Social media has become a defacto communication channel, compelling tech startups, small businesses and large companies to supplement their marketing and public relations efforts by forging ahead to discover how to harness social media to integrate it with their existing web 1.0 efforts.  A recent search on Indeed.com for jobs in “social media” returned over 2,000 opportunities. Particularly within the last few months, a plethora of companies are quickly realizing that they need to incorporate a social media strategy and begin to manage their online brand and reputation.  One can speculate whether Domino’s unfortunate social media crisis set in motion a decision from its rival Pizza Hut to hire a social media intern.  Sony, AAA, NBC, Yellowbook — all have positions open in social media.  

Steve Rubel previously blogged about the social media job landscape, which at that time – circa 2006 – the highest trending opportunities were in podcasting, blogging, RSS, and wikis.  Fast-forward to today and there’s a new landscape of job opportunities under the “social media” term. Blogging, podcasting, RSS and wikis are still valuable social media components, but the migration of companies moving to understand and tackle social media more holistically seems to be taking root. 

Social Media Job Opps On Rise

With Twitter expected to swell to 50 million users by this summer (that’s 60 days from now!), you can appreciate why companies want their new social media hires to be fluent in Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, LinkedIn, community building, etc.  Equally important for marketing and public relations teams is building and managing communities and networks in social news and bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Newsvine, etc., developing and sharing creative content across multimedia channels like YouTube or UStream, and attracting fans or building out groups on Facebook and MySpace, and so on.

Companies need to first identify where their customers and prospects are “hanging out” online and what type of social media tools they are using. Are they active in a particular forum? Are they participating in a Yahoo group or a Friendfeed room?  Is your target market one that would be receptive to consuming online videos or are downloadable reports and presentations more appropriate?  It’s important to weigh, prioritize and focus your social media efforts around that to ensure your Marketing, Internet marketing and public relations messages and activities are strategically integrated with your offline, traditional efforts and activities.  For example, an automaker showing off its fastest car can convey its speed much better in an online video uploaded to YouTube.  Talking about how fast the car goes via a tweet on Twitter just isn’t as compelling.  On the other hand, a company such as AAA would benefit from using Twitter, and not YouTube, to update customers on say transportation discounts.  The point nonetheless is: now is the time to act. Establishing a social media strategy and then selecting the right mix of social media tools to integrate with your traditional marketing and public relations efforts is absolutely a step in the right direction.

Still don’t get Twitter? Send us a tweet @IgnitePR and we’ll be happy to send you 10 ways to leverage Twitter for Marketing & PR.

New or improved social media and web-based services are starting to surface, reflecting a major shift unfolding that underscores how people and companies are choosing to share, listen, watch, respond, interact and engage with other individuals in real-time conversations, as they are happening, with zero latency or delays.  Take Facebook, for example; unable to acquire Twitter’s real-time, massive communication platform, it took a page from Twitter and overhauled its user status section, replacing it with a live newsfeed right down to mimicking Twitter’s 140 characters and status query.  Consumers, startups, large businesses, civil services and, yes, politicians and celebrities alike have tuned into the popular Twitter microblogging service that enables them to telegraph personal or corporate messages, breaking news, emergency broadcasts, service interruptions or promote new blog posts, perspectives, photos, videos, etc. — all in real-time.

The Twitter phenomenon is growing at breakneck speed, reaching nearly 10 million users in February 2009, up more than 700% from a year ago.  Twitter’s runaway growth points to people’s behavior and preference to proactively communicate with others in real-time. FriendFeed most recently rolled out a major new UI and service enhancement, overhauling their static users’ comments to emulate Twitter’s real-time updates.  Clearly, it’s just a matter of time for other sites (ie: MySpace, LinkedIn, Yelp) to recognize this shift and meet users’ preferences for real-time information — not static data. The arrival of the real-time web will impact a host of players in the businesses of information.  Net/net: the real-time web has arrived so strap in your seat belts for an interesting ride that is about to take off.

Cloud computing-based initiatives are gaining adoption with startups and large enterprises that need to increase efficiencies across departments and within their data centers. While the benefits of cloud computing such as reduced infrastructure investments, increased economies of scale and accelerated time to market are highly appealing to businesses, concerns still exist around the risks of cloud computing. 

An interesting trend seems to be taking root that provides a growing opportunity for aspiring tech entrepreneurs to tap. According to a March 2009 PhoCusWright report titled, “Hyperlocal Content Services,” this trend relates to local content proliferating as new tech advances enable improved search, aggregation and distribution.  The concept of hyperlocal is introducing a new model in which content based on proximity, presence and context is delivered to users.

