With Groupon currently the poster child for social commerce, there’s a lack of true social interactions in the current nascent state of social commerce beyond “sharing” the deal with your buds. The group buying concept is essentially another ploy to get folks to buy something in the traditional e-commerce sense.

How do deals become social? To get the consumers to aggregate around group buying offline, there needs to be a relevant  community overlay on top of the deals. For example,  Japan has a social network of housewives who input the best shopping deals that day manually for the benefit of others in the community. Unlike a one-off Groupon deal, the housewives form a local social network.

What is the appropriate community overlay? People respond to three types of local activities – local real time news, things to do and deals. Provide all of these components to a community in the format of a local media resource, and it will create online/offline activity. Think AOL Patch with a deals system within which communities discuss local retailing just like the Japanese housewives (AOL will figure this out soon enough). Once communities congregate around shopping deals, social commerce indeed can be driven by community conversation. The highest level of trust is cultivated most simply by aggregating local folks who actually know each other.

Here are some sample definitions of what constituted “online presence” through the Internet ages:

1998: Started an internet company

2000: Personal website

2003: Search engine optimized website

2005: Search engine citations, MySpace takes off

2007: Blog or MySpace page

2009: Blog + Twitter + Facebook + LinkedIn + relevant social networks

The 2009 Conclusion: Online Presence is not just the Blog, it is everywhere you can be found online

Note that up to 2007 or so, online presence required that traffic be centered and collected on one website – the blog/website. Now, online presence is distributed and loyal readers (now you can call them “followers”) no longer need to actually visit the website or blog site any more. They only visit when a link from Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn interests them, or when they need to find something they remember resided on your web/blogsite. This new branding concept makes it more important for readers to know how to access the channels (Twitter, RSS feeds, social syndication sites like Social Media Today) to find your content.

An example: For Twitter feed – based Breaking News sites like Breaking San Francisco News, it’s far more important to have the Twitter based presence Twitter.com/BreakingSFNews that brands the Breaking News site and constantly references itself to its followers. Then, when the reader / follower happens to be searching for breaking news on, say, local retailer sales or a quick traffic report, they instantly remember the Breaking News site as a good resource for this kind of information.

Welcome to the Multi-Conversational Web

The new Facebook page redesign has incorporated real time friend feeds that makes Facebook more conversational like… Friendfeed or Twitter. What this means is any friends can respond instantly to conversations as they happen:

With three applications – Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed – competing for participants, applications are developing to efficiently monitor these conversations.  Twhirl and Tweetdeck, two leading Twitter clients, have integrated Friendfeed, and Facebook, respectively (see today’s Tweetdeck announcement).

Different Conversations

Last week, David Armano analyzed how each age group uses social media differently for either social purposes like making friends and lovers, or for professional purposes like career networking. This chart is self explanatory:

This certainly explains why high schoolers are predominantly on Facebook over Twitter. Applying the above chart, one can chart where each social network “plays”:

Note that Twitter is unique as the network that can attract massive follower/friend bases (many networks are over 50,000 now). It works best as a networking application by exposing users to large interstitial networks conducive to matching likeminded Twitterers together. From my experience, many of my new Twitter relationships are “discovered” through shared interests and eventually become more “intimate” by joining me in Facebook and other social networks (red arrow) . This is why Twitterers naturally gravitate towards building massive networks and why Jason Calacanis famously (at least in the social media world) offered Twitter $250,000 for placement in its “Recommended Users” list.

Twitter’s value is to attract and influence on a massive level, and opportunities that arise out of this aether can be plumbed within the more intimate confines of smaller networks like Facebook or LinkedIn.

RELATED:

Mr. Tweet‘s Ming Yeow explains it well with this slideshow: Twitter is the best “discovery” application:

Two years ago, online conversation used to reside on blogs and their commentators. The objective was to make and validate points of discussion. Now, soundbite communication – SMS, micro-blogging, “like” – distills communication down to making the point.

The speed of online communication is accelerating because, in simplest possible terms, there are now more people online to communicate with. The development of the social network has become an objective unto itself, and the most efficient way to grow the network is to have shorter but just as impactful conversations. The analogy is the Hollywood producer in the 80′s who would limit each phone call to 1 minute, if not 15 seconds in order to optimize productivity without chitchat. Dry, but effective.

Online conversations are like watching chat boxes:

(from today’s Friendfeed)

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The evolution towards small talk continues with unveiling of the Facebook Connect Comment Box:

(screenshot from Mashable article on Comment Box)

Now conversations can devolve into salutations, affirmations and “Awesome”.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually like these micro-communication features because frankly, I was never garrulous to begin with. I just ignore the chaff.

