Get Noticed
Posts tagged Facebook
Knowledge, Search Engines and Social Media
Aug 3rd
It is often said that we live in a knowledge economy. In such a context, it is only natural that information technology receives great attention as a set of tools that can lead to economic development. Search engines, for instance have become part of our daily lives. Google, with sales slightly above $20 billion a year, is worth around $150 billion in terms of total stock shares, while Wal-Mart – the biggest company on the planet – is only worth around $190 billion with $400 billion sales. It appears that financial analysts are convinced that information is more valuable than everyday things!
Search engines are so valuable, not because they contain information, but because they speed-up the search for relevant information. This is because an important distinction must be made between knowledge and information. Knowledge is a state of mind that one reaches after performing a certain task. When someone used a hammer, for instance, that person acquires knowledge about how to use a hammer. It is this change that happens in his mind that constitutes knowledge. Now, if that person sits down and writes a procedure about using a hammer, that would be information. This information about how to use a hammer is in no way knowledge about using a hammer. In fact, someone who would read that written procedure would not necessarily know how to use a hammer unless he actually uses a hammer, and therefore acquires his own knowledge about using a hammer.
My point here is that using a search engine does not directly contribute to the economic development of a country in the context of knowledge economy. It only helps in not missing a piece of information that could be useful in guiding our actions and leading to new knowledge. Let’s say someone wants to create a Facebook application. Searching for “how to create Facebook Application” on Google will not give the knowledge necessary to build a Facebook application. It will only lead to a couple of web pages that could contain information about how to build one. The searcher will have to read and select the page that is appropriate for what he wants to build and go on building the Facebook app by following the procedures. Since these procedures never complete enough to get the job done, the searcher will have to find some things out on his own and it is this whole process of contextualizing and sense making of the information that is found from the web page that leads to knowledge about building a Facebook app. Well, ‘thats obvious’ you will say, but this obvious thing can lead to something important.
If a web page exist out there and describes a procedure on how to build a Facebook app, it is because someone out there knows how to build Facebook apps. Therefore, reading that web page is not the only way to have access to information about building Facebook apps. Talking to that guy who created the Facebook app is another option, and it could lead to better learning experience for the searcher. Now, how can the searcher talk to that guy if he doesn’t know him? Answer: Social media!
Social media is not just one way of keeping in touch with friends and have a laugh. It is also another way of looking for the right source of information. Only, the difference here is that social media is interactive because we’re not dealing with a website but a person. Therefore, there is a whole new set of things we can do using social media that we couldn’t have done with search engines.For instance, we don’t have to find the right person by searching for a couple of keywords. We can ask a friend who can ask a friend and eventually get connected to the right person with the knowledge we’re looking for. The advantage here is that if we’re ignorant on a subject to the point that we don’t even know the keywords to look for, then it is only by interacting with someone else who will know a little more that we can get to the right source of knowledge.
The big question is, will social media become bigger than search engines?
Social Media, Weak Ties and Trust Agents
Jul 22nd
There is something we can do with Facebook and Twitter and that we cannot really do so easily through traditional means of communication. And that thing is to connect with people without investing too much time in the relationship. Take the example of Twitter. A user can follow another user with very little costs besides spending a few minutes finding that user through Twitter’s search functionality. The good thing with Twitter is that information can flow from the friend to the follower for as little time investment as a mouse-click. These type of connections are weak ties: besides that Twitter connection between both parties, there is little that brings them together.
Because they don’t require so much time and effort, weak ties are not those ties we trust most. Long-time friends and family members are usually those we trust and rely on in our life. These are strong ties and are build through the years. However, weak ties have something to offer that strong ties cannot offer: diversity. Since we hang out so much with our close friends and family members, we end-up influencing each other. Our perception of the world and life becomes very dependent on how our strong ties perceive things. In one word, spending too much time with the same people is bad for out brain!
This is exactly where social media picks things up. By allowing us to connect with people without having to engage in costly relationships, we can find out about new things for very little effort. We end up with a better understanding of the world by seeing things from fresh perspectives.
