We have some major developments in the world of social networking to discuss on this week's edition of the Bella Buzz podcast. Desiree and Joe tackle the rollout of List functionality on Twitter, the integration of user's social graph into search results via social search, and a promise to review Google Wave upon a deeper use of the service.
The implementation of Twitter Lists will allow users to curate those we follow, and even those we don't, into various categories of our own choosing. This functionality should help reduce the often complained about clutter or noise that overpowers our Twitter stream. As an example of how to make the best use of a list, Desiree points out that by creating a list called @desireescales/newstweeps, she is able to go to one single stream where she can expect to find the latest breaking info.
Some of the initial excitement revolves around the ability to connect with other users again by adding them to a list. The social currency can start to move away from the tired followers numbers, and migrate towards the number of lists a user appears on. Although we have steered you away from concern over follower number, the lists can actually be of value since they contain a bit of meta data ... the context in which others view a person. Are they a techy? Are they a music lover? .. Why is this person of value for following? The list can put it into perspective.
As the List ecosystem springs into action, there is already a site called Listorious that shows the categorization of Twitter into various lists, identifying those on the most lists in total as well as the most lists within a specific topic.
For the small business owner, developing a quality list of Twitterers within a particular niche might be an effective strategy to getting noticed, especially within a geographic area.
Desiree used the List feature as a group Follow Friday #FF tweet. A feature of the List is that it creates a complete URL of the list for distribution, of with the @ sign becomes part of a tweet.
The next topic that we tackle is a Google Labs experiment that we have all known was coming, a change is taking place regarding the factors that will influence the Google search results page that we see when searching a particular keyword. Participation in this experiment, along with setting up a Google Profile,
The premise has been that the best search results will come from information obtained through people that you trust the most, rather than an algorithm. By incorporating the information gleaned from those connected to you through your social networks, Google intends to present search results that are weighted based upon their behavior.
These search results are intended to come from more trusted sources, and therefore should be more relevant to you. It should help to eliminate many of the unreliable sources such as directories and made for adsense sites.
As a brand, now more than ever, it will become important to enter the social sphere so that you are represented in the search results in this manner.
Let us know what you think. Is Social Search a good thing for you? Do you believe that you will get better results based upon incorporating input from your social network? Leave us a comment.
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