Snap Bird: The Best Way to Search Beyond Twitter’s History

I had an issue a few days ago where I was looking for a Twitter conversation that I’d had with a friend about 2-3 months ago. The only problem was that I had no way to find it because Twitter Search only goes back 10 days, and I wasn’t about to go through pages and pages of @mentions/@replies. That’s where Snap Bird came to the rescue. It’s a service that lets you search beyond the 10-day limit plus lets you search within only your friends’ tweets, within your DMs and within any user’s favorites.

It’s really easy to do a search – as it should be. After you authenticate your Twitter account via OAuth, you can use the search box at the top left of the page to find what you’re looking for. Depending on what you choose from the search drop-down menu, the labels for the two text boxes below that will change.

Results are shown in chronological order with a few statistics on the side. You can see how many tweets Snap Bird has matched out of the total number of tweets that Snap Bird has search. You can also see what the date the search goes back to, and even get a permalink so that you can save it and easily return to the search again.

Of course, if someone’s Twitter timeline is private, then Snap Bird will not be able to find any tweets from them. You can however see your tweets to that person.

There’s no telling how far you can go back. I kept searching through more and more tweets, and Snap Bird did not give out on me until it couldn’t find anymore tweets that matched the query! The only downside is that you can’t use Snap Bird to search the public Twitter timeline; so you’ll have to use Twitter Search for that and go back and forth between the two.

I’ll admit, there’s not much to the site, but it does get the job done. It’s nice to be able to look back a few months or even a years ago to see what was said.

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Personal Blogging in the 2010s

This guest post is by Karen Andrews of Miscellaneous Mum.

Personal blogging has changed a lot in the last two years. Some writers now run blogs or social media campaigns to extend their profiles for current (and future) readers; some bloggers are using their reach to find or be offered writing work.

The line between ‘writing’ and ‘blogging’ is blurring, which is terrific, but can also be confusing. I know this first-hand. So today I’m going to share with you some points I try to keep foremost in mind. Maybe they’ll help you too.

Making money is possible, but prepare for tough decisions

Here’s a description: you’ve built up a pretty healthy traffic flow, or a solid RSS subscriber count. Long before that, you signed up to an ad network, thinking that by this stage the money would be steadily coming in … except it’s not.

You think about selling private ad spaces, but worry that would be a turn-off for your audience. You’re hesitant about doing sponsored or affiliate-related posts for the same reason. And as for all those opportunities out there in waiting, the longer you’re stuck, the harder they seem to be to grab.

Does this scenario sound familiar? Well, I’ve got a message of hope for the personal bloggers out there. You have one thing on your side. You’re making decisions that matter every day. Here are just a few: how much or little do I reveal about myself or my family? What are some ways I can frame or contextualize a story for effect? What is the best response I can give if I’m challenged about an issue?

What’s needed to answer those questions? Integrity. Look into that part of yourself when asking yourself how far you’re willing to go to make money from your blog. The answer is often there waiting.

Making sure ‘I’ am enough

Here’s another description: you’re chatting to a friend who also blogs, but does so in more traffic-heavy niches (such as entertainment and technologies). You compare the time you spend and your blogging tactics, and are roughly doing it the same way. The difference is that your friend’s site’s hits are triple yours. You start to feel discouraged.

Does this sound familiar? My message this time is a little more sobering. Yes, it can be hard, but this is the time when you need to decide if you are enough. Does it really matter if your traffic isn’t like so-and-so’s? Perhaps your ambitions can be channeled differently, or your goals need redefining.

It never hurts to stop, take a step back, and see what personal bloggers have achieved in recent years. People who live with or are affected by mental or medical challenges, for example, have been able to raise their voices to advocate the networks which support them and are, in turn, worth being supported by others.

Personal blogging isn’t easy—you might be surprised how many other people feel the same way. This is why meetups and conferences are so important: they create opportunities for open discussion and learning among like-minded peers. It’s also worth remembering that your blog will go through its ups and downs, just as all lives do.

If you’re struggling, perhaps take a day—or a week—off to clear your mind and refocus. It might make the difference between two or three mediocre posts or one terrific one. It might make the difference between quitting or sticking it out. At these times we need to take care of ourselves. We’re all worth looking after.

Karen Andrews is an author, publisher, speaker and blogger at Miscellaneous Mum.

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Grougle? Googlepon? Rumors Anyone?

Well, this will be a nice way to tidy up the week by adding to the rumor mill that has Google actively looking to purchase Groupon. Yup, that’s right. There is some rumor mill fodder to consider but from the heavy hitters like Kara Swisher at AllThingsDigital’s BoomTown as she reports

According to multiple sources close to the situation, Google is in discussions with local deals powerhouse Groupon about buying it.

Without making the requisite joke about the deal of the day, sources said the price being considered is certainly no discount–well above the $2 billion to $3 billion that Yahoo offered Groupon in acquisition talks that took place earlier this year.

But sources cautioned that the talks are not complete, and could also end up without any result, as the Yahoo discussions did.

So yes it is a rumor but a pretty compelling one. Not to be left out, Henry Blodget feels that Google needs to spend some of that mountain of cash they have in Mountain View.

Google is in talks to buy Groupon for more than $3 billion, Kara Swisher reports.

Good.

Google offered $2.5-$4 billion to buy Twitter a few months ago, Nicholas Carlson reports.

Also good.

Google’s Marissa Mayer is obsessed with Foursquare and is probably considering buying it.

Also good.

Google should buy all these leading companies–and more.

Here’s why:

Google has cash coming out of its ears, and the cash is currently doing the company no good whatsoever.

Pretty straightforward, huh? Whether or not any of this comes to fruition, it is starting to look more and more like Google may have had enough of developing Wave after Wave (pun obviously intended) of failed social / collaboration / whatever it is they were trying to do offerings.

Google needs to be in the social space. They need to maintain the relevancy of search as we know it or at least gracefully evolve moving forward. These things take some nuance and some more than just whiz bang engineering. It takes a soul, which Google sometimes seems to lack because it comes off as very robotic and almost stuffy at times.

I think it would be great if they bought a big name in the social space. It would give us all something to blabber about for a few days. What would be more interesting is what that purchase looks a year from the time it is bought. You can buy a small niche player like they often do and let it assimilate into the Goog without much trouble. Most people didn’t know that the companies they purchase even existed anyway.

