Rahaf Harfoush
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Twitter Moms - Microblogging Evolution Reveals Twitter’s flaw
October 5th, 2008The slow but steady adoption of Twitter into the mainstream continues to fascinate me. As the microblogging site continues to get news coverage and more corporate accounts pop up, it’s pretty safe to say that Twitter has enabled companies to engage in deeper and more personal conversations without being overly imposing. For the companies that do it right, it has become a powerful tool to connect to consumers and promote brands, one tweet at a time.
The problem with Twitter…
I was intrigued to see and Ad for Twitter Moms on one of my recent internet jaunts. As I curiously poked around the site, I quickly realized that this community, (I’m sure the first of many) has popped up in direct response to one of Twitter’s biggest flaws: figuring out who to follow.
Currently Twitter lets you search for contacts you already know who are either on one of your other social networks, or who you can invite via email. Which is fine, but what about the great people out there who you don’t know, the friends you just haven’t met yet? The majority of people on my list are people that I’ve never met in person but who I’ve discovered to be funny, intelligent and generally all around wonderful. Since the technology industry has some well-established names, I found it easy to build up a base list. For non-tech enthusiasts who just want to meet new friends with similar interests, I can see the current system as being a huge barrier to adoption.
An end-user solution
Twitter Moms fills this void by allowing users to search for other moms based on interests ranging from motherhood to fashion, technology and business. Hosted on Ning, the community already has grown to over 2,300 members. Members gain access to groups, discussions and events. They even have a growing collection of videos that cover everything from humerous youtube videos, to technical tutorials for members who want learn more about web based tools.
I think it astutely addresses the intimidation factor of randomly following someone you don’t know by giving users the opportunity to ease into a new digital relationship, for example by contributing to a group discussion or commenting on site content. That way, by the time you follow each other on twitter you’ve already established a burgeoning online friendship that lays the foundation for future dialogue.
I think this is a fantastic idea, and I can definitely see similar communities emerging as more and more people start microblogging. I hope Twitter improves their search data base. Write now you can search via terms in people’s bios, but I still don’t think that’s enough. I mean if i search for “technology” I get hundreds of users, but how do I know which ones would be a good choice to follow?
Corporate Application?
I think organizations will see tremendous value by participating in these types of communities. I mean if you market to moms, you should definitely be watching twittermoms.com. There will be great opportunities to build relationships through sponsorships and marketing. I mean if I marketed stuff to moms, I would probably give away tons of free products to this group: they’re tech savvy, on twitter and like to engage with other moms online. A good product experience can go a long way, and it would provide plenty of opportunities for feedback and improvements.
The Final Word…
I like how social media empowers people by giving them the tools they need to fill in the gaps in their favorite services. Kudos to the founders of Twittermom who recognized a need and then went ahead and addressed it themselves. 
Posted in Tech & New Media, Well Played | 1 Comment »
IDEA NINJA: Mitch Joel on Meaningful Contribution
June 19th, 2008
I had the pleasure of speaking with Mitch Joel at SES Toronto 2008 Conference about social media success and engaging consumers in a meaningful way. Mitch had plenty to say and gave me some great tips that I thought I would share. Here’s the first IDEA NINJA!
For companies who are getting started:
If you’re a company that wants to get started with a blog, the first thing you want to do is make sure that there is an audience who is interested in engaging with you before you make any big investments. So start on a site like blogger.com or wordpress. Park your domain name so that you can use it later if you decide to go forward. Then just see how it goes.
This method can prove to your board or executives that that people were generally interested. You can also start a social community on Ning.com. It’s free. It might not have all the functionality but you’ll be able to validate your need for an investment.
Then, when you’re ready, you can move. And if people are engaged, they will follow you wherever you go.
For Bloggers Wanting to Increase Audience
You can use Google Reader to share interesting pages and links. If you do this, then Google reader will set up a little page just for you entitled “So and So’s shared pages” that will have it’s own RSS feed. You can then add the url of that page to your blogroll and people can subscribe to your shared items. It’s a great way to let people know about the things that are capturing your interest. You will also be able to grow community in an organic way.
