socialweb Archives - Philip Sheldrake

19 January 2009 / 0 Comments

What's the difference between the social web and social media?

I've been asked at least a dozen times why The Social Web Analytics eBook 2008 refers to the "Social Web" and not "Social Media". In fact, the terms appear to have attracted similar usage according to a quick Google search count today:

"social web analytics" - Google estimates 18,600 results
"social media analytics" - Google estimates 20,100 results

Interestingly, however, the term "social media" attracts more than twice the search count estimate as "social web":

"social web" - Google estimates 8,250,000 results
"social media" - Google estimates 19,700,000 results

So what's going on? What is social media?

Social media is a subset of the social web. Read more

4 December 2008 / 0 Comments

The social Web and agenda setting: a presentation to today's European Agenda Setting Conference, Zurich

I'm presenting in one hour to the European Agenda Setting Conference on the impact of the social Web. Great presentations this morning from Roland Schatz, President Media Tenor, David W Moore, author of The Opinion Makers, and Ramu Damudaran, Director Civil Society at the United Nations.

Here's my deck if you're interested:

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialweb socialmedia)

28 November 2008 / 0 Comments

Where the social Web goes from here

It's good to talk. The more people can reach out and find the right people and organisations to relate to, to discuss the issues important to them, to learn, to hang out and have fun, to contribute content and opinion and ideas, then the more satisfying they will find being part of society. I’m no sociologist, but it sounds like a good heuristic to me.

I stand by the assertion in my ebook on Social Web Analytics: “Ultimately, the Social Web has revolutionised communications massively and irrevocably, to the benefit of the consumer, the adaptive and agile organisation, and those who cherish an open society.”

Organisations’ engagement with the Social Web is still sufficiently nascent that it offers earlier adopters competitive advantage. And in the longer term however, it will be a condition of staying in the race.

Three amazing things

I’m posting today because three pretty amazing things have happened recently to catalyse this future; to extend the highly networked and Twitter-fuelled connectivity enjoyed by the minority today to the general population. I discuss these below, but first let me put this into context for those of you who not only have a FriendFeed, you’ve already fed it your BackType profile.

You’re not normal. Read more

1 July 2008 / 6 Comments

The Social Web Analytics eBook 2008

Social Web Analytics (SWA) is the application of search, indexing, semantic analysis and business intelligence technologies to the task of identifying, tracking, listening to and participating in the distributed conversations about a particular brand, product or issue, with emphasis on quantifying the trend in each conversation's sentiment and influence.

The advent of SWA is a pivotal moment in the development of the marketing communications industry.

It's just over ten weeks since I posted about my intention to write an ebook on social Web analytics, and now it's done. The ebook is hosted at www.socialwebanalytics.com, or you can simply click here to download it.

I do hope the ebook stimulates discussion and debate about this vital and nascent field, and look forward to the ongoing "distributed conversation". Love to know what you think.

Thanks to Larry Weber, David Meerman Scott, Brian Solis and the Social Web Analytics vendors for their support and contributions.

30 May 2008 / 0 Comments

The B2B Social Web – my interview with the Ecommerce Times

The B2B Social Web has arrived and it's not going to go away.

I was interviewed recently about the Social Web for a series of articles for Ecommerce Times, and here's the first half of our conversation...

1) What is THE most significant issue regarding the appearance of Web phenomena like social professional networks?

If being an expert or leader in your market is defined as others' regard for your insight, skills or services, then you must participate in the networks where this expertise is being shared, and where the people you want to influence are going to help shape their viewpoint. For many professions, these networks remain predominantly offline, but this balance will tip in favour of online for most if not all professions eventually.

MarCom Professional is a great example in my industry, and other social professional networks include sermo.com for physicians and inmobile for the wireless industry.

2) What major trends should my readers know about?

The all-singing, all-dancing social network (Friendster, Myspace, Bebo, Facebook) will increasingly represent the minority of our online social networking. We will gravitate towards specialised networks dedicated to our specific sports interest, hobby, profession, health condition etc. Read more