Back before Twitter, Facebook, and even Myspace. There was Geocities.
Posted by Ryan Johnson
Who remembers Geocities? All you web veterans out there! It was the first "home" you could say for many internet users back in the 90s. Even though your profile was an extremely long URL and generally filled with annoying and ugly ads, GeoCities was the first "social network".
Yahoo purchased Geocities in 1999 for 3.5 billion dollars, and then 10 years later, shut the site down. But before they pulled the plug, a group known as the Archive Team made a backup to preserve 10 years of collaborative work by 35 million people. The resulting 650 Gigabyte bittorrent file is the digital Pompeii that is the subject of an interactive excavation that allows you to wander through an episode of recent online history.
Head to their site and watch the video. Internet history seems so long ago compared to natural history, we are already unearthing the past from just a mere decade ago. Do you think in another decade we will be doing the same with Facebook or Twitter?
Google+ v. Facebook
Posted by Ryan Johnson
The gloves are off and the fight has started. Google+ is the newcomer but already is taking the internet by storm. While it is still in field testing mode, Google+ offers a breath of fresh air from the same old thing with Facebook. We here at Digital Street have been tinkering around in Google+, checking the ins and outs and we must say, we are excited. It has a very nice user interface and is very intuitive. How this will be used in terms of business use is still yet to be seen. Google+ doesn't offer "business pages" but they have some things in the works to answer that question for us too. (See this Mashable article for more)
Facebook isn't going to let this all go on and not retaliate though. So they roll out their new video chat feature supported by their new partnership with Skype. This ads a whole new layer to Facebook's "chat" feature. (Click here to see how to set it up for yourself).
This competition will hopefully push the two powerhouses into a very interesting game of innovation for their respective platforms. And in that case, we all will end up being the winners.
Information Overload: Sifting Through it All
Posted by Ryan Johnson
In this age of social media and news aggregators, it has become almost impossible not to be bombarded by information daily. So how can we as marketers sift through it all to make a better consumer experience? Listen and organize.
The advent of social media and other services has allowed marketers to listen and respond to data being created by consumers like never before. A few years back most companies would kill to have this avenue of communication with their consumers. Now that the connection is built, we must make sure to use it correctly, because it is a very powerful channel. While you can gain knowledge about your audience in a way previously impossible, you can also barge into the conversation blindly and destroy your image. This information combined with site analytics from your webpage can help define the personas that are interested in your brand.
What can you do with this data? You must first stop thinking that everyone views your brands message the same. Things like your homepage and website should be tailor made for a variety of market segments. Whether they get different navigation, different search data or look is up to you and your designers. One thing is for sure though, the days of mass impersonal messaging in advertising and marketing are long gone.
Using Technology to Stand Out
Posted by Ryan Johnson
In today's economy, jobs are slim and candidates are plenty. So how can you use social media/technology to help give you an edge in finding your dream job? Check out this video and see!
Also! This is a great way to use QR codes, not just for finding a job but for interactive advertising. The only limit to what you can do is your own creativity.
It’s Friday, Friday…
Posted by Ryan Johnson
Such a horrible youtube video. But for those of us in the social media field, Friday is a very busy day for us. Studies have shown that users are far more engaged on Thursday and Friday than any other day of the week. This is for obvious reasons, people are preparing for the weekend and mentally checking out. They are starting to look around their networks to see what their friends are doing.
While this seems to suggest everyone should target their messages to the end of the week, that also isn't always the case. If you are a B2B company, this would be a terrible time to reach out to your audience since they're no longer thinking of work. Now if you're a B2C company, then go ahead and reach out and get some good conversations going with your audience.
One thing is for sure for every company though, Monday is the WORST day to reach out to users. It's the "noisiest" day on social networks so your message will probably be lost in the static.
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