On having or building a following:
Having a set of x number of friends is not the same as having conversations. Friendships are built by authenticity. There seems to be two sides, it’s like a nun/whore relationship in Social Media where one set of people are using these tools to get inspiration and collaborate to bring the industry forward, and the other is a vacuum that sucks value by focusing on link-baiting and inauthenticity in an effort to improve rankings.
On what should drive strategy:
What’s happening is that people are looking at the “what.” (What are we doing on Facebook? What are we doing on Myspace?) There is a rush and people forget the why. Why is more important. The Why is strategy and the What is tactic.
I always use the Bic Pen analogy. Who cares about a pen? None one cares and no one wants to be in scenario where they are being sold stuff. Bic built a community around the power of the written word, and writers loved that stuff. It’s about sharing your passions with people.
On Building Relationships:
Yeah, I have 2,000 Facebook friends. The value of those relationships go both ways. You will never stay my friend if you break that trust. The fact that I get links from this is secondary, my role is to provide and give back good content. I mean I can’t have a strong business without a strong community. And if people try to call bullshit on it then I tell them to prove me wrong. When have I ever not given something back when I good? I blog almost every day, I do a weekly podcast on my own time, I am always available is someone needs help with something.
But at the end of the day, you can’t be friends with someone if you don’t like what they are saying. Mass media is changing into a very personal and direct model. I look at those networks as being a cookie to a great conversation. The great conversation is dinner. Dinner is only amazing if the food is great.
On the balance of the online community:
These social channels are about individuals. Social media marketing is about real interaction between real human beings. If either of components of that equation aren’t there the entire thing quickly falls apart. It also takes time to build. So if anyone tells you that something can be a quick fix it’s a lie. There are no quick fixes in the space. That’s why it works so magically, it’s because you have to take the time to build and trust. You might get results in the short term, but it’s only the short term.
At the end of the day, if that’s your goal then it’s still spam.
To Get More Mitch:
Posted in Blog, Tech & New Media | 2 Comments »
The Foush Reports - Ep 01
May 16th, 2008
And you thought my awesomeness was limited to the printed word! I am every excited to introduce my new video blog series The Foush Reports, which will feature yours truly (obviously) as I navigate the wonderful and wacky world of New Media. You can look forward to cool websites, interviews and events. Snark to be added in accordingly.
Episode 1 - CaseCamp7
[Disclaimer: I was one of the organizers of Casecamp, although that doesn't mean I won't review the event honestly.]
In this first episode, I head over to Casecamp 7 , one of Toronto’s most popular “unconferences.” It is a free communications and social media gathering, with tons of networking and four 15 minute case study presentations from volunteers within the business community.
The keynote was by Brian Segal, ComScore who spoke about The state of the Canadian social web in three minutes. (5 second recap: it’s on the rise)
Presenters
1) The TD Canada Trust Facebook Story
Sue McVey, VP Marketing Planning, TD Canada Trust
2) Boxing Day 2007 at RedFlagDeals.com
Derek Szeto, Founder of RFD.com
3) Story2Oh!, Evolving TV Storytelling to Social Networks
Jill Golick, Executive Producer
4) Radiothon Diaries, Harnessing YouTube for the Hospital for Sick Children
Unfortunately I couldn’t show you footage of the presentations, but I did capture what I think is the best part of Casecamp. Enjoy!!
Special thanks to Eli Singer who organized the event and Filter Five Productions for their kick ass shooting, directing & editing.
Posted in Blog | 3 Comments »
Google to Facebook: Game ON!
May 16th, 2008
There was an interesting article from Time Magazine a few days ago about a new initiative being started by the super brains at Google.
It’s no secret that Google has been eying the gigantic social networking pie dominated by Facebook and trying to figure out the best way to enter the field. According to a new project, they don’t want to just enter the field, they’re going to level it.
Soon, every website will have the ability to be it’s own social network. Google announced that it will be entering the “social plumbing” business, and developing a set of tools that would allow each site to add an endless number of applications and the infrastructure to let users communicate amongst each other. Hey Googlers, when will you enter the “social electricity” business and figure out a way to bypass the ISP’s and power this bad boy of an internet?
The program is called Friend Connect. Any site can apply but only one or two dozen sites will be chosen for the initial preview release (aka pilot program)
What you need to know:
- One the program is live you’ll have to cut and paste a few lines of code onto your site.
