Mashable; ‘The Social Media Guide’, the monstrous mash-up blog that opened up the world of Social Media at the helm of Scottish born Pete Cashmore. The site quickly became the leading new media website in the world due to it being the most comprehensive and active Social Media News site of recent years.

As it has expanded in size, recruiting more and more writers from different journalistic backgrounds, it has made a transition into wider areas of Digital Technology where the competition is greater and the audience is larger.

Formally known as ‘The Social Media Guide’… Now that the slogan is no longer present on the site, what kind of site are Mashable now?

Cashmore can see the opportunity with the amount of press and traffic his site receives daily. Therefore, maybe it should be leaping into reporting on all things digital/technical.
But could this transition be more of an innovative move by Cashmore; knowing that Social Media is losing the ‘what is social media’ factor that made his baby ever so popular in the first place?

Facebook recently achieved a landmark milestone in digital history, by reaching 500 million users. Funny, considering it was only a year ago that we were still trying to prove that Social Media wasn’t a fad.

Mashable’s new 2010 re-design has dropped the tagline ‘The Social Media Guide’ and opened up it’s news wings to expand into all areas of digital technology.
It had been reporting on most new technology news since launch but had always put a social media spin on it.
Only recently, has it decided to devote a large portion of it’s articles to technology without the social fluff.

With all businesses, as you expand into other areas, you face more and more competition. Where you may dominate your specific niche (in this case Social Media); if you decide to focus on multiple areas, such as Web Technology, Mobile and Business for example, you will find yourself not only taking away the USP of your site, but also confusing your core market (which in this case im not too sure what that is for Mashable).

I tweeted about this exact topic recently and the response i received was interesting. A few replies highlighted that while the engagement on Mashable is low in comparison with their ’share factor’, the point was raised that most people would rather share an article and discuss with their own network than comment directly within the article itself.

I guess that makes sense, and no-one can argue with their analytics, as it’s plain to see that Mashable receive some pretty dominating numbers.

However, as the place to visit for all new media information, wouldn’t you expect at least 0.01% of their 3 million daily page views to translate into more than their average of 16 comments per post?

Each of Mashable’s articles receive the best part of 1000 Twitter Retweets and the Facebook share’s are somewhat lower. For every 1000+ shares, we see an average of 16 comments, which to me indicates, that while we love to recycle content and share knowledge with our networks (for whatever ego boosting illusion of intelligence we want to create), as ‘Social Medium’s’, we chose to not pay much attention to the source.

I’d love to investigate into this further and really challenge the concept of sharing articles and how does it really coincide with the definitive definitions of Social Media (if there is a definitive) or at least acknowledge that sharing doesn’t always go hand in hand with ‘engagement and interaction’.

If the King Kong site of Social Media is happy to knock out relentless articles daily and keep it’s followers sharing the content, but not directly engaging; in my opinion (and that’s all this is) Mashable is losing a severe amount of brand equity, as the amount of time their average reader actually spends on the site would be minimal.

Mashable is a force, that is obvious. It’s writers know their stuff and while some of their articles are completely pointless the majority are informative and relevant.

But ask yourself this; when you visit Mashable what do you expect to find?

I can’t speak for anyone else, but do we really want to visit Mashable and see the same iPhone article that can be found on Tech Crunch, Engadget or Gizmodo?

Do we want to find Money and Finance information that we could see more comprehensively on Money Saving Expert? Do we want to watch the latest movie trailers in their Entertainment section?

Mashable is the site that made Social Media easy for people to understand and keep track of as it grew and grew.

Personally, while it’s great to be ‘that one site’ that tries to report on EVERYTHING going on in new media, at the same time, there is a huge area of confusion for the consumer.

Pete Cashmore explains in his interviews that Mashable started as a ‘mash-up’ of content on the Internet. Yet it’s tagline was Social Media and it became famous for being the Social Media Guide, not for being a source of all things digital.

I doubt Mashable will care whether it’s network interact on their website or share the content without thinking. As a business they are successful and no doubt their traffic brings ridiculous revenue; but it’s only a matter of time before the masses realise Mashable’s content isn’t as revolutionary as it used to be and people will get bored of retweeting the same recycled content.

