Brian Solis - PR2.0

We are now down to the second-to-last video where Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I examine the state and future of social media.

In this segment, we outline the importance of connecting offline and online experiences. Brands must now introduce a connected series of touchpoints between traditional and new media programs to define paths and bring desired outcomes to life. However, to connect the brand strategy to the individual requires a personal approach that starts with the “First Mile” and connects in the “Last Mile.”

Social networking is deeply personal as individuals define and personalize their experiences. What they see, share, say and with whom they connect is different for everyone. As such, in order for new media to enliven connections and spark actions, they must speak to and resonate with people emotionally and contextually.

Please also read, “Hybrid Theory Manifesto” – a three part series.

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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There’s a saying, “technology changes, people don’t.” Yet, when we consider the impact of technology on our daily lives, some very interesting observations surface…

A pen now feels awkward to hold and as such, our penmanship is deteriorating.

It’s now common to sit at a dinner table with family and friends where some are actively communicating with others, listening to music or gaming via mobile devices.

We are redefining the perception, boundaries and thresholds for privacy as we once knew it.

The future of the art of long form writing is at risk of becoming shrtr and less formal #forrealz.

For some, technology encourages immersion and introverted experiences in public settings, reducing the natural human dynamics of engagement. To counter, coffee shops and cafes are becoming “laptop and WIFI free.”

For others, social networking online is converting introverts into digital extroverts, rewarding participation with confidence boosting actions such as responses, “likes,” friend requests, shares, etc.

To connect with other human beings now in the future is not only changing, it’s evoking a sense of Digital Darwinism.  The mantra of “Engage or Die!” was born to make the point that what was, what is, and what will be are no longer linked to all we know and instead, demand an expanded perspective.

Social networking is pervading led by the clicking, connecting, and sharing of hundreds of millions of Internet denizens around the world. While Facebook is the digital equivalent to your online residence, Twitter is reflective of the “me” in social media. Twitter is not a social network, it is a series of disparately connected personalities linked through friendship, admiration, education, and context. How we embrace and invest our persona in this paradigm says more about the future of digital culture and ourselves than we might imagine.

With the introduction of Apple’s new pseudo social network “Ping,” conversations lit up Twitter ultimately sparking a trending topic, “we don’t need another social network.” Indeed, there is a prevailing sense of social media fatigue (aka social network fatigue (SNF). But as good friend Sarah Lacy recently said, “If You’ve Got Social Media Fatigue, UR DOIN IT WRONG.”

At a recent Girls in Tech event hosted at KickLabs in San Francisco, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams inferred that Twitter is actually a “cure” for information overload. Williams likens Twitter to a recipient-driven medium where people who have something to say can now find and reach the right audience, “That’s a much better situation for both the publisher of the information and the consumer of it. So recipient-based media can scale better “in a world of infinite information.”

@Ev also discussed the future of relevance and how Tweets will adapt to your interests. He compared the experience to Google, “Google is very good at ‘I need to solve a problem, I need to buy something, I need an answer. Twitter is more ‘I’m interested in many things, I don’t know what I need to know.’ What we need to get much better at is scaling that system so you don’t have to pay attention to everything, but you don’t miss the stuff you care about.”

The State of the Evolving Egosystem

Over the years, measuring the impact of Twitter as a medium, proved difficult and elusive as details and numbers did not emanate from Twitter itself. Third-parties using APIs helped us paint the landscape to visualize the tremendous proliferation of what started as a microblog and later evolved into an intricate system for sharing, discovering, and voicing our inner monologue.  To help, Williams posted details, stats, and direction to the Twitter blog. As a result, some very interesting usage patterns and adoption rates were revealed.

First, Twitter boasts over 145 million registered users. In April at its inaugural Chirp conference, Twitter announced 105 million users tweeting upwards of 65 million times a day. The number of active accounts however, remains unknown. As Twitter better explains its mission, purpose, and value system to everyday consumers, the number will only continue to grow.

Evan Williams also shared a glimpse of the Twitter ecosystem and how individuals connect to one another. If the “Web is Dead” Twitter users have yet to hear the news. Twitter.com and m.twitter.com account for 92% of all access and communication.

Social Science Will Reveal the Future of Social Networkings

I believe that in order to truly understand technology, the internet, social media and its impact on society, business, and culture, social science becomes paramount.

Social science is the study of human society and social relationships and its role in the evolution of Twitter, social networking and the future of online societies is paramount. While we focus on the future, we must also look at the past and the present to find meaning, purpose, and insight to steer progress. This rapid evolution requires study in order to navigate change and define a course of action and the passage ways to what lies ahead.

As technology and the internet affect human behavior and culture, understanding how we got here will help us affect where we are going. The future of communication, relationships, and education is in your hands…and your status updates, tweets, “likes” and connections.

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We’re approaching the last bits in this series of conversations where Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I examine the state and future of social media.

In this installment we review the various aspects and formalities of bringing a brand alive, truly alive in social media. Everything begins with establishing the rules of engagement in order to define the boundaries, context, and objectives for conversations. Guidelines such as “don’t be stupid,” “use common sense,” “stay positive,” are not the most useful approach to steering representatives or consumer experiences.

While brands now possess a brand style guide, many have yet to adapt it to the social Web. In chapter 12 of Engage, I introduce “The Brand Reflection Cycle,”an exercise inspired by personality cycles used in psychology. This is intended to help brand managers design the persona, voice, characteristics, and “soul” of the brand within these very human networks. These attributes are then embodied by those on the front lines of social networks to personify the brand and reinforce intended qualities.

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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It’s said that opposites attract. However, in social media, it’s quite the opposite. The idea of privacy and publicity are in fact at odds with one another. And at the heart of the matter, one social network is caught in the crossfire of sharing information and TMI (too much information). The line that separates privacy and openness remains undefined as it continues to shift as individuals learn important life lessons about the benefits and risks of living in public.

