Archive of TheNextWeb.org
Written on January 8, 2009 – 1:27 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Atherton Bartelby, a Brooklyn-based graphic designer, art director, writer, blogger, and photographer, wrote an interesting blog post on Mashable. He compares his Twitter experience with a party where everybody has a great time - which is in the end spoiled by a person that “doesn’t fit”. So he publishes an article on one of the world’s largest blogs to tell you when he won’t follow you. Ok, this kind of behavior is accepted in 2.0 land and if you ignore his initial concept, “FOLLOW FAIL: The Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Follow You in Return on Twitter” is actually a very valuable post.
Atherton Bartelby
Here are the ten reasons why Mr. Bartleby from Brooklyn, New York won’t follow you on Twitter:
- You have no user avatar
- You list no location, no website, or no bio
- Your “website” listed is a MySpace profile
- You’re following over 1,000 users, have 20 followers, and no updates
- Your profile features any variation of “Internet expert”
-
Your updates clearly indicate that your Twitter activity is always, only, about pushing your own service/product
-
Your following and my return follow result in a poorly-constructed auto-DM reading, “Thx for the follow! How can I help you get to a 4-Hour Work Week?”
- Your most recent updates make references to any need to achieve “more Twitter followers”
-
Your Twitter stream indicates a propensity for consistent arguing
- You do not engage your Twitter followers
Refer to the Mashable post to see Bartleby’s motivations. You can ignore a couple, like “Your profile features any variation of “Internet expert” - since that one comes from a man who calls himself a “social media connoisseur” (it’s always the social media experts who are truing to critize other social media experts of being one). The first two are pretty obvious and the third really matter of taste. But the ones about pushing, auto-DM’s, “more Twittter followers”, arguing, and engaging are pure gold.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on January 4, 2009 – 4:41 pm
Martin Kloos, Web Strategy Consultant
Every month, The Next Web Blog picks three relevant books for you to read. The teasers are short, the pro’s why to read are relevant. This month we’re discussing Twitter means business written by Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Outliers written by Malcolm Gladwell and Myspace Marketing written by Sean Percival.
twitter means business: how microblogging can help or hurt your company
I covered a book on Twitter last month and after seeing an excellent slideshare presentation on Twitter for Business (not related to this author) I was keen on reading Twitter means business: how microblogging can help or hurt your company written by Julio Ojeda-Zapata (website). First thing I noticed that the book not only covers the glory and success of Twitter, it also explains how it could hurt your business. I really like this down-to-earth view on the topic. The book itself is an explanation of Twitter and elaborates through “Twitter lessons” how and why you should use Twitter for business. With this focus it clearly distinguishes itself from other books dedicated to the phenomenon. Much of the book is focused on specific cases like Dell, Comcast and Zappos and more general organizations using strategies like listening, speaking, engaging and evolving on Twitter. Two funny things about this book: for one the author itself was one of the best examples. Second the author respects Twitter language in his book by addressing both real names as well as Twitter usernames.
Outliers: The story of success
I don’t know how I could have missed the new book of Malcolm Gladwell last month… Outliers became an instant best-seller after its launch hitting Amazon’s Best of the Month in November 2008. Outliers: the story of success tries to answer the question why some become extremely succesfull, deserved or not, and others don’t. Gladwell argues that outliers rise on a “tide of advantages” like ethnic background, when and where you were born and other factors together with some luck to become truly successful. In his book, he talks about things as the 10.000 hour rule, Harlan Kentucky, and Rice paddies and math tests. As we are used from Gladwell, not (entirely) scientific but well researched and full of interesting and fun trivia make it a nice read.
