Answers to Questions from Twitter on Teen Practices

Thanks Futurelab for this Q&A on teen Twitter usage and attitudes

by: danah boyd

Before I headed to Atlanta to do fieldwork, I asked folks who follow me on Twitter (@zephoria) what questions I should ask teens. Many of the questions that I received were more general questions about teens, rather than questions for teens. Still, I'm going to take a stab at very briefly answering some of the questions that I received based on what I know and what I learned. I am not answering the larger questions that would require pages and pages and my apologies if my short answers are not sufficient but I wanted to at least respond. Thank you all who contributed questions and my apologies if I didn't answer yours.

To all who asked questions about Twitter: average teens don't use Twitter. They may in the future, but they do not now. Those who do are early adopters and not representative of any mainstream teen practice. Because of Oprah and celebs, some teens are starting to hear about it, but they don't understand it and they aren't using it.

@connyb: Parents' concerned with what kids do online, right? I'd ask teens if they know what exactly their parents do at their dayjobs.

Teens do not tend to know exactly what their parents do, nor do they particularly care. (It's important to note that parental concern stems from a position of power, not interest in the actual activities.)

@mauraweb: when they're searching for info, how do they know what info to trust? esp. w/internet searches

Media literacy amongst teens is extremely varied, but the short answer is that most don't know what to trust. They know that they are not supposed to trust Wikipedia because it's editable (and they automatically recall Wikipedia when you ask about trustworthy information.. that's so actively hammered down their throat, it's painful). One girl told me that she trusts websites that "look" like they are reputable. When I asked her about this, she told me that she could "just tell" when something was a good source. And besides, it came from Google. Le sigh.

@AlterSeekers: According to Facebook Era, Teens see email as a "work" tool and prefer to Facebook message. Is this true among these teens?

I was surprised to find that email is deader than ever among teens. As more of their parents and teachers are getting on Facebook (or MySpace), they see little reason to email with anyone. Thus, email is increasingly needed for having an account on various sites and for getting access to or sending attachments. But even when teens do use email for "work", they do not use it for social purposes.

@mirroredpool: What borders to teens place of social networking sites and education? How would they react to using an SNS to do class work?

@annejonas: i'm curious if they want schools involved in social networks or if they like it as a social space outside the realm of formal edu.

This is messy. Many teens have ZERO interest in interacting with teachers on social network sites, but there are also quite a few who are interested in interacting with SOME teachers there. Still, this is primarily a social space and their interactions with teachers are primarily to get more general advice and help. In some ways, its biggest asset in the classroom is the way in which its not a classroom tool and not loaded this way. Given that teens don't Friend all of their classmates, there are major issues in terms of using this for groupwork because of boundary issues.

@shcdean: What future do they see for FB or Twitter.

They don't use Twitter. When asked, teens always say that they'll use their preferred social network site (or social media service) FOREVER as a sign of their passion for it now. If they expect that they'll "grow out of it", it's a sign that the service is waning among that group at this very moment. So they're not a good predictor of their own future usage.

@lazygal: Do they really care about/use school library websites? Twitter? Pageflakes? Libguides? or only if teacher insists?

Nope, they don't. All but Twitter are categorized as school tools and are only used when absolutely necessary and Google won't suffice.

@anindita: My favorite question: read anything good lately?

I asked "Recent book that you enjoyed" on my questionnaire. Half said "none" and most said books they read in school (with a *). Books that were mentioned: City of Bones, Ashes & Glass, A Year of Impossible Goodbyes, The Outsiders*, Drama High Series, Mice and Men*, Catcher in the Rye*, The Poisonwood Bible*, Twilight series (twice).

@texas_sooner: I'd be interested to know if teens denied access to SNS (by parents/choice/SES reasons etc ) feel left out/pressure to join, etc.

Parental restrictions are a huge source of frustration because of a sense of isolation. (As a result, they are typically ignored.) SES is not actually a predictor of non-use at this point except in more rural regions where Internet access is generally absent for the majority of teens. In these cases, teens don't feel left out because they aren't being socially isolated by it.

@SavvyPriya: what is one thing that teens are passionate about?

This varies across teens, but God comes up a lot. The only thing that really competes is friends. Family is also important to some teens. School and sports are also important to some teens. And then some teens have particular hobbies or activities that they love. But God and friends really dominate the passion list.