As we evolve into a more open society, the economic value of privacy has inverted. Years ago it was inexpensive to maintain a sense of controlled solitude and expensive to earn public attention. Now the cost of publicness is far lower than the expense of cultivating privacy.

The state of privacy online, or perceived lack thereof, is consuming media headlines and status updates worldwide and webwide. But what might appear to represent the sentiment of the people, may also in fact, represent media sensationalism. As you’ll see, conversations on Twitter regarding privacy fueled discourse and debate as well as awareness of the issue. At the heart of the privacy debate is Facebook and its ongoing series of changes to its privacy policy. This latest PeopleBrowsr report examines the extent of Facebook privacy story between Facebook’s F8 conference in April 2010 and now.

The Privacy Woes of Facebook

Over the years, and at the behest of mainstream and new media, Facebook seemingly monopolized all conversations related to privacy concerns. In 2007, Facebook introduced Beacon, an ad system that provided third-party websites with a script that fed the activity of users back into Facebook feeds. After a very public backlash and a class action lawsuit, Facebook changed its stance.

In December 2009, Facebook introduced a privacy overhaul that was met with immediate criticism. After a series of very public complaints, privacy rules were overhauled once again, this time with the input of its users. The examples continue and date back several years.

However, on April 21st 2010 as the world watched, Facebook introduced us to its Open Graph at its F8 developer event in San Francisco. The announcement was met with cheers and jeers, but what was clear, Facebook and its leader Mark Zuckerberg, were leading us into a new, more public and open Web and way of life. Essentially, we were moving beyond the point of no return.

The Open Graph is nothing short of a game changer, serving as a new platform that turns the 500 million user strong social network into a personalization engine and a fledging contextual network that connects relevant information, content and people. And now with the universality of “Likes” inside Facebook and around the Web, your Facebook persona and social graph becomes portable. The price? Your privacy is traded for openness. The benefits? A living searchable Web that’s personalized to you and your contacts and those topics that interest you.

By placing the power of “Likes” within clicking distance, users can literally set the foundation for the content and people to which they’re introduced in Facebook and at partner sites. Hyperlinks are becoming peoplelinks.

For those who were reluctant to say “ah” to the opening of the social graph, they were forced to manually dam the rivers that carried personal information into the social stream. Users deemed it too difficult to do so, and as such, Facebook simplified the process for erecting walls between you, your activity and relationships, and the rest of the Web. But, because Facebook puts its users in control of privacy, what they see and what they share is wholly defined by their user settings. The more open the preferences the more friends within the social graph see and learn about you. Additionally, it’s how Facebook and Facebook’s outside partners personalize your experience. However, you are in control of the impressions that others form as well as the level of customized information and content you see in Facebook and outside apps and networks.

Searching Public Conversations to Research Privacy

There’s an aura of irony here in researching online privacy and using a very open information network to analyze public conversations. While the content studied here is based on subject matter and not tied to individuals per se, one can expect that public profiling in social networks will soon soar. In many ways, we are already seeing the results of personalized marketing and advertising and the improvement of products and services based on the choice words and sentiments shared by like-minded groups and influential individuals online.

Twitter is a unique beast when it comes to social media. It is a network that’s not only open, but indexed by the search engines and open to APIs. Your profile, updates, and your social graph or as Twitter refers to it, your “interest graph,” is open for analysis and perception freely or for the price of admission set forth by third-party developers who house this data. Twitter COO Dick Costolo once stated that Twitter avoided privacy concerns and discussions as people registered for the service with a full understanding that their conversations took place in a very public and visible forum. While true, I’d argue that as individuals take to social media to broadcast their observations and experiences, they are learning the true meaning of privacy and going public as they go.

Judging by the numbers, Costolo is indeed right. Twitter users aim their attention at Facebook when discussing privacy and not Twitter.

Privacy by the Numbers

Working with PeopleBrowsr, we studied the number of Tweets that flew across Twitter referencing privacy or related keywords dating back just prior to the now infamous F8 conference.

Prior to the event on April 24th, privacy Tweets hovered between 1,000 to 3,000 references per day mostly in anticipation of the much-rumored changes to Facebook’s public policy. On the day of F8, privacy emerged as a focal point of many online comments, cries, and reactions, spiking to almost 9,000 in a single day.

As the event itself drew to a close, privacy discussions raged on, but at varying levels. On April 25th, privacy-related Tweets fell sharply to 3,500 only to surge the very next day to just under 7,500 when politicians joined the fray. Four senators sent a letter to Facebook demanding that the company refrain from “opting in” users to new information-sharing features and to provide easier ways to control what information is shared and to whom. Congressman Rick Boucher, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet led the draft of a new privacy bill to find a balance between privacy protection and the ability for online companies to introduce targeted advertising based on behavior and public information shared in the network.

As a result of government intervention, privacy-related Tweets escalated once again toward 9,000.

What’s clear, going back to the day when privacy took center stage, the media sensationalized the topic, but consumers, at least those on Twitter, did not flood the streets with 140 character picket signs. 9,000 tweets do not seem to account for the millions of Twitter users or the 500,000 million people who have Facebook accounts.

But around May 25th, we saw privacy discussions hit the ceiling, at least in this particular study, with over 20,000 unique discussions. Many individuals organized online protests, boycotts, exits, and privacy lobbies. For example, once such group in Facebook maintains a membership of over 2.2 million.

At the beginning of June, Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg held Mark Zuckerberg’s feet to the fire during the annual AllThingsD conference (D8).

Zuckerberg apologized for privacy gaffes and for questionable remarks he made as a teenager, early in Facebook’s rise. However, his stance was clear. He believes users want to share and experience a very public digital life and he will help them connect at varying comfort levels.

The Not-So-Private Privacy Conversation

In order to get a better look at how the conversations related to privacy were stacked, we focused on several specific keywords including Facebook, Open Graph, Zuckerberg, Google, #privacy, among others.

