Since then I have been thinking more about what would help recruit top notch candidates for employment. I came to the conclusion that transparency is critical. While I’ve read about the necessity of transparency in books like “Naked Conversations,” I had never realized the true impact, until today. How can companies attract new graduates that have spent their college careers on social networks, being granted practically unfiltered access to all of their friends social interactions through a story of pictures and other public statements? Well, there is no option but to become equally transparent.

I concluded that the best way to attract the “generation me” crowd that will soon contribute to the creative class in society, is to break down all barriers and grant them access to see the people that make up a company. I suggested that all of my co-workers on the digital team should be on Facebook with our profiles filled and have at least a few pictures. People connect with people, not with companies. If your company can illustrate that it is composed of fun, intelligent and creative individuals, I am willing to bet that there is a greater chance of attracting the people that you want to hire.

Prior to the internet, it was much more difficult for job seekers to view the people that made up a company. Instead, they went to those companies that had a solid reputation. Times have changed and companies need to open up. There is a revolution taking place that we are slowly beginning to see the impact of. The world has become more transparent, and as a result companies will need to become transparent as well if they intent to recruit the younger generation.

The potential for Facebook to layer on any feature whose value increases with the participation of friends is an incredibly broad canvas for a portal. Moreover, as each new application gains acceptance, it enriches the overall value of the network and makes it incrementally more likely that the next application will be tried. Much of what we know as ‚ÄúWeb 2.0‚Ä? will eventually be rebuilt on top of Facebook.

So as companies build applications for Facebook, the question becomes, will users travel away from Facebook to view the sites of application creators? In my own opinion the answer for this depends on what type of application is being built. Many users will choose to stick to the confines of Facebook as it is a platform that they feel comfortable with. Others will venture out and sign up for new sites that will help enrich their experience. In either circumstance, the user will still come back to Facebook. As Fortune points out:

Today, social networking is fragmented. There are networks for dating, for philanthropy, for pet owners, for parents. But each has its own ways for members to register, describe themselves, communicate, and interact. Facebook aims to make much of that unnecessary. It will provide the underlying services – a platform – and offer access to its prerecruited pool of members. It will retain some online real estate and will still generate the lion’s share of its revenue from advertising.

Ultimately the goal is to make a start page for users that is so useful, they don’t need to go anywhere else. Why go to a news site when it comes to you? Why go to your bank’s site when you can view your balance right from your start page? If Facebook can bring everything directly to the user and force the other sites to be simply content providers, it becomes an easier interaction for the user and a better situation for Facebook. Facebook has gone an taken existing concepts (startpages, rss feeds, etc) and has now brought it to the masses. Internet users that once had no idea what all of these new technologies are about, will now experience the benefits of existing technologies even if they don’t understand how they work because all they need to do is click “Add Application”.

So back to the initial question. Is there any point in launching your own social application? In the long run, probably not. All sites will eventually become content providers that allow users to decide for themselves how they are going consume information. RSS feeds and OPML are only the beginning of such technologies. While this is going to take time to manifest, in the foreseeable future you are going to have access to all the information you want right at your fingertips, all from one page. While search will still be necessary to find new sources of content, users will be able to avoid navigation the web on a daily basis to consume all the information that they want. While its not going to happen immediately, Facebook has just taken a huge step in that direction.

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.

At least we died trying? That sounds a little ridiculous to me. The real problem is that beyond a certain point, social networks become controlled by the users rather than the moderators. Without a highly automated moderating system, there is no chance that a site can effectively monitor everything being posted with its community.

I’ve witnessed the problem first hand at the first startup that I worked for. After coming into work one day, I learned about a community participant that was harassing others. A few members of the community felt threatened and communicated their problem to us. The member did cross the line, and he was effectively banned. At the time, that community contained under 10,000 users. I can’t imagine trying to control a community of millions. Think of the troubles that MySpace faces, especially when it comes to pedophilia. The future of social networks is effective automated monitoring programs that don’t limit people’s freedom of speech.

In this case, I don’t think Digg should have buried the article. There’s no point. If Digg is at risk of being sued, then Google should be at risk also. Try googling ‚Äúhd-dvd processing key‚Äù. Hundreds of thousands of pages show up, many of which include the key in the title or body of the page. The bottom line is that there will always be hackers and crackers that try to break protections, and they will also post their results on the web. This is a fact of life. Let alone, how many people really know what to do with the HD-DVD processing key anyways? There will be a continuing struggle between industry and the social web, this is just another case study in the relationship between the two.

The same rules exist outside of the digital world. When you tell a joke that your friend told you, you should probably state where you obtained the joke from. A better example would be spreading rumors. You always need to say where you obtained your information. Well in the blogosphere the same thing goes. Pay respect to those that inform you and drop a link. Continue to be a part of the community on an ongoing basis. By participating in conversation on other people’s blogs, you show that you care about what they write as well as show that you have something useful to add to the conversation. Later, when people are looking for interesting dialogue, they will come visit your site.

You need to build genuine personal relationships with your customers. While this may not be the case for commodities, this is the primary case for the vast majority of services being offered. As you build these relationships with individuals they will in turn tell their friends and suddenly your marketing efforts will have paid off. You can reach out to more individuals via blogs and alternative forms of social media.