As some readers may know, my firm has been developing social media strategies for real estate business development. Real estate is an industry whose practitioners require hyperlocal presence. Although real estate professionals have been joining social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to develop that presence, the rest of their community of friends, clients and referral sources have been slower to follow.

We created a free four week webinar program that teaches how to build an online referral network using social media. We developed it for real estate professionals who invite their immediate community to join their social networks and make them relevant.

This is a course that focuses on building massive networks, and the practice and tactics of social media marketing. We’ve received great testimonials on our marketing webinars and want to expand this course to the non-real estate public for feedback. This webinar starts on Tuesday, February 24 @ 8:00am PST (one hour) and runs four weeks each Tuesday.

If you’re not in real estate and interested in joining this webinar series free, please leave your email address and we’ll send you an invitation.

The online conversation happens everywhere on a ubiquitous cloud.

I Twittered a link to a NYTimes article:

My Twitter feed is incorporated into my FriendFeed account

Which then gets fed into my Facebook account:

Where friend Ross Rylance commented on it.

Veterans of Facebook, Friendfeed, Linkedin and Twitter know this phenomenon well. This is a simple, practical demonstration of the new personal syndication: belonging to all these major social networks / platforms expands and distributes your message. Write once, be read everywhere.

When your message is distributed, and somebody like friend Ross responds in conversation, that conversation gets distributed through Ross’s networks, and the conversation spreads. This is the essence of VIRAL.

Twitter makes it easy to meet people you want to meet:

1. EXPRESS GOOD WILL – Following your followers (unless they are truly unsavory) acknowledges their existence and is a good will gesture. You never know whether a stranger is going to turn out to be a great network contact…
2. ACKNOWLEDGE – If you follow somebody on Twitter you would like to develop a relationship with, retweet their good tweets and/or add commentary to them. They will notice.
3. COMMUNICATE – Once your retweets get their attention, start participating in their conversations.
4. SHARE INTIMACY – Be on the lookout for matching interests. Sharing arcane references puts you in a special “club”. I like to share the secret that I know jazz and salsa music, and basketball to those who can appreciate it.
5. MAKE BUSINESS CONTACT – Once you develop a Twitter rapport, make a simple proposition. Tweet with a request for 5 minutes over the phone for introductions. The proposition is best an idea that you’d like feedback on, or a question that your new contact can answer… not a blunt “Can you help me?”
6. PREPARE RELATIONSHIP – When you ask for the 5 minutes, also send/tweet a link to your LinkedIn profile to the contact to show you mean business. LinkedIn works like a resume, and your contact may intuit the reason for your show of interest.
7. DON’T BE PUSHY – Do not create obligations at the beginning of a relationship (a standard social rule) – no asking for retweets, follows, or introductions to others. Let your contacts offer them.
8. BUILD BY ADDING VALUE – Continue offering streams of ideas and links to appropriate, interesting articles to your new contacts. Build the relationship!
9. STAY SOCIAL – The nice thing about Twitter is that interactions only take minutes, phone calls and emails take more thought and time.
10. REALLY MEET! – Be sure to meet face-to-face when a conference, Tweet-Up or other opportunity exists.

TODAY’S ONLINE CONTENT FATIGUE

Web 2.0 could be described as a phase in the evolution of the Internet that facilitated individuals in creating content within the constructs of social websites (blogs) and social networks (as participants). User-generated content was the New New Thing when it first appeared refreshingly on blogs (in 2002 blogs were being recognized as media), MySpace (2003), YouTube (2005) and Facebook (in 2006, it opened up beyond colleges).

Now, the discovery phase of Web 2.0 is over. Thinking bird’s eye level, all the content that needs to be online is now online. For example, there are literally thousands of articles (and videos) about how to raise your credit score, and using Google isn’t really going to help you find the best or most appropriate advice. Conclusion: content creation is now not as highly valued when it’s already ubiquitous and en masse.

However, one kind of content is still prized; it’s in the taglines of CNN and Huffington Post: “Breaking News“. Breaking news, in all its forms from reporting to analysis, holds the most social and economic value – world society reacts, trades and competes with New News.

MEDIA 2.5 – POSITIONING AS THE HUB OF BREAKING NEWS

The mainstream media finally figured out that journalist content creation also didn’t need to be salaried. Breaking news can now be reported by anybody in Mumbai or Gaza. Media measures its worth by traffic, and solidifying the market position of being the hub of Breaking News is where Media 2.5 is headed. That means having producers like CNN’s Tori Blase on Twitter‘s front lines receiving and monitoring news stories and alerts from her Twitter network. This reinforces CNN’s status as the breaking news hub when it has dispatches at the borders of citizen journalism. News sourcing is social, every news producer must do this to stay connected with the new citizen news sources and be relevant in the future.