Facebook and Open Graph accounted for a majority of conversations taking place prior to F8 and through the beginning of May. With a high of 5,000 on April 22nd, 27th and again on May 5, Facebook dominated the landscape where mentions of “#privacy” hovered around 500 references per day and “my privacy” barely registering. On April 20th, Google was thrown into the mix with 3,500 appearances tied to privacy when 10 countries organized to send a public letter to Google to protect “our” privacy. Many news organizations publicized the news, which accounted for a majority of the tweets and retweets.

For the most part however, individual subjects hovered at or below 750 daily references.

Privacy vs. Facebook Privacy

The PeopleBrowsr team then focused on privacy related Tweets as compared to those that specifically referenced Facebook. On May 26th and 27th following Washington’s reactions, general conversations about privacy hit a high of just over 18,000 while those specific to Facebook topped out above 12,000. Over the coming days however, the subject of privacy would lose momentum. After dipping to 4,000 general privacy and 2,000 tied to Facebook, interest jumped again on June 2nd, hitting 8,000 and 4,500 respectively. By July 15, privacy tweets waned 4,000 (privacy in general) and 1,000 (Facebook + privacy), maintaining a delta of roughly 2,000 over the course of 45 days.

Following Zuckerberg’s appearance at D8, conversations about Facebook privacy on Twitter have idled.

The Media Sensation

Earlier in the report, we discussed the media’s role in fueling privacy discussions. As such, we decided to compare public “@” conversations against those clearly sharing links to stories regarding privacy and Facebook. As you can see, conversations follow the media, which one could argue, is true for most events. However, individuals carried the conversation forward, in many ways challenging the media’s coverage of privacy to express opinions, concerns, and points of resolution.

What’s clear however, individuals and the greater population of Twitter are not as concerned about privacy, the Open Graph, or privacy settings as the media would otherwise have you believe. But, when Facebook forces human connections and society into a more public spotlight, people and the power of the press will continue to push back. Without pushing back, we cannot push things forward collaboratively. The future of social networks, privacy, and publicness lay not in creation, but instead, co-creation. It is true, we are the last generations to know privacy as it was. Over time we predict this debate will evolve into a series of educational and productive forums and memes that explore the differences significant differences between public and publicness. The value in privacy will only escalate when compared to publicity. However, the value of publicness will also soar as individuals eventually learn how to shape their experiences and the impressions of others. While there are risks involved with living in public, there are also rewards for participation. What works against you also works for you.

To dive further into the real-time discussions on privacy, please visit the special Analytic.ly dashboard we created to help you stay connected to the privacy discussion as it unfolds.

Download the report…

Facebook and the New Age of Privacy

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Influence is the subject of some of important conversations lately. Each time we surface questions, answers and new thinking that starts to reshape the landscape for how businesses view, define, and embrace influence.

The socialization has democratized content and equalized influence. As such, we are at the inception of an an era when everyday people are presented with an opportunity to earn authority, trust, and leadership based on their actions and words.

I’ve partnered with Vocus to take the conversation to you. As I believe that we all have a voice in the shaping and direction of any topic, it’s up to you to help us make sense of the future of influence.

Take the Poll

Everything starts with a simple poll that explores the definition and perception of influence. It takes only a few minutes to complete and your answers will be reviewed in a live Webinar mid-September and also published in a report to be published by Vocus soon after.

Click here to take the poll now and together we’ll learn what makes an influencer.

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In the next installment of discussions exploring the state and future of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I review how relationships online are evolving from social networks to social “nicheworks” or contextual networks.

In social media, how we connect with one another reflects our interests as well as our contacts. We’re adapting our definition of relationships to now also include a new, thinner layer of “relations” in order to refine our online experience as well as how we learn, discover, and share. In doing so, we create a social silhouette that outlines our interests, concerns, views, and potential,which ultimately is reflected in how we architect and cultivate our social graph. Over time we transform social graphs into interest graphs. For those brands, organizations, and individuals looking to associate with relevant groups, having one recipe or formula is no longer effective to suit the tastes of these disparate, yet influential nicheworks.

If businesses or anyone for that matter have any hope of earning prominence within these important communities, relevance and engagement become paramount. The art and science of all we do from here on out will determine our stature within each network and more importantly, the resonance and endurance of what we introduce into social streams.

Information knows no boundaries, but attention and relevance become the barriers to pervasiveness. How will you revise your engagement and content strategies to stimulate resonance?

#R.R.S.

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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In the next installment in a series of conversations exploring the state and future of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I discuss social media by the numbers. At any given moment, your “fans,” “likes,” followers, commenters, readers, are expecting personalized experiences. Simply catering to an “audience” is borderline antisocial. Addressing the needs and expectations of the social consumer and the various roles they play in business is the minimum ante to continue to sit at the table. At the same time, we also need to look beyond who we’re connected to today and focus on connecting with influential individuals and nicheworks who define our social and commerce landscapes.

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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In part ten of a series of conversations exploring the state of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I speculate on the future of social networks.

Social networking as it exists today is not scalable nor is it representative of how social beings connect and engage. We are complex individuals we are defined by what we share, consume, and to whom we connect. Our social graphs are woven with the fabrics of our interests, passions, and relations. One update does not resonate across the social graph. Networks will evolve to match content to context and allow us to seamlessly connect relevant information and people based on frames of reference and subjects.

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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Every now and then, I draw comparisons between the things that inspire me offline in order to help spark creativity and evolution in all that I do online. Inception served as a catalyst for rethinking social media and how we use it to socialize not just our marketing efforts, but our business overall. Weeks later, ideas germinated and here I am today, sharing my thoughts and observations with you. Indeed, Inception is the genesis for creativity and innovation.

If you have yet to see the movie, don’t worry, I won’t include any spoilers here. I will say that it is worth your time. For those who have experienced Chris Nolan’s masterpiece, perhaps you will share this vision and time with me to explore ways in which we can bend the realities we know to construct new paradigms for social business.

In the film, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Dom Cobb, sets the stage for the movie and subsequent analysis through poignant monologue that continues to resonate with me…

What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?

An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate.

The premise of the movie begins with extraction, but the moral of the story is underscored by inception.

