Social Media is really all about this: integrating life and technology.

Facebook is the most widely used, widely known, and perhaps widely trusted social network in the world. As someone who got on Facebook when it first launched for universities (I was part of the SMU network before most people knew what Facebook was), I’ve seen Zuckerberg & Co. grow and change through the years, and one thing is for sure: Facebook has a bold and ambitious vision to become the web’s social platform.

I vividly remember having conversations in which people made fun of Facebook back when MySpace was “the social network.” I also remember making fun of Facebook myself… only to jump in a few days later and realize that social media was what I wanted to do with my life. I figured that the social web is full of visionaries and I’d rather spend my time learning from them and becoming a bit more like them (creative risk-takers with ideas that could change the world), than simply doing the whole get-a-job-to-buy-the-groceries thing. The social web was is fascinating and it’s evolving at a pace that is astounding. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook eventually actually try to connect us to everything (like I jokingly predicted a year ago).

Anyways, if I’m right in saying that social media is about the integration of life and technology, then Facebook is really unto something.

As the Social Media Manager for Samsung Electronics, I worried a bit when the rumors about the terminology changes from “Become a Fan” to “Like” started to emerge. (more…)

I had the very cool opportunity to speak at this year’s SXSW Interactive as part of the Future15: Diversity series, which was organized by Glenda Bautista. The presentation, titled “The Online Latino: A New Digital Native,” was all about Latin Americans and the web.

While it is a myth that Latin Americans are not online, only 30% of them are. The presentation went into the challenges (poverty, inequality, censorship, and the social/economic/digital divide), as well as what is changing (tech hubs, encouraging governments, businesses rolling out infrastructure, and a rapidly growing online community).

If you’re interested in learning more about what is happening online and offline in Latin America, including Streisand effects, citizen journalism, social networking, innovative start-ups, and stories about the people that are converting ideas into movements, check out the slides and videos below. Feedback (through email or comments) is appreciated :)

Thanks to Diego Contreras (aka Diegoliath) for helping me with the design, Jon Gipson for recording the video, and Kara Andrade for writing the original proposal with me and helping out with ideas, insights, and stats.

If you’re not on Foursquare… You should be.

Location + Badges = Utilitarian + Fun.

Here’s an informal SXSW Interactive session featuring Dennis Crowley (Foursquare), Christopher Barger (GM), and B. Bonin Bough (Pepsi).

I’m a big fan of visualizations. For this year’s SXSW, Pepsi came back with an updated version of their “Zeitgeist,” created by Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs of Slash7. I liked this year’s version much better because it included Foursquare check-ins (which everyone was doing) and it seemed to be more relevant for people that were actually there.

I wish there was a Zeitgeist for every event that ever was so hopefully there is a trend toward more visualizations. Regarless of how you feel about the Zeitgeist’s actual value, it looks cool and it makes a non-tech company look very high-tech. Well done Pepsi. Well done.

Below are a couple of videos of the displays they had at the Austin Convention Center. Note the Samsung HDTVs :)

Charlene Li has the gift of understanding social technologies and developing insights about how people interact online. For SXSW Interactive 2010, she talked about “Open Leadership.” Her presentation started on how people have embraced a new culture of sharing and how the web has made this frictionless. While the new culture has changed our relationships, organizations continue to work in the same way that they have in the past. Charlene thinks that social is “hard” for companies because they are unwilling to give up control. Their inability or desire to have conversations is but one example of this. Still, “real relationships require you to give up control.”

Charline defined “Open Leaderhip” as “having confidence and humility to give up the need to be in control.” If companies are not really in control, then Charlene’s concept of “open leadership” makes sense. She continues by adding that while companies need to give up control, they need to “be in command.” Watch the series of videos below (I apologize that there are so many!) to learn more about the elements of openness, the engagement pyramid, a new customer lifetime value calculation, failure, and the competitive advantage that comes from being social plus open.

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In case you don’t have a computer, you’re older than 83, or you have been sleeping non-stop… here’s a video of Twitter’s CEO Evan Williams announcing “At anywhere” or @anywhere as part of his keynote at this year’s SXSW Interactive.

Google Buzz has created some buzz in the past couple of days. A Twitter killer it is not, but it is definitely the most exciting social web service I’ve seen since FriendFeed. Tim O’Reilly has said that Google has “taken the social media lessons of Twitter,” and Jason Calacanis thinks “Google Buzz 1.0 is better than Facebook after six or seven years.”

Not only does Buzz combine some of the best aspects of Google Wave, FriendFeed, and Twitter, but it’s also built into GMail. By adding the mobile component (so we can take it anywhere), and integrating feeds from Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and Blogger (so we can pull outside content), Google Buzz starts to sound like a very promising service of its own, and not just another GMail feature.

But the question that everyone is wondering about is:  Can Google really create a new social network that people will want to use?

It is true that Google has failed at many, if not all things social in the past, but this time it seems different. From day one, Buzz already makes great use of multimedia, is open to anyone, makes use of @ replies (ie. @socialnerdia@gmail.com), and allows us to have conversations in real-time.

So, with early adopters rushing to test, criticize, and/or embrace Google Buzz, should companies be creating accounts just as they have done on Twitter and Facebook?

Traditionally, companies have been slow to join social networks. The idea of unproven and confusing new social services creates unwillingness to jump in until other companies have. But with a rapidly changing and increasingly social online landscape, it is essential to understand the things that people are doing. In order to really “get it” companies could spend months researching, brainstorming, and strategizing. Or they could just do what regular people do: Jump in and experiment.

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