But take a high flyer with a growing brand like Groupon or fourssquare and then see if they smother it like Lennie did to critters in “Of Mice and Men” or if they let it grow and then figure out how to integrate rather than assimilate it into the existing Google ecosystem.

All in all, it would be interesting to see Google try to buy its way into the social world. I think it’s the only way they can succeed because being social isn’t the strong suit of most engineers.

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Gnip Gets Its Hands on Twitter’s Firehose

Social media data company, Gnip has announced a partnership with Twitter that will allow them to sell up to 50% of Twitter’s data stream to anyone who can afford the price. And it’s quite a price.

According to ReadWriteWeb, “Gnip will offer 50% of all the messages posted to Twitter for $360,000 per year, or 5% of all messages for $60,000 per year. Gnip refers to these as the Halfhose and the Decahose and they’re also offering a Mentionhose which hones in on all @replies and retweets of a specific name.

The firehose stream can only be used internally, not displayed, so its primary function is to help developers test their social media related products. It’s also a source for companies who make a living by monitoring social media and the web. Those two appear to be Gnip’s target customers, but what about marketers? Surely there’s marketing data to be mined from 50% of Twitter’s entire data stream.

This brings up several issues. First of all, the price tag will make it impossible for most business to take advantage of the offered data. The ReadWriteWeb article suggests that this will simply increase the need on the black market. Let’s stop here and enjoy the concept of Twitter data on the black market — images of men in trenchcoats on dark street corners who exchange bird calls as secret signals.

Then there’s our old friend Privacy. He really shouldn’t even stick his head in here because the very nature of posting your inner thoughts to a public forum means he’s not a part of the club. However, you know how people are. The first time a law firm buys a Mentionhose in order to support their case, there’s going to be trouble.

(Side note: Private Twitter account data is not included in the streams being sold by Gnip.)

Finally, there’s the whole idea of Twitter or any social media site as a data sales agent. ReadWriteWeb quotes Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital as saying;

“I think all these companies could see that there’s more money in data services than there could be for them in advertising. No one is going to have more data than the platforms themselves – for Twitter that could be a bigger money maker than advertising.”

So is this a good thing or a bad thing? Honestly, I’m not sure. I believe that Twitter has a right to sell any public data they accumulate.  Knowing that the data is for sale won’t change the way I Tweet, but that might not be the case across the board. I imagine there are quite a few people who would think twice about what they type if they realized that their words were being saved, sold and analyzed.

In the end, though, it’s not about Twitter and Gnip selling streams, it’s about what companies do with the streams when they buy them.

What do you think of Gnips “fire” hose sale? Does it worry you, or just another cog in the great social media machine?

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SMB’s STILL Not Sure About Online Space

I write quite a bit about the SMB space. I do it because I like the space v. the FortuneInternetRetailerInc. 500-5000 crowd because A) I know a lot of SMB’s and I frequent their establishments and B) It is a growth market that seems to elude the Internet marketing industry for the most part.

Over the years I have tried to figure out just why this large segment of the US (and worldwide) business population is still unsure about the benefits of the Internet marketing / social media world. According to a recent study by RatePoint and shared by eMarketer less than 50% of the respondents agree to some degree that their customers even use the online space!

I think there are two things happening here. First, there is ignorance of the space on the SMB side of the ledger. Before you get all huffy and ask how I can say such a thing just remember I said ignorance, not stupidity. SMB’s just don’t know what they don’t know. Many have been doing business a certain way for a long time and they tend to concentrate on existing customers more than new customer acquisition. As a result, they remain ignorant about what people are doing to find them that have never been exposed to their business before. This is a shame but it’s just true.

Of course, if the SMB’s of the world don’t get the Internet as a whole then social media will be like voodoo as well by default. Just look at the responses below.

As an industry , Internet marketing carries as much of the blame in this apparent disconnect if not the bulk of the problem. Why do I say this? Because when it comes to Internet marketing, its application, its value and its potential we see it automatically. We also live and breath the stuff so we quickly lose perpective from the SMB’s side of the desk.

As a result, most Internet marketing propaganda starts with the words “You have to” which is just bad practice no matter what business you are in. No one, and I mean no one, HAS TO do anything. This stance we take comes off as presumptive and condescending which, in turn, doesn’t lend to much relationship building. We have thus created this chasm with the industry on one side saying “I can’t believe they don’t get it!” and the SMB’s who have not bought in (which is still the vast majority) saying “I don’t really see the need.”

The next thing we as an industry do to create an even further divide is to go from “Hi, I’m an Internet marketing agency / consultant” to “Let’s look at your title tags and meta-description tags and keyword density and blah, blah, blah” as if these people understand what is being said. Face it, they don’t.

Yesterday, at the Interet Summit in Raleigh, I had a brief discussion with a very nice and personable Google engineer after his “talk” on big data. I wanted to see if he could speak his “big data” speak in layman’s terms. He tried but my brain didn’t get it. Now, I am not stupid so I suddenly had even more insight into how the industry speak we feel so comfortable with must sound like to the SMB. I bet it’s like Charlie Brown’s teacher or the idea that as much as you talk to a dog and think he gets it, he only really understands his name, food and fetch. The rest is gibberish to him.

I know this isn’t the first time this has been discussed but don’t you think that 15 years into the Internet economic age we could have a different set of problems than variations on the same theme that have been around since the start of this?

Here’s my challenge to anyone who is discussing these issues with any SMB from the mom and pop to the 100 employee plus shop. Next time you discuss Internet marketing and social media, don’t mention anything about the backend activities of meta data and post frequency and all the other stuff. Let them talk about their business and their needs. At that point, you can assess whether any ‘technical’ speak is necessary at all. In many cases, it’s not.

So hopefully this idea of putting the Internet into layman’s terms will reach the big boys like Google. The company that truly unlocks this market will have make more money than many have thought possible. Until then, it looks like the majority of businesses won’t get what is being said so they won’t trust enough to try what is being offered.

Any thoughts?

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How to Make Your Website Mobile Friendly (And Keep Your Readers Happy)

Is your website content ready for mobile devices?

By the year 2013, forecasts predict that there will be 1.7 billion mobile internet users.

And it’s a pretty safe bet that at least a few of them are visiting your site, and seeing it on a screen that takes up just a few inches.

So what happens when readers feel cramped or have to work hard to navigate your site or read your content?

They leave.

Connection speed can also frustrate readers. A lot of the time, people are trying to access your site on slow cellular data connections. And despite the attempts by providers to increase capacity, it still feels “slow,” since the more they add, the more we consume.

