The On-Going Conversation

A Social Reality: Choose Wisely

As human beings and social animals, we look for guidance from the people we choose to surround ourselves with; that's what we do best.

LinkedIn Wants Users to Visit Daily

LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Today, a social news tool for business users that encourages perpetual use, similar to Facebook and Twitter.

From a consistent use standpoint, LinkedIn has a hard time competing with Facebook and Twitter. Users seem to view LinkedIn as a professional portal that doesn't require continual monitoring. Facebook and Twitter on the other hand seem to have a connected mantra that requires daily attention, and users feel out of touch if they aren't constantly engaged and interconnected.

Obviously this isn't the case, but users feel a subconscious isolation if they aren't checking their digital lives on a daily basis. Most people view LinkedIn as an environment for career networking, which doesn't consist of frequent changes and status updates. Users even have their Twitter updates linked via an external platform that appears on the LinkedIn feed, which is included on the landing page.

As a result, LinkedIn is trying to capture a degree of success with this approach to social media. They want to encourage uses to visit on a daily basis, by providing more value and the ability to directly search news online. To a certain extent, they want to be a one-stop shop for online content absorption. This may be quite challenging, although it is a great place to commence in a difficult social space.

Read the full article via Fast Company

The Era of Tablets: Microsoft Strives to Compete with Apple and Google

Microsoft will strive to release a tablet-oriented version of Windows by 2012 to compete with Apple's iOS and Google's Honeycomb.

Read the full article via Mashable

The Mobile Consumer World

We Live in a Digital World! 57% of Facebook and Twitter users have scanned a mobile bar bode at least one time within the year.

Read the full article via Fast Company

A Social Deal Super Bowl

LivingSocial surged traffic by 80% with a lone discount for Amazon.com during the Super Bowl, while Groupon only managed a 3% increase.

Read the full article via Fast Company

Social Languages via Twitter

Twitter has opened a Translation Center to locate volunteers to help translate its websites and mobile apps into more languages.

Read the full story via Mashable: Twitter Turns to Users to Translate Site Into More Languages

The Mobile Brand Bowl

A Mobile Game: StumbleUpon set a record for mobile stumbles during the Super Bowl, which may have been due to a lack of access to personal computers. It could also correlate to an increasing move towards mobile expression and personal use in my opinion. 

People now have the ability to stay connected regardless of their location with mobile technology. This phenomenon is relatively new and wasn't even a possibility in years past. I don't envision it in changing in the near future either and am intrigued by the ever evolving mobile space.

Read more about StumbleUpon and the mobile impact on the Super Bowl via Mashable.

The Competition for Online Social Deals

Competition between Groupon and LivingSocial has increased as the two vie for investor funding, Super Bowl ads and deals from retailers. This approach is still relatively new and time may be the only feasible indication as to whether or not they linger for years to come. 

There is without a doubt an incentive for customers, but at the same time, it is hard to decipher if the discounts ultimately benefit the businesses and organizations that utilize their services. I realize that more traffic might be generated for a struggling business venture, although they won't be receiving as much capital for their products and services, depending on the nature of the particular business. Even amidst the success of Groupon and LivingSocial, Google is currently trying to capitalize on the concept as well.

They have recently introduced Google Offers, which is based on a similar mantra and offers individuals an opportunity to save money on particular goods and services. However I wonder where Google Offers will fall into the equation and if they will eventually gain enough traction to compete with the other two substantial forces. Google seems to be in their infancy and I am interested to see if they will gain substantial momentum along the way. Time will tell and I guess we can all stay tuned!