However, one aspect I was never really able to experience was being in school with the power of a social network, to see who was on my campus, what insane things happened at a certain dormitory, or pictures of that kegger that I’ll regret forever. Ahhh…well fast-forward life 8 years later, and now there’s a chance! The college youth of world finally can take back social networking with a newly launched site from NY-based entrepreneur Josh Weinstein, CollegeOnly.

The site is restricted to college networks only; sorry gang, you need an official college email to join. So now sharing photographs, trading juicy gossip, and obsessing about that girl in Physics II can all be experienced in the privacy of your very own social network!

And Weinstein has a good idea of what college kids want as well, he has already launched two start-ups in his youthful career, both geared toward the student body. RandomDorm, which was basically Chatroulette for college students, and GoodCrush, a collegiate matchmaking service.

Constructing this network of college-oriented sites had Weinstein thinking of building one centralized site that can handle the power of both previous sites and wrap it into an exclusive social network experience for just college students.

The site just launched last Wednesday, and is currently in beta for just a few select schools, but Weinstein said that it’s already exceeded their expectations in sign-ups. And more schools are going to be added over the coming weeks, Weinstein said, and could soon be arriving at YOUR university or college.

Do I Like This?

I asked for a login or demo to try the platform out, but I was shun! And it’s OK, it should be that way - college kids only! But, from the media kit, it appears similar to Facebook where you can see status updates of EVERYONE (not just your friends/connections), what’s happening on campus, pictures and events. And all within the comfort of knowing your parents, employers, and high school friends won’t ever get to see what you are doing. In addition, students will be able to post messages in certain categories, such as “Missed Connections,” so students can obsess over other classmates - I mean that in a good way. Another group labeled “After Party” will also help students connect and gossip over all the weekend’s past events.

And from what I can tell, it seems the picture feature is going to be quite the draw, imagine pictures of all those crazy times that just you and your college friends can see.

Who Pays For This?

Good question! The project in fact does have a notable backing behind them, with venture capitalists that have invested nearly $1.15 million; from SoftBank Capital, FirstMark Capital, as well a noteworthy angel investors, David Kidder & Peter Thiel. He was one of the early investors in Facebook.

Calling Security

Now, you can’t have a social network and not have privacy issues, that’s just blasphemy. But seriously, you can’t; so referencing the CollegeOnly blog, the team is being very careful about who has access to the site.

First off, each college seems to have a moderator or two attached to it, and I am sure that will grow with popularity, including current students on-campus. Secondly, what if a teacher or over-friendly janitor wants to join in the fun? Well, thankfully there is a repository of email addresses that CollegeOnly will be able to cross-reference and restrict from the website. In addition, users can also submit a list of email addresses of any teachers or administrators so they can be permanently banned from the site as well.

The Future…CollegeOnly

With Vampire Weekend’s song “The Kid’s Don’t Stand a Chance” playing ever so softly in the background at the moment, and most people questioning why bother battling what Facebook already does brilliantly? I simply cannot agree with that - I think CollegeOnly has a tremendous opportunity here.

If we look at the space as it is now, every kid and their mother is trying to get into this game, and Josh has done something very simple, and brilliant at the same time - he’s gone back to the original “Facebook” roots and is intending to keep this as a closed network that will be exclusive for each individual campus. And if Josh and his team are as smart as I think they are, and with angel investors like Thiel involved in the project, they are priming this venture for a large scale build-out.

Truthfully, there is no real site in existence that is both a trustworthy and spam-free website that can call itself a college only social network. The potential for Josh and his team to take advantage of the market at this time is prime. One site that I wrote about last year, CampusLive, seemingly might be similar at first glance, but they act more as an aggregator of a user’s current social networks and specific campus resources, as compared to CollegeOnly that acts as an entirely new experience just for YOUR campus. Once viewership increases and additional schools start to come aboard, I see a great potential for CollegeOnly to generate revenue in terms of school partnerships and other media opportunities.

