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Social networking inspires innovations
Nov 17, 2008 (The Knoxville News Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
*larisabrass: *[9:31] hi, here I am
*larisabrass: *[9:32] you ready?
*scott.spaid@mediapulse.com: *[8:32] howdy!
*scott.spaid@mediapulse.com: *[8:32] yep
And so began an interview for this story thanks to the instant messaging button embedded in Knoxville-based MediaPulse CEO Scott Spaid's bio page on the corporate Web site.
Welcome to the world of social networking, a phenomenon that is increasingly driving creation and deployment of applications oriented around whole new universes of communication. Facebook, MySpace, instant messaging and a new generation of Internet-enabled devices is drawing the younger set to connect in new ways and attracting businesses to a new way of reaching this demographic.
While most of the trendsetting is taking place on the East and West coasts, Knoxville area software development companies are seeing demand for social applications tick upward.
One local start-up, Tingz, is creating software to connect related content and applications in a widget interface across a variety of platforms including iPhones, Blackberries, PCs and other Web-enabled devices. The company has received some friends-and-family funding and is currently in the process of raising an additional round of financing.
The idea, Hunt said, is "making the Internet not a place to go, (but) making a lot of Internet content and functionality available to me when and where I need it."
That technology allows a user to not only connect with his or her content but also with other Tingz users, and Hunt said he hopes a community will develop that allows users to share information -- from schedules to recipes to favorite movies -- with each other. The product is scheduled to be ready for rollout next year.
Efficience, a Knoxville firm primarily focused on custom software development, has created and has ownership in a social networking program targeted toward the users of Facebook, the premier social networking application of the post-college set.
Called iPinkiePromise, the program is currently being integrated with Ning.com, a service that allows users to build their own social networks. IPinkiePromise allows users to declare promises to those in their network, such as a commitment to go green or quit smoking, said April Cox, Efficience CEO. Anyone is free to build these types of applications but Facebook approves use of the application on its site.
Companies are looking at the applications as a way of targeting, with their permission, a specific set of customers.
"It is a fast-growing segment, but not only in obvious communities such as Facebook," Cox said. "The social phenomenon is extending into software intelligence that allows users with a common purpose to share mutual views, images, videos and more."
At least some component of social networking is being integrated in about 40 percent of Efficience's development projects, Cox said.
"With the adaptation of privacy becoming more transparent and devices that allow you to connect while on the go, we believe this integration with social networks and business community intelligence will grow drastically," she says.
For example, the company's new off-the-shelf Web-based goal management product, FlockGPS, includes a social component in which users can chat about different topics, text ideas to each other or upload documents and methodologies for becoming more efficient.
On the Web site development side, Spaid said he's seen increased demand for social networking components to be incorporated into Web development. But, he said, a client must have someone on board who has the time and savvy to keep up with the technology -- "the willingness to become a true 'net head,'" he said during the online chat.
"It isn't for some people -- you know, those folks who sort of have trouble even doing e-mail," Spaid said. "Usually there is someone on staff who is a younger, recent college student who gets it."
For its part, MediaPulse's Web site incorporates AIM (AOL's instant messaging program) and Twitter updates and allows easy updates to employee bios that automatically post to Facebook as well. The company's creative director has links to his Flickr account, where he has posted photography. The company has also launched its own Facebook page.
From a business perspective, Spaid said he's found the applications to be useful in keeping up with contacts and learning about potential clients.
"I think it has helped answer the, 'So how are the wife and kids?' question in great detail," he said. "I've learned so much more about the personal lives of my clients that I would have never known."
He said it has also generated some sales leads, a benefit he anticipates will grow over time.
Ultimately, Spaid believes that for a company's Web presence, social networking will be a "marketing tool in the interactive tool box much like e-mail marketing and search engine marketing. Just another offering."
larisabrass: *[10:26] Great .. thank you so much. It's been fun! My first IM interview. And now you know you won't be misquoted -- I have it all here in black and white.
*scott.spaid@mediapulse.com: *[9:27] I'm tickled to have done this.
*larisabrass: *[10:27] all the best ... stay in touch
*scott.spaid@mediapulse.com: *[9:27] Will do. You're on my facebook page now!!! ;-)
*larisabrass: *[10:28] bye
*scott.spaid@mediapulse.com: *[9:28] over and out.
To see more of The Knoxville News Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to http://www.knoxnews.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Knoxville News Sentinel,
Tenn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
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