The A Case for Social Depth

+Dan Reimold has 44 followers at the time that I write this. He wrote an “article” called “Google+: Social Media Upstart ‘Worse Than a Ghost Town.”

Dan‘s article basically says “Google+ is not good because no one follows me.”

Now, Dan has some “evidence” for this. Of course he does.

Except his evidence consists of Rainbow Rowell’s article on Omaha.com. +Rainbow Rowell has 33 followers on G+ and she has posted a handful of times. Rainbow’s opinionated column basically comes down to this: “My Google+ home page is worse than a ghost town. It doesn’t even feel haunted. Meanwhile, down the road,in a much less desirable neighborhood, Facebook is teeming with life.” So apparently Google+ is dead because Facebook, which is over half a decade older has more users poking each other (I’m not disagreeing necessarily, just paraphrasing).

And her “sequel” is well… “The fact that I think Google+ is useless might be one of the best possible indicators that it’s going to succeed. Get yourself a Google+ account. This thing’s going to be huge.”I’m not sure what it is. Insurance? Change of heart? Sarcasm? Live journal emotional flashback?

But that’s not all. The “best” evidence comes from the one and only Forbes: +Paul Tassi, the person who called the “eulogy” for Google+ and celebrated when others talked about it on G+.

Apparently Google+ has become appealing to Mr. Tassi, who ironically also wrote a follow-up article only hours after the first one. No one remembers that one. Now, when I first saw Tassi’s profile on Aug 15th, he had few followers and aprox 5 public posts. Today he’s a happy Google Pluser with 1200+ followers. He almost raves about it without having to rave about it. Paul has converted and has amassed a following.

But wasn’t G+ dead? Hmmm… I’m confused now. I thought the word “EULOGY” was a strong one but apparently I’ve been reading the wrong dictionary.

Now, I would’ve rather Dan linking to this TechCrunch article. Despite their opinionated (and allegedly unbiased) point of view and their recent TMZification, TC writers actually know what they’re talking about. +Robin Wauters actually posted some numbers: A 41% decrease in public posts month-to-month. He might be right (someone please do call +Robert Scoble lol), but I will soon tell you why less posts doesn’t show the whole story. It’s not a good sign, but it doesn’t say anything about the quality of posts and the engagement within them (take a look at the average Fb post), or the quality of users (take a look at your DMs and you’ll see what I mean).

My thoughts are that if something is dead or a “ghost town”, then no one will care enough to write about it more than once. Google Buzz died once and it was a quick death. Google+ is dying on a daily basis but I don’t think +Larry Page is worried about what to post next before someone else tweets about his absence.

Traffic matters and all these deaths of Google+ create traffic. Even if the only people who care about it are those geeking out here and the media which absolutely loves to cover social media at its shallowest.

25 million or not, the Google+ community is unique and it has something worth coming back here for: DEPTH.

We’ll see what happens but I can assure you that there is no dead player in the Social War(s). Social depth is what I see as the next big thing in social. And I don’t mean this based on evidence but only as my personal hope (I’ve learned from the pros above that writing is apparently all about my own experience). In all seriousness, this is why I think Google+ matters to me: SOCIAL DEPTH.

Google+ doesn’t create it, but it enables it in a way that my blog doesn’t, location-based apps don’t, Twitter barely does, FriendFeed almost did, Tumblr almost does, and MySpace never will.

I’m a big fan of all Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Google+ is new so I may be blinded by that. Or maybe I’m excited to see 3 big competitors instead of two or maybe I’m more of an “interest graph” kind of guy. I’m in a position where I can, and must, get to know them all quite well. But bottom line, I’d interested in more meaning and substance while I’m spending time on these networks. And the same goes for articles with clever traffic-driving titles.

I first spoke with Erik Ober, CEO of Booshaka, in 2010 because his startup, which started as a search engine for Facebook, had caught my interest. I expressed that while it was great to find out about what people were publicly saying about Samsung on Facebook, it would be great to also know specifics about the engagement in our Samsung USA Facebook page. I really wanted to discover who Samsung USA’s “top fans” were.