You want both regular and new readers to have a great experience with your site, whether it’s at home on a nice large screen or while they are mobile and seeing it on a tiny device.

Brian Gardner of StudioPress summed it up pretty well when asked about mobile site design.

Many folks spend a lot of time working on the design of their site for modern browsers, but fail to realize the ever-increasing percentage of site visitors that come by way of mobile devices.

Not only is having a great site design important, you also need to prioritize usability and a quality user experience. That’s why we recommend using a plugin like WP Touch.

So how can you make sure your site is up to par for all those mobile readers out there?

Well, as luck would have it, there are some fairly easy things you can do to assure a more mobile-friendly site.

Here are some quick improvements you can make, starting today.

Install a mobile plugin

If you are using WordPress, you can transform your site into a mobile-friendly version in about 30 seconds with a simple plugin.

There are a lot of these plugins out there, but as Brian recommended, WP Touch is a great place to begin. It’s free, and you can customize it in several ways to best suit your site.

Learn more about WP Touch here.

Oh and one other thing about mobile versions of your site. Make sure you give readers the choice of viewing the standard site as well.

There are options in each plugin to do this. There are times when readers will want to view the full website, depending on their device and internet speed.

Note: before you install and activate any plugin, make sure your site has been properly backed up.

Create smart navigation

How’s your site navigation? Creating smart, thorough navigation for your website is a key aspect to making your site mobile friendly.

Make sure you offer readers clear and distinct ways to get to your most important content.

For example, do you see the red tabs along the top of this site? Those are examples of links to cornerstone content. Not only are they great ways to attract traffic, but they are perfect examples of clear navigation.

Write clear content

Now more than ever, you need to grab reader attention instantly.

When your site is being viewed on a much smaller screen, make sure you have compelling headlines that let the reader know she’s going to have a great experience reading this content.

Clear content that gets right to the point also assures readers can digest your material on their mobile devices, even while they’re distracted and busy.

Don’t use too many images

I’ve been guilty of this one. And I’ve also noticed in my analytics that when I include a lot of images in a particular article, I get less traffic reading it on mobile devices.

Lately, I have been limiting my use of images to one or two, and now my articles are getting read more by those with mobile devices.

Images are a great way to get a point across or break up text, but just try to imagine someone reading your content on a really slow connection with a tiny little screen. It might mean you don’t need that 20th image after all.

Notice that Copyblogger has, for most types of content, always had just one single, attention-getting image per post.

Don’t rely on Flash or Javascript

All arguments aside about the relevance of Flash, it is generally a safe bet that not all mobile devices will be able serve up either of these technologies.

Even if they do, it tends to be an extra step or two to actually view the content. The best practice is to stick with plain (X)HTML/CSS standards.

Practice good design

In the non-mobile web version of your site, it might be easier to get away with a few design problems that are far more visible and obvious in the mobile version.

Keep in mind the whitespace around paragraphs and words. If your content is so cramped that it makes readers physically uncomfortable, they might not hang out for very long.

Making your content scannable and breaking up long blocks of text is great for all readers, but even more so for mobile readers.

And cluttered, visually busy sites are hard enough to read on a large screen. Don’t ask mobile readers to go there!

So there are several ways you can begin making your website content more mobile friendly. Get started on a few of these and you will be way ahead of the competition.

(If you’re not sure where to start, the best payoff for the least amount of effort is probably getting a mobile plugin for WordPress like WP Touch.)

Have you recently turned your website mobile and noticed more readers? Fewer?

Share your experience with others in the comments below. And let us know your favorite tip for making your site more mobile friendly!

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Interview: Curtis Fullmer

Curtis Fullmer is an Internet business professional with 10+ years of extensive experience in various aspects of the industry & a variety of Internet marketing strategies including Email, SEO, SEM, Affiliate, Social Media, Online Video, Display, Co-Reg, Blogs, CPA, CPC, CPM and others. He has worn many hats in the affiliate community, and managed several major networks. His expertise has generated over $150 million dollars in revenue within the Internet marketing industry. Always the thrill seeker, Curtis has run with the Bulls in Spain, been on Safari in Africa, completed a marathon and 2 triathlons, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Next on his list - to summit Mt. Everest.

Curtis is currently VP, Business Development & Account Management at Adknowledge, the largest privately-owned, internet ad network.

Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? How long have you been making money online?
I’m originally from Placentia, CA, near Anaheim in Orange County. I’m 33 years old and I’ve been making money online for 10+ years.

Do you have any experience with affiliate marketing? If so, to what extent?
I actually got my feet wet in the industry as an affiliate. I stumbled onto Commission Junction and Linkshare in 2000, had a friend build me a website and got started making money, losing money, and learning how to play the game. That opened up a whole new world and kicked off my career as an Internet marketer.

What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
Professionally I’m really proud of the trajectory that my career has taken. I started off as a publisher in 2000, and then sold my site a year and a half later. Next I became an advertiser by starting up a successful online DVD rental company in 2002 with my brother, going from a home office operation to taking on investment capital and building it up to several million dollars in revenue a year and selling it in 2005. I then put on the consultant hat and was helping publishers monetize and advertisers get their SEM, Email, and Affiliate programs rolling. After that I decided I needed to better understand the inner workings of the networks and how they fit into the whole eco system. So for the last few years I’ve spent my career building and managing some of the top affiliate networks in the industry, driving some phenomenal growth, as high as a 10x increase in revenue performance.

How did you become successful? Why did you choose this career? When did you first realize the full potential in the Internet? When did you first “hit the big time?”
For me, becoming successful was a process of trial and error and not being afraid to take chances. I made money and lost money and eventually figured out how to make it more often than I lost it.

Growing up I was always pushing against the standard idea of working a J O B for the rest of my life and retiring at age 65. Early on, I jumped from job to job trying to figure out my path doing everything from shoe salesman to ski technician to car transporter to software sales and everything in between. I stumbled onto Internet marketing in college and the idea of building my own financial path to success through my own creativity and hard work was enlightening. I’ve always been very entrepreneurial, as a kid I sold lemonade on street corners and candy at school, and the Internet became a great outlet for discovering, building and testing out different business ideas, so I grabbed hold and never looked back.

