Edmonton social media discussion
Edmonton’s latest Social Web Meetup was quite an interesting one. We met at NAIT again, but this time the style was a little different. We had a smaller group this time. I think people didn’t want to brave the cold, and it was a touch nippy out!
With a smaller group and a few new faces to the group, we engaged in a discussion about the social media people are using, the tools they use to augment their social media experience and some of the issues surrounding social media. The discussion this time was led by Mastermaq.
Of course Twitter was the main topic of discussion, as it usually is. Everyone at the Social Web Meetup was on Twitter. Normally I’d be tweeting about the discussion, but because it was such an active discussion, I wanted to make sure I caught all of it. Do you prefer to actively tweet what you’re hearing or to listen, reflect and respond or tweet?
Peoplebrowsr was recommended as a good tool to be able to track multiple Twitter streams.
How do you use Facebook?
I thought one of the more interesting discussions was about Facebook and how people use it. Some people have a real issue with having an open profile, with worries of identity theft or at the very least doing some data mining. Having pictures of relatives, particularly children, was an issue with one of the meeting attendees. Do you keep your profile open and add everyone?
My profile is limited to friends and family, but I do have some business contacts on there. One of the meeting’s more active Facebook users said he had thousands of friends on there!
Some of the other social media tools we talked about: LinkedIn, ping.fm and friendfeed. Randy Troppmann from runningmap.com was there and talked a bit more about his site.
Free versus paid social media tools: how much would you pay?
One question I brought up was: At what dollar amount are you willing to go beyond the free account and into a paid account?
Most people said it really depends. I was thinking of my recent purchase of a pro account on Flickr, which is $25. One other person said $25 as well. Would you be willing to pay $25 per year for Twitter? I’d be willing to pay more, but I know a lot of people wouldn’t be willing to pay anything.
It’s actually quite an important question because the majority of social media tools out there are free and many people stick to the free ones. As the economic downturn continues, more and more companies are likely to ask themselves that same question about how much the market will bear in terms of subscription fees or ads. Their will likely depend on finding that balance.
Our next Social Web Meetup is February 2 at NAIT. There’s plenty of room, but make sure to join the group and RSVP. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are with social media. The point of the group is to share. I am a fairly experienced social media user and I learned a lot at this Meetup. I’m looking forward to the next one and hope to see you there too.
Alain Saffel
