fanemka

Looking into the future

2010-03-30T08:20:00.000+02:00

There is a bright future for social network sites. This became clear when I read the eight prediction that Frederik De Wachter made about the future of social network sites. He is the founder of tagger.fm, a brand new internet company where you can bookmark your music and share it with your friends. De Wachter sees eight major evolutions in the next year

1. Mobile internet breaks through, thanks to attractive applications and fixed tariffs.

2. Social networks will become the most important youth media.

3. Internet piracy will be successfully attacked for the first time on ISP level in EU countries.

4. The digital sales of music will be the biggest source of revenue for a lot of labels.

5. Packaging of unlimited data and music subscriptions will find acceptance

6. Next to IPhone other manufacturers will bring similar phones on the market. This will make Mobile browsing more interesting.

7. Gent confirms his new role as catalyst for web start ups.

8. In Flanders digital economy breaks through as fourth sector. It will be the driving force of innovation and growth.

Not all of these predictions can be reflected on our internet start up,E-Runner, but we get a good feeling when we read this!

Source: Frederik De Wachter, tagger.fm

Am I an active user?

2010-03-30T08:06:00.000+02:00

Social networking is the next big thing, we all know it, everybody is talking about it, the internet is filled with it. Almost everybody has a Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn account. I have them as well, but sometimes I have the feeling that I’m missing the vibe of all this social networking stuff. I don’t feel the need to use my Facebook as some kind of public diary, I don’t tweed every hour of the day and my LinkedIn Profile is only for 50% complete. I ask myself the question: Am I an active user or not? Am I the only one who thinks like this?

So, I did some research. I was convinced that I am not the only one who has an account on Twitter and never tweets. Numbers have confirmed my suspicion. A study from security firm Barracuda Labs provides some interesting insights into the state of the Twitterverse. This company looked at 19 million Twitter accounts to search for active Twitter users. The definition they used was the following: An active or “True” Twitter user has at least 10 followers, follows at least 10 people and had tweeted at least 10 times. By that definition though, only 21% of Twitter users are active users. Surprisingly, I am not one of them…

Then I looked at some statistics of Facebook. As we take a look at the Facebook statistics page, we see that Facebook already has more than 400 million users. 50% of the people who have an account log on to Facebook in any given day and almost 10% of the total users update their status each day. According to the numbers an average Facebook user looks like this: he has 130 friends, sends 8 friend requests a month, spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook, clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month, becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month, is invited to 3 events per month and is a member of 13 groups. I recognize myself in all the ‘passive’ things. I have more than 130 friends, I receive more than three event invitation a month and I become a fan of more than 4 Pages each month. But when I look at the ‘active’ things such as inviting friends, hitting the Like button and spending time on the site, I must confess that I’m not a real facebook user.

If a want to become a real active user of social networks, I'll have to try harder.

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/twitter-follow-stats/

http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

40% Cardio, 60% Cocktails

2010-03-30T07:47:00.000+02:00

Market trends. Target audience. Objectives. That is how most of the teams in our class developed the concept for a new social network site. And of course, you can come up with a whole range of possibilities to give meaning to your SNS. When it comes to our own start-up projects, we’ve already seen the combination of fashion & gadgets, running & networking, and so on. Whether you want to go niche or a whole lot broader, everything is possible. But what about this one: Iamsuperchick.com claims to offer its members ‘fashionable affordable female fitness’, and thereby considers itself to be ‘the contradiction you’ve been looking for’. The key to their success? Cardio and fitness. Sounds like a plan to me!

Source: www.iamsuperchick.com

Flanders' Spirit of Enterprise

2010-03-30T07:23:00.000+02:00

At the beginning of the second term, Dr. Els Van de Velde asked us if any of the eleven groups were actually considering executing their start-up for real. With a rather resigned attitude, the whole class uncomfortably looked at one another.

After several months of working on the concept, strategy and finances of a new online platform, none of the teams seemed to consider setting up a real business. So I wondered: is launching your own company at the age of 22 even a real option? The very thought must have crossed everybody’s mind once in a while, but I, for one, put the idea out of my head.