Today, Booshaka ranks Facebook pages based on engagement and, as I had hoped, Booshaka identifies your “top fans” and ranks them in a nice leaderboard. You can see Samsung USA’s “Top Fans” on a tab on our Facebook page, and find more details on the Booshaka page for Samsung USA.
Read my interview with Erik below to learn more about the startup, how “Top Fans” works, and where his team is headed.

1. Who is behind Booshaka and what does your “Do the Impossible” tagline mean?

Booshaka is backed by a proven leadership and advisory team with 100+ collective years in social applications, data analysis, algorithms and advertising. Our mission is to help brands and businesses drive engagement and advocacy on Facebook.

From the start, we wanted to create big, meaningful company.  ”Do the impossible” is more of a motto than a tagline and its derived from the Urban dictionary meaning of “Booshaka.” Since naming the company, we’ve been told that all the biggest internet domains have two “O”s in them — Facebook, Google, and Yahoo :)

2. While the site initially started as a way to search on Facebook pages, it is now focused on Facebook Leaderboards based on engagement. Tell me more about this evolution.

The first few iterations of the product were experimental and designed to test how the market would respond to innovations built on Facebook’s Graph APIs.  In August 2010, we launched a version of the site which showed what was trending in different topical categories (ie Sports, Movies, Politics, etc) on Facebook.  We received some great organic press for the app and hundreds of developers and companies reached out to see how they might be able to leverage our technology.

After several months of customer development, we learned two things:

a. Marketers were overwhelmed with the amount of social data and interactions on Facebook and didn’t know how to take advantage of it.

b. Everyone was measuring the success of their Facebook Page(s) in terms of total number of fans / likes.

From our perspective, social media is all about how active your community is, how engaged your customers are, and how much they talk about your brand or business. At that point, we set out to develop technology solutions for the next frontier of social marketing — customer engagement and advocacy.

3. What kind of Facebook pages would benefit from adding a “Top Fans” application?

Most business owners are familiar with the 80/20 rule in which 20% of their customers actually make up 80% of their business.  Given this simple mantra, we believe the “Top Fans” application is instantly useful to any Facebook Page. Facebook Page admins can use the leaderboard to recognize and reward their top contributors and drive business metrics. On average, we’ve seen that effective use of the application will triple engagement in your community.

4. The Leaderboards are based on a point system. What does someone need to do in order to become a “Top Fan” on a Facebook page?

We’ve invested a lot of effort into ensuring that the point algorithm rewards the quality of your participation. Posts, comments and likes are all initially worth 1 point.  Your score is then weighted by higher quality activity (on topic and engages with the community) and will earn you extra points.  Lower quality activity (off topic and spammy) will actually earn you less points. Consistent activity over time is more valuable than repeatedly performing the same action, such as clicking the Like button on every post.

5. Is this all in real-time or does it get aggregated at the end of the day/week/month?

Points and rankings are calculated daily and are aggregated for the current month.  Soon, we will release a Rules Engine which will allow page admins to customize the leaderboard date range.

6. Does Booshaka provide custom development services?

Yes.  Currently, we are busy working directly with partners and customers to build out the platform to suit their needs.

7. Any chance we will see a Booshaka for Twitter in the future?

Possibly :)

8. Do you think Facebook is increasingly becoming a public forum as opposed to a private place for conversations with friends?

Facebook strives to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.  We think they are succeeding at that mission while simultaneously giving people the privacy controls they need.

9. Any advice for marketers trying to increase engagement on Facebook?

Our analysis on Facebook not only goes deep but it also goes broad across the whole network.  With an index of over 2 million Facebook Pages, we’ve gathered a lot of insights into how marketers can successfully drive engagement. We find the most engaged communities are the ones where the advocates have been empowered and motivated to participate. So, build your team of “superfans”.  All of your social customers have the potential to influence their friends, but in fact very few of them do. Once you’ve identified the fans who are the most engaged and strongest potential advocates, use game mechanics such as recognition and reward to nurture and grow their involvement.