Getting that first check as an affiliate really opened my eyes to the new world of possibilities that the Internet offered and that world has just gotten bigger and bigger with every step my career has taken. I really felt like I hit it big when we passed the first million dollar mark in the online DVD rental business. The million dollar mark was a real milestone for me. I figured, “If I can generate a million dollars, then why not two, and if two then why not ten!”

What do you think it takes to be successful?
A few of the many key drivers of my success include;
• Failure: Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is a priceless education that taught me what I needed to learn to eventually succeed and get to where I am today. Many great successes started out as big failures. Never give up.
• Ignore Negative Naysayers: If you want an unconventional and extraordinary life, as I did, a lot of people will tell you to be more realistic and keep your head out of the clouds. You’ll even get this from people close to you, people you trust. Just remember, most people are not trying to drag you down and kill your dreams, they just don’t want you to get hurt and fail. The reality is that most people don’t live an extraordinary, unconventional life and often those that fail while trying, give up too soon. If you really want to make your dreams a reality, you have to ignore the people that say you can’t or shouldn’t go for it.
• Beware of Pride: This one kills a lot of would be successes. Pride keeps people from seeing all the options. Pride keeps people from listening to others with different opinions or ideas that might be very helpful. Pride keeps people from seeing they have a bad business they need to revamp, sell or throw in the trash. Pride makes poor decisions in a variety of areas including finances, timelines, expectations, people, etc. Humility is a great teacher.
• Live Your Dreams Into Reality: Stop dreaming, stop talking, stop planning, stop analyzing, START DOING! Of course the other aspects are important as well but in order to make your dreams a reality you need to get to work and make it happen. Don’t let others inactivity stop you from taking action and manifesting your dreams into real success. Real success takes real hard work and effort. It’s up to you!

Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
I really don’t enjoy working on the tedious details of optimization. Don’t get me wrong, optimization is critical to success and I love seeing the increased performance and results it creates, I’d just rather have others doing the more tedious aspects of it for me.

What have you been up to recently? What projects are you working on?
A recent project I’ve been working on is FilmFury.com. It’s a free online video site dedicated to classic films and cartoons, (think Alfred Hitchcock, John Wayne, Popeye, The Lone Ranger, Groucho Marx, Dragnet, Cary Grant, etc.) It’s a fun project and I’m just re-launching it after changing it from a paid site into what is now a free site, supported by ads.

What are your greatest strengths?
Resourceful, adaptable, tenacious, confident, people person, knowledgeable.

What are your greatest weaknesses?
• Sometimes I’m too self-reliant. I’ve realized it’s important to get support and help from others. With the right people, you can achieve more together than you ever could have on your own.
• Spreading myself too thin. There is so much happening in this industry and so many opportunities that it’s easy to take on too much and when you do that, you often don’t do as good a job at everything as you otherwise could have if you were more focused on just a few core things.

What motivates you?
I’m motivated by an intense desire for freedom to live life on my terms and to have the ability to fulfill all my dreams.

What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
Attitude determines altitude. You can’t let the highs and lows of life take you on a roller coaster ride. The worst day can always get better and sometimes the best day can turn for the worse. Don’t be a victim. Ultimately, it’s up to you individually, to choose what you will make out of all that life gives you.

What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with?
I really don’t like working with people that are arrogant, prideful, self important or treat other people poorly. We work in an industry full of big egos but there are plenty of ways to make a ton of money in the industry without having to deal with those people.

How do you like to spend your free time? What does work-life balance mean to you?
I love adventure and travel so I spend as much time as possible traveling and doing adventurous things like running with the bulls in Spain, Scuba diving in Costa Rica, climbing big mountains around the world, driving around East Africa on Safari, swimming with Manta Rays in Hawaii and anything else that makes for a life changing experience or intense adrenaline rush.

Work-life balance is critical for me. There was a time when I worked 80 hours a week and wasn’t very fulfilled. My career was going well but my life wasn’t what I really wanted. I realized that I was much more happy and fulfilled in climbing the ladder of financial success by taking time to enjoy the ride, balancing it out by achieving other dreams and goals along the way as well.

If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
Knowing what I know now, if I could go back I’d skip college completely, instead of just dropping out 75% of the way through, and I’d jump right into the industry learning and applying as much as I possibly could about driving traffic, monetization, optimization and all the other critical things that go into creating success in this business.

Oh yeah, I’d also be sure to create Google, Facebook and YouTube

What is your greatest achievement outside of work? What are some of your unfulfilled dreams?
Honestly, my greatest achievement outside of work was meeting a girl named Julie, persuading her to give me her number, go out on a date with me, date me exclusively, and just recently convincing her to say yes to my marriage proposal.

As far as unfulfilled dreams go, well, I’ve got a long list of them, but they will remain unfulfilled for only so long because it is really just a matter of time and effort before I achieve them all!

Do you have a Twitter account or Facebook “Like” page?
My Twitter.

FilmFury.com Facebook Page.

Adknowledge Twitter.
Adknowledge Facebook Page.

Facebook Tests Play Now, Pay Later Plan

Sometimes you need a virtual magic gem stone right now and you simply don’t have the money to pay for it! What’s a person to do? Same as in real life – charge it!

Facebook is rolling out a play now, pay later plan which will allow people to buy virtual goods on credit then pay off the balance with Paypal or a credit card at a later date. Inside Facebook suggests that this may be a clever way to get people to upload card information which can later be used to facilitate impulse buying. The program could lead to a one-click payment option such as you find on Amazon and that would be a big move for Facebook.

Facebook has already rolled out Facebook Credit Gift Cards which can be purchased offline at stores such as Target and Walmart. These credits can be used to buy virtual items in any one of the more than 200 games in site, but how about making them good for other items as well.

Imagine the possibilities. You could buy real movie tickets while playing a Hollywood studio game. You could go to a virtual concert and buy mp3 downloads of the songs you enjoy. What if you could use your Facebook credits to buy your way into a private, celebrity chat?

Earlier today, I wrote a post about how virtual goods spending is expect to reach 7 billion dollars this year. But even still, spending money on Facebook isn’t an everyday practice for the majority of users. For some, it’s simply not a concept that appeal to them, but for many it’s an issue of trust.

Facebook has had more than its share of privacy woes, and now they want you to put your Paypal account information or credit card on file so you can buy seeds for your farm at the push of a button?

It’s going to happen. People are going to do it and there’s going to be a leak and there will be much hub-bub and then people will go right back to buying virtual goods on Facebook.