Note: If you are one of the thousands of people that Retweet Mashable’s article’s but don’t have an opinion.
Please stop. The whole world of Twitter is following Mashable and we all see their feed.
At least be creative and voice an opinion for sharing.Similar Posts:

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In the late ’90s and early aughts, MP3 players were known, well, as MP3 players.

However, when Apple launched the iPod on October 21, 2001, it was such a huge success that it only took a couple of years for most people to simply start using the name “iPod” whenever they referred to an MP3 player.

Apple had sold 125,000 iPods by the end of 2001; it sold a flabbergasting 225 million by 2010.
Coupled with the music management/online music store one-two punch that was iTunes, the iPod turned out to be one of the most successful gadgets of all time.

In the amazing infographic after the jump, you can see the rise of the iPod and iTunes and how they’ve affected our lives over the last nine years.

It’s true: The rest of the MP3 market never stood a chance.

Spotted at Mashable

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The history of communication dates back to the earliest signs of life. Every day we communicate with one another through various means. Our increasing knowledge of technology has forced how we communicate to evolve.

Evolution of Communication from Sophia Hadjikyriacou on Vimeo.

With new methods fast approaching, the question is what’s next?

Props go to @iAmSilverFox for the heads up!

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Absolutely brilliant! Without an introduction, i’ll let you make what you like from below.

UPDATED – ONGOING SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS:

1.4 billion music tracks sold on iTunes between Sep 09 & Feb 10 – Wikipedia iTunes tracking

300 000 new twitter users per day Apr 2010 – TechRadar

247 billions emails per day and 18% growth in internet users (of 1.75bn) Jan 2010 – Royal Pingdom ‘Internet 2009 in Numbers’

280 mill iPhone apps per month Jan 2010 – GigaOm

3.5 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook each week and 2.5 billion photo uploads to Facebook per month Feb 2010 – eConsultancy

Facebook 635mill in ad revenue & $75 mill in gifts Mar 2010 – InsideFacebook

Facebook 25 million new members each month Feb 2010 – Mashable

50 million Tweets per day Feb 2010 – eConsultancy

YouTube 1Billion watched per day Dec 2009 SMH

Source:

Gary HayesSimilar Posts:

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How much of your life is taken up by Apple logos?

Infographic by Column Five

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It’s the year 2010 and isn’t technology wonderful? We only have to see an influx of trends about the latest iPhone news leak and it sparks off more of a debate than the war in Afghanistan.

The image below paints a nice colourful picture of the evolution of 21st Century Technology.

Click to enlarge

As intelligent specimens we are blessed with the ability to do pretty much anything, bar fire red beams out of our eyes or fly.

We can have whatever we desire; if we use our heads to find a way of getting it, and we can be whatever we want to be; again if we use our heads.

Yet i find as time progresses, as technology enhances and as everything appears to become easier; people are generally making life more and more complicated for themselves.

This begs the questions ‘Are We Spoiled By Technology?’

• Building a Personal Brand Using Social Media
• 10 Reasons Why Musicians Must Use Twitter

What with Social Media, Mobile Technology and the wonders of Internet Search; how hard is it really to make that network, build a brand and climb to the next level?

Now, there is no need for me to reminisce on the days when people actually made of an effort than just 140 characters to communicate, but there was a time before Twitter, Facebook, Blackberry Messenger and Email that we still managed to get things done and enjoy life.

Don’t start assuming i’ve gone from being 25 to 65 overnight, cos that orange bus pass holder is a few years away yet. But what is beginning to bug me, is the way technology has become the forefront of everyone’s lives; to the extreme, that we are living our lives in a digital world and actually neglecting the essence of reality around us.

Here’s an example: Last week i actually said, “Im coming off Twitter for a bit, cos im beginning to feel like a stalker.” So i did… i left Twitter for a whole day; only to get a Blackberry ping AND a text message from two people asking ‘why i didn’t reply to their Twitter messages.’ So it appears everyone wants to be stalked.

