(Also posted at Social Media World)
Recently my co-blogger (and friend) Jessica wrote an article on the ‘The “Corporification” of Humanity”, outlining her concerns that social media is turning individuals into corporate brands by having huge social media “friends” lists that turned out to be nothing more than ‘fans’ and ‘social media stalkers’.
While I can see her (and Technosailor’s) point. I respectfully disagree that this is something that social media has created. Individuals have always had circles of friendship – each circle becoming larger as you move the level of their knowledge and involvement in your life.
First, there’s your “closer than a brother” friends, who are always there for you and will drive 1,000 miles to pick you up when your car dies. These friends are rare and hard to find.
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If you haven’t heard of Webkinz, it’s the social media/computer game/stuffed animal craze that’s like taking Second Life, Tamagotchi pets, Beanie Babies and casual gaming, putting them in a blender and making it all extremely kid-friendly.
Today is Webkinz’ third anniversary, and they have special celebration type things “in world” so I thought it’d be a good time to write about it.
I bought my first Webkinz a couple months ago after hearing Podculture rave about them for almost a year. The basis is pretty easy. You buy a stuffed animal and get a special code for your pet to enter the virtual world.
In world you get to set up your own room (and buy additional rooms for your house). You’re given virtual money (KinzCash) and some special items based on your character. Since I had a black cat I got a black cauldron bathtub, and a couple other furniture items. But, that’s not all. There’s also an arcade (where you can play casual games for KinzCash), a Clubhouse (where you can chat with other members, I’ll talk about this more later), an ‘Employment Office’ (where you can do ‘jobs’ – along the minigame idea – for more KinzCash), a couple stores (to buy things for your rooms) and much more.
The kid friendly part comes in chatting. You can only select specific phrases when you chat with other members. This keeps kids from giving away personal information and gives parents added piece of mind. As far as I know there’s no good way (unlike Club Penguin where’s it’s easy to get around the rules) to break the limitations. This makes it a great first “social site” for kids.
There’s a lot of different types of activities to keep you busy and interested, plus the extra motivation to log in each day. I even like the stuffed animal design. They’re very soft, and perfect size for cuddling (bigger than Beanie Babies). All in all, a great site and fun and relaxing for adults as well as their kids. I will warn parents though, there’s built-in motivation for buying additional pets. So if you don’t want to spend a bunch of money (pets are around $6-12) collecting all the animals, maybe you should steer clear.
NewTeeVee has posted an interview with Ron Bloom, CEO of Mevio, explaining his company’s decision to change its name from PodShow. His main point is that podcasting is cool, but “podcasting was associated with amateurs… When in reality podcasting is an incredibly effective platform for delivering episodic content fresh off the press.”
This is part of a trend to create “new Hollywood” in new media, but removing the idea of “pod” in podcasting. This can be seen in several realms. The conference, “Podcast Media Expo” is now known as “New Media Expo”. Many popular ‘podcasts’ don’t even breath the word ‘podcast’. And now places like Podshow are changing their name (and their image).
My thoughts? “Pod” has always tripped up the general population. As a podcaster myself I know so many people who never tried podcasts thinking they needed an iPod. And for many generations pod means ‘pod people’. In general this culture shift in new media I think will be helpful for more people bucking against traditional forms of media (TV, publishing, radio). Where we wind up in the shift is anyone’s guess, but if more creative people can deliver their content to more people, I’m all for the change.
Yesterday afternoon I attended SMX’s panel on People-powered search. It featured Jason Calacanis, from Mahalo, who (once again) seemed to tick everyone off.
I do love controversy, don’t get me wrong, I believe it’s good for debate. Keeps the conversation moving and challenges people’s conceptions. What I don’t believe is trashing something to make you and your company look better, but it happens all the time.
Think about TV ads. “Tired of those trashbags that are IMPOSSIBLE to tie? Buy our bags with built in drawstrings!” Or the “their burgers are put under a heat lamp, ours are made fresh to order!”
The tactic is the same. In order to get the person spending the money to buy from me rather than you, I diss what you have to offer.
I see this happen a lot in the Social Media monetizing world. Two of the favorite things to attack are SEO experts and PR firms. One of my favorites are the “but we’re a social media firm, we understand social media, unlike traditional firms.” Okay, that’s great, but HOW do you understand social media? WHAT do you understand? And do you really have that much hate for traditional firms?
For a long time the model in cyberspace was “to succeed you must be a hater.” Much like emo kids who hate mainstream music, new media “celebs” were all whining about everything. It’s really tiring to remember who hates what and when. Lets change the focus. Lets celebrate what we can offer without tearing down the other guy.
Unless, of course, you want to be seen as the emo guy in the corner who hates everything. Then, more power to you.
Who am I? Tabitha Grace Smith, self-professed social media junkie. I’ve been a fan of social media since AOL’s chat rooms were the closest you could get to it. Now I’m a blogger, podcaster, Twitter-er, Facebook-loving, Myspace-using, social media junkie.
What you’ll find here hopefully is my experiences in social media. Rants, raves and maybe some “how to” goodness. If you like Social Media – this is the place for you.
Site’s still in progress, but should be finished soon.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Nick Belardes about his Twitter novel, “
Warning, the following article won’t make sense unless you use Twitter, but if you’re a Twitter user – read on!