We can fight it with rational thinking, but it’s not going to stop the tide. In the next few years, Facebook Credits could become the most frequently used form currency in the world.

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Consumers Expected to Spend 7 Billion on Imaginary Goods

When you talk about buying “virtual goods” it kind of feels like you’re actually getting something for your money. But if you think about it, virtual goods are imaginary. Sure, you get a picture representing what you bought but you don’t really own that cow or that casino or that designer outfit you bought to use in an online game.

According to a new study by In-Stat, consumers don’t care. They’re lined up to spend $7 billion on virtual goods by year’s end and it’s likely that the trend will keep going strong as we roll in to 2011.

Thanks to Facebook and iPhones, online gaming isn’t just for teens anymore. Now people of every age, gender and socio-economic background are spending their free time building virtual farms, battling monsters or training to be a Jedi.

Here are a few facts from the study:

• The top 10 virtual goods companies earn 73% of current worldwide revenues.
• The emergence of social and casual games on social networking sites and mobile phones has created a 2D virtual goods market that exceeds $2 billion.
• The Americas and EMEA regions now have grown to account for well over a quarter of of all virtual goods sales. However, Asia/Pacific still dominates the global market.
• In-Stat forecasts total virtual goods revenues will more than double by 2014.

Think the numbers are inflated? Forbes has an interview today with a man who spent $335,000 on a piece of virtual property in a game. Yes. He spent real money to get an imaginary tract of land. His reasoning?

“When motion pictures were first invented there were a lot of critics saying that it is a novelty act and it would never amount to anything nor will be able  to make any real money once the novelty wears off – last time i checked Avatar has grossed 2.7 billion dollars world wide. . . . Virtual Universe is the next logical step in world entertainment and although there are a lot of critics and people shaking heads it is here to stay and take its ranks among the greats.”

Looks like Mr. Panasjuk accounted for a good chunk of In-Stat’s $7 billion dollar estimate.

Now the question is, how much of that money will your company be making?

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Extending The Life Of Media Coverage Through Social

A couple weeks back, a colleague of mine on the account side came to me with a question:

“We just scored this amazing media placement for one of our clients in [Tier-One Publication]. Do you have any ideas for how we can get some additional traction for the article?”

Harkening back to my days as a lowly Assistant Account Executive, presenting my SVP with a similar piece of media coverage that I no doubt, spent countless hours pursuing and securing, I remembered his response: “That’s great. But did you get the Journal yet?!!”

Subduing my urge to respond in a similar fashion and saving my colleague the dejection that I had felt, I provided a more constructive response.

The fact is, media column inches have been shrinking at an exponential rate. Newspapers are shutting their doors with a few viable ones moving their operations online. To compound the issue, marketing budgets are decreasing as companies look for efficiencies in generating awareness for their brands. What does this all mean? It means that that piece of coverage you secured in Wired or in Crain’s New York Business is ten times more valuable today than it was, say, five years ago.

So then how can we extend the life of that press coverage? Here are some tried-and-true methods, as well as some new thinking:

• Company Web site Newsroom: While this method has been used for years, its importance and value cannot be denied. Posting your article placement on your Web site’s newsroom will not only aid in search engine optimization (SEO), but customers, investors, and prospects like to know that their vendor/partner is getting quoted-positively-in the news. Additionally, other reporters who are doing research for a related story, may stumble upon the article, your insightful quote, and could follow up with another interview request.

• Social Media Newsroom: Many companies are starting to develop social media newsrooms as part of their content marketing strategies. But aside from posting links and PDFs of your media coverage and press releases, the social media newsroom should have images, video and other social links to really drive value. Some of the most successful social newsrooms link back to the company’s social media channels (Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) as well as RSS feeds, links to subscribe by e-mail, eNewsletters, and event calendars.

• Share it!: I used to represent a number of law firms and I always loved walking into a partner’s office to find the walls COVERED with framed news clippings. Although I never had the gall to crop and frame the few media clippings I’ve been quoted in over the years, I would immediately rush out and buy up every copy of the newspaper or magazine to share with my family and friends-my mom has all the copies. The idea here is that we should be sharing this coverage with our networks, both offline and online. Brands should be sharing the coverage in monthly/quarterly corporate newsletters, tweeting out links to the coverage, including marketing collateral for your salesforce, posting content in the discussion section of your LinkedIn group, and sharing a link to the article with your Facebook fans. While the channels and methods have changed, the underlying idea is the same.

• Write About it: A lesson that I learned early on in my career in public relations is that an hour-long interview with a reporter MIGHT turn into a one sentence quote in an article. And a lot of times, that quote may not match what you actually said. For companies or individuals that have blogs, an excellent way to extend the life of the coverage would be to write about the article. And I don’t mean simply regurgitating the content of the article, but expanding on the main points of the piece, providing additional insights that the reporter may have missed and inviting readers to provide their thoughts and extend the conversation.

• Post it: Aside from the usual social suspects (Facebook and Twitter), there are a number of content aggregators where you can posts links to news, byline articles, white papers, etc… Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Business Exchange, is a personal favorite of mine. The site hosts hundreds of topic categories from Social Media Marketing to Leadership to Global Business. There are hundreds of people active in each of the topic “communities,” regularly sharing content. Additionally, BusinessWeek is consistently one of the highest ranked domains in search, bringing your quote in Poultry Times into the first three pages of Google results. Posting on other content aggregator sites such as Digg and Reddit is also a must.

• Create a Video: No, I don’t mean getting your CEO to sit in front of a camera and having them read the full article-unless they are reading a particularly compelling op-ed they wrote. Similar to the idea of drafting a blog post, have the subject matter expert quoted in the article discuss the topic of the piece in a short video that can be posted in your social media newsroom and on your company’s YouTube channel. We are all aware of the explosion of online video and its benefits for search. Creating a short video related to the article, developing a Q&A, or even having a sales rep. provide a demo of your product can be much more engaging than handing a prospect a product data sheet.

• Monitor: A critical step that we often forget as we are busy making clips decks and getting poster-size reprints of our placements is to monitor the article after it has run. There may be comments posted by readers on the media outlet’s site that can be responded to. Readers may have tweeted a link to the coverage or shared a link to the article on their Facebook page. In a number of instances, there may be misinformation in the comments that need to be addressed, or quite simply, readers to thank for sharing your positive coverage with their networks.