If you’ve read Seth Godin’s best-selling book IdeaVirus, the power of ideas may already sound familiar.

Godin shows, the now-familiar idea of viral marketing is one very specific form of ideavirus marketing. Most businesses will not be able to engage in true viral marketing, but all can use the ideavirus approach

While my mind was already spinning with ideas and questions regarding the applications of extraction and inception in social media, it wasn’t until I read a review of the movie by Devin Faraci of chud.com that my thoughts crystallized into ideas. Faraci concludes that in addition to many things, the movie is Nolan’s homage to the catharsis of art and bringing ideas to life. As Faraci observed…

The film is a metaphor for the way that Nolan as a director works, and what he’s ultimately saying is that the catharsis found in a dream is as real as the catharsis found in a movie is as real as the catharsis found in life. Inception is about making movies, and cinema is the shared dream that truly interests the director.

Faraci draws parallels between the cast of Inception, Cobb’s team, and how each role represents key players in the movie making process.

Cobb is the director. Arthur, who does the research, is the producer. Ariadne, the architect, is the screenwriter. Eames is the actor. Yusuf is the technical expert. Saito is the studio chief. Fischer is the audience.

Such is the framework necessary to lead the socialization of business. While today social media is led by a champion or team of evangelists that “get it,” its path remains a bottom-up process of forcing transformation through evangelism and experimentation. Eventually social media will lose momentum before its promise can be fully realized however. A team consisting of a visionary leader supported by capable specialists across the fabric of the organization is imperative to fully realize the opportunities and responsibilities that unfold with social immersion.

The Production of Social Media Requires a Dedicated Cast

Penrose Stairs illustrate the impossible objects that can be created in lucid dream worlds

Like the motion picture industry, we can also adapt the Inception team to the world of social engagement. As such, a successful social media team could (should) consist of the following cast members:

Mr. Saito, the Client Executive or management team responsible for the brand in large. This person or team is also required to not only extract ideas to adapt products, processes and services, but also introduce the new ideas that empower consumers to excel.

Cobb, The Extractor: The digital brand or marketing manager leading teams or individuals into each social dive

Ariadne, the Architect: Designers build and define the online experience as well as the bridges (and Penrose stairs) that connect the dots.

Arthur, the Point Man: Data and research analysts who gather information and intelligence and present it to the various teams for incorporation into strategies and supporting tactics.

Yusuf, the Chemist: Social technicians and alchemists who bring architecture to life through apps, landing pages, interactive media platforms, custom tabs and the like.

Eames, the Forger: Brand representatives who serve as the personalities and voices on the front lines in communities

Subconscious Projections: Symbolic of the influencers who serve online communities as overseers and moderators. Their role is to ensure your actions stay on a path that is beneficiary and not disruptive to each community.

Miles, Cobb’s mentor: The ethics that serve as the inspiration for meaningful social media programs and engagement

Fischer, the Mark: The audiences and people with whom brands hope to connect and convince.

In the movie, all of the other cast members in each dream are essentially projections of our own subconscious. Their actions and words are extensions of our interpretations and perceptions and are only as relevant as our pre-existing opinions, thoughts, and notions. It’s a metaphor for operating within a comfort zone, hearing and seeing only what we choose rather than opening our minds to the collaboration.

Inception and Extraction

While the movie is entitled inception, it begins with the idea of extraction – the ability to enter the dreams of others in order to “steal” secrets hidden away deep within our subconscious. But the film’s premise and its significance is rooted in something much more meaningful, the ability to seed ideas that come to life when we awake – inception versus extraction.

As discussed in Engage and also Charlene Li’s new book Open Leadership, it is this listening, really listening, that opens leadership to change and ultimately true collaboration and co-creation. It is through this unique understanding of the cultures, landscapes and the themes that fuel connections and communication. This incredible insight inspires relevant engagement and supporting constructs that galvanizes and empowers customers and peers to become stakeholders in all you do.

The “extraction” is the research, listening, and sifting for insight. It’s not enough to monitor conversations through keyword searches. It’s not enough to measure “automated” and mostly inaccurate sentiment. It’s not enough to track activity in terms of mentions, followers, likes, and comments. There’s a difference between listening and hearing and to extract the information and intelligence necessary to inspire your ideas requires you to hear what it is that moves individuals and communities.  Extraction is the guiding light to create more meaningful engagement strategies based on the recently introduced concept of relevance, resonance, and significance (RRS), social media’s critical path. And, it’s through extraction where we uncover opportunities for inception.

Important ideas are transformative, stimulating, and motivating. They change our outlook and perspectives and send us on new paths. It’s our responsibility to not only react with relevant engagement, participation, and programming based on extractions, but also lead communities through influence and the inception of impassioned, inspirational, and constructive ideas.

As Godin preaches, “Ideas that spread, win.”

Or as Cobb observes, “The seeds we plant…may change everything.”

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In part nine (which is really the first part) of a series of conversations exploring the state and future of social media with Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo), we define the metamorphosis of media production, discovery and consumption and how social networking is affecting behavior and communication. Our social graphs are shifting from linear connections (those we know) to nonlinear ties defined by those we know, hope to know, don’t know but share ideas, and those who endeavor to know us. As such, we are building contextual networks and it paves the way for information to directly connect with discerning audiences.

The “manifesto” that we reference is here, “The Hybrid Theory Manifesto.”

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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We live in amazing times. Perhaps what makes it so special is that the present is rewriting the future for so many things held sacred over the years. So many industries, processes, politics, beliefs and myths clouded or seized our responsibility and capacity to force innovation and ultimately the change that is needed and long overdue. At the root of this however, is what fuels evolution and revolution…

#you

You helped define social media.

You helped democratize the ability to create and share information.

You equalized influence.

You are defining the future of how we connect and communicate with one another.

This is why once invincible organizations and industries are seeking your help to earn relevance today and in the future.

I wrote Engage to help you seize this moment – to help you find the answers not only for yourself but for those around you.