Of course, viewership needs to grow before getting to this stage, and Josh confirmed that CollegeOnly has no plans for generating revenue any time soon. As it should be, and as the other big boys have done it, his intentions are to grow first, monetize second.

See CEO Josh Weinstein Explain his social network:

• Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88%–from 25% to 47%.
• During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100%–from 13% to 26%.
• By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18-29 grew by 13%—from 76% to 86%.

“Young adults continue to be the heaviest users of social media, but their growth pales in comparison with recent gains made by older users,” explains Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and author of the report. “Email is still the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, but many older users now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications.”

• One in five (20%) online adults ages 50-64 say they use social networking sites on a typical day, up from 10% one year ago.
• Among adults ages 65 and older, 13% log on to social networking sites on a typical day, compared with just 4% who did so in 2009.

At the same time, the use of status update services like Twitter has also grown—particularly among those ages 50-64. One in ten internet users ages 50 and older now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.

Read the entire report from Pew Research here

Will Facebook’s announcement of “Places” yesterday help boost these numbers quicker for the social giant?

Facebook Places Has Arrived

It feels a bit like Christmas morning. Well, maybe not that joyous, but for geo-location nerds out there - the day has arrived.

Facebook has announced its new geo-location feature, Facebook Places. With Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, BrighKite, Scvngr, and a bevy of other players trying to build engagement for users and brands while following you wherever you go, their adoption rate has been slow, and audience even slower. But now with Facebook’s announcement, the 500 million + users of Facebook have quickly become the biggest geo-location social network out there.

However, let’s back up one minute, first, they are launching U.S. only in this first phase - so it’s only a little under 200 million users who will be able to take part at first.

Secondly, Facebook is doing something great with this feature, they are not trying to squash the competition, they are joining forces, and opening special partnerships with the main geo-location social network stars, such as Yelp, Foursquare, Gowalla and Booyah. They will be utilizing the Places API and integrating the feature into their current applications and be working exclusively with Facebook, rather than against them.

Around 5:23 p.m. PST, Facebook made the announcement of Places, as it is was created to share where you are with your friends, see where your friends currently are, and see what places are around you. The product will launch on the iPhone app later this evening, and on all advanced mobile browsers.

Follow-up story coming with more details early tomorrow…But read all about the new Facebook Places here in the meantime.

Will you be using Facebook Places?

Tips to Finding the RIGHT Job in Digital Media

In a perfect world, we all have the job of our dreams, working in digital media, with only the best brands and clients, great salary, what more would you want? Well, unfortunately, this is not a perfect world, and it doesn’t happen that easily. Whether you are currently looking for a job in social or new media, or you have one and might be looking for “something else” - these are just a few tips to stick in your back pocket while you consider your options.

Often, our call to action, when placed upon us, is quick, and often people searching for a job will take swift action and jump immediately at the first thing thrown at them. Others might ponder situations and maybe can afford to be patient while they look. Whatever your preference is, you never really know where you are going until you’re actually there. And sometimes what’s in the bright, shiny package may not be all it was really that cracked up to be. The following are a few steps and tips to take to heart while you consider a new opportunity.

Step 1: Do Your Homework

Depending on your situation, and everyone is unique - it’s important that you apply to or work somewhere you truly want to be; not just because they have an opening or it pays you a salary. (I say this delicately…) Over the past two years, there have been a number of jobs that have opened up in the digital marketing field, and every agency and their mother are trying to figure out social & new media and how to offer it as a service within their organization. However, common mistakes I have found within the market are that agencies may not be situated to handle social media because they lack the proper clientele.

You need a base to require a major departmental shift or need, and if you don’t have the right support systems in place, such as clients or prospects to sell social media as a proper service, you are going to have a hard time building a social media department in your organization. Be certain that the organization you go to has more than just one “in the box” client. Working in the agency world, everyone knows how client relationships can take drastic turns overnight, and an agency relying on one client to carry the load, or maybe your salary - spells a very dangerous ground to walk on. This is not always the case in such situations, but, I do say, tread lightly.