So how have you extended the life of a media placement you’ve secured? Let me know your thoughts while I go post a link to this blog post on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Business Exchange….oh, and e-mail it to my mom…

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Twitter Co-Founder Admits ‘Screwing Up’ With Developers

While I tend to find some of the applications that people use Twitter for annoying as they serve the self-serving side of human nature, I am learning to appreciate their co-founder Ev Williams.

Why? Well, amidst the bluster of the Internet industry he is one of the few industry leaders who appears to be comfortable in his own skin and who comes off as genuine. That is saying something when most people in the Internet space have a snakeoil salesman like quality or they seem so uncomfortable doing what they do that it is painful to watch.

Not with Williams, at least not to me that is. Yesterday was further proof of that when he made an admission to interviewer John Batelle at the Web 2.0 Summit that many wouldn’t have the stones to admit (no, that is no reference whatsoever to Biz Stone so you can stop right there). He said about Twitter’s relationship with developers, as reported by GigaOM

Like a teenager apologizing to his parents for having a party and breaking the furniture, Twitter co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams admitted today that the company “screwed up” its relationship with third-party developers, and says that happened mostly because the startup didn’t originally plan to become a platform company. Now that it is actually trying to be a platform, Williams — who has taken over the company’s product development strategy — says that Twitter will continue to try and provide opportunities for developers, but isn’t ruling out moving into any current Twitter-related service or feature area, with the possible exception of gaming.

In other words, he said that the way Twitter has evolved has been a bit of a surprise and as a result some things happened that may have pissed off the development community. Mainly, Twitter is now developing its own version of certain functionality that was originally done by third parties and not Twitter itself.

What I appreciate is his ‘matter of fact’ handling of the situation. From an outsider’s point of view, I don’t think he needs to say any more than this and sincerely ‘apologizing’ to developers. The reality is that if Twitter didn’t exist, neither would this third party ecosystem. If these developers were so smart why do they need to find something to leech off of instead of doing their own thing? Anyone who ties their own ship to a platform they don’t own runs the risk of having this happen.

What I don’t understand is the whiny, entitlement attitude that most of these developer communities take on when there is a perceived sleight by the mother ship. Twitter owes the developer community nothing other than its sincere thanks for proving that the Twitter community desired certain functionality. As far as I can tell, Twitter was not built for developers, it was built for end users. And if the developers had the right approach they should have been thinking that their run was on a potentially short leash and they should make hay while the sun was shining. Williams said:

We launched Twitter sort of as a Model T — it was very basic, but was popular, and it got people excited, and a swarm of developers came in and made it better in the after-market, and that was great [because] it increased demand for the Model T and we could focus on increasing production… but gradually we realized that wasn’t really serving users as much as we should.

So Twitter will move on and continue to build native versions of the functionality that Twitter users want. That’s the smart thing to do. Companies in the Internet age exist for the same reason that they have since the dawn of time: to make money, to keep investors happy and to provide the best experience for their users so the company can continue to make money and keep investors happy. That’s it. Internet companies that find themselves beholden to every whim of their developer community are like traditional companies that are hamstrung by unions. It eventually limits the company’s ability to grow in some cases because the company has to spend more time pleasing the infrastructure and less time doing what it needs to do to make money. That’s a bad formula. To be sure he is not looking to jettison the developer community at all but it may look very different moving forward.

But the former CEO said that the company wants to ensure that the platform it is building also has plenty of opportunities for outside companies and startups. “We need to keep evolving Twitter, but we also need to keep providing new opportunities for developers,” he said.

So it truly is refreshing to see a guy like Ev Williams – who has already stepped aside as CEO and taken over the product again because it’s where his talents are best suited – to handle this in a grown up way. The Internet industry needs more of his attitude and I think it will move along not only faster but also in a better direction.

Your take?

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Twitter Analytics: The Beta Test is On

Mashable is reporting that the anticipated Twitter Analytics roll-out has begun. Word is that Twitter has invited a select group of Tweeters, which doesn’t include me, to test the new product. This goes along with previous estimates that the product would be live for all by the end of the year.

Measuring success on Twitter has been a problem for marketers, one they’ve solved with the use of third party programs like HootSuite. But with the hoot going to a pay model for big users, Twitter will have the upper hand with their free version that will likely have more bells and whistles.

Twitter analytics will allow you to see which of your Tweets were successful by looking at who RT’d and how often. It will also graph mentions, follows and unfollows over a six hour period. The oddest part is the use of “best,” “good,” and “all” as filters. Shouldn’t that be “good,” “better,” and “best?” And I love that there’s no filter for “Never Do That Again.”

Twitter’s Evan Williams was the final speaker at the Web 2.0 Summit conference today and in addition to wishy-washy comments about the new analytics (an “analytics dashboard-y thing” was being used by “a very few users.”) Williams commented on the lack of cooperation from Facebook regarding data sharing, good results on the promoted Tweets program and a potential Twitter version of Klout.

All of the reports from the summit read as if Williams wasn’t very enthusiastic about anything. I was particularly intrigued by this line from CNN Money.

“There’s a million ways to make money on Twitter, though,” Williams said, shrugging. “I’m sure we’ll try more.”

I’m sure they will.

Twitter’s next problem is “information overload” and that’s a real issue. With so many people jumping on the Twitter train, the ability to aggressively sort and filter data is becoming increasingly important. I hope Twitter Analytics will be the first step toward finding a better way to manage all of the data.

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The Money’s Not In the List, it’s In the Connection

This post was written by the Web Marketing Ninja—a professional online marketer for a major web brand, who’s sharing his tips undercover here at ProBlogger. Curious? So are we!

What impact will changes to the flow of communications on the Internet cause by the rise of new options, like social media, have on the old marketing adage, “the money’s in the list”? I was asked this recently, and I’ve been pondering the question ever since.

For quite some time, in all honestly, I dismissed the question, because I’ve literally made millions of dollars through email marketing—I’d be hard pressed to ignore that.

But then I thought about the main reasons I’ve been able to use that communication method as a monetization tool. The answer? It’s about the connection, not the practical outcome of having someone’s email address.

Then I realized that the money is not in the list, it’s in the connection with a customer.

We shouldn’t fear the changes new communications methods have brought to bear. We should see them as a great way to expand our channels to build even more connections with customers.

The same principles apply

It even gets better. You can take exactly the same approach you’ve been refining for your email list-building activity, and apply it to these new channels—the basic principles are exactly the same.