- You’ll be able to choose from tons of applications, which range from creating a playlist for your favorite songs to the ability to geolocate your friends.
- The program uses OpenID, which is already utilized by some of the largest sites like AOL, and of course Google. So your Gmail Login is your OpenID, presto chango, no multiple login required.
- If you’re logged in, you’ll be able to see your list of contacts and follow their activities on any Friend Connect site. Privacy settings still stand, so if I posted a comment on a wall on a site, only my friends who read that site would be able to read it, strangers wouldn’t even see my comment at all.
What does this mean?
This is Google’s response to Facebook’s walled garden approach, which I previously blogged about
They are replicating Facebook’s key differentiator which is the ability to define your network (friends) as well as the applications or filters through which you view the world and allowing users to exert that control on the wide open web.
Where I see this going:
- Goodbye one way broadcasting. Interactivity on the web has been kicked up another level. If this program takes off, many more sites will have the ability to create networks and community without the hassle of multiple logins or data portability challenges.
- Evolution of new marketing metrics. This is the new age of marketing metrics. I foresee new consumer profiles being built (by Google) based on not only search engine parameters but by the applications that users prefer to communicate through. (For example, I wonder how you would market a product to a consumer who prefers wall postings, vs. instant chat applications…) Talk about a customized sales response!
- New Implications for Closed Communities. I wonder what’s going to happen to companies that don’t join OpenSocial. All the benefits of Facebook become less important if you can’t apply them to your regular surfing behavior. Maybe Facebook will introduce their own web browser to allow similar Friend Connect features within their home turf. That remains to be seen.
Posted in Blog | No Comments »
Seriously? Tom Cruise launches site - Internet gets crazier
May 8th, 2008
Tom Cruise must be reading this blog. Why else would he just launch a new just days after I blogged about him and Scientology? Coincidence? I think not. (Kidding)
In all seriousness, Cruise launched his new website TomCruise.com.
There is a letter on the site from Tom, which states:
“It’s almost impossible for me to believe that I’m celebrating the 25th anniversary of Risky Business, my first starring role in a film. In celebration of this occasion and my 27 years of making movies, I created this site as a thank you, to you, for sharing the journey to me and to invite you to continue to explore what the future will bring.”
He goes on to say:
My hope with this site is to bring you in and share with you the fun I experience every day during the film making process, from working on a script, to the making of the film through to what we see when we settle in our seats and the lights go down.
If I’m understanding correctly, Mr. Cruise wants to build a site that acts as a gateway between him and fans. He is trying to reach them and involve them without actually letting them get involved. He wants to build a “community” without actually building a community. He’s got a slick site, but that’s about it.
I have my doubts about whether or not this site will be successful for many reasons.
1) The Site Reeks of Old Media: Tom Cruise is building a very specific type of site; one that is centered around him as the main brand. Usually, these types of communities involve relationship building and a certain level of transparency between the fan and the figure head. However, with Tom Cruise making such interesting life choices, I wonder how honest the conversation will be. The site has no mention of Katie Holmes or Scientology so I assume it’s going to be a slick, carefully controlled site that only lets the world see the professional side of Cruise. The lack of authenticity might fool some of his more hardcore fans, but I doubt the rest of the web will take the site seriously. Especially when there are such interesting video clips available on the web.
2) Communities need interactivity and dialog. From what I can tell, the site wants to share Cruise’s experiences regarding film making with his fans, but he doesn’t want to cultivate a community. There are no message boards or areas for feedback. This is a one way transmission, in an age where interactivity is king. People want to contribute especially around a subject they care about.
3) Communities have a purpose. There is a plethora of online communities out there and they each have an underlying purpose, be it organizing around a topic of interest like DemoCamp or CaseCamp, or just giving people a way to stalk the people in their extended network (Facebook), there is some sort of pay off for community members to join and participate. Tom’s site doesn’t have much to offer, just a list of movies that he’s made, some pictures, and a few video clips. Nothing I couldn’t get off of IMDB, Wikipedia or Youtube. A site is great but it doesn’t really motivate the user to come back.
Granted it’s early days yet, and I will be watching, but color me skeptical.
Posted in Blog, Seriously?, Tech & New Media | No Comments »