An implication of this conception of social media is that trust agents are bad for our health. Trust agents are those high profile social media users such as top bloggers, gurus, celebrities, etc. Sticking too much to what these people say will have the same effect of sticking only with close friends and family members: we will be exposed to only one way of seeing things. Trust agents should be avoided and social media should be a tool for exploration.
Why Facebook Users Don’t Care About Privacy
May 5th
There are two kinds of Facebook users: voyeurs and exhibitionists. Therefore, Facebook is built with the idea of invading privacy or not having any private life at all. And this is why Facebook opening privacy features doesn’t really bother any of its users. Living with the idea that the world is watching us, we feel like if we were celebrities. And this is what Facebook is selling. Forget about talking to friends. We can do that on the phone. Forget about sending messages, we can do that by email.
What Facebook offers and that no other communication platform offers is to let everyone (I mean complete strangers) know about us. When we add a picture on our album, the idea is to have as much people as possible who can see it. And for those who are more curious, it allows to enter people’s privacy. So let’s stop nagging. Having our ass shown to the world was pretty much the reason why we signed up with Facebook in the first place.
If You’re Not On Facebook, It’s Most Probably Because You’re A Terrorist
Mar 21st
When octogenarians have Facebook accounts, the only people that don’t have one are those who have something to hide. A terrorist for instance would prefer to operate in the dark and not let everyone know with who he is connected. One thing is sure: someone with a Facebook account has at least a few friends to show off, something that could create an attachment to life! The problem is that being on Facebook doesn’t clean someone as we have seen in the past, many radical religious groups have used social media to promote their ‘ideology’ and ‘achievements’. My point is that it is the absence of Facebook presence that could mean danger.
Do you know people who are proficient with computers and do not have a Facebook account? You should report that person to law enforcement. The person is probably planing a terrorist attack and obviously doesn’t want to update his status! Or, if it’s a Jihadist or Taliban, the person might not have a friendly picture to put on the website. At least, the person might think that putting a Taliban-fashioned picture on Facebook might attract the wrong kind of friends: the FBI.
There are also those who think that Facebook is evil. I’m talking about those who think that Facebook promotes debauchery and that it is not compatible with divine law. Those guys will probably not like to be part of the debauchery and avoid computer all together. Of course, when 300 million people use Facebook, it might be an indication for that person that debauchery and corruption is widespread to unacceptable level. What’s next? a terrorist attack.
All an all, the census bureau should have a list of residents who do have Facebook accounts. All the other residents are potential terrorists and added to a watch list. Of course this seems to be very discriminatory and a breach of privacy, but is it really impossible?
Facebook Soon Number One?
Jan 21st
Facebook is number two on Alexa since september 2009
Facebook has been world’s second most visited website for more than 5 months now. Taking into account that Google is the default page for most browsers, it is pretty much an unavoidable website. Whether they want to admit it or not, Google and Facebook are in competition for at least one thing: traffic. My view is that they are competing for more than just that. I believe Google and Facebook are two different ways of offering a platform for transmitting knowledge. However, the interactive nature of Facebook place it in a stronger position to fulfill this need. In this regard, using Facebook to get knowledge from our network is going to slowly replace what we used to obtain from Google.
There is another space where Facebook can take pieces of traffic away from Google and that’s in browsers default page. This trends is already happening for hardcore Facebook users. With people increasingly spending time on Facebook, this trend will only be on the rise. Facebook was already number one website for 2009 Christmas where people spend a lot of time sending greetings. I also believe this is not a glitch but more a trend towards Facebook dominating traffic on the Internet.
The Unofficial Function of Social Media
Dec 6th
Every website is there for an official reason. For example, people use Facebook to keep in touch with friends. Linkedin is there so professionals keep in touch with colleagues. Twitter is there so you can send short messages about what is happening around you. However, websites also have an unofficial reason to exist and my opinion is that this unofficial reason is the real thing that makes the website work. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular social networking websites so I can talk more about my view.