And apparently, this attitude characterizes the Belgian investment climate. That is why the Flemish government has devoted a big part of her new communication campaign “Vlaanderen in Actie” to entrepreneurship.

I’m curious to see what the outcome of this new approach will be. Other similar initiatives, such as the Battle of Talents, have already proven to be a big success.

Sources: www.vlaandereninactie.be and www.battleoftalents.be

The importance of internal and external social networks

2010-03-29T23:30:00.002+02:00

Companies have to jump on the train of social network sites, both external and internal social networks.

Some companies still have to decide if they want to be active on social network sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. They still have to realize that the maintenance of a profile on Facebook or LinkedIn has a lot of advantages. It amplifies the image of the company, it attracts new employees and it amplifies the bonding between employees and the company.

This last advantage brings us to the importance of an internal social network (also called enterprise social networking). A lot of big companies already have an intranet where employees can search for name, address and email of colleagues, but companies have to see that this also brings a great opportunity. An enterprise social network could help bonding the employees with each other and could help the teambuilding within the company. Some Belgian companies have taken this to the next level: they made a social network site oriented towards their customers. ABConcerts is a good example of this new trend. They are convinced that it can help the customer relations and that it can have an improving effect on the image of the company.

Source: Bruno Peeters

Voorspellingen 2009: 20 experts aan het woord

Let's go flunning!

2010-03-28T16:34:00.002+02:00

After smirting, the combination of smoking and flirting, there is a more sportive and healthy trend: FLUNNING. Running and flirting at the same time.

British research has shown that a quarter of the British people go running to flirt with runners from the opposite sex. A thousand runners and a thousand non-runners participated in the study and the research revealed that one out of three runners tries to strike up a conversation with someone from the opposite sex.

Because of the fact that our target audience for our brand new internet start up are business people who want to plan running dates, this trend could be pretty interesting for us.

Source: De Standaard

Get your SNS analyzed here!

2010-03-28T12:50:00.001+02:00

Before launching your own brand new website, it might be interesting to analyze some of its aspects. In the business plan for our own new social network site we have incorporated a test phase during which we can look for weaknesses and optimize our online network and service. A helpful tool for this could be the online marketing consultation service of the Stylez company website. Stylez offers a variety of services like web planning and development, system consulting, internet media business and online marketing consulting. You can get a free website analysis for instance where two of the most substantial aspects of your website are analyzed: its usability and the implementation of its SEO (Search Engine Optimization). For a new start-up like ours this could be very helpful since we would want to know whether our website is efficient or not, especially in comparison with that of the competitors. Stylez also offers ways to direct your target market to your website and to increase conversion. With a proper strategy and relevant web contents that comply with the users’ needs you can direct users to reach your desired goals.

Sources: http://www.stylez.sg/index.php

New SNS'es have a hard time finding an audience

2010-03-27T14:20:00.005+01:00

InSites, a Ghent based internet consulting agency found that about 70% of Belgian surfers are on social network sites (which is in line with the global average of 72%).
What is remarkable is that most surfers have membership to two or more online communities. Most of those communities are for personal use. Only 16% of the Belgian surfers is member of a professional network like LinkedIn.
Most users visit their profile twice a day. Professional profiles like LinkedIn are only visited 9 times a month on average.
InSites claims that new SNS'es will find it more and more difficult to penetrate the market and find their own niche. Most surfers are happy with today's situation and do not want to change their community site or add one to their 'portfolio'. Steven Van Belleghem, managing partner of InSites: "There is a certain stability in the SNS market".

Source: T-zine

A great business plan: the road to success?

2010-03-25T13:05:00.000+01:00

One of the stress inducing school assignments I was talking about earlier is to write a business plan for our internet start-up. The books and articles about the topic are countless and the number of business-plan contests is increasing every year. Even entire courses are devoted to writing a business plan. I started to think that the only thing standing between our group and success are some nice color charts, a financial projection and a nice lay-out. But then I wondered: “can we really ‘plan’ our business? Is it even possible to say that an investor will have a ROI of 23% within 2 years or do we just mean "If everything that could go right does go right, you might get your money back"? I guess what I’m saying is that avoiding risks is impossible and not everything can be laid out in a plan. However in the absence of crystal ball, a business plan consisting of correct and honest information is indeed a good start to success.

