Reflections on readings for Feb 4th

Conversational Marketing/Word of Mouse - first article
John Battelle on Conversational Marketing - second article
What is the Real Time Search? Definitions&Players - third article (this one was not assigned)

Am I gonna get to hear from Coca Cola whenever I tweet my friends that I'm thirsty? Really??? It seems like it's exactly what companies want to do with conversational marketing and real time search.

As described in the first article, for the last 10 years the Internet produced three solid ad categories:

• "Display" or "banner" ads (graphical boxes on web pages)
• Classified ads (like Craigslist)
• Search advertising (now it's the largest)

According to the second article, the headline of what's going on in on-line advertising today is "Return of the Brand". The new trend in building brand awareness on-line is conversational marketing. As John Battelle put it: "If you don't join the conversations customers are having about you, your brands, and the things that matter to your brands, then you're dead. Maybe not immediately but over time you will become irrelevant. So you need to create a set of muscles that allows you to be a brand in the conversation." (John Battelle on Conversational Marketing) There are many companies, including his, now that help businesses to build relationship with leaders of influence. The results are promising.

He also talks about another interesting development on the web - real time search. Real time search is basically looking through material where there's practically no delay between composition and publishing (like tweeting). Blogging already is not in that category as it takes time to write a paragraph and do research (minutes compare to tweeting's seconds). Real time search lets you see what people are saying now and presents you with an opportunity to engage into the conversation.

I know that in my career I will have to worry about my company's bottom line and how effective the marketing is etc, but, God, I hope social media where I have a page will let me to opt out from conversations with Coca Cola... Well, it's not just a matter of hope, they'll lose me if they don't.

Reflections on readings for Jan 28

CBC - The Current - Cambrian House Crowdsourcing

Today was not lived in vain - I learnt two new words!

Crowdsourcing - is basically outsourcing to an open crowd of freelancers.
Prosumer - a consumer who's also a producer.

I also found out that

• crowdsourcing helps companies to cut costs on corporate research and get more new ideas
• it makes more sense to crowdsource to intelligence networks that have been created for that particular reason
• freelancers get to work but will have to sacrifice IP rights to their client.

Despite the fear that crowdsourcing takes full-time jobs away, I'm not opposed to the idea. I agree with the speakers that it brings value to the company (more affordable and efficient) as well as the freelancer (no 9-5 "slavery"). Hope some day I join that crowd.

Big Firms Eye "Open Innovation" for Ideas

One more story that proves that IBM is a smart company. They built the world fastest computer - "Blue Gene"- and let it to be used for free. Scientists can apply to use "Blue Gene" to test new ideas. Usually, IBM selects those who suggest the hardest tasks.

By doing so IBM:

• Stays on top of the game. Companies are getting too complex to have all aswers in one place. IBM can get the answers from all over the place now.
• Can share the profits if new things get created during this initiative. Think first-mover-advantage-and-shifting-standards kind of profits...
  

Reflections on readings for Jan 21st

Re: Improving your ability to share and connect (http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=57822962130)

I did not know Facebook had a higher, more noble, if you'd like, goal than just to connect people. It turns out that Facebook folks want to make the world more open so that people know what is going on around them. They hope as people share more, so will the organizations, companies and governments. Interesting...

It actually could work. Certainly, organizations, companies and governments should know that media (including social medium like Facebook) is like sports - nobody cares about the second. You'd better tell what happened first, otherwise, you'll end up justifying your own actions, no matter how right they were. In addition, many companies, organizations and governments open Facebook pages. It helps them to look like they keep up with modern trends, technology and care about young people.

What do you think? Would Facebook make the world a better (more open) place bringing more transparency and reinforcing accountability?

Re: Clive Thomspon on Real-World Social Networks vs. Facebook "Friends" (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-08/st_thompson)

Reality mining is beneficial. Especially, when it helps to figure out what actually goes on in reality. One of the conclusions made in this particular study is that managers are rather peripheral and not a crucial link that spreads information among team members. I'm not surprised. Sincere communication requires trust. Trust is more likely achieved among equals, i.e. fellow colleagues, not with your manager who has authority over you.

The article also raises a crucial issue in relation to studying communication patterns and reality mining - in whose hands this information can end up and how they are going to use it. Predicting disease outbreaks, social trends etc sounds great. But how about getting to know people so well that you can manipulate them to do virtually anything. Or raising "zombies" when you take the communication patterns' studies to the next level and figure out exactly what kind of upbringing or social trends lead to what personality.

I may be overreacting, but access to information (especially scientifically proven and well-researched) is too powerful not to provide for every nightmare scenario, not just the privacy one.

Re: VISUALIZING THE U.S. SENATE by SOCIAL GRAPH - Andrew Odewahn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8I5iMa_VV0)

Great work with numbers and statistical analysis. Although I'm not sure how the information about these patterns can be used...Any ideas?

Off-topic: that picture of a weird animal behind the speaker did not complement the presentation well, I think. Associations can be very powerful.

My first blog post

Hi!
I'm a student blogging for a class. On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own.
Write later,
BCA