“Ok ok chill… i’ll log on and i’ll reply.” and that was that.
*Exits digital rehab and heads back to the crack world.*

Even more exaggerated is the fact, that we actually get annoyed if our technology may either slow, stall or stop working. Now, think about that for a second…

• Do you rely on technology so much that it affects your emotions?
• Have you ever broken a gadget of some kind because it didn’t do something you wanted or better yet…
• Do you have dents around your house from where you have chucked the gadget at the wall?

Were these avenues of communication invented so that we can broaden our networks, expand on our connections and generally get things done easier?

… or were they actually created to keep us contained?

Yes i am writing this post in a very contradictory fashion using the same technology that i question; but ask yourself…

• Are you using technology to keep up with the trends or is it essential to your business?
• Are you using technology for your benefit or someone else’s?

Here’s one for all you Social Media Celebrities…

• Do you find yourself acting as a completely different persona in front of a screen to how you would act in person?

Now pause to think about those questions carefully before you disregard them.

Technology can be just like a drug… Give someone a little taster and if they like it, they will want a little more.
Give them a lot more and they get addicted, they forget how they lived without it and begin to lose control.

I find myself admitting myself into the digital rehab now and again, turning off my Blackberry, temporary deleting my Facebook and taking a step back from Twitter. Why you may ask?

Because productivity is based on being focused and it’s very difficult to be focused if you are juggling between gadgets, websites, networks and applications.

While you may feel like you are out there being very productive, chatting to people across the globe using your incredibly ambitious 140 characters to compile the most interesting passage of your day; the irony of it all is that you probably do so whilst sitting in your pants in your bedroom.

Pause!

• When was the last time you pulled our a notepad and brainstormed productive ideas whilst you have those spare minutes?

• When was the last time you read a book, maybe something like Rich Dad, Poor Dad? (That’s what i am currently reading).

Take a day off technology and refresh your brain… you deserve it!

“Everything is amazing and nobody is happy”
Uploaded by Meowbay. – Click for more funny videos.

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Well hello there people; i have been craving slight withdrawal symptoms for a while as the last Twitter based post i wrote got such great feedback yet since then i have been rather busy with work and projects.

But, never fear im back now; with an informal app-off (face-off for apps) between Blackberrys two leading (or only) Twitter clients.

Originally when i first downloaded Ubertwitter i thought; “what a crap name to be sitting on my home screen. Why can’t Twitter for Blackberry (BB Twitter) make an official application?” Well their ears must have been burning because a good nine months later they released Twitter for Blackberry. WIN!

After using Ubertwitter consistently since i purchased a Blackberry, i decided to welcome the new app with open arms; because who doesn’t like an ‘official’ application in their palm. It’s like a rosy rainbow with all the nice colours and fonts right?

The application works and feels like the similar Facebook for BlackBerry app; not necessarily a good thing, as working with it takes too much effort. Most BlackBerry Twitter applications require patience, but Twitter for BlackBerry is the worst. Much of the time, the screen remains blank while the data loads.

Where there are a few positives; there are too many negatives. Ubertwitter introduced the predictive user function which allows you to find a follower by typing a few characters from their name, yet BB Twitter did not incorporate this.

BB Twitter also has a ridiculously slow refresh time; without even a message saying ‘go make some dinner or take your dog for a walk cos we are gonna be a while refreshing.’ How inconsiderate.

I mean lets face it, we use Twitter for simplicity. Yet this application is everything but simple. It should be quick, snappy and vibrant; giving the user the ‘on the go’ experience rather than the ‘i can’t go anywhere with this brick now’ feeling.

Personally i’ve reverted back to Ubertwitter and found already my handset is running a lot faster.

As for the future of the official Twitter application on my handset; who knows, maybe i’ll give it another download when the bugs are fixed. If they don’t step up to the plate on the second coming the application will be dead and buried like Steven Seagal’s acting career.

http://webworkerdaily.com/2010/02/24/twitter-for-blackberry-review/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/trending-tech/the-official-twitter-for-blackberry-app-vs-ubertwitter/article1529962/Similar Posts:

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It’s not rocket science that Twitter was hugely influential to the success of Tinie Tempah’s Pass Out heading to the top of the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in March 2010.

But why is Twitter so important to the marketing campaign of an artist?

Are the artists that are not utilising Twitter to it’s full capacity missing out?

Are they jeopardizing their career also?

