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How Good are your Facebook Friends?

Why are they friending me? Does business and Facebook clash?

By: Stephen Roesler

We’ve all asked ourselves the question.  Who is this person, how do they know me, and why are they asking to be friends on Facebook? Ironically, much of the time we cannot answer such a seemingly basic question.  The reason, likely, is due to the now blurring definition of a friend.

Since the onset of Social Media, the idea of a friend is rather different from the classic sense. A friend may not be your old fishing buddy or your loyal, die hard shopping companion. Now, a friend could be an utter stranger.

With over 400 million users, Facebook neophytes are volatile, jittery beings that are friending everyone in sight. But what’s the point?  Now your newsfeed is overflowing with vapid status updates that remain inconsequential because you haven’t a clue who the person is, what they do and why they accepted a friend request from a stranger. Many are building profiles based on desperation. And, one thing we can extrapolate from a classic friendship is that desperate friends rarely last.

This is especially true for businesses. As organizations grow their friend networks, they must remain mindful of who they are adding and accepting into their sphere of friendship. Service oriented business runs the largest risk. If we add friends because they engage in similar or complimentary business, we better like how they conduct business. Afterall, in some sense, we are vouching for their quality of service.

If the goal of Social Media for business is to turn relationships into clients, then businesses should seek Facebook friends that correlate with their industry. Before friending someone or accepting a friendship, ask yourself a few questions:

- Could I benefit from this person’s industry knowledge or could they benefit from mine?

- Am I going for quality over quantity?

- Am I geographically desirable to this person?

As Facebook continues to grow, the idea of a “network” becomes more applicable. Although Social Media allows us to stay connected to more people than before, we can’t have meaningful social relationships with millions of people. We must draw a line somewhere and I propose that we start by limiting Facebook friends to people who we know and marginally trust their opinion.  Same goes for Twitter. Spreading yourself thin with an abundance of fruitless friends and futile follows won’t help anyone focus their efforts. Instead, we will create a massive database of information that becomes unnavigable. Let’s not defeat the purpose.

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Facebook and Business, Facebook Friends

How Social Media Impacts Global Crisis

By: Stephen Roesler

Yes, the headline suggests another typical article on the troubles of our world and thus runs the risk of perhaps another futile attempt at suggesting a solution to our most politically pressing issues.  Well, it’s worth the gamble.

Let’s examine 3 major events that Social Media affected:

-> Iran Elections

-> Google and China Censorship

-> Earthquake in Haiti

In 2009, “Iran elections” was the most twittered item of the year. In June of 09’, The U.S. State Department asked Twitter to delay the release of a service upgrade to protect the interests of Iranian citizens. This free, fast and highly mobile social media service provides certain demographics with a voice they don’t normally possess. In a sense, it acts as a social equalizer. Twitter delivered published, real time information from distraught Iranian citizens in Farsi and English. It was an ideal platform for mass protest.

Similarly, Google recently threatened China to pull out of the country due to China’s censorship laws. Similar to Iran, Chinese citizens, who are typically oppressed and left without a voice, now maintain ways to articulate opinions with the help of social media tools.

Perhaps most impressive is the impact of social media on Haiti. After a 7.0 earthquake, a slue of tweets and status updates heavily streamed across the web as Google, Skype, GoDaddy, Facebook and other tech giants mobilized. The Red Cross already raised $10 million through their charity text message campaign; Google threw down $1 million, Skype gave each Haitian a $2 voucher that allowed citizens to make 1 hour worth of calls to the U.S.

Although I am not suggesting that political crisis is solved through social media, it does receive more exposure from everyday people, altering the outcome of crisis around the globe.  As we learn new ways to leverage social media, we ought to consider the potential for information dispersion and its effect on global dilemmas.

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Earthquake in Haiti, Google and China Censorship, How Social Media Impacts Global Crisis, Iran Elections, Stephen Roesler

Sick of Hearing it?

The benefits of a recession.  For some.

