5 reasons you should be scared of Google

August 4, 2010 By 1 Comment

You should be scared of Google. I’ve been saying it for years… here are 5 good reasons from Cracked.com

Some people think that ‘Google’ exists to… help them.

These same people think Facebook is a way for people, to, like connect with each other?  In their worlds, Schmidt, Page and Zuckerberg are just cool people who got really rich by creating really useful stuff.  They don’t care what it means.  Jeez, stop getting all serious about it and just, like, use it, mkay?

If you’re one of these people, you couldn’t be more wrong. Sorry to poop your party. Google stopped being about ‘just finding things’ the second Schmidt and Page worked out that being able to know what people were looking for was the goldmine.

The same applies to Facebook. For about five minutes, it was about a guy just trying to be popular with girls. Pretty soon, it was about harnessing that same basic desire in everyone else to create a world that people would pay – a lot – to sell into.

Both these organisations are now so powerful they (along with others like eBay and PayPal) are effectively laws unto themselves, effectively free from control by any body, nation or even groups of nations.

I’ve never visited Cracked.com (strapline ‘America’s only humour & video site since 1958′) before and I came across this piece about why you should be afraid of Google by accident but it’s worth a read.

All I can say is that I hope we’re going to live long enough to regret allowing Google and Facebook to do exactly what they want.

Filed Under: critical approach to online media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Social media fatigue

June 9, 2010 By 3 Comments

Deeply unfashionable though it might be to admit this, but the truth is I’m bored with social media

I never got into Facebook. I tried to use it for a couple of months but it just infuriated me. The benefits in no way matched the value of my personal data. Despite people telling me “it’s just about being sociable..” I quit over a year ago. That’s not strictly true. I have a Facebook account for my cat where I post pictures of her friends and victims.

I tried to use Twitter for a year or so, but found myself stuck reading tweets from the same hundred and fifty or so people.  It turned out that I wasn’t interested enough to go find more people to follow. Since I never followed anyone who followed me just for the sake of it, my Twitter network stalled about there. And like many people, I got bored of the spam and the social media gurus talking endlessly about…yes, you’ve guessed it, social media.

I joined Xing and connected with a girlfriend from a long time ago,  but apart from that, didn’t use it. I quit Ecademy after a couple of years listening to people bullshitting about their egos and prowess.  I spend a year commenting in 4Networking, UKBF, UKBusiness Labs and other such forums until I got tired of the inevitability that everything online degenerates to argument and abuse.

I still have a LinkedIn profile but, like many people, still don’t quite know why – although I quite like the way that LinkedIn seems to be following the ‘softly, softly, catchee monkey’ approach and avoiding the vulgar rush to ‘monetize’ that has characterised most of the other online networks.

I’ve joined and left hundreds of social media sites, without the slightest sense of loss of anything I cared about or couldn’t do without.

Throughout that time, I’ve also been doing more and more work in the real world and less and less in the online world. Coincidentally (not!), my real world network has increased; I’m doing more valuable and fulfilling work and enjoying it far more and I’m learning a lot beside.  The range of opportunities open to me has increased in inverse proportion to the amount of energy and time I’ve spent online.

In the last year alone, I’ve traveled to India, Taiwan, Spain, Norway and the US on real-world business, earning a real world salary and working working on real-world projects with real people. It’s been great and most important of all, it’s been interesting.

I can’t help noticing that the more successful and confident I feel, the less appealing spending time on social media becomes.

Am I alone in that?

Filed Under: business insight Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Ning withdraws free social network platform

April 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Ning’s withdrawal of free social networking begs the question: was it going in the wrong direction from the start?

The fact that Ning has just announced that it is withdrawing it’s free (‘ad-supported’) social network platform will come as a shock to many people who accepted Ning’s invitation and invested time and energy into building their own social network based on the Ning format.  Existing members will be offered the opportunity to pay or leave.

Clearly the ‘ad-supported’ model isn’t bringing Ning the return it expected or needs.  I’m not surprised. I almost never click on Google Ads and nor does anyone else I know.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this can’t bring the kind of returns on investment that people are looking for.  So out goes the ad-supported model and in comes the ‘pay for service’ model – and that can’t be good news for the Google Ad model.

If Ning made a mistake with its business model, maybe it made an even bigger one in its underlying assumption that people want to create, populate and control a social networking environment when in fact, all they want to do is participate in the ones that are already out there, fully populated, like Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, online networking Tagged With: , , , ,

“Worried about my kids reputation online – what should I do?”

April 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Our kids are building a reputation nightmare for themselves.  What should we do?

