Friday, July 15, 2011

Why I am distancing myself on Facebook

Hell with toe in the water, I jumped right into Facebook social fantasy park. After almost 3 years, I have come to almost a complete dead stop.

I don't play games or other crap. Messaging and sharing experience is what I enjoy.

Lately, the responses to my posts on both my personal and Signal 7 Media pages have been sluggish. Not because I haven't been trying.

This Google + thing gives me a chance to have a space where i can attach my services that I get from Google. Picasa photo sharing, Google Merchant account, Google Checkout. Google Analytics, Ad Words, Ad Sense, You Tube. I have a massive virtual infrastructure.

There is always a time of transition. I learned a lot from Facebook. Not all good. And not the service, but the people that taint your experience.

For now I will maintain a dual citizenship. But my Facebook friends better buck up or be booted.

A Week of Change in Online Services

It has been a whirlwind of announcements, with Facebook and Skype and Justin Timberlake buying MySpace.
Then Google announced Plus, their latest social networking effort. Incredibly well received and poised to collect much personal search information, Google + poses a real challenge to Facebook, particularly the disenchanted.

I got a Google + invite Sunday past and spent the day playing with circles and features yet unknown. I am very impressed with what I have experienced.

Then came Klout and Spotify. I had been introduced to Klout by a friend/CEO.  I wondered what relevance it would have to me, an unknown participant in several start ups. Well, I found that my activity on Twitter and Facebook had put me in a socially relevant position.

The introduction to the US of the music service Spotify, with "invitation only" access, was the break out of the week. By making a deal with Klout to distribute 100.000 invitations, a scenario was created that caused both web sites to crash due to traffic.

Out of this madness, I got an invite from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails that was at first refused, then later welcomed me on board. Today I used Klout perks to see if I could get another account. I was surprised when it said due to my profile, I was a "US Spotify Ambassador". Neat. I get access to offers and promos.

So this week in SEO, SEM, SEX took second fiddle to simple collaborative marketing techniques.

Finally, Mashable seems to be distancing itself from Facebook by providing a Google + bar at the top of articles. There are those who thought Mashable to be minions of Facebook.