Step 2: Employees - Teach Them

As a prospective or current employee, it’s important to recognize that you are going to be your company’s greatest advocate when it comes to preaching and promoting social media within the organization. And, it’s event more important that this is established and setup before you are tasked with the job of selling it as a service (speaking to the agency crowd here). This form of marketing is becoming ubiquitous and everyone believes they are social media experts and understand it - but what makes your program stronger is how well your employees are versed.

And let’s say you don’t have the luxury of having some groundwork already laid, and you are starting from scratch. Think of who within your agency or place of work (brands) can spearhead your social media efforts, and possibly take the reigns. Then, as a leader, this person should be able to teach others about the space and how it reacts on a daily basis. Consider starting a type of tier-level education program for your employees. Build out a list of questions that would have them seek out correct answers and grant them awards or some kind of internal badge for passing each rank. And make it enjoyable, it’s important to keep your employees both happy and learning at the same time - don’t make it feel like it’s something they “have to do.”

Step 3: Not All Business Development is The Same

When starting a social media department or role, it’s important that you ensure that the business development department understands social media from both a tactical and sales standpoint. Developing sales presentations and price points are standard tools to integrate when starting your social media service offerings.

But, it is important to make sure that the business development leader is approaching the right type of clients. The last thing you want to happen is arriving in a place where your business development department focuses too much on specific client verticals that may not be exactly suitable for social media. We all know and say we can sell a program to a “blind man”, but this conversation is more focused around budgets and levels of brands you approach. For example, start-ups and companies still in “rounds of funding” are not going to bite the bullet on paying for social media programs. They might love what you have to say, however, realize they have tiny budgets, and despite the “millions in the bank,” it could be tough to get even a penny out of them for a marketing program if it’s not an EXACT fit.

Step 4: Agency Originality - Is It There?

Marketing agencies all offer a variety of services. Whether it’s specializing in Search, Media, Branding, PR, Creative, Development, each seems to be trying to maneuver social media as an integrated service along with their “sweet spot” offerings. So often, and it is becoming common, specialty shops believe they can do and offer everything under the sun. It maybe maneuvered by a solution of hiring one or two consultants or one main person to handle everything in that new speciality. This is quite the opposite train of thought.

I believe a number of agencies make a mistake when they think they can do everything out of the box, and just by “having it available” - it makes them the place to go. Often, this is where you run into internal disruption, and you lose focus on your over-arching vision and forget about your employees who you hired to perform and create the work for you.

If you expect one person to do the job, and they certainly might be able to - you need to be sure your internal systems are all on par. The last thing you want to do is ignore how social media interacts with all your agency offerings - thinking it does not overlap with specialties such as search, online media, branding, PR, web development, analytics, etc; these systems need to sync with your social media offering, and that will require two modes of thought skills that agencies lack: Time & Patience

Don’t expect instant synchronization, and make sure these departments begin to work together. Every agency has a different process in place, and these teams need to figure out how they can help each other, where offerings overlap, and how to sell each others services.

Step 5: Establish “Your” Idea

As a marketer and digital thinker, a social media or new media marketing expert needs to define an outlook in their space, and create innovation in their pitch. Much of what you see in the market right now is overlap, and although it’s not necessarily a bad thing, bringing “your idea” to the table is key for building a successful social media role / department. Whether you are “the guy/gal” or “one of the guy/gals”, it’s important you bring original thinking and creativity to your everyday practice.

You may not be defining the department or building it from scratch, but your input is valuable. I have always looked at social media marketing and building a department as a patient process. Interviewing and hiring the right minds that mesh with your process and way of thinking is key for turning the everyday in your work to success stories.

Conclusion

All of the above is an opinion - I need to stress that. Much of it is built from my own experiences from working in agencies, both large and small and being an entrepreneur as well. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I certainly have put myself in a position to succeed with new media marketing, and I do this everyday by learning and cultivating my experiences to present, write, research, teach, and most importantly - learn about digital media and all of its foundations.

What are your thoughts, any other tips you might add to the above?