It’s a tough question.  Here are a few tips to consider:

1) You need to understand the nature and the scale of the problem

Unless you understand what is currently happening to all this social media content that we create, how it accumulates, how search engines index it and how other people find it and the way they use it to make decisions, you won’t be able to do anything to help your kids.  Watch this great video from Common Craft for starters!

[Read more...]

Filed Under: how to, online reputation management Tagged With: , , , , ,

James Belvoir – get yourself a new agent :-)

February 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

If you’re going to fake testimonials, at least try to make them stand up to 10 seconds of Googling..

I really dislike Facebook and its advertisers.  Facebook ads are generally exploitative and very often fall apart with the slightest critical inspection.

Occasionally I click one just to remind myself just how much I dislike them.  This one made me chuckle this evening – featuring a ‘testimonial’ from a rather miserable-looking young male model.

A quick Google search shows no-one by that name, anywhere.  Either James Belvoir has a really rubbish agent or this is an example of yet another FB advertiser faking testimonials.

Call me old-fashioned, but I find the cynicism of a business that fakes testimonials to sell junk to youngsters struggling with hair loss revolting.

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, GRRRR!!! Tagged With: , ,

Online reputation: all your traces in one lump

January 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Why is online reputation so important? Because the web puts all the traces you leave together in one big pile for people to make a judgment about

Once apon a time, you went somewhere, did something in the real world. Whatever you did, you left traces.  Footprints, DNA, garbage, bits of paper, notes, recordings..  But whatever traces you left stayed where you left them.  The only way somebody else would find those traces would be if they took the same journey as you; if they literally ‘re-traced’ your steps.  That’s why Columbo was such fun. That’s why the TV ‘serial killer’ was all the rage in the days before Google.

Your reputation was the same.  Because it was either ‘word-of-mouth’ or ‘old-fashioned-media’ it could be different in different places.  In this village you might be thought of as a scoundrel.  In that City, a respectable member of the community.  Unless you got into the broadcast media, the traces of your behaviour tended to stay where you left them – visible only to the people directly affected by them.

But things are different now – very different.

Google brings the traces of everything you’ve ever done online together into one big, steaming lump.  And very soon, Google will be adding everything you’re doing right now – every Tweet and every Facebook update – to the pile in real time.

What does that mean, Lt. Columbo? I’m glad you asked that question, Sir, I really am.

What it means is that people nowadays assess your reputation from the bigger picture they get when they look at that pile, not from any single thing in it.

Your online reputation – how someone perceives you – is the sum total of the following 3 risk factors:

  1. The things you choose to say about yourself (your websites, blogs, profiles etc)
  2. The traces you leave of yourself (your participation in any online discussions, activities etc)
  3. The things that other people choose to say about you (customers, critics, friends, enemies)

The real problem for most people is that they only really give their online reputation any thought when something significant happens in the 3rd risk area i.e. someone starts maligning them or their business on a blog or a forum.  My clients are invariably reeling from the shock of finding themselves under attack when they contact me.

Of course there is plenty we can do at that point to repair the damage and build a stronger reputation to limit the damage of any future attacks – and there’s nothing like being in a bit of discomfort to focus the mind on the issue.

Of course, the secret is to think about your online reputation before you come under attack.

So, to sum up: take notice of the fact that from here on in,  Google WILL bring together everything you do and say online for people to form an instant – and lasting – impression of you.

And start behaving accordingly ;-)

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, online reputation management Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

“Using Facebook is like eating 100 Oreos” – a spontaneous audio review

September 18, 2009 By 1 Comment

nomnom1An in-the-moment review of Facebook captured on iPhone in the office

People in the office know I’m a bit of a social media critic.  Still, imagine my surprise when one of my colleagues (an avid Facebook user) suddenly launched into an appraisal of her use of Facebook – and why it made her feel so bad about herself.

Thanks to the miracle of iPhone’s Voice Memo app and a bit of editing in Audacity and balancing the output in The Levelator, I bring you this critical review of Facebook.

I love the bit at the end about the Oreos.  Nicely put.  Not that I’ve ever eaten 100 Oreos at a sitting…yet. :-)

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, what do you think? Tagged With: , ,

I just wrecked your business plan, Facebook

July 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Does Adblocker wreck Facebook and Google’s business models?

I installed Adblocker a while back and was astonished to find that it simply disappeared all Google ads and all Facebook ads – just like that. No fuss, no complicated set up.

As I sat there staring at the denuded landscape that is Facebook without those nasty, tacky, spammy ads I was struck by the fragility of Facebook and Google’s business model.

To get what I mean, picture yourself sweating in front of the investors in Dragons’ Den.

