Lies, damn lies and social media statistics

96% of Americans use Facebook - yeah right!  I'm not sure if Business Insider got this wrong of if the original Bank of America Merrill Lynch report (the report is not available online for me to check) from where it originates is to blame.  Either way it is indicative of a trend in the regurgitation of social media/internet statistics that appear in blogs, dodgy infographics as well as mainstream media. 

Rant over.

What is the future for professional associations?

Over the last few weeks I've been thinking a lot about the impact that informal and virtual communities might be having on established professional bodies.  I find I am getting a lot of value from the LinkedIn groups and other online communities including several run within Google Groups.  The discussions that go on in these places and the ability to ask and answer questions of other members provides much of the functionality that professional bodies have traditionally offered.  I see 4 key advantages that virtual communities offer over professional bodies:

1. They often cut across traditional barriers and link individuals from a variety of backgrounds and professions who share common interests that transcend the articles of association of bodies that may have been drawn up over 100 years ago;
2. They are easy to join and usually free;
3. Group members can be quick to respond to issues and questions - no bureaucratic committees to go through;
4. They tend to emerge from the grass roots to address specific issues and pursue common interests rather than from the top down. Some professional bodies give the impression (sometimes unfairly) they exist to serve the interests of their employees rather than their members.

Of course, professional associations also have their advantages such as having the resources to act as advocates for a profession, helping with the professional development of members and offering physical spaces for members to meet.  Some even have legal rights conferred on them requiring membership for employment in certain professions although this might be seen as an unhealthy monopoly and not always be in the broader interests of society.  

I'm not a technophile who thinks that the internet and its associated services and technologies are going to sweep away industries, organisations and practices over night.  However, I do believe some radical changes are taking place in the ways people communicate, collaborate and share information. One of the key functions of professional associations is to offer a space for people to gather, share information and pursue common interests.  Services like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google also offer this functionality and people are increasingly taking to them.  When physical meetings are required these online tools work well in organising meet ups in cafes and bars.  I see this happening a lot in Brighton where a vibrant new media industry utilises the many watering holes and community work spaces around the city.  Many professional associations are also using these tools to help their members communicate with each other.  However, I can imagine a time, not too far away, when members will start to question what is the value their association offers if most of the conversations are taking place on online platforms hosted somewhere else.  Will it be possible to justify charging annual subscriptions of several hundred pounds to pay for buildings and employees? 

What do you think?

Is Google the solution to Facebook?

We all know the issues with Facebook and its changing privacy settings. Facebook has gone some way to addressing these concerns but for many people, myself included, the trust has gone.  Antoher problem with Facebook is the way it blurs the distinction between types of friends, contacts, colleagues etc.  Basically, they are all lumped in together so that messages intended for your Facebook friends can also been seen by your Facebook colleagues.  This is one of the reasons I closed my Facebook account last year - I did not feel comfortable having an online spaced co-populated by friends, old college and school acquaintances, students, colleagues and ex-colleagues. ( I recently opened a new Facebook account but only for research purposes).  It's probably a sign of my age but email, LinkedIn, Twitter and the telephone seem to serve me well enough for the moment.

However, the news/rumour that Google is about to launch a Facebook competitor (Google Me?) is interesting.  As is the Slideshare presentation below from Paul Adams, a UX person at Google (thanks to Katie Piatt for alerting me to this via Twitter) which describes how our social networks work in the real world and why Facebook is not sophisticated enough to deal with them.  Perhaps Google Me will allow us to reflect our multi-faceted identities online.  There are a number of major hurdles Google would have to overcome if it is to succeed on this front:

• Facebook has approaching 500 million active users.  Amongst certain demographics and in some geographies it is firmly entrenched.  Will enough of these people switch to another network?
• LinkedIn is the online weapon of choice for business networking.  Same question as above;
• Google does not have a good track record in this space.  Google Wave and Google Buzz.  Perhaps Gmail will be the way in as long as they don't misjudge users again as with Buzz;
• Do enough people care about Facebook's privacy issues enough for them to switch?  I'm not sure they do.

The Real Life Social Network v2

View more documents from Paul Adams.

Fortune Global 100 and social media

An interesting free report from PR firm Burson-Marsteller on usage of social media amongst the Fortune Global 100 companies.  Twitter, Facebook and YouTube seem more popular channels than blogs for these companies.  I wonder whether blogging has peaked or is on the decline as a communications channel for corporates.  I would not be surprised - short-form nature of Twitter, pervasive nature of Facebook and appeal of video probably more attractive to most punters than using an RSS reader to track blogs. However, I think blogging will always have a place for people/companies wanting to put out information that cannot be encapsulated in 140 characters and/or who don't want to play within the closed garden of Facebook.  Perhaps blogs, once derided for being no more than the narcissistic ramblings of lonely people, will become the primary online spaces for considered writing and discussion.  That is certainly already the case with some of the blogs I subscribe to.