Over the past year, social networks have the ruled the air when it comes to marketing in a digital world. Facebook & Twitter, as we have discussed before, are becoming the beacons for most marketing programs as they decide to push forward into the world of social media marketing.  However, many forget where this idea of Web 2.0 all started, before Facebook, MySpace, and the Twitter’s of the world became everyday expressions.

Blogs. Remember those? The blogosphere, it still boasts hundreds of millions of online journals and participants, but in recent years, it’s fallen on “tough times”, so to speak. Many marketers are using social networks and microblogs to help grow their brand’s perception online, and for certain brands, it makes sense.

But despite the slow erosion of blog integration within some social media programs, it still has the staying power in the corporate world. In a recent study done by eMarketer, it estimated that just over one in three companies have a public-facing blog used for marketing, and will be rising to nearly 43% by 2010.

Marketers are noticing that blogs have the highest value of any social media in driving site traffic, lead generations, brand awareness, sales, and also improving customer service. Another interesting survey from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research has found that there is a much lower usage in blogs among Fortune 500 companies and much higher adoption among the fastest-growing private companies on the Inc. 500 list.

This is an interesting statistic, as it mostly calls out to the idea of barriers that exist within large organizations. Fortune 500 companies are filled with obstacles such as legal and regulatory constraints that more than often exist in the environment. Smaller, private companies have less restraints and can better position themselves to exist in the embracing of blogging.

Where do you stand on the topic, to blog or not to blog?

Marketers with large budgets seemed to be significantly more likely to measure their efforts, as compared to those spending less than a million; however many planned to adopt analytics at some point in the future.

This study is interesting, however it does leave the door open for some skepticism. It’s fair to say that if I have a $1 million + budget invested in a marketing program, I am surely going to want to understand the results of my investment. But then again, if I only have a small amount of budget to invest, (and I am not saying under a $1 million dollars is at any time small), I would certainly think a company would want to have proper measurement tools in place to ensure the campaign is drawing proper exposure for the brand and meeting any set KPIs. Naturally, when your budget is even smaller, chances are you are going to become more intensely immersed in your campaign - expecting great results.

The report also focused on how measurement is approached, internal vs. external parties taking on the responsibility. A high percentage of these marketers surveyed said they relied on internal parties to take on the measurement responsibilities. I understand this from a budget perspective, but I also question the authenticity of a campaign when internal teams are relied on, as sometimes numbers can be skewed, favoritism might play a role, and lack of objective expertise might factor in the final results. Bringing in a 3rd party to enforce your campaign’s results could offer stronger, and more exact results based on the type of system used, and of course, a bit more objectivity.

In the end, the study said more executives were happier with internal measurement programs than with external entities. However, they also claimed that most of them did not have a sufficient way to share campaign results with their fellow executives because a lack of process, continuity, and orderly way to present information.

All the more reason to consider a more processed and organized system that will measure your campaign results, and ensure that you are tracking EVERYTHING within your campaign. And these are more likely to be found within a 3rd party setting.

The statistics said sites like Facebook and Twitter account for 22.7% of time spent on the internet, with social games being the next most frequented activity at 10.2%.

And with all our time being eaten up by Facebook, you’d expect drop-off somewhere, and activities like email and instant messaging are taking the brunt of it. Email activity plunged from 11.5% to 8.3% from June 2009 to June 2010. Instant messaging also took a hit with a 15% decrease.

However, in a less obvious surprise, the mobile market is picking up for the drop-off in email usage as it rose from 37.4% to 41.6% - obviously coming from the rise in smart phones and mobile devices.

The study revealed some interesting statistics, as it looked at a large number of location-based sites, including popular players such as Foursquare, Gowalla, MyTown and Loopt. And to add to the study, a whopping 84% of respondents said they had no idea or were not even familiar enough with such types of apps. This study comes at an interesting time, since 2010 was marked the year of location-based services, igniting fires under social media marketers - all trying to integrate location-based strategies into their marketing programs.