MySpace Marketing: Creating a Social Network to Boom Your Business
After a book on Marketing on Facebook was launched in September 2008, Sean Percival is now publishing a book on Myspace Marketing: Creating a Social Network to Boom Your Business in Q1 2009. Not the first of it’s kind, but the contents of the book as well as the topic itself is absolutely relevant for organizations. With for instance 6mln+ members on Dutch social network Hyves, these social networks are a marketers heaven and the question how to effectively market those target audiences is more relevant (as well as more difficult) then ever. The book itself covers all the basics you would expect in a book on marketing: from an introduction to Myspace and an assessment whether your business is right for Myspace to a practical, step-by-step guide on how to market on Myspace. With inspiring mini case studies, the book shows you the tactics that work. However, the accompanying Ning Network could use some work though…
Written on December 12, 2008 – 4:14 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Youthwatching ‘09 is a Belgian conference about youth culture. Luckily, they realize that such a conference is a pure fake when they’re no youngsters around. Thus they’ve invited young lads and girls to the give a short presentation about their projects and dreams.
Turns out that some guys have really noble goals in mind. Toon and Bert hate the taboo on masturbating girls. To combat this general perception, they’ve started an online initiative called WeMasturbate. With pages on MySpace and Netlog plus stickers, t-shirts, and buttons in the off line world they gain attention for their cause:
Boys masturbate and can talk and show off about it. But when it comes to girls and masturbation, ieeeuw.
The guys believe in positive discrimination, so only girls are allowed to befriend them. So far, 14332 Netlog chicks have joined their cause. Netlog founder Lorenz Bogaert also gave a presentation during Youthwatching and he advised Toon and Bert to expand their business to Turkey, where in a recent research 42 percent of the youngsters acknowledged they had stripped in front of a webcam.
I felt pretty dull when I had to give my talk about problogging…
Written on December 9, 2008 – 10:46 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Amit Kapur, Chief Operating Officer of MySpace, is on the Le Web stage right now. So far, he had a quite glorious career at MySpace. He joined the company as the first person to boost business development and did a good job at creating revenue streams (e.g. the $900M Google deal) and partnering up with giants like Sony BMG. Kapur currently oversees MySpace’s global operations.
Kapur in happier times
But right now, I feel sorry for the man. He’s about to get interviewed by one of tech world’s toughest cookies, Michael Arrington. That TechCrunch guy. Let’s see what happens.
Off the record
Before the interview started, Kapur must have been pretty excited though, as he has the honor to announce a new MySpace feature. After chatting with Arrington for a while, “MySpace users are not stupid, not uneducated and not poor” and “MySpace music streams a couple of hundred million songs a day. But that’s off the record”, Kapur was ready for the BIG announcement. Hold on to yourself.
MySpace launches a MySpace toolbar which makes it possible to carry MySpace along with you while browsing the web. Yes, that means you can search, check status messages, look up your friends, whatever. But there’s one thing you can’t: playing music! The reason? Bad for advertising revenue. Kapur: “We’re launching products that have the right balance between user experience and monetization. In that perspective, we haven’t found a way for playing music in the toolbar yet.”
The toolbar is only available for Windows users, Mac comes later. I. Can’t. Wait.
Written on December 4, 2008 – 9:57 pm
Mircea Goia, Next Web US Webtipr
Want to add social features to your site letting users share information and interact with friends while visiting some of their favorite websites?
Google Friend Connect lets you do that now. This service was in a limited beta since May but now it’s open to all webmasters (open beta). Friend Connect uses open standards like OAuth and OpenID to accomplish this task. The websites which uses Friend Connect can also run OpenSocial applications created by OpenSocial developer community.
It lets websites access username and password of the users along with friends list, feed massages, profile info, reviews and other info.
Google Friend Connect competes with Facebook Connect and Myspace Data Availability in taking control over you online identity. Which one will you choose for your website? (Update: Facebook Connect just announced the general availability too! See a presentation here.)
The learn more about Google Friend Connect watch their presentation video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N94s7ix0JPo
Written on October 29, 2008 – 3:22 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
His research concluded that trying to control the use of sites such as Facebook, which alone boasts more than 100 million users worldwide, could even harm organizations.
