AnyBeat First Impressions

By Roland Quitalig

I finally received my AnyBeat invitation today. Staring at my measly CRED score of 2, I’m already researching how to increase it. I posted a picture, answered two questions, changed my relationship status, and liked a random stranger’s forum post. I was able to increase my score to 5.

Taking focus of this figure, I realize that Dmitry Shapiro’s site is not much different from Facebook or Twitter. You first login to a newsfeed where people can share posts and links. You maintain a profile that has a feed, about, photo, and questions section. The networking schema uses a follower and people you follow system. How is AnyBeat going to draw users from these popular social mediums?

For AnyBeat to be successful, it is going to need to offer its users something different from what’s already provided. Its campaign for anonymity is a good start. Both Twitter and Facebook discourage users from using pseudo identities. Pairing anonymity with a CRED system, however, shows to be pointless. People already gauge credibility on these type of sites by the number of friends, followers, fans, and likes.

AnyBeat is going to really need to play out its strengths wisely before its official launch. Still in development, it is still too soon to predict whether it’s going to make the cut.

Anybeat’s Take On Social Networking

By Roland Quitalig

When I first entered the Web 2.0 scene, I began with MySpace. It provided me with the ability to add friends, post profile pictures, comment on walls, and check people’s relationship status. When I learned Facebook could do this exclusively within my school, I quickly jumped boat.

What made Facebook different from MySpace? Facebook took the desire to connect with others and filtered them into separate networks. Facebook made a modification that was well received.

Right now, Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world. What kind of changes can be made to Zuckerberg’s model that will overtake its users? Dmitry Shapiro, Veoh founder and MySpace Music exec, believes he has the answer with his upcoming social networking service, AnyBeat.

With Shapiro’s own take on social networking, he strives to pair anonymity with a credit system. You are free to use a pseudonym on AnyBeat but still responsible for your actions. AnyBeat assigns each account with a CRED score to show their credibility in the community over time. One of the biggest complaints with social networking sites was the lack of privacy. Will AnyBeat remedy this with pen names?

Will AnyBeat be the big game changer?

Exploring Google +

By Odessa Fernandez

Is Google’s fourth attempt at competing with the king of social media (Facebook), finally worth taking a second look at? Well, maybe you should ask one of the ten million users that signed up for Google+ in just two weeks, making it the fastest growing social network in Internet history. And if it is in fact a force to be reckoned with, what does this mean for small and big businesses alike? Here are a couple of thoughts on how Google+ may be more conducive for the average businessman than its other social network rivals.

Simplicity:

Not everyone is technologically savvy, and Google definitely kept that in mind when they created a simple, clutter-free interface that users can easily maneuver. There are no ads bombarding the borders of the site, and the social network boasts of easy drag-and-drop features when it comes to privacy settings. So what does that mean for business owners? The fact that it’s easy to set up a homepage makes it appealing to individuals that have minimal computer skills. There are also occasional tips and pointers that come out while the user explores the site, so it makes it a lot more easier to transition from one page or feature to another.

The biggest and most attractive feature of Google+ that might lead Facebook users to become Google+ believers is their take on managing privacy settings with the introduction of ‘circles’. These ‘circles’ allow users to manage their ‘circle’ of friends, acquaintances, coworkers, etc., from the very beginning of a Google+ friendship. This means that the owner of a business could ultimately use Google+ as a means of organized communication for each sector of his/her business. For example: If Bob was about to open a brand new paint store and had different tasks assigned to different sectors of his business that needed to be completed, he could message them all independently without spamming each group (He could message his employees to complete their online training before the grand opening, and he could message his accountant to have all the numbers figured out before Friday). By having the ability to sort out each group with these ‘circles’ saves time and effort on Bob’s part, and we all know that time is money, so Google+ would have saved him plenty of it.

