Social Mediarology

This was another exciting week in digital and social media. It was definitely a week full of Facebook Places. Check out these articles to see what you may have missed this week:

1: 10 Things You Need to Know About Facebook Places | Travel 2.0

Social Mediarology thinks: Travel 2.0′s Troy Thompson has some great points here. My favorite is #7, where he talks about using Facebook Places to help companies understand the new tripecho effect.

2: How to Use Facebook Places for Your Business | AllFacebook

Social Mediarology thinks: Three easy steps to create, claim and integrate your Place with your existing Facebook Fan Page. One caveat, you’ve got to use a mobile version of Facebook to do this – you’ll need to use your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android or Blackberry app.

3: All Hail the Gmail | GigaOm

Social Mediarology thinks: Respected tech journalist, Om Malik, thinks Google’s introduction of a Call Phone feature in all US Gmail accounts isn’t a real threat to Skype, but is just another way in which Google is quietly using their flagship email platform as a launching pad to be come more of a social company. I’m inclined to agree.

4: The State of the GeoSocial Universe | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: This is a great infograpic that shows the relative size of prominent social media and email platforms – and how many mobile users they each haev – in relation to the number of mobile devises worldwide. I had no idea more people used Skype than Facebook.

Since I’ll be at BlogIndiana tomorrow, I’m posting the weekly Four On Friday a day early. Here are some great posts from the past week about social media:

1: Facebook Places Makes Location a Commodity | ReadWriteWeb

Social Mediarology thinks: With Wednesday’s release of Facebook Places, what does this mean for location-based services in general and for Foursquare and Gowalla specifically? This post hints at the idea that the commoditization of location that Facebook Places could provide might just allow services like Foursquare and Gowalla to focus on providing rich features to users, rather than having to spend so much time on location accuracy.

2: The 8 Wrong Questions PR Firms are Asking About Social Media | Convince and Convert

Social Mediarology thinks: Instead of clamoring to make sure you can provide social media service to your clients, make sure you can provide the RIGHT social media service to your clients. These tips can be extracted for whatever industry you happen to work in, not just if you work at a PR firm.

3: 100 Free High Quality WordPress Themes: 2010 Edition | Smashing Magazine

Social Mediarology thinks: Smashing Magazine delivers a fantastic list of 100 free WordPress themes. Take a look through to find what you’re looking for. Read our How To: Choose a Blogging Platform for Your Organization post to see if WordPress makes the most sense for your business.

4: BlogIndiana 2010

Social Mediarology thinks: We’ll be out of the office today at Blog Indiana 2010. This great event, now it it’s 3^rd year, features 35 different speakers from across the country talking about all kinds of digital topics, from blogging to social media and everything in between. If you missed this year’s event, be sure to check it out in 2011.

Here are some great posts from the past week about social media:

1: Twitter’s Official Tweet Button Has Arrived | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: It’s been a long time coming, but Twitter has finally released their own Twitter Tweet button. They’re even working with TweetMeme (the most popular Retweet button out now) to support the button. One caveat – you can’t use your 0wn URL shortener (bit.ly or others), as all Tweets are wrapped in Twitters proprietary t.co shortener, but on the plus side, once a user retweets your content, they have the option of following you and up to one other associated account. Click on the tweet button at the top of this post and you’ll see that you have the option to follow @JeremyAWilliams and @SocMediarology after you’ve tweeted! Below is a video that walks through the Twitter Tweet Button features.

2: Facebook’s Foursquare Competitor is Imminent | CNET

Social Mediarology thinks: Facebook has been hinting at location-based integration for some time now and it looks like it may become a reality soon. The most interesting part of this? The potential that this will be baked in directly with a reworked Facebook Events.

3: Now You Can Follow Twitter Users Without an Account | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: In an effort to increase the reach of Twitter to consumers without a Twitter account (see the Twitter X-Factors section of our Subscribers, Fans and Followers post for more information about Twitter’s true reach) Twitter launches Fast Follow. Simply text “follow [username]” (without quotes) to 404040 and you’ll receive their tweets via SMS – even if you’re not a Twitter user. Try it out, text “follow SocMediarology” to 40404 to get our updates!

4: 3 Ways Facebook’s Pending Page Changes Affects Marketers | Hubspot

Social Mediarology thinks: Starting on Monday, August 23, Facebook will make some permanent changes to Facebook Pages. Among those changes are the elimination of boxes and the narrowing of custom tabs. If your organization has a Facebook Page, be sure to see if these changes will affect you.

