Robert Scoble is Media
Posted by Sebastien on the 2007/07/14 at 07:04
in About, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Media, Microsoft, Pownce, Robert Scoble, Social Media, Social networks, Wikipedia -
I’ve been thinking about Robert Scoble’s post on Facebook since I blogged about it yesterday. In it, he invites people to become “friend” with him on Facebook (and he does it again in his last post yesterday night). Intuitively, I knew he was unto something and I asked the Praized blog readers to do the same thing (you can do it by clicking here).
Now, I’ve been “friends” with Robert ever since I met him at Google Zeitgeist 2005. We were sitting at the same dinner table and had the occasion to exchange a few words (he’s a great guy BTW!). For those who don’t know him, Robert was one of Microsoft’s technical evangelists. He was part of the Channel 9 MSDN Video team, walking around the Microsoft campus and shooting very informal new product videos. He became extremely popular by having a more balanced view about his employer (more balanced than traditional PR people), sometimes congratulating and sometimes criticizing Microsoft. More info can be found on his Wikipedia profile
Since meeting Robert, he’s been part of my LinkedIn network, and recently I added him in my Pownce network. I obviously added Robert to my Facebook network yesterday afternoon after reading his post (and he accepted it quickly).
Now, if you look in his Pownce public feed, you’ll see that Robert has been micro-blogging about stuff he’s doing. He currently has 1253 “friends”, all early adopters as Pownce is still in beta. In Facebook, he now has 2702 “friends”. Yesterday night, I got a message in my Facebook news feed section. Robert had uploaded a video and
I got an alert about it because he’s in my friends list.
It made me wonder: why would Robert Scoble accept “friends” invitation from people he does not know? Why do you want to be connected to people you don’t know and alert them to stuff you’re doing? And then it hit me! Robert Scoble is media. He’s building his own broadcast network. He understands that media is completely fragmented and, by participating in all these new social communication vehicles (blogging, Twitter, Pownce, Facebook), he’s aggregating readers and viewers,
thereby increasing his penetration and his worth as a media. I’m convinced Robert reaches close to 100% of all early adopters in Silicon Valley (and a good chunk in North America). He now has tremendous influence on “influencers”.
Now, I finally understood why I invited people yesterday to connect to me in Facebook. I am media as well. By writing the Praized blog every day since October 2006, I have become media. And if you are media, you want to build up your “circulation” to increase your influence and by extension, your value. But be aware: you have to accept the reciprocal conversations though. Robert Scoble receives updates from 1253 Pownce friends and 2702 Facebook friends. The noise level is very high. This conversation is not unidirectional.
I have seen the future of media and it’s Robert Scoble.
July 14th, 2007 at 01:39
And Robert Scoble has seen you:
http://scobleizer.com/2007/07/14/my-facebook-secret-is-out/
It’s interesting to think about how many people have danced around this idea and how simply your brought it to light.
Thanks for the great post.
July 14th, 2007 at 02:19
I found this through Scoble’s blog. Considering the kind of influence he has in the blogosphere these days, and the fact that he’s posted on you now, I’d say you’re about to become a lot more popular.
Great post btw.
July 14th, 2007 at 03:21
I never saw the news feed on facebook until after reading your blog post. My facebbok home page always said somethng about the next step, but never listed any steps, and stupid me never clicked it until today. I have been going trhough facebook by viewing profiles of friends. Now it makes so much more sense…
July 14th, 2007 at 06:20
Congrats, you totally nailed it.
Facebook certainly makes that old saying, “Out of sight, out of mind” obsolete. But while I can appreciate the value of using it to stay top-of-mind in a business context, I wish there were a way to do that and still maintain a more close-knit personal network on Facebook. One would seem to come at the expense of the other.
Sure, there’s the option of limited profile and apps like Top Friends but there’s only one status update and news feed. And you’re limited to 20 people that you can give high priority to in feed updates.
It would be cool to have both personal and work profiles with separate status updates, feeds and friend lists for each, otherwise the personal will get lost in the noize of the at-large networking.
July 14th, 2007 at 06:58
Wow Sébastien!
Very well put! I’ve been following Scobleizer for a long time. I was seeing his recent adoption of these social networks and I followed suit, but you’re the one who really nailed it down into simple wording.
Many commentators in his blog thought he was crazy to accept so many friends in his networks…
You should get you wish for increased circulation: congrats for Scoble’s post!
Good work!
July 14th, 2007 at 07:33
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July 14th, 2007 at 09:08
Heh, I just showed this to Maryam and said “see, Robert Scoble is media.” She answered back “and we don’t care.” Ouch, it’s always bad to live with a critic.
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July 15th, 2007 at 05:08
Very nice post. Well said, you hit the nail right on the head. Great job.
- Greg
July 15th, 2007 at 07:15
Great post. I’ve been watching and reading Robert for a while and it’s amazing how he has put himself out there. He has only been on Facebook for a few weeks and he has over 2700 friends. If you look through his friends list, you find that he has a lot of influential people following him. I believe that we will see Robert leading the industry for some time to come.
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July 16th, 2007 at 01:56
I think you have nailed it Seb. I joined Facebook ONLY to share photos with family back in Aus - now look at it. There is something new every day - it’s developers creating interesting new apps on the back of it. I have been a great Linked In advocate but I think that the addition of opinion actually helps you decide whether you want to be in someone’s network - its the only thing that really confirms whether you have a common interest.
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