@paullowe: where do they get their news from and what kind of news do they want to get

Teens primarily get their news from word-of-mouth, not directly from any particular source. School current events and TV time are the other dominant place I hear about. Otherwise, it's generally osmosis. They walk through the living room when their parents are watching the news. Or they pass by a news article when they get online. But they are not directly and intentionally consuming much news at all.

@thornet: ask 'em how they judge whether a news outlet is credible.teens r good @ spotting fakes & phonies;wonder what their news criteria r

They don't watch a lot of news and they have no media literacy training and they're not even thinking about credibility of news.

@andrewmiller: how does having a smartphone change their interactions w/each other on SNS? more photos/videos? faster rumors? have/have-not gap?

A gap is definitely occurring. A smart phone means more more more more more - more SMS, more web consumption, more status updates, more photos, etc. Certain smart phones are desperately desired items. That said, teens are also doing quite well with the iPod Touch + wifi as an alternative. Smart phones are helping them stay more engaged and connected.

@shawncalhoun: Were teens more engaged in politics by Obamas #socialmedia storm? If so has engagmnt continued evolved in2 something new or faded?

Most teens are pretty oblivious to his social media practices. That's actually hitting the college/20-somethings more.

@alexleavitt: Ask them if they feel like they'll want to develop the social Net when they get older: eg., developers developers developers.

No. Most don't associate using social media with computer science or developing software whatsoever. And the classes on programming in their schools aren't helping.

@pbernard: do they still care about changing the ringtone on their phone, even though they make less and less calls?

Ringtones are tricky with American youth because it very much depends on who pays for the phone/ringtones. Among teens who can change their ringtones whenever they want, there's still motivation. The phone still rings (and beeps with new SMSes) and having a cool sound is desired. But of course many teens spend most of their day with their phones on buzz-only.

@harraton: Do they care about their privacy?

VERY much so. But what constitutes privacy for them is often quite different than what constitutes privacy for adults. Privacy is not dead.

@simonchambers: I'd ask how they see themselves helping to solve problems like climate change and extreme poverty...

They don't. Most teens are not that engaged with larger societal issues (except as activities to get into college). This makes sense - they are not part of public life. They have no voice. They don't hear the debates. They aren't exposed to much beyond their narrow worlds. And, for most of them, their parents aren't involved either.

@dougthomas: Teens; what are their thoughts about downloading songs? films? software? without paying for it.

They want access. Their parents won't pay for it. They don't have credit cards. They get what they are looking for by any means necessary. And those who get access to it traffic in that content among their peers who may be less technologically savvy/economically privileged.

@jamesb: how does their mobile contacts differ from social network contacts? When do they crossover?

Mobile consists of their closest friends because of the economics of the phone. Social network sites are their broader peer group. Their closest friends are a subset of their broader peer group.

@alfredtwo: Do teens view all adults in social networking the same or are parents a special case? Young relatives friend me not their parents

Depends on the teen, but many are happy to connect with adults who don't directly hold power over them or who they "trust" - aunts, older cousins, youth pastors, "cool" teachers, etc.

@mjmantey: how aware are they of general advertising/marketing ways and means?

If it has advertising, they think that it means that it'll be free for a long time. But they don't really think much about it.

@mojo_girl: how many email accounts do they have that parents don't know about- do they use same password 4 all #socialmedia ? #teens

They don't use email so it's more a matter of which ones they forgot about. They often forget their passwords so I would guess that they don't use the same password consistently. Of course, they also share certain passwords with their closest "trusted" friends so that gets messy really fast. And they change it when there's a breakup.

@matlockmatlock: OMGSEXTINGWTF?

Continuing to be present and very very messy. Sharing of naked photos seems to be more prevalent in certain teen groups than others and I'm still trying to work out what this means.

Original Post: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/05/16/answers_to_ques.html

Tags:

• danah boyd
• digital living
• online behaviour
• social media
• teens
• Twitter
• young

Myspace does reality TV

Thanks Mashabale for this latest move in Myspace land

March 25th, 2009 | by Adam Ostrow4 Comments

Now this makes sense. MySpace is getting into reality TV with a new Web-based series called “Married on MySpace” that will chronicle one couple’s journey to their wedding day, with MySpace members driving much of the decision-making in planning the event.

The process starts with couples submitting videos to MySpace and users voting on who should be featured. Once that has been determined, MySpace users vote on other aspects of the event, like selecting what the bride and groom wear, where they celebrate their bachelor and bachelorette parties, and the wedding location.