Today MySpace announced a deal with CitySearch where the social network site will introduce MySpace Local, which is essential a social directory for local businesses and venues powered by CitySearch.  The power of the new offering will allow MySpace users to peruse local businesses and venues and see their friends’ reviews.  Additionally, it will provide MySpace with a bonanza of new ad inventory where it can run geotargeted advertising.  It’s no wonder that this deal was a wise one for MySpace to strike given that the local internet-advertising market has accounted for some of the fastest growth in Internet advertising in recent years, as small businesses take their marketing online.  Another new example of a hyperlocal website that today also unveiled a beta version of its service is from client, A Day’s Outing, an online search tool for discovering short-distance day trips and weekend outings.  A Day’s Outing takes the proximity of where someone is starting from to deliver a comprehensive list of outings and events personalized around their preferences.  It currently focuses on the Mid-Atlantic region and will continue to expand regionally. A Day’s Outing represents a growing number of tech high tech startups popping up to introduce new services that deliver highly relevant, personalized, local information to users when they seek it.

Hyperlocal websites as well as smartphones are increasingly helping users access geolocation-based content such as information, advertising, events, and entertainment centered on a user’s locaton and time.  While local information is abundantly available, getting it quickly and easily still leaves a lot to be desired and users seeking a better way.  Expect to see more innovative partnerships such as the MySpace/CitySearch deal as well as many other innovative companies such as A Day’s Outing move to better address users’ need for getting the right information when they want it.

Amazon issued this press release announcing its new “holiday customer review team.” The idea from Amazon is simple: appoint holiday product reviewers from its very own customers to compile lists of their favorite items in order to help other shoppers pick out that perfect gift.  The team is comprised of Amazon’s top reviewers selected for their expertise and interests based on the number and breadth of products each reviewed.  In addition to reviewing personally-selected items, Amazon’s review team were given early access to test some of the top Black Friday products for free in exchange for their reviews. 

It’s a clever idea overall; crowd-sourcing that taps customers to create user-generated content in the form of product reviews to help shoppers decide on their purchases.  Some Web 2.0 startups have done phenomenally well applying this concept, including Yelp, Digg and Wikipedia.  Consumers are increasingly comfortable researching and shopping online and having access to straightforward, unbiased product reviews helps guide their selection process.  It’s also a great PR move by Amazon to recognize their most active customers who post reviews and involve them at a deeper level within their business. Amazon is building and leveraging a grassroots program to effectively connect with and expand its online community. 

Yet Amazon still needs to be mindful that it doesn’t try to sanitize or unduly influence the reviewers for any group of products, brand or manufacturer. Candy-coated reviews won’t work for consumers who have honed their screening capabilities to spot biases or questionable reviews wherever they may be (ie: TripAdvisor). If Amazon can proactively require its reviewers to make any full disclosures this will help keep the quality of these reviews in check.  Kudos to Amazon for its crowdsourcing product reviews initiative. It’s forward-thinking as well as a smart PR move to boot.

For those of you who have not tried Twitter yet, we’d highly recommend it. Twitter is a way to tap into another world literally of real-time, ongoing communication by thousands of people who are busy tweeting away. You can choose to follow real-time tweets (short written notes) from a select group of friends, interesting people, or the public at large. Just as important, you can engage in the conversation or add your own two cents– whatever those might be. Whether it’s breaking news or real-life drama unfolding, or frankly mundane everyday things affecting people (“Stuck in traffic due to major accident on 101. Traffic at a stand still.”) After diving into a world of twitters and tweets, we found it to be a highly informative and an influential, dynamic communication tool. The nice thing about Twittering is that brevity rules. Your tweets are limited to just 140 characters, so keep it short and sweet. Tara Anderson of Citizen Agency and HorsePigCow blog wrote an exceptional primer titled, “Tweeting for Companies 101.” It’s a how to guide on the world of Twitter and tweets, highlighting many of the cool new tools one can use to become more Twitter proficient. Check it out here: http://www.horsepigcow.com/2008/04/21/tweeting-for-companies-101/

We believe the practice of Twittering is going to grow like wildfire so you might as well figure out how to get your Twitter on sooner than later.

