Marketing Pilgrim

Yesterday MySpace announced that you can use your MySpace profile on other sites. Not to be outdone, today Facebook announced their version. It’s called Facebook Connect and it’s a good sign that data portability is catching on. Especially because Facebook usually doesn’t follow suit when it comes to sharing data (unless it’s for advertising).

Facebook Connect was announced on the company’s developer blog.

Privacy is a big concern as it always is with social networks. Free means you give up personal information so you can be on the site. If you change your mind, getting the information off could be tricky. Also, each site has its own privacy policies.

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Each time you sign up for a new site you create a profile which is unique to that site. You’ve got to upload a picture and fill everything out. It’s a pain to keep up with it all, which is why I haven’t yet added my picture to my Digg or LinkedIn profile.

MySpace has launched the Data Availability initiative which can make MySpace your home base for profiles. With this new initiative you’ll be able to integrate elements of your MySpace profile on partner sites that so far include Twitter, eBay, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, and Photobucket.

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It’s been nearly four months since MySpace announced a joint agreement with 49 state Attorneys General to protect minors online—and now Facebook’s finally gotten around to signing on. CNET reports (emphasis added):

In the deal, the social network has agreed to develop age verification technology, send warning messages when an under-18 user may be giving personal information to an unknown adult, restrict the ability for people to change their ages on the site, and keep abreast of inappropriate content and harassment on the site.

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Here’s a headline from a new Reuters article:

"Facebook users willing to let employers see profiles"

Reuters looks at a new report on Canadian Facebook users and pretty much declares that they are now happy to let employers see their profiles.

But look at the data:

Almost half of 1,200 people questioned in an online survey said they would be comfortable sharing their personal profile with their current employer, while two in five would consider letting prospective employers look at their Facebook account in addition to their resume.

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The public version of eBay’s lawsuit against craigslist was filed this week, with a number of redactions (legal for ‘censored bits’) removed from the official filing, at the request of craigslist (which include the exact number of shares that eBay owns, the exact proportions of shares that others hold, etc.

paidContent offers a good synopsis of eBay’s accusations from the filing and the WSJ (which I will translate into English/a soap opera for those of us who are not financial wizards):

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If you read Marketing Pilgrim, or if you read online marketing blogs, you’ve probably heard of Twitter. It’s the rage at tech conferences and in certain communities. Outside of these circles, almost no one has heard of it. But while it may not have reached critical mass, the growth is pretty impressive.

I’ve noticed that people either haven’t heard of Twitter, have a mad crush on it, or HATE it. I asked a room full of paid search managers if they tweet, and one did. Out of the total number of people I work with (most of us do SEO or PPC) my guess is there are about 5 people on Twitter.

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I’m excited to announce that we’re rolling out free Trackur buzz-tracking widgets. The widgets are designed to allow anyone to monitor the discussion surrounding a popular topic, company, or person.

As part of the roll-out we’re starting with widgets that are the most requested: Presidential candidates.

We’ve created Trackur widgets for Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain. Each widget uses Trackur’s powerful reputation monitoring technology to scour the web for mention of each presidential candidate.

If you’re so inclined, you can add these widgets to your blog, Myspace or Facebook profile, Netvibes, Ning, iGoogle and many other social networks–all for free!

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The Washington Post pokes around a few MySpace and Facebook profiles of young school teachers and shares the apparently disturbing results.

One Montgomery County special education teacher displayed a poster that depicts talking sperm and invokes a slang term for oral sex. One woman who identified herself as a Prince William County kindergarten teacher posted a satiric shampoo commercial with a half-naked man having an orgasm in the shower. A D.C. public schools educator offered this tip on her page: “Teaching in DCPS — Lesson #1: Don’t smoke crack while pregnant.”

Shocking, huh?

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By Jon Rognerud

Quick!

What is the hottest social media tool to emerge on the scene this year? It’s ‘Twitter’, and you may get hooked too…

I recently came back from a fully packed conference on social media marketing, the Danny Sullivan SMX show in Long Beach, CA, and all-the-rage was Twitter, a micro-blogging platform that many at first (typically) considered a ‘joke’ or maybe just a temporary fad. They (we) were all wrong, but most agreed that using any tool or technique without a reasonable strategy was a missed opportunity.

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In a keynote at the Web2.0 conference yesterday, Yahoo CTI Ari Balogh and Chief Architect of Platforms Neal Sample discussed Yahoo Open Strategy or YOS. The rollout of SearchMonkey begun yesterday is just part of Yahoo’s efforts to join in open initiatives.

Yahoo has talking about open initiatives for some time: last September, Business Week foreshadowed the coming of SearchMonkey. In November and again in January they talked about bringing a social network to your Yahoo Mail inbox. A month ago, they signed on to OpenSocial.

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I know you’re getting bored with all the other Internet marketing intrigues out there, so here’s a new one: eBay is suing craigslist. Tantalizing, isn’t it?

By way of background, eBay bought more than a quarter of craigslist’s stock (28.4%) back in 2004. According to the suit, this January, unnamed “unilateral actions” by founder Craig Newmark, CEO Jim Buckmaster and/or the craigslist company itself diluted eBay’s shares, diminishing the power that eBay should wield by an alleged 10%.

eBay says that the unnamed actions were unethical and unfair, in addition to being a “breach” of the company’s “fiduciary duties.” citing their good history with craigslist, eBay expressed dismay at the recent developments:

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I get soooo many PR pitches each day, most of which are boring–I hit delete before I get to the end of the first sentence. Then there’s this gem, from Rachel Weikum at Weikum Communications.

Instead of the normal pitch format, her email was more like a blog post. It drew me in, gave me the info, and impressed me with the outcome. I thought about re-writing the pitch, but have decided instead to simply paste it below for you to read.

This is a great case study on using social media:

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