In all, there will be 13 websidoes of Married on MySpace, culminating in the selected couple’s wedding day. The series is being produced by Endemol USA, the company behind reality TV shows like Big Brother, Fear Factor, and Deal or No Deal, so the quality (or lack thereof depending on your point of view) should be up-to-par.

While MySpace () has conceded the race to be the top social networking site, it still has a place as one of the most popular entertainment destinations on the Web. Original, relatively low-cost programming like Married on MySpace that involves the community is a smart move, and something we’ll likely continue to see.

The trailer for Married on MySpace is embedded below:

Married on MySpace Trailer

Nestle Launches 100% Digital Campaign

Thanks Andrew Reeves at Opti for sharing this...

Targeting 16 yr old boys this campaign for Nestle launched this week and all feasible digital channels have been employed to reach this audience and allow them to share in the fun .

Hans Fagerlund is the spokesperson for the new Kit Kat Chunky Cookies & Cream campaign and is the world Chunga Champion - a game where players manoeuvre their Chunga pieces to form the tallest tower without making it topple. Keep an eye on the tower stability and friction meters as you move the pieces, if you pull the wrong piece you may just find yourself in Tower Falls. Play against your Facebook friends or the world champion himself, Hans Fagerlund.

Take a look at the campaign in whichever environment you prefer - you can add Hans as a Facebook friend; download his Facebook application or Messenger Themepack; watch Chunga-struck on YouTube; visit his MySpace page & become a friend; play the game; win prizes......... every social community you can think of.

Website
http://www.chungachampionship.com.au

Messenger Theme Packs - download
http://promo.meegos.com/kitkat/

MySpace Page
http://www.myspace.com/hansfagerlund

Facebook Group & Application
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=17387283243

YouTube Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cigj_b1uu8Y


Credits: Created by RMG Connect

Cuil loses its cool

Facebook app yanked

Thanks to Michael Estrin at iMedia Connection for this post found at:http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/20101.asp


On the web, good news travels fast, but disaster spreads at the speed of light. See which brands belly-flopped this week, and how MySpace nipped a potential catastrophe in the bud.

News of a search startup aiming to take down Google is something of a regular occurrence, but when Cuil (pronounced "cool") exited beta this week, the company managed to dominate mainstream and industry headlines for about a day. That was the good news. The bad news was that the product itself took a beating from a lot of web watchers.

With thousands of media outlets covering Cuil, the search engine was probably a victim of its own hype. In fact, the site even crashed soon after it went public. How 1999!

But much of the backlash is undeserved, according to SearchRev CMO Eduardo F. Llach, who says he liked the results he got from his test searches. But a happy user may not equal a Google killer, Llach says, pointing out that neither Microsoft nor Yahoo has managed to come close to toppling Google.

That was an observation shared by John Battelle, who literally wrote the book on search. Earlier this week, he told iMedia that "the complete failure of any other company to gain significant share against Google" was the most significant thing to happen since he published "The Search."

So, what should Cuil do now? Focus on the quality of their results, says Seth Dotterer of Conductor, a search consulting firm.

"Cuil came out of the gate with an index of more than 120 billion pages -- a number equivalent to more than half of the stars in our galaxy," Dotterer explains. "It's a daunting number -- and great technical achievement -- but it's not a game changer for your typical searcher. Instead, they need to focus much more on the quality of their results, both from a relevancy and freshness perspective. This is the only way to win users' attention and ultimately their loyalty."

As for the hype surrounding Cuil's debut, TechCrunch published a cheeky post -- "How to Lose Your Cuil 20 Seconds After Launch" -- slamming the company for failing to live up to the promise of being dubbed a Google killer.

How to annoy half-a-million people
Here's a recipe for a digital meltdown. Take a wildly popular widget, add a mature brand and serve on Facebook. While that should have been a win for all involved, it turned out to be a lose-lose situation, says PR guru David Seaman, who criticized Hasbro for failing to see that Scrabulous, the unauthorized version of the Scrabble board game, was a huge missed opportunity for the brand.

"When news of the takedown notice spread, protest groups with tens of thousands of members sprung up on Facebook asking Hasbro to rethink [its decision]," Seaman says. "It should have. Think about the goodwill a change of heart would have created, and the grassroots buzz. Positive stories about how Hasbro 'gets' Web 2.0. You can't buy publicity like that."

