, but like the idea someday of feeding thru this site to my HDTV or laptop: my Netflix movies, Hulu (although not direct), Flickr, blog, once again inviting my friends, posting tweet reviews of the content to Twitter, FriendFeed, etc..., using my non-existent iphone to utilize the site, etc...and the list goes on...For now, I don't quite see why a business would choose to utilize its services for marketing or growth of an online brand, but for the individual--it could be a lot of fun.
To wrap it up...the first two can be used by an individual and for business purposes too. The popularity of any of these sites has yet to prove itself in the marketplace and like everything else online, time will tell a success from the big blue whale "FAIL".
Please feel free to leave comments or ask me questions about marketing, PR and social media.
This week I have paid visits to many of the ol' standbys in the social media crowd, plus a couple of ones I had not had the chance to investigate in the past. Tumblr, Boxee and Tweeples. All are based on having friends. And it appears web 2.0 is keeping up with that cliche; you know what they say about friends, right? "You can never have too many."
At the rate social media is growing on-line, it seems McDonald's will have its own social media networking forum soon enough, and then we can all be friends with McDonald's...hey if it comes with coupons, they may strike gold! I am sure.
Let's start with Tweeples: It opened for Beta last fall. It is a network for Twitter users; it gives individuals the opportunity to expand their profile beyond Twitter's current interface. It has some of the same functionality as FaceBook (although without the vortex-losing days of your life to sending out lil garden patch mutants); look to see who has viewed your profile, invite friends, send emails, post pictures and a bio, post events, form and join groups (track Twitter groups too), run your own tweetups (off-line human to human twitter meetings); you can also see who is currently logged in on the home page (usually a handful of people). And you can create a blog post there too. They have a newsfeed on the home page highlighting members latest activities, and who is friends with who; plus if you so choose, it will even show who you are NO longer friends with. Not very socially PC really. ;-)
An exciting twist on function: You can see who was recently logged in to Tweeples and maybe it will forecast who is going to be logged in tomorrow? Sorry, I digress. The point is what is the point to this site? Can't really see any biz benefit, except to give you another place for search engines to find you. People you interact with on Tweeples are more than likely already talking to you on some other social format...and yes, like FaceBook, there is a place for businesses to create a profile too. My opinion, it can't hurt to join....but, don't know how much return on your time invested it will bring you right now.
Tumblr...let's roll the dice here. Post whatever you want here on your Tumblelog (their form of a blog). What you ate for lunch, quick pic of the guy you yelled at in traffic this a.m., the rant about too many social media sites, etc... Or in Tumblrs own words: Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. This is a blogging site with social media capabilities.
The question is why post any of this here? You get your own url. Mine is: 13degreez.tumblr.com (although you can customize with a REAL website name, just follow their instructions). And if that isn't enough excitement, you then can customize your "blog" in color, shape and even give it mood lighting too. I do like that you can import all of your feeds from elsewhere to your home page (just another part of the web you spin with connections), including many widgets that will allow items such as Twitter and YouTube on to your page. I also am able to invite ALL of my friends once again to another social media site. And it will also offer up some really COOL people to follow; as opposed to those who sit in dark corners with the sole light of their laptop flickering, just ruminating over which virtual drink to get drunk on as they figure out how to become more popular in a virtual world. Ahem...
I think Tumblr is worth a whirl, at least put your information on there and if you have NEVER started a blog, why not start there. There are pros and cons basically built on personal preference as to choose this site over blogger or wordpress or even typepad.
And if you have a MAC or Linux, go to Boxee. You can use it as an aggregate of all media and online applications.(If you have Windows, the beta is coming out soon).
I am on Windows for now, but like the idea someday of feeding thru this site to my HDTV or laptop: my Netflix movies, Hulu (although not direct), Flickr, blog, once again inviting my friends, posting tweet reviews of the content to Twitter, FriendFeed, etc..., using my non-existent iphone to utilize the site, etc...and the list goes on...For now, I don't quite see why a business would choose to utilize its services for marketing or growth of an online brand, but for the individual--it could be a lot of fun.
To wrap it up...the first two can be used by an individual and for business purposes too. The popularity of any of these sites has yet to prove itself in the marketplace and like everything else online, time will tell a success from the big blue whale "FAIL".
Please feel free to leave comments or ask me questions about marketing, PR and social media.
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