18. Cianna P. Stewart Director of Virtual & Social Media @cianna @tencue
Notes de l'éditeur
I’m going to give a quick (and by no means complete) overview of some new technologies that are changing the landscape of social media. I’m also going to touch on some trends that I see happening overall.
Instagram has created a community around photos taken and shared from mobile phone. Designed as a simple editor and way to share photos, it’s grown into a great tool for photography-as-art, and the growing community has challenged the notion that good photography requires expensive equipment.
Storify is a great way to tell a cohesive narrative story that originally unfolded in public through social media. Users craft what would normally be scattered around the web into a single story. Here I’ve clipped from a story in the Washington Post that was created using Storify.
Kickstarter has revolutionized the way many small projects are getting funded. Using the power of social networks combined with game theory, Kickstarter allows people to pool very small donations to fund artistic and innovative projects.
A quick overview of some trends that I’m seeing.
While the news is all about the big general social networks (Facebook, Twitter) – some of the most active communities are centered around particular interests.
Several sites have emerged to help people sort through the overwhelmingly large universe of information online.
The Internet began as a tool for people to share information and be helpful to each other. This continues, with communities collectively monitoring the quality and accuracy of the information, resulting in a “crowdsourced” expert answer to almost any question.
There are several marketplaces online for all kinds of products and sellers. Nearly all of them have created communities – sometimes for the buyer’s protection (with the ability to rate the sellers – ebay), and others for artists selling their own wares to be able to share tips & provide encouragement to each other within an often isolated career path.
On the heels of the success of GroupOn, “group deals” are getting launched everywhere. These take advantage of social networks, where people encourage their friends to join in on particular deals to make sure that they happen.
Everyone wants help monitoring all these different social media outlets, and also keeping track of impact. Several services have emerged to serve this need.
And lastly: Social Networking helps people find each other in the real world.
Some of the sites focus on introducing like-minded people. Others hinge on the serendipity of being the same location at the same time. Still others are focused on being sure that you can connect again later in a classic networking structure.
Now I have to share one of my favorite results of social networking in the real world: Food carts. You might not think of Food Carts as related to social networking, but their rise in urban areas is directly attributable to Twitter. The Crème Brulee Cart changes location every day. He was one of the earliest to use Twitter to announce where he was headed and to keep his followers updated on how many remained of each flavor of his delicious desserts.