I read a blog post recently written by DJ Semtex. He touched on some key points that Musicians and Artists should follow if they are serious about a career in this industry and the post picked up some interesting comments from both sides of the spectrum.

I then decided to investigate into 10 Reasons Why Musicians and Artists Must use Twitter.

We have all heard cliche terms like “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” right?
Well i say “it’s not what you know and who you know, it’s what you do with what you know and who you know.”

With Twitter you actually have the opportunity to understand how a person’s mind thinks, by the way they construct their short messages. You can witness their daily activities and you have the ability to network with them if you can work out what makes them tick. It’s all about knowing how to Influence the Influencer…

As Andrew Davis of The Worst Kept Secret states, “They say a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Well, the way to a DJ’s turntable is through his ego.”

What’s the point of being in this industry if you’re not going to interact with your fan base?

Your fans are your market and will make or break your career. So many artists make basic fundamental errors by failing to engage with their market and thus are disconnected. If you make the effort to be at one with your fans, they will embrace you like you are the most popular person at school.

Since the rise of Social Media over the last few years, the platform for you to go from zero to hero with the expense of minimal finances has been getting bigger and bigger. But it appears, the more resources available, the more complicated people make life for themselves.

Twitter keeps it simple; hashtag # your regular tweets to associate trends and focus on utilising your core followers to retweet for you. Heard about the 80/20 rule?
No. Click here.

140 Characters to write isn’t a lot of effort and with modern technology, we have Twitter and every other networking capability in the palm of our hands.
So use it your advantage. Once you have your target market on your side, the rest is history.

The days of watching the news, listening to radio and reading newspapers for daily updates are long behind us. Twitter is now the forefront of daily gossip and headlines; by following the people who are always up to date on their gossip and by paying attention to the trending topics you will always be on top of your game.

Yes it’s no hidden mystery that Google records all of your tweets. Scary? Slightly.

We know the Internet is one huge archive of your life that will NEVER get deleted. Anything you say on Twitter can be found in Google so be careful if you don’t want your life story brought to you in ten years.

Unfortunately when you use sites like Bit.Ly or Tiny URL for your links; Google can’t find them.

Yeah Twitter is a Social Networking site mainly used for networking and communication; but as a traffic source it can supply a large proportion of the links to any website.

By using tracking sites like Google Analytics linked directly to your home page or self-hosted blog, you can clearly monitor where your traffic is coming from and what keywords work and don’t. Use this to your advantage and tweet hot content, blog posts, videos, links and your homepage regularly.

The Internet is the gateway to personal branding, giving you the ability to qualify yourself to your market as whatever you want them to view you as. Check out this post i wrote with tips on ‘building a personal brand using social media.’

Start by capturing your perfect Twitter Handle (name). If you can’t find your perfect name try this site Tweexchange where you can buy names that are currently taken.

Then work out how to brand your Twitter Page for your followers. Both Twitpaper and Twitterimage can help with that.

Make your bio clear, precise and link to your BEST website, NOT your Facebook page. (Rookie error!)

How can you expect a Record Label or Company to take you and your music seriously, if you don’t?

Check out a post Mashable wrote on Twitter branding for further reference.

Both fundamentals 8 and 9 are about using the very strong Twitter Search Engine http://search.twitter.com. If you don’t use this, get using it. The advanced search options allow you to search for keywords and phrases, all in real time!

Meaning when you post a link, question or topic, you can monitor exactly who is responding and what they are saying. Try it out and type a few words that you want to search for. It is a VERY POWERFUL TOOL!

Remember those days when you would wish you could know what everyone thinks about you?

Well the Twitter Search Engine option gives you that sixth sense. Take the time to search for keywords about you, your brand and your market. Knowledge is power!

Like Google, where asking the right question will give you the right answer, Twitter works very similar, but you have to ask the questions your fan-base want to hear. Give them the option to have the engagement for further conversation and play to their mindset.

You want to get them talking so use your head. If you ask the right questions and give comprehensive answers you will very quickly become a popular trend for interaction.

Also catch me on Twitter.com/iAmLuca and if you like the content you read on my site, you can subscribe via RSS Feed or via Email.