WEB 2.5 – EMPOWERING WEB 2.0 INDIVIDUALS TO CREATE BREAKING NEWS MEDIA HUBS

The New New Media Properties have none of the mainstream media overhead and infrastructure for collecting breaking news – Huffington Post, Politico and video-based Funny or Die are the collaborative media that Web 2.0 facilitates. All they need are writers/video producers who want syndication, and what aspiring journalists/producers will turn that opportunity down? These sites have become talent agencies that trade talent exposure for content quality, and in turn elevates their online presence and traffic.

The window is open, but nobody sees it’s open yet. Any organization, company or even a team of like-minded individuals can now create Politico-type blog network/breaking news distribution properties cheaply by leveraging Web 2.0′s blog and website design applications. A key distinction needs to be made in developing a media property – the content being created and distributed must be quality controlled to attract traffic. Social networks built on platforms like Ning won’t work due to noise and content credibility arising from any yahoo who wants to be a participant. The mainstream media understands this distinction and have been augmenting their journalistic offering with a J-School trained blogger corps (examples: NYT, SFGate), basically trading in the name “column” for “blog”.

Web 2.0 facilitates individuals. Web 2.5 facilitates the development of collaborative websites. The real estate industry in particular can leverage Web 2.0 tools to create collaborative websites that position real estate agents as local “reporters”. Properties like Homescopes leverage Web 2.0-savvy real estate professionals to break local news like the details of recent home sales only they would know about. Seth Godin mentions today that real estate brokerages should create local e-newsletters… this idea aligns with the idea of real estate agent as reporter.

You wouldn’t buy GM stock today without checking Marketwatch.com, and consumers will soon understand they won’t put an offer on a house (in this weird market!) based on month-old data. Breaking news is the killer app.

WEB 2.5 – LEVERAGING THE MEDIA HUB TO ATTRACT TRAFFIC (AND ONLINE FAME)

If you want evidence that content creation is taking a back seat to content distribution, see Justin.TV, an online streaming media application initially launched to allow the masses to chronicle their lives in video. Unfortunately, most people’s 24-by-7 lives are excruciatingly boring, and Justin.TV has evolved into the leading do-it-yourself online Cable Access channel network that facilitates anybody who wants to “program” online TV. Naturally, the most in-demand content are the free broadcasts of subscription streams of sporting events and movies… value-based content is king.

And just so content creators won’t complain that I’m positing the “death of content”, on the contrary, good content creators will now flourish, and gain access to exposure and fame much more easily with the proliferation of the new Web 2.5 content distribution channels (and let’s just call them media).

Media hubs/channels are the antidote to content fatigue by facilitating relevant filtering for discovery of great stuff. Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop and Jason Calacanis’ Mahalo are based on nothing more than the collaborative insights of what is online good “breaking news” content. Somewhat autocratic, but a simple formula. It’s no coincidence that both Guy and Jason have attuned themselves to real time trends as well-networked Twitter celebs.

What I’m trying to say is – the opportunity is build these media hubs is wide open and easy to do… the challenge is to convince your network to participate in your hub. This is the spirit of post-Web 2.0.

The participants of the “mature” social networks – MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn – tend to replicate the same network contacts, generally those associated with the individual or industry. The micro-blogging applications Twitter and Friendfeed, and to a lesser extent MyBlogLog, have set up “following” systems that encourage anonymous network linkage. The result is the development of “cloud” social networks that aren’t based on existing personal networks.

With Twitter and Friendfeed, it’s easy to massively follow others.

Why attract lots of stranger followers? Viral presence. The essence of social networking boils down to a form of fame… recognition and stature within a larger community.

For certain industries like real estate, the mission is to virally connect to everybody in their neighborhood with a home.

Sociological conclusion:

Attracting a stranger community through Twitter or Friendfeed eventually populates the more discrete networks of Linked and Facebook where some form of personal association is implied. It’s the aggressive extension of the Six Degrees of Separation, and progresses the evolution of society from local to global. As any social media participant experiences, who knew my next ten new friends would be living an average of 1,000 miles away from me?

This is Part 2 to earlier post Proliferation of Feed Based Networks Part 1.

Websites as brochureware aren’t credible as society embraces social media to validate brands, products and services. Companies must incorporate social media systems into their online strategies in order to market effectively.