Jan
19

Web 2.0 Tools I Use

In the past few months I have been involved with and learning about many different web 2.0 tools and ways to manage them. For those of you new to the social media world, check these sites out:

Facebook
Originally started for college students, but now anyone can join. A great place to keep in touch with both old and current friends. I visit this several times a day.

Twitter

A newer site that allows you to connect with others in a more public way than Facebook. You can ‘follow’ companies, music artists, co-workers, friends, and more. This is a great information sharing site as well. I read many blog posts that are ‘tweeted’ about on Twitter daily.

LinkedIn

This site originally started off for business professionals but now college students and businesses have joined. Great networking opportunities abound here and you can join groups to connect with others in the same industry or with your same interests.

Flickr

A site that allows you to post, save, and share pictures and make albums.

RSS

I store all my RSS feed articles on Google Reader. This makes the process of sorting through articles and blogs I like much easier since they are all stored on one site.

WordPress

A great blogging device that has many more capabilities than any other blogging sites out there. It is also able to be hosted on a personal domain name, as I have done.

Foursquare

An application that allows you to ‘check in’ at a place (i.e. restaurant, bar, hotel, movie theatre, etc.) and post where you are right from your phone. Foursquare has most places in major areas in its directory and recognizes nearby locations for you to select from.

Bookmarks, Site Integrations, Etc.

Delicious

Awesome social bookmarking site. Most sites have an option for you to save the URL to delicious. Delicious can be added right into your toolbar for ease of use.

Tumblr

Links to your Twitter account, blogs, etc. all in one site. The results are searchable through Google.

Bluebird

An application that you download right to your desktop allows you to keep track of your Twitter activity in real time on your desktop.

iPhone Applications:

I love my iPhone because it allows me to put all of my online social media sites on my phone as well if I ever need to check up on statues or update my own. I currently have the following iPhone applications:

Facebook
TweetDeck
TwitPic
LinkedIn
WordPress
AIM
Broadcaster (lets you take and upload videos right from your phone to the internet with ease)
Bing
Foursquare

Web 2.0 Must-Read Articles:

In order to keep up with the newest trends in Web 2.0 technologies, I visit the following sites for all my up-to-date information:

Mashable

TechCrunch

ReadWriteWeb

Netvibes

American Marketing Association

Jan
12

Geographic Portability of Social Media

Going somewhere? Geo-locate it on foursquare!

Have a good/bad review of a restaurant or business? Post it on Yelp.

Want to post a funny video? You Tube it!

Need to post a new photo album from your phone? Log onto Flickr.

Then there is Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn to connect more personally with friends, family, co-workers and they can be linked to the above sites for further sharing of information.

With the evolution of the smart phone, all of these capabilities are so easy to do. When I am out somewhere, I can easily update my Facebook status, check for friends on AIM, look up an e-mail, watch a You Tube video, and check on the status of my blogs on WordPress. It is amazing what smart phones can do today, and since Generation Y consumers are always armed with their technology 24/7, all of this is easily possible.

Generation Y also prefers to communicate via text message or e-mail much more than the traditional telephone call. It is amazing to think that just a few years ago, we were so used to picking up the phone and dialing the memorized number of our friend or family member. I guarantee most people don’t even know their best friend’s cell phone number anymore. We have become so dependent on our phones and computers to save and process everything for us.

Generation Y consumers are the fastest growing segment of people in the workforce today, reaching above 70 million in number. This offers a great opportunity for marketers since this niche thrives on portable technology 24/7 and is entering the workforce, therefore earning some disposable income.

Companies are capitalizing on the need for more technology and apps because of the significant increase in its usage. Since there are already many applications being added to smart phones that can relay messages to Twitter, will Twitter then become just a platform where other applications post their collected data? It seems that technology is heading that way.

Other social media sites have been recognizing significant changes in the past few months. Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that Facebook’s security is becoming less of an issue with the emergence of people openly posting information on the Internet. Twitter is realizing that their account numbers have been dropping since 2008 and they may need to rethink their strategy with the emergence of related technologies. LinkedIn is finding ways to get members more involved with the site since it has traditionally been a background social network site that professionals rarely checked. With all of these changes, I think we will see significant developments and transformations with social media even within the next year, and be certain that Generation Y consumers will be the first to try it and spread the word.

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