Web 2.0: Down the rabbit hole?

2010-03-23T15:28:00.003+01:00

The hot internet phenomenon of the moment seems to be Chatroulette, a brand new one-on-one service for text-, webcam- and microphone-based chat around the world. After hitting the “start” button on the website, your webcam is activated immediately and before you know it you’re staring into the eyes of a stranger. When you hit “next” you are presented with a new chatting partner. It feels like speed-dating to the max. What does this fad tell about us though? Have we fully embraced the general spirit of internet randomness? Why don’t we feel inhibited to scroll through others’ lives like it’s the most normal thing in the world? Is this just one of many platforms leading the way for the social domination of hyper dynamic Me The Media mass communication? The individualization of the web and ever-growing need for self-expression on the internet definitely offers food for thought and discussion. Nothing seems to shock us anymore, terms like “personal” and “private” don’t mean the same thing they used to do and we are assuming that life is happening here, online. Can everybody deal with the virtualization of life? After my own Chatroulette deflowering I must say that I’m far from ready to put myself out there like that. Guess I’ll just stick to Facebook for now.

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2010/03/16/chatroulette-vs-hot-or-not/

http://www.methemedia.com/

http://www.chatroulette.com/

Running to reduce stress!

2010-03-22T15:54:00.001+01:00

Last night I was thinking back of my first years at university: it seems my life wasn’t so stressful back then. Things were much easier. No team work, no new deadlines in my diary every week, the only calendar I had to worry about was my social calendar. Now, I have to prioritize and make to-do lists: school, projects, blogs, team meetings…. Making the transition from being a student to being a young professional isn’t that easy apparently. The trick to reduce the stress level is to find an activity that calms you, for some of us that’s dancing to a favorite song, for others it’s reading a good book, for me it’s jogging. I have set myself a new goal. I’m going to run the 10km of Ghent. In 10 weeks I’ll run 10km in 1 hour. Who’s with me?

The internet in figures

2010-03-21T18:37:00.003+01:00

The internet is a vast country. 247 billion e-mails per day, 126 million active bloggers, 27 million tweets per day. 30.000 servers to store your idiotic Facebook Fan Pages.
And that's 2009. 2010 is bound to break all those records!

The American web agency Jess3 collected different statistics into The State Of The Internet.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

Source: Focus Knack

BBDO Argentina, Sake and Nike+ tweet while running 10k

2010-03-04T20:47:00.005+01:00

Responding of the current trend – set by Nike+ – of massive running events, BBDO Argentina and Sake invited 5 Argentinean celebrities, who would be running The human race 10k, to blog on their experience – live!

Nike+ Human Race 10K LIVE from the INSIDE from BBDO argentina on Vimeo.

They were wearing an iPhone, strapped to their arms and an earphone. By hitting a button they were able to share their thoughts orally, while running the race. These voice messages were turned into text messages which were published at thehumanrace.com.ar/envivo, in their Twitter accounts and various other websites.

To prove that the satnav-hype has still not yet reached its peak, the runners positions and points of messages were shown on a Google Maps map. The fanemka-team believes that within a few years everyone will constantly have a personal satnav with them in their smartphones, like digital cameras are nowadays even found in the cheapest cell phones.

Source: Vimeo

Switch to a Pitch for Free Publicity!

2010-03-01T17:14:00.002+01:00

Promoting a new and innovative SNS surely sounds expensive. However, it can be extremely cheap and easy if you are willing to invest time in making yourself and your business visible on online PR networks. PitchRate.com is an online service that offers free publicity and connects journalists with experts and publicists for free media coverage. You can join the site for free and pitch yourself to journalists when you think you’re right for an incoming request or a source needed by a journalist. When you make the pitch, all of your contact info will automatically be sent as well. After that, all you have to do is wait to be contacted by the journalists who made the request for an interview and free publicity to promote yourself and your online business! Want to learn more? Visit http://www.pitchrate.com/.

