RickyCadden.com

Back On The Hunt

// September 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Social Networks

After a few consulting projects here and there, I’m back on the hunt for exciting opportunities to use my skills. I’m really looking for companies who need my help in setting up an online presence using Social Media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and others. I would also love to join with companies who are already utilizing some of these tools, to help them explore how they can improve the relationships that they are already building.

The most exciting thing about using Social Media tools, in my opinion, is that they actually free you up from being stuck in front of a computer all day. Any cell phone on the market today can access Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or nearly any other social media tool that you’re using, so that you can interact on the go. It’s a fantastic example of technology enriching and enabling our real lives.

Twitter is, by far, one of the most popular tools that companies are using to interact with current and potential customers. Major companies such as Dell and AT&T are employing teams of people to simply monitor Twitter, and directly interact with consumers who are expressing issues with Dell computers or AT&T’s service. These Twitter Teams are able to quickly act to resolve situations, and it seems to be paying off.

I’ve also noticed other companies who simply reach out to say thanks. In the past few months, I’ve tweeted about great experiences with OpenTable.com, Discount Tires, and more, only to quickly receive a ‘thanks’ via Twitter. It’s not much, but it feels great to know that these companies are listening, and more importantly, talking back.

If your company is trying to make sense of all this social media mumbo-jumbo, or if you know someone who is, please do let me know (or point them here). I’d love to chat with them, to see how I can help them work smarter to better engage directly with their current and potential customers.

Is Facebook Getting Dumber?

// June 26th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Social Networks, stupid

I’ve been on Facebook for several years now – back when you had to have a valid college email address to sign up, and even before you could upload pictures and all that jazz. Admittedly, I’ve always been rather averse to the countless games and apps on there, mostly because I have better things to do with my time. I normally don’t judge those folks who do enjoy the apps and games, though. After all, it’s your life, you live it however you want to. However, there is one thing lately that’s just really  bothering me.

Check out this screen capture. Do you see that top right corner? Yes, Facebook is informing me of three things here. First, that they’ve checked out my profile, and have a suggestion for me. Second, that suggestion was accepted by 2 of my friends, thus far. Third, that I, too, can become a fan of Hot Pink.

Once you click through, it gets even more stupid. Sure, you can join this….group, and see other people who think Hot Pink is just the bee’s knees. There’s a wall, just like on your own Facebook profile, but usually this is either full of spam, or of pointless stuff like, ‘I won my first basketball game yesterday’.

Perhaps, at 26, I’m simply getting too old for this stuff (only partially kidding), or perhaps I just have better things to do with my time. Surely I’m not the only one who thinks this is the dumbest thing they’ve ever seen? I’ve seen other things you can become a fan of – things like smiles, coffee (tempted to join that one, actually), the sun, peach tea, etc.

Am I missing the point by looking for a purpose for these things?

Followup To My Facebook Lockdown

// May 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Social Networks

Several weeks ago, I made the decision to implement a ‘friend rule’ on Facebook, where I disconnected from anyone that I had not personally met in real life at least 2 times. You can read the post here, to get an idea of why I did this. After several weeks of this limited use, I’m honestly not sure what I think about it.

There are some clear benefits, for sure. Most of my online contacts use services such as Ping.FM and others that automatically update both your Facebook and Twitter status at the same time. As such, removing these folks from my Facebook ‘friends’ list has gone a long way to declutter my stalkerfeed (that’s what I like to call it), and bring forth the more meaningful updates from people that I’ve connected with in real life.

Similarly, I’ve noticed a big decrease in the number of silly app invites/requests that I get. No, I don’t want to throw a sheep, be a ninja, or join the mafia. I’m actually surprised at this discovery, as I certainly assumed the ‘unwashed masses’ who are not constantly connected would more easily fall prey to these types of online ‘apps’. It seems the uber-connected among us simply can’t resist.

However, I’ve also noticed a feeling that I’m missing out on some great feature of Facebook. As part of this little experiment, I’ve also restricted my use of ‘fan pages’. This actually turned out nice, because I’ve noticed recently, there is a major influx of random, silly ‘fan pages’, such as becoming a fan of summer, the radio, ice cream, and any other random thing. I don’t know what exactly it is that I would be missing out on, but I can’t help the feeling, anyways, if you know what I mean.

