Have You Checked Out Panjea?

Panjea. It's MySpace meets YouTube, and thus far it is my favorite social networking site. It not only allows you to create your own profile, it also allows you to share videos, earn revenue, and soon it will allow you to do even more! Sometime in March Panjea is releasing a private beta version of their site where you can create your own television channels and share videos faster and better than ever before. Check out the demo below for more info. And create a Panjea account while you're at it.

What I like most about Panjea (other than its seamless layout) is the fact that nothing is obnoxious about it. The advertisements aren't so in your face that you're annoyed and user-content is displayed in an easy to digest form. Could this be the premier network of the future? It quite possibly could be.

Web Browser Meets Social Network

My newest find while surfing the web: Flock. From Mozilla, it's the first "social web browser" and it's basically integrating social networking into your general web-browsing experience. No, this is not an extension to Firefox, it is an entirely independent web browser. Everything that social networks have enabled you to do before has been streamlined through Flock.

I decided to download Flock and take it for a test run. While it still has a few kinks, it is definitely the browser of the future. If you like Firefox and you're even slightly obsessed with checking your various community, photo, and blog accounts you will love it.


On Flock you can do it all so much easier! Drag and drop your photos to share. Search as you type. Easily build your own news feed. Use the built-in blog editor to make posting easier. These features aren't necessarily that new, but they are definitely improved from other browsers, and they're all available straight from your toolbar. Just take the tour to see some of the innovative tools for yourself.

You'll see a few things you're familiar with in Flock's design as well. It's homepage for instance: a Google-esque search engine powered by Yahoo! An interesting question to consider is will Yahoo! try to integrate some of these ideas into their own site? And, could this put them back on the map in comparison to Google who has far outpaced them in number of hits since its unveiling? I think it all really depends on just how successful Flock turns out to be. With the rise of influence in social networking, I have a feeling it will be more than a passing fad. Once people hear about it, the rest will be history.


While an initial beta version of the browser was released in October of 2005, it had difficulty catching on in the mainstream. When Flock teamed up with Photobucket last year that was when things started happenning. I don't think Flock has reached it's full potential just yet though.

It will be interesting to watch and see how it does, especially since social networking is its largest source for promotion. The more I learn about Flock, the more I relate its strategy to Google. While Flock is attempting to do something different from anyone else, it is totally grasping the buzz and permission marketing concept that Google so successfully implemented. Word of mouth is its sole source of promotion. In addition, Flock's open-forum setup makes it the closest thing to a user-generated browser as it grows and expands off of user feedback. Flock's community members are "Flockstars." They spread the word and invite their friends. Will you be a Flockstar? Will this story end with the same type of success as Google? Only time will tell...

Share All (Find All) On Slifeshare

"Download Slife and start streaming all your favorite music, websites and feeds to your Slifeshare!"

Wait a second? Is this just a form of voluntary Spyware?

I don't know, but what I do know is Slifeshare is a new online community that allows its users to download software that will track and share everything (stopping just short of keystrokes) that they do on their computers. Apparently, people not only don't mind if the government is watching their every move, they don't care if strangers across the globe are either. After launching a little less than a week ago, people are already really getting into it. Don't believe me? Check out the Mashable article: Slifeshare Scares the Sh*t Out of Me.


While it seems like Slifeshare's main users are still confined to a pretty niche audience, just look at a profile. Regardless of how into sharing this guy is, it's incredible that you and I can look at the applications used (and when), websites most visited, RSS feeds most read, songs most listened to, and more; all of a complete stranger!

The idea behind the concept is that users can find people with similar habits and tastes to network with. However, I'm not really sure how much this service (especially when this extensive) really benefits the Average Joe. What I can see, however, is its advantages for marketing researchers. Depending on what types of search features are developed as Slifeshare grows, this could tell corporations a lot about people in general and help them target more effectively than ever imagined. Best of all--data accuracy. Obviously, the numbers in Slifeshare don't lie.

The only problem? It's only for Macs. We'll see if that changes.

The American Way: At Least, the Way It Should Be

Okay, so you've seen the Facebook and MySpace groups promoting various politicians and causes, but have you joined the social network for your favorite politician yet? No? Well, it's time you got on top of that!

