Mediaboss Marketing

A social networking company is not a technology company like Intel is a technology company; its users are its product.

It is easy to forget how high-flying Digg once was. Digg was supposed to be the future of all media, not just social media. People were going to rule the Internet; people were going to curate the web. Down with gatekeepers! But, as many Digg users quickly discovered, new gangs of gatekeepers kept a tight grip on the site's story flow. These guys played the Digg system, often with a mix of social and monetary motives, and Digg never figured out how to incorporate their power users into their community without giving them all the power.

Here was the huge problem with the Digg system. People submitted stories that were nominally voted up or down. But those stories didn't get linearly get more traffic as the upvotes flew. No, you only got a bunch of traffic if the algorithm selected the story and sent it to the front page. This meant that trying to "pop" stories on Digg was like playing NBA Jam with hotspots turned on. The same amount of effort sometimes yielded 12 points and sometimes 2 points and most often 0 points.

The only way to consistently get stuff on the home page was to work at it like a job. And so, some people began to work at it like a job, and then it became their jobs. While some really thought of themselves as an important part of the journalistic enterprise, many others contracted out their services to entities of all kinds. Stripped of any institutional sense of editorial ethics, many Digg power users ended up promoting all kinds of crap along with good stories from legitimate writers and sites.

Meanwhile, everyday users were realizing that nothing they submitted ever even had a chance in hell of going to the front page. They weren't empowered netizens visiting from the future, but chumps who were being played by Digg and a bunch of "social-media consultants."

In short, the community broke. And the community, remember, is also the content machine. Without that, Digg was revealed to be just a bunch of computers waiting for people to add value to the thin offering of a social network. The site still gets a substantial amount of traffic, but that Myspace/Friendster smell of death hangs in the pixels.

There is one clear lesson from Digg's sale: the technology that powered a once-massive social network is worth about $500,000. All the rest of the value derives from the people that use it. Though scaling is tough, any developer in the world can build some profiles and let people connect up. It's an act of genius -- or an act of God, by which I mean luck -- to design a site constitution that makes people want to build their online lives at your URL (or in your app). Social networking companies are not technology companies as much as they are community companies.

To be honest, I don't know why anyone tries to start these things. No one has much of a competitive advantage, the space is crowded, you can't compete on price, and no one wants to join a Reddit for hermit crabs. Then I remember how social networks function: users produce the product and they *are* the product. Now that's some kind of good hustle.

More From The Atlantic

Excerpt from:
The Big Digg Lesson: A Social Network Is Worth Precisely as Much as Its Community

A supposed link between social networking websites and depression has been debunked by a US study.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin found no significant link between the amount of time spent on social networking sites and the probability of depression.

The study by the university's School of Medicine and Public Health comes after a report last year by the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that exposure to Facebook could lead to depression.

University of Wisconsin researchers surveyed 190 university students aged 18 to 23 about their internet use over seven days.

The students were sent 43 text messages during the period asking if they were currently online, how long they had been online and what they were doing on the internet.

Participants spent more than half their total time online on Facebook.

But when the researchers evaluated the data including the depression screening results, no significant links with social media use and depression was found.

Go here to see the original:
Social media, depression link debunked

LEEDS, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire -07/13/12)- For the best part of the last decade, social networking has transformed communication and the way that people interact with each other. But is social networking just for the younger generations, or can older adults join in on the conversation too?

People across the globe have instant access to social networking websites at the touch of a button, allowing them to be more connected than ever before.

Research(i) showed that in 2011 a growing number of over 50's were going online. Popular social networking website, Facebook, for example saw a growing number of older people signing up. Membership to the website increased by 41% between 2009 and 2011. A staggering 84% of those were older users.

It's not just Facebook which is quickly being dominated by the older generation, as a number of over 50s are heading to Twitter for social news and information too.

Further studies show that the number of over 50s heading to Twitter dramatically increased following the Ryan Giggs super-injunction scandal last year.(ii) Figures show that there was a surge in men aged between 50 and 64 who used the website after the news broke.

Over 60% of the UK Twitter audience following the story was made up of men over 50. The number of pensioner aged female Twitter users also doubled to follow the developing news.

A growing number of over 50s are keen to get involved in the latest technology and internet trends. Social networking is as familiar to them as it is to many in the younger generation. Whilst they may be becoming savvier web users, most could benefit from using the internet to become savvier with their personal finances, for example, when looking for over 50s life insurance.

