Comments on: Social networking: the next generation

By: Balaya: a nice success story in innovation marketing « Black Dog Strategic

Balaya: a nice success story in innovation marketing « Black Dog Strategic — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:47:21 +0000

[...] it did the other day. Seth runs marketing for Savannah-based social media developer Balaya, which I’ve written about before. Balaya recently won the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s 2009 People’s Chocie Contest, thanks [...]

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:22:36 +0000

Hi, Ian. You’re right, and I think the theory behind what Balaya is trying to do is take some of the creepiness out by making that relationship a user choice. When I have the ability to choose who can advertise to me according to what my group is about I think that solves everybody’s problem. In theory, anyway.

By: Ian Welsh

Ian Welsh — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:29:50 +0000

The problem with non-flat advertising is that it requires knowing a lot about people. And as we’ve seen recently folks don’t like trusting social networking sites wtih that much personal info. It’s pretty creepy when marketing drones start customizing thier pitches to you.

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:16:36 +0000

Bruce: Maslow continues to be incredibly useful in parsing things, huh? This kind of reminds me of a conversation I was having yesterday. A very senior officer in a major consultancy put her finger right on it – when companies are talking about social media, they need to stop and ask themselves “what problem are we trying to solve?”

Very Maslowian, if you ask me.

By: Bruce Lewin

Bruce Lewin — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:55:38 +0000

As has been said elsewhere, I think that social networking speeds up existing and relevant aspects of human nature. Sure, systems can be re-designed, new variables added and even some AI (ish!) stuff thrown in. With or without this, I think we’re all going back to those fundamental aspects of Maslow, its just that the internet and social networking speeds it up.

Put another way, I can quickly create and dismantle real world relationships along with expressing myself more easily to more people via the web. This is great and sure, it helps me on my quest of getting up Maslow’s triangle. What is missing for me though is something of a shortcut, or a gain in efficiency that is an order of magnitude (e.g. email v. letters etc.) rather than small incremental steps…

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:01:55 +0000

Hi Mike. I think my theory about how it would work is that you’d set a closeness rating which would either be invisible to others or that you’d have the option of making visible or invisible. Again, this would sort of mimic how real life works.

The idea of action-based ratings is interesting, too, although I can’t help thinking that most people are going to want to have control of how that works. Could be wrong, and it will be interesting to see what works and what doesn’t.

By: Mike Moran

Mike Moran — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:28:25 +0000

Great post, Sam.

I think your insight on the flatness of on-line friend relationships is right on. I understand the idea of rating friends on “closeness” but I think that one thing that is hard about social networks is their openness.

In real life, you can have several best friends that are closer to you then some other friends, but it doesn’t have to be readily apparent to all involved. On-line, a key question would be whether everyone could see how close you’ve rated them to be to you, or whether that was information only you saw.

One compromise would be for the ratings to be done based on actions (how many times you IM, e-mail, etc.) that seems less subjective and more objective, but the tranparency of the closeness ratings seem to trigger some basic human relationship questions that technology won’t answer by itself.

It’s possible that social networks are messy because people are.

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:01:56 +0000

Jeff: You can’t use the Net to give someone an actual sample, of course, but you can give them coupons for samples. In order for this to work, though, you have to engineer the greater relevancy I’m talking about here. You’re right that this doesn’t completely replicate the real world, but does it get us a step or two closer? Maybe.

Denny: The inmates may not get it right away, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the experience better for them. They’ll notice soon enough, I suspect.

By: JHL

JHL — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:04:39 +0000

Dr. S:
Balaya’s comment: “Close, real-world groups create, share, play, plan and communicate in ways that are different from groups that are more casually connected.”, is certainly true.

The “problem” is that “real-world” and “real-WEB-world” are two different dynamics. An online relationship will never (and I don’t think that is too strong a word) have an equal dynamic as an up-close, personal, “I-can-smell-your-breath” relationship. This MAY be why the younger demographic is not using “friends” sites as much any more – they are realizing that “online friends” still don’t satisfy the need of personal, DIRECT relationship. (Online relationships are still like two people talking through a mediator/medium.

As for advertising – for me, and probably many others, since I don’t think I’m that unique when it comes to advertising influence – the BEST way to get me to buy a new product is to give me a sample at WalMart, Price Club, etc. No medium. It’s personal and REAL.

(Maybe if advertisers could find a way for us to hear, read, and TASTE a new product online…?)

By: Flat Friends? « Thing of the Day

Flat Friends? « Thing of the Day — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:35:33 +0000

[...] Flat Friends? http://blackdogstrategic.com/2008/02/11/social-networking-the-next-generation/ [...]