Sources:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8114-Internet-Business-Examiner~y2009m7d28-Internet-Business-101--How-to-get-free-online-publicity
http://www.pitchrate.com/

Sociology and social media, two case studies

2010-02-08T17:02:00.005+01:00

Recently, a lot of voices have risen saying Facebook, Twitter or other social media are used to utter hateful ideas about other people. Since its rise, social media have been applauded for their democratizing and emancipatory potential. Now, however, its users are often considered cold, harsh or cruel for voicing shocking opinions, hurting wishes and even death threats. With every new mediatic hype, a Facebook group and ante-group is created. Instead of invigorating debate on social issues, this phenomenon disembogues into a noise of shouted slogans.
Two case studies from recent Belgian media hypes are exemplary: journalist Linda De Win's envied streak of victory in De Slimste Mens, a Woenstijnvis quiz on Flemish broadcasting station één; and referee Luc Wauters' giving Club Bruges soccer player Ronald Vargas a red card. Both got stuck in the eye of a (social-)media-storm when people created several hate-groups around their person. The events were hyped on radio and television and in Belgian/Flemish newspapers. Society watchers were invited to vent their ideas on the matter and people condemned first the groups and later Facebook's giving people the ablity to spread hatred.
Obviously, what happened to mrs. De Win and mr. Wauters is intolerable. Yet, would the things said remain unsaid if Facebook or Twitter did not exist? They would still be uttered in bars, on busses, at the hair dresser's - which means they would be kept hidden or difficult to find for sociologists and academic moralists. The widespread availability of world wide fora does not create new social or moral standards, it merely gives people the opportunity to spread their immoral ideas more effectively.
Instead of convicting sites like Facebook, researchers on human traits should praise them for easily and freely externalising what goes about in society.

Sources: De Standaard, Knack

'Hidden Facebook' has much more 'users'

2010-02-05T20:14:00.004+01:00

Even though you might not have a Facebook account, mind you that Zuckerberg’s team knows who you are! The idea behind it is as simple as it is terrifying. When a new Facebook user signs up, he is requested to automatically let Facebook find friends. He can upload his address book which is then scanned for known Facebook users. But next to them, also people in his adress book without a Facebook account are saved in the Facebook archives. Also, names that are searched for, even if they don’t have an account are saved and analysed. That way the system can create your personal web of friends just as if you were on Facebook. The advertising possibilities are ample.

One might feel assaulted by this, but Facebook puts the responsibility for breaking people’s privacy with its users. It says this quite clearly in its terms of use. The thing is; who reads those?

Sources: T-Zine

Microsoft and Google deal makes Twitter profitable

2009-12-22T12:53:00.005+01:00

Like many other SNS'es, Twitter was not profitable from the start. It is only after three years that the microblogging site will be able to pay out dividends to its share holders. This is announced by BusinessWeek who is aware of Twitter's financial situation.

Because of a huge deal with Microsoft and Google, 25 million dollar could be added to Twitter's 2009 earnings. In return for the money, Twitter makes its tweets accessible to Google and Microsoft's Bing.

With 58 million users, visiting the site via the web or their cell phone, Twitter is one of the fastest growing websites in the world. Although this is nothing compared to Facebook's 350 million, Zuckerberg's project won't be profitable for the next few years.
Analysts had feared Twitter would never be profitable. However, because of the deal, the SNS now has a stronger negotiation power allowing it to further cut back telecom expenses.

Sources: De Tijd, Wikipedia, Newsweek

Satnav meets SNS

2009-10-16T20:43:00.007+02:00

Garmin has recently brought out its new nüvi 1690. The satnav has lane assistance which always keeps you on the right track, photo navigation, ecoRoute fuel saving routes and park position recalls.