For now, Facebook users in North America (where Hasbro owns the rights to the game) will have the option of playing the official version, which has so far attracted about 15,000 users. Or, they can play a modified version of the game called Wordscraper, released Thursday.

Catastrophe averted
Layoffs are never good, and rumors of layoffs -- even if they're unfounded -- can be crippling for any web company. Just ask AOL, which continues to suffer from widespread reports that its having a hard time justifying the editorial teams that crank out its empire of branded and non-branded sites.

But that fate didn't befall MySpace. When early word of performance-based firings leaked onto the web, and many were quick to ask if the Fox Interactive Media company had been forced into layoffs, Amit Kapur, MySpace's COO, swung into action. He quickly clarified the reports, pointing out that MySpace would replace the employees it was shedding, citing efficiency as the primary concern. But for those who were a little wary -- especially after a less-than-rosy financial forecast for digital this week -- MySpace had a ready-made answer in the form of more executives.

Before the story could create chaos at MySpace, Kapur and the rest of the MySpace team were ready to spin it into a tale of new blood for the company's executive ranks. In the short term, that was a minor save from MySpace (no company wants to be compared to AOL these days), but in the long run, the new hires could help the social network beat back inroads made by Facebook. Last week, Facebook failed to impress with its developer conference, leaving an opening for MySpace to get back some of its momentum, something that isn't out of the realm of possibilities with five new executives.

Big web
Finally, one story that got missed this week was a tidbit from Google. If you've ever wondered how big the web is, the team at Google has an answer -- 1 trillion. That's right, according to Google, there are 1 trillion -- and counting -- unique URLs on the web.

Understanding teenagers in the digital space

This posts aims to investigate who teenagers are, how they use the Internet, and how we should be targeting them. 

[Thanks to Sramana Mitra for this post]

Teenagers are trendsetters and are early adopters and they total 33 million in the U.S. They are also aspirational in nature. They prefer to stay ahead of the pack. Research shows that 67% of the teenagers in the U.S. own a mobile phone and 45% of them have iPods. 32% of the teenagers play computer or video games frequently. According to CBSNews.com poll, teenagers on average spend 2.9 hours surfing the Internet daily and are among the most avid users of the Internet.

87% of the teenagers log on to the Internet from their home whereas around 75% of the teens log on from school or a friend’s house. The Internet is a vital part of the teenagers’ education process and 90% of the teens in the U.S. use the Internet to research school assignments. 88% of the teenagers’ use the Internet for email, 82% Instant Messaging, 68% social networking and 60% download music. Compared to 16% of adults, 28% of the teenagers have blogs and it is an important medium for them to share personal news and commentary.

According to reports published by USA Today an estimated 65% of undergraduates in US colleges are members of TheFacebook.com and an approximate 900,000 high school students hold accounts with either MySpace.com or Xanga.com. Teenagers dislike intrusive advertising but don’t mind brand messages and product placements, if they are informative or are subtle, especially, humorous.

Teen Favorites

According to Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU) 34% of the teenagers aged 12 to 19, ranked MySpace.com as their favorite website. Yahoo.com was second with 19% votes and Google.com claimed the third spot with 14% votes. They use Google.com and Yahoo.com to either check mail or search material for their assignments or stuff that they would like to buy or are curious about.

Social Networking is very popular among the teenagers and most of them spend on an average one hour daily to either post or read postings. MySpace.com, TheFacebook.com, Xanga.com and Tagged.com are the most popular social networking websites among the teenagers. Video and photo-sharing websites like YouTube.com and Flickr.com are fast catching on with the teens, who are creating profiles and sharing their videos and photo collections. iTunes is another favorite of the teens. Sports sites like ESPN.com are popular among the male teens.

Visit Alexa for the top 9 websites visited by teenagers.

Why Teenagers?

Teenagers are not into online shopping as only 6% shops online. However, they do spend a lot of time researching products online, which they intend to buy. Teenagers directly and indirectly control billions of dollars in purchasing power and according to TRU, teenagers helped spend around $159 billion in 2005 and this amount is expected to grow by 5% CAGR in the next 5 years. Since teens spend a lot of time online, marketers want to use the Internet to grab the eyeballs, create brand awareness and build brand loyalty among the teenagers who influence family purchase decisions.

Such has been the popularity of the Internet media that Teen People a popular teenage magazine has withdrawn its print edition and decided to concentrate on its website ONLY. According to TNS Media Intelligence advertisement revenues for TeenPeople.com has grown six folds from 2004 to 2005 indicating a strategic shift in advertising and elevating the Internet as the most preferred medium. Elle Girl also withdrew its print edition and is currently available only on the Net.