This is a line from a news message Reuters pumped in the blogosphere today. Obviously, we can expect a lot of blog coverage about this matter. It’s saying exactly what we, early adopters, already knew: companies shouldn’t think you can control social networks. Better try to benefit from them.
British think-tank knows better
Demos, a British think-tank, studied the effects of social networking on business. Author Peter Bradwell concludes that when employees gossip, talk and share photos on Facebook, MySpace and others - it could actually benefit firms. It’s all part of professional networking and helps people keeping in touch with colleagues and customers.
However, there should be practical guidelines to limit non-work usage - Bradwell said. But blocking is not the way to go: “Allowing workers to have more freedom and flexibility might seem counterintuitive, but it appears to create business more capable of maintaining stability.”
“Banning Facebook and the like goes against the grain of how people want to interact. Often people are friends with colleagues through these networks and it is how some develop their relationships.”
How can companies get the most out of Facebook?
Demos doesn’t give firms any practical tips on how to get the most out of Facebook. Maybe we can get some together in the comments here. Moving some of the business related communication to a certain network might stimulate the right usage. But with my zero corporate experience, I think you guys should do the talking.
Written on October 26, 2008 – 4:22 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Since February, I’ve regularly praised the marketing efforts of MySpace in Europe. Just like Facebook, Bebo, LinkedIn, and several other services, they desperately tried to get some of the ever growing European social network pie. Yesterday however, MySpace realized that they will never taste the sweetness of the Dutch cake.
All of the American giants face fierce competition of regional social networks like StudiVZ (Germany), Netlog (West-Europe and Turkey), Amiz (France), Hyves (Holland), and Bahu (Mediterranean countries). These networks were the first ones to lure folks into the online social world. People have gone through all the trouble of connecting to their friends. So why would they - all of a sudden - switch to an international version? (More on that here)
A Murdoch-owned company respecting cultural differences
Myspace NL launch
Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace all have different approaches, of which I like the MySpace one the best. Whenever Murdoch’s web 2.0 experiment launches a local version, MySpace installs a local team who knows what’s hot and what’s not in the country and throw a great party. In March I wrote:
I’d thought I would never say this about a company owned by Murdoch but here we go: It feels like MySpace respects the cultural differences more and really wants to make an effort. I hope it will pay off.
Hail Hyves
Well, in Holland it didn’t. Dutch news site Webwereld reports that MySpace Netherlands throws the towel. Country Manager Holland Derek Fehmers told Entertainment Business that when he entered the market in February, he realized Holland was tough. “We arrived pretty late and had a large competitor which was hard to fight”.
That large competitor would be Hyves. More then 33% percent of the Dutch have registered to this social network.
MySpace Holland made a connection between the offline and online world by organizing parties with local bands. Unfortunately this original and cool approach wasn’t profitable enough. The 650.000 registered Dutch users will now just have language support. The local content is history.
[Photo credit: Polle de Maagt]
Written on October 16, 2008 – 3:25 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Two weeks ago, Dutch blogger Ridzert Beetstra wrote a post about a life insurance company that challenged all Dutchmen to “pimp” their funeral. After expressing his amazement, he ended the post by mentioning the song he wanted to hear on his funeral. What followed, were ten comments from people saying which song would be the soundtrack of their lives. I was one of them.
When I posted my request to family and friends, it didn’t seem then weird. But when I later thought about it, telling the world how the tunes during my farewell day will sound struck me as kind of odd. Particularly in the sense that I couldn’t imagine myself sharing something like that a few years ago.
Act normal, then you act crazy enough
The baby boomers and Generation X were raised to be modest people. Like the Dutch saying goes: “act normal, then you act crazy enough”. Sure, most western societies were pretty focused on the individual compared to most Asian cultures, yet self-expression was something that wasn’t considered to be decent. Adolescents formed groups and wore certain clothes or hairstyles to distinguish themselves, but that’s about it.
