I recently responded to a piece in AdAge about “the social media keg party” that eventually social media will simply be know as digital/online media, and that the term social will fade into the background.
Not to downplay social’s importance in any way whatsoever. But the change is inevitable. When the newness of all we call social wears off, I think everyone will realize it’s just the ongoing evolution of digital/online media overall. The medium after all, is inherently social. Any interaction or feedback from one participant in the info chain to another is a social interaction. I’m sure someone can point out to me an aspect of online media that’s NOT SOCIAL today, but I think if these exist, they won’t live long.
And so, the ongoing mashup of the media world marches on. By the time social as a title losses its buzz, we’ll be dealing with all sorts of other evolutionary freight trains. For example, what do we call TV when cable and Internet truly become one; channels or sites? I know, I know, that convergence is already underway, but not for most Americans who still watch TV on a non IP device and who haven’t surfed the web on a TV since they tossed out their WebTV in 1999. I’m not quite sure the answer to this one, but whatever it is, I’m sure it will have social written all over it.
Speaking of ongoing mashups, I recently saw a great one in a review of of a T-Shirt on Amazon where the entertainment comes from the user reviews. Which are not really reviews at all of the product, but rather bitingly hysterical social commentary on the people and the places where one might encounter the product. Needs to be experienced to be understood, all I’ll say is that it a product sold on Amazon. Its a great example of where shopping becomes the entertainment, but not in the traditional sense.
"Social Mashup in Aisle Five"
@ericadman
Editors Update May 26: Funny piece this weekend on this T-shirt mashup phenom with background on where it came from in NYTimes. That review had an astounding impact. The co that makes the shirt went from selling three a day to 100 an hour via Amazon. Here’s a mashup reco: the reviewer of the shirt needs to be getting an affiliate marketing commission on every one of these sold. Last word on this, to quote one time famous Russian American comic Yakov Smirnoff, “America. What a country… “
IM, Chat, Email and Social Networks Gone Wild
December 8th, 2009 by Rory Partalis
Categories: Digital Innovations | Tags: all-in-one, api, buddy media, chat, comments, communication, content, dashboard, digsby, email, facebook, fan pages, friendfeed, google, google wave, IM, images, inbox, instant messaging, media landscape, mobile, open, ping.fm, pixelpipe, platforms, profiles, social media, Social Networks, status updates, trillian, twitter, video, websites | 2 Comments »
The Social Media Landscape has become so complex that something needs to be developed to help us manage all of our profiles.
There is a quiet battle brewing under the shiny-new-thing syndrome we all are guilty of from time to time. This battle grew out of the complexity and exploding number of websites the average internet user has profiles on today. Modern advertisers and marketers are especially plagued by the inability to keep up with all the comments, inboxes, and instant messaging clients we use to communicate with our family, friends, coworkers and clients.
This provides an opening for smart companies to build an all-in-one online communication dashboard. And this opening gets bigger and bigger as companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google keep rolling out more and more open platforms and APIs. This allows other websites, widgets and mobile apps to have greater access to content and information from those platforms.
Friendfeed was obviously the original social network aggregator, and Facebook mimicked their methods and then bought them outright. Now Google has ambitions with Google Wave, but there are still gaps for an all-in-one online communication dashboard that both pulls and pushes content from all other communication platforms.
I’ve seen a few emerging spaces where companies are trying to partially realize this dream. The first battlefield is combining IM, Email and Social Network communications and content into one chat client. The two rivals I’ve found in this space are Trillian and Digsby. Each are strong contenders and pull from many of the same sources. I am currently testing Trillian on my work laptop and Digsby on my home laptop. I prefer Digsby’s IM client and chat window layout, but like the look of Trillian’s pop-ups better. In my opinion either works fine for my needs, both are strong contenders in the all-in-one space, but neither are quite there yet.
The second area where I see a battle brewing is the content uploading battlefield. This is where you can login to one place and post text, images, videos and other content to all of your social network profiles. Both Ping.fm and PixelPipe have a lot to offer in this space and also push to many of the same sources. Both also have mobile apps, which is awesome for posting content on the go.
I’ve also seen a third battlefield begin to emerge after having a conference call with a company called Buddy Media. They provide a dashboard that manages the layout of Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter Profiles. Very cool stuff, but still in its infancy.
Have you seen any other similar tools like this that would make all of our online lives easier? If so, please mention them in the comments section below.
2 Comments »