In any case, I believe that I’ve decided to re-assess my Facebook policy. I’m going to be frank about it – if we’re ‘internet friends’, sure, I’ll add you. However, if you start annoying me, I’m going to remove you, and I’m not going to feel bad about it, either. It’s *my* social network, and that means I get to decide who’s in there and who’s not.

This is different than on Twitter, where I’m ‘connected’ with hundreds of folks that I don’t know, and whose updates annoy the crap out of me. However, most of them, I’m connected with for another reason. It might be that once a day, they have a great tweet. It might be that they work somewhere like Nokia, where I’m interested in keeping them on my list, just in case they say something smart/cool/funny/interesting.

I’m going to continue to monitor my Facebook experience, though. Facebook is fascinating to me because it seems as though the default use is to connect with anyone and everyone on there, and to click every link you see, thereby adding countless time-wasting games and whatnot to your ‘profile’. However, I firmly believe that, since it’s *MY* profile, I should exercise some control over what’s on there.

I’m interested to know, how do YOU use Facebook? Do you think I’m being too conservative with my usage, specifically as a Social Media…person?

Followup To My Facebook Lockdown

// May 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Social Networks

Several weeks ago, I made the decision to implement a ‘friend rule’ on Facebook, where I disconnected from anyone that I had not personally met in real life at least 2 times. You can read the post here, to get an idea of why I did this. After several weeks of this limited use, I’m honestly not sure what I think about it.

There are some clear benefits, for sure. Most of my online contacts use services such as Ping.FM and others that automatically update both your Facebook and Twitter status at the same time. As such, removing these folks from my Facebook ‘friends’ list has gone a long way to declutter my stalkerfeed (that’s what I like to call it), and bring forth the more meaningful updates from people that I’ve connected with in real life.

Similarly, I’ve noticed a big decrease in the number of silly app invites/requests that I get. No, I don’t want to throw a sheep, be a ninja, or join the mafia. I’m actually surprised at this discovery, as I certainly assumed the ‘unwashed masses’ who are not constantly connected would more easily fall prey to these types of online ‘apps’. It seems the uber-connected among us simply can’t resist.

However, I’ve also noticed a feeling that I’m missing out on some great feature of Facebook. As part of this little experiment, I’ve also restricted my use of ‘fan pages’. This actually turned out nice, because I’ve noticed recently, there is a major influx of random, silly ‘fan pages’, such as becoming a fan of summer, the radio, ice cream, and any other random thing. I don’t know what exactly it is that I would be missing out on, but I can’t help the feeling, anyways, if you know what I mean.

In any case, I believe that I’ve decided to re-assess my Facebook policy. I’m going to be frank about it – if we’re ‘internet friends’, sure, I’ll add you. However, if you start annoying me, I’m going to remove you, and I’m not going to feel bad about it, either. It’s *my* social network, and that means I get to decide who’s in there and who’s not.

This is different than on Twitter, where I’m ‘connected’ with hundreds of folks that I don’t know, and whose updates annoy the crap out of me. However, most of them, I’m connected with for another reason. It might be that once a day, they have a great tweet. It might be that they work somewhere like Nokia, where I’m interested in keeping them on my list, just in case they say something smart/cool/funny/interesting.

I’m going to continue to monitor my Facebook experience, though. Facebook is fascinating to me because it seems as though the default use is to connect with anyone and everyone on there, and to click every link you see, thereby adding countless time-wasting games and whatnot to your ‘profile’. However, I firmly believe that, since it’s *MY* profile, I should exercise some control over what’s on there.

I’m interested to know, how do YOU use Facebook? Do you think I’m being too conservative with my usage, specifically as a Social Media…person?

I’m Pruning Facebook

// March 25th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // Social Networks

I’m clearly a very ‘online’ person. I upload all my personal videos and photos publicly to a number of different places, have this blog, on which you can find out tons of information about me, and have worked to make myself ‘googlable’. As such, I currently have 672 friends on Facebook. I realize that’s not many at all, in comparison with other online personas, but it’s more ‘friends’ (rather, contacts) than I have on any other service, including Twitter. The problem with that is two-fold:

1. Facebook has become redundant – most of my ‘online’ friends use a service like Ping.FM to post their status updates to numerous places at once. Thus, my Twitter feed and Facebook status feed look awful similar, most of the time. This doesn’t help me at all, as I have to filter through the information twice.

