Archive for April, 2010

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It’s, Like, What Your Friends Like

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

With the new Open Graph changes from Facebook, a cool site, LikeButton.me has come to visually show the power of this feature in social media.

Once you go to the site, you’ll see boxes of popular websites like YouTube, Yelp, and Huffington Post. Take a closer look and you’ll notice that your Facebook friends’ shared items from each site are featured highest up for each site. In addition, some of the top shared items from each site are also featured so you know what people outside of your network are interested in. You can also add a custom site to the grid in case there’s a certain topic that interests you but is missing from LikeButton.me.

It makes sense that we’d want to check out shared videos, articles and links from our friends who share similar interests,  so this is a cool, visual way to see shared items across some key sites. Log into Facebook, check it out and let us know if you like it (no pun intended).

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Posted in New Media, Social Media, Technology | 1 Comment »

What’s Mine is Yours and His, Hers, Theirs…

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Last week, I was blown away by the announcements from F8. The Open Graph and the new technologies that support it are incredible, and you can already see signs of Facebook integration on many popular websites.

While the fact that Facebook has over 450 million users seems like enough to prove its worth to brands, this new expansion is another sign of the social phenomenon’s impressive reach to consumers.

I think this is just the beginning of a whole new level of social interaction. Instant connections to sites like Yelp and Pandora are sure to lend a new element to the emerging share culture. All of this is very cool and exciting. And yet…

"I'm sorry. I can't let you "Like" that, Dave."

Isn’t it a little scary? I mean, you don’t even have to be logged in for CNN.com to know which of your Facebook friends have “liked” the article you’re reading. It just knows. Like some all-knowing HAL 9000 character.

Facebook’s privacy policy and use of its user information has been the topic of serious debate and criticism lately, and I think that this new development will add heat to the fire. Do people really want that information out there? Does the idea of the opt-in still exist?

The next few weeks will grant us a much better view of how these new changes will affect businesses and their online presence, and I’m looking forward to having a front row seat. Also, next week our own Richard Ha will be updating from the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, and I am sure he will have more insight to share.

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Posted in New Media, Social Media, Technology | 4 Comments »

Introducing the Facebook Like Plugin for Wordpress

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Here’s some fantastic news for WordPress users: inspired by yesterday’s announcement at F8 about the Open Graph, we are introducing a new plugin that you can use for your WordPress site!

You can easily add the Facebook like widget to your blog with this download: wordpress-facebook-like-0.2

Please feel free to send us your feedback! How exciting!

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Posted in Around the Office, New Media, Social Media, Technology | 163 Comments »

Mobile & Social: Connecting the Dots

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

An interesting concept was just brought up during F8’s Breakout Session on Mobile + Social.

“ ‘Checking In’ can actually change your behavior.”

So when you check-in to a local business with your favorite mobile application (mine is FourSquare), does your behavior change? Do you make your purchases differently? Were you driven to the location by an incentive provided by the application? All of these things have a lot of powerful people talking about the potential of location-based mobile games and apps.

It sounds strange, but I can absolutely see this behavioral change happening. For developers, I think that the long-term goal is always the same despite the function of the application or game: influence consumer behavior and drive traffic. As many of the most quickly emerging mobile applications are utilizing geolocation, these developers see location as the biggest and most important piece of the puzzle in terms of attaining that influence.

How have you seen this in action?

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Posted in New Media, Social Media, Technology | 1 Comment »

Facebook Introduces the Open Graph

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Facebook is hosting its annual f8 developer conference in San Francisco today. Think of a room full of young programmers all chomping at the bit for the latest and greatest from the site that now has over 400 million users – yeah, it’s exciting.

Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) just finished his keynote, wherein he announced some very extraordinary new developments. At the first annual F8 event, he introduced the world to the “Social Graph,” which mapped out people and their relationships. Today, Zuckerberg presented the “Open Graph.”

Your online identity isn’t restricted to just who you are and who you know. It also includes restaurants you enjoy (Yelp!), movies you like (IMDB) and the music you listen to. With that in mind, the Open Graph takes all these parts and connects them to create a more socially aware environment to offer personalized experiences everywhere they go. I know, it blew my mind too.

So how does that work? Let’s say you visit CNN.com and check out an article that interests you. Now, you will also see which of your Facebook connections “like” the article as well, and you will also have the option to “like” it. 30 partners will be launching this today. This new development doesn’t require you to login or anything – the site just knows.

It’s actually kind of scary when you think about it, and I have the feeling that many people are going to react with similar apprehension. Let’s see where it takes us though.

