Social Media Top 5: Chrome, Politics, and Social Media is Unknown

Another Social Media Top 5, where I randomly pick a few topics that may loosely be associates with social media (or maybe public relations, because that’s what I do).

1. Google’s Chrome Browser: It’s new! It’s fast! It’s Google-rific! “Chrome” evokes, well…

   
   (* “Chrome car” photo by Jill Clardy)

   Ok, that’s not a modernist evocation, but I am still interested in trying it out. should I wait until it gets out of Beta?

   Oh, and holy smokes (and I know someone else pointed this out, I just can’t remember who) – The Google Chrome logo…
   

   …looks a lot like another icon of futuristic computing power: “Simon.”
   

2. A Synovate study points out that not everyone knows what a social network is.
   
   (Graphic from eMarketer)

   Ok, first, “no duh.” but on the other hand, the joyous pursuit of all things social media by people in my profession and its close cousins makes it sound like we need to be reminded of that periodically. And we do.

   My oh-so-short comment: If your audience is part of that demographic that is into social networks, dive in. otherwise, keep an eye on the early adopters and budget your brainpower to a little experimentation. The big battleground in “social media ROI” is being fought with guns that haven’t been invented yet; namely, “mass adoption.”

   To that end, the eMarketer article expects U.S. social network usage to approximately double from 2007 to 2008. Why? they’re not telling in the free article, but perhaps it is just the natural growth in awareness of new technology.

   Hat tip to Greg Verdino, who notes that his usage of many social networks has been falling off. It is the curse of early adopters to be forever out of sync with the masses?

3. Ah, politics. First off, this is the first presidential race in the Twitter era. That really hit home during the conventions, where people like me, who don;t necessarily discuss politics much in public, kept a running commentary. I try to balance snark– on both parties– with real pleas for substance from both parties along with other observations. People on my stream tended to be civil. My biggest political sparring partner shared with me a hatred of the New york Yankees, so all is good.

   Also, via Twitter, I was hipped to some Qik.com videos documenting some of the police action taking place with the protesters out the convention hall in St. Paul.

4. While we’re at it, B.L. Ochman has a nice post detailing how far ahead Obama is as a netizen. Does that translate to electoral victory? Probably not this year. It probably means that Democrats– and younger left-leaning folks in particular– may be ahead of their more conservative fellow Americans in embracing politics via the Web. What will B.L.’s charts look like in 2012?

   

5. Last, a nod to a nice series of posts by Brian Solis, titled “The Socialization of Your Personal Brand.” I have been very interested in the mesh of personal and professional brand for quite some time, and as usual Brian has some very detailed guidelines on how to develop and protect your personal brand.

   What is your personal brand right now? Heck, what is mine? i have an idea, but I always refine and redefine.

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