All you need to do is to start up Waze on your smart phone and let it track your location. It figures out your speed from your GPS updates and lets people on the same route know when you’re approaching slow moving traffic. You also earn points by helping them map different points and roads.

Sounds interesting? If so, check out the guided tour, and if you have a smartphone, download the app

photo credit: .Bala

It’s Third Thursday this week and we all know what this means. Time to meet up with your Social Media buddies and catch up with what’s happened over the last month. Yes, it’s that time of the month again and we’re all set to meet up at Paparazzi for a bite with your friends. Get yourself a pizza, get some salad; but you’ll also get yourself a stonking great dose of Social Media.

We’ve been meeting for a few months now, and this one’s no different. If you’re big on Twitter, addicted to Facebook or just curious about Google Buzz, come down and join us. Some of the people you may already know online, some will be newcomers but you know you’ll be welcome. So, drop a comment and we’ll see you there.

Recap: Thursday 15th April – Paparazzi – 12:30

photo credit: akuban

I’ve just noticed that this Thursday is the Third Thursday of the month; and we all know what that means. Yes, it’s Social Media Club day in the Isle of Man and we’ll be meeting up for a pizza down at Paprazzi on the prom. For those who have never been, it’s a social event aimed at users, both novice and experts of Social Media and helps provide a forum for people to discuss ideas, issues and new developments in the field.

Personally I try never to miss them. I do tend to meet lots of people online, but it’s much nicer putting a face to a Tweeter or actually debating an issue (rather than discussing it on a Facebook board). I’ve made a number of friends and contacts this way; people who would otherwise just have been yet another “Friend” on my Facebook Friends List. If you’re working with Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, or one of the plethora of social networks out there, then come along, grab a bite and come socialise with us.

Twitter Advert

It looks like Twitter has identified an area on their page which can be used for advertisements and it currently being used to advertised their Search service. Is this the start of mini ads being shown on Twitter? Will Twitter try and flog this space to third -parties? Will the ads be context sensitive?

Lots of questions, does anyone have any answers? The truth is, at some point or other Twitter needs to start monitising it’s service and this would be a great spot to start. What do you think?

Update: Techcrunch have spotted them too

So, for example, if you are trying to sell a data center automation package you probably wouldn’t want to bother teenagers or moms with your message (or pay for their reading it), but would prefer to bring it to the attention of technical support staff or operational managers. Magpie lets you do this effectively without spending too much on your advertising; particularly as it’s a new network so you don’t have to bid against many advertisers at the moment.

Interesting concept, and one to watch as people try out different marketing techniques with new social networks.

I came across a great white paper entitled The Business Impact of Social Networking on AT&T’s website. Here’s the blurb:

Social networking fosters collective intelligence, collaborative work and support communities. Tools and behaviors from the consumer world are now making the transition to the corporate world, with diverse implications for changing the way businesses operate. This paper explores 10 opportunities presented by social networking, along with 10 associated challenges.

I found the predictions for the future particularly interesting. Some are intuitive, but some may not necessarily spring off the page at you. Here’s what the paper predicts organisations will do as a result of the proliferation of Social Networking:

• Corporations will change the way they communicate
• Corporations will change their vision
• Corporations will change their organisation
• Collective Intelligence and Customer Experience will lead Innovation
• Networking will be key to Employee Excellence
• Employee mobility will increase
• Corporations will adapt their Motivation and Career Path Systems
• IT/Telecoms Applications will mutate
• Corporate Adoption will happen at different speeds
• Social Networking may allow Increased Revenue

It’s a good read, particularly if you’re interested or work in social networking. I must say, I do find the subject fascinating and now that I’ve finished my MBA, if I do decide to further my studies, this might be an interesting avenue to explore.

Some things uncovered in the study include:

• 65% of employees surveyed say that social networking sites have made them and/or their colleagues more efficient
• 63% say they have enabled them and their colleagues to achieve things that would not otherwise have been possible
• 46% say they have sparked ideas and creativity for them personally
• External collaboration sites on the web and internal blogging sites (both 11%)

The Top 5 social networking tools being used as part of everyday working life are:

1. Companies’ own collaboration sites on intranets (39%)
2. Internal forums within the company (20%)
3. Company-produced video material shared on intranets (16%)
4. Online social networks, such as LinkedIn and Facebook (15%)

Good reading. You can find more information here

Here’s an interesting service I came across. Report Phone Numbers is a simple website that lets you place a “Harassing Caller Report” so that it can be shared with other users of the site.

The interesting idea here is that it’s using the power of a social network to power the concept. Different people contribute different items of information and as the data grows; it’s usefulness grows. In this case it’s caller phone numbers but the idea translates to other concepts.

Interesting idea huh?

I’ve been playing with Ping.Fm and going to be using it to update all the social networks I’m part of. Turns out there are 16 social networks that I’ll be updating when I send something to Ping. Yup, I have an account on 16 different network, and that’s not a complete list, as I can list a bunch of social bookmarking sites I have accounts on that aren’t on the list.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe this fragmentation is useful as the real power of social network centers around the people you interact with, and interacting with a few people in each network really doesn’t do much good. For example, I signed up on Pownce, but there aren’t too many people there I interact with, so it fell by the wayside. Again, I also joined Brightkite, but still haven’t had any traction there. Well, now I can just Ping and all my networks get a notification. Twitter is still my main way of finding out what’s going on in the world though.

Here’s an interesting concept: a social network for pets. Well, actually it’s for pet owners to share stories, information and photos about their pets; but if the pets could use it, I’m sure they would. I’m talking about Zootoo, a social network created with animals in mind, where people can sign up, meet other people with similar pets and share advice, get tips and recommendations and even try and even help choose the cutest pet.

This last feature is reminiscent of Hot or Not (which I personally believe was one of the seminal sites which kicked off the whole social phenomenon), but really the whole site is geared around people whose pets are part of their lifestyle. They’re also very active in helping pet shelters by helping to collect money for them and sponsoring pet food.

All in all, it’s interesting to see these vertical niches of social networking websites which spring around real social groupings. This is a pretty valuable idea which can help organisations target their offerings around people who have a defined social pattern. In this case it’s pets, but it really could anything.