Notes for editors:

(i)http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/facebook-flourishes-among-over50s-2303662.html

(ii)Research from Nielsen-UKOM, a UK online measurement company, as reported in the Telegraph

Link:
Is Social Networking Just for the Younger Generation?

BEIJING, July 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- GC-Rise Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, in which European healthcare venture capital firm INVENTAGES holds a majority stake, has launched a gynecologic social networking site, the first such in China, in a move to promote the academic exchange.

When social networking is becoming the most populous tool for daily communications nowadays, GC-rise keeps pace with the times and launches the Beauty Microblogs joining hands with medical information services provider 91Huayi.com.

The microblogs, which aims to build itself as China's biggest social networking site in gynecologic circle, will host around 100,000 doctors who could exchange academic ideas, share medial cases on the platform.

"The Beauty Microblogs will serve as a social networking platform in gynecologic world, further enabling cross-regional communications in both academics and clinical trials." said doctors.

Some seasoned experts in gynecologic circle will be interviewed by Beauty Microblogs on a regular basis and doctors can learn the latest technology and academic moves through the platform as well as making friends.

This is not GC-Rise's first initiative aiming to contribute to the women's health industry on the academic world, the company earlier this year sponsored a nation-wide anti-tumors academic exchange event initiated by Committee of Gynecological Oncology, Chinese Anti-Cancer Association.

About GC-Rise Pharmaceutical Co. LtdGC-Rise Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, established in 2008, is a wholly-owned foreign enterprise invested by INVENTAGES, a major European healthcare and biotechnology venture capital investor, focuses on women's health. Taking "Devoted to human healthcare and a better life" as our mission, the company makes full use of the business networks of our strategic partners in the United States, Europe and Japan, their rich experiences in clinical development, clinical trials and registration in China and their strong strength in distributions, hospital sales and marketing, so as to provide safe, novel and highly efficient medical products and treatment ideas for Chinese women patients.

Please log on http://www.gc-rise.com/ to know more information.

Here is the original post:
Women Health Expert GC-Rise Launches China's First Maternity Social Networking Site

ScienceDaily (July 11, 2012) A new study conducted by associate professor Bruce McKinney at the University of North Carolina Wilmington shows Facebook users are not as narcissistic as once thought.

While previous studies such as Laura Buffardi and W. Keith Campbell's 2008 paper in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin showed a correlation between Facebook and narcissism, McKinney's new study, Narcissism or Openness?: College Students' Use of Facebook and Twitter found no relationship between Facebook usage sand narcissistic traits. Lynne Kelly and Robert L. Duran of The University of Hartford coauthored the study, which was recently published in the newest volume of Communication Research Reports.

The researchers focused on whether social networking sites like Facebook were promoting narcissism in college-aged users in a world where being constantly hunched over computers and smart phones is the norm.

McKinney, Kelly and Duran surveyed 233 college students to deduce how much time participants were spending on social media sites and whether their usage showed characteristics of narcissism or openness. Their findings showed that instead of using social media to inflate their ego, Facebook users log on to the site to share their lives with those in their friend circle similar to how they would share photos and stories with friends in person.

"We found that Facebook is ubiquitous," said McKinney. He suggested, "Perhaps it is time to redefine narcissism and narcissistic traits so it includes social media usage."

Although previous studies like the one conducted by Buffardi and Campbell showed Facebook and narcissism are linked, McKinney noted that, with the rise in popularity of social networking sites, the standard for narcissistic behavior might be evolving. He said considering the recent mainstreaming of social media usage, the 2008 report may be dated in documenting the behavior of those using social networking sites to post and share information. He noted that social media is now employed by not only individuals, but by businesses and private institutions and that this expansion paired with more pervasive use of social media may be changing the standards and purpose of the sites in the last five years.

McKinney explained, "We used to have phone booths for a reason -- for privacy. But with Facebook and social networking came sharing with larger groups of friends, which has become customary. We've become an individualistic culture," he said. "It's acceptable to say 'Look at me!' Now, it's the social norm."

McKinney's study focused on the narcissistic traits exhibited by social media users rather than The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He said he plans to expand his research on the topic in the future.

Despite Facebook's shaky start in the public sector, McKinney says, "it's not going anywhere. Facebook has become universal and a cultural norm in our new, individualistic society."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Read the original here:
Redefining what it means to be narcissistic in a social media world