You may have heard about Gmail going social in a way that muscles in on the territory pioneered by Twitter and later co-opted by everyone from Facebook to LinkedIn to Friendfeed, and everyone else – namely status updates.
Google’s horse in this race is Buzz. Watch the video below to learn more or click on the image above from the Google Blog.
Then let me know how you like your Buzz.
Let’s face it: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn squandered their potential. Instead of becoming knowledge or trade hubs, they’re essentially virtual singles bars. All 3 of these networks are so choked with ads, scams, and come-ons that companies trying to turn a legitimate buck have turned to so-called opinion or “thought” leaders (anyone from Ashton Kutcher to Robert Scoble) in order to cut through the chatter. Fair enough, but lawyers still aren’t going to buy a product because it’s being pushed by an actor (even if it’s a dream-boat like Ashton). And as the authors of this piece in Social Media Today point out, professionals get online for reasons not common to the average user, including:
So why is there such a yawning gap between what professionals want in social networks and what the networks deliver? And to make matters worse, most social media campaigns are basically re-packaged website or blog content grafted onto the flavor of the month; an approach which is transparent and ineffective.
Why don’t social networks and advertisers observe the same rules that we professionals observe among ourselves, i.e.
If social networks and marketers respect these principals will they gain traction with professionals? How should I know? But I’m sure that if they ignore these points I’ll be gone before they can sell me anything.
At first when I saw 10 Really Tangible Ways To Measure Social Media Success on Microgeist I thought that somebody had cracked the code behind social media investments. Sadly the article is primarily a collection of platitudes; there is still no reliable way to measure return on an investment in social media. Luckily, I have a few suggestions.
· Set a reasonable goal as well as a series of intermediate milestones
· Establish limits on the amount of time and money you will set aside
· Figure out how to measure and record your progress ($$, clients, etc.)
· Engage users and add to the feedback loop; measure, adjust, repeat
Unfortunately manylawyers who throw together blogs and websites or sign up for Twitter or Facebook accounts, do so without a plan. How surprised are they when they fail to connect with prospects or colleagues? For those willing to put in the time however, here are a few suggestions.
Getting Started
· Prepare an outline and action plan including spending limits related to social media
· Make sure you understand what social media is, isn’t, and what it can reasonably do
· Be prepared to adjust expectations and tactics; social media is not a one-shot deal
Early Going
· The quality of responses doesn’t matte yet; you are not ready to present yet
· Instead just see if your message resonates with your chosen audience (listen)
· Once you’ve made a connection, fine tune it by posting and gauging response
The Feedback Loop
· Once you’re up and running, feedback is key, and feedback is dynamic
· Watch, listen, adjust, repeat: measure user responses to each change
· Media isn’t social people are social, so ask for feedback and then listen
· Ask for comments, ask questions, encourage discussion, be provocative
Milestones to Consider Using
· # of followers (but this alone tells you little)
· # of followers from within your industry
· # of followers who could become clients?
· Amount of time you spend on social media daily
· Amount of activity that social media generates
Find the Right Online Contacts
· Is there is a growth trend in your followers/readers?
· Is your message compelling to your target audience?
· Do people see you as a conduit for quality information?
· Negative feedback is inevitable; what kind do you get?
· Do your followers’ followers become your followers too?
Show Me the Money
If you post ads on your blog or website, remember that revenue is not their real purpose. In reality, ads can provide an invaluable insight into what your readers/users/visitors are interested in – the first step to connecting with paying clients.
In “How Twitter is Changing the Face of Media” @Mashable guest poster @SorenG shares his take on how the micro-blog phenom is affecting the 5th Estate. In his estimation the big changes brought about by Twitter are
I should be all for these changes. Strangely however, I’m on the fence. Here’s why. People-powered information sounds great and has the potential to be much better for society than information being in the hands of the newserati. But when it comes to us in an immediate, raw, unfiltered feed, news still should be vetted and processed before it is trusted. The alternative could easily be panic caused by a cascade of misinformation.
Still, that’s the democracy of Twitter – everyone has a chance to succeed and an even bigger chance to fail.
The following is based on a post by Clio in its November Newsletter. Read more about Clio here.
Last week Google took the covers off of Chrome OS; the first new, significant operating system to be introduced in the last ten years; and the first to be devoted entirely to web applications. What’s significant about Chrome OS?
In other words, Google Chrome OS is the logical conclusion to the shift away from desktop applications to “the cloud” (itself an echo of the decades-old idea of thinking mainframes and dumb terminals). But is Google too late to make a difference in the OS sphere? Only if it tries to unseat Windows. But that was never the idea. Instead, Google wants to provide the OS blueprint for
Take a minute to wish Firefox a happy 5th birthday. Can you believe? It’s been 5 glorious years since Firefox made it fun again to get on the Internet. Sure Chrome has been a noble experiment and Safari is as elegant as Apple itself, but Firefox is the original bad boy of browsers and it can still makes a geek’s heart flutter.
TechnoLawyer ABA Techshowpracticehacker is using WP-Gravatar