And to add to the bottleneck, the report said almost 80% of location-based service users are male, with close to 70% of them between the ages of 19 and 35, and 70% have college degrees or higher. Forrester also discovered that 38% were more likely to say friends and family ask their opinions before a purchase, in addition, this crowd was very open to mobile coupons and offers as well. This vertical is also more resourceful with research prior to a purchase where nearly 20% are more likely to consult their phones before buying to conduct more research and read customer reviews.

Location-Based Reality Stinks?

This certainly brings most marketers back to reality before jumping on the location game bandwagon.

Although this data cuts down a very small segment to target, it’s still very approachable when you consider products that live in the gaming, consumer electronics, and sportswear verticals. These are the verticals that lead the way with testing these applications, according to Forrester. However, the location space is full of brands that are already proving they are not just for the male audience. Big players such as Starbucks, Oil of Olay, Bravo, Gossip Girl, Campbell’s Soup, Louis Vuitton, Bon Appétit, Lucky Magazine, TLC, and PepsiCo are all currently experimenting with location-based services.

But as in any new technology, there is always the question of adoption rate, and to be honestly blunt, these networks are very much in their infant stages. Foursquare has just over 2 million users; Loopt has 4 million, and MyTown with 2.5 million - barely a drop in the bucket from a marketing standpoint.

And the next question is scale, when this will happen? As of now, the digital social network rulers such as Facebook, Google and Twitter are not fully involved in the location game. When their entrance takes place, this will help set the market more efficiently, creating a much higher adoption rate. And a drastic shift in competition for the current market.

Thoughts…

As Forrester always does well, and does often - it reports the facts. I don’t think marketers should completely avoid location-based service programs, nor is Forrester saying that. They are however saying that you should tread lightly and not expect any massive returns as you start to experiment in this sort of advertising.

However, the market always moves quickly, as we all have become aware of over the past several years in social media’s popularity. If digital adoption rates stick, I’d say we would be in a good place to give this just a bit more of time before more users begin amass on each of these networks.

Depending on your specialty, I’d say it’s reckless to not at least consider location-based services when considering new social media programs. Your brand’s demographic might not fall directly into what Forrester reports, however, you should consider the question of “When?” At exactly what point will the ‘branded’ location-based network space take off in popularity? When will they eventually act like your Facebook branded community does now?

I think the real question is: Do you want to get involved now, or several months or years from now when every brand on the planet is doing it?

These types of applications will grow; they will be built beyond a cliché, cornball badge to tell your friends on Facebook or Twitter about. Monetary, if not branded products will soon replace these and be offered in place of  a ‘real’ incentive for checking-in. We already have started to see this in mobile coupon deals that Starbucks offers.

These incentives will get better and will have a stronger support system as the adoption rate increases.

We’ve just started in this game kids…just give it time.

Since the dawn of social media marketing (used loosely), Pharma brands have found social media - nerve-wracking - nervous to dive head-in to large social media programs.

Scenario: Imagine you created a drug that could cure the common cold. Then imagine it did just that. Then one day - it stopped working, and even worse - it ended up killing someone. (Dramatic I know, but bear with me). The press picks the story up, Twitter and Facebook explode in negative mentions, and blogs begin to slam the creator of the new drug, Izroda (company made up for literary purposes). Forum discussions pile up and viral videos mocking the drug surface, all while the the Pharma brand Izroda just stands there, helpless - shackled by the FDA’s guidelines.

This is what Pharma brands are worried about, the “adverse events” that can come from consumer discussions. Brands such as AstraZeneca, Novartis, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim are all worried about the off-label uses, chances for incorrect information about drugs and drug marketers to end up on third party sites, this all increases the potential for negative fallout from social media activity.

However, these brands are not completely frightened of social media, some have been dipping their toes in social media for more than a year now, but treading very lightly. They have been experimenting with platforms like Twitter; in addition, some have been more involved using viral, crowdsourcing strategies to accomplish a variety of things. They are improving customer engagements with their brands, delivering important information, educating, tweaking brand perceptions, and have been monitoring and analyzing consumer-generated content.