My good friend Andrew Landini of Landini Media helped me create a trailer for Engage to visually capture the importance of the role you play in shaping the new horizon for media, business, and society.  Besides, why should Hollywood have all the fun with trailers?

This is your time to make a difference…

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Please consider reading, Engage!: It will help you find answers to your questions…

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In part eight of a series of conversations exploring the state and future of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I discuss the changing landscape of advertising and engagement.

Advertising and marketing is experimenting with campaigns and engagement programs that essentially brings creative to life. It’s the fusion of influence and confluence that will define their success over time.

But how do we define success?

Success stories in social are now common, but can we truly use them as templates for our unique market dynamics? In order to measure the success of our programs, we must design metrics and desired outcomes into the plan.

The future of marketing, advertising, and communications is defined by Hybrid Theory, where the “Last Mile” of engagement begins with the “The First Mile” of empathy and strategy.

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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The competition for attention is focused on social networks as brands vie for awareness and consideration. Establishing a presence in Facebook and Twitter is as necessary as it is trivial. In the great social land grab, many organizations are missing true opportunities to connect with the fifth P of the marketing mix, people. It’s less about communicating with those individuals who are already following you online and more about those who aren’t.

To excel in social media, engagement has its rewards but it is through the acts of recognition, empowerment and reward that advocacy extends a brand’s reach across social graphs and social networks, online and in the real world.

Competing for the Moment: The New Influencer

Transcending visibility into presence and presence into community is the critical path for companies to earn a place in the hearts, minds, words and actions of the very people who define its markets.

In the real-time attention economy that is social media, branding gives way to resonance as recognition is not nearly enough to compete for the moment. Many businesses are focusing time and resources on engagement while others are experimenting with advertising and promotions. What’s clear, is that in social networks, information is not only democratized, it is deafening. For brands hoping to connect value with demand, rising above the noise is critical, but in order to see the effects of a rising tide, it must have a fleet of boats in the water.

Connecting with traditional intermediaries who maintain desirable audiences is one way to stay visible and relevant. Connecting with authorities and tastemakers directly in social networks represents a complementary opportunity to spread the word and apply a sense of endorsement and credibility to the marketing mix.

While the ideas of recruiting respected and connected individuals as brand ambassadors or creating digital street teams isn’t new in social media, it is still highly effective. As social media becomes pervasive, individuals are increasing their digital footprint through every connection they forge. Everyday people are gaining prominence in social networks and as such, a new genre of both audience and spokespersons are rapidly gaining traction.

In June 2007, I joined Chris Heuer, Tom Foremski, JD Lasica, Cathy Brooks, iJustine, Frank Gruber and others as part of the Intel Insider program. Our mission was to learn about new Intel initiatives and share its impact on the technology landscape and our lives in general.

In 2008, Graco launched the Graco Nation Ambassador program for online influencers looking to build a deeper relationship with the Graco brand and participate in unique opportunities.

Also in 2008, Walmart established the ElevenMoms program to humanize the Walmart story with those customers seeking advice from respected peers rather than solely relying on company messages and value propositions to help may common household decisions.

In April 2010, I joined a powerful Social Media Envoy along with some truly incredible people on behalf of the United Nations to raise awareness and the donation of bed nets to help #endmalaria.

Over time, many companies enlisted influential voices to help brands directly connect with existing and new audiences through social networks and blogs. In the last year alone, we witnessed an explosion of social media advertorials that created a new classification of sponsored media where influential individuals were paid or rewarded for their commercial support through Tweets, blog posts, YouTube videos and status updates. Companies such as Izea, MyLikes, and Ad.ly led the way, eventually catching the attention of the FTC and prompting new guidelines for companies to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act. The amendment marked the first update since 1980.

Recently, Ann Taylor was the subject of the first FTC investigation as a result of the new guidelines. The FTC’s Associate Director of Advertising Practices Mary Engle stated in a letter to Ann Taylor’s legal team, “We were concerned that bloggers who attended a preview on January 26, 2010 failed to disclose that they received gifts for posting blog content about that event.” The investigation was later closed without any fines or penalties imposed, but it did serve as a very public reminder that individuals who possess reach are not pawns for corporate marketing messages. The FTC believes that consumers deserve the ability to delineate between paid or leveraged information in order to make informed decisions and judgments.

The Influence Factor

Many social services are verticalizing the horizontal nature of peer-to-peer networks creating a defacto digital hierarchy. Klout, Edelmen’s TweetLevel, and PeerIndex, for instance, introduce a level of prominence into online connections measured by complex human algorithms.  From tastemakers to bloggers to mommy bloggers to you, a new trend in influencer relations is emerging, one that fuses recognition, reward, reach, and disclosure with those individuals who turn social networking into a verb.

When we look at what defines influence online, the definitions are as varied as they are debated. I believe influence is the ability to cause measurable action. Working with this interpretation allows us to examine an interesting approach by Klout, a SF-based startup that employs a rather sophisticated human algorithm that measures activities and relationships fostered by individuals on Twitter (and soon Facebook) to calculate social capital. Social capital represents the balance of your stature as dictated by the social currency exchanged with others via public and backchannel conversations, recognition, reciprocity, and the relationships that form as a result.

Klout is much more than a credit score provider for the social Web; it is a database of influencers that sorts through the massive cloud of collective consciousness to assign weight and authority to individuals based on themes and topics. One could only imagine the possibilities to connect with the long tail individuals that cause significant and measurable actions online around any topic, brand, cause, or movement.

Relevance. Resonance. Significance.

As I wrote recently in a post for the Harvard Business Review

How can businesses, which, one could argue, typically represent a “pay it backward” approach (ie, pay me for my goods and services), thrive in this environment? In my experience as a longtime social media observer who advises companies on how to successfully navigate the new media landscape, the key lies in embracing the linear concept of Relevance, Resonance, and Significance (R.R.S.).