2. Facebook has become cluttered – most of this is due to the awful new layout, but my Facebook is cluttered with people that I’ve met once, or in several cases, not ever met at all. Chances are, if I’ve never met someone in real life, then I met them online (duh), in which case I probably am already connected with them over Twitter or some other place.

Thus, I’m enacting a new rule for my Facebook account – you will only be listed as my ‘friend’ in Facebook if we’ve met in real life at least 2x. Why 2x? For one, because my buddy Stefan Constantinescu uses that metric, and I think it’s a good one. Also, it’s not quite possible to meet someone 2x in real life on accident, in most cases. The first meeting, definitely. Could be that you randomly met at a bar, or at an event, or whatever. It could be that a friend introduced you two, and the ‘polite’ thing to do (at the time) was to find each other on Facebook. However, those are chance encounters, and you aren’t quite what I’d call ‘friends’. Heck, you’re hardly even ‘acquaintances’. But 2x, well, usually the 2nd meeting was on purpose. Perhaps you had something interesting to talk about, or perhaps I just thought you were cool and sought to hang out again. Either way, it’s a more deliberate meeting.

If I remove you, please don’t take it personally. We can still be ‘contacts’ on any other online service, but I’m going to limit my Facebook by this 2x rule. It may start to suck, and I might end up adding everyone back, who knows.

What do you think? Is this a stupid idea, or do you see why it makes sense?

My Mom Thinks Facebook Invented Status Updates

// March 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // cool, Mobile, Social Networks

I’ve been on Twitter, in one form or another, for over 2 years. I was on Jaiku for a long time in the middle there, and have been extremely familiar with the microblogging idea for a while. What’s fascinating to me is that while the digerati sees Facebook coming into the various online communities (photosharing, microblogging, social network, etc), there are a whole slough of people out there who are ‘discovering’ the internet through Facebook.

My mom, for instance, discovered Facebook late last year. She has since called me a few times, when someone poked her for the first time, or when someone tagged me in a photo of hers. My mom now posts status updates – witty ones sometimes, even – and regularly adds to her Facebook presence. On several occasions in the past few weeks, I’ve had people (not of the digerati) ask me what Twitter is all about, and I found myself explaining that Twitter is basically an entire service made up of status updates, like on Facebook. Interesting, using Facebook to describe Twitter.

Personally, I find this completely fascinating. Unfortunately, introducing the great unwashed to Facebook (and thus, the internet) has brought more than a few negative effects, as well. You’ll recall the ’25 Random Things About Me’ meme that went around Facebook recently, reminiscint of the early days of email, when passing unending lists was the norm. Worse yet, I’ve seen a few people even passing along the nonsensical chain-mail notes, threatening that if I don’t repost it to my own profile, I’d have bad luck for 6 weeks, or some other ridiculous situation.

What’s most encouraging about this, though, isn’t that the masses are learning about how to share photos online, or how to tell other people what they’re doing right now. The most encouraging thing about this is that Facebook has a quite robust mobile website – fit for use on nearly any mobile phone on the market. As consumers explore Facebook, no doubt they’ll figure out that they can easily get Facebook on their phone, which will encourage more mobile web usage. More importantly, in my opinion, is that users will get a taste of an incredibly useful, well-formatted mobile-friendly site, rather than this desktop-web-on-a-phone nonsense that has been spreading across the mobile industry like wildfire. More on that later.

The Day Old Media Died

// January 20th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // communication, cool, Social Networks

Today, President Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of these United States. While his election is a bit of history in of itself, it’s not tech related, so that’s not what I want to talk about – what I want to talk about is how I (and apparently 13.9 million others) experienced this Inauguration Ceremony.