At Booshaka, we’ve created new metrics for buzz and community health.  Social data provides marketers the opportunity to measure their success and understand their customers like never before.  Make sure you’re investing your budget and efforts in the right places and that your social strategy is delivering real value.

Find your Top Fans here, browse the most engaged Pages on Facebook here, and feel free to reach us via email: info@booshaka.com.

When I was in High School, Napster was the coolest “computer application” on Earth. Sharing and downloading music, for free, had changed the world. From pillow fights with Metallica to the rise and fall of copycats like Limewire, Napster disrupted the web, the music industry, and the tech industry. Today, the Napster logo still represents music, but it doesn’t represent what it used to represent back then: Freedom.

Fast forward to today.

Spotify, the mythological creature of music streaming, is allegedly coming to the U.S. tomorrow, and rumor is it will be integrated into Facebook soon after.

Pandora, a public company (let me repeat: a public company) birthed out of the “Music Genome Project,” just recently redesigned its site to allow you to go “back” on your browser and provide a deeper social experience inspired by good ol’ photo social network Instagram, among other changes.

(And in related news, I haven’t bought a CD in three years. If I’ve paid for any songs online, it can’t be more than a dozen or two.)

So what does this mean? Spotify coming to the U.S. after what seemed like decades of waiting and Pandora going public and adding a social layer of its own are clear signs that the days of music ownership, at least in the traditional way, are numbered. Music streaming means you can’t download, but it also means you no longer have to.

Of course, many are skeptic.

Some say that only the giants (Google Music, Amazon Music, iTunes) have a seat at the exclusive musical table in the cloud and that streaming music will be costly, squashing the little guys in the process. Others complain about functionality and details and privacy and control and lack of subway access. And while geeks discuss the cloud, the masses show that AM/FM/?M is just fine and that $2 downloads is more than fine in 2011.

But all I can think of is this: Freedom.

I don’t really care about showing off CDs and LPs in my living room, and I don’t really want to “own” music that’s just taking space in my hard drive. I don’t ever care about high quality that much.

Music is to be listened to, not to waste physical and digital space! What I care about is freedom to listen to what I want, whenever and wherever I want at the lowest possible cost. And the best solution to this is streaming online music.

If Spotify gives me 20 hours, I’ll take those, thank you very much. Pandora offers a few more hours and throws some social recommendations? Sounds great. I will take those too. Last.fm and Turntable.fm want to offer me a few more songs for free? Sure, why not. And for the rest of the time (or maybe most of the time), I will keep using my beloved Grooveshark, which I use almost every day even though it has “social” features that I could not care less about.

If the past couple of years are an indication of the future of online music streaming, then we can be sure that there will be more options; differentiated and free options. And with multiple options I can assure you that I, like many others, will switch from Napster to Limewire to Last.fm to Pandora to Google Music to Grooveshark to whatever service offers me this: Freedom.

Google+ is off to a good start: A clean interface that works, interesting and useful  features, a great Android app, and a curious community of early adopters. The screenshots at the bottom of this post will give you a taste of what Google+ is but they will also likely show you what it is not, at least not yet.

Google needs to go above and beyond itself to make this worth our time and theirs. Right now Google+ (or Google Plus) feels like Google Buzz +1 but also like Facebook -1. It’s exciting, but not that exciting.

Below are 10 things that Google can do to change their reputation in the “social” space and become a dominant player instead of an awkward one.

1) Don’t Focus on the Technology

Google Wave was the future… and then it died. Google Buzz might as well be. Google must truly learn from those mistakes and focus on use cases that make sense to people outside the Googleplex. Why do people go online (beyond search and YouTube) and why/how/when do people interact with each other?