Bonus! Here’s a fifth story you should check out from this week:

5: Foursquare Sorts Tips by Popularity | Foursquare Indy

Social Mediarology thinks: This is a welcome improvement to Foursquare. With 2.6 million users, some useless tips had been cluttering up more helpful ones as Foursquare used to sort their tips chronologically with the newest tip first. This will help clear out the clutter and will make the valid Foursquare tips even more important.

Here are some great posts from the past week about social media:

1: The Social Media Cheatsheet | Daily Bloggr

Social Mediarology thinks: Great, simple infographic that details what 10 different social media sites are good for – from Customer Communication and Brand Exposure to Traffic to Your Site and SEO.

2: Android Now Top-selling Smartphone Operating System | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: While it’s important to note that there are only 4 versions of the iPhone (and only one manufacturer) and there are countless versions and manufacturers of Android devices, this is still very important to note. No longer can you simply focus on an iPhone app for development – Android must be top of mind as well.

3: How to Create a Killer Social Media Strategy | Business Insider

Social Mediarology thinks: The short answer is to focus your activities to the social media platforms that matter. If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at your competitors and see what successes and setbacks they’ve experienced.

4: RIP Google Wave | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: Google Wave, possibly the most hyped tech-related launch of 2009, was just officially discontinued. It will be supported through the end of 2010. It just seems that Google can’t figure out how to get an edge in the Social market – with the failure of Wave and the relative small use of Buzz. For more thoughts on Google, check out my “Has Google Lost Its Edge?” post from earlier this year.

Here are some great posts from the past week about social media:

1: The Ultimate List: 300+ Social Media Statistics | Hubspot

Social Mediarology thinks: While this is a somewhat dated list (May, 2010) there’s still a wealth of information to be found here. My favorite stat: Nearly 30% of all link sharing is done via Facebook (24%) and Twitter (10.8%).

2: Old Spice Sales Double with YouTube Campaign | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: The old economists’ adage that “correlation does not equal causation” is certainly true in this case, but you can’t argue that the campaign has contributed to sales. If nothing else, it created a tremendous amount of brand awareness.

3: Google Introduces Location-Aware Mobile Display Ads | TechCrunch

Social Mediarology thinks: This could be huge for any tourism-related business. Attractions, hotels, restaurants, etc. This brings the location-awareness of apps like Foursquare to the general public.

4: 5 Critical Web Metrics to Keep a Close Eye On | ReadWriteWeb

Social Mediarology thinks: These are five great metrics. Some related to your website, some to Facebook and some to Twitter. Do you notice you have more Daily Active Uses on Facebook when you ask questions? Post more? Offer discounts? Check out the insights for your Facebook Fan Page at Facebook.com/Insights and unclick Total Likes to get a better look at your Daily Active Users.

Bonus! Here’s a fifth story you should check out from this week:

5: The Time for Foursquare Marketing is…Later? [STUDY] | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: We’ve been talking about Foursquare a lot lately and so have many other people. Mashable reports that

Only 4% of the adult, Internet-using population has used any kind of location-based service, and just 1% of all adults check into a location at least once a week.

While that’s true, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least think about integrating Foursquare into your marketing efforts. Especially if your target demographic is more likely to have a Foursquare account.

Here are some great posts from the past week about social media:

1: Beyond Foursquare: What Search Engines Could Do With Location Data | New York Times

Social Mediarology thinks: This is great news for consumers everywhere. With proper integration, Google Maps may, by default, look a lot like FourWhere.com (Read our post about FourWhere here), and search results could have some great location-based tips baked right in (Check out our post about Bing Maps’ Foursquare layer here).

2: Status Update: Facebook Logs 500 Million Users | USAToday

Social Mediarology thinks: With half a billion users, Facebook shouldn’t be ignored. The good news is that more and more organizations are joining Facebook every day in an effort to leverage the platform.

3: Is Email More Important Than Social Networks? | KyleLacy.com

Social Mediarology thinks: Kyle hits some great points in his post. In the end, the channel you use to communicate with your customers should depend on what your customers want.

4: 5 Mobile Commerce Trends for 2010 | Mashable

Social Mediarology thinks: With smartphone sales rising 49% in the first quarter of 2010, mobile technologies are here to stay. Here are some trends to keep an eye out for through 2010.