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Facebook vanity URLs coming this weekend

Cancel your weekend plans. At 12:01 am EDT on Saturday, June 13, Facebook will open the floodgates on a long-awaited landrush.

At that time, all Facebook users will be able to select a vanity URL (eg. www.facebook.com/username/).

by Patricio Robles 10 June 2009 09:10am 3 comments

Top ten online PR fails

A number of brands have fallen foul of social media over the last few years, either due to lack of understanding of how information spreads online, or by attempting to manipulate the system and getting caught out.

I've listed ten examples of companies who have suffered PR nightmares online, in most cases the bad publicity has come via social media sites...

by Graham Charlton 08 June 2009 14:23pm 15 comments

Digg translates its strengths into advertising

Social news site Digg is introducing a new “social advertising platform” this week that will allow users to vote advertisements up and down the way that Digg users currently curate news content. The approach may not be new – companies like Facebook and RazorFish have created similar ads — but the Digg community offers a lot of potential for the strategy.

For starters, Digg users are already in the business of rating content.

by Meghan Keane 04 June 2009 18:55pm 4 comments

The A-Z of social media for brands

Here’s an A-Z braindump that I compiled in about an hour. It is aimed at providing a snapshot of what social media is all about, and what brands need to focus on before wading in.

The A-to-Z of social media You might be familiar with social media, but hopefully you'll give me a pass as some of this stuff bears repeating. However I think this A-Z is going to be more useful if you’re somebody who is trying to convince your boss that adopting a social media strategy is a good idea (it is). Good luck with that!

by Chris Lake 04 June 2009 12:04pm 10 comments

Can you trust Web 2.0 companies with your money?

In a post last month, I pointed out that some of the most popular Web 2.0 companies still haven't figured out Customer Service 1.0.

Even though they're related, customer service is one thing and your money is another.

by Patricio Robles 04 June 2009 09:00am 0 comments

How do you get positive feedback online? Showcase your fans

Research in Motion has had a major hurdle in the way of selling its smartphones over the past few years: it's called the iPhone. The Blackberry may have sold 6.7 million smartphones in the third quarter of last year, but that was a record quarter, and Apple shipped 6.9 million iPhones in the first quarter of its existence.

The other problem is that the iPhone has incredibly high user participation rates online. There are many more conversations about the iPhone happening on the web than the iPhone, which RIM is tring to fix.

As the Blackberry maker learned last year, 76% of consumers don’t think companies tell the truth in advertising, while 78% trust the recommendation of other consumers. According to Brian Wallace, Director of Global Digital Marketing for RIM, money spent on advertising and an appealing website was effectively wasted: “we were where our customers were not.”

by Meghan Keane 02 June 2009 20:34pm 1 comment

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

Is Facebook's incubator a joke?

A big chunk of the 'Facebook economy' doesn't belong to Facebook: it belongs to individuals and companies who have built Facebook applications.

By some accounts, the revenue generated from these apps will surpass Facebook's own revenue this year. So it's no surprise that Facebook is looking to do more to take direct advantage of the ecosystem it's built.

by Patricio Robles 01 June 2009 09:01am 6 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