Online Sharing in 2010

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but thanks to the holiday season I’ve actually been really busy (with some help from COD: Black Ops and WoW: Cataclysm) but I just wanted to drop by real quick and mention this interesting piece from AddThis that I saw on Mashable today.

 

Interesting enough, Facebook is still growing and in 2010 grew faster than it did in 2009 (I blame it on the older generations that are trying to be cool). But interesting enough Email is still beating out Facebook. Obviously a big factor in Facebook’s attempt at Facebook Messages, which will integrate email, FB Msgs and Texts all into one inbox. Personally I would have thought Twitter would have seen higher growth rates but I guess not. I still have high hopes for higher growth in the future and hope they haven’t topped off yet. I was surprised to see Myspace and Friendster still in consideration. Who knew they still existed.

Anyway, just a quick update as I thought this was really interesting and definitely something businesses should continue to look into. Clearly Facebook isn’t going anywhere and if it does, there’s plenty in the line up to replace it. Social Media should definitely not be taken lightly as we can see it’s growth here.

I should definitely be back on a more regular blogging schedule after the new year, as I have some big changes I want to make and some new ideas I’m going to try out. Stay Tuned.

Twitter’s Advanced Search Function: Simplified

Real quick before bed, Mashable released this great video tutorial just going over Twitter’s Advanced Search function. As an alternative to Google, Twitter’s advanced search allows the user to search for “personality” rather than “popularity”.

iPad, Ousting Newstands?

Mashable wrote this great article on Ad Age’s study done on the adaptation of the iPad as a new avenue for magazine purchasing. I thought it’s pretty interesting to note not only as an example on the direction of technologies as far as the iPad is concerned but also the direction that publication and print companies need to follow in order to stay competitive and even profitable. 

“The first issue of Wired on the iPad sold 105,000 copies, according to Ad Age. That was significantly higherthan the print sales for the same issue.”

Of course, Wired readers are much more likely to own an iPad at this point so it’s not surprising that their iPad version would do so well. But isn’t this usually the case with new technologies? Tech junkies are always the first to adapt the next big thing and usually it takes a while before the rest of the population follows and either adapts the new standard or at least jumps on the bandwagon until the next fad.

Also, I’m sure the majority of magazine brands that are fashion, fitness (Men’s/Women’s Health, GQ, Esquire, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Vogue etc) will have a hard time adapting to iPads as I’m not very sure that iPads themselves will ever be very common to fitness gurus and fashionistas (also, theres wont be any more of those tabbed fragrance ads).

I guess we’ll see what role the iPad (and other emerging technologies) will play as the print and publication industry continues to dwindle and slowly disappear. Personally I think technologies like the iPad are really the only hope for this industry to stay alive.

Food Trucks and Social Media

I saw this great article and video on Mashable yesterday and I just had to write something about this. Pretty much this video interviews the owners of some mobile food trucks in New York City and how they use social media to keep in touch with their customers. Going to school in Philadelphia, food trucks were definitely a staple of campus eating and probably the preferred choice vs the school cafeteria for the majority of the student body.

These guys use social media to interact directly with their end consumer by tweeting and updating Facebook about daily specials, their location for that day (very important if your storefront is on wheels) and other updates about their business throughout the day. Not only that they have the opportunity to get feedback directly from the customer about their views on pricing, taste, quality, etc. There’s no better marketing research than free marketing research and this type of research is about as accurate as it gets.

Its great to see business using social media to positively impact their day to day business. Social Media definitely isn’t the perfect solution for everyone, but when implemented correctly, it can make a huge difference.

Here’s the Mashable video.