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The Wall Street Journal amuses me. A Murdoch property, the newspaper does its best to minimize the best of “real” News Corp. journalism. I appreciate objective editorials which present oracular explanations of meaningful events in the world of “real” business.

A good read is “How AOL—Aka Facebook 1.0—Blew Its Lead” by Jesse Kornbluth. What is interesting is that this is a report from a person with Guccis on the ground. According to my hard copy edition, February 8, 2012, page A15:

Mr. Kornbluth was editorial director of America Online from 1997 to 2003. He now edits Headbutler.com.

I did a quick search on Facebook 3.0—aka Google—and learned from no less an authority than the Huffington Post the Mr. Kornbluth edits a blog which is a “cultural concierge service.” He is a “real” journalist and has been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and new York, and a contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times, etc.”

The addled goose is still in recovery mode, sort of like a very old restore from the now disappeared Fastback program. Thinking of old software and AOL, I think in 1999America Online was in hog heaven in terms of stock price. I recall shares coming in the $40 to $100 range. The accounting issues of 1993 were behind the company. The merger with Time Warner was a done deal by mid January 2000. The $350 billion was a nice round number. The New York Times marked the 10th anniversary in its “analysis” on January 11, 2010, with the story “How the AOL-Time Warner Merger Went So Wrong.”

Now I learn that AOL was Facebook 1.0. I had forgotten about AOL’s chat rooms. When I think of chat rooms, I recall CompuServe, but I was never into AOL despite the outstanding marketing campaign with the jazzy CD ROMs that seemed to be everywhere. Here’s Mr. Kornbluth’s Facebook parallel:

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Interviews

Text Analytics News recently partnered with Useful Social Media to publish a series of interviews with experts in the field of Social Media Analytics. The second installment focuses on the relationships between vendors and their end user consumers.

“Social Media Analytics Expert Interview Series: Part 2” is conducted by the Chief Editor of Text Analytics news, Ezra Steinberg. The interview panel includes: Meta Brown, General Manager of Analytics at LinguaSys; Christine Campbell, Director of Marketing at Socialware; and Pirouz Nilforoush, President & Co-Founder of NetShelter Technology Media. All three interviewees will be speaking at the Social Media Analytics Summit in San Francisco in April. The interview sheds some light on customer interaction; some helpful questions and responses from the interview follow:

 “USM:  What do you believe the average consumer thinks about companies’ social media listening initiatives?

Nilforoush (Netshelter): I think the average consumer is confused as to why different brands are initiating conversations with them online that can resemble advertising or spam. Brands need to focus their efforts around engaging their top influencers, rather than trying to engage with every single person that has something to say about their brand. It is not a scalable model for the brands and can be annoying for the end user. Instead, brands should focus their efforts on the people that have the biggest impact on their brand. These influencers will do the work for brands on their own and impact the masses.

USM:  What would you tell someone who is thinking about employing social media analytics for their company?

Brown (LinguaSys): Start with just one narrow project tied to a specific business problem. Choose something where you feel confident that quick improvement is possible. Plan carefully – what’s the path from data collection to analytics to action to returns? Give yourself the best opportunity to succeed – don’t begin until you have made a plan that gives you a way to demonstrate measurable value for your investment in social analytics!

The interview focuses on planning for implementation of social media analytics and consumer’s thoughts on the topic. Many organizations would benefit by considering the opinions and thoughts provided by these leaders in social media. The full interview can be found here and can give insight on building relationships via social media and what to anticipate during the process.

Andrea Hayden, February 02, 2012

SurfRay

This list is far from complete and should be an evolutionary thing as it’s just what I’ve collected myself.