Lots of stuff coming out of CTIA this week. These two items caught our attention that bode well for the growing adoption of 3G-enabled smartphones in the US. Gizmodo reports that the AT&T Mobility CEO spilled the beans related to Apple, noting to expect a 3G iPhone in months.
http://gizmodo.com/375314/straight-from-att-mobility-ceos-mouth-3g-iphone-in-months-and-299-vu

The second piece came on the heels of RIM announcing projected growth for its smartphones in the US is taking off like wildfire. Citigroup estimates that the smartphone market will grow 50% to 60% annually in the next few years. It also estimates that smartphones will account for 22% of the handset market next year, almost triple its 8.5% share in 2006.

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/01/smartphones-soaring-good-news-for-apple-rim-nokia.html

It’s welcome news to our ears that the US market is moving away from dumb phones as an increasing number of consumers open up their wallets to join the bandwagon of using supercharged smartphones.

Here’s one more recent study comScore issued last week regarding the blazing trail of mobile broadband growth. http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2099

CNN ran a news segment on a new protype car, the XH150, that was unveiled yesterday at the Detroit auto show.  AFS Trinity Power Corp built its car using existing battery and electronics technology to show what the Big 3 could conceivably deliver to the market: a car that drives 150 miles per gallon. If you drive like many folks, under 40 miles a day, you won’t have to pay for gas. The only ergonomic hitch is that you do have to plug the car up everynight to charge it up. After you’ve driven more than 40 miles, the car converts to gas; it can drive highways too. Estimated cost is still TBD, but they only expect to charge a premium of about $8,700 over the price of hybrid cars that start at $25K. Very promising. If none of the Big 3 move to license Trinity’s patented technology, they will move to raise VC funding. If that’s the case, I hope they relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area so the company can build upon the new auto manufacturing hub taking root in Silicon Valley (ie: Tesla Corp.).  Nevertheless, this car could be available in as little as 3 years and if gas today in CA cost $3.50/gallon, I believe this type of benefit would be widely embraced like the Prius.

Never mind that it’s supposed to be Year of the Rat. Basex recently picked Information Overload as its 2008 Problem of the Year.

Email, phone calls, IMs, twits and tweets, LinkedIn Questions, Facebook pokes… Interruptions such as these contribute to the Information Overload problem that research firm Basex pinned at $650B in loss productivity. We take pleasure in Basex’s prediction but not because we’re gluttons for punishment. Rather their call to attention is an indication of how serious the problem is and perhaps a prelude of better things to come.

As we get ready to ring in 2008, I challenge myself and all of you out there to make email and IM etiquette part of your New Year’s resolutions. Check out a few tips that Basex suggest to help manage information overload. These include:

-“I will not e-mail someone and then two seconds later follow up with an IM or phone call.”
- “I will read my own e-mails before sending them to make sure they are comprehensible to others.”
- “I will not overburden colleagues with unnecessary e-mail, especially one word replies such as “Thanks!” or “Great!”, and will use “reply to all” only when absolutely necessary.”

The MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) hosted a forum yesterday evening titled, “Web 3.0 and New Opportunities on the Semantic Web.” First of all, the moderator, Paul Saffo, was outstanding and entertaining. He kept things lively and humorous.  The panelists (Paul Kedrosky, Alex Iskold, Nova Spivak, and Robert Cook) were also fantastic and represented some excellent startup companies. My takeaway from the event is that a good foundation has been laid for moving the semantic web forward to the next stage. Paul pointed out Flickr as the best early consumer app example of how people are using collective intelligence to make searching and finding the right content better. Alex’s company, Adaptive Blue, and Robert’s company, MetaWeb’s freebase, are prime examples of companies making strides with the semantic web. Alex has a written several great posts on the topic. Here is one in particular that I think is very insightful as to the direction that websites are headed with respect to ‘web 3.0.’ (View Post)

Nova’s startup company, Radar Networks, is certainly one to watch but evidently some of what they are doing is still under wraps. Nova did an exceptional speed-prezo in about 2 minutes and shared this most excellent slide with the audience that lays out where we currently are on the path to arriving at the semantic web. Here is a link to some of his posts on the subject as well. (View Post)

The semantic web is indeed on the cutting edge of transforming search, advertising, content distribution and commerce. Some of the companies that panelists mentioned that are doing interesting things and helping to push the semantic web forward included Powerset, Hakia, and MapLight. What is exciting about the semantic web is how down the road (okay we’re talking 2030 or so) literally all of the information and disparate databases on the web will interconnect and the computers will be far more intelligent in how thyey read, process and deliver information to people. At the end of the forum, Nova pointed out that no one in the audience or on the panel mentioned where there is likely an untapped opportunity with the semantic web, and it is the one that really drove people to the web — the sex industry. I certainly hope and expect that there will be far greater and more useful arenas that will propel the semantic web faster to it materializing.