The four core attributes of successful email marketing are:

• Make your email capture findable.
• Provide incentives for people to sign up.
• Craft well-written, engaging messages.
• Give more than you ask from your list.

Now let’s look at how that might translate into a social media channel like Facebook.

• Findable: Set up your vanity URL and Facebook page, and link to it from your site.
• Incentives: Offer something unique to your Facebook followers (a coupon or ebook, for example).
• Engage: Put together a publication schedule specifically for your Facebook page—don’t just syndicate your blog or Twitter feed.
• Promote: Seed your promotional messages with real value, quality content, and so on.

The key here is to not treat the channel as a method to build your email list, but to see it as a new method to develop a connection with a customer in the place where they feel most comfortable communicating. If you’re trying to fit Facebook pegs into email holes, you might be able to jam a few in, but you’re costing yourself valuable leads in the process.

While these new channels need unique approaches, and different regulations govern what you can and can’t do in each, at their cores, they’re the same.

Patience pays

It took us all years to master the intricacies of marketing via email, so don’t expect instant income from these new channels. But stick with it, and you just might discover greater success was you step away from the norm and embrace new methods of connecting with your customers.

As long as the medium allows for me to communicate with my list, and my list to communicate with me, I’m happy.

Stay tuned from most posts by the secretive Web Marketing Ninja—a professional online marketer for a major web brand, who’s sharing his tips undercover here at ProBlogger.

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Twitter Pushes Out Instant Notifications

The news cycle in the Internet space these days is interesting in that it seems to have a herd mentality of sorts. There is one group that dominates the landscape for a short period of time, which gets everyone’s attention. In the time that everyone is looking at the most current shiny object (as of late Facebook is that) the other large players have a tough time making waves (Google is announcing a lot of changes but no one is taking real notice) and Twitter has just faded into the news background for now. It’s an interesting phenomenon that is created by the rapid rate of change and the fickle nature of the media and consumers in general.

Having said that, it looks like Twitter is busy in the background doing something. Their blog tells of the introduction of instant notifications that are going to be pushed out to iPhone users.

We want to make sure you see important Tweets even when you’re not looking at Twitter at the moment. To help with that, today we’re launching push notifications for @mentions.

Whenever an account that you follow mentions you, you’ll immediately receive a notification. You’ll know who is talking to or about you on Twitter, and you’ll be able to continue the conversation in real-time. Notifications for @mentions will initially be available on SMS and on the latest version of Twitter for iPhone, which you can download today from the App Store.

I had to chuckle a bit on this one since the term “important Tweets” is used which more often reads as an oxymoron but we’ll save that for another time. Because this update focuses on the @mentions function all this really does is serve the need of the inner-narcissist that many Twitter users have over developed in the past few years. Kind of like those video game thumb muscles that were never intended to be used like they are. God forbid, you aren’t glued to your Twitter feed when someone has retweeted your critical retweet that could end world hunger!

One interesting side note is to see the development order of importance for Twitter. The blog continues

In addition to @mentions, we’re also bringing push notifications for Messages to Twitter for iPhone, as we’ve already done with SMS and Twitter for Blackberry. We’re working hard to introduce this feature to Twitter for Android and Twitter for Windows Phone soon.

Considering the pace of Android devices flooding the market it looks a little backwards to rush to get that done while already having the Blackberry functionality in place.

So that’s the news for Twitter today. I am not sure who is in line next for the complete focus of the Internet media’s attention but for now we are going to have to suffer through a “breaking news” mentality around Facebook and every time Mark Zuckerberg gets a gas bubble. Yay.

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Radio Shack Wants You To Check-in Somewhere Else

Radio Shack is running an interesting new Foursquare promotion that asks you to check-in some place other than your local Radio Shack. How odd is that? The badge you’re looking for is called Holiday Heroes and when you earn it you get a coupon good for 20% off your purchase.

To get the badge, Radio Shack is asking you to check into “Hero Hotspots,” which include MidTown Comics and the Golden Gate Bridge. The write up also mentions a gym and a coffee shop because all heroes need to stay in shape and then get a jolt of caffeine.  After you check-in at two of these places, you visit your local Radio Shack and the badge and discount is yours.

This program is one of five new Partner Programs for which Foursquare has designed a special “Trophy Case.” The Museum of Modern Art is also offering a discount, but the other partners, The Ellen Show, People, and the American Red Cross are only offering interesting content from the looks of it.

Foursquare says this is just the start of their new Partner Program and they’ll be rolling out more badges soon. If you’d like to be a partner, there’s a form right here that you can fill out.

We already know the power of the check-in, but the Radio Shack offer is intriguing. What are they getting out of sending people to other locations? Certainly they’re not getting a kick back from The Golden Gate Bridge? Or maybe I’m reading the rules of the game wrong. This hearkens back to a discussion we had earlier this week — this is pretty easy stuff, so why am I still confused after reading the program’s Foursquare page?

Maybe it’s a ploy like the one from Miracle on 34th Street where Macy’s sends the customers to competitor Gimbels to prove that they prize customer service over profits.

Hmm. . . I doubt it.

Have you seen the Foursquare Radio Shack promotion? Am I getting this thing all wrong?

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Google’s Hotpot: Recommendations and Reviews for the In Crowd

There has been a lot of talk about Google developing a social product that we will see this fall (Google Me). Actually that talk was over the summer and since then there has been little talk at all. In fact, when it comes to the social front all of the talk has belonged to location based services in general with Facebook making announcement after announcement of their attempts to get their hand further into the social graph.

So yesterday while Facebook was announcing their latest ‘end of the world as we know it’ offering around messaging and backpedaling on the Gmail killer talk Google introduced its own step into the social world using Place Pages as the anchor. I’m not surprised by the move since Place Pages importance have grown in prominence over the past few months and it was obvious that Google was gearing up for something.

That something is Hotpot. Before I go any further I have to ask where they come up with these names?!?!? Hotpot?!?!? Really?!?!? What does it mean?!?!? This is definitive proof that Google is TRULY an engineering company and a marketing midget. Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

Google’s LatLong Blog yesterday introduced the new service, which is an early release, focused on reviews shared by friends about places to go

But finding trusted advice is hard; wouldn’t it be great if there was a way for me to get these recommendations all the time, everywhere I go?

We are trying to do exactly that, and today we’re excited to share the first step: an early release of Hotpot – a local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends. With Hotpot, we’re making local search results for places on Google more personal, relevant and trustworthy.

