AUGUST 14, 2009

Social Media Summary - 8/14/09

One big news item this week was Facebook’s acquisition of the popular life streaming service Friendfeed, a move that many speculate will aid Facebook in challenging Twitter. One of the most important services that Friendfeed offers is the smooth integration of activities on other social sites into one stream - something that Facebook’s newsfeed currently does with less refinement. Additionally, Friendfeed has a real-time search function that can be immensely valuable when it is paired with Facebook’s enormous userbase. Mashable asks if this move could be the “Twitter-killer”, as Facebook has been obviously building up their newsfeed to match Twitter’s relevance and immediacy. It’s a possibility, but as Brian Solis noted recently in this blog post, one possibility is that multiple networks can coexist, as users define how each fits into their lifestyle and serves a particular need.

In other Facebook news:

Facebook launches real-time search
Facebook is working on a “Lite” version of its site

A recent study by the Association of National Advertisers states that 66 percent of marketers have now used social media in some capacity in 2009. This is a significant increase since the same survey in 2007 revealed that the number was only 20 percent. Top sites being used by marketers are (in order): Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. One interesting finding from this report was that Twitter was being used more often by business-to-business marketers (70%) than business-to-consumer marketers (48%). One reason for this could be the fact that Twitter naturally encourages dialogue among people with similar backgrounds. Link sharing is particularly active among members who build up a following based on topics with professional interest.

Twitter made an announcement this week that it will be beginning phase one of Project Retweet. The project will make the retweet an actual supported feature of the site (like Twitter search or @ replies). In other words, retweets will now show up as a unique element on the Twitter homepage, and have an interface that outside developers can creatively work with to add retweet elements to their sites or programs. The direction that Twitter team has decided to go with this suggests that they value the efficient and personal nature of disseminating information that retweeting brings to the service (not to mention that retweeting is a feature that Facebook and other social networks don’t have much of a handle on yet).

However, Project Retweet will also herald some changes that have caused some concerns. Mashable writer Jennifer Van Grove points out that the new proposed format for retweeting will simply publish the original tweet in friends’ timelines with your twitter handle listed underneath as a supporter. This could have the effect of making the retweet seem less personal, as users are unable to endorse the tweet with a their own short comments. As Twitter rolls out more components of Project Retweet, it will be interesting to see how the community reacts and adapts to the change. After all, changes like this and the introduction of “mentions” back in the day were all products of the Twitter team observing unique ways its users were using the service.