Skittles.com Turns Into A Social Media Hub

Mars’ Skittles has forgone a traditional website, and instead has created a seamless social media hub. If you go to the official Skittles website at www.skittles.com, the user is immediately directed to the Skittles fan page on Facebook.

Follow The Inauguration With Your Friends Through Facebook

Today President Elect Barak Obama becomes President Barak Obama. If you cannot get to a TV, I suggest you go to CNN.com to sign on to the live streaming coverage.

What makes CNN’s live stream so innovative is they have incorporated Facebook Connect into the video. You can update your Facebook status and comment while watching the video stream.

ReadWriteWeb posts technical framework for building Social Media Cheat Sheet

While slightly technical in nature, it is nothing that any moderate computer user would have trouble with. ReadWriteWeb has posted instructions on how to build a news-dashboard on any topic using social media tools and technologies freely available on the web.

The Ultimate Social Media Search Engine

Just days after I gave my list of social media search and reputation management tools, Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion points us to the launch of the social media search aggregator, WhosTalkin. The people at WhosTalkin made the announcement on their blog on Thursday; ”After 7 months of development, we are finally unveiling the WhosTalkin.com Platform to the public! Our private beta testers gave it their all and helped us shape the direction and face of WhosTalkin.com. With their guidance made the following changes below.”

My 2009 Predictions

I would be negligent as a person who consumes so much information and spends so much time engulfed in social media not to make my own predictions for 2009. So, here they are…

1. Distribution rules.
   - New media companies will establish distribution networks before they build a single destination for their content. Companies will understand the need to put their efforts to reaching an audience across the web, instead of driving them to a single destination. As I have noted in a previous post, TVLoop is a prime example of this. Instead of creating a site similar to Hulu, where all the content lives on a single destination, they first created a distribution network reaching an audience that already existed on social networking sites. Without sounding cliche, companies need to fish where the fish are instead of exerting their efforts luring them to a single trap. The most important thing is understanding how to monetize these distribution networks and create monetary value for the content. 

The Tools To Monitor Social Media and Your Online Identity

Companies need to come to the realization that their brands exist and are shaped beyond their direct influence. For as long as brands have existed, consumers have had an opinion about them. Unlike twenty years ago, when those opinions could only be shared within small face-to-face networks, they can now be shared on a constantly expanding massive scale. Services like Twitter, Facebook and blogs enable this. Below is a fairly comprehensive list of the tools needed to track your brand and your online identity. See what they are saying about you…

2009 The Year Of Mobile Social Networking

One prediction I have for 2009 and the future of social media is the development and adoption of mobile social networks. What mobile does for social networking, if done correctly, is it effectively and seamlessly connects online relationships with offline experiences. The most popular features of social networking, like Facebook events, already do just that. With mobile social networks though, this can be accomplished with a lot more immediacy. There is the argument that online social networks causes people to become isolated and relinquish their need for real human interaction, but I think it actually enhances it. Once you are able to move outside of your house with these capabilities, I think this medium will begin to reach its full potential.

eMarketer released a report yesterday claiming there is major growth in mobile social networking. Overall, the number of people who accessed social networks from their mobile devices increased by 182% from September 2007 to October 2008.

Some Make Resolutions, Some Make Predictions

Here are a handful of links to some predictions for 2009:

eMarketer’s Predictions for 2009

Social media expert and co-author of “Groundswell” Charlene Li’s predictions for 2009

2009 predictions from 15 social media experts – from Jaffe Juice

Hypebot’s music industry predictions

Music Alley’s digital music predictions

FEED: The Razorfish Consumer Experience Report

Gerd Leonhard of Media Futurist points to the 2008 Razorfish Consumer Experience Report. This is a very thorough overview of social media and how it relates to the consumer.

Some main points from the report: *denotes my commentary

Facebook Connect

In an effort to make the web more social, Facebook has officially rolled-out Facebook Connect. This was orginally announced on May 9th on Facebook’s Developer Blog. It has taken since then to finally get it live, and it is just barely live. From the sites they have listed it seems only the City Search Beta site is functioning properly. Next to the member login, it allows for users to sign in using Facebook.

If it is the first time you log in through your Facebook account, a screen will pop-up with an invitation to sync accounts.

Once logged in through your Facebook account, you are able to see which of your friends are also City Search members through Facebook. Your friend directory begins to be imported into City Search as more and more of your friends log-in. The other benefit is the reviews you write and the restaurants you recommend are shared with your entire network at Facebook.com.