MySpace is not just for teens. A Times Online article highlights a recent Nielson/Net Ratings report that projects 2 out 5 people on MySpace (in the UK) are over 35 years old. Times highlights a variety of UK-based social networking sites.
Pilgrim Notes
Reflections along the way.
Tag: trends (page 2 of 3)
epiTUNES recently launched a pretty cool Web 2.0 music site. You can listen to artists, tag songs, track tour info, promote your own shows, interact with other band lovers and more.
(via PR WEB)
Looks like MySpace is entering the music download world. Soon they’ll be offering bands on MySpace the opportunity to sell their music downloads at whatever prices the bands decide (MySpace will charge bands a distribution fee).
By the end of the year, Mr. DeWolfe said, MySpace will offer independent bands that have not signed with a record label a chance to sell their music on the site. MySpace says it has nearly three million bands showcasing their music.
Songs can be sold on the bands’ MySpace pages and on fan pages, in MP3 digital file format, which works on most digital players including Apple’s market-dominating iPod. (New York Times)
For the last couple issues, Springwise has been talking about a trend to businesses building space in virtual worlds. SecondLife (a virtual community for 18-year-and above) has become a virtual home for Scion, Aloft Hotels, American Apparel, and
This is an interesting trend and business. Not sure how big it will be but it does open new questions about space, commerce and reality.
Web 2.0 auctions with a twist (online personalities, social networking, and continuously dropping prices). Check it out: http://www.zeedive.com/
via Springwise.
Creative Labs beat Apple to the patent office by just months on the original MP3 players. When I bought my MP3, I chose Creative for the 40GB disc space and the dramatic price difference from i-tunes. Obviously iTunes rules the market. Creative and Apple have been fighting this patent battle in court, and they finally settled. Creative gets 100 million from Apple plus they can start creating accessories for i-Pod.
Looks like Apple is the real winner. iPod will continue to soar, and my poor Zen Nomad wander off into obscurity.
I came across another article on customer-centric thinking today on Click Z by Heidi Cohen. Cohen relates a story of planning her summer vacation online, making reservations, and then canceling after reading a bad review. She later received an email asking for more feedback about the cancellation. This causes Heidi to wax eloquent about how small hotel managers are very sensitive to online ratings and work hard to listen to customer needs so they can make sure their customers enjoy the service.
The rest of the article lays out a few tips for listening to customers, gathering information and applying it. I appreciate this current focus on customer centrism and usually try to follow what people are saying about it. The trend toward customers seems like a good thing.
Especially if is for real.
Listening is an art. If I listen to a customer just to figure out a plan for the best way to manipulate them to purchase my goods, I may not listen for long. Or they may not speak for long.
Granted most of us listen to other people for selfish reasons. It is hard to listen for the sake of listening. This is challenge of turning and facing another person in all their ambiguity; valuing them as unique person; and listening to what they say (without immediately figuring out how to use or retort it). Our culture has little time or capacity for really listening, but if we learned it, it might change our lives.
Can this kind of listening work in business? It depends on the business model. Does the business exist for pure profit? Or are there other reasons? Under some models, a company might be willing to lose some profit if it means listening and responding to some genuine customer concerns. Then this stuff becomes real.
Otherwise it is just a means to end. Another method to ultimately use another for our own ends. If we practice this in business, I’m not sure we can turn it off when we go home.
I have a silly idea (maybe its purely eschatalogical), but I believe there could be another kind of commerce. Commerce is good because it involves exchange, thus presupposing relationship at some level. So could there be a commerce of love? And could it happen on this planet in this age?
I guess this why I’m a bad blogger. Too much writing and not enough linking! So I’ll stop.
Here’s a family safe social networking site called Famster. The whole thing is in flash. I think the interface actually looks pretty cool.
Springwise tells about a Dutch bank that is helping children try their hand at business.
Children who open an Easy Blue account receive a briefcase containing materials for printing their own t-shirts (aka bizznizz attire), stickers, letterhead, flyers, and business cards. To get started, the young business person logs on to bizznizz.postbank.nl and decides what type of business he or she would like to run. Postbank suggests washing cars, walking dogs, household chores and mowing lawns, as well as an intriguing ‘entertainment’ category…..Once a client has been secured and the first job completed, the kidpreneur can log back on to the website to print an invoice, and have the client transfer the carwashing fee to their bank account.
This programs companies real world activity (opening bank account, starting business) with online activity (creating online presence, billing, transferring funds). I this combination of real world and online activity represents the a key element in the future of the web (activities or clubs that bring together both physical interaction and physical activity with online interaction and activity).
The development of social networks for older Americans continues. In addition to the memories sites I mentioned the other day, there is now an adult version on MySpace.
US News and World Report presents an interesting introduction to Eons, a 50+ social networking community for baby boomers and above. This is a total lifestyle community that provides information on health, money, relationships, goals and even obituaries. It also gives the member an opportunity to build a lifemap of memories and pictures. Plus it has an interesting search feature, cRANKy returns top four pages based on Eons member rankings.
Thanks to e-Fluentials for the tip.
Update: The more I think about these online community/social networking sites, I see the natural development for some of these sites is to mashup with sites like meetup, so that you have a hybrid between online and offline community. The interesting thing about sites like eons or ourstory or families is that people can create photo albums and story journals. This is very similar to the scrapbooking phenomenon that is so big in the nation. Scrapbooking combines preserving memories with community, so that people gather in small groups to talk, tell stories and put their scrapbooks together. I see the same potential for some of these sites focused on memory sharing and connecting.
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