2) Compete with Facebook

Google needs to stop saying that this is not about Facebook. It is. It’s time to compete and compete well. Twitter might not be trying to create a Facebook but its definitely competing by enhancing its own network and doing things that are either very much in line with what Facebook is doing, or completely different. A competition is a competition regardless of whether you can coexist or not.

3) Google Ads

A Google social network without ads? Really? For how long? Google must be brave and put some ads up there. If it doesn’t, I simply cannot take this seriously. It’s not that I love ads, but without ads Google is pretending to be something it is not.

4) Make Changes and Soon

Google Buzz looks the same today as it did a year ago. That’s embarrasing and quite useless in a web that evolves on an on-going basis. There must be a long-term strategy and that must involve changes, updates, and major enhancements and announcements. It also includes making mistakes and doing a thing or two that people don’t like. Just do something beyond launching and don’t wait too long to do it. If there are no changes in the next month or two, I’m not staying around.

5) Integrate ASAP

Google called it “Plus” because its supposed to “enhance Google,” right? Well, then, I hope the name is not a letdown. I want to see the best analytics on a social network ever and this may already be happening. But I also want to see Google Docs and the best of Wave (RIP) and Buzz and Latitude/Places/Loopt integrated either physically or in spirit with Plus.

6) Show What Android Can Do

The Google+ Android app should make people want to buy an Android phone just to see what an Android app can really do. If Android is the future of how people will be able to interact, use that app to make it evident.

7) More Useful Applications: Threads, Curation, Live Streaming?

Circles, Hangouts, Sparks. We need more of that. Google can give us some of the things Facebook offers (Chat, Groups, Questions) as well as things that Facebook hasn’t done (or hasn’t done well yet). From threaded messages to collaboration, live streaming, and curation (ie. Storify, Curated.by), there are many ways to provide solutions to the many issues of today’s social media sites.

8) Don’t forget about Brands

Brands are now used to having a Facebook Page and a Twitter account. What is Google’s alternative? There better be one and it better be worthwhile. People gather around the things they care about and brands/products/services are definitely part of that. There should be a special place for brands in Google+ and it should allow them to add value and engage in a way that makes Facebook and Twitter nervous.

9) Focus on the Masses, not the Early Adopters

The same people on Google+ today were on Google Buzz for 3 weeks. Influencers, bloggers, and reporters do not matter that much in this battle so be careful not to pay too much attention to them. Instead, focus on giving the mainstream audiences something they want to use. This will not be easy because the average Facebook user has little desire to try something like Google+ at this point. If Google can start to get the attention of my wife and my mom, it might just have a chance. Until then, it’s only a niche product for early adopters to talk about nothing but Google+ itself.

10) Play Well With Others

While Google definitely does not want to become an aggregator (Google Buzz is now known as dead sea of tweets no one reads), it better be strategic about who it can partner and get creative with. From opening up to third party developers, to partnering with software, hardware, and content providers, Google might not be able to pull this off on its own.

Conclusion

I guess to sum it up: Google needs to discover itself, be itself, and leverage itself. People say “social” is not in their DNA so this might be the last opportunity for Google to find out whether that is true or not.

Differentiation won’t be a way to position Google+, it will be the only way for it to survive and thrive. Google can’t be Facebook and it can’t be Twitter, but there’s no need to say “oh, we’re just here for a good time.” People don’t have time for a swell time. People have time for things that make their life better, not just their Google better.

There are many of us who want Google to succeed in this space (even if that’s a bit scary in a way) because we know the kind of value that Google has provided with search, email, video, etc.

It’s time to wow the average Facebook user while wowing the average Facebook engineer.

It’s time for Google to wow itself.

Screenshots of Google+ on Social Nerdia’s Flickr

According to recent eMarketer research, Facebook is the number one seller of display ads in the US. eMarketer expects Facebook to generate $2.19 billion in display advertising revenue this year.

How much is expected for Yahoo? $1.62 billion.