Facebook: voyeurism (and exhibitionism)
The real reason why Facebook works is that people can become voyeurs in a legit way. Most of the time, people spend their time on Facebook by clicking around their friends’ friends profiles. People look at pictures, bios and so on. Of course, people chat and comment on each others pictures and videos, but what is really happening on Facebook is that you can get into someone’s life without braking any privacy law. Basically, this means that every Facebook user implicitly agrees to be the subject of voyeurism. It’s like their is a deal among Facebook users that they can all invade each other’s privacy.
Twitter: spamming (a.k.a marketing)
When someone tweets something, it’s supposed to be about what’s happening because that’s what is written on top of the text box where people write their tweets. But when I read 90% of tweets, I get the impression that product sales, promotions and money making schemes are all that is happening around the world. Well, that’s because doing marketing is Twitter’s unofficial function. More precisely, Twitter is a very effective tool for viral marketing because of it’s retweet feature. Every time something is tweeted, a whole bunch of people will see it for a short period. Every time something is retweeted, more people will see it. So the idea with Twitter is that 1) you need to have a lot of followers and 2) you need to have a retweet ring so you can actually not waste your time using Twitter.
Linkedin: spying on competition(a.k.a. benchmarking )
No, Linkedin won’t get you a job especially if you have a lot of connections. Why? because those people you are connected to don’t know you. Why do they add you to their network if they don’t know you and that you will probably never be useful to each other? That’s because they wanna get the biggest possible network to see what is happening on the market. This make spying the unofficial function of Linkedin. Just like Facebook where everybody agrees to be an exhibitionist, Linkedin users agree to give away information about their company. Incidentally, it becomes very useful for professionals who want to find a good fit for their talent.
Digg: brainwashing
Ok, a nicer way would be that it’s a bookmark sharing social network. But in reality, it’s a place to brainwash people because popular links produce group effects and simply get more attention than links that are at the bottom. If a lot of people digg a page, it must be because it’s cool, right? Well, not really. Taking a closer look at the top links on Digg, you’ll see that they are all submitted by a small click of around 500 diggers. Basically, if you are not one of those guys, your links will never make it to the first page. This means that it isn’t cool pages that are on Digg’s top page, but the pages that are submitted by those guys. As a result, everybody is under the influence of those top digger’s taste which makes brainwashing the unofficial function of Digg.
Mashable: advertising for startups
Yeah I know. Mashable is supposed to be about social media news. But which news? It makes me laugh every time I read one of those posts with a list of ten useful/hot social networks. In those ten websites, there is always one of them that is not hot nor useful. I wonder what one it is doing in that list among 9 other cool sites? Somebody being paid to put it the list? I guess so. This is exactly why the FTC is going to fine bloggers who don’t disclose payments. This makes Mashable very similar to Digg, only they don’t give anyone the illusion of interaction: “you are being fed by what we talk about” says Pete Cashmore.
Which One is Your Favorite Search Engine: Google or Facebook?
Oct 26th
Facebook gets almost as much pageviews as Google, making it more than just a space where you stay in touch with friends. If you are willing to admit that user generated content is the thing of the future, then you should admit that there might be a lot of valuable content on Facebook. A lot of people are aware of this as close to 20 percent of searches are performed on social media. Google has recognized the importance of social media as it announced social search today. This new feature is complementing the Twitter and real-time search markets that Google is trying to dominate. Being the market leader, the search engine giant is betting on every slot of the emerging trends in search.
Social media is so important that most companies have built a Facebook page where they can announce and do promotional stuff. After all, the concepts of staying in touch and getting feedback from customers and creating brand awareness fit too well with social media. I don’t know if you agree, but I think that the search engine market is dead already; at least until a firm comes with a radically new way of analyzing, organizing and presenting data. Most of the benefits that firms can get out of SEO are already well documented and established. Top keywords have been conquered long time ago and it is unlikely that page rankings change drastically in the future.
Social media optimization on the other hand still has a lot to offer because of its interactive nature. Inbound marketing simply goes to another level. With social media, marketing is not just about doing the necessary to get found by customers. It is more about getting to know the customers by conversing with them. Because of its nature, I believe that Facebook and social media in general have a good chance of being an alternative platform for search. The question is: if people are looking so much for information on Facebook, why should they be using Google?