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The future of media: It's all about trust

No one knows the silver bullet that will save media companies struggling to survive in today's economy, but more than a few media execs are certain of one thing: there will be a premium on trust. Speaking at IWantMedia's Future of Media: 2009 panel, Nick Denton, Craig Newmark and Jack Dorsey were agreed that success online will increasingly depend on consumer trust. (video here)

According to Newmark, the founder of Craig's List: "Trust is the new black."

This is increasingly a concern for media companies dependent on ads for revenue for a good reason: consumers don't trust advertising.

by Meghan Keane 03 June 2009 19:58pm 1 comment

New studies: Twitter is the Twilight Zone of social networks

What is Twitter? Quite simply, it's pretty much anything you want it to be.

But who is using it? How are they using it? The results of two new studies might surprise you.

by Patricio Robles 02 June 2009 16:55pm 0 comments

Keeping social media sustainable

Many businesses are interested in employing social media to their benefit but there are a number of challenges that make social media a challenging proposition.

One of them is making social media sustainable. As exciting as it can be to start using Facebook, Twitter and other popular social media websites, excitement usually wears off real fast and many businesses struggle to sustain their social media efforts.

by Patricio Robles 02 June 2009 09:43am 6 comments

Why Twitter may never sell

There has been a lot of discussion about who Twitter should sell to and why, but according to Twitter investor Fred Wilson, the company may never end up on the block. He says that the reason Twitter said no to $500 million from Facebook last year is the same reason that the company has not found another buyer. The company may simply be better off going it alone.

Speaking at the CM Summit in New York on Monday, venture capitalist Wilson said that Twitter CEO Evan Williams made a few key points to convince his coworkers that they didn't want the Facebook money last year.

by Meghan Keane 01 June 2009 16:07pm 1 comment

Memo to Twitter: please deal with #Spymasterspam

Last Friday I wrote a piece called ‘How Twitter can dig itself out of hashtag hell’, urging Twitter to allow users to turn off ‘spam’. The trouble is that spam isn’t always defined by a hashtag (such as #Spymasterspam).

Consider the rise of the Spymaster game on Twitter. This is yet another reason why Twitter needs to quickly introduce personalisation features.

It’s hard to put into words how little I care about somebody reaching level 11 on Spymaster, or attempting an assassination attempt on @somebodyelse. And I’m not alone.

I’m sure the game itself is wondrous fun, but I don’t want to see these tweets appear in my feed.

by Chris Lake 01 June 2009 12:00pm 4 comments

Q&A: Andrew Keen on the death of Facebook and the future of the web

Andrew Keen is a former entrepreneur who has since recanted his enthusiasm for Silicon Valley and come out as an outspoken opponent of Web 2.0. Keen is no stranger to controversy. His 2007 book “Cult of the Amateur” argued against the wisdom of crowds and he is known for incendiary commentary, like the time he likened Web 2.0 to a communist society or when he told Stephen Colbert that the Internet is worse than Nazism. In case you were wondering, here’s his definition of blogging: “It’s all about digital narcissism, shameless self-promotion. I find it offensive."

Keen now writes at The Great Seduction, twitters @ajkeen, and speaks on a variety of topics. This week, Keen wrote that Facebook’s infusion of $200 million from Russian investors signaled “the final act of the Web 2.0 tragi-comedy.” Econsultancy caught up with him via phone while he was in Alabama this week (“studying the natives”) to discuss the death of Web 2.0 and what comes next.

by Meghan Keane 29 May 2009 15:12pm 10 comments

How can Twitter dig itself out of hashtag hell?

Twitter’s trending topics have been gamed to death, judging by the lack of breaking news displayed. This, pretty much, is the view of TechCrunch writer Robin Wauters, and he’s not wrong.

What used to be a valuable way of seeing what’s new in the world, and often before it is covered by the mainstream media, is now a mess of lame hashtags.

Robin says:

I can’t help but think it’s a pity that that list is starting to turn into the top 10 of chain letters people used to circulate through e-mail messages in the late nineties.

"Fine with me if people want to share what they consider to be lies that boys tell, or which 3 words should follow after sex, or what their moms used to tell them when they were little, but as I said before I think it’s a shame considering how powerful that trending feature and how valuable that list could be instead."

So what can Twitter do about it? Well, there are various methods that can be employed to help fix this up, improving the Twitter experience in the process?

by Chris Lake 29 May 2009 11:54am 6 comments

Social networking -- a different kind of friendship

Have you ever wondered how close (and mutually influential) the social network friendships are? If you're an online marketer, you more than likely have; especially when Facebook opened up for ads a few months ago.

by Geno Prussakov 28 May 2009 20:39pm 5 comments

Are you a "Twitter Quitter"?

It has been impossible to ignore the noise about Twitter in the past 12 months, and despite their misgivings even some of the most hardened cynics have created accounts and started to tweet.

But there can be problems, as some people just don't have the stamina, the staying power, or the will to become a disciplined Twitter user.

Are you on the verge of giving up on Twitter?

by Michelle Goodall 28 May 2009 15:48pm 6 comments