Presidential hopeful, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has created a venue where his already strong base of grassroot supporters can gather, take shape, grow, and communicate. Is this just a cheesy attempt at being the social networking guru of politicians, or is this what politicians need to do to be successful? I'm thinking it's the latter.

While I wasn't shocked, I was definitely surprised when I saw one of my friends had left a comment on my Facebook wall saying, "Why don't you have a profile on the Barack site yet? I just tried to friend you to discover you weren't there. Sad..." Just another example of how social networks are interlinked and such a powerful tool for promotion, even for politicians.

The Obama site really is innovative, but it's also practical--why didn't anyone think of this before? I mean, hello! A website that allows you to organize fundraising, find events, talk to your friends, join groups and discussions with others, start your own blog--all surrounding something you have in common--a politician you want to support! The site doesn't just make sense for supporters, it makes sense for Obama. Think of all the information he has about his prime voters, all at his fingertips, on the world-wide-web for all to see.

Smart, very smart.

"Diaries": The Future of Social Networking?

Well, Comcast is taking Ziddio.com's social networking capabilities to the next level, and they're doing it through the second-largest social-networking site: Facebook! The two sites will be integrated to allow users to create and share video content on both the websites and Comcast's On Demand service--again, crossing media!

The full integration will be rolled out in March with a contest to kick-off the project and get users interested. Short video submissions depicting users' life experiences will be selected to air on a 10-episode, half-hour TV show, appropriately dubbed "The Facebook Diaries."

Comcast and Facebook are pulling out all the stops in this deal. They even reeled in R.J. Cutler as producer of the new TV series, an Oscar-nominated producer currently known for his work on the show "30 Days."

I don't know who the bigger winner in this deal is. Facebook has the opportunity to spread its influence and reach even further, already boasting the second-largest photo-sharing site on the web and over 16 million registered users. On the other hand, Ziddio has the opportunity to tap into this network and get people talking about its user-generated sharing platform and the opportunity it provides to you and me to have our videos shown on television.

Depending on how the Comcast television community responds to this new form of social networking, both Ziddio and Facebook will have even more opportunities to expand. After all, Comcast has over 24.2 million cable customers to market this innovative sharing event to.

It's certainly a big leap for social networking. For more information on the story check out these articles on Streaming Media and iMedia Connection, or the Comcast press release.

Ziddio: Has Comcast One-Upped YouTube?

Launched a little over 3 months ago, the other day I finally stumbled across Comcast's version of YouTube: Ziddio. At first I was skeptical of the new video-sharing platform. I mean, YouTube was first and that should mean something right? This newcomer has got to be a spin-off, a wannabe, a copy-cat, whatever you want to call it...right? Wrong. Ziddio is the real deal folks, and it's got plenty of features YouTube doesn't.



First and foremost, contests. Ziddio encourages the creation of more purely user-generated content by offerring prizes ranging from money to things that are usually more unobtainable such as the chance to direct a pilot in Hollywood based on your idea, or for the more superficial crowd (or just the curious), the chance to date a model. And of course, always looming in the background of the realm of opportunity is the chance that you or your video might be featured on, gasp!, television.

That's right, Ziddio is the first video-sharing website that is crossing media. This takes "online" social networking to a whole new level. Perhaps television isn't too prehistoric for this Internet-savvy generation...it still sure does hold the fascination of the American public.

Still, I wonder if Ziddio will really act as competition to YouTube, or if it will simply evolve as its own entity alongside the video-sharing giant. What's surprising to me is Ziddio's lack of advertisements and interaction among users. I wonder if this is something that Comcast will develop over time, or if they plan to keep it more clean and less organic.

If you hadn't heard of Ziddio before, you soon will. Ziddio is hot! The reason? Its recently announced partnership with Facebook. More on that tomorrow.

To learn more about the launch of Ziddio, check out the article on Mashable, my new favorite blog that addresses all topics related to social networking.

The World of Podcasting: It's Practice and Purpose

Not too long ago I didn't even know what a podcast was. Then, suddenly it seemed like everyone was talking about them, telling me to check out this podcast and that podcast. Now it seems that podcasts are the hot new tool for delivery of information not just for entertainment purposes, but for practical ones as well. You can subscribe to a podcast on any number of topics and updates will be automatically sent right to your computer. And get this: now there even is an online social network for the discussion of podcasting deemed the World Podcast Forum. One thing is for sure, podcasting is definitely hot!