Top announcements to note:

  • Open Graph Protocol – connects sites like Pandora, Yelp and CNN with your Facebook profile making more personalized experience
  • Graph API – makes it simple to read and write connections
  • Social Plugins – makes your site instantly social and personalized without any code
  • Like button – iframe goes where you want it on the site and then you’re set
  • Social Bar is the kitchen sink of Facebook plugins
  • Facebook is adopting OAUTH 2.0 Standard

UPDATE: Changes already appearing on the Facebook homepage!

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Posted in New Media, Social Media, Technology | 3 Comments »

Long Beach is on a Roll

Monday, April 19th, 2010

We love our city. Long Beach is a very laid-back and friendly place, with great people and great ideas. Take for instance the Bike Long Beach organization’s new goal of becoming the most bike-friendly city in the nation (watch this video for more information – it’s very cool). Already we have seen changes throughout the city, including green lanes, increased bicycle parking opportunities and a general sense of cyclist welcome.

The organization can use your help and support, so feel free to follow them on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook and check out their website frequently for updates and to watch the progress!

Bike on, Long Beach!

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Posted in General Blogginess, Our Neck of the Woods | 1 Comment »

Write Your Own Search Story

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Do you remember “Parisian Love”, the wonderful Google commercial that aired during the Super Bowl this year? Now you can go to YouTube and create your own “Search Story” and share it with the world! Check out this amazing one I found for some marketing firm in Long Beach!

Try it out for yourself and make sure you share your videos with us!

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Posted in Around the Office, General Blogginess, New Media | 2 Comments »

Tweet-thropology

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Sometimes you just happen upon some odd people that end up fascinating you. Here’s a rundown of some random, fun and/or odd Twitter accounts that I’ve discovered.

1) I don’t have kids so maybe this is some sort of phenomenon that’s been happening for a while now that I’ve just been in the dark about: babies with their own Twitter accounts (!). Check out Eva (@babywaldow) talking about breast milk and posting Twitpics of herself. She also has fun conversations with fetuses like @BmoreBunInDaHon and @babyberto, sending encouraging messages to them about how life is much better outside of the womb. I think it’s fun to give the kid a little personality this way – it seems like it would be a lot more interesting for family members or friends than just pictures.

2) Even inanimate objects can Tweet. Instead of checking your watch, try keeping time by following @big_ben_clock (yes, that Big Ben). Or if you want to know what goes on inside the “mind” of a bridge, try following @towerbridge to see when it opens and closes. If you’re dying to know what it’s like in outer space, who better to give a play-by play than the Voyager 2? Although just a few hours before I wrote this, it sent an ominous tweet:

There is a tiny, tiny, tiny, chance I will ever be found again. Tiny.

3) Are you a fan of PostSecret? If so, SecretTweet.com might be for you. The site lets users share secrets with the world, which then enter the Twitter-verse anonymously on the site’s Twitter account (@secrettweet). Like PostSecret, the submitted secrets range from scandalous to sad to slightly evil. I guess that’s the beauty of the internet being a space where everyone can have a voice.

Does anybody out there have someone unique that they follow on Twitter, and whom we should check out?

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Posted in General Blogginess, Social Media | No Comments »

When Do You Get Any Work Done?

Monday, April 12th, 2010

We were a part of a great session on Friday morning with a group of national builders that are curious about social media. Talking about emerging technology always inspires some terrific discussion and valid questions about where we are heading.

One of my favorite questions that always comes up in these presentations is “When do people get any work done?!”

It’s a valid concern coming from any business owner. You hear that a presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. is important, and that someone will need to be put in charge of managing those profiles. That’s all fine and good, but when is that manager going to have time to perform their main job duties – you know, the work they were hired to do in the first place?

I think that the answer can be found in looking at the culture shift that has occurred. Unlike years before, we now have instant communication and endless information at our fingertips. People now expect faster results and responses, which means that the new generation of employees is already trained to multi-task and perform at a quicker pace. They are emailing a client, researching, editing, etc., all at the same time. So what is another 15 seconds to update Twitter?

It’s all about time management – and isn’t that what it’s always been about?

Sure, all of these new responsibilities can add up and take a chunk of time out of the day. However, the idea that employees will just kick their feet up and waste away online is a tad dramatic. Of course, if that does become a problem, then that employee is probably in the wrong position anyway. Maybe they would be better suited as an ottoman tester.

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Posted in New Media, Social Media | No Comments »

24 Hours of World Air Traffic in 72 Seconds

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Check out this weirdly inspiring and therapeutic video that condenses 24 hours of global air traffic into just over a minute.

Just think! Each glowing dot represents hundreds of people, many of them strangers, all of them putting their faith into these tiny metal tubes that somehow miraculously glide over continents and traverse entire oceans in mere hours. Who says the pioneer spirit is dead?

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Posted in General Blogginess | No Comments »

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