But what is really cool is that the device has a built-in mobile phone connection, allowing it to connect to a whole range of communication services like those of the TomTom LIVE range. Because of this technology, Garmin provides Instant Traffic information, Speed Camera alerts, Google Local Search and Telephone Directory, weather forecasts and Ciao! Friend Finder (Garmin’s Social Networking application which also features on the nuviphone range).

According to Garmin, Ciao! is a patentpending social network application that can link multiple networks onto one application. Caught in traffic and already late for an appointment? Put it on Twitter. Cruising around in your vacation? Immediately post your photo's on Facebook feeds via your satnav device.

On its site, Garmin says: "Imagine you’re out and about and you’re hungry. You really don’t want to eat alone. With one click in Ciao!, you can see the location of your friends who are near your location! Then you can use your phone to call, text or email them with the location of a restaurant and see if they would like to join you."

Sources: Gadgeteer (October, 14 2009), Garmin (October, 16 2009)

Bloomberg buys BusinessWeek

2009-10-16T19:34:00.004+02:00

In other, more general communication news: media corporation Bloomberg - founded by New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg - recently bought BusinessWeek. This way Bloomberg, active as a financial software developer, press agency and data provider, enhances its grip on its main market and opens up to a broader public.

BusinessWeek is read world wide by 4.7 million readers and was previously held by McGraw-Hill. With a drop of 32 percent of its advertising revenues, the magazine was put up for sale. Bloomberg will try to create synergies between its existing media channels and the business magazine.

Bloomberg News, the company's news show on Bloomberg television and on its website, alone employs 2,000 staff in 125 bureaus around the world. It provides information to approximately 350 newspapers and magazines worldwide, including The Economist, The New York Times and USA Today.

Sources: De Tijd (October, 10 2009), Wikipedia (October, 16 2009)

The Future of Legal Online Music

2009-10-12T17:20:00.000+02:00

Recently the Dutch copyrights organization Buma/Stemra (equivalent for the Belgian SABAM) announced that it will start charging websites that offer YouTube movies. So not only YouTube itself, but also sites that have embedded music clips (blogs, for example) will be fought openly.

And yet this is not the first time that the problematic nature of online music has become the talk of the town. Music downloading and music streaming have come into collision with the judicial system that much, that it makes one wonder if they still have a bright future in store.

In any case, these two smart numbers have succeeded in streaming legal music: both We7 and Spotify enable users to listen to music for free. How did they manage to do this? With the occasional ad! In the beginning of each song adverts can be attached dynamically, and the revenue generated from these ads goes directly to artists, labels and other right owners.

If legal online music has a future, this is probably it. Besides, it's definitely a smart way of digital advertising in general.

Sources:
- http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/06/technology/tommy_lee_motley_crue.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009100711
- http://www.we7.com
- http://standaard.typepad.com/eland/

Nike goes web2.0 with Nike+

2009-10-12T16:30:00.003+02:00

Nike is entering the world of web2.0. On Nike+ the sports shoes manufacturer tries to stimulate people to join their running competition The day the world runs held Octobre, 24. Actually, the event is a brilliant undercover promotion campaign for the brand's Nike+-chip. The device, inserted into your shoe, communicates with you Ipod. Registering different statistics like running speed, distance and burnt calories and on top of that giving direct feedback via the headset, the Ipod backs up the info and lateron syncs it with the Nike+-website. A great way to compare your own running achievements with the rest of the world!
Later more on this subject.

What will the future bring?

2009-10-11T18:57:00.000+02:00

Today, social networks are omnipresent in the lifes of youngsters. Due to the ever-changing nature of the internet, there is more than one future possible for social networks. Here are some possibilities.

A first scenario is an explosion of small niche networks, centered around common interests or hobbies (for example Couchsurfing.com, Hobbything.com). Question is whether these networks will complement or threaten the bigger ones? Or what about ‘silent networks’: back to basics. Young people want to regain control over the ever-expanding possibilities of social networks. Another scenario could be that the line between the offline and online world would get thinner. For example: with the use of satnav technology in smartphones it is possible to know where you are at each moment of the day. So when you walk into a bookshop, you could get a message saying that tomorrow is your girlfriend’s birthday and she really wants the new book by Dimitri Verhulst.