Starbucks was among the first companies to experiment with a formal Klout influence partnership. In fact, it was the first such program for Klout as well. Essentially, Starbucks sought to connect with influential coffee socialites or more accurately stated, individuals with authority who tweet about coffee. In recognition for their prominence, these “coffee influencers” were offered a cup of Pike Place Roast on the house.

What was previously available to communications teams via media databases is now completely reimagined through the long tail of conventional clout.

Starbucks isn’t alone in its exploration of new influencers to help awaken new possibilities. Virgin America recently partnered with Klout to reward notable personalities on Twitter with free flights to Toronto. What might appear as a clear violation of the renewed FTC guidelines is actually an example of how to do it right. The flights are not an exchange for coverage, it’s simply an “opt in” reward for those who willfully submit their email address to see if they qualify for the free ticket. And, the disclosure to enjoy the flight without any obligation to publish is front and center.

I’m a true fan of Virgin America and their work in new and social media having covered their creative campaigns over the years. So, I reached out to the team to get insight into the program and the inspiration that brought it to life.

Klout and Virgin America hand-picked influencers based on Klout scores in the Toronto and California markets who fit the Virgin lifestyle.  The goal was simple: explore new, innovative, and authentic ways to engage with guests and prospects while also amplifying awareness in new and existing markets. The key is here is that budget wasn’t infinite and therefore any dollars spent had to focus on the right people with the ability to connect for less than other traditional means.

To help inspire creativity for those who may read this, I asked the very question that you are actually asking right now, how do you view the balance between recognition and reward…even though you are not requiring any form of media in exchange, the gesture naturally begets a response.

Jill Fletcher of the Virgin America new media team offered a genuine and inspiriting perspective, “We really view this program as a way to engage influencers and induce trial of our service, which we believe is unique in the skies (and a great fit for tech-forward flyers in particular). All participants are subject to the Klout Influencer Code of Ethics, which means that they are free to Tweet whatever they like about the experience – be that negative or positive – or Tweet nothing at all. Our hope is that their experience is positive, but if it isn’t, we hope that they provide us with valuable feedback on ways we can improve our service.”

Naturally, Klout is a hot ticket for brands looking to connect with these authoritative audience who each possess audiences of their own. For those looking to experiment outside of a formal program, Klout offers the ability to search for influencers on any given topic. In fact, many services such as Radian6, CitizenNet, Flowtown, mBlast, and PeopleBrowsr’s analytic.ly also offer the ability to surface influential voices on key topics and themes across multiple platforms.

The future of brand prominence and resonance starts with the recognition of the people who have earned stature in your markets. Recognition is a start. Reward is a gesture. Engagement and reciprocity is how we christen relationships. As the idea of influencers continues to diversify, embracing eminence is just the beginning.

The true promise of influencing the influencer lies in the power to become the very influencers we rely upon to tell our story. The same tools, services, and techniques that propel socializers atop these emerging social hierarchies also works for us. This is our time to not only connect with new influencers, but also establish influence and influential relationships through our intentions and actions.

#ThisisYourTime

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In part seven of a series of conversations exploring the state and future of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I review the rise of the new influencers (you and me) and how traditional media can adapt to the democratization of content creation and curation.

As new media creates a bottom up (r)evolution, the top-down methodologies of publishing are forced to adapt. Consumers are now in full control of defining their own experiences, with whom they connect, and what they view and share. As such, attention is narrowing, which gives rise to the attention dashboard. The idea of destinations as hubs is rapidly eroding. The goal of any media property now is to connect with attention where attention is focused. Publishers must hook people in the stream and facilitate sharing within the stream.

This is why media should explore cultural immersion. I once said, “Perhaps the reinvention of the publishing model starts with journalists, where people become the ambassadors for content and the flagship brand they represent.”

It’s the 5th “P” and it represents the ability to not attract “eyeballs,” but instead connect with audiences with audiences.

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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If Social Media warranted a mantra, it would sound something like this, “Always pay it forward and never forget to pay it back…it’s how you got here and it defines where you’re going.”

This intentional form of alternative giving is referred to as “generalized reciprocity” or “generalized exchange.” And, the idea of giving something to one person by paying another is credited to Benjamin Franklin, which contributes to the definition of “pay it forward.” The capital of this social economy is measured in these productive relationships and those relationships are earned through the constant acts of reciprocity, recognition, respect and benevolence.

How can businesses, which, one could argue, typically represent a “pay it backward” approach (i.e., pay me for my goods and services), thrive in this environment? In my experience as a longtime social media observer who advises companies on how to successfully navigate the new media landscape, the key lies in embracing the linear concept of Relevance, Resonance, and Significance. This approach begins with establishing relevance for your brand and messages, which then achieves resonance, and finally, attains significance and helps to build your company’s social media legacy and augment your other, more traditional brand-building efforts.

To understand this model, it’s important we define the base unit for social media, and that is the social object. What are social objects? They take the form of our tweets, posts, updates, videos, pictures, etc. introduced into social streams. As a result, they serve as the catalyst for conversations and engagement.

Relevance

The first step on this path to social media success is to make sure your social objects are relevant to your constituencies. And how do you attain that? Just as in any offline conversation, you have to listen. Listen to the conversations that are already taking place, either directly around your brand, or in other affiliated areas. Pay attention to the nuances of these conversations. Play the role of anthropologist here- what cultural components do you observe in these exchanges? What do you see the participants valuing in these exchanges? Until you understand what kinds of conversations are taking place, who is in them, and what they value, it will be hard for you to attain this first critical step of producing relevant, shareable social objects.

Once you feel you’ve done a good amount of initial “field studies” and are ready to engage, it’s important to join the conversation as a person, not some platitude-spewing automaton. Your community will see right through that. Companies have attempted to humanize their brands and products over the decades through mediums and spokespersons, of course. The difference now is that the act of humanizing a brand through a static avatar, compelling bio, and participation in social networks is not enough to earn the attention and trust of desirable consumers, who themselves have become influential in these channels.

