Tuesday, May 19, 2009

To tweet or not to tweet? For execs, that is the question
Boston Business Journal - by Lisa van der Pool
Saturday, May 16, 2009
.

Edward Boches, chief creative officer at Mullen
View Larger
.
Edward Boches, chief creative officer at the ad agency Mullen, recently wrote a blog post titled “10 Reasons why every CEO has to get on Twitter now.”
“I have found it to be one of the most remarkable tools,” said Boches, who joined Twitter less than a year ago and has nearly 4,500 followers. “For CEOs, it’s the simplest and easiest way to stay in touch with your customers. It will get you out of the ivory tower and closer to the thinking and conversations in the marketplace.”
Dave Balter, CEO of word-of-mouth marketing firm
BzzAgent Inc. in Boston, might seem like he would have been an early adopter of Twitter. But he wasn’t.
“I’m a non-tweeter. The fact is, I don’t think that the minutia of my life is all that interesting,” he said. “As an organization, we tweet. It’s just not for me.
“I care more about my company being famous,” Balter added. “It’s down to ego and a personal need to share the things that really don’t matter in the long run. ...I think we’ve become a society of over-sharers. It’s like TMI on a grand scale.”
The executives’ approaches represent two polar viewpoints in an ongoing debate about the value of the social networking site. Some occupants of C-level suites have embraced it; others remain skeptical about its value and longevity.
Love it or hate it, Twitter’s popularity has erupted in recent months. Initially Twitter attracted advertising, public relations and media types. New York-based eMarketer estimates that last year, there were about 6 million Twitter users, a number that the marketing research firm predicts will reach 18 million in 2010.
While those numbers are impressive, Nielsen Online recently reported Twitter’s retention is only 40 percent. Social networking sites average 70 percent.
Supporters such as Boches are exploring the marketing potential of the three-year-old social networking site that lets members tap out micro blogs or tweets in 140 characters or fewer, while amassing a group of “followers.”
“It’s a quick way to catch up with people. It’s also fun to figure out how to say something in 140 characters,” said Paul Levy, CEO of
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who joined the microblogging site late last year and now has more than 1,500 followers.
Levy usually uses Twitter to promote his blog, “Running a Hospital.” He also tweets about movies — “Star Trek Rocks!” — and even Twitter etiquette.
“Is it rude not to follow everyone who follows you?” he asked in one recent tweet.
Tracy Gallagher, managing director of accounting firm CBIZ Tofias in Cambridge, says that the potential for security breaches has held him and his staff back from joining Twitter.
“I haven’t figured out the business usage of it yet,” said Gallagher. “We do use YouTube and we have a site on LinkedIn. But for marketing purposes, to open us up to a security breach? The return on investment isn’t worth it.”
Still, the potential for increased exposure for both company and personal brands is the main motivation of many executives on Twitter.
Employment lawyer Jay Shepherd, founder of Boston-based Shepherd Law Group, says that since he joined Twitter in January traffic has tripled for his blog “Gruntled Employees” and grown significantly for his newer legal blog, “Client revolution.”
“It has increased our brand awareness and as a result I’ve gotten some speaking gigs,” said Shepherd. “The bottom line is, is it making any money? The answer is no, I haven’t gotten a client yet. It’s more like a branding campaign. But because my business is B-to-B, I’m not going to get clients” through Twitter.
A Twitter address is a must-have for CEO’s, Shepherd said. “I think not having a Twitter address now is going to be like not having a Web site or e-mail address 10 years ago.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, Chuck Hollis, chief technology officer at Hopkinton-based
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), is an advocate of Twitter.
“We have many hundreds of people who work for EMC, who engage on Twitter and other platforms. Collectively we share and connect with each other to help EMC and our customers communicate more effectively,” said Hollis in an e-mail.
Other local executives who tweet include Diane Hessan, CEO of Watertown-based Communispace; George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) in Cambridge; and Kip Hollister, CEO of Boston-based staffing firm Hollister Inc.
Meanwhile some executives are reserving judgment about Twitter.
Bob Metcalfe, a partner at Waltham-based Polaris Venture Partners, says that his Twitter usage is experimental at this point. Metcalfe regularly tweets about his weight-loss program.
“I have an open mind about Twitter,” wrote Metcalfe in an e-mail. “I have 800-plus followers, most of whom I do not know, nor do I know why they follow me. I am finding it useful to support my current weight-loss program. I regularly post my weight, and it helps me somehow to know that I will be. I guess we might call this the support-group application of Twitter.”

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Some Say Digital Age Limiting OSU Libraries
About a dozen students and professors protest the number of printed material available in OSU libraries.

By Tanya Hutchins
Digital JournalistPublished: May 12, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio—As technology changes, so does interaction with it. College libraries are seeing a trend toward digital materials, and The Ohio State University is no different.
About a dozen students and professors protested the number of printed material available in the 15 OSU libraries, where students read traditional books and e-books via computer.
Professor Emeritus John Burnham organized a silent protest outside Bricker Hall to bring attention to the issue of availability of library books.
“The problem is, to have great research and a great university, you have to have the book resources as well,“ Burnham said.
He said only a small fraction of the books are available on shelves for browsing.
OSU Director of Libraries Joe Branin disagreed.
He said libraries are entering a digital age but printed books are still available and there is no limit to the amount of books the library retains.
“What’s happening is we’re seeing a trend toward more digital information, more demand for e-books and e-journals and so we’re spending more of our money now on electronic resources than we did in the past,“ Branin said.
Branin said there is some misinformation circulating and was on hand to clarify that information.
Branin said the university buys more than 100,000 books each year. The entire collection is six million strong, but they carefully weed out duplicate books or those rarely used.
Protestors said that more than 55,000 books have been decommissioned this year.
“What has been cut is a place to keep the books and if you don’t have any place to keep the books, they get thrown out,“ Burnham said.
Many students are still reading the old-fashioned way.
“You know, if I had my choice, I would definitely prefer to read a printed book,“ said Michael Radosevic, an OSU junior.
OSU currently is housing much of its material in a storage facility on Ackerman Road.
OSU expects to open the newly renovated Thompson Library in August with 1.2 million books. That amount is approximately the same amount taken out three years ago.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Possible juror booted for Facebook post
Analyst for P&G compares being in pool to 'sitting in hell'
Kimball Perry •
kperry@enquirer.com • January 31, 2009
So you want to keep your friends and family updated on all aspects of your life using online social networking?
Barry Price, 27, of Pleasant Ridge, did that on his Facebook page this week and it got him booted from jury duty on a prominent Hamilton County civil lawsuit and sparked an argument over whether the suit should be declared a mistrial.
"Barry Price is sitting in hell ... aka jury duty," Price wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday, information attorney Stan Chesley noted in an affidavit provided to Common Pleas Judge William Mallory.
Price, a systems analyst for Procter & Gamble, was one of a pool of potential jurors chosen to decide the outcome of a civil suit. In it, a worker is suing after he was severely injured during an incident at a rail yard when a pressurized rail car hatch blew off and hit him.
But when Chesley saw how Price viewed service as a juror on a lawsuit that could result in his client winning tens of millions of dollars - or nothing - Chesley asked the judge to remove Price from the pool. Mallory did.
When contacted Friday, Price was hesitated to talk about the incident. He said he couldn't remember what he had on his Facebook page three days earlier and said "I don't recall" why he was kicked off the jury pool. He said he was asked "some general questions" by lawyers in the case about his Facebook page contents but could "not specifically" remember what they were.
In one of the affidavits Chesley submitted to the judge, Chesley paralegal Theresa "Tracy" Combs wrote that Price's Facebook page was one of 238,000 that belong to the "Cincinnati, Ohio" network on Facebook. Price had his Facebook page set up so it could be viewed by others in that Cincinnati network as well as those in Procter & Gamble and Purdue University networks on Facebook.
Facebook notes it has 100 million users.
The judge booted Price from the jury pool and the attorneys representing the companies Chesley is suing asked for a mistrial. The judge refused.
"He has been removed from service," Mallory said of Price. "Let's move on, folks."
The case is expected to have a jury seated next week.

Monday, January 5, 2009

An open opportunity to increase traffic on a candidates web site

Facebook making a lot of friends among software startups
San Francisco Business Times - August 3, 2007
by Adrienne Sanders
Facebook invites tag-alongs to come play inside
(My comments will be in this red font)
Lance Tokuda has made a lot of friends through Facebook. Traffic at Tokuda's RockYou has quadrupled since May 25, when Facebook threw out the welcome mat to tag-along applications like RockYou's horoscopes and video games. It seems Facebook has decided that the army of startups seeking to hitch a ride on the popular Palo Alto-based social networking site are more of a blessing than a nuisance.
Unlike its larger rival, News Corp.'s MySpace, which merely lets the so-called widgets appear on members' pages, Facebook opened its source code to them and has promised that they are free to make money on applications within Facebook. All political techies should recognize the possibilities this means to candidate campaigns. This means that widget makers can integrate their services directly into Facebook pages. So, for example, a music player can look like it is part of Facebook itself. And armed with user information provided by Facebook, the music player-maker can now send personalized messages to members and their online friends, directing Facebook users to its own advertising-based home site and promoting new applications. Or directing Facebook users to the candidates site and promoting that candidate.
The strategy is Facebook's bid to increase traffic and establish itself as a central part of the online landscape by encouraging Internet companies to build services on top of its platform. So far it seems to be working. Facebook says its monthly traffic leapt to 30 million in July from about 17 million in March. And traffic at San Mateo-based RockYou, which makes applications like Super Wall, where people can add pictures, video and other rich media to their Facebook pages, increased from approximately 286,000 to more than 1.3 million, according to Internet tracker Quantcast. It is expanding more rapidly on Facebook than on MySpace."The world has completely changed in the last six months," said Tokuda.
JupiterResearch analyst Barry Parr agreed."This is one of the big stories of the year," he said "People have talked a lot about viral marketing over the last 10 years, but Facebook is now providing a mechanism for making that happen.
"So far it is anyone's guess how much money application developers can make. Facebook has said it won't take a cut of any revenue generated, but its terms of service say it may change fees at any time.
RockYou, the Sequoia Capital-backed startup, is attempting to make money through a mini advertising network. It offers to promote other applications on Super Wall, charging on a per-user-acquired basis. Tokuda said RockYou generated about $15,000 in eight hours from its first test, but revenue remains under half a million.
Like RockYou, San Francisco-based personal rating site Hot or Not more than doubled global daily unique visitors from approximately 289,000 to more than 722,000 since May.
And Slide, a photo and video site founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, grew global daily unique visitors from approximately 753,000 to more than 2.3 million. "Facebook's move to open its API (application programming interface) and enable developers to deeply integrate into the Facebook experience set the industry precedent for how to do it right," Levchin said. "The move will continue to have ripple effects in the industry for months and years to come. "Indeed. MySpace, which remains about three times larger, has hinted that it might open its API in the future, say the widget makers. There is no tellong what this would do for increasing traffic on a candidates web site.