"Geo-Enriching" Your Website using iGeo: A Useful Technology?

nTerraCon has teamed up with Microsoft to create iGeo, software that will allow you to "geo-enrich" your website.

If you've ever been frustrated by a news article or a place-centric story and wanted a visual of where everything is happening, this is the software for you. Using iGeo, you can virtually fly to specific locations in 3D simply by clicking on a place name within your article. The software uses Bing Maps or Google Earth. 

Will iGeo catch on? The nTerraCon site demonstrates iGeo's use in the media, book publishing industry, education, and creating general documents. Perhaps, as a Social Wannabe blogger, if I ever posted a blog about a social media event in NYC, it might be fun to see a 3D map of where the event was taking place. I also see definite potential in education, to help the more visual learners, and in book publishing, in an age where reading is becoming more and more interactive. I do wonder, though, if Bing Maps and Google Earth, as they are now, are enough to attract users. I'd like to see if and how this software develops. 

Adding Google Analytics to Blogger

I just tried to get this set on my personal blog. It takes 24 hours to know if it worked right. If so, I can add it here too.

Art of the Friend Request

Making friends is a difficult, heartbreaking process in any setting. The internet--a place where one can skip the obligatory niceties that accompany face-to-face interactions--is a lot like the popular girl on the school bus on the first day of third grade, who promises she will be your best friend if you don't sit next to her. It's cold. It already has millions of friends. It doesn't need you.

The best bit of advice I "stumbled upon" actually came from a StumbleUpon user's profile:

"Friend requests will not, in general, be reciprocated. Rather, the thing to do is to drop me a message and be friendly. That does not mean "can we be friends?", but just making conversation. Okay, it's true that conversation isn't my greatest forte, but accumulating "friends" at random has to be one of the web's more meaningless activities. As with life, these things needs to be worked at!"

He points out that online interaction actually mirrors real life more than we think. How would you feel if a stranger came up to you on the street and requested your friendship? The old "Check this box if you like me" note trick went out of style in grade school. Friendship takes time. The only thing you can do is be patient and, well, friendly.

Why Doesn't Anyone Want to Be My Friend?

I am having a hard time making friends on the internet. Am I a digital pariah? A persona non grata of cyberspace? I am trying not to take it personally, but sometimes I need a virtual shoulder to cry on.

StumbleUpon in particular is giving me fits. I have exactly two friends, one of whom mysteriously appeared when I first created my account. I have no idea who she is, but unknown admirers on the internet give me the creeps.

To build my online presence, I have joined several StumbleUpon groups related to independent politics, one of my passions. I went to one of these groups and proceeded to invite as many of its members as I could to be a friend. I invited so many, in fact, that StumbleUpon made me stop inviting them. Apparently one CAN have too many friends.

Just one of the persons privileged with a personal invitation to friendship from me had the decency to reciprocate. I'll talk with my therapist about the pain of rejection, but I would appreciate it if anyone on our internet marketing team could offer some suggestions as how to build online friendships on the social networking websites so I can proceed with spreading the word about findingdulcinea.com. Any techniques that you have found effective? Please let me know.

Yours in loneliness,

Tony

More Social Media in India Facts

Despite the fact that a relatively small fraction of the overall population uses the internet, social media sites are extremely popular in India.

An estimated 60% of all Indian internet traffic is to social media sites. In absolute terms, social media sites had over 19 million unique visitors from India between December 2007 and December 2008.

The most popular social media sites in India are Orkut, followed by Facebook, and then Bharatstudent.com.

Two Twitter Videos

Here are two videos about Twitter from commoncraft.

First, just a general overview of Twitter.



Next, an exploration of using Twitter Search.

Adding Google Gadgets to Blog

Here's a video about adding Google gadgets.

How to Upload Videos to Blogger

Here is a simple video describing how to post videos to Blogger.

India: Huge Market, Slow Internet

One major challenge to social media marketers hoping to gain an Indian audience is the fact that internet connections are very slow.

In the United States, the average internet connection is 3.9 MB per second. In India, it is 772 KB per second.

As anyone who has used the internet in India knows, many flash-rich web 2.0 pages just won't load in an acceptable amount of time.

Moreover, an Indian internet user is far less likely to own a computer than his or her American counterpart. Since the average salary is less than $500 per year, purchasing a computer is nearly impossible for most Indian citizens.

This means that most Indian internet users are accessing the web on a shared computer. Often, this is in an internet cafe setting that charges by the hour. Therefore, it is not practical for an Indian web surfer to spend a lot of time letting a page load.

Social media marketers focusing on the subcontinent need to develop simple HTML alternatives that load quickly and reliably.

Potential for Social Media Marketing in India

India holds amazing potential for social media marketers. With a population of over 1.1 billion people, India is the second largest country in the world. India also has a very young population. Over half of all Indian citizens are under 25 years old.

Although there are over 250 languages spoken throughout India, almost everyone speaks English as a second language. In fact, there are more English speakers in India than in the UK.

Currently, only 7.4 percent of Indians use the internet, but this is increasing as communications infrastructure improves. Even at the current level of internet penetration, India ranks fourth in the world in internet users. Only China, the United States, and Japan have more.

The most popular social media site in India is currently a Google product called Orkut. However, many people are switching to Facebook because Orkut has security problems. Facebook is aggressively pursuing an Indian audience by supporting the six largest Indian languages: Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam.

5 Must-Reads for Social Media Wannabes

Last week I went to a thing called Social Media Camp, hosted by Chris Heuer and Howard Greenstein, founders of Social Media Camp. Since there were so many great lectures to choose from I "butterflied" between them, jotting down notes and names like a first-day freshman.
I came away having learned a lot in only a day long session, but certainly not as much as a social media expert. I wanted to know more.

First I did a search on Twitter for the hashtag #smcamp#iwny--for social media camp and Internet Week New York. (If you don't know what a hashtag is. Mashable will teach you in 5 -30 minutes).

Then, skimming through my notes a few days later I found the following suggested reading items. While I haven't read all the books and articles below, the few I have skimmed were excellent.

1. For starters, you can learn about social media principles by reading The Clue Train, available as a free download. Published eons ago in 1999, this book realized that the real purpose of the Web was to tell stories. People go online "to debate, to disagree, to laugh at themselves, to compare visions, to learn, [and] to create new art."

2. Chris Heuer was right to call this article, “The Brand Called You” published in 1997 "prescient." The author, Tom Peters, asks everyone to take the "15-word-or-less-challenge" and brand themselves. What sounded gauche at the time is now in some ways absolutely necessary.

3. In Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava explains that successful businesses are learning to expand their vision beyond the product in front of them and capitalize on the personality behind a brand. Bhargava cites Apple as an example. When producing the first iPod shuffles, about the size of a gum-packet, a slip of paper read, "do not eat iPod". This little wink generated some buzz about the product (are they kidding? is this real?) helped sales, and demonstrated to other companies that it's okay to show your playful side. You can download the first chapter for free.

4. Chris Brogan's 100 Personal Branding Tactics using Social Media is a fabulous resource. If you read past the tips for "ego-searches" (not as important for the newbies) Brogan offers tips on creating Web sites and blogs, face-to-face interactions, and the dreaded oops moments: "Apologize when you mess up. Be very sincere."

5. And lastly, there's Howard Rangle's Virtual Community which SMC co-founder Heuer said "changed his life." I don't think he's getting commission from the sales, and his other picks were so great I'll believe him. After it changes my life, meaning after I've read it, I'll let you know what I learn.

Of course there are more than 5 books and articles written about social media. I'd love to hear your favorites. Thanks for reading!
Shannon