The State and Future of Twitter was revealed to the world at the Chirp Conference. Developers, futurists, reporters, investors, stakeholders, and businesses convened at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, making the journey from all over the world to witness history in the making. My experience at Chirp was in a word, profound. I sit here, right here, right now, attempting to distill all that I heard and learned and its true effect on the general public. The…
The State of Social Media Around the World 2010
If you were to look at Social Media the United States and many other parts of the world, you would believe that the world of Social Media was flat, dominated by social continents including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, and Flickr. As we zoom in, we visualize other established and emerging social services that depict provinces and outlying settlements of our social atlas. Upon publishing the original Conversation Prism, which was the culmination of a year’s work documenting and organizing the…
Who is the ME in Social Media?
Good friend Stowe Boyd recently shared a quote by Gabriel García Márquez, “Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life.” Indeed, quite simply many of us live life allowing specific, trusted individuals to know us in one or more of our personae. Our moral compass as well as outside influences affect how we balance our three lives. The size and permeability of our personal dividers vary in the separation of each life and resemble…
Top Twitter Trends of 2009
Now that Twitter employs a Chief Scientist, we will benefit from the ongoing interpretation and publishing of Twitter behavior and activity to better understand how Twitter is constantly evolving. In a discussion with Robert Scoble recently, I suggested that Twitter also consider hiring a digital anthropologist or sociologist, to not only analyze and comprehend data, but also effectively observe cultures and shifts within this burgeoning online society in order to participate in and ultimately shape its transformation. As shared in…
On PR, Social Media and the Evolution of the Web with Robert Scoble
I recently visited good friend Robert Scoble, his lovely wife Maryam and their family in Half Moon Bay. It was an overdue trip, one without an agenda. It was a fleeting opportunity to catch up, talk a bit about the latest book, and also an excuse to have a fireside chat, literally, on the grounds of the Ritz Carlton (overlooking the 18th green and the Pacific Ocean.) Before we could walk over to the Ritz however, Scoble sat me down,…
On Twitter, What Are You Doing Was Always The Wrong Question
What are you doing? Perhaps, Twitter asked the wrong question all along. In all honestly, who cares…it was really never about “what you were doing” that inspired your network to stay connected nor was it the siren for attracting new followers. We chose to follow you because you moved or encouraged us to do so – with every update. For many of the users on Twitter, the question that engendered a response and also also aroused a cultural movement was,…
The Psychology of Twitter with Dr. Drew
Twitter is a phenomenon unto itself. Which is why, in the study of Social Media, Digital Anthropology and Sociology prevails. Technology indeed facilitates interaction while also introducing us to nuances that transcend the parameters governing natural conversations and asynchronous dialogue into new forms of conversational threads and networks. Twitter is among those networks actively studied by many (myself included) as it seemingly defies the laws of natural flow and engagement. The foundation that makes Twitter work is also the very…
The Dichotomy Between Social Networks and Education
Einstein Chalkboard: Source Recently, I discussed the validity of whether or not social networking (the verb) and social networks (as a noun) were impairing our ability to learn. A Stanford study suggested that this might be the case. It seems that the initial research and its supporting data is now emerging to help us further analyze whether or not this is indeed true or merely hypotheses based on the various samplings of individuals who may or may not serve as…
I’m Not Talking to You
Credit: Natalie Dee Social Media continues to fascinate me. If you stop and think about it for a moment, we’re presented with something special…something almost too simple to appreciate. Essentially, we have been given a gift – a looking glass into the thoughts, opinions, feedback, and dialogue that represents a snapshot of market sentiment and behavior. So, what do we do with this gift? A few, but growing faction of businesses realize the value in listening and learning. Others focus…
The 2009 Semmys Honor The Conversation Prism
Every year The Semmys nominates the best posts in marketing. Last year, the Social Media Manifesto was recognized and this year, The Conversation Prism was spotlighted. Thank you! When Jesse Thomas of JESS3 and I started to lay the foundation for the Conversation Prism, we realized that it was a much larger task then simply categorizing social networks and placing them within a visually-rich graphic or chart. My goal was to observe, analyze, dissect, and present the dynamics of conversations,…