Every kid a brand
But my generation grew up with Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, and other social networks. Every single soul on the face of the planet could start its own brand by creating a page on one of these services. Choose your pictures, make sure you fill in the right favorite movies and books, collect as many friends as possible: every kid starts his or hers own brand.
Funeral great outlet for personal branding
When I see ten young men telling the world about their funeral song, I can’t help but thinking that we’ve become so focused on personal branding that even our burial or cremation forms a great outlet for it. I also recognize this in the marketing message of Richard Derks, co-founder of Respectance.com (a social network for the deceased):
Who dies in two years and doesn’t have a Tribute on Respectance.com, didn’t have a lot of friends
On L1veon1ine, users can, amongst other things, tag themselves to create a “digital” DNA, which floats in cyberspace forever. Gary Vanyerchuk told the Web 2.0 Expo New York audience that his biggest motivation was his online legacy, so that even his great grand children could see what he has done. Mashable’s Stan Schroeder gives four ways to deal with the Google Afterlife. You can also take the online material offline and publish it on your digital tombstone.
Taboo
Maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe personal branding gave us an outlet to tell people something that used to be taboo: “yeah, I can finally share which song defines me”. However, I think it’s an interesting discussion. Did the focus on personal branding took away some of our social barriers?
The soundtrack of your life
To end this article, I’ve made a soundtrack of the funeral wishlist as posted on the Dutch blog. It might inspire you when writing your funeral scenario. Don’t forget to share your choice on Facebook.
Written on September 1, 2008 – 12:14 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Bebo represents AOL’s hope to have a successful social network, just like the other big guys. Truth be told, Bebo is quite a large player. It has 40 million users and may call itself no.1 in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. In the US is has a respectable third place behind MySpace and Facebook.
But still, the service isn’t big in the rest of the Western web. No top positions in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Holland. Therefor, Bebo has hired former Google industry marketing head Nicole Vanderbilt to fulfill the new role of international VP.
According to the Guardian, Vanderbilt has to conquer exactly these countries I mentioned before. Not an easy task, as the European social network market seems to be pretty filled out. It’s basically divided in three parts:
- National giants: StudiVZ (12.2 million users in Germany) and Hyves (5 million users in Holland)
- Networks that spread out over several countries: Bahu (popular in Mediterranean region) and Netlog (35 million users in June)
- Facebook and Myspace: the higher educated folks who’ve worked or traveled abroad join Facebook, the creative people Myspace. Most Europeans use these networks on the side.
It will be a tough challenge for Vanderbilt to find a place in this market. How will she be able to convince us Europeans to join ANOTHER social network? Focusing on a niche or certain target group, hoping the Bebo virus will catch on or rolling out a massive ad campaign seem to be the only two ways. Good luck.
Written on August 5, 2008 – 11:44 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Remember Rollercoaster Tycoon? The addictive game turned you into a theme park manager and rollercoaster designer. Although I enjoyed the managing aspect, the building possibilities really did it for me. One of the options during the construction of a rollercoaster were the boosters, which helped the trains gain some speed.
Social network Friendster is often called a “rollercoaster failure“. It was one of the first popular networks, attracted millions of users, and reached its peak in 2003 - Google then almost bought it for $30 million. Due to scalability problems, MySpace and Facebook took over the Western market. The rollercoaster went down pretty fast.
Yet the next steep was already in sight, as Friendster became the no. 1 service in several South Asian countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.
Earlier today, Friendster passed two boosters, which make the social network an important player again. The company closed a $20 million investment round, led by IDG Ventures with existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and Founders Fund. Moreover, the San Francisco-based company welcomed a new CEO, Richard Kimber, the regional managing director of South Asia for Google.
So while Facebook and MySpace have their ball in the west, Friendster now has the money and the right guy to firm their good position in South Asia. That’s one hell of a rollercoaster ride…
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