By: Stephen Roesler

The rhetoric about a floundering economy due to faulty loans has been buzzing in the ears of consumers for a little over two years. It’s getting old. Now the sob stories of lost homes and accruing debt seems to be our focus. The housing market is poor, the loan process stinks and banks are shoddy.  Obama, we think, is listening.

While hardship and strife continues among everyday Americans,  Apple recently announced it’s financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter. $15.68 billion. It’s Apple’s all time highest quarterly revenue ever posted. Last quarter alone Apple sold 3.36 million computers, 8.7 million iPhones and 21 million iPods.  And these profits come before the launch of the much anticipated iPad.

During a recession, the gap in success between markets can be substantial. The economy bears a contraction in real output and employment which inevitably suppresses or bolsters different sectors of the economy. Taking a glimpse at the Great Depression it’s relevant to note that recessions produce emerging markets. Unneeded markets naturally select. The elevator for example, gained enormous popularity following the crash in 1929. Another notable example is the personal computer which eradicated the need for typewriters.

Currently, we are experiencing similar fluctuations in valuable sectors.   We live in an accelerated time driven by technological trends.  Google knows our online history, where we work and the street we live on.  Facebook knows who we hang out with and even suggests who we should be friends with. Stumbleupon knows our interests, Digg knows our favorite stories, and Flickr see’s our personal photos. Apple, in all their brilliance, knows what we want before we want it.

Today, the online market dominates.  From this recession, consumer technology is expanding quicker than every before. 96% of Gen Y has joined a social network, social media has overtaken porn as the # 1 activity on the web, 1 billion iPod apps were downloaded in 9 months. 80% of companies use LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees and there are more than 200 million blogs.  As we begin to emerge from the recession, we will soon see the true success of the online revolution.

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Apple, Facebook, Great Depression, LinkedIn, Stephen Roesler

The Web of the Future

By: Stephen Roesler

Recently, Mashable published an article regarding 4 web trends to watch in the future.  It was not a despondent foreshadowing like 1984 or another forlorn Brave New World, instead the article predicted some very reasonable trends on the web.  The most important, and thus the reason for this article, is the predicted longevity of social media.

In the last year, Nielson shows that social media usage has increased by 82%.  Consider the online interaction on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook.  Ponder the millions of blogs. What can we deduce?  It’s obvious that we are social creatures seeking relationships, attention and affirmation from others.  The question is, how do we effectively achieve these relationships in today’s world of Smartphone’s, tablets, laptops and the remarkable ability to know what everyone is doing at any given time?  The answer seems to be Social Media.  And it’s here to stay.

This conclusion does no come unfounded.  Sure, it’s clear social media is on the rise, but how will it sustain growth?  Here are a couple reasons why it’s only getting more popular.

Currently, many of us use our Smartphone’s to access the internet when we are aren’t by a computer; we will soon use tablets and other forms of media.  The web will be accessible everywhere.

In 2008, the FCC held an auction for the 700 MHz wireless spectrum that detailed a nationwide Wi-Fi program.  The idea received momentous attention.  To give an example, Google was one of the multi-billion dollar bidders.  In five or ten years, it’s likely that people will scoff at the time when laptops were unable to receive Wi-FI or 4G.  Which brings up an important consideration.  These clunky metal machine’s we lug to work will likely take a back seat to emerging hardware.

T.V’s will allows us to browse the internet and tablets will likely have 3G access.  Many of us access the Internet on our phones more often than computers; 80% of tweets are from mobile devices.  As devices change, we will see more touchscreens and alternatives to the keyboard and mouse.  Already we’ve seen HP’s Wall of Touch and Project Natal.

The emerging interfaces focus on the ease of viewing videos, images and music – all in the name of making social media more accessible.  We are observing the beginnings of a social revolution driven by online networking.  It’s not going away.  Instead, it’s shaping the future of technology.

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

Tags: Mashable, Smartphones, Stephen Roesler, Tablets