Teenagers today spend more time (average 2.9 hours) on the Internet than they spend reading newspaper or magazines. Online newspapers and magazines along with blogs are more interesting and spontaneous for these next generation kids as it provides them with an interactive platform to share views across the globe. eMarketer forecasts ad spending on social networking to reach $2 billion by 2010 and projects video ad spending to rise 82.2% in 2006 and 89.0% in 2007.

Prospective employers, college admissions offices, and marketers are logging on to social networking websites like MySpace.com to gather information about the teenagers and to fine tune their product and service offerings according to the teenagers’ preferences. These websites give a very good idea of what’s their on the teenagers’ mind. As teenagers discuss among themselves, marketers can find out, which sports, food, apparel, gadgets, cars are on the top of their mind.

Business Model

A large portion of the advertising dollars are shifting from traditional mediums like print and television to the digital media. Video game companies have radically shifted their marketing dollars to the web, and in fact, they are themselves becoming good places to advertise, as inline advertise in computer games become popular.

According to Fuse a youth-marketing agency, online advertising is much cheaper than other forms of advertising and could be done with a budget of $2,000 to $3,000. According to experts online advertising provides more bang for every dollar spend than print or television.

Advertisement revenues are the main source of revenues for these websites. The advertising rates for Yahoo start with low minimum monthly subscriptions ranging from $10 to $50. The average cost per click for teenage category is $0.12 while the overall cost per click is $0.07, which implies the cost-effective pricing for advertising space targeted at teenagers. Advertising can be placed on most websites with a budget of $3000. Attractive discounts are offered to advertisers with budgets over $10,000.

Social networking has experienced phenomenal growth in the past year and marketers are more than willing to associate with them as they see it as a wonderful opportunity to reach out to their target customer. U.S. ad spend on social networking is expected to be $865 million in 2007 and MySpace.com will account for $525 million or 60% of the total ad spend in 2007.

Though social networking on the Internet is a huge success, most of the websites are burning cash today and it will take a while before they generate profits. ClassMates.com a social networking website, which attracts around 125,000 visits daily and has over 3.5 million registered members from 30,000 High Schools, is a profitable venture.

Venture Capital, M&A and PE Activity

With the strong growth in revenues and profits of new age media companies like Google and Yahoo and the soaring popularity of Internet businesses like MySpace.com and YouTube.com, Venture Capital and Private Equity Firms are back scouting and investing in similar Internet businesses, especially those targeted at the youth. The social networking space targeted is experiencing a lot of investment from venture capitalists. VC’s expect Internet to be their preferred medium of communication. Teenage social networking is a niche segment that has exhibited significant growth in the past two years.

Below are details of some VC fundings of websites that are targeted at teenagers:

[Note: Friendster number is the recapitalized number.]

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation bought MySpace.com in mid 2005 for $580 million and today it is the fastest growing social network with over 140 million users. Google bought out YouTube.com in October 2006 for $1.65 billion. United Online acquired Classmates.com for $131.4 million in November 2004.

Competitive Market but Opportunity in Niche

Major media companies like Google, Yahoo, Viacom, News Corp. and AOL are all trying to woo the teenagers. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and so the Internet is full of clones of social networking, video and photo-sharing sites and with start-up costs low and VCs more than willing to fund new ventures in this space, it has resulted in over-crowding of the space. 2007 is expected to witness fierce competition in the social media space, and a lot of carcasses. Behavioral science shows that teenagers are fickle-minded and tend to change their tastes frequently. It is tough to hold on to their interest levels.

There is opportunity in niche websites targeted at teenagers as they spend a lot of time surfing the net. Research by Youth Trends show that young teens prefer visiting sites dedicated to them. If they are provided with quality, dynamic content, user friendly interface, with a chance to interact and play among themselves, it will appeal to them. Flip.com, a niche site for teenage girls by Publisher Conde Nast is slated to be launched in 2007, plans to do just that. Social networks still do not have adequate ROI metrics and this could be an opportunity for new generation networks to attract advertising dollars by leveraging the strength of their parent companies. In this case, CondeNast owns the popular fashion magazine Vogue, which might be able to direct both important celebrities, content and key advertisers their way.

