This article nuts social networking. It’s extensive and thorough. Only one thing I might disagree with - nothing is in the maturity phase yet…
StitchConcert - Microsoft Research offered a massive photo stitch of Obama’s Inauguration. What if everyone could contribute to an entire 3D concert of the Boss, the Stones, Dirty Projectors, etc? Real time for a fee? Perhaps.
RecipeCollective – Plugged in home chefs cook and share their own versions – all in a single night. The results of which are stored and of course, supported by brands. Collective videos with audience voting?
MallTag – One that the mall cops are sure to hate, photo tagging game at the mall, with the odd twist that every fifteen minutes you have to go into a public area (The basic game of tagging someone using GPS was patented in October ‘09 by Sprint – but there has to be some whitespace in there somewhere.
LocalCompetitivePriceStreams – Shoppers photographing and uploading bar codes of the things they’re currently shopping for, a site is aggregating and pointing out better prices found by other shoppers. Should work great in a metropolitan area.
RealConstituents - Admit it, all of us have trust issues with politicians. What if there were certain times of the day that the politician had to look at the current opinions in their constituency? Would we get better representation?
I saw a tweet asking whether or not flirting on Facebook is cheating. My quick answer: Yes. But these are your friends though and they know you. Odds are that your spouse or significant other is online too! What about Twitter? Are you going into the Twitter bar for a quiet drink or to engage?
Doesn’t Twitter remind you of a bar filled with people who you never have met. You’re there to engage, check things out, meet some folks, spread some cheer, perhaps hook up with someone later. Just like a bar, you might be there with friends or not. You’re going to try to walk up to someone, engage, and perhaps have a conversation.
Some pretty strong parallels start kicking in here:
Checking out the action: Searching around for terms. In a bar, I might order a drink first and survey the scene. Me, I want to hang out at the startup founder, innovative geek, and VC tables. I might go over there and see what’s going on. On Twitter, I check out the stream and then hit the search bar. I might go to the quieter bars (www.Tweetdeck.com, www.Tweetworks.com) and check out what’s going on there too!
Do you check out the loud table where all the action is? Stars with thousands of followers are just like those folks who have lots of people around them. They’re attractive. They hold the crowd’s attention. (Carly Simon’s “You’re so Vain”comes to mind here.) That’s up to you! You might just want to sit at a quiet table for now, checking out the action, having an imaginary conversation until someone comes and checks you out!
You’ve dressed up, people are checking out how you look: Online credibility, your profile, your interests, your online rep, your updates
Opening Line: Was my 140 characters on target about something they’re interested in? How about politely listening (searching, reading) and then jumping in? (Guys who watch Bud Commercials or read those books about picking up singles, those things don’t quite work here!) What do you say? Well, you might check out the participant’s updates, know the blog or thing they’re talking about….
The Response! In the bar, be prepared to have people turn away or perhaps they’ve enough manners to give you a little rope – perhaps they’re interested in engaging – despite what you say. Some might even ignore you. That hasn’t happened before, has it? Let’s assume you say something that’s moderately engaging here…
What if they don’t listen or engage? Do you go to a different bar? Delete what you were saying? Odds are you might delete your entry or just leave it there for a little while to see if someone engages. I like doing that!
Which are the best bars to go into? Do you like Nascar? Are you politically involved? Its up to you! Search around! You’ll find the conversation you like!