Solid Relationship Building:

A great feature that deems promising is the group chat feature that Google+ offers, which they call ‘hangout’. What that means, is that a Google+ user can video chat with up to 10 users at once, which adds a new meaning to ‘chat sessions’. To business owners, this Google+ feature not only helps people communicate within the company, but it provides a platform where solid relationship building with clients and employees can take place. Business meetings, video conference calls, and last minute phone calls to change agendas, are all vital calls that can happen right in front of a laptop or desktop computer without moving an inch. There’s just something about being able to talk and see the person in front of you that makes video chatting so successful for businesses. With this feature, there would be minimal miscommunication between a company and client because everything would be heard and seen firsthand—every disappointed sigh, every snide remark, and every rise or fall in voice level. Google+ presents a personal yet formal way to build these relationships with the client, and that in itself is an immeasurable value to a business.

Marketing companies would definitely have a field day with this feature. They could conduct focus groups out of their own home and save the company thousands of dollars by eliminating costs of food and beverages for the focus group participants, parking, markers & paper, focus group space, and etc. Being able to do this would change the format of focus groups entirely and in turn could also lead to businesses investing in these marketing companies because it wouldn’t be that costly to them.

Even though Google+ is currently not open for business owners for a few more weeks, that didn’t stop 36,000 companies from signing up to be one of the elite few to have a page once Google does release it to the public. Critics everywhere are seeing the benefits of the new social network—it’s LinkedIn + Facebook (without all the clutter), but the $1,000,000 question is— will Google+ be able to dethrone Facebook? Well, with Facebook at a ginormous 700 million users and still going strong, there’s no way they’re going anywhere.

How Much Klout Do You Have?

By Renee Mitson

Social influence may be the next way you’re judged. Do you get a free pass to a movie? A dinner reservation? Red Sox tickets? Or do you get a whole lot of nothing? Klout, and other similar products, tell you just how much you deserve, based on how much influence you have.

Klout is a social media analytics tool that puts a fresh spin on engagement measurement. Similar toTweetReach, Klout lets you know how well you are engaging with people, but instead of impressions, you receive a Klout score. This score dictates how influential your outgoing content is within your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn account. This score is then given a label, such as “Dabbler,” “Networker,” or “Socializer,” depending on your score. The label has a short description that lets the viewer know what his or her score really means.

For instance, my Klout score is a 52, and my label is a “Specialist.” This means that although I have a fairly influential score, my influential topics are specialized. This makes sense as I am usually tweeting about social media, design, or the Bruins. What may surprise you is that although someone may have more followers than you, he or she may have a lower Klout score. This is how all of those idiots who bought Twitter followers are going to get into trouble. Once again, it is better to have ten highly engaged followers than 1,000 followers who do not really care what you have to say.

Within an office, it is easy to get competitive with Klout scores. Klout is also a great way to compare yourself to people you aspire to be — what are they influential about? Again, do not underestimate your Facebook account in its ability to affect your score. I recently compared myself to someone with more friends and more followers and the other person came up short due to my amount of Facebook comments.

But it is important to remember that Facebook is not necessarily affecting your “brand,” since you are not likely friending clients or potential business contacts. Your Facebook networking ability is more accurately stating your ability to network with people you know, which is certainly helpful but less likely to land you a dream job or a promotion.

Klout is also coming out with some really cool features. For instance when you link to Twitter or Facebook, you can view all of your friends and their scores. Secondly, you can directly compare your achievements side by side to theirs when you are logged in, with information like total retweets, unique mentions, comments, and “likes.” On your own profile you can also view who you directly influence, or as I like to call it, your groupies.

The Klout Style section goes deeper in depth regarding your title with an easy-to-read chart showing you how much you are sharing vs. participating, or how broad vs. consistent you are. Are you just reaching out to a small sector of people, or do you social network through a span of topics? This is the kind of news that businesses would pay big bucks to social media marketers in years passed.

And Klout continues to add new dimensions. There is a new section popping up on Klout profiles and that is the “Achievements.” This section was on Klout previous to May 2011, but since then Klout has moved to a new achievements measurement system that should be returning to profiles everywhere soon. However, old achievement badges, which are reminiscent of Foursquare badges, are grandfathered in and can still be visible on older profiles.

So… curious to know your score? Is you inner competitive nature stretching its wings? Let the online popularity contest begin!

What do you think? Do you have Klout?

This post was originally on The Next Great Generation Site, where Renee is a tech/social media writer.