Google talks about the three main ingredients for this new offering as

Google Place Pages
The places you like
The places your friends like

Here are some screen shots of what this will look like.

Places you like

Places Your friends like

Now here’s the trouble. I tried real hard to follow links that Google said would be helpful. This link to set up my separate Place Profile name that is separate from your Google profile led me to here.

Real helpful.

Then I ventured into the “How To” land for Hotpot and Google’s ability to create clear directions for the ‘everyman’ are as good as their ability to name products. In a few words: it sucks.

This is the trouble with these offerings whether they come from Google or Facebook or whomever. They assume that everyone is some kind of ‘power user’ of these services. Vanessa Fox ‘explains’ Hotpot over at SearchEngineLand and says nice things even though at one point even she writes

In the above photo, you can see part of the confusion with having a sort of separate profile. My Google Profile seems to have a separate account from my Google Hotpot profile… sort of. I give up on figuring that one out.

Mashable acts as if everything is intuitive. But they are the ‘cool kids’ who live and breath this. They are not, however, typical end users that represent the masses. For a change of pace, I figured I would try to navigate through this thing as a regular person and I was left at the curb by Google with dead end help offerings and relatively little to work with.

While it is good for the power user ‘in crowd’ to get this stuff it will only really have an impact if it can be easily understood by the masses. I don’t think the Internet services world gets this concept. This idea that if we build it will be easy for everyone to get is just short-sighted and pretty stupid especially for a company like Google. Didn’t they get a hint from Google Wave that their idea of intuitive is probably as clear as solving a Rubik’s Cube to the rest of the world?

Anyway, I need to take the time to play around with Hotpot to see what really seems easy and what doesn’t. I will say though that out of the gate it is typical Google fare. Incredible potential for those who speak Google-ese but for the rest of the world it will be interesting to see just what happens.

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Facebook Messaging Sounds Good. . . In Theory

Bang the gong. Facebook has an announcement. They’ve taken the wraps off their new messaging system which has been referred to as the “Gmail Killer.” Gmail can send the bodyguards home, they’re not in danger. . . not yet.

I spent some time watching the videos and reading the articles and I’ve come to the conclusion that my Facebook messaging preferred punctuation is not the exclamation mark or even the question mark but the ellipsis (. . . ). I chose this mark because the new roll-out sounds great. . . in theory, but in practice, I’m not so sure.

According to the Facebook promo video, the new messaging system is designed to capture all forms of communication with a single person in one place. I’m totally behind the idea. I routinely ask people to take a growing conversation off Facebook or Twitter DMs so I can track it through email. Email is my To Do list, so having a note about a project in my Facebook inbox does me no good. I also find Facebook’s current system to be klunky.

Then there are the people who insist on leaving me a voice mail, even though it makes more sense for me to reply by email. Or send me a text that requires me to respond with an attachment. In the video, they talk about people’s perfected method and how true is this? My teen will only answer text messages, my mother only reads email (even though she’s on Facebook), I have friends who will respond on Facebook faster than any email I send their way.

So Facebook’s solution is a single inbox that let’s everyone use their preferred method. You text me and I can email you. To make it easier, they’ve done away with the typical email header. I just pick a friend from my list and message away. Which brings up the first big problem. If the person I’m dealing with isn’t on Facebook then it’s more complicated.

The system also doesn’t handle voicemail or Twitter so it’s not really all inclusive. It will, however, combine what you said in chat or over an IM with the Facebook email message so you can have a running conversation regardless of the application. Nice but. . . . do we really care? Do we really need an archive of everything I’ve said to a friend via IM or email for the past year?

Facebook likens it to that box of letters from your grandfather that your grandmother’s kept for sixty years. Romantic. But no matter how much you try to sentimentalize it, an electronic archive of IM messages simply isn’t the same as a hand-written love letter.

Personally, I think the ability to go back to what was said a year or more ago is dangerous. Forget the past. Look ahead.

I do think that Facebook is on to something. I believe that we’re getting closer and closer to having a chip in our heads that allows us all to communicate without benefit of keyboard. No need to memorize a telephone number, just picture your best friend in your head and talk away.

Facebook Messaging isn’t going to replace Gmail anytime soon. It’s a whole different product. Maybe, for those who live their life on Facebook, it’s a product that will revolutionize the way they communicate, but for us less frequent visitors, Facebook Messaging is just. . .

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Medical Monday: Coupons and Policies and Social Media Managers, oh my!

If you haven’t noticed, the healthcare industry, whether pharmaceuticals, doctors, hospitals, etc., is experimenting quite a bit in the social media space and with all the changes occurring, it is worth highlighting some recent trends from the past month.

• Healthcare-focused eCoupons
  Move over spas and restaurants and say hello to luxurious teeth cleaning! Last month, popular deal site Groupon reported that approximately 15 percent of the site deals nationwide were solely for health care services such as eye exam and teeth cleaning services. It seems that doctors are not only “getting” the mobile space (check out my blog post titled What Mobility Means for Your Medical Professional) to maximize their efficiency but are willing to experiment in social media as a whole, and that includes Facebook, Twitter, blogs and even unconventional opportunities like eCoupons to provide quality and affordable healthcare services. Check out more on this trend at this Baltimore Sun story.

• American Medical Association Policy:
  Last week the American Medical Association (AMA) announced AMA social media policy to help physicians navigate the healthcare social media space. While general and less “guidelines on dialogue” than “rules on engagement”, this policy is a decent starting point for physicians on how they should approach this space. For the full social media policy, click here.

• Hospital Social Media Managers
  If you think the social media space is just reserved for patients, Pharma and physicians, you should consider doing your homework! According to the AMA, not only are social media policies important to an organization but having someone instill those policies, advocate for social media, and deepen relationships through this avenue is just as important. That is why we are seeing the rise of desirable positions like the Social Media Manager, specifically for hospitals. According to American Medical News, hospitals are finding that having this specialist can help  “strengthen its connections with stakeholders, which include the physicians who refer patients through their doors.” For more information on this trend, check out this American Medical News post.

In sum, it seems that healthcare is experiencing a bit of a “social media fever” (pun intended) and while some guidelines and policies have been created, and others are in the process, we can expect this type of experimental growth to continue as social media continues to play a large role in communication and engagement for all industries alike.

With that said, these are just a few healthcare trends that seemed worth noting. Are there any other trends in the healthcare social media space you think are worth highlighting? Tell us below in the comments section!

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