“[Pharmaceutical marketers] need to ask whether their social media program is good for marketing and good for public health. If they can’t answer yes, then they shouldn’t be doing it.”

In a recent interview with eMarketer.com, Pitts helped clear up some lingering questions about the FDA’s expectations to issue guidance on the use of social media in 2010.

“There are a lot of ifs. The first if is, is this really a good thing? A lot of times when you ask for regulation and you get it, you may not be happy with it. If marketers are waiting for FDA guidance with the assumption that it’s going to make their jobs easier, that’s very much open to question.

When you look to a regulatory agency that is very strong on science but just mediocre on social science and you ask it to think about issues as complicated as social media, it’s a real crap shoot. Will the FDA actually choose to write guidance or will it be a draft guidance? And if so, what will it focus on? My best guess is that the guidance will deal with very low-hanging-fruit issues.”

And will Pharma marketers receive the guidance they need to feel more secure about participating in social media in 2010?

“If the industry thinks the FDA is going to come out wit

h thoughtful and complete guidance on how to use social media in 110 different circumstances, it’s going be very disappointed. The FDA is going to take baby steps to move forward. Those who think that they’re going to receive a document that answers all their questions simply do not understand the FDA process.

The most important thing to understand is that everybody, including the FDA, realizes that social media is where the people are. Drug companies want to engage with people on social media sites. But I think the key question is what is and what is not regulated speech. Regulated speech is generally a very specific thing. I don’t think anybody wants the FDA to say that all health-related communications on social media is regulated speech.

When it comes to guidance, the problem is that the FDA embraces ambiguity because ambiguity gives it tremendous power and elasticity to change its mind given the circumstance. What pharmaceutical marketers are doing is waiting to see what the FDA says and then they’ll act accordingly. However, if the guidance the FDA comes out with isn’t some King James version of the Bible that everybody’s hoping it’s going to be, and it

certainly will not, the question then becomes, which marketers will step forward and choose to be more aggressive than they previously have been?”

Pitts said his best guess is that the FDA will end up clarifying some things and “muddy others,” but not really give anyone a clear picture. In the end, it will be up to the drug companies to make the choice on whether they move ahead with social media. The big issue that remains foggy is what is regulated and what is not regulated.

“The key point is what is regulated vs. unregulated speech. If I am a patient with arthritis and I am speaking on a social media site to another patient who has arthritis, that is not regulated speech. If, however, I am talking to one patient who has arthritis and I have arthritis and we’re speaking on a site that is sponsored by a drug company, is that regulated speech? That’s very much up in the air.

If people talk to each other and there’s no money exchanging hands, that is not regulated speech. Whenever the FDA has been taken to court on First Amendment issues, it loses. So the FDA is being very cautious about avoiding what’s called “regulatory creep,” which is a way of trying to regulate things that it is not intended to regulate.”

One key outstanding issue that truly keeps Pharma brands from diving head into social media centers around drug companies correcting misinformation on internet properties they don’t own.

“Right now, a lot of companies feel that if they go onto a site to correct a mistake they will be seen as being responsible for everything else on that site. So, for example, a drug company goes on a website and says “Hello, my name is Tobi Elkin and I work for Pfizer. I saw something on your website that’s not correct.” You can offer the site a link that goes directly back to your website, which is vetted by your attorneys and completely appropriate. That’s what I would call a regulatory green zone-total transparency. I would like to see more of that.

Even something as simple as that is oftentimes seen as overly aggressive by a lot of companies. There are other companies who have as their official procedure that they will not monitor sites that they don’t control for fear of unearthing an adverse event. That may put them in compliance with the letter of the regulation, but if a reporter from The New York Times called and asked “Do you have a policy of not looking for adverse events on the internet?” and they said “Yes,” they would look pretty silly and it would sound even worse in front of a congressional subcommittee.

So the concept of being in compliance vs. doing the right thing for the public health cannot be contrary to each other and right now they are. The issue is to step up to the plate and do what’s right instead of what is legally conservative.”