And what about Google? Only $1.15 billion.

We all know that if we want to place text ads on a website or blog, AdSense is the first place to go for revenue. AdSense is great because it delivers ads based on the website hosting the ad. But AdSense doesn’t seem to really know much, if at all, about the audience viewing the ads.

So what about display ads? And what about targeted, relevant display ads?

Everyone talks about targeted and relevant advertising, but no one has been able to deliver this in the way that Facebook can within Facebook.com.

It must be only a matter of time before Facebook decides to add advertisements to the Open Graph.

We already see “Like” buttons everywhere and companies like Amazon, CNN, Levi’s and Huffington Post have done some interesting personalization-like implementations on their sites.

Anyone can add a Facebook plugin in a matter of minutes.

So why not Facebook ads all over the web? Why not a FacebookSense of sorts that would allow both large and small sites to deliver targeted and relevant ads to Facebook users?

Think about. You’re connected to Facebook and happen to stroll away from Facebook for 5 minutes and end up on a sports blog. And let’s say you’re a young woman who recently got engaged. Facebook knows you’re engaged and you’re a young woman who likes to run so maybe it would show you a wedding dress ad and a Nike Women Sponsored Story. It might not be perfect because Facebook wouldn’t know whether you’ve bought that wedding dress yet but it would be a better experience than seeing an ad about muscle gain next to an ad for a questionable dating site, right?

And what about visitors who are not on Facebook or don’t feel like connecting to Facebook at that time? Well, Facebook could deliver ads based on the content of the site itself just as Google AdSense does.

My guess is that a Facebook AdSense coming and it’s coming before 2012. Why before 2012? Well, because 2012 is the alleged IPO year. Oh, and also because 2012 might be the end of the world. And Facebook doesn’t have time to wait until the end of the world.

The “Social Media Exchange” Empire Avenue has been getting a lot of buzz. While I heard about the site last year, people like Jeremiah Owyang, Peter Kim, Scott Monty, Robert Scoble, Caleb Storkey and David Armano have written very interesting thoughts in the past week or so, and the community seems to be thriving like never before.

I was going to write a few fun Empire Avenue predictions (e.g. A “Buy” button that’s like the Facebook “like” button), but instead I decided to ask CEO Duleepa Wijayawardhana (aka Dups) a few questions about the past, present and future of his company. I think you’ll find his answers, including a hint about Foursquare as the next network to be integrated, very interesting!

Follow @dups and make sure to add some “DUPS” and “ESTEBAN” shares to your social portfolio.

1. What do you think about Seth Priebatsch’s prediction about the next decade being the decade of games and the “Game Layer?”

To be honest, I happen to believe that most of what we do in real life reflects the human mind’s love affair with what we call games. In fact, in most cases a game takes aspects of what we do in life, things we can understand, and place finite scores, missions, obstacles and rewards into it and then allow us to “play” it.

What I will agree with is the notion that this decade will be the decade that the mainstream understands the use of games and gaming layers in more than just building crops and shooting enemies. I do believe we are seeing the start of a generation that has grown up with computer games and can see that games can actually teach us about Real Life and, indeed, ourselves and how we affect our environment. It’struly an exciting time in my opinion.

2. There have been a few applications/sites that simulate investing in people, websites and organizations. What do you think is the one thing that positions Empire Avenue for success?

We studied almost every single one of them :). What we realized almost immediately is that stock market sites are based on current stock market models, which, I hate to say, are complex and almost incomprehensible beasts. With Empire Avenue, we actually went backward in time to a simpler market system. We have a system of “Market Makers,” who are algorithmic”people” who analyse your content and engagement, and create share prices every night. People add to or subtract from that share price by buying and selling. In effect we have created a very simple BUY/SELL/Earnings system which is not at all a real stock market — something that has many more Bids and Asks and so on. We admit, it does take a little while to “get it,” but if you start with Buy and Sell and watch your money grow, the game mechanics should lead you in the right direction. We also have a long way to make the whole thing simpler and easier. The one thing that puts us ahead, in my mind, is our team and our community. The team is dedicated, the community equally so, and they have helped us move the site to what it has become.

