Social media has made today’s marketing less about controlling the message and more about asking questions. While Twitter and Facebook want to know what’s happening, Foursquare and other location-based social networks wonder, “Where are you?”

For those unfamiliar with Foursquare, the service lets users “check in” to a location via their smartphones or laptops and logs their positions on a map that others can see. The more you check in, the more badges and bragging rights you earn.

“The X-factor appeal of Foursquare is in its social currency,” says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital agency 360i. “Giving Foursquare users these badges for completing explicit tasks adds an element of surprise, like a scavenger hunt.”  The badges also help users show off their interests to others, enabling them to connect with like-minded people and keep the “game” going.

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Zynga Homepage

According to my Facebook News Feed, we are facing an agricultural crisis: I have more than 20 friends whose FarmVille crops need fertilizer. However, since FarmVille’s debut last June, the popular Facebook application has done more than flood my feed with farm-related requests. It has enabled its creator, Zynga, to reportedly rake in more than $200 million in 2009. But how can such revenues be possible if social gaming is supposed to be free? The answer lies in the sale of virtual goods and the games’ use of compulsion loops.

In social games, users are encouraged to enhance their farms or strengthen their mafias through the purchase of virtual goods. These can include fanciful structures (Ferris wheels), seasonal items (mistletoe-shooters) or tools (tractors) that enrich gameplay. Such goods allow users to customize their profiles, advance more quickly in the game or “keep up” with other players. In short, virtual goods are a graphic extension of common user behaviors such as self-expression or competitiveness.

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After turning off all site comments on Tuesday, AOL-owned Engadget today flipped the comment switch back on, ending a two-day hiatus resulting from its editors seeing too many comments that were “mean, ugly, pointless, and frankly threatening in some situations.”

Engadget columnist Michael Gartenberg expressed his discontent with the comments that followed his recent iPad editorial in a Tweet: “Amused. Bash me on @Engadget column. Suggest my parents were not married prior to birth, suggest I be fruitful & multiply. enclose your CV.”

With traditional news outlets declining and enthusiast blogs like Engadget on the rise, the implications of closing comments reflect how the stampede of online discourse can sometimes be too much for even mature, full-time blogs to endure. According to Alexa, Engadget today ranks 195 in the nation and 384 in the world for Internet traffic. It recently launched mobile applications for iPhone and Blackberry. It produces its own weekly podcasts and monthly TV shows (Edited per Zack’s comment). This is a full-time media company in all respects and an influential one at that – The AFP wrote a story on Engadget’s comment disabling.

Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky explains why things got out of hand in a Tweet: “I don’t think it’s about the class of the readership, it’s about scale.”

Scale is certainly an issue, but it shouldn’t excuse community behavior. Especially for a technology site like Engadget, you’d think that its die-hard community would be populated by primarily educated (either by trade or academically) and at least civil readers. Surely most are, but what caused Engadget to call “time-out” demonstrates how online media-enabled free speech can unveil the worst in us. Read more…

The digital revolution has brought about the age of the DIY musician, or as Sonicbids.com founder Panos Panay calls it, the “artistic middle class.” With technology, artists are able to produce and distribute their work easily while maintaining creative control. But big record labels, despite their floundering, still appear to be the way for an artist to go from anonymity to platinum-selling success. So how is this middle-class musician Panay speaks of making money and supporting his or her craft? Read more…

I’m going to say it – I really like the ads on Facebook.

This is a significant statement because my traditional attitude toward advertisement consumption has been rather adversarial. Before there was DVR, I was the person who muted the commercials. Now I love my TiVO so much for all the noise it removes from my entertainment experience that I could give it a hug. And though I tout the wonders of internet radio station Pandora – I curse every time a 15-second ad is inserted into my streaming music. Obnoxious advertising was one of the primary factors why I abandoned terrestrial radio in the first place. I will stop reading an article of interest on a website if one of those Flash ads dances across the text. The user experience for that kind of interruption is so negative that I will actively stay away from that site and try to patronize its competitors.
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Social networking takes many forms. My wife sent me this link because she thought the message was great. It’s a site called Born Again American and it was started by the venerable Norman Lear as a way of re-invigorating people’s commitment to American citizenship and values.

The song is great, especially when the production challenges of 16 performers and choruses are considered. What I find most interesting is the number of organizations that are using social media to build a spirit of nationalism and generate positive feelings about pulling together through these economic hardships. Sure, some of these are really partisan attempts at fundraising or cause-related actions, but I think there is a nascent spirit of cooperation that I haven’t seen for a long time.

INTRODUCTION

With the proliferation of social networking sites, we are increasingly reliant on our online profiles to accurately present our personalities. But do they? Dr. Scott Counts of Microsoft Research’s VIBE Group explored just how people’s perceptions are impacted by the advent of online identities.

In a recent presentation of findings, Dr. Counts discussed studies that delved into the ways we self-present our personalities via online profiles and how others perceive those presentations.  The results were interesting, and proved the promising reliability and accuracy of the newfound ability to “right-click” on someone via their online profiles.

Below are the insight summaries from two of the Mircrosoft studies that focused on how people perceive personalities via online profiles.
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posted by Hanson Hosein

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been hearing a lot about how busy people are beginning to give up on e-mail, to the point of declaring “e-mail bankruptcy.” I’ve been on the verge of doing so myself, though I’ve done little to help my situation: with poor e-mail management skills, and a propensity to return e-mail quickly (the more you respond, the more you get).

So I liked reading about IBM’s “Social Computing Evangelist’s” approach to dropping e-mail altogether and relying more on social media tools.

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