User Experience Monitor

The Semantic Web - but Not from the User's Perspective

CNET writer Laura Locke's article and interview with Gi Fernando on the changes coming down the pike at Facebook is interesting because they discuss the "semantic Web," not from the user's perspective, but from the advertiser's perspective.

As Facebook begins to implement its new approach to such action verbs as "Read," "Watch," and "Listen," the Internet giant will begin to monetize things in a new way. As always, the game-changer continues to change the game.

Read the entire interview

Is Social Media Too Hot to Criticize?

I am of two minds about the growth spurt of social media, because I inhabit two different realms: a personal one of friends and family, and a business one of colleagues and clients. 

Thus, I find myself torn right now as to how much to criticize social media ventures.  I have spirited arguments with friends about the problems vs the benefits of Facebook vs Twitter. 

And yet, many businesses seem to have the attitude that they need to jump in to any new media opportunity, before they've fully explored their goals and what they want out of it.

Two interesting recent articles on this topic are:

Social Business Reality Check: Move Beyond the Hype by Robert Strohmeyer of PC World, and The Twitter Trap by Bill Keller (Executive Editor of the New York Times).

The PC World article is  more geared towards business professionals, but both tackle the issue of a "reality check" with social media.

From a business perspective, Stohmeyer analyzes the issues of getting on the social media bandwagon without a well thought out strategy.  Chasing "followers" makes no sense if those followers don't translate to either good PR or sales of some sort.

Keller bravely tackles the "illusory" aspect of many social media, which is more the "Emperor's Clothes" issue so many of us feel but (in business circles, at least), don't always articulate:

"I’m not even sure these new instruments are genuinely “social,” Keller says. "There is something decidedly faux about the camaraderie of Facebook, something illusory about the connectedness of Twitter."

 I am glad I am not alone in my wary distrust of all media social. These articles make good reading for the cautious.

How Many Users Are Sufficient for a Discussion Group?

LinkedIn recently reported as part of its initial public offering package that most of its members don't use the site on a regular basis.

The fact was picked up by Jim Edwards in a recent article on bNET, recently. It's an interesting issue on at least two levels:

1) First, because LinkedIn is revealing they can't differentiate between active, inactive, and even dead members

2) Secondly, because (I would posit) it does not impact the user experience of an active member - at all.

If you actively participate in group discussions on LinkedIn, does it matter if there are only 10-20 active participants?

Would you rather have 40-50? Or 200-300?  I don't think it impacts the user experienc within a discussion group.  I currently belong to both national and regional discussions. This story was reported on in a regional discussion group of which there are less than 700 members.  There are probably "lower limits" below which a discussion group seems to become a bit lame, but I'd be hard pressed to say what those limits are.

I think quantity and quality are two wholly different aspects of any online discussion, and I for one am perfectly happy having 40 intelligent users in the conversation provided the conversation "works for me."

 

US Digital Trends in 2010

Comscore just released their report on trends in the US digital marketplace - "U.S. Digital Year in Review."

Top trends reported incude in this latest report include:

• Although portals are still large in online (measured by total time spent online/day), the general shift away from portals to social media and entertainment sites is a major trend.
• Facebook takes the lead on Engagement (no surprise), with 180 million visitors/month. Facebook now accounts for over 12% of the time spent online in the US.
• Smartphone adoption surges past 25 percent penetration in the US. One third of Americans now access mobile browsers and applications.
• In the area of search, 2010 saw the integration of real- time search, improved blended search results and other new search modules, all of which have enriched the search experience.
• Online TV viewing is showing significant growth in 2010.  On an average day in December 2010, more than 88 million Americans watched online video, up 32 % from a year earlier.

Download a copy of the report on comScore's Website.

 

Ways to Use Twitter

Want to think out of the box?

Not sure how your business can use social media?

Bloomberg Businessweek.com published this concise slideshow of 20 different ways that businesses can use Twitter. Great when you want to jumpstart an ideas session.

 

A Short List of Market Research Blogs

I came across Kathryn Korostoff's excellent short list of market research blogs in Quirk's recently, and found it worth passing on:

A research blogger on research blogs - the 10 must reads (and a few honorable mentions)

My particular favorite is Bruce Temkin's Experience Matters blog, but there is something for everyone in this list from top marketing and market research pros.

A Contrarian Technologist Sounds Off about Web 2.0

Jaron Lanier's, new book,"You are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto" is just that. Some might call it a rant, but I found it an enlightening read. It's refreshing to find a technologist whose main goal is humanism plain and simple.

Lanier's successfully bludgeons a lot of prevalent concepts, including: the wisdom of the "hive mind" (online crowds); the  concept that the Web itself is an intelligent "organism" in its own right; as well as the whole idea that "information needs to be free" - a clear threat to intellectual property rights. How will creative individuals make a living if everything they produce needs to be free?

He is not a fan of many aspects of social media and Web 2.0, particularly the tendency to hide behind anonymous screen names and viciously attach people without being accountable. Additionally, he makes a good point that the template-approach to social media sites limits the presentation of self in a way that the early days of the Web did not.

This book may raise more questions than it answers, but it's an excellent wake-up call for creators of technology products, as well as the users of technology products.  We all need to remember that technology  (Web included) os here to serve us  - not the other way around.

The Growing Pains of Facebook

In considering two recent articles: PC World's recap of stats: Facebook Rules the Web and the New York Times enumerating of: How Privacy Can Vanish Online, I am stuck with the size of the inherent conflict in the two sets of data.

Here are the facts in a nutshell:

1) Facebook is so big, it's outpaced Google for the first time for an entire week. Facebook visits grew at a rate of nearly 200% in the last year, compared with 9% growth rate by Google.  Facebook is, especially during holiday seasons, the first stop for Web visitors.

2) The  privacy issues surrounding Facebook are just as staggering. It is, according to some recent experiments, relatively straightforward for college students (in a now-famous class project) to analyze "who's who" within the Facebook database.  Who you are, and what you do, is not nearly as private as users may think.

So what's the implication for organizations utilizing Facebook as part of their marketing strategy?

Perhaps it is to consider that, as big and alluring as the basket is (FB, that is), perhaps don't put all your eggs in it.

How Usable is Twitter?

One of the best-kept secrets of the past year is that many social networks are not quite as usable as they would have us believe. I was glad to see this research study by the Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) at Wichita State University, then, on the usability of Twitter for first time users.

The research found several issues Twitter users had, primarily in the areas of: 1) signing up for a new account, 2) site terminology, and 3) basic communication.

Of particular interest is the language of Twitter. One example of this is that first-time participants found the "followers" and "following" links confusing, and did not understand the difference between "Profile" and "Settings."

What's the learning here? As businesses adopt social media for marketing and promotion purposes, be aware that apparently "simple" services like Twitter may have issues of their own.  Just because it's hyped as "simple" doesn't make it so.