As I’ve mentioned here before, the only TV I have in my house is a 21″ tube tv, which is parked in my office with a pair of foil-covered rabbit-ears on it. I don’t ‘watch’ TV, though, I stream it. To the ‘old media’ outlets on TV, such as CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, etc., I’m a lost viewer. However, today one of them reclaimed me, and did so well. It was CNN. For the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, CNN partnered with Facebook to stream the ceremony over the internet. You can see a screengrab below:

You see, there on the left, that’s the video window. It’s sort of like your TV, in that it shows video content, most of which was live. There’s a volume control, and I can make it take up my whole monitor, if I choose. However, the real key is what’s on the right hand side there – that’s my Facebook. Yeah, CNN came to me, where I’ve gathered with my friends, and brought us the news. Freakin brilliant.

Throughout the whole ceremony, I was able to watch the video, live, and see what my friends on Facebook had to say about it. It was like being in the same room with all of my Facebook friends. I was able to comment on things they said, and they could do the same to me. This chat room of sorts also automatically updated, just like a real conversation would have done. It did not require me to do anything but sit and watch, and participate where I felt led to.

There’s also an option for me to branch out from just my friends, and see what *everyone* on Facebook was saying. I clicked over there a few times, but it was far too busy, and I didn’t really know anyone in there, so I went back to my friends. This is how I see the future of TV, honestly. I think there are going to be a handful of networks and content owners who realize this – they’re the ones who are already offering their content online, still ad-supported, for viewing.

The major key, in my opinion, was the way that CNN came to me and my friends with Facebook – it was seamless for the user, minus a small plugin I had to install, only stuttered a few times through the 2 hour+ ceremony (including the ‘pregame’ stuff), and allowed me to chat with people that I know easily. It was also important to note that CNN came to us – they didn’t make me setup a new account, or ask us to re-find each other on a new service.

To put this in perspective, CNN and Facebook created basically an online Super Bowl party, in my own livingroom. Imagine if every TV show had this setup, where you could ‘meet’ your friends to chat about the show while you’re watching – with the option to go fullscreen and just enjoy the content. Imagine what it would mean for the content owners and advertisers, actively engaged users who would normally have pirated the show, or DVR’d it to skip the ads. For users, it’s a whole new, social way to enjoy video content, when you want, with anyone you want.

I can tell you something now – if I could watch TV with Facebook (or any other threaded conversation place, which leaves Twitter out but leaves Jaiku in), I would do it in a heartbeat. Today, old media died. New media, and the old media smart enough to embrace it, experienced a great deal of growth. How did you watch the Inauguration?

Facebook FTW?

// January 7th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // communication, Social Networks

When Facebook first came available for my college, it was a day to celebrate. Hours were wasted pruning my profile and scouring that of others. Since then (nearly 5 years, which is crazy), Facebook has added various features and capabilities, but never really grew past a way to waste time – until recently.

I don’t remember when, but Facebook now supports comments on my status updates. That means anyone that I’m friends with on Facebook can see, and interact with me there. Like on Jaiku. I’ve been using Ping.FM to update Jaiku, Facebook, and Twitter all at the same time, as somewhat of an experiment. I’ve found that, at least to a small extent, I get a new set of voices, and nearly as much interaction on Facebook as I do on Jaiku. I get nothing on Twitter, which doesn’t really surprise me at all. Whereas the vast majority of my online friends are on (and were made on) Jaiku, more of my real-life friends are on Facebook, and they’re joined there by most of my Jaiku friends.

Next up was Facebook Chat. This is by far the best feature of the service, really. Especially since I use Digsby to login on my PC, without having to have Facebook open. I have the chance to chat with people from all over the place, regardless of what IM client they normally use. There’s no hassle with screennames, buddy lists, or anything else. It’s just so easy, I’ve chatted with my parents, long lost friends, and family members on there.

I’m finding myself spending more and more time on Facebook, as a result. I’m still on Jaiku in a big way, and likely still will be for a long while. It’s a good source of news for me, and there are some stubborn friends on there who just won’t embrace Facebook. Also, compared to Jaiku, Facebook doesn’t have ‘downtime’, nor has it stopped growing. With photos, Facebook easily replaces Flickr or Share on Ovi as an online photo dump, too.

It feels to me like Facebook is somewhat of an underdog, quietly sneaking in and replacing my favorite services with promise of an integrated, never-down option. And I like it. My only complaint about Facebook is that they seem to be content merely offering an m.dot site, rather than mobile clients for the various platforms. Of course, that’s a bit of a biased view, since I only use S60-powered smartphones, but it’s still a factor.