The good news? Online behavior already indicates that consumers willfully follow the brands they support and admire. And their responses are consistent when introduced to valuable opportunities that encourage sharing, response, and action. Like email marketing however, every update within social networks either maintains or strengthens the relationship or it breaks it, causing the opt-out act of unfollowing the brand.

Before creating or distributing any social object, ask yourself a few important questions:

- What value am I introducing into the mix?

- What makes this object worthy of attention?

- What action do I want to inspire?

- How does this contribute to our standing within each community?

- How can I make this shareable?

Resonance

Sharing is an important element in any mutually beneficial relationship and it’s a critical component of successful social objects. Successful sharing of these objects lead to the second step on the path, Resonance. Resonance is measured through the speed and degree at which social objects change hands. To increase the resonance of your social objects, you first have to insure their relevance to your communities. Naturally, the more relevant and compelling the social object is, the greater the likelihood for triggering reactions across the entire social graph, while also creating valuable touchpoints back to the source.

The popular concept of KISS, which once stood for Keep it Simple, Stupid, can be shifted here to Keep it Significant and Shareable. Social objects rich with recognition and reward resonate with individuals and encourage sharing from person to person. Each exchange increases the lifespan and reach of an object.

Sometimes strong resonance is referred to as something “going viral.” It’s a perfectly fine term, but not a good motivation for companies. In my experience, the social objects created solely with the goal of “going viral” will consistently underperform and reduce the likelihood for earning relevance and resonance. Those objects incentivized by thoughtfulness, value, and perhaps even empathy, will gain traction and encourage response and sharing, transitioning from relevance to resonance. And, the ingredients for resonance are readily available for those businesses that pay close attention to the recurring themes in customer conversations, actions, and reactions.

Starbucks has done a good job creating resonant social objects by identifying what communities it had in what channels, and crafting targeted, valuable objects for those respective communities. On Facebook, Starbucks saw an opportunity to reinforce service and personalization by sharing customer stories and experiences, providing personal control of loyalty programs, and introducing discounts in exchange for participation. On Twitter, Starbucks took a different approach, combining service, humor, incentives, customer recognition, and exclusive opportunities. Via Twitter’s new Promoted Tweets, Starbucks offers free coffee for those who promote reusable tumblers to promote recycling. Promoted Tweets are a great way to see if you’ve crossed the bridge to resonance. As Twitter COO Dick Costolo recently emphasized, “Promoted Tweets that don’t resonate with users will disappear.”

Speaking at Mashable’s recent Media Summit in New York, Starbucks’s Vice President of Brand, Content and Online, Chris Bruzzo claimed that social media helped propel last year’s Free Pastry Day, driving more than one million people locations nationwide.

May I have your intention please? It is intention and commitment that breathes relevance into social objects. When we intertwine individual focus with purpose, functionality and benefits we inspire the necessary resonance that prolongs the lifespan of an object.

Significance

If we were to break down the concept of RRS into a simple formula, Relevance + Resonance would equate to the overall significance of a brand in these digital communities (R+R=S). Online significance is the earned stature we merit as measured by our actions and words. It is the culmination of reputation, trust, influence, accessibility, value, and capital within each social network. Significance is not measured by size and shape, but instead by affinity and through the collective influence of the actions and reactions that follow every interaction.

Consistently demonstrating relevance over time and continually striving to earn resonance will contribute to the level of significance of any businesses in the long run. In the social economy, businesses that “pay it forward” and actively employ generalized reciprocity as part of baseline engagement and communication strategies increase the value and social capital of the brand in each network. Businesses essentially mitigate a “pay it backward” approach by investing in the communities where conversations are commodities, but reward, insight and information are precious commodities.

Loyalty, advocacy, and action inspire the online/offline behavior that serves as the hallmark of Significance. As such, social media’s critical path or RRS serves as the blueprint to construct a social media legacy.

This is the unabridged version of my recent article in the Harvard Business Review

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Reprint of CRM magazine, August 2010

Influential Leaders: The Engager

by Joshua Weinberger (@kitson)

Brian Solis blogs circles around you. He also posts, updates, and twitters faster than you can, helps develop graphics prettier than yours, and analyzes patterns in public discourse long before you ever see them show up as a Trending Topic. In short? Solis—as principal of consultancy FutureWorks, cofounder of the Social Media Club, speaking-circuit fixture, and best-selling author—is a content and communications machine.

But Solis is so much more than a flashy hashtag. He and his A-list social graph value substance, and he makes it a centerpiece of his new book, Engage!. In an exclusive interview in this month’s Required Reading, Solis makes a compelling case for the multitouch customer experience.

Ray Wang, a partner at Altimeter Group—and a fellow Influential Leader—calls Solis “a brilliant PR business strategist and social media leader,” a sentiment others echo. “Brian is the quintessential PR person,” says Esteban Kolsky, founder and principal of consultancy ThinkJar, clearly intending that as a compliment. “His writing is always right on the mark, and his use of data to highlight points is unparalleled. Excellent research skills make him a rare combination of smarts and talent, placing him in an excellent position of influence.”

“Brian was key in bringing the social CRM message to the wider social media community,” says Brent Leary, cofounder of CRM Essentials, “helping it gain prominence in ways traditional CRM folks couldn’t have done.”

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Thank you Josh! I don’t think I’ve ever read so many nice things about me in one article.

Ray, Esteban, Brent, thank you for the kind words! I’m honored…

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Point of clarification: I am a business and new media strategist. I help organizations identify and make sense of relevant online communities, cultures, and dynamics. I work with teams to develop engagement strategies and creative campaigns, connect with influencers, and organize and adapt processes, technologies, and methodologies to scale with new opportunities and the change that always ensues.

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In part six of a series of conversations that explore the state and future of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo), and I check-in with FourSquare and other geo-location networks. We review how these location-based networks open new channels and dynamics for online and offline connections. We also examine the nuances of “checking-in” as a form of social currency and implied endorsement. Essentially, there are cultural and economical aspects with tying your “personal brand” to the locales you visit. You lend your reputation and audience and over time, you will be increasingly rewarded for doing so. More on that subject here, “FourSquare Means Business: Have You Check-In Yet?”