3. The fact that Empire Avenue helps us measure and create influence has been getting a lot of attention recently. How does the system measure one’s influence?

We don’t like to use the word “influence” any more. Each of our Network Scores really gives you an idea of your “Network Value,” and we’ll expand on the stats that give you an understanding of your network use. (By “Network” I mean, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc.). The difference between an algorithmic score and the share price is that the share price takes all your scores and then adds the Buy/Sell mechanic to it, which does indicatesome element of reputation. Naturally, in early days people will buy for games and profit, but the same happens in real life; the difference is thatthat initial buy might lead to a valuable connection.

4. What are the benefits for a brand to join Empire Avenue, and more importantly, are there any risks?

The risks are as with any use of social media by anyone, regardless of whether you’re a brand or otherwise. If you are perceived as having done something bad, you could see a backlash against you. This is nothing new and is certainly one risk. The advantage is, in my mind, two-fold:

a. Depending on your ability to engage with users on Empire Avenue, you might just want to connect and use Empire Avenue to value your network interaction. This one is *easy* and requires little to no effort. In this way Empire Avenue can be seen as a training game for a business within social media. We are, after all, a “meta” social network, which connects to multiple networks including our own.

b. You can engage with users by buying and selling, using our search to find people who could be valuable to your brand (not necessarily the most popular, but the most engaged with your product or interest). For example, a search for Samsung: http://www.empireavenue.com/search/#users/samsung . This opens up a world of possibilities: we could create custom Luxury Items forpurchase and sharing with people, so that your brand name can spread; and certainly you get to speak to your Shareholders. The Shareholding concept is also one you can expand on, by rewarding those users who remain shareholders and more. The potential use of Empire Avenue for a brand, as with any individual, is endless.

5. How did your role at MySQL/Sun help you start EmpireAvenue?

Both my roles at MySQL/Sun and BioWare were essential in starting EmpireAvenue. The experience of building out sites for gamers in the millions is obviously an asset, and working at MySQL interfacing with those that produce the world’s biggest websites – from Google to Facebook – was also something I valued greatly.

However, in truth, the biggest help was in working with all the talented and wonderful people that make up our small, dedicated and incredibly passionate team. Without the team, we would not be here.

6. It seems like Empire Avenue depends on advertising and partnerships to provide “Eaves” for users. How have people responded to this business model?

At the moment, we’re earning revenue from the sale of virtual goods –Luxury Items and Eaves themselves — which is something that a lot of other social startups aren’t able to capitalize upon. So far the “freemium” model has paid off quite well for us, and we have other models we’ll roll out in the future.

7. Do you plan on adding other services to Empire Avenue (i.e. Foursquare, Gowalla, SCVNGR, Color)?

Absolutely. Our immediate goal is to simplify the interface some more, but we built a scalable algorithmic system to support any network or service given a certain number of inputs and parameters. Basically we can implement any network, with specific values assigned to various actions. Our next network is most likely going to be Foursquare, but it’s ultimately driven by what our users are asking for.

8. Will we be able to add multiple accounts in the future (e.g. I use both @SocialNerdia and @SamsungEsteban on Twitter)?

For now we haven’t offered that option, simply because of the complexity of the interface, both for managing but also understanding and connecting. Start simple, complicate life later :) We are now in the market to raise financing for our next round, and with that in hand we’ll be able to growthe product as planned and pursue future opportunities.

Bonus question: Any advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Believe in what you build, dream big, don’t give up, get a great team and founders around you, and be passionate. Life is short, so do exactly what you want to do, do it well, and do it with humility and respect for everyone else.

However, most importantly, don’t be afraid of failure; we all fail, but it’s a matter of how you get up when you get knocked down!