Just about everyone with a computer now has the technology to create their own podcast, but what is interesting is how various industries and corporations are going about using this new technology.

The corporate world has realized that podcasts offer a great new method of communicating with the public and those individuals that desire to hear their message on a deeper level. The truth of the matter is, no one is going to listen to a corporate or industry podcast if they don't have some sort of previous interest in the message being offerred. So the key is for these podcasts to offer a supplemental message that can appeal to their niche audience and tell them something they didn't know about before. Then, maybe, if they're lucky, members of this niche audience will go out and tell other people about what they heard.

Recently I listened to a couple of podcasts from the public relations and advertising industries. Edelman, one of the leading public relations firms in the country has very advanced website offerings compared to most of its competitors with numerous links to podcasts and blogs produced by employees. After listening to a podcast on ethics in social media communications, I was very intrigued, and realized that even though only a select group of people would ever actually hear the material--word of its content still had the ability to spread. So I went on Google to see just how much talk was out there about Edelman's commentary on new ethics standards and found that over 30 media-related blogs had mentioned it.

The influence of the blogosphere in the spread of information cannot be underestimated. However, neither can the influence of podcasts. This is a major source of material for many bloggers, and that is why this form of communication is truly valuable to corporations and industry professionals.

Super Consumption

After having a day to reflect on all the Super Bowl advertisements, it seems that what's more interesting is not the content of the coveted 30-second spots, it's the role online video streaming has played in the hype and appeal of these advertisements.


Many websites, including Adbowl.com and Spotbowl.com, have created polls in which users can rank the advertisements from best to worst. YouTube has brought together the entire experience--allowing users to watch and rank--and then rewarding the winning video with prime advertising space on its homepage. Now that is social marketing at it's core. It all comes back to the permission marketing principle, letting people see the advertisements that they want to see. If they don't want to see it, then you didn't do your job.

However, social networks and word of mouth marketing are what make airing an ad on the superbowl worth the $2.6 million price tag. These advertisements create buzz before the game; they generate loads of PR after the game; and now, thanks to online video, these advertisements generate enough traffic to compile more impressions than they ever could during any 30-second spot on television alone.

On the flip side, the internet also allows for immediate criticism and rebuke from online communities in response to the advertisements. This year was no exception when it came to stirring debate over Super Bowl commercial content. Advertisers GM and Snickers have felt the heat for their commercials that blur the line on what is acceptable social commentary.

Still, how often have we heard that all publicity is good publicity? I think it's safe to say that the era of television advertising as a primary medium is definitely gone. Multimedia advertising is becoming more relevant and necessary in the success of advertising messages and their reach towards consumers.

"Flipping the Funnel"

When Seth Godin traveled to the Google campus last year for a presentation relating to his book All Marketers Are Liars he addressed the importance of creating a unique product that customers are interested in and utilizing available technology to market the product. According to Godin, marketers' top priority needs to be finding a way to "flip the funnel" or widen their audience through associated networks.

Godin champions the idea of "permission marketing," the concept that you tell your story to the people that want to hear it. Google does this extremely effectively. You only see ads for products you are interested in seeing ads for. Boom, permission marketing. However, online social networks provide ample opportunities for permission marketing as well. There are all sorts of online forums within social networks for discussing certain types of activities or products and marketers are just starting to discover the ample opportunities for product promotion in this area.

During the question and answer segment of his presentation, a Google employee asked whether hiring people to go into forums and create buzz by talking about their products was a good idea or not. Godin was of the opinion that, while there are people out there that do that and are successful, it is a form of fraud and deception and if people find out you're not one of them it's very likely going to get them upset.

So, the primary question is: how do you infiltrate social networks in a way that is in harmony with the idea of permission marketing? How do you create buzz in an organic way?

I think it's helpful to look at some of Godin's main points on what it takes to get an initial group of people interested in a product. First, you need a story, and it needs to be a story that people haven't heard before--something that is going to catch their interest and make them want to talk about it, i.e. "A Purple Cow." Second, you need to create a product that people already want, not a product that needs built up attraction. Third, you need to know where your niche of people is that want your product, and you need to reach as many of them as you can. Through this niche, word of your product will spread because these are the people that are passionate about it.

How do I get conversations to take place? How do I flip the funnel? These ideas are a solid beginning.

To hear more, view the video at: Google Video.