It’s nothing new, in one sense. The only advertising that was ever truly effective was word of mouth, which is nothing more than conversation. Now word of mouth has gone global. The one-to-many scope that technology brought to mass production and then mass marketing, which producers have enjoyed for two hundred years, is now available to customers. And they’re eager to make up for lost time. -Cluetrain Manifesto

You may even be able to generate some traffic to your blog and various web sites via mass marketing, but the impact from these large marketing campaigns will be nowhere near the response you receive from developing geuine relationships. Trust me, I have seen a number of national television advertising campaigns by Fortune 500 companies only generate 50 leads to a site. Some will say that it’s because their ads were bad. This may be true, but I’ve witnessed the result of successful word of mouth campaigns that would dwarf any national mainstream media campaign. The new marketplace is primarily responsive to relationship marketing. So get out there and start building new relationships!

This book hit home with me as social media has become a focus of mine over the past year. What I find to be particularly fascinating is how many corporations and communications professionals are still very much clueless about the impact that social media is having. When you can readily access published military intelligence or buzz about rats in a store it is no wonder that corporations and government are increasingly nervous about their lack of control in the marketplace and media. As a result, the growing impact of social media will require greater resources to be dedicated to managing social media interaction. All bloggers will tell you how to succeed: join the conversation. For corporations, joining the conversation can be a daunting task depending on organization size and the relative importance of internal information. Thus the need for individuals who are in charge of such activities.

After a little research I was able to come up with companies that have already filled this position. Eastwick Communications recently appointed an employee to Vice President of Emerging Media. A year ago, PRWeb created a position titled Vice President of Social Media. I believe these companies are early adopters and we will see this position become increasingly popular within organizations. As social media continues to expand, so will the need for oversight and strategy.

In terms of social media measurement, I learned that it is truly an emerging industry that is still seeking leadership. The PR industry is still trying to adapt to the rapidly changing media environment. In order to advance social media measurement, there will need to be though leaders and advocates of social media measurement within the public relations and communication industry. Just like thought leaders are required for the progression of OpenID, such is the case of social media measurement and monitoring. All in all, my experience with social media club was a positive one and I will definitely attend it again.

Simply put, the creators of the movement underestimated the sales volume of itunes. With Bum Rush the Charts obtaining close to 18,000 visitors on the day of the event, I would guess that they sold no more than 10,000 units. I had to work hard to convince friends of mine to purchase the song, and it was only 99 cents! Bottom line, the marketing was not done properly. No A-list bloggers covered the event, there was some press coverage but not enough, and apparently 99 cents was a fairly significant hurdle for some people.

Is it possible for a campaign like this to be a success? Yes, but it takes a concerted effort and an amalgam of marketing channels. I have been inspired by the challenge, and am working on putting something together to make a movement that succeeds. If you have any suggestions please let me know!

1. Hyperlinks – Hyperlinks are what determine the buzz on the web. Sites such as Techmeme and Megite perform this task superbly. Google already determined years ago that hyperlinks are the way to go.
2. Weighting System – This is the critical component that differentiates one monitoring system from the next. By creating a unique combination of factors, each resource can be weighted effectively. One example of this is Google’s PageRank^TM. Other examples include the Alexa rating and the Technorati rating.
3. Time – Most of the value in publishing is timeliness. If I’m reading news that is days old (or event minutes old sometimes), it is practically of no value. As a result time is the final factor weighing in on social media monitoring/measurement.

The market for social media monitoring and measurement is going to continue to boom. As people are restricted to the amount of attention they can dedicate to monitoring, more effective filtering solutions will become prevalent.

What is PR Measurement?
Simply put, PR measurement is a method of measuring the impact of all of an organization’s public relations activities which includes but is not limited to public affairs, media relations, and social media activities.

What is Social Media Measurement?
Social media measurement is simply a subset of PR measurement. The goal of social media measurement is to monitor and measure the buzz surrounding any particular topic (most often a brand or specific product) within all forms of social media (blogs, forums, wikis, etc).

Recently I have been trying to come up with an effective system for monitoring social media sources that would enable a company representative to become active in conversations that they deem important. There are many companies that currently offer similar services such as Nielsen’s BuzzMetrics, Cymfony, and Motive Quest. All of these services enable companies to learn more about their customers. As I read more about these services, I also become increasingly skeptical of the actual value provided to the companies. Ultimately the real value is in being able to see what customers really think about your product or brand. In contrast to the past where you would fill out a survey or call a hotline to most likely voice a complaint, consumers are now voluntarily voicing both praise and criticism of their favorite brands and products online. Additionally, companies now have the ability to join the conversation and talk directly with the consumers. While PR measurement attempts to quantitatively describe the effects of all of a company’s PR activities, social media measurement sticks to those activities that are online. As a result of having digital records of people’s opinions, social media measurement generates better statistics than general PR measurement which doesn’t have direct access to the media viewers.

While this entry is simply my general assessment of the PR measurement industry, I would like to make one assertion. Effective social media measurement is attainable via effective filtering processes. Companies are currently experiencing an explosion in access to customer insight. As a result, they are attempting to monitor all the buzz taking place and appropriately respond to as many comments as possible. Ultimately, the process has begun to burn out both executives and the PR professionals who monitor social media. What needs to be developed is a system that allows companies to monitor the buzz while optimizing their time spent on the social media conversations. For large corporations, there is not enough resources to respond to every single customer’s concern that is voiced online, but there is an optimal balance between monitoring, conversation participation, and company action. Where that optimal point is differs for each company.