Minding the Crowd

The backbone of any social network is participation, and comments and conversations are the vertebrae. But efficiently tracking the data trails of ever-shifting collective opinion has been an elusive exercise.

coComment.com now provides a single resource for accessing and tracking all the latest online conversations–yours as well as others you’re following. You can track top commenters, articles and posts as well as who’s commenting on the same conversations you are–coComment subscribers and non-subscribers alike.

Anticipating Critical Mass

Imagine a repository of social media conversations reflecting current collective attitudes and views, accessed by topic. On-demand data parsed to reflect the pulse of socially networked opinion is invaluable market intelligence for any business looking to establish, advance or protect their brand.

According to coComment.com CEO Matt Colebourne in an interview with MediaPost’s Behavioral Insider:

“If I am Coke and I want to know I am being talked about, that is an easy measure in a database. But how do I find out if I am being talked about positively? That is exactly where we can offer something that at the moment we don’t believe anyone else can. You need to have all of those stored conversations.�?

Beware the Backlash

Social networks are leery of being measured, tracked or marketed to. Their sting can be swift, severe and unexpected, their lauding and accolades, equally surprising. The behavioral analysis and insight provided by coComment.com can help businesses anticipate shifts in market preferences, buying habits, trends and public opinion, thus mitigating the downsides and maximizing the upsides of fickle-willed social media realms.

The Future is Now

Few brand marketers are taking the time to thoroughly understand the Web 2.0 nuances of Social Media Marketing (SMM). Any institution could benefit from the type of information coComment.com purports to offer.

That is if “You”? and “GenMe”? allow it.

And now for something really comforting.

A Secret Revealed

Normally classified, this first-ever release of footage from Rolls Royce documents a “blade off� test—the forced failure of an A380 jet engine blade while the engine is running at full tilt.

Dicey but Good

The goal of this costly and dangerous exercise is to contain the immense energy generated by the blade failure to the the jet’s engine housing. The ability to control and dissipate such violent force could protect passengers and the aircraft itself should an engine ever actually lose a blade in flight.

Patent Goodwill

This footage validates Rolls Royce as a premium brand with a staunch commitment to safety and excellence in design engineering.

The viral distribution of the clip invites the public to become active participants in goodwill marketing on behalf of Rolls Royce—an example of the beneficial side of virally networked, or word of mouth (WOM), public relations. Even better, it’s inexpensive (other than the cost of the sacrificed engine) and more credible than self-sown corporate boasting.

Never Fear

Instead of fearing crowd-sourced mediums like blogs, Digg and YouTube, take time to understand—and embrace—their inherent idiosyncrasies.

If your product or service is sound, social network marketing is a great way to proliferate your message. These days, the greatest danger of online social marketing is not engaging in it.

Recent blogosphere death threats leveled at popular blogger Kathy Sierra have stirred much controversy and driven Sierra to stop blogging indefinitely.

Ironically, just as Sierra withdrew from the blogosphere, the term “Kathy Sierra” became the #1 topic on Technorati, boosting her popularity worldwide (see below).

Posts that contain Kathy Sierra per day for the last 30 days:

Get your own chart!

Twitter.com asks us, simply, “What are you doing?”

What’s a Twitter?

Twitter is an online social community tool that allows people to update friends—and strangers—worldwide about specific moments in their lives.

Users can send updates directly from the Twitter website, text message them from a mobile phone, or instant message them via AIM, Jabber or Gtalk.

Gaining Traction

Hitwise UK Research Vice President Heather Hopkins wrote about Twitter’s surge in popularity in a recent article, but noted a sharp downturn in market share of overall UK internet visits. Her findings indicate Twitter may still be gaining in US popularity against other internet community sites.

(Click charts for larger view.)

Well-known Canadian blogger, Kate Trgovac, has a Twitter widget on her popular MyNameIsKate blog.

Even presidential hopeful John Edwards is Twittering.

Growing Concerns

Power blogger Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion has written extensively about Twitter lately. He’s even used “addicted” to describe his fascination with the trendy social connection tool. But in a recent article, he suggested Twitter’s lacking revenue stream may prove problematic when US-to-overseas SMS charges roll in.

Twitter has alternately been referred to as micro-blogging, a toy, and a revolution. The question is whether it is a nascent niche player or a bona fide long tail fixture in the social media landscape.

It’s far too early to tell if it has reached its maturation point so early in its life cycle or if the crowd mentality of social networks is just being dismissive and fickle regarding this new concept.

A Twitter Takeaway

Advance preparation and rapid deployment are key in reacting to emergent social networking trends. As you develop integrated marketing strategies, consider augmenting them with a flexible, at-the-ready, component plan designed to capitalize on Twitter-like opportunities as they arise.

Image Source: Inju

Online radio is rife with Web 2.0 listeners. According to Techcrunch, content demand for two French-based online music entities, BlogMusik and RadioBlogClub, was so intense that both elected to go off-line this week in search of more robust and secure server space.

But What Right Do They Have?

Unfortunately Techcrunch was mislead by messages on both sites. Turns out the French Government organization SACEM—a regulating body representing original music composers, authors and publishers—mandated both companies go offline over usage fee disputes and copyright infringements.

The Irony of It All

Ironically, one commenter requested that Techcrunch remove a RadioBlogClub widget embedded in the article claiming it was illegally streaming a Prince tune.

Odder yet, Techcrunch France got the SACEM angle of the story correct (If you don’t read French, consider using the FireFox translator add-on we featured).

Pandora’s Box

Online radio is a burgeoning marketplace as suggested in our recent article about online radio sites Last.FM and Pandora.

But pressure to satiate the socially-driven, “I want it my way and I want it now” appetites of online listeners often leads to purveying ill-gotten content. And resolving Napster-like licensing and jurisdiction issues on the global stage remains an elusive task.

For now, I’m content to don my headphones, order up an up-tempo set on Last.FM and watch the drama unfold.

Image source: Patrick Q