Recently in Social Networking Category

A few days ago we installed the second round of additions to the WIRED SCIENCE Facebook application (which I discussed first here). We gave the application more elements (10 elements, instead of 5), more compounds (55 compounds instead of 15), and I redesigned the quiz algorithm (and added one more question). Take the test again or install the app to see the new additions.

Although I just added the final touches to the application, the show is out of season and will not be coming back to PBS. The series was canceled, which is unfortunate, because the show had great potential to reach a younger audience for PBS ("young" meaning older than the Curious George crowd but younger than the older demographic). In addition, it had great social media potential (in my eyes), but needed some time to get off the ground (i.e. another season). Either way, we are in the phase of evergreening the site, shutting down the blog, and slowing things down.

The show's cancellation has me asking myself, where do social media strategies go when they're no longer needed? So far, the results of our most significant strategies are:

• a blog with over 200 entries and 600 comments
• a twitter account with 1200+ followers
• a facebook fan page with almost 600+ fans
• a facebook application with 12,000 installs

The Facebook application is especially interesting to me because it's the gift that keeps on giving. Since launch, the application has been averaging 100 new installs per day. This is with no paid promotional activity whatsoever. I don't expect this to stop anytime soon, because I don't think we will reach a ceiling going at this (slow but) steady rate of installation (considering the number of users on Facebook). I designed the application to be viral enough for it to self promote. I suppose I could turn those activities off if I wanted to.

For the blog, we have decided to stop all posting, write our goodbyes and leave commenting open for a few weeks. We will then shut down all comments, and leave the blog up for the sake of Google and reference.  I am not sure what to do with the Twitter account. It essentially was a machine for the blog and site updates, but with no more site updates, what else is there? I suppose the Facebook fan page can stay in place, however we'll probably put up a notice about the show and site saying farewell.

 I feel like I am divorcing or "putting out" a community I spent months building and nurturing. Now that we don't have the time and resources to support it, what's the best way to properly memorialize it? Any thoughts on what we (or any media entity using social media) should do in a situation like this? If situations like this are concerning for TV shows, should we even bother with such strategies, and just let the fans do it organically on the web?

Although it wasn't quietly kept on my Twitter stream, yesterday was my birthday. I just wanted to take the time to thank all my followers on Twitter that sent me Happy Birthday tweets. Lately I have been pretty amazed at how your own personal Twitter families are at times an instant cheerleading section. On graduation day I had a similar effect. Anyway, below is a screenshot of all the tweets I caught (click to view more detail). Bare in mind Twitter broke down about 8 times yesterday and it has been eating tweets, so if you don't see yourself in the crowd, blame Twitter!

I tried to thank everyone individually, but if I missed you, please forgive me!  Know that you all rock and made my birthday full of social media fun :)

It's been pretty quiet over here at LizBdotscom. I wish I could say I've been doing big things, but no, not really. Just trying to survive these next few weeks.

• Still recovering from surgery. Some days are better than others, but don't cry for me Argentina.
  
• I bought myself a Nikon D40 with an extra 55-200mm lens and the kit. While I am no BK, maybe I can catch Boom. Or not. I just want to have fun, me and my camera.
  
• My first blind spin on the D40 can be found here. I took a minute in South Central to smell the roses.
  
• I'm writing a (long) paper about media richness theory, Seesmic and Twitter for one of my finals. Oh, the joy.
  
• My boys' blog VerySmartBrothas.com has officially turned one month old, and it's doing a bang up job. Every week we reach new goals. Did I mention this was a project  of mine for school? 
  
• I'm also writing business plans and product documents for a startup I made up in my Building Web Startups class. That should be interesting.
• I forgot to invite people to my graduation. Including my mom. Oops?
  

I'm amazed I really thought I could bounce back from surgery like it was nothing. "Oh, sure, I'll have surgery on the way to graduation." Somehow it's working. Days like today were pretty rough  (work, stockpiling energy so you can sit through a four hour lecture late at night), but I have  so few of them left, if any.

 

I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook.

The Backstory
I joined Facebook in the Spring of 2004, which means I am coming up on my 4th year as a dedicated active member. I got in early like most of the Ivy League/Top Tier students because Facebook only catered to this audience at the time. Being an MIT student, I was familiar with the paper Face Book issued to Freshmen every year at our school. Back then, TheFacebook.com literally was an e-version of that, give or take a few more fields of information. I could view everybody's business, so long as they were on the MIT network. I was a little frustrated that I couldn't easily connect to my friends at Harvard because there were serious walled gardens in place. Over the years things opened up, and now I barely recognize the Facebook I used to know.

Forcing Powerusers to Power....Use
These days, I find myself wondering who is Facebook catering to whenever they release a new feature. For example, the granular Privacy Options released last week are almost useless to me. This feature is great....if you have only 20 friends on Facebook. Why would I want to sift through my hundreds of Facebook friends and put them all on different lists so I can then control my privacy levels?

I have a couple friends who literally have over 1500 friends on Facebook, and unlike the Scoble's of the world, they actually know these people. What are my friends going to do with this new feature? Sit around sorting their 1500+ friends into lists? Seriously? If we truly wanted to manage our privacy our options are: categorize hundreds of friends (not good for user, will take forever),  pare down our information and proactivity on the site (not good for Facebook), or delete our accounts (not good for Facebook). 

Years ago, I listed my dorm, room number, address, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, on top of other generic meta information on my facebook profile.  Today?  The juiciest information is my work history.  For various reasons, I don't trust putting all my information on Facebook. I have personally discovered security breaches (I still do, as do others) so I don't trust the site to hold my info under lock and key. Even if I trusted Facebook's security, the controversial release of Beacon and NewsFeed has me wondering how much does Facebook actually care about its users? Does Facebook understand their userbase, and the diverse needs and expectations among them?
 
Feeling The Love
I don't feel the love, Facebook. I feel like you've sold my user experience out, just to get a quick high off of a new user account. Newsflash: new booties are having a hard time figuring you out. People don't 'get' why you are useful, the granular privacy levels are only awesome if you understand what should be hidden and why. While extended privacy levels are great, they will not keep new users if users don't understand the importance and threat to privacy established on your site.

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch
Facebook is silently rolling out the People You May Know feature. I wondered why they hadn't announced it on their blog yet, but I think I know why: they're tweaking the feature. I've noticed a significant change in the pool  of people being pulled, as well as the display on my homepage within the last 24 hours, so I'll wait until it looks as though they're done before I attack.