More details on these and other future scenarios can be found in the article by Trendwolves in Pub magazine 11.

Put your best face forward on Facebook!

2009-10-10T18:05:00.000+02:00

Cosmetics brand Estée Lauder has proven to know its modern consumer quite well. It is offering free makeovers and professional photo shoots in department-stores across the United States’ coastline to create shots women can use as profile pictures for their online profiles. The advertising campaign kicks off next Friday at Bloomingdale’s in New York. Quite unconventional for the prestigious cosmetics industry is the fact that no purchase is required for these gifts. Off course, the brand hopes to receive long-lasting presence on social network sites like Facebook since the profile pictures will include the Estée Lauder logo in the background. The strategy proves to be smart in more than one way. Younger women love this kind of opportunity to experiment with high quality make up and a promotion like this one helps the brand settle in with a younger audience. At the same time however, it also gives the prototypical middle-aged consumer the incentive to be more engaged in the social media and to maybe set up an internet profile herself. It seems to me that the connection with social media can be very valuable to the cosmetics industry, which must have been hit hard by the recession, and that it can give their business a significant boost.

Source: http://adage.com/article?article_id=139524

Banner Ban! Sneaky Success!

2009-10-09T13:06:00.000+02:00

Mastering the act of internet marketing can help you to achieve success and to survive competition. Big banners can be too intrusive for people and the outcome will not be positive. Creating entertaining ads are a solution, but they cost a lot of money. That's why writing articles or blogging about a product or service is a successful method to promote your product. A lot of people surf the internet for information. Writing strong, eye-catching articles that mention the excellent quality of your product or service will help to create traffic to your website and make people familiar with your product or service.

The click thru thruth

2009-10-09T12:40:00.001+02:00

The amount of money that brands are willing to pay for online advertising is huge, but it is not always a key to success. As a matter of fact, many ads on websites suffer from a low click thru rate. The reason might be that people are not in the right mindframe. For instance, they aren't looking for information about certain things when they are using social networks. But this doesn't mean they can't do anything about it. Eventually, Facebook can use its news feeds to create new and repeated traffic to a lot of websites. If this creates a large volume of e-traffic, Facebook will make a lot of profit selling increased distribution. The biggest challenge will be to preserve the quality of the user expercience. At that point, Facebook will become more powerful than 'google', because Facebook is situated between people and their friends.

Advertise your online advertising business

2009-10-09T12:30:00.000+02:00

E-marketing allows truly personalized marketing. A business can create a strategy to deliver the right message to the right person. So the online advertising will keep on booming. That's why it is important for an online advertising business to have a strong brand that advertisers want to be associated with. Facebook did a great PR-job, by highlighting the impact that facebook makes on people's lifes. It is often mentioned how many users login every day. This way Facebook has become a very attractive medium for brands.

iPhone votes Earth

2009-10-04T18:02:00.000+02:00

Holler Sydney, a digital agency in Australia, has created an iPhone application to support Earth Hour’s Vote Earth campaign. In the lead up to the UN Climate Summit held in Copenhagen this December, where world leaders will gather to decide upon the dealings with climate change, iPhone users around the world can download the application for free and cast their vote for Earth. A very smart way of advertising environmental concern if you ask me: Through an interactive dynamo voters are able to create enough energy to send their vote to Denmark. They can spread the word to friends via Twitter, Facebook or MySpace among others and join millions of other participators as they watch their votes travel thousands of miles across the world on a rotating globe in real-time. Communicating climate awareness to such a huge amount of people is an enormously challenging task. By creating a highly interactive and visually interesting app a global campaign like this one can definitely be delivered in a successful way.

