Social Media Butterfly

Google Android Developer Contest Produces Exciting Mobile Social Apps

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Today, I viewed a document published by Google about the finalists in the Android Development contest. If you’re not familiar, Android is Google’s mobile platform that many are predicting will launch the second half of 2008 or early 2009.

I was happy to see several apps that enable social networking on phones. Many of them involve maps, so you can see where your friends are - and what they are up to at that location. It’s like a visual Twitter maps mashup.

Check the apps out for yourself here (PDF).

In all, 46 out of the 50 finalists consented to having their apps shared.

Disqus + Seesmic = Video Comments

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Writing on the Disqus blog, co-founder Daniel Ha said, “Our main goal with Disqus has always been to enhance how people
interact and participate on blogs. Video comments, while a relatively
new concept, is something we’ve been hearing people chatter about
recently. Enabling video conversation is not our focus, so we came
together with our friends at Seesmic to make this happen.”

via A VC

What do you think about video comments for blogs?

YouTube Insight Now Offers Demographic Data

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Recently, YouTube launched an analytics feature to help its online video customers understand the traffic coming to their videos.

Now, they’ve added demographic data to enhance your understanding of your viewing audience. The data metrics include age and gender.

If you’re worried about your privacy, don’t be. No personally identifiable information is shared. Just numbers on the age and gender of who’s watching videos.

SocialVibe.com Embraces Purposeful Social Networking

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Lately, I’ve been realizing I prefer social networking with a strong purpose. That’s why I was glad to hear about SocialVibe.com.

SocialVibe’s mission is to hook up social media users with brands that will not only sponsor them, but donate to causes that are important to the networkers.

The core concept here is INFLUENCE.

SocialVibe helps brand connect with influencers (brand evangelists!). Users sign up to be sponsored by their favorite brands. The sponsorship can go with them to MySpace, Facebook, etc.

The more influence a person has, the more they help the causes they support as well.

Of course, this is ripe with potential for abuse and super-annoying brand pushing. So it remains to be seen how organic SocialVibe can be.

But I’m hoping for the best!

Quick News: Wikipedia’s Traffic, Mashable’s Summer Tour, TypePad BB app and more

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Comcast acquires social network pioneer Plaxo

Mashable Announces Summer Tour 2008

EMarketer Trims Social Network Ad Forecast

Wikipedia U.S. Web Traffic Grows 8,000 Percent in Five Years, Driven by Search, According to Nielsen Online

SixApart Launches TypePad App for Blackberry’s Curve and Pearl

Good Reads: Social Media Filtering, Twitter Types, Investors and Social Media

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Why Filtering is the Next Step for Social Media - ReadWriteWeb

Investors Turn to Social Media for Answers - planadviser

Twitter by Machiavelli (explores the different “types” of Twitter users, aka Tweeple) - ClickZ

Three More Interactive Sites for Kids

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Yesterday, I told you about the new Fashion Fantasy Game for tweens. Today, I’m happy to share two more virtual worlds for kids.

FunBrain has been around for a while and makes learning fun. There’s games like “math baseball” and “grammar gorillas.”

The makers of FunBrain have recently released PopTropica. This is a virtual world where kids can create characters and hang out on interactive “islands.”

Also, Club Penguin is a really fun site. Both my son and daughter love it. Rest assured, parents, you can say “no” to the premium fees and the kids will still have fun. Stick to your guns. You’ll need that extra cash for gas this summer!

Mobile Social Networking Conference in San Fran this July

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Social networking on mobile phones is beginning to take off, but that’s not news to Ticonderoga Ventures. They’ve announced the dates for their THIRD annual mobile social networking conference.

The trade show will be in San Francisco, July 10-11, 2008. Speakers include execs from Deutsche Telekom, Sybase365,
IBM, Perey
Research, Gemini Mobile Technologies, Visible Path, Neighborhood
America
and Teligent.

On the agenda is:

• Mobile social networking software
• MMS and
  SMS technologies for mobile social media
• Business development
• Future PDA
  and cell phone generations
• Mobile browsers
• Wireless carriers
  and business
  models for building mobile communities
• Software developments
• Social
  media marketing for mobile

Google’s New Friend Connect: Social Sites for Everyone!

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Google has launched an application to help website owners make their sites go social. I’ve already written it up over at Search Engine Watch:

Google’s Friend Connect: Add Social Networking to Your Site

Marty Weintraub from aimClear also added to the conversation over at Search Engine Watch:

Google “Friend Connect” to Make Advanced Social Features Easily Available

Fashion Social Network for Tweens, Created By Moms

Posted by Nathania Johnson

My daughter just turned 10 and she has amazing fashion design talents. That’s why I was so excited to learn about a new fashion social network for “tweens” developed by moms.

The site is called FashionFantasyGame.com and it allows users to open free virtual stores or become virtual fashion designers. The concept is reminiscent of fantasy sports leagues.

It’s great to see women getting into web 2.0 and bringing their daughters along for the fun. I think it’s great to enable girls to dream about their futures, and social sites are a great way to practice and develop crucial networking skills.

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