Conclusion

Teenagers are being chased by the entrepreneurs, media companies and advertising dollars. iPod and iTunes became a massive hit by using the teenager segment as their penetration point. It remains to be seen who else does a comparably good job in leveraging this segment’s tremendous online presence and early-adoption capabilities. Obvious players in the Education industry are dogs, and sadly, they have not at all woken up to social networking’s significant potential in educating teenagers.

http://sramanamitra.com/articles/segments-and-lifestyles/teenagers/

THE big news - the web as a common platform for all social activity

Many articles out about it today, but thanks to AdAge for this comprehensive look at the emerging situation:
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Moves by Google, Facebook and MySpace Point to Crumbling Walls in the Social-Media Space
By Abbey Klaassen Published: May 12, 2008 NEW YORK (AdAge.com)

Three announcements, all within a week of each other, were indicative of the same trend: that the future of online social networking doesn't live within a single entity's walls but instead permeates the web.

Illustration: Google

Google uses three social standards -- OpenID, OAuth and OpenSocial -- to power its FriendConnect.

MySpace, Facebook and Google each announced similar-sounding moves over the past week that will be worth paying attention to as marketers watch to see how the social web evolves. MySpace on May 7 said it would open up its profile data to third-party sites. Two days later Facebook said it would let users to connect their Facebook accounts to third-party applications and websites, and that it would also allow developers to incorporate Facebook friend data into other sites and applications. And today Google is announcing FriendConnect, a service that lets website owners add social applications to their sites.

Sites are blending
The moves are unrelated, according to the companies involved, but they all suggest what many web watchers and pundits have been expecting: that social-media tools and services would spread throughout the wider web, rather than stay contained within a single service.

Forrester's Charlene Li is one of those believers. She has described how social networks will be "like air." She writes on her blog: "I thought about my grade-school kids, who in 10 years will be in the midst of social network engagement. I believe they (and we) will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to 'be social.'

"Instead, I believe that in the future, social networks will be like air," she continued. "They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be."

The moves announced hardly make those services "like air." But they do signify that sites such as MySpace and Facebook are open to the idea of moving their user data and social connections to the broader web.

MySpace's moves will make user profile data more portable, and allow users to link their MySpace profiles to their profiles on other services, such as Twitter. Updates to a MySpace profile would then be automatically reflected on linked profiles elsewhere on the web.

Facebook gets friendlier
Facebook Connect, meanwhile, appears to be a developer-friendly move that harkens back to when it allowed third-party developers to create applications that took advantage of Facebook's so-called social graph and allowed users to communicate and play games with others on Facebook through those applications. With the new service, a Facebook user, for example, can easily see on Digg.com which stories his or her Facebook friends voted up.

Google's FriendConnect is more of a strategy to add social-media-enabling widgets to sites. Site owners can add a "snippet of code," according to Google, and immediately add tools such as reviews, members' galleries and message boards to their sites. They will also be able to add applications built using the OpenSocial platform that Google spearheaded. Users can import friends and interact via those applications with friends from other social networks, such as Facebook, Hi5 and Plaxo. The idea, said Google, is that any site can become an open social container.

"When the web is healthy and when more people have more ways to be more engaged online, our business is healthy," David Glazer, a director of engineering at Google, said on a conference call announcing the service.

Even traditional media companies such as CBS understand the importance of spreading their social tools among third-party sites. CBS's hyper-syndication web-video strategy also includes technology that lets CBS viewers chat with each other while watching content, even if they're watching that content off CBS.com.

Listen up, marketers
So what does this mean for marketers? It means more consumers talking to each other across the web, and it means discussions around brands are no longer siloed to a single platform or network but are spreading to a wider swath of sites. If a marketer didn't have a social-media "listening" plan, these kinds of developments could make tracking conversations consumers are having about a brand more difficult, but also make it more important that marketers do so.

Imagine if you could easily take the conversation about brands that's occurring on Twitter and embed that into other sites via one of these services, said Rodney Rumford, CEO of Gravitational Media, an agency that has helped brands such as Vivendi and Mountain Dew have a presence in social networks, and editor of FaceReviews.com. Additionally, branded websites and widgets will be able to use the technologies to become "more social."

"This is huge, the combination of the MySpace, Facebook and Google all saying basically the same thing, which is say that websites can become more interesting and engaging when you add a social layer to them," Mr. Rumford said.
------
I thought it would be also worthwhile tacking on an article from Mashable about the google friend connect offering:

Following announcements last week from Facebook and MySpace about initiatives to make your social networking data portable, Google has announced “Friend Connect,” a similar service that will officially launch this evening at Google’s Campfire One event.