Sources: http://www.dynamicbusiness.com/articles/articles-news/sydney-agency-launches-first-climate-change-iphone-app4448.html
http://www.earthhour.org/
http://www.adverblog.com/

Slim Facebook

2009-10-03T10:36:00.006+02:00

Felt relieved too when Facebook introduced that ‘Ignore all’ button in the ‘Request section’? Not interested in 5 different kinds of ‘birthday reminders’ which fundamentally all do the same thing? ‘Geintse kádookes’ (Ghent gifts) are the last thing in the world that can spark your attention? Believe me, you are not alone out there! Recently I hear a lot of people complaining about the futile applications and connect-services distracting people from what they use Facebook for: as a supplement to other interactive communication media like e-mail and their cell phone.

Nevertheless – what is actually rather interesting – these curmudgeons, although complaining about Facebook, keep using it. Maybe an indication that Zuckerberg’s project is here to stay? As a matter of fact, these people should not even have to abandon Facebook anyway!

Recently Facebook Lite was developed. Introduced this summer in the United States and India, the stripped Facebook version is now also available in Belgium. When entering lite.facebook.com the site is introduced as a “faster, simpler way to keep in touch with your friends” and that’s just what it is. In that way it much resembles Twitter with the emphasis on short notifications about what users are doing or have done recently – a trend which has grown stronger and stronger with every new Facebook update.

Sources: lite.facebook.com, October, 3 2009, De Tijd's Tzine, October, 3 2009

Facebook, the Movie

2009-09-30T17:17:00.000+02:00

Is the omnipresence of social network sites about to reach a whole new level? In October, director David Fincher starts shooting a new film called “The Social Network”. The movie deals with social network site Facebook, and aims to bring its foundation into focus. Set up in 2004, the popular site has been the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg and some of his fellow Harvard students. One of them, Sean Parker, will be impersonated by Justin Timberlake.

Will this mix of old and new media be able to upgrade Facebook's status even more? We have to keep in mind that lately Facebook has known a decrease in its student participation rate. In the last six months, there has been a drop of 20 percent, 15 percent for pupils. Older ones, on the other hand, are apparently becoming one of Facebook's new target audiences: their presence has risen sharply, up to 514 percent.

Putting a teenage idol like Timberlake into action is definitely a move with a lot of potential, but whether the movie will be able to appeal to an ever wider public without losing some of Facebook's earliest enthusiasts remains highly questionable.

Sources:
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/cultuur%2Ben%2Bmedia/film/090923timberlake_facebook
http://www.istrategylabs.com/?s=Facebook&x=0&y=0

Experienced Surfers Only?

2009-09-28T19:30:00.000+02:00

Hyperlinks, striking pictures, and matching movies. What we generally assume to be one of the biggest trump cards of a lot of informatory internet sites should probably be handled with a little bit of skepticism.

A senior thesis, recently upheld at the University of Leuven, states that news sites with innovatory applications don't always have the desired effect. When reading complicated articles, inexperienced internet users often get distracted by the decorations and the possibilities to make your own comments, instead of being stimulated by them. Whereas this digital gaudery can be a mnemonic device when added to rather simple texts, their presence can make experienced users get bored quickly.

These findings make it rather difficult for journalistic sites or news blogs to orientate themselves towards a certain readership. It appears that students between 18 and 25 for instance, fall short on expectations; in any case they are not the hoped-for fans of RSS-feeds, blogs and news sites. So where should we look for these fans and how can we make a distinction between different users and their needs? When does a popular eye-catcher become an unwanted attention-getter?

This is definitely something to take into consideration when creating an informatory website. It seems to me that the target audience should be defined properly before deciding to add all kinds of electronical extras. If a news site wants to attract different types of people, maybe the amount of additional pictures and movies can be modified in accordance with the content of a certain article. Less is more?

Source: www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/cultuur%2Ben%2Bmedia/media/090923Online_extra

fanemX is now fanemka

2009-09-23T13:39:00.000+02:00

FanemX changed its name.

Welkom to fanemX

2009-09-21T16:00:00.000+02:00

Hi

This is fanemX's blog. FanemX is a group of Ghent University MTB-students (Meertalige bedrijfscommunicatie - Multilingual Business Communication) who are on a quest to help build and improve web2.0.
In the following months they will post comments on their project's progression and thoughts on communication in general.

Fabrice Hofman