Why Is My Phone so LONELY?

Last night I spoke on a panel with a few friends in the valley. The topic was about the social games business model and whether it was right for every startup.

To start with, my first question was about "KPI". It caught my esteemed panelists by surprise, but it's a term that defines the metrics we live and die by. Two didn't really know the term.

Social Games live by the metrics. Metrics at the top social game companies are measured in minutes and hours, not days, weeks, or months. But in minutes and hours, you can only really process data if it hits a meaningful number of users.

This brings me to the point about LONELINESS. I am a single user on my phone. I don't have a way to get my friends to play on my phone, or on their phones. So the phone and mobile apps are inherently lonely.

I remember a video from a games conference a few years ago. In it, I remember the slide of a room full of college-aged guys sitting in a room taking turns playing Friday Night Fit on a Playstation.

The search for social is on for many people. It's the essence of Web 3.0. But the reality is, we as people might not be ready for a world where we communicate with each other through screeens even when we are sitting at the same table. So, my phone is lonely by choice because it is personal, like my closet, my shoes, my shirt, my coat. And I probably would let more people visit my closet, try my shoes, try my shirt, borrow my coat than I would borrow my phone.

The Participatory Election

Media is about getting together, establishing a relationship, and aligning your goals. An example of this was the Obama election campaign where the team did an amazing job of bringing the candidate closer to his voters, mobilizing them in ways we've never before seen.

So now comes Gavin Newsom emerging as a challenger to former EBay CEO Meg Whitman. What is untraditional about this approach is that Gavin broke the news to his Twitter followers and Facebook fans in addition to announcing via traditional media. It is an aggressive mood in this challenging economy. Says Newsom, "It's Official - running for Gov. of CA. Wanted you to be the first to know. Need your help."

This is a sign that everyone is seeking some semblance of control. The era of "Spin Journalism" has led to numerous misstatements in the past, and elections are no exception, often employing Spin Doctors as key communications officials. Newsom is capitalizing on his popularity challenging many of the fragmented ideologies that have divided the state of California, and has been using social media to establish a new type of rapport with his constituents that we did not see before Obama.

The rise of Twitter and Facebook has been impressive to watch. The growth of both services in engaging users, establishing relationships, and becoming platforms for messages has helped the popularity rise rapidly. What is different is that while Facebook has a suite of tools targeted towards brands, including celebrities, to build relationships with large followings, Twitter has actually enabled some to create relationships, conversation, and dialog within its growing community.

In this election for California's Gubernatorial race, I fully expect that new tools will be used to collect feedback from voters, mobilize them throughout the process, and engage individuals, especially the new class of Millenials who are empowered, idealogical, and are not too shy to voice their opinions with the tools and platforms that have evolved from blogging, MySpace, YouTube, and now Facebook and Twitter.

For a look at a post from powerhouse bloggers at TechCrunch, take a look at this link.
http://bit.ly/8LojF

How my profile changes everything

It's true. I have a profile. I've been an avid user of social media over the past decade as new tools have come out to help me stay connected with people. The profile that I have helps me stay connected with people from elementary school through my working professional life today.
My profile has different meaning depending on who is looking at it, who is following it, and who is interacting with it. Brands have a difficult time distinguishing from my preferences as a professional and as an individual. I use multiple email addresses which establish my identity.
The Media world has not figured out the way to deliver targeted messages to me which compel me to respond. Perhaps new places like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook will give them the right engine to fine tune their messaging. Until then, it will have to rely on me finding offers related to me as an individual and interacting with the ones that make sense.

What is social media for mobile?

I've been involved in a lot of things over the past year and a half, but the biggest one that I've been engaged on has been the thought of social media in mobile.
First, this should be broken down in three pieces.
1) Connection to the social network
2) Connection to the media services in mobile
3) Destination sites to manage this content
Blogging is social media. These are my thoughts meant for sharing. With that being said, I think that it's a bigger phenomenon that people are finally capturing and sharing the content from their cell phones. Regardless of quality, it's clear that there are a lot of pieces that should continue to move forward.
Higher quality pictures and video are now possible in mobile, and new content management pieces are everywhere. New ecosystems are emerging with the social networks, operators, handset vendors, and destination sites trying to see how to create the best possible user experience for the widest range of people.
I think that before social media become a phenomenon in mobile, media itself is ready to make new things possible for everyone in the very near future.

Social Media is a funny thing....

So the online world is a funny place. People rely on updates as their lifeblood of information about what I'm doing, where I am, and what's new in my world. The funny thing is that my network is a combination of life and work, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to separate it out.

Since I've joined the online world again as Director of BizDev at Photobucket, it's now becoming apparent that the content that I generate - in posts, in pictures, in video - are the ultimate way for people to see what I'm doing. But with my schedule, it's becoming difficult to manage.

I think that these days, it's easiest for us to realize a few things -
Social Network posts are not always an indication of what's happening in my life
Convenience is at a premium, and it's difficult to plug off if you're addicted to social networks and social content
My profile is not everything about everything

I'm hopeful that one day, the idea of profiles is tiered, and we'll be able to set different levels of access/viewing to my profile. At some point, it would be useful so that people who should know about my personal life have visibility to anything that I post on it. And for people in my work life, they can just see my professional profile and activities.

Until then, I guess I'll stick to censorship and start keeping multiple profiles....