What’s New in Social Software: Presentation at the Center for Business and Technology at JCCC
Taking a cue from Facebook’s News Feed and the idea of followers, many applications in the social networking software space now use the friends and followers metaphor to pull people back to the sites. Ma.gnolia, the social bookmarking tool now supports following of other ma.gnolia users. Much like the approach Facebook took with News Feeds, aggregating followers allows users of the SNS sites to quickly peruse the activities of other users of the service. Rather than search for bookmarks tagged by topic, following other ma.gnolia users works by reputation and allows me to utilize other people as filters for topics I’m interested in following.
If I trust a specific ma.gnolia user to bookmark content that is relevant and useful, then I’m likely to follow them. As a ma.gnolia user, my profile on ma.gnolia shows me their bookmarking activity, and avoids the need to visit many different profiles to see their recent bookmarks, or check their status. That usage pattern also keeps me as a user involved with the site for longer times. If I’m selling ads on the site, then the exposure to ads increases, and the site owner’s potential revenue should increase.
Twitter takes this follower and news feed idea to a simpler level by allowing me to add 140 character posts that are less than a blog post, but more than a status post. Add the cross fertilization of Twitter applications, and the idea of “What are you doing now?” spreads into other areas. I liken it to being at a large party where I know some people well, a lot of other people less well, and a whole group of people I know of, but I’m not yet acquainted with them. Twitter allows me to drop in on conversations among all of the party goers and eavesdrop or reply if the conversation provides an opening. Like any party conversation, the topics veer toward banal, but also useful, sometimes entertaining, and most always opinionated.
These links may help you get a handle on this trend.
You can catch me on Twitter: Keith Krieger on Twitter, LinkedIn: Keith Krieger on LinkedIn, or Facebook: search for Keith Krieger.
Who’s following (or not) on Twitter?.
Trying to find someone or something on Twitter? Try Twitter Search.
Watching buzz? Looking for people talking about you, your company, your interest on Twitter? Try Tweetscan.
Looking for blog buzz about you, your company, your interest? Try Technorati or Blogpulse.
Get Satisfaction is another Twitter search tool.
50 ideas for using Twitter in business.
More Twitter tools.
And if those aren’t enough ideas for you, how about 140+ Twitter tools.
Skout: Location status and what you’re doing status delivered via cell.