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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In part four of a series of conversations discussing the state and future of social media with Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo), we review the prospect of social media burnout or social network fatigue (SNF). We also explore the evolution of privacy and the willful exchange of what used to be private or sensitive information and content for the semblance of value and rewards. Those rewards could be as simple as reactions, responses

I discuss these issues a great depths here, “Who is the ME in Social Media?”

This series was filmed at the new video studio at KickLabs SF where I spend time as an entrepreneur in residence.

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Unless you literally run your business with your ears plugged and your eyes covered, you are aware of the importance of social media and its impact on both brand and bottom line. However, while social media is the topic du jour in mainstream news, on blogs, in books, at conferences and at your local Starbucks, we may still underestimate its overall promise and potential.

The socialization of business is comparable to the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland or the red pill in the Matrix. If ignorance is bliss, awareness is awakening. Where there’s insight, there’s opportunity – but with opportunity, there’s also a cost. In this case, that cost is financed through learning, change, adaptation and innovation.

Social media is deceptive. It appears easy, free and yours to own simply for the price of admission and engagement. If this post were to live up to an alternate headline, say the “5 Easy Steps to Managing Your Brand Online,” the list might look a bit like this:

1. Monitor and listen to conversations related to your brand and competitors

2. Start a blog, create a Twitter profile, set up a Facebook brand page and broadcast a YouTube channel

3. Draft social media guidelines

4. Be transparent and authentic

5. Ask questions, introduce polls, curate interesting content and have fun

It’s not that the list is untrue or menial. In fact it’s where many organizations begin their journey towards a new era of discovery, relevance, and earned prominence. Keep in mind however, that as social media matures, consumers are becoming increasingly discerning. The simplicity of “Top 10” posts disguise the significance of this incredible (r)evolution.

They are mastering their social domains and experiences and, as a result, their attention is not only thinning, it’s focusing on the relationships and information that’s most beneficial to their regiment.

Rather than looking at the easy ways to use social media to manage our brand, let’s examine five next-level steps for managing and ultimately defining your brand online.

1. Listen and learn – Listening, monitoring, and reporting are obligatory cogs in the social media machine. Gathering intelligence to inspire meaningful and actionable social programs is, on the other hand, priceless.

Measuring share of voice and frequency of mentions is helpful in understanding what is happening in and around us. But if you expand your horizons to surface the share of all conversations related to your market and position within the broader landscape, you also discover missed opportunities and inflection points – along with areas for improvement, innovation and expansion.

2. React to and lead conversations – While many organizations monitor conversations related to keywords or respond simply to those who invite participation, the prospect of social media lies beyond first-degree dialog. This is a chance to leapfrog conversations by learning what it takes to lead them and then embodying the position you wish to gain.

Responding to relevant commentary is only the beginning. Introducing social objects that address needs or direct actions in the form of posts, videos, imagery and other commentary to demonstrate passion, expertise and leadership ensures a comprehensive rotation of inbound and outbound marketing, service and communication.

3. Divide and conquer – What becomes clear in those first points is that no one department owns social media. Depending on the industry, conversations usually align with distinct facets of business including service, marketing, product/service, HR, finance, etc. This is the beginning of the socialization of business. As relevant conversations and the information present within them are scrutinized, it becomes clear that they feed and are fed by distinct information. Prioritize and assign inbound and outbound activity based on a conversational workflow that reflects the nature of organized and relevant long tail discussions.

4. Adapt – Reactions to negative experiences don’t scale. Identifying recurring patterns of negative experiences and connecting emerging themes to those responsible in order to develop targeted and sweeping fixes negates widespread negative sentiment and alleviates unfavorable publicity. But it also does something more.

The acts of listening, responding and solving make for an adaptive organization. The process transcends lip service to action. As we all know, actions speak louder than words.

5. Design metrics into campaigns and measure performance – One of the primary reasons discussions around metrics and return on investment in social media are hotly debated today is because many of the examples we hear and see are designed without an outcome or measurable success designed into the program. That’s not to say that they’re any less important, however.

Metrics, by nature, are devised to document movement. As such, KPIs and ROI should get factored into the planning process of all social media programs. Introduce clicks to action, conversion opportunities and experiences with desirable outcomes, then compare activity and results to other programs to learn, focus resources and evolve with the market.

Social media is as dynamic and expansive as it is simple and complex. At the very least, the socialization of business is aspirational. We are competing for attention, affinity and commerce in forums where quick start guides and instruction manuals are in process of development and may never in fact, materialize. What’s clear, however, is that we are competing for both the present – and the future.

Written for VentureBeat

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It’s no longer a matter of answering the micro riddle, “to tweet or not to tweet.” Twitter helps you simply Tweet everything that moves you. While this capability has existed through third-party services over the years, Twitter is rolling out a dedicated function to harness the power of the “interest graphs” that you weave.

Not only can you share links with those who follow you, Twitter is extending its “Suggestions for You” feature to assist in the curation of your social nicheworks. After a link is shared, relevant individuals who share your affinity for topics and themes will appear. This allows you to expand your social graph and slowly shape it into a series of interest-related graphs or contextual nicheworks.

For content publishers, from casual bloggers to influencers to the media elite, Twitter only requires the installation of a few lines of code to set the stage for broader distribution within an ecosystyem where the appetite for “what’s happening” is insatiable.

Here, I’ve used the TweetMeme to provide sharing functionality. TweetMeme is partnering with Twitter to ensure that this functionality run seamlessly. The company is also expanding its services to fine tune the social web and shape the future of content curation.

DataSift provides developers with the capacity to to build precise streams of data from 60+ million tweets sent every day.

- Tune tweets through a graphical interface or our bespoke programming language
- Streams consumable through our API and real-time HTTP
- Comment upon and rank streams created by the community
- Extend one or more existing streams to create super streams

Find out more on the new DataSift blog or follow @datasift

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