Togetherville is a new social networking site launching today aimed at young children under 10. Although some parents may balk at the idea of children this young establishing a social networking identity and presence, the purpose of the new service is to provide a training ground where parents can teach their kids important lessons about online communication, community building and what it means to be a good digital citizen.

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Instead of pretending that today's youngest Internet users aren't socializing online (even the most-watchful parent can be surprised sometimes), Togetherville acknowledges the fact that children can and do want the opportunity to play and learn using social networking services.

The problem though, as any good parent will tell you, is that young children need to be taught how to use these types of services appropriately. They don't instinctively know what details should and should not be shared, who is safe to friend and who isn't ("don't friend strangers" is the new "don't talk to strangers," it seems) and they certainly aren't prepared for the real-world dangers of using larger social networking services like MySpace and Facebook where issues like digital stalking, harassment and cyberbullying are a sad consequence of public socializing.

Enter Togetherville.

Togetherville is Safe

In the press release, the site creators call [...]

Wed May 19, 2010 09:45 am

The sheer volume of social media marketing and search engine optimization advice posted online can make it difficult for companies to make sense out what direction they should take. There are many models and approaches to leveraging  optimized content for discovery through search and how to develop social networks to engage customers and promote content.  It comes down to fundamentals and I think the following Four pieces of the Social SEO puzzle can help companies of any size get started in a more meaningful way on their journey towards becoming productive on the social web.

Listening, Content, Socialize and Measure could just as well be represented as a cycle, but I think the forward direction is important because you can’t reach outcomes without action. Any good social media marketing effort needs to begin with some kind of Listening effort. That means using social media monitoring tools to collect, sort and manage social content according to topics being monitored.  Content is the glue that makes search engines work and content is a critical part of the social sharing experience within social media. Speaking of sharing, socializing with other like-minded individuals as a personal experience can fold well with brand interactions as long as the needs of the buyer persona has been reconciled with business objectives. Successful efforts within the social web can be measured, and should be, in a variety of ways.  Measurement justifies objectives and it’s important to identify the right tools for monitoring real time and web analytics.

Here are a few more details on each of these steps. I encourage you to think about how your company is implementing these steps in your own so/> [...]

Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:05 am

I’ve been in the social media space now for quite a few years and I meet with at least 5 companies each week who have understood the importance of utilizing social media for their businesses but are still afraid of entering their brands into the new media age.


What are they worried about? Here are the top five concerns that I’ve heard from executives and my response to them:

1) They’re afraid they’ll lose control of their brand and open themselves up to negative feedback — When you open a business and start marketing your services and exposing your brand to others, people will start talking about your brand. And this is what you wanted right? This is why you exposed them to your brand in the first place. People are going to be talking about your brand no matter what. The question is: Do you want to be a part of the dialogue or do you want to just play ostrich and ignore what people are saying? If a person is dissatisfied with your services, do you prefer /> [...]

Wed Feb 10, 2010 09:30 am

A couple of months ago, we asked whether MySpace could make a comeback. Since that time, they've become #1 on Android and jumped into bulk user data sales.

Today, MySpace has unveiled a new events plaform.

Called MySpace Events, it presumes to be "a global events and calendar platform providing users with new tools to create, discover, share, and manage events across MySpace and multiple social networks."

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Key features include the following.

• A new social and pop culture calendar that "combines your friends' events, your events, events from your favorite artists, with pop culture events and sponsored events."
• Ability to buy concert tickets directly from an artist's profile.
• "Social advertising," wherein advertisers can purchase ad space inside users' social calendars.
• Cross-plaform event viewing in which a user's MySpace calendar includes Facebook events. "We're providing features to share events on MySpace via the Stream and across the web including on Facebook, Twitter, and tiny url."

The announcement focuses on the benefits to both the Myspace users and the individual, up-and-coming "artists" who have used the service to promote themselves. It will be interesting to/> [...]

Thu Apr 15, 2010 18:30 pm