“…with hundreds of millions of subscribers, the ad revenue will net us $blah blah blah millions a year” you say.

“What happens if I switch this Adblocker thing on?” asks Theo Paphitis with that ‘you bet I’m going to try to break it’ look in his eye.

Shit, you think to yourself. ‘Maybe people won’t find out about Adblocker or maybe they’ll prefer ads…” you bravely venture, beads of sweat trickling down your back.

“I’ll tell you where I am-” interrupts Duncan testily, heralding your exit fyom the den.

What kind of business model is it if one click of a mouse can unravel it?

Filed Under: business insight, media, what do you think? Tagged With: , ,

A guide to Social Media for absolute beginners

June 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Welcome to our shorthand guide to Social Media for beginners…and I mean ‘beginners’

What is all this about social media?  Why is everyone talking about it?  What’s it for?  What could you use it for? What are the dangers? And where’s it all going to end?

What is ‘Social media’?: Stuff that people create and share through online networks.

What are ‘Social Media tools’?: Software applications designed to allow people to network online and share their own and other peoples’ content

Why’s everyone talking about it?: Because pretty much everyone can do it and is doing it.  Because the possibilities for marketing products, services – and ideas – through Social Media appear to be immense.  However… (see last point, below)

What’s it for?: It’s definitely about making money. Social Media people are always talking about ways to ‘monetize’ Social Media sites and the content produced through them.  And it’s also about connecting people in networks of niche interest.

What could you use if for?: You could use it to build or connect to networks of people who might be interested in  your products and services.  You could use it to find out things you need to know from a particular niche (or market).  You could use it to add some colour to your persona online and build relationships with existing customers and prospects.  Or you could use it to keep people in your huge, multinational organisation connected and up-to speed with the latest developments.

What are the dangers?: On the one hand, Social Media is an open, democratic network of people connecting with each other and creating and sharing content.  Nice.  On the other hand, it’s all about creating revenue for Google.  Why? Because all online content ultimately turns into data for people like Google and Facebook to monetize through online advertising and other people (affiliate marketers and small business bloggers) to monitize through affiliate schemes and other things.

What does that mean?

It means that whatever else Social Media is about, it’s not primarily about creating a better world of communication for you and your mates.  It’s driven by people looking to monetize it.  Including you, if you’re a small business wondering how you’re going to use Social Media.

Where’s it all going to end?: “We’ll be successful when you guys stop talking about us” said a Twitter boss recently.

Teenagers don’t talk about ‘Social Media’.  To them, it’s invisible. They just talk to their mates on it.  The people who talk about it are the people trying to make money out of it; whether it’s the ‘work-at-home’ people, the ‘get-rich-quick’ dreamers, the affiliate marketers, the online developers or just plain, regular businesses.

It will all end when people realise that there’s no ‘get-rich-quick’ and this madness dies down.  Just as you can’t all be at the top of Google for a competitive keyword, very few of you can make a fortune out of Twitter either.  Hell, even Twitter hasn’t been able to do it -yet.

Real-world networking doesn’t work when you try to use it to sell your products and services (unless you’re a bully) and nor does Social Media.

The problem is, there are literally hundreds of millions of desperate people trying to do it as a way out to beat the system and make a fortune.  That alone guarantees that Social Media will be stuffed to the gills with junk content and spammers trying to sell you stuff ranging from the unwanted to downright fraudulent.

For me, the promise of social media is its potential for developing relationships – and in that, nothing has changed since the good old days.  What we’re seeing is the first rush of prospectors to a place where the gold is pretty thin on the ground and we already know the names of those sitting on the rich veins.

And the real implications for Social Media are barely even being talked about yet.  What are the implications of one or two businesses sitting atop the richest, deepest, most personalised resource of freely-given global marketing data ever amassed?

Go figure, as they say.

Good luck!

Filed Under: critical approach to online media, marketing, media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Dodgy facebook ads

May 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

dodgyWho’s going to win the Facebook Dodgy Ads Jackpot?

I got two dodgy lemons and a rotten tomato this morning.  Have I won anything?

Isn’t it sad that all three are for totally dodgy propositions.  Just Google their name with a “scam” or “rip-off” on the end to see what people are saying about them.

Sad, too, that facebook has to repeat them just to fill its slots.

And even sadder (for them) that facebook’s lack of regulation and control is turning its advertising real estate into a toilet.

Greed.  Lack of regulation and control.  Has a familiar ring to it at the moment, don’t you think?  Turns everything to shit, apparently.  Ask Google.  Ask any forum owner.

Or any politician, for that matter.

Filed Under: business insight, critical approach to online media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts