Twitter debuted its new feature “Moments” yesterday. Is this the feature the company needs to recharge growth and get people interacting? No, it isn’t. Moments are curated collections of Tweets around news events, like the Yankees losing to the Astros or the grandmother who won $310 million on Powerball. A lightning bolt icon at the bottom center…
An app called Peeple plans to allow everyone to rate each other. The founders’ language reveals the terrifying, Orwellian logic at the center of this bankrupt idea. Peeple’s idea of rating people is breathtakingly naive. Rating people as drivers or passengers, sure. Rating restaurants and building contractors, that makes sense. But all people are a mix of…
A message purporting to preserve your privacy rights on Facebook is making the rounds. It’s a hoax. But it’s a great example of how the current state of the Internet is perfectly suited to spread bullshit. As briefly as possible: the idea behind the hoax is that Facebook is going to charge you for privacy…
My comments on the death of social media marketing generated a lot of reaction, both on my blog and on Augie Ray’s. I was wrong to suggest that it’s completely dead. It’s only mostly dead. Here’s some context. My work on social media began in 2008 with large corporate clients who hoped to use social media like blogs…
Augie Ray is right. Social media’s house is on fire. He also says you can start over. I’m not so sure. Augie (an old friend and colleague of mine) recently published a major blog post about what’s wrong with social media. Here’s the gist of his message: Grab the fire extinguisher, build a social media…
YouTube video producer Hank Green says Facebook cheats, lies, and steals. Facebook product manager Matt Pakes responds that everything is fine. He’s not willing to admit that Facebook is the Borg. The question here is simple: If you have a popular video, are you better off uploading and embedding it in Facebook or just linking to it YouTube?…
Twitter is boring. It’s a random stream of content, mostly promotional. It’s great for celebrities broadcasting to their fans, but for the rest of us, it needs help. And with the CEO gone and the company disappointing investors, it’s time for a change. I’m not talking about financial engineering, CEO candidates, or “sell it to Google.”…
The social network Reddit is in trouble. Lots of its popular “subreddit” forums went dark as volunteer moderators protested the firing of Victoria Taylor, a popular Reddit staffer. But rather than stonewall, the company’s management is now attempting to tell the truth, clearly and transparently. It’s working. Communication succeeds when it’s matched to the audience. The audience…
If you haven’t yet figured out that you cannot control social media, where have you been sleeping for the last ten years? Hey, Fifty Shades publicists, I’m talking to you. Here’s the simple syllogism: Social media is vibrant because anyone can say anything. Haters feed on each other. Therefore, when you create a social media event, it…