Snapshot of the Social Media Scene
So much is going on right now in the world of social media that it’s really hard to pinpoint a particular area to write about.
Social Media: Good or Bad?
There is still a fairly strong opinion that social media has facilitated an online crimewave by making it easy for predators to get private information. But I’d like to make an observation that, just like anything else, social media can be used for good or bad purposes. There are a multitude of examples, just like this news item where a British woman tracked down her attacker on Facebook after police failed to do so.
Social media applications that are hot or up-and-coming include:
Google Wave
Posterous
Twitter (of course–remains #1)
Facebook
Google Wave is fairly new, and you need an invitation. If you’d like one try searching Twitter. I’ve seen lots of people offering Google Wave invites and that’s how I got mine.
And if, like me, you’re in the market for an application that will help you monitor all your social media activity from one place, you might want to test drive HootSuite just like I am right now. It’s too early to tell you what I think about it because I’m still finding my way around. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, the conversation heats up about what type of social media use is more successful: direct sell or conversation. I’m a purist, and Jason Falls recently made the claim that we won’t last. What do you think?