Friend Connect is a tool which enables any website owner to add some code to their site and get a number of social features. You know, all that stuff you usually can’t be bothered to install plugins for: user registration, invites, members gallery, reviews, message posting, and - most importantly - third party OpenSocial apps.

In practice, this means that anyone will be able to log in, for example, with their OpenID on some blog, and converse with their Gtalk, Facbeook, or Plaxo friends. The web as a platform, it’s finally happening, folks.

Since the thing is not actually live yet, you will be able to see one implementation of it over at www.ingridmichaelson.com later tonight. But right now, you can’t. Damn, I love writing about upcoming stuff.

Following the link to the ingridmichaelson.com site i signed in using my google info and was able to link the site directly to facebook... pretty cool. Now which global login to use?

Aussies 'addicted' to social networks

Monday Nov 5 16:45 AEDT
For many users, checking their MySpace or Facebook account has become 'automatic and compulsive behaviour'. (Getty Images)

A growing number of young Australians are becoming addicted to online social networks, according to a new study.

Naked Communications digital strategist and recent Monash University graduate, Julian Cole, uncovered the trend as part of his research into the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

"For many moderate to heavy users, checking their MySpace or Facebook account has become an automatic and compulsive behaviour, with some participants reporting they log on up to twenty times a day," Mr Cole said.

He found that many openly admitted to their addiction and, in an ironic twist, contribute to online confession groups.

"It's very bizarre. With a lot of other addictions people tend to hide it, but because it's such a common thing it's not hidden and people talk about it more," Cole said.

He believes one of the key reasons behind the addictive nature of social networking is it's "sticky nature".

"People lose track of time," he said.

"The thing that makes social networking so sticky is that there are so many paths you can take. You'll be on one friend's profile and then you click on their friends, and their friend's friends. It's never ending."

According to Mr Cole, warning signs of possible social networking addiction include frequently visiting the site for longer than intended, experiencing negative psychological or physical effects when the activity isn't available, and scheduling other activities around your time online.

"The point where it crosses over to an addiction is when people go there without a goal, it becomes part of their habit," Mr Cole added.

The study also revealed a divide between blue and white collar workers, with the later more likely to be addicted.

"The fact that they are in front of their computers means they are more likely to become addicted to these websites," he said.

He said typical addicts are more likely to be university students or people new to the workforce, people who have ready access to computers.

Mr Cole points out that the benefits of online social networking currently outweigh the negatives.

"A lot of social relationships are now being maintained, and the ability to connect with people you may not have normally," he said.

His tips for ensuring you don't become addicted are planning the amount of time you'll spend on online, and finding alternate ways of staying in touch with friends.

Mr Cole's findings were based on an in-depth survey of 20 participants, chosen from a larger survey of 300 people.

©AAP 2007
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Melissa Bolling, Strategy Planner, BMF
Tel: 02 9552 7072 Fax: 02 9552 7070 www.bmf.com.au

The social network wars

MySpace Joins Google's OpenSocial

EAGER TO CHALLENGE FACEBOOK'S RISING star, MySpace has joined the Google-led initiative to court Web developers with an open system for creating social networking applications.

Named OpenSocial, the initiative is simply a set of common APIs for building social applications across the Web. The idea is to give Web developers standardized tools for writing applications and embedding them on social networkers' personal pages.

"Our partnership with Google allows developers to gain massive distribution without unnecessary specialized development for every platform," Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO MySpace, said in a statement released late Thursday.

As a member of OpenSocial, MySpace is providing the group with platform experience and user mass, as it is still the most popular social network online.

Google had signed on more than a dozen other partners--including social networks like hi5, Friendster, and LinkedIn, along with software makers like Oracle and Salesforce.com--reaching a combined 100 million people.

"MySpace is one of the leading forces in the global social Web," Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, said in a statement. "We're thrilled to grow our strategic relationship with MySpace by joining forces on this important initiative."

Facebook opened up to outside developers in May, and since then thousands of applications have been attached to the site; those applications are credited with helping increase its community to more than 48 million users.

Still without a dominant position in the social marketing space, Google is hoping it can leverage the developer community and establish a standard for their community.

"With the input and iteration of the community, we hope OpenSocial will become a standard set of technologies for making the Web social," a Google spokesman said Wednesday.