As always this is my personal blog and is meant for light entertainment reading and not be quoted or used in professional practice. See my disclaimer if you have any issues.

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Although i hadn’t caught a glimpse of the prior three episodes of The Virtual Revolution, i managed to catch this episode. Entitled ‘Homo Interneticus?’ (which doesn’t appear to have a definition) although Michael H. Goldhaber wrote is the term for “a wonderful summation of the new mentality of internet usage.”

While we ponder over the term, for a quick chuckle click this link to view a blogger on the subject and what i can only describe as a Doc Brown (from Back To The Future) lookalike.

Here is a trailer to the episode courtesy of the presenter Aleks Krotoski and the BBC.

You can see the full episode by clicking this link.

Joined by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Al Gore and the neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, Aleks examines the popularity of social networks such as Facebook and asks how they are changing our relationships.

And, in a ground-breaking test at University College London, Aleks investigates how the Web may be distracting and overloading our brains.

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While watching Celebrity Big Brother, which is actually quite jokes this time around and at the same time browsing the net (yep multi-tasking), i took a look at the tabs i have open and decided that i would write a short post about the sites that i use most regularly (bookmarks).
So what sites do you visit most frequently and it would be interesting to know what everyone has as their home page too!

So my home page is Google (durr) and generally i don’t use Google unless i am researching, so my first click will be towards a bookmark in my toolbar. Now, we all have that one site which we click to before we click anything else, and for a long time mine was Twitter, but for the last few days, my first click is of course… this one (my blog that is).

So these are my most visited sites and what i generally utilize each one for:

Twitter: 2009 was a huge year for the microblogging site and while 140 characters isn’t a lot to work with, i use it primarily to network with people that are either within my field (digital and music) or interested in my blog.

Facebook: The king of social networks has a firm place in my browser, although i spend most of the day closing the tab and re-opening it due to the distraction.

HotUKDeals: A great site for finding the best consumer deals in the UK, trading with members in the forum that is much more respected than eBay and also using the forum features within in deal or trade. Love it!

Gmail: I use Gmail rather than using Mac Mail simply because of the chat feature within the page. Very handy to speak with your mail contacts.

TED: Ted.com is one of my favorite and also most inspiring bookmarks. It’s primarily a video site built on ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’. The content is King and watching one video will turn you into a super geek jam packed with knowledge!

The Worst Kept Secret: A blog site designed to teach you ‘what you didn’t learn at school’. Based around Music and Media, TWKS uses Social Media to teach common sense life skills in a fun and entertaining way.

Team Supreme: Whilst i spent the best part of six months blogging about Urban Music, and although my writing game kicks arse, i was always playing catch up with the content kings at Team Supreme. Forget Limewire, these guys are your source for Urban Music!

SBTV: While this kid has the YouTube game locked with a cast iron door and secured with a pair of iron giant bodyguards, his new website is not only looking swish, but also throwing up all that tip top content from the YouTube channel and more! Created by the genius’ over at Creative Nerds, SBTV is one video site to keep in your toolbar.

Income Diary: The blog site that gives us a direct insight into making money online. Michael Dunlop created the site and is a 20 year old on his way to becoming a gazillionaire.

Chris Brogan’s Blog: There are a shed load of people in the digital world claiming to be ‘Social Media Gurus’, but this guy has his writing and advice down to a tee. Brilliant posts and great information for bloggers and internet geeks!

Mashable: Lets keep it simple: Mashable is ‘The Social Media Guide’.

Google Analytics: One of the most genius sites in internet history. This application allows you to embed a simple piece of code within your site or blog and monitor all of your statistics. From where your viewers are coming from, whose talking about what and where they go to when they leave your site. It’s the ultimate geek tool!

IGN: Last but not least. Any gaming geek wouldn’t be complete without a daily visit to the Internet Gaming Network (IGN). Trailers, Reviews, Ratings and News, it has it all!

There you have it, these are the main sites that i will check every day. You may be wondering why i don’t check a news site like BBC, and it’s because Twitter covers that for me. Simples!

What sites do you visit regularly? Are your favorite sites making your time spent on the internet worth while? Have you found any of my bookmarks interesting or informative?Similar Posts:

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